Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-05-09

our glorious Christianity.
Men who have gone 70 Palestine lnndels
have come back Christians. They who were
blind and deaf To the truth at home have
seemad To see Christ again preaching upon
Olivet and have beheld in vivid Imagination
the Son of God again walking the Mills about
Jerusalem. Caviglia once rejected the truth,
but atterward said: Il came 10 Egypt and
the Scriptures and the pyramids converted
me" When | in BeTrOut, Syria, last
December our beloved American mission
arv Rev. DR.. Jessup, told me OF his friend
who met A skeptic at JOppa, the seaport OF
Jerusalem. and the unbeliever said 20 his
friend: Il am going into the Holy Land to
show up the folly Of the Christian religion:
am going to visit all the so-called sacred
places and write them up, and show the
world that the New Testament is an imposi-
ton upon the worlds credulity." Months
after DR.. Jessup's friend met the skeptlc at
Beyrout after he had completed his journey
through the Holy Land. Well, how IS IT,
said the aforesaid gentleman TO the skeptlc:
The answer was: y have seen it all, and
tell YOU the Bible is true Yes: it IS all true"
The man who went to destroy came back to
defend.
And what myself saw during my recent
absence | conclude that any one who can 90
through the Holy Land and remain an unbe-
liever Is either a bad man or an imbeClle. GO1
employed men to write the bible, DuC he
took MANY of the same truths winch they
recorded and with His own almighty hand
He gOlged them into the rocks and drove
them down into dismal depths, and, as dOcu-
ments are put in the corner stone of a temple,
so in the very foundation Of the earth He
folded up and placed the records Of heavenly
truth The earths corner stone was laid,
like that of other sacred edificeS, in the name
of the Father. and of the Son, and Of the
Holy Ghost. The author of revelation, stand
ing among the great strata, looked upon
Moses and said: Let US record for future
ages the worlds history; you write it there
on papyrus: l will write it here on the bowl
derS."
Again nature offers an invaluable cOntri-
button to Christianity by the illustration she
makes Of divine truth. The inspired writer's
seized upon the advantages offered by the
natural world. Trees and river and clouds
and rocks broke forth into holy and enthu-
siastE utterances. Would Christ set forth
the strength of faith, He points to the syca-
more, whose roots spread out and strike
down, and clinch themselves amid great
depths of earth and He said that faith was
strong enough to tear that up by the roots.
At Hawarden. England, Mr.. Gladstone,
while showing me his trees during pro-
longed walk through his magnificent park,
pointed out a sycamore, and with wave OF
the hand said: I'm your visit to the Holy
Land did you see any sycamore more impress
sive than that" l confessed that l had not.
Its branches were not more remarkable than
its roots. 1t was to such tree as that j esus
pointed when He would illustrate the power
of faith. Eye might say unto this sycamore
tree, BE thou plucked up by the root and be
thou cast into the sea- and it would obey
you" One reason why Christ has fascinated
the world as no other teacher is because in
stead OF using severe argument He was al
those who make great profession Of pety,
but have no fruit, He compares them to bar
rem fig trees, which have very large and
snowy leaves and nothing but leaves Would
Job illustrate deceitful friendships, he speaks
of brooks in those chimes, that wind about in
different directions, and dry up when you
want to drink out Of them: My brethren
have dealt deceitfully as brook, and as the
stream of brooks they pass away" David
when he would impress us with the despond-
ency into which he had sunk, compares it to
quagnlre Of those regions, through which
he mad doubtless sometimes tried to walk, but
sunk in up to his neck and he cried: Il sink
in deep mire where there is no standing"
Would Habakkuk set forth the capacity
which God gives the good man to walk safely
amid the widest perils he points to the wild
animal called the hind walking over slippery
rocks, and leaping from wild crag to wild
crag, by the peculiar make of its boots able
calmly to sustain itself in the most danger
Gus places: THE Lord God is my strength,
and He will make my feet like hind's feet"
Job makes all natural objects pay tribute
to the royalty of his book. AS you 90
through some chapters of Job you feel as if
it were bright spring morning, and, as you
see the glltterlng drops from the grass undsr
your feet, you say with that patriarch:
''WhO hath begotten the drops of the dewg'
and now, as you read on, you seem in the
silent midnight to behold the waving of
great light upon your path, and you look up to
find it the aurora borealis, which Jobdescribed
SO long ago as the bright light in the clouds
and the SplendOr that cOmeth out OF the
north" AS you read on, there is darkness
hurting in the heavens, and the showers
break loose till the birds tlv for hiding place
aud the mountain torrents in red fury foam
over thu rocky shelving and with the
same poet you e1claim: who can number
the clouds in wisdom, or who can stay the
bottles of heaven~ AS you read on you
feel yourself coming in frosty climes, and,
III fancy, wading through the snow,
comparatively no neat on their bones. They
seemed almost valueiesS, whether living or
dead. Now, argues Christ if my Father
takes care OF them. will He not axe care of
you? Christ would have the Christian, de-
spondent over his slOwness OF religious devel-
opement, go to his corn field for a lesson. He
watches first the green shoot pressing up
through the clOdS, gradually strengthening
into stalk, and last OF all the husk swelling
out with the pressure Of the corn: First the
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn
in the ear
Would David set forth the freshness AMI
beauty of genuine Christian character, pc
sees an eagle starting from its nest just after
the noting season, Its old feathers Sue1,
and its wings and breast decked with new
down and plumes, its bo1y as finely featn-
cred as that OF her young ones just be gin
ming to try the speed OK their wings Thus
rejuvenatei and replumed is the CHRISTIANS
1alth and hope, by every season OF com nuniOn
with God. THY youth is renewed like the
agleS." Would solomon represent the an
noyance of a contentious womanS tonyua
he points to a leakage III the top OF his nOu5s
or tent, where, throughout the stormy day
the water comes through. falling uJ0n the
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