By Richard Todd, Biola ’49
>
And trav’lers, viewing Luxor’s site,
Say, "What a splendor once was here!”
And when upon a moonlit night, In eerie light with awe and fear, They Kamak’s pillared might behold, And whisper words most fearfully, "What grandeur Egypt had of old!” Then why should Egypt des’late be? Why should the Sphinx forlorn now stand, Still gazing out o’er moonlit sand?
rphe answer’s not within the span Of man’s authority or power. ’Twas not the will of puny man
That brought great Egypt to this hour
Of baseness, ruin and poverty,
’Twas not a foreign monarch’s wrath, O’er treaty’s breach or boundary, That spread such woe on Egypt’s path, That e’en though Egypt’s Sphinx still stands, Her glory lies beneath the sands. TITTien Israel was in Egypt land, * ' Long years before Messiah’s day, She was by Pharaoh’s cruel hand Oppressed in making brick of clay, Until she cried in agony For freedom from her bondage sore; God heard her cry and set her free, And led her forth to turn no more Unto the land where still doth stand The Sphinx upon the desert sand. A nd when in Canaan’s promised land God’s people were the victims made Of wars with foes on every hand, And cried to Egypt’s king for aid, A bruised reed was Egypt found, A staff on which no man might lean; No help there was in Egypt’s crown. So therefore all the world has seen God’s judgment on the land, where stands The Sphinx alone upon the sands. Jehovah’s Word in truth spake he: “ For Egypt shall be waste and bare, The basest of all kingdoms be, No more o’er nations east and west Shall Pharaoh’s hand exalted be.” And history records the rest, The ruin, fall and misery, Degradation of that des’late land Tpzekiel, the prophet, hear, A lesson here the world may learn Which many a nation has forgot; Yes, kings may rage, their armies turn The passion bred by greed and hate; But God still rules in this dark hour. Yet doubts some hopeful potentate? Yet boasts he of his own great power? Let stand that fool where silent stands The Sphinx, the king of endless sands. ’Gainst friend or foe, while waxes hot Where stands the Sphinx upon the sand.
T stand tonight on Egypt’s sands, Before the still and solemn Sphinx, That time-scarred form, half beast, half man, Which Egypt’s past and present links. The noble face is worn and scarred; Nor can the moonlight’s soft caress Renew the features cruelly marred By wind and sand—the ancient stress; And still the stolid Sphinx doth stand, The king of miles of moonlit sand. \I7'hence came this mass of dateless stone, ” With beast the body, man the head, This remnant great of glories flown, This monument to ages dead? Here once was Egypt’s empire great; It spread o’er all the neighb’ring land, It stretched beyond to Syria’s gate, But now the Sphinx alone doth stand, The empire—only endless sand. TTThere is the empire once so great, ” Where are the cities, temples grand, Where now the jeweled potentates, Whose word was law, whose iron hand Held fast the nations far and wide? Where are the cities onjce well known To all the world as Egypt's pride? Is Thebes no more than ruined stone? Why doth the Sphinx alone still stand, While Memphis sleeps beneath the sand? Great Canaan’s length and breadth to span;
JULY, 1947
PAGE N INE
Made with FlippingBook HTML5