The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-03-27

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free to judge from the standpoint of
christianity every page and every
verse OF the Old Testament, which
tails below the rule which Christ sets
forth. Nothing can be regarded by
us as the message OF God which the
Son of God has taught us to reject
and condemn"
These quotations are sufficient to
show that this position taken is not
the hasty utterance of radicals, but
that this conclusion has been reached
by many we'll matursd orthodox chris
tlan thinkers. Let us not think for a
! moment that this position lays the
Old Testament on the shelf as a book
that is superannuated and worthless.
Far from it. The Old Testament is
| Gods record of His revelation to
Israel. The Hebrews were the most
religious people on earth and had the
highest conception of God of any peo-
pie and their literature is without a
parallel For nowhere do we find such
an analysis Of sin as we find in the
story of the fall or such a profound
discussion of the problem of evil as in
+ the drama of Job. Where will one
! find such glorification of pure love
F., and devotion as in the Song of Songs?
/ Or such satire against bigotry and
( selfishness as we find in the story of
! Jonah? Or more fundamental max
/ inns Of ethics than we find in the Ten
! commandments Or greater songs
of praise, prayer and devotion than in
I the Psalms? All these are helpful in
many ways. But to Jesus only do we
I go as our source of authority in the
christian life Higher criticism is the
preachers friend. 1t has shown him
! that he does not have to defend every
4 thing he finds recorded in the Old
! Testament. Such conclusion re-
lieves him of the tremendous task of
trying to reconcile all the writings of
the Old Testament with, the character
! of good God who is the Father OF
/ all men. We may admit all this and
much more without fear Such adj
/ mission does not even shake that
impregnable position that Christ alone
1 is our Saviour, priest and king
Suppose we grant that there are
mistakes in the Bible What has that
to do with christianity? Christian
be the greatest book in the world,
nor on man though he be as great as
Moses, but on Jesus Christ We no
I longer have to defend the wars of ex-
termination, the slaughter of men.
/ women and children, nor the savage
4 of Samuel when he hewed Agag to
! pieces. These are all the reflections
/ of the semi-savage age in which they
occurred, and are not any part OF
1 christianity, but are foreign to its
/ spirit There was time when the
minister felt under obligation to de-
fend or explain everything found in
the scriptures. thanks to higher crit
ieism for liberating us from that EN-
barrassing task It is not that every
word and line in the SCRIPTURES is the
word of the Lord and equally inspir-
ed and of the same value that makes
the Bible the precious book to us.
But it is that. the Bible contains the
word of God. 1t is this that has en-
deared the Bible to the heart of
humanity and given it supremacy
over all other literature This is why
the Bible inspires us with hope, com
4 forts us in sorrow, and delivers us
from the bondage of sin and gives
courage to the MARTYR as he faces
death. Not only has higher crit
icism given us more intelligent
conception of the origin and char
acter of the Bible, but it has revealed