Quoting the Bible by Dudley Marvin Canright

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 23, 1879

Quoting the Bible.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

ONE of the most groundless and silly objections that our opponents raise to the work of our ministers in presenting the present truth relates to the manner in which we quote the Scriptures. Our ministers always use a great deal of scripture in their sermons, and this they should do; but in doing so they quote a verse here, two or three there, and perhaps a few verses in another place. Our opponents say this is not a fair way to quote the Bible, and they very foolishly affirm that we should read the whole chapter if we quote any of it.

Of course we can retort the same upon them, for the popular minister seldom takes more than one verse for a whole sermon, and if they have an occasion to preach against us, they take one text here, another there, skipping hither and thither, just as we do, only they do less of it, and frequently very clumsily because they are not used to it. But the real answer to this groundless objection is found in the fact that Christ and the apostles frequently quoted the Scriptures as we do. For an example of this, turn to Romans 15:9-12. Here we have in the ninth verse first a quotation from Ps. 18:49; next we have a quotation of a verse in Deut. 32:43. Then follows a quotation of the verse from Ps. 117:1; then comes another quotation from Isaiah 11:10.

Here are four quotations from four different places in the Old Testament, and all this in the space of four short verses. This is just as we Adventist preachers do. Turning again to Romans 10:15-21 we have about as many quotations as there are verses here, and each quotation is simply a verse or part of a verse from one book and a verse or part of one from another book. Scriptures of this kind can be found all through the New Testament so that when our opponents raise this objection they are only scoffing against the holy apostles.

D. M. CANRIGHT.