The Bible
About thirty-two years ago I bought a double-breasted "chalk striped" suit, the principal color was blue. It was exactly like the one that is advertised now as "The New Johnny Carson Suit." Ecclesiastes 1:9 is correct: "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." If I had the wide ties and belts that I bought a few years ago, I would not need any more now! Long hair and beards were in style in Lincoln's time, and later. There isn't anything new!
The Bible is the only book one could write about and quote every week, as I have been doing in two columns I write for two newspapers for the last several years. Once, I am told, F. D. Srygley wrote to brother T. B. Larimore, when the latter had a six-month meeting in Texas: "How do you find Scripture for all of those sermons?" He received a very short note: "Can a sparrow drink the ocean dry?" Once I asked a preacher why they moved so much. He said, "We run out of sermons." I said, "I wonder if you're joking?" The poet, John G. Whittier, said it about "The Bible":
"We search the world for truth, we cull, The good, the true, the beautiful,
From graven stone and written scroll, And, all old flower-fields of the soul:
And, weary seekers of the best, We come back laden with our quest,
To find that all the sages said Is in the Book our mothers read."
That's it! I have made this challenge before (I make it again): bring or send me any wise proverb or saying of men, and I will find the same thing, said better, in the Bible! Do you want to try this? Do you remember the old saying, "It will not hold water," and "Don't blow your own horn!"? If you'll read Jeremiah 2:13 and Matthew 6:2, you'll see what I mean.
The Bible does use "necessary inferences." It's somewhat like Larimore used to write: "This cannot mean this thing." He would be writing about something specific. But be sure it's a "necessary inference"! We may become guilty of violating 2 John 9; Rev. 22:18, 19; or Romans 3:4, etc.
— Route 2, Box 340, Dora, Alabama 35062