The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1874-11-12

tains no other record9 While it il
admitted that God in his general pro,
idence has preserved the history oi
the Jews, why should it be claimed
that the historical portions of the Bi.
BILE are in any sense specially inspir-
ed! Why are we TO regard God as
the author, directly, of its details in
history, its numerous and tedious rep
eti,ions Of laws. of genealogies. and OF
events, and its records Of the immod.
esties OF barbarous men. The Bible
contains record Of the divine insp r
alto of imperf, ct men. Have they
never recorded their own human
thoughts? Is the lO9th Pslam to be
received AS an inspired prayer, as the
word of God, or as human prayer,
the word of man? David says of his
enemv, "Set thou a wicked man over
him, and LEI Satan stand at his right
hand. When he shall be judged. let
him be condemned, and let his prayer
become sin. Let his days be few:
let another take his office. Let his
children be fathcrless, and his wife a
widow. Let his children be con'n.
ually vagabonds, and beg; let them
seek their bread also out Of their des-
olate places. Let the ex,ortioner
catch all that he hath; and let stran-
gers spoil his labor Let there be
none to extend mercy unto him;
neither let there be any to favor his
fatherless children" This is the
prayer of one inspired at times with
sublime and beautiful thoughts. above
the men of his age; of one who in the
midst Of idolaters trusted in the one
living and true God; but not inspired
with the nobler. gentler thoughts of
men Of larger religious growth, not
inspired with the divine sentiments
of Jesus. ''Ye have heard that it
hath been said. thou shalt love thy
neighbor and hate thine enemy, but
say unto you, love your enemies, bless
them that curse you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and
persecute you" Mans religious ma
,ure is complex, and he may be in
spirel in some things and not in 9th
ers. To Solomon was given wisdom
in temporal affairs. His proverbs are,
many of them, unrivalled maxims Of
wisdom for our guidance in life; but
the man of thousands of wives and
concubines was not fit medium to
supply the deeper needs of the soul.
Is it not evident that there are de-
grees and kinds of inspiration, aud
that highly inspired men are not in
spirei al all times. and do not always
write from inspiration? First Cor. xii.
8. "But the manifestation of the spir.
it is given to erery man to profit
wiihal. For to one is given by the
spirit the word Of wisdom; to anoth-
er the word of knowledge by the
same spirit; to another faith by the
same spirit to another the gifts OF
healing by the same spirit, etc
Would you find exalted conceptions
of the omnipresence and power of
God expressed in language Of unriv
allied sublimity? Read the Psalms Of
David Would you learn prudence
and discretion, and garner wise max.
inns Of daily duty? Read the Prov
cribs Of Solomon. Would you learn
of our Father in heaven, and of the
souls DESTINY; study the life and say
ings of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The puerile efforts of the clergy to
reconcile the contradictions, and force
the letter OF the whole Bible upon the
people, has led multitudes to pract-
caly rejec, the whole, and trample it
under foot. They say, at is fiddle
on which you can play any tune" If
every verse is divine revelation
whence the ponderous commentaries
to reconcile its contradictions? Ar
gumen,s are drawn from the Bible to
block the wheels Of the worlds pro-
gress. War, slavery, capital punish
ment, poIygamy, drunkenness, sectar-
ian hate. spiritual oppression, all these
find scriptural warrant under the idea
that all par of the Bible are Of equal
authority and of equal value. Every
one knows tina. before the war, in the
South, the fortress of slavery was the
Bible. thus interpreted. A clergyman
would pass unmoved over the sermon
on the mount, the golden rule, or the
loving life of Christ. and entrench
himself beyond the power of theolo.
z cal unearthing within that infallible
ordinance. "cursed be Canaan An
other relying on the authority of drum
ken Noah, announces tot al abstinence
as unscriptural. To prove all parts
of the Bible to be special divine
rcvelation,t the most fantastic solutions
of kno,,y texts have been invented.
numbering syntax and etymology
outright We repeat, there are null
tltudcs who reject the Bible because
it is held ou' to them, not as what il
is, but as what it is not. From false
j ,struotio', they supp 'se that Chris
tianitv demands Of them to believe
things with which Christianity does
not co ,cern itself. SAYS Christ, "He
that hrar.th my word. aud believe'h
on him that sent me hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into judgment,
but is passed from death unto life
Chris ianity is not responsible for any
thing but :he word OF Christ. Ifyou
can find any doe rine taught, or state
ment, anywhere in the Bible that
contradicts the spirit of the teachings
of Jesus, we say, Christianity is in no
way responsible for it. May truth.
are found in the Old Testament. All
truth is from God. His ri ght hand
is leading us, III a sp ritual nse.-
Were this not So, we would never
think of him any NOR. than does tn"
brute. Without his inspiration we
should say aud hear nothi y of relig,
ious things; without his sp rt NOV
ing us, no church spires would point
to our heavenly home. The p.triarchs
and the prophets were blessed with