The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-05-21

| loOl ohb1Sl16u With tl61nN05buGAU lldu6 III
| this work.
| Respectfully submitted in behalf of the
| Board of Trustees.
E. B. STILsON.
| Rev. DR.. Dunn introduced the Rev. Dr.
Martyr summerbell pastor of the Free
Baptist church Of Lewiston, as the
speaker of the evening. His annual adj
dress follows:
| Mr.. summerleil's Address.
The following is an abstract of the adj
dress, delivered by Rev. Martyr Sum-
merbell. DID,, pastor Of the Main St.
Free Baptist church Lewiston:
Christianity holds it's grip on the
human conscience through Gods revela-
ton in His written word, the Bible. All
your teaching and preaching is nut ex-
| PLANTATION and expansion OF the book,
| which has been called the Religion of
Protestants, but which were better called
the mother of Protestants. Wherever
it circulates there is found quickened
moral sense and p1rer type OF eivillza-
| ton. Experience sested through pro-
| tracted periods of time demonstrates that
| no other composition. compares with 1t
In power to attratt the souls of men,
and enlist their highest capacities in
the service of God.
The Bible is supremely interesting
| book. 1t reaches every class and every
| age. The mother whispers its stories
into the listening ear of childhood, and
the gray haired sirs, waiting for DEATHS
| silent footstep, pores over its promises
| of the life to come The Oriental mind,
which delights in pictures, finds them
here; while the mind of the West, more
abstract and practical, discovers prob
lems,. as deep as in6nity and as long as
eternity. And this interest never sub
limit of zest. Taking the hest of them,
your Homer, your SHAKESPEARE your
Pilgrims Progress,will bear much repe-
| tltlon. But you cannot read and reread
these as YOU do the Bible. This opens
ever new perspectives Of thought and
| delightful corroborations of truth, bring
ing what has been dimly seen into bold
relief.
The Bible is a stimulating book. 1t
opens the doorway into all the sciences
| and philosophers When one is in daily
communion with Abraham, and Moses
and Jesus, lie cannot be little. Daniel
Webster recommend reading the Bible
to law students as part of their train
ing for the bar, and Bossuet practiced
reading a chapter of Isaiah before writ
| nights semons. II this was wise, we may
be assured that the nation which ac-
| customs itself to reading this hook will
| be both prosperous and intelligent. But
| the Bible is an abiding book. 1t is one
of those old things, like the fresh breath
| of spring morning or the home COM
ing after a journey, or the genesis of
are yet ever fresh in the charm of q
new experience. This is one of the hard
facts, which unbelief shrinks from en-
| countering. 1t does not attempt to ex-
plain why q book, parts of which are
Older than Moses, and no part of which
| is later than the first Christian century,
is still warm and glowing, and in touch
| with the alertest thought of this age.
| This perennial freshness of the old Bible
is a marvellous thing. Other books die,
! this Book lives. 1t survives all contro-
versies AS Bonar gives the figure:
| Against this sea swept rock,
| Ten thousand stol ms their will
| Of foam and rage have wildly spent;
| 1t lifts its calm face still.
| For this livinqness of the Bible unbe-
| lief does not account. We explain the
| phenomenon, for we realize that every
chapter was coined at white heat from
| it's authors heart, and stamped with the
superscription of the aoly Ghost.
And then the Bible is an unfolding
book. In your schools as the pupil adj
| vanceS bHe olu teA5 DOoK Is ulScarQeQ,
| but there is no such ouIgrowing the
Bible. AS the man develops insight,
the book develops to his vision. Here
we find taught all that we know of the
origin of man, Of spiritual existence, of
God in his nature and character, and OF
Jesus Christ, and the more we learn OF
all these, the clearer our apprehension
of the riches of grace in Christ Jesus.
But more remarkable still, the Bible
| iS anth0rita tive II GLAZING tn ha
THE BOOK OF GOD,
and it substantiates this contention.
Those who read it are satisfied chat God
speaks through it to His earthly child
rem. The people feel this and they spurn
any substitute, which offers in place oil
Gods truth the theories and speculations
of men. An imitation Bible will not
sell in the market, it can scarcely be
given away. But the Bible itself is in
demand. The agents of this Society re-
port case after case where people, who
must struggle to provide their daily
| food, will yet spare few pennies to buy
the book of God. With all the Bibles
that are sent out by private enterprise,
the American Bible Society alone, to
which this Society Is auxiliary, reports
/
copies of the Scriptures, the actual mum.
Der being ], 1894, 1913. And this vast mum.
Der of Bibles is disposed or because the
people feel that it is the voice of purel
world. 1t is gift from Heaven.
Thy thoughts are here, my God,
Expressed in words divine,
The utterance of heavenly lips,
In every sacred line.
The bad, though they may not follow
it's teachings respect it, while the good
walk about in the garden of revelation
with holy prophets and apostles, and
with Jesus, the Son Of God, and listen
and obey and rejoice with exceeding
joy.
And so in every way we have confidence
in the Bible. One of our former speakers
alluded to it as the Hero that never lost
fight. Out of it came the Protestant
Reformation. But for this book there
would have been no Wickliffe, no Knox
no Calvin, no Luther. All our faith
rests here. All our Protestant symbols
and confessions have their root and
ground work in Holy Scripture. Nothins
is to be taught in our pulpits, nothing
is TO be required in the way of faith
from any man, but what is evidently con
tanned in Holy Writ When setting
about to make Christians the dependence
is the Rihle The Missionaries heoip th a;,