The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-11-02

piled reCe sarily a suspension of natures
laws was never dreamed of before by the
I great body of the auditors of the learned
and excellent divine. The whole incident
I is narrated in very few words, informing u:
/ that Christ went on board the groaning,
tempest-tOssed ship and instantly. not only
were the waves stilled to repese, but the
vessel had crossed the sea and was at an
chor. Very certainly statements of fact
and doctrine are solemnly affirmed to be
drawn from Scripture, for which, when
| chapter and verse are sought, the authority
is traced to Watts or Milton. On the other
| hand, we are told that noisy candidate
actually spouted a genuine scriptural verse
at Georgetown yesterday, and was greeted
with applause, and shrewd hearers
shouted Bravo! bravo Shakespeare ~
\ leading newspaper has denied
that St. Bartholomew was men
toned in the New Testament, because,
as was alleged, ''his massacre was, comrara-
lively, a modern event" Even the infinite
ly learned MIR. Buckle commented, we are
told, at some length on the words, shell
hath enlarged ITSELF" supposing them to be
literal statement Of famous Scotch preach
er instead of the oriental imagerj of the
prophet Isaiah. If another Buckle quoted
the prophet to-day before New York au-
dence the statement would be denied out
right, since Gotham believes most earnestly
- 1. q L.
tropical place referred to. An inaccurate,
rapid and careless reader of the Bible, by q
strange mischance, reading the first chapter
of Matthew, substituted the word ''forget"
for "beget" and deduced the conclusion
from the readiness with which Abraham
'forgot" Isaac, and each father, his own
son, that strange obliyiousness was a
mental disease of the old He
brews. Hardly less absurd was the
blunder of that other good man, Rev. T.
E. N, who read it fran the pulpit that at
the marriage in Cana Of Gallilee the wine
was poured into ''fur SKINS" instead of
'fiIkins," and it was a rough joke good
brother perpetrated who said in debate
with the first that the cause of godliness
might be promoted if his soft head were
wrapped in sur skins" But the author
of the witticism became obscure, and the
subject of the Jest and blunderer stands
first among the pulpit orators of his State.
Il was said of him that he read it from the
pulpit, instead of ''NIoses was an austeIe
man and made atonement for the sins of
his people," that Moses was ''an oyster
man and made intement for the shins of
his peoples" but this was an invention of
the arch euemy of man, and is older than
the now learned and excellent gentleman of
whom it is alleged that he read it
as above to a startled congregation.
But these strange mistakes and misquota-
tions, if we read the good as intently as
we do the evil and Indifferent, would less
frequently occur and the very great vice of
the day Is involved in this strange ignor-
anCe of book containing the sublImest
lessons in virtue as well as all worldly and
supernal wisdom. We may add that tie
discovery made by a large congregation
last Sunday of a new miracle, of which
they had not 4rea4-t before, like other inci-
dents here rccited, is eminently suggestive
of the necessity for Bible reading at the
capital. A chapter or two thrust IN the
faces of very many earnest. JEALOUS men,
bers of the Library Association would be
as Greek in Timbuctoo.