The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-09-07

fire and water. absurd" cried out hun
dreds of voices for many years; no city
S %ss ever ieprn Sg3lt tt that at it sro mould R ssse three e
could not be destroyed by lre and water;
they are a~ntagonistic elements" But Lay.
ard; Botta and Keith go out, and by their
and they tell us that by they own expert.
ment it is three days journey around, ac-
cording to the old estimate of a days jour
ney, and that it was literally destroyed by
hre and water-two antagonistic elements
Q 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 nave been
excavated, and in the calcined slabs of
sseiIiaTi VINO was right the Bible or IN
Moses intimsted that they had vineyards
In Egypt. Absurd" cried hundreds of
voices; you can't raise grapes in Egypt: or,
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 treadin2
out the grapes. 1t is all there, familiarlv
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 lncrusted 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, ct the same time He wrote this COM
mentary, that "the statutes of the Lord are
right" on leaves Of rock and shell, bound in
clasps Of metal, and lying on mountain table
and in the ieweled vase of the sea. In authen-
tlclty and in genuinenesS the statutes of the
Lord are right.
2. Again, the Bible is right in style. know
there are a great many people who think it
is merely n 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 If you commence at the four hundredth
page today, and tomorrow ut the three
aundredth, and tt next day ut the first
page, how much sens, or interest would you
get from it, 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 ali other palaces, has q door by
which to enter and q 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 tile are merely
letters written, folded up and sent by post
men to the different Churches. Do you read
other letters the way you read Paurs letters,
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 first,
with "Yours truly" Now. here is q letter
written from the throne of God to our lost
world: 1t is full of magnificent hopes and
propositions, and we dip in here and there,
people read the Bible when they can not
do anything else. 1t is a dark day aud they
do not feel we'll, and they do not go to bust
ness :, ana aha aver Rih,a louthhg;ng ABOUT q OF they
joy the truth. Or they come homo weary
from the store or shop. and thew feel, If they
do not say, it is a dull book While the Bible
is to be read on stormy days and while your
| hon oo1,oo ~ &c olcO 70 ha ~oal g. -,,-
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 appetiteis 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
paragraph is like an old banvan tree with a
hundred roots aud a hundred branches. 1t is
a great arch; pull oat one stone and it all
comes down. There has never been a pearl
diver who could gather up one halt Of the
treasures in any Verse. John Halsebaeh, OF
VIENNA, for WENT one years every Sabbath
expounded to his congregation the first chap
ter of the Book of Isaiah, aud yet aid 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 of his house at Weimar covered with
religious maps and pictures. Milton's para
disc Lost" is part of the Bible in blank verse.
- ID
from the Bible. Sponsors writings are imi-
~tations from the Parallels. John Bunyan saw
In a dream only what Saint Suhn had seen
before in Apocalyptic vision. Macaulay
Scripture quotations; Through Addison's
! Spectator" there g~lances in and out the
stream that broke from the throne of God
c clear as crystal ayn h,n,e Walter m ! scGtt's bet
under different names. as Meg Merri-
lies, the Witch of Endor. Shakespeare's
Lady Macbeth was JeTebeL Hobbies stole
from this Castle OF Truth the weapons with
which he afterward assaulted it. Lord Byron
caught the ru%ggedness and majesty of his
style from the prophecies. The writings of
Pope ara 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
English, German, Spanish, Italian poets,
painters, orators and rhetoricians.
Where is there in the world of poetic do
scription anything Xix Jobs champing,
necked war horses! Dryden's, Millions, Cow
per's tempests are very tame compared with
Davfd's storm that wrecks the mountains OF
Lebanon and shivers the wilderness of
kadlsh. why, 1t seems as Il to the feet of
these Bible writers the mountains brought all.
heir gems. and the seas all their pearls, and
tho gardens all their frankincense, and the
spring all its blossoms, and the harvests ali
their wealth, and heaven all its grandeur, and
eternity all its stupcndous realities: and that
since then poets, and orators, and rhetoricians
have been drinking from exhausted foun.
tains. and searching for diamonds in q realm
utterly ri1ed and ransacked.
This book is tho hive of all sweetness. It
Us the :armory OF all well-tempered weapons.
It is the tower containing the crown Jewels
Of the universe. 1t is the lamp that Eindles
al other lights. 1t is the home of all m7 les
ties and splendors. 1t is the marriage ring
| that uniteS the celestial and terrastrisj ,vb ;lo