The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1919-06-13

Since my return from the east
have heard considerable preaching;
some wise and some otherwise; and
in nv day I have heard some poor,
very poor preaching, and some of the
very best, having heard some of the
greatest preachers of our land for the
last rs years; but l have sometimes
wondered from what some of the
preachers got their warrant for what
they tried to teach, as we'll as OF the
manner and form of the teaching;
recall that some years ago man came
from neighbouring town and held
services in one of Our country school
houses; he was tall and vigorous,
with a deep strong voice; he said
something each address that was
worth hearing. Our preacher, B. W..
Rice, went to hear him also and was
impressed much as l was, and at the
close of the services thanked him for
his message, saying he agreed with
most he had saaid, and added in his
pleasant way, "But, Brother, you are
a noisy preacher" Did the man bristle
up and resent that? Not at all. He
replied: 81 knaw it and know that
thunder never killed anybody, but it
does keep people awake | would go
some distance to hear that man again,
for any preacher who has such saving
sense of humor would be worth lis
tening to, even if did not agree with
all his conclusions.
But what puzzles me about some
preaching l hear is the careless use
of authorities" cited; when a man is
about to try to establish what he con-
siders, or says he does, some teach
ing he claims to be fundamental, as
Stunning it to be as important as
Pauls Letter to the Romans, and
takes as the corner foundation stone
of his argument some paragraph, or
only verse, or a clause, OF Hebrew
poetry from the Book of Psalms or
from an oriental word picture of one
of the Hebrew prophets l have my
doubts. You may reply that even
Paul in his Epistle to the Romans
quotes from the Psalms; yet, l know
it; but does he found his argument
on it, or is it an illustration
And then this wonderful book we
call the Holy Bible. Whence is it?
The commonly used English Bible,
that used by our fathers, was it orig
inally given to the Apostles and their
associates in our good English
tongue? Oh, no; it was given them in
another language; SO, then, our Eng
lish Bible is a translation out of an
other languagef Yes, our Bible has
been translated for us out of certainly
three and perhaps four ancient Ian
guages, none of which are now spoken
by any people on the earth. Then
here is another fact-not soul now
living, or who had been living for
centuries when our English Bible was
translated and printed, ever saw the
of manuscript which was made in the
beginning.
Printing was not discovered until
somewhere about l440 A. D. Every
thing before that in any form of writ
ing was done with some kind of pen,
and done letter bv letter. When a
book is printed many copies are made
from the same setting of type, some
times thousands, just alike. But be-
fore the day of printing a scribe or
writer made just one copy and almost
never made an exact copy; anyone
who ever tries to copy one page in
writing knows how easy it is for him
to make more or less mistakes; and
although the old scribes who made it
their business became expert and
very accurate, yet theey made mis-
takes, and the very Oldest copies of
the New Testament we have in manu-
script or written form are unlike; no
two agree in every word. The best
of those Greek rolls of the New Tes-
lament were kept in their home, the
lands about the eastern end of the
Mediterranean sea, and the cheaper
copies, because made more hastily, or
by less expert scribes, were sold and
gradually taken into central and west
ern Europe, and from those the first