The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-08-14

anl'A's, anu SO, When Goa inspired them TO
| write they wrote in stheir own style.
God prepared the book for all classes
OF people. For instance, little children would
read the Bible, and God knew that so He
allows Matthew and Luke to write sweet sto-
rieS about Christ with the doctors of the law
and Christ at the we'll, and Christ at the cross,
| SO that any little child can understand them.
| Ihen God knew that the aged people would
want 10 read the book, ana so He allows Solo
mon TO compact a world of wisdom in that
book of Proverbs. God knew that the hsto-
ran would want to read it, and SO He allows
Moses to give tae plain statement of the Pen
tateuch. God knew that the poet would want
TO read it, and so lie allows Job to picture the
heavens as curtain and Isaiah the noun
talns as weighed i'll balance, and the waters
as held III the hollow of the Omnipotent hand :
and God touched David, until i'll the latter
part OF the Psalms he gathers a great choir
standing IN galleries above each other-beasts
ana men in the first gallery; above
thom, hills and mountains; above
them, fire and hail and tempest; above
them, sun, and moon, and stars of light; and
then, On the highest gallery arrays the hosts Of
| angels; and then, standing before this great
choir, reaching from the depths of earth to the
heights of heaven, like the leader of a great
orchestra, he lifts his hands, crying: Praise
ye the Lord. Let everything that hath breath,
praise We the Lord ~ and all earthly creatures
III their song, and mountains with their wav-
ing cedars, and tempests in their thunder and
rafting hail, and stars on all their trembling
harps of light, and angels on their thrones,
respond in magnificent acclaim praise We
the Lord. Let everything that hath breath
praise ye the Lord" God knew
that the pensye and complaining world
| would want to read it, and so
| he inspires jeremiah to write: ooh, that my
! head were waters and mine eyes fountains of
| tears" God knew that the lovers of the wild,
the romantic, and the strange would want to
read it, SO he let's Ezekiel write of mysterious
rolls, and winged creatures, and flying wheels
OF lire. God prepared it for all zones-for the
arctic and tropics, as well as for the temperate
zone. Cold-blooded Greenlanders would find
| much to interest them, and the tanned inhabi-
tants at the equator would find his passionate
nature boil with the vehemenee of heavenly
truth. The Arabian would read on his drome-
Diary, and the Laplander seated on the swift
sled, and the herdsman of Holland guarding
| the cattle i'll the grass and the Swiss girl re-
clining amid Alpine crags. Oh, when l see
that the Bible is suited in style, exactly suited
to all ages, to all conditions, to all lands cam
not help Repeating the conclusion of my text:
"The statutes of the Lord are right"
remark again. the Bible is right in its doc
| trines. Man is a sinner, Christ Sayior--the
two doctrines. Man must come down-his
| pride, his self-righteouSness, his Worldliness.
| Christ, the Amounted, must go up. If it had
not been for the setting forth for the atone
ment, Moses would never have described the
creation; prophets would not have predicted;
apostles would not have preached. 1t seems
to me as if Jesus, in the Bible, were standing
on platform in great amphitheater, and as
il the prophets were behind him, throwing
light forward on his sacred person; and as if
the apostles and eyangelists stood before Him,
Ike toot-hghts throwing up their light into
his blessed countenance; and then as
If all the earth and heaven were
the applauding auditory The Bible
speaks OF Pisgah, and Carmel and Sinai, but
makes all mountains bow down to Calvary.
The tloclIs led over the Judean hills were en-
blems of "the Lamb of God that tazeth away
the sin of the world - and the lion leaping
out OF its lair was an emblem of 'the lion Of
Judah's tribe" l viii, in my next breath, re-
cite to you the most wonderful sentence ever
written: ''This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save Sinners" No
wonder that when Jesus was born III Bethle-
hem heaven sympathized with earth, and q
wave of Joy dashed clear over the battlements
and dripped upon the shepherds in the words:
GLORY to God i'll the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men" In my next
sentence every word weighs ton: "God so
loved the world that He gave HIS only begot-
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting hfe."
Show me any other book with such doctrine
3 high, so deep, so vast.
Again: the Bible is right in its effects. /
do not care where you put the Bible, it Just
suits the place. You put it in the hand of o
man seriously concerned about his soul. / see
people often giving to the serious soul this and
that book 1t may be very well; but there is
no book like the Bible. He reads the COM
mandments, and pleads to the Indictment
"Guilty." He takes up the Psalms of David
and says: "They just describe my feelings"
He flies to good works. Paul starts him out of
that by the announcement: "a man is not JUS
titled by works." He falls back in
his Encouragement The Bible starts
him up with tho sentence: ''Remem-
Der Lots wife. Grieve not the
Spirit Flee the wrath to come" Then the
Adp., ia,
shall do? Where shall go?" and voice
reaches him, saying: "Come unto Me- all We
who are weary and heavy laden, and L viii
give you rest" Take this Bible, and place it
in the hands OF men in trouble. Is there any
body here in trouble? Ali I might better
ask, are there any here who have never been
in trouble? Put this Bible in the hands Of the
troubled You find that as some of the best
berries grow ON the sharpest thorns, SO some of
the sweetest consultations of the Gospel grow
on the most singing Affections You thought
that death had grasped your child, Oh, no.
1t was only the heavenly Shepherd taking q
lamb out Of thee cold. Christ bent. over you as
You held the child in your lap, and putting
Ills arms gently around the little one,
said 'of such is the kingdom of heaven"
Put the Bible in the school. Palsied
be the hand that would take the Bible from
the college and the school. Educate only
mans head and you make him an nlidel.
Educate only mans heart and you make
him fanatic Educate them both together
and you have the noblest work of God. An
educated mind without moral principle is
ship without helm, rushing rail train with
out brakes or reversing rod to control the
speed. Put the Bible in the family. There it
lies on the table an unlimited power. Polyga-
my and unscriptural divorce are prohibited.
Parents are kind and faithful, children polite
and obedient. Domestic sorr0Ws lessened by
being divided, joys increased by being multi
pied. . father, d mother, take down that
Iong-negected Bible and read 1T yourselves
and let your children read it. Put
the Bible on the railtrain and on Shipboard till
all parts OF this land and all other lands shall
have its illumination. This hour thore rises
the yell ofheathen worship, and in tho face Of
this days sun smokes the blood Of human sac
riiice. Give them the Bible. Unbind the
wife from the funeral pyre, for no other sacri
flee is needed snce the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth from all sin.
How precious the book divine,
By inspiration given;
Bright as lamp its doctrines shine,
To guide our souls to heaven.
"This lamp, through all the tedious night
Of life. shall guide way,
I'LL behold the clearer light