The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-05-18

&
which human feet have trodden, and
every proviso records an earnest ex-
pertinent in the difficult art of living.
The Pentateuchal laws and their sup
plements have become understandable,
indisputable, Indispensable; and the
historical method of Interpretation
sets them forth as sort of historical
geological record which contains the
story of the up-coming of chosen
people
The New Appreciation Of Hebrew
Prophecy.
Perhaps the historical method is
most Immediately rich and satisfying
In the new appreciation of Hebrew
prophecy which it enjoins. Hitherto
the prophets have either been enig-
mas, or their books have become the
paradise of long-haired theologians
and unbalanced religious Missionaries.
As foretellers the Hebrew prophets
have unwittingly fathered many gene
rations of strange almanacs Through
| the Christian years The schools of the
prophets have graduated marvellous
mathematicians whose ingenious cal
culations have fastened in the minds
of the credulous an end of the world
which has never yet come, and which
may never come at all Thus the
| greatest of Israel's religious and lit
erary achievement-her great foretel-
| lers of private and national righteous
ness, the geniuses who appealed to
both private and national conscience
us, and we know not the men who
/ should be chief inspiration to our
religious life.
The new Interpretation changes all
| this. The most modern of all the
worlds great teachers are the Hebrew
prophets, and the new point of view
makes fine sermon texts of acres Of
passages between Canticles and Saint
! Matthew which afore time were desert
waste. The prophets are the heroes
of the worlds intellectual religious life
and, better still, they are our mental
and spiritual brothers, being kith and
kin with us in the struggle for the
betterment of the world They are
/ humanity's pathfinders in religion and
in ethics. Pioneers in civic righteous
ness are they, the men who first con-
tended against the entrenched altar
and priest in behalf of the democrati.
cation of the spiritual life and of the
open door to heaven. What heroic
contenders they were, and how they
did uphold the inalienable rights of
man against fearful odds, from the
day when Elijah bearded King Ahab
in dead Naboth's vineyard to that 9th.
er glorious day when the Forerunner
threw into Herod's teeth his. 1T is
not lawful for thee to have her. at
the cost price of his own head. Amos
fine plea for national Righteousness is
| the call of the twentieth century con.
4 science, and, put into modern pastoral
preaching Isaiah's impassioned vision
of spiritual religion would bring about
a revival of religion without the aid of
an evangelist.
In short the historical method sim
j ply brings Us back to the original pur-
pose and spirit which created the vari-
GUS parts of the Bible and puts us into
possession of the great inspirational
motives of the book great messages.
The men who first reduced to writing
1 the stories of the Hexateuch well
knew that Judah's escapade with his
daughter-in-law had nothing to do with
I religion; that Samson's armors and
feats OF strength We're not inspired
from the Holy of Holes; that the CON
quest of Canaan was not a Sunday
school picnic. The persons who codi-
4 fed Hebrew law were well aware that
their work crowned an age-long evolu-
tlon. Our investigation simply brings
us to the knowledge possessed by most
of the compilers of the Bible, and sun
ply US with the point of view of Bible
authors. Nobody better than the
prophets understood that in religion
/ the letter killeth and the spirit giveth
| life. And so it comes about, by gra-
cious Providence, that the spirit which
inspired the Hebrew literature now in
terprets it, and the Old Testament is
coming back into its own place in the
religious life of the twentieth cen
fury.
Following is the program for this
evening and tomorrow:
Wednesday Evening, 7:so.
Meeting in charge of the Congre-
gational Brotherhood of Iowa. Ad-
dresses will be delivered as follows:
The Brotherhood and the Laymen's
CATARRH CAM