The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-06-14

and some would say, ''Out with the
book of Revelation - and others would
say, "Out with the entire Pentateuch, -
and the work would go on until there
would not be enough Of the Bible left to
be worth as much as last year s almanac.
The expurgation of the Scriptures means
their humiliation.
The Family Bible.
/ am also opposed to this proposed ex-
purgation of the Scriptures for the fact
that in proportion as people become self
sacrificing and good and holy and con-
secrated, they like the book as it is. !
have yet to find man or woman dis
tinguished for self sacrifice, for conse-
Grafton to God, for holiness of life, who
wants the Bible changed Many of us
have inherited family Bibles Those BIZ
bles were in use 20, 40, so, perhaps 100
years in the generations. Today take
down those family Bibles, and find out
if there are any chapters which have
been erased by lead pencil or pen, and
If in any margins you can find the
words, "This chapter not fit to read. !"
There has been plenty of opportunity
during the last half century privately
to expurgate the Bible. Do you know
any case of such expurgation? Did not
your grandfather give it to your father,
and did not your father give it to you?
Besides that I am opposed to the ex-
purgation of the Scriptures, because the
SO called indelicacies and cruelties Of
the Bible have demonstrated no evil re-
suit. A cruel book will produce cruelty.
An unclean book will produce un-
cleanness. Fetch me a victim. Out Of
all Christendom and out of all the ages
fetch me victim whose heart has been
hardened to cruelty or whose life has
been made impure by this book. Show
me one. One Of the best families ever
knew of, for 80 or 10 years, morning
and evening, bad all the members gath
cred together, and the servants Of the
household, and the strangers that hap
rened to be within the gates-twice a
day, without leaving out a chapter or a
verse, they read this holy book, morn
ing by morning, night by night. Not
only the older children, but the little
child who could just spell her way
through the verse while her mother
helped her, the father beginning and
reading one verse and then all the mem
bers Of the family in turn reading
verse. The father maintained his integ-
rity, the mother maintained her integ-
rity, the sons grew up and entered pro-
fessions and commercial life, adjoining
every sphere in the life in which they
lived, and the daughters went into fam
lilies where Christ was honored, and all
that was good and pure and righteous
reigned perpetually. For 80 years that
family endured the Scriptures. Not one
Of them ruined by them.
No Gliding of Sin.
Now, if you will tell me of a family
where the Bible has been read twice
day for 80 years, and the children have
been brought up in that habit, and the
father went to ruin, and the mother
went to ruin, and the sons and daugh-
tiers were destroyed by tiff you will
tell me Of one such incident, | will
throw away my Bible or l will doubt
your veracity. 1 tell you if man is
shocked with what he calls the indelica-
cies of the word of God he is prurient
in his taste and imagination. If man
cannot read Solomon's Song without
impure suggestion, he is either in his
heart or in his life a libertine.
The Old Testament description of
wiz lya6pacc 11no1oannaCc Of II cortc SC
and righteously disgusting
account, instead Of the Byronic and the
Partisan vernacular, which makes sin
attractive instead of appalling. When
those old prophets point you to a laza-
retto, you understand it is a lazaretto.
When man having begun to do right
falls back into wickedness and gives up
his integrity, the Bible does not say he
was overcome by the destinations of the
festive board or that he surrendered to
or that he became lit
lie fast in his habits. will tell you
what the Bible says, "The dog is turned
20 his own vomitsagain and the SOW
hat was washed to her wallowing in
he mire" No gliding of iniquity. No
yarlands on a Deaths head. No pound
ng away with a silver mallet at iniq-
lity when it needs an iron sledge ham
ner.
I can easily understand how people
'rooding over the description of unclean-,
less in the Bible may get morbid in
mind until they are as full of it as the
wings, and the beak, and the nostril, |
md the claw of buzzard are full of the |
'dors of a carcass, but what is wanted
S not that the Bible be disinfected, but
hat you, the critic, have your mind and
leart washed with carbolic acid
tell you at this point in my dis
curse that a man who does not like |
his book, and who is critical as to its
and who is shocked and out
aged with its descriptions, has never
'een soundly converted The laying ON
# the hands of presbytery or episcopa-
y does not always change a mans
leart, and men sometimes get into the |
'ulpit, as well as into the pew, never
having been changed radically by the
overeign grace of God. Get your heart
light and the Bible will be right. The |
rouble is mems natures are not brought
nto harmony with the word of God
Nh, my friends, expurgation of the
leart is what is wanted
Won cannot ,oalya ,,,a ba1;o-.o Al. A..