The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-22
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NEVER STRONGER THAN NOW.
The bible at the Close of the Nine
teenth Century.


A. NJ. Williams sermon al Wesley Monu-
mental church last night
Mr.. Williams took his text from Tlmo-
thy, 2:S:16: "All scripture is given by in
spiration of God"
The inspiration of the Bible" said Mr..
Williams, has attracted much attention
in the last few weeks. DIR. Lyman Alb
bolts sermons and the Methodist preach
ers meeting in New York have called
forth much interest 1 am not disposed
TO regret this state of affairs. The Bible
cannot be examined without good being
accomplished. The only foe religion has
reason to fear is Indifference. There is
always hope for a cause when you can
get men to discuss It. l propose to ask
tonight: How does the Bible stand in
the hearts and minds of the people at the
close of this the great century of prog
reSs? The answer | shall give Isl Never
before did II have a firmer hold on The
people; never was it better understood CT
did 1t exercise more real influence on
The Bible is more popular now than
ever. 1t is in demand. The Bible una
Bible books sell more largely than any
other, books. The American Bible So
ciey has poured forth a stream of Bibles
for the, past seventy years, issuing one
for each minute of the day in all that
time. The demand increasing with the
close of the century, rather than dimin-
ishing. This great institution represents
lie with the word.
The Bible is exercising a greater inhu-
9ence over society nov than ever before.
forth the law" The test of every legal
system, of every governmental system, of
International relation, of industrial poll
ICY OF social movement is the spirit OF
the teaching of the Bible.In many respects
practice our day is far below the noble
ideal OF the scriptures, but no man rests
satisfied for his doctrine or scheme to
be declared condemned by the teachings
of Christ. his apostles, or the older
prohpet. There are two tributes contain
ed in this fact. 1t proves the universal
attachment of our nineteenth century hui
manity to the word of God. 1t also re-
veals a secret Endorsement of the SUBJ
stantial truthfulness of that revelation,
and heartfelt desire to be in harmony
with tie mind of Jesus.
"One Of the greatest evils is a false the
DRY as 20 the nature of inspiration When
a man lays down dogma that the Bible
must be infallible in form as well as es-
Sehce' IN letter as well as in It's substance,
he endangers the faithful follower. Such
a theory is obliged to be modified. Errors
of translation will be shown, manuscripts
will be discovered, requiring a change of
reading, differences of opinion as to dates
and authors will be shown, anachronisms
appear and the poor believer will be kept
anxious about the faith. He will be forced
from one position after another, and at
every retreat will feel like the world is
about to come to ruin; he will be compelled
to Villify the student of the Word, whose
Investigations do not agree with his own
As a result he puts the faith of those who
follow him at constant hazard. He will
be always afraid of their being shipwreck-
ed. Let him, however, adopt as his doc
trine of the Scriptures, that the Bible is
a divine and human book. God gave the
truth to Holy men to convey to the ages.
They We're to present it in their own way
in the language they were familiar with,
in such literary forms as they could com
perfect The way of salvation is clear,
beautiful strong, has the impress of
God upon 1t. The human side is the best
work that man ever did, but IT mas the
limitation of human fallibility upon 1t.
Let no one accuse me of being untrue to
my church when say there is a POSSIBLE
ity of error in the human side of the book.
My ordination VOW does not settle the
question. l only profess to believe that
the Scriptures contain sufficiently all
doctrine required of necessity for eternal
salvation, and TO teach nothing as re-
quired of necessity to eternal salvation,
but that which | am pers.qHadesd alma. may be
The wonder excited, by the utterances
of these modern students, is surprising
opinion on this subject. There have always
been two parties in the church on this
question. Those who condemn DR.. Ly-
man Abbott now, would have excluded
from the list of the faithful such men as
Luther who asserted that wood, hay,
stubble might be in the prophets though
the substance was there that could not
be burned. Calvin, who applied scholar
ly test to the word and reached results
that would have Mortified some OF his fol-
lowers of the present day.
''Some one will want TO know the test of
infallibility of the truth. 1t is the truth
instinct in a mans soul. How does
man know the attribute of sweetness from
the taste of the article. A man has with
in him the same faculty for discovering
truth. If the caviller is dissatisfied with
this all that can be said is that man
never really gets any more out of the
scriptures than what his own soul certifies
to as true and real. He may believe in all
the catalogues, all the old Hebrew child
stories, all the cosmognies, but he only
really has what his soul lays hold Of"
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Damon and Phintias-NOt Pythias.
Editor Morning News; / have been re-
quested to write the true story of Damon
and Phintias. not Pythias, as is generally
supposed. Strange such an error should
have existed for so many centuries and
never corrected. There is no such name as
Pythias in the classics. We have Pytheas
an Athenian orator. distinguished by his
unceasing luminosity against Demosthenes.
Also a Pytheas. a celebrated Greek navi-
gator.
We also have Pythius, a surname of the
Delphian Apollo so called because Apollo