Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-09-29

| tuItS, anu resolved, as n lawyer anu Judge.
I would try the book as would try anything
In the courtroom, taking evidence for and
against. II was u long and serious and pro-
found study, and using the same principles
OF evidence In this religious matter rs | al
ways do in secular matters | have come to
the decision that the Bible IL a supernatural
book, that II has come from Gsd. and that
the only safety for the human race is to fol-
low its teachings" Judge. thRt will do.
Go back again to your pillow OF dust on the
banks OF the Ohio"
Next put upon the witness stand a Presl-
dent of the United States-Iohn Quincov
Adams. President Adams. what have you 10
say about the Bible and Christianity The
| President replies az have for many years
made 1t a practice to read through the Bible
once year. My custom IL to read four or
five chapters every morning Immediately
after arising from my bed. 1t employs about
! an hour OF my time and seems to me 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 10 morality, 1t is an invaluable and
| ineNhaustible mine OF knowledge and virtue. "
Next | 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 Bible?" Tho
philosophers reply Is, "We account the
Scriptures OF God to be the most sublime
philosophy"
Next put upon the witness stand the en-
chantment OF letters, Sir Walter Scott. and
when ask him what he thinks OF the place
that our great book ought to take among
other books he replies, "There is but ono
book, and that IL the Bible"
Next put upon the stand the most famous
geologist OF all time, Hugh Miller an elder
of DR.. Guthries Presbyterian church in Ed
inburgh. and Faraday and Keper, and they
all testify to the same thing. They all say
the Bible is from God, and that the mlghtirst
influence for good that over touched our
world is Christianity.
Chancellor Kent, what do you think OF
the Bible?' Answer: mo other book ever
addressed itself so iuthoritativcly and SO
pathetically to the Judgment and moral sense
OF mankind"
-,dmund Burke, what do you think Of the
Bible" 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 put upon the stand william +. Glnd-
stone. the head OF the English government.
and hear him saying what he said to mo in
January OF 1890, when in reply to his tor-
gram, "Pray come TO Hnwarlen tomorrow"
visited him. Then and there 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 hn turned
upon me with an emphasis and enthusiasm
such az no ole who has not convcrsed with
him can fully appreciate and expressed 10y
voice and gesture and illumined countonan""
his ever increasing faith in God and the Bible
and Christianity as the only hope OF oar
ruined world. "Thnt Is all, Mr. Gladstone,
we will take OF your time now, for, from tn"
reports OF what is going on in England Just
now | think you are very busy"
The next man l put upon the witness
stand is the late Earl Of Kntore, and ask
him what he thinks OF Christianity, and h,
replies, "Why DO you ask me- that2 Did you
not hear me preach Christ in the Midni .ht
Mission OF London2' "Oh, yes remrn-
Der" But see many witnesses present to-
day in the courtroom, and cali you TO the
witness stand, but l have only a second OF
time for any one OF YOU. Az you pass along
Just give me ono sentence In regard to Chris
tianity. "Under God 1t has changed my en-
tire nature" says one at brought me from
drunkenness and poverty to sobri"ty and =
good home" SAYS another. at solared ma
when l lost my child" says another at
gave me hope OF future treasures when my
property was swept Off by the last panic
says another. at has given me a peace AMI
satisfaction mora to me than all the world
beside" says another. at has been to me-
light and music and fragrance and radiant
anticipation says another All stop the
procession OF witnesses. Enough Enough
All those voices of the past and present have
nightly increased our faith
Again, our belief is rc-cnforcci nv ar
Genealogical exploration. We must confess
that good men at ono time were afraid Of
geologist's hammer and chemists rrurihlr
and archGoogist's investigation. bat now
intelligent Christians arc receiving AMI still
expecting nothing but confirmation from all
such sources. What supports the Palestine
Exploration Society Contributions from
churches and Christian benciactors. SAW
the marks OF the shOvels Of that exploring
society amid the ruins OF ancient Jericho and
all up and down from the Dead Sea to
Cesarea Philippi. dig away" says the
church Of God, land the deeper you dig tho
better | like
The discovered monuments OF Egypt have
ohiseed on them the story OF the sufrrrlngs
of the Israelites in Egyptian bondage, rs we
find 1t In the Bible-thcre. in imperishable
stone, representations OF tho slave, OF the
whips and ofthc taskmastcrs who compelled
the making OF bricks without straw. Ex-
humed Nineveh and Babylon, with their
dusty lips, declared tho Bible true. Napol- |
cons soldiers in the Egyptian campaign |
pried up q stone, which you may find in the /
British museum, n stone, rs | remember it, |
representing perhaps two feet Of lcttered
surface. 1t contains words In three Ian. |
guages. The stone was the keythat unlocked !
the meaning OF all the hieroglyphics oftombs |
and obclsks and tells over and over again tho
same events which Moses recorded.
The sulphurous graves OF Sodom and i,
Gomorrah have been identified. Tho re-
mains OF the tower OF Babel have been
found. Assyrian documents lifted from the |
sand and Behistun inscription hundreds Of
feet high up on the rock echo and re-echo |
the truth OF Bi. le history. The signs OF the
time indicate that almost every fact OF the
BiPlp from lid to lid will find its corrobora-
tion in ancient city disentombed, or ancient
wall cleared from the dust OF ages, or ancient
document unrolled by Archaeological
Before the world rolls on as far into the
twentieth century rs it has already rolled
into the nineteenth an inidel will be q man
who does not believe his own senses, andth
volumes now critical and denunciatory OF
the Bible, II not entirely devastated by the
book-worIns, will be taken down from the
shelf as curlosities OF ignorance or idiocy.
All success to the pickaxes and crowbars and
powder blasting OF those apostles OF archno-
logical exploration. like the ringing de-
hance OF the old Huguenots to the assaiants
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 n library made up of CO books
and written by at least 80 authors. 1t is
supernatural thing that they have stuck to-
gether. Take the writings OF any other 80
authors, or any 10 authors, or any 8 authors,
and put them together, and how long would
they stay together2 Books OF "elegant ex-
tracts" compiled from many authors are
short lived. never knew one
such book which, TO use the nuhlIsher'a |
phrase, chad life In it" for Ave years.
Why Is 1t that the Bible, made up OF the
writings OF at least SO authors, has kept to-
gether for n long line OF centuries when the
natural tendency would have been to fly
apart like loose sheets Of paper when gust
OF wind blows upon them2 1t Is because God
stuck them together and keeps them to-
gether. But for that Joshua would have
off In one direction, and Paul into
annthnr and Eznkinl Into arat,a,-