If I have a right to cut out a certain portion of the Bible, I don't
know why one of my friends has not a right to cut out another, and
another friend to cut out another part, and so on. You would have a
queer kind of Bible if everybody cut out what he wanted to! Every
adulterer would cut out everything about adultery; every liar would
cut out everything about lying; every drunkard would be cutting out
what he didn't like.
Once a gentleman took his Bible around to his minister, and said,
"That is your Bible."
"Why do you call it _my_ Bible?" said the minister.
"Well," replied the gentleman, "I have been sitting under your
preaching for five years, and when you said that a thing in the Bible
was not authentic, I cut it out."
He had about a third of the Bible cut out; all of Job, all of
Ecclesiastes and Revelation, and a good deal besides. The minister
wanted him to leave the Bible with him; he didn't want the rest of
his congregation to see it. But the man said:
"Oh, no! I have the covers left, and I will hold on to them."
And off he went holding on to the covers.