Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-09-22

Go back again to your pillow OF dust on the
banks Of the Ohio
Next put upon the witness stand Presl-
lent of tho United States John Quincy
Adams. President Adams what have you to
say about the Bible and Chrlstianity2' The
President replies II have for many years
made 1t a practice to read through the Bible
once year. Ny custom Is TO read four or
five chapters every morning Immediately
after arising from my bel. II employs about
an hour OF my time and seems to me the
most suitable manner of beginning the day.
In what light soeyer We regard the Bible,
whether with reference to revelation, to his
| tory or to morality, II is an Invaluable and
inexhaustibe mine OF knowledge and virtue"
Next | put upon the witness stand Sir
Isaac Newton, the author Of the Principal"
and the greatest natural philosopher tho
world has ever seen. "Sir Isaac, what have
you TO say concerning the Blble2' The
philosophers reply Is, 1--WE account tho
Scriptures of God to be the most sublime
philosophy"
Next put upon the witness stand the en-
chantment OF letters, Sir Walter Scott, and
when ask him what he thinks OF the place
that our great book ought to take among
other books no replies, There Is but one
Book, and that Is the Bible"
Next put upon the stand the most fom6ds
geologist OF all time Hugh Miller; an elder
OF Dr. Guthries Presbyterian church IN Ed
libirgh; aud 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 goo1 that ever touched our
world is Christianity.
chancellor Kent, what do you think OF
the Bible?' Answer mo other book ever
addressed itself 80 authoritativey and so
pathetlcally TO the judgment and moral sense
OF mankind
Edmund Burke. what do You think Oft the
Bible 81 Answer Il have read the Bible
morning. noon and night. and have over
since been the happier and the better man
for such reading"
Next put upon the stand William f. Glad
stone, the head Of tho English government,
and hear him saying what he said to me ip
January OF 1890, when in reply to his tele-
gram. "Pray come TO Hawar1en tomorrow"
/ visited him. Then and there / asked him
as to whether in the passage ofyears his faith
in the Holy Scriptures and Christianity was
on the increase or decrease, and he turned
upon me with an emphasis and enthusiasm
such az no one who has not conversed with
him can fully appreciate and expressed by
voice and gesture and ilumined cOuntenance
his ever increasing faith in Col and the Bible
and Christianity as the 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 England just
now, 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 hs
replies, "Why do you ask me that Did you
not hear me preach Christ in the Midnight
4
Der ~ But see many witnesses present to-
day in the courtroom, and call you to the
witness stand. but l have only second OF
time for any one of YOU. As you pass along
just give me one sentence in regard TO Chris
tianity. "Under Col II has changed my en-
tire nature says one. 1T brought me from
drunkenness and poverty to sobriety and
good home says another. 1T solaced me
when / lost my child" says another. at
gave me a hope OF future treasures when my
property was swept of by the last panic,
says another. at has given me peace and
satisfaction more 10 me than all the world
beside" says another. 1T has been to me
light and music and fragrance and radiant
anticipation. says another All stop the
procession Of witnesses. Enough Enough
All those voices OF the past and present have
nightly increased our faith.
Genealogical exploration. We must confess
that good men at one time were afraid Of
biologists hammer and chemists crucible
and archROogist'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 shoyes Of that exploring
society amid the ruins OF ancient Jericho and
all up AMI down from the Dead Sea to
Cmsarea Philippi dig away r. says the
church Of God. land the deeper You dig the
better Ike.
The discovered monuments Of Egypt have
ehiseled on them the story OF the sutferinSs
OF the Israelites in Egyptian bondage. as we
find il In the Bible-there, in imperishable
stone, representations Of the slave Of the
whips and ofthe 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 a stone, which you may find In the
British museum, a stone, as | remember 1t,
representing perhaps two feet OF letteret
surface. II contains words in three Ian
guages. The stone was the keythat unlocked
the nearing Of all the hieroSlyphics oftOmbs
ana o0eisks an AeIls over AM over again tho
kame events which Moses recorded
The sulphurous graves OF Sodom AMI
Ciomorrah have been identified. The re-
mains Of the tower Of Babel have been
found. Assyrian documents lifted from the
sand and Behistun inscription hundreds OF
feet high up on the ro'k echo ami re-echJ
the truth Of Bible history The signs OF tho
time indicate that almost every fact Of the
Bible from lid T. iii Will dnl its cOrrObora-
ton in ancient city disantombei. or ancient
wall cleared from the dust O.ages. or ancient
document unrollei by archRologist.
Before the world rolls on as far into the
twentieth century as 1t has already rolled
into the nineteenth an iafldel will be a man
who does not believe his own senses. andthe
volumes now critical AMI denunciatory OF
tle Bible. II not entirely devastated by the
book-worms. will be taken down from the
shelf as curiosities OF Ignorance or idio3y.
All success to the pickaxes an crow5ars AMI
powder blasting OF those apostles Of archR)-
logical exploration. like the ringing de-
nance OF the old Huguenots to the asslilants
OF Christianity Pound away you rebels
Your hammers b-elk, but the anvil OF GoFs
word stan Is.
How wonderful the old book hangs to-
Sether. i is library mn l. ~ Of Gi books
and written by at least 30 authors. 1t is
supernatural thing thlt taey rvs stu'k To-
gether. Take the writings OF any other 30
authors, or any 10 authors. or any ) authors.
and put them together AMI how long would !
they stay together? Boss o. elegant ex-
tracts compiled from many authors are
short lived. | never knew ono
such book which. II usa the publishers
phrase, "hai life in Il" for llyi years.
Why is it that the Bible. made up OF the |
writings OF Mt lelst 81 authors. has kept to-
gether foT long limo 81 centuries when the |
natural tendency wolll have been to fly |
apart like loose sheets o, paper when gust |
OF wind blows upon them? Il is because Col !
stuck them together AMI keeps them to-
gcther. But for that Joshua would hav3 |
wandered of in one direction. AMI Paul into !
another. AMI Ezekiel into another. and Ha-
bakkuk into another, and the 80 authors IN
TO 80 directions.
Put the writings OF Shakespeare and Ten
nyson and Longfellow. or any par; otthem, |
together. How lony would they stay to-