Blasphemous Old Rags by B. A. Stephens

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Dec 12, 1878

Blasphemous Old Rags.

By B. A. Stephens

A. J. DAVIS, the great apostle of free-love and Spiritualism, thus endeavors to belittle the Bible, and rail against its pure teachings, in an extract we take from one of his works : “ The word Bible signifies merely a book. It is derived from the Greek biblios, which signifies the soft bark of a tree upon which the ancients wrote their thoughts. To this was subsequently prefixed the word ‘holy,' which term was employed by the Jews to express excellence. Thus the terms ‘Holy Bible' might be rendered ‘excellent soft bark!'” Nat. Div. Rev. p. 554.

Carrying out the idea of Job, our enemy has written a book, and we know where to find him. Now, the paper of the book upon which Mr. Davis' thoughts are printed, was prepared from old rags, and are now written over with blasphemy against God, Christ, and all that is good and true, and cannot his book be justly entitled, “blasphemous old rags?”

Righteous men of old, as they were moved by the Spirit of Christ, indited the “sure word of prophecy” upon “excellent soft bark,” or “they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever,” Job 19 : 24, or “written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond, graven upon the table,” Jer. 17 : 1, and made “plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it,” Hab. 2 : 2, or written upon vellum, or parchment, or leaves of certain trees, or sheepskin, it matters not what. Wherever we find the Bible it tells the same story. Whether in the torahs of the modern Jew, the manuscripts of the Orient, or the versions of the Occident, it tells “the old, old story of Jesus and his love.” “Every word of God is pure; he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” Prov. 30 : 5. Spiritualists dislike the restraint the Bible imposes upon sin. In their blindness they clamor loudly about liberalism, free-thought, free-love, etc. “While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” 2 Pet. 2 : 19. Deceived by the power of Satan, and the miracles performed by the spirits of devils, 2 Thess. 2 : 9–12; Rev. 16 : 14, they are not able to “recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” 2 Tim. 2 : 26.

May we all “know the holy Scriptures,” which are, indeed, a light to our weary feet, guiding us in that narrow path through this dark world up to the dawning of that eternal day. “'Tis a chart that never fails you, One which God to man has given, And though rudest storms assail you, It will guide you safe to heaven.” B. A. STEPHENS.