Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-19
THE BIBLE IS NOT A TEXT BOOK,
Bishop Vincent on its Relation
to Mankind.
h Get at Its Treasures You Must Dig
Into Its Heart.
An Address Full OF Beautiful Imagery
Delivered at the Fret Methodist
Church on the Bible's Relat-
lions to Humanity.

Bishop John Fl. Vincent, L. L. D.,
since his arrival in Los Angeles last Fri
day, has been leading busy life, but
he responds to all the calls upon his
time and resources with a cheerfulness
and graciousness that have endeared
him to those who have heretofore only
known the noted divine through his
Chautauqua and church work. The
founder of the Chautauquan movement,
which is known throughout the word, is
still in the vigor of robust, intellectual
and physical manhood, and is now visit
| ing several conferences of the northern
and southern Methodist conferences in
| California
Tomorrow evening he will be at the
Y. M. G. A. auditorium, where he will
meet Chautauquans, and Tuesday he
| will 60 to San Diego to preside at
conference; going thence to Arizona,
| to preside over another conference.
| He found time last night, amidst the
multiplicity of his calls, to deliver
scholarly and powerful sermon to an inn
mense audience at the First Methodist
! church on Broadway.
| When he entered the auditorium
hundreds of handkerchiefs waved q
| Chautauqua salute.
He took his text from the 2lst chap
ter of st. John, the 2lst and 22d verses !:
"Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord,
and what shall this man do? Jesus
saith unto him, if l will that he tarry
till come. what is that to thee? Fol-
low thou Me-" The leading thought of
the discourse was the lessons taught by
| the Bible in it's relations to humanity.
The distinguished divine promised that
the book is sealed book to those who
do not study it, and get to the heart of
| it, and that it conceals its divine truths
| from those who do not surrender them
selves to the divine will.
Jesus, although he came. as revela-
tion from heaven, refused to answer
many questions, and rebuked those who
asked them, said the speaker. When
the Scribes and Pharisees asked Him by
what authority He did certain things,
! He asked them by what authority John
acted. When they replied that they
could not tell, Jesus replied that neither
would He tell them. When before
Herod and Plate He said scarcely any
thing. When He spoke His parallels
He did it to conceal as much as to re-
veal. To satisfy curiosity the Bible was
| the most unsatisfactory book ever writ
ten. 1t does not reveal truth on the
surface so that the man who merely
| glances at it finds the whole of it.
The Bible is not an encycla-
pedia or a dictionary with
definitions of all the theories that have
grown up in the world. Its knowledge
is not Systematically arranged. 1t is no
pyramid with stone on stone, but
hugh mountain, rough and irregular.
If one wants to get at it's real treasures
they must dig down into the heart of it,
and he who searches finds. 1t does moi.
crafty all the curiosity that man
Graves, but reveals all that he needs.
Humanity has been asking what lie
God? What is matter and mind; the
play of divine forces on the human
| spirit; what about the dead, the inter-
mediate state, and the day of judgment,
heaven and hell? The Bible says al
most nothing about these thinge. The
common idea is that the Bible is text
book, but it is nothing of the sort.
People want to know the details how
the gates of Heaven are made. The
Bible says, What is that to thee? There
are twenty or thirty theories about the
J atonement, but the Bible says, What is
that to thee? The brain grows dizzy
with all the questions, about which the
Bible says, What is that to thee?
But the speaker said, if it does not
reveal all humanity Graves, it reveals all
he needs. 1t points out the path Of
duty. 1t is the basis. It teaches that
free and responsible creatures are per-
sonally responsible to Almighty God.
The basic idea is that every one shall
give an account of himself to Almighty
God. Upon this it speaks authorita
lively. 1t teaches the objects of duty
to God the Father, God the Son, the Holy
Spirit, and to ones fellow. men. 1t
reveals the reasons for duty. 1t reveals
no further. 1t reveals duty illustratively,
authoritatively. 1t spends no time tam
pering with our arguments and reasons.
and we feel, as we read it, that God has
spoken.
Bishop Vincent's address was full of
beautiful imagery, and he spoke elo-
quently OF the lessons which the noble
characters IN the old testament teach,
leading up to Jesus who crowned them
all; a character which is set forth
for all the ages, the living exponent of
virtue and truth. Following this line,
in number of graphic pictures, he re-
ferred to the young man just starting
life, to the ambitious man, the suffer
ing man, and urged them to follow Him.
To the man who is impaled on the cross
while people epit at him, let him follow
Him who said: "Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do" The
example of Jesus, he concluded, is the
perfect example of all ages. When hui
manity comes to the Bible to find out
what to do, the answer is plain, Follow
Him. The man who is not willing to
| obey God has no business to know the
| mysteries Of God. The Bible came not
to reveal these mysteries, but to reveal
mans DUTY; and he who surrenders
himself to God will find it is book that
will become illuminated. The more he
studies it the more he will see between
| the lines.
Grave Mistake.
Physicians frequently make mistakes in treat
meut OF heart disease, The rate of sudden