St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-08-18

believe all are coming out at the same
destiny; without regard to faith or char
acter, we are all coming out at the shin
| ing gate. There they are, all in glory to-
| gether. Thomas Paine and George
Whitefeld, Jezebel and Mary Lyon, Nero
and Charles Wesley, Charles Guiteau ant
James A. Garfield John Wilkes Booth
| and Abraham Lincoln-all in glor!
! together! All the innocent men, womer
! and children who we're massacred, side
| by side with their murderers. IL we are
| all coming out at the same destiny, with
out regard to character, then it is true,
turn away from such q debauched
Heaven. Against that cauldron of piety
and blasphemy, philanthropy and assas-
sination, SEE and beastliness,
place the two destinies Of the Bible for
| ever and forever and forever apart
Behold also the splendors Of the Chris
tian orthodox death beds.
Those who deny the Bible, Or deny any
part of it, never die well. They either go
out in darkness or they go out in silence
portentous. You may gather up all the
biographies that have come forth since
the art of printing was invented, and !
challenge you to show me a triumphant
death of a man who reje cted the Script
ures, or rejected any part Of them. Here
/ make a great wide avenue. On the one
I put the death beds of those who be-
lieved in an entire Bible. On the other
side Of that avenue put the death beds
of those VIII rejected part of the Bible,
or rejected all of the Bible. Now take my
arm and let us pass through this dividing
avenue. Look off upon the. right side.
Here are the death beds on the right side
Of this avenue: "Victory drought our
Lord Jesus Christi" "Free grace -
"Glory gloryw 81 am sweeping through
the gates washed in the blood Of the
Lamb p '"The chariots are comingp' Il
mount, 1 fly" "Wings, wings!" ''They
are coming for mel" 'Peace, be still ~
Alfred Cookman's death bed, Richard
Cecil's death bed, Commodore Foote'S
death bed, your fathers death bed. your
mothers death bed, your sisters death
bed, your child's death bed. Ten thou
sand radiant, songful death beds Of those
who believed an entire Bible.
Now, take my arm and let us 20 through
that avenue and look off upon the other
side. No smile of hope. No shout of
trump. No face systematically illu-
mined Those who reject any part of the
Bible never die we'll. No reckoning for
angles to come. No, listening for the
celestial escort. Without any exception
they go out of the world because they are
pushed out; while, on the other hand, the
list of those who believed in an entire
Bible and gone out of the world in tri-
umph is a list SO long it seems intermin-
able. Oh, is not that a splendid in
duence, this orthodoxy, which makes that
which must otherwise be the most dread
full hour Of life-the last hour-positively
paradisaical?
Young men, old men, middle-aged
men, take sides in this contest between
orthodoxy and heterodoxy.
Ask for the old paths, walk therein, and 70
shall find rest for your souls.
But you follow this crusade against any
part of the Bible-first of all, you will
give up Genesis, which is as true as
Matthew: then you will give up all the
parts of the Bible; then after
then you will find it convenient to give up
the Ten Commandments; and then after
awhile you will wake up in a fountainless,
reckless, treeless desert swept of ever
lasting sirocco. If you are laughed at
ing by the Bible just as God has given it
to you and miraculously preserved it
Do not jump overheard from the stanch
old Great Eastern of old fashioned
until there is something ready
to take you up stronger than the fantastic
yawl which has painted on the side "Ad-
Vanced Thought" and which leaks at the
PROV and leaks at the stern, and has a
-+ao1 Fn, n,,I rv1t %rx E1r
he other ore, and now tips over this way
md then tips over that way, until you do
not know whether the passengers will
and in the breakers of despair OF on the
sinking sand Of infdelity and atheism.
I am in full sympathy with the adj
OF our time, but this world |
will never advance single inch beyond |
his old Bible. God was just as capable |
# debating the truth to the prophets and ,
lpostles as He is capable of debating the |
ruth to these modern apostles and |
prophets. God has not learned any thing
n thousand years. He knew just as
much when He gave the first dictation as
lie does now, giving the last dicta ton, if
lie is giving any dictation at all. So
will stick to the old paths. Naturally
keptic, and preferring new things to old,
never SO much as to- day felt the truth
f the entire Bible, especially as 1 see
nto what spectacular imbecility men
ush when they try to chop up the Script
res with the meat-axe Of their own
references; now calling upon philoso-
hy, now calling upon the Church, now
alling on God, now calling on the devil.
prefer the thick, warm robe of the old
as God-the robe which has
ept many warm amid the cold pilgrim
ge Of this life and amid the chills of
cath. The old robe, rather than the thin,
ncertain gauze offered US by these wise
cres who believe the Bible in spots.
On July 27, 1914, at seventy two years Of
ge, expired Isabella Graham. She was
ne most useful woman of her day amid
ne poor and sick, at the head Of the or
han asylums and Magdalen asylums,
nd an angel of mercy in hospital and
DR.. Mason, one Of the
lightiest men of his day, said at her
neral that she was mentally and spirit
ally the most wonderfully endowed per-
On he had ever met She was an imper-
onation Of the most orthodox orthodoxy.
.er last word was peace. AS sublime
eroration to nay sermon I will give an
ktract from her last will and testament,
moving how one who believes in an
ntire Bible may make a glorious exit:
'sMy children and my grandchildren
ave to my covenant, God, the God who
ath fed me all my life with the bread
lat perisheth and the bread that never
erisheth, who has been father to my
atherleSs children and husband to their