The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-12-04

marry Mhmn hnoNs
pHuLAuElpmA. - The Rev. DIR Kerr
Boycc Upper pastor of the First Baptist
Church off this city preached q strong SER
mon Sunday morning on lis the Old Book
rom GodW This b. one OF The oldest
and strongest churches Ina the land. II
was presided over for thirty years by d..
George Dana Boardman, who was succeed
ed about eight years ago by DR.. upper
Two years ago, at a cost of nearly slOOOl0.
a magnificent house Of Worship was erected
and Sl5O.000 endowment laid aside. The
congregations are very large. especially ~
the evening The text for this sermon was
from First Thessalonians ills: we thank
God without ceaslng because when yc
received the word Of God yo received IT
not as the word Of man. but as it is ia
truth, the word Of God" DR.. Upper
said:
Ancient history has preserved the ira
dition that when, thirty centuries ago. the
city of Troy was sacked by the Greeks,
the conqucrors made the general proclaim
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
Of safety So pleased we're 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 of on his
shoulders his aged father, whose wisdom
and affection constituted for him a price
less inheritance.
Were the traditions thus related TO re.
peat itself in history to-day and the priv
llege 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
immortal influence, the truest wisdom
would dictate a peculiar and. to thousands,
an inexplicable choice. This choice would
not be silver or gold, military fame or
civic honor, profound learning or match.
less eloduenee; 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 II 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,
eleyating and ennobling, divine and our
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 nor
Odyssey, Milton's 0des nor Snarespeare's
plays; no work of mere history, neither
Livy nor Tacitus. Halam nor Hume; no
work of mere philosophy, neither Bacon
nor Hamilton, Descartes nor Locke; no
book of mere biography. neither Plutarch
nor 4amartine, 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, Paiy nor Balm; no book Of Chris
tian morality and meditation, neither
Thomas a KemDis' limitation of Christ"
nor Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress" Hook
er's "Homilies" nor Paschal's Thoughts"
great and good as are many if not ell
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 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
mere 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 clouds-that book whose eau
thor is God whose subject is man, whose
that book of which Pollock, in an out
burst of poetic fervor 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
bow,
And foreve. more beseeching men with
tears
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
inexhaustble 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 tnat in so beautiful and
glorious a degree, that the thinking world
is beginning to accept the statement OF
Schleimermacher, "To abolish the Bible
is to pluck I'D Y the roots all that is
noblest and Uruest and divinest in the
worlds civilization"
OH if there is one prayer that I offer
up daily with more constancy and fervor
of soul than another in 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 beiiev-
ers, trae now and always to the infalib'e
Word Of the Eternal God AS in the past,
supernatural revelation has had to con-
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 q liy-
ing, personal omnipotent Jehovah, who
can and does freely and fully commune
cate with His children; and to-day, there