ESTABLISHED 1844.
GREENSBORO, N. 0., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1907.
VOLUME LIX. NUMBER 39.
All communications, whether for publica
tion or pertaining to matters c» w isiness,
should be sent to the Editor, J. 0. Atkinson,
Elon College, N. C.
EDITORIAL COMMENT.
The Public Schools.—About this time of
year, to quote the Almanac, the public
schools open. And in this great Nation there
is no grander boon or blessing to the peo
ple than the free schools. They have done
more to enlighten the men and women, and
elevate the masses, who have made this na
tion, than any other single agency. God bless
our public schools—the very back bone of
our mighty race, the invincible bulwark of
a glorious Republic. In no place is education
among the great masses of as much weight
and worth as in a republic, and the free
school is the beginning, the foundation, the
bed rock of ohr educational system. Much
more, in this general way, might be said,
but a word in particular.
No human system, order or institution is
perfect. And the easiest thing in this world
is criticism, fault finding. Any sap head can
find fault with the wisdom of Solomon. So,
very, very easily can parents find fault with
the free schools. The committee may not
have ejected the right teacher; the teacher’s
methods may not be exactly in keeping with
the advanced (?) views of some parents; the
school is not strict enough, or too strict; some
children go that some parents do not wish
their children to associate with: therefore—
oh, the' fatality and the tragedy in that
* ‘ therefore ”—we will keep our children at
home this session. Thus from the prejudice,
ill-will or easy criticism of parents the chil
dren are to be deprived of a boon and bless
ing which the State has provided. .More
than that, deprived of a divine right that al
mighty God has conferred. In this free land
where citizenship has worth, and responsibil
ity, every child has the heavenly and noly
right to such education, instruction and en
lightment as the State provides and as will
fit that child to meet the obligations of citi
zenship.
Parents, it is worth your while to tnink on
these things before deciding to keep John
and Mary at home out of school this session.
At least send them to school till they learn
what they are in the world for—and in this
mighty Republic for, and their business aiio
, place in this ndble Commonwealth. This is
your duty to John and Mary and to Admigh=
' ty God.
A War on Paper.—W hen Japan and the
United States, or rather certain citizens of
those two countries, had a little dispute some
• months ago about Japanese children not be
ing admitted to the public schools in San
Francisco, there was a mighty cry, from i
few yellow journals, .that Japan was in r
frame of mind to fight, and that the does cf
war would soon be loosed on our Pacific coast.
These journals worked themselves into a state
of frenzy over the awful and threatening sit
uation. And by their conduct they tried to
produce that which their wild imaginations
"had led them into, a war between Japan aiu
the United States. It was folly and non
sense, but much damage was done—damage
is always done when there is sensation ove.
nothing and glaring falsehoods ore flaunted
far and near. It was a silly, sickening pro
•ceeding.
We wonder now what these inflammatory
journals, think when they see these words
of Prince Ito, the most eminent and influ
ential of all Japanese statesmen and leaders,
uttered by him a few days since, “America
is our friend and we are the friend of Amer
ica. The recent talk of war finds no support
among the statesmen of Japan or the United
States. War between these two countries is
unspeakable and impossible.” This war talk
was pn paper—yellow, very yellow paper,
and was only a battle for sensation and
•dollars. Pity and contempt for sueh jour
nalism.
“A Chance Por Service.”—Those who look
for office in our day as “a chance for ser
vice” are, we fear, discouragingly few and
far between. There are those without num
ber who look for the office; but looking for
it as an opportunity for service is anther
question. President Roosevelt was called up
on to speak at the laying of the corner stone
of the Episcopal Cathedral in Washington.
There were just three paragraphs in his ad
dress, one of which is good for every citizen
in this land:
“I have to say but one word of greeting
tp you today and wish you godspeed in the
work begun this noon. The salutation is to
be given by our guest, the Bishop of London,
who has a right to speak to us because'he has
shown in his life that he treats high office
as high office should alone be treated, either
in Church or' State, and above all in a de
mocracy such as ours is—simply as a chance
to render service. If office is accepted by'
any man for its own sake and because of the
honor it is felt to confer he accepts it to
his own harm and to the infinite harm of
those* whom he ought to serve. Its sole value
comes in the State, but above all its sole
Value comes in the Church, if it is seized by
the man who holds it as giving the chance
to do more useful work for the people whom
he serves. ’ ’
*A DESTRUCTIVE CRITIC OF 2907.
(To the Reader of 1907.
Dear Brother: Although interested in the
able writings of the higher critics of 1907,
especially in their assumption of having diS'
covered something valuable, as if the “his
torical method” were new in studying the
Bible, I confess I became somewhat drowsy
under their monotonous efforts to make the
sacred writings seem to abound in misstate
ments. But I gradually absorbed their
genius and spirit, and seemed to become a
destructive critic, though calling myself a
higher critic. .
While in this state of mind, sleepy though
I was, I seemed to live rapidly througb**the
centuries, century after century, until I
found myself moving among scholars who
dated their letters with the numerals, 2, 9, 0,
7.
On seeming to be roused from a semi-con
sciousness, and supposing that a thousand
years had passed from the time I fell asleep
under the dreary chanting about the mistakes
of the Bible, I seemed to be walking among
the fancied alcoves of my library, now in
creased by the additions of a thousand years,
and coming across the following correspond
ence I give you the letters, believing that it
may be interesting to the reader to observe
how the reasoning of the future destructive
critic (writing in 2907 of our times in the
spirit in which the destructive critic of 1907
writes of Bible times) will make the condi
tions of our generation to. appear.
. If we of the year 1907 know something of
the conclusions of the learned gentleman of
2907 to be false, whose letters I now reveal,
or if his modes of reasoning are absurd* or if
he lays stress on insufficient data in his logic,
or, especially, if he is ludicrously given to
denying the statements of eye-witnesses to
the facts which we of our time know to be
true, these faults must not be attributed to
me: for I copy the letters and publish them
exactly as I found them a thousand years
before they were written.
J. J. Summerbell.)
Dayton, Ohio.
•Copyrighted by The Christian Sun. Al!
rights reserved.
. ELEVENTH LETTER.
Kinkade, New Zealand, 15, 12, 2107.
My Dear Grandson:
I wish to warn you against an impertinent
review of my great book on “Jonah and the
Whale.” You remember that in that immor
tal work, consisting of sixteen octavo vol
umes, I distinctively proved 'that a whale can
not swallow a man; and therefore we must
regard the book of the Bible relating the
story of Jonah, as a fable or parable.
But my impertinent reviewer was so un
gentlemanly as not to recognize my enormous
labor, and to imply in his very opening sen
tences that I am not candid in the spirit of
my book; since the book of Jonah does not
say that a whale swallowed Jonah, but that
the Lord “prepared a great fish to swallow
Jonah.” And the impudent young man went
on to demonstrate that .my work was entirely
valuless unless I proved that God could not,
or would not, or did not prepare sueh a fish.
He also said I bragged incessantly about the
learning of the higher critics; and I ought
to know that (scientifically) the whale was
not a fish. And he pointed out that in the
New Testament, where the translation nlakes
Jesus to speak of “the whale,” the original
only means sea monster. And the early
Christians knew better than to picture Jon
ah as having experience with a whale: for
in the catacombs at Rome, the monster was
painted as a dragon. And so on he cut my
book to pieces; although I was criticising
the Bible.
I was so indignant at the review, that on
meeting the young man, an editor of a prom
inent paper in Kinkade, I sharply rebuked
him for his impertinence. I told him he had
no right to criticise my book; and that no
learned man would read it without accepting
its conclusions. He said, “Do you claim to
be pope of New Zealand?”
“No,” said I; “but I know that God did
not prepare a great fish tp swallow Jonah.”
He ^replied, “You carinot know that: for
you were not there.”
I said, “How do you know that I was not
there?”
That confounded him: for he is a much
younger man than I am. I went on, as he
was silent, staring at me, “I cannot believe
that God could, or would, or did prepare a
great fish to swallow Jonah.”
The impudent young fellow promptly re
plied, “No; you cannot believe in the power
of God, or his will at times to stretch forth
his hand in the universe; but if some critic
should return from the ruins of Nineveh, and
say that he had seen, on some tablet or wall
discovered the present excavations there,
a statement that some rich men had (eight
centuries before Christ) tamed whales, and
run a regular passenger line of barges towed
’ey whales between" Joppa and Tarshish, you
vould believe that, wouldn’t you; especially
if they should produce a time table and reg
ular schedule of rates for carrying nobility,
common people and prophets?”
To this I hardly knew what to reply: for
he was an editor, and I suspected that he had
some late news of the last expedition to Nine
veh. So I cautiously replied, “Yes; I could
believe that.”
Then the crowd laughed. That seemed to
3n:ourage the young-man, and he burst out
with the most extravagant abuse I ever re
ceived :
“Dr. Critic, you are too old a man to be
3i;c4 a fool. In the book of Jonah, as it is
in the Bible, you put all the emphasis on a
'v. hale that is not there. You ignore the
3v\ eet intimacy of a great prophet with God
(an intimacy permitting him to act like a
spoiled child with his father); you ignore the
exderness of the infinite Father to him,
w ile ye( he holds his child to high and tr?
m-ndous service; you ignore the plain teach
ing of the book that this petted child-prophet
iv. st do exactily as God commands. You
crnnot see all those things; but you see a
w hale that is not there. You ignore what the
book of Jonah tells of the compassion of God
toward the people of Nineveh, by reversing
his own prediction of the destruction of the
city; a picture of sweet mercy and forgive
ness when the people rfepent; a beautiful
picture of the fatherhood of Godv You can
not see that; but you s?e a whale that is
not there. I tell you, Dr. Critic, there is a
n 'raele in the very book of Jonah, greater
than the swallowing of a prophet by a mon
ster of the sea. The book itself is a miracle.
Haw did any writer of that age (eight hun
dred years before Christ) have such lofty
conceptions of the infinite tenderness and
sweetness of the heavenly Father, unless his
own spiritual truthf lness had been so lofty
ss to put him into such close touch with God
as to make him incapable of telling a lie?
Jesus had not yet come to the world. And
even after Jesus hadcome, even Peter, on of
is most intimate disciples, could not be
iove (in that age of general Greek and 3<>
^an culture) that God was not a respebter
if persons, and that God would forgive sin
ners outside of Israel, until God gave him the
vision of the sheet let down from heaven.
Yet here in the book of Jonah we see a pic
ture of God’s rebuking Jonah for wishing the
destruction of a repentant city; pointing out
the existence in it of more than 120,000 chil
*. ; -.j-v4 .
dren, who ought to have a chance of life.
Remember the age, the period, Dr. Critic.
You are forever telling about the progress of
man, his evolution. And your grandson has
been telling me how you have proved the
advance of our age over the conditions in
1907. Remember the time of Jonah; it was
thousands of years before our day; and be
fore 1907. It was an age of cruelty, of re
venge. The city of Nineveh was an enemy
of Israel. Who put the sweet doctrine of
forgiveness into the book of Jonah? Jonah
would not, unless truthful: for the book hu
miliates him. The book is a miracle, greater
than would be the swallowing of a man by a
great fish. Its spiritual doctrine is as that
of the Lord’s prayer. Why do you not be
lieve it?”
I hardly knew what to say; but I replied,
“It’s the swallowing, that swallowing.”
He replied, “You swallow greater hum
bugs than would be the swallowing of Jonah
even by a whale. For you swallow a whale
manufactured by yourself. I believe that
God could prepare a whale that could swal
low a greater man than you are. But you
swallow all kinds of theories to do away with
the plain meaning of the Scriptures. Now
suppose I were to inform you that Dr. Noe
taul the younger, Dr. Maximus Noetaul, had
just discovered an old tablet at Nineveh con
taining the history of Jonah, except that the
“great fish” is there pictured as a swift
Phoenician galley of that name, and' the
‘vomiting’ is pictured as a swinging shore
ward of the prophet by a machine. Would
you believe that?”
I then was almost sure that the editor had
some late news of the expedition to Nineveh,
and I said, “Yes; if Dr. Maximus Noetaul
says that, I would believe the whole story.
But tell me, Mr. Ignorance, do you believe
that a‘great fish’ swallowed Jonah, as the
Scriptures teach?”
Like a flash he replied, “Yes, I do. And
let me suppose something. You are all the
lime framing theories to upset the statements
of the Bible: let me suppose something: Sup
pose the Bible account to be true, suppose
that the ‘great fish’ swam from the Mediter
ranean with all the velocity of a great shark,
for three days and nights, until near the
southeastern shore of the Euxine Sea he
vomited the prophet forth on dry ground, in
the full sight of a great caravan journeying
to Nineveh. Suppose the people of the car
avan to welcome him to their protection, on
seeing the act of the sea monster and hearing
Jonah’s story, allowing him to journey with
them to his destination. All the hundreds of
that caravan, some of them possibly mer
chants of reputation, some of 'them literary
fellows, some of them traveling for pleas
ure, would be witnesses to the miiaculdus
nature of Jonah’s deliverance and mission,
and on his entering Nineveh the history of
his escape from the sea would be told by all
these travelers, and the people of Nineveh
would look on him as a divine messenger: and
it would be easy to see how, notwithstanding
his hateful cry, ‘Yet forty days and Nin
eveh shall be destroyed,’ his eloquence and
truthful denunciation of their sins would ex
cite the sorrow and reformation of the peo
ple, from the palace to the hovel; just as
‘the sign of the prophet Jonah,’ centuries
later, the burial and resurrection of Jesus
himself, when preached on the day of Pente
cost to the citizens of Jerusalem, caused three
thousand of them (on hearing that first ser
mon) to repent ahd join the infant church
at Jerusalem where were many witnesses”—
But I did not stop to hear any more; it
made the book of Jonah and the resurrection
of Jesus look too probable. I am too great
a man to believe anything that contradicts
the ’general experience of mankind. * * * *
And I may here remark that I would advise
you to cease associating with Mr. Ignorance.
His language, that I mentioned, showed that
you had been in communication with him.
His speech to me, as well as his review of
my book, was highly cruel persecution; and
I determined that I would not submit to it.
And I immediately went to the proprietors
of his paper and secured his discharge from
his editorship. ,
Your grandfather,
Higher Critic.