Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-09-15
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE Blythe
REV. JOHN BALLOON SHAW, D. o.

AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE o. ne
REV. JOHN BALLOON SHAW, D. o.
Subject The Ash-Can Bible-History of
q Volume of Holy Writ That is Uniqne
in Church Misunderstanding Against .
Common Type of Family Deterioration
New York CFrY.-The following splen-
did sermon was preached Sunday morning
titled ''The Ash-Can Bible" His text
was: The word of God which liveth and
abideth forever Peter l:23.
This book, rather than the words | have
read from it, is my text. Not the Bible in
general as a theme to be discussed, but this
ing and binding, as an object lesson to be
taught.
This Bible has a history. 1t was a gift
to the church under the uniquest condi-
tons. Indeed I doubt if there is another
| church in the whole world that came by
| it's pulpit Bible in the same or in anything
| like a similar way.
This is it's history. One morning last
spring a woman, a pewholder, but not a
| member of this church., came into the min
ister's office, where I was keeping the pas
toral hour, and handing me a package
neatly wrapped and tied, asked me If |
could make use of it's contents in any way.
| Opening the package and finding this beau
| tifully bound Bible inside, !, of course, an
swered afirmatively, and suggested that Il
hand it on to some mission church Or
poor, struggling congregation, for use as a.
pulpit Bible.
She then told me its story. That morn
ING upon coming out of the apartment
where she lived she spied an elegantly
bound book or the top of the ash-can that
stood awaiting the coming of the garbage
cart. Feeling it was a shame to allow so
fine a book to be disposed of in that way,
she went to the ash-can and turned it's title
ment, her horror, her sense of dissertation,
to find it was q copy of the Holy Bible!
She opened it and found that several leaves
between the Old Testament and the New
had been cut out, and the explanation
came to her at once, an explanation which
the %janitor afterward fully confirmed.
It seems that a family, apparently re-
spectacle and we'll disposed, had moved
away from the apartment house the day
before, and desiring to throw away every
thing for which they had no use and which
increased the bulk of their effects, had
seized upon the family Bible which had
been in their home for years, as a thing
as anything else, had cut out the family
record that it might not be lost, and sent
the book down to the janitor as rubbish to
be thrown away. He, either because he
had failed to recognize it or because he
had a low estimate of the Bibles value,
looking for the city's cart to come at any
moment and take it away.
A rev interest Immediately attached it.
self to the Bible. I put it irto the minis
ter's room to await some provldentlal op-
portunity to dispose of it. That opportu-
nifty was not long in coming. When this
new pulpit was set in place upoE my re-
turn it was found that not one of the
three pulpit Bibles that had been previous
ly presented to the church would fit its
book board. l then went to the minister
room and brought out this ash-can Bible.
It was just the thing. Besides being OF
the right size, its gold edges and richly EN-
bossed covers made it peculiarly suitable
to mount this pulpit, and here it will stand
as itself a memorabilia pulpit a memorial
to a family who loved the Bible, guided
their lives for fifty years in this commu
streams of Christian influence that will
never run dry; the Bible, which rests upor
this pulpit speaking to US of a family whe
fitted into this neighborhood, and after 9
restless sojourn of a few months, more
probably of not more than a few weeks
fitted out again without having done any
thing to help it, and who thought so it'll.
of God and goodness, desired SO family
not only to light the road h~eavenward fol
others, but to have it lighted for them
selves, that they threw away their famil!
Bible and moved on to drag down the re
/. ligious tone and temperature of some othe
community.
I. "The Ring and the Book" tells the stor!
. of finding a rare book at a stall in tn
: Square of Florence, and, after reporting it
) contents, he gives rein to his poetic mue
lngs upon the life, character and histor
of the persons figuring within it's narrative
punctuating with marks of exquisit
strength and beauty the lessons of thei
. lives.
This strangely discovered book starts n
IN poetic strains within mel have no sue
n. strings to vibrate-but it does set my sol
to musing, and those musings seem to m
to take the path of likeliest fact and truth
lie They carry me back over the earlier hi!
tory Of this book. It may nave been,
doubtless was, a wedding present, give
:. probably by a pious father and mothe
long since among the sainted dead. ]
s had been in the home through all the veal
% of their family history, and had become
a. familiar an object as the silver on the
table or the pictures upon their wall
III Again and again they had gone to
through the passing years to inscribe wit
lp- IN its sacred pages the records of the
home. With the daintiest touch they ha
90. put in their own names while the hone,
moon was still on. Later when that Ii
IN tie life came to them, their first born, an
the glow of pa%renthood flushed their sou
as with a baptism from heaven, thu
ia and wrote out with pride the dear lit
,te ones newly chosen name.