The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-11-24
VOICE OF H PULPIT
THE BIsB0P OF ALBANY DIsCoURsEs
ON sLETTER AND SPIRIT
Rev. William Croswen Doane, ID. d.,
LII. D., Enters . Plea for Modera-
ton and Conservatism.
1.-The letter kIlleth. but the spirit giveth
fell Cor, ill.,, 6.

There are certain frequent misuses of
these words which are worth CORRECTING,
and certain proper and important uses
which are worth noting. 1t really is an
antithesis Of speech. with no real antag-
onism OF thought. Read at large 1t would
be, The letter without the spirit killeth,
the spirit with or without the letter giveth
life." You can empty the letter OF the
spirit. but you cannot confine the spirit to
the letter. 1t bloweth where it listeth.
1 can imagine no fairer Illustration OF
st. Pauls warning than their irterpreta-
ton Of it. who read as the French people
say, Eau pied de la ~lettre," with more foot
than head in the reading). The letter, they
say, kills, therefore the written words of
Holy Scripture, or those letters or another
sort, the outward signs Of sacraments, pre-
composed words of prayer, in fact, all
external and sensible things in religion, are
unimportant, more than that, are unprofit-
able and injurious. And this. about a God
who clothed himself in the whole alphabet
OF our humanity. every letter of il, not a
man, like here and there a saint, but man,
touching every human being that ever was
born or ever will be born into the world;
a God h turned the rainbow into a
covenant; who demanded the external rite
OF circumcision, under penalty Of being
cast out Of his kingdom on earth; who was
himself circumcised and kept the Pass
over, who instituted at least two sacra-
ments. with the outward elements OF water
and bread and wine. Certainly this is MAX
ing the letter kill the spirit of the passage,
so that it no longer lives.
/ can but think that some Biblical criti-
cism tends the same way. 1t is most valu-
able in its place; it discovers meanings;
it corrects apparent discrepancies; it de-
cides authorship and sometimes age and
authenticity; it clears up difficult readings:
it makes passages parallel which seem
opposed. But textual criticism Is not study
ing the Bible. any more than vivisection is
discovering the soul. A Greek article or a
Greek particle is often significant and i'm
portant, but to be busy with nothing else,
is to make the letter kill religious faith,
the knowledge of God. the voice that speaks
in the word.
And similarly, 1 am bound to say that
the other extreme. the theory that every
word of Holy Scripture Is the actual ut
terance of God. makes the letter kill.
We owe a great deal to the critics Of
words, and we also owe a great deal TO
the old Masora, to the Talmud, TO the
rabbinical reverence for lots and tit
Ties" words and vowel points. We owe a
great deal to the monks of the middle
ages, for their reverent care and beautiful
transcription Of the very letters of the
Bible, with their exquisite initials and IL
Nominations. And we owe a great deal to
that sort of bookworship, almost real let
ter worship, of the old-fashioned evangel-
ical, because they all helped to keep the
body of the Scriptures sacred and safe.
But whether the utterance be on rab-
binical parchment or in papal encyclical
that God is the Auctor Verborum and not
the Auctor Verbi-the speaker Of every
sentence, instead of the Revealer and in
spirer of the revelation-the mechanical
theory is deadly and destructive to the in
~telligent study of the Bible, in which the
spirit shines through and burns in the
letter, not consuming 1t. but not killed or
consumed by the constraint Of the human
speech, which expresses but does not con-
tain God.
What does st. Paul mean here? Does he
antagonize the letter and the spirit? No,
but here as often, in his other e~pistles, the
meaning is that the mere letter uniformed
by the spirit it not only a dead letter. but
a letter that kills.
First, on general principles; one cannot
ignore the value of these sensible things,
which become the media through which
the spirit appeals by our senses to our
spirits. The fact is that these letters are TO
the spirit of God what our senses are TO
our spirits; namely. vehicles of communi-
cation. The very deepest and keenest i'm
pressions are made through the senses to
our souls. Think Of the impression on the
mind through the eye; on the soul through
the ear; on the deepest affections OF our
nature, through the sense of touch! Ii
would be as wise to destroy or to derogate
from eye, ear or touch, as to despise the
outward signs through which God speaks.
They are not essential. In dreams and
visions of the night. when eye and ear are
closed. He speaks to the soul. He can
speak, as the old father said, without
din of words" and we hear His voice. He
can impress Himself upon our spiritual ma
ture, using neither material means nor
physical senses, but it is not His way. And
no one dare say that the means He uses
are useless. much less harmful Read the
passage rightly, The letter without the
spirit killeth, the spirit with or without
the letter giveth life." and then apply it
in three ways.
The letters OF Zoo, tho external, visible,
audible, sensible means of communication
between God and man. are all life-givine,
unless we empty them Of life by misuse.
The killing by the letter consists, first, in
a mere outward conformity to the letter,
for instance, of the moral law, with no in
wardness in it's meaning and no inwardness
in our motive. Think Of that tremendous
arraignment by ST. Paul of those who "by
the letter and circumcision transgressed
the law That is what our Lord meant
when he said, UNLESS your righteousness
exceed the righteousness OF the Scribes and
Pharisees." That is what he meant by 'His
fulfilling the law not merely keeping it
himself, but filling it full of new meaning
in the words and new motives in their keep
ing. Take the commandments. We bow
down before no craven image to worship
ii, and yet there is an idolatry OF the
senses in our lives. because that which We
love best, think of most, serve most care
fully, give most time and money 10, IL
really our God. We have no stain Of blood
upon our hands, and yet we cannot say we
do no murder" when our thoughts, which
are the hands of the soul, are red with
hatred of a brother. We do not commit the
actual sin of adultery, and vet our hearts