Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-02-13

In late sermon mt Brooklyn Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage chose for his subject
'the inestimable value of Christianity as
an elcvating aad ennobling influence
ON the nature of man. His text referred
to the humiliation Of the Babylonish
king, who, being destitute OF religion,
sank to the level OF the brute. Daniel,
Nv. IS: "All this came upon the King
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The noted preacher
said:
Col. Rawlinson, the oriental traveller,
says that the exhumed bricks, not only
of Babylon but of Que hundred towns,
in an area Of one hundred miles in
length and thirty in breadth, are in
.scribed with the name OF Nebuchad-
nezzar. He was n great warrior md
at the glance Of his sword nations pros
trated themselves. He was great
king and built a city reservoir ninety
miles in circumference and one hun
bred and twenty feet deep, and con-
:structed q hanging garden four
hundred feet square and seventy
five feet high--some say to
please Amuhia, his wife, who
had been born among the hills, and
others say to get pleasure ground
free from mosquitoes, which afiiict the
levels l think, from his character,
the latter reason may have impelled
him as much as the former. When he
conquered King Zedekiah, SO as to
have no more trouble with him, he put
his eyes out-a most barbarous way Of
incapacitating an enemy. But Baby
lon was a great place, the houses sur
rounded by gardens and the house
tops were connected with each other
by bridges, and one day Nebuchadnez-
Ear walked out on those suspension
bridges and showed, perhaps to royal
visitor, the vastness of his realm.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS waves his hand
above the stupendous scene and ex-
claims: us not this great Babylon
that have built for the house Of the
kingdom by the might Of my power
and for the honor OF my majesty" In
other words: "What a great man l
am. Babylon was not anything until
adorned it. See those waterworks;
see those gardens; see those forts /
did all this. shall never be forgotten.
Why, my name is on every brick in all
those walls. Just look Mt me. am
more than man." But, in an instant,
all that splendor is gone from his
vision, for voice falls from the
heavens, saying: 10, King Nebuchad-
nezzar, to thee it is spoken;
the kingdom is departed from
thee, and they shall drive thee from
men and thy dwelling shall be with
the beasts of the field; they shall make
thee to eat grass as oxen and seven
times shall pass over thee, until thou
know that the Most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men and giveth it to whom
soever He will" One hour from the
time he made the boast he is on his
way to the fields maniac, and rushing
into the forests he becomes as one of
the beasts, and is after awhile covered
with eagles feathers for protection
from the cold, and his nails grow to
look like birds claws in order that he
NAV dig the earth for roots aud climb
the trees for nuts
The mental disaster that seized him
was what the Greeks called lycan-
thropy, by which man imagines him
self beast and prefers to mingle with
brutes. He who had been eating
pomegranates and apricots off of plates
of gold inlaid with amethyst and dia-
mond, and drinking the richest wines
from the royal watts, now browsing on
grass, and struck by the horn of the OK
as he contends for q better tuft of
the pasturage, and instead of an
orchestra on benches of ivory playing
the national airs now listening to the
moan and below and grunt of the
beasts
Here is Nebuchadnezzar on all tours
He once prided himself Of being more
than a man, and now he turns out TO
be less than a man. The courtiers
look out of the windows upon him as
he moves among the royal herds and
cry: "a beast" Seven years pass,
when suddenly his reason returns and
he comes back to Babylon q humble
WOTSulpcr VI Luc OOu VI hcdNeu.
What must have been the excitement
in the royal court as this rest red
maniac emperor walked into the palace?
While walking from this Babylonian
palace down to the pasture field and
from the pasture field back to
the palace, the first thing that i'm
presses me is what an homogeneous
thing it is for king to be eating grass.
It is good for cattle but not at for man.
And then for one to prefer 1t to
royal table toward whose bounty the
orchards, and paddoclxs, and streams,
and vineyards in all the earth might
contribute-what an amazementl And
yet the scene Is as common IS the day
light
When I see . man Of regal nature
made N rule In realms of thou0ht