Article March 11, 1916 Issue

From Our Exchanges

with contributions from J. Frank Thompson, John Hunter

[The Christian Work]

The Old Testament is a ship sailing across the seas of the centuries, but a divine figure stands in the scene, through the men who wrought about the figure were slave owners, polygamists, cruel soldiers, cherishing many superstitions toward astronomy and natural philosophy. Ours is world where white lilies grow amidst the slough, and where diamonds are found in the midst of the geode. From decaying logs the snowdrops spring, and in the mind and heart of Jacob with his deceits and polygamy, of Joshua with the cruelty of his soldiers, there springs a new idea of the wickedness of sin and the blessedness of right.

That new ideal worked like leaven in men's minds, made harsh government soft, made cold laws warm and cruel rulers humane. . . . Spreading, the leaven slowly sweetened the whole lump of society. The inspired thing in the Old testament is the moral element, with its new wonderful thought that God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, full of compassion, and of great mercy.

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