The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-06-19


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 ages? Let the
mummies break their long silence and
come up to shiver in the desolation and
point to fallen gates and shattered statues
aud defaced sculpture, responding:
"Thebes built not one temple to God.
Thebes hated righteousness and loved
sin. Thebes was a star, but she turned
to wofmwood 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 mountainous country and could
not endure the fat 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 verdyre, the foil
age, the glory looking as if a mountain
We're 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 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 and 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, l hear the
wild waves saying; Babylon was
proud. Babylon was impure. Babylon
was a star, but by sin she turned to
wormwood 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 abortgines
went out IN the greater light of a free
government. The sound ofehe warwhoop
Was exchanged for the thousand wheels
Of enterprise and progress The mild
winters, the fruitful summers, the
healthful skies charmed from other
lands race of hardy men who loved
God and wanted to be free. Before the
woodman' s ak forests fell andlh6se again
into ships masts and 'eherehes' pillars.
Cities on the banks OK lakes begin to
rival cities by the sea. The land quakes
with the fasA 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
'sohth, And trading in 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 60,
900, 900 of people.
pray that our nation may not copy
the crimes of the nations that have per
ished and our cup of blessing turn tt
wormwood, and like them we 60 down.
am by nature and by grace an optlmlst,
and expect that this country will CON
tinue to advance until Christ shall CONF
again. But be not deceived. Our only
safety is in righteousness toward Goo
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 agalI
and again come to us as nation, anf
we learn saving lesson neither from clvl
war nor raging epidemic nor drought
nor mildew nor soourge of locust ant
grasshopper nor cyclone nor earthquake
if the political corruption which ha
poisoned the fountains of public virtu'
and beslimed the high places of author
ity, making free government at times
kissing and byword in all the earth
If the drunkenness and hcentiousnes
that stagger and blaspheme in the street,
of our great cities as though they wer
reaching after the fame of a Corlnti
and a Sodom are not repented OF, w
will vet see the smoke of our nation
ruin; the pillars of our national AIT
state capitols will fall more disastrousl..
than when Samson pulled down Dagon
and future historians will record upol
the page believed with generous tear
the story that the free nation of tn
west arose in splendor which made tn
world stare. 1t had magnificent posi-
bilities. 1t forgot God 1t hated justice
1t Rugged its crime. 1t halted on 1t
high march. 1t reeled under the blow Q
| calamity II fell And as il was gOln