The Indianapolis journal., 1896-03-22

fragments were possessed Dy this cnurcn,
other fragments by tnat. These fragments
were exchanged among the churches. They
grew into connected story. Letters were
written by the apostles to one church and
highly priced and these were exchanged.
BY and by. by the fourth century. these
also had been brought together into one
collection, which the carly church accounted
as sacred as the Jews had accounted the
similar collection OF the Old Testament
The external process OF the accumulation
and gathering OF the Bible is unquestion-
ably determined. The Koran Is said to have
been written by the angel Gabriel on SILK
in the seventh heaven, brought down TO
the lower one and then dictated to Monam-
med, who wrote IL on pieces or parchment
and old mutton bones and threw them into
a chest, where they were found after ne
was dead. The Koran was all completed In
mans lifetime. The Bible was four
teen hundred years in growing into lit
erature. The iirst message OF these
concerning the nature of God. The wise
men OF Egypt had believed that God was
one but the people believed in a great multi
tude of gods. Moses, trained in the phiios-
ophy OF Egypt, goes out TO this people In
the wilderness and makes popular what De-
fore was abstruse philosophy. His first dec,
laration TO Israel was this Hear q
Israel. Jehovah. your God. Is one God The
first message of the prophets to the OLD
Israelites was one God. and yet even tnis
was not clearly understood at first.
CONFLICT IN EARLY STAGES.
There was conflict all through the early
stages. Sometimes you find one God; some
times God that is above all other gods; the
gods or the heather. little gods, our Jehovah
supreme above them. But gradually the
truth dawned into the heart and subsidiary
gods-that there is one God, maker OF heaven
and earth But this God was still the God
OF Israel They were His special people. He
is righteous God That does not seem
much TO you, but IL you viii look along the
lines OF history you viii see 1t was a wonder
full discovery. that God Is a righteous God.
for the gods OF the pagans were either un-
moral or immoral and the rites or the pa
gans were vicious and vitiating. 1t is
shame, said one OF the moralists, 10 get
drunk except in the feast OF the gods. Ii
centiousness was enshrined in the great tenn
pie OF Ephesus. The rights OF the Pnoene-
clans iE honor OF their gods were character
lied by bestiality. that cannot be described
to-day. The strife between Judaism and
paganism was not a question as TO the spell
ing Of God, whether spelled Baal or Yan; II
was a question whether the God that ruled
the earth was righteous God or whether
He was an immoral and vicious God. But
this God demanded righteousness or His peo-
beginning. He demanded righteousness OF
His people. but He demanded that. and II
they did not do Righteousness, they died. Tnere
was occasionally a suggestion or mercy 10
sinners; but only suggestion. He shows
mercy. says the Second commandment,
, unto thousands sss out ,oxa it Il Him tnDu snd
keep His Commandments. AT the first the
conception of this God was OF God OF
righteous, loving righteousness ana mating
iniquity. Joshua brings the children or
Israel together. He Is about to leave them:
He is to give them his dying speech and
farewell charge and this is wnat ne SAYS:
Choose you this day whom We Will serve.
Jehovah, or the gods on the other side OF
the flood And they say, We Will serve
Jehovah. He Is our God And joshua sad AID
Lord, for He is an holy God; He is a
Jealous God He will not forgive your trans
gressions. nor your sins, Was that rev, rev,
Ii was as Professor Harris says, an In
complete revelation and marred by gross
misconception 1t was the conception or a
people who had gotten so far along in their
religious development as to have an idea
that God is righteous God and that right
eousness abhor5 iniquity. IL was not until
revelation of a God that forgives sins III
is not till the Hebrew psalter we read
such declarations as he Iorgivetn an our our
such a prayer as Forgive my 1niquity, Tor
IL is great That God was one God. that
God was righteous GOD, tnae Coo s as T,;a a
people-this was the first message Not un-
til the people had been pondering on that
for centuries did they earn ear I'll tne secpna faia
children to be righteous, and even then they
thought this God was only the God of
Israel. all heather men would be cast OUT
A
"At last we come to the second Isaiah.
The children of Israel have been carried
away TO Babylon; they have lived in captiv-
ity; they have mixed with other people; they
have been broadened by their migration; they
have learned more noble conception of re-
ligion, of life and of God: and now in the
second Isaiah. you find for the first
time any clear declaration that God
includes in His love and compre-
hension all the races of mankind. Then
there comes the revelation of God in Christ
Jesus-of which I am to speak later-and
last of all the revelation of God through
Paul, the connecting link between the Jew
ish and the Gentle world. translating He
braism. which was local and provincial, into
the Greek language and thought, which was
orld-wide and universal, that the whole
world might comprehend the message of Is
rael to mankind. Along with this develop
ment in the conception OF God went a de-
velopment in moral and ethical life. What
is righteousness? Why, IL l were to ask this
would get almost as many an
swers as there are people in 1t. Our STAN
dards of righteousness differ: the standards
of different States; the standards OF different
businesses: the standards of different houses;
the standards of different conditions Your
standard is different on Sunday night from
what Ii is on Wednesday afternoon, In the
complications and competitions OF the mar
ket place. God Is righteous God. He viii
only do what is righteous. He will only de-
mand what is righteous. but only little by
little do the pupils in this laboratory of life
learn what righteousness is. 1T hath been
said to you of old time said Christ, thou
shalt love thy neighbor, but hate thine en-
envy We do not find those words in the
old Testament, ii is true, but We do find the
split of them. You are to love your neigh
Dor, you are to love the Jew. you are TO love
even the GENTLE, If he has laid aside
his heathenism and come TO sit at your side,
but you are TO hate the heathen; you are
to have nothing TO do with them; you are
TO build great wall around you and keep
them out, and in war with them you are
to kill them-men, women and children-ab-
If you consider what was the moral condi-
tion of the Canaanites. it is not strange they
thought their duty was TO exterminate the
Canaanites. The world had yet TO learn
that there is better way TO exterminate sin
than by exterminating the sinners. We have
teach the lesson and prepare us for the bet
ter method. BY the rivers of Babylon, there
We sat down, yea, We wept when we reinem-
bered Zion Remember, o Lord, the
children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem;
who said RaZe 1t, raZe 1t, even to the foun-
dation thereof. o daughter of Babylon, who
art TO be destroyed; happy shall he be that
rewardeth thee as thou hast served US
Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth
thy little ones against the stones That is
what an unknown poet sang In the time of
exile in the gloom Of Babylon. and this is
what Christ said four hundred years after:
i say unto you, love your enemies. bless
them that curse you, do good TO them that
hate you and pray for them that despite
fully use you and persecute you. And you
imprecatory psalm VITA this
law Of Christ? / viii tell you. That i'm
precaKory psalm shows how deep Is the pit
into which pious men sometimes fall. 1t