St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-08
FUNCTIONS OF HEREsY.
Rev. II. NJ. Simmons Argues That
HeresY Is New Light.

Rev. 81. NJ. Simmons Argues That
Heresy Is New Light.
At the First Unitarian church yester-
day morning Rev. H. NJ. Simmons an
nounced as his subject Israel and the
Functions of Heresy." The text was
And so Israel rebelled against the
house of David"
In sermon several years ago Mr..
Simmons showed how the tribes became
uited under one king. David; how Jeru-
salem was built; how Solomon reigned
in splendor; how other gods than JehO-
yah came to be worShiped under the rule
of Solomon, some of them having affairs
before Jerusalem itself.
By the rule Of the house of David, the
tribe of Judah, was glorified. The other
trlbeswere oppressed to support the mag
nlticence of the house founded by the
PsalmiSt. The ten Northern tribes asked
that they might be less oppressed. King
RehOboam, who then reigned, instead
of taking counsel with the old and wise
men. asked the advice of the young
men. AS result the tribes found their
burdens increased. Then the ten North
ern tribes revOited. That brought on a
war that lasted many years, and was at
gained its independence and maintained
it for $50 years, until carried off by the
Assyrians.
Had not this revolt occurred, and had
not Solomon's temple been destroyed,
we should have had little Of the Bible,
in the opinion of Mr.. Simmons. Solo
mon had little of the religion that has
been aScribed to him. His god was much
like that of the Tyreans. He had no
knowledge of the commandment, Thou
shalt have no other gods before Me-"
He had images OF other gods than Je-
hovah and worshiped them. Probably
all he contributed to the Bible was to
collect some of the proverbs. He did
not write Ecclesiastes, scholars are sat
lstled. With the exception of part of
one. all the Psalms were written 400
years after the death of David The
Pentateuch, ascribed to Moses, was
written after Solomon.
The rebellion of the tribes of Israel
opened a way for the movement of
freedom. The Israelites were re-
formers. They led in the development
of better ideas and made possible the
rise of the sublime prophets that have
done so much for the world. The
stories of the patriarchs were written
III the North about 900 years before
Christ-abOut the same time as the
legends of Homer were written and in
much the same way, by compiling
legends. Concluding, he said:
ATHENS slew Socrates for his here's
les, but Socrates had the higher truth.
and has become the great honor of Ath-
ems. Isaiah is said to have been Slain
for his; but Isaiah has become the most
honored prophet of the Old Testament.
Jerusalem is said to have slain Jesus
for his heresies, and yet it is Jesus who
has done most to make Jerusalem a re-
vered name through the world. Often
the Christian church would have slain
Jesus if He had returned, and has
slain Him over and over again in
the persons of His truest fol-
lowers, and then praised these slam
hereticS as its saints. Some seven CEN
turtles ago, the protested vicar of Christ
proclaimed crusade against the AL
DIgenSes, and many scores of them were
burned alive; but they are now hOnored
as the best Christians of their day For
several centuries such work went Oh
against both hereticS and heather. Just
400 years ago this very winter. came the
cruel Christian conquest OF Mohamme-
dan Granada. and Irving saws that the
most renowned Spanish historian con-
sldered it as 1.-The reward OF heaven" for
Spain's pious act i'll "establish-
ing the glorious tribunal of the
lnqulsition:" yet those Mohamme-
dams were better Christians than their
cOnQuerers. and Prescott saws that the
liberation professed by the Moors was
afterwards made "a principal argument
against them" by the archbishop of
Valencia. Protestants too we're at first
as lntolerant as Catholics, and HalIam
says that at the end of the Sixteenth
century the proposition that hereto
should not be burned alive or other
wise put to death was itself little else
than sort Of heterOdoXy, and Protest
ant churches were as far from acknowl-
edglng 1t as was the church of Rome"
ibis old method of warning against
heresles has much softened, but still the
the church tries to suppress the IN
IN every way it can. and vet thew
are steadily conquering and humanIzing
the church and getting welcomed into it
as more religious than its creeds. Presi-
dent A. d. White has been filling I'M
dredS OF pages with the story of Scien-
tlflc teachings that were at first de-
noUnced by the church as infidei and
atheistic. and then welcomed as reveal
ing better god than was before known.
The heresies of forty years ago are
heard in all the great pulpits today and
make Ine ucSG acceptable sermons. 1t Is
not many years since Presbyterian pull
pit was closed against me for my here's
les; yet DR.. Briggs is today teaching
every one of them in a PRESBYTERIAN
theological seminary, and it looks as if
they might yet be put in the Westmin-
ster confession, and regarded as the best
part Of it, too. Even the Unitarian
church shut and almost slammed its
door against Theodore Parker and EN-
erson, and yet they are today praised as
the best prophets of their times. Such
is religious history-its heretics slain
or snubbed, and afterward raised into
saints. Heresy is ever charging and
elevating religion