Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1902-03-14

nptpna-
BILE tradition that the Bible Is
fallible book. This dogma Is u.
preachers besetting sin. 1t is the pal
pable lie that gives the ring of insin-
cerity to all their moral exhortations.
If theologians wish to retain their lost
intellectual leadership, or even to pos
sess an influence upon the thoughtful
part of the community. coordinate
with poets, philosophers. and men of
science. they must throw aside the dog
ma OF an infallibe Bible.
1.-The Bible is the most precious of all
books. 1t is a noble collection of law,
history, biography, preeept and poetry.
out the great spiritual treasure of the
Bible Is in an eathen vessel, and the
water of life has been colored by the
medium which has preserved 1t. The
credulous and the ignorant disciple. the
allegorist and the poet. the priest and
the scribe, In their efforts TO expound
and popularize religious truth, have all
more or less clogged and corrupted the
spiritual message of the prophets, and
our teachers must frankly recognize
this fact
LET us look at a few examples of
tares among the Bible wheat.
'"There Is n story In the book of Dan
lei that Shadrach, Meshach and Alb
nego, for refusing to bow down to the
image of Babylonian King were cast
into n burning fiery furnace, the flames
of which slew those that threw them
into 1t, and yet fire had no power upon
the three. He must be very bold or
very ignorant man who will assert that
he believes that this account Is literal
| ly true 1t Is certainly thousand
times more probable that 1t is legend
or an allegory.
'We read in the book of Kings that
Elijah was fed by the ravens. We read
in that quaint medieval book, The Voy-
ages and Travels of Sir John Mande-
vile, story similar to this. Both are
poetic fancies, one as untrue and in
credible as the other. We read that
Elijah smote the waters with his man
tie and they divided hither and thither
so that he and his companions went
over on dry ground. He is said to
have miraculously multiplied meal and
oil, and even to have raised the dead.
with his successor, Elisha, the
myth-making fancy has been even
more active. He, too, was said to have
power over the elements. He divided
the waters with his mantle and went
over Jordan dry-shod, he made iron to
swim, he multiplied a widows single
pot of oil until it filled many vessels.
He, too, raised the dead. Some of these
stories are crude and childish, some
are pathetic and sublime. but they are
all alike legendary and not historic.
1T is impossible to draw any line be-
tween these alleged miracles in the Old
Testament and similar accounts in the
gospels of the Acts of the Apostles.
When a gate opens of its own accord
to let Peter through we think of the
story of Elisha and the AK that he
made to swim.
when Jesus is represented as null
tiplying loaves and fishes to feed n
great multitude, we think of the wild
ows barrel of meal multiplied by Eli
iah and the cruise of oil increased by
Elisha. When Jesus is represented as
walking on the lake of Gennesaret we
think of Moses dividing the Red Sea,
and of Elijah and Elisha cleaying the
waters of Jordan. The story of the
raising of the son of the widow of
Main by Jesus recalls the story of the
raising of the son of the Shunamite
woman by Elisha. The legendary ele-
ment is as obvious and as lndisputable
in the New Testament rs in the Old"