Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-07-23
TRUE INSPIRATION.

it, with the divine aspect Of every view
and relation Of life" "If | take up a
book Of botany" says a favorite author,
ait does not contain living plants, but
only neutrality-suspicious. of them; If
see tho plant itself, must 60
out of tho book to nature, where the
plant 10 living. And the Bible contains
only the word-formS Of truth. God does
live in a book. Faith, hope, joy,
do not live in books" But as a book
of botany suggests to the habitusl stu
dent Of il those observations in regard
to tue structure of plants, their order
and arrangement, and the thoughts they
are capable of inspiring, so does the
Bible teach US TO read nature, and his
tory, aud the heart Of man, not only in
toe Bible, but in every page Of real life.
1, suggests thoughts Of the purposes Of
all the events that happen to US in this
life. so that we read life quite different
" when We believe its system Of &C.
counting for things and when we try to
live AS ii directs. This inspiration
Of new faith and hope and JOY in
life, as it comes to US, is the best evil
deuce Of Bible truths. The best proof
of a work on botany being true,
and written By a man who had read
the thoughts Of the Creator, as mani
tested in the fields and woods, is,
that when you close the book and walk
anywhere mon them, they teach you
new truths, and fill you with new
thoughts of the plans Of creation. They
give you, with a self-consisteut view,
the whole structure of this part Of crea-
ton, so that new plants not mentioned
in books have an interest for you in q
word, they in,pirs 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 inspired
view of its whole end aud purposes.
The Book is the channel Of q new in
spiration. The early Church regarded
every Christian as an inspired man not
an infallible one, but so inwardly en-
lightened that be looks On the world
with new eyes and as the geologist
reads thousands Of years of the ear,h's
record in a few inches Of gravel or sand
or rock, lying n on top of another
as the chemist reads laws Of forces and
affuities and combinations in the simp-
lest ~efsryescence or miIture-so the
studeu, Of the Bible, amid all mis-trans-
l%stions, mistakes Of copyists and COM
m~entators, and other difficulties, reads
that in the Bible that inspires 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 10 the Ipirit. It is the
spirit Of everything, both in literature
and 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 grammars in an unknown
tongue, especially in Latin, were thus
committed, aud religious teaching wal
confined to the words of a c%atechism or
so many verses Of the Bible. Even the
singing in the churches was confined to
''The Psalms Of David" paraphrased
in a most barbsrous style. There are
some sscts who adhere 10 that literally
to this day. 1t needed all the poetic
grace, beauty, and religious as we'll as
poetic inspiration o fyouug Isaac Watts,
equally GRACEFUL in psalms and in hymn,
TO break down much Of this old feeling.
Now poetry, science, art and progress
have led to deeper, truer feeling Of
the inspiration of the Scriptures, lying
in this inspiring, q~uickening power,
awakening Bible experiences and
thoughts in modern circumstances-ar
inspiration which lies not in the letter,
which killeth, but in the spirit which
gireth life.
The new movements Of religious bod
les all tend in this direction. Christi
anity, as it affects different classes and
differently educated men, 10 showing it.
self out in new forms. The preaching
in theatres in England by the laity-iu
that country so far by ministers, but
without Stiffness or parade-is M of
them. There is a religion, and a testl
mony to its truth and new applications
of it, belonging to every branch of life,
art and science. There is not a science,
not q branch Of learning conducted by q
living earnest, good man, but teaches
him new applications Of truth most
ueedful to the world and the proper
growth of society. The true and divine
ideas thus brought out Dy a society Of
well-selected men would be most ad-
vansagsous, aud the place where they
were inculcated would soor be crowded
with thoughtful hearers.
A RECENT writer saws that tho Poet