CRITICISMS OF THE BIBLE.
By L. A. Reed
NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that the criticising spirit blinds the mind of its possessor, there are multitudes who indulge in it. Their work is proof positive of man’s littleness when dealing with the things of eternity. Who can turn a straight furrow through the universe? It is a long way, but there are many who attempt to plow through; and it is not necessary to give the furrow much of a look in order to detect its crookedness. For ages the Bible has been criticised. “Foes and pretended friends have been at it. It was buried in the tomb of the dead languages for centuries, and sealed with a seal, and a watch set. But the stone was rolled away, and it came forth in the glorious speech of the men of to-day. Then the vastest army on the earth was sent to hunt, pursue, and find every copy that had escaped, and burn it. But its ashes were like the blood of the martyrs. Men established a substitute for its teachings, and decreed that one man should be infallible in its place. But it would not be retired.” It came forth “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” What is our attitude toward the Word? It is settled that we must have something to do with it. It is here, and in one way and another will have to do with us. As one has said, “You may ignore the tariff, but the customhouse officer will not ignore you when you come into port.” We may seek all the years of our lives to ignore that sacred Word, but in the Judgment day at least, we shall find it dealing with us. “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” In judging, men always erect their own standards. Thereby they have made significant mistakes. Now a test for one thing is no test whatever for another. In testing for an acid, the chemist uses blue litmus; but in testing for the truth of a proposition, of what use is red or blue litmus? With my eyes I judge a painting, and with my ears the symphony of the pianist. Closing my eyes, and feeling with my fingers, I cannot know the marvelous coloring of a painter’s masterpiece. Closing my eyes, no man can convince me by any of my other senses that the rose is red: the touch will not do it, the rose is soft and delicate; hearing will not do it, the rose gives forth no sound; smell will not do it, though the flower is sweet with fragrance; argument will not do it, for argument gives no comprehension of color. Only an eye can sense and know color, for color is an appeal to the eye. And so I shall not be able to find truth or God by searchings with the telescope; for truth and God appeal to human hearts and minds, and not to telescopes. Nevertheless La Place said, “In my heaven I find no God;” and Lalande wrote, “I have peered through the heavens for sixty years, and have never seen Him yet.” Ages ago God anticipated this mistake of men, and counseled us not to make it: “Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven (that is, to bring Christ down from above)? or, Who shall descend into the deep (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)? But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart.” “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” What a mistake men make in seeking God with eyes, or ears, or touch, or ill-constructed logic, when God is not thus apprehended; He is revealed to the heart and the conscience through a self-surrendered life. The eyes are not for hearing, but for seeing. Eyes cannot taste, eyes have no sense of touch. And eyes and ears and fingers are all in vain in the final approach into the presence of God. Eyes and ears and fingers have their proper places even in a search for God, but their use is well known, and should not be misdirected. God tells us how to secure truth and eternal salvation; it is not by eyes or ears or fingers or telescopes, but by the simple act of faith. And if we disuse and misuse our power to know and apprehend God, the power will eventually be forfeited. Even Darwin, the mightiest agnostic and skeptic of them all, admits the possible death, through disuse, of the mental organs. But this law of the disuse of the mind is not exceptional; it applies as well to every other power and capacity of our being. To use and train our faculties is to develop them. To neglect and abuse them is to lose them. A miser may be so engrossed in his horrible, insatiable appetite of hoarding, that every high emotion of his soul, love of home, wife, child, heaven and God, utterly perish. Even so, they who do not desire to retain God in their knowledge, are given over to a reprobate mind, to do those heathenish things which forever are not convenient. Therefore, let us remember always that there are those who will criticise the ways and word of God. Huxley’s standard by which he tested the universe was the unchangeable, and to him unalterable, dogma that “there is no supernatural.” Tried by this rule, he found all miracles are fictions, the mighty deeds of faith are myths, and Jesus Christ an impostor. Such judgment as this is partisan and unfair. Men erect a standard of their own, and by it prove that the very foundations of eternity are out of place. But let us remember that a test for one thing may be no test for another thing, and some things erected as standards are not fit as a test for anything. Men may attempt to judge the Word by their systems of philosophy; but philosophy is something or nothing according as it is the truth. Therefore, being itself tested by truth, how can it be a test for truth? Men may try the Word by their ideas of science, but their ideas of science are meager and often contradictory, while true science and the Word forever agree. We may think that man’s wisdom is great, and his mind greater; but faith is infinitely greater than they all. For, with eyes we see, with ears we hear, with hands we touch and handle, with feet we walk, with minds we think; but “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that BELIEVE.”