Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-25
BISHOP CONATY
CONTINUES SERIES
breaches ON INSPIRATION OF
THE BIBLE
Shows Reasons Why Church Believes
the Scriptures to Have Been
Written by Men Who
Were Inspired

Were Inspired
THE inspiration of the Bible" was
the topic of the second of series of
Lenten sermons delivered last evening
at the Cathedral Of st. Vibiana by
Bishop Conaty. The bishop took for his
text st. Luke xiv. q. He said In part:
THE inspiration of the Bible is an
article OF divine faith, defined by the
church, and must be accepted as di-
vine truth equally with all other doc
trines of Christian faith. just as true
as the trinity, the incarnation and the
Redemption. According to the teach
ing Of the church, inspiration is di-
vine breathing into the sacred writer's,
and consists of two graces from God,
one the enlightment of the intelligence
of the writer and the other a motion or
a direction of his will. The mind is
made luminous with the divine truths
to be written and the will divinely
moved to write them. Inspiration is
not merely n message from God to man
or a record of Gods words or deeds, but
it is the very word of God and that
word inspired by God. Hence God is
the principal agent and his the inspir-
ing will: man Is the one inspired and
he is a simple instrument in the hands
of God. but he is an instrument intelli-
gent and free. The intelligence is en-
lightened so that the inspired writer's
conceive the divine idea which God
willed to communicate not merely as
truths for their personal benefit, but to
be conveyed to others Inspiration is
limited solely by the expression of the
divine sense so that it be adequately and
truly stated. 1t includes all doctrinal
and moral truths and so much of his
torical and moral facts as may be
needed for the substance. The purpose
of inspiration is not to teach man nat
ural science of what he can learn him
self, but to help him save his soul and
thus reach his eternal destiny.
Have Characteristic style
Selected for their work, as men with
authority to write, the writers of the
Bible still retained their characteris-
tics as writer's, and hence their style
was their own. st. Jerome says,
'Isaias had the style of a nobleman and
the eloquence of the city, while Jere-
mias had the rustic style of the viii
lager of Anathoth, but the truths were
equal as prophesied by the Spirit The
Holy Spirit guided the thought Of the
writer's and allowed them their own
expressions. An old Jewish rabbi said:
The Lord speaks in the tongue of the
said, God did not use machines, he
used men as human instruments in the
composition of the books to be writ
ten
Using men to write his word, God
does not deprive them of the charac-
teristics Of their human nature. The
influence of Gods mind is brought to
bear upon mans intelligence, and
whether it directs him as messenger,
1z.,, l.,
and intelligent as an instrument used
by God for his work. The Holy Spirit of
God bestows upon him the grace of
knowledge and direction, so that dur
ing the process he will write infallibly
what God directs Inspiration is not
alone a mere protection from error,
such as the pope possesses in his dog
matte definitions as pope, nor is it
declaration that the book has no error
in it. 1t of course excludes all positive
and formal error. Inspiration is an
action of the Holy Spirit by which men
especially selected by God, at various
times down to the end of the apostolic
age have committed to writing that
which has been declared by the church
as the Bible or the inspired word of
God. What is written has God for its
author and man for the instrument
used by God. This makes the Bible far
it is the only book that can have said
of it that it is the word of God. A
papal ex-cathedra utterance contains
the word of God, but the inspired book
is the word of God. The writer is not
a mere pen transcrbing the word ut
tered to him; he possesses his own char
acteristics, makes his own researches,
retains mis- memory of what he already
knows. Some things in the Holy Writ
iy,cr -1 lad h,rI Nn6 oh
for instance, as relate to mysteries of
religion and to prophesies; many things
are not revealed, but all are inspired.
God could have used other means to
make known-his truth. He might have
sent the angels with his message as
he did on certain occasions, or he might
have written his will on the skies or on
the mountains, but he chose men of
different minds and different character
istics to give the many-sided character
OF his truth.
Inspired to Write
"Moses, Isaias Jeremias, David,
John, Peter and Paul, each one in his
own character, wrote that which God
had inspired him to write. st. Cyril of
Jerusalem, referring to this, says, One
and the same rain comes down on all
the world, yet II becomes white in the
lily and red in the rose and purple in
the violet and pansy. In itself it is
uniform and changes not, but by adapt
ing itself to the nature of each thing
that receives 1t, it becomes what is
appropriate to each This to a certain
extent is the way inspiration acts upon
different writer's. 1t helps a man as
an historian, as prophet, as singer
of noble hymns, or a giver of good
COUNSEL 1t gives insight and knowledge
and helps the writer to tell more ac-
curately and reverently what he him
self already has learned. The inspired
writers are men moved by the Holy
Ghost, yet they remain men with the
weaknesses, prejudices and passions Of
men, but those are purified and en-
nobled by the Holy Spirit, Inspiration
does not destroy personality, nor does
N alsnnnd the natural faculties The