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WHAT THE BIBLE HAS DONE FOR ALL CIVILIZATIONS Dr. Kingsbury Writes More on the Book of Books, Containing More Wisdom Than all the Wisdom of the Ages. I resume the consideration of the Book of books, which really contains more of wisdom than all the wisdom of the ages, and has really done more for man’s temporal prosperity and eternal happi ness than all the philosophies and all the religions of man's divines which have electrified the mental devotee, appealed to the ignorance and superstitions of un sanctified man, and thrown their beguil ing, pernicious influences across the highway of nations. How has the Bible affected the world? Aside from the great appeals to man in behalf of his immor tal soul, and the absorbing considerations of pure religion and a holy life, let us turn to how the BiMe has affected the great interests of humanity on the world ly side, as seen in civilization and prog ress, and all the refinements of life. Civilization, whatever of it of a gen uine kind there exists, in modern times, owes its best estate to Christianity—to the positive, direct influence of the Word of God. There is no civilization now wor thy of the name anywhere, in any land, that it not derived from the Christian religion. No observant man, no true philosopher, no man of thought and can dor, will gainsay this statement. The gracious, refining influences of Christian ity have been so pronounced, so unrnis table, and are so vastly superior to those ever exerted by the philosophers and re ligions of the ancients—of Greece and Rome above all others—that the ablest sceptics have been compelled to admit the fact. Such a genius as Rousseau, and such a statesman as Jefferson, have ac knowledged that Christianity in the sub limity and originality of its doctrines, and in the purity and elevation of its ethics, is immeasurably superior to any thing known among the thinkers and teachers and philosophers of the Portico. There is no department of letters which has not been greatly influenced by the truths of the Bible. The thoughts of men have been so affected and the lives of men so regulated and directed by this influence as it has operated and rami fied through the centuries, that even the science of jurisprudence in which all men and countries are interested, has shared largely in its multiform, widely permeat ing benefits. The celebrated Blackstono has left invaluable testimony to the truth of this assertion in a passage of admirable force, but which is too long to be quoted in full. After describing the Law of Nature, this able jurist says: “Butfurther.in compassion to the frailty the imperfection, and the blindness of human reason, God hath been pleased, at sundry times and in divers manners, to discover and enforce his laws by im mediate and direct revelation. The doc trines thus delivered, we call the re vealed or divine Law, and they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found, upon comparison, to be really a part of the original law of nature,” (which he says. God in the beginning laid down) ‘‘as they tend, in all their consequences, to man's felicity: but. though agreeable to right reason, reason, unaided and alone, could not make them known. Upon these two foundations, the law of nature, and the law of revelation, depend all human laws: that is to say, no human laws could con tradict these.” This clear, explicit announcement on the part of the great law commentator in reference to the supreme authority of the Bible in legal science—that the laws of God lie at the very foundation of juris prudence in all of its departments, em bracing legal and equitable, civil and criminal, is really but the opinion of the most luminous and comprehensive un derstandings w-hose names add lustre and glory to legal profession fioth in England and America. The legal sceptics have been ordinarily small lawyers. Between the study of the law and the study of the Bible, there is a much more intimate connection than is sometimes apprehended. Indeed, so close is the con nection between legal anel Bible lore, that wc are specially informed by the learned Selden, that in the middle ages, the clergy w'ere the greatest proficients in legal erudition. He says law was ‘‘taught by them in the monasteries, uni versities. and in the family of the princi pal nobility.” The seclusion of the clergy gave time to the investigation of abstruse and learned subjects, and favored the law. The judges and inferior court offi cers were generally selected from their number. Hence is derived the now com mon term clerks—‘‘clerici.” It is not claiming too much for the Bible to declare that it is at once the forerunner, supporter, and chief ally of genuine civilization. Strike out the in fluences which the teachings of that blessed Book have exerted upon the world —the human race: by some omnific pow let all of the impressions made upon the human mind and heart and conscience by its supreme lessons of truth and wis dom, be forever erased, and the world will soon stagnate, sink into the darkest barbarism; a night of starless gloom will speedily settle upon the mind forever, and a cloud of despair will gather its dark folds about tho soul, and shuttlne out the ligat of the Cross forevermore: then never again in man’s sad vale of • 4* Incorporated by the General Assembly of North Carolina of 1901. Is operating on a 4 Per Cent. Legal Reserve Basis. Issues the Best and most attractive policy, upon the plans adopted by Actuary Miles M. Dawson. HOME OFFICE: WASHINGTON. N. C. D. T. TAYLOE, President; GEO. T. LEACH, Vice-President; STEPHEN C. BRAGAW, Secretary; A. M. DUMAY, Treasurer; H. SUSMAN, Superintendent of Agents. | tears shall the sweet, mellow song of! j Hope be heard to cheer the loneliness of man and make glad his heart, neither I shall it assuage his sorrows, lighten his ! ; toil or eause the gladness of Heaven to ; fill his soul. So pervading, illuminating, ramifying i 3 the glorious Book of God, that even those nations that are civilized but infidel or pagan, owe all that is gen uine and admirable in their history to the permeating, healing, uplifting, transform ing power of the principles, doctrines, trutjis of the Revelation of Jehovah to j the world, if indeed the Sun of Right eousness could be shorn of its glory by some infidel force, or go down forever in | a sea of darkness before the eyes of a j gazing, astonished world, there would then be no luminacy of truth and wisdom and power to throw its effulgence over man’s earthly pathway and fill with divine light the heaven of his hopes, and the time would soon come when our descend ants would grope their way to death, and r the savage orgies of our forefathers would bo repeated as they danced in painted nakedness around some miserable idol, chanting their wild, incoherent non sense. Even the scoffers and enemies of God share to some extent in the reflected i glories of the Cross. It is because ‘‘the Bible has incorporated itself into the laws, languages, institutions and philo sophy of Christendom,” that all these hallowed, precious environments of free- , dom flourish, and ihe arts and sciences, ; with commerce and literature, have at tained the eminence that distinguish (hem among leading nations. Even in fidel Joseph* Hume, the historian, as eribes the civil liberty of England to the Ruritans. whilst the accomplished Sir James Macintosh affirms in his ‘‘His tory of England,” that the great Bible doctrine of ‘‘Justification by Faith” is at once “the basis of all pure ethics, and the cement of the eternal alliance be tween morality and religion. The Bible Is the basis of governmental safety and lasting national prosperity. The influences of the Bible fill the civilized world, and the wealth and glory . of nations are dependent upon the sacred, controlling, dominating principles that come from the Bible. Nations never ( stability of government, and no sense of security. From the days of Israel s wisest king, whose reign was so mark ed by justice and judgment and hu manity, and prosperity, down to the present era of England’s greatness and America’s coming passion for gain and conquest, there have been contentment and happiness and prosperity in propor tion as there has been a feeling of se curity for life and property. And se curity has been felt in proportion as the correcting, purifying, controlling, ele vating influences of the Bible have filled i the arteries leading to the great na tional heart. There is danger now , awaiting the United States. It is seri- | ous, and is found in the overturning of ; constitutional restraints and limitations, j the wild hunt for commercialism, the j barbarous zeal for money, the low stnd- : ard In civic and business life; the awful ; wide-spread, almost universal corruption : in municipal government throughout this mighty nation, so eager for change, and so ambitious for the conquest of other peoples, particularly if they are weak and defenceless. But the Bible is great in its pervading ! influence in behalf of education. It is the main instrument in promoting a . general system of education, and in diffusing useful knowledge among all the | people at largo. It is a common observa tion of all classes of discriminating travelers, that means the great funda- j mental doctrines of the Bible are gen erally received, education is more wide spread, and consequently tho baleful in fluences of superstition and ignorance are much less felt. So potential as an educational lever, has the Bible ever been found to be, that it is the con current testimony of all capable ob servers that the great mass of the peo ple are ignorant or otherwise, as God's Revelation is easy or difficult of access. Wherever the Bible is shut out from the people, and the deadening authority for its exclusion prevails as in many lands ; in 1!>02, you will find ignorance and vice rampant, and the people an easy prey to every form of superstition and error. | The minds and conscience of t.he people who are totally ignorant lie dormant. | People whose minds are untrained have but little desire to learn the. solemn truths of God as set forth in His Book. Hence the prevailing failure on the part j cf so many to understand the solemn and important verities of Jehovah. Some one has written of this ignorance that ‘‘re lying on mere outward rites, Truth in all her majesty, beauty and her far reach ing influences, seems hid from their view, and lost even to their wishes.” In striking contrast, look at those coun tries or sections of countries or com- I munitles, in which the God of Rife is carefully read in so mand homes, and where its saving, hallowed truths have ; become familiar through the faithful, j direct, plain, positive preaching of God’s best consecrated ministers, and you will find enlightenment, zeal for God and His requirements, and a practical, wide awake, intelligent, observing people. THE NEWS AND OBSERVER, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1002. The system of education may be and Is , faulty and insufficient, for often God s Book is ignored or excluded by un- i Christian and foolish teachers, and while the mind is sought to be developed and disciplined, the moral nature is neglected, and the great primal, solemn truths of God are not enforced. j But again, a more healthful tone of public and private morals, a more en larged system of Christian beneficence and kindness, and a purer spirit of gen tleness and forbearance have been pro duced in society—among the people at large, wherever the doctrines of the Bible of the blessed Saviour, have been more generally known and embraced. It is difficult for informed, enlightened, 1 elevated people who live at a period of comparatively advanced civilization, and who, from childhood have gradually he come imbued with nobler sentiments and | a finer, more elevating ethics than the wisest of the most cultivated and gifted , ancients professed, to realize how vast, diffusive, penetrating have been their : influence upon the habits, views, prin ciples and conditions of the foremost nations of the earth. The stupefied Caffre in the impenetrable savage wilds of Africa, or tho benighted Parial, : crouching amid the dark, steaming jungles of India, stands out in forceful and violent contrast with the noble, . commanding, exalted Caucassian, with-’ capacious mind, purified affections and j high morals. So transmitting is the j power of Bible truth—so comforting and reforming—that we may well stand j amazed at its tremendous, most marvel- ; ous results. When you turn to the fearful descrip- j tion which the great Apostle Paul has | given in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans, of the huge, brutal i abominations and the devilish, disgust ing 3ins of the heathen at that time—the Romans included, the great conquering power, and the most polished and fa mous at that period—and then in con trast, examine into the life and manners of any modern community or State pos- 1 scssing and obeying the Bible, and thoroughly conversant with its exam ples, its warnings, its lessons of wisdom and truth, you then behold what the blessed, faithful Rook has done and can do for man. Mere education can never change the heart or civilize and exalt a nation of savages. Wherever, in white or black, in yellow or red race, pernicious pas sion and unbridled lust hold sway, there can not be possibly any lovely, ennobling virtues, any gentle and winsome courte- j sics, any high-bred delicacy and refine- , ment of feeling or sentiment, any chiv- I alrous magnanimity, any of the graces j and principles that throw a halo around redeemed humanity. Those graces only exist to any great extent where the Bible is read, taught, lived upon, and j where its blessings are generally dis- ; fused. Whilst the Word of Rife has transformed a continent, has made deso lation wave with plenty and the solitary places blossom as tho rose, has thrown a glorious light amid the natural dark ness of remote islands, what spot on this earth—whether State or Kingdom, what island of sea or ocean, has been made happier or better by infidelity? It is after the Bible sheds its benignant light upon the moral gloom, that ac cused infidelity with its front of ‘‘brass stalks in with deceptive glare;” it is when the savage has been civilized and regenerated by the power of God and the truth of the Gospel of the Son oT God, that the Infidel begins his infernal work, seeking to pollute the very springs of his happiness, to poison his mind, and to cover up the beautiful panoply of salvation with the pall of despair. When the bright, beautiful star of evening takes Its accustomed place in the heavens, and send forth its steady light, you will see its attendant stars begin i to glimmer too.- So when the Bible be gins to shed its cheerful, benign rays i abroad over any land, you will see its ! satellites, the churches, the Sabbath schools, the educational and benevolent institutions, soon begin to revolve in harmony and to unite a gracious, health ful and hopeful radiance. The wonderful softening of the asperi ties of life; the kindling in the human heart of keen sympathy for another’s woe; the instilling into the mind of the important, sympathetic, and noble, lesson of forgiveness for wrongs and injuries inflicted, and the merciful displays which mark the progress of even the cruel sanguinary Moloch of war, arc to be directly traced to the subduing and holy inlluences of the blessed Bible. Before the Evangel of Peace had spread its wings over modern nations, the cruelties enacted in war wore worthy only of the diabolical spii it whose cunning machina tions inspired them. Chancellor Kent tells us “That it is owing to Christianity that a decided reformation of manners and improvement of feeling has been ef fected in modern times.” He says that the Bible ‘‘taught the duty of benevo lence to strangers, of humanity to the vanquished, of the obligation of good faith—of the sin of murder, revenge and rapacity.” However much in the great est of modern wars—that between tho South and the North—the peaceful, phil anthropic, and merciful spirit of the Bible may have been outraged and crucified by the inhuman monster. Mc- Neill, in Missouri, or bv the heartless Nero who laid in ashes beautiful Colum bia and destroyed Atlanta, one William T. Sherman, or by that beast in human form, Ben. Butler, who so lorded it over prostrate and afflicted New Orleans, and held his saturnalia of crime and de bauchery surrounded by his body-guard, or by that Vandalic Alaric who ravaged —r—-- * v, y nr r jpETs Jim Dumps at college strug gled hard To gain the place at center * >- VT guard. JX/ ) jjf Last year he tried, but tried In vain, A On “Force” he then commenced to train. ® SfIMW Now hear the bleachers cheering him : 0 [ill Ml “Good tackle I’Rah for‘Sunny Jim’l” I M I >JI w “Force" / m The Ready-to-Serre Cereal M K helps a man / to tackle anything. m 1 ['[ fc WWol? a \sJgJ 1 L W- - - Wr § Sweet, crisp fl&Kes of wheat and malt. \ (, U VJ I W Used on Yale Training Tables, Tv j&r yx v “For tho past two months I have used a groat quan- Iv / \ tity of 4 Force’ on the Yale football training tables. The #/ players eat about ten packages a day. A L aXggL^ 0 ' if A ■ 1 “Elizabeth Patebsoh, m “43College Bt., New Haven, Conn.” the enchanting Virginian Valley of Shen andoah and said he would so devastate the charming land that a crow flying over it would have to carry his owu rations, a certain Gen. Phil. Sheridan — all fit and boon companions in crime—we may all “thank God and take courage” as did the great Apostle Paul on “his way to Rome for trial and rejoice that such barbaric plunderers are blots or. humanity, and that when the Historic Muse shall record their awful crime with her ineffaceable stylus, it will be deeply graven that their memories are accursed by all right-thinking, just and human people, and are counted with an immor tality of infamy. But possibly the great power and au thority exerted by the Bock of books over the nations cannot be more dis tinctly traced than in our literature. That Book which has called forth the highest praise from the gifted minds of earth; which has furnished themes and bestow ed inspiration upon the grandest singers of modern times; which so abounds in poetry of the sublimest character, elo quence of the most exalted and en trancing power, and pathos as tender as beautiful, has really done more in puri fying and elevating the intellectual Aspirations, and in directing the noble rivalry of authors than all other books Combined. It is indeed the great luminary which the Mighty God Os the universe hung out in the intellectual heavens, that the highest created minds might bask in Its light, and be influenced by its inspiring and purifying power. The influences oi that wondrous Book, whoso teachings are marked with the zeal of high divinity, and w-hose “every leaf is'be dewed with drops of love,” can no more be rejected or blotted out with out changing the whole current and Character of modern literature, and com , plctcly denuding it of its most princely apparel, than can the light of the ma terial sun be dispensed with without en shrouding the earth in darkness. Whilst the regal minds of Dante. Milton, Shakespeare, Tennyson, have delighted to draw their highest inspiration from this great and imperishable source, and the first two have made some of its Most impressive teachings tho themes of thei" noblest song, men of less force and smal ler intellectual mould have hissed tfceii scoffing insults unto the face of its omniscient Author, and thrown their venomous vaporings and seductive slime upon its spotless pages. My space is more thap exhausted, or I would diaw contrasts and show how many authors are Immoral, impure, corrupting in spit;, of the Book and its holy, inspiring in fluences. I would show how imperfect and low and grovelling are the objects of worship and the consequent teachings of the ancients in comparison with the best ideals and representative geniuses of the Chistrian era. A gifted Baptist minister, Rev. C- R. Hendrickson, deliv ering a fine address before Wake Forest College, in June, 1850, said this. “The objects of worship, with few ex ceptions, were monsters of depravity, un relieved by a single virtue. Jupiter was a sensualist; Mercury was a thief; Bacchus was a drunkard; Mars was a savage; Venus was a courtezan, and Juno was a malicious hag. All were the friends and patrons of crime. Moral purity was a virtue of which none could boast. These were the divinities of that beautiful country, among the hills, and grottoes, and fountains of which, lived the most gifted philosophers and poets of mankind—where such as Homer sung in immortal verse —where Sophocles and Euripides gave character to the drama — whero Socrates and Plato discoursed of philosophy and morals. The Mythologies of Egypt, of Rome, of Scandinavia, and of India, present moral features no more attractive. The results were such as might have been anticipated. Cruelty was universal.” That address richly deserves to be re published. It should not be lost or for gotten. I close, leaving a part unwritten. The theme is well nigh exhaustless. Next to the advent of the adora ble sqn of God, the Saviour of lost men and women, tl*« Bible is indeed the highest, greatest, best, The- Superiority of “The Royal Elastic.” +4 \ There are other cotton mattresses besides the "Royal”—giving more or less sat isfaction—mostly less, becausein noneof them has the most important feature received proper attention—i. e„ that the raw material used in making the filling shall be of the best staple cotton procurable. In no other way can a felting be obtain ed that will stand the test of continued use and retain through a lifetime its firstelasticily. In all other cotton mattresses except the Royal, this “keystone” feature has been overlooked. Write for Booklet, “The Royal Way to Comfort.” M Royal! & Borden. Goldsboro, N. C. Raleigh, N. C. Durham, N. C holiest gift of a benevolent, loving, mer ciful God to the children of men. It should never go into eclipse because of neglect, opposition or interdiction of pilates or potentates. Spread the ever lasting Truths of God, for they are a savor of life unto life, and are intended by the Almighty Giver to be “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.” THEODORE BRYANT KINGSBURY. Wilmington, Nov. 19, 1902. 13
The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Nov. 23, 1902, edition 1
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