SHALL WE THROW AWAY THE BIBLE.
By Moses Hull
NICODEMUS said to Jesus, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do the miracles that thou doest except God be with him." Jno. iii, 2. I have long felt the necessity of having the evidences of our holy religion portrayed before the readers of the Review. Yet I shall not attempt it in this article. I simply want to inquire whether we would be better off without the Bible than with it. We are now being attacked from every direction, no less from infidels, than from those of our opposers who profess to believe the Bible. Infidels are expert, logical, and eloquent in their denunciations of the Bible. Many of them that cannot quote one text correctly, declaim as learnedly against the absurdities and inconsistencies of the Bible, as if all knowledge of the Bible would perish with them. We should be as active in building up as they are in tearing down. Ours is a laborious task; theirs is not; but we should not avoid the conflict on that account. We should not refrain from building because there are incendiaries whose business it is to tear down. The fact that "one sinner destroyeth much good," should not hinder God's servants from doing all the good they can. But while it is the duty of the servant of God to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," it is not our duty to stand and reply to the infidel clamor against the Bible. When they ask us to renounce our religion and the Bible, we should compel them to give us something in its stead. Something better, more pure, more holy, more reasonable, more lovely, and more true. And if they refuse to do this, we should treat them as knaves, as villains, trying to swindle us out of our religion, and our hope. Suppose the infidel proves to me that the Bible is a forgery, Christ an impostor. The apostles and early Christians are then all liars. Will that administer the sweet consolations of religion to me? Will that afford comfort in a dying hour? Will derision and scoffs against the Bible and the God of the Bible sustain me when passing into the valley and the shadow of death? Volney, Hume, Voltaire, and Paine all tried it, but scoffing did not sustain them in a dying hour. I do not wish to venture to cross the stream in the scoffer's leaky boat. Infidels and deists have been in the world ever since Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?" Ex. v, 2. But what have they done? If infidelity or deism be the true religion, then infidels and deists should be the most pious people in the world; they should be living examples; but where have they been such? Where have they established missionaries, built churches, enlightened or exalted a nation? Ah, that is not their business. Pious deists, praying infidels, sober drunkards, and honest thieves go together. Now, friendly infidel, if you do not wish to bring all the horrors of the French Revolution upon America; if you do not wish to see blood flow through the streets of New York and Cincinnati, as it once did through the streets of Paris; "let us reason together" a little, before I decide to throw away my Bible. Have you good clothing? a comfortable house? a market? and grain to take to market? Have you a school in your village, to which you can send your children? Have you the privilege of stopping into the "chariots which rage in the streets," and going from thirty to fifty miles per hour? Do you live in a land of liberty and improvements? Have you good honest neighbors? If so, to say the least, you have this many more blessings than the people of Hindostan or India have. Do you ask the reason? I answer that we have a book in this country which they have not. To this book you owe these favors. This book we call the Bible. Shall we throw it away? "O," says the infidel, "I do the Bible no harm by rejecting it." That is true. The Bible does not need you, nor your influence. But you need it. "He that believeth not shall be damned." Again are you sure that your unbelief is doing no harm to your neighbors? You are doing all you can to make them as ungodly as yourself. So it is not your fault that the whole world are not as unbelieving and ungodly as yourself. Now suppose the whole world should follow the infidel's example and throw away the Bible, what would the consequence be? Let us see. If we go back to ancient Egypt, Greece, or Rome, where the people were not troubled with, nor imposed upon by the Bible, we find the people of one village worshiping a fish, while they of another are bowing to a dog, and another a serpent, while others are worshiping crocodiles, bulls, cats, rats, reptiles, and even onions and leeks, and sometimes the people of one city burning incense to thirty thousand gods. But if the infidel wants a better comparison, let him compare the enlightened countries of Europe and America with those which are now in heathenish darkness. Turn your eyes to India and behold the millions of human beings there without the Bible, worshiping trees, rocks, rivers, and hills, elephants, tigers, crocodiles, monkeys, serpents, beetles, and ants. See them cast their children and themselves under the car of their God "Juggernaut," and let it run over them and crush them to pieces. Behold the worshipers of that God measuring the whole distance of their weary pilgrimage with their own bodies. See them cramming their eyes full of mud and their mouths full of straw in obedience to a shapeless block of wood. See them standing all day on their heads with their feet in the air to appease the wrath of their God. Behold them cutting off their tongues and gouging out their eyes. Finally behold them feasting on human flesh, and you have a specimen of what the world would be without the Bible. With this array of facts before us, I ask again, Shall we throw away the Bible? "Skeptic spare that book,
Touch not a single leaf,
Nor on its pages look
With eye of unbelief."
MOSES HULL.