Disasters of the Past

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Disasters of the Past.

The annals of history from the earliest period to the present time have been but a record of elevation power & downfall. As wave follows wave in endless succession so nation follows nation in the path to empire. The changes of government & the wreck of power have taught us the instability of human greatness & the insecurity of national existence. One nation after another has arisen, & in its pride has bid defiance, to chance, change & time. A few years have passed away, & the world has beheld that nation fallen, the lands devastated by an enemy, it's people harassed by tyrants, & its cities smoking in ruins.

Such has been the final end of all those proud empires which have given laws to the world. The mind of man in reading the revelation of history is active with the past. Imagination beholds kinds & conquerers, moving upon the arena of life, pelty states become as empires & powerful governments fall into ruins. Such is history, a record of triumphs & reverses, teaching useful lessons to the mind & enforcing the impression that man's labors are vain, & everything that bears the impress of his image must sink into decay.

Empires have arisen, flourished for a season, & then sunk forever into obscurity. Yet how many of those proud empires have boasted in the hight of their exultations of national

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infallibility. In the far East the Assyrian Empire rose by genius of a warlike king, but buried in luxury it sunk beneath its own weight, & scarcely a vestige of its former greatness remains.

Babylon the mighty city rose in unequaled magnificence & for awhile gave laws to the world. But Babylon hath fallen, & the Euphrates now rolls its turbid stream where once the mighty city stood, & the owl looks lonely down on the seat of a former empire.

Then came Persia with her exhaustless wealth & Egypt with her opulent cities, but those great powers have passed away amid the floods of disasters that have swept the land. Each felt a conquerors hand & each beheld its own cities desolated & all the trophies of luxury & art taken to distant climes. But two republics of ancient times rose high in the scale of greatness though celebrated for different virtues. The Grecian empire is celebrated as the ancient seat of heroes, the early land of freedom & the nursery of the arts & sciences. Rome for the success of her arms & the extent of her power. Each was preeminent, & alike celebrated for its influence at home & abroad. But did that fame make them immortal? Go ask amid the ruins & palaces of the once famous Athens, where is the former flower of Greece. And your question will be reechoed by the broken & desolate piles of temples & palaces.

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Then when we consider the wisdom of God, we are led to the conclusion, that all changes, downfalls & disasters are designed to answer some great & noble purpose which is far beyond our limited powers to comprehend. We see that sin & destruction has frosted upon the blood of nations in the past. We have beheld the same evils with a mighty arm strike at the very heart of our own proud republic. We have yet many strong & powerful foes to contend with, & there is still danger of our overthrow. But with an earnest desire & prayer for what is right, let us blend together the loyal elements & go forth to battle bravely against sin in all its multiplicity of forms, & then no dobut, the Ruler of nations, the Eternal God of the universe, will bless our land & our people.

William E. Benbow

Very good indeed – no general corrections -
Just suits the “Critic”, (R. N. Johnson)