The times., 1897-11-21

about it. The most wonderful thing about
il is that its literatureis always ontne side
OF God e. against man; always iustfies
God at han's expense; always condemns
man for sinfulness, as sin, and urges him
to come hack 10 fellow ship with Goa which
lie has lost What motive could move man
not under tile 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 a Look? A poem. like
the IiiAd OF Homer or the Paradise Lost of
Milton; Il tragedy like Hamlet or Macbeth
las Poetic reasons for enlisting the syinpa-
thy of the reader ON the side of good,
and against the bad. Homer makes his
vteioas characters offensive; so does
Shakespeare. 1t has been said that the
hero of Paradise Lost is Satan. If so, so
far forth the poem. fails of the high moral
purpose the author had in view, though it
is to the credit Of his creative power For
Milton's satan is not the satan Of The Bible
The moral unity Of the Bible; this law
which cryStalizes all materials that lie IN
history in poetry, in prophecy
around the throne of God. around
the cross of Christ, this is ail.,
of the most difficult things Of the Bible
TO account for. The burden of tue Ribtrs
Is the controversy which God has.-r6h
man, for rot realizing His idea
in creating hijn; with the chosen people
OF God for not realizing His idea ia eonsti-
tutiDg then a nation. Man makes no plea
for himself; Gods chosen people are silent
We say that the Anglo-saxon race mas
genius for free institutions. But what non
archisu ever put contempt on free Am aiea
ike Thomas CaTlyle2 AngIo-Saxon liter
ature rs full uf battles which have been
fought Tor freedom; battles with two sides
to them. But here is a book where HIere
is only one side, where the guiding .lind
seems always To be i'll ynpathy with God
and eternal right, with heavenly peace
ami order, as against mundane chaos and
unrest. ADAM falls David falls, Peter
falls. There is not a single effort made t.
mitigate the infamy Of these apostacies
Sixty men are making this Book, centuries
apart. And if they We're sixty Wired pup
pets so held together as at q certain signal
To lif! up the right hand their mora! 4ctIon
Gould lot have stricter unity.
And yet this moral unity is secured amid
the greatest diversity, These sixty oc
mere authors are not puppets. They are
not wired together They are not made us
wood. If they lift their right hand, they
do II OF theil own accord. Tie nora
unity or the writer's of the Bible, their
sympathy with the good as against tli.
evil, With Gods government as against
mans renellIOn, is no less pronounced than
their individuality. II is no want OF co
hesion and symmetry III the Bible that
makes as think OF different authors. IT is
the individuality of the authors themselves.
Ehey stand oUtin kind of personal reitei
which shows them to be true men When
ever composed, the book OF job, 9ull OF
poetry, philosophy ethics as it is. it
wUUld be impossible IL tutraduce il or an =
portion of it as belonging to any other
book of the Bible One place belong; e. It
aud no ether The apostle Paul IS al
ways himself He moves in the CLristian
annals; he writes letters, he performs la
bors, he expresses opinions and convc-
uSBs: he argues as no other man can a
Christian Atlas, bearing upon his shoulders
the world. The moral unity OF the writers
of the Bible, when taken by itself, is re
L'arkabie enough, but when taken to
gether with the distinct and intense indi-
yiduality or the authors, an individuality
held Just as sacred and no more fnfriuged
upon IN The vartous parts assigned 20 each
than in human life; than in one OF Shakes
peare's dramas; it is still more difficult to
account for the Bible has just as niaay
different personalities unfolding them
serves in it as it has different authors.
And yet, individual as they are, they al
way suppress themselves; they never X
70 N iffn
were authorship.
This individuality, and at the same time
this self-supPreSsion, self -subortinatiCu, is
one OF the peculiarities OF Shake speare
He is always present; you feel his pulse in
every Thought, in every expression, but he
il present only as creative genius. In all
of st. Pauls Epistles you cannot find q
passage where the Ego is not suppressed
and held in subOrdinatioh TO the maiu
movement of his mind and heart. dc not
except that passage in which, proyJk eti
by the attempts of his antagonists, he
| gloTies in the catalogues OF his own achfere-
ments. For, after all, tn eEeO there is
not mis- WI, but that Of Christ, that dwell
etn in hin. And yet, 1 doubt If the.e
were any possible disclosures Of the pro
portions os st. Paul's nature; of its moral
grandeur, of its inl lellectual grasp, of
it's pal pitating warmth; more complete
than we have in his Epistle.
This diversity III unity, displayed not
only in the authors but in the iaterial oi
the Bible, makes it like a Kaleidoscope
Every time it is taken up it has new com
binatcns, combinations addressed To him
who holds it; but always true to a single
structural law. Give man KEY to the
| BIble-that is, willingness to know and :,
| do tie will of God and he never Wearies oil
| it. young or old, rich or poor, bond or free,
| 1t isto hinlike theharmony OF the spheres.
| Lisping childhood is charmed with its
| narratives, as though God himself were
| speaking to it, in some privileged twilight
hour. 1t has to do with the childhood Of
nations. " ben the Creator himself wa:
| guarding their Graded SlumberS 1t is
| in such language as that in which a father
| talks to his child. Childhood's heroes and
| heroines are there: Joseph and Moses and
| Samuel and David and Miriam. And OLD
| age, after having sifted through its fin
| gers the worthless sands of its four Scor,
| years: after ha wing weighed in its balance:
! all the wisdom of this world, all the Joys of
| this word, all the acquisitions of thi:
! world, turns to it just as truStingly and
| lovingly as did childhood itself For, doe
it not still speak With thevoice of Father:
| The last thing to be accounted for is ths
| Bibles utter neglect of what man call.
| science. The realm of tine Bible is moral
| The Bible deals with that in man which j:
| not seen w which is the same in all genera
| tiGns 1t gives us the pictures of Egyptian
| life, but not material ones There are no
| descriptions OF the architecture of Pha
raoh's PALACE; Of the war r-chariotS and
weapons Of Pharaoh's armies. 1t care
| fully escliews everything from its one
| trend. AStrology comes and goes: as