The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-03-08

The novel finds favor in a single land, or at the most
in two or three lands, BUT THE BIBLE is TRANSLATED IN
TO MORE TONGUES THAN N CAN EMEMBER OR
~ENUMERATE.
AND THEN THERE WERE EVE o ANY PEOPLE
REALLY AND DEVOTEDLY STUDYING THE BIBLE, AND
SEEKING TO OBEY ITS PRECEPTS AS TO-DAY. When has
the history of the Christian church ever known so many Bible helps"
Bible institutes, Bible teachers, Bible classes and Bible conferences
as now? The Young Mems and Young Women's Christian Associa-
tons, and the Christian Endeavor Societies all over the world are
emphasizing the need of Bible study and making it increasingly at
tractrve. 1t is being taught in our colleges, and a class of men, in
some cases superseding the old-ime evangeHsts, are resignng lucra-
tive and influential pastorates and going up and down the world ex-
pounding its contents to the largest religious assemblies of the day.
Moreover, THERE NEVER WAS An AGE WHICH HAS
CONTRIBUTED so MUCH TO CONFIRM FAITH IN THE
ABSOLUTE ACCURACY OF THE BIBLE. Modern research in
Bible lands, the work chiefly Of the pickaxe and the spade, has en-
tirely changed the character of the conflict about the Bible, SO that
an English writer of repute seems justified in the remark that it is
no longer a conflict between faith and unbeEef, but between science
on the one hand and vanglorious scholasticism on the other.
BUT H WORLD IS OUTGROWING H BIBLE FOR
ALL II Heathenism continues to multiply more rapidly than
Christianity, even counting as Christianity that superficial thing which
SO often goes by its name. The claims of Foreign Missions upon
Christian men of wealth are diminishing rather than increasing in
weight. Secular education receives its millions, while the Gospel Of
the Son Of God still waits like Lazarus at the rich mans gate. With
all the current knowledge of the Bible and the boosted acceptance Of
its principles, its influence is not strong enough among the Christian
nations to stop war or dissuade them from increasing their military
armament. The attacks on the Bible were never more subtitle or
virulent than to-day, and unlike those of preceding days arise in great
measure from its protested friends. THE scientific METHOD"
OF CRITICISM, it has been truly said, IS DESTROYING FAITH
MORE RAPIDLY THAN THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL.
is CREATING IT.
But all this is really aside. The question is not to be determined
by what anyone sees, or thinks he sees, in the religious horizon Of the
world, but by what the Bible itself says. Jesus Christ pertinently asks
when the Son of Man cometh shall He find the faith on the earthY
justifying the inference that at His return to this earth there will be
little Of it comparatively to be found. The inspired Paul tells us that
in the latter times Of this present age men shall depart from the faith
through the acceptance Of false faiths; while Daniel, the prophet, de-
scribng the Christian nations Of Europe at the same period, hkens
them in character to a terrible beast which, however, shall be burned,
and its body given to the flames.
This relieves the outlook from despair. The Bible lis Gods Word,
and shall prevail; but its day of power is associated with the coming
of the Lord. This is not a fancy but a fact. 1t is not a figure Of