Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1883-02-22

IWrn0tAA-lffaRfuCnt letG@QQlnIllllou
wrote his fayorite work on the cor
ruptioh of eioquence--ail lost. Thirty
ICbookspf heitps lostg I Dion lCGssius
iNrote eighty books, and only twenty
remain. Berosius history lost. Al
most al .tha Jboohs ara kmummi6ed in
the tombs Of old libraries, touched per-
hsps once in twenty years by some
man who after blowing the dust of,
finds il is . book be does not want
Ths, fact that The Bible has. kept right
on in its present shape, and here in
the latter part ofthe nineteenth GEN.
rury, is more discussed than any other
book, and stands exciting the sdmira.
tion Of oil the good, and challenging
the spite and wIckedness and animos-
ity and hypercriticism of all earth and
hell, proves that it is fit to live, and
that il needs no court plaster TO cover
upimperfections and wounds; no help
from doctors medical, or doctors theo-
logical or doctors philosophic, or doc
tors evolutionists. Is it not a miracle
OF projection just as it is, and is not
that an indication of how God wants it?
Man added the Apocryphal books of
the Old Testament, but they fell out.
Council Of Trent and Bishops at Hippo
and the Synod at Jerusalem declared
that the Apocryplal books must stay
in, but they stayed out. No man to-
day would put the book Of Judith,
and Susanna, and Maccabees beside
the book of Deuteronomy, or Job, or
Psalms. So attempts innumerable
have been made to add to the New
Testament Gospels and Epistles and
Apocalypse, but they all dropped right
out OF the 900, 900, 600 copies, not
one has left out book of the Bible.
Divinely protected age after age in its
present shape it is evident that God
likes it as it is, and we ought to like it
as it is. ,sts.-, o sgosalhsaa
Further, | oppose the expurgation
of the scriptures because that attempt
carried out would result in its annihi-
lation, The infidel geologlsts would
say: "Out with the Book of Genasis. y
The infidel astronomers would say:
a0ut with the Book of Joshua" The
people who do not believe in atoning
sacrifices would say: "Out with the
Book. of Leviticus. Those who do
not believe in miracles would say:
"Out with all the marvellous stories of
Old and New Testament S.Out with
Revelation, hawould cry some, and
sOut with all the Pentateuch," would
cry others and there would be nothing
left Of the Bible. to be worth as much
as q last years almanac. The expul-
CATION of'ths Bible would be its ami
hilation. yllG8tt haA ,f1gssad
I am also opposed to the tinkering
Of the holy book, because I have no.
ticed that in proportion as people be-
come good they like the old book as it
is. never knew a man or woman
greatly distinguished for goodness or
self-sacrifice that wanted the scriptures
altered. Many of-us have fallen heir
to family Bibles. They we're read
twenty, or thirty, or forty, or fifty
years. Go through them and see how
many chapters have crossed, or by pen
or lead pencil see il ON any of the mar
gins you could find the words "not fit
to be read" At any time in the last
half century this book could have been
privately expurgated. No; your
grandfather gave it to your father,
aud your father gave it to you. More
over, did you ever hear of anybody
being harmed by the so-called cruel
ties or indecencies of the Bible2 A
cruel book produces cruelty, and an
unclean book uncleanness. Fetch out
from Christendom and from all the
ages one person whose heart has been
hardened or whose life has been des.
poiled by the Scriptures. My opinion
is that people who make such ado
about the indelicacy of the Bible are
prurient in their tastes and imagina-
tions. Any man who can not rea .
Solomon's Song without impure sug-
gestions is either in heart or life lib
ertine. Amy woman who is offended
at the indelicacy of the scriptures is
either in heart or life an adulteress.
The wickedness described In the Old
Testament and New is purposely and
righteously put in disgusting shape,
instead of the novelette,, Byronic and
Partisan vernacular, which makes sin
attractive rather than apalling When
the old prophets show you alazaretto,
you understand it is lazaretto. When
q man, after being better, goes back
into sinful ways, the Bible does not
say. "He has yielded to the fascina.
tions Of the festal board" or "surren-
dered to conviviality," or "become Q
little fast" 1t says, "The dog has re.
turned to his vomit and the sow thai
was washed to her wallowing in the
mire." No gliding of iniquity. Nc
garlanding Of deaths head. Nc
striking Of sin with silver mallet in.
stead Of an iron sledge- hammer.
But / can easily see how people Can
get their minds morbidly lowering
around those parts Of the Bible descrip.
tive of uncleanness until they shall be
as full of it as the nostrlls and beak
and wing and claw of the buzzard is
full Of the odors of carcass, 1t is
not the Bible that needs disinfectants