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Wording of the Divine Narrative.

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run out the whole sounding line of human knowledge into the depths of Nature and find no bottom; we soar and soar in heavenly heights, but only to discover that there is something beyond, which, nevertheless, comes to us, is in us, and in everything around us. Then, because physical knowledge fails to explain the mystery, we go and sit with the dim-eyed old man, the genius of unbelief, described by Coleridge, who, in his cold and dreary cave, "talked much and vehemently concerning an infinite series of causes and effects, which he explained to be a string of blind men, the last of whom caught hold of the skirt of the one before him, he of the next, and so on, till they were all out of sight; and that they walked infallibly straight, without making one false step, though all were equally blind."

Glad to escape from such dreary unbelief, we endeavour now to obtain some conception of revelation and the account of creation by studying-1, The manner or wording of the Divine narrative; 2, The truthfulness of the record.

I. The Manner or Wording of the Divine Narrative. "The Bible has well-nigh for ever seemed against the science of the day;" there are reasons for this disagreement. Had the account of creation accorded with the science propounded in heathen times, or as asserted in Greece and Rome, or even with that of our fathers during the last century, it would now be contemptuously rejected as utterly false. "A revelation of only so much astronomy as was known to Copernicus, would have seemed imperfect after the discoveries of Newton; and a revelation of the science of Newton would have appeared defective to Laplace; a revelation of all the chemical knowledge of the eighteenth century would have been deficient in comparison with the information of the present day, as what is now known in this science will probably appear before the termination of another age." If to this we add that, always and everywhere, despite the obvious disagreement, the ablest and most scientific of our race saw something in the narrative which convinced them of a real though hidden agreement with the truth-when the truth should be known; of a true science that would

"Geology and Mineralogy,” vol. i. p. 14: Francis T. Buckland.

ultimately be made plain; and if now-when we take a pride in our scientific advance-we are prepared scientifically to show, in the book presented to the reader, that the old narrative, so long an enigma, is full of new science; the verification of all this furnishes a real and unmistakable proof that the narrative is Divine.

The language remains, as at the first, unchanged amidst changing interpretations. Only the meaning of the words, when they struck on the ears or flashed into the minds of the first auditors, has to be recovered; so that we may stand with Moses, with Isaiah, with the Apostles, to hear the words of God, and to fix our eyes on the Son of man-" God manifest in the flesh." We have to remember that God's words and thoughts are a light not for one age, but for all ages; and that which seemed written for the old generation only, is for our admonition also; not in the words and forms used by physical science-for all past time and nearly all men are unscientific; and not in philosophical order-but in a form, like seed, that may lie in any crevice of the heart, with power of growth to fill the whole understanding.

Notwithstanding that the Hebrew contains no scientific terms, the creative symbol is so comprehensive that every hypothesis in every age has been forced into it; and, as if to guard this comprehensiveness against the charge of vagueness, there are such accurate order and definiteness, that the men, most qualified to judge, find depths within depths, and laws within laws. Hence, we maintain that the Book is Divinely inspired; contains, within the outer body, a soul or inner life, which, while agreeing with the imperfection of our nature, raises us above it; and, in answer to the inarticulate cries of conscience, pours the wisdom of God into our heart and mind.

He who is susceptible of that wisdom, catches the spirit of it, finds lessons for childhood, strength for manhood, and the capabilities of heroes and prophets. Thousands know by actual experience that the Book grows with their growth; and, as knowledge of it increases, deeper depths of wisdom are revealed. St. Paul utters their experience-" O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of

Unscientific Form of Scripture.

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God!" (Rom. xi. 33). At present, none but religious men accept, as fact, the continual revelatory character of the Book to their souls; but every candid inquirer will ultimately acknowledge it.

The language and unscientific form of the account are greatly found fault with; and thus spoken of by the undevout, "that superlative nonsense, known as the doctrine of special creation."1 Again, "Obviously a theory which was framed in a barbarous age, when men were alike unfamiliar with the conceptions of physical causation and uniformity of law, and ignorant of the requirements of a valid scientific hypothesis, and which has survived until the present day, not because it has been universally verified by observation or deduction, but because it has been artificially protected from critical scrutiny by incorporation with a system of theological dogmas assumed to be infallible; obviously such a theory is at the outset discredited by its pedigree.""

The assertion, as to the account having been "protected from critical scrutiny," is not true; no other book or account has been assailed so ably, so critically, maliciously, constantly, as this; and it survives, not because of protection, but because opponents have been beaten along the whole line of argument. The Book verily did arise amongst men "alike unfamiliar with the conceptions of physical causation and uniformity of law, and ignorant of the requirements of a valid scientific hypothesis," but that is part of the marvel; and though, as Sir Thomas Brown saith-" Time sadly overcometh all things," this Book has conquered time; and, in proof of utter folly in those who revile it as containing "the superlative nonsense, known as the doctrine of special creation," is received as the Book of God by all nations eminent in arts and arms, in wealth, civilisation, refinement.

Revilers insist that the figurative expressions are to be taken literally: there is no symbol, no figure, no allegory. They tell us the Bible asserts-"untold millions of organic molecules, of which an adult mammal is composed, rushed together at some appointed instant from divers quarters of

1 "Cosmic Philosophy," vol. ii. p. 321: John Fiske.

2 Ibid. vol. i. p. 438.

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the compass, and spontaneously grouped themselves into vegetable, fish, bird, beast, man." These asserters are of such scientific culture that they say " He who can believe that St. Goar of Treves transformed a sunbeam into a hat-peg may believe such an account." These clever men thrust a meaning into Scripture which only the simplest and most unscientific ages accredited, and throw in the face of a world of Christian thinkers, versed in every science, their dictum that this meaning, their own superlative nonsense, must be received as a true exposition of our faith. They are not in the least conscious that to malign the most wonderful Book in the world, to charge our greatest scholars in theology and science with gross stupidity and credulity, proves their own folly.

The Book says, in pictorial words, that vegetable, fish, bird, beast, man, all came forth from the ground by a Divinely given power. Is it a fact or not? It is a fact: modern science proves that the grass on which the sheep feeds, and the sheep itself; the fish in water, and bird in air; with man the king of all; are traced back to microscopic germ-cells of nitrogenous and hydro-carbon compounds pre-existing in the atmosphere and soil. The Scripture account states that plants, fish, birds, animals, man, came in definable order; the lower forms preceding the higher, in a series of God Almighty's days: not the horse, nor ass, nor zebra, nor quagga, by millions of organic molecules rushing together at some appointed instant; but that the earth was their common father, by means of God-given power.

A modern scientific man might count it very much better to describe the creative process from a dynamical point of view. An organism became an organism by a complex aggregate of matter in which permanent, structural, and functional differentiation and integration were rendered possible by the fact that it continually received about as much motion as it expended. The life of such an organism is a perpetual balancing of external forces by internal forces. The career or advance of an organism, or of a group of organisms, consists of two kinds of equilibration, which we designate as external and internal. The adjustment of or

Creation according to Law.

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ganisms to changing external circumstances is partly by adaptation and by partial destruction; so that natural selection is indirect equilibration. The whole process, internal and external, may be summarised—

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The above is not a jest, it is scientific in the eyes of some who mistake hypothesis for true theory. Can the processes be proved? Certainly not. For this fancy we are to give up the first chapter of our Bible, and our faith in God!

2. From the Manner of the Record pass to the Truthfulness of the Record.

The Scriptural account differs as widely from other cosmogonies as truth from fiction. Those trace the origin of life from some primeval matter, or look upon the world as pantheistical, or derive gods and men from a worldegg, and are full of absurdities. The Bible reveals a Personal God who is near to every one of us; and creation as the act of that God, not of unwilled fortuitous processes of Nature—not by unguided interaction of atoms and atomic energies, but by a process of production according to lawLaw, not of self-origination, the Divine rule of procedure.

Creation in this manner, "according to law," could not have been scientifically known by any man of the era in which the record was written, not even by the inspired writer. If this latter statement appear too bold, let it be remembered that the plan of Scripture is so vast and wonderful, that even angels do not fully understand, but delight to investigate it; that the prophets, who prophesied, received not prophecy for themselves-but for us; and that inspired men saw not to the end of the things in which they ministered (1 Pet. i. 10-12). If the account, the facts, the order, are true, real, actual, such knowledge could come from God only. This conviction of divinity led that distinguished naturalist, Linnæus, to claim

1 "Cosmic Philosophy,” vol. ii. pp. 64, 65: John Fiske.

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