, 1900-01-25
INSPIRATION.
The nc, of Exercising an Elevating
Influence Upon the Intellect or
Emotions.

as follows: Lord of the world,
Light of tho spirits of heaven,
Utterer of blessings, who il there
" hose mouth lnurmurs not OF thy
righteousness, or speaks not of thy
e~xaltation, and celebrates not thy
glory"
400 years B. c., Zoroaster,
standing with his gaze fixed upon
the rising sun, aud believing it to
be the embodiment of all power.
righteousness, and strength-and
beng inspired Ey the sublimity
and grandeur of the moment. lift
ted up his voice in prayer as fol,
lows: "And we pray likewise
for thy fire, O Ahura! To the
house with JOY receiving it, in
many wonderful ways our help"
900 years b. c., the Greek poet
quoted by Paul on Mars Hill wrote
as follows: "Everywhere we live
in God. We are his offspring.
wherefore men worship him, the
First, the Last. Their Father
their help andshield."
$50 years b. c., that acme of in
spiration,-the Golden Rule.-fell
from the liDs of one. who be
longed to II race of heathens, with
out a history or chronology At
that time Confucius said What
you do not like when done to
yourself, do not do to others
$50 years b. c., the summary
given to his people by Buddha was
cleanse our own hearts, cease from
all wrong doing, fix Il high stand
ard of virtue and live up to it
And who will say these words
were not inspired?
A. d. "All things, therefore,
whatsoever We would that men
should do unto you, even so do We
also unto them: for this is the Law
and the Prophets MattyIu.
600 A. d. "Say there is one
God alone, God the literal. He
begetteth not, and he is not begot-
ten, aud there is none like unto
him. We're the words of Monam-
med,
The highest Catholic authority
is to the effect that all of the sac
red writings of the Jews and
Christians known as Holly writ"
were composed under the inspira-
ton of the Holy Ghost.
The Protestant view strikes out
the seven A%pocryphal books, aud
credits those remaining to the in
spired writings. Modern scien-
tifc Investigation, however, has
compelled the admission that there
are scientific errors in these social
led inspired writings; errors of
astronomy, of geology, &C There
are historical mistakes, errors of
chronology, geography. i'll histor-
zeal events and persons. The
authors of many sacred books are
unknown, or, at least, the author
ship is in doubt.
The religion of the Old Testi-
ment iucuicates many things
which are hard to reconcile with
divine revelation. The Offering of
Jeptha's daughter, and of Isaac,
and there ore at times representa-
tons of vindictiveness, jealousy of
other gods, a cruel disregard of
human life and human suffering,
vacitIaiion, change of purpose, an
ger, and terrible punishment.
The extreme liberal view of the
present age is that we can find no
standing ground until we Identify
christianity with moral goodness.
The Christian church must b.
come absolutely universal. Chris
tlanity is to be regarded as a life,
not as II holding of a series of
propositions, When the church
is seen to be a constant inspirer of
human progress, there will be no
+ keptics, save those to whom hu-
man progress is Indifferent. j
But there Is another definition
of inspiration. Ii is IAN extraor
binary elevation of the imagine {
ton, or other powers of the soul"
The poets eye in II fine frenzy
rolling doth glance from heaven