The daily gazette., 1881-04-07
From the N Y, Sun.
THE GREAT COMING DEMAND
FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT.

| lhE GhEAI OOM1NG DEM Ar
FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Bible Is likely to receive be-
fore long an amount of attention
and a kind of attention which will
be without parallel in our religion,
history. The revised version Of Tho
New Testament is soon to be ISSUED
in England, and it seems that nu.
merous publishers in this city ar,
making arrangements to procure
early copies OF the book, and to fl
the market with reprints within 6
few days OF its receipt. II will bt
printed in the cheap libraries, al
they are called, and ia other forms
so that it can be brought within
the reach Of everybody.
These publishers anticipate that
the most popular, the most fashion
able book of the season, will be
this revised New Testament. Pros
bably they do not exaggerate the
interest and curiosity with which il
is awaited by all sorts of people,
The demand for it is likely to be
much greater than that for the most
thrilling novel, and its sale may ex-
ceed that of any book within our
time. 1t will be on every news
stand and in every bookseller g
shop, and thousands of men who
have left their Old Bibles to gather
dust for many years will read anew
the Gospels in their revised form.
Formerly, nearly everybody in
this country was familiar with the
Scripture narratives and the Scrip.
ture poetry. The Bible was text
book which no child of Protestant
parents was allowed to neglect. He
learned the Biblical stories in his
infancy, and throughout his youth
he was instructed in the Scriptures.
on which he was taught to look as
the indubitable Word of God. The
phraseology of the Old Testament
and Of the New Testament became
SO familiar that 1t affected the
speech Of the people, and the Heb
raic tone of our literature has fire.
qusntly been observed by foreign
critics.
The United States have been the
great Bible-rsading county of the
world. But since the enormous for
eign immigration began, thirty-fve or
forty years ago, an increasing proper
tion OF our society has been without
the accurate Biblical knowledge which
formerly prevailed here. These for
eignsrs and their descendants must
now comprise third of the total popu-
lation Of the country. Their influence
is powerful in the cities especially.
and in some of the Western States the
Germans are gaining . numerical pre-
ponderAnce which will be increased
new that German immigration ia
assuming greater proportions than
ever before.
With the exception Of the com oara-
lively small number of English and
Scotch imm grants, these foreigners
have not been Bible readers, and have
not received the Scripture training
which was common in the United
States. Very many Of them have
never looked ut the book, and their
children are uot instructed in it.
They do net regard it with the rev.
ersnce inculcated by our fathers.
Thoy treat it as a work fer the use OF
professional theologians, and not for
common reading. There are millions
Of such people in the United States to.
day. The Bible is strange book to
them and Scriptural Illustrations
which were once familiar to every
New England school boy suggest
nothing to u very large proportion of
our population.
Our free education has become more
and moro entirely secular, and the in
nuences which surround an increasing
share OF our young people are very
different from those which prevailed
one or two generations ago. They are
growing up without the old reverence
for the Scriptures, and their phra,
seslogy il something unknown to
them. The reading of the Bible in
public schools, for which many Pro-
testants have fought so bitterly, is an
empty affair In these days, for the per.
Torrance can have no real religious
Itis altogether psrfunctory,
and does not provide the children wi h
Biblical instruction. Unless they go
to Sunday schools where it Is specifii-
eally used as text book, they mature
without acquiring knowledge of what
the Bible contains,
fhe indifference with which the
Bible Is regarded by large proportion
Of the population has also been in.
creased by the methods adopted by |
the societies for the distribution of the |
They have scattered
Bibles aud Tsstaments about by the |
million, and made them drug in the |
While seeking to Increase
the reading of the Holy Book, they |
have 80 proceeded that its sacredness |
has been greatly impaired in the eyes
Of thousands of people. They have |
made the Bible too cheap and too COM
mon, and thrust it upon men who were
for it, who did not want |
It, and who regarded it only with dis
gust because they resented efforts to
,onvsrt rhen. There is such thing
as vulgarixing sacred books and sacred |
symbols.
Now, however, we are to have the
New Testament in great supply, to