Dub Mowery
In the late 19th century, a young farm boy traveled to town for the first time. As the boy walked with his father down the unpaved main street, he heard a loud clang! clang! Clang!
“What’s that?” he asked his father.
His father said, “Come, I’ll show you,” and took the boy to the door of the black-smith’s shop. There the boy saw a huge man lifting a big, heavy hammer high in the air, as if to chop down a tree, and then crashing it down on a glowing piece of metal on top of the anvil. The man hit the anvil so hard that it made the boy wince. The boy’s father explained to him that the blacksmith made all kinds of metal pieces for wagons, carriages, plows, and tools.
But the little boy was fixed on two things—the heavy hammer and the great metal anvil. They met each other with such a loud sound and with such force that the boy thought surely the anvil could not last long. The big, strong blacksmith paused for a moment to catch his breath, and saw the boy standing in the doorway.
“Aren’t you going to break that thing?” the boy asked, pointing at the anvil.
The blacksmith smiled and said, “This anvil is a hundred years old and has worn out many hammers.”
Likewise, the Bible is an anvil that has worn out a thousand hammers. In every generation, new heavy “hammers” are forged against the truth of the Bible. Strong men and women use these hammers to pound on the Scriptures. People with no historical perspective—like little boys who’ve never been to town—see it and say, “Surely the Bible will be destroyed.” But others who know their history a little better say, “This Bible was forged in the furnace of divine truth and has worn out many hammers.”
Great men and women of the world through ages past have acknowledged the supremacy and influence of the Bible in their own and their nations’ lives.
George Washington:
“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
John Quincy Adams:
“So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society. I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year.”
Napoleon:
“The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that opposes it.
Queen Victoria:
“That book accounts for the supremacy of England.”
Daniel Webster:
“If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures. If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”
