The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-12-21

Is elastic, permitting Of various radically OPP
posing interpretations, and Gail Hamilton
is simply revealing in the right to describe
Congregationalism as it appeals to her.
tional church government can cause NO
for It 10 entirely clear and ac-
curate. She describes it in nutshell when
she says that Congregationalism lis mod
elled upon the southern idea of a confede-
raoy rather than upon the northern idea OF
In chapter entitled, "Inspiration," the
euthor takes a shy at DIR. Clark, who de-
picts an imaginary man laundering help
lessly in the mire until finally his feet hit
upon the firm ground of Gods promise and
he stands on that and is safe. The ration
begins to widen his foundations by driving
in such human piles as reason" ethical
consciousness '.the moral fitness of
things" God mirrored and limited in hu-
man conception" etc., until he rests par
tally on divine and partly on human
foundation: The vast outlay Of pile work
idity or rest until he rebuilds This faith
upon a child-like trust in every word of
God" his fixed belief being Forever, O
Lord. Thy word is settled in heaven" Gail
Hamilton thinks that these words of DIR.
Clark tickle the ear and never touch the
brain" In the course of her reply she says:
What is the word Of God?' The Bible.
In another city sits another doctor of the
same law, equally had in reputation, and at
his feet are gathered a group questioning
him as to the proper attitude Of 4 Christian
toward the theatre, to whom thus answers
he: "Our conscience tells us not to go, lest
at the very least we violate the command to
abstain from all appearances of evil.' In
stantly then DIR. Clark's rock-base begins to
totter and we find ourselves Hat in the
primeval mud, for the revised version says
there is no such command; bids only 20 avoid
every species of evil, which not only gives us
no enlightenment on the question whether
the theatre is evil, but forces us to ask
whether every word of God" means every
word of King James translation or every
word of the revised version. Until that is de-
cided, and because it is to be decided, and
therefore, after it is decided, our faith rests
partly on divine and partly on n human
foundation. Forever. without doubt, the
word of the Lord is settled in heaven, but it
is 80 far from being settled on earth that
all the churches and creeds and sects of
Christendom have come into court for the
purpose of settling it. When the word of
no longer. but the Holy City-the New Jer-
uSalem.
She adds that while tho holy men of old,
moved by the Holy Ghost, spake, they spoke
in what to US is an unknown tongue, and
that fifty millions of the American people
have to depend upon some man to tell what
i the een
fury has no revelation, unless it has one
partly on human oundation-namely the
translators, all purely human and not in
spired. Acquainted as We are,'' she says,
with Harvard and Yale and Oxford
a saa as tb SSm.n s,, must st. be
ture of Christian faith is a little unsteady.
not to saw rickety, 4 Even
if God inspired Matthew to write .Baptizo,'
he can not have inspired one man to decide
that it means always to go under the water,
and another man that it means always,
on the forehead" Therefore os'' she i holds
that we must use our reason to ascer-
tain which and what it means, and
consequently We must have ore pile of
reason to rest on in spite of DR.. Clark. If
every word of the Bible is the word of God,
must be fighting against God. The various.
interpretations, past and present. of the
scriptures are touched upon to show how
they change and how antagonistic they al
ways are. Even in the original book, she
declares, We are launched on a whirlpool of
contradictions, for the Bible. through many
centuries, did not exist as unit and many of
the original manuscripts were lost before
our literature began. It remains then, she
insists, for our own reason to sit in iudg-
ment and tell us where error ends and truth
begins. The conclusions Of great and good
theologians cannot be accepted and unques-
ed, for they contradict each other. Never
theless, their unwearying work helps us to
form conclusions of our own. Even the
scripture writer's did not hesitate to abolish
each others authority.
But Gail Hamilton finds much of inspir-
alton and ruth in the scriptures. holding
only that 8 he must be permitted to find it
in her own wav. : he does not find rational,
critical study of the Bible painful or en-
barrassing, and can classify what she feels
to be its myth without pang. As already
said, she takes direct issue with the Els
mere theories, and finds her way clear to
accept what are commonly recognized as
the great fundamental truths OF Chris
tianity. She recognizes the oneness Of
Christ with humanity, and that man is Gre
ated in Gods own image; but d she will not
reduce God or Christ to the level of man,
Of miracles she says: "All miracles which
lie along the lines of the worlds movement
have much in favor of their historical M
ture. All miracles witch lie outside of that
SO much have a presumption on the side
terpretation.' She sees that the he
world has yet to learn many natural laws Of
which it is still in ignorance. and that evo-
luton has no limits. 10 her the mystery
length, Is no greater the mystery of every
incarnation, both being absolutely inscru-
table. 1t is n lack of breadth and culture
in science. she holds, which says that the
order OF Yesterday, the order OF to-day, ia
the universal order. Still further she says:
Foolish. false. trivial rumors of miracles no
more invalidate miracle than false and fool
ish men forbid the dignity of humanity.
Documents have their worth; but the
existence of man upon the earth is not a
matter of documents, and the existence of
the earth prior to the advent of man upon
it ia not matter Of documents. Yet ut
some time between the two came
a miracle. Whether it came sud-
denly IN full measure or subtly without
palpable measure matters not. There
was a moment when human reason
did not people the earth. There was an
other moment when human reason was
astir. At the moment between. when hu-
man reason came, there was miracle.
Something was here that was not here be-
fore. A new wave of the absolute force,
never refuent, overspread the earth.
Such another wave from the eternal
energy, which is Adolescence teaches it
eternal love, swept over tho world SO power
fully in Christ that it stands once for all in
the long history of man ns the advent. A
wave never spent. for when tho humanity
of Christ ceased III visible form, rs must be
1t God were to assume humanity, holy
spirit remained, vital power-remains to-
day. diffused. prevailing; independent of
church, or state or school or creed. though
using all for tho behoof Of men; the largest
insweep from the spiritual world this world
has ever known; slowly evolving out of the