The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-09-22

of that bell, and | strike it three times
with all my might, and it sounds, woel
woe! woe! But my wish, and the wish
of most of you, is the prayer expressed
by the disciples to yJesus Christ In the
words of my text, Lord, increase our
faith"
STRENGTH OF THE BIBLE.
The first mode of accomplishing this
is to study the Bible itself. I do not be-
lieye there is an infidel now alive who
has read the Bible through. But as SO
important document needs to be read
at least TWICE through in order that it
may be thoroughly understood, and read
in course, now offer 800 reward to
any infdel who has read the Bible
through twice and read it in course. But.
] cannot take such mans own word for
it, for there Is no foundation for integri-
ty except the Bible, and the man who re-
jects the source of truth how can &C
cept his truthfulness?
So must have another witness in the
case before | give the reward. must
have the testimony of some one who has
seen him read it all through twice In
fidels fish in this Bible for incoherencies
and contradictions and absurdities, and
if you find their Bible you will see inter
lineations in the book of Jonah and some
of the chapters of that unfortunate
prophet nearly worn out by much use,
and some parts of II Samuel or I
Kings you will find dim with finger
marks, but the pages which contain the
Ten Commandments, and the Psalms Of
| David, and the sermon on the mount, and
the book of John the Evangelist, will
not have single lead pencil strokein the
margin nor any finger marks showing
frequent perusal.
The father of one of the presidents of
| the United States was pronounced in
Gdel. knew it when many years ago l
accepted his invitation to spend the
night in his home. Just before retiring
at night he said in jocose way, II
suppose you are accustomed to read the
Bible before going to bed, and here is
my Bible from which to read" He then
told me what portions he would like to
| have me read, and he only asked for
I those portions on which he could easily
| be facetious
You know you can make fun about
anything. suppose you could take the
/ last letter your father or mother ever
wrote and find something in the gram
mar or the spelling or the tremor of the
penmanship about which to be derisively
critical. The internal evidence of the
truthfulness of the Bible is SO mighty
that no one man out of the 1900, 000,0 900
Of the worlds present population or the
/ vaster millions of the past ever read the
Bible in course, and read it prayerfully
and carefully but was led to believe it.
/ John Murray, the famous book pub
] Usher of Edinburgh and the intimate
friend of Southey, Coleridge, Walter
! Scott, Canning and Washington Irving,
bought of Moore, the poet, the Memoirs
of Lord Byron" and they were to be
published after Byron's death. But they
were not fit to be published, although
Murray had paid for them $4,000. That
was solemn conclave when eight of the
prominent literary people of those times
assembled in Albemarle street after By
ron's death to decide what should be
done with the memoirs" which were
charged and surcharged with defafna-
tons and indelicacies. The memoirs"
were read and pondered, and the decision
came that they must be burned, and not
until the last word of those Memoirs
went to ashes did the literary company
separate.
But suppose, now, all the bestspirits of
all ages were assembled to decide the
fate of the Bible, whichis the last will and
testament of our Heavenly Father, and
these memoirs of our Lord Jesus, what
would be the verdict? Shall they burn,
or shall they live? The unanimous YER
dict of all is, Let them live, though all
slse burn" Then put together on the
other hand all the debauchees and profit
gates and assassins of the ages, and their
unanimous verdict concerning the Bible
would be, LET it burn"
Mind you, l do not say that all infidels
are immoral, but / do say that all the
scrapegraces and scoundrels of the uni
verse agree with them about the Bible
Let me vote with those who believe in
the holy Scriptures Men believe Other
things with half the evidence required tc
believe the Bible. The distinguished Alb
| nor Kneplan1 reia,.tad the Srriptures