Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-03-29

\ .OuRQly tell MIN II ne wants D DeIter place
! 20 go and get 1t. Suppose, by your man.
| Ter. act as though he were nothing ana
| you were everything. Suppose you are
selfish and overbearing and arrogant.
Your first name ought to be Attila and
your last name Attila, because you are the
star Wormwood and you have imbittered
one-third, IL not three-thirds Of the waters
hat roll past your employees and opera
ives and dependents and associates, and
:he long line Of carriages which the under
:aker orders for your funeral in order to
make the occasion respectable will be filed
with twice as many dry, fearless eyes. as
here are persons occupying them. You
will be in the world but few minutes. As
compared with eternity, the stay of the
longest life on earth is not more than a
minute. What are We doing with that
minute2
What is true of individuals is true of
nations. God sets them up to revolve as
stars. but they may fall wormwood Tyre
the atmosphere Of the desert, fragrant
spices coming in caravans to her fairs: all
seas cleft into foam by the keels of her
la den merchantmen; her markets rich with
horses and camels from Togarmah; the
bazaar filled with upholstery from Dedan,
with emerald and coral and agate from
Syria, with mines from Helbon, with
embroidered WORK from Ashur and Chill
mad. Where now the CLEAN of her towers,
where the roar of her chariots, where the
masts Of her ships? Let the fishermen who
dry their nets where once she stood, let
the sea that rushes npon the barrenness
where once she challenged the admiration
of all nations, let the barbarians who set
set their rude tents where once her palaces
glittered, answer the questions. She was
a star, but by her own sin turned to worm
wood and has fallen.
Hundred gated Thebes-for all time to be
the study of antiquarian and hieroglyphist
Her stupendous ruins spread over twenty
seven miles her sculptures presenting in
figure of warrior and chariot the victories
with which the now forgotten kings OF
Egypt shook the nations; her obelisks and
columns: Karnak and Luxor, the stipend
Gus temples of her pridei Who can imagine
the greatness of Thebes in those days. when
the hippodrome rang with her sports and
foreign royalty bowed at her shrines. and
her avenues roared with the wheels of pro.
cessions in the wake OF returning conqurors:
What spirit of destruction spread the lair
of wild beats in her royal sepulchers and
taught the miserable cottagers OF to-day
to build huts in the courts OF her temples
and sent desolation and ruin skulking be
hind the obelisks, and dodging among the
sarcophagi, and leaning against the col
umns, and STOPPING among the arches, and
weeping in the waters which go mourn
fully by, as though they were carrying the
tears of all the ages? Let the mummies
break their long silence and come up tc
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 right.
eousness and loved sin. Thebes was g
star, but she turned to wormwood and has
fallen"
Babylon, with her $50 towers and beI
brazen gates and her embattled walls. the
splendor of the earth gathered within her
gates, her hanging gardens built by Ne
buchadnezzar to please his bride. Amytis,
who had been brought up in mountain.
Gus country and could not endure the fiat
country around Babylon. These 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, looking as II n noun
tain were on the wing. On the tiptop
king walking with his queen among the
statues, snowy white, looking up at birds
brought from distant lands and drinking
out OF tankards of solid gold or looking of
over rivers and lakes upon nations subdued
and tributary, crying, ~ nc.s--'is great
BABYLON which have
4 What batterfng ram smote salisi
What plowshare upturned the gardens?
What army shattered the brazen gatesf
What long, fierce blast of storm put ou;
this light which illuminated the world
What crash of discord drove down the mu.
sic that poured from palace window and
garden grove and called the banqueters to
their revel and the dancer to their feet2 ]
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. hear the wild waves saying:
Babylon was proud. Babylon was i'm.
pure. Babylon was a star, but by sin she
turned to wormwood and has fallen.''
From the prosecutions of the pilgrim
fathers and the Huguenots in other lands
God set upon these shores a nation. Th
council fires of the aborigines went out in
the greater light Of a free governm ent. The
sound OF the warwhoop was exchanged for
the thousand wheels of enterprise and pro-
gress. The mild winters, the fruitful sum
mers, the heaithful 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 be.
gan 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 oil
Western wheat meet On the way fabulous
bushels of Eastern coal. Furs from the
North pass On the rivers fruits from the
South. And trading in the same market
are Maine lumbermen 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 7O, 600, 900 of people.
pray that our nation may not copy the
crimes Of nations that have perished; that
our cup of blessing turn not to wormwood
and We go down. am by nature and by
grace an optimist, and expect that this
country will continue to advance until the
world shall reach the millenial era. 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
and again come to US as a people, and
we learn saving lesson neither from
civil war nor raging epidemic. nor
drought, nor mildew, nor scourge of locust
and grasshopper; II the political corrup-
tfon which has poisoned the foundations
Of public virtue and beslimed the high
places of authority, making free govern
ment at times Kissing and byword in
all the earth; il the drunkenness and H.
centiousness that stagger and blaspheme
In the streets of our great cities, as though
they were reaching after the fame of a Cor
inth and Sodom, are not repented of, we
will yet see the smoke of our nations ruin
The pillars of our national and State capi-
tolls will fall more disastrously than when
Sampson pulled down the Dragon, and
future historians will record upon the page
bedewed with generous tears the story that
the free nation OF the west arose IN
splendor which made the world stare. II
had magnificent possibilities; it forgot
God; it hated justice; it hugged its crimes,
1t halted on its high march; it
it fell, and as 1t was going down all the
despotisms of earth from the top of
bloody thrones began to shout: s'Ahai
So would we have itI'' while struggling
and oppressed peoples 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 ex-
clamation: "Look yonderi There fell
great star from heaven burning as it were
q lamp, and It fell upon the third part of
the rivers and upon the fountains of
waters, and the name of the star is called
Worm woodr"