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THE BIB
MODERN WORLD
F, M. SHELDON

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PEDAGOGICAL LIBRARV
OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF R:LIGIOUS EDUCATION

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PEDAGOGICAL LIBRARY
OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
YALE SCHOOL OF RELIGION

THE BIBLE
IN OUR MODERN
WORLD

THE BIBLE
IN
OUR MODERN WORLD

BY
F. M. SHELDON »• -

PEDAGOGICAL LIBRARY
OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
YALE SCHOOL OF RELIGION

THE PILGRIM PRESS
BOSTON CHICAGO

Copyright 1917
By F. M. SHELDON

THE PILGRIM PRESS
BOSTON

TO MY DAUGHTERS
EVELYN AND HELEN
TWELVE AND THIRTEEN YEARS OF AGE, AND TO THE
YOUTH OF OUR LAND, WITH THE HOPE THAT
THEIR VIEW OF THE BIBLE AND RELIGION
MAY BE VITAL AND ADEQUATE
IN ALL THE ENLARGING
EXPERIENCES OF
THEIR LIVES

FOREWORD
This little book attempts to show how the dif
ficulties in Biblical and religious interpretation,
incident to our greatly increased scientific and
other knowledge, may so be met as to conserve
all vital Christian truth, adjust our religion to
present-day knowledge, and enable us so to
teach the Bible to our youth as to save them the
strain of violent readjustments in religious think
ing and develop in them Christlike purpose and
character. The book attempts to approach the
subject helpfully and treat it constructively. It
is intended to suggest a point of view and method
for further study.
The substance of these chapters was first given
to my church people in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
and was then published through the kindness and
generosity of the Men's Club.
They have now been thoroughly revised and
considerable new material has been added, espe
cially the major portion of the chapter on "The
Question of Authority."
The writer has borrowed suggestions from two
very helpful books: "God's Message to the
Human Soul," by the late John Watson of Eng
land, and "The Use of the Scripture in The
ology," by the late W. N. Clarke of Colgate.
These and "The New Appreciation of the Bible,"
by Selleck, will be found specially helpful to
those who wish to carry further this line of
study. F. M. s.

CONTENTS
Page
I The Problem and How to
Approach It 1
II The Rescue of Essential
Christianity . . . 15
III The Question of Authority 27
IV Finding and Teaching the
Positive Values . . 41

I. THE PROBLEM AND HOW TO
APPROACH IT
1 Thess. 5:21, "Prove all things; holdfast that which is
good."
The world in which we live is vastly different
from that of our fathers. It is not that the
world has changed, but that our information re
garding it has increased. The horizons of human
knowledge have been pushed back amazingly.
This increase in knowledge has greatly modified
our views of the world and of life.
In most spheres of activity account has been
taken of this new information. Its meaning for
certain portions of our lives has been thought
out along constructive lines and our programs
modified accordingly.
Among considerable groups of people the bear
ing of this new data upon the interpretation of
our Bible and our religion has been duly con
sidered, but the great majority of people have
given scant attention to it.
We would not consider our youth fitted to meet
the demands of present-day life if they were
trained in schools which took no account of this
new knowledge. Yet we permit many of our
young people to go from the home and the church
into the college or out into the world with little
or no knowledge of the bearing of this new data
upon the Bible and religion. When they discover
that the interpretation of religion which has been
[I]

THE PROBLEM
given them takes no account of well known and
easily available facts their faith may be subjected
to serious strain. In that case they must either
turn from the most fully attested and widely
accepted facts or go through a painful process of
readjusting their religious thinking. Some who
have been taught that the Bible must be inerrant
in all points or untrustworthy in any, that it all
stands or falls together, are in danger of taking
their former teachers at their word and throwing
the Bible and religion over altogether, in case
they find data incompatible with that view.
Others, feeling that the facts tend to lessen the
old type of authority and not having been shown
the greater and truer authority, gradually become.
indifferent. Still others cling to the old interpre
tation of religion but keep it separate from all
their other thinking and are likely to be in con
stant fear lest it be undermined.
Unless parents, Bible and religious teachers
reinterpret the Bible and religion for the young
sympathetically and helpfully in the light of pres
ent-day knowledge, they are in danger of getting
these facts through people out of sympathy with
religion, who use the data to destroy the old
rather than to build something better.
Parents are in danger of misunderstanding
their young people, of thinking that they are
receiving dangerous teaching, and of trying to
force upon them their own interpretations of the
[2]

THE PROBLEM
Bible and religion. Young people may misun
derstand their parents, or find their interpreta
tions inadequate, and think them behind the
times. If we identify our particular interpre
tation of the Bible and religion with the Bible
and religion themselves, the young may come to
feel that since they can no longer accept the par
ticular interpretation they must reject the Bible
and religion also.
One reason many of our young people are not
given an interpretation of religion in harmony
with modern data is, that large numbers of
parents and Sunday-school teachers, who no
longer hold the former view of the Bible, have
never been shown how to teach it constructively
in the new way. Thus there is likely to be less
Bible teaching in the home and the teaching in
the Church School is too often from the old in
adequate viewpoint.
This situation is also the cause of much mis
understanding and criticism between colleges and
universities on the one hand and some parents
and churches on the other. The schools must be
true to the facts, which facts necessitate a rein-
terpretation of the Bible and religion. Thus
parents and churches which identify the Bible
and religion with their own interpretations of
these are likely to think the schools irreligious
and deliberately aiming to undermine religion.
Parents and churches have not always appre-
[31

THE PROBLEM
ciated the difficult task they create for the schools,
and the schools have too often failed to appreciate
the vital interests involved and so have not been
as sympathetic, constructive and helpful as they
ought. It is much easier to break down old in
terpretations than it is to build up new and better
ones. Most of our effort should be given to the
latter task.
If parents and churches continue to teach to
their young views of the Bible and religion which
take no account of what is common and fully
accepted knowledge in the schools, they must not
be surprised when their youth go through the
most severe religious crises, if they become
estranged from the former interpretations and
possibly from religion itself. We should not sub
ject our young people to this unnecessary strain
and the church should give parents such definite
assistance that they and the church may enable
the young to avoid the danger. On the other
hand leaders and teachers whose emphasis is
primarily negative and destructive are subject to
just criticism from all concerned.
Not only is this situation perilous to our youth
and the cause of serious misunderstandings but
those of us who should know the better way and
be teaching it to the young are not making such
use of our Bible as we should. Some people
are gradually and of necessity being loosed from
former positions ; the old motives, sanctions and
[41

THE PROBLEM
authorities are becoming less potent, and they
have not yet arrived at the new position and
found the more compelling motive. This makes
it easy for them to drift away from positive re
ligion. Some would still keep their Bible and
religion from the test which the new data brings.
Thus they have a kind of hothouse faith, un-
suited to all kinds of outdoor weather. It dare
not stand in the open of the intellectual arena,
and cannot command the respect of thinking men.
Others, infatuated with the new and having
scant sense of religious and life values, are in
danger of using the modern data too largely to
destroy the old rather than to construct some
thing better. Some ministers take it for granted
that their people know the new view and hence
are not showing them how, definitely, to teach it
to others. Some attempt to avoid the issue
through silence, and use religious terms which
mean one thing to the conservative and quite an
other to the person with more modern outlook.
Such playing with truth stultifies the soul, de
stroys the prophetic spirit, leads to misunder
standings, and does nothing to solve a problem
which sorely needs attention. Other ministers,
feeling that they must be true to their light, speak
out, but failing to show their people how they
may conserve all that is vital, find some people
unwilling to follow; or, expecting their people
to move much more rapidly than they themselves
[51

THE PROBLEM
moved, go so fast that the people cannot keep up.
And then there are some people who would not
keep up if they could. The present situation also
makes it increasingly difficult for the minister to
use his Bible discriminatingly, without being mis
understood ; makes it difficult to secure a common
Biblical background for teaching in the Church
School, and leaves many parents without the
necessary knowledge to make the Bible again a
fully usable book in the home.
Such conditions should not continue. They
call for careful, fearless, constructive handling.
We must be honest and true to light; anything
else is suicidal.
The most important factor in securing this
new world knowledge is the scientific method.
This method simply means that interpretations
and conclusions should rest upon the actual facts,
so far as these are obtainable. Many conclusions
formerly held, not resting upon facts, were in
danger of being overturned by this method.
But ordinary human nature is not pleased to find
that long-held and stoutly defended conclusions
are indefensible. Thus we are likely to hold to
the conclusions and oppose the method which
reveals facts tending to undermine them. The
result was that the appearance of this method
stirred up a warfare of prejudice. The method
was opposed in all realms of thought, but the
opposition was naturally most severe in the field
[6]

THE PROBLEM
of religion. The battle has been long and fierce,
frequently revealing more heat than light, but is
now, happily, well-nigh over.
The method was right and is here to stay. It
has so completely won its way as to be accepted
today by all thoroughly open-minded seekers after
truth. We understand now that there never was
any real conflict between science and religion,
that truth is a unity, and that what is true in one
realm cannot be untrue in another.
By the use of this method, archeology, con
temporaneous history and literature, textual and
historical study, and comparative religions have
supplied volumes of data bearing upon our Bible
and its interpretation. All up-to-date colleges,
universities, theological seminaries, and ministers
are now acquainted with and take account of this
data. The result is a greatly modified view of
the Bible in these circles. This data has come to
the churches much more slowly, thus leaving con
siderable room for misunderstanding between
those who are most, and those who are least, ac
quainted with it and makes the situations
indicated above.
But people say, "Cannot we be Christian and
hold the old view?" Certainly. "Then," they
reply, "why disturb them?" The answer is, that
the facts, which wide-awake, thoughtful people
constantly meet are the disturbing influence. It
is our purpose to help those thus disturbed to
[71

THE PROBLEM
realize that they may frankly accept all newly
discovered truth and not have the vital elements
of Christian faith disturbed at all thereby.
If you will pardon a personal word, permit me
to say that I went to the seminary a literalist,
believing every word in the Bible. That unwar
ranted view cost me many a sleepless night, and
made the process of readjustment exceeding
painful. But by letting some things wait, and
keeping on with determination to find the way
through, the new day came, with a better, more
helpful Bible, and with a far more fundamental
faith. Like many others, had the former view
been, as some say, the only view there is, I must
have become an unbeliever. But no one who fully
knows the new, cares to or could go back to the
old; for the new is better.
Two incidents from Mr. Moody's life may be
helpful to some. The famous evangelist was a
much bigger man than his own theology. Being
at New Haven when George Adam Smith was
delivering his lectures on Modern Criticism and
the Preaching of the Old Testament, he went to
hear some of them. Mr. Smith was wholly mod
ern in his viewpoint, but Mr. Moody nevertheless
invited him to Northfield, presumably on the
ground that the students who gathered there in
conference must meet this modern data and Mr.
Moody preferred that they get it from a con
structive expert.
[8]

THE PROBLEM
After the great campaign in Scotland, Mr.
Moody invited Mr. Drummond to Northfield.
This was violently opposed by some who con
sidered Mr. Drummond unorthodox. But Mr.
Moody, knowing how remarkably Mr. Drum
mond had been used in preaching to students in
Edinburgh, insisted that Drummond come, and
brought him to Northfield, where he proved of
great service to the students, in large measure
because of his modern outlook. Thus did Mr.
Moody stand for men with modern views, when
convinced that they had a message.
But why do so many people oppose the open-
minded, scientific study of the Bible ? Remember
that to be scientific one must take account of all
the data. This means that we must take account
of the spirit that is back of and in the Bible,
otherwise we omit important data and our con
clusions will be warped. Dr. Fisher of Yale was
right when he said, "We cannot fully understand
the apostles' theology until we possess more of
their religious experience." Scientific study of
moral and spiritual facts and values means suf
ficient moral and spiritual experience to give that
sympathetic approach, apart from which the facts
can neither be fully discerned nor adequately
appreciated. Is there opposition to the scientific method of
Bible study because people do not want the truth?
Surely that cannot be. There are four main
[9]

THE PROBLEM
reasons. First, religion has to do with the deep
est and most precious interests of their lives.
They feel that all the higher meanings and values
are at stake. Some who have taught the new or
been primarily concerned with destroying the old,
have had no adequate conception of these sacred
interests and so have failed to conserve them.
Second, false views of the Bible and religion
cause many to feel that the change of view de
stroys the Bible and religion. They have mis
takenly bound up these most precious things with
certain inadequate or false theories about them.
Third, there is the constitutional opposition to
change of any kind. Once established in a way
of thinking, they dislike breaking up the founda
tions and battling their way to truer and
more adequate conceptions. Fourth, and per
haps most serious of all, fear and opposition
indicate a lack of faith in God, in truth, in
humanity, — a kind of unbelief of a fundamental
nature. The following convictions would free people
from fear that religion may be destroyed by
changed views of the Bible, would lessen their
opposition, and cause them to welcome all truth
with reference to the Book. Careful thought
makes it perfectly clear that religion made the
Bible, and not the Bible religion, that religion
was before theology or interpretations of re
ligion, that inspiration was before any theory of
[10]

THE PROBLEM
inspiration, that "man is incurably religious," that
people were saved before the Bible was written
or before they knew about the Bible (Abraham
and Cornelius being conspicuous examples),
that salvation is not obedience to an inerrant,
external rule, but the possession of a new inner
spirit, a change of ruling purpose, an achievement
of godlike character, moral fellowship with God,
realized through seeing what God is as revealed
in Jesus Christ, by turning from sin, and by giv
ing our lives to him in trust and obedience. All
parts of the Bible are not necessary to salvation
and salvation is in no way dependent upon an in
fallible book. It is well to realize that all views
of the Bible and of religion which are now held
are but men's interpretations, made in the light
of such truth as they possessed, and that we are
in duty bound to reinterpret in the light of our
larger truth. The past should be treated as a
guide-post, not a hitching-post. Readjustment
cannot be made in a moment ; time is necessary,
and it is well to remember that the Bible corrects
itself if we but let it. In the light of these con
victions, people may come to the Bible without
fear and freely seek all possible light regarding it.
We have been unnecessarily frightened. The
message and redemption of Christianity are not
easily lost or destroyed. We could be Christians
without the book of Genesis, the book of Num
bers, without the entire Old Testament, yes, with
[«]

THE PROBLEM
only the gospel of Mark or of John. Our Chris
tianity would be immeasurably impoverished, but
we could know the essential spirit, message and
character of God, as Christ revealed these, could
turn from sin and come to God in trust and
obedience. Think for a moment how many
things, which have been considered as absolutely
essential to Christianity and over which there has
been hot controversy, are wholly left out if we
had but one of these Gospels. And yet we could
be Christians.
We have not been fair with this matchless
Book. We came to it with a theory, which we
did not get from the Bible, and then tried to
crush the Book into the theory. It is the theory
of inspiration. Is the Bible inspired? Is the
Koran inspired? The Bible nowhere claims to
be wholly inspired; the Koran does make this
claim. How shall we tell ? There is but one
test; the height, the depth, the power, the ade
quacy of the spirit, the truth, the revelation found
therein. To be wholly accurate, we should speak
and think of men as inspired; we should not so
speak of a book. The theory has been that God
dictated what is in the Bible to passive men, who
wrote it down. Think of trying to account for
the Twenty-Third Psalm or the Epistle to Phile
mon by such a method. According to this theory
everything in the Bible is literal fact; therefore

THE PROBLEM
the earth is only about six thousand years old;
it is flat, and is the center of the universe. The
Bible must be infallible in geology, astronomy,
biology and history. As a matter of fact, inspira
tion has nothing to do with any of these. In
spiration is in the realm of religion, morals and
character. Here is a man who, through years
of clean living, spiritual growth and singleness
of purpose, has developed a sensitiveness to the
spiritual, the divine, and possesses a peculiar in
sight into things moral and religious; does he
thereby know any more about geology, astron
omy, biology or historical data? Not a particle.
The Bible is primarily a book of religion, a
book of life, a story of redemption. It has his
tory, literature, and reflects the science of its
time, but the distinctive thing is its religious in
terpretation and use of all these. Not geology,
even though Genesis has an account of creation,
which was a common Semitic tradition, but the
religious interpretation of creation; not litera
ture, though it has all kinds and some of the best,
for great literature has its source in that which
produces great lives ; not ethics, though its ethics
are the loftiest known — religion is its theme;
it has to do with God and man and the life which
follows from right relations between them. It
is a story of God's effort to redeem man by bring
ing him into fellowship with himself. This is
primary ; all else is secondary. This is the great-
[13]

THE PROBLEM
est religious and moral book of the world. Re
demption and character are its supreme interests.
It should be judged in the light of its purpose.
We lay upon it a burden which it is not able to
bear and which it was never intended to bear,
when we try to make it authority in fields outside
the scope of its purpose. Its lawmakers still
legislate for the world in our day; its psalmists
sing of every possible religious experience; its
prophets were seers of the first rank, statesmen
of the highest order, whose messages are vital in
every generation ; its Saviour is the supreme rev
elation of our Father; but the paramount interest
of all these is religious.
In its essential message, this Book is of
most vital importance to our day. The Roman
gave us law, the Greek art, literature, philosophy ;
the Hebrew, the commanding religious geniuses
of the world. Among them the God-conscious
ness rose to its highest point and they gave the
world its universal religion. That religion we
find in this Book, which is an exhaustless mine
of religious and moral truth, concretely illus
trated in the life and history of this people, whose
one passion was to know God and walk in his
ways. We need have no fear for this Book or
for the religion it reveals, so long as we do not
ask it to bear witness in spheres alien to its pur
pose, and so long as we judge the Book in the
light of its own best standards.
[14]

II. THE RESCUE OF ESSENTIAL
CHRISTIANITY
John 4:24. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him
must worship in spirit and truth."
If religion made the Bible instead of the Bible
making religion, then the Bible is founded in
the fact of religion, not religion in the fact
of the Bible, much less in some particular theory
about the Book. Religion rests in God and in
the essentially religious nature of man, and the
existence of these produced our Bible.
If Christianity is a new life, based on the one
fundamental principle of love or good-will to
God and man, if it is following Jesus Christ in
the committal of our lives to God in trust and
obedience, rather than conformity to external
rules and laws, then it makes no difference
whether or not our Bible is infallible, and we
may come to it freely, seeking the whole truth
about it.
If inspiration is in the realm of morals and has
to do with spiritual things, then we should expect
the Bible to reflect the geology, astronomy, biol
ogy, and accepted historical data of its time, and
not feel that the Book is one whit less valuable
religiously because it is not modern in these
respects.
[151

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
We should keep in mind, also, the oriental and
Hebrew point of view. The Hebrew thought of
everything that came to pass as direct from God ;
there were no second causes. If men's hearts
were hardened, God did it and aimed to do it.
If man came to a conclusion about religion, about
God, he would say, "God said unto me," or "the
word of God came unto me." We shall not un
derstand these people unless we keep this in mind.
Further, there is a difference between what is
vital for us in religion and what belongs only to
the history of religion. The Bible has what is
permanent and vital today, but it also has much
which had to do with the development of this
religion toward these permanent elements, but
which now belongs purely to the history of re
ligion. Just as the Missouri Compromise and the
Dred Scott Decision belong to the history of the
anti-slavery movement, but are superseded by
the amendment to the constitution, which abol
ished slavery, so, much that belongs to the de
velopment of this religion is superseded by the
final product. The Missouri Compromise and the
Dred Scott Decision are interesting as history but
are superseded as legislative or judicial enact
ments. Again, we may well remember that there is a
difference between fact and truth. Just as a
parable or fiction may teach the most profound
truth, so, much in the Bible which may not be
[16]

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
fact, may yet teach truth, as, for example, the
Garden of Eden story. Also, much of our Old
Testament was written hundreds of years after
the events it is supposed to describe. The account
of the sun standing still in the book of Joshua is
a poetic statement taken from the book of Jashar.
But this book of Jashar was not written, at the
earliest, until after the death of Saul and Jona
than; for the account of their death in the first
chapter of Second Samuel was also quoted from
the book of Jashar. This is but one of many in
dications of recent date. Keeping these things
in mind will help us to understand much that
otherwise would be exceedingly difficult.
The view of the Bible which we are consider
ing rescues essential Christianity. Christianity
has a message to humanity, a great task to per
form, a redemption to realize, a kingdom of God
to establish. The task is so great and so well
worth while that Christianity should be freed
from all unnecessary incumbrances, stripped to
what is vital and essential. We must set real
Christianity free so she can do her work in the
world. Now the Bible is the story of Hebrew and early
Christian Religion, with Jesus , Christ and his
revelation as the supreme achievement. We are
accustomed to speak of Jesus Christ as the su
preme revelation. Do we understand the sig
nificance of such a remark? Do we realize that
[I7l

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
by inference we say that what went before was
not supreme? If we only get the full revelation
in Jesus Christ, then what went before was only
partial. Jesus himself goes~ further and insists that the
former was not only partial but, in some par
ticulars, wrong. Turn to the Sermon on the
Mount and hear him saying, "Ye have heard that
it was said" thus and so, "but I say differently."
And the things he repudiated and replaced were
not from the ceremonial law, but from the law
of Moses governing the relations between man
and man. Jesus replaced the old standard with a
new spirit and a new way of life. He criticized,
selected from and repudiated some of his Bible,
the Old Testament. He tells his hearers that
some things which they thought God commanded,
he did not command at all.
We find this same freedom of criticism within
the Old Testament itself. The liberty Jesus took
was taken/ by prophets before him. We have
thought that God commanded the Old Testament
sacrifices, and our theories of atonement have
been largely influenced thereby. But did God
command sacrifices? Read what some of the
prophets say. "What unto me is the multitude
of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had
enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the
fat of fed beasts ; and I delight not in the blood
of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats." (Isaiah

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
1:11.) Read the following verses and also
chapter 66 : 1-6. "I spake not unto your fathers,
nor commanded them in the day that I brought
them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-
offerings or sacrifices." (Jeremiah 7:22.)
"Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and
bow myself before the high God? shall I come
before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a
year old ? will Jehovah be pleased with thousands
of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ; and
what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly
with thy God?" (Micah 6:6-8.) "For I desire
goodness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge
of God more than burnt-offerings." (Hosea
6:6.) The fortieth Psalm and the sixth
verse has this to say, "Sacrifice and offering thou
hast no delight in ; mine ears hast thou opened ;
Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not re
quired." That is what some Old Testament
writers thought of the sacrificial system. Pos
sibly prophets had no objection to sacrifices, so
long as they did not become a substitute for right
living; but when they became such a substitute,
as is always the tendency, then they were a curse.
Keep in mind that this is what Jesus and the
prophets say about certain Bible teachings.
[19]

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
If Jesus' revelation was superior to what went
before, and we want to be Christians, we must
take our stand with Christ and judge all things
in the Bible by what was universal and permanent
in his teaching. And unconsciously we have all
been doing just this to a certain extent, though
not carrying it far enough. Take the Bible of
any person who loves the Book and goes to it
for comfort, inspiration, strength and guidance,
and you will find that certain portions are worn,
showing much use, while other portions are un
worn, showing little use. None of us go to some
books of the Bible very much. Our own need,
our common sense tell us that portions of scrip
ture have no value for us, so far as vital, present-
day religion is concerned. We may go to these
portions for the history of religion, or some may
go to them just because they are in the Bible, but
they do not feed us. All of us treat portions of
both Old and New Testaments as if they were
superseded and not binding. The theories we
are developing are but the reasons for doing what
all of us have been doing. Common sense and
our own need make us all Biblical critics, though
some of us do not recognize ourselves as such.
Taking our stand with Jesus, then, let us look
further at our Bible. Here is Jesus saying, "God
is a Spirit ; and they that worship him must wor
ship in spirit and truth." And John says, "No
man hath seen God at any time." Then the an-
[20]

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
thropomorphic representations of God in the Old
Testament must not be taken literally, but only
as pictorial efforts to express the sense of his
presence in concrete, tangible form. "God is a
Spirit" and must be worshiped, not in this moun
tain alone, nor yet in Jerusalem, but anywhere
and everywhere, so it be in spirit and in truth.
Then the efforts to centralize all worship at Jeru
salem, which were given as God's command, were
contrary to Jesus' idea and teaching.
"God is love," and loves even enemies, and bids
us love our enemies, if we would be his sons;
then the hatred of enemies, so often approved in
the Old Testament, was not taught of God, and
we cannot think of God as sanctioning, to say
nothing of commanding, the extermination of all
the Canaanites. The imprecatory Psalms are the
expression of human passion and not of God's
will. Contrary to the idea of separation expressed
through the Holy of Holies in the temple, con
trary to the whole pharisaic attitude, which held
that God kept aloof from sinners, Jesus held that
this God of love actually seeks sinners, that God's
attitude does not need to be changed for God and
man to come together in reconciliation, but that
man's attitude is what needs to be changed.
Therefore the entire idea of God's separate-
ness, of sacrifices as appeasing God, or of
Christ as being sacrificed to satisfy, something
[21]

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
in God, is unchristian. Jesus taught that God
felt toward the sinful as he himself felt, and
comes forth to "seek and to save that which was
lost." Nowhere does he suggest that man must
win God's favor or avert his wrath by propitia
tory sacrifices. On the contrary, he made men
know that God sought them out with all the
yearning of a Father's love.
Jesus held, and so did Paul, that all moral law
is fulfilled in one word, love. Love to God and
man, actually living to secure their good, is the
one guiding principle of the Christian life. There
fore all Bible teaching, its history, its parables, its
laws, and all the experiences it records are valu
able so far as they truly show how this love
should act under varying circumstances. Jesus'
whole life and teaching were just one marvelous
illustration of this principle as it works out in life.
While Paul's religion was the religion of Jesus,
inner, free, vital, comprehended in the one prin
ciple of love, there is considerable in Paul's teach
ing which is not vital today and belongs only to
the history of religion. Some of his arguments,
used with the Jews, and which started from their
premise, in order that he might carry them with
him, have little weight with us. His theology
and his metaphysics were affected by his pharisaic
antecedents and training, from which he could
not wholly free himself. Some other portions of
[22]

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
his teaching had to do with conditions and social
customs which are now obsolete, making this part
of the teaching of no value to us.
It should also be frankly recognized that Jesus,
speaking in the language of his time, seemed to
sanction some things, such as demonology, which
we now interpret differently. It is also clear that
our Gospels, as we now possess them, have con
siderable portions attempting to interpret Jesus'
teaching and person. There is also some that is
transient, belonging to the expectation and out
look of the time, as well as that which is per
manent and universal.
Christianity has had to carry a great load of
nonchristian material all these centuries. This
has retarded her progress and offered her enemies
points of attack. Infidels, like Ingersoll, attacked
the lower conceptions of God and his commands
as found, primarily, in the Old Testament, and
for years the Church felt bound to defend these
conceptions. Taking our stand with Jesus, and
viewing the Bible in the truer way, that is no
longer necessary. Instead of defending them,
we very readily grant their inadequacy and, in
cases, their incorrectness.
Revelation is progressive; there is a develop
ment from a lower to a higher plane. Thinking
that the God of Jesus Christ was actually repre
sented in all the words and deeds attributed to
[23]

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
him throughout the Old Testament, came near
making the Old Testament a millstone about the
neck of Christianity. The reason European na
tions can do some things they are doing in the
name of religion is because their God is the tribal
God and the God of battles as indicated in some
parts of the Old Testament, rather than the God
whom Jesus revealed. Clarke well says, "We
read in the Old Testament the history of religion.
We find realistic pictures of ethical and religious
life all along the way, and see how men thought
of God from stage to stage of their advancing
life. We are not required to think that he was
rightly pictured on this page or that. We are
required instead to exercise our moral judgment
all the way."
This point of view makes the Bible much less
difficult to interpret and teach, for it gives us
an intelligent principle by which to guide our
sense that some things are superseded, that the
God whom Jesus revealed could not possibly
sanction or command many things which are
attributed to him.
It took more than fifteen hundred years of
Hebrew life, during which the great passion of
this people was to know God and do his will, to
prepare the way and make possible the supreme
revelation in Jesus Christ. In our Old Testament
we have the story of that search for God, with
[24]

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
some mistaken and inadequate ideas as to God's
character and will for his people. But their
search for God made it possible for him to speak
to them, to work in and through them all along
the way, and finally through them to give the
world its best religion. By distinguishing the
permanent gift of Christ from all else, the Chris
tian gift will shine more brightly, work more
powerfully, and the remainder will be judged
more truly. Christianity will thus be rescued
from a dangerous bondage and will be freed to
build the Kingdom of God in the earth.
If this view of the Bible disturbs the faith of
some, the reason is probably that their faith has
been in the Bible rather than in God, who is the
real object and foundation of faith. But some
one replies, "What do we know of God except
through the Bible ?" Yes, and what do we know
of chemistry except through the laboratory, or
of the star except through the telescope? But
the laboratory is not chemistry nor the telescope
the star; they are the instruments through which
we know chemistry and the star. Now the Bible
is our instrument, our laboratory, our telescope,
and God is what we seek. Do you not think it
worth while to improve and fully understand our
laboratory equipment and our telescope? The
central thing is that we keep faith in God. And
to keep faith in God in this modern world it is
[25]

ESSENTIAL CHRISTIANITY
necessary to have the best and truest view of him
which our instrument affords, rather than the
more imperfect view of the dim past. This
truest view is the one Jesus gives us. He gives
us essential Christianity, rescued from hindering
incumbrances.

I26]

III. THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
John 8: 32. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free."
By judging the Bible in the light of what is
fundamental and permanent in the teaching of
Jesus, there is discovered considerable that is
provincial, temporary, and inadequate in the con
ception of God and of his will for man. This is
specially true of portions of the Old Testament..
There is much that belongs to the history of this
growing religion, but has little significance for
our day. The Bible itself furnishes the standards
which compel this conclusion.
Viewing the Bible thus, the question naturally
arises, What is left? If so much is superseded,
does anything abide? and if so, what? The an
swer is very clear; everything is left. All that
ever was vital and true and of value in really
redeeming man abides. Truth is eternal. Views
of the Bible cannot change it. We have made
nothing untrue which ever was true; but our
added light helps us better to see what was true
and what was not true.
To those who fear that this view of the Bible
destroys authority in general or the authority of
the Bible in particular, we must reply that just
[27]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
the opposite is true; it places authority on a
firmer foundation. It is just because we are
unwilling to trust our lives to or be satisfied with
anything short of the most complete authority
that we insist on following Jesus in his rejection
of the inadequate teaching found in some por
tions of the Old Testament. It is not less au
thority that we seek but more and truer. The
meaning of religion for our lives is so significant,
the interests at stake are so important, that we
should be satisfied with nothing short of the best.
It is for such reasons as these that those who
know the facts are unwilling to trust these sacred
interests to teachings based upon a theory of the
Bible not supported by the evidence. The simple
facts make it impossible for any one who will
face them to believe in the verbal infallibility of
the Bible.
Lyman Abbott well says in his book, "My Four
Anchors" : "An infallible book would mean, first,
that Jehovah communicated the truth to the
writers and that the writers were able infallibly
to understand it; next, that they were able in
fallibly to utter it ; next, that their utterance was
infallibly preserved through all the changes of
the ages ; next, that it was infallibly translated by
infallible translators; and, finally, and hardest
of all to understand, is that you and I infallibly
comprehend it."
In the New Testament there are approximately
[28]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
one hundred references to the Old Testament
which are not exact quotations. Matt. 27:9
quotes a prophecy from Zechariah as being from
Jeremiah. The genealogies in Matthew and Luke
do not agree. The inscription over the cross is
different in each of the four Gospels. The Ser
mon on the Mount in Matthew and Luke is not
the same. In the Old Testament the account of
David buying the threshing floor from Araunah
the Jebusite is different as given in 2 Sam. 24:
18-25, from the account in 1 Chron. 21 : 18-27.
The price paid in one place is fifty shekels of sil
ver ; in the other it is six hundred shekels of gold.
These are but samples of variations and dis
crepancies which simply put verbal infallibility
out of the question.
Many of the Old Testament teachings and ac
counts were handed down by word of mouth
from generation to generation. At last they were
written down, often more than one man writing
an account of the same things. In several cases
two or three and sometimes more of these ac
counts were .combined by some author. Except
that these accounts often differed more widely,
the result is much the same as it would be if an
author attempted to combine our four Gospels
into one account, which was actually done in
Tatian's "Diatessoron." If you wish to study a
good example of two interwoven accounts, read
the story of the flood in the sixth and seventh
[29]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
chapters of Genesis. Note that in chapter 6 : 19,
20, Noah is commanded to take two of every beast,
bird and living thing into the Ark, while in chap
ter 7:2, 3, he is commanded to take seven male
and seven female of every clean beast, also seven
each of the birds of the heavens.
But why should we wish an infallible book?
Since we believe with Jesus that redemption is
a matter of new inner life rather than obedience
to an external rule, since not the letter of the law
but its spirit is all-important, an infallible exter
nal letter, even if we had it, would be of little
value. But some one says, "If you reject one thing in
the Bible as not authoritative, where will you
draw the line and where stop ?" The first answer
is that we will keep all which according to the
best light we can get and the truest spirit within
us carries with it the note of conviction and
appeals, to us as true. The second answer is to
ask the questioner where he is going to stop?
Have you ever found a person who accepts and
tries to live literally by all that is in the Bible?
For example, do you accept Paul's teaching
that women should keep silence in the churches,
that they should always keep the head covered?
Do you wash one another's feet? Do you accept
the Old Testament teaching that any who pick
up sticks with which to build a fire on the Sab
bath should be stoned ? That according to cer-
[30]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
tain Psalms we should hate certain people with
"perfect hatred"? If all the Bible is of equal
authority, why do you not hold to the polygamy
countenanced in the Old Testament instead of to
the New Testament standard? Is it not a legiti
mate question, Where are you going to stop?
But you ask, "Who is to be the judge ?" It is
clear that each must judge for himself after seek
ing all possible help and light.
This raises the question as to the seat of au
thority, which is, after all, the crux of the whole
problem. Is it in the Bible, the Church, in any ex
ternal thing or is it within each individual ? The
immediate question is not what is authoritative
but who is to determine and how we are to de
termine what has authority.
Suppose you went to people who had never
heard of Jesus, the Bible, or the Church, and told
them that they must accept the authority of one
of these or of all three. Would you expect them
to do so without asking any questions or search
ing for reasons why they should accept them as
authority? If they did they would either be
credulous or ignorant. If you expect them to
accept your suggestions, you expect to give them
reasons for so doing. But to what or to whom
are your reasons to appeal? They must appeal
to the judgment of each individual. Each must
test them by such abilities for testing truth as he
possesses. If your reasons for his accepting
[3i]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
Jesus, the Bible or the Church appeal to his judg
ment sufficiently he will accept them. In short,
our moral agency implies that we must use our
powers to determine what we will permit to enter
our lives and have authority over us. If we do
not do that we are not moral beings at all.
Thus we find that the place where all authority
for us is to be tested is within ourselves. If we
say that we will let this or that person or the
Church or any other agency decide our questions
for us, then that simply means that the person
or the institution make the appeal to us and be
cause we judge them capable we give them the
right to decide for us. If we did not have strong
evidence, which appealed to us as adequate, we
would be wholly unwarranted in trusting their
judgment. The final test and responsibility and
judgment are with ourselves. If we refuse to
decide these questions for ourselves, we cannot
escape the equally great responsibility of decid
ing to let some other person or persons or insti
tution decide for us. We must pass upon the
questions directly or indirectly.
Some think we should accept the consensus of
opinion, the judgment of the majority, as our
authority. Do you realize that such a view would
have made Martin Luther and all Protestantism
impossible ?
Others think the Bible should be our final
authority. I have already pointed out that the
[32]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
Bible must make its appeal to us and we must
judge of its right to rule us. We must now take
a further step and ask, Whose interpretation of
the Bible should be authoritative? If you say
the Church, then you must have tested the Church
adequately and judged it as having full ability to
decide for you. And again, what Church? If
the Roman Catholic, then remember there would
have been no Protestantism. If you say any
other church, then, if it goes wrong, you have no
remedy. If Jesus had accepted the authority of
the Jewish Church, there would have been no
Christianity. If you say the interpretation of the Holy
Spirit, it must be said that equally good men,
who are equally sure they are led by the Spirit,
come to very different conclusions. The fine
thing about it is that they may thus differ and
still both be equally Christian. No, we simply
cannot escape the responsibility of making the
decision for ourselves, either directly or by choos
ing whom or what is to decide for us.
Truth is our final authority and we must be
the judges of what is true or of the abilities and
adequacy of those who are to decide for us. In
either case the final test of authority is within
ourselves. In deciding what or who is true, we should
take account of all obt^ia^te^evideo^weighing
it as best we may, se^T^gMIa^e^aieSpirit

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
I of Truth and then make our decision, revising it
I from time to time as we get more light.
In matters religious and ethical Jesus may well
be considered our final authority. His essential
teaching has been proved in the lives of untold
millions. He is the truth as to God's redemptive
purpose, as to what is our right relation to God
and the right attitude to fellow man.
Applied to the Bible this means that such por
tions as appeal to us as true, which grip our lives
and help us, should be given place in our lives.
This does not mean that only what we judge to
be true is actually true. We may be mistaken;
many things may be true and ought to be authori
tative for us to which we have never responded.
But it does mean that somewhere along the line
we pass judgment and are responsible for decid
ing. That we are responsible for our decision need
cause us little concern if we earnestly desire the
truth. The really important things are few in
number, usually simple, and make their own direct
and strong appeal. The two great commandments,
the Golden Rule, faith in God as Father and in
Jesus as Master and Saviour, and the kind of
spirit and purpose Jesus wished us to possess,
these are not difficult to discern.
Most of us have little opportunity to become
expert Biblical students, acquainted with the de
tailed results of scholarship. Fortunately this is
[34]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
not at all necessary. What we need is to be
simple, natural and honest in our approach and
in the use of such material as we have time to
consider. We are not called upon to explain all
difficulties. The best of us must frankly say
regarding many things, I do not know. In the
light of Jesus' spirit and teaching it is not difficult
to select the most important religious and moral
teachings in the Old and New Testaments.
It would help us so much in this entire matter
if we only realized that Christianity is primarily
an experience rather than an explanation, a way
of life rather than a theory about life. We have
habitually said that "salvation is by faith," which
is quite correct. But when some one substitutes
for faith the word belief, meaning by this our
theories about God and life, then it is all wrong.
A man may believe everything about God and
Christ and be a scoundrel. But faith that saves,
though it must have enough conviction about
God and Christ to come to them, must have as its
primary factor that trust which means the actual
committal of the life to God and Christ.
It may be illustrated as follows: suppose we
come to the border of a beautiful lake and desire
to get across. There is an old, rather dilapidated
boat at hand. We hesitate to commit our lives
to such a craft. The owner explains to us that
it is safe and succeeds in fully convincing us.
That is belief. But the boat cannot take us across
[35]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
unless we get in, unless we actually commit our
lives to it. When we do that it shows trust or
faith. So God can only save us when we commit
our lives to him through Christ for forgiveness,
new life and guidance.
When we thus think of Christianity as a com
mitment of life, as a way in which to live, it is
easy to discover this way of life in our New
Testament and we will be little disturbed by vary
ing interpretations.
Therefore it need not concern us that there
is much in the Bible which is provincial and
temporary, if there is also that which is universal
and eternal. And that is exactly the fact. There
is that which is universal, eternal, ultimate in
the Bible, as well as that which is provincial and
temporary. Both elements are found in both
Testaments. There is enough in the Old Testa
ment that is eternally true about- God and life to
enable any who really wish to find the true God
to do so. The two great commandments and the
Golden Rule are in the Old Testament. But that
true God is more adequately revealed and much
more easily found in the New Testament,
Some may question whether essential Chris
tianity is ultimate in its revelation of God's char
acter and purpose and in its individual and social
ideal. Without hesitation it may be said that for
this life there, is nothing above and beyond Jesus'
revelation of the Father and his ideal for human-
[36]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
ity. His conception of God as Spirit, as love,
as Father, as friend, as Saviour has nothing be
yond it, whether we consider his teaching or the
manifestation of his Father in his own work and
life. He lifted religion out of all national, racial
and ecclesiastical limitations and made it uni
versal. When Dr. Barrows was puzzled as to
what prayer he should use in opening the Par
liament of Religions, a Hindoo suggested that the
Lord's Prayer was universal in word and spirit.
This talk about going beyond Jesus' ideal for
humanity is utterly without foundation. If there
is anything beyond loving God with all one's
powers and one's neighbor as himself, what is it,
except it be this, "A new commandment I give
unto you, that ye love one another even as I have
loved you." If there is anything beyond being
perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect, if
anything can exalt the worth of human personal
ity more than, "What shall it profit a man if he
gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" if
there is anything beyond the redemptive purpose
and love of God as expressed in Jesus Christ, if
there is anything beyond the determined purpose
to have the will of God done on earth as it is in
heaven, if you have heard of a higher social ideal
than that of the kingdom of God on earth, in
which righteousness, love, brotherhood and the
will of God are to reign, many of us are most
anxious to hear about it.
[37]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
Jesus did not tell us just how this or that
should be done. Had he done so, much of his
teaching would have been provincial and obsolete
as soon as uttered. To the one who said, "Bid
my brother that he divide the inheritance with
me," he replied, "Who made me a judge or a
divider over you? Take heed and beware of
covetousness ; fori a man's life consisteth not in
the abundance of the things which he possesseth."
Instead of deciding disputes, he went back of
them and sought to remove the cause. Had the
brothers not been covetous there would have been
no dispute about the inheritance. Jesus dealt with
fundamental and universal principles; hence his
essential teaching is as true today as it was
when uttered. But for fear some may get the
idea that Jesus was not definite and concrete,
note that his entire life was given to illustrating
how this principle of love operates under various
circumstances. Jesus gave us ultimate religious
teaching, and what is more, he realized this teach
ing in his own life. Jesus brings men into com
plete moral fellowship with God, throwing into
their lives the mightiest redemptive force known
to earth. Renan, who thought of Jesus only as
a man, was compelled to say, "Whatever may be
the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be
surpassed." Do people fear for the authority of the Bible ?
Some of it should not be authoritative. But this
[38]

THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
universal truth, this word of God contained
within the Bible, has full authority. Nothing
can destroy it and no theory of inspiration can
increase it. The voice is that of our Father and
"its authority is beyond the reach of criticism
as the soul is beyond the reach of physical analy
sis." It is not dependent upon the accuracy
of manuscripts. It finds us, as it has the right
to find us, in our deepest depths and stands by
its own self-evident truthfulness. Whatever we
may think about the Christ, the best that we
know of God, of man, and the way of life come
from him. What he was, God is ; in him we have
seen the Father.

[39]

IV. FINDING AND TEACHING THE
POSITIVE VALUES
Is. 40:8. "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the
word of our God shall stand forever."
This view of the Bible helps us to find its real
message. When the lower may be judged and
interpreted in the light of the higher, the Bible
becomes the supreme book for the redemption
and religious education of the race. It has a
surpassing variety and wealth of material. There
is history, legend, law, folklore, drama, tragedy,
poetry, philosophy, proverb, sermon, epistle, par
able and historical romance.
"This book has been unjustly attacked, and
foolishly defended." To the outsider it may
seem to lack unity. Instead of systematically
discussing human nature and need, it plunges us
into the sea of human existence. It is a book of
life, where every human experience is portrayed,
every type of humanity moves across the stage;
it is not a museum where dead things are classi
fied and in order. It is the most human of books,
and for that reason most divine.
A paraphrase of two pages from John Wat
son's book, "God's Message to the Human Soul,"
will help to bring this out. "The reader is
plunged into an ocean of human details" : The
[41]

THE POSITIVE VALUES
love affairs of man and maid ; quarrels and recon
ciliations between brothers ; bargains in business ;
feuds between rival tribes, with raids and cap
tures; the choice of kings and their anointing;
the evil doing of kings and their assassination;
the orations of statesmen as they warn and com
fort their nation; the adroit arrangements of ec
clesiastics ; the collision of parties in the Christian
Church ; radiant records of chivalrous deeds ; the
black story of acts of treachery; the romance of
unselfish friendship and the blind enmity of re
ligious bigotry; the career of the successful man
and the unmerited suffering of the martyr; the
devotion of mother to child, and the jealousy of
women fighting for the same man's love ; the idyll
of childhood, the strength of young manhood,
the mellow wisdom of old age; nomads of the
desert, dwellers in the city; prophets and sages,
ploughmen and vinedressers, soldiers and traders,
rich men and beggars, holy matrons and women
who are sinners ; patriarchs with huge herds and
apostles empty-handed, priests offering sacrifice
and publicans collecting their gains — all these,
and manifold more, appear in unarranged and
natural procession. How artless and yet how
fascinating ! The whole comedy and tragedy of
life are here; it is a more glorious Homer, and
a more enticing Scott; it is a larger and more
vivid Shakespeare.
[42]

THE POSITIVE VALUES
But is this just an unarranged mass of mate
rial without a unifying thread? Not at all. There
is reason for this entirely and unreservedly
human portrayal. The story of the patriarchs is
not recorded because they were successful stock
farmers, but because they were pioneers in the
quest of the soul for God. Joseph's victory over
temptation and his attainment of splendid char
acter, rather than his success, immortalize him.
Moses' career was a romance, but his sterling
points are his choice of the unseen above the
seen and his identification of himself with the
suffering people of God. The prophets were
statesmen and forceful writers, but spiritual
vision and fellowship with the eternal give them
their permanent worth. The psalmists were poets
of high rank, but they seized the heart of human
ity because they sang the epic of the soul. "As
you travel down Old Testament history you may ,/
find yourself in strange byways, but sooner or
later you are brought face to face with God.
Righteousness is what the writers demand and
God is the one person they ever seek. There is
upward progress ; from the valley the path climbs
the hillside until it reaches the finer air of the
gospel uplands. The details of the book are only y
the body; the living soul of the book is religion,
the fellowship of man with God." "One purpose
governs and illuminates, invigorates and glorifies
[43l

fi

THE POSITIVE VALUES
the Bible, and that purpose is spiritual. It is the
supreme book of religion."
Would that we knew how to use and teach this
Book! It is in the interest of larger, more in
telligent use that these pages are written. A finer
collection of pedagogical material for teaching
religion and morals cannot be found. Here we
see action, good and bad, bringing forth its logical
results. There is some chaff, but there is far more
wheat, and the wheat may become for us and
for our children the very bread of life.
What are some of the vital and permanent
values in these pages? What is left of the crea
tion story, if it is not accurate geology? What
is left? All is left; the priority and primacy of
God. That is all that ever was there. "In the
beginning God created." Since God is there
guaranteeing meaning in creation, what need we
care as to just how or when ? "Let us make man
in our own image." Man the offspring of God,
by nature akin to God ; that fact guarantees our
high possibilities and eternal destiny.
The Garden of Eden story may be allegorical,
but it is a true interpretation of the way in which
temptation and sin attack the individual and the
race. What matters it that we cannot find that
particular garden, since every one can identify the
experience in his own life, thus making all lands
gardens of Eden?
Abraham, that forerunner of the Pilgrim
[44]

THE POSITIVE VALUES
Fathers, generous, courageous, faithful, right
eous, seeking a new home under the call of God,
stands out so majestically in the midst of his dim
antiquity that he has deservedly become "the
father of the faithful." Isaac and Rebekah are
splendid examples of what divided counsel be
tween parents will do in troubling a family. For
genuine love and devotion, Jacob serving seven
years for Rachel, which "seemed to him but a
few days, for the love he had to her," is a beauti
ful illustration. Had we come upon the story
of Joseph in booklet form for the first time, it
would fascinate us by its plot, rivet our attention
by its rapidity of action, and lift our ideals by its
revelation of lofty character. To this day its
moral message is undimmed. It is most valuable
religious education material.
Where in history will you find more splendid
unselfishness than in Moses, who left the side of
Pharaoh to become the champion and leader of
a horde of slaves? or truer mark of leadership
than when he identifies himself with his rebellious
people and asks God, in case he cannot save
Israel, to blot him out with his own people ? The
Ten Commandments are as true and binding as
they ever were. To be sure, a person who has
the love of God in his heart does not need them,
but that does not make it any less true that a
man should not steal. The book of the covenant,
the heart of the Mosaic legislation, has ideals of
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national cooperation and well-being, which put
many of our own to shame. "Thou shalt love thy
neighbor ais thyself" is but one of the many
splendid teachings from the Holiness Code in the
book of Leviticus. And "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy might" is found in the book
of Deuteronomy. There is the transient here^ but
also the permanent; there is the provincial, but
also the universal.
In all literature there is not a more beautiful
pastoral than the story of Ruth who, leaving
kindred and native land in her love for Naomi,
insists, "Whither thou goest, I will go ; and where
thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be
my people, and thy God my God; where thou
diest, will I die, and there will I be buried."
Where will you find a choicer elegy than David's
lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan,
where he forgets Saul's attempts upon his own
life, and sings, "Saul and Jonathan were lovely
and pleasant in their lives, and in their death
they were not divided" ? So long as friend shall
value friendship, and unselfish comradeship shall
be esteemed, the friendship between Jonathan
and David will lift our souls toward the sublim-
est human relationships. So long as we immor
talize deeds of valor in songs of praise, so long
as youth shall aspire to patriotic and heroic en-
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deavor, the story of David and Goliath will thrill
the hearts of our young.
The problem, why do the righteous suffer, has
never received more dramatic treatment than in
the book of Job. The Psalms cover every range
of human life, express every type of religious
sentiment, and reach from deepest sin and dark
est human passion to divinest ideals and sub-
limest trust. For the fruit of righteousness read
the first and fifteenth psalms; for confidence in
God the great good Shepherd, adequate to every
deepest human need, read the twenty-third;
for God as the refuge and undergirding power of
the soul, read the ninetieth and ninety-first; for
thanksgiving the one hundredth; for God's all-
searching omnipresence the one hundred thirty-
ninth. But the prophets are the superlative religious
teachers of the Old Testament. Here we do not
listen to pale-faced ascetics, hidden away from
the world, not to men who permit religion to be
separated from life, but to statesmen of the first
rank, strong, virile men, standing in the midst
of their nation's political, social, and religious
life, daring to speak for God, to kings, princes,
priests and people.
Isaiah scorns their religious ceremonies and
sacrifices, demanding that they "seek justice, re
lieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead
for the widow." "What mean ye that ye
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crush my people, and grind the faces of the
poor?" "Woe unto them that join house to
house, that lay field to field, till there be no room,
and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of
the land !" Here is a man with a social as well
as an individual message. God's ideal is of a
king, reigning in righteousness, princes ruling in
justice, and of man as a hiding-place from the
wind and a covert from the tempest. The second
Isaiah, a prophet of the exile, is the spiritual guide
of his captive people, sublime in his thought of
God working his will among the nations, tender
as the love of a mother, when he pictures God as
feeding his flock like a shepherd, gathering the
lambs in his arms, carrying them in his bosom
and gently leading those that have their young.
With penetrating vision, he sees that God's re
demption cannot be wrought by the nation as a
whole, nor even by a considerable remnant, but
finally by the suffering servant, portrayed in the
fifty-third chapter, and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
He calls his people to break every yoke, to let
the oppressed go free, and finally sees the Spirit
of God upon one who shall bring "good tidings
to the poor, bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound."
Amos, with God's indignant righteousness
burning in his pure soul, turns from his sycomore
trees, and calls those who have "sold the right-
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eous for silver, and the needy for a pair of
shoes," that crush the poor, that oppress the
needy, that are at ease in Zion, that are not
grieved for the affliction of Joseph — calls them
to prepare to meet God, who will set a plumb-line
in Israel ; calls them to "hate the evil and love the
good, and establish justice in the gate."
Hosea, prophet of God's tender and unfailing
love, with an evangel winsome as the gospel,
exposes his people's sin, sees them unfaithful as
a wife who has become a harlot, yet woos them
back from their degradation by telling them of
God's care for them : "When Israel was a child,
then I loved him. I taught Ephraim to walk ; I
took them on my arms ; but they knew not that
I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man,
with bands of love. How shall I give thee up,
Ephraim? how shall I let thee go, Israel? My
heart is turned within me, my compassions are
kindled together; for I am God, and not man."
Jeremiah, prophet of the bleeding heart, bur-
deqed with his people's sin, yet sees the day when
God shall write his law, no longer on tables of
stone but in their hearts.
Micah, prophet of the poor, has a message
which burns through his people's individual and
social sin like a consuming fire. He cuts away
their pretensions, rejects their burnt offerings,
and brings them face to face with God, whose
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sole requirement is that they "do justly, love
kindness and walk humbly with God."
The New Testament is inestimably rich in its
view of God and man, and incomparable in the
personality that irradiates it all. There is some
alloy even here, but there is pure gold in abun
dance. The Sermon on the Mount stands alone in
the religious and moral world. The parables of
our Lord are unequaled as instruments for re
ligious teaching. Epistles expand, interpret, and
adjust the Christian message to the need of grow
ing churches. And the writer of most of them
has found the answer to Job's question, why do
the righteous suffer, in that power through which
we can make all things work together for good.
In this New Testament we find essential Chris
tianity, "not Christianity as a deposit of truth,
but as seed for the bearing of more and more
abundant harvests."
The mask was never torn from the face of sin
with more unerring accuracy, and the veil was
never so completely lifted from the face of the
God whose supreme purpose is to bear away
the sin of the world, at whatever cost. The skil
ful surgeon's knife is applied to cut away the
last vestige of cancerous sin, and the healing love
of God is oil and wine to wounded and bleeding
lives. The clouds are recognized, but these clouds
are shot through with rays of light and drenched
with golden glory. There are lives broken by sin,
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but this evangel causes the "note of joy to break
even from the bruised reed." The greatest thing
here is not the ultimate moral ideal, it is the per
sonality which lifts us up to realize the ideal.
Through it all and back of it all, there is a life
which in its daily walk, even more than in its
teaching, reveals the character and redemptive
purpose of God as we have never seen them be
fore or since. In him, we see what God is, what
God means, and what is God's purpose of love
toward man. Jesus Christ is the master of life,
and the master of death. He holds the secret
of the ages. Into our lives, while we live, he
throws the dynamic of God's sacrificial love ; and
when the shadows lengthen, when our sun of life
is setting, he lifts the rainbow of immortal hope
before our eyes, to cheer us on the lonely pil
grimage. If you ask how this race developed such re
ligious genius as to give the world its universal
religion, it may be said that they did it in the
most natural manner ; for inspiration and revela
tion are subject to the laws of daily life. God
early led them to the conviction that religion is
fundamental to adequate living. Therefore they
made it their vocation to find God; they hun
gered and thirsted for him; they talked of him
as they lay down at night, when they rose up in
the morning, as they gathered for the breaking
of bread and as they journeyed by the way. They
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developed spiritual insight and sensitiveness,
making it possible for God to impart ; they opened
the windows of their souls toward God, and the
Father, who above all things seeks just such
opportunity, let in the light. The process is no
different today. God still waits for us to develop
the soul life that can hear, the spiritual insight
that can see. This takes generations and can only
come through the cooperation of the family.
When we cease teaching religion to our children,
when we cease making it a matter of supreme
family concern, when we substitute for the
Lord's Day, with its church life, its high religious
thought and holy aspiration, the week end, with
its emphasis upon pleasure, visiting and sight
seeing, the lamp of religion will begin to grow
dim ; there will be no certain hearing of the voice
of God; we will develop no Beecher or Brooks;
for we have turned from the fountain of living
waters to broken cisterns which can hold no
water ; we have forsaken the springs from which
alone cometh the water of life.
This modern Bible, with certain portions ex
alted above other portions, because of their su
preme worth, is no longer, as Curtis tells us, a
"mechanical record of doctrines and forced divine
manifestations; it is a book of genuine, historic
life, an epic of salvation, showing the living
process of God's revelation through Israel." And
the most fundamentally important thing in life
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is to know the secret of this book, the secret of
Him who, in Palestine, lifted religion out of all
national, racial, and sectarian limitations, -and
made it such oneness of life with our Cod and
Father that we treat our fellow men here and
now as God treats them.

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