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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 87

Prof. Swing

Prof. Swing

has made a few remarks on this subject, and I say the spirit he has exhibited has been as gentle and as sweet as the perfume of a flower. He was too good a man to stay in the Presbyterian church. He was a rose among thistles. He was a dove among vultures—and they hunted him out, and I am glad he came out. I tell all the churches do drive all such men out, and when he comes I want him to state jnst what he thinks. I want him to tell the people of Chicago whether he believes the Bible ia inspired in any sense except that in which Shakspeare was inspired. Honor bright, I tell you that all the sweet and beautiful things in the Bible would not make one play of Shakspeare; all the philosophy in the Bible would not make one scene in Hamlet, all the beauties of the Bible would not make one scene of the Midsummer Night's Dream; all the beautiful things about woman in the Bible would not begin to create such a character as Perdita, or Imogene, or Miranda. Not one. I want him to tell whether he believes the Bible was inspired in any other way than Shakspeare was inspired. I want him to pick out something as beautiful and tender as Burns' poem to Mary in heaven. I want him to tell whether he believes the story about the bears eating up children; whether that page 20 is inspired. I want him to tell whether he considers that a poem or not. I want to know if the same God made those bears that devoured the children because they laughed at the old man out of hair. I want to know if the same God that did that is the same God who said, "Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." I want him to answer it, and answer it fairly. That is all I ask. I want just the fair thing. Now, sometimes Mr. Swing talks as though he believed the Bible, and then he talks as though ho didn't believe the Bible. The day he made this sermon I think he did, just a little, believe it. He is like a man that passed a ten dollar counterfeit bill. He was arrested, and his father went to see him and said, "John, how could you commit such a crime, how could you bring my grey hairs in sorrow-to the grave?'" "Well," he says, "father, I'll tell you. I got this bill and some days I thought it was bad and some days I thought it was good—and one day when I thought it was good I passed it."

I want it distinctly understood that I have the greatest respect for prof. Swing, but I want him to tell whether the 109th psalm is inspired. I want him to tell whether the passages I shall afterward read in this book are inspired. That is what I want. Then there is another gentleman here.