HUME, Gibbon, Voltaire, and other blind leaders of the blind, wrote volumes to prove that the Bible is a curse to society. The history of the world, and in particular that of Scotland, is proof positive that exactly the reverse is the fact.
In 1320, when all Europe lay groveling in the dust by kissing the pope’s toe, Scotland alone stood up for her independence. The pope laid some burdens on Scotland too grievous to be borne. The barons, earls, freemen, and the Scottish community sent him a remonstrance, declaring that neither the pope, the devil, nor the king of England, should reign in Scotland.
In 1505 John Knox was born. In 1555 he raised the standard of the Reformation in Scotland. Here, with no other weapon than the Bible, he contended with popes, priests, and cardinals, till he established religious freedom and independence. From that day Scotland became emphatically the land of Bibles. It is the Bible that makes Scotchmen differ from all men under the sun. To be sure, the Bible is found in most houses between Montauk Point and the Rocky Mountains; but it is not read. even among the families of the sons of the Pilgrims and daughters of the Puritans, as it is read in Scotland. Here it is seldom read except in schools, and in some families on the Sabbath. In Scotland, rich and poor, bond and free, at morn and eve, assemble round the family hearth; the verses are sung, the chapter read, and prayers sent up to heaven. Hence the children, like Timothy of old, know the Scriptures from their youth. Hence every man, woman and child read the Bible and write their own name. Hence, comparatively speaking, you don’t find Scotchmen in the almshouse, penitentiary, or State prison. Among the tens of thousands of Catholic peasantry who are landed yearly on our shores, not one in a hundred ever saw a Bible, or learned a letter of their own language. Never, since the days of pope Joan the First, did a popish peasant print a tale or compose a song to cheer the heart of his fellows.
The third chapter of Habakkuk, and the thirty-ninth chapter of the Book of Job, contain more sublime language than you will find in all the orations of Demosthenes, Cicero, and Shakspere put together.
I have seen the rise and fall of all the republics on earth, for the last seventy years. They were all strangled in the birth by an ignorant populace, led on by aspiring politicians. When the Bible shall be driven from our schools, colleges, and family firesides, the American republic will be numbered with them that were.
GRANT THORBURN, Senior, Aged 86 years and 41 days. New Haven, March 28th, 1859.