The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-04-05


red, showing they were on fire; then they
became ashen, showing they were burned
down; then they entirely disappeared,
showing that even the ashes were scat
tered. Now, say, if God can start a
world, he could stop one or two of
them without a great deal of eX-
ertion, or he could by unusual re-
fraction Of the SUMS rays continue
the illumination. But infdel scientists
say it would have been belittling for other
worlds to stop on account of such bat
tie. Why, sirs, what Yorktown was for
Revolutionary times, and what Gettys-
burg was in our civil contest, and what
Sedan was in the Franco German war,
! and what Waterloo was in the NapOleOnic
destiny-that was this battle of Joshua
/ against the five allied armies of Gideon.
It was that battle that changed the entire
/ course Of history. 1t was a battle to
! Joshua as important as though a battle
! now should occur in which England and
| 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
whale swallowed Jonah and elected him
upon the dry ground in three days. If you
viii go to the museum at Nantucket
Mass, you will find the skeleton of
whale large enough to swallow man.
said to the janitor. while 1 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?0 sob, no." he re-
| piled, sit does not" There is a 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. 1 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.
| L 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
i to regurgitate Jonah. Besides that, my
! friends, there is one word which explains
the whole thing. 1t says: ''The Lord
prepared great fish, If a 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 a vessel to carry coal to one of
the Northern ports, I suppose it can carry
coal; if a ship carpenter prepare vessel
to carry passengers to Liverpool, I sup
pose 1t can carry passengers to Liver
pool; and if the Lord prepared a fish to
carry one passenger, 1 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
a beautiful and healthful fire for your
hearth, or you can with them put your i'm 20
mortal interests into conf1agration. But
you had better decide about the veracity
! of the Bible very soon. I 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 virtuperatiOn and power.
! The whole English nation stirred up with
it. More than one hundred volumes writ
| ten to discuss that question: "Who was
JuniusY "Who wrote the letters of
Junius?" 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 WaIpoIe,
| or Henry Grattan, or any one of
L
| charged with the authorship. But it is an
| absorbing question, it is a 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 a week, or a day, or
an hour, any more than a sea captain can
| afford to say: "Well, this is q very dark
night. 1 have really lost my bearings;
| there is a light out there. [ don't know
! whether it is q lighthouse or a false light
| on the shore; l 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
| 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 are rapidly coming toward
the coast coming at the rate Of seventy
heart thrObs minute, and I must know
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
! the Persian Monarch, blowing its way to-
ward the Narrows, hundred miles out
saw signals of distress, bore down upon
the vessel and found it was the steamship
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 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 clay to-" thinking
in the morning he could give
rescue to the passengers. The morn
ing came, but during the night the
steamship Edam had disappeared, and the
Captain of the Persian Monarch brought
his vessel into harbor, saying how sad he
felt because he could not give complete
rescue to that lost nip. L am glad that
| afterward another vessel saw her and
brought her into safety. But when I saw
the story of that steamship Edam, drift
ing drifting, drifting, I do not know
where, but with no rudder, no lighthouse,
no harbOr, no help, 1 said: THAT is a
skeptic that is an infdel drifting, drift
ing, drifting, not knowing where he
drifts" And then, when I thought of the
Persian Monarch anchored in harbOr, I
said; "That is a Christian, that is a man
who does all he can on the way, crossing
the sea to help others, coming, perhaps,
through a very rough voyage into the har-
Dor, there safe and safe forever"
Would God that there might be some
one tl-daN who Mnmld 90 fnrth and him o.