St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-06-05

court: just as we have muscles of the
scalp and ear that have long been use
less and out of date, so we have ideas
that persist in religion long after they
have outlived their usefulness. And
this is much more marked ain religion
than elsewhere, because in religion we
are in the habit of taking our conclusion
on the authority of what we supposed
to be fiawless theory. This theory of
the survival of the needless long after
it became needless, was emphasized
and illustrated at some length; and it
was shown that men became SO attached
to certain habits of thought that
by the association they finally became
partlSanS in many instances when
they had not personally given the mat
ter very long or very serious conSidera-
ton; consequently men changed a re-
ligious belief very slowly. We must be
prepared then with the utmost patience
to see people take up advanced ideas,
and in moment almost recede from the
position, returning to their former con-
dition. We must be prepared to see the
rhythmic law of action" operating all
the time, and must therefore be content
with slow advances, and must even eX-
pect to see the back-fowing wave over
spread what we have gained. But it
will all be regained and more than re-
gained. Every true step of progress
marked in the past thirty years has been
held, land more than held, for it has been
added to by another, but in the mean
time the survivalS of the past are al
ways i'll church organizations and are
all the time holding us in check, while
we are inwardly impelled EDWARDS. We
cannot exclude them. We cannot come
with the methods of a surgeon and ar-
ply the knife The only thing we can
do is to encourage growth and wait for
time to accomplish its work.
The preacher said ne hoped that the
time would come when one could talk
about the Bible as he would talk about
any other subject without infiaming
prejudice. True inspiration was tine
spirit of higher condition in a man.
10 lose sight of the man, to sink him so
that he COULD not be seen, to look upon
the man as machine, was to lose all
that was best and most potent in the
Bible. 1t was the speakers opinion
that the religiouS-appeal had taught US
very little about the Bible and its in
spiratlon. AS he had heard this appeal
usually made it referred to the mans
condition first and last. The man was
pictured as sinner in danger
of dark and awful fate. This
side was dwelt upon, being placed
before the Imagination and the
mind until the word danger was burnt
into his whole being. Then we are re-
minded how helpless we are. Again
that word helpless is used until it
awakes our fears. Then we are told
that Christ has helped US by His sacri-
fee. On these three words hang most
of the effective work of the pulpit.
Examine tor youself; it is all in man,
all III his present condition, in his abil-
lty, In his hope of the efficacy of sacrl-
fee. The real personalities are kept out
of sight. There is little real to us in all
that is presented save in this small
circle. A real study of any of the char
acters would make the problem very
different to us. How many of us ever
realized the atmosphere in which st.
Paul lived? the air he breathed? the
Ideas that made up the life around
MIN? How many OF us ever got such a
view of isaiah as we had of Wellington
or Napoleon? And yet can we ever get
any inspiring knowledge from the Bible
until we get at the real human lIfe-the
Suffiering-the hope-the fears-the bat
ties that all these men fought? | can
see how the Bible may be to men in the
future very inspiring book; ! can see
how 1t was in the past, when every
fanatic believed that God had left the
general control of the universe to humor
his whlm; but in the present, when we
have lost much of the old inspiration,
and have not yet taken on the new,
when Gas Matthew Arnold said) we
stand between two worlds, one dead,
the other pOwerless to be born'-at
such time, it seems to me, the Bible
n fnr
has had for long time.
But the preacher felt that one must
not be oversanguine in his eXpecta.
lions. Such view of the Bible would
meet revolt on the part of many. They
had so completely ingrained the con-
servative theory into their systems that
they could hardly be expected to find
anything but sacrilege in the view here
suggested. And he would admit that II
lacked the emotional power that came
from the dramatic features of the Older
theory. True or false, that method was
poWerful) which set a congregation tt
singing with vigor that stirred the
| blood a series of hymns representing
man as hunted deer far from sanctuary
| and as lamb on the desert lost anC
crying, as righteous but set about by
| Satanic powers that came in like
| flood; and then sprang to the
| JoyousnesS of tine power com
| ing in at the dramatically
| opportune moment, paying the ransom
for the soul. clutching the limp body
| from the roaring waves, the brand from
| the burning, and lifting the feet from
the mlre and the clay to place them OIL
the rock. There is great power in
these songs, and all they are and mean
/ ha
| ditions of the past. Nor can we deny
| that men must be educated to put into
the more quiet method of the future the
heroic music OF the past. But there il
power in the future that has none OIL
the reactions belonging to the other
| There is reserve force in that quiet
| form ,of religion which makes it the
| character of man (the real manhood in
him, the principle Oh which he bases
all mis- movements), that gives II
a meaning and an influence tC
all who fully consider it; a
| character which is nearly invaluable
| to the man who fully understands and
appreciates it. So while the new view
| of religion, that does not believe in
| plenary inspiration. and does not believe
| in theory OF perfected record, and adj
mitS that in transcription and transla-
| ton the Bible has been so much
| changed that one can hardly be certain
as to what It's original words really were,
and must seek its spirit and not its let
ter, while one holds all this he also
| feels that i'll the hopes of the men who
for the sake of righteousness suffered
| all manner of oDloquy, who for the sense
| of obligation, telt within themselves,
suffered all manner of opposition, who
forsook things they desired. and fought
good fight-he feels in the recorded
heroism and sacrifice of these men, who
knew God and believed in Him, there
| is an inspiration that comes with force
and strong and lasting influence.
B. Q. p. G. H.
Soc nnr tailor=mad a all-raadv.tomn % r