The record-union., 1899-05-29
EVOLUTION OF The BIBLE.
CONTINUED from Fourth Page,


they do in India to-day Jesus super
seeded that law by a higher law. And
when the Jews, who had great rever-
ence for the law of Moses came to Him
and said, Why did Moses, then, conn
mand to give writing of divorcement
and to put her away?" Jesus replied:
Moses, because of the hardness OF
your heart, suffered you to put away
your wives, but from the beginning It
was not so.' The morals of the people
IN regard to marriage were SO low in
the time of Moses that it was impossi-
Die at single bound to bring them up
TO the original divine idea of the one
man with one woman E.lited in mar
riage for life. God, by Moses, began a
process of education which led UP TO
the present Christian conception of
marriage. In this, as in many other
matters, you can see the progressive
character of divine revelation. Nor
monism, with its polygamy, is a back
ward step in morals. The old Jewish
law recognized slavery. Thirty-flve
yeas ago there were ministers in the
South quoting the Bible in defense OF
slavery. The laws of Moses did rec
ognize slavery. But these same laws
recognized that the slave had rights, de-
Tended the slaves rights. They gave
him the right of rest, one day out OF
seven. The laws of Moses lessened the
evils Of slavery and prepared the way
for the slaves final emancipation. Az
along, through the prophets and finally
and fully in the teaching of Jesus and
the apostles, the doctrine of the worth
of man, the sacredness of man, the
righas of man, was taught, and this
doctrine finally broke the shacSles and
made every slave what God intended
he should be, free man.
The Mosaic religion was the first that
taught that man was a free, conscious
moral being, with rights no man could
deprive him of and with duties no man
could fulfill for hira. The Egyptian
idea was that the king and priest had
the rulership of man and owned him.
The idea of man as man, possessing in
dividual moral worth, of equal dignity
in the sight of God with other men.
never existed in the religions and gov
ernfnents of the East. 1t first comes to
the front in the religion of the Old Tes-
taEent. The Bible is the charter of
mans rights, the champion of his liber-
ties. No one can read the Bible intel
ligibly unless he recognizes the progress
sive character of divine revelation.
God revealed Himself to man gradu-
ally. Abraham lived in the twilight
of revelation. The light was clearer in
the, days of Moses. The prophets en-
joyed a still fuller revelation. Thus on
until Jesus came teaching men to look
up and say with loving reverence, Our
Father who art in heaven" The gradual
disclosure of the merciful character of
God to all people is one of the most
marked features of the Bible. The Jew
first thought of God as the God of
Israel, a sort of tribal or territorial
God. Later on the prophet declares
that 1.-The God of the whole earth shall
He be called" Peter one day received
a vision and declared that God was no
respector of persons, but in every ma
tion he that feareth Him and worketh
righteousness is accepted of Him."
Jesus taught that what a father is to
his children-benehcent impartial-that
God is to the whole human race.
The New Testament contains fuller
revelation of God than does the Old
Testament. The Old Testament is the
sun just above the horizon. The New
Testament is the sun higher up in the
heavens. What Moses and the proph
cts taught was true as far as it went.
Jesus carries the truth further on. The
law came by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. Moses taught
rules Of conduct Jesus taught princi-
pies of character. Truths dimly taught
in the Old Testament glow with noon
day splendor in the new. For example:
Take the doctrine of the future life.
Some men have questioned whether the
Old Testament writer's believed that
man survived the grave. There are pas
sages in the Old Testament which seem
to indicate that death ends all. Many
passages give a gloomy, despairful view
of death and the future. wilt thou
show wonders to the dead? Shall the
dead. arise and praise Thee?" In
death there is no remembrance of
Thee" There is hope of a tree if it
be cut down that it will sprout again,
but man dieth and wasteth away; yea,
man giveth up the ghost and where is
he? Man lieth down and riseth not till
the heavens be no more; they shall not
awake nor be raised out of their sleep.
If a man die shall he live again?'
There are passages more hopeful than
these. Isaiah (xxvi:10) says, Thy dead
shall live, my dead bodies shall arise. )"
Daniel declares that many of them that
sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake A continued existence of some
kind was believed in, but the Old Tes-
lament does not directly teach the fu
ture life of man with clearness or en-
phasis. The truth is taught there, but
only dimly. When you come into the
New Testament you find the most def
mite assurances that man survives the
grave. Resurrection, Immortality,
eternal life, glow and gleam on every
page. "In my fathers house are many
mansions. I go and prepare a place for
you I'VE have a building of Coda
house not made with hands-eternal in
the heaven LAS we have borne the
image of the earthly. we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly Thus
the appearing of Jesus hath abolished
death and has brought life and immor-
tally TO light through the Gospel. Nor
tality is swallowed up of life. Death is
swallowed up in victory.
When the Pilgrim Fathers were leav-
ing Holland for New England, their
old pastor John Robinson, bidding
them good-by urged them to be hos
pitable to new truths. For said he, II
am very confident that the Lord has
more light yet to break forth from His
holy word 1 believe it. my friends.