The Deathless Book

fascination of the varied themes, there has been the added strength arising from the testimonies of believers and skeptics also, as to the morality, sublimity, and matchless power of the one Book that may call the world, in all ages, its owner; since the world's oppositions, criticisms, and false statements of truths have not robbed it of even its shortest verse. More than this, it is the World's Book because of what it has done; and because it still keeps on doing that for which it has been sent-deathless like the Mind whose thoughts it records.

These lectures, written under all the pressure of an active city pastorate, may yet, even under such disadvantages, have gained some suggestions from what the multitudes are thinking; suggestions that might not have entered the solitude of the scholar undisturbed by the intense activities of the average life. The direct form of address in which these lectures were given to the audiences gathered to hear them, is preserved for their readers in this book.

What Haydn wrote as the preface to all the works of his art, is adopted as the motto of this volume upon "The Deathless Book": "In Nomine Domini." - In the name of God. Whatever the imperfections of this book, these words are true of the motive that sends it forth from my study into every home that shall give it a place.

WORCESTER, MASS., Feb. 1, 1888.

CONTENTS.

THE WORLD'S BOOK.

MORTALITY of books. Value of books how determined.

Average life of books. Emerson's "Great voices of

Time." Books great like battles. Growth of knowl-

edge and death of books. "Law of survival of

the fittest." Copyright of 1772 in House of Lords.

Testimony of Charles Knight. Old school books

rare. Nearest approach to immortality in the poets.

Emerson's "Old and famed books"

STANDARD Literature of the past. Professor Phelps

quoted. Seven hundred thousand volumes in Impe-

rial Library of Paris out of print. Five thousand

"Select Works" in all literature. "Book Hunter'

quoted; also Hallam. Living book, what? Loss of

books; the Classics. Library of Rameses 1. lost.

Alexandrian Library destroyed. Writings of Moses,

David, Solomon, etc. still intact.

GENESIS, oldest extant literature. Suggests Golden

Age." Antiquity of Book compared with Vedas,

Classics, etc. Professor Phelps on "Age of lyric

Hebrew poetry." Max Müller; history of man is

history of religion. Power of Psalms over the Clas-

sics. Brief characterizations of the Book by Taine,

Ruskin, Carlyle, Renan, Whitney, Mill, Burke,

JUDAISM, Christianity and Islamism rest upon a book.
De Quincey and Max Müller quoted. Preservation
of Bible a marvel. Read in two hundred and fifty
languages. Gov. Bullock quoted

Book has survived three great dangers: (1) Negligence

of friends. Antiochus IV, the Madman. Diocle-

tian's edict. Text more pure than that of Shake-

speare. "Book Hunter" quoted. (2) False doc-

trines. Assumptions of Slavery and Intemperance.

Wish of Erasmus and prediction of Tyndale. (3)

Enmity of foes. Voltaire's boast. Gibbon's fail-

Hume's prophecy. Chesterfield's parlor, Coun-

cil of Constance and Wickliffe. Attempted destruc-

tion the occasion of its preservation.

ure.

ANTIQUITY of MSS. of New Testament compared with

the Classics. First book printed with cut metal

types. Hallam's statement. Most profitable for

publishers

SIR WILLIAM JONES on its character. Verified in his-

tory, philosophy and religion. Compared with old-

est "remains" of nations. History of Jews only

oasis in Asiatic history; Max Müller quoted. Book

has survived the funerals of nations. The World's

19-20

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.

National

DEATH of nations. Destruction from within.

degeneration from national vices. Grandeur of an-

cient peoples did not save them. Degeneration

of races, universal tendency. From savage state

to civilized; or the opposite, which? Most degraded

nations have become civilized; e.g. the English.

Savages have never civilized themselves. General

belief in a lost "Golden Age."

29-33

ASIATIC culture and renown, lost. Baldwin's Prehistoric
Nations quoted. Max Müller; remnants of beauty
in most degraded jargons. Lost splendors of Nine-
veh, Troy, Peru. Professor Bowen's testimony.
Civilization, resultant from contact with outside
higher ideal. Merivale; Religion and Civilization.
Character partly dependent upon environment.
Buckle, Mill, Froude, in evidence
BIBLICAL doctrine of Man.

National standard marked
by its religion. Bible and England's greatness.
Matthew Arnold's testimony. M. Taine; England
and its Book. Professor Huxley; The Book and
English History
Two books: Nature and the Bible. Socrates and Plu-
tarch. Zend Avesta, Buddhism, empty. Clarke's
"Ten Great Religions" quoted. Fundamental doc-
trines of the Bible. Most human book. Firty-first
Psalm, power over the race. Destructive criticism
powerless. Universal Book. Goethe upon Nature.
Book meets degeneration by principles of regenera-
tion

I. TEST of Bible's power in the individual. Doctrines

adapted to all conditions. No argument against, that

all do not accept it. Cannibals become saints. No

permanent good without it. John Locke, on Script-

ures. Paul, Bunyan, Newton. Bible and right-

eousness; Matthew Arnold quoted. Ibid; Men

cannot do without the Bible. Franklin to Thomas

Paine. Doctor Johnson upon David Hume