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.”
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Write for Booklet, “The Royal Way to Comfort.”
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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