The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-06-22

| OhO VI tno OCob A0toAl6o 4 ON0I
knew Of. for thirty or forty years,
morning and evening, had all the
members gathered together, and the
servants of the household, and the
strangers that happened TO be within
the gates twice day, without leav-
ing out q chapter or a verso, they read
this holy Book, morning by morning.
night by night Not only the older
children, but the little child who
could just spell her way though the
verse while her mother helped her.
The father beginning and read
Ing one verse, and then all the
members OF the family In turn
reading a verse. The father main
tanned his integrity, the mother main
tanned her integrity, the sons grew up
and entered professions and CONNER
cial life, adjoining every sphere in the
life In which they lived, and the dnughI
ters went into families where Christ
and pure and righteous reigned per-
petually. For thirty years that family
endured the Scriptures. Not one Of
them ruined by them
The Old Testament description Of
wickedness, uncleanness of oil sorts,
Is purposely and righteously disgust
ing account, instead Of the Byronio
and the Partisan vernacular, which
| makes sin attractive instead Of appall-
ing. When. those old prophets point
| you to "a lazaretto, you understand IL Is
lazaretto. When man having be-
gun to do right falls back into
wickedness and gives up his in
tegrity, the Bible does not say
he was overcome by the fascina-
tions of the festive board, or that he's
surrendered TO convivialities. or that
he became little fast In his habits I
will tell you what the Bible says: Tho
dog Is turned to his own vomit again,
and the SOW that was washed to her
wallowing in the mire." No guiding
OF iniquity. No garlands on deaths
head. No pounding away with sill
yer mallet at iniquity when 1t needs
an iron sledge-hammer.
can easily understand how people,
brooding over the description of un-
cleanness in the Bible, may get NOR
bid in mind until they are as full of it
Us the wings and the beak and the nos
tru and the claw Of buzzard Is full
of the odors of carcass; but what is
wanted Is not that the Bible be disin-
fected, but that you, the critic have
your mind and heart washed with oar
bolic acid
tell you at this point In my dis
course that a man who does not like
this Book, and who is critical as to its
contents, and who is shocked and out
IN nod With &c dissertations hoe narar
been soundly converted. The laying
on of the hands of presbytery or epis-
copacy does not always change mans
heart, and men sometimes get into the
pulpit as we'll as into the pew. never
having been changed radically by the
sovereign grace of God. Get your
heart right and the Bible will be
right. The trouble Is mans natures
are not brought into harmony with
the word of God. All! my friends, ex-
pu rgatiou of the heart Is what Is
wanted.
Expurgatc the Bible! You mig hit as
well go to the old picture galleries in
Dresden and In Venice and in Rome
and expurgate the old paintings Per-
haps you could find foot OF Michael
Angeles Last Judgment" that might
be improved. Perhaps you could throw
more expression into Raphael's Ma
donna" Perhaps you could put more
pathos into Rubens' descent from
tho Cross" Perhaps you could change
the crcsts of the waves In Turner's
''Slave Ship" Perhaps you might go
into the old galleries Of sculpture and
change the forms and the posture Of
the statues Of Phidias and Praxiteles-
Such an iconoclast would very soon
find himself in the penitentiary. But
1t Is worse vandalism when O man pro-
poses to refashion these masterpieces
Of inspiration, and TO remodel the
moral giants of this gallery Of God.
Now, let us divide off. Let those
people who do not believe the Bible,
and who are critical of this and that
part Of It, get clear over on the other
side. Let them stand behind the
devils guns. There can be no COM
promise between infldelity and Chris
tianity. Give US the out and
out opposition of infidelitv rather
than the work of these hybrid
theologians, these mongrel &C.
clesiastics, these half-evoluted people.
VINO pclAtNc buo Diuie dhu WHO 10 not
believe IL, who accept the miracles and
do not accept them, who believe In the
inspiration of the Scriptures and do
not believe In the inspiration of the
Scripturcs-trimming their belief on
one side to suit the pride of their own
heart, and feeling that in order to dem
onstrate their courage they must make |
the Bible target and shoot at God.
Young man, do not be ashamed Of |
your Bible There is not virtue but
1t commends, there is not q sorrow but |
1t comforts, there is not good law on
the statute book Of any country but 1t
is founded on these Ten Command
ments. There are no drawer, grander
people in all the earth than the heroes
and the heroine which 1t biographies.
OF all the works Of Dore, the great
artist, there was nothing so impress
sive as his illustrated Bible. What
scene of Abrahamic faith, of Edenic
beauty, of dominion Davidic, or
Solomonic, or miracle, of parable, Of
nativity, or of crucifxion, or of last
Ind Oment INIT the thou1hf laav,ad