The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-05-05
DR. RALhAGE'S SERMON,
LAUGHTER OF THE BIBLE.

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Text: "Then was our mouth filed with
laughter. Psalm, cxxvi., 2. He that
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. Psalm
Thirty eight times in the Bible is reference
made to this coniguration Of features and
quick expulsion of breath which we call
laughter. Sometimes it is born of the sun
shine and sometimes of the midnight. Some
times it .stirs the sympathies Of angels and
All healthy people laugh. Whether it please'
or displeases God depends upon when welaugh
and at what we laugh. propose this morn
Jug to speak to you on the laughter of the
Bible, namely, Sarah's laugh, or the laugh OF
scepticism; David's laugh, or that of spirit
ual exultation; the FOOLS laugh, or that of
sinful Inerriment: Gods laugh. or that of
of eternal triumph. Scene: An oriental
tent; the occupants, old Abraham and Sarah,
probably wrinkled and decrepit. Three
Suests, one of them the Lord Almighty To
fepay these old people for their hospitality.
God promises Sarah that she shall be the an
cestress of the Lord Jesus Christ. She laughs
in Gods face. She does not believe it. At
did not laugh. Then God retorts with an
emphasis that silences all discussion: "but
thou didst laugh" And that sceptical laugh
of Sarah's has had its echo in the scepticiSm
Of all the ages Gcd says He will ac-
complish a certain thing. People say:
"I don't believe it can be done: don't be-
ieve it will be done" People laugh at the
miracles. They say ''the miracles are con-
thew are impossible" What is a law
of nature? 1t is only Gods way of
So'ng to New 'nEo York anA on the bridge. Hdg To
morrow you decide to 60 by Wall Street
ferry. You formed your habit; you have
q right to change your habit. or
dinarily enter the church by this
door Cndicating.) Next Sabbath morning
Imight enter it by that door dndicatingl. I
formed my habit. I have right to change
His way ofdoing things. If He has arightto
form the habit He has right to change
it whenever he chooses to change it. It is an
awful thing for us to laugh back in the face
of God, and say: "You can't do what You
said You would do" or, You won't do it."
God says the Bible is true. it is all true.
Bishop colenso laughs. Herbert al?s, Spencer
some Of the German universities
laugh, Harvard laughs softly, some
of the American institutions with long rows
of professors seated on the fence between
Christianity and infdelity, laugh softly.
They say they did not laugh. All, that is
Sarah's old trickl For God thunders from
the Heavens, "thou didst laugh" The Gar
den Of Eden was only fable. Noah's ark
was an impossibiity for it could not have
held two Of each kind. The pillar of fire by
night was only the northern lights" Jacobs
clouds. The sea. parted only because the
wind blew great while from one direction,
violently, and the sea could not help but
separate. The ten plaques Of Egypt were
only brilliant specimen Of iugglery. The
destroying angel shifting the first born
of Egypt was cnly cholera infantum become
epidemic. : The gullet of the whale by posi-
tive measurement is too small to swallow a
prophet. Sun and moon did not put them
selves out of the way for Joshua. The blind,
the lame, the halt, who were cured in Bible
times were not cured by supernatural power,
but by great skill of surgery. The rcsurrec-
tion Of Christ's friend was only tableau.
Christ and Lazarus and Mary and Martha
only acted their parts well. Lazarus was
not dead. He only played dead. He was not
resurrected. He only played res 1rrected My
friends, there is not a statement in that book,
or a theory in that book, or a sentiment in
that book, or fact in that book but has been
disputed and laughed at by modern sceptic-
ism. Here is King James translation. Ibe-
ieve it to be a perfect Bible. Now let me
tear out all those portions Of the Bible which
modern scepticism would have me tear out.
Where shall we begin? "Well," says some
man: "Take out all that about the creation
and the settlement Of the world" There
goes Genesis. "Well," says some one, stake
out next all that about the miraculous
guidance of the Israelites in the wilderness
There goes Exodus. Says some man: "There
are things in Deuteronomy and the Kings
which are not fit to be read" Away 90 Deu-
teronomy and the kings. Some man saws:
"Take that out which is only the fable of
Jobs writings" Away goes Job Some
man says, take out that from the New
Testament which declares the divinity of
Jesus Christ" Away go the evangelists.
Somebody says: "That is absurd in the
work Of Revelation about man
with the moon under his feet and a sword
proceeding from his mouth" Away goes
Revelation. We have few pieces left; what
shall we do with them? Some man saws: II
don't believe word of the book from begin
ming to end. 1t is all gone now. Oh, do you
tie longer intact! It has done pretty well for
a good many years; then there are some
old people who like to hold it
on their laps, and there are
children who like to read its stories. If the
Bible is.to be put away in the dark corner of
some city library, the Koran on one side and
the writings Of Confucius on the other, per
haps we had better keep one copy for our
selves, for we might have trouble and we
would want the delusion of its consolation,
and we might die and we would like to be
deluded with the story of high residence in
the presence of God Oh, it is an
awful thing to throw back Gods revelation
into His face, and say: II don't be-
ieve it" After while, the day will come
when people will say, II did not laugh" Then
all the hypercriticisms and the caricatures
into judgment, and amid the 70; king of
everything beneath, and amid the flaming of
everything above, God will thunder from the
heavens: THAT thou didst laugh" The
most fascinating laughter at Christianity that
I ever heard was Theodore Parker. Isatin the
hall in Boston and heard him make many of the
passages of the word of God seems absolutely
ridiculous, and that man wentlon laughing at
our holy Christianity until he came to die.
and then he said: ''My lifehas beena failure:
domestically failure, I have no children;
socially failure, th ~ treat me like pirate
on the street; professionally failure, for
know but one minister who has adopted nv
sentiments. For twenty-five years that man
laughed at Christianity and Christianity has
ever since been laughing at him. Oh it is a
mean thing to 60 into q mans house
and steal his goods, but the most gigantic
burglary of the centuries is the attempt to
take away these treasures Of the soul. OfaA
the laughter on earth or hell ever heard the
meanest laughter is the sceptics laugh--pro-
posing to take our only consolation in trouble
and our only pillow in death and give us as a
substitute absolutely nothing.
The next laughter of the Bible that notice
is David's laugh, or that of spiritual exulta-
tion. He says: ''Then was my mouth filled
with laughter" You know he sometimes got
clear down, he was at times very melancholy.
Then ha rosa LID and in snma cha nters ha coils