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 Division JbiSD^ O 
 Section , L^ (o d .. 
 Number 
 
ix\ 
 
 
THE CRISIS OF MISSIONS ; or, The Voice Out 
 OF THE Cloud. i6mo, paper, 35 cents; cloth, 
 $1.25. 
 
 EVANGELISTIC WORK IN PRINCIPLE AND 
 PRACTICE. i6mo, paper, 35 cents; cloth, 
 $1.25. 
 
 THE ONE GOSPEL; ok, The Combination of 
 THE Narratives of the Four Evangelists in 
 One Complete Record. i2mo, flexible cloth, 
 red edges, 75 cents; limp morocco, full gilt, 
 $2.00. 
 
 THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 
 Publishers, 740 and 742 Broadway, New York. 
 
STLIM15LING STONES REMOVED 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 WORD OF GOD 
 
 ARTHUR T. PIERSON 
 
 "■Gather out the stones.'' 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE BAKER &• TAYLOR CO. 
 
 740 AND 742 Broadway 
 
Copyright, 1891, i;y 
 THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 
 
 171, 173 Macdougal Street, New York 
 
A WORD OF PREFACE. 
 
 We use the expression, "Stumbling Stones," 
 merely by way of accommodation. The most 
 devout and patient students of the Word of 
 God fail to find inconsistencies, contradictions 
 or real discrepancies in the Bible. All difificul- 
 ties are due either to the imperfection of the 
 medium of transmission, human language ; or 
 to the imperfection of the receptacle of the 
 truth, the human mind itself. Our limited cap- 
 acity, or our limited point of view and range of 
 vision, may account for apparent imperfections, 
 obscurities and disagreements in the Divine 
 Word. 
 
 The purpose of this little book is not so 
 much to reach those who accuse and assault 
 the Inspired Word, as to help believers. That 
 old Saint, Kleker, told D'Aubigne, that to 
 remove one difficulty out of the way of a 
 caviller only makes way for another ; and that, 
 if one will only take Christ as a complete 
 Saviour and make a full surrender to Him, 
 difficulties will commonly vanish. We be- 
 
IV A WORD OF PREFACE. 
 
 lievc that it is the heart that makes the the- 
 ology ; and that most of our doubts may be 
 ultimately traced to an " evil heart of unbelief " 
 that departs from the living God. 
 
 Nevertheless even the most candid and 
 reverent believer finds in the Word of God, 
 especially in the English Bible, some difificul- 
 ties or hindrances in the way of his understand- 
 ing, if not of his faith ; and such disciples it is 
 our humble aim to help : 
 
 1. By removing unnecessary stumbling 
 stones out of their way ; 
 
 2. By enabling them to understand what 
 may have been obscure ; 
 
 3. By laying down certain laws or " canons " 
 of Interpretation ; 
 
 4. By exposing devices of Satan and other 
 adversaries of the truth ; 
 
 5. By showing the entire symmetry and 
 self-consistency of the Truth itself. 
 
 Where real contradiction exists. Error must 
 be present. Either the error lies in what we 
 mistake for the truths as a mirage is mistaken 
 for a reality ; or the error lies in our own 
 organs of visio7i\ our eye, being diseased, sees 
 double where the object is single. A true be- 
 liever runs no risk in calmly and resolutely 
 examining into any alleged difficulty or dis- 
 crepancy in the Bible. If one encounters a 
 supposed ghost on a dark night, the best way is 
 
A WORD OF PREFACE. V 
 
 to walk up to it, and look it squarely in the 
 face. To flee from a supposed apparition 
 may leave a lingering doubt whether the 
 ghostly illusion were a reality or not : a bold 
 touch would have dispelled both the illusion 
 and the doubt. To wait patiently and to 
 search diligently is to find even the most 
 formidable difficulties vanish, and to see the 
 error to be one of our own ignorance or mis- 
 apprehension. Nay, it often happens that 
 stumbling stones become stepping stones, and 
 hindrances are changed to helps. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 2320 Spruce St, Philadelphia Pa. 
 October, 1890. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 The Difficulties Stated—The Causes of Dis- 
 crepancies. 
 
 PART II. 
 General Suggestions — The Laws of Inter- 
 pretation, ETC. 
 
 PART 111. 
 The Uses of Discrepancies — Conclusion. 
 
STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE DIFFICULTIES STATED THE CAUSES 
 
 OF DISCREPANCIES. 
 
 The so-called ' discrepancies' of Holy 
 Scripture may be classified as follows : 
 
 First, verbal, or such as concern the 
 words or letters of Scripture ; 
 
 Secondly, historical, or such as concern 
 the names of persons and places, num- 
 bers, dates, and historical statements or 
 events ; 
 
 Thirdly, moral, or such as concern 
 ethical precepts and principles, duties 
 and relations ; and, 
 
 Fourthly, doct7'inal, or such as concern 
 the direct doctrinal teaching of the word, 
 especially as to the higher class of spirit- 
 
8 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 ual truths. The bibliography of this 
 subject is quite extensive. Some fifty or 
 more volumes have been published, 
 which treat, more or less exclusively, this 
 theme, one of which, by Mr. Haley, 
 covers over five hundred pages. There 
 are probably not less than five hundred 
 other works which contain extended ref- 
 erence to these discrepancies ; so that, in 
 the effort to condense what needs to be 
 written upon such a subject into a very 
 brief compass, we find no little additional 
 difficulty. But, as a bulky treatise 
 would defeat our object, we shall simply 
 group all the ' discrepancies ' together, 
 and offer general suggestions and princi- 
 ples, covering various particulars in each 
 class. 
 
 We begin, very naturally, by inquiring 
 whence these appareiit discrepancies come. 
 What Is their sotcrce? 
 
 The first general class are those which 
 come from variations in the mere letter 
 of Scripture. 
 
 I. Errors in Transcription. 
 
 In the absence of the printing press all 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 9 
 
 copies of the Word of God were of 
 course the product of the manual labor 
 of scribes. Prof. Norton estimates that, 
 by the end of the second century, there 
 were sixty thousand manuscripts of the 
 Gospel in existence ; and, including man- 
 uscripts of the Old Testament, millions of 
 copies of God's Word have doubtless 
 been made in the course of the ages. 
 From seven hundred to one thousand 
 Greek manuscripts are now extant, of 
 which fifty are one thousand years old, 
 and some few are one thousand five hun- 
 dred years old, whereas the oldest exist- 
 ing classic manuscript is not nine hun- 
 dred. Of course the original manuscripts 
 of the Bible have all disappeared, and 
 God meant that they should, to save us 
 from a similar idolatry to that which 
 lifted the Brazen Serpent and Gideon's 
 Ephod to divine honors. 
 
 In producing exact copies, perfect 
 accuracy would be impossible without a 
 perpetual miracle of divine supervision, 
 as great as that of original Inspiration. 
 Even in printed books it is found imprac- 
 
lO STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 ticable to secure entire freedom from 
 errors ; even when large rewards have 
 been offered for their detection, new ones 
 have been found after the two hun- 
 dredth reading. How much more diffi- 
 cult to secure absolute accuracy when the 
 first form is also the final form and there 
 is no chance to correct " proof !" 
 
 In manual transcriptions mistakes are 
 therefore inevitable. 
 
 1. Hebrew letters often closely resemble 
 each other. 
 
 There are at least eight pairs of letters, so 
 nearly alike as to be constantly mistaken for 
 each other, like the English b and d, c and e, 
 f and old-fashioned s, (f) 1 and t. Old manu- 
 scripts became faded and blurred, and this in- 
 creased the liability of such errors, and mis- 
 takes in names and figures easily arose in this 
 way, where the context and general sense fur- 
 nished no guide. 
 
 2. It is probable that, both in the He- 
 brew and Greek manuscripts, letters were 
 anciently used for numerals. 
 
 Warrington thinks that the letters of the al 
 phabet, taken in their order, represented nu- 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. I I 
 
 merical values, as follows, units, tens and 
 hundreds up to 400; i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 
 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 200, 300, 400 ; 
 that the five terminal letters supplied the num- 
 bers representing the even hundreds, from 500 
 to 900 inclusive ; and that the thousands were 
 represented by affixing marks or points to 
 those representing units, etc. 
 
 Two sorts of mistakes might easily creep in ; 
 one letter might be mistaken for another of 
 different value ; or discrepancies might be in- 
 troduced where the attempt was made to sub- 
 stitute the full word for the letter. There is 
 scarcely a case in which copyists are believed 
 to have made any intentional change in the 
 original text. In one case, where the name 
 Manasseh appears instead of Moses, some have 
 thought that some officious scribe made the 
 substitution to save the disgrace, to the great 
 Jewish Lawgiver, of recording the idolatry of 
 his grandson (Judges xviii. 30). 
 
 II. Errors in PuncHiation. 
 
 In the original manuscripts there were 
 probably no punctuation marks. In fact 
 some manuscripts were ctcrsive, i. e. the 
 words were run together with no space be- 
 tween them. The translators have intro- 
 duced punctuation marks, to make the 
 
12 yrUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 sense obvious ; and, for convenience, 
 division into chapters and verses. Of 
 course all this belongs to the human, un- 
 inspired, and therefore fallible element 
 in the Modern Bible, and no objections, 
 drawn from punctuation marks, or these 
 arbitrary divisions, really lie against the 
 Inspired Word of God, itself. 
 
 There are not a few instances in which this 
 punctuation may have introduced at least a 
 very doubtful sense or construction. A few 
 examples may be given. 
 
 John xii. 27. " What shall I say ? Father, 
 save me from this hour: but for this cause 
 came I unto this hour." By substituting an 
 interrogation point for the colon, after the 
 word ' hour,' the sense is made much more 
 clear. 
 
 Luke xiii. 24, 25. Omitting the period after 
 the word * able,' or substituting a comma, we 
 are taught that the risk lies in seeking to enter 
 when it is too late. Compare Matthew xxv. 
 
 I-IO. 
 
 Psalm cix. 6 to 19 inclusive. If these verses 
 are put in quotation marks, as the * words 
 of hatred,' which, 'with a lying tongue,' the 
 * adversaries ' of David 'speak against him,* 
 this Psalm is made no longer his imprecation 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 1 3 
 
 of curses on their heads, but his appeal to God 
 in reply to their maledictions. Then the sud- 
 den change from the plural to the singular 
 number, in verse 6 and following, is explained, 
 and both the introductory and closing verses 
 acquire a new and beautiful significance. Com- 
 pare especially verses 28 to 31 with 1-3. 
 
 Examples of at least doubtful division, where 
 the sense is very seriously interrupted or ob- 
 scured, might be multiplied. A few will suf- 
 fice. 
 
 I Corinthians xii. 31. There should here be 
 no division of chapters. The '' more excellent 
 way," which Paul shows, is the cultivation of 
 Love; and a colon after the word 'way,' 
 should be the only interruption to the sense. 
 To introduce a new chapter breaks all con- 
 tinuity. 
 
 The connection between Chapters II. and 
 III. of the Epistle to the Ephesians is similarly 
 intimate ; and the argument is perfect only as 
 the break is avoided. '' For this cause " refers 
 back to the truth set forth in the previous 
 Chapter. Compare also Hebrews iii. 14. The 
 word ' therefore,' at the beginning of the fourth 
 Chapter, depends tipon the sentiment immedi- 
 ately preceding. So xi., xii. 
 
 III. Errors in Amplificatio7i. 
 
 As translators have supplied punctua- 
 
14 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 tion points, so they have supplied words 
 and phrases, to complete the sense or 
 make the meaning obvious. As is well 
 known, these supplied words are always 
 indicated by the use of italics. The ignor- 
 ant reader sometimes supposes that itali- 
 cized words represent the emphatic words, 
 and is perhaps betrayed into the error of 
 the simple minded ' Dunkerd' preacher, 
 who gravely read i Kings xiii. 27, thus: 
 *' And he spake unto his sons, saying, 
 Saddle me the ass. And they saddled 
 him I " 
 
 As to these italicized words, it has 
 been seriously questioned whether they 
 are, in any case, needful, helpful ox jttsti- 
 fiable. Where the original demands or 
 implies them, they need not be italicized, 
 since they are not really 'supplied' 
 words ; where the original does not so 
 justify them, to introduce them may 
 sometimes be to introdiice 7iotions foreign 
 to the mcaniiig of the Word and the mind 
 of the Spirit ; and may therefore be un- 
 warrantable tampering with the Inspired 
 Word of God. At the very least, we 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. I 5 
 
 must remember that all italicised words 
 belong, like punctuation points and chap- 
 ter-and-verse divisions, to the fallible ele- 
 ment, and therefore can never become 
 the basis of objection to anything but 
 the work of translators. 
 
 We append a few examples of supplied 
 words. By reading the passages and omitting 
 these itaHcized phrases, another meaning will 
 often at once appear, and also a much clearer 
 sense. In the examples given we omit the 
 suppHed words. 
 
 Matthew xx. 23. "■ But to sit on my right 
 hand and on my left is not mine to give, but 
 for whom it is prepared of my Father." 
 So read, Christ does not limit his own 
 power to give the chief places, save that it 
 must be exercised in union with the 
 Father. 
 
 John iii. 34. '' For God giveth not the 
 Spirit by measure " — doling out the supply as 
 if his resources were limited. 
 
 John viii. 6. '* But Jesus stooped down, 
 and with his finger wrote on the ground." In 
 Syria and the East, to this day, writing with 
 the finger in the sand is a common method of 
 teaching, as with us the slate and blackboard 
 are used. It introduces a possiby unwar- 
 
1 6 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 ranted conception, to add, *' as though he heard 
 them notr 
 
 James i. 25. ''Whoso looketh into the per- 
 fect law of liberty and continueth." The 
 figure is that of a mirror, and the word ' con- 
 tinucth ' may refer to the looking. We must 
 not simply glafice but gaze at ourselves as seen 
 in that law, continue looking so that the im- 
 pression may be permanent. 
 
 Psalm xxii. i, 3, u, etc. Bishop Alexander 
 calls this prophetic poem of the Crucified, a 
 'Psalm OV Sobs.' It represents the vicarious 
 sufferer as in dying agonies, able only to artic- 
 ulate a few words at a time : and the frag- 
 mentary character of the utterances is one of 
 the most remarkable features of the plaint. 
 To supply words, and so make every sentence 
 complete, interferes with the impression which 
 the Spirit would convey. How much more 
 pathetically majestic if translated literally ! 
 
 " My God ! My God ! 
 Why hast Thou forsaken me ! 
 Far from helping me ! — 
 Words of my roaring ! " — 
 etc. 
 
 We have no space for multiplying examples; 
 but refer the reader to a few additional cases 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 17 
 
 where the omission of the supph'ed words will 
 suggest a new and often higher sense. 
 
 Deut. xxxii. 35. 
 
 Psalm X. 4 ; xiv. i ; 1. 8 ; li. 12. 
 
 Proverbs xxvii. 19. 
 
 Isaiah xxvi. 19. 
 
 Malachi iii. 10. '' Until failure of enough," 
 1. e. until the supply fails ! 
 
 Mark xvi. 20. 
 
 John XX. II. 
 
 Hebrews xi. 21. 
 
 2 Peter iii. 17. 
 
 IV. Difficulties hicidentto Translation. 
 
 In all human language necessary im- 
 perfection inheres ; and yet the Holy 
 Spirit was compelled either to invent a 
 new nomenclature which would have been 
 unintelligible to man, or else to use that 
 imperfect medium with which he is famil- 
 iar. So far as language is merely the 
 mould of thought, or thought is the mould 
 of language, the two must correspond : 
 and we shall find things, divine and spirit- 
 ual, inadequately conveyed by human 
 words, and in some cases absolutely no 
 word will be found fit to be the vehicle or 
 mould of a divine conception. 
 
1 8 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 From this general source proceed a 
 great variety of infelicities, inaccuracies, 
 and even apparent contradictions, that 
 are purely linguistic and verbal. 
 
 1. Material terms are necessarily em- 
 ployed to express immaterial things : the 
 spiritual is cramped and confined by the 
 carnal wrappings. 
 
 The word ' spirit ' from spiro, I breathe, 
 means, in its Hebrew and Greek equivalents, 
 hterally wind or breath. To infer that the 
 spirit of man or of God is simply breath, would 
 be to limit a divine conception by the narrow lit- 
 eralism of the best word that human language 
 can furnish to convey the thought. 
 
 When Jewish writers speak of the " tongue 
 of events," meaning thereby God's acts trans- 
 lated into the language of historical occurrences, 
 no one misunderstands the phrase. 
 
 2. Figurative terms are also necessarily 
 employed, but must not be literally con- 
 strued. 
 
 The Oriental habit of mind is peculiarly 
 luxuriant and imaginative. Eastern idioms 
 abound in bold and striking metaphors and 
 even hyperbole. ** To construct dogmas out 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. IQ 
 
 of such materials, would be like attempting to 
 build a palace out of sunbeams and rainbows." 
 As Prof. Park says, there is manifestly a wide 
 gap between oriental minstrelsy and occiden- 
 tal logic. 
 
 3. Much language, applied to God, is 
 really applicable only to man, is Anthro- 
 povioj'p/nc, and Aiithropopathic, i. e. , 
 drawn from the human form and passions. 
 
 When we read of the ' Fingers of God,' with 
 which He wrote on the Tables of Stone ; the 
 'Feet of God,' which rest on the earth as His 
 footstool; the 'Eyes' and 'Eyelids of God,' 
 which ' behold ' and ' try ' the children of men ; 
 of the ' Nostrils of God,' into which the sweet 
 incense of worship ascends, etc. , these terms 
 are Anthropomorphic and must be so under- 
 stood. 
 
 Isa. iii. 13. The Lord standeth up to 
 plead. 
 
 Joel iii. 12. There will I sit to judge all 
 the heathen. 
 
 It would seem incredible that any one, even 
 a caviller, could call such statements 'dis- 
 crepancies.' This is an example of the uncan- 
 dor and unfairness of much so-called * criticism.' 
 Such language is simply drawn from the habits 
 of Oriental courts, where advocates stand up 
 
20 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 to plcad^ and judges sit doivji to pronounce 
 sentence. God is likewise said to ** Come 
 down," when He interposes in human affairs, 
 which belong to a subordinate sphere : and 
 such terms as '* ascend " and "■ descend " are 
 often used with reference to the comparative 
 elevation of the subjects and objects to which 
 the attention is turned. 
 
 Most words are tropes, concealing a figure. 
 Contradictions frequently disappear, as soon 
 as we cease to insist on an absurd literalism. 
 
 Invisible things may be clearly seeji ; 
 (Rom. i. 20) and we may look at what is 
 unsee7i. (2 Cor. iv. 18.) 
 
 4. Metaphors are often mixedy because 
 one figure does not suffice to express the 
 full meaning. 
 
 Ps. xviii. I, 2. David calls the Lord, 
 his " strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, buckler, 
 horn and high tower." Here are at least 
 seven different metaphors. The inconsistency 
 is rhetorical but not real : in fact there is 
 sublimity in the very mixture. Peter says 
 " stablish, strengthen, settle you," and Paul 
 says, '' rooted and grounded in love." One 
 expression being inadequate, the writer leaps 
 at once to another, that the combination may 
 convey what neither would alone. 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 21 
 
 5. Lang7iagc of Appearance is close akin 
 to figurative terms, and is always allow- 
 able. 
 
 When the sun is represented as ' rising ' or 
 'setting;' or the dew as 'distilling' and 'de- 
 scending from heaven,' we are not warranted 
 either in construing these terms literally, or in 
 objecting to them because of scientific inac- 
 curacy. In this scientific age we use such 
 terms while conceding their inexactness, be- 
 cause they describe appearances and belong to 
 the popular idiom. 
 
 6. Various renderings of the same 
 original word, lead to inevitable confu- 
 sion. 
 
 John XV. 4, 9, II, one Greek word (/ifvw) is 
 variously translated, abide, remain, continue, 
 etc. 
 
 I Cor. ii. 15, the same Greek word avaKfuvErat 
 is translated discern, and judge. 
 
 7. Words are sometimes invested by 
 the reader with a wrong se?ise. 
 
 *^ God \s angry with the wicked." Ps. vii. 
 II. 
 
 He is the ** A^'Oigrr " of evil, i Thess. iv. 6. 
 
 Wrath is ascribed even to the " Lamb." 
 Rev. vi. 16. 
 
22 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 These and similar terms are to be used and 
 understood in a higher sense than the ordinary 
 one. Anger is not, in itself, a sin : in fact, 
 without holy indignation, there is no perfectly 
 holy character. The verbs, * avenge * and 
 ^ revenge^' and the corresponding nouns, ' 7'^«- 
 gemice and * revenge^' mean different things : the 
 former verb and noun refer to a public gov- 
 ernmental, judicial act, which is necessary to 
 the upholding of law ; [Jer. li. 56J while 
 ' revenge ' refers generally to a private, personal 
 act of retaliation. There is a manifest and 
 broad distinction between a ruler calmly re- 
 quiting or recompensing evil, for public good, 
 and an injured party passionately returning evil 
 for evil, for private gratification. God is 
 never vindictive but always vindicative, i. e. 
 He vindicates law. '' Odit errores, amat er- 
 rantesT When wrath is ascribed to Him, we 
 are to remember it is holy wrath and so a part 
 of His infinite perfections. A magnetic needle 
 has polarity, and by the same law it attracts 
 and repels at the same pole. Benevolence is 
 an attribute whose two poles are. Love and 
 Wrath. By the same principle, God both loves 
 holiness and hates sin ; and, because He is 
 capable of holy complacence toward the good, 
 must be capable of holy repulsion toward evil. 
 
 The word, ' hate ' is often used of a lesser 
 love. Compare Rom. ix. 13. Luke xiv. 26. 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 23 
 
 *' God Jiardoicd Pharaoh's heart." Exod. 
 ix. 12. This implies in God no compHcity 
 with evil. He withdrew softening influences 
 which were abused. Nay more : the same 
 sun melts the wax, and bakes and cakes the 
 clay; and so the same influences which soften 
 and subdue the obedient, harden the rebellious. 
 Pharaoh's wilfulness naturally produced the 
 same effect as did God's judicial infliction. 
 Compare Exod. viii. 15, 32. 
 
 In the narrative about David and the Am- 
 monites, etc., in 2 Sam. xii. 31, it is said 
 he '^ put them imdcr saws, harrows, axes," and 
 " made them pass tlirough the brick-kiln." 
 Sceptics unwarrantably construe this subjection 
 oftJie people to certain forms of labor ^ as though 
 it were meant that David cut them in pieces or 
 burned them alive. In i Chron. xx. 3, the 
 word " cut,'' is probably a mistake. A Hebrew 
 word, as much like the other as ' cut ' is like 
 'put,' and even more like it, is accidentally mis- 
 taken for it. {Vayyasdr for vayyasem^ 
 
 Paul says, "concerning virgins I have no 
 commandment of the Lord.'' I Cor. vii. 25. 
 Are we to understand him as disclaiming 
 inspired guidance in the case? or does he 
 simply mean that whereas, in counsels to the 
 married, he has referred them to an express re- 
 corded commandment of the Lord, Mai. ii. 
 14-16, Matt. xix. 6, 9 ; in this case there is 
 
24 STUMBLING STONES Kli MOVED 
 
 no such ivriitoi coniinandDioit to Avliich to 
 appeal? Compare i Cor. vii. 6, lo. When 
 he says, '* I think also that I have the Spirit of 
 God," I Cor. vii. 40, it might be rendered, I 
 think that I also have the Spirit (^ayw), i. e. as 
 well as others who claim to be your teachers, 
 and are not inspired apostles.* So understood, 
 instead of disclaiming inspiration, he rather 
 affirms with peculiar emphasis the apostolic 
 warrant for his instruction. 
 
 The Israelites borrowed of the Egyptians, 
 Exod. xii. 35. *' Borrowed " probably means 
 * demanded,' as the price of departure. 
 
 " The bears tare forty and two of them," 
 2 Kings ii. 24. 
 
 It is not said that they killed 2,\\y of them. 
 
 Abraham was commanded to ''offer'' Isaac 
 for a burnt offering. Gen. xxii. 2. 
 
 It is not said, anywhere, that God com- 
 manded him to slay his son, though the father 
 so interpreted it. God intended that he should 
 prese7it Isaac as an offering, and that is what he 
 did. It is probably part of the inspired per- 
 fection of the Scriptures that words are used 
 with such discrimination ; and it is therefore 
 the duty of every reader to note exactly what 
 is saidj lest he carelessly introduce a conception, 
 foreign to the real narrative. 
 
 *J. H. Brookes, D. D. 
 
FROM rilE WORD OF GOD. 2$ 
 
 VI. Errors of Interpretation. 
 
 Where no fault can reasonably be found 
 with either the original or the translation, the 
 reader s viisappreJiension may cause difficulty. 
 We must therefore learn to interpret the 
 language of the Bible intelligently and cor- 
 rectly. Several facts arc to be borne in mind. 
 
 1. Words often cJiange vieaning, and 
 arc liable to be misunderstood. 
 
 * Prevent ' means to go before, or anticipate. 
 
 1 Thess. iv. 15. 
 
 * Let ' means not to let, i. e. to hinder. 
 
 2 Thcss. ii. 7. 
 
 * Conversation ' means course of life. Heb. 
 xiii. 5. 
 
 2. The same worei is used in different 
 seiises. 
 
 Compare Exod. xxxi. 17, with Isa. xl. 28. 
 Though God " fainteth not neither is weary," 
 yet "He rested and was refreshed." 'Rest' 
 sometimes means repose after fatiguing labor, 
 or, as in this case, cessation from activity, the 
 arresting of work. 
 
 Adam was said to ' hide,' and Jonah to 
 'Jlee,' from 'the Presence of the Lord.* Yet 
 wc are taught that to flee or to hide from His 
 
26 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 presence is impossible. Ps. cxxxix. 7. There 
 is an omni-prcscnce of God which equally per- 
 vades all space ; but there is a manifested Pres- 
 ence, such as, in the Garden of Eden or in 
 the Sanctuary of old, was often visible and 
 audible. We are told that God " was not in 
 the wind," the '' earthquake " or the ''fire;" 
 but the meaning is that He was not specially 
 and personally manifested in these forms, as 
 He was in the *' still small voice " which fol- 
 lowed them. I Kings xix. 11, 12. 
 
 The word '^ covet'' is used in Exod. xx. 17, 
 of unlawful desire after that which is another's ; 
 in I Cor. xii. 31, of a holy yearning to possess 
 that which will benefit another. 
 
 *' Christ was made sin for us," though He 
 "knew no sin," 2 Cor. v. 21, i. e. He was 
 made a sin-offering, accounted judicially as a 
 sinner. 
 
 '' Tempt'' may mean to put to proof, to 
 test : or to entice to sin. Compare Gen. xxii. 
 I, Deut. vi. 16, and Jas. i. 13. 
 
 ^^ Cleave" may mean, to cling to, or to part 
 from, another. Rom. xii. 9. Zech. xiv. 4. 
 
 ^^ Devoted" means consecrated to holy uses, 
 or, sometimes, doomed, to destruction. 
 
 The verb '^ have" is used in Matt. xiii. 12, 
 both of nominal and of real possession. Mr. 
 Haley cites a couplet from Drydcn's Jiivcfial, 
 in illustration of a like usage : 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 2/ 
 
 "Tis true poor Codrus nothing had, to boast; 
 And yet poor Codrus all that nothing lost." 
 
 To ''seek early'' may also mean to seek 
 earnestly. Compare Prov. i. 28, viii. 17. 
 
 In one case the earnestness of the pious 
 youth, and in the other of the despairing and 
 hardened sinner, is referred to: a holy longing 
 after God's favor is contrasted with a desperate 
 effort to evade sin's penalty and God's judg- 
 ment. 
 
 The word "■ eviV may mean perverse, in- 
 iquitous, or merely adverse, calamitous. 
 
 ''Jealousy''' sometimes represents "the rage 
 of man " a mean, malicious suspicion ; and, 
 again, a holy affection which by its nature 
 admits no rivalry. God is said to be "jealous " 
 because He can allow no other object to share 
 His people's devotion, without sanctioning 
 idolatry. 
 
 The phrase "the righteousness of saints" 
 sometimes seems to refer to justification ; at 
 other times to sanctification ; and at others to 
 resurrection life. It is of great importance 
 that we learn to discriminate between these 
 three. Justification is a divine act, imputing 
 to us a righteousness complete but ?iot inherent, 
 Sanctification is a divine work, imparting to us 
 a righteousness inherent but not complete. Res- 
 urrection life implies a finished work, when 
 
28 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 our righteousness is both inherent and com- 
 plete. 
 
 3. Words are used both in an absolute, 
 and in a relative sense. 
 
 God who" changes not," is said to ''repent." 
 There is no contradiction. It is because He 
 absokitely changes not, that He relatively 
 changes. If a movable body revolves about 
 a fixed object, their relative positions are con- 
 stantly changing : if both were moving, their 
 relative positions might remain the same. 
 When a man who has been turned from God 
 turns toward Him, God is in effect turned also 
 toward the man, though in fact there has been 
 in God Himself no change. The attitude of the 
 sinner relatively affects the attitude of God. 
 We say, " the sun shines " or *' docs not shine," 
 when in fact it always shines ; but the position 
 of the earth, or the interposition of the clouds, 
 intercepts its rays. 
 
 Christ says '* my Father is greater than I ; " 
 yet He also afifirms " I and my Father are 
 one ; " and Paul claims for Him such equality 
 with God as that the claim implies no robbery 
 of God. Compare Jno. xiv. 28, Phil. ii. 5, 6. 
 In one case, Christ speaks of His relative 
 position as a Son^ or as ATessiah, the Sent one : 
 in the other His absolute, essential equality is 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 2g 
 
 referred to, as one member of a firm, where all 
 members are equal in the property invested 
 and the rights implied, might still disclaim all 
 authority in a certain department of the busi- 
 ness, which by mutual agreement is committed 
 to another partner. 
 
 4. Words are used sometimes of the 
 uitcnty and again of the effect, of an act or 
 course. 
 
 ** In so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire 
 on his head." Rom. xii. 20. Here not the 
 design, but the resiilty of kindness to an enemy 
 is indicated. The silversmith does not per- 
 fectly melt the metal until, in addition to the 
 fire beneath the crucible, he heaps the hot 
 coals on the top of the silver. When we heap 
 kindness on an enemy's head, we have him 
 between two fires : the conscience of the man 
 accuses him, and our tenderness combines with 
 that to melt him. 
 
 '* I came not to send peace but a sword." 
 Matt. X. 34, 36 ; i. e. though Christ's desire and 
 design are to give peace, the effect of his com- 
 ing is to make division and separation between 
 those who serve God and those who serve Him 
 not. We must discriminate between the object 
 and the effect of His mission. 
 
 When it is said that, at Nazareth, '' He coiitd 
 
30 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 do no mighty work " (Meirk vi. 5), it is no con- 
 tradiction of the fact that " All Power" is his. 
 Matt, xxviii. 18. He chooses to be limited, in 
 His beneficent activity, by human unbelief. He 
 could do mighty works among those Naza- 
 renes, only by disregarding the bounds which 
 He had wisely adopted for moral ends. 
 
 Under this same subdivision we may include 
 promises which are in some cases absolute, and 
 in others conditional. 
 
 VI. Freedom in the Use of Names, 
 
 1. Multiplicity of names for the same 
 person 
 
 Peter is also called Simon, Cephas, Simon 
 Bar-Jona, Simeon, Simon Peter, Simon son of 
 Jonas. Joseph is also called Barsabas and 
 Justus. Jacob is also Israel. Edom is Esau, 
 Gideon is Jerubbaal. Saul is Paul. 
 
 2. Names of /'^r.f(?;2i' are changed ; and 
 names of persons and places are often 
 interchanged. E. g., Edom. 
 
 In the deficiency of other methods of re- 
 cording and transmitting history, individual 
 men and women became themselves marks, 
 memorials or monuments of crises or turning 
 points, or new departures. 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 3 1 
 
 Thus Abram's name was changed to Abra- 
 ham, and Sarai's to Sarah. Gen. xvii. 5, 15. 
 
 Jacob's name was changed for a similar 
 reason to Israel. Gen. xxxii. 28. 
 
 Neander's name before conversion was 
 David iNIendel. The change marks his regen- 
 eration — the ' new-man.' 
 
 VII. In luriting number s^ oriental 
 usage was often singular. 
 
 1. In the expression of aggregates. 
 
 Nordheimer says : Hebrew and Arabic al- 
 low peculiar latitude in the use and expression 
 of numbers. Both languages allow one to 
 write units, tens, hundreds, thousands, in suc- 
 cession or in reverse order. Much obscurity 
 at times occurs, as if one should write, " five 
 and twenty and two hundred and ten thou- 
 sand." This might be understood to mean an 
 aggregate number as small as 10, 225, or as 
 large as 210, 025. 
 
 2. Round numbers were used for con- 
 venience, or in symbolism. E. g., a 
 week, called eight days. J no. xx. 26. 
 
 VIII. Difference of dates is sometimes 
 the source of apparent discrepancy or 
 discordance. 
 
32 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 The disagreeing statements refer to different 
 periods. What was once true ceases to be at 
 a subsequent time. 
 
 Compare Gen. i. 31, and Rom. viii. 22. 
 When God first made all things, he pronounced 
 everything " very good." After sin's blight 
 and curse came upon it, the whole creation 
 groaned and travailed in pain together. 
 
 IX. Different modes of reckoning. 
 
 1. The civil and sacred years of the 
 Hebrews differed. 
 
 Abib, the first month of the sacred year, was 
 the seventh month of the civil y^2J. ^Compare 
 the " old style " and the ''new style," eleven 
 days apart. 
 
 2. Fractio7ial days and years were 
 reckoned as whole ones. 
 
 With the Rabbins, the very first day of a 
 year sometimes stood for the whole year. — 
 Lightfoot. Parts of a day were reckoned for 
 the whole : e. g. , Christ's '* three days" in the 
 grave, though He appears to have been in the 
 sepulchre a part of the sixth, the whole of the 
 seventh and a part of the eighth. 
 
 X. History in Bible usage is often 
 made stibordinaie to prophecy a7id sym- 
 
FROM TIIE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 33 
 
 boll's VI. In. other words the historical 
 accuracy is of less account than the pro- 
 phetical or symbolical or ethical teaching 
 which the history expresses and embodies. 
 
 E. g., Israel's history, as a nation, is not 
 counted on the strict historical scale, but on the 
 prophetic. When God's ancient people re- 
 lapsed into idolatry and virtual apostasy, and 
 were given over into captivity, their normal 
 and prophetic history stopped : they were not 
 reckoned as having any history. Only when 
 such a principle is understood and applied to 
 the record, can we make out the biblical com- 
 putations of time, as applied to this elect 
 nation. 
 
 We notice various cycles of 490 years, or 
 ten Jubilees, which seem to constitute a sort 
 of unit ov measurement in the Old Testament. 
 The 480 years of i Kings vi. i, between Israel's 
 going forth and Solomon's temple building, do 
 not count, as a recent writer has observed, 
 the seven periods of servitude. The actual 
 time is 611 years. Deducting for servi- 
 tude 131 years, we have 480. Then add, for 
 building and furnishing the temple, 10 years, 
 and we have 490. 
 
 From that period to the return from Babylon, 
 in the time of Nehemiah, is 560 years. Deduct 
 
34 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 for captivity, Jo years, and we have again 
 490. 
 
 So the 490 years in the seventy Hcptades 
 of Dan. ix. cannot be made out accurately, 
 unless we omit the periods of interrupted 
 fellowship with God and disobedience to His 
 will. In fact the crucifixion of Christ appears 
 to have interrupted the last "week," and at least 
 half of it seems to be the prophetical '' three 
 and a half years," ''forty and two months," or 
 1260 days of the Apocalypse. 
 
 XI. One event or tricth or subject has 
 differeiit sides SiVid aspects. We must get 
 the point of view, and even the plane of 
 thought, occupied by the sacred writer or 
 speaker. 
 
 I. Truth is many-sided. 
 
 Every truth or fact has at least two faces. 
 To look at it from one direction or side, only, 
 gives us only a half truth, which, if we consider 
 it the whole, is a half error. Apposite truths 
 are not opposites. There is no antagonism 
 between them, but rather complementism : 
 they are the hemispheres which together com- 
 plete the sphere. 
 
 Hence truths that at first appear to conflict 
 may have often the highest harmony and be 
 necessary to each other. 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 35 
 
 Man is at the same time mortal and immor- 
 tal. He may be buried, and yet it is equally 
 true that he cannot be : or, as Socrates said, 
 ** You may luiry vie if you can catcJi vic^ 
 
 2. Character has complex relations. 
 
 Christ is at once a lion and a lamb, Rev. v. 
 5, 6 ; a priest and victim, Heb. viii. i, ix. 26-28 ; 
 a shepherd and sheep, Jno. x. 11, Acts. viii. 32 ; 
 the door to the fold and the pastor to the flock, 
 Jno. X. 7. II. 
 
 3. Different experiences and conditions 
 may pertain to the same person., at the 
 same time. 
 
 Christ's peace was the perfect peace of God, 
 even while he sweat as it were great drops of 
 blood. 
 
 Dr. Payson in dying was both in intensest 
 agony and intensest ecstasy. 
 
 4. The same siibjcct may be treated 
 from different points of approach and 
 survey, for different ends. 
 
 Thus Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, each 
 writing for a different class of readers, — Jews 
 Romans, Greeks, and believers in general, will 
 each emphasize a different aspect of the com- 
 plex character of Jesus. 
 
36 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 Matthew lays stress on Him as Messiah — 
 King of the Jews. Mark lays stress on Him 
 as mighty God, miracle worker. Luke lays 
 stress on Him as the Son of man. John lays 
 stress on Him as the Son of God. Compare 
 the books of Kings and Chronicles ; one being 
 the annals of the Kingdom, the other the 
 history of the Hierarchy. 
 
 For similar reasons, some authors may fol- 
 low the chronological^ while others follow the 
 logical, order; others, without regard to his- 
 torical connection or sequence, may group 
 ethical teachings together. 
 
 5. Consequently, to avoid partial and 
 incomplete views, we must compare scrip- 
 ture with scriphtre until each half truth 
 finds its complementary half. 
 
 The parable of the "Pounds" and of the 
 '* Talents " must be taken together. Thus 
 combined they present the whole law of God's 
 administration of gifts. Where gifts are equal, 
 but unequally improved, the rewards are un- 
 qual : where gifts are unequal, but equally 
 improved, the rewards are equal. Compare 
 Luke xix.. Matt. xxv. 
 
 In Luke xv., we have not three parables, 
 but one parable with three forms of presenta- 
 tion. The first and second emphasize God's 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 37 
 
 part in recovering the lost sinner ; the third 
 brings to the front mans part both in wander- 
 ing and return. 
 
 Paul emphasizes/^r?///; / James, works. There 
 is no conflict. Paul was rebuking Pharisaic 
 dependence on self-righteous works. James 
 was contending against antinomian dependence 
 on a mere creed. James probably uses the 
 word " justify " in the sense of manifesting or 
 proving. Thus faith justifies the soul, works 
 justify the faith. 
 
 XII. Condensation of narratives ac- 
 counts for some incongruities. 
 
 1. For the sake of brevity, or because 
 a specific purpose, which is controlling, 
 demands only the salient points of a 
 narrative, a few characteristic features 
 are presented and the account is fragmen- 
 tary. Were all the missing links fur- 
 nished, no real difficulty would remain. 
 
 2. The Imagination or hasty inference 
 of critics may often supply an incongru- 
 ous link where God has left an unfilled 
 vacancy. 
 
 Some professedly religious teachers have 
 shocked the sensibilities of all true and rever- 
 ent believers by using such phrases as the 
 
38 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 " errors," '' mistakes " and even '' immoralities " 
 of scripture. 
 
 For example, Exod. xxi. 24, " An eye for an 
 eye," etc. , is adduced as a scriptural sanction, 
 justifying private revenge and retaliation of 
 injuries. But who is authorized to say that 
 this authorizes the exaction of private and 
 personal vengeance ? May it not be the law 
 by which the judges were guided in the judi- 
 cial mfliction of penalty! The brief narrative 
 leaves many gaps to be supplied. In Patri- 
 archal times, with imperfect legislation and 
 government, such penalties may have been the 
 most salutary preventives of acts of violence, 
 and especially of maiming. 
 
 XIII. Differ^ent events or persons may he 
 conf^ised on account of similar feahires. 
 
 On a larger or smaller scale, history is con- 
 stantly repeating itself. Abram twice equiv- 
 ocated concerning Sarah ; Isaac imitated his 
 father's example, in the case of Rebekah. David 
 twice and in very similar circumstances spared 
 Saul's life, etc. 
 
 There were, in modern times, two Jonathan 
 Edwards, father and son. Both were grand- 
 sons of clergymen and, themselves, clergymen. 
 Both were pious and precocious youths, fa- 
 mous scholars, and tutors for equal periods in 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 39 
 
 their respective colleges. Both succeeded, in 
 their respective charges, their maternal grand- 
 fathers, were dismissed on account of peculiar 
 religious opinions ; were again settled over con- 
 gregations singularly attached to them, and 
 employed leisure hours in favorite studies, and 
 in preparation, for publication, of works of 
 value. Both left their parishes for college 
 presidencies, and died shortly after inaugura- 
 tion, with but one year's difference in their 
 respective ages, one being fifty-six, the other 
 fifty-seven; and both, on the first sabbath of the 
 fatal year, preached from the same text, '' This 
 year thou shalt surely die." (Haley, p. 27). 
 
 Modern critics who seek to prove that simi- 
 lar biblical narratives are a confusion of his- 
 torical facts, and refer to the same person or 
 event, can in no case adduce by comparison of 
 scriptural accounts any parallel to the coinci- 
 dent features of these two remarkably similar 
 lives and careers. And were the methods of 
 the *' Higher Criticism " adopted in this case, 
 some may yet arise who will seek to prove 
 that there was after all but one Jonathan 
 Edwards ! 
 
 XIV. Special laws or principles apply 
 to the Interpretation of Prophecy. 
 
 Prophecy is the langzcage of the fnture. 
 
40 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 It is a well known fact that as we look 
 ahead, in a direct line, certain optical 
 illusions are the result : 
 
 First, Perspective : objects at different 
 distances are seen in one limited field of 
 vision and lying within the same narrow 
 arc. 
 
 Secondly, Fore short eating : objects, far 
 separated from us and from each other, 
 appear near and closely related ; what is 
 stretched out over vast length, is seen 
 shortened — hence the term '' foreshorten- 
 ing," to express the apparent shortening 
 from the fore-view. Only by experience 
 does the mind learn to detect and cor- 
 rect the errors of the eye. Similar 
 illusions pertain to the careless reading 
 of prophecy. 
 
 I. In prophecy we often see two or 
 more events of a similar character out- 
 lined by a common profile. One outline 
 properly portrays two events, one on 
 a smaller, and the other on a larger scale ; 
 one nearer, the other more remote. 
 
 E. g., Matt. xxiv. where the destruction of 
 Jerusalem is the type of the End of the Age, 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 41 
 
 and prophecies concerning both are closely 
 intertwined because one general profile answers 
 for both. 
 
 2. Events may appear in a common 
 field of vision, all of which are future, 
 which and, as they occur, will be seen to 
 be marked by many distinct and distin- 
 o-uishinor features. 
 
 o o 
 
 3. Future events, far separated in 
 point of time, may be so mingled on the 
 horizon of prophecy, as to appear, like 
 mountains in a range, near to each other. 
 
 4. History may be communicated pro- 
 phetically, i. e. by a backward instead of 
 a forward vision. 
 
 Hugh Miller believed that the six days of 
 creation were revealed to Moses after some 
 such manner, as a series of spectacular or 
 dramatic scenes, to be interpreted after the 
 manner of prophecy. 
 
 XV. There Is a Progress in Rev elation y 
 from Genesis to the Apocalypse. 
 
 I. Things, veiled at first, even when 
 revealed in form, were afterward fully 
 unveiled as revelation became clearer. 
 
42 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 This is the force of the word, "mystery," 
 in the New Testament. 
 
 And here we may possibly find the key to 
 many so-called discrepancies. 
 
 E. g., quotations from the Old Testament 
 Hebrew or the Septuagint, or Greek Alexan- 
 drian version, are found in the New Testament 
 in a modified form. Sometimes the New 
 Testament writers, and even our Lord, have 
 been charged with " inaccuracies." 
 
 These verbal changes have been explained 
 by some, on the theory that the inspiration of 
 the Bible extends not to the '' words, but to the 
 concept," or thought ; or that New Testament 
 writers take liberties with scripture and modify 
 their quotations as modern authors might, in 
 citing passages from Shakespeare or Milton. 
 Such ' explanations ' are too loose and only 
 increase our embarrassment. We venture to 
 suggest a more reverent method of accounting 
 for such changes, viz. : that, where New Testa- 
 ament authors, in quoting, adopt the Sep- 
 tuagint version or change the exact language of 
 the original Hebrew, the Spirit guided them 
 so to do, in order to bring more clearly to view 
 the inspired meaning of sacred words. 
 
 Oftentimes a reason may be discovered for 
 such modification. In Heb. xi. 40, i Pet. i. 
 II, 12, etc., we are taught that Old Testament 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 43 
 
 writers themselves wrote much that they did 
 not themselves understand, and that was left 
 on record for after ages to interpret. May it 
 not be that, when New Testament writers are 
 led by the Spirit of God to quote these words, 
 they are also led in some cases to modify them 
 so as to throw upon the original quotation 
 the new light of a more perfect day ? Com- 
 pare Ps. xl. 7-8, with Heb. x. 5-10. Only 
 after our Lord became incarnate, could it be 
 understood Jiozu He came to do God's will " in 
 a body prepared." 
 
 Compare Isa. Ixi. i, 2, with Luke iv. 18, 19. 
 Mai. iii. I, with Mark i. 2, '' before Thy face." 
 
 2. There is likewise a progressive revela- 
 tion of 7norality. 
 
 The ethical standard of the gospel age is far 
 in advance of the Levitical : and the rule of 
 conduct must be graduated and estimated by 
 the fuller, clearer revelation of duty and of love. 
 
 " To him that knoweth to do good and doeth 
 it not, to him it is sin." Jas. iv. 17. " If ye 
 know these things, happy are ye if ye do 
 them." Jno. xiii. 17. 
 
 ** The times of this ignorance God winked at." 
 Acts xvii. 30. 
 
 Such texts as these teach us that : 
 
44 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 The object of knowledge is practice ; and 
 The scope of practice is knowledge. 
 
 The rule of duty is relative : '* To whom 
 much is given, of him will much be required ; " 
 more light demands better life. 
 
 Patriarchs, in practising polygamy, decep- 
 tion, human servitude ; in inflicting penalty 
 without legal process, etc., are not to be judged 
 by the New Testament principles not in their 
 day clearly revealed. Things but dimly seen if 
 at all at dawn, are clearly and boldly revealed 
 at noon-day. 
 
 3. There Is particularly a Progressive 
 Revelation as to mzsszo?is, or the duty of 
 believers to the unsaved about them. 
 
 It is true that the Bible is throughout a 
 missionary book. Missions are taught in the 
 Old Testament, but it is as in a mirror, darkly, 
 dimly, enigmatically, as truth is taught in 
 parables. Practically the old time saints did 
 not conceive of God's people as having an 
 aggressive mission to " make disciples of all 
 nations," nor did they conceive of other nations 
 as subjects of converting grace. To them, the 
 heathen were simply obstacles to the prosperity, 
 progress and even existence, of the one God- 
 fearing, elect people ; and even Peter the 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 45 
 
 apostle had to Icarn, by a thrice repeated vision 
 on the housetop, that the old exclusivcness 
 must be broken down before the inclusiveness 
 of the christian spirit. 
 
 Much of the so called ' vindictive spirit ' of 
 the ** Imprecatory " Psalms and prophetic utter- 
 ances should be interpreted as the breathing of 
 a holy jealousy for God, and a devout desire 
 to have all foes of the true faith destroyed, or 
 at least dispersed. Compare Ps. lix. ii. 
 
46 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 PART II. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. LAWS OF INTER- 
 PRETATION, ETC. 
 
 We now add some general remarks, 
 intended to be suggestive especially as 
 to the principles upon which biblical 
 studies should be pursued ; and we lay 
 down certain obvious laws of interpreta- 
 tion and canons of criticism. 
 
 I. The Bible is imperial in source, 
 divine in authority, original in contents, 
 and infallible in teaching. But it abounds 
 in mysterious truths, and is often para- 
 doxical iii state77ient. 
 
 Both the mystery and the paradox are 
 necessary features of the Word of God, 
 as the Book itself concedes. But it does 
 not follow that what we cannot solve 
 is insoluble or absurd. Deut. xxix. 29. 
 I Cor. ii. 1 1. 
 
 II. Apparent discrepancies are insepar- 
 able from the Word of God. 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 47 
 
 The iiatuial universe abounds in inscrutable 
 mysteries and seemini^ contradictions. Nature 
 is the arena of perpetual conflict. With all 
 the undeniable evidences of design, there are 
 occasional monstrosities ; and, side by side with 
 proofs of benevolence in the Creator, there 
 arc gigantic forms of disaster and destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 So in the Bible. The Trinity and Unity of 
 Godhead ; the Sovereignty of God and the 
 freedom of man ; the Divine Immutability 
 and the promises to praying souls ; — paradoxes 
 Hke these inhere in the nature of God and of 
 divine truth, and in the limited faculty and 
 knowledge of man. 
 
 That God ever began to be is impossible 
 and inconceivable ; yet that God had no 
 beginning is equally an inscrutable mystery, 
 for how did He ever reach the present stage of 
 His existence ! If an Eternity is already passed, 
 why may not an Eternal future reach its end ? 
 Whoever attempts to think on such themes 
 will soon learn that there are limits to human 
 reason. The idea of succession must not 
 enter into our conception of Eternity ; yet, of 
 duration without succession we cannot now 
 conceive. 
 
 III. We must settle the limits of In- 
 spiration. 
 
48 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 Much of the Word of God consists of simply 
 an inspired narrative, in which all that Inspira- 
 tion covers or guarantees is the accuracy and 
 veracity of the record. This principle seems 
 to us so obvious, that, like an axiom, it needs 
 only a statement. One may give a most exact 
 and truthful account of what has taken place, 
 while disapproving the whole transaction 
 which is recorded. We must therefore in 
 every case notice the atithorship and authority 
 of all statements or sentiments found in the 
 sacred book. 
 
 ''''Verbal Inspiration" is to some persons a 
 very obnoxious term, but when it is properly 
 understood we see no ground of objection to 
 it. It means only this, as we use it : that the 
 Inspiring Spirit guided, guarded and governed 
 the very latiguage in which God's thought was 
 expressed by holy men, who not only thought, 
 but ^^ spake diS they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost." Who is there that holds every word of 
 the Bible to be in the same sense, inspired ? 
 When Satan says, *' Ye shall not surely die ; " 
 when Job and his three friends discuss the pro- 
 blem and philosophyof evil; when the blind man, 
 whose eyes were opened by Christ, argues with 
 the Pharisees ; when, in a word, the Bible 
 narrates human events or records human utter- 
 ances in which God is not represented either as 
 acting or speaking through man, inspiration 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 49 
 
 covers only the essential accuracy of the narra- 
 tive. But when God directs a course to be pur- 
 sued, or himself guides an utterance, the 
 sanction of His infallible authority is thus given. 
 We are not unduly jealous that '* degrees of 
 inspiration " be disallowed, provided that the 
 lowest degree of inspiration shall guard infal- 
 libility. For without this the Bible becomes 
 simply the best of books ; and loses all its divine 
 character as the final court of appeal — the Judge 
 which, when wit and wisdom fail, ends the 
 strife. Men crave, and will have, a final 
 arbiter. 
 
 We are more and more impressed with the 
 exactness and accuracy of Scripture. When, 
 for instance, Matthew records the direct ful- 
 filment of a specific prediction he says: "that it 
 might be fulfilled which was spoken by tJie pro- 
 phet;'' but when he refers to Christ's hailing from 
 Nazareth, he says: "that it might be fulfilled 
 which was spoken by the prophets,'' (plural) 
 " He shall be called a Nazarene " — for not in the 
 writings of any one prophet, but rather in the 
 drift of all prophecy is this forecast found. 
 And so, on the day of Pentecost, Peter does not 
 say, ** then \\d.<=> fid filled \X\dX which was spoken 
 by the prophet Joel ; " but, " this is that zvhich 
 was spoken " — for, although the outpouring of 
 Pentecost finds its only explanatio7i in Joel, the 
 fiilfilmeyit of that prophecy is yet to come, 
 
50 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 when the Spirit, then poured out on all dis- 
 ciples, shall be " poured out upon -dW flcsJiy 
 
 Two Greek words arc translated '' speech," 
 "discourse " or ''saying," (/oyoc, p^wa) yet only 
 07ie (/.oync) IS cvcr applied to Christ. If God 
 did not guide the words used, why were such 
 distinctions so carefully preserved ? And this 
 is but one case out of hundreds familiar to any 
 Bible student. There are '' concepts " of God 
 which no existing Greek words could express, 
 and a new nomenclature had to be created, or 
 new meanings attached to formerly existing 
 words. The New Testament must have a 
 glossary of its own ; for a classical dictionary 
 would not suffice. The more deeply we im- 
 merse ourselves in the study of the original 
 Scriptures, the more will the divine choice of 
 words impress us. 
 
 There are certainly five passages of Scripture 
 which may be cited as giving no uncertain 
 sound on the subject of ''Verbal Inspiration." 
 (Compare Heb. xii. 27, John x. 34-36, Gal. 
 iii. 16, Gal. iv. 9, and John viii. 58.) In the 
 first, the argument turns on the significance of 
 a ^xxi'^Q: phrase ; in the second, on the inviola- 
 bility of a single zvord] in the third, on the 
 use of a singular, instead of a plural niifuber ; 
 in the fourth, on the passive, instead of the 
 active, voice of a verb ; and in the fifth, on the 
 use of the present, instead of the past, tense of 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 5 1 
 
 the verb. Taking the five together, we are 
 taught that " the Scripture must not be 
 broken," so far as to change di phrase, a wordy 
 the nuiiihcr of a noun, or the voice or tense of a 
 verb. If that is not verbal inspiration — a 
 divine oversight extending not only to *' con- 
 cept," but to language — our '' scholarship " is 
 entirely at fault, and we are glad that it is ! 
 
 Of course, no inspiration can be claimed, in 
 any such sense, for the various translations or 
 versions of the original Scriptures. Human 
 language is but a mirror or camera, before 
 which we place the Word of God, to catch its 
 reflection or image. The reflection or image 
 will be imperfect, just so far as the mirror, or 
 the camera, with its lenses and sensitive plates, 
 is imperfect ; yet for all practical purposes, 
 these translations and versions are as faithful 
 and accurate reproductions as the reflected 
 image and the photographic likeness, which 
 are but the '' counterfeit presentments " of the 
 man, and not the man himself ; and such trans- 
 lations do not seriously mislead any candid 
 reader. 
 
 IV. The Inspiration of Scripture must 
 certainly secure inerrancy and infallibility; 
 otherwise every man is at liberty to 
 determine for himself what he accepts or 
 rejects. 
 
5 2 STUMBLING S TONES RE MO VED 
 
 Some who deny the inerrancy of Scripture, 
 concede that these '' errors are all in the cir- 
 cumstantials, and not in the essentials." But 
 who shall decide what are '^ essentials " and 
 what "circumstantials?" As a huge door 
 turns upon a very small hinge, stupendous 
 events hang upon what is seemingly insignifi- 
 cant. In God's universe there are no little 
 things. If we admit errors in the original 
 Scriptures, any modern Jehudi may, with his 
 penknife, cut out from the sacred scroll what- 
 ever he pleases ; and on the *' authority " of 
 his reason, and perhaps, of his " church," decide 
 that the exscinded part belongs not to " essen- 
 tials" but to ''circumstantials." 
 
 Current popular phraseology which is known 
 to be scientifically inaccurate, may find its 
 way into the Bible simply as a prevailing 
 idiom of speech. It is common to speak of the 
 " Battle of Bunker Hill," though every reader 
 of our history knows that Breed's Hill was the 
 actual scene of the battle. The phrases " ris- 
 ing and setting sun," " dew descending " from 
 heaven, etc., though found in the Word of 
 God, argue no essential error, because these 
 current forms of speech, — the " language of 
 appearances " — are universal even where known 
 to be scientifically inaccurate. 
 
 Each apparent error in the Word of God 
 must be accounted for by itself. Many errors 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 53 
 
 may be traced to sources already indicated, and 
 possibly some we may not now be able to 
 trace. But to admit the principle that the 
 "scriptures abound in errors, inaccuracies, mis- 
 takes and immoralities " is to destroy the value 
 of the Bible as the Word of God. 
 
 V. We must come to the study of the 
 Word of God with clear a7id discriminat- 
 ing minds. 
 
 1. Our tests must be sensible, rational 
 tests. 
 
 In Heb. vi. 18, we are told that it is " impossi- 
 ble for God to lie." Jkit again we are told in 
 Matt. xix. 26, that " with God all things are 
 possible." There is no contradiction. It is only 
 the silly caviller who cries out, " God cannot be 
 omnipotent, because He cannot lie." This is 
 no limitation of God's power; for power can be 
 tested only within the proper sphere and range 
 of power. The impossibility of God's lying is 
 not a physical but a moral impossibility, and 
 if the same impossibility existed in some 
 cavillers, such a dishonest objection and dis- 
 ingenuous argument would never have been 
 brought forward. 
 
 2. We must use sanctified common 
 sense. 
 
54 STUMBLliVG STONES REMOVED 
 
 God knows all men, omniscicntly ; yet He 
 says of Abraham, '' Now, I know that thou 
 fearest God," etc., as though it were a new 
 discovery. Gen. xxii. 12. Here He means 
 that He had verified, by experiment, Abra- 
 ham's faithfulness ; it was an eventual know- 
 ing. So when God is said to have " remembered 
 Noah" (Gen. viii. i), it is not implied that 
 He had ever forgotten him ; but there is 
 indicated and recorded an active remembrance, 
 evinced in what He did to bring Noah again 
 out of the ark in safety. 
 
 3. In studying the Divine anger against 
 sin, we must beware of attributing to 
 God a merciless severity, because He 
 judicially destroys the ungodly. 
 
 Mercy to others sometimes makes severity 
 to offenders the only course compatible with 
 either justice or love to the universe at large. 
 Chief Justice Hale said, " When I am tempted 
 to be merciful to offenders, let me remember 
 that there is also a mercy due to my country." 
 Prince Eugene never pardoned certain of- 
 fenders, whom the Duke of Marlborough gen- 
 erally dealt with leniently. But it was found 
 on comparison of records that, with all his 
 laxity, the duke had been compelled to hang 
 many more such offenders than the prince, 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 5 5 
 
 because the duke's laxity encouraged such to 
 hope for immunity from penalty. We must 
 beware of ujircgencratc notions of benevolence, 
 
 4. We must learn to distingruish be- 
 tween what is liferal and what is spirit- 
 ual. 
 
 Many difificulties arise from confusion 
 here : on the one hand we may literalize 
 what is to be spiritually interpreted, or 
 we may spiritualize what is to be literally 
 understood. 
 
 For example, "Israel," " Zion," and "the 
 church" are often used by us as though they were 
 equivalent expressions. Paul draws in i Cor. x. 
 32, a distinction which, if always borne in 
 mind, will greatly assist in Bible study: " The 
 Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church of God " 
 are the three factors, never to be confounded 
 in the study of the Word. 
 
 When we are told to " call no man your 
 father upon earth" (INIatt. xxiii. 9), to under- 
 stand this literally would be to forbid any 
 child to address his father as such ! When we 
 are told, " swear not at all" (Matt. v. 34), lit- 
 erally construed, this would forbid an "oath for 
 confirmation" in a court of justice. Paul writes 
 (i Tim. vi. 16), that God " only hath immor- 
 
56 STUMBLING STONES KE MOVED 
 
 tality ; " does he mean that the human soul, 
 the angels, and even the Lord Jesus, are not 
 immortal ? When, in Rom. xvi. 27, we read 
 of " God only wise," are we to infer that there 
 is no such thing as a wise man ? 
 
 Annihilationists argue from the phrase in 
 Ps. xxxvii. 9, 34, that " evil doers shall be cut 
 off'' (karath), that they are \x\XQ.x\y \.o pcrisJu 
 But this same word is used of Messiah — Dan. 
 ix. 26. 
 
 Cardinal Bellarmine argued from two texts, 
 John xxi. 16, "feed my sheep," and Acts x. 
 13, ''rise — kill and eat," that the successors of 
 Peter, the Roman Pontiffs, have a double 
 duty — to feed true believers and to kill heretics. 
 Why did he not go to the full length of his 
 literalism, and insist that the popes should 
 '' eat " the heretics they '' kill ? " (See Haley, 
 280). 
 
 V. We must discriminate between a 
 part and tJie zvJiole. A part neither in- 
 cludes nor excludes all the rest which 
 belongs to the complete form. 
 
 Take for example the Inscription on the 
 Cross. The full form was this : 
 
 ''THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH, 
 THE KING OF THE JEWS." 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 57 
 
 Of these ten words, Mark records five, Luke 
 seven, Matthew and John, each, eight ; but no 
 two evangchsts give either the whole inscrip- 
 tion, or select the same words from the whole. 
 To assume that any one intends to give the 
 whole inscription will of course make har- 
 mony impossible ; but to assume that each 
 gives so much, and such a part, of the whole 
 as suits the precise object of his narrative, 
 relieves the various accounts from all antago- 
 nism or inaccuracy. 
 
 VI. Exceptions do not invalidate a ruhy 
 they rather prove it. This is a common 
 canon of all criticism, and has numerous 
 applications to the contents of Scripture. 
 
 VII. Hypotheses may be of great value y 
 in unlocking mysteries and obscurities, 
 and settling doubts. 
 
 It has long been an established law of all 
 scientific inquiry, that, wherever a supposition 
 meets all the facts of a given case and removes 
 all objections, it may be safely adopted as the 
 solution. Kepler sought to find the true theory 
 of the universe, and applied eighteen successive 
 hypotheses before he discovered the Harmonic 
 Laws. His final hypothesis answered all con- 
 ditions, like a perfectly fitting key in a lock, 
 
58 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 and it was admitted as the true solution of 
 planetary orbits, etc. Upon the basis of a mere 
 supposition the old Ptolemaic theory of the 
 universe was finally overturned and the true 
 nature of planetary motion discovered. 
 
 In the study of Scripture truth, let us not be 
 driven from a satisfactory hypothesis which 
 serves as an explanation, because our adver- 
 saries clamor for '' positive " or ''mathemati- 
 cal " proofs. The burden lies with them, to 
 prove the hypothesis untenable and the solu- 
 tion unsatisfactory. 
 
 VIII. The fact, the nature and the 
 tcses of Paradox in Scripture, should be 
 carefully noted. 
 
 A Paradox is an apparent contradic- 
 tion where real harmony exists ; a 
 seeming absurdity which is still a fact, or 
 a truth. The famous ''Hydrostatic" 
 and " mechanical " paradoxes will illus- 
 trate this principle. 
 
 There are in Scripture three sorts of 
 paradoxes. 
 
 I. The Proverbial. Proverbs xxvi. 4, 5. 
 
 " Answer a fool, according to his folly ; " 
 " Answer not a fool according to his folly." 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 59 
 
 The reconciliation is plain : there are cases 
 in which a course, proper at other times, is 
 unwise. A fool may ask a question, to answer 
 which may be to identify one's self with his 
 folly: again he may ask a question, to answer 
 which may be to show him his folly. 
 
 2. The Doctrinal. 
 
 Philippians ii. 12, Work out your own salva- 
 tion, for it is God which zvorketh in you both 
 to will and to do. 
 
 No man can conic to me except the Father 
 draw him : 
 
 Ye ivill not conic to me, etc. John vi. 44 ; v. 
 40. 
 
 3. The Prophetical. 
 
 Isaiah liii. abounds in these — there are in 
 this chapter at least twelve : 
 
 Christ was a Root out of dry ground, yet 
 fruitful ; Christ was without form or beauty, 
 yet God's elect Servant ; Christ was despised 
 and rejected, yet the accepted Messiah ; Christ 
 was the Suffering and Dying, yet Living Sav- 
 iour ; Christ was without generation, yet having 
 numerous Seed ; Christ was making grave with 
 the wicked, yet with the rich ; Christ was in 
 adversity, yet in prosperity ; Christ was de- 
 
6o STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 feated and despoiled, yet conquering and 
 despoiling ; Christ was cut off in the midst of 
 days, yet prolonging his days ; Christ was 
 condemned himself, yet satisfying many, etc., 
 etc. 
 
J^ROM THE WORD OF GOD. 6 1 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE USES OF DISCREPANCIES. 
 
 We now approach one final question ; 
 
 Do these so called Discrcpajicies serve 
 any Providential purpose? 
 
 We cannot believe that they are wholly 
 accidental ; and a careful and reflective 
 study will show us that they do answer 
 certain very important ends. A few of 
 these it may be well to mention. 
 
 I. These apparent discrepancies serve 
 first of all to show us that the Author of 
 the Bible h?i^ guarded even its text from 
 essential corruptions. 
 
 How little all these discrepancies amount to 
 in the aggregate, is amazing. With all these 
 extant manuscripts and all the various sources 
 wlience they emanate, the text of the scriptures 
 is in all vital matters essentially unimpaired. 
 
 The variations arc numerous but unimpor- 
 tant. They consist of differences in orthog- 
 raphy, in the selection and collocation of 
 
62 STUMBLIi^G STONES REMOVED 
 
 words, and other minor matters. In the He- 
 brew manuscripts over three quarters of a mill- 
 ion of various readings may be counted, as to 
 cojisonants alone, and so we may say, in propor- 
 tion, of the New Testament. But they are of 
 little or no account in the main, and do not 
 affect the sense any more than the different 
 spellings of such words as ' fulfil,' ' plough,' etc. 
 
 The Masorites, superstitiously punctilious 
 as they were, became, in the Providence of God, 
 guardians of the text of sacred scripture. 
 They counted, classified and recorded, verses, 
 words, and even letters, so that the Bible has 
 come down to us with a text purer and more 
 certain than that of any other ancient book. 
 In the manuscripts of Terence, and within a 
 much less space than our New Testament, Dr. 
 Bentley found 20,000 various lections, and 
 affirmed his belief that upon further search he 
 would more than double the number of such 
 discoveries. 
 
 In the manuscripts, collated for Griesbach's 
 Testament, 150,000 various readings occur. 
 Yet it is remarkable that, notwithstanding 
 these hundreds of thousands of variations, the 
 substance of scripture is not, by any of them, 
 or by all of them together, materially affected; 
 not one article of faith, not one moral duty, 
 not one theological doctrine, not one essential 
 truth, is in the slightest modified. The varia- 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 63 
 
 tions are mostly trivial, relating mainly to the 
 names, numbers, dates, or to the letters of words. 
 And the grand result is that, with the exception 
 of perhaps from a dozen to twenty verses, the 
 text of every chapter, paragraph and even sen- 
 tence of scripture, is now so firmly settled that 
 only the meaning is open to doubt or dispute. 
 Compare this result with the results of the 
 study of Shakesperian manuscripts. See Haley, 
 p. 47. 
 
 II. These discrepancies serve to 
 awaken and stimitlate intellecHcal inquiry 
 and investigation. It is the study which 
 these apparent disagreements have made 
 necessary, by which we have been led to 
 the discovery of the purest text. 
 
 As variations were found, they naturally 
 compelled a searching and scholarly compari- 
 son of all extant manuscripts. To ascertain 
 the exact date and source of each manuscript, 
 to investigate into the period of its origin and 
 the claims which it possessed to recognition, 
 caused a vast expenditure of learning, time 
 and pains. And the consequence is that, as 
 families have traced their lineage for ages, into 
 a remote past, so we have developed a new and 
 distinct science, that may be called the ** Gene- 
 
64 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 a logy of the Manuscripts^ Compare West- 
 cott and Hort's Introduction to the New Test- 
 ament. 
 
 III. These discrepancies furthermore 
 teach us that, valuable as is the letter of 
 scripture, the t7'7tth which it conveys is of 
 vastly higher importance. 
 
 God permitted slight variations to find their 
 way into the text, while He preserved the 
 testimony of all the manuscripts essentially 
 uniform, unvarying and consistent ; and thus 
 we are led to look supremely, not at the diver- 
 gence, but at the convergence of their testi- 
 mony in one burning focal point of harmo- 
 nious truth. 
 
 IV. These discrepancies have estab- 
 lished the Independence aad Integrity of 
 the sacred writers. 
 
 There may be too close a correspondence in 
 the testimony of witnesses ; what was intended 
 to confirm may thus tend to condemn. The 
 entire absence of seeming collision, even in 
 trifling details or minutise, argues intentional 
 collusion, or conspiracy to deceive. 
 
 In courts of law, evidence, given by different 
 
FROM THE WOK I) OF GOP. (".5 
 
 parties, wliich exactly vau\ minutel}- ai^rees, is 
 presumptive proof of a previous arrangement. 
 For instance, in New Bedford, the famous 
 " Rowland will " case involved $2,000,000, 
 and $150,000 were spent in costs of a trial 
 extending over two years. The whole issue 
 turned upon the resemblance between two 
 signatures both of which were claimed as 
 Miss Rowland's. So precisely, however, did 
 the second match the first, that it was held to 
 be a forged imitation. 
 
 Those who cavil at slight variations in the 
 gospel narratives, forget that the test of truthful 
 testimony on the part of witnesses, is substan- 
 tial agreement with circumstantial variations. 
 
 V. These discrepancies have rather 
 proven the real vahie of the Word of God. 
 
 For more than fifteen centuries the com- 
 plete Bible has been the target of malignant, 
 bitter hostility and assault. Every expedient 
 of learning as well as ridicule has been ex- 
 hausted to overthrow it. It has been sub- 
 jected to microscopic scrutiny, and yet these 
 insignificant * defects,' as they are assumed to 
 be by the enemies of the truth and by some so- 
 called friends, are all that can be found to 
 justify the opposition to the Bible as the 
 inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God ! 
 
66 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 Rev. J. H. Brookes, D. D., of St. Louis, once 
 offered $500.00 reward to any one who would 
 point out a single irreconcilable contradiction 
 in the Word of God. After four weeks' study a 
 sceptic claimed the reward : he had made the 
 great discovery, and here it is : 
 
 " Matthew xii. 30. He that is not with me 
 is against me." 
 
 *' Luke ix. 50. He that is not against us is 
 for us (!!)." 
 
 VL These discrepancies are used of 
 God to instruct the docile believer. 
 
 Christ told his disciples that he used 
 Parables so that truth might at once be 
 veiled from the unteachable and yet re- 
 vealed to the obedient and docile. For 
 the same reason God uses contradictions. 
 Paradoxes are parables; by the very 
 contrariety which they exhibit they stim- 
 ulate thought, and arouse curiosity ; by 
 the effort to reconcile them we are some- 
 times more profited than by any mere 
 comparison of similar statements. Com- 
 pare John XV. 15, and xvi. 12. 
 
 Prophetic paradoxes serve also another use : 
 they are designed as Enigmas, presenting a 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 67 
 
 mystery to be afterwards solved by the event. 
 Thus the mystery which they suggest becomes 
 a lock, to which history becomes the key; and 
 the perfect fitting of key and lock proves a 
 divine hand in both the prophecy and the his- 
 tory. Compare Ezek. xii. 13, witli Jer. xxxix. 
 
 7- 
 
 Proverbial paradoxes compel reflection by 
 their apparent divergence, just as views in a 
 stereoscope often make necessary a fixed and 
 patient gaze, in order to bring the two pictures 
 into harmony and unity. We find after care- 
 ful study that the two members of a paradox 
 are evidently meant to balance each other, 
 each helping to limit, extend, qualify or modify 
 its complementary member. They present 
 extremes between which we are to find the 
 golden mean of truth, as the mariner finds it 
 his safe course to steer midway between two 
 headlands, or as the mechanician produces a 
 resultant by using two forces which act at 
 right angles to each other. (See Haley.) 
 
 VII. These discrepancies also become 
 a test of the candor and ge^mznefiess of 
 the Bible reader or student. 
 
 The great Teacher presented truth in forms 
 suited to attract the truth lover, but to repel 
 the hypocritical and insincere. His teaching 
 
68 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 thus became a sifting process, separating the 
 real from the nominal followers. See John vi. 
 35-69. In this case those who heard Christ's 
 words "murmured at him," "strove among 
 themselves," called them " hard sayings," were 
 " offended," and some " went back and walked 
 no more with him." Yet it will be seen that, 
 with every increase of their opposition, Christ, 
 instead of modifying and mollifying his teach- 
 ing, rather increased its apparent severity. He 
 knew that each concession to unbelief and an 
 unteachable spirit, would only embolden the 
 demand for new concessions. When the 
 disobedient stumbled at his saying, instead of 
 retracting or qualifying his statement, he at 
 least repeated it, in even in its obnoxious form. 
 Compare John iii. 3-7. 
 
 Our Lord seemed to give, to such as sought 
 it, an occasion of stumbling. When modern 
 teachers find any statement of truth, such as 
 the sovereignty of God, an occasion of offence 
 to a hearer, they make haste to soften and 
 qualify it. Just now the church universal is 
 busy revising creeds, as though to adapt them 
 to the demands of a worldly type of christian 
 character, and a rationalistic spirit. Let us 
 remember that by every concession we make 
 reason bolder in its demand that everything 
 shall be squared to its measure. Christ in pur- 
 suing just the contrary course taught his 
 
FROJr THE WORD OF GOD. 69 
 
 hearers to bow implicitly and submit with 
 docility to the truth — or else he left them to 
 stumble over it and fall and be broken. 
 
 VIII. Thus these discrepancies also 
 discipline the triLc believer to yield an un- 
 questio7iing obedience to the tridh. 
 
 Reason has its province : (a) to determine 
 upon rational grounds of evidence whether or 
 not the Bible be the word of God ; (b) then to 
 determine what that word teaches; and (c) 
 what are the relations or bearings of its teach- 
 ing upon one's self and one's duty. Beyond this 
 the province of reason ceases, and the province 
 of faith and obedience begins. For instance 
 prophecy is of great significance and conse- 
 quence, as it is 07i€^ if not the main one, of 
 those " seven seals " set by God as His sanction 
 upon His Word. Other evidences may appeal 
 to believers as more satisfactory, but these 
 evidences demand faith for their recognition, 
 reception and appreciation. When an inquirer 
 comes, in doubt and darkness, to the Bible, to 
 find proofs that it is the Word of God, and 
 therefore has a claim on his faith, predictive 
 prophecy is God's grand appeal to his reason. 
 " We have also a more sure word of prophecy, 
 whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto 
 a light that shineth in a dark place, until 
 
70 S TUMBL ING S TONES RE MO FED 
 
 the day dawn and the day star arise in your 
 hearts." 
 
 In fact our perception of truth largely de- 
 pends upon our spiritual attaiiiuient. Hence 
 paradoxes are often reconciled by simple obed- 
 ience. Jno. vii. 17. By doing His will we 
 come to know the doctrine. There is a hid- 
 den harmony — a higher harmony that is hid- 
 den from us — until we yield up our whole soul 
 and self to God for service, and yield up our 
 whole heart and mind to truth in rever- 
 ence. 
 
 Many so called discrepancies are due to the 
 disposition and determination of unfair and 
 uncandid critics ; " aiit inveniam discrepoitiam 
 aut faciam^ What Whately says about wise 
 men and fools may be said about objectors : 
 It is easier to ask, than to answer, a question, 
 and many a man can present a difficulty who 
 could not remove it. 
 
 In Voltaire's library a Swedish traveler found 
 Calmet's Commentary, with slips of paper in- 
 serted, on which all the difficulties Calmet had 
 treated were carefully noted, but not one of 
 the answers and solutiotis whereby he met and 
 refuted them. 
 
 Prof. Henry Rogers says, that Strauss' 
 " Life of Jesus " should be called, " a collection 
 of all the difficulties and discrepancies which 
 honest criticism has discovered, or perverted 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 7 1 
 
 ingenuity imagined, in the four evangelists." 
 Haley 27, 28. 
 
 Thus what veils truth from carnal minds 
 may reveal it to the spiritual : and the same doc- 
 trine that is a stiiDihling stone to the unbeliever 
 is a stepping stone to the believer, i Pet. ii. 8. 
 
 IX. The obscurity of scripture is pro- 
 bably made to serve to godless reader's a 
 judicial end. 
 
 The captious, cavilling critic is punished by 
 finding the very snares which he seeks, and 
 falling into them. Perhaps he tries to make 
 faith impossible in others, and ends by making 
 his own mind simply a nest of objections, a 
 perch for the unclean birds of doubt and de- 
 nial of truth, so that faith can find no resting 
 place in himself. He tries in a dishonest spirit 
 to prove the Word of God a human fraud and 
 falsehood, and is himself given over by God to 
 believe what at the beginning he knew was a 
 lie. He, who did not like to retain God in his 
 knowledge, and who held down the truth in 
 unrighteousness, and sought to turn the truth 
 of God into a lie, is given over to a reprobate 
 mind. The Judge of all abandons him to 
 strong delusion. 
 
 X. Where all attempts at explanation 
 or reconciliation fail, the believer must 
 
72 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 learn patiaitly to ivait for the further 
 light which dissolves all doubt. 
 
 This introduces another department 
 of the subject, which the author has exten- 
 sively treated in another work entitled 
 "Many Infallible Proofs." 
 
 The investigation into discrepancies 
 has served to reveal hundreds and thou- 
 sands of agreements which would not 
 otherwise have been disclosed, and which 
 are truly wonderful as the evidences of 
 the divine authorship of the Bible, as well 
 as of the integrity of the human agents 
 which the Spirit of God employed in its 
 production. 
 
 The Bible has been decried and derided as 
 in hopeless opposition to science and irrecon- 
 cilable conflict with modern discovery. But 
 the further the investigation is carried the 
 more marvelous proves the agreement be- 
 tween the word of God and the most advanced 
 certainties attained by science. 
 
 The substantial agreement between the story 
 of the creation and the discoveries of geology ; 
 the word '* firmament " or expajisc, as applied 
 to the space between the heavens and the 
 earth ; the order of creation, from the lowest 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 73 
 
 types to the highest — fish, reptile, bird, maiii- 
 inal, man ; the countless number of the stars 
 (Jer. xxxiii. 22) , the four supports of life — 
 brain, lungs, heart, nervous system, with the 
 circulation of the blood (Eccles. xii. 6, 7) ; the 
 nature of light, as called forth, not " made " 
 (Gen. i,); and as a mode of motion or vibration 
 akin to sound or music (Job xxxviii. 7, Ps. 
 Ixv. 8, — Hebrew, to give forth bvirations — Ps. 
 xix. etc.) ; these are a very few of the startling 
 agreements between the Bible and scientific 
 facts not knoivn by man until long after the 
 Bible was complete ! 
 
 Modern believing scientists may well ask, 
 how the infidel can account for such anticipa- 
 tions of modern discovery. Compare Ps. cxix. 
 32, with the fact that the staghound, fleetest 
 in chase, has the largest heart, in comparison to 
 his size, of any animal. The ant's brain is 
 entirely composed of the gray matter, whose 
 preponderance in the brain is the measure of 
 intelligence. Compare Prov. vi. 6. The agri- 
 cidttiral ant does prepare a harvest — as recent 
 investigation shows — and Solomon did not 
 blunder in taking for grai?t the ant eggs or 
 pup?e. Compare Prov. xxx. 25. Man ivas 
 made of the dust of the ground — and the most 
 recent analysis shows his identity in material 
 substance with the ground on which he treads, 
 etc., etc. Compare Gen. i. and ii. 
 
74 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 To those who wish to examine the wonder- 
 ful agreement of the Bible with the facts of 
 history — one of the foremost of sciences — we 
 commend the careful study of prophecy, even 
 to its nihmte details, for the uiimite details of 
 prophecy are vital to the prophetic proofs ; it 
 is these minutiae that remove a prediction from 
 the realm of sagacious human forecast into 
 that of divinely inspired foresight. It is these 
 also that make the difference between the law of 
 "simple" and of "compound probability." 
 Every single prediction has but a Jialf chanee 
 of fulfillment ; and hence every additional de- 
 tail halves again the possibility of a mere 
 accidental accomplishment. In the Old Testa- 
 ment the predictions concerning Messiah, which 
 are most indisputable as predictions, because 
 most undeniably remote from the events which 
 they foretell, are also the most astonishingly 
 minute in their details. The late Canon Lid- 
 don, in his famous Bampton lectures, gives 
 three hundred and thirty-three particulars, 
 prophesied about Messiah, and all meeting in 
 him alone. By the law of compound prob- 
 ability we must raise one-half to its three 
 hundred and thirty-second power to get the 
 insignificant fraction which represents the pos- 
 sibility of a chance fulfillment ; that fraction 
 will have, as its numerator, a unit, and its 
 denominator will reach ninety-four places I 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 75 
 
 Who audaciously dares to say that tlie slightest 
 particular is of no consequence ? The ances- 
 tral line, the exact place, time, and circum- 
 stances of Christ's birth, with hundreds of 
 most curiously minute marks, go to make up 
 and complete that Old Testament portrait- 
 ure of the " Coming One ; " and, even when 
 Christ hung upon the cross, he could not say, 
 " It is finished I " and expire, until the last 
 and least Scripture should " be fulfilled ; " and 
 so He said, '* I thirst ! " And yet that forecast 
 of his dying agony was not in a formal predic- 
 tion, but in a Psalm, a poem whose true mean- 
 ing is read only when in its jewelled cavern 
 the Light of the World is set ! 
 
 In a portrait, the entire fidelity of the re- 
 semblance may depend upon one line which 
 changes or determines that subtle thing called 
 '■^ expressio7i ! " One delicate touch on the eye- 
 brow, the turn or curve of an almost invisible 
 line about the mouth, a tinge or a shade of 
 color on the cheek, a vein in the forehead, one 
 dainty stroke in that concave of the upper lip — • 
 these make the difference between the work of 
 the master artist and his amateur pupils. And 
 the Holy Ghost proves himself the Divine 
 Artist, more if possible by his most minute 
 and delicate strokes and touches than by 
 his bolder and more conspicuous outlines. 
 What was, at first, a drawing without color, 
 
76 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 at last becomes a complete, recognizable por- 
 trait. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The grand purpose and aim we have 
 had in view in this little book, has been 
 to exalt the stipremacy of scripture. 
 Various attempts are making, in these 
 days, to impair confidence in the claim of 
 the Bible to be the Inspired and Infalli- 
 ble Word of God, and the supreme guide 
 in faith and duty. We are in the midst 
 of the war of the ages, and the enemy is 
 assaulting the center and stronghold of 
 the Christian religion ; for with its Sacred 
 Book is inseparably bound up its Sacred 
 Person, 
 
 Some of the friends of the Bible seek to 
 accommodate themselves to the positions of 
 its foes, by giving up the infallibility and in- 
 errancy of the scripture, and conceding that 
 there are *' mistakes "and even *' immorali- 
 ties " in the Bible ; but such defenders of the 
 Word of God claim that its inspiration is to be 
 found not in the " words " but the *' concept." 
 
 We regard this position as wholly untena- 
 ble, and as a virtual surrender of the Bible as 
 
I'ROM THE WORD OF GOD. yj 
 
 a Divine Book. And wc lift up a warning 
 against such views, by whomsoever promul- 
 gated. 
 
 The contents of this Book of Books are 
 especially made emphatic in its very title, 
 "The Word of God." Repeatedly does the 
 expression occur, '* Words which I command 
 thee," etc. Paul echoes the Old Testament 
 sentiment in the New : " which things also we 
 speak, 7iot in ivords ivhicJi mans wisdom teach- 
 ethy but which the Holy Ghost tcachcth.'' And 
 he adds, " comparing spiritual things with 
 spiritual," which, by not a few, is regarded as 
 a simple expansion of the meaning i. e., "ex- 
 pressing spiritual truths in spiritual forms." 
 
 Wordsworth says, " Language is the incar- 
 nation of thought." Burke regarded every 
 word in a sentence as one of the feet on which 
 the sentence walks ; and said that, to alter a 
 word, change it for a longer or shorter one, or 
 give it a different position, might change the 
 whole course of the sentence. There are in 
 the Bible thousands of cases in which the 
 accuracy of the " concept " depends on the ex- 
 actness of the '' word," and even of the shade 
 of meaning which it conveys and by which it 
 is separated from others of its class. When 
 God sought to convey to man an adequate 
 *' concept " of spiritual truth, the task was the 
 more difficult from the fact that heavenly 
 
78 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 things were to be conveyed to earthly minds 
 and through earthly channels. How could 
 even God impart a knowledge of such matters 
 without leaving the door open to serious, if 
 not fatal, error, unless he guided, at least by 
 supervision and control, the very words in 
 which divine conceptions were clothed ? 
 
 No reader of the New Testament Greek 
 needs to be told that the whole Epistle to the 
 Romans turns on a single word {(hucuoavvri) ; 
 and so important is it that the reader shall not 
 misunderstand that word, and the exact sense 
 in which it is employed, that in Rom. iii. 25 
 -26, the meaning is exactly and repeatedly de- 
 fined, •' To declare, I say, at this time his 
 righteousness : that He might be just and the 
 justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." That 
 is righteousness, in the sense of this epistle. 
 Are we to be told that the concept is the 
 inspired thing, not the word ? How are we 
 to get the true concept apart from the right 
 word? To form a wrong conception of justifi- 
 cation, as here used, is to misconceive that 
 doctrinal truth which lies at the very basis of 
 our salvation. There are over five thousand 
 instances in Old and New Testaments where 
 the most important distinctions hang on the 
 choice of a particular word, and no other, 
 however like it, will suffice. 
 
 It is unsafe to make the Bible and the 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 79 
 
 Church, and the human Reason joint, or co-ordi- 
 nate, sources of divine authority. Both the 
 Church and Reason are authoritative only as 
 they are conformed to, and are confirmed by, 
 the Word of God. The voice of our rational 
 powers, and even the conuininis consensus 
 Christianoriivi, like the fallible standards of 
 weights and measures, need correction by the 
 infallible, as the watch is regulated by the 
 chronometer, and even the chronometer by 
 God's clock, the stars. The mariner dares not 
 follow even his compass as an absolute guide, 
 lest he lose his course, if not his vessel. The 
 needle may have intensity of directive force 
 and susceptibility, but it has its variations; 
 the magnetic pole must be corrected by the 
 celestial pole. Reason and conscience, and 
 even the verdict of the Church, all belong to 
 the human and fallible, and we must steer by 
 the constellations. 
 
 The supremacy of the Word of God is the 
 last great truth which is the Palladium of 
 Church and the believer. When that falls, all 
 else falls with it No disaster is too great to 
 follow the destruction of that safeguard of 
 Protestantism. And we should look well be- 
 fore we admit any teaching which actually 
 surrenders this inmost citadel of our faith, or 
 even by implication weakens or lessens the 
 absolute supremacy of the word of God. 
 
8o STUMBLING STONES REMOVED 
 
 We therefore earnestly ask all who 
 wish to know the truth and find the hid- 
 den treasures of the Word, not to be 
 kept from a thorough exploration of its 
 hidden beauties by any apparent and 
 superficial discordancies and disagree- 
 ments. These are but the iron gates 
 that seem forbidding but that yield to 
 the touch of a reverent and obedient 
 spirit and admit us to the " House Beau- 
 tiful." 
 
 And a Beautiful Palace it is, "built 
 upon the fotmdation of the apostles and 
 Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the 
 chief corner-stone." \n formation^ com- 
 posed of the most precious materials 
 faintly typified in the cedar and shittim 
 woods, and the gold, silver and precious 
 stones. In coiistructioUy it follows the 
 law of a divine unity and archetypal 
 beauty. In completeness, it is divinely 
 perfect. The believer finds all his wants 
 and cravings met. In its refectory it has 
 milk for babes, and the manna, the meat, 
 the honey, for strong men ; in its lavatory 
 are the fountains of the water and the 
 
FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 8 1 
 
 blood, that cleanse and sanctify ; In Its 
 pharmacy, the balm of Gilead and the 
 panacea for all ills of sin ; In its armory, 
 the whole panoply of God ; In Its gallery, 
 the portraits of the prophets, patriarchs, 
 apostles and saints ; in Its oratory, the 
 altars of sacrifice and incense, prayer and 
 praise ; in its conservatory, the celestial 
 plants that bloom in the paradise of God; 
 and in Its observatory, the outlook into 
 the very heavens, where we may behold 
 the face of God. 
 
 Blessed is he who enters into all the 
 wonders of God's "House Beautiful" 
 whose vestibule is so low and whose doors 
 are so narrow that only the humble and 
 obedient soul, who bows as he goes in, 
 can enter at all ; and whose Inmost 
 wonders are to be seen only in the clear 
 light of the Holy Spirit's guidance, who 
 with celestial lamps Illumines the secrets 
 of God to him who, In dependence on the 
 great Interpreter, searches the scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 With the prayer that each reader may 
 learn to find in what, to the profane and 
 
S2 STUMBLING STONES REMOVED. 
 
 godless, are a stone of stumbling and a 
 rock of offence, the stepping stones to 
 higher knowledge and faith, the author 
 bids his reader 
 
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DATE DUE 1 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ¥^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Stumbling stones removed from the Word 
 
 Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 
 
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