Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1899-12-08


burned. yet adhering. The book today.
in three hundred languages. confront.
ing four-fifths of the human race IN
their own tongue. -Four hundred mil
lion copies of 1t in existence. Does
rot that look as If this book had been
diyinely protected, as il God had
guarded it all through the centuries?
Nearly all the other old books are
mumifed and are lying in the tombs Of
old libraries and perhaps once in 20
years some man comes along and picks
UP one of them ana blows the dust off.
and opens it. and finds il the book he
does not want. But this old book much
of il forty centuries old. stands today
more discussed than any other book.
and il challenges the admiration of all
the good and the spite and the venom
and the animoSity and the hyper-criti-
cism of earth and hell. l appeal TO
your common sense if a book so divine
ly guarded and protected in it's pres
ent shape, must not be in just the way
that God wants it to come to us, and
if it pleases God. ought il not to please
US?
Not only have all the attempts to
the attempts to add to IT, Many at
tempts were made to add the apochry-
phal books to the Old Testament. The
Council Of Trent, the Synod OF Jerusa-
lem, the bishops of Hippo, all decided
that the .apochryphal books must be
added to the Old Testament. They
must stay in said those learned men;
but they stayed out. There is not an
intelligent Christian man that today
will put the Book OF Maccabees or the
Book of Judith beside the Book OF
Isaiah or Romans. Then a great many
said: We must have books added to
the New Testament" and there were
epistles and gospels and apocalypses
written and added to the New Tesla
ment, but they have all fallen out. You
cannot add anything. You cannot sub
tract anything to the divinely protect
ed book Ia the present shape. Let no
man dare to lay his hands on il with
the intention of detracting from the
book, o. casting out any of these holy
pages.
am also opposed to this proposed
expurgation of the Scriptures for the
fact that in proportion as people be
come self-saoriticing and good and holy
ana consecrated, they like the book rs
il is. | have yet to find a man or a
woman distinguished for self-sacrifice
for conservation to God, for holiness OF
life, who wants the Bible changed
Many of US have inherited family BIZ
bles. Those Bibles were in use twenty
forty. fifty. perhaps a hundred years IL
the generation. Today take down
these family Bibles, and find out il
there are any chapters which have
been erased by lead pencil or pen. and
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
to expurgate the Bible. DO you know
any case of such expurgation? Did
not your grandfather give IL TO your
father and did not your father give il
TO you!
BESIDE that, am opposed to the ex-
purgation of the Scriptures because the
so-called indelicacies and cruelties OF
the Bible have demonstrated no evil
result. A cruel book viii produce
orue!ty-an uneiean book Will produce
uncleanness. Fetch me a victim Out
OF all Christendom and out Of all the
ages. fetch me a victim whose heart
has been hardened 10 cruelty, or whose
life has been made impure by this
book. Show ne one. One OF the best
families ! ever knew. for thirty Oh
forty years, morning and evening, had
all the members gathered together ,ano
the servants OF the household. and ths
strangers that happened to be within
the gates-twice q day. AID without
leaving out a chapter or a verse, they
read this holy book. morning by morn
ing, night by night. Not only the elder
children. but the little child who coulC
just spell her way through the verse
while her mother helped her. Tbs
father beginning and reading one
verse, then all the members Of the fam
| lily in turn reading q verse. The father
maintained his integrity. the mother
grew up and entered professions anC
commercial life, adjoining every sphere
| in the life in which they lived, and tn,
| daughters went into families where
! Christ was hcnored, and all that wa:
good and pure and righteous reigned
perpetually. For thirty years tina
family endured the Scriptures. No
one OF them ruined by them.
Now, if you will tell me OF a famil!
where the Bible has been read twice
day for thirty years, and the children
have been brought up in that habit
| and the father went to ruin. and tin
mother went to ruin, and the sons ant
daughters were destroyed by tiff yoi
will tell me of one such incident, / VIII
throw away my Bible, or | will doub
your veracity. | tell you. if a man !:
shocked with what he calls the indeli
cacies of the Word of God. he is pruri
ent in his taste and imagination. |
a man cannot read Solomon's Song
without impure suggestion. he is eithe
in his heart or in his life. libertine.
The Old Testament description o
wickedness, uncleanness OF all sorts
is purposely and righteously disgust
ing account. instead Of the Byronic an'
the Partisan yernacular which make