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T' / -- r - '^4^-". -*.V-V. ...?^!-;i- ..■■5- I t!-' 1^ 'v n,^ 1/ 1 VI POINTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN Revelation and Natural Science. BY SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON, C.M.G., LL.D., F.E.S., rresident-Elevt of the British Assovialion for 1886; Principal of M^ Gill University, Montreal. AVTHOR OF « The Chain of Life in Geological Time;' ' The Story of the Earth and Man;' 'Egypt and Syria: their Physical Features in relation to Bible Teaching;' 'Fossil Men;' etc., etc. •1 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY: 56, Paternoster Row: 65, St. Paul's Churchyard; and 764. PlCCAPIt.I.Y. y-.A llrgumi^nt of thiD Tract, There are many important points in which the history and doctrine of the Word of God come into close contact with the results of modern scientific investigation, or with theories and deductions based on these results; and it often happens, that, owing to want of acquaintance with one or other, well-meaning persons are led to believe that the word and the works of God are at variance with each other. It is the purpose of the present Tract to illustrate the harmony of the two records at their points of contact, and for this purpose the following topics have been selected : (i) The General Nature of Creation; (2) The Origin and Early History of Man ; (3) The Edenic State ; (4) Body, Soul, and Spirit; (5) The Fall of Man; (6) The Ante- diluvians ; (7) Primitive Social Institutions ; (8) The Origin of Religion ; (9) Natural Theology. It is shown that on all of these subjects there is an essential unity in the teach- ing of Natural Science and that of Revelation, k. \i i t POINTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN REVELATION AND NATURAL SCIENCE. V ■ ^ i HE trite saying that the Bible was not intended to teach science, is one of those superficial truths often used to cover much ignorance. It is no doubt true that in so far as science deals with the proximate causes of natural processes and classifies the objects of nature under general theoretical ideas, it has no connection with the Bible, since the latter refers all to the primary creative cause, and indulges in no theories and makes no formal classifications. On the other hard, no book, not directly relating to physical science, has more frequent reference to natural facts and laws, and commits itself more definitely to certain doctrines as to the origin of the world and things therein. Farther, in so far as science and philosophy deal with origins and historical order, they enter on a field which revela- tion has to some extent occupied, and this more The Bible refers all to a primary creative cause. Frequent reference to natural facts and laws in the Bible. The Bible deals with origins and historical order. \i ^V ■^ppjP!«p»pB^ri» Points of Contact hetiveen Unwar- rantable use of scientiflo and philo- sophical hypotheses. especially in connection with the origin and early histo-ry of man himself. It is also true that when some interpreters of the Bible have ventured to adopt certain scientific and philosophical hypotheses and to connect them with revelation, or when they have undertaken to combat these as opposed to the Word of God, they have often quite unwarrant- ably established alliances and antagonisms between interpretations more or less accurate of the two records of God in His Word and in His works. On the other hand, many speculations connected with science have been pressed into the service of Atheism and other forms of infidelity. It is the purpose of the present Tract to indicate some of the legitimate points of contact between science and revelation, more especially in relation to ques- tions connected with the history of man as studied by the sciences of geology and archaeology. The statement of the Bible with refer- ence to creation. General Notions of Creation. We may first examine the Biblical doctrine of creation in its relation to scientific fact and theory. The Bible opens with an explicit statement on this subject, which forms the basis of the whole of its subsequent teaching: **In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." It offers no proof of this statement, but places it before us as an initial dogma, to be accepted by faith without Revelation and Natural Science. 5 A beginning. cause. any direct evidence. Has science anything to say as to our acceptance or rejection of this primary dogma ? It can offer no proof or disproof, but can merely inquire if the statement is one ad- mitting: of any rational alternative. It is, however, Constituent " •' parts of the a complex statement, and may be divided into its statement. constituent parts. First, as to a " beginning : " — Can Science regard the duration of the heavens and the earth as infinite P It cannot, for when we interrogate it as to the particular things known to constitute the earth and the heavens, it appears that we can trace all of them to beginnings at more or less definite points of past time. Then as to a producing cause : — If we a producing cannot say that all things have existed from eternity, how did they begin ? Science forbids us to say that it was by mere chance, for order and system cannot come of chance, nor has chance the power to initiate anything ; and it would be the height of absurdity for investigators occupied solely with the study of causes and effects to admit that the universe is causeless. Nor will science allow us to say that things made them- selves, or are their own causes. The only alterna- tive is that they were made by some external power, and any power which could contrive and execute all the complex machinery of the heavens and the earth, or could initiate anything capable of developing such machinery, must be practically The only alternative. 6 Points of Contact between The f'jundation of a rationiil and scientific Theism laid in the Bible. infinite, arid must possess those attributes of super- human power and superhuman wisdom which belong only to God. Thus the first sentence of the Bible lays the foundation of a rational and scientific Theism, by the statement of a proposition which we must accept, because we cannot rationally substitute anything for it. If the Bible had opened with the statement, " The heavens and the earth had no beginning ; *' or, " In the beginning the heavens and the earth were self-created,'* or, " "We cannot know by what power the heavens and the earth were created," the man of science, on reading these words, might indeed have closed the book, saying, it is useless to read any further. At a time when Agnosticism and Materialism claim that they are results of science, it is well for us to note that neither can supply any rational formula to replace this funda- mental doctrine of revelation. But the opening statement of the Bible implies a personal creative will as the origin of all things. Now it so happens that all our own actions and motions, the only things of whose ultimate cause we have any direct knowledge, proceed from this kind of force, this energy of energies, which we call will or volition. Whatever machinery we may discover in muscle or nerve or brain-cell, we come at last to the primary motive-power of will, and we can no more divest ourselves of the belief The Bible statement implies a personal ereativo will as the origin of all things. *l Revelation amd Natural Science. The formula •• God created " embraces all that science can know, in the last resort, of the ori^n of the universe. of this than of that of our own existence and per- sonality, So in nature, we can see no ultimate cause for anything except an Almighty creative will, and this implies a Person to whom it belongs. Tims the formula "God created" embraces all that science can in the last resort know of the origin of the universe. It is true that science can know this only by analogy, the analogy of the microcosm of man with the macrocosm of the universe, but beyond this analogy it has nothing to say, It is impossible, with reference to this ultimate result of the study of forces, to improve on the words of Sir "WiUiam Grove, the author of the work which first opened up to the English-speaking world the great doctrine of the correlation of forces. After showing that neither matter nor force can be created or annihilated by us, and that an essential cause is unattainable by physical science, he con- cludes that " Causation is the will, creation the act, of God." If we pass from the primary act of creation to consider its order and method, science and sound philosophy may still find themselves in harmony with revelation. The unity of nature as a single harmonious system, regulated in all its parts by definite laws, follows of necessity from our attri- buting it to the will of one almighty Author, and this grand monotheistic generalization not only dispels the mists and darkness of many Sir William Grove's statement of the truth. The unity of nature follows from attributing it to one almighty •will. ip 8 Points of Contact between baneful superstitions, but opens the way for science to enter on the conquest of the material universe, in like manner, the order of that vision of the creative work with which the Bible begins its history, is so closely in harmony with the results worked out by geological investigations, that the correspondences have excited marked attention, and have been justly regarded as establishing the common authorship of nature and revelatioUa If again we look at the details of the narrative of creation, we shall be equally struck with the manner in which the Bible includes in a few simple words all the leading causes and conditions which science has been able to discover. For example, the production of the first animals is announced in the words, " God said let the waters swarm with The order of tho creative work given in the Bible in harmony with tho results of geological Investiga- tions. The pcT7er8 and a^jencies concerned in the intro- duction of animal life. s warmers." ^ A naturalist here recognises not only the origination of animal life in the waters, but also three powers or agencies concerned in its in- troduction, or rather perhaps one power and two conditions of its exercise. First, there are the Divine power and volition contained in the words " God said ; " secondly, there is a medium, or environment previously prepared and essential to the production of the result— "the waters ;" thirdly, there is the element of vital continuity in the term "swarmers/' — that reproductive element 1 ' This is perhaps the best word to express the meaning of the word Sheretzim — rapidly multiplying creatures. Revelation and Natural Science. 9 \ wliich hands down the organism with all its powers from generation to generation, from age to age. If we ask modern science what are the agencies and conditions implied in the introduction oii the earth of the multitudinous forms of humble marine life which we find in the oldest rocks, its answer in Jivln*by°""^ in no essential respect different. It says that these nT?csy"t creatures, endowed with powers of reproduction ^^^' and possibly of variation, increased and multiplied and filled the waters with varied forms of life ; in other words, they were " sheretzim," or swarmers. It further says that their oceanic environment supplied the external conditions of their introduc- tion and continuance, and all the varieties of station suited to their various forms — " the waters brought them forth.*' Lastly, since biology cannot show any secondary cause adequate to produce out of dead matter even the humblest of these swarmers, it must here either confess its ignorance, and say that it knows nothing of such " abiogenesis," ^ or must fall back on the old formula, "God said." Let it be further observed that creation or making, aS,a"y "° as thus stated in the Bible, is not of the nature of andYnS"" 1, 1 J. Ti t •, • fereiicc with what some are pleased to call an arbitrary in- the courso tervention and miraculous interference with the course of nature. It leaves quite open the inquiry ' It is sometimes urged against the idea of creation that it implies ahiogenesis or production without previous life. But there must have been abiogenesia at some time, and probably more than once, else no living thing could have existed. of natur; 10 Points of Contact between The creative work part of Divine lav. The varying formulBB used in the Bible may imply vary- ing modes of intro- ducing different living beings. how mucli of the vital phenomena which we perceive may be due to the absolute creative fiat, to the prepared environment, or to the reproductive power. The creative work is itself a part of Divine law, and this in a threefold aspect : First, the law of the Divine will or purpose ; second, the laws impressed on the medium or environment ; third, the laws of the organism itself, and of its continuous multiplication, either with or without modifications. While the Bible does not commit itself to any hypotheses of evolution, it does not exclude these up to a certain point. It even intimates in the varying formulae " created," " made," " formed," caused to ** bring forth,'* that different kinds of living beings may have been introduced in different ways, only one of which is entitled to be designated by the higher term " create." The scientific evolutionist may, for instance, ask whether different species, when introduced, may not under the influence of environment change in process of time, or by sudden transitions, into new forms not distinguishable by us from original products of creation. Such questions may never admit of any certain or final solution, but they resemble in their nature those of the chemist, when he asks how many of the kinds of matter are compounds produced by the union of simple substances, and how many are elexrentary and can be no further H Revelation and Natural Science. 11 decomposed. If the chemist has to recognize say sixty substances as elementary, these are to him manufactured articles, products of creation. If he should be able to reduce them to a much smaller number, even ultimately to only one kind of matter, he would not by such discovery be enabled to dispense with a Creator, but would only have penetrated a little more deeply into His methods of procedure. The biological question is no doubt much more intricate and difficult than the chemical, but is of the same general character. On the principl(!fe of Biblical theism it may be stated in this way: God has created all living beings ac- cording to their kinds or species, but with capacities for variation and change under the laws which He has enacted for them. Can wo ascertain any of the methods of such creation or making, and can we know how many of the forms which we have been in the habit of naming as distinct species coincide with His creative species, and how many are really results of their variations under the laws of reproduction and heredity, and the influence of their surroundings ? There can be no doubt that these questions lie at present on the very borders of legitimate science, and that many of the answers which are given to them are rather subjective than based on objective reality. The evidence of geology is altogether in favour of alternate periods of introduction of new forms The biological question stated on the prin- ciples of Biblical Theism. The evidence of geology in favour of alternate periods of introduction of new forma. 12 Points of Contact between over groat areas in vast numbers, and of periods characterised rather by extinction than renewal, and this in the case of both animals and plants.^ If this were once distinctly understood, there would be less divergence between theistic evolution and tlio Biblical record of creation than that which now appears. It cannot however be too strongly insisted on, that the divergent views of the several schools of evolutionists are not definite results dWergent ^^ Scientific investigation, but to a large extent eeveraf' *^^ mcro spcculations or inferences from facts as yet schools of • J" il 1 !_ • 1 Ml J 1 J? i1 • evolutionists impcriectly ':nown, which will depend Revelation and Natural Science. ir I } similar and apparently fatal objections apply to the skull and implements alleged to have been found in Pliocene gravels in California. Dawkins further informs as that in the Italian Pliocene bods supposed to hold remains of man, of twenty- one mammalia whose bones occur, all are extinct species except possibly one, a hippopotamus. This of course renders very unlikely in a geological point of view the occurrence of human remains in these beds, and up to this time no such discovery has been certainly established. In the Pleistocene deposits of Europe — and this ^^^ Pieisto- A *^ cene deposits applies also to America — we for the first time find °' Europe. a predominance of recent species of land anii lals. Here, therefore, we may look with some hope for remains of man and his works, and here, accordingly, in the later Pleistocene or early Modern, they are actually found. When we speak, however, of Pleistocene man, there arise questions as to the classification of the deposits, which it seems to the writer that some of the leading geologists have not answered in accordance with geological facts, and a misunderstanding as to which may lead to serious error. The geological formations of the Pleistocene period ^^°^j^*^ are, for the most part, superficial gravels and clays, and deposits in caverns, and it is somewhat ^^"°'^' difficult, in many cases, to ascertain their relative ages. We are aided in this, however, by certain of the Pleistocene 18 Points of Contact between t The continental poriod of the Pleisto- cene, The glacial period. Second con- tinental period. ascertained facts as to elevations and sub- mergences of the land, and as to climatal con- ditions in the northern hemisphere. There was at the beginning of the Pleistocene what has been called a continental period, when the land of the northern hemisphere was more extensive than now, and there seems to have been a mild climate. This was succeeded by a period of cold, the so-called glacial period, in which the land became diminished in extent by submergence, and the climate became so severe that snow and ice pre- vailed over nearly all the temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. After this there was a second continental period of mild climate, succeeded by another submergence of limited duration, and then the continents acquired the forms which they still retain. These chrono- logical points, important in reference to the corre- lation of geology and the Bible, are represented in the following table: — The Pleistocene and Modern in the Northern Semi- sphere icith reference to the Introduction of Man. {In descending order from newer to older.) Modern, or Period of Man and Modern Mammals : — decent Age. — Continents at or nearly at their present levels. — Existing races of men and living species of mammals in Europe. Post-glacial or Second Continental Age.—lasidL more extensive than now. Climate temperate. Man represented in Europe and "Western Asia by races now extinct, and contemporary with the mtitumoth and other great mammals also extinct, Chrono- logical table. Jieuelation and Natural Scievce. 19 but also with modern specioa. This was terminated by a submergence fatal to men and many raammalia, and covering the land with gravel and silt. Pleistocene, or Period of extinct and a few recent Mammals : — Later Pleistocene, or Glacial Age. — Cold cliraato and great sub- mergence of land in northern hemisphere. Early rkintocenc or First Continental Af/e. — Land very extensive, and inhabited by many mammals now extinct. Climate temperate. It will be observed, with reference to the above Earliest indications table, that the earliest certain indications of man »' ™*"- belong to the modern period alone, and that this modern or human period is divided into two portions by a great submergence, in which certain races of men and many mammals perished, and after which the geographical conditions of the northern hemisphere were considerably modified. I have not used the terms historic and pre-historic in the above table, because, while in most countries the period of written history covers (»nly a locally variable part of the recent age, in other countries it extends back into the post-glacial, which thus becomes the antediluvian period. I have, how- ever, elsewhere proposed the name Palseocosmic for the men of the post-glacial age, and Neocosmic for the men of the recent ages, and shall use these terms rather than PaloBolithic and Neolithic, since these last refer to forms of implements which, though locally of great antiquity, exist in some places up to the present day. The men of 20 Volnts of Contact between the post-glacial ago have also been called men of the gravels and caves, and the men of the mammoth and reindeer ages, and they resemble in physical features the modern Turanian races of Northern Europe, Asia, and America. Wo might, with reference to the Bible history, call them ante- diluvian men, but the evidence of this will appear in the sequel. In the meantime we may ohserve that the testimony of the earth coincides with that of the Bible, in representing man as the latest member of the animal kingdom, the last-born of animals. JesUmony of "^^^^ TRost important point with reference to any andS^ parallelism between the geological history of man thoSJ ° as tabulated above, and the Biblical record, is to coiucidein . iiiii t • i- ^ rei resenting asccrtam what aosoluto value m time can be m;in as the th?"an[ma*iJ ^^sigucd to the sevcral ages known as post-glacial and recent, or, in other words, how long ago it is since the glacial period terminated. So vague are the data for any calculation of this kind, that the estimates of the date of the glacial period have ranged from hundreds of thousands of years down tendency to a Very few thousands. The tendency of vestigations rocont investigations has been to discard the to bring the close of higher cstimatcs and to bring the close of the the glajial o o trour o'i^ glacial age constantly nearer to the present ^™*'" time. The absence of any change in inver- tebrate life, the small amount of erosion that has occurred since the glacial age, and many lievelation ami JSatiiral Science. 21 olhcr considerations, have been tending in this direction. I may refer to only one criterion, the importance and avaihibility of which were h)ng ago recognised by Sir Charles Lyell. This is the recession of the Falls of Niagara, from the shores of Lake Ontario to their present position. Thiis recession is effected by the cutting back of beds of limestone and shale; and the resulting gorge, about seven miles in length, cuts through the deposits of the glacial period, proving, what on other grounds would be obvious, that the cutting began immediately after the glacial age. When Lyell estimated the time required, the rate of recession of the Fall waf. .supposed to be one foot per annum. It is found, however, by the results of actual surveys 1 to be three feet annually. Ly ell's estimate of the time required was thirty thousand years. The new measurements reduced this to one third, and further abatements are required by the possibly easier cutting of the first part of the gorge, by the fact that a portion of it of uncertain amount above the "whirlpool," had been cut at an earlier period and needed only to be cleared out, and by the probability that, in the early post-glacial period there was more water in the Niagara river than at present. We thus have physical proof that the close of the glacial sub- mergence and re-elevation of the American land ' Report of the Geodetic Surveys of the State of New York. The n-ci'snion of the Falls of *\iay;ara. Lyell' 8 eatimatc of the timu required. The new moasure- meuts. The close of the glacial Bub- mergence and re- clevation of American land. .. 22 Polnfs of Contact hetiveen The ordiu- urily recoiyed chronology of the post- diluvian period all that geo- logy Clin allow for the existence of man in the temper- ate regions of the northern hemisphere. could not have occurred more tliau about eight thousand years ago. It follows that the ordinarily received chronology of about four or five thousand years for the post-diluvian period, and two thousand or a little more for the antediluvian period, will ex- haust all the time that geology can allow for the possible existence of man, at least in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Facts recently ascertained with reference to the delta of the Nile/ lead to similar conclusions for the oldest seats of human civilisation. Whatever demands may be made by philologists, historians, or antiquaries, or by the necessities of theories of evolution, must now be kept within the limits of facts such as those above referred to, and which are furnished to us by physical geography and geology. These facts must also lead to conniderable revision of the ex- cessive uniformitariaiiism of one school of English geologists, and to explanations more reasonable than some which have been current as to the deposition and age of superficial gravels and similar deposits. "When all these points have been adjusted, it will be found that there is a sufficiently precise accordance between science and Bible history with regard to the antiquity and early history of man. The accord- ance between science and Bible history with regard to the antiquity and early history of man. "Egypt and Syria," in Bypaths of Bible Kvoxaedge. Revelation and Natural Science. 23 The Edenic State of Man. Perhaps no portion of Bible history seems to have been more thoroughly set at naught by modern scientific speculations than the golden age of Eden, so dear to the imagination of the poet, so interwoven with the past condition and future prospects of man, as held by all religions. It can easily be shown, however, that there are important points of agreement between the simple story of Eden, as we have it in Genesis, and scientific probabilities as to the origin of man. Let us glance at these probability' os. We have already seen that man is a recent animal in our world. Now, under any hypothesis as to his origin, the external conditions must have been suitable to him before he could appear. If, to use the terms of evolutionary philosophy, he was a product of the environment acting on the nature of a lower animal, this would be all the more necessary. Further, it would be altogether improbable that these favourable conditions should prevail at one time over the whole world. They must, in the nature of things, have prevailed only iU some particular region, the special " centre of creation " of man ; and this, whether its conditions arose by chance, as certain theorists would have The Biblo story of Eden and scientific probabilities as to the origin of man. Favourable conditions for man's appearance necessary. 24 Points of Contact between Science not in3onBi8teiit with Scripture Btatcment US believe, or were divinely ordained, must have been to the first men the Eden where they could subsist safely when few, and whence they could extend themselves as they increased in numbers. There is, therefore, in science nothing inconsistent with the Scripture statement that God " prepared a place for man." Further, no one supposes that man appeared at first with weapons, armour, and arts full-blown. He must have commenced his career naked, destitute of weapons and clothing, and with only such capacities for obtaining food as his hands and feet could give him. For such a being it was absolutely necessary that the region of his debut should furnish him with suitable food, and should not task his resources as to shelter from cold or as to defence from wild animals. The statements in Genesis that it was a " garden," that is, a locality separated in some way from the uninhabited wilderness around ; that it was stocked with trees pleasant to the sight and good for food ; and that man was placed therein naked and destitute of all the arts of life, to subsist on the spontaneous fruits of the earth, are thus perfectly in accordance with the requirements of the case. If we inquire as to the portion of the world in which man at first appeared, the theory of evolu- tion advises us to look to those regions of the world in which the lowest types of men now exist The account in Genesis in accord- ance Mith the rcquiie- mcnts of the case. Revelation and Natural Science. 25 or recently existed, as Tasmania, Tierra del Fucgo, and the Cape of Good Hope, or it assures us that those tropical jungles which now afford congenial haunts for anthropoid apes, but are most unsuitable for the higher races of men, are the regions most likely to have witnessed the origin of man. But this is manifestly absurd, since, in the case of any species, we should expect that it would originate where the conditions are most favourable to the existence of that species, and not in those regions where, as shown by the result, it can scarcely exist when introduced. We should look for the centre whence men have spread, to those regions in which they can most easily live, and in which they have most multiplied and prospered. In historical times these indications, and also those of tradition, archaeology, and affiliation of languages and races, point to Western Asia as the cradle of man. Even Haeckel in his History of Creation, though it is convenient, in connection with his theoretical views, to assume for the origin of man a continent of "Lemuria" now submerged under the Indian Ocean, traces all his lines of affiliation back to the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, in the neighbourhood of the districts to which the Bible history restricts the site of Eden. Wallace has shown that con- siderations of physical geography render it in the highest degree improbable that any such continent in the Indian Ocean ever existed, so that Haeckel's The sugges- tions uf the theory of evolution as the locality of man's appcuranco absurd. All indi- cations point to Western Asia as the cradle of man. 26 Points of Contact between map of the afi&liation of man actually accords with the statements of the Pentateuch, except in an extension of the lines of descent southward which science refuses to grant to him. SfSd Again, there is reason to believe that, at the faffof^man. ^^11 ot man, climatic, or other changes, expressed by the " cursing of the ground," occurred, and that in the Edenic system of things very large portions of the earth were to be or become suitable to the happy residence of man. Geology makes us familiar with the fact that such changes have occurred in the latter half of the Tertiary period, to such an extent that nt one time the plants of ' warm temperate regions could flourish in Spitz- bergen, and at another ice and snow covered the land far into temperate latitudes. Further, it would seem that the oldest men known to us by archaeological discc^veries, and who are probably equivalent to the later Antediluvians, lived at a time of somewhat rough and rigorous climate, — a time when the earth was cursed with cold and with physical vicissitudes, and which probably succeeded a more favourable period in which man appeared. No necessity Thus it would socm that we are not under any for giving •' of Eden*^''^ scientific necessity to give up the old and beautiful story of Eden, and that on the contrary, this better accords with the probabilities as to the origin of man than do those hypotheses of his derivation which have been avowedlv founded on scientific considerations. Revelation and Natural Science. Body, Soul, and Spirit. In Genesis man has the dignity of heing re- presented as a special creation, and this arises, not from anything in his merely bodily or physical constitution, but from that higher spiritual and rational nature said to have been conferred on him by the special inbreathing or inspiration of God. It is this which makes him the " shadow and like- ness " of God, and fits him for being the lord of the earth. It would be easy to show that this spirit as distinguished from mere animal life or soul, the " inspiration of the Almighty " as Job calls it, is constantly referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures, but it has its most clear development in the New Testament. Every thoughtful reader of the Gospels and the Epistles in the original must have noticed the peculiar use of the words "flesh," "soul oi life," and " spirit," ^ and of the adjectives derived from them, and must have perceived that these terms are used in constant and definite senses, though there are of course some exceptional and figurative employ- ments of them, and cases where one of the terms implies another not mentioned.^ He may have regarded this classification as expressing definite ideas of the writers as to a three-fold constitution * We have also, "Bodj' ( London, 1879. Revelation and Natural Science. 29 place us in relation with things witliout, and to impress, by means of muscular effort, our own power on the outer world. Further, there seems J^^ ^^^ ®' the best reason to believe that the mass of the S^Sn- •i«'T,-i ii'^T i' 1 sation and brain is directly connected with sensation and motion, motion, though there seem to be means of regula- tion and co-operation of sensations and actions in connection with the front and back portions of the cerebral hemispheres. There are facts indicating that the anterior portions of the hemispheres are the organs of a certain determining and combining property of the nature of animal intelligence, and that the posterior portions, in association with the sympathetic nerve, are connected with the affections and passions.^ Now all this belongs, in the first ^Jon^^to instance, to living nerve matter, and is possessed ™^^"n by man in common with animals. They, like us, animals. can perform reflex or automatic actions, altogether or partially involuntary. They, like us, can perceive and reflect, and have affections, passions, and appetites. Even in animals this supposes something beyond the mere organism, and which can combine and compare sensations and actions. This is the animal or psychical life, which, what- ever its essential nature, is something above and ' It is a very old and in some respects well-founded notion that the viscera are connected with the affections. We now know something of the relation of these to the sympathetic nerve system, and to the posterior portion of the cerebral lobes. Ferrier, Calderwood, and > very recently Bucke, have discussed these points. 30 Points of Contact between Man has other and higher powers. beyond mere nerve-power, though connected with it and acting by means of it. But in man there are other and higher powers, determining his conscious personality, his formation of general principles, his rational and moral volitions and self-restraints. These are manifestations of a higher spiritual nature, which constitutes in man the " image and shadow of God." Thus the physiologist may fairly claim, not for protoplasm as such, but for the living organism, all the merely reflex actions, as well as the appetites and desires, and much that belongs to perception and ordinary intelligence. These may be regarded as bodily and psychical in the narrow sense. But the higher regulating powers belong to a spiritual domain into which he cannot enter. It is interesting to observe here that even those who seem most desirous to limit the powers of man to mere properties of the living organism are prevented by their own consciousness, as well as by scientific facts, from fully committing themselves to this. Tyndall admits the existence of a " chasm *' "intellectually impassable" between physical facts and human consciousness. Huxley's human automaton is a "conscious automaton," and in some sense " endowed with free will," and he declines to admit that he will ever be proved to be only ** the cunningest of nature's clocks," Spencer and writers of his school have made similar ad- Tyndall's admission. Huxley. Spencer. >1 Revdat'ion and Nahival Science. 31 missions. There are, it is true, extreme writers Extreme .. ' ^ ^ ' ^ •• ^ Position o' like Buchner, with whom matter is the origin and liuchner. essence of all that exists, but their strong assertions of this, being destitute of proof, can scarcely bo held to be scientific. At present no doubt this whole subject is as a department of science somewhat crude and rudi- mentary, and it becomes us to speak with some reserve respecting it, but the drift of opinion is in the direction above indicated. It has become Recent dis- covonos us evident that the more recent discoveries as to the }u,*c^tion8 of functions of brain will not warrant the extreme win noT° views of materialists, while on the other hand they extreme views of serve to correct the doctrines of those who have materiaUsts. run into the opposite extreme of attaching no importance to the fleshly organism and its endow- ment of animal life. In like manner, these dis- They tend to define coveries are tending to establish definite boundaries t^? ^ound- O anes between the domain of mere automatism and that mere^auto- of rational will. In so far as these results are ratiorwi""*^ will. attained, we are drawn more closely to that middle ground occupied by the New Testament writers, and which, without requiring us to commit our- selves to any new hypotheses or technical dis- tinctions, gives a fair valuation to all the parts of the composite nature of man. The practical value JJ^^^ticai of this Bible philosophy is well known. It relegates the^Bibie to their proper place the merely somatic and ^ °*°^ ^' psychical elements of our nature, admits their 32 Points of Contact between value in that place, and condemns them only when they usurp the position of the higher determining powers. It seeks to place these last in their true relation to our fellow-men and to Sbio^phiio- ^o^» ^^^ ^0 provide for their regulation under sophyaims q^^,^ j^^ ^^^ ^-^^ guidance of His Spirit, with the object of securing a true and perfect equilibrium k'^how^s^^^"* of all the parts of our nature. It is thus enabled '°'^^^- to hold forth a prospect of eternal life, peace, and happiness to body, soul, and spirit, and to point out the meaning and the value of the conflicts which rage within the man in our present im- perfect state. This practical object, in connection with the mission of the Saviour, is what the New Testament has in view ; but in arriving at this, it has undoubtedly pointed to the solutions of the mysteries of our nature at which science and philosophy are beginning to arrive by their own paths ; just as, in another department, the Bible has shadowed forth the great principles and pro- cess of creation in advance of the discoveries of geology. The Fall of Man. The fall of man presents itself as a serious question in the study of nature, as well as in theology. When we consider man as an im- prover and innovator in the world, there is much Revelation and Natural Science. 33 1 I that suggests a contrariety between him and nature, and that instead of being the pupil of his environ- ment he becomes its tyrant. In this aspect man, and especially civilized man, appears as the enemy of wild nature, so that in those districts which he has most fully subdued, many animals and plants have been exterminated, and nearly the whole surface has come under his processes of culture, and has lost the characteristics which belonged to it in 'ts primitive state. Nay more, we find that by certain kinds of so-called culture, man tends to exhaust and impoverish the soil, so that it ceases to minister to his comfortable support, and becomes a desert. Vast regions of the earth are in this impoverished condition, and the westward march of exhaustion warns us that the time may come when, even in comparatively new countries like America, the land will cease to be able to sustain its in- habitants. "We know also from geology that the present state of the physical world is not the best possible for man ; and that its climatic conditions, in the middle Tertiary for example, have been much better than at present. Here there rises before us a spectre which science and philosophy often appear afraid to face, and which asks the dread question, What is the cause of the apparently abnormal character of the rela- tions of man and nature ? In attempting to solve this question, we must admit that the position of Contrarioty between man and nature. What geology teaches of the present state of the physical world. The cause of the abnormal relations of man and nature. 84 Points of Contact betiveen Freedom of will an element of instability. man even hero is not without natural analogies. The stronger preys upon the weaker, the lower form gives place to the higher, and in the progress of geological time old species have died out in favour of newer, and old forms of life have been extermi- nated by later successors. Man, as the newest and highest of all, has thus the natural right to subdue and rule the world. Yet there can bo little doubt that he uses this right unwisely and cruelly, and these terms themselves explain why he does so, because they imply freedom of will. Given a system of nature destitute of any being higher than the instinctive animal, and introduce into it a free rational agent, and you have at once an element of instability. So long as his free thought and purpose continue in accord with the arrange- ments of his environment, so long all will be harmonious ; but the very hypothesis of freedom implies that he can act otherwise, and so perfect is the equilibrium of existing things, that one wrong or unwise action may unsettle the nice balance, and set in operation trains of causes and effects producing continued and ever-increasing disturbance. This "fall of man" we know as a matter of observation and experience has ac'.aally occurred, and its only natural remedy would be to cast man back again into the circle of merely in- stinctive action, or to carry him forward, until by growth in wisdom and knowledge he should again Man has actually fallen. Y i Revelation and Natural Science. t i be fitted to be the lord of creation. The first method has been proved unsuccessful by the rebound of hu- manity against all the attempts to curb and suppress its liberty. The second has been the effort of all reformers and philanthropists since the world began ; but its imperfect success affords a strong ground for clinging to the Theistio view of nature, for vo^iftio"**©? soliciting the intervention of a Power higher than powcVto , . remedy tho man, and for hoping for a final restitution of all 'nn ncoued. things through the intervention of that Power. Mere materialistic evolution must ever and neces- sarily fail to account not only for the higher nature of man, as well as his disharmony wdth other parts of nature, and for his moral aberrations. These only come rationally into the system of nature under the supposition of a higher Intelli- gence, from whom man emanates, and whose nature he shares. But on this Theistic view we are introduced to theistio viev t ' 1 t> • ^ s> T'p p introduces a kind of unity and of evolution for a future age, us to. which is the great topic of revelation, and is not unknown to science and philosophy, in connection with the law of progress and development deducible from the geological history, in which an ascending series of lower animals culminates in man himself. Why should there not be a new and higher plane of existence to be attained to by humanity — a new geological period, so to speak, in which present anomalies shall be corrected, and the grand unity 36 Points of Contact between St. Paul's of the universe and its harmony with its Maker fully restored ? This is what Paul anticipates when he tells of a " pneumatical " or spiritual body to succeed to the present natural or " psychical *' one, or what Jesus Himself tells us when He says that in the future state we shall be like to the angels. Smceivabie. -A-Ugcls are not kuowu to us as objects of scientific observation, but such an order of beings is quite conceivable, and this not as supernatural, but as part of the order of nature. They are created beings like ourselves, subject to the laws of the (fututio'uand univcrsc, yet free and intelligent and liable to powers. error, in bodily constitution freed from many of the limitations imposed on us, mentally having higher range and grasp, and consequently masters natur? ^^ natural powers not under our control. In short, we have here pictured to us an order of beings forming a part of nature, yet in their powers as miraculous to us as we might be supposed to be to lower animals, could they think of such things. Jvlf/th"''^^ This idea of angels bridges over the otherwise im- humanity passablo gulf between humanity and deity, and I illustrates a higher plane than that of man in his present state, but attainable in the future. Dim perceptions of this would seem to constitute the substratum of the ideas of the so-called polythoistic Christianity religions. Christianity itself is in this aspect not unu^ *oV^^ ^^ much a revelation of the supernatural as the nature. highest bond of the great unity of nature. It Revelation and Natural Science. 37 reveals to us the perfect M^n, who is also one with what it God, and the mission of this divine man to restore "»• the harmonies of God and humanity, and conse- quently also of man with his natural environment 'it in this world, and with his spiritual environment in the higher world of the future. If it is true that nature now groans because of man's depravity, and that man himself shares in the evils of this disharmony with nature around him, it is clear that if man could he restored to his true place in attof*''^" nature he would he restored to happiness and to iiSTeff^ci harmony with God ; and if, on the other hand, he can he restored to harmony mth God, he will then be restored also to harmony with his natural en- vironment, and so to life, and happiness, and immortality. It is here that the old story of Eden, and the teaching of Christ, and the prophecy of the 5^ew Jerusalem strike the same note which all material nature gives forth, when we interrogate it respecting its relations to man. The profound JJ'h^oJ"" manner in which these truths appear in the teaching "Ss'" , of Christ has perhaps not been appreciated as it SStiy*"' ■^ should, because we have not sought in that teaching ^^^"^^^'^ the philosophy of nature which it contains. "When ^ He points to the common weeds of the fields, and asks us to consider the garments more gorgeous than those of kings in which God has clothed them, and when He says of these same wild flowers, so daintily made by the supreme Artificer, that to-day vj 38 Points of Contact between they are, and to-morrow are cast into the oven, He gives us not merely a lesson of faith, but a deep insight into that want of unison which, centering in humanity, reaches all the way f):om the wild flower to the God who made it, and requires for its rectification nothing less than the breathing of that Divine Spirit which first evoked order and life out of primaeval chaos. When He points out to us the growth of these flowers without any labour of their own. He in like manner opens up one of the most profound analogies between the growth of the humblest living thing and that of the new spiritual nature which may be planted in man by that same Divine Spirit. The Noachian deluge a fact of ancient Assyrian history. Antediluvians. The deluge of Noah has ceased to be a matter solely theological or dependent on the veracity of Genesis. It has now become a fact oj: ancient Assyrian history, a tradition preserved by many and various races, a pluvial or diluvial age, or time of subsidence, intervening between the oldest race of men known to geology and modem times. We are at least entitled, conjecturally, to identify these things, and through means of these identifications to arrive at some definite conceptions of the con- dition and character of the earliest men, whether we call them the Antediluviaas of the Bible, or the PalsBocosmic or PaleBolithic men of geology. «k t Revelation and Natural Science, 39 Of Expulsion from £dcn, Aryan traditions. Semitic traditions. The Book of Genesis traces man back to Eden, the characteristics of which we have already con- sidered, and which is placed by that old record, as by the Assyrian genesis, in the Euphratean valley, whether in its upper table-lands or in its delta. From this Eden man was expelled, the old Aryan traditions say by physical deterioration — the in- coming, perhaps, of a later glacial age. The Semitic traditions, on the other hand, refer it to a moral fall and a judicial visitation of God. In any case it was a very real evil, involving a change from that condition of happy abundance and freedom from physical toil, which all histories and hypotheses as to human origin must assign to the earliest state of our species, to a condition of privation, exposure, labour, struggle for existence against the uncongenial environment of a wilderness world. Such new conditions of existence must have tended to try the capabilities and endowments of men. Under certain circumstances, and when not too severe, they must have developed energy, in- ventiveness, and sagacity, and thus may have produced a physical and mental improvement. Under other circumstances they must have had a deteriorating influence, degrading the physical powers and reducing the mental nature almost to a bestial condition. The experience of our modem world, and even of civilized communities, enables us too well to comprehend these opposite effects. Effects of the new conditions of existence. 40 Points of Contact between In any case, such struggle was, on the whole, better for man when in an imperfect state. Only a creature perfectly simple and harmless morally, could enjoy with advantage the privileges of an Eden. Division of The Bible story, however, gives us a glimpse family into of still another and unexpected vicissitude. The two tribes. ^ ^ human family at a very early period split into two tribes. One of these, the SethidaB, simple, God- fearing, conservative, shepherds and soil-tillers ; the other, the Cainida3, active, energetic, godless, city-builders and inventors. Among the Cainidae Division of Sprang up another division into citizen peoples, the Cainidic. tit • •% •>• ,• • i ^ dwelling m dense communities, practising metal- lurgy and other art , inventing musical instruments, and otherwise advancing in material civilisation ; and wandering Jabalites — nomads with movable tents, migrating widely over the earth, and perhaps locally descending to the rudest forms of the hunter's life. Thus from the centre of Eden and the fall sprang three diverse lines of human de- velopment. But a time came when these lines reacted on each other. The artisans and inventors inter- intermar- married with the simple country folk. The nages ^ ^ ^ ... nomadic tribes threw ihemselves in invading swarms on the settled communities. Mixed races arose, and wars, conquests, and disturbances, tend- ing to limit more and more the areas of peace and I Revelation and Natural Science. 41 I I I of plenty, and to make more and more difficult the lives of those who sought to adhere to the old Edenic simplicity ; until this was well-nigh rooted out, and the earth was filled with violence. In the midst of this grew up a mixed race of men, The rise of strong physically, with fierce passions, daring, race of men. adventurous, and cruel, who lorded it over the earth, and deprived others of their natural rights and liberties — the giants and men of renown Their cha- of antediluvian times, the "Nephilim" of the and exploits. Bible, the demigods and heroes of many ancient idolatries. Sucli, according to the Bible, was the condition of the later antediluvians, and in this was the reason why they were swept away with a flood. Before this catastrophe, we can gather from the Progress, story, there must have been great progress in the arts. Intellects of gigantic power, acting through the course of exceedingly long lives, had gained great mastery over nature, and had turned this to practical uses. There must have been antediluvian metallurgists as skilled as any of those in early post-diluvian times ; engineers and architects capa- ble of building cities, pyramids, and palaces, and artisans who could have built triremes equal to those of the Carthaginians. At the same time there must have been wild outlying tribes, fierce and barbarous. Farther, the state of society must have f^^^j?' been such that there was great pressure for the ^"Z Points of Contact between 'i means of subsistence in the more densely peopled districts ; and as agricultural labour was probably principally manual, and little aided by machines or animals, and as the primitive fertility of the soil must, over large regions, have been much exhausted, we can understand that lament of Lamech as to the hardness of subsistence with which he precedes his hopeful prophecy of better Change of times in the days of Noah.^ Certain geological later ante- facts also ffivc US roasou to suspoct that in the diluvian ... days. later part of the antediluvian period, the climate of the northern hemisphere was undergoing a gradual refrigeration.^ The godless Another feature of the antediluvian time was and mater- . iaiistic its ffodloss and materialistic character. This is character of o the time. quaintly represented in some of the American legends of the deluge, by the idea that the ante- diluvian men were incapable of thanking the gods for the benefits they received. They had, in short, lost the beliefs in a ruling divinity and a promised Saviour, and had thrown themselves wholly into a materialistic struggle for existence, and this was the reason why they were morally and spiritually hopeless and had to be destroyed. We do not hear of any idolatry or superstition in antediluvian times, nor of the lower vices of the more corrupt » Gen. V. 29. - , . ' This was certainly the case if the later Antediluvian age is the same with that of men of the " Rein-deer age " in Europe. Revelation and Natural Science. 43 i and degraded races. The vices of the antediluvians The vices , , „ . Mf ^• L 1 ',' of the aiite- vrere those oi a superior race, selt-rehant, ambitious, dUuvians. and selfish. Devoting themselves wholly to secular aims and to the promotion of the arts of life, and utilizing to the utmost the bounties of nature, their motto was " let us eat and drink," not for to-morrow we die, but because we shall live long in our enjoyments. The inevitable result in the tyranny of the strong over the weak, and the rebellion of the weak against the strong, in the accumulation of wealth and luxury in favoured spots, and in the desolation of those spots by the violence and rapacity of rude and warlike tribes, came upon them to the full, but brought no re- pentance. Such a race, to whom God and the spiritual world had become unthinkable, to whom nothing but the material goods of life had any reality, who probably scoffed at the simple beliefs J^| become of their ancestors as the dreams of a rude age, iScem- had become morally irredeemable, and there was nothing in store for it but a physical de- struction. The cataclysm by which these men were swept away may have been one of those submersions of our continents which, locally or generally, have occurred over and over again, almost countless times, in the geological history of the earth, and which, though often slow and gradual, must in other cases have been rapid, perhaps much more so than able. 44 Points of Contact between Ihe Ancient cave-men seem to resemble the ruder antedilu- vians. the hundred and twenty years which the Bible record allows us to assign to the whole period of the Xoachic catastrophe.^ It is an interesting fact that those ancient cave- men, whose bones testify to the existence of man in Europe before the last physical changes of the post-glacial age, and while many mammals now locally or wholly extinct still lived in Europe, present characters such as we might expect to find at least in the ruder nomadic tribes of the ante- diluvian men. Their large brains, great stature, and strong bones point to just such characters as would befit the giants that were in those days. It is farther of interest that though no relics of civilized antediluvians have yet been discovered, the early appearance of skill in the arts of life in the valleys of the Euphrates and Nile in post-diluvian times, points to an inheritance of antediluvian arts by the early Hamitic or Turanian nations, and is scarcely explicable on any other hypothesis. It is a question, raised by certain expressions of Scripture, whether the world will again fall into the condition in which it was before the flood. " As it was in the days of Noah," we are told, so shall it be when the Son of Man comes to judg- ment. To bring the world into such a state it would require that it should shake off all the super- stitions, fears, and religious hopes which now affect ' Gen vi. 3, and 1 Pet. iii. 20. Indications of an in- heritance of antediluvian arts in Hamitic and Turanian nations. The question of a possible relapse of the world into the antediluvian condit' un. 4 Revelation and Natural Science. 45 nienon. it ; that it sliould practically cast aside all belief in God, in morality, and in the spiritual nature and higher destiny of man ; that it should devote itself wholly to the things that belong to the pre- sent life, and in the pursuit of these should be influ- enced by nothing higher than a selfish expediency. Then would the earth again be filled with violence, and again would it cry unto God for punishment, and again would He say, that " His Spirit should no longer strive with men," and that it " repented Him that He had made man upon the earth." I have said that such a catastrophe as the deluge The deluge comprc- of Noah, is in no respect incomprehensible as a Sensible as geological phenomenon, and were we bound to p°£o- explain it by natural causes, these would not be hard to find. The terms of the narrative in Genesis well accord with a movement of the earth's crust, bringing the waters of the ocean over the land, and at the same time producing great at- mospheric disturbances. Such movements seem to have occurred at the close of the post-glacial or Palseocosmic age, and were probably connected with the extinction of the Palseocosmic, or cave-men of Europe, and of the larger land animals, their con- temporaries ; and these movements closed the later continental period of Lyell, and left the European land permanently at a lower level than formerly. Movements of this kind have been supposed by geologists to be very slow and gradual ; but there 46 ^ Points of Contact between is no certain evidence of this, since such movements of the land as have occurred in historical times, have sometimes heen rapid ; and there are many geological reasons tending to prove that this was the case with that which closed the post-glacial '^'^e . age. It is to be observed, also, that the narrative narrutive m *-■ ' ' noumpiy^r ^^ Gcncsis does not appear to imply a very sudden catMtrophe. catastropho. There is nothing to prevent us from supposing that the submergence of the land was proceeding during all the period of Noah's preach- ing, which we are told was 120 years, and the actual time during which the deluge affected th^ district occupied by the narrator was more than a It purports year. It is also to be observed, that the narrative in to be the "^ ' ^ an^yel" °' Gouesis purports to be that of an eye-witness. He witiiess. notes the going into the ark, the closing of its door, the first floating of the large ship ; then its drifting, then the disappearance of visible land, and the minimum depth of fifteen cubits, probably representing the draft of water of the ark. Then we have the abating of the waters, with an inter- mittent action, going and returning, tke grounding of the ark, the gradual appearance of the surround- ing hills, the disappearance of the water, and finally the drying of the ground. All this, if historical in any degree, must consist of the notes of an eye- This view wituoss I and if understood in this sense, the obviates the Ke^unWer- narrative can raise no question as to the absolute StStrophe^ universality of the catastrophe, since the whole .. ' .. Revelation and Natural Science. 4if earth of the narrator was simply his visible horizon. This will also remove much of the discussion as to the animals taken into the ark, since these must have been limited to the fauna of the district of the narrator, and even within this the lists actually given in Genesis exclude the larger carnivorous animals. Thus, there would be nothing to prevent our supposing, on the one hand, that some species of animals became altogether extinct, and that the whole faunaB of vast regions not reached by the delugr remained intact. It is further curious The Tl fl.TT ftfn Vft 0X1 that the narrative of the deluere preserved in the theAssyriau ^ ^ , tablets also Assyrian tablets, like that of Genesis, purports to gg'^iJ*^^**" be the testimony of a witness, and indeed of the Jfn*^&i'^ °' Assvrian equivalent of Noah himself. The " waters ^*"^''- of In oah " are thus coming more and more within the cognizance of geology and archaeology, and it is more than probable that other points of contact than those we have noticed may ere long develop themselves. In connection with all this, a most important consideration is that above referred to, in the possible equivalency with the historical deluge of the great subsidence which closed the residence of palaeocosmic men in Europe, as well as that of Lenomant'd conclusion several of the large mammalia. Lenormant and from the ^ tradition of others have shown that the wide and ancient ^ong^f acceptance of the tradition of the deluge among all brau^ho* of 11 i. 1 1 ff ii 1 p •! • tJi^s human the great branches oi the human lamily necessi- family. 4S Points of Contact between tatcs the belief that, independently of the Biblical history, this gresat event must be accepted as an historical fact which very deeply impressed itself upon the minds of all the early nations. Now, if the deluge is to be accepted as historical, and if a similar break interrupts the geological history of man, separating extinct races from those which still survive, why may we not correlate the two ? The effect The misuso of the deluge in the early history of lation of gcology, in employing it to account for changes und tho that took place Ions: before the advent of man, break m the r o y history*^of Certainly should not cause us to neglect its legiti- wewsTeid mate uses, when these arise in the progress of antiquity of investigation. It is evident that if this correlation be accepted as probable, it must modify many views now held as to the antiquity of man. In that case, the modern gravels spread over plateaus and in river valleys, far above the reach of the present floods, may be accounted for, not by the ordinary action of the existing streams, but by the abnormal action of currents of water diluvial in their character. Further, since the historical deluge cannot have been of very long duration, the physical changes separating the deposits containing the remains of palaeocosmic men from those of later date would in like manner be accounted for, not by slow processes of subsidence, elevation, and erosion, but by causes of more abrupt and cataclysmic character. man. Revelation and Natural Science. ^10 H t Primitive Sociaf. Institutions. Certain archsBologists have recently been much occupied with attempts to triioo the social condition of primitive man in the customs of the ruder and more barbaric tribes, and in turn to deduce these from a supposed bestial condition in which the family and the marriage tie did not exist. Now, it is well known, that in countries so widely separated as North America, India, Australia, and New Guinea, we find certain peculiar and often complex laws of affinity and of marriage, which are probably of very ancient origin. These are such as the following: — The recognition of woman as the principal factor in the family ; descent in the female line, and systems of consanguinity based on this ; exogamy or prohibition to marry within the same tribe or family ; family totems or emblems devised to regulate these arrangements, and in connection with all this, a system of tribal commu- nion in which the wives and mothers are a related communism, into which the husbands are introduced from without by the practice of exogamy. That this complicated system sprang from a primitive promiscuous intercourse is a pure assump- tion, and contrary to scientific probability. The long period of helplessness and dependence of the human child renders it essential that the relation of husband and wife should hare existed from the Attempts to trnco tho history of primitivo man. Ancipiit laws of affinity iind marriugo The relation of husband and wife must have existed from tho beginning. % 50 Points of Contact between The need ci guarding the family relation. The design of the law of exogamy first, or to place the matter on the lowest level, that man should be a permanently pairing animal, and the analogy of some of the animals nearest to man, though the nearest of these are very remote from him in this respect, strengthens this conclu- sion. Again, so soon as men formed tribes and communities, which necessity would oblige them to do almost from the first, it would become necessary to guard the family relation, and this was done by enforcing the rights of the wife and mother to her husband and her child, and to care and protection in child-bearing and nursing. Lastly, the law of exogamy could scarcely have been spontaneous, but must have been an expedient devised by sagacious leaders in order to prevent, on the one hand, too close inter-marriage, and, on the other, entire isolation on the part of the tribes into which meu were necessarilv divided, and at the same time to avert undue variation and degradation. In the record of the social arrangements of primitive man as given in the Bible, we have intimations of these institutions, and confirmations of their existence in subsequent references, even after the patriarchal and tribal arrangements had been fully estab- lished. Man was made in the " shadow and likeness of God," his representative in this lower world ; but what (j1 v7oman ? " Male and female created He them ; " and man in this double capacity was to Man the represent- ative of God in the lower world. mi Revelation and Natural Science. 61 ih- 1 tlie replenish the earth and subdue it, not its slave and worshipper, but its master — " treading it under his foot " as the words literally are. Man and woman ][lf^^\ were to do this, so that the woman as well as the ukJuess. man shares in the divine likeness ; and it is in the family relation and in this alone, that such mani- festation of God and the consequent subduing of the world can take place. Let us notice also that remarkable lesson taught to the man, when after submitting to him those animals nearest in rank, no help meet for him is found, and the woman is brought to him as his true help-meet, " bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh." This leads to the The primitive primitive law of marriage, which has until recently {^Jj.°jf received less attention from historians and theolo- gians than it merits ; and not long ago, a late eminent archaeologist was surprised when I pointed out to him that his discoveries of exogamy and descent in the female line had been anticipated in the law — " therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife." Here it is the husband who leaves his family to go with his wife, and she, as the centre of the family and mother of the children, is the true husband, the bond of the household. It is true, that after the fall and as a punitive visitation on The effict ^ of the full. the woman, it is decreed that her husband shall '* rule over her ; " but this, like other disabilities arising from the fall, may have been regarded in lj** T 52 Points of Contact between Traces of the prim- itive prac- tice in the patriarchal institutions. Tho patriarchal system and matriarchy. early times as an evil to be removed if possible. Even under the patriarchal system, subsequently dominant, we find indications of the primitive practice in the belief of Sarah and Rebecea, that their sons, if they married in Canaan, must go into the tribe of their wives ; and tho prevalence of this law among many ancient nations, and especially among those of Turanian origin, has been well ascertained. Among American Indians, and Australian aborigines, it still lingers in cus- toms which, however degraded, are nevertheless from the point of view of Genesis, reminiscences of unf alien men. I may pause here to note that the supposed antagonism between the patriarchal system, and what has been called " matriarchy " has no real existence, and this also is evident from the Scripture history. The social and family relations were founded on the rights of the woman ; but the leader and counsellor of the tribe, the chief, especially in times of danger, is the oldest or most influential man. This distinction between civil and social laws has existed from the earliest times, and among very rude peoples, and it is singular that it should be overlooked as it has been in some recent discussions. Besides, as Dr. Tyler has remarked, when a maternal community has been broken up, and when one of its families has been for any reason separated from the others, it is natural that authority should fall into the * J.W|^l'l" I, »m wiil'*w I- Revelation and Natural Science. 53 hands of the father. In other words, primitively the father takes the lead in a journey or expedi- tion : in the village community the women rule ; in the tribe or clan there is a patriarchal chief. The best scientific as well as Biblical illustration The refevenco oi of the primitive nature of marriage is afforded by {jj^faw^of the reference to it made by Jesus Christ himself "^^""""^ in connection with the law of divorce. The Pharisees, most self-satisfied men, wise in their own wisdom and case-hardened in their own orthodoxy, as the most earnest bigots of our own day, and the Sadducees, as shallow, sceptical, and contemptuous as the most advanced of our modem Agnostics, agreed in sanctioning the loose notions of their time as to the sacredness of marriage. It is the Pharisees, however, who put the question, " May a man put away his wife for every cause ? "^ saying in effect, *' Is woman the slave of man ? May she be put away for any caprice, treated with any injustice, without offence to God ?" Our Lord scornfully takes them back to the Book of Genesis and its simple child-like story. "Have ye not read," He asks, " that He who made them male and female" enacted for them the law of marriage, and that this law was " the man shall cleave unto his wife, and the twain shall become one flesh." That is God's order. Is there any place in it for putting away ? Nay, if there were such, would it * Matthew xix. 4. %^ h 64 Points of Contact between not rather be the woman that could put away her husband, than the husband his wife ? The apostles' But, objccted the Pharisees, Moses authorised divorce, and the Christian may also object and may plead the apostolic doctrine as to the subjection of woman,^ but Christ has His answer to both. It is " because of the hardness of your hearts, but from the beginning it was not so." The original equality of man and woman was, like so much other good, broken down by the fall, which brought among other woes the subjection of woman, too often developed into tyranny and injustice to her. MiTn world* ^^ ^ hard fallen world of labour, struggle, warfare, and danger, woman necessarily becomes the weaker vessel, and her original dignity of child-bearer, which gave her in Eden her high position, and which even after the fall is sought to be retained in her prophetic position as the potential mother of a Saviour, becomes in savage and rude states of society an additional cause of weakness and restoration disability. Hence one of the great missions of of womau, Christianity is to restore woman to that place which she had in the beginning, to the Edenic position of being the equal help-meet of man. The Christian system, adapting this to the condition of an im- perfect but improving world, holds before us the * Eph. V. 22 ; 1 Peter iii. 1, and other passages in the New Testa- ment, where however the fall of man is referred to as the reason of this subjection. 7 ■' Revelation and Natural Science. 55 i Christian daughter, sister, wife and mother, as the most beautiful of moral pictures, the pillars of God's family. But this ideal will not be realised The reai- •' isation of till He whose first title is that of " Seed of the *^" ^'^*^*^- woman " shall have bruised the serpent's head, and shall have restored the paradise of God. Before leaving this part of the subject it is well oMh1j°°^""'' to contrast the grand and ennobling doctrine of current"' the Bible, extending with perfect consistency all on the the way from the first notice of the relation the sexes in Genesis to the personal teaching of Jesus, not only with the corruptions of His day, but with those base and degrading speculations of our time which can find in their godless philosophy no better foundation for the family and the rights of woman than the contests of beasts for the pos- session of their females. Perhaps none of the paths of Agnostic speculation is more repulsive than this to all the higher instincts of humanity, and certainly none is more instructive with reference to the abyss into which we are in- vited to fling ourselves. Let it be observed also that if we depart at all from the old Biblical idea of man created in the shadow and likeness of God, and thus endowed with a spiritual as well as an animal nature, there is no logical stopping- place, L xort of a moral gulf lower than that which any savage tribe has yet reached. In this respect our inquiries into the state of barbarous people ' mw"' ''^'.r-'i: 56 Faints of Contact between striving to sustain themselves above mere anarchy and bestial relations by clinging to their old traditional laws and sociui customs, and in their darkness feeling after God if haply they may find Him, show us that their spiritual condition, low though it is, may be more hopeful than that to which the philosophical Agnostic has already re- duced himself. i The Duko of Argyll's view. Given a spiritual nature religion becomes a necessity of existence. Much modern discussion assumes that man is destitute of a higher nature. The Origin of Religion. The Duke of Argyll, in his work on the Unity of Nature, has well remarked that questions as to the origin of religion have some resemblance to the question. What is the origin of hunger and thirst ? Given an organism wanting nourishment, and hunger and thirst seem to follow as matters of course. So in the case of religion : given a spiritual nature craving communion with its God, believing in its own indestructibility, having ideas of right and wrong, of duty and responsibility, some form of religion becomes a necessary condition of existence. The peculiarity of much modern writing as to the origin of religion is that the writers leave out of sight the spiritual nature of the man and the existence of a God revealing Himself to His rational offspring, and then proceed to ask how can a man destitute of any higher nature than that of the animal, and without any " V^ItlUJ Y ■ llevelation and Natural Science. 67 GloJ, or incapable of knowing anything of Him, oome to be a religious being ? It is as if one were to imagine an animal destitute of any power of digestion, and of any need of food, and then to ask, How can it come to experience hunger and thirst ? Conducted in this way, the inquiry as to the origin of religion must necessarily be nugatory. On the other hand, if we are content to accept the nature of man as we find it in experience, and as it is represented to us in the Scriptures, we have a solution at once of the phenomenon that man is and always has been influenced by religion, just us he has been affected with hunger and thirst. The attempts that have been made to classify Misleading ^ ^ ^ classification religions, have also much in them that is mis- of religions. leading. If, for example, we attempt to distinguish between natural and revealed religion, we shall find that no religion is wholly natural or wholly revealed. In all there lie at the bottom those instincts of natural conscience and belief in im- mortality which seem to be inborn in man. In all there is some room left for the reason as the judge of truth and right. On the other hand, if we believe the Hebrew Scriptures to embody a re- velation from God, we must also believe that portions of the same revelation exist in all religions, however corrupt. The religion of Adam and of ^wehgion Noah, as stated in the Old Testament, was not that If^ Noah. of the Hebrews merely, but of right, that of all 58 Points of Contact between A thread of divine truth penetrates the various idolatrous and corrupt religions. mankind. Up to the time, in short, of the special legislation of Moses, the religion of the Hebrews was not theirs alone, but the common property of mankind ; and we must expect to find traces at least of such truths as the unity of God, the creation, the immortality of man, the fall, the promise of a Saviour, the deluge and its moral lessons, in all religions. Practically we do find this to be the case, and nothing can be more in- teresting than to trace in the varied idolatrous and corrupt religions the golden thread of Divine truth which penetrates them, however hidden and ob- scured by foreign accretions. Viewed in this way, the whole mythology of the world becomes intelligible, and is illuminated by the Bible light. Without this guidance, it ceases to afford any definite results even to scientific investigation. Max Miiller, in his Science of Religion^ rejecting the division into natural and revealed, proposes to arrange religions according to the great divisions of the human race, as Turanian, Aryan and Semitic. This classification is, however, equally useless w^ithout the light cast on the subject by the Bible. If we call, for example, the Jewish religion Semitic, nothing can be more certain than that it was a quite exceptional Semitic religion during the greater part of its existence, differing from the religions of cognate races in Western Asia, as much as from the religions of other Gentile peoples. On Mnx Miiller's classifica- tion. The Jewish an excep- tional Semitic religion. J .Revelation and Natural Science. 59 the other hand, if Turanians and Aryans as well as Semites were sons of Noah, they must at first have possessed the same religion, and must merely have developed this in different directions, which we can easily see was the fact, when we study the resemblances and differences of the religions of antiquity. If we ask what caused the religion of the Hebrews to differ, its own history informs us The cause that this sprang first from the pronounced dissent ditforence of Abraham from the religion of other Semites, Hebrew religion and his falling back on the simplicity of primitive Sto^^^"" Monotheism; secondly, and as a consequence of ''^'^si*'"^- the former, from the purity and definiteness given by the legislation of Moses. That these men actually lived and influenced the religion of their own and later times we cannot doubt, because such doubt would throw all subsequent history into confusion . If they were acting under the influence of the Spirit of God,— as we believe them to have been, — then their religion is a product of inspiration, and therefore a revelation. If not then they stand merely on the level of success- ful reformers, though here again may arise the question whether any successful reformer or elevator of humanity is destitute of some special The Bible , . -f theory of divme impulse. In any case it is clear that the sfi&wuh theory of religion, if we may so express it, em- with re^ bodied in the Bible is consistent with itself, and preS '^'^ with the history and present condition of religious refiglon" "* >■ 60 Points of Contact bettveen beliefs, and that without taking this Biblical theory into consideration, it will be hopeless to attempt to explain the origin and history of religion, or to classify religions with any certainty. Natural Theology. admis'don? Theiik are Certain schools of modern science and philosophy which affect contempt for the doctrine of final causes and for the teaching of the Bible with reference to the manifestation of God in His works. On the other hand, we find Mill, in one of his last essays, after rejecting every other argument for the existence of a God, ad- mitting that the argument from design in the universe is irresistible, and that nature does testify of its Maker. There can be no question that in this Mill is right, if for no other reason than that old and well-known one that mere blind chance cannot be conceived of as capable of producing an orderly system of things. Farther, there can be no question that the one argument for a God which is convincing to Mill is also the one, and the only one, which the Holy Scriptures condescend to refer to. They habitually take the existence of God for granted, as something not needing to be proven to reasonable minds, but they reason from nature, with reference to His attributes and modes of procedure, as, for instance, in that Revslation and Natural Science. ()l remarkable passage of the Apostle Paul where ho affirms that to the heathen the "power and divinity" of God are apparent from the things which He has made. But perhaps there is no tho teach- part of the Bible in which the teachinar of nature nuture in ^ _ ^ ^ ^ ° tlio book of with reference to divine things is more fully •'^'''• presented than in the Book of Job, and not a few even of religious men fail to see the precise significance of the address of the Almighty to Job, in the concluding chapters of that book. Job is tortured and brought near to death by Job and iii^i severe bodily disease. His friends have exhausted all their divinity and philosophy upon him, in the vain effort to convince him that he deserves this infliction for his special and acrffravated sins. At ood's intor- ^ ^ "° _ ferenco length the Almighty intervenes and ^Ives the final decision. But instead of discussing the ethical and theological difficulties of the case, He enters into a sublime and poetical description of nature. He speaks of the heaven above, of the atmosphere, its vapours and its storms, and of the habits and powers of animals. In short, Job is treated to a lecture on natural history. Yet this instantaneously effects what the arguments of the friends har^ altogether failed to induce, and Job humbles himself before God in contrition and repentance. His words are very remarkable (Job xlii. 1-12) : • 1 "I know that Thou canst do all things, From Thee no purpose is withheld; Job's con- fession. Points of Contact hetiueen (Thou hiist said) '"Who is this that obscures counsel without knowli'dgo ? ' * (And I confess that) I have uttered what I understood not, Things too hard for mo which I know not, But hear nio now and I will speak. (Thou hast said) ' I will de^mud of theo And inform thou Me.' ■ I have heard of Thee with the hearing of the ear, And now mine eye sneth Thee ; Therefore do I abhor myself, Aud repent in dust and ashes." The efifoct of Ood'p in- terferon ce. What does this import ? Simply that, through the presentation to him of God's works, Joh had attained a new view of God and of himself. Ho had not considered or fairly weighed the world aroand him in its grandeur, its complexity, its unaccountahle relations, and contrasted it with his own little sphere of thought and work. Had ho done so, he would, like Paul in later times, have said, " Hath not the potter power over the clay ? " God, if really the architect of nature, must have thoughts and plans altogether beyond our com- prehension. He must be absolute sovereign of all. It is our part to submit with patience to His dealing with us, to lean upon Him by faith, and thus to carry this almighty power with us. When brought to this state of mind. Job can be vindicated against his friends who have taken upon them to explain God's plans and have misrepresented them, as many good men like them are constantly doing ; against Satan, the evil angel, who with all his ' Chap, xxxviii. 2. ' Chap, xxxyiii. 3; xl. 7. i4> P^iaif"Ji'«« Revelation and N'atiiral Science. 68 intelligence and acuteness cannot comprehend Job's piety, but believes it to bo mere self-interest, and who now sees himself foiled and Job brought into still greater prosperity ; while by the result and the explanation of it handed down to our time, there is a permanent gain in favour of the solution of the great moral difficulties of humanity, I would put this case of Job before modern Three iispoctd of Christians in three aspects. (1) Do we attach Job's case. enough of importance to the Gospel in nature, as vindicating God's sovereignty and fatherhood, and preaching submission, humility, and faith ? Might we not here take a lesson from the Bible itself ? (2) May there not be many in our own time who, like Job, have " heard of God with the hearing of the ear," but have not seen Him with the eye in His works ? and, on the other hand, are there not many who have seen the works without seeing the Maker, who can even " magnify God's works which men behold,'* without knowing the Author of them? "Would it not be well sometimes to bring together in friendly discussion those who thus look on only one side of the shield ? (3) Should we not beware of the error of Job's friends in misrepresenting God's plans, and thereby mis- leading those whom we try to guide. These wise and well-meaning men had nature all around them, and had observed it with some care and minuteness, yet they disregarded its teachings, and .^ » /I 64 Revelation and Natural Science. dwelt on old laws and philosophic dogmas, till ' God Himself had to brine: out the whirlwind and ' f the thunder storm, the ostrich, the horse, and the hippopotamus to teach a better theology. The [ ing°Mven\ Book of Job belongs to a very ancient time, when Job n°eededf men posscsscd little of divine revelation, perhaps maliy cui- nouo at all in a definite and dogmatic form, yet tured minds . . n i j • i In our time, there are m our time many even of cultured minds as ignorant of God's ways as were Job's friends. To them the same elementary teaching may afford the training which they need. The object The scoDC of this Tract has necessarily been ot this .... . Tract. somewhat discursive, since its object has been to glance at a variety of things new and old, relating to the Works and the "Word of God. And thus to encourage the study of the Bible I . I as a storehouse of Divine wisdom for practical ■ t guidance, as a light shining in a dark world, ■ and enabling us to see our relations to God and our fellow-men ; above all, as the revelation of Jesus Christ, the great Enlightener and Healer, given of God that " whosoever believeth on Him may not perish, but have everlasting life ! '' ^ PRESENT Day Tracts, No. 42. ^-^ 1 >i w 1/ t^immltiln.:.^.-. '^ V*}'*., PRESENT DAY TRACTS. SEVEN VOLUMES ARE NOW READY, 2s. 6d. EACH, CLOTH BOARDS. Volumes 1 & 2 contain Tracts by Principal Cairns, Prebendary Row, Professors Llaikie and J. Radford Thomson, Canon Rawlinson, and Rev. Noah Porter. VOLUME 3 contains : 13 Age and Origin of Man Geo- . logically Considered. By S. R. Pattison, Ksq , f.g.s., and Dr. Friedrich Pkaff. 14 Rhe and Decline of Islam. By Sir William Muir, k.c.s.l, d.c.l. lb Mosaic Authorship and Credibility of the Pentateuch, By the Dean of CanteVbury. 16 Authenticity of the Four Gospels. By Rev. Henry Wage, b.d., d.d. 17 Modern Materialism. By the late Rev. W. F. Wilkinson, m.a. 18 Christianity and Confucianism Compared in their Teaching of the Whole Duty of Man, By James Legge, ll.d. VOLUME 4 contains : 19 Christianity: as History, Doc- tri/ic, and Life. By Rev, Noah PoRTKR, n.U., LL.I). 20 Ihe Religious Teachings of the Sublime and Beautiful in Nature. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson, m.a. 21 Ernest Renan and his Criticism of Christ. By the Rev. W. G. Elmslik, m.a. 22 Unity of the Character of the Christ of the Gospels, a proof of its Historical Reality. By the Rev. Prebendary Row, m.a. 23 Ihe Vitality of the Bible. By Rev. W.G. Blaikie, d.d., ll.d. 24 Evidential Conclusions from the Four Greater Epistles of St. Paul. By the Dean of Chester. VOLUME 5 contains: 25 The Zend- A vesta and the Religion of the Parsis. By J. Murray Mitchell, m.a., ll.d. 26 The Authorship of the Fourth Gos- pel. By F. Gouet, d. n,, Neufchatel. 27 Present State of the Ohristian Argnvient from Prophecy. By tlie Rev. Principal Caikns, d.d., ll.d. 28 OriginoftlieHebrew Religion. By Et'STACE R. CONDER, M.A,, D.D. 29 The Philosophy of Mr. Herbert spencer Examined. By the Rev. James Iverach, m.a. 30 Man not a Machine, but a Re- sfionsihle Free Agent, By tlie l^ev. Prebendary Row, m.a. VOLUME 6 contains : 31 The Adaptation of the Bible to the iVeeds and Nature (f Man, By the Rev. W. G. Blaikie, d.d., ll.d. .32 The Witness of Ancient Monuments to the Old Testament Scriptures. By A. H. Savck, M.A., Oxford, .33 The Hindu Religion. By J. M. MlTCHKLL, M.A., LL.D. 34 Modern Pessimism. By the Rev. J. Radford Thomson, m.a. 35 The Divinity of our Lord in rela- tion to His lyork of Atonement. By Rf.v. William Aktiu k. 36 The Lord's Supper an Abiding Wit->^' ness to the Death of Christ. By Sir W. Ml iR, K.C.S.I., etc, ;,. ; SECOND SERIES. VOLUME 7 contains; 37 The Christ of the Gospels. A Religious study. ByH. M ever, d.d. 38 Ferdinand Christian Baur, and his Theory of the Origin of Chris- tianity and the New Testament IFritin^s. By Rev. A. B. Brice, d.d, .39 Man, Physiologically Considered. By A. Macalister, m.a., m.d., f.r.s. Professor of Anatomy. Cambridge. 40 Utilitarianism : An Illogical and j'rreligious Theory of Morals. By Rev. J Radford Thomson, m.a. 41 Historical Illustrations of the Nero Testament Scriptures. ISy the Rev. G. F. Maclear, D.D. 42 Pointsof Contact between Revela- tion and Naturt.l Science. By Sir J. William Dawson. LL.D,, F.R.S, The Tracts may be had separately, price Fourpence each. EDWARD KNIGHT, PRINVRR,] [middle ST., LONDON. ; ! r. Csix