The Washington herald., 1915-03-21

lost that is. doomed to eternal torment in hell
With more or less variation, this was the
accepted Christian doctrine for two hundred
and fifty years after Luther broke with Rome
More or less modified it is what is preached
by the orthodox today.
1t will be readily seen that the key to all
this system of belief is the Old Testament
tradition. Especially important to this sys-
TEN is the Garden of Eden story. Take away
Original sin in Adam. and the whole fabric
falls to pieces. To defend the accuracy and
inspiration of these Old Testament stories then
becomes the imperative necessity Of men who
hold to that system. 1t explains the fierce
bombardment any preacher receives who dares
to question the historicity of Jonah. For Jonah
is the first trench and the most vulnerable in
the OrthordoX defense. To it the reserves are
rushed. Give up Jonah, and the other stories
are weakened; next you will be denying Adam
and Noah and the whole system of pricstcraft
and mechanical salvation is endangered.
Now this system of belief, sometimes called
Augustinian, after st. Augustine, who set it
forth in the fourth century: or Calvinism. after
John Calvin, of Geneva, who developed it still
further in the sixteenth century: this system
has experienced some tremendous shocks in
the last $50 years The thinkers who made
the French Revolution possible with its
tionalizins tendency dealt it a heavy blow
from the side OF philosophy. The biologists
followed, showing that the earth was hun
dreds of thousands of years old, rather than
5000. Then came the whole brigade of scien-
tifc thinkers in physical sciences led by that
greatest thinker of al moderns. Charles Oar
win, with demonstration that this world could
not have been created outright on the Hebrew
story plan - but had grown from simple to
complex. under the laws of natural selection.
How the orthodox universally abused Darwin.
some OF the more ignorant still abuse him.
The fayorite target of the religious demagogue
forty years ago Darwin, with Spencer,
Huxley and the others, who defended and DEM
oustratcd the absolute necessity of accepting
Darwir's theory OF life But Darwin won out
and the Hebrew stories were greatly weakened
in their religious significance, and the system
based on then further modified.
Parallel with these changes in thinking
came the explorers and historians of other than
Christian peoples and religions, showing by
comparative religion that there is natural
history OF politics. the social life, and that
many divisions of the human race in various
parts OF the earth had experienced similar de-
velopment upward from the mythical story of
the barbaric savage tribe with its tribal
god. is idols and shrines and relics. to the
purcr faith of the inteigen seeker for truth.
The Hebrew development was seen not to be
UNIQUE. though it had unique features, but in
India, Greece, Italy, China, men had CROPPED
into larger life OF the soul, from an inferior
and narrow outlook.
Il was in that same wonderful century that
German scholars discovered that the Hebrew
stories had not been written as continuous
narrative by single author with single pur-
pose. but that the five books of Moses, for in
stance, composite, made up of many
stories. by several authors, recording or re-
peatng folklore, at many stages of the peo-
pies history. These stories, laws. regulations
COLES. songs. superstitions had been pieced to-
gether by later author, and still further re-
vised and amended and merged into a mosaic
rather than a unity There are at least three
different stories of creation. pieced together
in the first three chapters of Genesis. There
two stories of the flood. The Ten Com
mandments in two versions. In one
sion the reason for the Sabbath was given as
Jehovahs rest from creation. In another YER
sion still different reason is given.
motive was also found for the variations
of statement in the struggle within the He
brew nation between the prophets who tried
to emphasize good conduct as a basis for
moral ideals, and the priests who insisted on
animal sacrifices as the thing necessary to Sc
cure acceptance in the sight of God.
This struggle between priest and prophet is
also human and universal struggle. charac-
teristic of nearly all religious development,
ness and technical righteousness-these two
have battled and are battling yet. The priest
said, the sinner must bring lamb or bull
lock; the prophet said the sinner must bring
humble and contrite heart The priest,
profitng by technical observance, inserted an
atonement. The prophet declared. "What doth
the Lord require of thee but to do justly.
and love mercy, and walk humbly with God!'
In this struggle the Hebrew conception OF
single God was wrought out. Monotneism Is
the Hebrew contribution to religion.
The Hebrew prophet left the impression OF a
just, fair and kind and universal God. But ne
lost the fight. The priest won in Judaism, Tor q