The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-11-04
IS TnEOLD BOOK FROMGOD?
A Strong Sunday Sermon By the Rev.
DR.. Kerr.
Some Of the Evidences That the Book We Gail
the Bible Has Been Given to Us BY
the Inspiration Of God.

rom uOu. MS is one OIL tDe OLDEST
and strongest churches in the land 1t
was presided over for thirty years by DIR.
George Dana Boardman, who was succeed
ed about eight years ago by DR.. Tupper.
Two years ago, at a cost OF nearly 100000,
a magnificent house of worship was erected
and sl5O,00O endowment laid aside. The
congregations are very large, especially in
the evening The text for this sermon was
from First Thessalonians i-l3: I'VE thank
God without ceasing because when we
received the word of God ye received it
not as the word of man, but as it is in
truth, the word of God" DIR. Upper
said:
Ancient history has preserved the ira.
dition that when, thirty centuries ago. the
city OF Troy was sacked by the Greeks.
the conquerors made the general proclaim
alton that each of the inhabitants thereof
be permitted to save q single article of
property especially dear to his own heart.
Taking. advantage of the offer, Aeueas
selected his household gods and carried
them in triumph and for joy to place
of safety. So pleased were the Greeks
by this unaffected act OF piety that they
extended to him further indulgence, al
lowing him to save one other thing, when,
returning in haste, he bore off on his
shoulders his aged father, whose wisdom
and affection constituted for him a price
less inheritance.
peat itself in history to-day and the priv
ilege granted every genuine Christian be.
lever, in n supposed season of calamity
and privation, to make Il selection of that
one possession most hignly priced by him,
both because of its intrinsic value and its
immortal influence, the truest wisdom
would dictate a peculiar and to thousands
an inexp.icable choice. This choice would
not be silver or gold, military fame or
civic honor, profound learning or match
less elonuence; this choice would not be
even father or mother, husband or wife,
son or daughter. friend or lover; precious
as might be each of these. it would not be
the one thing wisely chosen if the choice
were made both for time and eternity.
What then would the one thing be?
Strange as 1t may seem to many. the
calm, firm. heaven guided. intelligent
choice OF the earnest. thankful Christian
in that solemn, sacred hour, would be
certain boOk-a book ancient and artless,
elevating and ennoblmg, divine and dur.
able.
AS I utter this sentence you anticipate
the designation ! am about to make. You
need not be told that. This book is no
work of mere poetry. neither Had n9r
Odyssey, Millions Odes nor Susrespeare's
plays; no work of mere history. neither
Livy nor Tactus. Hallam nor Hume; no
work of mere philosophy, neither Bacon
nor Hamilton, Descartes nor Locke; no
book OF mere biography. neither Plutarch
nor Lamartine, Remusat nor No.taire; no
book of mere romance, neither George
Eliot nor Scott, Bulwer nor Thackeray;
no book of mere ethics. neither Plato nor
Seneca. Paily nor Bain no bool; OF Chris.
tian morality and meditation. neither
Thomas a Kempis' Limitation of Christ"
nor Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress" Hook.
er's "Homilies" nor Paschal's Thoughts"
great and good rs are many if not all
of these. immortal works some of them.
rising like grand ana majestic mountain
peaks, catching and presenting to the
world the glorious splendors Of the high.
est human genius-we could see them and
all else of mans creation burn into ashes
or buried in the sea. if at their expense
we might save to our hearts and lives
here and hereafter that one single book.
which has an origin and character and
a mission and a destiny as far above every
work OF mans creation as the skies are
above the clouds--thGt book whose ''au-
thor is God whose subject is man, whose
object is salvation. whose end eternity
that book of which Pollock, in an out
burst Of poetic fervor and Christian faith,
so fee.ingly writes
This lamp from off the everlasting throne
Mercy took down, and in the night of
Stood casting on the dark and gracious
bow.
And forevc-: more beseeching men with
tears
And earnest sighs, to hear, believe and
live.
Surely, brethren, this must be the book
OF all books, which, while full and rich
with the sweetest strains of poetry, the
most memorable deeds of history, the most
In exhaustlble stores OF philosophy, the
most thrilling incidents of biography, the
loftiest principles of ethical and moral
teaching, counts no one OF these its fea-
lures OF chiefest glory, but rather this:
A nat for centuries it has gone up and down
this world of ours, relieving human con-
sciences, illuminating human intellects, re-
deeming human spirits, Transforming hu-
man lives, and tnat, in so beautiful and
glorious a degree, that the thinking word
y beginning to accept the statement OF
Is TO pluck up ly the roots all that is
noblest and truest and divinest in the
worlds civilization"
Oh! II there Is one prayer that offer
up daily with more constancy ald fervor
OF soul than another in our age of theo-
logical ferment and unrest, it is this: God,
Reep me as an ambassador of Christ and
the great brotherhood of Christian beliey-
ers, true now and always to the infallible
Word of the i.CeTnal God. As in the past,
supernatural revelation has had to con.
tend against the sophisms of Hume and
We transcendental philosophy OF Ger
many, so to-day, all about us there are
those who battle against the idea of liv-
ing, personal, omnipotent jehovah, who
can and does freely and fully communi-
cate with His children; and to-day there
Is a call long and loud for those who ac-
cept the Bible as the full and satisfactory
oracle from heaven, to stand up and out
against all these attacks, and that. too,
with convictions strong and mistaken.
With you to-day | come TO consider the
question, What are some Of the evidences
that the Book we call the Bible has been
gwen by inspiration of God? | say some,
for we have no time, even If we had the
ability, to enumerate them all. That these
sacred writers themselves believe that
theirs were the oracles of God Is without
question. Hear David sing; "The spirit
Of the Lord spake by me and His word
was in my tongue;' and Isaiah, Hear, oh
heavens. and give ear, oh earth, for the
LORD has spoken, the mouth of the Lord
of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel.
the priest and the hand Of the Lord was
m'ci him" ana Peter. after the death OF
Judas, 'Men and brethren, the Scripture
must needs have been fulfilled. which the
Holy Chest by the mouth OF David spake
pefore concerning Judas and Paul would
speak, mot in the words which mans
wisdom teacheth, but which tho How
throws throw tfss, the broad shield Of His in infaIble
ruthfulness" over the whole Old Testa-
ment canon, testifying both to the accu.
ncy and the inviolability OF the Word of
God. The Old Testament was then, aa
now, divided into the Law. the Prophets
and the sacred writings. Holding up the
scroll that contained these, the Master
OF the ages with hrmness of conviction
- 4 IL