PREFACE. SOME years since, a noted Spiritualistic publisher in America, issued a pamphlet which professed to exhibit "One hundred and forty-four Self-contradictions of the Bible." The arguments of infidels and the revelations of spiritual mediums had been so largely composed of "self-contradictions" and untruths, that the votaries of these unfaiths gladly welcomed any publication which aimed to show that the Bible was as false and as unreliable as the books which they had written, and the messages which they had received and promulgated. One sceptical journal commended the pamphlet as "showing at a glance the multitudinous self-contradictions of the Bible, which no ingenuity of interpretation can reconcile ;" and a writer in a leading Spiritualistic paper said: "The most studious reader of the Bible will be astonished and overwhelmed at every step, to find how numerous and point-blank are the contradictions, which fill the hitherto supposed God-given book." The pamphlet immediately became a standard text-book among sceptics, and was widely scattered; doubtless unsettling the minds of some whose minds were never settled, and undermining the faith of others who never had any real faith to undermine. But the Bible has been overthrown, refuted, demolished and exploded so many times, and the process has required such frequent repetitions, that people hesitated about abandoning the old book at the bidding of an anonymous pamphleteer, and hence it did not greatly shake the faith of those who had any faith to be shaken. It was true that the author's method was novel; for after infidels had been vainly working for ages to destroy the Bible; it was a brilliant conception to set the Bible at work to destroy itself;-thus confessing that the untempered tools of scepticism had made no impression on it, and that the diamond could only be cut by its own dust. It may be remarked that Christians are under great obligations to sceptics for their numerous attacks on the Scriptures, which have ever called forth new and impregnable defences of the sacred books. From the days of Celsus and Porphyry to the present hour, every assault upon the Bible has been effectually repelled, the assailants have been defeated on every field of fair argument and honest investigation, and the missiles which have been hurled at the fortress of truth, lie heaped like bulwarks around its base. Overturning the Bible is like upsetting a cube of granite, or a cannon ball;-no matter how often it is overturned, it is still right side up, and lives and spreads when its assailants are dead and forgotten. Hence this new array of second-hand objections to the Sacred Scriptures, might be expected to evoke new and effective arguments in their defence. Among the persons into whose hands this pamphlet of selfcontradictions fell, was Mrs. H. V. Reed, who had spent some of her girlhood days in studying Hebrew and Greek, that she might read the scriptures in their original tongues, and who had in after years been an interested student of the Sacred Oracles. She saw at once the fallacy, the unfairness, the cunning craftiness and the downright dishonesty that marked this array of "Self-contradictions of the Bible," and while infidel readers and editors were praising and endorsing the pamphlet, she sat down quietly to dissect it; and the result is herewith submitted to the candid reader. The extensive and varied misinformation which characterises infidel writings, is well illustrated in the "Self-contradictions which are cited in this volume. And the manifest unfairness which is so often exposed, gives us an intimation of what might be expected from fallen men, were the Bible flung aside, and the fear of God cast off. But the effective answers to the objections, show that the Bible has nothing to fear from the most rigid investigation, and the most searching and impartial scrutiny. It may be thought by some that a woman could not adventure herself into the arena of controversial strife. And surely any one who has entered the pleasant and well ordered home of the authoress of this book, can easily believe that no unwomanly love of disputation prompted the preparation of this work. But woman has much at stake. She owes her earthly comforts and her heavenly hopes to the revelation of God's will contained in the Bible. And if she would stand where Christianity has placed her, in light and blessing, and avoid the gulfs of darkness which heathenism, Mohammedanism, infidelity and spiritualism, inevitably consign her, she must cling to the word of God, and repel the assaults of its foes. The ninth chapter of the book of Judges mentions a cruel king who undertook to assault and set fire to a strong tower in the city of Thebez. He pressed too near for his own safety. Suddenly something dropped! "A certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull. Then he called hastily unto the young man his armour-bearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And the young man thrust him through that he died." Perhaps when the author shall read this exhibition of the character of the pamphlet to which his modesty or his prudence forbade him to append his name, he may know how to sympathise with this ancient king. Surely if "A certain woman "" had a heart to defend her own life and the lives of her friends, against the vengeful assaults of a tyrant; another woman may be excused for entering her protest against the assaults of those who attack all that has made woman's life tolerable, or her home and happiness secure. And when infidels and spiritualists thus try to set fire to woman's home and castle, "a piece of a millstone" seems quite in order. In commending the following pages to the notice of both believers and unbelievers, it is not needful that the writer endorse every idea or expression that they contain. The book treats of varied themes, and touches upon topics concerning which good men are not agreed. Doubtless there may be isolated instances where arguments might be strengthened, or where other solutions of seeming difficulties might be preferred to those here offered. But the book, as a whole, can hardly fail to supply a want and receive a welcome. The very plan of the work excludes all idea of literary finish. The author has not been allowed to plan her own course, but simply to follow the course of another-a course which shows about as much straightforwardness as one would expect to find in the trail of the "crooked serpent" himself. Hence, elaboration and polish must be dispensed with, and the attention must be steadily directed to the subject in hand. The work is rough work, and the book is but "a piece of a millstone" which "a certain woman contributes to the defence of her faith and her fireside, and as it drops, we suggest that sceptics do well to stand from under ! In a companion volume from the same pen-"EARNEST WORDS FOR HONEST SCEPTICS "-the positive side of the argument is more fully exhibited, for the benefit of those who really desire to search the Scriptures and learn the way of truth and peace. May He who guides the meek in judgment, lead us in the eternal path. April, 1882, H. L. H. |