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this affair, and indict every one connected either di
rect Iv or indirect Iv with the outrageous murder, for
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murder it is.
“ruder our system of laws ami the constitution,
the sheet anchor of our liberties, no one can be
]e"al!y executed until he has had a fair and impar
tial trail before twelve jurors, properly and legally
selected to hear the evidence and law. and then pass
upon the question of his guilt and say he is guilty.
When that is done the criminal may be punished.
Before that, any one who constiutes himself judge,
jury and sheriff, and assists in the taking of human
life, becomes, in the eyes of the law. a murderer, lie
has taken human life without authority for doing so.
This is true, even though the victim be guilty of a
most heinous crime and deserves to die.
“A lynching is doubly outrageous where innocent
blood is shed. I see that some of the newspaper men
are trying Io throw all the responsibility for this out
rage upon the citizens of Wayne county. This ought
not to be. 1 am as deeply mortified and fee] as keenly
as any one ran. the disgrace that is brought upon
us. but it will do no good to try ami saddle the dis
grace upon others. The newspapers, as moulders of
public sentiment, ought to contend earnestly for the
maintenance of law and order, and should, in every
instance, condemn as strongly as they can these seri
ous violations of law.'
HAVE WE LOST THE BIBLE?
By Bishop C. I). Williams, in American Magazine.
There have been three attitudes of the Church on
Hie difficult ies of reconciling the lessons of the Bible.
Birst. science is always wrong ami the Bibb' is
always right. If the Bible says the sun goes around
the earth and Galileo says the earth goes around the
sun. then Galileo must be excommunicated, if he
can't be burned. That was the first attitude of the
(’hureh.
Second. Ihe words of scripture must be “handled
deceitfully.’' wrested from their plain meaning,
twisted, distorted, manipulated until they are forced
into some conformity with science, 'flint is the posi
tion of t lie harmonists, who patch up tenuous and
shifting agreements bet ween < Jenesis ami geology. It
is less brutal than the first, but it is less honest.
Third, the scriptures were never intended to teach
science, but religion. As a great Boman Catholic
scholar once put it. “they teach not how the heavens
go. but how to go to heaven." They reveal, not
natural and physical truth, but moral and spiritual
truth. That is the position to which our most intel
ligent Christian thought has come. It is a great gain.
Bui it does not meet all questions.
Another set id’ problems arises. Is the Bible al
ways tin* Word of God in this restricted field? Is its
every utterance on moral and spiritual themes infal-
THE REASON
lible ? To that every sensitive Christian conscience
must answer ‘‘ no.'
The moral standard of tin* Book varies with the
temper and enlightenment of the age and the writer.
(Tully and treachery are in the Old Testament com
mended by inspired prophets and even boldly attrib
uted to the command of Jehovah. Deborah exults in
the name of the Lord over Sisera s murder by Jael.
Jehovah Himself issues the order for the extermina
tion of the Canaanites. Samuel commands Saul in
the name of the Lord to murder the captive women
ami children of the Amalckites and hews Agag to
pieces with his own hands, The polygamy and con
cubinage of the patriarchs are sanctioned by the Al
mightv. Laws of vengeance ami retaliation are issued
amidst the thunders of Sinai and then art' swept
aside by the merciful Christ in the Sermon on the
Mount. The imprecatory Psalms curst' the oppres
sors of tht' nation and the Psalmist's personal ene
mies. Elijah calls down fire from heaven to consume
the officers of the law sent to arrest him. which same
thing the Apostles proposing to do art* severely re
linked by the Master. A lying spirit is set forth by
the Lord to trick Ahab. The she-bears are sent by
God to devour little children who remark on Elisha’s
bald head. And so on. These are the most serious
difficult it's which a devout reader of tht' Bible en
counters. He must either give up his belief in a Bible
which is every where equally infallible ami inspirt'd
even upon ethical and spiritual matters, or else his
fa it h in a good < lod.
And upon this comes the “higher or historical
criticism" of modern times. It has shown us a Bible
which is not one book, but a vast and variant litera
ture, a patchwork of authorship and date, often
stained by human passions. Bor example the parallel
accounts of Chronicles ami Kings art* written, one by
an ecclesiastical mind, the other by a prophetic or
historical mind. It has brought down a large part
of the law of Moses from Sinai to centuries later and
shown that it has grown up gradually out of the
exigencies of the times. It has found mvths folk
lore and legends, very like those of the surrounding
heathen, in what had passed as sober history. Mul
titudes of minor questions are still unsettled. But
the main results have been established, and the work
has been done very largely by reverent Christian
schola rs.
We have here then a literature, not dictated by
one Divine Mind, not characterized by one invariable
and consistent spirit throughout, but a partieolred
product of various ages and various minds. These
are plain ami well-established facts. It will do no
good but only incalculable harm to blink them. We
must face them frankly, honestly and. let me add,
sea rlessly.
What is the result of all this criticism? A Bible
is lost, lost beyond recovery, one of tin* Bibles which