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ART. II.-FAITH; ITS PLACE AND PREROGATIVE.
THE WRITTEN AND THE LIVING WORD.

By R. B. WELCH, D.D., LL.D., Prof in Union College, Schenectady, N. Y.

OUR course of discussion has led us, first, into "The Field of the Philosophic and Finite ;"* secondly, into "The Field of the Religious and Infinite."+

In the former we have shown, both by indirect and direct arguments, that philosophic faith (intellectual belief) in things unseen, for example, in substance and the relation between substance and quality, in cause and the relation between cause and effect, etc., has valid ground.

In the latter we have shown, by cumulative and conclusive reasons, the validity of faith in God.

This ground already gained and securely held, we are prepared finally to consider the Revelation of God in the written and in the living Word--in the Scriptures and in Christ. Is Christian faith valid?

We have an indefeasible right, henceforth, to assume the premise that God is. Will he reveal himself? An antecedent probability is sufficient for our argument here. But more than this has been shown in the preceding discussion. vealed himself in Creation and in Providence.

God has re

Thus we have found him, not as a logical necessity elaborated by a dialectical process, but as a divine reality. God the Father, Almighty, maker of heaven and earth-giving infallible proofs of his presence and power in making, upholding and governing the universe. A book of high antiquity and one which will challenge our special attention in this closing discussion precisely expresses our thought: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." Rom. i. 20.

"He left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Acts xiv. 17.

* See American Pres. Rev. Oct. 1871.

See Pres. Quarterly and Princeton Review, October, 1872.

Now in the sobriety of prose it speaks, and now in the rapture of poetry. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” Ps. xix. 1, 2 God has thus revealed himself; he may, then, reveal himself more fully. What shall decide? His own infinite wisdom and will. The revelation hitherto made has occurred in the ou goings of Creation and Providence, and would have been made had only material things been created and upheld, with no finite minds to recognize God's handy work, and wonder and adore. But, now that finite minds appear, will not God reveal himself in these higher creations, and to these spiritual creatures, and through them to others? There is abundant a priori ground for expecting this. Indeed, we can scarcely conceive of Divine action without Divine revelation. If God has, by the very process of his action, revealed himself in the lower, the physical creation, will he not, by a nobler process of divine action, reveal himself in the higher, the spiritual creation? Mind alone can originate mind. Will not God appear more manifest, and be better understood, by the living soul which he hath made?

This book of singular wisdom, as well as antiquity, precisely states, perhaps suggests, my thought: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. . . . In the image of God created he him." Gen. i. 26, 27. Man stands forth in this lower world as the representative of intelligence and volition and morality, holding dominion subordinate, but representative of God's supreme dominion. Gen. i. 28.

Thus, in brief, does God reveal himself in the human soul; will he not also reveal himself to the human soul? For this the soul would long intensely, even hunger and thirst for it. Without this there would be the ceaseless cry of the human to the divine.

Until the creation of man neither could this revelation be, nor could there be the demand for it. Will the divine Father turn away in disregard of his own spiritual children? Will not God avenge (satisfy) his own elect, his chosen ones among all the creatures on earth, that with filial yearning day and night cry unto him? He will, our better Reason replies. He will, saith the Saviour. Luke xviii. 8.

Such revelation, if it occur at all, would seem to be especially desirable and fitting in the earlier history of man until not only the eternal power and Godhead should be known, but until God be known in his moral character-his holiness, his justice, his benevolence, his spiritual care and kindness toward his spiritual creatures; in a word, in his divine Fatherhood, holy, just, kind, yearning toward his spiritual children.

Has such a revelation been made, a revelation corresponding to these very wants of the human soul? There is a book claiming to be a record of such revealings. The book is not a modern fabrication as an after-thought to satisfy a logical necessity or to embody a cunningly devised theory. The book is genuine ; this cannot be successfully disputed. It is of the highest antiquity; this all admit. The theory is in the book itself, else it had not been thought of. The book has been wondrously preserved amid the shock and change of the ages. A people, specially selected for this purpose, marvellously protected from extermination, though often conquered—from absorption though every where scattered, have carried with them everywhere, and everywhere guarded this book as a sacred treasure. Early in this record, be it observed, the Divine Unity is revealed, the Divine Unity, as the basis of all true religion, as contradistinguished from polytheism, which is the parent of idolatry with its endless brood of follies and sins.

This doctrine of the Divine unity which Socrates hailed as a great light shining from the page of Anaxagoras, (cf. Georg. 2, 490) this doctrine had been divinely revealed a thousand years before the time of Anaxagoras.

Beyond this fundamental doctrine, thus, and thus early revealed, the most progressive theology of modern times has realized its inability to make the least advance. This fundamental doctrine together with the religious and moral principles it involves was not only revealed as divine truth, but promulgated as a divine law, enforced by divine sanctions, and enjoined upon men as the universal and perpetual law, thus indicating its importance in the divine estimate. Has any proficiency in morals or in theology superseded these commands of Jehovah or improved upon God's moral law? This book has been multiplied and circulated as has no other in time's whole history; translated into unnumbered tongues; made accessible to the multitude,

the companion and guide both of the illiterate and the learned. Upon the best and wisest men the world has ever known, it has made the impression of a revelation from God-upon the best and wisest nations of all time it has made this impression.

If God's power and wisdom could be seen in the order and harmony of the universe, could not his moral character be expressed in the Scriptures? According to the written record, God now manifests himself to men in fuller revelations, in spiritual communings with patriarchs and priests; he speaks unto the fathers by the prophets; he proclaims a moral law for his moral subjects to guide and guard them-as he has already ordained physical laws for material things; he establishes a theocracy over a nation showing, at once and to all men, what shall be the theocracy for mind and how it shall differ from the theocracy for matter. Sin is prohibited by the moral law, and doomed to penalty. Sacrificial propitiation is introduced. Redemption is typified and prophesied. The Church is organized; its future foretold; a Messiah predicted by whom in the last days God should more fully reveal himself unto men.

Such, in brief, is an outline of revelation in the earlier Scriptures of the Old Testament. It is addressed to man as a rational spirit. Is it Divine? Is it a revelation of God and from God? 'How shall we as rational, spiritual beings decide? The conclusive answer must be given by the revelation itself, involved in the very revealing. Are these evidences of the supernatural in the record? To the law and the testimony the candid inquirer will turn first, and most earnestly, and without prejudice. In nature we decided in the same way. We met with evidences of the supernatural,—order, harmony, adaptation,-which matter could neither originate nor regulate; and, thus we found God as appearing in the things he had made.

So, here, are the evidences of God's appearing in the things revealed. We have already referred to the revelation of moral attributes and a moral law supreme in authority, supreme in excellence. We now specify some attendant characteristics befitting these moral attributes and this moral law:

There is majesty unrivalled; majesty more exalted even than the material universe reveals; majesty that subjects all nature to the omnipotence of God,—and this with no labor of expression, but with a repose and ease which become, and become only, the

grandeur of a God and the original right of eternal possession. "He spake and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. He said, Let there be light, and there was light. By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made. He gave to the sea his decree. He weigheth the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance. He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. He bringeth out the (heavenly) host by number; because he is strong in power; not one faileth." The same supreme majesty pervades the attendant miracles recorded. There is also purity that is perfect; so that highest angels veil their faces in its ineffable light, and the elect prophet declares himself undone, because, a man of unclean lips, his eyes had seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. Isa. vi. 5.

There is marvellous consistency in the spiritual purpose and prophecy and precept and providence revealed, all of which centre in one great Messianic fact,-a purpose and prophecy and precept and providence which no human ingenuity could have devised or regulated, a fact which no human wisdom could have furnished or foreseen, toward which history was made steadily to advance, which in the fulness of time became complete, appearing then, at once, as the key to all history—the interpretation of all time, the past and the future; a consistency marvellous not alone in theory, but no less marvellous practically, providing salvation for sinners, one Saviour for all mankind; announcing the brotherhood of man, whose nature a divine being should take upon himself that he might reach and rescue the lost. Attending the divine redemption is a promised ideal of perfect excellence, rising up amid but above all humanity, inviting and helping to a higher even a holy life, reminding the soul of its infinite value, promising a better future even an heavenly, and pointing to a progress illimitable, even "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

In all this revealing of purpose, and prophecy, and precept, and providence, and propitiation, the supernatural everywhere appears. The promised Messiah is supernatural, God is incarnate, man divine; to be made sin for us, yet holy, harmless, undefiled; dying for sin, yet separate from sinners. The predicted redemption is supernatural, saving the people not in but from their sins, thus redeeming humanity. The agency foretold is supernatural. It is the Holy Ghost which should

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