Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 276, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1914 — Back to the Bible [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Back to the Bible

Application cl the Scriptures to the World Today ao Seen by Eminem Men in Various Walks ol Life

(Copyright. 1814. by Joseph B. Bowles) RELIGION THAT CAME DOWN AT GEZER. (By MELVIN GROVE KYLE, D. D„ LL D., Egyptologist; Lecturer on Biblical Archaeology in Xenia Theological Seminary; author of "The Deciding Voice a of the Monuments In Biblical Criticism.” One of the difficulties with which archaeologists have to contend is the u n attractiveness.

even trifling appearance, of much of the evidence upon which the discoveries rest. The public think of discoveries as objects, while the real discovery is the meaning of the objects. If the object does not seem to be much, it is often very difficult to persuade the multitude that the discovery is worth much. Now what is less promising

than a few yellow or red-brown pots or bowls of clay enclosing an old Jewish lamp? Yet in the hostory of discovery in Bible lands, the difference between a few sueh unattractive pots and bowls'and the uses made of them marks the difference between a religion that came down and a religion that came up, between a revelation and a mere social and religious development. It was at the great High Place of Gezer, perhaps chief of all the Canaanite high places, at least most conspicuous in situation. It stands upon a promontory that juts out from the Judean hills into the plain of Sharon. R. A". Stewart Macalister of the Palestine Exploration fund had cut his great trenches right across the ruins on the top of the high place. He found history of three millenniums lying in layers like geologic history in our mountains and hills, in America., Cities, built largely of mud and rough stone and with streets that are never swept, “rise on stepping stones of their dead selves to higher things,” and the burials of each succeeding age are identified by the pottery and other relics found in the corresponding layer of ruins. The uncovering of a layer of history just before the conquest by Israel easily identified and dated by the Egyptian scarabs found in the ruins, revealed most gruesome and horrible hints of human sacrifice, more than confirming the suggestions contained in the Bible accounts, and spread them out before the horrified gaze of the explorer. There were rows of little bodies of babes all under eight days of age buried alone and together and at the side of the holy place of the altar. Children do not naturally die thus all at once, of a certain age, and be buried by themselves beside the altar. These are nothing else than human sacrifices, probably of the first-born. During the same period there are other things of dreadful suggestiveness. A body, that of a young girl, is found sawn asunder, and everywhere is evidence of the materialistic superstition that filled the tombs with great pots for the supplies for the dead in the other world.

Immediately after these things comes a break in civilization and a new layer in the ruins. Old things were forgotten. Even the waterworks, a great engineering feat, which gave access by a tunnel through the solid rock to a secret spring for water in time of siege, was lost and forgotten from that time until the explorer laid it bare. This new layer contains the history of the conquest period, also identified by the Egyptian remains found in it and more certainly by the Jewish lamps and Hebrew Jar handles. Now every trace of the sacrifice of babes passes away and other human sacrifices also cease. The gross burial customs are quickly changed and in place of them there appear these two bowls and a lamp, of which' I have spoken. They are found in tombs of the place after the Hebrews came in. The lamp is placed in one bowl and the other turned over it, to typify; as is thought, the going out of a life. What could have made such a change? Was there suddenly such a development toward true religion? Did this wondrous change from the gruesome and horrible to the beautiful and elevating come as a natural growth? Did this change In Canaan come up or come down? It was thia, at the sight of which Professor George Adam Smith exclaimed, “This Is.nothing else than the inspiration of the Almighty.” FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. (By THEODORE KEMP, LL. D., President Illinois Wesleyan University.) There is a marked difference between the Old Testament and the New in the matter of resenting Injuries. The Old Testament says, “An eye for an eye and a tooth tor a tooth.” The * 4)

New Testament through the Ups of Jesus says, “Forgive.” To the question, "Shall I forgive my brother seven times?” Jesus says, “Yea, I say unto you, seventy times seven.” This wag not meant to arbitrarily fix the exact number of times an offending brother should be forgiven, but rather to indicate that forgiveness should' always be extended when it is asked in sincerity. j This is one of the hardest things to do of all that Christ taught But when we recognize that Christ’s teaching revolved around the principle of love rather than that of Justice, or In other words that he made love the controlling principle of life, it Is not difficult to see that the spirit of love br forgiveness is basal In His teachings. It Is a striking fact that when giving the model prayer, known as the Lord’s Prayer, the only petition on which He stopped to comment was that concerning forgiveness when he said, “If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.” In other words, he taught that it was useless to ask for God’s forgiveness while there was an unforgiving spirit on the part of the one who prays. This is not as generally understood as it should be; and many a prayer goes unanswered because of an unforgiving spirit. It is impossible for us to love our neighbors as ourselves if we will not forgive them when they do us wrong. An unforgiving spirit and unselfish love cannot exist in the same heart. To remember personal injuries is easy, but to forgive and forget is often difficult. To hold a grudge is human, but “to forgive is divine.” There is nothing that will, so break down prejudice, dissipate hard feeldestroy animosity as love. Given this spirit of forgiveness or the spirit of love, and quarrels, grudges, and most of the world’s troubles would • be at an end.

THE BIBLE’S MORAL INFLUENCE. ♦ • ■ (By ROBERT STUART MACARTHUR, D. D., LL. D., President Baptist World Alliance.) I commend the study of the Bible because it places before us the highest standard of moral living to be found in literature. In it are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When Sir Walter Scott lay dying, he asked his son-in-law, Mr. Lockhart, to read for him. “What boot?” said Mr. Lockhart. “What book?* said Sir Walter; “there is but one book —the Bible —read that.” He who had read so widely, and had contributed so many immortal pages to literature, gave this testimony to < the value of the book. Charles Dickens was in the habit of urging his children never to neglect the reading of the Bible, as it contained the highest rules of morality known among men. The Bible is the true friend of civil and religious liberty. Where it is practically unknown there religious liberty is ’virtually unknown. It condemns all oppression and inspires all worthy national and personal character. It sweetens all domestic life, and is the savor of life in all social relations. It glorifies marriage, beautifies home, and prophesies of heaven. It transforms a house into a home; it makes earth the foretaste of paradise. It makes the wilderness of social life glad and it makes the desert of earth blossom into the gardpp oDpod. Let us love this blessed book, that it may fully control 'qu/ daily lives for the good of man and the glory of God. Most of all, let all men believe in the divine Lord and Savior who is in the fullest sense the divine Word, whom this book makes known. Then, under the influence of this highest Word of God, Shall all men’s good Be each man’s rule, - and universal' peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Thro’ all the circle of the golden year.