Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-18


the devil parted usSehe from another by
different ways Of emphasizing the Bible.
In those matters which should alone be en-
phasized-the essential faith, the elements
Of practical goodness-on these we all agree.
Christian unity will begin TO dawn when we
erase the devils emphasis out OF our denom-
national commentaries.
Akin to this matter of emphasis is the
second danger of which I will speak. The
devil tries to deceive us by quoting the
Bible In single texts, without the context.
IL Is plain that you can make any book
teach almost anything. and any author con-
tradict himself, by quoting mere scraps, by
taking sentences out of their connection.
Unfortunately we have habit Of reading
the Bible after this fashion. The Bible is
library OF religious books of all kinds,
written at quite different times, by quite
different men, and for the most diverse pur-
poses; and we treat it as no library in the
world is treated. 1t is as if you should go
daily to your bookshelves and take down
some book whereon your hand chanced to
fall, open that wherever it happened to
open itself read two paragraphs, and put it
back again. And the next day choose after
the same fashion another book-to-day, his
tory, tomorrow poetry and the next day
someone's life and letters. What kind Of
intelligent idea would you possibly get Of
any one book, or of the library. That 10
HOW WE READ THE BIBLE,
taking away nearly all its charm, much Of
its interest and not little of its helpfulness.
We do 1t simply because it is the easiest way
much easier than to read each book steadi-
ly through by ITSELF as we read any other
book. Now the devil almost invariably
tempts us to do easy things, because then he
knows that he will have one part Of our
nature on his side-as an enemy bes1e ging
city tries to ally himself with one part Of
the besieged, and gets them to open the
gates for him. The devil easily persuades
us to read the Bible by fragments. Our
natural idleness throws open the gates and
our better reason gets the worst of it. Then
by this fragmentary reading of the Bible
the devil, quoting Scripture, deceives us.
The list OF hereticai sects from st. Paul's
day to the present would fill large volume
merely their names. And not one of
these sects but was able to quote Scripture
some kind of Scripture-to prove their
position. Every one had some verse out OF the
Bible. In old pictures of the nativity, of
the creation or of the resurrection, the
ancient prophets were represented in the
margin of the painting, each one holding
scroll on which was written the words in
which he had foretold the second event.
the heretics and schismatIcs of all time,
gathered in great council, each with a
scroll in his hand inscribed with his own
particular proof text. There would not
be one left unscrolled. And what texts
would come to light! and in what remark
able uses! Even Joseph Smith, the founder
of Mormonism, would be there with his text.
The Mormons say that they are the only
true followers OF the Biblel And when
has fovt 20 H. L. =
certainly be found that an astonishing ma
jority of them had been torn from their con-
texts. As it stood in the Bible it meant
something quite different. WHY, it would
be possjble-and who shall say, among the
prodigies OF sectarianism, that such a sect
shall never arise?-it would be possible to
start a sect upon
THE CARDINAL DOCTRINE
of lying in bed in the morning, having this
text: "Woe unto them that rise up
early" The rest of the sentence is "To fol-
low after strong drink" but that could cas-
liz be forgotten. This is very homely il
lustration of a most important way of read
ing the Bible, about which perhaps the
most important feature is its connection.
In various degrees we are all doing that,
the devil helping us-to our great loss. No
doctrine is the doctrine OF Holy Scripture,
simply because you can find it in one text.
Look at the chapter in which that text is
written, inquire into the authors purpose,
and argument. Above all compare it with
other texts in other chapters and other books
of Scripture. Remember that truth has.
many sides, and that what is true in one
case may not be true in another. 1t was at
one time thought necessary by the English
Evangelical Tract Society to state the whole
doctrine of the atonement in every half-L
penny leafet. Such is not the way Of
Scripture. You must compare things spir-
itual with spiritual, text with text, book
with book.
will point out only one more danger of
which We must beware in reading the Bible.
The devil tries to deceive us by persuading
us that the Bible does not mean quite so
much as it says. IT these various Scriptural
pitfalls had been arranged in the order of time,
this must have come first. For after this
fashion it was that Satan made his first
recorded assault upon our race. "Yea, hath
God said thus and thus?' he asked. Well,
now, let me explain to you Just what that
means. What are the words? 'fIn the day
that ye eat thereof We shall surely die"
Now the word ''die," there, doesn't mean
die. 1t means live in this way. God knows
that when you taste that fruit you will be-
come as gods, knowing good and evil, that
Is when you have eaten you will enter upon
a new lite, so much richer and happier than
this dull commonplace life you are living
now, that this life compared with what
awaits you can only be called death. That
is the sense in which you will die-so eat
Ind die and live. And eat they did, as we
Know, and with what result, we know. And
rom that time on the devil has never stopped
men that God does not mean
what he says.
EXAMINE THE CONTEXT.
1 think it is Coleridge who declares that
here is not a page in the whole of English
literature, not even paragraph in all the
ext books upon mathematics, nor leaf In
Ill the ledgers, but what there can be found
n it some logical flaw, some way can be de-
vised of rendering the meaning uncertain,
md of allowing choice of Specification. This
OF language the devil makes
Ibundant use of. He quotes Scripture so as
o give it the easiest OF all possible mean
ngs. 1t is principle in the deciphering Of
Incient manuscripts, and in determining the
rue text among various readings, that the
most difficult reading is most likely to be
he original and correct one. A copyist will
eadily change the hard into the easy-un-
in making out some bad writing
zee an obvious thought rather than an abb
ruse one-and 50 the hardest to understand
s most likely to be the right reading.
That holds true of the Interpretation of
iod's will. 1t is better anyway to err by
linking that God requires more than He
eally does than less You are surer to be
light. The solemn and unqualified injunc-
ion, for instance, that we are absolutely to
owe our enemies. which goes so directly