The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-02
Nn0m az RaRadeIphia Ledger.
True Inspiration.


From lte Philadelphia Ledger.
True Inspiration.
"How do you know that the Bible is
inspired?" asked skeptic OF an unlet-
tered but earnest Christian woman,
Because it inspires me, when read it,
with the divine aspect of every view
and relation OF life." 'If take up a
SIT does not contain living plants, but
only neutrality-suspicious. OF themj If i
would see the plant itself, l must go
out of the book OF nature, where the
plant is living. And the Bible contains
only the word forms of truth. God does
not live in Il book. Faith, hope, joy,
do not live in books" But as a book
OF botany suggests to the habitual stu
dent of 1t those observations in regard
to the structure of plants, their order
and arrangement, and the thoughts
they are capable of inspiring, SO does
the Bible teach us to read nat uFe, and
history, and the heart of man, not only
in the Bible, but in every page of real
life. II suggests thoughts ofthe purpo-
ses of all the events that happen to us
in This life, so that we read life q ute diff
ferently when we believe its system OF
accounting for things and when we
try to live as 1t directs. This in
Vi new ldlID anu hOPt ahd
joy in LIE, as it comes 10 us, is the best
evidence of Bible truths. The best
proof Il work on botany being true, and
written by a man who had read the
thoughts of the Creator, as manifested
in the fie.d and woods, is, that when
you close the book and walk anywhere
among them, they teach you new
truths, and fil you with new thoughts
OF the plans of creation. They give
you, with self-c0nsiStent view, the
whole structure of this part of creation,
SO that new plants not mentioned in
books have an interest for you, in a
word, they inspire you. So does the
Bible inspire men with new, deeper,
higher views of the purposes of life, so
that they never can again look on life
as they once did. They have an in
spired view of its whole end and pur-
poses. The Book is the channel of a
new inspiration. The early Church re-
garded every Christian as an inspired
man, not an infallibie one, but SO in
wardly enlightened that helooks onthe
world with new eyes; and as the geolo-
gist reads thousands of years of the
earth's record in few inches of gravel
or sand or rock, lying one on top of
another-aS the chemist reads laws of
forces and affinities and ordinations
in the simplest etfervescence or mix
ture-so the student of the Bible, amid
all mis-translations, mistakes OF copy
lists and commentators, and other diff
culties, reads that in the Bible that in
spires him with new views of all his
purposes and life, making it part of an
harmonious system related to all other
life.
The greatest change that is going on
in the world at the present time is that
from the letter to the spirit. 1t Is the
spirit of everything, both in literature
and in religion, that is inspired, and in
that proportion inspires the recipient.
Time was when committing to memory
the largest amount of the words of a
textbook was the test of scholarship
long pages of grammarsin in an unknown
tongue, especially in Latin, were thus
committed, and religious teaching was
confined to the words of a catechism or
SO many verses of the Bible. Even the
singing in the churches was confined to
"The Psalms of David" paraphrased
in a most barbarous style. There are
some sects who adhere TO that literally
to this day. 1t needed all the poetic
grace, beauty, and religious as well as
poetic inspiration OF young Isaac
Watts, equally graceful In psalms and In
hymns, to break down much OF this old
feeling. Now poetry, science, art and
progress have led TO a deeper, trueI
feeling of the inspiration of the Scrip.
lures, lying in this inspiring, quicken
ing power, awakening Bible expert
ences and thoughts in modern circum'
stances-an inspiration which lies not
in the letter, which killeth, but in the
spirit, which giveth life.
The new movements of religious bod
les all tend In thIsairection. Christian
ity, as it affects different classes and
differently educated men, is showing it
self out in new forms. The preaching
in theatres in England by the laity-
in this country SO far by ministers, bui
without stiffness or pRrade-is one o!
them. There is a religion, aud testi'
mony to its truth and new applications
of 1t, belonging to every branch of life
art and science. There is not a science
not branch Of learning conducted by
II Lying, earnest, good man, but teaches
him new applications of truth mos
needful to the world and the proper
growth of society. The true anddiyin
ideas thus brought out by society o.
well-selected men would be most ad'
vantageous, and the place where they
were inculcated would soon be crowded
with thoughtful hearers.