Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-08-29
Impossible to Peryert the Bible.

The Bible becomes really incapable of be
ing perverted by the Interpolation of texts.
by the extraction of texts which stand prop
erly in their places, so that the revelation
shall be made to teach another doctrine than
that which it ought to bring from God We
do not think of this, perhaps, as often as we
should. We hear so much said of this sus-
pected text, and that doubtful passage, of
this probable Interpolation from the margin,
and OF the long quarrel which scholars have
waged over that Greek letter, mark or ac-
cent, that we sometimes forget that God in
his constitution of the Bible, has made it
impossible to seriously pervert it. OF course
there VIII be erroneous transcriptions. The
hand of the scribe is not inspired. OF course
there may be here and there insertions, of a
marginalno written into the text. OF course
there may be word dropped out, or vowel
omitted, IN one passage or another. The eye
OF the scribe will sometimes fail to discern
distinctly what it sees or what it omits and
there must be of necessity more or less liza
bility to minute error in making copies of
so many writings. But the great course of
doctrine cannot be eliminated from the
Scripture, except as you tear the whole fab
ric into tatters. 1t is interviewer, every
part with every other-story, law, precept,
tut Ol AHT1St DN lUt
evangelsts, and the argument of Christ by
the apostles, and the vision of Christ in the
Apocalypse until, if you throw away one
part, you must equally throw away many
others. You may get rid of the story OF
Balaam; though, if you do, you will miss
one OF the most picturesque and impressive
stories in all the Old Testament. But what
then will you do with the references to him
in Micah, in Peter, and in the Revelation Z
You may get rid, perhaps, of the miracle in
the passage of the Red Sea, and suppose a
mere shift of the wind when Pharaoh's army
was divinely destroyed. But what then are
you to do with the song of Moses and of
Miriam ana what with the seventy sixth
psalm, and the one hundred and sixth, and
the one hundred and fourteenth and what
with the . song of Moses and the Lamb in
the crowning book of the Apocalypse They
are interhraided, like threads that have been
woven so closely together that you cannot
tear them apart except by destroying the
fabric. You cannot extract one and leave
the rest, with any ingenuity or by any
force. Thus it fares with the difficulties in
the Biblical text, of which skeptics have
sometimes made so much. Necessarily, al
ways, by the manifold constitution of the
Scripture, they must amount to very little.
They are like scratches on the stones of the
Milan Cathedral; like the breaking of
single pane of its pictured glass, or the
breaking off finger, or possibly forearm,
from one OF its five thousand statues. The
great structure stands unimpaired, shining,
imperial, in the serene Italian air. The
Bible stands, majestic, unfractured, in the
same way. You may take away vowel
here, or throw away an accent there you
may pick up a word which has been dropped,
or throw out word which has been added
but God in his wisdom has made it so null
tiform, so many-sided and various in its
parts and has inwoven each part so per-
fecty with all the others, that you cannot
destroy it, except 10y annihilating its whole
structure. The Jewish counting of words
and letters insured extraordinary accuracy
to its copies But no inaccuracy could
touch its life, unless it were repeated hun
,lreds of times.