The Penn's Grove record., 1903-11-06
a SERMON FOR SUNDAY
ADIscoURsE ENTITLED rs THE OLD
BOOK FROM coD7"

A DISCOURSE ENTITLED us THE OLD
BOOK FROM coD7"
Some Of the Evidences That the DooE We
Call the Bible Has Been Giver TO Us
by the Inspiration of God-It is Pecu-
Hariy Mans Book.
PHILADELPHIA. - The Req. DR.. Kerr
Boyee Upper, pastor Of the First Baptist
Chufch of this city, preached a strong ser
nriSunday morning on Is the Old Book
God!" This is one Of the Oldest
and Ss6gest churches in the land. 1t
was presided over for thirty years by Dr.
George Dana Boardman, who was succeed
ed about eight years ago by DR.. Upper.
Two years ago, at a cost of nearly $4o0, 900.
q magnificent house of worship was erected
and $l50,000 endowment laid aside. The
congregations are very large, especially IN
the evening". The text for this sermon was
from First Thessalonians ii-l3: I'VE thank
God without ceasing because when We
received the word of God We received it
R truth e t he word word 81 # @Gs od.a 'u' Dr. s. i upper sT
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 a single article OF
property especially dear to his own heart.
Taking advantage Of the offer, Aeueas
selected his household gods and carried
Of safety. So pleased were the Greeks
by this unaffected act Of plety 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 I'd father, whose wisdom
and affectiof ituted for him a price
peat itself To-day and the priv
ilege grant genuine Christian be-
lever, IN sed season bf calamity
and privatiel d make a sclection of that
one possession most highly priced by him,
both because of its intrinsic value and its
immortal influence, the truest wisdom
would dictate a peculiar and, to thousands.
an ~inexpGcable choice; This choice would
not be silver or gold, military fame or
civic honor, profound learning or match
less e~loquence; this choice would not be
ever father or mother, husband or wife,
son or daughter, friend or lover: precious
as might be zach 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 it may seem to many. the
calm, firm. heaven guided, intelligent
choice of the earnest, thankful Christian
in that solemn, sacred hour. would be a
certain book-a book ancient and artless,
~elevating and ~ennobling, divine and dur
able.
As / utter this sentence you anticipate
the designation I am about to make. You
need not be told that. This book is no
work of mere poetry, neither Had nor
Odyssey, Millions Odes nor S~narespeare's
Livy nor Tacitus, Hallam nor Hume; no
work of mere philosophy, neither Bacon
nor Hamilton, Describes nor Locke; no
book of mere biography, neither Plutarch
nor Iamartine, Remusat nor Voltaire; no
book of mere romance, neither George
Eliot nor Scott, BulWer nor Thackeray;
no book of mere ethics, neither Plato nor
Seneca, Paily nor Balm; NJ book of Chris
tan morality and meditation, neither
nor Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress" Hook
er's "Homilies" nor Paschal's Thought
great and good as are man. if not all
of these. immortal works some OF them,
rising like grand and majestic mountain
peaks, catching and presenting to the
world the glorious splendors Of the high
couid zee Them and
eE84E EkME " liz = tIcf1tfII bAtu III aSHC5
Or buried in the sea, if at their expense
we might save to our hearts md lives
here and hereafter that one single book.
which has an origin and a character and
q mission and a destiny as far above every
work of mans creation as the skies are
above the ~clouds-that book whose Eau
thor is God. whose subject is man, whose
object is salvation, whose end eternity
that book of which Pollock, in an out
hxxrS& re roofto fopuor and Christian faith
SO feelingly writes:
This lamp from off the everlasting throne
Mercy took down, and in the night OF
time
Stood casting on the dark and gracious
And i0reve: more b~eseeching men with
And earnest signs, 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
insxhaustible stores of philosophy, the
loft;est principles of ethical and moral
teaching, counts no one of these its fea-
lures of chiefest glory, but rather this:
That 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 that, in so beautiful and
glorious a degree, that the thinking world
Echleimermacher, ITO abolish the Bible
is to pluck up " the roots all that is
noblest and truest and diyinest in the
| worlds civilization"
Oh. If there is one prayer that / offer
up daily with more constancy and fervoI
of soul than another in our age of theo-
logical ferment and unrest, it is this: God
the great brotherhood Of Christian believ-
ers, true now and always to the infalible
| Word Of the Eterpal God. As in the past.
| supernatural revelation has had to con,
| tend against the sophisms of Hume and
TIE t~ranscendental philosophy of Ger
many, so to-day, ell about us there are
those who battle against the idea Of . hv-
can and does freely and fully communi
| cate with His children; and to-day there
issa call long and loud for those who &C
| 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,
And well may We do SO when even the
| French skeptic, Rousseau, gives such tes-
| timony as this: THE majesty OF the
| Scriptures astonishes me, the holiness oil
Che evangeHsts speaks to my heart, the
4 whole le has such strong and striking
char Is of truth, and is, moreover, SC
perfectly ilianitable, that If it had been
the invention Of genius, the invention
would have been greater than the greatest
heroes"
With you to-day I come to consider the
question. what are some of the evidences
| that the Book we call the Bible has been
given BY inspiration Of God?. / say some,
Tor 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: s"The spirit
Of the Lord spake by me and HIS word
was ii my tongue and Isaiah, Hear. oh
heavens, and rive ear, oh earth, for the
| Lord has spoken, the mouth Of the Lord
hath spoken; and Ezekiel, The Word
Eof fhe Lord came expressly to Ezekiel,