[ANOALS OF rAITH N03. Ni '■') G RE VELATION^^- ' ■ ■."■•' ''■-*.,•". ■ ■ !■ ■ :'■"; f^E V ! . M . A T VV O O D OCT TO 1920 />'.■ :L W^ BX 9931 .M36 v. 3 Atwood, I. M. 1838-1917 Revelation Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/revelation03atwo jHanuals of JFaitl) anti 2:)utp. EDITED BY REV. J. S. CANTWELL, D.D. A SERIES of short books in exposition of prominent teachings of the Universalist Church, and the moral and religious obligations of believers. They are prepared by writers selected for their ability to present in brief compass an instructive and helpful Manual on the subject undertaken. The volumes will be affirmative and constructive in statement, avoiding controversy, while specifically unfolding doctrines. The Manuals of Faith and Duty are issued at intervals of three or four months. Uniform in size, style, and price. I. THE FATHEKHOOD OF GOD. By Rev. J. Coleman Adams, D.D., Chicago. II. JESUS THE CHRIST. By Rev. S. Crane, D.D., Norwalk, O. III. REVELATION. By Rev. I. M. Atwood, D.D., President of the Theological School, Canton, N. Y. IV. CHRIST IN THE LIFE. By Rev. Warren S. Woodbridge, Medford, Mass. V. SALVATION. By Rev. Orello Cone, D.D., President of Buchtel College, Akron, O. VI. THE BIRTH FROM ABOVE. By Rev. Charles Pollen Lee, Charlestown, Mass. No. VII. of this series will be "The Saviour of the World," by Rev. C. E. Nash, Akron, O. Other volumes and writers will be announced hereafter. published by the Universalist Publishing House, BOSTON, MASS. Western Branch: 69 Dearborn Street, Chicago. Jfianuals of iFaitl) anti Butg. Ko. III. ^iKft^ ^'^ ''^'''%\ OCT 13 1920 REVELATION. BY ISAAC M. ATWOOD, D.D., PRESIDENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, CANTON, N. Y. "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers IN the prophets by divers portions and in divers man- ners, HATH AT THE END OF THESE DAYS SPOKEN UNTO US IN His Son." Hebrews i. 1, 2. BOSTON: UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 1891. Copyright, 1889, By the Universalist Publishing Hodsb. SECOND EDITION. ©nibrrsttD ^rcBS: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. CONTENTS. • Section Page Introduction 5 I. The Bible 11 II. Not one Book but Many 12 III. Versions , . . . » 13 IV. Theories of the Book 15 V. Is A Special Revelation Necessary? Is it Probable? 21 Vl. Difficulties . 28 VII. Miracle . • 36 VIII. Inspiration and Revelation 52 IX. Ends which Revelation Subserves ... 55 X. Theosophy and Revelation 11 XI. Interpretation of Scripture 82 XII. Authority of Scripture 86 XIII. Conclusion 89 (BiiQzn 5at{) obs£rbeti tDitfj singular sa^ gacitg, ti)at f)e 6060 MizhzQ tfje Scripture to i)ab£ proce£tJ£ti from J^im infjo is t]^e auti)or 0f nature, mag toell eipect to finti tje same sort of tiifficulties in it as arc fount! in t{}c constitution of nature; antJ, in a like tnag of reflection, it mag hz atrtJcU, t]&at \)z tol^o tienies ti^e Scripture to fja&e teen from ©oti upon account of tfjcse tiif= ficuUies, mag, for ti^e berg same reason, tieng t{)e inorlti to ftaije hzzn from J^im. Bishop Butler. KEVELATION. INTRODUCTION. THE true and large view of the subject treated in these pages takes in the fact that Revelation appears in nature, history, provi- dence, and human life. The exact account of Revelation is the disclosure of God to man. It is important to a correct understanding of the department of this wide inquiry to which this Manual is principally devoted, that the scope of the subject be adequately grasped. The value of the particular disclosures with which our Bible makes us acquainted depends on the reality of the revelations made through other channels. If it is not the fact that God reveals himself in the outer world, in experience, and in the powers and laws of the human mind, the pre- sumption is against any alleged revelation of himself. On the other hand, if the mind opens to the conception that the universe is the 6 REVELATION. expression of Divine ideas, that day unto day uttereth speech, without voice, and that, in the phrase of Bushnell, even every man's life is a plan of God, it will be borne easily by the logic of its general position to the particular conclu- sion implied in a special revelation. For it must ever be kept in mind that the study of nature and history only then predisposes to what is tech- nically termed " unbelief," when it is pursued without recognition of the great truth, that the visible objects and products are manifestations of Invisible Power. It seems to be true that thus far in its history the modern doctrine of evolu- tion tends to materialism ; but this can scarcely continue to be its predominant effect. As it works itself clear of the swaddling-bands im- posed on it by its origin and first use in science, and comes to consciousness in philosophy, it will assert with more and more distinctness the prin- ciple that lies at its heart, namely, the ever com- pleter expression in higher visible forms of an immanent and eternal energy. A similar course may safely be predicted for other studies which at this moment appear to be leading men's minds to dreary negations and ultimate nothingness. Bacon's profound observation of the effect of the REVELATION. 7 study of Nature will be verified in the whole his- tory of thought ; and spiritualism, not material- ism, be the philosophy of the future. 1. The underlying assumption in Revelation, then, is the existence of God. It seems trivial to say, if there be no God there can be no Reve- lation and no religion. But the significance of Revelation will depend on what is contained in the term " God." If we mean by it " the power with which we are everywhere in contact," or " the power not ourselves that makes for right- eousness," or " the stream of tendency," and con- strue this power as something which we cannot more closely define because it cannot be more distinctly known, Revelation will be foreclosed. What cannot be known cannot be revealed. No matter by what metaphysics the conclusion is reached that God cannot be really known, — whether by that of the positivist Comte, or of the agnostic Spencer, or of the absolutist Fichte, or of the pantheist Spinoza, or of the materialist Biich- ner, or of the idealist Hartmann, or of the theist Hamilton, — the truth to be recognized is, that what cannot be known is practically non-existent. 2. Nor is the situation improved by saying that God is real, but impersonal. It is but com- 8 REVELATION. mon-sense to declare that an impersonal God is no God at all. The truth of this affirmation of the unsophisticated reason is copiously illustrated in the writings of all speculators who attempt to go on the hypothesis of an impersonal Deity. Either the constraint of logical consistency car- ries them swiftly along into pantheism, atheism, or materialism ; or they escape these conclusions by palpable self-contradiction. One of the most insidious delusions discoverable in religious thought is the notion that the personal recedes as the spiritual emerges. Just the contrary is the fact. A person is not a body, but a spirit. It is in spirit that personality inheres. You do not find the person until you find the spirit. To speak of " the great Spirit of the universe " under the notion that the words absolve you from the obligation to think of God as a per- son, is to miss your way in the broadest light. If there is any such Spirit, personality is insep- arable from it. The moment we lose our hold on God as a Spiritual Person, whose type we have in the spiritual personality of man, re- ligion begins to slip from us, revelation becomes impossible, and the belief in human immortality fades into fantasy. REVELATION. 9 8. The conception of God under which the topic of Revelation is treated in this Manual is of " a Divine Mind and Will ruling the Universe, and holding moral relations with mankind." As such, He is conceived of as disclosing himself to man, a spiritual person of the same type, in the course and constitution of Nature, in the consti- tution of man, in human history, in the laws and life of the spirit, in the various religions of man- kind, and in particular, and as confirmatory of all the others, in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. This book, however, except as to this Introduction, is confined to an account of what is known as the Christian Revelation. 4. Reflection on the problem will soon make it apparent that Revelation, whether through the outer world, man, or Christ, can only be such to a being whose inner and permanent nature is the same in kind as that of the Being revealed. The facts might be just what they are, but they would have no meaning to a being incapable of interpreting them. Knowledge does not pass be- tween beings of different types of intelligence. If God is of one nature and man of another, it is impossible that the former should reveal him- self to the latter. As well expect man to reveal 10 REVELATION. himself to the lion or the ostrich. There is no path open between them. But on the hypothesis of a common spiritual nature in man and in God, we have the condition of a revelation. The great doctrine of the Old Testament, that man is made in the image of God, which unfolds in the New into the completer and more engaging form, man the child of God, is, therefore, our warrant for considering any of the manifesta- tions of the Divine power and wisdom, whether in the universe or in the words of our Bible, as Revelation. For they are a revelation only in so far as they are disclosures of Grod to man. And the possibility of such disclosure hinges on the fact that man is a spiritual person, as God is. To gather up these points in a single sentence, Revelation is to be looked at largely as the whole process of Divine manifestation through all channels ; the Being revealed is to be appre- hended as a true and actual Person ; the special disclosure of God in Christ is our immediate theme ; and the possibility of revelation in any form, and, as a consequence, of meaning and value to our present study, depends on the fact of an essential likeness of nature in man and in God. REVELATION. 11 I. — The Bible. The view which we have taken of the subject in general requires us to answer, why we pitch on a certain book as containing, rather than other books, a Revelation ? There are innumer- able books : the world is filled with them. Some of them are of great antiquity, some are of rare worth, some contain much of the garnered wis- dom of the race. Why select the Bible as the one in which God has particularly disclosed himself ? 1. The first part of the answer is in the fact that the selection has been made already, and made by a process that we are compelled to re- spect. No class or set of people gave the Bible its pre-eminence among books. By a natural process, analogous to that by which Homer has his place in classical literature, the Bible has taken its position as the chief religious book of mankind. 2. Again, the presumption in favor of the Bible, created by its place in religious literature, is supported by its important relation to the chief institutions of society, — the family, government, the church. It is not too much to say that the 12 REVELATION. Bible is historically intertwined with the social fabrics that have been taking shape for thousands of years ; and it is as indispensable to them as the figure to a lace. 3. Once more, the contents of the Bible, its themes, its characters, its power to vitalize the human soul, its association with the deepest life of two hundred generations, separate it from all other books, and make its study a duty where it is not embraced as a privilege. It would be easy to fill our pages with testimony of which these quaint words from Robert Boyle are a sample : " The Bible is indeed amongst books what the diamond is amongst stones, — the pre- ciousest and the sparklingest ; the most apt to scatter light, and yet the solidest and most proper to make impressions." II. — Not one Book, but Many. What is the Bible ? It is not one book, but many books. The periods of authorship range, in the Old Testament, from about 1400 b. c. to 400 B. c. ; and in the New from the year 60 a. D. to about 100 A. D. No additions have been made to the Old Testament since the formation of the canon, which could not have been later than REVELATION. 13 300 B. c, and may have been much earlier. The books of the New Testament all belong to the first century. The questions, whether the canon of either Testament was formed by authority ; whether the Divine Spirit presided over the se- lection of materials for the historical books, and the composition of the statutory, prophetical, and poetical books ; whether the authorship has been correctly ascribed in every instance ; whether some books were not excluded that should have been in the canon, and some retained that should have been excluded, — it is impossible to here enter into. Nor are they of so much importance as at first thought they might seem. For the character of the Bible, or, as Jerome called it, *' Holy Library," its influence in the world, its place in literature, are what they are, however it was formed ; and its history and great pre- eminence, proved by a 'posteriori results, seem to vindicate in a truly remarkable degree the method, whatever it was, adopted in making up the collection. III. — Versions. When we speak of " our English Bible," the words imply that the Bible exists in other 14 REVELATION. tongues, and suggest the inquiry, In what lan- guage or languages were the various books origi- nally written ? The books of the Old Testament, produced during a period o£ about a thousand years, were all written originally in Hebrew. Ver- sions of the Hebrew Scriptures were made into Aramaic (Targums), Greek (Septuagint), Latin (Vulgate), Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Egyptian, Armenian, Gothic, Slavonic, and some other lan- guages, as well as into English. The Aramaic and Greek were made before the Christian era. The others were made at the same time or in close connection with versions of the New Testa- ment. The books of the New Testament, with possibly the exception of an original Hebrew copy of the Gospel by Matthew, were all written originally in Hellenistic, or "New Testament," Greek. The subject of the original manuscripts of the books of both Testaments, of the amount of care used in their transcription, translation, and pre- servation, of the " various readings " and the reasons for them, of the most authentic versions and texts, has given rise to a separate literature of vast proportions, which, in the' nature of the case, can be studied and familiarly known only REVELATION. 15 by Biblical scholars. It is sufficient to say here, that the results of the labor and the learning expended on this branch of knowledge permit us to rest in the general trustworthiness of the version supplied to us in '• our English Bible." We might even go further and describe it as, for the most part, remarkably accurate, while its literary form alone constitutes it a classic. ^ TV. — Theories of the Book. 1. Holding that the Bible, in a manner pe- culiar to itself, gives evidence of a Revelation, precisely what view shall we take of the content and character of the Revelation ? It is in place to note here the principal theories that have 1 This remark is made with the Authorized Version in mind ; but it is applicable to the Eevised Version, which, while approximating more nearly literal accuracy, does not depart from the version of King James in a sufficient degree to mar its justly admired Saxon strength and beauty. It is quite true that a first requirement in a version is exactness ; but grammatical precision is not always adequate. T]j^ Bible is literature as well as revelation. It embraces every variety of rhetorical structure. It is the great and almost unapproacha- ble merit of the Authorized Version that it renders into cor- responding English, and preserves in this dress, the diversified literature of the Bible. Many other translations exceed it in critical and grammatical exactness : all are inferior to it in literary power. 16 REVELATION. been held on the subject. Authentic informa- tion does not guide us far back of the advent of Christianity. At that date we may say, gener- ally, there were two schools of Biblical interpre- ters among the Jews, — the literalists and the allegorists. We have examples of both in the use made of the Old Testament by writers in the New. It may be said that the sacred writings were held in high reverence by both schools ; that they were appealed to as authority ; that they were esteemed as oracles containing the commands of God ; and that it was believed holy men had spoken in them as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. At the same time, it is appar- ent to the unbiassed reader that no such view of the infallibility of the record, or of the verbal importance of its language, as was subsequently maintained in certain quarters, was then held by any one. 2. The earliest teachers of Christianity con- tinued the methods of interpretation that had been current among the Jews, with modifications and departures, according to the demands of per- sonal genius or the access of the Spirit. Among the Apostolical Fathers, Ignatius and Barnabas incline to the allegorical method ; while Clement REVELATION. 17 (of Rome) and Polycarp are, in their practical spirit and their pastoral simplicity, more in ac- cord with the style of the New Testament epis- tles. The latter remark applies equally to the lately discovered document, " The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," which there is some rea- son for thinking belongs to the same period. A similar line of difference in method marks off certain of the Church Fathers, as Tertullian and Clement (of Alexandria), from others, as the great Origen and Gregory Nazianzen, who rev- elled in allegory. It has been observed by the historians of Church opinions that all of the more eminent of the Fathers may be quoted on both sides of what has been described as " high doc- trine" concerning the inspiration of the Scrip- tures. The fact in regard to the view held by the Fathers generally, including Augustine and Chrysostom, has been fairly summed up by Tho- luck in the remark : " Although they had a general impression of the divinely inspired char- acter of Scripture, the opinion that its language was human and imperfect was held to be un- mistakable." 1 1 The Doctrine of Inspiration (Translation), in Kitto's Jour- nal of Sacred Literature. 2 18 REVELATION. 3. The period from Augustine to the Protes- tant Reformation is not marked by any change of view among Biblical scholars concerning Holy Scripture. Definite opinions, based on specula- tion or on careful criticism, are not to be met with. The traditional view seems to have been held by such scholastics as Aquinas and Abelard, by Bellarmine, by Erasmus, and by other writers of this Middle Period, who, while of equal author- ity in their own day, are less known to ours. But with the Beformation arose a definite new theory, — the "high doctrine" already referred to. This theory, gradually developed, and finally taken up as a complete defence of Protestantism against the dogma of Church authority, affirmed, as expounded by Professor Voetius of the Univer- sity of Utrecht, that " not a word is contained in the Holy Scriptures which was not in the strictest sense inspired, the very interpunctuation not excepted : even what the writers previously knew was given them afresh by inspiration." Professor Gaussen, of Geneva, at a later date published an elaborate defence ^ of the extreme doctrine, holding that the Divine Spirit exercised 1 Theopneustia, translated by Dr. E. N. Kirk. New York: 1850. REVELATION. 19 such power over the authors of the Holy Scrip- tures as " to guide them even in the employment of the words they were to use, and to preserve them from all error, as well as from every omis- sion." In England, in America, and particularly in Scotland, this was for nearly two hundred years the orthodox theory of the way in which the Scriptures were produced. In some instances theologians recurred to the earlier and more moderate doctrine ; but the prevalent teaching on the subject, over nearly the whole extent of Protestant Christendom, from the middle of the seventeenth till after the close of the eighteenth century, was that of the " Consensus Helvetici," which sought to substitute an infallible Bible for an infallible Church. 4. The remaining theories may be included under two classes, — the Rationalistic and the Reasonable. The Rationalistic discerns nothing supernatural nor authoritative in the Scriptures or in the way in which they were produced. The Bible is a collection of religious books, peculiar among books in their topic and interesting as literature ; but they are, in whole and in every part, of strictly human origin. The alleged su- pernatural and miraculous phenomena in them 20 REVELATION. are to be regarded as instances of the credulity or of the myth-making faculty of mankind. The Bible cannot be considered a revelation in any sense in which Plato, Goethe, Shakspeare, are not also a revelation. What we take the liberty of terming the Reasonable view, maintains that the Bible is the Word of God, as no other book can claim to be ; that it is the record of a particular and progressive disclosure of God, culminating in the person and mission of Jesus Christ; that by no fair construction either of its history or its contents can the Biblical record be made to assume the character of a legendary accretion, in which certain very commonplace facts of human history have been gradually wrought over and raised into supernatural occurrences; but that the opposite is the true order of facts and events, — namely, that certain extraordinary disclosures of Divine truth and power and providence have taken an obviously human setting ; and that a principal value of the Reve- lation made through the Bible consists in the effect it has to authenticate and give meaning to the revelations made by other means. This view does not encumber itself with the KEVELATION. 21 joosf-Reformatiori dogma of plenary inspiration, nor with the defence and reconciliation of pal- pable errors in chronology, history, and science. It leaves room for the free play of reverent criticism ; and while it is not quite credulous enough to accept all the surmises and vigorous, not to say violent, redactions of Wellhausen, Kuenen, and their school, still less to entertain anything more than mild compassion for the romancing of some of their imitators, it per- mits a lively interest in all genuine research, confident that when the whole truth is known the Bible will stand stronger in the faith and affection of the world.^ V. — Is A Special Revelation Necessary? Is IT Probable? It was said in the last section that a principal value of the revelation made through 1 The most thorough, scholarly, and enlightened presenta- tion of what we have styled " The Reasonable View " to be met with in English is Dr. Geo. T. Ladd's " Doctrine of Sacred Scripture : A Critical, Historical, and Dogmatic Inquiry into the Origin and Nature of the Old and New Testaments," 2 vols., 1886. Dr. Ladd has since given in a briefer and more popular form the principal results of the more elaborate treatise in a single volume, entitled " What is the Bible?" 22 REVELATION. the Bible is the effect it has to authenticate the revelations made through other channels. It is worth while to look into this proposition more critically and see what warrant it has; for this is a pivotal point in our study. It is a debatable question whether, if God had not spoken by the mouth of prophets and apos- tles, that is, by some method of special dis- closure, His creation and providence would have made Him known to man. Let us admit, however, that the human mind could and would come to a more or less firm conviction of the reality of Divine Being, without par- ticular aid, and by processes similar to those employed in acquiring a knowledge of Nature. Let us go farther, and say, that by induction, analogy, and intuition men might reach all the conclusions affirmed by Christianity, — such as the existence of God, the law of righteousness, the duty of love, the spiritual and immortal na- ture of man, — still it will appear on examina- tion that the disclosure known as revelation is by no means rendered unnecessary. 1. In the absence of a revelation it cannot be supposed that it would be more easy than now to awaken interest in religious truth. If REVELATION. 23 we had no " Thus saith the -Lord" we should still have the ignorant, the indifferent, the un- religious and the irreligious to deal with. Those of us persuaded of the truths of religion would then as now feel their solemnity and importance, and would be trying to make oth- ers feel them. What would be our method ? We should be obliged to conduct an argument of the same general nature as that now em- ployed in treatises on Natural Theology. We should appeal to reason and depend on infer- ence. We should attempt to make out by these means the truths of the being of God, of the immortality of man, of accountability, of forgiveness, of salvation. Let us suppose that we were entirely successful in our argu- ment; that our reasoning were flawless and our conclusions valid: would they be likely to produce conviction ? Would they awaken and maintain interest in the great themes dis- cussed ? We suspect not. 2. For our most reasonable as well as our most sceptical hearers would be wholly justi- fied in responding to our elaborate argument, — as we cannot doubt they would respond : '* Your reasoning is plausible, but far from 24 REVELATION. coiivincing. You affirm that there is a God. You say He is intimately related to men and deeply interested in their welfare ; that He has been doing good to them and caring for them from the beginning; and that when they pass out of this world He receives them into His more immediate presence. How is all this to be reconciled with the fact that not an intelligible word or sign has ever come from Him or from His realm ? He is, by your hypothesis, a person, free, mighty, loving. What has hindered Him from making himself known, in some direct and unmistakable man- ner, in the long period since man began to exist on this planet ? Is it credible that there is such a Being as you describe and ask others to believe in, and yet no race nor gen- eration of men ever heard from Him ? Do you not see that one line of communication from Him would be worth more than a whole library of inferential reasonings ? " 3. That such would be the attitude of those we should seek to persuade, in the absence of any special revelation, there is no reason to doubt. Those who now are swift to assure us that a special revelation is an impertinence REVELATION. 25 would be the first to taunt us with the fatal fact that no such revelation had been made. That is to say, if we had no revelation, the argument for the truths of religion remaining just the same, we should desire a revelation to render our argument conclusive. The circumstance that no means of verifying our reasoning existed could not fail to leave our religious science in a con- dition of hopeless embarrassment. 4. It is impossible, we think, to put the need of a special revelation in a stronger light. The case is analogous to that of the astronomers before the invention of the telescope. An as- tronomer might demonstrate to his own satis- faction, and to that of most other astronomers, the existence of a planet, or other celestial body, in a given quarter of the heavens ; but none of them could see it. No instrument known to science could penetrate so far into space. Now they might all agree in saying that the demon- stration was so perfect as to make sight super- fluous. They might exhibit impatience with those who refused to put perfect faith in their calculations, and loudly insist that disbelief in such a case is mere contumacy. But can there be a doubt that every man of them would be 26 REVELATION. glad to find a ^vay of looking to the spot and verifying his prediction ? What would be thought of the sanity of the astronomer who, in these circumstances, decried the utility of telescopes, and professed himself pleased that there was none powerful enough to draw to earth the dis- tant stranger's beam ? Is it not too apparent to require a word of testimony, that all astrono- mers, and all other persons having any acquaint- ance with such subjects, would experience a thrill of joy on the announcement that Rosse or Clarke had perfected an instrument which ena- bled the human eye to look upon the very face of the planet known hitherto only by computa- tion ? All a priori objections to a revelation fall to the ground before the undeniable truth that if we had no such revelation, all persons would wish that we had. The believer would de- sire it, that he might be certified of the validity of the grounds of his faith : the doubter, that he might not be required to take so much on trust. 6. If a revelation be needful, a revelation is probable ; for, apart from the broad general principle that the scheme of creation in all its parts is such as permits us to expect whatever has been found to be necessary to mankind, we REVELATION. 27 can scarcely err in thinking that it would not be like God to withhold himself from His children. If God is, He must disclose himself. If He does not reveal himself, we lack the primary ground of belief that He is. It is out of the power of any force or authority that can be conceived of — creed or canon or church — to maintain belief in a God that gives no sign. And if we allow that He reveals himself in His works, — in nature, man, history, as we are forward to do, — yet if it can be successfully maintained that He never reveals himself in any other way, a deep shadow of doubt at once falls on the verity of the opinion that God is disclosed in what are called His works. The truth is, both phases of revelation stand or fall together. If God is not revealed in nature, it is futile to argue that He is revealed through the persons and processes of which we have the record in our Bible. Con- versely, if there has been no such revelation of God as the Bible gives account of, the wit of man will forever fail to establish even a fair presumption that God is disclosing himself in nature. It comes to this, then, that the atheist is the only one who can consistently deny the probability of historic revelation. 28 REVELATION. 6. The above reasoning does not authorize the conclusion that we have in our Bible either the only special revelation God has made, or an instance of such revelation. That is a different question. In a previous section ^ reasons were offered for the opinion that the Bible is the record of a special revelation. It is in place to remark here, that when we see how probable and necessary some revelation from God is, we are immediately face to face with the question, Is Christianity that revelation, or do we seek another ? If we were all able to lay aside preju- dice and prepossession, it is probable we should view this, as well as many other subjects, differ- ently from what we now do. But is there any good ground for thinking that we should see reasons for selecting some other system, or, finally, for discarding the Christian as wanting the essential marks of a revelation ? VI. — Difficulties. The common difficulty of all religions is in the fact that they have their ground in the assumed reality of things unseen. Sense and spirit are the two poles of thought and the two realms 1 See pp. 11, 12. REVELATION. 29 of being. In the body we are compelled to deal primarily and continually with the former. Things and realms apprehensible by means of the senses are said to be matters of knowledge. The thoughtful and educated recognize, also, the reality of many things for a knowledge of which we are not dependent on the senses, — like the properties of numbers, the relation of ideas, the perception of truth. But neither the common nor the educated mind readily takes hold of the fact that the power to discern moral truth and to make moral discriminations implies a spiritual man, as much as the power to distin- guish odor or color or weight implies a physical man. " Fools and slow of heart," is the not inappropriate characterization of multitudes of mankind. To this dulness of moral apprehen- sion more than to anything else is to be attrib- uted that mood of mind which staggers at the promises of God. Inability to discern spiritual truth, whether due to an unawakened moral nature or to wilful disregard of the claims of that nature, is the explanation of most of the difficulties with which unbelief invests religion. It is usual to speak of " the difficulties of reli- gion : " it would be more accurate to speak of 80 REVELATION. the difficulties of irreligion ; for it is the irre- ligious temper that creates the difficulties. And this temper pervades more or less all persons. It is an inevitable concomitant of our earthly environment. 1. But a religion of which revelation is the prominent feature presents peculiar obstacles to human infirmity. Besides dealing with the spiritual and unseen, and thus drawing from the start on faith, it assumes the supernatural and asserts the miraculous. To the superstitious, whose credulity is more active than their judg- ment, these elements constitute an attraction ; but to the prosaic part of mankind, to the critical and contentious, to such as have had their wits sharpened without a corresponding development of reverence, to students of the phenomena of the natural world in which physi- cal effects are exactly measured by physical causes, to students of mythology, folk-lore, and fable, and, in fine, to many careful and sincere truth-seekers, who are desirous of knowing just what the fact is, and who are cautious because they would not be deceived, — the supernatural and miracle are impediments in the way of a hearty acceptance of the Christian religion. REVELATION. 81 2. In our day we have conditions in the relig- ious world which did not belong to any former era. There are large numbers of people — how large no one can tell — in actual or nominal relation with the churches, comprising in some instances a considerable proportion of a whole denomination, who are in real difficulty — we had almost said distress — on account of the fact that Christianity is encumbered, as they think, with miracle. They are not critics of Christianity, nor uninterested outsiders : Christianity is their religion. They are ardently attached to it, and disposed to share its fortunes. They appreciate its vast services to mankind and its great woi^th. They desire to see it " still full high advanced," and would esteem its destruction or decline an unspeakable calamity. But its supernaturalism and its miracles appear to them not only an un- essential part of the system, but a hindrance and misfortune. They do not see how it could be done, but they do not conceal their conviction that if the entire texture of supernaturalism were eliminated from Christianity it would be an immense gain. 3. Such an extraordinary state of facts in the community of Christians demands attention. 32 REVELATION. It may be dealt with in two ways : It may be treated with indignation and scorn, as iniqui- tous and inexcusable disloyalty to the cause, or it may be looked on as a phenomenon of the age, due to peculiar causes which have not always been at work. So viewed, it may be studied in a sympathetic spirit, its real signifi- cance and its true motive discerned ; allowance may be made for it ; alarm on one side and irritation on the other allayed ; and efforts made to remove the difficulty, which is recognized as real, not by scolding, but by patient and thorough examination. The latter, we scarcely need add, is in our judgment the proper course. In the restricted space at our command we can do little more in this place than give a sample of the method we approve. (1) Let it be observed, in the first place, that supernatural phenomena, whether fact or fiction, do not comprise the subject-matter of revelation. They are incidental only. The staple of revela- tion is made up of truths, ideas, ordinances, facts disclosed ; or, as in the case of Christianity, of a person who embodies these. Portents and miracles are incidental only. They derive their importance from two circumstances : (a) That REVELATION. 33 they challenge belief ; (5) That they are univer- sally regarded as inseparable from a revelation. (2) Are they inseparable ? Can there be no disclosure of God to man — no direct, per- sonal, palpable disclosure, without supernatural accompaniments ? This is the kernel of the matter. Let us analyze the event to which this name " revelation " is given. It is the communication from God, a spiritual person, of facts, truths, ideas, precepts, — an order of life, — to men, spiritual persons. In the one case, however, the spiritual personality is un- veiled and without shadow : in the other it is veiled in flesh. God is nqt hidden : it is we that are masked in flesh. And because this is so, our only means of apprehension is through this veil, — through our physical or- gans. We cannot know God, therefore, unless He "becomes like one of us," appearing in physical form ; or unless we temporarily emerge from our bodily vesture. If God should manifest himself in the flesh we could know Him as we know each other. If we should transcend in some way our physical environment, it is conceivable that we might know God as spirit knows spirit. But either 3 34 REVELATION of these things, accomplislied m this world and among men, would constitute a supernat- ural occurrence. The supernaturalism inheres in the nature of the case. (3) The other possible modes of making a revelation, as we conceive the subject, are, (a) that God might select a human medium of communication, whom He should suitably endow or inspire. This w^ould plainly be an act transcending human experience and hu- man power, and so answering to the idea of the supernatural. (5) He might choose a celes- tial messenger, and send him to men. But the appearance of such a messenger among men would be, obviously, a supernatural event. ( propriate form. The Gospel does not waste its sweetness on the desert air; it grows an organism — a Church. This is " the body " it requires to make it a serviceable thing to mankind. Without becoming instituted and taking its place as a working force among the other institutions of our world, Christian- ity could accomplish little. But organized and supplied with the instruments of a vai'ied and REVELATION. 77 practical service, it at once takes its place among the great forces of the world, with which society and government must reckon, and lays its mighty hand on every interest and enterprise of mankind. And organization is its law as freedom is its life. If, therefore, Christianity be administered with any intelli- gent comprehension of its genius, it is sure to be an aggressive religion. Such it has proved itself to be under every variety of polity. This was its character in the earliest period of its activity, before schism appeared; this continued to be its strong trait when it was rent with faction and convulsed with controversies; this spirit reappeared as the predominant impulse in the Reformation; and it marks every branch of the Church, east or west, Catholic or Protestant, in the whole of the modern era. In this is at once the hope of the Church and of the world. Our religion will not rest until it has established righteousness in the earth, and the isles wait for its law. X. — Theosophy and Revelation. In every age since Plato, and in India be- fore his time, there have been persons who 78 REVELATION. have professed a peculiar wisdom in Divine things. In some cases the knowledge has been supposed to be due to a secret, at first imparted from God, or from the gods, and piously preserved and handed down through a chosen body of men, like the Egyptian priests. The ancient theurgy seems to have been of this type. In other instances the knowledge of God and of the invisible realms was imagined to be accessible by means of a long series of physical exercises, sometimes accompanied with chantings or wailings. A more refined type of theosophy was that of the Egyptian Platonists, and of various mod- ern sects, both in Asia and in Europe, who hold that intercourse with God is possible to the devout and meditative "in every nation under the whole heaven." To this has often been joined the idea of communication with other spiritual beings. The student of the subject is surprised to find that there has been no people so rude, no age so sensual, no class so cultivated, as not to have representatives among the Pyrrhonists, or theurgists, or mys- tics, or theosophists, or seers. Although the Christian Church has been supplied with the REVELATION. 79 records of a special revelation, and has pro- fessed to build both its organization and its doctrines on the Scriptures, persons, parties, and even sects, have arisen in it from time to time, who, like Miguel Molinos, like Sweden- borg, like Madame Guyon and the Quietists, have taught that there is still an open way, by spiritual contemplation, to direct personal knowledge of God and spiritual things. 1. It is easy to scoff at this, and wave it one side under the stigma of fanaticism. But there is a truth at the heart of these phenom- ena. God is ; men are the children of God, bearing His image. To know God is the eter- nal quest of the human soul. Moreover, He can- not be far from any one of us, since in Him we live and move and have our being. There is no reason, therefore, to question, but every reason in sound philosophy to believe, that the human spirit may put itself in such relations with the Divine spirit as to be conscious of God. This is the truth in the- osophy, in mysticism, in quietism. The same truth has been apprehended by pious souls in every branch of the Church, and is stored up in the devotional literature of all the sects. 80 REVELATION. It is a precious truth. The Christian teacher or preacher has no call to antagonize it. On the contrary, he should recognize it and rest in it as one of the great spiritual facts under- lying all religion. 2. In the means used to attain this spirit- ual illumination lies the secret of personal faith in God and lurks the danger of relig- ious delusion. By prayer, by contemplation, by long and assiduous cultivation of the power of spiritual discernment, does the spirit's eye open on the " things of God." There is no other means of awaking to spiritual con- sciousness and remaining awake. But experi- ence proves that not every person can engage in this work of abstraction from the world of our physical abode and penetration into the more real world of the spirit, without loss of his firm footing as an earthly pilgrim. It is essential to our usefulness here that we should preserve a solid hold on the material world ; it is just as essential that we should learn how to discern spiritual things. The natural and tlie spiritual are parts of one whole. The eye that is closed to either sees only half the truth. But as an exclusive pur- REVELATION. 81 suit of earthly good distorts the moral vision and disfigures the moral symmetry of a man, so absorption in the search after God and the unseen tends to disturb the natural play of the perceptions, and imports into the field of sense measures and standards which cannot be used. It is for this reason that theoso- phists, in India or in America, enjoy the repu- tation of people who are striving " To wind themselves too high For mortal man beneath the sky." 3. The greater sobriety and practical use- fulness of those who rest in the doctrine of a revelation made through chosen oracles at ap- pointed epochs hints the truth that as every man cannot be his own astronomer, so it is not expected that every man shall be his own seer. There may be no decree of nature or God that prohibits any man from becoming an astronomer; but it is not practicable for every one to perfect himself in that science. So there may be no ordinance of God against every man's inquiring into the deep things of the Spirit and becoming at length as sure of them as he ever was of the natural earth and sky ; but it is practically impossible to a useful 6 &J, REVELATION. citizen of this world. The daily welfare of man- kind is as truly subserved by a special revela- tion as are the higher interests of the soul. We need have no quarrel with any seer, real or alleged, ancient or modern. What he as- serts is confirmation of what we teach ; but for the purposes of our present state of being we can say to our fellows generally, if not to him, " Yet show we unto you a more excel- lent way." XL — Interpretation of Scripture. The subject of the interpretation of the Scriptures is too large to enter upon in detail in a brief survey like this. The principles involved in rational and reverent exegesis have been implied in the account already giv- en of the Bible and of the different theories of the mode of its production. To make our summary of revelation complete, however, it is necessary to add here a word directly on the interpretation of Scripture. 1. The same principles which a competent and fair-minded scholar would apply in the interpretation of any ancient book, produced in a foreign clime and among peoples no longer REVELATION. 83 maintaining a national existence, should be applied to the study of the Bible. Its lan- guage, its history, its customs, its characters must be studied as these are in secular liter- ature. The philology and grammar, and the entire critical apparatus of a Biblical student differ in no essential respect from those em- ployed by the student of the Vedas or of Ho- mer. That is, in both instances he would wish to know the places and the persons and the circumstances as accurately as the best means now existing will permit, as an indis- pensable condition of understanding the written record ; and he would use the accepted prin- ciples of the language as modified by this particular author in determining the meaning of any passage. 2. The meaning of the Bible is the Bible. The interpreter gets all the light from histo- ry, biography, political institutions, social and tribal customs, habits of thought, peculiarities of language, usage of the author, that it is possible to obtain, not to draw a desired meaning out of the text, but to gain its true meaning. The question he continually asks himself is, What did the writer or speaker 84 REVELATION. mean here ? In this inquiry he does not con- cern himself with the truth or falseness of the thing expressed: he asks only for its pre- cise and full meaning. Reconciliations may be demanded afterwards: they are not to be thought of now. 3. Having determined the meaning of Holy Scripture, the interpreter has concluded his task. On the basis of the true meaning the Christian teacher, preacher, or theologian may determine doctrines, build systems, enforce du- ties. These should be either directly. taught by the language of the Scriptures, or legitimately deduced from the unquestioned meaning. The practice has been, to no small extent, to con- struct a theological system, draw out a scheme of doctrines in harmony with the system, and then proceed to " interpret " Scripture so as to make it contain the sys- tem and teach the doctrines. This is the reverse of the true method. If we have faith in the Bible we shall show it, not by constru- ing it to support our preconceived opinions, but by forming our opinions on the model of its teachings. 4. It must not be inferred from the array REVELATION. 85 of critical appliances mentioned, and the tools of knowledge said to be used by the exegete, that only the vastly and variously learned can understand the Bible. It is not the scholar's but the people's book. The greater part of it is readily intelligible to the uneducated. In- deed, if no bias is in the mind of the reader, and he reads to understand, as he would his- tory, poetry, precept elsewhere, there will be but small liability of misapprehension. In re- spect of all the more vital facts and instruc- tions this is particularly true. Yet, as the Bible was recorded originally in languages with which scholars only are now familiar, and as its whole wonderful history and its minutest particles have been subjected to the closest scrutiny by generations of Biblical spe- cialists, the wise student of this most marvel- lous of books will not commit himself to an opinion in regard to any obscure matter until he has aided his own insight by the fuller and more exact knowledge of the learned ; while in regard to great and weighty doctrines af- fecting the faith and life, or questions of mo- ment which are also matters of controversy, it would be natural that he should feel stronger 86 REVELATION. if his own views were supported by the con- sensus of scholarship. XII. — Authority of Scripture. Closely related to the question of the inter- pretation is the question of the authority of Scripture. The ^os^Reformation divines oc- cupied a position in regard to this subject which it must be confessed gave them great advantage over their less rigorous successors. They held to the complete verbal inspiration of the books of the Bible. As every jot and tittle was the word of God equally with the weightiest deliverance of Jesus, the question of authority was very simple. Any declara- tion of Scripture, and every declaration, must command instant respect and require unques- tioning obedience. As matter of fact it may be doubted whether more persons received the word with reverence or heeded it with alac- rity. But the theory was simple, easily expounded, and quickly understood. The reasonable view, which we have presented in these pages, does not admit of so simple ap- plication. It requires us to take account of REVELATION. 87 *' the human element " in the Bible, of histori- cal and biographical errors, of discrepancies of fact, of mistaken opinions, as well as of poe- try, tradition, and the sayings of uninspired and wicked men, that sprinkle the record. 1. What authority, it may be asked, can such a book claim ; and what authority is it fitted to command ? We do not pretend to be able to give a direct and unqualified an- swer to this inquiry. The most we can safely and sincerely say, is, that we have never met a case of actual difficulty, — a case, that is, where some one wished to know what degree of authority should be accorded a given pas- sage of Scripture, but could not ascertain. In all practical exigencies we believe the answer is clear and satisfying. The instructions of Christ, the reasonings of Paul, the "thus saith Jehovah " of Isaiah, are generally plain enough ; and every rational and reverent soul feels that they are of different degrees of au- thority. If in respect of these and similar portions of the record, which are obviously of the highest value, there is no practical diffi- culty in determining the relative degree of imperativeness, how much more readily will 88 REVELATION. the imagined obstacles disappear in the case of the Chronicles, Esther, and the Apocalypse ! 2. But the inquirer may wish to know whether any portion of the record is of abso- lute authority ; and if so, what is the test for determining it. We should answer to the first part of the question : Yes, large portions of the Bible are of absolute autliority, and the Bible as a whole is of such autliority ; that is, a man has no right to believe or teach religious doctrines not found in the Bible ; and contrariwise he has a right to believe and do what the Bible as a whole clearly sanctions. To the second part of the question we should reply, The test must be found in these three things : (1) Is the teaching the un- doubted word of the Lord, or of Jesus Christ, or of an apostle, or of some other inspired teacher ? (2) Does it commend itself to the reason and the moral sense ? (3) Does it vin- dicate and verify itself as the truth of God by proving, on trial, to be for the highest good of men ? It may not be possible to ap- ply all of these ; it will in most cases be prac- ticable to apply two of them j and a degree of REVELATION. 89 authority which no right-minded person will venture to disregard must be accorded to any Scripture that abides one of these tests. 3. It is to be distinctly recognized that the claim to authority over human opinion and conduct of any alleged revelation must submit to review and decision by the human facul- ties. If we accept the authority, as much as when we reject it, we do so by the use of the only instruments we possess for reaching a conclusion on any subject. There is, there- fore, not only no prohibition of the use of our reason on the problems of revelation, there is a distinct command, announced in our consti- tution, to use this prerogative. It is quite true that we may mistake; but there is no help for it. Our consolation is in the certainty that we should more grievously mistake, and inex- cusably too, if we attempted to decide so grave a matter without reason. XIII. — Conclusion. We have endeavored to show what revela- tion in general includes, and to set forth, without using technical language, what sound and reverent scholarship authorizes us to hold 90 REVELATION. as the truth concerning the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We have been obliged to omit much more relating to our subject than we have found room for. Our judgment is that we have selected that which is most relevant, timely, and important. The greatness of the theme, its transcendent inter- est, and the vastness of the material, impress us powerfully with the smallness of our achieve- ment. But it has been a high satisfaction to snatch a few hours from a crowded round of daily duties, to commend anew, and in the fair outlines supplied by modern knowledge, a Book that is the choicest literary inheritance of the human race, unequalled as a store- house of the wisdom that comes from above, and without a rival in the beneficent influence it exerts over the mixed scene of earthly sor- row, sin, and joy. University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge. Princeton Theological S«minary-Speer Library 1012 01144 7069