Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1879-10-11

Nor In veal nor in woe Will forsake;
And this Is my solace and comfort
| He knoweth tho way that take" ,Glflif
! stand where the cross roads are meeting,
And know not the right from the wrong
No beckoning finger directs me,
No Welcome floats to me In song;
But my Guide will soon give me token
| by wilderness, mountain or lake;
| Whatever the darkness about me
| He knoweth the way that take.S
And know that the way leadeth homeward
| To the land of the pure and the blest,
| To the country OF everfair summer.
| To the city Of peace and Of rest:
AND there shall be healing for sickness,
And fountains, life's fever 10 slake,
| What matter besidei l 20 heavenward
he knoweth the way that l take"
-London Ch'fsiian World.
Ancient and Modern Ideas Of Inspiration.
The Ancients set God and the universe
in opposition. They often ascribed the
creation of the world to O being less
perfect than God. They were unable
by higher synthesis to reconcile their
conceptions of Deity with the evil and
imperfection which they beheld in them
selves and in the world around. Poly
thesim had made Deity an intimate and
familiar presence, that too often shared
human frailty and vice. It was the re-
action of Semitic Monotheism TO send
God away almost into the region of the
unknowable. 1t enthroned Him in far
off and unapproachable majesty and holi-
ness. So jealous were the Semites of
the idea of Gods unapproachableness
and Observation-Disclosures that though in
the warmth of religious utterance He
was said to have appeared, to have re-
vealed Himself by some name or other
wise, returning to philosophic accuracy,
they would speak Of such manifestation
as that of some emanating power or
lower God, and would sooner lay
themselves open to the charge of believ-
ing in all sorts of lesser divinities as
mediatory powers than in the least to
appear to make Supreme Deity capable
of any representation whatsoever Has
He appeared, or uttered His voice, or
named Himself Jehovah? And would
men hence presume to begin to predi-
cate anything concerning His nature or
mode of existencep He withdraws in
describable and unnamable into His
absoluteness.
While God thus dwelt apart, alone in
the possession of all that is good, this
gross world, its thoughts, works and
imaginations were only evil continually.
II was totally depraved. It had no self
restorative power. It had no innate
ability to will or think anything that is
good. Even what might appear as good
works were not so in reality, but had
without doubt the nature of sin. How
then were goodness and truth to
appear and shine on the earth? 1t
could only be by an interposition of tie
far-off God; by lowering the celestial
sphere to inspire or breath Q" its holi-
ness into the earthly. This was effected
by the communication of an angel or
by she gift of daimon. In these
messengers God was efficaciously and
infallibly present. This mechanical
junction OF the celestial sphere with
the terrestrial was denominated inspira-
ton. The conception of inspiration
that inevitably followed was this: They
who receive these divine messages, j. e.,
inspired persons, were universally re-
gardet as pure mediums. Undoubt-
edly. There was and could be no
human element in the message. The
whole was direct from heaven. The in
spired we're possessed "The word that
the Lord hath put in my mouth, that
must speak" That this logical infer.
ence was commonly made we take Philo
out of multitude as witness: "A
prophet says nothing of his own, but
everything which he says is strange and
by some one else.
He is a sounding instrument cf Scib
voice, being struck and moved to sound
in an invisible manner by Him.
Again: "When the divine light shines
the human light sets,
and this very frequently happens to the
race Of prophets; for the mind that is
in us is removed from its place at the
arrival of the divine spirit, but it is
again restored when the spirit departs.'
Since, then, ancient philosophy made
the inspired person pure medium, "a
instrument OF Gods voice.
every inspired utterance must beinfali-
BILE. On this dark background OF essen
tial enmity and separation between God
and nature much of past theology has
been outlined. Some OF it has been
stepped in this utter gloom. This an
cient falsehood Of mans total depravity |
and hostility to God yet hangs its sable
pail over the theology Of some. But
our view OF nature and Of Gods govern
ment thereof is now radically changed.
We believe nature to be sacred and
God immanent and transeunt therein,
it's hypostasis and conscious soul. Re-
ligion we no longer look upon as a
wave come from some ethereal and mys-
tic sea to food our goddess valley with
it's healing waters. As we have con-
cluded men TO be, not children OF the
devil and of darkness by nature, but
the sons of their divine creator, we find
religion to be a fact deeply rooted in
their moral consciousness. The highest
Of the hiding God that
can possibly be vouchsafed TO us must
after all but be divipely human. But
II so, il the sublimest revelation OF God
to man must be revelation OF Him IN
and through man, then the germs OF
great truth and high capacity already
reside in him by nature. A righteous
life. then, is the result Of drasci'ag ottt,
by all manner OF education. tho God
planted possibilities within him. But
how was il attained, according to the
ancient mechanical viewP It was by
first driping out and exercising his
old depraved nature and bringing IN
another in its stead. When religious
philosophy teaches that, in order to re-
generate q race Of helplessly lost beings
something must be literally sent from
literally distant God, It is evident that
their regeneration must be by opus