The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-05-05

toned to it in its form of single vol
ume, there sprang up fashion of skepti-
cism on the whole subject, and everything
in the volume was regarded with susn}o
cion; and accordingly the whole history
OF the Roman republic was called into
question. Those who believed it called
attention to the many different authori-.
ties who corroborated each other. "Here
is Livy, who writes about it in Latin. Here
is Dio Cassius, who writes about the same
thing in Greek. Here are speeches of
Cicero that relate to the same events
And here are poems of Horace that could
not have been written unless these facts
were So But they were Immediately
put down, by triumphantly pointing out
that all these different authorities were
no authorities at ALL Why not? Be-
cause that publisher and that bookbinder
of the fifteenth century had published
and bound them up togetherl That of
course settled the question. In the first
place it disposed of all the separate wit
nesses, of Livy, and Dio, and Cicero, and
all the rest; for were they not all bound
together in the same volume? And in
the second place it disposed even of the
single witness of the bound book, because
1t was the credibility of the book itself
which was in question, and therefore ali
that was in the book must be ruled out
as the testimony of an interested party
And so it came to pass that, from the
single unfortunate circumstance of the
scattered materials having been consid-
cred by this publisher to be worth col
Letting and publishing together, the evil
dence for the history of the Roman
republic was actually wiped out of exist
ence. 1t is to be hoped that what NAV
remain of the archives Of the first century
of American history may never be bound
up IN one volume, however large, or per
haps the people of the great futere, the
twenty-ninth century, for example, may
notbelieve we ever had any history at all
Let us then by all means remember,
when we are dealing with the subject of
the Scriptures, that we are dealing, not
with one book, but with sixty-six not
with single volume, but with library.
Remember, further, that these sixty-six
books are not links, but strands of evil
dence. There is, indeed golden chain
of sacred history from Genesis to Reyela-
ton, so that in historical point of view.
many vi IhS DOOhS OF Gne DlDIe are links.
But, so far as the evidences of Christi
anity are concerned, they are not Inks
but strands. This can be proved in a
moment The strength of chain is the
strength of its weakest link; and if a sin
gle link be gone, the whole is useless.
Now will any one pretend to say that, if
it were proved that the Book of Esther
had no divine authority, we should have
to give up the gospel of Matthew
Would there be no evidence for the d.
vine authority of Christ if the Lamenta-
tons of jeremiah had happened to have
been lost? Why, there would be enough
to establish the divine authority of Christ
if we had nothing more than the four
eYangelists, and whatever of confirmation
or elucidation comes from the sixty-two
other books is just so much in addition.
The Bible Is not chain of sixty-six
links; it is cable of sixty-six strands:
and if there is such strength as we have
found in four Of them, what shall we saw
OF the united strength of all the sixty-six?