Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-09-21

signs OF the time indicate thai almost every |
fact Of the Bible from lid to lid Will find its |
corrobontion in ancient city disentombed. |
or ancient wall cleared from the dust Of
ages, or ancient document unrolled by ar
chRologist.
Before the world rolls on as far into the |
twentieth century as Il has already rolled |
into the nineteenth, an inildel will be a man
who does not believe his own senses, and
the volumes now critical and denunciatory
Of the Bible, II not entirely devastated by
the bookworms, will Be taken down from
the shelf as curiosities Of ignorance or lido
cy. All success to the pickaxes and crow
bars and powder blasting of those apostles
Of archaeological exploration. / like the
ringing defiance Of the old Huguenots to
the assailants Of Christianity; Pound
away, you rebelsl Your hammers break,
but the anvil Of Gods word stands"
How wonderfully the old book hangs to-
getherl 1t is library made mp Of GO books
and written by at least so authors. It is a
supernatural thing that they have stuck
together. Take the writings Of any other
50 authors, or any 10 authors, or any B
authors and put them together, and how
long would they stay togetheri Books Of
elegant extracts" compiled from many
authors are proverbially short lived. /
never knew one such book, which, to use
the publishers phrase. ''had life in it'' for
five years.
Why is it that the Bible, made up of the
writings of at least 80 authors, has kept to-
gether for 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 themf 1t is be-
cause God stuck them together and keeps
them together. But for that Joshua would
have wandered off in one direction, and
Paul into another, and Ezekiel into another,
and Luke into another, and Habakkuk in
to another, and the 80 authors into SO direc-
tions. Put the writings Of Shakespeare
and Tennyson and Longfellow, or any part
of them, together. How long would they
stay togetheri No obook bindery could keep
them together.
But the cannon of Scripture is loaded
now with the same ammunition with which
prophet and apostle loaded it. Bring me
all the Bibles Of the earth into one pile
and blindfold me so that cannot tell the
difference between day and night, and put
into my hand any one of all that Alpine
mountain of sacred books, and put my fin
| ger on the last page of Genesis, and let me
know it, and can tell you what is on the
next page-namely, the first chapter of Ex-
| odus. or while thus blindfolded, put my
| finger on the last chapter of Matthew, and
let me know it, and will tell you what is
on the next page-namely, the first chapter
of Mark. In the pile of 500, 600, 600 Bibles
there will be no exception.
In other words, the book gives me conf
dence by its supernatural adhesion OF
writing to writing. Even the stoutest ship
sometimes ships its cargo, and that is what
made our peril the greater in the ship
Greece of the National line when the cy-
| clone struck us off the coast of Newfound-
| land and the cargo of iron had shifted as
the ship swung from larboard to starboard
and from starboard to larboard. But
thanks be to God, this old Bible ship
though it has been in thousands of years Of
tempest, has kept its cargo of gold and
precious stones compact and sure, and in
all the centuries nothing about it has
shifted. There they stand, shoulder
to shoulder, David and Solomon and
Isaiah and jeremiah and Ezekiel and
Daniel and Hosea and Joel and Amos
and Obadiah and Jonah and Micha and
Nahum and Habakkuk and Zephaniah and
Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi and
Matthew and Mark and Luke and Johr
and Paul and Peter, all there, and
with certainty of being there unit
the heavens and the earth. the creation
of which is described in the first book O.
the Bible, shall have collapsed, and tht
white horse of the Conqueror described il
the last book of the Bible shall paw tn
dust in universal demolition By tina
tremendous fact my faith is REINFORCED.
The discussion is abroad as to who wrot
those books of the Bible called the Penta
teuch, whether Moses or Hilkiah or Ezr.
or Samuel or jeremiah or another group O
ancients. None of them wrote it. Coz
wrote the Pentateuch, and in this day o
stenography and typewriting that ough
not to be difficult thing to understand
The great merchants and lawyers and ed
itors and business men of our towns ant
cities dictate nearly all their letters; the,
only sign them after they are dictated. Th
prophet and evangelist and apostle wer
Jehovah's stenographers or typewriters
They put down only what God dictated; b
signed it afterward. He has been writing
his name upon it all through the vicissi
tudes of centuries.
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER.
But I come to the height of my subjec
when say the way to reinforce our fait
is to pray for it. So the disciples in m
text got their abounding faith, Lord, in
crease our faith" Some one suggests, I'D
you really think that prayer amounts t
anything?" ! might as well ask you
there line Of telegraphic poles from Ney
York to Washington; is there line of telt
graphic wires from Manchester to Londor
from Cologne to Berlin. All the peopl
who have sent and received messages O
those. lines know of their existence.
there are millions of souls who have bee
in constant communication with the cap
tai of the universe, with the throne of th
] Almighty, with the great God himself, fo
! years and years and years.
, There has not been day when supplies
tions did not fash up and blessings did nc
flash down. Will some ignoramus wh
has never received telegram or sent on
come and tell us that there is no such thin.
as telegraphic communication Will som
one who has never offered prayer tina
was heard and answered come and tell u
that there is nothing in prayera It may no
, come as we expect it, but as sure as a
honest prayer goes up merciful answe
will come down.
,, During the blizzard of four or five year
ago you know that many of the telegrap
, wires were prostrated, and telegraphed t
, Chicago by the way of Liverpool, and th
answer after awhile came around by al
other wide circuit, and the prayer we offe
may come back in way we never imas
ined, and if we ask to have our faith il
creased, although it may come by a widel
different process from that which we e,
| pected, our confidence will surely be aus
mented.
Oh, put it in every prayer you ever max
/ between your next breath and your las
: gasp, Lord, increase our faith'-faith
8 Christ as our personal ransom from pre-
!. ent guilt and eternal catastrophe; fait