The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-02-03

| would De nothing LETT or the Bible to be
worth as much as a last years almanac.
The expurgatiOn Of the Bible would be
its annthilatiOn.
am also opposed to the tinkering of
the holy book, because have noticed
that in proportion as people become
good they like the old book as 1t is. 1
| never knew man or woman greatly
distinguished for goodness or self-sacri-
fee that wanted the scriptures altered,
Many Of us have fallen heir to family
Bibles. They were read twenty, or thir-
ty, or forty, or fifty years. Go through
them and see how many chapters have
crossed, or by pen or lead pencil see If
on any Of the margins you could find
the words mot fit to be read" At any
time in the last half century this book
could have been privately expurgated.
| No; your grandfather gave 1t to your
father, and your father gave 1t to you.
Moreover, did you ever hear of anybody
being harmed by the sO-called cruelties
OF indecencies of the Bible? 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 despOiled by the
Scriptures. My opinion is that people
who make such ado about the indelicacy
of the Bible are pTuTient in their tastes
/ and imaginatiOns. Any man who can
not read SOlOmOn's Song without i'm
pure suggestions is either in heart or
life libeTtine. Any woman who is Of
Tended at the indelicacy of the scrip
lures is either in heart or life an adul-
teress. 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 appalling. When
the old prophets show you a lazaretto,
you understand it is a lazaTettO. When
a man, after Icing better, goes back into
sinful ways, the Bible does not say, He
has yielded to the destinations of the
festal board" or surrendered to con-
VITALITY" or become little fast" 1t
says, "The dog has returned to his vOmit
| and the SOW that was washed to her
wallOwing In the mire." No gliding Of
iniquity. No garlanding of a Deaths
head. No striking of sin with a silver
mallet instead Of an iron sledge-ham-
mer.
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 nOstrils and beak and
wing and claw Of the buZZard is full of
the OdOrs of carcass. 1t is not the BIZ
BILE that needs disinfectants, my brother,
so much as you need to have your en-
tire mind and heart washed with car
bOlie acid. l might as well at this stage
Of the sermon say that the people who
want the Bible changed have never been
soundly converted. The laying on of
hands Of Presbytery or EpiscOpacy can
not change the heart. Men get into the
pulpit as we'll as into the pew knowing
nothing Of the sovereign and all-cOn-
Verting grace of God. Get your heart
right, and the Bible is right. The trOu-
BILE is not with the book; II is with ma
lures that have not by radical, gospel
change been brought into harmony with
the book.
ExpurgatiOn Of the heart is what is
needed, not eXpuTgation of the holy ora
cles. You can not make me believe that
book which at this moment lies on the
table Of the purest and best men and
| women of the age, and book that was
the dying sOlace of your kindred already
passed into the skies, has a taint in It
that by strongest microscope Of honest
criticism could be made visible. If men
are uncomfortable in their Indignation
when the integrity of wife OF child is
assailed, and judges and juries as far as
possible excuse violence under such cir
eumstances, what ought to be the over
pOwering and long gresOunding thunders
| of condemnation for any man who will
stand in Christian pulpit and assail the
more than virgin purity of Inspiration,
the well-belOVed daughter of GOdP Ex-
purge the Biblel Better go to the pic
| ture galleries Of Venice and Rome and
Dresden, and retouch the old masters.
Perhaps you can find a foot in some
| figure of Michael Angeles Last Judg-
ment" that needs Improvement. Per-
haps you might lengthen the chin Of one
| Of Rembrants faces, or put a new coat
| on the waves Of Turner's "SlaVe Ship"
or throw more pathOs into Reubens'
Descending From the Cross" OF i'm
prove the color in Titian's "Assump-
tiOn." Or go into SculptOrs' Gallery
and refashiOn some of the limbs and
change the posture of the statuary of
Phidias and Praxitiles. Such IcOnO-
| clasts would soon find themselves in
penitentiary. But worse vandalism Is
that which would attempt to retOuch
those masterpieces of inspiration or re-
| model the moral giants of the great gal
lery of God. Now, let us divide off. /
| demand that all those who do not be-
lieve the Bible cross over to the rankssOf
the enemy. Take your position behind
the DEVILS guns. Do not try to make a
camprOnise between infidelity and
Christianity. Out and out opposition
we prefebtO these hybrid theOlOgians,
these mOngrel ecclesiastics, these half
and half evOluted pulpiteers who be-
lieve the Bible and don't believe 1t, who
accept the miracles and don't accept
them, trimming on one side to suit skep-
ticism, and trimming on the Othe side
to suit their own pride of heart, aud
who seem to think that in order to prove
their courage they must make the Bible
target and shoot at God. There Is one
thing that encourages me very much,
and that Is that the Lord made out to
manage the universe before they were
born, and perhaps may be able to man.
age 1t little while after they are dead,
Long live the Bible, king Of books
Hands off, ye hypercritics, from this
Kohl moor among crown jewelsI Stand
| by the Biblel There is not virtue but
1t cOmmends.- There is not sorrow but
1t comforts. There is not a good law In
any nation but it's foundation Is in the
ten commandme ents. There are no
grander, braver, hOlier natures than the
heroes and herOines whom 1t biograph-
ICES.
LIQUOR QUARREL.