The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-10

writing that which he thinks the ma
ton ought to aim to be. But the ma
ton is not made by its written con-
stitution or by its written laws, it is
made by its custom; it is not made by
what it resolves it will do, it is made
by what i'm point of fact ii does For
the nation, like the individual is built
up by the processes of life itself.
This might have been political heresy
ut one time, as the other thing would
have been religious heresy. At present
it is an automatic truth
Most of the books of the Bible are dis
cussed in this work very much as if
they Were plays of Shakespeare. Per-
haps, with the vanishing of the concep-
ton that this book is exalted above every
other book in the world by an essential
difference in its nature, men have come
to look more and more. for the ethical
meaning in the works of all great men.
At any rate, Lyman Abbott's analysis of
Job, Esther, Ruth, and Isaiah is not so
very different from Hamilton Mabie's
! analysis of Shakespeare's dramas. and
it is as far superior to the old dogmatic
| commentary as Mr.. Mabie's work is su-
| perior to Donnelly's cryptogram If, as
| Ruskin asserted, the important thing is
| to be able to say, Thus Milton thought, -
| not Thus l thought in misleading Mil
| ton, it is surely as important to try to
| find out what Isaiah thought and felt,
| instead of what Barnes, and Bushnell
and various other non-oriental COM
mentators, biased by theological the
| cries, thought that he thought and felt
| We find DR.. Abbott discussing the book of
Jonah under the head of "Satirical Ro-
| nance" which Is certainly more con-
| sonant with common sense than TO sup
pose it literal historical fact, written by
| fc NO
| proof that the Creator intended anybody
to believe that the story was not a satir-
| zeal romance. Perhaps as good an ex-
ample of the general attitude of the au-
| thor as any is to be found in his comment
on the Book of Ecclesiastes. He says, in
part: =
Il do not know and cannot easily i'm
aglne what he makes out of the Book
| OF EccIesiastes who believes that
every sentence in the Bible is equally
authoritative with every other sem
tence. Be not righteous overmuch.'
Is that dNinely inspired sentence?
Vanity of Yanities, ali is vanity Is
that divine Interpretation of life?
The truth of Ecclesiastes is
the truth of human experience, larger
and deeper than the truth of any text
Let the self-seeker try how he may to
get satisfaction out of life he is sure
TO fail. That is the lesson of Ecclesi-
astes-and a lesson the more eloquent
because wrought out OF living eX-
perfence. Try to get satisfaction out
OF things; warehouses ten, twelve
fourteen stories high; railroads bind-
ing together the borders of a CONT
nent; great palaces; hundred thousand
dollar ballsi What is the end? Van
ity of vanities, all is vanity We are
as children who build their houses on
the sand. and the tide comes in and
faction out of philosophy. We do not
need God, nor consciences, nor
churches, nor religion; these are for
women and children. We will have
a public school system, great uni
versities, knowledge. culture What
came of that experiment? The end is
the same. Cultivate the brain and
leave the heart to be 6trophied; cult
waite the intellect and leave the con-
science to die; teach men how to be
shrewd, but not how to be honest, just,
true. pure, and the end of that Mr..
Huxley thus describes: 'Undoubted-
~ your gutter child may be converted
by mere intellectual drill into the
subtlest of all the beasts of the field
but we know what has become of the
original of that description, and there
is no need to increase the number of
those who initiate him successfully
without being aided by the rates
What then? If there be no satisfac-
ton in pleasure, in wisdom. in ambi-
| ton, in the golden mean, where can it
be found? In duty. In doing right
[
| here, nor for reward hereafter not for
happiness on earth, not for crowns in
| heaven, not for immortality of fame,
not for immortality OF personal exist
ence; but because duty is duty, and
| right is right and God is God. This
seems 90 me the meaning of the pro-
! foundly enigmatical Book of Ecclesias-
| tes."
In the concluding chapter may be found
this passage:
According to one conception of the
| Old Testament, thirty or forty men,
unique in character, and separated
from all their fellowmen by their ex-
| traordinary gifts or their extraordi-
nary privileges. from some high and
! unScalable mountain top hand down to
| US a message, as the angel Gabriel was
| supposed to have handed down to
| Mohammed the message of God writ
ten upon sheets Of silk According to
| the other conception, we see a great
| people climbing the mountain toward
God. We see them sometimes in the
/ light sometimes struggling through
the mists and the darkness; at times
! wandering to the right hand or the
| left. at times hating altogether or fall
! ing back discouraged; now stumbling
| and falling, now getting upon their
! feet again and pushing on; we hear the
| voices of their leaders rebuking, coun-
| selling, entreating, commanding. en-
couraging them: their voices rebuke,
counsel, entreat, command, encourage
| us also; and we dare to believe that
where this people have climbed We
too. can climb, and that the God with
whom they have talked on the noun
| tain top Will talk to US also. though
we. too, stumble and turn aside and
| fall and sometimes forget ourselves
and our God. These are the two con-
ceptions Of the Bible. II is idle to ig-
more the radical difference between the
two. | accept. frankly and unreserv-
| eddy, the second
1t viii be seen that most of this book is
devoted to the Old Testament, that being
properly the literature Of the Hebrew
people. The view which DR. Abbott takes
Of the life and teaching of Christ is that
he was the example of the perfect union
| Of the divine with the human, fore
| Swallowed in certain prophetic passages in
Isaiah, as in Platos writings. not through
supernatural foresight, but through natu-
I raj and logical reasoning. Further than
this he does not go. This is possibly the
most natural logical. and sensible book
! on the Bible which has been written by
any orthodox clergyman and there need
be no qualification to the adjectives aside
| from the comparison. 1t is throughout
sensible, natural, and logical in reasoning
and tone. Boston: Houghton, Mlffin q
Co. $1,000
! In the Philippines
THE Philippine Islands and Their Peo-
pie" by Dean c. Worcester. Is the latest
! Of the many books which have been
! written on this subject since the Battle
| OF Manila. The author, as most peopIe
I know. has spent considerable time in the