Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-03-25


school lessons. And if that is all yor
will not understand the deeper and
grander meanings of the Bible SO we'll
as that Christian mountaineer who,
Sunday morning after having shaken
down the fod.,cr for the cattle. comes
into his cabin, takes up his we'll worn
Bible, and with 4 prayer that stirs the
| heavens asks for the Holy Ghost to un-
fold the bool&s>
No more unreasonable would / be if
| I should take up The NOvoe Vremya Of
ST. Petersburg, all printed in Russian,
and say, ''rhere is no sense in this
newspaper, for [ cannot understand one
line of all its columns, than for any
man to take up the Bible, and without
+ getting Holy Ghost illumination as to
its meaning say: "This Book insults my
/ common sense. I cannot understand it,
! Away with the incongruityi" No ono
but the Holy Ghost, who inspired the
! Scriptures, can explain the Scriptures.
Fully realize that, and you Will be as
enthusiastic q lover of the old book as
my venerable friend who told me in
Philadelphia last week that he was read
ing the Bible through the fifty ninth
time, and it became more attractive and
thrilling every time he went through it.
In the saddleDags that hung across my
horses back as [ rode from Jerusalem
down to the Dead sea and up to Damas-
Gus had all the books about Palestine
that [ could carry, but many man on
his knees, in the privacy Of his room,
has had flashed upon him more vivid ap-
probation Of the word Of God than
many a man who has visited. all the
scenes of Christ's birth, and Paul's elo-
quence, and Peters imprisonment, and
Joshua s proves, and Elijah s ascension.
| do not depreciate any of the helps for
Bible study, but I do say that they all
together come infinitely short without a
direct communication from the throne
of God in response to prayerful sOlicita-
tion. We may find many interesting
things about the Bible without especial
illumination, as how many horses Solo
mon had in his stables Or how long was
Noah's ark, or who was the only woman
whose full name is given in the Scrip
lures, or which is the middle verse of
the Bible, and all that will do you no
more good than to be able to tell how
many beanpoles there are i'll your neigh
boris garden.
The learned Earl Of Chatham heard
the famous Mr.. Cecil preach about the
Holy Ghost and said to a friend on the
way home from church: 81 could not
understand it, and do you suppose any
body understood it?'' ooh, yes said
his Christian friend, "there were uned-
ucated women and some little children
present who understood it. " | warrant
you that the English soldier had under
supernal influence read the book, for
after the battle Of Inlermann was over
he was found dead with his hand glued
to the page of the open Bible by his own
blood. and the words adhered to his
hands as they buried him, Il am the
resurrection and the life; he that be-
lieveth in me, though dead, yet shall he
live
Reconstruction and SoIace.
Next consider the Holy Ghost as
human reconstruction. We must be made
over again. Christ and Nicodemus talk
ed about it. Theologians call it regener-
alton. l do not care what you call it,
bat we have to be reconstructed by the
Holy Ghost. We become new creatures,
hating what we once loved and loving
what we once hated. If sin were lux
preferred bad associations, we must pre-
fer good associations. In most cases it is
such complete change that the world
notices the difference and begins to ask:
''What has come over that man? Whom
has he been with? What has SO affected
him? What has ransacked his entire ma
ture? What has turned him square
about?" Take two pictures of Paul-one
on the road to Damascus to kill the dis
ciples Of Christ the other on the road to
Ostia to die for Christ. Come nearer
homo and look at the man who found
his chief delight in a low class of club
rooms, hiccoughing around card table
and then stumbling down the front steps
after midnight and staggering home
ward, and that same man, one week aft
erward. with his family on the way tc
a prayer meeting. What has done it? 1t
must be something tremendous. It must
be God. It must be the Holy Ghost
Notice the Holy Ghost as the solacer
of broken hearts. Christ calls him the
Comforter Nothing does the world SC
much want as comfort The most people
have been abused, misreDresented, cheat
ed, lied about, swindled, bereft. What
is needed is balsam for the wounds, Ian
tern for dark roads, rescue from malign-
ing pursuers, lift from the marble slab
of tombstones. Life to most has been a
semifailure. They have not got what they
wanted. They have not reached that
which they started for. Friends betray.
Change of business stand loses old Gus
tom and does not bring enough custom
to make up for the loss. Health becomes
precarious when one most needs strong
muscle and steady nerve an9 clear
brain. Out of this audience of thousands
and thousands, if I should ask all those
xzho ha,ro hnn,, I,:art in tho t1.z1crcrlo