The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-03-23
Dr. ALLISON DELIVERS
F0RCEFUL SERMON

I viz ~ ~
DIR. John Lee Allison'S sermon Sun.
+ day morning at the First Presbyterian
church attracted considerable attention
and comment on account of lis force
! fulness, beauty and directnesS. DR..
! Allison's subject was "The Preeminent
Book-The Bible, as the Revelation of
God, F" and his text was taken from
Isaiah 40-S: "The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth, but the word of God
shall stand forever"
The text was considered in treating
of that portion of the sermon relating
TO the indestructibility of the Bible. AS
his opening remarks, DR.. Allison
said: "You may take all the Bibles
that have ever been published and
make pyramid as large as the pyra-
mid of Cheops, placing them one upon
the other, and Of these have one collos-
sal bonfire, bnt you could not destroy
Gods word. AS DR.. Vending, of
Washington, said of the imperishable
book, you cannot destroy Gods wCrl,
you cannot destroy the Bible in tits
sanctity; you may destroy all the forms
called the Bible, but you would have
to go farther, you would haEeto get all
OF our books of law and out of them
cut all pages referring to the Bible;
then you would have to go into the
greet field of literature and art and de-
str0y all the paintings, the word of
God in colors, and cut out of literature
every vestige of reference to the preem-
inent, indestructible book, Then you
would have to destroy the human mind
before you could destroy this book
You would have to destroy the oral
Bibles written on the tablets of the
mind, upon the tablets of memory, the
tablets of the heart. The word of God
is indestructiblen
DR.. Allison's four divisions of his
sermon were: First, the heavenly or
divine origin of the Bible: second, the
great antiquity of the Bible; third, its
indestructibility; fourth, its immuta-
billty.
Under the respective heads were for
chilly brought out the divine inspira-
ton of the writers, from Moses in the
desert of Arabia to st. John on the Isle
of Patmos, covering a period Of 1900
years; the fourteen verses in the book
of Exodus which have welded more
influence than all the law books of the
world-the ten commandments; the
strong and lasting influences of the
writer's, although they were all kinds
and classes of men. at is the cathe-
dral of truth, it is the temple of all the
years" said DR.. Allison. "Many have
wrought upon it, but as the builder has
the great plan in his mind, so this
word of God was conceived in the mind
of the Infinite long before he gave the
first golden thoughts to Moses, the
great lawgiver of Israel. The Bible is
the oldest book eXtant; it goes back to
the cradle of the humnn race"
Speaking of the criticisms of sceptics
DR.. Allison consid ers these as really
proof of its indestructibility and truth,
and says they are to be invited rather
than condemned. "Truth," he said,
'is like torch, the. more it is shaken
the brighter it shines"
The fulfllment of the prophecies was
taken as one of the strongest argu-
ments of the indestrutlble and immu-
table qualities of the Bible. These are
unanswerable by the sceptic.
DR.. Allison laid down three rules or
canons by which the infallibilIty of
prophecies might be shown: First the
prophecy must be such that is beyond
the wisdom of man to guess it; second,
it must be detailed sufficient to exclude
guess work; third, there must be such
lapse of time between the prophecy
uttered and its fulfillment as to pre-
clude the prophet himself from know
ing the result of the thing he prophe.
sled.
For comparison, other books of great
antiquity were referred to, and it was
asked if the philosophy of Plato and
Aristotle and other once great books,
were read now except for literary or
historical interest, if they were really
inteligle at the present time. The on
ly things in the ancient writings which
live today are the references in them to
the truths contained in The Book
In closing, DR.. Allison said: To-day
as nation, the United States, and we
as a people, standing in the forefront
of civilization and greatness, owe our
position nationally to the Light and
Truth of this Word; SO shall all other
nations, if they shall everstand abreast
of us, find that only through this per-
manent word of God can they lay
claim to the saving knowledge of God
in Oh riSt JpauS ~