The Bible Is a Very Old Book
IT has gone through many ages, many countries; it has gone through fire and persecution. The story of the past is a wonderful story, but the story of the present is almost more wonderful still. I have seen a chestnut-tree and an oak-tree which were mentioned in Doomsday Book—possibly they are a thousand years old; they are still living, but they are not what they were. Their former glory and greatness are very much diminished. The Bible is very much older than these trees, but it has branches to-day that spread over the world—there is hardly a place where its twigs and its leaves can not be found. The Bible is more luxuriant in its growth to-day than ever it has been in the past. Think of over 600 translations! Think of twelve to fifteen million copies circulated year by year by the Bible Society and other agencies through the world! Is not that wonderful? I do not suppose that when Moses came down from the mountain, with the tables of stone in his hands, he ever suspected that 3,000 years afterward the commandments that they contained would be translated into 600 tongues. And there is a power in the Book. It is not merely history and tradition and civilization; even the very savages confess the wonderful power of the Book. You have heard of Dr. Paton of Aniwa, and you may know something of the natives of Aniwa—that they were once savage cannibals. Wo to the shipwrecked mariner or passenger cast upon their shores. They held it as a gift from the gods; and that mariner or passenger became their food. These savages became Christians. A vessel with about 310 passengers and thirty seamen was wrecked, and the natives kept them all for six weeks, housed and fed them, and when a passing steamer was hailed and took them off, they gave them sufficient food to last for a fortnight. They never got a penny for what they did; but if it had been in the days of their heathenism they would have in turn eaten every man, woman, and child of that party.— British and Foreign Bible Society.