The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-09-22


lands faith for doing SO being founded
on mans statement that he could tell
where those treasures We're buried from
the looks of glass of water dipped from
the Hudson river.
The internal evidence of the anthem
ITCHY Of the Scriptures is so exact and
so vivid that no man, honest and sane,
can thoroughly and continuously and
prayerfully read them without entering
their discipleship, So ! put that inter-
nal evidence paramount, How are you
led to believe in letter you received
from husband or wife or child or friendp
You know the handwriting. You know
the style. You recognize the sentiment.
When the letter comes, you do not sum-
mon the postmaster who stamped it, and
the postmaster who received 1t, and the
letter carrier who brought 1t to your
door to prove that it is a genuine letter.
The internal evidence settles,it and by
the same process you can forever settle
the fact that the Bible is the handwrit-
ing and communication of the infinite
God.
A SUBLIME PHILOSOPHY.
Furthermore, as l have already init
mated, we may increase our faith by the
testimony of Others Perhaps we of less
er brain may have been overcome by
superstition or cajoled into an acceptance
of hollow pretension. So will this
morning turn this house into court
room and summon witnesses, and. you
shall be the jury, and l now impanel you
for that purpose, and l will put upon the
witness stand men whom all the world
acknowledge to be strong intellectually
and whose evidence in any other court
room would be incontrovertible. / will
not call to the witness stand any min
lister of the gospel, for he might be pref
udiced.
There are two ways of taking an oath
in a courtroom. One is by putting the
lips to the Bible and the other is by
holding up the right hand toward heav-
en-. Now, as in this case it is the Bible
that is ON trial, we will not ask the wit
ness to put the book to his lips, for that
would imply that the sanctity and divin-
ity of the book is settled, and that would
be begging the question, So l shall ask
each witness to lift his hand toward
heaven in affirmation.
Salmon p. Chase, chief Justice of the
supreme court of the United States, APP
pointed by President Lincoln, will take
the witness stand. ''Chief Justice
Chase, upon your oath, please state what
you have to say about the book common
ly called the Bible" The witness re-
plies: "Thero came time in my life
when l doubted the divinity of the
Scriptures, aud l resolved, as a lawyer
and judge, would try the book as 1
would try anything in the courtroom,
taking evidence for and against. 1t
was long and serious and profound
study, and using the same principles of
evidence in this religious matter as !
always do in secular matters l have
come to the decision that the Bible is a
supernatural book. that it has come
from God, and that the only safety for
the human race is to follow its teach
ings." Judge, that will do. Go back
again to your pillow of dust on the
banks of the Ohio"
Next put upon the witness stand
president of the United States-John
Quincy Adams. President Adams, what
have you to say about the Bible and
Christianity?' The president replies: II
have for many years made it practice
to read through the Bible once a year.
My custom is to read four or five chap
tiers every morning Immediately after
arising from my bed. 1t employs about
m 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 rev.
elation, to history or to morality, it is
an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of
knowledge and virtue
Next put upon the witness stand Sir
Isaac Newton, the author of the ''Prin-
cipia" and the greatest natural philoso-
pher the world has ever seen. "Sir
Isaac, what have you to say concerning
the Bible?" The philosophers reply is,
1--WE account the Scriptures of God to be
the most sublime philosophy"
Next I put upon the witness stand the
enchantment of letters, Sir Walter
Scott, and when l ask him what he
thinks of the place that our great book
ought to take among other books he re-
plies, "There is but one book, and that
Is the Bible"
Next put upon the stand the mos
famous geologist of all time, Hugh Mil
Ter, an elder of DR.. Guthrie's Presby,
terrain church in Edinburgh, and Fara-
day and Kepler, and they all testify to
the same thing. They all say the Bible
Is from God, and that the mightiest in
fuence for good that ever touched our
world is Christianity.
Chancellor Kent, what do you think
of the BibleT" Answer: mo other book
ever addressed itself SO authoritatively
and SO pathetically to the judgment and
moral sense of mankind"
Edmund Burke, what do you think
of the Bible?" Answers: II 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.
Gladstone, the head of the English gov
eminent, and l hear him saying what
he said to me in January of 1890, when
in reply to his telegram, "Pray come to
Hawarden tomorrow" I visited him.
Then and there asked him as to wheth-
er in the passage of years his faith in the
holy Scriptures and Christianity was on
the increase or decrease, and he turned
upon me with an emphasis and enthusi-
asm such as no one who has not con-
versed with him can fully appreciate
and expressed by voice and gesture and
illumined countenance his ever increas-
ing faith in God and the Bible and Chris
tianity as tho only hope of our ruined
world. THAT is all, Mr.. Gladstone, we
will take Of your time now, for, from
the reports of what is going on in Eng
land just now, l think you are very
busy"
The next man 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
that? Did you not hear me preach Christ
in the Midnight Mission of LondonY
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