Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-04-28

of the pyramids have opened to preach
the gospel. Expeditions have been
fitted out for Palestine, and explorers
bave come back to say that they have
found among mountains and among
ruins and on the shore of waters liv-
ing and undying evidences of our
glorious Christianity.
Men who have gone to Palestine in
fdels have come back Christians They
who were blind and deaf to the truth
at home have seemed to see Christ
again preaching upon Olivet, and have
beheld in vivid imagination the Son
of God again walking the hills about
Jerusalem. Caviglia once rejected the
truth, but afterward said, II came to
Egypt, and the Scriptures and the
pyramids converted me-" When I
was in Beyrout, Syria, last December.
our beloved American missionary,
/ Rev. DR. Jessup, told me of his friend
who met skeptic at Joppa, the seaport
/ of Jerusalem, and the unbeliever said
10 his friend: II am going into the
Holy Land to show up the folly of the
Christian religion. I am going to
visit all the so-called sacred places, )
and write them up, and show the world
that the New Testament is an impo-
sition upon the worlds credulity."
Months after, DR.. Jessup's friend met
the skeptic at Beyrout, after he
had completed his journey through
the Holy Land. ''Well, how is
it?' said the aforesaid gentleman
to the skeptic The answer was: 81
have seen it all, and [ tell you
| the Bible is true! Yes, it is all truep
The man who went to destroy came
back to defend. After what I myself
saw during my recent absence, [ con-
! clude that any one who can go through
the Holy Land and remain an unbe-
lever is either bad man or an i'm
beetle. God employed men to write
the Bible, but he took many of the
same truths which they recorded, and
with his own almighty hand he gouged
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 earth's
corner stone was laid, like that of other
sacred edifces in the name of the Fa-
Ghost. The author of revelation, stand
upon Moses, and said "Let us record
y y
write it there on papyrus; [ will write
it here on the powders"
NATURES INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO
CHRISTIANITY.
Again, nature offers an invaluable
contribution to Christianity by the
illustration she makes of divine truth
The inspired writers seized upon the
advantages 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 depths of earth,
and he said that faith was strong
enough to tear that up by the roots.
At Hawarden, England, Mr.. Glad
stone, while showing me his trees dur
ing prolonged walk through his mag
niticent park, pointed out sycamore,
and with wave of the hand said, 'In
your visit to the Holy Land did you
see any sycamore more impressive
than that?" [ confessed that had not.
Its branches were not more remark
able than its roots. 1t was to such a
tree as that Jesus pointed when he
would illustrate the power of faith.
I'VE 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 instead of
using severe argument he was always
telling how something in the spiritual
world was like unto something in the
natural world. Oh these wonderful
likes of our Lordl Like a grain of
mustard seed. Like treasure hid in
a field. Like a merchant seeking
goodly pearls. Like unto net that
was cast into the sea. Like unto a
householder.
Would Christ teach the precision
with which he looks after you, he says
he counts the hairs of your head.
Well, that is a long and tedious count
if the head have the average endow-
ment 1t has been found that if the
hairs of the head be black there are
about 120, 900, or if they be f1axen there
are about 40, 600. But God knows
the exact number: ''The hairs of your
head are all numbered" Would Christ
impress US with the divine watchfui-
ness and care, he speaks of the spar
rows, that were q nuisance in those
times. They were caught by the thou
sands in the net. They were thin and
scrawny, and had comparatively no
meat on their bones. They seemed
almost valueless, whether living or
dead. Now, argues Christ, if my IA
Their takes care of them will he not
the Christian respondent over his slow
corn field for a lesson. He watches
HTc.t tho shoot
through the clods, gradually strength
ening 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"
EXPRESSIVE IMAGERY.
Would David set forth the freshness
and beauty of genuine Christian char
acter-he sees an eagle starting from
its nest just after the moulting season,
its old feathers shed, and its wings and
breast decked with new down and
plumes, its body as finely feathered as
that of her young ones just beginning
to try the speed of their wings. Thus
rejuvenated 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
Solomon represent the annoyance of a
contentious 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 foor-drip! drip! drip! and
he says, GA continual dripping in d
very rainy day and a contentious Wo-
man are alike" Would Christ set
forth the character of those who make
great profession 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 de-
ceitful 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 a 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,
II sink in deep mire where there is no