The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1902-03-14

y SvIK hiost popular boo w wv Noihus h''tt ~ -'
SHXkU(I. Richard Carvcl, Uncle Toms Cabin, and all the rest.
SAoSGS are not to be compared with it. The taste Tor sueh
}SVIEg books is eaprdous. and the favorte to-day is a dead
weight on the booksellers shelves tomorrow; but
the Bible. like Tcnnysons brook, keeps on forever.
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 ONE CAN REMEMBER OR
ENUMERATE.
AND THEN THERE WE'RE NEVER so MANY PEoPLE
REALLY AND DENOTEDLY STUDYING THE BIBLE, AND
SEEKING TO OBEY IT'S 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 womens Christian Assoeia'
tons, and the Christian Endeavor Societies all over the world are
emphasizing the need of Bible study and making it increasingly at
tractivc. 1t is being taught in our colleges, and a class OF men, IN
some cases supcrscding the oldtime evangclists. arc rcsigning lucra-
tive and influential pastoratcs and going up and down the world cx-
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 pickaxc and the spade. has en-
tircly changed the character of the conflict about the Bible. so that
an English writer Of rcputc seems justified in the remark that it Is
no longer a conflict between faith and unbelcf, but between science
on the one hand and vaingorious scholasdcism on the other.
BUT THE WORLD Is oUTGROWlNG THE BIBLE FOR
ALL II Heathcnism continues to multiply more rapidly than
Christianity. even counting as Christianity tina, 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 - ne Bible and the boosted acceptance Of
its principles, its influence is not 'sU2ng enough among the Christian
nations to stop war or dissuadc them iror increasing their military
armament. The attacks on the Bible were acyer more subtitle or
virulcnt than to-day. and unlike those of preceding 5s,s arise in great
measure from its profcsscd friends. THE scientific METHOD"
or CRITICISM, it has been truly said. IS DESTROYING tn'TH
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, OF thinks he sees. in the religious horizon Of the
world. but by what the Bible itself says. Jesus Christ pcrtincnty asks:
When the Son of Man cometh shall lie find the faith on the earth p
justiiying the inference that at His return to this earth there will be
little OF 1t comparatively TO he 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.
scribing the Christian nations Of Europe at the same period. ikens
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 is 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. II is not a figure OF