Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-06-26
REY. DR.. IaLQaeE.
rhe Brooklyn Divine's Sunday
Sermon.
Subject: ''Expurgation Of the Scrip
tures.D

| no surprise that the world bombards the
Scriptures, but 1t Is amazing to find Chris
tan ministers picking at this in the Bible
and denying that until many good peopld
| are left in the fog about what parts of the
| Bible they ought to believe and what parts
reject The Nervousness of finding fault
with the Bible at this time is most evident.
In our day the Bible is assailed by scurrility,
BY Misrepresentation, by inddel 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, 1t makea
me think OF ship in a September equinox;
the waves dashing to the top OF the smoke
tack, and the matches 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
planks and pry out some OF the timbers be-
cause the timber did not come from the right
forest
1t does not seem to be a commendable bus
fness for the crew to be helping the winds
| and storms outside with their axes and saw
,nsice Now, this old Gospel ship, what with
| the roaring Of earth and hell around the
| stem and stern and mutIny on deck, is hav-
ing very rough voyage, but have noticed
that not one OF the timbers has started. an 1
| the captain says he will see 1t through. And
| have noticed that keelson and counter tim.
Der knee are built out of Lebanon cedar. and
| she 1S going to weather the gale, but No
credit to those who make mutiny on deck
When l see professei Christians in this
particular day finding fault with the Scrip
| lures, it makes me think of fortress ter
| nf1cally bOmbarded, and the men on the ram.
parts. insteai of swabbinS out and loading
the guns and helping fetch up the ammuni.
don from the magazine, are trying with
crowbars to pry out from the wall certain
blocks OF stone, because they did not come
l - iOh Al
parts, better fight back, and fight down the
common enemy, instead Of trying to make
breaches in the wall!
While / oppose this expurgation Of tn,
Scriptures, shall give You my reasons for
such opposition. "What!' say some of the
| theological evolutionists whose brains have
been added bytoo long brooding 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 1 believe
there were roses in my garden last summer.
| But" say they. ''you don't really beliere
that the sun and moon stood still?" Yes, and
II had strength enough to create q sun and
moon could make them stand still or cause
| the refraction Of the suns rays so II would
| appear to stand still. "But," they say, "you
| don't really believe that the whale swal.
| lowed Jonah?' Yes, and II I were strona
enough to make a whale could have made
very easy ingress for the refractory prophet,
leaving to evolution to eject him il he were
an unworthy tenant! "But," say they, "you
don't really believe that the water was turned
| into wineT' Yes, just IS easily as water now
| Is often turned into wine with an admixture
| OF strychnine and logwood! "But," say
| they, "you don't really believe that Samson
slew 1000 with the jaw bone of an ass?" Yes,
! and think that tho who In this doy
| assaults the Bible is welding the same
weaponi
There is nothing in the Bible that stayceu
Thara r 40 l.
| stand, do not pretend TO understand, neveS
| Shall in this world understand. But that
would be a very poor God who could be fully
understood by the human. That would be q
very small Infinite that can be measured bv
Unite You must not expect to weigh the
thunoerbotts OF Omnipotence in an apothe.
carys balances. Starting with the idea that
God can do anything, and that he was pres
| ent at the beginning, and that He Is present
now, there is nothing in the holy Scriptures
| TO arouse skeptcism in my heart. Here
stand fossil of the ages, dug up from the
| tertiary formation, fallen of the shelf of an
| antiquarian, a man in the latter part Of the
glorious nineteenth century believing in Q
whole Bible from lid to lidI
l am opposed to the expurSation Of the
Scriptures in the first place, because the
Bible IN its present shape has been so mirac.
! ulously preserved. Fifteen hundred years
after Herodotus wrote his history. there was
| only ore manuscript copy of it. Twelve
hundred years after Plato wrote his book
there was only one manuscript copy Of It
God was 50 careful to have us have the Bible
| In just the right shape that We have fifty
| manuscript copies of the New Testament a
| thousand years old, and some Of them 1900
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 Orfyen
| In the second century and Tertullian in the
third century, and by men Of different ages
VI ~ Tod fnr hats -.
| best copies Of the New Testament in manu-
| script in the possession of the three great
churches-the Protestant church OF England.
the Greek church of st. Petersburg and the
Eomish church Of Italy.
It 1s plain matter Of history that Tischen
doIf went to convent In the peninsula 6fSina,
and was by ropes lifted over the wall Into the
convent, that being tho only mode of admis-
SION, and thst he saw there in tho waste
basket for kidding for the fires Q manuscript
OF the Holy ScriptureeL That night he cop
| led many of the passages Of that Bible, but
1t was not until fifteen years had passed OF
| earnest entreaty and prayer and coaxing 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 80
parvelously protected.
Do you not know that the catalogue Of tho
books Of the Old and New Testaments as We
have 1t is the same catalogue 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 1900 years
ago. Twenty-seven books of the New Testa-
ment now. Marcion, for wickedness, was
turned out OF the church in the second cen.
| tury, and in his assault on the Bible and
Christianity he Incidentally gives . eats,
| logue Of the books Of the Bible-that eata-
loSue corresponding exactly with ours-tes-
umony given by the enemy Of the Bible and
| the enemy Of Christianity. The catalogue
now just like the catalogue then. Assaulted
, and spit on and torn to pieces and burned,
| yot adhering. The book to-day, in 800 Ian.
guages, confronting four-fifths Of the human
race in their own tongue. -Four hundred
million copies Oft in existence. Does not
that look as if this book had been divinely
protected. as II Col had guarded II ali
| through the centuries2
E 1t not an argument plain enough ia
every honest man and every honest woman
that book divinely protected and in this
shape is in the very shape that God wants
1t. 1t pleases God and ought to please US.
The epidemics which have Swept thousands
| Of other books into the sepulcher Of forget
/, fulness have only frightened the fame OF
this. There is not one book out of 1000 thai
lives five years. Any publisher will tell you
that. There will not be more than one book
out OF 10000 that will live n century. Yet
here is book, much Of it 1000 years old and
mucn OF II 4OOO years old anil with more re-
bound and resilience and strength in it than
when the book vas first put upon parchment
or papyrus.
This book SEW the cradle OF all otha,
books, and it Will see their graves. WOutt
you not think tt 1t an old book like this
some OF it fortc centuries old, would CONF
along hobbling with age and on crutehes,
Instead of that. more potent than any Other
book Of the tir..e. More copies Of it printed
IN the last ter wears than of any other loot
Walter scott's Waverley Novels, Macan
lay's ''Histo-Y OF Bnglsnd," DisraeIi's "En'
dymion," tho work. o: Tennyson and Long
fellow, an, all the popular books Of our TINT
having no such sale In tho last ten years a
kbyAo oId xrory, ont hook 10 Won know vha1