Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-06-14
THE MOST POPULAR
BOOK OF THE DAY

delusion not uncommon among
drunken men is to imagine everybody
else intoxicated, and close akin to this
delusion is that of men VINO suppose
that all the world has adopted, or Is
about to adopt, the opinions which they
have embraced.
The case of Voltaire is a commonplace
illustration of this delusion. He boosted
that while IL required twelve men to
write Christianity up he would prove by
bis own writings that one man could
write II down Yet the very printing
press on which at Ferney his virulent at
tacks against Christianity were printed
was afterwards used at Geneva for print
ing the Bible.
In like manner Hume prophecied that
nv the beginning of the nineteenth CEN
fury his philosophy would triumph ana
superstition" (meaning the religion OF
Christi would perish; but at the opening
of the twentieth century Hume doc'
trines are despised and neglected while
the teachings Of Christ are pelns pro-
claimed in all lands.
And in our day we hear men talking
of the passing of orthodoxy and the ut
ter revolution in thought concerning the
inspiration and authority of the Scrip
lures which has taken place. In an ar
ttcle printed in the current NUMBER OF
one of the popular magazines OF the day
which lies before me reference is mace
To "the demolition of the Bible as an
inspired book by modern scholarship.
, For my own part l think OF such pre-
tentious prattle as Sydney Smith thought
of ghosts who declared that he was not
afraid of ghosts because he had seen so
many of them. 1 have been hearing such
"tall talking ever since 1 began to read.
and vet the Bible holds on its course,
while the takers fall forgotten by the
way.
After reading the article in the maya
zine to which allusion has been made,
found in several religious papers the an
nouncement that the campaign on be-
half of the American Bible Society in
connection with the conditional gift of
Mrs. Russell Sage had been successful
and that thereby 100000 had been add
ed to the permanent funds Of that corpo-
ration, which publishes no other book
but 'the Bible without note or COM
ment'', In Great Britain there is a COR
responding corporation known as ''the
British and Foreign Bible Society"
which is engaged in the same business on
| the same great scale.
Besides these two great Bible Societies,
there are numberless presses owned by In
dividuals and companies which print mill
| lions of copies of the Bible annually, and
which make much money by thus pub
| fishing the Scriptures The Book is is
sued now in about three hundred Ian
guages and dialects Of the babbling
tongues Of men.
From all these facts a plain man
seems forced to believe that the Bible
has yet a strong hold upon the hearts OF
men in every part Of the world. If any
other book has. or has ever had, such a
grip upon mankind I am not aware of 1t.
| The average edition of books issued In
our country and Great Britain, compe-
tent authorities tell us is less than seven
hundred and fifty copies. A careful eS-
! innate has resulted in the following
northumberland statement: "Out OF
every thousand volumes published, six
| hundred and fifty do not see the end OF