The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-09-20

key that unlocked the meaning of all
| the hieroglyphics Of tombs and obelisks
| and tells over and over 2gain the same
events which Moses recorded.
The sulphurous graves of Sodom and
Gomorrah have been identified. The re-
mains Of the tower of Babel have been
| found Assyrian documents lifted from
| the sand and Behistum inscription, hun
| dreds of feet high up on the rock, echo
/ and re-echo the truth of bible history.
| The signs Of the time indicate that al
most every fact Of the bible from lid to
| lid will find it's confederation in ancient
| city disentombed, or ancient wall cleared
| from the dust of ages, or ancient docu-
ment unrolled by aTohaeOl0gist.
Before the world rolls on as far into
| the twentieth century as 1T has already
rolled into the nineteenth, an infidel will
be a man who does not believe his own
| senses, and the volumes now critical and
/ denunciatory of the bible, IL not entirely
devastated by the bookwoFms, will be
| taken down from the shelf as curiosities
/ of ignorance or idiocy. All success to
| the pickaxes and crowbars and powder
| blasting Of those apostles of arehae0-
| logical exploration | like the ringing
! defiance of the old Huguenots to the as
| sailants Of Christianity: Pound away,
| you rebels! Your hammers break, but
the anvil of Gods word stands"
How wonderfully the old book hangs
| together! 1t is a library made up Of
sixty-six books and written by at least
| thirty-nine authors. 1t is a supernatural
/ thing that they have stuck together.
! Take the writings of any other thirty
nine authors, or any ten authors, or any
| five authors and put them together, and
| how long would they stay together?
Books of elegant extracts" compiled
| from many authors are proverbially
| short lived: L never knew one such
| book, which, to use the publisher
| phrase, had life in 1t" for five years
Why is 1t that the bible, made up of
| the writing of at least thirty authors
has kept together for a long line of CEN
| turtles when the natural tendency would
| have been to fly apart like loose sheets
| OF paper when gust of wind blows
| upon them? 1t is because God stuck
| them together and keeps them together
| But for that Joshua would have wond-
| cred OF in one direction, and Paul into
another, and Ezekiel into another, and
| Luke into another. and Habakuk into
another, and the thirty-nine authors into
| thirty-nine directions. Put the writings
| Of Shakespeare and TennysOn and Long
| fellow, or any part Of them, together?
| How long would they stay together? No
| book bindery could keep them together
| But the cannon of scriptures 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 1 can
not 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 fingers on the last
| page OF Genesis, and let me know it, and
l can tell you what is on the next page
! namely, the first chaDer Of Exodus, or
while thus blindfolded, put nay finger
on the last chapter of Matthew, and let
| me know 1t. and 1 will tell you what is
on the next page-namely, the first
| chapter Of Mark. In the pile Of 100000
| 600 bibles there will be no exception.
| In other words, the book gives me con-
| fidence 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
| cyclone struck us off the coast of New
| foundland and the cargo of iron had
| shifted from larbOard to starboard and
| from sarboard to larboard. But, thanks
| be to God. this old bible ship though it
] has been in thousands of years of temp
| est, has kept its cargo of gold and
| precious stones compact and sure, and in
| all these centuries nothing about ID 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 Micah and
| Nahum and Habakkuk and Zephaniah
| and Hagsai and Zacariah and Malachi
1
| John and Paul and Peter, all there, and
with a certainty Of being there until the
heavens and earth, the creation of which
! is described in the first book of the
| bible, shall have collapsed, and the white
| horse OF the conquerer described I'm the
last book of the bible shall paw the dust
| In universal demolition. By that ire
| mendous fact by faith is reinforced.
The discussion is broad as to who
wrote those book Of the bible called Pen
tateuch, whether Moses or Hilkiah or
| Ezra or Samuel or Jeremiah or another
] group Of ancients. None of them wrote
| 1t. God wrote the Pentateuch, and in
| this day of stenography and typewrit-
| ing that ought not to be difficult thing
| to understand. The great merchants
| and lawyers and editors and business
| men of our towns and cities dictate
nearly all their letters; they only sign
| them after they are dictated. The pro-
phet and evangelist and apostle were
| Jehovah's stenographers or typewriters
| They put down only what God dictated !;
He signed it afterward. He has been
! writing His name upon IL all through
| the Yicissitudes Of centuries.
The Efficacy of Prayer.
But come to the hight of my sub
| ject when say the way to reinforce our
| faith is to pray for IT, So the disciples
| in my text got their Astounding faith,
Il u
suggests, do you really think that
prayer amounts to anything?" might
| as we'll ask you is there a line or tele-
! graphic poles from New York to Wash
| ington; is there a line of telegraphic
wires from Manchester to London, from
| Cologne 10 Berlin. All people who have
| sent and received messages on these
| lines know Of their existence. So there
/ are millions OF souls who have been in
| constant communication with the capital
/ of the universe, with the throne of the
| Almighty, with the great God himself,
| for years and years and years.
| There has not been q day when sup
| plications did not flash up and bless
| ings did not fash down. VIII some
| ignoramus who has never received a
| telegram or sent one come and tell us
| that there is no such thing as tele-
| graphic communication? Will some one
| who has never offered a prayer that
| was heard and answered come and tell
| us that there is nothing in prayer? 1t
| may not come as we expect ii, but as
| sure as an honest prayer goes up a
| merciful answer will come down.
| During the blizzard of four or five
1 years ago you know that many of the
telegraph wires were Frustrated, and l
| telegraphed to Chicago by the way OF
| Liverpool, and the answer after awhile
/ came around by another wide circuit,
| and the prayer we offer may come back
| In way we never imagined, and If we
| ask to have our faith increased al
though It may come by a widely differ
| ent process from that which we ex-