Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-11-11
The Old Testament.

ument OF former ages, no longer suitable
10 the advanced moral condition and in
teligence of the world, they should con-
{ slider little of its contents. II is true
{ that the record of the Levitical system
of worship, and the Jewish civil govern
mens has TO US only historic value. II
is true that the geological tables are no
longer of any special value to the world
They are dead to us. 1t is true that
} much that is in the Prophets was special
to the age and to the periods to which it
was addressed, and has TO US secondary
value. Bot while the elements that were
, local and special TO one people and one
age, no longer have to us the Importance
which they had to them to whom they
were first delivered, yet other portions
contain universal truths-that is, truths
that belong to men everywhere, and in
every age. 1t makes no difference under
what laws man is reared, love, and its
essential wants are the same. Joys, sor-
rows, the literature oftheseworrows, uni
versal Affections, remorse, warnings after
goodness, in short all the moral senti-
ments and all the natural affections, are
the same under all governments, under
all laws, and in every age. And the
Scriptures that relate to these things are
perennial. They never grow old. They
never are relative TO any one age. They
are alike to all. If you cast into oblivion
the Psalms of David, you throw away
the best literature of the feelings that has
ever appeared in human language; and
where can you replace it ! If you take
it out of our language and the meditations
which it has inspired, what will be left to
express the deepest and the most exalted
of all the feelings which man can enter
tain. The noblest application of moral
principles to human affairs are to be
found in the Prophets. Ever since good
men have hated evil, and sought to re-
form and ennoble the State, they have
found their inspiration in the Prophets.
If the gospel of Christ gave to the world
a new radical doctrine of the worth of
man as an individual creature, the Proph-
cts gave to the world the noblest inspira-
tions for just government and pure ad-
ministration in human affairs.
But there is one vein that is so far
above any that have mentioned, that it
seems scarcely worth while to linger up
on there details, important as they are
Let one ask himself where he will find a
substitute for that sublime conception of
God that rules Throughout: the Old Tes-
lament. Earlier than all others it stood
forth. Successive ages have corroborated
it, but have added nothing to it. The
sublime transactions of the New Tesla
ment have been instances under it, and
exemplifcations of it; but not even in the
New Testament, any description of God
that, for majesty and completeness, and
symmetry, and harmony, go beyond and
higher than those contained in the Oldest
parts Of the Old Testament. Let me
read you that we can never read enough
the description which was given to No
SEES;
"The Lord descended in the cloud, and
stood with him there, and proclaimed the
name of the Lord And the Lord pass
ed by him, and proclaimed, The Lord,
the Lord God, mercful and gracious,
long suffering, and abundant in goodness
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
iorgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, and that will by no means clear
the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, and upon the
children's children, unto the third and
= fourth generations"
Where can you find any description o.
moral governor more sublime OIL
where any limitations of moral govern.
ment more admirable ? Our theoogiet
scarcely yet aspire to deal with tba
which was so early and 90 clearly SCI
forth.
| have said that nothing has been ad-
ded to the conception given of God by
the Old Testament, and that not even the
New Testament has given us formula
that is any higher. Civilizations, one af
after another, have arisen-the Egyptian
; which was then in progressive Assyrian
the Grecian, the Roman and the modern
in each and all of which new element.
Of manhood have been evolved but with
the results Of them all before you, go bach
four hundred thousand years, and wha
will you add, or what subtract from thi,
4, sublimest description of God? 1t would
, seem as if from the morning of the bu.
man race God looked forth and inspired
the sacred penman to linn his portrait
which has since overhung the world, moi
, line effaced nor color grown dim