Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-18
BIBLICALDECEPTIONS
The Danger Of Careless Interpretation
of the Book of Books.
HOW TO READ TIE SCRIPTURES.
Religious Controversy Caused by Empha.
sizing Single Texts.
DISTORTlNG BIBLE QUOTATIONS.
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.l
Even the devil can quote Scripture.
There are great volumes, and a great num-
ber of them. which are filled with comments
upon the Bible. And there is also, partly
written, but for the most part unwritten, q
DEVILS commentary upon the Bible. 1t is
the Holy Scripture, in King Satan's ver-
sion, with the devils explanations. Beside
there is also our own commentary upon the
Bible-that is, our own silent thoughts
as we read. And this commentary of our
own is collected, like all the COM
mentaries, from all sorts of sources.
1t is recorded of one industrious
commentator that he studied upon a very
long and wide table whereon were spread,
open at the text on which he was writing,
the books of all the writers on that part of
the Bible which he had been able to col
lect together, and there he with a pen in
one hand and a spy glass in the other looked
at each in turn over the immense table and
noted down whatever pleased him in his
own book. Our own private commentary is
made up after somewhat that same fashion.
1t is the patchwork of what we have read;
what we have heard; what we have seen;
what we have thought; what we have ex-
perienced, in our own lives. From year to
year, if you read the Bible, and do not
merely pretend to read it, from year to year,
especial chapters take on different and
richer meanings. At the Divinity School
the professor of preaching used to advise
cf,,la ovI
not write sermons upon them till they had
been in active work for a number of years.
remember that prayer was one OF the sub
jects; and Come unto me, all ye that are
weary and heavy laden" was one OF the
texts. No very young man, he said, could
possibly know what it was to be weary and
heavy laden" and nothing but years of
deep
COMMUNION WITH GOD,
and growth in grace, and experience of
spiritual needs, could fit one to speak in the
right way about prayer. The older we grow
the more entries we are making in our own
individual commentary upon the Bible.
But it seems there is a DEVILS commen-
tsry. And, accordingly, as we construct
our own, we must be careful not to put in
any of the DEVIL interpretations. This takes
mere care than we may at first sight think.
The DEVILS interpretations of Scripture are
not in his autograph, haven't his evil name
signed to them by any means. He takes
pains to disprove their authorship. He
quietly and gently insinuates them into our
minds. They are in books. They are in the
lives of saints; at various times in the his
tory of religion they have been the doctrines
of the wise and good. The DEVILS COM
mentary has been pronounced orthodox, and
all who dissented from it have been branded
as heretics. Not. as said, under his name,
by any means. No man will accept the
devils open commentary, known to be in
iernal, false and of the pit-but in his
spirit, all the same. Orthodoxy has many
times been of the devil. Take, as an illus
tration, the religious world OF Christ's day.
There were the Pharisees, the professional
ly good, the rigidly orthodox-they
accounted none righteous save them
selves In their eyes the Son of God Himself
was dangerous hereto who must oe perse-
cuted. They had simply been studying in
the DEVILS commentary upon the third book
of Moses called Leviticus. The devil had 1
quoted Scripture alter his fashion and the
Pharisee had listened. 1t was Scripture,
there was no doubt about that, but Scrip
ture with the DEVILS Interpretation, which
makes all the difference in the world. Thus
they had come to believe that tithes of
of obligation with mercy, judgment and
truth, that ritual stood In some measure in
the stead of righteousness, and that robbing
widows homes was not so bad if the robber
only made long prayers. We make a mis-
take if we think that the Pharisees were
either unusually dull or unusually imagin-
ative persons, easily deluded. Not so. They
were the wisest and shrewdest men of
their time. They had just as large fund
of native common sense, and of native
goodness and sincerity as men have now.
And yet they were led astray by the
DEVILS QUOTATION OF SCRIPTURE.
This illustration of the deiusion of the
Pharisee suggests the first point of danger
to which will direct your attention. The
devil tries to deceive us by quoting the
Bible with a wrong emphasis. That is, with
the emphasis put in the wrong place. Take
again that matter of the Pharisees. Ortho- |
doxy ran astray in their time because en- |
phasis was laid on things outward, rather than |
on things spiritual. The chief endeavor of |
religious people was to perform an intricate |
conglomeration of never-ending ceremonies |
correctly. The accuser of Our Master could |
not go in where Pilate sat in his house. The |
very atmosphere of Gentle hall or porch |
could not be breathed without ecclesiastic |
pollution. If they had set foot upon these |
GENTLE payements they would have so made
themselves unclean that God would not ac-
cept the Passover sacrifice at their hands. |
So they thought, yet they could offer that
sacrifice with hearts full of envy, malice, |
hatred and all uncharitableness, and with
the stain of innocent blood upon their souls.
That was nothing. So, too, in the old |
time before them. The prophets had to
keep probing and warring and threatening all
the time to counteract the DEVILS en-
phasis, to turn the minds of people
from the visible to the spiritual.
Listen to Amos: II hate, / despise your
feast days. Though ye offer me burnt
offerings, and your meat offerings, I will |
not accept them, neither will l regard the |
peace offerings OF your fat beasts. Bullet judg-
ment run down as water, and righteousness
as a mighty stream" Said Micah: "Shall I |
come before the Lord with burnt offerings,
with calves of a year old? Will the Lord
be pleased with thousands of rams or with
ten thousands of rivers of oil? He hath
showed thee, o man, what is good; and what
doth the Lord require of thee but TO do
Justly, and TO love mercy, and to walk
humbiy with thy God" Said Isaiah: "Your
new moons and your appointed feasts my
soul hateth. They are trouble to me; am
weary to bear them. Wash you; make you
clean: cease to do evil; learn to do WELL"
The mission of the prophets was to put the
emphasis
IN THE RIGHT PLACE.
And the work they did requires constantly
to be done over again. 1t is much easier to
put the emphasis in the DEVILS place, to
lay the stress upon things outward. 1t is
much easier to make the sign of the cross