Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-04-11

ity. Whlch 90 you IKE tue better, " yoy-
ager for eternity, the freely or the light
houset
What mission infidelity has started onl
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 "0ld Mortality ehisel in
hand, went through the land to cut out into
palmer letters the half ubliterated inscrip-
tons on the ton1bstenes. and it vas beau
tiful mission: but infidelity spends its time
with hammer and chisel trying to cut out
from the tombstoaes 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 grimace. Instead of Paufs
triumphant defiance of death. a going out
you know not where, to stop you know not
when, to do you know not what. That is in
fidelity.
Furthermore: cannot he an infdel, be-
cause of the alse charges intidelity is all the
time making against the Bible. Perhaps the
SANDER that has made the most impression
and that some Christians have not been in-
telligent enough TO deny is that the Bible
faYors polygamy. Does the God OF the Bible
uphold polygamy, or did Hey How many
wives did God make for ADAM? He made
one wife. Does not your common sense tell
YOU when God started the marriage institu-
ton He started it as He wanted it to con-
tinue? If God had favored polygamy He
could have created for Adam five wives or
ten wives on twenty wives just as easily as
He made one.
At the very first of the Bible God shows
Himself in favor Of monogamy and ahtago-
histic to polygamy4 Genesis H., "a, There
fore shall a man leave his father and mother
and shall cleaye unto his wife" Not his
wives, but his wife How many wives did
+ God spare for Noah in the ark Two and
two the birds; two and two the cattle; two
and two the lions: two AMI two the human
race. II the God of the Bible had favored
d multiplicity Of wives He would have spared
a plurality 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
Japhet one wife. Does that look as though
God favored uolygamy? In Leviticus xviii,
IS God thunders His prohibition of more
! than enc wife.
God permitted polyga1y. Yes; just as
He permits to-day's murder AMI theft and
arson and all kids of crime. He permits
| these things, as you well 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
| gamy in Utah. you arenot, therefore, to con
Guide that they patronized it. that they ap-
/ proved it, when, on the contrary, they de-
nounced it, All of Gods ancient Israel
knew that the God of the Bible was against
| po'ygamy, for in the four hundred and thirty
years of their stay in Egypt there is only
( one case of polygamy recorded-oniy one
All the mighty msh 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 and Solomon favor pologamy?
Yes; and did they not set well punished for
/ it?
! Read the lives of those two men and YOU
will come to the conclusion that all the at
/ tributes Of Gods nature were against their
/ behavior. David suffered for his crimes in
/ the caverns of Adullam aud Massada, in the
wilderness of Mahanaim, in the bereave-
/ ments of Ziklag The Bsdouins after him,
sickness after him, Absalom after him,
Ahithopel after him, Adonijah after him,
the Edomites after him, the Syrians after
him, the Moahites after him, death after
I him, the Lord God Almighty after him
/ The poorest peasant in all the empire mar
/ ried 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 selfs
! disgust in Ecclesiastes. He throws up hi
! hands in loathing and cries out, VANITY o
vanities, all is vanity" His seven hundred
| wives nearly pestered the life cut of him.
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 they were pounded and failed and cut to
/ pieces for their insult to holy marriage If
the Bible is the friend of polygamy why is it
! 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 heathsu-
! dom, save as the missionaries have done
| their WORK, while polygamy does not exist in
! England and the United States, except in de
| fiance Of law The Bible abroad, God hon
orei mopogsmy. The Bible not abroad,
| Cod abhorred polYzamy
! AroIhcr false charge which infdelity has
/ made against tho Bible is that it is antago-
/ nistic to woman, that it enjoius her degrade
4 ton and belitt!cs her mission. Under this
! impression many women have been over
come of this p-a2ue Of infidelity Is the
/ Bible the enemy Of woman2 Come into the
/ picture gallery, the Louvre the Luxembourg
of the Bible, AMI seq which n'ctures ara the
more hoNorad. Here is Eve, rerf~es
/ woman, as perfect a woman as could I've
made By a perfect God. Here is Deborah.
| with her womal,y arm hurting host into
battle. Here is Miriam. leading the Israel
/ itish orchestra on the hanks Of the
Red Se'. Here is mother.y HANNAH,
with her own loving hand repleuishinc the
wardrobe of her son Samuel the prophet.
Here is Abigail, kneeling al 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 tine SIGHT
! of a water lily. dew drop dashing back NJ
! agara. Here is Ruth putting to shame all
| modern slang about mothers-in-law as she
hpr salF
and faces wild beasts and exile, and death
that she may be with Naomi. llar husbands
| mother. Ruth. the queen of the harvest
fields. Ruth, tho grandmother of David.
/ hutb, the ancestrssS of Jfsns Christ The
story of her virtues and her life sacrifice is
] tne most beautiful pastoral ever written
| Here is NaShtl defying the baccharal of a
I thousand drunken lords, and Esther Will
/ ing to throw her life away that she NAV
| deliver her people And here is Dorc9s the
| sunlight Of eternal fame gliding her philan-
| throplc needle, and the woman with perfume
/ IN box made from the hills of AlabaStrou.
/ pouring the hoI ~ chrism on the head OF Christ
the aroma lingering all down the corridor of
1 the centuries. HeredS Lydia, the mercaan-
I tess of Tyrian purpls immortalizel for her
/ Christian behavior. Here is the widow wit
! two mites, more famous than the Peabodys
! and the Lenoxes Of all the ages. while here
! comes in slow Of gait and with careful stten-
! leaning on the arm of inspiration, one who
/ IS the joy and pride of any home so rarely
! fortunate as TO have one, an Old Christian
/ grandmother. Grandmother Lois Who has
| more worsnipsrs to-day than any being
| that ever lived on earth except Jesus Christi
! Mary. For what purpose did Christ perform
| His first miracle upon earth? To relieve the,
/ embarrassment OF womanly housakeener!
| at the falling short of a beverage. Why
| dld Christ break up the silence OF the TONIC
/ and tear off the shroud. and rim up the rocks
! It was to stop the bereavement of the two
| Bethany sisters. For whose comfort was
/ Christ most anxious in the hour of diving
| eScruciation2 For woman al old woman
! wrinkle facet woman. woman who in
! ott--f days had held Him in her arms His
/ first friend His last friend, as ii is very AIT
to be, His mother. All the pathos of the ages
/ compressed into one utterance behold thy
mother" Does the Bible autagolizs
woman
| II the Bible is So antagonistic 70 woman
! Eow do you account for tho difference in
| womans con iition in China and C@AtraI
| Africa, aud her condition in England and
| America? There is no difference excep1 that
| which the Bible makes. In lands where there
| is no Bible she is hitcded like beast of brr.
| Gen to the plows, she carries the hol she sub
mits to Undesirable iudignities. She must
| be Kept ina private apartment, and IL she
| come forth she must be carefully hooded and
| reilglously yelled as though it were a shame
| TO be woman. Do YOU not know that the
| very first thing the Bible does when il comes
| into new country is to strike off the sbackles
| OF woman's serfdom? O woman. where ara
| your chains to-day? Hold up both your arms
and let US see your handouts Oh, we see
the handouts. They are bracelets of gold