The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-04-29

kin, and DR.. 5. l.. Beller, Vlce-preSl-
dents; the Rev. D. ]. E. Gilbert. Rev.
Edwin Willis, and DR.. C. w. Dabney,
assistant secretary of agriculture.
The Rev. James Johnston, writing in
the organ of the Christian Literature
Society for India, protests against the
manner in which the sacred Books of
the East have been edited without
indication of the fact that large por-
tons have been necessarily omitted be-
cause of their impurity. He urges that
the Neo-Hinduism now characteristic of
young India is based on false idea of
the primitive system. He says:
Comparatively few of the natives of
India can read these native works in
Sanscrit, thousands can read them in
English, and the most inquiring minds
and the most enlightened students can
only read them in the English edition
The natives of India are deceived by
supposing they are reading the complete
classics of their country, when 1t IS
only an edition emasculated under the
influence of Christian morality ana
modern taste The recent revival OF
the old religions of India among edu-s
Gated men is based on the idea that
their sacred books are pure, even when
brought to the test of the Christian
standard"
Yet the "Yagur Vega" one of the
sacred books, is said to be SO bad that
it has been declared by the highest
legal authority in Bombay to be a
criminal offense to translate it into any
living language in India; and trans
lator and publisher in the Punjab were
fined for publishing a translation in
Punjabi. The fact of abridgement
should have been noted.
Professor sayce of Oxford, has
written a work on THE Verdict of the
Ancient Monuments on the Historic
Character of the Old Testament" The
Society for the Promotion of Christian
knowledge have published it as one of
their tracts, disclaiming any RESPONSE
bility for the opinions it contains, for
Professor Sayce is an archaeologist and
not a theologian. The author maintains
that in his investigations the records of
the Old Testament have been confronted
with the monuments Of the ancient,
Oriental world, wherever this was pos
sible, and their historical accuracy and
trustworthiness has been tested by
comparison with the latest results of
archaeological research.
The following brief notice is given by
the Literary Digest:
Speaking of the early chapters of
Genesis, Professor Sayce emphasizes
the presence in them of a strong Baby
lonian element. The tablets containing
the Babylonian cosmogony, which were
first brought to light, now nearly
twenty years ago, by Mr.. George Smith,
are quoted, and it is shown how the
narrative of the first chapter of Genesis
is dependent upon it. Even the Sab
bath. we are told, is an institution of
quotes, moreover, another Babylonian
narrative, exhibiting different concep-
ton of the order of creation, and rep
iresenting a habitation prepared for men
and gods before mankind and the
beasts of the fields had been formed,
and while plants and trees were still
uncreated which, as he points out,
agrees with the representation of the
'Jehovist'' in Gen. ii, 8; iii, 20, as against
that of the ''Eiohist' in i, l; i, 4. The
scenery of Genesis ii-Eden, the four
rivers, the shoham CA. V. onyx stone
is Babylonian: 1.-THE garden and it's
mystical tree were known to the inhab-
itants of Chaldea in pre-Semitic times;
even the beliefs that woman was Gre
ated out Of man, and that man by sin
fell from a state of innocence, are al
luded to in ancient Sumerian texts.
On comparing these Babylonian mar
ratives with those of Genesis, Professor
Sayce insists upon the entirely differ
emit complexion which they assume in
the hands of the Biblical writer's; they
are stripped of their polytheisn, accom-
modated to the Hebrew point of view,
and made the vehicle of profound re-
ligous truths. He says it Is the ina
bility of German, French and English
critics to recognize the vital difference
| that exists between the Oriental and
European world that has been the cause
of so vast an amount of wasted time
and labor over the records of the Old
Testament. 'Apologists,' and higher
critics alike have treated the Old Tes-
lament books and their contents as if
! they had been written in England,
France, or Germany They transform
1.-The men of ancient Israel into men of
medieval Europe, sometimes even into
men of modern Europe, and they criti-
ciZe the Biblical writers as if they had
lived in an age of newspapers and re-
views.
The New York Observer Pres), has
the following:
I'VE do not believe that the divis-
ion into denominations was foreor-
dained of God as a part of His plan
for conducting Christ's church, but we
do believe that it is better for His peo-
pie to be divided by sharply drawn
UNCONVENTIONAL lines, while each de-
nomination is working for the one end
in it's own way, that it is for them to
be mechanically and nominally united,
while divided at heart. Unless the un-
ion is actual and upon the basis of one
faith, as well as one Lord, little will
be gained by union under one earth
ly name. There have been some adj
vantages in denominationalism, al
though these have been due rather to
the Overruling providence of God than
to any virtue inherent in the thing it
self For instance, had there been I'M
til now, but one body in the days of
the Reformation, we should probably
nave almost forgotten, by this time,
that there ever was such book as the
Bible. The church was practically get
ting along without it in the time of
Luther, and much of the sacredness
with which it has been treasured since
his time is due to the fact that the
various bodies of Christians have
watched with jealous care, lest any
change should be made in the Word"
The Christian Register Onit), of
Boston expresses the view that:
1T is the height of presumption for
any one branch of the Christians or of
! In 81 Il