The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-04-05

tagonistic tigrrhnts" But Layard, Botta,
BonOmi and Keith GO GCt' and by their ex=
plorations they find that city u Sinevch,
and they tell US that by their own cAP"r'-
mcnt it is three days journey around tac-
cOrdng to the old estimate of q days
ipUrneyI. and that IL was literally de-
stroyed bv FIRE and water two antagonis-
tic elcments-a Part bf tire city haFing
been inundated by tho River Tigris tthe
brick ,rnterial in those times being dried
clay instead Of turrcdJ; while in othc'
parts they find the remains "f the fire in
heaps of charcoal that have been cXcayat-
Lhl and In the cnlcined slabs of gypsum.
Who was right, The Bible or inffelity'
Moses intimated that tn6y Rad 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" Bat
the Traveller FDes down, and in the UNDER
grdttnd vaults of Elllthya ltr finds painted
on the wall all Tire process Of tending the
vines and treading out the grapes. 1t i
all there familiarly skctched by people
who evidently knew all about Il. md saw
il all about them every day; and in these
underground vaults there are vases still
incrusted with the settlings of the wine.
You see the vine did grow III Egypt,
whether it grows there row or not.
Thus you see, while God wrote the Bible,
at the same time he wrote this com
fnent3fyi that ''Thc statutes Of the Lord
are right" on leaves Cf roCG and she'll,
bound in clasps of metal, and lying Oh
mountain tables. and in the leweled vase
of the sea. In authenticity and in gent
inencss the statutes OF The Lord arc right,
Again: The Bible is right IN stvle.
know there are great many people who
think u ~ merely q collection Of genoa
logical tables and dry facts. That is be-
cause they no not know hDw tn read the
book. Yod TAKE rip thc most interesting
novel that was ever written, and if you
commence at the four hundretn fsGc to-
day, and tomorrow at the three hundreth,
and the next day at the first page, how
much sense or interest would you gather
from it, Yet that is the very process to
which the Bible i subjected every day.
An angel from Hcaven, reading the Bible
that way. could not understand it. The
Bible. like oil other palaces, has door by
which to enter and Il door by which to go
out. Genesis is the door to 90 i'll and Reve-
latiOn the door to go out. Tf"se cplstles
of Paul the apostle are merely letters writ
ten, folded up and sent by postmen to the
different churches. Do you read other
letters the way you read Paul's letters:
SuppbsC gnu get business letter, and you
know that in il there are IMPORTANT finan-
cial propositions, do you read the iast
page first, and then one line of
the third page, and another of the
second and another Of the first: No. You be-
gin with Dear sir" and end with 'E ours
truly" Now here is a letter written from
the throne of God to our lost world; II |"
full of magnificent hopes end PROPOSE
tionS, and we dip in here and there and
we know nothing about it. Besides that,
people read the Bible when they san not
do any thing else. 1t Is dark day, and
they do not feel wcll. and they do not go
to business; and after louncing about
awhile they pick up the Bible their mind
refuses to enjoy the truth. Or they come
home weary from the store OF shop, and
they feel. if they do not say. 1t Is dull
book. While the Bible is to be read on
stormy days, and while your head aches,
il 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 Is
good pluck these clusters of grace.
am fascinated with the cOnciseneSs of
this book. Every word is packed full Of
truth. Every sentence is double -barreled.
Every paragraph is like an old banyan
tree, with hundred roots and "a hundred
branches. 1t is great arch; pull out one
stone and it al comes down. There has
never been a pearl diver who could gather
up ne-half of the treasures in any verse.
John Halseback, 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 liter
ature Of this age is merely the Bible di-
luted.
This book Is the hive of all sweetness.
1t is the armOry of all well-tempered
weapons; it is the tower containing the
crown jewels of the universe; it is the
lamp that kindles all other lights; it is the
home of all majesties and splendOrs; it is
the marriage that unites the celestial
and the terrestrial, while all the clustering
white -robcd denizens of the sky lowering
around rejoice at the nuptials. This
boOk-it is the wreath into which are
twisted all garlands; il is the song into
which are struck all harmonieS; it is the
river into which are poured all the great
tides of hallelujah; it is the armament
in which suns, ana moons, and stars, and
consultations, and galaXieS, and immenSi-
ties, and univcrSeS, and eXterniticS,
wheel, and blaze, and triumph. Where is
the young mans soul, with any music in
it, that is not stirred with Jacobs lament,
or Nahum's dirgc, or Habakkuk's dithy-
rambic, or Paul's march of the rCSur-
rection, or Johns anthem: where the
elders, with doXolOgy on their faces, re-
spond to the trumpet blast OF the arch
angel, as he stands with one foot on the
sea and the other foot on the land, swear
ing by him that liveth forever and ever that
time shall be no longer. | will under
take to say that every great book
that has been published since the first
printing press was lifted, has directly or
indirectly derived much of its power from
the sacred oraclcs. Goethe, the admired
of all sceptics, had the wall of his house
at Weimar covered with religious maps
and pictures. Milton's Paradise Lost" is
q part of the Bible in blank verse. Tasso's
"Jerusalem Delivered" is borrowed from
the Bible. SpcHcer's writings are imita-
tions of the parallels. John Bunyan saw
in a dream only what St. John had before
seen in apOcalyptic vision. Macaulay
rounds his most gigantic sentences with
Scripture quotations. Through Addison's
Spectator" there gla:NeS in and out the
stream that broke from beneath the
throne of God, clear as crystal. Walter
Scott's best characters are Bible men and
women under differe!.o names.
lam also amazed al 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