Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-05-06
Vcopwight, 1913, by william Ashley

Vcopyright, 1913, by William Ashley
Sunday
Matthew 2435. "Heave and earth
shall pass away, but my word shall
not pass away"
When Tom Payne was about to pub
fish his infidel book entitled 'sThe Age
Of Reason" he sent the manuscript to
Benjamin Franklin, who at that time
was a doubter regarding some Of the
essential qualities Of orthodox chris
tianity, and Benjamin Franklin re-
turned to Tom Paine the manuscript
with this appended advice: II would
advise you to never attempt to I'M
chain that tiger upon the people"
If the world is so bad with the relig-
ION Of Jesus Christ, what would 1t be
without It? and the wise sentence Of
Benjamin Franklin affords an unan-
swerable argument to every proposed
form of opposition to christianity.
What harm has the gospel Of Jesus
Christ ever done to this world? What
injury has the bible ever done? Show
me the nation that has ever crumbled
into oblivion where the people were
governed by christian principles. His
tory is replete, multitudes could arise
and millions would crawl out Of the
grave if God should give them the
privilege, and all testify as to the ben
efits accruing to them thru their re-
pentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, let me ask you, at the be-
ginning of my message tonight, is
there anything grander or more noble
that can Command or arrest your atten-
ton or draw from you your generous
and liberal support and hearty Coop
Grafton and help to that which is and
been the most uplifting force that
J. mas ever entered into human history?
Endures Forever.
Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my word shall not pass away" The
bible opens with an account of sin
less pair in the Garden of Eden, chron-
dcles their disobedience and fall, and
the sixty-six books are taken up with
the expressed desire on the part of
God to save lost and ruined world.
Did you ever stop to think of the
wealth which persisted when Paradise
was lost? Did you ever stop to think
of the glory of Eden, the first estate
and abode of man? Elk Governor Tay-
Dor, Of Tennessee {now United States
senator from the same state) pictures
In ornate language the scene as he
tmagines it. He says:
1T might have been dream of God.
glowing with ineffarle beauty, trimmed
about with blue mountains from whose
moss covered peaks thousand CLASSY
streams spread out in midair and were
like thousand bridal wells kissing a
thousand rainbows from the sun; an
archipelago of gorgeous colorings
fecked with green isles where grape
vines staggered from tree to tree.
drunk with the nectars of its own
clusters; where peach and plum and
blood red cherries, and every kind Of
berry hung like drops Of rubies and
pearls-a wilderness of flowers, redo
lent OF eternal spring, and pulsing with
4 birdsong; where dappled fawn played
upon banks of violets. and leopards,
peaceful and tame, lounged in the
copses Of the magnolia; and where
lions painted in jungles Of roses-a bill
lowy landscape festooned with tangled
.,creepers and curtained about with
ssWeet-scented groves Of oranges and
pomegranates, the air was softened by
q dreamy haze of perpetual summer;
thru the mist there flowed a truculant
river, alternately cleaning in the sun
light and darkening into shadows.
Down in some dark vale, fresh from
the workship of God, slept Adam Nc
monarch ever slept on a softer couch
and no earthly potentate was ever
draped with more costly or beautiful
tapestry, and God caused to pass upon
him a sleep, and forth from a painless
wound in his side there sprang be-
ing, blithsome as the air. Her hair
hung like strands of gold; her teeth
We're like pearls. He gazed upon Gods
capsheaf Of creation-His first thought
for the happiness Of man--Eve. I
think Adam must have wooed her in
the morning, when the dew was on the
flower; I think he wooed her at the
noon-tide by the river bank; think
he wooed her when the silvery moon
fiecked the feathery foam. / think the
cattle must have departed in pairs and
I can hear the quail whistle for his
mate and the blue jay and the robin
stop quarrelling in the top Of the cher
ny tree, and they HE away to the glen
to build their nests and rear their
young.
Ate Forbidden Fruit.
But man was fool and man Is a
fool today, for in the exercise of his
God given free will he ate Of the for
hidden fruit and he fell, and what fall
here was. 1t was like the fall Of pur-
ity into corruption: like the fall Of a
star from heaven into hell; like the fall
of a wounded albatross from the reg
Ions Of light down into the dark tenn
.pestuous sea, and when man ate of the
forbidden fruit God put the angel, with
drawn sword to guard the tree Of life
that men might reach out and eat
thereof and live forever. Gods orig
lnal plan was that man should not die.
His original plan was that man should
not work for a living, and II man
hadn't sinned he never would have had
to work, but he ate Of the forbidden
fruit and God passed a sentence "By
the sweat Of your brow shall We earn
your bread" If man hadn't sinned
there would have been no graveyards,
no undertakers, no Grape hanging from
the door knobs and no obituary notices
in the newspapers. Man was a fool
and man is fool tonight to keep the
control Of his life in his own hands and
refuse to submit to God and leave the
life Of sin and >lntquity, and Got put
the angel with drawn sword to guard
the tree Of life lest man in his infamy
and rot might reach out and live for
ever and eternally perpetuate his In
fanny and his sin.
" Thus shifted the scenes Of the human
race from life to death, from JOY to sor-
dow, from roses to thorns, ana out upon
the turbulent seas there drifted the