The record-union., 1899-05-29

lament because of the low StanCard
that prevailed in the religious commln-
ity of Israel and characterized many OF
the Old Testament saints. 1t is quite
true that many of the saints in olden
times did things that we in our cay
strongly reprobate. If some of the
patriarchal saints lived in our day and
did what they did in their day, we
would put them in the penitentiary
Jacob would stand no show at all in
an election of church deacons or elders
Abraham, who is called the friend of
God and the father of the faithful, Gid
most shameful things. He took seq
ond wife. After she had borne him
child he told her one day that it was
not pleasant to have her around ara
that she must leave the ranch and hoe
her own row. He sent her and her boy
out into the world with nothing but
loaf of bread and a bottle of water The
poor lonely outcast woman set out over
the hot desert to make a living for her
self and fatherless boy. When the
scalding eastern sun was burning the
life out of her boy, she knelt down on
the hot sands and wept until an angei
from God came to her help. A man
who would treat a woman in our day as
Abraham treated Hagar would be pub
licly horse-whipped And yet in the
story as we have it in the Bible, there is
not single word said condemnatory Of
Abraham. He was a bigamist and
bigamy with us is penitentiary crime.
What answer or explanation can we
give for Abraham's conduct in his
treatment of Hagar? When we renenl-
Der that the revelation is progressive,
that the Old Testament does not al Cnce
disclose what is truest in religion or
highest in morals, we have stand
| point from which we can rightly judge
this action of Abraham's. Remember.
Abraham was born and reared in
heathenism. He was brought up among
a people who believed in polygamy, and
where women had no rights that a man
should respect. Abraham broke away
from that early faith. His conception
Of God and of religion and morality was
so much superior to the prevailing con-
ceptions around him, that he separated
himself from his people and instituted
new order of worship and morality. He
did this, as we believe, by divine in
spiration. But in separating himself
from the old life, he carried with him
some remnants of the old religion and
the old morality. 1t was natural that
he should. Luther did not wholly and
at once free himself from the errors
of Romanism. When he broke away
from that system he carried with him
some of its errors. He believed in tran
substantiation. He believed that the
bread and wine were literally and real
ly the flesh and blood of Jesus. We do
| nn T NIL n hall
that error. We admire him because
he broke away and got so far beyond
the. beliefs and customs that prevailed
around him. So with Abraham. His
faith and life were a great advance of
that age and people. His conception of
God was immeasurably purer- than
! those about him. His standard of NOR
ality was higher He was the pioneer
of religion that eliminated in the
life of Jesus, and of a system of NOR
ality that found its final expression in
the sermon on the mount.
The locomotive that George Stephen
son built is far inferior to the engines
of modern make. But compare his
| locomotive with the stage coach of that
day and see how great an advance it
was as mode of travel. The modern
railway train with it's splendid engine
and magnificent palace car is an evo-
luton from that imperfect and clumsy
outfit of seventy years ago. The man
who sneers at George Stephenson's old
engine because it is not equal to the
modern engine, advertises his lack Of
| sense. He fails to understand the pro-
gressive character of engine manufac-
| ture. So the man who sneers at the
morality of Abraham advertises his ig-
Dorance of the progressive character of
divine revelation. The imperfect en-
gine of George Stephenson prepared the
way for the modern engine, and the i'm
perfect moral standard of Abraham
prepared the way for the more perfect
system Of morals that Jesus taught i'll
the sermon on the mount.
| Nearly all the criticisms that men
have made on the morality of the Old
Testament fall to the ground as soon
as you recognize the gradual and pro-
gressive character of divine revelation
We also do we'll to remember that a
good deal of the Old Testament NOR
ality is away ahead of us. The land
| laws of Moses prevented few men
| from holding the major part of the
soil. We have not advanced much on
the ten commandments.
| It is not Gods way to produce any
thing in its perfected form at once. My
| thology says that Minerva sprang full
grown from the head of Jove. So some
men have taught that this world sprang
in it's completed form from the hand
of Jehovah. But science assures us
| that it passed through various stages
before it reached its present habitable
condition From the Eozoic period, en-
| through the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Ceno-
zoic to Psychozoic period is a long,
countless stretch Of time. You and I
| began life as minute microscopic
| germ. That is the method of God in
CREATION and that is the method of God
in revelation. God from the beginning
has been leading mankind up from
higher to still higher conceptions of His
character. He has been patiently lead
| ing mankind on and up to higher and
| still higher standards of moral and
| spiritual life. A type of degree Of mo-
rality that He would accept and praise
at q certain stage in the process of de-
velopment He would condemn at an
other stage.
boy in a primary school writes a
composition on a certain subject. The
teacher reads it and highly commends
/ 1T. If a young man in a university
wrote as the boy in the primary school
| wrote the composition would be ridi-
culed and the scholar reproached. The
men and women in Old Testament days
were in Gods primary school. Things
that are commendable in them with
their dim perception of moral and
spiritual truths are cOndemnable in ia