The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-23
WHAT THE BIBLE HAS DONE
FOR ALL CIVILIZATIONS
Dr. kingsbury Writes More on the Book of Books,
Containing More Wisdom Than all the
Wisdom of the Ages.

resume the consideration of the Book
of books, which really contains more OF
wisdom than all the wisdom of the ages
and has really done more for mans
temporal prosperity and eternal happi-
ness than all the PHILOSOPHERS and all
the religions of mans divines which have
electrified the mental devotee, appealed
to the ignorance and superstitions of I'M
Sanctified man, and thrown their beguil-
ing, pernicious influences across the
highway of nations. How has the Bible
affected the world? Aside from the great
appeals to man in behalf of his imnor-
tai soul, and the absorbing considerations
of pure religion and holy life, let us
turn to how the Bible has affected the
great interests of humanity on the world
ly side, as seen in civilization and prog
ress, and all the refinements of life.
Civilization, whatever of it of a gen.
uine kind there exists, in modern times,
owes it's best estate to Christianity-to
the positive, direct influence of the Word
of God. There is no civilization now wor-
thy of the name anywhere, in any land,
that it not derived from the Christian
religion. No observant man, no true
philosopher, no man of thought and can
dor, will gainsay this statement. The
gracious, refining influences of Christian
ity have been so pronounced, so unmis-
table, and are so vastly superior to those
ever exerted by the philosophers and re-
ligions of the ancients--of Greece and
Rome above all others-that the ablest
seeptics have been compelled to admit
no aPt and
such statesman as Jefferson, have ac-
knowledged that Christianity in the sub
Unity and originality of it's doctrines
and in the purity and elevation of its
ethics, is UNNECESSARILY superior to any
thing known among the thinkers and
teachers and philosophers of the Portico
There is no department of letters which
has not been greatly influenced by the
truths of the Bible. The thoughts OF
men have been so affected and the lives
of men SO regulated and directed by this
influence as it has operated and rami-
fed through the centuries, that even the
science of Jurisprudence in which all men
and countries are interested, has shared
largely in its multiform, widely permeat-
ing benefits. The celebrated Blackstone
has left invaluable testimony to the
truth of this assertion in a passage OF
admirable force, but which is too long
to be quoted in full. After describing
the Law of Nature, this able jurist says:
"Butfurther, in compassion to the frailty
the imperfection, and the blindness of
human reason, God hath been pleased,
at sundry times and in divers manners,
to discover and enforce his laws by i'm
mediate and direct revelation. The doc
trines thus delivered, we call the re-
vealed or divine Law, and they are to be
found only in the Holy Scriptures. These
precepts, when revealed. are found, upon
comparison, to be really part of the
original law of nature (Which he says,
God in the beginning laid DOWN "as they
tend, in all their consequences, to man S
felicity: but, though agreeable to right
reason, reason unaided and alone, could
not make them known. Upon these two
foundations, the law of nature, and the
law of revelation, depend all human laws:
that is to say, no human laws could con-
tradict these"
This clear, explicit announcement on
the part of the great law commentator
in reference to the supreme authority OF
the Bible in legal science-that the laws
of God lie at the very foundation of juris-
prudence in all of its departments, en-
bracing legal and equitable, civil and
criminal, is really but the opinion of the
most luminous and comprehensive UNI
derstandings whose names add lustre and
glory to legal profession both in England
and America. The legal sceptics have
been ordinarily small lawyers.
Between the study of the law and the
study of the Bible, there is a much more
intimate connection than is sometimes
apprehended Indeed, so close is the con-
nection between legal and Bible lore
that we are specially informed by the
learned Selden, that in the middle ages
the clergy were the greatest proficients
in legal erudition. He says law was
taught by them in the monasteries, uni
versities, and in the family of the princi-
pal nobility" The seclusion of the clergy
gave time to the investigation of abstruse
and learned subjects, and favored the
law. The judges and inferior court Off
GERS were generally selected from their
number. Hence is derived the now COM
mon term clerks-"clerici.'
1t is not claiming too much for the
Bible to declare that it is at once the
forerunner, supporter, and chief ally OF
genuine civilization. Strike out the in
fluences which the teachings of that
blessed Book have exerted upon the world
the human race: by some cmniflc pow
er, lot all of the impressions made upon
the human mind and heart and conscience
by its supreme lessons of truth and wis
dom, be forever erased, and the world
will soon stagnate. sink into the darkest
barbarism; a night of starless gloom will
speedily settle upon the mind forever
and a cloud OF despair will gather its
dark folds about the soul, and shutting
out the ligat of the Cross forevermore
then never again in mans sad vale oil