The Brookhaven leader., 1889-04-04

the Unit5d States aud France and Ger
many and Italy and Turkey and Russia
should fight for victory OF anuihilation.
However much any other world, solar,
lunar or stellar, might be FASTENED in its
errand Of light it would be excusable II
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 groundin in three days. II you
will go to the museum at Nantucket,
Mass, you will find the skeleton Of q
whale large enough to swallow a man. j
said to the janitor. while was standing
in the museum: "Why 1t does not seem
from the looks Of this skeleton that that
story in the Book Of Jonah is so very i'm
probable, does itin "Oh, no." he re-
piled, ''it does not" There is q 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 entire human body in them. Besides
that, the Bible says nothing about whale.
1t says: 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. know in one place in
the New Testament it speaks Of the whale
as appearing in the occurrence I 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, 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
/ fnl- ,l,1k ha oAf111 haxy
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: 1.-THE Lord
prepared great fish," If a ship car
penter prepare "a great vessel to carry
| Texan beeva to Glasgow, l suppose it can
carry Texan beeves; if ship carpenter
prepare vessel to carry coal to one of
the Northern ports, l suppose 1t can carry
coal; if ship carpenter prepare vessel
to carry passengers to Liverpool, sup
| pose it can carry passengers to Liver
pool; and if the Lord prepared a 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. l want this morn
ing to caution you against putting off
| ms min al
Ever since 1872 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, 1t is an interesting ques-
tion 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 Walpole,
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 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 week. or day, or
an hour, any more than a sea captain can
afford to say: "Well, this is a very dark
night. l have really lost my bearings;
there Is light out there. l don't know
whether it is a lighthouse or false light
on the shore; don't know what 1t 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, l 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 l must know
whether it Is going to be harbor or ship
wreck.
Twas 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, plowing its way to-
| ward the Narrows, hundred miles out,
saw signals of distress, bore down upon
the vessel and found it was the steamship
Eud1n. SQ6 naQ TWO uuuureu 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 "lay 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 ship. l am glad that
afterward another vessel saw her and
brought her into safety. But when l saw
the story of that steamship Edam, drift
ing, drifting, drifting, l do not know
where, but with no rudder, no lighthouse,
no harbor, no help, 1 said: THAT is
skeptic, that is an infdel, drifting, drift
ing, 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 a very rough voyage into the har-
Dor, there safe and safe forever"
| Would God that there might be some
one to-day who would go forth and bring
! in these souls that are drifting. In this
assemblage, how many score shall say,
| or hundred. or a thousand?-not quite
| certain about the truth of the Bible, not