Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1889-03-08
Reminiscences-No. 6.

since GIrafd time, mlllI0naircS nave b..
come as common as his fortune WAS peculiar.
The Astors, Vanderbilts and several United
States Senators and other statesmen have
thrown the blind millionaire of Philadel
phla lar into the shade. know not how
the gold of job, Abraham, or Gree sus might
have aggregated, but question whether any
one OF them could have measured fortunes
with those | have mentioned. And with
the increase ot abnormal wealth dissipation
and crime have kept even pace, so that the
people of the present age have rivaled their
ancestors before the food, when "every i'm
agnation Of the thou hts of his heart was
only evil continually"
! may mention finally as u sign Of the
times, covered by my lie, a restless desire
TO modify religious creeds and obviate hu.
man responsibility. This, think, is mani
fest from various efforts to simplify the Cos
pei of Christ, and to re place the plain state
mentS OF the Bible by the refined de-
ductlons OF human reason. Within the last
thirty years an almost simultaneous attack
has been made on the Bible by philosophy,
science and pathological Interpretation. The
pantheists and gnOstics in the days of Paul
who sought to refine Christianity by con-
Meeting 1t with their theories OF philosophy,
are outstripped by the advocates of II so
called new theology of the present day.
is of no value, unless in harmony with hu.
man reason, and all Bible statements that
cannot be measured by human reason are to
be rejected. Then we have had materlalists,
"who tried to explain the origin and the
phenomena Of creation by power inherent
in nature independent OF IA personal Deity,
usually denominated natural law" But
this philosophy, with slight variations, is
simply an outgrowth of the dreamy specu.
ations Of Schelling, Flchte and Hegel, OF
Germany, who themselves borrowed largely
from ancient metaphysicians. Next came
the Darwin, Huxley and Spencer theory Of
evolution, aided by the rocky records of
geology, which could find no God for the
origin oi all spiritual and material exis-
fences but the Great Unknowable," what
ever that may mean. Now we have learned
professors telling us through the papers
that the Old Testament writings, notably
the Book of Isaiah, were not all written by
the persons whose names they bore, thus
Joining issue with Christ himself, who quot
ed largely from these very writings, and
appealed TO them in proof Of His divine
mission, character and work. But these
are simply new forms of old theories OF
opposition They existed in the first ages
OF the Christian religion among the ancient
Sadducees, Epicurlons, Stoic5 and Libertlnes;
eighteen hundred years. Its opposers, many
OF them, have been long since dead, but
Christianity, somewhat hindered by secta
riap conflicts, is more widely prevalent than
il ever was before
While have no fear that the Bible will
ever be IA deal book" as some advocates Of
the lew theology" have pronounced it, or
that the Gospel of the Son OF God can ever
be successfully assailed, do fear that mod
ern scholarship may aid infdeity by the
liberties which 1t has lately taken with the
Greek text OF the New Testament A com
pany OF English revisers have, ON their own
motion, revised the New Testament, in do
ing which they have excluded from the re
ceived text numerous very important pas
sages, changed the meaning oil Others, and
cast Il doubt on the inspiration oil some pas
sages and told us 10 plain English that the
lasttwelye verses OF the Gospel by Mark were
probably not written by him. Now IL is no
part Of my plan to discuss the merits of that
question here, but would warn all Chris
tians against "A bind acceptance OF that
work, as 1t no,0 is 1t has already disigured
and perplexed our Sabbath school Itera.
ture, 80 that no teacher or class knows which
lesson is the word of God | have for thirty
years been in favor of revising the common
version To the extept of properly translat-
ing few words, giving uniformity TO pro-
per names, replacing obsolete words by
words in common use, and conforming the
style to the English idiom; but have never
been willing to give place for one hour to
any alteration or removal Of the Greek text.
And why2 Because nearly three hundred
years ago it was found reliable by such
scholars as Cardinal Ximenes, Erasmus Of
Holland Budaeus of France, King James
forty seven translators, and by Luther and
his helpers, who have given the Germ an
world an incompatible translation from the
same iext. Moreover, the great Michaels
has endorsed Erasmus as the best Greek
scholar of his day, and commended his
Greek Testament as the best work of his
life In opposition to these reasons, how.
ever, some critics present the names Of
Lachmann, Tischendorf and Tregelles, three
scholars Of the present age, on whose au-
thority, chiefly, the Canterbury revision was
made; but it has never been proved that
they are better scholars, or that they had
better recourses for finding the true text
than those | have mentioned. Hence
would rather trust this Bible, which all
Christendom has accepted for the last three
centuries, than to exchange it for an imper-
| feet revision.
| Thus at the vanishing end of eighty years
of my life, have given synopsis Of the
stirring events, historical, political, philo-