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as capable of being deluded in the most extraordinary contradictory and impossible manner. He cites from an apocryphal book, Esdras ii. 14 as proof that Ezra, aided by five other persons, wrote the Pentateuch in the space of forty days. Against this, we use the testimony most likely to avail with men who make and credit gross denials of Scripture verity, that taken from their own school of thought-"Tradition has (without any variation, as I believe) ascribed the history of these transactions to Moses. ... The language and the degree of minuteness of the Israelitish history, from the first energetic expostulations with the Egyptian king, to the entrance into Canaan, are, to my mind, evidently those of a contemporaneous account. The details of interviews with the king, on the one hand, and of transactions with the enslaved people, on the other hand, can only have been known to the leader of the nation. The history of the occurrence at the burning bush (whatever difficulties may accompany it), and of other events nearly at the same time, can scarcely have been invented by another person . . . The arguments, therefore, for the truth of the established tradition appear to me so strong, that nothing short of irrefragable reasoning seems sufficient to destroy it."1 "I do not allude at any length to the recension in the time of Ezra, because no critic, as I believe, has suggested that any addition to or modification of the Hebrew Books, as they then existed, was made at that time." 2

Another groundless charge: "Sacred cosmogony regards the formation and modelling of the earth as the direct act of God; it rejects the intervention of secondary causes in those events."

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This statement is wholly incorrect. With far more fairness and truth it might be said-Scripture gives the true theory and real facts of the scientific doctrine of Evolution; for water is said to produce the things of the deep; and from the earth, as mother, proceed every plant and living creature of the land. David, with true science and common-sense, used these

1 "Notes on the Earlier Hebrew Scriptures:" Sir G. B. Airey, K.C.B., p. 23. 2 "Notes on the Earlier Hebrew Scriptures:" Sir G. B. Airey, K.C. B., p. 7. 3 "Conflict between Religion and Science :" Prof. Draper.

Revelation and Human Progress.

411

words as to God-" Who maketh His angels spirits; and His ministers a flaming fire" (Ps. civ. 4). The LXX Translation, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, i. 7, lead us to understand that God maketh His angels like winds (viz., incorporeal, swift, powerful), and His ministers (His heavenly servants) as a flame of fire. In Mendlessohn's "Beor" the verse is explained: "He maketh the winds His messengers, and lightnings His ministers." Kimchi, Yarchi, and others, take it much in the same way; in any case it is plain that God uses various secondary causes.

The Professor further states-" A Divine revelation of science admits of no improvement, no change, no advance. It discourages as needless, and indeed as presumptuous, all new discovery, considering it as an awful prying into things which it was the intention of God to conceal."1

Scripture, it seems we must state it again and again, is not a revelation of science, therefore, the charge is groundless. So-called scientific statements are, for the most part, popular illustrations for the use of unscientific people. David shall again admonish the professor, as to the studies of those who love Scripture "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein " (Ps. cxi. 1, 2). Solomon, no mean man, gives a rebuke, for he greatly studied those works (1 Kings iv. 30-33). The founders of our universities, and the ancient endowers of our schools, rightly thought that the knowledge of God as Creator, leads to a more reverential and better understanding both of Creation and Revelation. These devout men, far from thinking that Scripture allowed no improvement, no change, no advance, encouraged as useful, and indeed as reverential, all search after truth: pious men have ever been the great promoters of learning. The best thinkers hold that the universe is not only the skilful work of a Creator, but of a Creator acting by means of those physical properties and chemical combinations of matter which He had Himself conferred.

Another able man, in his own line of things, praises and dispraises at the same time:-"Two great and fundamental

1 "Conflict between Religion and Science :" Prof. Draper.

ideas, common also to the non-miraculous theory of development, meet us in this Mosaic hypothesis of Creation, with surprising clearness and simplicity—the idea of separation or differentiation, and the idea of progressive development or perfecting. Although Moses looks upon the result of the great laws of organic development (which we shall later point out as the necessary conclusions of the Doctrine of Descent) as the direct actions of a constructing Creator, yet in his theory there lies hidden the ruling idea of a progressive development and a differentiation of the originally simple matter. We can therefore bestow our just and sincere admiration on the Jewish lawgiver's grand insight into nature, and his discovering in it a so-called 'Divine revelation.' That it cannot be such is clear from the fact that two grand fundamental errors are asserted in it, namely, first the geocentric error that the earth is the fixed central point of the whole universe, round which the sun, moon, and stars move; and secondly, the anthropo centric error, that man is the premeditated aim of the creation of the earth, for whose service alone all the rest of nature is said to have been created." 1

The learned professor ought to know that Moses says nothing about man being "the premeditated aim of the creation;" but that man, being the highest work of God done on earth, was made lord of earthly creatures; and this cannot be denied. Further, it is somewhat inconsistent to credit Moses for far-reaching wisdom; and yet, to tax him with rudest ignorance in that very thing concerning which he was wise. As to the Geocentric Error, there is no error; the earth is popularly, figuratively, poetically, and, as our own stand-point, the centre. The Anthropocentric Error may, likewise, be explained as a popular mode of speech; but, in reality, all true spiritual presentation passes into the infinite-suggests rather than expresses. Scripture must be judged in accordance with all the facts: the earth is great, the sun is greater; and as to far-off worlds, science ends; and assertion becomes unscientific; yet to those worlds and beyond them travels the human spirit seeking brighter light

1 "The History of Creation."

Groundless Charges.

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and higher life. Are we to wonder that men, the central point of circling mysteries, are a spectacle unto angels? that the creation of the earth, and the state of the earth, are connected with a mysterious past and a wonderful future—the existence of evil and rescue from evil? In Creation, the Invisible God is manifested or clearly seen (Rom. i. 20); and, in Redemption, the holiness and goodness of God are made plain (Eph. i. 10; iii. 9, 10). Creation and Redemption, however separate in some respects, concern many worlds; and man is not only the spiritual centre of the earth, but constituted the centre of transactions concerning many other operations and dwellings of God. Our eloquent preachers, pious statesmen, philosophers, architects, and engineers, will possibly set hearts a glow in other worlds, develop thought, oversee work, contemplate arrangements, and possess powers of rule on grandest scale.

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The expressions-rising, setting, and travelling of the sun, the fixity and foundations of the earth, though the only intelligible language, have been found fault with. We are told Scripture really speaks of a flat earth; and of the sky as a watery vault in which the sun, moon, and stars set; of the firmament as a solid arch, literally something beaten or hammered out; and of the Almighty as a gigantic man.

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Really, such fault-making displays neither intelligence nor candour; if opponents would remember that no science is involved here, that these are the every-day statements of all ages; and if they discriminate as to what is fact, and what figure, where literal accuracy is to be looked for, and where a poetic thought, they will be preserved from an infinity of folly. The firmament is that in which, to our eyes, sun and stars do set; and is, indeed, a space for waters. The earth,

in common consideration, is ever spoken of as a plane. In a higher sense even than is stated, the sun does go forth as a giant to run a race.

The stability of the earth is counted an error:—

"The earth also shall be stable, that it be not moved."

I Chr. xvi. 30.

"The world also is established that it cannot be moved." Ps. xciii. I; xcvi. 10; cxix. 90; Eccl. i. 4.

The real meaning is-God, who made the earth, will support it; the excellent order which He established shall be maintained; neither storms upon it from without, nor any commotion from within, shall unsettle its abiding.

The principal texts mentioning the movement of sun and

stars are:

"The sun was risen upon the earth." Gen. xix. 23.
"The sun went down." Gen. xv. 7.

"The sun is as a bridegroom coming out of his
chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his cir-
cuit unto the ends of it." Ps. xix. 5, 6.

"The sun also ariseth and the sun goeth down, and has

teneth to his place where he arose." Eccl. i. 5.

Science uses the same language now, and it is the best language. He who finds fault with Scripture for poetically and popularly speaking of the sun, must deal with other books in the same manner. If, however, scientific accuracy is unreasonably demanded; we answer that even here, "deep answers to deep within the sacred oracles "-the sun revolving on his axis, as actually viewed from the earth by scientific men, and as revolving around his own great centre, does rise, set, go forth and return, in a manner truly wonderful, and surpassing all expectation.

Two other passages are asserted to be incorrect :-

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou moon in
the valley of Ajalon." Josh. x. 12.

The sun and his shadow are stated to have returned ten
degrees. 2 Kgs. xx. 10.
2 Kgs. xx. 10. Is. xxxviii. 8.

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The words translated sun" and "moon," rather refer to the light than to the substance of those bodies. In what way God continued the sun-light, or a light resembling it, so that Israel fought as in the day, we know not, nor does it seem in the power of man to explain the wonder which confirmed Hezekiah's faith; but a scientific eye-witness might possibly have discerned some of the means by which the different marvels were wrought, though the stopping of the earth in its axial rotation, or the return of degrees, may be inexplicable as a change in natural order naturally effected. No human effort

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