Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-12-07

~@-N - f5CA4E " 49, 49, 49, ..
eternity and set it upon that one IF, =
by which she expects to decide wheth-
er you will go up with her or she down
with you. She may be this moment
looking heavenward, and saying: &C
Lcrd, reclaim him by Thy grace and
then adding that heartrending '.if'' oil
my text; IF not, blot me, pray thee,
out of Thy book" After three years
OF absence son wrote his mother in
one OF the New England whaling vii
lages that he was coming home in a
certain ship. Mother-like, she stood
watching, and the ship was in the
offing, but fearful storm struck it
and dashed the ship on the rocks that
night All that night the mother
prayed for the safety of the son, and
| Just at dawn there was knock at the
cottage door. and the son entered, cry
ing out, Mother l knew you would
pray me homer If / would ask all
those in this assemblage who have
been prayed home to God by pious
mothers to stand up. there would be
scores that would stand, and if should
ask them to give testimony it would be
the testimony of that New England
son coming ashore from the split tim
5ers of the whaling ship, shy mother
prayed me home
Another Bible 'if' is the eff of in
credulity. Satan used it when Christ
with his vitality depressed by forty
days abstinence from food, the tempt
err pointed to some stones, in color and
shape like leaves of bread, and said;
IF Thou be the Son of God command
that these stones be made bread"
That was appropriate, for Satan is the
father of that 'if' of incredulity.
Peter used that same eff when. stand
ing on the wet and slippery deck of a
fishing smack on Lake Galilee, he saw
Christ walking on the sea as though It
were as solid as pavement of basalt
from the adjoining volcanic hills, and
Peter CRIED out: IF it be Thou, let me
come to Thee on the water What
preposterous "ifr' What human foot
was ever so constructed as to walk on
the water In what part of the earth
did the law of gravitation make ex,
ception to the rule that man will
sink to the elbows when he touches
the wave of river or lake, and will sink
still further unless he can swim?
But here Peter looks out up
on the form in the shape Of
a man defying the mightiest law OF
the universe the law of gravitation, and
standing erect on the top of the liquid.
Yet the incredulous Peter cries ont to
the Lord, IF it be Thou Alas! for
that incredulous "if 1t is working
as powerfully in the latter part of this
nineteenth Christian century as it did
in the early part of the first Christian
century. Though a small conjunction,
it is the biggest block to-day in tho
way of the gospel chariot. "Ifl'' If"
We have theological seminaries which
spend most of their time and employ
their learning and their genius in the
manufacturing of ifs With that
weaponry is assailed the pentateuch,
and the miracles and the divinity Of
Jesus Christ Almost everybody is
chewing ON an ''if." When many a
man bows for prayer he puts his knee
on an 'if." The door through which
people pass into infidelity and atheism
and all immoralities has two door
posts, and the one is made of the letter
~ and the other of the letter IF"
There are only four steps between
strong faith and complete unbelief. |
First, surrender the idea of the verbal |
inspiration of the Scriptures, and adopt
the idea that they were all generally /
supervised by the Lord Second. sur.
render the idea that they were all gen.
orally supervised by the Lord and adopt I
the theory that they were not all, but |
partly, supervised by the Lord. Third,
believe that they are the gradual evolu-
ton of the ages, and men wrote accord
ing to the wisdom of the times in which |
they lived. Fourth, believe that the
Bible is a bad book and not only un.
worthy of credence. but pernicious and
and cruel Only four steps
from the stout faith in which tho
martyrs died TO the blatant caricature
of Christianity as the greatest sham of
the centuries. But the door to all that
and horror is made out of
an 'if" The mother of unrest in the
minds of Christian people and in those
WHO Tc2dIQ odCTCU 10 bht II VI
In 1879, in Scotland. saw
a letter which had been written many
years ago by Thomas Carlyle to Thomas
Chalmers Carlyle, at the time of
writing the letter, was a young
man. The letter was not to be
published until after the death
IF Carlyle. His death having taken
place, the letter ought to be published.
Il was a letter in which Thomas Car
vie expresses the fortunes of his own
mind while relaxing his faith in Chris
.ianity, while, at the same time he ex-
presses his admiration for DIR. Chal
ners, and in which Carlyle wishes that
,e had the same faith that the great
scotch minister evidently exercised.
that Thomas Carlyle ever
wrote in "Sartor Resartus," or the ,
French Revolution" or his Life of
'romwell, " or his immortal Essays" ,
ad IN IL moro xyOndrOuS mower than