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2 (1154) THE P
lure, the poetry and music are so many demonstrations
oi it. it is present in Uie most crude
anu uncultured. .Does tne ruble coiuorui to it*
Dod manes everytning Deautirui. Xne natural
wond is ins exquisite production, it is a tiling
of beauty, wnetner ciotned m summer giory, or
iu tne exquisite tints 01 autumn, or in tne wiute
mourns or winter. Deauty nestles in Liie rosebud,
"i I.UC llCiUS, ill I lie l'OUdUCU WOOUS,
daiiK with neavy lonage,' in the whistling winds,
in tne loity mountains, in uie rolling ciouds, in
every twiniiiing star. 'mere is "beauty in the
dinteu bins and vadeys and lakes;" beauty in
"gumes and cans, " in rocks and rivers, in seas
and piains. Tne natural world is "drowned in
beauty.' And Hie same aifiueuee exhibited here
is manliest in the iabie. it is nded with marvelous
incident and engaging history; with
sunny pictures from old-worid scenery, and affecting
anecdotes ironi patriarchal times. "The
pearl is of great price, but even the casket is
of exquisite beauty. 'Ike sword is of ethereal
temper, and nothing cuts so keen as its double
edge; but there aie pearison the hilt and tine
tiacery on the scabbard. The apples are of gold,
but even the basket is of silver."
but mere is beauty of melody as well as of
form. Can to uiuxu me occasion on which you ,
listened to some giand orchestra; when, as tlie <
baton ioae and len ui tne iiand ol me conductor,
there issued nom vioini and l)ass vioi, cornet
and uute, tiomoone and trumpet, flageolet and
Clarinet, Uugie and Uoin, cymoai and drum, one
grand naiinony. it was so absolutely perfect
tnat it seemed as if one master mind controlled
ad me instrumental performances, "but Uod
manes nis oratorio to play lor more than a thousand
years, and where one musician becomes
silent another lakes up the strain, and yet it is
all one grand symphony?the key is never lost,
and never changes, except by those exquisite
modulations which show the composer; and when
the last strain dies away you see mat all these
glorious movements and melodies have been
variations of oue grand theme." Under God,
the master musician, planning the whole and
arranging the players and selecting the theme,
"Moses' grand anthem of creation glides into
Isaiah's oratorio of the Messiah, by and by sinks
into Jeremiah's plaintive wail, swells in Ezokiel's
awful chorus, changes into Daniel's rapturous
lyric, and after the quartette of the Evangelists,
closes with John's full choir of Saints
and Angels." Is not all this beautifulf What
other book is so fascinating, so utterly charming,
so amazingly beautiful?
A a AM A AAA f irtll An 4/v 4- Mn ..nl Z-l ^.1^. 1
- io uuc Luuuuuca iu 11 a vex up me scam lie
discovers, by and by, how it is, that the Bible
conforms to permanent asethetift principles. In
all beauty there must be an intellectual conception
within the product to which it can cling for
support and from which it derives its growing
and lasting and highest charm. Hence, as one
goes up the scale in nature beauty becomes more
intellectual and moral, more ideal and spiritual,
in proportion as mind; aye, as the controlling
intelligence of the Creator, come more prominently
into view. In the language of Milton,
all things are
"more refined, more spirituous, and pure,
As nearer to Ilim placed, or nearer tending.
Till body up to spirit work."
T? Irnnnm 4-Viio lirvwrnM/l 41?11
w iitLi'iJif, iilin tifMTni ii SIC|) III umure, 811
things grow more highly beautiful," until one
passes over into the "disinctively spiritual
sphere," and reaches the "crown and completion
of beauty;" the beauty of character, or the
"beauty of holiness." Beauty is inseparable
from purity, from holiness; for whatever is imgHUfr
ii Bglf* anaesthetic, and repulsive. Beauty
RESBYTER1AH OF THE SO
resides in the substance as distinguished from
the form, so that beauty is inherent; and where
nature ends the Bible begins, in giving a revelation
of him who is intrinsically beautiful because
he is intrinsically holy.
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."
"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts."
And the beauty of holiness in which the creature
is to worship the Lord God Almighty is
not the beauty of an external ritual or an outr
ward form, but the beauty of character, of spirit,
which is the essential beauty of worship, without
which worship is an impossibility, and without
which no man is prepared to enter into and share
eternal fellowship with God.
Immortal Bible! "Schools of literature," says
a great thinker, "have their day. lose their interest,
and give place to others that are subject
to the same vicissitudes." But the doctrines of
the Bible never have their day. They are subject
to no fashions. Sin is as real and as hateful
now, as ever. Hell is as lurid and awful now,
as when Satan and his host were hurled into it.
The blood Of Christ ia no nrnninno
- ? ?. w m?j j'i.vvtvuij auu CUC UWJ"
trine of divine clemency is as peace giving now,
els it was when the Lord said to the sinful woman,
"Thy sins are forgiven." Instead of waning in
truthfulness and influence the old Book acquires
a deeper truthfulness and more potent influence,
as the centuries roll away. It is the only book
that will satisfy man when his highest moments
of spiritual illumination, when he is keenest rationally,
when on his dying bed, and certainly,
when at the great assize. Like the throne of Qod
the truths of the Bible rest on eternal foundations.
PREDESTINATION.
1 was brought to believe in this doctrine in a
way very unusual. When converted 50 or 60
years ago, 1 had a chum, the son of a Methodist
minister intensely partisan. As he went to the
Methodist Sunday school I concluded I would
go too and work with him as I felt the obligation
to do service upon me. After continuing for a
month or two he said, "John you ought to join
the church, we will be glad to have you." 1 replied,
"Sam, my mother is a Presbyterian, and
I have been thinking of joining that church."
"What." he said, "go where they believe in that
horrible doctrine of Predestination?" As I was
very ignorant of doctrine even the Catechism, I
felt stunned to think my mother and her church
believed in any doctrine that was "horrible."
After some friendly word I said, "Well, Sam,
I do not know what to believe; but I will take
the Bible and read it; if I find the doctrine of
Predestination clearly taught I am going to be
neve it hiiu go into tne rresDytenan unurch, if
not I will go into your Church. Vfe separated
and I took the Bible and made it a study.
In due course of time, without reading any
books, I struck the eighth chapter of Romans and
passed on until I came to the Ephesians, and
thought I had made a grand discovery as to
what God had taught. I began to wonder why
everybody did not believe in the doctrine of
Predestination; it was so clearly taught in the
Bible (that is until it was blotted out by the re
visers). So I took these passages to Sara and
said, "Why, boy, this doctrine oomes from God,
it must be good, for he can never countenance
anything evil and to be detested. He seemed
about as much astonished as I, and told his
father that Predestination was in the Bible and
why it was opposed. The old preacher became
very angry with me and reported around that I
was trying to make out of his son a good Presbyterian.
T was doing nothing of the kind, but
my mother's Bible was making me a Pros by
U IB pDeoember ft. Mil
tcriau minister aud a believer in Predestination
and 1 am an immovable one and shall be, 1
hope, until death introduces me to Christ,
whose doctrines 1 have defended for sixty years
and over, for these things occurred in 1850.
We desire to discuss this doctrine from two
standpoints.
1st. What does the Bible teach, or what is
v?oa s revelation to us concerning it?
2d. What light does science shed upon it?
1st. We can not discuss all the points exhibited
in Clod's revelation for that would require a
volume; but we desire to bring forward those
points most salient, and which we think will be
perfectly satisfactory and convincing. Pick up
the book of Genesis and read the third chapter
you find these words:
will put enmity between thee and the
woman and between thy seed and her seed; it
shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his
heel."
The person spoken to is the Devil in the disguise
of a serpent, and there is to be constant
and bitter warfare between the children?the
seed?of the Devil and the seed of the woman
representing Christ and all those holy persons
renewed by his ISuirit and cleHiispri hv hia Ri/wi
The Hebrew word sliuph means to bruise, to
wound to over-shadow with darkness. Nothing
but Predestination and Christ could heal the
wounds and poisonous bites of the Old Serpent.
This is made plainer in the next chapter. Cain
represents the Devil and his seed. Abel represents
the good and the holy. The enmity between
the two was so great that a brutal murder
alone could satisfy the Devil or his child. Qod
put Cain under his just and awful condemnation
but Abel the blessed was earried to the eternal
habitations of the just. That there was a vast
spiritual difference between them Paul shows in
Hebrews. "By faith Abel offered to Qod a more
excellent sacrinee than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous." Here are
two brothers living under precisely the same
oumuuuicut, ,yei one was laKen and the other
left. The Gospel came to both alike. "You
must be saved by a bloody sacrifice." Abel believed
it and offered a lamb from hiB sheep.
Cain did not believe it and in his haughtiness
and pride offered the fruits of the earth. God
accepted Abel' gifts and pronounced him
righteous. Cain in his diabolical anger slew his
brother and thus determined the sinfulness of his
character, and his banishment from the presence
of God. Abel's faith was evidenced by his new
spiritual truth, his righteousness and thrust in
an anticipated Saviour. Enoch's faith separated
him from the rest of the wicked world and enabled
him to walk with God for 300 years, and
God to testify to his holiness of character translated
him so that he did not see death. He was
a new-born man and showed this by his righteous
and devoted life. No doubt between Abel and
Enoch God had perhaps thousands who refused
to be called the children of the Serpent. Even
in Noah'8 time men began to call themselves
the children of Jehovah, who they were
wo uaii uui say aenmtely, so we are compelled to
adhere strictly to what is written. The book of
Genesis is not a historical record; it is a book
on theology. One of its great objects is to show
how God deals with the wicked men of the world.
This accounts for its great brevity and apparent
v ~ uinjumicuui'sb. aii ot its statements
are true and shed great light upon the
world, and especially the Church; but its main
object is not at all historical, but theological.
Noah was born about 400 years after Enoch
and during that time And after the inhabitants
of the earth became so estranged from God, so
abominable and unclean, that God determined to
destroy then and vindicate Us law. But these