that they should read the Bible _with a special object_: and an
excellent recent writer has repeated the same advice; namely that men
should "read with a view to some particular inquiry, with purpose to
clear up some peculiar question of interest, which," (says he,) "you may
create for yourselves[257]." I entreat _you_ to do nothing of the kind.
Whatever advantages may result to an advanced student from adopting this
practice, to _you_ it _must_ be fraught with unmingled evil. You will be
tempted to overrate the importance of everything you discover which
suits your present purpose: you will disregard all that looks in a
different direction: you will be disappointed if you meet with nothing
_ad rem_: you will get a habit of slurring over many chapters, many
whole books of the Bible. A very little reflection will convince you
that it must be as I say. _Who_, for example, could be expected to find
delight and edification in the calendar of the Deluge, who had
determined to read Genesis with a view to discovering what knowledge
existed in the patriarchal age of a future life? No. Your wisdom will
be to divest your minds, as much as possible, of _any_ preconceived
notion as to what the Bible contains, or was intended to teach you. You
should wish to find there nothing so much as the authentic evidence of
_what_ Divine Wisdom hath seen fit to communicate to man. Read it
therefore, if you are wise, with unaffected curiosity: settling down
upon every flower, in order to find out, if you can, _where_ the honey
_is_: clinging to it rather, _until you have found_ the honey. Say to
yourself,--"It cannot be that all these details of months and days
should be given in vain[258]. I _must_ find out the reason of it." And,
at last, you will find,--what you will find.--"Very strange," (you will
learn to say to yourself,) "that the history of nearly 1600 years should
be curdled into one short chapter[259]; and yet that three verses of the
Bible should be devoted to the history of a man's losing his way in a
field, and then finding it again[260]!" The subject may be worth
thinking about. You are perhaps naturally disposed to take what you are
pleased to call "a common sense view" of the meaning of Holy Scripture;
and to interpret it after a very dry unlovely fashion of your own: to
evacuate its deeper sayings, and to doubt the mysterious significancy of
its historical details. You will speedily perceive, however, that the
Apostles and Evangelists of CHRIST,--as many as were moved by the HOLY
SPIRIT of GOD, and spoke not their own words but _His_,--that all these
are against you: and the effect of this discovery on an honest and good
heart, reading not in order to be confirmed in some preconceived
opinion, but with a sincere desire of enlightenment in Divine
things,--may be anticipated. Bishop Horsley relates that by a yet
simpler process he became disabused of a favourite fancy with which he
set out,--namely, that prophecy must of necessity carry a single
meaning[261].--The attitude of mind which I so strongly recommend you to
assume, (and it depends on an act of the Will, whether you assume it or
not,) is very exactly represented by the cry of the child
Samuel,--"Speak LORD, for Thy servant heareth!"
It seems right, in the fewest words, to state what we _do_,--and what we
do _not_,--expect to result from such a study of the Bible as this; in
other words, to assign the office of unassisted Biblical study. I would
not willingly have my meaning mistaken _here_.
It is not implied then, for a moment, that a man is either at liberty,
or able, to gather his own Religion for himself out of the Bible. The
very thought were monstrous. But it is a widely different thing for one
of yourselves to read his Bible patiently, and humbly, and laboriously,
through,--without prejudice or theory,--unmolested by critical notes,
undistracted by human comments, uninfluenced by party views:--all this,
I say, is a widely different thing from a man's inventing his own system
of Divinity. Members of the Catholic Church,--born in a Christian
country,--educated amid the choicest influences for good,--_you_ are by
no means so left to yourselves. THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER is your
sufficient safeguard. The framework of the Faith,--the conditions under
which you may lawfully speculate about Divine mysteries,--are all
prescribed for you: and within those limits you cannot well go wrong.
On the other hand, the outlines of _Moral Theology_, (as it may be
called), you are fully competent to detect for yourselves. GOD'S
strictness in punishing sin, as in the case of Moses[262];--the efficacy
of repentance, as in the case of Ahab[263];--the sure answer to prayer,
(to _forgotten_ prayer, it may be!) as in the case of
Zacharias[264];--the seemingly roundabout methods of GOD'S providence,
(as in the case of Abraham,) yet conducting inevitably to a blessed
issue at the last;--the rewards of obedience[265];--the faithfulness of
the Divine promises;--the boundless wealth of the Divine contrivance,
which, on man's repentance, is able to convert even a curse into a
blessing, as in the case of Levi[266];--the peace and joy surely in
reserve for those who fear GOD, as in the case of Joseph;--the extent to
which things seemingly trivial are noticed by the Ancient of Days, as
every page of the Bible shows;--these, and a hundred points like these,
not only a man can gather for himself out of the Book of God's Law, but
no one else can do the work for him. He _must_ discover all such matters
for himself.
And need I point out, for a minute, the immense advantage with which a
mind so stored with Divine knowledge will approach the Ministry; and
finally take in hand the actual oversight of the flock? It is really not
to be expressed. The Bishop's examination for Orders will become nothing
but an agreeable exercise, instead of an object of dread. You are quite
sure of a few approving words in _that_ quarter. But, (what is a
thousand times more important,) you yourself feel safe and strong. You
begin to read some treatise on Divinity; and you find yourself in some
degree competent to test the writer's statements, to endorse or to
suspect his conclusions, because you are familiar with the Rule of Faith
which he himself employed. It becomes your turn at last to instruct
others,--from the pulpit for example; and instead of timid truisms, and
vague generalities, you are able to draw a bold clear outline round
almost any department of Christian doctrine. You can explain with
authority.--You are not afraid to catechize before the congregation: for
although your Theological attainments are but slender after all, yet,
you know your Bible well; and even if an absurdly wrong answer is given
you, you know how to single out from the hank the golden thread of
Truth, and to display it before the eyes of men and Angels. And let me
tell you, by way of ending the subject, we should hear less about dull
sermons, and inattentive congregations, and badly filled churches,--as
well as about the astounding ignorance of many among the upper classes,
in Divine things,--if our younger Clergy knew the Bible a great deal
better than they do.--Aye, and we should not have so many unsound
remarks about Holy Scripture either,--so many mistaken views of
doctrine,--so many crude remarks about Inspiration,--made _by persons
who ought to know better_.
You will perceive that I am saying all this, (except the last few
words,) _at_ you, (the younger men present;) because in _you_ I see many
of the future Clergy of England. And I say it, because, (for the last
time,) I do entreat you, one and all, to follow the advice I have been
giving you; and to set about such a careful study of the Bible, _at
once_. Do not put it off for a single day. Begin it tomorrow morning.
You will then have mastered Genesis this term, finishing the last
chapter on Sunday the 10th of December; and on Monday, the 11th, you
will have to read the first chapter of Exodus. I am confident that you
will remember _this_ day and hour with gratitude to the end of your
lives, if you will but make the experiment and persevere.
And just one word to those who aspire, (and all _should_ aspire,) to
University honours. You will not find what I have been recommending any
hindrance to you at all. But even supposing you _do_, now and then, find
the inexorable daily half-hour stand in the way of something
else,--shall not the very thought of Him whose Voice you have
deliberately resolved to hear daily at that fixed time, make you full
amends? Shall you resolve to pluck so freely of the Tree of Knowledge,
and yet begrudge the approach once a day to the _Tree of Life_, which
grows in the midst of the Paradise of GOD? Shall ample time be found for
works of fiction,--for the Review, and the Magazine, and the
newspaper,--yet half an hour a day be deemed too much to be given to the
Word of GOD? What? room for everything and everybody; yet still "no room
in the Inn" for _CHRIST_!... I have, (I speak honestly,) I have far too
high an opinion of your instincts for good, to think it possible. You
have plenty of faults,--(_God_ knoweth!),--but I am very much deceived
indeed if there be not a spirit stirring among the young men of this
place, overflowing with promise; a real inclination, (obscured at times,
but still very energetic,) for whatever things are pure, and lovely, and
of good report.
Of course, it is implied by what goes before, that you will read _no_
work _of Divinity_ just at present. Be counselled, on no account, to
read any. Above all, shun the partial, ill-digested pamphlet,--and the
one-sided review,--and the controversial letter,--and the Essay which
seems to have been written in order to prove nothing. Be content, for
the next three years, to study no book of Divinity but the Bible.
And the study of _that_ Book, I repeat, you will find no hindrance, no
impediment, no burthen to you at all. On the contrary. It will render
you a very singular service,--let your classical and logical studies be
as severe as they will; (and they cannot well be too severe, too
engrossing,--for this is your golden opportunity which never will, never
_can_, come back again!) The undersong of "Siloa's brook that flows,
fast by the oracle of GOD," will many a time soothe and refresh your
else dry and weary spirit. What was begun as a task will soon come to be
regarded as a privilege. _That_ jealously-guarded half-hour will be
found to be the one green spot in the whole day,--like Gideon's fleece,
fresh with the dew of the early morning, when it is "dry upon all the
earth beside." Your secret study of that Book of Books, I say, will
render you a very singular service. The contrast between the Divine and
Human method will strike you with ever-recurring power. Unlike every
other History, the Bible removes the veil, and discovers the causes of
things,--including the First Great Cause of all, who dwelleth in Light
unapproachable, but who yet humbleth Himself to behold, and to controul,
and to overrule for good, the things which are done in Heaven and on
Earth. And thus, it is not too much to say that the Bible, to one who
reads its pages aright, is a certain clue to every other History,--as
well as a perpetual commentary on every other Book. It informs the
judgment, and cleanses the eye, throughout the whole department of
Morals: and as for History, what is it all, but the evidence of GOD in
the world,--"traces of _His_ iron rod, or of _His_ Shepherd's
staff[267]?"
Profoundly sensible am I, that these have been very unintellectual, and
somewhat common-place remarks: but I would rather, a hundred times, be
of use to the younger men present; I would rather, a hundred times,
succeed in persuading one of _them_, to adopt that method of reading the
Bible which I have been recommending;--than try to say something which
might be thought fine and clever.... Let me only, in conclusion,
faithfully remind them, that the _true_ office of the study of Divine
things is not, by any means, that which, for obvious reasons, I have
been rather dwelling and enlarging upon. It is _not_ merely to inform
the understanding, that Holy Scripture is to be read with such
consummate attention, and studied with such exceeding care. It is _not_
for the illustration of History, or in order that it may be made a test
of the value of other systems of Morals. _Not_, by any means, in order
to facilitate admission into Holy Orders, (for which only some of you
are destined;)--or to render a man's pulpit-addresses attractive and
agreeable;--or even to enable a parish priest to teach with confidence
and authority;--is he entreated now to "prevent the night watches," if
need be, that he may be occupied (like one of old time[268],) with GOD'S
Word. O no! It is,--in order that his inner life may be made
conformable to that outer Law[269]: that his aims may be ennobled, and
his motives purified, and his earthly hopes made consistent with the
winning of an imperishable crown! It is in order that when he wavers
between Right and Wrong, the unutterable Canon of GOD'S _Law_ may
suggest itself to him as a constraining motive. Its aim, and purpose,
and real function, is, that the fiery hour of temptation may find the
Christian soldier armed with "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of GOD[270]:"--that the dark season of Adversity may find his soul
anchored on the Rock of Ages,--which alone can prove his soul's
sufficient strength and stay.... Of a truth, as Life goes on, Men will
find the blessedness of their Hope; if they have not found it out
already. Under every form of trial,--and under every strange
vicissitude;--in sickness,--and in perplexity,--and in bereavement,--and
in the hour of death;--"LORD,--to _whom_ shall we go? Thou,--_Thou_ hast
the words of Eternal Life!"
FOOTNOTES:
[243] Preached in Christ-Church Cathedral, Oct. 21st, 1860.
[244] =tên synagôgên=,--from which it would appear that there was but
_one_. See Bishop Middleton on St. Luke vii. 5.
[245] Rom. i. 16.
[246] Heb. iv. 12.
[247] St. Matth. xxiv. 35, &c.
[248] St. John xii. 48.
[249] St. John i. 1, &c.
[250] Ibid. vii. 40-43.
[251] Ibid. i. 45, 46.
[252] St. Luke ii. 48.
[253] Is. vii. 14.
[254] St. Mark vi. 3.
[255] Our Lord's words in St. John viii. 47 are so cited by Archbishop
Whately in the Appendix of his Logic.--(App. II. No. 12, p. 418.)
[256] Consider all such places as St. John xi. 45, 46.
[257] Blunt's _Duties of a Parish Priest_,--p. 81.
[258] Gen. vii. 4 to viii. 14.
[259] Ibid. v.
[260] Ibid. xxxvii. 15, 16, 17.
[261] See Appendix A.
[262] Deut. iii. 25, 26.
[263] 1 Kings xxi. 27-29.
[264] St. Luke i. 13.
[265] Jerem. xxxv. 18, 19.
[266] Comp. Gen. xlix. 5-7, with Exod. xxxii. 26-28, (alluded to in
Deut. xxxiii. 9,) and finally Numb. iii. 9 and 45, and Josh. xxi. 3-8.
[267] The Rev. C. Marriott's _Sermons_,--vol. I. p. 441.
[268] Ps. cxix. 148.
[269] Not so _Essays and Reviews_, pp. 36 and 45.
[270] Eph. vi. 17.
SERMON II.[271]
* * * * *
NATURAL SCIENCE AND THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE.
* * * * *
HEBREWS xi. 3.
_Through Faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of
GOD._
St. Paul, in a famous and familiar chapter of his Epistle to the
Hebrews, having declared "what Faith is," proceeds, (as the heading of
the chapter expresses it), to note "the worthy fruits thereof in the
Fathers of old time." The Book of Genesis was obviously in his hands, or
in his heart, while he wrote: for he appeals to the transactions there
recorded, in the very order, and often in the very words, of Moses. The
HOLY GHOST, I say, directs our attention to what is contained in the
ivth,--vth,--vith,--xiith,--xviith,--xxiind,--xxviith,--xlviiith,--and
lth chapters of Genesis. But He begins with a yet earlier chapter. _He
begins with the first._ Abel,--Enoch,--Noah,--Abraham,--Sarah,--Isaac,
--Jacob,--Joseph;--these stand forward as samples of God's faithful
ones. But with them, the HOLY GHOST proposes to associate _us_.
Moreover, He gives _us_ the place of honour. Before mentioning one of
_their_ acts of Faith, He mentions one of _ours_. We come first,--then
they. And the particular field in which _we_ shine out so
conspicuously,--the special province which is assigned to _us_,--that
portion of the inspired Narrative wherein _you and I_ are supposed to
shew a degree of undoubting faith which entitles us to rank with those
"Fathers of old time,"--is found to be _the first chapter of the Book of
Genesis_. "Through Faith _we_ understand that the worlds were framed by
the Word of God." An honourable place, and an honourable function truly!
I would to GOD that it might be as gratifying to every one of the
congregation, as it is to the preacher, to discover that _this_ is the
special stand-point which has been reserved for him and for them.
Since, however, it is impossible to forget that we have sometimes seen
heads, which are supposed to be very much indeed in advance of the age,
shaken ominously at the very chapter which the text bequeaths and
commends to the special acceptance of you and me,--I propose that, in
the very briefest manner, we now review the contents of that chapter; in
order that we may discover what is the special absurdity, or
impossibility, or improbability, or by whatever other name the thing is
to be called,--which makes it quite out of the question that you or I
should undertake the act of Faith here assigned us.
I read then, that "In the beginning, GOD created the Heaven and the
Earth:"--by which I understand, that, at some remote period,--which may
or may not baffle human Arithmetic[272],--it was the pleasure of GOD
the FATHER, GOD the SON, GOD the HOLY GHOST,--_three_ Persons, coeternal
and coequal,--_one_ GOD,--out of nothing, to create the entire Universe.
"All things that are in Heaven, and that are in Earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or
powers: all things were created by Him[273];" and they were created out
of nothing. The word in the original does not indeed necessarily imply
as much: but since there is _no_ word in Hebrew, (any more than there is
in Greek, Latin, or English,) peculiarly expressive of the notion of
creating out of nothing, it need not excite our surprise that Moses does
not employ such a word to describe what God did "in the
beginning."--_Then_ it was, in the grey of that far distant morning I
mean, that all those glittering orbs which sow the vault of Heaven with
brightness and with beauty, flashed into sudden being. "Thou, even Thou,
art LORD alone: Thou hast made Heaven, the Heaven of Heavens, _with all
their host[274]_." Suns, the centres of systems, many of them so distant
from this globe of ours, that sun and system scarce shew so bright as a
single lesser star: suns, I say, with their marvellous equipage of
attendant bodies,--_our_ sun among the rest, with all those wandering
fires which speed their unwearied courses round it: suns, and planets
with their moons, bathed once and for ever in the fountain of that Light
which GOD inhabited from all Eternity, then marshalled themselves in
mysterious order, according to "the counsel of His will[275]:" yea, and
with their furniture, unimagined and unimaginable, went careering
through the untrodden realms of space, each on its several errand of
glory, because of obedience to its Maker's sovereign Law[276]. "By the
Word of the LORD," (as it is written,) "were the Heavens made; and all
the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth[277]!"
Now, it is reserved to the geologist,--(Nature's High-priest!)--to guess
at the condition of this Earth of ours throughout all the long period of
unchronicled ages which immediately succeeded the birthday of Time. It
is for _him_ to guess at the successive changes which this globe of ours
underwent; and the progressive cycles of Creation of which it was the
theatre; and the many strange races of creatures which, one after
another, moved upon its surface,--walking the dry, or inhabiting the
moist. _He_ shall guess; and _I_ will sit at his feet and listen, with
unfeigned gratitude, wonder, and delight, while he reports to me his
guesses: (for the really great man is eager to assure me that they are
no more.)--But when his tale of perplexity is ended, and the last 6,000
years of this world's History have to be discussed, the geologist's
function is at an end. I bid him, in GOD'S Name, be silent; for now it
is GOD that speaketh. If any question be moved as to how _that actual
system of things to which Man belongs_, began,--I bid him come down, and
take the learner's place; for now _I_ mean to assume his vacant chair.
_This_ time, there shall at least be no guess-work. GOD is now the
Speaker: and what GOD revealeth unto _me_, _that_ I promise faithfully
to report to _him_.
There was a time, then,--and it was certainly less than 6,000 years
ago,--when "the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon
the face of the deep." What catastrophe it was which had caused that the
fountains of the abyss should be broken up, and the solid Earth
submerged, I am not concerned to explain:--nor how it had come to pass
that from a world of seas and continents, it had become a watery ball,
wrapped about with superincumbent vapour:--nor how the blessed sunlight
had suffered dire eclipse;--so that the Earth revolved in a horror of
great darkness. _My faith_ however is not troubled,--nor even
perplexed,--by the strangeness of these things. Shall I think it a mere
matter of course that one little flaw in a pipe shall, in a second of
time, transform the orderly well-compacted seats of a goodly Church to
one unsightly mass of shapeless and disordered ruin[278]; and shall I
pretend to stand aghast at the strangeness of a similar overthrow of
this Earth's furniture at the mere fiat of the Most High?... Behold, "He
measureth the waters in the hollow of His Hand, and weigheth the
mountains in scales[279]." What if the Creator of the earth and the sea
shall bid them of a sudden change places? Think you that they would
hesitate to obey Him? Or what if He "calleth for the waters of the Sea,
and _poureth them out upon the face of the Earth_[280]?"--Then further,
if I believe, (as I do believe,) that when the Jews crucified the LORD
of Glory "there was darkness over all the land" from the sixth hour unto
the ninth[281];--nay, that when "Moses stretched forth his hand toward
Heaven, there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt," even
darkness which might be felt, for three whole days[282]:--more than
_that_; if I believe, (as I _do_ believe,) the solemn prediction of my
LORD, that at the consummation of all things, "The Sun shall be
darkened, and the Moon shall not give her light, and the Stars shall
fall from Heaven[283]:"--shall it move me to incredulity, if God tells
me, that six thousand years ago it was His Divine pleasure that the same
phenomenon should prevail for a season? Surely,--(I say to
myself,)--surely this is He "which removeth the mountains, and they know
not: which shaketh the Earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof
tremble. _Which commandeth the Sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up
the Stars[284]!_"
1. But it was now GOD'S pleasure to bring Beauty out of Chaos, and to
establish a fresh order of things upon the surface of our Earth. And, as
the first step thereto, "the SPIRIT of GOD moved upon the face of the
waters." The Hebrew phrase implies no less than the tremulous brooding
as of a bird,--causing the dreary waste to heave and swell with coming
life. "And GOD said, Let there be Light. And there was Light." "He spake
and it was done[285]." From Himself, who is "the true Light," (not from
the Sun, which,--like the rest of the orbs of Heaven,--is but a lamp of
His kindling);--from Himself, I say, a ray of Light went forth; and
_that_ is why He was pleased to praise it. Look through the chapter, and
you will find that it is the only one of His creatures of which it is
specially said that "GOD saw that it was good[286]." ... Thus, one
hemisphere was illumined,--whereby "GOD divided the light from the
darkness;" and when the Earth had completed a single revolution, there
had been a Day and there had been a Night,--so named by the Word of
GOD: "and the evening and the morning were the first Day[287]." ... Do
you see any impossibility so far? I, certainly, see none. It does not
seem to me absurd that "the Light of the world[288]," "dwelling in the
light which no man can approach unto[289]," should cause "the light to
shine out of darkness[290]." We shall perhaps come upon the absurdity by
and by. Let us hasten forward.
2. "And GOD said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,
and let it divide the waters from the waters." The Hebrew word (_an
expansion_), and the context, shew plainly enough what is meant. The
atmosphere was now created,--whereupon the watery particles either
subsided into sea, or rose aloft in the form of clouds. "And the evening
and the morning were the second Day,"--which is the only day of which it
is not said that GOD saw that it was good.
3. "And GOD said, Let the waters under the Heaven be gathered together
unto one place, and let the dry land appear." Then it was that these
continents were upheaved,--other than those which had been continents
before; and the sea sank into the cavities which had been ordained for
its reception. _Then_, "GOD saw that it was good." The sentence of
approval which had been withheld from the work of yesterday, because
that work, (namely, of dividing the waters from the waters,) was
incomplete,--is freely bestowed to-day. And it may have been to teach us
that no incomplete work is "good," in GOD'S sight.--Next, the Creator
called into being every extant form of vegetable life. So that, instead
of a world of waters, which was all that was to be seen yesterday,--not
only cliffs, and mountains, and bays,--but green hills, and fertile
valleys, and grassy meadows had come to view,--with lakes, and rivers,
and fountains, and falls of water. Again it is written, concerning
Earth's green furniture, "GOD saw that it was good." "And the evening
and the morning were the third Day."
4. "And GOD said, Let there be Lights in the firmament of the Heaven to
divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for
seasons, and for days, and for years." And so it was. Sun, moon, and
stars, came to view[291]; and this globe of ours, no longer illumined,
as, for three days, it had been, rejoiced in the sun's genial light by
day,--and by night in the splendours of the paler planet. And thus was
also gained an easy measure for marking time,--the succession of months
and years, as well as of days. "And GOD saw that it was good." "And the
evening and the morning were the fourth Day."
5. "And GOD said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving
creature that hath life." Thus the inhabitants of the sea and of the air
were called into existence; and it was from the sea that GOD seems to
have commanded that they should derive their being. He saw that it was
good, and He blessed the fish and the winged fowl; "and the evening and
the morning were the fifth Day."