MEETING. 10 



purpose this evening to lead you back to a scientific age some four, five, 

 six, or seven thousand years ago, and to point out that the records that were 

 Avritten on the tombs of Egypt, and found in the papyri wliicli liave lain 

 for ages in those tombs, tend to illustrate the truth of tlic graml record 

 which we have in God's Holy Word. 



EGYPT: PHYSICAL, HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND 

 SOCIAL. By the Kev. J. Leslik Porter, D.D., D.C.L., 

 President of Queen's College, Belfast. 



JUST about thirty years ago I first set foot in Egypt. Since 

 that time I have paid several visits to the country, and 

 have had full opportunity of inspecting its modern towns, and 

 of examining that marvellous system of irrigation which is the 

 sole source of its wealth. I have also explored many of its 

 grand temples and tombs. I have tried to discover the origin 

 and object of its pyramids, obelisks, sphinxes, and colossal 

 statues. I have spent much time in the study of its unique 

 historic records, inscribed upon the walls of Karnak, Luxor, 

 a!nd Abu Simbel, and written upon papyrus rolls which have 

 lain for thousands of years entombed with the embalmed 

 bodies of the mighty dead, and are now, year after year, being 

 brought forth by successful explorers, perfect as when deposited 

 beside the mummies of the Pharaohs, and are being deciphered 

 by scholars. I have inspected also, with absorbing interest, the 

 interiors of those vast rock-hewn sepulchral chambers, on 

 whose walls are depicted with singular minuteness of detail, 

 artistic skill, and brilliancy of colouring, the manifold arts and 

 industries, field labours and domestic pursuits, amusements, 

 battles and conquests, trials and punishments, royal processions 

 and state formalities, religious observances, funeral rites and 

 ceremonies, — in a word, the whole life of the ancient Egyptians, 

 in their best days, from the monarch to the peasant, from the 

 warrior triumphing to the chained captive and down-trodden 

 slave. I have spent days and days, with ever-increasing 

 interest, in the Museum of Boulak, where the French and 

 German savants, Brugsch, and Mariette, and Maspero have, 

 with extraordinary industry, research, and scholarly instinct, 

 accumulated treasures of ancient art and literature unequalled 



