New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1895-01-16
Modern Ideas of the Bible,

The past few years have witnessed a
wonderful change in religious thought
When Robert Ingersoll began his attacks
upon the Bible, liberal beliefs and high
er criticisms were unknown, and the
world was practically orthodox. The
churches accepted the Bible literally as
The inspired word of God. Those out
side the churches still held for it sort
of ancestral reverence. They regarded
it as different from all other literary
works, the one sacred book, a kind of
! religious amulent necessary to the dig
nifty and welfare of every household. The
theologians of the universities were
doubtless prosecuting researches into the
history and character of the scriptures,
but whatever they may have been think
ing they we're certainly teaching the pre-
scribed doctrines of the early churches.
The hedgling shepherds went to their
focks imbued with the traditions, if not
the zeal of their forefathers
When Ingersoll first gave utterance to
his agnostic views, there was general
and unreasoning CONSERVATION. He was
set down as an infdel ard blasphemer,
an agent of the Prince of Darkness. But
a new era began with his lombard dment
of the church. The latter was put upon
the defensive, and thought and investi-
cation were stimulated.
The result has been great havoc
among old authorities. There have been
revisions and corrections and alterations
of old dogmas and theological authorities
without number. The pews are full of
doubtless, and even the clergyman quotes
less while he reasons and affirms the
more.
There is authority still-never more of
it; but it has shifted from the old ground
to newer and tirmer, from tradition to
Intuition, from dogma to reason. The
Catholic church, the highest representa-
tive of ecclesiastical authority over the
will and conduct of Christian life, now
meets her opponent in argument and
seeks to support her dogmas by reason
A few years ago one of the ablest of her
archbishops crossed swords with Inger-
soil IN one of our great reviews, in an
attempt to prove that the Catholic church
is as reasonable as any and more respect
able, because more venerable. Thus by
enlisting reason and making its appeal
to the common conscience of mankind,
the Catholic church places itself in the
line of progress, and subjects itself to
the changing influences which it can no
more resist than the iceberg drifting
southwark can resist the influence of the
equatorial heats.
The authority of the bible, to which
Protestants appeal, is of higher order
than that of the church, and it IS older
in time. There is inspiration in although
1t is not all inspiration. It speaks to
men in their own tongue. Its teachings
are capable of various interpretations.
Apparently rigid, it is most elastic, and
adapts itself to all circumstances ana
conditions. The mind of Christendom
has voiced itself in its language, and
grows by trying to fill its lofty and an
tique vocabulary with meaning. It has
been stimulant to the conscience of
generations. It is not strange that such
an antique book containing the grandest
lyrics, The sublimest poetry, the plalnest
precepts, pictures that are idyls and pro-
phecies that sweep the whole gamut of
human feeling and seem to echo th