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

ed 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
led many Of the passages of that Bible,
but it was not until Is years had passed
of earnest entreaty and prayer and coax
ing and purchase on his part that that
copy of the holy Scriptures was put into
the hand of the emperor of Russia
that one copy SO marvelously protected.
Do you not know that the catalogue
of the books of the Old and New Tesla
ments as we have it is the same cata-
logue that has been coming down
through the ages? Thirty-nine books of
the Old Testament thousands of years
ago. Thirty-nine now Twenty-seven
books of the New Testament l 900 years
ago. Twenty seven books Of the New
Testament now. Marcion, for wicked
ness, was turned out of the church in
the second century, and in his assault
on the Bible and Christianity he Incl
dentally gives a catalogue of the books
of the Bible-that catalogue correspond
ing exactly with ours-testimony given
by the enemy of the Bible and the enc
my Of Christianity. The catalogue now
just like the catalogue then. Assaulted
and spit on and torn to pieces and
burned, yet adhering. The book today,
in 800 languages, confronting four fifths
of the human race in their own tongue.
Four hundred million copies Of it in ex-
istence. Does not that look as if this
book had been divinely protected, as if
God had guarded it all through the cen
turtles?
Book Epidemics.
Is it not an argument plain enough to
every honest man and every honest
woman that book divinely protected
and in this shape is in the very shape
that God wants it? 1t pleases God and
ought to please us. The epidemics which
have swept thousands of other books in
to the sepulcher of forgetfulness have
only frightened the fame Of this. There
is not one book out of 1 1000 that lives five
years. Any publisher will tell you that.
There will not be more than one book out
of 90, that will live a century. Yet
here is a book, much of it 900 years
old and much of it 1000 years old and
with more rebound and residence and
strength in it than when the book was
first put upon parchment or papyrus.
This book saw the cradle of all other
books, and it will see their graves. Would
you not think that an old book like
this, some of it 40 centuries old, would
come along hobbling with age and on
crutches? Instead Of that, more potent
than any other book of the time. More
copies of it printed in the last ten years
than of any other book-Walter Scott's
Waverley Novels, Macaulay's "History
of England" Disraeli's "Endymion, "
the works of Tennyson and Longfellow,
and all the popular books of our time
having no such sale in the last ten years
as this old worn out book. Do you know
what struggle book has in order to
get through one century or two centuries?
Some old books, during fire in a serag-
lilo Of Constantinople, were thrown into
the street. A man without any educa-
ton picked up one of those books, read
it, and did not see the value of it. A
scholar looked over his shoulder and
saw it was the first and second decades
Of Livy, and he offered the man large
reward if he would bring the books to
his study, but in the excitement of the
fire the two parted, and the first and
second decades of Livy were forever lost.
Pliny wrote 20 books of history. All
lost. The most of Menander's writings
lost. Of 1870 comedies of Plautus, all
gone but 20. Euripides wrote 100
lramas, all gone but 10. Eschlyus
wrote 100 dramas, all gone but seven. !
Varro wrote the laborious biographies of |
100 Romans, not fragment left. Quin-
ilian wrote his favorite book on the cor
upton of eloquence, all lost. Thirty
looks of Tacitus lost Dion Cassius |
wrote so books, only 90 remain. Berosi-
is history all lost.
Attempts to Add to the Bible.
Nearly all the old books are mummi-
led and are lying in the tombs of old
ibraries, and perhaps once in 20 years
ONE man comes along and picks up one
Il uuClu anu ulOWs tuo uuSb Ou anu
pens it and finds it the book he does
lot want. But this old book, much of
40 centuries old, stands today more
discussed than any other book, and it
the admiration of all the
God and the spite, and the venom, and
he animosity, and the hypercriticism
f earth and hell I appeal to your COM
non sense if book SO divinely guarded
nd protected in its present shape must
lot be in just the way that God wants
to come to us, and if it pleases God
ught it not to please us?
Not only have all the attempts to de-
ract from the book failed, but all the
ttempts to add to it. Many attempts
we're made to add the apochryphsl books
o the Old Testament. The council of
trent, the synod of Jerusalem, the bish-
ps of Hippo, all decided that the apoch-
yphal books must be added to the
Did Testament "They must stay in,"
aid those learned men, but they staid
ut There is not an intelligent Chris
ian man that today will put the book
f Maccabees or the book of Judith be-
ide the book of Isaiah or Romans.
Then a great many said, "We must
AVE books added to the New Tesla
nent. f" and there were epistles and pos-