Thoughts on the Bible

y'A i

PRINCETON, N. J.

BS 480 .G825 1872
Gresley, W. 1801-1876
Thoughts on the Bible

SM

THOUGHTS ON THE
BIBLE.

By the Rev. W. GRESLET, M.A.

PREBENDARY OF LICHFIELD,
AND VICAR OF BOYNE HILL, MAIDENHEAD.

LOJ^DON:

. CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE COMMITTEE OF THE
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOAVLEDGE

SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES:

77, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS;

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AND BV ALL BOOKSELLERS,

1872.

The Christian Evidence Committee of the S.P.C.K.,
Avhile giving its general approval to the works of
the Christian Evidence Series, does not hold Itself
responsible for any statement or every line of
argument.

The responsibility of each writer extends to his
own work only.

n

rr Y.

^ ^ ^ u ^ u u : .

CONTENTS,

PAGE

Lettee

I. Inteodtjction ■'■

II. The Peobability that God would give tjs
A Revelation, a^^d the mode in which

He has veeieied it .... 8

III. How THE Bible came to be written . . 15

IV. Vast importance op the Bible . • 23
V. The Wonderetjl Force op the Bible . . 30

VI. All Scripture inspired . . • • 37

VII. What is Inspiration ? ^^

VIII. How the Word oe God is contained in

THE Bible ^^

IX. DiPFICULTIES ^^

X. The same ^^

XI. The same ''^

XII. The Spirit and the Lettee ... 85

XIII. Inteepolation ^^

XIV. Things Incompeehensible— Unity of the

Fathee and the Son . . , . ^Q

XV. The same— Sin and its Consequences . 102

IV CONTENTS.

Lettek page

XVI. MxsTEEr IN Eeyelation and Science 109
XVII. MiEACLES— The Steangeness of some

MIEACLES 115

XVIII. Scientific Difficulties — Testimony. 124

XIX. Genesis i 131

XX. Befoee the Flood . . . .140
XXL After the Flood 148

XXII. ClYILIZATION 154

XXIII. Peogeess of Histoet and Civilization . 167 '

XXIV. Peophecy and its Fulfilment . . 173
XXV. Ridicule . . . . . . .181

XXVI. Unbelief— Scepticism . . . .187

XXVII. Want of Fiemness of Faith . . 197

XXVIII. Conclusion . . ' . .. . .202

POSTSCEIPT. — DaEWINISM 211

THOTJGHTS ON THE BIBLE.

LETTER I.

introduction.

My dear Friend^

You ask me to recommend you a book
wMcli shall explain the difficulties which some
persons now-a-days fancy they find in the Bible.
The faith of many, you say, has been shaken by
the current literature of the day, and you have
not been able to find exactly what you want,
either for your own reading, or to place in the
hands of your friends, who, in common with
yourself, wish to meet the difficulties which
have been brought before them, and to be able
to give a reason for the faith that is in them.

Well, there are many very excellent books ;
but I do not know that they are exactly what
you require. There is Butler^s Analogy. Every

B

IXTEODUCTION.

student for Holy Orders^ and every man of
education wlio really desires to enter into tlie
subject,, should read Butler's Analogy tliree or
four times over^ until lie has mastered every
page of it. Then there are Paley's Volumes on
the Evidences^ the Hor^e Paulinse^ and Natm^al
Theology. These are excellent and sound
books^ more lively than Butler^ and perfectly un-
answerable in argument ; they have never been
refuted^ and never can be. We sadly want
another Paley amongst us. I wish they were
more read than they are. Perhaps the reason
of their being read less than they used to he
is that they are somewhat out of date. The
objections against revealed rehgion have taken
a new turn; new cases have arisen^ and modern
science has developed many fresh illustrations
of the goodness and wisdom of God which were
not known in Paleyfs time.

I am really not able to direct you to the sort
of book which you require. So there is no help
for it but that I must try and write one
myself.

1 There is a very good book on the Catalogue of the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, " Why do you
believe the Bible to be the Word of God ? " by Josiah
Bateman, M.A., which embraces some of the topics contained
in this volume, but the general scope is different.

There are also many excellent books on different branches

INTRODUCTIOX.

A bold undertaking ! you will say^ and some-
wliat presumptuous to class oneself with sucli
men as Butler and Paley. But in truth the
book that is wanted is not any thing very
learned or very scientific,, but a common- sense
popular view of the facts in question.

Let me first set before you what is the view
which I propose to take of the subject. I do
not intend so much to answer objections or ex-
plain the difficulties raised by men of science or
of learning'^ as rather to show that such objec-
tions and difficulties are not such as can reason-
ably shake the faith of men of ordinary sense and
candour. Objections there must needs be^ as I
think the following arguments will show, even
on Christian principles.

1. If, as we believe, revelation and science
emanate both from the Great God and source
of all things, they must needs both be true.
But seeing that we imperfectly understand both
one and the other, it is clear that they must
often ci'ppear to differ. This is no paradox.
The difficulties which we imagine arise not
from any real discrepancies between science or
religion, but from our imperfect understanding
of them.

of the subject in the Catalogues of the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, and the Christian Evidence Society.
B 2

INTEODUCTION.

2. Agaiiij religion is in its essence^ " One and
tlie same througli all advancing time/^ — at
least tliere has been no new revelation since tlie
time of our Loed Jesus Cheist and His Apos-
tles. Science on tlie other hand_, is always
moving, always advancing. The discoveries of
one generation serve but as a stepping-stone,
or rather a foundation on which to build future
discoveries. It will be said, perhaps, that cri-
ticism also advances; scholars of the present
generation are better critics than those of the
past. Yes, but what is the object of criticism —
criticism of the Bible, I mean ? Simply to as-
certain the exact meaning of the ancient sacred
writers, to correct the text which has been cor-
rupted by length of time, and bring it back to
its original purity; to make sure of the real
meaning of the words when spoken or written
by our Loed or His Apostles. Why do we
think so much of the early Fathers ? It is be-
cause we believe that their proximity to the age
of the Apostles is, to a great extent, a guarantee
that their interpretation of the words of the
Apostles is correct, and the facts which they
describe are legitimate developments of the
Apostles^ doctrines. Thus the very advance of
criticism is a proof of what I asserted. Its
object is not to go forward, but to go backward

INTEODUCTION.

to ancient truth. Eevelation is^ like its great
Founder^, the same yesterday^ to-day^ and for
ever : whereas it is the boast of science that it is
perpetually improving. What is the necessity of
troubling oneself to reconcile the statements of
the Bible in all particulars with geology^ when
geology is confessedly in a state of progress,
and the opinions of the next generation may be
as much in advance of the present as the pre-
sent is of the past. So as regards Ethnology,
Philology, Anthropology, and other sciences,
which so much interest a number of clever men ;
they have almost sprung up within the present
generation, and every year is adding to the
facts on which they rest. How then can they
be compared with what is fixed and eternal ?

3. Again, Revelation professes to be a
communication from the Great and Infinite
God, to us poor finite creatures. If every part
of Revelation were easily intelligible, and free
from difficulty, it might be possible that it
emanated from the human intellect. The very
fact of there being in it things which surpass
our knowledge, and are addressed to our faith,
harmonizes with the belief that it proceeds
from a source higher than man. Must not the
relation of the finite to the Infinite, the creature
to the Creator, be full of difficulties? Even

IXTEODUCTION.

between man and man, the liiglily educated and
tlie illiterate^ hew wide is the difference. How
many things are there_, for instance, which
GoD^s ministers have mastered by study, but
which are a perfect enigma to the ploughman or
the mechanic ; or even, be it spoken with great
respect, to the philosopher, or the politician,
or the eminent lawyer, if they have not given
their minds to theological studies. And we
can imagine that minds of the highest order,
whether the highly-gifted yet humble-minded
of our fellow-men, or the angels of heaven, may
see no difficulty in what perplexes many of us
ordinary mortals. And there are many things
which are greater difficulties to the educated
than to the uneducated. Before the last cen-
tury most persons read the first chapter of
Genesis, as many read it now, without discern-
ing or even suspecting any difficulty whatever.
The science of geology has caused doubts, which
at first perplexed even well-disposed and intel-
ligent men ; but which a juster appreciation of
the relation between science and revelation has
now, we trust, greatly removed. There always
have been difficulties, and always will be until
the human mind has mastered the whole cycle
of natural science, and knows in all its bearings
the whole counsel of God. There are mysteries

INTRODUCTION.

into whicli even the angels desire to look.
Therefore the existence of diflSculties is no pre-
sumption whatever against the truth of Eeve-
lation.

The subject on which I propose to treat in the
following letters cannot be better expressed
than in the words of St. Augustine^ in one of
his letters to St. Jerome : '' I have learned^ 1
confess, to pay such deference to the canonical
books of Scripture, and to them alone, that I
most firmly believe that none of their writers
have ever fallen into any error in writing.
And if I meet with any thing in them which
seems to me to be contrary to truth, I doubt
not that either the manuscript is in fault, or
that the translator has missed the truth, or
that I myself have not rightly aj)prehended it."*'
{Aug. Epist. ad Hieron. xxxii.)

I do not deny that there are difficulties, and
some apparent contradictions, and many things
hard to be understood; but I undertake to
show that, notwithstanding these, the Bible is
the "Word of God, and altogether true, given
for our instruction and salvation.

THE PEOBABILITY THAT GOD

LETTER II.

THE PEOBABILITY THAT GOD WOULD GIVE US A
EEVELATION^ AND THE MODE IN WHICH HE HAS
VERIFIED IT.

The Bible appears before us as a communica-
tion from God to man. More properly speak-
ing, it is a record of many communications, and
various dealings with mankind : " God wbo at
sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by His

SON.^^

But how are we sure, some might ask, that
God hath thus spoken to us ? Why should He
take the trouble to hold such communication ?
I answer, — First, it is reasonable to suppose
that He who placed us on the earth, and made
us what we are, and bestowed on us so many
benefits, should teach us why He placed us
here — what was the object for which He created
us — what is our relation to Him — what our
duties. Except from what He has told us, we

WOULD GIVE A EEVELATION.

have little or no knowledge of these tlimgs_, we
cannot tell whence we came or whither we go
— what we have to do now we are here. Philo-
sophy and science cannot teach us these things^
or at least very vaguely. In shorty but for
what He has revealed to us our existence
would be an enigma. Then_, being the work
of His hand^ He has a Father^ s feeling towards
us. Every good father trains up his children
in the way in which they should go, teaches
them what is good, and helps them to walk in
the right path. And such has been our heavenly
Father^ s dealing with us. Moreover He is our
Ruler; and it was to be expected that He
would explain to us the laws by which He would
have us live — our duties and responsibilities.
On every account,, therefore^ it seems quite
reasonable, and to be expected, that He who
made and placed us here, should take some
means of communicating to us a knowledge of
His laws, and of our duties, of our position
here, and what is prepared for us hereafter.

But now, supposing it to be a thing not un-
likely, but rather highly probable, or even
certain, that God should communicate to His
creatures the knowledge of such things as are
necessary for them to know, let us consider
in what manner it was likely that He should

10 THE PROBABILITY THAT GOD

make suck communicatiou. Of the Nature
and Presence of tlie great Creator of Heaven
and Earth we know little. He hath Himself
said, "There can no man see My face and
live." It was necessary for Him to veil His
Grlory — to disrobe Himself of His Majesty, if
He revealed Himself to us ; or to send mes-
sengers to us from amongst our fellow-men,
authorized and commissioned to teach us
His Will. And, this being so, let us consider
within ourselves how He could make us know
for a surety that those sent by Him really bad
received a commission to speak to us in His
Name. Can we think of any other mode of
verifying the mission of those whom He would
send to us, than that which He adopted,
namely, the arming them with powers
such as no man without God's sanction or
authority could exercise. If there was to
be, as we have seen was reasonable, a com-
munication, or series of communications, from
God to man, it is difficult, nay, rather, it is
impossible to think of any mode in which men
could be sure that the communication really
was from God, except by the power which He
should give His ministers to verify their
mission. It is very probable that God may be
continually working miracles which we know

WOULD GIVE A EEVELATION. 11

not of. But the miracles by whicli He verified
tlie mission of those who at divers times spake
in His Name^ were palpable and wonderful —
such as to strike the senses of those who wit-
nessed them^ and those who have received the
record of them. Thus when Nicodemus came
to Jesus by night, he said unto Him, '^ Eabbi,
we know that Thou art a teacher come from
God : for no man can do these miracles that Thou
doest '^ — miracles of such wondrous power and
goodness united — " except God be with him."
So when Elijah had restored the widow's son
to life, she said, ''Now by this I know that
thou art a man of God, and that the word of
the LoED in thy mouth is truth.''

Consider the principal occasions on which
miraculous agency was exercised. We know
that in very early times the knowledge of the
One true God was well-nigh lost upon earth.
Even the scientific Egyptians worshipped cows
and crocodiles. The vilest crimes and most
horrible cruelties were practised amongst the
nations of the earth. Was it not a time, if
ever, for God to interfere ? Accordingly, He
chose one nation from the rest to be the re-
cipients of His laws, and, after a variety of
adventures, He commissioned Moses, His ser-
vant, to lead them out of Egypt, into a land

12 THE PROBABILITY THAT GOD

wliich He had promised to tlieir fathers, and by
a series of wonderful miracles,, in some of
which Moses was the chief agent, in others of
which God wrought Himself, " by a mighty hand
and outstretched arm/^ He led them into the
promised land, and gave them a code of righte-
ous laws. If it was right and reasonable that
the Creator should regard the good of His
creatures, and not, like the fancied gods of
Epicurus, leave them to take care of them-
selves ; if it was proper for a ruler to give laws
to his subjects, or a father to care for his
children, surely this was a fitting time for God
to interfere in the afiairs of men, and to send
His messenger, whose mission should be veri-
fied by the power of miracles.

Much more when the time came for sending
the LoED Jesus Christ to redeem mankind.
When we consider the state of the world at the
time of the mission of our Lord, the cruelties
and immoralities of even the most enlightened
nations, the degrading superstition of the old
Pagan system, it was certainly " the fulness of
time '^ for God to exert His power for the benefit
of His creatures. Accordingly He sent His
Son Jesus Christ, and He again sent His
Apostles after Him, and their successors, to be
the instructors of the world throughout all ages..

WOULD GIVE A REVELATION. 13

These, too, were at first armed with the power
of miracles, in order that they might establish
the truth of their mission. Is not the whole of
the account of these transactions strictly ac-
cording to reason and probability ?

There are some persons who consider miracles
impossible, and will not believe them. Others,
on the contrary, believe them to be the most
reasonable and probable events. That God
should communicate with His people, that the
mission of His messengers should be attested
by miracles, seems to the latter to bear on the
face of it the character of perfect reasonable-
ness. So far these two classes of persons difier
in opinion toto coelo. Each considers the other
to be mistaken. Who is to decide? Surely
history and testimony must decide. We have
received detailed accounts of all these wondrous
transactions. Moses and Joshua, and others,
have handed down to us the history of the
great events of their own times. The Evan-
gelists and Apostles, who were witnesses of our
LoED^s ministry, have written the account of
His life and wonderful deeds. If we can believe
any other of the events of history, we have cer-
tainly reason to believe the history of these.
From the very time of their promulgation, they
have been received as undoubted truth by the

14 THE PEOBABILITYj ETC.

ablest and most learned men of successive ages.
Modern civilization is founded on them. The
most refined and enlightened nations of the
world accept them. Surely that is enough to
warrant our acceptance of the facts which we
find recorded in the Bible.

HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE WRITTEN. 15

LETTER III.

HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE WRITTEN.

The account given by St. Luke of the reasons
wliicli induced liim to write his Gospel will
furnish us with an instance of the perfectly
natural manner in which the different books of
the Bible came to be written.

' ' Forasmuch/' says the EvangeHst, " as many
have taken in hand to set forth in order a de-
claration of those things which are most surely
believed among us^ even as they delivered them
unto us^ which from the beginning were eye-
witnesses and ministers of the Word^ it seemed
good to me also^ having had perfect understand-
ing of all things from the very first, to write
unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,
that thou mightest know the certainty of those
things wherein thou hast been instructed."

Before the Gospels were wi'itten, the sayings
and doings of our Lord were known and believed
by a great number of persons inconsequence of
the testimony and preaching of the Apostles, and

16 HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE WEITTEN.

of those appointed to the work of the ministry.
And, as it was natural, some of the early dis-
ciples had taken in hand, as St. Luke says, to set
forth in order a declaration — that is, to give a
statement or account — of those things which
were believed among the first Christians. But it
is evident that it was most important that before
the death of the Apostles and their contem-
poraries, the history of these great events should
be drawn up by men who had actually seen and
heard, or knew from unexceptionable testimony
all that had happened. This was the cause of
St. Luke writing his Gospel, and, no doubt, the
same reason influenced the other Evangelists.
St. Matthew and St. John had been with our
LoED during the whole of His ministry, and,
therefore, could give an exact account of the
things which they had witnessed. St. John, we
know, was the special friend of our Loed — the
disciple whom Jesus loved. St. Matthew was
constantly with Him. St. Luke tells us that he
too had perfect understanding of all things from
the very first. He had learned perhaps from
the Blessed Virgin Mary herself the wonderful
circumstances which preceded and accompanied
the birth of Jesus. He is thought by some to
have been one of the seventy disciples whom
our Loed commissioned during His lifetime.

HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE WEITTEN. 17

He was the constant companion of St. Paul, as lie
preacliecl tlie Gospel tliroughout tlie world — the
account of which he has given in his book of the
Acts of the Apostles. It does not appear whether
or not St. Mark was an eye-witness of the great
events of our Lord^s life, with St. Matthew and
St. John; but he had ample opportunity of
knowing the certainty of them, being the
nephew of St. Barnabas, and the companion of
the early disciples. So that even humanly
speaking, and without adverting now to Divine
inspiration, we have four unimpeachable wit-
nesses of the events recorded — two of whom,
at least, were eye-witnesses of our Lord's
ministry.

Compare the testimony of the Evangelists
with the history of modern events. When the
terrible conflict which is now going on in
Europe shall have been brought to an end
people will wish to know in order, as St. Luke
says, the certainty of the events that are occur-
ring, and, no doubt, many will take in hand to
write the history of them. Many French or
Prussian officers, or correspondents of news-
papers who have been eye-witnesses of the
bombardment of Strasburg, the siege of Metz
or of Paris, or the dreadful battles which have
been fought^ and the sufferings of the sick and

18 HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE WRITTEN.

wounded, and of the inhabitants of the seat of
war, or the still more dreadful occurrences
of the insurrection in Paris, will give narratives
of all that they have witnessed, and so the
history of the war will be handed down to after
generations. But we should note one im-
portant difference between the events which
are now being enacted and the Gospel history.
No one could from his own knowledge give an
account of all the incidents of the war, because
they have happened in many different places at
the same time, so that no one could have wit-
nessed them all. The historian of the times
must gather his information from the testimony
of different persons who in different places have
been eye-witnesses of what has been happening,
as we may suppose St. Luke obtained his infor-
mation of the early days of our Lord. But in
the case of our Lord^s public ministry all the
events were witnessed by the twelve Apostles,
who immediately after our Lord^s departure,
began to declare to the world all that they
had seen and heard — and two of whom for
the greater certainty wrote them in the
Gospels.

But now it might, perhaps, be asked, How
are we sure that the four Gospels, which we
have in our Bibles, are the same accounts which

HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE WRITTEN. 19

were written by the Evangelists, and that our
LoED really lived, and died, and rose again as
there described ?

First, I would ask what reason have we to
believe otherwise ? We have many other his-
torians of the same date, or thereabouts — Csesar,
Sallust, Tacitus, Josephus, and others, who de-
scribe the history of their own times. We be-
lieve them. We have the letters or Epistles of
Cicero, which are appealed to as undoubted
evidence of the facts to which they refer. Wliat
reason have we to doubt the testimony of the
writers of the Gospels ?

The following illustration will, I think, serve
to show that we have even stronger evidence of
the truth of the Gospels than we have of any
other extant history. There are, as we all know,
thirty or forty thousand sermons preached every
Sunday in the churches of this country, all of
which have a text of Scripture at the beginning,
and all of which, more or less, refer to the events
of our LoRD^s life. Now, quotations from a book
prove the existence of the book itself, even
though we had it not in our hands. Well, let
us go back a few centuries — to the Reformation
of the Church, for instance, in the sixteenth
century. We know that sermons were preached
and texts quoted at that time, just as they are
c 2

20 HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE WEITTEN.

now. It is cleai% tlierefore^ tliat tlie Bible
existed in tliose dajs_, otherwise tliere could be
no quotations from it. Go back still farther, to
the days of St. Chrysostom, or St. Augustine.
Still there are the same continual quotations of
texts. And not only quotations, but there are
Commentaries on Holy Scripture, or explana-
tions of the different parts of the Bible, as we
have now. Go up still higher, to the very time
immediately after the Scriptures of the New
Testament were said to have been wiitten;
and still we find, in the books which have
come down to us from those times, quotations
and allusions to all the parts of our Lord^s
history.

Or, to take a downward survey, beginning
from the first, instead of tracing the testimony
upward. Read the account of the doings of the
Day of Pentecost, only ten days after the de-
parture of our LoED into heaven, before the
Scriptures were written. You find the Apostle
speaking of the facts of our Savioue^s life as
well known and undeniable. "Ye men of
Israel,^^ he says, "hear these words. Jesus of
Nazareth, a man approved of God among you
by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God
did by Him in the midst of you, as ye also
know '^ (it was but a few weeks since He had

now THE BIBLE CAME TO BE WRITTEN. 21

raised Lazarus from tlie dead, as all Jerusalem
knew) /'Him being delivered by tlie determinate
counsel of God, ye have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain." (They could
not deny it. The fact was notorious amongst
them.)

You see that in the very first sermon ever
preached distinct mention is made of the mighty
works, the life and death of our Lord, and that
before men who knew perfectly well the things
which had happened, and could at once have
contradicted St. Peter, if what he said had been
false.

Or if, as some might prefer, we take our
start from the Epistles of St. Paul, which all of
us must feel to be real letters written to real
persons, we find the same facts spoken of as un-
deniable, and as forming the basis of the Chris-
tian Church and doctrine. Other writers allude
to the same events, and presently begin to quote
the words of Scripture, which by that time had
been written ; and so downwards to the present
time. There never has been a break in this
undeniable testimony to our Lord^s life and
doctrine.

I have spoken of the Gospels because they are
the most important books in the Bible, and all
the rest depend on them. The book of the

22 HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE WEITTEN.

Acts of the Apostles is a continuation of the
narrative ; the Epistles all arise out of the facts
recorded. Our Loed Himself bears testimony
to the inspiration of the Old Testament. The
Old Testament rests on the testimony of our
Loed's own word. The truth of the Gospels
being established^ the truth of the rest- of the
Bible follows of necessity.

VAST IMPOETANCE OF THE BIBLE. 2.3

LETTER IV.

VAST IMPORTANCE OP THE BIBLE.

The opponents of tlie Bible sometimes adopt
an arrogant and supercilious tone about it
which is offensive. Some, indeed, speak of it
in a patronizing tone as a ^' grand old book/'
much as they would speak of old Herodotus,
or Homer. This tone is caught, I imagine,
from the newspapers. Newspaper writers are,
conventionally at least, superior to their readers
in this respect, that they are able to com-
municate to them important information of
which their readers are ignorant. It is their
business to obtain and dispense information,
and in this respect they occupy a certain
vantage-ground, and are for the moment
masters of the situation. From giving in-
formation on subjects on which their readers
are ignorant, newspaper writers have come to
adopt the same tone in commenting upon
their intelligence. Hence the arrogant Ian-

24 YAST IMPOETANCE OP THE BIBIE.

guage wliicli some newspapers, use in their
leading articles.

Tlie tone of newspaper writers is commonly
adopted by essayists and reviewers^ and some-
what exaggerated by the confidence with which
all men are wont to speak on religious matters.
What I wish at this moment to suggest
for consideration is the question whether this
class of men^ essayists and reviewers^ men of
science and philosophy^ really have any ground
for assuming the sort of supercilious tone
which some of them adopt in speaking of the
Bible and the Church, or whether the truest
philosophy does not consist in deferring to the
authority of the Bible as the highest source of
information ?

For example : A great debate takes place,
not only in scientific Reviews but in public
meetings of the " Association for the Pro-
motion of Science/^ on the question of the
origin of life — some arguing that life must
proceed from life, omne vivum ex vivo, others
that life may originate from dead matter, and
the question is involved whence life originally
proceeded. But is there any need of all this
discussion ? We learn from the Bible that
God created the heaven and the earth and all
things in them ; that He made the first man

VAST IMPORTANCE OF THE BIBLE. 25

from the dust of tlie earth, and breathed into
him tlie breath of life_, and so man became a
living soul. Is not tlie man^ or even tlie
scliool-cliild, who believes that life proceeded
from God, on the authority of God^s Word,
better informed on that particular matter
than many a philosopher ? I remember to
have seen in an old Bible a picture represent-
ing- a venerable man meant for the Almighty
breathing into the face of a stiff stark figure
without life. Surely the child who behoves
that that picture symbolizes a great truth and
principle of our existence, actually knows
more than the man who cannot make up
his mind as to what is the origin of the life
of man. I do not mean to question the im-
portance of philosophical investigations. On
the contrary, I believe that they will all tend to
the confirmation of GoD^s Word, if confirmation
were needed. What I object to is the notion
that Philosophy can teach us more certainly
that which is already revealed in Holy Scrip-
ture, specially on such subjects. In many
points philosophy can teach us absolutely
nothing, as, for instance, respecting the con-
dition of the soul hereafter and the way of
eternal life.

There is another point of view in which the

26 VAST IMPORTANCE OP THE BIBLE.

immense importance of the subject-matter of
tte Bible may be contrasted favourably with
human affairs. I mean in respect to the
interests involved. * " What doth it profit a
man if he gain the whole world and lose his
own soul?^^ Consider only the tremendous
issues involved in the Bible. It is a question
of an eternity of happiness or woe. The ablest
men in the world believe it to be so. Surely
persons who seriously thought on this subject
could never speak disparagingly of the great
questions involved in God^s Word. What
speculation can be in the slightest degree
comparable in importance to the winning
eternal life — what risk so tremendous as the
risk of losing happiness eternal ?

Again_, take the politician's occupation.
Surely the statesman who believes that the
human beings under his authority have souls
to be saved_, and that the Bible and the Church
of God are the divinely-appointed means of
saving souls_, must be constrained by his con-
science to adopt every method in his power
whereby the grand object of human life shall
be promoted.

I argue, then, that it is unphilosophical and
unworthy of an intelligent age to disparage the
interests of religion, and consider the doctrines

VAST IMPORTANCE OP THE BIBLE. 27

of the Church of infinitesimal vakie, in com-
parison with the subject-matter of science, or
literature, or politics.

In further confirmation of this position, I
would point to eminent men in different de-
partments of life, and maintain unhesitatingly
that those whose lives are occupied in ex-"
pounding the Bible or promoting the religious
welfare of the people are not inferior, to say
the least, to men in any other department of
knowledge. In one period of the world Church-
men were /aci'/e frinciioes, in almost every depart-
ment— in literature, science, and politics. In
the present day they are as great orators, as
able writers, and profound thinkers — in short,
in every way men of as exalted intellect, as
those in any other department of human know-
ledge. Therefore to affect to despise such
men, or to speak disparagingly of the rehgion
which they teach, proves rather the prejudiced
views of those who allow themselves to indulge
in such a practice.

One more argument let me bring before you,
and that is the extraordinary influence which
the Bible has had on the institutions and
domestic habits of modern Europe. According
to the ordinary progress of events, one would
have expected that as the civilization of Greece

28 VAST IMPOETANCE OF THE BIBLE.

spread itself to Rome,, and resulted in a new
type analogous in some respects, but superior
in others J so tlie civilization of Rome would
have been the prime influence in the develop-
ment of the family of European nations. In-
stead of which, a new element has come in,
derived from Jewish literature, i. e. the Bible.
How can ethnologists explain on mere human
principles the extraordinary influence which
the feeble nation of the Jews has acquired over
the powerful and civilized nations of modern
Europe ? How can they account for the influence
of Jewish literature and Jewish thought which
has had such a marvellous efiect for the last
eighteen hundred years ? The precepts con-
tained in the Jewish records are as 'household
words. Even our newspapers are full of
Scriptural allusions. We give our sons and
daughters names taken out of the Bible, names
of the Jewish patriarchs. Prophets, Apostles,
and holy women : John, Matthew, Peter, James,
Thomas, Mary, Martha, Anna, Elizabeth, all
these are names of men and women of the
Jewish race. We name not only our churches,
but our streets, our great buildings, after them.
The palace of our sovereign is called St. James^,
our House of Parliament St. Stephen's, our great-
est hospitals St. Thomas' and St. Bartholomew's.

VAST IMPOETANCE OF THE BIBLE. 29

Our literature is full of allusions to passages in
the Bible. Treat the Bible as a common book,
and no consistent account can be given of its
wonderful influence. Nothing but the super-
natural element in it can present a plausible
solution of the power which it has exercised.

► 0 THE WONDEEFUL FORCE OF THE BIBLE.

LETTER Y.

THE WONDERFUL FORCE OF THE BIBLE.

No book was ever written wliicli has sucli won-
derful force — or has produced such astonishing
effects on men individually as the Bible. Truly,
as it is written, the Word of God is "quick
and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart.^' Hundreds
and thousands of men in every generation, and
in every station of life, have experienced the
searching influence of the Bible. The same
Word which brings instruction in holiness to
the seeker after truth, peace and comfort to
the believer, is full also of cutting reproof,
stern upbraiding, and bitter forebodings to the
sceptic, the unbeliever, and the wicked. They
cannot escape it ; they cannot put from them
the thought that, in spite of all their endeavours
to disbeheve, the Bible may after all be true,
and if so, will surely condemn them. They who

THE WONDERFUL FORCE OF THE BIBLE. 31

believe have rest and peace, they know wliom
they trust, they believe in the inheritance pre-
pared for them, they know that they have a
sure title to happiness with God in heaven, and
they have the earnest of their inheritance in
present peace of mind, trust and confidence
in GoD^s love, delight in His service, hope
and joy, and a full persuasion that they have
found peace and happiness in the favour
and promises of their God. But to unbe-
lievers all this grouud of peace is cut away
from beneath their feet ; they have no confi-
dence or hopeful expectation, but rather a cer-
tain looking forward to judgment and misery.
All is vague and unsatisfactory in this life, as
well as in their expectation of the future ; they
have no certain rule of life, no sure restino--
place, every thing is gloomy, dark, uncertain,
restless, perplexing, — that is, if they are men
of any serious thought. There is a sanctifying
power in God^s Word, an influence for holiness,
a power given to resist evil, to yield the soul to
what is good and righteous, which is wanting
in those who reject its calm authority.

The Bible treats of matters far beyond the
scope of man^s invention; it explains to us facts
and principles which no science has ever been
able to discover, no thought could ever fathom.

32 THE WONDEEPUL FORCE OF THE BIBLE.

How could we ever have known our own posi-
tion in the scale of nature^ and our relation to
God, our creation in His image, our fall, our
redemption, but from the pages of God^s Word?
What human intellect, uninstructed by God^s
Word^ has been able to explain or elucidate
these marvellous truths ? From God^s Word we
learn that, being created in holiness, Adam and
Eve fell by disobedience, and that the state in
which we now live is one of remedial process, in
which, by the atonement made for sin, our trans-
gression may be put away, and our spirit, soul,
and body may be regenerated and restored to
holiness by the operation of the Holy Ghost.
The whole Bible consists more or less of a series
of means through the application of which God
designs to raise us by our own free will to
holiness and salvation. Eead in this light every
page teems with help and encouragement.
Again, the Bible is full of devotional matter
suited most wonderfully to our wants. No
other book has any thing like it. Read the
Psalms of David, and see how marvellously ap-
plicable they are to our spiritual state under
almost every circumstance of joy or sorrow,
triumph or humiliation, trust in God, or con-
viction of sin. They seem, as it were, to dis-
sect and analyze the inmost emotions of the soul,

THE WONDERFUL FORCE OF THE BIBLE. 33

and lay tliem bare to the light of day, and pro-
vide nourishment and medicine for every re-
quirement and ailment of the human heart.
Composed long ago, and at different times, they
have descended to us in these latter days, and
afford matter for holy meditation and daily use
for the penitent sinner, or the faithful servant
of God in the nineteenth century, as they did
three thousand years ago. It has always ap-
peared to me that the Book of Psalms in itself
is a standing miracle, showing by its internal
character the evidence of its divine orimnal.
Modern piety or ingenuity has never furnished
a book of devotion so searching, so penetrating,
and so adapted to every phase of the human
soul.

Scarcely less wonderful, though in a different
way, are the shrewd and homely proverbs of
Solomon, which exhibit to us the same searching-
power in reference to worldly wisdom, as the
Psalms of David evince in the finer element of
spiritual devotion. ^^The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge." ^' Trust in the
Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine
own understanding. Li all thy ways acknow-
ledge Him, and He shall direct thy path. Be
not wise in thine own eyes : fear the Lord, and
depart from evil." Surely these are the true

D

34 THE WONDERFUL FORCE OP THE BIBLE.

principles of human conduct. When we con-
sider that these wise and soul-stirring books
existed long before the rise of philosophy in
Greece,, when ethics were first reduced to a
system^ that they appeared amongst a people
who, apart from miraculous interposition, and
the divine inspiration of their writers, were far
from being a clever or intellectual race, we
must acknowledge the marvellousness of the
phenomenon exhibited by their very existence
in that period of the world's history.

In the books of the Prophets we find, be-
sides the most lofty sentiments, undeniable
evidence of a power of foretelling future events,
which could have proceeded from no other
source than a divine original.

Bringing our survey down to the books of
the New Testament, we have the fulfilment of
prophecy in the record of the Incarnation of
the Son of God and the final offer of salvation
to mankind; and above all, the delineation of
the perfect character of Jesus, far beyond the
conception of human excellence by any poet
or philosopher whom the world has ever pro-
duced.

But the Word of God is not only quick and
powerful to teach us our real character, but it
is also efficacious to furnish us with remedies

THE WONDERFUL FORCE OF THE BIBLE. 35

against the evils which we detect^ safeguards
against our weakness^ help for our infirmities,
comfort in our distress. It can not only probe
the wounds of our spirit, but it can pour into
them the balm of consolation. It can soothe the
wounded spirit, give us health, and hope, and
salvation. In short, it is able to make us wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. I say, then, without fear of contradiction,
that no other book was ever composed which
has any thing like the moral efficacy of the
Bible — its power and acuteness is far beyond
any thing else which was ever written.

The difficulty is that these divine characteris-
tics of the Bible are to the sceptic and unbe-
liever, who are prejudiced against it, in a man-
ner incomprehensible. Those who do not feel
the touching devotion of the Psalms, for in-
stance, cannot be argued into understanding it.
They have not the faculty for it. They who see no
beauty in the character of our Lord, no super-
human excellence in His teaching, can hardly be
touched with the conviction of His divine nature.
They are like men without an ear for music, or
without the faculty of discerning colours. But
they may at least do this — they may exercise
their reason upon the evidence of the truth of
the Bible. They may strive against the beset-

36 THE WONDEEFUL FORCE OF THE BIBLE.

ting sins of their own hearts — cultivate humility,
sincerity, and truth. Then the Holy Spirit
will grant them the faculty of appreciating the
doctrine, ''^He that will do the will of God shall
know of the doctrine whether it be of God.^^

ALL SCRIPTURE INSPIRED. 37

LETTER YI.

ALL SCRIPTURE INSPIRED.

Now^ seeing that undeniably tlie Bible exercises^
and has exercised,, an influence on the human
mind^ and on the affairs of the worlds such as no
other book has ever exercised^ and not only with
uncivilized and unintellectual nations^ but with
the most intelligent and highly gifted in the
world, surely it is unwise and unphilosophical
to think lightly of the Bible or to treat it as a
common book. A higher intelligence must
dictate to us the opinion, or rather the cer-
tainty, that there must be in it something very
different, something much beyond the character
of any thing else that was ever written. And
what is the difference ? Simply this : that
whereas other books have been written by the
wisdom and intellect of man — the Bible was
dictated and written by the inspiration of God.
And such has been the firm belief of Christians
of all ages. The best and purest minds in
the world for eighteen hundred years have

o8 ALL SCRIPTURE INSPIRED.

always believed the Bible to be tbe inspired
Word of God. If it were not so^ how can
we account for its astonishing and undeniable
influence on the minds and on the afiairs of
men ?

Let us consider the claim which the Bible
itself makes on our belief of its inspiration.

There is a peculiar form of argument recently-
much used by the sceptical school_, the fallacy
of which I do not remember to have seen com-
mented on. It is to this effect : that if a text
of Scripture is disputed_, if a few T^o-iters, or
even one^ have questioned its genuineness^ or
doubted its interpretation^ thenceforth that
text is, so to speakj tainted or suspected_, and
cannot be used with any force in controversy.
A remarkable instance of this sort of argu-
ment is found in Dr. Williams^ climax about
Messianic prophecies. Some of these pro-
phecies have been disputed_, he says ; Bishop
Kidder doubts the applicability of one, Bishop
So-and-So of another, Baron Bunsen of a third,
until there are not more than two or three re-
maining which are not disputed, and these no
doubt might be easily '^'^ melted down in the
crucible ^ '' (such, if I remember right, is the ex-
pression), and so none would remain. I never
1 Essays and Reviews, p. 70.

ALL SCEIPTUEE INSPIRED. 39

remember to have seen so reckless^ overbearing,
and irrational a statement ; and yet I suppose
it was expected to carry weight with some
persons, or it would not have been made. If
there really is any reasonable doubt as to the
genuineness of the text, as there may be in the
case of the three witnesses (see 1 St. John v. 7),
then of course we cannot honestly insist on
that text as of undoubted certainty, or as a
proof of doctrine ; but in the numerous cases
in which we entertain no doubt whatever as to
their genuineness and true interpretation, then
the establishment of our argument depends on
our maintaining them. The battle for truth is
to be fought on the very ground of the truth
of texts, and the true meaning of them. We
do not for a moment admit that the fact of their
having been disputed renders them doubtful :
for in truth there is no single text or doctrine
in the Bible which may not be disputed by men
who maintain that ^^ everlasting ^^ may not
mean "lasting for ever,^^ or that God^s inspired
Word may not be true.

It is the last of these questions that I wish to
dwell on. And, first, the meaning of the text —
*' All Scripture is given by inspiration of GoD.''^

There are some very good men who say you
must not rest on this text, because it is doubtful.

40 ALL SCRIPTUEE INSPIRED.

My answer is^ no genuine text is really doubtful
— every text lias a meaning ; this text must
have some one definite meaning. We must not
give it up because it has been disputed, but
endeavour to ascertain what its real meaning
is. What, then, has been alleged against re-
ceiving this text in its plain and literal meaning ?
It is said that commentators have questioned
whether the Greek word translated " given by
inspiration of God^'' is the predicate or part of
the subject ; that is, whether it is rightly trans-
lated '^ All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God and is profitable/^ or '"'' All Scripture given
by inspiration of God is also profitable. ''■' But
in truth the sense would be just the same in
the latter case as in the former as regards its
application to Holy Scripture. It would run
thus — ^^AU Scripture being inspired by God/^
and not all that part of Scripture which is in-
spired. The inspiration of the whole of Scrip-
ture would be equally aj&rmed.

The passage of Scripture before us is even
stronger in the original than in our transla-
tion. It is not only " all Scripture," as if the
whole were taken collectively, but "every
Scripture,^-* that is, every part of Scripture is
inspired by God. It would be inconsistent with
the proposition to say that some books were

ALL SCRIPTURE INSPIRED. 41

inspii^ed and some were not_, or that some sub-
jects were inspired and some not : tliat the
doctrinal parts, for instance,, were inspired,
and the historical uninspired; that the de-
scriptions of ordinary events were inspired,
but not the supernatural and extraordinary;
that the history of the building of the Temple,
or of the captivity, was inspired, but that we
need not believe the history of the Exodus, or
of the sacrifice of Isaac, or other historical
events; — that we might choose to believe
those which we thought credible, and discard
the rest. This could not be the meaning of
the words, " every Scripture is GoD-inspired.''^
We must consider the whole volume which the
Church accepts as Scripture to come under the
theory of inspiration.

This one text, therefore, as received by the
Church, may be taken by believers as con-
clusive of the inspiration of every part of
Scripture. But there are many other texts
which corroborate and confirm it — as, for
example, 2 St. Pet. i. 21 : '^ The prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man, but holy
men of old spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost." So 1 Thess. ii. 13 : "For this
cause also thank we God without ceasing,
because when ye received the Word of God,

42 ALL SCRIPTURE INSPIRED.

wMch ye heard of us^ ye received it not as tlie
word of man^ but as it is in trath^ the Word
of GoD^ whicli effectually worketh also in you
that believe/' See also &t. Matth. x. 19, 20 ;
St. John xiv. 25, 26, xvi. 12—14; 1 Cor.xi. 9,
10 j Acts xxvi. 16; Heb. i. 1; 1 St. Pet. i.
10 — 12, &c. Consider also the instances in
which, when a quotation is taken from the
Holy Scriptures, it is ascribed to the Holy
Ghost, as Acts i. 10: "The Scripture must
needs have been fulfilled which the Holy
Ghost spake beforehand by the mouth of
David." What we have to do is diligently to
search out the meaning of these passages and
ascertain how the Church has received them,
and to insist on their truth when we have
ascertained it, and not for a moment to admit
that the cavils of sceptics impair then' inherent
certainty. And such an investigation will I
think establish the literal acceptation of the
text that " All Scripture is given by inspira-
tion of God.''

A separate and convincing proof of the
truth of every part of Scripture is found in
the testimony of the Church. The Church
originally bore its testimony to the genuine-
ness of the books of Scripture, and has since
uniformly maintained their truth. It is pos-

ALL SCRIPTUEE INSPIRED. 43

sible to find passages iu some of tlie ancient
fathers, especially in the writings of Origen,
wMch speak vaguely on these matters. But
the overwhelming testimony of the ancient
Fathers corresponds with what we see in the
present day. Holy Scripture is universally, or
nearly so, accepted by Christians as the un-
doubted and true Word of God. Every sermon
which is preached in every church in Chris-
tendom is founded on the belief that what is
written in God's Word is inspired. The text
is first enunciated with reverence, as the Word
of God, and not of man. If human arguments
are employed to illustrate and explain the text,
yet none are thought to be so convincing and
unanswerable as other texts and parts of
Scripture brought forward to confirm its mean-
ing. Once destroy the behef in the truth of
every part of Scripture, and an entire revolu-
tion will be efi'ected in the minds of men. No
certainty, no truth will be attainable. All will
'be vague and uncertain. Much, indeed, have
they to answer for who have attempted to
disturb the faith of God's servants in the in-
spiration of God's Word. Let us not give in
to these cavils, but maintain the inspiration of
the Bible as of undoubted certainty.

44 WHAT IS mSPIEATION ?

LETTER YII.

WHAT IS INSPIRATION ?

It is often asked wliat is the true tlieory of
Inspiration ? Supposing all Scripture to be
inspired^ what is inspiration ?

Now there are many things which cannot be
logically defined. Inspiration may be one of
them. There may be something in inspiration
too deep and impalj^able to be exactly defined
in human language. One things however^ I
think^ may be affirmed with certainty : namely,
that ivhat is inspired, cannot he false; and
therefore if every part of Scripture is inspired
by GoDj every part is unquestionably true.
Our Lord Himself continually appeals to
Scripture as of undoubted truth. So do the
Apostles, so do the fathers of the Church, so
do God's ministers in the present generation.
How could we teach religion at all if we were
obliged to enter upon the proof that each
quotation was true. No — we verily believe^
and the Church of all ages has believed, that

WHAT IS INSPIRATION? 45

every part of Scripture is inspired by God,
and that what is inspired by God is true. In
fact;, to say that a thing is inspired, and yet is
false, is a contradiction in terms.

But then objectors say — by this theory you
make the inspired writers mere machines in
the hands of the Spirit, with no more will of
their own than the pens with which they
wrote. Well — what if it were so ? But it is
not. We believe that the writers of Scripture
wrote according to their own idiosyncrasy and
personal ability. We see that in fact there is
a great deal of individual character in the
different writers of Holy Scripture. Every-
one must discern the wonderful poetic energy
which breathes in the writings of some of the
older prophets, as compared with other writers.
The Book of Isaiah and the Book of Proverbs
are totally different in style. St. Luke and
St. Paul write in a different manner from the
other Evangelists. There is, in fact, as much
difference as between Grote and Macaulay,
Manning and Newman. The four Gospels are
the compositions of four independent men,
describing what they saw or heard — differently,
but not therefore untruly. Some years ago,
in the dead of night, a violent earthquake
occurred, such as England had not felt for

46 WHAT IS INSPIKATION ?

many years. Next day a wliole sheet of tlie
Times was occupied by tlie different accounts
received from different persons. TJhe various
ways in whicli persons roused suddenly from
their sleep described the phenomenon^ was a
curious exemplification of the different manner
in which the same event struck different per-
sons_, whose accounts of what they had heard
or felt were all equally veracious. And it is
evident that this sort of evidence is really
more valuable than if every body had described
the circumstances in exactly the same words.
Sometimes in a court of justice,, if several
persons combine together to give false evi-
dence^ the very verbal agreement of their
statements will furnish ground for suspicion
of collusion^ and make their evidence less
valuable than if there had been a more natural
variety of statement.

Therefore variations in the four Gospels are
not to be looked on as proofs of untruthful-
ness^ but the reverse.

There is a human element^ as well as a
divine^ in every part of the Bible. Inspiration
does not supersede the intellect or habits of
thought of the particular writers^ but only
helps them. There are indeed many things
contauied in Holy Scripture which the writers

47

could not liave learned except from direct in-
formation of the Spirit. The prophecies in the
Old Testament — the wonderful delineation be-
forehand of the person, the character and office
of the Messiah,, the destinies of God^s people,
and of His kino-dom — no one could have con-
ceived or written these things unless the Spirit
of Truth had put them into his mind by direct
revelation. So again there are many doctrines
of the New Testament, the Incarnation, the
Atonement, our Lord^s Mediation and Inter-
cession, the doctrine of the Sacraments — all
these must have been dictated by the Holy
Ghost. But in many parts of Scripture the
writers delivered simply in their own language
what had come to their knowledge — whether
as eye-witu esses or by other ordinary sources
of information. Only, as inspired writers, they
were kept from error in their writings by the
Divine Spirit ; for if what they wrote was false
or erroneous, it could not be inspired, and we
have seen that every part of Scripture is in-
spired.

We may therefore firmly believe every fact
recorded in Holy Scripture by the writers
either of the Old or New Testament, as un-
doubtedly and entirely true. The fact that
St. Paul left his cloak with Carpus at Troas,

48 WHAT IS INSPIRATION?

and many otlier equally minute particulars^
should be received as true^ thougli they seem
to be matters of very small importance. There
are persons who say that they accept the great
facts and doctrines of Revelation, but do not
think it necessary to believe all the minute
details. But it will generally be observed_,
that those persons who affect to think lightly
of the details of the Bible, do so in reality
only to obtain the means of disparaging the
great and essential doctrines — the Atonement
— or the eternal Judgment — or the Miracles.
If we reject the smallest part, we reject the
authority on which the greatest is based. And
this is well understood by the unbelievers of the
present day. Once get in the thin end of the
wedge by assuming the inaccuracy of some
little circumstance, and the whole authority of
GoD^s Word will speedily be shaken, in the
minds at least of those who are so unwary as
to suffer themselves to be deceived.

Important use has been made of these minute
circumstances by some of our most able writers,
such as Paley and Blunt, who, on the hypo-
thesis of their correctness which has always
been received by the Church, have built up a
most convincing and impregnable argument
of the truth of Revelation. The coincidence of

WHAT IS INSPIRATION ? 49

times and places^ and minute facts_, which
occur in the Epistles of St. Paul_, when com-
pared with the account given of the great
A^postle^s movements,, in the Acts of the Apos-
tles, is most valuable for the conviction of cri-
tical and argumentative minds, as to the reality
both of the history and the correspondence.
Wantonly and carelessly to give up the truth
of the details of St. PauVs actions and state-
ments, would be to sacrifice what to some
minds has proved one of the surest evidences
of Eevelation. The coincidences and the
verisimilitude of the facts form a mass of cir-
cumstantial evidence of much the same cha-
racter as that by which our courts of law
decide the most important questions of life and
property. We may not admire too much of
" Old Bailey Theology," as it has been termed,
in which the Apostles are tried once a week
for perjury. But such a book as Bishop
Sherlock's " Trial of the Witnesses,'' is not
without its important use in convincing minds
accustomed to weigh evidence. I think, there-
fore, that for Christians to admit for a moment
that any facts plainly stated by the writers of
Holy Scripture, and not suspected to be inter-
polated, are unimportant, and possibly not
true, simply because they are minute, is not

E

50 WHAT IS INSPIEATION?

only a most illogical proceeding, but also a
gratuitous giving up of an important position. I
would myself take an entirely different ground,
and maintain, that even apparently erroneous
or contradictory statements, must in reality be
true, if we rightly understood them, because
they are contained in God's inspired Word.

There is an objection taken by controver-
sialists, which is plausible, yet fallacious.
Something like this is the form of it. Do you,
say they, believe a verbal inspiration or not ?
If you say you do not, it is answered, Oh, then
you admit that there may be errors. If you
say you do. What, it is answered, do you really
believe that all the uncouth, even ungram-
matical expressions which we find in the Bible
can be the Word of God ? Are all the insig-
nificant details which we find really God's
Word ? Was it God Who spake by St. Paul,
when he desired Timothy to send him his cloak
from Troas ? But this is not an honest ar-
gument, in fact, it is mere clap-trap. The
simple answer is, that GoD did not dictate to
the Apostles things which they could very
well learn from their own information, but
only kept them from error. Many things were
no doubt communicated to them directly, but
many things were learned by them in the

WHAT IS INSPIRATION ? 51

same way in which, otlier people become ac-
quainted with facts^ and were related by them
in their own words, such as they were accus-
tomed to use : only they were preserved
from error by the Holy Spirit ; else it would
not be true that all Scripture is inspired. For
what is inspired cannot, by the force of terms,
be false. This at once silences all cavils about
the Divine and human element, and shows
that, while both are present, both are equally
true. And it is very remarkable that the
Holy Spirit does not supplement the imperfect
knowledge of the inspired writers, where exact
information is of no importance. Thus, in the
account of the marriage at Cana in Galilee it
is said, that there were " six waterpots contain-
ing two or three firkins apiece.''^ Whether it
were two or three is unimportant. So St. Paul
says, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, " I
baptized also the household of Stephanas, be-
sides I know not whether I baptized any other."
If St. Paul had been disposed to deny that he had
baptized any other, when he really had done
so, we may believe that he would have been
corrected. But when he said with perfect
truth and sincerity that he had forgotten, it
was not necessary that he should be reminded
of the exact truth. Under this head we may
E 2

62 WHAT IS INSPIRATION ?

rank the frequent use of round numbers, as^ for
instance, when on one occasion four thousand
and on another occasion five thousand were fed
with the loaves miraculously increased \ I do
not know that it is necessary for the truth of
Scripture to suppose that these were the exact
numbers, neither more nor less ; though of
course it might have been so. In some cases
there is greater precision, as in declaring the
number of fish that were taken to have been
an hundred and fifty and three, or that the
number of souls saved from shipwreck with St.
Paul were two hundred threescore and sixteen.
In these cases the writer knew the exact num-
bers, and therefore gave them.

This theory of inspiration does not at
all militate against the right or duty of
criticism. On the contrary, we believe that
fair criticism will be found to confirm the
truth. I should not say that it interfered in
the least with the absolute truth of Scripture,
if it were found that Moses compiled his history
or parts of it from more ancient documents, as
Hume did his history of England from the old
chroniclers, or that the Pentateuch was revised
by Ezra, and notes added here and there. Then
it is always open to debate what is Scripture
1 St. Mark vii:. 19.

WHAT IS INSPIRATION ? 53

and what is not Scripture. If a critical dis-
cussion disproves tlie genuineness of any text,
it does not prove tliat the Bible is not inspired,
it only shows that the particular passage is
not a part of Scripture, but an interpolation.
Again, of course there are what seem to be dis-
crepancies between Holy Scripture and science.
Until we have, as I said before, a perfect
critical knowledge of Scripture, and a thorough
understanding of all sciences, which can never
be, they must seem to differ, though we may be
sure they do not really. Who now is troubled
by the old objection about the sun standing
still in the valley of Ajalon being contrary to
science ? I have not the smallest doubt that
the first chapter of Genesis will be found to be
entirely in accordance with the phenomena of
Nature when we understand more, if we ever do
understand more, of the science of cosmogony.
In the present letter, I have endeavoured to
show that all Scripture is " God -inspired," and
therefore of necessity true. But I admit with
St. Augustine, that in the copies of the Bible
which we have in our hands, there are mistrans-
lations, probably interpolations, — and as St.
Peter says, things hard to be understood, things
which appear marvellous, inconsistent, some-
times even contradictory. In making these

54 WHAT IS INSPIEATION?

admissions^ I would not liave it to be inferred
tliat the difficulties or apparent contradictions
of Holy Scripture are so numerous or so impor-
tant as to obscure the general sense. On the
contrary, the grand object of Holy Scripture, its
truth, as a law of life, and a means of attaining
heaven, are plain and undeniable to every
honest mind. But nevertheless there are diffi-
culties which, exaggerated, have raised a for-
midable prejudice against the Bible — and on
these it is my purpose to enlarge in several
succeeding letters.

HOW THE WORD OF GOD, ETC.

LETTER YIIL

HOW THE WOED OF GOD IS CONTAINED IN THE
BIBLE. •

The first objection to be considered is a
notion never before heard of in tlie Cliurcli ;
against wliich it is necessary for all true Clinrcli-
men to protest with all their might, — the notion
that the Word of God is not, as has always been
believed, co-extensive with the Bible, but that
it is contained in the Bible.

If it were said that the Word of God is con-
tained in the Bible, so that the Bible is all of it
the written Word of God, the proposition is
true. And that, no doubt, is the meaning of
the words of our sixth Article : " Holy Scripture
containeth all things necessary to salvation . . .
in the name of Holy Scripture we do under-
stand those canonical Books of the Old and
New Testaments of whose authority was never
any doubt in the Church. ^^ But if it be meant,
as it seems to be by some, that the Holy
Scripture contains the Word of God, and a
great deal more which is not the Word of God,

56 HOW THE WOED Or GOD

I venture to say that tliis notion is contrary to
the belief of Christians of all ages, and is in
truth a grievous heterodoxy. Each deacon,
before he can obtain ordination, is specially
asked, " Do you unfeignedly believe all the
Canonical Books of the Old and New Testa-
ments?^^ and answers, "I do believe them/^
How can any one make this answer in good
faith, if he only believes that part of the Bible
is GoD^s Word, and that the rest is merely the
uninspired word of man, and may be true or
may be false ? Again, how is any minister
to '*■ instruct the people out of God^s Word,^'
as he promises to do, if he does not know
where to find it? For if part of the Bible
only is the Word of God, and part not, it
is impossible to know with certainty that we
are teaching the truth. The Socinian will
leave out those parts of Scripture which make
against his view, and declare, that however
true may be those parts of Scripture which are
the Word of God, he does not admit that these
passages are so. Each sect will thus eliminate
some part or another, until, like the picture in
the fable, no part of the Bible will be left.
One will discard miracles, another prophecy,
another history, another doctrine, until we
have no Bible at all.

IS CONTAINED IN THE BIBLE. 57

The present controversy seems to hang
mainly on this point — whether we are to
accept all the Bible as true or not. There are
some persons indeed who deny the inspiration
of any part of Scripture. These are simple
unbelievers. Others admit that part is in-
spired, and maintain that other parts are not.
Those parts which agree with their own pre-
conceived opinion they accept as inspired —
those parts which clash with their own views
they reject. They claim "a verifying faculty"
as to the truth of the various parts of the
Bible. The Church Universal has always main-
tained that all Scripture is inspired by God,
and that the Bible and the Word of God are
synonymous. Whence has arisen the strange
temptation to depreciate the inspiration of that
book which the Church Universal has always
received as true ?

There is, of course, always existing in the
world a certain amount of infidelity, sometimes
dormant, sometimes rampant. When unbelief
is rampant it does not follow that it is more
general than when it is dormant. During a
great part of the last century there was a large
amount of dormant unbelief. Political events
caused it to become rampant, and it culminated
in the French Revolution.

58 HOW THE WORD OP GOD

In the present age there is a general spirit
of resistance to authority of all kinds^ which it
is to be feared will grow up into some serious
evil. Some^ not ill-intentioned men_, little
think of the wide-spread influence for mischief
which their cavils and lax opinions cause;
while the evil descends to the lowest depths of
society.

One principal cause of the present prevalence
of the spirit of unbelief is the influence of im-
perfect science upon ill-regulated minds. Minds
disinclined to bow themselves to the doctrine
of the Crucified, catch at the supposed diffi-
culties of science as an excuse for their un-
belief^ and others are so weak as to be in-
fluenced by them.

But there is another cause which is specially
to be noted. We cannot doubt that amongst
the recent impugners of the Bible there are
some earnest though mistaken men. Their
heterodoxy results rather from weakness of
character than from an evil heart. It is rather
want of firm faith, than conscious unbelief;
they lack the firmness of character to stand to
the truth. It is very difficult to analyze their
motives and springs of action. There is a
vague, misty, unwholesome, faithless spirit of
liberalism in some, in others a sort of vanity

IS CONTAINED IN THE BIBLE. 59

and presumptuousness of intellect. There is
also a not quite lionest feeling in some men
lacking a sound faith, that the newly invented
sciences, as philology, ethnology, anthropo-
logy, and the like, will perhaps prove some
parts of the Bible to be untrue, and therefore
that it is wise to anticipate the attack, and
say. Well, what of it ? we never said it was all
true.

The case of these half and half believers —
the inventors of the figment that the Word of
God is not the Bible, but only in the Bible, is
this. They are mixed up a good deal with the
literary and scientific world, they hear men of
cleverness and scientific knowledge, or it may
be even an unlettered Zulu, raise objections
against the Bible which they cannot answer :
they have a sort of unwarrantable notion that
they ought to be able to answer all questions —
and have not acquired the wisdom to know
that the greatest knowledge is sometimes to
confess ignorance. These men feel that if the
Bible is not true they are dishonest in con-
tinuing to hold office in the Church. There-
fore they are tempted to adopt the half and
half doctrine, that part of the Bible is true
and part is not ; they will give up the facts or
doctrines, and retain the morality. They know,

60 HOW THE WOED OF GOD

one will hope,, the influence of religion, perhaps
in their own lives_, at least in the civilized
world. But their faith is not strong enough
to resist the cavils of clever unbelievers,
whose society they are so foolish as to affect,
and therefore they adopt the position which we
have described. They hope to retain their
position, and at the same time the continued
approval of their conscience, by fancying that
they can form a Church of the nineteenth
century, and a nineteenth century Bible, not
on the principle of all men interpreting it for
themselves, which is the old Dissenting view,
but on the principle of all persons accepting
as much or as little of it as they please. We
may believe without absurdity that there really
are conscientious, and in their way clever men,
who think that the Church and the Bible may
be thus let down easily, so to speak, without a
crash. Others, and I confess I am one, believe
that this accommodation of the Bible to the
vain scepticism of the world is a suicidal
measure — one which must result in the most
tremendous evil. I hold most firmly that what
the Bible was believed to be eighteen hundred
years ago, and has been believed for eighteen
hundred years, it still continues, that all and
every part of Scripture is inspired by God;

IS CONTAINED IN THE BIBLE. 61

and that if we give it up we are acting faith-
lessly and fatally.

I shall proceed to show how few objections
there are which may not be removed, and how
those which cannot be removed are to be met.

62 DIFFICULTIES.

LETTEE IX.

DIFFICULTIES.

Theee seems to be a sort of tacit impression
amongst some people tliat difficulties in the
Bible are in some way or other an objection to
it — tliat if things can be pointed out which we
do not understand — circumstances or events
which puzzle us to account for — they are a
disparagement of the truth of Holy Scripture,
and tend to impair our reliance on it. Perhaps
the feeling* has arisen from the high opinion
which men have come to entertain of their own
ability, and the notion that all things can be
brought to the level of their own understanding.
And yet one would have thought that modern
science, if it has taught us nothing else, would
have sufficed to convince men of the infinity of
the objects of investigation and the utter in-
ability of the human mind to grasp the wonders
of even the natural world — how much more of
the world of spirits. If the objects of the mate-
rial universe are beyond the grasp of the human

DIFFICULTIES. 63

intellect — if the immensity of the starry system
confounds us by its unapproachable magnitude
— if even animal life, which is every where
around us, eludes our observation by its minute-
ness, how much more beyond the scope of
human intellect must be the spiritual intelli-
gence and moral influences which pervade the
universe ! Instead, therefore, of difficulties in
Scripture being a stumbling-block to either the
most illiterate or the most scientific and in-
tellectual, the argument would be all the con-
trary way. If, as I think I have before ob-
served, all were quite clear and intelligible in
the Bible, it might be argued that it was the
work of human invention. The difficulties
^vhich are found are just what might be expected
in a communication from the Maker and Ruler
of the universe with the creatures of His hand.

There are several apparent, but no real draw-
backs to the absolute truth of every statement
in Holy Scripture. One is corruption of manu-
scripts, another, error in translation or tran-
scription, a third, interpolation, w^hether casual
or wilful.

Two objections are alleged against this view.
First it is said, if manuscripts are so corrupt,
translations so imperfect, and the text itself so
hard to be understood, it is of no great use to

64 DIFFICULTIES.

US, that the Scriptures, as originally written,
were perfectly true, because on account of their
actual obscurity or difficulty we cannot make
them our rule and standard.

But first, as I have said, the difficulties of
Holy Scripture arising from the above causes
are by no means so great or considerable as to
obscure the general clearness of the doctrines
and precepts delivered. We have a very in-
telligible account of God's dealings with His
people. His commands are clearly set forth,
as well as the great truths which He has
taught, notwithstanding the difficulties which
we may occasionally meet with. And we have
in the teaching of the Church a definite system
of doctrine and worship concurrent with Holy
Scripture, though in a great measure inde-
pendent of it. The two mutually aid and
illustrate and confirm each other, and furnish
us with a rule of life which he who runs may
read.

The second objection is to this effect — that
if, as St. Augustine teaches, we believe that
Holy Scripture as originally delivered was all
true, and yet in our present Bible we have false
renderings, corruptions, and even interpola-
tions, it is open to any one to say of any part
of our present Bible of which he does not

DIFFICULTIES. 65

approve that be docs not believe that that
particular passage formed part of the original.
The fallacy is obvious. If there really are any
contradictions, impossibilities, or falsehoods in
our present translation of the Bible, they
certainly could not have formed part of the
original Bible which was given by inspiration
of God. But it does not follow from this that any
things which ignorant or sceptical persons fancy
contradictions or impossibilities are therefore
really so, and not to be believed. With regard
to supposed impossibilities — if, as the objector
would perhaps imply, the miracles are to be
rejected as impossibilities, then I can only say
that I believe him to be wholly mistaken. I
believe, as the Church of all ages has believed,
though the objector may notbeheve, that there
is no sort of impossibility or even improbability
in the miracles recorded in Holy Scripture.
On the contrary, that when resting on sufficient
testimony, such as that on which the credibility
of the Bible rests, any miracle, even the most
strange or the most stupendous, is perfectly cre-
dible. Therefore it is obvious that before the
objector can propose his difficulty, it is ne-
cessary for him to establish that there is really
something impossible or incredible in the facts
which he mentions, else there is no force in his

E

DIFFICULTIES.

objection. We must understand whether he con-
siders all miracles incredible^ or only the particu-
lar miracles which he objects to. If, he considers
all miracles incredible^ then we have to say in
answer that^ in company with the best and
wisest men of all ages_, we do not agree with
him — that we have ample proof from history of
the actual occurrence of miracles. If^ on the
other hand, he admits the possibihty or truth
of some miracles, but denies others on account
of their greatness, or strangeness, or incon-
ceivableness, I would point out, that every
miracle is equally impossible to any being but
God. The smallest miracle and the greatest
can only be performed by the power of the
Divine Ruler of the Universe. The most ordi-
nary miracle of healing which our Lord wrought
daily during His ministry, or the most stupen-
dous miracle of the ailcient dispensation, re-
quires the same power for its accomplishment.
The opening the eyes of a man born blind,
causing, by a word, that the retina of the eye,
never before used, should at once convey the
sight of objects to the brain, is as absolutely
impossible to us as to stop the earth in its revolu-
tion or inundate it with a Deluge, — one is just as
credible as another. But all Christians believe
that the Great Being Who constituted Nature's

DIFFICULTIES. (j1

laws can by the same power modify their work-
ing. They believe that the establishment of the
truth of His revelation and the salvation of the
human race were an undoubtedly sufficient
reason for the exercise of the Divine Power in
miracles ; they see no sort of impossibility or
improbability in the matter, and are not at all
surprised at reading them in God's Word, and
do not for a moment doubt the truth of God's
Word, on account of the miracles recorded in it,
but rather the reverse ; the working of miracles
seems to them altogether so likely.

On these grounds I contend that the objec-
tions are futile and iiTelevant, — not such as to
shake the faith of any sensible Christian.

It is really very sad to observe how deter-
mined many are to believe or disbelieve just
what they choose; how they ignore every
thins: that is most sacred in order to exalt their
own fancies ; and, what is sadder still, to see
how easily even good men are deluded by the
liberalism of the age, and induced to give up
one point after another, until the ground is
undermined beneath their feet.

It is quite lawful to endeavour, with reve-
rence, to explain the difficulties which occur,
but it is unreasonable to suppose that we can
elucidate every mystery whether of nature
F 2

68 DIFFICULTIES.

or revelation. Learned men have disputed
whetlier any race of animals lived before Adam
wlio were able to make flint beads for arrows ;
wbo were tbe sons of God and tbe giants wbo
lived before tbe flood; wbere all tbe water
came from wbicb drowned tbe world ; wbetber
tbe rainbow appeared for tbe first time after
tbe flood; wbetber tbe world before tbe flood
was or was not as populous as it is now ; bow
far civilization bad advanced ; wbetber Melcbi-
zedek was tbe same person as Sbem ; wbat was
tbe scientific reabty respecting Lot^s wife. A
pious writer of tbe last century writes^ in con-
firmation of tbe Deluge^ '^ Tbe beds of sbells
tbat are often found on tbe top of tbe bigbest
mountains, and tbe petrified bones and teetb of
fisbes, wbicb are dug up hundreds of miles
from tbe sea are tbe clearest evidence in tbe
world tbat tbe waters bave, some time or otber,
overflowed tbe bigbest parts of tbe eartb. Tbe
trutb of tbese matters is not to be contested
noiu by any tbat bave tbe least insigbt into
experimental pbilosopby.'^ Voltaire, unable to
answer tbis argument about tbe sbells, declared
tbat tbey were brought to tbe places wbere they
were found by tbe crowds of pilgrims from the
Holy Land! Are our modern philosophers
quite sure tbat their own favourite discoveries,

DIFFICULTIES. 69

which appear to them so wonderful, may not bo
found as wide of the mark as the argument of
old Stackhouse, or the impertinence of Voltaire.
It is abundantly evident that there are count-
less questions which arise from the perusal of
the Bible, and afford legitimate subjects for dis-
cussion and speculation, and that the solution
of them would be highly interesting, but which
very slightly, if at all, affect the credibility of
the Bible. The great truths of Revelation — the
great doctrines of the Incarnation and Resur-
rection— the love and reverence which we owe
to God — the kindness and truthfulness due to
our neighbour ; these and many other important
truths are not in the least affected by our
knowledge, or want of knowledge, of the pre-
Adamic or antediluvian world, or the various
other matters of interest and research w^hich
spring up as we read the pages of the Bible.
It is not as if the Bible were a treatise or system
of philosophy or religion, every part of which
required to be perfectly understood. We do
not read it as we should Butler^s Analogy, or
Newman's Grammar of Assent, and expect to
master every particular of the volume. If we
could do so, that would be rather an argument
against its Divine inspiration, for what man
could fully master might have been composed

70 DIFFICFLTIES.

by man. But ifc is simply a record of God's
dealings witli His people from the beginning
of time, containing His laws and principles of
Government, affording numerous intimations of
His Will, and the designs of His Providence,
most necessary to be read, marked, learned,
and inwardly digested, profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, but not intended to furnish in-
formation on subjects of scientific or mere
worldly interest. Men of science are perfectly
at liberty to advance their peculiar theories,
whether of Catastrophism, Uniformitanism, or
Evolutionism, only let them accept the great
facts of Revelation, that God in the beginning
created the heavens and the earth, and formed
man in His own image.

DIFFICULTIES. 71

LETTER X.

DIFFICULTIES {contlnucd) .

Theee is an important consideration (as it ap-
j)ears to me) wliicli will explain many difficulties
and seeming inaccuracies in Holy Scripture,
that is, that many things all through the Bible
which are stated to have been said by this or
that person, arc not the whole of what such
person said, but only part, or the substance of
it; strictly true as regards the idiom of lan-
guage and the impression conveyed, but not
to be taken necessarily as the exact words
which were uttered. I will begin with a very
simple instance, and go on to what appear to
me instances of the same theory, though not
•SO obvious.

We read in the eleventh chapter of Genesis
that the men who dwelt in the plain of Shinar
said one to another, " Go to, let us make brick,
and burn them throughly. And they had
brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
And they said. Go to, let us build us a city and

72 DIFFICULTIES.

a tower whose top may reach to heaven.''^

Now whether the men of Shinar did or did

not say precisely these words_, I have no doubt

whatever that it is a most true account, in

quaint and idiomatic language, of what really

happened. There are a great many instances

in Holy Scripture of thus putting in a few

words the substance of what was done or said.

As if one thus described the civil war in

America : " The Southern States said, "We will

no more be joined with the Northern ; and the

Northern States said, Will you not ? Then we

will try and make you. Then answered the

Southern States, Do it if you can/^ No one

would say that this is not strictly and literally

true. So to turn to 1 Kings xxii. 4, Ahab said

to Jehosaphat, "Wilt thou go with me to

battle to Ramoth-gilead ? And Jehosaphat

said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my

people as thy people^ my horses as thy horses.^^

These few words may have been the substance

of a lengthy negotiation. This mode of speech

and the principle involved in it, simple and

obvious as it is, apply, I think, to more cases

than might be supposed.

Turn we now to the New Testament. Our
Lord, during His three years^ ministry, was
occupied for the most part in preaching to the

DIFFICULTIES. 73

people, expoundiiig the doctrine, illustrating
the truth which He came to teach. We have
four brief narratives', each containing a frag-
ment of what our Lord did and said. The
chief heads of His instructions are the Sermon
on the Mount, His parables and conversa-
tions. But in preaching, as He did day by
day, to the people, we can well imagine, nay,
rather feel sure, that He repeated these instruc-
tions continually, not precisely in the same
w^ords, but enforced and illustrated, sometimes
in one way, sometimes in another. Hence ii
we find the same discourse or the same para-
ble or precept recorded by the Evangelists in
somewhat different language, we are not
to suppose that one or other of them was
not perfectly accurate or true. The juster
inference would be that they each set down
faithfully what our Lord uttered on the same
subject on different occasions. Thus a modern
preacher might preach the same sermon to
different congregations with alterations suited
to his different hearers. The Sermon on the
Mount, as recorded at considerable length by
St. Matthew in chapters v., vi., and vii., may
possibly be all that our Lord said on that
occasion. In the sixth chapter of St. Luke we
find a great deal of the same matter, but with

74 DIFnCULTIES,

variations. Are we, then, to suppose that one
or other of the Evangelists was inaccurate, and
did not set down exactly what our Lord said ?
No, surely, it is much more reasonable to believe
that the two Evangelists have recorded what
our Lord said on two several occasions of His
preaching to the people.

But some have fancied that they have de-
tected the Evangelists in recording differently
what our Loed said on the same occasion. A
not unfriendly writer puzzles himself, most
unnecessarily as it seems to me, about
the different words recorded as having been
uttered by our Lord at the institution of the
Sacrament of His blessed Body and Blood. St.
Mark records our Lord to have said, ^' This
is My Blood of the New Testament which is
shed for many.^' St. Luke^s account is that our
Lord said, " This cup is the New Testament in
My Blood which is shed for you.'' The writer
argues that if our Lord spoke the words at-
tributed to Him by St. Mark, He did not use
those recorded by St. Luke. '"^The Evan-
gelists,'' he says, " are here at issue as to a
matter of fad. St. Mark states it as a matter
of fact that at a given moment, and at a given
place, our Lord spake certain words ; St. Luke
states it as a fact that at the same moment and

DIFFICULTIES.

place He spake certain other and quite different
words. ... If any one can show how these
apparently different reports can be harmonized
he will have done a great deal towards settling
a great question."

I confess that to me there seems no dififtculty
whatever. The fallacy in the mind of the
writer is simply the unwarranted assumption
that each EvangeUst professes to record in a
few verses all that was done and said on that
great occasion. I myself have no doubt that
our LoED said both what is stated by St. Mark
and also what is stated by St. Luke, and a great
deal more besides in the way of reiteration, ex-
planation, and instruction. Let us try to call
up before our minds' eye the circumstances of
that solemn scene. When our Lord announced
'' This is My Body/' we can well imagine the
excitement and wonder which that declaration
must have caused — the inquiries which must
have ensued, the explanations which may have
been called forth, the different statements
which our Lord may have made to answer
the interrogations of His Apostles. And when
the wonder had abated, and the time was
come for the first participation in that
great mystery, can we not imagine our Lord,
after having broken the bread and blessed

/b DIFFICULTIES.

the cup^ summoning His Apostles to the
heavenly feast^ and as they received the cup,
saying to one it may be, " This is My Blood of
the New Testament which is shed for many/'
and to another, with somewhat different ex-
pression, " This Gup is the New Testament in
My Blood which was shed for you,'' and to
another simply, " This is My Blood " ?

The inscription placed by Pilate on the
Cross has appeared to some to involve contra-
diction. St. Luke says it was, ^'^This is the
King of the Jews;" St. Matthew, '^This is
Jesus the King of the Jews ;" St. Mark, " The
King of the Jews;" St. John, "Jesus of
Nazareth the King of the Jews." But is not
all reconciled if it were, " This is Jesus of
Nazareth the King of the Jews" ? We need
not suppose each Evangelist to assert that
what he records was all that was written.
Each one records so far as he knew, and each
was kept by the Holy Ghost from recording
any thing false.

It is certain, however, that there are some
difficulties of this sort which cannot be ex-
plained with our present information. Well,
let "us hope and believe that the time will come
when our present imperfect knowledge will be
removed, and we shall know everything.

DIFFICULTIES. 77

The following lias always struck me as afford-
ing an instance of the manner in which what
at first sight may appear a difficulty is satis-
factorily accounted for. St. Matthew records
(ch. xiv. 19) that five thousand persons were
fed with five loaves^ and that twelve baskets
full of fragments were gathered up. St. Mark
(ch. viii. 6) says that there were four thousand
persons, seven loaves, and seven baskets full
of fragments. If this were all that was re-
corded a person disposed to cavil might say,
'' Here is a clear discrepancy ; one Evangelist
says five thousand, another four — one says
twelve baskets of fragments, another only
seven." But the matter is explained by the
words of our Lord, " 0 ye of little faith, do ye
not yet understand neither remember the five
loaves of the five thousand, and how many
baskets ye took up, neither the seven loaves of
the four thousand, and how many baskets ye
took up ? How is it that ye do not understand ? "

It is not denied that there are apparent con-
tradictions— but they would surely be ex-
plained if we knew the circumstances. As
Dean Alford says at page 3 of his introduction,
'^ The two, three, or four Gospel records of the
same event are each of them separately true,
written by men guided into all truth, and re-

DIPnCULTIES.

lating facts wliicli happened as they happened.
If we could now see the whole details of the
events we should see that each narrative is
true. But. not seeing the whole details of the
event_, and having only these two, three, or
four independent accounts, we must be prepared
to find that they appear to be discrepant one
from the other.''^ One day he thinks we shall
be able to reconcile discrepancies.

DIFFICULTIES. 79

LETTER XI.

DIFFICULTIES [contuiued) .

The life of Judas Iscariot will illustrate tlie sup-
posed contradictions wliicli occur in tlie Bible^
and the small importance of them. I do not
mean that it is not important to clear up con-
tradictions and explain difficulties^ but simply
that if we are unable to do so it is merely
a proof of our own ignorance.

There are several opinions as to the motives
of Judas's treachery. Some have imagined
him not to have been so desperately wicked as
is generally supposed. Ambition_, rather than
covetousness, is thought to have been his
fault. They suppose that Judas, in common
with the rest of the Apostles, had formed
ambitious projects in consequence of their con-
nexion with our Lord. They saw in Him
one endowed with supernatural power, which
would enable Him to become, in a literal sense,
the King of Israel ; and they hoped that, when
He had established His kingdom, they should

80 DIFFICULTIES.

be sharers in His wealth and honours. Judas
resolved to precipitate events, and force Jesus
to declare Himself — not for a moment supposing
that He would suffer Himself to be put to
death. But it was not the purpose of our
Lord to escape.' He had come to die for
the sins of man, and, bitter as the cup might
be, He had resolved to drink it, and yield
Himself to death. Judas, seeing his ambitious
designs frustrated, in a fit of desperation and
remorse departed and hanged himself.

Such is the view of some persons. I
confess I do not sympathize with this
notion, but prefer the commonly-received
opinion that it was simply sordid cove-
tousness which led to the sinful act of Ju-
das. He held the bag, we read, and was a
thief. This was before his crowning act of
treachery. The funds collected, either from
their own stores or from the contributions of
the disciples generally, for the maintenance of
Jesus and the twelve, as they went about from
place to place, were entrusted to his care, and
it may be that he pilfered from time to time
such sums as he thought would not be missed.
Having conceived the desire of purchasing a
piece of land called the " Potter^s Field "
(one perhaps with which he was familiar), he

DIFFICULTIES. 81

was anxious to make up the necessary sum.
Hence liis displeasure that the three hundred
pence spent on the alabaster box of ointment
had not been put into tlic bag, in order that he
might have secured a portion of it. Perhaps
he calculated that the field ^YOuld be a good
speculation, and that he should be able to
replace the sum purloined, as dishonest trustees
have often done. At last, possibly, the oppor-
tunity of making the purchase was likely to
pass by, or his covetous desire became so in-
ordinate that he resolved on the guilty measure
of selling his good and kind Master in order
to make up the sum which he needed, and so
was guilty of an act for which his name has
been execrated throughout after generations.

There are several particulars mentioned,
which, at first sight, may appear contradictory,
but which are not so necessarily. It is said by
St. Luke, that he purchased a field with the
reward of his iniquity. St. Matthew relates
that he brought the thirty joieces of silver back
to the chief priests and elders, and cast thein
down in the temple. But we know that in
these days, and why not also in those of which
we are speaking ? a man may be said to have
bought a thing before he had actually paid the
money. A man buys a field when he and the

DIFFICULTIES.

seller have signed the agreement. The money
may not be paid, perhaps, for some time
afterwards. Again, it is said by St. Luke that
Judas purchased the field, whereas St. Matthew
says that the chief priests took the thirty pieces
of silver, and said, " It is not lawful to put
them into the treasury, because it is the price
of blood : and they took counsel and bought
the potter's field to bury strangers in.'' Very
probably they completed the purchase which
Judas had agreed on. Again, it is recorded by
St. Matthew, that " he departed and went and
hanged himself," whereas St. Luke says that
^^ he purchased a field with the reward of his
iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asun-
der in the midst, and all his bowels gushed
out."

Difierent explanations have been given of
these statements. Some have imagined the
agency of evil spirits, who in their wild scorn,
may have dashed the unhappy victim violently
to the ground. But there is no need of such
conception. It is recorded by tradition that
he died on that very field, the covetous
desire of obtaining which had been the cause
of his ruin. We may picture to ourselves the
ghastly scene. The potter's field was probably
a place where clay used for making pottery

DIFFICULTIES. 83

had been dug. The side perhaps was pre-
cipitous, and, if disused for some time, had
become rough with trees and brushwood. The
unhappy man, frenzied and remorseful, rushed
from the presence of the scoffing priests, and
stopped not till his steps had led him to the
spot, every part and corner of which he had
often examined with covetous eyes. Here in
some tangled nook, where a tree, it may be,
stretched its branch over the precipice, he
fastened the fatal cord, and hung suspended in
the thicket. Perhaps his fate may have been
for a while concealed. No one knew whither he
had gone ; the place was lonely and deserted.
His body may have become decomposed and
fallen to the ground. And when some stranger
happened to wander to the fatal spot, he found
the body in the state so graphically described
by St. Peter, '^ burst asunder in the midst, and
all his bowels gushed out.'' And the fact soon
became known to the dwellers at Jerusalem, it
was bruited abroad and talked of, and the
neighbours, shocked by the dreadful event,
gave a name to the piece of land, calling it
thenceforth Aceldama, or the Field of Blood.

Now though this account of the matter
appears to me not improbable, yet what I
desire principally to point out is this, that
Q 2

84 DIFFICULTIES.

even if no probable explanation of the supposed
contradiction could be given, it would be of
little consequence. Persuaded, as we are, of
tlie truth and inspiration of the Bible, our only-
inference would be, that we had not rightly
understood the exact meaning of some part of
it. The treachery of Judas, and the general
description of the whole affair, would be im«
pressed on our minds in all their fearful reality,
though some of the incidents connected with it
may not have been exactly apprehended.

THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER. 85

LETTER XU.

THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER.

Another reason why some people have an im-
pression that there are contradictions and inac-
•curacies in Holy Scripture is, that they do not
recognize the fact that the truth must be sought
not in the mere letter but in the spirit. Human
language is so vague, and the idiom of language
so capricious, that the mere literal and logical
sense of words is not always their true meaning.
When we read that ^' it is easier for a camel to
pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven,'' we
feel the depth of the truth which is announced,
though the letter be difficult to accept. It is
supposed, indeed, by some that the " Needle's
Eye " was a certain low and narrow gateway at
Jerusalem, through which a camel disencum-
bered of its burden might with difficulty pass,
but not otherwise ; and that in like manner a
rich man disembarrassed of his wealth by alms-
deeds, might get to Heaven. This is a beau-

86 THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTEE.

tiful and ingenious explanation, tliougli not
perhaps generally considered to be the true
one. But apart from this, the words need
cause no difficulty. It is simply an instance of
what occurs, more or less, in every language
under heaven, but principally in those of the
East, namely, the use of hyperbolical and
paradoxical language, in order to give force
to sentences. Many of the writers of Holy
Scripture use expressions which, though when
literally taken they are beyond the precise
truth, yet, interpreted by the spirit and in-
tention of the writers, are strictly true. Faith
like a grain of mustard seed will ^^ remove
mountains.^' " If thy right eye offend thee
pluck it out and cast it from thee." So even
in our own language we often use hyperbolical
language, as when we speak of making moun-
tains of molehills, or when we say that a loft}r
spire pierces heaven, or that a man is over
head and ears in debt. No one supposes that
any thing false or inaccurate is said by those
who use such expressions. Why then should
it be thought so when we find them in Holy
Scripture ?

Sometimes verbal contradictions are pur-
posely set side by side without the slightest
fear of their being considered to be real con-

THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER. 87

tradictions, as (Prov. xxvi. 4), '^Answer not a
fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like
unto him. Answer a fool according to his
folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit/'
Here we see plainly that the two seemingly
contradictory precepts are to be compared
together and reconciled, or rather applied
respectively on fit occasions. So in a great
number of cases in which verbal contradiction
exists between passages not found together, as
where we read in Deut. vi. 13, " Thou shalt
fear the Lord and swear by His Name,"
whereas our Lord said to the disciples, " Swear
not at all." There are in Holy Scripture
a great number of these seeming contradic-
tions, but which any one may see are not
really contradictions, but requiring faith or
common sense to reconcile and apply them.
Witness the apparent discrepancy between
what St. Paul and St. James say on the
subject of faith and good works ; witness the
testimony of Scripture on the subject of God's
predestination and man's free agency, or the
Divine and human nature of our Lord, His
equality with the Father as touching the
Godhead, His inferiority as touching His
manhood : — many of these things are clearly
beyond the grasp of the human intellect, and

THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER.

if we cannot reconcile tliem we must accept
them as they are revealed.

Besides the instances already adverted to in
which truth is revealed, or set before us, not
by the letter but by the spirit of Holy Scrip-
ture, there is an immense range of subject in
which strong, and even wildly metaphorical
language is employed, as when God is spoken
of as " riding upon the wings of the wind,^'
executing judgment " with a mighty hand and
outstretched arm.^^ Large portions of Scrip-
ture— a great part of the Psalms and the
Prophets — are couched in this sort of language.
But it is not always easy to understand what
parts are to be taken figuratively and what
literally. The parable of Dives and Lazarus is
considered by some to be figurative or para-
bolic in its details, but strictly true in its
general sense and the instruction which it
ronveys. The Song of Solomon is generally
thought to be allegorical throughout. Some
whom we should not call unbelievers consider
the history of the Fall to be an allegory. I do
not think there is any certain rule by which to
draw the line between metaphor and reahty
except where the Church has fixed it for us.
But the fact of a portion of Scripture being
allegorical, or the doubt whether it be so or

THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER. SD

not, does not in the least militate against the
principle wliicli I am advocating — that all
Scripture is true.

90 INTERPOLATION.

LETTER XIII.

INTERPOLATION.

Though all Scripture is given by inspiration
of GoT>j yet it does not appear tliat God has
exerted a miraculous providence in tlie exact
preservation of the text. In the early ages of
the Church_, particularly in the time which
elapsed before the Holy Scriptures were
gathered together into their present shape,
and formally recognized as the Word of God,
there was probably much laxity of transcrip-
tion.

Tischendorf, in his introduction to the New
Testament^ says, ^^ I have no doubt that in the
very earliest ages after the Holy Scriptures
were written, and before the authority of the
Church protected them, wilful alterations and
especially additions were made in them.^^ In
our own day we know that books, not indeed
so sacred as the Bible, but still valuable and
important books, as the writings of Bishop Ken
and Bishop Taylor, have been tampered with.

INTERPOLATION. 91

and even John Banyan's Pilgrim's l^rogress
has been adapted to Catholic requirement.

The most fertile source of alteration of the
Bible has probably been interpolation. Inter-
polation might be made without any dishonesty.
In some few cases we might suspect dishonesty,
yet ^\athout being able to say in what quarter.
For instance, in regard to the famous text (I
St. John V. 7) about the three witnesses, which
is found for the most part in I^atin copies, but
not in the Greek, it would be difficult to say
whether it was interpolated by the Church
party or omitted by the Arians. But it is
scarcely to be doubted that in most cases, as
possibly in this, the interpolation has arisen
from the fact of transcribers inserting in the
text what had been written as a marginal
note by some pious owner of the manuscript
from which the transcription or copy was made.
The greater part of ascertained or supposed in-
terpolations are nothing more than marginal
notes appended by way of explanation, and
then transferred to the text.

There are two important passages in our
Authorized Version of the Bible, which are not
found in the oldest manuscripts. One is the
account of the woman taken in adultery — the
other the last eleven verses of St. Mark's Gos-

92 INTERPOLATION.

pel. It is important to observe that there is
no supposed interpolation, which, if even it be
judged on full examination not to be contained
in the genuine Scripture, is not amply com-
pensated by other passages of undoubted
genuineness. One would be sorry to think for
a moment that the beautiful narrative of our
LoRD^s condescending kindness to the sinful
woman was not certainly genuine, yet even if
that were the case, the whole Gospel teems
with so many instances of our Lord^s mercy
and goodness that no absolute loss would
accrue, even if that passage were expunged
from the sacred volume.

Take again the last verses of St. Mark con-
taining the words, ^^He that believeth and is bap-
tized shall be saved, and he that believeth not
shall be damned.^' The sceptics considered their
views strengthened by the discovery that these
last words might possibly not be genuine, but
surely they forgot the other unquestionable pas-
sages in which the same doctrine is contained.
They forgot that our Lord said (St. John iii. 1 3),
" He that believeth on Him is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God .... He that believeth
on the Son hath everlastino- life ; and he that

INTERPOLATION. 93

believeth not the Son sliall not see life; but
the wrath of God abideth on him/^ And
again (St. John viii. 21), " If ye believe not
that I am He, ye shall die in j'our sins."

Now, if in reading Holy Scripture we come
upon some passage which seems to us difficult
to suppose to be the Word of God, apparently
contradictory to other passages, it is obviously
open to us to consider that we either do not
understand it, or else that po^^sibly it may be
interpolated. Compared wdth the vast quantity
of matter, of the genuineness of which we have
no doubt, such passages are insignificant.

In the second chapter of Genesis there is a
passage which to my mind reads like an inter-
polation. '^A river went out of Eden to water
the garden, and from thence it was parted, and
became into four heads. The name of the first
is Pison, that is it which compasseth the whole
land of Havilah, where there is gold ; and the
gold of that land is good ; there is bdellium
and the onyx stone. And the name of the
second river is Gihon, the same is it that com-
passeth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the
name of the third river is Hiddekel, that is it
which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And
the fourth river is Euphrates."'^ Now there
may be some important reason for teaching us

94 INTERPOLATION.

that there was gold_, bdellium, and onyx stone
in the land of Havilah, but it certainly is not
obvious why these particular products of the
earth should have been mentioned. In fact
the whole account of the four rivers is difficult
to understand. The traditionary account of
the Garden of Eden is that it was a place of
great delight, a garden full of beautiful trees,
in which the first parents of our race were
placed to dwell in happiness ; and we can well
picture to ourselves a charming valley such
as one often sees in mountainous countries,
watered by four rivulets descending from the
hills and uniting their convergent streams.
This may perhaps be the meaning of the words,
" from thence it was parted and became into
four heads. ^^ But if we are to suppose that
four great rivers like the Euphrates took their
source from the Garden of Eden, there is great
difiiculty in understanding it. The source of
four great rivers seems to imply heavy rain,
snow, glaciers, without which rivers could not
have been fed with water. The Garden of
Eden must have been placed in some mountain
height or water-shed, like the Oberland of
Switzerland, or the Himalaya Mountains, if it
was the source of four great rivers. There
may be some explanation of the difficulty which

INTERPOLATION. 95

I know not of. But I confess that it looks
very niucli as if some ingenious reader of the
Bible had added from conjecture the names of
the four rivers, and that a second annotator
had set down what we read about the bdellium
and the onyx stone. On this hypothesis the
difficulty about the site of the Garden of Eden,
in itself not, so far as we can see, of great
importance, vanishes altogether ^ I am very
far indeed from saying that there may not be
some recondite meaning in this passage of
Scripture : but it quite satisfies my mind to
suppose it may possibly be an interpolation.

1 See the remarks on Deuteronomy ii. 10 — 12, and 20 — 23,
and iii. 9, in the Speaker's Commentary, Vol. i. 799. The
writer says, " It must be remembered that footnotes are an
invention of modern times. An ancient historian embodied
incidental remarks and references and illustrations in his
text : nor would one who at a subsequent period undertook
to re-edit an ancient work regard himself as taking an un-
warrantable liberty if he added here and there an incidental
notice or short explanation in a parenthetic form."

9G THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBM.

LETTER XIV.

THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE — UNITY OP THE
FATHER AND THE SON.

There are uot only difficulties in Holy Scrip-
ture, but tliere are many things wliich seem
incomprehensible.

For instance, the Incarnation — we can un-
derstand the proposition that the Son of God
took the form and nature of man, and that He
was perfect God and perfect man. But how
this union could be is incomprehensible. There
are difficulties in it which are beyond the grasp
of our intellect. So the Atonement. That
the Son of God should die to save sinners is
intelligible in terms, but I suppose the loftiest
human intellect cannot comprehend the idea in
its fulness.

It has been too much the practice to suppose
that there is an antagonism between Eeligion
and Science. Yet it is not easy to define the
precise relation in which Religion stands to
Science. One relation between them is thus

THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE. 97

referred to in our Lord's conversation with
Nicodemus : " If I have told you earthly things,
and ye believe not, how shall ye understand
if I tell you of heavenly things ?" There is an
analogy between our ignorance of the Natural
world and our ignorance of the Spu-itual world.
It is unquestionable that there are many things
connected with human science which are hard
to believe. In fact there are some things more
incredible by far than miracles. Take the
following, from Mrs. Somerville's book on
^' Molecular and Microscopic Science. '^ Every
drop of green matter that mantles the pools in
summer teems mth the most minute and varied
forms of animal life. The species called monas
corpusculus by the distinguished Professor
Ehrenberg has been estimated to be one 2000th
part of a line in diameter. Of such infusoria a
single drop of water may contain 500,000,000
individuals, a number equalling that of the
whole human species now existing upon earth.
(P. 63.) Most of the infusoria multiply by
continuous bisection like the unicellular algae.
The division generally begins with the neu-
cleus, and is longitudinal, according to the
form and nature of the animal, and is accom-
plished with such rapidity that by the com-
putation of Professor Ehrenberg 268,000,000

98 THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

of individuals miglit be produced from one
single individual of the species paramecium in
a montli. (P. 74.)

I am not at all disposed to doubt tlie truth-
fulness of these statements. It does indeed
seem rather difficult to count such enormous
numbers. Still,, on the authority of such
persons as Professor Ehrenberg, Professor
Owen (whom Mrs. Somerville quotes) and
Mrs. Somerville herself, I am quite ready
to believe that such vast numbers of the
animalcula may exist as they tell us. Pro-
fessor Tyndall, in his lecture on the '^ Scien-
tific Use of Imagination/^ informs us that the
tail of a comet is sometimes 100,000,000 miles
in length and 50,000 miles in diameter, and
that all this matter if '' swept together and
suitably compressed ^^ might be carried away
by a horse and cart, — nay, he has sometimes
thought that the whole material of the sky
might be packed up in ^^a lady^s port-
manteau." Well, I am sure I cannot con-
tradict him. All I can say is, that it is, in
newspaper language, " extraordinary if true,"
but I am not disposed to contest its truth, and
therefore can only consider it as extraordinary.
There are some things quite familiar to us,
which if we were first told of them would seem

THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE. 99

miraculous, or more than miraculous. If any
one told a person before unacquainted with the
fact that he might speak with a friend across
the Atlantic and get an answer in an hour or
two, or that he could have an exact portrait of
himself taken by the sun, he would be inclined
to doubt. These things are so familiar to us
that we think little of them. Many things
which scientific men tell us of, are much more
difficult to believe than miracles — because in
miracles we know the cause which produces
the effect; but in many scientific discoveries
we see only the effect and are ignorant of the
producing cause.

In this respect, therefore, there is a close
analogy between religion and science, that in
both there are things hard, nay, impossible to
be understood.

I am inclined, however, to think that Reve-
lation and Science may often corroborate each
other^s testimony, and help to illustrate each
other ^s truth. Surely men of science ought to
treat the historical facts of Scripture with at
least the same deference as they do other
facts recorded in ancient books ; and perhaps
Philology, and Ethnology, and Anthropology
would be all the more to be relied on if based
on facts recorded in the Scriptures.
H 2

100 THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

In like manner facts discovered by science
may lielp us to illustrate some great Christian
Trutli. Some analogy of nature will aid us^ if
not fully to comprehend a revealed truth, yet to
realize to a certain extent the possibility of the
incomprehensible. Let me give as an instance
the doctrine of the Consubstantiality of the
Father and the Son — that is, as we say in the
Nicene Creed, " We believe in one Lord Jesus
Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten
of the Father before all worlds, God of God,
Light of Light, Yery God of Yery God, begotten,
not made — being of one substance with the
Father;^'' or, as St. Paul says, ''' the brightness
of His glory and the express image of His
person." This difficult doctrine has been ex-
plained in some degree by the analogy of the
sun in the heavens, God the Father being
compared to the orb of light which we see in
heaven above, God the Son, to the bright
effulgence or rays which stream from it to the
dwellers on the earth; their essence is the
same — the one inseparable from the other, and
inconceivable without it; essentially contem-
poraneous yet distinct. The analogy is rendered
more forcible by the recent discoveries of
science. The sun is not only that mild power
which is described in the fable, as persuading

TUINGS IXCOMrEEHENSIBLE. 10]

the traveller, by its gentle influence, to cast
away his cloak, but it is an intensely operating
force, darting fortli volumes of Leat of incredible
magnitude, and by its power not only con-
trolling the motions of the whole system, but
entering into the very composition of the
smallest particle of animal and vegetable life,
gi\4ng life and motion, warmth and colour to
the smallest leaf or animalcule. This analogy
may help many minds to conceive the possi-
bility of the union in one substance of the
Father and Son. The third person of the
Blessed Trinity might in like manner be com-
pared to Light.

102 THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

LETTER XY.

THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE SIN AND ITS

CONSEQUENCES.

The origin of evil is tlie grand difficulty not of
religion only^ but of all moral and metaphysical
reasoning ; and, connected witli it_, the doctrine
of eternal punishment. How sin could ever
find entrance into a world which bears such
abundant evidence of being the work of a good
and wise Creator ; why, when it once entered,
'it was not stamped out and extinguished ; still
more its fearful result in eternal punishment, —
each proposition seems to rise in incompre-
hensibility above the other. On the first
propositions I need not dwell. We see the
evidence of sin everywhere — there is no denying
it. But the other subject — eternal punishment
— is future and undiscernible, and therefore,
though it is plainly revealed, it has been by
some disputed.

Let me endeavour to treat the subject in
terms used by human philosophy. Philo-

THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE. 103

sophcrs assert, probably ^vitll truth, that nothing
which exists can absohitely perish : not an
atom of this material world can ever cease to
exist. What seems to die and be decomposed
is reproduced in other combinations. The
leaves which strew the ground in autumn, and
seem to perish_, do in fact fertilize the earth and
spring up again in other forms. Animal matter
is the food of vegetable life. The very smoke
which rises from the combustion of matter is
subtilized but for a time, and not destroyed.
Except by a miracle, no single particle of matter
could be annihilated.

Again, the forces of nature are believed to
be indestructible. When the lightning rends
the sky, and, flashing for a moment, seems
extinct, it is but the electric fluid passing from
one cloud to another, or into the bosom of the
earth. Motion passes into heat, and heat into
motion. If a substance is made red-hot and
sufiered to cool^ the heat is not annihilated, but
passes into the circumambient an*.

Mr Buckle says, " The grand conception
which is now placing the indestructibility of
force on the same ground as the indestructi-
bility of matter, has an importance far above its
scientific value, considerable as that undoubtedly
is. For, teaching us that nothing perishes.

]04 THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

but that on the contrary the slightest move-
ment of the smallest bodyintheremotest region
produces results which are perpetual, which
diffuse themselves through all space, and which,
though they may be metamorphosed, cannot be
destroyed, it impresses us with such an exalted
idea of the regular and compulsory march of
physical affairs as must eventually influence

other and higher departments of inquiry

When, therefore, the modern doctrine of the
conservation of force becomes firmly coupled
with the older doctrine of the conservation of
matter, we may rest assured that the human
mind will not stop there, but will extend to the
study of man inferences analogous to those
already admitted in the study of nature/^

We may accept the theory and apply it to
the question before us. We may believe that
the soul of man is indestructible ; the thoughts
and actions of men do not perish, but remain
imprinted, as it were, on the soul. Professor
Holmes says, very beautifully, that '^Memory
is a material record, and is wi^itten all over,
like the rock of the Sinaitic valley with in-
scriptions left by the caravans of thought as
they have passed year by year through its
mysterious recesses.^' How continually does
memory bring back to the mind the remem-

THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE. lUo

brance of incidents long past and gone : the
most trivial things sometimes start up before us :
things which we have not thought of for years
come back vi\adly, and almost startle us like
phantoms of the past. Some sight, or sound,
or word brings back a long train of incidents
and feelings which we had supposed to have
been long forgotten. But they have not
perished ; they are laid up in the treasury of
the mind. It is probable that at the last day
all the actions of our life will stand out before
us in a long array, as if they had been done but
yesterday. Each act of cruelty, or lust, or
fraud, each resistance of conscience, each rash,
presumptuous deed, the clever article which
won the. applause of a sceptical clique, but
sapped the faith, and ruined the soul of some
weak-minded brother, all will rise up before
the mind^s eye.

Perhaps the ordinary incidents of daily life
appear to us too trivial to be treasured up for
ever. But there is another way in which they
survive. Common every-day actions, or even
thoughts, become fixed as habits. Habits
are, so to speak, an accumulation of small
unaccounted actions. Selfish acts of slothful-
ness, self-indulgence, ill-temper, or again
of kindness, gentleness, zealous exertion —

106 THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

tilings which cannot be remembered, much less
counted, still remain in the form of habits, and
really form the substance of our life. Habits
more than any thing make each man what he
is; and thus, though the particular actions
which went to form the habit may have been
so minute as to be scarcely cognizable by the
memory ; yet they still exist and form the sub-
stance of the soul and body — even as the hardest
rocks are formed of the minutest atoms.

These are awful thoughts, yet strictly accord-
ing to the analogy of nature. If, as we have
seen, not a particle of matter is annihilated, if
the forces of nature remain the same, so also
may we argue, and experience seems to teach
us the same, do the habits, thoughts, and
actions of our lives — yea, the very substance of
our souls and bodies. As St. John says in the
book of Revelation, *^ The time is at hand : he
that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he
that is filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that
is righteous, let him be righteous still ; and he
that is holy, let him be holy still,^'' — and that to
all eternity !

]N"ow have we not by a process of philo-
sophical reasoning, apart from the authority
of Holy Scripture, worked out the tremendous
problem of '^ the worm that dieth not, and the

THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE. lU7

fire which is not quenched"? We have an
indestructible soul gifted with an eternal
existence, yet eaten up with vile affections,
" unjust, unholy, filthy," unable to rid itself
of its filth and unholiness, tormented by ex-
cruciating remorse, cursing its own folly and
madness, longing for annihilation, yet unable
to attain it any more than the materials of the
earth, or the forces of Nature can be annihi-
lated— lasting on from age to age. What is
then to change its state or destiny ? Nothing.
The notion is that all things last for ever, unless
God wills it otherwise. God might annihilate
the world, so He might annihilate our sin.
But will He do so ? Yes. He has given His
sacred promise that our sins may be blotted
out by the Blood of Christ. There is a time
when all may be changed by an act of mercy
and omnipotence — all may be atoned for if we
will accept God's mercy. Before the solemn
judgment there is a remedy, but not after.
God once called us to repentance. What could
not have been done by other means, God
sending His beloved Son in the flesh would
have blotted out our iniquities, and made us
pure and holy, if we would have accepted His
forgiveness.

Of all instances of madness and folly, the

108 THINGS INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

greatest perhaps is the madness and folly of
those who disbelieve the existence of Hell^
because it seems contrary to the notioDS which
they, poor creatures ! have formed of GoD^s
attributes — as if we, with our present faculties,
could comprehend the attributes of God, and
weigh His mercy against His justice. And the
argument is a fallacy after all. God, say
some, is too merciful to punish sinners eter-
nally. He will rather annihilate them. That
assumes that there is a merciful and Almighty
God. But that very God has distinctly told us
that unrepentant sinners are doomed to eternal
misery. You see the dilemna. Either there
is an Almighty God, or there is not. If there
is, as we verily believe, we have His own word,
and He cannot lie, that unrepentant sinners
will suffer eternally — if there is not, then by
the very law of nature, our sins and their
consequences will cleave to us for ever.

MYSTERY IN KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 109

LETTER XVI.

MYSTERY IN REVELATION AND SCIENCE.

Great mystery liangs over the life of man. The
Book of Job, full of marvellous pliilosopliy,
illustrates our incapacity to fathom the depths
of GoD^s Providence, by our ignorance Avitli
regard to the ordinary course of nature. Elihu
describes in eloquent language some of the
ordinary operations of nature which elude our
power of observation. " Behold/^ said he,

^' God is great, and we know Him not

Great things doeth He which we canliot com-
prehend Out of the south cometh the

whirlwind, and cold out of the north ; by the
breath of God frost is given and the breadth of

the waters is straitened Hearken unto

this, 0 Job, and consider the wondrous works
of God. Dost tJiou know the balancing of the
clouds, the wondrous works of Him that is
perfect in knowledge ? How thy garments are
warm, when He guideth the earth by the south
wind? Hast thou with Him spread out the

110 MYSTERY IN REVELATION AND SCIENCE.

sky, which is as a molten looking-glass ? The
ways of the Almighty are past finding out.
He is excellent in power, and in judgment, and
injustice. Let men therefore fear Him."

Possibly some will say that though these
operations of nature were unknown to men in
the days of Job, yet in the present day we are
well acquainted with them. I do not think
that a man of real science would make such an
assertion. He would be well aware that every
discovery made in the secrets of Nature only
opens a new path to future inquiry, which
seems ever lengthening as we advance. There
is not a branch of science which is explored in
half its bearings. We may boast indeed with
justice that science has made great progress in
our days, and that our acquirements in many
departments are far beyond those of our fathers;
still it is only in comparison with them that
we have any right to boast. If we compare
our attainments with the things which yet
remain unknown, they sink into insignificance.

In spite therefore of the march of modern
science, the argument of this portion of the
book of Job is still forcibly apphcable. We
may still appeal to the ablest man of modern
science as to the simple patriarch of the earliest
ages : knowest thou the ordinances of creation?

MYSTEEY IN REVELATION AND SCIENCE. Ill

canst thou tell the niiinber of the worlds which
God hath made ? dost thou know their balan-
cings ? canst thou tell whence the bright comet
travelleth, and what is its nature ? whence
cometli the earthquake ? Canst thou unfokl the
history of those mighty reptiles which once
peopled this earth ? What power was it that
flung thcm^ like the fabled Titans of old^ under
the rocks and mountains which now form their
bed? Canst thou explain whence come the
storm and the tempest, and the drought or
long-continued rain ? Canst thou explain the
disease which destroys our cattle, or the subtle
cholera — the pestilence which walketh in the
darkness, or the sickness that destroyeth in
the noonday. Modern science with all its
cleverness is unable to unravel these mysteries
of nature, — it may ponder over, but cannot
answer these questions. And if it could, there
are other questions far more difficult which
would spring up to baffle it.

And if it is unable to explain mere earthly
things, how can it understand spiritual things,
as the life of the soul of man — its origin, its
destiny ?

Yes, if man^s unassisted reason finds count-
less difficulties in the system of the visible
universe, how much more of mystery might he

112 MYSTERY IN EEVEIATION AND SCIENCE.

expect would meet him in the invisible and
spiritual — the nature of God, and of the holy
angels ; the angels of darkness ; man, his com-
plex nature_, his double character, his intel-
lectual greatness yet moral depravity; the
spiritual influences which bear upon his con-
dition, and aS'ect his final destiny. Who can
explain these mysteries ? None but those who
derive their knowledge from the Word of God.
Much, very much, is there explained to us — as
much probably as is good for us to know, or as
we are competent to understand.

It is obvious that man has many noble and
excellent gifts far superior to any other creature
which we see on earth, in fact, of an entirely
distinct nature. But then there are marks
upon him of a different character, traces of
degradation and corruption. How do we
account for these inconsistencies ? How do we
explain the fact that notwithstanding his high
powers, both moral and intellectual, he is so
often debased by sin and degraded by passion,
— that knowing what is good, he so often
chooses what is evil ? What philosophy can
explain this mystery ? None. It has per-
plexed the wisest men of old. Even now no
science or human learning which is not based
on revelation can explain the strange pheno-

MYSTERY IN REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 113

menon. But the mystery is explained in the
pages of Holy Scripture. In these we read of
man's transgression and his fall. We see the
natural and threatened consequences of sin and
unbelief — the dreadful mystery is unfolded to
our understanding. We read the plain his-
torical narrative which teaches us that man was
placed in this world in a state of trial^ endowed
with noble and divine qualities^ but also gifted
with the power of choice between good and
evil, — and in an evil hour he fell, and his nature
became debased, but not irremediably. Though
still endowed with the gift of reason, his will and
inclination have become corrupt — disposed to
evil rather than to good. Hence the strange
and anomalous mixture of good and evil which
has perplexed the philosophers of the world,
but which is accounted for, and could be ac-
counted for, only by the revelation which God
has made to man.

But there is another even more important
mystery which the Book of life, and no
science reveals, that is the destlmj of man.
Science can teach us much respecting the
revolution of the planets, and the geological
formation of the earth, and the forces of
the universe, and other wonderful matters
which its increasing knowledge can attain, —

I

114 MYSTERY IN REVELATION AND SCIENCE.

and from the discoveries of science, art can
devise beautiful things for the use and embel-
lishment of this life. But science is utterly-
unable to carry us one step beyond the grave,
— all its skill is confined to this world^s nar-
row horizon, all beyond is a mystery so far as
science is concerned. God^s revealed Word
alone can assure us of tbe world hereafter,
exhibiting to us Christ the first-fruits of the
resurrection, and assuring us that we also shall
rise again.

Yet more — much more than this — God's
Word explains to us the greatest of all the
mysteries of our existence, that is, how we may
repair the ravages of our corruption, how our
nature may be regenerated and restored, how
each one may become pure and holy, and fitted
for the realms of glory. Show me the science
that can t^ach us this, and I would acknowledge
its high value. But while science is unable to
furnish us with the smallest clue to solve the
mystery of mysteries, he who clings to his
Bible understands it all — all that is necessary
or his welfare through eternity.

MIRACLES. 1 1 -J

LETTER XVII.

MIRACLES THE STRANGENESS OF SOME

MIRACLES.

A GREAT deal is said in the present day about
miracles. One man will tell you he cannot
believe them. You ask him why? Because
they are incredible. You point out to him
that so far from being incredible,, they have
heen almost universally believed. All nations,
civilized and uncivilized, have believed them.
God's people in ancient times believed them.
The whole civilized world for the last eighteen
hundred years has believed the miraculous
birth, the resurrection and ascension of our
Lord, and the other miraculous works which
He wrought during His ministry. But, says
the sceptic, we men of science know better,
and cannot believe. But why ? I ask again.
Because, he answers, all things go on in a
natural order according to fixed laws, from
which there is no deviation. But I reply, that
is the very thing we are discussing. To say
that there can be no miracles, because all
I 2

116 MIRACLES.

things go on according to fixed laws is
simply begging tlie question. It is to say a
thing is because it is. We^ on the other hand,
believe in miracles, first, because we have no
doubt that He Who constituted the order of
nature can modify it at His pleasure, which
is self-evident ; secondly, because we have
abundant, nay overwhelming evidence from
history that He really has done so. Hundreds
and thousands of people flocked together for
the very purpose of seeing and profiting by the
miracles of Jesus. The truth of the fact is
recorded by testimony which cannot be
shaken.

Besides the philosophic unbeliever, there
exist in the present day a number of well-
meaning, but half-hearted, dubious, vacillating
persons, who retain a sort of general belief in
the truth of the Bible, but are apt to be tossed
about by every wind of doctrine and scared by
every symptom of danger. These men are
staggered in their belief by the Scripture
account of the universal Deluge, because for-
sooth they cannot imagine where all the water
could have come from; they are in terrible
alarm when half a human skull is found in a
gravel-pit, or some fragments of flint which
they set down as arrow-heads fabricated by

MIRACLES. 117

some prc-Adamic race. One day the discovery
of a Negro head in some Egyptian or Baby-
lonian painting makes them doubt the descent
of all mankind from one common race ; the
next day the assertion that not man only, but
all animals and vegetables, have been developed
from a primordial organization, seems worthy to
be set in comparison with the account which
God Himself has given us of the creation of all
things. In short their faith is so weak and
unstable that it is shaken by every new fact or
conjecture which men of science, or of no
science^ bring forward.

It is the same sort of intellect which, if it does
not deny the possibility of miracles, yet en-
deavours to minimize the amount of miracles, as
if they were not to be expected, when a fact
could by possibility be otherwise accounted
for; or as if the requirement of a miracle to
account for any revealed fact were an argument
against its credibility; or as if it were not
likely that God should accredit His revelation
by miracles. They do not absolutely deny
that God sent His only-begotten Son into
the world to be born of a pure Virgin, yet
they think it strange that He should lead the
Wise Men by a star to the place where the
young Child lay, and endeavour to account for

118 MIRACLES.

the phenomenon by any other way than by a
miracle.

For some time the account of the sun stand-
ing still at the slaughter of Bethoron alarmed
these timid persons. It was suggested by some
ingenious writer, who did not like to disbelieve
it altogether, that possibly afl that Joshua or
Jasher meant might have been, that, in con-
sequence of the great quantity of hail which fell,
the daylight may have lasted half an hour longer
than it otherwise would have done. Whether
this sagacious conjecture afforded them any
satisfaction I cannot say. I should think not.
At present, I believe, persons agree in taking
the statement of the inspired writer to mean,
not that the sun stood still, but that the earth
stopped in its diurnal revolution. Every body
now admits that Joshua adopted the common
language of the day, still employed amongst
ourselves, when we say that the sun rises in
the east and sets in the west. But now comes
in another difficulty to puzzle the semi- scientific
mind. If the earth stopped suddenly in its
revolution, there would be such a tremendous
shock that all sorts of strange things would
have happened. The victorious Israelites and
the vanquished Canaanites alike must have
been flung violently to the ground, and it is

MlJtACLES. 119

well if the waters of the Dead Sea were not
thrown out of their basin, so as to drown both
conqueror and conquered.

As there really are persons, I believe, with
whom objections of this sort have weight, I
desire to suggest the following Canon : If God
willed to work a miracle. He would of necessity
provide for all the contingencies which might
arise out of it. If He willed to prolong the
length of the day so that His people might
gain a more complete victory, and in a manner
which might convince both them and all after
ages of His power and might. He would surely
take care that the objects of His favour were
neither dashed to pieces nor drowned in con-
sequence of it.

And there is another point to which sufficient
attention has not been drawn, namely, that the
Almighty Ruler did often, when it was His will
to work miracles, choose designedly some of the
most strange and striking modes of effecting
His object, for the very purpose of showing
that they were really miracles, with the intent
of convincing those who witnessed them, and
those to whom they should be related in after
times, that the power of God was really exer-
cised, and His honour vindicated.

Turn, for example, to the fourteenth chapte-r

120 MIRACLES.

of Exodus. It is evident tliat if the Almiglity
had so willed He might have led His people
Israel round by the north side of the Red Sea,
without causing them to pass through it. But
He did just the contrary for the very purpose of
working an evident miracle. He caused them
to encamp at Pihahiroth_, between Migdol and
the sea, so that Pharaoh might suppose that they
were " entangled in the land/'' and could not
escape him — which, in truth, they could not
have done, unless the sea had been divided for
their passage. It was God's purpose to save
His people in such a manner that both they
themselves, and the Egyptians, and the nations
round about, and all after generations, might
know and understand that it was not by any
strength or skill of man, but that God Himself
had delivered His people, ^*^by a mighty
hand and outstretched arm,'^ that all men
might know that it was the salvation of the

LOED.

This marvellous incident — the object of which
is clearly told in Holy Scripture — is, we cannot
doubt, an example or type of many other sub-
sequent events, — the extraordinary preservation
of so considerable a number of people in the
wilderness, the water made to gush from the
stonv rock, the falling of the walls of Jericho,

MIRACLES. 121

the sun standing still, — all was done in order to
prove by tlie marvels shown that the hand of
God was there ^

The same principle runs through many other
of the miracles. Take, for instance,, the history
of Jonah. When God determined to bring
back His rebellious prophet, and force him to
do His will, we read that God had prepared a
great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was
in the belly of the fish three days and three
nights. Some of the persons of whom I have
before spoken are offended at the strangeness
of the miracle — it seems to them almost too
strange to be true. But surely the right view
of the miracle is that God purposely chose it
on the very account of its strangeness. Sup-
pose, instead of preparing a great fish, God
had prepared some broken spar of a vessel, or
a hencoop, on which the prophet might have
floated to the shore, then, of course, the sceptic
would have said — Oh, there was no miracle
here — it w^as only what might have happened
to any shipwrecked mariner. But now the
strangeness of the miracle w^as designed to
prove to the prophet, and to us who read the
narrative, authenticated as it is by our blessed

• 1 See also Numbers xvi. 30 : " If the Lord make a neto
thing, and the earth open her mouth," &c.

122 MIRACLES.

Lord Himself, that God^s hand had been really
exerted.

The miracle of the ass speaking to Balaam is of
the same character — chosen purposely for its
strangeness. And so no doubt the great miracle
of the Deluge,, which has given rise to so many
cavils of the infidel, and causes perplexity to
the half-hearted, but which, in the view of the
faithful servant of God, is, from its very mar-
vellousness, only a more sure evidence of God^s
power. God in His just anger decreed that
He would destroy the whole human race save
one family. Who are we that we should cavil
at the means which He employed ? Grant
that the extraordinary fall of water can be
accounted for on no principle of science —
therefore it is to ns more plainly a miracle.
Grant that numbers of subsidiary miracles may
have been needed to accomplish the work of
destruction, and to preserve alive those whom
God decreed to save, what is that but to say
that God, having decreed a great miracle, did
all that was needful to complete it ? To say
that a miracle or any amount of miracles is
impossible is to beg the question — to say that
they are improbable is only a private opinion.
Others may entertain the opinion, that nothing
is more probable or more certain than that God

MIRACLES. 123

should exert His power in any manner that He
might please. It is absolutely impossible to
disprove miracles by any a priori argument or
hypothesis. We believe that they are amply
proved by testimony. It is true that we are
suspicious, and not without reason, of miracles

which are sometimes heard of in these days,

as, for instance, the appearance of the Blessed
Vh-gin to some children at La Salette. A
single case not well authenticated does not
command our assent. But our Lord wrought
hundreds of miracles in the presence of hun-
dreds of persons : multitudes brought their sick
to be healed by Him, on account of the reputa-
tion of His miracles ; and they are recorded
by those who saw Him perform them. I do
not see that greater proof of their reality
could be expected or given.

124 SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTIES.

LETTER XYIII.

SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTIES TESTIMONY.

I HAVE hitherto spoken little on that which
is thought by some to be the chief diffi-
culty as reg-ards the absolute truth of Holy
Scripture — the scientific difficulty. There are
symptoms that amongst educated men the
difficulty is passing away. It belongs rather
to the early stages of scientific discovery than
to the later. The true relation between science
and revelation is beginning to be recognized.
As I said in a former letter^ it is admitted that
they are not^ so to speak, in iDari materia.
The Christian believes, indeed, that revelation
and science, proceeding equally from the
Fountain-Head of truth, must equally be true.
But forasmuch as science is as yet but im-
perfectly apprehended, and revelation has re-
ference to matters which transcend the human
intellect, it must needs happen that apparent
discrepancies will be found between them, and
must continue until we have more perfect

SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTIES. 12i

knowledge. Of this I have before spoken.
Hence the Cliristian is not disturbed by any
difficulties which arise in this quarter; and
even the sceptic is forced to admit that' from
the Christian point of view a scientific diffi-
culty is no impeachment of the truth of the
Bible.

There is a topic connected with the subject
which I have not seen elsewhere discussed,
but which appears to me to have an important
bearing. It seems to be assumed by some
that the demonstrations of science are a more
certain source of knowledge than the testi-
mony of history. Unquestionably in the exact
sciences we have a certainty of demonstration
which cannot be disputed. If there is any
absolute certainty in any thing, it is in the
conclusions of mathematics, geometry, or arith-
metic. A sum of arithmetic rightly cast up is
demonstrably true. A mathematical problem
rightly worked out is not open to dispute. In
geometry, trigonometry, and other branches of
exact science, abstract problems worked on
paper are absolutely certain. But when we come
to the practical view of these sciences, it will
at once be found that the element of testimony
IS very largely involved. I do not think that
this point has been sufficiently considered by

126 SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTIES.

those who lay so much stress on the certainty
of science^ in comparison with testimony. If
the facts are assumed to be true, then with
the help of science you may work a problem
with certaraty, but you are first to be sure of
your facts, and these depend practically on
testimony.

Let me endeavour to illustrate my meaning.
Great interest has been lately attached to the
recent eclipse of the sun. On a former oc-
casion certain coruscations or emanations were
observed at the time of the eclipse, designated
as the sun^s corona. It was thought highly
important for scientific purposes that these
phenomena, and others which might ensue,
should be accurately observed and registered.
Accordingly ships were fitted out, not by the
English only, but by other nations, and scien-
tific men were sent out, furnished with the
most perfect instruments, to Gibraltar, Catania,
Ceuta, and different places, in order to make
the most careful observations ; and although
the circumstances were not altogether favour-
able, yet some important observations were
made, and interesting facts have been regis-
tered. But it is evident that we who have
stayed at home must take these observations
as facts on the testimony of those who went

SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTIES.

out to record tliem. The scientific men return
Lome and report what they have seen, but to
the rest of the world the behef in the facts
rests simply on their testimony. Calculations
may have been made with mathematical cer-
tainty on the data received, but the truth of
these rests on the truthfulness of the report of
those who made the observation. And even
their truthfulness is not the only point to be
considered, because their observations depend
on the exact perfectness of the instruments
which they have used, and perhaps on other
circumstances. That these calculations, though
made on strictly scientific principles, are liable
to error is evident from the fact that there is
at present, I believe, a difference of some
millions of miles in the computation of the
sun^s distance from the earth.

Other sciences which are much thought of
in the present day, are still more dependent on
testimony than the science of astronomy. A
lecturer on Geolog}-, we will suppose, is ad-
di-essing his audience, and attempting to illus-
trate the antiquity of pre-historic man. Here,
he says, is a cast or drawing of a fossil skeleton
found imbedded in a very ancient rock in the
island of Guadaloupe. Is it not evident that
his assertion depends on the testimony of many

128 SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTIES.

persons, not all perliaps very competent to
afford it — first, . the person who found the
skeleton; secondly, those who dug it up;
thirdly, the persons who made the cast;
fourthly, the person who brought it from
Guadaloupe ; fifthly, the lecturer himself ? Dr.
Buckland used to tell a story of a German
professor of Geology, whose pupils would take
him in by hiding sham fossils, and then
managing to get him to the place that he
might find them. Nay, Dr. Buckland^s own
pupils used to accuse the doctor himself,
though of course incorrectly, of secreting sele-
nites and the vertebrae of ichthyosauri and
other things in the quarries of Headington
Hill, that he might find them when he gave
an open-air lecture. That this sort of pro-
ceeding is not altogether imaginary may be
shown from the famous skull found among the
flint arrow-heads at Amiens, which has been
proved to have been dug up in the neigh-
bouring churchyard. If the workmen in a
quarry are aware that they will get a napoleon
or two for a human bone in a certain position,
they will not be long in finding one. It is
evident that as far as the million are con-
cerned, the greater part of geological science
rests on testimony. The whole proof which

SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTIES. 129

the lecturer gives of the principles of his
science rests on the specimens ranged on the
shelves of his lecture-room, and the casts and
drawings of other specimens in other museums,
the proof of the genuineness of which depends
on testimony. I do not point out these facts
to depreciate the value of testimony, but rather
to enhance it, by showing how very largely it
enters into almost all the knowledge which
men possess ; and how not scientific knowledge
only, but the practical knowledge on which
men act in the daily affairs of life depends
mainly on the reliance which they place on
testimony. In some sciences — as for instance
in chemistry — a good deal of the certain know-
ledge which is attainable may be tested by
experiment ; but even here the ordinary in-
quirer has to take many things for granted on
the word of his scientific superior.

And if in the practical working of the more
exact sciences so much depends, as we have
seen, on testimony, how much more is tes-
timony the basis of the latest sciences of
modern days — such as anthropology, ethno-
logy, and the like — and yet one sometimes
hears these inquiries classed as sciences, with
the tacit assumption that the knowledge which
they communicate is based on some surer foun-

K

130 SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTIES.

dation titan the testimony of history. History
is_, so to speak, the accumulation of testimony,
and is, on the main, perfectly trustworthy for
aU the purposes for which it can be used.
There is no reason to doubt, for instance, the
general truth of the history of God^s chosen
people, even taken as an ordinary history of
great antiquity. But when we view it as
written by holy men of old under the influence
of Divine Inspiration, the credibility of it
becomes greatly increased, and is placed on a
par with the results of the exact sciences
which we regard with absolute certainty.

GENESIS 1. ItU

LETTER XIX.

GENESIS I.

Perhaps tliere is no part of the Bible wliicli
lias been understood in more various ways
than the first chapter of Genesis. Let us
consider some of the different interpretations.
It is the only part of the Bible which seems to
have any real connexion^ except accidentally,
with science, or which can be said to treat in
any way of scientific subjects. And after all
the connexion is but slight. • Some indeed
consider it to be a myth or allegory. Some
regard it as a psalm of praise offered up to
God for His great glory — something like that
beautiful ode, the 1 9th of the Psalms of David :
'^The heavens declare the glory of God, and
the firmament showeth His handy work. ^^

Supposing it to be, as it has been generally
thought, historical, why, it may be asked with
reverence, should Moses have written it ? For
these obvious reasons — first, because the sub-
ject of his book is the dealings of God with
K 2

182 GENESIS I.

man since tlie time of liis being upon earth,
and it was most natural to begin with the
account of the manner of his being placed
here, with all his accompaniments and sur-
roundings. Secondly, it was necessary to cor-
rect the strange and uncouth superstitions that
were prevalent in the world, and have more or
less prevailed. The Egyptians believed '^ that
the first men grew out of the earth like pump-
kins.''^ In the ancient books of Indian mytho-
logy it was supposed that the earth rested on
the back of an elephant, and the elephant on a
tortoise; what the tortoise stood on was not
apparent. According to Berosus the Chaldean,
the world was created in darkness, over which
dominated a female power called Thalatta or
Sea. Then Belus, wishing to carry on the
creation work, clave Thalatta in twain — of the
one half made he the earth, and of the other
half the heavens. Then he cut off his own
head, and ming'ling the blood which flowed
from it with the dust of the earth formed man.
Others, as Lucretius, following the doctrine of
Epicurus, have imagined that the world is a
fortuitous concurrence of atoms, that is, that
the atoms which formed the world, being
tossed and whirled about, happened somehow
to come together in the beautiful shape in

GENESIS I. 133

wliicli we now sec them. Sir J. Lubbock
mentions some tribes so savage as to have no
idea of a creator. Others have imagined that
the material Avorld was evolved out of a
cloud, and that in some way or other which
they do not explain a " primordial organism "
was developed, out of which grew the whole
race of animals and vegetables, trees and plants,
fishes, birds, and mammals, and lastly man
himself. Some even have held that the mate-
rial world is the very Deity Himself !

Clearly, therefore, it was important that a
revelation from God to man should begin with
the declaration that God is the Creator of all
things visible and invisible, animate or in-
animate— that He is the Eternal mighty Spirit
w^ho first created the universe, and now main-
tains and upholds it by His power. This will
sufficiently account for the place which Creation
occupies in the insjDired volume. It was neces-
sary to correct the fancies which had sprung
up respecting the origin of the world, and by
anticipation to preclude, as far as might be,
the errors of future o-enerations.

o

How then are we to understand the state-
ments of Moses, viewed as history ? Some
take them quite literally, and believe that the
visible world and all things in it were created

134 GENESIS I.

in six ordinary days. Some believe tliat it
was created millions of ages ago, but fashioned
for tlie use of man in six days. Others con-
sider tlie six days to be ages of unknown
duration. Others take the six days to be, not
six consecutive days, but days taken out of
each of six ages, in which Moses beheld, by a
sort of second sight, a vision of the condition
of the world in each of them. Some believe
that, although revelation and science proceed-
ing from the same infallible Truth must needs
in reality coincide, yet — seeing that with
our limited faculties we are imperfectly ac-
quainted with the facts of science, and the
criticism of Scripture — it must needs happen
that, though perfectly coincident in reality,
they will appear to be divergent, until we are
better informed. This is an impregnable posi-
tion, as old as St. Augustine, and meets every
popular difficulty; yet, of course, it is more
satisfactory to explain difficulties when we are
able.

Some persons take yet a different view of
the case, and so far from thinking that there
is any thing vague or figurative in the first
chapter of Genesis, look upon the statements
contained in it as so wonderfully and exactly
true, that if Moses had written no other part

GENESIS I. ]35

of the Bible, this one chapter would afford a
conclusive evidence of his inspiration — that the
Jewish historian lias so remarkably anticipated
the facts which modern science has since con-
firmed, that he could have derived his infor-
mation from no other source but God Himself.
Let us give our attention more closely to this
view of the subject.

First, the science of Geology has brought
forward undeniable evidence that the materials
of this planet are of almost incalculable anti*
quity. Long before the creation of man they
were, so to speak, being gradually formed into
shape for his use. Seas, rivers, mountains,
strata of different sorts, coal, lime, iron, stone
for building, were all being prepared for man
long before he himself appeared upon the
scene. This is chiefly proved by the fossil
remains which are found in the different strata.
Now when this discovery was first made it was
thought by some to be contradictory to the
Mosaic account. People had been accustomed
to believe on the supposed authority of Reve-
lation that the fabric of the earth, as well as
man the lord of all, was of much more recent
origin ; and the account which Moses gives of
these things did not seem to tally with the
facts of science. But when we come to look

136 GENESIS I.

more closely at the words of Scripture, it is
evident tliat tlie sacred historian was perfectly
aware of the fact, which science has so recently
discovered, of the world's great antiquity ; and
that his words fully answer to the circum-
stances of the case. "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth/' It does
not say when this original creation took place.
Science seems to show that it was milHons of
years ago. And the words of Moses entirely
agree with the fact. Both science and revealed
history agree in teaching us that the fabric of
the world existed long before man was created
to live upon it.

Again the first movement towards the fashion-
ing the earth in its present form was the
creation of light. " God said, Let there be
light, and there was light.'' But some have
said, Moses is surely under a mistake here, for
he tells us that the sun was not placed in the
heavens to rule the day until the fourth period
of creation. How could this be ? How could
light exist without the sun ? Modern science
answers the question, and teaches us, as Moses
teaches us, that light is independent of the
sun, and may exist without the sun's inter-
vention. Philosophers tell us that " light, he'at,
electricity, and motion, are convertible terms."

GENESIS I. 137

The sun is merely the concentration of light,
not the source of it. But these natural forces
require an impulse from without. The Spirit
of God was that impulse. " The Spirit of God
moved upon the fiice of the clccp/^ The Word
of God said_, "Let there be light, and there
was light.^' ^Vliether regarded as a substance
or a force, light may have been transfused
through the system long before it was con-
centrated in the sun. In fact if, as some sup-
pose, the material world was evolved out of a
nebula or chaos of elements mingled together
in one rarefied mass, it is possible that the
water would be separated from the land, as
described by Moses, and the land be capable
of sustaining animal and vegetable life long
before the collection of light into a focus, and
the appointment of the sun to be as we now
see it, the ruler or regulator of the times and
seasons.

There is another remarkable fact, which ap-
pears to be well worthy of note. How could
Moses possibly know except by revelation the
particular order in which the difi'crent objects
were created ? What clue had he to suppose
that fishes, and reptiles, and birds, were created
before beasts, and that man was the last as he
was God's greatest work ? Until very recently

138 GENESIS I.

no facts of science were known^ from wliich
tlie order of creation could be at all inferred.
We know now from Geology, as we knew
before from Revelation, that such was tlie
order of creation. There are rocks and strata
of the earth in which there is no sign of animal
life. The first fossils which we find are those
of the simplest marine animals, then come the
fishes, and vertebrate reptiles, then the remains
of fossil birds appear, after them the higher
order of quadrupeds, and lastly man. This is
the very order in which Moses has placed
them.

Of course in the present imperfect state of
Geological science, it is not likely that all the
details of science and revelation should exactly
dovetail together. But the facts which I have
stated have seemed to many to indicate in the
sacred historian a knowledge of scientific phe-
nomena so far beyond the intelligence of the
age in which he lived, that he could not pos-
sibly have derived his information from any
other source but from Divine inspiration. How
could Moses, who had been taught by the wise
men of Egypt that men grew out of the ground
like pumpkins — how could he possibly know
the order in which the difi'erent animal races
were created ? How could he know that light.

GENESIS I. 139

when set in motion by the Creative Spirit, was
the moving force by which the elements were
evolved ? How could he know the vast anti-
quity of the visible world ? Surely all this
knowledge, so infinitely beyond any thing
existing in the time in which he lived, could
not have been obtained but by God^s reve-
lation.

I confess I do not see how this conclusion
can be refuted.

140 BEFORE THE FLOOD.

LETTER XX.

BEFORE THE FLOOD.

It is very difficult to realize to ourselves tlie
state of tilings wliicli existed in times long
past. We can fancy any thing we please, but
not satisfy ourselves tliat our fancy corresponds
with the reality. A clever story was written
some few years ago called "Realmah/^ the
scene of which is laid in the lake -dwellings of
so-called pre-historic times — though why they
should be called pre-historic is not very evi-
dent, since old Herodotus describes lake-dwell-
ings as existing in his own day. The time
supposed in the story is at the transition period
between the stone and bronze ages ; and the
hero gains to himself great renown by arming
his countrymen, the dwellers on the lake, with
bronze weapons, by means of which they van-
quish their enemies, who were provided only
with the old-fashioned ffints — much as Von
Moltke beat the Austrians by arming the
Prussian soldiers with the needle-gun. There

BEFORE THE FLOOD. 141

is a number in tlie '' Eambler/' if I remember
right, containing an antediluvian story, one
incident of which was that two young people of
about a hundred years old fell in love with each
other, but their friends thought it would be
more prudent for them to wait twenty or
thirty years before they were united.

To speak more seriously, most people must
have felt the difficulty of realizing the state of
things which existed at that period of the
world^s history which intervenes between the
Creation and the Flood, and from feeling this
diflficulty some have come to doubt, or speak
slightingly of, the recorded facts. But this
is unreasonable. We have just as much diffi-
culty in realizing the circumstances of the lake-
dwellers, or of the people who lived in the stone
age of the world.

The period between the Creation and the
Deluge has been commonly set down as about
1700 years, but there are circumstances which
seem to show that there must be some error in
the calculation of Archbishop Ussher and other
chronologists, and that the period was longer
than they imagine. But this is not of very
great importance. With regard to the period
itself, we might imagine two theories : one,
that the state of things was altogether different

142 BEFOKE THE FLOOD.

from tliat wliicli now exists, and in some degree
supernatural; for instance, tlie great duration
of human life, tlie gigantic stature of some at
least of the men who lived in those days, the in-
tercourse between angelic beings — for so the old
fathers understood the term the ^' sons of God^'
— and the daughters of men ; then the terrible
catastrophe which overwhelmed the whole
race ; all these things would seem to indicate a
position of affairs altogether different from
any thing which now exists. We might imagine
that it was more like the state of things in
some other planet. And why not ? If any of
the heavenly bodies be, as we suppose, habit-
able worlds, it were surely unreasonable to
take for granted that the circumstances existing
in them, the age and stature of the inhabitants,
and their relation to the spiritual world, must
needs be just like our own.

Others, perhaps, may take a different view.
They may think it most probable that, notwith-
standing some peculiarities, men lived before
the flood much as they have done since'; some
lived in cities, some in the country, some in
tents, and some in houses. Some we know
were able to work in brass and iron, which
seems to imply a considerable advance in
civilization and art. Some were able to handle

BEFORE THE FLOOD. 143

tlio harp and tlic organ. In short, thoy ate
and drank, married and were given in marriage,
much the same as in all other ages. And
violence and luxuriousness prevailed amongst
them, as they do in the present world at this
very day.

Different notions may be formed of the cir-
cumstances of the building of the ark. That the
earth should be overspread by water will not
seem strange to geologists, who are aware that
there are evidences of many cataclysms more
or less violent on the earth^s surface. Believing
then that such an event took place in the
time of Noah, we may fancy to ourselves the
mode in which the patriarch met the cata-
strophe— at least it is easy to imagine several
theories, though difficult to decide between
them. First, some might imagine that as the
Deluge itself was brought about probably by
miraculous agency, so the same agency may
have been employed in assisting Noah to make
his preparation and carry out his purpose.
Others might suppose rather that the patriarch
had to depend on human resources only. We
have no certain information of the state of
society then existing. Noah may have been a
prince or great man with abundance of means,
at his command — he may have had all the same

144 BEFORE THE FLOOD.

resources as the Great Eastern Company and
the Zoological Society to help him in con-
structing his ark and collecting its freight.
To others the circumstances attending the
building of the ark may appear likely to have
been much more easy and commonplace.

We can imagine Noah and his three sons,
well supplied with tools of iron and other
appliances, to have gone into the forest and
felled a suitable number of trees and squared
them into beams, then to have lashed them
together in the shape of a large raft, and to
have built upon them loghouses or sheds ac-
cording to the directions given ; much as the
rafts which are floated down the St. Lawrence
and Mississippi — nay, even down the Thames,
but larger. Nor would this proceeding neces-
sarily imply any astonishment on the part of
their neighbours. If we imagine lake- dwellings
to have existed in those days, the ark may have
been ver}^ much the same sort of structure, only
built on floating beams instead of piles, and so
suited to rise and fall with the water. Then,
as to the collection of its living freight, I think
Mr. Darwin will help us to understand this part
of the subject. There was no need to collect all
the different species ; a pair of each genus or
family would suffice. A pair of favourite dogs

BEFORE THE FLOOD. 145

might have becu the progenitors of all the
varieties of the cauine race. When they had
descended from their temporary prison, and
began to multiply, some perhaps found that by
speed they could catch the prey needful for
their sustenance, and would gradually develope
themselves into hounds. Others less fleet of
foot, but endowed with keener scent, would find it
necessary to creep upon their prey more warily.
These would be the progenitors of the pointer
or lurcher tribe. So with other animals; a
pan- of cats, or of tame leopards, young ones
perhaps, might be the ancestors of the whole
progeny of the feline race. The dove and the
raven might form various species of birds. It
is well known that the pigeon tribe will vary
immensely even in a few generations. So that
if any one is staggered by the notion of Noah
having to provide accommodation for lions and
tigers, and all the vast variety of the animal
species, the difficulty would be removed by
supposing that the patriarch simply got together
pairs of the various animals that came to hand,
which in most countries would comprise repre-
sentatives of the difierent tribes that constitute
the animal world, and on Mr. Darwin's hypo-
thesis would develope themselves into all the
species which we see around us.

146 BEFORE THE FLOOD.

Why have I put together these suppositions,
which perhaps some persons may not think
very wise ones? Simply because I imagine
that many good sort of persons are staggered
by the facts revealed in the Bible concerning
the Flood and its antecedents. They seem to
them of a fabulous character, and partly in-
credible— notwithstanding that our Loed Him-
self has distinctly confirmed them by His
authority. I have shown that there are several
hypotheses which separately, or at least con-
jointly, will account for all the phenomena
recorded. Place yourself in imagination in
an entirely novel and mysterious position, or
amidst quite ordinary circumstances, or perhaps,
more appropriately, amidst ordinary circum-
stances, with some few of a supernatural charac-
ter, and the facts of the deluge are no more
irreconcilable with probability than the facts
discovered by scientific explorers of the lake-
dwelHngs, or of the stone ages of so-called
pre -historic times.

Perhaps you will blame me for treating grave
subjects with something like banter. But it
really is not at all so. These things must have
happened in some way or other. If there is any
more probable account of the circumstances
than those which I have suggested, let it be

BEFORE THE FLOOD. 147

pointed out. To me I confess tliat any one of
them seems perfectly credible. As a septua-
genarian I believe the account of Noah's Ark
and the Flood just as implicitly as when a
child.

L 2

148 AFTER THE FLOOD.

LETTER XXI.

AFTER THE FLOOD.

A GOOD deal of discussion has arisen amongst
pliilosophers as to the original state of man-
kind^ whether they were civilized or savages.
Archbishop Whately and the Duke of Argyll
take the side of civilization. Sir J. Lubbock
and Mr Darwin the contrary. Sir John argues
that the first man was decidedly a savage — first,
because he had no clothing except coats of
skins. Certainly, if broad cloth, cotton, or silk
garments are a test of civilization, the obser-
vation is true. But Sir John declares, more-
over, that the first man was, in a moral sense,
no better than a savage, in that he could
not resist the slightest temptation. I fear that
in that sense there are a good many savages
in civilized society. We should not forget
that Adam and Eve before the fall lived in
close communion with God. On the whole I am
inclined to think that Milton^ s estimate of the
moral state of our first parents is the right one.

AFTER THE FLOOD. 149

But after all, tlie condition of Adam and Eve
does not seem to have much to do with the
question. We take our start from Noah and
his family, who must have had the elements of
civilization — not only in the knowledge of God,
but also in a considerable acquaintance with the
mechanical arts.

But why cannot we take simply the account
given us in the oldest history extant as a
solution of the point ? We read that about a
century after the Flood, the human family
found themselves assembled on the plains of
Shinar; and, without now speaking of the
confusion of language or other matters which
were miraculous, that they resolved to separate
and spread themselves over the earth. What
more perfectly natural? Can we not also
readily conceive that there were great dif-
ferences in the moral and intellectual capacity
of those who departed from the parent stock ?
One detachment under an able leader would
travel onwards till they arrived at the fertile
valley of the Nile, and availing themselves of
their skill in husbandry, they would cultivate
the rich soil, and feel no desire to migrate
farther. Something of the same sort would
happen to those who found themselves on the
plains of the Ganges, or still farther onward^

150 AFTER THE FLOOD.

in the region now occupied by the Chinese.
These detachments would form communities,
more or less civilized, and grow into powerful
nations. But suppose the case of others —
those who migrated into the forests of Central
Europe, or the steppes of Asia, or the Arctic
regions. They would find themselves in a
wild country, subject to the attack of savage
beasts, which would foUow on their track, and
allow no leisure for the cultivation of the land,
or the establishment of mechanical arts. Their
chief requirement would be to furnish them-
selves with any weapon which came to hand.
They would live in continual warfare with the
beasts of the earth, or in pursuit of a pre-
carious livelihood, spearing fish or seals, and
trapping wild animals. Besides, some of the
emigrants may have been under the guidance
of vicious leaders, and have so deteriorated
from their civilized condition.

Or again, some may have found themselves
amidst a state of things where no labom* was
necessary to procure the necessaries of life,
and may have degenerated into mere lotus-
eaters, and soon acquired the habits of indo-
lence and sensuality which a want of energetic
occupation entails.

The account of the state of the world which

AFTER THE FLOOD. 151

we receive, not only from the Bible but also
from the earliest histories, seems to correspond
exactly with what may have been expected.
In the rich and favoured countries there has
always been a race of men considerably ad-
vanced in civilization. Their very structures
and works of labour, the palaces of Nineveh
and Babylon, the temples and pyramids of
Egypt, bear testimony to the comparatively
advanced state of these nations, as regards
both the knowledge of art and science, and
the power of organizing large masses of people.
In an inferior degree, the same evidence is
furnished by the ponderous megalithic struc-
tures of Stonehenge and Abury, and other
works which are found in different parts of
the world, specially the massive buildings of
Central America and India. Other regions
seem to have been the dwelling of tribes whose
first implements were mere flint arrow-heads,
or axes of stone — though they also, if men of
genius arose amongst them, or if they had
intercourse with the civilized races, would
gradually arrive at higher degrees of civili-
zation, and become instructed in the arts of
metallurgy and pottery.

All this seems to tally precisely with the
historical accounts which we have in the Bible

152 AFTER THE FLOOD.

of the dispersion and fortunes of the human
family.

. There is one difficulty — and that is the exist-
ence, as geologists tell us, of the remains of
apparently human weapons in strata which, as
they believe, must have been very long an-
terior to the age commonly assigned to the
descendants of Adam. Well, if it be a diffi-
culty, it is to be explained, if possible ; if not,
put up with. Perhaps the geologists are mis-
taken as to the antiquity of the strata in
question, for the facts and theories of geolo-
gists are far from being in a settled state.
Perhaps the flint weapons may have been in-
troduced extraneously, that is, buried in the
strata ; perhaps the fossils found with them
may have been more recent than they imagine.
Perhaps there may have been a race of animals
anterior to Adam, who had the faculty of
making flint weapons. Who can tell ? But
surely this difficulty is not to be considered
sufficient to overthrow the testimony of sacred
and profane history, and the seemingly con-
sistent account of the early civilization of man-
kind.

But there is a sort of perverse disposition in
some men^s minds to set aside, whenever they
can, the authority of the Bible, and not allow

AFTER THE FLOOD. 153

it even the weight which an iminspired history
of the same ancient date would possess. When
the arguments are doubtful, as in the case of
civilization or non-civilization they may perhaps
be thought to be, surely the most conclusive
evidence of the truth must be the testimony
afforded by a history of so great and acknow-
ledged antiquity, even apart from its inspira-
tion, much more when we believe that it was
dictated by the Spirit of God.

154 CIVILIZATION.

LETTER XXII.

CIVILIZATION.

It has been much, and most justly insisted on
by some recent writers that there is a marked
and invariable distinction between man and
every other animal,, in their capacity of civili-
zation. Other animals remain in precisely the
same state from generation to generation.
They never advance — they make the same
nests or cells, and never improve upon them,
whereas man is constantly progressive, always
inventing, and each new invention is but a
stepping-stone to something further. I do
not think that there is any answer to this
theory. It seems to prove conclusively that
man is entirely distinct from every other crea-
ture which exists.

Let us then imagine the progress of civili-
zation. The first step in civilization would be
articulate speech. " The roots of language,"
says Professor Max Miiller, " are phonetic types
produced by power inherent in human nature.

CIVILIZATION. 155

Tliey exist, as Plato would say, by nature ; —
though, with Plato, we should add that when
we say by nature, we mean by the hand of

God Man in his primitive and perfect

state was not only endowed like the brute with
the power of expressing his sensations. . . . He
possessed likewise the faculty of giving more
articulate expression to the natural conceptions
of his mind. That faculty was not of his
making. It was an instinct, an instinct of the
mind as irresistible as any other instinct. So
far as language is the production of that in-
stinct, it belongs to the realm of nature"
[or as. Plato would have said, it is a gift of
God].

As other animals are enabled by nature to
express their limited wants and feelings by
various sounds — so, it may reasonably be in-
ferred, that a being like man, endowed with a
vast variety and modification of thought and
feeling, would be enabled to give expression
to those feelings from the first. This view,
resting on the authority of Plato and Professor
Max Miiller, does not seem to admit of refuta-
tion. It is, of course, impossible to say whether
our first parents were miraculously endowed
with the power of speaking at once gram-
matically, or whether they gradually acquired

156 CIVILIZATION.

it. But having the gift of intellect, and the
power of articulate speech, the rest would yery
soon follow.

Another great step in civilization is the art
of writing, or the association of written charac-
ters with articulate sounds. One of the oldest
books, if not the very oldest book, known to
be extant in the world is the Pentateuch, or
writings of Moses forming the first part of the
sacred Scriptures. The invention seems to
have been purposely granted in order to pre-
serve the revealed Word of God. We find
amongst a nation of wanderers just escaped
from bondage, a nation by no means remark-
able for superior intelligence — we find existing
amongst them the difficult art of writing, a
complete alphabet or system of letters ex-
pressive of articulate sounds, by which their
remarkable history, their laws and institutions,
and the records of God^s dealings with them,
have been handed down to the present time.
Can it be that the first written characters in
the world were those which were inscribed by
the finger of God Himself on the tables of
stone when He appeared to Moses on Mount
Sinai, and so this wonderful art was a direct
revelation from heaven ? Or did God inspire
Moses or some other of His servants with the

CIVILIZATION. 157

idea? — as we know, when He willed that the
Ark of the Covenant and His Tabernacle
should be constructed in elaborate workman-
ship, He filled Bezaleel and Aholiab with the
spirit of wisdom and understanding to work in
gold and silver and brass and carving of wood.
Or did the art grow up gradually, and culmi-
nate in the Ten Commandments ? That would
in itself be very remarkable.

Some, indeed, have imagined that portions
of the books of Moses were taken by him from
former documents. It is very possible that he
may have interwoven with his narrative the
traditions of older times — the record of the
creation, the history of the patriarchs, the
touching narrative of Joseph; or he may have
found them recorded in the Egyptian hiero-
glyphics, and have been directed by the Holy
Ghost to embody them in his history. All we
know is, that at or about ' the time of the first
revelation of God's Word, when holy men

1 It is uow generally believed that the Egyptians used not
only hierdglyphics, but also what is termed the "cursive
hieratic character " before the Exodus. And such documents
are believed to be in existence. Still that does not disprove
the assertion that the invention of letters was purposely
granted by Divine Providence in order to preserve the
Kevealed Word. Besides, the exact date of the Exodus itself
is not certainly known.

158 CIVILIZATION.

began to write as tliey were moved by tbe
Holy Ghost, the use of letters was invented.
That art wbich furnislies us witb the records
of past ages, the power of communicating with
the men of other days, or with those who live
at the distance of half the globe — that art
without which neither the facts of history, nor
the discoveries of science, nor the opinions and
thoughts of men could be preserved — the foun-
dation of all our literature and knowledge —
the means by which the news of cun-ent events
is spread each day throughout the land, and
all the ideas and wants of men made known to
each other — so that every day we have, as it
were, a picture given us of all that is going on
in the world around us — that wonderful art of
writing was, as it would seem, given by Divine
Providence, for the purpose of preserving the
Ten Commandments and the memory of God^s
dealings with His people. And, therefore,
when we teach om' children to read for the
express purpose that they may read the Bible,
we are really employing letters for the very
purpose for which God designed them. And
he who thus avails himself of his power to
read the Word of God humbly and reve-
rently, even though he should read nothing
else, is doing more for the glory of God,

CIVILIZATION. 159

is taking surer steps to raise himself in the
scale of civilization, and improve his under-
standing, and exalt his nature, than the most
learned man who ever lived, if he pervert
the powers of his mind to vain and sinful
purposes, or the dissemination of evil thoughts
and opinions. Alas, the noblest art is but a
curse, the most cultivated intellect is but an
object of pity, if it be not directed to the end
for which it was designed — the glory and
honour of God.

I might go on to trace the improvement of
language which resulted, as might have been
anticipated, from the invention of letters, until
it arrived at its greatest perfection in that
tongue in which it pleased God to deliver the
last and greatest revelation of His will. The
exquisite precision and force of the Greek
language, joined, as it is in the New Testament,
with the popular idiom of the East — that
language in which the heavenly discourses and
parables of our Lord and the Epistles of St.
Paul were written — cannot be supposed to
have been produced by chance at the precise
time when God willed that His Gospel should
be written and preached to all people. If we
acknowledge in these things, as we surely must,
the oveiTuling providence of God, it is impos-

160 CIVILIZATION.

sible to believe that, wheii He had. decreed
that His Gospel should be spread through the
world. He took no thought about the lan-
guage in which it should be written. Far
more reasonable is it to suppose that all was
arranged and brought about with a view
to spread the knowledge of Divine truth in the
language most suitable for its dissemination.

Passing on in the history of the world, we
find another invention which has greatly in-
fluenced the character of modern days. I mean
the art of printing. Now the art of printing,
unlike the invention of letters, is in itself one
of the simplest things imaginable. When you
have once got the idea of letters standing for
articulate sounds, which is the real point of
difficulty, and when you have them carved on
stone or written on parchment, the idea of
multiplying copies by means of types, one
would have thought, would have followed
naturally. In fact, many things nearly re-
sembling printing have been for ages known and
practised. A seal, or an engraving, or a stamp,
what is it but a print ? Yet strange to say, a
period of nearly three thousand years elapsed
after the invention of letters and the writing
of books, before men thought of multiplying
their books by the simple art of printing.

CIVILIZATION. IGl

About three centuries and a half ago a great
movement took place in the world''s atfairs_, a
movement accompanied, as all such movements
must be, with mingled good and evil. We can-
not doubt that it was Providential, and the
movement was accomplished mainly through
the instrumentality of the press. Copies of the
Bible, and of the works of ancient Fathers of
the Church were printed and disseminated,
and the more learned and pious were taught to
discriminate between the ancient doctrine and
usages of the Apostolic age and the corruptions
of modern times, and were enabled to check
the progress of corruption, and reform many
things which needed Eeformation.

I am aware that evil as well as good has re-
sulted from these events. No serious Christian
can do otherwise than regret the heresies and
schisms which in these latter days so lamentably
abound. But it is probable that things would
be ten times worse without the Bible in our
hands. The good it does is tenfold greater than
the evil to which it may have been perverted.
If some have made irreverent and unholy use of
God's Word, thousands have derived from it
the daily comfort of their souls, and, through
reading and digesting it, have come to embrace
and ever hold fast the blessed hope of salvation.

M

162 CIVILIZATION.

Let us tlien give glory to God for having
taught us the art of printing.

There is yet another invention of man to
which I must advert^ as having brought about
great changes in our times, and being likely to
exercise a still greater influence on the world^s
destinies — and that is the power of the steam-
engine. It is now nearly two hundred years
since this important power was discovered, but
it is only within the present century that it has
been applied to locomotion and those various
purposes of art for which it is now so generally
used. Now can we for a moment suppose that
this mighty engine has been given to us by
Almighty God merely that we may be able to
travel from place to place with somewhat
greater speed, or that we might manufacture
for ourselves finer or more abundant clothinsr ?
Is there no higher purpose than this? We
think too much of our poor comforts and con-
veniences if we make them of first importance.
Can we discern no indications of the operation
of a Divine Providence, whereby this, as well as
other inventions, shall work for the glory of
God ? When we remember that prophecy has
declared with no uncertain voice that there
shall be in the latter days a great running to
and fro and multiplication of knowledge, and

CIVILIZATION. 103

spreading of the Gospel tlirough the world —
that every land and shore shall hear the tidings
of salvation — that not civilized nations only,
but the uncivilized heathen— all shall have the
Gospel preached unto them, can we doubt that
this new and wonderful invention is destined to
contribute to the fulfilment of the decrees of
Providence ? and this not only by the increased
facility of communication — for the power of
moving from place to place would be of little
value, and would be little used, unless there
were sufficient objects for frequent intercourse :
and this motive of intercourse is furnished by
the same great power of steam in the infinite
multiplication of those various manufactures
and wares with which our ships are freighted,
in order that they may bring back in ex-
change the products of other lands.

Have you ever watched in spring time the
bee which flits from flower to flower, and are
you aware that not only is it gathering honey
for its own use, but also that it conveys to the
flower that pollen or minute powder which
causes the seed to germinate ? Just so our
merchants and mariners, in their eager pursuit
after wealth, carry with them from shore to
shore the seeds of the Gospel of Truth. And
we doubt not that as God placed the drop of
M 2

164 CIVILIZATION.

honey in tlie heart of tlie flower for tlie very
purpose of attracting thither the busy insect
which should convey to it the seed of repro-
duction, so He has distributed in different
regions of the world those various products —
the cotton or the silk, the tea or the indigo, the
ivory or the gold — which shall tempt the enter-
prising trafficker, and open the way for the
missionary to sow the seed of life in the hearts
of men.

Oh, if we could thus learn to look on our
arts and inventions, our skill and industry, our
literature and commerce, as so many means
afforded to us of promoting God^s glory, what
an expansive field of contemplation is open to
us ! Worldly men will see no extraordinary
marks of Providential agency in these matters :
they will discern in their arts and sciences
nothing more than the mere inventions of men
and the progress of civilization — they will re-
cognize in them nothing more important than
the means of increasing our wealth and power,
or ministering to our comforts and luxuries;
they will see in our ships nothing more than the
means of sending our merchandise to foreign
lands, and bringing back their wealth to our
shores ; they will discern in our literature and
our press only the opportunity of spreading

CIVILIZATION. 1 Go

useful knowledge, or furnisliing amusement, or
advancing our views on temporal subjects.
Nay, too many, I fear, will discern in these things
not the glory of God, but the glory of man —
indications only of man^s power and wisdom ;
and each new discovery will be hailed merely
as a triumph of the human intellect.

But let us once impress on our minds the
great truth that all things arc working together
for the glory of God, and that the glory of
God is best promoted by the salvation of man
— that the great object of God^s Providence is
to jDrepare the elect of the different nations of
the earth for the reception of the truth and
the inheritance purchased for them by the Son
of God, to build up a Holy Church, a peculiar
people called to a heavenly kingdom : once let
us imbue our minds with the great truth that
the salvation of the souls of God^s saints, until
God shall have made up the number of His
elect, is the object of the very continuance of
the earth — that all around is but a passing
pageant, or, as it were, a temporary framework
which w411 soon be swept away, and burnt up
as a scroll — while the souls of those who have
stood the trial flame, like gold tried in the
furnace, will be gathered into the bright abode
of heaven, there to glorify God through eternal

166 CIVILIZATION.

ages j once let ns learn to realize these great
truths of Scripture with a living faith — and
how will our views of earthly things bo
changed ! What a different estimate shall we
form of those things which now seem to us so
all-important ! How differently shall we view
our arts and inventions and science^ our com-
merce^ our activity and skill ! We shall not
despise them — far from it. We shall view
them in their true lights as so many means and
opportunities whereby GtOd's glory is to be
promoted_, and His name magnified^ and His
holy ones prepared for heaven.

PROGRESS OF IirSTORY^ ETC. 1(37

LETTER XXIII.

PROGRESS OF HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION.

Though I have written you a long letter on
Civilization, there remains one topic to which.
I have but lightly adverted, and to which I
must again call your attention ; because I do
not remember to have seen it elsewhere dis-
cussed, though it appears to me to have a
good deal of weight ; — that is the fact, that
Civilization seems to have advanced, j^art jja.55?(,
with History, just according to the ratio which
might have been anticipated. Supposing the
generally-received history of the world to be
in the main correct, the gradual development
of civilization appears to correspond with such
a supposition. There may have been greater
progress at some particular times than at
others, there may have been dark ages of
more or less duration, when civilization was
checked for a while, or even retrograded ; still
on the whole the progress of arts and science
and literature has been what we might have

168 PROGRESS OF HISTORY

expected in tlie time assigned. Indeed we
can trace with tolerable accuracy tlie course
wMcli it has taken from the earliest times
of the Egyptian and Babylonish kingdoms,
through the civilization of Greece and Eome,
its partial declension after the breaking up of
the Eoman empire, the bursting out of ener-
getic thought in the sixteenth century, and its
rapid development since that period. There
is not much unaccounted for. The Jewish
civilization and literature were exceptional,
and such as would hardly have grown up of
themselves. Chinese progress — or rather non-
progress — is an enigma; and it has puzzled
antiquarians to understand how the men who
lived in an unscientific age, could move such
ponderous weights as the massive structure of
Stonehenge. These, however, are minor diffi-
culties.

On the other hand, if we suppose that the
world is a great deal older than is generally
supposed — twice, three times, or infinitely
more than this, as some affirm — all our notions
of the progress of civilization become per-
plexed. The human mind has been of much
the same calibre formerly as now. When,
therefore, we see the wonderful progress of
art and science in our own century, and in our

AND CIVILIZATION. 169

own generation^ how can we account for the
tardy progress of discoveries in earlier times ?
If man lias lived upon tlie earth a great deal
longer than has been usually computed, why
did not arts and inventions take their rise
earlier ? Why were not rifled-cannon used
at the siege of Troy ? Why, instead of the
beacon-fires by which the capture of that city
was heralded to Greece, was there not a sub-
marine telegraph across the yEgean ? AVhy
have we not photographs of the great men of
ancient days ? Why were not j^rinting and
steam-engines long ago invented ?

It may be said that civilization was cut short
at the Deluge, and every thing began again,
except what had been acquired by Noah and
his sons. That is highly probable. But
that is not what some will consent to admit.
They rather dwell on an uninterrupted career
of progress from the state of savages, com-
mencing in unknown prehistoric antiquity;
and on that supposition it appears to me that
the civilization of the world, if we can at all
judge by the actual rate of progress, must
have advanced to the present state which we
witness around us at a very much earlier
period of the world's history. If we go by
the commonly-received Bible history, con-

170 PROGEESS OF HISTOEY

firmed as it is by otlier ancient histories wliicli
we possess, all seems easy to be understood. We
can trace eacli step in its due order. Tliougii
there may have been pauses, yet there is no
break in the chain of events. But on the
other supposition of uncounted ages every
thing seems perplexing and uncertain.

The same sort of feeling oppresses us if we
imagine the world and all that is in it ^o have
been existing from all eternity. How is it that
the inferior creation were so long in developing
themselves into vertebrates, and vertebrates
into mammalia, and mammalia into man ? Given
eternal ages for the process of development,
the higher order of beings must have come,
one would think, much sooner ; nay, they must
have always existed. There can have been no
date to the first organism, no cause for its
coming into being when it did, no accounting
for the period or mode of its first appearance,
or why it did not appear millions of ages
earlier. It is difficult to express our thoughts
on the subject; but on the supposition of
things having been going on progressing from
eternity, one would think that the highest
possible degree of progress must have been
attained, one cannot say when, but much an-
terior to any period of which we have the

AND CIVILIZATION. 171

remotest conception. These difficulties in
'' imaginative scieiice " seem inexplicable. The
Bible history, simply taken, explains all.

There are other manifest difficulties in re-
spect to the theory of progress from times
anterior to the historical. Professor Tyndal,
speaking of the theory of evolution from a
nebula, says, " The process must be slow that
commends the theory of natural evolution to
the public mind. Tor what ai"e the core and
essence of the hypothesis ? Strip it naked,
and then you stand face to face with the notion
that not alone the more ignoble forms of ani-
malcular and animal life, not alone the nobler
forms of the horse and lion, not alone the
exquisite and wonderful mechanism of the
human body, but that the human mind itself —
emotion, intellect, will, and all their pheno-
mena, were once latent in a fiery cloud. Surely
the mere statement of such a notion is more
than a refutation.''^ Still more violent would
seem the hypothesis that the human intellect
and affections, the mind of Plato, Shakespeare,
Newton, and Da Vinci, were contained in the
body of an ape. '' JModern scientific thought,^^
says the Professor, " is called upon to decide ! "
Professor Tyndal affords an admirable instance
of the great and noble sentiments of a philo-

172 PROGP.ESS O:? HISTORY, ETC.

soplier, conjoined with wliat I must term the
low views of a nineteenth-century man. Per-
fectly conversant with the lofty aspirations of
modern philosophy, and apparently not un-
acquainted with the Christian faith; able to
express the claims of each in most eloquent
language, he arrives at the poor conclusion,
that ""modern scientific thought is called upon
to decide between them.''^ Truly a most ig-
noble bathos, when we have the Word of the
Eternal God Himself to teach us the solution
of the question.

PfiOPIIECY AND ITS FULFILMENT. 173

LETTER XXIY.

PROPHECY AND ITS FULFILMENT.

In gatliering up our " Thoughts on the Bible/'
we must not omit to speak on Prophecy. It
is a wide subject, difficult to comprise in
moderate bounds. In fact, the whole of the
Old Testament is in a manner one great pro-
phecy, and the whole of the New Testament is
its fulfilment. The Incarnation of the Son of
God is the grand central fact of the world's
history to which all things both before and
after bear relation. From the first obscure
promise of a Saviour, when God declared that
the ''^seed of the woman should bruise the
serpent's head," down to the time of Malachi,
who announced, "Behold, I send My mes-
senger, and he shall prepare My way before
Me : and the Lord Whom ye seek shall sud-
denly come to His temple," all is more or less
a preparation for the greatest of all events,
the Incarnation of the Son of God, that He
might bring salvation to His people. The call

174 PEOPHECY AND ITS FULFILLMENT.

of Abraliam_, and the promise tliat in his seed
all the families of the earth should be blessed —
the same promise repeated to Isaac and Jacob
— the significant ordinance of the Passover,
prefiguring the salvation of God's people by
the blood of Chpjst, the bringing in of the
chosen nation to the promised land, typical of
the progress towp.rds heaven of God's elect —
the whole scope and object of the ceremonial
law — the sin-offering, the burnt-ofi'ering, the
lOGace-ofifering, the scape-goat, all emblematic
of the one great Sacrifice on the Cross, the
selection of the royal line of David ; then the
volume of the ancient prophets, in which are
gradually unrolled all the great events of our
Saviour's life and character and ministry ; thh
constant allusion to the spiritual kingdom
which He would found upon the earth by the
union of the remnant of the faithful Israelites
with the Gentile nations under Messiah the
Prince : the various circumstances of His life
and ministry sometimes plainly and unequi-
vocally predicted, sometimes more obscurely
adumbrated, yet every where present to the
faithful mind — the Branch that should spring
from the decayed root of Jesse, the ensign set
up on a hill to which the Gentiles should be
rallied — the blessings of God's promised king-

PKOPIIECY AND ITS FULFILMENT. 175

dom — Gvoiy page of prophecy^ in short, teeiii-
inp^ with plain declaration, wliicli lie who ran
might read ; or with allusions, and hints, and
coincidences in which pious minds recognized
intimations of the one great subject, the coming
of the Lord — these, more or less, pervade the
whole substance of the Old Testament ; and thus
it is not too much to say that the whole of that
Ancient Book is one continued prophecy of
the Incarnation.

Yes, and the whole of the New Testament,
and all history down to the present time is one
continued record of the fulfilment of prophecy
— the Incarnation of the Son of God, and the
gathering in of the nations to His Kingdom ;
the miraculous Birth; the life and ministry of
our Lord ; the preaching of the Gospel to the
poor ; the healing of the broken-hearted ; the
deliverance of the captives of sin — then His
death on the Cross, when He was led as a
lamb to the slaughter, and the minute circum-
stances of His Crucifixion, His glorious Re-
surrection, and the dispensation of the Gospel
to the world ; the spread of His Kingdom from
land to land ; the change wrought in the moral
and social condition of mankind; the over-
throw of ancient heathendom ; the gathering
in of the nations one by one — nay, each indi-

176 PROPHECY AND ITS FULFILMENT.

vidual soul wliicli is saved from sin and death,
and added to the number of the elect_, — all
these form one continued fulfilment of the
prophecies which had been delivered concern-
ing the Incarnation of the Son of God.

The opponents of religion ignore this, uni-
versal testimony of prophecy, and raise cavils
against this or that prediction which seems to
them obscure or inapplicable, whereas the
great weight of prophecy depends on the ac-
cumulated mass of evidence ever developing
itself more and more through all ages of the
world — the concentration of all history upoij
the one great fact of Eevelation, the coming
in the flesh of the Son of God. Not but that
there are many plain and undeniable pro-
phecies_, the weight of which_, independently of
the rest, is irresistible to a candid mind. It is
impossible in one letter to do any thing like
justice to the innumerable single predictions
which might be cited. I must content myself
with adverting to some few topics which ap-
pear to me of undeniable cogency.

First, the prophecies relating to the charac-
ter of the Messiah. Turn first to the ninth
chapter of Isaiah, " Unto us a Child is born,
unto us a son is given : and the government
shall be upon His shoulder : and His name shall

PROPHECY AND ITS FULFILMENT. 177

bo called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Miglity
God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace." Turn next to the fifty-third chapter
of Isaiah, in which the Messiah is described in
such different characters as " despised and
rejected of men; a man of sorroAvs and ac-
quainted with grief . . . wounded for our trans-
gressions, and bruised for our iniquities." Nay,
this apparently contradictory character is given
in the very same prediction, " He shall see of
the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. I will
divide Him a portion with the great, and He
shall divide the spoil with the strong ; because
He hath poured out His soul in death." No
one ever lived upon the earth who has realized,
or could by possibility realize, these predictions
except the man Jesus Christ, who was per-
secuted and rejected by His fellow-countrymen,
and now is risen from the dead and reigns far
above all principalities and powers, God in
heaven above, nay, is recognized by the civil-
ized world as King of Kings, and Lord of
Lords.

This will lead to the other two topics of
which I propose to speak; and the peculiar
force of these prophecies, to which I am about
to advert, is that they are such as we may
verify for om'selves by our own personal know-

N

178 PROPHECY AND ITS PULPILMENT.

ledge — I mean the respective fortunes of the
Jewish and the Christian Churches. Take
first the case of the Jews. It was distinctly
foretold of this nation that their prosperity or
adversity should depend on their faithfulness
or unfaithfulness to the Divine Kuler; and
the whole course of their history, its vicissi-
tudes of good or evil, correspond exactly with
the prediction. Specially, the very mode of
their singular judgment was predicted. " The
LoED, said Moses, shall scatter thee amongst
all nations from one end of the earth to
another .... and among these nations thou
shalt have no ease, neither shall the sole of
thy foot have rest.^' And in another place,
^^ I will bring thy land to desolation, and your
enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished
at it, and I will scatter you among the heathen."
'Ho one can be ignorant how exactly and lite-
rally this prophecy has been fulfilled in respect
to the people of the Jews. There is not a
nation under heaven in which there are not
to be found representatives of the Jewish race,
still maintaining their ancient customs, a pecu-
liar people distinct from those amongst whom
they sojourn.

Not less evident and remarkable is the
fortune of the Christian Church. Our Lord

PROPHECY AND ITS FULFILMENT. 179

appeared in humble station, and avowed Him-
self as the founder of a new religion. By force
of His Divine power and holy character He
gathered round Him a few lowly disciples, and
before He departed from them Ho gave them
the unheard-of commission, that they should
go and teach all nations, baptizing them in
the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost : and this without a shadow
of doubt of its accomplishment. Many times
also during His ministry He spoke with the
most perfect confidence of the success of His
undertaking. Every parable almost is a pro-
phecy. He compares His kingdom which He
was founding to leaven working in meal till
the whole was leavened, to a grain of mustard
seed which should grow into a wide -spreading
tree. In the parable of the sower He describes
the very manner in which His teaching would
be received. All this is in exact accordance
with the predictions of the older prophets in
which the glories of the Messiah^s Kingdom
are so graphically described. Cast yom' eyes
HOW over the world, and see the evident ful-
filment of the prediction, so improbable in
itself, and yet so undeniable. The whole civi-
lized world acknowledges the dominion of the
Crucified — the whole framework of modern
N 2

180 PROPHECY AND ITS FULFIL^IEI^T.

society is built on the faitli of Christ. No
doubt there are drawbacks. There are stub-
born superstitions yet to be subdued — and
some even amongst ourselves who do not
believe. Yet when we see that the world
is being overspread with colonists from Chris-
tian states^ we can come to no other conclu-
sion but that the religion of Christ is destined
to be spread throughout the world_, and that
in every nation they that believe will be
saved.

There are those who speak of the decay of
Christianity. But let me point out only two
facts in the history of the Eastern and Western
ChmThes. Since the division of the East and
West^ the former Church has converted to the
faith the whole of the vast empire of Russia,
while the Western Church has spread its
missions over whole continents. North Ame-
rica, South America, Australia, New Zealand,
now rank among Christian nations. Nor is it
too sanguine to hope and believe that a new
energy has been kindled amongst om^selves,
which in spite of the contradiction of sinners^
bids fair not only to maintain, but to spread
more widely the kingdom of Christ.

RIDICULE. 181

LETTER XXV.

RIDICULE.

To come now to practical matters. It is a very
"bad habit^ wliicli some people have, and these
not always wilfully bad people, of making jokes
about the Bible, silly puns about Scriptural
names, ridiculous jests about Scriptural in-
cidents. One evil result of such irreverent
proceedings is that one can never, all one's life
afterwards, hear the name or the incident
without the danger of the unseemly jest recur-
ring to the mind, and provoking a smile in the
most solemn moment. People who make such
jests ought to be aware that it is one of the
poorest attempts at wit — the stupidest persons
can catch some foolish jingle of words, and turn
them into a pun.

Something akin to this is the common habit
which some newspaper writers have of inter-
larding their articles with irreverent allusions
to the Holy Scriptures. AVhen the matter is
serious, and the Scriptural allusions apposite,

182 ■ RIDICULE.

they may be used with, propriety and efifect —
but an allusion to Scripture brought forward in
connexion with some trivial matter causes a
painful feeling. One pictures to oneself what
sort of man the writer is — what his antecedents :
one imagines him to be the son of pious
parents^ one whose childhood was nurtured in
holy ways_, at least in the knowledge of holy
things^ and carefully taught the Bible ; but now
mixed up with the worlds and fallen into evil
courses^ he makes use of the familiar language
and thoughts in which he was trained, only
to give point to his satire by some irreverent
sentence, or by some unsuitable collocation.
One cannot but feel sorry for the man. But of
course the worst class of the ridiculers of the
Holy Scriptures are those who of malicious
purpose endeavour to turn holy things into
ridicule. It is a principle of human nature, and
not of human nature only — the almost universal
desire to bring others to the same way of
thinking as ourselves. In good men this is not
to be wondered at, because if a man sincerely
believes that he has found the truth, and has a
good hope of everlasting happiness, it is quite
natural that he should be anxious to communi-
cate to others also the same bright hopes and
glorious privileges. But for those who have

RIDICULE. 1 83

no sucli liope — those who have no faith in the
blessed Gospel — no belief in a Saviour, for
such as these to endeavour to rob their fellow-
men of their faith and hope, and bring them
into the same state of misery and unbelief with
themselves, is a strange phenomenon, re-
minding one most forcibly of the arch-fiend
himself, who, having lost heaven, endeavours
to draw others into the same miserable state
with himself.

Perhaps the most unaccountable thing is that
sceptics of all men should have this propensity.
By sceptics I understand those men who profess
themselves to be in doubt, and to be making
inquiry after truth. They are a very un-
accountable class of men. One can imagine a
person at some period of his life to have doubts
of the truth of the Bible, or of parts of it.
But some sceptics are men whose profes-
sion is to go on doubting to the end of
their lives, never making up their minds, but
questioning every thing, doubting every thing.
This is in itself a strange state of mind to be
in : but what is still more remarkable is, that
these men often should take a sort of malicious
pleasure in unsettling the minds of others.

One common weapon of the infidel in endea-
vouring to draw others from the faith is the

184 EIDICULE.

use of ridicule. Ridicule is one of the most
efficient weapons for attacking* the truth of
the Bible. But what, let us inquire^ is the
cause of the efficiency of this weapon ? The
sole cause of its mischievous power is the
weakness and supineness of the generality of
mankind, and their ignorance of the real
weakness of the enemies of truth. One of
the writers of the " Essays and Reviews "
arguing against prophecy, says, — " If our
German (Baron Bunsen) had ignored all that
the masters of philosophy have proved on these
subjects, his countrymen would have raised
such a storm of ridicule, that he must have
drowned himself in the Neckar.^^ So for fear
of being laughed at the sceptic must renounce
principles which have been accepted by Chris-
tians of all ages — some of them the most able
and learned. But in truth ridicule is no argu-
ment, but a mere delusive substitute for it. It
is like the flag fastened at the end of a lance
which flutters in the breeze and scares the
coward, but has no danger for those who have but
the firmness to withstand it. Just so, ridicule
frightens and abashes the timid man, and
exposes him to the danger of being overthrown
and wounded, but has no force or efficacy

against him who has the sense and firmness to

RIDICULE. 185

resist. It is, in reality, a pointless weapon.
Imagine a man being laughed out of liis re-
ligion, scared out of his hopes of heaven, by
somesilly sarcasm like that we have just quoted.
The very use of ridicule is an argument against
him who uses it ; for in every sincere argument
or deliberation between man and man, where
truth is the object, ridicule is left out of the
question. It is therefore plain that it is for no
good purpose of discovering truth when the
power of ridicule is applied to things far too
serious to be spoken of otherwise than with
sober sincerity. We may always, therefore,
suspect the sincerity of the man who uses this
weapon against religion. It is not fair and
open warfare. Ridicule, forcible as it is in
dealing with those who know not its weakness,
is but an apology for argument ; and we may
conclude that, when ridicule is used, no sound
argument is to be found. It is only when other
arguments have failed that ridicule is brought
up as a reserve, and truth which cannot be
refuted is attempted to be laughed at.

Again, it is against holy and sacred subjects
especially that ridicule is most successful. The
more holy and sacred things are, the more effect
will ridicule have on weak and unstable minds.
When a subject is really grave and serious, it

186 EIDICULE.

needs no cleverness_, notlimg but boldness and
impudence^ to display tlie contrast. I argue^
therefore, tliat tlie very fact of a subject being
easily turned into ridicule is a proof of its real
seriousness and solemnity; because such, sub-
jects are precisely those which are most easily
ridiculed. It requires no wit or cleverness to
ridicule the Holy Scriptures. Any foolish
person may make jokes about the Bible. But
as any foolish person can ridicule things holy
and sacred, so those persons are themselves
generally foolish, weak, and unstable, to whom
holy things appear ridiculous. The wise man
perceives the fallacy, the good man is shocked.
It is only because too many men are neither
good nor wise, but weak, foolish, and wicked,
that the power of ridicule, when applied to holy
things, is so dangerous as it is.

For obvious reasons I cannot give illustrations
of the argument, but must beg you to consider
it as it stands.

UNBELIEF SCErTICISM. 187

LETTER XXYI.

UNBELIEF — SCEPTICISM.

There is a notion witli some that belief or
unbelief are not of a moral natm-e, tlie conse-
quence of clioice, but are to every man neces-
sary and unavoidable. Wben a proposition,
say tliey_, is presented to the mind, a man be-
lieves or disbelieves it according as the thing
appears to him probable or improbable, true
or false. He is not responsible for the way in
which it strikes him, or for the judgment which
he forms. And therefore, they argue, belief
cannot be the object of God^s approbation, nor
unbelief- of His displeasure — much less can
faith be the ground of everlasting reward, and
the want of it of eternal punishment.

All this, as I need scarcel}^ point out, is
directly contrary to the Bible, in which faith is
commended and approved, and spoken of as
that whereby we please God. Justification
from sin, pardon for our offences, and eventual
salvation, are promised as its consequences.

1 88 UNBELIEF SCEPTICISM.

Unbelief, on tlie other hand, is censured and
forbidden, and threatened with punishment.
'^ If ye believe not that I am He/' said Christ,
^^ye shall die in your sins." "He that be-
lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he
that believeth not shall not see life.'' S. Paul
in a very solemn manner cautions the brethren :
" Take heed," he says, " lest there be in any of
you an evil heart of unbelief."

A very slight consideration will suffice to
show us that the objection results from the
most superficial reasoning, and from an entire
ignorance of the mechanism of the human in-
tellect. Man's reason is not like a balance
which weighs with strict exactness that which
is presented to it ; on the contrary, it is biassed
one way or another by a variety of consi-
derations. The feelings, the affections, the
passions, the acquired habits, the imagination,
the taste, interest, hope, fear, caprice, vanity —
all these influence the reason in its decision.
Therefore, in order to secure a right judgment,
all our various faculties ought to be in a sound
and healthy condition ; at least there should be
no disturbing force so powerful as to displace
reason from her tribunal.

Hence it is evident that reason, if not itself
a moral faculty, yet is dependent on those

UNBELIEF SCEPTICISM. 1 89

moral faculties over wliicli each man has con-
trol, for the due exercise of its functions ; and
its decision will be in accordance with the moral
character of each man — fair or unfair, honest
or dishonest, rash or prudent, wise or unwise,
according as the man himself is partaker of one
or other of these qualities.

And therefore each man is responsible for
the judgment w^hich he forms. If a conclusive
argument or well-attested fact is presented to
a person, and, through prejudice or passion, or
wilfulness, he will not believe it, he is con-
sidered by eveiy one to be responsible for his
unbelief. It is no valid excuse to say that he
could not help disbelieving it. We see constant
examples in which the plainest evidence is set
aside, the clearest language distorted, by those
who are determined to maintain their own
views at any cost. When once a proud,
bigoted, or interested man, or knot of men
(for that is always worse) have taken up one
side of a question, not all the powers of argu-
ment and evidence will move them to acknow-
ledge their error and receive the truth. Are
they, then, irresponsible for their error ? Do
we not justly blame them for their culpable
blindness ? The w^orld, at any rate, makes
very little allowance for those who come to

190 UNBELIEF SCEPTICISM.

misfortune from tlieir own wilfulness. If a
man about to cross a river sees a notice tliat
it is dangerous to pass^ but tliinks be knows
better, and disbelieves it_, and is drowned, all
persons will acknowledge that be lost bis life
tbrouofb bis own wilfulness. If a man embarks
bis fortune in a foolisb speculation, in spite of
tbe advice and remonstrances of bis friends,
and so ruins bimself and bis family, it is not
beld to be sufficient excuse tbat be did not
believe bis friends, but tbougbt bimself wiser.
If a good fatber warns bis son against tbe errors
of youtb, and tells bim tbat if be yields to tbem
be will bitterly rue bis folly, but tbe foolisb
youtb imagines tbat be can enjoy tbe pleasures
of sin for a season, and repent wben be cbooses ;
and it falls out, as it does witb tbousands,
tbat sin once admitted acquires a bold from
wbicb be never escapes, would any one say tbat
bis punisbment was undeserved ? Tbe wbole
practice of tbe world illustrates tbe fact tbat
belief or unbelief are in a great measure moral
qualities, and tbat men are beld responsible for
tbem, and for all tbe consequences, good or evil,
wbicb result from tbem.

Tbe same principle applies to tbe acceptance
or non-acceptance of revealed trutb. God sends
His Son witb a message of mercy to mankind.

UNBELIEF SCEPTICISM. 101

warning them of the dangers of sin, declaring
to them the certain consequences of persisting
in it, and at the same time revealing to them
the way of pardon and salvation. On what
conceivable ground, when summoned to the
bar of judgment, can we set up the plea for our
continuance in sin, that we did not believe our
danger, nor see how the Gospel could help us.
Will not the justice of God be made manifest
before saints and angels when He declares to us
at the last day that we are condemned by reason
of our unbelief ?

Moreover, unbelief is connected in the Bible
with " an evil heart." " Take heed,'' says St.
Paul, '' lest there be in any of you an evil heart
of unbelief.'' This is a difficult topic. What !
some will exclaim, do you mean to say that
every one who cannot accept the doctrine of
the Bible must needs be a bad, evil-hearted
man ? I do not think that the proposition can
be laid down quite so broadly as this, but I
fear that the qualification of it which I would
admit will be equally unpalatable to some of
the men of this generation. If I were to say
that some who do not believe might escape on
the plea of invincible ignorance, or insuperable
prejudice, I should not mend the matter in their
\'iew. However, I think the doctrine may be

192 UNBELIEF — SCEPTICISM.

rendered more palatable^ in this way: — as it
can never be supposed tbat men living in coun-
tries remote from tlie preacbing of the Gospel
— Mabometans, Buddbists^ or otber beatben
nations wbo bave never beard tbe Word
preacbed — will be condemned for unbelief, so
one may imagine tbat in tbis country tbere may
be men even of education, nay, very clever men,
so bampered by tbe associations wbicb surround
tbem, so environed witb a particular tone of
tbougbt, wbicb bas prejudiced tbem against
revelation, tbat tbey bave never, so to speak,
bad a fair cbance of bebeving. And yet, to
set against tbis, it may be said tbat in tbis
Christian country no man can bear tbe cburcb
bells sound without kno^dng tbat it is a call
to him to serve God. It is not for us to make
excuses for the scepticism of men of tbe present
day, neither are we called on to pass judgment
on them.

However, in reference to tbe connexion of
an evil heart with unbelief I would earnestly
request any one who is conscious of a spirit of
scepticism within him to ponder on tbe fol-
lowing considerations. Take, first, the case of
a man wbo bas given way to sin. Tbe pure
religion of Christ sets itself against all sin
without exception. Therefore they who will

UNBELIEF SCErTICISM. 193

not give up their sins are predisposed against
the Gospel. A man who has contracted evil
habits, who knows he has contracted them, but
has not the will or energy to shake them from
him, even though he knows full well that the
Bible pronounces condemnation against them,
such a man is tempted to cherish a secret
scepticism, as a last hope of escaping eternal
misery. Too wicked or too irresolute to seek
God's mercy, he ventures to impeach His truth,
and adopt the monstrous absurdity that the
Ruler of the universe either cannot or will not
punish sin. He strives, like the foolish ostrich,
to escape the destruction that awaits him by
blinding his eyes against it.

And not only does flagrant immorality thus
bring with it a temptation to scepticism, but
many other things w^hich are equally contrary
to the holiness of God's law — inordinate ambi-
tion, covetousness, a life given to pleasure, or
excitement, or slothfulness, or selfishness — all
these things bias the mind of a man against
religion. He feels that God's Word condemns
them, therefore he is prejudiced against it ; he
does not give himself a fair chance of believing
it. If indeed his heart is touched by the spirit
of repentance, then the prejudice is removed —
he discovers that the promises of God's Word are

0

194 UNBELIEF SCEPTICISM.

exactly what his soul requires. But while he is
obdurate andimpenitent^or careless and worldly,
there is^ as it were^ a premium on unbelief.

Again^ there is no surer evidence of an evil
heart than ingratitude. The Christian believes-
that the Gospel is the most transcendent in-
stance of goodness and mercy that can be-
imagined. That God should send His Son^
and that He should voluntarily offer Himself^
to die for the sins of men is, in his view_, an
exhibition of loving-kindness so exalted that-
the devotion of his life and every faculty to-
GoD^s service will be an inadequate return.
But I apprehend that there are many persons
in the present day who really have never given,
themselves the trouble seriously to consider
the claims which God has on them ; they are
so careless and indifferent that they have never
thought much about it. Knowing all the while
what is the behef of Christians_, aware that the
best men amongst whom they live are believers,
in the wondrous love of God, yet they dare to
disregard it, and, in their folly, put it from them
almost mthout a thought. The most astonish-
ing act of goodness ever conceived, nay, almost
beyond conception, they are so insane, so un-
grateful as to disregard. Perhaps some frivo-
lous objection has presented itself to their

UNBELIEF — SCEPTICISM. 195

mind, some sneer at God's ministers, some
fancied difficulty ; or it may be some subtle in-
fidel lias poisoned their minds, and they pass
by the wondrous love of God as scarce worthy
of their consideration.

^ And it is very remarkable how slight the
difference is between scepticism and confirmed
infidelity. Scepticism, as interpreted by those
who avow themselves sceptics, is a state of
doubt, inquiry, free thought, and so forth.
Well, if a man has doubts, let him set about
to solve them ; and if he does so in honest
sincerity God will help him in his task. But
this is, I fear, seldom the course adopted.
Sceptics never seem to come to an end of their
inquiries, or to solve their doubts. Scepticism
is a chronic disease; persons infected by it
seldom emancipate themselves from their un-
happy state, but live and die doubting, and
awake only to certainty. ^^He who doubts,''
says Paschal, '^ but seeks not to have his
doubts removed, is at once the most criminal
and the most unhappy of mortals. If together
with this he is tranquil and self-satisfied, or
makes his state a topic of mu^th and self-
gratulation, I have not words to describe so
insane a creature '." I cannot but think that
^ Quoted from Newman's " Grammar of Assent."
02

,,196 UNBELIEF SCEPTICIS:iI.

this describes tlie state of most sceptics. Tliey
liave never seriously considered tlie position in
wliicli tliey are placed. " With a light heart ^^
they encounter the most tremendous peril;
and, if the belief of the civilized world proves
true, they will find themselves irretrievably
lost, without a hope of recovery.

WANT OP FIRMNESS OP FAITH. 197

LETTER XXYII.

AVAXT OF FIRMNESS OF FAITH.

The conservation of energy, says Mrs. Somer-
villoj on the authority of Professor Faraday,,
" is a principle in pliysics as large and sure as
that of the indestructibihty of matter or the
invariability of gravity. No hypothesis should
be admitted nor any assertion of a fact credited,
that denies this principle. No view should be
inconsistent or incompatible with it. Many of
our hypotheses in the present state of science
may not comprehend it, and may be unable to
suggest its consequences; but none should
oppose or contradict it.''^ That is to say, if a
theory or principle has been established beyond
a question, and any facts should be discovered
which seem to contradict it, " so much the
worse for the facts. ^^ Well, I am disposed to
go along with Mrs. Somerville in the state-
ment, if only she will extend her principle to
other matters. There are no doubt some prin-
ciples in science established • on so indisputable

198 WANT OF FIEMHESS OF FAITH.

a basis, tliat tliey are part of one^s intellectual
self, and if any facts should appear to con-
tradict them, we should at once be sure that
there was some mistake. There is a time
when a sufficient induction or testimony or
experiment or other evidence has been ad-
duced to confirm a point so absolutely that we
at once disregard any objection which may be
brought against it. For instance, we have no
doubt whatever that the earth moves round on
its own axis, though to all appearance it is the
sun that moves. I fully admit the theory
enunciated by Professor Faraday, and adopted
by Mrs. Somerville, and allow that when a
principle is really established on such grounds
as to approve itself undeniably to the mind
and conscience, then ^' no hypothesis should be
admitted, nor any assertion of a fact credited,
that denies the principle.''^

Apply now this principle to Revelation. We
receive on undoubted authority — the authority
of God Himself, Who cannot err — the great
facts and doctrines of our Faith. We have as
firm belief in them as in our own existence. They
are the principles of our life. We believe that
God commissioned His prophets and apostles,
and lastly His very Son Himself, to reveal to
us the Gospel, in order that it might be the

WANT OF FIRMNESS OF FAITK. 199

guide of our life, and the guarantee of our
immortality. We believe that the Eevelation
of GoD^s Word rests on such a sure foundation
that it cannot be moved. Are we not then,
on the very principles of Science itself, justified
in disregarding any possible objection which
may be made to it ? Ought any facts or argu-
ments to weigh one feather^s weight against
the settled conviction of our minds and con-
sciences, that the Bible is the Word of God,
and all contained in it is true ? May we not,
on ])^^^^osopliical 2^^'i^ici/ples even, put aside as
irrelevant all such objections — and entertain
not the smallest doubt that the day will come
when all philosophic difficulties will be found
to be perfectly consistent with God^s revealed
Ti^uth ?

" 0 that theologians [and other Christians
too] had one-tenth of the faith of the men of
science,^^ lately said a Member of Convocation.
There are those who declare that no argument
on earth should induce them to believe a
miracle. May not the Christian assert with
equal or tenfold energy that no power on earth
could induce him to disbelieve the truth of
the Gospel. There have been those who have
felt and maintained this principle. Tliere have
been saints and martyrs who have yielded

200 WAXT OF PIEMNESS OF FAITH.

their bodies to tlie flame and axe, rather than
renounce their faith, '^^ youths who have defied
pagan tyrants, maidens who were silent under
torture," of whom the world was not worthy.

Alas, where is this firm practical faith to be
found in the present day ? If persecution should
arise, no doubt there would be some martyrs
found. But if we are to judge from the
course of events, this heroic faith has too
generally degenerated into inconsistency and
compromise, if it be not well nigh extinct
upon the earth. It is a strange phenome-
non, the persistency and energy with which
the opponents of the Church, and of reli-
gion altogether, push their pernicious opinions,
and the tameness and weakness with which
the friends of religion submit to their dicta-
tion.

As a well-known churchman has said, there
seems to be " no backbone " in the present
generation — no fixed determination to stand
up for the Truth. There is no lack of zeal
of a certain sort — zeal in building churches,
multiplying services and the like. But of that
particular zeal which consists in contending
earnestly for the faith once delivered to the
saints, there is a sad deficiency. Men are so
afraid of being called bigots and narrow

WANT OF FIRMNESS OF FAITH. 201

miudedj that they are ready to give up or
compromise what they know to be the Truth.

Perhaps there is no one thing which has
more surely caused the spread of infidelity
amongst persons of ordinary education, than
the absurd deference paid to men simply
because they are clever, even though they are
professed unbelievers. For my own part, I
have advisedly spoken my mind in these letters.
Without deviating as I trust from the line of
Christian courtesy and charity, I have not
hesitated to speak of the clever sceptic as a
most mistaken and unhappy person, and much
to be avoided by all those who wish to live
and die in the Christian Faith.

202 CONCLUSION.

LETTETl XXYIII.

CONCLUSION.

And now, my good friend, I am bringing my
series of letters to a conclusion. You will, I
fear^ think them rather desultory. But re-
member I am not writing a formal treatise_,
but rather such observations as I trust you
and your friends may find useful for the pre-
sent time.

As a general and most consolatory rule, we
may take to ourselves the saying of our Loed,
'^ If any man will do His will, he shall know of
the doctrine, whether it be of God/^ It is not
so much learning, or skill, or ability, it is not
the criticism of a clever intellect, which will
enable men to learn God^s truths ; for you see,
alas ! constant examples of men of very high
intellect — not perhaps the highest — making
shipwreck of their faith and falling into direst
heresies. Strange that men should be cursed
by their very intellect — that the very power of
reasoning which God has given them in order

CONCLUSION. 203

tliat they might understand His will should be
employed to discover cavils and objections.
Yet so, alas ! it is. Tlic chief heresies which
have vexed the Church, and which still vex it,
have been the product of great but irregular
intellects, following their own vain fancies
unaided by the Spirit of Truth; while the
humble and holy men of heart have pursued
the safe and even tenor of their way, and lived
and died in the sanctuary of God's Church.
The best judges 'of truth and right doctrine
have ever been those who, with an honest and
upright heart, endeavour to do the will of God.
It is not learning or intellect which will save a
man from error or loss, but humble obedience
to God's will.

Our lot is cast in perilous times. We need
not fear that God will desert His Church or
suffer it to be destroyed. But though God's
Church is safe from falling by virtue of His
gracious promise, yet there may be great peril
to individual souls. There seems to be just
now a passing cloud floating over us, which
has exercised an unwholesome inflaence over
the practical mind of England. Such cloudy
obscurations are, in a manner, epidemic and
temporary, like the cholera or any other malig-
nant plague or pestilence. The pestilence -

204 CONCLUSION.

comes aud goes_, carrying off many indi-
viduals^ but leaving tlie community at large
little affected by it^ and after the pestilence
lias passed away it is perhaps in a more
liealtliy state than it was before. As the
cholera sweeps off the drunkard_, the dis-
solute_, those of enfeebled frame_, or those who
rashly and needlessly expose themselves to its
infection; while those of healthy frame com-
monly remain intact ; just so the epidemic of
scejDticism which is now hovering amongst us_,
may^ it is to be feared^ ruin many souls — un-
stable_, diseased^ ill-conditioned souls_, those
who are evil livers in any way_, the proud and
conceited^ those who despise or neglect prayer
and other safeguards ; while the sound in heart,
the consistent doers of God^s will_, we may
hope will not only remain safe, but perchance
be better for the temptation resisted.

Most of us must have had more or less
brought before our notice the topics of the day
concerning Holy Scripture and the doctrines of
our faith. We cannot help reading them in
the current literature, newspapers, reviews,
pamphlets, and books of passing events. I
fear there are few who are so fortunate as not
to have had placed before them the doubts and
difficulties of vain and unstable men. But it is

CONCLUSION. 205

what wc might have beeu led to expect hj the
prophetic words of the Apostle: "Evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, de-
cciviug and being deceived."

In these and other ways doubts about the
truth of Holy Scripture are busily promulgated
in the present day. The question is, how we
should treat these matters— what notice we
should take of them, if any. Are they such as
should cause us any anxiety or disturbance of
mind ? We have been accustomed to walk in
the faith of our fathers, to accept the teaching
of the Church. These modern objections are
not of our seeking — nay, rather they are annoy-
ing and disagreeable to us. We know full
well the holy influence of Christian faith. We
have seen those dear to us depart to their rest
in the faith and fear of God. We have followed
their remains to the grave, and joined in the
consolatory expression of sure and certain hope
of the resurrection to eternal life. We our-
selves hope for the same happy end, and humbly
follow the same religious course. We believe
surely that the precepts of Christ are holy,
just, and pure — and that in proportion as men
live in accordance with them they are better
and happier. We have ourselves experienced,
it may be, the happy effects of Christian prin-

206 CONCLUSION.

ciple in lielping us to overcome tlie temptation
to anger J bitterness^ or evil passion. We are
satisfied — we want no change — our hope is,
God helping us, to live a life of godliness and
honesty in the faith of Christ, and attain to
happiness hereafter.

But then come in these doubts and dijBficulties,
which cross our path and force themselves on
our notice, it may be in conversation or in some
book or newspaper. What are we to do ? Are
we to ignore and pass them by, or are we to
set to work to find out for ourselves whether
there is any foundation for them ? We have
neither time nor inclination for the last. The
study necessary for the thorough investigation
of the matter is far beyond our power, unless
we were to give up all other occupation. First,
we should have to read the Holy Scripture in
the original, if we wished to satisfy ourselves of
its exact meaning. We know something of
Greek, it may be, but not a word of Hebrew.
Then, if we would make things quite certain,
we must collate the difierent manuscripts which
are in existence in order to discover which is
the true reading : and for that purpose we
must travel to distant countries, and visit tho
libraries where these manuscripts are preserved.
This sort of study in itself requires the life of

CONCLUSION. 207

any luau — and without this we 'laust take the
testimony of others who have given their lives
to the work. Then we should have to enter
minutely into the conflicting and ever shifting
theories of science — we must investigate the
strata of the earth — inspect this or that fossil,
and judge for ourselves whether it is genuine
or fictitious. Without giving our life to this
sort of study we cannot after all attain to
certainty about it, because science itself is still
in its infancy, geology is very imperfectly un-
derstood— there are millions of worlds, pro-
bably, of w^hich the finest telescope yet made
has not been able to discover the distance, or
even existence ; and the wonderful power of the
microscope has just begun to open up a new
field of inquiry about the origin and conditions
of life.

It is absolutely impossible for men, even of
intelligence and education, who are engaged in
the ordinary business of the world to investigate
these matters for themselves — and therefore the
simple question with each one must be, am I
safe in directing my life according to what I
have received and been assured of as being the
Word of God — what the Church of eighteen
hundred years and what the Church of my bap-
tism has received from ancient times as beino:

208 CONCLUSION.

tlie true doctrine wMcli God has revealed to
man ? May I receive tlie testimony whicli God
lias given of His Son, may I believe tlie tes-
timony of Apostles and Evangelists who lived
daily with our blessed Loed — saw all His mira-
cles— heard His gracious words — and laid down
their lives in attestation of their sincerity ? —
Am I safe in receiving and acting upon this
testimony, and living and dying a Christian?
or should I be safe if I adopted a contrary
course ?

I think there can be but one answer to these
questions — let us live according to the Bible, and
not be led astray by the doubts, and difficulties,
and cavils which thoughtless and ungodly men
are so unwise or wicked as to promulgate. If
we can answer difficulties and explain objec-
tions, well : but if not, let us not be disturbed.
Let us do our duty to God and our neighbour,
and, though we cannot help in the priesent
evil state of society having our ears shocked
by cavils and blasphemies, let us only pray
that God will change the hearts of those who
utter them. Thus a man of good, honest,
religious life may be safe against the contagion
of doubt and infidelity, and need not be soli-
citous to answer cavils. Difficulties he knows
there must be so long as we live in this im-

CONCLUSION. 209

perfect state of being. But he has no doubt
that all will be cleared up hereafter. He knows
in Whom he puts his "trusty and may be sure
that his hope rests upon a good foundation. He
finds such strength in the love of Christ^ as
enables him to overcome the world with all
its sin and vanities. "Who is he," says the
Apostle, '^Hhat overcometh the world, but he
that bclieveth that Jesus is the Son of God V
The evil lusts and passions of the flesh are sub-
dued before the Power that dwelleth in him.
He is begotten again into a lively hope. He
knows that his prayers are heard — that God
is his friend. He looks forward with a sure
hope and confidence to a blessed futurity of
happiness with God in heaven, after the pains
and trials of this mortal life are over. Such is the
assurance of the true believer. "He has the
witness in himself." He has no need of exter-
nal evidence ; however necessary such evidence
may be to some, he has got beyond that stage
of faith. Christ is formed ^-ithin him — a new
heart and a sure hope are given him.

If any one who reads these lines is still in
doubt, let him lose no time in solving the great
question on which all depends. First let hin
put from him every thing which he knows i^
sinful in God^s sight (for it is sin that chiefly

P

210 CONCLUSION.

hinders faitli) . Let Mm put from him all known
sin^ and humbly pray for enlightenment^ using
such means as are within the scope of his
ability^ and if he sets to work with an honest
and true heart_, a real desire to know what is
rights let him be sure that the Holy Spirit
will aid his infirmities enlighten his under-
standing, and lead him in the way of Truth.

POSTSCRIPT — DARWINISM. 211

POSTSCRIPT.

DARWINISM.

Since writing the above I liavo read ''''Tlie
Descent of Man/^ by Charles Darwin^ on which
I think it necessary to make a few remarks.

First,, let me advert to a mutual complaint
made by men of science^ and men of reli-
gion^ especially the clergy^ against each other.
Scientific men complain that the clergy do not
enter into their theories, and attempt to put
them down by dogmatism. The clergy, on the
other hand, complain that men of science have
not the least regard for the revelation of the
Bible; and if any thing occurs in the Bible
which contradicts their views, they set it aside
summarily as unworthy of consideration. Now
contempt and dogmatism on either side are
misplaced. Let each party speak respectfully
of the other. At the same time let them not
fall into the opposite error of pretending an
admiration which they do not really feel. That
is a greater mistake, if possible, than the other,
p 2

212 POSTSCRIPT DARWINISM.

An excellent modern writer, speaking of Renan,
says, ^^ No one is raore ready than I am to do
justice to tlie extraordinary literary merits of the
Vie cle Jeszt^, its lucid style, its descriptive powers,
its manifold charms/^ Why go out of the way
thus to compliment a man who has done more,
perhaps, than any other writer to spread infi-
delity in the present generation ? We need
not abuse him, as writers in the last century
used to abuse their opponents ; but why praise
a man whose principles we utterly condemn ?

As regards Mr. Darwin, he has brought for-
ward a number of curious facts, partly from
his own observation, partly from the books of
others about natural history; but he appears
to me to have failed entirely in proving his
point. He admits that '^many of the views
which have been advanced are highly specu-
lative, and some no doubt will prove erroneous/'
and the whole argument he is aw^are will be
considered by many to be extremely '' irreH-
gious.^' Certainly believers in the Bible would
be of this opinion. Mr. Darwin, speaking of
his book, says, with complacency (vol. i. p. 153),
" I have at least, as I hope, done good service
in aiding to overthrow the dogma of separate
creation,^' that is to say, to refute the statement
of Holy Scripture in the first chapter of Genesis.

POSTSCRIPT — DARWINISM. 213

The Bible distinctly says that God created the
animal race at different times, Mr. Darwin
hopes that he has ^''done good service '' in
proving the contrary.

Mr. Darwin's theory is simply this, that all
animals, man included, have grown up from
one primordial organism. The first father of
the animal race was an ascidian. Now " asci-
dians are invertebrate, hermaphrodite, marine
creatures, permanently attached to a support.
They hardly appear like animals, and consist
of a simple, tough, leathery sack, with two
small projecting orifices. . . . Their larvge re-
semble tadpoles in shape, and have the power
of swimming freely about." (See vol. i.
p. 205.) These creatures have a spinal cord,
and while some of them remain ascidian to the
present day — others, more ambitious, developed
themselves into fishes having a vertebra ; fishes
presently progressed into amphibious animals, as
seals ; seals became developed into ^' marsupial
animals,'^ as opossums ; opossums became more
perfect mammals, as lions, tigers, elephants,
horses, apes, and monkeys. At last there
appeared a '^ hairy quadruped, furnished with
tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his
habits,^' and from this is descended " the
wonder of creation, man.''' As it appears to

214 POSTSCRIPT — DAEWINISAT.

me, all tliat Mr. Darwin has done is to set
down a catalogue of animals in a progressive
order, and suppose tliat they have in the course
of ages passed into each other. Nothing could
be easier than to make such a catalogue. But
as to proof that they actually have so passed ;
that any one member of these families has
really so changed; that an ascidian has ever
become a vertebrate, or a seal a monkey,
or a monkey a man — as to any evidence of
such transmutation I confess that I see none
whatever in the whole book. Darwin, the
elder, used to say, '^ Give me a fibre sus-
ceptible of irritation, and I will make a tree, a
dog, a horse, a man." So might any one set
down a catalogue of animals according to a
system of progressive development; but we
have a right, before believing, to ask for some
proof of the development of one genus or family
from another.

I have read Mr. Darwin^ s volumes through
from beginning to end, and I declare that there
is not a single argument which proves this
most extraordinary theory. There is abundant
proof of the varieties oi species, hut not a single
fact or argument in favour of the theory of
ascidians becoming vertebrate, vertebrates am-
phibian, amphibians marsupial, marsupials

POSTSCRIPT — DARWINISM. 215

mammal ; nor of tlie appearance of tlie hairy
quadruped_, furnished with tail and pointed
esLYS, who is supposed to be the ancestor of
man. Mr. Darwin gives the most interesting
accounts of the possible and actual varieties of
sioecies, but produces not one single proof of
the change oi one fjeniis of animals into another.
To take a familiar instance. Let us go to-
gether into a poultry yard_, and there we find
fowls of all sorts — Cochin China^ Brahma
Pootra^MalaySjHamburgs^ Dorkings, Sebright
Bantams, game Bantams, &c., and we readily
admit that all these may have descended from
the first created cock and hen. Nay, from Mr.
Darwin^s vivid description we almost fancy we
can understand how all these beautiful varieties
grow. — But see, here comes another tenant of
the poultry yard — a duck, with her young
progeny waddling along. We at once perceive
that this is quite a difierent sort of creature.
Ko one will persuade us, without strong evi-
dence, that this duck ever sprang from a cock
and hen of the gallinaceous tribe — or that if
we went up to the most remote antiquity, their
pedigree can be traced to the same ancestors.
But look again, there is a flock of pigeons.
Pouters, Tumblers, Carriers, Capuchins. It is
well known that pigeon fanciers, by crossing the

216 POSTSCRIPT DARWINISM.

breeds can develope almost any colour or pecu-
liarity of pigeons. But where is tte man who
can develope a hawk out of a pigeon, or a
pigeon out of a hawk, or would believe that
they sprang from a common ancestry ? Bring
forward proof enough, and of course I am
ready to believe any thing; but Mr. Darwin
gives no proof whatever of the transmutation
of genera, even of ducks into chickens, or
pigeons into hawks, whereas to make out his
point he must show that shrimps and elephants,
butterflies and tigers, were all descended from
the same primitive organism.

Go now with me to the Zoological Gardens.
— Look at the well-dressed people walking
about, the merry children sporting, and will
any one tell me that they are related to those
hideous monkeys and apes who are grinning at
them from the adjoining cages? The very
faces and expression of the monkeys show that
they are utterly destitute of the light of reason.
They are as different from each other as light
from darkness.

I do not profess to know more of science than
what most men of education gather in these
days in the course of education and reading,
but I do claim to have knowledge enough to
judge of the bearings of an argument, and to

rOSTSCEIPT DAEWINISM. 217

form an opinion whether tliere is any trutli in
Mr. Darwin's theory of the descent of man
from an ape. And I suspect that even Mr.
Darwin's scientific brethren are not at all pre-
pared to vouch for the correctness of his de-
ductions. " In more senses than one Mr^
Darwin has drawn heavily upon the scientific
tolerance of his age. He has drawn heavily
upon time in his development of species^ and
has drawn adventurously upon matter in his
theory of pangenesis.'' So says Professor Tyn-
dal. Mr. Wallace^ who as an advocate of
natural selection ranks next to Mr. Darwin
himself, yet does not venture to apply the
theory to the development of man from brutes,
but carefully guards himself against admitting
so extravagant a dogma.

It has struck me in reading Mr. Darwin's
book, that all the curious facts which he de-
scribes so graphically, respecting the changes
and development of species (not genera) apply
at least as much to the facts recorded in the
Bible of the several acts of creation, as to any
hypothesis of development of the animal crea-
tion from one primordial organism. Taking
the Bible account in its simple sense ofdifierent
pairs, male and female, of the various families
having come upon the earth progressively as

218 POSTSCRIPT DAEWINIS:^!.

it was prepared for their use, ^Ir. Darwin's
notions of the natural selection_, struggle for
existence, sexual selection and the varieties of
species caused by these means, seem all to fall
into their proper places without the smallest
difficulty. Various species would soon be de-
veloped— the stronger would thrive, the weaker
be exterminated — females would choose the
most beautiful males, the strongest males would
monopolize the females — some creatures would
be preserved by their swiftness, some by their
colour, in short all these curious facts which
make up the subject of Mr. Darwin^s book
would come to pass ; and yet not a single family
vary in essential points from the time when it
was first created.

Moreover all the signs which he adduces of
the gradual development of man from a savage
state are just as applicable to the case of the
many degraded and uncivilized races which
unquestionably have overspread a great portion
of this earth — if we receive without any doubt
or hesitation the accounts which the Bible
afibrds us of a continued civilized line both
before and after the flood. In short, I cannot
discern in Mr. Darwin^s elaborate book any
argument whatever to disprove the revealed
history of the Bible, that God at different times

POSTSCEIPT DAEWINISM. 219

created the various inhabitants of the earth,
and last of all created man in His own image.
And though Mr. Darwin's book has failed en-
tirely, as I believe even his own friends will
admit, to prove the particular point at issue,
" the descent of man,'' yet he has incidentally
done good service to the cause of truth. First,
he has proved beyond a question that there is
no ground whatever for the opinion that the
different races of the human family are distinct
from each other. His elaborate illustrations of
the variation of different species of each family,
furnish ample evidence that there is not the
slightest ground for doubting that the different
races of mankind, the Caucasian and the Negro,
the Mongolian and the Red Indian, are all de-
scendants of our first parents Adam and Eve.

Lastly, Mr. Darwin has added considerable
weight to the argument of Paley, by showing
proofs of the wonderful wisdom of God in pro-
viding for the wants of His creatures, and the
marks every where of elaborate design in the
construction, not only of this world itself, and
its more magnificent objects, but of His care
for the sustentation and preservation of the
smallest insect. Truly we may say with the
Psalmist, " The heavens declare the glory of
God, and the firmament showeth His handy-

220 POSTSCRIPT — DAEWINISM.

work. ... 0 LoRD_, ]iow manifold are Tliy
works ; in wisdom liast Tliou made them all.
. . . Wliat is man, tliat Thou art mindful of
him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest
him ? Thou madest him lower than the angels
to crown him with glory and worship. Thou
madest him to have dominion of the works of
Thy hands, and Thou hast put all things in
subjection under his feet, all sheep and oxen,
yea, and all the beasts of the field, the fowls of
the air, and the fishes of the sea, and what-
soever walketh through the paths of the sea.
0 Lord, our Governor, how excellent is Thy
Name in all the world ! "

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