Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1892-10-01

the triumph of conqucrorS. and the world
| turned upside down and back again and
down again, cleft and SCARED with
great agonies of earthquake and tempest
and battle. Ii is wonderful history,
putting To the blush all others in the ac-
curacy Of its recital and in the stupen-
dous events it records. Homer and Thu
| cvdides and Gibbon could make great
stories out of little events; but it took a
Moses to tell how the heavens and the
earth We're mad" III one chapter. and TO
give the history Of thousands of years
upon two leaves
MISUSE of TIE EIP'.E.
There are others who come TO the
Bible merely as antiqnarians. If you
come as an antiquarian, yon will find a
great many odd things i'll the Bible
pecularitieS of manner and custom.
marriage and burial: pcculiarities of
dress. tunicS. sandals. crisping pins,
amulets and gir,ileS and tinkling orna-
menfs. II Won come to look Mt military
arrangements. you will find coats of
mail and javelins and engines of war
and circumvallation and encampments.
If Won look for peculiar musical instru-
ments. you will find psalteries and shig-
ionotlis and rams horns. The anti
quarian will find in the Bible curiosities
in agriculture. and in commerce. and in
art, and i'll religion that will keep him
absorbed great while. There are
those who come 10 this Bible as you
would Ia cabinet of curiosities, and
you pick mp this and say. What u strange
sword that is and What a peculiar
hat this isi' 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 as poet, you Will find III
this book faultle>s rhythm. and bold i'm
agery. and startling antithesis. and rap
turous lyric. and sweet pastoral, and
instructive narrative, and devotional
psalm: thoughts expressed III 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 lis garland and pours eter-
nal harmonies i'll lis rhythm.
Everything this book touches it makes
beautiful, from the plain stones of the
summer thrashimg floor. and the daugh-
tiers of N;ahor filling the trough for the
camels and the ii i pools of Heshbon.
up to the psahnisi praising God with
diapason If storm and whirlwind, and
Job leading forth Orion. Arcturus and
the Plriadcs. |, i "A wonderful poem.
and great many people rr;ld it as they
do Thomas Moorc's "Lalla Rookh." and
Walter SCOTS Lady of the Lake" and
Tcnnvson's Charge of the Light Bri-
gade" They sill down. and are so 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
tion.
Then there are others who come To
this book as skeptics. They marshal
hstN1stsSt e-ShAtiTt t''s's'sAfNFf hAs W ENt
Matthew and Luke i'll 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-
tific explorer and the inspired writer they
fl,a t.. tl.
These men-these spiders. will say
suck poison ont of the sweetest flowers.
They fa;ien their infidelity upon the
truths which have led thousands to
heaven, and III their distorted vision
prophet seems 10 war with prophet. and
evangelist with evangelist. and apostle
with apostle, and if they can find some
bad trait of character in man of God
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 of
swallowing the monster whale of mod
ern sllep;iciSm. They do not believe it
possible that the Bible story should he
true which says that the dumb ass spake,
while they themselves prove the thing
possible by their own utterances.
am amused beyond bounds when
hear one of these men talking about n
future life. just ask a man who rejects
that Bible what heaven Is. and hear him
befog your soul. He will tell you that
heaven is merely the development of the
-. ..T, -.
tiorescence of the dynamic forces into
state of ethereal and transcendental In
cubration, in close juxtaposition To the
ever present was" and the great ito
be" and the everlasting no" Consider
ing themselves wise. they are fools for
time. fools for eternity.
As TO VAIN DESTINATIONS.
Then there is another class of persons
who come to the Bible as controversial
lists. They are enormous Presbyterians
or fierce Bapiists or violent Methodists.
They cut the Bible to suit their creed
instead "f cutting their creed 10 suit the
Bible. If the Scriptures think as they
do. well; is not so much the worse for
the Scriptures. The Bible is merely the
hNttSAbbF tit ttIN
dissecting knife of controversy. They
come to it as government i'll time of
war comes to armories or arsenals for
weapons and munitions. They have de-
clarcd everlasting war against all other
sects, and they want SO many broad
swords. 50 many muskets. So many
howitzers. so many columbiads. SO much
grape and canister. so many fieldpieces
with which Ia rake the field of dispute,
for they mean to get the victory though
the heavens be darkcned with the smoke
and the earth rent with the thunder.
What do they care about the religion of
the Lord Jesus Christ:
| have se' i some such men come back
from an ecclesiastical massacre as proud
of their achievements as an Indian war
rior boasting of the number Of scalps he
has taken. have more admiration for
Il man who goes forth with his fists 10
get the championship than have for
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