The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-07-22

bad company into the company OF those
who believe the Bible. Benjamin Frank
lin wrote. .'Of his Jesus of Nazareth /
have TO say that the system OF morals
ne left and the religion ne has given US
are the best things the world has ever
seen or is likely 10 see Patrick Henry. |
the electric champion Of liberty, says, |
The book worth all other books put to-
eether is the Bible" Benjamin Rush, |
OF his day, the great medical scien est-
what did he say? The only true and
perfect religion is Christianity Isaac
Newton. the leading philosopher OF his
PHILOSOPHY on earth is the philosophy OF
the gospel" David Brewster, at the
enlist the world over bows his head
David Brewster saying, "Oh, this re-
ligion has been a great light to me, a
very great light, all my days Presl-
acknowledging that he prayed when he
said. I invoke the Lord God, in whom
I am glad TO believe, David Living
stone, able TO conquer the lion, bic 10
conquer the panther, able to conquer
the savage. yet conquered by this re-
ligion, so when they find him dead they
find him on his knees
Salmon P. Chase. chief justice of the
| supreme court Of tie Uni-ed States. APP
| pointed by President Lincoln, will take
the witness and. Chic Justice Chase.
please to state what you have to say
about the book commonly called the BIZ
| BILE The witness replies: There came
a time in my life when I doubted the
divinity of the Scriptures. and / reSolv-
ed as a lawyer and judge I would try
the book as I would try anything in the
courtroom. taking evidence for and
against. Il was a long and serious and
| profound study, and. using the same
principles of evidence in this religious
matter as I always do in secular mat
tiers, I have come to the decision that
the Bible is a supernatural book, that
it has come from God and that the only
safety for the human race Is to allow
its teachings Judge. that will do: Go
the banks Of the Ohio" Next I put upon
the witness stand a president of the
say about the Bible and Christianity"
The president replies: Il have for many
| years made it a practice TO read through
the Bible once a 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
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
virtue" 'Chancellor Kent. what do you
think of the Bible? Answer, No other
book ever addressed itself so authorize
lively and so pathetically to the judg-
ment and moral sense of mankind"
Burke, what do you think of
the Bible?' Answer, 7 have read the
IIID jIAoI mrs hooh anu IlS dIit nav
eVe~ since been the happier and the bet
ter man for such reading"
Young men of America. come out of
the circle of infdels-mostly made I'D
of cranks and imbeciles-into the COM
pany of intellectual giants and turn your
back on an infidelity which destroys
body and soul.
WHAT INFTDELITY Has DONE.
All, infidelity, stand up and take thy
sentence! In the presence Of God, an
gels and men stand up, thou monster,
thy lip blasted with bIasphemy, thy
cheek SCARED with uncleaness, thy
breath foul with the corruption of the
ages! Stand up, satyr, filthy goat, buzz
ries! 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
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! 1 brand the
forehead of nfidelity with all the crimes
of self fmmolation for the last century
on the part of those who had their rea-
| son.
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 behest,
l w ~ COllSluCI yOuIStll DIS WORSE ludu
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 1 prescribe life instead of
death. People who have had it worse
than you will ever have it have gone
God keeps the chronology of your life
with as much precision as he keeps the
chronology of nations, your grave as
we'll as your cradle.
Why was it that at midnight, just at
midnight, the destroying angel struck
the blow that set the 1SraeliteS free
from bondage? The 43O years were up
at IL o'clock that night. The 40 years
were not up at II, and l o'clock would
have been tardy and too late. The 430
years were up at II 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
pills, do not chew them. Your everlast-
ing rewards will accord with Y our
earthly perturbations. just as Caius gave
to Agrippa a 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, Algerius, who.
his letters from the delectable orchard
of the leonine prison." And remember
that this brief life is surrounded by a
rim, a very thin but very important rim.
A' 1 NtNi
nifty. and you had better keep out of it
until God breaks that rim and separates
| this from that. To get rid of the sorrows
of earth do not rush into greater sor-
| rows. To get rid of a swarm of summer
insects leap not into a jungle of Bengal
| tigers.
| There is a sorrowless world. and ii 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 it 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 I have 10 900
reasons for wanting to go there. but we
will never get there either by self i'm
notation or impenitency. All our sins
slain by Christ who came to do that
thing, We want to go in at just the time
divinely arranged and from A couch di-
vinely spread. and then the clang of the
sepulchre gates behind Us will be Over
powered by the clang of the opening Of
the solid pearl before US. o God. what
ever others may choose. give ne a
Christians life. a Christians death. a
Christians burial. a Christians immor-
tally.