Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-08-11

by many others-Lieut. Lynch went out il
exploration and came to the Dead Sc;
which, by convulsion of nature, has over
flown the place where the cities once stood
He sank his fathoming line and brought III
from the bottom of the Dead Ssa grea
masses OF sulphur, remnants of that yer,
tempest that swept Sodom and Gomorral
to ruin. Who was right, the Bible tina
announced the destruction of those cities 0
the skeptics who for ages scoffed at it?
The Bible says theirs was city calle(
Nineveh, and that it was three days journe.
around it, and that it should be destroyed
by fire and water. 'SAbsurd," cried GU
hundreds of voices for many years; "ni
such city was ever built that it would taxi
three days journey to go around. Besides
it could not be destroyed by fire and water
they are antagonistic elements. But Lay
ard, Botta and Keith go out, and by thei
explorations they find that city of Nipeveh
and they tell US that by their own exp{ 5;1ncn
it is three days journey around adording
to the old estimate of days journey, ant
that it'was literally destroyed by fire ant
water-two antagonistic elements-a part O
the city having been inundated by the rivel
Tigris, the brick material in those times be
ing dried clay instead of burned, while ir
other parts they find the remains of fire
in heaps of charcoal that have been excava
ted, and in the calcined slabs of gypsum
Who was right, the Bible Or intidelity?
Moses intimated that they had vineyards
in Egypt "Absurd," cried hundreds ol
voices; "you can't raise grapes in Egypt,
or if you car, it is a very great exception
that you can raise them" But the travel
er goes down, and in the underground vaults
of Eilithya he finds painted on the walls all
the process of tending the vines and tread
ing out the grapes. 1t is all there, familiar
ly 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 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 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
tables and in the jewelled vase of the sea.
In authenticity and genuineness the statutes
Of the Lord are right.
II. Again: The Bible is right in style. I
know there are a great many people who
think it is merely a collection of genealogi-
cal tables and dry facts. That is because
they do not know how to read tie book.
You take up the most interesting novel that
was ever written, and if you commence at
the four hundredth page to- day, and to-mor-
row at the three hundredth, and the next
day at the first page. how much sense or in
terest would you get from it? Yet that is
the very process to which the Bible is sub
jected every day. An angel from heaven,
reading the Bible in that way, could not un-
derstand it. The Bible, like all other pal
aces, has a door by which to enter and a
door by which to go out. Genesis is the
door TO go in and Revelations 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. Do
you read other letters the way you read Paul S
letters? Suppose you get a business letter,
and you know that in it there are important
financial propositions you read the last
page first, and then one line of the third
page, and another of the second, and an
other of the first? No. You begin with
'Dear Sir" and end with "Yours truly"
Now, here is a letter written from the throne
Of God to our lost world; it is full of mag
nifcent hopes and propositions, and we dip
in here and there, and we know nothing
about it. Besides that, people read the
Bible when they cannot do anything else.
It is dark day, and they do not feel well,
and they do not go to business, and after
|ounging about bit they pick up the Bible
their mind refuses to enjoy the truth. Or
hey 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
IN stormy days and while your head aches,
t is also to be read in the sunshine and
when your nerves, like harp strings, thrum
he song of health. While your vision is
lear, walk in this paradise Of truth, and
while your mental appetite is good, pluck
hese clusters of grace.
am fascinated with the conciseness of
his book. Every word is packed full of
ruth. Every sentence is double -barrelled.
Every paragraph is like an old banyan tree
With hundred roots and hundred branch
S. 1t is great arch; pull out one stone
I'D it all comes down. There has never
'een pearl diver who could gather up one
alf of the treasures in any verse. John
Ialsebach. of Vienna, for twenty years
very Sabbath expouEded to his congrega-
ion the first chapter of the book Of Isaiah,
nd yet did not get through with it. Nine
ouUuS Ol dill luC SUOu liISTilutc VI tDlS age
S merely the Bible diluted.
Goethe, the admired of all skeptics, had
he wall of his house at Weimar covered
With religious maps and pictures. Millions
Paradise Lost is part of the Bible in
'lank verse. Tasso's "Jarusalem Deliver
d'' is borrowed from the Bible. Spenser's
writings are limitations Of the parallels.
ohm Bunyan saw in dream only what
T1l,x l1oPc
sion. Macaulay crowns his most gigan-
ic sentences with Scripture quotations.
through Addison's Spectator there
.lances in and out the stream that broke
rom the throne of God clear as crystal.
Walter Scott's best characters are Bible men
nd women under different names, as Meg
Ierrilies, the witch of Endor. Shake
peare's Lady Macbeth was Jezebel.
Hobbies stole from this Castle of Truth the
Weapons with which he afterwards assault
d it. Lord Byron caught the ruggedness
nd majesty of his style from the prophecies.
Fhe writings of Pope are saturated with
saiah, and ne finds his most successful
heme in the Messiah. The poets Thomson
nd Johnson dipped their pens in the style
# the inspired Orientals. Thomas Carlyle
$ only splendid distortion of Ezekiel;
uG WduuGIluS GUEOuSu tUC lducS dQu PARKS
# this imperial domain of Bible truth, I
ind all the great American, English, Ger
nan, Spanish, italian poets, painters, ora
ors and rhetoricians.
Where is there in the world of poetic de-
cription anything like Jobs champing,
eighing, paving, lightning footed, thun-
ler-necked war horse? Dryden's Milton's,
Jowper's tempests are very tame compared
With David's storm that wrecks the noun
aims of Lebanon and shivers the wilderness
# Kadish. Why, it seems as if to the feet
# these Bible writers mountains brought
ii their gems, and the seas all their pearls,
md the gardens all their frankincense, and
he spring all its blossoms, and the harvests
IL their wealth, and heaven all it's grandeur,
nd eternity all its stupendous realities ;and
hat since then poets, and orators, and
hetoricians have been drinking from ex-
lausted fountains, and searching for dia-
nonds in arealm utterly rif1ed and ransack-
ID.
This book is the hive of all sweetness. 1t
s the armory of all well tempered weapons.
t is the tower containing the crown jewels
# the universe. 1t is the lamp that kim
lies all other lights 1t is the home of all
najesties and splendors. 1t is the marriage
ing that unites the celestial and the terres-
rial, while all the clustering white-robed
II L I