to the spiritual blessings of the Gospel at the beginning. But miracles
also sustain a very interesting relation to the like blessings as
bestowed in after, and in present times. When the spring is over, and
its produce of blossoms has passed away, it is found, that though the
ground is covered with leaves of white and pink, the blossoms have
set into precious fruit. They have bequeathed more than blossoms. Each
folded up a promise of what is richer than itself. The peach flower,
the peach--the pear flower, the pear. We read in the Apocalypse, of
the Tree of Life. Is not the Gospel the Tree of Life? Is not Christ
the Tree of Life? It is not fanciful to speak of the miracles as early
blossoms. Long since they burst out profusely. Long since they fell. To
some eyes, they may seem to lie in the paths of history, as withered
leaves. But if the spring-time is past, the autumn-time has long
since come. Christianity can tell of spiritual blessings which it has
conferred on the children of men down to this day, and is conferring
still. A tranquil conscience, a pure heart, a holy life, a hope that
maketh not ashamed,--these are the clustering felicities, the manifold
beatitudes, of the Gospel of Love. Thank God! abundant has been the
ingathering. Thank God! abundant is the harvest, still waiting to be
gathered. In nature the bloom is more plentiful than the fruit, but
here the fruit is more plentiful than the bloom.
THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF REVELATION.
BY THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF CARLISLE.
THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF REVELATION.
When I undertook, at the request of the Christian Evidence Society,
to deliver a lecture having for its title _The Gradual Development
of Revelation_, I confess that I did not perceive that the title was
open to criticism. I thought that I understood the terms employed, and
I still trust that this is so; but a little consideration showed me
that the language was not used very strictly, and that there was in
it a confusion of metaphors, which might possibly be connected with a
confusion of thought.
This being so, I propose to introduce what I have to say by a short
examination of the words which express the subject of my lecture: and I
do so, as I need hardly say, not for the purpose of finding fault, but
because it seems to me that I shall in this manner most easily explain
the nature of the subject which I conceive to be committed to me, and
indicate the manner in which I purpose to treat it.
Now the word _development_, which like many other long words has
become very common, is also, like many other words, not unfrequently
used somewhat loosely. The root of it, the word _velop_, is unknown in
any other form than the two words _envelope_ and _develope_.[61] In
mathematics, the word _develope_ is used, as all words are, with the
utmost precision. We speak of _developing a function_, that is, putting
it into a new and unfolded form, which, however, shall be essentially
equivalent to the original. So also we speak of _developable surfaces_,
that is, surfaces such as cones and cylinders, which can be unfolded
and laid flat upon a plane without tearing. It will be seen that in
these applications of the word the essential thought is that of a
change, by a process of unfolding, in the condition of something which
you already possess; and this I take to be the true definition of
development.
From this, however, we easily pass to a cognate meaning of the term.
Thus we speak of the development of an idea, that is, the unfolding
and applying of the results of an original thought, a discovery or
principle, which were truly contained in it from the first, but were
not from the first perceived to be so contained. For example, we
say that railways are only a development of the original idea of
turning to account the expansive force of steam; or that Newton's
"Principia" and Laplace's "Mecanique Celeste," and, in fact, the whole
of modern physical astronomy, are developments of the idea, or fact,
call it which you will, of the universal gravitation of matter; or
that the British constitution of this century is a development of
_Magna Charta_; and so forth. What we mean by this language is that
the essential principles of the development were implicitly contained
in the original idea, and that one has been derived from the other
somewhat in the same way as that in which the bird comes from the egg
and the plant from the seed.
Dr. Newman, in his Essay "On the Development of Christian Doctrine,"
takes a somewhat different view. He speaks of the development of
an idea as follows: "When some great enunciation, whether true or
false, about human nature, or present good, or government, or duty,
or religion, is carried forward into the public throng and draws
attention, then it is not only passively admitted in this or that form
into the minds of men, but it becomes a living principle within them,
leading them to an ever-new contemplation of itself, an acting upon it,
and a propagation of it. Such is the doctrine of the natural bondage
of the will, or of individual responsibility, or of the immortality of
the soul, or of the rights of man, or of the divine right of kings, or
of the hypocrisy and tyranny of priestcraft, or of the lawfulness of
self-indulgence.... Let one such idea get possession of the popular
mind, or the mind of any set of persons, and it is not difficult to
understand the effects which will ensue."[62] Taking this view, there
is manifestly a difficulty in determining whether an idea has been
rightly or wrongly developed, whether the growth be wholly from the
root or partly parasitical; and the prime intention of Dr. Newman's
book is to supply tests of genuine development, and to apply them in
one particular case; but I wish it to be perceived that whether we take
this wider view, or the stricter one which I endeavoured to present
to you just now, it is essentially necessary to regard development as
the exhibition in a new unfolded form of that which already existed in
another.
When therefore we speak of development with reference to God, we must
regard Him as the developer, and His eternal purposes as the thing
developed: the point which I have to bring before you with reference to
its bearing upon the faith of Christians, and the unbelief of those who
scruple to be regarded as disciples of Christ, is the gradual character
of the process by which God has developed His purposes.
And this being the meaning of development, I think it is manifest
that it is a confusion of figures to speak of the _development_ of a
_revelation_. To _reveal_ is to _draw back a veil_, and so to uncover
something which was concealed before. Hence we can properly speak
of God as _revealing_ to us His person, His character, His will.
His person is eternal and unchangeable; so is His character; so is
His will; but He uncovers and shows these to us; it may be by Holy
Scripture, it may be by the living voice, or the life, or the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ; but however it be, the conception appropriate
to the word revelation is that of something which exists independently
of our minds, and which is uncovered, so that our minds can perceive
it. Revelation, therefore, cannot be developed; if we use the word as
meaning the process of revealing, then this is a different process from
that of developing; and if we use the word as meaning objectively the
knowledge which has been revealed, the knowledge which we obtain of God
by revelation, then this knowledge comes to us in an already developed
form: it is not an idea to be developed, but a truth to be received.
On the whole, I regard as the most important word in the title of my
lecture, the word _gradual_: whether we speak of the development of
His eternal purposes and intentions, or the revelation of His person
and character, the process appears to have been a gradual one, and
in a certain sense a slow one: and this gradualness of operation may
be variously estimated according to the turn of mind and habits of
thought of him who considers it: some will be content simply to bow
their heads and worship as being in the presence of Him whose ways are
past finding out: some will say that that which Christians believe to
be the development of His purposes and the revelation of His person
is inconsistent with their conceptions of God, and so will reject it:
others will hesitate to reject on _à priori_ grounds that which, to
say the least, admits of a strong argument in its favour, but will
confess that they feel the difficulties which have been urged against
the creed of Christendom; and with regard to that particular phase of
difficulty with which I am professing to deal in this lecture, they
will say, and perhaps say with sadness, that the revelation which the
volume of Holy Scripture purports to contain, does not commend itself
to their minds, as corresponding to their highest thoughts of that
which God might be expected to do in making Himself known to man. Now
it is to minds in this condition that considerations concerning the
doings of God may be hopefully offered. I do not see how it is possible
to treat such a subject as mine, if I consider myself as speaking to
persons who deny the impossibility of revelation as distinct from human
knowledge: if a revelation be impossible, _per se_, it is useless to
discuss the qualities of that particular form of revelation which
Christians profess to have received; but if a man is willing to
receive a revelation, and has something of the spirit indicated by the
words, "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him," then it does seem to
be possible to offer some suggestions which shall tend to show that
the manner of revelation which Holy Scripture exhibits is in harmony
with all that we know of our Creator from other sources, and that
the gradual character of the Divine operations, as exhibited in that
history which culminates in the Lord Jesus Christ, is wonderfully
analogous to the character of every other operation which we can
rightly call divine.
Let us then observe what the revelation of God purports to be; and for
the special end which I have in view, I think we may suitably divide it
into the following principal steps:--
1. That made to Adam and Eve;
2. That made to Abraham;
3. That made to Moses;
4. That made in and by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let us look at each of these for a moment.
The revelation to Adam and Eve is represented as being of the simplest
kind possible. In fact it is difficult to conceive how anything beyond
a very simple and partial revelation could be possible in the very
infancy of humanity. It amounts to little more than the revelation
of God as a personal governor, whose will must be obeyed: a command
is given; that command is broken, and a punishment is inflicted;
and then mankind is represented as cast out of Eden into the wild,
uncultivated world. It is necessary to realize the extreme simplicity
of this history, and the imperfect character of the revelation: the
more so, because there is some temptation to imagine Adam and Eve as
being in the possession of more knowledge than Scripture attributes
to them; Scripture in reality attributes no knowledge to them, but
rather represents the tree of knowledge as having been the cause of
their fall. Philosophically speaking, we may describe the condition
of things which existed in Eden as being the dawn of man's religious
consciousness; he has no responsibility, and no sin; but a law is
imposed upon him, and thus comes responsibility, and thus by the breach
of law comes sin: man "was alive without the law once, but when the
commandment came sin revived," and man "died."
The sacred history represents the world as engaged, so to speak, in
working out the results of this primitive revelation till the time of
Abraham. God is represented as punishing the evil and rewarding the
good, the punishment of the evil being the more conspicuous conduct
of the two; thus Cain is punished, the people in the days of Noah are
punished, the builders of the tower of Babel are punished: but I do
not think it can be said that the being and character of God are any
further revealed till the time of Abraham. Then we have the new fact of
God calling out a family; granting to that family special promises and
special privileges, and making it (as it were) the depository of the
fortunes of the world. Probably this is a step which we should not have
expected; possibly it may even be argued that it is no real step in
advance; but, be this as it may, it is represented in Scripture as the
next step in the process of revelation; whether it strike us as strange
or not, we are compelled, on the hypothesis that Scripture contains the
history of revelation, to regard Abraham and his family as a point, a
station, in the process.
And so we come to Moses. I am disposed, however, to regard the Mosaic
revelation as differing in degree rather than in kind from that made to
Abraham. A family was called in Abraham, a nation in Moses; but in the
one case as in the other, the fortunes of the whole world were bound
up with the history and conduct of a chosen few; the family of Abraham
was a peculiar and chosen family, the Israelites whom Moses made into a
nation were a peculiar and chosen people: the principle was the same,
namely that of selection, and whatever difficulty belongs to one case,
belongs equally to the other.
It would be a long task, and for my purpose an unnecessary one, to
trace the gradual progress of the revelation made "in sundry times
and in divers manners" to the Israelitish church and people; beginning
with the grand announcement of the Name of God from the Burning Bush,
and continued by the declaration of the law in the wilderness, rendered
visible, so to speak, by the sacrificial ritual, and expounded by
priests and prophets, it gradually became clearer and clearer, until
"the fulness of time" came, and "God sent forth His Son made of a
woman." I need not say that to Christians this is emphatically _the_
revelation of God--"he who has seen the Son has seen the Father."
All previous revelations are only preparatory for this; and when we
have received this, all others seem to be lost, just as the moon and
stars which shine so brightly at night are absolutely extinguished as
soon as the sun is risen. Assuming all this, however, it may be worth
while to remark, first, that Jesus Christ expressly connected Himself
with all that had gone before, saying that He "came not to destroy,
but to fulfil;" and secondly, that He, like Moses and Abraham before
Him, founded an ἐκκλησία [Greek: ekklêsia], or church, as a depository
of the fortunes of mankind, only with this difference or extension
of principle, that whereas the church of Abraham was a family, and
the church of Moses was a nation, the church of Christ was catholic,
knowing no distinction of family or nation, but embracing all who were
willing to take Him as their Captain, and His Cross as their banner.
This sketch, slight as it is, of the progress of revelation, as
presented to us in Holy Scripture, will be abundantly sufficient for my
present purpose. In considering its claims to be received by mankind,
I think it should be at once candidly owned, as seems indeed to be
conceded in Holy Scripture, that the method of revelation is probably
different from anything which we should have expected on general
grounds of reason. Perhaps it is difficult, it may be impossible, to
say very precisely what we should have expected; but certainly I think
we should _not_ have expected to have found the principal revelations
of God made, as they are alleged to have been made, to a selected
family, a selected nation, a selected corporate body. It is only candid
to acknowledge that, from a philosophical point of view, we may here
see a great difficulty; and the difficulty becomes more salient when we
look out of the narrow groove of sacred history into the wide history
of the world at large. There we find a remarkable growth of knowledge,
and an exhibition of the highest powers and gifts of humanity, quite
separated from that region which is asserted to have been specially
illuminated with light from heaven. The progress of our knowledge of
the literature of ancient nations, and a greater familiarity with
the thoughts and feelings of people outside the Christian pale,
have tended to throw this difficulty into stronger relief: our old
acquaintance with Greece and Rome, our more recent acquaintance with
such countries as India and China, have made us aware that, somehow
or other, great light did shine upon these countries in olden days,
and it is harsh to say that the light did not come from heaven. Let,
therefore, the difficulty be frankly acknowledged; while at the same
time it is also acknowledged that in a matter so much beyond the scope
of our faculties as that of saying in what manner God can best reveal
Himself to mankind, all difficulties depending upon the strangeness or
unexpectedness of a method alleged to have been adopted, must in the
nature of things be of less than first-rate magnitude, and must give
way to sufficient evidence.
Acknowledging, however, as frankly as can be desired, the difficulty
here stated, I observe that there is anyhow a remarkable consistency
in the scheme of revelation which Scripture contains. One step leads
naturally to another; and looking at the whole course of Scripture
history, from the first verse of the Book of Genesis to the last verse
of the Book of Revelation, it is wonderful (perhaps upon any infidel
hypothesis, more than wonderful) how the various parts hang together,
and how the beginning, the middle, and the end seem to dovetail
themselves together into one connected and consistent whole. I do not
know that I have ever been more struck with this, than when reading
the recent work on "The History and Literature of the Israelites," by
C. and A. de Rothschild. In this work we have the advantage of seeing
the Old Testament exhibited in a reverent and loving spirit without the
New, and as it might have appeared if Jesus Christ had not been born.
Any one reading the book would be impelled to say that the influence
of the literature of the Israelites must be for the improvement and
enlightenment of mankind; but the questions press upon the mind of the
reader--at least they did upon mine--"What does all this lead to? What
has become of these Israelites? and what is the meaning of the language
of their prophets?" In fact, the book seems to put the reader very much
in the position of the Ethiopian nobleman in the Book of the Acts of
the Apostles, who was prepared by reading some of the "literature of
the Israelites" to receive from Philip the evangelist the preaching of
the name of Jesus. The New Testament seems exactly to _fit_ upon the
Old; and that gradual progress of revelation which we notice in the Old
Testament, seems to lead up to, and find its completion and explanation
in, the history which is contained in the New.
On the whole, looking at the scheme of revelation as it appears in
Scripture, and as it has been illustrated by history, both profane and
sacred, I believe that I discern these features. I see the knowledge
of God emerging from very obscure beginnings, and imparted in very
unexpected ways; I see, however, that this knowledge does somehow or
another not merely remain with mankind, but increase and become clearer
and more influential; I see a particular family and nation selected for
the reception and spread of this knowledge, and the family and nation
so selected, after going through much education and many vicissitudes,
producing at length One in whom the whole history appears to culminate,
and then disappearing from all position of influence upon the fortunes
of the world except through this one pre-eminent member. Still further,
I perceive, and it is absolutely impossible for the most sceptical to
deny, that the name of this remarkable member of the selected family
and nation has been the most potent that has ever been named, and that
His influence in the world has been and is far greater, more extended,
and more intense in its action, than any other influence which has ever
been brought to bear upon the human heart and mind. Even in the work
to which I referred just now, in which the Old Testament alone comes
under consideration, the dates of the history are given by reference
to the birth of Jesus Christ; and whatever view men may be disposed to
take of the more mysterious and transcendental allegations concerning
the life of Jesus of Nazareth, it is impossible to deny that the
civilization and improvement of the world, and the purification of
human society and the like, are more connected with His Name than with
that of any other philosopher or teacher or leader of mankind. When
I say that it is impossible to deny this, I am of course aware that
it has been denied, and that there are and have been persons who have
asserted that Christianity has not only not been that which Christians
believe it to have been, but has been positively detrimental to human
progress; but what I mean is, that to make the denial to which I refer,
is so contrary to the general verdict of mankind that it is hard for
any one to make it, and impossible for any one who is at all likely
to be influenced by anything that I can say. For those who are at all
likely to be influenced are persons who are _sceptical_, not those
who are _antagonistic_; a man may doubt--who has not doubted?--and a
man may be tortured by his doubts, and it may be possible to relieve
him; but I see no probability of helping that man who has come to the
conclusion that the influence of Jesus Christ has been a mischievous
and obstructive influence in the history of human progress; with such a
man, I, at least, as a Christian apologist, do not feel that I have any
common ground.
Taking then the view of revelation to which I have referred as being
that contained in Holy Scripture, and acknowledging that such a view
presents difficulties to thoughtful and inquiring minds, I wish to
examine and see whether we cannot find some help towards a right
appreciation of God's method of revelation by examining the course of
nature, or that which is supposed to be its course.