_ 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-day was Mrs. Dawn telling how she had treated a severe belief of headache last evening and how marvelously soon the terrible pain ceased. She was quite rejoiced because it was the first time she had tried to demonstrate the principles.
"They all have plenty to tell now, and are growing more and more interested. Every day somebody has some new experience. Little Mrs. Dexter, who has been so long treated by the old method, says she fully believes she will be cured, is feeling much better, and has such an assurance all the time that she has found the true healing. She has had several quite remarkable demonstrations with others.
"The whole line of argument is unfolding so naturally and beautifully that it seems like a piece of fine mosaic, with every form and color interwoven with the most exquisite exactness. Mrs. Pearl gave us a lecture on inspiration and the Bible, which I consider one of the most useful and interesting of any she has yet given:
"In studying the very fountain springs of Truth, and basing our ideas upon a God who is the unexpressed and inexpressible essence of Truth itself, 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 means of gaining that knowledge.
"That all peoples in all climes and ages have developed similar ideas and expressed them in like terms, as philology shows, is an indisputable fact, strengthened and corroborated by our broader conception and higher understanding of God, the omnipresent Good.
"But how have these ideas come to them? Have they come through what is known as inspiration or revelation? As the one fountain of Intelligence is open to all alike, this must be the case, because Truth comes only in this way. Inspiration means an 'inbreathing,' a breathing in of true knowledge, and because the omnipresent Good comes into every consciousness prepared to receive it, there is an inbreathing in accordance with the readiness to receive. Intelligence is like the air, to be breathed by every living being. Thus far, humanity has expanded its lungs of consciousness only enough to have inhaled fundamental truth, or what is recognized as such, but we are constantly receiving more, and in proportion as we receive, do we know what we receive.
"All truth is inspired or revealed, because whatever is true is of the great Truth. This must be so, yet many people consider inspiration as confined to the authors of the Bible and that with them, inspiration ceased. The immortal Job said, 'There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.' The inbreathing of the Almighty, All-powerful Truth, giveth understanding. No truer words were ever uttered.
"As inspiration is inhaling or breathing in Truth, we can readily understand that 'God, Truth, Principle, is no respecter of persons.' That it is a 'miraculous influence which qualifies man to receive and communicate divine truth,' is in a sense true, for the works of God are always 'wonderful,' but there can be no setting aside of divine law, as some erroneously suppose, for the performance of these things that seem unaccountable to human reason. It is a lack of understanding as to
how Truth works, that has caused a belief in supernatural or miraculous ways. Could a fish judge according to appearances, he would regard the creatures that walk on land as gifted with supernatural power, because it would be utterly beyond his conception to know
how they could do so.
"Revelation and inspiration are frequently used interchangeably, but that which is revealed, is the manifested result of inspiration rather than inspiration itself. Whenever we are ready to breathe or absorb Truth into our consciousness, we get a revealment--'inspiration giveth understanding.' This breathing-in process lifts us above ordinary knowledge and gives refreshing glimpses of heavenly Truth, it is like breathing in fresh air, after having been in a close suffocating room. We say this or that scene, person or object inspires us; we mean that some beautiful thought or conception of Truth is revealed to us, through or by our seeing these objects, because they hint of something better and higher, and the moment we get the higher thought, we are conscious of knowing higher Truth. This is revelation.
"Revelation and inspiration are the usual terms for expressing spiritual processes but are necessarily inadequate to express accurate spiritual meanings. How ideas are born is a question of questions. Whether they come from without or within, they must establish the oneness of God and man in mind and idea. The only 'without' there can be is that which is without the consciousness, the only 'within' is that which is within the consciousness. Development, growth, unfoldment, better express spiritual consciousness. What is consciousness but a recognition of itself? Then would not 'recognition' more fully describe the birth of ideas? As we grow able to recognize harmony and love, harmony and love are revealed to us.
"The more spiritual our thoughts and desires, the more spiritual our revelations. To think and talk of God, to desire knowledge of Him, creates a receptivity which sooner or later brings the revealment of more truth, and that of the highest quality. But it is not always by what 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 or why 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 should be without a knowledge of Him, without a power to recognize and appreciate Truth, and in the way or language best suited to the capacity of each to understand, are the revelations made. Sometimes this knowledge comes into our consciousness like a direct message from God, and so vividly are we impressed, that no other words could express the nearness and clearness of it, than the expression 'walking and talking with God.' Sometimes wonderful pictures appear before our mind's eye, and reading their symbolic meaning, we catch hints of higher wisdom that would otherwise have been hidden.
"By persistently ignoring the spiritual and cultivating the intellectual faculties, mankind has well nigh lost the highest means of inspiration, but now that we again, like the prophets and apostles of old, seek for signs of the Infinite, we are gradually recovering the key by which they unlocked its mysteries.
"As to the infallibility of what is thus revealed, we must remember that while truth is always infallible, there is a possibility of its recognition or conception being tinged to a greater or less degree, with our erroneous judgements, and as the light, pure in itself, is colored by the glass through which it passes, so is the divinest truth colored with the quality of mind through which it comes to the world. As Heber Newton says, 'Inspiration can not do away with the limitations of the human individuality.' Thus, in our discrimination of so-called inspired literature, language or thoughts, we must learn that whatever is opposite God, the universal idea of goodness, is the chaff that must be blown away. In other words it is the assumption of mortal thought instead of absolute knowledge of divine mind.
"It would be an utter impossibility to describe infinite truth in finite language. Words are inadequate to express the grandeur of sacred revelation.
"With this view of inspiration, we can readily see how far short we have come in our conceptions of the Bible, and now that we are to use and understand this wonderful book as never before, it is well that we consider it a little more closely.
"There are three general views held in regard to the Bible as an inspired book. 1. That it is verbally inspired;
i. e., that every word is direct from God. 2. That it is partially inspired; and, 3. That it is no more inspired than any other good book. The first two of these views have been and are accompanied with the idea that everything going under the name of inspiration, is infallible, hence the idea that every statement made throughout the entire book is absolute truth.
"The Bible itself makes no claim to infallibility, though there are frequent references to inspiration and the influence of the Holy Ghost in moving men to speak, but the principal text on which is based this claim of infallibility is II. Tim. iii: 16. At the time this was written, there was only the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, that could be referred to as Scripture, so when we read Paul's assertion that, 'all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,' if we take it to be infallible, we have a reasonable ground for regarding the Old Testament and the Apocrypha as infallible. But a more literal rendering of the Greek text would be, 'all scripture divinely inspired is indeed profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction,' etc., and by simply changing the position of the little word
is, we have a vastly different sentence.
"Regarding the interpretation of scripture, Peter says: 'All prophecy of scripture is not of its own solution.' The literal Greek is, 'all prophecy of a writing, of its own loosing not it is,' meaning, of course, that sacred writings can not always be interpreted literally, but must be understood according to their spiritual meaning. Great writings are not confined to any private or local meaning, but refer more especially to great principles, to universal truth.
"If we consider the origin of the Bible, we shall learn what comparatively few of us know, viz., how the Bible grew into a book. In a necessarily brief outline it is impossible to give anything but a bird's-eye view of this very interesting and important subject.
"As we look back to earlier times, through the various channels, we find that much of what is considered history is merely legendary; that long before the art of writing was known, these legends and myths were handed down from generation to generation, and from age to age. Familiar as we are with human nature, we may well imagine the additions and subtractions and divergencies introduced by each succeeding narrator, copyist or editor in every age. This is a very important feature to be considered in interpreting ancient scriptures, but there are also others. History reveals the fact that the books of the Old Testament were not written nor arranged in the order in which they now appear in the Bible. For instance, while it has been generally considered that the first five books were written by Moses fifteen hundred years before Christ, the best authorities have found at least a portion of them to have been written, or compiled rather, in their present form 600 to 700 B. C.
"Whether Moses or some one else wrote them detracts not the least from the value of the truth they contain, for whatever is true, can not lose its value or be effected by the authorship. This is only one of the many facts that might be produced to show that the Old Testament came in the most natural way, and not at all through a miracle or by miraculous interposition.
"Referring again to the best records we have, we find the books of the New Testament were written from 50 to 175 A. D., thus showing the liability to mistakes, and the reason for many of the discrepencies in the New Testament. That the time between the writing of the oldest and the latest parts of the Bible covered a period of more than a thousand years, should have much significance in our judgment of both the writers and their writings.
"Dr. Heber Newton says: 'We are not to read the Biblical writers as though they were all cotemporaries. They are separated by vast tracts of time. The later writers stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors and see farther and clearer. We are not to view the institutions or doctrines of the Bible as though no matter in what period of development of the Hebrew Nation, or of the Christian Church they were found, they were equally authoritative to us.'
"Though the prophets and apostles were inspired, we must remember that they necessarily had to use the language and methods of speech prevalent in their time in giving their divinest revelations to the people. The language was rich with Oriental imagery, strong figures of speech, and allusions to manners and customs of other nations. Unless we understand something of the literature and customs, the religious ceremonies and laws alluded to, we are very much in the dark as to the original meaning.
"For instance, unless we know the custom that prevailed in ancient times of putting the sins of the people, figuratively speaking, into a white cloth, dipping the cloth into blood, tying it to the horns of the scapegoat, and turning the animal loose in the wilderness till the sun, air and rain had bleached it white, we can not appreciate the expression, 'though thy sins be as scarlet, yet shall they be washed white as snow.' Until we realize that the ideas and language as well as the customs and rites of barbarous and ignorant heathendom influence every page of the Bible, we shall not know how much allowance to make for the revelations of the Divine, and the suppositions and possible mistakes of the human. Until we know that the Bible has gone through many hands since its words were first spoken or written, we can not realize the possible loss of its most spiritual meanings.
"Moses, Isaiah, David, John, Paul had the grandest revelations possible to man, experiences not 'lawful to utter,' not possible to clothe in words. The unspeakable can not be put into speech. To attempt it is to color it with finite meanings. To describe the Infinite is but to limit or confine God.
"When we consider that no very ancient writings have reached us without the marks of many pens; when we consider the impossibility of exact translation, the difficulty of perfect copying all the years before the art of printing, the method of canonizing the books and formulating creeds, we must know that something besides God's message has come down to us. And yet a message is there notwithstanding.
"Yes, the authors of the Bible were inspired. Whatever of Truth they revealed is infallible, but as men with finite conceptions and abilities, they could not comprehend nor reveal
all of God.
"'God is the same yesterday, to-day and forever,' and talks to man face to face to-day even as with the immortal Moses.
"'I know that the Bible is inspired, because it finds me at greater depths of my being than any other book,' said Coleridge.
"All candid students of sacred Scriptures agree that there is a spiritual meaning back of the literal. The question with us is, how can we get at this spiritual or esoteric interpretation.
"If you will let the spirit of Truth guide you, it will bless you with keener discernment, and clearer understanding, than has been possible for you heretofore. It is when you look for the spirit of religion that you find it and understand it, and the fact that so much has been said against our Bible as a book, does not and can not detract a particle from its value.
"'There is a light that lighteth every man!' Every one of God's children has the power to distinguish truth from error, and only needs to assert that divine privilege of knowing and acknowledging truth in order to to find it.
"Humanity is so under the yoke of traditional opinions that it has not dared think for itself, but the time has come when 'ye shall of yourselves know what is truth,' when each must prove his individual liberty by claiming it. Is not the wisdom to know and understand God's revelations given to every one who asks, or rather appreciates what he already 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 shall understand and hold as infallible. That we have a rich storehouse of precious gems, even the most adverse thinkers admit, and above all else we should search for them, prize them, and use them. Study the Bible for the sake of its wonderful and sacred truth, catch the inspiration of its writers, and you will soon discriminate the inspired from the uninspired. With the statements of the true is necessarily more or less error; the Truth we want, the falsity we leave behind. Whatever is good and 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 in the Bible, the question whether they are genuine or spurious is odd enough. What is genuine but that which is truly excellent, which stands in harmony with the purest nature and reason, and which even now ministers to our higher development? What is spurious but the absurd and the hollow which brings no fruit.'
"If you do not understand, wait. Do not judge hastily or allow yourself to be biased by the opinions of others. What may seem hard, unreasonable dogma, may later prove but a veil over the sweetest, spiritual truth. Reverence to read, patience to learn, wisdom to understand--all these we want, and then, more brightly than before shall shine the sacred diamonds that stud inspired pages.
"We refer again to what Dr. Newton says in his grand essay on the Right Critical use of the Bible: 'Successive generations of men, struggling with sin, striving for purity, searching after God, have exhaled their spirits into the essence of religion, which is treasured in this costly vase.
"'The moral forces of centuries devoted to righteousness are stored in this exhaustless reservoir of ethical energy. At such cost, my brothers, has Humanity issued this sacred book. From such patience of preparation has Providence laid this priceless gift before you. In such labor of articulation--spelling out the syllables of the message from on high, through multitudinous lives of men dutifully and devoutly walking with their 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. _