The Bible or Redwood by Josef W. Hall

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 23, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 12.

The Bible or Redwood

By Josef W. Hall

IT was in one of the lumber camps that nestle in the mighty mountains of the great Northwest. The colporteur was endeavoring to place some good literature in the hands of the loggers, that they might have something other than their vicious talk to take up their spare time. There are always some men in a camp whom the others look up to as the chief argumentators,—usually the worst braggarts and bullies. As the colporteur mentioned the Bible, one of these men challenged him.

“You say you are from California,” said he, “where the giant redwoods grow. Do you mean to tell me that those forests cannot be more than four thousand years old?”

The colporteur smiled. “The Bible,” he said, “to which we owe all our modern civilization; which keeps us from ancestor worship, like the Chinese, or from burning our widows, like the Hindus, or from offering human sacrifices, like the civilized nations of ancient times — the Bible that has been the forerunner of all modern advancement and all human kindness — is worth more to me than a stick of sequoia.”

And those rough lumberjacks saw the point.

JOSEF W. HALL.