Page images
PDF
EPUB

"But Scripture does not linger here. It passes on, and its middle history is the history of national life; showing us by liveliest example, all that can exalt, all that can degrade, a people; how Israel, so long as it believed in its invisible Lord and King, its righteous Lawgiver, was great and prosperous-how, when it lost that faith and bowed to idols of sense, it became inwardly distracted, externally enslaved-forfeiting those very outward gifts for whose sake it had turned its back upon the Giver-righteousness and truth and justice perishing between man and man, while He in whom alone these have any real subsistence was no longer held fast to and believed.

"And then in the New Testament, not the conditions under which the Family can exist, not the conditions under which the State, but the idea of the Church, of that fellowship which, including all, may itself be included by none, is unfolded to us. There we behold the laws of the universal kingdom, and Christ, not the King of a single nation, but the Head of humanity, the Saviour of all."

Unity amid Advance.-It has been stated that the Old Testament is to the New as the bud to the flower. "What," says Dr. Blaikie, "is the great burden of the Bible message to man ?”

"God drawing near to Man in the way of grace, and encouraging him to hope in His Mercy, through a Mediator.

first scene after

This

"To illustrate this, let us take the the fall in paradise, Genesis iii. 9. The Lord God called unto Adam, and said, Where art thou?' may be regarded as the germ of the whole Bible. Man has fallen, and afraid of God, has hid himself; but God comes to look after him, and holds out the hope of mercy to him after all. In this passage we have God seeking after guilty ruined man. He might have left him to his fate, but He does not. He comes down to the garden which man has desecrated by sin, and He calls to him, trembling in his hiding place. No doubt He pronounces on Adam the sentence of

the criminal, and He drives him out of paradise. But this is not all. A door of hope is opened in the sentence inflicted on the tempter-the seed of the woman shall bruise thy head.' Man is not to be abandoned to his enemy; deliverance is to come to him through his own seed. After man has fallen, God approaches him, no doubt, with a word of judgment, but also with a word of cheer and hope. This we say is the essence of the whole Bible. From Genesis to Revelation we find the same thing-God looking down on man while struggling in the billows of sin and guilt, and stretching out His hand to save him." "This design was ages in execution and carried on by men separated by hundreds of years; it began in a word of promise and ended in a fact of redemption in the fulness of time."

The Silence of Scripture." This is often one of its most superhuman characteristics. Not only was the Bible in the process of its formation from age to age, adapted to the receptive capacity of those to whom the word of God came-the commandment, as Augustine finely said, being in accordance with the heart of him to whom it was given-but also the Bible as a whole in what it reveals and in what it does not reveal, is adjusted to the limits of the powers and the moral necessities of mankind. The light of Revelation seems adapted to the eye of the human understanding in a manner so remarkable as to indicate a higher wisdom as the author of book. False prophets never know where to stop. Mahomet and Swedenborg know too much. But something seems to have laid a restraint upon prophets and apostles, and to have sobered them even in the midst of supernal revelations. There is more than human wisdom in the silence of the Bible. It is divine as the silence of nature. Of the being and purposes of God, of the unseen world and its retributions, enough is revealed to us for the motives and duties of the present life; but little or nothing to gratify curiosity. There is enough of both Heaven and Hell revealed for all practical

purposes now, but nothing for merely imaginative or speculative uses.

"Our whole discussion is summed up in the conclusion that the development of the Bible has followed a beneficent moral progress. We have given reasons for the belief that in its growth, its historical influence, its unfolding of truth, and its limitations, the Bible follows the moral order of the God of history; flows with His purpose, and works out His design of redemption. The whole moral development of Revelation, often against nature, across the grain of Israel, and in spite of all opposing forces, is to us an evidence of a higher than a merely natural revelation; it bears witness of a supernatural course of history."*

Note. It will be seen that the preceding Essay consists of a series of extracts from some of the best writers on the subject, with a few connecting remarks where necessary. The original works themselves should, if possible, be studied.

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF THE BOOKS OF SCRIPTURE. The order and dates must be regarded as not more than approximately correct: authorities differ in some cases. OLD TESTAMENT.

[blocks in formation]

Isaiah (B. c. 765-698).
Micah (B. c. 758-699).
Nahum (B. c. 720-698).
Zephaniah (B. c. 640-609).
Jeremiah (B. c. 628-585).
Lamentations.

Habakkuk (B. c. 612-598).
Daniel (B. c. 606-534).
Ezekiel (B. C. 595-574).
Obadiah (B. c. 588-583).
2 Kings.

1 Chronicles.

2 Chronicles.

Ezra (B. c. 536-457).
Haggai (B. C. 520-518).
Zechariah (B. c. 520-510).
Esther (B. c. 462-452).
Nehemiah (B. C. 445-428).
Malachi (B. c. 420-397).

* Newman Smyth's "Old Faiths in New Light.”

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

A short summary of the different books of Scripture will be found in the Appendix.

IV. THE DOCTRINES OF THE BIBLE.

The following paper on the distinctive teachings of the Bible, has been prepared with special reference to the needs of Young India. We do not propose to follow any formal scholastic method, or to avail ourselves of any theological system, but simply to tell what has been found in the Bible by one who for forty years has made it his chief companion.

The Bible takes for granted that man in his present state has need of a special revelation from God. Almost all mankind have conceded this, as is evident from the fact that in all ages, all over the world, religions. claiming to be revelations have been professed. Man has in this way acknowledged his need of divine teaching, at the same time that he allows it to be seen that his own inclinations and preferences may hinder his reception of divine truth. Even if it were granted that man could of himself attain to a proper conception of God, of his government, and of the remedial system by which sinners are pardoned and chang*New Companion to the Bible, pp. 365 and 381-382.

ed, how could the inventor obtain for himself and for others that guarantee of the perfect reliability of his system, without which it could not have any authority? He cannot possibly secure such a guarantee. The following argument is used in the Bible to show the strength of this position: "What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, knoweth no man the things of God save the Spirit of God that is within him." How can a man's purposes and preferences, in a word, his character be known unless he chooses to show other men what he is by his words and works? How can a servant know his master's mind unless his master unfold it to him? Much more are we dependent for the knowledge of God upon the consent of God, upon the Spirit of God, upon a reliable revelation. But as we have said the Bible takes it for granted that man stands in need of a revelation, and directly proceeds to make that revelation.

Let it be observed, however, that the ineptitude of man for the knowledge of God, will make it necessary that the revelation be gradual. Man cannot at once receive all that God has to show; it can only be imparted piecemeal; man has to master one truth before he is in a position to apprehend the truth that naturally follows that first truth. As in a Reformatory, boys just brought in from the slums and vile haunts of a large city, cannot be expected to learn the necessity of abandoning all their evil habits in a day; in fact they do not know them to be evil habits. By the time they have obtained one victory over themselves they are in a position to discover their need of battling with another. The teacher will, in his first efforts, neglect many important things to be taken up afterwards, and will take little notice of certain evil ways, because if he undertook every thing at once, it would only have the effect of discouraging the scholar.

Again, it may be noticed, that in the beginning it will be found expedient not to use didactic formulas, not to set forth the required truth in precepts, so

« PreviousContinue »