“the best of all books”

R. G. Lee (1886-1978) pastored Bellevue BC, Memphis, for 33 eventful years from 1927 to 1960. He also served four annual terms as president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, and three consecutive terms as SBC president. In his famous sermon, "Payday Someday," which he preached 1,275 times, he said,

"But what rejoicing is ours that we have today God's Book, the Bible, the strangest, the mightiest, the weirdest, the loveliest, the best of all books, to guide us in our glooms, to prompt us in our perplexities, to help us in our hazards, to direct us in our doubts, to be a "lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path." Wondrous Book! Book above and beyond all books as a river is beyond a rill in reach, as the sun is above and beyond the tallow dip in brightness, as Niagara is above and beyond the mill pond in power, as the oak is above and beyond the roadside weed in majesty, as the wings of an eagle are beyond the wings of a sparrow in strength, as a tree is beyond a twig in fruit-bearing. Book that has withstood storms of fire! Book against which tyranny has issued its edicts! Book against which Mohammedanism has hurled its anathemas! Book against which infidelity has thrown its sharpest shafts and strongest spears of scorn and ridicule! Book which the dissecting knives of modernistic "intellectuals" have whacked at, like butchers, and do whack at now like savages on a midnight raid! Book against which snipers from behind some pulpit stands and some college chairs have aimed their ill-grounded propositions.

“But withal, all its enemies have not torn one hole in its holy vesture nor stolen one flower from its wondrous garden nor diluted one drop of honey from its abundant hive nor broken one string on its thousand-stringed harp nor drowned one sweet word in infidel ink nor made dim one ray of its perpetual light nor stayed its triumphant progress by so much as one step nor shortened its life by so much as one brief hour! It is still the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword! And more besides!”