The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1904-09-08
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE Br-THE
REV. JOHN BALLOON SHAW. D. D.
Subject The Ash-Can Bible-History Of
Volume of Holy Writ That is Unique
in Church AnnRls-Warning Against
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 :S.
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
particular Bible consisting of paper, print.
ing and binding, as an object lesson to be
taught
This Bible has history. 1t was gift
to the church under the uniQuest condi-
tions. Indeed l doubt if there is another
church in the whole world that came by
its pulpit Bible in the same or in anything
like similar way.
This is its history. One morning last
member of this church, came into the min
ister's office, where was keeping the pas
toral hour, and handing me package
neatly wrapped and tied, asked me if l
could make use of it's contents in any way.
Opening the package and finding this beau
tifufly bound Bible inside, l, of course, an.
swered afirmatively, and suggested that L
hand it 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 shame to allow so
fine book to be disposed Of in that way,
she went to the ash-can and turned its title
round toward her. What was her amaze
ment, her horror, her sense of desecratlon,
to find it was copy of the Holy Bible!
She opened it and found that several leaves
between the Old Testament and the New
came to her at once, an explanation which
the janitor afterward fully confirmed
1t seems that 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 mad
been in their home for years, as 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 ash-can, 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. pat it into the minis
ter's room to await some providential op-
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
y presented to the church would fit its
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
as itself q memorial-the pulpit memorial
to family who loved the Bible, guided
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 US of a family who
fitted into this neishborhood, and after
restless sojourn of few months, more
probably of not more than 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 heavenward 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-
lgious tone and temperature OF some other
community.
Robert Browning, in his great poem,
"The Ring and the Book" tells the story
of finding 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
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 sou.
to musing, and those musings seem to me
to take the path of lkeiiest fact and truth.
They carry me back over the earlier his
tory OF this book. 1t may have been, it
doubtless was, 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 a baptism from heaven, they
dipped the pen as if into some love fluid
and wrote out with pride the dear little
ones pSwly 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
dear and holy words. Suffer little chill
dren to come unto Me, and forbid them
not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven
and those other words so inseparab,y asso-
ciated with them, Their angels do
always behold the face of My Father" 1t
was the Bible, too, out of which the minis
ter had read at the little ones funeral,
and in this and hundred other ways it
had taken on a hallowedness and built it.
self into the whole life of the home.
But FIVE years ago the family moved into