The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-08-02

600 copies of the Bible in existence,
some say there are 400, ,0O0, 900 copies |
of the Bible. It is impossible to get
the accurate statistics, but suppose
there are 2O0,oc0,t00 copies of the
Bible abroad, this one book read moro
than any 20 books that the world ever
printed, this book abroad for ages, for
are the victims?
Show me 1000. Show me 500 victims
of an impure book. Show me 100 de-
spoiled of the Bible. Show me so.
Show me ten. Show me two. Show
me one! Two hundred million copies
of an impure book and not one victim
of the impurity! On the contrary,
you know very well that it is where
the Bible Las the most power that the
family institution is most respected.
You must remember also that the
authors of the Bible came from diff
ferent lands, from different ages and
from different centuries. They had
no communication with each other;
they did not have an idea as to what
was the chief design of the Bible, and
yet their writings, got up from all
these different lands and all these diff
ferent ages and all these different
centuries, coming together make a
perfect harmony in the opinion of the
very best scholars of all lands. Is not
that most remarkable fact?
The Bible is made up of the Old
Testament and the New Testament.
Let us take the New Testament first.
Why do I believe it? Why do take
it to my heart? 1t is because it can
be traced back to the Divine heart
just as easily as that aisle can be
traced to that door, and that aisle to
that door.
Jerome and Eusebius in the first cen
tury and Origen in the second century
and other writer's in the third and
fourth centuries gave list of the New
Testament writer's just exactly corre-
spending with our list, showing that
the same New Testament which we
have they had in the fourth century
and the third century and the second
century and the first century. But
where did they get the New Testa-
ment? They got it from Irenaeus.
Where did Irenaeus get it? He got it
from Polycarp. Where did Polycarp
get it? He got it from St. John, who
was the personal associate of the Lord
Jesus Christ. My grandfather gave a
book to my father, my father gave it
to me, I give it to my child. Is there
any difficulty in tracing this line?
On communion day I will start the
chalice at that end of the aisle, and the
chalice will pass along to the other end
of the aisle. Will it be difficult to trace
the line of that holy chalice? No diff
Guilty at all. This one will say: "Igave
it to that one" and this one will say:
II gave it to that one." But it will not
be so long line as this to trace the
New Testament. It is easier to get at
the fact. But you say: although this
was handed right down in that way,
who knows but they were lying impos-
ters? How can you take their testi-
mony?" They died for the truth OF
that Book. Men never die for lie
cheerfully and triumphantly. They
| were not lying imposters. They died
in triumph for the truth of that New
| Testament.
"Well," says someone, now arr
ready to believe that the New Testa.
ment is from the heart of Christ, but
how about the Old Testament? Why
| do you believe that?" I believe the Old
Testament because the prophecies fore
told events hundreds and thousands Of
| years ahead-events which afterwar6
took place. How far can you see ahead
Two thousand years? Can you see
ahead hundred years? Can you sc.
ahead five minutes? No, no! Human
prophecy amounts to nothing. Her,
these old prophets stood thousands o
years back, and they foretold events
which came accurately true far On i,
the future centuries. Suppose shoul.
stand here and say to you: Twenty
five hundred and sixty years from nov
three miles and a half from the city o
Moscow, there will be an advent, and i
will be in certain family, and it will
be amid certain surroundings"
would make no impression upon yo1
because you know cannot foresee
thousand years or one year or one min
ute, and cannot tell what is going t
transpire in land far away. But tha
is what these old prophets did.
i Besides all this, you must remem
ber that the most of the writer's Q
this book were uneducated men. Ho,
can you account for tie fact tina
} when Thomas Babington Macaulay
/ standing in the house Of parliamen
. in London, wanted to finish of mag
, nificent sentence he quoted from th
i fishermen of Galilee, or, sitting in hi
/ house, wanting to finish one Of hi
, great paragraphs of history, he quote
, the words of the fishermen of Galilee
3 Why is it that those uneducated me
J. have more influence on modern time
4 than all the scholars of antiquity
a Because they were divinely inspire
{ because God stood back of thel
. They were not educated and schola
". 1t was not by force of rhetor
: tbst they triumphed, but to-day tho
a humble fishermen, those uneducats