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January 13, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIA
For Presbyterian of the South.
THE HOUSE NOT MADE WITH HANDS.
A Vision.
I li ?i Knnn * ?? ? -1 - - ? a. ' <* *
4 u<.tn vfiucM mici\ iu eunuuct several iutierai
rservices.
In looking to find some word of sure comfort I lighted
on that passage in 2 Cor. 4:11-18; 5:1-10. The phrases
"I know," "we know," flashed with glorious meaning.
We know?It is no guess about great mysteries and
invisible conditions. It is no product of rapt imagination.
It is no conclusion of reasoning from the seen to
the unseen. It is clear vision. We know. We know
011 grounds more trustworthy than any human testimony.
any deductions of logic, any verdict of the senses.
We know that which of all things we desire to know,
mat which ot all things we have least power of knowing
by any means within our reach as mere creatures
of earth.
We know that, contrary to all visible evidence, we are
immortal. That which the wisest of earth have only
guessed at, we know. To us il is a clear and fixed fact.
We know that this immortality will be an enlargement
of life. The house not made with .hands will be
made, all glorious within and without, after the similitude
of the pattern shown in the mount. We shall be
like him whose white glory shone through and trans
figured the enveiling flesh and raiment. It will be no
crumbling tabernacle, but one eternal in the heavens.
We know that there is a redemption of this body, the
groanings changed into ecstacies, the burdens changed
for palms and crowns, weakness into strength, dishonor
into glory, mortality into life eternal.
We know that beyond the dark and the silence is
light and song, beyond the dust and the worm we are
clothed upon him incorruption and are present with the
Lord.
1??.. .i <?< " ? -
?> t miuw inai me ooay sown in me grave is liKe me
grain of wheat sown in earth. In the day of quickening
God will give it a new body, as it pleases him; but yet
to every one his own body; a body, spiritual it is true,
but yet a body, an individual body. The same being
who sinned will be sanctified, the same who through
faith became united to Christ will forever be with the
Lord.
We know, because God himself has given us the
vision of it. By every aspiration of our souls, by every
trilimnh of nalntc ih K\- tllA ric<?ti T rvf
by the eternal promise of God, all this is certain. Glorious
vision! The years are slipping fast away. Life's
boundary is set somewhere just a little way yonder before
me.
This tabernacle is nearly ready to fall. I am getting
anxious to go out of it and, with the escort sent by my
T'-?r brother, to travel swiftly to him into a far and
radiant land.
When I am gone, the windows darkened, the ashes
cold upon the hearth, the voices hushed, dear ones,
know that I am gone to a mansion prepared for me by
N OF THE SOUTH. 7
him who loves me, always loved me. loved me even
unto death that I might he with him where he is.
J. A. M.
THE WONDERFUL BOOK.
Senator Beveridge has pronounced the Bible the best
and most fascinatine: bodv of literature in the world
There is every reason to believe that this judgment willl
meet with general and abiding approval. The Bible
vibrates with human interest. It touches every note in
the gamut of human experience. It contains the records
of a most significant history. It is rich in gems of inspiring
poetry, splendid oratory, discriminating essays,
and practical philosophy. Finally, the Bible is the
world's best compendium of the best short stories.
Such a literature is worthy of the most intelligent and
discriminating study. Get acquainted with the great
personalities of the Bible. Do not stop with a mere introduction?go
on to intimate friendship. These are
some of the world's great and good. We cannot know
them on intimate terms without great pleasure and
profit. Get acquainted with the great masterpices of the
Bible. These include almost every form of literature:
great essays, great orations, great prayers, great poems,
beautiful stories, and sublime meditations. Know what
they are and where they may be found. Be as familiar
with them as with the gems of your favorite poet. Give
the central place in your program to the teachings of
Jesus. He is the incomparable Teacher, and his messages
are the climax of all teachings.?Russell B. Miller.
THE BOOK.
J. A. Froude, the historian, said: "The Bible, thoroughly
understood, is a literature of itself?the rarest
and richest in all departments of thought or imagination."
President Butler, of Columbia University, said:
"Without the Bible, it is impossible to understand the
literature of the English language from Chaucer to
Browning."
Horace Greelev said: "It is imnossible to mentallv or
socially enslave a Bible-reading people."
Edmund Gosse, librarian to the British House of
Lords, said: "When young men ask me for advice
in the formation of a prose style, I have no counsel
for them except this: 'Read aloud a portion of the Old
and another of the New Testament as often as you
possibly can.' "?Selected.
FAITH.
Faith is a belief in testimony. It is not a leap in the
dark, as some tell us. That would be no faith at all.
God does not ask any man to believe without giving him
something to believe. You might as well ask a man to
see without eyes, to hear without ears, and to walk without
feet, as to bid him believe without giving him something
to believe.?D. L. Moody.