THE PECULIARITIES / 
 
 OP 
 
 DIVINE REVELATION 
 
 IN IIS 
 
 EARLIEST STAGE; 
 
 OB, 
 
 GENESIS FROM A MODERN POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 BY REV. CHARLES CHAPMAN, M. A, 
 
 A LECTURE; 
 
 PELIVERED BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S ASSOCIATION OF ZION 
 CHURCH, AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST. 
 
 MONTBEAL: 
 
 p. B. 6BAFT0N. lUBLlSHEB AND EOOXBELLBB, 8T. JAMES STB££T. 
 
 1871. 
 

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 JOHN C. BECKET, PEINTEB, MONTEEAL. 
 
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 THE PECULIAUITIES OF DIVINE REVELATION 
 
 ;■ IN ITS EARLIEST STAGE; OR, ■ ; j; 
 
 - ! : ■ "','■.■■ ' '■ ' ■■■■'■ ■ ■ ■' 
 
 GENESIS FROM A MODERN POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 If I mistake not, there exists in the minds of many readers of the 
 Bible .1 strange, weird feeling, as they leave, for a season, the orderly 
 events and sequences of modern civilized life, and confront the narratives com 
 tained in the book of Genesis. There is something in the novel circumstances 
 there depicted, the commingled orders of beings whoso actions are related, 
 and the memorable transactions set forth, so seemingly out of relation to the 
 condition of human society as we know it now, that were not these things 
 found in a Book venerated for ages as a Revelation of the Divine mind, much 
 hesitation would be felt in accepting them as realities ; and even as it is, the 
 questior secretly lurks in the heart, waiting for expression by another's 
 voice, as to the possibility of these remarkable representations being 
 amenable to the recognized laws of reason and propriety. As hills, and 
 valleys and forests enshrouded in the mysterious dimness of mist, seem to 
 the eye of the traveller to project themselves in ill defined and monstrous 
 formsj unlike those of the sunny land from whence he came, and thus, as he draws 
 near to inspect them, cause his heart to beat with increased and irregular 
 action ; so to many adventurers in the sphere of knowledge, coming out of 
 the clear light shed by modern science on ordinary events and persons, the 
 huge proportions and unique obscurity ot the leading figures presented in 
 the early Biblical narratives, awaken a sense of awe and wonderment, which are 
 not made to subside by the mere assertion of authority. There is something 
 in our modern life which makes men indisposed to welcome as facts, what 
 appears to lie outside the line of their own experience, and the discussions and 
 controversiis of which the Book of Genesis has been the centre, have not 
 it seems to me, tended to bring the thought of the age to the calm and ra- 
 tional repose which I think njay be attained, if we will but examine the main 
 points of issue on principles generally admitted, though not always judi- 
 ciously applied. '1 he time and vigor spent in wrangling over this detail and 
 that debateable item, have borne and can only bear meagre fruit. The 
 questions really at issue are not within the scope of mere grammar, etymo- 
 log}', and superfine criticisms on names, and dates, and numbers. The active 
 contact of the Living God, and a supernatural revelation of spiritual truth 
 which maintains a unity of character amidst great diversity of form, are mat- 
 ter^t which the niceties of grammatioal fimast can affect in only a very slight 
 degree. You may rest assured that saoh matters, if real, are mtsrworen 
 
 "■f,r 
 
with the entire texture of mr.n's mental nature and the broad facts of human 
 history, und hence, must be approached rather from the side of general consi- 
 derations than of linguistic peculiarities. Many of the criticisms and 
 ci^urifor ciiticisirs whh ^^hich some of the learned have deliirlited or vexed 
 thciufeUci, remind lue of the singular conclave of m^n, ,vho, being concerned 
 f( r the interests ('f loth history and science, apf-embicd to diiecuss Avhet.her a 
 certain olc^a'ion ofcar^h and rock reputed to bo a )nountain was really so; 
 niid having deirioiistratcd that here and there was to be seen a smooth rounded 
 projection \\aich ougiit never V.) bo in a natural mountain, that one ov two 
 phiuts were f umd on a gra?sy slope which should never exist on a mountain 
 ddi}, and that a stream r;in trickling dovni a ravine which vrould never be 
 swcllen info a torrent", — they were in groat doubts; and v.'hcn, after fuilhei- 
 most cnet'i.; j^crutiniziag of all the little things they could set eyes upon, they 
 arrived at e indry diverse conclusions as to the colour of mosses and lichens 
 in shade aU'i f-unshlue, their minds were still far from unLMiimity of convic- 
 tion, Theviifore they dispersed to their hoaics, calling one another hard 
 names, and, which is nio.^t obscrvabh^, leaving t::c reputed mountain calm in 
 its repose, and begirt with is familiar clouds as it was before the wise men 
 presumed to pronounce on its existence. , . .. , : ' ; . . ., 
 
 •^ Now, ioking the book of Genesis, as being at once, a history of the 
 world prior to the formation of other existing records of the human race, 
 and a revelation of the Divine mind towards man iu conneclion with that his- 
 tory, we must all admit that there are in the escoptional character of many 
 of the facts recorded, and, also, in the matter and form of the ])ivinc commu- 
 nications', peculiarities of a most lemarkablc type ; and therefore, it is only 
 just what we might expect wlien difficulties are said to bo felt, perhaps, with 
 respect to the reception of them, certainly with respect to such an interpre- 
 tation of them, that they shall be seen to be not only admissible as facts, but 
 also to take a necessary place in the order of God s dealings with mankind. 
 It is only for me to mention the account given of the creation, the testing and 
 subsequent fall of Adam, the formation of Eve, the detailed dialogues between 
 Gnd and man, the longevity of the Antediluvians, the deliverance of Noah 
 from the Deluge, the wonderful replies to Abraham's intercessory prayer, and 
 Jacob's wrestling with the angel, and you perceive what Ecope there is for 
 modern questioning, and what need there is to lay hold of some fundamen- 
 tal principles whicli, when applied to these separate through kindred difficul- 
 ties, shall solve them into one consistent and instructive whole. I do not 
 wiih you, however, to suj>pose that I am in possession of some wonderful phi- 
 losopher's stone, which otliershavo not, and cannot stumble upon ; nor would 
 I have you flatter yourselves that you are, henceforth, to live in an atmos- 
 phere so clear that all dimness of apprehension shall have for ever passed 
 away. It is possible that I may sny a few things, which have not been 
 brought prominently forward by many who have dealt with these Bubjects; 
 but after all, we must expect fur the present and for reasons most apparent, 
 to see " through a glass darkly," and abide our time in patient hope of more, 
 perfect knowledge. There is necessarily much in connexion with such a 
 subject as the communication of God's Will, that cannot be perfectly com- 
 prehended. For, both the subject matter of communication, and the form 
 
in "wliicli it is to be iindc, nre in the clioice, tlio privatfi, inscrntaljle^choiccof 
 tbe Elcrnal ; and wc can only deal with tbo f ict as it comes out to our ob- 
 servation. And, also, wesliould not overlook the widely practical t)uth,thiit 
 Providence trains men by means of ob.-curity as well as by means of liu,ht. 
 The haze which wo throw around many subjects, when our children desire to 
 know what we do not think it prudent to reveal, is a healthful dinines^s pti- 
 mulatiup; the inventive powers while it awakens their trustful nature, and pro- 
 ducinij; the conviction that there is Jar more in this life of theirs than relates 
 to the necessities and toys of youtli And wo shall fall in with the obvious 
 designs of Providence, and consult our truest interests, if, obtaininp:just lip;ht 
 enough to see the realities of Kevelation, v,e exercise tlie feelings of iilial con- 
 tidenco, and follow on in hope of present dimness yieldinti; to perfect day. 
 And hero I cannot but quote the lines of one of the greatest and most de- 
 vout of living men : — 
 
 " Lead kindly light amid tbo ein^ircling gloom, 
 
 "> •■ • ;■:•:, Lo;id thou iiie on, ,.•,.'.;• 
 
 ,-:•..; "U The night la daric and I am far froui hoiuo, .., ,, ..-./ 
 
 ., , ^ ... ,v" ,; Load thou nio or. ' '' 
 
 ■ " ■ ' '"; "■ ' Keep thou my feet; I do not wish to' see 
 
 ■ ' ■ ' Tho distant scene — one stejj enough for inc." 
 
 I think I cannot better secure your interests, and make my own 
 
 views clear, than by making a few propositions almost self evident in their 
 
 truthfulness, and then point out their bearing upon the various events in the 
 
 sacred narrative which appears to be lingular or inexplicable. 
 
 1. The Records tlicmsdves arc most andait, 
 
 I speak now of the records themselves, as written authentic histories, and 
 not of the particular events narrated, and I say that so far as investigationg 
 have been made, learned men have not fallen upon any manuscript or book 
 that for antiquity can be compared with this book, unless it bo the book of 
 Job. Whatcvir monumental inscriptions may have existed about the date 
 of Israel's sojourn in Egypt, historic:il portable documents of that date arc 
 not to bo found. The most ancient Chinese M.S. known to be historical, 
 was written about 600 B. C, that is, in the days of Jeremiah. Most in- 
 genious, and many amusing arguments have been advanced^3?'o and roVf^s to the 
 date and authorship of the bo jk of Genesis ; and were I to detail one half of the 
 methods and weapons by which tho gentlemen of the Higher Criticism have 
 assailed one another, you would bo surprised to sec how " doctors differ." 
 There is one fault which 1 am always disposed to find with the members, of 
 what, on account of their ruling tendency, may well bo termed the " Destruc- 
 tive School of Criticism "; it is, that they too frc({ucntly proceed to their work 
 on the gratuitous and unexpressed supposition, that the writers whose books 
 they examine, are literary artiste, who compose their works with the skill and 
 taste which characterise livcrary men. Kaiinis, in his history of Gerninn Protest 
 antism speaksof " an ago " in tho course of European life, "which undertook to 
 determine all the forms and institutions of lifo by the pure idea." In like 
 manner jnany critics liave approached the examination of both sacred rnd sec- 
 ular books, too strongly influenced by their own notions of what or how the 
 writers ought to have written, without allowing sufficiently for tho liberty 
 
and even ability of the writers themselves, to make their productions regular 
 or irregular, finished or unfinished, grammatical orungrararaatical, pervaded 
 by a well sustained unity or broken into unconnected fragments. It must 
 be obvious to any one acquainted with the inner history of Jewish life, that 
 as a rule, the nation was seldom, if ever, in a position to produce a hii;h 
 class of literary or philosophical men ; and, although Moses was familiar 
 with Egyptian learning, we must not confound that with the severe literary 
 tastes which appear in Grecian poets and modern historians, and wh'ch can 
 only exist in an age of books and critics. Therefore, I say, the primitive 
 simplicity of those times, and the necessary absence of literary criticism, 
 should lead us to expect, in very early documents, peculiarities of arrange- 
 ment and freedom in the use of terms not observed in more cultivated ages. 
 You will see the bearing of these general observations when 1 remind you 
 *hat there has been waged a warm controversy as to whether the book of 
 Genesis was compiled by one or more authors out of several inde- 
 pendent documents ; and the occasion for this battle of words 
 is said to be fdund partly in the fragmentary character of some portions, 
 partly in differeuce of style, and especially because in some parts of the 
 book there are passages in which, the Hebrew word for " Jehovah " is em- 
 ployed, and in others the Hebrew equivalent for "God." Now, it makes 
 little difference to mo whether nearly every sentence in the book was origin- 
 ally written by Moses, or whether he simply collected and arranged as best 
 l.e could, fragmentary documents which had been written by holy men from 
 the days of Noah downwards, as a record of History and Providence. The 
 book bears the mark of God any way. But I must confess that the sup- 
 posed difficulty arises, according to my judgment, chiefly from a preconceiv- 
 ed assumption that, as a correct and punctilious literary man, the author of 
 a Manuscript in those days would be sure to write it off speedily, and with a 
 skilful argument of parts — not in intervals of many years, and as a loose col- 
 lection of facts ; and that he would, of course, use one of the Hebrew ex- 
 pressions for the Divine Name exclusively, or else, if he employed both, it 
 Would be in a manner conformable to the perfect order and correct taste of aa 
 accomplished writer. I have read both sides of this controversy, and look- 
 ing fairly at the array of arguments, small and great, I am as convinced as 
 ever that the ascription of this book to the authorship of Moses is the con- 
 clusion beset with the ^fewest difticiilties, to say nothing of its being in ac- 
 cordance with the intimations of the New Testament. 
 
 Well, then, Irevert tomy statement, that the book of Genesis is the most 
 ancient document in existence. That being so, observe what follows from 
 this circumstance. Jt follows that it was written in the phraseology of a 
 people wfio lived 3360 years ago, and with a primary view to their instruc- 
 tion and encouragement. Think you those men and women who came out 
 of the house of bondage were trained to read histories as detailed and elo- 
 quent as Macaulay's, and as extensive as Hume's and Smollett's ? Do you sup- 
 pose they were initiated in their youthful days into the deep mysteries of 
 the Silurian, Carboniferous, Oolitic and other geological systenis? Had 
 their maidens and mothers listened with rapture to the Principal Dawsoa of 
 those hoary times, as he, with a mixture of fun and wisdom, expatiated on 
 
Flint and Chalk ? I trow not. Yet you may be sure that they had some 
 general notions, expressed in their common forms of speech, of the source of 
 all things from the hand of God ; and, consequently, when Moses was author- 
 ized to give an authentic and truthful account of the origin of the world, he 
 would do it, not in words you would select, or that would suit the precision 
 of British and American scientific thought in the 19th Century, but in phra- 
 seology then commonly used, and so far accommodated to unscientific ideas 
 and modes of utterance, as might be consistent with enforciag the main 
 truth, — namely, that God was the author of the material universe. In as 
 much as the Apostle John in the Apocalypse enables us to know the cer- 
 tainty, and get an approximating apprehension of the Heavenly Home, by 
 speaking of golden streets and pearly gates, because otherwise, we with our 
 present modes of thought — materialized, conventional, limited by our or« 
 ganism — should not be able to rise to the absolute conception of the invisible 
 world,-— do we not see a wise propriety, a kindly consideration for man's 
 weakness, in Moses being directed to frame the account of creation so as 
 to ensure to ordinary unscientific minds, as they traversed the desert to- 
 wards Canaan, the conviction that the order of the universe was the out come 
 of the power of the one true God, and also, enable them to think of that or- 
 der as the result of a steady progress from a state of chaos ? I wonder what 
 sort of account of creation some people want. It would be instructive if 
 those who do not think thr Mosaic account sufficiently precise, would just 
 write what he ought to have said, remembering that in doing so it must 
 be in the phraseology not >f Canadians, nor of Americans, and not for your 
 guidance merely, but in the phraseology of the Israelites on their way to 
 Canaan, and for the instruction of them and of all untutored men in all 
 lands and times. I have the impression that they would scarcely be found, 
 before the bar of public opinion, to have successfully competed with Moses 
 the Man of God. 
 
 Thus, also, it would follow from the extreme antiquity of the Records 
 that great gaps would helikely to occur in the History ; and that in subse- 
 guent ages, t?ie document would he amended by such editorial insertions as 
 might be considered necessary to render allusions intelligible to later readers, 
 — 'Xoa are aware that ancient chronology, whether Biblical or Monumental, 
 is attended with some degree of uncertainty, in oonsequence of the great 
 variations that ensue upon very slight modifications of the Hebrew system of 
 nomeration, and the diverse judgment arrived at as to the classification of dis- 
 tinct or oontemporaneous Egyptian dynasties. But taking the ordinary 
 chronology as oorreot, you must remember that the book of Genesis covers 
 the history of 2316 years, as long a period as from the days of Plato to the 
 present time< If you couple this fact with the circumstance that that was 
 not a literary age, you will sae at once how natural it is to expect 
 in the History just such an absence of detail for centuries as is observable in 
 the ante-dilnvian and post-diluvian narrations. And when we find critics feed- 
 ing themselves, as the hungry wild asses of the desert may be supposed to do 
 after a weary search for congenial food, upon such expressions as Gen.zxxi. 
 31) "And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there 
 reigned any king over the land of Israel."—- we*need not be dismayed, by such 
 
8 
 
 vorccious propensities, in endeavouring to hold by the Mosaic authorship ; 
 because the insertion of these editorial comments at a later date by some 
 ftuch man as Ezra was just what might be expected to make the most ancient 
 Record intelligible in matters of geography and tribal history to readers ot 
 subsequent times. 
 
 2. The Records relate to the beginning of things. — The early portion of 
 Genesis has to do with the origin of human life, the development of the sense 
 of respcnsibility, the outward expression, of the supremacy of God over the 
 actions of man, the uprising of sin on an otherwise fair earth, and the first 
 symptoms of the presence of a moral disease among men. I dare say there 
 does appear to some minds in comparison with our way of writing history, a 
 strange simplicity in the descriptions given of the creation and the fall of 
 our first parents. These events themselves are so very unlike the highly com- 
 plicated eruditions of life with which we are familiar. The seemingly formal 
 restraints placed upon Adam and Eve, in regard to the " tree of knowledge 
 of good and evil," are unlike anything subsequently experienced by man- 
 kind; the free, unfettered converse held between the creature and the Creator, 
 sound to some ears more like the familiar questioning and cross questioning 
 of equals than the communication of thought from the Infinite to the Finite; 
 the vast age attained by the immediate descendants of the first pair make 
 us feel as we read the scanty record of their genealogy that we are in the 
 presence of mysterious demigods. No honest man can but confess that he 
 often reads these unparalleled narratives with an inner questioning as to 
 whether these things were really so. Now, I should like y.u to re- 
 member the wise counsels of Lord Bacon before you give heeo' to any 
 suppressed feelings of disquietude as to the real sense and value of these 
 Biblical accounts of early human history. In introducing his method by 
 which nature is to be viewed and safely interpreted, he warns his readers, 
 as a preliminary to truthful investigation, against the practice of falling down 
 before certain intellectual Deities. He says there sue four kinds of" Idola,"or 
 false deities to which the human mind has been prone to pay homage, much to 
 the detriment of philosophy ; of these, two are the " Idola Specus " and the 
 " Idola Fani," that is to say, the false influences of human society and of 
 human opinions derived from fashionable, approved systems of thought. I 
 don't accuse you of idolatry. I have not witnessed your devotions to the 
 prevalent forms of modern intercourse and modern thought. But I think 
 you stand on the threshold of the heathen temple when you quietly and al- 
 most unconsciously reason thus with yourselves: " We of this generation are 
 decent people, clothed in the best woollens and silks our manufacturers can 
 produce ; our homes are solid and substantial as well as ornate, far removed 
 ' from those which the birds enjoy among leafy bowers, and more cosy than 
 the soft warm lair of the hare as she sleeps with open eyes in the thick tender 
 grass. When we are weary with a toil more conducive to national wealth 
 than pruning olive trees or eating ohoioe fruits, we seek the welcome society 
 of the drawing room, or plunge heart and soul into the last racy book of the 
 season. If we feel sad and weak and are conscious of yearning after the 
 Invisible One, we read the wonderful Book which tells us of Him who oame 
 to give restto the weary, or we join those like minded with ourselves in a noble 
 
9 
 
 Sanctuary to offer solemn Worship to the Great Unseen, whose Voice no man 
 knows, and whose Form none have gazed upoD. And if ever we feel per- 
 plexed as to what had better be done in the hour of trial, we at once fall 
 back on the history of our race, or confer with grave fathers and saintly mo- 
 thers who have often listened to delusive voices and detected the lie they 
 covered. We have a God, — but we never see him. We have a conscience — 
 but it is rich in the lessons of experience. There are snares in life, but they 
 entangle our feet unawares ; the world is bigand its people are numerous; the 
 ways of Providence are orderlyj — we are the people. As it is now : so it was 
 in the beginning and ever was from the days of Adam, back to the hour when 
 the same old earth began its endless roll, and the same bright sun shed its 
 beams to show to the old earth its proper course through the universe." 
 
 Now, observe according to the tendency of this procesn of thought, Adam 
 tWis, of course, born in a proper way just as you were. His wife was the 
 daughter of somebody else, and in no way intimately connected with him- 
 self. They were brought together by a respectable clergyman, united in 
 bonds sealed by the laws of the State. They read, as the evening came on, 
 the poems of some antediluvian Tennyson, or discussed the latest fashions from 
 Havilah. They derived wonderful help in the secret temptations which 
 came upon them from listening to an eloquent preacher who knew how both 
 to warn and encourage them ; and when they longed to know the Great Fa- 
 ther who made them and to tell him their joys and sorrows, they looked up 
 to the broad Heavens to see His form, and hearkened with bated breath 
 amidst the rustling of the forest leaves, to catch a sound of His voice, — but 
 they saw and heard Him not ; for, had He not long ago appeared to their an- 
 cestors and told them all His Will, and showed them once for all how to live 
 a holy and happy life ? 
 
 I tell you frankly, young men, that I dont know of any modern intellec- 
 tual folly more perfect than that of tacitly making our notion of life, as it 
 is in its developed form in the 19th century, the criterion by which to judge 
 of the accuracy of the narrative which reveals to us the beginning of life, 
 when the great web of human history first began to spin itself out. I should 
 like to see some persons write a history of the origin, manners, trials and sor- 
 rows of our first ancestors. If they did not make them a fashionable pair, 
 blessed with all the appliances of home, and school, and husines, — what would 
 they make them out to be ? Would they say : " And it came to pass that 
 after the earth had been peopled for ten thousand years, by all sorts of 
 beasts with legs and without legs, one day, a jackdaw or an ancestor of the 
 modern jackdaw, as he sat on a projecting rock, heard, or thought he heard, 
 the sound of a new voice. And as he turned his comical head to see from 
 whence it came, he observed a huge monkey, that is to say a, gorilla. Now, 
 this gorilla's ancestors, many thousands years before, were not so upright, 
 and not so humaii in appearance as he was ; but a development for the better, 
 not the worse, had gradually been going on, which issued in this one bcoom- 
 I ng what the jackdaw saw him to be. Then, after the said jackdaw had 
 been gathered to his fathers, and another thousand years had elapsed, the 
 lineal descendant of the said Gorilla, by dwelling too much in caves and un- 
 der shady places, had lost nearly all his hairy covering, and the strange 
 
10 
 
 voice once heard had, by frequent exercise in shouting to the parrots, been 
 developed into a more distinct utterance, and could even, when the creature 
 was pleased with the sweetness of the apples he ate, be modulated into a 
 whistle which caused envy among the birds of the air. Now, it also hap- 
 pened, many years after this, that this wonderfully developed creature look- 
 ing for a mate, one day met with her beneath an overhanging vine, whither 
 both had been attracted by desire for food. Whereupon seeing no other crea- 
 ture could understand their marvellous voice, they entered into a solemn 
 league and covenant to abandon for ever the woods and groves, and live a de- 
 cent life, and found a great and noble family to which they would give the honor- 
 able name of < Man.' And so, it came to pass that our first parents begat chil- 
 dren more perfect in smoothness, in voice, and in uprightness of backbone 
 than themselves, built houses, planted gardens, raised factories, studied phi- 
 losophy, in short entered upon civilized life I" 
 
 It is necessary to put vague notions into words, in some such way as 
 this, in order that you may see into what tangles they must get, who, mak- 
 ing ideas of life derived from our modern civilization the standard by which 
 to judge of the early forms of society, feel uneasy in accepting the Bible 
 narrative of the origin of man, and of the simplicity of his material condition 
 and moral discipline. Don't fancy that by setting aside difficulties in the 
 Mosaic account you can get into a mental sphere clear of all difficulty. That is 
 a great delusion. Bemember that whatever view be taken of the origin of 
 man, the earliesi state of man must, in external ciroamstanoes and moral 
 training, differ greatly fro "^ his state in these ages of ripe civilization; but in 
 the earliest and the latest stages he physically and mentally is Man. The 
 Indian who lives half naked, is ignorant of legislative and other arts, in the 
 prairie, is no less a man than the Prime Minister of Britain or the President 
 of the United States, — though in circumstances they are as wide as the poles 
 asunder. What sort of a creature would people have God made in the first 
 instance and by what methods? Is the Infinite One to be regulated in His 
 creative actions by our notions of what would be great and becoming ? Are 
 the crude notions of what man's creation ought to have been, more presentable 
 than the record given in the Bible ? 
 
 Because God has formed us by a gradual process must Ho of necessity have 
 abstained from framing the first man by an act of absolute creation? Because 
 we find a holp-meet who is of our own race, ready for us with a full consci- 
 ousness of a common origin by descent, must the Almightv be prevented 
 from creating one for the first man, in such a way as to make him and her 
 feel that they are of a common origin and bound together by ties most 
 sacred ? Because God has given us His Word to point out our dangers and 
 to aid us in the work of loving obedience, must He be debarred from ap- 
 pointing to Adam, when books had no existence, and when there were no de- 
 fencf^s of a rich and long experience to fall back upon, a definite rule of life 
 that would fend to remind him of his dependence, nourish the new born sense 
 of responsibility and lessen his dangers by concentrating them on one point? 
 Because God has been manifested in Christ, and through Him spoken to us, 
 reasoned with us, made us feel that Ho is ever near and acceasible,— must 
 He therefore not be allowed, by our mudorn fancies, to appear in definite 
 
11 
 
 form to those who most needed to be informed of the existence of a God, and 
 to speak to them in language suitable to their condition ? Because we are 
 subjected to divine restraints by the action of conscience, by the action of 
 physical law, by ihe action of human society, by the action of the church of 
 which we are members, muse therefore the transgression of Adam be visited 
 by no chastisement of an open form, but be confined to the simple action of 
 only one force — conscience ? I say when you read these narratives bear in 
 mind that you have to do with life in its beginnings; and therefore, expect 
 to meet with what you will never find when society is organized, disciplined 
 and enjoying the advantages of ample instruction from the experience of ages, 
 and the voice of God in His Word. 
 
 3. The earlj narratives are to he loolced at in relation to subsequent 
 events. 
 
 The Bible is not a history of the world ; but a history of man in his 
 relation to God. It does not pretend to give us all details that may be 
 needful to scl, some of the related events in a clear light. It comes to us 
 with authority, as from God — and we are bound to receive it on the assertion 
 of that authority and not on the ground of independent enquiries. If our 
 reasoning powers are to be exercised in relation to this subject — it is first in 
 the examination of the evidences that exist in support of such authority hav- 
 ing been asserted. If in the result, we fiad that God has never claimed to be 
 the author of these books, then we can approach and examine them just as 
 we would any others. But if we find, by the exercise of our reason, that 
 He has claimed authority of a certain range here, then our duty is to read 
 subject to the influence of this fact, and to use our reason to find out the 
 interpretation which He would have us put upon His Word. That interpre- 
 tation may be more or less free, as we comprehend the scope and character of 
 the sanction which God has given to the narratives recorded ; but the Bible 
 will be regarded as God's version of the history of man in relation to Him- 
 self. 
 
 Approaching tlie early portions of the Bible under this light, you wiU 
 find a principle of selection, in the choice of the events recorded as distin- 
 guished from those events that are passed by in silence. The ruling design 
 in the account of creation, is clearly to set forth the truth that the Creator of 
 all things is the being with whom man has to do in his obedience and disobe- 
 dience. Man's life in the garden of E Jou and during the subsequent years 
 of sorrow and toil, is only depicted in those few points which bear upon his 
 relation to God as holy and as sinful. The ten thousand matters of human 
 earthly interest which atFectod Adam and Eve and their children are not 
 mentioned. The allusion to the family quarrel which issued in the death of 
 Abel, seems to rest on the fact that the portentous development of sin, on 
 the one side, and the growth of domestic piety on the other, must be recorded. 
 At a time when the human boily was free from the numerous ailments 
 which tho diseases and 8tra^';.;los und suJforin^rs of hundreds and thousands 
 ofyoarshave handed down to u), mon attained naturally to a very fine old 
 age— an arrangement of Providence, no doubt, that men might multiply very 
 fast and not allow tho earth to be prc-posscsscd by the brute creation. But 
 
out of the thousands who ia those strange time^ p iced the virgin cartii 
 and made a sensation among their kindred, only the names, of ti.ose arc in- 
 cluded in the genealogical lists who are in tlie direct line of descent from 
 Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham and Clhrist. The world must have 
 been populous in the time of Noah, but you will observe that the only event 
 in human history laid hold of by the sacred historian is that of the deluge, 
 and this not because it was a deluge, — but because it was expressive of the 
 sad deterioration of men in their relation to God. In like manner you may 
 run through the book and it will appear that the principle of selection which 
 regulates the writer is — the bearing of what occurred on the unfoldin"; of 
 Uod s mercy to man in the person of Christ our Saviour. 
 
 In connexion with this I may remark, that by reason of the necessary bre- 
 vity of the narrative and in strict accordance with this jirinciple of selection, 
 many circumstances are omitted, which, if known, would doubUess clear away 
 difl&culties which under present circumstances must be kept for future so- 
 lution. I remember how Sir H. Holland, in a volume published some years 
 since, tells of the perplexities and confusions of astronomers as they pursued 
 their observations and reckonings within the limits of the solar system. They 
 were constantly baffled in their calculations by something they could neither 
 see nor prove. They knew that the facts of astronomy were real, but they 
 could not make them consistent one with another. What did they do ? Did 
 they cast aside the solar system as an old worn out machine that would not 
 work in order? Did ^hcy become sceptics as to the reality of astronomy being 
 a perfect science ? I'id they fret against the author of the Universe for 
 creating such difficulties as were beyond their solution ? ]>sn; for they were sen- 
 siblemen, whose strength "was" to be still. They waited in hope, and in duo 
 time there was discovered a planet which accounted for all the perturbation.^ 
 they had observed, and which wh'.n seen, restored order and perfection to what 
 before was all confusion and incompleteness. And so, depend upon it, there 
 arc many things out of sight which, were they known, would remove some of 
 the difficulties now ol'teu felt. And it is the path of prudence to hold fast 
 by the facts given u;? as parts of a great system ; remembering that ns 
 ignoranco of the proximity of one planet docs not annihilate tho existence 
 and orderliness of anotherplanet, though its ordorlinossmay not be apparent, — 
 so the absonco of certain knowledge of some things that took place does not 
 prove that other things, of which wc are told but cannot fully comprehend, 
 did not occur. 
 
 4. The principle ichich regulates God's m'tnlfcstatlons of Ilbnsdfis onc^ 
 though the form may he various. 
 
 I imagine that all will admit that, in sonic way or other, God doc? mani- 
 fest Himself to his creatures without interuussion through the long course of 
 tho ages. Ho doDS not leave us as orphans compolled to cry out for ever af- 
 ter a Father who is as good as dead. We are, in our briu'litcst and best moods, 
 Eonsiblo of a need of enlightenment and guidance in order to .ittain to a po- 
 sition of clearer vision and deeper satisfaction. And I am sure it is true 
 that the rule of tho Divine manifestations in all ages ia one — namely, tho 
 need of our ordinary processes of thought and ordinary sources of knowledge 
 
13 
 
 beinj; supplemented by la iy.it which comes direct from the Father of Lights. 
 The principle that regulates the revelation of'God's will to man is ever this— 
 Light for the <:;uid:moo of uiau's conduct 'according to the emergency of his 
 position, He gives to men because they cannot do their life work without 
 ilis gifts. 
 
 But that beinp; so, who is to lay down the law that the Eternal Who has 
 at His dispof^al all rof^oiiiccf!, Who formed the car and caused the tongue to 
 speak and gave power oi' vision to t!ie cyo, shall be restricted to one par- 
 ticular line of coniiuunicatl.n ! If man's personal need of guidance gives 
 scope for the principle of aid from on High, docs not the shifting character of 
 man's need give scope for shifting forms in the bcsiov.-ment of that aid ? In the 
 present day God does not n.'^sume any form on which our eye can rest ; He 
 speaks not in any lone taut fills on our sense of hearing. No strange mys- 
 terious L'l'ing meets us on our door step as mot Abraham at the door of 
 his teat, and v;e held no wondrous converse v/ith a visible Deity, visiting us in 
 the cool of tilt! day, and why? Because, hnving- the revealed Will of God in 
 b'cripture as tl)c i-urc llegulativo Guide of all our ways and thoughts, and 
 being inheritors of a fill experience of His dealings, we have no need of any- 
 thing more than that the silent and invisible action of His Spirit should bo 
 felt on ours that we may, thereby, know the perfect Will of God. He meets 
 our need by written I^ovclation, supplemented by such illumination of the 
 Holy Spirit as n..iy enable us to appreciate its import. In the days of Peter, 
 James and John there v as almost an absence of visible displays of the Divino 
 presence, because tiicy did not need them after the recent manifestation of 
 (jod in Cliriirt Jesus. When further back, Jewish Society was developed to an 
 extent that personal nianilestationstoba aguide to men must bo as numerous 
 as the men, the wants of the erring nation were mot by God speaking to them 
 through the mouth of a few select prophets ; and when more remotely still, 
 the nation was being first consolidated under Moses, the '"light of life" shone 
 ou the people almost entirely through hi:' agency. But when you go back to 
 ihepatriat..'iai day?, there being no books, no prophets, no Saviour visible or 
 represented, the love of God must necessarily show itself in communications to 
 tho heads of the fimilicsif not to the individual menibera ; and still further, 
 when you place yourself in tliouj;htaniidstthe solitudes of Eden, the question 
 naturally comes, if Adam and J'jVO needed teaching as surely as we all do, 
 how and in what wav could the enlightenment bo most certainly conveyed ? 
 I say most ccrtainli/, yes; that is, so as not to be confounded with the ima- 
 ginings of their own minda. jNeccssfrily if God was to bless them with 
 guidance and an impressive sense of tlieirdependance on Himself, it must bo 
 by manifesting His presence and \Vill in such forms of speech and appear- 
 ance as would be recognized and valued. And I want to know whether there 
 is any inconsistency in Him Who made the eye of man, and Who in the days of 
 Christ became man, appearing in visible form to His first children. And as 
 to God entering into detailed conversation with Adam and Cain and Noah, 
 docs Ho not do all things in detail ? Does not His cyo rest on every hair of 
 your V^ad ? Is not every distinct' atom upheld by His power? Did not 
 Christ, God manifest in the flesh, enter fully, into the particular sorrows of 
 men ? Do wo not find our consolation in this that ns a Father pitioth his 
 
u 
 
 children so does the Lord pity them that fear Him ? Away then; with that 
 hard, cold, unphilosophical, absurd notion which represents the Great Father 
 as absorbed in the vast affairs of other worlds, too proud to bend to our 
 frail state, and afraid of the public opinion of grand anfrels and archangels 
 in case He condescends to tell Adam of his sins, and speak to him of things 
 to come ! We lovo and honour the King Eternal, Who bends to men of low 
 degree, raises the poor from the dust, attends to the sighing of the prisoner, 
 and adapts His communications of warning, guidance, or comfort to tho 
 changing circumstances of His children. 
 
 5. TJiere is a remarlcahlc rescmhlance hcfwecn the main features of the 
 early Revelations contained in G«nesis and the Revelations of the Neio TiS' 
 tament. 
 
 You remember 'that one of the most conspicuous items in the truth 
 revealed in the first chapter cf Genesis is, that man was formed out of the 
 dust of the ground. Now I maintain that that representation is more con- 
 sistent with the character of the Creator as revealed in Scripture, than any 
 theory of evolution or developenient can be. Why should men think it a 
 strange thing that God the Ahnigh'y should form a human body out of tho 
 dust of tho earth ? Has not the Creator in his own Nature all the forces 
 which, coming out from his Nature at tlie bidding of His own Will, can make, 
 by an acceleration of processes beyond our thought, a living frame, and is 
 not all development an outcome of the Divine Nature. Docs not the 
 Eternal contain within Himself the primal germ of all laws and forces? A 
 point I more especially allude to is this, that the account in Genesis is of the 
 same class as the Revelations of tho New Testament, which declare as plainly 
 as can be, that our new and more glorious bodies, on the resurrection day, sliall 
 be formed in like manner from the dust of the earth into which they .fill have 
 fallen. The act of creation will then be repeated in your instance and mine. 
 
 Then, also, the visible display of cherubim, which barred the entrance 
 to the blissful seat after our parents had left it, was not only suited to their 
 primitive and simple ways of life — but has its counterpart in that visible 
 public manifestation before men and angels, when God manifest in the flesh, 
 amidst the gloom of the skies and tho rockings of the earth, fell a sacrifice on our 
 behalf and burst open as a glorious conqueror, the gates of a more blissful Par- 
 adise to all believers. And, if sometimes fastidious and narrow-visioned 
 readers, are staggered at tho unwonted familiarity and persistency of Abraham 
 with the Divine Being, when he pleaded for Sodom and obtained a promise 
 of deliverance on account even of ten righteous ones, let us remember that 
 very holy men can plead with God as none others can or dare, and that the 
 Father does give special heed to the request of those who love Him most in- 
 tensely. But in addition to this consideration do not forget how, when God 
 dwelt among menj John was permitted as the beloved one to lean on Emman- 
 uel's bosom, and to ask Him questions which none other dure. And finally, 
 not to multiply instances, in the warning specific and impressive, which God 
 gave to the people in the days of Noah, and in the i'earl'ul disaster which 
 riubsequently came upon them, great and awful as it was, — we have in tho 
 New Testament a revelation of something of the same character, only morQ 
 
15 
 
 stupendous and sweeping, in the allusions to the end of all things, when the 
 elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and heavens shall pass away 
 I have now I trust said enough to point out how some of the peculiari- 
 ties which we fintt m the early Revelations of God's Will and Ways are both 
 natural under the circumstances in which they occurred, and wise ind consi- 
 iV^u *f! tT '^^'' ,^ere the objects of them. I have shown that we must 
 weigh all that is involved m the fact of the records being the most ancient in 
 existence; that they relate to life and action in their beginnings and not in 
 their tull development J that the events narrated are so related out of millions 
 ot other events on the principle of their being connected with thehistorvof 
 man m his relation to God, and culminating in the life and death of Christ • 
 that God always manifests Himself on the one broad rule of meeting the sni- 
 ritual need of His creatures the particular form of the manifestation being regu- 
 lated by the condition and circumstances of the parties concerned : aSd fin- 
 
 wifh thlTn Genesis "^'^ ''''''"'"' '''^'^^^"" ^"P°^^^"^ resemblances 
 
 I have done my work imperfectly I knoT^ for the subject is great 
 and complicated. I have done it not to convince you of what perhaps vou 
 were not convinced of ; for I have very little hope of convincing any one^on 
 the most sacred subjects apart from the influence of the Holy Spirit on the 
 heart to make it owly and penitent. My desire has been to l\.rnish vou 
 with a few general prmciples, by the wise application of which you n.av be 
 able to read that remarkable portion of the word of God with greater adVan 
 tage. The longer I live the more am I convincd that young men andTd 
 men, maidens and mothers, cannot better promote their highest earthly inter 
 est than by a studj and prayerful use of the Bible. I have known, as Tou 
 may have known, lives almost thrown away for even this world becaiiso ihZ 
 were not imbued with the Spirit that pervades this Book. We know it has fash 
 loned some of the noblest characters that have adorned the world has fired 
 with a quenchless and holy enthusiasm, men and women who haie by th^r 
 blameless lives and beneficient deeds proved the greatest benefactors of ihJl 
 raceandhasbroughtfullandabidingconsolationto^hanskt^^^^^^^^^^ 
 m their desolation, heartstricken parents in their bereavements, Tnd strong 
 and hale men whose spirit has been bowed down with a consciousness of 
 
 ^ J !!^i'u'T^T^^^?l *^''" 6''^^"'^^' *« °" ^^^e''^' we have ample rea 
 son to hold by this blessed light, that it may guide our trembling fectTou4 
 the dark and dangerous paths of our pilgrimage down to tbe over-sbadow^d 
 valley, from which, under the leadership of One who has trodden the road be- 
 fore, we hope to emerge in a fair and lovely land where the glorious li-ht that 
 fills and gladdens all, shall, by its unfailing splendour and sweetness obi iter 
 ate from our thoughts the traces of days°of darkness, dange and defea "