Thirst "Their tongue faileth for thirst"

And where is that thirst to be quenched ? Where else are the wells of water to be had , " Springing up into everlasting life ," but in the grace and promises of God as  revealed in his blessed word? -" I the Lord will hear them , I the God of Israel will not forsake them; I will open streams  in the hills and fountains in the low valleys ;" and like the waters seen by Ezekiel bursting from the threshold of the sanctuary, " Everything lives  whither the river cometh." In these days , when daring spirits , are rising up to decry the authority of Scripture , - to declare, in their arrogance and pride , that Christianity is an effete and worn - out superstition, and the utterances of her holy oracles cunningly devised fables, which an interested priesthood seeks to palm on the ignorant and the credulous; I would ask in all earnestness; what has ever quenched the longings of  the deathless soul but these same glorious revelations which they would now try to superseded the teachings of science and the systems of philosophy? The world has had its  6000 years to bring in its "more excellent way." What has it devised , apart from the bible , to heal the sores of the broken, wounded , bleeding heart? What has Rome , in her ages of martial glory , or Greece in her era of philosophic culture and refinement , done to solve the vexed problem of  aching humanity?  What streams of comfort has the rod , wielded by their greatest intellects , extorted from the barren rock ? What trees have they planted  in the worlds desert, " "Whose leaf shall not fade , neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed, whose fruit shall be for meat , and the leaf thereof for medicine?"On the other hand how many thousands , and tens of thousands , racked with pain , tortured with doubt , worn with anxiety, agitated with remorse , darkened with bereavement ,-  the sick , the weary , the lonely , the dying , have been cheered and refreshed  and comforted by the everlasting consolations of this Holy Book.  Macduff

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