Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-04-12

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excusable il it fingered in tie heavens for ;
little while and put down its sheaf OF beams
and gazet on such an Armageidon
In the early part OF this century there was
what was called the Dark Day. Some OF
these aged men may perhaps remember it. Ii
IS known IN history as the Ozark Day.
Workmen at noon went TO their homes. and
courts and legislatures adjourned. No
astronomers have ever been abba 10
explain that dark day. Now. If God
can advance the night earlier than It's
lime, can he not adjourn the night until
1ser its tlmei often used TO hear my
father describe night think he said Il
was in lSSS-when his neighbors aroused
him in great alarm. All the heavenly bodiss
seemed TO be in motion. People shought our
earth was coming TO its DESTRUCTION
Tens of thousands OF stars shooting. No
astronomers have ever been able TO
explain that star shooting. Now, does not
your common sense teach you that If God
could start and stop tens of thousands OF
worlds or meteors, he could start and stop
two worlds II God can engineer a train Of
ten thousand worlds or meteors, and stop
them without accident or collision, cannot
he control two carriages Of light, and
by putting down a golden brake stop the sun,
aud by putting down silver braks stop the
mooni Under this explanation, instead OF
being skeptical about this sublime passage
of the Bible, you will, when you read it, feel
more like going down on your knees before
God as you read "Sun, stand thou still
above Gideon, aud thou moon in the valley
of Ajalon."
Then there is the Bible statement thaAo
whale swallowed Jonah and elected him
up on the dry ground IN three days If you
will go to the museum at Nantucket Mass,
you will fad the skeleton of whale large
enough to swallow a man. / said TO
the Janitor willis | was standing in
the museum: why it does not seem
from the looks of this skeleton that
very improbable, does it1n "Oh, no. he re.
piled, cit does not" There is cavity in the
mouth of the common whale large enough
for a man TO live in. There have been
sharks found again and again with an en-
tire human body in them Beside that, the
Bible says nothing about whale: It says:
Tho Lord prepared a great fish,, and
there are scientists who tell us
that there were sea monsters in other days
that made the modern whale seem very in
significant. know in one place in the
New Testament it speaks of the whale as APP.
pearing in the occurrence have Just men
toned, but the word may just as we'll be
translated sea monstern-any kind of
sea monster Procopious says, In tho
year 532, sea monster was slam
which had for fifty years destroyed
ships. suppose this sea monster that took
care of Jonah may have bean one OF the
great sea monsters that could have easily
taken down a prophet, and he could have
lived thers three days IL he had kept In
motion so as to keep the gastric juices from
taking hold Of him and destroying him,
and at the end OF three days the monster
would naturally be sick enough to
regurgitate Jonah. Beside that, my
friends, there is one word which explains the
whole thing 1t says, 1.-The Lord prepared
great fish," II ship carpenter prepare a
vessel to carry Texan besves to Glasgow,
suppose it can carry Texan beeves: If ship
carpenter prepare vessel to carry coal to
one Of the northern ports, | suppose it can
carry coal; il a ship carpenter pre-.
pare vessel to carry passengers to
Liverpool, suppose it can carry passengers
10 Liverpool; and if the Lord prepared fish
to carry one passenger, | suppose it could
carry passenger and the ventilation have
been all right
So all the strange things in the Bible
can be explained if you wish to
have them explained. And you can
build them into a beautiful and health
full fire for your hearth, or your can with
them put your immortal interests into con-
hagration But you had better decide about
the veracity of the Bible very soon. | want
this morning to caution you against putting
off making up your mind about this book.
| Ever since l772 there has been great
uSCuSSlOl d5 W WIZ was Juo AuJuOT
| Of Junius's Letters, those letters so full!
Of sarcasm and vituperation and power.
The whole English nation stirred up with 1t.
more than O hundred volumes written to
discuss that question: "Who was Juniusp'
Who wrote The letters of JuniusN Well,
it is an interesting question to discuss, but
still: after all, it makes but little prac-
tlcal difference to you and to me who
Junius was, whether Sir Philip Francis, Or
Lord Chatham, or John Horne Tooke, or
Horace Walpole, or Henry Grattan, or any
one OF the forty-four mon who were seriously
charged with the authorship. But it is an
absorbing question, it is practical question,
it is an overwhelming question to you
and to me- the authorship of this
Holy Bible-whether the Lord God OF
heaven or earth or pack of dupes, scoundrels
or impostors. We cannot afford to adjourn
that question a week or a day or an hour
any more than sea Captain can afford to
say; well this is a very dark night
have really lost my bearings; there Is a
light out there. / don't know whether
it is lighthouse or false light on
the shore, | don't know what it is; but
I'll just go to sleep and in the morning I'll
find out" In the morning the vessel might
be on the rocks and the beach strswn with
the white faces Of thu dead crsw. The tims
for that sea Captain to find out about the
lighthouse is before he goes to sleep. Oh,
my friends, | want you to understand
that in our deliberations about this Bible we
are not at calm anchorage, but We ara
rapidly coming toward the coast, coming
with ell the furnaces ablaZe, coming at tn
rate or seventy heart throbs a minute, and
must know whether it is going to be harbo
or shipwreck.
Twas SO glad to read in the papers Of tht
fact that the steamship Edam had COM
safely into harbor A week before tn.
Persian Monarch, blowing its way toward
the Narrows, hundred miles out, saw sig
mails Of distress, bore down upon the vessel
and found it was the steamship Edam. Sh
J had lost her propeller She had tw,
hundred passengers on board. The mercifu
J Captain of the Persian Monarch endeav
ored to bring her in, but the tow lins broke
He fastened it again, but the sea was rougl
and the tow line broke again. Then tn
night cams on and the merciful Captain G
the Persian Monarch clay TO-" thinl
ing in the morning he could give rescu
to the passengers The morning came, bt
disappeared, and the Captain of tt
, Persian Monarch brought his vessel int
harbor saying how sad be felt b.
cause he could not give complet
rescue to that lost ship. l am gla
that afterward another vessel saw her an
the story of that steamship Edam, drifting
4 drifting, drifting do not know where, bu
7 with no rudder, no Lighthouse, no harbor, NJ
q help said: "lhat is sksptic, that is an in
r fidsl, drifting, drifting, drifting, not know win
t where hs drifts" And then, whsn thought 0
the Persian Monarch anchored in harbor,
said THAT is Christian, that is a man VIII
, does all he can on the way, crossing the sea E
t help others, coming perhaps through a yer
rough voyage into the hsrbor, there safe an
2 safe forever Would God that there nigh
/ be some one to-day who would go fort
and bring in these souls that are drifting
score shall | say, or a hundred, or
thousandl-not quite certain about the trut
of the Bible, not certain about anything
Drifting, drifting drifting Oh, how
would like to tow them in. / throw yo