Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-09-26


where l open tie Bible, End Jesus. Il
whatever path / start, l come after
while 70 the Bethlehem manager. 90
back % the Old dispensation, and see a
lamb on the altar. and say, Behold tbs
Lamb OF God which taketh away the
an OF the world Then | 20 and see
the mama provided for the Israelltes Ia
the wilderness, and say, Jesus, the
bread II life" Then l hook ~ ths rock
which Was sInitten BY the prophets red.
and. 40 the water gushes out. say, 1T
is Jesus, the fountain opened for SIN and
for uncleanness.
20 back and look AZ the writings OF
Job and hear him exclaim, Il know that
my Redeemer liveth." Then | 90 10
Ezekiel and find Christ presented there
a. "a plant OF renoWn," and then turn
over 10 Isaiah and Christ u spoken OF ''as
a sheep before her shearers.' 10 l. Jesus
ali the way between Genesis and Malachi.
Then | turn over IL the New Testament
and IL is Christ in the parable, It Is
Christ II the miracle, IL Is Christ IN the
evangehsts story, il Is Christ IN the
apostles epistles and il is Christ In the
trumpet peal Of the Apocalypse. know
there are a great many people who do
not ind Christ IN the Bible.
Here Is q man who studies the Bible
a. a historian. Well, If you come as a
historian, you VIII find in this book how
the world was made, how the seas fed
10 their places, how empires were estab-
hshed, how nation fought with nation.
iayelin ringing against harbegeon, until
the earth was CHASTITY with the dead.
You viii see the coronation OF princes,
the triumph or cOnquerors, and the world
turned upside down and back again and
down again, cleft and SCARED with
great agonles Of earthquake and tempest
and battle. II is wonderful history,
putting 10 the blush all others in the ac-
curacy of its recital and in the stupen-
dous events II records. Homer and Thu
cydides and Gibbon could make great
stories out OF little events; but 1t took a
Moses 10 tell how the heavens and the
earth were made in one chapter, and To
give the history of thousands OF years
upon two leaves.
MISUSE OF THE BIBLE.
There are others who come to the
Bible merely as antiquarians. II you
come as an antiquarian, you Will find Il
great many odd things IN the Bible
peculiarities of manner and custom,
marriage and burial; peculiariues OF
dress, tunics, sandals, crisping pins.
amulets and girdles and tinkling orna-
ments. II YOU come TO look at military
arrangements, you will find coats of
mail and javelins and engines Of war
and decentralization and encampments.
If you look for peculiar musical instru-
ments, you will find psalteries and shig-
ionoths and rams horns. The anti
quarian will find in the Bible curiosities
in agriculture, and in commerce, and in
art, aud in religion that will keep him
absorbed a great while. There are
those who come TO this Bible as you
would TO a cabinet of curiosities, and
you pick up this and say, What strange
sword that is!' and What a peculiar
hat this ISL and What an unlocked
for lamp that is!' and the Bible TO such
becomes British museum.
Then there are others who find moth
ing in the Bible but the poetry. Well,
If you come IA poet, you Will find in
this book faultless rhythm, and bold i'm
agery. and startling antithesis, and rap
turous lyric, and sweet pastoral, and
instructive narrative, and devotional
psalm; thoughts expressed in a style
more solemn than that of Montgomery,
more bold than that of Milton, more ter
rible than that of Dante, more natural
than that of Wordsworth, more impas-
stoned than that of Pollock. more tender
than that of Cowper, more weird than
than that of Spenser. This great poem
brings all the gems of the earth into its
coronet, and il weaves the flames Of
Judgment in its garland and pours eter-
nal harmonies in its rhythm.
Everything this book touches it makes
beautiful. from the plain stones of the
summer thrashing floor, and the daugh
tiers of Major filling the trough for the
camels, and the fish pools of Heshbon.
up 10 the psalmist praising God with
dispason Of storm and whirlwind, and
Job leading forth Orion, Arcturus and
the Pleiades. Ii is wonderful poem.
and great many people read it as they
do Thomas Moore's "Lalla Rookh," and
Walter SCOTS Lady of the Lake" and
Tennyson's Charge of the Light Bri-
gade." They SIT down, and are 50 alb
sorbed in looking at the shells on the
shore that they forget To look off on the
great ocean of Gods mercy and saliva
ton.
Then there are others who come to
this book "a skeptics. They marshal
passage against passage, and try to get
Matthew and Luke III a quarrel, and
would have discrepancy between what
Paul and James say about faith and
works, and they try the account of
Moses concerning the creation by
modern decisions IN science. and resolve
that in All questions between the scien-
tidc explorer and the inspired writer they
viii give the preference 70 the geologist.
These men-these spiders. I will say
suck poison ont OF tn. sweetest flowers.
They fatten their iufdelity upon the
truths which have led thousands 70
heaven, and in their distorted vision
prophet seems 20 war with prophet, and
svangelst with evangelist. and apostle
with apostle. and il they can find some
bal trait - character in q man Of Cfod
mentioned in that Bible these carrion
crows cav and flap their wings over the
carcass. Because they cannot under
stand how the whale swallowed Jonah
they attempt the more wonderful feat II