Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-04-10

Have you heard or the conspiracy to put
out all the lighthouses on the coast? Do you
know that on a certain night Of next month.
Eddystone lighthouse, Bell Rock lighthouse.
Sherryvore lighthouse, Montauk lighthouse
Hatteras lighthouse. New London light
house. Barnegat lighthouse, and the $40
lighthouses on the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts are to be extinguished? "Ob," you
saw, what viii become of the ships on that
night? What will be the fate of the one
million sailors following the sea? What will
be the doom Of the millions of passengers?
Who will arise to put down such conspir-
acys' Every man, woman and child in
America and the world. But that is only a
fable. That is what in6delity is trying to
do-put out all the lighthouses on the coast
Of eternity, letting the soul 60 up the MAR
rows" of death with no light, no comfort no
peace-all that coast covered with the black
ness of darkness. Instead Of the great light
house, O glowworm of wit, freely Of joccs-
itv. Which do you like the better, 0 voy-
ager for eternity, the firefy or the light
house.
What a mission infidelity has started on
The extinguishment of lighthouses, the
breaking up OF lifeboats, the dismissal of all
the pilots. the turning Of the inscription on
your child's grave into a farce and lie.
Walter SCOTS "Old Mortality chisel in
hand, went through the land to cut out into
palmer letters the half oblitarated inscrip-
lions on the tombstones, and 1t was beau-
tifu mission: but luidelity spends its time
with hammer and chisel trying to cut out
from the tombstones Of your dead all the
story of resurrection and heaven. 1t is the
iconoclast OF every village graveyard and of
every city cemetery and OF Westminster Alb
hey. Instead of Christian consolation for
the dying, = freezing sheer. Instead of
PRAYER a grimacC. Instead OF Paups
triumphant defiance Of death, a going out
you know not VIII re- TO stop you know not
when, to Go on know not what. That is in
fidelity.
Furthermoi a: I cannot be an in6del, be-
cause of the false charges infdelity is all the
time making against the Bible. Perhaps the
Islander that has made the most impression
and that some Christians have not been in
telligent enough TO deny is that the Bible
favors polygamy. Does the God OF the Bible
uphold polygamy, or did HeY How many
wives did God make for Adam? be made
one wife. Does not your common sense tell
Won when God started the marriage institu-
tion He started il as Ho wanted it to con-
tinue9 If God had favored polygamy He
could have created for Adam five wives or
ten wives or twenty wives just as easily as
He made one
At the very first o. the Bible God shows
Himself in favor Of mOnogamy and antago-
nistic to polygamy. Genesis H., "A. There
fore shall man leave his father and mother,
and shall cleave unto his WIFE Not his
wives. but his wife. How many wives did
God SPARE fcv Noah in the ark? Two and
two the birds two and two the cattle; two
and two the lions: two and two the human
race IL the God of the Bible had favored
a uultiplicity OF wives He would have spared
n nlurality of wives When God first
launched the human race He gave Adam
one wife. At the second launching of the
human race He spares for Noah one wife for
Ham one wife, for Shem one wife, for
Jamie. one wife Does that look as though
God favored polygamy? In Leviticus xviii,
is. God thunders His prohibition OF more
than che wife.
God permitted polygamy Yes; just as
He permits to-day's murder an theft and
arson and all kinds OF crime. He permits
these things, as you we'll know but He does
not sanction them. Who would dare to say
He sanctions them? Because the Presidents
of the United States have permitted poly
camr in Utah, you are not therefore TO con-
Guide that they patronized it, that they APP
proved it, when, on the contrary, they de-
nounced il. All of Gods ancient Israel
knew that the God of the Bible WAS against
DO ygamy, for in the four hundred and thirty
years of their stay in Egypt there is only
one Gaze of polygamy recorded-only one.
All the mighty men of the Bible stood aloof
from polygamy except those who, falling
into the crime were classified within an inch
of their lives. Adam, Aaron, Noah, Joseph,
Joshua. Samuel, mOnogamists. But you say,
''Didn'tDavid aud Solomon favor pologamyy
Yes; and did they not get well punished for
it:
Read the lives Of those two men and you
will come to the conclusion that all the at
tributes of GOES nature were against their
behavior David suffered for his crimes in
the caverns of Adullam and MaSSada, in the
wilderness of Mahanaim, in the bereave-
ments of Ziklag The Bedouins after him.
sickness after him, Absalom after him,
Ahithopel after him. Adonijah after him.
the EdomiteS after him. the Syrans after
him, the Moabites after him, death after
him, the Lord God Almighty after him.
The poorest peasant in all the empire mar
red to the plainest Jewess was happier than
the King in his marital misbehavior. How
did Solomon get along with polygamy;-
Read his warnings in Proverbs; read his sells
disgust in Ecclesiastes. He throws up hi
hands in loathing and cries out, Vanity
vanities, all is vanity" His seven hundred
wives nearly peSleicu tlc iiio OuO VI nun.
Solomon got well paid for his crimes-well
paid.
l repeat that all the mighty men Of the
Scriptures were aloof from pOlygamy, save
as thew were pounded and failed and cut to
pieces for their insult to holy marriage. II
fha Bible is the friend Of polygamy why is If
that in all the lands where the Bible pre-
dominates polygamy is forbidden, and in the
lands where there is no Bible it is favored.
Polygamy all over China, all over India, all
over Africa, all over Persia, all over heather
dom, save as the missionaries have done
their work, while polygamy does not exist II
England and the United States, except IN de
fiance Of law. The Bible abroad, sod hon
Ored mOnogamy The Bible not aOroad,
God abhorred pOlY2amy.
Another false charge which infidellty has
made against the Bible is that it is antago-
nistic to woman, that it enjOins her degrade
ton and belittles her mission. Under this
impression many women have been over
come of this plague Of iniidelity. Is the
Bible the enemy Of woman, Come into the
picture gallery, the Louvre the Luxembourg
OF the Bible, aud see which pictures are tho
more hOnored. Here IS Eve, a perfect
woman; as perfect p woman as could I've
made by a perfect God. Here is Deborah.
with her womaIly arm hurling host into
Datt!e. Here IS Miriam, leading the Israel
ltlsh orchestra on the banks of the
Red Ser. Here is motherY Hannah.
with her own loving hand repleuishing the
wardrobe Of her son Samuel. the prophet
Here is Abigail, kneeling at the foot Of the
mountain until the four hundred wrathful
men, at the sight of her beauty and proves
halt halt-a hurricane stopped at the sight
OF water lily, dew drop dashing back Nj
agara. Here is Ruth putting to shame all
modern slang about mothers-in-law as she
turns her back on her home and her country.
and faces wild beasts and exile, and death
that she may be with Naomi her husbands
mother Ruth. the queen of the harvest
fields. Ruth, the grandmother of David
Ruth, the ancestress of Jesus Christ. The
story Of her virtues and her life sacrifice is
the most beautiful pastoral ever written.
Here is Nashti defying the bacchanal Of a
thousand drunken lords. and Esther will
ing to throw her life away that she NAV
deliver her people And here is Dorcas. the
sunlight of eternal fame gliding her philau-
thropic needle, and the woman vita perfume
in box made from the hills of Alabastron.
pouring the holy chrism on the head of Christ.
the aroma lingering all down the corridor Of
the centuries. Here is Lydia, the merchan-
tess of Tyrian purple immortalized for her
Christian behavior. Here is the widow WITH
two mites, more famous than the Peabodys
aud the Lenoxes OF all the ages, while here
Glow q Pal