.
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
Received^ NOV 21 1891
Accessions No.^ 9 T&.^'&?. ' Shelf No...
18
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
1. FIRST PRINCIPLES OF MORAL SCIENCE ; A First Course
of Lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge. Crown 8vo. Ss. 6J.
2. MODERN UTILITARIANISM; or The Systems of Paley,
Bentham, and Mill, examined and compared. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d.
3. MODERN PHYSICAL FATALISM, and the Doctrine of Evo-
lution, including an Examination of Mr Herbert Spencer's First Principles.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
4. THE DIFFICULTIES OF BELIEF in connection with the
Creation and the Fall, Redemption and Judgment. Second Edition, enlarged.
Crown 8vo. 5^.
5. AN ESSAY ON THE RIGHT ESTIMATION OF MSS.
EVIDENCE in the Text of the New Testament. Crown 8vo. y. 6d.
6. COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF ISAIAH. Second
Edition, revised. 8vo. us. 6d.
MACMILLAN AND CO.
7. THE BIBLE AND MODERN THOUGHT.
8. THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL.
9. HOR^E APOSTOLIC^E.
RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.
10. THE WAYS OF GOD.
11. THE TREASURES OF WISDOM.
SEELEY, JACKSON & HALLIDAY.
12. SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF CREATION.
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
13. THE SACRAMENTS, SCIENCE AND PRAYER.
CHRISTIAN BOOK SOCIETY.
SUPERNATURAL
REVELATION,
OR
FIRST PRINCIPLES OF MORAL
THEOLOGY.
BY THE
REV. T. R. BIRKS,
\l
PROFESSOR OF MORAL THEOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE.
OF THE
UNIVBRSIT7
Honlron :
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1879
[The Right of Translation is resemtd.']
PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, ]\T. A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
PREFACE.
FOR forty-two years I have had the great privilege
of unfolding and maintaining the great truths of the
word of God both by speech and writing, as a clergyman
of the English Church. For the future I expect to be
restricted chiefly to the second means alone. The obli-
gation to maintain and unfold Christian truth through
the press is thus increased ; especially since I hold the
office of Professor of Moral Theology and Moral Philo-
sophy in the University of Bacon, Newton, and Milton.
Attacks have been made and are still in progress on
Christianity and on all the foundations of our Christian
empire, by three allied systems of error Ultramontan-
ism, Agnosticism, or Secularism, and the Liberationism,
which would banish the name of Christ from the whole
world of politics. At such a time, I would earnestly
counsel the younger clergy, and the moral instructors
of the next generation, lay or clerical, to lay to heart
the charge of St Paul, just before his martyrdom, to
Timothy, his son and companion in the faith. That
vi PREFACE.
caution applies with equal force to the varieties of
unbelieving thought in our days, as to the Gnosticism
of the first century. " O Timothy, keep that which is
committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain bab-
blings, and oppositions of science falsely so called, which
some professing have erred concerning the faith."
What " babblings " can be more " profane and vain "
than those of Positivism with its " new Supreme Being;"
or of Agnosticism, which places an algebraical x, THE
UNKNOWABLE, on the throne of the universe ? What
can be more falsely named science than the audacious
conjectures which have been of late repeatedly dignified
with the name of scientific theories ? Such as the con-
stant generation of the unlike from the unlike, through
infinite ages of geological time, before there existed
a single man who could witness this prodigious inver-
sion of the countless experiences of all real science for
the last six thousand years ?
One great duty of Cambridge at this crisis, is in
the study of nature to abide stedfastly by the induc-
tive principles of the philosophy of Bacon and Newton,
so well carried out by many Cambridge students of
these later times. But this implies the further duty to
refrain from that unbridled license of imagination in
scientific subjects, which leads many to dignify plausible
or even unplausible conjectures with the name of science.
Conjectures in science have a great use, but this depends
on our never confounding them with proved facts.
Their magnitude to the senses of casual observers, like
that of the tails of comets, is sometimes in inverse propor-
PREFACE. Vil
tion to their solid mass. Yet even when their solid
substance is small and almost evanescent, it is often
possible that by their means, when carefully examined,
weighty scientific conclusions may be attained.
A second great duty is to apply this same principle
of careful and inductive search to the study of the sacred
Scriptures. The word of God will else be overlaid
with ambiguities, uncertainties, and partial misconcep-
tions, human traditions, distortions and corruptions of
its genuine meaning, which not only obscure its heavenly
brightness, but are liable to become a great encourage-
ment to the assaults of open unbelief.
There is scarcely any revealed limit to the appre-
hension of the beauty, truth and harmony of the Holy
Scriptures which may be attained by those who study
them with prayer, humility and perseverance, not as
if they were isolated and accidental compositions, but
as one comprehensive whole. The neglect of such study
by too many Christians, is one great cause of the many
controversies by which the church has been disfigured,
and its peace and unity disturbed. There is a promise in
the word of God, not only of the increase of natural
knowledge in the last days, but of the increase of
spiritual knowledge also. In the great day of the
Lord, "at eventide there will be light." " Then shall
we know if we follow on to know the Lord.'* "The
path of the just is as a shining light, that shinethmore
and more unto the perfect day."
May the University of Cambridge, by this double
work, the inductive study of all nature, and the indue-
Vlll PREFACE.
tive and persevering study of all Scripture, fulfil in fuller
and still fuller measure its true office and calling, as a
seminary both of sound learning and religious education.
The present work, while endeavouring to clear away
some of the mists of unbelieving philosophy, is intended,
if life be spared, to be followed by others, in which
I would attempt, in reliance on the promised help of
the Holy Spirit, to unfold some of the manifold har-
monies of truth in the sacred Scriptures, the "lively
oracles " of the Living God.
CAMBRIDGE,
February, 1879.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY. THE SCEPTICAL STARTING-POINT.
Series of ten attacks on revealed religion in the present century, p. 2.
Strife among the assailants, 5. "Supernatural Religion." Bearing of
the controversy on "Moral Theology," 6. Sceptical starting-point, the
Duty of Inquiry, 7. Is this duty unlimited ? 10. Real and fictitious
inquiry, n. Search preferred to truth, 12. Results in the Hamiltonian
philosophy, 13. Two modes of inquiry, which may be called centrifugal
'and centripetal, 16. Negative creed of the author, 18. By which he
judges the apostles, 19. The Being of a Personal God is said to be
a mere assumption, on the authority of Christian Divines, 20. Thesis
of the Book, 22. First necessary condition of the duty of inquiry, 24.
The author's starting-point, religious nescience, 25 ... i 26
CHAPTER II.
THE AUTHOR'S STATEMENT OF THE OBJECT OF HIS WORK.
"Is Christianity a Divine revelation or not?" 27. Moral presumption
in its favour from the number of believers through fifteen centuries, 27.
The Greek and Latin Churches, and a portion of the Anglican Church,
have renounced the principle of free inquiry. How far does this weaken
their testimony ? 28. Protestant Christians affirm the duty of free
inquiry, 30. The claim of Free-thinkers to be the only honest seekers
after truth, 31. The work now examined not an unbiassed inquiry.
32 27-33
X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
PROTESTANT FAITH IN CONTRAST WITH FREE-THINKING.
Protestantism not a negation, 34. What honest inquiry implies,
and what it does not imply, 34. Neutrality impossible, 35. The
promises of Scripture to seekers after Truth, 35. The perfect truthful-
ness of Holy Scripture, 36 34 37
CHAPTER IV.
REASON AND SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
The author constructs a puzzle by combining three different statements
of various Divines, (i) That Miracles and Prophecy are necessary creden-
tials of revelation. (2) That there may be false as well as true miracles.
(3) That the only truths proper to a revelation are "beyond reason," 38.
The two first are truths affirmed by Scripture, the third an ambiguous
statement, 39. How far any knowledge rests on pure reason, 39. How
far on observation and testimony, 40. These have narrow limits both
of time and place, 41. The problem which reason has to solve is to
construct a theory that will account for the facts of human experience as a
whole, 41. Eight solutions which have been attempted, 42. The latest
conclusions of H. Spencer and Mill, 43. Does Christianity claim abso-
lutely to solve this problem ? Its claim is quite different. It is to supply
fresh facts, with full evidence, centering in a unique Person, 44. In what
sense the words and acts of such a Person are supernatural, 44. The
facts of the Gospels illustrated by the first voyage of Columbus and the
discovery of the New World, 45 38 48
CHAPTER V.
REASON AND THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION.
Misrepresentations of the doctrines of Christianity, 49. Frustration
of the supposed Divine design in Creation, contrasted with the u glorious
invariability of Nature," 50. Scriptural account of the Divine foreknow-
ledge of evil, 51. Dr Mozley quoted to convey a meaning the reverse
of his own, 51. His statement really agrees with that of our Lord Himself
concerning the true Christ, and a false Antichrist, 52. Consilience of
superhuman power, knowledge, and goodness, 52 . . . 49 54
CONTENTS. XI
CHAPTER VI.
THE PERFECTION OF NATURE, AND FOUR MOCK DEITIES OF
SCEPTICISM.
Conflict of sceptical speculations, 55. M. Comte and Dr Tyndall,
Mr Spencer and Mr Mill, 56. "Glorious perfection" of Nature con-
trasted with Mill's description of the cruelty of Nature, 57. What is
Nature in the creed of Atheism? What does Nature really include? 57.
Is Mill's indictment valid? 59. The Deities of Scepticism; Collective
Humanity, Physical Force in two forms, Evolution, 60 . . 55 62
CHAPTER VII.
MR SPENCER'S THREE THEORIES OF THE UNIVERSE.
Spencer's definition of Philosophy, 63. He admits no medium between
Omniscience and utter Nescience, 62. His three alternative theories of
the Universe : (i) Endless Involution tending to Omnipresent Death, 64.
(2) Endless Oscillation tending to perfect quiescence, 64. (3) A self-
perfecting Theory of Nature, 65. A great truth of Scripture mis-
construed, 68. Physical laws are never broken, moral laws can be
and are, 69 6370
CHAPTER VIII.
NATURE WITHOUT MAN OR GOD.
Four kinds of action conceivable : (i) The action of God ; (2) The
action of men and other rational beings; (3) The actings of the
animal and vegetable creation ; (4) The actings of matter devoid of
life, 71. Matter has real activity, subject to three laws: (i) Universal
appetency ; (2) Special appetency ; (3) Ethereal repulsion, 72. Limited
powers of matter, defined at Creation, 73. Matter necessarily non-
moral, 74. Mill exacts from Nature the unnatural, 74. Admitted
excellence of the laws of Nature, 74. The great problem beyond
man's solution, 75. The utter contrast between Mill's view and that of
the author of "Supernatural Religion," 75 71 76
Xll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE UNNATURAL IN CONTRAST TO THE SUPERNATURAL.
Six main classes of Natures. In each there may be three kinds
of actings : (i) Natural or normal ; (2) Unnatural ; (3) Supernatural,
77. The apotheosis of Death most unnatural, 78. Agnosticism un-
natural, 79. It necessarily tends to unnatural degradation, 80. First
form of the Supernatural, the prophetic, 80. The higher form involved
in an Incarnation, 81 . . 77 83
CHAPTER X.
THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE.
Dr Mozley's Bampton Lectures on Miracles, 84. Professor Tyndall's
review in the "Fortnightly," 85. The truth midway between them, 85.
Tyndall's strictures justly apply not to Divines, but to Positivists, 86.
Dr Mozley's reasoning is weakened by his admission of one main principle
of the Positive Philosophy, 86. Bishop Berkeley's paradox, 87. Hume's
extension of the reasoning to mental phenomena, 87. Mill adopts this
phenomenalism in his " Logic," 87, fully with regard to matter, partially
with regard to mind, 88. Spencer adopts the same theory, 88. Con-
stancy of Nature: different meanings of the term, 89. Necessary
character of the laws of physical science. Tyndall ascribes this doctrine
to Newton, who expressly denounces it, 89. The result of excluding
all spontaneous action of man, or of God, 90. The future cannot be
exactly like the past, nor wholly different from it, 92. We rely on
permanence, and anticipate change, 93. All unforeseen changes come
practically under the head of the miraculous, 23. Constancy of
Nature, according to the author of " Supernatural Religion," 95. Varia-
tion as conspicuous in Nature as its constancy, 95. Nine laws in
operation, 95 98. The geological reasonings of Sir C. Lyell based on
a confusion of two different things, 98. The course of Nature has
three elements ; the permanent, the periodic, the ever varying, 100
84 100
CHAPTER XI.
THE MIRACULOUS ELEMENT INVOLVED IN THE WHOLE COURSE OF
NATURE.
Meaning of three terms ; the mysterious, the unusual, the mira-
culous, 101. The sense of mystery weakened within the limit of the
usual, 101. The unusual, its use, 103. Two classes of the unusual ;
the calculable and the incalculable, 104. Their 'effect on the human
CONTENTS. Xlll
mind widely different, 105. Relation of the miraculous to the unusual
and unforeseen, 105. Three different modes of the miraculous : (i)
Modification of instincts of lower creatures ; (2) Special powers
imparted to individual persons ; (3) Revelation of God Himself in a
Person, 105 .......... 101 107
CHAPTER XII.
THE THREEFOLD INCONSTANCY OF TERRESTRIAL NATURE.
Three limitations of the "Constancy of Nature." (i) The law of
human life and the rate of increase of population, 108. (2) The con-
stitution of the earth's crust, in. The "causes now in operation"
cannot be the same as the forces in operation 10,000 or 100,000
years ago, in. Some of the elements which must have varied, in.
The known elements in the problem of the constitution of the earth's
crust 10,000 years ago, only a small fraction of the unknown, 112.
(3) The relation of our earth and system to the Sun, 113. Various
scientific theories, all inconsistent with the unlimited constancy of ter-
restrial nature, 113 108115
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WITNESS OF ALL NATURE TO THE BEING AND PERFECTIONS
OF GOD.
Concessions of Divines quoted by the author of " Supernatural Religion,"
1 1 6. These concessions added together, reduce the evidence for the ex-
istence of God to zero, 119. The true order of the evidence, 120. (i) That
of the world of matter, 121. The law of gravitation, 123. (2) The world
of living creatures, 124. Spencer's definition of life examined, 125. A
living thing implies a unit, linked with an organized system, 127. Power
of spontaneity, 128. Inferences in regard to the great First Cause, 129.
(3) The moral universe: its evidence as to the nature of God, 131,
How is it that the witness of Nature is not discerned by many? 133
116 134
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CENTRIFUGAL AND CENTRIPETAL TENDENCIES OF MODERN
SCIENCE.
Evolution defined, 135. Demonstrable result, 136. To avoid this re-
sult, the atheist re-introduces theistic elements, 137. The laws of "natural
selection" and "survival of the fittest," 137. The tendency of science to
unity, 138. Attraction and appetency, 138 . . .. . 135 142
XIV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
THREE HEADLESS PHILOSOPHIES.
(i) The Positivism of Comte, 143. (2) The Agnosticism of Spencer,
143. (3) The Nihilism of Hamilton, 144. Positivism involves two physi-
cal mistakes, 144. Spencer's mistaken facts, 145. Hamilton's system
barren as to discovery, 145. All three have darkened the study of physical
science, 146 143147
CHAPTER XVI.
THE FOUR MAXIMS OF MODERN NATURE-WORSHIP.
The Creed of Anti-Supernaturalism, 148. God "unknowable," 148.
The reign of Death " irreversible," 149. Angels or spirits, non-existent, 150.
Nature unchangeable, 151 148 152
CHAPTER XVII.
THE ATTEMPT TO REVIVE HUME'S ARGUMENT.
Dr Farrar's statement; the author's retort, an inversion of facts, 153.
Proof from "Paley's Evidences, and Appendix," 155 157. Mill's com-
ment on Hume's argument, 157, brings clearly to light a sophism involved
in it, 159. Mill's doctrine of "kinds" clearly applies to the Gospel
miracles, 160. The man, CHRIST JESUS, a kind apart, 160 . 153 161
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE LAW OF GOD, AND THE CREATED UNIVERSE.
(i) The law of the world of matter, 162. (2) The law of the world of
life, 163. (3) The law of the moral world, 163. Benthamite utilitarian-
ism, 163. The Divine law of altruism, 164. (4) The Supreme law of
duty, 165. Its two aspects, 166. Its only foundation, the knowledge
of God, 166 162 169
CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER XIX.
FUNDAMENTAL FACTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE MORAL UNIVERSE.
(i) The Fall of Man, 170. (2) The existence of good and evil angels,
171. (3) Temptation and the Tempter, 173. (4) The conflict of good
and evil, 174. (5) The Supremacy of Death, 176 . . . 170176
CHAPTER XX.
THE WISDOM OF GOD IN REDEMPTION.
Christianity not the doctrine of an abortive design, 177. The statements
of Scripture, 178. (i) That God is the Only-Good, 179. (2) The Only
Wise, 1 80. (3) The Most Just, 181. (4) The Omnipotent, 182. Mis-
conceptions of Omnipotence, 182. Statements of Mill, Butler, and Mozley
compared, 183. Real doctrine of Scripture that Omnipotence is self-
limited, 184. Perfection of the Divine scheme, 185. Bampton Lectures of
1877, 1 86. True Christian Optimism, 187 . . . . 177188
CHAPTER XXI.
THE PERFECTIONS OF THE WORLD'S REDEEMER.
Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, 189. His Wisdom as the Christ, in the
fulfilment of prophecy, ' 191. His Wisdom as the King. St Matthew's
Gospel, 193195. His Wisdom as the Lord of nature. St Mark's Gospel,
196. Christ, the Son of Man, St Luke's Gospel, 197. The Adversary, 198.
The Redeemer is stronger than he, 199 189 200
CHAPTER XXII.
THE INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE LAST DAYS, A SCRIPTURE
PROPHECY.
The hidden source of the wide stream of physical science, 201. Lord
Bacon's motto, 202. His view of his own work, 203. Bacon's " Student's
prayer," 204. His "Writer's prayer," 205. Bacon's definition of the
relation between Christian faith and genuine Science, 205 . 201 206
XVI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN CHRISTIAN FAITH AND SCIENCE "FALSELY
so CALLED" IN THE LAST DAYS.
" The Gospel of the Resurrection," 207. Its Appendix on Positivism,
209. Positivism the creed of the last Antichrist, 209. Newton's Scho-
lium, 210. Likeness of Agnosticism to early Gnosticism, 211 . 207 213
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE REVELATION IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS ONE
HARMONIOUS WHOLE.
Rationalism; its source and effects, 214. Rationalism and Superstition,
215. The darkest stage of Rationalism, a revelation impossible, 216. If
not impossible, it might be superfluous, 218. If possible and desirable, yet it
may never have been given, 219. The two forms of German Rationalism;
naturalist, 220, mythical, 221. They contradict each other, 222. Steps
of the evidence to an honest inquirer, 223. Three varieties of doctrinal
Rationalism, 224. Parker's "absolute religion," 225. Undogmatic Ra-
tionalism, 227. Depreciation of the Old Testament, 229. Coleridge's
" Confessions," 231. The Gospels affirm the contrast between the Old and
New Testaments, 232. The Ceremonial details and Genealogies of the
Old Testament, 231. The severity of the Old Testament, 234. Real
harmony of both Testaments, 236. The truth on which Rationalism
builds, 237. Man's reason is appealed to in Scripture, 238. Historical
study of the New Testament is the practical antidote of unbelief, 239
214239
ERRATA.
Page 17, line 4, for centripetal read centrifugal
,, 94, ,, 8, more ,, some
SUPERNATURAL REVELATION,
OR
FIRST PRINCIPLES OF MORAL THEOLOGY.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
THE SCEPTICAL STARTING-POINT.
THE anonymous work named " Supernatural Religion"
has attained sudden notoriety within the last few years,
and flashed like a lurid meteor across the theological
firmament. It is a formal challenge to all believers
in the old and everlasting Gospel to give a reason
of the faith that is in them. The writer complains
that Dr Lightfoot and Dr Westcott have not touched
his main thesis and central argument, but have turned
aside to a secondary issue as to the Ignatian Epistles.
I intend, in this work, to take up the main issue alone,
though if life be spared I shall hope to resume, with the
added light of thirty years' further study, the subject
treated in " Horae Evangelicae," and to place in a still
clearer light the concurrence of external and internal
evidence for the truth, authenticity, and Divine authority
of the four Gospels.
B. f- i
2 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
For thirty years I have been mainly engaged, in
more than twelve works, in labouring to vindicate the
truth and authority of the Scriptures and the Gospel
of Christ, against several of the persevering attacks to
which they have been exposed, both from open unbe-
lievers and halting or timorous half-believers, whose
groundless surrenders of the truth of God are some-
times more dangerous than the assaults of its open
opposers. The works against which I have especially
contended are (i) Strauss's " Life of Jesus," with its
mythical theory of the Gospels. (2) The assault on
the authenticity of the Books of Moses by Bishop
Colenso and the German critics whom he has followed.
(3) The " Seven Essays and Reviews," with their
varied attacks on the fundamentals of Christianity.
(4) The " First Principles," of Mr Herbert Spencer,
and the Bampton Lectures on " The Limits of Religious
Thought," with their common theory which makes all
genuine revelation strictly impossible. (5) In my " Com-
mentary on Isaiah," I have replied to the attack of
Dr Davidson and the German sceptical critics on the
authenticity of that Book.
The present century, following close on the short-
lived infidel outbreak of the French Revolution, has been
marked through its whole course by a series of earnest
attacks on revealed religion, and the very foundations
of morality and religious faith, by a series of writers
of reputation and ability. Besides an immense mass
of loose and popular writing in the cause of scepticism,
there have been many leading schools of unbelieving
thought, each with a multitude of attached and credulous
followers, but distinct from, and even opposed to each
other, agreeing in little else than a rejection of the
Bible, and the Gospel of Christ, and faith in the God
of the Bible, whom some of them style " the wrathful
THE SCEPTICAL STARTING-POINT. 3
Jehovah of the Old Testament." An exhaustive list
would be impossible, for the varied forms of unbelief,
like the heads of a Hydra, are intertwined with each
other, and agree in little else than a common antipathy
to the truth of God's Word. The following are some
of the chief divisions of the embattled array, (i) The
destructive criticism of Germany, aimed against the
authenticity and truth of the Old Testament Scriptures,
beginning with Strauss's " Life of Jesus," and the work
of Renan, followed in our country by the writings
of Bishop Colenso, and a multitude of similar works.
(2) The assaults on the historical truth and authenticity
of the Gospels, forming the mythical School of modern
German criticism. (3) The Positive Philosophy of
M. Comte, with its double rejection of Metaphysics
and Theology, as superstitions of the infancy and
youth of mankind, and its fictitious law of human pro-
gress culminating in the rejection of the living God,
as a dream of superstition, to be replaced by a new
religion, and a " new Supreme Being," the worship of
Collective Humanity ; a kind of earnest of the last
manifestation of that " Man of Sin " who will " seat
himself in the temple of God," averring that he is God.
(4) A fourth variety of unbelief is the agnostic philo-
sophy of Mr Spencer, summed up in this one statement;
that Pantheism, Atheism and Theism meaning by the
last faith in a personal God are three equally futile
attempts to solve the great problem of the universe,
with the added axiom that the unknown cause of the
universe is, and must ever remain, completely inscrutable.
(5) This Cimmerian creed of midnight darkness receives
a further supplement. Its author propounds to us a
new Trinity of Matter, Force, and Motion, each alike
indestructible. This supplement of the agnostic theory
is an apotheosis of solar force, embodying itself in the
4 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
monstrous paradox that force and motion are inde-
structible, but that the sun, which is their great source,
is being steadily exhausted by his own activity, and his
diffusion of light and heat, so that all motion is con-
stantly tending to equilibration and rest, and the uni-
verse, under its new Divinity, tending steadily to the
reign of Omnipresent Death. (6) A sixth form of
unbelief is the elastic materialism of Dr Tyndall in
his Belfast Address, who thinks that modern science
binds fast all nature in the bonds of fate, and that
matter contains in itself the promise and potency of
every kind of life. (7) A seventh is what may be
called the negative materialism of Mr Mill, and his
sensational philosophy ; he denies that matter exists at
all, but allows us to speak of minds as if they did exist,
though strict philosophy would lead to the nihilism
which denies both mind and matter, and replaces both
by " permanent possibilities of sensation." (8) The
doctrine of Evolution, and Natural Selection, as held
by Mr Darwin and his disciples, which fills up by con-
jecture the intervals between a hundred thousand exist-
ing or extinct species of plants and animals by a thou-
sand times the number, or ten thousand thousand
intermediate varieties or types of being, which must
have existed if the theory be true, and have passed
utterly away without leaving a trace of their existence
either among the fossils or the actual flora and fauna.
This gigantic mass of conjecture, when supplemented
by the doctrine of natural selection, or survival of the
fittest, or by millions of millions of acts of choice where
there is no one to choose, and the survival of millions
of millions of organisms, on the ground of their superior
fitness to accomplish some wholly unconceived end or
purpose of the great scheme of the universe ; this
pyramid of pure conjecture, of telescopic magnitude,
THE SCEPTICAL STARTING-POINT. 5
resting on a microscopic apex of ascertained and certain
fact, is gravely propounded even by some Divines, as
the latest revelation of God to man, to which all our
other beliefs, whether drawn from the Bible or genuine
science, must be made subordinate. (9) The direct
and simple Atheism or Monism of Professor Haeckel
is another variety. (10) A tenth, and perhaps least
remote from Christian faith, is the new Manicheism of
Mr Mill in his posthumous Essays; a kind of half-way
house in a progress from the outer darkness of utter
atheism to the dubious light on the verge and outskirts
of morality and religion. In various works I have
examined at length several of these main varieties of
sceptical thought, and shewn the great amount of error
and self-contradiction which they contain. I shall now
confine myself to two of the latest ; the anti-super-
naturalism of "Supernatural Religion;" and Mr Mill's
posthumous Essays : the parting contribution to this
great inquiry of one of the ablest and, as I think,
the most candid and truth-seeking of the leaders of
modern scepticism, whose early training makes regret
and pity almost forbid indignation even at those con-
clusions which are most abhorrent to the instincts of
Christian faith.
The danger to the faith from these many forms
of modern sceptical thought is somewhat lessened by
their internal strife and antagonism. The hosts of
unbelief resemble the camp of Agramant in Ariosto,
when discord had been sent by the archangel to hinder
their threatened attack on the Christian host by stirring
up strife among the Moorish paladins, and succeeded so
well that a mortal feud ensued between each separate
pair of the Paynim leaders, and these were followed
by secondary quarrels which pair should have the first
turn in the bloody tournament by which their strife was
6 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
to be decided. There is here the same kind of conflict,
but one still more strange, for each school of infidel
philosophy includes some essential contradiction, by
which it is at hopeless variance with itself, and a lateral
feud by which it is in hopeless rivalry with each of its
neighbours. How refreshing it is to escape from this
dark and dreary chaos of human error and contradiction,
to the sacred confines of those true sayings of God,
where chaos first retires, and the ceaseless strife of
human error and falsehood is replaced by the dawning
of light from the eternal source and fountain of light.
The work I now propose to examine has a direct
bearing on the aim and purpose of the Knightbridge
Professorship. During the six years I have held that
office, I have published three volumes directly on Moral
Science, but none hitherto on Moral Theology. The
work in question contains a thousand pages devoted
to the task of proving supernatural revelation impossible
or incredible, and Christianity, in claiming to convey
a message from God to sinful men, a gigantic fraud
wholly unworthy the faith of rational beings. No more
audacious Goliath has ever stood forth to challenge and
defy the armies of the living God. One hundred pages
are occupied with an attempt to prove that the claim
of Christianity is to be a supernatural revelation founded
on miraculous evidence, and itself miraculous, but that
all miracles are impossible and incredible ; a hundred
pages more are employed in defaming the Apostles
and first Christians, as a set of credulous simpletons
steeped to the neck in Jewish prejudices, credulity and
childish superstition.
This accusation against the witnesses chosen before
by God for the transmission of His message, is supported
by laying to their charge all the follies and fables in
the rabbinical writings, and in the forgeries of the
THE SCEPTICAL STARTING-POINT. 7
Apocryphal Books, wholly overlooking the charge which
St Paul has given against " giving heed to Jewish
fables." Tit. i. 13, 14. The other eight hundred pages
are spent in an attempt to prove that the four Gospels
themselves have no evidence of their existence before
the end of the second century, and are therefore forgeries
by unknown parties, which gained acceptance afterwards
in the church without any solid reason, as the writings
of two of the Apostles, and two companions of the
Apostles. The manner of dealing with the mass of
evidence, in the three first centuries, of their public
acceptance by all the churches of Christ as inspired
Scripture, is the very same by which some geologists
suppose that our present continents are being carted
away, grain by grain, by sub-aerial denudation, till they
may come to be buried at length in the depth of the
ocean ; but on this part of the subject I do not now enter.
The first hundred pages alone, on which the whole
argument rests, will afford ample materials for inquiry,
analysis and refutation. The writer complains that his
critics have dealt only with a side issue, but had he really
been seeking for truth, as he professes, he would have
found in Dr Westcott's " Gospel of the Resurrection"
much truth that bears directly on the main issue, and
a virtual reply to the greater part of his argument.
THE DUTY OF INQUIRY.
In a work where the unbelief is so deep and all-
pervading it is needful to pause at the outset, and dig
down to find if possible some first principle from which
our reasoning may proceed, that we may not fight in
utter darkness. Such a principle I find in the caustic
8 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
censure of the Introduction, on the inconsistent half-
faith of many Christians, who strive
" with thoughtless dexterity to eliminate from Christianity every super-
natural element which does not quite accord with current opinion;
...they ignore the fact that, in so doing, ecclesiastical Christianity
has been altogether abandoned." "This tendency is fostered with
profoundly illogical zeal by many distinguished men within the church
itself, who endeavour to arrest for a moment the pursuing wolves of
doubt and unbelief by practically throwing to them, scrap by scrap,
the very doctrines which constitute the claims of Christianity to be
regarded as a Divine revelation... They abandon some of the most
central doctrines of Christianity, and try to spiritualize or dilute the
rest into a form which does not shock their reason ; yet they cling to
the delusion that they still retain the consolation and hope of truths
which, if not divinely revealed, are mere speculation regarding matters
beyond reason. They have in fact as little warrant to abandon the
one part as they have to retain the other ; they build their house on the
sand, and the waves which have already carried away so much may any
day engulph the rest." S. R. Introduction, pp. xcii. xciii.
These remarks are clear, forcible and true, like a streak
of morning light in contrast to the thick moral dark-
ness which marks the rest of the book, from its begin-
ning to its close. If Christianity is a message from
God to men, guaranteed by works of supernatural power
and prophecies of superhuman wisdom, it is plainly
foolish to concede that we are at liberty to choose out
scraps and fragments of the message at our own pleasure,
and can retain our faith in those which fall in with our
wishes or tastes, while we reject all the rest. This arbi-
trary separation into two parts of a message which
has been attested as a whole, exposes those who practise
it to the charge of irrational superstition in what they
retain, on evidence which the very separation would
prove worthless, or else of profaneness and unbelief as
to the parts which they reject.
The one positive principle here implied is the duty
THE DUTY OF INQUIRY. 9
of adequate inquiry into the truth of any statement of
serious importance before believing it.
"This," the writer says, "is universally admitted in theory, but in
practice no duty is more universally neglected, especially in regard to
religion." He continues, " Neglect of examination can never advance
truth, as the severest scrutiny can never retard it. Belief without dis-
crimination can only foster ignorance and superstition. It is in this
conviction that the following enquiry into the reality of divine revela-
tion was originally undertaken, and that others should enter upon it.
If truth acquired do not compensate for every illusion dispelled, the
path is thorny indeed, but must be faithfully trodden." Pp. xci. xcviii.
Here then, amidst abysses of sceptical thought, we
have something like a first principle man is a moral
being ; he has duties and obligations he is bound to
fulfil : one of these is to search after truth ; another im-
plied duty is to reject all detected falsehood. There is a
person whom the writer calls "the great teacher," and
who calls himself " The Truth." Now the aim of the
work, pursued through a thousarid pages, is to prove that
this " great teacher " ought rather to be styled by the
opposite name, which He applies to the great source of all
evil, " the father of lies ; " inasmuch as by false claims to
a nature He did not possess, and to a commission He had
not received, He has been really the parent and author
of the most extensive and prevalent fraud on the cre-
dulity of mankind, which has ever been practised since
the beginning of time, when we take into account the
number of those who have been thus deceived, and their
intellectual eminence ; so that the history of mankind
for 1800 years will have been turned into a gigantic
mass of credulity, deception and falsehood. Thus the
duty of inquiry after truth in the abstract is made
the starting-point for the most extensive and thorough-
going rejection of concrete truth, and the most complete
reversal, in reality, of the duty which is professedly the
10 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
mainspring of the whole inquiry, which it is possible to
conceive. Let us examine this first principle a little
more closely. Is this duty of inquiry one without any
limit ? The duty of seeking for unknown truth must
imply the prior duty of holding fast some truth already
known ; but the duty of searching for unknown truth
and holding fast known truth both involve the same
condition, a power to discriminate between truth and
falsehood ; both in the case of known and unknown truth,
the duty to hold fast and to acquire implies two things,
a faculty of discernment by which we may distinguish
truth from falsehood, and a capacity of growth, by
which we may enlarge the sphere of our knowledge,
and contract the range of our ignorance. Thus, the
first principle, when developed, implies three great
germinant principles (i)That man is a moral creature,
subject to a law of duty, and bound to use aright the
faculties of discernment and investigation that God has
given. (2) That he is a knowing or intelligent creature,
who is capable of discriminating truth from falsehood.
(3) That he is a creature capable of indefinite progress,
of adding to his treasury of known truth, and of
detecting falsehood and separating it as dross from the
truth with which it had been mingled. What are the
conditions then under which the duty of inquiring after
truth in religion can alone take effect ? The truths to
be inquired into are the existence, the character and
attributes of the first Great Cause, the vast scheme of
universal Providence, and our own place in connection
with it, whether of hope of good to come, or fear of
future evil, or of duties and obligations towards God,
our fellow-men and ourselves.
There can be no duty in the case of one who is blind
to attempt to trace out all the mazy pathways and
jungles of that infinite forest the universe. The duty
THE DUTY OF INQUIRY. II
of inquiry can belong only to a moral being who has
not put out the eyes of his own soul, or had them
blinded by sensuality and vice, who has some firm
standing for his feet upon clear and definite truth,
and something like a pathway open before him in which
progress is possible. These conditions are all expressly
taught us by " the great Teacher" who is the Truth. " The
light of the body is the eye : if thine eye be single, thy
whole body shall be full of light." " While ye have
light, walk in the light, that ye may be children of
light." " He that walketh in darkness knoweth not
whither he goeth."
REAL AND FICTITIOUS INQUIRY AFTER TRUTH.
The duty of inquiry or search after religious truth,
or truth of any kind, is one of three connected duties
which cannot be sundered from each other. (i) The
first is the duty to retain and hold fast truth already
known. (2) The second is to discriminate that truth
from adherent falsehood, to reject all that is false and
untrue, as well as to retain the true. (3) The third
is to seek for the knowledge of truths before unknown.
The first is the protection against indefinite instability
and change, in which the master passion is the love of
novelty and not the love of truth ; the second is the
protection against indefinite credulity, building up a
heterogeneous compound of truth and falsehood ; the
third is the antidote to moral and intellectual stagnation.
Wherever there is life there must be growth ; the only
condition under which truth which we have, can be
retained as a real possession, is that of seeking to add
to it by the accession of further truth. " The well-
spring of wisdom is as a flowing brook," and he who
12 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
holds partial truth without seeking to add to it, changes
the flowing brook into a stagnant marsh, liable to be
covered with a thick slime of superstitious folly, and
to breed by its stagnation a moral pestilence. Whately
says : " It makes all the difference in the world whether
we place truth in the first place or in the second place ;"
but our author, in quoting this caution, has committed
the very fault against which it warns us.
Sir William Hamilton has said (after Lessing), that
if any one offered him truth with one hand, and in-
quiry after truth with the other, he would prefer the
second. By this one remark he forfeits his claim to
the title of a philosopher, and proclaims himself a mere
philo-athlete : a lover of intellectual exercise rather than
a lover of truth and wisdom. It is not surprising that
such a starting-point should lead to no better issue than
St Paul has described in his last Epistle, of those who
are " ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge
of the truth," and whom Cowper has pithily described as
" Dropping buckets into empty wells, and growing old in
drawing nothing up." What are the three prominent
features of this famous writer, I cannot call him a philoso-
pher after his own confession, though he has had a large
school of admiring disciples ? The first is a malignant
attack on the moral character of the leading heroes of
the great Reformation, which brought upon him the keen
and indignant rebuke of Archdeacon Hare. The second
is a persistent and bitter depreciation of Cambridge
University, the parent and nurse of the greatest intel-
lectual names of modern times. The third is a like
depreciation of mathematical study, the only field of
thought where pure, certain, and demonstrable truth
is widely accessible to men, without the help of Divine
revelation, and their previous extrication, at least in
part, from the deflecting power of moral evil within.
HAMILTONIAN PHILOSOPHY. 13
What have been the practical fruits of this preference
of the intellectual hunting-field to truth itself, of this
contempt for the chosen instruments of the Spirit of God
in the great work of extricating the church from its
Babylonian captivity to superstition, and of the University
of Bacon, Newton, Barrow, Hooker, Joseph Mede,
Thomas More and Cud worth ? this contempt of that
one field of thought where even in a world in which the
higher regions of truth have all been obscured and
clouded by the prevalence of moral evil, clear and cer-
tain truth has been and is still attained through succes-
sive generations of mankind, from Euclid onward, till
it has become a stately and imposing structure, the
basis of all concrete physical science and also an earnest
and pledge that truth and assured certainty are attainable
when sought in due order, and under the needful moral
conditions, in the higher fields of Ethical Science, Theo-
logy, and that Knowledge of the Most Holy, which is
the truest and highest wisdom ? What have been the
practical fruits of this pretentious " philosophy of the
unconditioned 1 ?" The only results I know of are first, a
principle which makes all real revelation of Himself by
the true God to finite creatures strictly impossible, and
fixes a great gulf across which no ray of real light can pass
between the most Holy God and the whole world of
His creatures; secondly, an exposition of one word in
the inscription on the Athenian altar, which contradicts
the whole passage where it occurs and the discourse of
St Paul himself, based upon it. A third result is a tissue
of contradictions with regard to the Absolute, the Infinite
and the Unknowable, made up of the wildest chimeras
that ever passed through the brain of man. That the
Unknowable may be defined as a genus containing two
species, the Absolute and the Infinite ; that all the Know*
1 See " Scripture Doctrine of Creation."
H SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
able lies as a mean between them ; that reason teaches
that one of these two extremes must exist, and leaves it
uncertain which, so that one of the two must be a synonym
for the only true God, and the other denote an impossible
mental fiction ; but that which of the two is a name of
a worthless and impossible fiction, and which a synonym
of the God of glory, the great and eternal Jehovah, must
remain for ever unknown. A fourth and last result,
is the logical invention of the quantification of the
predicate. The author's contempt for mathematics has
here avenged itself by leading him to corrupt his own
favourite science, with a strange addition, which would
put every process of reasoning into masquerade, en-
cumbering every statement of known truth with an
added alternative of something wholly unknown. The
real process of reasoning is thus confused and obscured.
Thus, if I say 'All philosophers are wise' this known
truth has for its shadowy attendant this alternative, either
' Philosophers are the only wise beings ' or, ' There are
some other wise beings besides them.' Or again, the
truth ' All men are mortal ' has the attendant shadow,
either, ' Men are the only mortal existences/ or, ' There
are some other mortal things besides.' The " quantifi-
cation of the predicate " requires us, in all our reasoning,
to cut the living child in two, and suspend the two
halves on the horns of this dilemma. A more retrogade
step from clear reasoning into confusion and mental
darkness, was never taken than in Sir W. Hamilton's
pseudo-mathematical improvement on the Logic of
Aristotle. While such have been the negative results
of Sir W. Hamilton's preference of intellectual gym-
nastics to truth itself, what fruits have accrued from
the study he loads with contempt in the University
which he has followed with persistent calumny ? It
has extended the boundaries of the Solar system nearly
HAMILTONIAN PHILOSOPHY. 15
to twice its former range, by the conjoint labours of
two of its Professors, one in the way of direct obser-
vation, and the other of mathematical reasoning and
analysis : the triumph is shared indeed with Berlin and
Paris, two other great centres of mathematical study and
experimental science. It has solved, by another mathe-
matician, the mysterious problem of the rings of Saturn,
near the former verge of the system. It has provided
at the head of our national Observatory, one who by
his double skill as an analyst and a practical observer,
has kept our country in the van of modern progress
in physical science, and to whom has been committed,
by European consent, the treatment of the latest transit
observations, to obtain from them the most probable esti-
mates of the actual magnitudes and distances of the Sun
and all the constituents of the Solar system. It has
popularized by him the results of the mathematical
reasoning of another eminent French analyst, and by
one of its own Professors has added to them fresh dis-
coveries, thus perfecting our knowledge of that agent
which forms the first step in the Divine record of
creation, and which is now becoming an instrument of
unexpected discoveries with regard to the motions,
the changes, and chemical constituents of the most distant
stars and of the mighty Sun himself. Such opposite
results naturally follow from the two opposite principles:
the love and pursuit of truth itself, and a professed
preference for mere intellectual gladiatorship. In that
arena the swordsman of to-day often falls by his own
weapon, and oftener still is the Retiarius of the morrow,
and falls at last ignominiously entangled in the meshes
of his own or his rival's metaphysical abstractions. In
the present case, the misfortune is that the Scotch
gladiator has found disciples among English divines,
who have striven to fling the net of these abstractions
1 6 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
over the whole range of Christian theology. Sir W.
Hamilton, though himself personally a Christian believer,
has thus, through his English disciple, provided a logical
pedestal for the most comprehensive and audacious
system of antichristian speculation which our age has
witnessed.
Inquiry after truth has two different forms, which
bear a close analogy to the Newtonian doctrine of cen-
tral forces, and the exploded Cartesian theory of vortices
or celestial whirlpools. The first of these explains the
planetary motions by central forces tending towards the
Sun, and the other by centrifugal forces in imaginary
revolving whirlpools of unformed matter, tending to carry
planets outward to the farthest verge of the system ;
so, when with a small stock of known truth we begin
an inquiry after all that is unknown, there are two
opposite ways in which that inquiry may be carried on.
The first is to begin with what we know, the certainties
already attained; to dwell upon them in thought till
their light becomes clearer and more distinct ; to deve-
lope their internal relations from the centre outward till
at the further edge they may begin to win a little on the
surrounding darkness, and the " sacred influence of light
shoots into the bosom of dim night a glimmering dawn."
For light is like life and has a generative power, " that
which maketh manifest is light." Partial truth carefully
and reverently studied tends, however slowly, to enlarge
its own domain. The kingdom of light and knowledge
is like that of a civilized empire, which, surrounded
by the kingdom of darkness, like a host of barbarous
and ever-conflicting tribes, by its unity and compacted
strength tends, even without any sinful ambition, to en-
large its own borders and annex some outlying districts
to its domain. There is an opposite course which may
NEWTONIAN AND CARTESIAN SEARCH FOR TRUTH. 17
be pursued under the deceptive title of inquiry into reli-
gious truth. It is that which neglects the modicum of
moral and religious truth already known, because it is
so small, and plunges itself at once with a centripetal
instinct into the vast and shoreless regions of the un-
known. Such is the course pursued by the author of
" Supernatural Religion." His knowledge at the outset,
the definite truth firmly and clearly held, is so small as
to approach to utter nescience. The few grains of truth
which he admits are nowhere plainly stated, but have
to be culled out with care from indirect and accidental
admissions. On the other hand, he launches at once
into the deepest abysses and mysteries of God's Provi-
dence, and of the statements of Scripture, and the super-
structures of theological systems, and the whole range
of Talmudical literature, the apocryphal forgeries of the
first and second centuries, arid the patristic literature of
the three first centuries. A slighter skiff and more
feebly manned never undertook to cross the Atlantic
Ocean : it is no wonder that the result should be an
entire shipwreck of what little faith he ever possessed.
But the effect is more mournful still, a deliberate and
prolonged effort to extinguish God's own lighthouse,
the one Pharos lighted by Him who is " the dayspring
from on high... to give light to those who are sitting
in darkness," to the myriads of voyagers across the
dark and troublous waves of this mortal life, and to
guide their steps to a haven of peace and light. The
guilt of one single murder, which shortens the span
of one little life, seems trivial compared with the guilt
of this prolonged effort, under the pretext of fulfilling
the duty of religious inquiry, to reverse and annul the
greatest gift of Divine goodness to a dark and sin-
disordered world ; and, after the true Light has dawned,
to shut up the present and all future generations of man-
is. 2
I 8 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
kind in Stygian darkness for evermore. Before any
statement of what little truth he does hold or believe,
he plunges at once into an attempted summary of the
contents of the Bible and of the Christian faith, made
up by selecting those elements which he thinks the most
unreasonable and incredible, and completing them with
gross misrepresentations of his own, and proceeds to
build up a kind of panoply of darkness from the in-
accurate statements or the conflicting views with regard
to the truths of revelation, and the evidence upon which
it rests, of a dozen divines of four or five diverging
types of thought or schools of theology. It is not sur-
prising, in such a mode of inquiry, that instead of light
winning upon the darkness, moral and intellectual con-
fusion win upon the scanty modicum of known or recog-
nized truth with which the voyage of discovery began.
To call such a process a fulfilment of the duty of
adequate inquiry into the truth of supernatural religion
is to confound opposites. It is rather like what I have
called elsewhere " a dip into chaos in order to guess
out the nature of the coming world."
There are three elements which seem to make up the
modicum of faith or unbelief with which the anonymous
author sets out on his inquiry. He combines the fea-
tures of the ancient Jewish Sadducee and the modern
Gentile agnostic or negative atheist. To these two
first principles of his negative creed he adds a third,
the predicted doctrine of the scoffers of the last times,
the unalterable and necessary constancy of the laws or
forces of Nature, as incapable of any interruption from
any source whatever. He does not believe in angel,
demon or spirit of any kind, or in a resurrection, or a
life to come, or in a Personal God, or in anything but
REAL AND FICTITIOUS SEARCH FOR TRUTH. 19
the unalterable continuance of things seen and temporal,
the world as limited by the experience of men between
the cradle and the grave for the last 2000 years ; the
Non-existence of God and the Omnipotence of Death.
With such a starting-point he can hardly be left in
deeper darkness at the end of his crusade against Chris-
tianity than he was in at its commencement. His creed
as a Sadducee may be seen in the 150 pages, chh.
in. vi., which he devotes to the task of defaming the
Apostles and the first Christians as wholly incompetent
witnesses to the leading facts of the Gospel history.
His proof of this incompetence of the Apostles as wit-
nesses is, in one word, that they were not Sadducees,
and did believe in the resurrection of the dead, and in
the existence of angels and demons. He ascribes to
them, on this negative ground, all the superstitions which
he can find in the Book of Tobit, the Book of Enoch,
and the Jewish Talmud and Targums, and completes
the list with various theories with regard to the stars,
demons, and magic, to be found in the writings of the
Fathers. The Apostles and first disciples are credited
at once, because they were not Sadducees, with the
whole farrago of Jewish fables and superstitions in these
apocryphal books or Targums. On this sole ground,
that the Apostles were not Sadducees, and did believe
that the resurrection of the dead was possible by the
power of God, he sets them down as witnesses wholly
incompetent to report whether they had seen, and con-
versed and eaten and drunk with the Lord forty days
after His crucifixion. Because they had more faith in
the express words of the Lord of glory, and in their own
experience when they returned from their first mission,
" Lord, even the spirits are subject unto us through Thy
name," than in the creed of the ancient or modern Sad-
ducee, we are told there is every reason for
2 2
2O SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
" Concluding with certainty that their ignorance of natural laws,
their proneness to superstition, their love of the marvellous, and their
extreme religious excitement " would make them utterly untrustworthy,
"and peculiarly liable to incorrectness in their observation of phe-
nomena, and to error in the inferences drawn from them." P. 92.
He quotes from Dean Milman and the elder Lightfoot
to prove that " the nation of the Jews were given to
magical arts beyond measure, and to an easiness of
believing all manner of delusions, and that it is dispu-
table whether the nation were more mad with super-
stition in matters of religion, or with superstition in
curious arts." The whole mass of opinions in the
Talmud, in later Christian forgeries like the Book of
Enoch, and the writings of the early Fathers, the fable
of the Phoenix, and the remarks of Lactantius on the
Antipodes, are shoaled together to convict the Apostles
and first disciples of gross superstition and extreme
credulity, though there is no proof or sign whatever of
their sharing in those superstitious follies, and they have
even given us an express warning against them. The
author, while he charges the whole Christian Church and
Christ Himself, his own future Judge, with gross supersti-
tion, because of their belief in angels, spirits and demons,
seems not aware that in that very act he convicts -him-
self of the worst extreme of presumption. His little
knowledge, being limited to the experience of a few
hundred years on the surface of one little planet, he
dogmatizes with regard to the whole range of the
universe as if he were omniscient, and treats what lies
beyond the petty range of his own experience as if it
were "non-existent, and as if to believe anything on the
very highest authority, beyond that limit, were gross and
culpable credulity.
The writer's spiritual parentage is not that of the
old Jewish Sadducee alone, but of a modern Gentile
REAL AND FICTITIOUS SEARCH FOR TRUTH. 21
Agnostic. He borrows from modern Christian divines
these maxims that the Being of God as a personal
conscious Agent is a pure assumption without any evi-
dence, and that nature bears no witness to the exist-
ence of an Omnipotent Supreme Being, and thus that
the whole evidence of revelation is a vicious circle left
suspended in space, revelation resting on miracles, and
miracles resting on revelation. For this view he quotes
Dr Mozley's Bampton Lectures. He says that Butler,
Paley and all other Divines have equally been obliged
to commence with the same assumption. He praises
the candour of Dr Mozley, for honestly admitting the
difficulty of the case. He adds that the
"Conception of the Deity proposed by theologians must be pro-
nounced irrational and derogatory to the wisdom and perfections which
we recognize in the invariable course of nature."
He adopts the doctrine from Dean Mansel and Sir W.
Hamilton that
"The class of phenomena which requires that kind of cause we
denominate a Deity is exclusively given in the phenomena of mind,
and that the phenomena of matter taken by themselves do not warrant
any inference as to the existence of a God."
He adds from Spinoza that
" Miracles, as contrary to the order of nature, should rather lead us
to doubt the existence of God."
His final conclusion is that
" Both the supernatural religion and its supernatural evidence labour
in common under the fatal disability of being antecedently incredible."
He borrows further from Dr Irons the rule that
"We are not bound to believe in any miracle related in the Old
Testament which has not been confirmed by the direct reference to
it of Jesus. The doctor abandons altogether the popular theory that
the Bible and the doctrines supposed to be derived from it can be
established by literary evidence; thus cutting away all solid ground,
he attempts to stand upon nothing in the shape of the vague feeling
22 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
that the records are supernatural." "His admissions," the writer
continues, "as to the insufficiency of the evidence are creditable to
his honesty as a scholar, but his conclusion is simply lame and im-
potent ! " " This he denies to be an admission to which he is reluc-
tantly driven, and explains it as a vindication of the only possible
grounds on which revelation can rest." Pp. 65, 66. The writer adds
the comment, "After shewing revelation to be wholly unsupported
by anything worthy of the name of evidence, he affirms the religion
and the book to be supernatural because he feels they are so. No
one who does not feel as he does receives much help from the theory
of Dr Irons."
With such lamentable surrenders of the cause of Christ,
the Gospel, and the Bible, on the part of their professed
champions and defenders, can it be surprising that in-
fidelity should advance with rapid and gigantic strides ?
This Agnostic theory, borrowed from the Hamiltonian
metaphysics, then taken up by Dean Mansel, and trans-
ferred from both to the pages of Herbert Spencer, to
form an adequate logical basis for a massive pyramid
of utter unbelief, is then made the ground of a system
of thought the most antithetic to the whole range of
religion, natural and revealed, which has ever appeared.
And accepted in patches, and shreds, even by many who
have shrunk from the doctrine of utter darkness to
which it logically tends, it has spread like a thick and
blighting fog over the whole range of Christian theology.
The thesis of " Supernatural Religion" as a whole may
be summed up in these four propositions, (i) That Christ-
ianity as a supernatural revelation consists of a series of
doctrines which are antecedently incredible, and contrary
to reason. He gives a summary of them in four pages to
prove this indictment. (2) That the miracles or super-
natural facts by which it is alleged to be proved are them-
selves unreal and impossible, and of such antecedent in-
credibility as hardly any conceivable amount of evidence
could overcome. (3) That the Apostles and the first
REAL AND FICTITIOUS SEARCH FOR TRUTH. 23
Christians are among the most incompetent of witnesses,
as belonging to an age and nation peculiarly credulous,
ignorant of natural laws and steeped in the grossest
superstition. (4) That in the New Testament we have
not even the testimony of these incompetent witnesses ;
that the Gospels are unauthentic memoirs, of the exist-
ence of which before the close of the second century
there is no evidence whatever; so that they are probably
forgeries of about that date by unknown parties, who
contrived to foist them off and get them accepted by the
whole Church as the writings of four eye-witnesses, two
of them Apostles, and the two others companions of
the Apostles. The 900 pages, in which these latter
propositions are unfolded, would require a lifetime, to
analyse, dissect and refute the multifarious mass of error
and misrepresentation of which they consist. In the
" Horae Evangelicae " I have discussed the same subject.
If life be spared I shall hope to discuss it more fully,
and to vindicate afresh the authenticity, the consistency,
the historical reality, the internal harmonies, the cumu-
lative evidences of truth and wisdom, and the divine
authority of the four Gospels. In the present work I
can deal only with the hundred pages of the Book which
unfold the two first propositions. I have already refuted
by anticipation all the main elements of the writer's
argument in more than a hundred pages of discussion of
the same subject in the " Bible and Modern Thought,"
and in a supplement to " Paley's Evidences." But the
forms and the combinations under which falsehood may
be presented are endless, and whatever there is of novelty
in the writer's reasoning is due chiefly, to the confusion
of thought or baseless concessions of Christian Divines,
whose words he presses into the service of his own
sceptical argument.
The first condition for the genuine fulfilment of the
24 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
duty of inquiry into religious truth is to hold fast all
truth already known and received. But the present
writer seems precluded from satisfying this condition of
the duty he recognizes, by the fact that he does not
seem at the outset to accept any religious or moral truth
whatever. His first principles are thus described by
Him whom he styles "the great Teacher," or the
Apostles whom He commissioned to proclaim His mes-
sage to the world. The first is the doctrine of the
Sadducees, "who say that there is no resurrection,
neither angel nor spirit;'' on which Christ gives the
brief comment, " Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures,
nor the power of God." The next is the Agnostic creed,
that the existence of God is a mere assumption, resting
on no evidence whatever. This is briefly described by
the Psalmist, " The fool hath said in his heart, There is
no God ; the Lord looked down from heaven to see if
there were any that did understand and seek God,"...
" Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge they
call not upon the Lord." The same appeal is repeated
in another form, " Understand, ye brutish among the
people ; ye fools, when will ye be wise ? He that planted
the ear, shall He not hear ; He that formed the eye, shall
He not see ? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall
not He know ?" Ps. xciv. The great Apostle of the
Gentiles teaches the same truth in a more direct and
dogmatic form. " The wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against the ungodliness of men who hold down
(or stifle) the truth in unrighteousness : for the invisible
things of God," he says, " from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse." He goes on to denounce the gross
folly as well as the guilt of their unbelief. "When they
knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were
REAL AND FICTITIOUS SEARCH FOR TRUTH. 25
thankful ; but became vain in their imaginations and
their foolish heart was darkened." He then states the
solemn judgment that ensued on their folly. " Even as
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God
gave them over to an undiscerning mind." The same
Apostle, as God's ambassador, gives further this solemn
prophecy, that the Lord Jesus will hereafter "be revealed
from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire tak-
ing vengeance upon them that know not God." Such is
the real character, and the predicted issue of two of the
main principles of unbelief with which the writer begins
his inquiry. His third main principle, the unalterable
constancy of the course of physical change deduced from
experience, free from all intervention of a Supreme Law-
giver, has also been the subject of an express prediction
by another Apostle. " Knowing this first, that there shall
come in the last days scoffers 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." " This they willingly are ignorant of,
that by the word of God the heavens were of old
but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the
same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against
a day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." He
then cautions the Church long beforehand, " Beloved,
beware lest ye also, being led away by the delusion of
the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness ; " and his
further charge is a full antithesis to the Agnostic theory,
" Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ."
The old maxim of philosophy, "Ex nihilo nihil
fit" finds a fresh illustration in the present work. The
starting-point being an absolute blank, a state of utter
religious nescience, there seems no nucleus of truth to
which accessions may be made, by accretions, as in all
26 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
inquiry after truth which is real and genuine. The
long inquiry of a thousand pages begins with bare nega-
tions, and ends exactly where it began. The whole
is a dreary waste of darkness and confusion. The
only ray of light I can detect in the work from first to
last is the implied admission at the outset that man is a
moral being, and lies under a moral obligation to search
after truth not yet attained, implying of course the two
closely related duties, to hold fast and walk in the light
of truth already known, and to reject and put away all
falsehood either already accepted, or that solicits his ac-
ceptance in the course of that inquiry. But this first
implied truth remains like an unsprung seed, without
any attempt to trace out its related truths or ulterior
consequences. Thus at page 41 he says, that he will
pass over Dr Mozley's reference to the laws of moral
being as " involving questions too intricate for treatment
and alien from the argument." Had the author held
fast this one truth, he would have been kept from the
contemptuous disparagement of the statements he after-
wards quotes from Archbishop Trench, Professor Mozley,
and Dr Heurtley, as to the moral world higher than the
physical, and a region of moral laws higher than physical
sequence and uniformity, which lies at the basis of the
whole inquiry ; but neglecting to unfold and develope
the little morsel of truth he does recognize, and clinging
with passive credulity to the giant falsehoods with which
he starts, he wanders on through a thousand pages of
almost unmitigated darkness and delusion.
CHAPTER II.
THE AUTHOR'S STATEMENT OF THE OBJECT
OF HIS WORK.
" There can be no more urgent problem for humanity to solve than
the question : Is Christianity a supernatural Divine Revelation or not ?
To this we may demand a clear and decisive answer. The evidence
must be of no uncertain character which can warrant our abandoning
the guidance of Reason, and blindly accepting doctrines which, if not
supernatural truths, must be rejected by the human intellect as mon-
strous delusions. We propose in this work to seek a conclusive answer
to this momentous question."... "To no earnest mind can such inquiry
be otherwise than a serious and often a painful task, but, dismissing
preconceived ideas and preferences derived from habit and education,
and seeking only the Truth, and holding it, whatever it may be, to be
the only object worthy of desire, or capable of satisfying a rational mind,
the quest cannot but end in peace and satisfaction... the path is thorny
indeed, although it must still be faithfully trodden." Pp. xci xcviii.
THE Author in commencing his work of a thousand
pages, of which the object is to prove Christianity a mere
illusion, opposed to reason and devoid of all evidence,
has to meet at the outset a very grave objection. The
faith which he so describes is held at the present day by
about two hundred millions of men, including the most
civilized, developed, and powerful nations. One hundred
millions at least, including the foremost empire of the
world, have held the same faith, in one form or other,
throughout fifteen centuries of past time. The moral pre-
sumption that all these have not accepted a very unrea-
sonable creed without any evidence worthy of the name,
is plainly extreme. The author endeavours to remove
this insuperable prejudice against his conclusions by the
28 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
assumption that all these accepted it without thought,
inquiry, or serious reflection, under the bias of their
birth and education alone. It is certainly true of a
very large proportion, that their faith has been accepted
as a whole, without any separate inquiry into the
reasonableness of each part, or the evidence upon which
that particular part reposes. Let us consider the question
more in detail. Three-fourths of the whole number
belong to the Greek or the Latin Churches, or main
sects separated from them, or those members of the
Anglican Church who have renounced the name of
Protestants. Now all of these have formally renounced
the principle of free inquiry, or the exercise of private
judgment on each part of the faith, and have replaced
it by that of deference to Church authority. They differ
only as to the particular authority to which this deference
is due. Their testimony then, however large the amount
of it, has little weight to confirm particular doctrines or
fragments of the faith, which they have only received
in gross along with the rest. But it by no means follows
that their authority has no moral weight whatever.
The case may be compared to that of miners in the
gold field, when they lay aside certain nuggets among
their stores, because they are convinced from their
appearance they contain so much gold that they will
more than repay the toil of a later analysis. When
the sceptic dilates on what he thinks the unreasonable-
ness and lack of evidence of many parts of the Christian
religion, and thinks that if tried by pure reason alone,
they must be held to be monstrous delusions, he does
not observe that in proportion as he darkens the colours
of his indictment, he increases the force of the moral
presumption in favour of those main truths and elements
of the faith, the importance of which, and the evidence
with which they commend themselves both to the
THE OBJECT OF THE WORK. 2Q
reason and the conscience, have made hundreds of
millions, including the most intelligent of the human
race, through successive generations, willing to receive
the whole mingled mass, rather than weaken their hold
on those great fundamental verities. What are those
doctrines the importance of which, their moral attrac-
tiveness, or the strong presumption in favour of their
truth, has made this immense multitude of human beings
cling to Christianity as a whole, in spite of all the
objections or difficulties which may seem to press
against certain parts of the composite message ? They
are mainly these, (i) The existence of God, the con-
scious, intelligent, and benevolent Author of the Uni-
verse. (2) Divine Providence. That the world is not
the sport of chance, nor subject to blind fate, but
governed and guided by a powerful and good Intelli-
gence. (3) The beauty and excellency of the moral
character of Christ, and of some of the leading precepts
of the Gospel. (4) The doctrine of Immortality, or a
life after death, the happiness or unhappiness of which
is closely connected with the conduct of men in the
present life. (5) The doctrine of Divine mercy, or a
message of grace and forgiveness to man as guilty and
sinful, and proffered terms of restoration to the Divine
favour. (6) The doctrine of judgment to come, in which
God will bring every work into judgment, whether it
be good or evil. (7) The doctrine that the whole course
of Providence is so ordered that in the fulness of time
there will be a glorious issue worthy of the All-wise
God, of whom are all things, and to whom are all things.
The preciousness and excellence of these truths out-
weighing doubts, difficulties and perplexities as to other
elements included in the Scriptures, or in the various
forms of ecclesiastical Christianity, can alone account
for the tenacity with which the Christian faith has been
30 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
held and retained by hundreds of millions of intelligent
men through successive generations. The more the
sceptic exaggerates the accessory difficulties of the
Creed, and depreciates the direct evidence in its favour,
the more does he confirm, in spite of himself, the
preciousness and immense importance of these central
truths, which have led millions on millions, even of those
who have neglected a minute analysis, to lay it up among
their choicest treasures.
There are from thirty to fifty millions of Christians
however, who, instead of accepting the principle of im-
plicit faith as a duty, and rejecting inquiry as a sin,
hold the very reverse. This is the nominal creed of
all Protestants, but probably of these there are not
more than one in ten whose practice corresponds with
their theory, and who really submit every part of
the faith to a serious personal inquiry. In the others,
either worldliness or religious indifference, or intellectual
torpor, or the passive acceptance of some ecclesiastical
creed, or current of religious thought, in the midst
of which they have been trained, transfers them really
to the large class whose faith is an implicit faith in
Christian doctrine as a whole, in one or other of its
many corporate forms, and not the result in detail,
of personal investigation and inquiry. The other
nine-tenths, in common with all the Christians of
the Greek and Roman churches, contribute a general
evidence of the preciousness and importance of those
great central truths of the Bible, for the sake of which
they are willing, at least in outward profession, to believe
all the rest. But there are left some millions at least
in every age, from Constantine until now, who hold
it a duty, in questions of such supreme importance,
to search and inquire for themselves, and to receive
nothing into the citadel of their understanding, which
THE OBJECT OF THE WORK. 31
they do not believe in their inmost hearts to be sus-
tained by sufficient and reasonable evidence, whether
that of natural reason or of supernatural revelation.
Against these, we have to place the negative presump-
tion from some hundreds of thousands of sceptics, who
profess after inquiry to have discovered the emptiness
of the claims of Christianity to be a supernatural
message from God, and convince themselves that there
is no evidence of reason, even in favour of what are
called the doctrines of natural religion. The author, in
his Introduction, after dismissing as worthless the moral
presumption from the faith of hundreds of millions of
Christians through successive generations as simply
" due to preconceived ideas, and preferences derived
from habit and education/' and complaining of the
" general eclipse of faith," and blaming the uneasy
position of so many Christians in these days, who pro-
fess to retain their faith in the Gospel as a supernatural
message, and " still clip and prune its doctrines down
to the standard of human reason/' adds,
" The mass of intelligent men in England are halting between two
opinions, standing in what seems to us the most unsatisfactory position
conceivable : they abandon, in deference to the current of popular
opinion, some of the most central doctrines of Christianity, and try to
spiritualize or dilute the rest into a form which does not shock their
reason."
He claims for his own work, that it is the result of
" Many years of inquiry, undertaken for the regulation of personal
belief, and as a contribution towards the establishment of truth in the
minds of others who are seeking for it ... Seeking only the truth and
holding it, whatever it may be, as the only object worthy of desire."
The same is the frequent profession of " Free-thinkers,"
who are accustomed to claim a thousandfold weight for
their own conclusions, as conducted without bias and
32 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
with an honest search for truth alone. Now what are
the signs of this freedom from bias in the present case ?
The author begins his task as a Sadducee, who believes
neither resurrection to be possible, nor angel or spirit
to exist, that a Supernatural Revelation from God is
either impossible or incredible, and that the works of
Nature furnish no presumption whatever for the existence
of God as a personal and conscious Intelligence. To
these he adds the further doctrine that the course of
Nature, as known by the experience of the last thousand
years is fixed, necessary and invariable ; can never have
suffered a change or interruption in past time, nor suffer
such an interruption in the eternity to come. With
these doctrines he starts, and only adds to them at the
close, the high probability that the Apostles were
credulous and superstitious simpletons, wholly unworthy
of credit, if we were quite sure that we had the actual
words of their testimony ; and that the Gospels are most
probably forgeries of four unknown writers, about the
close of the second century, and therefore almost
wholly worthless as historical testimony to the sayings
and works of the Lord Jesus. Here then, there is not
the slightest trace of that unbiassed inquiry, " dismissing
preconceived ideas," the want of which the writer
imputes to hundreds of millions of Christian men, as
depriving their faith of all moral weight. The only
spark of truth recognized, that man is a moral being,
who has a duty to fulfil, remains wholly undeveloped
through a thousand pages, and when once forced upon his
notice by a quotation from Dr Mozley, he coolly passes
over it, as involving " questions too intricate for treat-
ment, and alien from the argument." The falsehoods
with which he sets out, remain undisturbed and un-
questioned from first to last : as if they were self-evident
and unquestionable truths.
OBJECT OF THE WORK. 33
The duty of searching after unknown truth can only
be satisfied under two conditions ; first, to have some
small amount of known and certain truth from which
to start, and next, to proceed from this centre to
develope and unfold what is already known, so as to
reclaim some part from the outer darkness beyond. The
author wholly fails to satisfy both these conditions ; his
starting-point is a triad of untested falsehoods which
remain in undisturbed supremacy to the end of the work.
He plunges at once into the region of darkness, the wide
range of talmudical and patristical superstitions, and
the varied forgeries as well as genuine writings of the
three first centuries, and a chaos of the critical specula-
tions of the modern Sadducees of Germany. Thus,
professing to " seek only the truth, and hold it, as the
only object worthy of desire," he proceeds to answer the
question of Pilate, " What is truth ?" very much as Pilate
himself answered it, when he gave up the Lord of
glory, who is Himself the Truth, to be exposed to the
scorn and hate of the Jewish rabble on the cross, be-
tween two malefactors. He comes practically to the
conclusion that the " great Teacher" Himself, and the
Apostles who were His ambassadors to the world, were
either most culpable impostors, or amongst the most
blind, superstitious, credulous and unreasoning of men,
who never once caught a glimpse of the three doctrines
which are the alpha and omega of his own inquiry.
By calling this an unbiassed search for truth only, he
brings himself under that solemn sentence of the prophet,
" Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that
put darkness for light and light for darkness."
B.
CHAPTER III.
PROTESTANT FAITH IN CONTRAST WITH FREE-THINKING.
THE name Protestant has been rejected by many in
our days on the ground that it expresses a mere nega-
tion. This is a great and grievous error. Protest-
antism is simply submission to that Divine command,
" Prove all things hold fast that which is good." It
is opposed alike to two extremes, an implicit and
traditional faith which rests only on Church authority,
which swallows blindly whatever ecclesiastical teachers
put into its mouth, neglecting the spirit of Christ's
command, " Call no man your father upon the earth,
neither be ye called master, for one is your master,
even Christ." The other extreme is that free handling
of religious and moral truth, of which the " Essays
and Reviews" were a specimen, which does not " hold
fast that which is good," or recognize any clear defi-
nite principles of truth to be first believed, and work
out from these to the region beyond, but counts it the
condition of free inquiry to have the mind like a sheet
of blank paper, ready to receive any inscription whatever
that may be traced upon it. Honest inquiry implies a
capacity in those by whom it is made to apprehend the
force of evidence, and to discriminate between truth and
falsehood. It does not imply a state of entire equilibrium
and strict indifference. Even among philosophers and
metaphysicians, since their speculations began, there has
PROTESTANT FAITH IN CONTRAST WITH FREE-THINKING. 35
never been a case of pure, abstract, colourless indiffer-
ence to the truth or falsehood of Christianity ; the words
of Christ make no exception for philosophers or sceptics
any more than for Divines. "He that is not for me is
against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth
abroad." Neutrality is here strictly impossible. He
who begins an inquiry with no bias in favour of the
Gospel, will certainly have a strong bias against it.
The first requisite of honest inquiry is to take stock of
our actual convictions, to sift them in turn, to hold fast
those which are good, and to reject those, however long
we may have held them, and whatever authorities we
may quote in their favour, which inquiry discovers to
have no sure evidence or firm foundation. The genuine
Protestant is he who acts on this principle, and obeys
this Divine command. The same inquiry which may
relax his hold on more disputable and doubtful parts
of his actual faith, will be sure to strengthen and
confirm it on those parts which are true and sound.
Truth shines by a light of its own, only that light is
obscured and clouded as soon as it is mingled with false-
hood. The Christian acts as a disciple of Him who is
the Truth, in retaining every particle of truth, moral,
religious, or natural, which he already holds, and in
rejecting detected falsehood of every kind. In this work
he is aided by a threefold promise, "If any man be will-
ing to do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine
whether it be true." "If thine eye be single, thy whole
body shall be full of light." (2) "Then shall we know
if we follow on to know the Lord." (3) " To him that
hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundance;"
and "he that seeketh shall find." To be able to discern
and retain old truth, and to add to it fresh truth, is the
promise of Christ to every faithful disciple, " Every
scribe instructed unto the kingdom of
36 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
unto a householder who bringeth forth out of his treasure
things new and old," and the parting command of the
Apostle is, " Grow in grace and in the knowledge of the
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The revealed descrip-
tion of the Scriptures is this, " The words of the Lord
are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times." "Thy word is very pure," and
"every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for
ever." No bound is set to the growing light and
increasing knowledge of the Name and Character of
God, of the excellency of His word, and the grandeur
and wisdom of His counsels of Redemption and
Providence, which the Christian may gain by the per-
severing study of those Divine oracles, which are the
most precious gift of God the Holy Ghost to the suc-
cessive generations of mankind. We have no right to
expect indeed that all doubts and darkness shall dis-
appear until the coming Day-star shall arise. The light
shines here in a dark place, but to those who study and
reverently search into the Scriptures of truth, it will
continue to shine more and more, until at length the
"day shall dawn and the Day-star arise in their hearts."
My own experience for forty years has been, that grow-
ing study has more and more convinced me of the
perfect truthfulness of those canonical Scriptures which
are called in the Articles, " God's word written ;" in the
Ordination Service, " God's most holy word ; " which
many, even amongst the defenders of the faith, in the
present day, are making it a part of their new creed to
lower to the level reached by the words of all good
and honest men, that is, a mixture of Divine truth
and human falsehood, in which the first predominates.
But Dr Westcott's "Introduction to the Gospels" and
Bp Ellicott's " Lectures on the Life of Christ " and
Bp Wordsworth's "Commentary on the New Testament"
PROTESTANT FAITH IN CONTRAST WITH FREE-THINKING. 37
are some out of many faithful testimonies which still
remain to the doctrine of the entire truthfulness of the
Gospels and the Canonical Scriptures. My own experi-
ence has been at every step, while unlearning some
secondary misinterpretations, or faulty human inferences
attaching themselves to, and obscuring the great truths
of Revelation, that fresh harmonies of truth have been
discovered lying either just below the surface, or deeper
in the mines of Scripture, for the solution of doubts and
difficulties which had once been perplexing. Thus year
by year a more harmonious apprehension of the great
truths and doctrines revealed, has been attained, and a
clearer conviction of the authenticity, and manifold his-
torical relations, of those lively oracles in which they are
revealed. The opposite experience of the author of
"Supernatural Religion" setting out in the deep shadows
of a modern sceptical philosophy, to end in a darkness
where even the few remaining stars seem to be blotted
out, impresses me with a feeling of profound pity, not
unmixed with indignation.
CHAPTER IV.
REASON AND SUPERNATURAL REVELATION,
THE author in his first chapter constructs an apparent
puzzle by combining three different statements of Christian
divines, with regard to the relation between reason and
the contents of a Divine Revelation, (i) He quotes
from Dr Mozley, Dean Mansel, Dr Heurtley, Paley,
Bp Butler, and J. H. Newman to shew that miracles
and prophecy are the natural and necessary credentials of
a Supernatural-Revelation. This truth, confirmed by the
testimony of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost,
and the preaching of the Apostles, is only contravened
(so far as I know) by the Bampton Lecturer of 1877,
who strives to refute Dr Mozley's true statement on this
head. Again, he quotes Archbishop Trench, Dr Mozley,
and Dr Newman, and the express words of Scripture
to shew that there may be false as well as true miracles,
or Satanic as well as Divine; so that miraculous evidence
alone would not suffice to guarantee a message as really
Divine. He quotes several authors to establish a third
principle, that the proper subject of supernatural revela-
tion is to impart truths beyond the range of human
reason, which the human intellect could not otherwise
have discovered ; that " no one would maintain a system
discoverable by reason to have been supernaturally com-
municated." The only truths proper to such a revelation
are by the hypothesis "beyond our reason." Thus any
REASON AND SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. 39
appeal to reason, or the moral sense, to confirm the divine
origin of a message which signs and wonders are insuffi-
cient to prove, he infers to be precluded and impossible ;
for internal evidence
" is itself an appeal to reason, but human reason cannot, in the nature
of the case, prove that which by the very hypothesis lies beyond human
reason." Therefore it follows "that no doctrine which lies beyond
reason, and requires the attestation of miracles, can possibly afford
that indication of the source and reality of miracles which is necessary
to endow them with evidential value."
He quotes both Newman and Mozley to shew that they
recognize the difficulty and do not remove it. He says
further, that
" to argue, as some theologians do, that the ambiguity of their testi-
mony is deliberately intended as a trial of our faith, is absurd, for
reason being unable to judge of the nature either of supernatural fact
or doctrine, it would be mere folly and injustice to submit to such a
test, being wholly incapable of sustaining it." Pp. 3 1 7.
Here, two clear and certain truths of Scripture, con-
firmed by a general consent of Christian divines, are
joined with a statement so ambiguous, as without fuller
explication, to involve the whole subject in hopeless
confusion. Let us analyze this statement, that super-
natural Revelation, in its own nature, is solely of truths
undiscoverable by reason and outside its range. In what
sense is our knowledge of the course of nature, and of
common things, due to a process of reasoning ? how far is
it due to the evidence of our senses, personal experience,
and human testimony ? Our knowledge of no one being
or circumstance around us is due to pure reason alone ;
for this would require us to know it and learn it as a
corollary and consequence from our own knowledge
a priori of the scheme of the universe. What are the
means by which we attain our limited knowledge of the
course of nature ? First, direct consciousness with regard
4O SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
to our own existence, thoughts, and actions ; next, direct
observation with regard to the existence and actings, or
position and changes, of a certain number of human
beings, plants and animals, and material objects imme-
diately around us ; thirdly, the extension of this know-
ledge by the credible testimony of competent witnesses
to a larger range of men, animals, plants, and places
which we have never seen or visited ; fourthly, the ex-
tension of this from the present living generation to two
or three past generations, with the same varieties of
immediate, indirect, and more remote testimony. This
sixfold variety of evidence is completed, and enlarged
further, by written records of various kinds, by which
evidence of more remote events may be transmitted and
preserved from utter oblivion. Our knowledge, then, of
the world around us, and of the course of nature, is simply
the summation of these various particulars, of which only
a small part is obtained from inward consciousness and
from personal experience, and nearly the whole from
direct or indirect testimony of our fellow men, either of
the present or of past generations. The chief office of
reason is to sum up the information thus gained with
regard to each material object, plant, animal and human
being, or each particular part of the earth's surface acces-
sible to the foot of man. Besides this knowledge of
individual beings, or places, or successive changes, there
are a few further conclusions which reason is able to
deduce from comparison of these with each other. None
of these of course can have a higher evidence of reason
than the elements of which they are composed. This
loose classification gives birth to maxims which are
called "laws of nature" in a loose and popular sense,
such as these: That water will extinguish flame; that
water may be evaporated by fire and disappear; that it
may be frozen by cold and turned to ice ; that solid
REASON AND SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. 41
lumps of any kind of matter will fall to the ground if not
supported ; that a piece of gold is heavier than an equal
bulk of lead, or iron, and that an iron axe if not sustained
will sink in water. Another large class of such laws
depend on the two great sets of changes, the succession
of light and darkness, of day and night, and the circuit
of the seasons, summer, autumn, winter and spring. All
these so-called laws of nature are a summation of specific
facts derived from the experience, direct and indirect,
of ourselves and our fellow men. This experience ex-
cludes of course all future time, and all past time except
about two thousand years, and even within these limits
it is inferential, constructive and liable to many illusions,
except for one century alone, that is, the furthest range of
the living generation of mankind. It is confined also in
place to the surface of our own planet, and to a depth
of one or two miles below that surface, with some scanty
information, derived from transient experiences alone,
with regard to the whole range of the visible universe
beyond. These individual men, plants, and animals,
coming within the range of observation by their birth
and successive generation, pass out of the range of
human observation by death and dissolution, at the other
limit. Thus the whole range of our experimental know-
ledge is shut in between the cradle and the grave. The
problem then of reason under a scheme of natural reli-
gion, apart from supernatural revelation, is to construct
a consistent and satisfactory theory to account for the
facts of human experience as a whole. The first and
simplest, that the universe has been created by a self-
existent Being, of perfect wisdom and goodness, is met
at once by the difficulty that the work of production is
everywhere followed by death and dissolution ; that the
generations of mankind appear and disappear like a
passing dream, and that not only the benefits, pleasures,
42 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
and enjoyments of life, but strife, discord, conflict,
violence, wrong and crime, with their fruits of suffering,
bloodshed, and desolation, go on in almost undiminished
current as far back as human experience extends.
Hence reason is forced to make an uneasy choice
amongst seven or eight different alternatives. The
first is that of pure Monotheism, the dominion of a good
and wise Creator, leaving unexplained the long and
fearful prevalence of moral evil and physical suffering.
(2) The second is a theory of despair, which gives up the
problem as inscrutable, and denies that there is any evi-
dence at all for a good Creator distinct from the universe,
in consequence of the dark and fearful prevalence of moral
and physical evil. (3) The third is a doctrine of confusion,
which denies any contrast between the self-existent
Creator and the totality of existent things, which makes
God and the universe the same, an immense total includ-
ing all conceivable contrasts and disparities of Being,
the Pan of old heathen mythology, fitly symbolized by
a hideous and misshapen Satyr. (4) A fourth is Fetich-
ism or Polytheism, which recognizes some supernatural
power concealed behind, or included in, each natural
object, or class of natural objects, which sacrifices unity,
but retains diversity, and indulges the deep instinct of
mystery, by peopling each class of objects with its own
divinities, nymphs of the woods, of the rivers, and of
the mountains, the gnomes of the ocean depth, and
sportive, fairy-like denizens of the upper air or ether.
(5) Fifthly, the Manichean doctrine, which cuts the knot
reason fails to untie, by assuming two rival or balanced
powers of Good and Evil, contending long for the
mastery through successive ages. This may assume
various forms, from that which recognizes a strict
equality and co-eternity of these two powers, through
many stages of subordination of the destructive Siva or
REASON AND SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. 43
Demon, to the good and beneficent Power. Two other
hypotheses may be included : (6) The sixth, which
recognizes the strict and unlimited Omnipotence of the
Creator, but ascribes to Him a very imperfect and
limited goodness, with some predominence only of a
benevolent over a malevolent disposition. (7) A seventh
variety is that which recognizes a Creator of pure and
perfect benevolence, but of limited and imperfect power,
who is thwarted and defeated in His kindly intentions
either by rival and malignant powers, or by the intract-
able nature of the materials and the beings with which
He has to deal. To these seven, we may add a last,
and perhaps the worst : the doctrine of simple Fate ;
blind, dark, fatal necessity. The difficulty then, of this
grand problem, proposed to the reason of man, is no
result of Christianity or the special revelations of the
Bible. The Bible has certainly not created the diffi-
culties of the problem ; the only reasonable charge that
can be brought against it, is that it has failed to remove
them, and throw full light upon the darkness.
What are the conclusions of natural reason in the
case of two of the most eminent of unbelieving philoso-
phers of our own day ? One pronounces that Atheism,
Deism and Pantheism are three equally untenable
attempts to explain the great mystery of being, and
that the power which the universe manifests (he should
have said, conceals), is utterly inscrutable by us, and
must ever so remain. The other comes to a conclusion
which is in appearance a new kind of Manicheanism, but
is really a closer approach to the teaching of the Bible
than it is in appearance, summed up in these words :
" The belief of Christians is not more absurd or immoral than the
belief of Deists who acknowledge an Omnipotent Creator ; the morality
of the Gospels is far higher and better than that which shews itself in
the order of nature, and what is morally objectionable in the Christian
44 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
theory of the world, is objectionable only when taken in conjunction
with the doctrine of an Omnipotent God, at least as understood by the
majority of Christians 1 ."
What then is the express claim of Christianity, as a
Supernatural Revelation ? Is it simply and absolutely
to solve that great problem, which has proved able
to baffle, through successive ages, all the unassisted
efforts of human reason, starting from the limited data
of past experience ? Its claim is of a wholly different
kind. It is to supply us with fresh facts attested by
firm and distinct a posteriori evidence, like all the facts
which form the stock of our previous knowledge, but
intimately connected with this great mystery of the
origin and destinies of the universe, and of the whole
human race, and of each individual man, and throwing
clear and distinct light upon the darkness. These facts
all centre in the appearance of a fresh Person within
the sphere of human observation ; a Person wholly
unique in the world's history, by the admission of the
most eminent unbelievers who reject the Christian view of
His nature ; concerning Whom, when we combine all the
elements as to the facts of His personal history on earth,
and the later results that have flowed from it, the only
conclusions consistent with any shew of reason, are,
either that He was a Prophet singled out and commis-
sioned by the unseen Creator, for the fuller exposition
of His nature and purposes to men; or that He is
One who shares in the Divine nature and prerogatives
of the invisible God whom He came to reveal. The
words and acts of such a Person are supernatural only
in this sense, that they lie outside the very narrow
and limited bounds of the previous experiences of indi-
vidual men in their brief earthly lifetime. Instead
1 Mill's "Posthumous Essays," p. 214.
REASON AND SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. 45
of lying outside the domain of Reason itself, they are
those added experiences which raise man out of dark-
ness into a region of dawning light. To confound
those fetters by which the faculty of Reason in
men in general is crippled and confined, in the
usual conditions of their earthly life, with the glorious
faculty itself, so that the gracious act of God, by
which He removes the fetters, and calls reason to
exercise itself on a wider range of facts, should be
mistaken for its extinction, is a strange and prodigious
error. He who has come near to us, and revealed
Himself to the children of men in the Gospels, in the
thirty-three years of an earthly lifetime, and in the
glorious records of His sayings, and His works of
Divine power, is Himself the Word, the Reason, the
Truth, the " true Light which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world." All reason in others is only like
a spark derived from this glorious " Sun of Righteous-
ness." The first rising of the sun would be a stupendous
miracle to a race of troglodytes, who had lived till then
in subterranean caverns, yet not the less would that
sun have been the secret source of whatever feeble
rays of moonlight or candle-light had previously reached
them in their gloomy abode.
The relation of the facts revealed in the Gospels, \
to the great problem of natural and revealed religion,
may be illustrated by the return of Columbus and his
companions from their first voyage. The facts of their
landing in Cuba and San Salvador have just the same re-
lation to the great problem of the earth's geography, and
the later discovery of the new world and its inhabitants.
Those clever persons who refused to credit the report
of Columbus and his crew, because ten thousand fisher-
men and mariners, after skirting the western ocean for
46 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
hundreds of years, had never brought any information
worthy of trust concerning its farther shore, have their
exact counterpart in those sceptics who refuse to credit
the testimony of the Apostles and their companions
to the fact, that they saw and conversed with the Lord
Jesus after His resurrection for forty days, because no
such experience, or similar experience, had ever been
recorded before. For long ages, the shore of the great
ocean had seemed an impassable barrier to human know-
ledge and exploration, towards the region of the setting
sun ; and so too the grave, " that undiscovered bourn
from which no traveller returns," had seemed to shut
in and enclose all the children of men with a dark and
impassable barrier. But with the return of Columbus,
the ocean barrier was removed, the great problem was
solved, and the landing of those few voyagers on the
small islet, and their exploration of part of the coast
of Cuba, secured an open pathway of discoveries which
never ceased, till the whole of the American continent
was explored and brought within the range of human
knowledge, and " all the ends of the earth had seen the
salvation of God." So too the facts in the Gospel,
though few and simple, and unlike any previously re-
corded experience, and in that sense supernatural, were
the key facts to a new and wider range of human know-
ledge, when man's acquaintance with the works and
the ways of God should no longer be shut in by the
darkness of the grave. " Life and immortality were
brought to light" by the Gospel. The resurrection of
Christ was never announced to the world as a solitary
and unconnected fact, out of relation to all that had gone
before, and all that was to follow. On the contrary, it
was announced from the first as a great germinal fact,
the fulfilment of voices of the prophets from the begin-
REASON AND SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. 47
ning of the world, and the pledge of the resurrection
of all the dead. So St Paul proclaimed it to king
Agrippa. " Saying none other things than those that
the prophets and Moses did say before should come, that
Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that
should rise from the dead, and shew light to the people
and to the Gentiles." The resurrection of Jesus was
announced as the first-fruits of a glorious harvest that
should follow. So when Columbus and his companions
announced their landing on the island of San Salvador,
that fact was the pledge of the later discovery of the
whole American continent. The resurrection of Jesus
was the pledge and earnest of the truth of His words
to Martha, " I am the Resurrection and the Life ; he
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live."
A new era of spiritual light began, when man's know-
ledge of the character and purposes of the Creator ceased
to be bounded by the darkness of the grave, and in-
cluded the blessed certainty of a life beyond, of the
resurrection and life everlasting.
The new facts reported in the Gospels were beyond
reason in this sense, that no process of abstract reasoning
could have discovered them. They needed to be con-
firmed by clear and full testimony, but when so con-
firmed, there was nothing whatever to hinder the
exercise of the reason and the conscience on their
moral features, or to hinder the wayfaring man, though
only a fool in natural wisdom, from seeing clearly and
with the fullest conviction, that the Son of Man was no
agent and accomplice of the father of lies, but a true
messenger from the God of love and grace, nay, Himself
the great Redeemer promised from the beginning of
time. One would think that the sceptic who quotes
48 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
admissions of Christian Divines to prove that a message
of supernatural truths is not credible unless supported
by a supernatural guarantee, could scarcely be deceived
by his own sophism, and confound together two things
wholly different, because they are both sometimes ex-
pressed by one and the same ambiguous phrase, that
they lie " beyond the range of reason."
CHAPTER V.
REASON AND THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION.
THE great falsehood that the facts of the Gospel
history, because they are unprecedented, and do not
come within the range of previous experience, are there-
fore outside the range of human reason altogether,
instead of forming the highest, noblest, and widest sphere
for its perfect exercise, is reinforced by a special charge
against the contents of that Revelation. The author
affirms that a revelation of supernatural truths to promote
the salvation of men from the consequences of their own
sin is " antecedently incredible and contrary to reason."
To prove this, he supplements the difficulties and myste-
ries of natural religion by various misrepresentations
of the doctrines of Christianity. He says first that the
existence of Satan, and the Temptation and Fall are
not accounted for, and are incredible. Yet the ablest
and most candid of modern sceptics, in his latest efforts
to solve the great problem of the universe by the light
of natural reason alone, is brought back to the very
verge of the doctrine thus proclaimed incredible, a
mitigated Manicheanism ; or the doctrine of a God, vast
and unsearchable both in wisdom and goodness, but,
in some way we cannot understand or explain, limited
in power, or counteracted and thwarted in His efforts
B. 4
50 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
and intentions for the good and happiness of His
creatures. The difficulty then is plainly in the facts
themselves, not created by the statements of Scripture.
But the writer adds this explication of those statements,
that
"the evil spirit succeeded in frustrating the designs of the Almighty,"
that the " sweeping purification of the world by the Flood was as futile
as the original design." " We are asked to believe in the frustration of
the Divine design in Creation, and the fall of man into a state of
wickedness hateful to God, requiring and justifying the Divine design
of a revelation, and such a revelation as this, as preliminary to the
proposition, that on the supposition of such a design, miracles would
not be contrary to reason." " Nothing," it is said, " can be more abso-
lutely incredible or contrary to reason than these statements, or the
supposition of such a design." P. 48.
Dr Mozley is quoted as admitting that "as human
announcements the doctrines of Christianity would be
the wildest delusions, which we should not be justified in
believing." He sums up in the words
"incredible assumptions cannot give probability to incredible evi-
dence ;" and concludes, " the whole theory of this abortive design of
creation with such impotent efforts to amend it, is emphatically con-
tradicted by the glorious perfection and invariability of Nature ; it is
difficult to say whether the details of the scheme, or the circumstances
which are supposed to have led to its adoption, are the more shocking
to reason and to moral sense." P. 49.
These additions of the author to the doctrines and
teaching of the Bible, are in flagrant opposition to its
own express and repeated statements. The whole
scheme of redemption, instead of being a mere after-
thought, a patchwork addition to a baffled scheme of
creation, is expressly declared to have been " fore-
ordained from before the foundation of the world." The
fact is repeatedly proclaimed that unto God are " known
all His works from the beginning of the creation ;" that
the mystery of redemption from the beginning of the
REASON AND THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION. 51
world had been " hid in God, who created all things
by Jesus Christ ;" and that what this writer blasphe-
mously calls, " incredible folly," is a declaration of
" the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal
purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The Scripture does indeed announce a power, inveteracy,
and wide diffusion of moral evil among both men and
angels, the rational and responsible creatures of God,
which constitute a " mystery of iniquity," a kind of dark
and malignant shadow and opposite of that great
" mystery of godliness," the mystery of God the Father
and of Christ, wherein are " hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge." When these great and solemn
mysteries are approached in the spirit of unbelief and of
pride, the result is a most " dangerous downfall," as
the Article says, For a time at least the same sentence
lights upon such inquirers which fell once in Cyprus
on Elymas in his laborious opposition to the Gospel
message, "there fell upon him a mist and darkness,
and he went about seeking for some one to lead him
by the hand." May there be an opposite issue in the
present case. May the unhappy man who sets out in
his professed search for truth as a Sadducean Atheist,
and ends almost exactly where he began yet receive
from God " repentance to the acknowledgment of the
truth."
The words of Dr Mozley are quoted to convey
a meaning almost the exact reverse of what he himself
designed. Dr Mozley (p. 13) puts the case of a per-
son of eminent integrity and loftiness of character,
but unattested by any miracle, or similar guarantee
beyond the statement itself, affirming that He had
existed before His natural birth from all eternity, and
that the world itself had been made by Him. He says
that no rational being could accept a just, benevolent
42
52 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
life alone as proof of such astonishing announcements.
The words of Dr Mozley, so strangely torn from their
context, are merely the statement of our Lord Himself,
cast into a different form ; that a naked assertion of the
possession of Divine attributes, or of being the pro-
mised Redeemer of the world, disjoined from acts of
Divine power, and a fulfilment of predictions shewing
the presence of superhuman wisdom, would have been
undeserving of credence. Such would exactly be the
contrast between the true Christ and a false antichrist.
" I am come in my Father's name and ye receive me
not ; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will
receive." Naked self-assertion, unsustained by the testi-
monies and evidences which should fitly attend it and
confirm its truth, would be the characteristic of anti-
christ, and not of the true Christ. It is in the harmony
of words of surpassing wisdom, purity and grace, of
works surpassing the power of common men, and even
the gifts of the old Prophets, and these works them-
selves marked by features of surpassing bounty and
grace ; and the fulfilment of manifold predictions, all
centering in the world's promised Redeemer, from the
days of Paradise to Malachi, John the Baptist and
Caiaphas, and the Evangelists, and express and repeated
claims to be that Messiah of whom Moses and the
Prophets did write ; It is in the consilience of these
various inductions, these converging streams of evidence,
into one glorious and luminous centre, that the Christian
faith is really founded. This threefold cord of super-
human power, superhuman knowledge and superhuman
goodness, has its strands so wonderfully and mysteriously
interwoven, that no art of man, though they may be
distinguished in thought, can practically sunder them
from each other. The miracles are evidences of Divine
grace and mercy as well as of Divine power ; the fulfilled
REASON AND THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION. 53
prophecies are not only marks of superhuman wisdom
but of Divine condescension and grace. The three
glorious perfections of the Godhead all co-exist and
must co-exist in every work of power, wisdom or good-
ness, by which the Godhead is revealed, yet each attri-
bute in turn may have a special prominence. The Trinity
in Unity of the Divine Persons has its counterpart in
the mysterious triunity of the Divine perfections. In
a miracle, the Divine power of the Son of God is
especially manifested ; in the fulfilment of the earlier
prophecies, and their completion by His own prophecy
on the Mount, and announcement of His own resurrec-
tion, and the future resurrection of all men, the attribute
of Divine Foreknowledge is specially revealed. In the
rest of His discourses, through the Gospels, in the
Sermon on the Mount, in the parables of the Prodigal
Son and of the lost sheep and the lost piece of money,
in the washing of the feet of the disciples, the discourses
at the Last Supper, and in all the words full of grace
and truth throughout the Gospels, such as the words
spoken to the woman who was a sinner, the promises
to Martha and her sister Mary, and the precedence
given to Mary Magdalene among the witnesses of His
resurrection, we have manifold and overflowing tokens
of Divine goodness, grace and compassion. Well did
He say to His Apostle, " Have I been so long time
with you, and hast thou not known me, Philip ? he that
hath seen me, hath seen the Father." " I and my Father
are one." And very solemn is His comment upon the
sin of the Jews, and the equal or greater sin of those,
who having received the full message of His love in
the Gospels, and seen it confirmed and unfolded by the
whole course of the world's history for 1800 years,
can still shut their eyes to the light of His Divine
glory, and strive to persuade their fellow-men to put
54 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
out the eyes of their soul, and involve themselves in utter
darkness once more. " If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had
sin ... but now have they both seen and hated both me
and my Father."
CHAPTER VI.
THE PERFECTION OF NATURE, AND FOUR MOCK
DEITIES OF SCEPTICISM.
THE conflict of Faith and Unbelief in the last times
is often said in Scripture to be "like the day of Midian."
There were two striking features of that day. The
first was an extreme illustration of the impotence of mere
numbers when opposed to faith and the fear of God.
Gideon's little company of three hundred light-bearers
went forth by divine command to encounter the Midian-
ite host, four hundred times more numerous, who were
slumbering in darkness, and the overthrow was complete
and entire. " The host ran and cried and fled . . . and
every man's sword was set against his fellow throughout
all the host." In the hour of panic they perished by
mutual self-destruction. So, in the immense confede-
racy of unbelief in the last times, there is no unity, but
endless self-contradiction, and all the materials are already
prepared for the overthrow of sceptical speculations
through intestine collision and conflict. Thus one lead-
ing sceptic prophesies that "the reign of matter must
extend till it is co-extensive with knowledge, with feeling,
and action." Another, still more eminent, assures us,
that " Philosophy refuses to admit the very existence of
matter," and that there exist nothing but " permanent
possibilities of sensation." M. Comte tells us that the
era of forces and causes is past with the childhood of
56 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
science, that faith in God and in supernatural powers
is only the stage of its infancy, and that Positivism,
which simply registers phenomena, is its full manhood.
Dr Tyndal assures us the exact reverse : that to pass
from phenomena to the forces by which they are pro-
duced, is the first requisite of philosophic thought. The
author of Positivism in the very work where he repro-
bates the introduction of forces, laws and causes, con-
tradicts his own principle two hundred times within
ninety pages. Mr Spencer refers all theology to the
Unknowable, and says that the " power which the
universe manifests is utterly inscrutable." Mr Mill re-
joins, and tells him that he admits an immense amount
of knowledge of the Unknowable. What is equally
clear is that he lays down the indestructibility of
motion as an a priori truth, and tells us in the same
work that the universe, by evolution and the law of
equilibration, is tending to a state of perfect rest, and
to the reign of omnipresent death.
" If equilibration must end in complete rest, what is the fate towards
which all things tend ? The solar system is slowly dissipating its forces,
the sun is losing its heat at a rate which will tell in millions of years.
If man and society are similarly dependent on this supply of force
which is gradually coming to an end, are we not manifestly progressing
towards Omnipresent Death ? That such must be the outcome of the
processes everywhere going on seems beyond doubt... That the proxi-
mate end of all the changes we have traced is a state of quiescence,
this admits of & priori proof." Spencer's First Principles, p. 514.
These contradictions of different sceptical theories,
and different parts of the same theory, might be multi-
plied almost without limit. Never perhaps, since the
beginning of time, was there so large a brevet as in
Mr Spencer's philosophical works, by which direct self-
contradictions are promoted to the rank of a priori
truths. One German atheistic theory professes to build
THE PERFECTION OF NATURE. 57
up the universe without a God out of atoms which are
not atoms at all, but little whirlpools of revolving
matter.
With regard to Nature, and its perfection, we have
the like antithesis. The writer before us, haying cor-
rupted the Christian faith by patchwork additions of
his own, directly opposed to the statements of Scrip-
ture, then contrasts the compound, with what he calls
the " glorious perfection of nature." This anti-super-
naturalism encounters its direct opposite, in what may
be called the hypo-physicism of Mr Mill.
" Nearly all the ' things which men are hanged or imprisoned for
doing to one another are nature's every-day performances. Killing,
the most criminal act recognized by human laws, nature does once to
every creature that lives. Nature impales men, breaks them as if on
the wheel, casts them to be devoured by wild beasts, burns them to
death, crushes them with stones like the first Christian martyr, starves
them with hunger, freezes them with cold, poisons them by the quick
or slow venom of her exhalations, and has hundreds of other hideous
deaths such as the ingenious cruelty of a Nabis or a Domitian never
surpassed. All this nature does, with the most supercilious disregard
both of mercy and justice, emptying her shafts on the best and the
noblest, indifferently with the meanest and worst. She mows down
those on whose existence hangs the well-being of a whole people,
perhaps the prospects of the human race for generations to come,
with as little compunction as those whose death is a relief to them-
selves, or a blessing to those under their noxious influence. Such are
Nature's dealings with life... A single hurricane destroys the hopes of
a season ; a flight of locusts, or an inundation desolates a district ; a
trifling chemical change in an edible root starves a million of people ;
everything, in short, which the worst of men commit either against
life or property, is perpetrated on a larger scale by natural agents.
Nature has noyades more fatal than those of Carrier; her explosions
of fire-damp are as destructive as human artillery; her plague and
cholera far surpass the poisoned cups of the Borgias. All which people
are accustomed to deprecate as disorder and its consequences, is pre-
cisely a counterpart of nature's ways : anarchy and the reign of terror
are overmatched in injustice, ruin, and death by the hurricane and the
pestilence." Mill's Posthumous Essays, p. 31.
58 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
Such, according to Mr Mill, is that " glorious per-
fection of nature," which the author of " Supernatural
Religion" uses as a foil, to demonstrate by contrast,
that the Christian faith is a contradiction to reason
and the moral sense. Mr Mill, on the contrary, insists
strongly that
" the morality of the Gospels is far higher and hetter than that which
shews itself in the order of nature."
What is nature in the creed of Atheism, and apart
from the vicegerent rule and action of man, ruling over
the earth, and bringing outward things into subjection
to his own will ? Mr Mill gives only two meanings to
the word, nature ; the first is
"the aggregate of the powers and properties of all things, of all
phenomena and the causes which produce them." " In another sense
nature means, not every thing which happens, but only what takes
place without the voluntary and intentional agency of man." "This
distinction," he adds, "is far from exhausting the ambiguities of the
word."
It does not in fact include the most fundamental
meaning ; it leaves Mr Mill quite unable to explain why
" unnatural " in every language should be a term of
strong reprobation ; or why the foremost school of
Greek philosophy came to make " living according to
nature," the first and chief maxim of duty and wisdom.
Nature, by its derivation, does not properly apply at
all to mere matter, but to things that are born and live.
It may be extended, by analogy, to God, the self-existent,
who does not come into being ; and by a further analogy,
it may be extended, in the opposite direction, to things
that are not born, such as lifeless atoms. The nature
of any particular thing or being is properly that dis-
tinctive character wherein its being consists ; the fun-
damental law imposed on it in the hour of its birth, the
THE PERFECTION OF NATURE. 59
specific gift of being it has received from the Creator ;
when Nature is spoken of as a collective whole, it is
plainly a term of extreme ambiguity. It may either
include or exclude the perfect being and nature of the
self-existent Creator. It may include or exclude the
being and dominion of man, the vice-gerent of the
Creator in this lower world. It may include all the
unknown worlds throughout the universe, or be limited
to the world of human experience alone in this terres-
trial life ; it may include only that which is known,
shut in by the grave on the one side, and by two or
three thousand years of known history on the other ; or
it may comprehend both all past ages and a coming
eternity. When both the nature of God and of man are
excluded, all the unknown future, all the unknown or
unseen regions of the universe, and earthly life and
experience for the last two or three thousand years
alone is considered, it is plain that Nature so defined
denotes a very small and infinitesimal part of the vast
scheme of universal Being. When Nature within these
narrow limits, is extolled as " invariable and perfect," and
its " glorious perfection " is made the warrant for the
rejection of the Christian faith, the moral teaching of the
Gospel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the blessed
hope of immortal life beyond the grave, this is indeed
an illusion as well as a blasphemy, ft shocking both to
reason and to moral sense."
How far is Mr Mill's counter indictment of the utter
immorality, injustice and cruelty of nature, valid and
well-founded ? The constancy and perfection of nature
to which the appeal is made in the sceptical argument,
is really nothing more than our limited human experience
of terrestrial changes on the earth's surface from the
dispersion of the sons of Noah till the birth of Christ
for two thousand years ; excluding the beginning, and
60 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
the flood of Noah and all previous ages, the resur-
rection and the life to come, the future judgment, and
all the prospects of a coming eternity ; all that is unseen,
or visible only in other worlds beyond our own planet,
and all the actings of the will of men through succes-
sive generations, to subdue the earth and bring it into
subservience to the wants, and desires, and spiritual
instincts and aspirations of their own nature. This
terrestrial nature, shut in by these narrow limits, is a
minute and almost infinitesimal fragment of the great
scheme of universal being. The information which it
supplies may be clear and express, and adequate, to the
present guidance of life, with regard to individual men,
animals and plants; and supply also some glimpses and
vistas of thought leading us onward into the abysses
that lie beyond. But to complete it into an adequate
key to the future hopes of man, and prospects of the
human race, and the vast scheme of universal providence,
it needs to be pieced out and completed, if supernatural
revelation be excluded, by infinite guesswork, blind con-
jecture, and baseless speculation. An inverted pyramid
has to be constructed of prodigious dimensions, resting
on a minute apex, little more than a mathematical point,
of certain truth and well-attested experience. As we
recede from this apex, conjecture is heaped on conjecture,
and Pelion is piled on Ossa, in the vain attempt to scale
the skies, and pull down the Almighty Creator from the
throne of the universe, where He sits enthroned in glory
for evermore. A hundred shadowy and spectral coun-
terfeits are set up by the pride of unbelieving philosophy,
to take the place of the Supreme and Eternal King.
One of these is M. Comte's new Supreme Being, col-
lective Humanity, that is the sum total of all the sinners
of mankind, who have fought with and murdered each
other through the last 6000 years, or fallen under the
THE MOCK DEITIES OF SCEPTICISM. 6 1
stroke of death by wasting disease, and includes almost
every variety of moral enormity, with bright exceptional
instances of imperfect goodness and nobleness of being.
What a hideous folly is this worship of collective
humanity, this new god that has lately come up ! A
second counterfeit is physical force, a mock trinity of
indestructible matter, persistent motion, and continuous
force, and undiminished and unalterable solar energy.
A third counterfeit makes this new divinity of Solar
Force dissipate and waste itself continually in the regions
of infinite space, till at length, after millions of ages,
the new god of physical science is reduced to utter bank-
ruptcy, and the Sun will become a stagnant mass, drained
of light, and heat, and all its life-sustaining stores of
energy, and nature sink under a reign of utter darkness
and omnipresent death.
A fourth counterfeit and rival of the Living God has
two different names " Evolution " and " Natural Se-
lection." The first, as one of its main worshippers
allows, ought rather to be called Involution, and denotes
the process by which a diffused nebulous mass gradually
condenses, while the light and heat that may result from
this condensation are dissipated, and lost in infinite space.
It is a process of cooling carried on slowly through
millions of ages, till instead of sun, stars, and planets,
and animated worlds, the universe becomes one vast,
inert, black mass of lifeless matter. The other name of
.this modern Divinity is " Natural Selection," that is, as
expounded by its own author, " the course and sequence
of events as perceived by us," choosing out through suc-
cessive ages, what forms of life are fittest to endure ;
then, like Saturn, devouring all its children in swift
succession; a selection in which there is no one who
selects, and no real existence to be selected, and the
lives selected for endurance disappear like bubbles in
62 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
the great ocean of being, as soon as the selection is
made. A " survival of the fittest," where no one is fit to
survive at all except for a few passing moments, and
then each has to melt away in its turn into the " in-
finite azure of the future," the gulf of evanescent and
perishable being. The true and self-existent Jehovah
being denied, there is set up in His place the Buddhist
Maya, or universal illusion, an endless phantasmagoria of
evanescent sensations, without beginning and without
end, an infinite waste of empty shadows.
The author of " Supernatural Religion," after de-
faming the Gospel of Christ, the glorious message by
which principalities and powers in heavenly places
learn the manifold wisdom of God, and are lost in
adoring wonder, as " shocking to reason and moral
sense," takes up the first substitute that comes to hand.
This happens to be the third of Mr Spencer's three
a priori schemes of the knowledge of the Unknowable,
and the mode of action of the Unknowable through
countless ages to come. The theory thus adopted is a
climax of unreason.
CHAPTER VII.
MR SPENCER'S THREE THEORIES OF THE UNIVERSE.
MR SPENCER defines Philosophy as
"completely unified knowledge. This is the meaning we must give
to the word philosophy if we use it at all." (R P. p. 134.) "This," he
says, " is tacitly asserted by the simultaneous inclusion of God, Nature,
and Man within its scope." (P. 131.)
His next step is wholly to exclude the knowledge of
God, and he then attempts to frame a philosophy or
scheme of completely unified knowledge, from which the
principle and source of unity is wholly excluded. Total
ignorance of God, is the first maxim of this philosophy.
He claims for it to be more religious than any actual
religion.
" Those religions," he says, " are partially irreligious, because they
profess to have some knowledge of that which transcends knowledge,
and so contradict the teachings of religion." (Ib.)
This monstrous folly, that there is no medium between
Omniscience and utter Nescience is the foundation and
corner-stone of the whole system. The author cannot
even state his own first principle without a plain self-
contradiction.
" Religion has established the doctrine that all things are manifesta-
tions of a power that transcends our knowledge" (p. 100),
but a power of which we can know nothing at all plainly
cannot be manifested.
64 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
" Religion," he adds, " has ever been more or less irreligious, because
it has claimed to know something of a power which transcends know-
ledge,"
or cannot be exhaustively known.
Having thus rejected Christianity as irreligious, be-
cause it does profess to teach us definite truth with
regard to the nature and purposes of the great First
Cause, how does the author build on this negative foun-
dation ? He offers his readers confidently, not one only,
but three alternative theories of the universe, that is of
the plans and purposes of this Unknowable God through
ages to come. The first is the theory of endless Involu-
tion or condensation. It is a process by which satellites
drop into their suns, and the suns by successive collisions
fall into each other, till the whole universe will become
one great mass of dull, dead matter, a monstrous extin-
guished sun, from which heat and light have disappeared
and lost themselves in infinite space.
" We are manifestly progressing towards Omnipresent death. That
such a state must be the outcome of the processes everywhere going on,
seems beyond doubt... That the proximate end of all the transforma-
tions we have traced is a state of quiescence, this admits of a priori
proof." (P. 514.)
This " prodigious amount of knowledge of the un-
knowable," that all the changes of nature are beyond
doubt tending to a reign of Omnipresent death, is
Mr Spencer's first offered substitute for the Gospel.
It is made up of two a priori truths, that motion
is indestructible, and that all things are certainly tending
to a state of perfect quiescence. His second theory in
the same work, replaces the first by an endless oscillation
theory
"An unmeasurable period, during which attractive forces predomi-
nating cause universal concentration ; and then an unmeasurable period,
during which the repulsive forces predominating cause universal dif-
fusion, alternate eras of evolution and dissolution." (P. 537.)
MR SPENCER'S THREE THEORIES. 65
Thus the whole scheme of universal Being is sup-
posed, like the stone of Sisyphus, through millions of
years or ages to be raised to a higher pitch of dig-
nity, perfection, and multiplied vitality, and then when
it has nearly reached some summit of ideal perfec-
tion, to bound downward, by a reverse process, and
dash itself to pieces at the foot of the mountain, the
whole creation resolving itself into diffused nebulous
vapour and nothingness once more. This reverse pro-
cess, it should be observed, is introduced purely by guess,
in contradiction to all the laws of mechanics, to provide
some escape from the dreary monotony of the first
theory.
In " Social Statics," Mr Spencer propounds a third
a priori theory of the universe distinct from, and incon-
sistent with, both the others. This is the self-perfecting
theory of nature. It is embodied in these maxims :
"Advancement is due to the working of universal law, and, in virtue
of that law, must continue till the state we call perfection is reached.
These are the steps of the argument. All imperfection is unfitness
to the conditions of existence. This unfitness must consist in having a
faculty or faculties in excess, or deficient, or in both. A faculty in excess
is one which has no opportunity for full exercise ; and a deficient faculty
is one from which circumstances demand more than it can perform.
The principle of life is, that a faculty which cannot obtain full exercise
diminishes, and one on which excessive demands are made, increases ;
while this excess and deficiency continue, there must be decrease on
one hand and growth on the other. Finally, then, all excess and
deficiency, and unfitness and imperfection, must disappear. Thus the -
ultimate development of the ideal man is logically certain. Humanity
must, in the end, become completely adapted to its conditions; pro-
gress therefore is not an accident, but a necessity ;... As surely as a
passion grows by indulgence, and diminishes when restrained, so surely
must the things we call evil and immorality disappear, and man must
become perfect." (S. R. from S. S., p. 50, 51.)
This demonstration, Mr Spencer says, removes the
doctrine "out of the region of probability into that of
B- 5
66 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
certainty." Let us now examine the data and premises
of which this grand discovery consists. First, a novel
definition of moral evil and immorality; that it consists in
a living creature having one or more faculties with no
opportunity for their exercise, or not having all the
senses or faculties he could exercise if he had them.
The ridiculous and entire falsehood of such a definition
is so plain that it is needless to develope it further.
The one grain of truth in the mock demonstration is,
that a faculty is commonly strengthened by repeated
exercise, "as the eye tends to become long-sighted in
the sailor, and short-sighted in the student, and a clerk
acquires rapidity in writing and calculation." But another
assumption is required to set the argument on its feet ;
that every living creature acquires instinctively, and of
course, all the senses and faculties for the exercise of
which there is a present opportunity. By this rule all
animals should have a faculty of articulate speech. Ac-
cording to all experience man alone has this faculty,
while different kinds of beasts and birds have their
distinctive notes, cries, and inarticulate sounds. Next,
men so far as experience goes, have five senses only,
sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste ; and these within
narrowly defined limits. If every one possessed, by natural
necessity, every faculty he could exercise if he had it,
every one must have a natural telescope for seeing objects
more distant, and a microscope for seeing objects more
minute, than come within the range of ordinary eyesight.
He must have also a natural thermometer, hygrometer,
anemometer, and micrometer. All these represent faculties
which never would want opportunities for their exercise,
but their spontaneous growth is flatly opposed to uni-
versal experience. If all living creatures had this prodigal
supply of all conceivable senses and faculties, there would
be nothing in this to secure their right use and applica-
MR SPENCER'S THREE THEORIES. 67
tion. Many senses and faculties must be still more liable
to abuse than a few only. If circumstances underwent
no change, some faculties might be enfeebled by lack
of exercise, and others be quickened and made more
perfect and acute. If circumstances changed, even this
limited amount of variation would be suspended or re-
versed. The decay of faculties or senses, either by lack
of opportunity or of will to exert them, would be likely
to have a wider range than the perfecting of others
under the concurrence of three conditions ; the will to
exercise them to the utmost, circumstances favourable to
their exercise, and the continuance of those circumstances
unaltered for a long course of time. The demonstration
starts from a definition of moral evil so prodigiously
absurd, and involves an assumption with regard to the
senses and faculties of men and living creatures, so
utterly opposed to all experience, that the acceptance
on such grounds of a self-perfecting tendency in all
nature, seems the furthest possible limit of unreasoning
credulity. When propounded as an a priori demonstra-
tion by the same author who assures us, as another a
priori truth beyond doubt, that all nature is progressing
towards the reign of Omnipresent Death, and as another
a priori truth, that the power working behind all pheno-
mena is wholly "unknowable," and that it is the main defect
of all religious creeds to pretend to know something of a
Being of whom nothing can be known, the ridiculous
folly of these assertions seems scarcely to admit of in-
crease. We may know, it seems, how "the unknowable"
will act, through countless ages to come, and may know
as "an a priori truth" that He or it will act in three
different ways, each contradicting the two others. He will
crush up the whole universe, with all its suns and planets.,
into one vast mass, which will cool down into icy frost
and blackness of darkness, so that the self-perfecting
52
68 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
tendency of Nature will result in the extinction of all
life, leaving behind utter wasteness and desolation. Or
He will perad venture assume the task of Sisyphus,
and go on through countless ages laboriously raising
the universe near to some mountain summit of ideal per-
fection, only to see it roll down and bury itself in an
abyss of ruin and darkness in a later period of utter
dissolution. Of such theorists it may well be said in the
indignant words of the Prophet, "They have rejected
the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them."
Mr Spencer's third theory of the universe is further
unfolded in the following passage, in which a great truth
of Scripture is so misconstrued, as to change it into its
own exact reverse.
" The survival only of the fittest is the stern decree of nature. The
invariable action of law of itself eliminates the unfit. Progress is
necessary to existence, extinction is the doom of retrogression. The
highest effect contemplated by the supposed revelation is to bring
man into perfect harmony with law, and this is ensured by law itself
acting upon intelligence. Only in obedience to law is there life and
safety. Knowledge of law is imperatively demanded by nature. Igno-
rance of it is a capital offence. If we ignore the law of gravitation, we
are dashed to pieces at the foot of a precipice, or are crushed by a
falling rock ; if we neglect sanitary law, we are destroyed by a pesti-
lence ; if we disregard chemical laws, we are poisoned by a vapour.
There is not, in reality, a gradation of breach of law that is not fol-
lowed by an equivalent gradation of punishment. Civilization is nothing
but the knowledge and observance of natural laws. The savage must
learn them or be extinguished : the cultivated must observe them or
die. The balance of moral and physical development cannot be
deranged with impunity. In the spiritual as well as the physical sense,
only the fittest eventually can survive in the struggle for existence.
There is, in fact, an absolute upward impulse to the whole human
race supplied by the invariable operation of the laws of nature acting
upon the common instinct of self-preservation. As on the one hand,
the highest human conception of infinite wisdom and power is derived
from the universality and invariability of law, so that universality and in-
variability, on the other hand, exclude the idea of interruption or occa-
MR SPENCER'S THREE THEORIES. 69
sional suspension of law for 'any purpose whatever, and more especially
for the correction of supposed original errors of design, which cannot
have existed, or for the attainment of objects already provided for in
the order of nature." (S. R, from S. S. 51, 52.)
Now in a scheme which pronounces God to be un-
knowable, and minds and material objects unknowable
also, so that what are called phenomena of matter or of
mind, are only "faint" and "vivid" manifestations of "the
unknowable," (which is a self-contradiction,) so that
human action is the fatal and inevitable result of material
circumstances, there are no laws but those of matter and
physical change. Now these laws are never broken,
and never can be. The man who is dashed to pieces
at the foot of a precipice, or crushed by a falling
rock, obeys the law of gravitation just as much as the
person who lies quietly in his bed. The laws of chemistry
are obeyed as much by the choke-damp or fire-damp
which causes the death of hundreds, as by the atmo-
sphere which sustains the life of millions. Physical
laws, the only laws which exist under the theory, are
never broken, and never can be, because their subjects
are atoms or masses of matter devoid of choice and
reason. The only laws which can be broken are those
which the theory excludes as unreal fictions, moral laws
imposed by God on rational, conscious, and responsible
creatures. Transferred to these real laws which can be
broken, and have been broken on the largest scale, the
remark is true, "only in obedience to law is there life
and safety." Such is the statement of Christ Himself.
" I know that His commandment is life everlasting."
Ignorance of these real laws of God for man is "a capital
offence." Such ignorance, utter and complete, is the start-
ing-point and boast of this wretched mock philosophy.
Breaches of the laws which it admits, are impossible, and
have never occurred ; breaches of the moral law which it
7O SUPERNATURAL REVELATION,
refuses to recognize, and of which it counts the know-
ledge impossible, have occurred and do occur continually,
and to these transgressions the words do apply, "there
is no gradation of the breach of God's law that is
not followed by an equivalent gradation of punishment."
A great Scriptural truth is borrowed by a godless and
immoral philosophy in which it has no real place, and
then, is so disguised as hardly to be recognizable.
" The wages of sin is death." "In the way of right-
eousness is life, in the pathway thereof there is no death."
" The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much
more the wicked and the sinner." " The commandment
of God is life everlasting."
CHAPTER VIII.
NATURE WITHOUT MAN OR GOD.
THE indictment of immorality which Mr Mill has
brought against Nature, that idol of modern physicists,
suggests a deep inquiry, which may throw light on the
whole question of anti-supernaturalism. There are four
classes of action of which we can conceive, (i) The
direct action of God Himself, the supreme intelligence
and perfect goodness, doing as He will among the
inhabitants of heaven and the dwellers upon earth.
The exclusion of all such direct action of God Him-
self, as unreasonable if not impossible, is the main
dogma of anti-supernaturalism. (2) The second class
of activity consists of the conscious voluntary actions
of good or bad men, who are subject to a law of moral
duty, and the similar action of good or bad spirits,
or rational beings in other parts of the universe, sup-
posing us to have access to them, and means of ascer-
taining their reality, and of discriminating them from all
lower activities. (3) Thirdly, the actings of the animal
creation, or of vegetable life. None of these can have a
strictly moral or anti-moral character. It is not surprising
that in brute nature no traces of moral action should be
found, though there are near approaches to it, and close
resemblances in the nobler animals, when humanized
by association with man. (4) Fourthly, there are the
72 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
actings of all material creatures, things devoid either
of animal or vegetable life, which yet are most intimately
connected with the welfare or continued existence of
living things. Many indeed hold that lifeless matter
has no active power whatever ; that action is the dis-
tinctive character of conscious mind ; so that what we
popularly call the actings of material objects, are really
the direct actings of the Creator Himself. This view,
I think, is erroneous, and that activity of some kind is
essential to a real existence. That which cannot act in
some way or other cannot be acted upon, and that very
passivity and sluggishness which is imputed to lifeless
matter, still requires us to admit in it activity of some
kind. The wind acts when it blows upon us, fire when
it burns us, a stone when it bruises us, the earth itself
when it pinions us to its surface by its attraction. The
difference is that in the actings of lifeless things, or material
objects of all kinds, there is no spontaneity or element
of choice, but the action is determined by distance and
position alone. The immense disproportion, in amount,
of unorganized matter in the universe as known to us,
compensates in a certain sense for the inferior and more
passive form of its activity. Its actings, because they
are lower in kind than even those of the brutes them-
selves, cannot possibly reveal moral features of choice
or discrimination, with reference to moral ends or pur-
poses. There seem to be three laws at least to which
all matter is subject, (i) The first is that of universal
appetency, each atom of matter tending to approach
every other, with a force or intensity determined by the
distance alone. (2) The second is a law of special appe-
tency, determined by the union and interaction of matter
and self- repulsive ether. On this second law, probably,
all cohesion, electric affinity, and chemical structure
depend. (3) The third is a law of ethereal repulsion,
NATURE WITHOUT MAN OR GOD. 73
on which all the phenomena of light, electricity, mag-
netism, heat, and the more subtle agencies of nature
depend.
If then we deny all direct action of God, the Supreme
Intelligence, and shut out the Creator from His own
universe, and then speak of nature in contrast to man,
of the natural in contrast to the artificial, it is idle to
look for moral qualities in the actings of brute crea-
tures, or the limited activities which alone belong to
unorganized creatures, or material objects in all their di-
versities. At the same time, these lowest creatures must
have had their limited powers defined by the Creator in
the moment of their creation, and out of infinite possi-
bilities, the same Creator must have decided all those
conditions of place, number, mass, concentration, or dif-
fusion, on which, by the very law of their being, all
their later activities and operations one upon another,
and upon the living things with which they co-exist,
will really depend. So far then as any semblances of
choice, moral purpose, or moral preference seem de-
tected in the changes of mere matter, it can be due to
no present purpose or choice in the things themselves,
but only be a remote consequence of the wisdom of
the Creator, in His wise arrangement of the material
universe in the hour of its creation. Thus, brute or
unorganized lifeless nature cannot possibly reveal moral
preferences in its separate actings. Those actings are
linked with each other by a law that extends through
distant ages, and which is determined by distance and
position alone ; but the actings of brute or inanimate
nature are modified continually by the voluntary actions
of all mankind, into which the elements of spontaneity,
choice, love, and hate, or moral preference and aversion
do continually enter. The same is true of the actings
of all moral and spiritual intelligences, in whatever part
74 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
of the universe they may exist, and the laws which link
together the whole material universe would make it
impossible for such actings of spiritual being, in however
remote a region, not to extend their influence to the
earth and terrestrial changes.
That changes on the earth should be determined
solely by physical laws would require two great con-
ditions; that the Living God should, by a self-denying
ordinance, bind Himself never to stretch forth His
Almighty hand, whether for judgment or for mercy, to
interfere with the mechanical working of the laws of
brute and inanimate nature, and that He should equally
shut up in eternal inaction all rational and spiritual crea-
tures, in every part of the created universe. It is not
surprising then that Mr Mill should find Nature, as
defined by himself, nature, that is, exclusive both of
Man and God, guilty of strange enormities and moral
crimes, when he tries each separate event in which ma-
terial agents are concerned, by the same test as if they
were the separate and independent actions of a moral
agent. He exacts, in short, from nature the unnatural ;
from things not endowed with the power of choice, the
proper results of choice and spontaneity ; from creatures
that cannot choose, the virtue of choosing well. It is
not surprising, when God Himself and all moral and
spiritual creatures, have been excluded from the defi-
nition of nature, that the residuum should be found
devoid of moral excellences and perfections. Two ques-
tions alone remain. First, whether the general laws
appointed for the lower creatures, and for the whole
material universe devoid of life and moral preference,
disclose any proofs of wisdom and goodness, in Him
by whom they were first appointed. Now it is the
wisdom and excellency of these laws which tempt
atheistic speculators to embrace the strange hypothesis,
NATURE WITHOUT MAN OR GOD. 75
that it is useless for the Creator Himself ever to inter-
fere with their undisturbed operation. The other ques-
tion is, whether the .special arrangement of the material
constituents of the universe might have been so or-
dained in their original creation, as to secure the bene-
fits, and escape all the inconveniences and mischiefs,
which result from time to time from their invariable
operation. Those who affect to solve this great and
mysterious problem more perfectly than the Allwise
Creator has done, shew the extreme of folly and pre-
sumption into which it is possible for sinful creatures
to fall. They are well rebuked by that voice of God
to the patriarch : " Hast thou an arm like God ? or
canst thou thunder with a voice like Him ? Shall
he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him ?
He that reproveth God, let him answer it." " Look on
every one that is proud and bring him low, and tread
down the wicked in their place, then will I also confess
unto thee, that thine own right hand can save thee."
Surely one glance on the grandeur, immensity, and mar-
vellous variety of the wonderful works of God, ought
to silence those rash and audacious speculators, who
would affect to improve on the counsels and works of
God the Only Wise !
The author of " Supernatural Religion " says that
miracles, or the direct action of God Himself, are "em-
phatically contradicted by the glorious perfection and
the invariability of the order of nature ; the imperfec-
tion thus ascribed to the Divine work is derogatory to
the power and wisdom of the Creator." The hypo-
physicism, as it may be called, of Mr Mill, is a curious
contrast to this anti-supernaturalism. Having excluded
from nature all direct agency of God Himself, and of
all moral agents, men or spirits, and left only a residuum
of unmoral agencies, we see what is his conclusion as
76 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
to the moral perfections of this residual nature. All
the worst crimes recorded in history are surpassed, he
says, by this idol of modern atheism. These two tribes
of the great Midianite camp effectually destroy each
other.
CHAPTER IX.
THE UNNATURAL IN CONTRAST TO THE SUPERNATURAL.
THE term Nature when used comprehensively, in-
cludes a vast variety of beings and of natures widely
different from each other. We may distinguish six main
classes of natures. First, the nature of material things ;
secondly, of plants ; thirdly, of animals ; fourthly, of men ;
fifthly, of rational beings not human; sixthly, the Nature
of God, the Self-existent First Cause. Now in each
of these there may be first, natural or normal actings;
secondly, unnatural, and thirdly, supernatural actings,
above or beyond the ordinary standard and mode of
action. This last term may be extended, so as to include
unusual and extraordinary actings of the Creator Himself.
It will be enough to notice two forms of the Unnatural
and two of the Supernatural. First, the brutish unnatural.
" What they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those
things they corrupt themselves." Man may thus be self-
degraded below his own nature to the level of brute
beasts. Secondly, the animal preternatural, when some
lower creature, plant, or animal, is raised to a mode of
acting above the usual range of animal faculty, (i) " The
dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbade the mad-
ness of the prophet." (2) "The Lord spake unto the
fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land." (3)
"Cast an hook and take up the fish that first cometh
up, and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt
78 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
find a piece of money." (4) "Cast the net on the right
side of the ship and ye shall find. They cast therefore,
and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude
of fishes."
One form of the unnatural in contrast to the Super-
natural is included as a main article of the Creed of Anti-
Supernaturalism. The Nature, of which the " glorious
perfection and invariability" are extolled, as excluding the
miracles and truths of the Christian Faith, is a Nature,
in which death reigns supreme and undisturbed from
age to age. It is that nature of which Mr Mill says
pithily, " Killing, the most criminal act recognized by
human laws, Nature does once to every being that lives."
It is that nature of which, according to Mr Spencer's
first theory, the undoubted tendency is " to a reign of
omnipresent death." This apotheosis of death is so com-
plete that according to Strauss, "the statement that a dead
man has returned to life is composed of two contradictory
elements." Thus the living God is dethroned, and His
existence is either denied, or thrust wholly beyond the
reach of human knowledge, and DEATH, the last enemy,
is enthroned in his place. This most monstrous and
unnatural of all creeds, is gravely propounded as a pre-
ferable substitute, more agreeable to reason and the
moral sense, than the glorious and everlasting Gospel
of redeeming love. Sinful man flings back the unspeak-
able gift of God, in the face of Him who offers it, and
chooses rather to sit down in blind and slavish subjec-
tion to the worst and foulest of all false gods. The
most degrading of all conceivable superstitions, is that
which shuts out God from the right to interfere, by a
message of redeeming grace, with a world over which
death reigns supreme, the "lazar. house" of Milton's
description. (Bk. XL 480.)
2. Another form of the Unnatural is the refusal to
THE UNNATURAL. 79
see any signs or proofs of a superhuman Intelligence, or
of the working and dominion of a conscious First Cause
in the whole system of created things. The message
of God to sinful men, by the Prophet whose lips were
touched with a coal of fire from the heavenly altar,
begins by denouncing the more than brutish blindness
of this practical atheism, into which his own people had
so widely fallen. "Hear O heavens, and give ear, O
earth, for the Lord hath spoken ; I have nourished and
brought up children, and they have rebelled against
me. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's
crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not
consider." (Is. i. 2, 3.) The speculative atheism which
openly professes to know nothing at all with regard to
the Being, works and character of God, is thus defined
by His own lips, to be a degradation of man below
the level of the brute creatures. The great Apostle
of the Gentiles applies the same truth specially to the
case of those with whom modern Agnostics would
prefer to be classed, the old philosophers of the heathen
world. " They are without excuse, because when they
knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither
were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened ; professing them-
selves to be wise, they became fools." Moral degra-
dation, and the influx of a tide of degrading lusts and
passions, is declared to be the Divine Nemesis on this
ungrateful and foolish blindness. " Even as they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind . . . filled with all un-
righteousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, and
malignity."
Atheistic speculations, spreading like a canker in any
one generation of mankind, are almost sure to breed
gigantic and unnatural wickedness in the generation that
8o SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
follows. The mock philanthropy which sets out with
atheistic contempt for the living God, will be sure to
set in a sea of blood. And "when the kindness of
God the Saviour towards man," has been despised and
rejected, the "New Supreme Being" of M. Comte's
blasphemous philosophy, will be sure ere long to de-
velope his historical attributes, " foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in
malice and envy, hateful and hating one another."
(Tit. iii. 3.)
The first form of the Supernatural is the Prophetic.
This supposes that God, the Supreme Intelligence,
singles out amongst men some individuals, through
whom He would give messages of heavenly truth, and
announcements of His will to their fellow-men : that
He then bestows upon them gifts of power, or foresight,
to attest and prove the commission which they have re-
ceived. These supernatural gifts, exceeding the power
or wisdom of ordinary men, are tests and signs of
their divine commission. So it was said to Moses,
" take this rod in thine hand wherewith thou shalt do
signs." So St Paul writes to the Corinthians, "the
signs of an Apostle were wrought among you, in all
patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds."
The idea that though MAN at his will can make known
his thoughts and wishes to his fellow-man in writing,
yet the Lord of Heaven and of earth, the Architect
and Builder of all things, is unable so to do, is the
strange paradox of some modern sceptics. If God is
pleased to make known His will by speech or writing
to men, reason requires that the messengers He em-
ploys should have clear credentials to confirm their
commission. So the same Apostle says at the close of
his letter to Thessalonica, " The salutation of Paul with
mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle, so
THE UNNATURAL. 8 I
I write." Thus a distinct proof that the writing was
his, and that he had a divine commission, attested by
supernatural works, was given with each epistle. So
" no prophecy," we are told, " came at any time by the
will of man, but holy men of God spake as moved (or
borne along) by the Holy Ghost;" and of these mes-
sengers we are further told that "God also bare them
witness, both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles,
and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will."
Such a witness then, either in works of superhuman
power, directly wrought by them, or linked with their
message, has been the constant law of revelation by
prophets, from Adam in Paradise to the beloved dis-
ciple in Patmos. To make the contrast more con-
spicuous between Christ and His forerunner, "John
did no miracle." But his birth was announced by the
message of an angel, and his work and character by
a second prophecy uttered by his own father, and his
message was essentially only a preface to that of Christ
Himself. Works and sayings, preternatural in common
men, are natural, and essential to their work and cha-
racter, in men singled out to be prophets, messengers,
apostles, and ambassadors of the God of heaven.
But beyond this prophetic form of the supernatural,
there is one still higher. Should the living God Him-
self appear in human form, the words and acts of such
a Divine Person, conversing with men upon earth, must
be supernatural in the highest sense. They must trans-
cend not only the words and works of average men, and
of righteous men, but even of prophets ; a wisdom, a
power and a goodness surpassing those of human
prophets would be needful to justify the claim to be
such a Divine person. Such a claim, if advanced with
an entire absence of any such proofs, would be incredi-
ble. So our Lord says, " If I bear witness of myself
B. 6
82 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
my witness is not true ; 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." " Had
ye believed Moses ye would have believed me, for he
wrote of me." " If I had not done among them the
works which none other man did, they had not had sin,
but now have they both seen and hated both me and my
Father." And again when the messengers of the Jews
were asked "why have ye not brought him?" they an-
swered, " Never man spake like this man." Thus
works of divine power, and words of divine wisdom,
were joined with signal manifestations of divine good-
ness. " Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say
well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master,
have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one
another's feet." " Peace I leave with you, my peace I
give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid." "When He was come near, He beheld the city
and wept over it." " Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do." " He said, It
is finished, and He bowed His head, and gave up the
ghost." This threefold cord, of which the strands are,
works of superhuman power, words of divine wisdom,
and acts and tears of divine compassion, condescension,
and grace, is intertwined to guarantee this glorious
truth, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and
that "the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of
the world;" and that "all men should honour the Son
even as they honour the Father;" and again, that
" He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the
Father which hath sent Him." This great truth of the
divine glory and perfection of the " Sun of Righteous-
ness," the Incarnate Redeemer, shines out above all
other truths, with a brightness like that of the vision
THE UNNATURAL. 83
seen by Saul on the way to Damascus, "a light from
heaven at midday, above the brightness of the sun."
And whenever the eyes of men are closed to this divine
and supernatural light, and they prefer to sit down con-
tent with the thick darkness of that course of nature,
in which death reigns supreme for evermore, the same
Apostle has taught us the secret cause of a preference
so unnatural. "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to
them which are perishing, in whom the god of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who
is the image of God, should shine unto them."
CHAPTER X.
THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE.
THE Bampton Lectures of Dr Mozley on Miracles
(1865) are, in the main, one of the most valuable con-
tributions which Oxford has given within the last forty
years to the defence of the Christian faith. I have shewn
elsewhere, that Professor Tyndall, in his reply to them
in " The Fortnightly," where he warns off the clergy
as " noble savages" from the field of physical science,
has himself committed two great errors, one with regard
to the views of Newton, and the other with regard to
the fundamental basis of all inductive science, as illus-
trated and confirmed by the " Principia." But while he
is thus wholly wrong in the issue he has raised, a serious
defect mingles with that part of the Lectures which has
occasioned his strictures. Dr Tyndall makes it the first
principle of real science, that the forces of nature and the
laws which men of science investigate, " are necessary,"
" that if the force be permanent, the phenomena are necessary, whether
they do or do not resemble anything that has gone before."
Dr Mozley says on the other hand, that our faith in
the order of nature
" is an impulse which rests on no rational grounds, and can be traced
to no rational principle ; which possesses no intellectual character," and
that "the proper function of the inductive principle, or belief in the
order of nature, is to act as a practical basis for the affairs of life, and
the carrying on of human society."
THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE. 85
Professor Tyndall rejoins effectively by enumerating
a series of scientific discoveries.
"What," he asks, "has the planet Neptune, or the belt of Jupiter,
or the whiteness about the poles of Mars, to do with the affairs of
society, or how is society affected by the fact that the sun's atmosphere
contains sodium, or that the nebula of Orion contains hydrogen gas?
What practical interest has society in the fact that the spots on the
sun have a decennial period, and that when a magnet is closely
watched for half a century, it is' found to perform small motions
which synchronize with the appearance and disappearance of the solar
spots?" He continues, "We hold it to be an exercise of reason to
explore the meaning of the universe to which we stand in relation,
and the work accomplished is the proper commentary on the methods
pursued."
The truth lies almost midway between Dr Mozley
and his critic ; though the error of Prof. Tyndall is the
more complete, and is one which would extinguish
that very process of induction on the value of which
he so strongly insists. Prof. Tyndall's writ of eject-
ment against all theologians, and nine-tenths of the
clergy, as ignorant savages, from the field of physical
science, as involving questions with which they are in-
competent to deal, and where they are ill-informed, self-
deluded, and likely to delude others, rests on two data.
The first is a direct inversion of the facts with regard
to Newton's own doctrine ; the other is an assertion of
the necessary character of the laws of nature, which is
opposed to every page of the reasoning in the Principia,
and would turn that immortal work into a tissue of
laborious folly. It affirms the laws of force to be ne-
cessary truths, and thereby stultifies the whole course
of experimental science, and reverses the plainest facts
in the history of discovery. The other ground of the
charge is the maxim, that
"a truly scientific intellect can never be satisfied till it reaches the
forces by which the succession is produced... In judging of the order of
nature, our enquiries relate to the permanence of force."
86 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
This principle is true, but Prof. Tyndall has misdi-
rected the writ of ejectment which he founds upon it ;
its proper address is not to the Christian clergy, but
to M. Comte and all the Positive Philosophers. His
statement is a point blank contradiction of the funda-
mental maxim of that philosophy. For its first prin-
ciple is the exclusion, not only of supernatural powers,
but of such abstractions as cause, force, substance, and
vital power, from the researches of science, which in
its positive stage must be confined to the bare classi-
fication of phenomena. The whole course of reason-
ing by which Dr Mozley has brought on himself and
the clergy the reproach of being ignorant savages, is
not drawn from theology, but wholly borrowed from
the speculations of sceptical philosophers. By a rash
acceptance of their premises, he has greatly impaired
the value of lectures which contain much striking and
valuable thought. Dr Mozley's conclusion is, that the
inductive principle belongs to the irrational part of our
nature, that it is an unreasoning impulse or mechanical
instinct, by which we expect that future changes will be
like the past ; that it is simply a
" mechanical expectation of the likeness of the unknown to the known,"
that it is "unreasoning, and no part of the distinctive reason of man."
He says that " step by step, philosophy has loosened the connection
of the order of nature with the ground of reason, befriending in the
same proportion the principle of miracles. Science has itself proclaimed
the truth, that we see no causes in nature; that the whole chain of
physical succession is to the eye of reason a rope of sand, consisting
of antecedents and consequents, but without a rational link or trace
of necessary connection between them; we know of law only in the
sense of recurrences in nature."
Here Dr Mozley starts with assuming the truth of
the first principle of the positive philosophy, that science
has to deal with phenomena and their recurrence alone,
the relations of likeness and unlikeness.
THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE. 87
The only connection of this view with theology is
of a secondary and accidental kind. Bishop Berkeley
deceived himself with the notion that, by adopting the
current philosophy of ideas, and reasoning it out to the
sceptical conclusion of the non-existence of matter and
the material universe, he could gain a fresh argument
for the existence of God. This strange paradox, by
which he contradicted both Scripture and common sense,
was taken up by successors of a very different spirit,
and worked out to its natural issue. First, Hume
adopted his reasoning, and applied it to all mental
phenomena. Instead of material objects, Berkeley left
us floating in an ocean of momentary and evanescent
phenomena. Hume completed the process, and instead
of minds, left nothing but an interminable series of states
of consciousness, or sensations, or perceptions, or in-
ternal phenomena, with no minds, any more than things,
to which they belonged. The denial of the reality of
matter being thus followed by a like denial of the ex-
istence of mind, there could be no room left in this
abyss of darkness, for faith in the existence and attri-
butes of God, that is, of a creative and supreme In-
telligence. Bishop Berkeley, unhappily, took the first
step towards burying science and religion in this thick
jungle of sceptical philosophy, a double contradiction of
common sense and of Scripture. But its patrons have
not been the Christian clergy or theologians, who have
almost unanimously rejected it by a healthy instinct,
but sceptical philosophers. From Hume onward, this
phenomenalism has been the favourite creed of modern
sceptics.
Mr Mill, in his " Logic," makes this the main basis
of his Metaphysics, and adopts it fully with regard to
the non-existence of matter, which he would replace
by the new term " permanent possibilities of sensa-
88 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
tion." With regard to mind, the phenomena of memory
make him hesitate. He owns that philosophical con-
sistency would make us deny the existence of minds,
as well as of material objects. But the phenomena of
memory forbid him fully to acquiesce in this view; so
he counsels a compromise, by which we may use the
popular language which implies their existence, with the
reserve of a secret doubt and philosophical uncertainty
whether they exist or not. Mr Spencer adopts the very
same theory with a new phraseology. All the material
phenomena which Berkeley left in their endless suc-
cession, when matter itself was abolished, are with
Mr Spencer an indefinite series of " vivid manifesta-
tions of the Unknowable." Again, all the series of
states of consciousness which Hume left to us after
minds were abolished, are with Mr Spencer an inter-
minable series of "faint manifestations of the Unknow-
able." Thus, in this grand funeral procession, Bishop
Berkeley led the way, under the guidance of a false
philosophy, by abolishing the whole world of matter,
Hume followed, and completed the funeral rites, by
abolishing the whole world of created minds, leaving
us floating in an abyss of material and mental changes,
without any things or persons, material objects, or con-
scious minds, to which they belong. Well may Mr Spencer
say that
" Metaphysics of this type usually produce a sceptical state of mind,
and are ordinarily followed by a sense of universal illusion."
His proposed remedy however for this great evil only
aggravates the disease. It is to introduce a new definition
of reality, that reality means only " persistence in con-
sciousness," a definition truly "unthinkable," and never
known or heard of till his "First Principles " appeared.
Hume has frankly acknowledged this inevitable result
THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE. 89
of his own extension of Berkeley's reasoning on the
non-existence of matter to include mind also.
"These principles," he says, "may flourish and triumph in the
schools, where it is difficult to refute them, but as soon as they leave
the shade, and by the presence of the REAL OBJECTS (!) are put in
opposition to the more powerful principles of our nature, they vanish
like smoke, and leave the most determined sceptic in the same con-
dition as other mortals."
The constancy of Nature has a different meaning
with Prof. Tyndall, Mr Spencer, and the author of
"Supernatural Religion." In the author of the Belfast
address it means the necessary character of the laws of
physical science : the doctrine that
" Nature has never been crossed by spontaneous action, or a state of
things ever existed which could not be rigorously deduced from the
preceding state."
Prof. Tyndall boldly ascribes this doctrine to Newton
himself, and makes it the test of the scientific mind. A
startling contradiction of notorious facts, since this is the
very doctrine which Newton expressly denounces at the
close of the Principia, as unscientific and unreasonable. The
doctrine is indeed the most palpable of scientific errors :
it destroys the deep contrast between abstract sciences,
and concrete sciences which rest upon the evidence of
facts, and deal with concrete realities ; it stultifies the
whole course of experimental science as laborious trifling,
and reverses the plainest facts in the history of dis-
covery. It annuls that process which is the essence
of scientific advance, a comparison of the results of
different hypotheses with observed facts, so as to detect
which out of several hypotheses is actually true. The
binding of nature by modern science " in the bonds of
fate," spoken of in the Belfast address, is nothing else
than the contradiction of the fundamental principle of
M. Comte and the positive philosophy, which bids us
90 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
set aside the research of forces and real entities, and
classify phenomena alone. On this view, we have an
infinite multitude of phenomena through successive
moments of time, but the phenomena of each moment
are quite independent of those of the previous or se-
quent moments.
The only indeterminateness which is set aside by
the progress of physical science, is the false inde-
pendence of the phenomena of each separate instant
of time, which would result from the positivist or
phenomenal philosophy. The indeterminateness which
still remains, and which separates the actual universe
and its physical laws, from that system of necessity with
which Prof. Tyndall confounds it, consists of the places
of all the atoms in the universe, containing three times
as many indeterminates, as there are atoms of matter
or of ether in the whole universe. These data cannot be
supplied by the laws themselves. They must be supplied
by the choice of a will, prior to and above the laws ;
till they have been thus supplied, the law of gravitation,
and any similar laws depending on the distances of the
atoms, cannot operate. The atoms must exist, and be at
definite distances from each other, and in definite direc-
tions, before any one of these laws can take effect. The
result of excluding all spontaneous action, of man or of
God, is not to supersede will by physical laws, but to
restrict the action of will to the first moment of crea-
tion, and to confine the choice of the number, properties,
and positions of all the atoms of the universe to that
moment of creation. The whole infinite spontaneity or
element of choice would be concentrated in one moment
of time ; thenceforward will and choice in the Creator
would be dormant and idle for evermore. And no will
or choice in any creature would be permitted to interfere
with the perfect and eternal development of the ever-
THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE. 9 1
changing positions of the innumerable atoms. Such is
the senseless view of the history of the universe which
this mechanical theory sets before us. Its laws cannot
work, or come into existence at all, without the pre-
vious exercise of choice and will on the part of the
Supreme Lawgiver, and this choice once made, the
faculty of spontaneity is supposed to sink into an ever-
lasting sleep ; and the blinded Samson of the material
universe has to grind on in a prison-house of fated and
inevitable change for evermore. Had Prof. Tyndall
read with due care the Lectures he praises so justly,
and followed this by a study of the Principia and the
Scholium at its close, he would have escaped falling into
these blunders. But Dr Mozley's statement, that the
inductive principle, and our faith in the order of Nature,
is an unreasoning impulse, a blind and " unreasoning
instinct," and his further explanation in these words, that
" our nature, though endowed with reason, contains constitutionally
large irrational departments, and includes in it many processes which
are entirely spontaneous, irresistible and of the automaton kind"
(p. 46),
seem to have provoked the rejoinder that "as regards
the knowledge of Nature, which is here the one thing
needful, nine-tenths of the clergy are noble savages
and nothing more," with the further advice, " keep away
from physical nature." The fault of Dr Mozley is, that
he has adopted blindly the main principle of the
phenomenal or idealistic school of sceptical philosophy,
and has thereby greatly impaired and perplexed a course
of argument, marked in other respects by much ingenuity
and force of reasoning. Prof. Tyndall's writ of eject-
ment from the studies and researches of physical science
ought to have its superscription altered, and instead
of being served on theologians and the Christian clergy,
so as really to include with them Bacon, Newton, Milton,
92 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
Barrow, Faraday, Whewell, Sedgwick, and most physical
discoverers of real eminence, should be addressed to
his own allies, the positive philosophers and Nihilists
of modern times. The "inductive principle according
to Dr Mozley is the expectation that the future will
be like the past ; this he regards as a blind instinct,
having nothing to do with the reason, and implanted
to assist us in the practical conduct of life. Now, in-
stead of settling whether this expectation belongs to
the rational or irrational part of our nature, there is a
prior question whether it exists at all. No one, either
peasant, philosopher or divine, really expects that to-
morrow will be exactly like to-day in all its events,
and the third day exactly like both. As the Bishop
of Exeter has well said, in the first Essay (p. 2),
" A series of recurring cycles, however conceivable to the logical under-
standing, is inconceivable to the spirit, for every later cycle must be
different from every earlier by the mere fact of coming after it and
embodying its results."
No one ever did believe the course of Nature, or any
portions of it, to be mere facsimiles, and perfect repe-
titions of previous events without any change. On the
other hand, to suppose that the events of to-morrow or
any later day will be wholly different from the events that
are past, with no elements common to both, is incredible
and inconceivable. It would imply the annihilation of
the actual universe around us, and of ourselves, and the
creation of another wholly new. Since no one, then,
expects the future to be like the past in all respects,
and every one expects it to be like the past in some
respects, there is plainly a wide range for the exercise
of reason, to decide how far it is probable the likeness
will extend, and what will be the degree of unlikeness,
variation, and change. The first step in the exercise of
reason on this subject, is to renounce as wholly false
THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE. 93
the first principle of the positive philosophy ; that we
have to deal with a vast phantasmagoria of phenomena
alone, and not with real entities, things, persons and
places. The element of permanence, on which we con-
fidently and reasonably rely, has this ground, that the
persons, the animals, the trees and plants, and the places
and material objects of which we have had experience
to-day, will form the main part of our experiences to-
morrow, unless we travel away from our present to a
wholly different locality. There are various changes
on which we reasonably calculate amidst this general
identity ; death and dissolution in the case of some ;
growth and insensible vital progress in all ; and births,
introducing fresh persons, animals, and plants, besides
those which were known before. There are other
changes of a periodic kind. The regular succession of
day and night, of spring, summer, autumn, and winter,
of seed-time and harvest; and besides these, changes
which we cannot precisely predict or anticipate, of a
more exceptional kind ; partial or complete catastrophes,
such as sudden deaths, earthquakes, explosions, thun-
derstorms, destruction of life by lightning, river-floods
and oceanic inundations, and other violent and extreme
changes, to which Nature is liable in every part of her
wide dominion. The cultivation of our reason, and the
practical habits of human life, depend on the permanent
elements in Nature, and on those quiet and regular
changes which come within the range of reasonable
expectation and practical forecast. All exceptional
changes, which we cannot foresee or anticipate by our
knowledge of second causes, come practically under the
head of the miraculous ; there is no blinding influence
of custom to hinder our minds from passing at once,
in these, to the recognition of that Divine Agent, on
whom all second causes really depend.
94 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
" Miracles viewed as evidences for a 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 some professed messenger of God, to confirm the reality of the
message; the definition has a negative and a positive side. There
must be no second causes, at least within human knowledge, that will
account for the event, and there must be an apparent connection with
a plain moral object or more professed message from God. Wherever
these two conditions meet, we have a case of miraculous evidence;
some of these, possibly, by an increase of man's insight into natural
changes, or of his power over nature, in some later age might cease
to be miraculous. Others may surpass not only human, but super-
human power. ..Whenever, through the power of sin, creation has
grown opaque to the eyes of men, and the physical course of nature
conceals from them the presence of the great Lawgiver, miracles are
needed to form an antidote to blind nature-worship, and to reverse
the blinding spell of unbelief. This end may be secured either by acts
of Divine power suspending or reversing some particular law of nature,
or by combining these in such an unusual way, and with such marks
of a moral purpose, as to force on reluctant minds the conviction that
Nature is only the servant and handmaid of the Living God, the Creator
and moral Governor of the universe." (Bible and Modern Thought,
p. 76.)
The Most High, when He answers the patriarch out
of the whirlwind, speaks of these extraordinary changes
in Nature, as His own treasures, "which I have reserved
against the time of trouble, against the day of battle
and war " (Job xxxviii. 23). And again, with regard
to the bounds of the ocean, the circuits of the earth,
the ordinances of heaven, and the lightnings, " Who
brake up for it a decreed place, and set bars and doors,
and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, here
shall thy proud waves be stayed ? Hast thou commanded
the morning, and caused the dayspring to know its place,
that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and
that the wicked might be shaken out of it ? Canst thou
lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters
may cover thee ? Canst thou send lightnings that they
THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE. 95
may go and say unto thee, Here we are ? " All that
is vast, unforeseen, unusual, and magnificent in Nature,
constitutes the secret treasure-chamber of the Most High,
that He may " withdraw man from his purpose, and hide
pride from man."
The constancy of Nature, or as he styles it, "the
perfection and invariability of Nature," with the author
of " Supernatural Religion " is a third thing, distinct
from both the extremes of Mozley and Tyndall. It is
a passive adoption of the third of Mr Spencers three
inconsistent theories of the future manifestation of the
unknowable. It is neither the necessary character of
natural laws, nor the likeness in all respects of the future
to the past.
The author of " Supernatural Religion " in accepting
as a first principle the predicted Creed of the scoffers
of the last days, that " all things continue as they were
since the fathers fell asleep," under the title of the
" glorious perfection and invariability of the order of
Nature," seems never to have taken the least pains to
analyze or define to himself that constancy of the laws
of Nature to which he appeals. It is plain that the end-
less variation of natural phenomena, and of the changes
of the visible universe, is quite as conspicuous as that
constancy of natural law to which the appeal is made.
Let us consider the matter a little more closely. There
may be said perhaps to be nine great laws or princi-
ples which reveal themselves in the constitution and
changes of the universe. (i) First, the law of Per-
manence ; the continuous existence of all the creatures
which God has made, and which come within the range
of our observations ; man, animals, and plants, and the
innumerable atoms of lifeless matter. Our knowledge
refers to things and persons that do really exist, and not
to perishable evanescent sensations or phenomena which
96 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
expire in the moment of their birth. The first step then
of genuine science, is to renounce the Idealism of Berke-
ley, and the Sensationalism of Mr Mill in his " Logic."
This first law of permanence in all natural objects, results
directly from the fact of creation. THINGS abide and
endure, but sensations and phenomena expire from mo-
ment to moment. There is an element of permanence
in Nature, because "in the beginning God created the
Heavens and the Earth," and "they continue this day
according to His ordinance." (2) The second law is
that of Progression, or the successive stages of life and
growth in all living things. Thus, all men, animals and
plants, beginning with the embryo or the seed, pass
on through successive stages to maturity and old age.
This law of progress, and continual passage from infant
weakness to mature strength and fully-developed life,
extends through the whole range of animated being.
It has its defined periods, which extend from the ephe-
meral life of the insect tribes to the millennial duration
of the trees of the forest. (3) A third law, which ac-
companies the second, as a kind of negative counterpart
or dark shadow, is the law of Death or dissolution, what
the apostle calls " the law of sin and death." Life in all
plants and animals and even in man himself, after a
period of growth or maturity of varying length, is fol-
lowed by disease, death, and dissolution of being. This
law we accept as a fact, universal within the limits of
terrestrial existence, but reason protests against the
acceptance of it as a fundamental and absolute law of
universal being. (4) Fourthly, there is a law of Pe-
riodicity including three main elements, on which the
course of human history and the measurement of time
depend; i. The period and ceaseless alternation of day
and night, resulting from the daily revolution of the
earth, and revealing itself in every sunrise and sunset,
THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE. 97
fulfilling the decree, "While the earth remaineth, day
and night shall not cease." 2. The second period is
that of the natural year, depending on the motion of
the earth in its annual orbit, and revealing itself in the
succession of the seasons ; this is ratified by the same
divine decree, "While the earth remaineth, seed-time
and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, shall
not cease." 3. A third period, less conspicuous than
these, but still playing an important part in natural
science and all human history, is the month, or lunation
of the moon. With these are connected many secondary
periods, of a more complex and dependent kind ; the
tides and ocean currents, the trade winds and other
changes of the ocean and the air. The heavens supply
other periods in the revolutions of the planets and their
satellites, and binary and variable stars. But all these
are very subordinate, in practical importance, to the three
fundamental periods of the day, the year and the
month. Nearly all the cases of man's limited power
of predicting future events depend on this law of
periodicity.
There are four other natural laws of mutation, de-
pendent on the inter-action of the two elements of water
and fire. First, the law of evaporation, by which water
under the influence of heat evaporates and disappears,
and the whole aqueous system of the earth is main-
tained. Secondly, the law of freezing, by which water
solidifies with cold, and the snows of winter and the
mountain glaciers are formed. Thirdly, the law of indu-
ration, by which bodies imperfectly solid are hardened,
and changed to a rocky texture. Fourthly, the law of
combustion, by which, under the application of intense
heat, the texture of material masses, either great or
small, is completely changed, and they are either en-
tirely dissipated or assume wholly altered forms, while
B. 7
98 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
life is extinguished in all living things. To these eight
main principles or laws of material change, we may
add a ninth, the law of occasional catastrophes, or non-
periodic changes of an exceptional and peculiar kind.
Phenomena of this kind are, explosions, sudden con-
flagrations, floods and inundations, shipwrecks, earth-
quakes, volcanic eruptions, pestilences, tornadoes, and
hurricanes. Though not infractions of natural laws, they
are exceptional results of a combination of those laws
beyond the range of human foresight, but foreseen and
pre-arranged by the great Governor of the universe.
The constancy, then, of natural laws is an ambiguous
term. The sameness of a law itself is one thing, and
the sameness of the conditions under which it operates
is something wholly different. While fundamental laws
are the same, the conditions under which they operate,
and by which their effects are determined, vary ever
from hour to hour, from year to year, and still more
from age to age.
The geological reasonings of Sir C. Lyell are wholly
based on a confusion of these two different things ;
the sameness of laws, and of the conditions under which
they operate. He professes to aim at explaining all
geological changes through many past myriads of years,
by causes that are now in operation, as inferred from
the experience of the past hundred years. The causes
themselves, now in operation, are the attractive, cohe-
sive and ethereal forces of the actual atoms or masses
of matter in the solar system. The action of the law
of gravitation, and doubtless of cohesion and electric
repulsion also, depends for its amount on the position
of the different atoms or masses ; but those positions
have changed and are changing from hour to hour,
by the action of those laws themselves ; these changes
in the course of long ages may have been, and indeed
, THE CONSTANT ELEMENT IN NATURE. 99
in the course of long ages must have been, so great
and various as practically to annul the sameness of the
law, by utter diversity and entire contrast in the con-
ditions under which it is exercised. To strive to account
for all past changes, whether on the earth's surface, or
throughout its entire mass, by "causes now in opera-
tion," if by these are meant present laws, operating
under present conditions, is an attempt which is sure
to fail. It assumes sameness of conditions and circum-
stances through myriads of past years, where all ex-
perience and reason conspire to demonstrate the fact
of a wide, indefinite and almost immeasurable diversity.
It is true of the life of each individual man, that he
" is cut down as a flower, and fleeth as it were a
shadow," while it may be said of the universal frame
of Nature, and of the earth itself in past ages of geolo-
gical change, and in the promised ages of the world to
come, that it " never continueth in one stay." "In the
midst of life we are in death," and terrestrial experience
since exact records began, is confined within far too
narrow bounds, to allow us to determine thereby the
working and the limits of the two contrasted laws of
life and death. We need for this all the further light
which Divine revelation can supply, and in part has
supplied. When we go a little further back than three
thousand years, we are confronted at once by the two
great facts of which unbelievers are " willingly ignorant "
the creation of "all things in the beginning by the
word of God," and the Flood which came "upon the
world of the ungodly." And for the last eighteen hundred
years, the whole history of our world has been determined
and moulded by those two facts which the Gospel history
alone sets before us, the actual resurrection of Christ,
and the promise which He has given of a future hour
when "all that are in the graves shall hear His voice,
IOO SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
and shall come forth." The moral and even the physical
history of all Christian nations, that is, of the dominant
and ruling part of the earth's population, has been de-
termined and moulded by these two great facts, which
the sceptic in his blind worship of the constancy of
natural causes, would set aside as dreams of superstition.
The course of Nature may be said to be compounded
of three elements : the fixed or permanent, the periodic,
and the ever varying. Man's power of forecast depends
on the second. The elements of change and variation
outnumber and exceed those of fixity and permanence.
The further we recede from present time, the more
complete is the change, and the fewer are the unchanged
and abiding elements. In less than a hundred years,
the whole generation of living men will have passed
away, and in a thousand years, only a few forest trees
and the everlasting hills will remain, of all the objects
that now meet the eyes of man on the surface of the
earth. What is permanent and enduring is a very small
fraction indeed of that which existed once, and will soon
have passed away. For permanence and constancy we
need to mount higher, and look to Him who is the Self-
existent and the Unchangeable, and to those elements of
created being which partake most largely of these Divine
attributes ; to the spiritual being of man, in those who,
by partaking of a Divine nature, are raised above the
sphere of death and corruption, and the darkness of the
grave, into a higher region of blissful hope and expecta-
tion of an immortal life to come. "He that doeth the
will of God abideth for ever."
CHAPTER XI.
THE MIRACULOUS ELEMENT INVOLVED IN THE WHOLE
COURSE OF NATURE.
A DOUBLE confusion of thought with regard to the
meaning of Nature, and of miraculous evidence, forms the
basis of that monstrous tissue of sophistry, by which the
author of " Supernatural Religion " seeks to blot out the
light of the Gospel, and of the blessed Dayspring from
on high, and to bury the whole world in midnight dark-
ness once more. Let us examine the meaning of three
cognate terms in connection with the whole course of
Nature : the mysterious, the unusual, and the miraculous.
Man's knowledge of the course of Nature, and of the
universe around him, is a very small fragment of a vast
and mighty whole. The little island of human know-
ledge is shut in and surrounded by a vast ocean of the
unknown, and that unknown ocean is the home of in-
finite and unsearchable mysteries. The range of common
and ordinary experience includes mainly two things :
certain known objects or permanent existences ; human
beings, animals, plants, portions of the earth's surface,
the atmosphere, the lights of the sky, the sun, moon and
stars ; and certain usual changes, of birth, growth and
death, and of the circuits of the heavens, and that succes-
sion of the seasons, and of day and night, of which he has
constant experience. Within these narrow limits, custom,
indolence, and moral torpor weaken the sense of mystery.
IO2 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
and make it possible for men to forget the Author of
their being, the great Cause on whom both they and all
things around them depend. Our own existence, and
that of the persons and things immediately around us,
is itself a great mystery. Whenever we reflect upon it
seriously, reason cannot pause, till it reaches the footstool
of the throne of God. Since we and things around us
exist, there must be self-existence somewhere, a First
Cause of all things. Again, not only the existence of the
things around us, but the ordinary circuit of changes
which they undergo, is highly mysterious. To thoughtful
minds "the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the
firmament sheweth His handiwork/' When the Psalmist
considered the sun, moon, and stars, he was lost in ad-
miration of the greatness and glory of the Creator, and
of His condescending goodness towards the children
of men. " What is man, that Thou art mindful of him ?
and the son of man, that Thou regardest him ?" The
sense of mystery, though it may lie dormant for a time
while we abide within the narrow sphere of man's daily
experience, wakens up afresh when his understanding
returns to him, and he begins to reflect seriously on the
wonders of the universe which surround him on every
side. Even the known and familiar objects of Nature,
and their customary changes, are full of mystery, and
ought to lead the thoughts of men upward to the
presence of God. Still more is this true of that immense
abyss of unknown, undiscovered truth, by which the
islet of our actual knowledge of Nature and outward
things is shut in and enclosed on every side. The
unusual and unfamiliar in Nature has a far wider range
than the familiar and the usual. As soon as men travel
from place to place they become acquainted with fresh
groups of terrestrial objects ; and the men, animals, and
plants, of which any one has had a personal experience,
THE MIRACULOUS ELEMENT IN NATURE. 1 03
and gained a familiar knowledge, are a very small part
of the whole range of earthly existence. Growing study
of the skies opens a still wider range of celestial mysteries,
of worlds and systems, wholly inaccessible to the foot-
steps of man in his present state. The unusual, the un-
familiar in Nature, is thus the appointed pathway, by
which man is conducted out of the littleness of his own
actual ignorance, into the contemplation of the infinite
vastness of that universe which is on every side, and is
raised to a growing apprehension of the wisdom, power,
and goodness of the great Author and Parent of the
whole. " All we behold is miracle, but seen so duly, all
is miracle in vain." The unusual and unfamiliar, then,
is that by which the deadening effect of custom and habit
is overcome. It is God's surgical instrument for re-
moving the scales and couching the cataract, by which
the eyes of the soul are darkened ; till men are content
to live on in thoughtless unconcern, in a constant round
of day and night, seed-time and harvest, summer and
winter, forgetful of all the mysteries of human life, and
of the wonderful world around them, never asking,
Whence am I, and whither am I going ? What means
this gift of life, this " vapour, which appears for a little
time and then vanishes away?" It is the unusual and
unfamiliar which wakens man from the dull sleep of
custom, to draw once more the conclusion of the wisest
of men, " Fear God and keep His commandments, for
this is the whole business of man." The awakened
conscience will then soon pass on to accept the further
truth, " God will bring every work into judgment, with
every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it
be evil."
But this wide range of the unusual and unfamiliar in
Nature, this Divine pathway, which leads man out of his
own littleness into fellowship with the full grandeur and
IO4 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
magnificence of the universe, admits of a twofold dis-
tinction. It includes changes foreseen and anticipated,
and changes wholly unforeseen, unexplained, and un-
expected. These two classes of the unfamiliar and
unusual are very dissimilar in their operation on the
human mind. Changes however unusual, which man can
foresee and anticipate, because he can trace them to
some special concurrence of second causes in usual and
daily operation, do not awaken in him the impression
of witnessing an immediate operation of Divine power,
a direct effect of supernatural agency ; the tendency is
rather to enlarge and enrich his impressions of the order
and method that reigns in the universe, and of the wide
range and complexity of those laws by which the Creator
governs and regulates all the works of His hands. The
phenomena of a total eclipse of the sun are impressive
and startling in the highest degree ; they must arrest
and absorb the attention of all who witness them, and
they even disturb the accustomed instincts of the lower
creatures. But, when observed as a consequence of
calculations made beforehand, which determine with the
greatest accuracy the moment of its occurrence, and its
short continuance, it can produce no such impression as
it does amongst savages, on whom it bursts without any
warning; an impression of the direct action of some malig-
nant demon, blotting out the whole light of heaven in
pure malice, and awakening a fear that this may never
be restored. On the other hand, the strange occurrence,
being foreseen, and referred to a specific combination
of second causes, serves to crown and complete the
evidence of the wide range of natural laws, and of the
constancy of their operation, not only in the regular
succession of day and night, and summer and winter, but
in an immense variety of celestial changes that, on a
superficial view, seem irregular and arbitrary.
THE MIRACULOUS ELEMENT IN NATURE. 105
But unusual and unfamiliar changes, not foreseen or
anticipated, have an opposite effect. They waken men
equally from the trance of custom, but their further lesson
is not of the greatness of human knowledge, and the
wide extent of natural laws, but on the contrary of the
narrow limit of man's knowledge, and the vast range of
Divine power, optional and not confined and fettered by
any law that man can trace or discover, but still at the
free disposal of the Almighty Creator, to hide pride from
man, and bring him to worship in humble reverence at
the footstool of the Almighty.
Now what is the relation of the miraculous, in the
scriptural sense of the phrase, to this wide range of un-
familiar and unforeseen elements in the course of Nature ?
It is a selection from amongst all the changes that
might arrest attention, of a limited number, to connect
them by some plain and specific marks with a moral pur-
pose, and the manifest presence of the Supreme Creator.
This connection may be secured in three different ways.
First, by an alteration and modification of the instincts
of the lower creatures, such as can only be reasonably
assigned to a superhuman cause. Secondly, by special
powers or gifts imparted to individual persons, the
bearers of a Divine message ; or, thirdly, the Most High
God may reveal Himself, as a Person, by personal acts
of Divine power, or by words of Divine wisdom and
goodness, speaking to men face to face, as a man
speaketh to his friend, with a presence of condescending
love in the midst of the creatures He has made. All
these different forms of the miraculous are set before
us in the messages of the Bible. First, we have cases of
the miraculous control and elevation of instinct in the
lower creatures.
A wider range of Scripture miracles is that of signs
and wonders, wrought by a long series of prophets,
IO6 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
commissioned to bear God's messages to the people of
Israel, from Moses to Malachi, and the prophets and
apostles of the New Testament. Three signs were given
to Moses at his first commission, as the pledges and
proofs of its reality Then "he put forth his hand and
caught it, and it became a rod in his hand... that they
may believe that Jehovah, the God of their fathers, the
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, hath appeared
unto thee."..."Thou shalt take this rod in thine hand,
wherewith thou shalt do signs." So St Paul says to the
Corinthians, " Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought
among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and
mighty deeds." But the crowning glory of the Gospel,
and the fullest form of miraculous self-manifestation of
God, is in the person, ministry and presence on earth
of the incarnate Son of God, and the like manifesta-
tion of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, in the mani-
fold gifts of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and in
the later history of the Church. Hence reasons the
Apostle, " 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 unto us by them that heard
Him; God also bearing them witness with signs and
wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy
Ghost, according to His own will." Thus, from the
insect plagues of Egypt, through the barren fig-tree, and
the fishes of the ocean depths, upward to the throne of
God, all departments of the creation, and the Supreme
Creator Himself, give consenting testimony, by signs,
wonders and mighty deeds, to the truth, reality and
excellency of the everlasting Gospel of the grace of
God to sinful men. Those who venture to defame and
denounce this glorious message of redeeming love and
grace, as " shocking to their reason and moral sense,"
and contradicted by " the glorious perfection " of that
THE MIRACULOUS ELEMENT IN NATURE. IO*J
order of Nature, in which death reigns supreme without
a Redeemer ; show merely the depth of moral darkness
into which it is possible for men to sink, even in the
midst of the noonday brightness of "the Day-spring
from on high," the " Sun of Righteousness," the only
true and eternal Light of the souls of sinful men.
CHAPTER XII.
THE THREEFOLD INCONSTANCY OF TERRESTRIAL
NATURE.
THE free thinkers of the last days, who make the
constancy of Nature, within the limits of earthly experi-
ence, " since the fathers fell asleep," a warrant for their
disbelief of the Creation and the Deluge in time past,
and of the solemn warning of a Judgment to come, over-
look three great limitations of that constancy to which
they appeal as a first principle ; three scientific refutations
of their uniformitarian philosophy. In our own days, a
whole school of geological speculation, with many disci-
ples, has been founded on the misconstruction of a single
ambiguous phrase, "causes now in operation." First, the
constancy of terrestrial nature for indefinite ages past,
and countless ages to come, is disproved and forbidden
by the nature of man, and the known course of human
parentage and descent. The habitable surface of our
earth is of known and definite extent, about fifty millions
of square miles. The present population of our globe is
either a thousand or twelve hundred millions of human
beings ; or from twenty to twenty-four for every square
mile, whether barren or fertile, locked in eternal frost
or scorched with torrid heat, from the North to the
South Pole. This surface is a fixed, invariable quantity,
but the law of human life is one of geometrical pro-
gression.
THE INCONSTANCY OF TERRESTRIAL NATURE. IOQ
It is not unlikely that the present population of our
globe is ten times greater than at the beginning of the
Christian era. With the same rate of increase forward,
or decrease backward, the population might be from
eight to ten millions, eighteen hundred years before
Christ ; now it is quite easy to conceive of an increase a
million-fold of the sons of Noah, in five centuries, when
the unpeopled earth lay all before them, open for their oc-
cupation. But such a relation between the earth's surface
and its population is incapable of being produced in-
definitely, either backward or forward, except under
conditions quite contrary to this assumed constancy of
terrestrial nature. One possible alternative is, that the
whole race might be placed under a law of comparative
barrenness and sterility, so that with few exceptions no
parents should have more than one son and one daughter.
But this, according to the past experience of human
nature, could only be by a constant miracle, operating
through successive millennia of the world's history, and
therefore flatly opposed to the constancy of laws purely
physical. The second alternative is, such an increased
prevalence of pestilence, bloodshed, violent war, and other
causes of human mortality, as might reverse and nullify
from age to age, the tendency, in more peaceable and
prosperous times, to a constant increase and overflow
of the world's population. The third alternative is one,
in which the moral and spiritual elevation of the whole
race would bring the higher elements of our nature into
such activity, as to overcome all its lower instincts and
passions, and prevent all marriages but those guided
by a Christian ideal, social forethought, and a full sense
of paternal and maternal responsibility. In the absence
of these three alternatives, none of which agrees with
past experience, the constancy of Nature, instead of con-
tinuing unbroken through many millennia of coming time,
I 10 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
must terminate in a few centuries, or else require a
communication to be opened miraculously with other
worlds, to provide space for overflowing multitudes of
the earth's population. The laws of human increase
wholly exclude a doctrine of the constancy of terrestrial
nature, even for a single millennium. They supply
also a scientific presumption of great force, against that
hypothesis of the extreme antiquity of the human race,
for many myriads of years before the time of Moses
and Noah, which many have lately espoused, in entire
contradiction to the plain teaching of the word of God.
A miraculous process by which men and women had
been developed out of apes or monkeys, must have been
succeeded by a law of unnatural sterility and barrenness,
and by a further law of preternatural indolence and
inaction, so that through successive ages many gene-
rations were born and died like ephemera, without
leaving behind them any visible and palpable signs of
their existence. All the strongest instincts and charac-
teristics of man, as unfolded in the last two or three
thousand years, must have been reversed, or wholly
wanting, in these thousand or ten thousand generations
of pre-Adamite men, bred and reared in the fertile brains
of a few inventive speculators of the present or the
last century.
A second limit to the constancy of terrestrial nature,
is that which depends on the earth itself. The earth, as
explored by modern science, seems to be throughout
its crust, or the parts nearest the surface to the depth
of a few miles, an immense cemetery, with strata
superimposed one upon another, of systems of plants
and animals which have existed in succession arid
then passed away, whether through a great number of
partial catastrophes and violent changes, or a smaller
number almost total. Now, our earth being thus con-
THE INCONSTANCY OF TERRESTRIAL NATURE. Ill
stituted, a constancy of terrestrial nature for many past
myriads of years, and still more, through myriads of
past centuries, is a manifest contradiction of the known
facts. The disciples of the uniformitarian scheme of
geology, in striving to account for all changes of the
earth through the eras of geology by causes now in
operation, merely deceive themselves with an ambiguous
phrase. The causes now in operation are certain atoms
of matter which constitute the mass of the earth, and
certain laws of terrestrial change, and relations of place,
distance, density, rest or atomic motion, and heat, under
which the forces operate at the present time. Now the
known law of gravitation, and most probably the un-
known laws of cohesion and repulsion, are functions of
the distances. The force exercised by every atom or
body, on every other, varies with every change of dis-
tance. The causes in operation ten thousand, or a
hundred thousand years ago, if the mass of the earth
and its component atoms were the same, and the laws
of force the same, must have been different, and could
not have been the same as the forces which are in
operation now. The theoretical sameness would be
that of the atoms composing the mass of the earth, and
of the abstract laws, but the forces would probably
differ in all the following respects. First, the mean
density of the earth must probably have varied from
age to age, if it was condensed from a primitive nebula ;
and if the moon, which is of less density, was parted from
it many millennia ago. Also the mean temperature of the
whole has plainly varied from age to age ; the pressure
on every stratum from the surface to the centre ; the
density of each stratum, resulting from that pressure ; the
more or less intense resistance to further condensation,
or the modulus of elasticity ; the coast lines, or separa-
tions between land and sea, the bed or depression of
I I 2 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
the ocean ; the heights and position of all the different
mountain ranges; the total amount of light and heat
received from the sun ; the electric and magnetic con-
ditions of every part of the surface, and of the whole
mass. These are only a few of the elements which
almost certainly have varied from age to age, through-
out all past time, since the crust of our earth became
solid.
To found a scheme of geology, then, on the assump-
tion that the causes in operation in all past time, were
the same which operate at present in the nineteenth
century of the Christian era, is to build a pyramid of
guess-work on the foundation of a demonstrable false-
hood. At the same time, within a limit of two cen-
turies, it may be highly probable that the structure of
the earth, and the main elements of its constitution, on
which local changes, their nature and direction, would
chiefly depend, would not differ much from those which
operate at present. But with every century that we
remove from the present time, the differences must in-
crease ; probably at least in the ratio of the square, and
more probably in the ratio of the cube, or some higher
power of that interval. For the difference in each of a
dozen different elements of the great problem reacts on
all the rest, and multiplies their compound effect. Thus
it will be probable that the differences a millennium ago,
compared with those of a single century, are not tenfold
but at least a thousand-fold, and more probably a million
times greater. Never surely was a scientific theory built
in the dark, on a more demonstrable falsehood, than the
uniformitarian doctrine of some modern geologists, at least
in its most extreme form. At present, the known and
really scientific elements of the vast problem, to determine
what was the state, configuration and chemical structure,
of every part of the earth's crust, and its fauna and flora
THE INCONSTANCY OF TERRESTRIAL NATURE. 113
to the depth of one mile from the sea level, a thousand
or ten thousand years ago are only as one in a million,
compared with the data which are purely conjectural and
still unknown. The constancy then of terrestrial nature
in past ages, is excluded and disproved by the whole
structure of the crust of the earth, as far down as science
has been able to penetrate. The lesson taught is the
very opposite ; inconstancy, change and perpetual varia-
tion, only with some fixed and permanent elements in
the midst of a vast series of indefinite cKanges. But
the elements of permanence bring out into fuller relief
the predominence and manifold complexity of the causes
of change which were in ceaseless operation. The whole
structure then of the earth's crust, from the Laurentian
strata of Canada upwards, is one continuous protest
against that doctrine of the constancy of terrestrial
nature, which the scoffers of the last days make the
excuse for their rejection of the statements of Scripture
with regard to the Creation and the Flood, and of its
solemn warning of a future Day of Judgment, when the
earth and the works therein shall be burned up and
dissolved, and be followed by new heavens and a new
earth according to the Divine promise.
A third proof of the inconstancy of terrestrial nature
may be drawn from the relation of our earth and its
whole system to the sun, the great source of light, heat,
and central attraction. On no reasonable view can we
assume the thorough constancy of terrestrial nature,
wholly dependent as it is on the sun, for immense and
limited ages, either in the past or the future. In fact,
several different theories and conjectures are prevalent
among scientific men on this subject, and all of them
alike are incompatible with an unlimited constancy of
terrestrial nature. One very prevalent view, at the
present time, is that the sun is a great spendthrift, send-
B. 8
114 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
ing out his light and heat throughout space never to
return to him, a prodigal wasting his substance in riotous
living, the stock of primitive energy on which the
light, warmth, and life of the whole system depend.
They predict that in ten, twenty, or four hundred mil-
lions of years, this stock will probably be exhausted, in
which case the whole system must issue in a glacial
period, very different from that which geologists think
they have deciphered in the boulder drift age; and the
whole planet remain covered for ever with a frozen
ocean, or mountain glaciers, w r ith all life extinct, for
evermore. This is the basis of the first of Mr Spencers
three incompatible theories, or a priori conclusions, with
regard to the future mode and scheme of action of the
UNKNOWABLE through millions of ages to come. Half a
dozen kindred theories might be named. The sun is
speeding fast through the realms of space. He is rapidly
losing energy, light and heat, by sending out his rays
through all surrounding space. He is gaining fresh
light and heat by the constant dropping in of streams of
meteors. Or again, by a ceaseless condensation of his
mass from age to age. Many think that his present
light, heat, and mass have been attained in millions of
years by condensation from a vast nebular cloud. Others
conjecture that as the sun and Sirius are now approach-
ing each other at the rate of some hundreds of millions
of miles each year, they will probably, in less than a
million of years, end their course by a violent collision,
which certainly would involve the destruction of both
systems ; of the Sirian planets, if any, and of the earth
and all its sister planets as far as Neptune. Thus modern
men of science offer us almost as many alternative
theories of change, inconstancy, and probable destruction
in store for the sun, as they have detected dark lines
in the solar spectrum itself.
THE INCONSTANCY OF TERRESTRIAL NATURE. 115
When therefore we consider the nature of man as a
living being, the constitution of the earth's crust, and the
probable past and future history of the sun, we have a
threefold refutation of the maxim of the scoffers of the
last days. " Since the fathers fell asleep, all things con-
tinue as they were from the beginning of the Creation,"
and will so continue for ever. They further affirm that
"the universe is unlimited and immeasurable, it is eternal
and it is infinite," so that in fact there was no creation,
and there has been no beginning, and will be no end 1 .
Thus the physical theory of the bankruptcy of the sun
some millions of years hence, has been anticipated in
the higher sphere of morals. In the souls of some modern
atheists a state of moral darkness has been reached
already, in which the " Sun of Righteousness," the true
Light of the world, is quenched in utter darkness.
1 Haeckel's " History of Creation," p. 324.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WITNESS OF ALL NATURE TO THE BEING AND
PERFECTIONS OF GOD.
THE author of "Supernatural Religion " in his Intro-
duction, professes to deplore the general eclipse of faith,
and the inconsistencies of those Christian Divines, who
pick out scraps and fragments from the Christian Reve-
lation, and reject the rest, or dilute it into seeming
agreement with modern currents of unbelieving thought.
Yet the one great object of his work is to render that
eclipse total, permanent and irreversible, and his chief
implement in this melancholy task, is a gathering up
and collecting into one focus of those concessions and
partial surrenders of divine truth of which he complains.
The apparent success is almost complete. The impres-
sion left after reading his first chapter, is, that if Nature
or revelation yield any evidence for the existence and
perfections of a personal God, it has been so effectually
disguised, frittered away, mixed up with confused thought,
and surrendered or contradicted in detail, as to be robbed
of all moral power, and practically to be equivalent to the
entire absence of all real evidence whatever. The first
step of his argument is a statement that faith in miracles
and the supernatural is almost entirely rejected by con-
tinental divines and philosophers, so that its defence
is made to rest on English writers alone, and certainly
THE WITNESS OF NATURE. I I 7
the admissions or contradictions which he quotes from
these, are of a very startling kind. The concessions
he affects to condemn, constitute the whole sinews and
strength of his own argument. I will first state separately
the negative elements, by the union of which the testi-
mony of Nature to a God is wholly abolished, and then
reverse the process, and expound briefly what is the
cumulative force of that testimony.
A first negative element is borrowed from Sir W.
Hamilton and Dean Mansel. They both in their pe-
culiar phraseology, do not hesitate to affirm
"that the kind of cause we denominate a Deity is exclusively given
in the phenomena of mind, and that the phenomena of matter do not
warrant any inference to the existence of a God." (S. R., p. 55.)
Here at one blow the whole universe, except the liv-
ing generation of men, is pronounced to be destitute of
any voice to bear witness to the existence of its Author,
His power, wisdom, or goodness. In the second part,
the author adopts the creed of the ancient Sadducee,
and counts it a sufficient proof of the blind credulity of
the apostles, that they believed in a resurrection, in
angels and spirits. This increases the effect of the first
admission, and confines the testimony for a God exclu-
sively to the living generation of men upon earth, since
it is held that no other minds, either spirits of men or
angels, have any existence. The testimony, even of
these, is limited to their minds alone, and excludes
wholly their bodily organization.
Meanwhile, another school of sceptical philosophers
are busily engaged in striving to prove that mind is
nothing whatever but a product of material organization,
and that the phenomena of mind are only a sub-province
of the phenomena of matter, and that the mind of man
in fact is only a condensed bundle of transformed solar
I 1 8 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
force. Dr Mozley next makes the strange admission
that
" the argument from miracles for the truth of a revelation begins and
ends with an assumption ; we assume the existence of a personal Deity
prior to the proof of miracles in a religious sense... the question of
miracles is thus shut up within the enclosure of one assumption, that of
the existence of a God... When we state this, it is replied that this very
conception of God as a Personal, Omnipotent Being, is one for which
there is no evidence in material nature. 5 '
Thus revelation, real or supposed, merely assumes
His existence, and proves nothing; the idea it is said
further, has never been practically derived from the
Study of Nature, but has resulted from a supposed revela-
tion, and that the philosophers who held a universal
first cause never thought of that cause being a proper
object for worship. He holds however that though the
idea was never actually derived from reason and the
works of Nature, and revelation never proves it, but
begins by assuming it, still the idea, once possessed,
is seen to rest on some ground of reason. This ground
is thus explained, that when we see marks of design in
Nature issuing in the production or existence of personal
beings,
" this implies a personal being at the othef end of the chain of causes ;
from personality at one end, we may infer personality at the other. We
cannot suppose that the existence of that which is contrived can be per-
sonal, and the contriver a blind, irrational force." (B. L., pp. 24, 99.)
This is certainly true, but the truth is so hemmed
in by needless limitations, that the whole argument
seems in danger of vanishing away. All Nature, except
some individual human minds, is owned to yield no
evidence for the being of a God. All revelation, true
Or false, is owned to yield no evidence or proof, but
to begin and end with assuming it to be true. If phy-
siologists were to succeed in reducing mind itself to be
THE WITNESS OF NATURE. 119
merely brain or cerebral organization, then the sole
evidence for the Divine existence, according to these
writers, would wholly disappear. But this is not the
last step of surrender. We are carried still further
by Dr Westcott's admission, apparently borrowed from
Mansel and Hamilton, but expressly rejected by Dr
Mozley,
" the only approximately adequate conception we can form of a Divine
Being is in the form of a contradiction." ("Gospel of Resurrection,"
p. 21, S. R. 69.)
Now a contradiction is to say a thing, and straight-
way to unsay it. If then human minds alone, with or
without revelation, yield us any evidence for the exis-
tence of a God, and the only idea of a God of which
they yield any evidence, is made up of contradictions,
a series of assertions completed by as many more as-
sertions which contradict them, such evidence must be
a mere zero. These human minds, which alone furnish
any evidence for the existence of God, furnish no
evidence of any real being whatever, but only of a
blank of total darkness within them, as well as in the
universe around them. Such is the logical issue of
these various concessions and surrenders of truth when
combined together.
Let us now turn to the clear light and plain testi-
monies of the word of God. " The invisible things of
God from the creation of the world, are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even
His eternal power and Godhead " (Rom. i. 20). The first
step of the proof, is our knowledge of our own existence,
and of that of our fellow men, and of the various objects
and real existences of the world around us. From this
real a posteriori knowledge, however limited and partial,
of an actual universe, reason at once infers concerning
each of these, that it must either be self-existent, or
120 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
formed by a self-existent Being. But all the things
we know by experience, including ourselves and our
fellow men, have many features of change, weakness,
littleness, passiveness or recent birth, which exclude the
notion that any one of them is a self-existent being,
the cause of all other beings. Since then there must
be a self-existent Cause, distinct from each and all
the particular beings, things, or persons we know by ex-
perience, what light do these supply with regard to the
nature of that First Cause ? Our knowledge of all actual
things is joined with a clear conviction, that there are
many possible beings besides those which are actual, and
that even of real existences, those known to us are only
a very small part. Our knowledge of the First Cause,
to be complete and exhaustive, would require a double
extension of our thoughts, from the beings actually known
to us to all the unknown, and from all actual existences
known or unknown, so as to include also all unknown
possibilities of being. Only then do we attain to a full
conception of the universe of non self-existent being on
the one side, or of the self-existent uncreated First
Cause, the Author of all actual and possible creatures,
on the other. What then are the steps by which we
may rise from our limited and partial knowledge of
ourselves and things around us, to a right and true con-
ception, of the great First Cause ? There is no creature
great or small, living or lifeless, which is not able to
contribute some spark of light towards this, the final
cause of its own creation, a fuller manifestation of the
great Creator. Such is the consenting voice both of
reason and of the word of God. " All Thy works shall
praise Thee, O Lord." Some of those works may be
mute for a time, or men may be deaf and fail to catch their
heavenly melody. "Every creature which is in heaven
and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are
THE WITNESS OF NATURE. 121
in the sea, heard I saying, " Blessing, and honour, and
glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne,
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." A first prin-
ciple of reason is that the Creator may be greater and
nobler, but cannot be weaker and more imperfect than
any of His creatures. The nature of each creature then,
is a kind of inferior limit to our conception of the great
Creator. We must sum up the separate elements of
power, intelligence, or goodness of any kind, which each
creature supplies, excluding in this summation whatever
attaches to each of limitation, feebleness, littleness, and
natural or moral evil, through this summation to gain
the nearest approach to an adequate conception of the
nature and character of the First Cause.
First, what materials or elements for such a summa-
tion, does matter and the whole lifeless universe supply ?
We can resolve that universe imperfectly in our thoughts,
into an immense multitude of atoms ; and these, so far
as our present knowledge extends, are of two opposite
kinds, self-attractive matter, and self-repulsive ether. All
distinct and definite material objects are composed chiefly
of the first ; and light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and all
the more subtle influences of nature, usually classed as
the imponderables, depend on the other. Now what
is the testimony of this material world, by its bare exist-
ence, apart from all the special features of its cosmical
arrangement, with regard to the existence, works, and
perfections, of the self- existent Being ? First, they bear
a distinct and clear testimony that they are not them-
selves, or any one of them, the self-existent Cause and
Author of the universe. Not one of these atoms could
possibly create itself, still less the trillions of its fellow
atoms ; nor could any one of them choose for itself
whether it should be an atom of matter or of ether.
Two elements, it seems, must co-exist in each : a force,
122 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
or law of force, by which it acts on many or all the rest,
and a place, or position, where it is at each particular
moment of time. One of these is an active and the
other a passive element of its being. The law of
force and its variation can never determine itself, but
must have been determined by the will and choice of
the great Creator. The position, the passive element
of its being, that it is in one particular spot or point
of infinite space, in contrast to a threefold infinity, of
other spots or points of infinite space, must equally be
referred to the will, choice, and appointment, of the
First Cause alone. We cannot conceive either a point
or a mass of matter placed nowhere : but the place
where it is, is a contrast to an infinite number of places
where it might have been and is not. This contrast
between the one actual place of each material object,
and millions of possible places, where it might have
been and is not, when multiplied by the whole number
of those objects, and of their component parts, forms
a vast and infinite abyss which separates our conception
of the actual world, from that of a fatal necessity. For as
Newton says, " blind necessity, which is certainly the
same always and everywhere, could produce no variety
of things."
From this first truth, that matter is created, and not
self-existent, we may infer a second truth, the Divine
Omnipresence. The Being who created all these count-
less atoms, must be present wherever those atoms exist,
and the words of the Psalmist must be absolutely true,
" Thou knowest my downsitting, and mine uprising ;
Thou understandest my thought afar off... whither shall
I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy
presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there.
And if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there ;
if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the
THE WITNESS OF NATURE. 123
uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand
lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." But a
farther truth taught by the material universe and the
atoms of lifeless matter, is the unity of a vast scheme
of Providence which reaches to the farthest range of
the stellar universe. This is why Mr Mill says, that
" Monotheism is the only Theism which can claim for itself any
footing on scientific ground ; every other supernatural theory is in-
consistent either with the carrying on of the government of the universe
according to fixed laws, or with the inter-dependence of each series of
natural antecedents on all the rest, which are the two most general
results of science." (P. E., p. 133.)
The law of gravitation, reaching as far as the re-
motest binary stars, proves a unity of plan, extending
throughout a sphere with a radius of several billions of
miles, and thus confirms strongly our conception of all
material things, as creatures of one great super-mundane
Intelligence. But the same facts teach a further lesson
with regard to the range and vastness of that supreme
Intelligence. The course from moment to moment, of
each atom of matter, as determined by that law alone,
depends on the position and distance, at the same
moment, of every other atom in the universe. Now to
know all these with infinitesimal accuracy at any one
moment, would almost require Omniscience. But, sup-
posing the fact known for that moment, what is the
knowledge that would be required to calculate, according
to that law, the motion of a single atom for a single
hour? It would infinitely surpass the combined powers
of all the ablest mathematicians who have ever lived,
from Pythagoras down to Adams and Leverrier. The
number of the atoms of matter included within the
range of that law, must be many trillions, and probably
many trillions of trillions. But it is notorious that the
problem of tracing out the motions and courses of three
124 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
spheres or bodies only, when their initial places and
motions are given, and they are acted on by the law
of gravitation alone, baffles the efforts of all modern
analysis to solve it, except by imperfect approximations.
How clearly then, from the world of matter alone, which
according to the foolish dictum of Sir W. Hamilton and
Dean Mansel, can " teach us nothing whatever with
regard to the cause we denominate a Deity," are we
forced irresistibly to the conclusion that the Supreme
Intelligence, who has ordained the law of gravitation,
and thereby bound in unity countless worlds, and who
is able to enforce that law in an ever changing uni-
verse through successive ages, must correspond to the
description of patriarchs, apostles, and prophets, " I
know that no thought can be withholden from Thee."
Job xlii. 2. "Thou knowest all things." Joh. xxi. 17.
"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I
cannot attain unto it." Ps. cxxxix.
Let us pass on from the evidence of the Being and
perfections of God, taught us even by the world of matter,
to the higher and fuller message conveyed to us by all
the varieties of living creatures, and most of all by man,
created at first by God in His own image. It must
be remembered that the world of matter itself cannot be
known or studied without one mind at least, by whom
that process of inquiry shall be carried on. The ques-
tion, therefore, can never really arise, what lessons could
be learned from the material universe wholly apart from
the experience and consciousness of any mind whatever.
But if the question be asked, What lessons may be
learned from the material universe by any one rational
intelligence, studying it without assistance from other
minds ? Then the rational inferences from the contem-
plation of the material universe cannot be confined to
the intellectual perfections of God only, but must include
THE WITNESS OF NATURE. 125
some knowledge of His moral perfections also. In the
study of Nature we must have a Person at the lower
end of the scale, before that study can begin, and there-
fore the requirement of Dr Mozley is already satisfied.
If there were only one person, one conscious intelligence
capable of discerning moral truth, and recognizing a law
of duty, this would be as sure a warrant for ascribing
moral perfections to the author of that universe, as if
there were a thousand such beings ; but of course the
larger the number of known beings, endowed with these
higher attributes and faculties, and the more important
the influence which these have exercised on the whole
course of known physical change, and the actual state
of the world in which we live, the stronger is the pre-
sumption for the prominence which moral truths, motives
and aims may be expected to have from age to age in
the whole scheme of universal being. That prominence,
however, in the eye of reason must depend mainly on the
essential dignity of moral truth, duty, and moral goodness
in themselves, and only in a secondary degree on the
number of individuals, within the range of our knowledge,
who have this nobler and higher gift of moral being.
Let us next consider the further inferences which may
be drawn from a contemplation of the wide range of
living creatures, plants, and animals, exclusive of man
or creatures endowed with reason, and voluntary choice
as well as life. Here we must seek to abide in the clear
daylight of conspicuous facts, and avoid losing ourselves
in the mists and jungle of modern physiology and meta-
physics. What foothold for reason or inference of any
kind can we find in this vast range of the living universe,
by starting from Mr Spencer's proposed definition of life?
"Life," he instructs us, "is a definite combination of heterogeneous
changes, simultaneous and successive, in correspondence with external
co-existences and sequences."
126 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
Every word here is either an ambiguity, an unexplained
assumption, or a self-contradiction. First, life is a com-
bination of changes ; it is not the source or cause of
changes, but those changes themselves ; how many of
these changes then are needed to satisfy the definition?
Through how many changes must a living plant or ani-
mal have passed in order to be really alive ? Again,
of what are they to be the changes? Of some millions
of atoms, which had pre-existed for countless ages before
the birth of this living creature, and have been changing
ever since through every moment of their existence ? Next,
life is said to be a "combination" of these changes. How
is this possible ? How can these changes combine at all,
since any one state of this set of atoms must have ceased
before the next comes into being ? Life then it seems,
is a combination of past, present, and future changes of
countless atoms, all co-existing at the same moment.
But if life is a combination of past, present, and future
changes, who or what is to combine them ? The theory
and definition are framed to exclude the need of any
reference to a Creator. The phrase itself, " persistence
of force/' instead of its preservation, is framed to avoid
the risk of suggesting an idea foreign to this atheistic
creed, of a Divine Preserver and Sustainer of all things.
The definition further excludes the unity of a living
plant or animal, distinct from the atoms that compose it.
Do the changes combine themselves ? The successive
changes then must either all exist before they combine,
or combine themselves before they exist. Or is the com-
bination nothing more than the bare fact of the successive
occurrence of these different states ? What claim can
such a series have to the title of combination ? Life
again is a " definite " combination of changes. By whom
or what is this to be defined ? What severs these special
changes from an innumerable multitude of other changes
THE WITNESS OF NATURE. 127
adjacent to them in place, and contemporaneous with
them in time, which it is meant to exclude ? The changes
which are to constitute life, when they have been com-
bined, without any combiner, and defined, in the entire
absence of any power able to define them, are further
said to be " simultaneous and successive." This can be
no special character of vital changes, but must be true
alike of the changes of all things, living and lifeless.
The millions of atoms cannot fail to have simultaneous
changes, since they all co-exist throughout their suc-
cessive changes. Those changes cannot be "heterogen-
eous," or unlike in kind, unless we introduce surrep-
titiously that idea of definite kinds or species, which
forms one of the plainest elements in the Bible account
of creation, but which it is one main object of the modern
theory of evolution wholly to exclude. Let us return
from this morass of obscure verbiage, where our feet
sink deeper and deeper in contradiction at every step,
when we attempt to tread upon it, and contemplate the
facts themselves.
A living plant or animal implies and requires a
unit of some kind, associated with an organized system,
composed of a vast multitude of material or ethereal
atoms, in some special relation to that unit and to each
other. The first question is, what is the characteristic
feature of these various units, living plants and animals,
as distinct from the multitude and manifoldness of the
structures of material atoms with which they are asso-
ciated ? Vegetable and animal life, except in their lowest
forms, have many features of contrast with each other,
and in each class the varieties are almost innumerable ;
but in both, some kind or degree of spontaneity, or the
power to originate certain changes at its own choice or
pleasure, seems inseparable from the conception of life.
The power of each living thing to originate changes
128 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
directly, is limited to its associate organism ; indirectly
through the changes of its own organism, it may produce
changes in other living creatures and in the lifeless world
around. The amount or range of power to effect change
may vary immensely, from the animalcule, of which there
are millions in a drop of water, to the elephant, the hippo-
potamus, the whale, or the mammoth. But a power of
spontaneous motion seems as clearly revealed in the
most minute, as in the most ponderous, and massive.
Spontaneity then, or a power to vary the motions or
positions of its own frame within certain limits, by an
internal choice or preference, not determined from with-
out, but depending on its own secret nature, seems
to be the essential and defining feature of life in all
living things. In plants, this character is more obscure
and less developed than in animals, yet we speak in-
stinctively of a tree struggling towards the light, and of
the sun-flower as turning to seek and meet the rays
of the sun, and of the sensitive plant, as shrinking, by
a kind of instinct, from any contact of foreign bodies.
Spontaneity, or action not determined by mechanical
laws, seems to be a main feature in the whole universe
of life, from the animalcule, detected only by the
microscope, up to man himself, the lord and head of
the visible universe. It is thus a startling assertion of
Prof. Tyndall, in the advocacy of his statement in the
Belfast address, that "modern science has bound nature
fast in the bonds of fate to an extent before unsus-
pected," that from Galileo and Newton to our own time,
while eager eyes have been pondering the phenomena of
the universe,
"Nothing has ever intimated that nature has been crossed by spon-
taneous action, or that a state of things at any time existed which could
not be rigorously deduced from the preceding state."
THE WITNESS OF NATURE. 1 29
One would have thought that to watch the sportive
flutterings of a single butterfly on a summer day amidst
the flowers and trees, or the gambols of a kitten, when it
coils itself up for rest on some favoured spot, or starts
up suddenly into fresh and free activity of manifest
enjoyment, would be enough to shew the utter baseless-
ness of this statement. Life, in all its forms, is one
vast range of activity, chequered and intersected by
countless conditions and laws of a mechanical and purely
material kind, but intertwined in every part, and through
the whole range of being, with the elements of choice,
freedom, spontaneity ; and this vital action is determined
in all its details by reasons and motives which are not
mechanical, which indicate the internal preferences of
conscious or semi-conscious existences, that is of things
that live and feel and choose. The range of choice in
many of these creatures is almost infinitesimally small,
but internal choice and preference, and activity depend-
ing upon it, seems almost inseparable from the very
conception of a living creature. What then are the
main inferences with regard to the Divine nature, which
in the view of sound reason, result inevitably from the
contemplation of the whole universe of living things ?
The general conclusion must be that the great First
Cause possesses in the fullest measure, and to the great-
est extent, every excellence which may be seen in any
of His creatures, but free from the endless imperfections
and limitations and negative characters by which those
different creatures are distinguished from, and contrasted
with, each other. We are bound then to ascribe to the
First Cause, in our thoughts, the highest conceivable
degree of spontaneity, or freedom from bondage to cir-
cumstances and physical determination from without,
and a mode of activity as far removed as is possible
or conceivable from dull, blind, unalterable, and fatal
B. 9
130 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
necessity, without lapsing into the other extreme of
mere caprice, or changes and mutations devoid of any
kind of reason from within or from without ; the highest
degree of liberty consistent with our ascribing to Him
reason in its fullest perfection, and all-perfect goodness.
Again, since we see throughout the whole universe of
living things, instincts of various kinds, often of ex-
treme complexity, which tend to the preservation of the
individual life, and in many cases to the preservation
of an association or fraternity of living things, as in the
case of the hive-bee, and the ant, and colonies of the
beaver, so we may reasonably attribute to the Author
and Source of all these countless instincts, a will or
purpose tending to the preservation or bettering of the
whole community of living things, subject only to those
conditions which may be involved in the nature of the
gifts bestowed on each part, or such as may be involved
in the nature of the whole, as a universe of derived
and dependent existence. Each part of this universe,
and all parts combined, must form a contrast in many
unknown respects, to the perfect, indefectible goodness
of the self-existent God from whom their existence is
derived. Subject to this condition, the range and extent
of which we can never determine by a priori reasoning,
we may with the highest reason infer from the count-
less instincts in the living universe of lower creatures,
and their common tendency to the preservation of in-
dividual life, or of partial communities of living things,
the largest measure of the like instinct in the First
Cause and Author of the great world of life, tending
towards the preservation, comfort, and well being of the
whole. Thus every sentient and intelligent creature has
the highest warrant of reason for faith in the overflowing
bounty and benevolence of God ; and for following the
instruction of the Apostle, to those who suffer, -"to com-
THE WITNESS OF NATURE. 131
mit the keeping- of their souls to God in well-doing,
as unto a faithful Creator."
What conclusions with regard to the existence and
perfections of God may be drawn from a contempla-
tion of the moral universe ; that is, of all mankind, crea-
tures endued with reason and choice, and with a power of
discernment between good and evil, created at first in
the image and after the likeness of God ? The first
and simplest conclusion is of this kind. We are bound
to ascribe to the Supreme God, a wisdom greater and
more vast than the combined intelligence of the wisest
and most gifted of His creatures ; a knowledge of mathe-
matical truth far greater than that attained by man, from
the earliest Greek geometers down to the latest French,
German and British analysts, combined and summed up
in one prodigious and superhuman intelligence ; and
instinctive possession of a wide range of mathemati-
cal truths, theorems, and certainties, compared with
which their combined discoveries are only like a drop out
of the abysses of an inexhaustible and infinite ocean.
We are bound also to ascribe to Him as the supreme,
uncreated Wisdom, a like pre-eminence over the com-
bined knowledge of the various forms of animal life
attained by modern naturalists, and over the knowledge
of past changes in the depths of earth and ocean reached
by all modern geologists. This is the true description
of the uncreated Wisdom by the wisest of men : "The
Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before
His works of old. When there were no depths, I was
brought forth ; when there were no fountains abounding
with water. Before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth : while as yet He had not
made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of
the dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens,
I was there : when He set a compass upon the face of
92
132 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
the depth : when He gave to the sea His decree, that
the waters should not pass His command : when He
appointed the foundations of the earth : then I was with
Him; I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before
Him ; rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth ; and
my delights were with the sons of men." (Prov. vm.
22 31.) And we are bound to complete this sublime
description of the uncreated Wisdom, who was w T ith the
Father before all worlds, by the further statement of the
Apostle, concerning this beloved Son of God, " in whom
we have redemption through His blood," that " HE is
BEFORE ALL THINGS, AND BY HlM ALL THINGS CONSIST,"
and "He is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead
...in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge." (Col. i. 14 18; n. i 3.)
Reason, from a contemplation of the moral universe,
compels us further to ascribe to the Creator, a moral
goodness greater than that of the best man whom we
have personally known, and greater even than the col-
lective goodness, purified from all adherent faults and
imperfections, of all the best men of whom we have
learned by the testimony of others, and whose names
meet us, as recorded in the ample scroll of human
history from the beginning of time. The various sparks
of goodness, benevolence, and virtuous activity, that
have appeared separately in a Howard, a Livingstone,
a Washington, an Aurelius ; in Cato, Socrates, Plato,
Noah, Daniel, Job, Lycurgus, Justinian or Moses, must
all, when combined and freed from their several imper-
fections, faults and errors, be far exceeded by the good-
ness of that Divine Being who is the secret fountain
from which flows forth every rivulet of human virtue ;
the Sun of Righteousness, to whose uncreated and in-
exhaustible brightness all the stars of human and created
excellence " repairing, in their golden urns draw light."
THE WITNESS OF NATURE. 133
Full and various indeed is the testimony to His own
greatness and Divine perfections, to His eternal power
and Godhead, which the living God has provided for
Himself in the things which are made. Truly says
the Apostle, " He left not Himself without witness in
that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and
fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and glad-
ness." There is indeed a strange blinding power, which
may conceal the bright evidences of wisdom and good-
ness in the whole range of creation, from the hearts
of sinful men, an effect which in its worst and most
extreme forms can only be fitly described by three dif-
ferent figures of the Word of God. First, the second
woe, when " there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the
smoke out of a great furnace, and the sun and the air
were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit."
The second, the "mist and darkness" which fell in
Cyprus upon the unhappy Elymas, when he sought to
turn away the deputy from the faith ; and the third, the
same Apostle's description of the secret cause of the
rejection and contempt of the Gospel by its open op-
posers, " In whom the god of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of -God,
should shine unto them."
The author of "Supernatural Religion," while ex-
tolling the " glorious perfection " of the order of nature,
which Mr Mill has so oppositely described, ventures to
affirm of this glorious Gospel,
"It is difficult to say whether the details of the scheme, or the
circumstances which are supposed to have led to its adoption, are
more shocking to reason or to moral sense." That "it is derogatory
to the power and wisdom of the Creator, and degrading to the idea of
His moral perfection." (P. 49.)
134 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
So thick is the darkness and mist which has fallen
upon him with regard to that very message, of which
the apostle, who had been caught up into Paradise,
assures us, that therein "unto principalities and powers
in heavenly places are made known by the church the
manifold (many-varied) wisdom of God, according to
the eternal purpose which He purposed in Jesus Christ
our Lord," and of which he solemnly proclaims that
"therein are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of
knowledge."
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CENTRIFUGAL AND CENTRIPETAL TENDENCIES OF
FALSE AND GENUINE SCIENCE.
A KIND of rival to the Christian doctrine of Creation,
with its corollary in the unity of the whole universe, has
been devised of late in the doctrine of Evolution. This,
however loudly extolled, is very vague and indefinite, so
that many of its disciples seem to attach no definite
meaning to the phrase. Mr Spencer, one of its great
admirers and patrons, confesses that it ought rather to be
called a doctrine of involution, that is of the winding up and
involving, rather than evolving, the great complex cotton-
ball of the universe. By his definition, Evolution is really
nothing more or less than a process of cooling, by which
a primitive nebula, excessively rare at first, is condensed,
and all the heat and motion generated by that condensa-
tion are dissipated and lost in infinite space ; so that the
result would be a great sluggish central mass, a kind of
monstrous extinguished sun. If we strive to define the
doctrine, as a substitute or rival for the doctrine of crea-
tion, we must view it as shewing the necessary conse-
quences of physical change in the whole universe of life
and lifeless matter, when once the conceptions of a
Creator, of a creation, of a Supreme and Guiding Intelli-
gence, and all specific laws ordained by such a conscious
intelligence have been set aside and excluded. Evolution
will thus express the results of motion and perpetual
136 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
change in all actual existences, when special acts of crea-
tion, and all special laws instituted by the wisdom of the
Creator, have been excluded. Then the universe will
exhibit to us nothing but a Proteus without reason or
intelligence, going through a series of endless changes,
without conscious design, or any intelligible end and
purpose in those changes.
Now what must be the demonstrable result of an
evolution consisting in endless motion, without any
guiding law or superior intelligence ? Let us conceive a
universe consisting of an almost infinite number of mate-
rial atoms; some associated in the forms of living things;
the greater part not so aggregated, guided by no intelli-
gence, and subject to no optional law appointed by such
an intelligence, but simply moving on continually without
rest, under the first law of motion alone. That law is
that every atom or body, unless deflected by some force,
will persevere in its actual motion uniformly in a
straight line. To trace the result of Evolution, we must
take every point or spot in which there is any atom of
matter in the universe, and draw from it a straight line
in the direction of the actual motion of that atom, reach-
ing out infinitely into empty space. The effect then of
evolution must be to transfer all the atoms of the uni-
verse from their actual places, to some spot in the further
extension of these lines, and to transform the whole into
some semblance of an immense hedgehog piercing in-
finite space with mathematical lines diverging from each
other in all conceivable directions. The atoms in no
finite time would reach any end of their expanding and
diverging progress, but this must lead them farther and
farther apart from each other, s'ince the directions of
their actual motion are infinitely various. If any two
were moving in parallel lines, and there were the least
difference in their velocities, they might approach for a
EVOLUTION. 137
short time, but must ultimately diverge, and be wider
and wider apart. What then must be the result of an
evolution in which there is simply continuous and inter-
minable change, with no guiding and controlling law ?
The whole universe would expand and separate into a
rarity greater than that of the most rarified gas, and
every part of it, severed from the rest, would be lost for
ever in outer darkness.
To escape from this inevitable result of a doctrine
of pure evolution, we must re-introduce by stealth, some
of the elements which the atheist professes himself able
to dispense with ; either special acts of creation, or special
laws ordained by a superior intelligence, or other theistic
elements, introduced by mere caprice or blind guess-
work, or from the inventive imagination of the specu-
lator, to disguise the utter nakedness of a theory of
evolution pure and simple. We must re-introduce the
notion of a guiding intelligence, capable of choosing
some one out of many alternative laws or positions, and
of guiding changes towards definite and rational results.
As for instance, a law of "natural selection," when
there is no intelligence capable of an act of choice, and
when selection of any kind must be a self-contradiction
and a chimera. Or again, a law of the " survival of the
fittest," when life has been pronounced to be a combina-
tion of successive changes without any one to combine
them, and any survival would be a continuance of one
series of changes of ever-changing atoms, longer than
another series, while neither series has any limit but a
past or future eternity. Siirvival is impossible in a
scheme of the universe where there is nothing but sets of
atoms that have existed from eternity, and will co-exist
for ever. A survival of the fittest is equally a contra-
diction in the scheme of the atheist. There can be no
degrees in the fitness of a set of atoms to fulfil any
138 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
definite purpose, when a creator, and special acts of
creation, have been set aside as dreams of superstition;
and a new term, "persistence of Force," is expressly in-
vented, lest the phrase, preservation of Force, should let
in the unwelcome idea of a Supreme Intelligence, who is
at once the Creator of all things, and the Preserver of
men. These phrases then are only fig-leaves stolen from
the trees in the Paradise of God, that field where fitness,
choice, life, intelligence, and beauty, are prodigally re-
vealed on every side, so as to disguise the utter nakedness
of a creed which admits no choice, or fitness, or moral
beauty, no creative power, or providential wisdom. This is
the latest birth of the spirit of unbelief, in which a uni-
verse that had its beginning some way or other, without
any First Cause or Beginner of its existence, is left by
its unknown author, to evolve or involve itself through
interminable ages of change ; and the wisdom of the
Creator, if there be a Creator, is supposed to be best
maintained, by denying His interference with the great
machine which has proceeded from Him, when He
has once set it going. He is thus likened to the bird
which He singles out as lowest in the scale of animal in-
telligence. " The ostrich which leaveth her eggs in the
earth, and warmeth them in the dust, and forgetteth that
the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may
break them," and whose conduct He thus describes :
"She is hardened against her young ones, as though
they were not hers ; her labour is in vain without fear ;
because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath
He imparted to her understanding." (Job xxxix. 13
17.) What is that glorious perfection and invariability
of the order of nature, which the author before us says,
is emphatically contradicted by the Christian doctrine of
redemption, and by the Resurrection of Christ, and the
promise of the life to come after death ? It consists in
ATTRACTION AND APPETENCY. 139
imputing to the only wise God that very course of con-
duct towards the noblest works of His hands, which He
Himself pronounces to be the proof of a folly and lack of
understanding which falls below the average standard of
the birds of the air.
There is a tendency towards unity in all true Science.
No part of it can be wholly isolated from the rest ; any
branch broken off from the common stem of truth withers
and ceases to grow. The first and highest source of this
unity is found in the doctrine of creation. The MANY
are all made by ONE. The multitude of derived exist-
ences, with all their laws, circumstances and conditions
of being, are derived from the will of the one Perfect arid
Self-existent Being. We find a reflection of this truth,
this unity of all creation, as created, in the law of uni-
versal gravitation. The usual mode of expressing this
law seems to me doubly defective. It seems to place the
action of every atom of matter in every place where it is
not, and to represent the nature of that action as a
selfish tendency to attract and absorb every other being
or atom into itself. Newton did not give this name
to the law he discovered. He expressly states it as
capable of three different modes of expression, Impulse,
Attraction, or Appetency. When A tends towards B,
it is surely more natural to regard A than B as the seat
and centre of that tendency, and that the tendency is not
that of B to pull A into itself, but of A to transport
itself out of its actual place, and unite itself with B.
The law then of attraction is really a law of universal
appetency, a tendency of each material atom to link
itself in turn with every other atom of the material uni-
verse, to travel out of itself into nearer fellowship with
each of its neighbours in turn, and that in proportion to
their nearness. It is thus analogous in the lowest field
of nature to appetite in higher creatures, and to the moral
I4O SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
law of universal love in those still higher. This great
law, always observed in the material world, and existing
in a higher form, whether obeyed or disobeyed, in the
moral world also, is plainly a uniting principle that
secures evermore the unity of the material and the
moral universe. The same unity may be seen further in
the great law of subordination. There are not only
many creatures of one common Creator, but the multi-
tude of each class of creatures seems to increase with
our descent in the scale of being. The mass of dull
lifeless matter in the universe immensely exceeds, so far
as our knowledge extends, the mass of organized matter,
or living objects; or to speak more exactly, the multi-
tude or number of the atoms of lifeless matter or ether
is immensely greater than the multitude of all living
things. The multitude again of the lowest microscopic
forms of vegetable and animal life, is far greater than that
of the blades of grass, or of insects perceptible to our
senses. The tribes of insects again, and of low parasitic
forms of life, are far more numerous than the tribes of
birds, and fishes, and living creatures upon the earth.
The number of each class of creatures seems to diminish
as we rise nearer to the great source and fountain of
all Being. When we mount to man, the highest of
God's creatures here on earth, though the actual num-
ber of human beings is very great, we are compelled
by the known laws of life, and human experience and
parentage, to travel back in thought to a time when there
were only a few pairs, or even a single pair of human
beings. Thus even where the actual unity of the uni-
verse is at present disguised and hidden by its vast-
ness and multiplicity, it shines out more brightly, when
we travel out of the present into past time. The unity
of a common origin is linked with the unity of gradation,
order, and subordination. The solar system has its one
THE UNITY OF GENUINE SCIENCE. 14!
central sun, its revolving planets, its satellites and aste-
roids, its comets, meteoric streams, and diffused nebulous
patches of unformed matter, in regular series, descend-
ing from the one great central orb, to the innumerable
multitude of loose, unformed, and floating atoms. This
unity of gradation seems crowned and completed, by the
further unity of a common aim and purpose extending
throughout the whole creation.
Unformed and lifeless matter, massed together
throughout the universe, fulfils the evident purpose of
supplying a dwelling-place for the various ranks and
orders of the sentient and living creation. So we are
taught by the Prophet, " Thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens, God Himself that formed the earth
and made it: He hath established it, He created it not
in vain: He formed it to be inhabited.'* (Isa. XLV. 18.)
The whole animal creation is sustained by nourishment,
derived from the products and results of vegetable life.
The higher orders of the animal world in their turn,
depend for their nutriment on creatures below themselves
in the great scheme of creation.
The various fields of science are rather distinguished
than severed from each other, and whenever a logical
distinction is mistaken for a real severance, fresh truths
come to light to correct the error, and establish the unity
of the whole, once more. Thus theories of light, heat,
electricity, galvanism and magnetism, of crystallization and
chemical attraction, have been more and more traced to
a common source by the successive advances of science.
The wide contrast laid down by M. Comte, between
Chemistry and Astronomy, began to disappear under
the influence of new discoveries of the spectroscope,
almost as soon as he had laid it down as a fundamental
truth of science. All creatures, from the highest to the
lowest, through all their gradations of being, as they
142 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
proceed from a common source, minister to one common
purpose, and are sustained by the power, wisdom, and
goodness, of one Supreme Intelligence. It is truly said
of Christ our Lord, " He is before all things, and by
Him all things consist; He upholdeth all things by the
word of His power." And the tribute of praise ascends
ever to the Lord of heaven in this double ascription,
" Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they
are, and were created." " Blessing, and honour, and glory,
and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."
CHAPTER XV.
THREE HEADLESS PHILOSOPHIES.
THE first of three Philosophies, which are alike head-
less, by reason of their common Atheism, is Positivism, or
the scheme of M. Comte and his disciples. Its first princi-
ple is, that the manhood and perfection of science consists
in rejecting all supernatural ideas, or faith in God, as the
mark of a childish or puerile stage of thought. It pro-
fesses further to exclude all metaphysical ideas, such as
law, force, and causation, and pretends to restrict it-
self to the registration and classification of phenomena
alone. It thus not only excludes wholly Theology
from the scheme of knowledge, but makes its admission
the sign of intellectual childishness : excluding meta-
physical ideas also, it brings on itself the curse of utter
emptiness and vanity, even in those fields of thought
with which it professes to deal. Professor Tyndal has
truly said, that to pass from bare " sequences and phe-
nomena, to forces or causes by which the succession is
produced, is the first law and necessity of the scientific
intellect." In fact, Mr Comte, in a hundred pages of the
appendix, in which he lays down this absurd law of
scientific progress, contradicts himself two hundred times,
and by introducing one of the very ideas which he makes
it a mark of manly science to exclude.
The second headless system, misnamed philosophy, is
the Agnosticism of Mr H. Spencer. This system, pre-
tending to unify all human knowledge, and develope a
144 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
consistent theory of the universe, takes for its first
principle a bold assertion that Theism, or faith in a
First Cause and intelligent Governor of the world, is an
untenable and unthinkable hypothesis, and that the nature
of God is wholly and for ever inscrutable. Theology is
thus made a synonym for nescience, and midnight dark-
ness in which nothing can be seen or known.
Besides Comtism or Positivism, the French variety
of Atheistic philosophy, and Spencerism or Evolutionism,
which may be called the English variety, there is a
third, which Scotland has furnished, the Nihilism, or
philosophy of the unconditioned, of Sir W. Hamilton.
This philosophy, like the two others, pronounces
Theology an impossible science, fruitful only in chimeras
and direct contradictions. This theory, whatever the
good intentions of its author, fixes a gulf of eternal
separation between the Infinite God and every creature,
across which no ray of genuine knowledge and real light
can ever come.
Let us inquire what are the social or physical merits
of Positivism, the first form of godless philosophy. I
know of no physical discovery that it can claim as its own.
It plainly involves two great physical mistakes. First, in
M. Comte's classification of the sciences, he placed a line
of utter separation between Astronomy and Chemistry,
and affirmed that we could never gain any light as to the
chemical constitution of the heavenly bodies. Within a
few years, this prediction was falsified by the researches
of the spectroscope. Another great mistake was the
denial and rejection of the existence of an ether, dis-
tinct from ponderable matter. The admission of this,
M. Comte placed in the same category with the vortices
of Descartes. The whole course of later science has
tended to prove the utter baselessness of this dictum of
the Positive Philosophy.
THREE HEADLESS PHILOSOPHIES. 145
Secondly, what is the result of Mr Spencer's ambitious
attempt to build up a complete scheme of philosophy
and history of the universe, setting out, as a first principle,
from the extinction and denial of all theology, and an
utter rejection, as unthinkable and unreasonable, of that
fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, and
that knowledge of the Holy, which alone is under-
standing ? His success in the field of zoology may be
inferred from his definition of life already examined.
His like success in the field of physics, or of lifeless
matter, may be inferred from the utter inversion of
notorious facts, and of logic, which stood sentinel fifteen
years at the entrance to his physical speculations ; that
Newton and men of science had adopted the law of the
inverse square for that of gravitation, as an a priori
truth, because any other was unthinkable. This was a
plain warning to any thoughtful reader, that in this sys-
tem the reign of darkness would not be confined to
theology alone, but extend impartially to the whole range
of material and physical science.
The third variety of headless philosophy, that of
Sir W. Hamilton, is equally barren of any trace or sign
of success in the discovery of any new truth, in physics or
sociology. This is the less surprising when we remember
the profound contempt expressed by Sir W. Hamilton
for mathematics, that one sphere of thought, below the
region of morals, where clear and certain truth has been
attained, and is still attained by all patient inquirers,
and which alone supplies master keys for its progres-
sive attainment in all the rest. All these three philo-
sophies have supplied a large and indefinite amount
of flat self-contradictions, thinly disguised and veiled
from superficial readers by learned phrases and meta-
physical abstractions ; but I doubt whether any one of
the three has contributed a single grain to our know-
B. 10
146 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
ledge of the laws of Nature and of the material universe.
Certainly in every age the King of Heaven has reserved
his chief gifts, of new insight into the laws of Nature
and the system of the material universe, for men of a
serious and reverent tone of mind. Copernicus, Kepler,
and Newton, the two Herschels, Lord Bacon, Boyle,
Cavendish, Dalton, Davy, Faraday, Cuvier, are examples
of this general law of the Divine government.
The three Anti-theologies of Comte, Spencer, and
Hamilton, have one common feature, a darkening and
benumbing effect on the study of physical science. M.
Comte's first principle with regard to the stages of science
is the exact antithesis of the real truth. The only manly
and mature stage of scientific thought is that which he
defames as its puerile and infant stage ; when men cease to
grovel on the ground like the brutes, or Nebuchadnezzar
in his madness, and in their study of God's works lift up
their eyes unto heaven, their understanding returns to
them, and they bless, praise, and honour the Most High.
Having mistaken the highest and only truly human stage
of science for the lowest and worst, he inverts the relation
of the two others, and honours with the name of youth
that mere infancy in which men renounce the study of
second causes, along with the knowledge of the great
First Cause, and reason itself goes to sleep, and the mind
of man is degraded to a mere camera obscura, to register
passing phenomena as they occur. The stage M. Comte
extols as the maturity of science, answers either to its
mere babyhood, or its extreme old age and decrepi-
tude, in which it has been smitten with utter palsy. The
effect of the atheistic starting-point, in Spencer's system,
is a like confusion, perplexity, and darkness. Even
when he borrows facts from the discoveries of others
to weave them into his system, they are so disguised
by some cloak of metaphysical mist, that their definite
ATHEISTIC PHILOSOPHY AND PHYSICS. 147
meaning is obscured. The same is true of the Hamil-
tonian system. Some degree of light is needed even
for the healthy growth of a plant, .and some clearness
in the apprehension of fundamental ideas is essential
to real progress in all natural science. What results
can be expected to follow, when in the highest and
noblest field of thought, the proper home of light, to
multiply direct contradictions, to say things and straight
unsay them, the fit character in Milton of the father of
lies, is proclaimed to be the highest possible achievement
of human reason. Now this is the common feature of
the Scotch, French, and English varieties of atheistic
speculation, and the same principle applies, doubtless, to
other German theories. Thus the atheistic theory of
Haeckel and Helmholz starts from a self-contradiction at
the lowest point of its scheme of being, besides ending in
a blank of darkness at the summit. It professes to build
up the whole universe out of atoms, which are vortices
of revolving matter, made unalterable by some artifice of
mathematical calculation, when from their very definition
it is plain that they are not atoms at all, but an im-
mense multitude of smaller atoms, ever changing, and to
which permanence can be ascribed by a blunder of rea-
soning alone. The clearness of vision, on which progress
in natural knowledge depends, can never be gained by
putting out the eyes of the soul, till it becomes blind to
the simplest and highest of all truths, that there must be
Self-existence somewhere. So that it starts, like Mr Spen-
cer, with affirming two opposites at the same moment,
that to think of Self-existence anywhere is impossible, and
yet that we cannot help thinking of Self-existence some-
where. A philosophy which starts in such mental dizzi-
ness, can hardly reach a greater depth of confusion at
its close, than that with which it begins.
10 2
CHAPTER XVI.
THE FOUR MAXIMS OF MODERN NATURE-WORSHIP.
ANTI-SUPERNATURALISM, in striving to sweep away
Christian faith and all revealed religion, as a fraud and
gigantic delusion, and to prove the four Gospels forgeries
of a late date, which gained general acceptance by some
unaccountable delusion of the early Christians, has a rival
creed of its own, based on four main principles.
"Just are the ways of God... unless there be
Who think not God at all,
If any be, they walk obscure ;
For of such doctrine never was there school
But the heart of the fool,
And no man therein doctor but himself." Sam. Agon.
The first is the old doctrine of the " fool," who says in
his heart, " There is no God." It is unfolded by the
help of "Science falsely so called," into two great max-
ims. First, that Theism, Belief in a personal God, is one
of three untenable attempts to explain the mystery of
the universe ; and that the great First Cause which sits
concealed behind all phenomena is, and must ever remain,
wholly inscrutable. Next, that all pretended revelation
merely assumes without proof the existence of a God,
and that all Nature is mute, and supplies no real
evidence whatever. Its starting-point is thus the same
which the Psalmist long ago described, " Understand, ye
brutish among the people, and ye fools when will ye be
wise?"
THE FOUR MAXIMS OF MODERN NATURE- WORSHIP. 149
A second main principle of Nature- Worship, bor-
rowed from the creed of the Sadducees, is the eternal
and irreversible reign of death ; for it proclaims " the
glorious perfection and invariability of the order of
nature ;"' this order includes as a matter of fact the uni-
versality of death ; and its sure tendency, according to
one of its exponents, is to a reign of omnipresent death.
Dr Strauss, in his " Life of Christ," tells us that the
proposition,
" 'A dead man has returned to life,' is composed of two contradictory
elements ; that in the attempt to maintain the one, the other threatens
to disappear ; if he has really returned to life, it is natural to conclude
that he was not wholly dead; if he was really dead, it is difficult to
believe that he has really become living." " Thus that unbelief alike
in God's power and God's goodness, which it must be one main aim
of revelation to remove, is found to centre in one gloomy doctrine,
the omnipotence of death. The Christian revelation, in its central
truth, the Resurrection of Jesus, directly meets this great evil, and
thereby satisfies the moral conditions of a message of God. A revela-
tion would be a mockery, which left men at liberty still to continue
Sadducees, worshippers of the powers of Nature, believers in no supre-
macy but that of death and the grave." (" Horae Evangelioe," p. 467.)
How deep-rooted is the evil to be overcome, a
slavish prostration of the mind before the despotism of
Death, is clear from this statement of Strauss. The Gos-
pel, according to the author of "Supernatural Religion," "is
emphatically contradicted by the glorious perfection and
invariability of the order of Nature." " That perfect and
invariable order" by which death has reigned supreme
from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to Christ ; of
which he seems as enamoured, as Satan is described by
Milton to have been, of SIN, before he saw her hideous
offspring and his own. What an outrage on all reason !
to speak of the glorious perfection of an order of Nature,
in which death reigns for ever supreme. What a blessed
contrast are those gracious promises, " I will ransom
150 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them
from death. O death, I will be thy plagues ; O grave, I
will be thy destruction." " The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death." The first principle then, of the
Creed of Nature- Worship, is an expansion of the voice
of the " fool " in Ps. xiv. into a developed theory of the
non-existence of God, our Heavenly Father. The second
is the glad tidings of the invariable and gloriously perfect
supremacy of death and the grave.
The third main principle is the other half of the Sad-
ducean creed, or the doctrine that there is no angel or
spirit. The Apostles are adjudged wholly incompetent
witnesses of the fact, that they ate and drank with the
Lord Jesus forty days after His crucifixion, because they
shared with the other Jews in the belief that there are
angels, and spirits, good angels, and demons. The sceptic,
who after crawling on the surface of our earth like an
insect for a few years, never able to leave it, assures
us that there are no moral agents or rational intelligences
in any part of the wide universe except himself, and his
fellow insects on this one little globe, thereby evinces
an audacious folly, hardly less than that of the " fool "
who rejects the testimony of all Nature, when she
bears witness to a supremely good and wise Creator.
Surely, even apart from the express testimony of Him
who is the Lord both of angels and of men, and who
will assuredly return with His holy angels, to execute
judgment "in flaming fire on those who know not God,
and obey not the Gospel," there is every presumption
from natural reason alone, that all the abysses of infinite
space are not wholly bare and devoid of intelligent and
rational existence, except this one little planet, which is
a million times less than the central orb around which it
revolves. There is no conceivable presumption of ab-
stract reason, in favour of the doctrine that no spiritual
THE FOUR MAXIMS OF MODERN NATURE- WORSHIP.
intelligence exists in the universe, which is not weighted
and tied down, by a few stones weight of material sub-
stance, to one planetary prison.
The fourth principle or pillar of the system of Nature-
Worship, is the constancy or perfect uniformity of the
course of Nature, as determined by the earthly experience
of men for a few past generations, bounded and shut in
by the grave ; and thence extended conjecturally to all
ages of past time, and to a coming eternity; and from
the surface of our own planet to the whole range of
the material universe, but so as to exclude all faith in
things beyond the range of our senses, "unseen, and
eternal." This attempt to elevate the insect-like expe-
riences of some myriads of men of the last two or three
thousand years, ended in each case by the gloom and
darkness of the grave, into the adequate foundation for a
theory of universal being, and of the whole course of
cosmical change through myriads of ages, and throughout
myriads of starry systems, is surely almost the widest con-
ceivable aberration of unreasoning folly. Especially when
we remember that, even within these narrow limits, a
constancy of variation, by which the past never repeats
itself in the future, is still clearer than the partial resem-
blance which links past with future changes. The partial
constancy of Nature, even within the narrow limit of two
or three generations, is chequered by many striking cata-
strophes of various kinds. When we go further back, the
whole globe of the earth from its surface to its centre
seems, in the eye of science, like a stereotyped record
of many catastrophes and changes, wholly different from
the present quiet and orderly state of things, within the
experience of the present or recent generations.
The three first principles of the anti-christian creed,
which denies the Father and the Son, are gigantic false-
hoods of a negative kind. The first blots out and annuls
152 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
the Living God, the good, wise, and intelligent Author
and Disposer of the universe, and leaves the whole a
sightless Samson, with no light either as to its own
origin or issue. The second provides a gloomy sub-
stitute for the Living God, whom the first has dethroned,
the eternal prevalence and unlimited supremacy of Death,
thus turning the universe into one gigantic valley of
the shadow of death, one bottomless gulph of dissolu-
tion and decay. The third is almost equally prodigious
in its negative character. It affirms, without a grain
of evidence, after abolishing the Creator, and enthroning
Death in His stead, that nowhere in the wide universe,
except on the surface of our planet, are spiritual and
rational creatures to be found. The fourth principle
degrades still further that little fragment of a godless,
death-dominated universe, of which it admits the exist-
ence, by making it repeat itself in cycles of unending
recurrence to all eternity. The dethronement of God, the
enthronement of death, and the extinction of all rational
creatures but men now living upon the earth, needed
only this further element, to complete its emptiness and
degradation, as a creed of utter vanity and hopeless
despair.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE ATTEMPT TO REVIVE HUME'S ARGUMENT.
THE famous dictum of Hume, that it is not contrary
to experience that testimony should be false, but is con-
trary to experience that a miracle should be true, has
been answered and refuted a dozen times by as many
authors ; Campbell, Somerville, Penrose, Dr Chalmers,
Bp. Mcllvaine, Dr Mozley, Archbp. Trench, Paley,
myself, and many others. The author strives to revive
it out of the grave, in which it had lain for forty years,
after being pierced through and through many times.
Dr Farrar says,
" Its logical consistency has been shattered to pieces by a host of
writers, as well sceptical as Christian."
This is quite true. Our author retorts that
"Apologists find it much more convenient to evade the arguments of
Hume than to answer them, and where it is possible, they dismiss them
with a sneer."
This monstrous inversion of the facts is worthy of one
who spends a thousand pages in the effort to prove
the Gospels forgeries, and the Gospel itself a series of
incredible falsehoods. Instead of apologists evading the
argument they have repeatedly laid bare its emptiness.
" The argument consists of two premises, that the falsehood of testi-
mony is not improbable, since it is of frequent occurrence; and that
154 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
the truth of a miracle is impossible, because it opposes a fixed and
unalterable experience. Each of these is a sophism of the grossest
kind.
"And first, that some testimony is false, can never warrant the
inference that all testimony alike is deceitful and uncertain. This is
a return to worse than childish ignorance. It is the very test of
growing wisdom to be able to discriminate between different kinds of
testimony, according to the moral character of the witnesses and their
means of information. But the force of the objection depends on a
rejection of all these distinctions, the fruits of a ripe and manly reason.
1 The error,' Dr Chalmers observes, ' lies in this, that s all testimony is
made responsible for all instances of falsehood, whereas each kind
should be made responsible for its own. Divide the testimony into
its kinds, and the sophistry is dispelled. It were thought a strange
procedure in ordinary life to lay on a man of strict honesty any portion
of the discredit which is attached to an habitual impostor, or even to
one who has been detected in one instance of fraud or falsehood.
It were equally strange to lay upon testimony, marked by all the
characters, and accompanied by all the pledges of sincerity, the burden
of that discredit which belongs to testimony of a different kind.'
"The first sophism then of the sceptical argument has been answered
long ago in that one brief sentence of the wisest of men, 'A faithful
witness will not lie : but a false witness will utter lies.' To confound
together these moral contrasts, in order to shake our faith in the
Gospel, is not only a wicked perverseness, but a childish folly. The
other premiss is, if possible, still more strange. Miracles are said to
be impossible, because they contradict a firm and unalterable expe-
rience. In other words, God cannot suspend any law of Nature, or
reveal his will by supernatural tokens to mankind, because unalterable
experience proves that this has never been done. This is the boasted
argument against Divine revelation ; to assume it false, to derive from
that assumed falsehood a most absurd inference, and then by that
absurdity to prove the falsehood again ! The moral blindness implied
in such reasoning seems almost incredible. To say that miracles con-
tradict universal experience, is merely to beg the question that "they
never have occurred, or can occur. To say that they contradict our
experience is simply untrue. They may lie beyond it, as the battles
of Thermopylae and Salamis, or the death of Caesar ; but they contra-
dict it only if they are asserted to have happened before our eyes, and
we did not see them. Miracles are unlikely, prior to actual experience,
only so far as it is unlikely that God should reveal His will to man-
kind. They are likely to be frequent, only if it be likely that God
MISREPRESENTATION OF PALEY. 155
will often suspend the laws of Nature to attest new revelations of His
will, or to confirm others already given. And hence the fact, that
none may have occurred within our own experience, yields not the
slightest presumption against their reality in other cases. The sceptic
can draw no just inference against them from his own limited expe-
rience, unless there be good reason to suppose that God would select
him, or some one in his circle of friends, for his agent or witness, in
conveying a supernatural revelation to mankind. When it is said,
however, that a fixed and unalterable experience disproves all miracles,
it is plain that an inference from a partial and limited experience, is con-
founded with the proper teaching of experience itself, whether particular
or universal." (Appendix to Paley's Evidences, BIRKS, p. 376, 377.)
Paley's two or three pages on this subject are marked
by that lucid simplicity and clearness, and plain common
sense, which are the characteristics of his style. In force
of reasoning they immensely outweigh the twenty pages
of confused thought which our author spends in a vain
attempt to refute them. His self-satisfied comment on
them is,
" It seems almost incredible that arguments like these should for so
many years have been tolerated in the text-book of a University."
The ground of this censure is a gross misinterpreta-
tion of one expression in Paley's statement of the case.
Paley's words are these :
" If twelve men whose probity and good sense I had long known,
should seriously and circumstantially relate to me an account of a
miracle wrought before their eyes, in which it was impossible they
should be deceived, and if the governor of the country, hearing a
rumour of this account, should call these men to his presence and
offer them either to confess the imposture, or submit to be tied up to
a gibbet, and if they should refuse with one voice to acknowledge that
there existed any falsehood or imposture in the case; if this threat
was communicated to them separately, yet with no different effect, and
it was at last executed, and if I myself saw them one after another
consenting to be racked, burned, or strangled rather than give up the
truth of their account, still if Hume's rule be my guide, I am not to
believe them. I undertake to say that there exists not a sceptic in
156 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
the world who would not believe them, or who would defend such
incredulity."
The words of Paley " in which it was impossible they
should be deceived," are interpreted by this writer to
mean an ascription to the twelve witnesses of indefinite
and unlimited infallibility on all subjects whatsoever.
It is self-evident that Paley means nothing of the kind.
What he means is plainly something very different : that
their testimony in this particular case was based on such
ample testimony of their own senses, so full and various
that no suspicion of their being deceived would have
arisen, if the fact to which they bore witness had not
been of an exceptional and peculiar kind, and such as
would commonly be called miraculous. The gloss of
the writer, and his scoff at Cambridge University, proves
nothing but the readiness with which a cloudy and pre-
judiced writer may import his own mistiness of thought
into a clear and simple statement.
I have endeavoured to complete Paley's argument,
and make the precise force of it plain in the following
words :
"What is the strength of the evidence which results from the con-
currence of many distinct eye-witnesses, as in the fact of our Lord's
Resurrection? Two alternatives have here to be considered, illusion
or imposture. Now the first of these may be reckoned absolutely
impossible. Let us suppose, what is far too great an admission, that
our senses may commonly deceive us, in a single look, once in a thousand
times. If now we combine all the appearances of our Lord that are men-
tioned, the numbers present, and the time occupied in each appearance,
the whole number of distinct observations by sight, hearing, and touch,
will amount to some thousands. And hence the possibility of decep-
tion will be expressed by the inverse of a number, formed of at least
six thousand figures, a quantity inconceivably small, and practically
nothing. Illusion, then, is absolutely impossible. The supposed con-
flict of probabilities is thus reduced simply to these two questions. Is
it more likely that the Almighty Creator would, or would not, reveal
His will to mankind ? Is it more likely that the Apostles, who laid
COMPLETION OF PALEY S ARGUMENT. 157
down their lives in spreading the Gospel, were honestly persuaded of
our Lord's Resurrection, or all leagued in a wicked conspiracy of fraud
and imposture. The answer to both inquiries is plain. There is here
no contest of improbabilities, because they are both of them on the
same side. It is most unlikely, a priori, that God would leave all
mankind in sin and ignorance, without some message of warning or of
mercy from on high. It is most unlikely, nay, morally impossible, that
the witnesses who endured scorn and mockery for their faith, and laid
down their lives for the sake of Jesus, were merely confederates in
a vile imposture, and that they who denounced judgment speedily to
come on all iniquity, were themselves monsters of fraud and deceit.
The infidel, who rejects and denies the resurrection of our Lord, is thus
guilty of a double folly. He prefers to believe that God is careless
about the highest good of His creatures, rather than to own that He
regards them with the compassion of a father and the vigilance of a
sovereign. He imputes the foulest crime to good and upright men,
rather than own himself so ignorant as to need a Divine Teacher, or
so guilty as to require the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God. The
charge he brings against the Christian believer applies fully to his
own case. His unbelief in the midst of Gospel light is a miracle and
a marvel which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and
gives him a sullen determination to believe what is at once most
dishonourable and blasphemous towards God, and most false and
calumnious towards the best and holiest of his fellow men." (Appendix
to Paley's Evidences, p. 381.)
The sound part of Mr Mill's comment on Hume's
argument ("Logic," Vol. n. pp. 170 180), consists in
marking the contrast between the improbability of a
mere guess being right, and of an alleged fact being
true.
"This," he says, "has been overlooked by Bishop Butler and
several of the writers against Hume, in their anxiety to destroy what
appeared to them a formidable weapon of assault against the Christian
religion."
Now in my appendix to Paley I have devoted three
pages to an exposition of this very distinction between
mathematical and historical probability, which Bishop
Butler and Dr Price both felt, without clearly explaining
it. Mr Mill says that
158 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
" Hume's argument is merely this very plain and harmless proposition
that whatever is contradictory to a complete induction is incredible.
That such a maxim as this should either be accounted a dangerous
heresy, or mistaken for a great and recondite truth, speaks ill for the
state of philosophic speculation on such subjects." (n. 262.)
Hume's argument, if we accept Mr Mill's gloss is, as
he owns,
" in fact, a flagrant petitio principii, used to support a wholly unphilo-
sophical assertion."
What is astonishing is, that our author should charge
Dr Farrar with misinterpreting and misstating Mr Mill's
remarks, and say that
"far from shattering to pieces the logical consistency of Hume's
reasoning, Mr Mill substantially confirms it " !
Mr Mill has no right to despise Christian apologists
for dealing with Hume's real argument and not with the
fictitious substitute of his own invention, yet with the
help of this friendly gloss, it still remains exactly what he
says, "a flagrant petitio principii." Our author thinks it
astonishing that Dr Farrar should take Mr Mill's own
words, quoted verbatim, as expressing Mr Mill's verdict
on the logical value of Hume's argument. What is
really astonishing is the blindness with which he himself
labours to prove the very opposite. Mr Mill's comment
is a friendly attempt to attach some meaning not wholly
ridiculous to Hume's maxim. After he has mended and
tinkered it, he calls it a
"flagrant petitio principii, used to support a wholly unphilosophical
After this our author audaciously affirms that Mr Mill
confirms Hume's reasoning. He rejects the true and
sound part of that reasoning as quoted by Dr Farrar,
and strives to neutralize it by quoting Mr Mill's ridicu-
HUME'S ARGUMENT AS MODIFIED BY MILL. 1 95
lous censure of Christian apologists for not aiming their
weapons against his own gloss instead of against the
statement of Hume himself.
Mr Mill's gloss on Hurne is that anything is incre-
dible which is contrary to a complete induction. Now a
complete induction must plainly include the disputed case
itself. Mr Mill's phrase merely brings into full relief
a sophism essentially involved in Hume's statement.
Our author spends eight pages, (79 87,) in a vain
effort to neutralize and undo the effect of Mr Mill's
candid admission. But if he had not been blinded by
his unbelief, he might have found in Mr Mill's later
remarks a real key to the main question. Mr Mill
specifies one or two cases in which a fact is loosely said
to contradict experience.
" One is the case in which the alleged fact appears to conflict with
a real law of causation. But a more common case, perhaps, is that
of its conflicting... with the properties of Kinds. It is with these prin-
cipally that marvellous stories related by travellers are apt to be at
variance : as of men with tails, or with wings, and (until confirmed by
experience) of flying fish ; or of ice, in the celebrated anecdote of the
Dutch travellers and the king of Siam. Facts of this description, pre-
viously unheard of, but which could not, from any law of causation be
pronounced impossible, are what Hume characterizes (elsewhere) as
not contrary to experience, but merely unconformable to it.... In a case
of this description, the fact asserted is the existence of a new Kind ;
which in itself is not in the slightest degree incredible, and only to
be rejected if the improbability that any variety of object existing
at that particular place and time should not have been discovered
sooner, be greater than that of error or mendacity in the witnesses.
Accordingly, such assertions when made by credible persons, and of
unexplored places, are not disbelieved, but at most regarded as requiring
confirmation from subsequent observers.... Of reputed impossibilities
which rest on no other grounds than our ignorance of any cause
capable of producing the supposed effects ; very few are certainly im-
possible, or permanently incredible. The facts of travelling seventy
miles an hour, painless surgical operations, and conversing by instan-
taneous signals between London and New York held a high place not
160 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
many years ago among such impossibilities." ("System of Logic,"
Vol. ii. pp. 167, 169.)
Now the miracles of the Gospel clearly fall under
Mr Mill's description. They are facts concerning a
person wholly unique, who cannot be classed with or-
dinary men, nor even adequately with human prophets ;
who is essentially the God-man, " Emmanuel," "the man
Christ Jesus," " God manifested in the flesh." Mr Mill
admits that the prophet of Nazareth, " even in the esti-
mation of those who have no belief in his inspiration/' is
a unique man.
" there is in his life and sayings a stamp of personal originality com-
bined with profundity of insight, ... which must place him in the
very first rank of men of sublime genius. ... When this pre-eminent
genius is combined with the qualities of probably the greatest moral
reformer, and martyr to his mission, who ever existed on earth,
religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in pitching on this
man as the ideal representative and guide of humanity." ("Three
Essays," p. 254.)
Thus this person is a KIND or species to himself.
The miracles of Christ, His sayings, the fulfilments of
prophecy in His life, the angelic messages which heralded
His birth, His birth itself, His rejection by His own
people, His death as the true Paschal Lamb, His lift-
ing up from the earth, like the brazen serpent, to be
a centre of moral attraction to all mankind through
successive ages, His resurrection the third day from the
dead, His appearance to chosen witnesses for forty days
after His resurrection, His ascension into heaven in the
view of those same witnesses, and the promise of His
return in the clouds of heaven to be the Judge of all
mankind ; these are not separate and independent facts
out of relation to each other, contradicting that experi-
ence by which individuals gain their knowledge of the
characters and properties of the individual objects which
THE AUTHOR'S ATTEMPT TO REVIVE HUME'S ARGUMENT. 161
come within the range of the separate experience of
each one. They are supernatural facts only in this
sense, that they are manifestations of a PERSON never
manifested before, whose birth is the great central fact
in the whole scheme of universal providence. It is in
reality the fulfilment of a prophecy which completes and
fills up the long series of the messages of God to man in
the Old Testament Scriptures, flowing onward through
four thousand years from the opening sentence, "In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth," in
an ever-widening stream of Divine truth, till it issues in
the long-predicted rising of " the Sun of Righteousness
with healing in his wings," to give light to those who
were " sitting in- darkness and in the shadow of death,"
and by His own resurrection to " bring life and immor-
tality to light."
B. II
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE LAW OF GOD, AND THE CREATED UNIVERSE.
THE laws of nature are a favourite topic with
modern sceptical philosophers. But the phrase in their
lips is extremely vague, obscure, and indefinite. The
laws are without a Lawgiver, or at least he is removed to
an infinite distance. They are not really laws at all,
but vain attempts to classify ever changing phenomena,
when the great Creator, all created minds, and all
things, or material bodies, have alike been consigned
to the common gulf of the UNKNOWABLE.
The laws of God include: (i) first, a great law
of the sub-moral universe. This is the Newtonian law,
commonly styled the law of universal attraction, but
more correctly named a law of universal appetency.
It applies to all matter, living or lifeless, except so far
as it is modified by other laws yet undetermined, of
special affinity, or of repulsive self-preservation. It co-
exists with, and its effects are modified by, higher laws
of life in plants and animals, and by a still higher law of
right, wrong, duty, and spontaneous choice of good or
evil, in all moral and responsible creatures. (2) A
second Law, higher than the self-attraction or mutual
appetency of all material masses, is the law of self-
preservation. The instinct of life in every plant or
animal is to shrink from everything that pains, and to
seek everything that pleases, or tends to perfect and
THE LAW OF GOD, AND THE CREATED UNIVERSE. 163
expand its own conscious life, so far as the momentary
consciousness extends. This instinct is the first germ
of rational self-love. It passes into it only when mo-
mentary sensation is exchanged for a rational appre-
hension, on the part of each creature, of the true law
and attainable limits of its own being. Then the in-
stinctive shrinking from momentary pain, and pursuit
of momentary pleasure, is succeeded by that rational self-
love by which each recognizes the true law of its own
being, and aims to realize and fulfil that ideal law.
(3) Higher than this law or instinct of self-preserva-
tion, is the great moral law, " Thou shalt love thy neigh-
bour as thyself." This is a Divine law of duty expressly
revealed, of eternal and irreversible obligation. The
duty depends on two conditions only, the possession of
a power of choice and faculty of reason by the individual,
and the co-existence of a moral universe of creatures
similarly endowed, susceptible of having their welfare
increased or diminished by the actings of their fellow-
creatures. This Divine law constitutes the one sound
element in Benthamite Utilitarianism, or the greatest
happiness principle, but its truth and Divine authority
are there neutralized by transferring it from the heart,
as a law prescribing a right state of inward feeling and
desire, and turning it into a law of calculation alone.
What is the calculation thus enjoined ? Supposing
three alternatives open in any case, then three posi-
tive totals or sums of pleasure would have to be cal-
culated for the whole universe of being through a
coming eternity, and as many negative totals of pain.
Of the three differences A - D, B - E, C - F, the
moral rule prescribed is, to adopt that alternative
which makes the excess of pleasure above pain the
largest. Each of the six sums is composed of terms
not only doubly infinite, but incommensurable, and
II 2
164 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
incapable of being accurately measured by any com-
mon standard. Each sum also involves an infinite
number of undetermined quantities, depending on the
volitions of an almost countless number of free agents.
Such a calculation could never be performed without
Omniscience. Even when performed, it could have no
binding authority, either from spontaneous instinct or
reason, to enforce its fulfilment. The only effect of
such a rule must be to throw back the individual on
the instinct of self-preservation, or the avoidance of the
pain, and the pursuit of the pleasure, of the moment.
Still the mere attempt to perform this impossible calcula-
tion might remind of the double truth that life is not
the present moment, and that we are surrounded by
fellow-creatures towards whom we ought to cherish feel-
ings of good-will and not of ill-will. The Divine law
applies itself directly to the spring of action, the desires
of the heart, " Thou shalt LOVE thy neighbour as thyself."
It does not, like its human parody, recommend a choice
to be made on arithmetical grounds, after a wholly
impossible calculation. The altruism alone is true, being
borrowed from the Divine law, and exempts the Ben-
thamite maxim from a charge of total error.
The Divine law includes two elements ; the first is
altruism in contrast to egoism ; that self is to be loved
not as self, but " counting as one," on the same ground
that every other also is to be loved, for his capacity of
happiness. The second element is the law of neigh-
bourhood, that is moral or physical nearness ; the law
does not command us to love every one alike, but each
according to the degree of nearness, that is, our op-
portunity to do good and impart a blessing. It is so
expounded by two apostles : " as we have opportunity
let us do good unto all men, especially to them who
are of the household of faith." " To him that knoweth
THE LAW OF GOD, AND THE CREATED UNIVERSE. 165
to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." " Knoweth "
seems here the same as "hath opportunity." The law
thus explained is the exact moral counterpart of the
natural law. Each atom seeks to approach, and so far
to unite itself with every other atom, with a force
varying inversely as the square of the distance. Not
equality, but immense and eternal disparity is a funda-
mental law of both the natural and the moral universe.
The triad of the French Revolution, " Liberty, Equality
and Fraternity," exalts a great falsehood between two
fundamental truths of the Law of God. For, " where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty ; " and the Christian
code is, " Love the brotherhood," "all ye are brethren."
The real triad of Divine truth is, Liberty, Inequality,
and Fraternity.
(4) The supreme Law of duty is that which defines
the relation between the Creator and all His moral and
responsible creatures. It is "the first and great command-
ment," " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."
This law of religious duty, like the great law of social
duty which resembles it, rests on two data ; the pre-
sence in the individual to whom it applies, of the power
of choice, will, and intelligent action, and the fact that
in God the Creator, beyond any of His creatures, or
all those creatures combined, there is a vast and im-
measurable fulness of Being. Thus, to seek the glory
of the Creator is a higher object than to seek the
welfare of any one creature, or of all creatures combined.
Therefore, love to being in general, Jonathan Edwards's
definition of virtue, finds its true explication in both
these great commandments of the perfect Law of God.
There is first, Self-love, not excluded, but really in-
cluded by the words, " as thyself." The unreal mysticism
which would abolish self-love, must abolish along with it
1 66 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
philanthropy, or the love of our neighbour. Again, the
second commandment, the love of our neighbour, or
universal philanthropy, cannot be severed from the higher
law and obligation of the love of God. Both are
enforced by the same authority, and rest on a common
principle, by which the soul travels out of itself, first
into communion with all its fellow-creatures, and next
into fellowship with the Creator, from whom all things
proceed, and to whom they must return as to the proper
end and purpose of their being. " For of Him, and
to Him and through Him are all things; to whom
be glory for ever and ever."
The love of God, the supreme law of moral duty, has
two opposite aspects, of which one is downward towards
the whole world of possible or actual evil. This is that
fear of the Lord, and keeping of His commandments,
which is the whole duty of man. Of this the patriarch
says, "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to
depart from evil is understanding." This is that faith
in the Divine warnings by which the soul is deterred
from every evil way. The upward aspect of the same
duty is the grace of hope, not for ourselves alone,
but for the whole world of being, and has respect to
the whole range of possible good to be expected or
looked for from the hand of God. It is that grace of
which the apostle says, " Ye are saved by hope," and,
" rejoice in hope of the glory of God." This love of
God, both in its Old Testament form, the holy fear
of God by which men depart from evil, and dread
all disobedience ; and its New Testament form, in which
it has respect to the whole universe of possible good,
the faith which accepts the Divine promises, and the
hope which looks forward to the good things to come ;
must rest on a common foundation, the knowledge of
God as a God both of mercy and of judgment. This
THE LAW OF GOD, AND THE CREATED UNIVERSE. 1 67
great truth that God may be known, and that in such
knowledge alone is life, peace, and blessedness, pervades
the whole of Scripture from its beginning to its close.
" This is life eternal that they may KNOW Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent."
Again, " Ye worship ye know not what, we KNOW what
we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." " God will
have all men to be saved, and to come unto the KNOW-
LEDGE of the truth." " The people that do KNOW their
God shall be strong and do exploits." "There is no
truth nor mercy, nor KNOWLEDGE OF GOD in the land."
" Then shall we know if we follow on to KNOW the
Lord." (f I desired mercy not sacrifice, and the KNOW-
LEDGE OF GOD more than burnt-offering. " Then "when
ye KNEW NOT GOD, ye did service unto them which
by nature are no gods, but now ye have KNOWN GOD,
or rather are known of God." "He hath given unto us
all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through
the KNOWLEDGE of Him who hath called us to glory and
virtue." And all these testimonies of Scripture are crowned
by the words of the beloved disciple, "We know that
the Son of God is come, and hath given us an under-
standing that we may KNOW Him that is true." The
truth that the Infinite God cannot be exhaustively or
comprehensively known, or understood by creatures who
are finite, or the inquiry of the Patriarch, " Canst thou
by searching find out God, or know the Almighty unto
perfection?" is wide as the poles apart from that mon-
strous falsehood which an unbelieving philosophy sub-
stitutes for it. If nothing at all can be known of
anything of which our knowledge is only partial, we
must be shut up in utter nescience. The doctrine of
the UNKNOWABLE in all its forms dethrones the Most
High, annuls all religion natural or revealed, destroys
the very foundations of morality, and is high treason
I 68 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
against the dominion of the Living God, and the welfare
of the whole Universe. No terms are strong enough to
express the moral aversion and repugnance with which
every disciple of Christ should turn away from it.
Love towards God, the All-perfect Being, who is
" blessed for ever," cannot have all the same characters
as love towards creatures actually sinful and miserable,
or at least exposed to the risk of natural or moral evil,
or of both at once. The forms of goodwill and inward
love of which the blessed God can be the object, are
first, Adoration of His infinite goodness and majesty;
next, the desire that His glory may be manifested, and
His excellent goodness be owned and understood by
every creature capable of such knowledge ; that His
name may be hallowed, that His will may be done in
earth as in heaven, that is, in every sphere of His wide
dominion, as perfectly as it is done by those who stand
before the presence of His glory. It must include in-
tense gratitude for benefits received, "we love Him be-
cause He first loved us." It must include unreserved
obedience, or entire conformity of heart and mind to His
revealed law. It must include fellowship with God, ac-
cording to His charge to Abraham, "Walk before me
and be thou perfect;" and the experience of Enoch, who
walked with God, and "was translated that he should
not see death," and before his translation "had this
testimony that he pleased God." It should include
adoration after the pattern of the Psalmist. "I will
praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made ;
marvellous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth
right well. How precious are Thy thoughts unto me,
O God ! How great is the sum of them ; if I should
count them, they are more than the sand ; they cannot
be reckoned up in order unto Thee, they are more than
can be numbered."
THE LAW OF GOD, AND THE CREATED UNIVERSE. 169
Its perfect types may be found in those words of the
apostle, " Unto the King Eternal, immortal, invisible,
the Only Wise God, be honour and glory for ever and
ever." And in the fourfold ascription of praise from
every creature. " Blessing and honour and glory and
power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb for ever and ever." And still further, in
the sevenfold anthem from the heavenly host, " Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and
blessing."
CHAPTER XIX.
FUNDAMENTAL FACTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE
MORAL UNIVERSE.
THERE are five fundamental facts in the history of the
moral universe which must be recognized by every one
who would gain, whether from natural reason alone, or
the Christian revelation, a consistent view of the whole
scheme of Divine Providence, and attempt the great
argument which Milton proposed to himself,
"that...
I may assert Eternal Providence
And justify the ways of God to men."
i. THE FALL OF MAN.
The Fall is no obscure and esoteric doctrine of
doubtful speculation, but results directly from a com-
parison of the actual state of mankind, at present and as
far back as the records of history extend, with the stand-
ard of uprightness and sinless perfection in the perfect
law of God. That law enjoins the love of God our
Creator with all our strength, and the love of our neigh-
bour as ourselves. When tried by this perfect standard,
the testimony of experience in every age corresponds
with and echoes the testimony of the word of God, " All
have sinned, and do come short of the glory of God."
The great law of love cannot be reversed or abro-
gated to suit the practice and low moral state of sinful
FACTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE MORAL UNIVERSE. 171
creatures, but is a direct effluence from Him who is the
Father of lights. The standard of perfect love in the
stream, that is, in the revealed will and law of God, is
a necessary corollary from the perfection of the Divine
nature, the fountain from whence it flows. Thus the
facts of human experience, if we receive the revealed
truth of a judgment to come, point plainly to the further
truth that "every mouth will be stopped, and all the
world become guilty before God ; " and ought to sug-
gest to each one the prayer of the Psalmist, " Enter not
into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall
no man living be justified."
2. GOOD AND EVIL ANGELS.
The existence of other moral and spiritual beings
besides men, some good and others evil, is a second
main fact in the revealed history of the moral universe.
Apart from express revelation, there is the strongest pre-
sumption of reason, that men are not the only spiritual
beings in the whole range of the created universe.
There is also a like presumption of reason that the same
conflict of moral good and evil which experience proves
to exist amongst men, is not confined to them, but exists
also in the other races which together with them constitute
the universe of moral and rational being. The express
teaching of Scripture that there are angels as well as
men, and their number very great, "ten thousand times
ten thousand," and that among these angels, some are
morally evil, and others pure and sinless, is thus most
agreeable to the presumptions of reason. Yet the author
before us says it is "shocking both to reason and the
moral sense." That among evil and malevolent beings
there should be great disparity, both of natural gifts,
and of degrees of guilt or wickedness, is in complete
harmony with the analogies of universal nature. Now
172 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
since the nature of man is a little, though but a little,
lower than the nature of angels, and the creation of
angels was earlier than that of Adam, and the fall of the
angels that first sinned was earlier than the fall of man,
the foremost and chief of sinning angels must have a
natural pre-eminence among all evil beings, whether
angels or men, and deserve the titles which he receives
in Scripture, " Satan," the great Adversary, the " Wicked
One," the " Tempter," the " King over all the children
of pride." This solemn truth, taught under a veil in
the second page of the Old Testament, and expressly
and openly throughout the New Testament, from the
opening of the Gospels to the close of the Apocalypse,
however repulsive to superficial and thoughtless minds,
is in full harmony with the voice of sound reason. The
most candid of modern Sceptics, in his latest thoughts,
offers this as the nearest approach to an explanation of
the actual course of the universe to which by his own
reason alone he can attain, that
"The author of the world, wise and knowing, but not all-wise and
all-knowing, may always have done the best that was possible under
the conditions of the problem; and the Creator, though not
Omnipotent in the usual sense of the word, for some inscrutable
reason tolerates the perpetual counteraction of his purposes by
another being of opposite character, and of great though inferior
power." Mill's " Posthumous Essays," p. 183.
The dim guesses of natural reason thus lead men to
the very verge of the doctrine expressly revealed in
Scripture, and which even there is presented to us as a
deep and unsearchable mystery. " The Son of God was
manifested that He might destroy the works of the
Devil." " He went about doing good, and healing all
that were oppressed of the Devil;" and his crowning
triumph is expressed in the words, " The prince of this
world is judged."
FACTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE MORAL UNIVERSE. I 73
3. TEMPTATION AND THE TEMPTER.
A third great fact, underlying the whole economy of
providence, is that all moral and rational creatures, from
the highest to the lowest, are liable to be tempted, and
turned aside from the path of goodness and uprightness
into a downward pathway of sin, corruption, and dis-
obedience. God alone, the All-perfect Being, is in Him-
self free from this great liability of all created intelligence.
" God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth He
any man." This is one part of the mysterious conde-
scension involved in the Incarnation, that fundamental
mystery of the Christian faith, that God in the Person of
His Son, Emmanuel, the God-man, did come within the
.sphere and range of possible temptation ; that the Son of
God, our High priest, "can be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as
we are, yet without sin."
Temptation to all men through successive ages is set
before us as having three distinct but confederate sources.
First, the flesh, or the internal infirmity or wilful per-
version of the individual himself, as expressed by the
Apostle, " Every man is tempted when he is drawn away
of his own lust and enticed. Lust when it has conceived
bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth
forth death." The second great source of temptation is
the world, by which is expressed the collective amount of
moral evil, bad example, and corrupting or degrading
influence from mankind at large, "the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." So that,
" the friendship of the world is enmity with God." The
third great source of temptation is the Devil, who has
this very name, the Tempter. By this is expressed all
temptation from unseen powers of evil, beyond the range
of our senses and our actual contact with evil in our fel-
low-men. Now since evil in individual men, through its
174 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
own self-contradiction and diversity, tends to conflict and
endless antagonism ; hence all confederacies and long-
lasting systems of error and delusion ; enduring forms
and modes of idolatry, unbelief, and systematic opposition
to the revealed word and will of God, are everywhere
in Scripture referred to this secret and mighty ultra-mun-
dane source of evil. When the servants of the heavenly
householder inquire, " Didst not Thou sow good seed in
Thy field, whence then hath it tares ? he said unto them,
An enemy hath done this .... The tares are the children
of the wicked one, the enemy that sowed them is the
Devil."
4. THE CONFLICT OF GOOD AND EVIL.
The whole course of God's providence through the
ages of the world's history, in the word of God as in the
book of human experience, is revealed as a ceaseless con-
flict and warfare of moral good and moral evil, " Supernal
grace contending with sinfulness of men." So in the first
promise two classes are contrasted, and proclaimed to be
in lasting opposition, " I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed."
This enmity is then described as a striving of God's
Spirit with sinful man. " The Lord said, My Spirit shall
not alway strive with man, for that he also is flesh ; yet
his days shall be 120 years." So again in later times.
" Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse bit-
terly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to
the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the
mighty." And the voice of the first Christian martyr
proclaimed the same truth to his Jewish persecutors. " Ye
do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so
do ye." So the great Apostle found in every step of
his labours for the spread of the truth ; " a great and
effectual door is opened unto me and there are many acl-
FACTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE MORAL UNIVERSE. I 75
versaries." He gives this charge to all the disciples of
Christ, " Ye wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in heavenly places. Therefore take unto you the whole
armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all, to stand." So we are told
by the Lord that " the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it by force."
The first great moral contrast is between the Holy
and All-perfect God, who is love, and light, and "in
whom there is no darkness at all," so perfectly and essen-
tially good that He cannot even be tempted with evil ;
and the whole universe of created Being, men and angels
and any other unknown races of rational and responsible
beings, who either have actually fallen under the power
of moral evil, or at least are liable so to fall, but for
whom also redemption and recovery are not impossible.
But here again there is a second great moral contrast
between the sinless and the fallen, or those who have
actually wandered from God into the paths of sin ; and
again, between the penitent and the impenitent, those
who persevere in evil and sin presumptuously, and those
who turn their face to God, and seek to return to the
path from which they have wandered. This great
contrast, among angels, between the elect angels and
those who "sinned and left their first habitation;" and
amongst men, between the "poor in spirit," the lowly
and penitent, who are willing to learn of Him who is
" meek and lowly in heart,'* knd the proud, the unbe-
lieving and profane, who turn their back to the light,
and walk on wilfully in darkness ; between the church
of true believers and the world, is set before us through
all Scripture as the summary of the moral history of our
fallen race. The conflict, though it lasts for long ages,
I 76 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
is to be followed by a sure and full triumph of redeeming
mercy. The exalted Redeemer at God's right hand is now
" expecting until His enemies be made His footstool,"
and we are taught that " the earnest expectation of the
creature, (or, the whole creation with outstretched neck),
waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God."
5. THE SUPREMACY OF DEATH,
A last main feature and law of the economy of provi-
dence from the days of Paradise, through 6000 years, is
the reign and supremacy of death, summed up in the
words, " By one man's offence death reigned by one,"
and " by one man sin entered into the world and death
by sin, and so death passed through unto all men, for
that all have sinned." This dark and gloomy reign of
death and the grave from age to age, our author per-
versely and blindly extols as the " glorious perfection and
invariability of the order of nature." He is so enamoured
of this " law of sin and death," that he counts any inter-
ference with its unbroken sway, by the resurrection of the
Son of God Himself from the grave, " shocking to reason
and to moral sense." He seems so satisfied with the
world in which death reigns supreme, that he reckons
any communication with the higher world, where moral
laws reign supreme, to be superfluous and incredible.
How far more consistent with reason, and moral sense,
and true philosophy, is the double description of death
which Milton, in his striking allegory, has put into the
mouth of Sin and Satan.
" I fled, and cried out, Death.
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd
From all her caves, and back resounded, Death.
What thing art thou thus double form'd?
I know thee not, nor ever saw till now
Sight more detestable than him and thee."
"Paradise Lost," B. ii. 788, 741.
CHAPTER XX.
THE WISDOM OF GOD IN REDEMPTION.
CHRISTIANITY, as expounded and distorted by this
author, is a theory of an abortive design of creation, and
of impotent efforts- to amend it.
" Both the details of the scheme and the circumstances which are
supposed to have led to its adoption, are shocking to reason and to
moral sense, derogatory to the power and wisdom of the Creator, and
degrading to the idea of His moral perfection."..." Not only is the
assumption that any such revelation was necessary, excluded on philo-
sophical grounds, but it is contradicted by the whole operation of
natural laws." S. R. I. p. 49.
Long ago the Apostle said, " We preach Christ cruci-
fied, to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks
foolishness," but he adds, "The foolishness of God is
wiser than men." i Cor. i. 23, 25. He who had been
caught up into Paradise, and " heard unspeakable words,
which it is not lawful for man to utter," 2 Cor. xii. 4,
thus describes the real character of that message which
the 'bats and moles' of earth account so foolish and
unreasonable. " To me is this grace given that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of
Christ, the mystery which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God, to the intent that now
unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places,
might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom
of God, according to the eternal purpose which He pur-
15. 12
178 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
posed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Eph. iii. 8 n. He
expounds the secret cause of the contemptuous rejection
of this mystery by earthly minded Sadducees, " The god
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which be-
lieve not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
2 Cor. iv. 4. Not only the message itself, but the
wisdom to discern its excellence, is a gift of Divine grace.
"God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of th.e know-
ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
v. 6. The duty of the servants of God is, with patience
and " meekness to instruct those who oppose themselves,
if God peradventure will give them repentance to the
acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover them-
selves out of the snare of the devil." 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26.
Creation is no abortive work, in which the expecta-
tions of the Creator have been wholly frustrate and
disappointed. The exact reverse is the express and re-
peated statement of Scripture. (Acts xv. 18) " Known
unto God are all His works from the beginning of the
world." The redemption of the Gospel is the " eternal
purpose of God;" and Christ is the " Lamb of God, who
verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the
world." i Pet. i. 20. It proclaims that " hope of eternal
life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the
world began." Tit. i. 2. It is the " revelation of the
mystery which was kept secret since the world began,"
but then by " the commandment of the everlasting God,"
the " Only wise," to whom be "glory for ever, was made
known to all nations for the obedience of faith," Rom.
xvi. 25 27, and "this is the condemnation, that light is
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil." Joh. iii. 19. Let
us turn from the follies and blasphemies of modern Sad-
THE WISDOM OF GOD IN REDEMPTION. I 79
ducees, enamoured of the reign of death ; and observe
the revealed laws and principles of that Gospel, which is
the highest and noblest exhibition of the perfect wisdom
and love of God, and the subject of adoring praise and
devout wonder to ten thousand times ten thousand pure
and perfect spirits, dwelling in light and bliss before the
throne of the " blessed and only Potentate ; whom no
man hath seen or can see, to whom be glory and power
everlasting." i Tim. vi. 15.
(i) The first principle is the great truth proclaimed
by Christ Himself, that God is the only Good Being;
" there is none good but one, that is God." Matt. xix. 17.
This glorious and primary truth, uttered by Christ in
reply to a solemn inquiry, and transmitted by the con-
senting evidence of more than 500 copies of each of three
Evangelists, has been replaced in five copies only, of one
of the three, by a human substitute which blots out this
great truth and substitutes the pointless inquiry, "Why
dost thou ask of me concerning the good ?" This seems
to imply a censure on what is most lawful and praise-
worthy, for to inquire after God is one of the first of re-
vealed duties. The great truth proclaimed by our Lord
is afterwards expounded by St James, into the double
maxim, that all evil is from the creature, and all good
from God alone : "God cannot be tempted with evil, nei-
ther tempteth He any man. Every good and perfect gift
is from above, and cometh down from the Father of
Lights." Jas. i. 13, 17. The negative truth, of evil in
the creature is expounded both by the apostle and the
patriarch: Rom. iii. 23, "All have sinned;" v. 12,
" Death passed through unto all men, for that all have
sinned;" " Behold, He put no trust in His servants, and
His angels He charged with folly." Job iv. 18. "The
heavens are not clean in His sight." xv. 15. " It was ne-
cessary" that " the heavenly things themselves "should be
12 2
l8o SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
" purified with better sacrifices than these." Heb. ix. 23.
As the spots of the sun, though luminous, shew like blots
of darkness in contrast with his still more luminous disc ;
so every creature, compared with the Divine perfection,
reveals either an actual presence of moral evil, or at least
a mournful liability to rebel, and go astray. Redemption
is a sequel of the truth, that God is the only Good Being,
perfectly and indefectibly good, and of the solemn fact
that both men and angels have sinned. A fallen creature
is without strength to restore itself, and can be restored
only by Divine power and grace. " O Israel, thou hast
destroyed thyself, but in Me is thine help." Hos. xiii. 9.
"Without Me ye can do nothing." John xv. 5. "When
we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly."
Rom. v. 6. Such is a first great principle and law of
the Gospel, growing out of the truth that " God is the
only Good," and embodied by St Paul in the words, " By
grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of your-
3elves, it is the gift of God." Eph. ii. 8.
(2) The second great maxim and law of Provi-
dence, is the truth that God is the Only Wise. Nothing,
even the most minute, can escape from the vision of His
Omniscience and from the control of His providence.
" Even the hairs of your head are all numbered."
Matt. x. 30. " Gather up the fragments that remain,
that nothing be lost." Joh. vi. 1 2. Evil men and angels
may and do rebel against His will, and strive against
Him, but the "counsel of His will," Eph. i. n, they
cannot disappoint or annul : " there is no wisdom, nor
understanding, nor counsel, against the Lord." Prov.
xxi. 30. So was it announced to Pharaoh in the height
of his rebellion. " For this cause have I raised thee up,
to shew. in thee my power, and that my name may be
declared throughout all the earth." Ex. ix. 16. And
Solomon and David both proclaim the same truth : " The
THE WISDOM OF GOD IN REDEMPTION. iSl
Lord hath made all things for Himself, yea, even the
wicked for the day of evil." Prov. xvi. 4. " Surely the
wrath o man shall praise Thee, and the remainder (or,
excess) of wrath wilt Thou restrain." Ps. Ixxvi. 10.
(3) The third principle or law of the whole economy
of Redemption is that God is most Just, expressed by
Abraham, in his intercession for Sodom. " Shall not
the Judge of all the earth do right?" Gen. xviii. 25.
This truth is guarded by the solemn oath, " As I live,
saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of
the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way
and live... why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Ezek.
xxxiii. ii. So sternly does God repel the double false-
hood that He takes pleasure in the destruction and moral
ruin of His own creatures : or that His judgments, how-
ever severe, shall exceed the measure of the most perfect
equity, and the highest wisdom. " He will not lay upon
man more than right, that he should enter into judgment
with God," Job xxxiv. 23; and again, "Thou wilt be
justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou
standest in judgment." Ps. li. 4. " Hear, ye strong
foundations of the earth, for the Lord hath a controversy
with His people, and He will plead with Israel." Mic.
vi. 2. In His own time, God will make "all the hard
speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against
Him," Jude 15, to turn back upon themselves by the
testimony of their own re-awakened conscience and rea-
son, according to those words, " Why, even of yourselves,
judge ye not what is right?" Lu. xii. 57. "The glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
together." Isa. xl. 5. And what that glory is, is thus ex-
plained by another prophet: "Let him that glorieth,
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me,
that I am the Lord, which execute lovingkindness, judg-
ment, and righteousness in the earth ; for in these things
I 82 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
1 delight, saith the Lord." Jer. ix. 24. The long delay
of judgment is ascribed to the " riches of God's forbear-
ance." "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise,
but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
2 Pet. iii. 9. The certainty of judgment in its own
appointed time is assured alike by the perfect truth, the
holiness, and the wisdom of God. It is said of this
message of solemn warning, "At the end it will speak
and not lie ; though it tarry, wait for it ; because it will
surely come, it will not tarry." Hab. ii. 3. " Yet a little
while, and He that shall come will come, and will not
tarry." Heb. x. 37.
(4) The fourth revealed principle and law of all pro-
vidence is the Omnipotence of God. The most candid,
and one of the ablest of modern leaders of sceptical
thought, in his latest work, comes much nearer to the
Christian faith than most other sceptics. He holds
that there is evidence for the existence of an intelligent
and conscious creator of the Cosmos, and that
" the morality of the Gospels is far higher and better than that which
shews itself in the order of Nature, and that what is objectionable in
the Christian theory, is only so when taken in connection with the
doctrine of an Omnipotent God, at least as understood by most enlightened
Christians. The grave error of Butler was that he shrank from ad-
mitting the hypothesis of limited powers. His appeal amounts to this.
The belief of Christians is not more absurd or immoral than that of
Deists who acknowledge an Omnipotent Creator.'* Mill's "Three
Essays on Religion," p. 214.
He thinks that there is strong evidence for the ex-
istence of a God of real dominion, great goodness,
and great power, and that the goodness may be held
perfect, if we admit the power to be limited. The
stumbling-block which keeps him back from accepting
the. Christian faith, when he has reached its very thresh-
THE WISDOM OF GOD IN REDEMPTION. 183
old, is an implicit and unreasoning adoption of current
or popular impressions with regard to the true meaning
of one Divine attribute. The construction of omnipo-
tence which leaves him in a midway position, with one
foot on the ground of Christian faith, and the other
in a quagmire of scepticism, does not even pretend to
have been derived from any direct and inductive study of
the Bible itself. He takes it merely from current and
popular notions, which he ascribes, in flagrant contrast to
the scope of his own reasonings, to the most enlightened
Christians, when he ought, to be consistent, to have said
rather, the least enlightened Christians. On no better
basis than this loose impression, he affirms that "the
notion of a providential government by an omnipotent
being, for the good of his creatures, must be entirely
dismissed," and calls it " absurd and immoral." Yet
Bishop Butler does virtually what he blames him for not
doing, and offers thoughts which, if Mr Mill had followed
them out, would have proved the rashness and utter
baselessness of his own statement.
"Many instances," Butler says, "may be alleged of suppositions
utterly impossible, and reducible to palpable contradictions, which
not every one could perceive to be such, or perhaps any one at
first sight suspect. We are unacquainted with what is in the nature
of things practicable in the case before us, and our ignorance is a
satisfactory answer, for some unknown impossibility may render what
is objected against just and good, nay good in the highest practicable
degree."
Dr Mozley, in his fourth Lecture, has developed
the same thought a little further, marking the contrast
between real and apparent limitations of the Divine
power.
"A contradiction to necessary truth being nothing, nothing is taken
away in the abstraction of the power to effect it. ...It is no real limita-
tion of Omnipotence to deny the power to contradict a mathematical
truth."
I 84 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
In the "Ways of God," I have quoted these words of
Bishop Butler, and unfolded the same important truth
still further, at some length. I have shewn by a full
induction of Scripture, from the first to the last, that what
Mill misnames the hypothesis of limited power, is the
real doctrine of Scripture throughout that is, a power
self-limited by the perfect wisdom and holiness of God,
so as to discern and exclude every lie, self-contradiction,
and chimera. Thus we are taught that " God cannot
lie," that " He cannot deny Himself." There are many
other such cases of moral contradictions, which do not
reveal themselves as such at the first glance, to ignorant
and sinful creatures. The Bible proclaims the two doc-
trines side by side with equal clearness, that God is
really Almighty, in the words of the patriarch, " I know
that Thou canst do everything," Job xlii. 2 ; and in the
words of the angel to the Virgin, that " with God nothing
shall be impossible," Lu. ii. 37; and in the words of the
heavenly elders, " They rest not day and night, saying,
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," Rev. iv. 8. And
still that there is a real warfare of good and evil between
the thrice holy God, with holy angels and redeemed men
on one side, and the world, the flesh, and the devil and
his angels on the other ; a warfare so real and intense,
that every warning and every promise in the word of
God is based upon the fact of its deep reality. " To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life
which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." Rev. ii. 7.
" He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second
death." Rev. ii. n. "To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I overcame
and am set down with my Father on His throne." Rev.
iii. 21. Power then, not wholly vague and indefinite, but
self-limited by the eternal truth of things, by the es-
sential nature and perfection of the Living God, and by
THE WISDOM OF GOD IN REDEMPTION. 185
the essential imperfection and variability of all created
being, is that glorious attribute which is brightly revealed
throughout the whole of Scripture. Any other view
of the Divine Omnipotence would degrade the doctrine
of the Cross, and of atonement through the sufferings
of the Divine and Incarnate Saviour into a gratuitous
folly and act of cruelty, instead of a most glorious mani-
festation of the perfect love and wisdom and holiness of
the Almighty.
(5) A fifth main law and principle of Redemption,
and of the whole scheme of providence, is taught us
in the law of God, near its close. " He is the Rock :
His work is perfect; all His ways are judgment; a God
of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He."
The scheme of Divine providence, it is thus proclaimed,
is a perfect work. It is a contrast to the vision of the
prophet. " I went down to the potter's house, and be-
hold he wrought a work upon the wheels ; and the
vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand
of the potter, so he made it again another vessel as
it seemed good to the potter to make it." Jer. xviii. 3, 4.
But the scheme of universal providence, if once marred,
could never be repaired. So, if our blessed Lord had
committed one sin, the perfectness of His example and
His Divine atonement, as the Lamb without blemish
and without spot, would have been precluded for ever.
So, any mistake, error or ignorance on God's part, in His
dealing with the mighty problem of the government of
the universe, could never be reversed. The whole would
contract a flaw that could never be repaired. But such
a failure is precluded and forbidden by the perfect
wisdom, the perfect goodness, and the spotless holiness
of the Most High. Because "He is the Rock, a God
of truth and without iniquity ; just and right," therefore
His "work" also is "perfect." Deut. xxxii. 4,
1 86 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
This Christian optimism, the faith that no man or
creature can devise a better scheme of universal pro-
vidence, than that which the all-wise God Himself has
planned, foreseen, and appointed, and will assuredly bring
to pass in the appointed season, is a direct and in-
separable corollary from the revealed perfections of God.
A recent Bampton Lecturer (1877) says, " It is un-
questionable that the present order of the universe is
not a perfect manifestation of justice. Every theist,
"it is said, will deny that the impress of perfection must of necessity
be stamped on all the works of a perfect Creator. It is assumed
(by Mr Mill) that if a God of infinite power, wisdom and benevolence
has made the universe, He was bound to realize our highest concep-
tion of those attributes in every portion of His creative work. This
we know as a matter of fact He has not done." p. 449.
In Mr Mill's statements, of which the " unsparing
logic " is praised by the Lecturer, to prove the error of a
priori reasoning^ there is no a priori reasoning whatever.
They consist of an a posteriori comparison between the
actual course of providence as a whole, and current popular
impressions of perfect goodness and Divine omnipotence,
and affirm their utter inconsistency. Mr Mill fails to
draw the only true conclusion, that loose popular im-
pressions of the meaning of omnipotence are at variance
with the actual facts of providence, and he might have
added, contradict the consenting testimony of the whole
word of God. Mr Mill's real premiss is, that perfection
must be stamped, not on all the works of a perfect
Creator, separately, one by one, but only upon crea-
tion and providence as a whole, so far at least as
knowledge of them is attainable. The Lecturer affirms
this premiss to be unquestionably false. It is rather a
truth, expressly revealed ; not of course that the moral
order of the universe, so far as known to us, within the
range of earthly experience, is a perfected or finished
THE WISDOM OF GOD IN REDEMPTION. 187
manifestation of justice. A small infinitesimal part
cannot have the qualities of the mighty whole. But
those who deny that the past history of our world,
with all its solemn mysteries of prevailing rebellion,
wickedness, reigning death, wide-spread misery, wasting
and destruction, can be one part of a scheme of provi-
dence perfectly wise and good, if we could see the whole,
and fathom the mysteries of the eternal ages to come,
flatly contradict an express statement of the word of
God, as well as the voice of sound reason.
Thus Christian optimism, or the doctrine that God's
real plan must be better than any fancied substitute, or
imaginary improvement, devised by sinful and ignorant
creatures, is a direct and sure inference from that maxim
of the Apostle, " To him that knoweth to do good, and
doeth it not, to him it is sin." It must be sin for the
All-wise and All-good Creator to reject a greater good,
and to choose a less, out of the manifold possibilities of
being, in creation and providence, alike open to the gaze
of His immeasurable wisdom and goodness. The glorious
doctrine of Leibnitz that the actual scheme of universal
providence, is the best out of an infinite diversity of
alternatives, or of conceivable and possible universes,
however ridiculed by frivolous scoffers like Voltaire, is
a sure inference from a thorough faith in the two Divine
attributes, of perfect wisdom and perfect goodness ; but
it is equally certain that to judge of this scheme as a
whole, from the limited past experience of men alone in
their earthly life for a few thousand years, would be a
prodigious folly. The' mysterious depths of evil in the
totality of created being, like the depths of the Divine
goodness, are unsearchable. The mighty scheme of
providence as a whole, has a breadth, and length, and
depth, and height, like that love from which it flows,
which passeth all created knowledge. And its Divine
I 88 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
author, out of His infinite fulness, "is able to do exceed-
ing abundantly above all that we ask or think;" unto
Him be "glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout
all ages, world without end." Eph. iii. 20, 21. The long
conflict and warfare between moral good and evil, so
dark, mysterious, and perplexing to the thoughts of men
from the beginning until now, will end, we are assured,
in a full victory of redeeming mercy, holiness, and tri-
umphant goodness. In that victory, the unsearchable
riches of the Divine bounty and goodness, and also the
eternal contrast between the glorious God, the Self-
existent, the Unchangeable, and the mighty universe
which He has called into being to manifest His perfec-
tions ; both the depth and the height of divine holiness
and redeeming love, must and will be displayed for ever
more and more.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE PERFECTIONS OF THE WORLD'S REDEEMER.
JESUS of Nazareth is the Christ of God. What this
title really implies is often overlooked and forgotten even
by Christians themselves. It is virtually denied, when we
are told that Christians are at liberty not to believe any
miracle of the Old Testament, which has not been con-
firmed by direct reference to it in the Gospels. (Dr Irons,
'Supernatural Religion,' Vol. i. p. 95). The argument,
it is truly said, is an amazing one. The " Christ" is
a title which has a distinct and definite meaning. It
means Him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write ;
the Redeemer, promised at first as the Seed of the woman
to bruise the head of the Serpent ; the Son of Abraham,
the Son of David ; the Person on whom there converges
a whole series of predictions in the Old Testament, from
the beginning of Genesis to the end of Malachi. Any
attempt to get rid of the Old Testament, and retain
faith in the Gospel, involves a moral and logical impos-
sibility. If the writers of the Old Testament were not
prophets commissioned by, God to be messengers of His
truth to men ; if the Pentateuch is a forgery, the Book
of Isaiah a second forgery, the Book of Daniel a third
forgery, dating from the time of the Maccabees, a real
Messiah could not exist ; he would be a wholly imagin-
ary person, defined by self-contradictory characters, the
fulfiller of prophecies which were not real prophecies,
SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
supplying the keystone to a complete arch of forgeries
composed of mistaken glosses and wicked frauds, per-
petrated by unknown parties, who traded on Jewish
credulity and superstition. Rejection of the Old Testa-
ment, our Lord declares, makes real faith in Himself as
the Christ impossible. " 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?"
Joh. v. 46, 47. And once again : " They have Moses
and the prophets, let them hear them.... If they hear not
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded
though one rose from the dead." Lu. xvi. 29, 31. This
title, the " Christ" sums up and embodies the fact, that
God had before announced His will to men, from the be-
ginning of the world, by a succession of prophets, commis-
sioned to give messages in His name. The Christ is one
" of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write."
The Jews and Samaritans alike knew that such a person
was to come. The Samaritan woman said to Jesus, " I
know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ; when
he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus said unto her,
I that speak unto thee am He." Joh. iv. 26. The message
of the prophets was a first stage in that Divine husbandry
which Jesus sent the Apostles to complete into a perfect
harvest. " Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for
they are white already to harvest... and he that reapeth
receive th wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal,
that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice
together. ... I have sent you to reap that whereon ye
bestowed no labour ; other men laboured, and ye are
entered into their labours." vv. 36, 38. The Christ is
one who continues, completes, and fulfils a message, which
had been already given in the Law and by the Prophets.
Thus taught the Apostles from the first chapter of the
Book of Acts to its close. The Gospel was a fulfilment
THE PERFECTIONS OF THE WORLDS REDEEMER.
of all things "which God had spoken by the mouth of
all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts iii. 21.
So St Paul at Rome "persuaded the Jews concerning
Jesus out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets,
from morning till evening;... and some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not ; and when
they agreed not among themselves they departed, after
that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy
Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers.'* Acts
xxviii. 23 25.
Thus the first message of the New Testament history
is, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of David, the Son
of Abraham; the final end and consummation of the
whole history of the Old Testament ; also the fulfiller of
distinct prophecies of Isaiah and Micah, and of implied
predictions of Hosea, Jeremiah, and all the prophets.
And the same history closes with the assurance by St
Paul, that the words of Isaiah vi. were a voice of the
Holy Spirit, by Isaiah the prophet, unto the fathers of
the Jews. These testimonies are crowned by the words
of the angel to St John, " The testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy." Rev. xix. 10.
The Wisdom of the Lord Jesus as the Christ will
be seen by reflecting on the truths implied in that title.
His life from the cradle to the grave was the perfect
fulfilment of a work, ordained before the foundation of
the world, but revealed in part and only in part, in a
series of divine predictions, ranging through 4000 years
until His actual appearance. AH these predictions, and
the true purport of each one of them, must have succes-
sively been opened before the Son of God, from the hour
of His birth at Bethlehem, to His ascension from Olivet.
Their fulfilment occupied His thoughts in the hour of
His extreme anguish on the cross. "Jesus knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture
1 92 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. ...When He had received
the vinegar, He bowed His head, and gave up the
ghost." Joh. xix. 28, 30. After His Resurrection, His
first message revealed to His disciples this aspect of His
finished work. " 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, and in the
Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then
opened He their understanding that they might under-
stand the Scriptures." Lu. xxiv. 44, 45. Thus the Son
of God, throughout His life, "set the Lord always
before" Him, with the whole series of prophetic mes-
sages, from the first record of creation, to the announce-
ment in Malachi of His own rising on the benighted
world, as the "Sun of Righteousness, with healing in
His wings." Mai. iv. 2. His task was not only to
discern and fulfil all the express predictions of His life,
death, and resurrection, but to satisfy and accomplish all
the various types of the sacred history, or of the Divine
law which really pointed to Him, and converged on Him
as their common centre. How vast and unsearchable
is the wisdom implied in this one aspect of the Saviour's
work, as taught in His own words : " I am not come to
destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil." Matt. v. 1 7.
" I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the
work which Thou gavest me to do." Joh. xvii. 4. " I
have kept my Father's commandment, and abide in His
love." Joh. xv. 10. "The words that I speak unto you,
I speak not of myself; but the Father which dwelleth in
me, He doeth the works." Joh. xiv. 10. Thus our Lord
as the Christ, was consciously fulfilling a specific work
of Redeeming grace, ordained and appointed by His
Father from the foundation of the world, and largely
unfolded, both in express predictions, and manifold types
through four, thousand years. All of which lay open to
THE PERFECTIONS OF THE WORLDS REDEEMER. 1 93
His clear and eagle gaze ; and were fulfilled in the midst
of all the ''contradictions of sinners," and the malice of
the powers of darkness, with strict, perfect, and un-
swerving fidelity.
"The Scripture," He said, "cannot be broken,"
Joh. x. 35. "Even the things concerning Me have an
end" (re'Xo? e^et, or y must be fulfilled), Lu. xxii. 37.
He rejects, in the hour of His sufferings, the angelic
succours which were at His command, rather than one
sentence of Scripture should fail of fulfilment. " Thinkest
thou that I cannot 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 it must be ?" Matt. xxvi. 53, 54. So profound
is the reverence of the Incarnate Son of God for those
words of the prophets, which are the "sword of the Holy
Spirit," Eph. vi. 17, "the Scripture of truth," Dan. x. 21,
and the "true sayings of God," Rev. xviii. 9. What an
utter contrast is this to the light and flippant manner in
which they are too often treated by modern Sadducees,
or half disciples, who degrade them to the level of their
own writings, that is, fallible sayings, mixed up of truth
and falsehood in uncertain proportions. If we accept
their theories they are not words of the holy Prophets,
but of anonymous and unscrupulous forgers, so that
their real parent would not be the God of truth, but the
Father of lies. But the perfect truthfulness of Scripture
shines out in the whole teaching of our blessed Lord,
from His first great conflict and victory in the wilder-
ness, to His final session at the Father's right hand in
heavenly glory. There He is now "expecting," until His
voice on the cross, " It is finished," Joh. xix. 30, shall be
completed by that later voice of His heavenly Father,
"He that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all
things new. And He said unto me write, for these words
B. 13
IQ4 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
are true and faithful, and he said unto me, "It is done."
Rev. xxi. 6.
Another aspect of the deep wisdom and love of the
Gospel of Christ will be seen, when we consider the
Kingly office of the Saviour, as specially revealed in the
first Gospel. The world in all past ages has been groan-
ing under the curse of selfish, despotic, and unrighteous
government. Oppression has made even wise men mad,
and men in the last days, recoiling from the curse of
despotic rule, have been ready to fling themselves into
a still lower gulf, of lawlessness and utter anarchy. The
promised Redeemer was predicted from the first, under
the character of a Righteous King, in whom would be
realized what sinful men had vainly longed for through
successive ages, but had never been able to attain per-
manently by any devices of human wisdom. He was
to be a King of the race of David, but better and greater
than David ; a King of Peace, greater and better than
Solomon, in whom the words should be fulfilled, " I will
raise unto David a righteous branch, and a King shall
reign and prosper, and execute judgment in the earth,"
Jer. xxiii. 5.
This Kingly glory of Christ is the truth specially
revealed in the first Gospel, which begins with His
line of royal descent, and with the message to the Wise
Men, "Where is He that is born King of the Jews ? for
we have seen His star in the East, and are come to
worship Him." It is continued by the solemn mes-
sage of His work of judgment, " When the Son of man
shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with
Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory." It
is crowned and completed by His parting words, on the
mountain in Galilee, " All power is given to me in heaven
and in earth, Go and teach all nations . . . teaching them
to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you."
THE PERFECTIONS OF THE WORLD'S REDEEMER. IQ5
The unsearchable wisdom implied in this office of
Christ is shewn in three things. It is all-inclusive as
to the actions on which judgment is to be passed. "God
shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret
thing whether it be good, or whether it be evil," Eccles.
xii. 14. It is all inclusive as to the persons who are
judged. "Before Him shall be gathered all nations,' 1
Matt. xxv. 32. "We must all appear before the judg-
ment seat of Christ that every one may receive the
things done in his body, according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad," 2 Cor. v. 10. "I saw the
dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books
were opened . . . and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books, according to
their works," Rev. xx. 12. This judgment requires in
Him who executes it, unsearchable wisdom, not only
because it includes all mankind and all their actions,
but has respect to all the principles on which righteous
judgment depends. It is a judgment without respect of
persons by one "who searcheth the reins and the hearts,"
who " will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,
and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." It
is the judgment of one who is able to weigh in scales of
perfect equity, the varying opportunities, and degrees
of light, which men have enjoyed or abused, and all
the excuses by which they have sought to veil their guilt,
from the time of the fig-leaves of Paradise, to the hour
of the last judgment. And this Judge is also the great
" High Priest, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from
sinners, and made higher than the heavens," Heb. vii. 26,
" who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
and was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin," Heb. iv. 15. The mingled folly and blasphemy of
those sinners is extreme, who charge this glorious King
of Righteousness, the future Judge of all mankind, with
132
SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
utter and incredible folly, in that glorious Gospel of
redeeming grace and love, which is really the brightest
effluence of the wisdom and grace of the "Sun of Right-
eousness," where it shines with a brightness above that
of the sun at noonday.
A third aspect of the glorious wisdom of Christ
as revealed in the Gospels is seen in His character as
the Lord of all nature, the unwearied and indefatigable
Worker. This is the view of our Lord's character
specially revealed in the second Gospel, which ends
with this solemn message. " After that the Lord had
spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven and
sat at the right hand of God ; and they went forth and
preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and
confirming the word with signs following." The fact
of this unwearied working of the Son of God, is ex-
pressly stated by Himself, to justify his cure of the
impotent man on the Sabbath day. " Jesus answered
them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," Joh. v.
1 7. But it constitutes the main feature of the second
Gospel, in which there are few discourses, but an un-
wearied succession of acts of grace, swiftly following
each other. " Straightway, coming up out of the water,
He saw the heavens opened." " Immediately the Spirit
driveth Him into the wilderness." " Straightway they
forsook their nets and followed him ;" and " Straight-
way He called them;" and "Straightway, on the Sab-
bath day, He entered into the Synagogue and taught,"
Mk. i. 10, 12, 1 8, 20, 21, 29, 43.
Along with this character of Christ, as the indefatig-
able worker, answering to the symbol of the ox, there is
here revealed His lordship over all nature. The double
message is here given, "Is not this the carpenter? and
they were offended at him." " Go into all the world, and
preach the Gospel to every creature," or to the whole
THE PERFECTIONS OF THE WORLDS REDEEMER. 197
creation. The lordship of Christ over all nature, both
material and spiritual, is further summed up in the words
that follow, "These signs shall follow them that believe.
In my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak
with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if
they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover/'
Mk. xvi. 17 20.
All the actc of Him who is the Lord of nature, must
in a certain sense be supernatural. The one supreme
law to which they are subject is, "the counsel of His
own will," or their subservience to the great ends of His
universal providence. The common course of nature,
as well as all that is rare and exceptional, proceeds from
His supreme wisdom. The rising and setting of the sun,
and the circuits of the seasons ; " they continue this day
according to Thine ordinances, for all are Thy servants,"
Ps. cxix. 90, 91; and the stedfastness of the earth itself,
lt Thou hast established the earth and it abideth." But
so also, when He "said to the fig-tree, No man eat fruit
of thee hereafter for ever, and His disciples heard it;"
" in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig-tree
dried up from the roots," Mk. xi. 14, 20. For, it was
the word of Him by whom all things were made at the
first, and who has said, " Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but my word shall not pass away." The laws of
nature include not only an element of permanence, but
of immense and ceaseless variation. The supreme law
to which all others must ever be subordinate, is the will
of the Lord God of hosts ; and the nature of every seed
and every plant and grain, and all the processes of human
husbandry, in their profoundest wisdom, " come forth
from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and
excellent in working," Isa. xxviii. 29.
The character of Christ, as the Son of Man and as
198 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
the true High Priest is especially set before us in the
third Gospel. This Gospel is especially rich in its mani-
festation of the human sympathies, grace, and compas-
sion of the Saviour. He presents himself to us, as the
Son of Man predicted by Daniel ; the ideal man, the
perfect pattern and standard, not only of grace and com-
passion, as in the parables of the Good Samaritan and
the Prodigal Son, but also of worship, reverence, and
piety towards God. When " He was praying, the hea-
vens were opened" at His Baptism, Lu. iii. 21. When
He chose the Apostles, He "went out into the mountain
to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God," Lu.
vi. 12. As this Gospel begins with the vision to Zacha-
rias, while ministering in the temple, so its close sets
before us the Son of Man, ascending to the throne of
God, in the very act of priestly benediction. " While
He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried
up into heaven, and they worshipped Him, and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy," Lu. xxiv. 51, 52. In all
these passages is implied the full and perfect wisdom of
Christ as the Son of Man.
In the "old Serpent," one name of the great adver-
sary, is implied the greatness of that perverse and un-
principled cunning, which forms the treasury of delusion
and falsehood, on which the kingdom of darkness is
founded. He is set before us in the word of God, as
combining angelic and superhuman intelligence, the ut-
most tortuosity, fertility in inventing ever varying delu-
sions and falsehoods ; the utmost conceivable blindness
to the superior wisdom of God ; an intense power of self-
delusion, and along with all this the consciousness of
power to wage a warfare against God and His truth,
and a temper wholly devoid of fear and alarm, so as to
harden himself against the Most High. Such are the
characters in which he was revealed to that Patriarch who
THE PERFECTIONS OF THE WORLDS REDEEMER. 199
was especially exposed to his temptations. He is the
"king over all the children of pride, and beholdeth all
high things : on earth there is not his like, who is made
without fear .... his heart is as firm as a stone, yea, hard
as a piece of the nether mill-stone : the sword of him
that layeth at him cannot hold," Job xli. 24, 33, 34. As
he is the foremost and chief of rebels against God, so
he seems to be pronounced, in natural gifts, the foremost
of created intelligences. " He is the chief of the ways of
God, but He that made him, can make His sword to ap-
proach unto him," Job xl. 19. The great day of Christ's
judgment is that in which " the Lord with his sore, and
great, and strong sword, shall punish Leviathan the
piercing and crooked serpent," Isa. xxvii. i.
As in this enemy we have set before us, the sum
and climax of all perverse cunning as figured in the ser-
pent tribes, employed for the dishonour of God and the
injury of man ; so this perfect cunning, perversity and
malice of " the spirit who worketh in the children of
disobedience," Eph. ii. 2, can only be overcome by the
all-perfect wisdom of the God-man. " For this purpose
was the Son of God manifested that He might destroy
the works of the Devil," i Jo. iii. 8. " Christ is the
power of God and the wisdom of God," i Cor. i. 24.
" The cross is that mystery of godliness and of redeem-
ing grace, wherein Christ, the Son of Man, "spoiled
principalities and made a show of them openly, triumph-
ing over them in it," Col. ii, 15. The adversary is the
" strong man armed" with seemingly interminable re-
sources of delusion, which constitute the armoury of the
kingdom of darkness. As human nature in its perfection
is higher and nobler than the nature of the serpent, the
Redeemer is that t( stronger than he," who can overcome
him, " take from him all the armour wherein he trusted,
and divide his spoils ;" because He is the Incarnate
2OO SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
Wisdom, the Word, " in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge," ver. 3.
Inexpressibly mournful and solemn are charges of
folly, falsehood, and delusion, brought by guilty mortals
against that glorious Gospel, in which omniscient Wis-
dom, and inexpressible grace, and spotless holiness have
conspired to reveal the choicest treasures of Divine good-
ness, so as to rescue all but the more stubborn and
perverse of the human race, from the ruin of that fall in
which they were involved at first, by the malice of the
great ringleader of evil.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE LAST DAYS,
A SCRIPTURE PROPHECY.
THE present century has witnessed the solution of a
great problem, which awakened the curiosity, and baffled
the researches of the ancients, from Herodotus onward
through more than two thousand years, till it passed into
a proverb. The sources of the Nile have been detected
and explored, by the laborious researches of Livingstone,
Krapf, Grant, Speke, Stanley, Cameron, and other
travellers. They have been found to lie in a series of
Lakes in the South of Africa, fed by the copious and
abundant rains of the Tropics.
From these hidden sources, for thousands of years,
has flowed the fertilizing stream which formed the pride
and glory of Egypt, the main source of its wealth,
fertility, and greatness, through successive ages, when
the land of the Pharaohs was the foremost of the world's
empires. That stream of the Nile received on its bosom,
almost four thousand years ago, in an ark of papyrus the
infant Moses, the first and noblest in the series of those
messengers by whom it has pleased God to give written
messages of His will to mankind. On the side of this
stream in later years, were built those pyramids, which
are the most conspicuous and enduring products of man's
skill and labour to be found on the face of the whole
202 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
earth. Both these, and their contents, are the record of
his vain and earnest efforts to resist the reign of corrup-
tion, to baffle death and the grave.
There is another flood which in these days is pouring
its broad and fertilizing stream, not over the valley of
the Nile alone, but over the far wider range of all the
civilized regions of the earth. That flood is the wide,
and still widening stream of physical science, growing
in depth and breadth from year to year, with its manifold
contributions to the arts of life, and to the supply of
human wants. Very wonderful and various are its dis-
coveries of the secrets of nature, with its microscope, its
telescope, steam engines, steam boats, locomotives, rail-
ways, electric telegraphs, spectroscope, in the strata of
the earth below, and throughout the starry universe to
the farthest depths of space. This wide and fertilizing
flood has changed the whole face of modern society, and
by its mighty operation has introduced a new era in the
history of our world. It has laid bare a thousand secrets
in nature, long veiled in darkness, to the contemplation of
the human reason, and made them minister to the supply
of human wants, and to the development of the secret
and mysterious faculties of the mind of man. Now it
is a natural inquiry, Is there any lake on a mountain
side near some mighty watershed, to which we can
trace the secret origin of this fertilizing flood of modern
scientific discovery? There is such a source. We find
it in one sentence of the inspired word of God ; one
verse near the close of the visions of the prophet Daniel,
which Christ has given His disciples a special charge to
read with understanding; given to him in vision 2,400
years ago. It is the prediction that in the time of the
end, and in the near approach of a time of great politi-
cal and national trouble, " many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased." Dan. xii. 4.
BACONS MOTTO. 2O3
This verse was singled out by Lord Bacon as the
motto of his immortal work, which gave the first great
impulse to that revived energy of inductive search into
nature which has gone on increasing ever since. The
increase of travelling, or running to and fro in the earth,
is here described as the first step in this predicted growth
of knowledge. The knowledge of every child of man,
has both its pedestal, and its commencement, in his
familiar knowledge of a few persons, things, plants,
animals, and material objects in that small spot of earth
where he lives ; on his intimate knowledge of this small
and narrow circle of the objects immediately around him,
he founds the whole fabric and structure of his later
knowledge. Thus an age of increased facilities for
travelling and running to and fro in the earth, increases
at once for every individual, the range of that circle of
persons, things, spots, local relations, and material objects,
which is the intellectual foundation upon which all his
wider knowledge of the material universe, and his further
speculations, or philosophical conjectures on the system
of the universe, and on the nature of all his fellow crea-
tures must be founded. Thus facilities for travelling,
and a general habit of running to and fro in the earth,
are a natural preparation for any further increase and
development of man's knowledge of natural things. They
provide a wider and broader basis than can exist, when
each person is tied down, and limited, to the range of
one day's foot journey on the face of the earth, and
remains almost wholly ignorant, except by report, of all
that lies beyond.
It has been estimated, by statistical inquirers, that the
amount of locomotion, or travelling to and fro upon the
earth, has increased more than a hundredfold in the
course of the present century. The Roman Empire in
this respect had made a great advance on all earlier
204 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
ages. The Romans paid special attention to the construc-
tion of roads, the building of bridges, and the formation
of regular pathways between Rome itself, and every part
of her widely extended empire. It is probable that the
amount and ease of travelling was increased tenfold
under the Roman Empire, as compared with all previous
ages of the world. It is plain that running to and fro in
the earth, and the increase of natural knowledge, and a de-
velopment of zeal in the study of the works of God, have
been marked features in the whole history of the world,
from the date of Bacon's work, down to the present hour.
What view did Lord Bacon himself take of his own
work ? Plainly, he believed that he was one selected
instrument, for the fulfilment of an express promise and
prophecy, which God had already given so long before
by His holy Prophet, to the children of men. Hence
arose his strong faith in the success of his great effort,
to open a clearer pathway into the fields of science.
Hence also his warning against the deceptive shortcuts
which human impatience is ever prone to make, when
it substitutes mere guess-work of a pretentious kind,
for a patient induction of particular facts, and that
careful testing of hypotheses at every step, on which the
whole efficacy and value of induction, in his opinion,
depended. He had a firm and sublime faith in the suc-
cess of his own labours, even when all past experience,
from the slow and scanty increase of knowledge for nearly
2000 years, might have seemed most discouraging. Be-
cause as man, he truly says, is the minister and inter-
preter of nature, so he felt himself in this great work, of
laying the foundations for a theory of the inductive
study of nature, to be only a servant, an interpreter of a
promise already given to men, by the Lord God of the
holy prophets. This promise assured the arrival in the
time of the end, (which he referred with good reason
BACON S TWO PRAYERS. 2O5
to the times after the Reformation, and the fall of the
Eastern empire of Rome), of an age when travelling and
running to and fro in the earth should be greatly mul-
tiplied. And when along with this increase in the stimulus
and materials of science, science itself should also be
increased.
That increase he might well expect, would be twofold,
like that of a river, spreading over a wider surface, and
including a greater number of individuals ; and also
piercing further into the secrets of nature than had ever
been done before ; so as not only to increase the intellectual
wealth of the race, but to furnish human life with a large
variety of inventions, ministering to the hourly comfort of
mankind. It was probably a deep, secret conviction of
the true fountain from which his work derived its inspi-
ration, that led Bacon, in the confidence of expected
success, to append to his work the following prayer :
THE STUDENT'S PRAYER.
" To God the Father, God the Word, God the Spirit, we pour forth
most humble and hearty supplications ; that he remembering the
calamities of mankind, and the pilgrimage of this our life, in which
we wear out days few and evil, would please to open to us new
refreshments out of the fountains of his goodness, for the alleviating
of our miseries. This also we humbly and earnestly beg, that human
things may not prejudice such as are divine ; neither that from the
unlocking of the gates of sense, and the kindling of a greater natural
light, any thing of incredulity, or intellectual night, may arise in our
minds towards divine mysteries. But rather, that by our mind
thoroughly cleansed and purged from fancy and vanities, and yet
subject and perfectly given up to the divine oracles, there may be
given unto faith the things that are faith's." Amen.
The rash and ambitious hypotheses of many modern
speculators in science, while they depart very widely from
the strict and exact laws of Bacon's Inductive Philosophy,
at the same time suggest the duty to all the friends of
real science, as well as to every sincere disciple of Christ,
2O6 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
to offer up once more, with renewed earnestness, both
for themselves, and for all their fellow students, this sim-
ple and striking prayer of Bacon, and to follow it by
adopting his prayer as a writer.
THE WRITER'S PRAYER.
" Thou, O Father, who gavest the visible light as the first-born of
thy creatures, and didst pour into man the intellectual light as the top
and consummation of thy workmanship, be pleased to protect and
govern this work, which coming from thy goodness, returneth to thy
glory. Thou, after thou hadst reviewed the works which thy hands
had made, beheldest that every thing was very good, and thou didst
rest with complacency in them. But man, reflecting on the works
which he had made, saw that all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and
could by no means acquiesce in them. Wherefore if we labour in thy
works with the sweat of our brows, thou wilt make us partakers of thy
vision and thy sabbath. We humbly beg that this mind may be
steadfastly in us ; and that thou, by our hands, and also by the hands
of others, on whom thou shalt bestow the same spirit, wilt please
to convey a largess of new alms to thy family of mankind. These
things we commend to thy everlasting love, by our Jesus, thy Christ,
God with us."
The true relation between Christian faith and genuine
science, so often distorted or denied by sceptics or scio-
lists, is well defined by the same great philosopher in
" Filum Labyrinthi," and in the Essay on Truth.
" There cannot be a greater and more evident truth than this, that
all knowledge, specially that of natural philosophy, tendeth highly to
the magnifying of the glory of God, in his power, providence and
benefits;... as engraven in his works, which, without this knowledge, are
beheld but as through a veil. If the heavens in the body of them, do
declare the glory of God to the eye, much more do they in the rule
and decrees of them, declare it to the understanding. And another
reason (for its culture) not inferior to this, is that the same natural
philosophy principally among all human knowledge, doth give an
excellent defence against both extremes in religion, superstition and
infidelity; for both it freeth the mind from a number of weak fancies
and imaginations, and raiseth it to acknowledge that to God ' all things
are possible.' To this purpose speaketh our Saviour in that first
BACON'S TWO PRAYERS. 207
Canon against heresies ... ' Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures,
nor the power of God ' . . . So He saw well that natural philo-
sophy was of excellent use to the exaltation of the Divine Majesty.
And what is admirable, being a remedy for superstitions, it is never-
theless a help to faith ... ' What is truth ? ' asked Pilate. Certainly
there are that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a
belief, affecting free-will in thinking as well as in acting. It is not
only the difficulty and labour which men have in finding out of truth
that doth bring lies into favour, but a natural though corrupt love of
the lie itself . . . This same truth is a naked and open daylight, which
doth not shew the masks and mummeries of the world half so stately
and daintily as candle-light. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.
Doth any doubt that if there were taken out of men's minds vain
opinions, flattering hopes, and false imaginations, it would leave the
minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy
and unpleasing to themselves ? But howsoever these things are in
men's depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth
judge itself, teacheth that inquiry for truth, which is the wooing of it,
the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of
truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human
nature.
" The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light
of the sense : the last was the light of reason, and His Sabbath work
ever since is the illumination of His Spirit. First, he breathed light
on the face of the matter, or chaos ; then he breathed light into the face
of man, and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of His
chosen. The poet (Lucretius), that beautified the sect that otherwise
was inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well, ' It is a pleasure
to stand upon the shore and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a
pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the
adventures thereof below : but no pleasure is comparable to the standing
on the vantage-ground of truth, a hill not to be commanded, and where
the air is always clear and serene : and to see the errors and wanderings,
and mists and tempests in the vale below.' But so always that this
prospect be with pity and not with swelling or pride. Certainly it is
heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in
providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. To pass from theological
and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business ; it will be acknow-
ledged even by those who practise it not, that clear and round dealing
is the honour of man's nature, and the mixture of falsehood is like alloy
that embaseth it."
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN CHRISTIAN FAITH AND
SCIENCE " FALSELY so CALLED," IN THE LAST DAYS.
THE " Gospel of the Resurrection " by Dr Westcott
contains two hundred pages developing the truths in-
volved in, and growing out of, the Resurrection of Christ,
which seem to me mainly true and beautiful. Still there
are two drawbacks which do much to obscure the whole,
and deprive it of practical power. The first is, the mis-
taken transfer to the Son, God Incarnate, of the transcen-
dental conception of God, as a Being above time and
space, with whom there is no past, present, or future, but
simply an ETERNAL NOW. It is one main feature of the
great mystery of godliness, that God has condescended,
in the person of His Son, not only to be tempted like as
we are, but subject, like His creatures, to the con-
ditions of time and place. This is the very central truth
of the Christian creed, that God the Son became in-
carnate at Bethlehem, a specific place, in the reign of
Herod and Augustus, and during the government of
Pilate, a specific time, in "the last days." To forget
and overlook this great truth, instead of helping us to
see deeper into sacred mysteries, spreads a veil of mist
and confusion over the whole. The other drawback
is the entire omission of the doctrine of a Judgment
to come, and of the fundamental contrast between the
CHRISTIAN FAITH AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE. 2OQ
church and the world; and the double character of Christ
as the " head of every man," and as the head of the
body, the church. This is the truth which forms the
woof of the whole message of Scripture, from the history
of Cain and Abel to the last chapter of the Apocalypse.
The entire pretermission of this great and fundamental
truth, turns the whole discussion into a kind of luminous
haze, where every part produces an effect, like that of
the nebulous spaces in the milky way, instead of shed-
ding a definite light, like that of the pole star or the
southern cross.
The Appendix of thirty pages, is an attempt to pro-
claim a peace and friendship between Christian faith and
the Positivism of M. Comte ; an attempt as hopeless
as it is suicidal, in a Professor of Divinity. I have
read it with intense surprise and regret, but it would
require a book to unfold fully the reasons of my entire
dissent from that Appendix.
Positivism, in its fundamental law of progress, com-
bines a fearful blasphemy, with a complete reversal of
the very first principle of genuine philosophy. For
that principle is the transition in our thoughts from
momentary phenomena, to the causes, things, and per-
sons, the real existences, mental or material, on which
phenomena depend. The creed which denies the living
God, and consigns Him to the 'moles and bats/ as a
dream of the infancy of science, that must disappear with
the daybreak, and then be replaced by M. Comte's NEW
SUPREME BEING, COLLECTIVE HUMANITY, is exactly the
creed of the last Antichrist, in that final stage in which
he will have dropped every veil, or theological disguise,
aud when openly, and no longer in a mystery, he "opposes
and exalts himself against all that is called God, or that
is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of
God, shewing himself that he is God," 2 Thess. ii. 4.
B. 14
2IO SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
It is refreshing to escape from the mephitic neigh-
bourhood of this Satanic religion without a God, which,
when they approach it incautiously, seems able to con-
fuse and dazzle the senses and instincts even of some
Christian men. Let us listen to the clear and manly tes-
timony of that Christian philosopher, who is the second
great glory of Cantbridge. What a contrast to the blas-
phemy of M. Comte, with his " new Supreme Being,"
collective humanity, or a total including all the sinners of
mankind, who have murdered and tortured one another,
from Cain and Abel to the orgies of the Commune of
Paris, and the last Turkish or Bulgarian atrocities. Let
us turn from this " new God " of Positivism which has
"lately come up," to the words of that noble Scholium
which closes the "Principia" of Newton. That work is
the greatest single step of advance in the knowledge of
nature which man has been permitted to attain ; and the
Scholium is its fitting close.
" This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets could
only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and
powerful being. If the fixed stars are the centres of other like systems,
these being formed by the like wise counsel, must all be subject to the
dominion of One. From every system light passes into all the others,
and lest the systems of the fixed stars should fall on each other, He
hath placed them at immense distances one from another. This being
governs all things, not as a soul of the world, but as Lord over all,
and on account of His dominion he is wont to be called the Lord God,
TravTOKparcDp, or universal ruler . . .
" The supreme God is a being, eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect.
But a being however perfect, without dominion, cannot be said to
be the Lord God. It is the dominion of a spiritual being which con-
stitutes a God. A true, supreme or imaginary dominion makes a
true, supreme or imaginary God; and from His true dominion it follows
that the true God is a living, intelligent and powerful being ; and from
His other perfections that He is supreme or most perfect. He is eter-
nal, infinite, omnipotent and omniscient. That is, His duration reaches
from eternity to eternity, His presence from infinity to infinity. He
CHRISTIAN FAITH AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE. 211
governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done. God
is the same God, always and everywhere. In Him are all things con-
tained and moved, yet neither affects the other. God suffers nothing
from the motion of bodies, and bodies find no resistance from the
omnipresence of God . . .
" We know Him only by His most wise and excellent contrivances
of things and final causes; but we admire Him for His perfections,
but we reverence and adore Him on account of His dominion ; for
we adore Him as His servants; and a God without dominion, provi-
dence and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature. Blind
metaphysical necessity, which is certainly the same always and every-
where, could produce no variety of things; and that diversity of
natural things which we find suited to different times and places,
could arise from nothing but the ideas and will of a being necessarily
existing. Thus much concerning God, to discourse of whom from the
appearances of things, does certainly belong to natural philosophy."
The Agnosticism of the nineteenth century differs in
two respects from the Gnosticism of the first century,
and its " oppositions of science falsely so called/' to the
truth of God and the glorious message of the everlasting
Gospel, while it agrees with it in most of its other fea-
tures. First, it strives to incorporate with itself the
materials, provided by the progress of real science, in
man's knowledge of the works of God, or the divine
fulfilment of the gracious promise of God made by the
prophet Daniel so long before, that in the time of the
end knowledge should be increased. It seeks to in-
terweave all these discoveries of science into the web
of its own unbelieving speculations, and it uses them
to form fresh weapons of assault against the true sayings
of God, as well as to point afresh the blunted shafts
that have recoiled, and aim them at the shield of truth
again. It thus fulfils a real law of progress announced
by the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in his parting mes-
sage to the church of Christ; there is a law of moral
development in the case of wilful and open opposers of
the truth, no less real, than that progress of real science
142
212 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
which had been earlier assured to mankind by the Divine
promise. " Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived." But this down-
ward progress is to receive a sudden arrest and reversal
in the last times, when the blasphemous presumption
of those who have succeeded to the task of Jannes and
Jambres shall have reached its height. " As Jannes
and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the
truth, men of perverted understanding, devoid of dis-
cernment as to the faith. They shall proceed no further,
for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs
also was." This climax seems almost reached in Positiv-
ism, and its Satanic religion, if religion it is to be called,
which consigns the true and living God to eternal oblivion
and contempt, as one of the dreams of a childish and out-
worn superstition, and would place upon His throne, for
the worship of a coming and more enlightened genera-
tion, the " new Supreme Being" of M. Comte, "collective
humanity."
Along with this downward moral progress of Agnos-
ticism it has a second feature, in the reversal of the
simple and noble prayer of Bacon, that "from the kindling
of greater natural light, nothing of incredulity or intellec-
tual night may arise toward the Divine mysteries." The
warning prophecy of the Psalmist with regard to Judas
has been fulfilled in its disciples, with regard to the higher
intellectual food of the soul. " Their table is turned into
a snare, a trap, a recompense, a stumblingblock to them."
The words of the Psalmist do not refer mainly to the
food of the body, but to the higher and richer food
in the Divine discourses of Christ, and His multiplied
acts of grace, the gift of working miracles, and the high
privilege of the call to be an Apostle of Christ, all
which the traitor abused and perverted to his own loss
and shame. The celebrated saying of M. Comte, that to
CHRISTIAN FAITH AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE. 213
the eyes of an enlightened philosopher, the heavens re-
veal no glory but that of the astronomers by whom their
laws are discovered, fulfils perfectly the description of
Milton, the third great light and glory of Cambridge :
" For swinish gluttony
Ne'er looks to Heav'n amidst its gorgeous feast,
But with besotted base ingratitude
Crams and blasphemes its feeder."
The words of Milton apply with still greater emphasis
to the rich and abundant intellectual feast which science,
by its manifold discoveries, has provided for all its dis-
ciples and students in these last days, than to abuse and
excess in the indulgence of the bodily appetites alone.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE REVELATION IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
ONE HARMONIOUS WHOLE.
RATIONALISM may be defined as the abuse and per-
version of human reason, in dealing with the claims of
Divine Revelation. Its source is an undue confidence in
man's unaided faculties, and an excessive estimate of his
religious instincts and reasoning powers. Its effect is to
set aside all the truths of Christianity, or else to choose
out such as suit individual taste or fancy, and to de-
preciate or deny the supernatural evidence by which
they are all invested with Divine authority, and claim the
reverence and submission of mankind. It ranges through
many degrees of error, from the broad assertion that
Christianity is a fraud, and supernatural revelation impos-
sible, to the rejection of some secondary truths, or books
of an inferior importance, or of particular passages or
texts, on insufficient evidence, from their rightful place
in the volume of inspired truth.
If God has made a supernatural revelation of His
will to mankind, it is plain that the gift may be per-
verted in two opposite ways. Men may add to it, or
take away from it. They may corrupt it by spurious
additions, or mutilate it by either a partial or a total
rejection. They may confound false interpretations,
and human traditions or additions, with the message
itself, so as to invest them with a like authority ; or
RATIONALISM. 215
they may pare down and extenuate its meaning till only
a scanty residuum is left, which few people would think
worth the trouble, of being conveyed to men by a special
revelation.
The Pharisees and Sadducees in the time of our Lord
are striking instances of these opposite evils. We have
a warning against both, alike in the opening of Deutero-
nomy, iv. 2, and at the close of the Apocalypse, Rev.
xxii. 1 8, 19. The same charge was given by Christ
Himself to his disciples. We are thus taught that under
the Law and the Gospel these are two lasting sources of
danger to the Church of God. Such is the natural rela-
tion of these two errors, that every faithful Christian is
likely to be charged in turn with each of them. Some
will condemn him for believing too little, others for
believing too much. He will seem a Rationalist or semi-
Sadducee to superstitious devotees ; or again, a super-
stitious bigot to the disciples of human reason. The
best, wisest, and holiest Christians have only a partial and
incomplete understanding of divine truth. The void left
by an immature faith will either be filled up with opinions
and misinterpretations which men mistake in their haste
for parts of the divine message ; or else they may accept
a maimed and imperfect creed, instead of including within
the circle of their faith the full scope and compass of the
whole word of God. In one case they will add to its
teaching, in the other they will take away from it. We
ought never to suppose that we ourselves are free from
all participation in one or other of these evils, against both
of which it is our duty to contend. Renouncing rational-
ism we may fall easily into the arms of superstition ; in
condemning formalism and a mere traditional creed, we
may contract a captious and sceptical habit of thought,
which must betray us into partial unbelief. In dealing
with slighter departures, on either side, from the line of
2l6 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
truth, we need to be very guarded in our censures, lest
the fault after all should prove to be our own. We may
think that we have detected rationalism in others, when
the real fault is some mixture of superstition in our own
faith ; or, in other cases, we may charge men wrongfully
with superstition, through a false and diseased estimate
of our own powers of spiritual discernment. The arrows
from both camps, that of the Sadducee and of the Pharisee,
will be aimed, not less frequently against the truth which
lies between them, than against each other. As Caiaphas
and Pilate conspired together against the Lord of glory,
a double reproach, both from the Pharisee and the Sad-
ducee, is the natural consequence and usual price of a
faithful adherence to the inspired word of God.
The stage of Rationalism farthest removed from
Christianity, is that which denies even the possibility of a
supernatural revelation, either in an oral or written form.
In Atheists of the French school, such as Helvetius, Con-
dillac and Volney, in the last century, and M. Comte and
the Positivists of our own day, this doctrine is only the
natural consequence of their dreary creed. The " fool "
who says in his heart " There is no God," must naturally
infer, there can be no Divine Revelation. With such
men, nature is an immense lumber-room of effects without
a cause, and of laws without any lawgiver. Their barren
theory makes every star in the firmament re-echo the
boast ascribed by Milton to the arch-fiend in the hour of
his rebellion :
" We know no time when we were not as now,
Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais'd,
By our own quick'ning power, when fatal course
Had circled its full orb, the birth mature
Of this our native Heav'n, ethereal sons."
But the paradox that all revelation is impossible, is
not confined to Atheists, whose one great falsehood incor-
VARIETIES OF RATIONALISM. 217
porates into itself a thousand lesser follies. It is held
more or less fully by some who profess to be Theists,
and even Christians of a high order, ardent lovers of "the
absolute religion." It appears in F. Newman's works on
"the Soul;" T. Parker's " Discourses on Religion;" and
Strauss's " Mythical Theory of the Gospels." In the first,
religion is a sentiment, not a conclusion of the intel-
lect, and therefore can never be embodied in a creed, or
conveyed by a " Book revelation." In the second, the
perfections of God imply the certainty of a universal
revelation of pure and absolute religion, and exclude any
other of an historical, limited, and partial kind. In the
last, the alleged proofs of Supernatural revelation are
said to be proved impossible by the progress of sound
metaphysics, and their inconsistency with the discoveries
of modern science.
The doctrine that miracles are impossible in their
own nature, is itself a moral miracle, a marvellous ex-
treme of presumptuous folly, veiled under a thin mantle
of metaphysical subtleties. From the fact that God has
richly displayed His wisdom in the universe, as the great
architect and mechanician, it draws the inference that He
can never manifest any nobler attributes as the Father of
mercies, the supreme Judge and moral Governor of all
reasonable beings. Creation, and the silent quiet course
of daily providence, as man now experiences it here on
earth, can never exhaust all the conceivable or probable
modes of His operation, who is "wonderful in counsel
and excellent in working." Man is able easily to con-
vince his fellow-man of his own presence. And shall the
Almighty God, who upholds all things by His power,
and fills Heaven and earth by His presence, be unable
to manifest Himself by means more decisive and effectual
than those which, at the present hour, leave Atheists at
full liberty to deride the superstition of His worshippers,
2l8 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
and to boast of their own superior wisdom, in their
strenuous efforts to banish the Creator from His own
universe ? How much wiser to say with the ancient
patriarch, after all our fancied advances in metaphysics
and real progress in natural science, " Lo ! these are a
part of His ways ; but how faint a whisper is heard of
Him ; the thunder of His power who can understand ?"
But Supernatural religion, though not impossible, may
perhaps be superfluous. Natural reason may be sufficient
without the feeble help of historical records like those of
the Gospels. The traditional saying of Omar has been
applied to this subject by some modern writers.
" If the doctrine of Scripture agree with the conclusions of sound
reason, they are superfluous; if opposed to it they are untrue and ought
to be thrown away. To ascertain what is absolute religion," (Mr Parker
affirms) " is not difficult. It is perfect obedience to the law of God ; perfect
love towards God and man exhibited in a life allowing the harmonious
action of all the faculties. Christianity is either absolute religion and
morality, or it is less; greater it cannot be. Jesus of Nazareth may
either have taught absolute religion, or an imperfect form ; he may
have omitted what was essential, or have added what was national,
temporal and personal. But if His religion has none of these faults,
then it is the absolute religion, eternally true before revelation."
Parker's 'Discourses,' pp. 180 182.
One would suppose that a single glance at the present
state or past history of the world, would dispose at once of
this strange wild fancy, that a supernatural revelation is
entirely needless. A few jackdaws in Christian countries
may strut about in borrowed feathers, and may boast of an
"absolute religion" which they have stolen from the Bible,
and then carved and mangled, till it is no better than a
bleeding corpse. This residuum is a law without any
sanction, a morality without life ; the worship of a Being
wholly unknown, without any remedy for conscious guilt,
or any clear hope of life beyond the grave, or of any
deliverance from the dark despotism of death. There is
VARIETIES OF RATIONALISM.
in fact no myth so purely mythical, as this dream of some
philosophers in their dotage, that the light of man's reason
has made all supernatural revelation superfluous.
If the sun of Christianity were once blotted out of
the firmament, the dim feeble moonlight which these pre-
tentious deists call " the absolute religion," a mere reflec-
tion lighted by that sun, on the sterile plains and volcanic
caverns of the human heart, in its ceaseless lunations,
would also disappear and pass away for ever. Wherever
the true sunlight from heaven has not dawned, the words
of the prophet have been verified, " Darkness has covered
the earth, and gross darkness the people." Amidst all
these declamations on the virtue and clearness of the ab-
solute religion, the words of the Apostle remain still as
true as ever, " after that in the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolish-
ness (TOV /ajpuy/Ao/ros) of the preached word to save
them that believe."
Though a divine revelation be admitted to be both
possible and desirable, it may still be maintained that it
has never been actually given. When the evidences of
the Gospel are pleaded in the court of reason, the verdict
may be returned, ' It is either an imposture or a mere
dream of excited imagination/ Rationalism, in its third
form, admits that a divine message might be given to
men, and be in some respects desirable, and affirms only,
that the proof of the fact, in the case of the Gospel, and
still more of other religions, is insufficient and defective.
This view is common to the earlier rationalism of Ger-
many, and to the mythical theory which has widely dis-
placed it. In reality it is seldom found to be maintained
on its own merits. In those who maintain it, there is
commonly a secret conviction that the laws of Nature
have, in some way or other, tied up the hands of the
supreme lawgiver. Or else there is an evident desire to
22O SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
whitewash the religious history of the world, and to make
it out that fetichism and devil-worship, human sacrifices
and widow-burning, infanticide, the crocodile gods of
Egypt, and the monster gods of India, are very fair and
respectable varieties of the one universal religion. Once
let the double truth be frankly admitted, that the living
God can make a revelation of His own will, character
and purposes, and that mankind greatly need it, and
nine-tenths of the cavils brought against Christianity
and its evidences will die away of themselves.
The elder form of German rationalism, beginning with
Semler, aimed its attacks solely against the miraculous ele-
ments in the Scripture history. These were got rid of, by
any expedients, however violent. According to Bahrdt,
the angel who appeared to Zacharias was a flash of
lightning; Paulus explains it as the light of lamps falling
upon a cloud of incense, and followed by an apoplectic
stroke ; his solution of the later history of the miraculous
conception is too revolting to be repeated. The magi
were common merchant travellers, and the star of Beth-
lehem either a comet, or a conjunction of planets ; and
the dreams were the accidental reflections of Joseph's
own waking meditations. The opening of the heavens at
our Lord's baptism was a parting of the clouds, or a flash
of lightning, while Paulus gravely adduces examples of
the tameness of birds, to shew that a real dove might
have alighted on the head of Jesus. The angel who ap-
peared to the shepherds, in one writer is a Jewish mes-
senger, carrying a torch ; and the song, the merry notes of
a party who were with him. In a second, it was an ignis
fatuus, or a flash of lightning; and again, in a third a
swoon, or mental vision. These examples, which weary
us by their monotony of dull absurdity, shew the despe-
rate efforts made by the elder rationalists to pare down
the Gospel narratives to the level of common history.
GERMAN RATIONALISM. 221
The features of the other system are equally strange.
It admits that there was a person called John the Baptist,
and a Jewish peasant called Jesus, who lived for some
time at Nazareth, but all beyond these two facts is
mythical invention, the result of a creative and legendary
habit of thought in the early Christians. No miracles
were wrought by this Jewish peasant, and no prophecy
was fulfilled in him. He was perhaps condemned to
death, but was either taken down from the cross while
still alive, or never appeared again after his burial. But
a small company of disciples resolved to treat him as the
promised Messiah, in the teeth of all their deepest preju-
dices as Jews, without one grain of real evidence, and yet
without the least purpose of fraud. Through the vivid-
ness of their fancy, and their faith in prophecies which
they wholly misunderstood and misapplied, they ascribed
to him cures he never wrought, and a resurrection which
never occurred ; parables and discourses, rich with trea-
sures of divine wisdom, which he never spoke ; and a
character both in word and in deed, which was due to
their own creative imagination alone. The very in-
ventors of these fictions, according to the theory, mistook
them for facts, and spent their lives in persuading others
that they were facts, while the woof of the fiction was
only half complete.
The case is just the same as if Bunyan, when he had
written one half of the Pilgrim's Progress, had founded
a society to preach these doctrines ; that Christian,
Obstinate, and Pliable, were three villagers of Bed-
fordshire ; that the City of Destruction was Bedford, the
county town ; that the Slough of Despond was one of the
fens of Cambridgeshire ; and the castle of Giant Despair,
the county jail ; and that while he and his friends were
fined, imprisoned, and hunted out of society for teaching
these strange doctrines, he calmly employed his intervals
222 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
of leisure in completing the allegory; and enriched his
creed with the further dogma, that the Delectable moun-
tains were a district somewhere in Wales. In short, on
this mythical hypothesis, the Apostles turned the world
upside down by proclaiming with the utmost zeal, self-
sacrifice, and apparent conviction, the truth and immense
importance of legends, which they were gradually weaving,
at the very time, out of their own diseased and fertile
imagination.
It is some comfort to the plain Christian, that these
two schools of rationalism flatly contradict each other, and
thereby lend an indirect confirmation to the truth of the
Gospel. From the school of Semler and Paulus we learn
that the Gospel narrative is so deeply rooted in the his-
tory of the times, and in the whole course of the known
events of that age, that a thousand grossly absurd criti-
cisms must be ventured on, rather than attempt the Her-
culean task of uprooting the whole from its historical
context by denying its reality. From the mythical school
of Bauer, Gabler, and Strauss, we learn that the super-
natural element is so closely interwoven in the whole tex-
ture of the New Testament, that its exclusion is quite
hopeless. When we combine these reluctant admissions,
the evidence for the Gospel, as a revelation from heaven,
is complete. The countless and absurd glosses of the
naturalists bear witness that the substratum is true and
real history; the late invented and laboured hypotheses
of their rivals prove that this real history is indisputably
miraculous. Thus, unless we revive the old blasphemy
of the Pharisees, we must also own that it is truly and
properly divine. We are thus landed> concerning our
blessed Lord, in the confession of Nicodemus, which may
ripen afterwards into fuller and clearer faith : " Rabbi, we
know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man
can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be
GERMAN RATIONALISM. 223
with him/' The mythical theorists have thus, indirectly,
done some service to truth, by sweeping away without
compunction many cobwebs of criticism, which had been
spun with much labour and perverse ingenuity by Ra-
tionalists of the earlier school. But the scheme which
they would substitute, from its very nature, must be still
more ephemeral than its predecessor. No intelligent
Englishman can read the " Horse Paulinae" with care,
the Epistles of St Paul, and the Book of Acts, and not
feel sure that the letters are genuine documents of the
first century, and the narrative a contemporary history,
true and faithful, at least in its main outlines. Let him
read them again, comparing the letters with the narra-
tive, and striving honestly to realize the course of actual
history thus implied, both on the part of the apostle him-
self, and of the early churches ; and he will discover clear
evidence of a state of things, which, both in its moral
features, its historical freshness, and the sparing, but yet
inseparable admixture of a supernatural and miraculous
element with the whole current of the history, involves,
requires, and presupposes all the main facts, whether
miraculous or not, which compose the substance of the
four Gospels.
The New Testament, which is a mine and treasury of
truth to simple Christians, when it has to encounter the
subtle theories of modern unbelief, will be found to pos-
sess a further character. It is a golden chain of evidence,
where every link is firm as the foundations of heaven
and earth ; from the known history of the early church
after the close of the Gospels to the twenty-one Epistles ;
from these again to the later portion of the Book of
Acts; and from the facts, doctrines, and allusions in all
these, to the contents of the early chapters from the day
of Pentecost ; and further, from all these combined, to
the great fundamental facts of the Baptism, the moral
224 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
teaching, and the miracles of the Lord Jesus ; His trans-
figuration, agony, crucifixion, burial, resurrection and
ascension, as they are recorded in all the four evangelists.
There is no crevice in this panoply of divine truth given
to the church by the Spirit of God. " Without contro-
versy great is the mystery of godliness ; God was mani-
fested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory."
The history then is real, the facts are miraculous, the
message is both divine and unspeakably glorious.
Doctrinal Rationalism has three varieties. The first
accounts Christ a mere fallible man, however good and
wise ; it pretends to separate his mistakes and those of
his followers from that "absolute religion" which was the
sum of his teaching. The second teaches that Chris-
tianity is a sentiment, and not a set of dogmas, so that
if only we entertain a feeling of religious reverence to-
wards Christ, all questions of doctrine are superfluous.
The third sets aside particular doctrines, commonly held
to be main parts of the Gospel, as due to Jewish preju-
dices and misconceptions of the apostles and evangelists,
which our more advanced and enlightened reason is
bound to cast away.
The first of these views is held by those pietists of
unbelief who pretend to glorify the essence of Chris-
tianity, and borrow largely from its phrases, while they
discard its authority. In Parker's Discourses, we have
such monstrous statements as these :
" Did Jesus lay any stress on this watery baptism, then we must
drop a tear for the weakness. If it came from him, we can only say,
there is no perfect guide but the Father. It is apparent that he shared the
erroneous notion of the times respecting devils and possessions. He
never set up for a teacher of physiology. The acceptance of this error
is no impeachment of his moral and religious excellence, more than his
PARKERS ABSOLUTE RELIGION. 225
ignorance of the steam engine. The errors of great men are the glory
of dunces alone. He was mistaken in his interpretation of the Old
Testament, if we may believe the Gospels. If he supposed those earlier
writers spoke of him, it is but a trifling mistake, affecting a man's head,
not his heart (!). He is said to be an enthusiast, who hoped to found
a visible kingdom, and to return in the clouds, and certainly a strong
case may be made out to favour the charge (!). What then? If the
dull evangelists have not thrust their fancies into his mouth, it does
not militate against his morality and religion. How many a saint has
been mistaken in such matters."
How kind and generous are these half-believers, or
demi-semi-believers, to extend their patronage to the Son
of God, in spite of all these serious errors, with which " if
the dull evangelists " are to be credited, He has disfigured
the beauty of their "absolute religion." Such statements,
however offensive, are quite natural, in those who reject
the idea of any direct and supernatural revelation of God
to man. The Gospel, in their view, is a surprising wind-
fall of " absolute religion," covered with rotten twigs and
branches of Jewish ignorance and prejudice, which, by
some strange chance or other, found its way into a world
where it was much needed, through a Galilean peasant.
On any other view, such statements are not more offen-
sive than absurd. If God has indeed spoken to man,
what can be more unreasonable than to maintain that the
message is filled up with Jewish prejudices, scientific
errors, scraps of unmeaning ritual, and enthusiastic mis-
takes and follies ? If the truth is allowed, that our Lord,
at the least, is a teacher sent from God, without which
the claim to be a Christian is a direct fraud, what a folly
it must be to claim the right of instructing our teacher.
What an extreme folly to pretend to enlighten Him,
whose name and office has been revealed by His own
lips, and sealed by signs and wonders, as the " Light of
the world." We cannot be at once both patrons and dis-
ciples of the Lord. We cannot claim to be possessors
B. 15
226 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
of an "absolute religion," pure, perfect, and undefiled, and
praise him for teaching so much of it, and profess piously
to "drop a tear" of pity over his mistakes, and still pretend
to believe even the first and lowest of his claims, that he
is the prophet of God, commissioned to guide our feet
into the way of peace. This mongrel Christianity, amidst
all its spiritual phrases and pretences, is really less honest,
and much more revolting to every sincere disciple, than
open and avowed unbelief.
Others admit vaguely the claim of Christ to be the
Son of God, but they are possessed with the notion
that dogmas have been the chief bane of true religion.
Spiritual Christianity consists simply, in their view, in
an undefined and mysterious reverence for the person and
character of Christ. This view has its source in the
recoil from a dry orthodoxy, and the critical follies of
rationalism within the Lutheran church. This is the
school of Schleiermacher, and in a less degree of the
lamented Neander. However useful its protest against
two great evils, and whatever the beauty with which it may
have sometimes been clothed, its principle is fatally op-
posite to the truth of the Gospel. There can be no deep
reverence for Christ, without submission to the truth and
authority of His own repeated sayings. He does insist
strongly on the acceptance and belief of certain distinct
and definite truths. He calls Himself "the way, the
truth, and the life." Truth takes precedence even of life
itself. We must first climb this steep hill-side, and gaze
from this mountain-top on the glorious landscape, before
the joy of spiritual life can take possession of our souls.
The promise is express, " Ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free." Eternal life is solemnly
declared to consist in the knowledge of God the Father
and of Jesus Christ. In many sayings of our Lord we
find the clear and distinct assertion of great religious
UNDOGMATIC RATIONALISM. 22 7
truths, which every disciple is bound to receive on His
authority. All professions of reverence must be in-
sincere, while we evade this simple test of a genuine
disciple, and try to steal away, under a mist of our own
raising, from hearty submission to these true sayings of
God.
The view which denies all doctrine in Christianity is
equally untenable on the ground of reason. The words
of Solomon are true of the palace of the soul, and all its
hidden chambers of emotion, sympathy, and affection :
" Through wisdom a house is builded, and by under-
standing it is established, and by knowledge shall the
chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches."
It is knowledge of the truth which makes the Christian
free, knowledge of sin which makes him humble, know r -
ledge of the love of God which inspires him with love. To
be " saved," and " to come to the knowledge of the truth,"
in the language of Christ and His Apostles, are equiva-
lent expressions. It is foolish to suppose that a vague,
misty sentiment, which dare not clothe itself in words,
lest it should become a dogma, can serve for the basis
of a new moral being. Light must precede life, both in
the old and the new creation.
The fact that a revelation from heaven is needed,
implies that the conscience of man has been darkened by
sin, and his reason greatly obscured in its perceptions of
moral truth. This must also make him liable to err in
his interpretation of the message. What then is his duty,
when the first impressions of his reason, and his first
notions as to the meaning of the revelation, are found to
diverge ? Both alike must be re-examined. He must
search more deeply both into the Bible and his own
heart, till he discovers the real source of this seeming
opposition. When we screen our conscience from this
purifying process, and throw the blame at once on the
152
228 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
message, or at least on the divinely appointed vehicle of
that message, we commit a double error ; we indulge
both our pride and our unbelief; we defeat one main
purpose for which the revelation is given, which is to
purify and elevate the faculties of the soul, and we
strike directly at the root of its authority as a message
of God to man.
Our present life is really a childhood, to prepare us
for a life to come ; the law of childhood, under which
alone its training can be carried on, is to receive many
truths on authority, and to wait till riper years for more
direct and full evidence. This is an imperfect state,
when compared with the wisdom and insight of a later
age ; but it is wisdom itself, when contrasted with the
perverseness of the child who refuses to believe anything,
of which the proof is not plain at once to his childish
understanding. This mimicry of manly reason only
shuts up the rebel of the nursery in hopeless ignorance.
The price which has to be paid, for affecting to be wise
before the time, is never to grow wise at all. The ac-
ceptance of honest and well-informed testimony, in daily
life as in religion, is the only bridge that can lead us
from childish ignorance, across impassable perplexities,
to a clear and full discernment, and firm possession, of
heavenly truth.
The love of God is deeper, sterner, and higher than
what sentimentalists pass off under its name. It includes
three distinct forms of goodness, answering to three main
facts or principles of the moral universe. There is bene-
volence to being as being; there is righteousness, or
holiness, discriminating goodness to creatures as morally
good or evil ; there is mercy and grace to creatures, as
guilty, but still recoverable to goodness and holiness again.
The maxim " God is Love," would seem simple, if it had
to be applied only to a sinless world. But it is the pro-
DEPRECIATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 22Q
blem of problems, to know in what forms it will reveal itself
in a world, where sin and rebellion have ploughed their
deepest furrows. We need to learn how sinners may be
translated from the outer court of simple benevolence, as
shewn in the sunlight and fruitful seasons, into the high-
est and innermost region of triumphant mercy. Who
shall span and bridge over for us the region of infinite
justice which lies between, and severs as with an im-
passable gulf, the fallen, the proud, the impure, and the
profligate, from the bright land of purity and unspotted
holiness ? The religions of fear and superstition cannot
solve the problem. They lead man within the edge of
that sphere of justice by their penances and macerations
and bloody or unbloody sacrifices, but they leave him
only on the brink of this vast gulf, which the conscience
feels it can never fathom or cross over by its own efforts.
A voice is heard from beyond the abyss : " No man can
by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ran-
som for him : the redemption of their soul is precious,
and it ceaseth for ever." The doctrine of the atonement,
revealed in the Gospel of Christ, can alone carry us
across this dreary wilderness, in which reason is lost, and
where remorse wanders up and down, seeking in vain for
rest, with deep outcries and sorrowful waitings. There
alone the three glorious elements are harmonized which
compose the heavenly light of God's love. A benevo-
lence wide as creation ; a righteousness and justice deep
as hell ; and a mercy and grace reaching far above those
clouds where reason is lost, vast and infinite as heaven.
The form of Rationalism most prevalent among real
Christians is that which denies, or greatly depreciates, the
authority of the Old Testament. Its extreme is found
in writers of the infidel school, who think no terms too
strong to express their dislike of the Divine character,
as pourtrayed in the Old Testament, and speak of the
230 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
"wrathful Jehovah of the Jews." Thus Theodore Parker
gives this judgment on Num. xiv. :
" If an unprejudiced Christian were to read this in a heathen author,
related of Kronos or Moloch, he would say, ' What foul ideas these
heathen had of God ! Thank heaven, we cannot believe in a Deity so
terrible.' There are some things which may be true, but must be
rejected for lack of evidence, but this story no amount of evidence could
render possible."
The moral darkness is indeed prodigious, which can
utter such railings against the Bible history, in one of the
most solemn, tender, noble, pathetic, and profoundly spi-
ritual of its messages. But there are many Christians
who would recoil from them with utter abhorrence, who
yet betray a secret wish to sever Christianity from its
connection with the Law and the Prophets, as if these,
not only in particular passages, but in their general tone
and character, were unworthy to be associated on a foot-
ing of equal authority with the Christian revelation. It
is very common, even with earnest and devout men, to
speak of the New Testament alone, as the Christian
Scriptures, binding on our faith. Coleridge says in the
" Confessions of an inquiring spirit" that
"it is the imagined contrast and diversity of spirit which many have
believed themselves to find in the Old Testament and in the Gospel
which has given occasion to the doubt, and in the heart of thousands
supplies fuel to a fearful wish, that it were permitted to make a distinc-
tion."
So far as this feeling of a general dislike to the Old Tes-
tament extends, it is clear that it cannot be relieved by
the sacrifice of one or another obnoxious passage. The
questions whether the books are genuine, and the canon
free from spurious additions, are subordinate to one still
higher and larger, whether the whole is defective in its
general tone, opposed to the spirit of the Gospel, and the
instincts of universal morality. The forms and degrees
DEPRECIATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 231
of rejection, dislike, and partial approval, may vary widely.
Parker, whose blasphemy we have just quoted, speaks
also of
"the sweet notes of David's prayers; his mystic hymn, full of rippling
life ; his lofty Psalm, which unites the warbling music of the wind, the
sun's glance, and the rush of the lightning ; and the stalwart character
and masculine piety of the old prophets, that puts to shame our puny
littleness."
Coleridge writes vaguely of these same Scriptures,
that we see in them
" the first ferment of the great affections, the protoplastic waves of the
microcosmic chaos, swelling up against the outspreadings of the Dove
that lies brooding on the troubled waters."
In this gentle and somewhat misty and poetic dis-
claimer, the language of men's hearts may be thus ex-
pounded. ' The New Testament, at least in the main,
is a revelation worthy of God, which approves itself to
our inmost conscience. We cannot deny the fact that it
is closely linked with the Old Testament, and seems to
recognise in it an origin and authority as Divine as its
own. We can also admire and enjoy the greater part
of the Psalms, and many passages of the Prophets ; but
still the book, as a whole, jars greatly against our moral
instincts. We could wish from our heart that Chris-
tianity stood alone. We should love it more, and count
it more worthy of a Divine author, if it were encum-
bered by no connection with the Jewish law, and the
trivial ceremonies, or stern and harsh features, of the
Mosaic economy.'
The two features of the Old Testament which bring
down upon it the dislike of sentimental dreamers, are its
minute ceremonial details and barren genealogies, and
the severe, awful, and alarming tone of its messages.
What can be wider apart than Kant's Treatise on the
Pure Reason, Schelling's Theory of the .Absolute, or
232 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
Hegel's Scheme for the evolution of the Universe out of
the possible, and the first chapters of the Chronicles, or
the offerings of the Princes in the Book of Numbers ?
What can be more opposite to that amiable, gentle,
passive benevolence, which appears to sentimentalists the
proper conception of Divine goodness, than the account
of the plagues of Egypt, or the overthrow of Sodom
and Gomorrah by fire from heaven ?
These very features of the Old Testament, by which
it is contrasted with the Gospel, have not been left for
modern objectors to discover, but are stated prominently
in the Gospels themselves. The mention of them, in
reality, forms the preface to the most gracious and tender,
the most spiritual and heavenly, of the discourses of our
Lord, in the gospel of the beloved disciple, who was chosen
to announce the sublime doctrine, that God is Love :
"The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ." Grace in contrast with the law's ju-
dicial severity ; and truth in equal contrast with its
copious historical details, and its multitude of outward
rites and ceremonies. The difficulty is not eluded; nay,
rather, the contrast is stated in such a manner, as to
imply that no difficulty was felt by the Apostle. For we
find in the same gospel those striking words of the Sa-
viour: "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?" Joh. v. 46. And a
similar statement meets us in that gospel which of the
three others is fullest of human gentleness and grace.
Our Lord there puts the evidence of truth in the Old
Testament on a level with- the approaching miracle of
His own resurrection. "If they hear not Moses and
the prophets* neither will they be persuaded though
one rose from the dead," Lu. xvi. 31. The difficulty
then is no sunken rock, on which our faith may be
DEPRECIATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 233
stranded, because its first discovery is due to the in-
genuity of unbelievers. It is rather a landmark on the
wide sea of Divine revelation, which the New Testa-
ment itself holds up prominently to our view.
Again, the ceremonial features of the Old Testament,
when we view it as an earlier revelation preparing for a
later, are in full agreement with the favourite theories of
these philosophical objectors themselves. They delight to
represent mankind as self-educated, without any need for
Divine interference. In their theory of progress, the race
ascends through Fetichism of the most barbarous kind to
Polytheism, then to Dualism and Pantheism, and finally
to Monotheism. The history of all nations is carved
into shape, to suit this fancied law of human development.
The interval to be traversed,, then, is immense; whether
man is left to the hopeful task of raising himself from the
worship of rags, flies, and monkeys, to the pure " absolute
religion"; or whether, as Christians believe, it has pleased
God to carry on the gireat work, by Supernatural revela-
tions of His will. The change is like the upheaving of
a deep ocean-bed to form a Himalayan range, that may
pierce far into the blue vault of heaven. Now if the
All-Wise God undertakes this work, may we not expect
that He will do it wisely? In His messages to mankind,
must He not begin by stooping to their actual state, that
He may raise them above it ? Will not the degree of
light which He sees fit to impart depend, more or less, on
the capacity of vision, which has been the result of pre-
vious steps in the course of Divine revelation? If the
Word of God be food, must not the milk be supplied
earlier than the strong meat ? if light, must not the twi-
light come before the day-break, and the day-break before
the brilliance of noon-day? In short, are not the words
of our great poet the sketch of a truer and juster philo-
sophy of revelation, than that monotony of spiritual efful-
234 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
gence which these objectors would impose as a law to
the messages of the Almighty ?
"So law appears imperfect, and but given
With purpose to resign them, in full time,
Up to a better covenant, disciplined
From shadowy types to truth, from flesh to spirit,
From imposition of strict laws, to free
Acceptance of large grace, from servile fear
To filial, works of law to works of faith."
" Par. Lost," Bk. xn.
Nor will we refuse, however fanciful in the eye of dim-
sighted theorists, the typical fore-shadowing of the same
truth, by which the angel is made to confirm his own
explanation.
"And therefore shall not Moses, though of God
Greatly beloved, being but the minister
Of law, His people into Canaan lead :
But Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call ;
His name and office bearing, who shall quell
The Adversary Serpent, and bring back
Thro' this world's wilderness, long-wandered man,
Safe, to eternal Paradise of rest." Ib.
The other feature in the Old Testament, which repels or
perplexes many, is its sternness and severity. And this,
too, admits of a full explanation, when we gaze with re-
verence on the perfections of the Most High, or look
thoughtfully into the hidden depths of our own being.
Benevolence, justice, and mercy, it has been remarked
already, are the three contrasted, yet harmonious elements
of the Divine goodness. They answer to three possibi-
lities affecting the rational creation, happiness, guilt, and
recovery. Benevolence alone could be fully manifested
to unfallen creatures, and it shone clearly upon man in
the days of Paradise. Since the Fall, even this light has
been obscured from his view. True, there is still a voice
in the shower and the sunshine, in the beauty and fra-
grance of the flowers, and in the quiet glory of the stars,
HARMONY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 235
which whispers to him "The Lord is good to all; his
tender mercies are over all his works." But it reaches
his ears, mingled with sterner sounds which awaken fore-
bodings of evil in the guilty conscience, the voice of the
hurricane and the thunderstorm, and the deep sad howl-
ing of wintry winds. Meanwhile there are fears and
hopes within his heart, which utter confusedly the double
and seemingly contradictory message, that God is terrible
in justice, and also wonderful in mercy. But who can
solve and reconcile these solemn and mysterious truths
by the light of fallen reason alone ? Who shall quiet the
fears of a darkened self-accusing conscience, or reduce
the blind flatteries of hope into concord with the voice
of righteousness ? Man alone never has done and never
can do it. Many dim imperfect guesses he has made,
and commonly with light borrowed from a higher source.
But these dim guesses have had no sanction to assure him
of their truth, and the little power they might else have
gained has been lost by their inconsistency and contradic-
tion. When the thought of God's justice has flashed out
upon him, he has framed a creed of terror and darkness,
like the dark rites of Egypt, or the Hindoo worship of
Siva the Destroyer. When this sterner voice has slum-
bered within him, he has resigned himself to the sportive
illusions of childhood, and framed an airy creed, like the
Grecian Polytheism ; though even here conscience has
claimed its rights, and spoken to the soul of Nemesis and
Tartarus, of awful Fates and avenging Furies. The pro-
blem of life remained still unsolved. The mystery was
too complex and too deep to be fathomed. The facts of
Providence, even in this life, were confused and chequered,
and there mingled with them strange and uncertain fore-
bodings of a life to come. The soul of man could only
utter its sorrowful complaint: " Behold I go forward, but
he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive
him; on the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot
236 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
behold him : he hideth himself on the right hand, that I
cannot see him."
What man was unable to do for himself, it has pleased
God, in His love and wisdom, to do for him, by a super-
natural revelation of His will. The fact of the Divine
benevolence had already abundant voices to proclaim it,
in the course of Providence, and the instincts of the heart,
if only these were cleared from the pains and dissonant
notes of care and sorrow, which sin had introduced in the
world. It was justice and mercy which needed to be
revealed, and all the more, because of their seeming con-
tradiction, which the wisdom of men could never resolve
into their true and hidden harmony. In the instincts of
the heart, each seemed to interfere with the other, till no
impression was left on the conscience, but a vague un-
certainty, as when twilight and moonlight struggle with
each other. Amidst the anomalies of Providence, justice
ceased to be just; and amidst the sorrows of life, mercy
itself, it might seem, had forgotten to be merciful. To
disentangle the web, and bring out in full relief once
more the Divine character which sin had entirely shroud-
ed, each voice required to find a separate utterance. It
was needful that God should, first of all, reveal His jus-
tice, and then crown this by a further revelation of His
grace. Revelation, to fulfil its great end, thus required to
be parted into two main portions, of which the respective
voices should be, severity to the sinner in his rebellion,
and mercy to the prodigal, returning to seek rest in a
Father's love. It is true that the separation could not be
complete-. For since these three perfections all unite in
the mind of God, they must all coexist in every part of
His revelation, though one of them may form its predo-
minant feature. The main feature of the old covenant
is the voice of Law, denouncing death to the sinner, and
" revealing the wrath of God from heaven, against all
ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men." But even here,
HARMONY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 237
there will be found a memory of Paradise, and a hope
of Paradise to be restored, and undertones that speak of
God's universal benevolence, wherever the dark clouds
of sin come not in the way. And deeper notes resound
first in types from the mercy-seat, and more plainly from
the harp of prophecy, which tell of rich mercy, still in
reserve, and shortly to be revealed to the sons of men.
And thus we are brought to the conclusion, that the
feature of the Old Testament which revolts the proud
heart, and staggers the sentimental and the timorous, is
the secret pledge of its Divine wisdom. The law with all
its severity, as given by Moses, as well as the grace and
truth which have come by Jesus Christ, are alike from
the Lord of hosts, and the Father of mercies ; they are
varied but harmonious exhibitions of His character "who
is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working."
The first step towards a cure of Rationalism is to re-
cognise, at the outset, the just claims and real dignity of
human reason. No error can be effectually overcome, till we
have made an ally of that truth, of which it is the parody.
The superstition of the Romans, who began their wars or
sieges by public ceremonies, inviting the gods of their
enemies to a new and lasting home in the Capitol, conveys
a deep lesson in every moral conflict. Truth, perverted
and held down in unrighteousness, is the guardian-power
in every citadel of error. This Palladium once removed,
the walls will crumble to pieces. Now the truth on which
Rationalism builds its strength, is that dignity of human
reason, by which man is distinguished from the beasts
that perish. We cannot advance the cause of Christianity
by a blind attempt to depreciate this gift of God to man-
kind. To found the claims of the Gospel on an utter
denial of man's moral faculties, by whomsoever it may be
attempted, is a suicidal course, and resigns us to the
mercy of every superstition, which comes pretending to
be a voice from heaven. The power of moral discern-
238 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
ment is not wholly lost, though grievously obscured.
The Bible does not speak to us as stocks and stones, or
brute creatures without reason, else its message would be
in vain ; but simply as to children, whose reason is
unripe, and whose ignorance is aggravated by moral per-
verseness. But the faculty itself is recognised on every
page. Its admitted presence gives keenness to every
rebuke, and emphasis to every warning. " Yea, and why
even of your own selves judge ye not what is right ? "
Lu. xii. 57. "I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I
say." i Cor. x. 15. " O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my
vineyard." Isa. v. 3. Revelation never attempts to si-
lence the voice of reason. It simply recalls it from
heights and depths of speculation, where it loses all sure
footing, that it may give its verdict on truths within its
reach, and where the answer must be plain, unless pride
falsifies it the two truths of the righteousness of God,
and the guiltiness of man.
But when the presence and excellence of this Divine
faculty of the soul has been clearly recognised, we
need, further, to have a just and clear perception of its
actual weakness, when employed in the search for re-
ligious truth. And for this we have only to review
the history of the heathen world, or to consider the
ignorance and spiritual darkness, which prevails every-
where even in countries nominally Christian. Wherever
the light of the Word of God is unknown, or criminally
withheld by a priesthood who love darkness, what dense
and deadly ignorance meets us on every side ! We
have the worship of flies, of apes and crocodiles, of mon-
keys and wafers of bread, of hideous images, or of bones
and rags, to which superstition ascribes some magical
virtue. A darkness that may be felt, like the plague of
Egypt, settles down upon the nations. History in all
ages has the same lesson, and tells us that reason, without
HARMONY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 239
external revelation, and without Divine teaching to apply
that revelation to the heart, is too feeble to restore
mankind to the knowledge of God, and to the practice
of true and solid piety. The result is uniform, from
the philosophers of Greece and Rome, down to the
savages of South Africa and the Fiji Islands.
Another main help, in resisting the inroads of Ration-
alism, and the pretences of that mock spiritual religion
which disowns the authority of the Bible, consists in a
familiar acquaintance with the historical aspect of Chris-
tianity. There are many who treat the New Testament
as a mere string of texts and mottoes, and lose sight of
the connection of the parts, the object of each separate
book, and the countless links by which it is connected
with the history of the times, and the actual state and
practical wants of the early churches. It stands midway,
between a dry narrative of facts without soul or purpose,
and speculative theories, which look in vain for any fact
whatever to confirm their reality. In the New Testament
we have a real message, addressed by real messengers
to living men.
The historical study of the New Testament is the
practical remedy for every form of loose and floating un-
belief, if it be honest. "If any man will do His will" (i.e.
of the Father) " he shall know of the doctrine whether it
be of God." Joh. vii. 17. Let the Christian, who feels
perplexity, and has clouds on some part of the wide hori-
zon of his faith, practise what he feels to be duty, and
meditate on the truths he clearly sees to be Divine, and
then use a wise suspense, waiting for clearer light where -
ever shadows are still round him. Then the promise will
be fulfilled: "At the eventide there shall be light." Clouds
will, by degrees, be rolled away ; difficulties, that once
seemed formidable, will disappear. What once was mis-
taken for a spectre of darkness, will prove to be a sign-
post for the pilgrim on his homeward journey. If the father
240 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
of the faithful had listened to the voice of the tempter,
the God of love might have seemed to him, in the hour
of his trial, a Moloch of cruelty ; and the blasphemies of
modern disciples of the "absolute religion" would have been
anticipated four thousand years ago. But obedience, and
faith in the Divine goodness proved by long experience,
had their full reward. " In the mountain, the Lord was
seen." That trial of his faith, so dark and stern in pros-
pect, became a window, through which he could see the
day of Christ afar off; "and he saw it and was glad.'*
Joh. viii. 56. His words of simple trust became a glo-
rious prophecy, " My son, God will provide a lamb for a
burnt-offering." Gen. xxii. 8.
Mere unassisted reason, in its search for religious
truth, is like a blear-eyed observer, gazing on a landscape
veiled in mist or twilight shadow. He sees enough to
convince him that there is a reality before him, but not
enough to guide his footsteps aright. We need the reve-
lation in the word of God, to roll away the mist from the
landscape ; and the secret power of the Holy Spirit, to
anoint our eyes, in order that we may see it clearly.
Then, and not till then, doubt after doubt will vanish,
and mystery after mystery be explained. We shall see
the hills and valleys of a glorious land of promise, stand-
ing out in full relief before us, clothed in heavenly beauty.
And our spirits will be prepared, even in this vale of
sorrow and twilight darkness, for that holier and happier
world, where they " need no candle" of human reason,
nor even the brighter sunshine of written revelation, " for
the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for
ever and ever." Rev. xxii. 5.
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8 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
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THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 11
FARRAR (Rev. F. W.) continued.
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12 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
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14 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
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16 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
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A CLASS-BOOK OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
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THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. , 17
MACLEAR (Dr. G. Y .} continued.
added to larger works. The Index has been so arranged as to form a
concise Dictionary of the Persons and Places mentioned in the course of the
Narrative. " The Maps, prepared by Stanford, materially add to the
vahie and usefulness of the book. The British Quarterly Review calls it
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A CLASS-BOOK OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY.
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The present volume forms a sequel to the Author's Class- Book of Old
Testament History, and continues the narrative to the close of S. Paul's
second imprisonment at Rome. The work is divided into three Books
/. The Connection between the Old and New Testament. II. The
Gospel History. III. The Apostolic History. In the Appendix are given
Chronological Tables. The Clerical Journal says, "It is not often that
such an amount of useful and interesting matter on biblical subjects, is
found in so convenient and small a compass, as in this well-arranged
volume. "
A CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF THE
CHURCH OF ENGLAND. New and Cheaper Edition. i8mo.
is. 6d.
The present work is intended as a( sequel to the two preceding books.
"Like them, it is furnished with notes and references to larger works,
and it is hoped that it may be found, especially in the higher forms of our
Public Schools, to supply a suitable manual of instruction in the chief
doctrines of our Church, and a useful help in the preparation of Can-
didates for Confirmation." The Literary Churchman says, "It is indeed
the work of a scholar and divine, and as such, though extremely simple, it
is also extremely instructive. There are few clergy who would not find
it useful in preparing Candidates for Confirmation; and there are not a
few who ivouldfind it useful to themselves as well. "
A FIRST CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, with Scripture Proofs for
Junior Classes and Schools. New Edition. i8mo. 6d.
This is an epitome of the larger Class-book, meant for junior students
and elementary classes. The book has been carefully condensed, so as to
contain clearly and fully, the most important part of the contents of the
larger book.
1 8 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
MACLEAR (Dr. G. F.) continued.
A SHILLING-BOOK of OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
New Edition. i8mo. cloth limp. u.
This Manual bears the same relation to the larger Old Testament His-
tory, that the book just mentioned does to the larger work on the Catechism.
It consists of Ten Books, divided into short chapters, and subdivided into
sections, each section treating of a single episode in the history, the title of
which is given in bold type.
A SHILLING-BOOK of NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY.
New Edition. i8mo. cloth limp. is.
A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION FOR CONFIRMA-
TION AND FIRST COMMUNION, with Prayers and Devo-
tions. 32mo. cloth extra, red edges. 2s.
This is an enlarged and improved edition of ' The Order of Conforma-
tion.'' To it have been added the Communion Office, with Notes and
Explanations, together with a brief form of Self Examination and De-
votions selected from the works of Cosin, Ken, Wilson, and others.
THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION, with Prayers and
Devotions. 32mo. cloth. 6d.
THE FIRST COMMUNION, with Prayers and Devotions
for the Newly Confirmed. 32mo. 6d.
THE HOUR OF SORROW ; or, The Order for the Burial
of the Dead. With Prayers and Hymns. 32mo. cloth extra. 2s.
APOSTLES OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE. Cr. 8vo. ^s.6d.
In two Introductory Chapters the author notices some of the chief cha-
racteristics of the mediceval period itself; gives a graphic sketch of the de-
vastated state of Europe at the beginning of that period, and an interesting
account of the religions of the three great groups of vigorous barbarians
the Celts, the Teutons, and the Sclaves who had, wave after wave, over-
flowed its surface. He then proceeds to sketch the lives and work of the
chief of the courageous men who devoted themselves to the stupendous task
of their conversion and civilization, during a period extending from the
$th to the i-tfh century; such as St. Patrick, St. Columba, St. Colum-
banus, St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. Boniface, St. Olaf, St. Cyril,
Raymond Sull, and others. "Mr. Maclear will have done a great work
if his admirable little volume shall help to break up the dense ignorance
which is still prevailing among people at large. " --Literary Churchman.
Macmillan. Works by the Rev. HUGH MACMILLAN, LL.D.
F.R.S.E. (For other Works by the same Author, see CATALOGUE
OF TRAVELS and SCIENTIFIC CATALOGUE).
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 19
MACMILLAN (Rev. H., LL.D.) continued.
THE TRUE VINE; or, the Analogies of our Lord's
Allegory. Third Edition. Globe 8vo. 6s.
The Nonconformist says, "It abounds in exquisite bits of description,
and in striking facts clearly stated. " The British Quarterly says, ' ' Readers
and preachers who are unscientific "will find many of his illustrations as
valuable as they are beaiitiful. "
BIBLE TEACHINGS IN NATURE. Twelfth Edition.
Globe 8vo. 6s.
In this vohime the author has endeavoured to shew that the teaching of
Nature and the teaching of the Bible are directed to the same great end;
that the Bible contains the spiritual truths which are necessary to make us
wise unto salvation, and the objects and scenes of Nature are the pictures
by which these truths are illustrated. "He has made the world more
beautiful to us, and unsealed our ears to voices of praise and messages of
love that might otherwise have been unheard." British Quarterly Review.
1 ' Dr. Macmillan has produced a book which may be fitly described as one
of the happiest efforts for enlisting physical science in the direct service of
religion. " Guardian.
THE SABBATH OF THE FIELDS. A Sequel to " Bible
Teachings in Nature. " Second Edition. Globe 8vo. 6s.
" This volume, like all Dr. Macmillarfs productions, is very delight-
ful reading, and of a special kind. Imagination, natural science, and
religious instruction are blended together in a very charming way"
British Quarterly Review.
THE MINISTRY OF NATURE. Fourth Edition. Globe
8vo. 6s.
" Whether the reader agree or not with his conclusions, he will ac-
knowledge he is in the presence of an original and thoughtful writer. "
Pall Mall Gazette. " There is no class of educated men and women that
will not profit by these essays." Standard.
OUR LORD'S THREE RAISINGS FROM THE DEAD.
Globe 8vo. 6s.
M'Clellan. THE NEW TESTAMENT. A New Trans-
lation on the Basis of the Authorised Version, from a Critically re-
vised Greek Text, with Analyses, copious References and Illus-
trations from original authorities, New Chronological and Ana-
lytical Harmony of the Four Gospels, Notes and Dissertations.
A contribution to Christian Evidence. By JOHN BROWN M'CLEL-
LAN, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In Two
20 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
M'CLELLAN (J. K.} continued.
Vols. Vol. I. The Four Gospels with the Chronological and
Analytical Harmony. 8vo. 30.?.
" One of the most remarkable productions of recent times" says the
Theological Review, " 'in this department of sacred literature ;" and the
British Quarterly Review terms it "a thesaurus of first-hand investiga-
tions." "Of singular excellence, and stire to make its mark on the
criticism of the New Testament. " John Bull.
Maurice. Works by the late Rev. F. DENISON MAURICE,
M.A., Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Cam-
bridge :
The Spectator says, "Few of those of our own generation whose names
will live in English history or literature have exerted so profound and so
permanent an influence as Mr. Maurice,"
THE PATRIARCHS AND LAWGIVERS OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT. Third and Cheaper Edition. Crown
Svo. 5-r.
The Nineteen Discourses contained in this volume were preached in the
chapel of Lincoln's Inn during the year 1851. The texts are taken from
the books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges,
and Samuel, and involve some of the most interesting biblical topics dis-
cussed in recent times.
THE PROPHETS AND KINGS OF THE OLD TES-
TAMENT. Third Edition, with new Preface. Crown Svo.
icxr. 6d.
Mr. Maurice, in the spirit which animated the compilers of the Church
Lessons, has in these Sermons regarded the Prophets more as preachers of
righteousness than as mere predictors an aspect of their lives which, he
thinks, has been greatly overlooked in our day, and than which, there is
none we have more need to contemplate. He has found that the Old
Testament Prophets, taken in their simple natural sense, clear up many
of the difficulties which beset us in the daily work of life ; make the past
intelligible, the present endurable, and the future real and hopeful.
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
A Series of Lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke. Crown Svo. 9^.
Mr. Maurice, in his Preface to these Twenty-eight Lectures, says,
' ' In these Lectures I have endeavoured to ascertain zvhat is told us respect-
ing the life of Jesus by one of those Evangelists who proclaim Him to be
the Christ, who says that He did come from a Father, that He did baptize
with the Holv Spirit, that He did rise from the dead. I have chosen the
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 21
MAURICE (Rev. F. D.) continued.
one who is most directly connected with the later history of the Church,
who was not an Apostle, who professedly wrote for the use of a man
already instructed in the faith of the Apostles. I have followed the course
of the writer's narrative, not changing it under any pretext. I have
adhered to his phraseology, striving to avoid the substitution of any other
for his."
THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. A Series of Discourses.
Third and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
The Literary Churchman thus speaks of this volume: "Thorough
honesty, reverence, and deep thought pervade the work, which is every
.way solid and philosophical, as well as theological, and abounding with
suggestions which the patient sttident may draw out more at length for
himself."
THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. A Series of Lectures
on Christian Ethics. Second and Cheaper Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s.
These Lectures on Christian Ethics were delivered to the students of the
Working Men's College, Great Ormond Street, London, on a series of
Sunday mornings. Mr. Maurice believes that the question in which we
are most interested, the question which most affects our studies and our daily
lives, is the question, whether there is a foundation for human morality,
or whether it is dependent upon the opinions and fashions of different ages
and countries. This important question will be found amply and fairly
discussed in this volume, which the National Review calls "Mr.
Maurices most effective and instructive 'work. He is peculiarly fitted
by the constitution of his mind, to throiu light on St. John's writings. "
Appended is a note on "Positivism and its Teacher."
EXPOSITORY SERMONS ON THE PRAYER-BOOK.
The Prayer-book considered especially in reference to the Romish
System. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. $s. 6d.
After an Introductory Sermon, Mr. Maurice goes over the various parts
of the Church Service, expounds in eighteen Sermons, their intention and
significance, and shews how appropriate they are as expressions of the
deepest longings and wants of all classes of men.
WHAT IS REVELATION ? A Series of Sermons on the
Epiphany ; to which are added, Letters to a Theological Student
on the Bampton Lectures of Mr. Mansel. Crown 8vo. los. 6d.
Both Sermons and Letters were called forth by the doctrine maintained
by Mr. Mansel in his Bampton Lectures, that Revelation cannot be a direct
Manifestation of the Infinite Nature of God. Mr. Maurice maintains
22 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
MAURICE (Rev. F. D.) continued.
the opposite doctrine, and in his Sermons explains why, in spite of the high
authorities on the other side, he must still assert the principle which he
discovers in the Services of the Church and throughout the Bible.
SEQUEL TO THE INQUIRY, "WHAT IS REVELA-
TION?" Letters in Reply to Mr. Hansel's Examination of
"Strictures on the Bampton Lectures." Crown 8vo. 6s.
This, as the title indicates, was called forth by Mr. ManseVs examina-
tion of Mr. Maurices Strictures on his doctrine of the Infinite.
THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. Third Edition. Crown Svo.
los. 6d.
" The book," 1 " 1 says Mr. Maurice, ""expresses thoughts which have been
working in my mind for years ; the method of it has not been adopted
carelessly ; even the composition has undergone frequent revision. " There
are seventeen Essays in all, and although meant primarily for Unitarians,
to quote the words of the Clerical Journal, "zV leaves untouched scarcely
any topic which is in agitation in the religious world ; scarcely a moot
point between our various sects ; scarcely a plot of debateable ground be-
tween Christians and Infidels, between Romanists and Protestants, between
Socinians and other Christians, between English Churchmen and Dis-
senters on both sides. Scarce is there a misgiving, a difficulty, an aspira-
tion stirring amongst us now now, when men seem in earnest as hardly
ever before about religion, and ask and demand satisfaction with a fear-
lessness which seems almost awful when one thinks what is at stake which
is not recognised and grappled with by Mr. Maurice"
THE DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE DEDUCED FROM
THE SCRIPTURES. Crown Svo. js. 6d.
THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD, AND THEIR
RELATIONS TO CHRISTIANITY. Fifth Edition. Crown
Svo. 5j.
ON THE LORD'S PRAYER. Fourth Edition. Fcap.
Svo. 2s. 6d.
ON THE SABBATH DAY; the Character of the Warrior,
and on the Interpretation of History. Fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d.
THE LORD'S PRAYER, THE CREED, AND THE
COMMANDMENTS. A Manual for Parents and Schoolmasters.
To which is added the Order of the Scriptures. iSmo. cloth
limp. is.
DIALOGUES ON FAMILY WORSHIP. Crown Svo. 6s.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 23
MAURICE (Rev. F. D .) continued.
SOCIAL MORALITY. Twenty-one Lectures delivered in
the University of Cambridge. New and Cheaper Edition. Cr.
8vo. ioj. 6d.
''Whilst reading it we are charmed by^ the freedom from exdusiveness
and prejudice, the large charity, the loftiness of thought, the eagerness to
recognise and appreciate whate^'er there is of real worth extant in the
world, which animates it from one end to the other. We gain new
thoughts and new ways of viewing things, even more, perhaps, from being
brought for a time under the influence of so noble and spiritual a mind."
Athenaeum.
THE CONSCIENCE: Lectures on Casuistry, delivered in
the University of Cambridge. Second and Cheaper Edition.
Crown 8vo. 5^.
The Saturday Review says: " We rise from the perusal of these lec-
tures with a detestation of all that is selfish and mean, and with a living
impression that there is such a thing as goodness after all. "
LECTURES ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
OF THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES. 8vo. IDS. 6d.
LEARNING AND WORKING. Six Lectures delivered
in Willis's Rooms, London, in June and July, 1854. THE
RELIGION OF ROME, and its Influence on Modern Civilisa-
tion. Four Lectures delivered in the Philosophical Institution of
Edinburgh, in December, 1854. Qrown 8vo. $j.
SERMONS PREACHED IN COUNTRY CHURCHES.
Crown 8vo. los. 6d.
"Earnest, practical, and extremely simple" Literary Churchman.
"Good specimens of his simple and earnest eloquence. The Gospel inci-
dents are realized with a vividness which we can well believe made the
common people hear him gladly. Moreover they are sermons which must
have done the hearers good." John Bull.
Moorhouse. Works by JAMES MOORHOUSE, M.A., Bishop
of Melbourne :
SOME MODERN DIFFICULTIES RESPECTING the
FACTS OF NATURE AND REVELATION. Fcap. 8vo.
2S. 6d.
JACOB. Three Sermons preached before the University of
Cambridge in Lent 1870. Extra fcap. 8vo. T>S. 6d.
24 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
O'Brien. PRAYER. Five Sermons preached in the Chapel
of Trinity College, Dublin. By JAMES THOMAS O'BRIEN, D.D.,
Bishop of Ossory and Ferns. 8vo. 6s.
"It is with much pleasure and satisfaction that we render our humble
tribute to the value of a publication whose author deserves to be remembered
with such deep respect" Church Quarterly Review.
Palgrave. HYMNS. By FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE.
Third Edition, enlarged. i8mo. is. 6d.
This is a collection of twenty original Hymns, which the Literary
Churchman speaks of as "so choice, so perfect, and so refined, so tender
in feeling, and so scholarly in expression"
Paul of Tarsus. An Inquiry into the Times and the Gospel
of the Apostle of the Gentiles. By a GRADUATE. 8vo. los. 6d.
" Turn where we will throughout the volume, we find the best fruit
of patient inquiry, sound scholarship, logical argument, and fairness oj
conclusion. No thoughtful reader will rise from its perusal without a
real and lasting profit to himself, and a sense of permanent addition to
the cause of truth" Standard.
Philochristus. MEMOIRS OF A DISCIPLE OF THE
LORD. Second Edition. 8vo. 12s.
"The winning beauty of this book and the fascinating power with
which the subject of it appeals to all English minds will secure for it
many readers" Contemporary Review.
Picton. THE MYSTERY OF MATTER; and other Essays.
By J. ALLANSON PICTON, Author of "New Theories and the
Old Faith." Cheaper Edition. With New Preface. Crown 8vo. 6s.
Contents The Mystery of Matter : The Philosophy of Ignorance : The
Antithesis of Faith and Sight: The Essential Nature of Religion:
Christian Pantheism.
Plumptre MOVEMENTS IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT.
Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge, Lent Term,
1879. By E. H. PLUMPTRE, D.D., Professor of Divinity, King's
College, London, Prebendary of St. Paul's, etc. Fcap. 8vo. 3J. 6d.
Prescott THE THREEFOLD CORD. Sermons preached
before the University of Cambridge. By J. E. PRESCOTT, B.D.
Fcap. 8vo. 3-r. 6d.
Procter. A HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER : With a Rationale of its Offices. By FRANCIS PROCTER,
M.A. Thirteenth Edition, revised and enlarged. Cr. 8vo. los. 6d.
The Athenaeum says: " The origin of every part of the Prayer-book
has been diligently investigated, and there are few questions or facts con-
nected with it which are not either sufficiently explained, or so referred to
that persons interested may work out the trttfhfor themselves"
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 25
Procter and Maclear. AN ELEMENTARY INTRO-
DUCTION TO THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.
Re-arranged and Supplemented by an Explanation of the Morning
and Evening Prayer and the Litany. By F. PROCTER, M.A., and
G. F. MACLEAR, D.D. New Edition. Enlarged by the addition
of the Communion Service and the Baptismal and Confirmation
Offices. i8mo. 2s. 6d.
The Literary Churchman characterizes it as " by far the completest
and most satisfactory book of its kind -we know. We wish it were in
the hands of every schoolboy and every schoolmaster in the kingdom."
Psalms of David CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.
An Amended Version, with Historical Introductions and Ex-
planatory Notes. By FOUR FRIENDS. Second and Cheaper
Edition, much enlarged. Crown 8vo. Ss. 6d.
One of the chief designs of the Editors, in preparing this volume, was
to restore the Psalter as far as possible to the order in which the Psalms
were written. They give the division of each Psalm into strophes, and
of each strophe into the lines which composed it, and amend the errors of
translation. The Spectator calls it "one of the most instructive and
valuable books that have been friblished for many years. "
Psalter (Golden Treasury). THE STUDENT'S EDITION.
Being an Edition of the above with briefer Notes. i8mo. $s. 6d.
The aim of this edition is simply to put the reader as far as Possible in
possession of the plain meaning of the writer. " It is a gem, " the Non-
conformist says.
Pulsford. SERMONS PREACHED IN TRINITY
CHURCH, GLASGOW. By WILLIAM PULSFORD, D.D.
Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 4*. 6d.
Ramsay. THE CATECHISER'S MANUAL; or, the
Church Catechism Illustrated and Explained, for the Use of
Clergymen, Schoolmasters, and Teachers. By ARTHUR RAMSAY,
M.A. Second Edition. i8mo. is. 6d.
Rays of Sunlight for Dark Days. A Book of Selec-
tions for the Suffering. With a Preface by C. J. VAUGHAN, D.D.
i8mo. Eighth Edition. 3^. 6d. Also in morocco, old style.
Dr. Vaughan says in the Preface, after speaking of the general run of
Books of Comfort for Mourners, "It is because I think that the little
volume now offered to the Christian sufferer is one of greater wisdom and
26 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
of deeper experience, that I have readily consented to the request that I
would introduce it by a few words of Preface " The book consists of a
series of very brief extracts from a great variety of authors, in prose and
poetry, suited to the many moods of a mourning or suffering mind.
"Mostly gems of the first water. " Clerical Journal.
Reynolds. NOTES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. A
Selection of Sermons by HENRY ROBERT REYNOLDS, B.A.,
President of Cheshunt College, and Fellow of University College,
London. Crown 8vo. 7-r. 6d.
Roberts. DISCUSSIONS ON THE GOSPELS. By the
Rev. ALEXANDER ROBERTS, D.D. Second Edition, revised and
enlarged. 8vo. i6s.
Robinson. MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD ; and other
Sermons preached in the Chapel of the Magdalen, Streatham,
187476. By H. G. ROBINSON, M.A., Prebendary of York.
Crown 8vo. 7-y. 6d.
Romanes. CHRISTIAN PRAYER AND GENERAL
LAWS, being the Burney Prize Essay for 1873. With an Ap-
pendix, examining the views of Messrs. Knight, Robertson, Brooke,
Tyndall, and Galton. By GEORGE J. ROMANES, M.A. Crown
8vo. 5.?.
Salmon. THE REIGN OF LAW, and other Sermons,
preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin. By the Rev.
GEORGE SALMON, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the
University of Dublin. Crown 8vo. 6s.
"Well considered, learned, and powerful discourses. " Spectator.
Sanday. THE GOSPELS IN THE SECOND CEN-
TURY. An Examination of the Critical part of a Work entitled
"Supernatural Religion." By WILLIAM SANDAY, M. A., late
Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d.
il A very important book for the critical side of the question as to the
authenticity of the New Testament, and it is hardly possible to conceive a
writer of greater fairness, candour, and scrupulousness." Spectator.
Selborne. THE BOOK OF PRAISE : From the Best
English Hymn Writers. Selected and arranged by Lord SELBORNE.
With Vignette by WOOLNER. i8mo. 4.5-. 6d.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 27
SELBORNE (Lord) continued.
It has been the Editor's desire and aim to adhere strictly, in all cases in
which it could be ascertained, to the genuine uncorrupted text of the authors
themselves. The names of the authors and date of composition of the
hymns, when known, are affixed, while notes are added to the volume,
giving further details. The Hymns are arranged according to subjects.
' ' There is not room for two opinions as to the value of the 'Book of Praise. ' "
Guardian. " 'Approaches as nearly as one can conceive to perfection."
Nonconformist.
BOOK OF PRAISE HYMNAL. See end of this Catalogue.
Service. SALVATION HERE AND HEREAFTER.
Sermons and Essays. By the Rev. JOHN SERVICE, D.D., Minister
of Inch. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
' ' We have enjoyed to-day a rare pleasure, having just closed a volume
of sermons which rings true metal from title page to finis, and proves that
another and very powerful recruit has been added to that small band of
ministers of the Gospel who are not only abreast of tlie religious thought
of their time, but have faith enough and courage enough to handle the
questions which are the most critical, and stir men's minds most deeply,
with frankness and thoroughness." Spectator.
Shipley. A THEORY ABOUT SIN, in relation to some
Facts of Daily Life. Lent Lectures on the Seven Deadly Sins.
By the Rev. ORBY SHIPLEY, M.A. Crown 8vo. js. 6d.
"Two things Mr. Shipley has done, and each of them is of considerable
worth. He has grouped these sins afresh on a philosophic principle
and he has applied the touchstone to the fans of our moral life. . . so wisely
and so searchingly as to constitute his treatise a powerful antidote to self-
deception. " Literary Churchman.
Smith. PROPHECY A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST.
Eight Lectures preached before the University of Oxford, being the
Bampton Lectures for 1869. By R. PAYNE SMITH, D.D., Dean
of Canterbury. Second and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
The author's object in these Lectures is to shew that there exists in the
Old Testament an element, which no criticism on naturalistic principles
can either account for or explain away: that element is Prophecy. The
author endeavours to prove that its force does not consist merely in its
predictions. "These Lectures overflow with solid learning. " Record.
Smith. CHRISTIAN FAITH. Sermons preached before
the University of Cambridge. By W. SAUMAREZ SMITH, M.A.,
Principal of St. Aidan's College, Birkenhead. Fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6d.
28 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
Stanley. Works by the Very Rev. A. P. STANLEY, D.D.,
Dean of Westminster :
THE ATHANASIAN CREED, with a Preface on the
General Recommendations of the RITUAL COMMISSION. Cr.
8vo. 2s.
"Dr. Stanley puts with admirable force the objections which may be
made to the Creed ; equally admirable, we think, in his statement of its
advantages" Spectator.
THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. Sermons preached
in Westminster Abbey. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.
ADDRESSES AND SERMONS AT ST. ANDREW'S
in 1872, 1875 and 1876. Crown 8vo. $s.
Stewart and Tait. THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE ; or,
Physical Speculations on a Future State. By Professors BALFOUR
STEWART and P. G. TAIT. Sixth Edition, Revised and Enlarged.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
"A most remarkable and most interesting volume, which, probably
more than any that has appeared in modern times, will affect religioiis
thought on many momentous questions insensibly it may be, but very
largely and very beneficially." Church Quarterly. " This book is one
which well deserves the attention of thoughtful and religious readers
It is a perfectly safe enquiry, on scientific grounds, into the possibilities of
a future existence. " Guardian.
Swainson. Works by C. A. SWAINSON, D.D., Canon of
Chichester :
THE CREEDS OF THE CHURCH in their Relations to
Holy Scripture and the Conscience of the Christian 8vo. cloth. 9-r.
THE AUTHORITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT,
and other LECTURES, delivered before the University of Cam-
bridge. 8vo. cloth. I2s.
Taylor. THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. New and
Revised Edition. By ISAAC TAYLOR, Esq. Crown 8vo. Ss. 6d.
Temple. SERMONS PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL
of RUGBY SCHOOL. By F. TEMPLE, D.D., Bishop of Exeter.
New and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6d.
This volume contains Thirty-five Sermons on topics more or less inti-
mately connected with every-day life. The following are a few of the
subjects discoursed upon: "Love and Duty:" "Coming to Christ;"
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 29
TEMPLE (Dr. ) -continued.
"Great Men;" "Faith;" "Doubts;" "Scruples;" "Original Sin;"
"Friendship;" "Helping Others;" "The Discipline of Temptation;"
"Strength a Duty;" " Worldliness ;" "III Temper;" "The Burial oj
the Past."
A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN
THE CHAPEL OF RUGBY SCHOOL. Second Edition.
Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s.
This Second Series of Forty-two brief, pointed, practical Sermons, on
topics intimately connected with the every-day life of young and old, will be
acceptable to all who are acquainted with the First Series. The following
are a few of the subjects treated of: ''''Disobedience," ''''Almsgiving,"
"The Unknown Guidance of God " " Apathy one of our Trials," "High
Aims in Leaders," "Doing our Best," " The Use of Knowledge," "Use
of Observances," "Martha and Mary" "John the Baptist," "Severity
before Mercy ," "Even Mistakes Punished," ''''Morality and Religion,"
"Children," "Action the Test of Spiritual Life," "Self -Respect," "Too
Late," f ' The Tercentenary. "
A THIRD SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN
RUGBY SCHOOL CHAPEL IN 18671869. Extra fcap.
8vo. 6s.
This Third Series of Bishop Temples Rugby Sermons, contains thirty-six
brief discourses, including the " Good-bye" sermon preached on his leaving
Rugby to enter on the office he now holds.
Thring. Works by Rev. EDWARD THRING, M.A. :
SERMONS DELIVERED AT UPPINGHAM SCHOOL.
Crown 8vo. 5*.
THOUGHTS ON LIFE-SCIENCE. New Edition, en-
larged and revised. Crown 8vo. "js. 6d.
Trench. Works by R. CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D., Arch-
bishop of Dublin :
NOTES ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD.
Thirteenth Edition. 8vo. 12s.
This work has taken its place as a standard exposition and interpreta-
tion of Christ's Parables. The book is prefaced by an Introductory Essay
in four chapters : /. On the definition of the Parable. II. On Teach-
ing by Parables. III. On the Interpretation of the Parables. IV. On
other Parables besides those in the Scriptures. The author then proceeds
to take up the Parables one by one, and by the aid of philology, history,
antiquities, and the researches of travellers, shews forth the significance,
30 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
TRENCH (Archbishop) continued.
beauty ', and applicability of each, concluding with what he deems its true
moral interpretation. In the numerous Notes are many valuable references,
illustrative qitotations, critical and philological annotations, etc., and ap-
pended to the volume is a classified list of fifty-six works on the Parables.
NOTES ON THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD.
Eleventh Edition, revised. 8vo. I2s.
In the ''Preliminary Essay 1 to this work, all the momentous and in-
teresting questions that have been raised in connection with Miracles, are
discussed with considerable fulness. The Essay consists of six chapters :
/. On the Names of Miracles, i.e. the Greek words by which they are
designated in the New Testament. II. The Miracles and Nature What
is the difference between a Miracle and any event in the ordinary course
of Nature ? III. The Authority of Miracles Is the Miracle to command
absolute obedience ? IV. The Evangelical, compared with the other cycles
of Miracles. V. The Assaults on the Miracles I. The Jewish. 2. The
Heathen (Celsus etc.). 3. The Pantheistic (Spinosa etc.). 4. The
Sceptical (Hume). 5. The Miracles only relatively miraculous ( Schleier-
macher). 6. The Rationalistic (Paulus). 7. The Historico- Critical
(Woolston, Strauss). VI. The Apologetic Worth of the Miracles. The
author then treats the separate Miracles as he does the Parables.
SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Eighth
Edition, enlarged. 8vo. cloth. 12s.
This Edition has been carefully revised, and a considerable number of
new Synonyms added. Appended is an Index to the Synonyms, and an
Index to many other words alluded to or explained throughout the work.
"He is," the Athenaeum says, " a guide in this department of knowledge
to whom his readers may intrust themselves with confidence. His sober
judgment and sound sense are barriers against the misleading influence of
arbitrary hypotheses."
ON THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT. Second Edition. 8vo. JS.
After some Introductory Remarks, in which the propriety of a revision
is briefly discussed, the whole question of the merits of the present version
is gone into in detail, in eleven chapters. Appended is a chronological list
of works bearing on the subject, an Index of the principal Texts con-
sidered, an Index of Greek Words, and an Index of other Words re-
ferred to throughout the book.
STUDIES IN THE GOSPELS. Fourth Edition, revised.
8vo. ioj. 6d.
This book is published under the conviction that the assertion often
made is untrue, viz. that the Gospels are in the main plain and easy,
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 31
TRENCH (Archbishop) continued.
and that all the chief difficulties of the Neiv Testament are to be founa
in the Epistles. These "Studies" sixteen in number, are the fruit of a
much larger scheme, and each Study deals with some important episodt
mentioned in the Gospels, in a critical, philosophical, and practical man-
ner. Many references and quotations are added to the Notes. Among
the subjects treated are: The Temptation; Christ and the Samaritan
Woman; The Three Aspirants ; The Transfiguration; Zacch&us ; The
True Vine; The Penitent Malefactor; Christ and the Two Disciples on
the way to Rmmaus.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLES to the SEVEN
CHURCHES IN ASIA. Third Edition, revised. 8vo. &r. 6d.
The present work consists of an Introduction, being a commentary on
Rev. i. 4 20, a detailed examination oj each of the Seven Epistles, in all
its bearings, and an Excursus on the Historico- Prophetical Interpreta-
tion of the Epistles.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. An Exposition
drawn from the writings of St. Augustine, with an Essay on his
merits as an Interpreter of Holy Scripture. Third Edition, en-
larged. 8vo. ioj. 6d.
The first half of the present work consists of a dissertation in eight
chapters on "Augustine as an Interpreter of Scripture," the titles of the
several chapters being as follow : /. Augustine's General Views of Scrip-
ture and its Interpretation. II. The External Helps for the Interpreta-
tion of Scripture possessed by Augustine. III. Augustine's Principles
and Canons of Interpretation. IV. Augustine ''s Allegorical Interpretation
of Scripture. V. Illustrations of ^ Augus'ine' s Skill as an Interpreter of
Scripture. VI. Augustine on John the Baptist and on St. Stephen.
VII. Augustine on the Epistle to the Romans. VIII. Miscellaneous
Examples of Augustine 's Interpretation of Scripture. The latter half of
the work consists of Augustine's Exposition of the Sei'mon on the Mount,
not however a mere series of quotations from Augustine, but a connected
account of his sentiments on the various passages of that Sermon, intei'-
spersed with criticisms by Archbishop Trench.
SHIPWRECKS OF FAITH. Three Sermons preached
before the University of Cambridge in May, 1867. Fcap. 8vo.
2s. 6d.
These Sermons are especially addressed to young men. The
are "Balaam," "Saul," and "Judas Iscariot," These lives are set
forth as beacon-lights, ' ' to warn us off from perilous reefs and quick-
sands, which have been the destruction of many, and which might only too
easily be ours." The John Bull says, "they are, like all he writes, af-
fectionate and earnest discourses. "
32 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
TRENCH (Archbishop) continued.
SERMONS Preached for the most part in Ireland. 8vo.
icw. 6d.
This volume consists of Thirty-two Sermons, the greater part of which
were preached in Ireland ', the subjects are as follow : Jacob, a Prince
with God and with Men Agrippa The Woman that was a Sinner
Secret Faults The Seven Worse Spirits Freedom in the Truth Joseph
and his Brethren Bearing one another's Burdens Christ's Challenge to
the World The Love of Money The Salt of the Earth The Armour of
God Light in the Lord The Jailer ofPhilippi The Thorn in the Flesh
Isaiah's Vision Selfishness Abraham interceding for Sodom Vain
Thoughts Pontius Pilate The Brazen Serpent The Death and Burial
of Moses A Word from the Cross The Church's Worship in the
Beauty of Holiness Every Good Gift from Above On the Hearing of
Prayer The Kingdom which comet h not %vith Observation Pressing
towards the Mark Saul The Good Shepherd The Valley of Dry Bones
All Saints.
LECTURES ON MEDIEVAL CHURCH HISTORY.
Being the Substance of Lectures delivered in Queen's College,
London. Second Edition, revised. 8vo. 12s.
Contents : The Middle Ages Beginning The Conversion of Eng-
land Islam The Conversion of Germany The Iconoclasts The
Crusades The Papacy at its Height The Sects of the Middle Ages
The Mendicant Orders The Waldenses The Revival of Learning
Christian Art in the Middle Ages, &=c., 6r.
Tulloch. THE CHRIST OF THE GOSPELS AND
THE CHRIST OF MODERN CRITICISM. Lectures on
M. RENAN'S "Vie de Jesus." By JOHN TULLOCH, D.D.,
Principal of the College of St. Mary, in the University of St.
Andrew's. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6d.
Vaughan. Works by the very Rev. CHARLES JOHN VAUGHAN,
D.D., Dean of Llandaff and Master of the Temple :
CHRIST SATISFYING THE INSTINCTS OF HU-
MANITY. Eight Lectures delivered in the Temple Church.
Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3-r. 6d.
" We are convinced that there are congregations, in number unmistakably
increasing, to whom such Essays as these, full of thought and learning,
are infinitely more beneficial, for they are more acceptable, than the recog-
nised type of sermons." John Bull.
THE BOOK AND THE LIFE, and other Sermons,
preached before the University of Cambridge. Third Edition.
Fcap. 8vo. AfS. 6d.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 33
VAUGHAN (Dr. C. }.} continued.
TWELVE DISCOURSES on SUBJECTS CONNECTED
WITH THE LITURGY and WORSHIP of the CHURCH
OF ENGLAND. Fcap. 8vo. 6s.
LESSONS OF LIFE AND GODLINESS. A Selection
of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. Fourth
and Cheaper Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6d.
This volume consists of Nineteen Sermons, mostly on subjects connected
with the every-day walk and conversation of Christians. The Spectator
styles them " earnest and human. They are adapted to every class and
order in the social system, and will be read with wakeful interest by all
who seek to amend whatever may be amiss in their natural disposition
or in their acquired habits. "
WORDS FROM THE GOSPELS. A Second Selection
of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. Third
Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6d.
The Nonconformist characterises these Sermons as ' ' of practical earnest-
ness, of a thoughtfulness that penetrates the common conditions and ex-
periences of life, and brings the truths and examples of Scripture to bear
on them with singular force, and of a style that owes its real elegance to
the simplicity and directness which have fine culture for their roots. "
LIFE'S WORK AND GOD'S DISCIPLINE. Three
Sermons. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.
THE WHOLESOME WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST.
Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge in
November 1866. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6d.
Dr. Vaughan uses the word " 'Wholesome" here in its literal and
original sense, the sense in which St. Paul uses it, as meaning healthy,
sound, conducing to right living ; and in these Sermons he points out
and illustrates several of the "wholesome" characteristics of the Gospel,
the Words of Christ. The John Bull says this volume is " replete with
all the author's well-known vigour of thought and richness of expression."
FOES OF FAITH. Sermons preached before the Uni-
versity of Cambridge in November 1868. Second Edition. Fcap.
8vo. 3-r. 6d.
The "Foes of Faith" preached against in these Four Sermons are:
/. "-Unreality." II. "Indolence" III. "Irreverence." IV. "Incon-
sistency."
LECTURES ON THE EPISTLE to the PHILIPPIANS.
Third and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. $s.
Each Lecture is prefaced by a literal translation from the Greek of
the paragraph which forms its subject, contains first a minute explanation
34 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
VAUGHAN (Dr. C. J.) continued.
of the passage on which it is based, and then a practical application of
the verse or clause selected as its text.
LECTURES ON THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN.
Fourth Edition. Two Vols. Extra fcap. 8vo. gs.
In this Edition of these Lectures, the literal translations of the passages
expounded will be found interwoven in the body of the Lectures themselves.
" Dr. Vaughan's Sermons," the Spectator says, "are the most prac-
tical discourses on the Apocalypse with zvhich we are acquainted. " Pre-
fixed is a Synopsis of the Book of Revelation, and appended is an Index
of passages illustrating the language of the Book.
EPIPHANY, LENT, AND EASTER. A Selection of
Expository Sermons. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. los. 6d.
THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. For English Readers.
PART I., containing the FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
Second Edition. 8vo. is. 6d.
It is the object of this work to enable English readers, unacquainted
with Greek, to enter with intelligence into the meaning, connection, and
phraseology of the ^vritings of the great Apostle.
ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. The Greek
Text, with English Notes. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. Js. 6d.
The Guardian says of the work, '"''For educated young men his com-
mentary seems to fill a gap hitherto unfilled. . . . As a whole, Dr. Vaughan
appears to us to have given to the world a valuable book of original and
careful and earnest thought bestowed on the accomplishment of a work
which will be of much service and which is much needed."
THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS.
Series I. The Church of Jerusalem. Third Edition.
" II. The Church of the Gentiles. Third Edition.
" III. The Church of the World. Third Edition.
Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d. each.
The British Quarterly says, " These Sermons are worthy of all praise,
and are models of pulpit teaching."
COUNSELS for YOUNG STUDENTS. Three Sermons
preached before the University of Cambridge at the Opening of
the Academical Year 1870-71. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6ct.
The titles of the Three Sermons contained in this volume are: /.
11 The Great Decision." II. "The House and the Builder." HI. "The
Prayer and the Counter- Prayer" They all bear pointedly, earnestly, and
sympathisingly upon the conduct and pursuits of young students and
young men generally.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 35
VAUGHAN (Dr. C. J.) continued.
NOTES FOR LECTURES ON CONFIRMATION,
with suitable Prayers. Tenth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. is. 6d.
THE TWO GREAT TEMPTATIONS. The Tempta-
tion of Man, and the Temptation of Christ. Lectures delivered in
the Temple Church, Lent 1872. Second Edition. Extra fcap.
8vo. 3J. 6d.
WORDS FROM THE CROSS : Lent Lectures, 1875 ; and
Thoughts for these Times : University Sermons, 1874. Extra fcap.
8vo. 4J. 6d.
ADDRESSES TO YOUNG CLERGYMEN, delivered at
Salisbury in September and October, 1875. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6d.
HEROES OF FAITH : Lectures on Hebrews xi. Extra
fcap. 8vo. 6s.
THE YOUNG LIFE EQUIPPING ITSELF FOR GOD'S
SERVICE : Sermons before the University of Cambridge. Sixth
Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6d.
THE SOLIDITY OF TRUE RELIGION ; and other
Sermons. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. y. 6d.
SERMONS IN HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL (1847).
8vo. los. 6d.
NINE SERMONS IN HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL
(1849). Fcap. 8vo. 5-y.
"MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART," SERMONS
Preached before the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 1876
78. Fcap. 8vo. 5-y.
Vaughan (E. T.) SOME REASONS OF OUR CHRIS-
TIAN HOPE. Hulsean Lectures for 1875. By E. T. VAUGHAN,
M. A., Rector of Harpenden. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d.
" His words are those of a well-tried scholar and a sound theologian,
and they -will be read widely and valued deeply by an audience far beyond
the range of that which listened to their masterly pleading at Cambridge.' 1 ''
Standard.
Vaughan (D.J.) Works by CANON VAUGHAN, of Leicester:
SERMONS PREACHED IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH,
LEICESTER, during the Years 1855 and 1856. Cr. 8vo. 5*. 6d.
36 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
VAUGHAN (D. }.} -continued.
CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES AND THE BIBLE. New
Edition, revised and enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. cloth. $s. 6d.
THE PRESENT TRIAL OF FAITH. Sermons preached
in St. Martin's Church, Leicester. Crown 8vo. ()s.
Venn. ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF
BELIEF, Scientific and Religious. Being the Hulsean Lectures
for 1869. By the Rev. J. VENN, M. A. 8vo. 6s. 6d.
These discourses are intended to illustrate, explain, and work out into
some of their consequences, certain characteristics by which the attainment of
religious belief is prominently distinguished from the attainment of belief
upon most other subjects.
Warington. THE WEEK OF CREATION ; or, The
Cosmogony of Genesis considered in its Relation to Modern Sci-
ence. By GEORGE WARINGTON, Author of "The Historic
Character of the Pentateuch vindicated." Crown 8vo. 4*. 6d.
"A very able vindication of the Mosaic Cosmogony by a writer who
unites the advantages of a critical knowledge of the Hebrew text and of
distinguished scientific attainments." Spectator.
Westcott. Works by BROOKE Foss WESTCOTT, D.D.,
Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge ;
Canon of Peterborough :
The London Quarterly, speaking of Mr. Westcott, says, " To a learn-
ing and accuracy which command respect and confidence, he unites what
are not always to be found in union with these qualities, the no less valuable
faculties of lucid arrangement and graceful and facile expression."
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE
GOSPELS. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. los. 6d.
The author's chief object in this work has been to shew that there is
a true mean between the idea of a formal harmonization of the Gospels
and the abandonment of their absolute truth. After an Introduction on
the General Effects of the course of Modern Philosophy on the popular
views of Christianity, he proceeds to determine in what way the principles
therein indicated may be applied to the study of the Gospels.
A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE
CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT during the First Four
Centuries. Fourth Edition, revised, with a Preface on "Super-
natural Religion." Crown 8vo. los. 6d.
The object of this treatise is to deal with the Neio Testament as a whole,
and that on purely historical grounds. The separate books of which it is
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 37
WESTCOTT (Dr.) continued.
composed are considered not individually, but as claiming to be parts of the
apostolic heritage of Christians. The Author has thus endeavoured to con-
nect the history of the New Testament Canon with the grmvth and con-
solidation of the Catholic Church, and to point out the relation existing
between the amount of evidence for the authenticity of its component parts
and the whole mass of Christian literature. "The treatise" says the
British Quarterly, "is a scholarly performance, learned, dispassionate,
discriminating, worthy of his subject and of the present state of Christian
literature in relation to it. "
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH. A Popular Account
of the Collection and Reception of the Holy Scriptures in the
Christian Churches. Sixth Edition. i8mo. qs. 6d.
A GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE
ENGLISH BIBLE. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. los. 6d.
The Pall Mall Gazette calls the work "A brief, scholarly, and, to a
great extent, an original contribution to theological literature. "
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, MANIFOLD AND ONE.
Six Sermons preached in Peterborough Cathedral. Crown 8vo.
2s. 6d.
The Six Sermons contained in this volume are the first preached by
the author as a Canon of Peterborough Cathedral. The subjects are:
/. "Life consecrated by the Ascension." II. "Many Gifts, One Spirit."
III. ' ' The Gospel of the Resurrection. " IV. ' 'Sufficiency of God. " V.
"Action the Test of Faith." VI. "Progress from the Confession of God"
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION. Thoughts
on its Relation to Reason and History. Third Edition, enlarged.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
The present Essay is an endeavour to consider some of the elementary
triiths of Christianity, as a miraculous Revelation, from the side of History
and Reason. The author endeavours to shezv that a devout belief in the
Life of Christ is quite compatible with a broad view of the course of human
progress and a frank trust in the laws of our own minds. In the third
edition the author has carefully reconsidered the whole argument, and by
the help of several kind critics has been enabled to correct some faults and
to remove some ambiguities, which had been overlooked before.
ON THE RELIGIOUS OFFICE OF THE UNIVER-
SITIES. Crown 8vo. $s. 6d.
" There is certainly no man of our time no man at least who has ob-
tained the command of the public ear whose utterances con compare with
those of Professor Westcott for largeness of views and comprehensiveness of
38 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
grasp. There is wisdom, and truth, and thought enough, and a
harmony and mutual connection running through them all, which makes
the collection of more real value than many an ambitious treatise.^ -
Literary Churchman.
Wilkins. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. An Essay,
by A, S. WILKINS, M.A., Professor of Latin in Owens College,
Manchester. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. $s. 6d.
' ' It would be difficult to praise too highly the spirit, the burden, the
conclusions, or the scholarly finish of this beautiful Essay. " British Quar-
terly Review.
Wilson. THE BIBLE STUDENT'S GUIDE TO THE
MORE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING of the ENGLISH
TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, by Reference
to the Original Hebrew. By WILLIAM WILSON, D.D., Canon of
Winchester. Second Edition, carefully revised. 4to. 25^.
" The author believes that the present work is the nearest approach to
a complete Concordance of every word in the original that has yet been
made: and as a Concordance, it may be found of great use to the Bible
student, while at the same time it serves the important object of furnishing
the means of comparing synonymous words, and of eliciting their precise
and distinctive meaning. The knowledge of the Hebrew language is not
absolutely necessary to the profitable use of the work. The plan of the
work is simple : every word occurring in the English Version is arranged
alphabetically, and under it is given the Hebrew word or words, with a
full explanation of their meaning, of which it is meant to be a translation,
and a complete list of the passages where it occurs. Following the general
work is a complete Hebrew and English Index, which is, in effect, a
Hebrew- English Dictionary.
Worship (The) of God and Fellowship among
Men. Sermons on Public Worship. By Professor MAURICE,
and others. Fcap. 8vo. ~$s. 6d.
Yonge (Charlotte M.) Works by CHARLOTTE M.YONGE,
Author of " The Heir of Redclyffe :"
SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR SCHOOLS AND FA-
MILIES. 5 vols. Globe 8vo. is. 6d. With Comments, 3-r. 6d. each.
FIRST SERIES. Genesis to Deuteronomy.
SECOND SERIES. From Joshua to Solomon.
THIRD SERIES. The Kings and Prophets.
FOURTH SERIES. The Gospel Times.
FIFTH SERIES. Apostolic Times.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 39
YONGE (Charlotte M, .) continued.
Actual need has led the author to endeavour to prepare a reading book
convenient for study with children, containing the very words of the
Bible, with only a few expedient omissions, and arranged in Lessons of
such length as by experience she has found to suit with children's ordinary
power of accurate attentive interest. The verse form has been retained be-
cause of its convenience for children reading in class, and as more re-
sembling their Bibles ; but the poetical portions have been given in their
lines. Professor Huxley at a meeting of the London School-board, par-
ticularly mentioned the Selection made by Miss Yonge, as an example of
hcnv selections might be made for School reading. " Her Comments are
models of their kind.' 1 '' Literary Churchman.
THE PUPILS OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. New
Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
" Young- and old will be equally refreshed and taught by these pages,
in which nothing is dull, and nothing is far-fetched. " Churchman.
PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS; or, Recent Workers in
the Mission Field. With Frontispiece and Vignette Portrait of
Bishop HEBER. Crown 8vo. 6s.
The missionaries whose biographies are here given, are John Eliot,
the Apostle of the Red Indians ; David Brainerd, the Enthusiast; Chris-
tian F. Schwartz, the Councillor of Tanjore; Henry Martyn, the Scholar-
Missionary ; William Carey and Joshua Marshman, the Serampore Mis-
sionaries ; the Judson Family; the Bishops of Calcutta Thomas
Middleton, Reginald Heber, Daniel Wilson; Samuel Mar sden, the Aus-
tralian Chaplain and Friend of the Maori ; John Williams, the Martyr
of Erromango; Allen Gardener, the Sailor Martyr; Charles Frederick
Mackenzie, the Martyr of Zambesi.
THE "BOOK OF PRAISE" HYMNAL,
COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY
LORD SELBORNE.
In the following four forms :
A. Beautifully printed in Royal 32mo., limp cloth, price 6d.
B. ,, Small 18mo., larger type, cloth limp, Is.
C. Same edition on fine paper, cloth, Is. 6d.
Also an edition with Music, selected, harmonized, and composed
by JOHN HULL AH, in square 18mo., cloth, 3s. 6d.
The large acceptance which has been given to " The Book of Praise"
by all classes of Christian people encourages the Publishers in entertaining
the hope that this Hymnal, which is mainly selected from it, may be ex-
tensively used in Congregations, and in some degree at least meet the
desires of those who seek uniformity in common worship as a means
towards that unity which pious souls yearn after, and which our Lord
prayed for in behalf of his Church. "The office of a hymn is not to
teach controversial Theology, but to give the voice of song to practical
religion. No doubt, to do this, it mtist embody sound doctrine ; but it
ought to do so, not after the manner of the schools, but with the breadth,
freedom, and simplicity of the Fountain-head. " On this principle has
Sir R. Palmer proceeded in the preparation of this book.
The arrangement adopted is the following :
PART I. consists of Hymns arranged according to the subjects of the
Creed "God the Creator," "Christ Incarnate," "Christ Crucified,"
"Christ Risen" "Christ Ascended," "Christ's Kingdom and Judg-
ment," etc.
PART II. comprises Hymns arranged according to the subjects of the
Lord's Prayer.
PART III. Hymns for natural and sacred seasons.
There are 320 Hymns in all.
CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY J. PALMER.
GENERAL LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
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