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THE KING’ S BUSINESS
and with far more show o f reason. Vol taire said that it took twelve men to estab lish Christianity but he would show the world that it would take only one man to destroy it, but the very room in which he wrote the words has been for years in the possession o f the British and Foreign Bible Society and packed with Bibles for distri bution from floor to ceiling. Voltaire is dead and forgotten, but the Bible is still alive and marching on. Attacks on the Bible may do injury to a few weak indi viduals, principally shallow young men and romantic young maidens in high schools, colleges and universities, who allow them selves to be thus robbed o f the saving, com forting, joy-giving, ennobling power there is in the Bible, but they do not hurt the cause o f truth, for they but prove anew the. Divine indestructibility o f the Book. VI. In Its Authorship. Finally, the Book differs from every other book in its authorship. Other books are men’s books. T.his is God’s Book. Much, that has already been said proves this. Its inexhaustible depths proves it. Only an Infinitely wise’ God can be the author o f an inexhaustible book. Its abso lute accuracy proves it. Men under-state or over-state. God alone always states things just as they are. Its Divine power proves it. Only a book that conies down from God can lift men up to,G od as,this Book does: Its universal adaptibility proves it. Only the Creator o f all men can make a book that is fitted to all men and every need o f these men. Its history proves it. Only. God can make a book so inde structible against assault, against human reasoning, and human philosophy as this. An omnipotent book must have an omnip otent author. There are many other facts about this, Book that prove its Divine authorship, but these are enough. There is evident a certain Infinite character about this Book that points unmistakably to the Infinite character o f its author. What this book says God says and whoever speaks according to this book, speaks the message o f God and God speaks through him. He is God’s mouthpiece.
hated by the fool. It has been hated by common people and it has been hated by rulers, governors and kings. No other book has so aroused the bitterest antag onism. Men o f seeming moderation and kindness o f heart have been aroused to such a pitch o f hatred by the Bible that' they became murderers and torturers of men,' women and children, for example, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Even in our own day kind fathers and tender husbands have been moved by hatred o f this Book to brutal treatment o f children and o f wives who have been led to accept the truth it contains. 2. It has been loved as no other book. If it has been intensely hated it has still more been intensely loved, loved by all classes, loved by the rich and loved by the poor; loved by the illiterate and loved by the greatest scholars the world has ever known; loved by men digging in the ditch, and loved by men puling on a throne. Men, women and tender children have gladly laid down their lives for this Book, thousands o f them, tens of thousands, hun dreds o f thousands, millions. 4. It has been victorious as no other book. Though the Bible has been so bit terly hated and so vigorously assaulted, it has come off a complete victor. Centuries o f assault have served only to prove its indestructibility an*d confirm its power: Celsus, Porphyry, Lucian, Voltaire, Volney, Hume; Tom Paine, and an innumerable host have trained their mightiest guns against this Book. They have brought to bear against it all the powers o f science, philos ophy, reasoning, ridicule, satire, cruelty, force, political and military power, and every other form o f power that they pos sessed, and all their assaults have come to nothing. The Bible has come off a com plete victor in every conflict. Any one who will take the pains to consult history will have'no doubts as to the outcome o f the present attacks upon the Bible. Individual^ o f the past have talked just as boastingly o f what they Would do with the Bible in a few years as do the individuals o f today,
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