The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-02-03
MENDING THE BIBLE.
The Divine Book Assailed by
Modern Skeptics.
But their Labor ls Frultless as the WORD
ls Anchored. .on the Solid Rock of
Faith ln.Deity.
Opening hymn:
safely through another week
cod has brought us ON our way"


SUBJECT: AMENDING THE BIBLE"
TExT-RevelatiOn l., 10: "If any man
shall take away from the words of the
book of His prophecy God shall take
away His part out of the Book of Life
and out of the Holy City"
Inspiration here fOresaw that the
time would come when there would be
burglariOus attempts to purlOin and
carry off part Of the Bible. One man
would break in here and another would
break in there, but my text lets them
know in astounding emphasis that the
gates of heaven will clang shut against
the entrance of all such assailants. "GOd
will take away His part out Of the book
Of life and out of the holy city" You
see it Is awfully risky business, the
tinkering of the word of God. A New
York pulpit and others in sympathy
with 1t propose the -expurgatiOn of the
Bible. The aforesaid pulpit declares
that the Book Of Genesis is a tradition
of creation: a successive layer of tradi-
tiOns, which was thought out centuries
before. He says Moses mistakes about
creation were the mistakes of his age;
that there are many systems OF theology
In the New Testament; that Paul had all
the notions OF the rabbinical schools of
his period; that job winds up his epilO
que in genuine faiTy-tale style; that
Revelation is long array of misshapen
DrOG eny in the form Of apOcalyptic
writings; that Revelation comes to a
mailman OF leaves him mad; that what
he calls the "abOminable leWdness'' of
some parts Of the Old Testament are
not fit to be read. He says it is an
abOminable misuse of the Bible to sup
pose the prophecies the fOretelling of
the future. He says that the Book of
oil ia N Snrh nIa nd
SOlOmOn's Songs not in the right place,
and the whole Bible has been imprO-
perly chopped up into chapters and
verses. He intimates that he does not
believe that Samson slew thousand
men with the jaw bone Of an ass. In
other words he rejects the beginning of
the Bible and the close of the Bible, and
all between, as being uninspired by
God, and to be taken as the history Of
thought of each epoch, gradually evOlut-
ind toward our present high moral and
intellectual condition. In other words,
10 Is Thomas Paine and Robert IngersOll
In bands and surplice, but far less ex
euBable; for the intidelS openly and
abOve-bOard declare what they are, but
this wholesale assault Is made in the
Christian pulpit Of an hOnOred sect, of
which Bishop McIlvaine and Archbishop
leighton and the venerable Stephen Ii.
Tying were chief apostles, 1 go for
largest liberty of discussion, and there
are plenty Of places where men can as
sail Christianity without any Interrupt
tiOn. But 1t seems to me that as soon
Rs man gives up the faith Of any sect,
his first plain, honest duty Is to get out
of Ii. 1t would not be considered hon
est for a man to stay iu store or bank, at
the same time declaring the account
books were wrong, and denOuncing the
integrity Of the firm, and at the same
time taking the support of that firm.
Surely minister of the gospel ought to
be as honest with his denomination as
q dry goods clerk with his employer.
Let US look at the Nervousness Of fault
finding with the Bible on the part of a
Christian pulpit at this time. From all
sides the Bible is being assailed by
Beurrility, by Misrepresentation, by in
hdel scientists, by all the vice of the
world and all the venom of perditiOn.
And at this particular time some Of our
pulpits come out with their criticisms.
It Is as though steamer were in the
September equinox, the waves dashing
10 the top of the smOke-stacks and the
matches fastened down, and many were
propheSytng that she must founder in
the gale, and some of the crew should
come down with saws and axes to cut
out some of the planks and beams which
they think have been made out of tim
Der that never should have been there.
think the crew could be at more COM
mendable business than trying to help
the winds and waves outside by their
saws and axes inside. tell you this cid
Gospel ship, what with earth and hell
roaring around stem and stern and mu-
ting in the cabin, is having a rough
voyage, but the captain says he will see
her through, and l notice that not one
beam has started, and keelsOn and
cOunteI-timber-k knee are hewn of Leban-
on cedar, and she will weather the gale.
But no credit to the mutinous crew.
Pulpit assault on the Bible at this time
makes me think OF fortress teTrifically
bombarded on all sides, and the men
of the fortress, instead Of swabbing and
loading the guns and hauling up the
ammunition from the magazine, should
spend their time in trying to pry out Of
the wall some blocks Of stone which
they think came from the wrong quarry.
o, men on the ramparts, better be fight
ing back and down the common enemy
than furnishing them with ladders by
which to scale the wall.
In opposing the expurgatiOn of the
Bible shall give you my reasons for ac-
eepting the entire book, from the first
verse Of Genesis to the last verse of
Revelation, and from lid to lid. "It
cannot be possible" say some Of these
pulpit evolutiOnists whose brain has
been added by too long brOOding of
Herbert Spencer and Darwin; "it can
not be possible that you believe there
was Garden of Eden?" Yes, lust as
much "a l believe that there were roses
In my garden last season. at cannot be
possible that you think the sun and
moon stood stillP" Yes; If were strong
enough 10 make the sun and neon /
could myself easily make them stand
still. or by refractiOn give that appear.
.ance. "YOu don't believe that the whale
swallowed JOnahP" Yes; if L were
strong enough to make whale L could
arrange safe ingress for any false pro-
phet, leaving 1t to evolution to eject him.
"Do you believe that Samson slew a
thousand men with the jaw.bone Of an
assp" Yes; and he who assails the Bible
wields the same weapon. do you be-
leiVe that the water was turned into
wine2" Yes; and that the wine now
II turned into water, with loRwoOd and
atryehnine. There II nothing In the BIZ
BE stsRGers me. There are many things