Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-07
WHAT is THE BIBLE GOOD
For? IS PASTORS TEXT
REV. WILLIAM H. DAY ANSWERS
QUESTION
Draws Comparison Between Minds
Which Get Their Only inspiration
in the Past and Those Which Look
Only to the Future

At the First Congregational church
Rev. William Horace Day, pastor,
preached Sunday morning on the text,
Heb, iv:12, subject, What Is the Bible
Good For?"
1.-The word of God is living and
active, and sharper than any two
edged sword-and quick to discern the
thoughts and intents of the heart"
"In this text the writer to the He
brews is giving partial answer to the
question, What is the Bible good for?'
AS one walks through the streets and
observes the dress of the passers we
see those whom we call the gentle
men of the old school men who affect
the habit, dress and manners of gen.
Grafton ago; they admire the older
fashions. Others want nothing but the
latest in dress and manners, nothing
appeals to them but the new fashions.
There are styles of mind no less
marked the old fashioned mind and
the new fashioned mind. For want OF
better terms 1 shall use these two
one as the type of mind which gets
it's greatest inspiration in the past and
the other which gets it's only in the
future. We do this realizing that the
great majority of people will adopt the
happy mean and are neither Wholly
Iold-fashioned or wholly neW-fashioned
in mental style.
"First-Ihe value of the Bible to the
old-fashioned mind. To him the old
time religion is good enough. There
is reason for his preference. He has
come to love the past because by rich
experience he has put it's treasures to
the test. The Bible has been hid in
his heart that he might not sin against
God. 1t has been his guide when he
has failed and done some evil; 1t has
been his help in sorrow. He knows it's
power, because he has found comfort
in the poem of the Psalmist; he has
sharpened his conscience in the press
ence of the majesty of the law and
has been borne upward into mounts
of vision with the prophets. DR..
Prichard was telling us the other day
of Prof. Weston of Crosier, who has
read the Greek New Testament
through every month for fifty-three
years and finds it new and fresh each
time. Such a student of the word
needs no argument to prove its inspira-
ton.
"Second-The value of the Bible to
the new-fashioned mind. The new
fashioned style of mind sometimes is
limited IN his interest to that which is
new. No book ten years old need ap-
ply; he has no time for it. He is the
product of the times. His thinking
must be expressed in terms of develop
ment, the reign of law and the po-
tency of environment. What values
can the Bible have for him? Many
voice tells him no use at ALL
HE discovers that some of the most
devout men of his mental type have
found the Bible more wonderful and
more divine than they did before study
ing it in the light of their new-fash-
ioned ideas. They tell this new-fash-
ioned mind that they see in the Bible
a progressive revelation of God from
the days of primitive man to Jesus
Christ. That the same development
which they see in nature is even more
wonderfully manifest in it's pages. That
the reign of law is not destroyed, but
Its literary history follows the laws of
literary composition and transmission.
That in 1t are to be found every one
of the beautiful literary forms and
through each of these God is speaking
to man, in poetry, in prose, In his
tory and imaginative work. The Di-
vine Spirit has employed each as a
medium for revelation. That in the
Bible he will find the most striking
recognition of the potency of environ
ment for social messages Of the
prophets in the Old ana OF Jesus In