2. The infinite mind created finite mind in its own likeness. Both
these points will be considered in our lesson on the “Doctrines of the
Bible.”
3. The infinite mind has _provided a means of passing the distance
between itself and the finite mind_, so that the finite might know the
infinite; i. e. it has revealed itself to the finite mind.
4. The finite mind is the highest created existence. This is left
without discussion for the student to amplify.
5. The finite mind exists because of the infinite mind. The gas jet
burning above my head affords an illustration. It exists because of a
well-stored gasometer two miles away; because of complicated machinery
by which coal has been caused to yield up its hidden stores of light;
because of a system of underground conductors that terminates in
the burner on the wall. Without the burner and the light all these
appliances would be useless; and they in turn exist only that there
may be light. So the finite mind exists because of the infinite—nor
can we think with satisfaction of infinite mind in the universe and no
creation or correlated force.
6. The finite mind hungers to know the infinite; it peers into the
measureless space which its eye can not pierce, and longs for the
infinite to reveal itself. This fact is historical, “Canst thou by
searching find out God?” has been the question of the ages; and
the answer has been “the world by wisdom knew not God.” The cry of
multitudes of hungering souls has been: “O, that I knew where I might
find him.” As light is necessary to the eye, and air to the bird’s
wing, and sound to the ear, that each may perform the work for which
it is adapted, so a knowledge of the infinite mind that is of God, is
essential that the finite mind—that is, man—may fulfill its destiny.
And this knowledge is possible only through self-revelation by God to
man. That such a revelation has been made we have already asserted.
That the Bible is that revelation is our claim, which we will discuss
in a future lesson. The present lesson will be content to inquire
simply, how that revelation has been effected. We answer:
_God wrought it out in the presence of the race_ in ways unmistakable,
exhibiting every attribute of his character, _even to those of mercy
and forgiveness_. God wrought (not wrote). What we call the inspired
Word is a mediate, not an immediate act of God. God wrought, the work
extending through many ages, perhaps not even yet finished.
_Wrought_ (_a_) in nature, so that “the invisible things of him since
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through
the things that are made.” Creation then is itself a part of the
revelation, but only a part; for out of it comes no hint of forgiveness
or redemption.
(_b_) In man, _by spiritual manifestations_, _by intellectual
enlightenments_, _by illuminations of conscience_, such as could not
originate in the human soul. These revelations or workings of God in
man mark a large portion of the history of thought through the ages;
and in that dim twilight of the race, when men like Enoch walked with
God, though history is but a shadow, yet it is the shadow of God
working in man.
(_c_) In Providence—that is, in his ordering the work of the world. He
not only “produced a supernatural history extending through centuries,
... and working out results which human wisdom could never have
conceived, nor human power executed,”[J] but also he has directed all
the workings of all history in accordance with the central purpose of
his revelation.
(_d_) In grace, by his spirit revealing what the human mind could
never have discovered for itself, redemption and atonement through
forgiveness of sin.
IV. This divine revelation so wrought by God _has been, and is being
reported_ that all the world may know and confess that “the Lord, he is
the God.” Reported:
1. _Through Tradition._—There was an unwritten Bible before the
written word, handed down from patriarchs to scribes; and even in
lands destitute of the Scriptures, we trace the dim outlines of truth
transmitted from ancient authority.
2. _Through Philosophy._—Wise men and thinkers have read the revelation
in nature and gathered it up from human thought, and the highest
philosophy, as that of a Socrates and a Plato, finds God.
3. _Through Prophecy._—In the earlier ages, and perhaps through all the
ages, God has communed with chosen men who have lived in fellowship
with himself; and has made them the mouthpiece uttering his will to the
world.
4. _Through Preaching._—The pulpit, when it is true to its mission,
voices the message of God to man.
V. _We find also that this divine revelation has been written out,
under a divine direction_:
1. _In Various Books._—The Bible is not one book, but sixty-six books,
a whole library, presenting the divine revelation under varied aspects,
but all under one divine origin and supervision.
2. _By Various Writers._—Not less than thirty authors, and probably
many more, shared in the composition of the Scriptures, but all wrote
under a divine control, and expressed, each in his own style, the mind
of the Spirit.
3. _Through Various Ages._—Moses may have begun the writing, doubtless
from earlier documents. Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Ezra, Matthew,
Paul, John, each in turn carried on the work through a period of
sixteen hundred years. The book grew like a cathedral, rising through
the centuries, under many successive master-builders, yet according to
one plan of one divine Architect.
4. _In Various Languages._—Two great tongues, one Semitic, the other
Aryan, were employed, the Hebrew in the Old Testament, the Greek in the
new; but the Hebrew of Moses is not that of Daniel a thousand years
later.