The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-12

i SLOW as , mps the
1t Of God ailas r" 50
the natic s. ear, the
,issi lary wve' er-- az. been
ART 7 WI in { . i'd see
one -tuu has lone o recover
e orld rom 9 ce uric If devas-
' at raat rsyi rs, What
mir ty c urch :. ! mil
lions!
From lie runs of Babv On and As
syria n Min svah and the valleys OF
the Nile conf mat rs have been ex-
h'med. 'roviIlg TO al fair minded men
that the Bib is the trusst book ever
written. The myrhologies Of Egypt
were found to have embodied in them
the knowledge OF mans expulsion from
paradise and n sacrifice OF a great
emancipation. Moses account OF the
creation, corroborated by the hammer
Of Christian biologists; the oldest pro-
fame writers, Hiromus, HeIanicus and
Berosus, confirming the Bible account
of ancient longevity: Tacftus and Pliny
confirming the Bible accounts OF de-
stroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; Tacitus
n P~horphyry telling the same story
of Christ as Matthew and Luke told:
Macrobius telling OF the massacre OF
children in Bethlehem and Phlegon
sketching at the crucifixion.
1t is demonstrated to all honest men
that it is not so certain that William
Cullen Bryant wrote "Thanatosis" or
Longfellow wrote "Hiawatha" as that
God, by the hand of prophet and apos-
tie, wrote the Bible. All the wise men
in science and law and medicine and
literature and merchandise are grad
ually coming to believe in Christianity
and soon there will be no people who
disbelieve in it except those conspicu-
n fnr 1nnI Of brain ar y1nn x.rf~A sua
families, who do not like the Bible be-
cause IT rebukes their swinish propen-
stiles.
THE OPEN DOOR.
The time is fastening when there
will be no infidels left except libertines
and harlotS and murderers. Millions
of Christians where once there were
thousands and thousands where once
there were hundreds. What a bright
evening this, the evening of the nine
tenth century, And the twentieth
century, which is about to dawn, will
in my opinion, bring universal victory
for Christ and the church that now is
marching on with step double quick or,
if you prefer the figure Of the text, is
being swept on in the mighty gales of
blessing, imposing and grand and ma
jestic and swift like pillars Of smoke.
oh, come into the church through
Christ the door, a door more glorious
than that Of the temple of Hercules,
which had two pillars, and one was
gold and the other emerald! Come in
today! The world you leave behind is
a poor world, and it will burn and pass
off like pillars of smoke. Whether the
final conflagration will start in the coal
mines of Pennsylvania, which in some
places have for many years been burn
ing and eating into the heart of the
mountains. or. whether 1T shall begin
near the California geysers, or whetn-
er from out the furnaces of C0topaxi
and Vesuvius and Stromboli it sha!
burst forth upon the astonished ma
tions / make no prophecy, but all geol-
ogiStS tell us that we stand On the lid
of a world, the heart Of which is a rag
ing, roaring, awful flame, n some
day God will let the red monsters out
of their imprisonment of centuries, and
New York OF fire in 1885, and Charles
ton on fire in 1865, and Chicago on fire
in 1872, and Boston on fire in 1873 were
only like n spark from a blacksmith's
forge as compared with that last uni
versal blaze which will be seen in 9TH
er worlds. But gradually the flames
will lessen, n the world will become
a great living coal, and that will take
or ashen hue, and then our ruined
planet will begin to smoke, and the
mountains will smoke, and the valleys
will smoke, and the islands will smoks,
and the seas will smoke, and the cities
will smoke, and the five continents will
be five pillars of smoke. But the black
vapors will begin to lessen in height
and density, and then will become
hardly visible to those who look upon
it from the sky galleries, and after
awhile from just n point there VIII
curl up a thin, solitary vapor, and then
even that will vanish, and there will be
nothing left except the charred ruins
of a burned out world, the corpse of A
dead star, the ashes Of an extinguished
planet, a fallen pillar of smoke.
But that will not interfere with your
Investments if you have taken Christ
as your Saviour. Secure heaven as
your eternal home, and you can look
upon a dismantled, disrupted and
demolished earth without any pertur-
baton.
When wrapped in fire the realms Of
ether glow,
And heavens last thunders shake the
earth below,
Thou, undismayed, shalt DER tho rains
smile
light thy torch at Natures fu-
neral pile.