Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1900-01-19

DOCK 0dQ DeeH piOSSNNN'
God had guarded it all through the
centuries?
Nearly all the other old books are
mumified and are lying in the tomDS
of old Libraries, and perhaps once III
twenty years some man comes along
and picks up one of them and blows
the dust off. and opens it and finds II
the book he does not want. But this
old book. much of it forty centuries
old. stands today more discussed than
any other book, and it challenges the
admiration of all the good ana the
spite and venom and the anlmoslty |
and the hyper-criticiSm OF earth anu
hell. | appeal to your common sense, |
if book so divinely guarded and pro-
tected 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
1t not to please us?
Not only have all the attempts to de-
tract from the book failed. but all the
attempts to add to it. Many attempts
were made to add the apochryphal
books TO the Old Testament. The
salem. the bishops of Hippo. all de-
cided 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 today that
will put the Book of Maccabees or the
Book of Judith beside the Book OF
iah
said: I'VE 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 can
not subtract anything to the divinely
protected book in the present shape.
Let no man dare to lay his hands on 1T
with the intention of detracting from
the book or 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-sacrificing and good and
holy and consecrated, they like the
book as it is. | have yet to find man
or woman distinguished for self-sac-
ritice, for conservation to God. for holi-
ness of life, who wants the Bible
changed. Many of us have inherited
| family Bibles. Those Bibles were in
use twenty, forty fifty, perhaps hun
dred years in the generations. Today
take down these family Bibles, and
find out if 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 is not
fit TO read" There has been plenty OF
opportunity during the last half cen
fury privately to eXpurgate the Bible.
Do You know any case of such eXpur-
cation? Did not your grandfather give
it TO your father, and did not your
father give it 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 always pro-
duce cruelty-an unclean book Will
produce uncleanness. Fetch me vic
tim. Out OF all Christendom and out
of all the ages. fetch me a victim
whose heart has been hardened to
cruelty. or whose life has been made
impure by this book Show me one.
One of the best families / ever knew
. for thirty or forty years. morning and
, evening, had all the members gathered
together, and the servants of the
household. and the strangers that hap
: pened TO be within the gates-twice d
day. without leaving out a chapter OIL
a verse, they read this holy book morn
: ing by morning, night by night. MOI
2 only the elder children. but the little
child who could just spell her way
through the verse while her mother
helped her. The father beginning anC
reading one verse, then all the mem
bers of the family in turn reading {
3 verse. The father maintained his in
tegrity the mother maintained her in
Il tegrity. the sons grew up and entered
professions and commercial life. adorn
ing every sphere in the life in which
" they lived. and the daughters went int
families where Christ was hOnored ,ant
eous reigned perpetually. For thirt.
= years that family enduring the Scrip
lures Not one of them ruined b.
them.
= Now, if you will tell me of famil
where the Bible has been read twice
day for thirty years. and the childre
have been brought up in that habit
and the father went to ruin, and tn
mother went to ruin. and the sons an
: daughters were destroyed by tiff yO
= will tell me of one such incident. | Wi
y throw away my Bible, or | will dOuE
:, your veracity. | tell you. if a man
:. shocked with what he calls the indel
cacies of the Word of God. he is prur
- ent in his taste and imagination.
!. a man cannot read SOlomOn's Son
I, without impure suggestion, he is eitht
- in his heart or in his life. libertine.
The Old Testament description
=, wickedness, uncleanliness of all sort
70 is purposely and righteOusly a DISCUS
.s ing account, instead of the Byronic an
. the Partisan vernacular which make
- sin attractive instead of appalling
70 When those old prophets point you
n a laZaretto, you understand it is
at lazaretto. When a man having begu
es to do right falls back into wickedne'
r. and gives up his integrity, the Bib
n does not say he was overcome by II
r. destinations of the festive board,
=