Mwiih the Bible at thistlmeis
7 by senrrility, misrepresentation,
lulled scientists, pull the vice of earth
all the venom of perdition, and at this
» . time even preachers of the gos-
hll to line oincriticism of the word
fled. Why, it makes me think of a ship
‘ September equinox, the waves dash-
tntlretop of the smokestack, and the
- ~ tattooed down, and many prophe-
tbc (pondering of the steamer, and
" tints some of the crew with area
ms ,downinto theiroldot the
and tryto snwoifsomeofthe
and pry out some of the timbers
neethetimher did not come from the
light! . It doesnot seemtomoa
, ' le buainess for the new to be
winds and storms outside
axes- and saws inside. New,
this old gospel shi whatwith the roaring
cl earth and h ~'aronnd the stem and
m and mutiny on deck, ishaving a very
rough voyage, but I have noticed that not
no of the timbers has started, and the
’ ' says he will see it through. And
noticed that keelsou and counter
timberkneoare built out of Lebanon cedar,
and she is going to weather the gale, but
no credit to those who make mutiny on
When I see professed Christians in this
day finding fault with the
, it makes me think of a fortress
y bombarded, and the men on,
the mnparte, instead of swabblng out and
wins the guns and helping fetch up the
munition from the magazine, are try-
Ils with. crowbars to pry out from the
ill] curtain blocks of stone because they
in not come from the right quarry. 0h,
. unthorcauparts, better fight back and
down the common enemy instead of
to make bremhcs in the waili
I oppoh this expurgation of the
Scriptures I shall give you my reasons for
whoppodtion. “What," say some of the
. cal evolutionists, whose brains
have addied by too long brooding
over them by Darwin and Spencer, “you
don't now really believe all the story of
tile Garden of Eden, do you?” Yes, as
much as I believe there were roses in my
last summer. “But," any they,
‘you don’t really believe that the sun and
moon stout! still?" Yes. and if I had
strength enough to create a sun and moon
I could make them stand still or cause the
refraction of the sun’s rays so it would
aPpu'r to stand still. “But," they say,
3 {you don't really believe that the whale
swallowed Jonah!” Yes, and if I were
strong enough etc make a whale I could
have made very easy ingress for tho refrac-
" tcryprophet, icavingto evolution to eject
hlmifhewere an unworthy tenant. “But,”
my they, "you don’t really believe that the
waterwas turned into wine?" Yes, just
A ' as nswater now is often turned into
winewith an admixture of ‘strychnine and
' , "But,” any they, “you don’t
really believe that ‘ son slow a thousand
' with the jawbone of an ass?” Yes, and I
think that the man who in this day as-
saults the Bible is wielding the same
moon.
‘ There is nothing in the Bible that stag-
gers me. There are many things I do not
understand, I do not pretend to under-
stand, never shall in this world under-
stand. But that would be a very poor
God-who could be fully understood by the
Iranian. That would be a very small In-
finite that can be measured by the finite.
You must not expect to weigh the thun-
derbolts of Omnipotenoe in an npothecary’s
balsam. Starting with the idea that God
can do anything, and that he was present
ntthcbegluuing, and that he is present
new. there is nothing in the holy Scrip-
~> totes to arouse skepticism in my heart.
Here I stand, a fossil of the ages, dug up
from the tertiary formation. fallen oi! the
g , shelf, of an antiquarian, a man in the lat.
‘ tsrpartof the glorious nineteenthcentury,
’ « believing in a whole Bible from lid to lid.
1 opposed to the expurgatlon of the
WM“ “i“: ”h” 222m ”1'
in, _. tr pohas neorn-
, ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ed. Fifteen hundred
after erodotus wrote his history
m was only one manuscript copy of it.
_ Nye hundred years after Plato wrote
‘ his boob thcrowas only one manuscript
“W of it. God was so careful to have us
IUD the Bible in just the right shape that
we have 60 manuscript copies of the New
Mom 1,000 years old and some
W.“ years old. This book
‘ n from the time of Christ or
affirthe timeof Christ bythe hand
man as Origen in the mono oeu-
Tertullian in the third cen-
hymen of diderent who died
pics. The three copies
‘ cw Testament; in manugript in
v of the t reegreet arches
WWt church of England, the
" church of St. Petershurg and the
_ church of Italy.
a plain matures historythat 'i'lseh-
mt to a unseat in tbs peninsula
~ and was by ropes lifted over the
. vthcconveut, that heingtheonly
,[d admission. and that herswthere
‘wsstshuket for kindling fertile
‘ bureau-triplet the holy Business.
W copied mayo! the passages
but itwas not semi! years
’ 0?
moon ourdaythe em. a u- -
. ”salami
laudwhat lives fiveyeara Any'puhhsher pore
will tell you that. Therewili not be more
thanmhok Mot '9,”me
a century.
1,000years old, and much of it 4,000 y _
. old. and with more rebound and resilienm
Yet here is a book much u it
and strength in it than when the book was
first put upon parchment or papyrus. This
book saw the cradle of all other books, and
it will see. their graves. Would you not
think that no old book like this, some of
it 40 centuries old, would came along hob-
bling with age. and On crutches! Instead
of that, mmcpMont‘thananyotherlhech.
of the time. More copies of it printed ill
the last ten years than-of any. munch,
Waiter Scott’s Wavoricy'noveis; Macaulay’s'
"History of England," Disreoli's"ltndym+
lon,',' the works of Tennyson ‘and Long-
fellow and all the popular books of our
time having no such sale in the last ten
years as this old woruout book. Do you
know what‘a struggle; book has in order
to getthrough one century or two centu-
ricsl Some old books during a fire in a
'seraglio of Constantinople were thrown
into the street. A man without any edu-
cation picked up one of those books, read
it and did notseetho value of it. A scholar‘
looked over his shoulder and saw it was;
the _.t and second decades of Livy, and
hen cred the men a large reward if he
would bring the books to his study, but in
the excitement of the fire the‘two ported,
and the ilrst and amend decades of Livy
were forever lost. Pliny wrote 20 bodks
of history. All lost. The most of Monau-
zlor‘s writings lost. of 130 comedies of
Ploutus, all gone but so. Euripides wrote
100 dramas. All gone but ill. Eschylus
wrote 100 drgmrns. All gone but seven.
Var-r0 wrote the laborious biographies of
700 Romans. Not a fragment left. Quin.
tilian wrote his favorite book on the cor-
ruption of eloquence. All lost. Thirty
books of Tacitus lost. Dion Cassius wrote
80 books Only 20 rennin. Iierusius' his-
tory all lost.
Nearly all the old books on mummified
and are lying in the tombs of old libraries,
and perhaps once in 20 years some man
comes along and picks up onoof them and
blows the dust and opens it and finds it
the bookhe does not want. But this old
book, much ,of it 40 centuries old, stands
today more discussed than any other book,
and it challenges thaadmiration of all the
good, and the spite, and the venom, and the
animosity, and the hyporcriticism of earth
and hell. I appeal to your common sense
if a book so divinely gturrdcd and protect~
ed in its present sham must not be in just
the way that God wants it to come to
us, and if it pleases God, ought it not to,
please us?
Not only have all the attempts to detract
from the book failed, but all the attempts
to add to it. Many attempts were made
to add the apochryphnl books to the Old
Test out. 'l‘hocouncil of Trout, the synod
of Jo usalcm, the bishops of ill p0, all do-
cldcd that tho armchryphal booi- must be
added to the Old ‘Munent. "They must
stay in," said those learned men, but they
staid out. There is not an intelligent
Christian) men that today will put the book
of hixwoalums or the book of Judith beside
the bulk of lsolah or Roui‘aus. Then a
grunt runny said, “We must have books
added to the New Testament," and there
were opistlos and gosmls and npocolypses
written and added to the' New Testament,
but they have all fallen out. You cannot
mid anything. You cannot subtract any
thing. Divincly pmimumlllook in the pros-
out sluum. Lot no men dare to lay his
hands on it with the intention of detract-
ing from the book or casting out any of
those holy pugm.
Besides that, I am opposed to this or
poi-gallon of the Scriptures lmcuiiso if the
attempt were successful it would be the
annihilation of the Bible. Infidel gmlo~
gists Would soy, “Out with the book of
Genesis.” Infidel nstmnonwrs would my,
"(lot with the book of Joshua." People
who do not believe in tho atoning mwriflcu
would my, “Out with the book of Leviti-
cus." People who do not believe in the
minutiae would say, “Out with all tboso
wonderful stories in tho()ld and New ’l'cs-
tmuouts," and some would say, “Out with
the book of Revelation, " and others would
say, “Out with the entire l’cntatoucb,"
and the work would go on until there
would not bovnough of the Bible left to ho
worthus lunches last your'miimumw. 'l'ho
expurgutiou of the Scriptures means their
annihilation.
loin also opposed to ibis pmposcd ('Xr
purgailou of the Scriptures for the fact
that in proportion as people bwomom-lf
mnvifieing and good and holy and conse-
crated they like the book as it is. I have
yet to find a man or awmnan distinguish»
ed for self slutriflco, for mammalian to
God, for holiness of life, who wants the
lilblo cimngml. Many of us have inherit-
ml family lliblos. Those llibIc-e were 111
use 20, 40, 50. perhaps 100 years in the
generations; ’i'miay illkii down tlume forn-
liy lllbice, and find out if ilwro are any
clmpiers which have been bullied by lead
[when or pom and if in any margins you
can flmi‘ the words, ”This chapter not fit
turned." There has been plenty of oppor-
tunity during the last half century pri-
vately to oxpurgafo the Bible. l'ioyou
know any case of such expurgationi Did
not your gmmlfuthcr givoittoyour a ,
and did not your father give it to you?
Besides that, I am opposed to the exper.
gntion of the Scriptures lxx'anso the so
called indclicnclos and cruelties of' the Bi-
ble havodcumnstratml no evil result. A
cruel bobk will produce cruelty. An on-
clean book will prodmm uncleannoss.
Fetch me a victim. Out of nllChriston-
dam and out of all the ages fetch urea
victim whom heart has been hardened t9 of
cruelty or whose life lute been made up.
pure by this book. Show me one. One of
the host families 1 ever knew of for ill) or
40, l ,
in it blue "" ’ lie 7 "1" if“; m
n o to: am te‘st tigers
”Quit hoppefled to be within themte‘
'l‘wicca day without leaving out a chapter
or a term they read this holy book morn-
ing by morning,’ night by night. him only
the older children, but the little child who
could last spoil herwoy through the verse
l
M
, ilk-Ind droning ballpl B»
into reado
her-tine. '
The Old'i‘estament description of wick-
edness, uncieenuessof all sorts, is purpose-
.b’ondrimwuslyad , account in»,
W ‘Wond the. udslalvera;
,nee which makes sin attractire ins
steed of appalling. When those old prophets
point you to a lezaretto, you understand
it is n lazaretto. When a men having be-
gun todo right falls back into wickedness
and gives up his integrity, the Bible does
not say he was overcome by the fascina-
tions of the festive board, or that he sur-
rendered to conviviaiitlos, or that bobc-
W a little feet in his habits. I will tell
you”. whatw'tho: Bible says ‘i'The dog is
‘turilod‘ to his own vomit , in and the
sow that was washed to her wallowing in
the mire." No gliding of iniquity. No
garlands on a death's head. No pounding
away with ‘a silver mallet at iniquity
when it needs an iron sledge hammer.
I can easily understand how people,
brooding over the description of unclean-
ness in the Bible. may get morbid in mind
until they are as full of it as the wings,
and the beak, and the nostril, and the
claw of a blizzard are full of the odors of a
carcass, but what is wanted is not that the
Bible be disinfected, but that you, the
critic, have your mind and heart washed
with catholic acid!
1 tell you at this point in my discourse
thataman who does not like this book,
and who is critical as to its contents, and
who is shocked and outraged with its de-
scriptions, has never been soundly con-
varied. The laying on of the hands of
presbytery or episcopacy does not always
change a man‘s heart, and men sometimes
get into the pulpit aswoll as into the pew,
never having been changed radically by
the sovereign grace of God. Get your heart
right, and the Bible will be right. The
trouble is men's natures are not brought
into harmony with the word of God. Ah,
my friends, crpurgaticu of the heart is
what is wanted.
You cannot make me believe that the
Scriptures, which this moment lie on the
table of the purest and best men and
women of the age, and which were the dy-
ing solace of your kindred passed into the
skies, have in them a taint which the
strong-st microscope of honest criticism
mold make visible. if men are uncou-
tmllublo in their indignation when the in-
tegrity of wife or child is assailed, and
judges and jurors as for as possible excuse
violence under such provocation, what
ought to be the overwhelming and long
msoumiingr xhuudcrs of condemnation for
any man who will stand in a Christian
pulpit and assull the more than virgin
purity of inspisution, the Well beloved
daughter of God?
Exlllll'giliil tho Diblol You might as
well go to the old picture galleries in
Dresden, and in Venice, and in Rome, and
oxpurguto the old paintings. Perhaps you
could find a foot of Michael Angolo's
“ InlstJudgmont" that might be improved.
Perhaps you could throw more expression
into Raphael's “Madonna" Perhaps you
could put more pathos into Rubcus' “ile-
sccut From the Cures." Perhaps you could
change the crests of the waves in Turner’s
“ Slave Ship. ' ’ Perhaps you might go into
the old galleries of sculpture and change
the forms and the posture of the statues of
Pliidiirsfland meitolos. Such an icono-
clast would very soon find himself in the
penitentiary. But it is worse vandalism
when a man proposes to refnshion those
mustcmiooos of inspiration: and to remodel
the moral giants of this gallery of God.
Now, let us divide off. lot thmo people
who do not bellow the Bible, and who are
critical of this and that part of it, go clonl'
over to the other side. Let them stand bo-
hind the devil‘s guns. There can be no
compromise lmtwu-n infidelity and Chris-
timrily. (ilvo us the out and out opposi-
tion of infidelity rather than the Work of
those hybrid tllmlogluns, those mongrel
wolcsinsi ice, tluw half ovolutod txioplc,
who believe the lilblo and do not believe it,
who accept the miracles and do not rum-pt
them, who believe in the inspiration of the
Scriptures and do not believe in tho inspi-
milouof tho Scriptures—trimbring their
belief on one side to suit the skepticism of
the world, trimming their belief on the
other side to suit the pride of their own
lwmt and feeling that in order to demon-
strate their murngolhey must make the
Bible it tnrmt and slant at God.
There is one thing that encourages me
very much, and that is that the Lord made
out to manage the universe before tlwy
were born and will probably be able to
mnkc out to manage the universe a little
while after they are dcxld. While l (lcmaud
that the antagonists of the Bible. and the
critics of the Bible go clear over where
tin-y belong, on the devil‘s side, I ask that
all the friends of this good book corno out
openly and above lmurd in' behalf of it.
That lxmk, which was the lat-at inheritance
you over received from your illlconlry, and
which will he the best legacy you will leave
toyour children when you id thorn good-
by as you cross the ferry to the golden city.
Young lllflll, do not be ashamed of your
Bible. There is not avirtuu but it com-
moods, there is not a sorrow but it com-
forts, there is not a goal law on the stat.
utc book of any coquy but it is founded
on those Ten Commandments. There are
no braver, grander people in all the earth
than the limes and the hrrolnss which it
biographizos.
Of all the works of Doro, the great art-
ist, there was nothing so impressive III his
illustrated Bible. What scene of Abra-
hamic faith, or lldenlo beauty, of domin-
ion Davidic or i-lciomonic, of miracle or
parable, of nativity or of crucifixion, or
H ‘ min to the skillful pencil,
‘ _ lful pencil to canvas im«
is. , , M tor
illustration than, M my trier: 4%
authenticate have become , , lend
allths armories have Mime academics,
and all the lakes have become Genuesarets
mother helped incumbent“ lag She
beginning and Wingclnevemmodtheu '
. ‘ ’wheemabwtoftlmfamll
, out but the thought leaped ,
10 cents 1.520 cents.
s4. WASHINGTON STREET. scum "unwrap
o q;
03.1! Political”.
s2. warmest“;
- rm Pluto
'&’|.7_'mm
- m. /
OvercacMIilsaPssplow-rsh
W.L.D0fl8138$3&$4$lloes
Allourshccsareccasllyutlsiaetory
They give the best value for the cream.
The conclusion shoes In ltyloand
mi: wearing qualities are me
The prices are caller-pala- on sale.
From St to is saved over other makes.
if your dealer cannot supply you we can. Sold by
J. Schanb a: Sop;
S. B. WILSON
trauma :uu ammo,
Odie“! Wall street: shop No. B Cross I
crwalk.
of ever
or in Jobbing
deecrl ion ro ll “gilded to. A
pt I D DID 1
ll wor
m? if
__«_~mu-~m«__mm_~-_w_~m_
I. i.. les’ lieu f. lianfnni ii. i.
JANUARY 27. 1“.
name ‘IIAVI scorn 808W” All
10W
"Jail.“ fygi‘nqugsnm
I
“meagre, .. ..
a... he.“ 1;: 3“ “'"
ass
, m '4. a.
an.“ in“.
mm”
Estimates cheerfully given for -
small build
. lg" ""
Willie's BARBIAEE loose”;
Corner Madisonand Franklin Streets. South Norwalirl’,
THE BEST MAKE more or All ,xmn'sr
’ Repairing of All Kinds. '
For Scenic and Sign Lettering get my figures for work done by
LUTHER M. W
Caveats, and Trade-Marla obtained and all PW
cirrhosis-as conducted for Mourners rug,
Oua ounce It Once”: u 8. Ensure! let",
and we can su urc iclllln cs: time than t
«more from Wishinlzfim.
l Seed model, drawing or‘photo" with descrip-r:
lion. We advise. if Pfllcnmilie or Ill/L, free of ,
charge. Our ice not due till Mont is secured.
a pgungu' “ How [0 0 Vldin Parents," with
coat of same in [he U. S. and foreign countries
sent (rec. Address,
O.A.SNOW&CO..
0». Penny Orricr. Waaummow. n, c. 1
n‘ - ‘ ~ - aw
.g-~-. ~.--..—
JACOB M. LAYTON
Fire. life and icoidentlnsuurce
liEli [Slili liili liliiiSE itilil
Ocean Steamship Tickets and Sterl
ag Drafts heals egstlated and
Btoehs sold. enact a. 1m,
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next to Post Oilee, heath Norw hilt.
Notary
rakes.
Psblie. Acknowledgments
YOUR SAVINGS IN
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THROUGH THE
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AND llllNlJf}
BIBYBLE
lEllllill Mill Hitli DIME.
/ E'BUY A WHEEL from
»‘ a responsible party who
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Every wheel warranted.
my artist, George Weshbum. ‘
RlGH
all. .
Mii.lii,iiii....ilfi .
iasurancecombined.take an ., H .. ,
lllE anNECTlclll RENEW. ,
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silicareful investments. and doing balm
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REPRESENTED B?
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souu rumour SAVINGS mu.
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Norwalk Chronicler