A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3616, 29 July 1880, Page 3

A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sir,—l was at the Primitive Methodist soiree last nighfc. There were sonic anius ing and instructive things said ; but there was one thing said b.r Mr Paries which is often said by raany others, that I should like to ask a few questions about. Ho said what a many others say—that the Bible is all the Word of God : th< y really mean that God did give utterance to all the Bible. Does not the Bible say (hat the devil said some of it, and that wicked men said raany things in it; and, if so, how could that part that they said be God's word ? Does the Bible any way say that it is all God's word? Then, •gain, as there are so many versions of the same Bible, one contradicting the other, which one of them is the word of God ? Is it the Latin, the Greek, the Hebrow,the Catholic, the Protestant, or which one is it ? Was there not at one time more books connected with the Bible than there is now P If so, who took them out, ■ and what authority had they for doing so ? Who was it that first said that the present books in the Bible should be called the Work of God, and what right or authority had they for sayinir soP Is, the original Bible in existence? If not, what proof have we that the Bible we use is the same as the orignal ? Is it not a transcript or a translation ? What proof have we that the translators translated correctly? Does not every learned commentator say that they did not ? Then how can this be fhe'W/>rd of God ; besides, if the Bible tells you to do two opposite things, how can it be God's Word? For instance, when one part of the Book says thou shalt hate thy "enemy, and another . part says thou shalt love him, and again when God said to tbe Israelites thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not steal, could he tell the same people that they had to kill and steal from the Canaanites; can they be both God's Word. I know these are questions that have puzzled thousands as well as myself, and who so proper to answer them as those that take upon themselves to be our teachers. If these questions are answered, I hope they will be in the same spirit as they are put —that is, in a truth-loving, man-loving, and God loving spirit, and not resort to the old style to call us infidels and send us to hell and have done with us. That is an old game, but it is played out.—l am, &c, - J. Hobn.

July 28th, 1880. ,