Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-01-29
"Mending the Bible"

Subject:
"Mending the Bible"
Text: Revelations i, 10: "If any man
shall take away from the words of the book
of this 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 burglar
Gus attempt to purlOin and carry OIL part
of the Bfbfe.- 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
assailauts. God will take away his part
out of the Book Of Life and out of the Holy
City" You see it is awfully risky busi-
ness, the tinkering Of the word OF God. A
New York pulpit and others in sympathy
with it propose the expurgation OF the
Bible. The aforesaid pulpit declares that
the book Of Genesis is a tradition OF crea-
tion, a successive layer Of traditions,
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 Tes.
lament, that Paul had all the notions OF
the rabbinical schools of his period, that
Job winds up his epilOgue in genuine
fairy-tale style, that Revelation Is long
array of mis-shaped progeny in the form
of apocalyptic writings, that Revelations
comes to a mailman or leaves him mad,
that what he calls the ''abOminable lewd-
ness of some parts of the Old Testament
are not fit to be read. He says it is an
abomnible misuse of the Bible to suppose
the prophecies the foretelling of the future.
He saws that the Book of Daniel is not in
the right place and SOlOmons songs not in
the right place, and the whole Bible has
Teen
Improperly Chopped Up
into chapters and verses. He intimated
that he does not believe that Sampson slew
a thousand men with the jaw bone OF an
ass. In othe- words, he re elected the begin
ming of the Bible and the clsse of the Bible
and all between as being uninspired OF God
and to be taken as the history of the
! thought of each epoch, gradually evOluting
toward our present high moral and intel
| lectual condition. In other words it is
| Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll in
| bands and surplice. but far less excuse
able; for the intidels openly and above
! board declare what they are, but this whole
sale assault is made in the Christian pulpit
OF an honored sect of which Bishop Mac
Ilvaine and Archbishop Leighton and the
venerable Stephen H. Tying were chief
| apostles. l 20 for largest liberty OF discus
! sion and there are plenty OF places where
men can asSail Christianity without any
interruption. But it seems to me
that as soon as man gives
! up the faith OF any sect his first
! plain honest duty is to get out OF it.
! Ii would not be considered honest for a
man to stay in store or bank, at the same
! time declaring the account books were
wrong, and denounCing the integrity Of
| the firm and az the same time taking the
| support OF that firm. Surely minister Of
| the Gospel ought TO be as honest with his
denomination as a dry goods clerk with his
employers. Let US Look az the heinous-
| hess OF
FauIt-FindtnG with the Bible
| on the part of Christian pulpits at this
| time. From all sides the Bible is being as
sailed by scurrility, by Misrepresentation,
| by infidel scientists, by all the venom of
! perditiOn. And at this particular time
some of our pulpits come out with their
! criticisms. 1t is as though steamer were
| in the September equinox, the waves dash
! ing TO the top of the smoke stacks and the
| matches fastened down and many were
| prophesying 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 ana beams which they think
| have been made out of timber that never
| should have been there. | think the crew
! could be at more commendable business
| than trying to help the winds and waves
| outside by their saws and axes inside.
! tell you this old Gospel ship, what with
| earth and hell roasting around stem and
| stern and mutiuy in the cabin, is having
| rough voyage. but the captain SAYS that
| he will see her through and | notice that
| one beam has started and keelSOn and
| COunter.timber-knee are hewn OF Lebanon
| cedar and she will weather the gale. Bot
no credit to the mutinous crew. Pulpit
assault on the Bible at this time makes me
| think OF fortress terrihcaily bombarded
| on all sides and the men of the fortress in
stead OF swabbing and loading the guns and
| hauling up the ammunition from the mag
| azine should spend their time in trying 10
pry out Of the wall some blocks of stone
which they think came from the wrong
quarry. y, meh on the ramparts,
Better be Fighting
back and down the coming enemy than
furnishing them with ladders by which to
scale the walls.
In opposing the eXpurgation of the bible
shall give you my reasons for accepting
the entire book from the first verse of Gem
| esis to the last verse of Revelation and
lid TO lid. ut cannot be possible" says
some Of these pulpit evolutionists whose
brain has been added by too long brood
ing of Herbert Spencer and Darwin, "it
cannot be possible that you believe there
was garden of Eden Yes, just as muctr
as believe that there were roses in my
garden last season. 1T cannot be possible
that you think the sun and moon stood
still Yes; il | were strong enough to
make the sun and moon, | could myself
easily make them stand still or by refrac.
ton give that appearance. You don't be-
lieye that the whale swallowed jonah
Yes; If | were strong enoagh 10 make a
whale, could arrange safe ingress for any
false prophet, leaving it 10 evolution to
eject him. "Do you believe that Sampson
slew a thousand men with the jaw bone OF
an ass" Yes; and he who aSsails the
Bible wields the same weapon. do you
believe that the water was turned into
wine" Yes; and that the wine now is
turned into water with logwood aud s.rych.
nine, There i nothing in the Bible stag.
gers me. There are many things | do not
understand, but that would be
Very Poor G"d
who could be fully understood by man,
that would be a very small infinite that
could be measured by the finite. We ought
not to expect that We could weigh the
thuuderbOlts of 0mnipOteuce in an apothe-
cary's balances. Starting with the idea
that God can do anything, and that he was
present at the beginning, and is present
now, find nothing in the Bible that ever
excited my 'scepticism. Here, look at me,
a fossil of the centuries. dug up from the
tertiary formations, fallen off the shel: OF
curiosity cabinet, man in the latter part
of the 10Th century believing in a whole
Bible,
Ny reason for not wanting the Bible
mended in the first place is that in its
present shape tits q marvel OF preservation.
While 1906 years after Herodotus wrote
his history there was only one manuscript
copy of his book, and while there was, 1000
years after Plato wrote, only one copy OF
his book, God took such good care that We
should get the Bible that We have fifty
manuscript copies of the New Testament