The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-08-18

\
gypsum. Who was right the Bible or in
fidelityl
Moses intimated that they had vineyards
in Egypt "Ahsurd," cried hundreds Of
voices; ''you can't raise grapes in Egypt, or,
if you can, it is very great exception that
you can raise them" But the traveller goes
| down, and in the underground vaults Of
| Eilithya he finds painted on the wall all the
! process Of tending the vines and treading
| out the grapes 1t Is all there, famiIIarTy
! sketched by people who evidently knew all
| about it, and saw it all about them every
| day: and in those underground vaults there
are vases still incrusted with the settings OF
| the wine You see the vine did grow in
| Egypt, whether it grows there now or not.
Thus, you see that while God wrote the
Bible, at the same time He wrote this COM
mentary, that "the statutes of the Lord are
right" on leaves Of rock and she'll, bound IN
clasrs Of metal, and lying on mountain table
and in the jeweled vase Of the sea. In authen-
ticity and in genuineness the statutes Of the
Lord are right.
9. Again, the Bible is right in style. know
there are great many people who think it
is merely collection Of genealogical tables
and dry facts. That is because they do not
know how to read the book. You take the
most interesting novel that was ever written,
and il you commence at the four hundredth
page to-day, and tomorrow at the three
page, how much sens, or interest would you
get from iti Yet that is the very process
to which the Bible is subjected every day.
An angel from heaven reaiing 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 r,
go out Genesis is the door by which to go
in and Reve ations the door to 90 out.
The Epistlcs of Paul the Apo stle are merely
lotters written, folded up and sent by post
men to the different Churches. Do you read
other letters the way you read Pauls letters!
Suppose you get 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 first?
No. You begin with "Dear Sir" and end
with "Yours truly" Now, here is letter
written from the throne Of God to our lost
world it is full Of magnificent hopes and
propositions, and we dip in here and there,
and we know nothing about it. Besides that,
people read the Bible when they can not
do anything els,. 1t is a + >rk day and they
ness, and after lounging about bit they
pick up the Bible-their mind refuses to en-
Joy the truth Or they come home weary
from the store or shop, and they feel, if they
do not say, it is dull book. While the Bible
is to be read on stormy days and while your
heal aches, it is also to be read in the sum
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 grace.
am fascinated with the conciseness Of this
look. Every word is packed full Of truth.
L, cry sentence is double barreled. Every
paragraph is like an old banyan tree with a
hundred roots and hundred branches. 1t is
arch. mil ont St0na and 1t all
comes down. There has never been pearl
diver who could gather ~ one.half Of the
treasures in any verse. john flalsebach, OF
Vienna, for twenty one years every Sabbath
expounded to his congregation the first chap
ter of the Book of Isaiah, and yet did not get
through with it. Nine-tenths OF all the good
literature Of this age is merely tho Bible
diluted.
Goethe, the admired Of all skeptics, had the
wall of his house at Weinar covered with
religious maps and pictures. Milton's "Para-
disc Lost" is part Of the Bible in blank verse:
Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered" is borrowed
from the Bible. Sponsors writings are imi-
tations from the Parallels: John Bunyan saw
in dream only what Saint John hal seen
before in Apocalyptic vision. Maca1lay
crowns his most gigantic sentences with
Scripture quotations. Through Addison's
''Spectator'' there glances in and out the
stream that broke from the throne OF Col
clear as crystal. Walter SCOTS Rest
characters are Bible men and women
under different names, as Meg Merri-
lies. the Witch of Endor. Shakespeare's
Lady Macbeth was Je: ebel. Hobbies stole
from this Castle OF Truth the weapons with
which he afterward assaulted it. Lord Byron
caught the ruggedness and majesty of his
style from the prol hecies. The writings Of
Pope are saturated with Isaiah, and he finds
his most successful theme in the Messiah.
The poets Thompson and johnson dipped
their pens in the style OF the inspired Orien-
tortion of Ezekiel; and wandering through
the lanes and parks Of this imperial domain
Of Bible truth, find all the great American,
English, German, Spanish, Italian poets,
painters, orators and rhetoriciens.
Where is there in the world Of poetic de-
scription anything like Jobs champing,
neighing, paving, Lightning. footed thunder
necked war horses! Drydens, Millions, Cow
pers tempests are very tarte compared with
David's storm that wrecks the mountains Of
Lebanon and sh;vers the wilderness of
Kadish. Why, it seems as il to the feet of
these Bible writers the mountains brought all
tn ,ir gems. and the seas all their pearls, and
the gardens all their frankincsnse, aud the
spring all its blossoms, and the haryests all
eternity all its stupendous realities; and that
since then poets, and orators, and rhetoricians
have been drinking from exhausted foun-
tains, and searching for diamonds in realm
utterly rifled and ransacked.
This book is the hive of all sweetness. 1t
is the armory Of all welltemrered weapons.
1t is the tower containing the crown jewels
Of the universe. 1t is tho lamp that kindles
all other lights 1t is the home Of all maies.
ties and splendorS. 1t is the marriage ring
that unites the celestial and terrestrial. while
all the clustering white-robed denizens Of the
sky lowering around rejoice at the nuptials.
This book-it is the wreath into which are
twisted all garlands: it is the song into which
are struck all harmonies; it is the river into
which are poured all the great tides Of halle
lujah it is the armament in which suns and
moons, and stars and consultations, and uni
verse and eternities wheel and blaze and I'll,
uplph. Where is the young mans soul
Jacobs lament, or Nahum'S dirge, or Habak-
kuks dithyra,nbic, or Paul's march of the
resurrection, or Johns anthem where the el
ders with doxology on their faces respond to
the trunpet-blast Of the Archangel as he
stands with one foot on the sea and the other
foot on the land, swearing by Him that iv-
eth forever and ever that time shall be no
longer?
lam also amazed at the variety OF this
Book. Mind you, not contradiction or col
lision, but variety. Just as in the song you
have tho basso, and alto, and soprano, and
tenor-they are not in collision with each
other, but come in to make up the harmony.
So it is in this Book; there are different parts
of this great song Of redemption. The
prophet comes and takes one rart, and the
evangelist another part, and the apostle an
other part, and yet they all come into the
L - Nd fha