The Bible and life

Front matter

EDWIN HOLT HUGHES

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LIBRARY RULES

Foreword

The Human Outline .

I. The Bible and Life . .

II. The Bible and Man

III. The Bible and Home .

IV. The Bible and Education

V. The Bible and Work

VI. The Bible and Wealth .

VII. The Bible and Sorrow

VIII. The Bible and Practice . ,

INTEODUCTION

By the courteous invitation of the President, Faculty, and Trustees of DePauw University, the writer had the privilege of delivering the first series of lectures under the foundation as endowed by his friend, the Kev. Marmaduke H. Mendenhall. The following comments are the only introductory words that need be given.

The terms of the lectures were kept strictly within the radius of real life. The author does not claim to be a biblical scholar in any technical sense. Nor did he deem that the primary need of the students whom he addressed would be met by a discussion of theories of inspiration or of dates and authorships. College students have a passion for reality, and the most convincing apologetic for them is the argument from actual living.

Under the instruction of the founder the lectures are to be placed in permanent form for the students of the University and for the wider public. The lecturer having been rewarded by the close attention of hundreds of

10 INTRODUCTION

youthful hearers, the writer will have a still greater reward if those who heard the words as spoken in Meharry Hall are joined by the larger company who will listen for the voice of the Spirit in these pages.

Edwin Holt Hughes.

THE MENDENHALL LECTUKES FOEEWOKD

The late Reverend Marmaduke H. Mendenliall, D.D., of the North Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, donated to DePauw University the sum of ten thousand dollars, the purpose and conditions of which gift are set forth in his bequest as follows :

The object of this gift is "to found a perpetual lectureship on the evidences of the Divine Origin of Christianity, to be known as the Mendenhall Foundation. The income from this fund shall be used for the support of an Annual Lectureship, the design of which shall be the exhibition of the proofs, from all sources, of the Divine Origin, Inspiration, and Authority of the Holy Scriptures. The course of lectures shall be delivered annually before the University and the public without any charge for admission.

"The lecturers shall be chosen by an electing body consisting of the President of the University, the five senior members of the Faculty of the College of Liberal Arts, and the President of the Board of Trustees, sub-

12 FOKEWORD

ject to the approval of the Board of Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The lecturers must be persons of high and wide repute, of broad and varied scholarship, who firmly adhere to the evangelical system of Christian faith. The selection of lecturers may be made from the world of Christian scholarship without regard to denominational divisions. Each course of lectures is to be published in book form by an eminent publishing house and sold at cost to the Faculty and students of the University."

George R. Grose^ President of DePauw University,

Inasmuch as future lecturers on the Mendenhall Foundation may not have had the privilege of personal acquaintance with the founder, it is doubtless good that this first volume may record the outlines of his life and character. Marmaduke H. Mendenhall was born at Guilford, North Carolina, May 13, 1836. He died at Union City, Indiana, October 9, 1905. He was the son of Himelius and Priscilla Mendenhall, who, when their son was about one year old, came northward and settled near Peru, Indiana. Doctor Mendenhall did not suggest in manner or bearing that he was Southern born. Had one chosen to judge of his birthplace by the man himself, one would have said that he was a typical son of New England. His deeper self was typified by his personal appearance. He was tall, stately, dignified, serious, earnest.

He joined the North Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1856. Those days were still pioneer, and he entered gladly into the sacrificial ministry of that period. It is a singular coincidence that he was doubtless the first minister of his faith to begin work near Union City, where he closed his earthly labors. It was his privilege, also, to build the first Methodist Episcopal church in the city where he died. The history of his ministry shows that he served all classes of charges- — country, city, village, county seat. Several times the record is dotted with the word "Mission," which would indicate that he frequently followed the apostolic fashion of building strictly on his own foundations. He came to a place of leadership in his own Conference. To the day of his death he was an influential factor in all its plans and programs. Though he had been technically "superannuated'' for sixteen years prior to his death, his mind kept its full vigor, and his word kept its full weight. Twice he was elected a reserve delegate to the General Conference, while in 1880 he was chosen as one of the regular delegates.

From the beginning of his ministry Dr. Mendenhall showed the signs of a remarkable mind, and at the end of his ministry he was still manifesting a keen interest in current questions and in theological problems. His library to the last was freshened by the purchase of new books. When he turned his many volumes over to Gammon Theological

BIOGKAPHIOAL NOTE 15

Seminary that institution did not receive hundreds of antiquated volumes, but rather a collection brought down to date and selected by a master judgment. The intellectual, though suffused at times by a proper and restrained emotion, was his noticeable characteristic. He was given to thorough analysis. He was markedly painstaking. Eecords that he made of the conduct of his public services indicate that the final details were all regarded, and that hymns and Scripture lessons were chosen with a view to their bearing on the instruction of the day.

Being a vigorous personality, he held his views with strength. He was keenly loyal to his convictions, whether these related to methods of work or to statements of doctrine. In his advocacy or in his antagonism he was always frank and open. His opponent could see him standing out in plain view, with no effort to protect himself by secrecy. Men could never doubt his sincerity, however much they might question the correctness of his positions. He knew no sinuous paths. He was as direct as sunlight, and he traveled in straight lines.

In all his spheres of work Dr. Mendenhall made deep and lasting impressions. Highly intellectual as he was, he was still an excellent administrator. His business qualifications were signal. Every matter committed to Mm was cared for with scrupulous nicety. He left no loose ends to any of his work. Although his salaries were never large, as salaries are counted to-day, he secured a comfortable property, and this in spite of the fact that throughout his lifetime he was a generous contributor to good causes.

He served as a trustee of De Pauw University longer than other member of his Conference had served, up to the time of his death. From 1878 to 1887 he served in this capacity, while in 1896 he was reelected and was an active worker on the board up to the end of his life. He aided in pushing the institution through its crisis. The files of this writer disclose a careful and helpful correspondence upon matters vital to the welfare of the University. In the sessions of the board he was always urbane and conciliatory. He crowned the work of his life by leaving to the University all of his estate. Upon the in .Tease of the estate to a certain figure, the income was to be used in founding a lectureship on Revealed Religion, especially as related to the Holy Bible.

Although the writer was an i itimate friend of Dr. Mendenhall, he cannot remember any statements made to him which would indicate the founder's views of inspiration or of the other questions that have made the biblical problem of the last two decades. But his library showed that he was fully aware of the modern discussions. Perhaps he felt that a lectureship, broadly founded and practically directed, would be of special service to the church in a time of transition. The writer entertains the conviction that, even though Dr. Mendenhall might not agree fully with all that is found in the following pages, he would still appreciate the effort to bring the Bible within its divine purpose as a Book of Life.

The home of the founder revealed him as a model of courtesy and kindliness. Friends who saw him by his own fireside noted the benignity that matched his dignity, the tenderness that equaled his seriousness. Those who came 'into the nearer circle of his life regarded him most highly. To the wife who survives him he was in all ways a helper, gentle in demeanor and loyally careful in the administration of her interests. As the writer reviews the drift of these first lectures delivered under this foundation, he is persuaded that the founder's relation to Himself, to his Home, to his Work, to his Wealth, to his Pleasure and Sorrow, and particularly to the cause of Education, is not misrepresented herein. The Bible was his Book, and its ideals were achieved in his living. It is the sincere wish that these pages may accomplish somewhat the main purpose of the founder's heart in making the divine Book a brighter lamp for the guidance of youth.

THE HUMAN OUTLINE

It may be well to give in human form the outline which will be followed in these pages. The story is the story of millions of men on as many days.

A man awoke one morning to the consciousness of himself. Looking about he saw the familiar sights of his own home, and soon he heard the voices of his wife and children. Ere long the little people were on their way to school. The man proceeded to his work, while Ms wife took up her domestic duties. He returned in the evening with the proceeds of his day's labor added to his stock of goods. He partook of the evening meal and then indulged in the pleasure of "the children's hour." He later called upon a friend who had met with sorrow and in the trouble of his friend he found a fresh reminder of his own affliction. He retired in due season to his slumber and went forth the next morning to make the like round of the day.

This is a piece of constant biography. It could be duplicated by reference to many a personal journal and diary. If we analyze the

20 THE HUMAN OUTLINE

description, we shall find that the man was driven to take a relation to Himself, to Home, to Education, to Work, to Wealth, to Pleasure and Sorrow.

The aim of this book is to state somewhat the bearing that the Bible has upon these great departments of our human living. The apologetic tests the Book under the terms of this human Outline.

Chapter I

The Bible is a book of power. The man who would deny this statement would impugn his own intelligence. It is to-day the Book of the strongest nations. If the strongest nations selected it for their inspiration and guidance, that fact is significant. If, on the other hand, the Bible has trained the strongest nations, that fact is more significant. In either case power is lodged in the Holy Scriptures. The miracle is this: That a very ancient Book rules a very modern world.

Various explanations are given. Some men say that the Bible is powerful because it has been promoted by a powerful organization. But this explanation needs explaining. How did the Bible secure the aid of this organization? Why did not the organization take the Dialogues of Plato and become the evangel of Socrates' splendid wisdom? Why did it elect one particular volume? And what would have been the effect on its own life if it had chosen some other book? Would the writings of Marcus Aurelius or of Seneca, with their .21 high moral grade and their marked religious insight, have served the holy purpose as effectively? When we attempt to substitute some other book in the Bible's place, our hesitancy quickly passes on to positive refusal. The Christian Church, with any other volume as its textbook, is simply inconceivable.

Other men will say that the power of the Bible has come from its girding by a doctrine of authority. This explanation must likewise be explained. Could a Book without inherent authority be long maintained among intelligent peoples on the basis of artificial authority? Why is the Bible the best seller and the greatest worker in those lands where it has been set free to yield its own message? What is the peculiar quality in the Book that has saved any theory of its authority from appearing absurd? The Bible showed its power long before men adopted any theory of its power. Doubtless the claim of authority has increased the influence of the Book over certain types of minds. Still it may be confidently asserted that the claim of authority has depended far more on the power of the Bible than the power of the Bible has depended on the claim of authority. The effect should not be allowed to pass itself off as the main cause.

Nor does the power of the Bible depend upon mere bulk. Shakespeare wrote enough to make several Bibles. So did Scott. So did Dickens. So did Parkman. If the Bible is a moral and spiritual Encyclopedia, its material has been strangely condensed. It is a brief Book, yet out of its small compass men gather texts for fifty years of preaching and at the close of their life's task feel that the pages are still exhaustless. The Bible has inspired literature far beyond its own bulk. It is a small library of books gathered from many authors, but it has filled great libraries with commentaries and sermons and discussions. Its brevities have provoked measureless pages of writing. The world is big, yet it is measurably ruled by a small Book.

It would seem likewise that a Book written so long ago would fail of the element of timeliness. That an old volume should keep its place in a ne^v century is in itself an anomaly. The last of the Bible was penned hundreds of years since. Accepting the most radical views as to dates, its youngest book was produced quite more than a millennium and a half ago. Meanwhile the world has been making amazing progress. We boast of our achievements in transportation and communication. All ancient things seem to be outgrown, save only the Bible. The books that were written as contemporaries of parts of the great Book have either slipped into oblivion or are knowji to-day only by the intellectually elect. The classics are studied by a small circle of scholars. The average man knows nothing of Virgil, or Cicero, or Homer, by any direct contact with the works of those authors. But the Bible, which is out of date by the calendar, is not out of date by its own meaning. It is singularly contemporaneous. Its different portions were called forth by passing events and the Book itself is clearly touched by its own times. For all that, eternity appears to have lodged itself in it^ contemporaneousness. The twentieth century, eager and thrilling as it is, accepts a Guide Book from the distant years. Koman Law and Greek Art are filtered to the new age through modern channels. The Bible itself comes to us more simple and more powerful than any modern interpretations of its messages. There is a sense in which it declines to apply to itself its own figure of speech about the new wine in the old bottles. The Bible defies geographical distance as well as calendar distance. For the most part its record relates to what happened in a small and remote section of the earth. It reaches its climax in an obscure province which was smaller than many a modern county. The customs of which it tells are mostly gone. Sandals and tents and camels and parchments are curiosities in the new lands and new times.

Much of the setting of biblical events is wholly unknown to our day, and so must be reproduced for our children in pictures and for our adults in descriptions. An Oriental Book is the chief literature of an Occidental world.

In spite of its small size, its great age, its cramped geography, its vivid Orientalism, the Bible keeps its mastery. What is the explanation?

It must be that the Bible appeals to something fundamental in life itself. The final test of inspiration must, of course, be found in what the Bible does for life. A book that is not inspiring cannot be proved to be inspired. It cannot give what it does not have and it must surely have received what it gives. It would be a mistake, however, to confuse formal truthfulness with inspiring vitality. The description of a street scene, dealing with the passing relations of pedestrians, wagons, trees, birds, houses ; the lengths and widths of sidewalks and streets; the figures of population ; the social status of the various groups — all this may be told with exact and mathematical truthfulness. It may be correct and still not be inspired or inspiring. On the other hand, the parable of the prodigal son is a story which in its precise detail may represent something that never occurred. But it has impressed the world as both inspired and inspiring. Its words haunt and pierce and coax and subdue men. This indicates that a story given for a spiritual purpose shows more essential truthfulness than does a description given for formal exactness. The reason is that the parable appeals to something fundamental in life itself. The son and the father are ever with us. God and his children are the everlasting facts. The story is more true than is the description. This contrast represents the biblical trend. The Book penetrates through the husk to the kernel, through superficial facts to deepest truths, through passing events to eternal meanings. It is the Book of Life.

What gives the Bible this appeal? Whence did it secure its vital quality? The only reply is that the appeal to life must be born of life itself. Sometimes a bizarre explanation is given of the source of a religious volume, the assumption being that a human origin denies a divine origin. The more men have to do with its production, the less may we presume that God has touched the work. A curious illustration of this viewpoint is found in the claim for the Book of Mormon. The story is as follows: A heavenly visitant appeared to Joseph Smith and told him that in a certain place he would find the miracle book. Smith obeyed the directions and found in the place named a box of stone. In this box was a volume half a foot in thickness. It was written on thin plates of gold, and these plates were bound together by gold rings. The writing was in a strange language, but with the book was found a pair of miraculous eyeglasses which conferred the ability to read the pages. In other words the Book of Mormon was not born of human life under the guidance of the divine life. It was the product of a straight miracle, and the power to decipher its meaning came only by miracle. Such a theory of the origin is easy to understand, even though it may be dif&cult to believe. It represents the extreme form of that faith which minimizes the partnership of man with God in the making of all genuine gospels of life.

The incarnation was Man and God together. The church is being fashioned by man and God together; the Spirit and the Bride are colleagues. Worship is possible only when man and God are together in fellowship. If the Bible came by any method other than the coworking of man and God, its production would stand for a departure from the usual divine method. The power of the Bible, however, grows out of the fact that it is not an abnormal book, fantastically given to men. There is a humorous story of an old woman who was discoyered in diligent study of the Hebrew alphabet. Asked why at her age she was beginning to learn so difficult a tongue, she made reply that when she died she desired to address the Almighty in his own language ! There have been theories of the Bible that are scarcely caricatured by this tale. If there have been doctrines of the Book that made it the product of a lonely man, there have likewise been doctrines that made it the product of a lonely God. Neither doctrine is correct. The Bible grew out of human life that had been touched and glorified by the divine presence and power. Because it grew out of life it makes its appeal to its native element in life itself. It simply claims its own.

A review of the different parts of the Bible will show how true this statement is. Practically every book is localized and personalized. Something that happened among men called forth the writing. The names of the books in the Pentateuch show this fact. Genesis treats of the origins of the earth and of man, and is an answer to the inevitable question that springs in the human mind. Exodus treats of the going forth of the Hebrew people from their Egyptian bondage. Leviticus is a description and discussion of the Levitical rules. Deuteronomy is a second giving of the Law and an enlargement of its sphere as well as an enforcement of its precepts. The Ten Commandments make a human document because their sole aim is to ennoble and protect human life.

It is so TNT^th the historical books. They are the records of actual human living. Their pages are sprinkled with the names of real men and women. Joshua, the Judges, Kuth, Samuel, the Kings are all there, eager participants in earth's affairs under the sense of God. These books are not theoretical dissertations on life by a dreamer in his closet; they are rather the general descriptions of life itself as it moved along a period of seven or eight centuries. They give us the salient and meaningful happenings among God's chosen people. They tell the story of a crude race as it is being led forward to the heights. The pages record limitations and faults simply because they tell us of actual life. The sins of the Bible's premier heroes are written down with entire frankness. The human touch is everywhere. We shall not read the historical books long ere we find that they, too, are human documents. But these human documents, covered ^dth the names of men and women, are likewise covered with the everrecurring name of Jehovah. In the record one discovers man and God.

In the prophetical books the like fact is apparent. The prophets were men of flesh and blood. They rushed into the prophetic work from the ordinary occupations of ancient life. From the fields they came, and from the vineyards. Perhaps one came from a royal palace. Surely not more than one of them came from the altar of the priesthood. They were men who knew the shame and glory of contemporary life. They did not hesitate to touch the politics of their day. They decried kings. They denounced landlords. They made frontal attacks on all forms of wickedness. Their appeal was for reality. They declared that God hated all pretense. New moons and feasts and fasts that did not grow out of devout hearts they declared to be an insult and an abomination before a righteous God. They talked from life to life. They came in response to some human demand in their times. They were not theorists, discussing academic problems of conduct. They were blazing moral realists. We do not need to detail the list of those forthtellers of the Word of God. Even the book of Jonah is full of life. Parable, allegory, history — its descriptions are based in life and its appeal is to life. In its moral lesson for the individual, and in its missionary lesson for a narrow race, it offers enough duty to keep life busy for a million years. If men would heed its lessons for life and cease their petty debates about the anatomy of whales, the Book would meet them with vital urgings. The one point now is that the prophetical writings grew out of life. They did not come encased in stone boxes, written on gold leaves, to be read and understood only by miraculous spectacles. They came from real living, and they claim their own wherever real men are living to-day. We need not follow the same idea into the later books of the Old Testament. The Proverbs were gathered from the streets of life. Ecclesiastes is the pronouncement of life vainly satiated. Even the Psalms, classed as devotional books, were usually evoked by some actual happening. The king goes out to war ; a psalm is penned. The ark is moved from one place to another; a psalm is written. A man is jaded and discouraged; a psalm is written to recover him to a consciousness of the care of Jehovah. A monarch falls into grievous sin ; a psalm is written to express his penitence. A study of any Commentary on the Psalms will show us that nearly all of these devotional utterances were prompted by some human experiences. They are the shoutings and sobbings of living men. The book of Psalms is not the liturgy of academicians. Its processionals and its recessionals show actual men and women in the real march of life.

In the New Testament this same law of life rules. Jesus comes before the Gospels. Without the Life there could not have been the record of the Life. In any worthy Bible life must always come first. This phase will be treated later. Now it must be emphasized that the entire New Testament sprang from a Life that was lived among men. The Word must become flesh before it could become literary record. Grace and truth walked the earth ere they were traced on pages. Here again the Bible comes from life in order that it may return to life again.

The statement concerning the New Testament will admit of more detail. The Gospels grew immediately out of the disciples' life with the Lord. The Acts grew out of the life of the disciples in their daily contact with that ancient world. The Epistles all came from some urgency of life. While there were minor reasons for writing each of them there was still a main purpose that dictated the writing in every case. The Epistles to the Thessalonians seek to produce a right attitude toward the doctrine of the Lord's return. The Epistle to the Komans is a discussion of the doctrine of justification by faith and the relations of that doctrine to Judaism. That to the Galatians is both a personal defense of Paul's questioned apostleship and a declaration of freedom from bondage to the law. The Philippians grew out of an experience of human kindness, being an expression of gratitude for help in trouble and sympathy in sorrow. The Ephesians is a composite of moods — the victories of grace, the hope of the heavenlies, the expectation of ascension with the glorified Christ, the nature and aim of the true church. Colossians expresses the universal Lordship of Christ and tears down every theory that denies the reality of the incarnation and the utter preeminence of Jesus.

Even those Epistles that are personal in their character deal with universal life. Philemon reappeared in the contests concerning slavery both in England and America and scattered the arguments of Christian democracy. The bondage of men could not well live with the tender brotherhood that breathes in the letter which Onesimus carried back with him to his former master. Titus and Timothy are the pastoral advices sent by the aged apostle to his younger sons in the faith, while one of the Epistles is the hopeful farewell to earth and a glad trust toward the Eternal City. Revelation may be filled with strange imagery and may be shaken by the tremors of a perilous age; but men who know real life will say that the Beast and the Lamb are not merely wild figures of speech. The writer of the Apocalypse knew the world, and he knew the churches in its various cities.

Thus it seems literally true that all the New Testament was penned for the aid of life. When life went wrong, warning came. When life went aright, encouragement came. When life was mistaken, correction came. Whether the need was for doctrine, for reproof, or for instruction in righteousness, God met the need by the message that he gave to his servants. The Book is not a series of infallible abstractions ; it is rather a vital Guide Book won from the experience of life's ways. The Bible is not a ready-made product dropped down from heaven; it is rather a Library made by men in many ages in partnership with the God who lives with men in all ages. In the best and truest fashion it makes record of the life of God in the souls of responsive men. Because it came from life it inevitably seeks life. It was born of God among men. Therefore, it lives among men with God.