Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-01-27

with our modes OF maTAtng lln1, "ueu =
o'clock is l2 o'cloc1, and O'Clock IS 6
o'clock, and 10 O'Clock is l0 o'clock and in
dependent OF all wsathers ana then thank
God that you live now. But nOtwlthsta nd
ing all the imperfect modes OF marking
hours or years or centuries Bible chronoi-
ogy never trips up. never falters, never con-
tradlcts itself, and here is one OF the best ar
guments for the authenticity OF the Scrip
lures.
If you can prove an alioi in the courts,
and you can prove beyond doubt that you
were in some particular place at the time
you were charged with doing or saying
something in quite another place, YOU gain
the victory and inidelitv has tried to prove
an alibi by contending that events and cir.
cumstances in the Bible ascribed to certain
times mtlst have taken place at some other
time if they took place at all. But this
books chronology has never been caught at
fault. 1t has been proved that when the
Hebrews went into Egypt there were only
seventy of them. and that when they came
out there were 3,0c0, O0O OF them.
Now" says infidelity. with a gufaw that
it cannot suppress, what an absurdity {:
They went down into Egypt seventy and
came out 1900. 900. That is falsehood on
the face OF it. Nations do not increase in
that ratio" But, my skeptlcal friend, hol1
q moment. The Bible says that the jews
were 40 years in Egypt. and that explains
the increase from seventy persons to 1000
OO0. for it is no more, but rather less, than
the ordinary increase Of nations. The Pill
grim Fathers came to Am erica in the May
flower. one small shipload Of passengers less
than 300 years ago, and now we have a
nation of 80. 0l0, 900. Where then. IS SO
called imuossibility that the seventy Jews
who went into Egypt in 40 years became
100000? Inf1delity wrong AMI Bible chron-
ology right.
Now Stop and reflect. Why is it that
this sublime subject of Bible chronology
has been SO neglected, and that the most OF
you have never given ten minutes to the
consideration Of it, and that this is the first
sermon ever preached on this stupendous
and overwhelming theme? We have stood
by the half day or the whole deg at grand
reviews and seen armies pass.
Again and again and again on the
Champs Eiysees Frenchmen By the hun
dreds of thousands have stood and Watched
the hammered armies go by, and the huzza
has been three miles long and until the
populaca were so hoarse they could huzzs
no longer. Again and again and again the
Germans by hundreds of thousands have
stood on the palaced and statued Under den
Linden, Berlin, and strewn gariands under
the feet of uniformed hosts led on by Won
Moltke or Butcher or Frederick the Great.
When Wellington and Ponsonby and the
Scots Grays came back from Waterloo, or
Wolseley from Egypt, or Marlborough from
Blenhelm what military professions through
Regent street and along by the palaces OF
London and over the bridges of the Thames !
What almost interminable lines Of military
on the streets of our American capitals,
while Mayors and Governors and Presidents,
with uncovered heads, looked on! But put
all those grand reviews together, ana they
are tame compared with the review which
on New Years day you from the peV and
from the pulpit witness.
Hear them pass in chronological order
all the years before the food; all the years
since the food: decades abreast; centuries
abreast; epochs abreast; miilenniums
abreast; Egyptian civilization, Baoylonian
populations, Assyrian dominlons; armies OF
Persian, Grecian, Peloponnesian and Roman
wars; Byzantine empire, Saracenic hosts
crusaders of the first, the second, third Snd
the last avalanche of men; Dark Ages In
somber epautets and brighter ages with
shields of silver and helmets of gold; Italy.
Spain, France, Russia, Germany, England
and America, past and present; dynasties,
feudal domains, despotisms, monarchles, re-
publcs, ages on ages, ages on ages, passing
to-day in chronological review, until one
has no more power to look upon the ad-
vancing columns, now brilliant now
squa4id, now garlaude1 with peace now
crimson with slaughter. now horrid with
ghastliness, now radiant with love and ioy.
This chronological study affords, among
other practical thoughts. especially two
the one encouraging to the last degree and
the other startling. The encouraging
turtles has been toward bettarnant wifi,
only here and there a stout revarsal
Grec1an clVIl!zatlon was n vast innrove.
ment on Egyptian civilization. md Roman
ciVinzation a vast Improvement on Grecian
cavI n ana CHRISTIAN civilization is a
vast Improvement on Roman civilization.
What was the boosted ACE Of Particles
compared with the age oe Lonqfell3w and
1ennyson! w hat was Queen Elizabeth as a
specl'nen OF moral womanhoo1 compared
WIN queen victoria? What were the cruel
warriors OF olden times connarad with the
most distinguished warriors Of tina last half
century, all or them as much distin guished
LOT klnoness ana good morals as for provess
-Vne Two military leaders Of our Civil War
on nortnern ana southern side communicate
ulelnoers Oh Christian churches and their
noEne nte as pure as their pnbic life?
Nothing lmpresses me in this chronolo-;
cal reVle" more than the fact that the regi-
Inents oA years are better and better regi-
menus as the troops move on. thank Col
tnaC you ana were not born any so )ner
Ihan we were born. How could we have
endured the disaster of baino horn in +ba
Elsnteenth or Seventeenth or Sixteenth
century! Glad am [ that we are in the rapj-
menu men now passing the reviewing stand. and
tnaO our children will pass the stand in
sun better regiment. Col did not build
Chis world for slaughter house or den of
infamy.
9OA 1901 OL C!edulIS QOuS9 VIII De
necessary before this world becomes as
clean and sweet as is ought to be. but the
brooms and the scrubbing brushes, and the
upholsterers and plumbers are already busv
ana "hen the world gets fixed up, as it will
be. If Adam and Eve ever visit if. as l ex-
pect they will, they will say to each other.
wen, this beats paradise when we lived
there and the pears and plums are better
than we plucke6 from the first trees, and
the "ardrobes are more complete and the
climate is bettar