I am your Bible! I am a singular book among books. I am immortal. I am a novel and a unique book. I boast of an interesting history. I want to tell you some things about myself. I want to quicken your interest in my contents. I want to share my treasures with you. I have a story to tell. I propose to tell it now. Will you listen?
“I am one of the oldest of all pieces of literature for I was written in the long ago, and I often speak of old ways and strange scenes. I am also one of the newest, as new as the breaking news in the morning on the internet. For if you read me tonight, I will prick your conscience and shed light upon your play or your task tomorrow.
I have survived longer than any other piece of literature in all the world. No fragment of any army ever survived so many battles; no citadel ever withstood so many sieges; no rock was ever battered by so many hurricanes and so swept by the storms, and yet I stand. I have seen the rise and downfall of Daniel’s four empires.
Assyria bequeaths a few mutilated figures to the richest of our national museums. Media and Persia, like Babylon, which they conquered, have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Greece faintly survives in its historical fame, and iron Rome of the Caesars has long since ceased to boast. And yet, I, the Book which foretells all this, still survive.
While nations, kings, philosophers, systems, institutions have died away. I engage the keenest intellects and stand revered before the highest tribunals. I am assailed, defended, and more denied than other book the world has seen. I survive all changes and yet am unchanged. I move all minds, and yet I am moved by none. I can see all things decay, and yet I am incorruptible. I see myriads of other books engulfed in the stream of time, yet I am borne along till the angel shall plant his foot upon the sea and declare that time shall be no more.
I am the best seller in all book stores – because for many years I have outsold all the happy fiction that comes from the modern presses.
I am the most widely distributed book in the world. Portions of the Bible have been published in more than 1000 languages and dialects. Each year the circulation of the Bible runs into the tens of millions.
I can captivate the most learned intellect and allure the most unlearned. My message is for all mankind everywhere. I am not some magic fetish to transform your life if your mind is elsewhere while you mumble my words. I will speak to you of something more than bread and clothing and the physical wherewithal of life. I will lift your soul from the muddy vista of life’s low level and fix it upon the upper sunlit peaks of faith and high living. I will put a dream and a purpose in your soul.
I began in the wilderness but traveled to every enduring civilization in every land where civilization has gone, I have been the foundation of every principle of righteousness in government. Rivers of blood have been shed to protect me. I deal authoritatively with man’s most vital problems. I tell of man’s origin, his purpose, his duty, and his destiny. I advise of two destinations and tell how to avoid one and gain the other. If you own but one book, may I plead to be that possession? LET ME BE YOUR BIBLE! If you would be happy here, and hereafter, I recommend that you read, study, believe, and obey my principles.
Author Unknown Adapted from Christian Worker, Vol. 50 No. 10, March 5, 1964, p. 3.