The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1880-04-01

The lecture of Rev. II. l.. Garfield
delivered at the Universalist Church
on Tuesday evening of last week was
really one of great interest, and wor-
thy to haye called out an audience to
have filled the most spacious hall in
town. We regret our inability to give
the lecture in full to our readers, but
present the following synopsis of its
salient points:
Mr.. Garfield promised his lecture by
saying, that he presumed that Mr..
Wilson would not have been go de-
sirous of having him lecture upon the
aboye subject, had he known that he
(the lecturer proposed to maintain the
Affirmative. By referring to the Ency-
clapedia he found that under the head
ing Tiolio, the writer asserted that it
was the King of instruments, and that
NO man had ever thoroughly mastered
it. The lecturer then continued by re-
ferring to the first time he ever heard
the expression used as given in the til
tie of his lecture. He said that when
young man, he overheard discus
sion between two gentlemen of rival
evangelical sects, each maintaining his
creed by quotations from the Bible.
Recrimination upon recrimination fol-
lowed, and as both seemed to have an
exhaustless supply of pertinent quota
tions, he Qhe lecturer) concluded that
it was drawn battle, and just as he
was about to retire from the scene, an
old gentleman remarked, "After all the
Bible is like an old Fiddle upon which
you can play any kind Of atune." The
thought that somewhere in the world
there must be congregation who
could and did maintain rational theo-
ry based upon the Scripture, ,one which
he could endorse, and he proposed to
to find it if he could. The Bible, he
said, abounded in apparent contradlc-
tions, and passages he didn't pretend
to explain, and that q commentator
who reviewed the Bible for the pur-
pose of finding inconsistencies, would
be sure to find them. He said that the
audience had doubtless seen and heard
the Violin tortured by amatures and
found the sounds produced distress
ing; while they may also have had
their souls inspired by the exquisite
performance of master of the instru-
ment, as the music to be got from a
violin depended upon the ability and
taste of the performer, 80 with the
Bible. He wondered if the audience
had eyer thought that a good book re-
quired a good reader as much as a
good instrument did good perform
er. Nevertheless, sach was the case
In his estimation. Some readers could
find nothing congenial in the Bible,
but sacrafices, atonement, sack-cloth
and ashes. In early days, he cOntin-
ned, our fathers built their domeciles
of rongh hewn logs, though there was
no lack of stone, or clay for BRICK
u8klUXs i Ou oOkhO VI yOo,
,e said, how those old cabins were
just too roenss-one an
'ide and one outside, and they con-
,tructed their heauen the same ecdy
the outside room being considerably
he largest. In requoting the express
lion. "Is the Bible an Old Fiddle,
Ec.," he said people always said old.
iddle, and he felt flattered by their
for all artists and writers
gree that the Oldest fiddles were the
,est. Now tho questions with US
Ihould be, he said, what kind of music
hould toe endeavor to get from the
Bible? He left the question to his
hearers. The lecture abounds in cpl
grams and fine thoughts, tersely ex-
pressed, and should have been heard
O be appreciated.
The proceeds of the lecture will be
devoted to the Sabbath School of the
Jniversalist Church. ***