The Russellville Democrat., 1888-04-05

sank his sathoming line and brought up
from the bottom OF the Dead sea great
masses of sulphur, remnants OF that very
tempest that swept Sodom and Gomorrah
to ruin. Who was right the Bible that
announced the destruction Of those cities,
or the skeptics who for ages scoffed at ~ !
The Bible says there was a city called
Nineveh, and that it was three days jour-
ney around ii, and that it should be de-
stroyed BY FIRE and water. Absurd
cried ous hundreds of voices for many
years; ''no such city was ever built that
it would take you three days Journey to
go around. Besides, it could not be de-
stroyed by fire and water; they are an
tagonfstic elements" But Layard, Botta,
Bonomi and Keith go out, and by their ex-
plorations they find that city Of Nineyeh,
and they tell us that by their own expert
ment ii is three days journey around tac-
cording to the old estimate of a days
Journey, and that it was literally de-
stroyed by fire and water-two Antagonists
tic elements---a part of the city having
been inundated by the River Tigris (the
brick material in those times being dried
clay instead of burned); while in other
parts they find the remains of the fire In
heaps o. charcoal that have been excayat-
ed, and in the calcined slabs Of gypsum.
Who WI right, the Bible or intidelityF
Moses intimated that they had vine-
yards in Egypt. "Absurd," cried hun
dreds O. voices, ''yOu can't raise grapes in
Egypt; or, if you can, it is very great
except On that you can raise them" But
the traveller goes down, and an the UNDER
ground vaults Of Ellithya he finds painted
on the wall all the process of tending the
vines and treading out the grapes. 1t is
all there Familiarity 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
incrusted with the settings of the wine.
You zee the vino did grow in Egypt,
whether it grows there now or not.
Thus you see. while God wrote the Bible,
at the same time he wrote this COM
meutary, that 'The statutes OF the Lord
are right" on leaves of rock and she'll,
bound in clasps of metal, and lying on
mountain tables, and in the jeweled vase
OF the sea. In authenticity and in genu-
ineness the statutes of the Lord are right.
Again: The Bible is right in style.
know there are a great many people who
think il 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 hundreth page 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 is subjected every day.
An angel from Heaven, reading the Bible
that way, could not understand 1t. The
Bible, like all other palaces, has door by
which to enter and II door by which TO go
out. Genesis is the door to goin and Reye-
lation the door TO go out. These epistles
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 lettersT
Suppose you get business letter, and you
know that in it there are important finan-
cial propositions, do you read the last
page first, and then one line of
| the third page, and another of the
second and another of the firstg No. You be-
gin 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 magnificent hopes and PROPOSE
| tions, and we dip in here and there and
we know nothing about it. Besides that,
people read the Bible when they can not
| do any thing else. 1t is a dark day, and
they do not feel well, and they do not go
| to business, and after lounging about
awhile they pick up the Bible-their mind
refuses to enjoy the truth. Or they come
| home weary from the store or shop, and
| they feel, il they do not say, it is "A dull
| book While the Bible is to be read on
! stormy days, and while your head aches,
| it 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 a hundred roots and a hundred
| branches. 1t is great arch; pull out one
| stone and it all comes down. There has
never been pearl diver who could gather
| up one-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
| allure 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; 1t is the
| lamp that kindles all other lights; it is the
home of all majesties and splendors; it is
the marriage ring that unites the celestial
and the terrestrial, while all the clustering
winter obed denizens of the sky lowering
| around rejoice at the nuptials. This
book-it is the wreath into which are
| twisted all garlands it 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, and moons, and stars, and
| consultations, and galaxies, and immensi-
ties, and universes, and externities,
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 dirge, or Habakkuk's dithy-
rambic, or Paal's march Of the resur-
rection, or Johns anthem where the
elders, with doxology on their faces, re-
| spond 10 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 oracles. Goethe, the admired
of all sceptics, had the wall Of his house
at Weimar covered with religious maps
and pictures. Millions Paradise Lost" is
a part OF the Bible in blank verse. Tasso's
Jerusalem Delivered" is borrowed from
the Bible. Spencer's writings are imita-
tons of the parallels. John Bunyan saw
in 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 glances in and ont the
stream that broke from beneath the
throne of God, clear as crystal. Walter
scott's best characters are Bible men and
4 a q. ~