The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-11-18
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
DISCOURSE ENTITLED us THE OLD
BOOK FROM CoD7"

BOOK FROM COD2"
Some of the Evidences That the Boolr We
Call the Bible Has Been Giver to Us
by the Inspiration of God-It IS Pecu-
liarly Mans Book.
PHILADELPHIA. - The Re-. Dr. Kerr
Boyce Tupper pastor of the First Baptist
Church OF this city, preached strong SER
mon Sunday morning on rs the Old BOOK
rom God?" This is one Of the oldest
and strongest churches in the land. 1t
was presided over for thirty years by DR..
ed about eight years ago by DR.. Tupper.
Two years ago. at cost of nearly S40O,O ,OOO:
a magnificent house Of worship was erected
and Sl50090 endowment laid aside. The
CONGREGATIONS are very large. especially in
the evening. The text for this sermon was
from First Thessalonians ii-l3: "We thank
God without ceasing because when ye
received the word of God ye received 1t
not as the word OF man; but as It Ism IS IN
truth, the word of God" Dr. Iupper
said:
Ancient history has preserved the ira, ira
dition that when, thirty centuries ago. the
city of Troy was sacked by the Greeks,
the conauerors made the general proclaim.
alton that each of the inhabitants Thereon
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
them in triumph and for joy to q place
of safety. So pleased we're the Greess sssIs
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 price
less inheritance.
Were the traditions thus related to re-
neat itself in history to-day and the priv
ilege granted every genuine Christian be-
lever, in a supposed season of calamity
and privation, to make selection of that
one possession most higniy priced by him,
both because Of its intrinsic value and its
immortal influence, the truest wisdom
would dictate peculiar and. to thousands.
an inexpiicable 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
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
choire 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 I utter this sentence you anticipate
the DESIGNATION am about to ma ke.. You
need not be told that. This book is no
work of mere noetry, neither Iliad nor
ODYSSEY. Milton's Odes nor Snarespeare's
plays; no work of mere history. neither
Livv nor Tacitue. 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 Voltaire; no
book of mere romance, neither George
Eliot nor Scott, Bulwer nor Thackeray;
no book of mere ethics, neither Plato nor
Seneca. Pai!v nor Rain; no book of Chris
Thomas a Kemnis' Limitation of Christ"
nor Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress" Hook;
er's "Homi'ies" nor Paschaps Thoughts"
great ard good as are many 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,
est human genus-we could see them and
all else of mans creation burn into ashes
we might save to our hearts and lives
here and hereafter that one single book:
which has an origin and a character and
a mission and destiny as far above every
work Of mans creation as the skies are
above the clcuds-that 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 noetic fervor and Christian faith,
SO feeiingiy writes:
This lamp from off the everlasting throne
Mercy took down, and in the night OF
time
Stood casting on the dark and gracious
bow, go,
And forevc: more beseeching men with
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,xhaustihe stores of philosophy, the
most thrilling incidents Of biography, the
lJftiest 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 50 beautiful and
glorious a degree, that the thinking world
is beginning to accept the statement OF
Schlemermacher. "To abolish the Bible
is to pluck up ~ the roots all that ,ls
noblest and truest and divinest in the
worlds civilization"
Oh! if there is one prayer that, l offer
up daily with more constancy and fervor
sc fhor in CleO-
logical ferment and unrest, it is this: God;
i;eep me as an ambassador of Christ and
the great brotherhood of Christian beliey-
ers, true now and always to the infalllb!e
Word of the .ternal God. As in. the past,
supernatural revelation has had to con,
tend against the sophisms of Hume and
tie transcendental philosophy of Ger
many. 50 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 eommunl-
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 srrong and unshaken.
And well may We DO so W hen even the
French skeptic. Rousseau, gives such tes-
timony as this: "rhe majesty OF the
Scriptures astonishes me, the holiness OF
the evangelists speaks to my heart, the
whole bible mas such strong and striking
characters OF truth, and is, moreover. so
neriectly illimitable, that if it had been
the invention of geIius: 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 Bool; We call the Bible has been
given by inspiration of God: L say some,
for we have no time, even if we had the
-. 70 thena al Inat these