Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-08-02


street in that city six miles long, where
once flashed imperial pomp and which
echoed with the laughter of hght-hearted
mirth on its way to the theatre. On tenn
pies fashioned out of colored stOnes-some
of which have blushed into the crimson OF
tire rose, and some of which have paled
into the whiteness of the lily-aye, on col
umn, and pediment, and entabulature and
statuary, God writes the truth OF that
Bible.
The Bible says that
sODOM AND GOMORRAH
were DESTROYED by fire and birthstone.
absurd" infidels year after year said;
lit is positively absurd that they could
have been destroyed by birthstone. There
is nothing in the elements to cause such a
shower of death rs that" Lieut. Lynch
think he was the first man who went out
on the discovery, but he has been followed
by many others--Lieut. Lynch went out
in exploration and came to the Dead Sea,
which, by cOnvulsiOn Of nature, has over
flown the place where the cities once stood.
He sank his iathOming line and brought
up from the bottom of the Dead Sea great
masses of sulphur, remnants of that very
tempest that swept SOdOm and GOmorrah
to ruin. Who was right, the Bible that
announced the destruction of these cities
or the Skeptics who for ages scoffed at 1t:
The Bible says there was a city called
Nineveh, and that it was three days jour
ney around it, and that it should be de-
stroyed by fire and water.
= 4 l,,., l. Nk'N
for many years mo such city was ever
built that it would take three days jour
ney to 90 around Besides, it could not be
DESTROYED bv fire and water. 'Theyare an
tagonistic elements. But Layard, Botta
and Keith 90 out and by their explorations
they find the city of Nineva, and they tell
us that by their own experience 1t is three
days journey around, according to the old
estimate of Il days journey, and that 1t
was literally destroyed by fire and water
two antOgOniStic elemcntS-a part Of the
city having been inundated by the river
Tigris, the brick material in those times
being dried clay, instead of burned, while
in other parts they find the remains OF the
fire in heaps of charcoal that have been eX-
cavated, and in the Calcinod slabs OF
gypsum. Who was right the Bible or in
fidelity?
Moses intimatcS that they had
VINEYARDS IN EGYPT.
Absurd" 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" Hut the traveller goes down
and in the underground vaults of Eillthya
he finds painted on the wall all the pro
cess of tending the vines and treading out
the grapes. 1t is all there, tamiliarly
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 cncrusted with
the settings of the wine You see the vine
did grow in Egypt, whether it grows there
now or not.
Thus vou see that while God wrote the
Bible, at the same time he wrote this COM
mcntary, that "the statutes of the Lord
are right" on leaves of rock and shell,
bound in clasps Of metal, and lying on
mountain tables and in the jeweled vase
of the sea. In authenticity and in genu-
inencsS the statutes of the Lord are right.
III. Again: The Bible is right in style.
| know there are great many people who
think it is merely collection of gcncOlOg-
ical tables and dry facts. That is because
they do not know how to read the book.
You take up the most interesting novel that
was ever written, and if you commence at
the four hundredth page to-day, and to-
morrow at the three hundredth, and the
4 ~ =. iV,t how Inntl SplSp
or interest would you get from 1t? Yet
that is the very process to which the Bible
is 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 50 out
Genesis is the door to go in and Revelation
the door to 20 out.
These epiStleS of Paul the Apostle are
MERELY LETTERS WRITTEN,
folded up and sent by postmcn to the diff
fcrent churches. DO you read other let
ters the way you read Paul's letterS?' Sup
pose YOU yet 4 business letter, and you
know that in it there are important tnan-
cial propositions, do you read the last page
first and then one line of the third page
aud another of the second and auOehcr of
the first? No You begin with Dear Sir
and end with "YOurS truly Now, here
is Il 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 1t.
Besides that people read the Bible when
they cannot do anything else. 1t is dark
day. and they do not feel well, and they
do not 90 to business, and after lOunging
abOut 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, it they do not say, it
is dull book. While the Bible Is
to be read on stormy days and
while your head aches, it is also to be read
in the sunshine and when your nerves like
harp strings thrm 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 book Every word is packed full of
truth. Every sentence is double barrelled.
Every paragraph is like an old banyan
tree with hundred roots and hundred
branches. 1t is a great arch; pull out one
stone and all comes down. There has new
er been pearl diver who could gather up
one half of the treasures in any verse. John
Halsebach. of Vienna, for twenty-One years
every Sabbath expOunded to his cOngregl-
ton the first chapter 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 the Bible diluted.
GOETHE,
the admirer of all skepticS, had the wall
of his house at Weimar covered with re-
ligiouS maps and pictures. Milton's
Paradise Lost is part of the Bible IN
blank verse. TaSSO's Jerusalem De
livered" is borrowed from the Bible
Spencer's writings are limitations of the
parallels John Bunyan saw in dream
only what Saint John had seen before IN
ApOcalyptic vision Macauley crowns his
most gigantic sentences with Scripture
quotations. Through AddiSOn's ''Specta-
tor" there glanceS in and out the stream
that broke from the throne of God clear
as crystal. Walter Scott's best characters