CHAPTER XXI.
"People imagine that the place which the Bible holds in the world it owes to miracles. It owes it simply to the fact that it came out of a profounder depth of thought than any other book."--_Emerson._
"MARLOW, September ----.
"Dear husband: The first thing I heard when I went into the class to-daywas Mrs. Dawn telling how she had treated a severe belief of headachelast evening and how marvelously soon the terrible pain ceased. She wasquite rejoiced because it was the first time she had tried todemonstrate the principles.
"They all have plenty to tell now, and are growing more and moreinterested. Every day somebody has some new experience. Little Mrs.Dexter, who has been so long treated by the old method, says she fullybelieves she will be cured, is feeling much better, and has such anassurance all the time that she has found the true healing. She has hadseveral quite remarkable demonstrations with others.
"The whole line of argument is unfolding so naturally and beautifullythat it seems like a piece of fine mosaic, with every form and colorinterwoven with the most exquisite exactness. Mrs. Pearl gave us alecture on inspiration and the Bible, which I consider one of the mostuseful and interesting of any she has yet given:
"In studying the very fountain springs of Truth, and basing our ideasupon a God who is the unexpressed and inexpressible essence of Truthitself, with whom is 'no respect of persons,' and to whom we owe _all_knowledge, it becomes us to inquire a little into the manner and meansof gaining that knowledge.
"That all peoples in all climes and ages have developed similar ideasand expressed them in like terms, as philology shows, is an indisputablefact, strengthened and corroborated by our broader conception and higherunderstanding of God, the omnipresent Good.
"But how have these ideas come to them? Have they come through what isknown as inspiration or revelation? As the one fountain of Intelligenceis open to all alike, this must be the case, because Truth comes only inthis way. Inspiration means an 'inbreathing,' a breathing in of trueknowledge, and because the omnipresent Good comes into everyconsciousness prepared to receive it, there is an inbreathing inaccordance with the readiness to receive. Intelligence is like the air,to be breathed by every living being. Thus far, humanity has expandedits lungs of consciousness only enough to have inhaled fundamentaltruth, or what is recognized as such, but we are constantly receivingmore, and in proportion as we receive, do we know what we receive.
"All truth is inspired or revealed, because whatever is true is of thegreat Truth. This must be so, yet many people consider inspiration asconfined to the authors of the Bible and that with them, inspirationceased. The immortal Job said, 'There is a spirit in man and theinspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.' The inbreathingof the Almighty, All-powerful Truth, giveth understanding. No truerwords were ever uttered.
"As inspiration is inhaling or breathing in Truth, we can readilyunderstand that 'God, Truth, Principle, is no respecter of persons.'That it is a 'miraculous influence which qualifies man to receive andcommunicate divine truth,' is in a sense true, for the works of God arealways 'wonderful,' but there can be no setting aside of divine law, assome erroneously suppose, for the performance of these things that seemunaccountable to human reason. It is a lack of understanding as to _how_Truth works, that has caused a belief in supernatural or miraculousways. Could a fish judge according to appearances, he would regard thecreatures that walk on land as gifted with supernatural power, becauseit would be utterly beyond his conception to know _how_ they could doso.
"Revelation and inspiration are frequently used interchangeably, butthat which is revealed, is the manifested result of inspiration ratherthan inspiration itself. Whenever we are ready to breathe or absorbTruth into our consciousness, we get a revealment--'inspiration givethunderstanding.' This breathing-in process lifts us above ordinaryknowledge and gives refreshing glimpses of heavenly Truth, it is likebreathing in fresh air, after having been in a close suffocating room.We say this or that scene, person or object inspires us; we mean thatsome beautiful thought or conception of Truth is revealed to us, throughor by our seeing these objects, because they hint of something betterand higher, and the moment we get the higher thought, we are consciousof knowing higher Truth. This is revelation.
"Revelation and inspiration are the usual terms for expressing spiritualprocesses but are necessarily inadequate to express accurate spiritualmeanings. How ideas are born is a question of questions. Whether theycome from without or within, they must establish the oneness of God andman in mind and idea. The only 'without' there can be is that which iswithout the consciousness, the only 'within' is that which is within theconsciousness. Development, growth, unfoldment, better express spiritualconsciousness. What is consciousness but a recognition of itself? Thenwould not 'recognition' more fully describe the birth of ideas? As wegrow able to recognize harmony and love, harmony and love are revealedto us.
"The more spiritual our thoughts and desires, the more spiritual ourrevelations. To think and talk of God, to desire knowledge of Him,creates a receptivity which sooner or later brings the revealment ofmore truth, and that of the highest quality. But it is not always bywhat we see that we are lifted into this consciousness of new knowledge.In various ways is the Truth expressed to us, and whether we know how orwhy it should be thus and so, matters not if we receive the message.
"The wisdom of our Father has provided that none of His children shouldbe without a knowledge of Him, without a power to recognize andappreciate Truth, and in the way or language best suited to thecapacity of each to understand, are the revelations made. Sometimes thisknowledge comes into our consciousness like a direct message from God,and so vividly are we impressed, that no other words could express thenearness and clearness of it, than the expression 'walking and talkingwith God.' Sometimes wonderful pictures appear before our mind's eye,and reading their symbolic meaning, we catch hints of higher wisdom thatwould otherwise have been hidden.
"By persistently ignoring the spiritual and cultivating the intellectualfaculties, mankind has well nigh lost the highest means of inspiration,but now that we again, like the prophets and apostles of old, seek forsigns of the Infinite, we are gradually recovering the key by which theyunlocked its mysteries.
"As to the infallibility of what is thus revealed, we must remember thatwhile truth is always infallible, there is a possibility of itsrecognition or conception being tinged to a greater or less degree, withour erroneous judgements, and as the light, pure in itself, is coloredby the glass through which it passes, so is the divinest truth coloredwith the quality of mind through which it comes to the world. As HeberNewton says, 'Inspiration can not do away with the limitations of thehuman individuality.' Thus, in our discrimination of so-called inspiredliterature, language or thoughts, we must learn that whatever isopposite God, the universal idea of goodness, is the chaff that must beblown away. In other words it is the assumption of mortal thoughtinstead of absolute knowledge of divine mind.
"It would be an utter impossibility to describe infinite truth in finitelanguage. Words are inadequate to express the grandeur of sacredrevelation.
"With this view of inspiration, we can readily see how far short we havecome in our conceptions of the Bible, and now that we are to use andunderstand this wonderful book as never before, it is well that weconsider it a little more closely.
"There are three general views held in regard to the Bible as aninspired book. 1. That it is verbally inspired; _i. e._, that every wordis direct from God. 2. That it is partially inspired; and, 3. That it isno more inspired than any other good book. The first two of these viewshave been and are accompanied with the idea that everything going underthe name of inspiration, is infallible, hence the idea that everystatement made throughout the entire book is absolute truth.
"The Bible itself makes no claim to infallibility, though there arefrequent references to inspiration and the influence of the Holy Ghostin moving men to speak, but the principal text on which
is based thisclaim of infallibility is II. Tim. iii: 16. At the time this waswritten, there was only the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, thatcould be referred to as Scripture, so when we read Paul's assertionthat, 'all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitablefor doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction inrighteousness,' if we take it to be infallible, we have a reasonableground for regarding the Old Testament and the Apocrypha as infallible.But a more literal rendering of the Greek text would be, 'all scripturedivinely inspired is indeed profitable for teaching, for conviction, forcorrection,' etc., and by simply changing the position of the littleword _is_, we have a vastly different sentence.
"Regarding the interpretation of scripture, Peter says: 'All prophecy ofscripture is not of its own solution.' The literal Greek is, 'allprophecy of a writing, of its own loosing not it is,' meaning, ofcourse, that sacred writings can not always be interpreted literally,but must be understood according to their spiritual meaning. Greatwritings are not confined to any private or local meaning, but refermore especially to great principles, to universal truth.
"If we consider the origin of the Bible, we shall learn whatcomparatively few of us know, viz., how the Bible grew into a book. In anecessarily brief outline it is impossible to give anything but abird's-eye view of this very interesting and important subject.
"As we look back to earlier times, through the various channels, we findthat much of what is considered history is merely legendary; that longbefore the art of writing was known, these legends and myths were handeddown from generation to generation, and from age to age. Familiar as weare with human nature, we may well imagine the additions andsubtractions and divergencies introduced by each succeeding narrator,copyist or editor in every age. This is a very important feature to beconsidered in interpreting ancient scriptures, but there are alsoothers. History reveals the fact that the books of the Old Testamentwere not written nor arranged in the order in which they now appear inthe Bible. For instance, while it has been generally considered that thefirst five books were written by Moses fifteen hundred years beforeChrist, the best authorities have found at least a portion of them tohave been written, or compiled rather, in their present form 600 to 700B. C.
"Whether Moses or some one else wrote them detracts not the least fromthe value of the truth they contain, for whatever is true, can not loseits value or be effected by the authorship. This is only one of the manyfacts that might be produced to show that the Old Testament came in themost natural way, and not at all through a miracle or by miraculousinterposition.
"Referring again to the best records we have, we find the books of theNew Testament were written from 50 to 175 A. D., thus showing theliability to mistakes, and the reason for many of the discrepencies inthe New Testament. That the time between the writing of the oldest andthe latest parts of the Bible covered a period of more than a thousandyears, should have much significance in our judgment of both the writersand their writings.
"Dr. Heber Newton says: 'We are not to read the Biblical writers asthough they were all cotemporaries. They are separated by vast tracts oftime. The later writers stand upon the shoulders of their predecessorsand see farther and clearer. We are not to view the institutions ordoctrines of the Bible as though no matter in what period of developmentof the Hebrew Nation, or of the Christian Church they were found, theywere equally authoritative to us.'
"Though the prophets and apostles were inspired, we must remember thatthey necessarily had to use the language and methods of speech prevalentin their time in giving their divinest revelations to the people. Thelanguage was rich with Oriental imagery, strong figures of speech, andallusions to manners and customs of other nations. Unless we understandsomething of the literature and customs, the religious ceremonies andlaws alluded to, we are very much in the dark as to the originalmeaning.
"For instance, unless we know the custom that prevailed in ancient timesof putting the sins of the people, figuratively speaking, into a whitecloth, dipping the cloth into blood, tying it to the horns of thescapegoat, and turning the animal loose in the wilderness till the sun,air and rain had bleached it white, we can not appreciate theexpression, 'though thy sins be as scarlet, yet shall they be washedwhite as snow.' Until we realize that the ideas and language as well asthe customs and rites of barbarous and ignorant heathendom influenceevery page of the Bible, we shall not know how much allowance to makefor the revelations of the Divine, and the suppositions and possiblemistakes of the human. Until we know that the Bible has gone throughmany hands since its words were first spoken or written, we can notrealize the possible loss of its most spiritual meanings.
"Moses, Isaiah, David, John, Paul had the grandest revelations possibleto man, experiences not 'lawful to utter,' not possible to clothe inwords. The unspeakable can not be put into speech. To attempt it is tocolor it with finite meanings. To describe the Infinite is but to limitor confine God.
"When we consider that no very ancient writings have reached us withoutthe marks of many pens; when we consider the impossibility of exacttranslation, the difficulty of perfect copying all the years before theart of printing, the method of canonizing the books and formulatingcreeds, we must know that something besides God's message has come downto us. And yet a message is there notwithstanding.
"Yes, the authors of the Bible were inspired. Whatever of Truth theyrevealed is infallible, but as men with finite conceptions andabilities, they could not comprehend nor reveal _all_ of God.
"'God is the same yesterday, to-day and forever,' and talks to man faceto face to-day even as with the immortal Moses.
"'I know that the Bible is inspired, because it finds me at greaterdepths of my being than any other book,' said Coleridge.
"All candid students of sacred Scriptures agree that there is aspiritual meaning back of the literal. The question with us is, how canwe get at this spiritual or esoteric interpretation.
"If you will let the spirit of Truth guide you, it will bless you withkeener discernment, and clearer understanding, than has been possiblefor you heretofore. It is when you look for the spirit of religion thatyou find it and understand it, and the fact that so much has been saidagainst our Bible as a book, does not and can not detract a particlefrom its value.
"'There is a light that lighteth every man!' Every one of God's childrenhas the power to distinguish truth from error, and only needs to assertthat divine privilege of knowing and acknowledging truth in order to tofind it.
"Humanity is so under the yoke of traditional opinions that it has notdared think for itself, but the time has come when 'ye shall ofyourselves know what is truth,' when each must prove his individualliberty by claiming it. Is not the wisdom to know and understand God'srevelations given to every one who asks, or rather appreciates what healready has?
"There is no reason for depending upon any but the wisdom in ourselves,for searching the meanings of any Scripture. Whatever is true, we shallunderstand and hold as infallible. That we have a rich storehouse ofprecious gems, even the most adverse thinkers admit, and above all elsewe should search for them, prize them, and use them. Study the Bible forthe sake of its wonderful and sacred truth, catch the inspiration of itswriters, and you will soon discriminate the inspired from theuninspired. With the statements of the true is necessarily more or lesserror; the Truth we want, the falsity we leave behind. Whatever is goodand pure and ennobling is of God; whatever is evil, erroneous,degrading, is from man's misconception of Him.
"Goethe, who highly valued the Bible, said: 'With reference to things inthe Bible, the question whether they are genuine or spurious is oddenough. What is genuine but that which is truly excellent, which standsin harmony with the purest nature and reason, and which even nowministers to our higher development? What is spurious but the absurd andthe hollow which brings no fruit.'
"If you do not understand, wait. Do not judge hastily or allow yourselfto be biased by the opinions of others. What may seem hard, unreasonabledogma, may later prove but a veil ove
r the sweetest, spiritual truth.Reverence to read, patience to learn, wisdom to understand--all these wewant, and then, more brightly than before shall shine the sacreddiamonds that stud inspired pages.
"We refer again to what Dr. Newton says in his grand essay on the RightCritical use of the Bible: 'Successive generations of men, strugglingwith sin, striving for purity, searching after God, have exhaled theirspirits into the essence of religion, which is treasured in this costlyvase.
"'The moral forces of centuries devoted to righteousness are stored inthis exhaustless reservoir of ethical energy. At such cost, my brothers,has Humanity issued this sacred book. From such patience of preparationhas Providence laid this priceless gift before you. In such labor ofarticulation--spelling out the syllables of the message from on high,through multitudinous lives of men dutifully and devoutly walking withtheir God, does the Spirit speak to you, O, soul of man. Say thou:'Speak, Lord; thy servant heareth!'"
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"Thank God, Marion has at last found the key to the Bible," murmured Mr.Hayden, as he finished the letter.
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