Inspiration and Interpretation Part 18

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 G.o.d? 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 G.o.d? 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,--(_G.o.d_ 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 cla.s.sical 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 G.o.d," 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 G.o.d 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 G.o.d'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 enn.o.bled, 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d[270]:"--that the dark season of Adversity may find his soul anch.o.r.ed 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] t?? s??a?????,--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. x.x.xvii. 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. x.x.xv. 18, 19.

[266] Comp. Gen. xlix. 5-7, with Exod. x.x.xii. 26-28, (alluded to in Deut. x.x.xiii. 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 G.o.d._

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 G.o.d's faithful ones. But with them, the HOLY GHOST proposes to a.s.sociate _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 a.s.signed to _us_,--that portion of the inspired Narrative wherein _you and I_ are supposed to shew a degree of undoubting faith which ent.i.tles 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 G.o.d." An honourable place, and an honourable function truly!

I would to G.o.d 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 a.s.signed us.

I read then, that "In the beginning, G.o.d 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 G.o.d the FATHER, G.o.d the SON, G.o.d the HOLY GHOST,--_three_ Persons, coeternal and coequal,--_one_ G.o.d,--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 princ.i.p.alities, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 s.p.a.ce, 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 grat.i.tude, wonder, and delight, while he reports to me his guesses: (for the really great man is eager to a.s.sure 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 G.o.d'S Name, be silent; for now it is G.o.d 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 a.s.sume his vacant chair.

_This_ time, there shall at least be no guess-work. G.o.d is now the Speaker: and what G.o.d 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 pa.s.s that from a world of seas and continents, it had become a watery ball, wrapped about with superinc.u.mbent 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 ma.s.s 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 "G.o.d saw that it was good[286]." ... Thus, one hemisphere was illumined,--whereby "G.o.d 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 G.o.d: "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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d saw that it was good.

3. "And G.o.d 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_, "G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 gra.s.sy meadows had come to view,--with lakes, and rivers, and fountains, and falls of water. Again it is written, concerning Earth's green furniture, "G.o.d saw that it was good." "And the evening and the morning were the third Day."