The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-11-21

the New testament uOSS Aol give
a perfect account OF Jesus.
Therefore Jesus lives today in the
experience of His disciples TO give TO
them a larger disclosure of God as
their eternal friend. His life is the
pattern life.
His death is the expression of God 3
suffering with His children, of God
bearing His childrens sorrows and
sins, and of Gods full forgiveness.
Thus the death of Jesus by disclosing
Gods suffering and Gods love brings
men TO God, effeeting no change in God
of course, but effecting the transcend
ent change in man that the recognition
of the Fathers love always causes.
That Jesus death was viewed as an
incident, a ffashlight picture Of God
heart, seems to be the meaning of the
phrase. The lamb slain from the
foundation of the world In reality
it is not His death that makes man
one with God, but that of which the
death was a revelation, namely, God
eternal passion. In this sense Jesus
death is the eliminating revelation
and the ground Of the atonement-at-
observation-disclosures meaning the
bringing of the human child into one
ness. into union with God, his Father
In NV experience the Bible is the
supreme book containing the alto
gether unique record of Gods reveia-
tion of himself to the Hebrew race.
The whole course of nature is at one
with the conception of historic prep
aro+fop of a race to be the
recipient of this disclosure. we nave
everywhere in human history the
genius-the inspired man or the IN
spired few. In poetry, Homer, Dante,
Shakespeare. In pictorial art, Rapnaei
and Titan and Rembrandt. In music,
Beethoven and Mozart and wagner
Thus among the races the Hebrew re-
ceived a training of sorrow, was SO
strategicalIy situated in the center OK
the ancient world and was the OBJECT
OF such an educative process that MS
natural religious trend was shaped INTO
a genius for hearing Gods voice. Inc
Bible is of paramount value only as 1t
records the experience which men OF
this prepared and gifted race had OF
God.
With the ascertained results of care
ful reverent criticism of the Bible
find myself in full accord. None OF
them seem to me in the slightest de-
gree to bear upon the supreme reveal
ton of God made in the lives OF the
Hebrew prophets. They have wonder
fully cleared away the difficulties Win
which some doetrinal traditions en-
numbered the literature of Israel, ana
have given us far more luminous and
lovable book. At the same time II IS
clear that the last word has not been
said upon the subject of these ancient
records. The very newest testimony
Of long buried inscriptions establishes
the historicity of accounts regarded
for wears by devout students as doubt
fl1I NV conviction is that it Is the
mart of the sincere Christian to receive
ioyfully whatever thorough, candid
and trustworthy Investigators deter
mine TO be the facts of Biblical author-
shin. chronology, history and the like,
to adjust his previously formed theo-
ries thereto, and at the same time to
keep an open mind expecting in due
season new light to shine upon dis
puted and doubtful points
Meantime the Bible daily titled as
farm for spiritual sustenance has prov
ed ever increasingly productive in my
own life The most exhaustive critical
study possible to a busy man, added
to a sympathetic browsing therein,
with the prayer that Gods Spirit may
disclose truth, has resulted in such
constant supply of new and heipful
revelation that it has become more
and more essential to life and growth.
Passing on to the view of man / find
the consciousness of Jesus, especially
as interpreted by Paul and the mar
veIous discoveries of science during the
last 100 years in full consonance. The
theory of evolution is to me the most
luminous single commentary upon the
Scriptures that recent history has al
forded Man made by God in His
image, that is with the capacity TO
become His son, falling into sin
through the very possibility that glo-
rifles him, namely the possession OF
free WILL taught by Gods love how to
use his will Alright until he Z comes
like his Father ever faced with the
memorable and bona fide alternative
of persisting in evil until not only de-
velopment is arrested but death be-
comes inevitable, living his early
school days here in a mysterious union
of spirit and matter and as sure to
live on after death to follow out the
legitimate course of his earthly life
trend-au this seems reasonable and
true Meantime God can never aban-
don any of His children While life
lasts, and the only punishment that
men, in this day when human penalties
have ceased to be retributive and have
for their sole end reformation. can
contemplate as just and right is that
whose object it is to reclaim and re-
store.
Meantime as Christ widens His vic
tories and the church takes into itself
the millions of Asia there can be little
doubt that the revelation made by God
to these peoples, when interpreted by
them in the light of the Christian con-
seriousness, will wonderfully enrich the
worlds conception of divine truth. A
more reverent treatment of all extra
Judaic revelation characterizes our
age and more sympathetic acquaint-
ance Herewith is certain to illumine
the Person and teaching of our Lord.
The East is bound to disclose to the
West new beauties in the Messiah, who