The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-08-19


q part OF the city having been inundated by
the River Tigris, the bri X material in those
t'mes teing drei clay instea Of burn ID,
"hile ]" other parts they find the remains Of
the fire in hears of charcoal that have been
excavated, and in the calcin'i slabs of
gynsum. Who was right, tao Bible or in
d,lelitys
Moses intimqt,d thu. thev had VINEYARD,
in Egyrt absurd" cried hundreds OF
voices you can't raise grapes in Egypt; or,
II you can, 1t is very great exception that
you can ra's, them.n But the travee- goes
down, AMI In the underground vaul's of
Eli thya he finds nainted on the wall ell thu
process OF tending the vines and treadin.
ouu the grapes. u is all there, ramn'a "
sket he'd hy Teoole who evidently knew all
about 1t, and saw it all about them every
day; and in those underground vaults there
are va,e still incrustei with the settlin-s OF
the wine You seq tho vine did grow in
Egypt, whether 1t crows there now or not
Thus, Won see, that while God wrote the
Bible. at tha same time He wrote this COM
mentlry, that "the statutes of the Lord are
right" on leaves o. rock and shell, bouni IN
clas of metal, and lying on noun ain table
and in the leweled vase of the sea. , anthem
ITCHY and in genuineness the statutes of the
Lord are right.
2. Again, the Bile is right in style know
there a o great many people who think it
Is merely collie ,tion of genealogical tables
and dry ia is. That Is because thev do not
know how to read thu hook You take the
most interesting novel that was ever written,
and II yor commence at the four huudredth
page today. anl tomorrow at the three
hundredth, AMI th, next day at the first
page, how much sens or int rest would you
get from it, Yet that is the very process
to which the Bible is subjected eve~y dav.
An ang Il from heaven rea linz the Bible in
th't Wv could not un 1erstand it. Ths
Bible. Ike all Other palaces. has q door by
wnl"h to enter and door by which to
g. out. Genesis is the door by which to 90
in and Reve ations tn door to GO ont.
The Epistles of Paul thu APO tie are merely
letters written, folded up and sent BY post
men to the fferent Churches. Do you read
other letters the way you read Paul lettersi
Suppose you get a business letter, and you
know that in it there are important financial
propositions, do You read the last page first,
and then one line of the third page and an
other Of the Second, and another of the tirst'
No You begin with "Dear Sir" and end
with "Yours truly" Now, here is letter
written from the throne of God t. our lost
world: it is full of magnifcent hones and
propositions an we dip in here and thara,
and we know nothing about it. Besides that,
people read the Bible when they can not
do anything els,. 1t is dark day and they
w hoo io~A "C'i, q ib tucy No uOu So W tuSl-
ness, and after loung ng about BIT they
pick w the Bible-their mind refuses to en-
Joy the truth. CT they come home weary
from the store or shop, and thew feel, II tn y
do not say, it Is a dull book. VIII le the Bible
is to be read on stormy davs and while your
hea aches, it is also to be read in the sun
shine and when your nerves, like harp
strings, thrum the song of health While
your vision is clear. walk in this paradise Of
truth, and while your mental appetite is good,
pluck these clusters of gra O.
am fascinated with the con "iseuess of this
look Every word is packed full of truth.
E cry sentence is double bacreled Every
paragraph is like an old banvan tree with a
hunured roots and a hundred bran ches. 1t is
a great arch; pail o 1T one stone and it all
comes down. There has never been pearl
diver who could gather u one half of the
treasures in any verse. John HalSe1ach, OF
Vienna, for twenty one years every Sabbath
expounded to his congregation the first chap
ter of the Book of Isaiah, and yet not get
through with it. Nine-tenths OF all the good
literature of this age is merely the Bible
diluted.
Goethe, the admired of all skeptics, had the
wall If his house at Weimar covered with
religious maps and pictures. Milton's PARA
disc Lost" is part of the Billie in blank verse:
Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered' is borrowed
from the Bible. Sponsors writ ngs are imi-
tations from the Parallels. John Bunvan saw
In a dream only what Saint John hal en-
before i'll Apo ally ptic vision. MacaIlay
crowns his most gigantic sentences with
Scri! tire quotations. Through .Addison's
"Spectator" there elances in and out the
stream that broke from the throne o. Go l
characters are Bible men and WON IN
der different names, as Meg Merri-
lies the Witch of Endor. Shakespeares
Lqdy Macbeth was Je ebel. Hobbies stole
from this Castle OF Truth the weapons with
which he afterward assaulted it. Lord Byron
caught the rugge ine's AMI ma es;y OF h's
style from the lro he e'ies The writings Of
Pope are sa5ura ed W tn Isaiah, and he fin Is
his mo t SUI esstul theme in the Messiah.
The poets Thomson AMI johnson dipped
| their pen in the style of the inspired Orlen-
tai. Thomas Carlyle is only S lendid dis
tortion of E :ekiel AMI wanderin thro Ugh
! the lanes and parks Of ths imperial domain
| of Bible tru h, Tin all the great American,
Eng ish, German, Spanish, Italian poets.
painters, orators and rhet rric rs
Where is there in the world of poetic de-
scriotion ANYTHING like Jobs champng,
neighing, paving, lightning foote l. thunder
necxed war horses: Dryden s, Milton $, Cow
pers tenn est, a"e veiy tame com2ared with
| Davi is storm thac wrecks the mountains OF
Lebanon and sh vers the wilderness OF
Kad h. Why, il seems as If to the feet OF
tn Sc Bib'e writers 10 mountains brou hit al
tn ir gems. an the seas all tletr pearls, an
the gardens all the frank ncense, ami he
spr ng all its blossoms, and the harvests all
their wealth, and heaven all its gan ieur. and
eternity all it, stupendous realities: an that
since tn IN poets. and orators, aud rhetorlcians
have been drink ng from ;hausted foun'
tains and searching for diamonds in realm
utterly rified and ansacSed
This book is the hive of all sweetness. II
is the a rnory OF all well-te nperei wea Hons
1t is the tower containing the crown ]ewel
of the universe. 1t i, thu lam1 that klndle!
all her lights 1t is the h me of all ma es
ties and splendors It is the marriage rim:
that unitej tae celestial and terrestrial, while
all the clusteriny white robed denl-ens Of tn
skv lowering around rejoice at the nu tials
This book t i; the wreath into which are
twis ed all gar a IDS: it is the song into whicl
a-e struck all la monies; it is the river int
which are poured al the grelt tides OF halle
luiah: it is the armament in wkich suns an!
moons, and stars and consultations and uni
yer and eternities wheel sn bla re and t
umph. Whs is the yo NJ mans su
with any music in it hat is not st Fed witt
Jacobs lament, or Nahum sdirga, OF Habak
kuk S dithyrambic, or Paul's march OF ia
resurre 'tion, or Johns anthem where the o.
ders with doxology OIL Their faces resoon t
the trumpet-bas5 of the Ar.hangel as h
stands with one foot on the sea and the othe
foot on the lard swearing by Him that hV
eth forever and ever that time sha be n
longer:
am also amazed at the variety of TIL
Book Mind you, not contradi ton or co
lision, but variety Just a' in the song yo
! have the ba SO, and alto. and soprano, an
tenor they are not in collsi n with ca
o.her, but core in to make up the harmony
So it is in this Book; there are di ierent ar
of this great song of redemption. I'll
prophet c1rnes and takes one art and ii
evangelist another part, AMI the apostle al
other part, and yet they all come into ii
gram harmony song of Moses al II
Lamb If God had inspired men of Il
same temperament to write this Book,
, might have been monoton1us: but Davi'
and Isaiah, and Pet L, and Job, and ekie
, and Paul and John were men of di erel
, temperaments, AMI So, when Col inspire
them to write. .hev wrote in their own styl
.. God prepared the book for all classes {
peo lie. For instance, little chilirea wouI
.. read the Bible, aud God knew that, 20
.. allows Mathew aud Luke to writ, swe,
.. stories about Christ with the doctors OF q
law. and Christ at the well. aud Christ at u
. or Ss, 50 that any little child caa un ierstln
. the n Then God knew that the az p.Dp
: would want to real the book, 50 He allo :
Solomon t. compact q world OF wiSto
Y ! s,fp p.s,r ara