The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1892-12-31
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on the Evils Of
American Politics.
I'm tho Graveyard Of Expired Govern
,nsnts win Go That of the United
States Unless Some Purifying
Action Sets In.


States Unless some Purifying
Action Sets In.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage prepare
the following discourse. on the eve I
the national election, but it was not d,
Iivered by reason Of Mr. Talmage bein
called from Brooklyn The text is:
Alas. alas, that great city Babylon, tn,
mighty city. for in one hour is thy judi
meut come-Revelations, xviii, 10
Modern scientists are doing a spler
did work in excavating the tomb of
dead empire holding in its dead arms
dead city, mother and child of the sam
name-Babylon. The ancient moun
invites the spade and shovels and crow
bars while the unwashed natives lool
on in surprise. These scientists fin,
yellow bricks still impressed with tn
name OF Nebuchadnezzar, and they 2,
down into the sarcophagus of q mon
archy buried more than two Thousand
years ago. May the explorations O
Rawlinson and Layard and Chevalie,
and Opperto and LOTUS and Chesne,
be eclipsed by the present archaeological
uncovering.
But is it possible that is all that re
mains of Babylon? city once five
times larger than London and twelve
times larger than New York. Walls
three hundred and seventy feet high
and ninety-three feet thick. Twenty.
five FURNISHED gates on each side, with
streets running clear through to CORE
spending gates on the other side. Six
hundred and twenty-five squares.
More pomp and wealth and splendor
and sin than could be found in five
modern cities combined. A CITY of
palaces and temples A city having
within it a garden on an artificial hill
four hundred feet high, the sides of
the mountain terraced. All this built
to keep the kings wife, Amytis, from
becoming homesick for the mountain
GUS region in which she had spent her
Rirlhood. The waters of the Euphrates
spouted up to irrigate this great alti-
tqde into fruits and flowers and arbor-
essence unimaginable. A great river
running from north to south clear
through the city, bridges over it, tun-
nels under it. boats on it.
A city of bazaars and Of market
places, unrivaled for aromatic and un-
guents, and high-mettled horses with
grooms by their side, and thyme wood,
and African evergreen. and Egyptian
linen, and all styles of costly textile
fabric, and rarest puppies extracted
rom shellfish on the Mediterranean
coast, and rarest scarlets taken from
brilliant insects in Spain, and worries
brought from successful elephant
hunts in India, and diamonds whose
lash was repartee to the sun. For
'ress TO fortress, embattlement rising
lbove embattlement Great capital of |
ne ages. But one night, while honest |
ltizens were asleep. but all the saloons
4 saturnalia were in full blast, and at |
he kings castle they had filed the
for the tenth time, and reel
ng and guffawing and hiccoughinp
round the state table were the
nlers OF the land. Gen. Gyms
rdered his besieging army to take
novels and spades. and they diverted
ne river from its usual channel into
mother direction SO that the forsaken
ed OF the river became the path on
'hich the besieged army entered.
fhen the morning dawned the con-
uerors were inside the outside trenches.
abylon had fallen, and hence the SUI
lime threnody Of the text: ALAS,
AS that great city Babylon, that
lightly city, for in one hour is thy
ldgment come" But do nstions die?
a, yes, there is great mortality among
onarchies and republics. They are ,
re individuals in the fact that thew |
e born, they have middle life. they
I've a decease, they have cradle and !
grave. Some of them are assassinated. !
me destroyed by their own hand. Let II
call the roll of some OF the dead civ :
nations and some of the dead cities.
d let some one answer for them. Ii
Egyptian civilization, stand mn 7
lead! answer the ruins of Karnak il
d Luxor, and from seventy pyra- :
Ids on the east side of the Nile there 4
mes up great chorus, crying: dead. =
adj! Assyrian empire, stand M and :
swer. "Deadv' cry the charred ruins :
Ninevah. After six hundred wears h
magnificent opportunity, dead. Is !,
siit'sn Kingdom, stand up. After Ii
Q hundred and fifty years Of Divine Il
exposition and of miraculous vicis- q
nde and OF heroic behavior and Of :.
palling depravity, dead Phoenicia. a
nd up and answer. After inter- :,
1ting the alphabet and giving it to =
world, and sending out her mer- =
ant caravans in one direction to Cen a,
! Asia. and sending out navigators Is
the Atlantic ocean in another d. n
tion, dead, Pillars of Hercules and Y
ks on which the Tyrian fishermen u
ed their nets, all answer: dead Nv
nnicia-" Athens, after Phidias n,
er Demosthenes, after Miltiadcs: e.
q. Sparta, after Leoridas, after "
rybiades, after Salamis, after Their =
pyl@; dead. Roman empire.
nd up and answer. Empire once a..
lnded by the British channel ON the -
tn, by the Euphrates ON the east. -
the great Sahara desert in Africa on W
south, BY the Atlantic ocean on the p,
s. Home Of three great civiliza- -,
-, owning all the then discovered II,
rid that was worth owning, Roman "a
pire answer. Gibbon, in his s.Rise ~.
Fall OF the Roman Empire. saws II,
sad! and the forsalxcn seats Of the -
ned Coliseum, and the skeleton Of =,
aqneducts. and the niasma of the -. -.
nj - | 49,