St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-21
INSPIRATION AND RonIaNIsM.
As They Appear to the Orthodox
and Anxious View of an English

As They Appear to the Orthodox
and Anxious View of an English
Bishop.
Guardian.
The Bishop of Liverpool, DR.. Ryle,
held his fourth triennial visitation in
his cathedral yesterday week. After
speaking of the gravity of the times the
bishop went on to deal with the author
lty and inspiration of the Holy Scrip
lures, saying:
"My own belief is that the writer's of
the Bible were systematically and di-
vinely enabled by God, as no other men
ever have been, for the work which thew
did. and that consequently the book
they produced is unlike any other book
in existence, and stands entirely alone.
Inspiration, in short, is a miracle.
All the Apostles were
enabled to preach and work miracles,
but not all were inspired to write. We
must rather regard 1t as special super
natural gift, bestowed Oh about thirty
people out of mankind, in order to quail
ify them for the special business of
writing the Scriptures; and we must be
content to allow that, like everything
miraculous, we cannot entirely explain
it, though we can believe it. A miracle
"
planned. l abhor the mechan-
ical theory of inspiration. dislike the
idea that men like Moses and st. Paul
were no better than organ pipes, en-
ployed by the Holy Ghost, or ignorant
secretaries or amanuenSeS, who wrote
by dictation what they did not under
stand. l admit nothing of the kind.
But l do believe that in some marvellous
manner the Holy Ghost made use of the
reason, the memory, the intellect, the
style of thought and the peculiar men,
tai temperament of each writer of the
Scriptures.
''ln the last place. let me charge you
to hold fast the great Protestant prin-
ciples on which the Church of England
was reformed $50 years ago, and to re-
sist firmly all attempts to promote re-
union with the Church of Rome. There
was time when it would have been
needless for bishop to offer such adj
vice to his clergy. But times have
strangely altered. No intelligent OBJ.
server can fail to observe that the tone
Romanism has undergone a great
change in the last sixty years. There
| is no longer that general dislike, dread,
and aversion to popery which was once
almost universal in this realm. The
| edge of the old British feeling about
Professionalism seems blunted and dull.
Some profess to be tired of all religious
| controversy. and are ready to sacrifice
| Gods truth for the sake of peace.
"SOme look on Romanism as simply
| one among many English forms of re-
ligions. and neither better nor worse
than others. Some try to pursuade us
that Romanism is changed, and not
nearly as bad as it used to be. Some
boldly point to the faults of Protestants,
| and loudly cry that Romanists are quite
as good as ourselves. Some think it
fine and liberal to maintain that we
Nhave no right to think any one wrong
who is in earnest about his creed. be-
seech you TO realize the painful fact
that the Professionalism of this country
Is gradually ebbing away, and beseech
| you, as Christians and patriots, to re-
| sist the growing tendency to forget the
blessings of the English Reformation.
For Christ's sake, for the sake of the
Church of England, for the sake of our
country, for the sake of our children,
| let US not loose our moOripgs and drift
back in the waters which our fathers
wisely left $50 years ago."