The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-10-04

the book commonly called the Bible" The
witness replies "There came time In my
life when doubted the divinity Of the Scrip
lures, and resolved, az a 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 pro-
found study, and using the same principles
OF evidence In this religious matter as al
ways do In secular matters I have come to
the decision that the Bible is supernatural
book, that 1t has come from God. and that
the only safety for the human race is to fol-
low its teachings" "Judge, that will do.
Go back again to your pillow Of dust on the
banks of the Ohio"
Next put upon the witness stand Presl-
dent of the United States-John Quincy
say about the Bible and Christianity?" The
President replies: ~ have for many years
made 1t practice to read through the Bible
once year. My custom Is to read four or
five chapters every morning Immediately
after arising from my bed. It 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 to morality, 1t Is an invaluable and
inexhaustible 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 soy concerning the Bible2" The
philosophers reply is, "We account the
philosophy"
Next pur upon the witness stand the en-
chantment of letters, Sir Walter Scott, and
when I 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
geologist of all time, Hugh Miller, an elder
Of DR.. Guthrie's Presbyterian church in Ed
inburgh, and Faraday and Kepler, 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
fhe Bible?' Answer: mo other book ever
addressed itself so authorltatively and so
pathetically to the judgment and moral sense
Of mankind"
ssEdmund Burke, what do you think OF the
Biblew Answer: "I 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 E. Glad
stone. the head of the English government,
and hear him saying what he said to me In
January of 1890, when in reply to his teleo
gram, "Pray come to Hawarden tomorrow,
T visited him. Then and there asked him
as to whether In the passage ofyears bis faith
in the Holy Scriptures and Christianity was
on the increase or decrease, and he turned
upon me with an emphasis and enthusiasm
n1k cnH xfyifh
him can fully appreciate and expressed by
voice and gesture and Ilumined countenance
his ever increasing faith in God and the Bible
and Christianity as the only hope OF our
ruined world. "That is all, Mr.. Gladstone,
we Btlltake OF your time now, for, from the
reports OF what Is going on In England just
now, I think You are very busy"
The next man I put upon the witness
stand is the late Earl OF Kintore, and ask
him what he thinks Of Christianity, and he
replies, "Why do you ask me- that9 Did you
not hear me preach Christ in the Midnight
Mission of Londonp' "Oh, yes! remem-
ber" But see many witnesses present to-
day in the courtroom, and call you to the
witness stand, but I have only a second Of
time for any one Of YOU. AS you pass along
lust give me one sentence in regard to Chris
tianity. "Under God 1t has changed my en-
tire nature" says one. "It brought me from
drunkenness and poverty to sobriety and q
good home," says another. "It solaced me
when lost my child" says another. 1T
gave me hope of future treasures when my
property was swept off by the last panic, "
Says another. "It has given me peace and
satisfaction more to me than all the world
beside" says another. "It has been to me
light and music and fragrance aud radiant
anticipation" says another. All stop the
1nhI
All those voices OF the past and present nave
nightly increased our faith.
Again, our belief is REINFORCED by ar
cheoloSical exploration. We must confess
that good men at one time were afraid OF
peologist's hammer and chemists cructble
and archeologist's investigation, but now
intelligent Christians are receiving and still
expecting nothing but confirmation from all
such sources. What supports the Palestine
Exploration Society? Contributions from
churches and Christian benefactors. saw
the marks OF the shove!s OF that exploring
society amid the ruins of ancient jericho and
all up and down from the Dead Sea to
Cesarea Phillppi. "Dig away" says the
church Of God, ''and the deeper you dig the
better like
The discovered monuments Of Egypt have
chiseled on them the story Of the suherings
of the Israelites in Egyptian bondage, as we
find 1t In the Bible-there, In imperishable
stone. reoresentations OF the slave, OF the
whips and OF the taskmasters who compelled
the making of bricks without straw. Ex-
humed Nineveh and Babylon, with their
dusty lips, declared the Bible true. Napol-
cons soldiers in the Egyptian campaign
pried up stone, which you may lind In tns
British museum, q stone, as l remember It,
representing perhaps two feet OF letterei
Tt foip fhrHa
pusges. The stone was the keyth unlocked
the meaning of all the hieroglyphics oftonbi
and obelisks and tells over and over again the
same events which Moses recorded.
The sulphurous graves OF Sodom and
Gonorrah have been identified. The re-
mains of the tower of Babel have been
found. Assyrian documents lifted from the
sand and Behistrn inscription hundreds OF
feet high up on the rock echo and re-echo
the truth OF Bible history. The signs OF the
time indicate that almost every fact OF the
Bible from lid to lid will find its corrobora-
ton in ancient city dissntombed, or ancient
wall cleared from the dust Of fages. or ancient
document unrolled by archgologist.
Before the world rolls on as far into the
twentieth century as 1t has already rolled
into the nineteenth an infde! will be man
who does not believe his own senses. andthe
volumes now critical and denunciatory OF
the Bible, II not entirely devastated by the
book-worms. will be taken down from the
shelf as curiosities OF ignorance or idiocy:
All success 20 the pickaxes and crowbars and
powder blasting Of those apostles OF archaeo-
logical exploration. like the ringing de-
flance OF the old Husuenots to the assailants
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 a library made up OF 6S books
and written by at least SO authors. 1t is a
supernatural thing that they have stuck to-
yether. Take the writings Of any other 80