St. Paul daily globe., 1888-08-20
MINNEAPOLIS.
TEXT BOOK OF NATIONS.
Rev. w. j, Shannon Tells What
the Bible Is,

AsCs' W. Us SHauIlOu lcilS w nat
the Bible Is.
At the Church of Christ yesterday
morning Rev. w. j. Shannon preached
from the text John V. SO. He said:
The Bible is fast becoming the text
book of Christians. 1t was not alto
gether-so in the past. Creeds and cate
chisms have been given up by the more
intelligent, and as freedom from these
has been attained, the Bible has become
more and more the book of the people.
The supremacy OF the Bible was only
nominal during the long period wherein
theological dogmaS and creedS were
dominant. DR.. Schaff says, sit was a
serious mistake of an intensely theoiOg
ical aye to introduce so much logical
and metaphysical theology into the
creeds and thus to intensity ann perpet-
uate controversy, bigOtry and hatred" !"
But we are happily getting over all that,
and the people who nominally have
creeds keep them more for ornament
than for use, and many of them are get
ting heartily ashamed of that style of
church ornamentation.
The Bible as text book is our sub
1ect. bring yOq few figures to show
the greatness OF the school that gathers
around it. In our own land there are
more than 100000 Bibles lying open on
as many pulpits, and $1,000 of the purest
and best men of the land stand weekly,
and many of them daily, to teach its
truths. Around these open Bibles there
gathers 100000 of our people.
AS to Sunday schools. 1t is estimated
that there are 100000 of children
studying the international lessons, and
1.-The 100000 Of teachers and officers
now leading the Sunday school march
are the equals of any 100000 of men
and women that ever engaged in any
work" Ten of these 20,000,000 are on
the American continent. There is no
other book in the world that can boast
of such an array of teachers and pupils.
And yet the half has not been told.
The Bible is printed in $50 languages
and dialects. Voltaire still for the most
part talks French, when he talks at all.
which is rare now-a-days: Ingersoll
talks English: but the Bible begins to
speak the languages of the whole world,
and there will be no rest till every
tribe, and tongue, and kindred, and
people. and nation shall look into its
pages and hear its voice of praise. and
offer its prayers, and sing its psalms,
leach in his own tongue wherein he
was born" There will be no rest till
this the Christians text book shall be
lIlc NOIIu ItAG DOOh.
Would this be a good thing for the
world? See what it has done for the
foremost nations. In a critical moment
Luther gave the New Testament to Ger
many, and from that time it has held
the chlefeSt place in that nation of
scholars, philosophers and books.
Hume said of the English, that to the
Bible they owed the whole freedom of
their constitution.
Plymouth Rock is called the corner
stone of our government, but the Bible
is the explanation of Plymouth Rock.
The Continental congress caught the
faith of our forefathers, and one of its
last acts before being driven from Phil
adelphia was to order the importation of
20,000 Bibles.
The Bible is "a morally winnowed
book" 1t is wholesome food for men
and nations. 1t is much abused book.
1t has been used to prove every heresy
and all the infernaliSm under the sun.
Slavery appealed to it for the hiding of
its shameful head. The saloons appeal
to it in defense of their -infernalism.
But always in due time the book shakes
Off these traitors to its spirit. Whittier
blaZeS out our Indignation for such per-
version:
Foul shame and scorn be on We all
Who turn the good TO evil
And steal the Bible from the Lord
And give it to the devil
Webster and Clay studied the Bible
for its literature and history: why
should not we study it for that, but also
for our religion and our eternal life?
Let the Bible have its perfect work in
you, then will you be perfected in
Christ, and such perfection is the high
est good of man