The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-09-29


faith which in all those ages nerved
the arm and strengthened the courage
of the moral heroes of Christendom
who entered into holy warfare with
sin, with human misery, with igno-
rance, and with other ills or evils
which oppressed or degraded human
ity. This is the faith which enabled
the Christian martyr to march bravely
and cheerfully to the dungeon the
rack, or the stake. This is the faith
which has enabled millions upon
millions of good men and women
whose names the world never heard
to bear in obscurity with fortitude
and JOY secret trials and crosses, in
many instances lifelong and hope
less so far as earth is concerned,
which must otherwise have crushed
them to the dust. This is the faith
which, as l have said, has it's fount
and origin in the Bible.
Account for it as we may, the Bible
has become the cynosure of all the
most cultured, energetic, and pro-
gressive peoples on the face of the
earth. Even beyond these peoples
it is extending it's influence; grad
ually it is drawing all men unto it to
behold and study its contents, even
as Jesus Christ is gradually drawing
all men unto him by the sweet COM
pulsion of his matchless love, the
moral majesty of his personality, and
the all-sufficient revelation which he
makes alike of God and of man. The
Jewish Scriptures would probably
never have perished SO long as the
Jewish race remained. But they
would certainly never have attained
the worldwide circulation they now
have had they not been linked with
the Christian Scriptures. And where
in, we may we'll ask, do we find the
true unity of the Old and New Testa
ment? We find it in the person of
the Saviour. Upon certain pages of
the Old Testament you observe, as
it were, the shadow of his approach;
upon the pages of the New Testa-
ment he stand before us the mightiest
ruler of the souls of men that ever
appeared among them, fully realizing
the cherished visions of his coming
which had haunted the souls of He
brew prophets and saints. After all,
then, the real source of the power of
the Bible-the remark applying most
emphatically, of course, to the New
Testament-lies in the fact that it
testifes of Christ. He is it's central
figure, whose moral majesty and
princely dress of righteousness en-
thral the gaze of every pure and saint
ly soul. This it is which makes the
book sacred to the heart of e7try true
Christian, though he may absolutely
refuse, as he should refuse, to regard
any book whatsoever as sacred in the
sense of possessing any title of au-
thority over his soul. Jesus of Naz-
areth is the least imperious of all his
toric personages, and yet the most
imperial. Similarly the Bible is one
of the least imperious books that ever
were written, and yet it is the most
imperial. And my profound belief
is, that it will remain so to the re-
motest depths of time.
My own observation has led me to
regard the Bible as a touchstone of
individual character. What a man
thinks and says about the grand old
Book is, whether he knows it or not,
very much a revelation of his own
spiritual condition. Let individual
men Judge the Bible as they may. the
Bible in very true and real sense
judges every man; and hence we are
not surprised to read of English
bishops in the old days shaking the
Book in the face of barons and kings
who oppressed their Aocks. Great
ness and nobleness, whether in men
or in books, are seen and understood
only by great end noble minds. Oc-
casionally l have heard the Bible be-
Titled or spoken of in patronizing
strain, but never by man of deep
and intense spirituality-only by men
of commonplace and shallow natures
or men spoiled by self-conceit or
egotism. To understand the emotions
and feelings of prophets, psalmists,
apostles, and saints, there must be
kindred emotions and feelings within
your own breast. To un-biblical
minds the Bible is little more than
book to be made subject of criti-
cism. To souls aglow with fervent
pety ii is a perennial source of light,
of warmth, of comfort, peace, and
joy.
LONDON, ENG.