The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-10

CddtI1Ie Tia \ To-
| you as novel, almost
sensational, for me to announce that
/ Shall talk tonight about two hope
full religious tendencies of our
time.
The first Of these relates to the
steadily changing manner of inter
preting the Bible. to the increasing
feeling that it is to be read not
sla vishly according to the letter that
kiileth. but in the light Of the spirit
that giyeth life. While the Christian
religion had back Of it centuries OF
preparation, still il is not a growth
in the ordinary sense of that word.
It is today what it was in the be-
ginning-'the faith which was once
delivered to the saints" 1t rests upon
an unchanging Bible. Though the
Bible has through the shifting So
eial. civic and intellectual ideals of
nineteen centuries remained quite
unchanged, yet the understanding of
it, the Interpretation and the prac-
tical application of it have changed
from age to age.
The Interpretation of the Bible is
a growth, and the history of it has
striking resemblance to the literary
history Of some of the greatest OF
human documents. The beautiful
simplicity, fine seIf-restraint and uni
vcrsal truth of Homer have at times
not been enough to escape the de
~VaStating effects of what seems to be
in average human nature an inevita-
BILE craving for literaIness, and for
generations the Homeric poems were
actually supplanted by a prosaic COM
mon-place that claimed to give from
at eyewitness the facts of the Trojan
war. AS late as the Elizabethan age.
in his translation Of Homer made ia
nous by Keats's memorable sonnet.
Chapman, lacking spiritual vision, a
the temerity to handle the sacred YES
sells of Greek art with the substantial
grasp of the barbarian. And even
Pope. great poet though he was, with
his dull literalness and formidable
heroic couplet, thought to amend the
mos'ning freshness tand the divine
liuuidity of the older poets verse,
simple as if it We're singing itself in
the streets Of Athens amidst her
primitive. vigorous sons by the sources
Of the river Of time. While Homer's
poetry has by modern criticism been
restored in the full integrity of it's
text. it is still too often the pitiable
victim of the literal methods Of a
housing and pedestrian scholarship.
The l~iteralists have time and again
tried to improve on the wisdom and
consummate art of Shakespeare. the
Hottest Of all the singers that time
is heir to. These literary Journalists
by false standards Of excellence so
perverted the tastes rs to obscure
from many generations of English
men the richness Of Shakespeare in
truth to the universal and his ministry
to the imaginative reaSOn and to all
the elements by which the human
spirit, if it would live Alright, has
chiefly to live.
To come to a document with which
Americans are more familiar. the
Constitution of the United States,
though expounded by a slowly chang
Ing body that is supposed to be re-
mote from the moods Of the multitude,
has yet felt the tendency of the age
to abandon worldly word ~interpreta-
ton and to put the spirit above the
letter; for, as Mr.. Dooley half
seriously observed. the decisions Of
the Supreme Court always follow the
election returns.
There has likewise been a period
Of strict construction of the Bible.
A willingness to rest in the literal
meaning rather than to find and APP
ply its universal significance has
many a time played havoc with the
Scripture. This Pharisaic tendency
to give to h literal, the temporary,
and the local. the place that be-
longs to the spiritual. the abiding.
and the universal. has often not only
completely distorted the meaning of
the Bible but it has vitiated Chris
tan life. And by it the fine en-
thusiasm for goodness has been turn
ed into heat for some favorite inter
probation Or some particular form Of
belief. This religious intensity, good
in itself but diverted by a wrong
Interpretation of the Bible, has I'M
fortunately been reinforced by an
other trait in human nature. Ma
in his state of nature is a ~gregarious