St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-14

polytheism and bowed to idols. the
Hebrews rose rapidly to the highest
and purest monotheism. Learned
Egypt adored animals and plants; culs
tured Greece and powerful Rome built
affairs to the tabled deities of Olympus;
but Israel knew only Jehovah, whose
name, Il am who all" revealed sublime
conceptions of the Creator which
the highest philosophy Of a Plato
or a Socrates never attained.
And the ethics of the Bible!
Jehovah the Master and model was
infinite purity: Wild PhHnicia adored
AStarte, Greece and Rome burned ill.,
cense to Priapus and Venus and deified
the giant criminals Of their history.
The Ten Commandments may be dis
covered sparsely distributed through
writings of Oriental and Grecian phil
osophers. Moses alone codified them
clearly and autboritatiVely i'll the name
Of the Supreme Being, and only among
the Hebrews were they living, practical
law. How did it happen that small
nation without outside power or fame,
surrounded by pagan and corrupt peo-
piles, alone preserved monotheism and
the worship Of pure affairs alone Of all
the nations Of the earth? Because they
had the Bible and Jehovah watched
over them.
The record of Gods dispensation
oftentimes goes onward, side by side,
with the doings of men. The Old
Testament is the story OF Isrel, of Is
rael's God and of IsraePs people. the
latter often departing from the ways of
their God. initiating the GentlleS, dis
obeying their own laws. SHINING, re-
penting, and SHINING again. Care must
he taken when we begin to critcise
hnt In Low to In up In
hovah and His inspired Bible the crimes
and follieS of men, of patriarchS and of
kings, which were contrary TO JehOvah'S
will and to the law and spirit OF the
Bible. This is frequent mistake OF
unbelief.
LeO's Words on Molly Writ.
AS to supposed scientific and his
tOrical errors in the Bible, and contra
| dictions between narratives Of the diff
ferent writes, | quote from the ency
clical of the pope on the Scripture:
The sacred writers, or to speak more
accurately, the Holy Ghost, who spoke
by them, did not intend to teach man
these things, that is to say, the essential
nature of things OF the visible universe,
things in no way profitable unto saliva
ton. They did not seek to penetrate
the secrets Of nature, but rather de-
Scrbed and dealt at times with things
In more or less figurative language. or
i'll terms which were commonly used at
the time, and which in many Instances
are in daily use today even by the most
eminent men Of science. Ordinary
speech primarily and properly describes
what comes under the senses, and the
sacred writers put down what God,
speaking to men, signified in the way
men could understand and were accus
toned TO-"
Add to these words the fact that the
books of the Bible were written long
ago, in ages of which the metaphors
and figures of speech are unfamiliar 10
us. that these books have passed
through the hands of an untold number
of transcrlbers ami translat0rs, con-
sciously and unconsciously careless in
minor matters; add the fact that the
Bible embraces all forms Of literature,
tie strict history, the moral instruction.
the allegory, and it Will be easily seen
that careful study and dispasSionate
Judgment are required before sentence
can be passed upon it and its true pur-
port proclaimed.
Christ Attacked Along with the
Bible.
And now pronounce the name of
names, Jesus of Bethlehem and CAL
vary, and bow humbly before him as
my Savior and my incarnate God. In
defending HiHl | defend the Bible-the
Gid Testament, which He made His
own, the New, which is the direct rec
ord of His preaching-as i'll defending
the Bible defend Him.
With time at my disposal, [ could an
alyze in detail the attacks of unDelief
against the New Testrment and its
Christ, and show how utterly unbound
ed and unreasonable they are. The
several books are set aside because
some do not contain the same narratives
as others, as if any one purported to
be complete recital Of Christ
are discovered as unbelief finds
convenient to do so, arbitrary
explanations are offered when those of
the gospels are deemed inadmissible;
counsels of perfection intended for the
few are taken as preceptS given to all,
! and condemned as practically impos-
Sible. Metaphors and parallels figure
as literal doctrine; the mission of Christ
is travestied. 1t is asked why Christ
did not launch the world into quick
current of material progress? And He
| is blamed for revealing mysteries and
speaking OF future punishment for the
| unrepentlng sinner Manifestly, If God
is to be permitted to speak to man, few
ambassadors of the race, who know
humanity better than God does, and
who have power over heaven and he'll.
must first be called by Him into counsel
to decide what shall be the message of
| the Creator to creatures. This is the
blasphemy which goes up to heaven
from time to time from earth; the bias
| phemy which crowds are willing to ap-
| piaud.
Christianity Divine.
But let details drop aside. When a
giant tree rises into the air, the mon
arch OF the surrounding forest, spread
irg afar its branches. we lose no time
in following out the small fibers which
bring to Its larger roots food and life
| from the surrounding earth; we pause
little indeed at roots of any kind. We
view the tree, and. from its size and
branches, we know that all is we'll with
The parts of it which escape our eyes.
So with Christ and His church. Why
cayil over small questions of dates or
| books, over passages in their recitals?
Why demand explanations Of every
word and omission Of friend or foe in
contemporary history? See Christ in
His work! Whence is He? Whence
the power and the wisdom and the vir-
tue which have gone out from Him!
Christ preached in Palestine nineteen
centuries ago; in and around the city OF
Jerusalem, the meeting ground of
Oriental and Occidental nations, then
III the possession of Roman legions 1t
was an age of extraordinary intellectual
movement; the age of Augustus, when
philosophers and orators abounded,
when Athens boosted of its Areopagus,
Alexandria of its academies. and Roman
thought, with Roman sword, swayed the
universe. Christ preached for three
years, and was erucitied. His apostles.
poor, illiterate fishermen for the greater
part, all of them without fame
or influence, dispersed through the
world preaching Christ as the
incarnate God, and proclaiming
as His credentials miracles, chief
of which His resurrection from
| the dead. And the world believed;
churches, or congregations of believers
arose in all cities of Palestine and Asia
Minor; Antioch and Alexandria became
| 1onuarfIi1 0oOtnrc of No pow pin