od things in the Bible,
but anyone who is familiar with the ancient
writers of Greece, and especially those of India,
knows well, if he would tell the truth, that all
the good things in the Bible were stolen from
earlier scholars and sages, and were originally
better spoken or written than by the so-called
authors of the Bible, who took them at
second-hand. If anybody here is prepared to deny
that statement, let him stand up and say so!

Instantly this young student of theology stood up, six feet high, and at
that time in his life very slim in his figure. That he might be seen
readily he stood on the seat, and a fellow-student said that he loomed
up apparently ten feet high. He held a little red-covered book, and
stretching his long arm toward the speaker, said something like this:

I hold in my hand a copy of the New Testament, and
I wish to say that in this little book, only a
quarter of the Bible, you will find a clearer
light on man's nature, and character, and destiny
than may be read in all the ancient books of the
world taken together.

He paused, seized the little volume with both hands, tore it in two
parts, flung one part down to the floor, and still holding the rest of
it, went on:

I have thrown aside one-half of this book, but
this half contains the four gospels of our Lord,
which will tell more what man may be here and will
be hereafter than can be found in all the books of
ancient Rome, or Greece, or Chaldea, or India, or
China.

Then he tore out three leaves from the fragment, flung all the rest on
the floor, and fluttering the torn pages, said:

These six pages contain Christ's Sermon on the
Mount, setting forth a higher standard of
righteousness, a clearer view of God, and a better
knowledge of man's nature than all the other
ancient books on earth. That is my answer to the
speaker!

And leaving the torn book on the floor, he walked out of the room.

Other speakers in the new Amphitheater in the summer of 1879 were Dr.
Henry W. Warren, in the next year a Bishop; Frank Beard, with his
caricatures and stories; Dr. C. H. Fowler, Dr. Joseph Cook, Bishop
Foster, Dr. Alexander A. Hodge, the Princeton theologian, Dr. John Lord,
th