The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-08-18
echoed With tho laughts, of lisht.aeartsd

OF WHICH nave DiubuCu tutO tuc cIluVou Vi
the rose, and some of which have paled
into the whiteness OF the lily-sye, ON col.
umn, and psdiment. and sntablature, and
statuary, God writes the truth of that
Bible.
The Bible says that Sodom and Gomor.
rah were destroyed by fire and birthstone.
"Absurd," infdels year after year said;
cit is positively absurd that they could
have been destroy ed by birthstone There
is nothing in the elements to cause such a
shower of death as that" Lieutenant
Lyncli-l think he was the first man who
went out on the discovery, but he has been
followed by many others-Lieutenant
Lynch went Out in exploration and came
to the Dead Sea, which, by CONFUSION
OF nature, has overfown the place where
the cities once stood. He sank the faith.
oming line and brought up from the bot.
tom OF the Dead Sea great masses of sui.
phur, remnants Of that very tempest that
swept Sodom and Gomorrsh to ruin. Who
was right, the Bible that announced the
destruction of those cities or the skeptics
who for ages scoffed 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 very great
exception that you can raise them" But
the traveller goes down, and In the under.
ground 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, Familiarity sketched by people
who evidently knew all about it, and saw
it all about thom every day: and in those
underground vaults there are vases still
encrusted 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
commentary, that "the statues 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
genuineness, the statutes of the Lord are
right
g Again, the Bible is right in style. l
know there are great many people who
think it 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 if you
commence at the ur.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 gel
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 all other palaces, has door by
which to enter and a door by which to &C
out. Genesis is the door to go 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. Dc
you read other letters the way you read
Paul's letters! Suppose you get bust.
ness letter, and you know that in it there
are important financial propositions, dc
you read the last page first and then one
line of the third page, and another of the
second, and another of the first? No
You begi in with "Dear Sir" and end with
"Yours truly" Now, here is letter
written from the throne Of God to our lost
world; IL 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 wher
they can not do anything else. II is q
dark day. and they do not feel WE'LL and
they do not go to business, and after
longing about a 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 dt
not say it is dull book. While the Bible
is to be read on stormy days and Will,
| your head aches, it is also to be read in the
sunshine and when your nerves like harp
strings thrum the song OF health. While
| your vision is clear, walk in this paradise
| of ruth, and while your mental appetite
is good, pluck these clusters of grace.
lam fascinated with the conciseness OIL
this book. Every word is packed full o.
| truth. Every sentence is double-harreled
| Every sentence is like an old banyan tree
with hundred roots and q hundred
branches 1t is a great arch; pull out one
stone and it all comes down. There has
never 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 hi
cons regation the first chapter OF the Bool
| of Isaiah, and yet did not get through
with it. Nine.tenths of all the good lit,
era ture of this age is merely the Bibl
| diluted.
Where is there in the world of poetic de
scription anything like Jobs champing
neighing, paving, lightning. footed, thun
der necked war horse? Dryden's, Millions
Cowper's teinpests are very tame com
| pared with David's storm that wrecked
| the noun tains OF Lebanon and shiveret
the wilderness of Kadish. Why, it seems a
| il to the feet Of these Bible writers noun
tains brought all their gems, and the sea.
all their pearls, and the gardens all thei
frankincenses, and the spring all its bios
SONS, and the harvess all their wealth
and Heaven all its grandeur, and eternity
all its stupendous realities, and that sine,
tnen poets and orators and rhetorician
have been drinking from exhausted foun
tains, and searching for diamonds in
realm utterly rified and ransacked.
am also amazed at the variety Of thi
book. Mind you, not contradiction o
collision, but variety. Just as in the son,
you have the basso and alto and sopran,
and tenor-they are not in collision wit
each other, but come in to make up tn
harmony-so 1t is in this great book; ther
are different parts of this great song o
redemption. The prophet comes and take
one part, and the patriarch another part
and the evangelist another part, and tn