Connecticut western news., 1895-06-13

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 turies?
 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? It 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 ,000 that lives five years. Any publisher will tell you that. There will not be more than one book out of 10000 that will live century. Yet here is a book, much of it 1 ,600 years old and much of it 4,000 years old and with more rebound and residence and strength ill 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, Disraeii'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 a struggle book has in order to get through one century or two centuries? Some old books, during fire in serag- io of Constantinople, were thrown into the street. A man without any educa- tion 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 13O comedies of Plautus, all gone but 20. Euripides wrote 100 dramas, all gone but 19. Eschlyus wrote 100 dramas, all gone but seven. Varro wrote the laborious biographies of TOO Romans, not fragment left Quin- tilian wrote his favorite book on the cor ruption of eloquence, all lost Thirty books of Tacitus lost. Dion Cassius wrote 80 books, only 20 remain. Berosi- us' history all lost.
 Attempts to Add to the Bible.
 Nearly all the old books are mummi- fled and are lying in the tombs of old libraries, and perhaps once in 20 years some man comes along and picks up one opens it and finds it the book he does not want But this old book, much of it 40 centuries old, stands today more discussed than any other book, and it challenges the admiration of all the good and the spite, and the venom, and the animosity, and the hypercriticism of earth and he'll appeal to your com mon sense if a book so divinely guarded and protected in its present shape must not be in just the way that God wants it to come to us, and if it pleases God ought it not to please us?
 Not only have all the attempts to de- tract from the book failed, but all the attempts to add to it. Many attempts were made to add the apochryphal books to the Old Testament. The council of Trent, the synod of Jerusalem, the bish- ops of Hippo, all decided that the apoch- ryphal books must be added to the Old Testament. "They must stay in, '" said those learned men, but they staid out. There is not an intelligent Chris tian man that today will put the book of Maccabees or the book of Judith be- side the book of Isaiah or Romans. Then great many said, "We must have books added to the New Testa- ment, and there were epistles and gos- pels and apocalypses written and added to the New Testament, but they have all fallen out. You cannot add any thing. You cannot subtract anything. Divinely protected book in the present shape. Let no man dare to lay his hands on it with the intention of detracting from the book or casting out any of these holy pages.
 Besides that, am opposed to this ex- purgation of the Scriptures because if the attempt were successful, it would be the annihilation of the Bible. Infidel geologists would say, "Out with the book of Genesis ;" infidel astronomers would say, "Out with the Book of Joshua" people who do not believe in the atoning sacrifice would say, "Out with the book of Leviticus;'' people who do not believe in the miracles would say, "Out with all those wonderful sto- ries in the Old and New Testament j" and some would say, "Out with the book of Revelation ;'' and others would say, "Out with the entire Pentateuch, l" and the work would go on until there would not be enough of the Bible left to be worth as much as last year almanac. The expurgation of the Scriptures means their annihilation.
 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- secfated, they like the book as it is. I have yet to find a man or woman dis tinguished for self sacrifice, for conse- cration to God, for holiness of life, who wants the Bible changed. Many of us have inherited family Bibles. Those Bi- bles were in use 20, 40, 50, perhaps 100 years in the generations. Today take down those family Bibles, and find out lao, ,ak 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