The Portland daily press., 1874-02-17

U l.
spre me, or is there evidence that they have
inspired others? In either case they are in
spired words.
III. How does this spiritual view of inspir-
alton compare in practical application with
the mechanical view, that the Bible is an in
fallible book? To some, perhaps, the rrjec-
tiOn of literal inspiration seems to destroy the
Bible altogether. "This," says Mr.. Haweis,
the Espiscopaian minister from whom quot
ed same words last Sunday, "This is the usual
panic cry-The whole Bible or nothing! 1t
sounds very dreadful dilemma, but after all,
1t Is but parrot-cry." And yet, though it be
but an echo ofthe many-voiced Bibliolatry, We
ought to remember that it is uttered often in
ueepest sincerity and sorrow.
IL any mourners tor the loss OF an .nfallible
Bible were within sound of nv voice. could
only entreet then to give to this matter a lit
tie cahaid renection. wouidask them to con-
sidei whether or not this Bibliolafry- use a
term which Coleridge first applied TO B,ble
worshlp-ls not kind of idoiatry after ali
and whether its hold upon them is not ne,
clsey of that kind by which all idolatry holds
the worship of its devotees. There is no on
probrium in this intimation For we are
none of us very far removed from ancestors
whose religion was idolatrous; and it were
strange indeed if something OF that tendency
had not passed down to us nor is it necessary
to so many streets from this place TO find
some Of our fellow-citizens. in the full no n
day blaze OF this 10Th century, bowling down
before the consecrated waier, in which they find
their God. Is 1t not then a fair subject of in
qulry, whether when we perceive in ourselves
this tendency towards the worship OF a Book,
we are not percbance unconsciou ;.y borne on
BY an occult influence of superstition, which
a few centuries ago was rife through all the
lie in, larn To-. -
Chlistendom? l believe, myself that it is a
tendency to be afraid of and to wild, to search
out and to cast out. Especially is its mfiu-
ence to be deprecated in tue study of the
Bible, tor the following reasons:
l. It leads to fanciful aud false interpreta
tions. For example, it is narrsted that
Satan had power over God to affiict Job
with horrible diseases. That narrative was
used in times of witchcraft to prove that the
devil could in the person of witches affiict
and torment his victims with disease.
Witches could ride through the air ON
broomstick and send destructive tempests
abroad. How proved? By the fact that
Satan sent tempest to destroy this house
where the sons OF Job were eating, (Lecky,
Hist. Rationalism 1, 91l The opinions of
Calico were condemned because the Bible
says the sun runneth about from Que end of
The heaven to the other and that the foun-
dations of the earth are 80 firmly fixed that
they cannot be moved. lib. 275.l 1t was
once maintained that Christians must not
even speak of the Antipodes, because Paul
says that all men are made to live upon the
face of the earth; therefore man cannot live
on mo- than one face of the earth or upon
its back; and it is said that when IN the
middle of the eighth century st. Virgilius
ventured to assert the existence of the Auti-
poIes ''the whole religious world was
thrown iuto a paroxysm Of indignation.
lib 278, 2S0.
This effect of an extravagant regard for
the letter of Scripture is seen also in the
curious devices OF the scholastic writer's to
put as much meaning into the Scripture
letter as human ingenuity could conceive,
and more. One of them John Scotus Fri
eenal went so far as to say that the infinite
originator of the sacred Scripture had placed
in it infinite meanings. But others wele
content with less. One writer Taught three
fold sense of Scripture; the literal, the spir
itual and the moral. Another taught four
fold sense. Another seven fold, and
another an eight fold. [Hag. Hist. Doct.
1, 429, 49, No more is needed to show
that there is no end to the fanciIul and false
results to which this extravagant view in
vites.
2. The tendency to Bibliolatry should be
checked, in the second place, because il makes
the Bible minister to cruel practices Under
the law of Moses, one who did not keep the
Sabbath with the enjoined strctness was to
be put to death; and the next kInsman of a
murdered man was permitted to slay the muir
derer. Now has that law ever been repealed
II we say it has, We say it is not a law OF God
for laws Of God are never n epealed; il we say
it has not been repealed, and that is the fact
then If tie Bible is all infalible we ought tt
stone to death those who do any work ON Sat
urday. / need only allude to the support je-
rived from the Bible for those.twin relics ol
barbarism, slavery and polygamy.
3. In the third place Bbliolatry should be
deprecated and avoided because it tends to
crush mind and reason in the devotee. DIR.
Bellows says, lRestatement Of Christian Doc
trlne, p. 81. II pronounce this servile defer
ence to the letter of Scripture gross super
sti ion, an insult to the Divine Reason, and
to Chlists own authority. 1t is a miserable
perpetuation of the Jews soul-crushing wor-
ship of the very letter Of the Mosaic law,
which Christ in vain resisted and reproved -
Lecky, in his History Of Rationalism makes
this striking statement:-sin exact proper
tion to the increase of European superstition
did the doctrine of inspiration diate till il
crushed every department of the human in
tellect. [Vol. l, p. 25O,
Now, while it may be said that all intelli-
gent persons ought to reject extravagant
views of Biblical Inspiration, it would be un.
justifable to assert that all who do cherish
them are ,Or that reas On 20 be pronounced
unintelligent; would not affirm that or i'm.
ply it; but do affirm that the natural effecl
OF such views is to confuse the mind and
check the free development OF reason. Fol
no one can try hard to satrifice his reason to
book without succeeding n some degree.
If you say to reason, "Here, lie you still il
the dark; the Bible occupies your place.
will you grow to be as reasonable as you 9TH
erwIse might? Though one should not sue
coed in sacrificing his reason,-aud few have
ever succeeded in that dreary effOrt-if only
be thwarts its free movement and constrains
it by force to arbitrary and unnatural courses,
he cannot fail by such outrage upon his mind
to do it lasting injury. have known men
who, without special training, by allowing
scope to their minds for the action that ma
ture intends, by refusing to bribe or betray
their mental conclusions, under outside pres
sure; by sccrning to adopt opinions because
they threaten loneliness and reproach, by be-
ing honest clear through, upright and
downright even in the hidden laboratory
of reason, have come to be BY organic devel-
opment men of strong minds. Without lib
eral education, without extensive reading
they know quite well what to think when
thinking is i'll demand, and other men go to
them for counsel. Now reverse that process
of straightforward natural development; sup
pose that, as soon as reason peeps, the Bible
is clapped Oh to extineuish its involuntary
heresies; suppose that it submits, and be
| comes a slave to this autocrat, is led this way
| to find this conclusion, or that way, to avoit
another, but never acts independently as
moved by its own nature; what becomes OF il
| then? 1t is led by the Bible till 1t can haid
ly stand alone; or, if it stands, 1t is as the
Chinese women stand, with crushed feet.
Are arguments so weak put forth in any 9TH
er cause as those advanced to support Bibli-
cal Infalibility? Or is there any other sub.
ject THAI gives occasion for reasoning so in
consequent, for reflections so shallow, for
-conjectures SO airy and fanciful? Not long
ago a theological professor and popular author
of theological works, put forth book entitled
"The Arena and the Throne;" in which
he assumes that the narrative in the Book OF
Job is all exactly true. that Satan did have
an interview with God, and did talk to Him
in a familiar and insolent manner; and, ap-
parentlv in grave sincerity, he uses this asto u
shng language: sit is not little surprising
that JehOrdh dll0,ced such insOlence in hi,
presence; but then aoe knOic that he permitted
similar real or apparent insults t,oenty cen
turtles later in the ,oilierness. On the Judg
ment day it ,oiu be ,oise for the Judge to har
clear case against Satan" There appear