Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-06-14

Why do not the broken-hearted go to
Plato's "Phaedo", which in the literature
of antiquity is the unrivalled treatise
on the subject of the souls mortality?
Why prefer the consolation offered by
the Carpenter of Nazareth who never
wrote line to the mastery work of the
great Grecian? Or, why not find com
fort in Tennyson's I'm Memoriam", or in
Brownings Saul?
There are those who will tell US that
the inspiration of Browning and Tenny-
son is the same as that of David and
Isaiah and st. John, having in what they
say an evident purpose to reduce the stat
ure of the men OF old rather than to exalt
the position of the British poets But
somehow the world does not agree with
them. There seems to be a quality in the
writings OF the men of the Bible which
can not be found In these modern sing
ers and seers. What is that quality, If
1t be not a unique inspiration which was
not granted to any other writers of any
age or land? There is a clearness of
vision, a confidence of conviction and
consciousness of God about them which
none others among them who have under
taken to teach mankind have possessed.
And then too. time and place seem not
to affect what they wrote as they affect
the writings Of other men. Plato was a
Greek, Milton was a Puritan, and Ten
nyson is a modern Englishman; but King
David and st. Paul come to us as re-
vered members of our own households.
They domesticate themselves easily
among all peoples in all the centuries. An
ancient Greek and a modern Englishman,
Korean and a North American Indian.
a man in China and a citizen of the Uni
in their triumphant strains of faith. The
whole world reads the writings of the
Apostles, and exclaims with the multi
tudes of the Pentecost, Behold are not
all these Galilaeans? And now hear we
every man in our own tongue. wherein
we were born?
Herein is a strange fact which this
age which pretends to dote on facts will
do well to consider. The rationalZing crit
les claim to have discovered some facts,
and, perhaps, they have done what they
claim to have done; but they have found
nothing more strange than this fact
nor more significant Will they tell US
what this fact means? Hardly; for they
are not good interpreters of facts, even
after they have found facts. Their theo-
ries show a woeful want of a proper
perspective.
We will have to interpret this fact for
ourselves and we may confidently af-
firm that whatever else II may mean,
1t surely signifies that the Bible is not
demolished, nor will 1t ever be. II 1t
were ever to become obsolete, 1t ought
to have become so before now. Men will
return to 1t forever; they can not do 9TH
erwise, for in it are the words of eternal
life.
In the Newport Church in the Isle of
Wight is a monument which tells in stone
a moving story. 1t is a memorial of the
Princess Elizabeth, the daughter OF
Charles the First, who during the trou-
bled period of the wars of the Com
monwealth languished alone In Carts
brook Castle, banished from all she loved
best. Under the severity of her prison life,
she at last succumbed to grief and care.
One morning she was found dead by her
attendant, her head resting upon the open
Bible and on that page where appears
the gracious words of the Master. Come
unto me all we that labour and are heavy
laden. and 1 will give you rest. The
statue In the Church at Newport has its
marble fingers pointing to those tender
words in the open book The heart or
mankind points also to them always.
Thomas Jefferson undertook to purge the
GospeIs of all miraculous elements that
might go TO SNOW lNc SAhcAApNeOA VA
Tesus: but when he came to those words
ne could not cut them out. And yet no
other words so strongly and persuasively
assert the lofty nature of the world
Redeemer. Who among the sons of men.
Jefferson included), could invite weary
world to come to him for rest and not
he first derided and then despised by the
sin-sick and suffering children OF Adam
for the presumption of such words? But
Tesus uttered them, and the weary OF all
lands find rest in responding to the ten
der invitation of divine compassion which
thew contain Mankind will never part
with the Book in which they are found;
for in all its pages that Book testifles OF
Him The Christ of the Scriptures as
sures the perpetual power OF the Scrip
lures of the Christ.
"subtlest thought shall fail and learning
falter,
Churches change, forms perish systems
go,
Rut our human needs, they will not alter,
christ no after age eer outgrow-
''Yea, Amen! o Changeless One, Thou
only,
Art life's guide and spiritual goal,
Thou the light across the dark vale,
lonely
Thou the eternal haven of the soul"