Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-07-15

| Is feachings." Judge, that viii do
Go back again to your pillow of dust on
the banks of the Ohio" Next / put
upon the witness stand a president OF
the United States-John Quincy Adams.
President Adams, what have you to
say about the Bible and Christianity"
The president replies: II have for many
years made it a practice to read through
the Bible once year My custom is to
read four or five chapters every morning
Immediately after rising from my bed.
1t employs about an hour Of my time
and seems TO me the most suitable man
ner of beginning the day. In what light
soever we regard the Bible, whether
with reference to revelation, to history
or to morality, it is an invaluable and
| inexhaustible mine Of knowledge and
virtue. Chancellor Kent. what do
you think of the Bible?" Answer, mo
other book ever addressed itself so au-
Judgment and moral sense Of mankind. "
Edmund Burke, what do you think Of
the Bible:' Answer, Il have read the
Bible morning, noon and night and
have ever since been the happier and
the better man for such reading"
Young men of America, come out Of
the circle of infdels-mostly made up
of cranks and imbeciles-into the COM
pany of intellectual giants and turn
your back ON an infdelity which de-
stroys body and soul.
What Infdelity Has Done.
All, infdelity, stand up and take thy
SENTENCED In the presence of God, an
gels and men stand up, thou monster.
thy lip blasted with blasphemy, thy
cheek Scared with uncleanness, thy
breath foul with the corruption Of the
agesl Stand up, satyr, filthy goat, buzz
card of the nations, leper Of the centu-
riesl Stand up, thou monster infidelity
Part man, part panther, part reptile,
part dragon, stand up and take thy SEN
tence Thy hands red with the blood in
which thou hast washed, thy feet Grim
son with the human gore through
which thou hast waded stand up and
take thy SENTENCED Down with thee to
the pit and sup on the sobs and groans
of those thou hast destroyed and let thy
music be the everlasting miserere Of
those whom thou hast damned ! brand
the forehead Of infidelity with all the
crimes Of self immolation for the last
century on the part of those who had
their reason.
My friends, if ever your life, through
its abrasions and its molestations, should
seem to be unbearable and you are
tempted to quit it by your own hebest
do not consider yourself as worse than
others. Christ himself was tempted to
cast himself from the roof Of the tenn
pie. but as he resisted so resist We.
Christ came to medicine all wounds
In your trouble l prescribe life instead
of death People who have had it worse
than you will ever have it have gone
songfully on their way. Remember that
God keeps the chronology Of your life
with as much precision as he keeps the
chronology Of nations. your grave as
well as your cradle.
Why was it that at midnight, just at
midnight, the destroying angel struck
the blow that set the Israelites free
from bondage: The 1870 years were up
at u O'Clock that night The 1870 years
were not up at II, and l o'clock would
have been tardy and too late. The 43O
years were up at - o'clock, and the
destroying angel struck the blow, and
Israel was free. And God knows just
the hour when it is time TO lead you up
from earthly bondage BY his grace
make not the worst Of things, but the
best of them. If You must take the
pills, do not chew them Your eyerlast
ing rewards will accord with your
earthly perturbations, just as Caius
gave to Agrippa chain OF gold as
heavy as had been a chain Of iron. For
the asking you may have the same grace
that was given the Italian martyr, AL
gerius, who, down in the darkest of dun
geons, dated his letters from the de-
lectable orchard Of the leonine prison.
And remember that this brief life Is
surrounded by rim, a very thin but
very important rim. and close up TO
that rim is a great eternity, and you
had better keep out Of 1t until God
breaks that rim and separates this from
that. To get rid of the sorrows Of earth
do not rush into greater sorrows. To
get rid Of a swarm Of summer insects
leap not into a jungle Of Bengal tigers.
There is a sorrowless world, and 1t is
so radiant that the MONDAY sun Is only
the lowest doorstep and the aurora that
lights up our northern heavens, con-
founding astronomers as to what 1t can
be. is the waving Of the banners Of the
procession come to take the cOnquerOrs
home from church militant to church
triumphant, and you and have 10, 600
reasons for wanting to go there, but we
will never get there either by self i'm
notation or impenltency. All our Sins
slain by Christ who came to do that
thing. we want TO 60 III at just the
time diyinely arranged and from
couch divinely spread, and then the
clang of the sepulchral gates behind us
will be overpowered by the clang Of the
opening of the solid pearl before us
o God, whatever others may choose,
give me a Christian life, a Christians
death. a Christians burial, a Chris
tian's immortality!
by Request"
An amateur singer takes particular
nride i'm Announcing that "A certain song