The Palatka news and advertiser., 1916-12-15
d is accepting as Saviour and as


vantage of all the progress IN art and
in literature, in oratory and IN history
let them use to the full every in
strumentality that is employed in
modern civilization. And when they
have exhausted every source, let them
embody the results Of their best in
telligence in a book and offer it to
the world as substitute for this BIZ
bic of ours. Have they the confidence
that the Prohphets of Baal had in
their God? Will they try? If not,
what excuse will they give? Has man
fallen from his high estate, so that
we can not rightfully expect as much
of him now as nineteen centuries ago?
Or does the Bible come to US from
source that is higher than man
which?
But our case is even stronger. The
opponents of the Bible can not take
refuge in the plea that man is retro
grading. They loudly proclaim that
man has grown and that he is grow
/ ing still. They boast of a world
wide advance and their claim is found
ed upon fact. In all matters eX-
cept in the science of life, man has
made wonderful progress. The mas
terry of the mind over the forces of ma
ture seems almost complete, so far do
we surpass the ancients in harnessing
the water, the wind and the lightning.
For ages, the rivers plunged dowr
| the mountain-sides and exhausted
their energies without any apprecia-
BILE contribution to mans service; now
they are estimated as so many units
of horsepower and we find that their
fretting and foaming were merely a
language which they employed to tell
US of their strength and of their will
lingness to work for us. And, while
falling water is becoming each day
larger factor in burden bearing,
water. rising in the from of steam,
is revollutionizing the transporta-
tion methods of the world.
The wind that first whispered its
secret of strength to the f1apping sail
lis now turning the wheel at the well.
Lightning. the red demon that, from
the dawn of Creation, has been rush
ing down it's zigzag path through the
clouds. as if intent only upon spread
ING death. havinp been metamorphos-
ed into an errand boy, brings us il
Elimination from the sun and carries
our messages around the globe.
Inventive genius has multiplied the
mower of the human arm and sunplied
the masses with comforts of which the
rich did not dare to dream a few
centuries 900. Science is ferretine
out the hidden causes of disease and
teachino as how to prolong life. In
every line eXcent in the line of char
acter- building. the world seems to
have been made over. but the marvel-
Gus changes by which old things have
become new only emrhasize the fact
that non. too. must be horn again.
while thew show how impotcnt are
material things to touch the soul Of
nan and transform him into Snirit-
nal beino. Wherever the moral stem
dard is being lifted up-whnrever life
is becoming larger in the vision that
directs it and richer in its fruitage the
improvement is traceable to the Bible
and to the influence of the God and
Christ Of whom the Bible tells.
The atheist and the materialist
must confess that man ought to be
able to produce better book today
than man, unaided, could have pro-
duced in any previous age. The fact |
that they have tried, time and time
again, only to fail each time more
hopelessly, explains why they will not
why they can not-accept the chal-
lenge thrown down by the Christian
world to produce a book worthy to
take the Bibles place.
They have prayed to their God to
answer with fire-prayed to inanimate
matter with an earnestness that is
they have employed in
the worship of blind force faith
greater than religion requires, but
their almighty is asleep. How long
will they allow the search for the |
strata of stone and fragments of fos-
sill and decaying skeletons that are
strewn around the house to absorb |
their thoughts to the exclusion of the |
architect who planned it all! How
4olg VIII tne agnoStlc, closing his eyes |
to the plainest truths, cry might,
night" when the sun in his meridian's !
splendor announces that noon is here? |
To the young man who is building
character | present the Bible as a |
book that is useful always and ev-
erywhere. 1t guides the footsteps of
the young; it throws light upon the
pathway during the mature years,
and it is the only book that one cares
to have beside him when the darkness
gathers and he knows that the end is
near Then he finds consolation in
the promises of the Book of Books
and his lips repeat, even when his
words are inaudible, "Yea, though I |
walk through the valley of the shad-
oW , of death, l shall fear no evil, for
Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy |