The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-08-24
The Bible its own Witness.


The Bible is its own witness. 1t is the old
est book in the world Of all the relics OF an
tiuuity that have come to us some ancient
writings of the Bible are the most ancient
Westminster Abbey, gray with lapse of ages,
where men with immortal names lie in their
silent tombs is comparatively modern. Rome
is enriched with ruined buildings which stood
in their pride and glory about 1000 years be-
fore the first stone of Westminster Abbey was
laid and yet they may be called modern. Go
to the bank of the Nile; there are pyramids
that were standing as they now are many CEN
turies before the city of Rome was built on the
banks of the Tiber, and they too are modern.
Go to the banks of the Euphrates there lie, in
fragments of masonry, remains OF the city OF
Babylon-perhaps vitrifed fragments of the
Tower of Babel itself. These are specimens OF OF
antiquity, worn and mutilated by the lapse of
time Ali that was once connected with them
is gone. The hands that built them, the pride
and beauty of their city, the crowds that
thronged their streets, the tombs where they
lay, are all gonel But the Bible is far more
ancient than those crunlbling monuments
When the pyramids were gazed upon as new
buildings Moses penned HIS Pentateuch. Da-
vid wrote his Psalms probably two centuries
before Homer wrote his uiad. When Rome
was but rising as village, Isaiah was denoun-
cling the corruptions of the Jewish kings and
predicting their downfall; when Alexander the
Great set out for Eastern conquests, the Jewish
nation had existed for 1000 years; when he
entered Jerusalem, the Jews had in their sacred
archives all the books of the Old Testament
which we read now and Josephus tells us that
the High Priest even showed to Alexander
Daniels prophecy concerning himself. God
made the Jewish nation his librarian; and
Il, Il how pvnr
book, every psalm, every prophecy, scrupuloous-
Thus the Bible is its own witness; it is the
oldest and most venerable monument OF anti
ouity; it is minutely interviewer with the
great events of the worlds history; the more
it is examined, the more exactly it is found to
agree with facts at the time when it processes
to have been written.
No book has ever endured such assaults as
the Bible. Some people write and argue as II
the sceptics of our day were the first whc ever
questioned the authority of the Scriptures
But the Bible has always been the object of
assault Men withstood the works of the Lord
himself, and then every where contradlcted the
the Apostles. The early Christians lived and
suffered and held fast their faith amid fierce
and incessant conflicts. When the Bible lay
for ages unread by the people, infidelity was
silent; but when learning revived, intidellty
sprang up again. Many of the leading writer's
Of the last century in England and France
were infdels. 1t was the age of intidelity.--
They boasted that Christian faith should be
swept clean from the earth. A fiery furnace
was kindled and the Holy Bible submitted to
the torture Sceptics have ever sought to dis
prove its facts, and ridicule its characters.
Men of science alleged that its statements were
contradicted by their discoveries; philosophers
have found fault with its moral, and argued
against all belief in its miracles, as thing
simply Incredible; kings have forbidden 1t to
be read; popes have put it under their curse;
generals have drawn the sword against it;
grave and venerable councils decreed that it is
dangerous book, not to be possessed; houses
have been ransacked to destroy it; learning
perverted to misinterpret it; all the charities
of life sacrificed in hot zeal for its extermina-
ton and yet in the face of tempcsts and uni
versal uproar, the Bible stands
ass the isHeaT s s sTh sEt the sky
No fragment of any army ever survived so
many battles as the Bible; no citadel ever wit
messed so many sieges; no rock was ever bat
tered by so many hurricanes, and swept by
storms And yet it stands. 1t has seen the
rise and downfall of Daniels four empires
Assyria bequeaths few mutilated figures to
the nitches of our national museum. Media
and Persia, like Babylon, which they conquered,
have been weighed in the balance and long ago
found wanting. Greece family survives its
historic fame: "'Tis living Greece no more;"
and the iron Rome of the Caesars is held in
precarious occupation by feeble hand And
vet the Book that foretells this still survives.
While nations, kings, philosophers, systems,
institutions have died away, the Bible now en-
cages mems deepest thoughts, is examined by
the keenest intellects, stands revered before the
highest tribunals, is more read and sifted and
debated, more devoutedly loved, and more We
hemently assailed, more defended and more de-
MED, moro industriously translated and freely
given to the world, more honored and more
abused than any other book the world ever
saw
'strange words fulfilled and mighty words achieved
And truth in all tho world both hated and believed"
1t survives all changes, itself unchanged 1t
moves all minds, yet is moved by none; it sees
all things decay, itself incorruptible; it sees
myriads of other books engulfcd in the stream
of time, yet is borne triumphantly on the wave,
and will be borne along, till the mystic angel
shall plant his foot upon the sea, and swear by
Him that liveth forever and ever, that time
shall be no longer. "For all flesh is as grass,
and all the glory Of man as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof
fallet6 away; but the Word of the Lord en-
dureth forever. - Christian Observer.