The Penn's Grove record., 1893-09-22

would be begging the question. So l shall ask
each witness to lift his hand toward heaven
in affirmation.
Salmon p. Chase. chief justice OF the su-
nrerpe court Of the United States appointed
BY President Lincoln, will take the witness
stand. ''Chief Justice Chase, upon your
oath, please state what you havet to say about
the book commonly called the Bible The
witness replies "There came a time in my
life when 1 doubted the divinity OF the Scrip
iures. and I resolved, as a lawyer and Judge.
/ would try the book as l wouldtry anything
in the courtroom, taking evidence for and
against. 1t was a long and serious and pro-
found study, and using the same principles
IF evidence In this religious matter as | al
ways do in secular matters have come 10
the decision that the Bible is a supernatural
book. that 1t has come from God. and that
the only safety for the human race is to fol-
low its teachings" "Judge, that will do.
Go back again to your pillow of dust on the
banks OF the Ohio" (
Next l put upon thew witness stand a Presi-
dent Of the United States-John Quinceyl
Adams. President Adams, what have you tol
saw about the Bible and Christianity" The
President replies "I nave for many years
made 1t a practice to read through the Bible
once a year. My custom Is to read four or
five chapters every morning Immediately
nfter arising from my bed. 1t employs about
an hour OF my time and seems to ne the
most suitable manner of beginning the day.
In what light soever we REGARD the Bible,
whether with reference to revelation. to his
tory or to morality, !. Is an invaluable and
lnexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue"
Next 1 put upon the witness stand Sir
Isaac Newton, the author of the "Principia''
and the greatest natural philosopher the
world has ever seen. ''Sir Isaac. what have
you to say concerning the Biole?' The
philosophers reply is, "We account the
Scriptures OF God to he the most sublime
philosophy"
Next / put upon the witness stenl the en-
chantment of letters, Sir Walter Scott, AMI
when I ask him what be thinks of the place
that our great book ought to take among
other books he replies, 'There is but one
book, and that Is the Bible"
Next / put upon the tan the most famous
geologist OF all time, Hugh Miller, an elder
Of DIR. Guthrie's Presbyterian church in Ed
inburgh, and Faraday and Kepler, and they
all testiiy1o the same thing. They all say
the Bible Is from God, n that the mighties,
influence for good that ever touched our
world is Christianity.
''Chancellor Kent, what do you think Of
the Bible2" Answer mo other BOOK ever
addressed itself so authoritatively and so
pathetically to the Judgment and moral sense
Of mankind"
Edmund Burke, what do you .hin< oftht
Bibler" Answer 81 have read the Bible
morning, noon and night, and have ever
since been the happier and the better man
for such reading"
Next 1 put upon the stand william E. Glad
stone. the head of the English government,
and 1 hear him saying what he said to me in
January OF 1890, when in reply to his tele.
gram. spray come to Hawarden tomorrow"
| visited him. Then and there l asked him
as to whether in the passage of years his faith
In the Holy Scriptures and Christianity was
on the increase or decrease, and he turned
upon me with an emphasis AMI enthusiasm
such as no one who has not conversed with
him can fully appreciate and expressed by
voice and gesture and illumined cOuntenance
his ever increasing faith in Col and the Bible
and Christianity as the only hope OF our
ruined world. ''rhat is all, Mr.. Gladstone,
we will take OF your time now, fer, from the
reports OF what is going on in England just
now, l think you are very busy"
The sulphurous graves OF Soion an
Gonorrah have been Identified. The re-
mains OF the tower OF Babel have been
found. Assyrian documents lifted i-om the
sand and Behistun inscription hundreds OF
feet high up on the rock echo AM rt-orhO
the truth Of Bible history. The signs ottha
time indicate that almost every fact OF the
Bible from lid to lid will find its corrohora-
lion in ancient city disentombed, or ancient
wall cleared from the dust ofages, or ancient
document unrolled by archaologist.
Before the world rolls on as far into the
twentieth century as it has already rolled
into the nineteenth an infdel will be a mai
who does not believe his own senses. an,ithe
volumes now critical and denunciatory Of
the Bible, II not entirely devastated by the
book-worms. will be taken down from the
shelf as cur,oslties OF Ignorance or idiocy.
All success to the pickaxes and crowbars and
powder blasting OF those apostles OF archgo-
logical exploration. like the ringing de-
flance of the old Huguenots to the ASSISTANTS
OF Christianity "Pound away, you rebels.
Your hammers break, but the anvil of Gods
word stands"
How wonderful the old book hangs to-
gether. 1t is a library made up of &C books
and written by at least SO authors. 1t is IA
supernatural thing that they nave stuck to-
gether. Take the writings Of any other 80
authors, or any 10 authors, or any 5 authors,
and put them together, and how long would
they stay together2 Books Of ''elegant ex-
tracts" compiled from many authors are
proyerbially short lived. I never knew one
such book which, to use the publishers
phrase, chad life In II" for five years.
Why Is 1t that the Bible, made up OF the
writings OF at least SO authors, has kept to-
gether for a long line OF centuries when the
natural tendency would have been TO fly
apart IKE loose sheets o, paper when a gust
OF wine blows upon them? It'll because God
stuck them together and keeps them to-
gether. But for that Joshua would have
wandered of in one direction. and Paul into
another, and Ezekiel into another, and Ha-
bakkuk into another, and the 80 authors in
to SO directions.
Put the writings of Shakespeare and Ten
nyson and Longiellow, or any part Ofthem,
together. How long would they stay to-
gether2 No book bindery could keep them
together, But the cannon OF the Scripture
Is loaded now with the same an ammunition
With which prophet mt apostle loaded II.
Bring me all the Bibles of the earth into
one pile. and blindfold me SO that l cannot tell
the dinerenee between day and night, and
put into nv hand any one OF oil that Alpine
mountain OF sacred books, and put my finger
on the last page of Genesis and let me know
1t, n can tell you what is on the next page
namely, the first chapter Of Exodus or
S%i mus olndfolded put my fnser on tn
last ehapter Of Matthew and let me know it.
and l will tell you what is on the next page
namely, the FIRST chapter of Marx. In tn"
pile OF 300, 1000, 900 Bibles there will be NJ
exception. In other words, the book gives
me- confidence by its supernatural adhesion
Of writing to writing
Even the stoutest ship sometimes shifts il
cargo, and that is what made our peril tn
Greater In the ship Greece OF the Nationa
fine when the cyclone struck us of the coas'
pr Newfoundland, and the cargo OF iron IA
Fhitted as the ship swung from larboarl t
starboard, and from starboard to larhOarj.
But, thanks be 10 God, this old Bible ship
though it has been In thousands of years o
tempest, has kept its cargo OF gold AMI pre-
eious stones compact and sure, and in all ths
centuries nothing about it has shifted. Tier
they stand, shoulder TO shoulder, David an
solomon and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Eze'
KEEL and Daniel and Hosea aud Joel an
Amos and Obadiah and Jonah and Micah an
Nahum and Habbakkuk and Zephaniah m
Haggai and zechariah and Malachi and Mat
thew and Mark ar : = Vie and John an Pau
asf refer, all there. AMI with a certainty OF
being there until the heavens and the earth,
the creation Of which is described in the first
BOOK OF the Bible, shall nave collapsed, and
me white horse Of the que described
IN the last book ofthe Bible, shall paw the
DUST IN universal demolition. BY that trs
msndous fact my faith "a re-enforced,
inc discussion is abroad as TO who wrots
nose books OF the Bible called the Penta'
teu;hi whether Moses or Hilkish, or Ezra OF
M nF naa@. -.ANB -