Milford chronicle., 1895-06-14

sand that lives five years Any publish
will tell you that. There will not be mo
than one book out of 20, 900 that will Ii
a century. Yet here is book much Of
1900 years old, and much Of it 4, 900 yea
old, and with more rebound and resilien
8 and strength I'm il than when the book WI
e first put upon parchment or papyrus. tn
book saw the cradle of all other books, an
it will see their graves. Would you n,
r think that an old book like this, some
= it 40 centuries old would come along hol
] bling with age and on crutchesg Instea
of that, more potent than any other boo
Of the time More copies Of It printed
2 the last ten years than of any other bool
Walter Scott's Waverlcy novels, Macaulay
"FIistory of England, - Disracli's "Endyn
ion, " the works Of Tennyson and Lone
J fellow and all tho popular books of GU
time having no such sale in the last to
J years as this old wOrnOut book. Do 20
know what a struggle book has in orde
to get through one century or two centu
ries? Some old books during a fire in
seragliO of COnstantinople were throw
into tho street. A man without any edu
cation picked mp one of those books, real
it and did not see the value of 1t. A schola
looked over his shoulder and saw it wa
the first and second decades Of Livy, ant
he offered the man a large reward if b.
would bring the books to his study, but il
the excitement Of the fire the two parted
and the first and second decades of Livl
were forever lost. Pliny wrote 20 book
Of history All lost. The most Of Menan
der's writings lost. OF 1870 comedies O
Plautus, all gone but 90 Euripides wrote
100 dramas. All gone but 10. Hsschylul
A
Varro wrote the laborious biographies OF
700 Romans. Not fragment left. Quin.
lillian wrote his favorite book on the cor.
ruption of eloquence All lost. Thirty
books of Tacituslost Dion Cassius wrote
80 books. Only 90 remain. Berosius' his
tory all lost
Nearly all the old books are mummifled
and are lying in the tombs Of old libraries,
and perhaps onoo in 20 years some man
comes along and picks up one of them and
blows the dust and opens it and finds it
the book he does not want. But this old
book, much of it 80 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 common sense
if a book so divinely guarded and protect
ed 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 detract
from the book failed, but all the attempts
to add to it. Many attempts were made
to add tho apochryphal books to the Old
Testament. Tho council Of Trent the synod
of Jerusalem, the bishops of Hippo all de-
cided that the apochryphal 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
Christian man that today will put tho book
of Maccabecs or the book Of Judith beside
the book of Isaiah or Romans. Then a
great many said, 1--WE must have books
added to the New Testament" and there
were epistles and gospels and apocalypses
written and added to tho New Testament,
but they have all fallen out. You cannot
add anything. You cannot subtract any
thing. Diyinely protected book in the pres
emit shape. Let no man dare to lay his
hands on it with the intention of detract-
ing from the book or casting out any Of
these holy pages.
Besides that, 1 am opposed to this ex-
purgation of tho Scriptures because if the
attempt were successful it would be the
of tho Bible. Infdel geolo- /
yists would say, Tout with the book of I
Genesis" Infidel astronomers would say,
Out with the book of Joshua" People |
who do not believe in the atOning sacrifice |
gould say, "Out with the book Of Levitt !
'us. " People who do not believe in the /
Miracles would say, "Out with all those F..
wonderful stories in the Old and New Tes-
aments " ard some would say, "Out with /
he book of Revelation, " and others would
ay, "Out with the entire Pentateuch, -
md the work would go on until there
would not be enough of the Bible left to be
worth rs much as last years almanac. The
xpurgation of the Scriptures means their
am also opposed to this proposed ex-
urgation of the Scriptures for the fact
hat in proportion as people become self
acrificing and good and holy and cOnse-
rated they like the book as it is. 1 have
ct to find a man or n woman distinguish
d for self sacrifice, for conservation to
Tod, for holiness of life, who wants the
bible changed. Many Of us have inherit
d family Bibles. Those Bibles were in
Sc 90 40, so, perhaps 100 years in the
Today take down those fam
" Bibles, and find out if there are any
hapters which have been erased by lead
encil or pen, and if in any margins you
an find the words, "This chapter not fit
D read There has been plenty of oppor
unity during the last half century pri-
ately to expurgate the Bible. Do you
now any case of such expurgationP Did
OF your grandfather give it tOyour father,
nd did not your father give it to you?
Besides that, am opposed to the expur-
alton of tho Scriptures because the so
llled indelicacies and cruelties Of the BIZ
10 have demonstrated no evil result. A
'uel book will produce cruelty. An I'M
can book will produce uncleanness.
etch me victim. Out of all Christen-
I'm and out Of all the ages fetch me
ctim whose heart has been hardened to +.
'uelty or whose life has been made i'm
are by this book. Show me one. One Of
le best families ever knew of for 80 or
years morning and evening had all the
embers gathered together, and the serv-
Its Of the household, and the strangers 1
at happened to be within the gates. a
vice a day without leaving out a chapter L
a verse thoy read this holy book, morn T
g by morning, night by night. Not only t
C older children, but the little child who S
uld just spell her way through the verse "a
bile her mother helped her, the father a
ginning and reading one verse, and then &
the members Of the family in turn read Il
g a verse, The father maintained his q
tegrity, the mother maintained her IN a
gritty. this sons grew up and entered pro r.
sions and commercial life, adjoining ev- h
sphere in the life in which they lived, q
d the daughters went into families where 4
rist was honored, and all that was good 7.
pure and righteous reigned perpetual q
For 80 years that family endured the 81
riptures. Not one of them ruined by q
I'm. Now, if you will tell me of family "
iere the Bible has been read twice a day
so years, and the children have been
ought up in that habit, and the father p'
mt to ruin, and the mother went to ruin, e.
d the sons and daughters were destroy p,
by tiff you will tell mo Of one such pl
,ident, will throw away my Bible, or p'
vill doubt your veracity. l tell you if a x
N is shocked with what he calls the in u
icacies Of the word Of God he is pruri- &c
in his taste and Imagination. II a man q
mot read SOlomon's Song via out i'm h'
re suggestion, he is either in his heart az
in his life libertine.
The Old Testament description of wick
,aeo Of ..t,rf. r,r1,.r,oso