Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-11-07
AT THE TABERNACLE.
A SERMON ADDRESSED TO VOT-
ERS JUST BEFORE ELECTION.

The Examples OF NineVeh, Babylon, Tyre,
Sidsn md Many More Warn Us-This
Nation Is Also Becoming Corrupt and
Observation-Disclosures Is Necessary"
! BROOKLYN, Nov. 6.-Rev. DR.. Talmage
today selected for his sermon subject suf-
fi6enGly appropriate for these times, when
throughout the United States great polit-
icaf questions are being discussed and the
nation is about to go to the ballot box and
decide who shall rule in the neighborhood,
town, city and nation. The text chosen
was Revelation xviii, TO- 'AIas, alas, that
great city Babylon, that mighty city, for
in one hour is thy Judgment comel'
Modern scientists are doing a splendid
work in excavating the tomb of u dead EN-
pire holding in its arms dead city-moth-
or and child of the same name, Babylon.
The ancient mound invites the spades and
shovels and crowbars while the unwashed
natives look on in surprise These scen-
lists find yellow bricks still impressed
with the name of ACKNOWLEDGMENT, and
they go down into the sarcophagus of a
monarchy buried more than two thousand
years ago May the explorations of Raw
linson and Layard and Chevalicr and OPP
by the present archaeological uncoveringl
THE AWFUL RUIN.
But is it possible this is all that remains
of Babylon-a city once five times larger
than London and twelve times larger than
New York; Walls three hundred and sew
epty-three feet high and ninety-three feet
thick. Twenty-Five Furnished gates on
each side, with streets running clear
through to corresponding gates on the 9th
or side Six hundred and twenty-five
squares More pomp aud wealth and splen-
dor and sin than could be found in any
five modern cities combined. A city of
palaces and temples. A city having within
it garden on an artificial hill four hun
dred feet high, the sides of the mountain
terraced. All this built TO keep the kings
wife, Amytis from becoming homesick for
the mountainous, region in which she had
spent her girhood. The waters of the
Euphrates spouted up to iuiglte this great
altitude into fruits and lOurs and arbo
rescence unimaginable, n great river run
ming from north to south clear through the
city, bridges over it, tunnels under it,,
boats on it.
A city of bazaars and Of market places,
.unrivaled for aromHtics and unguents, and
high mcttled horses with grooms by their
side, and thyme wood, and African ever
green, and Egyptian linen, and all styles
of costly textile fabric, and rarest puppies
extracted from shellhsh on the Mediter-
ranean coast and rarest scarlcts taken
from brilliant insects in Spain, aud worries
brought from successful elephant hunts in
InAtA, Rad diamonds whose flash was a
faQAea@S 10 the sun. FORTRESS vi hin for
tress emhattlement rising above embat-
Element. Great capital of the ages. But
one night, while honest citizens were
asleep, but all the saloons OF ssturnala
were in full blast, and at the kings castle
they had filled the taukarl3 for the tenth
time, and reeling and guffawing and hc-
coughing around the state table were the
rulers of the land, General Cyrus ordered
his beseging army to take shuyels and
spades, and they diverted the river from its
usual channel into another direction, so
that the fursaken bed of the river became
the path on which the besiegiug army en-
tered
When the morning dawned the conquer
ors were inside the oatsido trenches. Baby
lon had fallen, and hence the sublime
threpody of the text, "Alns, alas, that
great city Babylon, that mighty city, for
ip one hour is thy judgment come" But
do nations dieF Oh, yes; there IS great
mortality among monarchios and republics
They are like individuals in the fnct that
they are born; they have a middle life; they
have n doceaso; they have II cradle and Il
grave. Some Of them are assnsSinated,
some destroyed by their own hand. Let
me oAll the roll of some Of the dead ciyiliza
tions and some of the dead cities and let
some one answer for them.
AS FOREToLD ny THE PROPHETS.
Egyptian civilization, stand up. "DeadP'
answer the ruins of Karnak and Luxor, and
from seventy pyramids on the cast side of
the Nile there comes up great chorus, cry
ing, "Dead, deadw Assyrnu empire, stand
up and answer. Dead" cry the nharred
ruins of Ninevch. After six hundred years
of magnificent opportunity, dead Israel
itish Kingdom, stand ny. After two hun
dred and fifty years Of divine intcrposition,
aud of miraculous vicis-itudc, ANA of heroic
behavior, and of appalling depravity dead.
Phmnica, stand up anal answer. After in
venting the alphabet aud giving it 20 the
world, and sending ont her merchant cara
vans in one direction to central Asia, and
sending out her unyicators to the Atlantic
ocean in another direc, ion, dead.
Pillars of Hercules and rocks on which
the Tyrlan fisherman dried their nets all
answer, Dead phWuj'i ia" Athens, after
Phidias, after Demusthenes, after Mil
tiades, dead. Sparta, after Lconidas, nfter
Euribiades, after Salamis, after Tier
mopyle, dead. Roman empire, stand up
and answer-empire once bounded 10y the
British channel on the north, Ivy the Eu-
phrates on the east ly the great Sahara
desert in Africa on the south, hy the At
Iantic ocean on the west, home of three
great civilizations, owning all the then dis
covered world that was worth owning
Roman empire, answer. Gihhon in his
Rise and Fall of the Roman EN-
pipe" says, Dead" and the lorsaken
seats of the ruined Coliseum, and
the skeleton of the aqueducts, and
the miasma of the Campagna, ana the
fragments of the marble baths and the
useless piers of the tssdge Triumphalis
ahdthe Mamcrtine 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
grsat chorus, crying, Dead, dead After
Horace. after Virgil, after Taeitus, after
Cicero dead. After Ioratius ON the
bridge, and CmciuucJus, the farmer oil
gEncAs after pumpcy, after Scipio, after
Cassins. after Constantine. after CWsar-