The great pyramid passages and chambers

steep angle, is forced through the solid rock upon which the Pyramid stands, and ends in the Small Horizontal Passage which continues in the same southerly direction, and leads first to a small Recess, and then to a large Subterranean Chamber carved out in the heart of the rock about one hundred feet vertically below the centre of the base-line of the Pyramid. Though the roof and four walls of this Subterranean Chamber have been made fairly even, the floor, on the contrary, has been left in an extremely broken and unfinished condition, by reason of which the name of ‘ Bottomless Pit" has been applied by some to this chamber. It is a fitting termination to the long low passage which leads downwards to it.

146 Because of its downward slope and very small bore, the whole Descending Passage suggests the thought of the world of mankind bowed under the curse, hastening towards destruction. Since the transverse height is scarcely four feet, the man who travels down this passage requires to stoop very low; and the steep downward inclination of the roof compels him to bow his head and shoulders even lower than if the passage were horizontal. So cramped is the posture, that before he has gone far his back and head begin to ache, and he longs for an opportunity to stand upright ; but there is no relief, and as he continues his downward course he finds it more and more laborious and painful. At first, the light streaming in from the Entrance aids him in choosing his footing, but the further he proceeds the gloomier becomes the way, until at length he requires to grope along in almost complete darkness, unless he possess a lamp or torch. When he has reached the lower extremity of the passage, should he look back, he will see the light at the Entrance now reduced to a mere point owing to the distance, and serving him only as a reminder of the freedom and light he once enjoyed. But after he passes the bend of the passage at the horizontal portion (Plate IX), even this small link with the past becomes lost. As the roof here is even lower than that of the Descending Passage, at this part of the journey he will be forced to his knees, and if he should continue unprovided with a lamp, he will require to creep on in complete darkness, till he stumbles into the “ Pit.” A few feet before the end of the way, the passage is a little roomier (Plate X), and this may cause him to imagine that he will obtain more freedom if he perseveres; but the hope is a delusive one, for the passage becomes as narrow as it was before, and remains so till the Pit is reached,

147 Is not this a graphic illustration of the condition of the world, bowed under the yoke of the Adamic condemnation to death, groping and stumbling in the darkness, and finding no permanent peace and happiness in spite of all its plans and speculations. This downward course had its first beginning at the fall when God, in passing the sentence of death upon Adam, the head of the race of mankind, said to him: ‘Cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”—Rom. 8: 22; Gen. 3: 17-19.

148 Though, as we have seen, God has been silently choosing a special people to himself and has been carrying out his beneficent purposes in them, ‘‘ the whole world [still] lieth in the wicked one'—1 John 5: 19,R.V. The only hindrances placed by

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