be struck by this general fact, namely, that gradualness of development
appears to be a universal law. The manner in which the original design
of the Creator (for I assume that there was an original design) has
been carried out, so far from being sudden, has been very slow;[63]
and more than this, the method of operation has been frequently such
as we should scarcely have expected, and greatly opposed to those
notions of creative majesty which most of us are very much disposed
to preconceive. In order to put this clearly before you, let me
call your attention to the very picturesque and poetical view of
creation, contained in Chateaubriand's "Genie du Christianisme." That
work appeared after the explosion of the volcano of the first great
French revolution, and was intended to reconcile the minds of men,
weary with the infidelity and atheism which had so long been rampant,
to the views of God contained in Holy Scripture, and maintained by
Christians. Writing with this purpose, M. Chateaubriand tells us
that we may conceive of the Creator as having called the world into
existence in a condition as complete, and having as many marks of
antiquity, as we now see about us: when this earth was created there
would be already ancient forests, and abundance of animals, some in
their maturity, others dancing about in the friskiness of youth; the
trees would be furnished with birds' nests, and the crows and pigeons
would be hatching their eggs, or tending their young; the butterflies
and moths would be sporting on the plants; the bees would be making
honey from the new-formed flowers; the sheep would be followed by their
lambs; and the nightingales would be astonishing themselves with their
first, yet perfect songs, in all the groves. Finally, Adam would be
a man of thirty, and Eve a girl of sixteen. "Without this original
antiquity," says our author, "there would have been neither pomp nor
majesty in the work of the Eternal; and, which could not well be,
nature in her innocence would have been less fair than she is now in
her corruption. An insipid infancy of plants, animals, elements, would
have crowned a world devoid of poetry."[64] No doubt this description
is anything but devoid of poetry; it is perhaps the only way in which
a poet would be disposed to conceive of creation; it is difficult to
imagine the music of Haydn set to any other description of the creative
work; but undoubtedly it is not scientific, and, what is more, it is
not Scriptural. Chateaubriand no more got his picture of creation
from the Book of Genesis than Ernest Rénan got his picture of Jesus
Christ from the four Gospels; and that there may be no mistake about
this latter point, let me ask you to observe that the most marked and
salient feature of the Bible picture of creation is the gradualness of
the creative work. I do not say that the picture is not poetical; I
believe it to be quite as poetical as that which Chateaubriand would
substitute for it, and I quite admit that it ought to be regarded from
a poetical rather than a scientific point of view; still gradualness
of development is the most marked and salient of its features: first,
a chaos of matter without life; then vegetable life; then the lower
forms of animal life; then mammals; and lastly, man. No one can deny
that these and other steps, spread over the time which is indicated
by the mysterious creative days, do together make up the Bible history
of physical creation; and no one can fail to perceive that the order
of proceeding is as different as possible from that described by the
French apologist. According to this latter view, creation starts
forth, Minerva-like, from the mind of God; according to Scripture, the
work is expressly gradual and presumably slow. We are so accustomed
to the first chapter of Genesis, that I think we sometimes scarcely
perceive its peculiarities; but suppose that the reverse order of
arrangement had been adopted, and that man in deference to his dignity
had been represented as coming in first, and that other creatures had
been represented as being made afterwards for his use and pleasure,
would not this have made a radical change, and introduced an enormous
scientific difficulty? I remember once being told by a person, who held
strong views with regard to the dangerous character of the conclusions
of geology, that it seemed to him absolutely incredible that a period
should have existed when the earth was inhabited by nothing but fishes,
reptiles, and the like; yet this is precisely what Scripture affirms to
have been the fact; and if the creative work had been concluded with
the fifth day, there would have been no mammals upon the earth, and no
man.
Gradualness in creative work, therefore, is so far from being contrary
to the indications of God's method given in Scripture, that it is one
of the few things which stand out from the scriptural account with
undeniable prominence. That this same feature is not less prominent
in the results of all the physical sciences, it would take more time
and more ability to demonstrate than are at my command; nevertheless
it is necessary that I should ask you kindly to accompany me, while
I endeavour to show you that the conclusions of science, and even
the guesses of scientific men, point to this conclusion, and tend to
make untenable any objections to the revelation of God contained in
Scripture, on the ground of the gradual manner in which that revelation
is alleged to have been made.
The general evidence of geology is familiar probably to most of us,
and it is only the general evidence with which I can desire to deal on
such an occasion as this; but pray observe that while the particular
conclusions of geology, like those of other physical sciences, are
liable to continued modification and amendment, the general drift of
the conclusions is sufficiently clear and certain. No one can doubt,
for instance, the great antiquity of our globe, and the fact that it
has gone through successive changes with regard to the character of
its surface, the nature of its inhabitants, and the like. Undoubtedly
there was a time when civilized men did not dwell upon it; undoubtedly
there was a still more distant period when men did not dwell upon it
in any form, civilized or uncivilized; perhaps there was a period even
more distant, when life was not to be found upon the earth's surface at
all. And physical astronomy will take us even beyond geology, and will
make it probable that the earth was originally in a fluid condition,
in which from the excessive temperature no form of life could have
existed. Few problems are more curious than that which deduces the
present figure of our globe from the hypothesis of original fluidity.
Take a mass of fluid, and set it revolving slowly about an axis, as our
earth revolves, and it can be shown that it will assume such a form
as that which our earth has. I do not lay stress upon the remarkable
numerical coincidence of the ellipticity of the earth, as derived by
Laplace from theory, with that which is discovered by observation,
because this involves certain arbitrary hypotheses; but taking those
results which involve nothing arbitrary at all, it is almost impossible
not to believe that the earth was at one time a hot fluid mass, and
that it has gradually cooled down and hardened into its present
permanent condition.
Look upon the earth then as being once in this hot fluid condition.
It turns slowly round upon its axis and cools. I cannot trace the
whole of the process, but before it arrived at its present condition
there must have been crackings and burstings and eruptions; and so
continents and islands and mountains would be formed; but upon the
whole, even in the wildest times, the process would be very gentle, for
the highest mountains on the earth's surface are but as the down upon
the surface of a peach. Then upon this globe appear creatures suited to
its condition; and the eye which could have watched the world in its
progress would have seen animals of successively higher types occupying
the earth's surface, till at length that surface was spotted with
cities built by the hand of man, and the ocean studded with his ships.
It is impossible to guess the time which must have elapsed between the
epoch when the earth was a hot revolving mass of fluid, and the epoch
in which we live; neither is it very possible to say, though it is
possible to guess, what would have been the successive scenes presented
by the earth to the eye which should have witnessed the whole of the
changes; but whatever may have been the nature of the changes, this
conclusion is inevitable, namely, that there has been a progression
of some kind from the fluidity of the primæval dead revolving mass to
the inhabited world of this nineteenth century; it matters not for my
argument whether the progression, so far as animal life is concerned,
has been due to natural selection, or to such a process as that
advocated by the author of "Vestiges of Creation," or to successive
and distinct creative acts; the fact holds good, upon any hypothesis,
that the Almighty Creator has produced that universe which we see, not
by one act, but by a gradual and apparently very slow creative process,
whether continuous or discontinuous it matters not for my purpose to
inquire.
Now this course of nature is strikingly analogous to that gradual
mode of proceeding which is alleged to belong to revelation; and any
difficulty which belongs to one appears to attach equally to the
other. Nay, if we are to give any weight to the most recent physical
speculations, it may be fairly argued that the difficulties connected
with revelation are but as trifles compared with those which nature
presents. I refer to those views of which the latest exposition is to
be found in Mr. Darwin's "Descent of Man." Let me touch upon those
views for a moment.
It seems that "the early progenitors of man were once covered with
hair, both sexes having beards; their ears were pointed and capable of
movement; and their bodies were provided with a tail, having the proper
muscles.... The males were provided with great canine teeth, which
served them as formidable weapons.... At a still earlier period, the
progenitors of man must have been aquatic in their habits." And lastly,
"the most ancient progenitors in the kingdom of the Vertebrata, at
which we are able to obtain an obscure glance, apparently consisted of
a group of marine animals resembling the larvæ of existing ascidians."
This is certainly a somewhat alarming conclusion; looking however
to the _ascent_ (for so I think it ought to be called) rather than
the _descent_, it would seem to be the view of some of our advanced
natural investigators, that the marine animals in question produced
certain lowly organized fishes; these produced ganoids and the like;
these produced amphibians;--here there seems to be a difficulty--"No
one," writes Mr. Darwin, "can at present say by what line of descent
the three higher and related classes, namely, mammals, birds, and
reptiles, were derived from either of the two lower vertebrate classes,
namely, amphibians and fishes." However, once get to the mammals, and
all difficulty ceases: the Monotremata produced the Marsupials; these
the placental Mammals: thus we come to the Lemuridæ, and from them the
interval is not great to the Simiadæ; the Simiadæ branched off into
two great stems,--the New World and Old World Monkeys; and "from the
latter at a remote period, _Man_, the wonder and glory of the universe,
proceeded."[65]
Of this pedigree, which, "if not of noble quality," is "of prodigious
length," Mr. Darwin tells us "we need not feel ashamed." Perhaps not;
though certainly the nerves of any one unaccustomed to anthropological
investigations may be excused for trembling slightly as he hears it
recited; but the point which I wish to press is this, that supposing
(for argument's sake) this view of man's origin, or anything like
it, to be true, it is impossible to imagine a more thorough case of
gradual development; there is nothing in the religious history of
mankind as expounded in Holy Scripture so amazingly marvellous as
that which is contained in this physical history; and certainly those
who are prepared to receive the Darwinian view of the development of
man's body, ought not to find anything to offend them on the ground of
improbability in the Scriptural account of the revelation made by God
to the human soul.
I do not know to what extent Mr. Darwin's views are likely to be
permanent; but supposing that they, or any view of the same class,
should eventually overcome all existing difficulties, and be generally
regarded as representing the process by which it has pleased God to
bring about man's physical and mental supremacy, then it can hardly
seem strange that the same God should have adopted a course of
progress and development in the spiritual and religious world. I say,
emphatically, "if it has pleased God" to act thus; because if I accept
the hypothesis of the nebular origin of planetary systems, or the
supposition of the earth being a fluid globe gradually cooled, or even
the assertion that our most ancient progenitors were marine animals, I
must do so with the underlying assumption that it has pleased God so
to work. I do not find fault with scientific men for not putting their
theories in this form; but looking at the question from a religious,
or even from a philosophical, point of view, I cannot consent to lose
sight of God, as the intelligent maker of the whole. If this earth was
originally a fluid mass, then I believe that that was the best, or, for
anything I know to the contrary, the only way of making a world; if the
marine animals, which Mr. Darwin sees through his scientific telescope,
did become fish, and those fish eventually became men, then I believe
that that was the best, or, for anything I know to the contrary, the
only way of making men; and this being so, why may I not deal in the
same manner with the alleged course of man's spiritual history? I
have in my hands something which purports to be a revelation to my
intellect, and to my soul, of the God who made me: that revelation is
contained in a history which tells me that God spake at sundry times
and in divers manners to the people of olden time, and that finally
He spake by One who is called His Son. Now I do not say that this
revelation is or is not a real one; but I do say that there is nothing
to render us suspicious of its reality in the fact that it has been
communicated gradually, that it has grown as the human race has grown,
and that some of the steps in the process of revelation appear strange,
or even, at first sight, unworthy of the grand scheme of which they
form a part. No one has a right to find fault on this ground who has
read the lessons of natural science, and observed how it points to
gradual progression as a characteristic of the doings of God. Least of
all can they find fault on this ground, who receive in whole, or even
in part, the recent theories concerning the origin of man. I will not
undertake to answer for those students who have gone deeply into these
physical questions; but I do assert, without fear of contradiction,
that to men of ordinary education, and ordinary habits of thought, the
difficulties of accepting Scripture as the revelation of God to the
human soul, however much those difficulties may be expounded or even
exaggerated, are absolutely nothing as compared with the difficulty of
accepting recent views of man's prodigious pedigree.
The fact is, that it is not so much the process by which a result has
been brought about, as the result itself, which is the all-important
thing. Whatever may have been the history of our earth in the dark
dim distance of incalculable ages, we know that its present condition
is very beautiful, and that it answers admirably well the purpose
for which it seems to have been originally designed, namely, that of
serving for the residence of intelligent man; and whatever may have
been the process by which that creative work was consummated, which
is described in Scripture as the making of man out of the dust, and
breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, we know that man is
high above all the rest of creation, and worthy of being spoken of as
being made in the image of God. And so in the case of man's spiritual
history, we need not be over-careful to criticize the several steps
when we are able to see the result; the question is, not so much
whether the steps of God which we trace in Old Testament history be
such steps as we should imagine that the Most High would have left,
as whether the mystery of the Incarnation, and the truth that God has
spoken to us by His own Son, be not worthy of all acceptation. If
Christ be worthy of our adoration and love, then, though the way may
have been long, and strange, and dark, and sometimes even weary, yet we
may be sure that it is the right way, because it has led us to Him.
For there is this further analogy between nature and revelation,
namely, that in each the progress is not indefinite, but tends to
a limit. Whatever theory be adopted with regard to the history of
the earth, we seem to see in its present settled condition the
limit towards which everything has been moving in past geological
ages; and even if man has been a progressive animal, and has only
gradually attained his present physical perfection, I presume it is
not anticipated that the process of natural selection, or any other
process, will carry him beyond the point which he has now reached.
Or, if we take the divine picture of creation, we see the creative
work tending from the limit of chaos to the limit of man; then physics
cease and religion begins, and we hear utterances of the voice of God
beginning with whispers, and becoming more and more distinct, until we
are permitted to listen to divine oracles uttered by human lips. Beyond
this the dreams of philosophy, and the aspirations of the human heart,
and the longings of the weary and heavy-laden cannot carry our thoughts
or raise our desires.
Those who are acquainted with Bishop Butler's great work will perceive
that I have now been endeavouring--how imperfectly no one knows better
than myself--to apply to the question of "the gradual development of
revelation," those principles of reasoning which Bishop Butler has
taught us to use. I was very sorry to see it stated in the evidence
taken before the select committee of the House of Lords on University
Tests, that Bishop Butler's _Analogy_ was "out of fashion" in
Oxford.[66] I trust that the witness only intended to assert that the
_Analogy_ was not now so commonly chosen for examinations as formerly,
for it will be an evil day for us all when the method of reasoning
which Bishop Butler taught us shall be "out of fashion" with thinking
people. In truth, the advantage of the method is that, properly
speaking, it never can be out of fashion; it is like the method of
Euclid, or that of the Differential Calculus; it is an _organum_,
an instrument, a machine, which may be applied in all the varying
circumstances of theological controversy, and to almost all religious
difficulties. For the principle of the method is this. You find certain
difficulties in that which professes to be a revelation of God; you
think to get rid of these difficulties by denying the revelation;
will you succeed in doing so? Not if you find precisely analogous
difficulties in the course of nature; unless you go further, and deny
not only that there is a God of revelation, but a God of nature too.
Nay, the argument carries you beyond this point, and suggests to you
that if there be difficulties in God's natural world, and if He be
pleased to reveal the spiritual world to us, then we ought to expect to
find the same general method of proceeding in matters spiritual which
we have been able to observe in the natural world. I quite admit that
this reasoning has no force for the man who says "There is no God;" he
must be dealt with in another way; but it has force and it has comfort
for the doubting inquiring soul, by assuring it that it can find a
logical resting-place, and that the refuge from the misery of blank
and hopeless atheism is to be found in simple faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ.[67]
With the atheist, I honestly confess, that I have little or no
sympathy; certainly I should not think it worth while to compose
a lecture intended for his special behoof. I should feel disposed
rather to send him for his answer to the fourteenth and fifty-third
Psalms. The difficulty of supposing the framework of the universe to
have had no architect, appears to me to be so great, so absolutely
immeasurable, that the man who can fancy that he has got over it must,
as I believe, either not have understood the difficulty, or else have
deceived himself as to his power of solving it; anyhow, I feel that
he has cut away all ground of argument, as between him and me. Not so
the man whose mind is sceptically inclined. Be it ever remembered that
the word _sceptic_ is derived from a word which means to _look_ or to
_see_--it is the same word which forms the root of the word _bishop_
or _overseer_; and accordingly there is nothing radically reproachful
in the name of _sceptic_. It implies that a man is determined to look
into matters for himself, not to trust every assertion, not to repeat
a parrot creed; and so far as this determination is concerned, it is
high and noble, and is in fact the very root and spring of all human
knowledge; but who can wonder if looking should lead to doubting, and
that so the name of sceptic should popularly imply, not the man who
looks and believes, but the man who looks and doubts? And I am not
ashamed to confess that I have much sympathy with this sceptical frame
of mind. Not only is it closely connected with a noble instinct of
inquiry and search for truth which God has implanted in the human mind,
but also, as I believe, it is well-nigh impossible that an inquiring
mind should deal seriously with religious subjects and remain entirely
free from doubt. In my opinion, the amount of scepticism which has,
during some period of his life, occupied the mind of each thoughtful
earnest man, will be merely a question of degree; while, at the same
time, I most sincerely believe that scepticism ought not to be, and
need not be the lasting condition of the human soul, and that all
doubts may be made to vanish in the light which God has given to
"lighten every man who is born into the world."
I know not what may be the condition of mind of those to whom I have
been speaking to-day. I presume the hope of the Christian Evidence
Society is that some persons who feel practically the pressure of doubt
and unbelief, will come and see whether any of their difficulties
can be resolved by this course of Lectures. If there be such in this
company, I beg them, in concluding this Lecture, to believe that they
have been listening to one who does not wish to treat their speculative
difficulties as trifles, but who would consider it as an unspeakable
privilege to be able to help a doubting brother to get rid of his
doubts, and to exchange them for the steady assurance of faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
THE ALLEGED HISTORICAL DIFFICULTIES
OF THE
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS,
AND THE
LIGHT THROWN ON THEM BY MODERN DISCOVERIES.
BY THE
REV. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A.,
CAMDEN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY, OXFORD.
THE ALLEGED HISTORICAL DIFFICULTIES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.
In addressing you on the historical difficulties of the Old and New
Testaments--a large subject, which it will be hard to treat adequately
within the time allowed to me--I must in the first place premise,
that with difficulties which lie on the verge or outskirts of the
historic field, on the debatable ground between Science and History,
I do not on the present occasion profess to deal. Questions as to the
origin of man, whether by development or by direct creation, whether
from one pair or from more; questions as to his primæval condition,
his possession from the first of the faculty of speech, his original
savagery or civilisation, and the like, lie (I think) beyond the
domain of history proper, belonging to what has been properly termed
the "_pre-historic_ period" of our race, and so not coming within the
terms of the subject on which I have undertaken to speak to-day.
History deals with man from the time to which written records reach
back. Historical difficulties arise from divergence, real or apparent,
between the different accounts contained in those records. Now the
profane records, to which any modern critical school would attribute
an historical value, do not reach back within many ages of the origin
of man, and thus no "historical difficulty" can arise with respect
to these primitive times. It is only when we descend to an age of
records, when the apparently authentic accounts of ancient countries
preserved to our day can be compared with the Scriptural narrative that
difficulty arises and that either agreement or disagreement can be
shown.