The Penn's Grove record., 1895-06-14
REV.. DR.. TaLuaGE.
The Brooklyn Divine's Sunday
Sermon.
Subject: "Expurgation of the Scrip
tures.o

Subject: "Expurgation of the Scrip
lures"
IExr' "Let God be true, but every man
d liar. Romans ILL.,, l.
The Bible needs reconstruction ACCORDING
to some inside and outside the pulpit. 1t IL
no surprise that the world bombards the
scriptures, but 1t is amazing to find Chris
tan ministers picking at this in the Bible
ana denying that until many good peopld
are LETT 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,
oy Misrepresentation, by infldel scientists,
by al the vice Of earth and all the venom Of
perditlon, and at this particular time even
preachers OF the Gospel fall into line OF
criticism Of the word Of God. Why, 1t makes
me think OF q ship in q September equinox,
the waves dashing to the top of the smoke
stack, 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
iness 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 hay
ing a very rough voyage, but 1 have noticed
that not one Of the timbers has started, ami
the captain says he will see it through. And
| have noticed that keelson and counter tim.
Der 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.
When l see professed Christians In this
particular day finding fault with the Scrip.
lures, 1t makes me think Of a fortress ter
r1hcally bombarded, andthe men on the ram.
parts. instead Of swabbing put and loading
the guns and helping fetch up the ammuni.
ton from the magazine, are trying with
crowbars to pry out from the wall certain
blocks of stone, because they did not cont
from the right quarry. Oh, men on the ramA
parts, better fight back, and fight down the
common enemy, instead OF trying to make
breaches In the WALL
While 1 oppose this e%xpurgation OF tn.
Scriptures, l shall give you my reasons for
such opposition. "WhatI' 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 you2" Yes, as much as 1 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
H. had strength enough to create a sun and
moon | could make them stand still or cause
the refraction of the suns rays so 1t would
appear to stand still. 'But, they say, 'iyou
don't really believe that the whale swal.
lowed Jonah?" Yes, and If I were strong
enough to make a whale I 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, s'you
don't really believe that the water was turned
into wine2" Yes, just IS easily as water now
Is often turned into wine with an admixture
of s%trychnine and logwood! "But." say
they, you don't really believe that Samson
slew 1000 with the jaw bone Of an ASST" Yes,
and l think that the man who in this day
assaults the Bible is welding the same
weapon!
There is nothing in the Bible that staggen
me. There are many things / do not under
stand, l do not pretend to understand, never
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 by
finite. You must not expect to weigh the
thuGderbolts 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 skepticism in my heart. Here I
stand a fossil OF the ages, dug up from the
tertiary formation, fallen off the shelf of an
antiquarian, Il nan In the latter part Of the
glorious nineteenth century believing in Q
whole Bible from lid to lid!
l an opposed to the expurgation 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 one manuscript copy Of it. Twelve
hundred years after Plato wrote his book
there was only one manuscript copy of 1t.
God was so careful to have us nave 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 land of such men as 0rfgen
In the second century and T~ertullisn in the
third century, and by men Of different ages
who died for their principles. The three
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
Romish church of Italy.
1t is a plain matter Of historythat Tischen
dorfwentt to a conventin the peninsula ofSinai
and was by ropes lifted over the wall into the
convent, that being the only mode Of admis-
sion, and that be saw there in the waste
basket for kin6ling for the fires 0 manuscript,
OF the Holy Scriptures. 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 eoaxing and
purchase on his part that that copy Of the
Holy Scriptures was put into the hand oil
the Emperor Of Russia--that one copy SC
narvelously protected.
Do you not know that the catalogue of the
books Of the Old and New Testaments as we
have II is the same catalogue that has been
J 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 Tesla.
ment now. Marcion, for w~ickedness, was
turned out Of the church in the second cen.
fury. and in his assault on the Bible and
Christianity he incidentally gives q cata,
logue Of the books Of the B~lble-that cata-
! logue corresponding exactly with ours-tes-
timony given by the enemy Of the Bible and
the enemy of Christianity. The catalogue
now Just like the catalogue then. Assaulted
and spit IN and torn to pieces and burned,
vet adhering. The book to-day, In 800 lam
guages, confronting four-ffths Of the human
race in their own tongue. -Four hundred
{ mllllOu COplCS 4 III CAlstOhScs DObb uOt
that look as II this book had been divinely
protected. as If God had guarded 1t al
through the centuries?
Is 1t not an argument plain enough to
every honest lar n every honest woman
that a 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 epidemies 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 thar one boob
out Of 20, 900 that will live a century. YET
here is a book, much of 1t 1000 years old and
much OF 1t 1000 years old and with more re-
bound and residence and strength In 1t thar
when the book was first put upon parchment
or papyrus.
This book saw the cradle Of all othel
books, and 1t will see their graves. Would
you not think that an old book like this
some OF 1t forty centuries old, would com,
, along hobbling with age and on crutches
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