The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-01-26

land that last month the London Times.
In noticing meeting of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, made formal at
tack on the Society and on the Bible. 1t
spoke as follows:
1.-THE object is the circulation of the B;ble in
every language under the sum- The society is
no respecter OF persons or races in the execution
OF this work. No people is too savage for it.
no manners or intelligence too rudimentary, no
language too barbarous, no vocabulary too
limited. If prehistoric man could be found in
his cave breaking bones with celt to get at
the marrow, the Bible Society would have
ready forth, use before the end of a twelve
month the Bble-the whole Bible and nothing
but the Bible-in his own simple vernacular
OF squeaks hiccoughs, stammers and grunts.
1t Is pronounced almost impossible to
produce French or Spanish Bible which shall
Tot offend either taste or truth on every page
Yet races which politicians are forced to re.
gard as semi. barbarian have been saturated
with versions In their own spoken tongue. At
RIGA has been diligently searched for peoples.
one more ba-barous than another, and abso
utely destitute of literature, and missionaries
OF Preternatural energy and ability have re-
duced their speech to writing and given them
the Bible in it. The negro dialect Of the West
Indies cannot be heard or read by an English
man without continual provocation to extrava
CANT and unseemly mirth but the Bible has
been translated into it, and is so read in their
churches. 1t has been printed and published
by the Soc ty, though its officials would very
properly look twice at any gentleman stepping
in to ask for a copy The simple circu
ation of the Bible in all languages is the one
commandment the one creed, the one yirtue
the one grace, the one battle cry the one banner.
the one palladium, the test of rising or fall
ing State, the way to possess the earth and
| a Cl oh, L
balmy confidence of myriads, whom no reason
able person would wish to disturb or rob of
their lifes JOY"
And great deal more in the same
sneering strain, the writer concluding his
article by ridiculing our belief in the
genuineness and authority of the Biblical
books.
The N. York Herald frequently gives
us matter of this sort, but it is q new de-
parture with the Times. 1t is the out
crop of the teachings of Stuart Mill Her
bert Spencer, Tyndall, Huxley, etc., and
the descent to lower stratum of readers
of the thought which pervades the Con-
temporary RevieaO, the Nineteenth Gen.
tu1y, etc.
But the Bible will survive the Times
1t survived the Roman Empire, and the
French Revolution; the Deism of Voltaire
and Hume; the Destructive Criticism and
Pantheism of Germany and it will sur
vive Haeckel and Huxley.
Sydney Smith ridiculed the Christian
missions in India in the beginning of the
century, and now India is passing into
Christian country. The Times is Just be-
ginning to rehash the half-worn-out in
fidelity of Germany.
L! writer in the Times has been dab
bling in popular science We Judge by
his reference to prehistoric man that he
is one of those who believes that the
French and English Archaologists have
set aside the Biblical account of the orr
gin and antiquity Of man. He speaks OF
prehistoric man in his cave breaking
bones with celt to get at the marrow
and of his simple vernacular of squeaks.
hiccoughs, stammers and grunts." This
shows that the Times does not under
stand the subject to which it thus SO con-
temptuously alludes in connection with
the Bible Society. "Celts" belong to the
Polished Stone Age, and the Times is
speaking of primeval man whom it i'm
AGNES not to have acquired the faculty
of speech. This too is terrible mistake
for the Times to make. Ten years ago
anthropologists talked about the primeval
man of the European caves as "a mute,
or as having hardly acquired the use of
articulate language, but that idea is ut
terly exploded now. Indeed it is now
admitted on all hands that the Paleolithic
Cave-men were very respectable savages.
Here is what Professor Dawson says of
them in his late work on "Fossil Man:
The Old Man of Cro-magnon was of
great stature, being nearly six feet high
More than this his bones show that he
was of the strongest and most athletic
muscular development-a Samson in
strength. The skull proper, or brain
case, is very long, more so than in ordi-
nary modern skulls, and this length is
accompanied with great breadth, so
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