, 1880-10-10


Blble>; "Tho Acts Of tho Apostles, BY sclencus'
mot the Que nov in the B;ole,; - The Acts ct
i the one IN tile bible. ind moy my Be ]
Asss q iess ThS Gsfs Of Paa! S and '&hecIa:
"Tho, Acts Of rhomas.' @ Of. epislles stl there
was alu,est no end There was MI "EpIstle OF
Of Jesus Christ to King Abgarns,' Il reply. This
lust eplstle distinctly ctnims to hnve been writ
ten BY Jesus. and II the Christians think that
U certain person was written by thut person. and
that all that is necessary to establish the au-
thentictty Of work is for the work to say that
don't they accept this Epistle? both these Epis..
tics and many Of the other books here referred re
to arc published in volume known as l.. .Ins 7
TOR very small sum at almost any oook-
sa Of Of csrss Ga4s to pes
BY the Manichees tfurged by them to favor doc
trinal points which they. bold Paul's Ep'stle
t. tho Laodlceans tor hnndredso of years1 n re
of ciemont c ito to the corin,thtans.'; ~Tbe second
FRiste sp 2f SepS15 ef sn e G Epste af
John " tnow part OF the BIBLE but has becn al
ternately in and out many times, according 2 TO
pnt @ t IL or % topS it &C QUO, The Third Epstle Of
John !" same as tho Second in Its hts
tory}a, "Tho Eplstlo Of Jude, e Rame Mne
s. 1he as5 e Eptsie 81 Plate 70
Tiberius," The Epistles Of Herod and PLATE"
The Ep'sle ot m Pste to Gsar ~ rl11a EP1he t fhe
Tr,tliians," " "The Epistle Of 1gnatius to the
.hs EPIstls Of - 1gnaq9;s to to fh fhe
Philndclphians,' The Epist!o, Of 1gnattus to
the smyrneans," :. The Epistlc Of polyearp to @ the
Of 3a
Pauif' Ellie Revelation Of Join.'' The Revcla.:
ton OF Peter" the Kevciaaon Of Stephen"
1.-The Revelation Of Thon,ns." :.-=
1t was through such u mass OF Forgery.
with its Gospel Of Eve, md Gospel Of Judas
1scnriot, and Epistes by Jesus thirst 10 various i
hible came. And how? III those times not 2 2
man in thousands could read or write, not half
the clergy rhenlselyes could read or write. ana
who could read them. Yhe clergy made up the
Bible il those days. each nun giving what IN h1s
opinion constituted the canonicui llst; Each
trinal theories and 50 tho lists would not agree;
TO settle it councils were held. One Council
would draw up list nnd say" These t, are tho 1,o
called later, and it would throw out books which
the ,rst had put II, and m put. III II m!oks t,9taa
which The rst ad oft w out n c1nnc q a5tcs
book M W of Neveh,tion was not in the Biblo Of tho
than l,OOO years, but now thnt branch believes
it Is as much inspired ns my other book. The
Second and Third Epis,'es ot John, The Second on
Epistle Of james, P.urs Epistle to the Hebrews.
have been put IN aud put out Of the Bible haif,
,-doZeu times but are finally fn for good; M and
Epistlc OF Barnabas. The Pastor OF Hermns, The
Revelation OF Peter. ana other books haye been
declared BY dozen Fathers OF the Church to bo
cnnonical, although the reader now never hears
Of them. 1t WAS not till the sixteenth century,
at tho Council of Trent, that the Romun Catholic
Bible Nas naiiy vt xed and the P,oestant an 'ss n5e
Of a1l this wrangftng, who gave. the Fathers
aud the Councils uu thority to say what books were
dootrine doc E t hut W the Bible must be acceptcd On
pain Of eternal dauuauon was not dreamed Of
for tho first fourteen hundred years Of the
Trent TINT tirst promulgated that doctrine.
Whence did it receive its extraordinary author
ity? From nowhere but itself. It any selection
Of the books Of tho Bible Is to he made by me q,
The reader sees, then, that there is not truce
ct the Gospels previous to the year lso 4 ,. D.
wrote the four Gospels no one knows; why
only four were accepted when there were
a dozen to be had 40 one knows. Every
witness. There Is no need that the render
should take any ones word for these facts, pro
or con, however This whole question, us to
any quotations from the four Gospels. has been
discussed and settled In q work called super
natural y ,ksegton which Is o r. the 81 Puic
plete, and 1t is SO entertaining md instructive
that every. man who cares to investigate this
matter FOR h'tnself and not take othsTs E. wnrd @
di,ino and founder 1t the tPuseyttes- The
father is orthodox, the son inidel. The latter is
mi Of fha fhnF0ltu0 scholars IN tho world.
and his work never has been and never can be
answered. Let the reader Investigate the Ques-
The real issue, however, DO Matthew,
Mark, and Luke teach salvation by faith in
Jesus Christi and. the clergy did not and can
He snot1ld bear IN mind, however, tnat the
probabilities Of this discussion are with the neg
uttve. What reason should agnostios aavo Tor
great @ Is they tel Is it Isl II aynostics were not
satisfied beyond the question Of doubt that the
risk their souls to eternal damnation simply tor
tho amusement OF saying It was fatsShoodz e.
Jefferson, and Benjamin franklin, and John
Stuart 3Iiil, and Herbert Spencer, and lpgersoll,
and tens Of thousands of other such men, risk
their future by opposing this theology for sheer
positive in their statements that there is some
Thing wrong somewhere2 They, are not
9eskk 3Rev tg tenr orx dGwn as p~e p%e a5 he
best of Christians, and they try to live as good
lives as the Christians do. They do not even at
tack the Church as social system: MS q place
to which families may go and meet. and become
acquainted; which men and women men Wh9 Sl'9 IRE IRE
they do not attack, or even question. 1t is q
good thing. But trey do want the clergy to stop
fenchinY these falschoods about hell, and eternal
damuaton. and the blood atonement. and all
those other supcrStidons which ecciesasticism
has used in constructing pntent process or
salvation which consists in believing thing we
cannot understand. and IN saving that salvataon:
If there be any such thing, is not to be attained
by good life, and a good life alone. So lsay
they would not hy In the face Of Proyidence p Sand and
we're not good reason to believe they were. and
the probabilities Of the question are therefore
on their side. BRONSON G. Keller.
TIE BIBLE CANON.
WHEN IT WAS FORMED AND AUTHORIZED.
st. Lastts Republican,
So far as the Old Testament is concerned, not