Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1904-09-22
THE ASH=CAN BIBLE
A Bright Sermon For Sunday By Rev.
John Balloon Shaw, D. D.
History Of q Volume of Holy Writ That Is
Unique In Church History.

This book, rather than the words nave
read from it, is my text. Not the Bible IN
general as theme to be discussed, but tins
particular Bible consisting of paper, print
Ing and binding, as an object lesson to be
taught. 80,
This Bible has history. 1t was gift
to the church under the uniquest condi-
tions. Indeed doubt if 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 q woman, a pewho'der, but not
member of this church, came int the min
ister's office, where was keeping the pas
toral hour, and handing me q package
neatly wrapped and tied, asked me ii l
could make use of its contents in any way.
tifully bound Bible inside, |, of course, an.
swered affirmatively, and suggested that l
hand II on to some mission. church or
poor, struggling congregation, for use as
pulpit Bible.
She then told me it's 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 ssh-can 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 winch
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 thing
that could be Az 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. lie, either because he
had failed to recognize 1t or because he
had a low estimate of the Bibles value,
had deposited it in the ash-can, and was
looking for the city's 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 providential OPP
portunity to dispose of it. That opportll-
nifty was not long in coming. When this
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 5
room and brought out this ashcan 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 memorial the pulpit memorial
to a family who loved the Bible, guided
their lives for fifty years in this commu-
nifty by it's 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 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 httlo
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-
igious 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 lts
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 sou.
to musing, and those musings seem to me
to take the path of lilecst fact and truth.
They carry me back over the earlier his.
tory of this book, 1t may have been, 1t
doubtless was, wedding present, given
probably by a 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 1t
through the passing years to lnscrlbe 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, aud
the glow of parenthood flushed their sous
az with a 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 pa!!or, unknown &c
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
Ion, nd 1SS1t, S,tHn al, Il
dren to come unto Me, and forbid them
not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven
and those other words so inseparabiy asso
ciated with them, Their angels dc
always behold the face OF Ny 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 hallowedness and built it.
Alf into the whole life of the home
But five years ago the family moved into
New York, and the decay OF their home
life began, Sentiment, association, mem
DRY, though sacred and tender, could not
run o race with the evanescent, migratory
life of the metropolis. They had moved
often, and every time they moved they
had left something of their home life be
hind them. Age ceased to give anything
its value; 1t was the ease with which il
could be transported which determined
that. Their religious life had declined
and they never opened the Bible of late
/ They had even neglected to record the last
death that had taken place in the family
! They had been weaned from the church
through frequent removals, and religion:
thought and feeling had become stranger:
to their hearts.
Their consciences had been dulled, anG
what had once seemed impossible to then
was now second nature. They used t.
think they could never allow the Sunday
paper in their home. but now they read il
themselves and allowed their children t.
read it without the least qualm of con
science. To stay away from church once
was a few years ago an act of backsliding
but they had not long been in New Yorl
before whole months passed without t&ei
crossing the sacred threshold, and yet i
I gave them no compunctlon whatever. TIM
! was, and not long since, when they wer
most punctilious about sending their chill
dren to Sunday-school. The widest wine
and the foulest weather would not pas
I with them as an excuse for allowing tn