Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-03-12


ers accepted the boon. and they have
been steadily growing in national
greatness and moral influence ever
since. France rejected it; and in its
place has had the gospel of Voltaire
with all the anarchy, misery and blood
shed of those ceaseless revolutions of
which that gospel is the parent"
With such history can the English
speaking nations hope to get on with
out the Bible and without the faith
which it inspires? Hardly. Georgia s
most distinguished Ghief-Justice, Jo-
seph Henry Lumpkin, did not speak
too strongly when he said, Danish
the Bible, or what is the same thing,
succeed in loosing its hold on the pup
lie mind and my word for it, the ex-
pertinent of self-government will prove
a failure.
Nevertheless there are those among
us, who shutting their eyes to the
broad facts of history given by his
torians like Green and Carlyle, are
seeking by a petty, microscopic criti-
cism to weaken the hold of this most
wonderful book upon the confidence of
men. If the Bible were as badly blem.
ished as they affirm, it's defects would
weigh no more than dust of the balance
against it's unquestionable power in
A
tional life. A book which being thrown
among a people makes all things new
and noble, whether it be cast among
one people or another, has surely in
it some quality which it is not an ex-
aggeration to call by the term 'inspi-
ration.
1t seems far easier for the destruc-
tive critics to find fault with this
book than to make another like it, not
to speak of making something bet
en- Yet, if it is as bad as they say
and they are as wise as they claim,
they ought by all means to write
something which would bless mankind
far more than the world has been
blessed by this bundle of pamphlets
composed by some unlettered ancient
Jews, and brought together into one
volume, we know not how unless it be
an instance of the "fortuitous COM
bination of atoms" Why do they not
give us something better than the BIZ
BILE? Perhaps they can not. Well,
then, let us leave the critics alone,
and return to the Book.
Our own times are filled with prob
lens more perplexing than any our
fathers were called upon to solve, ana
we can not AFFORD to ext1nguish the
best light we have or throw it away.
low it's guidance more carefully than
ever before.
1t is time to read less about the BIZ
BILE. and read the Bible itself more. Its
power has not yet been exhausted.
The preachers should read more of it
to the people. During the bible re-
vivar', described by John Richard
Green, Bibles were chained to the pull
pits in the churches in order that the
people who could not procure copies
for themselves might have easy access
to the sacred Book In many Of the
older churches of England the chained
Bibles may be seen yet. But some Of
the pulpits of America have broken the
chain which bound them to the Bible
and the Bible to them. The people are
given scraps of Scripture on Sundays
and yards of speculations of a rather
sleazy sort Bring back the Bible in
to the Sunday services. Chain the
Book to the pulpits and the pulpits to
the Book. 1t would be a distinct for
ward movement in religion" to go
back to the Bible, making more or
Gods revelation and less of amateur
athletics and secondhand sociology.