16.
“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet.... And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots” (Revelation xvii, 4, 5).
Protestant churches have no difficulty in recognizing in this Mother of Harlots the Church of Rome, apparently forgetting that they are her daughters.
The following, relative to Bible prophecies, is from the pen of William Rathbone Greg:
“A prophecy, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, signifies a prediction of future events which could not have been foreseen by human sagacity, and the knowledge of which was supernaturally communicated to the prophet. It is clear, therefore, that in order to establish the claim of any anticipatory statement, promise, or denunciation to the rank and title of a prophecy, four points must be ascertained with precision, viz., what the event was to which the alleged prediction was intended to refer; that the prediction was uttered in specific, not vague, language before the event; that the event took place specifically, not loosely, as predicted; and that it could not have been foreseen by human sagacity.”
“It is probably not too much to affirm that we have no instance in the prophetical books of the Old Testament of a prediction in the case of which we possess, at once and combined, clear and unsuspicious proof of the date, the precise event predicted, the exact circumstances of that event, and the inability of human sagacity to foresee it. There is no case in which we can say with certainty—even where it is reasonable to suppose that the prediction was uttered before the event—that the narrative has not been tampered with to suit the prediction, or the prediction modified to correspond with the event” (Creed of Christendom, pp. 128, 131.)
CHAPTER XXIII.
MIRACLES.
That curious volume of exaggerated fiction known as the Baron Munchausen stories has delighted many. Works of this character fill a legitimate place in literature. The humorists have contributed much to the health and happiness of mankind.
A charming store of wit and humor of the Munchausen variety is to be found in the Bible. Here are a thousand and one stories as marvelous and amusing as are to be found in the whole realm of modern fiction.
Unfortunately those who profess to value this book the most derive the least benefit from it. They mistake the meaning and purpose of its writers. They accept as facts its most palpable fictions. Its most laughable stories are read with the most solemn visages. This serious method of treating the ridiculous has produced an army of morose dyspeptics who mistake indigestion for religion, and intolerance for virtue.
To afford a little relaxation from the duller chapters of this work, to furnish a few grains of pepsin to aid in the digestion of a Sunday dinner, a small collection of these funny tales of ancient wits—the Baron Munchausen writers of old times—is given. He who can read them without a smile must be either dull of comprehension or without appreciation of humor.