Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-01-31
The Case Of GaIiIsi.

|
familiar with the story of his life. He
was not the first inventor Of the tele-
scope, but he was without doubt the
first intelligent user of It. He focused
I his eyes upon the heavens and began
to follow the movements Of the heav-
emily bodies. He went on in his inves-
legations until at last he found out
that the earth moved around the sun.
absurd! Absurd" cried the Church
| of Rome. "The earth does not move
about the sun: the sun moves around
the earth. Does not the Bible tell us
that Joshua halted the sun above Gid
con and the moon in the valley Of
Ajalon? Away with the hereto! Away,
away! Then the so called llteralist
priests placed the heavy hand of the
law upon Galilei and would have tor
this humiliating recantation: with a
sincere heart and unfelgned faith
abjure, curse and detest the said err
rors and heresies wiz. that the earth
moves. etcD. l swear that I will never
in the future say or assert anything
verbally or in writing which may give
rise to a similar suspicion against me.
|, Galilei, have abjured as above with
my own hand"
Now, was there ever such unmitigat-
ed nonsense as that act Of the church?
1t was the setting up of n claim tina,
book written to teach morality and
religion should be an authority on sci
ence also. 1t was as If one should in
sist on taking an incidental reference
OF n physician on a question Of music
az an authority superior to the dictum
Of musician. The Bible writers, in
tent on teaching men how to live in
this world so as to be happy in the
next, learned in the things of God, but
unlearned in the crude science of their
times, accepted the ideas current at
the period and passed on to their APP
pointed topic. But Galilei was declar-
ed a hereto on such testimony and
saved his life only by recantaton. Let
us be careful lest we demand of the Bible
more than it was ever intended to teach.
More Bisoted Stupidity.
The same bigoted stupidity of the
church of the eighteenth and nine
teenth centuries. The scientists went
on In their Investigations. and they
proved that this old planet was not
created 5000 or G,000 years ago. 1t
has been developing during thousands
upon thousands and hundreds of thou
sands Of years. The Bible, by the way
does not fix a date for the creation
1t merely says, I'm the beginning
Crhe dates ON the margin are those OF
Archbishop Ussher, who lived in the
sixteenth century a. d. The geolo-
gists went on in their Investigations
and found eras and epochs and ages,
perhaps million years apart Not
only did science prove the immense
age of the earth, but that the develop
ment was q STOW process Of ages. They
brought these facts to the church and
said, Come and see and study The
church threw up it's hands in horror.
What will become Of our Bibles IL
you prove those statements true!" they
exclaimed. Does not the Bible de-
clare that God made the earth and the
heavens in six days? No more and
no less" But" said the scientific the
ologians, perhaps the day Of Gods
creation meant an era, not day OF
twenty four hours" Absurd" cried
the church Absurd. A day means a
day of twenty four hours and nothing
else" So the church fought the in
vestigations of science. They fought
them on and fought them on. The
theoogians said to the church mem
bers, IF you believe this heresy you
are not a Christian" The result was
the church continued to read the first
chapter of Genesis as literal history
until it made itself absolutely ridicu-
lous. They overlooked the essential
fact that the day of the creation is
not day of twenty four hours. "One
day is with the Lord as thousand
years and thousand years as one
day Oh Peter iii. 81.
Now. there IS the same disposition to-
day as there was In the medieval
church and in the church Of the nine
teenth century. Some church members
today are trying to stir up internal
strife by reading the letter Of the Bible
instead of the spirit of the Bible. They
are trying to take certain Bible pas
sages and twist them out Of all SEM
blance of their true meaning They do
this with the assumed air of great
spiritual erudition and gospel sanctity.
When they quote these passages, they
look at us In very cOndescending
way, as much as to say: "IIave you not
forgotten such and such a passage
, Do you not wish You knew as much
about the Bible as | do?"
The Spirit Of the Bible.
We should read the spirit of the BIZ
BILE. More than that. we should never
try to solve the unsolvable mysteries
Of God and his work, which can never
, be solved this side of the grave Now,
: it Is a wise man who Is willing to rec
Ognze the fact that there are certain
I limitations to his mental and spiritual
faculties. 1t is wise man who Is
willing to confess that there are GER
tain things he does not know and new
er will be able to know this side OF
heaven. When you and | come to that
glorious condition OF mind and soul,
we shall open our minds and hearts to
, the full enjoyment of the gospel life.
And. my brother, l never want you to
sit at the feet of any religious teacher