THE
BLANK BIBLE.
By
Henry Rogers
A curious and
entertaining paper here reprinted is taken from a
little book called The Eclipse of Faith which, first published in 1852,
by the year I86o had reached a ninth edition,
but has now been long
out of print. The author
of the book was Henry Rogers, a theologian
and scholar of great repute and influence in his
day. Rogers (I8o6-
I877) who was a Congregational minister and a voluminous author and
editor, held in succession various academic
offices, among them the
Professorship of English language and
literature at
piety. As a
Christian apologist he followed the tradition of Bishop
of scepticism
prevalent in his day. It called forth a reply from Francis
W. Newman, brother of the Cardinal, which was followed by a rejoinder,
The Defense of the
Eclipse of Faith, in 1860. There is a
good account of
W.G.J.
I thought I was at home,
and that on taking up my Greek Testament
one morning to read (as is my wont) a chapter, I
found, to my
surprise, that what seemed to be the old familiar
book, was a total blank ;
not a character was inscribed in it or upon it.
I supposed that some
book like it had, by some accident, got into its
place ; and without
stopping to hunt for it, took down a large quarto
volume which contained
both the Old and New Testaments. To my surprise,
however,
this also was a blank from beginning to end. With
that facility of
accommodation to any absurdities which is proper to
dreams, I did
not think very much of the coincidence of two
blank volumes having
been substituted for two copies of the Scriptures in
two different
places, and therefore quietly reached down a copy
of the Hebrew
Bible, in which I could
just manage to make out a chapter. To my
increased surprise, and even something like terror, I
found that this
also was a perfect blank. While I was musing on this
unaccountable
phenomenon, my servant entered the room, and said that
thieves had
been in
the house during the night, for that her large Bible, which she
had left on the kitchen table, had been removed, and another volume
left by mistake in its place, of just the same
size, but made of nothing
but white paper. She added, with a
laugh, that it must have been a
very queer kind of thief to steal a Bible at all ; and that he should have
left another book instead, made it the more odd.
I asked her if anything
else had been missed,
and if there were any signs of people having
entered the house. She answered in the negative to
both these questions;
and I began to be strangely perplexed.
On going out into the street, I met a friend,
who, almost before
we had exchanged greetings, told me that a most
unaccountable robbery
had been committed at his house during the
night, for that every copy
of the Bible had been removed, and a volume of
exactly the same size,
but of pure white paper, left in its stead. Upon
telling him that the
same accident had happened to myself, we began to
think that there
was more in it than we
had at first surmised.
On proceeding further we found every one complaining, in similar
perplexity, of the same loss ; and before night it became
evident that
a great and terrible " miracle " had
been wrought in the world ; that
in one night silently, but effectually, that
hand which had written its
terrible menace on the walls of Belshazzar's palace,
had reversed the
miracle ; had sponged out of our Bibles every syllable
they contained,
and thus reclaimed the most precious gift which
heaven had bestowed,
and ungrateful man had abused.
I was curious to watch the effects of this
calamity on the varied
characters of mankind. There was universally, however,
an interest
in the Bible now it was lost, such as had never
attached to it while it was
possessed ; and he who had been but happy enough to
possess fifty
copies might have made his fortune. One keen
speculator, as soon as
the first whispers of the miracle began to
spread, hastened to the
depositories of the Bible Society and the great
book-stocks in Paternoster
Row, and offered to buy up at a high premium
any copies of the
Bible that might be on hand
; but the worthy merchant was informed
that there was not a single copy remaining. Some,
to whom their
Bible had been a "
blank " book for twenty years and who would never
have known whether it was full or empty, had not the lamentations of
their neighbours
impelled them to look into it, were not the least loud
in their expressions of sorrow at this
calamity. One old gentleman, who
had never troubled the book in his life, said it
was " confounded hard
to be deprived of his religion in his old age
" ; and then another, who
seemed to have lived as though he had always been of Mandeville's
opinion, that " private vices were public
benefits," was all at once
alarmed for the morals of mankind. He feared, he
said, that the loss of
the Bible would have " a cursed bad effect
on the public virtue of the
country."
As the fact was universal and palpable, it
was impossible that,
like other miracles, it should leave the usual
loopholes for scepticism.
Miracles in general, in order to be miracles
at all, have been singular or
very rare violations of a general law, witnessed,
by a few, on whose
testimony they are received, and in the reception of
whose testimony
consists the exercise of that faith to which they
appeal. It was evident
that, whatever the reason of this miracle, it was
not an exercise of docile
and humble faith founded on evidence no more than just sufficient
to operate as a moral test. This was a miracle
which it could not be
denied, looked marvellously
like a" judgment." However, there were,
in some cases, indications enough to show how
difficult it is to give
such evidence as will satisfy the obstinacy
of mankind. One old skeptical
fellow, who had been for years bed-ridden, was long
in being convinced
(if, indeed he ever
was) that anything extraordinary had occurred in
the world ; he at first attributed the reports of
what he heard to the
" impudence " of his servants and dependents, and
wondered that they
should dare to venture upon such a joke. On finding these assertions
backed by those of his acquaintance, he pished and pshawed, and looked
very wise, and ironically congratulated them on
this creditable conspiracy
with the insolent rascals, his servants. On being shown the
old Bible, of which he recognised
the binding, though he had never
seen the inside, and finding it a very fair book
of blank paper, he quietly
observed that it was very easy
to substitute the one book for the other,
though he did not pretend to divine the motives
which induced people
to attempt such a clumsy piece of imposition ; and
on their persisting
that they were not deceiving him, swore at them
as a set of knaves,
who would fain persuade him out of his senses. On their bringing him
a pile of blank Bibles, backed by the
asseverations of other neighbours,
he was ready to burst with indignation. " As to the volumes," he said,
cc it was not difficult to
procure a score or two ' of commonplace books,'
and they had doubtless done so to carry on the
cheat ; for himself, he
would sooner believe that the whole world was leagued
against him,
than credit
any such nonsense." They were angry, in their turn, at
his incredulity, and told him that he was very
much mistaken if
he
thought himself of so much importance that they
would all perjure
themselves to delude him, since they saw plainly enough
that he could
do that very easily for himself, without any
help of theirs. They
really did not care one farthing whether he
believed them or not : if
he did not choose to believe the story he might
leave it alone. "Well,
well," said he, " it is all very fine ;
but unless you show me, not one
of these blank books, which could not impose
upon an owl, but one of
the very blank Bibles themselves, I will not
believe." At this curious
demand, one of his nephews who stood by (a lively
young fellow) was
so excessively tickled, that though he had some
expectations from the
skeptic, he could not help bursting out into
laughter ; but he became
grave enough when his angry uncle told him that he
would leave him
in his will nothing but the
family Bible, which he might make a ledger
of, if he pleased. Whether this resolute old skeptic
ever vanquished
his incredulity, I do not remember.
Very different from the case of this skeptic
was that of a most
excellent female relative, who had been equally long a
prisoner to her
chamber, and to whom the Bible had been, as to so
many thousands
more, her faithful companion in solitude, and the
all-sufficient solace
of her sorrows. I found her gazing intently on
the blank Bible, which
had been so recently bright to her with the lustre of immortal hopes.
She burst into tears as she saw me. " And has your
faith left you too,
my gentle friend ? "
said
will. He who has taken away the Bible has not taken
away my memory,
and I now recall all that
is most precious in that book which has so
long been my meditation. It is a heavy judgment
upon the land ; and
surely," added this true Christian,
never thinking of the faults of others,
I, at least, cannot complain, for I have not
prized as I ought that
book which yet, of late years, I think I can say,
I loved more than any
other possession on earth. But I know," she
continued, smiling through
her tears,
that
the sun shines, though clouds may veil him for a
moment ; and I am unshaken in my faith in those
truths which have
been transcribed on my memory though they are
blotted from my
book. In these hopes I have lived, and in these hopes I will die." I
have no consolation to offer to you," said
I, for you need none."
She quoted many of the passages which have been, through all
ages,
the chief stay of sorrowing humanity ; and I
thought the words of
Scripture had never sounded so solemn or so
sweet before. I
shall
often come to see you," I said, to hear a chapter in the Bible, for you
know it far better than I."
No sooner had I taken my leave than I was
informed that an old
lady of my acquaintance had summoned me in haste.
She said she
was much impressed
by this extraordinary calamity. As, to my certain
knowledge, she had never troubled the contents of the
book, I was
surprised that she had so taken to heart the loss of
that which had,
practically, been lost to her all her days. Sir," said she, the moment
I entered, "the Bible, the Bible."
"Yes, madam," said I, this is
a very grievous and terrible visitation. I
hope we may learn the lessons
which it is calculated to teach us." I am sure," answered she, I
am not likely to forget it for a while for it
has been a grievous loss to
me." I told her I was very glad. "Glad!"
she rejoined. Yes,''
I said, I
am glad to find that you think it so great a loss, for that loss
may then be a gain indeed.
There is, thanks be to God, enough left
in our memories to carry us to heaven/' " Ah ! but," said
she, the
hundred pounds, and the villainy of my maid-servant.
Have you not
heard ? " This gave me
some glimpse as to the secret of her sorrow.
She told me that she had deposited several
bank-notes in the leaves of the
family Bible, thinking that, to be sure, nobody was
likely to look there
for them. No sooner," said she, were the Bibles
made useless by
this strange event, than my servant peeped into
every copy in the house,
and she now denies that she found anything in my
old family Bible,
except two or three blank leaves of thin paper,
which she says she
destroyed ; that if any
characters were ever on them they must have
been erased,
when those of the Bible were obliterated. But I am sure
she lies ; for who would believe that heaven
took the trouble to blot out
my precious bank-notes? They were not God's
word, I trow.'' It was
clear that she considered the promise to pay " better by far than any
promises " which the book contained. I should not have cared so
much about the Bible," she whined,
hypocritically, because,
as you
truly observe, our memories may retain enough to carry us to heaven "
-a little in that case would certainly go a
great way, I thought to myself
and if not, there
are those who can supply the loss. But who is
to get my bank-notes back again ? Other people
have only lost their
Bibles." It was, indeed, a case beyond my power of
consolation.
The calamity not only strongly stirred the
feelings of men, and
upon the whole, I think, beneficially, but it
immediately stimulated
their ingenuity. It was wonderful to see the
energy with which men
discussed the subject, and the zeal, too, with which
they ultimately
exerted themselves to repair the loss. I could even
hardly regret it,
when I considered what a spectacle of intense
activity, intellectual and
moral, the visitation had occasioned. It was very
early suggested that
the whole Bible had again and again been quoted piecemeal in one
book or other ; that it had impressed its own
image on the surface of
human literature, and had been reflected on its
course as the stars on
a stream. But alas ! on investigation it was found as vain to expect that
the gleam of star-light would still remain mirrored in the water, when
the clouds had veiled the stars themselves, as
that the bright characters
of the Bible would remain reflected in the
books of men when they
had been erased from the book of God. On
inspection, it was found that
every text, every phrase which had been quoted,
not only in books of
devotion and theology, but in those of poetry and
fiction, had been
remorselessly expunged. Never before had I had any
adequate idea
of the extent to which the Bible had moulded the intellectual and moral
life of the last eighteen centuries, nor how
intimately it had interfused
itself with habits of thought and modes of
expression ; nor how naturally
and extensively its comprehensive imagery and
language had been
introduced into human writings, and most of all where
there had been
most of genius. A vast portion of literature became
instantly worthless,
and was transformed into so much waste paper. It
was almost impossible
to look into any book of merit, and read ten
pages together,
without coming to some provoking erasures and
mutilations, some
hiatus 'Valde deflendi, which
made whole passages perfectly unintelligible.-
Many of the sweetest passages of Shakespeare
were converted
to unmeaning nonsense, from the absence of
those words which his
own all but divine genius had appropriated from
a still diviner source.
As to
Waiter Scott's novels were filled with
perpetual lacunae. I hoped it
might be otherwise with the philosophers, and so
it was ; but even here
it was curious to see what strange ravages the
visitation had wrought.
Some of the most beautiful and comprehensive
of Bacon's Aphorisms
were reduced to enigmatical nonsense.
Those who held large stocks of books knew not
what to do. Ruin
stared them in the face ; their value fell seventy
or eighty per cent.
All branches of theology, in particular, were
a drug. One fellow said
that he should not so much have minded if the
miracle had spunged
out what was human as well as what was divine,
for in that case he
would at least have had so many thousand volumes
of fair blank paper,
which was as much as many of them were worth
before. A wag
answered, that it was not usual, in despoiling a
house, to carry away
anything except the valuables. Meantime, millions of
blank Bibles
filled the shelves of stationers, to be sold for
day-books and ledgers so
that there seemed to be no more employment for
the paper makers in
that direction for many years to come. A friend,
who used to mourn
over the thought of palimpsest manuscripts-of
portions of Livy and
chronicler-exclaimed, as he saw a tradesman trudging off with a
handsome morocco-bound quarto for a day-book, "
only think of the
pages once filled with the poetry of Isaiah, and
the parables of Christ,
sponged clean to make way for orders for silks and
satins, muslins,
cheese, and bacon I " The
old authors, of course, were left to their
mutilation ; there was no way in which the confusion
could be remedied.
But the living began to prepare new
editions of their works, in which
they endeavoured to
give a new turn to the thoughts which had been
mutilated by erasure, and I was not a little amused to
see that many,
having stolen
from writers whose compositions were as much mutilated
as their own, could not tell the meaning of
their own pages.
It seemed at first to be a not unnatural
impression that even those
who could recall the erased texts as they perused the injured books who
could mentally fill up the imperfect
clauses-were not at liberty
to inscribe them ; they seemed to fear that if they did so the characters
would be as if written
in invisible ink, or would surely fade away. It
was with
trembling that some at length made the attempt, and to their
unspeakable joy found the impression durable. Day after
day passed ;
still the characters remained ; and the people at
length came to the
conclusion that God left them at liberty, if they
could, to reconstruct
the Bible for themselves out of their collective
remembrances of its
divine contents. This led again to some curious
results, all of them
singularly indicative of the good and ill that is in human nature. It
was with
incredible joy that men came to the conclusion that the book
might be thus recovered nearly entire, and nearly
in the very words of
the original, by the combined effort of human
memories. Some of
the obscurest of the species, who had studied
nothing else but the Bible,
but who had well studied that, came to be
objects of reverence among
Christians and booksellers
; and the various texts they quoted were
taken down with the utmost care. He who could fill up a chasm by the
restoration of words which were only partially
remembered, or could
contribute the least text that had been forgotten, was regarded as a
sort of public benefactor. At length, a great
public movement amongst
the divines of all denominations was projected
to collate the results of
these partial recoveries
of the sacred text. It was curious again, to see
in how various ways human passions and
prejudices came into play.
It was found that the
several parties who had furnished from memory
the same portions of the sacred text, had fallen
into a great variety of
different readings ; and though most of them were of
as little importance
in themselves as the bulk of those which are
paraded in the critical
recensions of Mill, Griesbach, or Tischendorf,
they became, from the
obstinacy and folly of the men who contended about
them, important
differences, merely because they were differences. Two
reverend men
of the synod, I remember, had a rather tough
dispute as to whether it
was twelve
baskets full of fragments of the five loaves which the
five
thousand left, and seven baskets full of the seven loaves which four
thousand had left, or vice versa: as also whether the
words in John
vi. 19, were " about twenty or five and
twenty," or " about thirty or
five and thirty furlongs."
To do the assembly justice, however, there
was found an intense
general earnestness and sincerity befitting the
occasion, and an equally
intense desire
to obtain, as nearly as
possible, the very words of the lost
volume; only (as was also, alas I natural) vanity in some; in others,
confidence in their strong impressions and in the
accuracy of their
memory; obstinacy, and pertinacity in many more
(all aggravated as
usual by controversy), caused many odd
embarrassments before the
final adjustment was
effected.
I was particularly struck with the varieties
of reading which mere
prejudices in favour of certain systems of theology occasioned in the
several partisans of each. No doubt the worthy men
were generally
unconscious of the influence of these prejudices ; yet, somehow, the
memory was seldom so clear in relation to those texts which told against
them as in
relation to those which told for them. A certain Quaker
had
an impression that the words instituting the
Eucharist were preceded
by a qualifying expression "and Jesus said
to the twelve, Do this in
remembrance of me," while he could not exactly
recollect whether or
not the formula of baptism was expressed in the
general terms, some
maintained it was. Several Unitarians had a clear
recollection that in
several places the authority of manuscripts, as
estimated in Griesbach's
recension, was decidedly against the common reading ;
while the
Trinitarians maintained that Griesbach's recension in those
instances
had left that reading undisturbed. An Episcopalian began to have
his doubts whether the usage in favour of the interchange of the words
" bishop " and '' presbyter " was so
uniform as the Presbyterian and
Independent maintained, and whether there was
not a passage in which
Timothy and Titus were expressly called
"bishops." The Presbyterian
and Independent had similar biases ; and one
gentleman who was
a strenuous advocate of the system of the
latter, enforced one equivocal
remembrance by saying, he could, as it were, distinctly
see the very
spot on the page before his mind's eye. Such tridts will imagination
play with the memory, when preconception plays
tricks with the
imagination! In like manner, it was seen that while the
Calvinist
was very distinct in
his recollection of the ninth chapter of Romans,
his memory was very faint as respects the exact
wording of some of
the verses in the Epistle of James; and though
the Arminian had a
most vivacious impression of all those passages which spoke of the
claims of
the law, he was in some doubt whether the apostle Paul's
sentiments respecting human depravity, and
justification by faith alone
had not been a
little exaggerated. In short, it very clearly appeared
that tradition was no safe guide ; that if, even
when she was hardly a
month old, she could play such freaks with the
memories of honest
people, there was but a sorry prospect of the
secure transmission of
truth for eighteen hundred years. From each man's
memory seemed
to glide something or other which he was not
inclined to retain
there,
and each seemed to substitute in its stead
something that he liked
better.
Though the assembly was in the main most
anxious to come to a
right decision, and really advanced an immense way
towards completing
a true and faithful copy of the lost original,
the disputes which arose,
on almost every point of theology, promised the
world an abundant crop
of new sects and schisms. Already there had
sprung up several whose
names had never been heard of in the world, but
for this calamity.
Amongst them were two who were called the " Long Memories "
and the " Short Memories." Their
general tendencies coincided
pretty much with those of the orthodox and Rationalists.
It was curious to see by what odd associations, sometimes of
contrast sometimes of resemblance, obscure texts were
recovered,
though they were verified, when once mentioned, by
the consciousness
of hundreds. One old gentleman, a miser,
contributed (and it was all
he did contribute) a maxim of prudence, which he
recollected, principally
from having systematically abused it. All the
ethical maxims,
indeed, were soon collected ; for though, as usual,
no one recollected
his own peculiar duties or infirmities, every
one, as usual, kindly
remembered those of his neighbours.
Husbands remembered what was
due from their wives, and wives what was due
from their husbands.
The unpleasant sayings about" better to
dwell on the housetop," and
the perpetual dropping on a very rainy
day," were called to mind by
thousands. Almost the whole of Proverbs and
Ecclesiastes were contributed,
in the merest fragments, in this way. As for
Solomon's
" times for every thing," few could remember
them all, but everybody
remembered some. Undertakers said there was a " time to mourn,"
and comedians that there was a " time to
laugh " ; young ladies innumerable
remembered there was a " time to love " ; and
people of
all kinds that there was " a time to hate " ; everybody knew there was
a " time to speak " ; but a worthy
Quaker reminded them that there
was also a " time to keep silence."
Some dry parts of the
laws of Moses were recovered by the memory
of jurists, who seemed to have no knowledge
whatever of any other
parts of the sacred volume ; while in like manner
one or two antiquarians
supplied some very difficult genealogical and
chronological
matters, in equal ignorance of the moral and
spiritual contents of the
Scriptures.
As people became accustomed to the phenomenon,
the perverse
humours of mankind displayed themselves in a variety
of ways. The
efforts of the pious assembly were abundantly
laughed at ; but I must,
in justice, add, without driving them from
their purpose. Some
profane wags suggested there was now a good
opportunity of realizing
the scheme of taking not " out of the Commandments, and inserting
it in the Creed. But they were sarcastically
told that the old objection
to the plan would still apply ; that they would
not sin with equal relish
if they were expressly commanded to do so, nor take
such pleasure in
infidelity, if infidelity
became a duty. Others said that if the world
must wait till the synod had concluded its labours, the prophecies of
the New Testament would not be written till some
time after their
fulfillment ; and that if all
the conjectures of the learned divines were
inserted in the new edition of the Bible, the
declaration in John would
be literally verified, and that the world itself would not contain all
the books which would be written."
But the most amusing thing of all, was to see, as time made man
more familiar
with this strange event, the
variety of speculations which
were entertained respecting its object and
design. Many began gravely
to question whether it was the duty of the synod to attempt the reconstruction
of a book of which God himself had so
manifestly deprived
the world, and whether it was not a profane,
nay, an atheistical, attempt
to frustrate His will. Some,
who were secretly glad to be released
from
so troublesome a book, were particularly pious
on this head, and exclaimed
bitterly against this rash attempt to counteract and
cancel the
decrees of heaven. The Papists, on their part, were
confident that the
design was to correct the exorbitancies
of a rabid Protestantism, and
show the world, by direct miracle, the necessity
of submitting to the
decision of their church and the infallibility of the
supreme Pontiff;
who, as they truly alleged, could decide all
knotty points quite as well
without the Word of God as with it. On being
reminded that the
writings of the Fathers, on which they laid so much
stress as the vouchers
of their traditions, were mutilated by the same
stroke which had demolished
the Bible (all their quotations from the sacred
volume being
erased), some of the Jesuits affirmed that many of
the Fathers were
rather improved than otherwise by the omission, and
that they found
these writings quite as intelligible and not less
edifying than before.
In this, many Protestants very cordially
agreed. On the other hand,
many of our modern infidels gave an entirely new
turn to the whole
affair, by saying that the visitation was evidently not in judgment, but
in mercy ; that God in compassion, and
not in indignation, had taken
away a book which men had regarded with an
extravagant admiration
and idolatry, and which they had exalted to the
place of that clear
internal oracle which he had planted in the human
breast ; in a word,
that if it was a
rebuke at all, it was a rebuke to a rampant " Bibliolatry ."
As I heard all these different versions of so simple a matter, and found
that not a few were inclined to each, I could not
help exclaiming, " In
truth the devil is a very clever fellow, and man
even a greater blockhead
than I had taken him for." But in spite of
the surprise with which I
had listened to these various explanations of an
event which seemed to
me dear as if written
with a sunbeam, this last reason, which assigned
as the cause of God's resumption of his own gift, an extravagant admiration
and veneration of it on the part of mankind-it
being so notorious
that those who professed belief in its divine
origin and authority had
(even the best of
them) so grievously neglected both the study and the
practice of it-struck me as so exquisitely ludicrous
that I broke into a
fit of laughter which awoke me. I found that it
was broad daylight,
and the morning sun was streaming in at the
window and shining in
quiet radiance upon the open Bible which lay on my table. So strongly
had my dream impressed me, that I almost felt as
though, on inspection,
I should find the sacred leaves a blank, and
it was therefore with joy
that my eyes rested on those words, which I read
through grateful tears :
" The gifts of God are without repentance."
The name of Canon R. H. Sheppard is intimately associated with
the work he accomplished at St. Martin-in-the-Fields,andaninteresting
account of his years there has been written by the
Rev. R. J. Northcott,
one of the clergy of the Church. Dick Sheppard and
with an introduction by the Rev. Pat. McCormick
(Longmans Green
&
himself to a wide circle of friends, and it tells of
the services
which he rendered to many of all classes who
realized the depth of his
love and sympathy with all forms of distress.