The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-02-17
DR.. SCUDDER
Continues from Pare one.l

liOAiA axe OHGsl
fire of reflection every inherited con-
ception and ancient tradition was fused
and freed from all that was felt by
the prophets of the nation to be
unworthy of the revelation of Jehovah
"a revelation beside which the luxury
of Babylon, the commercial enterprise
of Phoenicia, the architecture of Egypt,
the art of Greece and the power of
Rome were TO the Hebrew but baubIes.
The final stage in the process was
reached when Nebuchadnezzar cap
tured Jerusalem, uprooted the Israelite
and planted him in Babylonia. Here
the prophet, transformed into priest,
came face to face with that ancient
mythology which had formed the chief
religious asset of his early ancestors
What a ehasm yawned between the
puerile notions of Tiamat. Bel. Nebo
Merodach and the rest of the host of
Semitic divinities on the one hand and
the exalted conceptions of Jehovah that
dominated his mind on the otherl In
his own views of the beginnings of
history the myths that he found in
Babylon formed the rough outline, yet
amid this similarity what a world of
difference had been wrought by the
truth of God breathed into the expert
ence Of his nation. Moved to write his
peoples story by the Divine Spirit, who
s'Firs the best in every man. the I'M
known author or group of authors in
the quiet of the exile some $50 years
before Christ gave the world his own
exalted vision Of the first things as we
find it in the matchless chapter which
formed the scripture lesson of this
morning. Such in the REV of modern
scholarship seems to have been the
story of this Incompatible gem begin
ming with the first verse of the Bible
and ending with the third verse of the
second chapter of Genesis.
How are we Christians to treat it :?
few Sundays ago Paul convinced us
that the Old Testament contains two
kinds of Acknowledgements, 1.-The wisdom
of this world that is, the Sciences
literature and the like; second, Gods
wisdom, or truth not ascertainable
through the senses, but revealed di-
rectly by Gods Spirit to the individual
human spirit. The wisdom of this world
contained in the Old Testament is full
of interest to, us as students of his
tory, archaeology, literature.s politics
and sociology, but Gods wisdom is
of infinite import to every man of US
as essentially a spiritual being
You remember, also, that we set out
on this course to. treat the Old Testa-
ment as Jesus did. We found Him
somewhat careless of it's historic state
ments, treating lightly it's letter, free
~ setting aside many of its religious
usages as worn out, but wistfully
searching its pages for witness to the
Divine Voice in His soul. Let US make
like endeayor.
If this were a. platform lecture, I
should delight to dwell upon the liter
airy structure, stateliness and beauty of
this noble Chapter ButSin our religious
life we do not look to this book be-
cause of it's preenlinent place in human
letters. We do this even less because
it reflects the crude science of. its time.
No Christian man today directs his
children to- study geology astronomy
or zoology out of Genesis, chapter 1.
That fact should be conclusive against
any claim that. the scientific concep-
tions of this passage constitute a reve-
lation. The man who wrote it was
acute enough an observer and possess
ed of sufficient genius as an inter
prefer of Nature to give a picture of
the birth of worlds and of the story
of life in some of its features remark
ably anticipative of later scientific dis
coveries. His conception of order and
of progress from lower to higher in
creation are marvels in their way, but
they are all reasonable deductions of a
fr1a rvaSrp6 n 41n knnzvlaHoa Of tho
One God and wisely using its pow
ers amid the environment of civiliza-
ton whose very foundation was order
and whose system was graduation in
rank This wondrous guess of how
God builded His world is full of deep
est interest, but it neither possesses
authority in the life of today, nor does
Jesus example lead US to expect that
it should.
Was this writer inspired when his
mind gave birth to conceptions of Ma
ture so chaSte, 50 orderly and so state
Nv and when he framed them in form
of such literary beauty? Yes, just as
the Bible tells us that ancient artists
poets. rulers and prophets were moved
by Gods Spirit to their masterpieces,
Just as all great peoples have believed
their leading men inspired. But IN
this there is no revelation. nothing
that mans faculties We're not fitted by
God TO produce under appropriate
stimulus.
But when we leave this plane of "the
wisdom of this world" and ask our
selves Does anything here bear Wit
ness TO the Christi then we find this
fragment charged with a divine power
that makes it one of the grandest bits
of human writing to be found any
where in the annals of our race.
The thesis of the writer in this first
chapter is Gods relation to the. ma
terial universe and TO man" This
thesis was the introduction to the au-
thor's treatise. 1.-THE Founding of Our
Nation" or The Story of God and
Our Early Ancestors Chapter l.
God and His World. Section /. God