Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-08-28

| aw, and Christ at the well, and Christ at tho
| cross, so that any little child can understand
them. Then God knew that the aged people
would want to read the book, SO He allows
Solomon to compact world Of wisdom in
that Book Of Proverbs. God knew that the
| historian would want to read it, and SO he
allows Moses to give the plain statement Of
| the Pentateuch. God knew that the poet
would want to read it, and so he allows
Job to picture the Heavens as a curtain,
and Isaiah, the mountains as weighed in
| balance, and the waters as held in the
hollow of the Omnipotent hand ; and God
louched David until in the latter part Of
| ;he Psalms he gathered a great choir
standing in the galleries above each other
beast and man in the first gallery above them,
nils and mountains: above them, fire and
nail and tempest; shove them. sun and
moon and stars of light; and on the highest
| gallery arrays the hosts of angels; and
then standing before the great choir, reach
ing from the depths of earth to the heights
| If Heaven, like the leader of great orches-
ira, he lifts his hands, crying: "Praise We the
LordI Let everything that hath breath praise
the Lord! And all earthly creatures in
their songs, and mountains with their waving
eedars, and tempests in their thunder, and
rafting hail, and stars on all their trembling
harps OF light, and angels on their thrones,
respond in magnificent acclaim: Praise We
the Lord! Let every thing that hath breath
praise the Lord"
God knew that the pensive and complain
ing world would want to read it, and SO he
| inspires Jeremiah to write: 'Oh that my
head were waters and mine eyes fountains Of
tearsp God knew that the lovers of the
| wild. the romantic and the strange would
want to read it, so He let's Ezekiel write of
mysterious rolls and winged creatures and
| flying wheels of fire. God prepared it for all
zone6-for the Arctic and Tropic as well as
| for tho III od
Greenlanders would find much TO interest
them, and the tanned inhabitants at the
| Equator would find his passionate nature
boil with the vehemence of Heavenly truth.
i The Arabian would read it on his drome-
dairy, and the Laplander seated on the swift
sled, and the herdsman of Holland guarding
the cattle in the grass, and the Swiss girl re-
Ginning amid ALPINE crags. o, when 1 see
that the Bible is suited in stvle exactly
suited, to all ages, to all conditions, to all
lands, can not help repeating the conclusion
Of my text: 1.-THE statutes of the Lord are
right"
3. remark again: The Bible is right in its
doctrines. Man. sinner; Christ, savior
the two doctrines Man must come down.
his pride, his self-righteousness. his worldIi-
ness; Christ. the Amounted. must go uu. fit
had not been for the setting forth of the
Atonement Moses would never have de-
scribed the Creation; prophets would not
have predicted; apostles would not have
preached II seems to me as if Jesus and
the Bible were standing on platform in a
great amphitheater. as if the prophets
were behind Him throwing light for
ward on His sacred person, and as if
the apostles and evangelists stool before Him
like footlights throwing up their light into
His blessed countenance, and then as if all
the earth and heaven were the applauding
auditory, the Bible speaks of Pisgah and
CQrn1al and Sinai bI1tt notyo oil inc
bow down to Calvary. The fiocks led over thu
Judean hills were emblems OF 'the Lamb Of
God that taketh away the sins of the world"
and the lion leaping out of its lair, was
an emblem of ''the lion of Judahs tribe"
l will in my next breath recite to you the
most wonderful sentence ever written:
'tThis is a faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation. that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners" No wonder that
when Jesus was born in Bethlehem Heaven
| sympathized with earth. and a wave of joy
dashed clear over the battlements and dripped
upon the shepherds in the words: "Glory to
Gcd IN the highest, and on earth peace good
will toward men, my next sent nce every
word weighs ton: "God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son. that
whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish. but have everlasting life" Show me
any other book with such doctrine-so high,
so deep. so vast,
4. Again: the Bible is right in its effects I
do not care where you put the Bible, it just
suits the place. You pat it in the hand of a
man seriously concerned about his soul / see
people often giving to the serious soul this
and that book. 1t may very well; but there
is no book like the Bible He reads the Com
mandments. aud pleads to the Indictment
Guilty. He takes up the Psalms of David,
and SAYS: "They just describe my feel
| ings." He flies to good works; Paul starts
him out of that by the announcement IA
man Is not justified by works" He falls
back in his encouragement: the Bible starts
him no with the sentences: Remember
Lots wife, a"Grieve not the Spirit" "Flee
the Wrath to Come.n Then the man in de-
spair begins to cry out: "What shall l doc
Where shall goi" and voice reaches him
saying: "Come unto me, all We who are
weary and heavy laden, and l will give you
rest
Take this Bible and place it in the hands Of
men in trouble! Is there anybody here in
troubled All, might better ask are there
any here who have never been in trouble!
Put this Bible in the hands of the troubled.
You find that as some of the best berries
grow on the sharpsst thorns. so some of the
sweetest consultations of the gosDel grow on
the most singing affection. You thought
that death had graspe1 your child. Oh, MOI
lamb out of the cold. Christ bent over you
as you held the child in your lap and putting
His arms gently around the little one, said:
"Of such is the kingdom of heaven"
Put the Bible in the school Palsied be the
hand that would take the Bible from the coll
lege aud the school, Educate only mans
head and you make him an infidel. Educate
only a mans heart and you make him d
fanatic. Educate them both together, aud
YOU have the n1blest work of God. An edu-
Gated mind without moral principle, is a ship
without helm, rushing rail train without
brakes or reversing rod to control the speed.
Put the Bible in the family. There it lies on the
table. an unlimited power. Polygamy and
unscriptural divorce are prohibited Parents
are kind and faithful, children polite and
o5edient. Domestic sorrows lessened by be-
ing divided. joys increased by being multi
piled. Oh father. oh m1ther. take down that
long-neglected Bible and read it yourselves
and let your children read it, Put the Bible
on the rail-train and on shipb oard, till all
parts of this lan1 and all other lands shall
have its illumination. This hour there rises
the yell of heather worship. and in the face
of this days sun smokes the blood of human
sacrifice. Give them the Bible. Unbind that
wife from the funeral prye, for no other sac
rifce is needed since the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanseth from all sin.
lam preaching this sermon because there
are so many who would have you believe that
the Bible is an outlandish book and obsolete.
1t is fresher and more intense than any book
that yesterday came out of the great publish
ing houses. Make it your guide in life and