The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-06-26
the waters which 60 mournfully By -

the waters which 60 mourn1ully Dy a
J though they were carrying the tears
OF all ages? Let the mummies break
their long silence and come up 70
shiver in the desolation, and point TO
fallen gates and shattered statues
and defaced sculpture, responding;
"Thebes built not one temble to God.
Thebes hated Righteousness and loved
sin. Thebes was a star, but she turned
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 gar
dens built by Nebuchadnezzar to please
his bride, Amytis, who had been
brought up in a mountainous country
and could not endure the fat country
round Babylon-thes hanging gardens
built, terrace above terrace, till at the
height of 400 feet there were woods
waving and fountains playing, the
verdure, the foliage, the glory look
| ing as If mountain were on the
wing On the tiptop 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 OFT
over rivers and lakes upon nations
| subdued and tributary, crying: is
not this great Babylon which | have
| built?n
What battering-r smote the walls?
What plowshare upturned the gardensP
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 banqueters to their
revel and the dancers to their feet?
walk upon the scene of desolation
to find answer and pick up pieces of
bitumen and brick and broken pot
terry, the remains of Babylon, and as
in the silence of the night hear the
surging of that billow Of desolation
which rolls over the scene, / hear the
wild waves saying: Babylon was
star, but by sin she turned to worm
wood and has fallen"
From the persecuti ons of the Pilgrim
Fathers and the ,Huguenots in other
lands God set upon these shores ma
ton. The council fires of the abo-
rhymes went out in the greatest light
of free government. The sound of
the war.whoop was exchanged for the
thousand wheels of enterprise and
progress. The mild winters, the fruit
full summers, the healthful skies
charmed from other lands race of
hardy men who loved God and wanted
to be free. Before the wood
mans 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-
rail car and the waters are churned
white with the steamers wheel. Fab
ulous 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
trading in the same market is Maine
lumberman 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 60,000,-
O00 of people.
/ pra that our nation may not copy
the crimes of the nations that have
persisted, and our up.of worship turn
to 1vormwood, and like them we go
down. 1 am by nature and by grace
an optimist, and expect that this
country will continue to advance until
Christ shall came 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 inn
prove 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
fountains of public virtue and beslimed
the high places of authority, making
free government at times kissing and
a by-word TO all the earth; if the drunk
enness and RIGHTEOUSNESS that stag
ger and blaspheme in the streets of
our great cities as though they were
reaching after the fame of Corinth
and Sodom are not repented of, we
will yet see the smoke of our nations
ruin; the pillars of our national and
state capitols will fall more disas-
trously than when Samson pulled
down Dagon; the future historians
will record upon the page be-
dewed with generous tears the
story that the free nafion