The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1895-08-03


man large
D0DlUll fling the books to
his study a the excitement of The
fire the TO 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 hun
dred dramas, all gone but nineteen.
Aeschylus wrote hundred dramas,
ell gone but seven. Verro wrote the
laborious biographs Of seven hundred
Romans, not fragment left Quinn
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.
Nearly all the old books are mummi-
fed and are lying in the tombs of old
libraries, and perhaps once in twenty
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 forty centuries old, stands
to-day more discussed than any other
book, and it challenges determination
of all the good and the spite and the
venom and the animosity and the hpy-
ercriticism of earth and hell. l appeal
to your common sense, If book so di-
vinely 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
detract from the book failed, but all
the attempts to add to It. Many at
tempts were made to add the apoch-
ryphal books to the Old Testament.
The Council of Trent. the Synod of
Jerusalem. the bishops of Hippo. all
decided that the apochyrypal books
must be added to the Old Testament
"They must stay in" said those learned
men; but they stayed out. There is
rot an intelligent Christian man
that to-day will put the Book of
Maccabees or the Book of Judith
beside the book of Isaiah or Romans.
Then great many said: I'VE must
have books added to the New Testa-
ment," and there were epistles and
gospels and apocalypses written and
added to the New Testament, but they
have all fallen out. You can not add
any tbing. You can not subtract any
thing. 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 cast
Ing out any of these holy pages.
Beside that. am opposed to this ex-
purgation of the scriptures because, if
the attempt was successful. it would
be the humiliation of the Bible. Inf
del biologists would say, .'out with
the Book of Genesis" infidel astrono-
mers 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 SAP, tout with all those won
derful stories in the Old and New Tes-
and some would say, ''out
with the Book OF Revelations" and
others would say, ''out with the entire
Pentateuch," and the work would go
on until there would not be enough of
the Bible left to be worth as much as
last years almanac The expurgation
ct the scriptures means their annihi-
lation.
am also opposed to this expurga-
tion OF the scriptures for the fact that
u proportion as people become self
sacrificing, and good, and holy, and
coneecrated. they like the Book as it
IL ] have vet to find a man or woman