Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-01-26

The Bible is authoritative, but the opin.
ions which you have been wont to enter
tain respecting it are not authoritative
Christ. you remember, once set little
child in the midst of his disciples and told
them that ne who would enter Christ's
kingdom must become as a little child.
That is, he must, among other things, be
willing to lay aside his own notions and
accept what Christ taught him. This is
what we must all be willing to do if we
would be Christ's disciples. We must not
inquire what we think a Bible ought to be,
nor what we have been taught by our
fathers or our church that the Bible is, but
what tae Bible itself claims to be, and
what Christ teaches us that it Is We must
become as little children. We must not
invent Bible for ourselves and demard
that we must humbly and thankfully &C.
cept The Bible which God has given us, AID
use it in the way and for the purposes
which he has indicated. And to do this
we must look at the Bible itself, and at the
history of the Bible, to find out what it Is,
and how God gave it to us, and how He
means to use it.
Now, there is remarkable difference
between mems idea of what Bible ought
to be- and the actual Bible which God has
given to His children. This is illustrated
by the difference between men.made BIZ
bles and Gods Bible. The legend about
the Koran is that God dictated it to the
angel Gabriel, who brought it down from
the seventh heaven to Moha mmed, who
read it and preserved it for future genera.
tions in the very words OF the Almighty
Tie story of the Mormon Bible is that
an angel told Joseph Smith where ne would
fad it, and, going to the place he found it
there, inscribed on plates which ne dug up
from the burial place where they had
been reserved until the time for the -eve-
lation came. The men. made Bibles are
Bibles Of words. They are given in the
very words which God IS supposed to have
used. They are ready-msde Bibles. They
are miraculously prepared and miraculously
preserved. The Mormon Bible is believed
by the Mormons to have been miraculously
translated from its original hieroglyphics
into English. The Arabic language Is
studied in all Mohammedan countries, in
order that the faithful may have the Koran
in the very words in which they suppose it
to have been given by the angel to NOLAN.
med.
But Code Bible was produced in a very
different way. II was over fifteen centuries
from the time when the first book was
written until the time when the last book
was written. No one knows when or by
whom the books OF the Old Testament
were first gathered together in single
volume. No one knows by whom or when
the churches determined what of the va
Iious books used in the first century should
L.. kto
was not manufactured it grew The
authors Of some of the books are wholly
unknown the authors of some of the
books are not known with certainty. No
one pretends to know who wrote Hinge, or
Chronicles or Job. Scholars are not GER
tain who wrote portions of the Palms, or
the book OF Ecclesiastes, or the Epistle to
toe Hebrews. There was no miraculous
translation and no miraculous preservation
of the writings. Very few of US read them
in the very words of the original, or
think it necessary to do so. \ few scholars
study them in the Hebrew and the Greek,
and we are content with our German,
French and English translations. And
Justly so for while the value of the men
made Bible depends upon the Every
words" the value OF Gods Bible
depends upon the spirit of truth.
In the men.mads Bibles the sup.
posed sacredness was in the Hjng-the
contents of Mohammed's chest, the plates
discovered by Joe Smith. But in Gods
Bible the sacredness is not in any Hiaq.
Even the tables of stone engraved by the
finger of God have been allowed by him to
c-umble into dust and disappear The
sacredneas in Gods Bible attaches 10 the
living experiences OF Gods truth and
purity and holiness and love, which beat in
the hearts of Moses and Isaiah and Paul,
and were written down by them, not as
amanuenses writing at dictation, but in
| their own words and IN their own way.
| And the history of these two kinds OF
/ Bibles proves the truth Of what Paul has
said The letter kiileth, but the Spirit
maketh alive. The men-made Bibles have
prevented spirit of inquiry they have
sthed free thought; they have forbidden
men to think for themselves they have
made them worshipers of the letter; they
| have carried death. Gods Bible melted
( men to think it has set them ID investi-
! eating tae questions who wrote the various
! books, what soIt Of men were they, what
| did they mean by what they wrote; 1t has
! citsd them to compare the different writ
/ ings, Of Moses snd Isaiah, OF Paul and
James; to study the apparent contrsdlc-
/ tons to discuss, debate, explore and so
/ it has carried intellectual and moral and
/ spiritual life with II wherever it has gone.
! II you attempt to treat Gods Bible as
! other peoples have treated their men male
Bibles, if you attempt to treat it as a
/ Koran or Book of Mormon, q book whose
/ sacredness consists not in It's spirit and its
! truth, but in its letter and its words, you
/ put away the gift which God has gwen you,
1 and you try TO substitute another which
! you imagine would be better, but which is
not nearly so good. God knows best, Aud
we must honor his gift when we take it
humbly and reverently at his hand, and try
to see what it is. This is a great deal
more reverent than trying to make out
that 1t is what we think it ought to be.
! Certainly the Bible is studied to-day as it
never was studied before and one reason
is because we have learned the difference
between Gods Bible and men.made Bibles,
I and are scrutinizing our Bible to find out
what is the spirit and the truth which
| make it sacred. We are trying to distiu.
| gush what is Gods truth contained in the
words, and what are the human elements in
the writers, the copyists, the translators,
through which that truth must be discov-
cred. In this scrutiny doubtless some false
things are said, and some foolish things,
and some things which give pain to Chris
! tian believers. Bat, on the whole, we are
getting into the heart of its teaching bet
/ ter than ever before. You remember the
scene in Shskespeare's Merchant of Ven.
/ ice, when the. suitoTs for Portals hand
chose between the csskets-the golden,
the silver, the leaden. The value is not in
the casket, it is in the portrait of Portia
that lies within, and he VINO finds the por,