The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1895-06-21

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and some of them fifteen hundred
years old. This book handed down
from the time of Christ, by the hand
OF such men as Origen in the second
century and Tertullian in the third
century, and by men Of different ages
who died for their principles The
three best copies of the New Testa-
ment in manuscript in the possession
OF the three great churches-the Pro-
testant church of England, the Greek
church Of st. Petersburg, and the
Romish church of Italy.
1t is plain matter of history that
Tischendorf went to convent in the
peninsula of Sinai and was by ropes
lifted over the wall into the convent,
that being the only mode of admis-
sion, and that he saw there in the
waste basket for kindling for the fires,
manuscript of the Holy Scriptures.
That night he copied many of the pas
sages of that Bible, but it was not I'M
til 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 so marvelously protected.
Do you not know that the catalogue
of the books of the Old and New Tes-
taments as we have it is the same cata-
logue that has been comm on 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
now. Marcion, for wickedness, was
turned out of the church in the second
century. and in his assault on the BIZ
BILE and Christianity he incidentally
gives catalogue of the books of the
Bible-that catalogue corresponding
exactly with ours-testimony given by
the enemy of the Bible and the enemy
of Christianity. The catalogue now
just like the catalogue then. As
saulted and spit on and torn to pieces
and burned, yet adhering. The book
to-day, in three hundred languages,
confronting four-fifths of the human
race in their own tongue. Four hum
dred million copies of it in existence.
Does not that look as If this book had
been divinely protected, as if God had
guarded it all through the centuries?
Is it not an argument plain enough
to every honest man and every honest
woman, that book divinely protected
in this shape is in the very shape that
God wants it? 1t pleases God and
ought to please us. The epidemics
that have swept thousands of other
books into the sepulcher of forgetful-
ness have only frightened the fame OF
this. There is not one book out of
thousand that lives five years. Amy
publisher will tell you that. There
will not be more than one book out Of
twenty thousand that will live a GEN.
fury. Yet, here is a book, much of it
sixteen hundred years old, and much
of it four thousand years old. and
with more rebound 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 forty CEN
turtles 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
than any other book-Walter Scott's
Waverly novels, Macaulay's History
of England" Disraeli's "Endymion,"
the works of Tennyson and Longfel-
low, 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 CEN
tury or two centuries? Some old books,
during a fire in seraglio of Constan-
tinople, were thr own into the street.
A man without any education picked
up one of those books, read it, and
did not see the value OF it. A scholar
looked over his shoulder and saw 1t
was the first and second decades of
Livy, and he offered the man large
reward II 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 twenty books OF
history; all lost. OF one hundred and
thirty comedies of Plautus, all gone
but twenty. Euripides wrote hum
dred dramas, all gone but nineteen.
Aeschylus wrote hundred dramas,
all gone but seven. Verro wrote the
laborious biographs of seven hundred
Romans, not a fragment left. Quin-
lillian wrote his favorite book on the
corruption of eloquence, all lost.
Thirty books of Tacitus lost. Dion
Cassius wrote eighty books; only
twenty remain. Berosius' history all
lost.
Reside that, am opposed to tbis ex.