Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1903-11-07

A Strong Sunday Sermon BY the Rev.
DR.. Kerr.
Some OF the Evidences That the Book We Gail
the Bible Has Been Gwen to Us BY
the Inspiration of God.

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 DIR.
ed about eight years ago by DR.. Upper.
Two years ago, at a cost of nearly $4OO,OOO.
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 ills: I'VE thank
cd without ceasing because when We
received the word of God We received 1T
not as the word of man: but as it Is IN
truth, the word of Cod" DR.. Upper
said:
Ancient history has preserved the ira
dition that when, thirty centuries ago. the
city of Troy was sacked by the Greeks.
alton that each of the inhabitants thereof
be permitted to save 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
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 aged father. whose wisdom
and affection constituted for him a price
less inheritance.
Were the traditions thus related to re-
peal itself iii history to-day and the priv
ilege granted every genuine Christian be-
lever, in a supposed season of calamity
and privation, to make a selection of that
one possession most hignly priced by him,
both because of its intrinsic value and its
INN influence, the truest wisdom
would dictate 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 e]oauence; 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 it 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 ennobling, divine and dur
abIe.~T
AS utter this sentence you anticirate
the designation l am about to make. You
need not be told that. This book is no
work of mere poetry. neither I!iad NOR
Odyssey, Milton's Odes nor Snarespeare's
plays; no work of mere history. neither
Hwy nor Tacitus. Hailam ror Hume; no
work of mere philosophy, neither Bacon
nor Hamilton. Descartes nor Locke; no
book of mere biography. neither Piutarch
nor Lamartine, Remusat nor totaire; no
book of mere romance. neither George
Eliot nor Scott. Bulwer nor Tsackeray;
no book of mere ethics. neither Pinto nor
Seneca, PaiIy nor Balm; no book of Chris
tian morality and meditation, neither
Thongs a kem n,,s "lmt pU OF ;, c 1I
er's "Homiies' nor pascha.,s Thoughts
great and 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.
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 a, character and
mission and a destiny as far. above every
work of mans creation as the skies are
above the clouds--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 poetic fervor and Christian faith,
so feeiingly writes:
This lamp from off the everlasting throne
Mercy took down, and in the night OF
Stood casting on the dark and gracious
And forevc: more beseeching men with
tears
End earnest signs, to hear, believe and
live.
of all books, which. while full and rich
with the sweetest strains of poetry, the
most memorable deeds of history, the most
incxhaustible stores of philosophy, the
most thrilling incidents of biography, the
iJftiest principles of ethical and moral
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 degree, that the thinking world
is beginning to accept the statement OF
Schleimermacher, ITO abolish the Bible
is to pluck up ly the roots all that is
noblest and truest and divinest in the
worlds civilization
Oh! if there is one prayer that offer
up daily with more constancy and fervOr
of soul than another i'll our age of theo-
logical ferment and unrest. it is this: God.
Keep me as an ambassador of Christ and
the great brotherhood OF Christian believ-
ers, true now and always to the infallibe
Word of the A.ternal God: AS in the past,
tend against the sophisms of Hume and
tie 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 eommuni-
is 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.
With you to-day | come to consider the
hot of