Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-07-25
Tie Bible is d niase 73kS15,e.

its words and its thoughts y ~ ! lr------.,
it has gathered around its ce1tral truths all
natural beauty and interestss it is a temple
with one altar and one God, ,lbut Illuminated
with thousand different lights, and stud
ded with thousand ornaments. 1t has sub
stantially but one declaration to make, but
it utters it in the voices Of the creation
Shining forth from the excellent glory, its
light has been reflected on myriad of in
tervening Objects till it has become attem-
pered for our early visions. It now beams
upon US at once from the heart of man, and
from the countenance of nature. 1t has ar
rayed itself in the charms of fiction. Ithas
gathered new beauties from the work of
creation, and new warmth and new power
from the very passions of clay 1t has
pressed into its service the very animals Of
the forest, the flowers of the fields, the stars
Of heaven-all the elements Of nature
The lion spurning the sands Of the desert
the wild roe leaping over the mountains, the
lamb led in silence to the slaughter, the goat
speeding to tie wilderness, the rose bios
soming in Sharon, the lilly dropping in the
valley, the apple tree bowing under its fruit,
the great rock shadowing weary land, the
river g gladdening dry place, the moon and
the morning star, Carmel by the sea, and
Tabor in the mountains, the dew from the
womb Of the morning, the rain upon the
mown grass, the rainbow encompassing a
; dark place, the light of Gods shadow, the
thunder His voice, the wind and the earth
quake His footsteps-AIl such varied ob-
jects are made as if naturally designed from
!; their creation to represent Him to whom the
! Book and all its embems point. Thus the
spirit the book mas ransacked creation to lay
its treasures on Jehovah's altar, united the
innumerable rays of far streaming glory
on the hill of Calvary, and woven gar
land for the bleeding brow Of Emanuel, the
}, flowers of which have been culled from She
garden of the universe.
The power of the Bible over man has
t been long and obstinately resisted, but re
sisted in vains~-2er ages has this artles;
> loosely piled little Book been exposed to the
e fire Of the keenest investigations, fire
Is meanwhile which has consumed contemptu
le ously the mythology of the Iliad, the hus
bandry Of the Georges, the historical trutl
= of the Livy, the fables of the Shaster, tn
% the Talmud, and the Koran, the artist
merit Of many popular poem, the author
~ " ity Of many a work Of philosophy an
r science. And yet there the Bible lies IN
~ hurt, untouched, with not one of it's page
le singed, with not even the smell Of fire hay
IL le ing passed upon it. Many an attempt hi
u, u been made to scare away the Fiery Pillar
0N our wanderings, to prove it mere natur
product Of the wilderness; but still nigl
u, after night rises, like one of the ever sh
T. ming stars in the vanguard of the great marc
, 'h, man, the column gliding slow, but guidir
& certainly to future lands Of promise, DO
re- in the life that is and that which come
7u' hereafter
d While other books are planets shinil
'eil with reflected radiance, this Book, like t
;, sun, shines with ancient and unborrowed ray
ohe Other books, after shining their lit
2 season, may perish in flames fercer than th'
ou' which destroyed the Alexandrian librar
yes this must in essence remain as fine as 60
gea but inconsumable as asbestos in the gene
Z d eoufagration.