National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-10-11
WATCHMEN OF MT. ZION.
ELDER HASTINGS AT THE CAPITOL
SIX THOUSAND PERSONS LISTEN 10 HIN
THE DIVINE AUTHORSHIP OF TIE BIBLE
THE WORLD MUST RUN BY THIS CHART
The Sins OF Great Men Recorded I'm the
Bible Proved 1t Not to Have
Been Inspired by Men
Services I'm the Churches.

/
Bible Proved 1t Not to Have
Been Inspired by Men
Services I'm the Churches.
As had been previously announced, Mr.. H. L.
| Hastings preached yesterday afternoon from the
east Iportico of the Senate wing Of the Capitol.
Although large gathering had been expected to
listen to this eloquent man, yet the immense
/ throng that crowded the portico and pressed
toward 1t from all directions far exceeded any
! pectations. There were about five thousand peo-
| pie in attendance during the services, although
numbers who could not get near enough to the
| speaker to satisfy themselves strayed away.
Mr.. Hastings with his assistants occupied the
| plateau half way up the steps. All the requi-
sites for conducting the musical portion of the
exercises were at hand. The singing was led and
toned by four pieces from the Marine band, led by
| q cornet. There was also an Estey organ, at
which DR.. Henry Perabesu of Georgetown. pre-
| sided. The singing was led by Prof. Frank Will
son, chorister Of Foundry church.
The service began at three O'Clock, with the
singing Of the Coronation" and afterwards were
sung the hymns, NEARER, my God, to Thee"
"Rock Of Ages" ~ need thee every hour" and o
missionary hymn. Those in attendance did not,
before the sermon, join in the singing, so much
as had been desired. Before beginning his SER
| mon, Mr.. Hastings read a portion OF Romans X,
and offered q short prayer.
| SERMON OF Mr.. HASTINGS.
The question, he said, that afternoon, was, Is
| the Bible from God ?" On the Sunday before he
had preached from the subject, Is the Bible
| lying humbug?" He had then presented certain
| facts, and had shown that the Bible In its COM
mands agreed with the best common sense Of the
age. The Bible told them not to get drunk, and
so did the doctors the Bible told them not to fret
themselves to death, and so did the doctor; the
Bible told them not to be overcome with cares, TO
live in peace and not 10 bs agitated, TO live In
purity and chastity, and go did the doctor. He
had said that If the Bible was brought into daily
life It would be the best proof of itself 1t told
them to obey their parents, that
WIVES SHOULD LOVE THEIR HUSBANDS,
that husbands shouli love their wives, and Ger.
| tainly there was not woman there who would
lind fault with that; It told them to love their
neighbors; and so he had told them that If the
people here would take the Bible and try It six
months, and live 1t out, the price Of real estate
| would rise ten per cent in this city.
There would be no brawling, no drunkenness:
business: and every one would be so happy and
good natured that large share OF those living In
New York, and Richmond and Philadelphia
would want to move out and come here TO settle.
That was what would happen If people would live
out the Bible, and It could not be q very bad
book.
If one found a machine which he could not run
and which would get out of order, and finally he
would find q book which had pictures OF every
part of the machine in It, and he should put It
together according to the design in the book he
would conclude that the man who made the ma
chine
WROTE THE BOOK.
This was what they found in the Bible; they had
been trying to run this human machine for six
thousand years and had never got It right till
they had run It according to Gods Word.
He had known people to object to good food who
drank whisky like mad. There was nothing that
was good thing to which some one did not OBJ
The one thing, however, that amazed him was
the credulity OF men who disputed and denied
Gods word, the great stories they swallowed
down: There were none SO credulous as the scep-
The books Of the New Testament had como
from men who had written what they saw.
Paul, Peter, James and John, and from their
time had been a continuous chain of writer's. who
had believed the books, who had quoted Scrip
lures just as their ministers quoted every Sunday
in hundreds Of places, showing that they had
1700 years ago the same books. Paul, when he
had preached at a certain place, would go away,
and, after he had been gone awhile, would write
hand, their pastors letter, and they received it,
In this way all the books had been received, and
there was no break in the testimony all the way
down. Another consideration was that the Bible
which they accepted was not o single book
written by a single person; It was sixty-slx diff
ferent books written by thirty or forty different
men. If thirty or forty politicians Of to-day
should set to work TO write book one could not
get leather strong enough to hold or bind It; If
would be no man who would
RISK HIS LIFE
in going according to 1t, or If forty ministers
should set TO work to write book It would be
1t had taken fifteen hundred years TO write the
Bible, and those who had begun had never known
had advanced. and had advanced Wills IL WAS
being made. A book on geography written if
teen hundred years ago would be Of little use
years ago to his boy, he would say, Father,
didn't this come over in the ark?n II they should
take any book, and go back tlve or twelve or fl
hundred would n
Grafton Of nonsense not in harmony from Begin
ming to end.
class. Poets, prophets, kings, captives, captains
Of armies, men schooled In the lore Of Egypt and
Babylon, all had had hand in it. They had
written in dungeons, while wandering in sheep
skin clothing. written Independently, written
alone, and had left their words in the care of God
and his people; and go men Of every age of every
profession, condition and type Of mind, writing
law, prophecy, ethics and poetry; yet from all
these different minds the book at last had been
brought together, and so complete that people
did not see where there was joint in It. 1t
be sSonS 6GI this down
his feet, block Of marble which came from Mas
sachusetts, another should bring q block from
Virginia, and others from other States, until at
last thirty-six different men had come, and each
had brought different block of marble and laid
no two Of them alike, and put them together. and
produce O human form, moulded in beauty and
Symmetry, they would say that that was nothing,
ONE MAN HAD PLANNED
1t out, ana those men, though separated, had
worked according to the plan and all had come
Alright. Just so those men had worked. Propn-
ecy had come not in old times, by the will of man.
1t was the hand Of God that had given them this
light to their path. II was wonderful how all
parts Of the Word matched together: In the Old
Testament they had q law upon which the civil
law Of the world vas based. An infdel lawyer
had once asked 10 minister for some books of evil
told to begin at the beginning Of It and Rad
through. Amer he had read he wondered where
Moses could haze found that law; he had read
had no such law as that-better, higher than any
the world had seen. The answer was that It had
come from God. In the Old Testament they had
prophecies in
THE NEW TESTAMENT;
they had prophecy fulfilled, in the Old Testament
Saviour had been promised, in the New Tesla
had an account of the beginning Of the world, and
the entrance of sin and death. In the New they
had the redemption, and finally, in the last pages
the book which was not the work Of one man: nor
not e
truth to lost world. Some one might say they
did not believe and call attention to the Old fel
and Solomon had 1t was nothing strange to be-
lieve that David had several wives. He thought
there were
MEN IN WASHINGTON
vhohad as many and would have more iftheycould.
many as Brigham Young. Solomon had fol.
lowed the custom of his times, and here, without
regard TO custom, men followed the same prac-
tice. When It turned up that some one In WASH
ington had done wrong, or when some one from
the country fell into the hands of the Philistines
and got drunk and came to the Police court, next
morning, If he was q poor fellow without friend
or without shirt to his back, they liked to learn
all about him, who his mother was, and who his
father was, ana where he lived; but II 1t was
some nabob, they could not know anything about
It. Perhaps paragraph would appear in the
paper that certain young tman from Gotham
had gotten into trouble and had been warned by
the judge, and had left a sadder and q wiser
man.
When God Almighty wrots q mans life every
thing had to 20 In It. Had It been revised by q
committee OF reverend doctors, and published in
the print Of some great soc ETY., they would never
have had Noah drunk Abraham would not have
lied, Peter would not have denied his Lord, Paul
and Barnabas would not have gotten mad, Judas
would have had some
SMOOTH, PUBLISHED HISTORY,
like the sweet Sunday school books, which told