Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-09-21

ognize the sentiment. When the let
ter comes you do not summon the
postmaster who stamped it and the
postmaster who received it and the let
ter carrier who brought it to your door
TO prove that it is genuine letter.
The internal evidence settles il and by
the same process you can forever set
tie the fact that the bible is the hand
writing and communication of the in.
finite God.
Furthermore, as have already intl-
mated, we may increase our faith by
the testimony of Others Perhaps we
of lesser brain may have been over.
come by superstition or cajoled into
an acceptance of hollow pretense.
SO | will this morning turn this house
into court room and summon wit
nesses, and you shall be the jury, and
! now empanel you for that purpose,
and ! will put upon the witness stand
men whom all the world acknowledge
to be strong intellectually and whose
evidence in any other court room
would be incontrovertible. ! will not
call 10 the witness stand any minister
of the gospel, for he might be preju-
diced. There are two ways of taking
an oath in "a court room. One is by
putting the lips to the bible and the
other is by holding up the right hand
toward heaven. Now, in this case, it
is the bible that is on trial; we
will not ask the witness to put the
book to his lips, for that would imply
that the sanctity and divinity of the
book is settled, and that would be
begging the question. SO shall ask
each witness to lift his hand toward
heaven in affirmation. Samuel Z.
Chase, chief justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States. appointed
by President Lincoln, will take the
witness stand. "Chicf Justice Chase,
upon your oath, please to state what
you have to say about the book com
monty callod the bible" The witness
replies: "Thcre came time in my
life when | doubted the divinity Of the
scriptures, and | resolved, as lawyer
and judge, / would try the book as
would Try anything in the courtroom,
taking evidence for and against 1t
was long and serious and profound
study, and using the same principles
of cvid ence in tn S religious matter as
! always do in secular matters, have
come TO the decision that the bible is
sup crnatural book, that it has come
from God, and that the only safety tor
tho human race is to follow its teach
ings.' Judge, that will do. Go back
afs'nn to your pillow of dust on the
Drinks of the Ohio" Next | put upon
tile witness stand a President of the
nited States-John Quincy Adams.
president Adams, what have you to
say about the bible and Christianity"
The President replies: 81 have for
many years made it a practice to read
through the bible once year. My
custom is to read four or five chapters
every morning Immediately after aris-
ing from my bed. 1t employs about
an hour of my time and seems to me
the most suitable manner of beginning
the dav. In what light soever we re.
gard the bible, whether with reference
to revelation, to history, or to morali-
ty, it is an invaluable mine of l1nowl-
edge and virtue" Next | put upon
the witness stand Sir Isaac Newton,
the author of the "Principia" and the
greatest natural phi osopher the world
has ever seen. ''Sir Isaac, what have
you to say concerning the bible, he
philosophers reply IS: I'VE account
the scriptures o. God to be the most
sublime philosophy"
Next ! put upon the witness stand
the enchantment 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 one book
/ and that is the bible Next | put
upon the stand the most famous
geologlst of all time, Hugh Miller, an
elder of DR.. Guthrie's Presby terian
! church in Edinburgh, and Faradav,
and keppler, and they all testify to
the same thing, They all say the
| bible is from God and that the
! mightiest influence for good that ever
! touched our world is Christianity.
Chancellor Kent. What do you think
of the bible?" Answer: mo other
book ever addressed itself so authori-
! tatively and so pathetically to the
/ judgment and moral sense of man
kind Edmund Burke, What
do you think of the bible?" An
swer: 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 f. Glad
stone, the head of the English govern
ment, and | hear him saying what he
said to me in January of $780, when,
in reply to his telegram, Pray come
| to Hawarden 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 increas, or
! decrease, and he turned upon me wish
an emphasis and enthusiasm such as
no one who has not conversed with
him can fully appreciate, and ex-
! pressed by voice and gesture, and illu-
( mined countenance his ever-increas-
I ing faith in God and the bible and
| [ hristianity as the only hope of our
ruined world. That is all, Mr..
! Gladstone, we will take of your time
now, for, from the reports of what is
| going on in England just now.
think you are very busy" The next
man | put upon the witness stand
| is the late earl of Kintore, and
ask him what he thinks of Christian
I ity, and he replies: why do you ask
me that? Did you not hear me preach
! Christ in the Midnight mission of
/ London oh, yes. remember" But
! see many witnesses present to day in
! the courtroom. and ! call you to the
witness stand, but | have only sec
Ond OF time Tor any one OF you. AS
you pass along just give one sentence
/ in regard to thristianity. Under
God it has changed my entire nature"
says one 1T brought me from
drunkenness and poverty to sobriety
and a good home says another. at
! solacct me when | lost my child, :"
says another. sit gave me hope of
: future treasures when my property
was swept off by the last panic" SAYS
another. IL HIS given me peace
and satisfaction more t. me than all
the world besides, says another. at
has been to me light, and music, and
! fragrance, and radiant anticipation, :"
says another. All, op the procession
! of witnesses. Enough, Enough All
I those voices of the past and the pres
ent have nightly increased our faith.
Again our belief is reinforced by
archaeological exploration. We must
confess that good mea at one time
were afraid of biologists hammer and
chemists crucible and a~chaologist's
investigation, but now intelligent
Christians are receiving and still ex-