St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-02
ADVERTISING GAIL,
Rev. w. S. Vail breaches q
Second Sermon On the
Subject.
Ideas Of the Bible and Theol-
ogy Suggested by Her
New Book.
Professor Wait DiseoupseS
Upon the Lesson Of ALI
Miracles.
A Learned Dissertation Upon
What a Miracle Is
Life.

ton OF Kew. w. .. Vail III the begln-
| ming Of his sermon at the Grand opera
house Oh Sunday morning. This was
| another of the sermons suggested by
| the recent book of Gail Hamilton Oh the
| Bible. and the preacher remarked that
| where so many references are made in
religious literature to inspiration, it
| seemed almost strange that there were
only two references in the Bible TO this
word, and that all we could legltimately
| draw from the word itself was that in
| Spration meant God-breathed. He
would make but little reference to the
| negative side OF the question. He
thought that while people might be de-
lighted to know what we do not believe,
| they would be more edited to
| know what we do believe, and
| if we have message to de-
liver it is best to go straight to the
mark and let people infer the things we
have thrown aside. He thought, too,
| that we made a deeper impression on
| the mind of the inquirer if we appealed
| to the inquirer's sense of what is truth
| than if we tried to buttress our position
| by an appeal to an established authority,
in which case we could only hope to
convince those who had already ac-
cepted our fundamental position. In
| this case he would commence on known
ground and try to proceed to ground
less familiar.
Ate ntion was first called to the fact
that every person who created mental
production had the experience of clog
and hlndrance at certain times. His
ship ali ready to sail was held in the
river, was hindered by sand-bar, by
changing channel, Ivy delusive tide.
Shaekles Were on His Mind,
the speech halted on his stammering
lips, the song eluded his grasp. though
it was often within touch; TIE measure
died before it was born. Then suddenly
he felt release. Thobghts fiocked to
his mind like flights OF swallows to their
rocks. At such moments Dickens finds
the lowest street the source of inspira-
ton and creates Peggoty. Little Nell
and poor joe; Burke wakes to his OPP
portunity. and for once the richest mind
of modern times makes the impression
in the great hall of William Rufus that
1t should have made a hundred times
but failed to accomplish; then the soul
of Tennyson drifts in the upper seas of
Oh the bay of Naples; and before him
walks Gueneyere, the fair women of
history, or the Lady of Shallott; in it
Abt Fogler sees the temple of tranSpar-
ent gold buiided and filled with
Immortality, as he ''names the
ineffable name' And what is the
condition? Exaltation One in which
the body is forgotten. One in which
mental clearness is blended with an
! irresistible impulse, and the result is
that switch we find in all works of
geniuS.daIt is not religious Inspiration,
and it may not be ordinary experience,
but it is near enough to both to make it
OF the largest Importance to us.
The preacher asked his audience to
take one more step with him. He said he
will get nearer to man and his own com
mon life. He referred to the fact that
men were highly gifted in certain direc-
lions. He called up the memories
naturally connected with Sir Walter
Scott, the glory of Kenllwerth, the ba-
ronlal glory of baronial England, the
outlaws in the greenwood" echoing
pibrochS, tartan plaids. flashing broad
swords, rushing cataracts, sounding
seas. But the man of imagination was
absolutely dead to the beauties of
music. He said
Jay Gould Was ii Modern Midas
that his touch did literally turn the
c0mm0nest dust to gold; but he would
never write an Had. 1t would be folly
to deny that genuiuS was a common
production. If, then, we take the fact,
see all round and make the genius one
Of moral insight, if we make him the
person who has received the. ''inbreath-
ing OF GOd'' shall we not have one more
idea in regard to what inspiration
meanso Is he not inspired who has
moral insight that is the unerring mark
that stamps his production as belong
ing to the ages and not TO one time or
natlOn9 But the peculiar fact we meet
when we come to study this develop
ment in connection with the Bible may
be explained by a law of development
found in other lines of life and history.
If man is called to name five great
artists he would naturally name
Angelo, Raphael. Titan. Rubens.
Van Dyke. At least these
we're named to the speaker off-hand as
representative names, although on sec
ond throught some change might have
been made. And all these were con-
temporary OF followed each other in
quick succession. One hundred years
almost covered their period The names
Of five musical composers had been
called for by the preacher while prepar-
ing the sermon. and he had received off
hand from the person addressed the
names of Mozart, Mendelssohn. Handel,
Haydn and Sebastian Bach. The list
might have been improved on revision,
but it is, probably, about such list as
we'd get i'll a majority OF cases, and
again the names cover scarcely more
than hundred years. In the develop
ment of the English novel Sidney
Lanier
Names the Greatest Names.
with the exception OF Shakespeare,
whom he classes a dramatist and not
novelist, us coming within fifty years.
In similar way John Fiske and Hux-
ley have pointed out the great move
ments of modern physical science as be- 4
ginning about the year 1885. and as
drawing to a close at the present time /
What does it prove? That progress is /
not only dependent on the work of |
genius, but that development goes in /
cycles or periods, and that each period
seems to he entrusted with providen-
tial work 10 do. Then, too, later pc
RODS seem to have the assistance of 4
favorable conditions to enable them to |
produce faster, and SO the period of /
production is more quickly eliminated.
Then, when we carry this idea back to 4
ancient times, we shall find that the re-
liglous problem was one that en-
gagged the minds of generations before
either art Oh music had moved the world
and produced Its masters, and that in
the long period of Hebrew history we
find the development of this religiousAl
genius ending III the production of the
Christ. We believe He stands as the
embodiment of all that is best in char
acter, and that in bis life was the in
spiratipn of God. Our reason must aid
to decide as to what is the true Inspira-
ton, and that reason must be rectified
by the corporate reason Of mankind as
it is developed by the study of the phi
losophy of history, OF by the ideals we
set up for our neighbors. and by the life
OF the one person who rose above all
others and stands to-day as the ex-
emplar of human life.