The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1902-06-12

ton truly exist? Where learning
flourish? Where education pur-
sued! Where benevolence most
manifesto Where men enjoy the
most happiness3 Where the home
cherished and the hearthstone most
sacred? Go the world over and
you will find that these follow the
wake of the word of God as certain
~ as light is the result of the rising
sun, have only to point you to
those lands now held by the Turk
and the Mohammedan. Mollammet,
who claimed to be Gods prophet,
left the koron as the rule of con-
duct. Travel through those lands,
the fairest portion of the globe,
where arts and literature and
science once flourished, and now
you find desolation. Despotism
and fanaticism extends its death
like clasp over those fair lands, and
all the happiness that men enjoy is
the happiness of ignorance and
slavery and superstition. Palestine,
where. the Son of Man lived and
died-once the center of the worlds
life-is now a land Of ruins. Where
once the feet of men trod in the
pursuit of learning and in the enjoy
ment of peace, there now treads
the foot of the wild beast and the
wing Of the bird of prey beats the
silent air.
Why all this! There a book
that claims to be from God, is the
rule of faith and life. Here, anoth-
er book that makes the same claim,
produces another result. Which
shall we take to be the true message
of the God of peace and happiness
and goodness and love?
Again, if the Bible be such a
book as its enemies claim, why
does it not produce bad men and
women. Your father lived by it.
Was he a bad man? Your mother
read it daily, and on her death bed
quoted from its pages. Did it make
a bad woman of her? Your sister,
who has gone on to a better land,
made it her companion. Was she
an impure and immodest girl? No!
No! The strong, pure, noble,
sweet lives in this world, are those
that regard this book as a message
from God to them who make it
their guide.
How do | know this is the Word
of God? Not because some arch
angel has winged his way from
heaven and Numbered in mine ear
the truth. Not because some saint
of my acquaintance, from yonder
world, has returned to make it'll
known. Not because God himself
has spoken to me in an audible
voice, but | know it because of the
effect produced in my own life. 1t
is no fancy or dream of the fanatics
heart, but there is a constant wit
ness in the feeling of my soul, when
| read the message from God. You
may sit down and read all the
classics of literature, and all books
of science and philosophy, and you
will rise the same person. Read
the message that makes the claim
Of being divine, and you arise a |
different person in heart. A poor
Italian woman was seated in her
fruit stall reading the Bible, gen.
tleman approached to buy some
fruit and said, "My good woman,
what are you reading there?" "The
Word of God," replied the fruit
vendor. "The Word of God?"
Who told you that? "He told me
SO himself "Have you ever
spoken to him, then?' She was
perplexed and embarrassed when
urged for proof of her faith. Not
used to discussion and argument,
she exclaimed, "Can you prove
to me that there is a sun up in the
SKYE" "Why," said he, "the
heat proof is that it warns me and
| can see it's light" $50 it is with
me, " she exclaimed, joyousIy.
"The proof of this book is that it
warns and lights my soul" You
ask, Chow do we know this is
Gods message?" It produces re-
suit in the world, in the human
heart, that none other produces,
and one that we expect from such,
God as ours.
Its Endurance-Thi of this
world perish, the things of God
never! All of the greatest achieve
ments of the human race have de-
|cayed, are decaying or will decay.
But when we find a work that lives
on, still young and fresh as in
YOUTH. to it we perforce ascribe