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would want done under just and equitable circum
stances.
This community of interest is a sure cure for
anarchy and wild socialism. Instead of its being im
practicable, it is the salvation of the country. It sim
ply means this: In a given transaction I will weigh
my brother’s rights as I would have him weigh my
rights. I would not allow myself to take any unfair
means with him as I would not have him take any
unfair means with me.
This rule cannot be changecf, and furthermore, it
must be observed if we expect to win followers for
our Master.
Saving Character.
Yonder is a young woman. She has just come to
the city. Unfortunately for her, she has fallen in
with the wrong crowd of associates, and the tongue
of the gossipers has begun to work. The unfortu
nate girl is in ignorance of it all. She comes to
church and goes home and nothing is said to warn
her.
After awhile she is slighted by those who have
formerly been her friends, and, perhaps, sisters in
the church. Her feelings are hurt, and upon in
quiry she finds that her character, as the world
views it, is seriously damaged, if not forever ruined.
This is no fancy picture. It is what is going on
every day, and the sad part of it is, going on in
church circles among church people.
riow different it might have been with the case
in point when the young woman first came to the
city, she should have been received by those who
knew the dangers with motherly arms, and when
she was observed to be associating with the wrong
crowd, she should have been lovingly told of it.
We have got to put ourselves in the other fel
low’s place if we are to cease from falling. We have
got to do unto others as we would have others do
unto us. This is Christian.
I see the same need in the world of affliction.
Yonder is a poor home in which death has come.
It may be the brightest and dearest flower of the
home has been taken. It may be a son upon whom
a widowed mother has been tending. She may be a
member of your church or mine. We have seen her
Sabbath after Sabbath. Together we have sung:
‘‘Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.
We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;"
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.”
Now this sorrow comes. The one with whom we
have sung with such feeling is now in trouble. How
does that trouble affect us? Suppose we put our
selves in her place. Would we be pleased with our
conduct on such an occasion ? Do not think it to
be a light question, the world is watching to see
what we do under such circumstances. It sees us
hand in hand under other circumstances. It
sees us attentive and sympathetic on other oc
casions, and it has a right to expect that we shall
be the same now.
Oh, if we were properly careful at this point!
There is no telling how much more happiness we
would get out of the world and there is no telling'
how much good we would do. Even death under
such circumstances would mean more than life
under others.
The other day I was in South Carolina and talk
ed to a negro who is very much honored and re
spected in his community. He is one of seven boys.
All of them own their own farms. There is a bit
of interesting history back of these farms, however:
Before the civil war, the owner of the father of
these seven boys was challenged to fight a duel.
The old slave heard about it, and knowing that his.
master was a poor shot, went the night before and
killed the man who made the challenge.
Upon investigation it was found that the old
negro did this of his own accord. Os course there
was no way of saving his life, indeed, he never
tried. After slaying the would-be slayer of his
master, he immediately made the confession and
gave himself up to be hanged.
We may abhor crime, and revolt against it all
we may, but the fact that the old negro, by weigh
ing his life and the life of his master in the same
The Golden Age for March 22, 1906.
scales, decided in favor of the one he regarded
most important.
Now for the history of the farms of the seven
boys: When the master died he willed to each of
the old slave’s children a nice little farm. Ev
erybody said he did the right thing. To have done
less would have shown a lack of appreciation of
what had been done for him.
Let us be more considerate of other people. The
world is watching us more at this point than at any
other. Let us try to put ourselves in the other fol
low’s place. It will make us happier and him bet
ter.
What is the Bible?
By Chas. Blanchard, President Wheaton College.
There are three answers to this question. Some
say the Bible is the word of God; others that it
is the word of man; and some say that it is a mix
ture of both. It is obvious that the answer to this
question is of the utmost importance. If God has
given any revelation in language, it is in the Bible.
No one claims that any other so-called sacred book
could be considered its rival for a moment. So far
as the verbal revelation is concerned, it is the Bible
or nothing. There is every reason for supposing
that God would reveal himself to men in words.
No doubt he reveals himself in nature and in his
tory and in the consciences of men, but the knowl
edge derived from these sources is varying and
therefore uncertain. One man sees one thing in
nature and history, another sees another. It is true
that language also is interpreted differently by differ
ent pei sons, but no one would claim that the at-
B * I -W''
tributes of God are as clearly revealed in nature
as in the Bible. Consider a moment: What would
be thought of a father who had children in circum
stances of need or danger who knew his way to
safety and peace, and who did not reveal it to his
■children? No one would claim that he was a wor
thy man, and if an earthly father should reveal
his will to his children, much more should our
heavenly Father reveal his will to us. If there were
:no other argument than this, it would satisfy a
■rational man that somewhere or other there must
(be a word of God spoken to men. When we come to
(examine the book as it stands the reasons for be
lieving it to be that word, are overwhelming. In
tthe first place, it was written by obscure men in an
(obscure nation in the far away beginnings of time.
’.The nation which produced it has never been cele
brated in arts, arms or literature. The Bible may
Ibe called its sole product, yet this book, written
Ibut such men, of such a nation, at such a time has
made conquest of the intellect of the world. Those
who owned and read it were for some fifteen hun
dred years subject to persecution. They were be
headed, hanged and crucified; they were hunted like
wild beasts of the field, yet the book lived on and
to-dny is believed to be the word of God by the
:most intelligent and virtuous people in the most
intellectual and powerful nations of the world.
How cam we account for such a fact? There is one
(explanation—only one. The book is not man’s book,
Ibut God’s.
About tone hundred and fifty years ago Voltaire
(said that in one hundred years the Bible would be
an extincit work. He said that men who wanted to
see it would have to hunt for it.
Well, the hundred years and more have passed
and more copies of the book have been printed in
the last ten years than in the preceding eighteen
hundred. Long rows of presses at Cambridge and
Oxford, in London, Philadelphia and New York,
work day and night to supply an ever increasing
demand. When Voltaire made his rash statement
the Bible was printed in about forty languages and
dialects. Now it is printed in about four hundred
and fifty and great scholars in all parts of the world
are still making new versions. Now a rational man
must furnish a rational account of such an effect.
If the Bible be God’s word, all this is natural; if it
be man’s, it is simply incredible.
Another fact which must be reckoned with is
that the morality and religion which this book
teaches are yet far above the highest level obtain
ed by men. No crimes, no vices, no folly, no sins
are justified and permitted. Absolute righteousness
is the demand. Anything less than this is condemned
and, unless repented, threatened with dire and never
ending punishment. Here then is a book written in
a time of universal ignorance of universal supersti
tion and degradation, written by members of an
obscure nation which has made no record in arts,
arms or literature. Yet it teaches a religion so ra
tional, a morality so pure and a social system so
equitable that the highest reaches of human so
ciety have failed to attain its lofty level. Individ
uals here and there have done so. Communities now
and again have approximated it and as these men
and societies have approached the Bible they have
attained happiness and prosperity. As they have
failed to do so they have sunken into all sorts of
shames and crimes. What is the explanation of this
wonderful fact? That a few men two or three thou
sand, four thousand years ago invented such a book?
Nobody can believe it. Such a proposition carries
its falsehood on its face.
Another fact which must be reckoned with is this.
The Bible “finds men.” The Bible finds men in the
deepest recesses of their being. We admire Shakes
peare, Browning and Tennyson, but no man feels
approved or condemned because of what they say.
It is only when they echo the voice of God that
they speak as men having authority; but the Bible
is different. It makes no suggestions, gives no ad
vice, takes no counsel. “Thus, saith the Lord,” is
its ever recurring note. “Believe this and live;”
“doubt this and die;” “obey and reap;” “the
fruits of obedience;” “disobey and you heap up
wrath against the day of wrath.” In every page,
in every clime the effect of this wonderful book has
been the same. Men are terrified by it, if they live
in sin; they are comfort ed and strengthened, if
they live holy lives. This is the reason that bad
men cannot bear the book, or the places where it
is taught. They do not read it, they will not hear it.
They hope it is not true, but they are afraid. Is
it not strange that a book written by ignorant Jews
three thousand years ago, in a country sixty miles
wide and one hundred and twenty miles long, should
thus cause men to fear and tremble. Os course it
would be wonderful, nay, impossible, but it is not
wonderful that the voice of the eternal God should
so effect men who live a little round of 60 or 70
years between a cradle and a coffin?
But if this book be really the word of God, two
or three things will follow. In the first place, we
should study it as we never have. “Search the
■Scripture” is not only the language of Revelation,
it is the voice of highest reason also. Two-thirds
the time that the average man spends on newspa
pers, magazines and other books might be diverted
to the study of the word of God to his financial, in
tellectual and spiritual profit. In the second place,
we should not only know the book ourselves, but
we should obey it. The principle business of a man
in this world should be, first, to find out what God
wants him to do, and then to be about it. Life or
death, heaven or hell, happiness or misery, these
are the alternatives, the path of knowledge and
obedience is the path of light and life. In the third
place, and finally, the greatest service we can do for
men is to secure for them an interest in this wonder
fid book. Men are harrassed by business cares, are
tortured by passion, they are driven by thousands
to insanity and suicide every year, and there is no
cure but the word of God. Let us make it our own
and pass on it.
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