The Bossier banner., 1886-09-02
echoed with the laughter of light-hearted
,,,;,sh ON fts yyav to ths thea ters. On tenn.

of which have hlushed into the crimson OF
the rose, and some of which have paled
into the whiteness of the Hly-aye. on col
umn, and peiiment, and entablature, and
statuary, God writes the truth of thst
Bible.
The Bible says that Sodom and Gomor-
rab were destroyed by fire aud birthstone.
eAbsurd - infidels year after year said;
sit is positively absurd that they could
have been destroyed by birthstone. There
is nothing in the elements to cause such y
shower of death as that" Lieutenant
Lynch-l think he was the first man who
went out OH 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 overaown 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 Gonorrah to ruin. Who
was right, the Bible that announced the
destruction of those cities or the skeptics
who for ages scoffed at il:
Moses intimated that they had vine-
yards in Egypt absurd" cried hun
dreds of voices; you can't raise grapes in
Egypt; or, if you can, it is very great
exception that you can raise them" But
the traveller goes down, aud in the under
ground vaults of Eilithyn he finds painted
on the wall all the process of tending tue
vines and treading out the grapes. 1t is
all there, familiarly sketched by people
who evidently knew all about it, and saw
it all al out them every day: and in those
underground vaults there are VASES still
encrused 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
4 right. s. ss~~ ~--s r~'
| 2. Again, the Bible is right in style.
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 four hundreylth page to-
day, and Tomorrow at the three hun
| dredth, AMI the next day at the first, how
! much sense or interest would you gel
| from ii? Yet Il, at is the very process to
which the Bible is sui jected every day. An
| tla Ia /.
that way, could not un9orstand it. The
Bible, like all other palaces, has a door by
| which to enter and door by which to &c
out. Genesis is the door to so in and Rev
elation the door to go out.
These epistlcs of Paul the Apostle are
merely letters written, folded up and sem
by postmen to the different churches. Dc
you read other letters the way you read
Paul's lctters. Suppose you get bust.
ness letior, and you know that in it there
are important financial propositions, dc
you read the last ge first and then one
line Of the third page, aud another of the
second, and another of the first? No
You begin with "Dear Sir" and end with
"Yours truly" Now, here is letter
written from the throne of God to our lost
world; it is full of ma gnificsnt 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 elsc 1t is :
dark day. and they do not feel well, anC
they do not go to business, and after
lounging about a bit they pick up tn.
Bible-ther mind refuses to enjoy tn,
frrrkt n H.
the store OF shop, and they feel, il they de-
not say, it is dull book. While the Bibl,
is to be read on stormy days and while
your head aches, it is also to be read in tb,
sunshine ani when your nerves like harp
strings thruM the song OF health. Will,
your vision is clear, walk in this paradis,
of truth, and while your mental appetit,
in good, pluck these clusters of grace.
am fascinated with the conciseness o
this book. Every word is packed full o
truth. Every sentence is double-harreled
Every sentence is like ON old banyan tre'
with a hundred roots and a hundred
branches. 1t is great arch; pull out on,
stone and it all comes down. There ha
never been pearl diver who could gather
up one-half Of the treasures i'm any verse
John Halsebach, of Vienna, for twenty.
one years every Sabbath expoumled to hi
congregation the first chapter OF the Bool
of Isaiah, and yet did not get through
with it. Nineteenth of all the good lit
era ture Of this age is merely the Bibl
diluted.
4 Where is there in the world of poetic de
scription anything like Job's champins
neighing, paving, lightning footed, thun
der-necked war horse? DryIen's, Milton's
Cowper's tempests are very tame com
pared with David's storm that wrecke,
the mountains of Lebanon and sbivere
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 harvests all their wealth
and Heaven oil its grandeur, and eternit,
all its stupendous realities, and that sine
then poets and orators and rhetoricia n
have been drinking from exhausted foun
tains, and searching for diamonds in
! realm utterly rifled and ransacked.
lam also amazed at the variety of tn
book. Mind you, not contradiction o
collision, but variety. Just as in The SON
| YOU have the haSSo and alto and sonro :,