Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-10-01

| upOu JWO lchVeS.
There are others who come to tn
Bible merely rs antiquarians. If yo
come as an antiquarian you will find
great many odd things in the Bible
pcculiarities of manner and custom
marriage and burial; peculiarities o
dress, tunics, sandals, crisping pins
amulets and girdies, and tinkling orna
ments. II you will come to look q
military arrangements, you will fint
coats of mail, and javelins and engine,
Of war, and decentralization and en-
campments. If you look for peculia,
musical instruments, you will fine
psalteries, and shiglonoths, and rams
horns. The antiquarian will find in
the Bible curiosities in agriculture, anG
in commerce, and in art, and in relig
ion, that will keep him absorbed a
great while. There are those who
come to this Bible as you would to q
cabinet of curiosities, and you pick UP
this and say, What q strange sword
that Isl" and "What peculiar hat this
u.s." and "What I'm unlocked for lamp
that isw and the Bible to such becomes
a British museum.
Then there are Others who find moth
ing in the Bible but the poetry. Well,
If you come as n poet, You will find in
this book faultless rhythm. and bold
imagery, and startling antithesis, and
rapturous lyric, and sweet pastoral, and
instructive narrative, and devotional
psalm; thoughts expressed in n style
more solemn than that of Montgomery,
more bold than that of Milton, more
terrible than that Of Dante, more
natural than that of Wordsworth, more
than that of Pollock, more
tender than that of Cowper, more weird
than that of Spenscr. This great poem
brings all the gems of the earth into
its coronet, and it weaves the flames of
Judgment in its garland, and pours
eternal harmonies in its rhythm. Every
thing this book touches it makes beauti-
full, from the plain stones of the summer
threshing floor, and the daughters of
Major filling the trough for the camels,
and the fish pools of Heshbon, up to
the psalmist praising God with diapa-
son of storm and whirlwind, and Job
leading forth Orion, Arcturus and the
Pleiades. 1t is wonderful poem and
a great many people read it as they do
Moore's ''Lalla Roolsh," and
Walter SCOTS Lady of the Lake."
and Tennyson's Charge of the Light
They sit down and are SO
absorbed in looking ut the shells on
the shore that they forget to look off
on the great ocean of Gods mercy and
salvation.
Then there are others who come to this
book as skeptics. They marshal pas
sage agains, passage and try to get Mat
thew and Luke in Il quarrel and would
have discrepancy between what Paul
md James say about faith and works
md they try the account of Moses con-
,erning the creation by modern deci-
lions In science, and resolve that in all
questions between the scientific ex-
,lorer and the inspired writer they will
rive the preference to the geologist.
These men-these spiders, l will say
uck poison out of the sweetest flowers.
They fatten their infidelity upon the
ruths which have led thousands to
Ieaven, and in their distorted vision
prophet seems to war with prophet, and
with evangelist and apostle
With apostle; and if they can find some
,ad trait of character in man of God
mentioned in that Bible, these carrion
rows cav and flap their wings over the
arcass. Because they cannot under
tand how the whale swallowed Jonah
hey attempt the more wonderful feat
4 swallowing the monster whale of
modern skepticism. They do not be-
ieve it possible that the Bible story
hould be true which says that the
umb ass spake, while they themselves
rove the thing possible by their own
Itterances. l am amused beyond
'ounds when hear one of these men
alking about future life. Just ask a
nan who rejects that Bible what Heav-
n is and hear him befog your soul.
lie will tell you that Heaven is merely
he development of the internal re-
ources of man; it is an efflorescence
4 the dynamic forces into n state of
therial and transcendental lucubra-
ion, in close juxtaposition to the ever
resent twas" and the great ito be"
nd the everlasting ''no." Considering |
wise, they are fools for time,
ools for eternity.
Then there is another class Of per-
ons who come to the Bible as contro-
ersialists. They are enormous Pres
,yterians or fierce Baptists, or violent |
They cut the Bible TO suit |
heir creed, instead of cutting their |
reed to suit the Bible If the Script |
res think as they do, well; If not, so
much the worse for the Scriptures. The |
Iible is merely the milestone on which |
hey sharpen the dissecting knife of |
controversy. They come to it as gov
rnment in time of war comes to arm
ries or arsenals for weapons or NUM-
FUNN \ A.