The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-09-17

echoed with the laughter Of light-hearted
mirth on its way to the theater. On tenn
pies fashioned out of colored stones-some
of which have Flushed into the crimson OF
the rose, and some Of which have paied
into the wilderness of the lilv-aye, on coli
umn, and pediment, and entablature, and
statuary, God writes the truth Of that
Bible.
The Bible says that sodom and Gomor-
rah were destroyed by fire aud birthstone.
"Absurd," infidels year after year said;
ait is positively absurd that they could
have been destroy ed by Irimstone. There
is nothing iu the elements to cause such a
shower of death as TINT" Lieutenant
Lynci-l think he was the first man who
went out on the discovery. but he has been
followed by many o'hers-Lieutenant
Lynch went GU. in exploration and came
to the Dead Sea, which, by a CONFUSION
OF nature, has overfiown the place where
the cities once stood. He sank the faith
oming line and brought up from tue bot.
tom OF the Dead Sea great masses of sui
phur, remnants Of that very tempest that
swept Sodom and Gomorrah to ruin. Who
was right, the Bible that announced the
destruction Of those cities or the sseptics
who for ages scof7ed at il:
Moses minated that they had vine-
yards in Egypt. absurd" cried hun
dreds of voices; you can't raise grapes in
Egypt; or, IL you can, it is a very great
exception that you can raise them" But
the traveller goes down, and in the UNDER
ground vaults of Eiliihya he finds painted
on the wall all the process-of tending the
vines and tresding out the grapes. II is
all there, Familiarity sketched by people
who evidently knew all about il, and saw
it all about them every day: and in those
underground vaults there are vases still
encrusied with the settings Of the wine.
You see the vine did grow in Egypt,
whether IL grows there now or not.
Thus you see that while God wrote the
Bible, at the same time He wrote this
commentary, that "the statues OF the
Lord are right" on leaves OF rock and
shell, bound In clasps Of metal, AMI lying
on mountain tables and i'm the jeweled
vase of the sea. In authenticity and in
genuineness, the statutes Of the Lord are
right.
2. Again, the Bible is right in style. /
know there are great many people who
think 1t Is merely . collection of genoa
logical tables and dry facts. That is be-
cause they do not know how to read the
book. You take up the most interesting
novel that was ever written, and II you
commence at the four .hundredth page to-
day, and tomorrow at the three-hun-
dredtb. and the next day at the first, how
much sense or interest would you get
from it? Yet that Is the very process to
which the Bible 10 subjected every day. An
angel from Heaven, reading the Bible in
that way, could not understand it. The
Bible, like all other palaces. has door by
which to enter and door by which to 60
out. Genesis is the door to 60 in and Rev.
citation the door to go out.
These epistles of Paul the Apostle are
merely letters written, folded up and sent
by postmen to the different churches. Do
You read other letters the way you read
Paul's letters. Suppose You get busi-
ness letter, and you know that in it there
are important financial Propositions, do
You read the last page nrst and then one
line Of the third page, and another Of the
second, and another Of the first! No.
You begin with "Dear Sir" and end with
"Yours truly Now, here Is . letter
world; it is full OF magnificent hopes and
propositions, and We dip in here and
there, and we know nothing about it. Be-
sides that, people read the Bible when
they can not do anything else. 1t il .
dark day. and they do not feel well, and
they do not 60 to business, and after
longing about q bit they pick up the
Bible-their mind refuses to enjoy the
truth. Or they come home weary from
the store or shop, and they feel, IL they do
not say, II is dull book. While the Bible
Is to be read ON stormy days and while
your head aches, it IL also to be read in the
sunshine and when your nerves like harp.
strings thrun the song OF health. While
your vision Ii clear, walk in this paradise
Of truth, and while your mental appetite
10 good, pluck these clusters OF grace.
am fascinated with the conciseness Of
this book. Every word is packed full Of
truth. Every sentence is double-barreled.
Every sentence 10 like an old banyan tree
with a hundred roots and q hundred
branches. It Is great arch; pull out one
stone and il all comes down. There has
never been q pearl diver who could gather
up one-half Of the treasures in any verse.
John Halsebach, Of Vienna, for twenty
one years every Sabbath expoundcd to his
congregation the first chapter OF the Book
OF Isaiah. and yet did not get through
with it. Nine-tenths Of all the good lit.
era ture OF this age il merely the Bible
diluted.
Where Is there in the world Of poetic de.
scription anything like jobs champing,
neighinx. paving, lightning footed, thun-
der necked war horse? Dryden's. Millions,
Cowper's tempests are very tame COM
pared with David's storm that wrecked
the mountains OF Lebanon and shivered
the wilderness OF Kadish. Why, it seems a.
II TO the feet OF these Bible writer's noun.
tains brought all their gems, and the seas
all their pearls, and the gardens all their
frankincenses, and the spring ell its bios.
SONS. and the harvests all their wealth,
and Heaven all its grandeur, and eternity
all its stupendous realities, and that since
then poets and orators and rhetoricians
have been drinking from exhausted foun.
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