The Monitor-register., 1896-06-19

bASSf b4lO GWO
characteristics of which are that IL al
ways grows higher than its surround
lnSs' ana Its leaves take the form of a
crown 1t this emperor tree be planted
by a rosebush, it grows a little higher
than the bush and spreads out above il
a crown. If it be planted by the side of
another tree, it grows a little higher
than that tree and spreads above it a
crown Would God that this religion
OF Christ, a more wonderful emperor
tree, might overshadow all your livesl
Are you lowly in ambition or circum
stance, putting over you its crown? Are
you high Ill talent and position, putting
over you its crown? Oh, for more of the
saceharlne i'll our lives and less of the
~wormwood.
h Is true of individuals is true of
NATIONS. God sets them up to revolve
as stars, but they may fall NORWOOD.
Tyre, the atmosphere of the desert,
fragrant with spices, coming in cara
vans to her fairs, all seas cleft into
foam by the keels of her laden mer-
chantmcn, her markets rich with horses
and camels from Togarmah, her bazaars
filled with upholstery from Dedan, with
emerald and coral and agate from Syria,
with wines from Helbon, with embroid-
cred work from Ashur and Chilmad.
Where now the CLEAN of her towers.
where the roar of her chariots, where
the masts of her ships? Let the fisher
men who dry their nets where once she
stood. let the sea that rushes upon the
b~arrenness where once she challenged
the admiration of all nations, let the
Darbarlans who set their rude tents
where once her palaces glittered, answer
the question. She was a star, but by her
W sin turned to NORWOOD and has
fallen.
Turned to NORWOOD.
Hundred gated Thebes, for all time
TO be the study of the antiquarian and
hleroglyphist, her stupendous ruins
spread over 81 miles, her sculptures
presenting in figures of warrior and
chariot the victories with which the now
forgotten kings Of Egypt shook the ma
tons, her Obelisks and columns, Carnao
and Luxor, the stupendous temples Of
her pfldel Who can imagine the great
ness of Thebes in those days when the
%hippodrome rang with her sports and
foreign royalty bowed at her shrine and
her avenues roared with the wheels of
professions in the wake of returning
conquerors? What dashed down the vi
sion of chariots and temples and thronesP
What hands pulled upon the columns
OF her glory? What ruthlessness defaced
her sculptured wall and broke obelisks
and left her indescribable temples great
skeletons of granite? What spirit of de-
%struction spread the lair of wild beasts
in her royal sepulchers, and taught the
miserable cottagers of today to build
huts in the courts of her temples, and
sent desolation and ruin skulking be-
hind the obelisks, and lodging among
the sarcophagi, and leaning against the
columns, and STOPPING under the arches,
and weeping in the waters which go
mournfully by as though they were car
rying the tears of all agesp Let the
mummies break their long silence and
come up to shiver in the ~desolation and
point to fallen gates and shattered statues
and defaced sculpture, responding:
''Thebes built not one temple to God.
Thebes hated righteousness and loved
sin. Thebes was a star, but she turned
to NORWOOD and has fallen"
Babylon, with her $50 towers and her
brazen gates and her embattled walls,
| the splendor of the earth gathered with
in her palaces, her hanging gardens
built by Nebuchadnezzar to please his
bride, Amytis, who had been brought
up in a mountainous country and could
not endure the fiat country round Baby
lon-these hanging gardens built, ter
race above terrace, till at the height of
400 feet there were woods waving and
fountains playing, the verdure, the foil
age, the glory looking as if a mountain
were on the wing. On the tiptop a king
| walking with his queen, among statues
snowy white, looking up at birds
brought from distant lands, and drink
ing out of tankards of solid gold or
looking off over rivers and lakes upon
nations subdued and tributary, crying,
sis not this great Babylon which 1 have
built?"
What battering ram smote the walls?
What plowshare upturned the gardens?
What army shattered the brazen gates?
What long, fierce blast of storm put out
this light which illumined the world?
What crash of discord drove down the
music that poured from palace window
and garden grove and called the BAN
queters to their revel and the dancers to
their feet? walk upon the scene of des-
olation to find an answer and pick up
pieces of bitumen md brick and broken
pottery, the remains of Babylon, and as
in the silence of the night I hear the
surging of that billow of desolation
which rolls over the scene, 1 hear the
wild waves saying: Babylon was
proud. Babylon was impure. Babylon
was a star, but by sin she turned to
NORWOOD and has fallen"
Possibilities.
From the prosecutions of the pilgrim
fathers and the Huguenots in other
lands God set upon these shores a ma
ton. The council fires Of the aborigines
went out in the greater light of a free
government. The sound of the warwhoop
was exchanged for the thousand wheels
of enterprise and progress. The mild
| W1uU6TS, Uuo lfulGlul SuIllIQefS, C06
healthful skies charmed from other
lands a race of hardy men who loved
God and wanted to be free. Before the
woodman's AK forests fell and rose again
into ships masts and churches pillars.
Cities ON the banks of lakes begin to
rival cities by the sea. The land quakes
with the rush of the rail car and the
waters are churned white with the
steamers wheel. Fabulous bushels of
western wheat meet on the way fabu-
lous tons of eastern coal Furs from the
north pass on the rivers fruits from the
south. And trading i'll the same market
is Maine lumberman and South Caro-
lima rice merchant and Ohio farmer and
Alaska fur dealer. And churches and
schools and asylums scatter light and
love and mercy and salvation upon co.
900, 900 of people.
1 pray that our nation may not copy
the crimes of the nations that have per-
ished and our cup of blessing turn to
wormwood, and like them we go down.
L am by nature and by grace an optimist,
and / expect that this country will con
tinue to advance until Christ shall come
again. But be not deceived. Our only
safety is in righteousness toward God
and justice toward man. If we forget
the goodness of the Lord to this land,
and break his Sabbaths, and improve
not by the dire disasters that have again