The evening times., 1896-04-15
WHAT WE OWE TO The BIBLE
DR.. Whitman Traces Modern Civili-
zation to That Source.
Large Audience Greets the Eminent
Scholar at First Congregational
Church-Tributeto to Hebrews.

very scholarly address was delivered
last night at the First Congrcg ga tionai
Church by Rev. b. L. whitman, president Of
Columbian University, on The Bible and
Civilization"
This was the last lecture of its season
given under the auspices Of the American
Society OF Religious Education. Prcsi-
dent Eaton was in the chair. The attend
anCe was very large and paid close attention
to the great theme or tDe speaker.
DR.. Whitman spoke first OF the three
stages OF man; as a savagr; the creature OF
impulse; as the barbarian, the new
eiution OF the race, revised, improved and
enlarged and the civilized being who had
arrived at Il full seif-consciou>iess.
In this latter stage man knew the secrets
of nature, was skillfu in the use of tools
steadfast IN toll and in danger, being OF
spiritual capacity.
The next result was progress, the salieu;
forms of which the speaker traced, CLASH
flying progress into the material, as the
spiritual as the express ion OF life in
society and in forms OF worship. Then
came Il discussion or the reaction OF man on
nature, in which he agreed with Hegel that
while the reaction or man on nature was
important il was more important to consider
mans reaction on himself.
Discussing the Hebrew race, the Bible ap
peared, in which book and people the
lens of the whole human race The re
ligiOnist claimed that civilization was the
result OF tne BiDie, Willie the pDStlNlSt hei0
that the Bible was the result or civilization
Both were partly right. he held, for be
hind all civilization was God.
The great function of the Bible was to
make known to man the oracles of God
and its technical Revelation was only one OF
the many revelations of science and of
art that constitute civilization. BY the
Bible and its early exponenis among rhe
martyrs of pre-Chr>tian and post-Chrlstian
times truth became incarnate and living
force. transmitted from living beings to
living beings Indefinitely.
Life transformed life from three great
Centers, Greece, Rome, and Jcrusai aiem,
from the three arising that civilization
which is iwofOld. the material and the
spiritual but the speaker regarded the
the present result. All the objective mani
festations of progress were but evidences of
the dominance of the intellectual or the
spiritual. He derived the spiritual from
the Hebrew race.
The great factor, or fact, In the modern
Heveiopement OF mau, was the discovery
OF SELF, and this discovery he traced 10
the spiritual tribunal. The second great
force was self-control, and the third. the
greatest of all, WAS self-sacrifice.
From this latter, founded on the teach
ings OF the Bible. arose the perfection Of
man, the family. and of the state. Three
things DR.. Whitman deduced from his
subject: First, that the Bible. viewed as
he spiritual nature OF man: second, that
in Revelations, the man of Genesis had
hcconie the man of the Apocalypse: third,
that the Bible is the moral dynamic force
N the CIVILIZATION of the present, and that
IL would lie the same TO infinity.