The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-03-13


faced her sculptured wall and broke obs-
lsks, and left her understandable temples
great skeletons Of granitei What spirit Of
destruction spread tho Lair Of wild beasts
In her royal sspulchers and taught the
miserable cottagers Of today to build huts
In the courts Of her temples and sent desc
lation and ruin skulking behind the obe-
lisks and lodging among the sarcophagi,
and leaning against tho columns, 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 SILVER In the desc
lation and point to fallen gates and shat
tered statues and defaced sculpture, TO-
spending: "Thebes built not one temple
to God. Thcbes hated righteousness and
loved sin. Thebes was 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
gates, her hanging gardens built by Neb.
uohadnezzar to please his bride, Amytis,
who had been brought up In mountain
Gus country and could not endure the fiat
country round Babylon. These hanging
gardens, built terrace above terrace, till at
the height of 400 feet there werc woods
waving and fountains playing, the YER
dure, the foliage, the glory looking as II
mountain were on the wing. On tho tip.
top 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 off over rivers and lakes upon
nations subdued and tributary, crying,
lis not this great Babylon which have
butltP"
Salvation For Millions.
What battcring ram smote the wallsi
What plowshare upturned the gardensp
What army shattered the bsazen gatesi
What long, fierce blast Of storm put out
this light which illuminated the worlds
What crash of discord drove down the mu.
sic that poured from palace window and
garden grove and called the banquetsrs to
their revel and the dancers to their feetf
walk upon the scene of desolation to find
an answer and pick up pieces Of bitumsn
and brick and broken pottery, the remains
Of Babylon. hear the wild waves say
ing, Babylon was proud, Babylon was
impure, Babylon was q 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 q nation. The
council fires Of the aborigines went out In
the greater light Of free government.
The sound Of the warwhoop was exchang-
ed for the Thousand wheels Of enterprise
and progress. The mild winters, tho
fruitful summers, the healthful skies
charmed from other lands o race of hardy
men, who loved God and wanted to be
free. Before the woodlands ak forests
fell and rose again into ships nasts and
churches pillars. Cities on the banks of
lakes began 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 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 are Maine
lumberman and South Carolina rice mer-
chant and Ohio farmer and Alaska fur
dealer, and churches and schools and asy-
lums scatter light and love and mercy and
salvation upon 70,000,000 people.
The Lords Goodness.
Ipray that our nation may not copy the
crimes of nations that have persisted;
that our cup Of blessing turn not to
NORWOOD and we go down. am by ma
ture and by grace an optimist, and ex-
pect that this country will continue to ad. |
vance until the world shall reach the mil |
lennial era. Our only safety is In right
eousness toward God and Justice toward
man. If we forget the goodness of the
Lord to this land and break bis Sabbaths,
and improve not by the dire disasters that
have again and again come to us as a peo- |
pie, and we learn saving lesson neither
from civil war nor raging epidemic, nor
drought nor mildew, nor scourge Of To- |
Gust and grasshopper; II the political cor.
rupuion which has poisoned the fountains
of public virtue and beslimed the high |
places Of authority, making free govern
ment at times . kissing and byword in
all the earth; II the drunkenness and H.
oentiousness that stagger and blaspheme
in the streets Of our great cities, as though
they were reaching after tho 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
CoplpoAb IA 40AA 1AOkV uA0uoplo0nAy Vlu11
when Samson pulled down Dagon, and
future historians will record upon the
page believed with generous tears the story
that the free nation Of the west arose in
splendor which made the world stare. II
had magnificent possibilities; 1t forgot
God it hated justice; 1t Rugged its crimes;
1t halted on its high march, it rceled un-
dor the blow Of calamity; 1t fell, and as it
from the top Of bloody thrones began to
shout: "Ahal So would we have It'll"
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 exclamation: Look yonderl There
fell great star from heaven, burning as
1t were lamp, and 1t fell upon the third
part Of the rivers and upon the fountains
Of waters, and the name Of the star il
calIad WOrmUood ~ |