Los Angeles herald., 1891-05-25
OUR CITY CHURCHES.
Brief Reports Of Yesterdays
Services.
DR.. Russell breaches Upon Bible
Inspiration.
The Veterans Sermon at Simpson
Tabernacle.
Notes of Interest From Various Tenn
Notes of Interest From Various Tenn
pies of Worship-Special Ser
vices.

The last two Sabbath morning SER
mons at the First Presbyterian church
have taken color from the widespread con-
troversy concerning DIR. Briggs inaugu-
raj. Last Sabbath the subject OF che
sermon was What the Scriptures Claim
for Themselves. Yesterday morning the
textwa ii Peter, 1-20, Holy Men of Old
Spake as They were moved by the Holy
Ghost; the theme: The inspiration Of
the scriptures. We give brief out
line of the sermon, which was closely
followed by large audience.
The scriptures do not contain" Gods
messages "to men," "They are Gods
word" both in substance and in form.
A block Of quartz or ore may contain
gold. but the assayer must determine
now much. Ii the Bible only contains
the word Of God it cannot be an infal-
lible rule of faith and practice, and we
must determine by criticism and Chris
tian consciousness what parts OF it are
Gods messages. Then every man out
of the scripture must make his own
Bible. The Bible is not ore with per-
centage OF gold; it is real solid gold,
tested, assayed, minted. The Bible is
the word of God. This is the faith OF
the Reformed church OF every land, and
held even by the Roman Catholic
church.
''If the scriptures are Gods word,
then are they that word in every part,
substance and form, concept and ex-
preston. There are three distinct ways
in which God could have produced a
Bible. He could have brought it into
complete form by His own Immediate
power; or He could have required men
to act as His amanuenses, as hundred
OF you may dictate to clerks or copyists
tomorrow; or He could chose men with
specific qualifications, and so guide
them in their own freedom and activi-
ties that they would speak and write the
very truth in the very words that would
make this book to be His own infallible
word. The latter we believe he did.
Gods power, then, would operate in
four ways in producing His Bible: In
providential oversight; in the illumina-
tion of the writer's mind to discern
spiritual things; lin revealing such
truths as man cannot discover except as
God makes them known; and in inspira-
ton, so that Gods truth is expressed
with absolute exactness,"
The speaker dwelt on six points:
l. Inspiration and genius are not the
same. lty.
2. Inspiration and sanctifcation
differ,
8. Inspiration does not control the
sacred writers when not communicating
Gods messages.
T. Inspiration is not mechanical.
5. Inspiration does not control the
act of translating the word of God. The
originals are inspired. Versions and
trsnsistions are simply equivalents in
other tongues.
3. The Bible is the most human and
most divine book in existence.
Tin conclusion, the Bible is prsthopit99.. q.
sainteIisibier, \ III y Il Is in the o' speech Uo Of
man. We should obey; we can under
stand"
At the evening service, Mr.. J. w.
Cochran preached very excellent SER
mon on the last verse of Corinthians,
chapter iii.
E SIMPSON AUDITORIUM.
Rev. Will A. Knigbten preached yes
terday morning at the Simpson taber-
nacle on The Great Power of Love. In
the,afternoon at 2 80 there was union
memorial service of the Grand Army
posts and Relief corps OF the city. The
programe was as follows:
Anthem by the choir; reading scrip
ture, Rev. j. B. Holloway, pastor of
Grace church prayer, Rev. Halloway;
singing by the choir; scripture reading,
HI. j. Shaffner; anthem. by the choir;
sermon, subject, The Brave Who Gave
Their Lives for Their Country, Rev.
Will A. Knighten vocal solo, Mrs. M.
F.Tarble; address, Gen. Rollins.
The auditorium was very nearly filled
with the veterans and their friends, and
Mr. Knighten preached in way to
move his audience to the highest feel
ings of patriotism. A particular feature
of the musical exercises was the singing
by an excellent double quartet.
AT this church the regular monthly
meeting of the Sunday-school board
occurs tonight in the PASTORS study.
Tomorrow night there will be special
meeting 81 the official board of the
church at the same place.
EMANUEL CHURCH.
DR.. w. ]. Chichester preached yester-
day morning from the story of INaaman,
the Assyrian. Naaman, a high official
in the Assyrian government, went to
Elisha, the Hebrew prophet, to be cured
of leprosy, and being cured, was con-
yerted to the Jewish religion. Becom-
ing perplexed as to his duty, he told
Elisha that part of his service as an
official OF the Assyrian court was to ac-
company the king and assist him in the
ceremonies connected with. the worship
of the sun god. He asked if be could
oonsistentlv do this as servant of the
true God. Elisha bade him go i'll peace
DIR. Chichester deducted from this that
work required of man in daily life
which did not necessarily interfere with
the performance of his duties to God
and man, need not beFavoided by con-
verts for the simple reason that it car
ried them into the company of irreligious