Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-03-24
SUNDAY AFTERNOON.
BEAUTIFUL LINES FROM TIE PEN OF
GEORGE ELIOT.
The Recently Expressed Views Of Heber
Observation-Disclosures to LIES
Duty is Gods Service.

Observation-Disclosures TO Lies
Duty is Gods Service.
In q recent letter by Rev. r. Heber
Newton, of Garden City, L l.. to the New
Haven Morning Nesrs, brief synopsis Of
the seven discourses recently delivered by
him upon the Bible, its inspiration. revela-
ton and its uses, is given. As the reader
is aware, the position taken in these ser.
mons is regarded as radically at variance
with the general tenets and beliefs of the
Episcopal Church, the clergy of which Mr..
Newton is a member, as well as of the
Churches generally, and is considered by
the religious world as an entire breaking
away from orthodoxy, rather than the ex-
preston of the most advanced liberal and
modern thought. The letter of Mr.. New
ton is long, but extracts from it cannot fail
TO be of interest. He says:
In the first sermon / stated the popular
notion of the Bible as a book of which
God is "the author" as the Westminster
Confession says, book let down from the
skies, all of piece, the work of God, and
having his imprimatur, an authority, orac-
ular and infallible on all points of which
1t treated. This theory, I sought to show,
could not be received for the following rea.
sons, among others sit has never been
properly authenticated by the voice of the
church general through her church coun-
ellis it was not claimed by the Holy Script
ure for itself it was disclaimed by Holy
Scripture in its palpable Indifference to his.
torical accuracy and in the plain literary
character of its writings, as brought out
especially by later criticism it was to be
traced by its growth in the Jewish and
Christian mind, and accounted for on nat.
ural grounds.
In the second sermon / sought to shape
the view of the Bible held by scholars in
increasing numbers view which pre-
serves all that was essential to our rever.
ence for the Bible. The Bible is q series of
books, the extant national literature of the
Jews, the Apocrypha being included, and
the literature of the Christian church in its
creative epoch. As literature these books
are most of them noble and worthy Of i'm
mortality, and have been the chief source
of inspiration to the mental and moral life
of Christendom, worthy to be called sa-
cred books. They are in a still deeper
sense our sacred books, as the literature of
the people of religion, the race to whom
God gave the unique mission of evolving
ethical religion, wnom He had endowed
with a speciality for religion and trained by
singular experiences for its normal develop.
ment, and from whom, as an historical fact,
had issued the one religion which might
claim TO have the future in its hands, the
one Man who historically embodied the
highest human conceptions of man and
God.
In the third and fourth sermons I pro-
ceeded to apply this general conception of
the Bible negatively. in the pointing out of
certain wrong uses of the Bible. Of these
l enumerated and illustrated the following !:
The indiscriminate use of the whole Bible
for all classes and ages the indiscriminate
use of the words of the Bible as the words
of God the indiscrimina.e use of its words
as historical truth its use as an oracle to
determine our judgments as an oracle to
predict events of history as an authority
in any sphere save theology and religion !;
as an authority even there of equal rights
IN all its parts as an authority even there
which is to be resorted to in the "proof
text manner, or in the use of its language
otherwise than as in other literature as
IN authority, even in theology of fixed
and final form.
In the fifth sermon presented the intel.
iectual use of the books of the Bible as
literature. As such we should have these
books issued like real books, separately,
properly Photographed, poetry appearing as
poetry, etc, and all in case together we
should study each book as a whole, crit.
ically; place it in proper historical posi-.
ton know its divisions, where composite,
and be able to assign them to their several
historical places and recognize through all
the writings the work of the many hands
which have labored over them.
In the sixth sermon presented the
proper intellectual use of the Bible, on the
foundation already laid, in order to con-
struct that faith which has always been the
essential of Christian belief-the faith in
providential preparation for the divine
mission of Christ. Thus l gave a birds.
eye view of the real movement of Jewish
thought and life, upward toward the
Christ, through its various stages, from the
germ of ethical religion, bodied in the ten
WOEke VI MUSES., aCCOIuluS W Jul i6bbcr
criticism-showing real evolution in the
organic life of the nation. This placed
the religion of the Christ in its old position
of commanding authority, and in the new
and necessary position, not of an exception
to the general order of nature, but of that
very order itself in the sphere of the soul.
Thus the foundation is laid for the concil-
iation of science and religion in the true
religion of the Christ-evolution, which is
the outworking of an ideal, quickened of
God.
In the last sermon l considered the right
use of the Bible for the culture of personal
and social character, as the providentially
prepared hand book of ethics and religion,
or rather of ethical religion. It teaches
not knowledge, but wisdom. 1t quickens
aspiration and turns it into the worship of
the God who is the source and standard of
all goodness. 1t presents every phase of
wisdom, and in its stern, ethical spirit
keeps the core of religion sound. 1t shows
us the prudential virtue that our age loves,
but lifts these laws of life into laws sacred
and mystic, substantial and real the laws
at once of nature and of the soul laws
which are none other than the shadows of
the One Living Lord of Life, the God who
finally speaks to US in A Mantle human
ideal, the divine image.
The Choir Invisible.
o may Join the choir invisible
OF these immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence /; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
Of miserable aims that end With self.