The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-09-16
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. JOHN BALLOON SHAW, o. D.
Subject The Ash-Can Bible History of
- Volume of Holy Writ That Is Uniqne
in Church Misunderstanding Against a
Common Type of Family Deterioration

Common Type of Family Deterioration
New York CITY.-The following splen.
did sermon was preached Sunday morning
by the Rev. John Balcom Shaw 1t is en-
titled The Ash-Can Bible" His text
was: The word Of God which liveth and
abideth forever-I Peter l:23.
This book, rather than the words have
read from it, Is my text, Not the Bible in
general as theme to be discussed, but this
particular Bible consisting of paper, print
ing and binding, as an object lesson to be
taught.
This Bible has history. 1t was a gift
to the church under the uniquest condi-
tons. Indeed | doubt ii there Is another
church in the whole world that came by
It's pulpit Bible in the same or in anything
like similar way
This is its history. One morning last
spring Il woman, a pewholder, but not
member Of this church. came into the min
lster's office, where | was keeping the pas
torai hour, and handing me a package
neatly wrapped and tied, asked ME if
could make use OF its contents in any way.
Opening the package and finding this beau
tlfuily bound Bible inside, I, of course, an
sWered afirmatively and suggested that !
hand 1T on to some mission church or
poor, struggling congregation, for use as
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 on the top of the ash-can that
stood awaiting the coming of the garbage
cart. Feeling it was a shame to allow so
fine book to be disposed of in that way,
she went to the ash-cau and turned its title
round toward her. What was her amaze
ment, her horror, her sense of dissertation,
to find it was a 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.
1t seems that family apparently re-
spectacle and well 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
that could be as easily got along without
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 low estimate of the Bibles value,
had deposited it in the ashcan, and was
looking for the citys cart to come at any
moment and take it away
A new interest Immediately attached it.
self to the Bible. ! put it into the minis
ter's room to await some providental OPP
portunity to dispose of it. That opportu-
nifty was not long in coming. When this
new pulpit was set in place upon my re-
turn 1t was found that not one Of the
three pulpit Bibles that had been previous.
ly presented to the church would fit it's
book board. / then went to the minister's
room and brought out this ash-can Bible.
1t 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
to family who loved the Bible, guided
their lives for fifty years in this commu.
nifty by its counsels, and sent forth into it
streams of Christian influence that will
never run dry; the Bible which rests upon
this pulpit speaking to lis of a family who
fitted into this neighborhood, and after a
restless sojourn of 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 little
of God and goodness, desired so family,
not only to light the road neavenward for
Others, but to have it lighted for them
selves, that they threw away their family
Bible and moved on to drag down the re-
hgious tone and temperature of some other
community.
Robert Browning, in his great poem,
"The Ring and the Book" tells the story
of finding a rare book at stall in the
Square of Florence, and, after reporting its
contents, he gives rein to his poetic mus
ings upon the life, character and history
of the persons figuring within its narrative,
punctuating with marks of exquisite
strength and beauty the lessons of their
lives.
This strangely discovered book starts no
poetic strains within mel have no such
strings to vibrate-but it does set my soul
to musing, and those musings seem to me
to take the path of likeliest fact and truth.
They carry me back over the earlier his
tory of this book. 1t may have been, it
doubtless was, a wedding present, given
probably by pious father and mother
long since among the sainted dead. 1t
had been in the home through all the years
of their family history, and had become as
familiar an object as the silver on their
table or the pictures upon their walls.
Again and again they had gone to it
through the passing years to inscribe with
in its sacred pages the records OF their
home. With the daintiest touch they had
put in their own names while the honey
moon was still on. Later when that lit
tie life came to them, their first born, and
the glow of parenthood flushed their souls
as with baptism from heaven, they
dipped the pen as if into some love fluid
and wrote out with pride the dear little
ones newly chosen name.
A few years passed and the angel came
and took the sweet soul away. The fun.
eral over. the father one evening when
they were alone and the house was silent,
went through into the parlor, unknown to
his wife, and put in the record, leaning
over the open book till the tears began to
soil the page, and then turning over few
pages into the book that adjoined the rec.
ord, he read over and over again those
dren to come unto Me, and forbid them
not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven"
and those other words so insena rahlu aSso.