Assured Results of Sckolarskip A Little Story that Illustrates the Methods of the Higher Criticism From “Twentieth Century Pastor“
Many contradictory legends are told about this man. He was a great hunter; he was a rough rider, but.he was also a scholar and author of a number of learned books. He lived in the mountains, on the prairie, and in a large city. He was a leader in war, but also a peacemaker. It is said that he was appealed to by antagonizing factions, even by warring nations, to arbitrate. It is self-evident that we have here simply the personification of prominent traits of the American people at vari ous stages of their historical develop ment. They loved to hunt, to ride, to war ; reaching a higher stage of civiliza tion, they turned to studying, writing books, making peace; and all these contradictory traits were, in course of time, used to draw the pictures of this legendary national hero. . Some mythological features have.not yet been fully cleared up, for instance, that he is often represented in the shape of a bear or accompanied by bears. For a while these “Teddy Bears” were in nearly every house, and it seems as if they were worshiped, at least by the children. There is no doubt that some remote astral concep tion lies at the root of this rather puz zling feature. But two reasons are conclusive to establish the legendary thesis: 1. The American nation, at the be ginning of the twentieth century, had hardly emerged from the crudity of fetishism and witchcraft. Many traces of fortune-telling, charming, sorcery and other forms of superstition, can be found by studying the daily papers.
OMEONE recently sent the editor of “The Twentieth Century Pastor” a • uniaue story which well illustrates the methods of the higher critics. A learned scholar is pictured as coming to Amer
ica and digging in the sand hills cover ing the Congressional Library in Washington. He finds a pile of liter ature thought to have originated in the beginning of the twentieth century. The story runs as follows: The “scholar” concludes that at the beginning of the twentieth century the head of tha great American nation was supposed to be a strong and influential man by the name of Theodore Roose velt.. His name has gone down in his tory,. but our scholar proves that Theo dore Roosevelt was no historical per son at all. He never lived; he is merely the personification of tendencies and mythological traits then dominant in the American nation. For instance, this legendary hero is commonly pictured with a big stick. Now, this is plainly a mythological trait, borrowed from the Greeks and Romans, and represents really the thunderbolt of Jupiter. He is pictured as wearing a broad- brimmed hat and large eyeglasses. This mythological feature is bor rowed from old Norse mythology, and represents Woden endeavoring to pierce through the heavy clouds of fog cov ering his head. A great many pictures show the leg endary hero smiling and displaying his teeth. This is a very interesting feature, showing the strong African influences in American civilization.
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