St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-08-21

followed Dy many OJueTS-Ateu1ou1ne
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
tam Of the Dead Sea great masses of sui
phur, remnants of that very tempest that
swept Sodom and Gomorrah to ruin. Who
was right, the Bible that announced the
destruction of those cities or the skeptics
who for ages scoffed at it?
Moses intimated that they had vine
yards in Egypt. absurd" cried hum
dreds of voices; you can't raise grapes in
Egypt; or, il you can, it is a very great
exception tl4t 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 1t, and saw
it all about them 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
eenuineness, the statutes of the Lord are
right.
2. Again, the Bible is right in style. /
know there are great many people who
think it is merely a 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 four -hundredth page to-
day, and tomorrow at the three.hun.
dredth, and the next day at the first, how
much sense or interest would you get
from it? Yet that is the very process to
which the Bible is subjected every day. An
angel frop- 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 go
out. Genesis is the door to go in and Rev
citation the door to 60 out
These epistles of Paul the Apostle are
merely letters written, folded up and sent
by postmen to the different churches. Do
you read other letters the way you read
PauPs letters? Suppose you get BUSH
ness 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 another of the
second, and another of the firsts No.
You begin with "Dear Sir" and end with
Ssvo frulx 10 1attar
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 it. Be-
sides that, people read the Bible when
they can not do any thing else. It is q
dark day. and they do not feel well, and
they do not go 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, if 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 thrum the song of health. While
your vision is clear, walk in this paradise
of truth, and while your mental appetite
ia good, pluck these clusters of grace.
lam fascinated with the conciseness of
this book. Every word is packed full of
truth. Every sentence is double-barreled.
Every sentence is like an old banyan tree
with a hundred roots and hundred
branches. 1t is 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 Halsebaeh, of Vienna, for twenty.
one years every Sabbath expounded to his
congregation the first chapter of the Book
Of Isaiah, and yet did not get through
with it. Nine tenths Of all the good lit
erature Of this age is merely the Bible
diluted.
/ am also amazed at the variety of this
book. Mind you, not contradiction or
collision, but variety. just as in the song
you have the basso and alto and soprano
and tenor-they are not in collision with
each other, but come in to make up the
harmony-so it is in this great book; there
are different parts of this great song of
redemption. The prophet comes and takes
one part, and the patriarch another part,
and the evangelist another part, and the
disciples another part, and yet they all
come into the grand harmony-"the song
of Moses and the Lamb, If God had in
spired men of the same temperament to
write this book it might have been monot-
onous; but David and Isaiah, and Peter
and Job, and Ezekial, and John were men
Of different temperaments, and so, when
God inspired them to write, they wrote in
their own style.
God prepared the book for all classes Of
people. For instance, little children
uouId rood tho R;bla and God brou fbot.