THE .M.0KN1NG OREGOMAra FRIDAY, ipECEMBBE 26', 1902.
11
THE REVELATION OF GOD
A DISCUSSION OF THE BIBLE IN THE LIGHT OF
MODERN CRITICISM
To the most casual observer much dis
cussion gathers at the present time about
the book we call the Bible. The question
Involved Is not concerning the ''fact and
reality of a revelation from God, so much
as the manner of it, and the way wn
have been In the habit of looking at it
If we should regard the Bible simply as
a heterogeneous mass of history, geog
raphy, genealogy, statistics, liturgy, poet
ry, prophecies, sermons, prayers, alle
gories, stories, parables, letters, and mys
tical utterances, along with a lot of tem
ple rites, Idol worship, the tiresome pub
lications of the Mosaic law, the disputes
of the Jews, the eating of meats once of
fered to Idol, all matters as dead as the
men who wrote about them, we might
ask what have we to do with such a
budget of obsolete questions, belonging to
a long line of vanished life? But that
would hardly be a proper view to take of
It. It may be well In the beginning to de
termine If wc may what the Bible is not.
It is not a perfect exposition of God. It
does not make any such claim for itself,
and nothing can be gained by claiming
too much for even the Bible. Nor does the
Bible contain many things necessary for
the best development of man in this life,
though it is an old and common opinion
that it contains In so many words, or by
plain inference, all that is necessiry for
mankind to know in any and all emergen
cies. But wo must admit that there are
some things we have learned about God,
even, that we did not And specifically In
the Bible. The Bible was never meant to
be a Thesaurus of universal knowledge,
and there are a thousand findings out to
be made by the use of common sense,
investigation and experience.
Let it be remembered also that our own
claims for the Bible are so tremendous
that it is not irreverent to apply every
test that Intellect and conscience can
bring to bear upon it. Nothing Is so
ruinous to the Bible as an evasion of the
fullest investigation. There is no use so
reverent as a bold use of It, and if it can
not stand the tests applied to other .re
searches after truth, we are begging the
question. Nor do I mean by this that
every element of perplexity must be elim
inated from the Bible. All great things
are not simple. And while this is true,
the Bible should not be considered wholly
a supernatural book, and much of the
discussion now going on comes of regard
ing the Bible as a sort of miracle through
out, whereas, revelation is a growth, an
unfolding like history, and evolves with
the progress of the race. In proof of this,
It may be stated that the Bible possesses
a certain elasticity of interpretation; If It
did not It would long since have been
bb dead as Jezelebl's priests.
Our Modern Belief.
Nobody now believes, for Instance, that
infants go to hell, nor do instructed be
lievers longer think the great majority
of the human race go to hell not more
perhaps than the Inmates of a city Jail
compared to the population outside. We
no longer believe that a man inherits eter
nal life without regard to character. "Wo
do not hold either that a man Is wholly
unable to do right if he really wants to
do so. "We do not now believe if a few
lugubrious Christians ever did, that saints
In Heaven are happier by the sight of
the lost in helL We do not now believe
that God becomes angry. We no longer
believe there can be nothing good or beau
tiful in unconverted young people. We
do not now believe that the Almighty Is
ignorant of the laws of heredity, or that
he overlooks the presence of circumstances .
over which we can have 310 control and
which have so much to do in forming
character. We cannot believe that he
ever created a deathless soul, the least,
the lowest, the most denied, the most
bestead by life, and pushed It aside, as
unworthy his personal consideration and
tenderness. We' do not believe that he does.
no love poor human wretches better than
we do. We do not believe but that thou
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HIE WILSON DISTILLING Gd C
B&ltlaore. Md.
sands of people in our day aro better
Christians than David and Solomon ever
were. Instead of tarrying with these
things, which good men once extracted
from the Bible, or thought they did, we
now ask, "Have you a pure heart; explain
your relation with the people living on
the lot next to you. Are you loved at
home? Do you talk scandal? Is your
Imagination pure? Are you unselfish Are
you really kind to the poor, nnd do you
try to help them? Can you give disagree
able service to the sick How an vnti hnr
I up when the tables turn on you? and
j things no longer come your way? Do you
I believe in the man who has done wrong7
Do you believe in the fallen, the weak and
I the defenseless? Is your heart such that
ino -wrong-aocr would voluntarily come to
you to confess, revealing everything in his
life, and while you listen to his sad story
you answer, "I know, I know." amid sym
pathy and tears? And all this because the
Bible begets elesticlty of thought and
standards of Christian life.
The Revelation.
But let us return, to the best point from
Which to consider the Bible, and how It
reveals God. It Is on this wise: God is
in the midst or a great reveallmr period
which has been going on through all the
ages, bringing forth from the earth be
neath, from -the starry heavens above
us, from the generations gone, from gov
ernments, from climates, Industries, fam-
j ines, from nations and tribes, from in
dividuals, high and low, from emergen
cies, both general and special, a great
process of revelation, unveiling and evolv
ing to all who would see It a knowledge
of himself, a revelation never so poor as
at the beginning, and never so rich as in
our day.
Of this great revealing movement, the
Bible is the product, the record,, the ther
mometer, the flower, the Interpretation
of which lies not so much in itself as
outside of itself, taking as a working
basis the fact that nothing can be a rev
elation from God which contradicts the
evident principles of the laws of reason,
or the evident facts and laws of the uni
verse: for the universe Is, after all, the
truest expression of God's thought, of
his wisdom and love, and as such it Is the
most Indisputable revelation of God, more
trustworthy than any magical or abnor
mal manifestation, which the human
mind, in the exercise of its rational fac
ulties, can neither take in nor Interpret.
Persons sometimes Imagine that if God
had revealed himself continuously and to
all men, by Vorking miracles every day
before them. It would be impossible to
doubt him. But if miracles were as com
mon as Oregon showers, they would soon
attract no more attention than they. For
Instance, one of the most remarkable
things In the Bible is Ezeklel's vision of
a cloud coming out of the north, with
whirlwind and with Infolding 'fire and
flashing lightning: and from its amber
brightness a crystal firmament evolved,
borne on four cherubim, with wheels of
beryl, so high that they were dreadful,
and all moving with flashing light. On all
this was a sapphire throne, and on the
throne the appearance of a man. The
Imagination could hardly conceive a more
striking sight than this. Suppose, now,
that a vision should rise on our view
every morning from the north, how long
would it continue to impress us, and
wherein would it reveal God any more
than the rising of the sun every morning
in the east, or the heavens filled with
sparkling stars, thousands of them, every
night? What panegyric, let me ask, could
be Imagined that would reveal God more
than the Increasing disclosures of science
in the physical universe around us? Oh,
yes, you say, but we want a plain revela
tion' -ln wordsr and so we have it in the
Bible. But what would this revelation
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in words amount to without first a knowl
edge of the revealer from other sources
than words? Even a mother's words to
her own child cannot reveal her love for
It till' she has revealed herself In the ac
tions of a mother's love. And so God's
revelation .of himself in the Elble Is sup
plemental to the revelation of himself In
the universe.
Shall we, as rational beings, contend
that a revelation of God only" 13 par ex
cellent which cones through the extraor
dinary, the special and the miraculous?
Paul says: "The Invisible things of him
since the creation of the world are clearly
seen, being perceived through the things
that are made, even his everlasting power
and divinity." That is, we see what God
Is in nature. In his universe, which is not
an Inflexible quantity and product, like a
casting which any change or enlargement
would burst or break, but growing, plas
tic and progressive. But there Is not,
after all, so much of the mystical and
miraculous In the Bible, as we are accus
tomed to think, for God reveals himself
much as one man reveals himself to an
other man. Tho American Revolution re
vealed a Washington, and the Civil War
a Lincoln. So the universe and the sacred
record we have of it reveals God, In much
the same way.
Various reasons, exegetical and his
torical, unite in recommending the con
ception of revelation herein stated. It
now remains to see how it applies.
Inspiration and. inerrancy.
It was formerly supposed that every
thing In the Bible is as perfect and com
plete as its divine author. Infallibility
and Inerrancy were, therefore, a neces
sity, and the thought of any" error in it
was equivalent to abandoning the book
altogether. Everything was considered
perfect, language and all, dictated in
every particular by the puro mind of God.
To such, the notion of a revelation
through history, through the struggles
and moral life of the race and j!he insjght
of godly men, is not in ordef. They have
little patience with those who even dare
ask where all this written volume comes
from, anyway. They think it shows im
pertinence, if not downright Infidelity, to
ask such questions.
But there are those, modest and slndere,
who Incline to the opinion that inspira
tion does not mean that every word in the
book was dictated- by the infallible intel
ligence. It is the most natural thing In the world
to conceive the complete Inerrancy of the
Bible, and to 'most persons' lto divine ori
gin implies this. Without it they think
wo should all be at sea, and we should
be as well off with no revelation at all.
We should, however, bo careful how we
press such reasoning as this, lest all faith
be overthrown. To make myself under
stood, let me ask the reader to give a
satisfactory account of the manuscripts
from which we have our Scriptures. The
best and all that can be done is to talk
vaguely of some ancient or first manu
scripts, which long ago vanished beyond
the hope of recovery, and what gain, I
ask, is there, from this kind of vanished
infallibility? The predicament most minis
ters find themselves in Is, they consider
themselves bound to maintain infallibility
of the Scriptures by finding a revelation in
every detail of it, and If asked for a justi
fication of their position they go off into
a meaningless effusion about authorship,
dates, decisions of councils, and so on.
Revelation a Process.
Is it not better to say that revelation
consists of a great process, of which the
Bible Is tho historical and literary record
and product, dependent, not on some criti
cal Infallibility of the textual record and
Its unquestioned preservation of the Ident
ical text as It came from the hands of
original authors, which I may as well say
here and now cannot be maintained In
the presence of Intelligent criticism. The
truth is, God has been at work a long
time and he had a church In the world
long before there who any Bible at all,
and the" time has come when we must con
sider the Bible as the summary and his
tory, the legitiniate .outcome of hla deal
ings with men. This Is the truis and
only Christian faith In the matter.
Adherence to a lot of little, critical dic
tations and the much exploited Greek
"breathings" of the original text, upon
which shall depend the only true revela-.
tiqn of God, is no longer tenable. With
the general Intelligence and scholarship
of the present (lay, to say thie must be
done "would be like putting a chick after
It had been hatched back into the shell.
How shall we, for Instance, go about hold
ing to the very numerous Scripture texts
which teach divine decrees, a doctrine
once very generally believed, but which
the intelligence of mankind now repudi
ates. Notwithstanding the fact that a
hat full of proof text.?, unequivocal, may
be produced In favor of it, tho sound settee
of men now says: "It Isn't like God, and It
cannot, therefore, be true." For this rea
son the Presbyterian church recently mod
ified the statement of It in its Confession
of Faith. So thla stickling for tho literal
text Is not so common after all. "Hfc that
believeth on me out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living waters," or, "Thou
art Peter, and on this rock will I build my
church." Aro these, and scores of texts
like them, to be taken literally? Certainly
not What then? Why, simply this: Many,
very many texts of Scripture are to dif
ferent readers what tho readers are in
themselves, what their antecedents and
predilections make them, along with the
fact that wo ueually come out of the
Bible with those texts sticking to us which
our idiosyncrasies attract. And this is the
reason why a men who happens to get a
twist on sanctlfication, tha second coming
of. Christ, baptism by immersion, or the
supremacy of St. Peter, is heard every
time he gets the chnnco howling his
hobby, like the old Kentucky foxhound
when he struck the trail. "
Is it not safer find far moro rational, to
stand on the broader platform of general
insight as to, the mind and character of
God, what he' Is, as we sec him manifest
in the universe, In the rational nature,
in his providences and In human con
sciousness? "These dealers in proof texts have done
me much evil," is what the good book
would say if it could speak audibly, for
there has hardly been a step In the
progress of the race In modern times
which has not been resisted as fatal to
the claims of the Bible on this technical,
or proof-text basis. Texts have been ar
rayed against astronomy, geology, polit
ical economy," philosophy, .geography, re
ligious toleration, antl-elavcry, medicine,
vaccination, anesthetics, fanning; mills,
lightning rods, life Insurance, organs in
church, and women speaking in church.
All these, says Professor Brown, of Bos
ton Theological School, have been de
clared to make the word of God of no
ffect.
Interpret the Bible by Literary
Methods.
In conclusion,- lotno one conclude that
a plea is herein made for a system of rev
elation which displaces God by setting up
a system purely mechanical and self-administrative:
upon the other hand, the
method advocated is for a personal, immi
nent, self-revealing God everywhere. Wc
havft long enough taken tho Bible to be
merely or mainly a book of absolute dog
mas, a sort of .criminal code. It is time,
high time, to regard it as a great body of
divine literature which should be Inter
preted by universal literary methods; then
we shall not be worrying over Interpola
tions and disputed authorship. Moreover,
it is a pity, but we could have a great
clarification of metaphor in the Bible, for
many, as they now read, are of an an
cient form of spoech, unimpressive and
positively distasteful; but being a reve
lation fo Immature men, they were adapt
ed to their immaturity and share in their
imperfections. Because of this, much in
the Bible is drifting away as obsolete, like
the songs of Solomon, which are seldom
read by ministers in the public congre
gation. It may be added that the views herein
set forth are not heretical, but are mak
ing progress against not a little opposi
tion from good men, because the average
theological man considers any departure.
stablished 1823
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from the customary aswrong and .disas
trous. Nevertheless, there Is a wholesome
growth in Christian thought, particularly
in the faculties of our theological schools,
who aro coming more and more to a re
alization that Christ Is tho end of tho
law, and with this conception the old
mechanical and artificial views of. salva
tion are giving place to a better apprecia
tion of what God is and what he Is doing.
C, E. CLJNE.
CHASED A WQUL'D.BE MAYOR
Porto Rico Black: Republicans Gave
Candidate Opportunity to "Una."
.New York Sun.
Late In October the cable told briefly of
a demonstration made by a Porto Rican
mob against Dooley, Federal candidate for
Mayor of San Juan. This was Henry W.
Dooley, a former Brooklyn man. Mr.
Dooley, who was overwhelmingly beaten
on election day, landed here Tuesday from
the steamship Philadelphia, and is at his
mother's home, C6S Tenth street, Brooklyn.
That night he told about his experience
with the mob.
Mr. Dooley went to San Juan after the
war as the resident partner of the New
York commission firm of Dooley, Smith &
Co. Last May the City of San Juan bor
rowed $00,000 and Governor Hunt, Mr.
Dooley sau last night, appointed him as
the first American member of the Sari
Juan City Council in order to safeguard
the expenditure of the money. Mr. Doo
ley investigated and found gross Irregu
larities, he says. He fought extravagant
expenditures in the Council and his rec
ord as a fighter got "him the Mayoralty
nomination.
"I secured positive proof," said Mr.
Dooley last night, "that an aqueduct offi
cial had been keeping two sets of books
and that a sum ranging from 520,000 to $45,-
000 had been misappropriated in two years.
1 also discovered that some $43,000 of the
bond Issue had been misappropriated by
using it for running expenses of the city
government
"With this proof In hand I asked for a
special meeting of the Council to order an
investigation. This request was at first
denied. Finally, however, the secretary of
Porto Rico ordered the inquiry.
"It was In the fag end of the Mayoralty
campaign and the meeting hall wa3 packed
to its utmost capacity. Before I had a
chance to introduce my resolution, Senor
Noa, a negro and a Republican member
of the Council, 'got up and made charges
against me, which. I need not say, have
never been substantiated. He introduced
a resolution declaring that, inasmuch as
my firm had defrauded the city for three
years. I was not a proper person to In
vestigate anything. The resolution pro
vided tnat I be Investigated myself, and it
was passed with a whoop. Then I pre
sented my resolution, and it was tabled.
Finally -they passed a mild resolution
along somewhat the same lines as mine,
but leaving the investigating power in
the hands of the Republican faction com
pletely. "Leaving the hall, I, with a few friends,
strolled down into the plaza to wait for a
trolley car to my home which is at San
turce, a suburb, I was followed by a
howling mob of 600 to 700 people, largely
blacks and the scum of the city. They
brandished clubs, used all sorts of vile
language and every mother's son of 'em
was equipped with a tin whistle which
ha been dealt out to them that afternoon
In advance by one of their leaders. The
whistling was something fearful. Seems
to me I can hear it yet!
"Interspersed with the shrieking of the
whistles were cries such as:
" 'Abajo con Dooley!'
" 'Al diablo con Dooley!'
"I had to wait half an hour for a car
and the mob danced and howled about me.
I was guarded by four detectives from
the Treasury Department, four personal
friends and two fellow Federal Council
men. "When the car finally arrived I got
aboard and then with my bodyguard in-
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That's
a T 1 1 1 ii mii 11 KiSy-m u
creased to 24, I was whirled to my home.
On the car with me were. In addition to
those I have mentioned, four Federal par
ty lenders, and JO policemen. The mob
followed to the outskirts of the city,
jumping on the car and yanfilng the
trolley pole off when they could.
"The rest of the campaign I had con
stantly a guard of two policemen. A num
ber of annonymOUs letters were sent"to
me, threatening me with assassination."
"Yes," said Mr. Docley in concluding
his narrative, "I had a strenuous cam
paign." A 15-YEAR-GLD HEROINE.
Elizabeth JlcConrt Risked Her Life
to Stop a Rnnavray Horse.
New York Sun.
Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth McCourt,
who works all day for a New York dress
maker and goes everv evening to the
night school in public school 59, in East
Fnty-seventh street stopped, a runaway
horse Tuesday night rrom -getting Into
the mouth of the New York Central's
Park-avenue tUnhel.
Elizabeth was going through Fiftieth
street on fcer way home from work at 7
o'clock, when, as she reached Park ave
nue, she saw a big bay Corse racing down
the east side of the avenue, dragging an
undertaker's wagon after him. There ,was
no' driver on the seat.
The girl saw that the big Iron gate In
the -v.ams Express Company's yards at
the very mouth of the tunnel was wide
open and that the gateman wasn't In
sight She said later that the first thing
she thought of was "the passengers on
the trains might be killed if that horse
got in there and threw the engines oft
the track."
There was nobody else arourid to stop
tbe runaway, so Elizabeth ran into the
street, seized the horse's bridle as he
came by and clung on for dear life. She
didn't have any long skirts to hamper
her, and she did have a pair of strong
arms and a stout heart.
By swinging on one side she managed to
pull the big bay over toward the right
hand side of the narrow, cobble-paVed
lane, and when the horse reached the ,yard
he either had to bump against the Iron
fence at the side or stop ok-his own ac
cord. He stopped.
Just at that moment old Thomas Morris,
the gateman, came out He was Just in
time to see the last of the runaway.
"Will you please tie up this horse for a
moment?" said Elizabeth. "He ran away
and I shouldn't wonder If the poor driver
Is somewhere up the avenue with his head
all cut up."
Morris tied the horse up to the fence
and Elizabeth tramped op Park avenue a
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4
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dozen blocks to find the driver. She didn't
find him; so she went to the East Fifty-,
first police station, where Captain Lan
try and Sergeant Bingham were behind
the desk.
"I just stopped a runaway," she began.
"Tho deuce, you did," said Lantry and
the sergeant
"Yes. I did," said Elizabeth, "and I
don't know where his driver Is. I guess
you'd bettor take charge of the horse,
hadn't you?"
Policeman Ray went with Elizabeth to
the Central's gate. There they found J.
A. Thomas, the owner of the rig.
Elizabeth ate her dinner in a hurry and
then went to the night school. The re
porters found her there In the middle, of
her recitation in geography.
"Oh. l wasn't much." she said. "The
horse was going fast, but I'm not afraid
of horses. I like them. I just clung on
and stout my eyes and thought what
might happen, if he ever got In front of
the trains.
Seeing by Wire in Paris.
The London Express.
A. new discovery of apparently remark
able value has been submitted to the
French Academy of Sciences. It relates
to the possibility of seeing the reflection
of persons to whom one is talking through
the telephone.
It is not pdssible, says the secretary of
the academy, to pronounce upon the real
value of the discovery at this early stage,
but It has been submitted to tho examin
ation of a technical committee. Tho in
formation publicly given on the subject is
that a fresh contribution on the solution
of the problem of vision through obsta
cles has been submitted to the academy
by an inventor, whose name would only
be made known after tho report of the
committee on tho practicability of the in
vention. The inventor proposes to solve the prob
lem by means of electricity, and sugge3t3
the utilization of the, known electridal re
sponse of selenium to the action of light.
It may be mentioned that, it is known
that several persons are working at the
solution of thl3 problem of vision throughf
the telephone.
BRINGS CHICAGO NEARER. -
Seventy Honrs Is tbe Time East Via
"Chicaco-Portlantl Special."
The time between Portland and Chicago
via the "Chicago-Portland Special" now.Ur
70 hours, or two hours less than three
days. Train leaves every morning at '
o'clock. Inquire O. R. & N. ticket offic.
Third and Washington.
Portlana-St. Louis.
Do you Know about the new tourist
service between Portland and St Louis
and Memphis? Call up O. R. & N. ticket
office. Third and Washington.
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