The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-06-14
CHANGING THE BIBLE.
DR.. Talmage Opposes the Proposed
Expurgation.
Finding Fault with the Scriptures an Evil
That Is Growing, Even Among Pro-
Tossing Christians-The Bible
Needs No Reconstruction.

T. Dewitt Talmage dealt with SUD-
ject that is agitating the entire Chris
tan church at the present time, viz,
'Expurgation of the Scriptures" The
text was chosen from Romans, lila:
''Let God be true, but every man
liar" The noted preacher said:
The Bible needs reconstruction, ac-
cording to some inside and outside the
pulpit. 1t rs no surprise that the world
bombards the Scriptures, but it is
amazing to find Christian ministers
picking at this in the Bible and deny
ing that, until many good people are
left in the fog about what parts of the
Bible they ought to believe and what
parts reject The Nervousness of find
ing fault with the Bible at this time is
most evident. In our day, the Bible
is assailed by scurrility, by misrepre-
sentation, by infidel scientists, by all
the vice of earth and all the venom of
perdition, and at this particular time
even preachers of the gospel fall into
the line of criticism of the Word of God
Why, it makes me think of a ship
in a September equinox, the waves
dashing to the top of the smokestack
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
me a commendable business 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
aad hell around the stem and stern,
and mutiny on deck, is having a very
rough voyage. but have noticed that
not one of the timbers has started, and
and the Captain says that He will see
it through. And l have noticed that
keelson and counter-timber-knee are
built out of Lebanon cedar and she is
going to weather the gale, but no
credit to those who made mutinv on
deck.
When I see professed Christians in
this particular day finding fault with
the Scriptures. it makes me think of
fortress terrifcally bombarded, and
the men on the ramparts, instead of
swabbing out and loading the guns, and
helping fetch up the ammunition from
the magazine, are trying with crow
bars to pry out from the wall certain
blocks of stone, because they did not
come from the right quarry. Oh, men
on the ramparts. better fight back and
fight down the enemy, instead of try
ing to make breaches in the wall.
While I oppose this expurgation of
the Scriptures, shall give you my
reasons for such opposition. ''Whatr'
say some of the theological evolution
lists. whose brains have been added by
too long brooding over them by Darwin
and Spencer, you don't now really
believe all the story of the Garden of
Eden, do you?" Yes, S much as be
lieve there were roses in my garden
last summer. But" they say, ''you
don't really believe that the sun and
moon stood still?' Yes, and if had
strength enough to create sun and
moon l could make them stand still, or
cause the refraction of the suns rays
so it would appear to stand still.
But" they say, You don't really be-
Iieve that the whale swallowed
Jonah?" Yes. and if 1 were strong
enough to make whale 1 could have
made very easy ingress for the refrac-
tory prophet, leaving to evolution to
eject him, if he were an unworthy ten
ant! But" say they, you don't
really believe that the water was
turned into wine?' Yes, Just as easily
as water now is often turned into wine
with an admixture of strychnine and
Iogwood! But" say they, you don't
really believe that Samson slew a
Thousand with the jaw-bone of an ass?"
Yes, and 1 think that the man who in
this day assaults the Bible is welding
the same weapon!
There is nothing in the Bible that
staggers me. There are many things
1 do not understand, do not pretend
to understand, never shall in this
world understand. But that would be
a very poor God who could be under
stood by the human. That would be
a very small Infinite that can be meas
pect to weigh the thunderbolts of Om-
impotence in an apothecary's balances
Starting with the idea that God can do
anything, and that he was present at
the beginning, and that he is present
now, there is nothing in the Holy
Scriptures to arouse skepticism in my
heart Here l stand, a fossil of the
ages, dug up from the tertiary forma-
ton, fallen of the shelf of an anti
quarian, a man in the latter part of the
glorious nineteenth century believing
in a whole Bible from lid to lid! ..
l am opposed to the expurgatiOn of
the Scriptures in the first place, be-
cause the Bible in its present shape has
been so miraculously preserved. Eff
teen hundred years after Herodotus
wrote his history, there was only one
manuscript copy of ii. Twelve hun
bred years after Plato wrote his book.
there was only one Manuscript copy of
it. God was so careful to have US have
the Bible in just the right shape that
we have fifty manuscript copies of the
New Testament a thousand years old.
This Book handed down from the time
of Christ, or just after the time of
Christ, by the hand of such men as
Origen in the second century and Ter
tullian in the third century, and by
men of different ages who died for
their principles The three best copies
of the New Testament in manuscript
in the possession of the three great
churches-the Protestant church of
England, the Greek church of ST.
Petersburg, and the Romish church of