The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1900-12-26

gists. Testimonials free.
Halls Family Pills are the best.
make up, terrorizing rather than at
tracing. They must not hide the smil-
ing face and the warm heart Of our
Father, God. Let nothing Imply that
there is a sheriff at every door ready
to make arrest. but over US all and
around us all mercy that wants to
save and save now.
Why the Bible Was Written.
If one paragraph Of the creed seems
to take you. like child, out Of the
arms OF father. let the next para
graph put you in the arms Of mother.
"As one whom his mother comforteth
so will comfort you" Oh, what a
mother we lave in God! And ny text
is the lullaby sung to us when we are
i'll OR when we are maltreated or when
we are weary or when we are trying to
do better or when we are bereft or
when we ourselves lie down to the last
sleep. We feel the warm cheek Of the
mother against our cheek, and there
sounds in It the hush Of many mothers,
"God is love"
This was the reason the Bible was
written. The world needs no inspired
page to cell it that God will chastise
sin, for that is proved in the life Of
many an offender. You can look through
the wicket Of any prison and see the
fact which the world understood thou
sands of years before Solomon wrote 1t.
|The way of the transgressor is hard"
The world needed no Bible to tell 1t
that God is omnipOtent, for any one
who has seen Mont Blanc or Niagara
or the Atlantic ocean in a cyclone
knows that The world needed no b.
BILE to tell it Of Gods wisdom, for ev-
erything, from 4 spiders web to the
upholstery Of summers sunset, from
the globe Of dewdrop to the rounding
Of a world, declares that. But there
was one secret about God that was
wrapped up in scroll Of parchment,
Sliu u Sltlll uhtii opOoeOAiS A~AA~
unrolled that scroll and let out upon
the world the startling fact, which it
could never have SurmiSed, never
guessed, never expected, that he loved
, our human race so ardently that he
will pardon sin and subdue the offend
er with divine kiss and turn foaming
malefactors into worshipers before the
throne. Oh am so glad that the Sc
cret is out and that it can never again
be yelled. Tell it to all the SHINING,
suffering, dying race, tell it in song and
sermon On canvas and In marble, on
arch and pillar; tell it all around the
earth-"God is love-"
Notice that the wisest men Of the
nations for thousands Of years did not
amid their idolatries make something
to represent this feeling, this emotion.
They had Jovc, representing night;
Neptune. the god of the sea; Minerva,
the goddess of wisdom; Venus, the god
dess Of base appetite; Ceres, thc god
dess of corn, and an OClin and an Osiris
and Titan and q Juggernaut and
whole pantheons Of gods and goddess
eS. but no shrine, no carved image, no
sculptured form, has suggested god
of pure love. That was beyond human
brain. 1t took a God to think that. a
God to project that, God let down
from heaven to achieve that.
False Religions.
Fear is the dominant thought in all
false religions. For that the devotees
cut themselves with lances and swing
on iron hooks and fall under wheels
and hold up the right arm SO long that
they cannot take it down. Fear, bru-
tish fear! But love is the queen In our
religion. For that we build temples.
For that we kneel at our affairs. For
that we contribute our aims. For that
martyrs suffered at Brussels market
place and at Lucknow and CaWnpur
and Peking That will yet bejewel the
round earth and put it an emerald on
the great, warm, throbbing heart Of
Cod
The world has had many specimens
Of slandered men and women, their mo-
tives slandered their habits slandered
-slandered until they got out Of the
world and then perhaps honored by
elaborate culogium and tall shaft Of
granite, all four sides chiseled with the
story of how good and great they were.
But no one under the heavens or over
the heavens has ever been so much
| slandered as Cod Bad men have
| fought against him and have thought
| they heard his voice in the crash Of a
| thunderstorm, but have not seen him
in the sunshine Of the spring morning.
They have blamed him for wrongs
which they had done themselves. The
sight of q church building eXcites their
! disgust. They like the madrigal of a
saloon better than the doXology of a
temple. They do not want to live with
him in heaven, but would prefer on
/ leaving this world to go into some
realm where God has abdicated the
throne and from which he Is exiled
forever The reason is they do not
know him. They do not realize the
fact that God is the best friend this
world ever had or ever will have and
that he would do more for their happi-
ness than any one in the wide uni
verse, that he would help them In the
wear and tear and tusSle of this life,
that he would hush their sorrows. that
no U-oul1 holm C,1rp thp owl habits with
which they sometimes struggle. that