Page:God and His Book.djvu/57



Palimpsests—Asses, etc., with Four Hides—Specimen of a Palimpsest—Christianity Charged with the Loss of Certain Greek and Roman Classics—Diodorus Siculus Lost that we might have an Account of the Virgin Mary's Milk—Divine Fiddle-faddling.

" costliness of writing materials gave rise to a peculiar usage. From the leaves of an ancient work the original writing was erased, more or less effectively. They were then employed as the material for another work, the latter being written over the former. Such MSS. are called palimpsests—'written again' after erasure. The original writing, which is often the sacred text, can, in general, be deciphered, especially by the aid of certain chemical applications. Some of our most precious MSS. are of this character." After all the bother he put the Holy Ghost to in begetting a son and then writing four different and conflicting accounts of his life, the Lord allowed these accounts to be rubbed off the sheep-skin till portions of them cannot be read except with great difficulty, and certain of them cannot be read at all. To be able to read what the Lord has written the devout have now to resort to chemistry, a science which, for ages, the Church banned and persecuted and abhorred. Of old it was, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; now it is, Work out your salvation with fear and chemistry.

The saints whom God appointed to preserve and perpetuate his volume may have been rich in grace, but they were poor in pence. To have preserved and transmitted his book so that we might have thoroughly