The herald., 1897-10-04
PULPIT UTTERANCES
"THE SEAT OF AUTHORITY IN
RELIGION"
Burt Estes Howard's Interesting Dis
sertation-"Capita and Labor"
by Rev. B. w. R. Tayler
In the First Presbyterian church yes

In the First Presbyterian church yes
terday morning Rev. Burt Estes How
ard preached on the theme THE Seat of
Authority in Religion" from the text
Corinthians, ii:11-12: For who among
men knoweth the things of man, save
the spirit of the man, which is in him :
Even 80 the things of God no one comes
to know. except the spirit of God :"
saying in part: "All men are religious.
The few exceptions only serve to prove
the rule and advertise themselves as
monstrosities Whatever form Of relig-
ion a man or people holds, whether il
be the rudest fetishism or the mos,
spiritual Christianity, it is invested with
q most substantial authority.
"Au faiths have their final standard
to which is referred al. matters of belief
and Of practice for determination. So
we have all been casting about for sor.
Of spiritual yardstick by which to take
the moral measure OF things. The effort
has been less to gain spiritual discern
ment and moral insight than 10 secure
a sort of mechanical contrivance to take
their place. But the seat of authority
in religion has been marked by most
persistent ignoring Of the spiritual in
tuition of the man himself. blind and
blundering rejection of the highest and
surest faculty Of the human soul
in Christerdom these attempts to Sc
cure an infallible standard have re-
suited in fixing the supreme authority
In religion either in the church-as dc
;e-c n q Rihfe-1G
the Protestauts: or in the Bible-as do
extreme rationalists. Does infallibility
lie with the church. with the Bible, with
reason, or with all three combined? The
determination is much simplified by
consideration that is usually over
locke d-namely, that in the very nature
of things there can be no infallible au-
thority either in corporation liter
ature or in pure reason. There have
been scores of things held by the church
which the grim facts of science have
proven false. The charred bones of the
martyrs, WHO were first cauterized and
afterward cannonized, are poor argu
ment for the infalliblity of the church.
Truth gets into the thought and life
of the world through human channels.
The great prophets Of the world have
been men of like passions with the rest
Of US. No truth, therefore, gets into
human life that does not partake of the
liabilities of the human agent through
which it finds expression. All revela-
ton Is partial and incomplete This
same blending of the divine and the
limited human is found in the Bible;
and no book was ever written which
has given rise to 80 many divergent opin-
ions, theories and beliefs. The Bible
Is Gods book for man, written with
mans pen and in a mans tongue. Out
Of its pages divine truth flashes and
flames, kindling the soul of men into
holy fire. 1t is not. therefore, that the
Bible must be given up, but the theory
Of universal infallibiity and inspira
ton, which places Esther on level with
Isaiah and exalts page of imprecations
as the 109th Psalm-to the rank o.
the Sermon on the Mount.
There is a wide difference between
granting to a book authenticity and
granting to it infallibility; and while
investing the Bible with authority one
must yet insist that the ultimate author
ity lies elsewhere. We never can be-
lieve that such a passage as this, from
the 18th Psalm, Happy is he that
taketh and dasheth his little ones
against the rock" is in anywise indie
atve of the true spirit or heart of God
1t Is because we have too long insisted
on the universal inspiration and infalli-
bility of the book that we have created
an army of serious skeptics.
."In order to get what God IS trying to
speak to men. we must appeal past the
letter of the Bible to the spirit in it thai
attests itself to our own diviner selves.
For, after all is said, it is the man him
self who is the final authority, not the
church nor the book In nature there
is no force but Gods; in conscience yet
unspoiled there is no light save his.
There IS no rule for separating what is
divine and authoritative except the tests
by which in moral and spiritual things
we know the true from the false. the holy
from the unholy External criteria-
physical rules for finding spiritual
things-there can be none. The ulti
mate appeal is not located in a corporate
body. book, or in a confession of faith;
but in the organ of spiritual sense
through which each one of us interpre to
these various symbols for himself.
"The truest insight man can get
comes when he appeals past the
churches, and the books, and the con-
fessions-all of them man -made-to the
divine spirit that loves to temple in
every sincere soul. Jesus was all the
time throwing the man back upon his
own critical faculty of moral judgmept
He preached the fatherhood of God in
order to get men to lift their hearts to
- ,i,1 1l1;1
tianity was to secure for men the spirit
ual liberty of children Of God. God is
not anXio1s to save unto himself an in
stitution, or book but a race of sons
''For that reason the larger part of the
masters ministry is given up to teach
ing men how to use their own spiritual
sense. And the promise he left them as
he passed out Of their life was that
presently a spirit would possess them
that would enable them to know the
truth. Paul lays mighty emphasis on
the spiritual intuition: What man
knowcth the things of a man but ths
spirit of the man which is in hin'-and
a man does know spiritual truth, Just
in the measure in which he opens his
life to the sweetest influences of the
best and the holiest that he knows
There is no need of media or agencies:
the Bible is a lamp unto the feet and a
light unto the spirit; but higher than
all is the passing of a life into the pres
ence Of the great spirit. where a man
talks face to face with God. And
wherever a soul has spiritual ears to
hear, the deep of Gods life calls unto
the deep of mans life; his truth, a still.
small voice. singing its way through the
n ~Ir fi..tov