St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-04-20
CHRISTTANITY,s BOOK.
Some Ideas ON the Utility of the Old
Testament.

Testament.
Rev. Mr. Fisher, pastor of the First
Methodist church, on last Monday visited
the pastors meeting in Minneapolis and
raised quite breeze among the brethren by
enunciating some views concerning the
morality of the Old Testament not alto
gether in accordance with the generally ac-
cepted orthodox ideas. In commencing a
series of sermons ON Essential Christianity,
he last night preached on The Text Book,
i'll which he unfOlded more fully his ideas
on the inspiration of the scriptures. His
text was: Lord, to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life."-
John iv-16. He explained that Christianity
claims to furnish a method of making men
pure and perfect; it includes therefore
teaching and life. Without attempting to
establish its claim to be able to present men
apostles to God, Mr.. Fisher said that Chris
tianity is a system of religion founded by
Jesus Christ, from whom it takes its name.
Jesus Christ is historical character, a
teacher of certain great truths concerning
God and man, his own life being pure, in
perfect accord with his teachings He left no
writings after being crucified. His disciples
finally committed an account of his life and
a brief epitome of his sayings to writing,
contained in the four gospels. Whatever
Christ did not teach cannot be called essen
tial Christianity. What he did teach, if
rightly apprehended and Obeyed, will Sc
cure Christian life and character.
The same historical foundation of Chris
tianity vests the recorded life and sayings
of man as veritable as Julius Caesar or Soc
rates OF Mohammed. No attempt may be
made to prove the inspiration of the Bible.
Inspiration OF not, the biography
of Jesus and the main princi-
pies of his teachings are correct.
If it was possible to prove the entire Old
Testament pure myths, and to establish the
New, no destructive attack upon the cher
ished doctrine of inspiration could rob us of
Jesus Christ. If Luke collected material
and wrote as George Bancroft has written
the history of America; if John taught at
Ephesus, and his disciples committed the
body of his teochings to writing, the essen
tials of Christianity would have been i'm
perishable.
THE TEXT BOOK
of essential Christianity is therefore the
Gospel. A harmony of the four books,
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, dropping
all in which they differ and retaining only
that which makes a complete history, fur
nishes text book. In this is found the
sunlight, throwing light upon much of the
mystery of human life. The text book of
essential Christianity is the Gospel Of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. Of what value are
the other portions of the Bible?
Why should they not be thrown away?
Jesus of Nazareth was Jew. The mis-
sion of the Hebrew people was to prepare
for Christ. They were inspired in their en-
Of no
ment is the product.
The New Testament, other than the
gospel, reveals the truth manifested in
Christ. Holy men in every age speak as
they are moved of the Holy Spirit. Holy
men are inspired and live from God.
Visions of the highest truth impossible
to the impure are given to him.
The Hebrews only used the language,
science and philosophy of their age to
record their clear visions of eternal truth,
visions given to them by the present spirit
Of God. Their doctrine assumes that holy
men were given visions of divine truth,
which are very imperfect. Only as much
truth can be revealed as the seer can COM
prehend. So the early revelations were
partial. When the supreme has come the
partial is no longer authoritative. Jesus
spoke to humanity in the universal
prayer, Our Father which Art in Heaven;
but if he who offers the petition does not
come into the divine revelation of child
hood, his words have not the same meaning
they had to him and he has not read a rev.
citation to his hearers. Inspiration is as
necessary to receive truth as to perceive
it, for reception is perception. He that
comes to the Bible with the life of God i'll
himself is inspired and i'm il he will see
through history, prophecy, the CLEANS of
gradual religious development of thousand
years God brought the Hebrew people to
the fulneSs of time.