Year: 1873

1 knO&-0 AhrpOAtCA.l


Paul was thought to be very dan


gerous man by the pious Jews-by that
style of men who believed in keeping


close to the old landmarks, and walk


ing in the ways of their fathers. This


was strikingly manifest in that scene


where james calls him to account af-


ter he had been preaching twenty-five


years, and where he recites to him all


the rumOrs that were running around


the Church, and so Paul thought it


meet to put himself right by going up


into the temple, though Christ had


been thirty years gone, he thought it


meet to go into the temple and show to


those Jews that he had not broken the


Jewish economy.


Paul had come out into a large


knowledge of the liberty that's inher-


ent in man, but if he could save any


body by disabusing them of their pre-


judices he was willing to do so. He


was willing to take the poor way when


the better way did not do as well. In


the text he must have seemed to the


real regulation Pharisee to have been


undertaking. the Bible, and they were


exceedingly superstitious as to the
vulue of the Old Testament Scriptures


in those days. He appeals to the liv-
ing consciousness of living men against
any form of written statement-'Ye ca
are our epistles written in our hearts,


known and read of all men," At the


present time the Bible was assailed as


never before in many cases it was


disbelieved altogether. rejected upon


cause shown, and in other cases it had
fallen into disuse.


Indifference was far worse than scep-


ticism; in scepticism there was life, it


was full of warm blood, but for indif-


ference there was no hope or cure.


He (Mr. Beeeher) believed in the Bi-


BILE with all his heart, In just that
spirit in which it was given to the
world to believe it. He did not believe
that the world would ever lose it; as
long as the world should stand it
would bea light, guide, and a COM
fort. The book was never so impor-
tant as it is to-day; its mission was
scarcely begun, and its function would
not be ended until the last soul should
have been saved. 1t was the will of
God, and until that will was done on
earth as it is in heaven it will not be
superseded.


The supreme end and aim of the
Bible was internal, and where it en-
plyoed external facts it was only as a
measure of internal manhood. Its
whole aim was to build up men in
Christ Jesus its divine aim was mans
spiritual Advancement and no criti-
cism which only touched outward
things could ever invalidate the Bible.
No matter what may be the gaps and
chasms, if it was substantially right in
the grand aim of building up manhood
In the race, that was enough. Men
might prove some of its dates wrong,
prove that some of the facts asserted
in it never took place, but no man
could make any headway against it
until he proves that the picture of God
there depicted was unworthy of belief,
or that the destiny of man as there
set forth was false. a


If that which it most concerns man
to know-God and himself-was better
taught in the Word of God than any
where else, whether in Germany or
France, or in this country, and found
that they expended their force against
external views of the Word of God, he
was not alarmed at all. If man
having spite against me" continued
Mr.. Beecher, goes into my orchard
at night and scrapes away at my apple
trees, and L come in the morning and
find the ground all covered with bark,
my first thought is of danger to the
trees; but if | find that the inner bark
is not touched, and that he has merely
scraped off the husk ON the outside, /
will thank him and bid him. come
again. So when [ see men raking at
the Bible, l say it don't make any DIFF |
ference to me, so long as you leave the |
vital parts uninjured. It is the spirit |
and not the letter that is important, and |
that they don't touch"


The heart language, OF the language |
of the spirit, could not be expressed |
by words. The letter of the Bible |
was but as sign-board to point the
the way. If you saw a sign board |
pointing the way to Goshen that would |
tell you the way to Goshen, but it would /
not tell you you all you would see
ON the way to Goshen; and so with /
the words that express the hearts
emotions. There were no words in
any language that would express them
fully. Take sorrow. We all accept |
it as class of the emotions to which |
it points; but it expresses very feebly |
all that mother would feel as she
by the couch of her dead
child. And so with joy and peace and
love; we had nothing in language to
express them.


So the Bible then, did not aim at
perfect and absolute teaching, because
The infinite could not be compressed
within the finite, nor could any words
each men any more than they had a
oundatiOn for in their own inward
economy. mo formulas of mathemat-
cs could teach me anything" said the
preacher, because | have not the in
ward knowledge required; / read them
Is blindly as child reads the Bible"
This was clearly implied in the Scrip
ure when it was declared that ''the
wicked man can not understand the
word of God; the natural man under
not the things of the spirit


Continuing, Mr.. Beecher said
What if men should judge of fruit
rees as they do the Bible? They say
o me, DO you believe all the miracles
If the Old Testament; do you believe
hat iron swan or that Balaam's ass
poke?' / don't know why he should
lot his posteritydo Great laughter.
Do you believe all the things recoun-
ed in this clumsy, ill-connected his
ory? 1t makes very little difference
whether | do or not; don't think
he Bible stands on them at all. | go
nto my orchard and say / have New
ON pippins there my carping friend
inds tree that is split all the way
lown the fork, and says to me
Do you call this a good tree? Look
It this one, all full of insects; look at
his one, all stunted and half dead
should say that this man was an IL
ogieal fool. That would not be the
way to find out whether / had Newton
liopins or not. The best way would
1e TO wait for the fruit, and not look
It the trees.


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