The times., 1897-11-26
1891.

/ is q genius for religious HtPratiirs? as
/ we know nien apart from God they do not
! havs 1. Genius for religion. Tie literature
| of the Blhlei not the most wonderful thing
| aEo1tit. The most wonderful thing about
| i5ls that IS Iiteratureis always OH the siGe
OF God o. against man; always just!fi9S
God at lIan' expense; always condemns
ruan for sinfulness, as sin, and urges him
to come back TO fellowship with God which,
/ ha has!ast What nIotive could move man.
not under the inspiration of Gods spirit.
| to WRIT; such book? What Hotive could
move more than sixty men, living On, CEN
tury after century apart, to participate in
| the writing OF such q Look? a poem. Ike
| the Iiiad o; homer or the Paradise Lost of
! Milton; u tragedy like Hamlet or Macbeth,
| has poetic rea0jns for enlisting ttle synpa.
/ thy of the reader on the side of good,
| and against the bad. Homer makes h:s
| vicious clara 35Ars offensive; SO does
| Shakespeare. 1t has Leen said t!iat the
hero OF Paradise L9at is Satan. IL so, 20
! fer forth 81 poem. fails OF the high moral
| purpose the author had in view, though IL
! is t. th.A credit OF lis creative power Fer
| MilGoa : Satan is net the satan of the Eibie.
The moral unity of tie Eible; this law
which crystalIzes al materials that lie in
| history, iii Poetry, in prophecy
around the throne If God, around
the crOss of Christ, this is .ns
of the niGst difficult things Cf the Bible
TO Gcconnt fsr The burden of tie blbie
is tire controversy which God has with
man, for rot realizing His i,l "a
IN creating lHni; with the chosen people
OF God for not reaii2ing His idea in coEsti-
| tutipg tneni 4 alton. Man makes TO plea
| for n.niieif iaod's cbesen people are silent.
| We sey that tie AneIo-saxon race ,.as
| genius f1rfree iasFitus.ons. But what u.s. IL
archlss ever put contempt oI free A.n lisI
Ike IEonlas CaTiyle2 AnclO-Sax,n liter
| atuIe is tiiH nl battles witch have been
| fGaeht Tor frce,iJnT; battles with Two stics
| 90 them. Eut tere is It bock whert there
is only cne side, where the guiding :.liId
seems atTaysto be il. ympatl1y with God
ana eternal right, with heavenly peace
/ and order a s against mundane c!iaos ana
unrest. Adam falls, DaYId fats. Peter
| fails. There is not 4 single effort made To-.
| mitigate the infaEly cf ttese aEostacies
| Sixty nen are making this Book, centuries
| apart. And ii they were sixty wired pup
| pets So held together as at a certain signal
to lift up tie right hand, their moral 'ltticn
| could I.o5 have stricter unity.
And yet this moral unity is secured amid
the greatest diversity. These Sixty or
| mcTc authors are not puppets They dlr:
| not wired together. Tney are not made %
| wooC II they lift their right hand, they
do 1t OF theii own accord Tie mora4
unity Of the writer's OF the Bible, tl.sir
| sympathy with the good as against IL.
| evil, with Gods government as against
| mans rebellion, is no less pronounced than
their individuality. II is no want Of 90
hesion aad symmetry i'll the Bite that
MAKES ds think of different authors. It is
the Individuality Gs the authors themselves.
they stand outin a kind OF personal relief.
which. shows tneIn 10 be true men. When
ever composed, the book of job, :Un OF
poetry, philosophy, ethics as it is. it
| TGUlG be impossible Ia introduce ia or an r
| portion OF it as belonging to any other
! book of tile Idiie One place belongs tn II
and no ether The apostle Paul IS al
ways himself He moves in the Christina
annals: he writes letters, he performs la
b)rs, he expresses opinions and oonyic-
ticns: lie argues as no other man can; u
Christian Atlas, hearing upon his shoulders
the world. Tne moral unity Of tsle writer's
OF the Bible, when taken by itself, is r.
Llarkabie enough; but when taken to
gether with the distinct and intense indi-
viduality Of the authors, an individuality
held just as sacred and no more infringcd
upon III the various parts assigned % each
than in human life: than in one of Shakes
peare's dramas; 1t is still more difficult 70
account for Tine Bible has Just as ni.t.Iy
different personalities unfolding them
serves in it as it has different authors.
And vet, individual as they are, they al
wa. : suppress themselves; they never X
patiate upon an idea as though their trade
Were authorship
| This Individuality, and at the same time
| this seli-Suprression, self-subordinatiLn. is
one OF the peculiarities Cf Shakespeare
lie is always present; you feel his pulse in
every thought in every expression, but he
is present only as creative genius. In all
Of st. Pauls Epistles You cannGt find q
passage where the Ego is not suppressed
and held in subordinatiui. to the maiu
| movement of his mind and heart. I dc not
except that passage in which, provoked
by the attempts of Ills antagonists, he
giories in the catalogues Of his own achieve
mcuts. For, after all. tn eECo there is
not his Wa, but that Of Christ, that dwell
eth in hin. And yet l doubt if There
were any possible disclosures Of the pro
PORTIONS of st, Paul's nature; Of its moral
grandeur, of its intellectual grasp, OF
its palpitating warmth; more complete
than We have in mis- EpiStle.
This diversity i'll unity, displayed not
emily III the authors, but the material oi
the Bible, makes it like Kaleidoscope
Every time it is taken upit has new com
| bip1tinnS. CGDIhiuafffuS aT RI, n
Who holds it; but always true to II single
structural law. Give d man a key to the
Eible-ttat is, willingness to know and I.
do TIE viii of God and he never wearies OF
it: young OF cid, rich or poor, bond or free,
1t isto hiinlike theharmouy Gfthe spheres.
Lisping childhood is charmed with its
| narratives, as though God himself Were
speaking TO it, in some privileged twilight
hour. 1t has to dc with the childhood Of
nations, hen the Creator himself was
guarding their Graded slumbers. 1t is
in SUCH language asthat in which a father
talks to his child. Cbildhocd's heroes and
herJines are there: Joseph and Noses and
Samuel and David and Miriam. And old
age, after having sifted through its fin
gers the worthless sands Of its four score
years: after ha wing weighed in its balances
all the Wisdom of this world, all the joys of
tnis word, all the acquisitions of this
world turns 10 it just as trustingly and
lovingly rs did chiIdtOCd itself For, does
it not Stilispeak with thevoice Of a Father
The last thing to be accounted for IS the
Bibles utter neglect of what nan calls
science. The realm of the Bible is moral.
The Billie deals with that in man which 5
not seen Inch is the same in all genera