The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-06-14

and spit on and torn to pieces and
burned, yet adhering, Tho book today,
in 800 languages, confronting four fifths
OF tho human race In their own tongue,
-Four hundred million copies of it in ex-
istence, Does hot that look rs il this
book had been divinely protected, as il
Sod had guarded it all through the cen
turiess
Book Epidsihies.
Is 1t 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 it7 II pleases God and
sught to please us. The epidemics which
have swept thousands of other books in
to tho sepulcher Of forgetfulness have
only frightened the fame of this. There
'shot one book out of 1000 that lives five
years. Any publisher will tell You that,
There will not be more than one book out
of 1000 that will live century. Yet
here Is book, much of it 600 years
old and much of it 1000 years old and
NTH more rebound and residence and
Strength iii il than, when the book was
first put upon parchment hr 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 lobbling with age and ON
frbtchesS Instead Of that, more potent
than any other boob If the time More
copies Of it printed i'll the last tel; years
than Of any other book-Walter Scott's
Waverley Novels, Macaulay's "History
Of England" Disraeii's "Endymion,
the works of Tehnyson and Longfellow,
Snd all the popular books of our time
having no sneh sale in the last ten years
as this old worn out book. Do Sou know
what struggle book has in order to
get through one century or two centuries:
Some old books, during fire in serag
ho of Constantinople. were thrown into
The street: A man without any educa-
ton picked up ono 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
teward if he would bring the books to
his study; but in the excitement of the
fire the ,twd, parted, and the first and
second decades df tivy wert 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 60 Euripides wrote 100
dramas, all gone but 10. Eschlyus
wrote 100 dramas, all gone but seven.
Ferrc wrote the laborious biographies Of
100 Romans. hot Il fragment left Qnin-
lillian wrote his favdrit6 book 6i the cor,
ruption of eloquence, all lost. Thirty
books of Tacitus lost. Dion Cassius
wrote so books, only 20 remain. Berosi-
u.s. history all lost.
Attempts to Add to the Bible.
Nearly all the old books are mummi-
fed and hre lying in the tombs Of old
libraries, and perhaps once in 30 years
some man comes along and picks up one
of them and blows the dust off and
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 hell. appeal to your com
mon sense if d book SO divinely guarded
and protected in its present shape must
hot be III just the way that God wants
It to come to his, 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-
rypha1 books must be added to the
Old Testament "They must stay in,
said those learned men, but they staid
int: There is not an intelligent Chris
tian man that today viii put. the book
Of Maccabees or the, book OF Judith be-
side the book Of Isaiah or Romans.
Then a great many said, eve must
have books added to the New Tesla
ment, y 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, l am opposed to this ex
~ tsation of the Scriptures because if
the attempt were successful, it would be
the mlnihilation of the Bible. Infidel
biologists would say, cont with the
book of Genesis" infdel astronomers
would say, "Out with the Book of
joshua" people who do not believe in
the aton;ng sacrifice would say, "Out
with the book of Leviticus;' people
Nho do no; believe i'll the miracles would
say, 'Out with all those wonderful sto.
ries in the Old and New Testament; y
and some would say, "Out with the
book of Revelations" and others would
say, "Out with the entire Pentateuch, y
and the work would go on until there
would not be enough Of the Bible left te
be worth as much as last year IS almanac.
The expurgation of the Scriptures means
their humiliation.
The Family Bible.
/ am also opposed to this proposed ex.
purgation of the Scriptures for the fact
that in proportion as people become sell
sacrificing and good and holy and con
secrated, they like the book as it is.
have yet to find man or woman dis
tinguished for self sacrifice, for consc
Grafton to God, for holiness Of life, who
wants the Bible changed. Many Of us
have inherited family Bibles Those Bi
bles were i'll use 20, 40, so, perhaps 10(
years in the generations Today take
down those family Bibles, and find out
if there are any chapters which have
been erased by lead pencil or pen, ant
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
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