The Bible and modern thought

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THE BIBLE

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MODERN THOUGHT.

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REV. T. R. PIRKS, M. A.,

EECTOR OP KELSHALL, HERTS.

CINCINNATI:
CURTS & JENNINGS.

NEW YORK:

EATON & MAINS.

WBUC U8RARY

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ASTOR, X.ENOX AN£>
TII*P£« FOUNDATIONS

PEE FAO E.

The present volume was written last Spring, in com-
pliance with a request from the Committee of the Tract
Society, in order to supply some antidote, in a popular
form, to that dangerous school of thought, which denies
the miracles of the Bible, explains away its prophecies,
and sets aside its Divine authority. Various circum-
stances have occasioned some unexpected delay in its
publication. Though suggested by the appearance of
the Essays and Reviews, which have gained so wide a
notoriety, it is not, of course, a direct and formal reply
to them. It is designed for the use of thoughtful Chris-
tians, or serious inquirers, who may have been per-
plexed by modern speculations, and not for scholars
and learned divines. My aim has been to treat the
subject of the Christian evidences and the authority of
the Bible in a simple, clear, and solid style of argu-
ment, logically connected and continuous ; and to deal
with recent objections only so far as they lie directly
in the way, and, like the lions in the allegory, block
up the road of the Christian pilgrim to the palace of

heavenly truth. At the same time, the fourth chapter,

.3

4 PREFACE.

on the Reasonableness of Miracles ; the eighth, on the
Prophecies of the Old Testament; the twelfth and
thirteenth, on the Interpretation of Scripture, and on
its Alleged Discrepancies ; the fourteenth and fifteenth,
on Modern Science ; and the sixteenth, on the Bible
and Natural Conscience, contain a full discussion of
the principles advanced in the Third, the Second, the
Seventh, the Fifth, and the First Essays. But my
desire has been not so much to detect and expose error
as to unfold the truth, and guide the minds of sincere
inquirers into a well-grounded faith in the truth, wis-
dom, harmony, and Divine authority of the Gospel, and
of the written Word of Grod. May it please the Holy
Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, to use it, however
humble in itself, for a help to the faith of the people
of Christ in these latter days !

Kelshall Rectory, Oct. 10, 1861.

EDITOE^S PEEFAOE.

Mr. Birks has evidently well studied the skepticism
of his own day and country; and in the following
work has ably discussed the questions which have come
before him. Modern infidelity is of course charac-
terized by the spirit of the age in which we live.
It is not coarse, daring, open, blasphemous; it does
not attack by ridicule, scurrility, or misrepresentation.
The ribaldry of Voltaire and Paine would offend and
disgust our age, and their works are no longer read.
The infidelity of our day is refined, respectful, subtile,
analytical; it wears the appearance of candor and sin-
cerity; the writer seems to be ingenuously searching
after truth ; he claims to be " an honest skeptic." He
does not level his heavy artillery against the outer
intrenchments ; these have so long and so effectually
hurled back his attacks that their invulnerability seems
to be conceded. With guns of much longer range,
and with much more accurate aim, he attacks the
citadel itself, and hopes to find some weakness in its
inner works.

Laying aside the figure, infidelity no longer contends

against the historical evidences of the Bible ; it no

5

6 editor's preface.

longer charges the sacred writers Avith imposture, dis-
honesty, and collusion; it accepts th( antiquity, the
genuineness, and almost the authenticity of the Scrip-
tures. It concedes to the Bible a high degree of
historical value and antiquarian interest; it extols its
poetical beauties; it praises its lofty aim and pure
morality; it even recognizes in the sacred penmen
deep religious feeling; yet can not acknowledge their
Divine inspiration, nor accept their teachings as the
only and infallible messages of truth. In brief, the
Bible is to the modern infidel a most excellent book
in every respect — literary, historical, moral, and re-
ligious— but is not a revelation from God.

To meet these new and subtile attacks we need new
champions. The attack comes from a new quarter; it
must be met on new ground. It shows its true char-
acter best in Great Britain; in England, therefore, we
expect to find its ablest opponents. Our author ranks
in this class. He sees clearly, understands his work
well, and writes forcibly. He does not evade the real
points at issue, but enters fully and fairly into the
subtile and delicate questions which lie back of all
questions of mere historical credibility, and, conceding
to a considerable extent the honesty of modern in-
quiry, he candidly meets and discusses the real diffi-
culties which the skeptic presents. We bespeak for
this work a cordial reception in this country.

I. W. Wiley.

Cincinnati, July, 1864.

CONTENTS

PAOI

Introduction IS

Infidelity defined, 13 ; its changing forms, 13 ; covert infidelity, 14 ;
its praise of the Bible, 14, 15; need of spiritual discernment, 17;
questions to be answered, 18, 19.

CHAPTER I.

The Nature of Divine Revelation 20

Truths implied — 1. The being of God, 20 ; 2. Reality of crea-
tion, 21 ; 3. Divine Nature capable of being revealed, 22 ; 4.
Man capable of Divine knowledge, 24 ; 5. The fallen condition
of man, 25 ; theory of the " Absolute Religion,"' 27 ; doctrine of
the Fall, the key to supernatural revelation, 29.

CHAPTER II.

Man's Need of Divine Revelation 33

Objection of the Theist, 33 ; the need proved by facts, 34 ; due to
man's corruption, 35 ; no disparagement of natural religion, 36 ;
kinds of inspiration distinguished, 37 ; a true revelation no bur-
den, but a blessing, 38.

CHAPTER III.

The SupERNATTjKAL Claims to Christianity 40

The main question — is Christianity human or Divine ? 40 ; first ap-
peal to the Bible itself, 40 ; midway position untenable in the
presence of its claims, 41 ; St. Matthew's Gospel, 42 ; St. Mark
and St. Luke, 46; St. John's Gospel, 47; Book of Acts, 60;
Apostolic Epistles, 53. Conclusion, a supernatural claim of the
essence of Christianity, 60.

1

8 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV. PAo^
The Reasonableness of Miracles 61

{Examination of Third Eaaay^)
Appeal to miracles by Moses, 61 ; our Lord himself and the apostles,
61 ; recent objections, 63. I. Charges against Christian advocates^
63 ; reply, 64 ; an inquirer not a judge, 65 ; reasoning consistent
with moral guilt of unbelief, 67 ; historical and moral evidence
rightly mingled, 68; belief not a simple act of will, 68; right
order of honest inquiry, 69 ; moral preparation needed, 70. II.
Objections to miracles stated, 73 ; Scripture view of their origin,
75 ; imply a ^Ise view of induction, 76 ; false view of the con-
stancy of natural law, 77 ; false definition of miracles, 79 ; contra-
dictions of the skeptical argument, 80. III. Objections to mira-
cles as evidence, 82 ; definition of miracles, 84 ; their main use,
87; relation of external and internal evidence, 88; result of the
inquiry, 91.

CHAPTER V.

The Historical Truth op the New Testament 95

Historical character of the Bible, 95 ; assaults on the Gospels and
Pentateuch, 96 ; preliminary remarks, 98 ; the Book of Acts to the
death of Herod, 103 ; to St. Paul's voyage, 107 ; internal harmony,
112 ; the four Gospels — times, 114 ; places and persons, 117 ; rec-
oncilable diversity, 119.

CHAPTER VI.

The Historical Truth of the Old Testament 123

I. From the Captivity to Christ — Limits in time, 123 ; absence of
miracle, 126 ; chronological distinctness, 127 ; fullness of detail,
129 ; Book of Esther, 130. II. From Solomon to the Captivity.
Chronology, 132; heathen history, 133; Kings and Chronicles,
136 ; prophetic books, 137. III. From the Conquest to Solomon.
General remarks, 139 ; Book of Joshua, 142 ; Book of Judges, 147 ;
its chronology, 150. IV. The Pentateuch, 152 ; results of induc-
tion, 153.

CHAPTER VII.

The Miracles of the Bible 166

Circular reasoning of modern skeptics, 155. I. Infrequenoy of mira-
cles, 156. II. Their publicity, 160. III. Their consistent plan,
162. IV. Their moral purpose, 167.

CONTENTS. 9

CHAPTER VIIL paob.
The Prophecies op the Old Testament 169

{Remarks on the Second Essay.)
Christianity, an appeal to miracles, 169; and to prophecy, 169; ex-
amples in the Gospels, 170; their wide range, 170; recent objec-
tions examined, 176 ; prophecy, Isa. vii-ix, 179 ; later prophecies
of Isaiah, 184; Book of Daniel, its genuineness, 192; conclusion,
201-203.

CHAPTER IX.

Christianity and Written Revelation 204

Reception of the Bible, a corollary of Christian faith, 204 ; general
outline of the argument, 206 ; stage of doubt, 208 ; faith in the
Gospel, and in the inspiration of the Bible, distinct, though closely
united, 210; inspiration, a positive idea, 213; entrance of written
revelation, a great era, 214 ; its uses and reasons, 215 ; its original
perfection inferred, 217.

CHAPTER X.

The Inspiration of the Old Testament 220

Solemn introduction of written revelation, 220 ; testimonies of our
Lord himself — 1. The temptation, 221 ; 2. Galilean ministry,
222 ; 3. Sermon on the Mount, 223 ; 4. Charge to the leper, 225 ;
5. Testimony to the Baptist, 225 ; 6. Matthew xii, 3-7, 226 ; 7.
Teaching in parables, 227 ; 8. Tradition, Matthew xv, 1-9, 227 ; 9.
The Transfiguration, 228; 10. Divorce, 229; 11. Entrance to
Jerusalem, 229 ; 12. Answers to Sadducees, 231 ; 13. Matthew
xxiii, 232; 14. The passion, 233; 15, 16. St. Luke's Gospel, 234,
235 ; later books, 237 ; general conclusion, 238.

CHAPTER XI.

The Inspiration of the New Testament 240

Evidence less direct, 240. I. Analogy of the Old Testament, 241 ;
II. Special nature of the new dispensation, 242. III. Resem-
blance in structure of New and Old Testament, 244. IV. Prom-
ises to the apostles, 245. V. Their rank compared with the
prophets, 247. VI. Testimonies in St. Paul's Epistles to their
own inspiration, 248. VII. And to the Gospels and Acts, 251.
VIII. Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude, 254. IX. Writings of
St. John, 257. Conclusion, 260.

10 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII • PAOB.
The Interpretation of Scripture. 261

[Remarks on the Seventh Essay.)
Amount of Biblical literature, 261 ; temptation thus occasioned, 261 ;
recoil from the maxim of Vincentius, 262; counter maxim of the
Seventh Essay delusive, 263 ; Bible to be studied naturally, 264 ;
its inspiration not mechanical, 265 ; reverently, as the voice of the
Spirit, 267 ; confusion of the negative criticism, 271 ; contrast in
two examples, 273 ; value of human helps, 276 ; real certainty of
Bible theology, 280.

CHAPTER XIIL
On Alleged Discbepanoies of the Bible 282

Theory of partial inspiration, 282 ; its difficulties, 283 ; divergence
not contradiction, 284; variety one element of the true definition,
Heb. i^y^Q^b; Scriptures a condensed record, 286; silence, no
proof of ignorance, 287 j inferences not assertions, 288. I. Dis-
crepancies alleged in the Essays, 290. II. Prolegomena to the
New Testament, 295.

CHAPTER XIV.
The Bible and Modern Science 308

{Examination of the Fifth Essay.)
Question stated, 308 ; its true limits, 309 ; astronomical objection,
310 ; based on three errors, 311 ; geological difficulties, 316 ; opti-
cal representation, 318; break in Gen. i, 2, 324; events of fourth
day, 330 ; the firmament, 331 ; true relation of Genesis and geol-
ogy, 333-335.

CHAPTER XV.

The same continued 336

All the Bible of Divine authority, 336 ; contains materials of sci-
ences, not sciences themselves, 340.

CHAPTER XVI.
The Bible and Natural Conscience 350

[BenunrJce on the First Essay.)
Question stated, 350; direct authority of Scripture, 352; conscience
not absolute or supreme, 358 ; its true nature, 360 ; no mediator,
361 ; needs to bo corrected and purified by the Word of God, 362;
the Gospel, a;i external autliurity, 368.

CONTENTS. 11

CHAPTER XVn. PAoi.
The Historical Unity of the Bible 371

I. The historical character of the Bible a mark of the Divine
Wisdom, 372. II. Its unity of purpose a proof of its Divine
origin, 375. III. Continuity of outline a distinctive feature, 377.
IV. Simplicity of style, 379. V. Condensation of the Bible his-
tories, 381. VI. The Pentateuch, 383. VII. Later historical
books, 387. VIII. The (Gospels, 392. IX. The Acts of the Apoa-
tles, 397. Conclusion, 401.

CHAPTER XVIIL

The Doctrinal Unity of the Bible 402

I. Doctrinal harmony in all the main topics of religions faith, 403.
1. The creation, 404; 2. The unity of God, 406; 3. The Fall and
corruption of man, 407 ; 4. The doctrine of a Redeemer, 408 : 5.
Salvation by Faith, 409; 6. The need of an atonement, 410 ; 7.
Need of regeneration, 411. II. Harmony in many other particu-
lars, 412 ; contrast between the Old and New Testaments, 413 ; no
real diflference, 413 ; the Law and the Gospel, 415 ; their essential
unity, 420 ; contrast no contradiction, 421.

CHAPTER XIX

Chris ianity a Progressive Scheme .423

Object of the Bible, 423; the scheme' of redemption, 423; not a
scheme for the World's education, 424 ; redemption of the world a
progressive scheme, 425 ; spurious theories of progress, 425 ; the
Bible opposed to all such theories, 426 ; the true progress, 427 ;
the promise and Divine forbearance 428 ; the incarnation of
Christ, 430 ; the final triumDh, 432; the Word of God, 434.

THE BIBLE AND MODEM THOUGHT,

INTRODirCTION.

Christianity claims to be a Divine revelation, or a
message of truth from the living God to the children of
men, contained, embodied, and recorded in the Scriptures
of the New Testament. It claims, further, to be the sequel
and completion of earlier messages from the same Divine
Author, contained and recorded, in like manner, in the
Scriptures of the Old Testament. Christian faith, in the
widest sense of the term, consists in the admission of this
double claim. Infidelity consists in its rejection and denial.

This denial may assume very different forms. It may be
coarse, arrogant, and abusive, or polite, modest, and refined
in its tone. It may load the Bible with abuse, as a gross
imposture, or admire its poetical beauty, extol its pure
morality, and treat it with the reverence of the scholar and
the antiquarian, as containing some of the choicest prod-
ucts of human intelligence. While one type of infidelity
repels and disgusts by its open blasphemy, another allures
and fascinates ingenuous minds by an air of caution and
candor, and puts on the garb of philosophical research, moral
sensibility, and religious reverence. But these, after all,
may be only varieties of the same unbelief. The question
between the Christian and the infidel does not turn upon

the degree of merit or demerit assigned to the Scriptures,

13

14 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

viewed as merely human compositions. It depends on the
admission or rejection of their Divine authority. Is Chris-
tianity a supernatural message from the living and true
Grod, or a mere product of the natural powers of the hu-
man mind? Is the Bible the voice of God, or only the
voice of some Hebrew historians, poets, and moralists — the
word of God, or the word of man?

The form of infidelity which prevailed at the close of
the last century was daring, open, and blasphemous. It
was bred amid the rottenness of a corrupted Church and a
dissolute society; and ascribing to Christianity all the worst
abuses of both, it kept no terms with "the wretch" it
labored to destroy. The experience of seventy years has
wrought a great change in the tactics of this moral war
fare. The hopes of an ungodly and blaspheming philoso
phy were quenched speedily, under the reign of terror, in
a sea of blood. The liberty, equality, and philanthropy,
which had trodden the Bible under foot, were replaced, in
a few years, by the heaviest yoke of military despotism.
At the same time Christian faith received a fresh impulse,
and began to win new trophies, by the revival of mission-
ary zeal, the increased circulation of the Word of God,
and the spread of the Gospel, through the self-jdenying
labors of faithful men, in almost every part of the heathen
world.

In consequence of these changes, the spirit of unbelief
has revealed itself, of late years, in features less repulsive
but more insidious. It rejects the Divine authority of the
Bible, but is willing to extol its poetical beauty, and to
recognize in it a high degree of historical value and anti-
quarian interest. It acquits the sacred writers of willfiil
imposture, and even gives them praise for high religious
feeling, for deep thought, and lofty imagination, though it
refuses to own that they are the messengers of God. Its

INTRODUCTION. 15

motto is no longer that of the unbelieving Pharaoh — " Who
is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" It resembles
more nearly the "Hail, Master" of the false apostle, or the
attempt of the spirit of divination to enter into partnership
with the truth, when it cried — " These men are the servants
of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of
salvation."

This varied and more subtile form of assault on the
authority of the Gospel requires increased discernment and
watchfulness on the part of all the true disciples of Christ.
Open blasphemies are more easily repelled. They revolt us
by their gross impiety, put the conscience at once on its
guard, and may often produce a powerful reaction in favor
of the truth which they assail. But the sapping and min-
ing process of a covert infidelity, which borrows the very
phrases of the Gospel, to give them a philosophical mean-
ing, and will own almost every kind of excellency in the
Scriptures, except the authority of a Divine message, is far
more perilous and seductive to thoughtful and serious
minds. The chasm which separates faith from unbelief,
submission to God from the rejection of his authority, is
bridged over by a thin layer of ambiguous phrases, and
thickly strewn with flowers of fancy, and a sentimental
piety, till it disappears totally from view; and those
who are thorough unbelievers at heart, mistake them-
selves for the genuine disciples of a pure and enlightened
Christianity.

Let us contrast, for example, the ribaldry of Paine and
Voltaire with the following eulogy on the Bible by a mod-
ern ringleader in the attempt to replace Christian faith by
deism or natural religion. It will be evident at once how
total a change has occurred in the weapons of assault; and
what discernment and caution are required in the friends
of truth, that they may not be deceived by smooth and

16 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

complimentary phrases, while the foundations of their 'faith
are silently, but vigorously and daringly assailed.

"This collection of books," Mr. Parker writes, "has
taken such hold of the world as no other. The literature
of Greece, which goes up like incense from that land of
temples and heroic deeds, has not half the influence of this
book from a nation despised alike in ancient and modern
times. It is read in all the ten thousand pulpits of our
land. In all the temples of Christendom is its voice lifted
up week by week. The sun never sets on its glowing page.
It goes equally to the cottage of the plain man and the
palace of the king. It is woven into the literature of the
scholar, and colors the talk of the street. It enters men's
closets, mingles in all the grief and cheerfulness of life.
The Bible attends men in sickness, when the fever of the
world is on them. The aching head finds a softer pillow,
when the Bible lies underneath. The mariner, escaping
from shipwreck, seizes it the first of his treasures, and
keeps it sacred to God. It blesses us when we are born,
gives names to half Christendom, rejoices with us, has sym-
pathy for our mourning, tempers our grief to finer issues.
It is the better part of our sermons. It lifts man above
himself. Our best of uttered prayers are in its storied
speech, wherewith our fathers and the patriarchs prayed.
The timid man, about to awake from his dream of life,
looks through the glass of Scripture, and his eyes grow
bright; he does not fear to stand alone, to tread the way
unknown and distant, to take the death-angel by the hand,
and bid farewell to wife and babes and home. Men rest
on this their dearest hopes. It tells them of God and of
his blessed Son, of earthly duties and heavenly rest. Fool-
ish men find in it the source of 'Plato's wisdom, of the
science of Newton, and the art of Raphael.

"Now, for such effects there must be an adequate cause.

INTRODUCTION. 17

It is no light thing to hold, with an electric chain, a thou-
sand hearts, though but an hour, beating and bounding
with such fiery speed; what is it, then, to hold the Chris-
tian world, and that for centuries? Are men fed with
chaff and husks? The authors we reckon great, whose
articulate breath now sways the nation's mind, will soon
pass away, giving place to other great men of a season,
who in their turn shall follow them to eminence, and then
to oblivion. Some thousand famous writers come up in this
century, to be forgotten in the next. But the silver cord
of the Bible is not loosed, nor its golden bowl broken, as
Time chronicles his tens of centuries passed by. Fire acts
as a refiner of metals : the dross is piled in forgotten heaps,
but the pure gold is reserved for use, and is current a
thousand years h^nce as well as to-day. It is only real
merit that can long pass for such; tinsel will rust in the
storms of life; false weights are soon detected there. It is
only a heart can speak to a heart, a mind to a mind, a
soul to a soul, wisdom to the wise, and religion to the pious.
There must then be in the Bible, mind, heart, and soul,
wisdom and religion; were it otherwise, how could millions
find it their lawgiver, friend, and prophet? Some of the
greatest of human institutions seem built on the Bible:
such things will not stand on chafi^, but on mountains of
rock. What is the secret cause of this wide and deep in-
fluence? It must be found in the Bible itself, and must
be adequate to the efiect." ^''

Such a school of infidelity, which assumes the garb, and
borrows the phrases of Christianity, requires us to look
below the surface, before we can discern its real nature, and
guard against the inroads of its subtile delusions. All these
praises of the Bible, in the writer just quoted, and others

Parker's " Discourse of Religion," pp. 237-2.39, 242.
2

18 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of the same type of thought, are followed by a distinct
and deliberate rejection of its Divine authority. "The
conclusion," we are told, "is forced upon us that the Bible
is a human work, as much as the 'Principia' of Newton oi
Descartes. Some things are beautiful and true, but others
no man in his senses can accept. Here are the works of
various writers, thrown capriciously together, and united by
no common tie but the lids of the bookbinder — two forms
of religion which differ widely, one the religion of fear, and
the other of love."

The same spirit evidently pervades other writings, which
profess to set Christianity free from the trammels of a tradi-
tional orthodoxy, and to bring it into harmony with the
discoveries of modern science. It is essential, then, to look
beneath the surface of the inquiry, and to examine the
foundations themselves. A course of argument, like that
of Paley, may be triumphant and complete against a direct
charge of imposture, dishonesty, and collusion. But the
form of temptation which now assails the Church requires
some previous questions, more subtile and delicate in their
nature, to be examined. What do we mean by a Divine rev-
elation? What are the conditions on which its possibility,
its probability, or its certainty depend? What need is
there that such a revelation should be given to mankind?
How far can miracles, prophecies, or moral excellence, sep-
arately or in combination, furnish decisive evidence of its
reality? How may we infer the Divine authority of the
Bible from the statement of the Bible itself, without a
vicious circle in our reasoning? How are we to explain
alleged contradictions between the language of Scripture
and the results of antiquarian research, and the real or
supposed discoveries of modern science? How can we
reconcile the doctrine of Divine inspiration, and the claim
of the Bible to a supernatural origin, with the innumer;ible

INTRODUCTION. 19

signs of human authorship, with seeming discrepancies iu
its historical statements, and the diversity of manner and
style in its different writers? Such questions as these re-
quire to be carefully examined, if a bulwark is to be reared
against the tide-wave of skeptical thought, which threatens,
at this moment, to bury the old landmarks of Christian
faith.

20 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

CHAPTER I.

THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATION.

What do you mean by a Divine revelation? What are
the conditions on which the possibility of its occurrence
depends? These are among the first questions which must
be answered, that our acceptance of Christianity under the
character of a message from God may be a well-grounded
and reasonable faith.

The first truth, plainly implied, is the being op God
as a personal and conscious intelligence. "He that cometh
to God must believe that he is." Atheism by its very
nature excludes all possibility of revelation. If there be
no God there can be no communication from God to man.
A blind, mechanical, unconscious Fate can never be the
source of intelligible messages to intelligent beings. All
faith in Divine revelation must imply a previous conviction
that "there is a God in heaven who revealeth secrets "= —
an unseen lawgiver who is capable of making known his
will to mankind.

That faith in God, however, which must precede' our
belief in a Divine message may be exceedingly dim, vague,
and imperfect. It need not be more than a strong impres-
sion that there is some unseen intelligence higher, greater,
and wiser than men. The true character of this unknown
Being may remain concealed in thick darkness till it is
learned from his own messages. Atheism makes the ac-
ceptance of a Divine revelation a contradiction and an im-
possibility. • A full and adequate knowledge of God, apart

THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATION. 21

from such a revelation, and before it is /eceived, \vould
degrade it into a useless and unmeaning superfluity.

A second truth, equally implied in the fact of revelation,
is THE REALITY OP CREATED EXISTENCE. Those who re-
ceive a Divine message must be distinct from him who
sends it. It may seem needless at first sight to dwell
even for a moment on a truth so clear and self-evident.
Philosophers, however, both in ancient and modern times,
have often stumbled at the very threshold of true science,
and have mistaken a denial of the earliest lessons of self-
consciousness for superiority to vulgar prejudice, and a
proof of their own more profound wisdom. The Maya or
illusion of the Brahman, the absorption of Buddhism, the
theories of Spinoza, the skeptical philosophy of Hume, and
some later forms of German speculation, agree in denyinjj;
the distinct reality of created existence. Whenever the
Scriptural idea of creation is replaced by one of emanation
or development, such a result seems naturally to follow.
Pantheism in all its forms, no less than mere atheism,
excludes revelation, and makes it impossible. If the souls
of men are only parts of the Infinite Soul of the universe,
there may be strange pulsations of life in this complex
universe of being; but revelation, or the conveyance of
truth from a Creator to his own creatures, becomes a logical
contradiction. We must believe that we are, as well as
that God is, before we can believe that God has made
to his erring and sinful creatures a true revelation of his
own will.

A Divine message, like a mediator, is "not of one."
It requires evidently two distinct parties — a giver and a
receiver. The existence of the rational creature must be
real, or there can be no manifestation of the Creator. This
fundamental truth of our consciousness, without which all
revelation- would be impossible, is confirmed and ratified

22 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

by the very first utterance of revealed religion wlien it
tells us that "in the beginning Grod created the heavens
and the earth," and that man himself was formed "in the
image of God."

A third truth, also implied in the acceptance of a Divine
revelation, is the -power of God to make knowjs his

NATURE AND WILL TO HIS OWN CREATURES. His absolute

dominion and infinite greatness do not make it impossible
for him to reveal himself to men. The conception would
indeed be strange, of a Being condemned by his own per-
fection to an eternal solitude; able to give life and reason
to finite and intelligent creatures ; but unable, because he
is infinite, to bridge over the immense chasm which sepa-
rates him from his own works, or to make known to those
creatures his mind and will. On the contrary, one of those
perfections which reason plainly requires us to ascribe to
him, is the capability of revealing himself to all the ra-
tional creatures he has made. We may here apply the de-
cisive reasoning of the Psalmist: "He that planted the ear,
shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not
see?" The argument, when carried a step further, is
equally cogent. He that fashioned the tongue, shall he
not be able to make his voice heard in clearest accents,
and to communicate his mind and will to the children of
men?

It is quite possible, in recoiling from the proud claims
of natural reason, while it pretends to form a priori systems
of the universe, to fall into error no less dangerous on the
opposite side. The finite can not comprehend the infinite.
Hence the inference may be drawn that the nature of God
must lemain forever inaccessible and wholly unknown.
But this would be an illusion contradicted by every anal-
ogy in every field of science. In all subjects, from the
lowest to the highest, partial but real knowledge is the

THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATION. 23

essential condition of a created and finite intelligence.
Created existence is a middle term between nonentity and
absolute being. The knowledge of rational creatures, in
like manner, is a middle term between pure nescience and
perfect omniscience. That a real, genuine, though, of
course, an imperfect knowledge of God is attainable, and
ought to be attained, is one of the fundamental doctrines
both of natural and revealed religion. It ranks side by
side with the doctrine of creation, that is, faith in the re-
ality of our own existence as the rational and intelligent
creatures of God.

In every subject of thought knowledge may be real with-
out being exhaustive or complete. The landscape may be
spread beneath our eye in clear outline, though parts near
the horizon are seen dimly, and all that lies beyond that
horizon is wholly hidden from our view. The knowledge
that two and two are four is within the reach of a child : it
is a definite truth contrasted with a falsehood, in excess
and defect, on either side ; but to comprehend all the prop-
erties and relations of any one number — even iwo, the sim-
plest of them all — would require omniscience. There is no
room for a contrast, in this respect, between the knowledge
of God and any other kind of knowledge whatever. The
maxim, "We know in part," applies impartially to every
field of natural, moral, and theological science. The de-
grees of our knowledge or ignorance may differ widely.
Fall'^n man knows much of nature, little of himself, and
least of his Maker. But even where his knowledge is
greatest, far more than he has learned remains still un-
known ; and even where his ignorance is deepest, some
traces remain, though in broken characters, of "the work
of the law written in the heart."

Such is the third truth implied in the idea of a revela-
tion, that the will and character, the ways and purposes of

24 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

God, are capable of being made known to his intelligem
creatures. But when we speak of a revelation to mankind,
a further doctrine is implied — that man, in his actual

STATE, has a capacity FOR LEARNING AND KNOWING THE

TRUTH OF God.

If we had no faculty of reason distinguishing us from
the brutes, it would be unmeaning to address to us any
message that requires the exercise of intelligence. There
must be powers and capacities receptive of Divine truth,
or else revelation would be impossible, and the claim of
Christianity to be a message from God to mankind would
be convicted of absurdity. It could no longer have any
reasonable foundation on which to rest.

This truth, however plain, has been often obscured, and
perhaps sometimes even denied, by overzealous advocates
of Christian orthodoxy. The strong statements of Scrip-
ture respecting the moral disease and inability of man may
be so combined and isolated as to engender a dull, passive
fatalism, and turn into an idle mockery that earnest appeal
to the human conscience which runs throughout the whole
course of the Word of God. The heart of sinners, we are
told, is gross; their ears are heavy; their eyes are blind;
they are "dead in trespasses and sins." Such passages,
taken alone, might appear to teach a natural incapacity
for discerning any moral and religious truth rather than
deep moral aversion from the messages of God. But other
statements, equally strong and clear, restore the balance
of truth. There is a frequent appeal to the conscience of
the sinner himself on the equity of the Divine commands:
*'Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord."
"And now, 0 inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard." "0,
my people, wherein have I wearied thee? testify against
me." "Yea, and why even of your own selves judge ye

THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATION. 25

QOt what is right?" The corruption of the sinful heart
of man, and its averseness from the messages of God, is
vividly portrayed in striking metaphors; but the presence
of a natural capacity to discern the authority of those
messages and to recognize their equity is also stated in
the most emphatic and decisive terms.

These four main truths — the being of God, the reality of
created existence, the communicableness of Divine knowl-
edge, and the capacity of men for apprehending spiritual
truth — are fundamental conditions and prerequisites of all
faith in revealed religion. They separate the Christian
believer at the outset from the atheist, the pantheist, or
philosophical Buddhist, the skeptical idealist of the trans-
cendental school, and the skeptical materialist of the posi-
tive philosophy. One further truth, however, is required,
which distinguishes Christian faith from the most subtile
and specious variety of unbelief — the doctrine of spiritual
theism, with its admission of a constant, universal, uninter-
mitted revelation of the will of God to the whole race of
mankind. This further truth, on which the doctrine of
supernatural revelation, when viewed 'practically, will be
found to rest, is the fallen condition of man, which
requires special interpositions of Divine love and wisdom
in order to effect his recovery.

Let us conceive a world of perfect moral purity, where
no cloud of sin has ever dimmed the light of the Divine
presence, or concealed the Holy One from the view of his
own creatures. There might still, no doubt, be precepts
and commands of the Creator, the reason of which was not
explained, and which might retain the character of out-
ward messages, communicated directly by the Word and
the Spirit of God to sinless beings, willing subjects of the
Divine authority. But where all was light the only con-
trast would consist in various degrees of the same heavenly

26 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

brightness. The heavens would declare the glory of theii
Maker, and the firmament would show his handiwork.
Every breath, every pulse of life, in every creature, would
be referred instinctively to its Divine Author. His presence
would be felt and his praise would be sung in the wonder-
ful workmanship of the human frame, and in every exer-
cise of the higher faculties of the soul within. All nature
would be redolent of worship; all creatures would reflect,
like unsullied mirrors, some ray of the Divine goodness.
Life, in all its forms and in all its activities, would be one
series of ceaseless revelations of the goodness and wisdom
of the Creator. The world itself would be bathed in the
light of the Divine presence. Revelations, ever new and
endlessly varied, would be imparted to the souls of men by
every sunrise and every sunset, by the song of the birds
and the fragrance of the flowers, by the joys of childhood
and the ripened wisdom of age, by all the beauties of the
earth and all the glories of the sky. There might still be,
from time to time, special manifestations of God's gracious
presence, and more signal communications of his truth and
love, by the visits of angels, or direct appearance of the
Son of Grod. But where all was light and love the sense
of contrast between these special revelations and the ordi-
nary course of Providence, since this itself would be a
continual and conscious revelation of God's presence and
love, would almost disappear. A crystal palace, whose
transparent walls admit the full daylight on every side,
may receive a richer splendor when the sun breaks forth
from a cloud and lights it up with noonday brilliance; but
there was no darkness before, and that fuller light, howevei
pleasant and joyful it may be, scarcely receives the name
of a revelation. But let one such ray of sunlight, through
some narrow crevice, visit the low dungeon whose massive
walls exclude the least beam of day, whose narrow window

THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATION. 27

choked with dust, cau do no more than make darkness
visible, and where some unhappy prisoner is pining in
hopeless gloom, and then it is a revelation indeed. The
light becomes more conspicuous and more joyful by the
sudden contrast with the previous darkness.

Pure theism or spiritualism is the most subtile and plaus-
ible rival of Christian faith. It approaches nearest to it,
adopts its phrases, borrows its morality, and nestles, as it
were, close to its side. It rejects the open blasphemies of
atheism, and the misty dreams of a pantheistic philosophy
It allows, and even asserts, that God is able to make him-
self known to his creatures, and that man has faculties
capable of receiving Divine communications. So far the
Spiritualist, the disciple of "Absolute Religion," and the
Christian believer, travel side by side; but here their paths,
diverge from each other. Christianity affirms the doctrine
of the fall, or a moral degeneracy and corruption of all
mankind, which makes a supernatural provision of mercy
desirable, and even essential, for their recovery. The spir-
itualist sets the doctrine aside, as degrading to human
nature, and a mere dream of melancholy superstition. On
this rejection he builds his own theory of revelation; and
the following extract from the eloquent writer already
quoted will show its total contrariety to the lessons of
Christian faith:

"We have direct access to God through reason, con-
science, the religious sentiment, just as we have direct
access to nature through the eye, the ear, or the hand.
Through these channels, and by means of a law, certain,
regular, and universal as gravitation, God inspires man,
makes revelation of truth. This inspiration is no miracle,
but a regular mode of Gwd's action on conscious spirit, as
gravitation on unconscious matter. It is not a rare conde-
scension of God, but a universal uplifting of man. To

28 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUCxHl.

obtain a knowledge of duty, man is not sent away, outside
of himself, to ancient documents, for the only rule of life
and practice; the word is very nigh him, even in his heart;
and by this word he is to try all documents whatever. In-
spiration, like God's omnipresence, is not limited to the few
writers claimed by the Jews, Christians, or Mohammedans,
but is coextensive with the race.

"This theory does not make Grod limited, partial, or ca-
pricious. It exalts man. While it honors the excellence
of a religious genius — of a Moses or a Jesus — it does not
pronounce their character monstrous, as the supernatural
theory; but natural, human, beautiful, revealing the pos-
sibility of mankind. Prayer is not a soliloquy, not an ad-
dress to a deceased man, but a sally into the spiritual
world, whence we bring back light and truth. There are
windows toward God as toward the world. There is no in-
tercessor or mediator between man and God ; for man can
speak, and God can hear, each for himself He requires
no advocate to plead for men, who need not pray by at-
torney. Each soul stands close to the omnipresent God,
may feel his beautiful presence, and have familiar access to
him — get truth at first hand from its Author. Is inspira-
tion confined to theological matters alone? Is Newton less
inspired than Simon Peter? . . . Plato and Newton,
Milton and Isaiah, Leibnitz and Paul, Mozart, Raphael,
Phidias, Praxiteles, and Orpheus, receive into their various
forms the one spirit from God most high." *

This theory of inspiration, it must be plain, is based on
a silent assumption of the unfallen and sinless condition of
mankind. Christianity, in its claim to be a supernatural
revelation, special and distinctive in its messengers ana
messages, though world-wide in its aims, starts from the

«- Parker's " Discourse/* pp. 160-165.

THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATION. 29

opposite assumption, that mankind have fallen from original
uprightness, and that means more powerful than the voice
of nature alone are needed I'or their recovery.

The doctrine of the fall, once received, explains all the
special features of supernatural revelation. Nature, in all
her works, in the rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,
may still bear witness to the bounty of her Maker. The
heavens may still declare the glory of God, and the firma-
ment may show his handiwork. But sin has made the eyes
of men dim, and their ears deaf, that they seldom heed the
message; and it has rendered deeper revelations of God's
character than mere bounty and general benevolence essen-
tial to man's recovery from a state of guilt, alienation, and
moral ruin. It fills the conscience with terrors, and the
understanding with strong and strange delusions. It turns
men into tempters and deceivers, each to the other, instead
of multiplying mirrors, reflecting brightly upon each other
the beams of the Divine goodness. Its universal tendency,
and, in dark times, its actual result, is to pervert human
society into a gigantic system of moral falsehood, in which
men are "foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating
one another." Tit. iii, 3. The light from God's natural
works still shines upon this land of mist and darkness;
but "the darkness comprehendeth it not:" it is too feeble
to penetrate the thick gloom. Every field of nature is
either peopled with phantom gods — the mere reflections of
human lust and appetite — or second causes alone are seen,
and the great First Cause is thrust out of sight and forgot-
ten. It becomes needful, then, by signs and wonders, to
break through the monotony of nature, and to force on re-
luctant hearts the conviction that there is a living God, the
Lord of nature, higher and nobler than the laws he has
ordainod for his creatures, the true Sovereign of the imi-

30 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

verse. Since men have become mutual deceivers, unable to
discern even the simpler lessons of natural religion, and
still more to anticipate the mysteries of redemption, and to
devise, or even to understand, the means required for their
own recovery, special messengers of truth must be provided,
if the work of mercy is to be carried on. The Word of
Grod, whether before his incarnation, or incarnate in human
flesh, may thus have to become the messenger to sinners
of his Father's will. Angels, whose vision of God has
been dimmed by no fall, though their intercourse with a
fallen race is almost wholly suspended, may still be sent,
from time to time, on errands of mercy or of judgment, at
the bidding of their Lord. Holy men, the choice first-
fruits of redemption, in whom the work of moral recovery
is more advanced than in their fellows, may be raised, from
time to time, above themselves, and shielded from the in
fluence of remaining infirmity and error, in order to become
the vehicles of Divine messages to their fellow-men. And
thus by prophets, by angels, and the Son of Grod himself,
attested by miracles and by prophecies, a system of Divine
revelation may be carried on, which meets the necessities
of a fallen race, speaks to mankind in louder and clearer
tones, and with wider and deeper truths, than a mere re-
ligion of nature can attain; secures at every step of its
progress some partial victories of truth and righteousness
over sin, error, and delusion ; and moves on with firm and
measured step toward a long-promised consummation of re-
stored holiness, when the tabernacle of God shall be with
men, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

To decide, then, between the high-sounding dreams of
spiritualism, with its pretensions to universal inspiration,
and the modest claims of Christianity, with its specialities of
miracle, prophecy, and sacrifice, we \ieed only read the
history of the world, and its long ages of sin and sorrow

THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATION. 31

The voice of nature might well suffice for an unfallen race;
or if it were supplemented by special messages from heaven,
these angels' visits need not be "few and far between," and
would lose their strange and miraculous character amid the
unclouded sunshine of a sinless world. But when mankind
have turned their backs on the light, and plunged them-
selves into thick darkness ; when habits of sin have blunted
the conscience, and tainted and defiled every faculty of the
soul; when the laws of a holy God have been broken, and
denounce a curse against the rebels who have trampled
them under their feet; when the pall of death broods over
the whole race, and the daily spectacle of its ravages, with
no return from the grave, has almost blotted out all faith
in the soul's immortality; when life is short, and death is
near, and judgment at hand, and conscience accuses, and
the law of Grod condemns, and dark clouds of fear and re-
morse have separated the souls of men from their God^t
needs a clearer and stronger voice than that of nature
alone, to restore peace to the troubled heart, to subdue the
inveterate power of sin, and open the pathway of life to
the trembling sinner. For Nature herself has solemn mes-
sages, and can terrify the guilty with the fear of judgment
to come, no less than delight the children of innocence
with her tones of gentleness and peace. Clouds and thick
darkness, the volcano and the earthquake, the lightning,
the whirlwind and the hurricane, the spreading fever, and
the destroying pestilence, all have their own voice of fear
and alarm to the guilty consciences of men. They echo in
loud accents the warning of the Bible itself, that "the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodli-
ness and unrighteousness of men."

Christianity, then, in claiming to be a special and super-
natural revelation, implies and presupposes the great doc-
trine of the fall of mankind. Whenever this truth is de

32 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

nied, the need for any such special interference of Grod, tc
make known his ways, will cease to be recognized, and the
sufficiency of the mere light of nature will be maintained.
The specialities of revealed religion will then be held for
so many proofs of its arbitrary and capricious character, so
as to make it unworthy a God of universal benevolence.
The whole provision of supernatural evidence, in miracles
and prophecies, will seem a laborious superfluity; and then,
by natural consequence, an incredible deviation from the
fixed and usual laws of Divine Providence. "When a whole
neighborhood are enjoying perfect health, the arrangements
of a hospital, with its nurses and physicians, its wards and
couches, its medicines and surgical instruments, however
complete or skillfully devised, may seem to be only a com-
plicated and laborious folly. "They that be whole need
not a physician, but they that are sick.',' An unfallen and
sinless race would have little need for a long series of mi-
raculous messages and supernatural revelations.

Once admit, however, the truth that man is fallen and
apostate, and needs rescuing from moral degradation and
spiritual danger, and the seeming anomaly disappears.
Christianity, with its miracles and prophecies, and myste-
rious doctrines, is no longer an inexplicable paradox, a
strange, incredible excrescence on the simpler creed of pure
theism and universal philanthropy — a creed maintained to
be complete and effective, without this higher aid, to meet
every want of the souls of men. On the contrary, the
truth of its own descriptions of its blessed office commends
itself at once to the burdened conscience and the sorrowing
heart. The salvation it brings to sinners is "the power of
God, and the wisdom of God;" and the Savior in whom it
centers is "the Dayspring from on high," sent on a visit
of mercy to a race of wandering prodigals, " to give light
to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death."

man's need op divine revelation. 33

CHAPTER II.

MAN'S NEED OF DIVINE REVELATION.

"1 DEEM it unnecessary to prove that mankind stood in
need of a revelation, because I have met with no serious
person who thinks that, even under the Christian revela-
tion, we have too much light, or any degree of assurance
that is superfluous."

The objection, which Paley has thus pithily dismissed in
his opening sentence, has been revived by some late writers
in a more paradoxical form. A supernatural revelation,
they affirm gravely, instead of a help, would be only a
hinderance to the souls of men. It would charge the
scheme of Providence with an inexcusable defect. Its ad-
mission disparages and sets aside natural religion, and
denies the ceaseless activity of the Divine goodness. It
would lay a heavy yoke upon the reason and conscience,
and subject them to a degrading and oppressive tyranny.
The charge has been made in these words:

"This theory makes inspiration a very rare miracle, con-
fined to one nation, and to some score of men in that na-
tion, who stand between us and Grod. We can not pray in
our own name, but in that of the Mediator, who makes in-
tercession for us. It exalts miraculous persons, and de-
grades men. Our duty is not to inquire into the truth of
their word; reason is no judge of that: we must put faith
in all which all of them tell us. It sacrifices reason, con-
science, and love to the words of the miraculous men; and
thus makes its mediator a tyrant who rules over the soul by

34 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

external authority, not a brotlier who acts in the soul by
awakening its dormant powers. It says the canon of reve
lation is closed; God will no longer act on man as here-
tofore. We have come at the end of the feast, are born in
the latter days and dotage of mankind, and can only get
light by raking among the ashes of the past. The religion
of supernaturalism is worn-out and second-handed. Its
vice is to restrict the Divine presence and action to towns,
places, and persons. It overlooks the fact, that if religious
truth be necessary for all, then it must either have been
provided and put within the reach of all, or else there is a
fault in the Divine plan. If the two main points — a knowl-
edge of the existence of God, and of the duty we owe to
him — be within the reach of man's natural powers, how is
a miracle, or the tradition of a miracle, needed to reveal the
minor doctrines involved in the universal truth? Where,
then, is the use of miraculous interposition?"*

I. The first objection is here made to lie against the
notion itself, that a supernatural revelation could be need-
ful, or even desirable, for mankind. It would imply, it
is said, a serious fault in the plan of Providence. That
scheme must be perfect; and could not be perfect if men
stood in need of any supernatural light. No matter what
the historical evidence may be, that men, without such aid,
have groped for ages in thick darkness, the whole must
give way, in the view of such confident theorists, to this
one aphorism of a priori reasoning, and is refuted by their
own conception of what a perfect scheme of Providence
inevitably requires.

The simplest reply, then, to this first objection, is an
appeal from dreams to facts, from the fancies of rash and
ignorant speculation to the stern realities of the world's

*" Discourse of Religion," pp. 156, 158.

man's need of divine revelation. 35

history. Whatever the means of natural light which, in
the view of such theorists, must have been provided, the
great bulk of mankind have been steeped for long ages in
gross religious darkness. ^ The same writers who assure us
that a miraculous revelation is needless, or else the Divine
plan would be imperfect, map out the religious history of
the past into three stages, which they describe as follows:
The first is Fetichism, in which "the saint is a murderer,
and the fancied Grod presides over the butchery." The
second is Polytheism, in which "the gods were to be had
at a bargain;" and the priesthood "separated morality from
religion, life from belief, good sense from theology," and
the story is "a tragedy of sin and woe." The third and
latest is a corrupt Monotheism, whose disciples " make
earth a demon-land, and the one God a king of devils."
Men have groped, it seems, in such blindness for thou-
sands of years ; but they must be held, on a priori grounds,
to have lived all the time in clear daylight, rather than
skeptics will own that there could be any real need for a
supernatural revelation.

But the objection is no less faulty and worthless in its
reasoning, than opposed to the plainest facts in the relig-
ious history of the world. Miraculous messages imply no
fault in the Divine plan, but only sin and corruption on
the part of men. Means of religious light, adequate to
the wants of sinless creatures, have been provided from
the first, in the works of nature and the rich bounties of
Providence, and have never been withdrawn. It is sin and
rebellion alone which have dulled the understanding, and
perverted the will, so that nature no longer avails to lead
the souls of men "through nature up to nature's God."
This same apostasy has also called into exercise deeper
attributes of the Godhead, and has made it needful for
men to apprehend higher truths than nature alone could

36 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

teach them, before they can be recovered to the lost favor
and image of their Maker again. Even in the outward
world, the food of health is far more abundant than the
medicines which are required in sickness. The profligate,
who has ruined his health by vice and intemperance, has
no right to blame the constitution of nature, if the reme-
dies of the physician, unlike his daily bread, are costly in
price, and possibly difficult to procure. Christianity, on
the face of it, professes to be a Divine remedy for a dan-
gerous moral disease. The Savior, to whom it points, is
the physician of souls. The disease which needs an efi"ect-
ual cure, is guilt, disobedience, and rebellion against the
Divine will. Those who are suffering from such a malady
only prove its depth and malignity, when they claim that
the Great Physician shall consult their notions of equity,
rather than his own wisdom and holiness, in the means he
may graciously devise for restoring guilty and rebellious
sinners to moral health and happiness again.

II. The second charge against miraculous revelation is,
that it would be positively hurtful, because it disparages
and sets aside natural religion, and confines inspiration to
a few persons only, in a remote age of the world's history.

The reply to this strange indictment is very simple. The
gift of revelation withdraws from mankind nothing which
they really possessed before. Instead of blotting out the
lessons of God's natural works, it revives them, and makes
all those works speak in clearer accents than ever to the
souls of men. The only sacrifice it involves is that of
mischievous delusions, by which men indulge in vain fan-
cies of light and knowledge, while they are really sunk in
gross darkness. It forbids the guilty rebel to say "Peace,
peace" when there is no peace. It forbids the cruel sav-
age, "his hands smeared all over with the blood of human
sacrifice," to think that he needs no mediator or advocate,

man's need op divine revelation. 37

but "stands close to God, may feel his beautilul presence,
and have familiar access to him," and, without change or
repentance, may "sit down" with prophets and saints "in
the kingdom of God." All the means of instruction which
nature without or conscience within supply to men, remain
as before, or rather their efficacy is largely increased. The
only loss is that of the moral delirium, which boasts of
health amidst the symptoms of a raging fever; and extols,
man's higher capacities for knowing and loving his Maker,
amidst the wide-spread ruin of a moral desolation which
has reached from the first dawn of history down to our
own days, making every page of the world's history resem-
ble the roll of the prophet, full of "lamentations, and
mourning, and woe."

Again, the charge that inspiration is thus confined to a
few individuals, and the presence of God restricted to par-
ticular times, places, and persons, has no other ground than
a palpable abuse of terms. Inspiration, in the sense in
which the Christian claims it for prophets and evangelists,
instead of being made universal by the skeptic, is denied
and rejected altogether. In the sense affirmed by the
skeptic himself, or as a common gift or capacity of all
men, it is not denied by the Christian, but is only freed
from an absurd and mischievous exaggeration. It is the
constant and daily prayer of the Church of Christ, to the
God of the Bible, that "by his holy inspiration we may
think those things which be good; and by his merciful
guiding we may perform the same," and that he would
"cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of
his Holy Spirit, so that we may perfectly love him, and
worthily magnify his holy name." The double doctrine
of a natural action of the Spirit of God on the souls of
all men, in sustaining and upholding their various facul-
ties, and of a special action on the souls of the good and

38 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

holy, to renew and sanctify them from day to day, is a
main and fundamental part of the orthodox Christian faith.
The belief in a more special inspiration, usually confined
to "holy men of Glod," but given in some rare cases to
others, and designed to fit them for the special work of
transmitting pure truth from God to their fellow-men, does
not interfere in the least with those wider statements of
the Grospel which are confirmed by the daily experience of
all pious Christians. There is thus a natural, a moral, and
a prijphetic inspiration. The natural belongs to all man-
kind. Gen. ii, 7; Job xxxii, 8. The moral is the priv-
ilege of holy and regenerate souls. The prophetic belongs
to those whom the sovereign will of the Supreme Lawgiver
has singled out to convey and record his own messages,
with Divine authority, for the general benefit of the human
race.

III. The third objection brought against Divine revela-
tion is, that it lays a yoke upon the reason and conscience,
and makes them subject to a degrading tyranny.

The true relation between the Bible and human conscience
needs a distinct inquiry, since it is this point which forms
the main divergence between Christian faith and a negative
or semi-infidel theology. As a preliminary objection, this
indictment against the word of God in the Bible only calls
for a brief reply. Assuming the claim of a supposed reve-
lation to be false, and its contents to be unworthy of that
God in whose name it is given, there can be no doubt that
the admission of its Divine authority will impose a heavy
burden upon the conscience and reason of all whom it has
deceived. They must either lower their conceptions of the
Almighty to the level of a human forgery, or else put a
force upon language, and submit to an immoral practice
of disingenuous and forced interpretations of the messages
tliey profess to receive as Divine. At least this result

man's need of divine revelation. 39

must follow, unless we ascribe a moral wisdom and excel-
lence to the pretended revelation, which it seems incredible
that a mere imposture should attain.

On the other hand, if the God of truth and wisdom has
really been pleased to make known his will to men, and
has given them messages sealed with clear marks of their
Divine origin, then the obligation to receive these messages
in their true character, and to use them for gaining insight
into the ways and works of Grod, can never be felt as an
oppressive yoke by the wise, the humble, and the pious.
Such a gift can be irksome and oppressive only to the
proud, the self-willed, and the profane. It is not reason
and conscience, but rather a satanic pride, which refuses
to sit humbly at the feet of our Lord; and instead of
wondering at "the gracious words which proceed from his
lips," and treasuring them in the heart with gladness and
reverence, sees in them a usurpation on its own fancied
right to speculate, without restraint and without a guide,
on the character, the works, and the providence of the
Most High. The mere fact that such an objection could
be made to the reception of the Bible, as endued with
Divine authority, by those who have been reared in a
Christian land, and have had means of acquainting them-
selves with its treasures of grace and holiness, is only a
new illustration of the truth of one of its inspired warn-
ings. The God of the Bible, in every age, hides his truth
from the wise and prudent, and reveals it to babes. "He
hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he
hath sent empty away."

40 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

CHAPTER III.

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY.

The contrast between Christian faith and that school of
thought which professes to introduce a more free and ra-
tional theology, lies much deeper than the question whether
the canon of Scripture be perfect, and its inspiration verbal,
plenary, and complete. It relates to that main feature of
the whole message on which its practical worth and excel-
lency entirely depends. Is Christianity itself human or
divine? Is it simply a product of imposture or super-
stition, or at best of the unaided wisdom of imperfect,
prejudiced, and fallible men? Or is it the voice of the
living God speaking to his creatures by prophets, whom
he has himself commissioned and inspired, and by his only
begotten Son? Is it a message, every part of which must
stand or fall separately, according to our private opinion
of its merit? or one which he has ratified, in all its parts,
"with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of
the Holy Grhost, according to his own will?"

Here the first duty of every honest inquirer is to learn
what the writers of the Bible themselves affirm respecting
the nature of their message. Their statement, of course,
will not of itself prove the reality of their Divine mission.
"If I bear record of myself," our Lord said to the Phari-
sees, "my record is not true." The mere assertion of
high claims, unsustained by any further evidence, is always
suspicious. It may often be a mark of imposture or of
fanatical delusion. But still an important end is at once

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 41

lulfilled when it is seen that the Law and the Gospel, as
recorded by Moses and the Evangelists, do manifestly claim
for themselves a supernatural character as the proof of
their Divine origin. The controversy is greatly narrowed.
Men will be saved from the delusion of supposing that
they are genuine Christians of a more enlightened school,
while they submit the Gospel piecemeal to the tribunal of
their own private reason, and admit or reject in its pages
just whatever pleases them. If the Bible is, or even if it
contains, a Divinely-attested message, then our first duty is
to ascertain to what part, whether more or less, the attesta-
tion is to be given, and to receive all such portions with
the docility of a childlike ftiith. But a book, every part
of which is to be received or rejected independently, ac-
cording as we judge its histories to be true or faulty, its
doctrines reasonable or foolish, its morals sound and true,
or unsound and erroneous, differs in no respect from any
other book whatever. Miraculous attestations to such a
message are a ridiculous superfluity, since we can not tell
what it is they are meant to attest. There would thus be
an apparatus of special interferences for no practical end ;
a miraculous derangement of the course of nature, and a
singular change in the usual laws of Providence, completely
wasted and thrown away.

Every midway position between belief and disbelief be-
comes untenable, in the presence of a distinct claim by our
Lord and his apostles to a miraculous commission. If this
claim be true, then a merely eclectic Christianity is an ab-
surdity in logic, and, in morals, a direct rebellion against ,
the authority of God. If the claim be false, those who
make it must be either impostors or fanatics; and hence
they must rank lower, either in simple honesty, or in wis-
dom and good sense, than good men of an ordinary stamp,
who have never been guilty of so great an extravagance.

42 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

The mere existence of this claim on their part, when once
proved, shuts out every compromise. Those can not be
safe guides, as mere human teachers and moralists, who
have either feigned or fancied a direct commission from
Heaven they never received. It is absurd \u this case to
deny the authority of the message^ and still to look up to
the messengers with high admiration and peculiar defer-
ence. We ought rather to abhor them for their dishonesty,
or else to pity them for their delusion. The remark of a
modern skeptical writer has a wider application than to the
doctrine and the moral virtue directly named in it. "When
the New Testament attributes humility to Christ, it is man-
ifestly under the notion of him as a Divine Being, who has
descended from a celestial condition into this lower state
of human suffering and degradation. As soon as Jesus is
regarded as a real [mere] man, the reversed condition of
necessity requires the corresponding reversal of the moral
characteristic into one or another phase of lofty daring and
unmeasured aspiration."

Let us turn, then, to the New Testament, and inquire
what is its own evidence. Are the miracles and alleged
fulfillments of prophecy a mere excrescence, which may be
entirely pruned away, leaving behind them a system of
pure morality unaltered and unimpaired? Or do they form
the woof of the whole narrative, so that almost every page,
and every main fact, receives the stamp of a Divine author-
ity, or else is tainted with a hopeless leprosy of fraud and
delusion? Let us examine in succession the Gospels of St.
Matthew and St. John, the Book of Acts, and the Apos-
tolic Epistles.

I. The Gospel of St. Matthew.

Out of the twenty-eight chapters of the first Gospel,
three-fourths contain the mention of some miracle, or some
asserted fulfillment of prophecy. But this fact alone would

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 43

give a very imperfect impression of the way in which the
supernatural element forms the texture of this Divine
biography.

Let us begin with the narrative of our Lord's birth and
infancy. The first verse alludes evidently to two leading
prophecies, ten and fifteen centuries old, as being fulfilled
in the whole course of the sacred narrative. The birth of
our Lord is next declared to be a miracle, and also to be
the fulfillment of a third prophecy in Isaiah. The wise
men are led to Jerusalem, miraculously, by the star which
appears to them in the east. They, along with Herod,
learn the birthplace of Christ from the prophecy of Micah,
also seven centuries old. The star reappears, and guides
them to the very place. A dream from God warns them
not to return to Herod. An angel, by a dream, directs the
flight of Joseph into Egypt. The angel reappears to direct
his return, and a fifth dream from God instructs him to
leave Judea and return to Galilee.

The opening of the public ministry, in the next two
chapters, has the same character. We have first, at our
Lord's baptism, the opening of the heavens, the descent of
the Spirit, and the miraculous proclamation from heaven —
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
Next follows a supernatural fast of forty days, a direct
conflict of the Redeemer and the tempter, a miraculous
transfer of our Lord to the pinnacle of the Temple, and a
record of the ministration of angels. A prophecy of Isaiah
is shown to be fulfilled in the chosen theater of our Lord's
ministry, and his work is afiirmed to be the cure of "all
manner of sickness and all manner of disease."

The Sermon on the Mount is mainly a code of Christian
morality, but still it contains the strongest assertions of our
Lord's supernatural mission. Near its opening the Divine
autbority of the law and the prophets is stated in most

44 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

emphatic terms; while a claim of like authority on the
part of our Lord was the main impression his words left
on the mind of his hearers. "They were astonished at his
doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and
not as the scribes." Miracles, also, are represented as so
closely linked with his message that many counterfeits
would arise. "Many will say to me in that day. Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy
name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many
wonderful works?"

In the six chapters that follow, the miraculous element
is conspicuous from first to last. They begin with the
healing of the leper, of the centurion's servant, and the
mother-in-law of Simon Peter. Many miraculous cures are
then dismissed in a brief sentence : " When the even was
come, they brought unto him many that were possessed
with devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word, and
healed all that were sick." Then follows the stilling of the
tempest, and the dispossession of the demoniacs of Gradara,
the cure of the palsy and of the issue of blood, the resur-
rection of the ruler's daughter, the healing of the two blind
men, and of a dumb man possessed with a devil. The
eighth and ninth chapters, in short, are filled almost en-
tirely with the mention of these miracles, and close with
the more general statement that Jesus went through the
cities and villages "healing every sickness and every dis-
ease among the people."

The commission of the twelve apostles confers on them
miraculous gifts. "He gave them power over unclean
spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness
and all manner of disease." The words of Christ are re-
corded by which the power was given : " Heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely
ye have received, freely give." The reply to the Baptist's

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OF CHRISTL^NITY. 45

mivMjg© alludes to the number of the miracles and their
notoriety: *'Go and show John again those things which ye
do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the
dead arc laised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached
to them ; and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended
in me." The Baptist's own mission is next declared to be
a distinct fulfillment of prophecy. Chorazin, Bethsaida,
and Capernaum have solemn judgments denounced, because
of the greatness of the miracles they had witnessed, and of
their own stubborn unbelief The next chapter contains
the cure of the withered hand, and a signal dispossession
attended by a double cure of dumbness and blindness, which
fills the people with amazement. The following discourse
is occasioned by an admission of the truth of the miracles
on the part of the Pharisees, and their attempt to elude
the evidence, thus supplied, of our Lord's divine mission.
The visit to Nazareth, at the close of the next chapter,
gives two indirect assertions of the same general fact. The
Nazarenes exclaim, "Whence hath this man this wisdom
and these mighty works?" while the Evangelist adds to
his account of their perplexity the brief and simple com-
ment, "He did not many mighty works there because of
their unbelief"

The next division of the Gospel — chapters xiv-xx — i»
equally full of statements of miracle and fulfilled prophecy.
It begins with the attempt of Herod to account for our
Lord's mighty works by the supposition that the Baptist
was risen from the dead — xiv, 2. Then follow, in quick
succession, the healing of many sick on the further side of
the Sea of Galilee — ^verse 14 — the miraculous feeding of the
five thousand— verses 15-21 — the walking of Jesus on the
sea — verses 22-27 — the attempt of Peter, its partial success
and speedy failure — verses 28-32 — the healing of many

46 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

sick after the return to the western side — verses 34-36-
the dispossession of the daughter of the woman of Ca
naan — chapter xv, 21-28 — multiplied cures of "the lame,
the dumb, the blind, the maimed, and many others" — ^vs. 29-
31 — and the second miracle of the seven loaves and the
four thousand — chapter xv, 32-39 — a rebuke of the dis-
ciples for their forgetfuiness of the two successive miracles
of the loaves — chapter xvi, 9 — a prophecy of our Lord's
resurrection — verse 21 — the transfiguration — chapter xvii,
1 — the cure of the demoniac child — verse 14 — the procure-
ment, miraculously, of the tribute-money — verse 27 — and,
last of all, the healing of the two blind men in the neigh-
borhood of Jericho. Chapter xx, 30-34.

The last portion, occupied with the events of passion-
week, begins with the fulfillment of a prophecy of Zech-
ariah, the healing of the blind and lame in the Temple^
and the curse on the barren fig-tree, speedily fulfilled;
while it is chiefly occupied with two main subjects — the
accomplishment of many prophecies in our Lord's betrayal
and crucifixion, and the last and crowning miracle of his
resurrection from the dead.

It is needless to enter into the details of the second and
third Gospels, which agree very nearly with that of St.
JVIatthew. St. Mark has thirty-five or thirty-six records of
miracles, or allusions to their occurrence, and the number
is still higher in St. Luke. Out of the few incidents
peculiar to St. Mark, two are records of fresh miracles,
unnoticed by St. Matthew — the cure of the deaf man who
had an impediment in his speech, and of the blind man at
Bethsaida. St. Luke, also, in addition to the miracles of
the first Gospel, contains the vision of Zechariah, his
miraculous dumbness and his recovery, the visit of the
angel to the Virgin, the appearance to the shepherds, the
prophecy of Simeon, the mission of the seventy with mi-

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 47

raculous gifts, like those of the twelve, and their return
with the joyful exclamation, "Lord, even the devils are
subject to us through thy name." The mention of the
miracles, also, in each of these Gospels, reaches from their
first opening to their common close in the history of the
resurrection.

II. The Gospel of St. John.

The fourth Gospel has so plainly a doctrinal aim, and is
composed so largely of our Lord's discourses, that we might
expect to find in it only a sparing mention of the miracles.
This is true of the number of them, but not of their prom-
inence in the history. On the contrary, all the main divi-
sions of this Gospel, and all its chief discourses, depend on
some miracle of our Lord.

The opening chapters proclaim his Divine glory, and re-
count his first entrance on his public ministry. And how
are they introduced? By a signal testimony of the Baptist,
our Lord's forerunner, to the sign by which the Messiah
would be made known to him. "I saw the Spirit descend-
ing like a dove, and it abode upon him." And this sign
concurred with a previous message to the Baptist himself.
" And I knew him not ; but he that sent me to baptize with
water, the same said unto me. Upon whom thou shalt see
the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is
he which baptized with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and
bare record that this is the Son of God." The call of the
apostles is marked by a miraculous revelation to Nathanael;
and the opening of our Lord's ministry by the miracle at
Cana, and other works in Jerusalem at the feast. The con-
versation with the Samaritan woman ascribes to our Lord
prophetic insight, plainly supernatural, which forced from
her the exclamation, "Come, see a man which told me all
things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" The return
into Galilee is marked by the cure of the nobleman's son

48 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

at Capernaum. The fifth chapter forms a distinct portion
of the Grospel, separated in time from what precedes and
follows; and the whole is based upon the cure of the im-
potent man at the pool of Bethesda. The sixth is another
distinct portion, about the time of the last Passover but
one. It repeats, with some variations of detail, the mira-
cles of the five thousand and the walking on the sea, re-
corded in the earlier Grospels. It adds also a full mention
of the discourse at Capernaum, which arose out of the
miracle, and alludes to it from first to last. The visit at
the Feast of Tabernacles contains various discourses at
Jerusalem — chaps, vii-x — but the central fact is the cure of
the man blind from his birth, which is given in this Gospel
alone. Then follows the remarkable history of the raising
of Lazarus, in the eleventh and part of the twelfth chap-
ter, which links itself, by the allusion — xi, 17 — with the
great concourse at our Lord's last entry into Jerusalem.
In the midst of the discourses, again, at the Last Supper,
we find this striking summary of our Lord's ministry, and
t,he guilt of Jewish unbelief: "If I had not done among
them the works which no other man did, they had not had
i>in; but now have they both seen and hated both me and
my Father." To complete the series, in the closing chapter
of this Gospel, we have the record of a miraculous draught
of fishes, which followed our Lord's resurrection — a coun-
terpart, but with important difierences, of an earlier miracle
recorded by St. Luke, which took place near the com-
mencement of our Lord's public ministry.

This Gospel also, in harmony with its later date and
more reflective character, not merely recounts various mira-
cles, but suggests and unfolds the connection between these
tokens of our Lord's divine mission, and the truth of which
they were the public confirmation and evidence. Thus we
read in. chap, ii, 11, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 49

m Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and
his disciples believed on him." In the same chapter wo
are told once more that "many believed on his name, when
they saw the miracles which he did." Nicodemus opens
his interview with the simple statement — "Rabbi, we know
that thou art a teacher come from Grod, for no man can do
these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him."
The sluggish faith which craves perpetually for fresh mar-
vels is reproved in the words, "Except ye see signs and
wonders, ye will not believe." Yet a sign is given to the
nobleman by the speedy and sudden cure of his son, and
"himself believed, and his whole house." In the discourse
which follows the cure of the impotent man, our Lord
assigns his miracles a middle place among the proofs of
his Divine mission. "I have a witness greater than that
of John ; for the works which the Father hath given me to
finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me that
the Father hath sent me." In the discourse at Capernaum,
he blames the sordid interest in the outward meal provided,
instead of their thoughts being fixed on the miracle itself,
and on the proof which it supplied of his true character.
"Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because
ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." In the narrative
of the blind man, the same lesson is put into his own lips.
"Since the world began was it not heard that any man
opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man
were not of God, he could do nothing." In the case of
Lazarus, the conclusion appears from the lips of the Phar-
isees themselves: "What do we? for this man doeth many
miracles. If we let him alone, all men will believe on him ;
and the Romans will come and take away both our place
and nation." Our Lord's condemnation of the Jews, be-
cause of the greatness of his own works, has been already
quoted from his parting discourse before the crucifixion.

50 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

The apostle himself sums up these brief but instructive
comments, in his own statement of the scope of his whole
narrative: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the
presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might
have life through his name."

III. The Book of Acts.

The book of Acts forms the transition from the long
series of Bible histories to those of later times, after the
canon of Scripture was closed, where the superoatural ele-
ment ceases to appear. In time it occupies more than
thirty years — A. J). 30-63 — and includes the reigns of
four emperors, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, one
of whom is mentioned by name. In place it includes
nearly all the main centers of civilization in the brightest
days of the Roman empire — Jerusalem, Cgesarea, the Syrian
and Pisidian Antioch, Philippi, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus,
Alexandria, and Home. It includes also the mention of
two Jewish kings, and four Roman governors — two of
Judea, one of Cyprus, and one of Achaia; of the asiarchs
of Ephesus, the chief man of Melita, and the military
prefect of Home; and thus links itself at every turn with
the most familiar elements of classical and Jewish history.
Yet the miraculous element continues throughout its whole
course, and is not less prominent than in the Gospels them-
selves. Let us briefly notice the successive passages. A
series of simple references, with a few words of occasional
comment, will perhaps exhibit this feature in the clearest
way:

Chap, i, 9-11 — The ascension, with the appearance and message of
two angels.

Chap, i, 16-21 — Fulfillment of prophecy in the death of Judas.

Chap, ii, 1-12 — The miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit, and Vhe
gift of tongues.

THE SUPERNATURxVL CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 51

Chap, ii, 43 — Many wonders and signs done by the apostles.

Chap, iii, 1-11 — The healing of the lame man at the gate of the
Temple. The rest of the chapter is an address founded entirely upon
this public miracle.

Chap, iv, 13-18 — The confession of the miracle by the Jewish council,
with their charge to the apostles to speak no more in the name of
Jesus.

Chap, iv, 21, 22 — " So when they had further threatened them they
let them go, finding nothing how they might punish themj for all men
glorified God for that which was done. For the man was above forty
years old on whom this miracle of healing was shown."

Chap, iv, 31 — The place is shaken where the disciples were assembled,
and they are all tilled with the Holy Ghost.

Chap. V, 1-11 — The miraculous judgment on Ananias and Sapphira.

Chap. V, 12 — Many wonders and signs done by the hands of the
apostles.

Chap. V, 15, 16 — The sick are cured by the shadow of Peter passing
by, and the multitudes resort for healing to Jerusalem.

Chap. V, 19-26 — The apostles are miraculously freed from prison by
an angel.

Chap, vi, 8 — Stephen works great wonders and miracles among the
people.

Chap, vii, 55, 56 — A miraculous vision to Stephen before his death.

Chap, viii, 5-8 — Great joy in Samaria from the miraculous cures
wrought by Philip the Evangelist.

Chap, viii, 14-19 — Gifts of the Spirit bestowed by imposition of the
apostles' hands, and money offered by Simon Magus to purchase the
same power.

Chap, viii, 26 — Philip sent by the message of an angel to meet the
Ethiopian eunuch.

Chap, viii, 39, 40 — Philip miraculously caught away after the baptism
of the eunuch, and found at Azotus.

Chap, ix, 1-9 — The conversion of Saul by a miraculous vision.

Chap, ix, 10-18 — The vision of Ananias, and miraculous cure of
Saul's blindness.

Chap, ix, 32-35— The cure of Eneas by St. Peter. 36-42— The raising
of Dorcas from the dead.

Chap. X, 1-8 — The vision of the angel to Cornelius. 9-16 — The vision
to St. Peter.

Chap. X, 44-48 — Miraculous gifts of the Spirit bestowed on Cornelius
and other Gentiles.

Chap, xi, 1-18 — Rehearsal to the Church of the miraculous conversion
jf Cornelius.

Chap, xi, 28-30 — The prophecy of Agabus fulfilled under Claudiua.

52 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Chap, xii, 1-17— The deliverance of St. Peter from prison by the
message of an angel.

Chap, xii, 22, 23— The sudden judgment on Herod ascribed to the
angel of the Lord.

Chap, xiii, 6-12 — Blindness miraculously inflicted on Elymas by
.St. Paul.

Chap, xiv, 3 — Signs and wonders done at Iconium by the hands of
Paul and Barnabas.

Chap, xiv, 8-18 — Cure of the impotent man at Lystra, and Divine
honor offered to the apostles.

Chap. XV, 12 — Barnabas and Paul report in the council at Jerusalem
" what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles
by them."

Chap, xvi, 8-10 — St. Paul guided into Europe by a miraculous vi-
sion.

Chap, xvi, 18 — The damsel dispossessed of the spirit of divination.

Chap, xvi, 25-34 — The earthquake at Philippi, the loosing of all the
prisoners, and the jailer's conversion.

Chap, xvii, 31 — St. Paul at Athens bears witness to the fact of
Christ's resurrection.

Chap, xviii, 9, 10 — St. Paul at Corinth has a miraculous vision and
message from the Lord.

Chap, xix, 6 — Gifts of the Spirit are bestowed on twelve disciples at
Ephesus.

Chap, xix, 11, 12 — Special miracles are wrought by St. Paul at
Ephesus.

Chap, xix, 13-17 — Vain attempt of Jewish exorcists to copy the
miracles of the apostle.

Chap. XX, 7-12 — Miraculous recovery of Eutychus. 23 — St. Paul
claims to know by the Holy Ghost the bonds and imprisonment which
await him.

Chap, xxi, 9-12 — Prophecy of Agabus.

Chap, xxii, 6-16— St. Paul's account of his own conversion, (17-21,)
and his vision in the Temple at Jerusalem.

Chap, xxiii, 11 — A vision to St. Paul, and a prediction of his journey
to Rome.

Chap, xxvi, 8-23 — St. Paul's account of his conversion before Agrippa
and Festus.

Chap, xxvii, 10 — St. Paul's prediction of the shipwreck, (23-26,)
angelic vision, and further prophecy.

Chap, xxviii, 3-6 — St. Paul's miraculous escape from the viper, (7,}
and cure of Publius's father, (9, 10,) and many others.

Cha| xxviii, 25-27— Prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled in the unbelief of
the Jews.

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 53

This brief list of references will show how intimate and
inseparable is the union of the miraculous element with
the whole course of this apostolic history. From the res-
urrection and ascension in the first verses, to the gifts of
healing exercised by St. Paul at Melita, after his escape
from shipwreck, this feature gives its coloring to every
main event in the narrative. To borrow the phrase of the
able author of "The Restoration of Belief," the relation is
one of intimate cohesion, and not of mere adhesion. Once
attempt to remove it and " the vitality of the writer is gone,
though much that he has recorded might still be true. We
have slain the man, but if he carried about with him any
thing that is valuable, we take it to ourselves." Or rather,
we may go still further, and say that, when the miraculous
element is rejected, nothing of real value is left behind.
The historical fragments that would remain would be too
few, and too suspicious, to save the bandit's occupation of
rifling the dead from being a pure waste of learned labor.

IV. The Apostolic Epistles.

When we turn from the historical books of the New
Testament to the letters of the apostles to individuals, or
to the Churches they had founded, a marked change occurs
in the frequency with which any direct mention of miracles
occurs. The fundamental doctrine, indeed, of the resurrec-
tion of Christ meets us in almost every page, and is the
constant basis alike of the doctrinal statements of the
apostles, and of their practical appeals to the conscience.
Setting this aside, however, out of twenty-one epistles, there
are only seven in which the topic of miracles is directly
introduced. In the other fourteen they are passed by in
total silence, or if there be allusion to them, it is so deli-
cate and unobtrusive as to require the most careful search
to find any trace of it. Out of a hundred and twenty-one
chapters, there is only one which contains a formal and

54 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

distinct statement of the existence and nature of miracu-
lous gifts in the early Churches; and out of nearly three
thousand verses, there are, besides that one chapter, only
about twenty scattered up and down which contain distinct
allusions to the same truth. The fact has been made, by
the writer just quoted, the ground of a powerful argument,
to confirm the honesty, the moral uprightness of aim, the
practical soundness of judgment, remote from all false or
blind enthusiasm, of the apostolic writers. It is doubly
striking, when we observe that the Churches where St.
Paul's authority was most fully allowed, and in which he
placed the most confidence, are the same with whom this
topic is omitted; and that he appeals to it only in those
cases, like the Churches of Galatia and of Corinth, where
he had to administer strong rebuke, or where his authority
was encountered by some evil influence. The prominence,
then, of the moral element in the Epistles, and the compara-
tive fewness of their direct allusions to miracles, form a
striking pledge of the uprightness, veracity, and practical
wisdom of the apostles of Christ.

But when we view the subject from the opposite side, it
will be clear that the assertion of a miraculous element in
the Gospel, whether directly made, or indirectly implied,
runs throughout the Epistles, no less than the historical
books of the New Testament. Let us review them briefly
in the probable order of time. The contrast of supernatural
and non-supernatural epistles refers only to the explicit
character of allusions to present miraculous powers exer-
cised by the apostles themselves. But with regard to
Christianity itself, the direct assertion or indirect assump-
tion of its supernatural evidence and authority is common
to every one of these writings, without a single exception.

The two Epistles to the Thessalonians hold the first place
in order of time. They are earnest and warm outpourings

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 55

of the apostle's heart to young converts in a time of severe
persecution. No direct assertion of his own miraculous
gifts is therefore found in them. They are reminded, ho-w-
ever, that the Gospel came to them "not in word only, but
also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much as-
surance ;" which, when compared with the history, contains
a scarcely-doubtful allusion to the duva/ist'^, or miraculous
gifts of the Spirit, which accompanied his preaching.
They are reminded that their new hope was "to wait for
his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead," a
passing affirmation of the crowning miracle of the Gospel
history. The apostle associates himself and his fellows
with the prophets of the Old Testament, and with the Lord
Jesus himself, under the common character of messengers
from God, whom the Jews had persecuted because of their
messages. He speaks to them — 1 Thess. iv, 1 — as one en-
dued with a Divine authority, and announces to them the
order and circumstances of the resurrection, with the sig-
nificant preface, " This we say unto you by the word of the
Lord." The double charge, "Quench not the Spirit, de-
spise not prophesy ings," when collated with other epistles,
includes evidently an allusion to miraculous gifts. In the
second Epistle even this indirect allusion is not found.
Still, the first chapter is a warning of judgment, ready to
light on those "who obey not the Gospel," which clearly
implies its authority as a direct message from heaven; and
the second contains a further warning of a strong delusion,
with signs and wonders of falsehood, to which those would
be abandoned who had rejected the truth of God. No
stronger assertion could be made, by mere implication, that
true signs and wonders had been notoriously given to at-
*3st the truth of the Gospel.

The Epistle to the Galatians, unlike the two earlier ones
to Thessalonica, is a polemic against Judaizing teachers,

56 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

with strong rebuke of the Churches addressed for their
fickleness and inconstancy in the faith. The authority of
the apostle was questioned or denied, and he begins his
letter by asserting it in the plainest terms. He calls him-
self " Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from
the dead." His reference to miracles, accordingly, becomes
distinct, repeated, and earnest. He appeals, first of all, to
the notorious fact of his own miraculous and sudden con-
version, giving no details of the vision, it is true ; but still
with the plainest reference to the supernatural character of
the revelation. Then, in the midst of the keenest censure
and rebuke, he reminds the Galatians of gifts of the Spirit
they had themselves received, and follows it by a reference
to his own apostolic credentials. "He that ministered to
you the Spirit, and wrought miracles among you, was it by
the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith ?"

The Epistles to the Corinthians are addressed to a
Church where the apostle had much to blame, and where
his own authority had been depreciated and opposed. But
instead of avoiding, on this account, all reference to mira-
cles, the allusions to them are unusually full and various.
He begins by reminding them that they come behind in
no spiritual gift by which the testimony respecting Christ
had been visibly confirmed among them. He appeals to
the notorious fact of his own miraculous conversion. "Am
I not an apostle? have I not seen Christ Jesus our Lord?"
He occupies a whole chapter with a statement of the spir-
itual gifts, some directly miraculous, others more purely
spiritual, which were in exercise among them ; and he gives
the palm of excellence, not to those which were most
startling to the outward senses, but to those which referred
to the minds and hearts of Christians, and, above all, to
the c"*owning grace of charity or love. He resumes the

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OE CHRISTIANITY. 57

subject in another chapter, and gives rules, with Divine
authority, for the mode in which these wonderful gifts were
to be exercised. He describes, in passing, their probable
eflfect upon strangers who might be present in their assem-
blies. "And thus are the secrets of his heart made mani-
fest ; and so, falling down on his flice, he will worship God,
and report that God is in you of a truth." 1 Cor. xiv, 25
Amidst this clear recognition of their miraculous endow-
ments, he firmly claims for himself a superior degree of them,
and a Divine authority which it was their plain duty to
allow. "I thank my God I speak with tongues more than
you all." "If any man account himself to be a prophet, or
spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write unto
you are the commandments of the Lord." Verses 18, 37.
He refers to five distinct appearances of the Lord after his
resurrection as to notorious facts, which needed no proof or
comment, and closes with a striking reference to the vision
he himself had received. • " Last of all he was seen of me^
also, as of one born out of due time." With a calm and
unaltered tone he turns from description of the most
striking miracles to a course of earnest reasoning on the
doctrine of the resurrection, and from this returns to mi-
nute details w^ith regard to collections for the poor, and the
arrangement of his own journeys.

In the second letter, after the tidings of their repentance
had reached him, three-fourths are without any clear allu-
sion to miraculous gifts, and are occupied only with a rich
variety of moral lessons and exhortations, based on the
doctrinal truths of the Gospel. But toward the close the
mention of those gifts recurs in various forms. " I suppose
I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles." "I
will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." "In
, nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I
be nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought

68 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and
mighty deeds." "If I come again I will not spare, since
ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me." "I write these
things, being absent, lest being present I should use sharp-
ness, according to the power which the Lord hath given
me, to edification, and not to destruction." Words could
not more plainly express a claim to authority, received di-
rectly from the Lord himself, and ratified by miraculous
powers, which had been exercised already in the midst of
the Corinthian converts.

The Epistle to the Romans is occupied throughout with
a full statement of Christian doctrine, and of the practical
lessons based upon it. Nine-tenths of it are complete be-
fore there is any distinct allusion whatever to miraculous
attestations of the Gospel. But at the close it appears,
though briefly, in the most decisive form. "I will not
dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not
wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word
and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power
of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round
about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of
Christ." The assertion is doubly striking, from its associa-
tion with this precise geographical limit, and the mention
of a province named no where else in Scripture, so as to
bring out the strictly historical character of the statement
into full and bold relief.

The Epistles from Rome during the first imprisonment,
are addressed to prosperous Churches, and contain praise
and encouragement, rather than rebuke. Accordingly they
have only the slightest and most general allusions to Chris-
tian miracles. Traces„pf them, however, do appear. The
Ephesians, after they believed, had been "sealed with the
Holy Spirit of promise." The mystery of the Gospel had
been made, known to St. Paul " by revelation," and was

THE SUPERNATURAL CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. 59

revealed unto all the "holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit." The Lord, when he ascended on high, "gave gifts
unto men," and foremost among these the endowments of
apostles and prophets, where even the second and lower
title implies a supernatural claim. In the Pastoral Epistles
similar allusions are found. The Spirit had spoken ex-
pressly of a great departure from the faith. 1 Tim. iv, 1.
Timothy is charged not to neglect the gift that was in him,
and given by prophecy, meaning, apparently, by the voice
of some inspired prophet, before or at the time of his first
public separation for the work of God. He is charged,
again, to stir up the gift of God, received by imposition of
the hands of the apostles, a spirit of power, as well as of
love. The allusion to Jannes and Jambres compared with
Acts xiii, 7, 8; xv, 12, seems also to imply that signs and
wonders like those of Moses accompanied the preaching of
the Gospel. The statements in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
on the other hand, where rebuke and censure are needed,
become explicit and full once more. "How shall we escape,
if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began
to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them
that heard him; God also bearing them witness, with signs
and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy
Ghost according to his own will?" "It is impossible for
those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the good
word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they
shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance." "He
that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or
three witnesses : of how much sorer punishment shall he be
thought worthy who hath done despite to the Spirit of
grace?" Heb. ii, 3-5; vi, 4; x, 28.

It is needless to pursue the inquiry further. The claim
to a miraculous and supernatural character, on the part of
our Lord and his apostles, runs clearly through the whole

60 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of the New Testament, and coheres inseparably with its
historical narrative, its doctrinal teaching, and prat^tical ex-
hortations. It appears conspicuous in the whole course of
the four Gospels, from the birth of our Lord to his resur-
rection and ascension into heaven. It continues, with the
same frequency and fullness, throughout the apostolic his-
tory, from the hour of the ascension to the voyage and
shipwreck of the apostle of the Grentiles, and his arrival at
the metropolis of the Gentile world. In the Epistles it is
present throughout, but usually as a latent assumption,
which needed no express and direct statement. But in pro-
portion as the authority of the apostle is resisted, or sinful
practices have to be rebuked, or doctrinal declensions ex-
posed, the claim reappears; and it is made most strongly
in those very cases where the assertion would be evident
madness, if it were not undeniably true. It is a weapon
sheathed in the presence of friends, but drawn from its
scabbard whenever vice has to be rebuked, error resisted,
or doubts of the apostle's authority reduced to silence.

The result of this review must be plain. A supernatural
claim is of the essence of Christianity. Whenever this is
rejected, the nature of the message is changed; the heart
is torn out from it, and its life expires. It ceases to be
the Word of God, and acquires, by fatal necessity, the very
opposite character. It becomes a system of human fraud
and imposture, or a strange, inexplicable mass of lunacy
and mental derangement. Our Lord and his apostles must
either havxi been messengers with, a direct commission from
God, or else they can have no title to retain the character
even of honest, upright, and reasonable men. They must
either be tjondemned to an asylum, or else obeyed with
reverence, because they are seen to be clothed with super-
natural and Divine authority.

THE REASONABLENESS OP MIRACLES. 61

CHAPTER IV.

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES.

Thb prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles of
the New, and One greater than both — the Lord Jesus
Christ himself, agree in appealing to miracles to prove
themselves teachers and messengers sent from God. The
commission of Moses, as recorded in the law, began with
a formal statement of this principle of Divine revelation.
"It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, nor
hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe
the voice of the latter sign." The rejection of this evidence
is declared to be the reason why an unbelieving generation
were shut out from the land of promise. " Because all those
men which have seen my glory, and my miracles which I
did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now
these ten times and not hearkened to my voice ; surely they
shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers."
The language of our Lord in the Grospels is exactly the
same: "Woe unto thee, Chorazin; woe unto thee, Beth-
saida; for if the mighty works which were done in you,
had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have re-
pented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment
than fir you." The lesson taught in these direct and
solemn warnings to the cities of Galilee is repeated in his
secret instructions to his own disciples on the eve of his
departure. "If I had not done among them the works
which DO other man- did, they had not had sin; but now

62 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

have they both seen and hated both me and my father."
80 also St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, appealing to the
same proof of Divine* authority. " Truly the signs of an
apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs,
and wonders, and mighty deeds." In another epistle the
same truth appears once more in its aspect of solemn warn-
ing. " For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast —
how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, which
at the first began to be spoken by our Lord, and was con-
firmed to us by those that heard him ; God also bearing
them witness, with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles;
and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?"
This view of miracles, as the proper and reasonable tests
of a Divine message, though affirmed by prophets and
apostles, and our Lord himself, and consequently received
by all the advocates of Christian faith, both in ancient and
modern times, has been recently questioned or contradicted
by some who have not openly renounced the Christian
name. They allege that the progress of science has intro-
duced insuperable difficulties into the admission of any
suspense or reversal of the laws of Nature.* Miracles, in
their opinion, are no longer the evidence, but rather the
stumbling-blocks and incumbrances of a professed revela-
tion.f The faculty of faith has now turned inward, and
can not accept any outer manifestations of the truth of
God. I Narratives inherently incredible can not change
their nature, or become credible, by the supposition that
they fulfill some religious purpose.§ The region of phys-
ical change, then, must be given up to the unbroken and
undisturbed dominion of natural laws ; and our faith in spir-
itual truth must rest on moral grounds, or acts of pure
reason, without the least dependence on external testimony.

* Essays and Reviews, Essay iii, p. 104. f P. 140.
X Essay i, p. 24. § Essay ii, p. 83.

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 63

It has thus become needful to examine whether these mod-
ern Christians, by means of their superior attainments in
physical science, and metaphysical speculation, have really
been able to convict their Lord and his apostles of direct
falsehood or grievous folly, in that appeal to the evidence
of miracles, as conclusive tests of a Divine mission, which
they have plainly and repeatedly made.

The objections which have been lately urged against the
usual view of the Christian evidence are of Ibr^.e kinds.
They relate, first, to the temper, style, and tone of the
advocates of Christianity; secondly, to the credibility of
miracles in themselves; and, thirdly, to their suitableness
and sufficiency, as proofs and tests of a Divine revelation.
Objections of the first kind are preliminary, but still de-
serve some notice and reply. The others enter into the
heart of the whole subject, and involve the whole contro-
versy between Christian faith and a spirit of utter and
hopeless disbelief. I will examine each of them in order.

I. The tendency of objections of the first class is to pre-
judge the whole subject, by creating an impression of
habitual unfairness and insincerity, or of secret doubt, on
the part of the defenders of Christianity. Their usual
tone, we are informed, is that of "the special partisan and
ingenious advocate," and not of the unbiased judge. It
is one of polemical acrimony, and settled and inveterate
prejudice. There is a disposition to triumph in lesser
details, rathar than to grasp comprehensive principles.
While infidel objections may have been urged in an offen-
sive manner, there is often, in Christian writers, a want of
sympathy with difficulties which many inquirers seriously
feel in admitting the evidences of the Gospel. An appeal
to argument implies perfect freedom to receive or reject the
conclusion. It is absurd to reason with men, and anath-
ematize them if not convinced by the reasoning, to make

64 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

honest doubts a proof of moral obliquity, and denounce
men as skeptics because they are careful to discriminate
truth from error. The distinction between questions of
external ftict and of moral truth has been extensively over-
looked and kept out of sight. Advocates of historical evi-
dence inconsistently make their appeal to conscience and
feeling; while upholders of faith and moral conviction, with
equal inconsistency, regard the external facts of revelation
as not less essential truth, which it would be profane to
question.*

It is alleged further, that it is the common language
of orthodox writings to advise men not to seek for precise
answers to objections and difficulties, but to regard the
whole subject as one which ought to be exempt from scru-
tiny, and received with silent submission. Their frequent
reply is, that we are not to expect demonstrative evidence,
that we must be content with probabilities, that exact criti-
cism is always sure to rake up difficulties, that cavilers
find new objections when the first are refuted, and reason
can not be convinced unless the conscience and will are
disposed to accept the truth. Thus the inquiry is removed
from the ground of truth and honesty to one of practical
expedience; objections are treated as profane, and excep-
tions dismissed, as shocking and immoral, without an
answer. f

Now, it can not be doubted that on this subject, just as
in many others of inferior moment, the zealotry of un-
scrupulous partisans, bent only on silencing an opponent^
or gaining a cheap reputation for orthodoxy and contro-
versial ability, may sometimes counterfeit the earnestness
of a genuine faith. The description, however, when applied
generally to the modern advocates of Christianity, is a se-

• Essays a \d Reviews, Essay iii, pp. 95-98. f Essay iii, pp. 96-100,

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 65

rious calumny. The arrogance which partially disfigures
the writings of a Bentley or a War burton is the exception,
and not the rule. An opposite charge may be made with
more truth against Paley and other apologists of the last
century. Their treatment of an inquiry so vital to the high-
est interests of men, however clear, is, perhaps, too cold
and passionless. Though mere earnestness is a bad sub-
stitute for strict reasoning, yet on a subject which involves
the welfare of souls and issues of eternal life and death, we
can not be reasonable unless we are earnest — so earnest as
to shock the taste of mere intellectual theorists, and dis-
turb the deathlike placidity of their speculations. The
tone of calm, cold, abstract philosophizing, which the ob-
jection seems to prescribe to such discussions, has no sanc-
tion in the practice of the apostles. Their maxim was
widely different — "Knowing, therefore, the 'terrors of the
Lord, we persuade men." St. Paul, it is clear, had not
made the modern discovery that it is absurd to appeal to
men's reason, and still to warn them of their guilt and
danger, when they refuse to yield to the force of evidence,
and thus reject the message of the Gospel. His own prac
tice was based on the opposite maxim, that in proportion
to the strength of the reasons which prove the reality of a
Divine message, must be the guilt of those who, under any
pretext whatever, set aside its authority and reject its
claims.

It is no doubt a serious fiult, and a great stumbling-
block to inquirers, when professed champions of revealed
religion betray the tone of unscrupulous advocates, who are
contending for victory alone. But it is no less- unseemly,
either for the inquirer or the believer, to affect the char-
acter of an unbiased judge. Such a pretension betrays in
itself a bias of the worst kind, because it involves a plain
denial of one of the simplest truths of the Gospel. Chris-

Q6 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

tianity does not appeal to us as a culprit, to be cleared
from a charge of imposture and mendicancy before the
tribunal of our superior wisdom. We have to plead at the
bar of Christ, not Christ at ours. He appeals to oar
reason ; but from above, not from beneath ; as a judge, a
physician, a father pleads with a culprit, a patient, or a
child. For any of these parties to claim the character of
an unbiased judge, because their obedience requires some
exercise of judgment on their own part, would be a ridicu-
lous affectation. If the Grospel be true, no one to whom it
is fully made known can reject it, unless from the strong
bias of "an evil heart of unbelief;" and no one truly re-
ceives it unless by the expulsive power of a new affection.
They must have yielded to an influence still more powerful
than sensual appetite or the pride of false reason — the
mighty attraction of the Cross, and the constraining power
of the love of Christ.

An appeal to argument implies a natural capacity in
those to whom it is made to apprehend the force of sound
reasoning. But it does not imply a state of entire equi-
librium and strict moral indifference. It would then have
to be confined to some distant world, and could have no
place in our intercourse with sinful men. Even among
philosophers and metaphysicians, since their speculations
began, there has never been a case of pure, abstract, color-
less indifference to the truth or falsehood of Christianity.
The words of Christ make no exception either for skeptics,
philosophers, or divines. " He that is not for me is against
me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.''
Neutrality here is strictly impossible. It is quite con-
sistent and reasonable, then, to set before the inquirer or
the unbeliever the evidences of the Christian revelation;
and still, when these are rejected after their full exhibition,
to ascribe that rejection to a moral obliquity, possibly quite

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 67

unsuspected by themselves, and thus to refuse the flattering
title of honest doubt to their culpable unbelief. This im-
plies, it is true, that the skeptic, in many cases, is "no
judge of his own mind;" but it does not imply, on the
part of the Christian advocate, any claim to omniscience
and infallibility. It simply proves that he has more faith
in the true sayings of Christ than in the self-knowledge
of those who reject the messages of their Maker, and
flatter themselves that the only reason is their scrupulous
care to avoid imposture and delusion. The disclaimer of
all moral bias by the skeptic who refuses to own the
authority of Christ, however sincerely made, is only one
ingredient in his unbelief. The Christian advocate who
admits the claim, in order to acquire a reputation for
superior candor, only shares in the guilt, since he dis-
owns a truth which is clearly revealed in the Word of
God.

A second charge brought against many advocates of
Christianity is a neglect of the wide distinction between
questions of external fact, and of internal, moral, and re-
ligious truth. They digress irregularly, it is said, from
one subject into the other. They mingle a moral element
with their treatment of the evidence for the facts of Chris-
tianity; or when they urge the moral claims of the Christian
faith, they include in their view of it the historical facts
of the creed along with ideas of the pure reason.* The
fact must be allowed that such a union and interchange
of topics does continually occur. But the question re-
mains whether it is the advocates of Christian faith or
their critic and censor who betrays a grievous blindness to
the lessons of daily experience, of sound philosophy, and
of Christian truth.

* Essays and Reviews, Essay iii, pp. 97, 98.

68 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Let us begin with the simple analogy whicli is suggested
by the very form of the objection. The Christian religion
has external facts and internal principles; it has a body
and a soul. Is it a great error to treat them as if joined
together in closest union? Christianity must be slain before
we can turn it into a disembodied spirit. Is it a fault in
the psychologist who treats of the human mind to spend
chapters on the five senses — on touch, and taste, and hear-
ing, sight, and smell — all of which involve a direct refer-
ence to the body, and are inseparable from it? Is it a
fault in the physician who prescribes for a dangerous fever
to direct that the mind of the patient should be kept free,
if possible, from causes of excitement that would aggravate
the disease, and make it more dangerous? Is it confusion
of thought when a treatise on the preservation of bodily
health is connected with moral lessons on the benefit of
chastity and temperance? Or is it a culpable irregularity
when the connection is traced, either by the physician or
the moralist, between the indulgence of vice and exposure
to fatal disease? If not, then analogy alooe refutes the
objection so hastily and superficially brought against the
advocates of revelation.

Let us. examine the subject, next, by the light of reason.
Is it unreasonable to introduce a moral element at all in
discussing the external evidences of Christianity? To jus-
tify this view, three assumptions must be made : that there
are no moral obstacles to be overcome in those to whom
these evidences are addressed; that no moral feature enters
into the miracles of Christ and his apostles, or into the
predictions of the Bible, and adds immensely to their force
as evidence; and, finally, that there is no moral aim in the
message itself, to which the outward evidence is entirely
subordinate. Unless all these assumptions were true, the
objection is clearly baseless and unreasonable. But every

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 69

one of tliem is exactly the reverse of the truth. The only
wonder is how any one with the lowest pretensions to the
faculty of reasoning could impute a fault to a number of
able and thoughtful writers, which implies his own igno-
rance or neglect of the simplest analogies of daily life, and
of the most prominent feature in the miracles of the Gospel.
There is still a third, and a higher test, which may be
applied to this strange censure of so many Christian writers,
because they have yielded to a clear necessity of common-
sense and sound reason. We may appeal to an authority
which all Christians are bound to revere. How did Christ
and his apostles treat the external evidences and the moral
elements of the message they delivered to mankind? Did
they part them from each other by a wall of separation?
Did they jealously avoid any mixture of a moral element
in their statement of the outward facts of the Gospel, or
any mention of the outward facts in their moral appeal
to the conscience? Plainly and notoriously, their conduct
was just the reverse. Far. from being at pains to separate
these two elements, as the objection prescribes, they labor
to unite them closely together. Their intermarriage is a
feature conspicuous on almost every page both of the Old
and New Testament, There is scarcely a fact announced,
but some great moral truth beams. out from beneath it, and
lights it up with a deeper significance. There is scarcely
a precept or a promise, a doctrinal statement, or an utter-
ance of devotion, but some historical allusion is mingled
with it, so as to give it a firmer hold on the afiections, and
translate it from a mere abstraction into a living reality of
Divine Providence. The Sermon on the Mount, for ex-
ample, abounds in every part with distinct and specific his-
torical alhisions. Its usual title is borrowed from the place
where it was uttered, a mountain in Galilee. It was ad-
dressed to the disciples, and to multitudes "from Judea,

70 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUOHT.

Decapolis, and Tyre, and Sidon." It refers to all the per
secutions of the prophets under the Old Testament, to the
giving of the law by Moses, and a variety of precepts,
therein contained, to the daily facts of providence, the
sunshine and the rain from heaven, to the tax-gatherers
of Palestine, to the long and pretentious prayers of the
Pharisees, to the birds of heaven, and the lilies of the
field, to the natural habits of the dogs and the swine, to
the whole range of earlier revelations in the law and the
prophets, to the number of the unbelieving and profane,
and the fewness of the faithful, to trees 'and their fruits,
to outward miracles wrought by false disciples, to the
wonder of the people at our Lord's teaching, and its con-
trast with the teaching of the Jewish scribes. All these
are external elements, united inseparably with one of the
purest and simplest exhibitions of moral and spiritual truth.

The union, then, of external facts with moral elements,
in writing on the Christian evidences, is justified by the
clearest analogies, by sound reason, and by examples which
every Christian is bound to revere. The only ground of
surprise is how any one, claiming the character of a phi-
losopher or a Christian, can make a charge against the
judgment of others which implies his own equal rejection
of the plainest lessons of natural reason and of Christian
faith.

The objection brought against many advocates of revela-
tion, that they counsel an evasion of difficulties rather than
an attempt at their solution, and a willingness to rest on
probable evidence alone, with a certain submissiveness of
the conscience and will, is less easy to answer ; and there
are cases in which it has a foundation in justice and truth.
It is clear that, in subjects of this kind, a willingness to be
taught, and the absence of a settled purpose to find excuses
for unbelief, is a moral prerequisite for the acceptance of

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 71

the message of the Gospel. It is also certain that where
strict demonstration is not attainable, we are bound to act
upon mere probability; and that whenever there is a desire
to multiply difficulties, occasions for cavil and objection
will never cease to be found. They are like the heads of
the fabled hydra, and when one is cut off, a dozen more
will appear in its stead. But still it can not be denied that
som professed* antidotes of skepticism are not unlikely to
aggravate the disease they seek to cure, by seeming to
transfer their advocacy of revelation from the ground of
definite and intelligible reason to a vague, undefined relig-
ious sentiment. Men are urged to believe, simply because
unbelief leaves a painful vacuum in the heart ; with a faith
arising from no calm conviction of the judgment, but from
a mere effort and determination of the will. A faith so
produced can scarcely be genuine. It does not meet diffi-
culties in the face, but merely shuts its eyes, and endeavors
not to see them. The effect of such a tone, in the advo-
cates of Christianity, on the minds of thoughtful but per-
plexed inquirers, can hardly fail to be pernicious. Advice
to cast off skeptical doubts and suggestions by a mere ef-
fort of will may sometimes only aggravate the disease
which it attempts to cure.

On the other hand, no sounder advice can be given to
those whose faith is unfixed, but who profess a sincere de-
sire after religious truth, than to fix their thoughts, first of
all, on the direct and central evidences of Christianity.
They do well to delay any attempt at solving particular
difficulties, or settling knotty questions as to the correct-
ness of the Scripture canon, the mode and degrees of inspi-
ration, the seeming discrepancies of the Gospels, or the pro-
priety of New Testament quotations; till they have come
to a clear and firm decision on the main subject, whether
Christ is indeed a teacher come from God, and the Bible,

72 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

at least in substance, a true record of real messages frou
the God of heaven. There is no difficulty in detail for
which the humble and thoughtful Christian may not ex-
pect to find a solution, partly even in this life, and wholly
in the life to come. But in the pursuit of Divine knowl-
edge, just as in natural science, there is an order and dis-
cipline which must be observed, and the neglect of which
will be punished with total failure. The student would
vainly strive to master the Principia of Newton, or the Me-
canique Celeste, who has not first stooped to learn Euclid
and the Elements of the Difi"erential Calculus. Even when
these elements have been mastered, the ascent must be
gradual, or real knowledge will elude the grasp, and the
demonstrations that bring delight and conviction to the
well-prepared student, become a heap of incomprehensible
verbiage to those who strive to enter into their meaning
without submitting to the needful preparation. The ease
of Christian inquirers is exactly similar. A humble and
patient spirit brings the key which will unlock, by de-
grees, a thousand mysteries, and solve a thousand enigmas
iu the Word of God, or in the course of providence. But
pride and impatience are like a picklock, and the wards
are so constructed by Divine art as to resist and defeat alJ
unlawful violence. Even those who bring the key with
them must often be content to wait; and the solution of
each particular doubt or difiiculty may depend on the pre-
vious solution of others, which come earlier in the pathway
of truth. The ways of heavenly wisdom "are all plain to
him that understandeth, and right unto them tbat find
knowledge." But, however obnoxious the truth may be to
the pride of philosophy, without a moral preparation, with-
out a humble and teachable spirit, mere inteilectual clever-
ness is here of little avail The death-knell of its pre-
■<umptuou,s hopes may be neard in that solemn utterance

THE REASONABLENESS OF xMIRACLES. 73

of the Son of God : " I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed thein unto babes.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."

From these preliminary objections let us turn to the two
main topics, which have been involved in no little mist —
the credibility of miracles in themselves, and their suf-
ficiency and limits as real proofs and tests of a Divine
revelation.

II. The difficulties respecting miracles in general, or sus-
pensions of natural law, have assumed, it is said, a much
deeper importance in our own time. The credibility of
alleged events, and the value of testimony, must be esti-
mated by a reference to the fixed laws of belief, and our
convictions of established order and analogy. In apjtre-
ciating the evidence for any events of a wonderful kind,
our prepossessions have an enormous influence. We look
at them through the medium of our prejudices. The more
remarkable any occurrence, the more unprepared we are to
view it calmly. Disbelief of an event by no means implies
a denial of the honesty or veracity of the impression on
the minds of its witnesses. It means merely that the prob-
ability of some mistake, somewhere, is greater than that of
the event happening in the way or from the causes assigned.
What is alleged is a case of the supernatural ; ajid on testi-
mony reaches to the supernatural, but only to apparent
sensible facts. That these are due to supernatural causes
depends on the previous belief or assumption of the parties
who observe them. If any strange, unaccountable fact were
observed at the present day, an unbiased, educated person
would not doubt for a moment, if a physical student, that
it was due to some natural cause, and might at some fu-
ture time be explained by the advance of discovery. Mira-
cles therefore, are now discredited, and have become really

74 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUaHT.

incredible. This result has arisen from growing study of
the phenomena of the natural world. The inductive philos-
ophy is based on one grand truth, the universal order and
constancy of natural causes. This is a primary law of
belief, so firmly fixed in the mind of every truly-inductive
inquirer, that he can not even conceive the possibility of
its failure. An opposite view can arise only from want of
power to grasp the positive scientific idea of the order of
nature. Its boundaries exist only where our present knowl-
edge places them; to-morrow's discoveries will enlarge
them. The progress of research will unravel what seems
now most marvelous, and what is now least understood will
hereafter be familiarly known.

"A miracle," it is continued, "means something at va-
riance with nature and law. There is no analogy between
it and a mere unknown phenomenon, or an exceptional case
of a known law included in a larger, still unknown. Arbi-
trary interposition is wholly difierent in kind. Imagined
suspensions of the vast series of dependent causation are
now inconceivable, from our enlarged critical and inductive
study of the natural world. These are the principles we
should apply to marvelous events in common history and
at the present day. But the attempt to claim an excep-
tional character for the Gospel records forfeits or tampers
with their historical reality. Those who would shield them
from the criticism, to which all history and fact are amen-
able, force upon us the alternative of a mythical interpret-
ation."

An appeal here to the Divine Omnipotence, it is said, is
out of place. "That doctrine is an inference from the lan-
guage of the Bible, and is founded on the assumption ol
our belief in revelation. And besides, it admits of being
applied in an opposite way. Our ideas of Divine perfection
tend to discredit the notion of occasional interference. It

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 75

is derogatory to infinite power and wisdom to suppose an
order of things so imperfect that it must he interrupted
and violated to provide for the emergency of a revelation.
All such reasonings, if pushed to their limits, must lead to
a denial of all active operation of the Deity, as inconsist-
ent with unchangeable and infinite perfection." *

Such is the philosophical objection against the miracles
of the Law and the Gospel in its more recent and popular
form. In the eyes of the thoughtful Christian, it lies open
at once to a prima facie suspicion of entire falsehood, of
the most formidable and decisive kind. It agrees punctu-
ally with an apostle's definition, eighteen centuries ago, of
the form of presumptuous unbelief that would mark the
last days of the Church of Christ, and ripen scoffers for
the severest strokes of Divine judgment. He even requires
us to place this truth very early in our list of Christian
lessons, to bo treasured up for our own guidance. "Know-
ing this Jirst^ that there will come in the last days, scofi'ers.
walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the
promise of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep, all
things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by
the Word of Grod the heavens were of old." The theory,
as thus described to us long ago, has by no means an
attractive genealogy. It is born, according to the apostle,
from willful ignorance of the Creator; its twin children are
sensuality and scoffing; and its final issue is a solemn and
terrible judgment.

Let us inquire, however, apart from the testimony of
apostles, what claim this doctrine has to be received on the
ground of philosophy alone. It is made up of mere as-
Bujnptions, and even self-contradictions, of the most unphil-

* Essays and Reviews, Essay iii, pp. 107-114,

76 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

osophical kind. It involves a false view of induction, a
false conception of the order of nature and the constancy
of its laws, a false definition of miracles, and a denial of
special features which plainly attach to every real or sup-
posed message of religious truth, immediately conveyed
from God to man.

First, the view of induction which this objection implies
is unphilosophical and untrue. Inductive research and
mathematical deduction are different, and even contrasted,
both in their processes and results. The deduction of
pure science is the development of truths, or results of a
hypothesis, which are necessarily true, or the contrary of
which involves a self-contradiction. Such are the truths
that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right
angles, or the rectangles of the segments of intersecting
chords equal, or that every prime number of the form
4w-j-l is the sum of two squares. But induction ascends
from observed facts to generalizations of fact, or actual
laws. It includes three stages: the accumulation of ob-
served phenomena ; the development of some hypothesis for
their explanation; and the correction or confirmation of the
hypothesis, by collating its results with the whole series of
observations. The middle step is here borrowed from pure,
or deductive reasoning. But the two others are of an op-
posite kind. The observations are known to be true, sim-
ply by testimony, or the evidence of our senses, and con-
trary or different facts are equally conceivable. The law
obtained, being merely the sum and integration of the
separate phenomena, shares in the same character. It is
true, but not necessary. We believe it on the joint evi-
dence of testimony to certain facts, and of deductive rea-
soning from a proposed hypothesis; but the result can not
rise higher in certainty than the weaker of its two compo-
nents. It is credible on the ground of repeated or multl

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 77

plied testimonies to the facts whicli agree with it. But the
deviation of other facts from it is equally conceivable,
equally credible upon due evidence, and our faith in the
law would receive at once a new limitation. In short, all
such laws are provisional, not necessary truths, a summa-
tion of facts which might have been different. We can
easily believe, on credible testimony, of their apparent sus-
pension or reversal, in particular cases, either by the inter-
section of some higher law, or by some directly spiritual
and supernatural agency. We can even conceive, without
much difficulty, of their total replacement by other laws
entirely different.

It is thus a wholly false view of the nature of inductive
science that it is occupied with the investigation and dis-
covery of laws which are necessary and unalterable. The
exact rever>e is the truth. Deductive science alone is
occupied with the development of necessary truth; but
applied or inductive science deals with phenomena, and
through these with laws, of which the essential feature
is that they are not necessary, however real, and that they
repose on the basis of multiplied testimonies; so that devi-
ations from them, and even their reversal, are quite con-
ceivable, and would demand our faith, if sustained by due
evidence, on the very same principle on which the laws
themselves are believed to exist.

Again, the objection involves a total misconception of
the order of nature and the constancy of natural laws. It
is true that the progress of physical science enables us,
in these days, to refer many phenomena to some law or
property of matter which were once inexplicable. We can
not doubt, also, that further advances in the same direction
will still be made Other laws, hardly less wide than that
of gravitation, may be discovered; and many things now
mysterious, like the phenomena of comets, and the subtile

78 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

and delicate movements of light and electricity, will bt
more clearly understood, and enlarge greatly the field
of human knowledge. But this movement, by which the
horizon of science perpetually recedes and enlarges, instead
of proving the inflexible constancy of natural laws, in the
sense which the objection requires, proves exactly the re-
verse. It transfers the certainty from the physical laws of
nature, as now defined by our present knowledge, to the
scheme of universal providence, as it lies open to the view
of Omniscience, and thus resolves itself into a philosophical
rendering of the great doctrine of the Bible, that "known
unto Grod are all his works from the beginning of the
world," and that in the counsels of Infinite Wisdom there
is "no variableness, nor the shadow of turning." Our own
experience reveals the constant action of the human will
upon the human body, and upon all portions of matter
that lie within the range of the muscular strength and
physical powers of man. These are small, indeed, com-
pared with the forces ever at work in the great cosmical
system; but still their action, through successive ages, has
wrought sensible efiects even on the physical condition of
whole regions of the earth. We should count it absurd to
speak of mere physical law deciding the movements of the
ball, the marble, or the orange, when once placed within
the grasp of a human hand. Once let us conceive of
spiritual beings whose power over matter bears the same
proportion to ours as the orange to the mass of the earth,
and the seeming immutability of physical law, even in the
case of the planetary movements, would equally disappear.
It would resolve itself at once into some higher law of the
spiritual world. But we can have no proof from reason
alone that no such creatures exist in the universe. Our
proof is limited to the fact that for a certain number of
years, as far as human testimony can reach, there has

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 79

been no such gigantic interference with the regularity of
the celestial motions, though the will of man interferes
ceaselessl}'^ with all the products of nature on the surface
of our own planet. But this contrast between the vastness
of the starry world, and the narrow range of human volition,
however conspicuous in fact, has no semblance whatever of
being a necessary truth. We have no proof whatever, on
grounds of pure reason, that the constancy for thousands
of years of the planetary courses, undisturbed by spiritual
agencies immensely more potent than the human will, is
more than a counterpart, on a larger scale, to the quiet
and silent growth of the corn in the harvest-field, till the
hour when the husbandman "puts in his sickle because
the harvest is come."

Thirdly, the objection involves also a false definition of
miracles themselves. They are defined to be "something
at variance with nature and law," suspensions of a known
law, arbitrary interpositions, and events "isolated and un-
caused." But none of these descriptions are correct. They
are not, in the view of the Bible or of Christians, mere
arbitrary interferences, but acts of Divine power, exerted
for a special purpose, in harmony with a scheme of moral
government, to which all physical laws whatever are also
subordinate. They obey a moral and spiritual law of the
Divine Wisdom, higher and nobler, but possibly no less
clear and definite in its own sphere, than the law of gravi-
tation itself They are suspensions of known law, just as
the law that bodies fall toward the earth is suspended
when wood floats in water, or a balloon mounts toward the
sky; or the law that a bell is sonorous is intercepted and
suspended when it is rung in an exhausted receiver. The
difiierence is not in the principle, but in the special cause
ot the suspension. In one case a lower physical law is
intersected and reversed by another law, equally physical,

80 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

but more extensive. In the other the same law is suspended
and reversed by some spiritual agency, or a direct act and
purpose of the Supreme Will.

The objection denies further that any special features
of the Christian records will justify our departure from the
general incredulity, with which the ascription of a miracu-
lous character to any strange event would be regarded in
the present age of scientiJBc attainment. To regard them
as an exceptional case, it is alleged, transfers them I'rom
the domain of genuine history to that of mere legend.
But it is hard to understand by what obliquity of judg-
ment an assertion so preposterous could be made. The
exact reverse is self-evidently true. A professed message
from God, which barely affirmed its own Divine origin, and
was accompanied by no credentials worthy of its Author,
such as the signs and wonders of the Law and the Gospel
supply, would be open, without defense, to the charge of
being a mere dream of the imagination, and might be
transferred at once from the region of fact and real history
to that of mere legend. Miracles answer here to the crucial
tests of the inductive philosophy, and form the contrast
between a tissue of mere human fancies and authentic
messages from heaven, sealed with the royal signet of the
King of kings.

Besides these errors, there is a deeper charge of self-
contradiction, which lies against the whole tenor of this
skeptical argument. Writers of this school, the disciples
of the positive philosophy, when they would free physical
science from the intrusion of metaphysics and religious
faith, insist on the doctrine that our task, as students of
nature, is confined to the discovery of laws, the mere gen-
eralization of classes of phenomena, and that causes He com-
pletely beyond our reach; that their existence is doubtful,
and thei} nature inconceivable. We know a series of events,

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 81

of antecedents and consequents; but of secret links, named
causes, which have been supposed to bind them together,
we know, and can know, nothing. On this basis is raised
a theory of negative atheism, that God may possibly exist,
but that his existence must forever be uncertain, and is
also needless for all the wants of human science. But
when the miracles of the Grospel are to be set aside, and
the supernatural banished from the thoughts of men, this
reasoning is suddenly and completely reversed. These laws
of nature, which before were nothing else than a summa-
tion of observed facts, are transformed into real causes,
inflexible and unalterable as the fates of the old heathens,
which admit neither God, nor angel, nor man, to interfere
with their absolute and supreme dominion. What contra-
diction can be more gross and intolerable? The heathen,
who cut down the cypress or the oak of the forest, hewed
and squared it into decent shape, and, after using part to
cook his food, turned the rest into an idol, and bowed
down before it, was only a type of the more pretentious,
but not less foolish, course of this unbelieving philosophy.
Its disciples hew and carve the phenomena of nature, and
turn the chips and parings, the secondary laws of art and
of applied science, into passive instruments that minister to
the comfort of human life. All the rest of those laws,
though equally perisliable in themselves, but a little more
firm and massive in appearance, they invest with the attri-
butes of Divinity. These are fixed, unalterable, eternal,
incapable of being varied by the will of man, or by the
power of the living God. The worship of such specula-
tors, so far as they worship at all, is paid to this system
of physical law, and to that alone. They fall down before
it, like the old heathen before his wooden idol or molten
image, and say, "Deliver me, for thou art my god." And
there is little doubt, if one of the old prophets were to rise

82 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

again, that he would pi'onounce over tliem once more thai
indignant sentence, "They have not known nor understood;
for he hath shut their eyes, that they can not see, and their
hearts, that they can not understand."

III. The third class of objections refer to the sufficiency
of miracles as the proofs and tests of a Divine revelation.
And here it is urged that their force must be only relative,
and depend on the knowledge or ignorance of those to
whom they appeal. The miracle of an ignorant age ceases
to be such in an age of greater light. Columbus's predic-
tion of an eclipse was supernatural to the islanders of the
Antilles. Some have, therefore, applied to them the Grreek
proverb, that they are "marvels for fools," and supposed
it equivalent with the rebuke of the evil generation, who
sought after a sign. Schleiermacher held them to be only
relative to the notions of the age. The Pharisees ascribed
them to evil spirits, and the later Jews to a theft of the
ineffable name. Signs may thus be suited to one age or
one class, and not to others. Miracles, which would now
be incredible, were not so in the age when they are said to
have occurred. Evidence, which might be convincing and
powerful to an age of ignorance, may have only an inju-
rious influence when urged in these days, with whose
scientific conceptions it is at variance. Where there is an
indiscriminate belief of the supernatural, or where it is
wholly disbelieved, the allegation of particular miracles will
be equally in vain. Some recent writers have held that
revelation ought to be received, though destitute of strict
evidence either internal or external. Others have strongly
denied that historical testimonies can be justly styled the
evidences of Christianity. Whenever, instead of miracles
being the sole certificate of the message, the force of evi-
dence is made to lie in their union with the internal excel-
lence of the doctrine, the latter becomes the real test for

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 83

the admission of the former. Such a principle appears in
the Bible itself, since false prophets might predict signs
and wonders, which might also come to pass; and false
Christs and false prophets, under the Gospel, by similar
miracles, almost deceive the very elect. What is the value
of faith at second-hand? Many Christian writers have held
a right of appeal, superior to all miracles, to our own moral
tribunal, as De Wette, Doderlein, and others. Thus all
outward attestation would seem superfluous, if it concur
with these moral convictions, or to be rejected if it oppose
them. And hence the general conclusion is reached, that
"the more knowledge advances, the more Christianity, as a
real religion, must be viewed apart from connection with
physical things."

There are here two important questions, much contro-
verted even among Christian divines, which need some pa-
tient thought before they can receive a distinct answer.
How far is the evidence of miracles real and absolute, or
only relative to the ignorance of those who witness them?
What is the connection, also, between external and internal
evidence? Do miracles alone, and apart from every moral
test, form a complete attestation of a Divine message? Or
do they need rather to be joined with some moral evidence
before they can be received as decisive ? Christian writers,
as Wardlaw and Trench, have given opposite replies to
these questions. It becomes the more needful to use cau-
tion in seeking to answer them. The truth, if once clearly
defined and explained, will, perhaps, spare the necessity of
sifting the divergent statements of Christian apologists. It
will then be needless to pursue the skeptical argument in
detail through the pages of an essay, which pretends to
throw new light on the study of the evidences, and seems
only to wrap the subject in mist and confusion, that it may
securely undermine the old foundations of the Christian faith

84 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

The reply to the first of these questions must plainly de-
pend on the true definition of a miracle. If it be simply
the suspension or reversal of the known laws of- nature,
then it must clearly be relative to our varying knowledge
of those laws ; and events miraculous in one age, or to one
class, may cease to be so in a later age, or among better-
instructed men. If it be a direct act of Grod, in contrast
to all agency of second causes, and by an exercise of power
strictly and exclusively Divine, then its nature is absolute
and not relative, and must remain the same to all classes,
and in every age of the world.

The latter view has been adopted by many Christian
writers in their works on the evidence of revelation. It
seems to have the advantage of simplifying the argument;
since miracles, thus defined, must plainly be a decisive
proof that the message they accompany is Divine. Birt
this seeming benefit is more than counterbalanced by the
loss. On such a view it must be impossible to know when
a miracle has been wrought, unless we could know all the
possible results of second causes, in their most unusual
combination, or define the limits of power which may be-
long to superhuman, but created intelligence. Now this is
a knowledge which no one has ever attained, even with our
actual advances in science, and amidst all the light of reve-
lation. How much less can it be the condition on which
the evidence for the truth of that revelation is made to
depend ! No definition of miracles can leave them avail-
able as the proper tests of a Divine message, which requires
a knowledge, both of God and of nature, quite beyond the
attainments of those to whom the message is given.

The following view is free from this fatal objection.
Miracles, as evidence, may be immediate, mediate, or im-
proper. Immediate miracles are those which satisfy the
last definition, or distinct and immediate actings of the

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 85

(Jreat First Cause, apart from all second causes whatever.
The resurrection of our Lord is an instance which seems
clearly to belong to this first and highest category. Me-
diate miracles are those wrought by some unusual and su-
pernatural power bestowed on a Divine messenger. The
miracles of our Lord himself, as the Son of man, may be
correctly referred to this class, and still more undeniably
those of his apostles. They were not immediate acts of the
Divine power alone, but are distinctly ascribed to a gift
imparted to them as God's messengers. "He gave them
power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all
manner of sickness and of disease." "Behold, I give unto
you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and on all
the power of the enemy." A deputed and real power, then,
can not be denied without contradicting Scripture, and the
adoption of a line of reasoning which destroys the distinc-
tion between miracles and common events, by resolving all
alike into the ceaseless operation of the First Cause alone.
Improper miracles are those which result from rare and
unusual combinations of second causes. In these foresight,
and not power, is the really-supernatural element. The
plague of the locusts, the feeding with quails, and even the
destruction of the cities of the plain, may probably be re-
ferred to this class. In each case second causes, already in
being, were clearly employed ; and it is not certain that
more was needed than a prearrangement, by Divine Wis-
dom, of special conditions for their combined action. The
efifect on those who saw the events would be equally mirac-
ulous, and create a full persuasion of the presence of the
mighty hand of God.

These three kinds of miracles, however distinct in their
definition, it may be impossible in many cases to distinguish
from each other. Their value, as evidence, can not then
depend upon such a discrimination having been previously

86 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

made. We need a practical definition which shall inclua.
them all, and bring into relief that common feature on
which their strength as evidence for a Divine revelation
depends.

Miracles, then, viewed as evidences for revelation, are
'• unusual events not within the ordinary power of man, nor
capable of being foreseen by man's actual knowledge of
second causes, and wrought or announced by professed mes-
sengers of God, to confirm the reality of their message."
The definition has a negative and a positive element.
There must be no second causes, or at least none within
human knowledge, that will account for the event; and
there must be an apparent connection with some plain
moral object or some professed message from God. When-
ever these two conditions meet, we have a case of miracu-
lous evidence. Some of these, by the progress of science
in later times, might come within the range of man's actual
power over nature, or his insight into natural changes, and
would then cease to be miraculous ; while others may sur-
pass not only human, but superhuman power, and imply a
direct exercise gf the Divine Omnipotence.

The use of miracles as evidence, like the need itself for
supernatural revelation, depends on the doctrine of the Fall.
It results from the dimness and blindness* of the heart of
man in all spiritual things. In a perfect state, all second
causes would be referred instinctively to the will of God,
and all nature be translucent with the Maker's presence.
Miracles, in their strangeness and peculiarity, would cease
to exist. All we behold would be miracle. Even the
direct converse of the Word of God with his sinless crea-
tures would only be the crown and top-stone of one har-
monious system of communion among men and angels, and
all the holy creatures of God. But when, through the
power of sin, creation has grown opaque to the eyes of

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 87

men, and the physical course of nature has concealed the
presence of the great Lawgiver, miracles are needed, to form
an antidote to blind nature-worship, and undo the subtile
spell of unbelief. This end may be secured, either by acts
of Divine power, suspending or reversing the laws of na-
ture; or else by combining these in such an unusual way,
and with so clear a moral purpose, as to force the convic-
tion on reluctant minds that Nature is only a servant and
handmaid of the living Grod, who is the moral governor of
the universe.

The evidence, then, of miracles, in the widest sense of
the term, may in some cases be only relative to the knowl-
edge of those who witness them. Still there are few, if
any, of those recorded in the Bible, which lie so near to
this inferior limit as to be really affected in their evidential
power by the discoveries of modern science, and the in
crease of man's power over the works of God. Even sup-
posing some of the plagues of Egypt to have been effected
simply by a preadjustment of second causes, no reach of
science, even now, could enable the wisest philosopher to
rival Moses, and to predict the coming of the scourge and
the time of its removal. Our chemistry, with its immense
discoveries, leaves the miracle at Cana as purely miraculous
as in the hour when it was wrought; and the feeding of
the five thousand remains till now, as clearly as ever, a
work truly supernatural and Divine.

The evidence derived from miracles to confirm the truth
of revelation needs thus no intrusion into the deep things
of God, no exact discernment of limits which separate all
created power and second causes from acts of Divine Om-
nipotence, in order to give it force and validity. It de-
pends simply on the union of two conditions; that second
causes, adequate to the result, either do not exist, or are
hidden from view; and that a moral cause, as the exhibi

88 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

tion of Divine power and holiness, or the confirmation of a
Divine message, shall be plainly conspicuous. The words
of the conscience-stricken magicians will then be applica-
ble— "This is the finger of God." And the reasoning of
our Lord will apply — "If I by the finger of God cast out
devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you."

This leads to a second inquiry of equal importance.
What is the relation between the external and internal evi-
dence, between the miracles which attest a message, and
the moral features of the alleged revelation? The path of
truth seems here, as in many other cases, to lie almost
midway between opposite extremes.

First, it is not the doctrine of Scripture that miracles
alone, simply as miracles, are decisive proofs that any mes-
sage or teaching they accompany is from God. The mar-
vels of the Egyptian sorcerers who withstood Moses, the
caution in the law against teachers of idolatry, whose signs
and wonders should come to pass, the account of our Lord's
temptation, his own warning against false prophets, whose
great signs and wonders might almost deceive the elect,
and other passages in the Epistles and Book of Revelation,
conspire to teach an opposite lesson. It avails nothing to
allege that wicked spirits can never attain to works prop-
erly Divine. Revelation would be needless, if men were
already so wise as to know the highest possible reach of all
created power, and instinctively to discern it from the
workings of real Omnipotence. Indeed we have no proof
that most of the miracles in the Bible require a higher
power than its own promises assure to saints and angels in
the kingdom of God; and the contrary may perhaps be
implied, where miraculous gifts of the early Christians
receive that impressive title — "the powers of the world to
fome."

The opposite extreme, however, that the goodness of

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 89

the message, discerned by the liglit within, is the real test
of the admissibility of miracles, instead of miracles being
the tests of the message itself, is still more remote from
the truth. A conscience so enlightened beforehand as to
decide at once on the wisdom or folly, the truth or false-
hood of every part of a message that claims God for its
author, can stand in no need of a direct revelation from
heaven. The same moral blindness, which alone calls for
the remedy of a supernatural message, unfits men entirely
for the perilous task of sitting in judgment on the words
of their Maker. To see truth in the light of God is not
the state of those to whom either the Law or the Gospel
is first given. It is the best and highest attainment of
those who have received in faith the words of their Maker,
and been trained by them to the full eajoyment of his
presence; where faith is lost in sight, and provision for
their journey through a land of moral pitfalls is exchanged
for the gladness and glory of a heavenly inheritance.

Miracles of themselves simply attest the presence and
working of a superhuman power. They do not, without
some further test, prove that this power is that of the
true and only God. The Bible affirms the existence of
spirits of evil superior to men in natural power and wis-
dom, who must, therefore, be capable of working wonders,
or predicting events and revealing secrets, beyond the range
of mere human ability. Some further element, then, is re-
quired beyond mere signs and wonders, though apparently
supernatural, to prove the doctrine or message to be Divine.
And this test may be twofold — the greatness of the mira-
cles themselves, or the moral features of the message when
viewed as a whole. The first is the simplest; the second,
the most decisive. Both of them rest alike on the voice
of reason, and distinct examples in the Word of God.
The Pivine power must surpass the power of all spirits

90 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of evil J and if they are permitted to work seeming won-
ders, it seems reasonable to expect that the Lord of heaven
and earth will merely suffer it so far as to illustrate more
brightly his own supremacy and omnipotence. Again,
though revelation would be useless, if men were able to
pass judgment safely in detail on every part of a Divine
message, such a degree of moral discernment as would
enable them, on the whole, to discern good from evil, the
message of a holy and benevolent Deity from the lying
voice of spirits of darkness, must surely belong to all
mankind who have not reached the worst and lowest stage
of judicial blindness.

Now, both of these tests, which alone are needed to
make the evidence of miracles adequate and complete,
are distinctly recognized in the Bible history itself. The
magicians of Egypt, so far as the words of Scripture are
any guide, rivaled outwardly the signs of the first plagues
and the previous wonders, with an inferiority in degree
alone. After this limit their permitted power, or that of
the false gods whose servants they were, failed them, and
they were compelled to own, "This is the finger of God."
Again, when a prophet spoke in the name of the Jehovah,
the success or failure of the signs he gave was declared to
be the test of his sincerity or falsehood in his claim to a
Divine commission. But if a prophet or dreamer showed a
sign or wonder to persuade the Israelites into idol-worship,
even the success of the sign was to be no proof of his
authority. On the contrary, it is declared to be merely
permitted for the trial of their fidelity, and the teacher
of falsehood and idolatry was to be put to death for his
crime.

The words of Nicodemus in his secret interview with our
Lord are quite consistent with the same view. The con-
clusion rested app;nmtly not on the mere fact of miracles,

THE REASONABLENESS OF MIRACLES. 91

but on their number or their greatness. "No man can do
these miracles which thou doest, except God be with him."
Our Lord himself assigns the same reason for the guilt of
the Jews in rejecting him. It was not simply because
miracles had been wrought, but greater miracles than by
any of the prophets, and therefore in fullest harmony with
the rank and character of the true Messiah. "If I had
not done among them the works which no other man did,
they had not had sin." The presence of miracles, then,
simply and in itself, is not a completely-decisive proof of
a Divine message. They may, in rare cases, accompany
the permitted delusions of spirits of darkness. But mira-
cles, striking and impressive in themselves, and not con-
fronted by others still more miraculous, or when joined
with a general impress of holiness in the message they
attest, do form a complete and decisive evidence that the
teaching is from Grod, and the revelation truly divine.

Let us now sum up the general result of this inquiry.

All science tends toward unity; but the true source
of that unity can not be found within the boundaries
of physical science alone. This vast ocean has its tides
secretly controlled by a higher law than the currents and
rippling of its own waves. The real unity consists in a
scheme of moral government, guided and disposed in every
part by the wisdom of the great Lawgiver, of which only
a small part is disclosed to us in our present state. There
is a partial unity in every compartment of nature, but this
is limited by its subordination to a greater whole. Me-
chanical laws, which govern solid matter, are modified by
the subtile influences of heat and electricity. These higher
laws again are modified by vital action in all the forms of
vegetable and animal life. All the lower forms of life
upon earth, as well as all material objects, are controlled
in various degrees by the reason and will of man. At

92 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

this point in the ascent higher laws begin to appear — not
of mechanical agency or physical sequence, but of moral
government. Ideas force themselves upon our notice, of
right and wrong, duty and disobedience, of sin and holiness,
of reward and punishment. Beyond these there emerges
to the view of faith, when enlightened by the Word of
God, and by its echoes and reflections in the purified con-
science, the glorious vision of a scheme of creation, provi-
dence, and redemption, which spans eternity in its range;
begins from the foundation of the world; stretches forward
into the ages to come; includes all events, small and great,
within its own capacious bosom; and makes all the out-
ward works of the Creator, from the stars of heaven to
the cedar of Lebanon and the hyssop on the wall, subserve
the mysterious counsels of Infinite Wisdom and Love.

The knowledge which man has attained, in any age of
the world, of the laws of nature, is like an islet in the
midst of this vast, undiscovered ocean of the counsels of
the Most High. It gives him a firm standing-place for the
active duties of his daily life, while its narrow limits teach
him the duty of owning a higher power, and adoring with
reverence at the footstool of his Almighty Creator. In a
perfect moral state this limited and imperfect knowledge
would never be a vail to hide from his eyes the presence
and dominion of the Unseen King. But sin has darkened
the human conscience; and ages of the world in which
"many run to and fro, and knowledge is increased," may
blind the eyes of men to the limitations of physical law,
and its dependence on the higher purposes of God's moral
government. They mistake this ocean islet — this narrow
region of discovered physical laws, reared by the insect
labors of thousands of men of science in successive gener-
ations— for that mightier world to which the islet itself,
and the ocean that girdles it, equally belong. It becomes

THE REASONABLENESS OP MIRACLES. 93

needful, tlieii, either by the unexpected inference of other
physical laws still undiscovered and unknown, by signal
and secret arrangements of Providence, or by the direct
agency of spiritual messengers higher than men, to break
through the thick crust of atheism which has begun to
darken the conscience; and to force on it anew the convic-
tion that man is a creature subject to the control of an
all-wise Creator, and that higher laws than the dull
mechanism of unconscious matter, or the low instincts of.
animal life, enter into the mighty scheme of God's universal
providence. This is the first and immediate efiFect of the
ripava^ or wonders, that herald and accompany the message
of God.

But to arouse the attention, and disperse the atheistic
blindness which worships dead nature, is only their first
effect. They are signs as well as wonders, or significant
attendants of some message from heaven, some moral truth
which they partly convey of themselves, and partly con-
firm, as it flows from the lips of God's appointed messen-
gers. The miracles of the Bible startle men from their
apathy, but they also teach and signify some celestial truth.
The Flood, the destruction of the cities of the plain, were
messages of solemn anger against abounding sin. The
smitten rock, from whence the water flowed at Rephidim,
and the manna in the wilderness, were signs of a higher
provision for the souls of men. The healing of the sick,
the cleansing of lepers, the unstopping the ears of the deaf,
the opening the eyes of the blind, the draught of fishes, the
feeding of the multitudes, in our Lord's ministry, had all
of them a deep moral significance. The little islet of
known natural laws was invaded, its dull monotony was
disturbed, and its tenants wakened up to wonder, curiosity,
and Bager inquiry, by a ship of heaven, laden with good
news from a far country. But the ship had a firmness of

94 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

its own, not less complete in its kind than the islet it wa*
sent to visit, and its treasures were the products of a con-
tinent, far more rich in its extent than the self-satisfied but
ignorant islanders could ever have dreamed of, before it
anchored on their distant shore. The miracles of revela-
tion are that ship of heaven. They have a system and
structure of their own, adapted wonderfully to convey
heavenly truth to the dwellers of earth, although the visit
breaks through their contented slumber within the narrow
region of sensible things. They seem, then, in themselves,
like infractions on the dominion and permanence of the
lower laws of nature, already known to men. But in truth
they convey to them the products of a nobler and higher
world of thought, of which the laws are equally firm, and
even firmer, than those which the miracles seem to reverse,
and are larger, wider, deeper, and nobler, unchangeable
and everlasting. That higher world is the vast scheme and
counsel of redeeming love. Its foundations are the attri-
butes of Him who is unchangeable. Its hills and valleys are
the wide range of moral and spiritual truth. Its rich pro-
ductions are all those various lessons of duty, laws of holi-
ness, and instincts of purity, wisdom, and grace, which will
nourish and gladden the souls of the redeemed forever.
Physical laws may be firm, but the moral laws of the
Divine government are still firmer. The pillars of earth
may tremble and be astonished; but no change can assail
that city "which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God."

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 95

CHAPTER V.

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE.

The Bible differs from all other ancient books, which
have claimed a sacred origin, by its historical character.
In this respect it stands alone. The Koran of Mohammed
is simply a series of monologues ; only a few Scripture nar-
rative^ rhetorically disguised, or Arabian legends, interrupt
the wearisome monotony of its religious appeals, invectives,
and exhortations. The Hindoo Vedas are equally unhis-
torical. Learned students, with their utmost efforts, can
only just infer from them, indirectly, the age when they
were written. The same feature appears in the Zendavesta,
and the Egyptian sacred writings and Ritual of the Dead.
All of these flit before us like ghosts or disembodied spir-
its, and the garment of historical fact or allusion with
which they are clothed is of the most thin and shadowy
kind.

The Old and the New Testament agree in a common
character precisely the opposite to these pretended revela-
tions. They include the history of a long and connected
series of events, of great, public, and notorious acts of Di-
vine Providence. In each of them four-sevenths of the
whole is simple narrative ; and the other books also,
whether didactic, devotional, or prophetic, with hardly one
exception, are fixed by clear and internal marks to their
own place in the history. This is the stem which supports
them all, the Psalms, Proverbs, Canticles, and Prophets in
the Old Testament, and the Epistles and Book of Revela-

96 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

tion in the New. The Bible narrative, so simple and un-
adorned in itself, seems here, like the rod of Aaron, to bud
and bring forth blossoms and yield almonds. In these
other books only a few chapters are direct history ; but
still their connection with the historical portions is intimate,
unbroken, and complete.

This character of the Bible is most favorable to the de-
tection of its falsehood, or to the establishment of its truth.
It multiplies greatly the tests which separate faithful tes-
timony from the impostures of fraud and the mere illusions
of fancy. Unreal history is too sandy a foundation on
which to rear, with the least hope of success, a temple of
pure and everlasting truth. Sincere and honest narratives,
though slightly discordant or imperfect in a few minor de-
tails, might certainly be the means of conveying to us Di-
vine messages of the highest worth and authority. But it
is incredible that histories which would be condemned in
all other cases as dishonest or worthless, legendary and de-
ceptive in their broad outlines, should be the stem upon
which are found to grow the blossoms and richest fruitage
of heavenly wisdom. Men do not gather grapes of thorns,
nor figs of thistles. A pure morality and theology can
never be the fruit of dishonest and deceptive history.
Once let the conviction spread that whole books of the
Bible, and main portions of its narratives are gross, strange,
and monstrous distortions of the real facts, or else mere
legends containing no real facts whatever, and Christianity
will have received a fatal death-wound in the minds of
3ducated and thoughtful men.

The Pentateuch and the four Gospels are the historical
basis, on which all the other Scriptures of the Old and of
the New Testament entirely depend. Each has been ex-
posed, of late years, to repeated and persevering charges
of historical falsehood. Early forms of skepticism ripened

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 97

at length, in Strauss's "Leben Jesu,"' into an attempt to
dissolve the whole of the Gospels into a heap of fables,
due entirely to the dreaming and inventive imagination of
the early Christians. The cool audacity of the hypothesis,
with the laborious minuteness of its detailed criticisms,
created a momentary sensation; just as the tale of a lunatic
may be so minute and particular in its various inventions
as to make us almost forget for a time how preposterous it
is. But this tide-wave has gone by, though some traces of
it may be left behind. The Gospels are too recent in their
date, too intensely real in their tone, too fruitful in histor-
ical consequences, to make it possible for so wild a theory
to have more than a brief popularity among unbelievers
themselves. The oscillation from naturalism into mythi-
cism was followed inevitably by a backward movement into
naturalism again. And indeed this uneasy alternation can
never cease till the eyes of the soul are opened, like those
of the blind man in the Gospel, and it learns to bow the
knee in reverence and worship before the Son of God.

The attacks on the Pentateuch began earlier, and have
been still more persevering. Skepticism had here many
advantages which were entirely wanting in its assaults upon
the Gospel history. The period itself is more remote by
nearly two thousand years. The law, being a revelation
originally for the Jews alone, has a much weaker hold
than the Gospel on the faith and sympathy of the great
body of modern Christians. Till quite lately, there were
few collateral sources of information to be found, either in
ancient monuments or heathen records. The efforts of un-
believing criticism were thus confined mainly to a dissec-
tion of the books themselves. From the time of Astruc
onward, a long series of writers have labored to detect
inconsistencies, to disprove the Mosaic authorship, and to
transfer the broken fragments of the Pentateuch to various

9

98 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

legend-makers, or compilers of loose tradition, under the
Jewish kings. More recently the progress of discovery in
the remains of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and Babylon, has
supplied far more copious materials for comparison with
the histories of the Old Testament. Its later books have
gained singular and unexpected confirmation from results
of Assyrian and Babylonian research. But the effect of
Egyptian discovery, in the comparison of the monuments
with the books of Moses, is more controverted and ambigu-
ous. Here also many facts, usages, and details in the
sacred narrative are confirmed by the monuments in a
striking manner. But on the main question of the general
outline of the early history some learned students, while
differing by whole centuries and millennia in their own
reckonings, agree to set aside the book of Genesis as leg-
endary and unhistorical, that they may replace it by their
own views of the immense antiquity of Egyptian civiliza-
tion. An attempt has lately been made to bring these
supposed discoveries within, the general reach of English
readers in a popular form; and thus to destroy their faith
in the veracity of those books of Moses, which form the
historical basement of the whole series of the Jewish and
Christian revelations.

It would be impossible, in a few pages, to enter into the
details of an inquiry so immense and various. The Bible
histories occupy seventeen books of the Old, and five of
the New Testament, and spread over a space, at the lowest
reckoning, of nearly four thousand years. Within this wide
range, and with all the various materials amassed by modern
research, hundreds, and almost thousands of questions may
be raised, that would each require a chapter or small volume
lor their full discussion. Our knowledgt of the earliest
period is still so obscure, and the views both of those who
reject the authority of the Pentateuch, and of those who

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 99

maintain it, are so diverse, that a suspense of judgment on
several important questions may be still the wisest course,
even after the most careful use of all the existing evidence
But a way lies open by which, in spite of some questions
still unsolved, and confident assertions by a few men of
science, agreed in rejecting Moses, but still at variance
among themselves, we may come to a full assurance, in
agreement with the plainest maxims of inductive philos-
ophy, on the massive strength and solidity of the historical
foundations of the Christian faith.

The great question which requires an answer is this:
Have we any clear and full warrant for believing the ve-
racity of the Bible historians, and the substantial truth of
their narratives, however plainly intermingled with state-
ments of supernatural events, and whatever minute discrep-
ancies may seem at first sight to be detected by a rigid
and searching inquiry? And here two prefatory remarks
seem desirable before we proceed to consider the direct
evidence of their truth.

First of all, the veracity of these writers is closely linked,
in the general faith of Christians, with the doctrine of theii
special inspiration, and an implied belief of their freedom
from all error in delivering the messages of God. This
intimate union of two distinct ideas, however natural and
desirable for the uses of practical piety, may become a
snare and a source of perplexity in tracing out the reason-
able grounds of our Christian faith. We may be charged
with a circular and sophistical mode of reasoning; as if
we believe the Scriptures inspired and infallible because a
few texts seem to affirm it, and reckon these texts decisive
evidence because all Scripture is true and inspired. Faith,
however, in the exact limit and extent of the Scripture
canon, and in a mode of inspiration so complete as to
exclude the slightest error or discrepancy, is rather the

100 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

crown and top-stone than the basis of a reasonable belief
in Christianity. It could not have been essential while the
canon was unfinished, nor for centuries afterward, when
several books were widely but not universally received;
while in modern times a less rigid view of the effect of
inspiration can claim many advocates of deep and earnest
piety, and of general soundness in the Taith. On the other
hand, a conviction that the sacred writers, especially the
Evangelists, are sincere, honest, and credible witnesses of
the facts they record seems a first essential of all real
faith in Christianity. For surely • no one can hold the
Evangelists and apostles to have been fraudulent historians
and dishonest witnesses, and still receive the Grospel itself
as a message truly Divine.

There is here an important distinction between the doc-
trinal and prophetic books or passages of Scripture and
the historical books themselves, in the former there is
generally a direct or virtual claim of Divine authority.
Their character is totally changed when we view them as
purely human. We must accept them as Divine, or own
them to be an immoral experiment on the credulity of
mankind. But the historical books, with the exception of
prophetic passages or doctrinal discourses, require no such
alternative. The claim to inspiration is not made by each
historian on his own behalf It is not plainly implied by
the mere existence of the record. No one without a special
commission can reveal heavenly truth so as to claim with
full authority the obedience of mankind; but every honest
witness may give a true report of discourses he has heard,
or events he has seen, or of which copious evidence has
been placed within his reach, without special and super-
natural inspiration. If St. Luke had not written, and the
accounts to which his preface alludes had survived, they
might have been disfigured by some mistakes and errors,

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 101

and have obscured the due proportion of the events they
contained ; but they would doubtless have agreed in the
main with our present Gospels, and mi^ht have nourished
for ages the spiritual life of the whole Church. Entire
freedom from the least error, if proved by distinct evidence,
is a superadded perfection of the sacred narratives, which
increases their practical value, and simplifies the acting of
Christian faith; but their honesty, as the work of upright
witnesses, and careful and well-informed historians, is the
first condition on which all reasonable faith in Christianity
must depend.

The life, death, and resurrection of Christ — the bases of
Christianity — are recorded by four distinct writers in the
four Gospels. This agrees with the maxim of the law of
Moses, and the lesson of common-sense, that "in the mouth
of two or three witnesses every word should be established."
The plurality of the witnesses is thus made one chief ele-
ment in the strength of their united testimony. Every
view, then, of the inspiration of these books which sets
aside or obscures the individuality of the four writers, and
reduces them to fingers of the same hand, used mechanic-
ally by the Spirit of God, defeats one main purpose for
which the message was conveyed to us in its actual form.
No further truth respecting the special inspiration of the
Evangelists ought to cloud from our view the fact, so con-
spicuous in itself, and so important in reference to the
great object of the revelation, that we have a concurrence
of four distinct and separate witnesses to all the main facts
and many details of the Gospel history.

Secondly, the veracity of the Bible has been often ques-
tioned and denied on the simple ground that it contains
miraculous events and prophecies. A whole series of Ger-
man critics base their rejection of its histories, in their
actual form, entirely on this principle, that the mention

102 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of a miracle is "evident proof of a later narrator, who wat
no eye-witness of tlie event." The great question is thub
prejudged in the gross before any attempt is made to con-
firm this general disbelief by detailed criticism. But such
a line of argument bears its condemnation on its face; foi
the claim of the Bible is plainly that it contains a series
of messages from God to man, attested by signs, wonders,
and prophecies. To make the presence of these in the
narrative a disproof of its reality is therefore a flagrant
contradiction of all common-sense. Two demands alone
can be reasonably made: that the history, setting apart its
miraculous character, shall possess all the other marks of
honesty and truth; and that the testimony to these miracles
and prophecies, in its strength and clearness, shall corre-
spond with their importance as public and solemn credentials
of a revelation from Glod.

Again, the improbability of miracles, which evidence has
to overcome, depends entirely on their association with some
great religious object, or their independent occurrence. In
the former case they can not be more unlikely than one or
other of these affirmations: that there is a God; that men
stand in need of fuller light from their Maker; and that a
God of wisdom and love has made provision for this wide
and deep want of mankind. In the latter case their occur-
lence is just as unlikely as the supposition that an all- wise
Governor will abrogate the laws he has ordained, in mere
caprice, and with no apparent motive whatever. Thus in
one case we have a high probability that they will, and in
the other that they will not occur. The proposal to test
the Bible, in this respect, by the rules applied to common
histories, is therefore a logical absurdity of the most glaring
kind. We have been told, for instance, that the outward
evidences of Scripture are "not adequate to guarantee nar-
ratives inherently incredible," and that our investigation

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 103

"forfeits its historical character" unless we scrutinize the
Christian miracles "on the same grounds on which we should
investigate any ordinary narrative of the supernatural or
marvelous." This amounts, in fact, to an assertion that
it is just as unlikely an all-wi!-:e Creator should work signs
and wonders with the highest reason conceivable for such
an exercise of his omnipotence, or out of mere caprice with
no reason whatever.

The way is now open for a brief review of the direct evi-
dence which attests the historical truth of the Old and New
Testaments. We may distinguish six main periods : from
Creation to the Exodus, from the Exodus to the Temple,
from thence to the Captivity, and from the Captivity to
Christ ; and, in the New Testament, from the Birth of our
Lord to his Ascension, and from thence to the close of the
history, or St. Paul's arrival at Eome. The earliest period
is lost in the shades of remote antiquity, where, till of
late, few outward materials for comparison could be found ;
but the last answers to the palmiest days of the Roman
Empire, and the most public and conspicuous era of clas-
sical history. The sacred history, however, from first to
last, is recorded on the same general scale, with a marked
harmony of character, style, and tone. The natural course
is to ascend from the last period, where the means for test-
ing its reality are most abundant, to the earlier ones, where
they are of recent discovery, and still comparatively uncer-
tain and obscure.

I. The Book of Acts is a whole, complete in itself, dis-
tinct in character from the Gospels, and not less distinct
from the histories of the Old Testament. It abounds in
testimonies to the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and
to the fact of numerous miracles wrought during its course
by the apostles to confirm their message. Apart from
these features, has it all the marks of genuine history?

104 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUaHT.

Does it satisfy the various tests by whicli an authentie
record of facts may be discerned from the tales of impos-
ture, from deliberate fiction, or from the dreams of excited
fancy ? The evidence may clearly be of three kinds : de-
rived from its allusions to a real geography and the actual
history of the times, from its coincidences with the rest of
the New Testament, especially St. Paul's Epistles, and from
the internal keeping and harmony of its own narrative.
In each of these it is unusually full and copious, and space
will not allow more than an enumeration in the briefest
form.

1. From the Ascension to the death of Herod Agrippa.
The book opens with an allusion to a former treatise by
the same author, containing the events of our Lord's min-
istry till his ascension. This treatise is still extant in our
third Gospel, and agrees with the description, and also
with several features of style in the later narrative. Conf.
Luke iii, 1-4 ; ii, 1-6 ; Acts v, 37 ; xi, 28 ; xviii, 12 ;
xxiv, 27. It alludes next to forty days from the resurrec-
tion to the ascension, followed by a few days of earnest
and continued prayer before the day of Pentecost. This
is the usual name of the second Jewish festival in Philo,
Josephus, and other Greek writers ; and its meaning — the
fiftieth day from the Passover — corresponds with the double
definition of the intervals of time. The disciples are called,
in the first and second chapters, Galileans. This agrees
both with the Gospel account of the chief scene of* our
Lord's ministry, and with the nickname of the Christians,
as late as Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian. Olivet is called
"a Sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem." This is con-
firmed by the known topography, and by Jewish authorities
on the distance allowed to be traveled on the Sabbath.
Aceldama is said to be the name of the field of blood in
"the proper dialect'* of Jerusalem. This agrees with the

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. lOo

local use of Syriac in Judea. Josei^h, called Barsabas, was
also suriiamed Justus. This indicates the presence of the
Romans in Palestine, leading to the occasional acquisition,
by Jews themselves, of Latin surnames. The countries
from which the Jews are said to have been present on the
day of Pentecost agree with the known state of intercourse
in the Roman world, and with their wide dispersion through
all those lands and provinces, as confirmed by Josephus
and other testimonies. Mesopotamia and Judea come to-
gether ; for the grouping refer to dialects, and the Chaldee
and the Syria c of Palestine were near akin to each other.
Both Jews and proselytes are mentioned as numerous, and
the number of Gentile proselytes in that age is confirmed
by all historians. In the sermon of St. Peter the sepulcher
of David is said to be among the Jews at Jerusalem to that
day. It still occupies a leading place in plans, views, and
descriptions of Mount Zion and its vicinity. Williams's
Holy City, Front, and p. 417. The Beautiful Gate of the
Temple and the Porch of Solomon are named as places of
especial resort. The latter is described by Josephus — An-
tiquities, XX, 9 — and the former, though the Greek name
does not seem to occur, answers, both in position and mean-
ing, to the gate called Susan by the Jews from its beauty.
The captain of the Temple is named, in passing, along with
the chief-priests. The same officer is mentioned by Jose-
phus— Ant., XX, 6, 2 ; B. J., ii, 12, 6 ; and vi, 5, 3 — and
under the kindred name of "overseer of the Temple," in
2 Mac. iii, 4. The rivalry of the Sadducees and Pharisees,
which runs through the history, and the special opposition
of the former to the preaching of the resurrection, agrees
fully with larger details in Josephus. Annas is named as
high-priest, and Caiaphas associated with him. The former,
under the name of Ananus, is noted by Josephus as "most
fi)rtunate ; for he had five sons, and all of these had the

106 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

high -priesthood, and he himself, first of all, held the same
honor a long time, which happened to no other of the high-
priests." The appointment and deposition of Caiaphas is
also named — Ant., xviii, 2, 2, and 4, 3 — the latter just after
Pilate was removed from his office. The cotemporary rule
of Herod Antipas and Pilate — Acts iv, 27 — appears, also,
both in Josephus and Suetonius. The surname Barnabas,
given to Joses, and its interpretation, agree with the rela-
tive use of the two languages in Judea and Syria. The
celebrity of Gamaliel agrees with the mention in the Mischna
of Rabbin Gamaliel, son of Rabbi Symeon, and grandson
of Hillel. The statement that those who were with the
high-priest were of the Sadducees, answers to the state-
ment— Ant., XX, 9, 1 — where Ananus, the son of Annas,
is said to follow the " sect of the Sadducees, who were fierce,
with reference to legal judgments, beyond all the Jews."
The passing use of the title, "the taxing or census," ap-
plied to that under Cyrenius or Quirinus, agrees with the
account in Josephus of its political celebrity, as a main era
in Jewish and Syrian history. The mention of Hebrews
and Hellenists at Jerusalem, the prevalence of Greek names
among Hellenist Jews, as in the seven deacons, and the
existence of national synagogues, as that of the Libertines,
or Jewish freedmen, are all features of instructive cor-
respondence with the actual circumstances of the times.
The road to Gaza is called "desert," in agreement with the
topography. The name Can dace, according to Pliny — vi.
29 — was taken in succession by the queens of Upper
Egypt, or the district of Meioe. Other features of cor-
respondence with general history are : the resort of wor-
shipers to Jerusalem from remote countries at the feasts;
the relative position of Gaza, Azotus, and Cesarea; the
temporary dominion of Aretas over Damascus — Acts ix,
23-25; 2 Cor. xi, 32, 33— the rest of the churches, ex-

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 107

plained by Caligula's persecution of the Jews in the last
years of his reign ; the nearness of Lydda and Joppa ; the
use of the name Tabitha by the apostle, and Dorcas by the
Greek historian; the mention of the Italian band; the
military force at Cesarea; the rigid practice of the Jews
about eating with Gentiles ; the importance attached to the
distinction of food, as lawful or impure ; the greater free-
dom shown by the Jews from Cyprus and Cyrene ; the
place and occasion when the name Christian was intro-
duced ; the mention of the reign of Claudius in contrast to
that of Caligula, when Agabus gave the prophecy, and
that of Nero when the history was written ; the reign of
Herod Agrippa over Judea, under Claudius; his quarrel
with Tyre, his reconciliation, and his sudden death after a
public oration at Cesarea.

2. From the death of Herod to St. Paul's voyage to
Rome.

The number and variety of these external allusions and
confirmations of the history seems only to increase when
the Grospel is formally spread among the Gentiles by the
first missionary journey. Seleucia is mentioned familiarly,
in passing, as the port of Antioch. Salamis and Paphos
are placed on opposite sides of Cyprus, the first nearer
Antioch, the second more remote from it. The Jews were
numerous in the island, and had many synagogues there,
in agreement with the mention of their expulsion from it
in the time of Trajan. A proconsul, not a propretor, is
named. Suetonius mentions that Cyprus was at first an im-
perial province, when Augustus shared the provinces with
the senate, but that he restored it to the senate again. The
sorcerer had an Arabic as well as a Hebrew name, and the
apostle a Roman. This agrees with the extensive intermix-
ture of the Jews, by residence, with other nations, and with
St. Paul's birth as a Roman citizen. The site of Antioch in

108 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Pisidia has been lately re-discovered, "with an inscription,
Antioclieae Caesare." Iconium is assigned by Xenophon to
Phrygia — Anab., i, 2, 19 — but by Strabo, Cicero, and Pliny
to Lycaonia, and by Ammianus Marcellinus to Pisidia
Here no province is named for it, and it seems at the time
to have been a distinct territory, ruled by a tetrarch — Plin.
Nat. Hist., V, 27 — Lystra and Derbe are called cities of
Lycaonia, and it is said to have a distinct dialect. So we
read in Stephanus Byzantinus, "Derbe is a garrison and
port (?) of Isauria; but some call it Derbea, which is, in
the dialect of Lycaonia, the juniper bush." Attalia is
mentioned as near to Perga, and a seaport. It lies on the
opposite side of a large plain, and was built by Attains for
trade with Syria and Egypt, and is still called Satalia. The
land route from Antioch to Jerusalem is briefly described as
passing through Phenice and Samaria. The law of Moses
is affirmed by St. James to be read in the synagogues every
Sabbath throughout the Eastern cities. This wide extension
of Jewish synagogue worship, and its constant character, is
confirmed by Jewish and classic writers. Phrygia, Gralatia,
Asia, Mysia, Bithynia, and Troas are named incidentally,
but in their natural order, in the apostle's journey to the
coast. The voyage to Philippi takes three days, with a
notice that the wind was favorable. The return, with no
such notice, is said to have been in five days. Samothracia
and Neapolis are made the two stages of these voyages in
their due order. Philippi is termed " the first city of that
part of Macedonia, and a colony." The province has been
broken into four districts, in its conquest by ^milius Pau-
lus. Philippi was the first city of importance within the
province on the line of route. It was also a Roman colony,
and the inscription is still found on coins: "Colonia Au-
gusta Julia PhiJippensis." The Jewish place of prayer
was by a river side. A small stream, Gangites, ran by the

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OP THE BIBLE. 109

town, and such proseucliae were near running streams for
convenience in Jewish purifications. Lydia was "a seller
of purple, of Thyatira." Inscriptions still remain of "the
guild of dyers " of Thyatira. The names of the magistrates
and officers, and the mode of punishment, beating with rods,
agree with the character of the city as a Roman colony.
The apostle "journeyed through Amphipolis and Apollonia
to Thessalonica." The great Egnatian road {6d6<;) connects
these towns, and an ancient itinerary reckons these three
stages at thirty-three, thirty, and thirty-seven Roman miles.
Thessalonica was a free Greek city. The mention of the
Demus and the politarchs, or rulers, corresponds. They
are Greek rather than Roman names. The original "where
was the synagogue of the Jews," implies that one was found
here only, and not in the three other towns. Thessalonica
was the capital of the province, and hence was a natural
place for this preference on the part of the Jews. Athens
is said to be -'wholly given to idolatry;" and Xenophon
calls the city "one entire altar, altogether an offering to
the gods." Pausanias calls the Athenians "more devout
toward the gods than other persons." The sects of the
Epicureans and Stoics, and the curious, inquisitive, talk-
ative character of the Athenians, are other features of
strict historical reality. Altars, also, dyvaKTro) dsip to an
unknown God, are affirmed by Pausanias and Philostratus
to have been reared in several parts of the city. Mention
is made of a decree of Claudius, that all Jews should
depart from Rome. Suetonius writes of that emperor:
"Judaeos, Chresto impulsore assidue tumultuantes, Roma
expulit." It is named,' in passing, that Gallio was deputy
of Achaia while St. Paul was at Corinth. Tacitus gives
particulars of his appointment through his brother Seneca,
and the time agrees punctually with the date inferred here
from the rest of ^\ie history, or A. D. 52-54. He is called

110 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Proconsul; and the province had been imperial for a time
under Tiberius, but was transferred by Claudius to the
senate. The allusion to St. Paul's vow, and his haste to
reach Jerusalem by Pentecost, agrees with the customs of
the Jews. The phrases "he went up, and saluted the
Church, and went down to Antioch," answer to a time
when Jerusalem was still the sacred metropolis even of
Grentile believers, since the place is implied, but not
named. Asiarchs are mentioned at Ephesus, and also the
worship of Diana, as the tutelar goddess of the city. A
passage occurs with the phrase, "I swear by our country's
deity, the great Artemis of the Ephesians," and also an
inscription with the words, "the great goddess Artemis
before the city." The ruins of the theater, and its site,
indicate it to be the largest of any known in the remains
of antiquity. The name of Asiarchs is also given, 11
many inscriptions, to officers chosen by the cities of Asia
to preside over their festivals. The title of the "town-
clerk," or "^/ja/jt/xareyc," occurs in existing Ephesian in-
scriptions. So also the description of the image AioTteriq,
or Jove descended, and the title of the city, Neujxopoq,
or temple-keeper, are confirmed as in actual and frequent
use at Ephesus. The intervals of the return voyage from
Philippi correspond minutely with the known distances,
and with the interval from the Passover to the Pentecost —
Acts XX, 6, 16 ; xxi, 8 — Philippi, Troas, Assos, Mitylene,
Chios, Samos, Trogyllium, Miletus, Ephesus, Coos, Rhodes,
Patara, Cyprus, Tyre, Ptolemais, Cesarea, are all mentioned
on the route in the most rapid manner; but the presence
of an eye-witness is apparent in every part, and is also
Implied, in the most unobtrusive way, by the transition to
the first person — " We sailed away from Philippi after the
days of unleavened bread." Acts xx, 6. We have, next,
tl.e mention of the Egyptian, and of the Sicarii, both of

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. Ill

them named more fully by Josephus; of the Stairs of
Antouia, where was the Roman garrison; of the prefer-
ence, by the Jews, of their native dialect, while Greek
was still widely intelligible; of the privileges of Roman
citizens, and the fear of the captain who had violated
them; of the feud of the Pharisees and Sadducees; of the
recent change of high-priest, after the death of Jonathan,
mentioned in Josephus, which accounts for St. Paul's igno-
rance that Ananias held the ofl&ce; and of the letter of
Lysias to Felix, so characteristic of a Greek, holding office
under a Roman governor. We have a farther harmony
with facts, otherwise known to us, in the government of
Felix at this time, his covetous spirit, his marriage with
the Jewish Drusilla, and his removal, when Festus was
his successor; in the frequent appeals from Judea to the
emperor at Rome; in the royal dignity of Agrippa and
Bernice, though they had plainly no authority at Jeru-
salem; and in the whole course of procedure of a Roman
provincial governor, when conducting a cause of public
importance. In all these numerous particulars every con-
ceivable test of genuine history is satisfied and fulfilled.

3. The voyage and shipwreck of St. Paul.

These two closing chapters, when minutely examined,
with all the light which can be thrown upon them by
modern knowledge of the Levant, and by classical ac-
counts of the ships and navigation of the ancients, become
a striking and impressive demonstration of the truth of the
whole narrative to which they belong. The subject has
been fally treated by Mr. Smith in his "Voyage and Ship-
wreck of St. Paul," to which the reader must be referred;
or to the brief abstract of its chief results in Dean Alford's
Notes, or in Supplement G to Paley's Evidences.* It is

School Edition, Religious Tract Society.

112 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

almost impossible to conceive how a narrative of the same
length, without any loss of perfect simplicity, could be
more densely crowded with decisive tokens of its being
the result of ocular testimony, and in every part historic-
ally true.

4. Coincidences with the Epistles of St. Paul.

These have been traced at length in the Horae Paulinas,
and placed in so clear a light that it seems impossible to
conceive how more convincing proofs could be given of the
genuineness of the letters and of the historical truth of
St. Luke's narrative, from the first missionary journey to
the arrival of St. Paul at Rome. The- indirect nature of
the coincidence, in almost every instance, creates an im-
pression of reality, which no honest and candid mind can
resist. A few remarks require correction, and other par-
ticulars of the same kind may be added, as in my own
supplement;* but the efi'ect of Paley's own work must be
so decisive, on minds open to conviction, as scarcely to
admit of sensible increase.

5. Another class of evidence may be found in the in-
ternal harmony of the history itself. Amidst the simplicity
and truthfulness of tone in the separate narratives, there is
a unity of design in the successive steps of the progress
of the Gospel, which leads our thoughts to the perception
of a Divine plan, steadily fulfilled, while it only confirms
the historical reality of each separate. portion. The open-
ing words of our Lord are like a key to the structure of
the treatise: "Ye shall be witnesses to me, both in Jeru-
salem and Judea, and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts
of the earth." This order is observed in the accounts that
follow. Seven chapters record the spread of the Gospel at
Jerusalem and in Judea. After the death of Stephen it is

♦ Horse Apostol., Religious Tract Society.

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 113

preached with great success in Samaria. The conversion
of the eunuch is a first step in its difi"usion to the ends of
the earth. An apostle for the Gentiles is then provided.
Their formal and public admission into the Church follows
next, in the history of Cornelius. A central post among
the Gentiles is gained at Antioch, and a Gentile name
replaces that of Nazarenes. The persecution of Herod
and the murder of an apostle sever the link which bound
the Church so closely to Jerusalem. Then the first mis-
sionary journey begins, with Antioch for its starting-point
and goal of return. The freedom of Gentile believers from
the law of Moses is secured by the council at Jerusalem.
Then the Gospel, set free from its Jewish moorings, speeds
swiftly forward through the heathen provinces — Phrygia and
Galatia — to Troas, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth,
and Ephesus, where the apostle receives a prophecy of that
visit to Rome with which the Bible history comes to its
final close. " Paul purposed in the spirit when he had
passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem,
saying, After I have been there I must also see Rome."
Acts xix, 21. His arrival there marks the close of the
narrative, which begins with the acceptance of the Gospel
by Jews at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and ends
with its rejection by Jews and acceptance by Gentiles in
the metropolis of the heathen world.

When all these various kinds of evidence have been
summed up together, and weighed in an impartial balance,
it may be safely affirmed that there is no extant history
of the same age, and of similar length, which can claim
to approach the book of Acts in full, various, and decisive
proofs of historical veracity. Coins, inscriptions, nautical
records of ancient and modern times, Jewish and classic
authors, the Epistles of St. Paul, and the truest and deep-
est chords of the human heart, all conspire to stamp it,

10

114 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

from first to last, with the plainest signature of realit\
and truth.

II. The four Gospels.

The four Gospels and the book of Acts form two dis-
tinct portions of New-Testament history. The space of
time is probably just the same, or thirty-three years. Their
structure, however, is very different. In the former we have
four parallel biographies, but in the latter one continued
narrative. The account in the Gospels, also, is confined to
our Lord's childhood and his public ministry; and twenty-
eight years, or six-sevenths of the whole interval, are passed
by in almost total silence. All is here centered on the
person and public work of the Messiah. This simple and
sublime unity of object distinguishes them not only from
common histories, but froxu the other historical books of
Scripture themselves. They seem only to echo in every
page the Baptist's message: "Behold the Lamb of God!
who taketh away the sin of the world."

This character of the Gospels, so difierent from the book
of Acts, hinders them from offering numerous points of
contact with general history. Their theater is Palestine,
and not the Roman world. The persons and places named
in them are less numerous, and Josephus is almost the
only writer with whom a direct historical comparison can
be made. On the other hand, the concurrence of four
historians supplies marks of reality of a different and most
impressive kind. The vital connection, also, of the life of
Christ, both with all the prophecies of the Old Testament
and with the later history of the New, forms a peculiar
and most weighty proof of the deep and intense reality of
the whole narrative. We may consider the evidence under
the heads of Time, Place, Persons, Reconcilable Diversities,
and the double reference to the Old Testament and to the
later history of the Church of Christ.

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 115

1. The time to whicti the Gospels refer is historically
well defined. The possible Vcariations amount only to three
or four years at either limit. They are due mainly to the
fact that Josephus is the only writer who affords very full
data for comparison, and that some of his statements ap-
pear slightly inconsistent with each other. The limits of
the date of our Lord's birth are B. C. 6 and 3, and those
of the date of his death, A. D. 29 and 33. The direct
statement of Josephus places the death of Herod between
the Summer of B. C. 4 and of B. C. 3. But from his men-
tion of an eclipse before that death, many have inferred
that it took place earlier, or in March, B. C. 4 ; and others
that it was three years later, or January, B. C. 1, when an
eclipse took place about three- months, instead of one
month, before the Passover. The direct statement of Jo-
sephus, being reckoned from a double date of the reign, is
probably the safest guide. In this case Herod's illness
must have lasted the greater part of a year after the eclipse
of March 13, B. C. 4; and the birth of our Lord, if re-
ferred to December, B. C. 5, would be nearly a year before
Herod's death. His baptism would then be in A. J). 27,
when he would be one or two months above thirty years
of age; and his first Passover, soon after, would be in the
forty-sixth year of Herod's rebuilding the Temple. His
death, after a three years' ministry, would be in A. D. 30,
when Thursday would naturally be the Passover day.

The notes of time which serve to fix the chronology are
indirect and various, and lie scattered through the different
Gospels ; and their agreement, with only a very slight de-
gree of uncertainty, is a striking evidence of their common
truth. The birth of our Lord, and his flight into Egypt,
are fixed by St. Matthew to the reign of Herod, and the
return from Egypt to the accession of Archelaus. St. Luke,
again, places just six months between our Lord's birth and

116 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

that of the Baptist, and assigns the annunciation to the
reign of Herod, and the nativity itself to the time of a cen-
sus, either made by Cyrenius, or before his government of
Syria began. It places the preaching of the Baptist in the
fifteenth year of Tiberius, under the government of Pilate,
states the age of our Lord at his baptism to be about thirty
years, notices one Passover in the course of his ministry,
and assigns it indirectly, by one of its parables, a length
of about three years. The Gospel of St. John makes our
Lord's ministry begin very soon after his baptism, at the
time of a Passover, when the Temple of Herod had been
forty-six years in building ; implies a second Passover at or
near the time when the cure took place at the pool of Be-
thesda, and a third about the time of the miracle of the
five thousand ; and specifies visits to Jerusalem at the Feasts
of Tabernacles and Dedication in the last year. In its no-
tice of the last Passover it seems at first sight to vary from
the other Grospels, and to place the Jewish festival a day
later, as referred to the week days ; and the solution of
this difl&culty has divided the judgment of critics and ex-
positors from the earliest times.

Now, if we retain the direct statement of Josephus on the
length of Herod's reign, confirmed by the coins of Herod
Antipas, and the account in Dio of the exile of Archelaus ;
and also accept his date for Herod's rebuilding the Temple ;
if we suppose that our Lord's birth was nearly a year be-
fore Herod's death, as St. Matthew seems to imply ; and
that St. Luke, a writer of Antioch, dated the years of Ti-
berius by a provincial reckoning from his association with
Augustus in power over the provinces, two or three years
before his sole reign, as attested by Suetonius ; and also
that our Lord was just about thirty years old at his bap-
tism, the due priestly age ; if we assume, further, that his
ministry lasted three full years, as implied in the parable

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BEBLE. 1 17

of the Fig-Tree, and inferred with strong likelihood from the
feasts in St. John ; and, finally, if we expound the state-
ments of St. John on the last Passover, as is both possible
and reasonable, so as to agree with the joint evidence ol
the first three Gospels; then all these notes of time, so
widely dispersed, so indirect and various, will agree per-
fectly together, and with the proper age of the moon at the
time of the Passover, and thus become accumulative evi-
dence to the reality of the events and the historical accu-
racy of the record. Even if we were led, by a different
view of the testimony of Josephus, to place the death of
Herod part of a year earlier, or more than two years later,
which is the limit of possible variation, the agreement will
be only affected in a small degree, if we raise the cruci-
fixion to A. D. 29, or place it lower in A. D. 33; and in
every alternative the evidence of reality, from the concur-
rence of notes of time so widely scattered, will scarcely re-
ceive a sensible abatement.

2. The places named in the Gospels are about fifty in
number, or half as many as in the book of Acts. They
include the province of Syria, the tetrarchies or districts
of Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Iturea, Trachonitis, Abilene,
the regions of Perea, of Tyre and Sidon, of Gennesaret,
Dalmanutha, and Decapolis, and the land of Gadara. Be-
sides these, we have the following towns or localities, partly
with Old Testament, partly with Syriac, and partly with
classic names : Bethlehem, Bethabara, Bethany, Bethphage,
Bethsaida, Chorazin, Capernaum, Cana, Nazareth, Nain,
Jericho, Jerusalem, Sychar in Samaria, and Ephraim near
the border, Aenon, Salim, Emmaus, Olivet, Arimathea, Ti-
berias, and Cesarea Philippi, Bethesda, Gabbatha, Gt)l-
gotha, Gethsemane, the Pool of Siloam, and the Brook Kid-
ron. All these local allusions have only had their truth and
accuracy confirmed by the assiduous research of modern

118 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

travelers. Bethany, Nain, the probable site of Capernaum^
Cana of Galilee, Sychar, and the well of Jacob, have all
been brought to light once more ; or new points of coin
cidence discovered in the mention of places and scenes al
ready known.

3. Besides our Lord and his apostles, about thirty othej
persons are named in the course of the Gospel history
These include the two emperors, Augustus and Tiberius,
Herod the Great, Archelaus, Herod Antipas and Herodias,
Pontius Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas, the Syrian governor
Cyrenius or Quirinus, and the tetrarchs Philip and Ly-
sanias. In every one the statement is in agreement with
the known facts of Roman, Syrian, and Jewish history;
while in some of them there is a special and minute coin-
cidence. The birth of our Lord is placed under Herod
the Great; but it lies, from the other notes of time, so
near to his death, as placed by Josephus, that when the
latter is removed only half a year backward, some difficulty
begins to arise ; and a shortening of his reign by only
three years would involve the Gospels in direct contradic-
tion to other facts of history. Again, the return of Jo-
seph into Galilee has a reason assigned, that Archelaus was
reigning in Judea. The reign of Herod himself was over
both provinces; but Galilee was separated and placed under
Herod Antipas as tetrarch, at the accession of Archelaus ;
while the latter, we find from Josephus, gained a character
for cruelty from the slaughter of the Jews at the very first
Passover in his reign. The marriage of Herod with Hero-
dias after her divorce from Herod's brother, is also related
at some length in Josephus ; and was the occasion of a
great reverse in a battle with Aretas, whose daughter, his
former wife, was dismissed for her sake. Josephus adds
that this defeat was looked upon by the Jews as a Divine
judgment for the muider of John the Baptist, which con-

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 119

firms, incidentally, another main fact in the first three
Gospels. The government of Pilate, again, is said to have
lasted ten years, and his removal by Vitellius is placed at
the Passover in the year before the death of Tiberius, or
A. D. 36. That government will thus include the opening,
as well as the whole course, of the joint ministries of our
Lord and his forerunner. The high-priesthood of Caiaphas
yields another coincidence of a similar kind.

4. The reconcilable diversity of the Grospels, with sub-
stantial unity amidst their variation in details, is a power-
ful evidence of their common truth. The resemblance of
the first three is so extensive, as to have led many critics
to the hypothesis that they are varieties of one original
document. The fourth has all the marks of a later and
supplementary narrative. All of them agree in their men-
tion of the Baptist as ,the forerunner of Christ, in their
allusions to our Lord's baptism, in the account of the
miracle of the five thousand, and in the closing scenes of
the crucifixion and resurrection. The agreement of the
first three is much more extensive, and includes about
thirty leading incidents of the Savior's ministry. Still
each has its own distinct character, and there is consid-
erable diversity in arrangement and minor details.

There are two opposite ways in which the testimony of
witnesses to the same events may be rendered suspicious
or proved false. Their agreement in details, or in phrases,
may be so complete as to seem an artificial result of
collusion, or there may be extensive and irreconcilable
contradiction. On the other hand, the combination which
gives the strongest impression of reality and truthfulness
is when substantial agreement in the main facts is joined
with freedom and variety in the tone and method of the
description, and with slight discrepancy, real or apparent,
in secondary deta.ls.

120 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Now this is precisely the character of the four Grospels
The agreement, in a few passages, is verbally complete
and in all the main outlines it is full and clear. In other
cases, the difference is such as almost to give the impres
sion of being irreconcilable. The historical unity is so
apparent that scores of harmonists have endeavored, with
considerable success, to combine them all into one contin-
uous narrative. On the other hand, the differences have
occasioned many disputes, among the most skillful harmo-
nists, on the exact order of several events, and the most
probable method of reconciliation. Side by side with their
labors, a deep conviction is felt by the most careful critics
and students, that each Gospel has a plan, style, and pur-
pose of its own, and justly claims the rank of a distinct
and unborrowed testimony.

These two opposite tendencies, in the criticism of the
Grospels, began early, and have continued down to our own
days. At the close of last century, the document hypoth-
esis was in much favor. From the amount of agreement,
extending often to the very phrases, an attempt was made
to resolve the first three or synoptic Gospels into a kind
of literary patchwork, formed in each case by combining
three or four shorter documents, no longer extant, in a
particular way. The principle, after being espoused by
some eminent critics, was at length elaborated into such a
complex scheme, to account for all the observed diversities,
that its triumph proved its ruin. The documents required
were so numerous, and the conjectural processes so complex,
as to disprove effectually the hypothesis out of which they
arose. An opposite view is now in vogue, that the Gospels
were derived from oral tradition, but in all other respects
strictly independent of each other. This hypothesis has
perhaps equal difficulties on the other side. The writer
of the last, it is plain, must have known of and seen the

THE HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE. 121

earlier ones, unless we contradict equally its traditional
authorship and its internal features. Yet the diversity
here is the greatest of all. There is nothing, then, .in the
smaller dififerences of the others, to preclude the idea that
each knew the writing of his predecessors. Whether this
were the case or otherwise, the actual measure of diverg-
ence is the same, and eJQfectually disproves the notion of
any attempt at collusive and artificial agreement. No one
of them is a mere echo of any other. St. Mark, who
narrates only two or three incidents that are not given in
St. Matthew, is the most original and copious of all the
four in the minute details. St. Luke, who seems through
several chapters — chaps, iv-ix — to follow closely in the steps
of his two predecessors, diverges from them almost entirely
throughout nine chapters that follow; and thus forms a
midway transition to the Gospel of St. John, which con-
sists almost entirely of new and distinct matter. But the
simple fact that two extreme hypotheses have been widely
maintained, of a common documentary origin, and of total
and entire independence, is a convincing proof, on the large
scale, that there is just that union of substantial agreement
and partial diversity, which imparts to the concurring testi-
mony of different witnesses the most decisive evidence of
honesty and truth.

Viewed in this light, the difficulties of harmonists on
several points in the Gospels, whatever perplexity they
may occasion as to the exact nature and extent of the
inspiration of the Evangelists, are a striking confirmation
of their historical fidelity. The four disti!!ct witnesses
whom the Lord has provided for his Church, that its
faith in the great facts of his life and death may rest
on a sure foundation, can not by any effort be fused and
melted down into one. They offer us stereoscopic views

of their great object. You can not simply superpose then*

11

122 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

without producing a sense of partial confusion. The lines
overlap, and seem here and there to interfere; though the
great resemblance is plain at once. But combine them
rightly, as views taken from points of sight slightly dif-
ferent, but of the same glorious object, and the combined
picture has a depth, massiveness, and solidity which no
single outline, however full and clear in itself, could ever
attain.

A comparison of the Gospels with the predictions of the
Old Testament, and with the later history of the Church,
would supply still further evidence of their historical truth.
The facts they record are so deeply and closely interwoven
with the whole course of Providence, both in earlier and
later times, that no amount of violence can rend them
away without destroying the entire texture of the world's
moral history. But it is needless to dwell on further
proofs, where the marks of truth and reality are so deeply
impressed on every page.

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 123

CHAPTER VI.

THF HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Old-Testament history is naturally parted by the
Exodus, the Building of the Temple, and the Captivity
into four distinct portions. In inquiring into the evidence
of its reality, the proper order is to begin with the latest
and nearest portion, and to ascend successively to those
which are more remote.

I. From the Captivity of Babylon to the Birth of Christ.

Three books of sacred history — Ezra, Nehemiah, and Es-
ther— belong to this fourth period; but their joint length
barely equals the average of the six books which come
before them, four of which belong wholly to the third
period. These three books, however, offer many features
of great interest in considering the evidence for the genu-
ineness and veracity of the Bible histories.

1. The first feature worthy of notice in these books is
their chronological limitation. The fourth period reaches
from the Captivity or the Return to the Birth of Christ.
Now, the course of the Bible history is unbroken and con-
tinuous from the Creation to the Captivity, and no blank
of a single century is found through a range of not less
than three thousand five hundred years. Even the fifty
years from the Fall of the Temple to the Return are
bridged over by historical chapters in Ezekiel and Daniel,
and by the last verses of Jeremiah, and the book of Kings.
The thread is resumed after the Return in these three
books, and continues through a whole century, down to

124 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the thirty- second year of Artaxerxes Longimanus. But
here the canon closes abruptly. There is a space of more
than four centuries of which no Bible history is given
The broken thread is resumed, however, in the New Testa-
ment, and then continues unbroken through two genera
tions till the arrival of St. Paul at Borne, only seven years
before the total dissolution of the Jewish polity. The
books of Maccabees, it is true, belong to the interval; but
they range over only two generations at most, and also
it is clear that they never formed a part of the Hebrew
Scriptures or Jewish canon.

This break, then, of four centuries is quite unique. It
is a solitary exception to the continuity of a history which
ranges through more than four thousand years. Sacred
prophecy in Malachi, and sacred history in Nehemiah,
cease almost at the same moment; and both reappear to-
gether, in tenfold effulgence, in the history of St. Mat-
thew's Gospel and the prophecy on the Mount of Olives.

This sudden suspension, also, of the Bible history is
attended by other circumstances which add to its signifi-
cance. The interval is four hundred and thirty years, or
exactly the same which is noted prominently as closing at
the Exodus, that conspicuous type of the Christian re-
demption. It is also spanned by two prophecies of Daniel
in successive chapters, one of which serves to fix and define
its length, while the other predicts its political changes so
clearly as to have suggested the solution, from Porphyry
down to Dr. Williams and the modern skeptics of Gler-
many, that it must certainly have been composed after the
events had occurred. Viewed as parts of a Divine plan,
the relation of all these facts to each other is clear and
intelligible. Sacred history and prophecy ceased together
four centuries before the coming of Messiah, that there
might be a clearer mark of the dying out of the old

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 125

covenant, and that the dawn of the new — the predicted
rising o^ the Sun of Righteousness — might by contrast be
rendered more deeply impressive. But still the faith of
the Jewish Church needed support and guidance during
this long interval of delay. Therefore, while sacred his-
tory and actual prophetic messengers were withdrawn, the
light of prophecy was given with peculiar clearness. These
visions of Daniel well supplied the place of direct history.
The prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, beginning from one
of the decrees in Ezra and Nehemiah, defined a space of
sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three years,
to the appearance of "Messiah the Prince" in his public
ministry; and the later prophecy of the Scripture of truth
described the main events of Persian, Syrian, and Egyp-
tian history, in connection with the Jews, through nearly
four of the five centuries which make up the whole period
from the Return to the Nativity. The concurrence of this
double clearness of prophetic light with the suspense of
Bible history, both of them facts unique and without a
parallel, marks clearly the presence of a Divine plan. On
the skeptical hypothesis with regard to Daniel both facts
are alike inexplicable. Why should Jewish writers at this
moment have suddenly ceased to compose their own annals,
and to add them as fresh books, equally sacred, to the
earlier histories? Or why should some unknown Jew, in
the days of Antiochus, instead of openly assuming the
upright and honorable character of a simple annalist, usurp
the prophet's mantle in order to write a mere syllabus of
Persian and Syrian reigns already past; and then impose
it on his countrymen, under the name of Daniel, for a
true prediction, with the audacious title, for a shameless
forgery, of "the Scripture of Truth?" Nothing can be
more meager and threadbare than Dan. xi, 2-30, when
taken for history written after the event; but when viewed

126 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

as genuine prediction it stands alone, even in tte Bible, in
the clear testimony it yields to the Divine foreknowledge,
and in its fullness of prophetic light, vouchsafed at the
exact moment when prophetic inspiration and sacred his-
tory were withdrawn together.

2. A second feature of these three books is the entire
absence of the supernatural. No trace of an alleged mir-
acle occurs in any one of them. The old covenant, which
the earlier books of Exodus and Numbers usher in with
signal wonders, seems here to be indeed waxing old, and
"ready to vanish away." This character belongs equally
to the three books, though in other respects there is a sin-
gular and total contrast. Ezra and Nehemiah are loaded
with details that seem almost trivial, and their outline ap-
pears fragmentary and unfinished. The book of Esther,
on the contrary, has such a striking dramatic unity, that
the suspicion might easily arise, in some minds, of its being
a purely-artificial composition. But the entire absence of
direct miracle is a feature common to it with both the
others, while the contrast in other respects is complete.

This negative character, besides the deeper truth it con-
veys with regard to the decay of the Jewish dispensation,
has plainly an important bearing on the reality and truth
of the whole Bible narrative. The inspired annals close
abruptly, but there is no abruptness in the transition from
sacred to common history. We have an easy stepping-
Btone by which the mind may rise from the level of ordi-
nary events, and find itself, unawares, in the outer court
of the temple of God. There is no shadow of a plea in
these books for doubting their entire truthfulness, because
of the presence of a miraculous element in the narrative;
yet, when once received in simplicity, they lead us by the
hand, upward and onward, by the decree of Cyrus which
fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah ; by the mention of the

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 127

Urim and Thummim as a former means of supernatural
guidance then withdrawn ; by the Feast of Tabernacles, re
ferring back to the history in the wilderness ; and, above
all, by the prayer and song of the Levites to all the earlier
miracles of the old covenant: "Thou didst divide the sea
before them, so that they went through the midst of the
sea on dry land ; and their persecutors thou threwest into
the deep, as a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover,
thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the
night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way
they should go. Thou earnest down also upon Mount Sinai,
and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right
judgments and pure laws, good statutes and commandments;
and gavest them bread from heaven 'for their hunger, and
broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their
thirst."

3. Chronological distinctness is a third character which
is very conspicuous in two of these books, by which the
main line of the history is continued and brought to its
close. They occupy just a century under the Persian
kings, the dates are expressly given, and the reigns can be
identified, without difficulty, in full agreement with the
canon of Ptolemy and other authorities. The reign of
Cyrus dates in the canon from the capture of Babylon,
B. C. 538, and no place is there left for Darius the Mede.
But the book of Daniel, which places his reign after the
capture, almost implies its short duration by the mention
of his age ; and, by a further allusion — xi, 1 — implies that
this short reign was secured by a special Divine interfer-
ence against a strong current of Persian supremacy which
had now set in. Thus, a comparison of texts restricts it to
two years. The decree of Cyrus is thus referred to B. C.
536, his first year in Scripture, but his third in the canon.
The setting up of the altar is referred to the seventh month

128 THE BIBLE AND MODEKN THOUGHT.

of the same year, and the foundation of the Temple to the
second month, or early Spring, of the year following. Wfc
have, next, a brief mention of two reigns before Darius,
during which the building was delayed by vexatious oppo-
sition. The beginning of this interval answers to the time
of Daniel's fasting and humiliation, when he received his
last and fullest prophecy of the future history of his people.
History supplies just two reigns before Darius Hystaspes :
Cambyses, who, from his cruelty and passion, and Smerdis,
who, from his character as a Magian impostor, adverse to
Cyrus and his race, would be likely to reverse the policy
marked by the decree of restoration. The work is then
resumed in the second year of Darius, or B. C. 520, and
the Temple is finished in Adar of the sixth year, that is,
^February or March, B. C. 515 ; while in the fourth of Da-
rius, agreeably with Zech. vii, 1-5, exactly seventy years
were complete from the destruction of the former Temple.
The reign of Xerxes is here passed over, though clearly
described in Daniel's prophecy; and the history resumes
with the mission of Ezra in the seventh of Artaxerxes
Longimanus, or April, B. C. 458 ; while his arrival at Je-
rusalem is referred to the first day of the fifth month, or
August in the same year. The history closes with the
separation of the strange wives, complete by the first day
of the next year, March or April, B. C. 457. An interval
of " seven weeks and threescore and two weeks," or four
hundred and eighty -three years, seems to lead exactly to
the first month of the Baptist's ministry, and to the bap-
tism of our Lord, followed by his first Passover ; after
which he began his preaching with the message, " The
time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

The book of Nehemiah comes a little later under the
same reign. It begins with the month Chisleu, of the
twentieth of Artaxerxes, and continues with the month Ni-

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 129

san, or the first Jewish month, in the same twentieth year
This agrees with the indirect evidence of classic history,
which refers both the true and nominal accession of Artax-
erxes to December, and not to the early months of the
Julian year, in which case these two notices would have
contradicted each other." The history closes in the thirty-
second year, or soon after — Neh. xiii, 22 — or B. C. 433 ;
exactly four hundred and thirty years before the Exodus
of our Lord himself from Egypt after Herod's death.
Thus we have plainly, in these last two books of Bible
history, a high degree of clearness and consistency in the
notes of time.

4. Another feature of these books is the multitude and
variety .of personal and local details. The sacred history
gives here, at first sight, a strong impression of being
tediously and superfluously minute. We have, first, an
enumeration of the vessels restored from Babylon : " Thirty
chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine-aud-
twenty knives, thirty basins of gold, silver basins of a
second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a
thousand; all the vessels of gold and silver five thousand
four hundred." Next follows a list of the captives who
returned with Zerubbabel, in thirty-three companies of the
people, each distinctly named and numbered; four com-
panies of priests, and one of Levites, one of singers, and
one of the porters, thirty-five companies of Nethiuims, and
eleven of Solomon's servants, of which only the total is
given — three hundred and ninety-two. We have then two
Persian degrees, one of Smerdis, and another of Darius
Hystaspes, given at length. A third decree of Artaxerxes
follows. The chiefs of the fathers are then named, and
particulars are given of Ezra's journey. The minuteness
of the account is like a pre-Raphaelite drawing. "Then
we departed from the river of Ahava, on the twelfth day

130 THE BIBLE AND MODERN IHOUGHT.

of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem; and the hana
of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the
enemy, and such as lay in wait by the way. And we
came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days. Now, on
the fourth day was the silver and the gold of the vessels
weighed in the house of our God, by the hand of Mere-
moth, son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar
the son of Phinehas, and with them Jozabad son of Jeshua,
and Noadiah son of Binnui, Levites; by number and by
weight of every one and all the weight was written at that
time. Also the children of those that had been carried
away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt-
ofierings unto the God of Israel; twelve bullocks for all
Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, and
twelve he-goats for a sin-offering; all a burnt-offering unto
the Lord."

The book closes with a list of those who put away their
strange wives, in which a hundred and nine names are
separately given. About double this number occur in the
book of Nehemiah, which gives copious and minute details
of the various parties, who joined in rebuilding the walls
of Jerusalem. The fibers are thus multiplied at the close,
by which the sacred canon strikes root downward into
Jewish history. Simplicity, grandeur, dramatic unity seem
all to be in some measure sacrificed, to secure the highest
possible assurance of thorough reality and historical truth.

5. The book of Esther differs widely from these two
other works. History meets us here in its most ideal, as
in the others in its most real, form. The poetry of the
opening description, the doomed race of Haman the Amale-
kite, the beauty of Esther, the law of the golden scepter,
the sleepless night of the king, which forms the crisis of
the drama, and the greatness of Mordecai at the close, all
conspire to throw around it the air of a dramatic composi-

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 131

tion. The entire absence of the name of God from first to
last is another remarkable feature, which only deepens tlie
moral significance of the whole. Even the reign to which
it belongs is not quite clear. It must plainly be later than
Cyrus, since Persia and Media, not Babylon, are in power,
and Persia takes the precedence; but opinions are still divi-
ded whether Xerxes or Artaxerxes is the true Ahasuerus.
An internal coincidence, however, of a delicate and unob-
trusive kind, makes it very probable that Josephus is right
in referring the narrative to the latter of these two kings.

But if any should infer, from the dramatic features of
this book, that it is rather a poetical fiction than a real
history, there is one plain and decisive argument, besides
many others, which proves its unquestionable truth. The
Feast of Purim, on the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar,
is affirmed at the close to have been appointed, by Esther
and Mordecai, for a yearly memorial of this great deliver-
ance. This festival was observed in the days of Josephus,
and has been ever since, throughout the long dispersion
of the Jewish people. It still keeps its place in their
calendar, along with the Passover, Pentecost, the Feast of
Tabernacles, and the Feast of Dedication. No testimony
could be more decisive and complete to the reality and
greatness of this national deliverance.

The sacred history, then, in this closing portion, the
fourth and latest period of the Old Testament, diverges
on one side into the greatest minuteness of detail, and on
the other, into the highest degree of dramatic unity and
power; but in both alike exhibits the clearest and fullest
evidence of historical reality and truth. The overruling
hand of Providence is placed in striking relief, but no
trace of miraculous intervention is found in it; as if these
books were designed to form a stepping-stone of transition
from common history to the miraculous story of the pre-

132 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

vious works, and every hinderanee were purposely removed,
Thicli might prevent skeptical minds from recognizing at
)nce the undeniable truth of the sacred history.

II. From Solomon to the Captivity.

This third period occupies a space of about four hundred
ind thirty years from the accession of Solomon to the
destruction of the Temple, or four hundred and eighty
yea.rs to the fall of Babylon. It occupies the two books
of Kings, and also the second of Chronicles, and includes
the period of all the prophets, except Haggai, Zechariah,
and Malachi. The greater part of it consists of the record
of the divided kingdom, from the death of Solomon to the
fall of Samaria. The proofs of its historical reality may
be ranked under these heads — a clear and distinct chro-
nology; relations with heathen history; the harmony of
the accounts in Kings and Chronicles; the multiplied allu-
sions in the writings of the prophets; and the internal
harmonies and marks of truth in the narrative alone.

1. The chronology of this period, compared with other
histories, is very full and complete. The notes of time are
numerous, and occupy about forty verses in Chronicles, and
eighty in Kings. With one or two very slight exceptions,
where an error has probably entered in the numbers — such
as the thirty-seventh instead of the thirty-ninth year of
Joash, 2 Kings xiii, 10 — they are all consistent with each
other. The interval fixes itself accurately by the data
which the text supplies, so that the latitude of reasonable
doubt amounts only to about three years. Baron Bunsen,
it is true, in his work on Egypt, devotes twenty pages to
the subject, and professes to have found just as many
inconsistencies and errors in the notes of time in the sec-
ond of Kings. These, however, are due entirely to hia
own strange incapacity to discern the simple and uniform
law, which guides the notation of the synchronisms. When

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 133

this is once perceived, and it is very simple, the alleged
confusion disappears, and the intervals can be traced, from
first to last, with the greatest ease. Even Usher and
Clinton seem to have adopted a less natural view, which
renders the process of comparison more subtile and labori-
ous, though the final result is hardly affected at all by the
difference in the two modes of computation. Those cross
references, which Baron Bunsen seems to regard as full of
error, and a source of hopeless perplexity, are in reality a
series of strict and severe tests of the consistency of the
whole narrative. The most erratic and illogical minds are
thus almost compelled, in spite of their own instincts, to
keep close to the true chronology. His own labors are a
striking example. After contracting the space, in his first
edition, to ten years less than the true period, he returns
in the second to the received chronology, with a slight
variety, which may probably give the true year of Solo-
mon's accession; though he has only reached this result
by the help of conjectural emendations, which rest on no
external evidence, and which falsify a large number of
the plainest and most consistent notes of time. In fact,
a chronology which depends on the reckoning of a double
series of reigns, like those of Israel and Judah, of kings
sometimes at war, sometimes in alliance, sometimes joined
in actual affinity, is itself a condensed history, and forms
by its own consistency a most powerful evidence for its
own historical truth.

2. The various references to heathen history in this
period are another sign of reality, which alone is enough
to prove the history real. Mention is made in its course
of Hiram and Eth-baal, or Ithobalus, kings of Tyre; of
Shishak, Zerah, So, Tirhakah, Necho, and Hophra, kings
of Egypt or Ethiopia; of Pul, Tiglath Pileser, Shalmaneser,
Sargon, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, kings of Nineveh; and

134 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of Merodacli Baladan, Nebiieliadnczzar, Evil Merodacli, and
Belshazzar, kings of Babylon. These allusions are spread
over the whole period. Under the reign of Solomon men-
tion is made of Hiram of Tyre and Shishak of Egypt; and
under his son Rehoboam, of Shishak alone. Under Asa
the invasion of Zerah occurs, and is repelled. Jezebel,
the wife of Ahab and cotemporary of Jehoshaphat, is the
daughter of Eth-baal, king of Tyre. Pul, the king of As-
syria, exacts tribute from Menahem in the reign of Uzziah.
Under Jotham and Ahaz, Tiglath Pileser invades Israel,
and a second stage of captivity begins. Hoshea makes a
compact with So or Sevechus, king of Egypt, and is car-
ried away captive by Shalmaneser. Sennacherib invades
Judea under Hezekiah, and is checked in, his career of
conquest by tidings of the approach of Tirhakah, king
of Ethiopia. He is slain after his return to Nineveh, and
Esarhaddon reigns in his stead; to whom, under the name
of Asnapper, the transfer of the Apharsites and other set-
tlers, the fathers of the Samaritans, is ascribed in the book
of Ezra. Ezra iv, 2, 9, 10. Merodach Baladan, king of
Babylon, sends messengers to Ezekiel after the repulse of
Sennacherib. Pharaoh Necho slays Josiah in the battle at
Megiddo, and conquers Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar's reign
extends through those of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zede-
kiah, and extends to the thirty-seventh year of Jecouiah's
captivity. Evil Merodach then succeeds to the thione,
and Belshazzar is in power at the time when the kingdom
is numbered and finished — when the reign of the Medes
and Persians begins. It is thus plain that the links of
connection with heathen mouarchs and dynasties belong to
the whole period, from its commencement to its close.

Now, in all these allusions to the history of four or
five distinct nations — Tyre, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and
Ethiopia— ^and to eighteen or twenty kings — all mentioned

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 135

by name — the palpable agreements are many, while not
one contradiction or error has ever been shown to exist.
If there be any defect in this branch of the evidence, it
is due to the uncertainties and variations of the heathen
dynasties or annalists, which require us, in some cases
instead of treating them as independent witnesses, to ad-
just their uncertainties by the clearer light and stricter
chronology of the sacred writings. Thus the two lists of
Egyptian dynasties, from Shishak to Amasis, who answer
to Solomon and Zerubbabel, as given by Africanus and
Eusebius, diflfer from each other, in excess or defect, above
a whole century, and each falls nearly a century short of
the true interval. In the proposed restoration of Baron
Bunsen, six reigns out of twenty-two, and three dynasties
out of five, have their length altered by mere conjecture,
and half a century is added to the longer reckoning so as
to gain the desired result of making the reign of Shishak
correspond with the Scriptural date of Solomon's death.
The recent discoveries in the remains of Assyria and Baby-
lon have added greatly to the strength of this external
evidence. Monuments disinterred, after being buried for
ages, and deciphered slowly and laboriously out of lan-
guages of which the very letters were previously unknown,
have risen up to bear witness to the truth and accuracy
of the inspired narrative. Thus the exact amount of the
tribute of gold — thirty talents — imposed by Sennacherib
on the kingdom of Judah, has been found and deciphered
from an Assyrian obelisk in the British Museum in full
agreement with the passage in the book -of Kings. The
name of Belshazzar has in like manner been discovered in
the monuments of Babylon, and a minute and delicate co-
incidence brought to light. It appears from the decipher-
ment that he was a joint ruler with his own father, who
seems to be the Labynetus or Nabonadius who fled tu

136 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Borsippa; and this explains the contrast that Joseph was
made second ruler in Egypt, but Daniel was promised to
be "the third ruler in Babylon."

3. The double account in Kings and Chronicles supplies
strong additional evidence of the historical fidelity of the
whole narrative. The writer of Chronicles, it is true, must
have been familiar with the books of Kings; and many
passages in both are verbally the same. We can not,
therefore, ascribe to them the character of two testimonies
wholly independent. The later account, however, difiers
in several important features from the first. It is confined
almost entirely to the history of Judah, and overlooks the
cotemporary events in the kingdom of Israel. A prediction
of Elijah is recorded, but his miracles and those of Elisha.
which form one of the main features in the earlier history,
are entirely unnoticed. No miraculous incidents occur ex-
cept the sudden infliction of leprosy on Uzziah, and the
destruction of Sennacherib's army, and possibly the mutual
destruction of the enemies of Jehoshaphat may be referred
to the same class. In general, we have a signal series
of providential mercies and judgments in connection with
prophetic messages; but signs and wonders, in the strict
sense of the words, do not appear.

When we compare the two histories in detail we find
that the later one gives many incidents of which there is
no mention in the former, but which cohere intimately
with the common portion of the narrative. Some of these
notices are very minute — others refer to events of high
importance. Of the former class are the notices that
"Solomon went to Hamathzobah, and prevailed against it."
and that "he went to Eziongeber and to Eloth at the sea-
side of the land of Edom." The book of Kings mentions
the preparation of the navy, but not the visit itself of the
king. Again, that Rehoboam built "cities of defense in

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 137

Judah, Bethlehem, and Etam, and Tekoa, and Bethzur,
and Shoco, and Adulhmi, and Gath, and Mareshah, and
Ziph, and Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah, ana Zorah,
and Aijalon, and Hebron, fenced cities in Judah and in
Benjamin." That one of these — Lachish — was a lenced
city in the time of Hezekiah is mentioned both in Kings
and Chronicles, and is recently confirmed by the Assyrian
remains. Of the same character is the mention of the
three chief wives of Rehoboam, and of seven of his sons;
the mention of Adnah, Johahanan, Eliada, and Jehozabad,
the chief captains of Jehoshaphat; the help given to Uzziah
"against the Philistines, the Arabians that dwelt in Gur-
baal, and the Mehunims," and the towers he built in Jeru-
salem "at the inner gate, and at the valley gate, and at
the turning of the wall." Of the other class are the battle
between Abijah and Jeroboam, with the immense loss of
the Israelites; the invasion and defeat of Zerah, the Ethi-
opian ; the covenant in the fifteenth year of Asa ; the pub-
lication of the law under Jehoshaphat, and his victory
over the confederates near Engedi; the sin and judgment
of Jehoram; the repairs under Joash; the murder of the
prophet Zechariah ; the prosperity of Uzziah, and his
leprosy; the restoration under Ahaz of the captives of
Judah; the reformation and passover of Hezekiah; and
the captivity and repentance of Manasseh. On the other
hand, the histories of Elijah and Elisha, and of the cap-
tivity of the ten tribes, and even most of the names of
the kings of Israel, are passed by in silence. We have
thus plainly two distinct testimonies to the portions com-
mon to both histories, and a direct confirmation by this
means of their historical truth.

4. Thirteen prophetic books belong to this period, and
abound throughout with direct or indirect allusions to the
history. In . Isaiah we have mention of Uzziah, Jotham,
12

138 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Aliaz. and Hezekiah, and allusions to all the main events
of the three later reigns. In Jeremiah there is an equal
fullness of reference to the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim,
Jeconiah, and Zedekiah. Ezekiel dates all his prophecies
by the years of Jeconiah's captivity, and refers to the chief
events of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. The book of Daniel
ranges throughout the seventy years, from the beginning
of the Captivity to the third year of Cyrus. In Hosea
there is mention of Joash, king of Israel ; in Amos of Jer-
oboam, son of Joash, and of an earthquake under his
reign, also mentioned by Zechariah. Obadiah alludes to
the events at the beginning of the Captivity; Micah to the
reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah ; Nahum to the in-
vasion of Sennacherib ; Habakkuk to the near approach of
the Chaldean armies; and Zephaniah to the reign of Jo-
siah, and the judgments then close at hand. These books
contain, also, nearly thirty chapters of direct history, be-
sides more than a hundred references and allusions to the
events in Chronicles and Kings. The whole texture, in-
deed, of these prophecies is manifestly founded upon the
truth of the narrative which the historical books of the
Bible contain.

When the external evidence is so abundant and various
it is needless to dwell on the internal harmonies, indicative
of truth, which the history itself supplies. The reality of
these Jewish annals, from Solomon downward, is so clear,
the links of connection with the prophecies and with hea-
then dynasties are so multiplied and indissoluble, and the
chronology itself so complete, that skepticism must degen-
erate into insanity before it can venture to deny their sub-
stantial truth.

In one respect, however, this third period, from Solomon
to the Captivity, is plainly contrasted with the period that
follows. It includes, interwoven throughout the narrative,-

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 139

both miracles and miraculous predictions. Such are the
prophecy of Ahijah the Shilomite, the rending of the altar
at Bethel, the withering of Jerohoam's hand and its resto-
ration, the prediction of Josiah by name three centuries be-
fore his birth, the death of the prophet from Judah, the
famine under Elijah^ the widow's cruse and the raising to
life of her son, the fire from heaven at Carmel, and the
abundant rain after Elijah's prayer, the vision at Horeb,
the destruction of the two captains and their fifties, the
rapture of Elijah, the parting of Jordan, the healing of the
waters, the raising of the Shunamite's child, the healing
of the pottage, and multiplying of the loaves by Elisha,
the blindness inflicted on the Syrians, the deliverance of
Samaria, the man raised after Elisha's death, the cure of
Naaman and the leprosy of Gehazi, the leprosy of Uzziah,
the reversal of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz, and the
sudden destruction of the Assyrian army. The historical
footing is just as firm as in the later period ; but we are
plainly within the borders of a sacred history, where the
special presence of the God of Israel is revealed "in signs
and wonders according to his own will."
. III. From the Conquest to Solomon.

This period, from the entrance of Canaan under Joshua
to the accession of Solomon and the building of the Tem-
ple, answers to the books of Joshua, Judges, the first and
second of Samuel, and the first of Chronicles. Two of
these, however, belong to the last forty years, or the reign
of David alone. For the rest of the period, or about four
centuries — if we accept the date in 1 Kings vi — we have
only one record of the events, in Joshua, and the book of
Judges, and the first of Samuel. We have here, also, no
collateral prophecies, though many of the Psalms refer to
the events of David's reign, and the book of Ruth is a short
episode of the time of the Judges. There are no references

140 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

either to Assyrian, Babylonian, or Egyptian reigni. The
truth of the Bible history in this period rests, therefore, al-
most entirely on its internal consistency, and on the con-
stant reception of these books, as sacred and authoritative
records of their own history, by the whole Jewish nation
from the earliest times.

Now, first of all, it is plain that these books cohere most
intimately with those which follow, both in their structure,
style, and scale of composition, and in their external evi-
dence. They form one continuous series of national Jew-
ish history through a space of nine hundred years. They
have been received by the Jews, without distinction, as the
sacred annals of their nation from the death of their law-
giver till open prophecy was withdrawn. Even the scale
on which the two portions are constructed is the same.
The periods of time are nearly equal from Joshua to David's
accession, and from that of Solomon to the Fall of the Tem-
ple ; and the collective length of Joshua, Judges, Ruth,
and the first of Samuel, and again of the second of Chron-
icles, and first and second of Kings is also nearly the
same. The only difference is that in the earlier period we
have fuller details of its beginning and its close, and the
middle is passed over more rapidly. But the general har-
mony, both in the scale and the style of the history, leaves
instinctively the impression that they are parts of one con-
sistent whole.

In the next place, these books are national annals of
such a nature that their national reception as true and
genuine is inconceivable on the hypothesis of their spurious
origin. The book of Joshua contains a record of the al-
lotments of the twelve tribes and their separate possessions,
on which the whole fabric of Jewish law and family inher-
itance would plainly depend. Along with this we have the
singular economy by which the tribe of Levi were dis-

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 141

persed among the others, and separate cities with their sub-
urbs allotted for their exclusive possession. The six cities
of refuge were a still more peculiar institution. It is in-
credible that the origin of such laws, so definite and pecul-
iar, should have been forgotten within a few generations,
or that there should have been no public and national rec-
ord to confirm and sustain their authority. The -first of
Samuel, again, contains the origin of the kingly form of
government, and is linked throughout with three names so
conspicuous and so dramatic in their interest — Samuel, Saul,
and David — as to exclude the possibility of later fictions
being accepted for real history.

The book of Judges is the only one to which these
proofs of authority do not apply; but here we have
another quite distinct and equally strong. For this book,
from first to last, is one record of national sin, humiliation,
and punishment. It is the very last work by which an
unprincipled forger could seek to gain public favor, and a
place among the historians of his own people. From first
to last it is like an expansion of the later song of Moses,
a witness against the people on behalf of God, a humbling
record of repeated and persevering apostasy. No external
pledge of its veracity could be more decisive than this
moral feature which runs through the whole narrative.

Thirdly, these books abound, even more than those which
follow them, with geographical details. This results at
once from the nature of the book of Joshua, as a national
record of the inheritance of all the tribes of Israel. Nearly
three hundred names of places occur in it, and a large pro-
portion of them are linked with events locally defined in
the subsequent history.

Since, however, the books of Joshua and Judges have
been assailed, like the Pentateuch, by a school of negative
criticism, and a late origin and fragmentary character

142 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

assigned to ttem, it may be useful to point out briefly, with
regard to eaeli of them, the strong internal proofs of their
historical reality.

Now, the book of Joshua bears on its face a character
of unity and completeness. It describes, in succession, the
passage of Jordan, and four main steps by which the land
was conquered; the destruction of Jericho and of Ai, and
the defeat of two successive confederacies in the south and
the north. Then follows a detailed list or catalogue of
twenty-nine kings who were subdued. After the conquest
we have an account of the settlement of the tribes. There
is, first, a retrospective statement of the territory assigned
by Moses himself to two tribes and a half on the east of
Jordan. There is then a description of the boundaries and
possessions of the two leading tribes of Judah and Ephraim,
including the other half tribe of Manasseh. We have next
a statement of the districts allotted to the remaining seven
tribes, Benjamin, Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naph-
tali, and Dan. After this are mentioned, in order, the ap-
pointment of the cities of refuge and the selection of the
forty-eight cities for the Levites out of all the tribes.
There is, next, the dismissal of the two tribes and a half
to their own possessions on the east, and the controversy
which it occasioned, from their erection of an altar of wit-
ness near the fords of Jordan. Last of all, there are the
two successive interviews of Joshua with the people before
his death; the first, apparently, at Shiloh, where the taber-
nacle was set up; and the other at Shechem, sacred by the
memory of their forefather, where the covenant was sol-
emnly renewed. The history closes with three events, all
marking the termination of a distinct era — the death of
Joshua, the burial in Shechem of the bones of Joseph,
which had been brought out of Egypt, and the death of
Eleazar the high-priest.

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 143

Again, the composition seems fixed by inteiual miirks to
the generation after Joshua's death, and agrees well with
the supposition that Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, was its
author. The words, "until we were passed over," suit best
with the view that the writer actually took part in the first
entrance into the land. So again the statement about
Rahab, "she dwelleth in Israel unto this day," naturally
implies that it was written during her lifetime. Her age
was probably less than fifty at Joshua's death, and she
might easily survive him twenty or thirty years. On the
other hand, the conquest of Leshem by the Danites took
place after the death of Joshua, as we learn from the fuller
account in Judges. It was, however, during the lifetime
of Phinehas, since a still later event, the conflict with the
Benjamites, was during his high-priesthood. The last event
mentioned in the book of Joshua is the death of Eleazar,
whom Phinehas succeeded in that office.

The separate statements, again, are confirmed indirectly
in every part of the book by later allusions of the most in-
cidental kind. The first is the charge to the Reubenitea
and Gadites to share the campaign with their brethren —
1, 12-18 — -which is referred to again, iv, 12, 13, and cor-
responds with the mention of their dismissal to their own
possessions at the close of the work. The mention of the
"stone of Bohan the son of Reuben," in the border line
of Judah and Benjamin, seems probably an indirect allu-
sion to the same event. The most natural explanation
would be, that it was a stone or pillar set up by one of the
leading Reubenites to mark his participation in the cam-
paign of Israel, since it was placed not far from Gilgal and
the banks of the Jordan. The history of Rahab and the
spies is confirmed by the mention of her — vi, 25 — as still
alive when the book was written, and by the statement in
St. Matthew, that she was married to Salmon, and the

144 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

mother of Boaz. The place where the miracle was wrought,
in staying the waters of the Jordan, is said to be near the
city of Adam, beside Zaretan ; and the latter is mentioned
incidentally in the book of Kings, with reference to the
brazen vessels in Solomon's Temple: "In the plain of Jor-
dan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Suc-
coth and Zarthan." The place, Gilgal, where the stones
were set up, and the Israelites encamped after the passage,
besides other places where it is named, is referred to by
Micah in a prophetic appeal to Israel after seven hundred
years : " 0 my people, remember what Balak king of Moab
consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him
from Shittim unto Gilgal ; that ye may know the righteous-
ness of the Lord." Mic? vi, 5. The curse of Joshua upon
Jericho is mentioned, when it was fulfilled after six hundred
J ears, but only in one passing sentence in the book of
Kings: "In his days [Ahab] did Hiel the Bethelite build
Jericho ; he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-
born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son
Segub, according to the word of the Lord which he spake
by Joshua the son of Nun." The sin of Achan is alluded
to in the genealogy in Chronicles : " The sons of Carmi,
Achan the troubler of Israel, who transgressed in the thing
accursed." The valley of Achor is also mentioned again by
Hosea, after seven hundred years, and in the most incidental
way : " I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the
valley of Achor for a door of hope ; and she shall sing there
as in the days of her youth, when she came up out of the
land of Egypt." The mention of the blessings on Mount
Gerizim — viii, 33 — agrees with the high veneration shown
to it by the Samaritans in later times, and its selection for
the site of a temple to rival the Temple at Jerusalem. The
narrative respecting the Gibeonites is confirmed by the later
mention of their destruction by Saul "in his zeal for the

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 145

children of Israel and Judah," and the retribution and
judgment of the people: "There was a famine in the days
of David three years, year after year, and David inquired
of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul and
for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites."
Gibeon is also named as the place where the tabernacle was
pitched in the times of David and Solomon, before the
building of the Temple, and where Solomon received a
vision. 1 Chron. xvi, 39; 2 Chron. i, 3, 6, 13. Beeroth
is named among the five cities of the Gibeonites, included
in the lot of Benjamin. The murderers of Ishbosheth were
sons of Rimmon a Beerothite, and we have this incidental
notice: "For Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin, and
the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners there
unto this day." No further light is thrown on this inci-
dent, so simply recorded as to speak its own reality. Once
in Nehemiah, and there only, we find mention of their new
residence among the towns of Benjamin after the Captivity:
"The children of Benjamin dwelt at Michmash, and Aija,
and Bethel, and their villages ; at Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah,
Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim^ Hadad, Zeboim." Of the five con-
federate kings, two of the towns, Jerusalem and Hebron,
continue to this day ; and a third, Lachish, is prominent in
the history to the time of Sennacherib, and his siege of it
seems depicted in the sculptures recently found. Bethho-
ron, the upper and the nether, are also prominent places in
the later history, and their site is still identified by travel-
ers. Azekah is named again in the war with the Philis-
tines, who pitched "between Shochoh and Azekah" before
David's victory. Libnah, one of the cities destroyed by
Joshua, occurs in two incidental notices in Kings. First,
in the reign of Jehoram : " Yet Edom revolted from under
the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted

<it the same time." It was a city of the priests — Josh.

13

146 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

xxi, 13 — and its revolt might be occasioned by Jeboram'b
open apostasy, through his affinity with Ahab. One wife,
also, of Josiah was "a daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah."
2 Kings xxiii, 31. The list of the thirty-one kings in
Joshua — xii, 9-24 — by the admission of negative critics
themselves, "is either a cotemporaneous, or what is equiva-
lent to a cotemporaneous authority."

The confirmations of the local notices that follow, in the
later history, are too numerous to be specified. The fol-
lowing are a few examples. "The children of Israel ex-
pelled not the Geshurites nor the Maachathites " — xiii, 13;
and Absalom "fled for refuge to Talmai son of Ammihud,
king of Geshur." Hebron and its environs were given to
Caleb, and Maon and Carmel are named next to it in the
list of the cities of Judah; and Nabal was "of the house
of Caleb," and is called "a man in Maon, whose possessions
were in Carmel." Ziklag is named among "the uttermost
cities of Judah, toward the coast of Edom southwards;"
and the history of David's sojourn there answers perfectly
to the description. Shochoh and Azekah are joined to-
gether in the list — xv, 35 — and also in the account of the
Philistine army — 1 Sam. xvii, 1. Achzib is found in the
list — XV, 44 — and no mention of it recurs till after seven
centuries, in Micah i, 14, "The house of Achzib shall be
a lie to the kings of Israel." The same is true of Mare-
shah; while Adullam, a third place in the list and in the
prophecy, occurs repeatedly in David's history, and its
caves are known and explored to this day. Giloh is known
only by one later allusion, but in connection with a strik-
ing and public event. "And Absalom sent for Ahitophel
the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city, even from
Giloh, while he ofi'ered sacrifices." Gezer is connected
with two notices, at long intervals, but mutually consistent.
"Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF TUE OLD TESTAMENT. 147

in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them."
Judges i, 29. "And this is the reason of the levy which
king Solomon raised — to build the house of the Lord, and
his own house, and Millo, and the walls of Jerusalem and
Hezor and Megiddo and Gezer. For Pharaoh king of
Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer, and burnt it with
fire, and slew the Canaanites that dwelt therein, and given
it for a present to his daughter, Solomon's wife." The
cities and villages of the tribe of Simeon are reported, in
Chronicles, with a very slight change in two or three
names; but two facts are added, of an extension in the
days of Hezekiah, when some of them "went to the en-
trance of Gedor, the east side of the valley, to seek pasture
for their flocks," and others "went to Mount Seir, and
smote the rest of the Amalekites that escaped, and dwelt
there unto this day." Bethlehem, again, is mentioned in
the tribe of Zebulun: and besides the contrast implied in
the two names Bethlehem Ephratah or Bethlehem Judah,
applied to David's birthplace, we are told that "Ibzan, a
Bethlehemite, judged Israel, and was buried at Bethlehem;"
and his place between Jephthah the Gileadite and Elon the
Zebulonite shows that a northern Bethlehem is intended,
while the other is called, for distinction, a few chapters
later, Bethlehem Judah.

The marks of unity in the book of Judges are equally
plain. It begins with a review of the state of the Israelites
at the time of the conquest, and after Joshua's death,
which forms the historical basis of the later narrative. It
then gives a moral summary of the whole period, which it
describes as one series of national apostasies, followed by
merciful deliverance. We have then a brief, but connected
history of the whole period, from the death of Joshua to
that of Samson, after whom the double series of prophets
and kings began, with Samuel, Saul, and David. The

148 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

book then reverts to the earlier part of the whole period,
and describes the first public entrance of idolatry, in the
tribe of Dan, and the narrow escape of the tribe of Benja-
min from extinction, through unnatural vice and crime.
This event is alluded to long after, by the prophet Hosea:
"They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of
Gibeah." "0 Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of
Gribeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the
children of iniquity did not overtake them." By these
episodes, the practical aim of the whole narrative is brought
out at last more clearly into view; that a firmer govern-
ment was needed for the welfare of the people — a king
whom the Lord himself should provide for them. "In
those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that
which was right in his own eyes."

The allusions to the history of this period in the later
Scriptures are not few, and some of them are so indirect as
to lend it all the confirmation of an undesigned coinci-
dence. The statement about Gezer — i, 29 — is confirmed by
the mention of it as conquered by Pharaoh in the time of
Solomon. The family of Othniel is traced downward in
Chronicles for several generations. The overthrow of the
Canaanites is alluded to in Psalm Ixxxiii: "Do unto them
as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kishon, which
perished at Endor, and became as dung for the earth." So
also the victory over the Midianites: "Make their nobles
like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their princes like Zebah and
like Zalmunna." The triumphal song of Deborah lends its
language to Psalm Ixviii: "Thou hast led captivity cap-
tive." The truthfulness of the history, in all the local cir-
cumstances of the battle, and the ravine of Kishon, has
been shown, in a most graphic manner, in a recent work on
Palestine, "The Land and the Bible." The successive de-
liverances are appealed to by Samuel, when the people

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 149

chose Saul for their king. "He sold them into the hand
of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand
of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab.
And the Lord sent Jeiubbaal, and Bedan, [Barak,] and
Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand
of you^ enemies." Again, in Isaiah ix, 4, "Thou hast
broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian." Oph-
rah, the city of Gideon, is named again in the account of
the Philistine incursions. "The spoilers went out of the
camp of the Philistines in three companies, and one Com-
pany turned to the way to Ophrah, to the land of Shual."
Penuel is mentioned among the cities which were fortified
by Jeroboam. Succoth, in Joshua, is placed in the valley.
The Psalmist speaks of "the valley of Succoth," and the
brazen vessels of the Temple were cast in the plain "be-
tween Succoth and Zaretan." "The pillar that was in
Shechem" where Abimelech was made king, answers to the
''great stone" by the sanctuary of the Lord which Joshua
had set up for a memorial, and would seem especially suited
for the scene of a royal contract. The land of Tob is
named in the history of Jephthah, as the scene of his exile,
and the men of Ishtob are among the Syrians hired by
the Ammonites in the time of David. A great slaughter
of the Ephraimites, forty-two thousand, was made by
Jephthah near the fords on the east of Jordan; and a
wood of Ephraim, probably named from this conspicuous
calamity of the tribe, since it was not in their territory, is
the scene of Absalom's defeat, also on the east of Jordan,
not far from Mahanaim, or in the land of Grilead. Timnath
is placed on the border of Judah, near to Ekron, and is
named, in the account of Samson, as a city of Philistines.
The expedition of the Danites, after being mentioned briefly
in Joshu;^, is recorded more fully in Judges. Beth-rehob,

150 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

where Laish lay, occurs in 2 Sam. x, 6, where the Syrians-
of Beth-rehob are hired by the Ammonites. Dan, the citj/,
is mentioned in the numbering of the people under David,
and more generally, in descriptions of the limits of the
country "from Dan to Beersheba." The conflict with the
Benjamites, for the crime of the men of Gibeah, is named
repeatedly in Hosea, and it was the city of Saul, where
seven of his sons were put to death, because of his cruelty
to the Gibeonites. "We will hang them up in Gibeah of
Saul, whom the Lord did choose." The resemblance of the
conduct of the Israelites, when sin was suspected in the
Reubenites, and when it actually occurred among the Ben-
jamites, illustrates the reality of the whole history. For,
though separated in appearance by the whole period of the
judges, the real interval of time was short; since Phinehas,
who took part in the first message, was still alive, and
high-priest, when the Israelites assembled at Mizpeh. The
sense of national unity was still strong, and had not been
weakened by declensions and apostasies of three hundred
years.

The chronology of this period ofiers some difficulty. If
all the separate intervals are successive, the total from the
Exodus to Solomon will be about six hundred years, and
the incidental mention of four hundred and fifty years for
the time of the Judges, in Acts xiii, seems to confirm this
view. On the other hand, 1 Kings vi, 1, assigns four
hundred and eighty years for the interval from the Exodus
to the fourth of Solomon, and this seems to agree better
with the genealogies, and with the mention of three hundred
years from the conquest to Jephthah's war with Ammon.
But even the shorter reckoning disagrees with Baron Bun-
sen's hypothesis on the Egyptian place of the Exodus, and
the lengths of the dynasties. He has, therefore, devised
a singular expedient for setting it aside altogether. The

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 151

book of Judges, he affirms, is not a history at all, but only
has a historical basis. "It is an epos, midway between
mythos, or fable, and genuine history. It is a strictly-
popular epic in shape, by generations of forty years."
When we inquire wherein this poetical character consists,
we find that it is solely in the substitution of four false
tlates — three of forty and one of eighty years — for what
he supposes to be the correct intervals — three of seven
and one of ten years. There is happily a simple test by
which every one may judge whether the Bible epos or the
"history" framed out of it by this simple process agrees
best with "the fundamental principles of historical criti-
cism." According to Judges vi-ix, Gideon before his call
was "the least in his father's house," and his eldest son
Jether was a youth of eighteen or twenty years. The
country "was in quiet forty years in the days of Gideon."
After his victory "he had many wives," and in all seventy
children. After his death Abimelech, one of them, slew
all the others; and Jotham, the youngest, alone escaped,
and made the celebrated address to the men of Shechem
from the top of Mount Gerizim. Now, according to Baron
Bunsen's revised version, by which the poetical element is
removed, Gideon survived his victory just ten years; so
that within that space sixty sons at least must have been
born to him. Abimelech must have been less than ten
years old when he slew his infant brothers; and Jotham,
the youngest, a mere babe when he addressed the Shechem-
ites from Mount Gerizim, and "then ran away and fled to
Beer." Clearly, it is not the Bible narrative, but the
modern substitute, which has here the best claim to be
styled an epical fiction. The superiority of the sacred
text to the learned criticism which assails it, and pretends
to detect its errors, could scarcely receive a more striking
illustration. For in all particulars, except the chronology.

152 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the book is untouclied by the ordeal of criticism, and no
smell of fire has passed upon it.

IV. The history of the Pentateuch.

The books of Moses contain a connected narrative from
Creation to the conquest of Canaan, and are by far the
oldest written history now extant. In consequence of their
antiquity no direct materials for comparison exist, except the
half-deciphered remains of Egyptian monuments brought to
light within the last thirty years. The direct evidence of
their authenticity is of the strongest kind. They have
been accepted as the writings of Moses by the followers
of three different and rival creeds — the Christians, the
Samaritans, and the Jews — as far back in each case as
their own history extends, or any record of their belief
can be found. Their character, as the code of laws of a
whole nation, entering into the minutest details of daily
life, and involving the whole constitution of the state, and
the local arrangements of all the tribes, would make a
late forgery incredible and inconceivable. Apart from ita
record of miracles, and its views of the Divine character
and holiness, which are so opposed to the whole spirit of
an unbelieving philosophy, there can be no doubt that its
claims to the title of true and credible history would have
been received without the least difficulty, and owned to
rest upon the most solid grounds. Since, however, the
tests which can be directly applied are few, and at present
ambiguous and controverted in the conclusions drawn from
them, we are bound to apply the maxims of the inductive
philosophy. These books contain a narrative of the first
out of six successive periods of sacred history — four in the
Old and two in the New Testament. The general char-
acter of the series, from first to last, is the same in its
main features, though with important varieties of a sec-
ondary kind. Each portion seems to grow, by a natural

HISTORICAL TRUTH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 153

development, out of those which precede. The mutual
references, from first to last, are very numerous. We have
one summary of the Pentateuch at the close of Joshua; a
second, of the period of Exodus and the Judges in Samuel;
a third and a fourth, from Abraham to David, or to the
Captivity, in the Psalms and Nehemiah ; a genealogical
summary in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke;
a historical summary from Abraham in the discourse of
Stephen; a second, from the Exodus in that of St. Paul at
Antioch; and a final outline from the beginning of Genesis
to the Captivity, in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Now, in all the five later periods the truth of the sacred
history, as we have seen, is confirmed by a large variety
of external and internal evidence. The tests are more va-
rious and abundant in the later portions, and in proportion
as they are multiplied the evidence of reality becomes the
more decisive. The period from Joshua to Solomon is in-
ternally consistent, but furnishes hardly any date for com-
parison, either with heathen dynasties or between parallel
records of the same interval. Where these do occur, in
the reign of David, in 2 Samuel, and 1 Chronicles, and the
Psalms, the marks of consistency multiply in the same
proportion. The period of the Kings supplies additional
tests. We have two reports in Kings and Chronicles.
We have thirteen books of prophecy belonging to the same
interval, and we have the mention of eighteen or twenty
foreign kings. The only result is to multiply the evidences
of chronological accuracy and historical truth. The next
period brings us within the early times of classic history.
The minuteness and copiousness of the details is here car-
ried to an extreme. There is no presence of miracles to
awaken the doubts of skeptics, and the agreement with the
best heathen records of the Persian reigns is complete.
Similar confirmations are found in the history of the New

154 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Testail»ent, and especially in the book of Acts, its latest
portion, whicli belongs to the brightest days of the Roman
Empire, and is the period in which the elements for com-
parison are the most abundant in historical works, inscrip-
tions, and existing remains.

The conclusion which results from this course of induc-
tion is plain. Wherever the tests are abundant they con-
firm in the strongest manner the truth of the Bible history.
We are justified, therefore, and even compelled by the
laws of sound reason to admit its truth, even in that earliest
period, where, from its antiquity, it seems to stand alone in
unapproachable dignity and preeminence. At least, we are
bound to accept its prima facie claim to be real and genu-
ine history, till counter-evidence can be found, so clear,
distinct, and decisive, as to outweigh the collective strength
of all those evidences of simplicity, consistency, and truth
which meet the eye of the careful student through all its
later course of fifteen hundred years. How far the revised
chronology of the time of the Judges, of which a specimen
has just been given; or hypothesis on the Hyksos period
of Egypt, which Lepsius reckons at five, Bunsen at nine,
and De Rouge at fourteen centuries, can affect this counter-
poise, and, separating the early books of the Bible from
their intimate, organic union with the later history, reduce
them to epos or mythos, that is, narratives mainly or
wholly fabulous, may be safely left to the judgment of
every candid and thoughtful mind.

THE MIllACLES OF THE BIBLE. 15C

CHAPTER YII.

THE MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE.

Modern rationalism, in its criticisms on the Bible his-
tories, adopts, usually, a laborious process of circular rea-
soning. Unbelief is assumed in the premises, and, of course,
reappears inevitably in the conclusion. It is affirmed, first
of all, that miracles and real predictions are incredible and
impossible. By the help of this doctrine the Bible is dis-
sected, parted into imaginary fragments, resolved into loose
traditions of some later age, or completely dissolved into
mere legend. Immense labor is bestowed on this double
process of dissection or sublimation ; and the result is then
announced that criticism has proved the history to be
merely common events distorted by tradition, or the cloth-
ing of some abstract ideas of truth. This is the course
adopted, alike by Strauss in the New, and Ewald and many
others in the Old Testament. The same assumption is
made openly in both cases, that a supernatural revelation,
accompanied by miracles and prophecies, is "neither a fact
nor a possibility." From infidel premises, of course, there
can be reached no other than an infidel conclusion.

There are, on the contrary, only two questions which
need an affirmative reply, that our acceptance of the Scrip-
tures as a Divine revelation may be a reasonable faith.
Has the Bible, setting aside, in the first place, the super-
natural elements involved in it, every other sign and evi-
dence of historical truth? And next, do the miracles or
prophecies themselves agree in character with their alleged

156 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

design as the credentials to a series of Divine revelations?
The former question has now been briefly answered. It re-
mains to inquire, next, whether the miracles satisfy the
required conditions. These may be reduced, perhaps, to
these four heads : a wise parsimony, general publicity, a
consistent plan, and a moral purpose.

I. Miracles, to fiilfill their great object of attesting and
confirming messages from God, must retain an unusual and
exceptional character. When they become habitual with
any regular law of recurrence, they cease to be miraculous,
and only add one more element to the immense number of
natural laws. If they become frequent, but remain ir-
regular and unaccountable, they will cease to startle or
surprise, or fulfill any moral purpose, and will come to be
classed with shooting-stars, or similar unexplained pho
nomena of the natural world. There is no conceivable
limit to the invention of mere legends ; but real miracles,
it is plain, have strict and severe conditions to which they
must conform. If too obscure and isolated, they will be
insuflScient for their professed object. If too numerous or
constant, they forfeit the character of signs and wonders,
and must lose a great part of their influence over the minds
of those who may witness them. A wise parsimony is one
main feature which must be expected, therefore, to charac-
terize their actual occurrence.

Two causes have tended to create a false impression with
reference to the number of the miracles in the Bible his-
tory. The first is its extreme compression, and the vast
period of time which it embraces from first to last. The
other is the religious tone of the whole narrative ; so that
common events, where there is no proper miracle, are
ascribed habitually to the power and providence of God.
When these two circumstances have been duly weighed, it
will be s<»,en, with surpiiso, how sparing, according to the

THE MIRACLES OP THE BIBLE. 157

Bible itself, has been tbe use of miracles in the Divine
economy. For the question is not what proportion they
bear to the facts expressed in the record, but to those
which are implied in it. Even without any inspired tes-
timony, we know that the course of nature must have con-
tinued from day to day, and from generation to generation.
But if miracles are declared to attest and confirm Divine
messages, the mere omission and silence of the record
amounts almost to a full proof of their non-occurrence.

The first period of Bible history reaches from the Crea-
tion to the Deluge, and occupies a space of more than
sixteen hundred years. The record is very brief, but we
may fairly assume, for the reason just named, that the
chief events really miraculous have been included. Now,
these are only five or six in number: the temptation of
the serpent in Paradise; the expulsion of Adam and Eve,
with the cherubic sword of fire at the east of the Garden;
the vision to Cain after Abel's sacrifice; the translation of
Enoch; the mixture, perhaps, of the sons of God with the
daughters of men, and birth of the Nephilim; and, lastly,
the Deluge itself, and its attendant circumstances. Six
instances of miraculous interference — three at the very
beginning, two during the course, and one at the close —
of nearly two whole millennia of the world's history, are
surely no lavish and extravagant amount of supernatural
interference.

The second period reaches from the Flood to the Descent
into Egypt, and is a space of six — but according to the
Septuagint of fourteen — centuries. Only three main events
of a public or a national kind occur in it which are mira-
cles, or quasi-miraculous: the confusion of tongues at the
Tower of Babel; the destruction of the Cities of the Plain;
and the dreams of Pharaoh, with the seven years of plenty
and seven of famine. Even of these the last belongs less

158 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

naturally to miracles than to supernatural prophecy. But
since the foundations of a new economy were now being
laid, there is a considerable number of visions recorded of
a more private and personal kind. We meet with about
ten instances in the life of Abraham, three or four in that
of Isaac, and eight in that of Jacob. Most of them are
simply dreams or visions, and only three or four involve a
distinct angelic appearance. This, also, is a frugal pro-
vision of signs and wonders for the first foundation of an
economy of grace, by which all the families of the earth
were to be blessed, and which was to endure to a thousand
generations.

The third period is that of the Exodus and the Conquest,
and lasted about forty-five years. It was the season when
the Law was given, and written revelation first began. It
forms, therefore, an exception to the character of the pre-
vious and the following periods, with regard to the number
and frequency of the signs and wonders which attested the
new economy, and that written law which was to be the
foundation of all the later messages of Grod. All the other
miracles of the four thousand years of the Old Testament
are scarcely so numerous or so striking as those which are
crowded into the limits of this single generation, though
comparatively modern in its date; since Abraham, and not
Moses, is about midway in the Old-Testament history.

The fourth period, from the Conquest to Solomon, occu-
pies considerably more than four hundred years. But the
miracles recorded in its course are comparatively few. The
chief are: the angelic vision at Bochim; the call of Gideon;
the double miraculous sign of the fleece; the angelic vision
to Manoah; the wonders of Samson's strength, and its loss
when his vow was broken; the vision to Samuel when a
child; the judgments on the Philistines and the men of
Betlishemesh ; the prophesying of Saul; the thunder and

THE MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE. 159

nail after Samuel's rebuke of the people; the appearance
of Samuel to Saul after his death; and the infliction of the
pestilence and its removal; or scarcely more than twelve
through a period of nearly five centuries.

In the fifth period, from Solomon to the Captivity, be-
sides the number of prophets who were raised up, and
whose writings are part of the canon, the direct miracles
are more numerous. About forty distinct examples of them
are recorded during this interval of four hundred and thirty
years, and two or three others in the history of Daniel at
Babylon. The signs and wonders approach in their strik-
ing character to those of the Exodus; but they are spread
over a longer interval, while the others are all concentrated
within one instead of ten or twelve generations. In the
last period of the Old Testament, after the Return, and till
the Birth of our Lord, there is an entire absence of all
recorded miracles through more than five hundred years.

The whole range of New-Testament history is only sixty-
six years, or two generations. It begins with miracles in
the narrative of our Lord's infancy, and they are found in
the very last chapter, after the shipwreck of the apostle,
and before his arrival at Borne. They do not, then, shrink
or disappear from the history, when it comes into contact
with the broad daylight of Greek and Boman civilization.
On the other hand, there are twenty-eight years of this
period, or nearly one half of the whole, which are passed
by in silence, and where the absence of miracles is clearly
implied. This same feature, also, continues to mark the
ministry of the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. The con-
trast is brought out- plainly in the fourth Gospel in the
words of the Jews, "John did no miracle, but whatsoever
John spake of this man was true."

Thus, on a review of the whole, we find that the Bible
itself teaches clearly that miracles were a rare exception,

160 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

and not the ordinary rule of Divine Providence, and this
even among the chosen people. From the purpose expressly
assigned to them we may infer, with great probability, that
all such departures from the usual course of nature, of a
signal character, would be put on record; and the whole
number may be rather more than one hundred throughout
the course of four thousand years from the fall of Adam
to the coming of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven.
The first condition, then, of true miracles, a wise parsi-
mony in their exhibition, is clearly fulfilled in the Bible
history.

II. Again, miracles, in order to fulfill their office, as
proofs of a Divine message or commission, require a char-
acter of publicity. To use the words of St. Paul belbre
Agrippa, it would contradict their great object, if they
were "done in a corner," and there were no adequate wit-
nesses of their reality.

This condition, again, is satisfied in the highest degree
by the main body of the miracles, both of the Old and
New Testament. The Flood, the confusion of tongues, the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plenty and famine
of Egypt, were events of the most public kind, and on the
largest scale. A public assertion of them, unless very
remote in time, would involve a speedy and complete expo-
sure of fraud and falsehood. The plagues of Egypt, the
pillar of cloud and fire, the daily manna, the passage of
the Red Sea, the supply of water from the rock, have all
the utmost possible degree of publicity. The same Is true
of the passage of the Jordan, and is there additionally
striking because of the n.emorial appointed at the time, to
be a public testimony of the occurrence to later genera-
tions. The same character applies to several of Elijah and
Elisha's miracles, and to the later overthrow of the Assyr-
ian army. ^ In the New Testament it is the common feature

THE MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE. 161

of all our Lord's miracles, and most of those of the apostles.
The appeal is repeatedly made by our Lord himself, as well
as his disciples, to this character of the miraculous works.
John XV, 22-24; v, 36; xi, 47, 48; xii, 37; xviii, 20;
Acts ii, 22; iii, 16; iv, 21, 16; v, 16; x, 37, 38; xix, 12;
Rom. XV, 19.

But while this character of publicity belongs to the
Bible miracles, as a whole, there are many exceptions in
which they are exhibited in the light of a special privilege,
and witnessed by a few only. Such were the visions to the
three patriarchs; the appearance in the bush to Moses; the
messages of the angel to Gideon, and afterward to Manoah
and his wife; the support of Elijah by ravens, and again
by the widow of Zarephath; and some others in the Old
Testament. In the Gospels we see that our Lord, in several
cases, enjoined silence on those who were healed, or chose
out a few witnesses only. Thus three apostles alone were
allowed to be present at the raising of Jairus's daughter,
and at the Transfiguration ; and the blind man at Bethsaida
was led aside out of the town before his eyes were opened,
and then charged not to tell it to any one in the town.
The resurrection of our Lord holds in this respect a middle
place. The number of witnesses was large, for "he was
seen of above five hundred brethren at once;" and the
appearances were numerous, for no less than ten are dis-
tinctly put on record, and they reached through an interval
of forty days; but the privilege was reserved, in every case,
for disciples alone. It is clear, then, that a second law
intersects, and in some cases supersedes, the general rule
of publicity; and that the moral aspect of such manifesta-
tions, as a special privilege which must not be wasted upon
senseless a^id stubborn minds, mingles with and modifies
their fundamental character, as "a sign to them who do

oot believe." 1 Cor. xiv, 22.

14

162 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

III. A third feature, which may be expected to distin
guish real miracles, designed to fulfill some great object oi
the Divine government from the mere chance inventions of
falsehood, or a fortuitous series of mere legends, invented
by the caprice of imaginative minds, is the presence of a
consistent plan in their actual distribution and occurrence.

It is common with skeptical writers to represent mira-
cles, as maintained by the advocates of Christianity, to be
"'something at variance with nature and law," "arbitrary
interposition" and acts of mere caprice, in "marvelous dis-
cordance from all law." But this is a gross misconception.
The term law, instead of being confined exclusively to
physical relations, is borrowed from a higher field of
thought — the deliberate acts of intelligent wills — and is
only transferred by analogy to the mere regularity of
physical changes. Moral laws have a better claim to the
title than the physical; the latter have borrowed it from
them, and are merely, so to speak, undertenants at will.
The highest and noblest kind of law of which we can have
a conception consists of the moral and spiritual maxims by
which the Supreme Lawgiver, the only wise God, disposes
his own acts in the government of the creatures he has
made. Viewed in this light, while miracles are either real
or seeming infractions of some physical law of material
sequence, they are, in every case, fulfillments of a higher
law of God's moral government; which may be discerned
in them, more or less clearly, when the understanding has
been purified by faith and prayer, and has learned to medi-
tate with reverence on the ways of the Most High.

The question between unbelief and Christian faith seems
r'.apable, then, of being brought here to a distinct and
definite issue. If alleged miracles are the mere inventions
of imposture, or the dreams of inventive fancy, we might
reasonably infer that they would, be ascribed most plenti-

THE MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE. 163

fully to periods most remote from historic knowledge, and
diminish gradually as we come within the region of au-
thentic history, tested by collateral evidence and a well-
defined chronology. On the other hand, if they are the
real credentials of Divine messages, we should expect them
to abound at marked eras of revelation, when there i^ some
conspicuous unfolding of the Divine will; and to be more
sparingly exhibited in those intervals, when there is merely
a continuation of former degrees of light, and no sign of
any new message from God to man.

Now, it will be plain, on the least inquiry, that this latter
character, and not the former, belongs to the whole series
of miracles which the Bible records. Three or four mirac-
ulous events marked the close of the brief economy of
Paradise, and introduced the sixteen centuries of the ante-
diluvian world. One miracle alone occurs during theii
long course — the translation of Enoch ; for the marriage of
the sons of Grod with the daughters of men is either simply
a natural event, or a marvel of sin, and not an interference
of God. The Deluge and its attendant wonders ushered in
a new dispensation, and a formal covenant with mankind in
their new head. Two signal acts of judgment mark the
long period from the Flood to the Exodus, when iniquity
had reached its hight, in the building of Babel, and the
Cities of the Plain; but all the other wonders are of a more
private kind, connected with the persons of the three pa-
triarchs alone, in whom the foundation was laid for all the
later revelations of the Divine will. But with the Exodus
a new dispensation began. The revealed will of God was
now, for the first time, embodied in a written and perma-
nent form. The books of Moses, which were written by
the great lawgiver of the Jews, form the key to all their
later history, and are the basement story of the whole
edifice of revealed religion. Here, then, we meet in th«

164 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

sacred narrative with a profuse display of miraculous
agency, contrasted equally with earlier and with later ages.
This contrast is boldly drawn out in the law itself "For
ask now of the days which are past, which were before
thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth,
and from one side of heaven unto the other, whether there
hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath
been heard like it. Did ever people hear the voice of God
speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard,
and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a
nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations,
by signs, by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand,
and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terror, according
to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before
your eyes?" This era of marvels lasts throughout the
forty years of the Exodus, till Jordan is crossed, the book
of the law complete, and the chosen people have entered
into their promised inheritance. Its close is then hardly
less marked than its commencement. The manna ceases as
soon as the Jordan is passed. After the conquest is com-
plete, except the solitary message of rebuke by the angel
at Bochim, we have two whole centuries, to Gideon, in
which no trace of a miracle is found, and only one pro-
phetic message, that of Deborah to Barak. The few mira-
cles that come later are of a personal kind, or messages to
individuals, to fit them for some special work or service.
Two public miracles occur, at intervals, in the later half of
the period between the Conquest and Solomon, and each of
them is connected with a main event in the tabernacle wor-
ship of Israel. The first was the rescue of the ark from
the Philistines, which was never again restored to the
tabernacle at Shiloh; and the other was the pestilence,
which issued in the designation of a new site on Mount
Mori ah -for the temple of God.

THE MIRACLES OF THE BIBLK. 165

But as soon as the Theocracy, under the law, began to
wane, and new revelations were to be given, permanently,
by prophets to complete the old covenant, and link it with
the Gospel that was to follow, not only prophetic messen-
gers are multiplied, but public miracles reappear. Their
place is not found amidst the dimness of uncertain history,
or an obscure chronology, but precisely where the annals
of Israel and Judah dovetail into each other with recur-
ring notes of time, and link themselves with the records of
Tyre, Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon. A signal prophecy
by Ahijah the Shilonite, and three signal miracles in con-
nection with the prophet from Judah, usher in the first
separation of the kingdom of Israel, and are like an earnest
of the new era that was to begin. In the two generations
of Elijah's and Elisha's ministry nearly forty miracles are
recorded in Chronicles and Kings. A series of prophetic
messages was thus publicly inaugurated, which reached
from Jonah, the earliest, a cotemporary of Elisha, to Jere-
miah and Ezekiel at the time of the Captivity; when it
was sealed once more by the two signal miracles, in which
the faith of Daniel and his companions "stopped the mouths
of lions, and quenched the violence of fire," in the interval
between the Captivity and the Return from Babylon.

After this return the Siuaitic covenant was waxing old,
and even the code of Old-Testament prophecy was nearly
complete. Three shorter books of prophecy sustained the
faith of the remnant who had been restored to Judea in a
time of weakness and Grentile opposition, and renewed the
promise of brighter days at hand. But miraculous inter-
ference is entirely withheld. No outward miracle is found,
in these last books, of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai,
Zechariah, and Malachi. Signs and wonders first, and
very soon the gift of prophecy itself, are withdrawn,
through a long space of five hundred years. The old dis-

166 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

pensation, with its code of Divine messages, was complete,
and the fuller light of the Gospel was not come.

When this time of waiting was gone by, a series of mar-
vels accompanies the dawning of a new dispensation, and
ratifies the messages of the Gospel. They begin with the
birth of our Lord, but their chief development attends the
opening of his public ministry. Amidst the fullest light
of classic literature, and in the hight of the Roman domin-
ion, when the whole civilized world was linked by perpetual
and daily intercourse, we are suddenly confronted once
more with "signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds," lesK
startling and terrible than those which sealed the sterner
messages of the law, but still more numerous and varied,
and reaching, like the others, through a space of forty
years and upward, from our Lord's baptism to the very
close of the Jewish polity. Their reality is attested, not
only by the simplicity and truthfulness of the record, but
by the admission of Celsus, Porphyry, and of the unbeliev-
ing Jews, and by their moral power in the formation of
the Christian Church, and its growth and spread through
successive ages. They are the rock on which it is built so
firmly that the gates of hell have never prevailed for its
overthrow. But when once the Church is founded, and the
new dispensation of the Gospel established throughout the
breadth of the Roman Empire, the sacred canon is brought
to a close, and miracles, beyond that limit, either suddenly
cease, or melt away insensibly, with the removal of the
first believers and apostolic converts, and "fade into the
light of common day."

The miracles of the Bible, it thus appears, are not scat-
tered confusedly throughout the whole period, as, if they
were due only to the accidents of legend -weaving, we should
axpect them to be. They follow a manifest law in their
distribution, no less than the planets of the solar system in

THE MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE. 167

their settled orbits. They are grouped mainly around two
great centers, the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ,
the two known and essential components in one great, pro
gressive scheme of revelation. An important but secondary
series attends and introduces the teaching of the prophets,
the connecting link between the two dispensations. When
we add to these a few acts of solemn judgment, the Flood,
the Confusion of Tongues, the Destruction of Sodom, the
overthrow of the Assyrian host, and more private messages
or visions to the three patriarchs, and a few judges and
kings, we have nearly exhausted the whole range of re-
corded miracles. Every feature of their arrangement con-
firms the constant faith of the Church, that they are neither
the inventions of imposture, nor the dreams of wayward
fancy, nor unaccountable freaks of blind chance; but cre-
dentials, appoint<^d by the Only Wise God, to confirm and
ratify the authority of his own messages of holiness and
grace to the children of men.

lY. The last feature which marks the Bible miracles,
and severs them widely from the idle tales of marvels with
which a skeptical criticism would confound them, is the
presence throughout of a moral purpose. It is not merely
true that they are shown by the law of their distribution
to be the seals and certificates of the messages of God.
They form themselves one part of the message which they
seal.

This moral character of the miracles of the Bible has
been often observed, and unfolded by several writers with
rich and abundant evidence of its truth. It is the less
needful, then, to dwell on it here at any length. The-
miracles of our Lord, with scarcely an exception, are para-
'bles also. Some deep spiritual truth shines out through
the supernatural history. They are not, as the mythica.
theory pretends, mere ghosts or unembodied ideas, clothed

168 THE BIBLE AND MODEKN THOUGHT.

with a shadowy vail of fiction. They have a body, reai
and true; but it is a spiritual body, like that which is
promised to the children of the resurrection, translucent
in every part with the powerful impress and energy of the
living truth within. The plagues of Egypt partake of the
severity and holiness of the legal dispensation. The works
of Christ are gracious and gentle, though surpassingly won-
derful, and answer well to the grace which was poured into
his lips, and forms the essential spirit, the distinguishing
glory, of the Gospel. There is a Divine harmony of char-
acter between the signs and wonders themselves, the healing
of the sick, the unstopping the ears of the deaf, and opening
the eyes of the blind, the stilling of the storm and tempest,
and the truth which all of them were given to confirm ana
ratify — "the Gospel of the grace of God."

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 169

CHAPTER YIII.

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

Christianity, as a public message which claims the
faith and obedience of mankind, rests evidently on a double
foundation — the miracles of our Lord and his apostles, and
the fulfillment of earlier prophecies of the Old Testament
in the history of Christ, and the early progress of the
Gospel. The appeal to the miracles is conspicuous in every
part of the New Testament. "If I do not the works of
my Father," our Lord said to the Jews, "believe me net;
but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works."
And to his disciples: "If I had not done among them the
works which no other man did, they had not had sin."
Nicodemus, even in the first twilight of his faith, had
already learned the same lesson : " Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from Grod; for no man can do
these miracles which thou doest except God be with him."

But the appeal to the fulfillment of- prophecy is no less
frequent, both in the lips of our Lord himself, and in the
teaching of his apostles. It is, equally with the miracles,
made the ground of a direct and earnest claim that Jesus
of Nazareth should be received as the true Messiah, and
the Gospel believed to be the word and message of God.
Tf this appeal be groundless and delusive, then Christianity, -
it follows by necessary consequence, is a system of delusion.
Whatever elements of pure morality it may seem to con-
tain, these too must be deceptive ; since it would come with

a lie in its mouth, to claim submission and reverence in the

15

170 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT

name of a God of truth and holiness. Whoever denies the
reality of these predictions ceases, de facto^ to be a Chris
tian. For a Christian means a disciple of Christ; and
those can not be disciples of our Lord who deliberately
contradict and set aside many of the clearest and most em-
phatic sayings which proceeded from his lips. Christianity,
it is evident, as a reasonable faith, nay, as a scheme of
high morality, and not of false pretenses, must stand or fall
with the acceptance or rejection of the fulfillment of Old-
Testament prophecies, in the life, death, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus.

Let us review, first, the passages in which this claim is
distinctly made.

1. Matt, xi, 10: "For this is he of whom it is written,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall
prepare thy way before thee."

This prophecy of Malachi is here distinctly asserted by
our Lord to belong to the Baptist, his own forerunner. It
is implied with equal clearness that the following clause is
a prediction of his own presence among the Jews, and in
the Jewish Temple: "And the Lord whom ye seek shall
suddenly come to his Temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of Hosts."

2. Matt, xii, 39, 40: "An evil and adulterous generation
geeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given it,
but the sign of Jonas the prophet: for as Jonas was three
days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the
Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth."

Here we have not only a prophecy of the resurrection
on the third day, which lodged in the memory even of
the unbelieving Pharisees — Matt, xxvii, 63 — but a dis
tinet assertion by our Lord that the strange and unusual

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 171

history of Jonah, which was a sign to the Ninevites, was
a vailed prediction of his own resurrection from the dead.
The same statement is repeated once more — Matt, xvi, 4.

3. Matt, xxi, 42: "Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never
read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders re-
jected, the same is made the head of the corner: this is
the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? There-
fore I say unto you. The kingdom of God shall be taken
from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits
thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be
broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him
to powder."

Here our Lord not only affirms that the verse in Psalm
cxviii is a distinct prophecy of his rejection by the Jewish
rulers, but infers from it the truth, soon fulfilled, of their
own expulsion from the covenant of God, attended by
heavy judgments. The apostle, who was present at the
time, twice repeats and confirms the saying of his Lord.
Acts iv, 11, 12; 1 Pet. ii, 7, 8.

4. Matt, xxii, 41, 46: "If David, then, call him Lord,
how is he his Son?" The words of Psalm ex, 1, are here
affirmed to be a prophecy of the exaltation of Messiah,
which was fulfilled in the twofold nature of our Lord and
his future exaltation to the throne of God.

5. Matt, xxiv, 15, 16: "When ye see the abomination
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in
the holy place, (whoso readeth let him understand,) then
let those which be in Judea flee into the mountains."
Here, when the words are compared with St. Luke, our
Lord teaches his disciples that one of Daniel's predictions,
instead of being written after the event in the time of An-
tiochus, was a true prophecy of desolation to be soon in-
flicted on Jerusalem by the Roman armies.

6. Matt, xxiv, 30: "And they shall see the Son of man

172 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great
glory." These words are a plain reference to Daniel vii.
13, 14, and a distinct claim by our Lord tq be the Son of
man, of whom Daniel had prophesied, and announced his
everlasting dominion and glory.

7. Matt, xxvi, 23, 24: "He answered and said, He that
dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall be-
tray me. The Son of man goeth as it is written of him."

We have here our Lord's declaration that his sufferings
were the express subject of prophecy. But the connection
shows that he refers immediately to Psalm xli, 9, and
affirms its fulj&llment in his betrayal by one of his own dis-
ciples.

8. Matt, xxvi, 28: "For this is my blood of the new
covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."
The declaration here, though indirect, is not the less deci-
sive, that Jeremiah xxxi referred to our Lord's sacrijQ.ce on,
the cross, and to the Gospel covenant which it sealed.

9. Matt, xxvi, 31 : " Then saith Jesus unto them, All
ye shall be offended because of me this night; for it is
written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the
flock shall be scattered abroad."

No statement could be plainer than this. The prophecy
in Zechariah, our Lord tells his disciples, made it certain
that they would abandon him in the hour when he was to
be smitten, and lay down his life for the sheep.

10. Matt, xxvi, 53, 54: "Thinkest thou that I can not
now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me
more than twelve legions of angels ? But how, then, shall
the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?"

Here, also, nothing can be more distinct than our Lord's
assertion, rendered stronger by its interrogatory form.
The prophecies so truly foretold his sufferings as to make
it essential for their truth and the faithfulness of God, that

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 173

he should yield himself up without resistance into the
hands of his enemies. The Scriptures would have failed
and beeii falsified unless he sufi"ered. The Evangelist pres-
ently repeats and reechoes the same doctrine: "But all thi?
was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be ful
filled."

11. Matt, xxvi, 64: "Hereafter ye shall see the Son of
man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the
clouds of heaven." Our Lord has once before applied the
description in Daniel to himself, in his discourse to the
disciples. He here repeats the same before the Sanhe-
drim. The saying, for which he was adjudged to be
worthy of death, was simply a claim to be the express ob-
ject of this prediction. If Daniel vii were merely a pre-
tended prophecy, or referred to some one else, there seems
no escape from the conclusion that our Lord was a de-
ceiver, and his condemnation a righteous sentence.

12. Matt, xxvii, 46 : "About the ninth hour Jesus cried
with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that
is to say. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

This exclamation, if it stood alone, might be explained
as a mere adoption of the Psalmist's words, because they
suited his present experience of sufi'ering; but when we
compare them with the taunt in verse 43, which is a quo-
tation from the same Psalm, and the quotation just before
by the Evangelist in verse 35, they clearly imply a con-
scious appropriation by our Lord, on the cross, of the whole
Psalm, as a distinct prophecy both of his inward experience
and outward shame.

13. Luke iv, 17, 21 : "And he began to say unto them,
This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." The
prediction in Isaiah Ixi, 1, is here expressly referred by our
Lord to his own ministry, as its true and proper meaning.

14. Luke xviii, 31-33: "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem,

174 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

and all things that are written by the prophets concerning
the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be
delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spite-
fully entreated, and spitted on, and they shall scourge him,
and put him to death, and the third day he shall rise
again."

Nothing can be clearer than that the true and proper
fulfillment of various predictions, such as Psa. xxii, 6, 7.
15 ; Isaiah 1, 6, is here asserted by our Lord to center in
his own person, and the sufi"erings he was about to un-
dergo.

15. Luke xxii, 37 : "For I say unto you, that this which
is written must yet be accomplished in me. And he was
reckoned among the transgressors ; for even the things con-
cerning me have their fulfillment."

16. Luke xxiv, 25, 26: "Then he said unto them, 0
fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken ! Ought not Christ to have sufiered these
things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all
the Scriptures the things concerning himself."

Luke xxiv, 44 : " And he said unto them. These are the
words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the
law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms con-
cerning me."

17. Luke xxiv, 45, 46: "Then opened he their under-
Btanding that they might understand the Scriptures, and
said unto them. Thus it is written, and thus it behooved
Christ to sufi'er, and to rise from the dead the third day,
and that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name among all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem."

18 John v, 39: "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 175

think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify
of me."

19. John V, 46, 47: "For had ye believed Moses, ye
would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye
believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words *"

20. John xiii, 18: "I know whom I have chosen; but
that the Scriptures may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread
with me hath lifted up his heel against me."

21. John xvii, 12: "And none of them is lost, but the
son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled."

22. John xix, 28, 30: "After this, Jesus knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might
be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. . . . When Jesus, there-
fore, had received the vinegar, he said. It is finished, and
he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost."

After these plain and repeated statements of our Lord
himself, it is needless to dwell on the many passages where
the same doctrine is echoed by the Evangelists and apostles.
Twenty-five such passages, besides their parallels, occur in
the Gospels, an equal number in the book of Acts, and
still a larger number in the various Epistles.

The predictions, to which this appeal is publicly made
by our Lord and his apostles, range through the whole
extent of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi.
Besides many indirect allusions, or applications of types
in the history, they include two passages in Genesis, one
in Exodus, two in Numbers, two in Deuteronomy, one in
2 Samuel, nearly twenty in the Psalms, more than twenty
in Isaiah, two or three in Jeremiah, as many in Daniel,
and in Hosea, one in Joel, two in Amos, one in Jonah,
two in Micah, four in Zechariah, and two in Malachi.
The claim is made throughout the whole of the New Test-
ament, from the first chapter of St. Matthew to the last of
Revelation— Matt, i, 22, 23; Rev. xxii, 6, 9, 16— and the

176 THE BIBLE AND MODEBN THOUGHT.

prophecies to which it expressly belongs range equally
throughout the Old Testament, from the third of Genesis
to the. last chapter of Malachi.

Of late years, however, some have ventured to renounce
and contradict this uniform testimony of Christ himself
and his apostles, and still to retain the name of Christians.
How those can be disciples of Christ who reject some of
his plainest and most emphatic sayings, it is hard to under-
stand. We have been told, for instance, that in Germany
there has been "a pathway streaming with light, in which
the value of the moral element in prophecy has been pro-
gressively raised, and the directly predictive, whether secu-
lar or Messianic, has been lowered."* It is by no means
evident how the moral element can have been enhanced,
by turning the prophets from inspired messengers of God
into successful practicers on the credulity and superstition
of their countrymen. But unless our Lord spent his time,
after the resurrection, in deluding his own followers, this
light is merely a relapse into that darkness which brought
on them his severe rebuke, and from which they were finally
set free, when " he opened their understanding, to under-
stand the Scriptures." A school of negative criticism, which
translates Psalm xxii, 16, " For lions have compassed me,
the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me, as a lion my
hands and my feet," and then makes these hands and feet
to be those of the whole Jewish nation, is more akin to
lunacy than to real learning. A vast induction, composed
of such elements,, may prove to be only an accumulation
of learned folly. A pathway of prophetic interpretation,
streaming with such light, merely illustrates the words of
our Lord. "If, then, the light which is in thee be dark-
ness, how great is that darkness I"

* Essays and Keviews, Essay ii, p. 67.

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 177

Hebrew prophecy, in all its parts, was doubtless a witness
to the kingdom of God, or to a scheme of moral govern-
ment, exercised through successive ages over a sinful world.
And the real question at issue is, whether it were a true
wdtness to a real redemption, and a living Redeemer,
promised from the beginning; or a series of dim and im-
perfect guesses, by fallible men, as to the future results of
the events which were passing around them. In the view
of Christian faith, it must contain, throughout, both a moral
and a predictive element. It is neither bare and naked
ethics, nor mere prediction of the future; but a conjoint
revelation of the will and purposes of God. If its predic-
tions are mere guesses of man, with no Divine authority,
then the message becomes a public and notorious immoral-
ity. It is a fraud upon the faith of men, and a blasphemy
against the God of truth. On the other hand, merely to
enforce duty was never the sole or chief part of the
prophet's message. The contrast between a high standard
and actual experience would make such a work, if carried
on alone, a source of despondency and darkness. But
prophecy, from first to last, is a message of hope. Amidst
the darkness of sin and sorrow, it reveals the prospect of
a great redemption. Every gleam of light, which it threw
upon actual sin and rebellion, was meant to awaken stronger
desires for the rising of the day-spring from on high. It
is a message from that God, who sees the end from the
beginning, with whom a thousand years are as one day.
While its precepts and warnings belong, of course, to the
times when each message was given, its promises and en-
couragements are borrowed from that future, which lay
hidden in the counsels of God, and which God alone could
reveal. Hence its chief characteristic is a revelation, with
increasing clearness, of "the good things to come." All
centers in it around the person of the great Redeemer.

178 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

The prophecies are a landscape, bright in every part wit!
a light which flows from the still unrisen Sun of Righteous-
ness. "To him gave all the prophets witness," and "the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

Now, every message of prophecy will receive a different
interpretation, as it is read with the face or the back
turned toward this great hope of redemption, this sunrise
in the eastern sky. One method results inevitably in the
destructive criticisms of learned unbelief; but the other
is that instinct of faith and hope which alone could profit
aright by these messages when they were first given, or
enable us, in the retrospect, to perceive their real fullness
and Divine beauty. They must be read not as mere human
guess-work by many authors widely remote in time, and
brought together now by mere accidental causes, but as
gifts from Glod to sinful men, pervaded throughout by the
unity of common purpose. This is essential, according to
the Scriptures themselves, in order to attain a just view of
their meaning. "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of
Scripture is of self-interpretation; for prophecy came not
at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

It will be enough for our present object to examine
two or three main examples of that vast induction on the
destructive side, which begins by reversing this first es-
sential of true interpretation, and then glories in having
stripped the prophecies, one by one, of their Messianic
character; as if it were a proud triumph of modern learn-
ing to resume the exact position of the first disciples, when
their understanding was still darkened, and they were pro-
nounced, by the Truth himself, to be "fools, and slow
of heart to believe what the prophets had spoken." I
will select three instances alone, the earlier and the later
prophecies of Isaiah, and the visions of the beloved Daniel,

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 179

doubly sanctioned by our Lord in his own prophecy on the
Mount of Olives, and when he witnessed his good con-
fession before the Sanhedrim of the Jews.

I. The prophecy — Isaiah vii-ix — according to the con-
stant faith of the whole Church, and the express words of
the New Testament, is a prediction of our Lord's super-
natural birth, and announces the lasting continuance of his
kingdom. The negative theology rejects this interpretation
altogether. The phrase, Mighty God, it assures us, may
only mean "strong and mighty one, father of an age." It
" can never listen to one any who pretends that the maiden's
child was not to be born, in the days of Ahaz, as a sign
against the kings of Pekah and Rezin." In other words,
the prophecy could only be read aright with the back
turned upon the bright future, and the hope of the seed
of the woman, who had been promised from the days of
Paradise. The Jews were to fix their thoughts entirely on
their trouble at the moment from the confederate kings;
and the whole drift of the Divine message was a promise
that they would soon have access to the pasturages from
which they were then shut off by the siege, and would be
able to indulge their infant children once more with curds
and honey!

Now let us turn to the prophecy, and see whether it
lends us no key to its own real meaning. It begins with
a startling offer, made by Grod himself to the people and
their unbelieving king. "The Lord spake again unto
Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God : ask
it either in the depth, or in the hight above." All nature
seems here thrown open to his choice; as if no token of
God's power, however wonderful, would be withheld in this
hour of temptation, if it were needed to confirm his faith
in the Divine protection. But the same unbelief, which
made Ahaz tremble before his enemies, led him to reject

180 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the gracious offer, with the vain excuse that it would be
tempting God to obey his own command. The choice of i
sign then reverts from the faithless king to the Lord him-
self, by whom the offer had been made. We must, there-
fore, expect it to be determined, not by the selfish fears of
the wicked Ahaz, but by the grandeur of the Divine coun-
sels of mercy, and in the spirit of that later declaration:
" As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts." With him a thousand years are as one day.
The malice of Pekah and Rezin would be, in his sight, like
dust in the balance, compared with his own thoughts of
mercy to the chosen line of David, and through them to
Israel and the whole race of mankind. "And he said,
Hear ye now, 0 house of David, is it a small thing for
you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? There-
fore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the
virgin conceives and bears a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may
know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good."

The great object of the promised sign is clearly to give
a full 'assurance of God's mercy toward the house of David,
however great its own sin and perverseness, and however
fierce the threats of its enemies. The sign, taken in its
strictest meaning, fulfills this object; especially since it ap-
pears from chap, ix, 6, 7, that this promised child was to
be the heir of David's throne. It implies three things: a
supernatural birth, answering to the first promise of the
seed of the woman; a superhuman character, so that in his
person God would be truly present with his people; and
freedom from human corruption, since, unlike all other
children, Immanuel would know from his first infancy to
refuse the evil, and to choose the good.

Such, then, is a double reason in favor of the Christian

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 181

interpretation. It agrees with the nature of the offer which
introduces the prophecy, and with its return, after its rejec-
tion by Ahaz, to him who gave it. It supposes the sign to
have been truly what the offer implied, "in the depth and
in the hight above;" and it also ascribes to the terms of
the promise their strictest, fullest, and most expressive sig-
nificance.

Again, the whole force of the sign, on the opposite view,
depends on the immediate birth of the child before Rezin
and Pekah's overthrow. It would have no force till the
actual birth, and its value would cease as soon as Damas-
cus was taken by the Assyrians. It would be simply an
ephemeral sign of a momentary respite, in the prospect of
heavier and more lasting judgments. It would require such
a paraphrase as this: "A child shall be born, in the course
of nature, within a year, to Ahaz or Isaiah; and before it
is three or four years of age, it will be possrble for it to be
fed on curds and honey, because these enemies will have
been overthrown, and the pastures be accessible once more."
Now, it is plain that, on this view, the sign really precedes
the event as little as in the Christian interpretation, at least
in its most essential feature. For the natural birth of a
child from human parents is the most commonplace of
events, and, standing alone, has scarcely any character of a
sign whatever; while the circumstance marked as signifi-
cant, the peculiar diet of this child, was not to precede,
but to follow the wished-for deliverance from Ephraim and
Syria.

A third reason for the same view results directly from
the passage — Isaiah vii, 1-4 — where the birth of a child to
the prophet himself is announced for a sign. This son of
Isaiah, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, besides the entire difference
of the two names prophetically given, can not be the same
with Immanuel, for a clear and simple reason, that the

182 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

latter is declared to be the owner of the land — chap, viii,
8 — and the destined occupier of David's throne. Chap, ix,
7. But the birth of the prophet's child evidently fulfilled
every object required for the temporary purpose of being a
pledge that the Syrian overthrow was close at hand. The
birth of a second child, as a mere chronological sign,
would have been a mere superfluity ; and, in fact, Hezekiah,
the immediate heir, was born several years before. It re-
sults, plainly, that the promise of Immanuel had a difler-
ent object, and did not refer to one moment of time, but to
the whole series of troubles which were coming on the
house of David, from mightier foes than Rezin or Rem-
aliah's son.

Again, on the naturalist view, the birth of Immanuel is
simply a pledge of Rezin's speedy overthrow, and is sub-
ordinate in its importance to that deliverance of Judah anu
of King Ahaz, which must constitute the main scope of the
prophecy. But the whole passage, when compared to-
gether, points to an exactly-opposite conclusion. This
overthrow of Rezin is there made simply the preface to a
long series of heavier troubles from the kings of Assyria,
by which Israel and Judah alike would be brought to
comparative desolation. But the promise of the child Im-
manuel takes the lead of the whole prophecy. It appears
in the middle of it as the stay in the hight of the Assyrian
conquests of desolations, and breaks out once more at the
close as a full message of everlasting consolation : -^ He
shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and pass over,
he shall reach even to the neck ; and the stretching forth
of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, 0 Imman-
uel. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught;
speak the word, and it shall not stand, for Immanuel. . . .
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and
the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 183

shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Evcrlastincj Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase
of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon
the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it,
and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from
henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
will perform this."

Even those words of chap, vii, 16, which form the strong-
hold of the naturalist interpretation, and which have led
many Christian writers to admit a double fulfillment in a
child of Isaiah or Ahaz, as well as in Messiah, will be
found, I believe, on closer examination, to lend no real
support to this view. The mention of " butter (or curds)
and honey" as the food of the infant Immanuel, is the
link by which alone his birth is here connected, in time,
with the overthrow of Kezin. "For before the child shall
know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land thou
abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings." But the
passage does not terminate here ; nor would the connection
be at all clear unless we read the verses that follow. Now,
these predict, along with, and after ^ the overthrow of Rezin,
an Assyrian and Egyptian invasion, extending to Judah as
well as Samaria. One result of these would be the general
use of a diet of "butter and honey" from the desolation of
the country. "In that day a man shall nourish a cow and
two young sheep ; and for the abundance of milk that they
shall give he shall eat butter (or curds ;) for butter and
honey shall every one eat that is left in the land." These
desolations were to extend to Ahaz himself, his people, and
his father's house. Verse 17. And thus the real drift of
the prediction must be, that before the promised Immanuel
was of age to refuse the evil and to choose the good, not only
would Rezin have been overthrown, but the land of Judah
itself have been desolated by the Assyrian armies. Thus

184 THE BIBLB AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the sole argument in favor of the lower and temporary
view of the prediction, when closely examined, disi^ppears,
and lends a further presumption to the nobler application
to our Lord himself, the Son of the Virgin, the true Mes-
siah, and the long-promised Heir of David's throne.

II. The later prophecies of Isaiah — chapters xl-lxvi —
are another main object of assault to those modern critics
who labor to dispense with all supernatural prediction. It
is asserted boldly that they were not written by Isaiah
himself, but nearly two centuries later, in the time of Ze-
rubbabel, and are much rather a history of the present than
prophecies of a distant future. The treatment of them in
this spirit, so as to establish these conclusions, has been
called the most brilliant portion of Baron Bunsen's pro-
phetical essays. In this he only succeeds, it is said, to an
inheritance of opinion derived from Gesenius, Ewald, Mau-
rer, and earlier and later authorities in Hebrew criticism,
to dispute whose decisions would be reckoned, in Germany,
a suicidal and ridiculous folly.

In Germany itself, however, these views have by no
means met with such a blind submission. On the contrary,
there are critics of no inferior ability who have seen and
proclaimed the hollow nature of the unbelieving assumption
on which they rest. Thus, Keil remarks upon Ewald's
treatment of Joshua, and the words apply equally to this
portion of Isaiah : " In this dissection the only principle
which guides him is the old rationalistic doctrine, that a
supernatural revelation, accompanied by miracle and proph-
ecies, is neither a fact nor a possibility; and that the
theocratic view of Israelitish history is altogether a crea-
tion of poetic myths. . . . This foregone conclusion
of common rationalism is both the chief assumption and
the decisive rule in the determination of the original
sources. The different passages are said to date from the

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 185

periods to which, in his opinion, the predictions contained
in them refer, since the prophecies are nothing but the
vailed poetic method of picturing present events, or, at
most, forebodings of future occurrences already involved in
the present. Actual predictions do not exist. The entire
theory is, therefore, built upon the sand. It has not the
slightCvSt objective truth in it, and does not admit of exam-
ination in detail, as it is not founded on any scientific prin-
ciple."

Let us now examine the direct proofs of authenticity in
these later chapters of Isaiah, and the nature of those
critical objections which have been urged to set it aside.

1. First, the whole book has been received by the Jews,
so far as evidence remains, from the very date of its publi-
cation as the genuine work of Isaiah. The inscription
alone is a public testimony to the fact, and no trace of a
contrary opinion can be found among them. The writer
of Ecclesiasticus, also, in the second century before Christ,
alludes distinctly to these later prophecies, and refers them
without hesitation to Isaiah as their author.

2. The book of Ezra supplies a still stronger proof. It
begins with a decree of Cyrus : "He made proclan>ation
through all his kingdom, and put it in writing. Thus
saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven
hath given me all the^iingdoms of the earth, and he hath
charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is
in Judah." There is here a distinct reference to Isa. xliv,
28 : " That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall
perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou
shalt be built; and to the Temple, Thy foundation shall
be laid."

This explanation of the decree is not only plain in itself,

but confirmed by the statement of Josephus, which proves

that it was the current tradition of the Jews in the first cen-

16

186 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

tury. "These things," he observes, "Cyrus knew througl
reading the book which Isaiah left of his own prophecies
two hundred and ten years before. For he reported the
message of G-od : ' I have chosen Cyrus, whom I have
made king of many and great nations, to send my people
into their own land, and to build my Temple.' These
things Isaiah predicted a hundred and forty years before
the Temple was destroyed. When Cyrus had read these
words he wondered at the Divine message, and a certain
impulse and ambition seized him to do what was written."
3. Our Lord and his apostles bear witness to the same
truth. There are about fifty-four quotations from Isaiah
in the New Testament, and nineteen in which he is men-
tioned by name. Thirty-three of them are from these later
chapters of which the authenticity has been denied, and
they are referred eleven times to Isaiah by name. Thus
Isa. xl, 3, is ascribed to him by John the Baptist and all
the four Evangelists. When our Lord opened his ministry
at Nazareth, "there was given to him the book of Esaias
the prophet." He turned to the sixty-first chapter, read
its opening verses, closed the book and sat down, and then
said,' "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."
This indirect testimony to the passage, as truly part of
Isaiah's writings, and the direct acknowledgment of it as
genuine prophecy, formed the starting-point of our Lord's
Galilean ministry. Again, St. John accounts for the un-
belief of the Jews in our Lord's miracles by referring to
another of these predictions: "That the saying of Esaias
the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake. Lord, who
hath believed our report?" "Therefore they could not
believe, because that Esaias said again," etc. The two
quotations — one from the earlier and one from the later
chapters — are followed by the common statement, "These
things said Esaias when he saw His glory and spake of

THE PROPHECIES OF THE uLD TESTAMENT. 187

Him." The theory, then, which assigns these chapters to
some hiter writer during the exile, is in flagrant contra-
diction to the teaching of our Lord and his apostles.

4. The structure of the work yields decisive interna!
evidence of its unity. Four chapters of simple narrative
separate its two main portions. The book of Isaiah's
prophecies can not be supposed to end with the first of
these, or chapter xxxv; for then it would entirely omit the
most impressive part of his personal history and message
at the time of Hezekiah's sickness, and of the Assyrian
invasion. A final close at chapter xxxix would be still
more unnatural. How lame and impotent a termination
would it be to all the warnings and promises even of
the earlier portion alone — "Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah,
Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken.
He said, moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in
my days."

The book, on the contrary, as it now stands, has an
almost dramatic unity. The earlier portion is grouped, in
all its warnings and promises, around the great fact of the
progressive desolations wrought in Palestine and the border
countries by the kings of Assyria. The later portion has
its basis and prophetical departure in the exile at Babylon
and the deliverance under Cyrus. The ten tribes were to
be utterly desolated by the Assyrian ; but though the waters
of the river, strong and many, would reach in Judah even
to the neck, the adversaries were not to prevail, but to
meet, on the contrary, a decisive overthrow. Under Baby-
lon the two tribes also would be overthrown, and led away
into a long captivity; but when the judgment had thus
reached its hight, the mercies of the Lord would begin to
return to the chosen people.

Now, the four chapters xxxvi-xxxix, exactly fulfill the
purpose of effecting the transition from one of this double

188 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

series of prophecies to the other. They begin with the
invasion of Sennacherib, and describe the weakness ol
Judah, the alarm of the people, the insulting boldness of
the Assyrian invader, and the faith of the pious king.
The message of Isaiah follows, which forms the climax and
culminating point of his personal ministry. Then follows
the brief account of the sudden destruction of the Assyrian
army, and the death of the proud king by parricide, after
his return to Nineveh. The first woe from Assyria has
now passed away, but another begins to dawn in the far
horizon. Merodach-baladan, the king of Babylon, sends
messengers and a present to Hezekiah, to congratulate him
on his recovery. Under an impulse of vanity he shows
them all his choicest treasures; and the prophet is sent to
him at once with the humbling message, that all these
treasures, and his own sons and successors on the throne,
shall be carried away in captivity to Babylon. This new
danger, prophetically announced, now becomes the starting-
point of a new and still more glorious series of predictions.
The former were marked by a tone of warning and judg-
ment, but these are rich, from first to last, with promises
of deliverance and blessing. The intermediate time of
growing trial and distress, the more humbling details of
the Captivity, and of the Return itself, are all passed over
in silence. Two themes of hope and joy characterize the
whole: the deliverance under Cyrus in the nearer distance,
or prophetic foreground; and beyond it, the work, the suf-
ferings, and the glory of the promised Immanuel, the true
Israel, the Man of sorrows, the Anointed Prophet and
Intercessor, the lasting inheritor of David's throne.

The book of Isaiah, then, in its actual form, has a syna-
metry of structure which the skeptical hypothesis com-
pletely destroys. The four historical chapters, b} the
nature of their contents, fulfill- the purpose of linking

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 189

together two contrasted series of prophecies. AH the ear-
lier ones converge toward the event narrated, chaps, xxxvi-
xxxviii, the grand catastrophe of the Assyrian overthrow.
All the later ones radiate from the warning to Hezekiah,
chap, xxxix, and compose a treasury of hopes by which
the faithful were to be sustained, through two centuries of
sorrow and fear, till the Return, and through five centuries
more of conflict and delay, till the coming of the promised
Immanuel If we tear away this later portion from the
rest of the book, instead of one consistent whole we have
two broken fragments, equally unnatural and incomplete in
their separate structure.

5. A comparison with the real prophecies of the exile
will yield a further proof of the baseless nature of the
novel theory Only five or six chapters of the book of
Jeremiah are simply prophetic, and all the rest are either
pure history, or abound with historical details. The last
sixteen chapters of Ezekiel are simple prophecy, but the
others, being two-thirds of the whole, have historical dates,
or various particulars of actual history. The same is true
of the books of Daniel and Zechariah. We have no single
instance of a complete prophecy, without mention of the
name of its author, or some statement of the time when he
wrote, or some definite allusions to the actual events of the
times. But these chapters, if not a part of Isaiah, would
be a solitary contrast to this universal law of prophetic
revelation. No name of a writer would be prefixed, no
mention of the place where, or the time when he wrote.
No single detail occurs in them with regard to a single
person among the Jewish exiles, no name of one king or
noble of Babylon, or any thing which has the air of histor-
ical narration. The passages which approach the nearest
to this character, are not only prophetical in tone and style,
with a const wat use or intermixture of the future tense,

190 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT

but are joined with distinct assertions that they are the
words of that God who "declareth the end from the begin-
ning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet
done." With such a concurrence of external and internal
evidence for their authenticity, as the best and noblest por-
tion of Isaiah's prophecies, it seems impossible to account
for the acceptance of an opposite view, but from a spirit of
settled unbelief in the possibility of supernatural revelation
6. The special reasons alleged for this view are either of
no force, or else prove exactly the reverse. First, in chap.
xlvi, 1, "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth;" the present
tense is used, as it is very frequently in most prophecies.
But the inference that the events were passing at the time
is both inconsistent with the supposed date, before the close
of the exile, and with the words which immediately follow,
verses 10, 11, which teach us to read in this clear predic-
tion a proof of the Divine foreknowledge. Again, in chap,
xlviii, 20, "Gro ye forth from Babylon," the appeal is no
less unfortunate. For the same chapter supplies this dis-
tinct explanation : " Because I knew that thou art obstinate,
and thy neck an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have
even from the beginning declared it unto thee, before it
came to pass I showed it thee." The argument from the
presence of a few Chaldee forms or phrases is only a cu-
rious illustration of the perversity of these skeptical criti-
cisms. For the book of Daniel, when viewed as genuine,
was written by Daniel, a Jewish exile, dwelling in Chaldee;
and accordingly one half of the book is Chaldee, and the
rest is Hebrew. The negative critics, however, stoutly deny
its authenticity, and ascribe it to some Jew of Palestine, in
the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, when neither Chaldee
nor Hebrew, but a Syriac, distinct from both, was the usual
language. On the other hand, these chapters of Isaiah,
which are Hebrew throughout, and where not a single verse

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 191

is Chaldee, as in Jeremiah, are referred to a Jew toward
the close of the time of the exile, wlieu the displacement
of Hebrew by Cbaldee would probably have reached its?
hight. One of the very few words oo which the argument
is based, also, is sagan for prince in the verse, " I have
raised one from the north, and he shall come; from the
rising of the sun he shall call upon my name, and he shall
come upon princes as upon mortar, as the potter treadeth
clay." Now, certainly, the sixty years which had passed
from the first Assyrian invasions to the fifteenth of Heze-
kiah — since the Chaldeans were included among the de-
pendencies of Nineveh — were an interval quite long enough
for the prophet and the Israelites to have learned the Chal-
dean names for their princes; and it would be only natural
and significant to make use of it in a prediction of their
overthrow by the Persian conqueror. Hezekiah, besides,
had received an honorable embassy from the King of Baby-
lon, and it is most probable that one or more sagans might
have been the messengers; so that nothing can well be
more ridiculous than to found an argument on this solitary
word for lowering the time of the prophecy two hundred
years.

7. It is needless to dwell, in detail, on the violent
and even monstrous glosses which have accompanied this
hypothesis; and which are necessary — even when its date
has been lowered to the time of Zerubbabel, in defiance of
all testimony and all internal evidence — to purify it com-
pletely from the character of a Divine and supernatural
prophecy. Such is that brilliant discovery that Isaiah liii
is no prophecy, but a historical sketch of the life of the
prophet Jeremiah. After nine distinct and explicit appli-
cations of clauses of this prophecy to Christ in the New
Testament, including the discourse of Philip to the eunuch
under the express teaching of the Spirit, when he "began

192 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

at the same Scripture and preached to him Jesus," and the
words, still more weighty, if possible, of our Lord himself;
"I say unto you that this which is written must yet be
accomplished in me: and he was numbered with the trans-
gressors, for even the things that concern me must be
fulfilled" — the acceptance of such a view by any one who
calls himself a Christian can hardly be explained, unless
by another passage of the same prophet: "Stay yourselves
and wonder : they are drunken, but not with wine ; they
stagger, but not with strong drink; for the Lord hath
poured out upon them the spirit of deep sleep, and hath
closed your eyes; the prophets and rulers, the seers hath
he covered, and the vision of all is become as the words
of a book that is sealed." Truths, which are plain as
the daylight to simple and honest hearts, become wrapped
in mist and darkness when the pride of fancied learning
usurps the place of lowly reverence for the oracles of the
living Grod.

III. The prophecies of Daniel are another object of de-
termined hostility to the negative critics of modern times.
In fact, a belief in their genuineness is fatal at once to
their whole theory. The unusual fullness and clearness of
the predictions in chapters viii and xi forces us to accept
the alternative that they are either due to the Divine fore-
knowledge, or else forged prophecies, written after the
vents which they pretend to foretell. Accordingly, the
latter view is adopted by Celsus and Porphyry, the open
adversaries of the Gospel in early times, and by all those
critics in our own days who strive to reconcile the name of
Christian with a rejection of all the most essential features
of the Christian revelation.

Now, here it is well to remember, at the outset, the real
nature of the question at issue between unbelieving criti-
cism and Christian faith, and which it is sought to disguise

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 193

by smooth and flattering words where real compromise is
impossible. We have been told, for example, that although
the writer lived after the events, and only borrowed the
name of the true Daniel, he was a "patriot bard," who
used it with no deceptive intention, as a dramatic form,
to encourage his countrymen in their struggle against An-
tiochus. But this hypothesis, on the face of it, is incredible
and absurd. If ever there were a history which clearly
and undeniably was meant to be received as real, it is
these chapters of Daniel. If ever there were prophecies
which, if not real prophecies, are a series of blasphemous
profanations of the name of Grod, it is these visions. The
real meaning, then, of the hypothesis is this, and can be
nothing else, that the book of Daniel consists of false
and fraudulent history, invented at will by an unprincipled
and profane Jewish forger, to be the vehicle of pretended
prophecies written after the events they seemed to predict;
and where the name of the God of truth and holiness is
profaned in every chapter, and almost in every /erse, to
give greater currency to an infamous lie. It means, also,
that the unknown writer, though our Lord himself has
called him "Daniel the prophet," was really one of the
foremost in the class the apostle describes, who say, "Let
us do evil that good may come; whose damnation is just."
Once accept the premises of these critics, and it is impos-
sible to escape the conclusion that a book more immoral,
more recklessly profane than this book of Daniel has
scarcely been written since the beginning of the world.
The evidence must indeed be strong which would persuade
any pious mind to acquiesce for a moment in so hateful
and hideous a conclusion.

Let us now examine the direct evidence for the authen-
ticity of these prophecies, and the nature of the objections

which have been alleged to prove them spurious.

17

194 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

1. First, the book has been received without opposition
by the Jewish Church and people, from the time when the
canon was finished as the genuine work of Daniel himself.
It rests, therefore, on the same internal evidence on which
the Christian Church, from the beginning, has received
every other book of the Old Testament, the constant and
uniform tradition of the Jewish people, whose jealous care
of their Scriptures has been confirmed by tests of peculiai
severity, both before and after the time of the Gospel.

It has been urged, as some abatement of this testimony,
that Daniel is placed among the Hagiographa, between
Esther and Ezra, and is not numbered with the other
prophets. But it seems a simple explanation that the book
was not only composed out of Palestine, and partly in a
Gentile dialect, but that a considerable part is pure history,
and forms a historical link between the book of Kings
and those of Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah. It is quite easy,
then^ to understand that its place might be fixed with ref-
erence rather to its histories than its prophecies, especially
since two of the last are expressly sealed, and when the
canon was formed their meaning would be still an unopened
mystery. As a history the book forms the natural transi-
tion from the clo,se of Kings or Chronicles to the books of
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; and its association with these
in the canon is, therefore, very simply explained without
the least impeachment of its authority.

2. Next, we have a distinct testimony of Josephus that
the book was extant in the time of Alexander, that one
part of it was read to him when he visited Jerusalem, and
that it was the occasion of public and especial favors being
granted to the Jews. "And when the book of Daniel the
prophet was shown, to him, in which he revealed that some
one of the Greeks would destroy the Persian dominion,
judging that he himself was pointed out, he was rejoined^

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 195

and dismissed the multitude; and summoning them the
next day, bade them ask for what gifts they chose. And
when the high-priest requested that they might use their
national laws, and be free from tribute every seventh year,
he granted the whole. And when they further besought
that he would allow the Jews in Babylonia and Media
to use their own laws, he readily promised to do what they
desired." The appeal is here made to facts which must
have been notorious, of privileges given by Alexander to
the Jews, There could be no stronger testimony to the
full and undoubting conviction of Josephus and the Jews
of his days, that the prophecy of Daniel was in the hands
of Jaddua in the time of Alexander, or nearly two hund-
red years before Antiochus.

3. A testimony still more decisive, by far, in the eyes of
every Christian is that of our Lord himself, as recorded in
the first two Gospels : " But when ye see the abomination
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in
the holy place, (let him that readeth understand,) then let
them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." Soon
after there follow these impressive words : " Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
One of the words of Christ, then, attested by this solemn
sanction from the lips of Him who is the Truth, is the state-
ment that the prophecy in the hands of the disciples,
which they were charged to read with intelligence, and
where the abomination of desolation is repeatedly named,
is truly that of "Daniel the prophet." The theory, then,
broached by those modern critics who would make it a forg-
ery in the days of Antiochus, gives the lie direct to the
Lord of glory, in one of his clearest averments, which is
followed by a most explicit and solemn attestation. It is
hard to understand how those who embrace it can still dare
to call themselves disciples of Christ.

196 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

4. The testimony of the apostle in the Epistle to the
Hebrews is more indirect, but hardly less powerful and
complete. Among the list of the victories of faith in the
worthies of the Old Testament, we find the two particulars,
that they "stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the vio-
lence of fire." The allusion is plainly to the two histories,
Dan. iii and vi. These are placed in the same rank of his-
torical certainty with all the other facts in the brief sum-
mary, and the conclusion is drawn : " These all, having
obtained a good report through faith, received not the prom-
ise: God having provided some better thing for us, that
they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore,
seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us run with patience the race that is set be-
fore us." But if some of these witnesses, and the asserted
triumphs of their faith, are mere inventions of an unscru-
pulous forger, the earnest appeal that follows is robbed en-
tirely of its moral power, and becomes ridiculous and ab-
surd. The truth of the facts is the basis of all the force
and strength in this glowing exhortation to diligence,
fidelity, and patience.

5. The internal evidence from the historical facts alone
is strong and clear. The chronology falls in with the state-
ment of the other Scriptures, and also with the canon of
Ptolemy. The name of Belshazzar, after being looked for in
vain in heathen writers, has now of late been detected in
the deciphered remains of Babylonia, as a joint ruler with
his own father at the time of Babylon's fall. This accounts,
also, as remarked already, for the minute contrast, that
while Joseph was made second ruler in Egypt, Daniel was
only promised by Belshazzar, in the hour of his terror, to
be the third ruler in his kingdom. . The madness of Neb-
uchadnezzar toward the close of his reign is attested by a
fragment of Megasthenes. The supplication of Daniel, in

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLI> TESTAMENT. 197

the first year of Darius tlie Mede, corresponds punctually
with the near approach of the expiration of the seventy
years from Jehoiachin's captivity ; and the earnestness of
his later prayer, with fasting, in the third of Cyrus, equally
corresponds to the crisis in the book of Ezra, when adverse
counsels first interrupted the progress of the work at Jeru-
salem, and brought the Jews into disfavor once more at the
court of Persia. An unprincipled inventor of fables in the
days of Antiochus was little likely to form by accident, or
to produce by artifice, such undesigned coincidences as
these. The mention that Darius was sixty-two years old
when he took the kingdom, while it agrees with all proba-
bility, if he were the uncle of Cyrus, is one of the clearest
signs of a cotemporary and well-informed writer. No other
explanation is possible, except we impute to him a deliber-
ate fraud in order to produce a false impression, and clothe
mere fiction with a mask of historical reality.

6. The language of the book, and the mutual relation
of its histories and its visions, are another proof of its gen-
uineness. The character of the whole, in these respects, is
peculiar and complicated. The first six chapters are his-
torical; the other six are a series of prophetic visions.
The first chapter, three verses of the second, and the last
five are in Hebrew, but the rest, from ii, 4, to vii, 28, is in
Chaldee. Again, the third person is used in the six his-
torical chapters, and the first person in all the rest. Noth-
ing could show more clearly the unity of the whole, and
the claim, throughout, to be the writing of Daniel himself.
If the separation of the languages had coincided with that
of history and prophecy, there might be some excuse for
a hypothesis which would ascribe the two parts to differ-
ent authors. Their interlacing together, where one chapter
of history alone is in Hebrew and one of the four success-
ive visions alone in Chaldee, proves that the whole forms

198 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

one connected work, the parts of wliicli can not be sevtred
But it discovers also a secret relation between the actua?
contents and the languages employed, which marks the
wisdom of an inspired prophet and not the capricious nar-
ration of an unprincipled forger. The history begins in
Hebrew, so as to link itself both in form and substance
with the canonical history at the close of Kings. It
changes to Chaldee as soon as the Chaldeans are introduced
in the dialogue, and continues .in Chaldee throughout the
time of the seventy years' Captivity to its close. The first
vision, also, is in Chaldee; since it does not refer spe-
cifically to Jewish history, but to the series of Glentile
monarchies, and is an enlargement of the vision, already
recorded in Chaldee, which was given to the king Nebu-
chadnezzar. But the other prophecies, since they all refei
to the later history of the Jews, and the time of their
restoration, are in Hebrew only. In all these delicate and
complex relations we have a distinct harmony with the
character and position of the true Daniel, a Hebrew of the
royal stock, but an exile from his childhood, who remained
in Babylon through the whole course of the seventy years.
Instead of these secret harmonies of Divine wisdom, the
skeptical theory offers us the blind chance-medley of a
Jewish forger, who chose, in the times of Antiochus, to
indite his own inventions in the shape of history, and then
to garble real history by turning it into pretended prophecy;
who adopted a false name in two different ways, and con-
structed his forgery in two different languages, both of
them distinct from the vernacular of his own days, and one
of them without precedent in a canonical book of prophecy.
7. The objection from the alleged presence of Greek
words, or late forms of expression, has been abundantly
refuted in Germany itself by scholars of accuracy and
.earning. In fact, our own earlier writers against the deists

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 199

of last century, Samuel and Bishop Chandler, had already
done it with substantial force of reasoning. Hengstenberg
and Havernick, and others, have treated it more fully. It
is enough to observe here that of the two Macedonian
words, symphonia and psanterion, referred to — Essays, p.
76 — as decisive proofs of a late composition, the second is
neither a Macedonian word nor occurs in the book of
Daniel, while the other occurs in two forms, smiiponya and
syponya^ neither of which corresponds exactly with the
Greek word; that only one known instance occurs, in Po-
lybius, where this Greek word is used for a musical instru-
ment; that in the case of a third musical instrument, the
sambuca, equally relied on by earlier opponents of the
authenticity, both Strabo and Athenaeus expressly refer the
instrument itself and its name to an eastern source. Be-
sides, it is highly probable that some intercourse of Greeks
with upper Asia dates from the time even of Sennacherib,
as we may infer from Polyhistor and Abydenus. The
whole objection, once held to be so formidable, after reduc-
ing itself to three names of musical instruments alone, has
at length been abandoned by some of the latest opponents
in Germany as untenable and worthless. On the other
hand, the broad fact, already noticed, of the twofold lan-
guage in which the book is written, agrees perfectly with
the supposition that it is the genuine work of the prophet
Daniel, and with no other view.

8. It has been urged, as a further objection, that the
prophecies are clear and full to the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes, about B. C. 169, and then suddenly cease, or
become vague and ambiguous. No assertion, however,
could be more grossly untrue. There is no pretense what-
ever for making three out of the five prophecies close with
Antiochus; and a comparison with the New Testament will
Drove that we can only accept that view, in a fourth pre-

200 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

diction, by directly contradicting and rejecting the authority
of an inspired apostle. The reference of the fourth part
of the image aud of the fourth beast — chapter vii — to the
Roman Empire is confirmed by an immense preponderance
of external authority and internal evidence; and the con-
trary hypotheses of the negative critics are not only mu-
tually destructive, but each of them is loaded with some
palpable absurdity. Such is the view which makes the
Medes and Persians to be two of the four empires, in
direct opposition to the book itself — chapter viii — where
they form conjointly the Ram, or one empire only; and
that which makes Alexander and his successors two dis-
tinct empires, in equal contradiction to common-sense and
the language of the prophecy. But the prophecy of the
seventy weeks offers a shorter and more distinct proof of
the entire falsehood of this confident assertion. It is quite
impossible, without a critical torture like that of the In-
quisition, to make it agree in any way with the asserted
date under Antiochus ; for, not to insist on the total period,
sixty-two weeks of years are four hundred and thirty-four
years. The earliest decree to rebuild Jerusalem was that
of Cyrus, B. C. 536. Hence, this shortened and imperfect
period, applied to the earliest possible date, would bring
the close to B. C. 102, or nearly seventy years after the
Dedication under the Maccabees, when the persecution of
Epiphanes reached its close.

On the other hand, the Christian application of the
prophecy, in its main outlines, is simple, easy, and con-
sistent. The seventy weeks are broken into three compo
nents of seven, sixty-two, and one single week, or forty-
nine, four hundred and thirty-four, and seven years. The
close of the first is not distinctly defined, but it seems
implied that the street and the wall were to be rebuildca
during its progress. In B. C. 458 was the decree of Artax-

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 201

erxes, whicli formally reconstructed or rebuilt Jerusalem as
a civic corporation, or a provincial metropolis under the
Persian Empire. Witliiu forty-nine years, or before B. C,
409, the book of Nehemiah was complete, the street and
the wall were rebuilt, and the canon of Scripture apparently
closed. Sixty-two weeks from this limit, or four hundred
and thirty-four years — four hundred and eighty-three from
the first decree — bring us to A. D. 26-27; the exact year
and date, it is almost certain, of the Baptist's ministry,
and of those words of our Lord which allude probably to
this very passage: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom
of heaven is at hand : repent and believe the Gospel."
Then follow three and a half years of the Baptist's and
our Lord's ministry till his crucifixion, when Messiah was
cut off", and none were on his side; the confirmation of the
fiew covenant with many disciples ; and, lastly, the pre-
diction repeated and applied by our Lord himself when
Jerusalem was compassed with armies, and the desolating
abomination stood on holy ground, and the city and the
sanctuary were both destroyed. To those skeptical critics
who resist so plain and consistent an application, and strive
to wrest the prediction to the times of Antiochus, the words
of another prophet may well be applied: "We grope for
the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no
eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night." The folly
of this fancied learning, which sets itself boldly against the
clearest authority of Christ and his apostles, and achieves
after all such bare and impotent results, can only deserve
profound commiseration.

The books of the Old Testament, then, from first to last,
contain multiplied and various prophecies, which have been
fulfilled in the person and work of the Lord Jesus, and in
the later spread of his Gospel. The seed of the woman has
been miraculously born, and has begun to bruise the head

202 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of the serpent, by casting down heathen idolatry in the
chief nations of the world, and planting the standard of
the cross victorious upon its ruins. The race of Japheth
have been enlarged, and dwell now in the tents of Shem,
by the reception of the nations of the West into the visible
Church of the God of Israel. The seed of Abraham has
been born, and has begun to be a blessing to all the fam-
ilies of the earth. The true Shiloh has appeared, before
the scepter had departed from Judah; and his later sen-
tence by a Roman governor proved that it had been then
departed or was just passing away. A prophet like Moses
has appeared, rescued in his infancy from the malice of
murderous enemies, and rejected, when he first came to
them, by the very people whom he sought to deliver. The
Virgin has conceived and borne a Son, and his name is
called Immanuel, by the consenting worship of one-fourth
of the world's population. His name is called by these
countless millions, in every Christmas celebration, "Won-
derful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace." He has come in the character
ascribed to him by the same prophet, "a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief." The Jews, his own people,
"hid their faces from him; he was despised and they
esteemed him not." That which was written was strictly
accomplished in him: "He was numbered with the trans-
gressors," for even the sufferings of the Son of God, being
predicted in Holy Scripture, must be fulfilled. Less than
seventy weeks of years elapsed after Artaxerxes's decree of
restoration to Jerusalem, when "Messiah the Prince ap-
peared." He was cut off, none were on his side, but even
his disciples forsook him and fled; and the people of the
Roman prince, within forty years, destroyed the city and
the sanctuary, and their desolation has continued even to
the present day. But the unbelief of the Jews has only

THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 203

confirmed the prophecies, and insured the fulfillment of a
further pi omise made to Messiah in the prospect of their
rebellion. "It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my
servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the
preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the
Grentiles; that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of
the earth." He who can compare the history in the Gos-
pel, and the later progress of Christianity, with the series
of Old-Testament predictions, and still continue blind to
their correspondence, and the proof it supplies of the Chris-
tian revelation, falls under the stern rebuke of that sen-
tence of our Lord himself: "If they hear not Moses and
tne prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one
rose from the dead."

204 THE Bible and modern thought.

CHAPTER IX.

CHRISTIANITY AND WRITTEN REVELATION.

Christian faith consists in an acknowledgment of the
Divine mission of our Lord and his apostles, and an accept-
ance of their testimony to the person and work of Christ,
as the Son of God, and the Savior of the world. The
natural means in our days for attaining this faith is an ac-
ceptance of the Grospels, Acts, and Epistles, as credible and
truthful records of the first rise of the Christian religion.
But a reception of the whole Bible as inspired and author-
itative, is a corollary of Christian faith. It holds the first
place among the subsidiary doctrines of the Gospel. It
does not enter distinctly into the creeds of the early
Church; but still it penetrates the whole range of Chris-
tian literature, and is the chief security for a steady and
firm progress in the knowledge of Divine truth. In the
minds of common Christians it is now so closely united,
both by habitual association and spiritual instinct, with
their faith in the Gospel itself, that they find it hard to
view the two truths as separable. It is chiefly when we
have to deal with unbelievers, or perplexed and doubting
inquirers, that it is needful to distinguish clearly two suc-
cessive stages in the growth of a reasonable faith; which
must rest, first of all, on the person of our Lord, and his
supernatural mission and Divine authority; and will after-
ward embrace the inspiration of the written Word and the
Divine authority of all the Scriptures, both of the Old and
the New Testament.

CHRISTIANITY AND WRITTEN REVELATION. 205

The previous chapters refer to the evidence of Christian-
ity itself, in contrast to that more open infidelity which
rejects the Divine authority of the Lord Jesus. Those
which follow relate to the further truth, assailed by a lax
and semi-infidel school of professed Christianity, that the
Old and New Testaments are, throughout their whole ex-
tent, the words of the Holy Ghost, and authoritative mes-
sages from the God of truth to the children of men. It
seems desirable, then, to ofi'er here a brief outline of the
general course of argument, by which our faith in the Gos-
pel and in the Scriptures is sustained ; since a laborious
effort has lately been made to involve the whole theory of
Christian belief in confusion and darkness.

"Whoever would take the religious literature of the
present day as a whole, and endeavor to make out clearly
on what basis revelation is supposed by it to rest, whether
on authority, on the inward light, on reason, on self-evi-
dencing Scripture, or on the combination of the four, or of
some of them, and in what proportions, would probably
find that he had undertaken a perplexing but not altogether
profitless inquiry."* Such is the contribution to the guid-
ance of young and unsettled minds, which forms the close
of nearly eighty pages of disquisition on the "Tendencies
of Religious Thought in England," and of a review of the
whole series of English works on the evidences of Chris-
tianity. But if all past arguments by the ablest men, on
behalf of Christianity, are inconsistent and almost worthless
by the admission of clergymen and Christian divines them-
selves, the skeptic may well conceive that his cause is
gained, and that the Gospel of Christ is worn-out and
effete in the view of its own ofl&cial guardians. The idea,
also, of sending young students to the religious literature

* Essay vi, p. 329.

206 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of the present day, "as a whole," in order to solve i /
themselves a difficult problem of theology, which their
teachers seem to abandon in despair, is much the same as
it would have been, at the beginning, to recommend a dip
into chaos in order to guess out the nature of the coming
world.

A healthy eye is required for perfect vision. But it is
not needful, happily, to know whether our sight depends on
the cornea or the crystalline lens, on the aqueous or the
vitreous humor, or "on a combination of the four, or of
some of them, and in what order and proportion," before
we can discern and rejoice in the presence of a beloved
friend. A humble heart and a healthy conscience will lead
the most unlettered Christian to a firm belief in the Gospel,
and in the truth of the sacred Scriptures, though he may
never have cared to settle what share each kind of evidence
may have had in this result. Such inquiries may be ob-
jects of lawful curiosity to spiritual anatomists; and when
humbly and cautiously pursued, like the dissection of the
natural eye, may enrich our Christian theology with deeper
views of the Divine wisdom ; but they leave the actual
processes of spiritual vision wholly unaltered. The simplest
cottager and the most subtile metaphysician stand here on
the same level ; and those who are quite unable to describe
the steps of the mental process, may be able to discern
with fullest certainty "the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ."

The steps by which the early disciples were led to Chris-
tian faith stand out before us in clear and full relief in the
New Testament. The miracles of our Lord and his apos-
tles made a first and simple appeal to their senses and to
their hearts. The most thoughtless who witnessed them
were arrested by the sight ; and all who were not withheld
by strong Jt wish prejudice, or the debasing power of idol

CHRISTIANITY AND WRITTEN REVELATION. 207

atry, owned at once the finger of God, and tlie autliority
of his chosen messengers. But where strong Jewish preju-
dices had to be overcome, the next appeal was to the word
of prophecy. The apostles reasoned with their Jewish ad-
versaries out of their own Scriptures, "opening and alleging
that it was needful that the Christ should suffer, and should
rise again from the dead, and that this Jesus" whom they
preached "was indeed the Christ." There was thus a
striking example of what has been aptly termed in physical
science, "the Consilience of Inductions." The results sepa-
rately derived from the occurrence of many miraculous
signs, and from the plain fulfillmeut of many predictions,
in which the prophets had announced a despised, rejected,
and suffering Messiah, led to the same conclusion — that
Jesus of Nazareth, though rejected and despised by his
own countrymen, was truly the Christ of God. This truth
was further established to the early believeis by miraculous
gifts which many of them received, by their own joyful ex-
perience of the pardoning love of God in Christ, by their
consciousness of the sanctifying power of the Gospel in
their own hearts, and by the abundant fruits of it which
they witnessed daily in the lives of their fellow-believers.
This order,, so clear in the case of the first disciples, is
varied a little, and only a little, in the case of modern dis-
ciples, born amidst the institutions and traditions of a
Christian land, who have the Bible placed in their hands
from childhood as the Word of God. First of all, they
receive the Scriptures with a human faith, on the authority
of parents and teachers, and of an almost unanimous assent
of good and wise men, whose conversation and writings are
like an atmosphere of Christian thought that surrounds
them on every side. "When they read the New Testament
they find in every page the signs of its general truth and
credibility. They are thus brought at once face to face

208 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

within view of the same double evidence of miracles and
prophecy, which compelled the faith of the early disciples.
The miracles of our Lord and his apostles stand revealed to
them with full historical proofs of their reality ; and the
agreement between Jewish prophecies and the life and
death of Christ is no less clear than when appealed to by
the apostles themselves in the synagogues of Palestine and
of the Roman world. Distance of time, in the case of the
miracles, may have made the impression less vivid, but can
not affect the substantial force of the argument. But there
are further confirmations of the Gospel, not shared in
those early days, from the fulfilled prophecies of the New
Testament, in the spread and permanence of the Gospel,
the overthrow and ruin of the Temple, and the long-lasting
desolation and dispersion of the Jewish people.

When once the truth of Christ has been practically
embraced still fuller evidence dawns upon the heart of
believers. They feel the power and comfort of its gracious
promises. Their conscience, taught by the Spirit of God,
responds with delight to the beauty of its Divine morality.
They perceive with growing clearness the harmony of its
doctrines, both with the wants of man and with the attri-
butes of God. And thus their experience, while they sub-
mit with reverence and humility to the Divine messages,
illustrates the truth of their Lord's promise: "To him that
hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundance;"
while borderers and theological triflers, who keep the truth
at arm's length from their own conscience, for subtile and
curious speculation alone, fall too often under the edge of
the solemn warning: "From him that hath not, even thai
he hath shall be taken away."

There may be a stage, however, in the course of serious
and thoughtful inquirers, in which their faith in the Gospel
itself is unshaken, but their traditional trust in the Bible

CHRISTIANITY AND WRITTEN REVELATION. 209

is sorely tried, and in some measure gives way. With
growing thought and knowledge, difficulties once overlookeci
start out into sudden relief, and may seem for a time to be
unsurmountable. They have been accustomed from child-
hood to hear the Bible spoken of as one book — the Word
of God. They examine it more closely, with the help of
classical knowledge since acquired, and see that it consists
of many works, in two different languages, written by many
different writers at remote periods of time ; and bears traces
in every part of its human authorship — in language, gram-
mar, idiom, style, historical features, and even in some
cases in its doctrinal tone. They have been accustomed,
again, to hear it defined by entire freedom from all error.
But they find that errors of translation, errors of trans-
cription, and readings probably defective, though compara-
tively slight in amount, are admitted almost universally by
well-informed scholars to exist within its pages; so that
the ideal perfection once ascribed to it seems to disappear.
They find numbers, here and there, which seem plainly to
need emendation ; and details which appears more or less con-
tradictory in different accounts of the same event. Quota-
tions from the Old Testament in the New do not seem
always strictly to correspond, even in words ; and the mean-
ing assigned, in some cases, does not appear, on the first
glance, to be the natural and genuine interpretation.
Again, large portions in some of the books of the Old Test-
ament seem to be useless details, that bear no stamp of
Divinity, and are difficult to reconcile with the theory of a
direct, miraculous, and aW-perfect inspiration. These per-
plexities, and a few others of the same kind, when they
first dawn upon the young Christian student, without de-
stroying or, perhaps, sensibly weakening his faith in the
Gospel itself, may easily induce him to imitate the Alex-
andrian mariners, when they cast out the wheat into the

18

210 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

sea with their own hands, to lessen or avert the danger ol
total shipwreck. The plenary inspiration of the Scriptures
may then be regarded as a superstitious accessory, a need-
less incumbrance of the Christian faith, which, in an hour
of peril, out of love to that faith itself, it may be needful
to sacrifice and cast away.

A looser faith in the inspiration of the whole Bible,
when it arises from such causes, ought not to be confounded
with a settled spirit of unbelief. It may be only like froth
and scum on the surface in a process of fermentation, by
which a passive and merely-traditional belief is passing into
a more powerful, active, and living faith, the new wine of
the kingdom of God. Men may profess to believe the
whole Bible without an effort, when they have never appro-
priated or applied one single truth. But when some doc-
trines, or some books, begin to live intensely in their
hearts, others may seem, by contrast, to be like dead
branches, which it would be a gain, rather than a loss, to
prune away.

Faith in Christianity, and a belief in the inspiration of
the whole Bible, may either be confounded together and
identified, or too widely dissevered. One error involves
some degree of superstition; the other produces a dim and
misty faith, with some tendency to a dangerous rejection
of the truth of God.

The words of Christ in the Gospels, the facts of his
death and resurrection, and the great truths and doctrines
derived from them, might have been transmitted by oral
tradition alone, or by honest Vriters under no especial
guidance and control of the Spirit of God. The truth, in
this case, would have been earlier and more largely min-
gled with partial error. It must have been liable, in a few
generations, to a more rapid degeneracy and corruption, and
the means of later reformation and recovery would be

CHRISTIANITY AND WRITTEN REVELATION. 211

almost wholly removed. Still, facts have shown that even
the presence of inspired writings has been no full safe-
guard, either to Jews or Christians, against the entrance
of wide and mischievous corruptions of the faith. They
simply exclude one inlet of error, but many others still re-
main. Humble and earnest hearts, in all ages of the
Church, have often found the way of salvation by oral
teaching alone ; and those discourses of Christ, or words
of his apostles, which have formed the chief nourishment
of Christian faith and piety, might plainly have been re-
corded and preserved by honest witnesses, even though the
rest of the works in which they were preserved bore many
traces of infirmity and error.

The relation between the writings of the New Testament
and the Gospel they reveal resembles closely that of the
apostles to the Lord who sent them forth. All of them
bore the stamp of his authority and commission. Two or
three of them are rather prominent in the course of the
history ; but of the greater part little more is recorded
than their names alone. All seem to delight to vail them-
selves in obscurity, that the name of their Lord and Mas-
ter may stand out in fuller relief.

Now, the same remark applies to the separate books of
the New Testament. All are full of one great subject —
Jesus Christ ; but they speak almost nothing of themselves
and of each other. The three earlier Gospels were all com-
posed before many of the Epistles, and yet these contain
only two or three allusions to one of them only. No men-
tion is made of the name of their authors, and there is no
quotation from any of them, except one very brief clause.
St. Paul himself, in his last Epistle, gives no list of those
he had previously written, which were to be included in the
canon. The four other apostles give no list of the written
Gospels. Only one clear allusion occurs in their letters

212 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

even tc S/. Paul's Epistles, where St. Peter gives a highly
important testimony to these writings of his brother apos-
tle, and places them in the same rank with the earlier
Scriptures, hut supplies us with no catalogue of their
names. 2 Pet. iii, 16. Thus the New Testament contains
no hint that a correct knowledge of the limits of its own
canon, without excess or defect, was a leading essential' of
the Christian faith. Such an article . could not enter the
creed while the canon was still unfinished, and has not
been added in later times. Even the warning at the close
of the Apocalypse — Rev. xxii, 18, 19 — while it enforces
the guilt and danger of willfully corrupting the Word of
God, either by subtraction or addition, directly applies to
that book alone ; and it is accompanied by no list of the
completed canon, so as to enrol this knowledge among the
essentials of Christian faith. On the contrary, every Church
was left to acquire it, slowly and gradually, by receiving
those books or epistles which were proved to be written
by apostles, or had received distinct, apostolic attestation;
and the actual canon had its birth out of the agreement of
these results in diiferent Churches. An error on this point
would simply leave the Christian with a less pure or less
complete medium for acquiring Divine knowledge, but
would not affect the main outline of the facts of the Gos-
pel, or the grand and essential doctrines of Christianity.

Again, the inspiration and authority of the Bible are
not synonymous with entire freedom from the intrusion of
the slightest error. We can not conceive, indeed, that mes-
sages from the God of truth should contain the least error,
flaw, or contradiction, at the moment when they issue from
their heavenly Source, and before their actual transmission
to mankind. It seems the simplest view, therefore, to as-
Bcribe absolute perfection and freedom from error to each
autograph, as it proceeded at first from its inspired pen-

CHRISTIANITY AND WRITTEN REVELATION. 213

man and this simplest view may be the truest also. Bui
it is unwise to place the essence of the doctrine in a cir-
cumstance which is no where distinctly revealed, and which
does not apply to the chief practical difficulty ; for the au-
tographs of the Bible have never existed together: the
earliest had doubtless perished long before the later ones
were written. A Bible, then, gifted with this ideal and
mathematical perfection, has never been in the hands of a
single human being. The Bible, which alone has been ac-
cessible to the great body of the Church from the earliest
times till now, is, either in whole or in part, a translation
from copies of the first originals ; and possible and even
actual errors, both of copyists and translators, must be al-
lowed to exist in its pages. The narrow limits of such
mistakes is, practically, of the highest importance ; but
questions of degree disappear, and one slight or solitary
:K)rruption of the text becomes as fatal as the most exten-
sive or the most numerous, when once we define Bible in-
spiration by the negative character of entire freedom from
all error.

The only true and safe definition of Bible inspiration
must be of a positive kind. These books were written by
accredited messengers of Grod, for a special purpose, in
order to be a standing record of Divine truth for the use
of mankind. They are thus stamped throughout with a
Divine authority ; and this authority belongs to every part,
even in that form in which the message reaches every one
of us, till clear reasons can be shown for excepting any
portion from the high sanction which belongs naturally to
the whole. There are two ways in which such an excep-
tion may arise. It may be shown by historical evidence
that such a verse, or clause, or construction, is due to
wrong translation, or a defective reading, and is disproved
Dj exact criticism, or by earlier or more numerous manu

214 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

scripts ; or else, the mere fact of a discrepancy may prove
in itself the presence of a slight error, though we may he
unable to point out, historically, when or how it first en-
tered into the text. Such flaws, however, few in number,
and chiefly in numerical readings or lists of names, can
not aflfect, in the least, the direct evidence which affixes a
Divine sanction to all the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments. But when errors are asserted to exist which
can not be referred, with any show of reason, to changes
due merely to the transmission of the message, as when the
narrative of Genesis i is pronounced to be scientifically
false in every part, or the genealogies of the patriarchs are
affirmed to be a mere disguise of national migrations, then
a blow is aimed at the very root of the authority of the
Scriptures. They are plainly degraded from being faithful
messages of God to the level of erroneous and deceptive
writings of fallible men.

Let us now turn to the other aspect of the inquiry, and
see what are the conclusions we may fairly gather from the
simple fact that God has been pleased to embody his own
messages in a written form.

First of all, there is nothing accidental in the gift of
written revelation. It marks the entrance of a new and re-
markable era in the history of the world. Nearly three
thousand years had passed before we have any proof or
sign that any Divine message was embodied in a permanent
record. But when the chosen people were brought out of
Egypt, the gift of a written law was plainly designed, from
the first, to be one especial feature of the new dispensation.
The old Mosaic economy centered in the revelation of the
Law on Mount Sinai ; and this law was not only proclaimed
miraculously by the voice of God out of the clouds and
thick darkness, but it was miraculously placed on record
by the hand of God himself: ''The tables were the work

CHRISTIANITY AND WRITTEN REVELATION. Ijl6

of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven on
the tables." These tables of stone, engraven a second time
by the finger of the Almighty, were afterward inclosed in
"the ark of testimony" under the mercy-seat, in the most
sacred recess of the tabernacle of God. But the whole se-
ries of Divine laws, enshrined in the facts of sacred history,
was also from the first committed to writing at the com-
mand of God. This is taught in the ordinance of the
Passover, and the later directions concerning it, which im-
ply that a permanent record was to be made for use after
entrance into Canaan. It is implied, again, at the waters
of Marah, and after the gift of the manna; and is dis-
tinctly affirmed at the time of the conflict with Amaiek :
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a me-
morial in the book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua,
for I will utterly put out the name of Amaiek from under
heaven." When the sacred code was complete, just as the
two tables, miraculously graven, were already placed within
the ark, so this book of the Law, the national code of Is-
rael, was given to the Levites, and placed "in the side of
the ark of the covenant of the Lord." Deut. xxxi, 26.
After twenty-five centuries, during which the world has
been without a written revelation, ever since the miracu-
lous gift of the Law in flames of fire on Mount Sinai, and
onward through more than three thousand years to the
present day, such revelations have formed one main feature
in the history of the moral government of mankind.

Now, if we ask the reasons of this great change, thej
seem at once to suggest themselves to a reflective mind..
While laws are very few and simple, and the facts which it
is desired to r^egister are also few, mere oral tradition may
well suffice without any written record. Such a tradition,
in early times, when confined to a small number of par-
ticulars, might be preserved and handed down with greav

216 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

'■-enacity, and even appear doubly sacred to those who were
Hs depositaries, because it was intrusted to the fidelity of
their memory alone. But when facts and laws are multi-
plied, a written record is necessary, or the truth will rap-
idly be obscured and lost. There are millions who could
remember twenty or thirty lines of verse, but only a few,
here and there, who could recollect and repeat twenty or
thirty thousand. Now, with the lapse of time, those facts
of Divine Providence, which it was desirable to keep be-
fore the minds of men, were continually multiplied ; and,
with the entrance of the legal economy, the great moral
precepts were unfolded into a large variety of personal and
national duties, and increased by a system of typical ordi-
nances and ceremonial commands. These reasons, while
they account for the transition from merely oral to written
revelation, would lead us to infer that this new and higher
mode of revelation, after being once introduced, would
never cease to the end of time. For the facts of Providence
worthy of memorial, and the precepts and promises, the
doctrines and examples, based upon them, must naturally
go on increasing in later generations of mankind.

Revelations from Grod to man, when reduced to writing,
secure plainly a double object. They are more definite
and more permanent. They are less liable to be varied,
and thus gradually corrupted, by erroneous additions; and
they are also less liable to die out and be forgotten. After a
season of decay and apostasy their power may be revived
anew by a fresh appeal to the original documents. Such
was eminently the case with the Jews in the reigns of Je-
hoshaphat and of Josiah, and still more remarkably on
their return from Babylon. It was a feature equally con-
spicuous in the Protestant Reformation. This double pur-
pose is seen in the Divine message, when the Law was re-
peated : " Ye shall not add unto the word which I command

CHRISTIANITY AND WRITTEN REVELATION. 217

you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may
keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I
command you."

Now, it is plain that the first of these two objects, instead
of being secured, would be frustrated and reversed, if these
written messages, from the very first, were loaded and dis-
figured by any sensible incrustation of human error. We
may assume that, if God conveyed his messages through
human agents, all the characteristics of those agents, ex-
cept moral defect and falsehood, would be permitted to ap-
pear in the record, and thus become a further pledge of its
reality and historical truth. But if this condescension were
to extend still further, so as to allow their mistakes and
ignorances, their sins and follies, to stain and disfigure
communications which claimed to be Divine ; then the
means devised to secure the permanence of God's truth
would, so far, exactly reverse its office, and would give
permanence to error and falsehood, under the apparent
sanction of the God of truth. Such a view of the Scrip-
tures is therefore exposed to an objection, on a priori
grounds, which it would require no slight amount of direct
evidence to overcome. A means devised by the wisdom of
God to give permanence, through all later ages, to his own
truth, would be strangely diverted, so as to produce a re-
sult precisely opposite, and stereotype historical misconcep-
tions and religious falsehood.

These reasons, which apply with great force to the first
gift of a Divine revelation in a written form, do not war-
rant any expectation of a series of miracles to preserve its
later transmission from every trace of carelessness and error.
Even where documents are of no special importance, the
usual mistakes, in a single transcription, are comparatively
few ; and the comparison of several copies, at first hand,
will enable us, almost without a shade of doubt, to restore

19

218 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUailT.

the exact original. In the course of many successive copy
ings the risk of error will be slightly increased ; and it
may be impossible, after some lapse of time, to be quite
certain with regard to every letter and word of the original
document. But still, these variations, at the worst, are
of a very limited and subordinate nature. They are like
straws or specks upon the surface of the writing, and
do not penetrate its inner and. vital texture. The same
would be true if the prophet, as a prophet, were secured
from all error ; but, as a simple amanuensis, were left,
like later copyists, to the natural results of his own care
in recording a message felt to be of high and sacred im-
portance.

The case, however, is widely different, if errors are
interwoven into the message itself There is, then, no
means by which it can be eliminated, without tearing
the whole to pieces, and destroying its authority. There
is, also, in this case no assignable limit to the amount
of error which may have entered in. The whole edifice
of revealed religion would only rest upon a quicksand.
No one would be able to say how much was true, how
much was false ; where human corruption reached its
limit, and gave place to the tones of Divine truth and
wisdom. Instead of stooping to the actual ignorance and
blindness of man, to raise him once more into the light
of heaven, such mingled messages would require almost
a superhuman sagacity to discern good from evil, and
light from darkness, even in words apparently sealed with
Grod's own signet. We may, therefore, well apply the
question of Luther to such a view of Scripture and its
inspiration: "Are we not ambiguous and uncertain enough
already, without having our ambiguity and uncertainty
increased to us from heaven?" The great end for which
the messages of God are conveyed to mankind in a writter

CHRISTIANITY AND WRITTEN REVELATION. 219

form, seems of itself to be a pledge of their Divine perfec-
tion, and echoes back to thoughtful Christians the sayings
of their Lord, that "the Scripture can not be broken,"
and that "till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be ful-
filled "

220 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

CHAPTEK X.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

The great change in tlie public relation between God
and man, implied in tbe gift of written revelation, marked
the opening of a new and nobler era in the history of the
world. It was attended with signal displays of the Divine
power in the plagues of Egypt and the thunders of Sinai,
and in great and terrible works of the God of Israel. Re-
vealed religion was now to outgrow the narrow limits of
human memory, and required a firmer and fuller record
than oral tradition alone. The special acts of Divine power
and wisdom in former generations were to be noted down
and faithfully preserved for the instruction of every suc-
ceeding age. The great truths of religion and morality
were to receive a larger development, and to be embodied
in laws, and statutes, and ordinances, which required the
study of a lifetime, rather than the recollection of a mo-
ment, and were to be handed down, in all their width and
fullness, to many generations.

All the circumstances which attended this change were
such as to attest its high importance. The ten command-
ments, the sum and center of the whole legal economy, were
uttered, first, amidst thunder, lightning, smoke, and fire,
from the sacred top of Sinai, by the lips of Jehovah him-
self They were twice miraculously graven on tables of
stone by the finger of God, depo'^ited within the ark of the
covenant, in the most holy place of the tabernacle ; and
again transferred, after five hundred years, to the most

THE INSPIRATION OP THE OLD TESTAMENT. 2*^1

holy place iu the Temple of Solomon. Every reason which
prompted this new form of revelation seems to require us
to believe that the written Word of God, when first be-
stowed on his people, was free from all sensible intermix-
ture of human infirmity, moral imperfection, or historical
falsehood Such, accordingly, is the view of the law of
Moses, which meets us continually in the later writings of
the Old Testament. All their testimonies agree in tone
with the words of the Pwsalmist: "The law of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul : the testimonies of the Lord
are sure, making wise the simple : the statutes of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the
Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes : more to be desired
are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also
than honey, and the honeycomb." "Thy Word is true
from the beginning : every one of thy righteous judgments
endureth forever."

It is needless, however, to multiply quotations from the
Old Testament to prove the high veneration in which the
written law was held by Jewish believers, and by the
prophets who were also commissioned to speak the words
of God to his people. The testimony of our Lord him-
self ought alone to be decisive with every Christian. We
may apply his own words to the Jews with regard to the
authority of Moses and the prophets, and say with truth
of professing Christians, If they believe not Christ and
his apostles in their testimony to the earlier Scriptures,
"neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from
the dead." Let us examine some of the chief passages
in which this decisive evidence is given.

1. The history of our Lord's ministry begins, in two of
the Gospels, with his temptation in the wilderness. The
event, it is plain, unless the narrative were a gross impos-
ture, must either have been personally reported by our Lord

222 THE BIBLE AND MODEllN THOUGHT.

himself to his disciples, or made known by a supernatural
revelation of the Spirit of God. In either case its details
come plainly to us with a Divine sanction, even if the other
parts of the Grospels were uninspired history.

Now, the main feature of this narrative is the signal
honor paid by the Son of God himself to the written Word.
By this sword of the Spirit every onset of the mighty and
subtile tempter is repelled. "It is written," is the one
reply, thrice repeated, which has power to quench in a
moment " all the fiery darts of the wicked one." Even
when Scripture, shortened and garbled, is used in the
temptation, still Scripture is the only reply. The king-
doms of the world and all their glory are weighed by our
Lord and Savior against one single sentence of Scripture,
one word of the law of Moses; and they are only like dust
in the balance in the eyes of Him who was filled with " the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel
and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the
Lord." It is a startling lesson, which fallen sinners are
slow to learn, but which stands out in clear relief in this
wonderful narrative, sealed by the testimony of the Son of
God, that obedience to one sentence of the law of Moses
is a treasure more to be desired than all the riches and
glories nf the outward universe.

2. After the temptation our Lord began his public min-
istry, and soon transferred it from Judea to Galilee, and
from Nazareth to Capernaum, by the Lake of Tiberias.
One main and striking feature of his whole ministry was
its Galilean theater. This gives a tinge and coloring to
almost every later allusion in the book of Acts. " Ye men
of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" "Be-
hold, are not all these which speak Galileans?" "That
word ye know which began from Galilee, after the baptism
which Tohn preached." "He was seen many days of them

THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 223

which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who
are his witnesses unto the people."

What now, by the testimony of the Evangelist, was one
chief motive which led our Savior to transfer his ministry
from Judea to Galilee? A distinct reply is given: "That it
mis:ht be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet,
saying, The land of Zebulon, . . . Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people that sat in darkness saw a great light; and to
them which sat in the region and shadow of death light
is sprung up." The force of the prediction lies in the
simple opposition between the especial scene of sorrow and
desolation in the early stages of the Captivity, and the
first appearance of the light and joy of Messiah's presence.
Still, the link was so real and powerful that to fulfill this
prophecy the Lord of glory forsook Judea, and chose the
shores of the Sea of Galilee for the chief and most favored
scene of all his earthly ministry. A single sentence of the
prophet, being a Divine message, had thus power to impress
its distinctive character on the whole public life of the Son
of God.

3. Our Lord, in the Sermon on the Mount, assumes his
appointed character as the great lawgiver; and, first, near
its opening, he defines his relation to the Scriptures of the
Old Testament in these words: "Think not that I am come
to destroy the law and the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no
wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever,
therefore, shall break one of these least commandments,
and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the
kingdom of heaven ; but whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of
heaven."

Several things require careful notice in this passage.

224 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

And, first, our Lord ratifies the truth and sacredness of the
law of Moses by the same emphatic phrase which he applies
elsewhere to his own weightiest sayings: "Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Sec-
ondly, he extends his full sanction to every "jot and tittle"
of the written law of God. Thirdly, since he addressed a
Jewish audience, there can be no doubt that his hearers
understood by this "law" the whole Pentateuch at least,
or the five books of Moses. Fourthly, the words were
spoken to remove a probable misconception, arising from
a certain perceptible contrast of tone between this law and
our Lord's own sayings. He assures his disciples that
the seeming contrast was no real contradiction. His teach-
ing was an expansion and supplement of that contained in
the law of Moses, but did not abrogate it or set it aside.
Fifthly, the statement seems plainly inconsistent with the
notion that this law, as first given, in one jot or tittle,
contained any real error; or that it had contracted any
error in its actual form which a sincere and humble learner
might not easily separate from the law itself, so as to leave
the latter in its real purity. Sixthly, the prophets are
included, along with the law itself, in a common recog-
nition. The tone of the whole statement, so solemnly made,
is wholly adverse to the theory of an intermittent, mongrel,
and imperfect inspiration, which leaves part of the contents
of the Old Testament to be Divine, and other parts to be
the mistaken words of fallible men.

Toward the close of the discourse a similar allusion re
curs: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you, even so do unto them; for this is the
law and the prophets."

Here the reason given by our Lord for this simple
aphorism of moral duty is deeply instructive. He does
not point out its agreement with instincts of natural equity.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 225

He does not rest it simply on his own Divine authority.
The reason which enforces it is of another kind. It is the
sum of "the Law and the Prophets." It concentrates the
various lessons of social duty, which God had given in such
various forms and portions throughout the range of the Old
Testament. No statement could more plainly imply the
binding authority of the written Word, of the Law and the
Prophets, over the disciples of Christ as true messages from
heaven.

4. The charge is given to the leper, after his cure, "Go
thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that
Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them."

The quotations in the narrative of the temptation are all
from Deuteronomy. But here our Lord refers to the hook
of Leviticus, and to a chapter full of ceremonial details.
He enforces their authority by his own command to the
leper, and, at the same time, gives direct testimony to their
Mosaic authorship. No statement could prove more clearly
that, in the view of our Lord, the Pentateuch was of Divine
origin, and still binding in its precepts on the Jewish people.

Again, in his reply to the Pharisees, he says: "Go and
learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacri-
fice." Here he quotes a brief clause from Hosea, one of
the minor prophets, appeals to it as a message of God, and
ascribes the sin and folly of his opposers to their neglect of
its true meaning,

5. After the message of the Baptist, our Lord speaks to
his disciples as follows:

"But what went ye out to see? A prophet? yea, I say
unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom
it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
who shall prepare thy way before thee .... For all the
prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will
receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come."

226 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

This passage is full of attestations by our Lord to tht
authority of the Old Testament, as composed, from first to
last, of the true sayings of God. First, he quotes from
Malachi, the very latest of the prophets, and affirms that in
the coming of the Baptist one of that prophet's predictions
was fulfilled. Next, he affirms that, in a certain sense,
another prediction of the same prophet about Elias also ap-
plied to the Baptist, and had a fulfillment in him. Thirdly,
he implies that all the prophets were God's messengers, but
that John was honored above them, because of his nearness
to Messiah, who was the great object of hope in all their
messages. Fourthly, he arranges the course of Providence,
not by a reference to worldly empires, but to the series of
these Divine revelations, as if they formed the true key to
all history. First came the Law, then the Prophets, the
sequel of the Law; and, last and greatest of these, the Bap-
tist; then the first days of the kingdom of heaven. The
words imply a series of Divine messengers, completed by
Christ himself, the great Messenger of the Covenant, with
whom a new era of light was to begin. The close of the
chapter alludes to the history, in Genesis, of the overthrow of
Sodom, and bears a solemn testimony to its historical truth.

6. Matt, xii, 3, 7: "Have ye never read what David did
when he was a hungered, and they that were with him? . . .
But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy,
and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guilt-
less."

The appeal is here made to a simple history in the first
book of Samuel; from which, compared with the words of
Hosea, an inference is drawn that the act of his disciples
was quite lawful. But there is also a reference to the law
of Moses with regard to the tabernacle or temple service of
the priests. Thus we have, in this one passage, a threefold
testimony of Christ that the Old-Testament history is trust-

THE INSPIRATION OP TilK OLD TESTAMENT. 227

worthy in its facts, and a Divine record from which moral
inferences may be safely and certainly drawn; that the minor
prophets are inspired Scripture, in which the separate clauses
are the words of God; and that the Law, as a whole, in-
cluding, evidently, the whole Pentateuch, was worthy of full
confidence, so that an appeal might be safely made to its
implied facts, no less than to its direct statements, as a basis
for moral and religious reasoning.

7. In Matt, xiii, 13-17, our Lord explains to his disciples
the reason why he spoke to the multitude in parables, be-
cause of their spiritual blindness and indifference to the
truth. He proceeds to say that the prophecy of Esaias was
fulfilled in them — "By hearing ye shall hear, and not under-
sfand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive." The same
prophecy is afterward applied by St. Paul, at Rome, to the
same unbelief of the Jews, at the very close of the sacred
history, and is there styled the voice of the Holy Ghost.
It is quoted a third time by St. John in the fourth Gospel,
with the same reference. No testimony could be more com-
plete, on the part of our Lord and his two apostles, that the
book of Isaiah contains the words of the Holy Ghost; and
that the prophecy in Isaiah vi is a true prediction of that
Jewish blindness which found its climax in the rejection of
the Gospel during the apostolic age.

8. In Matt, xv, 1-9, we have another testimony to the
Divine authority of the law of Moses, and of the prophecies
of Isaiah. "Why do ye also transgress the commandment
of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying.
Honor thy father and mother: and. He that curseth father
or mother let him die the death." Here the commands in
the Decalogue and in the twentieth of Leviticus are equally
quoted as Divine. A broad moral contrast is also drawn
between the written Word, of which the binding authority is
afiirmed, and those pharisaic traditions which had obscured

228 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

its meanings, and practically destroyed its authority. The
words of Isaiah, chap, xxix, are also quoted as being an
undoubted voice of the Spirit of Grod. But if the Old-Test-
ament Scriptures, in any part, were purely human writings,
and not Divine messages, then our Lord, by his constant ap-
peal to them, without making any distinction between them,
would be guilty of the very sin he condemns so strongly in
the Pharisees, and would be included under his own cen-
sure— "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines
the commandments of men."

9. The history of the Transfiguration, as recorded by St
Mark, offers another explicit testimony of the same kind.
"And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first,
and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son
of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at
naught. But I say unto you that Elias is indeed come, and
they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is
written of him.^^

The exact reference of these last words is not perfectly
clear. But this makes the appeal of our Lord to the writ-
ten Word, not only with reference to his own sufferings, but
those of the Baptist, doubly striking. His deeper wisdom,
when contrasted with the knowledge of his early disciples,
or modern half-disciples, instead of leading him to discern
errors and imperfections in the Old Testament, only revealed
to him in its pages definite predictions of specific events in
distant ages, where only a dim haze might be visible to com-
mon eyes. His own sufferings were all "as it was written,"
and those of his forerunner, who came "in the spirit and
power of Elias," were also "as it was written of him." His
words teach us distinctly to rest upon the truth of Scrip-
ture, and the certainty of its prophetic intimations, even
where we see through a glass dimly, and its meaning by no
means stands out to us in clear and full relief

THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 229

10. The reply to the question of the Pharisees on divorce
Ls of peculiar interest. Our Lord bears witness in it to the
Divine authority of that early part of Genesis which has
h*»en assailed of late by so many unbelieving doubts and
criticisms. "Have ye not read, that he which made them
at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For
this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and cleave
to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh? Wherefore
they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God
hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

Now, here, first of all, the very form of the appeal shows
that what the Pharisees read in their own Scriptures, in
Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, they were bound to
receive as the words of God. "Have ye not read?" This
implies, evidently, whatever you read in those Scriptures
which you habitually receive, you are bound to regard as
Divine truth, and of decisive authority in all moral questions.
Next, our Lord does not fall back on his own authority.
He rests his answer on a decision already given. A single
verse in the second of Genesis, which critical anatomists
would transfer from Moses, the in.spired prophet, to some
unknown pateher-up of ancient documents hundreds of years
later, is, in the view of Christ, a Divine statute, of binding
authority to all mankind. "What therefore God hath joined
together, let no man put asunder." He proceeds to adopt
the statement of the Pharisees, that Moses gave the pre-
cept about the bill of divorcement, and explains that its
nature was simply permissive, and designed to lessen and
restrain evils which had their source in the hardnesa of
their hearts. The design of the law was not to sanction
capricious divorce, but to exclude a further and still more
aggravated sin.

11. The actions and the teachings of our Lord during the
earliei lays of Passion-week abound in evidence of the same

230 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

truth. He sends his disciples for the colt with the message,
"The Lord hath need of him," because it was needful thai
a prediction of Zechariah should be fulfilled. He condemns
the sin of the Jews by a double reference to Isaiah and
Jeremiah: "It is written, My house shall be called a house
of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." He si-
lences their censure of the children by a still more pointed
appeal to the Psalms. "Yea: have ye never read. Out of
the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected
praise?" In his answer to the question about his own au-
thority, he accepts the principle that authority from God
was required in such a message, and implies that John, like
all the prophets, had this authority. After the parable of
the vineyard, he makes his appeal to the written word once
more. "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone
which the builders rejected, the same is become the head
of the corner : this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous
in our eyes?" He then reasons out the consequences of
this Scriptural prophecy in the Psalm, and confirms them
by a reference to two others in Isaiah and Daniel. "And
whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on
whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." The
double allusion to two prophecies respecting Messiah is plain.
"He shall be for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of
offense, to both the houses of Israel: and many among
them shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and snared, and
taken." Isa. viii, 15. "Thou sawest till that a stone was
cut out without hands, which smote the image upon its feet
of iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. Then was the
iron and clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in
pieces together, and became like the chaff of the Summer
thrashing-floors, and the wind carried them away." Dan. ii,
34, 35. We have thus, from the lips of our Lord, in this
one passage, both a confirmation of the authority of three

THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 231

different books of prophecy, and a striking testimony to the
secret unity of Divine wisdom, whicli runs through the whole
range of these various messages of God. One verse in the
Psalms is a Divine key, which expounds the mutual rela-
tions of two distinct warnings — one in Isaiah, to the Jews,
and another in Daniel, to those Gentiles who were long af-
terward to be called in their room.

12. The answers to the Sadducees and to the lawyers are
peculiarly instructive. And, first, our Lord ascribes all the
religious errors of the Sadducees to one source — ignorance
of their own Scriptures. "Ye do err, not knowing the Scrip-
tures, nor the power of God." He appeals to the record in
Exodus, as being truly a Divine message. " Have ye not
read that which was spoken unto you by God?" He infers
confidently the truth of the resurrection of the dead from a
single title of God on the face of the record. "I am the
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
It may be added that the same reply, which put the Saddu-
cees to silence, ought equally, among professing Christians,
to silence and condemn a vast amount of Sadducean criti-
cism about Elohistic and Jehovistic documents ; as if either
Moses were not the author of the Pentateuch, or else the
names of God were introduced by him haphazard, in a
strange mosaic, according to the accidental character of ma-
terials ready-made to his hand.

The reply to the lawyer — Matt, xxii, 40 — is not less in-
structive. " On these two commandments hang all the Law
and the Prophets." Now, these two precepts, in the eye of
sound reascn, are pure, essential, and immutable moral truth.
And yet all the Law and the Prophets, our Lord assures us,
depend upon them. How can falsehood depend upon pure
and eternal truth? or how can imperfect morality be any real
corollary from the great commandments of perfect love?

232 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Again, the question whicli silenced the Pharisees reveals,
in a striking manner, the authority and Divine inspiration
of the Psalms of David. One verse of Psalm ex convicts
them of ignorance respecting the true character of the prom-
ised Messiah. It is a Divine enigma, our Lord indirectly
shows us, of which the only solution is in the great mystery
of the Grospel — the Word made flesh, of the seed of David—
" of whom as concerning the flesh Christ cauie, who is over
all, God blessed forever." Thus, one title of God in the
Law, by our Lord's testimony, is an adequate basis for faith
in the resurrection of all the faithful dead; and another
clause in the Psalms is also a sufficient evidence for that
glorious truth, the Incarnation of the Son of God.

13. The parting discourse against the Pharisees abounds
with proofs of the full authority ascribed by our Lord to
the written Word of God. The scribes and Pharisees, while
sitting in Moses' seat, were to be observed and obeyed, even
while their actions were condemned. Unless the law of
Moses were truly of Divine authority, such an instruction
could never have been given. Their guilt lay in urging its
minuter requirements, and omitting " the weightier matters
of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." Yet our Lord
does not set aside even its least commandments, but confirms
them. " These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the
other undone." They witnessed against themselves that they
were the children of those who had killed the prophets.
The aggravation of their guilt clearly lay in the fact that
the prophets were truly the messengers of God. " Thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto
thee," is the condemning charge against Jerusalem. In the
next chapter the words of Daniel the prophet are quoted as
a Divine prediction, with the caution, "Whoso readeth, let
him understand." The history of the flood of Noah, and
of the general destruction of mankind, is also referred to as

THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 233

a solemn and undoubted reality, a warning for the days of
his own return.

14. The allusions to Scripture during the time of the
Passion arc, if possible, still more impressive. Every step
in the pathway of the Man of sorrows seems here to be
guided by a chart, which he saw clearly laid down for his
own guidance in the Word of God. " Ye know that after
two days is the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed
to be crucified." For he was the true Passover, and the
time of his sufferings must correspond with the typical serv-
ice, which had prefigured them for fifteen hundred years.
His betrayal was to be the fulfillment of an inspired proph-
ecy. "The Son of man goeth, as it is written of him; but
woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed :
it had been good for that man if he had not been born."
The type of the Nazarite was now to be fulfilled in him.
"I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until
the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's king-
dom." The fear and dispersion of his disciples would be
the fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy. "All ye shall be
offended because of me this night; for it is written, I will
smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scat-
tered abroad." The treachery of Judas is referred to the
truth of Scripture as its secret explanation. " None of them
is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might
be fulfilled." Our Lord's patient submission to his enemies
was in reverence to the revealed predictions of the written
Word. "Thinkest thou I can not now pray to my Father,
and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of
angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that
thus it must be?" The Evangelist adds a brief commentary
on the whole course of his betrayal: "All this was done
that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Our
Lord's reply to the high-priest is a quotation from one of

20

254 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Daniel's prophecies. "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of
man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the
clouds of heaven." The indignities he received were the
fulfillment of Isaiah's prediction: "I hid not my face from
shame and spitting." The purchase of the potter's field
with the price of treachery was the fulfillment of another
prophecy. " They parted his garments, casting lots : that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They
parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they
cast lots." The exclamation, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,
was a plain appropriation by our Lord, in the hour of his
agony, of the twenty-second Psalm, as one connected pre-
diction of his sufferings, and of the glory that would follow.

15. The Gospel of St. Luke furnishes many other exam-
ples of this constant appeal to the Scriptures by our Lord,
as an authority without appeal. It will be enough to select
some of the more striking, first before, and then during, the
time of his Passion.

In Luke x, 25, we read that a lawyer stood up and
tempted him, saying, " Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life?" To this weighty inquiry our Lord replies at
once by the question, "What is written in the law, how
readest thou?" The second reply is a confirmation of the
law's authority, and a virtual quotation — " Thou hast an-
swered right: this do, and thou shalt live." In the next
chapter the truth of the history of Jonah is affirmed, and
its typical character is declared. " For as Jonas was a sign
to the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this
generation." The two narratives of the queen of Sheba and
of the Ninevites are both confirmed, and a moral is derived
from each of them. A further testimony follows to the Di-
vine mission of all the prophets of the Old Testament, and a
promise that others would soon be sent forth, gifted with the
like authority. The words of Micah ire presently quoted

THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESIAMENT. 2oO

(Luke xii. 51-53; Micah vii, 6,) as a true prophecy of the
divisions to be occasioned by the Gospel. The prophets
are again referred to, Luke xiii, 27-34, as the chosen mes
sengers of God, and our Lord ranks himself among their
number. "It can not be that a prophet perish out of Jeru-
salem.' In chapter xvi we have the two emphatic declara-
tions: "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than foi
one tittle of the law to fail;" and again, "If they hear not
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead." The short and earnest
caution, "Remember Lot's wife," puts a seal of truth and
inspiration on the histories of Genesis; for it is founded on
a single verse, never alluded to elsewhere in the latei
Scriptures for fifteen hundred years. The address to the
disciples on the approach to Jerusalem is also peculiarly
impressive: "Behold we go up to Jerusalem and all things
that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man
shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered to the
Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and
spitted on, and they shall scourge him ,and put him to
death, and the third day he shall rise again."

16. The words of St. Luke, xxii, 37, deserve especial
notice. "For I say unto you that this which is written
must yet be accomplished in me, and he was numbered
among the transgressors: for even the things concerning me
have their fulfillment, (^xai yap rd mp\ i/xou riXog e/sf.)"

Here our Lord not only applies to himself the words of
Isaiah liii, 12, but gives this prediction the foremost place
among the reasons why he was content to sufier. The
Word of God must not fail. It would fail unless the Mes
siah were reckoned among the transgressors. It might
seem strange and unseemly that the Son of God should
submit to so deep an indignity, but the truth of God's
Word must be maintained at any sacrifice, " for even the

236 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

tilings which relate to me," the promised Messiah, the Son
of God, "have their fulfillment." The incarnate Son ot
Grod himself, by his own testimony, must be subject to the
authority of the written Word, and its announcements of his
own suficrings were laws which even he must obey.

The conversation with the two disciples, after the resurrec-
tion, repeats the same lesson. "0 fools, and slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Were not
these the things it behooved the Christ to suffer, and to
enter into his glory? And beginning from Moses, and from
all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself."

No statement can be more clear and express than that
which our Lord has here made in the first bright dawn of
his resurrection glory. He tells his disciples that Moses
and all the prophets contained predictions of his own suf-
ferings; that it was the dullness of their hearts alone which
hindered them from perceiving their true application; and
that this reference was so real as to create a moral necessity,
beforehand, for the Messiah to suffer the very things which
he himself had suffered. In other words, by refusing to
suffer, and thus to fulfill these inspired predictions, he
would have forfeited his claim to be the true Messiah of
God. The truth of Scripture, in its prophecies, is thus
made the moral basis of the whole work of redemption;
and a refusal to see the reference to our Lord and his deep
humiliation in these predictions of the law and the pioph-
ets, is declared to be a sure proof of folly and blindness
of heart.

The same doctrine forms the substance of his parting
address to his disciples, in the same Gospel, and is rendered
still more striking by its connection with the gift, then be-
stowed upon them, of a clearer and spiritual vision. "And
he said unto them, These are the words which I spake

THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 237

unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must
be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses,
and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me.
Then opened he their understandings, that they might
understand tne Scriptures, and said unto them. Thus it
is written, and thus it behooved the Christ to suffer, and
to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in his name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Here our
Lord gives his sanction to each of the three main divisions
of the Jewish canon, the Law, the Prophets, and the
Hagiographa; affirms that each contained prophecies con-
cerning him, which the Divine veracity made it needful for
him to fulfill; that these predictions included not only hia
sufferings which were now past, but that preaching of
the Grospel which was shortly to begin; and, in short, that
the whole Christian dispensation rests upon a moral and
imperative necessity, that the Word of God in the proph-
ecies of the Old Testament must inevitably be fulfilled.

It is needless to quote in detail the passages to the same
effect in the fourth Gospel — John i, 17, 21-23, 29; (comp.
Gen. xxii, 8;) verse 45; ii, 17, 22; iii, 14, 15; iv,
5; V, 37-39, 45-47; vi, 14, 31-35, 45; vii, 19, 22, 23,
37-39, 40-42; viii, 17, 18, 44, 52; x, 34-36; xii, 14-16,
37^1; XV, 25; xvii, 12; xviii, 4; xix, 24, 28-30, . 35-37 ;
xx, 9 — or the numerous references to the authority of the
Old Testament in the apostolic writings. In the book of
•^(^cts we have ten quotations from the Psalms, five from
Isaiah, and others from Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy,
Joel, Amos, Habakkuk, 1 Kings. In St. Paul, thirty-
seven from the Psalms, fifteen from Genesis, ten from Ex-
odus, one from Numbers, thirteen from Deuteronomy, one
from Joshua, one from 2 Samuel, two from 1 Kings, one
^rom Job, three from Proverbs, twenty-seven from Isaiah,

238 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

three from Jeremiah, from Hosea, and Habakkuk, and one
from Joel, Haggai, and Malachi. In every instance the
appeal to the Scriptures is made by the apostle as to
the sure fountain of heavenly truth. Their titles are,
Scripture, the oracles of Grod, the words of the Holy
Ghost. Both in the Gospels and the Epistles, "It is writ-
ten," is the decision for every doubt; and "Have you not
read in the Scriptures?" is the rebuke for every form of
ignorance and error.

The conclusion which every sincere disciple of Christ
must draw from these sayings of his Lord and Master,
confirmed by those of his apostles, is clear and self-
evident. It is summed up for us in three general declara-
tions of our Lord himself, and two of his chief apostles.
"The Scriptures can not be broken." "All Scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
"Prophecy came not at any time by the will of man, but
holy men of God spake as they were borne along by the
Holy Ghost." The flaws which have been contracted in
the transmission of these messages, we may infer safely
from these multiplied quotations, are so few and slight,
that for every practical purpose they disappear from view.
They may be detected here and there by a strong micro-
scope of minute criticism; but our Lord and his apostles,
in hundreds of quotations, bearing on the most vital points
of doctrine, and on the most weighty facts of Old Testa-
ment history, never find it needful once to allude to their
existence, or to utter one caution against undue confidence
in the Sacred text. No contrast can be more total than
between the unbelieving, flippant criticisms on the Old
Testament, practiced in our days by some learned men,
who still "profess and call themselves Christians," and the
tone of their divine Lord and Master, before whose

THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 239

judgment-seat they will stand, when deep reverence for
their authority led him to renounce all angelic aid in the
hour of his sorest conflict and deepest sorrow. "Thinkest
thou that I can not now pray to my Father, and he will
presently give me more than twelve legions of angels. But
how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus v.
must be 9'

240 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGUT.

CHAPTER XI.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

The Scriptures of the New Testament, from their later
origin, are not capable of receiving that direct proof of
their Divine inspiration and authority from the lips of
Christ himself, which the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms
have received in such ample measure. Since they began to
be composed, several years after the ascension, and the
latest of them were not written till near the death of the
oldest apostle, at the close of the first century, they could
scarcely receive a collective attestation even from the apos-
tles themselves. There is also, in the historical Scriptures
of both Testaments, a remarkable reticence on the part of
the writers, with regard to their own especial claims. The
Lord of the prophets, when on earth, amid the wonder
caused by his miracles, " withdrew into the wilderness."
The sacred historians, in like manner, seem to withdraw
their own personality from our view, and are content to be
simple witnesses of the facts they record; and seldom
reveal their own names, or speak of any special guidance
and direction of the Spirit they might have received. In
the case of the Old Testament histories, this silence is
amply compensated by the full testimony borne to their
authority by our Lord himself But in the parallel case
of the Gospels and the book of Acts, no such com-
pensation could occur. We are thrown, for the proof of
their Divine inspiration, upon the combination of three dif-
ferent kinds of indirect evidence — the analogy of earlier

THE INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 241

Scripture, the promises of Christ, and scattered intimations
in the later books of the New Testament.

I. First, the inspiration and Divine authority of the Old
Testament, established so firmly by the words and actions
of our Lord himself, are a strong and almost irresistible
presumption that the writings of the New Testament have
the same especial character, and share the same authority.
All the reasons which explain the first gift of written reve-
lation at the time of the Exodus, in the growing number
and importance of the facts of God's providence, which
called for lasting memorial, and in the increasing fullness
of the precepts, promises, and doctrines revealed, apply with
equal, or even superior force, to the times of the Gospel.
They form a most weighty presumption, from the precedent
already given, that the facts of the Gospel history, and the
new and higher doctrinal teaching of our Lord and his
apostles, would not be left to chance and human error for
their transmission to later times, but would also be em-
bodied in writings of Divine authority, stamped, like those
of the older covenant, with the signet of Heaven. The
teaching to be preserved was equally complex and vaiious.
The importance of keeping it free from adulteration was at
least as great as in the earlier messages of the Law and the
Prophets. A written revelation was no doubtful innova-
tion, but was now become a kind of standing law of the
providence of God. The higher dignity of Christ com-
pared with Moses, and of the Gospel compared with the
Law, made its careful transmission, pure from human error,
still more plainly expedient and desirable. So that every
reason, drawn from the existence of the Old Testament,
would seem to make it certain that inspired writings, of
similar authority, would be given to embody in a per-
manent form, for the use of later ages, the oral teaching

of Christ and his apostles, and the wonderful truths of the

21

242 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and ascension of the
Son of God.

II. This general reason, from the precedent of the Old
Testament Scriptures, becomes doubly powerful from the
special character of the new dispensation of the Gospel.
The authority of the Law and the Prophets is continually
referred to one cause — that the writers were guided and
actuated by the Spirit of God. Thus we read of Moses:
"I will take of the Spirit that is on thee, and will put it
upon them. . . . And the Lord took of the Spirit that was
upon him, and gave it to the seventy elders; and it came
to pass, when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied,
and did not cease. . . . And Moses said to Joshua, Enviest
thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people
were prophets, and the Lord would put his Spirit upon
them !'* (Ex. xi, 17, 25, 29.) So David, as the sweet psalm-
ist of Israel, describes his own messages: "The Spirit of
the Lord spake by me, and his word was on my tongue."
So, more generally, all the prophetic writings are called
"the words which the Lord of Hosts sent in his Spirit by
the former prophets." (Zech. vii, 12.) One of the most
usual forms of quotation from the Old Testament in the
New, is under the title of "the words," or "utterance," of
"the Holy Ghost."

The gift, then, of written revelation in the Law, the
Prophets, and the Psalms, is distinctly and expressly
referred to the Spirit of God. But the Gospel is eminently
the dispensation of the Spirit. His presence, after our
Lord's ascension, was to be so much more fully manifested,
that by comparison it is said to be vouchsafed for the first
time. "For the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that
Jesus was not yet glorified," John vii, 39. The apostles
were ministers " of the new covenant, not of the letter, but
of the Spirit, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth

THE INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 24S

life." "How shall not the dispensation of the Spirit be
rather glorious?"

Now, since the one main work of the Spirit, even before
the coming of Christ, was the gift to the Jewish Church
of the written revelations in the Law of Moses, the Psalms,
and the Prophets, and a much fuller manifestation of his
presence was distinctly promised under the Gospel, it seems
inconceivable that the writers of the New Testament should
not have enjoyed at least an equal measure of his Divine
teaching and guidance, have been equally preserved from
error, and their messages have an equal claim to be called
-the words of the Holy Ghost." We must else allow that
the new dispensation, while in other respects an advance on
the old, in this most important and vital element, underwent
a strange retrocession, from the Divine to the simply hu-
man, from the teaching of the Spirit to the words of men;
from pure truth, sealed with God's authority, to a mixed
and imperfect record, subject to innumerable doubts, uncer-
tainties, and abatements. This double presumption, though
it rests in part on a priori grounds, and our natural sense
of consistency and harmony in the ways of God, is still so
simple and powerful that very few thoughtful minds can
resist its force, or view it as less than decisive. It does not
help us to decide what books of the New Testament should
be reckoned canonical. But it makes it almost impossible
to resist the conclusion, that some inspired records would
be given under the Gospel, unless we reject the truth of
our Lord's own repeated testimonies to the authority and
inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures. In point of fact,
scarcely an example can be found among Christians of
a full admission of the Divine inspiration of the Ola
Testament, and of a denial that the same character is
shared by the Gospels, and other writings of the New
Testament.

244 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

III. A third presumption may be drawn from tlie same
comparison with the earlier Scriptures, to confirm, not only
the authority of the New Testament writings in the abstract,
but the general outline of our actual canon. For the Old
Testament, both by the Jews in general and by our Lord
himself, is ranked under three divisions — the Law, the
Prophets, and the Psalms. Or, viewing the whole in the
order of time, it consists of a series of histories, forming
three-fifths of the whole; of devotional and didactic books,
belonging chiefly to the later part of the middle period of
the history, and of ]3i"optiecies, growing out of its latest
portions. The histories reach from Creation to the return
from Babylon. The Psalms and Proverbs, the chief books
of the Hagiographa, belong to the reigns of David and
Solomon. The written prophecies range from Isaiah to
Malachi, or in time from Jonah to Nehemiah, through the
latest portion of the history.

Now, the New Testament canon, as it now stands, exhib-
its the same threefold division, and in the same order of time.
We have, first, an historical portion in the Gospels and
Acts, reaching from the incarnation, the beginning of the new
creation of God, to the planting of the Gospel in Rome, the
capital of the Gentile world. We have, secondly, a doctrinal
and practical portion, in the twenty-one Apostolic Epistles,
all of them parallel in time with the later half of the book
of Acts. We have, last of all, one book of prophecy, the
Apocalypse, dating from a little beyond the close of the
Sacred history, but within the limits and on the extreme
verge of the apostolic age. The proportion of the history
to the other portions is also precisely the same in the two
Testaments. This close analogy of structure is a further
presumption, not only that the Gospel has its own inspired
writings, but that these are represented faithfully, with no
serious excess or defect, in the actual canon.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 245

IV. The promises of our Lord to his apostles form a
second branch of evidence, which serves, in a more direct
way, to prove the inspiration and authority of nearly the
whole of the New Testament. Out of the twenty-seven
writings of which it is composed, all, with three important
exceptions, have sufficient and full historical evidence of an
apoijtolic authorship. They are the writings of those
divinely-commissioned messengers of the Gospel, one of
whom has described their credentials in these words:
"Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you,
in all patience, in signs and wonders, and mighty deeds."
They were fully-attested embassadors of the words of Christ.
And this evidence must confirm their written as well as
their spoken messages, and even, if po.ssible, in a higher
measure. For speech is sudden and momentary, and far
more liable to the intrusion of error, through haste or
negligence. But a written message is deliberate; it is open
to revision, if the messenger were conscious of any negli-
gence on his part, any intermission of the guidance of the
Spirit of God, or any failure to abide in the light of his
high commission. St. Barnabas, at least, and perhaps St.
Paul, too, may have erred in feeling or judgment, when the
contention was so sharp between them, and hasty words
may have been spoken on either side; and St. Peter erred
in act, if not in speech also, at Antioch, when his brother
apostle "withstood him to the face, because he was to be
blamed." Gal. ii, 11. Two, if not three, of these chief
apostles, were thus liable to error in act, and probably in
speech, even in practical questions, closely linked with the
due fulfillment of their message. Even in their case the
consent of two or three witnesses, or the absence of protest
or correction from a brother apostle, seems required for the
full assurance that, in special cases, their own infirmities
had not mingled with their oral teaching, and impaired the

24fi THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

practical fulfillment of their great commission. But in
txiese very cases no trace of human weakness appears in
their writings. St. Paul's allusion to Barnabas and Mark
are as full and cordial as if no dissension had ever arisen;
and St. Peter stamps with a title of Divine authority those
very letters of St. Paul, which contain the mention of his
own error, and of the rebuke he had justly received. So
that, while a general promise of Divine guidance would
apply to all the oral teaching of the apostles of Christ, it
must be conceived, from the nature of the case, to be
doubly emphatic and full, when applied to writings delib-
erately composed by them in the fulfillment of their solemn
trust.

Now, the promises of our Lord to the apostles are very
full and strong, both in their first commission, and in its
later renewal at the time of his own death and resurrection.
First, he says to them in allusion to their testimony before
lulers: "It shall be given you in that same hour what ye
shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of
your Father which speaketh in you." It is true that the
promise has direct reference to one kind of special emerg-
ency. But if this guidance of the Spirit was promised so
strongly for a personal and temporary purpose, how much
more must we conceive it to apply to an occasion still more
important, when they were making provision for the last-
ing transmission of their message, and for the guidance and
(fbmfort of the whole Church, in every succeeding age ! At
the close of the same discourse we have the emphatic
words: "He that receiveth you, receiveth me; and he that
receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. He that receiv-
eth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a
prophet's reward." By the use of this title our Lord
places their authority on a level with that of the earlier
prophets. And since these writings are called " the oracles

THE INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 247

of God" and "words of the Holy Grliost," we may infer
that the writings of the apostles, in the fulfillment of their
commission, would claim to be received with the same sub-
mission and reverence by all the true disciples of Christ.
It would not be they who should speak their own words,
but '-the Spirit of their Father would speak in them."
The words at the last supper repeat the same promise, and
include in it the gift of prophetic illumination : " When he,
the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all
truth; for he will not speak from himself, but whatsoever
he shall hear that will he speak, and he will show you
things to come." This solemn declaration that the Spirit
would teach the apostles truth only, because he would not
speak from himself, but by commission from the Father and
the Son, would lose all its practical meaning, if the Spirit
left them in their writings, to "speak from themselves," and
thus to mix an indefinite amount of human error with the
messages of God.

V. The higher rank of the apostles, compared with the
prophets, both of the Old and New Testaments, is a further
evidence of the same truth. The writings of the Old Test-
ament prophets, our Lord himself bears witness, were the
words of the Holy Spirit speaking by their mouths. He
affirms, also, that a greater prophet than the Baptist had
not appeared, and still, he that was "less," or "inferior," in
the kingdom of heaven, would be greater than he. The
natural meaning seems to be, that even those prophets who
held quite a secondary place under the Gospel were really
higher than the Baptist in spiritual honor and dignity. So
we read that "God hath set in the Church, first, apostles,
secondarily, prophets ;" and that Christ gave " some apos-
tles, and some prophets," when he ascended on high, and
received gifts for men. We find in the book of Acts,
Agabus, Judas, Silas, Simeon, Lucius, and probably Stephen,

248 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Philip, and others, companions of the apostles, who belonged
to this second class or order in the Church of Christ. The
higher authority and dignity of the apostles, by whose
hands alone the gifts of the Spirit were conveyed, is implied
in the whole history.

The conclusion from this comparison is simple and clear.
The writings of the prophets of the Old Testament were
under the guidance of the Spirit, and of Divine authority.
Much more must we believe that, under the dispensation of
the Spirit, the same guidance would be vouchsafed to the
apostles in their writings, since they rank still higher than
the others in spiritual dignity and honor. If we receive,
then, as historically true, the statements of our Lord with
regard to the apostolic office, confirmed by the mutual tes-
timony of the apostles themselves, then the inspiration of
the New Testament, three books alone excepted, seems a
clear and unavoidable inference. Accordingly, it seems
that the early Churches were guided mainly by this prin-
ciple in the formation of the canon; since the relation
of Mark to Peter, and of St. Luke to St. Paul, gave their
writings an indirect sanction, equivalent to immediate au-
thorship by one of the apostles.

VL In the historical books the character of simple testi-
mony is most prominent, and a direct assertion by the
writers of their own inspiration might seem out of place.
The direct evidence chiefly applies, then, to the two other
main portions of the New Testament, the Epistles and the
Apocalypse. The apostles, in the Epistles, bear witness to
their own inspiration, along with that of the Evangelists,
and of the Old Testament; while the Apocalypse, besides
claiming Divine authority for itself, puts a parting seal upon
all the prophetic writings of the Word of God.

In the earliest epistle of St. Paul, the first to the Thes-
salonians, he makes this remarkable statement: "For this

THE INSPIRATION OF THE Ni!:\V TESTAMENT. 249

cause thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye re-
ceived the Word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received
it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word
of God, which eflfectually worketh in you that believe."
He enforces his commands to them by the declaration, " He
that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also
given unto us his Holy Spirit." His written and spoken
messages bear the same title, the Word of God. "For this
we say unto you, by the Word of the Lord, that we which
are alive, and remain to the coming of the Lord, shall not
prevent them which are asleep." He adds, at the close, the
sanction of an oath to enforce the public reading of his
message. " I charge you (with an oath) by the Lord, that
this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren." The same
tone of Divine authority runs through the second epistle to
the same Church; and he adds a token at the close, by
which his genuine epistles might be discerned from every
counterfeit that might falsely assume his name. "The sal-
utation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in
every epistle ; so I write." He joins together his oral
teaching when among them, and his former letter, in the
same rank and description, as "not the word of man, but
the Word of God." 1 Thess. ii, 13; 2 Thess. ii, 15.

In the Churches of Galatia his authority had been ques-
tioned by the Judaizing teachers. He is thus led to affirm
it strongly in the opening verse, and indeed through two
whole chapters. The same tone of authority continues
throughout the letter to the close.

In 1 Corinthians we have a distinct appeal to the teach-
ers of that Church, who ranked highest in their spiritual
gifts. "If any man think himself to be a prophet, or
spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write unto
you are the commandment of the Lord." In the Second
Epistle to the same Church he directly compares himself

250 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

with Moses, as one wlao had received like authority, with a
still higher message, styles himself an embassador of Christ,
reminds them that Christ spoke by him, and that both in
his letters and when present he was intrusted with direct
authority from the Lord for the edification of his people.
In Romans he speaks of "the grace given to him that he
should be the minister of Christ to the Gentiles, minister-
ing the Gospel of God," and of the "mighty signs and
wonders," with which, in the fulfillment of the same com-
mission, he had preached the Gospel of Christ. Both at
the opening and close of the letter he associates himself
with the prophets and their writings, as now fulfilling the
like office, and completing and unfolding their earlier mes-
sages, while no less than fifty quotations from Old Testa-
ment Scripture are embodied in this one epistle alone. In
Ephesians he refers them to his own letter as a proof of his
"knowledge of the mystery of Christ, which in other ages
was not made known, as it was now revealed unto his holy
apostles and prophets by the Spirit." He speaks through-
out as God's messenger, filled with the Spirit, and armed
with complete authority to utter precepts, doctrines, and
promises, in the name of the Lord.

The same claim of full authority runs through the Pas-
toral Epistles. The glorious Gospel of the blessed Jesus
was committed to his trust. Hymeneus and Alexander
were delivered unto Satan, that they might learn not to
blaspheme. He was "ordained a preacher and an apostle,
(I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not,) a teacher of the
Gentiles, in faith and verity." In the fulfillment of this
office he gave commands to the men, to the women, to the
bishops and deacons, and to Timothy himself. He predicts
coming evils under an express voice from the Spirit, (iv, 1.)
He gives in succession thirty distinct commands, referring
to a large variety of ministerial duties and arrangements

THE INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 251

within the Churches. He enforces these commands by an
appeal to God and Christ, and the elect angels, and calls
his own teaching "wholesome words, the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and doctrine that is according to godliness."
He repeats a most solemn admonition to Timothy, "before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ," to keep the commandment
in his epistle, "without spot, unrebukable, until the ap-
pearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." In the Second Epis-
tle, the last which he wrote, he declared solemnly, in the
prospect of death, that " he was appointed a preacher and
an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles;" and even as-
sociates his own teaching with the Old-Testament Scrip-
tures, as of equal authority. "Continue thou in the things
thou hast learned, and been assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast
known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee
wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ
Jesus."

VII. These testimonies in St= Paul's epistles are not
confined to this part of the New Testament alone. They
include three further statements, which apply directly to
those books which have not apostles for their authors.

1. First, in 1 Cor. viii, 18, 19, we have a direct allusion
to St. Luke as the writer of the Gospel we possess under
his name, and already honored by the use of it among the
Churches. This early view of the text, held by Origen,
and embodied in the prayers of the Church, for many ages —
coll. St. Luke's Day — has been disputed by several mod-
ern critics, from Grotius onward, on very weak and insuf-
ficient grounds. A comparison with the book of Acts
proves clearly that St. Luke is the person designed.
But the words, "whose praise in the Gospel is in all the
Churches," are used by way of definition, or as a distinct-
ive title, equivalent to a personal name. There were, how-

252 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

ever, scores of prophets and teacliers, whose names must
have been widely known as oral teachers of the Gospel.
But St. Luke and St. Mark alone, among those inferior to
the apostles, were honored to compose a written Gospel;
and of these St. Luke alone was well known to have accom-
panied St. Paul in his first entrance to Macedonia, from
which country the letter was written. On this view tho
whole passage is clear and consistent, and the Gospel of St.
Luke receives here a direct sanction from the great apostle
to the Gentiles, as an honorable portion of the writings of
the new covenant.

2. The second passage — 1 Tim. v, 18 — in a later epistle
completes and confirms the evidence derived from the first.
"For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt. not muzzle the ox
that treadeth out the corn. And, The laborer is worthy
of his reward." The former clause is a quotation from
Deuteronomy, or the Law of Moses ; the second is written
verbatim in St. Luke's Gospel — x, 7. Both of these alike
are called by the name of "Scripture," and appealed to as
decisive authority. This is more remarkable in the second
case, because they are the words of Christ himself. Yet
they are referred to by the apostle simply as Scripture, or
a saying of the written Gospel, and not in their distinctive
character, as words spoken by the Lord himself. No fuller
testimony could be given, in few words, to the inspired au-
thority of the third Gospel; the very same which some
might imagine, from the words of its own preface, to be
more open than any other part of the New Testament, to
doubt and reasonable contradiction. The words are further
noticeable, because they furnish a proof how early this Gos-
pel had acquired currency and full authority within the
Church of Christ.

3. The third passage — 2 Tim. iii, 16 — affirms directly the
inspired authority of the Scripture of the Old Testament,

THE INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 253

which had been familiar to the beloved Timothy from his
childhood. But there is no warrant for confining their
testimony to these alone. On the contrary, the expression,
"all Scripture," following the more general phrase, "the
hoi J writings," requires us to take these words in their
widest sense. Now this was the last of St. Paul's epistles, and
all the others were written earlier; and Timothy was pres-
ent when most of them were composed, and shared in the
superscription of more than one of them. Again, in the
previous epistle, to the same beloved companion, the Gos-
pel of St. Luke has been already quoted under this very
name of Scripture; and their internal relations are a strong
proof that the two others, of St. Matthew and St. Mark,
had been written still earlier. St. Paul had visited Jerusa-
lem thirty years after the Ascension, and the Gospel of St.
Matthew must, therefore, without a question, have been act-
ually known to him. He had been, still later, at Cesarea,
the Roman seaport of Judea, for whose converts internal
evidence would lead us to believe that the second Gospel
was written ; and he was writing from Rome, to which place
tradition has often referred to, and hence it is almost be-
yond a doubt that it must also have been known to him.
If St. Matthew's Gospel claimed the title of Scripture, it is
plain that St. Mark's, from its close resemblance of contents
and style, must have done the same. So that these words of
St. Paul, addressed to Timothy, would naturally, in the view
of the latter, include these three Gospels, and the earlier
letters of St. Paul himself They are thus a direct asso-
ciation of the greater part of the New Testament, with the
Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, under the common title
of "Scripture given by inspiration of God."

The testimony includes, not only the three earlier Gos-
pels, and the other epistles of St. Paul, but the book of
Acts also. For St. Luke was now with the apostles, as

254 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

he had been during the voyage, and at the beginning
of the first imprisonment. The book closes with the men-
tion of that imprisonment, and of its two years' contin-
uance, but says nothing of St. Paul's release. St. Luke
was still present with the apostle, when he wrote to Co-
losse — Col. iv, 14 — but not when he wrote, still later, to
Philippi, to which place he had probably returned — Phil,
ii, 19, 20; iv, 3. It is thus highly probable, and almost
certain, that the book of Acts was written before the date
of the Second Epistle to Timothy. But since it professes
to be a continuation of the Gospel, which St. Paul has
twice commended, and once referred to under the name of
Scripture, it must evidently have been known to him, writ-
ing with St. Luke at his side, or in daily intercourse, and
be therefore included in his declaration, that "all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteous-
ness." The testimony, therefore, really applies to the whole
of the New Testament, except the General Epistles, and the
Gospel and Apocalypse of St. John.

VIII. The two epistles of St. Peter supply further test-
imonies of the same kind. First of all, the inspiration of
the Old-Testament prophets is clearly and fully affirmed.
The Spirit of Christ, St. Peter tells us, "was in them, and
testified beforehand of the sufl*erings of Christ, and the
glories that should follow." Twelve or thirteen quotations
from the Old Testament, or direct allusions to it as the
"oracles of God," occur in the course of this short letter.
But he proceeds at once to make a similar statement con-
cerning his fellow-apostles, that they had preached the Gos-
pel "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," and
that their Gospel message was " the Word of the Lord
which endureth forever." The mention, also, of St. Mark,
at the close, as the apostle's son in the faith, if the second

THE INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 255

Gospel were already written, for which we have strong in-
ternal evidence, would be an implied attestation of its
character, and would agree with the tradition that it was
written by St. Mark, chiefly from materials with which St.
Peter had supplied him.

The Second Epistle contains three most important pas-
sages, on the authority both of the Old and the New Test-
ament. First, the apostle lays down a fundamental law for
the study of the Old Testament, based on the doctrine that
all was Divine. "No prophecy of Scripture is of self-
interpretation : for the prophecy came not ever by the will
of man; but holy men of God spake, as they were moved
(or borne along) by the Holy Ghost." Since all proceeded
from the same Spirit, to regard them as independent human
compositions, which some of late would propound for a first
principle of true interpretation, is, according to St. Peter,
a mischievous error. They must, on the contrary, be
compared with each other, as parts of a greater whole, if
we would understand their true and full meaning.

In the second passage, these inspired words of the Old-
Testament prophets, and the commandments of himself and
his fellow- apostles, are joined together, as equally binding
on the conscience of Christians. The common object of
both epistles was this — "that ye may be mindful of the
words spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the com-
mandment of us, the apostles of our Lord and Savior."
The earlier message of the prophets, and the later one of
the apostles, is thus equally sealed with full authority
from God.

The third passage is more specific, and refers directly to
St. Paul's writings. " Account that the long-suffering of our
Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also,
according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto
you. As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these

256 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

things; whicli they that are unlearned and unstable wrest,
as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own de-
struction."

There are here two distinct assertions, both of them
highly important. First, there is a reference to one epistle
of St. Paul, written to these Christians, and in which the
doctrine that the long-suffering of the Lord was salvation,
was set before them. Now, as Galatia is mentioned in the
opening of the First Epistle, and St. Peter was the apostle
of the circumcision, either the Epistle to the Gralatians, or
that to the Hebrews, must naturally be intended by this
reference. The former contains, however, no such state-
ment as that to which St. Peter alludes; but the latter does
in several places — Heb. ii, 1-3; iv, 1-3; iii, 14; vi, 9-12;
X, 23-25, 35-39. The conclusion seems evident, that St.
Peter ratifies, as the work of St. Paul, the only one of his
epistles which does not bear his name, and of which the
authorship has been consequently disputed, even down to
our own days. Secondly, the apostle includes all the epis-
tles of St. Paul under the sacred name of Scripture, " which
they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also
the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." This testi-
mony is the more striking and weighty, when we remember
that one of these letters contains the only mention of St.
Peter's fault at Antioch, and of the reproof which he
received from his brother apostle. There seems no good
reason to doubt that the first three Gospels, no less than
the Old Testament, are meant by the other Scriptures, with
which the epistles of St. Paul are here united; as sharing
the same title, and forming along with them one har-
monious body of Divine truth, perfect in its own nature,
though liable to be perverted by the ignorance and rashness
of sinful men.

The short Epistle of St. Jude, besides six or seven

THE INSPIRATION OP THE NEW TESTAMENT. 257

allusions to leading facts of the Old Testament, and one
supernatural revelation, and the revival of an ancient and
long-forgotten prophecy of Enoch, the seventh from Adam,
seems distinctly to ratify the Second Epistle of St. Peter,
as this had confirmed and ratified all the epistles of St.
Paul. "But, beloved, remember the words which were
spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ:
how that they told you there would be scoffers in the last
time, who would walk after their own ungodly lusts."
There seems here a distinct allusion to the words of St.
Peter — 2 Pet. iii, 3 — with this difference, that the evil is
predicted as near in one case, and described as present in
the other. And this view is confirmed by the other resem-
blances—Jude 6; 2 Pet. ii, 4; Jude 7; 2 Pet. ii, 6-9;
Jude 8; 2 Pet. ii, 10; Jude 9; 2 Pet. ii, 11. There is
thus a series of testimonies, by which St. Paul bears witness
to the canonical authority of St. Luke's writings, and the
two earlier Gospels, St. Peter to all St. Paul's epistles, and
St. Jude to the epistles of St. Peter in their turn.

IX. The writings of St. John form confessedly the latest
part of the New Testament, and they belong to all its three
divisions. They complete the historical and epistolary, and
constitute alone the prophetic portion, thus binding the
whole into one complete system of Divinely-revealed truth.

Now, first, the Grospel, besides witnessing directly to its
own apostolic authorship, as the work of that chosen and
beloved disciple, who leaned on the bosom of the Lord,
and thus claiming, in the highest degree, the faith and rev-
erence of Christians, bears strong indirect testimony to the
three earlier Evangelists. For the more closely it is exam-
ined, the clearer are the signs that it is, in its outline and
conception, a supplemental narrative; designed to record,
not merely a distinct aspect of our Lord's character, but

portions of his ministry, and especially his visits to Judea,

22

258 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

wliich had been purposely omitted in their works. These
Gospels, it is evident from history alone, must have been
well known to St. John; and a tacit reference to them,
though an opposite statement has sometimes been paradox-
ically made, may be easily traced through the whole narrative.
Thus, i, 6, refers plainly to Matt, iii, Luke iii, and its ab-
ruptness is best explained by the fact that a fuller account
of the Baptist's ministry was already on record. Again, i,
15, refers to Matt, iii, 11, and then expounds it by a brief
and noble commentary. John i, 32, 33, has a like refer-
ence to Matt, iii, 16, 17. The mention of Andrew, Simon,
two other brothers, namely, James and John, Philip and
Nathanael, implies that the list of the twelve apostles had
b6en already put on record; since the Twelve are afterward
mentioned in this Gospel, but their names are not given,
and no account appears of their ordination to their office.
In iii, 19, there seems a reference to the account in St.
Mark of the false witnesses. In iii, 24, is a direct reference
to Matt, iv, 12, and in iv, 44, to Matt, xiii, 57, and Luke
iv, 24. In xviii, 11, we have a similar reference to Matt,
xxvi, 38-44, and Luke xxii, 42, and there are several others.
The visits to Jerusalem, and the notice of the Passover,
about the time of the miracle of the loaves, dovetail remark-
ably with the other Gospels, and serve at the same time to
fix the chronology of our Lord's ministry. Thus the fourth
Gospel not only, by the mention of its author, attests its
own inspiration, but confirms by an apostolic sanction those
which were already in being.

The epistles of St. John supply no direct materials for
the confirmation of the other New-Testament Scriptures;
but two ideas pervade them in every part, that they are
the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and the truth of God.

The Apocalypse, as it forms the latest portion of the New
Testament, and its only book of prophecy, is peculiarly fiill

THH INSPIRATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 259

both in the statement of its own inspiration, and in its
testimony to all previous Scripture. It opens with its high
title — "the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto
him, to show his servants the things which must shortly
come to pass." It pronounces a blessing on those who read
and hear "the words of this prophecy." The beloved St.
John names himself as the messenger of Christ. He says
that he "was in the Spirit on the Lord's day," and that he
wrote by the express command of the risen Savior. ''I
heard behind me a voice, as of a trumpet, saying. What
thou seest, write in a book." There was thus the same
voice of authority in its publication, as when the ten com-
mandments, the earliest written message of God, were pro-
claimed, with " the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud," from
the top of Sinai. Seven commands to write attend the seven
epistles to the Churches, besides the double* command al-
ready given. What is not to be written is enjoined — x, 4 —
as well as what is to be written — xiv, 13. Twice at the
close the seal is put upon the message, "Write, for these
are the true sayings of God." "Write, for these words are
true and faithful." Lastly, the truth of this message is
joined with a Divine title, which is like a seal on the au-
thority of all the earlier Scriptures. "These sayings are
faithful and true, and the Lord God of the holy prophets
hath sent his angel to show unto his servants the things
which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly:
blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of
this book." At the very close a double curse is pronounced
on those who shall add to, or take away from " the words
of the book of this prophecy." The Pentateuch and the
Apocalypse, in this respect, stand alone. As to the earliest
and the latest portion of written revelation, they alike con-
tain a solemn caution against adding to them or taking
away; and stronger internal declarations, than in any other

260 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Scriptures, of their own Divine authority. Nine or ten
times the writing of the Law by Moses is affirmed in Deu-
teronomy; and twelve times, or upward', the Apocalypse is
declared to be written by the command of Christ, and to
consist, throughout, of the true sayings of God.

Thus the inspiration and authority of the New Testament,
though not capable of the direct evidence given to the
earlier Scriptures, by the lips of our Lord himself, upon
earth, has other evidence, from plain analogy with the Old
Testament, from the character of the Gospel dispensation,
from the revealed rank of the apostles, as even higher than
the prophets, from the direct averments of St. Paul con-
cerning his own epistles, and his indirect testimony to
St. Luke's writings, and the earlier Gospels, from the cu-
mulative testimonies of St. Peter and St. Jude, from the
statements of *the fourth Gospel, and the full and emphatic
declarations of the Apocalypse, like a keystone to the
whole — which leaves those Christians without excuse, who
treat it as mingled and imperfect utterances of fallible men,
and refuse to own that it is, in reality, "the true sayings
of God," the last and highest portion of that Word which
will assuredly judge them at the last day.

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 261

CHAPTER XII.

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE.

The Bible has been received by the Church of Christ
Irom the first ages, as the Word of God, the great fountain
of religious truth. It has thus been the object of wider,
deeper, more earnest, and more assiduous meditation and
study, than any other book whatever, and even more than
all other books combined. Thousands on thousands of
works have been written, to unfold its truths, and apply
them to the hearts of men. The amount of Biblical litera-
ture, during the three centuries since the Reformation, is
prodigious. The labor of a lifetime would not suffice for a
bare perusal, much less for a careful study, of all its mani-
fold varieties, in criticism, history, doctrine, ethics, and
practical applications to the religious life. It has been
translated, also, into near two hundred languages, and cir-
culated in more than fifty millions of copies ; and hence has
arisen a still further amount of critical labor and learned
industry, altogether unique in the history of the world.

Now, this immense accumulation of Biblical literature,
although its source is the reverence the Bible has received
for so many ages from the whole Christian world, may sup-
ply a skeptical spirit with large materials for casting doubt
and suspicion on the Divine message. For this end it is
only needful to view it from without, instead of within ; and
to trace the multiplied divergence and contradiction at the
circumference of this mighty world of thought, instead of
discerning its central unity, and its growing fullness from

262 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

age to age. Man touches nothing which he does not defile.
The gift of revelation to a fallen world implies that men
are prone to go astray, and lose themselves in the thick
mists of religious error. The world was full of Gentile
idolatry when the Gospel appeared. Its presence brought
light into the thick darkness; but it did not seal up the
sources of delusion in the human heart. The course of
Divine truth, in every age, has been a constant warfare, and
not a triumphal progress; and its fullest victories are still to
come. The interpretation of the Bible, then, has had a
checkered course. Much precious truth has been unfolded;
but no slight amount of human error, in various and diverg-
ent forms, has mingled with these expositions. The stream,
however pure the fountain, has become turbid in its prog-
ress, and stained by the soil from the river-bed in which it
had to flow. It is easy to dwell on this human side of the
literature of the Bible, till the real excellency of the Word
)f God is quite obscured from our view. The trifling of
QQcre verbal critics and grammarians, the strifes of inter-
oreters, the dreams of mystics, the subtilties of schoolmen,
the confusing influence of the mental parallax, in ten
thousand minds, of diff'erent ages, countries, and modes of
thought, may produce a feeling of almost hopeless perplex-
ity. We may then be urged to cast the whole aside, as
mere heaps of misdirected and useless learning ; and to com-
mence the study anew on a simpler principle, which sees
nothing more, in these inspired oracles of God, than curi-
ous and interesting specimens of religious feeling, and val-
uable productions of human genius, in the earlier youth or
earlier infancy of mankind.

The time is not distant, when a loud warning was raised,
within the English Church, ugainst the dangers of private
judgment, and the maxim of Vincentius, on Catholic eon-
sent, was praised as the guardian angel of Christian

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 263

orthodoxy. No private Christian was reckoued able to in-
terpret, with safety, even the simplest messages of the Bible,
unless sustained and protected by a catena of authorities,
and some approach to "a unanimous consent of the fa-
thers." The pendulum seems now to have swung violently
the other way. The latest voice from the same cloisters
assures the youthful and ingenuous student, that all the
past labors of Christian divines are a hinderance, and not a
help to the attainment of Scriptural knowledge; that they
are stumbling-blocks in his path, and not way-marks, to
guide his steps in the pathway of Divine truth. He has
only to renounce them, and study the Bible for himself,
like any other book, and he will enter more fully into its
meaning than all the controversial writers of former ages
put together.

Now, there can be no doubt that much evil has arisen
from reading the Bible with preconceived opinions, and
through the colored spectacles of human systems. Chris-
tians have thus often robbed their souls of the rich diversity
of doctrine, precept, and example, and all spiritual wisdom,
which is found in the unforced and genuine teaching of the
Word of God. But there may be an equal danger on the
opposite side. To despise human aids is no less dangerous
than to exaggerate their value. If young students, with
unfurnished minds and unprepared hearts, rush to the
study of the Bible, as to that of Sophocles or Caesar, in the
conviction that by their solitary research, and dealing with
it as the mere work of human authors, they will outstrip at
once all the divines of past ages, they will soon illustrate
one of its most elementary truths, that "pride goeth before
destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

The max4m lately propounded as the master-key of the-
ology, to interpret the Bible like any other book, is one of
those half-truths, which have often the mischievous effect

264 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT,

of entire falsehood. For the Bible is like other books, aud
it is unlike them. It resembles them in being the work of
various human authors, whose circumstances, tastes, and
habits of thought and language, tinge and color each sep-
arate portion. But it diflfers from them, because it is the
Word of the Holy Ghost, and a Divine unity of supernat-
ural truth and wisdom animates the whole, and makes it
instinct throughout with the mind of that Spirit, who
"searcheth all things, yea, even the deep things of Grod."
To insist on the former truth, and to deny the second, which
is higher and more' weighty, is not to simplify, but to fals-
ify its interpretation. Unbelief is the starting-point of such
a mode of study, and therefore unbelief is its natural and
necessary consummation.

There are four main principles which form the key to
the right study of the Scriptures. Two of these depend on
the character of the Bible, aud two others on the circum-
stances of those to whom it is given. We must study it
intelligently and naturally, as composed of works written by
human authors, and molded, in each part, by the circum-
stances which occasioned its composition. We must study
it reverently, as the inspired Word of God, endued with a
fuller meaning, and a deeper unity of truth and wisdom
than the separate writers could supply. In the words of St.
Paul, we must receive it, "not as the wiord of man, but as
the Word of God, which effectually worketh in those who
believe." We must read it vjith a direct, honest exercise
of our own judgment on its contents, joined with prayer for
the. promised teaching of the Spirit. But that teaching is
no where promised to mere self-will and presumption. We
must read it, therefore, in the diligent use of all those helps
which the providence of God may put within our reach,
through the labors of the servants of Christ, the written or
spoken ministry of the Word of God. It is mainly by these

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 265

"joints and bands " that the mystical body of Christ is
nourished with Divine truth, as its heavenly food, and "be-
ing knit together, increaseth with the increase of God."
Lastly, the recognition of the Bible as Divine, and full of
deeper meaning than the earlier writers of it attained to
know, is far from leading, as some have untruly affirmed, to
endless doubt and uncertainty. On the contrary, it is the
only way by which the soul can ever gain a footing on the
solid rock of eternal truth. Even if we could revive, in all
their first freshness and youth, which is impossible, the
thoughts and feelings of certain good, but imperfect and
ignorant Jewish patriots, who lived long ago, this would
still leave us as far as ever from any sure knowledge of the
truth of God. It is only when we read the Bible as "the
lively oracles of God," and the " words of the Holy Ghost,"
and thus discern the outlines of redemption, by an incar-
nate and atoning Savior, reaching through all its messaues,
from Genesis to Revelation, from Paradise to the l^ast
Judgment, that our feet are truly planted upon firm
ground. We know what, and we know also in whom, we
believe; and instead of being carried to and fro, with every
wind of false doctrine, we grow up, with steady and contin-
ual progress, into the full unity of the faith and the knowl-
edge of Jesus Christ our Lord.

I. The first maxim of sound interpretation is to read and
study the Bible, in the truth of its human character. It
is a book composed of many books, each having its own
distinct author, and wearing the marks of its human au-
thorship in every page. This maxim, in one of the recent
Essays, is a nucleus of truth, around which have crystal-
lized many and dangerous errors. But the truth itself is
not the less important and needful for the Christian student
to bear in mind.

There is a mechanical view of Bible inspiration, which
23

THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

shuts out, and practically denies, the human element in its
composition. It reduces the whole process, so mysterious,
and, possibly, so various in its nature, by which the Spirit
of Grod overruled and guided the sacred penman, to one
dull monotony of mere verbal dictation. In its rigor this
has seldom been held by theological writers, at least of late
years; but whenever stress is laid simply on the result of
the inspiration in writing, irrespective of the thought's' and
feelings of the sacred writers, there is a close approach to
this view. An element, which is made unimportant, and
quite superfluous, is in reality set aside. But in popular
Christianity, this is the view entertained, wherever tradi-
tional orthodoxy and spiritual idleness make a league to-
gether. To realize the human features of the books of
Scripture, and through them to reach the full sense of its
Divine unity, requires patient diligence and persevering
thought. It is much easier and simpler to receive all simply
as the Word of Grod, and then to expound it by our own pre-
conceived tastes, feelings, and habits of thought; without
caring to inquire into its original meaning, or to realize
those aspects of it which carry us out of ourselves, and
place us amid the wonders of Providence in distant ages.

The simple truth is, that in reading the Bible, we can
not get rid of a human element. We may fail to apprehend
those which properly belong to it, from the character and
circumstances of the sacred writers themselves; but we are
sure, in this case, to replace them with others, borrowed
from our own circumstances and mental associations. To
travel out of ourselves, and to rise above ourselves, are the
first steps in attaining the mind of God. We can not know
God in his absolute being, but only as revealed, and re-
vealed in his Word. Even in his Word, we can not appre-
hend the Divine elements, except through the human. We
must pass out of ourselves, first of all, into sympathy with

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 267

the "holy men of God," by whom tlie Scriptures were
written; and, through communion with their testimonies,
thoughts, and feelings, must rise into fellowship with that
Spirit by whom they spoke, and that Lord to whom they
all bear witness. All systematic theology, all conventional
phraseology, and all limited and local forms of Christian
experience, tend to contract an element of unreality in their
use of Scripture, which can only be remedied by a perpet-
ual return to the living fountains. The student who would
retain the simplicity of faith, must so far obey the advice
to "transfer himself to another age, imagine that he is a
disciple of Christ or of Paul, and disengage himself from
all that follows." He must have no theological " theory of
interpretation, but a few rules guarding against common
errors." His object must be "to read the Scripture with a
real and not merely a conventional interest; to open his
eyes, and see and imagine things as they truly were." For
just as it was through the human actions of our Lord — his
hunger and thirst, his fasting in the wilderness, his sleep on
the pillow, his tears over Jerusalem — that his Divine glory
slowly revealed itself to his first disciples, till they saw it
to be "the glory of the Only-Begotten of the Father;" so
it is through a more vivid sense of the human elements of
the Bible, that we rise most safely and surely to the sense
of its Divine unity, its wondrous fertility of goodness, wis-
dom, and love. When we lose sight of these elements it
run? the risk of being mechanized and degraded into a
mere school-book, or a string of texts without order or
cohesion. It is only as they are restored, and come fully
into view, that we realize it as one vast scheme of revela-
tio 1, overarching, like the bow of heaven, all the six thou-
sand years of the history of the world.

II. The Bible, then, must be read and studied, first of
all, as a collection of authentic human writings, through

'26S THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

fifteen centuries, from Moses to the beloved St. John
This will add new life and freshness to the fulfillment ol
the Christian duties of Scripture reading and meditation.

But must we read it as a merely human work? Must
we forget or deny, because it had various human writers,
that the whole is due to one higher Author, the revealing
Spirit of God? This is the great question really at issue
between the Christian Church in all ages, and a limited
number of modern critics, who aspire to represent the prog-
ress, and really herald the predicted unbelief, of these last
days. Must we, with " Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit,"
flout at the practice of bringing together texts, "a whole
millennium apart," in illustration of doctrinal or practical
lessons ; though justified by the clear example of St. Paul,
and of our Lord himself? Or shall we not allow that,
amidst the human diversity, a Divine unity reigns in these
sacred Scriptures; because every part is the Word of that
God to whom all his works are known from the beginning,
and with whom a thousand years are as one day? This, in
brief, is the main question at issue, and one to which it
becomes every Christian to give a clear and distinct reply.

In the first place, the principle which an unbelieving
criticism would cast aside, is laid down in the New Testa-
ment itself, as the first and most essential law of Bible in-
terpretation. St. Peter, in that Second Epistle, which
would-be critics reject as spurious, but one sentence of
which far outweighs, in solid worth, all their disquisitions,
propounds this doctrine in the plainest and most emphatic
terms. " Know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is
of self-interpretation; for prophecy came not at any time
by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost."

The r« asoning here is simple, and easy to understand.
The Idia ^nUufftq, or "private interpretation," denotes the

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 269

construction of each separate portion of Scripture by itself
alone, as if it formed a complete whole, proceeding from
some human author. This is a false view of its nature,
[t is one out of many messages of the Holy Ghost. It is
one component in a great series of utterances of Divine
truth, from Adam and Enoch down to the last of the apos-
tles. To attain its full meaning and purpose, therefore, it
is absolutely needful to bear in mind its true character.
Read it merely as an independent voice of man, and you
will fail to interpret it aright. Read it as one out of many
messages, given by the same Holy Spirit, though under
special circumstances, and with features due to the charac-
ter of the messenger he has chosen, and you have a
key to its true and just interpretation. We must, therefore,
exactly reverse the false maxim which has been lately pro-
pounded, and affirm, on the authority of the inspired apos-
tle, that "illustration of one part of Scripture by another,
must not be confined to the writings of the same age, and
the same authors, far less to the same author, in the same
period of his life." It is not true, in spiritual any more
than in natural astronomy, that the planets move in orbits
wholly independent, that they exercise no mutual influence,
and have no common law of relation to that central Sun of
righteousness on whom they absolutely depend.

But this great truth, which rests firmly on the authority
of the inspired apostle, is confirmed still more fully by the
sayings of our Lord himself, and the constant practice of
all the writers of the New Testament. We have been told
that "the new truth introduced into the Old Testament,
rather than the old truth found there, was the conversion
and salvation of the world."* This is a corollary which
f Hows unavoidably from a purely human view, in which

* Essay vii, p. 406.

270 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

we interpret the Scriptures "like any other book;" that is,
with a steadfast refusal to own in it the presence of a Divine
element, or the real voice of the Spirit of God. But this
view, however gentle the phrase in which it may be con-
veyed, really gives the lie direct to our Lord and his apos-
tles. Their constant, emphatic testimony is, not that they
are putting new truths into the Old Testament, or palming
on it a new sense foreign from its genuine significance; but
that they simply unfolded its true meaning and reference,
when the Spirit of Christ in the prophets "testified before-
hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should
follow." Those who reject this constant doctrine of our
Lord, and of the whole New Testament, may be learned
and ingenious speculators in Christian literature ; but it is
hard to see in what sense they can be disciples of Christ,
while they contradict the Lord of glory in one main and
conspicuous part of his teaching, on which his claim to
submission and reverence is made, by his own lips, to de-
pend. "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed
me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believed not his writ-
ings, how shall ye believe my words?" "0 fools, and slow
of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things, and to
enter into glory? And beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning himself" He, whose name is the Truth,
did not, in the hour of his resurrection, enact the part of a
spiritual juggler, and foist a reference to himself into texts,
of which the true meaning was wholly different; in order,
by this pious lie of representing the "new truth intro-
duced" as "the old truth of the New Testament," to effect
the conversion and salvation of the world. The supposition
is little short of a monstrous blasphemy. No, he rebuked
the blindness of his disciples; who, like many modem critios.

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 271

could not see, and were too foolish to believe, what those
Scriptures really contained. He opened their understand-
ing, to see the landscape which was there already, but
which the scales of their spiritual ignorance had previously
concealed from their view. Then all was plain to their
opened eyes and quickened hearts; and through reproach,
aflSiction, and martyrdom, they bore witness to Christ in the
midsi of malicious adversaries, "saying none other things
than those which the prophets and Mo,ses did say should
come; that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the
first that should rise from the dead, and should show light
unto the people and to the Gentiles." Acts xxvi, 22, 23.

The same great truth, which is confirmed by the uniform
consent of all the writers of the New Testament, and by
the plainest sayings of our Lord himself, has also a nega-
tive proof in the confusion and perplexity of those critics,
who venture to contradict it, and cast it aside. If the Old
Testament be in truth the Word of God, it must be clear
that no consistent explanation of it can be given on the
contrary hypothesis, that it is a series of purely human
writings. Our Lord was a Jewish peasant; but whoever
strove to account for his words and works, on the hypothe-
sis that he was a Jewish peasant only, must have plunged
himself at every step into contradiction and absurdity.
Even the officers of the Pharisees were forced to own —
"Never man spoke like this man;" and unbelievers, under
the momentary impression of his miracles, were led to con-
fess— "This is of a truth that Prophet that should come
into the world."

Now, the case is precisely similar with the Scriptures of
the Old Testament. A learned school of naturalist critics
have labored to expound and analyze them, on the negative
view of their character. And what is the result of la-
bors conducted on such principles? The authenticity and

272 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGH I.

integrity of the books of Moses, of the prophecies ol
Isaiah aud Daniel, of Joshua and Judges, in short, of al)
the main portions of the canon, in spite of the full exter-
nal evidence in their favor, melt away and disappear
The facts, as they stand, will not agree with the hypothesis,
and must be tortured and transformed, in order to obtain
some decent show of consistency. That holy and perfect
law, honored both by our Lord and his apostles, and all the
prophets, as the gift of God, by his servant Moses, and
placed from the hour of its completion beside the ark of the
covenant in the holy of holies, has to be dissolved into a
cento of fragments, a patchwork of imaginary documents,
which the names of the Most High God are profaned in
order to describe, due to some unknown and obscure com-
pilers in the time of the kings. The very first chapter of
Genesis must be degraded into a piece of unscrupulous
guess-work, by some "Hebrew Descartes or Newton," who
affirmed in the dark what he had no means of knowing,
because he had not been trained in the modesty of modern
science ! The blessing of Jacob on his sons is turned, from
a sacred prophecy, into a legendary fiction, of the time of
Samson — in other words, into a manifiest lie. The blessing
of Moses, in like manner, is transferred to some mendacious
author, in the times of David or Solomon. The book of
Judges is turned from plain history into a new and singular
Epos, of which the only poetical feature consists in the
substitution of false dates for true ones. One-half of
Isaiah's prophecies are wrested from the author to whom
all antiquity, and the words of our Lord and his apostles
assign them, and are referred to Baruch, or some apocry-
phal hand, to make the task rather less unmanageable,
of stripping them of all their prophetic char^icter. In the
same way the writings of the beloved Daniel, referred to by
our Lord as the words of "Daniel the prophet," and

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 273

appropriated and applied to himself in the most solemn act
of his public testimony before the high-priest, are turned
into a base imposture of the time of the Maccabees; that
prophecies plainly Divine, if genuine, may be expounded as
meager summaries of past history, which have been im-
piously disguised by a preface of angelic visions, in order
to make the imposture more complete.

Now, these results, however hateful and abominable in
the eyes of the devout Christian, are only the natural fruits
of that negative criticism, which labors to expound the Old
Testament as a series of merely human writings. The
Divine element in them, wherever it comes plainly to light,
must then be got rid of by some critical violence or other.
And this violence reveals itself by endless inconsistency
and vacillation. The false witnesses against the authority
and Divinity of the written Word, frame successively plausi-
ble hypotheses, in which charges of untruth are expressed
or implied, "but neither so doth their witness agree
together." Mythicism and naturalism, supplementary hy-
potheses, crystallization hypotheses, documentary hypothe-
ses, a twofold, a threefold, a fourfold, a fivefold authorship,
have all been applied to the Pentateuch alone, but still the
witness does not, and will not agree. Many picklocks
have been tried in turn, but the wards are obstinate. Those
who refuse to see in the Word of God a Divine authorship,
are compelled to set aside Moses, Isaiah, and Daniel; but
they can not tell how to replace them, or frame any con-
sistent view of the human authorship, which will enabb
them to expunge the miracles and prophecies, and thus to
reduce the whole to the level of common history.

Lot us take one or two examples, in detail, of the gen-
eral truth. The Bible begins with a professed narrative of
the creation of the world, and the first formation of man
on the sixth da}^ Interpret like any other book, and one

274 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of two conclusions must follow. We have here either an
open imposture, or a supernatural revelation. A "Hebrew
Descartes or Newton," who, in total ignorance, should guess
for himself what might have happened before the first man
was in being, and then publish it as part of a Divine mes-
sage, would simply prove himself a profane and dishonest
liar. Thus, at the outset, every middle hypothesis is swept
away. We must either interpret the Bible by moral rules,
unlike those applied to any other work, or choose at once
between branding it as a vile imposition and accepting it
as Divine. But when once accepted as a Divine message,
the attempt, by a series of critical artifices, to weed out of
it all supernatural elements, is a course no less irrational
and senseless than profane.

Let us take one other instance — the three verses in Gen-
esis, Psalms, and Hebrews, which refer to Melchisedek. On
the humanist view, the first of these was a mere accident,
in the contents of some " Elohistic document," an early
"monogram" on Chedarlaomer, which happened to get in-
serted by the last compiler of the Pentateuch. The verse
in Psalm ex, 4, which introduces the name of Melchisedek,
in an oath ascribed to Jehovah, must have been a mere
poetical fiction of David, or some unknown writer, who ven-
tured to take the name of Grod in vain, and ascribe to him
a solemn oath, of which the writer knew nothing. The
whole chapter, again, in Hebrews, must be a piece of labori-
ous trifling, in which the weightiest conclusions .are based on
the premise of a mere accidental omission of names in Gen
esis, and a mere fiction of the Psalmist; while the forma
of reasoning are abused to give an appearance of argument,
where there is nothing more than the wildest caprice of
fanciful interpretation. And still the upshot of this acci-
dent in Genesis, this profane fiction in the Psalmist, and
'his capricious folly in the apostle, is to bring out one

THE INTERPRETATION OP SCRIPTURE. 27'>

of the noblest utterances of Christian doctrine, and one o**
rhe most cheering messages of comfort and promise to the
wearv heart. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to
the uttermost that come to Grod by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. For such a high-
priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate

from sinners, and made higher than the heavens For

the law maketh men high-priests which have infirmity; but
the word of that oath, which was since the law, maketh the
Son who is perfected for evermore." Is this a hypothesis
credible? Can we believe that such glorious issues of truth
and holiness, such beautiful and lovely forms of comfort,
hope, and promise, are the results of chance and caprice,
of profane fiction, and childish folly?

Now, let us reverse the picture, and contemplate the
same passages in their true light. "All Scripture," from
Genesis to Revelation, "is given by inspiration of God."
In every part, "holy men of God spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost." To this revealing Spirit the
remotely past and the remotely future are equally open, for
"known unto God are all his works from the beginning,"
and "the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, even the deep things
of God." It was the Holy Spirit, who, more than three
thousand years ago, guided Moses, in his inspired narrative,
to make this brief mention of Melchisedek, and his blessing
on Abraham, and to omit purposely, all mention of his
father, or mother, or genealogy; and introduce him sud-
denly into the scene as a mysterious person, a priest of the
Most High God, standing above the father of the faithful,
in dignity and honor, aloof and alone. It was the Spirit,
nearly three thousand years ago, who taught David to give
the title of Lord to his own son, as a pledge of Messiah's
Divine glory ; and revealed to him that oath of God con-
cerning this un')orn son of David, which could never else

276 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

have been known — "The Lord sware, and will not repeni,
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedek.'
It was the same Holy Spirit, who, eighteen hundred years
ago, taught the apostle to expound to the Church the sig-
nificance of the original history, two thousand years after
it had occurred, in which the silence concerning Melchise-
dek's parentage and genealogy rendered him a type of the
heavenly priesthood of the risen Son of Grod; to unfold the
meaning of the oath in the Psalm, as the prophecy of a
higher priesthood than that of Aaron, which the true Mes-
siah would fulfill, and over which mortality had no power;
and, last of all, to apply the whole in a glorious message
of comfort to the Church of Christ. And it is the same
Spirit, who now, in these our own days, has caused these
his own words, by his wonderful Providence, to be difi"used
in millions of copies, and in countless languages, through-
out the tribes of the earth; and then applies them, by his
secret power and grace, to quicken the faith, and cheer the
hearts of millions of believers, by the vision of their Great
High-Priest, who intercedes for them perpetually before the
throne in heaven.

III. Another question must now be answered. Private
judgment, there can be no doubt, must be exercised, with
prayer and humility, by every real student of the Word of
God. A mere blind reception of the dicta of human au-
thority, without thought or personal inquiry, is a super-
stitious counterfeit, and widely different from real Christian
faith. But is it the wisest and safest course, in the ac-
quirement of true spiritual knowledge, for every novice to
start anew? Ought he to approach the Bible, like Soph-
ocles or Plato, as a human work, to be mastered by "the
plain meaning of words and their context alone," and to
discard all the Christian writings of the last eighteen hund-
red years, and all the criticism and theology to which they

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 277

have given birtli, as a mere incubus and troublesome
burden, which must be wholly cast aside, in order to gain
insight into the true meaning? Such a view involves a
strange inversion of the lessons of humility and true
wisdom.

The contempt for human helps in the knowledge of
Scripture, may assume two opposite forms, one of intel-
lectual pride, and the other of fanatical presumption. It is
hard to say which is the mDre dangerous. The former
neglects or denies the promise of the Spirit, and professes
to rely on human industry alone. The latter abuses the
promise of the Holy Ghost, in order to justify a neglect
of helps which he himself has graciously provided for the
people of Christ, and to disguise a rash confidence in
the hasty and unripe conclusions of one's own private un-
derstanding.

The Bible is a rich treasury of Divine truth. But the
nature and purpose of this record, as designed for the in-
struction of the Church, in every age, requires the truth
to be given in its most condensed form. It is perfect for
the object for which it was really given, but not for other
objects, for which distinct and collateral provision was also
made. One of the chief of these is the expansion of the
truth contained in the Scriptures, and its application to the
varying circumstances and characters of individuals, and to
the multiplied changes and experience of the whole Church
ot Christ. For this end a living ministry was expressly
ordained, both under the Law and the Grospel, and its im-
portance for the instruction and guidance of believers is
commended in the strongest terms. A nursery full of seeds
does not exclude, but requires, the labor and care of many
gardeners, if its own purpose is to be really fulfilled, and
countless landscapes are to be adorned with the fruits of
Autumn and the flowers of Spring. The Bible is such a

278 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

spiritual nursery; and the answer of the Ethiopian eunucL
to Philip's inquiry, " How can I understand, except scinie
man shall guide me?" expresses the usual law of God's
providence in the use of human agents and ministers, to
convey the clear knowledge of its truths to their fellow-men.
It would be most unwise, it is true, for the youthful stu-
dent to begin his course by collecting a cumbrous apparatus
of human authors, instead of coming directly and simply to
the words of Scripture, with the honest desire to learn from
them their true meaning. Such a plan would hedge up his
way with thorns, and render very difficult any real access
to the truth of God. But it is hardly less unwise to imagine
that he will advance most safely and rapidly by rejecting
all the labors of critics and theologians, and relying on his
own skill and industry alone. Theology is the first and
noblest of the sciences. The Bible supplies the materials,
in rich variety, by which alone that science can be attained.
But it needs much patient thought, much meditation on
Divine things, the comparison of spiritual things with spir-
itual in prayer and humility, in order to "wax ripe and
strong " in the knowledge of Christ, and to pass out of
spiritual infancy into the firm intelligence of full manhood,
or the ripened wisdom of the "fathers in Christ." Where,
in the providence of God, other helps are denied, it may be
hard to assign a limit to the Christian light and wisdom,
which may be attained by solitary meditation on the Scrip-
tures alone. But such circumstances, and such a Baptist-
like calling, are exceptional and rare. In most cases it is
either laziness or pride, which leads a young Christian to
dispense with the aid derivable from human teachers and
writings, and either heresy, or great spiritual barrenness, is
the only result which can be expected to follow. Direct
meditation on the Word of God ought ever to take preced-
ence of the study even of the best human critics or com-

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 279

inentators. Direct comparison of truth with truth, and
Scripture with Scripture, far more than a perusal of the
soundest system of divinity, must be the basis of a living
and real theology. But contempt for the aid of theolog-
ical writings is always an unhealthy sign, whether it arises
from the mere self-conceit of intellectual pride, or disguises
itself under a vail of spiritual phrases, and a claim to a
simple dependence on the promised guidance of the Spirit
of God. It is not the lazy or the self-conceited, but the
humble and diligent, to whom the promise belongs, of being
guided by teaching of that blessed Spirit into all truth.

IV. The question with regard to the single and double,
or triple sense of Scripture, its types and symbolisms, and
real or supposed hidden meanings, is far too wide to enter
upon at the close of this chapter. But a few remarks
seem required, on that charge of total uncertainty, which
has been brought against the whole mass of received Bibli-
cal interpretation. "The book," it is asserted, "in which
we believe all religious truth to be contained, is the most
uncertain of all books, because interpreted by arbitrary and
uncertain methods."

Is this a true and just accusation? The heart and con-
science of every devout and intelligent Christian will answer
at once, that it is a monstrous inversion of the truth. No
doubt if we collect in one mass, all that has been written
on the Bible, in criticism, commentary, and controversy, for
eighteen hundred years, and seek to winnow out all the
chaff of error, ignorance, heresy, and folly, we may be al-
most choked and stifled by its vast amount. But this is due
to the immense variety of the Biblical literature, reaching
through so many ages and countries of the world, and en-
countering a thousand tendencies to delusion and error in
the hearts of men. If we take, on the one hand, those
views of Christian doctrine and duty, which tens of

280 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

tliousands of humble and earnest disciples are receiving
daily from their study of .the Word of God, though tinged
and colored, here and there, by the influences of education,
personal feeling, and local or ecclesiastical tradition; or
single out those works of theology, which have formed and
molded the main current of our Christian literature, there
will be found a great and even marvelous unity, both in the
simpler outlines of Divine truth, and in its fuller and more
scientific development. The impression of complexity, dis-
order, and confusion, of which such complaints are made,
and which are used to terrify the young students into a
total rejection of Christian theology, is like the result which
would be produced if we were to collect all the mistakes
of astronomical theories and calculations, from the time of
the Chaldeans downward, mingling them with all the dreams
of astrology, and then should advise the young astronomer
to reject all instruments, and all mathematical theories of the
solar and starry systems, with the copious accumulation
of facts in so many observatories, and to betake himself,
with the naked eye alone, to direct the study of the heavens.
This would be no progress into clearer light, but a back-
ward plunge into childish ignorance again. Astronomy is
the most certain of all the sciences. But this certainty is
not gained by resting in the first impressions of the senses
on the motions of the stars, but by using them and multi-
plying them by assiduous observation, increasing their accu-
racy by instrumental aids, and thus rising through them,
and beyond them, to a knowledge of the true system of the
starry universe.

The same law applies to Christian theology. It can not
be gained by neglecting the letter of the Scriptures; but it
will never be reached by a superficial, self-confident ap-
proach to them, in the neglect of all aid from Christian
teachers and guides, as human writings to be scanned by

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 281

critical industry alone. The Bible is the most certain
of all books, and its theology the surest and highest of all
sciences, when it is read with prayer, with humility, witt
perseverance, in dependence on the promised teaching of
the Spirit of "God, and in the use of all the varied helps
which he has provided for his Church, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual, searching for heavenly wisdom as for
hidden treasure. And this certainty rests upon the firm-
est ground, the direct promise of Grod himself, given to
every humble and sincere inquirer — "If thou criest after
knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if
thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid
treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord,

and find the knowledge of God."

24

282 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

CHAPTER^ XIII.

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE.

The apparent discordance between different statements in
the histories of the Bible has often been made a powerful
objection to the doctrine of its inspiration. The subject is
one which naturally branches out into many details, impos-
sible to compress within narrow limits. I shall, therefore,
in the present chapter, confine myself chiefly to some gen-
eral remarks, on some of the main difficulties which have
perplexed the minds of many inquirers, and obscured their
faith in the Divine authority of the Word of God.

1. Every word of Grod is pure, and, when it proceeds
from its Divine source, must be free from all error. Such
is the instinctive conviction of every devout and intelligent
mind. On the other hand, the Bible is not strictly and ab-
solutely free from all error, in the shape in which it actually
reaches the great majority of its readers. Translations,
however trustworthy, are not completely perfect. The
transmission of the text, by copyists, may introduce a
small amount of deviation from the first original. In
so large a work, numbers and names in the genealogies are
peculiarly liable to suffer from successive transcriptions. It
is thus admitted fully, by all well-informed critics and
divines, that the inspiration of the Bible does not require
or secure theoretic and mathematical freedom from error,
when it reaches the great bulk of its readers, and fulfills
its gr'sat practical object, as a revelation to mankind at
large Slight errors of transmission and translation may

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE. 283

intrude, and have intruded, without destroying its authority
and inspiration, or detracting in any perceptible degree from
its practical worth.

2. Some writers, starting from this admission, have been
disposed to proceed a step further. While admitting, per-
haps, an ideal perfection of the Divine messages, before
they are clothed in words, they suppose them to contract a
degree of error and imperfection, as soon as they are em-
bodied in human language. The substance of the thought,
or doctrine, is owned to be Divine, but all the details, the
phrases, the form, the historical circumstances, are supposed
to be liable to mistake, and partial falsehood. In this way
all difficulties, arising from apparent contradictions and his-
torical discrepancies, are, in their judgment, easily and
entirely removed. In the Gospels, for example, harmonists
are rebuked for striving to establish an agreement which
does not exist, and for refusing to see numerous contradic-
tions between the different narratives; and when they ought
rather to have owned freely this human imperfection in the
Evangelists, and only to have seen in it a proof of their
honesty, and of the substantial truth of the message so
variously given.

This view, however simple and plausible it may appear
at the first glance, is open to two grave and insurmountable
difficulties. First, it evacuates the force of all those pas-
sages in which our Lord and his apostles appeal to the
written Word, not only in the mass, but even in the sep-
arate clauses, reason upon the force of single words, and
affirm that "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than
for one tittle of the law to fail." And next, it seems to
annul, to a great extent, the main purpose for which the
messages of God were recorded in a written form. This
purpose was evidently to secure at once the purity and the
permanence of revealed truth, which, in mere oral tradition.

284 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

is liable either to be corrupted by false additions, or to
fade away into gradual oblivion. Now, so far as human
error was permitted to intrude into the original writing, this
object would be precisely reversed. As far as this intrusion
extends, error would be imposed with the sanction of truth
on every later age, would receive a wider currency, and
acquire a greater permanence than it could otherwise have
attained.

This view, then, of an intermittent, imperfect inspiration,
which would leave room for an undefined amount of histor-
ical error, and maintain a substantial truth of doctrine
alone, removes seeming difficulties, by abandoning the double
evidence, d priori and a posteriori, from reason and from
the express testimony of our Lord, on which the doctrine
itself depends. It must therefore be, in almost every in-
stance, a mere landing-place, either in the departure from
traditional faith, into an entire rejection of the Bible, or in
the upward progress to a fuller and firmer acceptance
of its truth, and of its entire authority over the consciences
of men.

3. Let us inquire, then, whether the difficulties which
have seemed so formidable to some critics and divines, re-
tain their force on a closer examination ; or whether they
are not really phantoms which disappear before a rigid and
exact inquiry.

Here, first of all, it is needful to get rid of an ambigu-
ity, by which the true question has often been obscured.
Discrepancy may be used in the sense either of simple
divergence or of positive contradiction. Difl"erences of the
former kind can create no real difficulty. When two or
three inspired accounts are given of the same general series
of events, there is no reason, but quite the reverse, why
one should simply repeat the other, without any variation.
By this means, in reality, nearly the whole benefit of a

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE. 285

double and triple testimony would be lost. It was a maxim
of the law, that "in the mouth of two or three witnesses
every word should be established." But, to fulfill this law,
it is needful that the testimonies should be really distinct.
Some partial divergence in the details recorded, or in the
molding of the narrative, is plainly desirable, and almost
essential, that this main object of a plural testimony may
be fully attained. It is only such divergence as implies a
direct and real contradiction, or the partial falsehood of one
statement, which can furnish a real argument against
plenary and complete inspiration.

4. Again, one statement of the true doctrine of inspira-
tion is found in those words of the apostle, that " Grod at
sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past to
the fathers by the prophets." Here three truths are con-
tained, with a gradation in their importance, which com-
plete the true and full idea of Divine inspiration. First, it
was God himself who spoke by the prophets. The mes-
sages are truly and properly the words of God. Next, he
spoke by the prophets, not by copying machines, but by
living men, who were also "holy men of God." 2 Pet. i,
21. This teaches us that the human faculties of the mes-
sengers were not superseded, but fully employed. St. Luke
wrote after having gained "perfect information of the facts
from the beginning;" and St. Paul's epistles were written
"according to the wisdom given unto him." The first
phrase excludes a lax and partial inspiration; and the sec-
ond, a mechanical dictation, in which the natural and spir-
itual endowments of the messengers, instead of being
perfected, are set aside. Thirdly, it was "in many parts
and many modes or forms." One feature in the Scriptures,
thus prominently stated, is the freedom and variety of the
types or molds in which various portions of it are cast.
There is here implied the retention, in each case, of special

286 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

and individual characters, arising from tlie form of tht
communication — as history, Psalm, proverb, or prophecy —
and also from the distinct position of every writer. The
diversity arising from the human authorship is here recog-
nized as one part of the truth, side by side with the unity
of their common character as being alike the messages of
God. But this principle will clearly have the fullest appli-
wcation to parallel histories; since here the distinctness and
concurrence of testimonies must be one chief object implied
in the very form of the revelation. Sameness would thus
defeat one main purpose for which the parallel histories are
given. In these cases, of which the chief instances are
Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament, and the four
Gospels in the New, it is most reasonable, even on the
view of their plenary inspiration, to expect the fullest
measure of diversity, which is consistent with the general
sameness of the narrative, and with the avoidance of pos-
itive contradiction.

5. The Scriptures, again, are a selection of truth in its
most condensed form, to suit their purpose as a compre-
hensive and permanent record, which, if it became too vo-
luminous, would fail of its main object, and cease to be
generally accessible. This character runs throughout the
whole of the Bible. Within one volume of moderate size
we have a sacred history, ranging through four thousand
years, copious patterns of devotion, proverbs of wisdom,
sacred dramas, meditations on human life and its vanity,
prophecies of the events of distant ages, four biographies
of our Lord, a brief and full history of the apostolic
Church, and various letters containing an ample outline of
Christian doctrine, duty, and experience. The contrast be-
tween the brevity of Scripture and the ample material out
of which the selection is made, is expressed at the close
of the fourth Gospel: "And there are many other things

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIHLE. 287

which Jesus did, which, if they should be written every
one, I suppose th;it even the world itself could not contain
the books that should be written." So, in the last book
of Scripture, the prophet, in one case, is expressly restrained
from writing what he has seen and heard, while in other
cases a repeated command to write is given him.

Now, this remark sets aside at once a frequent source of
false reasoning and critical illusion. The silence of a sacred
historian about certain facts, is no proof, and even no pre-
sumption, that they were unknown to him. It is quite
enough to account for their absence, if they did not fall
within the special scope of his message. To take one in-
stance, it has often been said that St. Matthew knows
nothing of Joseph's original home being Nazareth, and that
St. Luke knows nothing of the flight into Egypt, or of the
visit of the wise men. There is no warrant whatever for
either statement. Silence is here no proof of ignorance;
and the range of the narrative of each writer is no reason-
able measure of the extent of his knowledge. None of
them professes to write all that he knew. The last of them
affirms the exact opposite in the strongest terms. It is
clear, from the fourth Gospel, that St. Matthew must have
been present at the resurrection of Lazarus, and still the
name never occurs in the first Gospel. A similar remark
applies to the two others. This great miracle belonged to
the visits to Judea, which are systematically left out in the
earlier accounts of the Galilean ministry. So, again, the
mission of the Seventy must have been well known, both to
St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. John, who make no allusion
to it whatever. In like manner, St. Matthew's special ob-
ject, which was to show the fulfillment of the prophecies
in the person of Christ, made Bethlehem, his predicted
birthplace, the natural starting-point in his statement;
while the his;Orical character of St. Luke made it equally

288 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOCJGnT.

natural to record the place where Mary received the promist
of the incarnation, and explain how a decree of the Roman
Emperor led to the temporary removal to Bethlehem^ and
thus was the means of securing the fulfillment of Micah's
prophecy.

6. Once more, the truth of history does not preclude, in
its own nature, all variety in the order of arrangement
Events, it is true, can only happen in one succession; but
all history implies a grouping of actions and discourses by
a reference to other links than those of sequence alone.
The two main laws of history are these, that events shall
be grouped together according to the intimacy of their con-
nection, and that each group shall be placed as nearly as
possible in the order of time. The larger and fuller the
groups that are formed, and the wider will be the deviation
from a single chronological series. And thus histories often
become less strictly chronological, as the historian discerns
more clearly the causes of events, and has the skill to ar-
range them by a deeper law than that of mere sequence in
time. All discrepancies, then, in the Gospels, which consist
only in differences of arrangement, are of no force to imply
contradiction or falsehood, unless the true order of occur-
rence has, in both cases, been plainly affirmed.

7. Historical statements, again, have something which
they assert, and something else which is merely probable
inference, but will commonly be inferred in the absence
of fuller evidence. Each of them is like a planet, with its
solid nucleus of fact, and an attached atmosphere of prob-
able conclusions. Let two planets come into contact, and
the mass will be unaltered, but their atmospheres will be
completely changed, and melt into one. So, when two tes-
timonies concur, though equally true, each will usually
modify the conclusions that would have been drawn from
the other, while it stood alone. We might conclude, for

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE. 289

instance, from Num. xvi, that Korah, Dathau, and Abiram,
all perished with their families; but Num. xxvi, 11, correct
this hasty inference, for it tells us plainly that "the chil-
dren of Korah died not." From Matt, xxi, 18, 21, we
might easily suppose that the fig-tree cursed by our Lord
withered at once under the eyes of the disciples; but from
8t. Mark's account it is plain that a day and a night inter-
vened before the result was noticed, and led to that impres-
sive conversation. Again, from Luke ii, 39, we might
infer that the return to Nazareth was immediately after the
legal rites had been performed; but we find from St. Mat-
thew that the flight into Egypt came between. In each
case there is no real contradiction. We have only to cor-
rect, by fuller evidence, natural but unproved inferences
from the original statement. There is contact, but no col-
lision. The atmospheres only are altered, and two sets of
mere inferences, that were incompatible, have been harmo-
nized together.

When these truths are borne in mind, there will be left
only a few discrepancies, comparatively, in the pages of the
Bible, which bear any signs of involving a real contradic
tion. It would be needless to trouble ourselves, in these
cases, to discover probable or possible modes of reconcilia-
tion, from any inherent importance of these variations.
They affect the practical worth of the Bible as little as
floating specks in the air can lessen the brightness of the
sun at noonday. It is simply the proneness of men to find
excuses for escaping from the authority of God's messages,
and the reverence due to the clear and full statements of
him whose name is the Truth, which give importance to the
inquiry It should ever be remembered that the authority
of the Scriptures over the conscience of the Christian
does not depend on their reaching us in a form absolutely

free from the least trace of error, or on our ability to

25

290 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

decide the exact point in the course of transmission, where
any slight error, if proved to exist, has found entrance. It
depends on the fact that these are the words of prophets,
and apostles, and evangelists, messengers whose commission
has been ratified by the voice of Christ himself, or by signs
and wonders, and supernatural gifts of the Spirit of Grod.
This authority attaches directly to their whole contents, and
must belong to every part, till we have some direct and
positive reason to except it from the rest; whether because
it can be shown to deviate from the original text, or be-
cause it involves some form of provable inaccuracy and
contradiction. This negative evidence, also, can only serve
to prune off the particular text, or passage, where such a
contradiction is found; unless the cases were so numerous,
and so inwrought into the texture of the work, as to make
it unreasonable to refer them to a corruption of the copies,
Dr to some momentary negligence, at the first, in recording
a perfect Divine message.

It would require a volume to enter in detail into the
various cases in which a charge of inconsistency has been
brought against the Bible histories. I will confine myself
to a brief notice of those which have been alleged by two
very different authorities, and different schools of thought;
first, in the Seventh Essay, which seems almost entirely to
set aside all the authority of the Bible as the Word of
God, and a fountain of certain truth; and, secondly, in
Dean Alford's able work on the New Testament, where a
lax and lowered view of inspiration is joined with a firm
and full maintenance of all the great outlines and doctrines
of the Christian faith.

I. The following are the chief grounds alleged in the
Seventh Essay, for refusing to the Evangelists the character
of "perfect accuracy or agreement."

1. First, one supposes the original dwelling-place of our

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF TUE BIBLE. 291

Lord's parents to have been Bethlehem, another Nazareth.
Matt, ii, 1, 22; Luke ii, 4. Eleven or twelve pages in
Strauss's "Leben Jesu," are occupied with a laborious
development of this objection.

This difficulty arises solely from a neglect of the fifth
previous remark. St. Matthew says nothing about Bethle-
hem as the "original dwelling-place" of Joseph and Mary,
but introduces it simply as the place where Jesus was born.
Nay, on looking closely, we have a clear sign that he did
not regard it as the original dwelling-place. Why else
should the mention of it be delayed till the visit of the
magi, and not given at once on the first mention of Joseph
and his vision? Why not have said, "When his mother
Mary was espoused to Joseph at Bethlehem," if Bethlehem,
in the first passage as well as the second, were supposed to
be the true scene of the occurrence? The argument from
Matt, ii, 22, is equally destitute of real force. For the
natural conclusion that Joseph and Mary would draw from
the signal wonders at Bethlehem, and from their own views
of the expected Messiah, would make them infer that
Judea, and the city of David, were the proper place for
the education of the infant Jesus. This is confirmed by
John vii, 42, which shows the popular impression to have
been precisely what Matt, ii, 22, implies in the mind of
Joseph, that Bethlehem was not only to be the birthplace
of Messiah, but also the scene of his life before his public
work began.

2. "They trace his genealogy in two different ways."
This is the old difficulty, which has been so often answered.
When we remember that our Lord's birth was supernatural ;
that he had a real mother and a reputed father; that the
genealogy by his reputed father, which would naturally be
assigned to him, though his in a legal and improper sense,
was not that by which he really took on him our nature,

292 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

but that he was "man of the substance of his mother,*' and
of her alone; the presence of two distinct genealogies, one
improperly his, but properly of Joseph, and the other im-
properly Joseph's, but his in strictest propriety, instead of a
real difficulty, is in direct harmony with the great doctrine
of the incarnation.

3. "One mentions the thieves' blasphemy; the other has
preserved the record of the penitent thief"

Two steps are here wanting, to form a real contradiction.
First, if St. Matthew had distinctly affirmed that each of the
two malefactors had blasphemed our Lord, this could not
prove an after-repentance on the part of one of them to be
impossible and untrue. We might then have expected
some allusion to his own more recent offense; but it would
not be essential for St. Luke to mention every word of his
penitent confession. In the next place, St. Matthew does
not make the statement separately, concerning each of the
two thieves, any more than each of the passers-by, or each
of the chief priests, the scribes, and elders. He describes
the conduct of three classes, using in each case the same
plural term. In the two former cases, where the individ-
uals are many, no one infers that the general statement be-
longs separately to each individual. Of thousands who
passed by, there might be only a few who used the words,
"Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three
days, save thyself" The same is probably true of the
chief priests, scribes, and elders. The rest of the class,
even by their silence, were involved in a common guilt, and
included in a common description. The case of the two
thieves may have been, and probably was, exactly similar.
The malignant conduct of three classes, the multitudes, the
chief priests and scribes, and the malefactors, are given in
St. Matthew; and the exceptions of remorse and pity, the
wailing of the women, the people who beheld and smote

ON ALLKGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE. 293

their breasts, the confession of the penitent thief, the half-
hidilen under-currents of natural or godly sorrow, are
recorded by St. Luke. There is thus unity of character in
each account, and a real consistency between them.

4. " They appear to differ about the day and hour of the
crucifixion." This objection may be answered in the words
of another essayist, that "if it be merely one of appear-
ances, and not of realities, it can teach us nothing." An
objector, who states his difficulty in this manner, can not
be very sure of his own ground.

In what sense do they "appear to differ" as to the day?
No event could be more deeply graven on their memories.
In none could a mistake of the day be, in itself, more in-
credible. They all refer it to the Friday in the week of
the Passover. The supposed difference is not in the day
of the crucifixion, for the weekly cycle is fixed and certain,
but in the week-date, that year, of the Jewish Passover.
Even this diversity, I believe, is an "appearance," and not
a reality. The misunderstanding of one text in the fourth
Grospel, is the only reason for supposing that it contradicts
the consenting evidence of the three others, which all rep-
resent Thursday as the evening of the Paschal Supper, and
Friday as the holiday, or great festal day. The difficulty
about the hour is equally an appearance. For a comparisoD
of John xviii, 28; xix, 14, with the few incidents between
them, seems decisive in favor of Townson's view, that the
hours in St. John date from midnight, like our own; ano
on this supposition all the statements agree fully with each
other.

5. "The narrative of the woman who anointed the Lord
is told in all four, but each has more or less considerable
variations." It is here assumed that the event, in all the
four Gospels, is the same. But the account in St. Luke
differs in every particular, excepting the anointing only.

294 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

It was in a city of dalilee, while the other was in Judea,
in the village of Bethany. It was before that circuit of
Galilee, at the close of which our Lord began to speak in
parables; and the other was a few days before the crucifix-
ion. The woman, in one case, was a notorious sinner; in
the other, the sister of the mistress who entertained our
Lord, and of one of the guests who sat by his side. The
motive, in one case, was gratitude for special sins forgiven;
and in the other, for loving intimacy, and a brother raised
from the dead. The objector, the objection, the reply, the
promise, are all entirely distinct, and even plainly incom-
patible. Even the parting words alone, "go in peace,"
which prove the woman to have been a stranger in the
party, and could never have been applied to Mary in her
sister's house, with Lazarus at the table, are enough to
prove that the two events are wholly different. When the
blunder of confounding them has been rectified, the three
accounts of the later anointing at Bethany have no contra-
diction whatever. There is only some uncertainty, whether
St. John has placed it a little earlier, or the two others a
little later, than its exact time. The latter opinion seems
rather more probable, since it forms a parenthesis in both
Gospels; but either view implies no real contradiction.

These are selected examples of inaccuracy in the Gos-
pels; and there is not one of them, when fairly examined,
which justifies the least charge of real contradiction. But
we are instructed to make a catalogue "with the view of
estimating their cumulative weight; since it is obvious that
the answer, which might be admitted in the case of a sin-
gle discrepancy, will not be the true answer, if there are
many." Here there is a neglect of the principle in the
third of the previous remarks. Discrepancies, in the wider
sense of the word, are not contradictions. On the contrary,
a real diversity to the full extent that truth will allow, is

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE. 295

one essential feature of the Grospel narratives. It is the
way by which they could fulfill the malu purpose for which
the history was given in this form, so as to satisfy the legal
requirement — "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall
every word be established." For automata, however high
the influence that directs their movements, are not, and can
not be, witnesses. This supposes an intelligent person, who
uses his own senses, consults his own memory, and describes
or narrates occurrences which he has seen, or which have
been told him by others, from a point of sight peculiarly
his own. We have just seen six or seven discrepancies, in-
volving no single case of contradiction. Multiply such
cases a hundredfold, and the truth of the Scriptures will
remain unimpaired by their "cumulative evidence."

II. The same general hypothesis, of partial inaccuracy
and contradiction in the Gospels, has obtained of late a
wider currency through Dean Alford's valuable work, in
connection with a reverent and Christian tone of thought,
and critical labors worthy of high esteem. The high repu-
tation of the author, and the extensive use of the work
among theological students, appear to justify a few remarks
in this place. If the view be supported by strong evidence,
there would be a sinful want of candor in refusing to accept
it through any fear of consequences, since truth alone is
safe, and error of all kinds is dangerous. But if the rea-
soning is misty and obscure, and the view a groundless
concession, without evidence, to superficial criticism, it must
be like a dead fly in precious ointment; and some caution
against its acceptance, even on such authority, belongs
clearly to the object of the present work.

1. The real discrepancies, according to this able writer,
" are very few, and nearly all of one kind. They are sim-
ply the results of the entire independence of the accounts.
They consist merely in difl'erent chronological arrangements."

296 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Such are the transpositions of the passage to the Gradarenes
Matt, viii, 28; Mark v, 1; Luke viii, 26; and the difference
of position of the incidents in Matt, viii, 19-22; Luke ix,
57-61. The way of dealing with such discrepancies has
been twofold. Enemies of the faith have recognized them,
and pushed them to the utmost, often attempting to create
them where they do not exist. Equally unworthy of the
Evangelists has been the course of those who are called the
orthodox harmonists. They have usually taken upon them
to state that such narratives do not refer to. the same inci-
dents, and so to save, as they imagine, the credit of the
Evangelists, at the expense of common fairness and candor.
"The fair Christian critic, with no desire to create discrep-
ancies, will candidly recognize them where they unquestion-
ably exist. ... If the arrangement itself were matter of
Divine inspiration, then we have no right to vary it in the
slightest degree." (Prol., pp. 12, 13, 19.)

There is here, I think, no little confusion of thought.
First, accounts written under the common guidance and
especial control of the Spirit of God, can not possibly be
"entirely independent," Such a description, rigorously
taken, excludes inspiration altogether. It makes them of
self-interpretation, because they have come solely by the
will of man; and would set aside their higher character,
as parts in one harmonious and Divine scheme of revela-
tion, in which "holy men of God spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost."

Next, differences of arrangement involve contradiction
and error, only in cases where every event is fixed by clear
notes of time, or where the writer has professed his pur-
pose to adhere throughout to the exact chronological
succession. But this does not apply to the case of the
Gospels. St. Luke is the only one who expressly states his
purpose to write xaOi^rjq, or "in order," and we have clear

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE. 297

proof that in the whole book of Acts, and at least one-
half of the Gospel, the design has been fulfilled. The
inversions that have probable evidence belong mainly to
St. Matthew, and except perhaps in one or two instances,
wherever there is likelihood of such an inversion, there is
no direct note of the true sequence in time. Thus in Matt.
ix, 2, the words, " And behold," may very well introduce a
new incident, though its true date, as we learn from the
two other Gospels, was before the return from Gadara.

The idea that inspiration would forbid a historian to
arrange his materials, except by mere sequence, like the
writer of an almanac or annual register, has no show of
reason or common-sense in its favor. Events have other
laws of connection than simple sequence, and narratives,
whether inspired or uninspired, have other objects to fulfill
than those of a table of chronology. In the first Gospel
there seems a plain reason for a partial departure from the
strict order of time, in order to bring together, early in its
course, two or three cardinal discourses of our Lord, the
Sermon on the Mount, and the commission of the apostles.
No one has a right to alter the arrangement of the Gospels
as inspired narratives; but no one has a right to assume,
invariably, that the order of mention was conceived by the
writer to be the order of time, and then to impute false-
hood and error to the words of inspiration, because of an
assumption destitute of all reason.

The censure which has been freely thrown, here and
elsewhere, on the orthodox harmonists, is due mainly to
some mistiness and confusion of thought. If these harmo-
nists advanced their own conclusions as absolutely certain,
and not merely as the most probable view at which they
were able to arrive of the true succession of the events,
they would be worthy of real blame. But this the best and
wisest of them have not done. On the other hand, it is no

298 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

slight inconsistency, into which some critics who censure
them have fallen, to maintain that distinct narratives are
not really inconsistent, and still to decry, one by one, every
possible alternative of their harmony, as strained, improb-
able, and incredible. This clamor against harmonies is, in
reality, a slight infusion of the mythical theory, which has
tainted unconsciously the views of some critics, otherwise
orthodox and sound. If our Lord's life be a reality and not
a fiction, then all the events in the four Gospels must have
had a real sequence in time. The four narratives, if they
furnish materials, ^n the one hand, for a full conception of
our Lord's spiritual character, furnish them, also, for a
definite biographical outline in the true order of succession.
It may not be easy to attain the full ideal conception, or
the precise historical reality, but we may approach to each
of them. The limit, on either side, is a perfect doctrinal
christology, and a perfect chronological harmony. But
if we aim at one, and proscribe and defame all attempts to
reach the other, then we sacrifice the historical reality of
our Lord's life to the spiritual idea, and are taking the
first step toward the Straussian or mythical pole of infidel
delusion.

2. " It is more consistent with the fair interpretation
of the text, to suppose that Matthew himself was not aware
of the events, Luke i, ii, and wrote under the impression
that Bethlehem was the original dwelling-place; certainly,
had we only his Gospel, his inference would be universally
made."

!Now, since it is owned that his narrative contains
"nothing inconsistent" with St. Luke, this supposition im-
plies no contradiction. It would rather prove a special
control of the Spirit of God, whereby the writers, though
in partial ignorance, were still kept from all real incon-
sistency. But the inference has really no warrant but a

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE. 299

superficial view of the history. Once let us realize the
natural effect of the special revelations on the minds of
Joseph and Mary, and compare them with the popular view
of Micah's prophecy, as including the education of Messiah,
no less than his birth — John vii, 46 — and the need of a
fresh message to induce a removal to Galilee will appear
perfectly natural. In fact, the opposite view really implies
that St. Matthew invented the incident recorded in ii, 22.
For if the fact of Joseph's original residence at Nazareth
is consistent with his need of such a message from God,
then the Evangelist's knowledge of the fact must be equally
consistent with his statement, that such a message was
given.

3. "As the two accounts now stand, it is wholly impos-
sible to suggest any satisfactory method of uniting them:
whoever has attempted it has violated probability and com-
mon-sense. On the other hand, it is impossible to say thai
they could not be reconciled by a thorough knowledge of
the facts themselves. If St. Luke had seen St. Matthew's
Gospel, or vice versd^ the variations are utterly inexplicable;
and the greatest absurdities are involved in the writings
of those who assume this, and then proceed to harmo-
nize. Of the presentation, etc., Matthew's account knows
nothing; of the visit of the magi, the murder of the inno-
cents, and the fiight to Egypt, Luke is unaware."

These remarks are more difficult by far to reconcile with
each other, and with the inspiration of both Gospels, than
the two accounts themselves. First, if it were impossible for
St. Luke to have written as he has done, if he had seen
St. Matthew's account, how is it possible for the Holy
Spirit, by whom his writing was controlled, and who cer-
tainly must have known the precise nature of the other
record, to have allowed him to dispose it in such a form, or
to make such omissions? Why should the very same fact,

300 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the existence of St. Matthew's account, be a decisive reason
with the Holy Spirit, for directing the second narrative of
the infancy into this particular form, and a decisive reason
to the Evangelist, if it were known, rendering that form
impossible? Is it essential to the character of a sacred
historian, that his views on the choice and right disposition
of his materials should be directly the reverse of those
which the facts themselves require us to ascribe to the Spirit
of God?

Next, it is a plain contradiction to suppose that every
attempted union of the two accounts is a violation of com-
mon-sense and probability, and still to imagine that they
may be reconciled by facts now unknown. The flight to
Egypt, if a real fact, must have occurred after the Present-
ation, since the interval before it is plainly too short for the
journey. It must either, then, come before the return to
Nazareth in Luke ii, 39, or there must have been a later
return to Bethlehem, and a later return to Nazareth again.
The first is the simple and natural view, adopted by most
harmonists — the latter a possible, but much less probable
alternative. To style them both violations of common-sense,
and still to hold that the two accounts are true and recon-
cilable, if other facts were known, is to overlook and con-
tradict the very nature of the problem. The converse rea-
soning is clearly irresistible. If both accounts are true, the
flight to Egypt must have occurred, either before the Pre-
sentation, or after it, and before the return to Nazareth in
St. Luke, or else after that return. But the first is impos-
sible from the limits of time, and the third is improbable.
Therefore the second must be highly probable; and either
the second or third, instead of violating probability, must
be certainly true.

4. "The reconciliation of the two genealogies has never
been accomplished; and every attempt to do it has violated

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE. 301

either ingenuousness or common-sense. The two genealo-
gies are both the line of Joseph, and not of Mary."

Now, since almost every conceivable variety has been
proposed, if both genealogies are inspired, some one of
these solutions must not only be possible, but the very
truth, designed by the Holy Spirit when both were given.
The above remark is thus harder to reconcile with com-
mon-sense than the harmonies it condemns. It is even in
direct contradiction with the remark which follows it. For
if both the genealogies are Joseph's, since he could not
have two real fathers, either the main principle of Gi-rotius,
that Heli was his natural and Jacob his legal father, or
the opposite view, that Jacob was the real, and Heli his
legal father, must plainly be true. But if one of two al-
ternatives is clearly true, they can not, both of them, be
violations of common-sense and probability. In fact, the
usual view, that St. Luke has given the true genealogy, and
that Heli was the father-in-law of Joseph, may be estab-
lished alike by external and internal evidence ; and the re-
lapse from it into a different solution has created artificial
difficulties, where simple-minded believers find only a deep
harmony of Divine wisdom.

5. "A comparison of Luke iv, 16-24, with Matthew xiii,
53-58, Mark vi, 1-6, entered on without bias, can scarcely
fail to convince us of their identity. That he should have
been thus treated at his first visit, and then marveled at
their unbelief on his second, is utterly impossible. That
the same question should have been twice asked, and an-
swered with the same proverb, is highly improbable. The
words ' whatever we have heard,' must refer to more than
one miracle. Here the order of St. Luke begins to be
confused.'.'

Now. since St. Luke openly professes his purpose to
write "in order," and with perfect knowledge of all things

302 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

from the very first, the view in this extract does imply »
real inaccuracy and contradiction in the Gospels. For the
visit to Nazareth in St'. Matthew and St. Mark is plainly
made to follow the parables, and the raising of the ruler's
daughter, and comes shortly before the mission of the
Twelve. Hence, if St. Luke speaks of the same visit, the
very first event he names in our Lord's ministry is wholly
out of its true order, is tran.sferred from the later half of
the period to its first beginning, and even fastened to a
wrong place by the words at the close. For St. Luke
plainly describes the course of teaching at Capernaum, and
the cure of the demoniac, as results which followed our
Lord's escape from the Nazarenes.

When we read the accounts, however, without bias, it
seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that two difierent
visits are described. The first, in St. Luke, instead of an-
swering to Matt, xiii, 53-58, answers plainly to the brief
notice in Matt, iv, 13 — " And leaving Nazareth, he came ana
dwelt in Capernaum." A visit- to his own city, at the
opening of his ministry, is there evidently implied; and St.
Luke simply gives us the full particulars of that conduct,
which led our Savior to leave Nazareth, and choose another
center for his Galilean ministry. The passage chosen, and
the brief comment, evidently suit the public opening of his
message in Galilee, and lose most of their force, if they are
placed eighteen months or two years later. The words
"as his custom was," agree with the same view. For he
must have been accustomed, up to the opening of his min-
istry, to have frequented this very synagogue on each Sab-
bath day, which custom was now broken ofl* by the conduct
of the Nazarenes. But if referred to a later time, all the
special force of the words is lost, and they would apply
less to this synagogue than to almost any other. In the
visit in St. Mark he wrought some miracles, even in Naza-

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF THE BIBLE. 303

reth, on a few sick folks, but the account in St. Luke
makes such a result of that visit clearly impossible. In
fact the whole tone of the two narratives, their beginning,
middle, and close, are quite diflfereut.

Two reasons alone are urged for confounding the visits
in ont:. First, that our Lord could not possibly have mar-
veled at their unbelief, if they had rejected him with vio-
lence already. But even viewing the facts in a purely
human light, there is no force in this objection. Unde-
served violence, and open wrong done to those whom it was
a duty to honor, often produce a strong reaction. By com-
paring Mark iii, 31-35, it is probable that the second visit
was at the request of some of the Nazarencs, who had be-
come ashamed of their violence, when the miracles and
fame of Jesus were past dispute. In this case their sullen
persistence in unbelief would be more surprising, even to a
human view, because the force of his miracles had made
them ashamed of their brutal violence. But the true force
of the words lies still deeper. They do not mean that our
Lord was taken by surprise ; but simply teach how strange
a madness unbelief, in its more aggravated forms, must be
reckoned in the eyes of One who is perfectly holy.

The other reason, from the repeated use of the same
proverb, becomes a strong proof, on a closer view, of the
distinctness of the visits, and not of their sameness. For
when our Lord's ministry was hardly begun, and his name
scarcely known in Galilee, he quotes it in the negative
form: "No prophet is accepted in his own country." But
when, after eighteen months of preaching, with constant
miracles of Divine power, his fame was widely spread, and
all G-alilee looked up to him as a "great prophet," in whom
" God had visited his people," the proverb is quoted in an
opposite way, and exhibits the Nazarenes as the solitary
exception in the midst of the general acknowledgment uf

304 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

his claims. "A prophet is not without honor, save in his
own country, and kindred, and father's house." Thus everv
circumstance really conspires to prove the visits distinct,
and the alleged inaccuracy of the Grospels resolves itself
into a new example of perfect consistency and truth. We
have merely an instance where the wise rule has been neg-
lected, which the learned writer himself has laid down,
" that similar incidents must not be too hastily assumed to
be the same." (ProL, p. 13.)

6. "In the last apology of St. Stephen, which he spake
being full of the Holy Ghost, we have at least two demon-
strable historical inaccuracies." (ProL, p. 19.)

The first of these is thus explained, in Acts vii, 4: "The
Jewish chronology, which Stephen follows, was at fault
here, owing to the circumstance of Terah's death being
mentioned — Gren. xi, 32 — before the command to Abraham
to leave Haran, it not having been observed that the men-
tion is anticipatory." The real error, however, is that of
the critic alone, who entirely overlooks the true explana-
tion, adopted by Usher, Clinton, and most of the best
chronologers, and which is confirmed by Gen. xi, 29, and
the age of Sarah; that Abraham was not the oldest, but
the youngest son of Terah. For Sarah, we are clearly
taught, was the sister of Milcah and daughter of Haran,
and was only ten years younger than Abraham. Gen. xi,
29 ; xvii, 17. The words of St. Stephen, then, instead of
contradicting Genesis, fix its meaning, and establish the
harmony of its separate statements ; and the opposite view,
while it charges him with error, is itself "a demonstrable
historical inaccuracy."

The second asserted error is in Acts vii, 15, 16: "So
Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers,
and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepul-
cher that Abraham bought for a sum of money, of the* sons

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES Of THE BIBLE. 305

of Emmor, the father of Sychem." Here there is, no
doubt, an apparent confusion of two purchases and two
burials. Abraham bought a burial-place at Hebron, from
Ephron, in which Jacob and Leah were buried. Jacob,
again, bought a piece of ground at Sychem from the sons
of Hamor the father of Shechem, where the bones of Joseph
were buried. Wo have no account of the burial-place of
the other patriarchs.

Now, here it is important to remember when, and where,
and before whom the words were spoken. It was at Jeru-
salem, where the study of the law was at its hight, before
the hostile Sanhedrim, and the high-priest, and all the
scribes, men accustomed to count the very letters of the
law of Moses, that Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, was
making his formal defense against a charge of contempt of
the law, after a controversy upon that law in the syna-
gogues for many days, in which no adversaries " were able
to resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake."
Is it consistent with reason or common-sense, to impute to
such a man, at such a time, and in the presence of such
judges and adversaries, the double mistake of supposing
that Jacob was buried in Sychem, in contradiction to the
full narrative in the close of Genesis j and that Abraham
lived in the time of Shechem, though his death and burial
in Hebron are recorded in Gen. xxv, before mention of
Jacob's birth ; and the purchase of the ground in Shechem
is stated in Gen. xxxiii, shortly before the death of Isaac,
and eighty years after Abraham's death ? Is it rational to
expound this verse, so as to make Stephen, a learned Jew,
full of the Holy Spirit, more ignorant of the sacred his-
tory, of which he is giving a rapid outline, than a well-
informed Sunday school chiid»in these days?

On the other hand, the explanation of Flacius and

Bengel is simple and complete. St. Stephen, as being

26

306 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

thoroughly familiar with the details of the two histories
and speaking to the Sanhedrim, who were equally familial
with them, compresses the two into one by a series of
mental ellipses, which his audience would at once supply
for themselves. The two incidents are referred to by a
regular alternation. Jacob is named, and not Joseph, of
those who were buried ; Sychem, and not Hebron, of the
two burial-places; Abraham, and not Jacob, of the two
purchasers; and the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem.
and not Ephron the Hittite, of the two parties from whom
the purchase was made. There is here too much method
in the seeming inaccuracy, to leave any reasonable doubt
of its real source. Bengel has remarked, with his usual
judgment : " In writing, omissions of this kind are usually
marked by the pen ; but they may be admitted in dis-
course, when, in a matter fully known, and present equally
to the mind of the speaker and the hearers, merely what is
enough is spoken, and the other words, which would hinder
the flow of the discourse, are to be reckoned as if they
were spoken also."

It would occupy too much space to enter here upon other
alleged discrepancies, and especially those two main sub
jects, the last Passover, and the order of events on the
resurrection-day. I believe that they both admit of an
adequate solution, which changes them from stumbling-
blocks to the faith into powerful confirmations of the Gos-
pel narrative.

To conclude, the presence of a few slight inaccuracies in
the Gospels, or in other histories of Scripture, would be no
decisive argument for a lowered theory of their inspiration,
consistent with the entrance of human error; unless these
were clearly inwrought into«^the texture of the narrative,
and were more than solitary specks on the surface, easily
accounted for by defective transmission, and as easily

ON ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES OF 10 E BIBLE. 307

removed. But while there is ample proof in the Gospels of
the diversity of the testimonies, and the independent
authority of the four witnesses, the attempt to establish a
contradiction, whether by Christian critics, or skeptical ad-
versaries of the faith, when submitted to a close examina-
tion, invariably fails. Its usual result will be to bring to
light some undesigned coincidence, some delicate harmony
of truth, which escapes the careless reader, and only reveals
itself to a patient, humble, and reverent study of these or-
acles of God.

308 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

CHAPTER XIT.

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE.

The discoveries of modern science have often been sup-
posed to form a strong disproof of the inspiration and
Divine authority of the Scriptures. Much has been written
on both sides in this important controversy. The lines of
argument have also been various, alike in the defenders
and assailants, till the whole subject is involved, to many
minds, in no slight perplexity and confusion. The chief
topics in the controversy are the Bible Astronomy, the
History of Creation, the History of the Flood, and the
Unity and Antiquity of Mankind. In all these the main
question to be answered is of this nature: Does the Bible,
in its allusions to scientific truth, agree with the doctrine
that its messages are the words of God, or betray itself to
be the production of fallible Jewish writers, tinged through-
out with undeniable and manifest error?

The contrast, arising from these opposite views of the
Bible, may easily be exaggerated in their probable efiect on
its scientific allusigns. Uninspired writers, who are content
to adhere modestly to the teaching of the senses, and do
not pretend to make discoveries, or to speculate on secret
causes, may escape, almost entirely, the fault of the pro-
pounding scientific error. On the other hand, the great
end of Divine revelation is not the difi"usion of natural
knowledge, but the moral renovation of mankind. Facts
of a scientific character are plainly collateral, and not the
main object of the work. Such messages would d' verge

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 309

from their true purpose, if they anticipated the discoveries
of a science in some distant age. A summary of modern
astronomy, chemistry, or electricity, we feel inc.tinctively,
would be quite out of place, in such an early revelation of
the will of God to men. It would, in fact, be a supernat-
ural prophecy of a very peculiar kind, less instructive to
mankind in general than those which have actually been
given, and far more useless and perplexing to the readers
of every intermediate age.

A just view of the subject will, therefore, produce great
caution in our acceptance, either of objections to Scripture,
or supposed confirmations of its truth, drawn from the
scientific or physical allusions scattered through its pages.
If its purpose were scientific, we might expect to find in it
wonderful scientific discoveries, assuming that it is a true
revelation from God. On the other hand, if its writers
were not only uninspired, but rash, presumptuous impostors,
who sought the credit of knowledge beyond their fellows,
then scientific errors would be almost sure to abound. But
the contrast, in this one feature, between good and fallible
men, who write with modesty and reverence, and true reve-
lations in which the Almighty suits his message to the
actual wants and state of mankind, would be far less strik-
ing and conspicuous than many seem to assume. It is only
on a few points that we may expect some intimation to be
given, that the God of the Bible is also the Lord of nature,
" in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowl-
edge."

There is, however, one point of view, in which the neg-
ative presumption for the inspiration of the Scriptures has,
even at first sight, no little force. For they do evidently
claim to be a revelation from God. The account of crea-
tion itself, on any other view, is a manifest absurdity. If
this claim be groundless, the writers can not be classed

310 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

among modest and cautious men. Presumption in that
which is the greatest must lead us to expect presumption
in that which ranks far lower in importance. He who in-
vents messages from the Creator, is not likely to be
scrupulous in his claims to special acquaintance with the
works of God. Hence, false revelations, almost invariably,
involve some flagrant contradiction of true science. Hindu-
ism, at this moment, is melting away under a system of
secular education, which undermines and destroys the au-
thority of its Shasters and Vedas, because of the false
geography and physics interwoven with their theology.
False religion and false science are there so inseparably
united, that any scheme of instruction, in which the truths
of science are taught, and the truths of God's Word are
withheld, becomes really equivalent, in practice, to a direct
propagation of irreligion and unbelief. And hence, con-
versely, the mere absence of false science, in a professed
revelation from heaven, is no slight presumption in favor
of its truth. The claim of Divine authority, on questions
relating to man's moral state and future destiny, is only
confirmed by the absence of pretended discoveries, with re-
gard to the constitution and laws of the natural world,
which have been committed to the slow and laborious deci-
pherment of man's native intelligence.

I. The Astronomy of the Bible is the first and earliest
of those topics, from which scientific assaults on its inspira-
tion have been raised. It had nearly passed, indeed, into
oblivion, when kindred questions in geology and physiology
have revived it once more. The revival of science, we have
been told, displaced the Ptolemaic by the Copornican theory.
But the Hebrew records, the basis of our faith, manifestly
countenance the opinion of the earth's immobility. Galileo
was compelled, by the Inquisition, to sign the statement,
that "the proposition that the sun is the center of the

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 311

world, and immovable, is absurd, philosophically false, and
formally heretical." But the brilliant progress of science
subdued the minds of men. The controversy between faith
and knowledge slumbered, and the limited views of the
universe in the Old Testament ceased to be felt as religious
difficulties. The progress of " geology, a new science, has
forced attention to the subject once more. The prima-facie
view of the Bible narrative reverses, to a great extent, our
present astronomical, as well as geological views of the
universe.

This astronomical objection, now revived from a long
sleep, has never had much weight with candid and thought-
ful men. It is true that the Bomish inquisitors, who con-
demned Gralileo, have lent the whole weight of their scien-
tific and theological eminence to the cause of infidelity, and
their names naturally stand foremost in the proof that the
Bible and modern astronomy contradict each other. But the
authority of*Newton himself, which many may be disposed
to rank higher on such a question, is thrown decisively into
the opposite scale. The immortal writer of the Principia,
it is clear from his later works, did not share the perplexity
which some smatterers in astronomy profess to feel, when
they observe that the Bible speaks on these subjects in the
common language of all mankind. When we are told, for
nstance, that " the sun was risen upon the earth, when Lot
entered Zoar," it is not Newton who complains that we do
not read, in its place, a scientific statement such as this,
" That Palestine had revolved, when Lot entered the city,
until its tangent plane coincided once more with the solar
azimuth," True science is cautious and modest, and is not
easily betrayed into such absurdities.

In reality, the whole objection to the language of Scrip-
ture on this subject, arises from the influence of three
errors — that scientific statements of the earth's motion are

312 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

absolute, and not relative truth; that popular language is
simply false, and not relatively true; and tliat the relation
of matter to matter, in connection with the laws of force
and motion, is of higher importance than its relation to the
senses and universal experience of mankind.

First, the statements of modern science, after all, embody
relative, and not absolute truth. All motion, and all action,
so far as science can reveal it, is simply correlative. We
can not conceive of a fixed position in absolutely empty
space. Viewing first our own system as a whole, the planets
do not, in strictness of speech, revolve around the sun, but
the sun and the planets move alike around the common
center of gravity. The doctrine that "the sun is immov-
able from its place" may not be "formally heretical" as
the inquisitors affirmed, but there can be no doubt that it
is " 2:)hilosophically false." If popular language, then, were
replaced by that of the Copernican theory, the result would
be only, on the principles of the objection, to substitute
one scientific mistake for another. But it is now ascer-
tained, also, that the whole solar system is in movement
toward a point not very far from the bright star of Lyra.
The true nature, therefore, of the earth's pathway through
space is not a circle or ellipse in a fixed plane, around the
sun as its center, but a complex spiral, thirty degrees
aslant from the vertical, in which the interval of the suc-
cessive rounds is four-fifths of their diameter. And we
have no assurance that this result is absolute and final.
For most of the stars from which the motion of the sun is
deduced belong to the great system of the milky way, and
it is by no means impossible that these may partake of a
common motion with regard to other sidereal systems.
There are thus four or five modes of conception, all equally
relative, as the observer is on the earth, on the sun, in a
fixed position with regard to the center of the solar system,

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 313

a fixed position in the sidereal system, or one still more
remote and independent.

Again, it is a great mistake to conceive that the lan-
guage of common life, adopted also in Scripture, is the ex-
pression of simple falsehood, and not of a most important
variety of scientific truth. Thus we have been told that
the account in Genesis " does not describe physical reali-
ties, but only outward appearances ; that is, it gives a de-
scription false in fact, and one which can teach us no
scientific truth whatever." There is, however, no ground
at all for this fancied contrast between facts and appear-
ances. Appeararces are simply those facts, in relation to
the senses of men, by which alone we come to the knowl-
edge of other facts not immediately observed, and in some
cases not observable. Every sunrise and sunset, and every
meridian transit of a star, is as much an astronomical fact
as the Newtonian theory, the rotation of the earth, or the
elliptic shape of its annual orbit. In reality, it is facts of
this kind which form the whole material of modern as-
tronomy in its most advanced form and scientific language
is not used to disguise them. Practical astronomers
have been compelled to introduce a large variety of tech-
nical terms, all framed on precisely the same principles,
and molded by the same laws of thought, as the phrases
of Scripture and of common life. Such, for instance, are
the transits of Venus and Mercury, the occultation of stars
behind the moon, the contact of the sun and moon in an
eclipse, the immersion and emersion of Jupiter's satellites,
the transit instrument for observing the transit of stars
across the meridian, their elevation by refraction and de-
pression by parallax, the preceding and following side of
the heavens, right and oblique ascension, the entrance of
stars into the field of the telescope, the upper and lower
culmination of circumpolar stars, when they either pass the

27

314 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

zenith, or graze the horizon. These are a few conspicuous:
examples of a fixed and constant law of scientific language,
which runs through the whole range of practical and in-
strumental astronomy. The maxim which charges the Bible
with scientific falsehood because of its astronomical phrases,
fastens the same charge on the " Nautical Almanac," and
the " Connaissance des Temps," and indeed on every record
whatever of the materials or the results of modern as-
tronomy.

Still further, the relations of matter to matter, or to an
observer perched in the ideal center of our solar system,
are far less important, in a practical sense, than its rela-
tions to the experience and daily observation of mankind.
Bulk, mass, and lifeless magnitude, are not things of su-
preme importance, especially in a moral message designed
for the spiritual recovery of a fallen world. The double
purpose of all revealed truth is to restore man to his
dominion over nature, and his allegiance to God. When-
ever one is renounced, the other is lost, and the rebel
against Divine authority becomes the victim of some form
of conscious or unconscious idolatry. But if the earth be
held quite subordinate to the sun, simply because of its in-
ferior bulk and weight, then man must be immensely in-
ferior to the ground on which he treads, and the rhinoceros
and hippopotamus, the oaks and cedars, the volcanoes and
their streams of lava, must rank far above him in the scale
of being. Pride tempts man, in the consciousness of men-
tal power, to forget both his moral weakness and physical
insignificance. Pantheistic fatalism sets aside all moral dis-
tinctions, and degrades him into a mere passive atom in
the vast machine of the universe. The Bible alone recon-
ciles and harmonizes the contrasted truths of his actual
condition, his physical insignificance, his moral frailty and
corruption, and the dignity of a nature framed in the

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 815

image of God, and made to have dominion over all tUo
works of his hands.

The motions of the heavenly bodies depend on laws of
force, which relate to quantity of matter and distance
alone. Men of science have thus to make abstraction of
their other qualities and relations, however important, to
place themselves in thought somewhere in empty space, and
to contemplate their motions, either from that fixed point,
or with reference to that body which has the greatest mass,
so that complex relations may be more simply conceived.
Yet, even in abstract science, the same motive requires
them sometimes to forsake these foreign points of view, and
return to the earth again. In the lunar theory, the earth,
and not the sun, is the center to which the motions have
to be referred. The sun is treated as revolving round it,
only more slowly than the moon and at a greater distance,
and as deranging the lunar ellipse by this revolution. By
no other means can the complex inquiry be duly simplified,
and the lunar perturbations clearly ascertained. How
much more, when the message relates entirely to the
present duty and future hopes of mankind, must all the
outward works of God be viewed in relation to this great
object, and not with relation to mass and mechanical force
alone! One soul is far nobler than millions on millions of
cubic leagues of empty space; and even if these were filled
with nebulous mist, or this mist condensed into a vast globe
of fire, it could never rival the dignity of one rational and
immortal creature, formed in the image of God, capable of
knowing its Creator, and enjoying his love forever.

The Bible, therefore, in describing physical changes with
direct reference to the constant experience of mankind, or
terrestrial observers, adopts the only course which agrees
with the scope and purpose of a moral revelat''-»n. For it
would violate its own character, and one of its own chief

316 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

doctrines, unless the material works of God were treated as
subordinate to the life, happiness, and moral welfare of
mankind. The lesson which it teaches on its first page, is
the only sure antidote to every form of degrading idola-
try— that man is the lord of nature, because he is the sub-
ject and child of the living God.

II. The history of Creation, in Genesis, has given rise to
more serious difficulty, from its alleged contrast with the
lessons of geology. The discordant nature of the exposi-
tions ofi'ered by various Christian writers has been turned
into an argument that no satisfactory solution can be found.
The spectacle, we are told, of able and conscientious writers
employed on this impossible task, is painful and humilia-
ting. They shuffle and stumble over their difficulties in a
piteous manner, and do not breathe freely, till they return
to the pure and open fields of science again.

Now, what is really painful and humiliating is that men,
who still call themselves Christians, should venture to com-
pare the first of God's messages, confirmed as Divine by
Christ and his apostles, to a stifling and mephitic cavern,
from which we must escape with all speed, and take refuge
with mammoths, mastodons, and the skeletons of extinct
monsters, in order to breathe more freely, and avoid the
risk of sufi'ocation. It may be unwise 'to affirm that "geo-
logical investigations all prove the perfect harmony be
tween Scripture and geology in reference to the history of
Creation." But the opposite assertion, that they aie plainly
irreconcilable, is still more unreasonable on the side of
science alone, and adds the guilt of degrading the Word of
God into the presumptuous guess-work of some Hebrew im-
postor, who dared to propound his own ignorant fancies as
revelations from the Almighty.

The statement in Genesis is to this efi'ect: that man was
created and placed on the earth, in Asia, in the Garden of

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 317

Eden, six or seven thousand years ago ; that his creation
took place on the last of six successive days, during which
the earth was changed from a dark, waste, and unformed
condition, to a well-furnished habitation, by signal acts of
creative energy ; and that a seventh day followed, or a
Sabbath of rest, which God appointed for a lasting ordi-
nance, because on this first seventh day he rested from all
his work which he created and made.

Now, geological science discloses a long series of changes,
through which our earth had passed before any traces are
found of man's presence, and a distinct fauna and flora in
each of these eras, amounting to many thousand extinct
species. The question is, how these two statements are to
be reconciled, or whether they are wholly incompatible.
Some writers, as Hugh Miller, MacCausland, and Mac-
donald, expound the days of Genesis to be long periods, in
the order of which they trace some resemblance to the
main outlines of geological discovery. A few others, as
Dr. Pye Smith, restrict the whole narrative to local and
limited changes in Central Asia alone; which must strike
every one at once, as falling very short of the natural
scope and force of the description. But many writers of
eminence, as Chalmers, Buckland, Sedgwick, Dr. Kurtz, and
Archdeacon Pratt, in his able pamphlet on Scripture and
Science, hold that the days of Genesis are literal days, that
the ages of geology are passed over silently in the second
verse ; and that the passage describes a great work of God,
at the close of the Tertiary Period, by which our planet,
after long ages, was finally prepared to be the habitation
of man. This, I have no doubt, is the true and simple ex-
planation. I shall now endeavor to show that the objec-
tions brought against it in the Fifth Essay are entirely
worthless, and that it is the assailant, and not the eminent
writers assailed, who exhibits a strange confusion of thought.

318 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

along with a lamentable determination to disparage the
truth of Scripture, and set aside its Divine authority.

1. The first and main question relates to the mode of
representation employed in the sacred narrative. The
Christian interpreters, who hold the day-periods or the
literal days, agree in the view that the events are optically
described, that is, as they would appear to a spectator
placed on the surface of the earth. This is a principle
common to their two expositions, which afterward diverge
from each other. And this, accordingly, is the first object
of assault in the recent Essay. The objection runs as
follows :

" Both these theories divest the Mosaic narrative of real
accordance with fact; both assume that appearances only,
not facts, are described; and that in riddles, which would
never have been suspected to be such, had we not arrived
at the truth from other sources. It would be difficult for
controversialists to cede more completely the point in dis-
pute, or to admit more explicitly that the Mosaic narrative
does not represent correctly the history of the universe up
to the time of man. At the same time the upholders of
each theory see insuperable objections in detail to that of
their allies, and do not pretend to any firm faith in their
own. How can it be otherwise, when the task proposed is
to evade the plain meaning of language, and to introduce
obscurity into one of the simplest stories ever told, for the
sake of making it accord with the complex system of the
universe which modern science has unfolded?"

This whole objection, urged in so contemptuous a tone,
rests plainly on that gross and fundamental error which
has been already exposed. Appearances and facts are no
real antithesis. Appearances are themselves facts. They
are precisely the facts, on which all science depends, as the
materials from which it is derived, and to which it must

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 319

return, in order to confirm its discoveries, or yield any
practical benefit to mankind. What is an eclipse but an
appearance? And yet what is the proof, above all others,
by which modern astronomy has established its claim to be
a real science, but the marvelous accuracy with which
eclipses are foretold, even in their minutest details ? Scien-
tific speculation is like the balloon, which carries the ob-
server into the upper sky, and enlarges the sphere of his
vision. Phenomena are like the ground, from which it
must ascend, and to which, after a short journey, it must
soon return ; though with a knowledge enlarged beyond
the limits of its first horizon, or perhaps alighting in a
country never visited before.

The Mosaic narrative, then, if it be a faithful record of
appearances, is also a record of facts, and stands on a level,
in scientific truthfulness, with the daily register of any-
modern observatory. For these consist entirely of appear-
ances, whether of.stars in the field of a telescope, or of the
mercury in a barometer or a thermometer, or of the index
in the anemometer or galvanometer, or of the clouds in the
sky, only noted down with mathematical precision. They
are appearances from first to last. The flippant censure,
aimed against the first chapter of the Bible, would sweep
away in a moment the records of all our scientific observ-
atories as equally false and faithless, and with them would
destroy all the materials on which science itself depends.

The second falsehood in this objection is the assertion
that the optical view of ihe Mosaic narrative turns a simple
story into a riddle, the true meaning of which could never
be suspected unless we gained it from other sources. This,
it will be plain on a little reflection, exactly reverses the
real truth. Any other view of the passage would turn it
into a riddle to the readers of all early ages of mankind ;
and even to the great majority in our own days, who have

320 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

not abused the discoveries of science so as to falsify the
daily and hourly experiences of human life.

There are four plain reasons why the narrative in the
first of Genesis should be optically given, or describe
changes as they would appear to a terrestrial observer.
First, it is the constant and habitual language of daily life.
Secondly, it is the equally-invariable style of all our scien-
tific observations. Thirdly, it is the constant usage of all
historians, without exception, ancient and modern. Fourthly
and lastly, it is the idiom of the Bible itself, in every other
part of the sacred narrative. The claim of modern sciolists,
that this chapter alone should be put in masquerade, and
describe changes as they would appear from Sirius, or the
center of gravity of the sun and the planets, is just as rea-
sonable as to require that it should have been written in
some language used by angels, instead of being given, like
all the r6.it of the Bible, in the language of men. The
passage just quoted is more than a simple error. It is a
direct and total inversion . of the real truth. If it were
wished to turn the first page of Scripture into a riddle, un-
intelligible to all former ages, and hardly to be understood,
except by one person in a thousand, even in our own days,
we might frame it according to the recipe of these assailants
of its truth. It would then run pretty nearly as follows :

" In the beginning Grod created the heavens and the earth.
And first, God said. Let there be immense oceans of nebu-
lous matter, scattered throughout all space ; and it was so.
And God said, Let the nebulous matter condense slowly,
under the law of universal gravitation ; and it was so. And
God said, Let the central portion of each heap of mist con-
dense into a sun, and the smaller portions condense into
planets, and let the planets revolve each around its own sun ;
and it was so. And God said, Let one planet of one sun
condense into solid matter, and become liquid with intense

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 321

heat; and it was so. And God called the planet earth, and
the central body it revolved around he called the sun; and
it was so. And God said, Let the earth, after long ages,
cool down, till solid strata can be formed upon its surface;
and it was so. And God said, Let plants and living crea-
tures grow upon the earth, and be destroyed again ; and it
"was so. And the period of their birth and destruction was
a second day. And God said. Let ferns and other plants
grow in great nbundance, and then be buried, and reduced
to coal in the crust of the earth; and it was so. And the
period of these plants was a third day. And God said, Let
oolite and sandstone strata be formed, and other races of
plants and animals be buried in them; and it was so. And
the period of these strata and the animals entombed in them
was the fourth day. And God said. Let mighty lizards be
created, and then destroyed and buried; and it was so: and
the lizard period was a fifth day, etc." Such an account of
creation, whatever might be its measure of scientific accu-
racy, would have been an unmeaning riddle to all past gen-
erations of mankind. We should have a meager summary
of physical changes, wholly unintelligible to common read-
ers, instead of the simplicity, beauty, and grandeur of a
Divine message.

It is urged, however, that if the description be one of ap-
pearances, it can teach us no truth whatever. If this remark
were correct, the late expedition 'to Spain, to observe the
total eclipse of the sun, though planned with so much care
by astronomers of eminence, must have been an unmingled
folly. They could only describe appearances, not realities ;
and what could science gain by all their observations?
"Why, then, may not the Bible narrative be equally in-
structive, equally definite in its teaching, though it be a
record of appearances alone? Appearances are, in truth,
the only materials from which every science is derived, and

322 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the medium by wliicli alone it is applicable to the use of
mankind.

The objection, then, to the optical construction of the
sacred narrative, that it deprives it of all definite meaning
and gives it a non-natural sense, exactly reverses the real
truth. The record of visible appearances is quite as defi-
nite, in its own nature, as a statement of physical causes,
and is far easier to understand; and no simple reader, in
the age when Moses wrote, could attach any other meaning
to the words than that which is so rashly condemned.

"The difficulties arise," it is said, "for the first time,
when we seek to import a meaning into language, which it
certainly never could have conveyed to those to whom it
was originally addressed. Unless we go the length of sup-
posing the simple account of the Hebrew cosmogonist to be
a series of awkward equivocations, in which he attempted
to give a representation widely different from the facts,
without trespassing against literal truth, we can find no
difficulty in interpreting his words." This remark is strictly
true. But it justifies the interpretation it is supposed to
condemn, and condemns that which it is supposed to justify.
The meaning of light, to the early Hebrew, could not be
the undulations of a subtile ether, diffused through infinite
space, but simply a state of the earth, air, and sky, in
which objects were clearly visible to the senses of men
The sun, moon, and stars, to the same readers, could never
be supposed to mean immense balls of solid matter, lumin-
ous, or non-luminous, floating at large in the depths of
space, but visible discs of light, seen daily revolving
through the sky. The whole force, then, of this first ob-
jection to the sacred narrative, is due simply to a denatu-
ralization of some minds, through dwelling amidst the me-
chanical relations of physical astronomy, till they reverse
the laws of criticism and the facts of history, and put light

THE BIBLE AND ^^0^)ER^ SCIENCE. 323

for darkness, and darkness for light, in their attempt to
fasten error and contradiction on the Word of God.

2. The second maxim, implied in that view of the narra-
tive, which retains the literal days, and accepts also the
facts of geology is the distinctness of the absolute creation,
in the first verse from the six days of creation that follow.
The result, indeed, is much the same, if we suppose the
Hebrew word hara to be taken in a looser sense, and that
the first verse is merely a summary of the whole account
that is afterward given. On this view nothing whatever
would be said of the absolute formation of matter, but the
whole would begin with the chaos or confusion before the
first day.

Assuming, however, that the first verse relates to the ab-
solute beginning of creation, or the first origin of things,
an objection is started from the mention of the heavens on
the second day. It is inferred that " during those indefinite
ages there was no sky, no local habitation for the sun.
moon, and stars, even supposing them to have been included
in the original material."

This difficulty would be real, if the heavens in Scripture
meant always the lower firmament alone. But this is quite
untrue. The apostle speaks of being caught up into "the
third heaven," which certainly was not the region of the
clouds. Hence, although the lowest heavens were made on
the second day, the first verse may still retain a very clear
and definite meaning. The first heaven is that of sense, or
the visible firmament. The second heaven is that of science
and philosophy, or the depths of the starry universe. The
third heaven is that of faith and spiritual vision, or that
immediate un vailing of the Divine presence to pure and sin-
less spirits, which answers to the Holy of Holies in the
Jewish Temple. The opening words of the Bible, then^
may refer immediately to the third heavens of glory, and

324 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the heavens of sidereal astronomy; while the mention of
the lower heavens, or visible arch of the sky, comes in its
natural place, in connection with terrestrial and atmospheric
changes, among the steps by which our earth was prepared
to be the dwelling of man.

3. The third principle involved in this view of the pas-
sage, when compared with the facts of geology, is that the
darkness and confusion in the second verse refers to a
state which intervened between the Tertiary and Human
period. And here a double objection is urged. First, on
the authority of Hugh Miller, it is affirmed that such a
break "is by no means supported by geological phenomena,
and is now rejected by all geologists whose authority is
valuable." And next, it is said that such a construction
falls short of the natural meaning of the text, and reduces
the third verse from a noble description, the admiration of
ages, to a pitiful caput mortuum of empty verbiage.

The course of thought pursued in the Fifth Essay, in its
labored assault on the truth of Scripture, is here singularly
perplexed and illogical. Dr. Chalmers and Hugh Miller,
and all others who accept either the view of literal days or
day-periods, agree in affirming that the optical construction
of the narrative, with reference to a human observer, is the
only one historically natural, or critically possible. This
their unanimous consent is cast aside on the strength of
naked assertions, which directly reverse the manifest truth,
the experience of every observatory, and the constant usage
of the whole Bible. Both these classes of writers agree
in the firm conviction that the narrative in Genesis and the
flicts of science do agree, though they vary in their con-
ception • of the precise nature of their agreement. This
their consent is equally cast aside, as the eifect of scientific
Ignorance or of theological prejudice, and no scruples, either
of modesty or of pity, lessen the confidence with whi.^

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 325

their consenting judgment is denounced and condemned.
But Hugh Miller, after holding once the view of literal
days, renounced it for that of day-periods, on the ground
that geology allows of no gap or break between the Tertiary
and Human periods. His argument is founded on eight
animals, and two kinds of shells, which he believed to be
common to the two eras. On the other hand M. D'Or-
bigny, in a work on fossil geology, of which a summary is
given in two volumes of Lardner's Museum of Science,
and which includes an examination of eighteen thousand
species of radiata and mollusca alone, has deduced conclu-
sions diametrically opposite. He shows that there are
twenty-nine eras, in each of which the genera are partly
the same as in the preceding one, and partly different; but
that the species, except only one or two per cent, in a few
cases, are all distinct, and imply a new creation. Even in
respect to genera, the contrast between the Human and Ter-
tiary periods is the widest of the whole — these two form-
ing, in Hugh Miller's theory, part of the same day — since
only five hundred and forty are old genera, or common to
the Tertiary, and one thousand, three hundred and twenty-
seven are new. But according to the same writer, the
species are entirely new, and "the entire fauna and flora
of the last Tertiary period were destroyed."

In the Christian Observer, January, 1858, this argument
has been developed, in disproof of the fundamental asser-
tion, on which Hugh Miller's theory depends. The essay-
ist quotes a reference to it in Archdeacon Pratt's able
pamphlet on Scripture and Science, in which he speaks of it
as conclusive, and gives a summary of the facts, and the nec-
essary inference to which they lead. He does this, however,
merely to show "the trenchant manner in which theological
geologists overthrow one another's theories," and carefully
ab'^tains from touching either the facts or the argument.

826 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

On the contrary, he proceeds to observe that "Hugh Miller
was perfectly aware of the difficulty involved in his view
of the question," and proceeds to give the details of his
theory; when those details have nothing whatever to do
with the argument thus dismissed; and, instead of Mr.
Miller being aware of the difficulty, his theory is based on
a conclusion drawn from the supposed sameness of eight
species, in direct opposition to this large induction of M.
D'Orbigny, from twenty-nine successive eras, and nearly
twenty thousand species; and from eighteen hundred genera
in the Human and Tertiary periods alone. What is still
more strange in the presence of such an extract, Hugh.
Miller's assertion, thus largely disproved, is accepted for a
sufficient proof of the untenability of the theory of Chal-
mers, and that its abandonment was "not without the com-
pulsion of irresistible evidence; and that the view which
results from the large induction of M. D'Orbigny, after
cataloguing twenty thousand species, and which is summed
up in two volumes of the Museum of Science, as the latest
and ripest conclusion of geology, "is now rejected by all
geologists whose authority is valuable."

Such a style of argument, where the truth of Scripture
is in question, can hardly be too strongly condemned. It
betrays, if not a settled purpose to damage the authority
of the Bible by any artifice of special pleading, at least a
total incapacity to discern the really-vital points of the con-
troversy, the true limits of authority, and the results of a
wide and genuine induction of geological evidence. All
that is true and beautiful in Hugh Miller's writings is cast
aside; and a solitary error, since disproved by the evidence
of thirty eras and twenty thousand species, is stolen from
him, and dipped in poison, that it may inflict a deadly
wound on the faith which was dearest to his heart.

Let us now inquire whethei- the other objection has more

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 327

weight. Does this view reduce a noble and sublime descrip-
tion to "a pitiful caput mortuum of empty verbiage?" It
supposes that, after the Tertiary period, and by the convul-
sion which gave birth to the mountain-chains of the Alps
and Andes, our planet was wrapped in a sea of vapor, and
buried for a long period in midnight and impenetrable
gloom. This chaos, optically and physically complete, it
assumes to be the starting-point of the inspired description.
After an unknown period of total darkness "upon the face
of the deep," light broke out suddenly, on the first day, at
God's command, over the whole surface of the globe.
Now, it is self-evident that such a f\ict is all that Moses
and his cotemporaries, and all readers of the Pentateuch
down to our own days, could naturally or reasonably under-
stand by the words. They could never suppose it to mean
the creation of luminiferous ether, filling infinite space, nor
the commencement of certain undulations, regulated by un-
known mechanical laws. The light has distinct reference
to the previous darkne s. The darkness was "upon the
face of the deep," and the deep is no synonym for infinite
space, but for the earth's surface, while mainly covered
with water,, before the dry land appeared. The instant-
aneous breaking forth of light over our world, where all
before had been wrapped in utter gloom, is one of the no-
blest images which can enter the human mind; and those
who can call it empty verbiage seem to need themselves a
similar process of mental illumination.

4. The omission of the long eras of geology, which the
same view of the passage implies, can furnish no real
objection to its truth. On the contrary, it seems to result
inevitably from the character of this Divine message. It
describes a brief work of God's almighty power, by which
our planet was fitted to be the abode of man. All the ob-
jects which man sees around him are referred in it to thpir

328 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Divine Author. His power is shown in the swift comple
tion of so great a work, his wisdom in its orderly progress*
and a moral character is infused into the whole, when
six days of creative energy are seen to be followed by the
Divine Sabbath of r§et, a precedent for the use of man-
kind in every later age. Nothing is wanting, nothing su-
perfluous. A description of the earth's fluid nucleus, of
primary rocks, of the flora of the coal measures, or of the
extinct animals of the Secondary and Tertiary periods, would
have been only a strange and unnatural excrescence in such
an early message from God to man.

5. The objection to this view, from the break which it
requires, has been thus stated.

" The hypothesis was first promulgated at a time when
the gradual and regular formation of the earth's strata was
not seen or admitted so clearly as it is now. Greologists
were more disposed to believe in great catastrophes. Buck-
land's theory supposes that previous to the appearance of
the present races of animals and vegetables there was a great
gap in the globe's history ; that the earth was completely
depopulated, as well of marine as land animals, and that the
creation of all existing plants and animals was coeval with
that of man. This theory is by no means supported by
geological phenomena, and is now, we suppose, rejected by
all geologists, whose authority is valuable."

Now, let us compare with this positive assertion the state-
ment of Dr. Lardner — "Museum of Science," xi, 71, 1856 —
based on the labors of Murchison and D'Orbigny.

" The anticipations of Sir R. Murchison have been more
than realized by the subsequent researches of M. D'Or-
bigny, founded on his own observations, which extended
over a large portion of the New as well as Old World ,
aiid upon the entire mass of facts connected with the analy-
ses of the crust of the earth, collected by the observations

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 329

of the most eminent geologists in all parts of tlie world
It appears from these researches that, during the long
periods of geological time, from the first appearance of or-
ganized life on the globe to the period when the human
race and its cotemporaneous tribes were called into exist-
ence, the world was peopled by a series of animal and
vegetable kingdoms, which were successively destroyed by
violent convulsions of the crust, which produced as many
devastating deluges. The remains of each of these ancient
creatures are deposited in a series of layers ; and it has
been found that each successive animal kingdom was com-
posed of its own peculiar species, which did not appear in
any posterior or succeeding creation, but that genera once
created were frequently revived in succeeding periods; that
many of these genera, however, became extinct long before
the human period."

'* By careful analyses of the strata and the animal re-
mains, geologists have ascertained with a high degree of
probability, if not with absolute moral certainty, that sub-
sequently to the first appearance of the forms of animal
life, which took place after the fourth great convulsion of
our globe, there were at least twenty-eight successive con-
vulsions of a like nature, each of which was attended with
the complete destruction of the animals and plants which
existed on the globe. In fine, after the latest of these
catastrophes, when the last strata of the Tertiary period
were deposited, the most recent exertion of Creative Power
took place, and the globe was peopled with the tribes which
now inhabit it, including the hitman race^

"The disruption of the earth's crust, through which the
chain of the great Alps was forced up to its present eleva-
tion, which, according to M. D'Orbigny, was simultaneous
with that which forced up the Chilian Andes, a chain which

oxtends over three thousand miles of the western continent,

28

330 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

terminated the Tertiary age, and preceded immediately the
creation of tlie human race and its concomitant tribes.
The waters of the seas and oceans, lifted from their beds
by this immense perturbation, swept over the continents with
irresistible force, destroying the entire fauna and flora of
the last Tertiary period, and burying its ruins in the de-
posits that ensued. By this dislocation, Europe underwent
a complete change of form. Secondary effects followed,
which have left their traces on every part of the earth's
surface. When the seas had settled into their new beds,
and the outlines of the land were permanently defined, the
latest and greatest act of creation was accomplished, by
clothing the earth with the vegetation that now covers it,
peopling the land and water with the animal tribes which
now exist, and calling into being the human race." (xii,
p. 552.)

It is clear, from this comparison, that the statement in
the objection exactly reverses the real truth with regard
to the latest conclusions of geology. With the failure of
its foundation, the whole fabric of skeptical inference
reared upon it falls at once into ruins.

6. But another objection has been drawn from the events
of the fourth day; though in reality it is only the first
difficulty with regard to the optical style of the narrative,
in one special application. " What," it is asked, " were the
new relations which the heavenly bodies assumed to the
newly-modified earth, and to the human race? They had
marked out seasons, days, and years, and given light for
ages before to the earth, and to the animals which pre-
ceded man as its inhabitants."

The reply is evident. With those previous ages and
their condition, and the plants and animals -that lived in
tnem, man and his cotemporaries had no more to do than
if their theater had been some wholly different world. It

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 331

was out of* the ruins of these former creations that the
pre'ient arose. To man himself, or any of the creatures
living on the earth, and which have enjoyed the sun-
shine to the present hour, that fourth day was the first
on which sun, or moon, or stars appeared. It was the
earliest of those appearances to the eyes of the present
creation, which have lasted to this day's sunrise, or to
the "hining of the stars this night in the firmament of
heaven.

If any doubt could remain of the adequacy of this ex-
planation, it will be removed at once by the comparison of
other passages in the Word of Grod. Thus we read in St.
Peter of the world before the Flood, that " the heavens and
earth which were of old, being overflowed with water^
perished ; but the heavens and earth which are now, are
kept in store, reserved unto fire." Here it is plain that
the present heavens and earth are described as distinct
from those before the Flood, and succeeding in their room.
This plainly can not refer to the substance of the earth, or
of the heavenly bodies, but to their relations to the senses
of man ; so that the vault of the sky, and the surface of
the earth, are constantly compared to a robe or vesture
which may be rolled away. The interpretation, then, which
refers — Genesis i, 14-19 — to the solid globes of the sun, the
moon, and the stars, as they exist in space, and hence in-
fers a contradiction between the Bible and modern science,
does no less violence to the rules of sound criticism than
to the reverence due to the Word of God.

7. Another supposed contradiction to the truths of science
has been found in the mention of the firmament. The
word, in Hebrew, means simply an expanse. But it is
arged that the context requires us to admit that the writer
viewed this expanse as a solid vault, since it is said else-
where to have pillars, foundations, doors, and windows; and

832 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

here separates waters whicli are above from those whicn
are below. To insist on the derivation, it io said, is mere
quibbling, in the face of these clear proofs that the Bible
ascribes to it a real solidity.

There is something really amazing in the self-confidence
with which such charges of ignorance and folly are brought
against the sacred writers. A little modesty and common-
sense would have shown that an argument which proves
too much proves nothing, and that the sacred writers could
never have thought that rain came down, literally, through
square openings in a solid vault of the sky ; nor that the
sun, moon, and stars, if set in a solid vault, supported by
pillars, could revolve daily from east to west, and reappear
in the east again. The same passage of noble poetry which
tells us, in magnifying the power of God, that " the pillars
of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof," also
tells us that " He stretcheth out the north over the empty
space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." If one
phrase, taken alone, seems to imply solid supports, the
other seems just as plainly to anticipate the views of modern
science, and represents our world as self-supported in empty
space. If windows are ascribed to heaven in one place, as a
figure to represent the descent of rain from above, their ex-
istence seems just as strongly denied in another. " If the
Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?"
Once admit the principle that all these phrases are vivid
metaphors, to express great truths which were evident to
the senses of mankind, and all is consistent, easy, and
natural. The foundations of the earth, the pillars of the
sky, denote simply the firmness and steadfastness of these
two main objects of the knowledge of man, the wide land-
scape spread around him, and the blue vault every-where
above his head. The opening of the windows of heaven
denotes the descent of rain from that upper sky, where no

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 833

water could before be "een to exist, and is a metaphor
plainly drawn from the skylights of some human building.
The placing of the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament
has no reference to a solid structure, in which case they
would be fixed and immovable, but to their permanent
manifestation, as moving daily through the azure vault of
the heaven.

The only phrase which gives the least countenance to
the gross, material view of the firmament, a view which
plainly is refuted, rather than confirmed, by the etymology,
is the mention of the waters above and below it, which it
separates from each other. But a very little patient
thought will suggest at once the true meaning. The blue
vault or expanse is a result relative to human vision. Its
existence depends on the mutual relation of the eyes of men
and animals, and the optical properties of the earth's atmos-
phere, through which alone we obtain a knowledge of objects
beyond the reach of our other senses. It is, in short, the
sensible limit between the visible and the invisible. All
water, then, which is visible to the senses, either in the
seas or in the clouds, is described as being under the
firmament; and all which is invisible, and concealed from
the senses, with equal propriety of phrase, is described
as above the firmament. It is out of this state of invis-
ibility, that it reappears continually in rain, to fertilize
the earth. This change, from the invisible to the visible,
is the opening of the windows of heaven, by which the
waters above the firmament descend and mingle with those
below.

The relation, then, between the latest conclusions of mod-
ern science, and the Bible history of creation, is one of in-
dependent truth, but of perfect harmony. Science reveals
a long series of changes, once unsuspected, by which the
strata of our planet were formed, and a succession of nearly

334 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

thirty vegetable and animal creations, which were suited
no doubt, to the state of the earth in which they appeared,
but were successively destroyed by volcanic convulsions on
the largest scale, by which new mountain chains rose into
being. The most complete separation of species, an im-
mense preponderance of new genera, and the rise of the
most stupendous mountains — the Alps and Andes — separate
the last of these from the present human creation. Science
proves that, before man appeared, the earth must have been
waste and desolate ; all previous forms of life were destroyed
and entombed; and though its strata might be completed,
its whole surface was covered with mighty inundations, and
its atmosphere loaded with the vapor from the seas and
oceans, which such a vast volcanic eruption could not fail
to send up in immense and enormous volumes, wrapping the
whole surface of the planet, perhaps for years or centuries,
in thick impenetrable darkness. But science, while it may
reveal the fact that man, and existing planets and animals,
are cotemporary in the geological sense, is far- too dim-
sighted to disclose the times, the order, and the details of
that last creation in which all these had their birth. For
any thing which its most skillful interpreters can tell us,
this work might have lasted through thousands of years,
or Almighty Power might have compressed it into a single
day. It is here that the Word of God steps in, and begin-
ning its narrative with that creation which now exists, and
with which alone man has any thing to do, at least till these
recent discoveries were disentombed, reveals to us the order,
the swift fulfillment, and the moral grandeur of this great
.work of God. The fourth commandment pronounced on
Sinai, by the lips of Jehovah himself, gives us the sublime
fact, and its application to the instruction and guidance of
mankind. " Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work,
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy

THK BTBLE AND MODEKIS SCIENCE. 3dO

God. Foi in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
tb: sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh
day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hal-
lowed it."

836 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

CHAPTER XY.

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE, CONTINUED.

In the previous chapter a brief reply has been offered to
modern arguments against the inspiration and authority of
the Bible, and its supposed contradiction to the truths
of astronomy and geology. The other topics, the History
of the Flood, the Unity of the Human Race, and the con-
clusions of Ethnology, have not been so prominent in the
most recent attacks, and their treatment would lead too far
from the main purpose of the present work. But it seems
desirable to clear up some difficulties of a more general
kind; and to point out the line of truth and wisdom, be-
tween that superstitious abuse of Scripture, which leads to
"a fantastical science," and that undue confidence in
imperfect science, and contempt for the authority of the
Divine oracles, which leads inevitably to "a heretical
religion."

The Bible, in the view of the Christian Church, consists
of a series of inspired records, or messages from God to
mankind. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of Grod."

It "can not be broken." It is God himself who "spake
in time past to the fathers by the prophets." It is the
Holy Ghost, who spoke by Moses, by David, by Isaiah.
" Prophecy came not at any time by the will of man, but
holy men of God spake, being moved or borne along by
the Holy Ghost." It is "the Lord God of the holy proph-
ets," by whom these various messages of Divine truth were
given to men. The Son of God himself suffered on the

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 337

cross, "that the Scriptures of the prophets might be ful-
filled." And he has told us himself that "it is easier for
heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle of the
law to fail."

Such statements as these, from the lips of the Savior and
his apostles, might be expected to secure the Scriptures
from imputations of contradiction, error, and falsehood, at
least on the part of those who profess to be disciples of
Christ. They do not require us to believe that these mes-
sages are absolutely perfect, without the least speck or flaw,
in the form in which they reach the hands of every indi-
vidual, after translation and transcription have been at
work for thousands of years. They do not, perhaps, require
us to decide how near to the fountain-head some minute,
microscopical faults, from the infirmity of copyists or aman-
uenses, may have been permitted to come. But they do
seem clearly to imply that the gift was perfect, and free
from all error, as first communicated from the God of truth
to his chosen messengers, or curiously and wisely fashioned,
by the use of their faculties, within their minds, whether
in history, precept, doctrine, devotion, or spiritual medita-
tion. The whole, therefore, comes to us plainly stamped
with a Divine authority. And this authority must extend
to every jot and tittle of its contents, till some adequate
evidence, external or internal, shows it to be a fmlt of
translation or transmission; a slight flaw, in whatever way
occasioned, which has become attached to the original and
Divinely-perfect message.

The Bible, again, is marked throughout by the unity of a

great and moral purpose. Its design is not to interfere

with the slow and silent progress of natural science, but to

make sinners wise unto salvation. It was written for the

use of every age, from the time when its earliest messages

were given, and not to gratify the scientific curiosity of our

29

388 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

own busy generation. A treatise on astronomy, geology,
chemistry, electricity, or botany, would evidently be quite
out of place in these lively oracles of God. They would,
by such an excrescence, renounce in part their own true
character, and descend from their sacred hight into a lower
sphere. We have no right to expect in them a premature
relation of the law of gravitation, and the Newtonian the-
ory of the heavens, or of the undulatory theory of light,
or of the chemical constitution of matter, or a thousand
other natural truths, which the progress of science may,
perhaps, in future ages, make known to men. The allusions
in Scripture to all these subjects, we might reasonably infer,
would be incidental, secondary, and collateral.

On the other hand, the Bible is not a message to pure,
disembodied spirits; but is addressed to man in his actual
character, as a being composed of body and soul, born in
the weakness of infancy, placed in the midst of this lower,
visible creation, and trained through his senses to the
knowledge of himself, of nature, and of God. A revela-
tion designed for such a being must inevitably include
within it many facts that belong to almost every field of
scientific inquiry. All nature must be laid under contribu-
tion, like the treasures of Egypt for the tabernacle, to form
this marvelous and complicated structure of heavenly
wisdom. Facts, which belong to geography, chronology,
botany, zoology, astronomy, civil legislation, and political
history, meet us, and must be expected to meet us, in
almost every page of the Sacred narrative.

These simple remarks are enough to clear away two
great errors, on opposite sides, by which Christian faith has
been clouded with a dangerous skepticism, or loaded with a
superstitious excrescence. They show at once how vain
must be the attempt to maintain a doctrinal authority in
Scripture, and still to impute to it a merely hiiDiau

THE ;bible and modern science. 339

character, wherever it touches on questions of natural science.
For the two elements are blended throughout no less inti-
mately than body and soul are united in man himself. Let
us take, for instance, the leading truth of Christianity, the
resurrection of our Lord. No truth can be more central to
the revelation, or more intensely spiritual in its true sig-
nificance. Yet it contains points of intimate connection
with a dozen different sciences. It is a geographical truth;
for he rose from the tomb at Calvary, and ascended from
Olivet. It is a chronological truth; for he rose the third
day, during the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate, and on
the first day of the week, which begins the long, unbroken
series of Christian Sabbaths. It is a physiological truth;
for the body which was laid in the grave, was raised on the
third day, before it had seen (Corruption. It is connected
with a truth of botany; for that sacred body had been em-
balmed with myrrh and aloes, a hundred pounds in weight.
It is a truth of political history, for crucifixion was a Ro-
man and not a Jewish punishment, and a Jewish watch, by
permission of a Roman governor, had been set over the
tomb. It is connected with important facts of mental
philosophy; for the disciples believed not for joy, and won-
dered. It is connected equally with the science of juris-
prudence, and the laws of evidence; for he appeared openly,
"not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before of
God, who did eat and drink with him after he rose
from the dead." And hence the idea of retaining the au-
thority of the Bible, as in any sense Divine, and making
an exception for parts into which there enters some scientific
element, is utterly delusive and impracticable. The doctrines
and the facts, the precepts and the histories, are joined in-
separably by the Spirit of God himself, and man, with his
most laborious efforts, can not put them asunder. Deny the
authority of the facts, and you destroy the whole revelatic a.

340 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

But the same truths will serve equally to shut out an op-
posite error, which would make the Bible, because of itb
Divine origin, a substitute for the researches of human
science, and would strive to extract a complete system of
natural philosophy from its pages. The Bible, from its
nature as a true and Divine history, must contain valuable
materials for many branches of science, but not the sciences
themselves. In speaking of natural objects, it deals with
facts, patent to the senses of men, and not with secret
causes that lie hidden from general view. It speaks of
earthquakes, but not of the volcanic heavings of a fluid
nucleus, or of the internal combustion out of which they
may arise. It speaks of sunrise and sunset, of the waxing
and waning of the moon, but not of the earth's revolution,
or the laws that guide the motion of our satellite, and de-
termine its phases. It speaks of hail mingled with fire,
sent from heaven, but propounds no theory of electricity to
account for the violence of the thunder-storm, and the
strange contrast of heat and cold in the same phenomenon.
It alludes to trees and plants, from the cedar of Lebanon
to the hyssop on the wall ; but no formal classification of
them, as endogens and exogens, or in any other way, is
found in its pages. Thus, while it furnishes rich materials,
in various ways, to men of science, it speaks a language in-
telligible to all mankind. It is mere folly and ignorance
to tax the Scriptures with falsehood because of this popular
character, which is one mark of their Divine wisdom. The
contrast between scientific and popular statements is not a
contrast between truth and falsehood; but between truth in
its simpler and alphabetic forms, which lie within the reach
of a child, and in those deeper combinations which lie re-
mote from the surface, and are gradually disclosed by a
patient induction from multiplied observations and experi-
ments. Every sunrise and sunset, observed in every spot

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 341

on the earth's surface, is a sepanite truth of astronomicaJ
science, no less than material for poetical description. But
the revolution of the earth on its axis is a wider and more
comprehensive truth, which sums up and explains thousands
of sunsets in ten thousand spots on the surface of the earth,
and reveals, with scieutific accuracy, the order and interval
of their succession from day to day. It is thus equally an
error to deny that the Scriptures furnish, on Divine au-
thority, facts which constitute the partial materials for
various branches of natural science; or to suppose that
their statements embody and define any scientific theory,
teach any particular cosmogony, and supersede the labors
of patient induction by a physical theory of nature revealed
from heaven.

Another form, in which the attempt has been made to
restrict the authority of Scripture, is by exempting from
the range of Divine revelation all those departments of
truth '' for the discovery of which he has faculties specially
provided by his Creator." A general charge of ignorance
or negligence has been brought against the whole body of
Christian divines, because they have overlooked this great
axiom, or adopted it with such limitations as destroy its
value. This doctrine is the starting-poiut of the Essay on
the Mosaic Cosmogony, and the goal to which it returns.
Under its friendly guidance, the Divine record of creation,
to which the Son of God appealed with holy reverence, is
to resume the dignity and value which it had lost while
esteemed to be the Word of God, by ranking as the specu-
lation of some Hebrew sciolist, who had never learned the
modesty of modern science, and made a bold, but mistaken
guess at the origin of the world. Men have regarded it,
for ages, as the inspired truth of God ; but it is cheering
to be assured, that their respect for it need not be in the
least diminished, when they come to regard it as the blind

342 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

and ignorant conjecture of some unknown pretender tc
Divine communications.

Let us see, first, how far this maxim will carry us on the
road of unbelief We have the faculty of memory, specially
provided to teach us the facts of history, or of human test-
imony. Therefore no facts of history can be included in
a Divine message. We have the faculty of imagination,
specially provided to make us capable of poetic feeling and
thought. Therefore poetry and its high imagery must be
excluded also. We have a conscience, designed and adapted
to teach us moral truths. Therefore a Divine revelation
must pretend to teach no morality. We have reason and
judgment, specially designed and adapted to combine facts
and truths together, and derive inferences from their union
Therefore all reason and argument, and all appeals to the
understanding, must be banished from the messages of
God. By the moral sense, combined with the faculty of
reason, we can gain some general conceptions of the First
Cause and his moral attributes. Therefore the knowledge
of God himself, his nature, attributes, and will, must form
no part of Divine revelation. The principle, so highly
praised, is thus a simple and effectual expedient for getting
rid of all revelation whatever, by leaving it no single sub-
ject, within the range and compass of the human faculties,
which it is permitted to reveal.

The maxim, then, which theologians are blamed for be-
ing ^low to receive, is grossly and manifestly absurd. No
trutn can possibly be revealed, unless there be a faculty
fitted to receive the revelation. A landscape can be un-
vailed only to the seeing eye, and melodies of music only
made known to the hearing ear. Where the faculties have
been obscured by sin, the work of revelation may be two-
fold, and include the opening of blind eyes, and the un-
stopping of deaf ears, as well as the exhibition of visions

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 343

of heavenly truth, or melodious utterances of Divine love.
But a faculty which is fitted to receive, and if to receive,
then by diligence and care to discover, moral and spir-
itual truth, is not a substitute which excludes Divine reve-
lation, but the previous condition on which its possibility
depends.

But the context in which this maxim appears, and the
purpose to which it has been applied, makes its error
doubly conspicuous. It is used to justify the degradation
of the first chapter of Genesis from a Divine message into a
mere human speculation. Now, if there be one part of the
Bible history which is beyond the reach of a merely human
knowledge, it must be a record of the steps of creation
before the first existence of man. All later events named
in the Bible might have been handed down, without a
Divine inspiration, by the ordinary processes of human
tradition. Here alone such a tradition was plainly impos-
sible. Even modern science must here be completely at
fault. Astronomers might sooner be able to give us a
chart of the bays and islands of the lost Pleiad, or of a
planet of Sirius, than geologists, by their own researches,
to recount in detail the events of the six natural days which
immediately preceded the first appearance of man on the
face of the globe. Yet this is the chapter out of the whole
Bible, -is^hich it has been labored to deprive of a Divine
origin, on the plea that what man can learn by his un-
aided faculties can never be the object of supernatural
revelation.

Let us examine the maxim more closely. It is not un-
common, with Christian writers, to assume a wide contrast
between truths which man might learn without Divine com-
munication, and those for which it is indispensably required.
They do not restrict the authority of the Bible to truths of
th*' second class alone ; but still, it is their presence on

344 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

which the value of the gift is supposed mainly to depend
The same contrast, however, has been borrowed by skep
tical writers, and worked out on its negative side. It then
becomes a powerful engine to destroy the authority of re-
vealed religion. Every fact of history and every moral
truth, since it might be learned by the right use of our
natural powers, is exempted from the province of revela-
tion. Nothing is left to revealed religion but a few mys-
terious doctrines, which are to be blindly received, because
it is impossible to understand them, and they are unfit, in
their own nature, for any exercise of the human conscience
or reason.

It will be found, I think, on closer reflection, that there
is no ground for this line of rigid demarkation. All truth
is mutually related and harmonious. • In the mind of Om-
niscient Wisdom, all things past, present, and future, and
all truths of every kind, must be united in one vast scheme
of Providence, in which there is no flaw. " He is the Eock,
his work is perfect." Every reasonable creature, whose
powers are not impaired by sin, has some partial knowledge
of this mighty scheme, though it is only like a drop in an
immeasurable ocean. But he has also a capacity of prog-
ress. He can observe more and more, himself; and he
can learn more and more from the testimony of other ob-
servers. He can combine, more and more fully, these ele-
ments of knowledge, and thus discover slowly the laws of
Providence, both in the natural and spiritual world. There
seems to be no essential separation between truths attain-
able in course of time by the use of our natural faculties,
and others quite unattainable. But the contrast is almost
infinite, in the degree of facility with which particular
truths may be learned by observation alone, by the help
of human testimony, or by direct revelations from the
Fountain of all truth and wisdom.

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 345

Let us take, for example, the science of astronomy. A
single student, if his life were indefinitely prolonged,
might multiply his observations, perfect his instruments,
and enlarge his attainments in analysis, till the discoveries
of thousands had all been equaled and surpassed by him-
self alone. He might thus amass larger and more exact
materials than we now possess, and combine them by a
profound analysis which should throw the Principia and
Mecanique Celeste, and the labors of Plana, Struve, Airy,
Herschcl, Adams, and Leverrier, completely into the shade.
But before this pinnacle could possibly be reached, long,
interminable ages must have rolled away. Facts, which he
might have learned in a moment from the simple testimony
of another observer, would have become immensely remote,
before he could rediscover them, if at all, as inferences
from his own discoveries and observations.

Now this, which is true of astronomy, must be still more
true of our human knowledge of the character, works, and
ways of God. Even apart from the effects of sin, our life-
time is far too short for any large advance, by our own
unaided wisdom, in a science so glorious. This knowledge
is too wonderful for us: it is high, and we can not attain
unto it. The discoveries of a lifetime would be the merest
atom in this boundless ocean of truth. Even the help of
our fellow-men could do only a very little to facilitate oui
progress in this pathway toward clearer light. But if our
Maker himself were to condescend to become our teacher,
and out of the stores of his infinite wisdom to select the
truths most helpful to our progress, and still within the
range of our actual capacity, then would our progress be
far more rapid and easy. In the humble use of this Divine
aid, we might soon leave far behind us, in the low and
misty valley, those wjio had never received, or who had
neglected and despised it, and travel, with swift and hope-

346 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

fill steps, up the mountain side toward the summit of the
everlasting hills.

But the debasing influence of sin on the human faculties,
renders this contrast between the attainments possible in the
use of natural powers alone, and by the aid of Divine reve-
lation, far more complete. Men need not only to be taught,
but to be made willing to learn. It is not enough that a
wide landscape of heavenly truth is spread out before them.
The eye of the soul must undergo a healing process, before
they can gaze upon it undazzled, and without confusion.
When the last glorious vision was revealed to the beloved
Paniel, its brightness overwhelmed him, and he fell sense-
less to the earth. The same Person, who was the great
object of prophecy, and the Revealer of what was noted in
the Scripture of truth, needed also to act the part of a
Divine Physician, and to strengthen the faculties of the
prophet, as well as to provide a glorious vision on which
his eyes might rest. He touched him once, and the
swoon passed away, and he stood trembling, but mute
with deep astonishment. He touched him again, and the
dumbness was removed, and he was able to utter a confession
of his weakness, and to plead for further succor and grace.
He touched him a third time, and strength was given, and the
prophet could hearken to the message, and gaze, even to the
last, upon that glorious vision. We have here a picture of
the constant law of all Divine revelations to a world of sin-
ners. The Revealer must also himself become the Physician;
or else the most glorious revelations of unseen things, and the
largest disclosures of the ways of Providence, will be offered
in vain, while a death-like stupor settles down upon the
Bouls of men.

Again, there are truths in the spiritual, just as in the
natural world, which, from our actual position, must become
known to us as facts, long before we could attain, by any

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 847

process of reasoniog, to deduce them from other truths, or
to discover their secret hiws. It is possible, for instance,
that the luminosity of the sun, in contrast with the planets,
may result in some way, now unknown to us, from its im-
mensely-superior mass. In this case, the solar mass would
be a physical cause, and the solar light a scientific corollary.
But every inhabitant of the earth must experience the light
of the sun, long before they could deduce the mass of the
sun and planets from their observations, or obtain any
glimpse of a scientific relation between two facts apparently
so independent. In like manner, unfallen spirits must have
distinct communion with the persons of the Grodhead, long
before they could possibly obtain any glimpse of the Trin-
ity as an essential corollary from the perfection of the Di-
vine Being; and ftillen sinners must have learned the
atonement, and felt its recovering power, long before they
can be expected to gain any deep insight into its mystery,
as reconciling the attributes of the Grodhead in the infinitely-
wise counsel of redeeming love.

These truths, duly weighed, will fully explain the use
and need of Divine revelation, without resorting to any
broad separation of truth into two kinds, of which the first
may be attained by human faculties alone, and the others
need a miraculous interference. The question is not what
men might possibly learn, supposing no moral averseness
from Divine truth, and that their lives were prolonged in-
definitely, to give them space for growing discoveries. This
is the real question, how, within the limits of a very short
probation, unwilling hearts may be bowed into the attitude
of willing disciples, and dull and backward scholars may,
within a few years or days, become wise to salvation, and
gam a firm hold on those great doctrines of God's holiness,
their own corruption and guilt, and that way of acceptance
through a divine atonement, on which all light, peace, holi-

348 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

uess, and comfort depend. Every child, wlio consults an
almanac to learn the time of a coming eclipse of the sun,
has faculties, which might perhaps, in the course of some
thousands or myriads of years, enable him to discover for
himself the laws of the heavenly motions, to reproduce the
Newtonian theory, and calculate the eclipse from his own
observations. But an abstract capacity, loaded with such
conditions, can not in the least diminish the worth of the
almanac to such a child, as a ready and sufficient source
of the information which he requires. Nay, the same is
true of the most advanced astronomer. He may add, by
his own labors, to the domain of science ; but still he needs,
both in his daily life and for the wants of his own observ-
atory, to depend on the ready-made ephemeris, no less than
the merest peasant or the youngest child.

The maxim, then, that Divine revelation must be re-
stricted to those subjects which lie entirely beyond the
reach of human faculties, and which man could never pos-
sibly learn without some direct aid from above, is no less
opposed to sound philosophy than to the actual features of
the Christian religion. If the Bible teaches little, com-
paratively, on matters of physical science, it is because it
moves on a higher level, and refers to spiritual objects;
and still more because, in the secondary use which it
makes of the works of nature, its purpose is best fulfilled
by dwelling on those aspects of them which lie nearer the
surface, and are open to the observation of all mankind.
On the other hand, we have plainly faculties by which we
can observe or acquire historical facts; and more than one-
half of the Bible consists of history. "We have a conscience
by which we can discern right and wrong. Our Lord him-
self appeals to the unbelieving Jews — " Yea, and why even
of yourselves, judge ye not what is right?" Tbe faculty
was present, and, if used aright, there may have been no

THE BIBLE AND MODERN SCIENCE. 349

absolute limit to its possible uttainraents. And yet the
largest portion of the Bible, next to simple narrative, con-
sists of moral precepts, examples, and exhortations. It is
not to supply the absence of a missing faculty, but rather
to heal the sickness of a faculty that is diseased by sin,
and to quicken its slow and halting progress in the path-
way of truth and wisdom, that Divine revelation is really
given. Its authority, then, is stamped alike on every part
t)f the truth which lies within the compass of its actual
message. It is not a map of the world, but its statements
of the places where sacred events occurred are accurate and
true. It is not a system of optics or astronomy; but its
mention of the visible work of the fourth day, of the sun-
set when Abraham received his vision, or the sunrise when
Sodom was destroyed, or the darkness at the crucifixion, is
accurate and true. It is not a system of chronology, but
the ages and the dates it records, when its true text has
been ascertained, are, like the Grospel itself, worthy of all
acceptation. It has a holy anointing from the Spirit of
truth, which runs down to the very skirts of its garment.
Its sayings, whatever their subject, when cleared from
specks and flaws that may have been contracted here and
there in the transmission of the message, are " faithful and
true;" for it is "the Lord God of the holy prophets" by
whom these lively oracles have been given to mankind,
" to give light to them that are in darkness and the shadow
of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace."

350 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

- CHAPTER XYI.

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE.

The relation between the authority of the Bible and the
claims of conscience is one of the most fundamental ques-
tions in the whole range of practical theology. Any serious
mistake on this point strikes at the foundations of Chris-
tianity. If conscience be silenced, and external commands,
through human interpreters, are blindly imposed on the
whole Church, the way is open for the fatal inroad of all
kinds of superstition. If private conscience be made the
supreme authority, and the Word of God be allowed no
other force than it borrows from the choice or caprice of
the individual, we accept a principle which is the root of
all infidelity, and anarchy will be enthroned under the
imposing titles of a spiritual religion and a reasonable
faith.

Statements, which have lately been made, seem clearly
to present this later view as characteristic of the full man-
hood of the individual Christian, and of the whole race of
mankind. With the age of reflection, the spirit of con-
science comes to full strength, and assumes the throne. As
an accredited judge, invested with full powers, he sits on
the tribunal of our inner kingdom, decides on the past, and
legislates on the future, without appeal except to himself.
He is the third great Teacher, and the last. He frames
his code of laws, revising, adding, abrogating, as a wider
and deeper experience gives him clearer light. The law
of the child or the youth may be an external law, in mak-

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 351

ing, enforcing, and applying which we have no share ;
whieli governs from the outside, compelling our will to
bow, though our understanding be unconvinced and unen-
lightened, and cares little whether you reluctantly submit
or willingly agree. But the law which governs and edu-
cates the man is internal ; a voice which speaks within the
conscience, and carries the understanding along with it;
which treats us not as slaves, but as friends ; which is not
imposed by another power, but by our own enlightened
will. This law of conscience marks the last stage in the
education of the human race. We are now within the
boundaries of this third period. The Church is left to
herself, to work out by her natural faculties the principles
of her own action. In learning this lesson she needed a
firm spot, and has found it in the Bible. Had this con-
tained precise statements of faith, or detailed precepts of
conduct, we must either have become subject to an outer
law, or have lost the highest instrument of self-education.
But the Bible, from its form, is exactly suited to our
wants, for even its doctrinal parts are best studied by view-
ing them as records of the highest and greatest religious
life of the times. Hence it is to be used not to override,
but to evoke, the voice of conscience. When the two ap-
pear to difi'er, the pious Christian immediately concludes
that he has not really understood the Bible. Its interpret-
ation varies always in one direction, and tends to identify
itself with the voice of conscience. From its form it can
not exercise a despotism over the human spirit. If so, it
would become an outer law at once, and throw back the
world into the stage of childhood. But its form is such
that it wins from us all the reverence of a supreme au-
thority, and yet imposes on us no yoke of subjection. The
principle of private judgment puts conscience between us
and the Bible, and makes it the supreme interpreter,

352 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

whom it may be a duty to enlighten, but never to
disobey.*

These statements, by a large amount of friendly violence,
may perhaps be explained away into the simple truism, tha<
the Gospel, in contrast to the Law of Moses, is a dispen-
sation of liberty, and includes very few external ordinances.
But in their natural meaning they go much further, and
involve three principles, which evacuate and destroy the
whole authority of the Word of God. They teach, first,
that the Scriptures have no authority, and impose no ob-
ligation, unless they have been indorsed and accepted by
the individual conscience ; and then only in that particular
construction which each one puts upon them in his own
mind. Secondly, that private, individual conscience is a
supreme judge, whom, however faulty or imperfect his de-
cisions may be, it is always a duty to obey. And thirdly,
that in the present manhood of the world, whenever public
opinion, or the prevailing impressions of educated men, and
the apparent teaching of Scripture, diverge from each
other, the voice of Scripture must be fitted to the inde-
pendent conclusions of man's natural conscience, and not
the general conscience rectified, purified, and enlightened,
by submission to the authority of the Word of God.

I. The first main question which needs decision, is the
nature and limit of the authority due to the Scriptures.
Are they a revelation from God, which claims obedience
and submission in virtue of its Divine origin ? Or, are they
simply a rich treasury of materials, which our conscience,
the supreme law, may employ in forming its own conclu-
sions, and which impose no obligation, till each particular
person adopts and applies them in the exercise of his private
judgment? On the answer to this inquiry it must depend

* Essays and Reviews, pp. 31, 34, 44.

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 353

whether the Church and the world are still under moral
government; or, under the pfea of magnifying the rights
of conscience, we are given up to a state of spiritual an-
archy, where no law is binding on any Christian, but just
whatever he chooses to receive and obey.

Let us first consider what are the express statements, on
this subject, of the Scriptures themselves. We find, in the
very front of our Lord's teaching, the impressive sentence,
'* Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the
Prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For
verily I say unto you. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these
least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be
called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever
shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in
the kingdom of heaven." It seems plain that our Lord
speaks here as the great Lawgiver. He denies that he has
come to set aside the authority of commands already given.
On the contrary, he had come to clear them from pernicious
glosses, and to develop their full meaning. His purpose
was not to abrogate, but to enlarge and complete the code
of Divine morality; and those who taught the exemption of
his disciples from even the secondary and inferior precepts,
would lose all claim to spiritual eminence, and be called
"least in the kingdom of heaven." At the close of the
discourse we have a renewed warning of the guilt and dan-
ger of disobedience, and the most prominent feature in
the whole sermon is declared to be its tone of Divine
authority.

If we pass from one of the earliest of our Lord's dis-
courses, to one of the last, the same feature stands out in
cleaf relief, amid all the rich fullness of its grace and com-
paj^sion: "Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for

30

354 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

SO I am." "I have given you an example, that ye shall do
as I have done to you." "If ye know these things, happy
are ye if ye do them." "If ye love me, keep "my com-
mandments." " He that hath my commandments, and keep-
eth them, he it is that loveth me." "He that loveth me
not, keepeth not my sayings." "If a man love me, he will
keep my words." "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall
abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's
commandments, and abide in his love." "This is my com-
mandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you."
The lesson of the Epistles is precisely the same. More
than three chapters of the Epistle to the Romans are com-
posed of distinct apostolic commands, addressed with
authority to the Roman Christians. The laws of the sec-
ond table are all reimposed, with a Grospel commentary on
their mutual relation, xiii, 8-14. The apostle declares, at
the close, that the aim of his whole ministry was "to make
the Gentiles obedient by word and deed;" and that the
Gospel he preached was the commandment of God, and
made known to the nations for the obedience of faith. In
1 Cor. xiv, 37, we have the impressive caution — "If any
man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him ac-
knowledge that the things which I write unto you are the
commandments of the Lord." In the Second Epistle he
tells them, " To this end did I write, that I might know the
proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things," and
he distinguishes in one case between simple advice and
direct apostolic precept. 2 Cor. viii, 8-10. One-half of the
Epistle to the Ephesians is made up of such precepts,
given in the most direct and imperative form, while the
fi"th commandment is recognized as still binding on Chris-
tians— "Honor thy father and mother, which is the first
commandment with promise; that it may be well with
thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." In the

_ THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 355

Epistle to the Philippians, tlie same truth is taught in plain
terms, that Christian disciples were bound by the authority
of apo«tolic commands: "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye
have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling." In every other epistle of St.
Paul, the same truth appears. St. James is even more
explicit, and says to the Christian believers, "Whosoever
shall keep the whole law, and yet oflfend in one point, he is
guilty of all. For he that said. Do not commit adultery,
said also, Do not kill. Now, if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.'*
And, again, "Speak not evil one of another. He that
speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother,
speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law; but if thou
judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy."
St. Peter fills his First Epistle with precepts of the most
pointed and authoritative kind; while in his Second he
states the object of both his letters in these words: "That
ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before
by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the
apostles of the Lord and Savior." St. John's Epistle
abounds in declarations of the same kind : " Hereby we do
know that we know him, if we keep his commandments."
"I write no new commandment unto you, but an old com-
mandment, which ye had from the beginning. Again a
new commandment I write unto you." "Whosoever com-
mitteth sin, transgresseth also the law, for sin is the trans-
gression of the law." "Whatsoever we ask we receive of
him, because we keep his commandments." "This is his
commandment, that we should believe on the name of his
Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us
commandment." "This is the love of God, that we k(u^p

356 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

his commaDdments, and his commandments are not grie^
ous." " This is love, that we walk after his commandments.*'
In the last book of the canon, though mainly prophetic,
this same truth enters into the repeated description of the
faithful, that "they keep the commandments of God, and
have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

Now, in all these passages, which are only specimens out
of a large number, we are taught that every Christian is
distinctly placed under the authority of God's commands,
given by Christ and his apostles, and recorded in the New
Testament; and the duty of obedience is made to depend
simply on the fact that such commands have been given.
They can not be rightly obeyed, unless they are first under-
stood, and their Divine authority recognized. But these
are conditions of actual obedience, and not of the obliga-
tion to obey. So far is this from being true, that neglect
of the message is itself ranked among the most dangerous
and deadly sins.

This great truth, that the commands of Scripture are
binding by their own authority as the words of God, and
not simply when indorsed by the private conscience, results
further from the distinct mention, in the Bible, of sins of
ignorance, and of presumption. Now, if no command were
obligatory on the Christian, but such as his own conscience
has previously recognized, this distinction must be set aside.
Sins of ignorance would then be impossible, and all sins
would be those of presumption, or committed with the pres-
ent knowledge that they were sins. But this contradicts
equally the Old Testament and the New. The law made
distinct and full provision for the pardon of sins of ignorance,
and of those alone. Num. xv, 22-31. The Psalmist offers
the petition, "Keep back thy servant from presumptuous
sins, lest they get the dominion over me." But it is only
after the confession and prayer, "Who can understand his

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 357

errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults." And the
prayer of our Lord upon the cross, for his murderers, piaces
the contrast in the clearest light: "Father, forgive them;
lor they know not what they do." On the principle now
examined, these sinners must have been guiltless, because
their own conscience had never pronounced sentence against
them for their great and aggravated crime.

But this notion, that moral obligations depend simply on
the impressions of the individual conscience, and not on the
true relations between each person and his fellow-creatures,
and the glorious Creator, is no less opposed to the lessons
of a sound philosophy than to the plain and repeated state-
ments of the Word of God. Moral commands are in their
own nature as unchangeable as the being of God, the rela-
tions of sovereignty and dominion, which he bears toward
his intelligent creatures, and their own capacities for receiv-
ing and imparting happiness. Add to these relations a
power of choice, and nothing more is required to create
moral obligation. The office of conscience is not to create
new duties, but to discern those which do exist, and bring
home to us their imperative claim on our obedience. The
atheist is bound to love his Maker with all his heart and
mind, no less really than the most devout Christian. The
man steeped in selfishness, till he has come to reckon
worldly prudence his sole duty, is bound to love his neigh-
bor as himself, no less than a Howard or a Wilberforce, a
St. Paul or a St. John. The most ignorant idolater, who
bows down with sincere reverence to his idol, and says,
" Deliver me, for thou art my God," is bound by the sec-
ond commandment, no less than Moses, or Isaiah, or Dan-
iel. For the command is based on a Divine attribute,
which is unchangeable, and not on the slippery and uncer-
tain impressions or fancies of sinful men. No doctrine can
be more dangerous to society than one which exempts from

858 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the laws of the second table the disobedient child, the re-
vengeful duelist, or assassin, the abandoned sensualist, the
thief, and slanderer, whenever they have seared their own
conscience, and lost the feeling of their own obligation.
And none can be more fatal to true religion than one which
pronounces atheism and idolatry to be blameless, whenever
the fool has really said in his heart, " There is no God ;"
or a deceived heart has turned the idolater aside, " that he
can not deliver his soul, or say, Is there not a lie in my
right hand?"

II. Again, is Conscience a supreme judge, invested with
full powers, who legislates without any appeal but to him-
self, and whom it may be a duty to enlighten, but can
never be a duty to disobey ? xVre the Scriptures merely an
exciting cause to awaken the independent voice of this
judge, and must their teaching be accommodated to it,
whenever they seem to diverge from each other ?

The answer to this question is partly implied in the
reply to the former. If the laws of God are of binding
authority in their own right, then a mistaken conscience
can never reverse the true law of duty. It may render
acts relatively sinful which are lawful in themselves, be-
cause a person would thereby run counter to his own sense
of what is right ; but it can not make that lawful which iu
itself is wrong. The law of God does not prescribe me-
chanical acts, irrespective of the temper and spirit in which
they are done. " He that doubteth is condemned, if he
eat ; because he doeth it not in faith ; for whatsoever is
not of faith is sin." A diseased conscience introduces a
moral discord, so that actions against the conscience, even
when materially right, become morally wrong. But this,
far from proving that conscience is a supreme judge with-
out appeal, proves exactly the reverse. It shows the moral
discernment of right and wrong to be so essential a part

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 359

of the morai Deing that, when this is perverted, sin is in-
evitable, whether we obey its lessons, or disobey them.
Men can not render God a fit and acceptable service, when
" their own heart and conscience are defiled."

The true question is not, whether a mistaken conscience
can render acts sinful to the individual which are lawful
m themselves, btit whether it can render actions lawful,
which, apart from its erroneous decision, are morally wrong.
Such a doctrine is a direct proclamation of moral anarchy.
It strikes at the very foundation of the dominion of God.

Let us test it, first, by one or two statements in the
Scriptures themselves. Our Lord gave the warning to his
disciples : " The time will come when he that killeth you
will think that he doeth God service." Were these perse-
cutors of the first disciples innocent, when they carried out
their sincere convictions of duty by murdering the saints
of God? If private conscience be a supreme judge, and
without appeal, they were innocent. But the Scriptures
pronounce them deeply criminal, and their voice ^is con-
firmed by the deepest instincts of every Christian heart.
Again, was Saul of Tarsus innocent when he "verily
thought with himself that he ought to do many things
contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth?" Was his
conduct blameless when he consented to the murder of
Stephen, and held the raiment of them that slew him?
Was he a pattern of moral uprightness when he " made
havoc of the Church, entering into every house, and haling
men and women committed them to prison," when he "pun-
ished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to
blaspheme?" What is his own sentence, when recovered to
a sounder mind ? He declares himself, on account of these
conscientious acts, to have been " the chief of sinners."
He proclaims himself a marvelous example of the riches
of God's long-sufi"ering, that the most guilty, in later ages,

360 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

might not despair of the Divine mercy because of the
greatness of their crimes. He alludes to the ignorance
under which he then labored, but never dreams that it had
power to turn his sins into virtues, and to free them from
blame. Its only effect, in his view, was to avert a still
deeper measure of guilt, so as to leave his case just within
the extreme limit of Divine forbearance. " Who before
was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I
obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief"
" Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first
Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering." Nothing
can be more decisive and clear than this judgment of the
great apostle in the deliberate review of his own history.
A perverted conscience can not alter the nature of sin, and
make it lawful. It merely frees it from that deeper aggra-
vation, in which men sin presumptuously against the light,
and their own convictions, and thus load themselves with
a more dangerous and almost hopeless condemnation.

The ^ame conclusion results equally from a direct con-
sideration of the nature of conscience. It may be allow-
able, as a figure of rhetoric, to speak of it as a judge
which holds its court within the soul, and pronounces its
judgment on all the lower faculties. But such metaphors,
when constantly used, are liable to create a serious de-
lusion. When it is said that conscience comes in between
the Bible and ourselves, as a mediator and interpreter, the
metaphor has been mistaken for a fact, and leads to dan-
gerous consequences. For conscience is simply the mind
'tself, exercising its judgment on the moral relations of
right and wrong in its own actions, and the actions of
others. Its supremacy over other faculties is merely a
varied expression for the truth, that the relations the mind
contemplates, when its acts receive this name, are in their
own nature of binding authority, and claim allegiance and

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 361

Bubmission. In its other actings, the mind contemplates
things equal or inferior to itself, or superior beings, irre-
spective of any claim to actual dominion and supremacy.
But the laws of moral duty are royal laws in their own
nature, and speak with the voice of a king ; and the judg-
ments of the mind, in which it recognizes them, partake of
the same character. Thus the supremacy of conscience de-
pends entirely on the distinctive nature of moral truth;
but its defects, weakness, and error are due to the mind
itself, and are one form of its moral guilt and infirmity.
Its dictates are binding, therefore, so far as they are the
true reflection of eternal truths, or of real moral relaiions
perceived by the soul. But the mistakes of conscience
have no more real authority than any other kind of error.
They have this peculiar feature, that they make sin in-
evitable. In obeying them the man sins against laws of
G-od; and, in disobeying them, against his own convictions
of duty, and the internal harmony of his own moral being.
Conscience, then, is no mediator, which private judgment
can interpose between the mind of the Christian and the
Word of God, so as to shield him from the weight of the
direct authority of the Scriptures. It is simply the mind
itself, recognizing the control of moral obligations, whether
dimly taught by the light of Nature, or more clearly by
the voice of Divine revelation. If the Bible be the Word
of God, then its moral precepts must be received by the
conscience at once, so far as they are understood, and
owned to be obligatory. If it be viewed as a human pro-
duction, a double process will be required : first, to discover
what it enjoins; and next, to discern how far its precepts
are confirmed by the moral judgment, which may be formed
on other grounds. In this case, natural conscience may be
said to come between the soul and the Bible, because its

revealed commands are not held to be binding of them-

31

362 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT,

selves, and require to be ratified by some further and more
decisive authority. But this plainly involves an entire de-
nial of its Divine character. On the other hand, when its
authority is allowed, there can be no middle party re-
quired, to render its precepts of direct and immediate ob-
ligation. They bind, because they exist, and are the voice
of God. They can be felt to be binding, and guide the
practice, only so far as their authority is accepted, and
their true meaning is discerned. A personal conviction
with regard to our own duty must accompany the acting
of the mind upon the moral lessons in the Word of God;
but it neither adds to their authority, nor creates the ob-
ligation to obey ; just as an image on the retina does not
really intervene between the eye and the landscape, and is
only a necessary result, from the optical structure of the
eye, during the act of vision.

III. A third question remains to be examined. Is it
one feature of the present advanced age of the world, that
whenever Scripture and private conscience appear to
diverge, we must suit our construction of Scripture to the
supposed lessons of conscience, instead of molding the con-
science into submission to the truth of God? This is a
very momentous inquiry. It has been affirmed that "when
conscience and the Bible appear to differ, the pious Chris-
tian immediately concludes that he has not really under-
stood the Bible." In other words, his conscience niay be
assumed to be infallible, but his interpretation may be
wrong, and the latter must be revised and varied till the
discrepancy is removed.

Now, such statements as these involve a double error.
They assume that conscience, in the case of the pious
Christian, can give decisions independent of the moral
teaching of the Scriptures, and unaffected by it; and also,
that its decisions are less fallible, and more trustworthy,

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 363

than the conclusions drawn with regard to the true mean-
ing of the Word of God.

First, it is untrue that the conscience of the pious Chris-
tian can give decisive judgments, while he is still uncertain
whether they agree with the Word of God, and even sus-
pects some contradiction between them. For since he be-
lieves that the Bible is a Divine revelation, he must believe
that what God really commands in his Word is just, right,
and true, and that moral judgments contradicting that
Word must be deceptive and erroneous. An infidel, of
course, may form moral judgments in entire independence
of the Scriptures, and when they differ from his impression
of the Bible precepts, he will at once impute the difference
to the moral immaturity of the sacred writers. But with
the Christian this is impossible. So long as he remains
uncertain what the Scriptures really teach on a question of
morals, so long the voice of conscience must remain in sus-
pense, because he dare not pretend to set up" his own
guesses above the express revelations of the living God.
The mere assertion, then, of the power and right of the
natural conscience to form a fixed moral judgment on cases
mentioned in the Scriptures, before the voice of Scripture
itself has been heard, is a virtual rejection of Christianity.
Such a claim is consistent and natural in the lips of the
unbeliever alone.

It is plain, however, that the natural conscience may form
impressions on laws of moral duty, or the character of par-
ticular actions, of a provisional kind, which diverge from
the first impressions left on the mind by the teaching of
Scripture, without any formal rejection of its authority.
And the second question which arises must be, how these
are to be reconciled together. Must our interpretation
of Scripture alway> give way to the supposed voice of nat-
ural conscience? Or must conscience always submit to the

364 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

apparent meaning of Scripture? Or, again, must each, in
turn, be modified and revised by the belp of the other?

The trup answer is here very evident to a thoughtful
mind. Our interpretations of the Bible are liable to
error, especially with regard to its indirect moral teach-
ing, by examples, or in exceptional circumstances; and
so also are the first impressions of natural conscience. The
disciples needed their eyes to be opened, that they might
understand the Scriptures; and they, whose heart and con-
science are defiled, will be sure to form erroneous conclu-
sions on moral right and wrong, till they have been cleansed
and renewed by the Spirit of God. To claim infallibility
for crude and hasty inferences from Scripture, so as to
quench deep moral instincts of the soul, is the high road to
all superstition. To set up natural conscience for an infal-
lible rule, and either to reject the voice of Scripture, or
violently to distort it, in order to get rid of a felt discord-
ance from that rule, is the very essence of infidelity. The
path of true wisdom lies between these extremes. It will
use the plainer lessons of conscience to correct and remove
gross and careless misconstructions of the lesson conveyed
iu isolated narratives of Scripture. But it will also use the
voice of Scripture, especially when derived from the com-
parison of many passages, to correct • the superficial and
erroneous teachings of natural conscience; and thus to raise
it, from the low level of a spurious charity, a mere counter-
feit of true benevolence, into communion with the Divine
holiness, and the solemn, as well as the tender and gentle
features of heavenly love.

IV. Is there no difi"erence, then, it may still be asked,
between the liberty of the Christian and the rigor of the
Jewish dispensation? Are we now, in the times of the
Gospel, no less under the dominion of an external law, than
the disciples of Moses under the elder covenant? Are we

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 365

not taught by the apostle, in most emphatic language, that
Christians are " not under the law, but under grace?" Are
we not charged to "stand fast in the liberty of Christ, and
not to be entangled with a yoke of bondage?" Do not
these and similar passages lend some countenance to the
'idea, that in former ages there were commands binding on
the conscience, simply in virtue of their publication; but
that now, under the Gospel, no command is of authority
till received and digested by the conscience itself, as a kind
of spiritual moderator, and thus engraven on the tablets
of the heart? Perhaps the simplest and clearest reply to
these questions will be found in a brief review of those
foundations of Christian morality and Christian faith, on
which their right solution must depend.

First of all, moral truth is not a mutable and variable
thing. It is no chance product of human opinion, no
capricious and arbitrary creation of the Divine will. It is
the reflection of God's own moral perfection, in its relation
to the responsible creatures he has made, and is thus un-
changeable in its principles and grand outlines, like the
attributes of the Most High. Moral perfection is in reality
the Divine image retained in the spirit of angels, and re-
stored in the souls of men. "God is love," and the full
resemblance of that love is the perfection of the rational
creature, the great and supreme law of moral duty. But
since all being is twofold, the Creator and his creatures,,
this law parts at once into two great commandments, the
love of God and the Supreme Goodness, and the love of
God's creatures. It thus forms the double precept, in its
wide and full meaning, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart," and " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself" Each of these admits of further divisions, accord-
ing to the attributes or states of the object loved, and the
capacity or state of the moral agent himself To dwell on

366 THE BIBLE AND MOBERN THOUGHT.

the second only — love to our fellow-creatures may assume
three fundamental varieties. They may be viewed simply
as creatures capable of happiness; and love tc them under
this character is simple benevolence, which extends even to
lower forms of irrational life. They may be viewed, next,
as moral creatures, loving or selfish, holy or unholy. Love
toward them in this second aspect assumes two opposite
forms — the love of the good, and the hatred or abhorrence
of the evil; and this constitutes moral righteousness or
holiness. Again, sinful and unholy creatures may be viewed
as still capable of moral recovery. Love to them, under
this character, constitutes the last and highest element of
true Christian morality, or that grace which is the dis-
tinguishing lesson of the Gospel of Christ. Still further,
the complex nature of man, as composed of body and
soul, and his own condition, as a dying creature under
moral probation, and a sinner encompassed by acts and
messages of Divine grace, vary these fundamental out-
lines, and multiply them into an immense diversity of moral
obligations.

Conscience is simply the mind itself, viewed in its capac-
ity for discerning the truth and authority of these obliga-
tions, and for passing judgment, by the aid of this knowl-
edge, upon all the various actions of men. It is an
enlightened conscience, when these relations are seen
clearly, and felt in all their real power. It is a dark and
ignorant conscience, when they are ill understood, and the
mind seldom awakens to the sense of their surpassing and
supreme importance. It is a perverse and defiled conscience,
when the love of sin in the heart warps and falsifies the
judgment, so that men call evil good, and good evil, put
light for darkness and darkness for light, bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter. It is a seared conscience, when the
soul becomes reckless and willfully desperate in sin, and

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 867

refuses altogether to own the unchanging authority of the
eternal laws of right and wrong.

The conscience of man, since the fall, is darlcened and
defiled, but neither wholly scared and insensible, nor totally
blind. His sense of his duty toward God is the most
grievously obscured, and in a lower degree, but far less com-
pletely, his sense of obligation toward his fellow-men. By
the mere light of nature, in favorable circumstances, he
attains some partial knowledge of the duties of truth, jus-
tice, and benevolence. But, without teaching of revelation,
all the higher lessons of moral obligation, the holiness of
the law, and the grace of the Gospel, remain almost, or
altogether unknown.

Now, in using the higher help, and fuller teaching, which
Divine revelation supplies, men are exposed, from a double
cause, to the risk of serious error. Mere intellectual dull-
ness, or haste and rashness, form one source of misin-
terpretation; and moral disease and darkness are another,
still more dangerous. Through dullness or haste, men may
mistake beacons of warning for moral examples, or the ab-
sence of express condemnation of wrong actions for a
virtual approval; or the praise of mixed actions, because
of some element of faith and piety, for a sanction to all the
accessories of human infirmity and sin; or duties, resulting
from rare and exceptional circumstances, may be taken for
normal examples, given for general imitation. In all these
cases a conscience, moderately enlightened, may serve to
correct the too hasty inferences of a superficial judgment.

But the other source of error is wider in its operation,
and far more dano-erous. The sinful heart shrinks from the
holiness of the Divine law, and seeks by a natural instinct
to elude its authority. The severity of God's anger against
sin grates painfully upon ears that are in love with worldly
pleasure; and it is striven to set the truth aside, as a con-

368 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

tradiction to the Divine benevolence. The laws of the first
table, as most obnoxious to the fallen heart, are wholly re-
jected, or robbed of all the fullness of their meaning; and
those of the second table are pruned and lowered, till grace
is turned into moral indifference, and holiness defamed as a
Jewish superstition. All that remains is then a wretched
caput mortuum of sickly, sentimental, unreal benevolence,
degenerating by degrees into selfish prudence alone. Thus,
instead of conscience being an infallible guide, to whose
independent decisions our interpretations of S"cripture must
be compelled to bow, the exact reverse is true. The dis-
eases and obliquities of conscience, in sinful men, are the
most fruitful cause of laborious perversions of the Word of
God. Men love darkness, rather than light, because their
deeds are evil. They shrink, with instinctive shuddering,
from the holy severity and stern authority of the Divine
Law, and too readily corrupt and pervert the grace of the
Grospel itself, by confounding it with the doctrine of indis-
criminate mercy, and a message of universal impunity
to sin.

The authority, however, of the commands of God does
not and can not depend on the unwilling submission of men.
A diseased conscience may shrink from the light, and close
the eyes against it. A sinful heart may send up thick
vapors, like the smoke from the abyss, to obscure this
upper firmament. But the stars abide in their everlasting
courses, and never cease to shine, nor to rule over this
night-season of moral darkness, till the full Dayspring
shall arise. Whether known or unknown, whether obeyed
or disobeyed, the great law of love, along with all the
corollaries that flow from it, is always binding upon the
souls of men. They can not, by any willful darkness,
escape from its power. They can hide themselves in no
cavern, where its presence does not overtake them, and

THE BIBLE AND NATURAL CONSCIENCE. 369

pronounce them guilty, so long as they refuse, or even
neglect to obey.

This law of duty, in its higher and nobler aspects, ap-
plies to man simply as an immortal spirit, and requires the
obedience of the heart alone. But in its lower and more
practical forms, it applies to man both in soul and body,
and requires the obedience of the outward act, as well as
in the affections of the heart. Under the earlier dispensa-
tion of the Law, these outward requirements were greatly
multiplied, and were needed to train and discipline the
inner man to the free service of love. Out of the corrup-
tion of this system arose the self-righteousness of the
Pharisees, which worshiped the outward form, and stifled
or denied the inner meaning of the Divine commands, and
in which the weightier matters of the law — judgment,
mercy, and faith — were completely set aside.

The contrast, then, of the Gospel of Christ with the Law
Df Moses does not consist in the abrogation of the Divine
commands, or in making them dependent, for their au-
thority, on the previous indorsement of man's natural con-
science. That would indeed be a fatal error, and pave the
way for the great antichristian apostasy of the last days.
In this nobler astronomy, the earth must revolve around
the sun, not the sun around the earth. The conscience
of man, a dependent and subordinate gift of the Creator,
must submit to the firm and eternal laws of his moral
government. It is a planet which derives all its light,
and order, and beauty, not only from the enlightening
beams, but from the controlling authority, of the Sun
of Righteousness. Once let that control be withdrawn,
and it becomes indeed a " wandering star," which must
travel further and further into the depths of error and
delusion, till it loses itself in the outer darkness. Such
was the state of those Jewish persecutors, in early days, of

370 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

wliom our Lord warned his disciples — " The time will come,
when he that killeth you will think he doeth God service."
Such was the state, in later times, of those importers of
ascetic superstition into the Church of Christ " speaking
lies in hypocrisy, seared in their own conscience as with a
hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain
from meats, which God hath created to be received with
thanksgiving." Such is the inspired description of those
selfish apostates of the last days, who " walk after the flesh
in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government," and
"whose own heart and conscience are defiled" with the love
and practice of sensual sin. It is only when the con-
science bows with reverence and full submission to the au-
thority of God's written Word, that, like a planet obeying
the central law of gravitation, it abides in the light which
streams from Him whose word it obeys. It then receives
and reflects the pure light of Divine truth, and its innu-
merable applications to every field of moral duty, and to all
the varied relations of human life, and the hills and valleys
of earth are bathed with the brightness and the sunshine
' of heaven.

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE HinLE. ^J7l

CHAPTER XVII.

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE.

The Bible combines within itself various cbaracters. It
is a sacred history, a code of religious doctrine and
morality, and a message of peace and hope, or a proph-
ecy, to successive generations, of a redemption to come.
If truly inspired, it will bear, in every one of these char-
acters, some impress of its Divine Author. It will be pure,
for God is pure, and holy, for God is holy. It will be
marked by historical unity, for " known unto God are all
his works from the beginning;" by doctrinal consistency,
and fullness, for " the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, even
the deep things of God ;" by practical power over the
hearts of men, for the Word of God is a word of power,
and " effectually worketh in them that believe ;" by har-
mony in its prophetic announcements, for its Author is
that Spirit to whom all the secrets of the future are dis-
closed, whose messages are of no private interpretation, but
a consistent revelation of the good things to come. Let us
examine the Bible, first, as a Sacred History, and see
whether, in this aspect, it does not yield abundant evidence
of its Divine authority and inspiration.

The historical books of Scripture form three-fifths of the
whole. They are composed by nearly twenty writers, in
two different languages, during a space of more than fifteen
hundred years. If merely the works of men, it would
therefore be vain to expect in them any marked unity of
plan, outline, and moral purpose, running through the

372 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

whole. Such a uuity, if it be found to exist, must evince
the presence of a higher author, the Spirit of God.

I. Now, first, the historical character of the Bible is in
itself a mark of the Divine wisdom, by which it has been
suited to its professed office, as a public, revelation from
God to man. By this alone it is widely distinguished from
nearly every case of pretended revelation. Facts and im-
posture do not agree together. There is no history, prop-
erly so called^ in the Koran; none in the Shasters and
Vedas of Hinduism ; none in the Zendavesta ; none in the
sacred books of Egypt, so far as they are recovered, or
their contents are known. But the Bible is, first of all, a
sacred history. It professes to be God's own record of
the leading facts in the course and progress of the moral
government of our world through successive ages. It
mounts upward to a period so remote, that no parallel
testimonies exist, with which to compare it. But it reaches
onward through all the later periods of ancient history;
while it closes, in the first century of the Christian era,
amid the fullest blaze of Greek and Boman civilization.
Three-fifths of each Testament are purely historical. In
either case the histories take precedence of all the other
sacred books, and form the basis on which they rest, and
out of which they evidently spring.

This historical form of the message fulfills many im-
portant objects. It is, in the first place, a convincing
pledge for the reality of the whole. Men are prone, by
nature, to flee from their Maker's presence, and hide them-
selves in the dark caverns of their own unbelief Purely-
doctrinal messages, or spiritual truths presented in an ab-
stract form, would have little power to meet and overcome
this great evil. Men need to be taught that the Almighty
is a God nigh at hand, a real, living Governor, whose au-
thority, likfe the blue sky, bends over all, and, whether

THE HISTORICAL FNITY OF THE BIBLE. 373

they choose or refuse, embraces them continually on every
side.

A revelation, couched in a history of mankind from the
creation downward, meets this temptation of .the fallen
heart, desirous to escape, if possible, from the sense of the
Divine Presence. Men can not escape from the history of
the Bible. Its facts encounter them on every side. If
they go back to creation, the Bible is there, and if they
trace out the dispersed families of mankind, the Bible is
there also. If they take the wings of the morning, to visit
the lands of the East; there, in the land of Egypt, or the
plains of Chaldea, amid Arabian deserts, or the hills and
valleys of Canaan, the ever-present hand of God, revealed in
these histories, holds them in on every side. The obelises
of Nineveh are brought suddenly to light, after a burial of
two thousand, five hundred years, and Bible facts are found
engraven upon them. The monuments of Egypt are de-
ciphered, and Shishak, So, Tirhakah, Necho, and Hophra,
all the Pharaohs whose names meet us in the Bible, meet
us there also, and dovetail at once into their places in the
sacred history. In later times the remains of antiquity
bring before us, in the coins of Herod the Great, and Herod
Antipas, in the guild of dyers at Thyatira, the corn ships
of Alexandria, the title of the Roman chief of Melita, and
inscriptions by the "temple-keeping Ephesians" to the great
Artemis, and her heaven-descended image, ever multiplying
coincidences with the New Testament history. The plains
east of Jordan are explored; and in Bashan, the Bible
"land of giants," after thousands of years, buildings worthy
of a race of giants are brought to light once more. The
voices from the half-deciphered tombs of the old Pharaohs,
even though fulsome adulation, royal pride, and foul idola--
try, have left on them a triple stamp of falsehood, seem still,
in many parts, like dim and muffled echoes of the true say-

374 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

ings of Grod. Their divergence from the Bible, where they
seem to diverge the most, resembles the difference between
the same landscape seen dimly through a sea of mist, and
in clear sunlight. In proportion as we emerge out of ob-
scure antiquity into a historical age, their harmony with
the Bible becomes apparent. Where the divergence seem?
wide in the view of some investigators, amid the twilight
of the world's infancy, there are still such important points
of agreement with Genesis and Exodus, as to force the sus-
picion, even on the least religious minds, that, after all, the
defect may belong to the blunders of interpreters, or to the
falsehoods of pride and flattery in the heathen sculptures
themselves, and leave the truth of the Bible unshaken and
unimpaired.

But there is a further benefit in the historical form of
the Bible, besides the evidence which it forces, even on re-
luctant hearts, of the reality of God's moral government.
The Divine message is brought into greater harmony with
the weakness of mankind.

The view has been lately advanced, that precept, ex-
ample, and internal conscience, form three successive stages,
both in the training of the individual and of the world.
But the hypothesis, even apart from the conclusions which
have been rested upon it, seems very questionable. Ex-
ample comes even earlier, perhaps, than precept, in the
real order of moral training. The child imitates out of
mere instinct, even before it has learned to obey. It seems
a truer description, that example is the means by which
mere instinct is gradually transformed into conscious and in-
telligent submission to moral law. Its influence is not by
any means delayed till childhood is passing into youth. It
begins with the first hours of infiincy, and is then, perhaps,
velatively the most powerful ; though its absolute power
may increase with the growth of thought and reason, and

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 375

become still more conspicuous, when the years of childhood
are passing away. Moral tales have a mighty power over
children, long before a code of ethics would have any great
influence. Even with the majority of educated men, biog-
raphies and travels are more attractive, and do more in
molding the heart, than didactic treatises of a moral kind.

Now, the Bible, by the large proportion of direct nar-
rative it contains, and the precedence of these historical
books over the rest, is wisely adapted to this instinct of
our nature. It deals with men, as truly children in the
sight of God, who need training by examples and simple nar-
ratives, before direct precepts can exercise their due power,
or mysterious truths and doctrines be usefully revealed.
The sacred histories form thus the larger portion of each
Testament. They are the stem on which all the other
parts depend. Plain, real fact, blossoming out into high
and holy truth, is the character, throughout, of the Word
of Grod. It stoops, first of all, by its narratives, to the
condition of men, as dwelling in the outward world of time
and sense, that it may raise them to the knowledge of their
Maker, and the vision of unseen and eternal things.

II. The unity of purpose, in all the sacred histories, is
a further token of their Divine origin. The Bible is a
history of redemption. It begins with a brief account of
the Creation. But after its mention of the Temptation and
the Fall, it announces the coming of a Redeemer, who
would subdue the deceiver and adversary of mankind. The
expansion of this hope is the one object of all the later
histories. They reveal the main steps of Divine Provi-
dence, by which this first great promise was to be at length
fulfilled. Amid the rank and luxurious growth of lust and
violence, of unbelief and idolatry, truth and righteousness
are kept alive in the earth by ceaseless acts of Divine
power and wisdom ; till at length the Seed of the Woman

376 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

is born, and a new and brighter era of Gospel hope dawns
upon the benighted nations, which had long been sitting in
darkness, and the shadow of death.

All the main features of the Bible history are simply
explained by a reference to this great object of the whole
message. It determines what is said, and what is left
in silenae; what is briefly touched upon, and what is
unfolded more at large. A few chapters are the sole
record of two thousand years from Adam to Abraham.
The work of redemption was then in its first infancy.
The Spirit of God, like the dove when it first returned to
the ark of Noah, seems to flee away from those ages of
dim light and abounding wickedness ; and to await, in
silence and hope, the abating of the floods of ungodliness,
and the arrival of brighter days.

With the call of Abraham a new era in the scheme
of Divine mercy plainly began. Here, also, the history
evidently begins to expand, and becomes far more copious.
Still, it passes by in silence the rise of idolatrous empires,
and confines its narrative, almost entirely, to the lives
of the three chosen patriarchs, whose names were to be
linked inseparably, through all later ages, with the name
of the true and only God. Two hundred years from the
death of Jacob to the Exodus, are dismissed in three chap-
ters only. But with the Exodus itself began a fresh stage
of Divine revelation, and two whole books, mainly histor-
ical, are occupied with the great subject, accompanied by
two others, filled with the Divine laws, which were given
to the people of Israel. Another whole book is given
to the narrative of the Conquest, the historical basis of
the Jewish polity for fifteen hundred years, and itself
the type of a greater deliverance. But three centuries
that follow, in which there was no fresh revelation, are
compressed into a single book, with one short episode in

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 877

the history of Ruth. The line of inspired prophets began
with Samuel, and that of kings with Saul and David ; and
the history expands once more, and is on a larger scale.
It attains its greatest fullness in the reign of David, the
center of a new era of Divine promise; and then contracts
into a more rapid sketch of the later reigns. Three short
books, after the Captivity, are marked by the entire absence
of miracles, by the continuation of the history of Judah
alone, by a remarkable, preservation of the chosen people,
and by a definite prediction of the time when Messiah
would appear. The history is then suspended, till the time
of the Incarnation. It resumes with a short account of
our Lord's infancy, and a fuller record of his public minis-
try, death, and resurrection, by four difi"erent witnesses.
One of these continues his earlier narrative of our Lord's
lifetime by a history of the early Church, till the Gospel
is firmly planted by St. Paul himself in the metropolis of
the heathen world.

Now, in all these histories one great purpose is conspicu-
ous. Hope in a Savior still to come is the leading feature
of the Old Testament; and faith in a Savior who has act-
. ually appeared is the animating principle of the New.
Facts are omitted, which have only a remote bearing on
this great hope of the Church ; and those are unfolded
most fully into which it enters with the greatest clearness.
The Bible history, from first to last, is instinct with life
and hope. Every-where it reveals the Spirit of God, brood-
ing over the dark and troubled waters of a sinful world,
and preparing the way for a great and blessed regeneration
still to come.

III. Continuity of outline is another main feature of the
Bible history. It does not resemble, in the least, the in-
dependent workmanship of twenty writers, the earliest sep-
arated from the latest by fifteen hundred years. It wears

32

378 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the marks of one continued narrative, carried on uniformly
through four thousand years, from the days of Paradise to
the preaching of St. Paul to the Jews at Rome, with one
single break, where the Law and the Prophets are parted
from the higher message of the Grospel of Christ.

This continuity is seen in the whole series of the Old
Testament histories. The Book of Genesis reaches from
the Creation, in one unbroken descent, to the death of
Joseph. Exodus begins with the death of Joseph and his
brethren, and carries us through the deliverance itself, till
the tabernacle is finished, at the opening of the second
year, and filled with the cloud of glory. Numbers resumes
from the same time, or rather earlier, before the second
Passover, and reaches to the conquest of the laud on the
east of Jordan. Deuteronomy, besides a review of the
journeys in the wilderness, closes with an account of the
death of Moses. The Book of Joshua reaches from the
death of Moses to that of Joshua and of Eleazar. The
Book of Judges resumes with some details of the conquest,
and reaches to the death of Samson, after the long strife
with the Philistines had begun. The First Book of Samuel
begins with the birth of the prophet, in the days of Sam-
son, and extends through the reign of Saul to his over-
throw and death. The Second begins with the accession
of David, and reaches nearly to the close of his reign.
The two Books of Kings continue the history, in unbroken
order, to the Fall of the Temple. Three short books re-
count the restoration after the Captivity. The Books of
Chronicles contain simply genealogies from Adam to David,
and a fuller narrative of the reigns of the kings of Judah
only, from David to Zedekiah. The New Testament re-
sumes the history, after a pause of four centuries, and con-
tinues it from the Incarnation, till the Gospel was planted in
Rome, the great center and metropolis of the heathen world.

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 879

A series of histories, so continuous through four thou-
sand years, from the Creation to Nero, could not be the
chance work of twenty writers, fifteen centuries removed at
the two extremes. A higher wisdom must surely have
been present, and molded every portion into harmony with
the common design of the whole. The single break be-
tween Malachi and the Incarnation only strengthens the
proof of design. Stars wane before the sunrise. The gift
of prophecy was suspended, and sacred history was with-
held for a season, before that dawn of the Sun of Righteous-
ness, after which both of them were to reappear in richer
splendor and beauty than before. The words of the
heathen poet, in reference to the works of creation, must
apply here with equal force, "ifews agitat molem, et magno
se corpore miscet.^' One mind, the mind of the Holy Spirit,
must have brooded over this wide range of history, evolv-
ing deep harmonies of truth and wisdom out of the seem-
ing chaos of confusion and spiritual darkness, through the
long and weary course of these four thousand years.

IV. Simplicity of style is another feature of the sacred
histories by which they are distinguished from common
narratives. There is no comment, and no rhetorical ampli-
fication. Where genealogies are given, there is no attempt
to relieve their barrenness by digressions and arts of com-
position. The most startling miracles are mentioned in the
same quiet tone as the most commonplace occurrence. The
writer seldom pauses, even for a moment, to direct the at-
tention of his readers to the wonders he has to record. A
calm, quiet, solemn, earnest tone marks the whole narra-
tive. The writers never turn aside to deprecate suspicion,
never pause to amplify what is marvelous, and seldom
allude for a moment to collateral testimony. However
rich in materials for reflection their narrative may be, they
abstain from all moral commentary. The history is left to

380 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

supply its own key. There is no condemnation of Lot, in
his ready acceptance of Abraham's offer, but the results of
his choice, too selfishly made, speak for themselves. There
is no direct censure of Jacob's deceit in the case of the
blessing, but his whole life is one tale of silent retribution.
He is deceived, in turn, in all that is dearest, with refer-
ence to his flocks, to his wife, to his best-beloved son.
Thus the histories of the Bible, while they are simple be-
yond all others, are also the most profound. The youngest
child reads them with lively interest; and the most ex-
perienced Christian, the moralist, and the divine, return to
them continually, and find them rich with unsuspected
treasures of moral truth and heavenly wisdom.

What can be more simple than the history of Joseph?
Its truth and pathos find their way irresistibly to every
heart. But what can be more profound than the lessons it
conveys, on the laws of duty, the ways of Divine Provi-
dence, and the character and work of the promised Re-
deemer? It follows abruptly after a dry, unadorned gene-
alogy of the sons of Esau, and is closed by a list, almost
equally dry in appearance, of the sons and grandsons of
Jacob. It bursts upon us at once with the completeness
of a perfect drama, where every part conspires, simply and
naturally, to the issue designed from the first. The dreams
of Joseph are fulfilled through the envy of his brethren, in
spite of their settled purpose to falsify them ; and the deep
reality of human character and feeling, in every step of
the narrative, renders doubly conspicuous the unfailing
truth of God's promises, and the sureness of his counsel,
who sees the end from the beginning. Amid the darkness
of heathenism, and the sinful perverseness of the chosen
seed, there dawns a bright earnest of the promised re-
demption ; and the Christian, who compares it with the
New Testament, is compelled to feel, in all the main

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 381

Steps of the narrative — Behold, a greater than Joseph ip
here!

This simplicity of the Bible history is one out of many
marks which strongly attest its Divine inspiration. We
feel, even when we are not able to explain, the stamp of
Divinity which rests upon it. Skeptical critics may strive
to persuade themselves, or their readers, that the early nar-
ratives of the Bible are epic poems or mere legends. We
read them once more, and the illusion disappears. In every
sentence we hear the tones of truth and reality. The im-
pression they leave on the mind, and have left on every
candid and thoughtful reader since the hour when they
were written, is like that made on our senses, when we
gaze on the blue vault of heaven. They are inimitably
simple, and still they are unfathomably profound.

y. The condensation of the Bible histories is not less
striking than their simplicity. This was required, indeed,
by the practical object for which they are given. A history
of the world through four thousand years, in which the
main steps of God's moral government should be recorded
for the lasting guidance of his people, required the utmost
condensation, or it would fail to be accessible to the vast
majority of believers. The structure of the Bible fulfills
this necessary condition in the highest degree. It is full,
every -where, of the seeds of things. Its minutest incidents,
on close examination, are found to be rich with a large
variety of spiritual truth. They are like the images on the
human retina ; and every speck contains, in miniature, a
condensed landscape of heavenly wisdom.

This condensation of the Bible narratives is doubly
striking, if we compare them with the earliest heathen
records, the lately-deciphered monuments of Egypt. Let
us hear the description of these, which Baron Bunsen has
given, who still regarded them as a lever which mu^^t over-

382 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

turn our faith in the truthfulness of the early histories of
the Bible. " Where," he asks, " is there an instance of so
many and such magnificent monuments, which sometimes
tell us little, frequently nothing at all ? . . . The written
character is prolix ; the repetition of fixed phrases makes
it still more so. Little is lost by occasional lacimce, but
comparatively little advance is made by what is preserved.
There are few words in a line ; and what is still worse,
little is said in a great many lines. Inscriptions on public
buildings were not intended to convey historical informa-
tion. They consist of panegyrics on the king, and praises
of the gods, to each of whom all imaginable titles of honor
are given. Historical facts are thrown into the shade, as
something paltry, casual, incidental, by the side of such
pompous phraseology as — Lords of the World, Conquerors of
the North, .Tamers of the South, Destroyers of all the Un
clean, and all their Enemies. The case of the papyri is
certainly different. But written history, such as the his-
torical books of the Old Testament, so far as our knowl-
edge of their writings goes, was certainly unknown to the
old Egyptians."

The early books of the Bible are a total contrast, in this
respect, to the previous description of the most ancient
heathen records. The object seems to be, in every part, to
condense into a small compass the largest possible amount
of real information. Simple facts, condensed and multi-
plied, seem here to constitute the basis on which the whole
superstructure of moral, prophetic, and doctrinal messages
was to be reared. And this feature which marks the ear-
liest Bible histories, remains equally striking to their close.
The Book of Acts stands preeminent above all classic his-
tories, for the variety, the condensation, and the fullness of
its narrative. It links itself with the whole range of the
Old Testament Scripture, with all the facts of the Gospels,

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 383

the cotemporary messages of the Epistles, and an immense
variety of the facts of classical antiquity ; while it records
the successive steps by which the Gospel was transferred
from Jerusalem to Rome, and the way prepared for long
ages' of Gentile privilege, and Jewish desolation.

VI. The Pentateuch, or the Law of Moses, forms the
first of four main divisions of the Bible history. Its his-
torical unity is a most conspicuous feature of the whole.
Instead of permitting us to resolve it, as some modern
skeptics have labored to do, into a clumsy and imperfect
patchwork of three or four different authors, it requires us
to see in it the work of a higher mind, and a deeper
wisdom than even that of Moses, by which the course of
the whole narrative must have been secretly and powerfully
controlled.

First of all, in its general character it stands alone, and
has no counterpart in any human production whatever. It
is a code of national law, inwrought into the texture of a
regular history. Again, it is a history of mankind from
the earliest times, briefly and comprehensively given, and
blossoming into lessons of moral duty, and institutes of
national wisdom. It roots itself in the soil by innumerable
details, in its earlier portion ; and rises, at its close, into a
most earnest and impressive series of Divine commands and
exhortations. Thus it stoops to man, as to a little child,
takes him by the hand, teaches him to look upward, and
leads his footsteps, gently, along the steep hill-side of
eternal truth. Through a simple record of facts it rises
gradually into the region of moral duty, of precepts, doc-
trines, and promises. It begins with the loss of Paradise
through man's transgression ; and ends with a description
of God's own prophet, from the hight of Pisgah, looking
out upon a glorious vision of an inheritance, like Paradise,
still to come.

384 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

This double character, of facts passing into doctrine,
command, and promise, runs through the whole Pentateuch,
but with a manifest progress and gradation. The first
book is almost wholly historical, since it ends before Moses,
the great prophet and lawgiver, was born. But it is not
mere history. Its leading facts are made the basis of dis-
tinct commands and ordinances, which form essential parts
of the law of the Lord. The history of the Creation, in
the first chapter, is closed by the institution of the Sab-
bath, the first, in order, of all the revealed commands of
God ; and its repetition, with details, in the second chapter,
closes with the law of marriage, the grand basis of all
social and domestic obligations. The third chapter, again,
closes with a double appointment of human labor and con-
jugal obedience. The fourth chapter implies the institu-
tion of animal sacrifice. The ninth puts a seal upon the
sacredness of man's life, by a public appointment of death
to be the penalty of murder. The rite of circumcision is
enjoined to Abraham by a distinct covenant, while a law
of tithes, and another ceremonial observance, are indirectly
imposed, in the later course of the patriarchal history, on
the people of Israel.

The laws, however, in Genesis, though of high import-
ance, are comparatively few in number. In Exodus they
form rather less than one half of the whole book. In Le-
viticus there is only a very slight intermixture of narrative :
it consists almost entirely of the ordinances of the taber-
nacle worship, and of other national institutes. The first
and last chapters of Numbers have the same character, but
the middle is chiefly historical. Deuteronomy, on the other
hand, is mainly a rehearsal and repetition of Divine laws ;
but its first chapters are a review of the history in the wil-
derness, and it closes with an account of the parting words,
and of the death of Moses. There is thus a plain organic

' THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 385

unity from first to last. The two elements of facts and laws
are present throughout the Pentateuch : but the facts, in
Genesis, are the main substance of the work, with only a
few laws interposed ; while Deuteronomy is a book of laws
and Divine ordinances; but it is firmly anchored, both at
its opening and its close, upon the great series of events
which compose the sacred history.

Again, the Book of Genesis, in its first chapters, must
either be a supernatural revelation, or a mere legendary
fiction. But every feature of legendary composition is here
precisely reversed. There is no trace of a desire to amplify
doubtful and marvelous narratives, because the account goes
back to the most distant ages, the birthday of the world.
On the contrary, one short chapter alone is given to a gen-
eral history of the Creation, a second to the state of man
before the fall, a third to the fall itself, a fourth to the first
example of God's moral government over a world of sin-
ners, a fifth to the genealogy of sixteen hundred years,
from Adam to Noah ; and three others to the Flood, where
a new covenant of grace began. Three chapters more com-
plete the whole account to the call of Abraham; so that
eight chapters travel rapidly over more than two thousand
years.

With the call of Abraham a new dispensation of mercy
began. Here, therefore, the history expands at once into
larger proportions. Forty chapters unfold rather less than
three centuries of the patriarchal history. A further ex-
pansion ensues at once after the call of Moses, and fifty
historical chapters are occupied with an interval of forty
years only, till his death. There is thus an evident har-
mony and proportion of historical development in the whole
Pentateuch, which severs it widely from all the heathen
legends ; and is a clear sign that it " came not by the will

of man," but that Moses composed it under the guidance

33

386 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of a higher wisdom, and " spake as lie was moved by the
Holy Ghost."

Let us contrast it, for example, with Manetho and the
Egyptian monuments. The history of that famous Egyp-
tian priest has perished, except two or three short frag-
ments in Josephus. But we learn, from an extract ir
Eusebius, that it professed to begin with reigns of the
gods, occupying 13,900 years, and four dynasties of Manes^
or souls of the dead, and Heroes, who reigned over Egypt
for 11,000 years more, and were followed by Menes, the
first mortal or human king. All these are described as
Egyptian reigns. They were designed evidently to flatter
the national vanity and pride. There is no trace of any
message in the history, to remind the Egyptians of their
brotherhood with the foreign races they were accustomed
to hate or despise. What a total contrast to the simple
record in the first chapter of Oenesis ! The very first les-
son taught to the Jews in their national law, the immedi-
ate gift of the Grod of Israel, was their brotherhood with
the whole race of mankind; with whom they shared, in
Adam, a common sentence of guilt and shame ; and, both
in Adam and Noah, a common message of hope and com-
ing redemption.

The historical interweaving of the whole narrative is
another feature, which shows the Divine wisdom by which
it was framed. Every device of skepticism is baffled when
it strives to rend asunder the seamless robe of this funda-
mental record of patriarchal history. In the latter half of
Genesis, for example, from the birth of Isaac onward, we
find not less than a hundred retrospective allusions to the
previous portion of the narrative, and most of them of a
distinct and specific kind. Some are direct, others indirect
and comparatively latent. Some refer to a single passage,
and others to the combined result of several statements.

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 387

The same character of retrospective allusion runs through
the four later books, and compacts the whole Pentateuch
so firmly together, that no critical artifice can succeed in
parting it asunder. It would need little more, to disprove
every variety of the document hypothesis, than to print
separately the difi"erent alleged documents ; when it would
be seen at once that they were merely torn and broken
fragments of the Pentateuch, and could have no claim to
form a complete and independent whole. The firmness of
structure, in these early books of Scripture, is like that
which the skillful architect gives to the lowest courses of
the lighthouse, which has to resist the incessant surging of
the waves of the ocean, and to bear aloft, on its summit,
the beacon-light, by which ten thousand mariners may be
rescued from fatal shipwreck, and find it a star of hope and
peace amidst the darkness and the storm.

VII. In the later books of the Old Testament, from
Joshua to Nehemiah, the historical unity, though rather
less conspicuous than in the Pentateuch, is not less real.
The diversity of the writers, and the interval of more than
a thousand years from the first to the last, make this fea-
ture, in some respects, even more striking than in the books
of Moses, and compels us to read in it the result of a
higher wisdom.

The Book of Joshua is a history of the conquest, the
fulfillment of the prophecies in the law, and the basis of
all the later history of the chosen people. It contains
every thing essential to such a record, and nothing super-
fluous. First, we have the passage of Jordan, and the re-
newal of the national covenant. This is followed by four
main steps in the Conquest, the fall of Jericho and of Ai,
and the defeat of a great southern and a great northern
confederacy of the Canaanites. There is, next, a formal
catalogue of the kings and districts that were subdued.

388 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

The record of the Conquest is followed by the division of
the land. And first, there is a repeated summary of the
allotment by Moses to the trans-Jordanic tribes. Then we
have the fulfillment of the promise to Caleb, and the allot-
ments to the two leading tribes of Judah and Joseph.
Next follows the supplementary allotment to the seven re-
maining tribes, with a list of the towns and villages in each
portion, closed by Joshua's own private inheritance. The
ecclesiastical arrangements follow, the appointment of the
cities of refuge, and those of the Levites. The eastern
tribes are then dismissed to their inheritance beyond Jor-
dan. Last of all, Joshua, before his death, solemnly re-
counts to the people the mercies of God, and twice renews
with them the national covenant.

The last chapter illustrates, in a striking manner, the
way in which the whole series of sacred history is bound
together. It goes back, in its review of the past, to the
days of Terah, the father of Abraham, and mentions his
idolatry, which is only implied in Genesis, in the land of
Chaldea. It mentions next, in succession, the call of Abra-
ham, the birth of Isaac, and of the sons of Isaac, Esau and
Jacob, the inheritance of Esau in Mount Seir, and the de-
scent of Jacob and his sons into Egypt, forming a brief
summary of four-fifths of the Book of Genesis. In three
verses more it gives an abridgment of Exodus, and in the
last clause, of the Book of Numbers. In the eighth verse
we have a brief repetition of the twenty-first of Numbers,
and in verses 9, 10, of the striking episode of Balak and
Balaam. Three other verses describe the Conquest itself,
and the fulfillment of the promises in Deuteronomy. The
mention of the oak or pillar, and of the sanctuary in She-
chem, refers us to the history, in Gen. xxxiii, of Jacob's
purchase from the Shechemites ; the burial of Joshua, to
the previotis mention of his inheritance in the middle of

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 389

the book ; and that of the bones of Joseph, to three pas-
sages in Genesis and Exodus — Gen. xxxiii, 18-20, 24—26,
Exod. xiii, 19 — so as to bind together, by these retrospect-
ive allusions, the whole series of the sacred history.

The Book of Judges, which reaches from the death of
Joshua to the Book of Samuel, when a new era of the The-
ocracy began has a distinct unity of its own. The suc-
cessive relapses into idolatry, and the captivities to the
heathen, showed the need of a righteous king, and that
the true rest was not yet come. The book begins with a
review of those failures in obedience to the Divine com-
mands, which contained the seeds of later degeneracy and
rebellion. Then follows a general summary of the whole
period, in its double aspect of repeated apostasy and re-
newed help and deliverance. These periods are then briefly
recorded in the order of time, from the first captivity under
a king of. Mesopotamia to the partial deliverance wrought
by Samson at his death. The history then reverts to two
main illustrations of the national sins of Israel in the next
generation after Joshua and the elders, and closes them
with a remark which contains the intended moral of the
whole history, and made it a virtual prophecy of the na-
tional revolution which was soon to follow — " In those days
there was no king in Israel : every man did that which was
right in his own eyes."

The First and Second Books of Samuel have a similar
unity of design. They contain the steps of the great tran-
sition from the earlier form of theocracy, under judges, to
the permanent choice and establishment of the royal line
of David. The former contains the successive steps, by
which their judicial honor was taken from Eli and his
priestly house, and transferred, first to Samuel, then to Saul,
and finally to David, the center of a new era of promise and
blessing. The Second Book is occupied with the forty years

390 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of his reign, just as that of Numbers with the forty years id
the wilderness. The kingdom was settled by covenant in
David's line : the ark, which the sin of Eli's sons had be-
trayed to the Philistines, was brought to Jerusalem ; and
preparation was made, on the site where the pestilence was
arrested, for building the temple of God.

The Books of Kings continue the history through the
reign of Solomon, and the division of the two kingdoms,
down to the reign of Zedekiah, and the Fall of the Temple.
In their opening chapters we have the building of the
Temple, and the reign of Solomon, when the queen of the
South came from the ends of the earth to hear his wisdom.
The Theocracy, or typical kingdom of God, then reached
its climax of strength and beauty, and began quickly to
reveal its imperfection, and hasten into decay. The rest of
these books contains the history of the schism, which rent
Israel from Judah, and continued till the ten tribes were
led away captive to Assyria, and Judah to Babylon. There
is a clear unity of style in this portion of the history. It
is also the stem which supports the greater part of the
prophecies of the Old Testament. Three of the greater
and nine of the minor prophets beloAg to this period. To
make the connection still more intimate, three chapters of the
Second Book of Kings are repeated, with very slight change,
in the midst of Isaiah's prophecies, and two others are re-
peated in the book of Jeremiah's prophecies, at its very close.

The history is continued still further, in a second series,
on the return from the Captivity. The Books of Chron-
icles begin from the Creation, and reach to the Captivity
of Babylon. They are then continued by the Books of
Ezra and Nehemiah, the last two verses of Chronicles and
the first two of Ezra being the same. The nine chapters
of genealogy from Adam to David, though they contain no
history, siipply copious materials to confirm the Mosaic

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 391

narrative, and the actual truth of the later records. The
remainder of the First Book gives fuller details than the
Books of Samuel with regard to the last years of David,
and the whole priestly economy. The Second Book con-
fines itself, almost entirely, to the kingdom of Judah. In
the first and leading series of sacred history, the prominent
feature is the course of national sin, by which the kingdom
of David sunk into ruin. But in Chronicles the main sub-
ject is the mercy of God to the people of Israel, and to
the chosen line of David, issuing at length in that decree of
Cyrus, by which the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah
were fulfilled.

The three short Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther,
which continue this supplementary history, and bring it
down through a whole century after the Return, have a
character of their own. The grandeur of the old covenant
has ceased. It has decayed, and grown old, and is ready
to vanish away. No miracle is recorded in this last period
of the sacred history. The unfinished air of the Books of
Ezra and Nehemiah must strike every thoughtful reader.
They are a little promontory, jutting out from the earlier
times of the Law and the Prophets, and nearly severed from
them by the Captivity — where hope might plant its foot
more firmly, and look forward, across generations of delay,
to the promised coming of Messiah. The prophetic books,
which belong to the same period, contain some of the
clearest predictions of his Advent. Side by side with Ezra
and Nehemiah, as if to show that their unfinished charac-
ter is the result of design, we have a history, in the Book
of Esther, which has never been surpassed, in dramatic
unity and power, by any fiction which human fancy has
devised. It has a marked resemblance of character to the
nistory of Joseph at the close of the Book of Genesis. In
e.'»ch of them the inspired narrative rises into a sacred

392 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

drama, complete and harmonious in every part, of which
the main purpose is the deliverance and preservation of the
chosen people. In the Book of Nehemiah, again, we have
a summary of the whole course of Jewish history through
fifteen hundred years, from the call of Abraham to the
time when the covenant was renewed after the return from
captivity. Thus, in two cotemporary books, wholly oppo-
site in character, and in two opposite ways, a signal unity
is impressed on the whole series of Old Testament histories,
from the times of Abraham and Joseph, and the old
Pharaohs, to those of Nehemiah, Esther, and Mordecai,
under the Persian kings.

The break in the history, after Nehemiah, only completes
the proof of this all-pervading unity of design. The wan-
ing of the elder dispensation, and the withdrawal, through
four hundred years, of sacred history and prophecy, was
adapted, in the highest degree, to render the dawn of the
Grospel more impressive.

VIII. The four Gospels are the next main division of
the sacred history. And here the marks of Divine wisdom
are still more conspicuous than in the narratives of the
Old Testament.

The life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, are the
central object of Old Testament prophecy, the sum and
substance of the Christian faith. The great end for which
all written revelation is given required that these should be
placed in clear and full relief Here, therefore, and here
only, in the whole range of inspired messages, we have
four parallel and collateral histories. In the Old Testa-
ment two is the highest number of such parallel series, or
a bare sufficiency under that rule of the law — " In the
mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be es-
tablished." But here, in the Gospels, the legal provision
is exceeded Four testimonies have been provided, and

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 393

not two or three only; so that they fulfill the description
of our Lord, and give to us "good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, and running over."

But the same rule of the Law, when compared with the
Gosp€»ls, yields a further sign of the deep wisdom which
presided secretly in their composition. Two witnesses are
barely sufficient, but three are ample, for confirmation
alone. When a first record, then, has been made, and one
testimony given, a second would naturally have, for its
chief purpose, ^to confirm, and not to amplify and extend
it. A third would be less needful, though still desirable,
for mere confirmation of the others, and might reasonably
be expected to ratify and to supplement their statements,
almost in equal measure. A fourth, if given at all, plainly
exceeds the limit named in the Law. Its main object, we
may infer, would be to supplement and enlarge the pre-
vious narratives, since it would be almost superfluous for
mere confirmation of them alone.

Now, if we take the Gospels in the order in whicb they
now stand, and in which they have been placed from the
first, such is precisely the relation which exists between
them. St. Mark, the second, has only two or three inci-
dents not recorded by St. Matthew, though the difierent
arrangement in one large portion, and the far greater full-
ness of the details, preserve it from all suspicion of being a
mere summary. Its aim, throughout, is to confirm St.
Matthew, and not to supply facts wholly new. The Gospel
of St. Luke combines both objects in almost an equal pro-
portion. In the account of our Lord's infancy, it supple-
ments the narrative of St. Matthew, and hardly one inci-
dent is the same. In seven chapters that follow, it con-
firms the evidence of its two predecessors, and agrees fur-
ther with St. Mark in the arrangement. Ten chapters
after these are mainly a supplement to the previous narra-

394 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

tives; six others are in the main confirmatory, and the last
chapter, again, is supplementary, and consists mainly of
new matter. The Gospel of St. John, on the contrary, is
supplementary from first to last. Except in the account
of the miracle of the loaves, and some leading events in
Passion-Week, it contains information wholly new, which
is not to be found in any of the three earlier Gospels.
This gradation of character, in fulfilling the double object
of confirming earlier testimonies, and of giving further in-
formation, is a secret but powerful evidence of the deep
wisdom which molded the separate narratives, so as to ful-
fill most efiectually the end for which they were given.

The silence of the Gospels with regard to our Lord's
infancy, and the interval before his ministry began, is
another mark of that secret wisdom of the Holy Spirit
which controlled the Evangelists. Apocryphal writings
have many legends of this obscure period ; but the Gospels
themselves pass it over in reverent and expressive silence.
They seem thus to echo the words of that prophecy, which
Isaiah had given concerning our blessed Lord — " He shall
not strive, nor cry, nor lift up his voice in the streets." A
lesson of quietness, humility, and reverence, most alien
from the tone of religious forgeries, is hereby inwrought
into the whole texture of the sacred history.

The harmony and apparent discrepancies of the Gospels
are another proof, when rightly viewed, of their common
inspiration. Two things are plainly required, in order that
they might fulfill in the highest degree the great object for
which a Divine revelation is made. There must be, on the
one hand, such a substantial and manifest unity, as to give
them the force of concurrent evidence. On the other hand,
there needed such a measure of distinctness in each testi-
mony, as to clear their general consent from all suspicion
of being artificial and collusive.

THE. HISTORICAL UNITF OF THE BIBLE. 395

Now, the four Gospels satisfy this double condition in a
Hingular manner. The history of criticism, and of the
theories of their origin, which have divided the opinions of
the most learned and diligent students, is alone a sufficient
proof of the fact. One large class of critics, induced by
the features of close resemblance, have labored to complete
a theoiy of the formation of the first three Gospels from a
mechanical combination of six or seven earlier documents.
Others, again, from the multiplied diversities between them,
have strongly maintained a view diametrically opposite,
that they grew, quite independently, out of oral tradition,
and that no one Evangelist had seen the work of any
other. The zealous maintenance, by many learned writers,
of both of these opposite views, is a clear sign that the
Gospels combine, in the fullest measure, the marks of a
plural and of a concurrent testimony. Had they differed
more widely, they would have failed to confirm each other's
evidence, and their authority would have been weakened
and destroyed by the presence of undeniable contradictions.
Had their agreement been more complete, and free from
all divergence, they would have lost their character of a
fourfold testimony, and have failed to satisfy one main
purpose for which the history was conveyed to the Church
in this peculiar form.

Again, the unity of the whole Bible history may be seen
in the frequent allusions made in the Gospels to the facts
of the Old Testament. Among those which are referred
to, and incidentally confirmed by their testimony, are the
creation of Adam and Eve — Matt, xix, 4 — the first institu-
tion of the Sabbath, the ordinance of marriage, the guilt
and crime of the first tempter, the murder of Abel, the
wickedness in the days of Noah, the Flood, the law of

ribution for murder, after the Flood; the genealogy of
patriarch, the destruction of Sodom, the history of

396 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

Lot's wife, the covenant of circumcision, the expulsion ot
Ishmael, the oath of Grod to Abraham, the vision of Jacob,
his purchase of ground at Shechem, the birth of Pharez
and Zarah, all within the Book of Grenesis. In Exodus,
the words to Moses at the bush, the appointment of the
Passover, the gift of manna from heaven, the Divine com-
munication of the Law by Moses, the ordinance of cleans-
ing for the leper, the sacrifices in the tabernacle on the
Sabbath day, are all the object of direct mention, or plain
allusion. We have also two genealogies, one of which
reaches back to Abraham, and the other even to Adam,
and nearly a hundred distinct quotations from the Old
Testament.

But while the Gospels are thus linked, retrospectively,
with all the earlier histories, they are united in the closest
manner with the later narrative in the Book of Acts, and
with the Apostolic Epistles, and the Book of Revelation.
St. Matthew is especially the means of securing an intimate
relation between the Old and the New Testament. St.
Mark unites together St. Matthew and St. Luke ; since the
incidents, with three slight exceptions, are entirely those
of St. Matthew, and the order, with hardly an exception,
the same as in St. Luke. The third Gospel, again, is con-
tinued by St. Luke himself in the Book of Acts, and thus
forms a link with the later history; while St. John's Gos-
pel unites the Evangelical history with the Epistles and
the Prophecies, because three epistles, and the only pro-
phetical book of the New Testament, like the Gospel itself,
have the beloved disciple for their common author.

Besides these more technical charajcters of the Gospels,
in which they may be seen clearly to carry on one great,
coDsistent scheme of sacred history, there are others of a
still deeper kind, which never fail to impress the humble
and reverent reader. There is a calmness and quietness of

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 897

tone, a transparent, unadorned simplicity, which makes us
forget tne writer in the contemplation of the glorious ob-
ject he sets before us. Like Moses and Elias on the
mount of Transfiguration, the Evangelists themselves disap-
pear from view, and are lost, that Jesus their Lord may be
seen alone. No where can we see more plainly the force of
those words, which belong to all the. inspired messages of
God, that " the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of proph-
ecy." Every chapter and every verse converges here on
one great object, and seems to repeat the words of the
Baptist to his disciples : " Behold the Lamb of God, who
taketh away the sin of the world !"

IX. The Book of Acts, the last of the four main divi-
sions of sacred history, and by far the shortest in extent,
retains the same character, and exhibits no less clearly the
historical unity which pervades the whole.

And first, the book has a remarkable unity in its general
outline, from its beginning to its close. Its subject is the
planting of the Gospel in the heathen world. It opens,
accordingly, with the promise of Christ to his apostles —
" Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in
all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth." And it closes with the most definite point m
the completion of this great work, when the apostle of the
Gentiles arrived at Rome, the metropolis of heathenism, and
after summoning the Jews to a conference, denounced their
national unbelief, and announced the transfer of the re-
jected blessing to the heathen — " Be it known, therefore,
unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gen-
tiles, and that they will hear it." Every part concurs in
describing the steps by which this great change was ful-
filled. We see the Gospel spreading, first, from the He-
brews to the Hellenists at Jerusalem ; then, on the murder
of Stephen, from Judea to Samaria, and the first step taken

398 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

toward a national conversion from heathenism by the bap-
tism of the Ethiopian eunuch. Then follows the conversion
of Saul, the destined apostle of the Glentiles, and that of Cor-
nelius of Cesarea, the first Gentile Roman convert, in whose
case the partition wall began to be broken down. There is
mention of the reverent submission of the Jewish believers
to this unexpected change, and the formation of the first
Gentile Church at Antioch. After the murder of the apostle
James by the Jews, there follows at once the first missionary
journey of Paul and Barnabas to Cyprus and Asia Minor.
And then, after their return, and the decree of the council,
affirming the freedom of Gentile believers from the Law of
Moses, the transition is complete. The Church of the
Jews, and the other apostles, pass entirely out of sight.
We have the regular course of St. Paul's ministry, in Asia,
in Macedonia, and Achaia, and at Ephesus; till the perse-
cuting malice of the Jews completes the work his zeal had
begun, and transfers him, a prisoner for the Gentiles, from
Jerusalem and Cesarea to the imperial city, which was
to form the center of the Church's history, for good and
for evil, through the whole course of the Gentile dispen-
sation.

The book is called familiarly the Acts of the Apostles.
But the mention of the apostles is kept subordinate in
every part to the one design of the whole. After the list
in the first chapter, no mention occurs, in its whole course,
of any other among the Twelve than Peter, John, and the
elder and younger James. The foremost of them, St. Pe-
ter, disappears silently from view after his miraculous rescue
from the malice of Herod. No light whatever is thrown
upon his later journeys and labors; and the last sentence
concerning his travels and labors is merely this : " He de-
parted, and went to another place." He appears again in
the council of Jerusalem; but after its decision, a vail U

THE HISTORICAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 399

drawn over his labors, and those of the other eleven ; and
St. Paul alone, the apostle of the Gentiles, becomes the
subject of the whole narrative. This marked exclusion of
events which were not essential to the main object, is a
proof of the Divine wisdom which controlled the sacred
penman in the composition of the work, and rendered it,
by its simplicity, condensation, and unity, a worthy com-
pletion of the long series of inspired history.

But this unity of design is no less perceptible in the
connection between this book and the rest of the New and
the Old Testaments. And here we may notice, first, its sub-
ordination to the Gospels. We have four distinct narratives
of the life and death of our Lord, but one only, little more
than one-fourth of their combined length, to record the
later history of the Church for more than thirty years.
The three years of our Lord's • ministry occupy more than
three times the space, in the New Testament narrative, of
the thirty years which follow. For Christ himself, his life,
death, and resurrection, are the great sum of the whole
Gospel message, and the history of the Church is kept in
strict and beautiful subordination to the history of the
heavenly Bridegroom.

Again, the book divides naturally into two main portions
of nearly equal length, the second of which begins with
the first council at Jerusalem. The first of these abounds
in references to the earlier portions of Scripture. In the
first four chapters alone, there are eight or ten quotations
from the Old Testament, or allusions to its statements, in
direct confirmation of their truth. The words of two
Psalms are declared to be the words of the Holy Ghost.
The ordinance of the first-fruits, on the day of Pentecost,
receives its figurative fulfillment; and the confusion of
tongues at Babel finds its New Testament contrast and
Divine antidote in the gift of tongues at Jerusalem. Four

400 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

different prophecies are quoted in the first sermon of St
Peter, and declared to be then receiving their fulfillment.
His next discourse appeals generally to " all the prophets,
which have been since the world began," and again to the
words of Samuel and the later prophets ; but more dis-
tinctly to the covenant with Abraham after the sacrifice of
Isaac, and to the prediction of Moses in Deuteronomy,
shortly before his death. In the next chapter we have a
quotation from Psalm cxviii, an allusion to the first record
of Creation, and a further quotation from the second Psalm.
Besides these, two distinct summaries of the Old Testament
are embodied in the narrative, the first in the apology of
St. Stephen at Jerusalem, and the second in St. Paul's dis-
course at Antioch in Pisidia. The truth of the Old Testa-
ment is the common basis on which the first martyr, full
of the Holy Spirit, and the greatest of the apostles, equally
rest their appeal, when contending earnestly for the truth
of the Grospel. Thus the Book of Acts, by the whole char-
acter of its earlier history, is dovetailed inseparably with
all the previous histories in the Word of God.

The second or later division has an entirely different
character. Only two quotations from the Old Testament
are found in it; one of them from Amos, quoted by St.
James in the council at Jerusalem, and the other from
Isaiah, quoted by St. Paul to the Jews at Rome, like a
mournful key-note at the close of the sacred history. But
on the other hand, the points of comparison with general
and classical history are here greatly multiplied ; and the
coincidences with the historical allusions in the writings of
St. Paul are so abundant, as to form a most convincing and
irresistible proof of the genuineness of the epistles, and the
truth and fidelity of the sacred narrative. These chapters
form thus the outmost boughs of the inspired history, and
bear upon them most abundantly the golden fruitage of

THE UISTORTCAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 401

heavenly truth, unfolded in the didactic and doctrinal por-
tions of the New Testament.

These facts point clearly to one conclusion. This con-
nected series of history, with one single break, constructed
on one uniform plan, and almost on the same scale, from the
Creation onward through four thousand years; confirmed
by all foreign evidence in its later portions, where alone
heathen records yield any clear light, and self-sustained in
all the rest by its own truthfulness and transparent sim-
plicity of style ; expanding itself in that generation when
the Law was given, and in a less degree when the forefather
and type of Messiah came to the throne, and most of all,
during the three years of our Lord's ministry; but in all
the Other parts moving calmly, swiftly along, indulging in
no comments, recording the minutest details and the most
startling wonders in the same tone of simple dignity and
unadorned plainness of speech, and interwoven, from first
to last, with innumerable mutual references, is a fact
wholly unique in the literature of mankind. The Bible, in
its historical unity, stands alone, and without a rival. One
Mind may be clearly seen in its whole course, by whose
wisdom its various writers were guided and controlled, so
as to furnish, at the long interval of fifteen hundred years,
a simple and connected outline of the moral government of
the world — a scheme of mercy which began in Paradise,
but first blossomed out, and began to yield more abundant
fruit in the resurrection and ascension of our Lord, the
Pentecostal gift of the Spirit, and the spread of the Gospel
throughout the moral wildernesses of the heathen world.

34

402 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE.

The doctrinal, even still more than the historical unity
of the Bible, bears evidence to its inspiration and Divine
authorship. Thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, and
twenty-seven in the New, the work of forty different writ-
ers, are here collected into one volume, though their first
composition is spread over the long interval of fifteen
hundred years. They were all composed in times of
heathen darkness, when the most civilized peoples and
mightiest empires of the world were bowing down to stocks
and stones, or offering polluted worship to "gods many,
and lords many," the impersonations of passion, strife, jeal-
ousy, and every impure and hateful lust. The language,
the style, the character, the special object, no less than the
date of these books, are all widely different. But the
great outlines of truth are every-where the same. There
is development, but no discrepancy. There are partial con-
trasts, adding life to the whole by the diversity of the
parts, but no contradiction. A manifest and undeniable
harmony of thought, tone, and doctrine, animates and per-
vades the whole. The view of man is everywhere the
same ; that he is the creature of the living God, account-
able to his Maker ; fallen, but not hopeless, guilty, but
not left in despair ; the subject of a present curse, but still
within reach of the richest blessing; corrupt and impure,
but capable of restoration to the Divine favor ajid image ;
placed under a penal sentence of death, but capabl? of

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 403

attaining a blessed immortality. The doctrine concerning
God is every- where the same ; that he is one, and there is
no other than he ; that all the gods of the heathen are
idols, but the Lord made the heavens ; that he is almighty,
all-wise, good, •perfect, holy, merciful, everlasting, the
Maker of all things, and the Judge of all men ; a pure, in-
visible Spirit, who must be worshiped in spirit and in
truth. The revealed way of salvation is every-where the
same, by fiith in God, and in the promise of a great and
powerful Redeemer, atonement by sacrifice, and the substi-
tution of the guiltless for the guilty, forgiveness procured
by the shedding of blood, and inward renewal of heart, the
fruit of that forgiveness, by which the soul is renewed
after the image of God, in righteousness, holiness, and
truth. The practical lessons of duty are also the same in
every part, faith in the promises of God's mercy through
an atoning Savior, working by love — the love of God
supremely, and the love of all mankind.

It would require a large volume to unfold thoroughly
this unity of the Bible, from Genesis, through the Psalms,
the Prophets, the Gospels, and Epistles, to the Apocalypse,
in all the main doctrines of the Christian faith. It is only
by means of a diligent and prolonged study of the Scrip-
tures, that the full impression of this deep and real har-
mony can be received into the mind. I shall merely en
deavor to show, by the selection of a few passages, how
each main doctrine runs, like a golden woof, through the
whole series of these Divine messages; and then illustrate
the real harmony, amid partial contrast, or fancied contra-
diction, between the teaching of the Old and the New
Testament.

I. The doctrinal harmony of the Bible, from first to
last, may be traced clearly in its explicit statements on all
the main topics of religious faith.

404 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

1. The first revealed truth is the fact of creation, or
that all things were formed by the will and power of one
true and living God. The Bible opens its message with
these words : " In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth." This great truth had been entirely lost
from view in the reign of polytheism and ftible; and chaos,
night, and Erebus, replaced the conception of the creative
will of the Almighty. It is equally lost in the specula-
tions of a pantheistic philosophy, of which there are too
many specimens in modern times. But the testimony of
the Scriptures to this great truth is consistent, uniform,
and unvaried, from first to last.

First, when the judgment of the Flood was sent upon
the world, it is announced in these words — " I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both
man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of
the air ; for it repenteth me that I have made them."
And again — "In the image of God made he man.'*

In the first mission of Moses, the truth is indirectly
taught, in the Divine expostulation : " Who hath made
man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb or deaf, or the
seeing or the blind? have not I the Lord?"

When the Law was given on Mount Sinai, this doctrine
was publicly .embodied in the fourth commandment : " For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and
all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." The
statement is repeated in Exodus xxxi: "For in six days
the Lord made heaven and earth ;" and again in Deuter-
onomy, in two or three varied forms. It. is found in
twenty different Psalms, gives its tone to the Book of Job,
and runs through all the Proverbs. It appears, in the
most various associations, in the prophecies of Isaiah. "At
tliat day shall a man look to his Maker," xvii, 7. "Ye

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 405

have not looked uuto the Maker thereof, nor had respect
unto him that fashioned it long ago," xxii, 11. "Shall
the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or
shall the thing formed say of him that formed it, He had
li? understanding?" xxix, 16. "Lift up your eyes on
high, and behold who hath created these things, that
bringeth out their host by number ?" " The everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary ; there is no searching of his
understanding." Isa. xl, 28. " Thus saith God the Lord,
he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he
that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of
it ; he that givetb breath unto the people upon it, and
spirit to them that walk thereon," xlii, 5. The voice of
Jeremiah is the same in his earnest prayer : " Ah, Lord
God, thou hast made heaven and earth by thy great power
and stretched-out arm, and there is nothing too hard for
thee !" And that of Zechariah : " The burden of the Word
of the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth
the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man
within him."

The same great doctrine runs through tbe New Testa-
ment. We find it in the opening of the fourth Gospel,
applied to the Word, the only-begotten Son of the Father :
" All things were made by him, and without him was not
any thing made that was made." It appears in our Lord's
thanksgiving, in the first and third Gospels : " I thank
thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth 1" and in his
reply to the Pharisees : " Have ye not read that he which
made them in the beginning, made them male and female?"
In the Book of Acts it appears in every part. In the
thanksgiving and prayer of the early Church : " Lord, thou
art God, which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea,
and all that in them is," iv, 24. In the words of the

406 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

apostles at Lystra : " Sh's, why do ye such things? We.
are men of like passions with you, and preach that ye
should turn from these vanities unto the living God, who
made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things there-
in," xiv, 15. And again, in St. Paul's discourse at Athens:
" Grod that made the world and all things therein, seeing
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples
made with hands." And, not to multiply quotations from
the Epistles, it meets us repeatedly in the closing book of
the canon, in the song of the heavenly elders, in the oath
of the mighty Angel, and in the proclamation of the ever-
lasting Gospel by another angel to the idolaters of the last
days : " Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of
his judgment is come, and worship him which made the
heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
water."

2. The unity of God "is another doctrine which stands
otit in full relief in every part of the Bible. In the earlier
books it is doubly conspicuous when we contrast the Word
of God with the monuments and remains of Egypt, and the
wild and dark fancies of polytheism throughout the ancient
world. " I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other
gods but me." " Thou shalt worship no other god, for
Jehovah, whose name is Jealou-s, is a jealous God." " Unto
thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord
he is God, there is none else beside him." "Hear,.0 Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord."

The same truth runs through the Psalms and the Proph-
ets, and forms a prominent character of their teaching.
" All the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made
the heavens." " Confounded be all they that serve graven
images, that boast themselves of idols : worship him, all ye
gods." " I am the Lord ; that is my name ; and my glory
will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven

THE DOCTRINAL JNITY OF THE BIBLE. 40"/

images." " Before me tliere was uo god formed, neither
shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and be-
side me there is no Savior." "Is there a god beside me?
Tea, there is no god, I know not any." " The Lord is the
true God, he is the living God and an everlasting King : at
his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not
be able to abide his indignation. Thus shall ye say unto
them, The gods that have not made the heavens and earth
shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens."

In the New Testament, while the doctrine of three Per-
sons in the Godhead is taught, the Divine unity, in con-
trast to the many gods of heathenism, is maintained with
equal clearness. So the apostle writes to the Corinthians :
" For though there be that are called gods, whether in
heaven or in earth, as there be gods many, and lords many,
yet to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are
all things, and we in him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom are all things, and we by him." And again, to
Timothy : " For there is one God, and one Mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus."

3. The fall and corruption of man is another truth which
meets us equally in every part of Scripture. It is seen in
the account of the world before the Flood. " And God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of man's heart was only evil, and that
continually." It reappear^ in the blessing after the Flood :
" I will not curse the ground any more for man's sake, for
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."
We read it, further, in the growth of idolatry after the
Flood, in the guilt of the Cities of the Plain, and their de-
struction, and the sentence pronounced upon the Amorites —
Gen. XV — with the reason assigned for delaying the judg-
ment. The history of the Exodus is one ceaseless illustra-
tion of its truth. Moses sums up his review of the conduct

408 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of Israel in the words : " Ye have been rebellious against
the Lord since the day that I knew you." David makes
the penitent confession : " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me." Ezra exclaims in
the same spirit : " 0 my Grod, I am ashamed and blush to
lift up my face to thee, my God ; for our iniquities are in-
creased over our heads, and our trespass is grown up to the
heavens." The last prophecy of the Old Testament is one
ceaseless expostulation with the sin and stubbornness of the
chosen people. The G-ospels open with the warning of the
Baptist : " 0 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to
flee from the wrath to come?" and toward their close they
reecho the description in those solemn words of the Savior :
" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape
the damnation of hell?" The opening chapters of the
Epistle to the Romans are full of the same truth. The
apostle quotes evidence to confirm it from six different
Psalms, and from Isaiah's prophecies, and then draws the
universal inference — " Now we know that whatsoever the
law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become
guilty before God."

4. The doctrine of a Redeemer, by whom deliverance
from the curse of sin would be given to men, is another
truth, which runs through the whole of Scripture. " The
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." It meets us
in the first account of the Fall, where the Seed of the
Woman is announced, who should bruise the head of the
serpent. It reappears in the promise to Abraham of that
Seed, who should possess the gate of his enemies, and in
whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. It is
announced by the dying Jacob, in the words — " The scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from be-
tween his' feet, until Shiloh come, and to him shall the

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 409

gathering of the people be." It is implied in the types of
Isaac's sacrifice, and of Joseph's exile, suflfcrings, and ex-
altation. It is seen in the promise of the prophet like unto
Moses, and in the types of the paschal lamb, the smiften
rock, from which there flowed living water, the scapegoat,
and the brazen serpent. It meets us in the Psalms and
Prophets with growing clearness ; and the titles, the King,
Immanuel, the Prince of Peace, the Man of Sorrows, the
Branch, Messiah the Prince, the Son of Man, the King of
Zion, the Shepherd, Jehovah's Fellow, the Messenger of
the Covenant, the Sun of Righteousness, reveal the various
attributes of grace and holiness, which were to be mani-
fested in the person and work of the Incarnate Son of God.
5. The way of salvation by faith is another doctrine in
which all the sacred writers conspire with a striking unity.
" By faith Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacri-
fice than Cain." Heb. xi, 3. Abraham " believed God,
and it was counted to him for righteousness." Gen. xv, 6.
This fundamental doctrine, though specially unfolded by
St. Paul, runs through all the intermediate books of Scrip-
ture. Trust in God, in the Old Testament, and faith in
Christ, its equivalent in the New, is every-where proclaimed
to be the pathway of life and salvation. Man fell through
unbelief, and by faith alone he can be recovered. This
great truth appears equally in the books of Moses, in the
later Prophets, and in the Gospels, the writings of St. Paul,
and the Epistles of St Peter and St. John. The eleventh
of Hebrews is a divine commentary on the Old Testament
histories, in which this aspect of them is brought into full
relief; and the whole message of the Bible is summed up
in the solemn contrast, " He that believeth on the Son of
God hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth oo

him."

35

410 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

6. The need of sacrifice and atonement is another truth,
in which we may trace the all -pervading unity of Scripture.
Abel's sacrifice was accepted when he brought the firstlings
of Ifis flock ; and Cain's was rejected, who brought a blood-
less offering, the fruits of the earth. When Noah had slain
the victims in sacrifice after the Flood, " the Lord smelled
a sweet savor," and a renewed covenant of mercy and prom-
ise was given. It was in the midst of such sacrifices that
the covenant was again renewed to Abraham with special
promises. After the sacrifice of Isaac, in a figure, and of
the ram caught in the thicket in his stead, a still fuller
blessing was given by a new covenant, and confirmed with
the oath of God. The Law of Moses was full of sacrificial
ordinances, from the Passover on the night of the Exodus
to the latest ordinance of purification, in Numbers, by the
spotless heifer that was to be slain, and whose ashes were
to sprinkle the unclean. Isaiah transfers the types of the
law to their antitype, the coming Messiah : " All we, like
sheep, have gone astray : we have turned every one to his
own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of
us all." "When thou shalt make his soul an off"ering for
sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days. . . .
By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many,
for he shall bear their iniquities." The New Testament
repeats the same tiuth in still clearer accents, and refers
all the types in the legal sacrifices to their great Antitype :
" The Son of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to
minister ; and to give his life a ransom for many." " Be-
hold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the
world !" " Without shedding of blood there is no remis-
sion." " God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him." " These are they which have come out of great
tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 411

white in the blood of the Lamb." " Who his own self
bare our sins in his own body ou the tree, that we, being
dead to sin, might live to righteousness, by whose stripes
ye are healed."

7. The need of regeneration and holiness of heart in
order to salvation is another truth which runs through the
whole Bible. The contrast is drawn broadly, throughout,
between the righteous and unrighteous, the believer and
the unbeliever, the obedient and the disobedient. In the
Flood, and the deliverance of Noah ; in the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah, the rescue of Lot, the intercession
of Abraham, and the promise that the city should have
been spared for the sake of ten righteous; and in the re-
peated contrasts of the Psalms, the Proverbs, and all the
Prophets, the same doctrine every-where appears. " The
Lord loveth the righteous, but the wicked, and him that
loveth violence, his soul hateth." " The Lord preserveth
all them that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy."
" The Lord taketh pleasure in his people ; he will beautify
the meek with salvation." The prayers of the Psalmist
teach the same lesson : " Create in me a clean heart, 0 God ;
and renew a right spirit within me." The Old Testament
closes with a strong assertion of this moral contrast, and
the opposite issue to which it leads : " Then shall ye re-
turn, and discern between the righteous and the wicked,
between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him
not."

The same contrast is revealed with equal clearness in the
New Testament, and is there ascribed more plainly to its
secret cause, the work of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of
men. "A good tree," our Lord tells his disciples, "can
not bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs
of thistles?" Again, to Nicodemus : "That which is born

412 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit lb
spirit." " Except a man be born again, he can not see the
kingdom of God." The apostles dwell much on the same
truth : " They that are in the flesh can not please God."
" To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace." " If any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature ; old things are passed away : behold, all
things are become new." " For if ye live after the flesh,
ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the
deeds of the body, ye shall live." " Follow after holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord." " Faith with-
out works is dead, being alone." " As he which hath
called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conver-
sation : because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy."
" He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is
righteous; he that committeth sin is of the devil." "Here
is the patience of the saints : here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." All these,
and many similar passages, teach the same lesson. They
separate all mankind, morally and spiritually, into two op-
posite classes, believers and unbelievers; those who live
after the flesh, and after the spirit; those who serve God,
and those who serve him not ; and teach that a well-
grounded hope of salvation belongs to the former class,
and to them alone. Repentance and conversion is the
bridge by which the soul passes from one side to the other
of this gulf of moral separation ; and the message of our
Lord is solemn and weighty, and sums up the voice of all
Scripture : " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
" Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

II. This doctrinal unity of the Bible might easily be
traced in many other particulars, and under every diversi-
fied topic, of religious truth. But it may be well to confine

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OF THE BIBLJE. 413

our view to one aspect in which it has been controverted
and denied, from the contrast between the Old and the
New Testament. If it can be shown that, even where the
apparent divergence is widest, the real harmony is com-
plete, no further proof will be needed of that Divine
Authorship which belongs to the whole, and which has
provided lor men, by prophets and apostles, a perfect and
harmonious treasury of Divine truth.

The contrast in question has been stated by a modero
skeptic in these terms :

" Here are two forms of religion which differ widely, set
forth and enforced by miracles ; the one ritual and formal,
the other actual and spiritual ; the one the religion of Fear,
the other of Love ; one finite, and resting altogether on the
special revelation made to Moses, the other absolute, and
based on the universal revelation of God, who enlightens
all that come into the world. One offers only an earthly
recompense, the other makes immortality a motive to a
Divine life. One compels men, the other invites them.
One half the Bible refutes the other half; the Gospel an-
nihilates the Law ; the Apostles take the place of the
Prophets, and go higher up. If Christianity and Judaism
be not the same thing, there must be hostility between the
Old and the New Testament, for the Jewish form claims to
be eternal. To an unprejudiced man this hostility is very
obvious. It may indeed be said, Christianity came not to
destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them ; and
the answer is plain, their fulfillment was their destruction."

The self-confident and irreverent tone of this objection,
in which the lie is directly given to our blessed Lord's own
declaration, does not speak well for the practical power of
that " absolute religion " by which the writer strives to re-
place and supersede historical Christianity.

And first, this objection, instead of being the result of

414 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

intellectual progress, is merely a relapse into an error
which appeared very early, and from which it was one of
our Lord's first lessons to deliver his own disciples. The
difference of tone between his own teaching and that of the
Law of Moses, or rather of the scribes and Pharisees who
expounded it to the people, was soon observed, and led
many hearers to suspect that his purpose was to set aside
the authority of these earlier messages of Grod. But our
Lord asserts the falsehood of this notion in the strongest
and plainest terms : " Think not that I am come to destroy
the Law and the Prophets : I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
Law, till all be fulfilled."

The objection affirms that the fulfillment of the Law and
the Prophets, under the Gospel, is their destruction. Our
Lord affirms the exact reverse, that the fulfillment of them,
which it was his object to secure, was the contrast and an-
tithesis of their destruction : " I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfill." It is no slight presumption in this reckless
advocate of " absolute religion " to give the lie direct to the
Son of God in one of his most solemn and deliberate state-
ments.

But while the alleged contradiction between the Law and
the Gospel is thus disproved by the highest authority, that
of our Lord himself, so that no one can be his true disciple
who affirms them to be hopelessly at variance, a partial and
real contrast between them is clearly recognized in the
New Testament. In the opening of the fourth Gospel we
find it distinctly announced. " For the Law was given by
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Sc
again, after the Baptist's message — "The Law and the
Prophets were until John ; since then the kingdom of
heaven is pi^eached, and every one is pressed into it." The

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OP THE BIBLE. 415

Epistles of St. Paul have this for their main subject. " The
law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better
hope did, by which we draw nigh to God." " Therefore
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin." " Before faith came, we
were kept under the law, shut up to the faith that should
be revealed." " For if they which are of the law be heirs,
faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect. Be-
cause the law worketh wrath ; for where there is no law,
there is no transgression." " For if the ministration of
death, written and engraven on stones, was glorious, how
shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?"
In these and many other passages a strong contrast is
plainly allowed and affirmed between the earlier messages
of the Law, with their holiness and severity, and the grace,
tenderness, and freedom of the Gospel of Christ.

The contrast, then, between the Law and the Gospel is
no modern discovery of unbelievers. So far as it is real, it
is recognized fully and openly in the New Testament, and
forms the basis of some of its most earnest appeals to the
hearts and consciences of Christian men. On the other
hand, the falsehood which exaggerates this partial contrast
into a total contradiction is detected by our Lord, when it
nrst began to arise in the hearts of his own disciples, and
receives his earnest and indignant reprobation. He who
maintains it must first claim to be wiser than Christ him-
self, and thereby forfeits at once the name and character
of a Christian.

But let us examine the statement more closely. And
first, is the religion of Moses and of the Old Testament
ritual and formal only ? Let Moses himself answer, in his
earnest appeal before his death: "And now, Israel, what
doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the
Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him,

416 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with
all thy soul. . . . Love ye therefore the stranger, for ye
were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear
the Lord thy God ; him shalt thou serve, and to him
thou shalt cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy
praise, and he is thy God." And our Lord himself, who
alone, of all mankind, ever fulfilled the Law of Moses, as-
sures us that its weightiest matters were not the tithe of
mint, anise, and cummin, but lessons of a far higher kind,
even "judgment, mercy, and faith."

Again, is the teaching of the Law a religion of fear
alone? Is it finite, making no appeal to the unchangeable
moral attributes of the Most High? Every religion must
take its impress from the character of the object of worship.
Cruel gods must create a fierce and cruel religion, and licen-
tious divinities one of impurity and sensual lust.

Now, one part of the Law is plainly designed to reveal
the true character of the God of Israel, in contrast to the
superficial and hasty impressions which might be formed
from a less thoughtful observation. When Moses offered
the prayer in a time of distress and fear, '' I beseech thee,
shew me thy glory," the answer was given — " I will cause
all my goodness to pass before thee, and I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee." After special prepara-
tion, and with peculiar solemnity, the desired revelation
was given. " And the Lord passed by and proclaimed, The
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin,
and that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon chil-
dren's children, unto the third and fourth generation."

What was the effect of this message, this crowning rev-
elation of the " religion of fear " upon him who received

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 417

it? "And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward
the earth, and worshiped, and said, If now I have found
grace in thy sight, 0 Lord, let my Lord, I beseech thee,
go among us, for it is a stijBT-necked people ; and pardon our
iniquity and sin, and take us for thine inheritance." Nor
was this a transient impression on the mind of Moses alone.
The Psalmist, four hundred years later, learned from the
same passage a religion of hope and love : " He made
known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children
of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to
anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide,
neither will he keep his anger forever. For as the heaven
is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them
that fear him."

Does the Law, again, offer only an earthly recompense?
Its fandamental promise is in the words to Abraham, "I will
bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a
blessing." " Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy
exceeding great reward." " I will be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee." Since God himself is " the everlasting
God," these promises clearly partake of the same character.
The patriarchs desired " a better and a heavenly country."
God was not " ashamed to be called their God, for he had
prepared for them a city." In the hope of a better -por-
tion, they " confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims on
the earth." The dying Jacob exehiraed, "I have waited
for thy salvation, 0 Lord." Moses " had respect unto the
recompense of reward," and therefore made mention of a
book of life, in which his name was written. The Divine
law enjoined the Israelites : " The land shall not be sold for-
ever; for the land is mine, and ye are strangers and so-
journers with me." The commandment set before them
" life and good," and promised, on their obedience, that the
everlasting God w.ould be "their life, and the length of

418 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

their days." The eternal Grod was to be their refuge, anc
underneath them were to be his " everlasting arms." They
were to dwell in satiety, as a people saved by the Lord ; and
their days to be multiplied as the days of heaven. To the
Levites the further promise was given, when excluded from
a distinct territory, that " the Lord God of Israel was their
inheritance." In all these promises there was a direct ref-
erence to God himself, as their God by especial covenant;
and to those who read them with faith they would be
a sure pledge, not merely of temporal, but of eternal

Again, does the Law merely compel by force, and not
invite by the power of moral suasion ? No statement could
be more opposed to the truth. The whole Book of Deuter-
onomy is one continued, earnest appeal to the conscience,
the feelings, and the heart of the people of Israel. It is
perhaps the longest, the most sustained moral invitation to
be found in the compass of the Word of God. The voice
also of the prophets is a perpetual expostulation, a series
of earnest appeals to the conscience and heart of later gen-
erations.

Has the Gospel, on the other hand, no solemn messages,
no appeals to fear, to temper the grace and tenderness of
its invitations? Far from it; the warnings it contains are
more severe than those of the Law itself, borrow from them
their sharpest accents of rebuke, and infuse into them a
tone of still deeper meaning. " I will forewarn you whom
ye shall fear : fear him, which after he hath killed hath
power to cast into hell : yea, I say unto you, Fear him."
" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape
the damnation of hell?" "If the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience re-
ceived a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape,
if we neglect so great salvation ?" " Of how much sorer

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 419

punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden
under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and
done despite to the Spirit of grace ?" " It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God." " For
even our God is a consuming fire." In the face of these
and similar passages, it is indeed strange how the most su-
perficial could venture to set up the imaginary contrast,
that the Gospel is a religion of love only, without fear, and
the Law one of fear only, without love. In each message
both of the Divine attributes are distinctly revealed, though
not in the same proportion. The righteousness and holy
severity of the Law is tempered by rich revelations of Di-
vine grace ; while the fuller and clearer grace of the Gospel
is guarded by warnings still more solemn than the penal
sanctions of the elder covenant; and a still sorer punish-
ment is denounced upon those who despise and disobey.

Again, the promises of the Gospel, while they relate
mainly to the future, include the present also. It retains
the lower promises of the Law, and only tempers them, by
the knowledge of the cross, with a new element of patience
and mingled sorrow. Our Lord lays down this law of hope
clearly to his followers : " There is no man that hath left
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, pr lands, for my sake and the Gospel's, but he
shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, with persecu-
tions; and in the world to come, eternal life." The apos-
tle repeats and confirms his Master's promise, and declares
that " godliness is profitable for all things, and hath the
promise of the life that now is, as well as that which is to
come." The two dispensations, even where the seeming
contrast is the greatest, interlace and overlap, like the folds
of the curtains of the tabernacle, with a marvelous unity ,
dud reveal, amidst their partial contrast, the one mind of

420 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

the Divine Spirit, penetrating, molding, pervading, and har-
monizing the whole.

But this deep unity between the Law and the Gospel
may be seen more clearly when we look below the surface,
and refer them to those Divine attributes which they are
especially designed to reveal.

There are three successive forms of Divine goodness, as-
cending by a climax to its fullest and highest exhibition.
The first is simple bounty, or love to creatures, as creatures,
irrespective of every moral difference. This is the basis of
natural religion in its simplest and most elementary form.
It is implied and assumed in the Bible, and blends with its
messages ; but is like the court of the Gentiles, when com-
pared with the higher lessons of written revelation. The
second is righteousness and holiness, or the love of moral
good, and the hatred of moral evil. This is the funda-
mental truth of the legal covenant. It reveals God in his
holiness, in that hatred of sin, as well as delight in good-
ness, which finds its reflection in the double precept, " Thou
shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy." It is this
character of the Old Testament which makes it wear so
forbidding and repulsive an aspect to all hearts that are
still under the power of sin, and have attained no real sym-
pathy with the Divine holiness. It is an aspect of perfect
goodness, higher than simple, indiscriminate bounty, but
less excellent than the grace of the Gospel. This is the
third and highest form of Divine goodness — kindness to the
unthankful and the unworthy ; a love which does not flatter
or indulge them in their sin, but uses all patience and wis-
dom to raise them from the depth of moral evil into the
image of God, the recovered possession of purity, upright-
ness, and love.

There is nothing, then, arbitrary or capricious in this
mutual relation of the Law of Nature, or the earlier stage

THE DOCTRINAL UNITY OF THE BIBLE. 421

of unwritten revelation, the Law of Moses, and tlie Gospel
of Christ. They are three steps in the same series, an
outer court, a holy place, and a most holy ; and are all re-
quired in a complete and harmonious revelation of the
Divine goodness to sinful men. The partial contrast be-
tween the Law and the Gospel is just as essential to the
wisdom of the message as their secret harmony. It is only
the severity of holiness which can prepare us for a just and
full apprehension of Divine grace. Remove these prepara-
tory teachings, and grace ceases to be grace. It soon de-
generates into mere indifference to moral good and evil, the
darkest form of a perverse fatalism, instead of the best and
noblest form of goodness, tender compassion to the guilty,
and redeeming love.

Contrast, however, is not contradiction. It is one ele
ment in the most complete and perfect unity. The hues
of light in the rainbow are contrasted with each other, and
still they are only pure light analyzed and separated into
its varying elements. And so it is with the truths of the
Law and the Gospel. In one we have types, in the other
antitypes. In one holy severity is more apparent, in the
other tender compassion and grace. But the contrasted
truths interpenetrate the whole. The Gospel, with its
richest grace, is virtually contained in the Law; and holi-
ness, in its deepest and most solemn tones of warning,
blends every-where with the rich harmonies of the Gospel
promises. The God revealed in the Law is one who*
" careth for the strangers, and relieveth the fatherless and
the widow ;" who " giveth good to all flesh, because his
mercy endureth forever." He is One who promises that
he will hear the cry of the poor in his distress, "for I am
gracious;" and commands his people: "Thou shalt not op-
press a stranger, for ye know the heart of a stranger, for
ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." He is One who

422 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

forbids every grudge, and enjoins a perfect love ; wlio cares
for the safety of the poor, the deaf, the blind ; and teaches
lessons of kindness even to the child in his play, from the
lost ox or ass, and the gleanings of the harvest field. On
the other hand, the Gospel fences round its most gracious
promises with terrors borrowed from the language of the
Law, and the prospect of coming judgment. Its most
gracious invitations follow close upon a warning to unbe-
lievers : " It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Go-
morrah in the day of judgment than for you ;" and it?
noblest descriptions of the future blessedness are linked
with the solemn declaration, " For without are dogs, and
sorcerers, and whoremongers, and idolaters, and murderers,
and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." Righteousness
in the Law prepares the way for grace ; and grace, in the
G-ospel, reigns " through righteousness unto eternal life."
They are attributes of perfect goodness, contrasted, but still
harmonious ; revealed successively, that their true force and
meaning may be more clearly seen by dull and earthly
minds, and still blending ever with each other in their par-
tial separation. Mercy is vailed, yet every-where present
in the Law, but is revealed in the Gospel ; and the grace
of the Gospel, centering in the cross of Christ and his
Divine atonement, is the highest, noblest, and most won-
derful exhibition of the righteousness of God. Thus
" mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and
peace embrace each other." " Truth springs " here " out
of the earth " in the person of the incarnate Redeemer, and
" righteousness looks down from heaven," while the Spirit,
the reward of his suffering and agony, is poured out upon
a sinful world.

REDEMPTION A PROGRESSIVE SCHEME. 423

CHAPTER XIX.

REDEMPTION A PROGRESSIVE SCHEME.

The Bible, if composed of true revelations from God to
man, reaching through a space of fifteen hundred years,
may be expected to throw some light on the scheme of
Divine providence. Its first object may be to promote per-
sonal religion, to reclaim prodigals from their sin, to pro-
vide a firm ground of hope for sincere penitents, and in-
struct them in their present duty to God and their fellow-
men. But since its professed aim is to renew the souls of
men in the image of God, it must, in its higher lessons,
give its disciples some real insight into the plans and pur-
poses of the Most High. For its object is not only to con-
vert rebels and slaves into servants, but to exalt servants
themselves into the friends and the sons of God.

The Scriptures satisfy this reasonable expectation. A
unity of living hope runs through the whole course of their
me'^sages. The histories, the doctrines, and the prophecies,
all harmonize with each other; and reveal, under varied
aspects, one consistent scheme of Divine wisdom, which
moves on continually toward the redemption of a sinful
world.

All skepticism, however unconsciously, has its root in
the heart. Man must feel and own that he is a sinner,
before he can feel his need of a Redeemer. He must own

c

his guilt, before he can sue for pardon, or welcome the
Divine atonement by which pardon is secured. He must
learn his weakness in the inward conflict with selfishness

424 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

and sin, before he will rest on a higher strength than his
own, or seek the promised help of the Spirit of God. So
long as he thinks that he needs education alone, without
conversion or renewal of heart, the Gospel of Christ will
remain to him a sealed mystery. If he attempts, in this
state of mind, to interpret the scheme of providence, he
will be almost sure to lose himself in a labyrinth of error.
God's providence is not a course of education for a world
of teachable, happy, sinless disciples of truth. It is a hos-
pital for souls laboring under a sore disease, a scheme of
redemption for the lost and guilty, procured through the
dying agony of the Son of God. Whenever this idea of
redemption is lost, then the key of knowledge is taken
away, and providence becomes a hopeless enigma. The
facts of history, and the testimonies of Scripture, have then
to be set aside, or garbled and falsified, in order to recon-
cile them with the demands of some false and deceptive
theory, some philosophical counterfeit of Christianity, from
which all its distinctive features have passed away.

That view of providence, which sees in it simply a
scheme for the world's education, denies the fall of man,
and, by consequence, his need of a Divine redemption. It
diverges, then, from the Bible at the outset, and this
divergence increases, as we travel along the stream of time.
The darker features of the world's history have to be ex-
plained away, in order to reconcile them with a sinless
progress of humanity from infancy to perfect wisdom. The
foulest abominations of heathenism, for thousands of years,
have then to be softened down into the harmless and natu-
ral delusions of infancy, before human reason had ripened
by the due exercise of its own powers. The later idola-
tries and sensual vices of Greece and Rome, and the self-
righteousness of the Jewish Pharisees, to suit the same
theory, must be taken for the generous and attractive im-

REDEMPTION A PROGRESSIVE SCHEME. 425

pnlses of opening youth ; and the apostasies of the middle
ages, or the feverish worldliness and intellectual pride of
later times, must be termed the growth of manly strength,
or the calm and mature wisdom of ripened and experienced
age. Thus the testimony of the Bible has to be reversed
and falsified in every point, both in its historical state-
ments and its prophetical warnings; and the heady and
high-minded are beguiled with the flattering notion that
they are wiser than the wisest of former generations, from
the happy accident of their being born in a later and more
enlightened age of the world.

The comparison of the times of the Law to childhood, and
of the Grospel to a riper age, has a direct warrant in the
Scriptures themselves. But it belongs to the true disciples
of the Law and the Gospel alone. When extended to the
whole world, with its multitude of unbelievers, the com
parison fails. Where there is no life, there can be no real
growth. There must be repentance and conversion ' from
sin to Grod, before the true education of the soul can begin.
Unbelief may revolve in cycles of error from age to age;
but only those who enter in at the strait gate can walk in'
the way of life, and thus advance nearer and nearer to that
moral perfection, the recovered image of God, after which
their souls continually aspire.

The Bible, alike in its histories and prophecies, is flatly
opposed to those theories of mankind's gradual and uni^
versal progress in moral and religious truth, which have
been propounded by unbelieving philosophy, and which
sometimes labor, however vainly, to support themselves by
an appeal to its own statements. The pictures it sets be-
fore us are widely different — a series of rebellions and
apostasies, resisted, and partially overcome, by mighty acts
of Divine grace ; but continually repeated in new forms,

till they issue, in the last times, in a solemn and fearful

36

426 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

controversy between light and darkness, and in judgment
on unbounding ungodliness, as well as in rich mercy and
grace to those who know God and obey the Gospel of
Christ. We are told, in the New Testament, that " in the
last days perilous times shall come," and that " evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and be-
ing deceived." And, however the views of Christians may
vary with regard to the future course of Providence, and
the final victories of truth, one thing must be plain, to all
who read the Scriptures with reverence, that they are
no where ascribed to a natural law of human progress, but
to gracious acts of the Holy Spirit, or direct judgments of
Christ, which will overcome and reverse the downward
tendency of the human heart, and bind a reluctant and
rebellious race, by mercy and judgment, to the footstool of
the Most High.

But while the Bible is thus opposed to those spurious
theories of progress, which are based on human pride, and
contradict the facts of history, it exhibits a progress of a
difi'erent kind, in the ceaseless unfolding of a scheme of
Divine mercy for the redemption and recovery of sinful
man. God, in his own nature, is unsearchable: he can be
known only as he is revealed. A revelation of moral at-
tributes, since it must consist of the successive acts of God's
moral government, must plainly be progressive. Salvation,
or the recovery of the soul from the power of sin, is by
faith alone. The object of faith is Divine truth. It is by
the knowledge of the truth that the souls of men are
actually redeemed and renewed. And since the providence
of God unfolds itself, from age to age, in new acts of judg-
ment and of mercy, the materials of moral influence are
thus increased and multiplied, which the Holy Spirit, the
Lord and Giver of life, employs in his gracious work upon
the hearts of men, both in their first conversion and in

REDEMPTION A PROGRESSIVE SCHEME. 427

their later advances in heavenly wisdom. There is thus a
double progress, which the Scriptures reveal to us. The
first is that of the Divine counsel itself, or the acts of
mercy and judgment, which constitute the moral govern-
ment of the world, and the messages of revelation. This is
unintermitted, ceaseless, and unfailing. It admits of no
arrest, and no reverse. However dark the moral state of
the world may be in special crises of Providence, the stars,
even at midnight, move on in their everlasting courses, and
prepare the way for a brighter sunrise to follow. The
second kind of progress is that of the actual fruits of re-
demption in each successive age. And this resembles the
apparent movements of the planets. There is a general
progress, subject to temporary retrocession and decline.
Seasons of Divine forbearance, through man's perverseness,
lead to spiritual decay. " Because sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, the hearts of the sons of
men is fully set in them to do evil." That evil is per-
mitted to reach a certain hight, and is then broken to
pieces by new acts of judgment, followed by fresh and
higher revelations of mercy. And thus, although by a
checkered and seemingly-irregular course, the work of
grace moves on continually, and truth prevails, by a slow
but sure advance, from age to age. Even when it seems to
decay, and " the faithful are minished from the children of
men " — the time of fear and sorrow is only the season of
travail before a joyful birth. Each fresh . exhibition of
the stubbornness and inveteracy of evil illustrates more
brightly, in the result, the victorious energy of redeeming
love.

Let us begin with the Book of Genesis. No sooner has
man fallen from his original uprightness, and become the
prey of death, than hope dawns upon him in the first
promise. The Seed of the Woman, it is revealed, shall

428 THE BIBLE AND MOBERN THOUGHT.

bruise the head of the serpent. The message, however dim
at first, implied clearly a Deliverer to come, by whom the
miseries of the fall should be repaired, and the power of
the deceiver be overcome. This same promise runs, like a
golden thread, through all the later Scriptures. In the
very first chapter of the New Testament, the miraculous
birth of the Messiah answers strictly to this his earliest
title in the Old Testament. The words of our Lord him-
self announce the promised triumph as already begun. "I
beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven." "Now is
the judgment of this world : now is the prince of this world
cast out." The apostle renews the promise to the Chris-
tians of Rome, where Satan's seat was so long to be estab-
lished : " The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your
feet shortly." And its completion is one main subject of
the last and crowning prophecy of the Word of God, where
the old serpent is revealed in vision, first in the hight of
his power and fiercest malice, and then in his downfall and
final judgment.

The history of the world, before the Flood, is one of
Divine forbearance carried to its extreme limit, till one
righteous family alone was found on the earth. A darker
and more gloomy season can hardly be conceived, than that
which the sacred historian sets before us. "The earth was
corrupt arid filled with violence," and " all flesh had cor-
rupted their way upon earth." Then followed a most
solemn judgment, and a signal deliverance. Amidst the
desolation, a new covenant of mercy was sealed with the
future race of mankind, which implied that no judgment,
so total, should ever be repeated, and no season of such
utter darkness settle down again upon our sinful world.

When idolatry began to prevail once more, after the
Flood, and threatened to renew the former calamities, a
new course of redeeming mercy began. One people were

REDEMPTION A PROGRESSIVE oCHEMK. 429

set apart in the person of their forefather, by a series of
miraculous visions, to be the special depositories of the
truth of God, till the promised Redeemer should appear.
The covenant with Abraham marks evidently a new era in
God's providence. Special mercy and electing grace were
to minister to the larger object of a world-wide redemp-
tion. "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed."

This further promise, like the earlier one in Paradise, is
repeated through the whole course of Scripture to its close.
It is the ground of the promise made to Moses at the
bush: "1 will bring you into the land, concerning which I
did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,
and I will give it to you for a heritage : I am the Lord."
It occurs continually, as the warrant of faith and hope, in
the Psalms and the Prophets : " Thou wilt perform the
mercy unto Abraham, and the truth unto Jacob, which
thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old."
It meets our eyes in the very first verse of the New Testa-
ment : " The book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the
son of David, the son of Abraham." It is repeated again
in the song of Zacharias. After the day of Pentecost, St.
Peter appeals to it once more : " Ye are the children of
the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with
our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall
all the families of the earth be blessed. Unto you first,
God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you,
in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

Before the grace of God, however, could be clearly made
known to men, there was needed a full revelation of his
holiness. This was the great office of the old covenant.
" By the law is the knowledge of sin ;" and the knowledge
of sin can alone awaken the desire for mercy, or discover
to men the true meaning of the grace of the Gospel. Dur-

430 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

ing the times of the Old Testament this revelation became
fuller and fuller, with every new display of sin and per-
verseness of the chosen people. Truth stood on the de-
fensive amidst the gloomy reign of heathen idolatry, and
the state of actual piety was often lamentably low, as in
the days of Gibeah, or the reign of Ahab ; but the mate-
rials were preparing, slowly and patiently, which the Spirit
of God would employ in all later ages to help forward the
promised victories of truth and righteousness. Every gen-
eration yielded its fresh contribution to the growing temple
of revealed truth, till the last of the prophets announced
the approaching advent of Messiah, and the rising of the
Sun of Righteousness, with healing in his wings.

The birth of our Lord, and still more his death and
resurrection, marked a new and nobler era in the develop-
ment of this scheme of Divine mercy. The whole range of
earlier prophecy, from the sentence on the serpent in Para-
dise to the parting words of Malaehi, began to be fulfilled.
Three great wants of mankind were supplied — a perfect
Example, a Divine Atonement for sin, and a living
Fountain-Head of heavenly grace. In the new dispensa-
tion of the Spirit, after the great sacrifice of the cross was
complete, grace was to be as conspicuous as righteousness
had been before ; and the message of the Law to one
favored race alone was replaced by a free proclamation of
pardon, life, and immortality, through the atoning death
and resurrection of Christ, to all the nations of the earth.

The New Testament, however, in proclaiming the sure
triumphs of the Gospel, and the final establishment of the
kingdom of God in the age to come, no where announced
a smooth and easy progress of truth to its full victory. On
the contrary, it foretold, under the Gospel, conflicts, re-
verses, and apostasy from the faith, like those which formed
the history of the Old Testament. The earlier leeord of

REDEMPTION A PROGRESSIVE SCUEME. 431

the sins of Israel was to supply descriptions for new forms
of evil within the Church of Christ. Strong and repeated
cautions are given against the superstitions of the latter
times, and against the selfishness and open unbelief that
would prevail in the last days. The sacred history teaches
how the Law had been perverted into pharisaic self-right-
eousness, when the grace of the Gospel was revealed. The
prophecies of the New Testament forewarn the Churches
that the grace of the Gospel, in its turn, would be extens-
ively abused, and turned into a plea for sensuality and un-
belief, before that fuller display of righteous judgment
which would break in pieces all the power of evil, and in-
troduce a lasting reign of righteousness and peace.

The Bible reveals, then, a continual progress, in the
ceaseless unfolding of the Divine attributes through suc-
cessive ages, from the Patriarchs to the Law, from the Law
to the Prophets, from these to the times of the Gospel, and
from these again to a glorious triumph and reign of right-
eousness still to come. But while this objective progress is
without intermission, it is not so with the actual prevalence of
truth and holiness among mankind. This has its seasons of
marked revival and progress, and its intervals of apostasy and
decay. The abuse of earlier messages or degrees of light,
when it has reached its climax, brings down the judgments
of God, and these judgments are followed by new displays
of mercy. All the analogies of Scripture, and its direct
prophecies, confirm the hope that the next thousand years
of the world's history will surpass the times of the Gospel,
as far as these have surpassed the times of the Law and
the early Patriarchs. But this hope is quite consistent
with warnings of wide-spread apostasy from the faith,
through intellectual pride, and a strong current of unbe-
lieving worldliness in the last days. All theories of prog-
ress, which lead men to rely on their natural powers in

432 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

dealing with the truth of God, and to look down on the
Bihle as a secondary and uncertain guide, in comparison
with their own conscience and reason, instead of being the
heralds of real advance, are ominous precursors of spiritual
delusion and open apostasy from the faith. Men, without
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are just as liable to deadly
and fatal error in our times as in any previous age. The
louder their boasts of intellectual advancement and superior
intelligence, the more plainly the snares of that great de-
ceiver, who is " king over all the children of pride," are
weaving around their path. It is only by returning to sit,
with the docility of little children, at the feet of Christ,
that they can avoid the danger which the prophet has de-
scribed in such vivid terms : " Give glory to the Lord your
God, before he cause darkness, and your feet stumble on
the dark mountains ; and while ye look for light he turn it
into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness."

The Bible is a history of redemption, but of a redemp-
tion still incomplete, and of which the full and open tri-
umph is reserved for days to come. Viewed in the light
of this great truth, a singular unity of prophetic hope runs
through the whole, and becomes doubly striking when we
compare its earliest and latest messages. No books of the
Bible are more contrasted in their general character than
Genesis and Revelation. The interval of time which sep-
arates them is more than fifteen hundred years. The first
is a simple, unadorned history; the second, a series of
highly-poetical visions. The first is the «arliest variety of
Hebrew prose ; the second, in a language then unborn, em-
bodies the main features of Hebrew poetry. The Book of
Genesis records common events upon earth ; the Apocalypse,
to a great extent, is the description of heavenly wonders.
One is a preface to the Law, the other a supplement to the
Gospel. One was written by the adopted sou of Pharaoh's

REDEMPTION A PROGRESSIVE SCHEME. 433

daughter, learned in all the wisdom of Egypt; the other,
by an unlearned fisherman of despised Galilee. The first
abounds with innumerable details, names of persons, places,
and domestic annals of the most minute and various kind ;
while the other scarcely stoops to set its foot upon earth,
bu-" dwells apart as on a mount of Transfiguration. When
the former was composed, Israel had scarcely begun to be
a nation; but when the exile received his visions in Pat-
mos, their national history was closed for ages, and they
were already outcasts and wanderers through the earth.
All things on earth were changed in this long interval —
Egypt, Canaan, and Babylon ; only God and his redeeming
grace remained unchangeable. Yet the latest book corre-
sponds to the earliest, as the loops and curtains of the tab-
ernacle, or the various parts of the Temple, with multiplied
harmonies, partly of the most obvious, but in part of the
most delicate and unobtrusive kind. Creation has its coun-
terpart in the promise, " Behold, I make all things new."
The uncreated light which fills the heavenly city ; the suc-
cessive revelation of the beast from the sea, the beast from
the earth, and one like to the Son of man ; the Sabbatic rest
of a thousand years, the river from the throne, watering
the heavenly paradise; the great river Euphrates, the gold
and precious stones of the New Jerusalem, the tree of life
in the paradise of God ; the marriage of the Lamb, the
Second Adam, and the clothing in which the Bride is
arrayed; the old serpent, the deceiver of the nations, the
woman and her mystic Seed, and sore travail; the removal
of the curse, and the angel guards at the open gates of the
heavenly paradise ; the cry of the martyrs from beneath
the altar of burnt-ofiering, and the rainbow around the
throne, are all so many distinct allusions, in this closing
prophecy, to the earliest chapters of the sacred history.
The Old Testament here conspires with the New, and the

434 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

history of the world's first infancy is seen to be stored witL
lessons of Divine wisdom, wliicli were to be fully unvailed,
after six or seven thousand years, in the final close of the
mystery of God.

The Bible, then, amidst the large variety of its contents^
which embrace an interval of fifteen centuries in their com-
position, and seven thousand years in the times to which
they refer — in its histories, psalms, proverbs, prophecies,
and epistles, earthly facts and heavenly revelations — ex-
hibits, from first to last, the clear signs of a Divine unity
which pervades and animates the whole. Its distinct parts
are not of separate interpretation. Behind the human au-
thors stood the Divine Spirit, controlling, guiding, and sug-
gesting every part of their difierent messages. Their words
" came not at any time by the will of man, but holy men
of God spake, borne along by the Holy Ghost." As the
Jordan flows underground in part of its course, so this
Divine unity may be obscured from hasty observers by the
multitude of intervening works of which the whole message
is composed, by the variety of historical details, the divers-
ity of manner and style, of age and local circumstance, in
the sixty-six books which constitute the Bible. But its
sunrise and sunset are equally glorious, and reveal clearly
the hidden harmony of the whole revelation. It traces the
course of Providence from that Creation in which our earth
was prepared for the habitation of men, to the complete
accomplishment of that new creation in which it will be
the habitation of righteousness forever. It begins with the
first bridal of Adam and Eve, the parents of all mankind,
and closes with the heavenly bridal of the Second Adam, the
Lord from heaven, and the Church of the Firstborn, in whom
the great mystery of that ordinance is fulfilled. It begins
with a vision- of the earthly Paradit^e forfeited by sin, and the
taste of the forbidden tree of knowledge. It closes with the

REDEMPTION a PROGRESSIVE SCHEME. 43iJ

revelation of a better and lieavenly Paradise, where no tree
of knowledge is seen, but the tree of life alone, and even its
leaves are for the healing of the nations. It begins with
the success of the old serpent in deceiving Adam and Eve,
and ends with the vision of his overthrow by the Seed of
the Woman, when he can deceive the nations no more, but
sinks under the righteous judgment of God. It begins
with man's exclusion from Paradise by the watching cher-
ubim and the flaming sword ; and ends with the revelation
of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose gates are open continu-
ally, while an angel at every gate invites the nations of
the saved to bring their honor and glory into the city of
God.

The more closely, then, we examine the Bible, the more
plainly it will appear to be indeed " the true sayings of
God," " the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for-
ever." In its width, its freedom, and its grandeur, it re-
flects the largeness of God's universal providence. Like
that providence, it has its seeming discrepancies, and its
real perplexities, much to exercise faith, as well as much
by which it is nourished, parts which may appear trivial
and superfluous, and depths which repel the frivolous with
a sense of impenetrable gloom. Even those who sincerely
embrace the Gospel may rest satisfied with a dim and im-
perfect measure of knowledge, and thus have their i'aith in
it exposed to sore trial, whenever new temptations assail
the Church of Christ. But in proportion as we search it
with humble diligence and earnest prayer, fresh harmonies
of Divine truth, new wonders of Divine grace and love, will
disclose themselves to our view. One difficulty after anoth-
er will slowly melt away, and resolve itself into a halo of
heavenly beauty. Sixty generations of the Church have
studied it unceasingly ; but this incorruptible manna neither
wastes nor corrupts, and they have never exhausted it?

436 THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.

stores of Divine wisdom. Sixty generations of unbelievers
have assailed it on every side with winds of false doctrine,
but it has only rooted itself the more firmly in the hearts
of Christians, and in the history of the world. And still,
after all these ages, there are deep mines of truth in it
which have never been explored, harvests of spiritual food
still to be reaped by coming generations, and healing medi-
cines for countless evils that are still concealed in the
depths of future time. The words of the prophet to Ariel
of old will assuredly be fulfilled, soon or late, in all who
assail this enduring Word of God: "And the multitude
of the nations that fight against her and her munition shall
be even as the dream of a night vision. It shall be as
when a hungry man dreameth, and behold he eateth, but
he waketh, and his soul is empty ; or a thirsty man dream-
eth, and behold he drinketh. but he waketh, and is faint,
and his soul hath appetite : so shall all the multitude of
the nations be that fight againsc Zion." But those who
draw near with reverence, and while they meditate, loose
their shoes from their feet on this holy ground, will equally
find the promise of the Psalmist fulfilled in their own ex-
perience : " They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fat-
ness of thy house, and thou wilt make them drink of the
river of thy pleasures : for with thee is the fountain of life,
and in thy light we shall see light." The meteors of false
philosophy blaze for a moment, and disappear; but the
written Word of God is an effluence from the Uncreated
Light, and must endure forever.

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THE ANATOMY OF ATHEISM

As Demonstrated in the Light of the Constitution and

Laws of Nature.

By REV. H. H. MOORE, D. D.

121)10. Cloth. 365 pages. Post-paid^ go cents.

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" Farrar has said that the anatomy of error is the first step to
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THE REPUBLIC TO METHODISM, DR.

By REV. H. H. MOORE, D. D.

121110. Cloth. 363 pages. Post-paid, 90 cents.

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THROUGH CHRIST TO GOD:

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CHRISTUS CONSOLATOR;
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By GILBERT H.\VEN.

i2ino. Cloth. 264 pages. With Portrait, $12^

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APOSTOLIC ORGANISM.

BY J. C. MAGEE, D. D.
Introduction by J. C. W, COXE, PH. D., D. O.

i2mo. Cloth. 26j pages, go cents.

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THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. The Biblical
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BY RICHARD N. DAVIDS.

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" Eternal, undivided Lord,
Co-equal One in Three,
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ERRORS OF CAMPBELLISM. Being a Review of all the
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BY T. M'K. STUART, A. M., D. D,

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