The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-04
nted, he took up the theme OF his lecture

sented, he took up the theme OF his lecture
/ proper.
Il intend TO give you" he said, ''as
| briefly as / can short summary OF the
history Of the Bible. In the beginning
let me remark that the word itself is mis-
/ leading"
He explained that the word meant not
one book, but library OF books. There
are no less than seventy distinct volumes, F"
| ne remarked, condensed into the book
now generally accepted as the word of
The word Bible. he explained, came
from the Greeks. 1hs papyrus OF Egypt
was known to them as bibIos and book
written on she papyrus was called bibium
and bible was evolved from the plural Of
this word.
The Bible he said was the work of men
from Moses TO st. John the Evangelist,
and the labor of its creation extended
from 1000 years before Christ to 100 years
after his birth.
No one knows who wrote the books OF
the Old Testament nor when they we're
written, he continued. In regard TO
the New Testament the conditions are
better, for We know that with few e1ceU-
lions the books OF the New Testament
were written by the men whose names
they bear.
The Bible, the whole Bible and moth
ing but the Bible is the religion of the
Protestants- The Bible is often viewed as
lie tier written 10 an absent son, but We
know that God did not write the Bible
but that II was written by inspired
writers"
Referring to the difficulty OF determin-
ing who was possessed OF inspiration from
God, and, therefore, which hooks of the
Bible are inspired and which not. he
stated that there was nothing in the Bible
itself 70 determine the matter. $50 if we
are to find out" ne said. " whether any
book was or was not inspired, We nave TO
look to some other source. This is the
nrst answer 20 the question Where did
you get the Bible ??
Owing TO the manner in which the
Bible was compiled 1t was 563 years after
( Christ before we had list of the books
that compose the Holy Scriptures that was
anywhere near satisfactory. In 393 A. D. in
the ancient city of Carthage, the list as
almost perfect, but IL was not until 405
years after our Lord left this earth that
we had the Bible as II exists TO-DAY, and
/ the perfection OF that Bible is due TO the
exertions OF q Pope, Innocent the First
who bent all his energies that the Holy
Scriptures should be.complete, and accom-
plished his object.
There IS where the Bible, our Bible,
came from. Tne original Bible as written
in the Hebrew had twenty-five books, and
after the Jews went 10 Alexandria they
added seven books that were accepted as
OF equal authority with the others.
The Bible OF the Catholic Church as IL
stands to-day represents the old Hebrew
Scriptures with Inc seven added books,
and on this is based all the knowledge OF
the Scriptures of the world.
"FOr effect the Bible societies have cast
out these seven books because they fail to
carry out the Protestant belief, but when
we ask. Protestant where the Bible he
reads comes from he must admit-for
there is no other explanatIon-that il
and the only complete copies OF these are
the ones that were made OF the monks Of
the early centuries of the Christian era.
These lazy MONKS as they are now
termed BY Protestants, spent months,
nay even years, on q single copy o: the
Scriptures, reproducing them with faith
fulness OF detail that admits of no ques-
zion Of their absolute accuracy. Every
monastery had lis writing-room, where
the monks labored TO preserve the Scrip
lures as We have them to-day.
"At the time when Martin Luther
claimed TO have discovered the true Bible
history shows that there were nine dis
tinct editions in existence.
There is no doubt that Luther was
capable OF ch angling a word here and there
10 suit his own purposes, and no doubt he
did so, particularly as 1t is certain that
the book he claims 10 have discovered was
in existence when he was running around
in petticoats.
The Bible as it exists to-day comes down
TO Us from the monks, and we come back
10 the old question, Where did you get
the Bible you have in your homeS2
The history of the Catholic Bible goes
back 1900 years in an unbroken phelanx.
Can any other Bible make the same show
ing?
There is no church so tolerant as the
Catholic church, and no church that comes
so near being founded on q rock as that in
which you and / worship"