“So men turn the word of God into a vast arsenal, filled with all manner of weapons, offensive and defensive.”

—  Henry Ward Beecher

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 38
Context: There are many persons of combative tendencies, who read for ammunition, and dig out of the Bible iron for balls. They read, and they find nitre and charcoal and sulphur for powder. They read, and they find cannon. They read, and they make portholes and embrasures. And if a man does not believe as they do, they look upon him as an enemy, and let fly the Bible at him to demolish him. So men turn the word of God into a vast arsenal, filled with all manner of weapons, offensive and defensive.

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Henry Ward Beecher photo
Henry Ward Beecher 75
American clergyman and activist 1813–1887

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