The Portland daily press., 1900-10-17


such things as His medium, they must
be perfect and free from error. The all.
important thing Is the revelation with
which the medium is inspired. You
place bit OF coal IN the CRATE and set
1re to 1t for heat. 1t matters not what
the coal is made off, it gloWs with heat,
ana 1t gives out heat. The coal is only
the medium. You send boy to a friend
with message. The boy may be an
idiot or a criminal or a bright, clear.
headed little fellow. but the important
thing Is not the boy, but the message,
and the important question is, Id the
boy deliver the message correctly? So it
is with any medium God chooses to use
for His revelation. He may use a p Oor
man OF rich man, a coarse preacher OF
a refined one. He may even use a great
sinner, but the message delivered is from
God, So it is with holy scripture. It is
both as a whole and IN It's parts a me-
dium through WhiehsGod reveals His reYs-
latiOn Of love, and that medium is like
the coal. all agloW with the revelation.
1t is inspired. 1t is like the boy, and It
delivers its message and 1t Is verify the
word Of God.
But it is not necessary to the revelation
that the medium should be perfect. God
has used many imperfect mediums. It is
his practice to use whatever comes to hand
lie certainly entrusted His Oraoles to a
rebellious and faithless nation, the Jews.
Many OF the judges, kings and prophets
were not holy men. DaYid's sin was
used by God to reveal a marvellous con-
ceptiOn Of Gods willingness to forgive.
Samson S shameful fOrnication made his
life a medium to reveal God S wonderful
protecting power. When, then, it is said
there are errors in holy scripture, errors
in In cfo -fo
immoral for edihcatiOn, the answer is
that whether there be errors or not is
matter Of little consequence so long as we
can see that God has used those errors as
mediums for His revelation Of love. On
this revelation hangs all the law and the
prophets. And when We have thus set
aside as unimpOrtant the truth of the
unscientitic or unhistorical or apparently
fabulous stories, yet find them all agloW
with the revelation which is important,
then we see the hand Of God in the rise
OF the higher criticism, Now to apply
this principle to particular instances, let
us begin with the account Of creation,
and we find in it certain statements Of
a scientific character.
The story says that the grass and the
trees were created before the sun. Science
claims that all such life depends upon
the sun. The grass and trees cannot
have been created before the sun. What
shall we say? Some may insist that
science must be wrong, Othsrs Will try
to explain away the scripture statement
and to maintain that there must have
been light and heat enough before the
sun was made. to gen8ble the grass and
trees to grow. Others still will cast
away the Bible and laugh at the idea Of
It's being inspired, But the critic insists
that we must keep in view the object OF
the writer, that it was not his object to
reveal science or to make his statement
scientifically correct. His real object was
to show that man was made a creature
to know and to return the love of God.
The order of creation recorded in Genesis
may OF may not be scientifically correct.
butsit Oertainlyzdoes reveal the fact that
God, the God of love, created all the uni
verse and made man in His own image,
with q mind to know God, head to love
Him and will to serve Him, SO that
such man is the head and climax of all
creation. With this revelation the ac-
count in Genesis is all agloW. This mes
sage inspires It and makes it medium
for the word of God.
Again the story reads that the serpent
speaks to Eve with a human voice, and
we know that this can only actually
happen by a miracle. Some will insist
actually did speak with a human voice.
Others viii sneer at the whole account
as unworthy Of any credit. But the critic
reminds US. that on the revelation of Gods S
love hangs all the law and the prophets,
and that if it was Gods will to make
this story medium for His revelation OF
the nature Of evil and the fall Of man and
God s love in His promise OF redemD-
tion; it is matter Of no consequence
whether the speaking Of the serpent was
a miracle or d mystical tradition or a
legend which God chose to inspire with
His revelation. In order to write an &C.
count Of the creation, the fall and the
redemption, Moses did not need to know
as much as the scientific men of today.
1t is enough that God could use him with
what knowledge he had acquired in his
time as medium to teach and reveal
the love which, in spite of sin and DISC
bedlence, will save degenerating race.
Moses grasped this great truth and great
deal more Of the same sort, and used his
own imperfect knowledge of science and
history to reveal 1t. For on this great
truth hangs all the law and 5he prophets.
Again l say that we may not feel salts
fed to adopt the results of higher criti-
oism; we may feel confident that some
day the critics will ind that the scrip
ture contains more scientific truth than
they supposed. Truth as the product of
human minds develops through the clash
Of minds discarding the false and retain
ing the true, and to make such clash
and attain such progress there is need of
two extremes, the conservative and the
destructive critic. But the principles of
modern criticism thus defined, when
properly applied to the study of holy
scriptures, are wonderful eye openers, are
pouring new light on the holy word OF
God, The invention Of printing was no
curse. 1t was God method Of putting
the Bible freely into our hands. The
higher criticism will be no curse If it
only helps us to lind and to value its In
spired meaning. l rgret more than 1 can
possibly describe, the awful neglect Of
the study of holy scripture among Us.
1t is a shame, disgrace to our Christian
profession, for 1t means that God Is
speaking in His chosen way, and we will
not stop to listen. There liesTthe truth,
there runs the precious stream for US to
drink For you and for me it was writ
ten, for the revelation it contains we were
made. No art Is more attractive, no
music more inspiring, no oratory so
effective, no study so fascinating, and no
truth so much needed Oh foolish man,
why must you turn aside, leaving treas
ure in which the angels ia heaven and
the saints on earth rejoice, for the pleas
ures of a world that never satiate, and
lead TO bitter ends? Oh love of God ro-