Stand it on end. Measure it, the height of
it, the depth of it, the length of it, the breadth of it. You can not do
it. Examine the paper, and estimate the progress made from the time of
the impressions on clay, and then on the bark of trees, and from the
bark of trees to papyrus, and from papyrus to the hide of wild beasts,
and from the hide of wild beasts on down until the miracles of our
modern paper manufactories, and then see the paper, white and pure as an
infant's soul, waiting for God's inscription. A book! Examine the type
of it; examine the printing, and see the progress from the time when
Solon's laws were written on oak planks, and Hesiod's poems were written
on tables of lead, and the Sinaitic commands were written on tables of
stone, on down to Hoe's perfecting printing-press. A book! It took all
the universities of the past, all the martyr-fires, all the
civilizations, all the battles, all the victories, all the defeats, all
the glooms, all the brightnesses, all the centuries, to make it
possible. A book! It is the chorus of the ages--it is the drawing-room
in which kings and queens, and orators, and poets, and historians, and
philosophers come out to greet you. If I worshiped any thing on earth, I
would worship that. If I burned incense to any idol, I would build an
altar to that. Thank God for good books, helpful books, inspiring books,
Christian books, books of men, books of women, books of God. The
printing-press is the mightiest agency on earth for good and for evil.
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