The Bible and the Book of Mormon

THE BIBLE AND THE BOOK OF MORMON.

I HAVE just finished reading a book, “God’s Message to the Human Soul,” by John Watson, D.D. It is an able defense of the Bible, and gives added lustre to the sacred volume. In a chapter on “The Standpoint of the Book,” the distinguished author says: “If one would catch the likeness of a portrait, he must stand at the proper angle of light; if one would gather the sacred treasures of a book, he must enter into its intention. Every department of thought has its own province, and every book has its own motive. With science it is the study of the facts of nature; with literature it is the criticism of life; with philosophy it is the principle of things; with art it is the apprecia­tion of beauty. One book may no doubt travel in various spheres—Huxley, who had a profound respect for the Bible, expounded science in the most lucid English, and Ruskin, who was richly fed upon the Bible, was as much distinguished by his brilliant style as by his artistic insight. There have been authors who seem to embrace the universe of knowledge, and to be cosmopolitan in their writing, but it remains that every book has its inherent bias, and its visible direction. It is fair that a book be judged by its execution; it is imperative that it be judged by its intention. If one knows not for what end the book was conceived, and created, then he will be as a stranger wandering round some ancient cathedral and guessing at the scenes upon the painted glass; if one has the key then he enters in at the door, and possesses the interior at his pleasure, while the light streams in upon him through the rich and mellow glory of the ancient glass.

“Beyond all books, the Bible is an engaging but hopeless mystery to the outsider, while it yields its secret to the man who is within. Because people have not always tiled to find the standpoint of the Bible, but have been content with confused notions about it, they have not been able to use it with con­fidence, but have fumbled over its meaning. No book has been so unjustly attacked, no book has been so foolishly defended, and for this the blame must be divided between it foes and its friends, neither of whom have in many cases taken the trouble to search out and firmly grasp its controlling purpose.

It may be urged in the excuse of both that on the surface the Bible does not seem to catechism is or a drama, of any side of humanity, but humanity in its vastness, survey of a province of life, but life in its variety; not botanical specimens, dried and pressed, presented in the cases of a museum, but the hillside in summer time, where the flowers are growing in reckless profusion and every contrast of colour. The reader is plunged into an ocean of human details. The love affairs of a man and a maid and contracts of marriage; the quarrels between brothers with their treachery and their revenge; the quarrels between brothers with their treachery and their revenge; the bargains in business, wherein land is bought and sold, and covenants are made with witnesses; the feuds between rival tribes, enlivened by raids and captures; the choice of kings and their anointing amid the rejoicings of the people; the evil doing of kings and their assassination amid a people's hatred; the orations of statesmen as they warn their nation against offending God, or comfort them in days of tribulation; adroit arrangements of ecclesiastics, and the inner history of church councils; the collision of parties in the Christian Church, and bitter rivalries which distract con­gregations; the radiant record of deeds of chivalry and the black story of acts of treachery; the romance of unselfish friendship, and the blind enmity of religious bigotry; the career of a success­ful man, and the unmerited suffering of a martyr; the devotion of a mother to her child, and the jealousy of women fighting for the same man’s love; the idyll of childhood ; the strength of young manhood, the mellow wisdom of old age. Nomads of the desert, dwellers in the city; prophets and sages, ploughmen and vine­dressers, soldiers and traders, rich men and beggers, holy matrons and women who are sinners; patriarchs driving huge herds before them, and apostles going forth with nothing in their hands; priests offering sacrifice in the holy place, and publicans collect­ing their gains in the receipt of custom; scholars busy in their studies, and carpenters toiling in their shop, all pass across this stage in unarranged and natural procession. Nothing could be more artless, nothing more fascinating. This is a larger and more vivid Shakespeare; but wherefore? Is there any more connection between all the volumes that make this literature than between thirty novels selected from different periods and nations? It is a gorgeous kaleidoscope, but does it leave one definite impression?

“Upon a second and more careful reading of the literature one is conscious of a certain spirit which is informing and har­monizing every part, like a system of nerves, and making all the members of the body one. The story of the patriarchs is not recorded in Genesis because they were successful stock farmers, but because they were the pioneers in the quest of the soul for God. There is the difference between the life of Joseph, who rose from being a slave to be prime minister, and the triumphant biography of self-made men, with which material ambition is somewhat coarsely fed: the crisis in Joseph’s life was his victory over temptation, and the glory of his life was not his success, but his character. From first to last the career of Moses was romance, but his sterling point is his preferences of the unseen above the seen and his identification with the suffering people of God, whereby according to a felicitous stroke of Bible genius, he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Joshua was a resolute soldier, but the victory which crowned bis arms was due to his unshaken and single-hearted faith in God. The prophets were in many cases able statesmen, and they were always forceful writers, but they have owed their immortality to their spiritual vision and their fellowship with the Eternal. The Psalmists were poets of the grand order, but they seized the heart of humanity because they have sung the epic of the soul. The line of David is continued because he feared God, but the line of Jeroboam, the son Nebat, came to an end because he made Israel to sin. As you travel down Old Testament history you may find yourself in strange byways, but sooner or later you are brought face to face with God. The writers are intent upon one thing, and that is righte­ousness; they are ever seeking for one person, and that is God. There is not only a progress, but it is a progress upwards; from the valley the path climbs the hillsides till it reaches the finer and rarer air of the Gospels, where we are living in the outer court of eternity and at the gate of heaven. The innumerable details of the books are only its body; the living soul of the book is religion, the fellowship of man with God. We lay aside the history which is but the stalk and ear of the plant; we garner the grain, which is the revelation of God. One purpose governs and illuminates, invigorates and glorifies the book, and that is spiritual.”