Towanda daily review. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1879-1921, 1880-01-03
Attractions of the Bible.

more curiosity tnan plety, taste tnan sane
tity, and that persons are more anxious
to hear some new thing, or read some
beauteous theme, than to read or hear
about God and his great salvation; that
few could ever ask, ''What must l do to
be saved?' till they had once been at
tracted and brought to the Bible itself.
And therefore he made the Bible not only
an instructive book but an attractive one
not only true, but enticing-a book
which is trying to catch the heart of man
should crafty his taste. The pearl is of
great price, but even the casket is of ex-
quiste beauty; the worlds Maker is the
Bibles Author, and the same profuson
which furnished so lavishly the abode of
man, has filled thus richly, and adorned
thus brilliantly, the book of man. For
God has made Inspiration a counterpart
of Incarnation; and inst as in the incar-
nate mystery, without mutual encrOach-
ments, and without confusion, we have
very God and very man, so in Scripture
we have book, every sentence of which
is truly Divine. Holy men spake and
wrote it g as they were moved by the Ho-
ly Ghost" and just as when God sent his
Son into the world, He sent him not in
the fashion of an angel nor even in the
fashion of a glorified and celestial man,
but sent him :" i'll all points like unto his
brethren" so when He sent into the
D+
ready written with an angels plume, but
with reeds from the Jordan, and was con-
signed to paper from the marshy Nile,
and every word Of it not the less heaven
ly. We have in Gods Divine revelation
the beautiful simplicity of John, the argu-
mentative SOul-Stirring energy of Paul, |
the fervent solemnity of Peter, the lyrical
mood of David, the ingenious and majes-
tic narrative of Moses, the royal wisdom
of Solomon; but we have also God. And
such ought to be the word of Jehovah,
like Emmanuel, full of grace and truth, at
once in the bosom of God and in the heart
of man-powerful, yet sympathiZing-ce-
lestial, yet human-eXalted. yet humbling
imposing, yet familiar-God and man.
Oh, my brethren, there is a loveiness
even in the letter of the Bible, but there |
is life for our souls in the Divine signif- |
canoe. In blisSful bewilderment may you
forget the destinations of earth and the |
pleasures of sin, and only wake up to con-
seriousness still to find yourSelfalone with
the Master; and none will less grieve !
than he who addresses you, if the literary
attractions of the Bible become thus |
merged and superseded in charms more
spiritual--in those attractions, which if
they draw you to the Bible, will also draw
you at last to heaven.-Jdmes Hamilton.
There are very few honest men that
live, very few that in the active business |
of life are strictly honest, interpreted by
the law OF God, and yet when some man
commits an ofiense against propriety un-
der circumstances that make it dramatic,
what storm of Indignation there is =
spicuous way what they have been doing
in II Sneaking way all their lives, aud theirs !
is the indignation, not of love and puri-
ty, but the Indignation of the animal, the
power of combativeness, IL ". Beecher. |
There is a pleasure in contemplating |
good; there is a greater pleasure in re-
ceiving good; but the greatest pleasure |
of all is in doing good, which cOmpre-
hends all the rest.