The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-05-30


the United States and France and Ger
many and Italy and Turkey and Russia
should fight for victory or humiliation.
However much any other world, solar,
lunar or stellar, might be fastened in its
errand of light, it would be excusable if
| it fingered in the heavens for little while
and put down its sheaf of beams and
gazed on such an ArmageddOn.
| Then there is the Bible statement that a
whale swallowed Jonah and elected him
upon the dry ground in three days. If you
will go to the museum at Nantucket,
| Mass, you will find the skeleton of
whale large enough to swallow man. l
said to the janitor. while was standing
in the museum: "Why it does not seem
| from the looks of this skeleton that that
story in the Book of Jonah is so very i'm
probable, does it?" ooh, no." he re-
piled, sit does not" There is cavity
in the mouth of the common whale large
enough for man to live in. There have
been sharks found again and again with
an entire human body in them Besides
that, the Bible says nothing about whale.
1t says: 1.-THE Lord prepared a great
fish;" and there are scientists who tell
US that there were sea monsters in other
days that make the modern whale seem
very insignificant. l know in one place IN
the New Testament it speaks of the whale
as appearing in the occurrence 1 have
Just mentioned, but the word may just as
well be translated, "sea monster"-any
kind of a sea monster. Procopius says,
in the year 532, a sea monster was slain
which had for fifty years destroyed ships.
suppose this sea monster that took
care of Jonah may have been one of the
great sea monsters that could have easily
taken down prophet, and he could have
lived there three days if 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. Besides that, my
friends, there is one word which explains
the whole thing. 1t says: "The Lord
prepared a great fish" If ship car
penter prepare a great vessel to carry
Texan beeVes to Glasgow, I suppose it can
carry Texan beeves; if a ship carpenter
prepare vessel to carry coal to one of
the Northern ports, l suppose it eau carry
coal; if a ship carpenter prepare a vessel
to carry passengers to Liverpool l sup
pose it can carry passengers to Liver
pool; and if the Lord prepared fish to
carry one passenger, l suppose it could
carry a 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
beautiful and healthful fire for your
hearth, or you can with them put your i'm
mortal interests into confagration. But
you had better decide about the veracity
of the Bible very soon. 1 want this morn
ing to caution you against putting off
making up your mind about this Book.
Ever since 1772 there has been great dis
cussion as to who was the author Of
, Junius' Letters, those letters so full of
; sarcasm and Yirtuperation and power.
The whole English nation stirred up with
it. More than one hundred volumes writ
, ten to discuss that question: "Who was
Juniusp "Who wrote the letters of
r JuniusW Well, it is an interesting ques-
ton to discuss, but still, after all, it makes
but little practical difference to you and
to me who Junius was, whether Sir
: Philip Francis, or Lord Chatham, or
John Horne Tooke, or Horace WaIpole,
or Henry Grattan, or any one of
the forty-four men who were seriously
! charged with the authorship. But it is an
absorbing question, it is practical ques-
! ton, it is an overwhelming question to you
; and to me, the authorship of this Holy
Bible-whether the Lord God of Heaven
and earth or pack of dupes, scoundrels
! or imposters. We can not afford to ad-
Journ that question week, or day, or
, an hour, any more than a sea captain can
; afford to say: "Well, this is very dark
: night. I have really lost my bearings
: there is light out there. don't know
whether it is lighthouse or false light
+bp CHI 7 Il hot IV1K
= 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 beaa.
strewn with the white faces of the dead
, crew. The time 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 an
. chorage, but we arerapidly coming toward
the coast, coming at the rate of seventy
heart throbs minute, and l must know
l whether it is going to be harbor or ship
wreck.
was so glad to read in the papers OF
. the fact that the steamship Edam had
> come safely into harbor A week before
d" the Persian Monarch, blowing its way to-
. ward the Narrows, a hundred miles out
e saw signals of distress, bore down upon
Ine V6SSeI ana I0unu IL was the steamship
IL Edam. She had two hundred passengers
. on board. The merciful captain of the
. Persian Monarch endeavored to bring her
in, but the tow line broke. He fastened il
:, again, but the sea was rough and the tow
u line broke again. Then the night came
u on and the merciful captain of the
!. Persian Monarch clay to-" thinking
y in the morning he could give
y rescue to the passengers. The morn
. ing came, but during the night the
steamship Edam had disappeared, and the
- Captain of the Persian Monarch brough
. his vessel into harbor, saying how sad ht
70 felt because he could not give complete
=. rescue to that lost ship. | am glad tina
: afterward another vessel saw her an(
y brought her into safety. But when saw
II the story of that steamship Edam, drift
> ing, drifting, drifting, 1 do not know
u where, but with no rudder, no lighthouse
no harbor, no help, 1 said: THAT is ;
n skeptic, that is an infdel drifting, drift.
n ing, drifting, not knowing where h,
D drifts" And then, when thought of tn,
"a Persian Monarch anchored in harbor,