^ r . Parker's Last Message Concerning the Bible.
We were brought up among simple, unsuspecting believers. They told us that the Bible was all true. They called it " The Holy Bible," and they held it to be such. They told us that Eden was a real place, with real trees and a real serpent. Theyi told us that a four- branched river rolled through the sunny paradise; we thought that Adam bathed in Hiddekel; and that the gold that colored the Pison stream was solid, and yellow and marketable. We neve* doubted it. The place on the map was pointed out, with the assurance that if Eden was not there it was thereabouts. Some people believe this still. Spur- geon believed it. In its highest, deep- est, grandest meaning, I myself believe it. Our mothers are responsible for a good deal. They were not literal gram- marians, but they were gigantic believ- ers. They used to read to us the story of Joseph and cry over it, and made much of the coat of many colors, and when we came-to "your father, the old man of whom ye spake, is he well?" our brawny fathers sobbed and pre- tended to be only coughing. If any- body had then told us what some people tell us now, that there was no J o s e p h- no ^ old man—no coat of many c o l o r s- no life in Egypt—no forgiving breth- ren—no family reconciliation—that it is all a dream, a fantasy, an illusion in color—I know not in what terms he would have been denounced and with what horror he would have been shunned. Some of us still believe in the history of Joseph; and when all other "short stories" have run out, this story of Joseph will exact its tribute of tears from the eyes of far-off genera- tions. Then in this matter of credulity our quaint old pastors were little better than our mothers. If some modern criticism is true, those old pastors were unconscious imposters. They had not a " d o u b t " to bless themselves with. They read the Bible and actually be- lieved it, anu preached it without a stammer. They used to preach about
Daniel and the lions' den, and make us feel heroic in the heroism of the brave young man. Now it turns out that there were no lions, there was no den, and worst of all, there was no Daniel. The Book of Daniel is tajcen away bod- ily. Yet we are told that the Bible has been given back to us by the critics, . and that it is a better book than we ^ had before. Some of us cannot yet re- receive this saying. At present we are suffering from a grievous sense of loss. Do not suppose, however, that all the higher critics are of one mind, or that tney pursue one method, and do not sup- pose that every minister has given up Joseph and his brethren, or even Daniel and the lions' den. Broad and indis- criminate statements are apt to be un- true and unjust on all sides of great controversies. Our dear od pastors used to preach about David, and quoting call him " t h e sweet singer of I s r a e ;" and now, ac- ifl cording to some, it turns out that David was no singer at all, and that he prob- -4), ably never heard of the psalms which he is supposed to have written. Still more widespread is the havoc made by some ruthless sickles. It is bad enough to lose Joseph and his brethren, Daniel and nis den, David and his harp, Jonah and his whale, but these are compara- 44 tive trifles. There was, according to (t, some, no Miraculous Conception, no Nf Ministry of Miracles, no resurrection of Christ. All is idealism, poetry, dream and hazy myth. Bethlehem and Naza- reth disappear from what we used to call the sacred page. In the old, old time when we were very young, the ^ Christian Church had a heaven and a hell, an immortal soul, a direct reve- . lation from heaven, a book which it called " The Word of God." In those early days we thought ascended ones were "forever with the Lord." We said, in a sob which was really a song, "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them unto liv-
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