Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-06-15

and expurgate the old paintings. Per-
maps you could find a foot of Michael
Angeles Last Judgment" that might
be improved. Perhaps you could throw
moro expression into Raphael's Ma
donna" Perhaps you could put more
pathos into Rubens' descent from tho
Cross. Perhaps You could change the
crests Of the waves i'll Turner's "Slavo
Ship" Perhaps you might go into the
old galleries Of sculpture and change
tho forms and the posture of the statues
of Phidias and Praxiteles. Such an icon
oclast would very soon find himself in
the penitentiary. But it is worse van
dalism when man proposes to refash-
ion these masterpieces Of inspiration and
to remodel the moral giants Of this gal
lery of God.
Now, let us divide OFF. Let those peo-
pie who do not believe the Bible and
who arc critical of this and that part Of
it go clear over to the other side. Let
them stand behind the devils guns.
There can be no compromise between in
fidelity and Christianity. Give rs the
out and out opposition of infidelity rath-
er than the work of these hybrid theolo-
gians, these mongrel eeclesiastics, these
half evoluted people, who believe the
Bible and do net believe it, who accept
the miracles and do not accept them,
who believe in the inspiration of the
Scriptures and do not believe in the in
spiration of the Scriptures-trimming
their belief on one side to suit the skep-
ticism of the world, trimming their be-
lief on the other side to suit the pride
Of their own heart, and feeling that IN
order to demonstrate their courage they
must make the Bible the target and
shoot at God.
Bible Heroes.
There is one thing that encourages
me very much, and that is that the Lord
made out to manage the universe before
they were born, and will probably be
ablc to make out to manage the uni
verse little while after they are dead.
While l demand that the antagonists Of
the Bible and tho critics of the Bible go
clear over where they belong, on the
DEVILS side, ask that all the friends of
this good book come out openly and
above board in behalf Of it, that book
which was the best inheritance you ever
received from your ancestry, and which
will be the best legacy you will leave
to your children when you bid thee good
by as you cross the ferry to the golden
city.
Young man, do not be ashamed Of
your Bible. There is not virtue but it
comforts, there is not good law on
the statute book of any country but it
is founded on these Ten Commandments.
There are no Drawer, grander people in
all the earth than the heroes and the
heroines which it Biographies
OF all the works Of Dorc, the great
artist, there was nothing SO impressive
as his illustrated Bible What scene of
Abrahamic faith or Edenic beauty, of
dominion Davidic or Solomonic, of mira
Gle or parable, of nativity or Of crucifix-
ion or of last Judgment but the thought
leaped from the great brain to the skill
full pencil, and from the skillful pencil
to canvas immortal. The Louvre, the
Luxembourg, the National Gallery of
London compressed within two volumes
of Dore s illustrated Bible But the BIZ
bic will come to better illustration than
that, my friends, when all the deserts
have become gardens and all the armo-
ries have become academies and all the
lakes have become Gennesarets with
Christ walking them, and all tho cities
have become Jerusalems with lowering
She1inah; and the two hemispheres
shall be clapping cymbals of divine
praise, and the round earth footlight
to Emanuel's throne-that, to all lands
and all ages and all centuries and all
cycles will be the best specimen of BIZ
bio illustrated.