The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-15

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/ wonderful emperor-tree, misht overshad-
l OW all your lives2 Are you lOwly in am
] bitiCn or circumstances, putting over you
Z is crown are you high in talent and po-
] siuon. putting over you its crown. Oh.
I for more Of the saccharlne in our lives
7 and less of the NORWOOD
4 What IS true OF individuals IS true Of ma
/ tons. God sets them up 10 reVOlve as
I stars. but they may fall NORWOOD
T Tyre-the atmosphere Of the desert, fra
grant with spices. coming in caravans 70
ner fairs: ali seas cleft into foam by the
Eeels OF her laden merchantmen: her mar
kets rich with horses and camels from To-
| garmah. her bazars filled with upholstery
from Dedau, with emerald and coral and
agate from Syria, with wines from Hell
Don WIN en2r2laeFea "9Ik rom as4 ,.,i
[ and Chilmad. Where now the CLEAN OF her
towers, where the roar Of her chariots,
where the masts OF her snlpsE Let the
fishermen who dry their nets where once
she stood let the sea that rushes upon
the barrenness where once she challenged
the admiration Of all nations, let the
barbarians who set their rude tents where
once her palaces glittered, answer the
question. She was a star, but by her
own sin turned to wormword and has
fallen.
Hundred-gated Thebes-for all time to
be the study Of the antiquarian and hero
glyphlst; her stupendous ruins spread
over twenty-seven miles; her sculptures
presenting In figures OF warrior and cha
riot the victories with which the now for
gotten kings Of Egypt shook the nationsi
her Obelisks and columns; Carnac and
Luxor, the stupendOus temples of her
pridei Who can imagine the greatness OF
Thebes in those days when the hippo
drome rang with her sports and foreign
royalty bowed al her shrines and her ave-
nues roared with the wheels Of process
siOns In the wake Of returning conquerorsE
What dashed down the vision OF chariots
and temples and thrones2 What hands
pulled upon the columns Of her glOry2
What ruthlessness defaced her sculptured
wall and broke obelisks and left her in
describable temples great skeletons Of
granite? What spirit Of destruction
spread the lair of wild beasts in her royal
sepulchres, and taught the miserable cot
tagers of to-day to build huts in the
courts of her temples, and sent desola-
ton and ruin skulking behind the obelisks
and lodging among the sarcOphagi and
leaning against the columns and stopping
under the arches and weeping in the wa
ters which go mOurnfully by as though
they were carrying the tears of all ages?
Let the mummies break their long silence
and come up to SILVER in the desOlauon,
and point to fallen gates and shattered
statues and defaced sculpture, respond
ing: "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 within her
palaces, her hanging gardens built by Neb-
uchadnezzar to please his bride, Amytis,
who had been brought w in a mountain
Gus country and could not endure the fiat
country round Babylon-these hanging
gardens built, terrace above terrace, till
at the night or $40 IeeL there were WOODS
waving and fountains playing, the YER
dure, the foliage, the glory looking as If
mountain were on the wing. on the tip
top a king walking with his queen, among
statues snowy white, looking up at birds
brought from distant lands, and drinking
out of tankards of solid gold or looking off
over rivers and lakes upon nations sub
dued and tributary, crying: rs not this
great Babylon which I have built?"
What battering-ram smote the walls?
What plowshare upturned the gardens?
hof hot cd ha 1Nr~aV tnz1
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 banquet
ers to their reVel and the dancers to their
feet? ] walk upon the scene of desolation
to find an answer and pick up pieces of
bitumen and brick and broken pottery, the
remains of Babylon, and as in the silence
of the night hear the surging of that bill
low of desOlatiOn which rolls over the
scene, I hear the wild waves saying:
Babylon was proud. Babylon was inn
pure. Babylon was a star, but by sin she
turned to NORWOOD and has fallen"
From the prosecutions of the Pilgrim
Fathers and the Huguenots in other
lands God set upon these shores nation.
The council fires of the aborigines went
ment. The sound of the warwhoop was ex-
changed for the thousand wheels of en-
terprise and progress. The mild winters,
the fruitful summers, the 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 wheei.
Fabulous bushels of western wheat meet
on the way fabulous tons of eastern
coal. Furs from the north pass on the
rivers fruits from the south And trad
ing in the same market is Maine lumber
man. and South Carolina rice merchant
and Ohio farmer and Alaska fur dealer.
And churches and schools and asylums
scatter light and love, and mercy, and
salvation upon 900 of people.
pray that our nation may not copy. the
crimes of the nations that have persisted,
and our cup of blessing turn to worm
wood, and like them we go down. I am by
nature and by grace an optimist, and l
expect that this country will continue to
advance until Christ shall come again.
But be not deceived! Our only safety
tice toward man. If we forget the good
ness of the Lord to this land, and break
his Sabbaths, and improve not by the dire
disasters that have again and again come
to US as nation, and we learn saving
lesson neither from civil war nor raging
epidemic, nor drought nor mildew, nor
scOurge of locust and grasshopper, nor
cyclone, nor earthquake; If the political
corruption which has poisoned the foun-
tains of public virtue and beslimed the
high places of authority making free
government at times a Kissing and a by
word IN all the earth; If the drunkenness
and RIGHTEOUSNESS that stagger and bias
pheme in the streets of our great cities
as though they were reaching after the
fame of Corinth and a Sodom are not
repented Of we Will. yet see
the smoke of our nations ruin; the pillars
of our national and state captols viii fall
more disastrously than when Samson pull
ed down Dagon; and future historians will
record upon the page believed with gen.
erous tears the story that the free nation
of the west arose in splendor which made
the world stare 1t had magnificent pos
sibilities. 1t forgot God. 1t hated justice.
1t Rugged its crime. 1t halted on its high
march. 1t reeled under the blow of ca
lamity. 1t fell. And as vt was going
down, all the despotisms of earth from
the top of bloody thrones began to shout
AHA, so would we have it," while strug-
Cling and oppressed people looked out
! from dungeon bars with tears and groans
| and cries of untold agony, the scorn of
those and the woe of these uniting in the
| exclamation, Look yonderl there fell a
great star from heaven, burning as it
We're a lamp, and 1t fell upon the third
| part of the rivers and upon the foun-
| tains of waters; and the name of the star
| is called WormWoodr'