Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1895-06-13

sbe1d or the CyrUnic ana rne rarisian YER
naculzr which makes sin attractive in
stead Of appalling. When those old prophets
point you to a lazaretto, you understand
It Is a lazaretto. When man having be-
gun 20 do right falls back into wickedness
and gives up his integrity, the Bible does
not say he was overcome by the fascina-
tions of the festive board, or that he sur
rendered TO convivialities, OF that he be
came little fast In his habits. 1 will tell
you what the Bible says, THE dog is
turned to his own vomit again and tho
sow that was washed TO her wallowing in
the mire." No gliding of iniquity. No
garlands on n deaths head No pounding
away with a silver mallet at iniquity
when it needs an iron sledge hammer.
can easily understand how people,
brooding over the description Of unclean-
ness in the Bible, may get morbid in mind
until they are as full Of 1t as the wings,
and the beak, and the nostril, and the
claw of buzzard are full Of the odors of
carcass, but what is wanted is not that tho
Bible be disinfected, but that you, the
critic, have your mind and heart washed
with carbolic acidl
tell you at this point in my discourse
that q man who does not like this book,
and who Is critical as to its contents, and
who is shocked and outraged with its de-
scriptions, has never been soundly con-
verted The laying on Of the hands Of
presbytery or episcopacy does not always
change O mans heart, and men sometimes
get into the pulpit as well 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 mems natures arc not brought
into harmony with the word of God. All,
my friends, expurgation of the heart Is
what is wanted.
You cannot make me believe that the
Scriptures, which this moment lie on the
table of the purest and best men and
women of the,age, and which were tho dy-
ing solace of your kindred passed into the
skies, have in them q taint which the
strongest microscope of honest criticism
could make visible. If men are uncon-
| trollable in their Indignation when the in
| tegrity of wife or child Is asSailed, and
| judges and jurors as far as possible excuse
violence under such provocation, what
ought to be the overwhelming and long
|
any man who will stand in Christian
pulpit and assail the more than virgin
purity of inspiration, the well beloved
daughter Of God?
Expurgate the Biblel You might as
well go to the old picture galleries in
Dresden, and in Venice, and in Rome, and
expurgate the old paintings. Perhaps you
could find foot Of Michael Angeles
"Last Judgment" that might be improved
Perhaps you could throw more expression
into Raphael S Madonna" Perhaps you
could put more pathos into Rubens' "De
scent From the Cross" Perhaps you coult
change the crests of the waves in Turner'S
"Slave Ship" Perhaps you might go intC
the old galleries of sculpture and changt
the forms and the posture of the statues o.
Phidias and Praxiteles. Such an icono
clast would very soon find himself in th'
penitentiary. But it is worse vandalism
when man proposes to refashion thest
masterpieces of inspiration and to remode
the moral giants of this gallery of God
Now, let us divide off. Let those peopl
who do not believe the Bible, and who ar
critical of this and that part of it, go clea
over to the other side. Let them stand be
hind tho devils guns. There can be N
compromise between inidelity and Chris
tianity Give us tho out and out opposi
tion of infdelity rather than the work O
these hybrid theologians, these mongre
ecclesiastics, these half evoluted people
who believe the Bible and do not bolieye il
who accept the miracles and do not accep
them, who believe in the inspiration Of tn
Scriptures and do not believe in the insp
ration of the Scriptures-trimming thei
belief on one side to suit the skepticism {
the world, trimming their belief on tn
other side to suit the pride Of their ow
I heart and feeling that In order to demo,
strate their courage they must make t.
Bible target and shoot at God.
, There Is one thing that encourages m
, very much, and that is that the Lord mad
out to manage the universe before the
{ were born and will probably be able
make out to manage the universe littl
| while after they are dead. While deman
, that the antagonists of the Bible, and tn
critics of the Bible go clear over whel
q they belong, on the DEVILS side, ask ths
all the friends Of this good book come OF
openly and above board in behalf of j
, That book, which was the best inheritanC
| you ever received from your ancestry, an
; which will be the best legacy you will lea1
a to your children when you bid them goot
q by as you cross the ferry to the golden cit,
al Young man, do not be ashamed of yor
Bible. There is not virtue but it con
mends, there is not sorrow but it con
forts, there is not good law on the sta