The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1907-01-31

Spiritually Htdhoishbcu oAAA 49,
eyes SO close to the sacred pages tnat
they can only see a sentence or WORD
at a time, and they do not realize tnat
some Of the passages Of Scripture na0
special and exclusive reference to the
times In which they were written ana
to the geographical conditions OF tne
writer's. That would be very made
gate lie criptlon Of the beauties OF
Shadyside. which was limited to an
architects specification of the details
Of the home Of the father Of American
letters. 1t might be absolutely correcr
and Its measurements unimpeachable,
but we should miss the spirit and the
tender associations of the PLACE that
would make us feel that we SAL 1t as
Irving saw it. And yet some men seem
to school themselves against studying
the spirit of the Bible. They read mere
ly the letter of the book. By reading
the letter only they lose the true pur-
poses for which the Bible was given as
guide to us through this world to the
other.
The Case Of Galiiei.
This fact was consplcuously illus
trated in the persecution of the physi-
cist and astronomer, Galilei. You are
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
his eyes upon the heavens and began
to follow the movements of the heavr
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,
awayw Then the so called literalist
priests placed the heavy hand Of the
law upon Galilei and would have tor
tured him to death had he not signed
this humiliating recantation: with a
sincere heart and unfeigned faith I
abjure, curse and detest the said err
rors and heresies (viz, that the earth
moves, etc.. 1 swear that will never
in the future say or assert anything
verbally or in writing which may give
rise to similar suspicion against me.
| 1, Gallei, have abjured as above with
my own hand"
! Now, was there ever such unmitigat-
ed nonsense as that act Of the church?
It was the setting up of claim that
| book written to teach morality and
religion should be an authority on sci
ence also. 1t was as IL one should in
sist on taking an incidental reference
of a physician on question of music
as an authority superior to the dictum
Of a musician. The Bible writer's, 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 ap-
pointed topic But Galilei was declar-
ed a hereto on such testimony and
saved his life only by recantation. Let
us be careful lest we demand Of the Bible
more than it was ever intended to teach
More Rigoted Stupidity.
The same bigoted stupidity Of the
medieval church we can find in 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 5000 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 date for the creation
| It merely says, I'm the beginning ;"
(The dates on the margin are those of
Archbishop USHER. who lived in the
sixteenth century A. ID The geoio-
gfsts went on in their Investigations
and found eras and epochs and ages,
perhaps a million years apart. Not
only did science prove the immense
age of the earth, but that the develop
ment was slow process Of ages. They
brought these facts to the church and
said, Come and see and study" The
church threw up its 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 days2 No more and
no less" But" said the scientific the
ologians, perhaps the day Of Gods
creation meant an era, not a 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
theologians 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. Zone
day is with the Lord as thousand
years and thousand years as one
day. Gil Peter lii, 81.