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; 
 
 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE ; 48, PICCADILLY J 
 
 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. 
 
► 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, " 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, 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 
 
 
 
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 ? 
 
 " 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. ... 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. 
 Lord, our Governor, how excellent is Thy 
 Name in all the world ! " 
 
 GILBERT AND RIVINGTO.S", PRINTERS, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON. 
 
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