Connecticut western news., 1895-06-13
THE BIBLE AS TIT IS.
REV. pR. TAlMAGE ON THE ExPuRGA-
 TON OF THE SCRIPTURES.

Reconstruction-Nothin Can Be Added Nor Taken From It-An Eloquent Ser
 mon Timely Topic.
 NEW YORK, June 9.-In his sermon subject that is agitating the entire Christian church at the present moment wiz, "Expurgation of the Scriptures. " The text chosen was, "Let God be true, but every man liar" (Romans iii, Al.
 The Bible needs reconstruction &C., cording to some inside and outside the pulpit It is no surprise that the world bombards the Scriptures, but it is amaz-. ing to find Christian ministers picking at this in the Bible and denying that until many good people are left in the fog about what parts of the Bible they ought to believe and what parts reject The heinousness of finding fault with the Bible at this time is most evident. In our day the Bible is assailed by scur- rility, by misrepresentation, by infdel scientists, by all the vice of earth and all the venom of perdition, and at this particular time even preachers of the gospel fall into line of criticism of the word of God. Why, it makes me think of a ship in a September equinox, the waves dashing to the top of the smoke stack, and the hatches fastened down, and many prophesying the laundering of the steamer, and at that time some of the crew with axes and saws go down into the hold of the ship, and they try to saw off some of the blanks and pry out some of the timbers because the tim Der did not come from the right forest.
 It does not seem to me a commendable business for the crew to be helping the winds and storms outside with their axes and saws inside. Now, this old gospel ship, what with the roaring of earth and hell around the stem and stern and mutiny on deck, is having very rough voyage, but have noticed that not one of the timbers has started, and the cap tain says he will see it through. And I have noticed that keelson and counter timber knee are built out of Lebanon cedar, and she is going to weather the gale, but no credit to those who make mutiny on deck
 Expurgation of the Scriptures.
 When see professed Christians in this particular day finding fault with the Scriptures, it makes me think of for tress terrifcally bombarded, and the men on the ramparts, instead of swabbing out and loading the guns and helping fetch up the ammunition from the mag azine, are trying with crolvbars to pry out from the wall certain blocks of stone, because they did not come from the right quarry, Oh, men on the ramparts, bet ter fight back. and fight down the com mon enemy, instead of trying to make breaches in the wall
 While Ioppose this expurgation of the Scriptures, shall give you my reasons for such opposition. "Whatr' say some of the theological evolutionists whose brains have been added by too long breeding over them by Darwin and Spencer, "you don't now really believe all the story of the garden of Eden, do you?" Yes, as much as I believe there were roses in my garden last summer.
 "But," say they, "you don't really believe that the sun and moon stood still?" Yes, and if had strength enough to create sun and moon could make them stand still or cause the refraction of the suns rays so it would appear to stand still. But" they say, "you don't really believe that the whale swal- lowed Jonah?" Yes, and if I were strong enough to make a whale could have made very easy ingress for the re- fractory prophet, leaving to evolution to eject him if he were an unworthy ten anti "But, say they, "you don t really believe that the water was turned into wine?" Yes, just as easily as water now is often turned into wine with an ad- mixture of strychnine and haywood But" say they, ''you don't really be- ieve that Samson slew 1000 with the jaw bone of an ass?" Yes, and think that the man who in this day assaults the Bible is yielding the same weapon
 There is nothing in the Bible that etaggers me. There are many things do not understand, do not pretend to understand, never shall in this world understand But that would be very poor God who could be fully understood by the human. That would be a very small Infinite that can be meas sured by the finite. You must not expect to weigh the thunderbolts of Omnipotence in an apothecary's balances. Starting with the idea that God can do anything, and that he was present at the beginning, and that he is present now, there is nothing in the holy Scriptures to arouse skepticism in my heart. Here stand fossil of the ages, dug up from the ter tiary formation, fallen off the shelf of an antiquarian, man in the latter part of the glorious nineteenth century be- ieving in whole Bible from lid to lid
 Divinely Protected.
 am opposed to the expurgation of the Scriptures in the first place, because the Bible in its present shape has been SO miraculously preserved. Fifteen hun dred years after Herodotus wrote his history, there was only one manuscript copy of it. Twelve hundred years after Plato wrote his book, there was only one manuscript copy of it. God was so care ful to have us have the Bible in just the right shape that we have 50 manuscript copies of the New Testament thousand years old, and some of then 1 ,500 years old. This book handed down from the time of Christ, or just after the time of Christ, by the hand of such men as Ori- :. gen in the second century and Tertullian i. in the third century, and by men of diff ferent ages who died for their principles. The three best copies of the New Testa- ment in manuScript in the possession of the three great churches-the Protestant church of England, the Greek church of St. Petersburg and the Romish church of Italy.
 It Is a plain matter of history that Tischendof went to convent in the peninsula of Sinai and was by ropes lift cd over the wall into the convent, that being the only mode of admission, and that he saw there in the wastebasket for kindling for the fires manuscript of the Holy Scriptures. That night he cop