Democratic messenger., 1892-11-12


Awful Ruin-I> This Nation Running
the Same Course:
BROOKLYN, Nov. 6-Rev. Dr. Tai
mage today selected for his sermon n
subject sufficiently appropriate for these
times, when throughout the United
States great political questions are being
discussed and the nation is about to 20
10 the ballot box and decide who shall
rule in neighborhood. town. city and ma
tion. The text chosen was Revelation
xviii. 10, Alas. alas. that great city
Babylon, that mighty city, for in one
hour is thy Judgment come"
/ Modern scientists are doing a splendid
work in excavating the tomb Of dead
empire holding in itS arms a dead city
mother and child of the same name.
Babylon. The ancient mound invites
the spades and Shovels and crowbars.
while the unwaShed natives l1ok on in
surprise. These scientists find yellc~
bricks still impressed with the name of
/ Nebuchadnezzar, and they 20 down into
the sarcophagus of Il monarchy buried
more than two thousand years ago. Nav
the explorations of Rawlinson and La
yard and Chevalier and Opperio and
Lotus and Chesney bc eclirScd by the
present archaeological uncovering.
/ But Is it possible this Is all that re
mains of Babylon-a city once five times
/ larger than London and twelve times
larger than New York: Walls three
hundred and scventy-three feet high aud
ninety-three feet thick. Twenty-Five
/ FURNISHED gates oil 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 any five modern
cities combined. \ city Of palaces and
temples. 4 city having within il a gar
den on an artificial hill four hundred
feet high, the sides of the mountain ter
raced All this built 10 keep the kings
wife, Amytis. from becoming homcsica
for the mountainous region in which she
had spent her girlhood. The waters OF
the Euphraies spouted upto irrigate this
great altitude into fruits and flowers
and aboreSccnce unimaginable-a great
river running from north To south clear
through the city. bridges over il. tun-
nels under it, boats on il.
THE DEEAUCnEp CITY.
a city of bazaars and market places.
unrivaled for aromatic, and unguent>.
and high mettled horses with grooms by
their side, and thyme wood. and African
evergreen. and Egyptian linen. and all
styles of costly textile fabrics. and rar-
est puppies extracted from shelltish on
the Mediterranean coast. and rarest scar
let's taken from brilliant insects in
Spain. and worries brought from sue
cessful elephant hunts in India. ami
diamonds whose flash was a repartee To-
the sun. fortress within fortress. en-
battlement rising above cmbatilemcnt
Great capital of the ages.
But one night, while honest citizens
We're asleep. but all the saloons Of satur-
MALTA We're in full blast, and at the
kings castle they had filled the tankards
for the tenth time. and reeling and guf-
fawing and hiccoughing around the
state table were the rulers of the land
General Cyrus ordered his besicging
army to take shovels and spades. and
they diverted the river from its usual
channel into another direction so that
the forsaken bed OF the river became
the path on which the besieging army
entered. When the morning dawncd
the conquerors were inside the outside
trenches. Babylon had fallen. and
hence the sublime threnody of the text.
Alas, alas, that great city Babylon,
that mighty city. for in one hour is thy
judgment come
But do nations die: Oh. YES: there is
great mortality among munarchics and
republics. They are like individuals in
the fact that they are born: they have II
middle life; they have Il decease; they
them are assaSsinated. some DESTROYED
by their own hand. Let me call the
roll Of some of the dead civilizations
and some of the dead cities and let some
one answer for them.
Egyptian civilization. stand up
Dead" answer the ruins Of karnak |
and Luxor, and from seventy pyramids
on the east side OF The Nile there comes |
up great chorus, CRYING, Dead, dead!' |
Dead. cry the charred ruins of MIN |
evah. After six hundr, years of mag
niiicent opportunity, dead. Israelitish |
kingdom, stand up. After two hundred |
and fifty years of divine interposiiion. |
and of miraculous vici>Siiule, and of he |
roic behavior ana of appalling depravity, |
dead. Phpnicia, stand up and answer. |
After inventins the alphabet and |
giving it 70 the world. and send |
ing ont fer merchant caravans i'll |
one direction To central Asia. and |
sending out her navigators to the AT |
lantic ocean III another direction, dead. |
Pillars of Hercules and rocks on which |
the Tyrian fishermen dried their nets |
all answer, Dead Phpnicia.' Athens. |
after Phidias. after Demosthenes. after |
Miltiades, dead. Sparta. after Leoni- |
das, after EurybiadeS, after Salamis, |
after ThermOpvlT dead. Roman en-
pire, stand up and an>wer-clnpire once
bounded by the British channel on the |
north, by the Enphraies on the east, by
the great Sahara desert in Africa on the
south, by the Atlantic ocean on the |
west; home of ihre" great civilian
tions, owning all the then discovered |
world that was worth owning Roman |
empire, answer. Ciibbon, in his Rise
and Fall Of the Roman Empire"
SAYS. Dead" and the fursakcm |
seats of the ruined Coliseum. and
the skeleton of the aqucdncts, and
the miasma of the Campagna. and the
fragments of the marble baths. and the
useless piers of the Bridge Triumphalis.
and the Mamertine prison holding no
more apostolic prisoners. and the silent
Forum and Basilica of Constantine, and
the arch of Titus, and the Pantheon
come in with great chorus. CRYING,
Dead: dear" After Horace. after Virgil.
after Tacitus. after Cicero. dead. After
HIM IL. -, iril.... .....l