The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-04-10

other world, solar, lunar or stellar, might be
hastened in it errand Of light it would bs
excusable if it fingered in the heavens for
little while and put down its sheaf of beams
and gazei on such an Armaseddon.
In the early part of this century there was
what was called the Dark Day. Some of
these aged men may perhaps remember it. 1t
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 able ia
explain that dark day. Now, If God
can advance the night earlier than its
time, can hs not adjourn the night until
after its timer I often used to hear my
father describe a night-1 think he said it
was in 1SS3-when his nsighbors aroused
him in great alarm. All the heavenly bodies
seemed to be in motion. People thought our
earth was coming to its destruction
Tens of thousands of stars shooting. No
astronomers have ever besn 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 msteors he could start and stop
two worlds: If God can engineer train Of
ten thousand worlds or meteors and stop
them without accident Or collision, cannot
he control two carriages os light, anil
q
and by putting down silver brake stop the
moon! 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, and thou moon in the valley
of Aialon."
Then there is the Bible statement that a
whale swallowed Jonah anu eiectsd him
! up on the dry ground in three days. If you
will 60 to the museum at Nantucket. Mass,
you will find the skeleton Of whale large
enough to swallow a man. I said to
tho janitor, while I was standing in
the museum: "Why it does not seem
from the looks of this skeleton that
very improbable, does it?" "Oh, no." he re.
piled, sit 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 q whale. It says:
THE Lord prepared 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. I know in one place in the
New Testament it speaks of the whale as ap-
psaring in the occurrence I have just men,
toned. but the word may just as we'll be
GranSldIeu SEA nlouSter ally AiIu VI
a sea monster. Proco2ious says, in the
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 a prophet and he could have
lived there three days if he had kopt in
motion so as to keep the gastric juices from
taking hold Of him AN, and destroying him,
regurgitate Jonah. Beside that. my
friends, there is one word which explains the
whole thing. II says. "The Lord prepared a
great fish," If ship carpenter prepare a
vessel to carry Texan beeves to Glasgow,
suppose it can carry Texan beeves: if snip
carpenter prepare vessel to carry coal to
one of the northern ports, I suppose it can
carry coal; if a ship carpenter pre-
pare a vessel to carry passengers to
Liverpool I suppose it can carry passengers
to Liverpool: and if the Lord prepared fish
to carry one passenger, l suppose IT could
carry passenger and the ventilation have
been all right.
So all the strange things in the Bible
have M 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-
fagration. But you had better decide about
tho veracity of the Bible very soon. l want
this morning to caution you against putting
off making up Your mind about this book.
Ever since 17T2 there has been great
discussion as to who was the author
Of Junius's Letters, thoSe letters so full
of sarcasm and vituperation and power.
The whole English nation stirred up with it.
More than hundred volumes written to
discuss that question: "Who was JuniuS"
who wrote the letters Of JuniusF Well,
it is an interesting question to discuss, but
still, after all, it makes but little prac-
tical 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, ,scoundres
or imposJors. We cannot afford to adjourn
that question week or day or an hour,
any more tnan sea Captain can afford to
say: "Well, this is a very dark night. l
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 tina beach strewn with
the white faces OF the dead crew. The time
Tor that sea Captain to find out about the
lighthouse is before he goes to slesp. Oh,
my friends, l 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 all the furnaces aDaze, coming at the
rate of seventy heart thro5s minute, and
must know whether it is going to be harbor
or shipwreck.
was so glad to read in the papers of the
fact that the steamship Edam had coma
safely into harbcr week before the
Persian Monarch, plowing its way toward
the NarrowS, Il hundred miles out, saw sig
nails of distress, lore down upon the vessel,
and found it was the steamship Edan. She
had lost her propeller She had two
hundred passens gers en- board. The merclful
Captain, of the Persian Monarch endeaV-
ored to bring her in, bat the tow line broke.
He fastened it again, but the sea was rough
and the tow line broke again. Then the
night came on and the merciful Captain of
the Persian Monarch ''lay to-" think.
ing in the morning lie could give rescue
to the passengers. TIE morning came, but
during the night the steamship Edam had
Persian Monarch brought his vessel into
cause he could not give complets
rescue to that lost ship. am glad
that afterward another vessel saw her and
brought her into safety. But when | saw
the story Of that steamship Edam, drifting,
drifting, drifting, do not know where, but
with no rudder, no Lighthouse, no harbor. no
help said: "That is skeptic, that is an in
fidel, drifting, drifting, drifting, not knowing
where he drifts" And then, when thought OF
the Persian Monarch anchored in harbor.
said THAT is Christian, that is man who
does all he can on the way, crossing the sea to
help others, coming perhaps through very