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Show MAKING OVER THE BIBLE. Tho Rev. Robert Tuck has published roconlly a solvent of Biblical difficulties which would easily have won martyrdom martyr-dom for him nt any time during the zealotry of the Middle Ages. Hore Is his treatment of tho story of Jonah nnd tho whale, for Instance. He Insists that tho proper trantdatlon of that passage Is nB follows. (Wo copy from Tho Independent): In-dependent): "Now the Lord had prepared pre-pared a great bargo (fish) to remove (swallow) Jonah, and Jonah was In, tho hold (belly) of tho barge (fish) three days and three nights." And his comment com-ment Is: "It appears that the ship In which Jonah embarked was bound to tho port of Tarahlsh, nnd the mariners, having put Jonah in the boat, attempted to pull him ashore, but tho sea being tompestuous, they could not. Finding It impossible to land him, they then returned re-turned to the ship, leaving Jonah In tho boat at tho mercy of tho wavos; In which perilous situation he was three days and threo nights." But any one could havo dono that; It takes no Jonah to stay In a boat that way, and with that sort of exegesis the Blblo Is reduced to the commonplace. Not only Is the Inspiration gone, but the plcturcsqueness, the vital attractiveness of tho story. At the samo rate, perhaps tho miracle of the gourd and of tho worm could also be explained away, as well bb the conversations Jonah Is said to havo had with tho Lord; in which the prophet mado It clear ibat he considered consid-ered himself a badly used man, and that the Lord had not done right by him In his capacity of a prophet. Jonah's Idea was that tho Lord, In picking him out to go to Nineveh and proclaim the destruction destruc-tion of that city, preparing a llsh to tako him to the coast In Its belly, allowing him to proclaim In the name of the Lord that at tho end of forty days Nineveh would bo destroyed, and then falling In his part of the programme and saving the city, the Lord had broken fnlth with him. And now to have the wholo matter set aside as an empty bungle In translation, Is a little hard. We don't know but we regret at times the passing away of the old days when men wero made to smart when they trilled with tho Bible. The old faith such as Oom Paul displayed when a scoffer denied tho existence of the dovll will be wholly undermined at this rate. Oom Paul's reply was conclusive, con-clusive, a clincher; he opened his Bible, found a full-page picture- of the devil there, nnd triumphantly asked how It was that a picture of a being that didn't exist could be mado, and .above nil, bo found In the Blblo. There was nothing noth-ing more to say. But tho Rev. Robert Tuck does not stop with Jonah. He copies Mark xxvll., G2, "And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out of tho tombB after His resurrection, resur-rection, they entered Into tho holy city, and appoared to many." As to which this comment Is appended: "In view of all that can be urged In favor of, and hejpful to, an explanation of this passage, pass-age, we deeply feel that It is In every way wiser, safer, and more honoring to God's Word, to think It Is a stranger, and has no business there." This way of solving Biblical difficulties difficul-ties will hardly commend itself to the candid mind. It smacks altogether more of a determination to make over the Bible to suit the Rev. Robert Tuck than of an honest effort to mako the Bible as It Is, comprehensiblo to the student |