The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1881-06-09
The New Bible.

have the honor to be, sir, yours very
respectfully, --.i j. II. MCLEARY,
Attorney General.
s-
..--- . 49,. The New Bible. oil.
1t is an awful thing to tinker with
the Old Bible. 1t is book like no
otherb book; it fills place in the hui
man heart that nothing else in this
world can ever fill. No matter IF
many do doubt its Inspiration, even
those who doubt yield to it Il silent
obeisance, and fortify themselves in
hundred ways with its precepts
and its teachings.
It's very quaintness had an irre-
pressible charm. Its poetry was be-
yond all other poetry ever written
in mortal bngue. Its laws have
been the.substratum of all the codes
since Lycurgus. Its hygiene to-day
is recognized by science as incom-
parable, and its historical value is
becoming more and more absolute
as research and exploration corrob-
crate its narrative.
What, then, was the matter with
the Old Bible? The same thing exr
actly that is tho matter with the
whole land--the demon ofchange in
the hearts of the people. These
English Jerusalem chamber revisers
have spoilt the New Testament, and
are now busily engaged in hacking
away at the vitals of the Old. They
have turned a holy work into re-
| ligious classic. They have been
fraO Ot-n Oh
than their orthodoxy. Faith was
the mighty arms which embraced the
Old Bible and bore it as holy shield
through the Valley of the Shadow
and over beyond the river called
Death. Can faith live if old Jeree
miah is made to talk like a college
professor, and the archangel Paul
peruked and bewigged like an arch
bishop? The infallible Word of
God, through the civilized barbarism
of-modern scholarship, is turned into
the fallible work of man. Changes
are made everywhere. Verse after
verse is entirely extirpated. If the
book was inspired in the first place,
how dare any professed Christian to
lay his hands upon it? II itwas not
inspired, what difference did it. make
whether the text was rendered more
perfect by the revision than it was
in the, original? The New Testa-
ment-rwhich has been the earliest
to shudder under the sacriligious
steel OF those modern sceptics of the
lacademY-was first the cradle and
,afterWard the citadel of the religious
world, 1t shone as a beacon when
materiaIism as a morass encumbered
| the earth. The monks fed with it
| to their mountains and held it in the
bowels of the earth. Martyrs died
/ for it In ecstatic multitudes that its
precious consultations might be vim
l,dicated.- Heroism enshrined it, and
devotion bore testimony to its god
illness through pestilence, persecu-
ton and fire. 1t grew so into the
hearts OF men that in the new world
| called America it made them fit for
| freedom. 1t took woman from q
horrible system of prostitution CALI
ed polygamy and sat her on a throne
next TO the angels. 1t entered into
the life's blood of the thing called sot
| ciety and taught it how to preserve
itself through wise and beneficent
laws. Ii entered the household of
the family TO make it a unit, and 10
| build therefrom the splendid .struct-
ure of the state. 1t carried to the
| palace the tales of the hOvel and
made place for charity in the ages
that were either iron or gold. Call
it what you please-faith, sHpersti-
ton, credulity or enthusiasm-but
whatever it was it made man better,
poverty less bitter, pain less unen+
durable, passion less merciless, the
death-bed less full of bereavement
and the hereafter q real, blessed,
tangible possession for all who were
not professors of Greek in an Oxford
university. .,.l...,s. .. ..t .....l
And this is the New Testament
which has been cut. and carved to
suit the age which delights in con-
templating mans ancestor as an
oyster, and strokes with filial ten
derness the cocoanut head of a grin
ming monkey, lest somewhere in the
ages THAT monkeys blood and his
1low4l ran miLglin onward in the
| stream of evolution. 1t " lie to
say that the changes are immaterial
that they are but few in number
that they do not affect the vital
/ teaching. The reports from Eng
land, where the revision was made
are all to the contrary. The bishop
f2of Gloucester, in presenting the
\ work to the convocation, announced
that in the. gospels the changes
/ average nine to each five verses
and in the epistles three changes to
each verse. Elaborate criticisms
also appear in most of the daily
papers, all condemnatory and con-
Yicting the reEisers of disregarding
their pledges to- introduce the few.
est alterations possible. These ar
| ticles quote scores of examples
where. the changes were purely
frivolous and capricious, and de,
fnbtince the seff-opinionated scholar
tshipe- of the motley combination
of theologians: and professors
which has disfigured, mangled and
made unacceptable some of the
noblest passages in the Bible. The
l ,Satgrddy .ReDiea0 complains of the
,~tldish pedaptry of the reyisers
ond 1escribes the new version as
sadiu % e., @or to the old one in gen.
aaoI oay o. ao beauty of language
r. gfd, n.sH siEot otsahot anu will never come
into general use. The ''neS radrat pap.af
speak in similar terms t,
grief and astonishment al the
sers' wanton disregard of the reye,
enee and love felt by the English
people for the existing text, saying
that the revisers may know Greek,
but not English, and protesting
against defacing gfhe hobiest 'iiohn-
meht:ofEnglish prose! = "i 81 7.''h.f
.sEEeFy pulpit in America should
also thnpder against the sacrilege of
this stock-jobbing enterprise, organ
lied and executed in the maine Of re
ligion.. Talk about Bob Ingersoll
and his blasphemous following, why
amillion of such would be as moth
ing compared to one hours belief in
the minds OF those who accept the
Old Bible that anything could be
done to it to make it better, truer or
holier. Exercise this Oxford devil.
Too much learning has made null
titude of madmen.
It is said Major Penn rescued
fifty-two sinners, at San Antonio,
from Ehades and condemnation.