Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-03-16

life OF your children bright with gra-
cious influences. and you are beaming
upon all the opening enterprises OF
philanthropic and Christian endeavor.
and You are heralds of that day of Cos
pelization which will yet food all the
mountains and valleys Of our sin-ac-
cursed earth. Hail. morning star!
Keep on shining with encouragement
and Christian hope!
Some of you are evening stars, and
you are cheering the last days OF old
people; and though cloud sometimes
comes over you through the Querrul-
BUSINESS or unreasonableness of your
aged father and mother, it is only for
moment and the star soon comes out
clear again and is seen from ali the
balconies of the neighborhood. The
old people will forgive your occasion
al shortcomings, for they themselves
several times lost their patience with
you when you were young, and per-
haps whipped you when you did not
deserve 1t. Hail., evening star! Hang
OF the darkening SKY your diamond
cOronet.
What 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-
chantmen; her markets rich with
horses and camels rom Togarmah; the
bazaar filled with upholstery from De-
dan, with emerald and coral and agate
from Syria. with mines from Helbon,
with embroidered work from Ashur
and Chllmad. 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 upon the barrenness where
once she challenged the admiration o.
all nations; let the barbarians who set
their rude tents where once her pal
aces glittered, answer the questions.
She was star, but by her own sin
turned to NORWOOD, and has fallen.
Hundred-gated Thebes-for all time
to be the study Of antiquarian and
hieroglyphst; her stupendous ruins
spread over twenty-seven miles; her
sculptures presenting in figures of war;
rior and chariot the victories with
which the now forgotten kings of
Egypt shook the nations; her obelisks
and columns; Karnac and LUXOR the
stupendous temples of her pride! Who
can imagine the greatness of Thebes
in those days. when the hippodrome
rang with her sports and foreign roy
atty bowed at her shrines. and her
avenues roared with the wheels of pro-
cessions in the wake of returning con-
Querors? What dashed down the WIS.,
ion of chariots and temples and
thrones? What hands pulled upon the
columns of her glory? What ruthless
ness defaced her sculptured wall and
broke obelisks and left her inGescrib-
able temples great skeletons of gran
tie? What spirit Of destruction spread
the lair of wild beasts in her royal sep
ulchers, and taught the miserable cot
tagers of today to build huts in the
courts Of her temples, and sent desc
lation and ruin skulking behind the
obelisks and lodging among the sar-
cophagi, and leaning against the col
umns, and STOPPING under the arches,
and weeping in the waters 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 shiver in the desola-
ton, and point to fallen gates and
shattered statues and defaced sculp-
ture, responding: "Thcbes built not one
temple to God. Thebes hated right
star, but she turned to wormwood
and has fallen"
From the prosecutions Of the Pill
grim Fathers and the Huguenots in
other lands, God set upon these shores
a nation. The council-fires of the abo-
rhymes went out in the greater 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 woodman's axe
forests fell, and rose again into ships
masts and churches pillars. Cities on
the banks OF the lakes began to rival
cities by the sea. The land quakes
with the rush of the rail car, and the
waters are charmed 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 in the
same market are Maine lumberman,
and South Carolina rice merchant, and
Ohio farmer, and Alaska fur dealer.
And churches and schools and asy-
Inns scatter light and love and mercy
and salvation upon seventy millions OF
people.
I pray that our nation may not copy
the crimes of nations that have per-
ished: that our cup of blessing turn
not to NORWOOD 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 millennial era. Our
only safety is in Righteousness toward
God and justice toward man. II we
forget the goodness Of the Lord to this
land. and break his Sabbaths, and i'm
prove not by the dire disasters that
have again and again come to us as a
neople, and we learn saving lesson