The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1900-07-28
TAiMAGE SERMON.
DISCOURSE BY THE ABLE Of.
VINE.

l Subject: The E,h Of Ait fook.-Th
Bibles Divine Origin UpheIL---FuI
I filled Prophecies of the Ola Tes,arncn
Prove Its Emshation From God.
tcopyrielli i9Gt1
WASHINGTON, n. C-In the great tofi
hict now raging in Europe, as in this coun
try, between thrlstqnity and agnosticisn
DR., 1airnagc has taken = decided stand
| and IN this sermon declares his llliwave1
ing bchet III The divine origin Of the Scrip
lures; text, Matthew VII, lG; do mer
gither grares OF thorns.'
Not III his country. Not IN 1nv roua
try. 1horns stick. thorns lacerate, aat
all the thorns put together never yielded
one cluster OF Catawba or Isabella grapes
Christ who was the master Of apt and 30
tent illustration. is thus setting forth what
You and well know-that YOU cannot get
that winch is pleasant and hcalthiul and
good from that which ia bad ii YOU find
a round, large, beautiful cluster Of grapes
you know that it was produced by Il good
grapevine, and not from tanGle Of Can
ada thlstlc Now. # | can show YOU, that
TINS Holy Bible Yields good fruit, healthfu!
fruit, grand fruit. splendid fruit, you will
come to the conclusion it Is good Bible,
and all the arguments of the skeptic
against It when he tries to show it is bad
book, will go overheard
DO mon gather grapes of thorns' Tan
bad Look yield good results? Skep,cs
| with great vehemence declare that the Ri-
bic is a cruel book. They read the story
oil the determination of the Canaaniics
and oi all the ancient wars and of the hts
| tory of David and Joshua and they come
to the conclusion that the Bible is In fa-
vor of laceration and manslauehter and
| massacre. Now. a bad book will produce
| a bad result, q cruel book will produce a
cruel result.
| You have friends who have been In the
habit of reading the Bible a great many
years. Have YOU noticed tendency to
| cruelty on their part: Have vou ever
| heard any of them come ont and practl-
| cally say, Il have been reading the story
about the determination Of the Canaanites
| and L am seized upon with a disposition
| murder and knock to pieces everything
can lay my hands on:' Have your friends
IN proportion as they become diligent BIZ
BILE students and disciples of the Christ of
the Bible. shown a tendency toward mas
sacre and murder and manslaughter? Has
that been yotr observation
What has been the effect upon Your chill
dren of this cruel book? Or, if YOU do not
allow the book to be read in Your house
hold, what has been the effect upon the
children of other households where the
Word of God is honored, Have they as
result of reading this cruel book gone
forth with a cruel spirit to pull the wings
rob birds nests? 4 cruel book ought to
make, cruel people; if they diligently read
it and get absorbed with its principles that
cause must produce that effect. At what
time did You notice that the teachings of
this Holy Bible created cruelty in the heart
and the life of George Peabody, of Miss
Dix, of Florence Nightingale. of John
Howard Of Ioh -
Abbot Laurence? Have you noticed in
reading the biography of these people that
in proportion as they became friends of
the Bible they became enemies to human
lty!. Have YOU not, on the contrary no.
ticed that all the institutions of mercy
were established, or, being established.
were chiefly supported by the friends of
this book? There is the hospital in war
time. There are twenty Christian women.
They arc binding up wounds, they. are Of
terlng Cordlals, tFey are kneeling down by
the dying, praying for their departing spir-
its. Where does the cruelty crop out:
They have been reading the Bible all their
lives, They read it every morning; they
read it every night; they carry it under
their arm when they go into the hospital.
Again, lnhdels go on and most vehe-
mently charge that this Bible is an impure
book. You all know that an impure book
produces impure results. No amount of
money could hire You to allow your child
to read an unclea book. Now, if this Bi-
Tins? Your father read it-did it make
him a bad man? Your mother read it
did it make her bad woman: Your sis
ter fifteen years in heaven died in the |
faith of this gospel-did it despoil her ma
ture? Some say there are 100000 900 cop |
les of the Bible in existence; some say there |
are 400O00,0O0 copies of the Bible. 1t is
10 n ho 10 "a, 80,
But suppose there are 200, 100000 copies of |
the Bible abroad, this one book read more
than any twenty books that the world |
ever printed. this book abroad for ages,
for ages for centuries-where are the vic
tins, Show me 1000; show me 500 vic
TINS of an impure book; show me 100 de-
spoiled of the Bible; show m. fifty; show
me ten; show me two; show me one. Two
hundred million copies of an impure book,
and not one victim of the impurity. On
the contrary. you know very well that it is
where the Bible has the most power that
the family institution is most respected.
Again, agnostlcs go on still further, ard
they say the Bible is a mass of contradic
tions, and they put prophet against pro-
phet, evangelist against evangelist, apos-
tie against apostle, and they say if this be
true how, then, can that be true. Mr..
Mil, who was a friend of the Bible, said
he had discovered 10000 different read
lngs OF the Scriptures and yet not one I'M
portant difference out of 10000, only the
difference that YOU might expect from the
fact that the book came down from gener-
alton to generation, and was copied by
great many hands. And yet | put before
you this fact to-day-that all the Bible
writer's agree in the four great doctrines oil
the Bible
What are these four great doctrines?
God-good, kind, patient, Just, loving, ON
nipOtent. Mana lost sinner. Two desti
nies-one for believers, the other for un-
believers. All who accept Christ reaching
hat home and only those destroyed who
destroy themselves, only those who turn
heir back upon Christ and come to the
orecipice and jump off, tor God never
pushes a man off; he jumps off. Now,
n these four great doctrines all the |
Bible writers agree. Mozart, Beethoven,
Handel, Hadyn, never wrote more harmo
Nous music than you will find in this per
ect harmony of the Word of God, the har- |
nony in providence and in grace.
You must remember also that the au
hors of the Bible came from different
ands, from different ages AMI from diff |
egent centuries. They had no communica-
ion with each other, they did not have an
dea as to what was the chief uesign of the
Bible. and yet their writings, got up from
ii these different ages and all these dit
erent centuries, coming together, make a |
erfect harmony in the opinion of the
cry best scholars of all lands Is not that |
most remarkable fact!