The Gates of the Desert.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4458, 4 September 1909, Page 4

The Gates of the Desert.

(By A Bankbk.) Ding the approach to that arid and t| ocean of driven sand, the a Desert, and almost beneath the w of the mightiest structure ever &by man upon this earth, stands strange wonder of the ancient , the Great Sphinx. And well those superstitious and deluded ippers of crocodiles and mummied of Osiris and Horus and Ptsh, l the impassive monster with awe nth the profoundest reverence; night they look upon it as enL; with tremendous authority and , and with the- absolute control beer destinies, both in this life and realms beyond the tomb, For to m, of this more intelligent age, ipated from those insenate >ns which held those mighty ts in an iron gap, and sunk them ip abysmal and benighted ignorit is a thrilling experience to at sunset, before the towering, ;ic form of the stupendous figure, startinga&it Were into life as the i rays merge into carmine, and the dess visage is gradually mantled suffused ever deepening blush as i the life-blood were coursing ;h it j now, as the great ninary sinks lower and lower, the j hue of vitality fading away into u and lurid, empurpled lividity ; »w, as the gloaming advances and ars of heaven one by one shine the massive features of the image ling ever blacker and deeper, until ing moon again rekindles on it a jt and unearthly pallor, ry with age a thousand years Menephtah’s generals, vainly ng the Israelite host, jperished Enipusly in the Bed Sea, the atony _ eyes of this sculptured sr of the past a huge and dously colossal man-headed lion, lestal a rock-hewn temple—have out with the same impenetrable, ess gaze upon some of the it events of this world’s history; Umphant progresses of the Great ’s ; the headlong flight of h Necho, driven back by the ine forces of Nebuchadnezzar ; the of Bhishak with his rich plunder he Holy. City, Jerusalem, or the ous triumph of that mighty rider Drld-Empire, Alexander the Great, then, later on, after many another j vicissitude, three weary figures, by Divine command from the ’ous jealousy of Herod who uot suffer his kingly power to be dby another, even though a he reputed father, the mother, ie Holy Child, take refuge in doubtless regarding the stus fane with equal wonder as we es at this day. But that helpid was the Lord of Glory, wno er to save mankind from the lences of his sins, left His

in the heaven of heavens for a nd Himself satisfied the'claims mal justice by bearing the uent due. And whosoever will irticipate in that all-prevailing ce. , . ; "