Article August 20, 1910 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Seth Low

[Interior.]

When a certain teacher of philosophy said that only a very naive person could believe in the Bible, the assertion ought hardly to be regarded as heretical, since it had been said by our Lord Jesus Christ long before and was made by him a cause of rejoicing. Indeed, when our Saviour thought how he had been rejected by "the wise and prudent," but had been accepted by those whom the learned called in derision "babes," he thanked the Father expressly for this fact. The scholars of his day did not accept him. The fashionable did not accept him. The rich did not accept him. But the common people did. Eminent teachers asked in scorn whether any of the rulers had believed on him. But so far from being depressed by this, he "rejoiced in spirit" when he thought of it. The fact is that experts and specialists are inclined to take themselves far more seriously than can be justified by history. There was not a little reason for Festus fearing that so learned a man as Paul had lost his bearings; the progress of mankind has been achieved as often in spite of the schools as by their aid. The early church had the Sanhedrin and the court equally opposed to it, but its foundations were broad and deep in the religious instincts, affections, and hopes of the common people. And all the vast learning which was the boast of scribes and doctors of the law, who curled the lip in contempt of the fishermen and peasants that followed the Nazarene—what has become of it? One may read it in musty tomes in our great libraries, but it seems to the mind of today mere jargon.

[Universalist Leader.]

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