The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-02-08

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| soulds that know that God exists. They feel
the breath; they feel the quality. Their own
nature Is c1ahgeu IN sucn strange ways that
they say: al knaw that my Redeemer liveth,
| my GOD; and though He hide Himself at other
| times, nevertheless, when He comes, He comes
| TO leave an impression upon the soul that
lasts, and nothing can etface It or take IL away"
And this higher moral lntuitve art of the finer
natures is a better proof of the existence of God
than any demonstration of light and science
could make, or any mere historical record could
make.
| tlon 1t does not dismiss God from His works;
| 1t exalts Him to a higher station our thought;
the conception is snblimer and better.
ITS EFFECT ON THE BIBLE.
Well, does it not destroy the Bible2 No. 1t
very likely destroys your way of looking at the
Bible, but it will not destroy it, either in its
potency or IN its existence. The Bible is what it
is, and is Jhunderousy what 1t is; and you can
not change it by any methods of belief or any
belief that may be radiated by the sun or blown
Ike midnight storms upon 1t. 1t stands there
as an everlasting fact, and its nature is estab-
lshed in it. The Bible is itself one of the most
| remarkable illustrations and examples of evolu-
| tlon There are some people who think that God
sent down for a dozen fifteen reporters and
told them to come up because He wanted to tell
them something. [Laughter.l And so they sat
down at a table and wrote down what He had to
say, and out came Genesis and Exodus; and
then they went through Levtticns, and DeuteT-
onomy, and Numbers, and God kept talk
all fixed for them, and all they had to
do was to write it down. Laughter and
aapplanse. That is what is called the verbal
theory-the theory that the Bible given
word for word and sentence for sentence from
the lips of God. | call, in this age, the verbal
theory OF inspiration the DEVILS Broadway to in
fidelity. The man that holds that theory in this
age OF the world ought to be ashamed of himself,
ana ne is not tit either TO call himself teacher
or to be n teacher even of babes.
What is the anatomy of the Bible3 believe it
TO be simply the history of an inspiration of the
human race. Now, how can You write history
of the progress of divine inspirationl What is
the inspiration of a race7 AS hold 1t, the great
material law Il provision enough for our mate
rial bodies. Human society is material enough
for our social nature. Above that is the mag
ination, conscience, faith, hope love, reason.
What is there to feed that9 In this cacophonons
human life, in all iuexplIcabie thin gs of human
life, what Can feed directly the spiritual man.
the higher range of cerebral facultes2 believe
there is universal and immanent constant in
Hueuce moving directly from the bosom of God
and that is the inspiration of the human race.
INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
This Bible is book that was written by more
than forty authors. Sixty-six books of it are
separated from each other one by hundred
years, another by 500 years, all the way down
containing the history of nation, the history
OF its institutions, its constitutional history and
government proceedings, its wanderings, its re-
/ formations. All the elements are scattered up
hands, and with wide interspaces. Now, to I'M
dertake TO tell me that that book is directly in
spired by God so that everyt thing that is salS in
IT ia fact, is to indicate that you have not the
first twilight dawn or dream Of what the book
really is.
when men were absolutely but crawling ont of
the earth, as 1t were, the same right and the
same wrong, the same conscience in its earliest
and infantile CONDITION that you hear In its
manly tones at the very latest.
From the beginning to the end that Book has
been on the side of the poor, on the side of the
needy. on rhe side of eternal compassion. That
Book has been, through thousands and thou
sands of years, stout advocate of Justice of in
tegrity, of pure and humane government.
That Book all the way through has represented
GOO, terrible against wlckedness, and unbOunded
in goodness toward righteousness, purity sweet
ness and love- There is not n stagger in it. There
is not one license for sin. There is NOT, from be-
ginning to end, one single variation, except to
give higher conception of duty. The line is
unbroken, and 1t is all the more marvellous when
you think how many ages there were IN its writ
ing, and how many different men recorded what
was the height to which civilization had attained
in the particular ages in which they write. And
at last you come to what is called the fullness of
time.
The converted man has got to run through all
the stages OF unfolding until he comes to the
highest possible forms of experience that this
world can allow. But the great doctrine of the
possibility of conversion aud of the need of it
that is to say, the suppression of the basilar
man by the ruling power of the spiritual man
that is significant definition of conversion ac-
cording to the Darwinian theory of evolutionary
philosophy; and 10 Is genuine one. There is q
Christianity perfectly consistent with evolution
airy theories; and indeed great advantage is
gained in their authority and in their compre-
hensihility, but do not perceive that the theory
of evolution touches churches at all.
This doctrine of evolution ia going to make
trouble just in proportion ne it is opposed Al
low me to say specially to young men who are
puposlng to be moral teachers, and suppose
there are some such here, that either of two
courses is bad; One, refusing to open their eyes
or ears and running away FROM IT, feeling as
though there were endless dangers attending it,
and they viii have none Of IT, and will stick to
the old dOgmes, and screw them ma little
tighter, and yOu will snffocate them [laughterl;
they will die for want of BREATH Then there il
another class that will run into the novelty, ard
Will read and think out the matter and try to
preach 1t or to write 1t, and you will get caught
yourself, and will founder. Neither of those two
extremes is wise. In regard TO all moral teaching
IN regard 70 all preaching, let me tell you that he
man that brings into the work the greatest
amount of sincere charity, the greatest amount
OF real, active, working force, the most emotion
and moral FEELING, the keenest sensibility as be-
tween truth and untruth, the keenest conscience
as between right and wrong, the keenest sense
Of moral beauty and holy things with fervor, and
sympathy for his fellOw-lnen, is going TO carry
the world.
Great pulpits great icebergs are never 60
ing to bring any summer morally into the COM
nnnity, but when by and by the sun, travelling
from the Tar south, comes and the ice is gone
and the SHOWS are melted. and the heat begins
TO come down, then every square incn will TEEN
with life and TEEN with vegetation and step bv
step the summer will come and will reign tri-
unphant over winter And as it ia In nature SO
it Is also in the moral kingdom. The men that
bring the most heart and the most intellect TO-
gether-the heart plotting and the intellect
analyzing, the intellect lighting that which is
found by the heart-and the interaotion of these
two spiritual 1ntellgences, reason and fervor
with cody life, Will carry the dav in the future
scientists to the contrary notwithstanding the
OlOgists to the contrary Notwithstanding, theO
ries and abnormal doctrines to the contrary not
withetanding, and, in my judgment, we are
drawing nc1r 20 day of prediction when the
light shall come TO the SUI that shall stand a
thousand yea s. The unsetting sun of the future
and the knowledge of the light shall fiji the
earth as the waters fill the sea, and no man have
occasion to say to his neghbor "KnOw the
Lord" in that we all shall know Him, from the
least unto the greatest. lApplause.l
The McCaslin Case
The McCaslin estate again looms up serenely