Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-12-09
THE BIBLE SERIES

Tho Fourth Lecture in the v. &c. A
Course Delivered by Rev. }. III. Kerr
sunday Afternoon.
The fourth lecture in the bible series
was given Sunday at the Y. NJ c. A.
rooms by Rev. J. II. Kerr of the Central
church. A large audience of young men
greeted him on this the first of his four
lectures. His subject was THE Classif-
cation of the books of the old TIES ameut.'
Then On the general classification. Jewish
and modern. In the FIRST of these the
arrangement Is not based on dates Of
Writing or contents 1, much Is the relation
fths book or books to the Jew ish ecos
nomy; this arrangement is Of horny snti-
guilty. The apocrspbal book Of celeasticus
notices 1t. showing that it was the recog~
nized classification at that time. Christ
and the apostles evidently refer toit. The
first division in it is The Law or books
OF thePentateuch, these are the foundation
OF the old testament economy. and sets
forth the historical fact, and legal founda-
ton of the divine commonwealth OF Israel.
The second division is the prophets: 1t in
cludes some of the historical boz ks and all
OF the prediction books with the exception
OF Daniel. and carries forward the divine
revelation. There lie q reason for this
grouping, the word prophet does not
necessarily bear the limited meaning
usually applied to it. A prophet is one
who speaks for another mouth
piece Of Jehovah. Hence q historian
might be prophet. and so as q matter
of fact we find that the historians were
Of the schools called. SONS of the Proph.
ets." The history Of this division was
intended to be a mirror In VIII Oh should
be seen the results of faithfClness to or
apostscy from God, the prop hecies uu-
folded the law and showed the develops
ment of the kingdom. The third divis.
ion is the writings These include all
the poeiical books, the remaining books
OF history and the prophetictl book of
Daniel He presents the sub lection ap-
preparation of the truth. and the relig-
ious life OF the covenant people. The
aim of Hebrew poetry was the further
auce Of spiritual life aud the diffusion of
religious :ruth among the SEQ pie. An IN
teresting question is. why should Dsniel
be 10 this position2 The res sons for this
are found in the fact that Ds niel was not
prophet among the Jewish people as
the other prophets were. and that the
book is very unlike any other of
the prophecies. having wi.
der vision and scope than any
of them. 1t is like revelation and there
is very close relation betw cen the two.
The question Of why the historical books
included in THE Writings" are not with
the other historical books q ads an answer
In the aim of the books the nselves Mr..
Kerr then spoke at some length OF the
advantages and disadvan !sges of this
classification. By the and Of mineograph
modern divisions. he showed the differ
ences and 10 detail the O. Qualifications of
each. he ended with consideration Of
the Apocraphsl books of he old tesla
ment, In which he brought out this differ
ence between them and The Apocraphal
new testament books. Those Of the old
testament are honest history. written
without any attempt to claim divine
authority. while those OF the new tesla
ment we're aimed directly to substitute
false sources for genuine. The usual
time was spent In questions. Mr.. Kerr
win speak next Sunday on THE Unity of
the old Testament Books /"