The Iola register., 1890-05-09

| COnVerGeu me. w men was IN BeyrOub,
Syria, last December our beloved Amer
ican missionary, Rev. DR.. Jessup, told
me of his friend who met a sceptic at
Joppa, the seaport of Jerusalem, and
the unbeliever said to his friend: 81 am
going into the Holy Land to show up
the folly of the Christian religion. /
am going to visit all the so-called
sacred ?. aces and write them up and
show the world that the New Testament
is an imposition upon the worlds ere
dulity.' Months after DR.. Jessup's friend
met the sceptic at Beyrout, after he had
completed his journey through the Holy
Land. swell. how is it?' said the
aforesaid gentleman to the sceptic. The
answer was: 81 have seen it all and l
tell you the Bible is true! Yes, it is all
true"' The man who went to destroy
came back to defend. After what my.
self saw during my recent absence, l
conclude that any one who can go
through the Holy Land and remain an
unbelieyer is either bad man or an i'm
beetle.
Again, nature offers an invaluable con-
tribution to Christianity by the illustra-
| tfon she makes of divine truth. The in
spired writers seized upon the ad-
vantages offered by the natural world.
Trees and rivers and clouds and rocks
broke forth into holy and enthusiastic
utterances. Would Christ set forth
the strength of faith, He points to
the sycamore, whose roots spread out
and strike down and clinch themselves
amid great depth of earth, and he said
that faith was strong enough to tear
that up by the roots.
At Hawarden, Eng, Mr.. Gladstone,
while showing me his trees, during a
prolonged walk through his magnificent
park. pointed out sycamore and, with
wave of his hand, said: SIN your visit
to the Holy Land, did you see any syca-
more more impressive than that?' l
| confessed that mad not. Its branches
were not more remarkable than it's roots.
1t was to such a tree as that Jesus
pointed when He would illustrate the
power of faith: "Ye might say unto
this sycamore tree, Re thou plucked up
/ 5y the roots and be thou cast into the
sea- and it would obey you"
Christ would have the Christian, de-
spondent over his slowness of religious
development, go to his cornfield for
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
and beauty of genuine Christian charac-
ter, he sees an eagle starting from it's
nest just after the moultng season, its
old feathers shed, and it's wings and
breast decked with new down and
plumes, it's body as finely feathered as
that of her young ones just beginning
to try the speed of their wings. Thus
rejuvenatad and replumed is the Chris
tian's faith and hope by every season of
communion with God. "Thy youth is
renewed like the eagles" Would Sol
ONION represent the annoyance of con-
tentiOus woman's tongue, he points to a
leakage in the top of his house or tent,
where, throughout the stormy day, the
water comes through, falling upon the
floor-drip! drip! drip! and he says: "a
continual dripping in very rainy day
and contentious woman are alike"
Would Christ set forth the char
acter of those who make great
professions of piety, but have no fruit,
He compares them to barren fig trees,
which have very large and snowy leaves,
and nothing but leaves. Would Job |
illustrate deceitful friendships. he speaks |
of brooks in these climes, 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 dependency into |
which he had sunk. compares it TO a |
quagmire of those regions, through !
which he had doubtless sometimes tried |
to walk, but sunk in up to his neck, and |
he cried: Il sink in deep mire where |
thereis 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 hoofs able calmly to sustain
itself in the most dangerous places:
''The Lord God is my strength, and He
will make my feet like the kinds feet"
Job makes all natural objects pay
tribute to the royalty of his book. As you
go through some chapters of Job you
feel as if it were bright spring morn
ing, and, as you see the glittering drops
from the grass under your feet you say
with that patriarch: "Who hath begotten
the drops of the dew?" And now, as you
read on, you seem in the silent midnight
to behold the waving of a great light
upon your path, and you look up to find
it the aurora borealis, which Job de-
scribed 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 hurtling in the heavens, and
the showers break loose till the birds
fly for hiding place and the mountain
torrents in red fury foam over the rocky
shelving; and with the same poet you
exclaim: who can number the
slouds in wisdom, or who can stay the
bottles of heaven?' AS you read on you
feel yourself coming in frosty climes,
and, in fancy, wading through the snow,
you say, with that same inspired writer:
Hast thou entered into the treasures of
the snow?" And while the sharp sleet
drives in your face. and the hail stings
your cheek, you quote Him again: Hast
thou seen the treasures of the hail?" In
the Psalmist's writings heard the voice
Of the sea: deep calleth unto deep;"
and the roar of the forests: '.The Lord