The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-03-20
DR.. ABBOTT ON THE OLD TESLA
MENT.

THEoLoeIoALLY speaking, the Dutch
have taken Holland once again. The
sensational secular press gives grea
prominence to the sermons of DIR.
Lyman Abbott and Rev. Minot j.
Savage on Biblical questions as de-
livered in their respective churches
last Sunday. They are presented as
startling utterances and the public
led to believe that there is some
thing very extraordinary in the
opinions expressed. 1t is more than
coincidence that both of these
sermons are reported in one column,
"twin cherries on one STEM" and
that classification is not very far
astray. Neither of the discourses
embody anything new or startling,
and both run along the same lines
and are similar in comment and con-
clusion. The point DR.. Abbott en-
deavored to make was that many of
the books in the Old Testament were
collections of traditions and parallels,
kind of folklore common to all
literature. In Mr.. Sayage's discourse
there is more pronounced express
ion on the myth and legend of the
ancient Scriptures, but the only re-
markable thing about DR.. Abbott's
sermon is that it was preached in
Plymouth Church, and to orthodox
people who are not supposed to SYM
pathize with these advanced views of
the Bible. As for DR.. Savage's SER
mon, not even his radicalism could
astonish the Unitarian congregation
to whom it was addressed.
An extract from DR.. Abbott's SER
mon presents views which might be
startling to the members of Plym-
outh Church, but certainly are not
new among Bible students. He re-
marked:
Biblical scholars may be divided into
two classes. and they approach the Bible
| from widely different directions. First,
| there is the traditional. or historical
school of critics, whom l will call the
traditionalists. Second, there is the
scientific. or literary school. whom
shall call scientists.
"The traditional says: Christ and
his disciples did not set the Old Tesla
ment aside No, he did not undertake
to do 80. That was not his mission. He
refers to the books of the Old Tesla
ment. but passes by the question of
their authorship. He does not vouch
for their authorship. Sometimes Christ
quoted portions of the Old Testament
against the rabbits.
81 should not in the least hesitate
here, in this pulpit, to say, 'Hsop's
fables give you such and such story /;
all we'll known scholars would hold
that Esop did not write all the fables.
but collected them. So Christ, in quot
ing from or referring to the books of
the Old Testament. merely used the
names given to them by tradition"
Concerning the method of investi-
cation adopted by the scientists. so
called, DIR. Abbott has this to say:
when the scientist finds in the Bible
a story which. if he found it in Greek
literature, he would unhesitatingly call
folklore, he also calls that Bible story
folklore. If he finds in the Bible tale
of wondrous adventure Jonah and the
whale) which seems plainly to be simply
satirical and imaginative. he calls it a
satrical and an imaginative tale.
"In Genesis the scientist finds certain
tales respecting the flood, the fall of
man, and the Creator. Then the scient-
ist goes to the Assyrian tablets. written
a thousand years before the tine of
Moses, and he finds analogous stories of
the fall, the food, and the Creator Then
he goes to history and finds the Hebrews
once dwelt in Assyria. Hence he draws
the logical conclusion that the Hebrews
borrowed those stories from the Assyr-
ians.
"The scientist turns to the book of
the law-Leviticus-and finds signs and
evidences that the laws were not all
promulgated in one epoch. but represent
a steady growth.
"The old laws required sacrifices. But
the prophets decried sacrifices, and the
best men were living in open disregard
of the old laws. The old law was that
only the priest could go into the holy Of
holies. in the temple, but in another
place the young Samuel was described
as making his bed in the holy of holies.
God himself appeared to be disregarding
his own command.
There is nothing striking and revolu-
tionary in these results of scientific
Bible criticism. Some scholars have
been too little bound by the traditions,
and some have been too much bound.
"MY own position is that OF conserya-