Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-08-20

fire and water. Absurd cried ont hun
dreds OF voices for many years; no city
was ever built that it would take three
DAYS Journey. to go around. Besides, it
could not be destroyed by fire and water:
they are antagon!stic elements" But Law.
ara, Botta and Keith go out, and by their
explorations they find that city of Ninoveb
and they tel US that by they own eyperi.
ment 1t is three days Journey around. ac.
cord'ng TO the old estimate of a davis iour.
ney, and that it was literally DESTROYED by
hre and water-twO autagonistic elements .
a part of the city having been inundated by
tne River Ifgris, the brick material in those
Fines eeing dried clay instea of burn ID.
Fhlle ID other parts they find the remains of
the fire N heaps of charcoal that have been
excavated, and in the calcinad slabs of
gynsum. Who was right, the Bible or in
fIellyi
Moses iutim 1tsd that thev had vin77ard,
in Egyrt. absurd" cried hundreds of
voices; you can't raise grapes in Egypt: or,
II You can, it is very great exception that
you can rajse them" But the Traveller goes
down, AMI in the underground vaulss of
Ell thya he finds painted on the wall all tho
process Of tending the vines and treading
out the grapes It is all there ramItra "
sketched by Teople who evidently knew all
about il. and saw it all about them every
day: and in those underground vaults thera
are va 'es still incruste with the settings Of
the wine. You ses the viCe did grow in
Egypt, whether 1t crows there now or not.
Taus, ynI see. that while God wrote tine
Bible, at the sams time He wrote this com
mentlry, that "the statutes Of the Lord a'e
right, on leave7 OF rock and shell, boun1 II
class of metal, and lying on noun ain table
and in the ieweed vase of the sea- L anthem
ticty and in genuineless the statutes of the
Lord are right
2. Again, the Bible is right in style know
there a-e great many people who think it
Is merely collection OF genealogical tables
and dry fats. That is because they do not
know how to read thu 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
hundredth and the next day at the first
page, how much sens, or interest would you
set from it, Yet that is the very process
to which the Bible is subjected every dRv.
An angel from heaven rea ling the Bible in
that way could not understand it, The
Bible, Ike all other palaces has door by
which TO enter and door bv which to
go out. Genesis is the door by which to go
in and Reve ations the door to go out
The Epistles of Paul the Apo tie are merely
letters written, folded up and sent by post
men to the d fferent Churches. Do you read
other letters the way you read Pauls lettersi
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 first2
No. You begin with Dear Sir" and end
with "Yours truly Now. here is a letter
written from the throne of God t. our lost
world: it is full of magnificent hoDes 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 else. 1t is dark day and they
do not feel WELL and they do not go to busi-
ness, and after lounging about bit they
pick uD the Bible-their mind refuses to en-
Joy the truth. Cr they come home weary
from the store or shop, and thew feel, il thy
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 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 gra7e.
am fascinated with the conciSeness of this
took. Every word is packed full of truth.
Every sentence is double barreled Every
paragraph is like an old banyan tree with a
hundred roots and a hundred branches. 1t is
great arch; pull out one stone and it all
comes down. There has never been pearl
diver who could gather no one half of the
treasures in any verse. John Halsehach, of
Vienna, for twenty one years every Sabbath
expolnded to his congregation the first chap
ter of the Book of Isaiah, and yet d not get
through with it. Nine-tenths OF all the good
literature of this age is merely the Bible
diluted.
Gosthe, the admired of all skeptics, had the
wall Of his house at Weimar covered with
religious maps and pictures. Milton's para
disc Lostn is part of the Billie in blank verse,
Tassos Jerusalem Delivered is borrowed
from the Bible. Sponsors writings are im-
3l,aD
in dream only what Saint John hal soen
before i'll Apocalyptic vision. Macaulay
crowns his most gigantic sentences with
Scripture quotations Through Adds
Spectator there elances in and out the
stream that broke from the throne o. Col
clear as crystal. Walter Scots lie t
characters are Bible men and women
uIder 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 rugge1nesS and majesty of his
style from the proT 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-
tai. Thomas Carlyle is only a splendid dis
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 rhetoric'an5
Where is there in the world Of poetic de-
scriDtion anything like Jobs champing,
neghing, paving, lightning thunder
pecked war horses2 Drydens, Millions, Cow
per's tempests are very tame compared with
David's storm that wrecks the mountains of
Lebanon and shvers the wilderness of
Kadish Why, it seems as if to the feet of
pih1a t,a OF all
tn eir gems, and the seas all their pearls, AMI
the gardens all Their frankncense, and The
spring all its blossoms, and the harvests all
their wealth, and heaven all its grandeur, and
eternity all its stupendous realities; an | that
since then poets, and orators, and lhetOricians
have been drinking from exhausted foun-
tains, and searching for diamonds in realm
utterly rif9d and ransacked.
This book is the hive of all sweetness. 1t
is the arrnory of all well-tenPerel weapons.
1t is the tower containing the crown Jewels
of the universe. 1t is the lamp that kindles
all other lights. 1t is the home of all ma ies-
ties and splendors 1t is the marriage ring
chat unites the celestial and terrestrial, while
all the clustering white -robed denizens of the
sky lowering around rejoice at the nu otials.
This book-.t is the wreath into which are
twisted all garlauds: it is the song into which
are struck all harmonies; it is the river into
which are poured all the great tides of halle
luiah; it is the armament in which suns aud
moons, aud stars and consultations, and uni
verse and eternities wheel ami biaze and j.
umph. Where is the yo 'ng mans soul
with any music in it that is not stirred with
Jacobs lament, or Nahum's dirge, or Habak-
luks dithyrambic, or Pauls march of the
resurre 'tion, or Johns anthem where the el-
ders with doxology on their faces respond to
the trumpet-blast of the Ar,hangel as he
stands with one foot on the sea and the other
foot on the land swearing by Him that liv-
eth forever and ever that time sha be no
longer'
am also amazed at the variety Of this
Book. Mind you, not contradiction or col
lision, but variety. just al in the song YOU