The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-08-22

| first continent, the hrBt state, the
first township, the first ward, the first space
small end Of sharp pin. Ninety mine out
Of every hundred Of the Protestant churches
Of America were built by people who
believed in an entire Bible The pull
pit now may preach some other Gospel,
but it Is heterodox gun on an orthodox
carriage. The foundations of all the
churches that are Of very great use in this hi
lieved the Bible from lid to lid, and il
I cannot take it in that way l will not
take it at all; just as if I received
a letter that pretended to come from q
friend, and part Of it was his and part some
body else's, and the other part somebody
else's, and it was sort Of literary mongrel-
ism, and would throw the garbled sheets
into the waste basket.
No church of very great influence to-day
but was built by those who believed in an
entire Bible. Neither will church last
long built on a part of the Bible. You
have noticed, I suppose, that as soon
as man begins to give up the Bible
he is apt to preach in some hall, and
he has an audience while he lives, and when
my church in Brooklyn was built on quarter
of Bible, or half Bible, or three quarters
of Bible, or ninety.nine ne-hundredths OF
Bible, 1 would expect it to die when
I die; but when I know it is built
on the entire Word Of God, know it will last
two hundred years after you and l sleep sne
last sleep. Oh, the splendors Of an ortho--
doxy, which, with ten thousand hands and
ten thousand pulpits and ten thousand Chris
tian churches, is trying to save the world!
In Music Hall, Boston, for many years
stood Theodore Parker battling orthodoxy,
giving it, as some supposed at that time,
its death wound. He was the most fascinat-
ing MARI ever heard or ever expected to hear,
and came out from hearing him thing
ing in nv boyhood way: well, that's the
oeath of the church." On that same street
and not far from being opposite, stood Park
Congregational Church, called by its enemies
'Hell-fire Corner" Theodore Parker died
and his church died with him; or, if it is in
existence, it is 80 small you cannot see it
Church still stands on "Hell-fre Corner"
laundering away the magnificent truths Of
this glorious orthodoxy just as though Theo-
dore Parker had never lived All that Bos-
ton, or Brooklyn, or New York, or the world
ever got that is worth having came through
the wide aqueduct of orthodoxy from the
throne af Cod
Behold the splenlors of character built up
by orthodoxy. Who had theAgreatest human
intellect the world ever knew? Paul. In
physical stature, Insignificant; in mind, head
duu uUOfo oil ItC SleAIlUS VI VIC dSCs
Orthodox from scalp to heel Who was the
greatest poet the ages ever saw, acknowledged
to be so both by infidels and Chris
tians' John Milton, seeing more without
eyes than anybody else ever saw with eyes.
Orthodox from scalp to heel. Who was the
greatest reformer the world has ever seens 80
acknowledged by infidels as we'll as by Chris.
tians. Martin Luther. Orthodox from scalp
to heel
Then look at the certitudes. o man, be-
lieving in an entire Bible. where did you
come from? Answer: 81 descended from
perfect parentage in Paradise, and Jehovah
breathed into my nostrils the breath of life.
am son Of God" =" o man, believing in half.
and-half Bible, believing in Bible in spots,
where did you come from? Answer: ut is
all uncertain; in my ancestral line away
back there was on orang-outang and tadpole
and polywog, and it took millions Of years
to get me evoluted." Oh man, believing in
Bible in spots, where are you going to when
you quit this world! Answer: ''Going into
great to be, 80 on into the great somewhere,
and then shall pass through on to the great
nowhere" That is where thought you
an entire Bible, and believing with all your
heart. where are, you going to when
leave this world! Answer: Il am going to
my Fathers house; I am going into the
companionship Of my loved ones who have
gone before; am going to leave all my
sins, and am going to be- with God and like
God forever and forever" Oh, the glorious
certitudes Of orthodoxy!
Behold the splendors of orthodoxy in its
announcements of two deStinies.
Palace and penitentiary. Palace with
gates on all sides through which all may
enter and live on celestial luxuries world
without end: and all for the knocking and
the asking. A palace grander than if all the
Alhambras and the Versailles and the Wind
sor Castles and the Winter Gardens and the
imperial abodes of all earth were heaved up
into one architectur al glory. At the other
end of the universe penitentiary where men
who want their sins can have them. Would
1t be fair that you and l should have our
choice Of Christ and the palace, and other
men be denied their choice of sin and
eternal degradation! Palace and penitentiary.
The first Of no use unless you have the last.
Brooklyn and New York would be better
places to live in with Raymond Street Jail,
the Tombs and Sing Sing, and all the small
po1 hospitals emptied on them, than heaven
would be if there were no hell. Palace and
penitentiary. If see man with full bowl
OF sin, and he thirsts for it, and his whole
nature Graves it, and he takes ho,d with both
hands and presses that bowl to his lips, and
then presses it hard between his teeth,
and the draught begins to pour its sweet.
ness down his throat: shall we snatch
away the bowl, and jerk the man up to the
gate Of heaven, and push him in il ne does
not want to 60 and sit down and sing psalms
forever! No. God has made you and me so
completely free that We need not go to
heaven unless we prefer it Not more free
to soar than free TO sink.
Nearly all the heterodox people know be-
lieve all are coming out at the same destiny;
without regard to faith or character we are
all coming out at the shining gate. There
they are, all in glory together. Thorn
and Mary Lyon, Nero and Charles Wesley,
Charles Guiteau and James AGarfeld, John
Wilkes Booth and Abraham Linco;u-all in
glory together! All the innocent men, wo-
men, and children who were massacred, side
by side with their murderers. If we are all
coming out at the same destiny, without
regard to character, then it is true:
I turn away from such debauched
heaven Against that cauldron Of piety and
blasphemy, philanthropy ane assassination.
self.sacrifice and beastliness, place the two
destinies OF the Bible forever and forever
ard forever apart.
Behold also the splendors Of the Christian
! Orthodox death beds.
Those who deny the Bible, or deny any
part Of it never die we'll. They either go
out in darkness or they go out in silence
biographies that have come forth since the
art Of printing was invented, and challenge
you to show me triumphant death Of q
man who rejected the Scriptures or rejected
any part Of them. Here make great wide
avenue. On the one put the death beds Of
those who believed in an entire Bible. On
the other side Of that avenue put the
death beds Of those who rejected part
OF the Bible, or rejected all Of
the Bible. Now, take my arm and let US