The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-12-02


inviting the whole world to be saved.
Two destinies -one for believers and the
other for unbelievers About these doc
trines there is perfect harmony. mozart,
Beethoven, Handel, Haydn never saw,
wrote, heard more complete harmony.
Is it not wonderful that this Bible, writ
ten by scores of men living in different
lands, living in different ages, some OF
them having no communication win
each other, and having no idea OF the
general design of the Bible, after their
fragments of work are brought from these
different lands and ages and are put
together, make complete book, a pook
so harmonious that the best scholars OF
our day pronounce it complete har-
mony? 1t is as though great Cathe-
dral were to be built and hundred men
were to do the work, and those hundred
men lived in different countries, and
lived in different ages, and had no com
munication with each other, and had no
idea of the general design of the Cathe-
dral; and vet after awhile all their frag-
ments of work shall be brought together,
and they prove to be complete archi,
tectural triumph-the man who carved
the pillars having no communication
with the man who planned the dome
the man who fashioned the door having
no communication with the man who
contrived the arches.
Charge Fourth-The Bible is unscien-
tifc. Your Bible says there was light
before the sun was created. How was 1t
possible? Your Bible intimates that the
sun turns round the earth, when the mo-
ton is in the other direction. Your
Bible says that in Joshua's time the sun
{ and moon stood still, which halting
would have ungeared the machinery OF
universe. Your Bible says that water
was turned into wine, and presents other
impossibilities. Through all of that rig
amarole infdelity goes every day. And
it saws the Bible is unscientitic. Who
made you believe that there is an un-
bridgable chasm between the Bible and
science? Stuart Mill, Darwin, Tyndal,
Renan? Yes. Well, l will give you the
names of men who believe there is a
perfect harmony between the Bible and
science-men as much higher than those
names l have quoted as Mount Wash
ington and Himalaya are higher than
Ridgewood Observation-Disclosures, KEEP
Ter, Leibnitz, Ross, Isaac Newton. At any
rate, these names that | quote are as good
as the names you quote. These men
found harmony between the Bible and
science. Have you never heard Profess
sor Hitchcock or General Mitchell lecture
on the harmony between the Bible and
science? The fact is, science is a boy and
revelation a full-grown man. The boy
thinks he knows more than the man,
and he asks a great many unanswered
questions but after science is fully grown
and has been growing and learning as
long as revelation has been established,
perhaps it may know as much. say
perhaps. Voltaire brought an argument
to show that the Bible story Of the gold
en- calf being dissolved was an impossl-
bility. While Voltaire was proving that
gold could not be held in solution, all the
gilders and and coiners and metallurgists
of the earth were holding gold in solu-
zion, and there were fifty shops in Paris
at that time where Voltaire might have
seen the very process which he pro-
nounced an impossibility. If, therefore,
at any time you should find a seeming
disparity between science and revelation,
it is your common sense that demands
that you wait until science is more thor
oughly developed The temple of the
universe has two orchestras-the orChes-
ira of revelation and the orchestra of
science. The former has all its musical
strings strung, and it is ready for the
burst of eternal accord. The latter is only
stringing its instruments. Wait and be
patient. After while you will find
twisted into the same wreath the rose of
Sharon and the laurel of scholarly
achievement, and the roar of the sea will
be the magnificent bass of the temple of
worshipers, and the earth will be found
out to be only the pedals Of an organ Of
which the heavens are the keyboard.
Now, you see, you have not made out
a case. The Bible is not impure, it is
not cruel, it is not contradictory, it is not
unscientifC. This plaintiff, the intidel,
has made out no case against the Bible
The defendant and might in the court
of your reason move for a nOnsuit, But
l will not take advantage of the Circum-
stances. / am going on to see whether
any thing can be sad in behalf of this
much maligned book. Why do you hold
to the Bible as divine book? "Oh,"
You say, al inherit it from my father"
That is no reason. Hindoo children in
herit the Shaster from their parents and
think it divine. Mohammedan children
inherit the Koran from their fathers and
think it divine. You present no argu-
ment when you say that you believe the
book is from God because you inherit it.
from your fathers. You ought to have
some good reason, some portable reason,
which you could carry around in the
banking houses and stores and shops and
streets am going to give you such a
reason. am not addressing you as the
ologians. Many of you are busy men,
and you have no time for elaborate study
on this subject; and yet in this day,
when the city is filled with infdel slang
and skeptical scurrility ard caricature Of
the Bible, you ought to have some quick
and decisive answer for the assailants.
If God help me l will help you. How
do know that this Bible is from God ?
Here is the Old Testament. Here is the
New Testament. First take the New
Testament. How do 1 know that this
comes from a divine Christ? Jerome
and Eusebius in the fourth, and 0rigen
in the third century after Christ, gave
list of the books of the New Testament,
Just corresponding to our list in the books
of the New Testament. But you say
Where did they get their list2" They
got the New Testament from Irenaus
Iren@us got it from Polycarp; Polycarp
got it from St. John; st. John gotit from
the Lord Jesus Christ, with whom he
was personal associate. Is not that
straight, and is not that clear2 My
grandfather gave book to my father
my father gave the book to me l give
the book to my child. Is there any diff
Guilty in tracing that book through the
four generations. Here is person at the
end of the pew put a book in his
I. l.. I. 4 l. L