Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-07-12
LAY SERMON NO. a..
Thoughts for Sun,iay Meditation.
"Search the Scriptures"

.hnONsntS Tor Suniay Recitation.
"Search the Scriptures"
This is command from Heaven,
and ought to be obeyed by all people;
and is Obeyed to some extent by all
the members of the various religious
denominations. But what is very re-
markable, every religious denomina-
ton, and every student Of the Bible,
finds that theScriptures teach precisely
what they individually believe, and
when we come to examine their creeds,
We find them as Numerically opposed
to each other as the opposite poles.
AS this fact is so well known it is not
necessary to give instances. But as
this is the case, is it not the part of
Christian modesty to feel less conf
dence in our own opinions when we
see so many great and good men de-
irving exactly opposite views from the
same divine fountain And should it
not suggest the question, whether
each party has discovered the right
lliOuc VI llttI pIctiiiS tiic WOlu vi you
All cannot be right, and possibly all
many reasons for believing.
These thoughts should lead every
Bible student to inquire in regard to
seems to be so easily misrepresented,
state, or to his peculiar objects of in
vestigation.
On what principle was the Scrip
lures written? And why did God, in
speaking to man, speak in way to
give different men such opposite
views of the same subject? These
questions, correctly answered, will aid
many biblical students to receive in
struction and pleasure from passages
of Scripture, which are to them now
incomprehensible, and only received
by blind faith.
Let us, then, understand that God
always did speak to man in exact
adaptation to his state at the time.
There is a great variety in our Bible,
because there was very great variety
of states or characteristics of mind, to
which it was, at as many different
times, addressed. The sacred Scrip
lures consist of Gods manifestations
or "showings" of Himself to man.
kind. This principle should never be
overlooked in Bible Interpretation; it
is this: these showings were, in every
instance, characterized by the states
of the people to whom they We're
made, That is, "to the pure" as Da-
vid said, "God shows Himself pure,
but to the froward God shows Himself f
froward.n The Bible consists en-
tirely of Gods showings of Himself to
the froward-to the vindictive, wrath
full, selfish, ,changeable and unforgiving
for there have been no pure to
whom He could show Himself pure,
and this is the reason why He is rep
resented in Scripture as possessing
most of the infirmities and inconsist-
encies of character that man pos
sesses. This is the reason why every
man sees in God character just like
his own-every man makes a God like
himself. This explains the reason
why most men have looked upon God
as taking offense at the conduct of His
children, as if He was really angered
by it. This is the reason why they
have looked upon Him as distant,
stern, implacabie, unforgiving, but for
a reward, II purchase, a sacrifice. In
Il word, this is the reason why they
have totally misunderstood His char
acter and their own relations to Him.
1t is because they have taken appar-
ent truths, which these Scripture
showings of God of Himself to the
toward are, for real truths.
In the literal Interpretation of the
Bible, there are a great many things
which the good man cannot believe,
whatever he may blindly profess, for
in the letter the Bible teaches in one
place the very opposite of what it
teaches in another. 1t teaches, in
deed palpable inconsistencies and alb
surdities, and such as cannot be recon-
ciled or explained on rational princi-
pies; and every attempt to do so only
eXoites the righteous contempt and
ridicule of h0nest-thinking men-in
fact, drives them further away and
makes them hate the very name of
religion. Thus we charge the
churches with the crime of making
iutidels by the thousands.
Loving men can believe in q loving
God, but selfish men, whose chief con-
Germ is to make the best of this life and
the next, can only believe in a selfish
God like themselves; and they find
Him in His showings of Himself in
the external sense of the Bible, Do
not men make out of the literal mean
ing of the Bible many and various re-
ligions to suit their corrupt states, and
they give the Bible as good authority?
In eXempli fcation of the principle of
which | am speaking, it is evident
that God showed Himself in one way
to man in His integrity, in another to