THE PILLAR WHICH SUPPORTS.

“There was a period,” said the aged and venerable president of the Swedish Bible Society, in their meeting at Stockholm, “still fresh in the memory of many, when some predicted that the era was fast approaching when there would be no Bible to be found, except in large libraries, and covered with dust, to remain as a memorial of the superstition of our ancestors. They did not consider, that had such predictions been verified, the pillar which supports the civil government would have been removed, society at large would have lost its best security, and suffering humanity her best consolations.

What would these airy schemers now say, could they rise from the dark tombs into which they have descended without hope, if they were to behold that sacred book, which once was the object of their coldhearted derision, now circulated throughout the whole world, anxiously inquired for by multitudes, and received with veneration and gratitude? What would they say, could they see princes and other exalted personages, and thousands of the various classes of society considering it their delightful duty to become fellow-laborers in paying homage to this important object, and by this means fulfilling the immutable truth of that divine declaration—“As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue confess to God”?

[excerpted from The New-York Observer, 2.14 (3 April 1824), page 4.]