Crittenden press. [volume] (Marion, Ky.) 1879-1907, 1900-01-04

sonal illumination. The mightiest and
most skillful argument against Chris
tinnity collapses under the INGRAM
NAUTICAL but sincere statement. The
atheistic professor of natural philoso-
ply goes down under the story of that
backwoodsman's conversion.
The New Testament suggests the
power of the tale that Is told" Christ
was the most effective story teller OF
all the ages. The parallels are only
tales we'll told. Matches stories:
That of the traveller cut up by the
| thieves and the Samaritan paying his
board bill at the tavern; that of the big
dinner, to which the invited guests sent
in fictitious regrets; that Of the shep-
herd answering the bleat of the lost
sheep and all the rural neighbors that
night helping him celebrate the faat
that il was safe In the barnyard; that
| of the bad boy. reduced TO the swines'
trough, greeted home with such BAN
quoting and jewelry that II stuffed the
older son with jealousy and disgruntle-
ment; that of the Pharisee full Of bragg
| gadocio and the publican shifting bis
breast with a stroke that brought down
the heavens in commisera,ion; stories
about leprosy. about paralysis, about
catalepsy, about dropsy. about ophthal-
| mia--stories that he so we'll told that
they have rolled down TO the present
and will roll down through the entire
future.
The most of the Old Testament is
made up of inspired anecdotes about
Adam and Eve. about Jacob, about
Esau. about Ahab and Jezebel, about
Jonah, about Daniel. about Deborah.
about Vashti. about nren and women of
whom the story gave an accurate photo
graph long before human photography
was born. Let all Christian workers.
prayer meeting takers. Sunday school,
teachers and preachers know The power
of that which my text calls the tale
that is told" ....
II you have had experiences Of par
don and comfort and disenthrallment.
tell of il. Tell it in the most pointed
and dramatic way you can manage.
Tell 1t soon. or you may never tell IL at
all. Oh. the power Of 1.-THE tale that is
told" An hours discourse about the
fact that bIasphemous behavior is
sometimes punished in this world
would not impress us as much as the
simple story that in a town Of New
York state. at the close of the last CEN
fury, SO profane men formed them
selves into club. calling them
selves Society of the Druids." They
met regularly to deride and damage
Christianity. One night in their awful
meeting they burned a Bible and adj
ministered the sacrament to dog.
Two of them died that night. Within
three days three were drowned. In
five years all the 80 came to a bad end.
Before justices Of the peace il was
sworn that two were starved 20 death,
seven were drowned. eight were shot.
five committed suicide. seven died on
the gallows. one was frozen TO death.
and three died accidentally. Incidents
| like that. sworn TO. would balk any pro-
posed irreverent and blasphemous be-
havior.
In what way could the fact that in
fidelity will not help anyone die we'll
be so powerfully presented as by the
incident concerning a man falling III in
Paris just after the death of Voltaire,
when a professional nurse was called in
and she asked: as the gentleman a
Christian?" "Why do you ask that?"
said the messenger. ~ am the nurse
who attended Voltaire in his last ILL
ness. and for all the wealth of Europe
| would never see another intidel die"
chat discourse in its moral and spirit
ual effect could equal tale like that?
You might argue upon the fact that
those fallen are our brothers and sis
tiers, but could we impress anyone
with such truth so well Us by the
scene near Victoria park, London,
where men were digging n deep drain
and the snoring gave way and great
| pile of earth fell upon the workmen.
A man stood there with his hands in
his pockets looking at those who were
trying to shovel away the earth from
those who were buried. but when
some one said to the spectator: "Bill,
your brother is down there" then the
spectator threw off his coat and went
to work with an agony of earnestness
| 10 Ietcn up MS DTOtneT. WHAT COURSE
of argument could so we'll rs that in
cident set forth that when we toll for
the salvation of soul it is brother
whom we are trying to save"
A second reading of my text re-
minds me that life is not only story
told, but that it is n brief story. A
long narrative stretched out indeh-
nitely loses its interest. 1t is general
ly the story that takes only minute
or half minute TO rehearse that ar
rests the attention. And that gives
additional interest TO the story of our
life. 1t is short story. Subtract
from our lives all the hours of nee
essary sleep. all the hours of incapac-
ity through fatigue or illness, all the
hours of childhood and youth before
we get fairly to work, and you have
abbreviated the story OF life so much
that you can appreciate the Apostle
James expression when he compares
life to "a yapor that appeareth for a
little season and then vanishes away"
1t does not take long 60 tell all the