r %, '1/ PRINCETON, N. J. .//^/; SAc'//. y /te£^ny\jreH BS 651 .B62 1878 Boardman, George Dana, 1828J 1903. ^ Studies in the creative wee] STUDIES CEEATIVE WEEK. GEORGE D. BOARDMAN, " By Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all things were created by Him, and for Him : and He is before all things, and by Ilim all things consist." — Colossians i. 16, 17. NEW YORK : D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 AND 551 BROADWAY. 1878. COPTEIGHT BY OEOEGE DANA BOAKDMAN, 1878. MY WIFE "WHOSE POETIC INSIGHT INTO THE MEANING OF NATURE HAS BEEN MY INSPIRATION, THESE STUDIES APvE LOVINGLY OFFEKED. G. D. B. PREFACE. At the very outset, the author is emphatic in his wish that it be distinctly understood that this little volume does not claim to be a scientific treatise, or even an attempt to " reconcile the Mosaic Record with the teachings of Mod- ern Science." His main object, as set forth at length in his Introductory Lecture, has been to unfold the Moral Meaning which, he believes, is Divinely infolded in the Creation Archive. This object he has kept steadfastly and supremely in view : and if, in prosecuting it, he may have dispelled some of the seeming incongruities between Science and Kevelation, it has been only incidentally, on liis way to a diviner Goal. The wi-iter will be j)ardoned for giving some account of the circumstances which led to the production of this volume. The Lectures were originallv delivered as ser- mons on Sunday evenings, in the ordinary course of pulpit ministi-ation. During the com-se of their de- livery, eminent citizens, representing various branches of the Church, and various professions, requested their repe- tition before the pubKc at large. Accordingly, the Lect- ures, having been reconstructed, were delivered on four- teen consecutive Tuesday noons, beginning January S, 6 PREFACE. 1878, in one of the halls of Pliiladelj^hia. The Avriter has given this explanation in order to account for the oratorical freedom of the style, which, inexcusable in an elaborate monograph, may be pardoned in an oral lecture. And now the author, in sending forth this little work, which he does most diffidently, ventures to adopt as his own, nonpassibus cequis, " The "Writer's Prayer," as framed by Francis Bacon : " Thou, leather / Who gavest the Visible Light as the first-horn of Thy creatures, and didst pour into Man the Intellectual Light as tlCQ top and consummation of Thy worTcmanship, he pleased to protect and govern this worh, which, coming from Thy Goodness, returneth to Thy Glory. Thou, after Thou hadst revieioed the works which Thy hands had made, heheldest that everything was good : and Thou didst rest with complacency in them. But Man, reflecting on the works which he had made, saw that all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and could hy no means acquiesce in them. Wherefore, if we labor in Thy worTcs with the sweat of our hrows. Thou wilt make us partakers of Thy Vision and Thy Sahhath. We humhly heg that this mind may he steadfastly in us, and that Thou, hy our hands and also hy the hands of others on whom Thou shalt hestow the same spirit, wilt please to convey a la/rge- ness of new alms to Thy family of Mankind. These things we commend to Thy everlasting love, hy our Jesus, Thy Christ: God with us. AmenP G. D. B. PniLADELPiiiA, April 20, 1878. CONTENTS. LECTtTRE PAGE I. — Introductory . . . . . . • . 9 II. — Genesis of the Universe ..... 32 III. — Genesis of Order . . . . . .47 IV. — Genesis of Light ...... 65 V. — Genesis op the Sky . . . . . .83 VI. — Genesis of the Lands . . . . .100 VII. — Genesis of the Plants . . . . .119 VIII. — Genesis of the Luminaries . . . .138 IX. — Genesis of the Animals ..... 156 X. — Genesis of Man . . . . . .176 XI. — Genesis of Eden . . . . . .199 XII.— Genesis of Woman ...... 222 XIII. — Genesis of the Sabbath ..... 245 XIV.— Palingenesis ...... 273 Appendix . ' . . . . . • S03 STUDIES 1^ THE CEEATIYE WEEK. LECTURE I. INTKODUCTORY — REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. Inaugurating, as we now do, a series of Studies in the Creative Week, it is proper, first of all, to show cause for such a procedure. Our first reason is this : the Anti- I.-Antiquity of .. ^^ ^^^ Creation Record. Observe : the Creation Ar- ,,, "^ , n i ,i ,. n*- • -r-, •,•,■, 1 . altliouo;h called the " Mosaic Kecord, cluves. '^ , ' I do not affirm that Moses was the au- thor of it. There are strong reasons for believing that it is far older than the Lawgiver himself, having been be- queathed to him as one of the sacred, already hoary. Traditions of the Past. 1 —Oridn of the And here let me turn aside for a mo- Prehistoric Tradi- mcnt to speak of the possible origin of tions- the wide-spread traditions touching the early history of the world. For it is an unquestioned fact, as remarkable as unquestioned, that, from time immemorial, and among many and widely-scattered nations— e. g., the Chaldeans, the Phoenicians, the Eg}"ptians, the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese, the Karens, the Greeks, the Romans, 10 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the Celts, the Scandinavians, the Finlanders, the Peruvians, the Aztecs, the Algonquins, etc. — there were traditions of a Primitive Chaos, an Original Pair, a Paradisal Age, a Tree of Life, a Sequent, a Fall, an Expulsion, a Deluge, a Dispersion. Where did these traditions, so singular in themselves, and yet so common to so many and so widely- scattered peoples, have their origin ? 'No one but a vi- sionary would venture to affirm that they were the result of accident. Whence, then, did these remarkable tradi- tions rise ? Let us take a single chronological datum, viz., the Dispersion of the Nations, and see if it does not suggest the answer. Assuming that the ages given us in the fifth chapter of Genesis are the ages of individuals and not of dynasties, Methuselah was, according to the chro- nology of tlie Hebrew text, contemporary with Adam some two hundred and forty-three years, and also with Shem some ninety-eight years ; so that Adam could have told the story of Eden to Methuselah, and Methuselah to Shem. Again : according to the Scriptural account (Gen. X., xi.) — and this account is strikingly confirmed by the re- searches of ethnologists — Shem and his two brothel's were the progenitors of the three great Races into which Noah's family was divided at the time of the Confusion of Tongues in the Plain of Shinar, and the consequent Dispersion of the Nations ; and Shem himself survived the Dispersion some two hundred and eighty years. More- over, Shem was contemporary with Isaac, and Isaac with Judah, and eludah with Ezrom, and Ezrom with Moses. Recall now the exceeding value which must have been asci-ibed to tradition in that primeval age, when there was neither printing-press nor alphabet, and when the only knowledge of the past possible was that which was trans- mitted from sire to son by word of mouth. Remember, INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. H also, that in tliat age of extreme longevity such tradi- tions wonld proljably be preserved in great pnrity, since the Patriarchs, though descended one from another, were nevertheless contemporaries of each other for centuries, and so could and would correct any deviation from the original Tradition. Remember, also, the thrilling char- acter of these Traditions themselves. What tales more wondrous than those of a lost Paradise, with its innocent, blissful Pair ; its Tree of Life, and its Tree of Death ; its eloquent, baleful Serpent ; its Cherubim and Flaming Sword ? How often must Adam, during the nine hundred and thirty years of his life, have conversed with his chil- dren and his children's children, down to the seventh and eighth generations, about those memorable scenes of which he himself had been a witness and a sharer in Paradise ! And after he had died, how often must Shem, Ham, and Japheth — ^born a century before the Flood, and also con- temporary with the great-great-great-grandfather of Moses ■ — have conversed with Methuselah, who himself had been contemporary with Adam ! No wonder, then, that when the three sons of Noah, with their families, went forth from the Tower of Babel to be scattered over all the face of the earth, and to become the founders of all subsequent nationalities, they carried with them, and transmitted to their descendants, traditions of the Creation and Fall : traditions which, thougli in the first instance full and ear- nest, became, in process of time, dim and debased with legends of heathen poetry and mythology ; their similari- ties on the one hand, and tlieir divergences on the otlier, alike testifying to the common origin of Man in Eden, and to the dispersion of Man at Babel. Thus heathenism itself brings tribute to Revelation. All history, sacred and secu- lar, starts in and from Eden. 13 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. 2.-Mosaic Ineor- ^^^ I ^f speaking of tlic aiitlior- porations of the Crea- sliip of the first two chapters of Gene- tion Traditions. gig^ or the Creation Record. For aught I know, it was to Adam hiinseK, while yet in Eden, fresh from the hands of his Creator, that God unrolled the pan- orama of His Creation. And Adam could have talked with Methuselah, and Methuselah with Shem, and Shem Avith Isaac, and Isaac with the great-grandfather of Moses. As Matthew and Luke incorporated the genealogies of Jesus the Christ, j)i'obablj taken from the ofiicial regis- tries, into their memories of Him, and thereby made them a part of their o\^^l story, so there is immense reason for believing Moses incoi'porated into the five books which bear his name the primeval ti-adition of Creation, and thereby made it his own document : thus literally giving us a magnificent specimen of Mosaic work. As such, the Creation Archives far outrank in venerableness the famous papyrus rolls of Egypt, the Yedic hymns of India, the Zend-a vesta of Persia ; being, beyond all conij^arison, the most ancient specimen of human literature. This, then, is our first reason for studying the story of the Creative Week : it is the most venerable relic of hu- man time. But there is a second and stronger II. — Maiesty of -o^ • ^i nr • ^ c ^i o i • j_ tl >s b' tM tt^ reason : it is the Majesty ot the bubject u jec a cr. ^j,^^^^^ . , ^ . To go back to tlic oricjin or source Genesis of Tilings. j. ■, . . , ,. 01 things, tracing the first steps or what- ever has issued in greatness, whether material, intellectual, social, or moral, this is one of the instinctive impulses of our nature, especially of all noblest minds. IIow fascinat- ing to the thoughtful man the problems of the origin of universal^ abiding customs ; of vast and permanent iustitu- INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. 13 tions ; of great national movements, whether migratory in space, or revohitionary in morals ; of pohtical constitu- tions ; of languages ; of philosophies, secular and religious ; of force, of life, of matter ! Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. — (Geoegica, Liber ii. 490.) And the first two chapters of Genesis carry us back to the origin of things. " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth " (Gen. l. i). Well*may the first book of the Bible be called the Book of Genesis ; that is to say, the book of generations, births, beginnings, origins. Thus the first and second chapters give us the genesis of the universe ; the third and fourth chapters the genesis of sin ; the tenth and eleventh chapters the genesis of the nations — to this day an authority among ethnologists ; the tweKth chapter the genesis of the Abrahamic people. It is, in- deed, the Book of Origins. But we are to confine our- selves to tlie Genesis of the Universe, as set forth in its first" two chapters. And a magnificent theme it is. How grandly grow before us, tier on tier, the outlines of Na- ture's Cathedral : its colossal foundations of solid matter emerging from the abyss of infinite space ; its gathering medley of gigantic blocks quarried from clmos ; its group- ing materials and rising derricks ; its scintillations at the strokes of celestial chisels ; its " most excellent canopy " of the " brave o'erhanging firmament ; " its massive buttresses of the lands, and towering arches of the mountains ; its foliated capitals and pendants and mouldings and panels of vegetation ; its " majestical roof fretted with golden fire ; " its gargoyles of griffins, and sentinels of cherubim ; its choir of humankind ; its bell-toll of Time's first Sab- bath! No wonder that when its comej-stone was laid, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God 14 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. shouted for joy (Job xxxviii. 6, V) ; or tliat when its headstone was brought forth, it was with shoutings of Grace — grace unto it (Zech. iv. 7). This, then, is our second reason for studying the story of the Creative Week — the Majesty of the Theme. But there is a third reason for this III. — Chief Point , -, . n .• . . . , , , . ,, study : a reason especially pertinent to of Modern Assault. "^ . ^ -^ ^ these times, because born of them ; this story of the Creative Week is in many respects the cliief point of Modern Assault. And the assault comes in the main 1. — Science and n ,■, • j.*x! u tx • „ , ,. from the scientmc world, it is a Ecvelation. proper point, then, to aiTCst our steps for a few moments, and glance at the relations of Nature and Scripture, or rather of Science and Kevelation. Of course, I can discuss the matter in only a cursory way, out- lining, rather than unfolding. And, first : Nature, not less than («.)-Nature and Scripture, is God's Word. In both lie Scriiiture alike God's i tt- i r i • j^' reveals Himseli, speaking to man as in a Bible of two j^arts or volumes. " There arc two books," said Sir Thomas Brown, " from which I collect my divinity ; besides that wi'itten one of God, another of His servant Nature — that universal and public manuscript that lies expansed unto the eyes of all." I know that there is a sort of secret feeling that to call Nature a Bible savors of irreverence. But let us take care lest our religiosity here be in fact a sort of infidelity under guise of sanctity. Let us beware of Polytheism, worship- ing two Gods, the God of Nature and tlie God of Scrij)- ture : the latter being tlie better God. No ; Deity speaks to us alike in llis AVords and in His Works, in Scripture and in Nature. INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. 15 Secondly : coming tlms equally from (6.)-Nature and jjj^ j^^j^^| ^^^ ^^^,^ gj^^l^g ^^^^^^^ ^^^_ Scripture Mutually , ,. , i ,i t^- •. i i Comnicmental traclict each other, t mite man, capable of mistakes and subject to vacillations, may be and is inconsistent. But Inlinite God is not a man that He should lie, nor the Son of man that He should re- pent (Num. xxiil. 19). He cannot deny HimseK (2 Tim. ii. 13). If, then, there be inconsistency between His Words and His Works, the presumption is that the inconsistency is only apparent, and springs from our failure to interpret the two Bibles truly. Thirdly : this leads to the remark (c.)-Ourlaterpre- ^j^^, ^^j^-jg ^^^^ j,^^^^^ ^^.^ ^^yij^Q ^nd tations Liable to Er- , ^ , . i • c i j,^jj. thereiore true, our mterjDretation ot the Bibles is human, and therefore liable to error. There is such a thing as the unintentional misin- terpretation of Scripture, and there is such a thing as the unintentional misinterpretation of ISTature. As a matter of fact, the history of the interpretations of these two Bibles, Nature and Scripture, is more or less a history of modifications and recantations. And so it must ever be, so long as man is finite and fallible. Fourthly : nevertheless, as time ad- ((/)-Our Under- ^.^nccs, our Understanding of the two standnig of the Two -,-^.. ^ ^ i o • Bibles rrogrcssive. ^^^es, mture and Scripture, grows larger and clearer. Take the case of Nature. How is I v)— rue o a- .^ ^^^^ ^^ have in our libraries such noble volumes as WheM^elPs '' History of the Inductive Sciences," and AVheweirs "History of Scientific Ideas ? " Simply because our knowledge of Nature is a growth — advancing from the little to the more, from the obscure to the clearer, from the less true to the ture; 16 STUDIES IN TUE CREATIVE WEEK. more true. And tliis remark tliat the Icnowledge of Na- ture is progressive is eminently true of that science which, it is alleged, conflicts most directly with the Mosaic narra- tive, the science of Geology. As Geology is among the youngest of the Physical Sciences, so it is among the most shifting. True, some of its exponents are wont to talk of its certainties, using such strong terms as " incontroverti- ble," ' • proof positive," " absolute demonstration," and the like. But it is not the great inasters who talk thus — only the sciolists. For the true scientiiic spirit, like tlie time theological, is ever cautious and modest. How far Geology is from being a matured or settled science is evident, e. g., from the debates between eminent geologists touching the antiquity of the earth. However strongly the stratified rocks may seem to testify to the extreme antiquity of the globe, geological phenomena occurring in our days, and before our own eyes, such, e. g., as upheavals and subsid- ences of lands, emei'gence and disappearance of islands, recession and procession of sliores, depositions by equa- torial currents, rapid and extensive chemical crystalliza- tions, and the like, as strongly suggest the comparatively recent origin of the earth. Observe, it is not on Scriptural or moral grounds that I object to these geological theories. The question here is simply a question of fact. Hypoth- eses, however briUiant, are not demonstrations. Geology is a very noble science, but she is still in her teens. And as the knowledge of Nature is (2.)— And True of progressive, so is the knowledge of Scrip- ture. That this is i)Ossible and reason- able, is evident from such considerations as the following : a. Recovery of lost manuscripts. J). Discovery of archaeological facts. c. Better understanding of the principles of philology. INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. I7 a. Better methods of interpretation. e. Liglits reflected from newly-discovered facts in "Na- ture. f. Lights reflected from the growing experience of the ages. Tlie simple circumstance that there is an ever-growing demand for a revision of the received version of the Scrip- tures, is a striking testimony to the fact that our knowl- edge of Scripture is advancing. How profound in this connection the words of Bishop Butler ! — / " As it is owned, the whole scheme of Nature is not yet understood, so, if it ever comes to be understood before the Restitution of all things (Acts iii. 21), and without miracu- lous interpositions, it must be in the same way as natural knowledge is come at — by the continuance and progress of learning and of liberty, and by particular persons attending to, comparing, and pursuing intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and disregarded by the gen- erality of the world. For this is the way in which all im- provements are made : by thoughtful men tracing on obscure hints, as it were, dropped us by Nature accidentally, or which seem to come into our minds by chance. Nor is it at all in- credible that a book, which has been so long in the possession of mankind, should contain many truths as yet undiscovered. For all the same phenomena, and the same faculties of in- vestigation, from which such great discoveries in natural knowledge have been made in the present and last age, were equally in the possession of mankind several thousand years before. And possibly it might be intended that events, as they come to pass, should open and ascertain the meaning of several parts of Scripture."— ("Analogy of Religion," Part ii.-, chapter 3.) 18 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. « , , ^. ,, _, Fifthly : wliat, then, is the infer- (e.) — Time the Great -^ ' ■, ,. Expositor. ^^ce to DC drawn from the foregoing remarks ? Simply this : Since it is true that Nature and Scripture are alike the Word of God ; that the two Bibles cannot contradict each other ; that the inteii:)retation of both of them is alike human and hable to error ; and that our understanding of them is progressive : then it follows that, in any case of aj)parent conflict be- tween a Scriptural statement and an alleged scientific fact, it is our duty to be cautious in our judgments, reserved in our statements, and patiently await the tuition of future discoveries. Had the Church thus waited, she never would have pronounced Galileo a heretic. Had the Academy thus waited, she never would have pronounced Moses a blunderer. It is pleasant to believe that not one of the thus far demonstrated facts of science is hostile to the Mo- saic story fairly interpreted. Lives there the man who knows — demonstrably knows — that Moses has told an un- truth ? Remember that candor neither aflSrms nor denies till she knows. Let the Church and the Academy listen to each other respectfully, and treat each other fairly. Let Science help Scripture, and let Scripture help Science. In all cases of aj^parent conflict between them, the true phi- losophy and the true bravery, alike for theologian and for scientist, is to await the tuition of events. Time is the great expositor. Let the Church, then, in whose behalf it is my vocation specially to speak, calmly abide her time. The grass withereth ; the flower fadeth ; but the Word of the Lord endureth forever (i Totcr i. 24, 25). And among the many tributes which science shall yet lay at the feet of Im- manucl and Immanuers bride, not the least costly M'ill be that ])rought by fair Geology herself. Yea, the very stones of the iield will be in league with Messiah's Church (Job v. 23). INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. 19 So mucli for the mutual relations of Science and Reve* lation. 2._The Language But there is another point which of the Creation Rec- in this connection demands attention. ord Phenomenal. jj^^ f^y jg this story of the Creative Week to be interpreted science-wise ? In other words, is this Creation Kecord, in all its details, to be taken liter- ally ? Remember, then, that the Bible does not profess to be a scientific treatise ; it does not profess to be written for a scientific purpose ; it does not profess to describe the facts of Nature philosophically — that is to say, with scien- tific accuracy. Professing to reveal spiritual truths, i. e., truths which could not have been learned without super- natural disclosure, it leaves the discovery of the facts of Nature — a discovery which can be wrought out by man's own powers — to the natural laws of human unfolding. And when it does speak of the facts of Nature, it speaks phenomenally — that is to say, it describes things of this sort, not as they absolutely are, but as they seem to be ; not philosophically, but optically ; not scientifically, but scenically. God knows that I would not willingly offend the least of His little ones. God knows that I believe that His Scripture is inspired, and that I bow before it as rev- erently as ever did the devoutest believer. And yet, -let me frankly say it, I do not believe that the Creation Rec- ord is to be taken literally. If I take one part of it as lit- eral, then I must be consistent, and take the whole as lit- eral : e. g., I must believe that the seven days were literal days of twenty-four hours each ; that God spake in an ar- ticulate, audible voice, though there was not an ear to hear ; that there was a first day with morning and even- ing, though there was no sun to rise and set, and so intro- duce mora, and bequeath eve ; that it was the soil itself 20 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. that brought forth vegetation and birds and beasts ; that God literally spoke to the animals, saying, "Be fniitful and multiply, and fill the earth ; " that He actually had lungs, and breathed into the nostrils of the first man ; that He actually performed a surgical operation in Eden, and metamorj)hosed one of Adam's ribs into a woman ; that He actually rested on the seventh day because He was real- ly tired out with His creative toils. For myself, most rev- erently I say it, the God I kneel before is greater than this. Observe : the question before us is not a question of pow- er ; of course, God could have done all this ; nothing is too hard for Him, except to do wrong ; but the question is a question of fact ; did He literally do all this ? Eemem- ber that, in this matter of Creation — this record of making real, ponderable entities out of space or nothing — we are moving in the region of the transcendent, the unspeakable, the absolutely inconceivable. Creation — mark the word — transcends all experience, transcends even conception itself. Hence the words describing Creation must, in the very nature of the case, be figurative, or parabolic. And par- able is the very highest form of truth. A geometrical ax- iom is not so true as a Nazarene parable. The one is teth- ered by material limits ; the other is as limitless as God's immensity. Accordingly, I believe, with some of the devoutest scientists of the Church, that the record of the Creative "Week is the record of a Divinely inspired vi- sion, wherein the beholder was Divinely vouchsafed a glimpse of the creative process, as though unfolded in a series of unrolling sections of a Divine panorama. And I believe this, not merely because the facts of creation are inherently transcendental and incommunicable, but also because revelation by vision was God's favorite method of instruction in the primitive ages. Listen to Elihu, son of INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. 21 Baracliel and friend of Job, speaking when liumanity was yet young : " In dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep f alleth on man, in slmnbers on his bed ; then doth God open the ear of men and seal up their' instruction " (Job xxxiii. 15, 16). Tlius did He instruct Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Joseph of Xaza- reth, the Wise Men from the East, Peter, Paul, and, in a very eminent degree, John of Patmos. What is the Book of the Eevelation but a series of majestic visions ? And as that Book is a panoramic Apocalypse of the future, so I firmly believe is the Creation Kecord a panoramic Apoca- lypse of the past. Accordingly, its language is not scientific, but phenomenal or pictorial. Even scientists themselves, who very properly demand strict accuracy of expression when discoursing on scientific matters, nevertheless often allow themselves, and very properly, to use phenomenal language, as when they speak, e. g., of sunrise and sunset. Why should not the wiiter of this venerable Archive, living in that far-off, childlike antiquity, be allowed the same lib- erty ? And, indeed, we may bless God that the language of Scripture on such matters is optical. For, had the Bi- ble been \vi-itten in the scientific style, it would have been a sealed book except to the initiated. Moreover, it would have been misunderstood and assailed by these very ini- tiates, even far more than it actually has been ; for Science, like every other thing of life, is a process, constantly out- growing and sloughing off its own opinions and putting forth new. An interesting book has be'en written, entitled " Variations of Popery." Possibly another book, equally interesting, might be written, entitled " Yariations of Science." But phenomenal language never becomes obso- lete. To the end of time, savant, not less than savage, will speak of sumise and sunset. No, the Bible does not pro- 22 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. fess to be a scientific book. It professes to describe such matters as we have in hand optically — i. e., as they look. JSTevertheless, it does profess even here to tell the truth. As a matter of fact, the sun did not rise this morning ; it is the rotation of the globe on its axis that gave us what seemed to be a sunrise. Do you then charge your almanac-maker with ignorance or falsehood because he has told you that the sun would rise this morning at twenty- two minutes past seven o'clock, or that he will set to-night at fifty-two minutes past four ? IS^evertheless, although theoretically false, these phenomenal statements touching the heavenly bodies are practically true, and so true that on the basis of them your navigator, in mid-ocean, will accurately calculate his longitude and latitude, and your astronomical clock at Washington will give the exact time of day to a continent. Precisely so with the Mosaic nar- rative of the Creation. Scientifically false it may be ; op- tically, and in the moral sense, profoundly true I firmly believe it is. Most unfair, then, and even absurd it would be to discuss it scientifically. And yet I feel perfectly sure that it is just as true as the statements of jour alma- nac-maker. So much for the purpose of the Creation Rec- ord and the mode of its revelation to the original Xarrator. And now to return to the main - . :~ -^"^ " ^'^^ "■ point at present in hand : the assaults Living Issue. ^ •'^ on the Mosaic Story ; for it is assaulted, let it be confessed, very formidably. And I am here to defend it ; and this because I believe it to be true in the sense in wdiich the author meant it. And, in defending it, I shall, of course, speak from the platform of a Chris- tian believer. At the same time I shall speak from the platform of one who has a profound homage for the scien- tific method, freely taking, whenever the occasion de- INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. 23 mands, my weapons from the arsenal of science itself. And in thus repelling from tlie platform of the scientist tlie assaults of unbelievers, I am sure I am sanctioned by Apostolic authority. Tnie, you hear from the Apostles no such words as gravitation, electricity, spectrum analy- sis. And no wonder ; the physical sciences were not then born. Nevertheless there were then, as there are now, as- saults against Cliristianity. These assaults, however, came not from scientists, but from Jewish ritualists and legal- ists; from Gentile polytheists and idolators. And the Apostles, wherever they went, met the foe, not at some ancient, abandoned point, but at the point of contempora- neous assault. Since then wonderful advances have been made. Since then the telescope and the microscope have been invented. Since then Christianity has been sum- moned to grapple with new foes — foes more formidable than any that were wont to broaden their phylacteries in Herod's temple, or kiss toward the shade of Plato in the ohve-grove of Athens's academy. And now suppose that Paul, rallied from Ciesar's axe, and living again to-day, were set here in Philadelphia for the defense of the Gos- pel, even as he had been in those Eoman days of yore. How think you would he speak ? Would he not take up the modern gauntlet, going forth to meet the new foes, as he was wont to go forth to meet the old foes, grappling with them on their own ground ? Would he not close in with the modern false interpreter of God's first Bible, as he was wont to close in with the ancient legalist of E,ome, the ancient skeptic of Corinth, the an- cient ritualist of Galatia, the ancient mystic of Colosse ? Old foes they are ; but they wear new masks. Be it ours, then, to strip off the new masks, and so disclose the old foes. 24 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. And yet here at tliis very point let pint oi iiiese Studies. 4. — Spirit of these /. n j.i . . i i , me say, once lor all, that, throughout tliese studies, I shall never intentionally indulge in philippic. Of course, I shall exercise man's common prerogative — the right of personal opinion. But I shall never, if God shall be so good as to help me, stoop to denunciation. For there is no eloquence so easy, so transient, so sterile, and, if you will allow me, so vulgar, as the eloquence of invective. Of course, we ought to fight every lie. But the best way of fighting it is not with the insect buzz and sting of diatribe : the all-con- quering way is to let in on it the calm, noiseless sunbeam of Truth. This, then, is our thu'd reason for studying the Story of the Creative Week : it is the chief point of modern scientific assault. But there is a fourth and still strong- IV.— Moral Mean- er reason for engaging in this study: ing of the Story, it is the Moral Meaning of the Story itself. 1. — Nature and ^or I firmly belicve that a profound, Scripture correspon- Divinely - Ordained correspondence ex- <^'^^'- ists between things spiritual and things natural. Observe the order of my words : Between things spiritual and things natural, putting tilings spiritual first. And this is a vital point. For we are wont to think that it is by a species of happy accident that certain resem- blances exist between the kingdom of matter and the kingdom of spirit. Thus we are wont to cite certain metaphors of Holy Scripture as instances of God's conde- scension, representing Him as adjusting Himself to our weakness by setting forth Sj^i ritual truth in metaphors — that is, in language " borrowed," as we say, from hmnan INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. 25 relations and material phenomena. It is well worth pon- dering, however, whether God, instead of thus borrowing from ISTature, and so employing an after-thonght, did not create N^ature for this very purpose, among others — name- ly, of illustrating His spiritual kingdom. Nature being in a profound sense its counterpart, answering to it as though in way of shadow and impress. E, g., we are told that the Church is Christ's Body (i Cor. xii. 12-27). Of course, it is easy to trace many analogies between the natural organ- ism of the head and its body, and the spiritual organism of Christ and His Church. But whence came these an- alogies ? Are they accidental ? Did Jesus Christ adjust HimseK and His Church to a scheme of Nature already existing? Or did He, foreknowing all things from the beginning, and foreseeing the peculiarly vital relation He would sustain to His own chosen people, so construct the scheme of Nature as that the human organism of head and body should set forth the mystical union of Saviour and Saved ? Again : Jesus Christ is said to be the Bride- groom, and the Church His Bride (Eph. v. 25-33). Is this language borrowed from the marriage institution ? No ; the marriage institution was founded for this very pur- pose — among others, namely, to set forth the unutterably tender relation between Jesus Christ and those who are His. For, as Eve proceeded from out of Adam, so does the Church proceed from out of the Second Adam (Gen. ii. 21-24), members of His body, being of His flesh and of His bones (Eph. v. 30). Again : Jesus Christ is called the Last Adam (i Cor. xv. 45). Why is this name given to Him ? As an after-thought, suggested by the First Adam ? No. But because the First Adam, in the very beginning, was instituted to be to the race natural what the Second Adam is to the race spiritual, or the family of the redeemed ; and, 2 26 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. therefore, he is expressly called a figure or tjipe of Ilim "Who was to come (Rom, v. 14). And when the theological mind of Christendom, instead of seeking to explain, as has been its wont, the Second Adam by the First, shall soar higher, and seek to explain the First Adam by the Sec- ond : in other words, Adam's relation to his race by Christ's relation to His redeemed : then will the doctrine of the Church, or Christ's mystical Body, come into clearer light, and be seen resting on a solider foundation. Again : Jesus Christ calls Himself the true Bread from heaven (John vi. 32-58). We SCO at once the appropriateness of the saying, " As the body is nourished by food, so is the sjjii-it nourished by Christ." But how happens it that this say- ing is so true ? Is the analogy merely accidental ? Or did He Who in the beginning, before the world was, when forecasting His creative and redemptive acts, so devise the scheme of I^ature as that the sustenance of the body by food should s}anbolize the sustenance of the Spirit by Christ ? But perhaps you say that man would have been just as dependent on food for maintenance as he now is, even had there been no Eedeemer and no Bread of Life. The objection is more specious than solid. For it is evi- dent that the Almighty Creator, had He so chosen, could have devised and constructed a different scheme of N"ature, according to which man could have been maintained with- out food. But the fact is, that He has not so devised and constructed Mature. On the other hand. He has so con- structed man in his relations to Nature as that his daily bodily life shall be a constant reminder, and proi^hecy, and symbol, of his daily spiritual life ; so that not less for his spirit than for his body he can each morning pray, " Give us this day our daily bread." Again: the Kingdom of God is represented as a growth ; first the seed, then the INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. 27 "blade, then tlie ear, then the full corn in the ear (Mark iy. 26-29). It is the law of the spiritual life. And of this spirit- ual growth the vegetable growths around us are a magnifi- cent symbol. The plant-world is, in many particulars, a perfect picture of the spiritual. But whence this har- mony ? "Whence this correspondence on a scale so colossal ? Is it accidental ? Let no believer in God dare say it. And^ if intentional, did the Creator arrange His spiritual king- dom with reference to His natural, or did He constnict the realm of I^ature with reference to His spiritual realm, ad- justing the former to the latter ? Take one more example : the blessed truth of God's Fatherhood : " When ye pray, say, Father " (Luke xi. 2). Conceive, and the conception is certainly possible, that the parental relation were altogeth- er unknown, and that each human being took his station on earth, as Adam did in Eden — an immediate creation of God. It is to be doubted whether under such cir- cumstances we could have understood at all the blessed import of the Scriptural doctrine of God's Fatherhood. In fact, the heavenly love becomes a real thing to us only in our exercise and sense of an earthly. The human fa- ther's love is to man a helping image of the Heavenly Fa- ther's. And this, as I verily believe, was one of the primary ends to be secured by the original establishment of the Parental Relation. God, in calling Himself our Father, does not borrow the epithet from earth. But in the very beginning He founded the earthly parental relation that it might suggest, prove, and explain the heavenly. Hence the resistless force of the Saviour's argument when, ap- pealing to the very foundations of man's nature. He ex- claims : " Which of you that is a father, if his son shall ask for bread, will give him a stone ? Or if he ask for a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent ? Or if he shall 28 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. ask for an egg, will he give a scorpion ? If je tlien, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him ? " (Luke xi. 11-13). In fact, it is this Divinely-ordained con'espondence between things spirit- ual and things natural which lies at the basis of Christ's method as Teacher ; for He was in the eminent, superemi- nent sense the Parable Speaker, evermore saying : The kingdom of heaven is like this or like that. " All these words spake Jesus to the multitude in parables ; and with- out a parable spake He not to them : that it might be ful- filled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world " (Psalm ixxviii. 2 ; Matt, xiii. 34, 35). In fact, erase from the records of Christ's say- ings all He has said in form of parable, and figure, and metaphor, leaving only wdiat He taught in direct state- ments, and how comparatively meagre the residue ! Ah, it is the invisible w^orld which is the fact ; it is the visible world which is the metaphor ! And this fact it is which makes Holy Scripture so inexhaustible in its meanings alike in respect to depth and to variety.' Truths, like the seventy whom the Lord of the Kingdom sent forth, are ever aj)t to go in pairs (Luke x. i). " All things," said an- other Jesus, son of Sirach, " are double, the one against the other " (Ecclus. xlii. 24). This saying is the basal idea of Bishop Butler's -profound treatise, " The Analogy of Re- ligion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature," a book which, notwithstanding its ob- solescent style, should be in every thoughtful man's li- brary ; for it will teach him how to observe, infer, and adore. Fine, too, is the saying in Longfellow's "ll}pe- » " Habct Scrlptura sacra haustus prlmos, habet secundos, habct tertios."— Augustinb. INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. 29 rion : " " His thoughts were twice born, the thoiiglit itself, and the figurative semblance in the outer world. Thus, throiTgh the quiet, still waters of his soul, each image lloat- ed double." " The swan on still St. Mary's lake Floats double, sv\an and shadow." Thus there are two Bibles, both issuing from the same Divine Author : the one, the Bible of the Unwritten Word, or the Lex non Scvii)ta — the other, the Bible of the AVrit- ten Word, or the Lex Scri])ta : or, rather, the one Bible is in two volumes, the volume of Nature and the volume of Scripture ; and the first volume is the second volume illus- trated. For, though the Written Word in the order of pui-pose precedes the Unwritten, yet in the order of time the Unwritten Word precedes the AVritten. That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after- ward that which is spiritual (i Cor. xv. 46). Nor can I con- ceive of any higher aim which the Christian scientist can place before himself than so to master the phenomena and laM's of Nature as to make them serve as interpreters of the secrets of the kingdom of God. Of course, our studies in this direction, as in the memorable case of the AUegorists of ancient Alexandria, and in the still more memorable case of Emmanuel S wedenborg, may be pushed . to an extreme, so that fancy usurps the ofiice of reason, and our explanations become puerile. Yet an error of this kind is more reverential, and supplies the soul with more solid food, than the opposite freezing error of deny- ing to Scripture the exegetical ministry of Nature. "Two worlds are ours; 'tis only sin Forbids us to descry The mystic heaven and earth within, Plain as the sea and sky. 30 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. " Thou, "Who hast given me eyes to see And love this sight so fair, Give me a heart to find out Thee, And read Thee everywhere." — (" TuE Cheistian Year.") 2.— Scope of this You see, then, tlie scope of this se- ^^^^^^- ries. "While it will be my purpose to use so much of science as may help us grasp what the Sacred Writer meant, this will be only incidentally, on our way to a nobler goal. Believing that ISTature, not less than Scripture, is God's own Word ; believing also that Nature herself is charged with latent spiritual meaning, it will be my main purpose to endeavor, with God's bless- ing, to unfold some of these latent meanings. The pur- pose is large and high. But, if God's grace is given us, it may be that as we swiftly career across the adamantine ledge of the Creation Archive, the scudding hoofs of observation will ehcit some sparkles of hidden, holy sug- gestion, some scintillations of quickened, heavenward aspiration. These then are some of the reasons for engaging in the study of the Crea- tive Week : first, the Antiquity of the Story ; secondly, the Majesty of the Story ; thirdly, tlie Assault on the Story ; and, fourthly, the Moral Meaning of the Story. I have, I submit, shown just cause for our assembling. May it not be in vain then that ever A prnVCr and anon we turn aside to worship in the Cathedral of Nature ! For here too is a burning bush, wherein the Angel of the Lord speaks to us. Be it ours to put off our shoes from off om- feet : for the place where- on we stand is holy ground (Ex. ill. 1-5). Be it ours to have the same lowly reverence which has so beautifully marked INTRODUCTORY— REASONS FOR THESE STUDIES. 31 such ilhistrious Scientists as a Galen, who regarded his professional life as "a religious hymn in honor of the Creator ; " a Copernicus, on whose tombstone, in St. John's of Frauenburg, is the following epitaph: "Not the grace bestowed on Paul do I ask, not the favor shown to Peter do I crave ; but that which Thou didst grant the robber on the cross do I implore ; " ' a Kepler, who concludes his treatise entitled " Harmony of the Worlds " thus : " I thank Thee, my Creator and Lord, that Thou hast given me this joy in Thy creation, this delight in the works of Thy hands ; I have shown the excellency of Thy works unto men, so far as my finite mind was able to compre- hend Thine infinity: if I have said aught unworthy of Thee, or aught in which I may have sought my own glory, graciously forgive it ; " a Newton, who never mentioned the name of Deity without uncovering his head ; a Fara- day, who amid his profound researches never forgot his little obscure Sandemanian chapel ; a Dana, who concludes his " Obsei-vations on Geological History " with the august words, "Deus Fecit." Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 1 Non parem Paull ^raliam requiro, Veniam Petri neque posco, sed quam In crucis ligno dederas latroni, Sedueus oro. LECTUEE II. GENESIS OF THE UNIVEKSE. *' In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis i. 1. What is the Origin of tlie Uni- talQuestion.''"''"" ^■^^''^- ^^l^ence came those far-off planets and stars ? Whence came this earth, these mountains, and oceans, and rocks, and mole- cules, and atoms ? What is the Origin of Things ? It is, perhaps, the sublimest question mortal man can ask. Ac- cording as it is answered, you have unspeakable conse- quences : either a God, and the possibility of a blissful im- mortality, or no God at all, and the annihilation of Religion itself. Do not imagine, then, that this question of the Origin of the Universe is only a secular or scientific ques- tion. It is a profoundly religious question, going down to the very roots of Tnith, and Science, and Theology, and Character, and Worsliip. Moreover : it is a question which thoughtful men are everywhere asking, and this, too, with an unprecedented intensity. It is the stupendous problem before the thinking world of to-day. Neither imagine that it is being asked only in yonder scientific cloisters ; it is being asked in your marts, and by your very firesides. And the dreadful answer, which you, O Christian, are fondly dreaming is confined to a few philosoj)liei*s and avowed atheists, is, as a matter of fact, being openly in- GENESIS OF THE UNIVERSE. 33 stalled in many of your scientiiic institutions, and is subtly gliding into your universities and academies, your clubs and worksbops, ay, your very cburclies tbemselves. lle- membering, then, the sublime gravity of the problem, the tremendous moral consequences it involves, the profound stir it is making among the thoughtful of the community, I cannot but think that the discussion of the problem from this platform is particularly opportune. May the Spirit of all Truth then especially aid us as we ponder the f oUoAving theme : The Genesis of the Universe. At the very outset, then, let us con- II. The Precise . • i xi i i -i £ ceive precisely the problem before us. Clearness of conception at this point is of utmost consequence. For, strange to say, there is here much dinmcss of idea, and vagueness of talk, even among the educated and scientific. Let me, then, carefully illus- trate the precise nature of the problem before us. Sup- pose I had before me here a bar of iron, weighing one pound. Out of this pound of iron I can make a variety of things : e. g., watch springs, needles, nails, scissors, razors, tuning-forks, and so on. But note very particularly that in order to make these various articles I must have the pound of iron, as material, to start with. This pound of iron I cannot make. The question then is this : Where did the iron ore itseK come from ? Who made that ? How shall I account for this pound of matter that is in this iron bar? Take a more complex case. Suppose I had here a gallon of water weighing eight pounds, I can alter the condition and character of this water in various ways. I can solidify it into ice. I can evaporate it into steam. I can mix it with other substances, and form a new com- pound. I can even decompose it into its constituent ele- ments, having as my result, in measures of weight, eight 34 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. parts of oxygen and one part of hydrogen ; and then I can again recombine them, having as my result this same gal- lon or eight pounds of water. 01)serve here, too, very par- ticularly, just what it is I do. All I do, or can do, is to change the condition and character of the water, putting it to new and various uses. I did not, and cannot, make the oxygen and hydrogen which compose the water. Where did these elements come from ? How shall I account for these eight pounds of oxygen and hydrogen ? Take a case still more complex. Suppose I had before me a block of wood weighing one pound. Out of it I miglit make a great variety of figures : e. g., a cube, a globe, a square, a prism, a hexagon, and so on. But observe here, too, very particularly, just what it is I do. All I make is the figures. I did not, and I cannot, make the wood or matter out of which I construct the figures. Where, then, did this wood, this matter itself, come from ? Sujjpose you tell me that the wood is composed of a certain amount of carbon, oxy- gen, and hydrogen, arranged in a certain definite propor- tion. Still you do not answer my question. Where did tliese elements themselves come from ? If I cannot make the wood, much less can I make the elements which com- pose the wood. What is the oi-igin of this pound of carbon and oxygen and hydrogen? You see, then, the precise nature of the problem before us; it is not touching the shaping of matter already existing ; it is touching the origi- nation of matter it-self. And now let us try to form some ."/■";^T'°''*^ idea of the Innnensity of the problem; of the Problem. . , t ■, ^ \. j. r m other words, let us try to lorm some idea of the extent of the universe : that is to say, the amount of matter actually existing. And, in doing this, let us not use measures of superficial extent, trying to con- GENESIS OF THE UNIVERSE. 35 ccivG the vastness of the earth, or the number, distances, and magnitudes of tlie stars. Let us take weight, rather than bulk, as our standard of measurement. For the quan- tity of matter in a given body — say, in an ingot of gold — is not measured by the space it occupies when beaten out, but by the weight it has when put in the scales. Taking weight, then, rather than bulk, as the measure of the amount of matter in the universe, let us approach the aggregate, so to speak, by degrees. Take, e. g., air, as the representative Weisrht of the Uni- ^ ii. • -j. ^' ^ • j. j. • ^ 01 matter in its gaseous or lio^htest state, verse. , ^ ^ ^ *=> " Light as air " is a common simile. Yet light as air is, its quantity is so vast that it presses earth's surface with the weight of fifteen pounds to every square inch. Think, then, of the weight — that is to say, quantity of atmospheric material — resting on a globe 25,000 miles in circumference. Again : take water as the representative of matter in its liquid state. A cubic inch of water weighs Y73 times as much as a cubic inch of air — i. e., contains 773 times as much matter. The Mississippi alone annually discharges on the average into the Gulf of Mexico 19,500,000,000,000 cubic feet of water, equal to 1-15.0 cubic miles. Think, now, of the quantity of matter stored up in earth's rivers, lakes, vapors, clouds, rains, snows, glaciers, dews, subter- ranean reservoirs, oceans miles in depth and thousands of miles in breadth. Again : take iron as the representative of matter in its solid state. Think of all the iron that is made use of and wrought into this world's fabrics and implements; its countless structures, and engines, and railways, and wheels, and utensils, and machinery of every kind, to say nothing of earth's numerous and colossal ore-beds. 36 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Again : think of the amount of oxygen, and hydrogen, and silicon, and aluniinimn, and magnesium, and calcium, and potassium, and sodium, and carbon, which are com- pressed in this earth's crust ; in its fauna, and flora, and sand, and gravel, and clay, and marl, and coal, and boul- ders, and quarries, and mountains. Yet this mighty globe of ours, having a circumference of 25,000 miles, is but a speck in the universe of matter. Think of our sun-system with its hundreds of planets, sat- ellites, rings, aerolites, etc. Think of the Sun itself, with ■ its diameter of 880,000 miles and circumference of 2,7G0- 000 miles, outweighing 355,000 earths. Think of the 25,000,000 other sun-systems belonging to om- own Cluster alone, some of which suns are immense- ly vaster than even our own sun. Think then of the weight — that is to say, the amount of matter — represented by these 25,000,000 suns, to say nothing of the hundreds and thousands of planets, moons, comets, aerolites, etc., with which each one of these 25, 000,000 suns is probably escorted. But these 25,000,000 sun-systems belong only to our own Cluster. • The telescope has disclosed to us about G,000 such nebulae, and is constantly disclosing more. In- stead of speaking of millions of sun-systems, we may per- haps speak of billions. And so, for aught we know, billions on billions, quin- tillions on quintillions, decillions on decillions. Indeed, there is great reason for believing that the material universe has no limits. To imagine this is to imagine the finite exercise in finite space of God's infinite power, and so the possibility of finite man's grasping the range of God's in- finite capacity. In other words : to imagine this is to imagine that finite man can touch the limits of the out- GENESIS OF THE UNIVERSE. 37 working of God's infinite capacity, and so grasp tlie range of His creation. In all events, the universe, practically speaking, is infinite. And now looms up before us our .*~ , ^ ^^ ' overwlielmino; Problem. "Whence did lem itself. i • • ■ ^ i this inconceivable amount ot matter come ? What is the Origin of this tremendous weight of Universe ? Again I ask you to observe carefully what the precise problem is. The question is not concerning the arrangement of matter already existing : the question is concerning the origination of matter itself. Here are sixty or seventy elements which, so far as we know at present, make up the existing universe. And the point to be ex- actly observed is this : not one solitary atom of these ele- ments which make up the universe can man make. All that man can do is to operate on these elements, com- pounding them in various proportions, using the com- pounds in various ways, shaping them, building with them, and so on. In short, man must have something on which, as well as with which, to operate. "With noth- ing he can do nothing. Here, then, is our startling prolj- lem. This mighty universe of ours, weighing a number of tons simply inconceivable, is nothing but the sum total of these atoms, not one of which man can create, so far as experience goes ; and experience is the grand philosoj)hi- cal test. "What an appalling aggregate of material, then — of oxygen, and hydrogen, and nitrogen, and carbon, and silicon, and all the other elements — making the weight of the universe, have we to account for ! At the cost of repetition, but at the gain of clearness and emphasis, I ask you again to try to form some idea of tlie weiglit of the universe — that is to say, the amount of matter in it. Imagine that these millions of sun-systems, with their myr- 38 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. iads of satellites, instead of being separated from each other countless millions of miles as they now are, were consoli- dated into one mass. How unspeakable, how purely in- conceivable, the weight — i, e., the quantity — of matter ! In that stupendous, inconceivable mass this earth of ours, with its diameter of 8,000 miles, would be but as a point in an area of millions of square leagues. Think now of the amount of matter which is represented in a single ton. Even that thought oppresses you. Yet so light a substance as our own terrestrial atmosphere presses earth's surface with a weight of more than 20,000,000 tons on each square mile. Think now of the 197,000,000 square miles of sur- face presented by this earth-sphere of 25,000 miles circum- ference. In addition to this inconceivable amount, think of the earth's structures of wood, and brick, and stone, and iron ; the tonnage of earth's forests, earth's animals, earth's oceans, earth's sands, earth's coal and ore beds, earth's con- tinental mountain-ranges of solid rock. To say nothing of the tonnage of the hundreds of satellites of our own sun-system, think of the tonnage, that is to say, quantity, of material which forms the sun, oiTtweighing 355,000 earths. Think of the tonnage of 25,000,000 other suns, many of which are hundreds of times larger than our own, to say nothing of the countless satellites with which each of these suns is escorted. Think of the tonnage of 6,000 ncbuliB, each perhaps with its score of millions of sun-sys- tems. To speak probably within bounds, the tonnage, that is to say, amount, of matter composing this earth of ours, compared with that of the rest of the stupendous mass, would be as a thistle-down balanced against a million of suns. Here, tlien, is the mighty question : " How ac- count for this tremendous Fact ? Whence came this in- conceivable amount of material ? " GENESIS OF THE UNIVERSE. 39 It is a fair question to ask. Xo The Question Le- ^ j^ j^^ ^l^j^^j.^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^1^^ f'itimate. , , , . ., rr^i t i matter, can help asking it. ilie idea that every effect must have a cause is an intuitive, univer- sal, irresistible, necessary Idea. Hence the axiom, J^x j nihilo nihil Jit — " From nothing, nothing comes." A causeless effect is simply unthinkable. Keeping in mind, then, this fundamental, irresistible axiom — " Every effect must have a cause " — let us apply it to the topic in hand. Here is a stupendously measureless effect : what caused it ? Not one man, not all mankind together, with the most per- fect machinery conceivable, can make one solitary atom of matter. Where, then, did all this measureless, unutter- able, inconceivable quantity of matter composing this ma- terial universe come from ? Suppose you say it came from a few cells or germs, or perhaps one. That does not an- swer the question. The axiom, " Every effect must have a cause," implies another axiom : " Effects are proportional to their causes " — that is to say, causes are measured by their effects. If the whole material universe came from a few germs ow^from nothing else, then the weight of these germs must be equal to the weight of the universe. You cannot get out of a thing more than is in it. It is a maxim of philosophy : " Evolution implies previous involution." And the axiom that every effect must have an adequate cause demands that the involution be equal to the evolu- tion. You cannot evolve what was not involved. Of 'course, I do not deny that the growth of the acorn into the oak is in a certain sense an evolution. In fact, it is the evolution which is the secret of the identity of acorn and oak. But, then, there is much more here than evolution, or simple unfolding of the primal germ : there is also the accretion of external material around the genn and along 40 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the axis of growth — this added material coming from soil, water, air, etc. It is the accretion which is the secret of the incretion. The problem, then, is to account not only for the weight of the acorn, but also for the weight of the oak — the vastly larger part of the tree never having been in the seed. The famous Washington Elm, of Cambridge, we are told, yields on an average, say, 7,000,000 leaves, exposing a surface of 200,000 square feet ; and the problem is this : How account for the weight of the seed plus the weight of the root, trunk, and five acres of foliage ? How account for this enonnous mass of universe matter, ex- pressed in terms of positive weight, on the theory of a few microscopic germs ? Observe, the question is not concern- ing the condition or arrangement of the universe ; the question is concerning its origination. Where did these supposed germs themselves come from ? In short, how account for the weight of the universe ? I rej^eat, it is a fair question to ask. The fundamental, universally-ac- knowledged, intuitively - j^erceived, necessary axiom, " Every effect must have a cause," proclaims it to be a fair question. . Wlience, tlien, came this universe of matter — visible, tangible, ponderable matter ? What is the Origin of this material Universe ? Only two answers are possible. The Answer of Logie. The first is this : Matter never had any origin at all ; it has always existed. Such was the opinion of the ancient sages. Inexorably pressed by the axiom, Every effect must have a cause, tliey toiled to follow up the line of effects and causes, tracing a given effect up to its cause, and again this cause as the effect of a preceding cause, and still again this preceding cause as the effect of a cause still preceding, and so on as far as they could go. Unable to find any First, Original GENESIS OF THE UNIVERSE. 41 Cause — in other words, unable to find tlic place and time in wliicli matter began to exist — they were driven bj our inexorable axiom to the theory of the eternity of matter. It is the one and only conclusion at which the logician, trusting solely to the logical processes and denying mira- cles, can possibly amve. The other answer is the first verse Scripture ^^ ^^^ Book of God : "In the begin- ning God created the heavens and the earth." ^ In the beginning, before aught existed, save God Himself, Elohim created, made out of nothing, made with- out material, the heavens and the earth. Ah, here comes out the infinite difference between man and God : Man is only a builder, constructing with materials ; God is a Cre- ator, constructing without materials. God creates atoms; man fashions molecules. Thus this word " create " is the di- Grandeur of the yjnest word in language, human or angel- Answer. O O ' o ic. It is the august separatrix between the creature and the Creator, between the finite and the In- finite. It is the connecting link between the pre-creative universe of nothing and the post-creative universe of ever}i:hing. The pre-creative eternity is sei3arated from human time by the diameter of the universe. AVell, then, may our text stand forth as the opening sentence of God's communication to man. For all theology is wrapped up in this one simple, majestic word — Created. It gives us an Unbeginning, Almighty, Personal, Self-conscious, Yolun- ' True, it is not positively certain that the verb bara is to be taken in the strict, techni- cal sense of absolute origination. It is possible that it means here, as generally elsewhere, simply a process of forming, arranging, shaping what was already existing. And for this self conscious, omniscient Omnipotence was needed hardly less than for an absolute origi- nation. In all events, the doctrine of Creation seems decisively taught in Hebrews .vi. 8: " By faith we imdcrstand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things whicli do appear.'''' 42 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. tary God. Before tlie mountcains were brouglit fortli, or ever Tliou liaclst formed the earth and the world, even from everksting to everlasting, Thou art God (Psalm xc. 2). And in giving us an Unbeginning, Almighty, Personal, Self-conscious, Yoluntary God, it gives us the basis for Religion, the comer-stone for Woi-ship. Thou, Thou art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heav- ens, with all their host, the earth and all that is ujoon it, the seas and all that is in them ; and Thou preservest them all.. And the host of heaven wors]iipj)eth Thee (Nch. iv. c). Yes, " I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." Kot that I understand the Creative Creation a Problem a , -r i •, .^ . •. ' • i , J, . , Act ; i admit that it is mcomprelien- sible. I even admit tliat it directly conflicts with the fundamental axiom : Out of nothing nothing comes. In other words, I admit that it was a miracle. And being a miracle, of course I cannot under- stand it ; nevertheless I believe it. Ah ! this word — believe — is the key. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the "Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which ap- peared (Heb. si. 3). Prof . Tyndall, in liis lecture on " Mat- ter and Force " to the workingmen of Dundee, spoke as follows : " While I make the largest demand for freedom of inves- tigation — while I as a man of Science feel a natural pride in scientific achievement — while I regard Science as the most powerful instrument of intellectual culture, as well as the most powerful ministrant to the material wants of men — if you ask me whether Science has solved, or is likely in our day to solve, the problem of this Universe, I must shake my head in doubt. You remember the first Napoleon's question, GENESIS OF THE UNIVERSE. 43 wlicn the savants who accompanied him to Egypt discussed in his i^resence the origin of the Universe, and solved it to their own apparent satisfaction. He looked aloft to the starry heavens, and said, ' It is all very well, gentlemen ; but who made all these ? ' That question still remains unan- swered, and Science makes no attempt to answer it. As far as I can see, there is no quality in the human intellect which is fit to be applied to the solution of the problem. It en- tirely transcends us. The mind of man may be compared to a musical instrument with a certain range of notes, beyond which in both directions we have an infinitude of silence. The phenomena of Matter and Force lie within our intellec- tual range, and as far as they reach we will at all hazards push our inquiries. But behind, and above, and around all, the real mystery of this Universe lies unsolved, and, as far as Ave are concerned, is incapable of solution." Sad words these. And the Professor is right so far as he goes. But why does he not go further ? Why does he not use the prerogative of exercising a loftier faculty than reason ? One of the most felicitous instances of masterly ' diction in the realm of Science is a discourse by this same Prof. Tyndall, delivered before the British Association in 1870, entitled " The Scientific Use of the Imagination." In this, as often elsewhere, he earnestly bids us to exercise the power of " visualizing the invisible." That is to say. he bids us exercise faith in the unseen : e. g., w^e are to believe in atoms though we have never seen one. Gentle- men of the Academy, allow me also the Scientific Use of the Imagination — that is to say, allow me the prerogative of faith : for Christian faith is tlie truest instance of the Scientifi.c Use of the Imagination. Where Reason is blind, Faith can see. Faith is the lens through which we perceive that the worlds were created by the Word of God. 44 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Ah, Faitli it is wliicli sees an otherwise Invisible, Personal, Almighty, Infinite, Free God — Himself His own law — ever and anon striding forth on a plane above what we call IN'atnre, as when in the primeval realm of absolute Sj)ace He caused to come into existence the heavens and the earth. Believe in that first of all miracles, the miracle of Creation ; and you can believe in the miracles of Incar- nation, Kesurrection, Ascension, Parousia. This word — Paith — then is the motto inscribed on the very threshold of the Temple of Truth. The very first question in phi- losophy is this : What is the origin of things ? The very first statement of the Bible is an answer to this question ; an answer simple, unequivocal, exhaustive, majestic. Thus the very first summons of the God of JSTature to the stu- dent of His Works is a summons to an act of Faith. And to him who honestly obeys that summons. Creation shall prove to be in very deed an Apocalypse of Deity ; and so of Duty.' Such is the story of the Genesis of the Universe. Two thoughts in conclusion. 1 How wise the words of Francis Bacon : " It is an assured truth and a conclusion ol experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of philosophy may incline the mind of man to atheism, but a further proceeding therein doth bring the mind back again to relig- ion : for in the entrance of philosophy, when the second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause : but when a man passeth on further, and seeth the dependence of causes and the works of Providence, then, according to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of Nature's chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter's chair."— ("Advanoement of Learning," Book I.) How poetic the words of Augustine : " I asked the earth, and it answered, ' I am not lie;' and whatsoever are therein made the same confession. I asked the sea and the deep, and the creeping things that lived, and they replied : ' We are not thy God ; seek higher than we.' I asked the breezy air, and the universal air with its inhabitants an- swered: ' Anix.amenes was deceived. I am not God.' I asked the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars: 'Neither," say they, 'are we the God whom thou scckest.' And I answered unto all tliesc things which stood about the door of my flesh: ' Ye have told me something concerning my God, that ye are not He: tell me something about Uim.' And with a loud voice they exclaimed : ' lie made us.'— (" Confessions,"' Book X., Chapter VIII., Paragraph 9.) GENESIS OF THE UNIVERSE. 45 And, first : Why did God create the Final Cause of Cre- , • i • q t i. i. ^ material universe i Let us not be wise ation. , , above what is wiitten. And yet I can- not help thinking that there is a reason for the Creation in the very constitution of our spiritual nature. We need the excitation of sensible objects. We need a material arena for self -discipline. As a matter of fact, we receive our moral training for eternity in the School of Matter. It is the material world around us, coming into contact with our moral personalities through the senses of touch- ing and seeing and hearing and tasting, which tests our moral character. And so it comes to pass that the way in which we are impressed by every object we consciously see or touch probes us, and will testify for us or against us on the Great Day. But while this is one of the proximate causes of the Creation, the Final Cause is the Glory of God. It is the majestic mirror from which we see His in- visible things, even His eternal power and Godhead (Rom. i. 20). May it be for us evermore to join with the Living Creatures and the Elders of the Apocalypse in falling down before Him Who sitteth on the throne, and liveth for ever and ever, and in chanting : " Thou ai-t worthy, O Lord God, to receive the glory and the honor and the might ; for Thou didst create all things, and for Thy pleasure they are, and were created" (Rev. iv. 9-1 1). Finally : this doctrine of the Crea- A rersonal Exhor- ^-^^ -^ ^ ^loctrine well suited to fill us with deepest sentiments of humility, reverence, and adoration. A God strong enough to create is a God strong enough to annihilate. Presume not then to persist in any state of rebellion, in any act of disobedi- ence. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trem- bling (Psalm ii. 11). Enter into and abide in the spirit of 46 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Claudius Galenus, the illustrious physician of ancient Per- gamos, who was wont to speak of his vocation and work as "a religious hymn in honor of the Creator." Let Him who spake, and it was — who commanded, and it stood fast (Psalm xxxii. 9) — be the Object of your supreme and ceaseless allegiance, homage, and trust. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all Gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth ; the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His, and He made it : and His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow do^vn : let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God : and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand (Psalm xcv. 3-7). For from Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things (Rom. xi. 36). Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTUEE III. GENESIS OF ORDER, " And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. .And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." — Genesis i. 2. I.— Explanation First of all, let us attend to the Ex- of the Passage. planation of the Passage. And, first, the Primeval Chaos : 1.— The Primeval " Now the earth was waste and empty, Chaos. and darkness was over the face of the abyss." At the very outset, an interesting a. — Oriprin of Chaos. , . . -itt- ,-, ■ y--,! .i " question anses. Was this ( liaos the oriiiinal condition of matter as it came direct from the Creator's hand, or was it the wreck of an earlier world ? It must be confessed that certain things seem to indicate — at least, at first sight — that the latter was the fact. First : God is not the author of confusion, but of peace (i Cor. xiv. 33) ; whatever He creates is perfect. Again : the words tohu and lo/m, rendered " without form and void," liter- ally mean wasteness and desolation. The expression is often appHed to ruined cities and territories. Two pas- sages are remarkably in point. Isaiah, speaking of the coming judgment on Idumea, says : " The cormorant and 43 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the bittern shall possess it, the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it, and He \nll stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness" (l=. xxxiv. ii) ; the words rendered " confusion and emptiness " are precisely the same as those rendered in our passage " without form and void." According to the prophet, Idumea was to be devoted to devastation and destruction. So also Jeremiah, foretelling the ruin that would come upon Judea, ex- claims : '• I looked upon the land, and, lo, it was with- out form and void ; I looked to the heavens, and they gave their light no more ; I looked to the mountains, and, lo, they trembled ; I looked, and, lo, there was no man, ■ and all the birds of the air had fled ; I looked, and, lo, the fruitful land had been turned into the desert, and all its citias were broken down before the fury of Jehovah's an- ger " (Jer. iv. 23-26). It scemed to the prophet a real re- turn to the ancient realm of Chaos. Again : this opinion was held by some of the ancient Fathers, e. g., the Greg- ory's, Basil, Augastine, etc. Again : it seem.s to be con- firmed by alleged scientific facts, particularly the geologic doctrine of Catastrophes, many of which are supposed by some scientists to have occurred in the immense interv'al between Creation and Chaos, and during Chaos itself. Once more : it seems to be confirmed by present terresti-ial changes, e. g., recomposition out of decomposition, as the harvest out of the djang seed. Such are some of the rea- sons whir-h have inclined some scientists, e. g., Buckland, Sedg^vick, Hitchcock, etc., and many theologians, e. g., Chalmers, McCaul, Wordsworth, etc., to the opinion that Chaos was the wreck of an earlier world. Nevertheless, although this opinion seems plausible, and although it is maintained by scholars entitled to our respect, it lies open to grave objections. First : it does not GENESIS OF ORDER. 49 seem to be in hannony with the scope of the Sacred Nar- \ I ) rator ; he is giving us the history of the Creation of the heavens and the earth, not of tlieir reconstruction. Again : it introduces an unwarrantable or at least apparently arbi- trary break between the first and second verses — that is to say — between Creation and Chaos. Again : instead of 3 ) l)eing sustained by the geologic records, it seems to be in direct conflict with them. Once more : it is opposed to -// God's usual method of working ; that method is inchoa- tive, that is to say, a method of progress, from small to vast, from embryo to fruition, from homogeneousness to heterogeneousness, or rather from homogeneousness to di- versity, and through diversity to unity in diversity. For these reasons I am compelled to believe that the Chaos of the original clenicnts not less than the Creation of them was the direct issue of the Creative "Will ; that is to say, God created the atoms of the Universe, starting with them in a chaotic state. It was an instance of the truth to which I shall advert later on : All progress begins in Chaos. , „ And now glance for a moment at 0. — Picture of Chaos. , , . . , ^i this primeval Chaos. All the elements which now exist, were doubtless there ; but all were out of relation. Far as the eye could pierce, not a thing of life or beauty or definite form re- deemed a single point in the monstrous waste. And over this wild, stnicturelcss, desolate abyss rested the pall of blackness. In short, earth Avas that heterogeneous mass of inextricable confusion which the ancients called Chaos. " .... A dark Illimitable ocean, without bound. Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place, arc lost; where Eldest Night 3 50 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, bold Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand ; For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce, Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring Their enibryon atoms." — (" Pakadise Lost," ii. 891-900.) Strikingly similar is tlie description by tlic heatlien poet Ovid : " Ere sea, or land, or sky, that covers all, Existed, over all of Nature's round One face there was, which men have Chaos named — A rude, unfatbomed mass, with naught save weight : And here were heaped tlie jarring elcTuents Of ill-connected things. No sun as yet His rays afforded to the world ; the moon Filled not afresh her horns by monthly growth; Nor hung the globe in circumambient air, Poised by its balanced weight: nor had the sea Reached forth its arms along the distant shore : No land to stand upon, no wave to swim, And rayless air. Nothing preserved its form : Each thing opposed the rest ; since in one frame The cold with hot things fought, the moist with dry, The soft with hard, and light with heavy things." — (" Metamorphoses," i. 5.) Tme, there is a large accretion here to the primeval Creation Archive as transmitted to us by Moses. Never- theless, recalling what was said in our Introductory Lect- ure respecting the wide-spread, venerable traditions touch- ing the primeval condition of the globe, who does not feel that Ovid obtained his clew from that hoary Creation Ar- chive ? And what Moses says touching the r.-Confirmationof origin.^ condition of the globe. Modern ' ^^^^'"'^- Science tends in a remarkable way to GENESIS OF ORDER. 51 eclio. If the magnificent Nebular IIypotlie?is of tlie as- tronomers — first propounded by Swedenborg, adoj)ted by Kant, elaborated by Laplace and Herscliel, and main- tained with modifications by such scientists as Cuvier, Humboldt, Arago, Dana, and Guyot — be true, there has been a time when the Earth, and indeed the whole Uni- verse, was in a state of nebula, or chaotic gaseous fluid. As such, the Earth was indeed without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. Being in a gaseous state, it was " without form and void ; " being as yet in an inactive state, it was " dark ; " being in a state of in- definite expansion, it was a " deep." Thus wonderfully does the hoariest specimen of human literature keep pace with the mightiest generalization of the latest science. Not that Moses knew anything about the Nebular Hy- pothesis ; though he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts vii. 32), he probably knew nothing of gravi- tation or chemical atoms. He was inspired indeed. But inspiration is not omniscience. And yet, as wonderful time rolls on, and Almighty God, through the agency of human discoveries, keeps unfolding the truths hidden in His holy Word from the beginning, inspiration does prac- tically take on more and more the giant outlines of Omnis- cience. The stoutest defender of the Nebular Hypothesis could hardly find more telling words for his theory than these : " Without form, void, dark, deep." Here, then, is the skeptic's harassing trilemma. He must either admit, first, that Moses was inspired, and therefore, whether con- sciously to himself or not it matters not, spoke the truth, and therefore ought to be acknowledged as one of God's authoritative spokesmen ; or, secondly, he must admit that Moses has made an exceedingly happy hit — a circumstance which will grow more and more wonderful when we note, j \ 52 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. as we shall see ere we are through, how many such remark- ably " happy hits " he makes in this Creation Narrative ; or, thirdly, he must admit that Moses, though living in that far-off, unscientific antiquity, was as profound a scientist as himself, and therefore is entitled to be enrolled with the Newtons and Cuviers, the Ilumboldts and Tyndalls, of the modern Academy. Whichever horn of the trilemma our friend takes, he, so long as he is a skeptic, impales himself. No, gentlemen, the God Who reigned over Nature when it was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, is the same God Who dictated the First Two Chapters of Genesis. And now we pass to ponder, second- 2.— The Organiz- ly, the Organizing Energy: "And the ing Energy. Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." «.— The Breath of " The Spirit of God." It is the first ^^^- time that this remarkable expression oc- curs in Holy Writ. Let us dwell on it a moment. The word here rendered " Spirit " primarily means " breath, wind," etc., and, as a matter of fact, is often thus trans- lated. Take a few examples : " The Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground, and brcatlied into his nostrils the breath of life " — inbreathed, inspired, in- spirited him with spirit (Gen. ii. 1). " They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool" — the breeze, the spirit — of the day (Gen. iii. 8). " Moses stretched out his hand over the sea ; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind — spirit — all that night " (Ex. xiv. 21). " By the blast of the breath — spirit — of Thy nostrils, the waters were heaped up " (Ex. xv. 8). " By His spirit — breath — the heavens were garnished " (Job xxvi. 13). " There is a spirit — breath — in man, and the inspiration, GENESIS OF ORDER. 53 inbreathing, of the Almighty, giveth him understanding " (Job xxxii. 8). " By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their host by the breath — spirit — of His mouth " (Psalm xxxiii. 6). " Thou takest away their breath — spirit : they die and return to their dust : " " Thou sendest forth Thy spirit — breath — they are created, and Thou re- newest the face of the earth " (Psalm civ. 29, 30), " He took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise, and her spirit — breath — came again, and she arose straightway " (Luke viii. 54, 55). " When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said. It is finished, and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost — spirit, breath " (John xix. 30). " Then will the wicked one be revealed, w^hom the Lord will con- sume with the spirit — breath — of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming " (2 Th. ii. 8). And God has been pleased to move the writere of His Scripture to take air as the emblem of the Divine Spirit. I know not why He was pleased to do this, unless it be because of the peculiar properties of air : a substance invisible, yet diffusive, subtilely permeating, animating, quickening, inspiring, forceful. I only know that He has chosen air as the symbol of the Spirit of God. Listen to a few ex- amples : " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it Cometh, and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit — AVind, Breath" (John iii. 8). "He breathed on them, and saith to them, Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost — breath " (John xx. 22). " Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rashing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting .... and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit — breath" (Acts ii. 2-4). 54 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. I ■svould not be presumptuous. At 6. -Moved over ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^-^^^^ j ^^^^^^ |^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^j^^ the Face of the ^ , ^ , . , . Pjjjjjg bacred fetorj we are studying, seeking to unfold it as the Sacred AVriter liiin- sclf meant it. And, therefore, I must say I can hardly think that in using the phrase, " The Spirit of God," he meant any distinct reference to the Third Person of the Blessed and Adorable Trinity. For God's method of Revelation has ever been progressive ; and His disclosure of the peculiar relations of the Godhead is among His latest revelations. Eemember the meaning of the word translated Spirit : it means breath. The Breath of God moved on the face of the waters. Kemember, also, that we are here moving in the range of transcendent facts, where the language must be more or less figurative. He- member, also, that the emphatic word, here and throughout this Creation Record, is the word — God. God it was AVho created the elements of the Universe. God it was Who shaped the elements of the Universe into the heavens and the earth. God it was Who, to use the language of modern Christian Science, gave the first impulse to the original, relationless atoms of the primeval chaotic fluids to form into definite groups. God it was Wlio, to use tlie artless language of the ancients, breathed on the chaotic elements, and wafted them into order. In either case, God it was Who shaped Chaos into Cosmos. The ancient be- liever said : " The Breath of God moved on the face of the waters." The modern believer says : " God willed that atoms should group into molecules, and molecules into masses." In other words, the language of the ancient was phenomenal, the language of the modern is scientific ; and, although believing the latter, I still suspect that, in the vision of the Omniscient One AVho sees behind our Sci- GENESIS OF ORDER. 55 ences, i. e., our notions of things, the old pictorial language is quite as true as the new philosophic. What the precise thing was which was effected when the Breath of God moved on the face of the fluids, I know not. Perhaps it was the endowing the atoms with the quantitative force of gravity, and the qualitative forces of chemism. But I am not here to deliver a scientific lecture. I am here to ex- pound, as best I may, the Mosaic Record of the Creation. And the truth we have in hand to-day is this : God's Will it was that turned Chaos into Cosmos. ^ . . , ,., And iust here it is that the believer Ongm of Life. •* . . 1 -, -, . rr^, crosses swords with the atheist. The great question of to-day in this department of thought is this: Is the universe "a fortuitous concourse of atoms," chancing to come under the reign of an impersonal, unfree, unforeseeing, goalless Force ? Or is it the work of a per- eonal, free, creative, previsional, jiurposeful, living God? In briefest words : Is nature self-operant ? or is it God- operant ? Let me put the problem concretely, although, in doing so, I anticipate a point which will recur later on in this series. The most fascinating, baffling enigma of to- day is this : The Origin of Life. How shall we bridge the measureless chasm between dead matter and living matter, between chox as an inorganic corpse and chon as an or- ganic person ? What is that subtile, potent thing, vaguely called Principle of Life, Vital Force, etc., which, enshrined in the apparently structureless, dead centre of a micro- scopic cell, suddenly quickens it, endows it with energy, makes it a living, growing, parental thing ? This is the problem over which some of the keenest-eyed of the race are poring with intensest gaze. Need I say that they are gazing in vain ? Yet it need not be so. Long ages ago, when Humanity was yet young, an Oriental Emir, pastur- 56 STUDIES IX THE CREATIVE WEEK. ing liis flocks amid the oases of Arabia Deserta, solved tlie problem. Listen : " The Spirit of God made me, and the Breath of the Almighty gave me life " (Job xxxiii. 4). And centuries afterward, in a fair territory hard by, a Psalm- ist, addressing that Divine Spirit from Whose jDresence he declared himself unable to flee, adoringly exclaims in words marvelously scientific : " I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made : my substance was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth : Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect — my unformed, un- stnictured substance ; and in Thy book all my members were written ; day by day were they fashioned, when there was none of them " (Psalm cxxxix. 14-16). Gentlemen of the laboratory, go on with your investigations. Ye are en- gaged in a noble service. From the bottom of my heart I say, God bless you, and make you successful in unravel- ing many another sublime secret of nature ! But, gentle- men, I prophesy one thing : No matter how perfect your instruments, how keen your vision, how splendid your genius, no instrument of yours will ever detect the Secret of Life. For that Secret is not material ; it is spiritual, and therefore forever and for evermore beyond the range of microscope. Ah, ye materialists, ye Haeckels and Mole- schotts and Feuerbachs and Vogts, fancying that ye " dis- cern in matter the promise and potency of every form and quality of life," yet unable, with all your science and all your appliances, to turn a single, definite, dead set of mole- cules into a lowest living organism, come with me, and I will show you when and where and how life originates. Bring along with you the whole of your apparatus, for I think ye will need it all. And now visit with me the ven- erable Prophet of the Euphrates. Following his lead, we GENESIS OF ORDER. 57 go down into one of the great valleys of Babylonia. All aronnd ns lies a vast host of fleshless, unburied, dismem- bered skeletons. A voice is borne down to us as though from the skies : " Son of man, can these dry bones live 'i " " Oh yes," answer our materialistic friends ; " we have brouo-ht our retorts and crucibles and reagents and bat- teries and tables of chemical equivalents, and we propose to redeem the promise of life lurking in these skeletons ; we propose to evolve the potency of life ensconced in these bones." And so I see you setting to work imme- diately, consulting your tables, arranging your reagents, igniting your blow-pipes, connecting your galvanic cur- rents, adjusting your microscopes. And lo, I confess, there is a sound, and a shaking, and a coming together of bones, bone to its bone ; and lo, something that looks like a sinew does come upon them, and something that loofe like skin does cover them ; but, strange to say, there is no breath in them. What tliough the skeletons have been articulated and enfleshed ? They are still only corpses. Ah, gentlemen of the laboratory, do not look so blank ! for do ye not believe in Baal, the Sun-god, Nature's grand Yivifier I "Wonderful he is ; but possibly he is meditat- ing, or has stepped aside, or is on a journey, or peradven- ture he is asleep, and must be awaked (l Kings xviii. 18). Cry then louder, and arrest his notice. And so I see you leaping on his altar, trying this and that reagent, hurry- ing to the microscope, shouting to Great Baal even " from dewy morn to stilly eve." And yet there is no breath in these enfleshed skeletons ; they are still only prone, mo- tionless, white cadavers. Again a voice is borne down to us from the skies : " Son of man, can these bones live ? " I look at my materialistic friends, and they turn away from their table of chemical equivalents, and are silent. 58 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. I look lip to the heaven of heavens, and I reverently an- swer : '' O Lord God, Thou knowest ; the God that an- swereth by lire from heaven, let Ilim be God." And now is borne down to ns, as from the very throne of the King Eternal, Invisible, the blessed and only Potentate, the Life-giving Yoice : " Prophesy to the AVind, Son of man, prophesy, and say to the Wind : Thns saith the Lord God : Come Thou from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe upon these dead, that they may live." I homagefully obey ; and lo, the Breath instantly comes into them, and they are aliv^e, and stand on their feet, an exceeding great army (Ez. xxxvii. l-io). Ah, gentlemen of the Academy, there is the key to the Problem of Life ! It is not in any material atom, any molecular arrangement, any chemi- cal interplay, any convertibility of Force ; it is in the Spirit of the hving God, the inspiration of the Ancient of Days, the inbreathing of the Father of Spirits. Ay, the Patriarch of Arabia was right : " The Spirit of God made mo, and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me life " (Job xxxili. 4). That is the Secret of all life — life human, animal, vegetal. That is the vitalizing Force of the bio- plast, the Vis Formatlm, the Quickening, Plastic Energy of tlie Universe. And that Energy, as our passage in- forais us, was at work from the beginning. " The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep ; and the Breath of God moved over the face of the fluids." In some sense and way, chemically inscru- table to us, the Spirit of God, the Heavenly Wind, the Divine Breath, hovered over ancient Chaos, quickening, marshaling, coordinating, organizing its motley, chaotic atoms, breathing over the wild, desolate, ebon immensity His own Energy of life and order and unity and peace and beauty. Great poets arc ever, even though unconsciously GENESIS OF ORDER. 59 to themselves, great pliilosopliers. And the Bard of " Para- dise Lost " is alike Scrij^turally and scientilicallj right when, invoking the Spirit of God as his muse, he sings : " TIiou from the first "Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread Dove-like satst hrooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant." — (" Paradise Lost," i. 19-22.) Ay, Gentlemen of the Materialistic Pliilosophy, you may believe, if you choose, in the Universe as a self-con- structed, self-running machine : I jDrefer to believe in it as the Breath of God. Such is the Story of the Genesis of Order. II.— Moral Mean- And now let us attend to the Moral ing of the Story. Meaning of the Story. .„T.r , . And, first: all life begins chaotic- 1. — AH Life begins . ^ chaotically. ^^^7- ^^ ^^ ^rue of physical life. Look at this bioplast ; the most powerful mi- croscope fails to detect in it nmch sign of system, or struct- ure : the most that it detects is a tiny g. ouping of seem- ingly unarranged, chaotic material ; in fact, so structureless does it seem, that the microscope declines to prophesy whether it will unfold into a cedar, an elephant, or a man. Again : it is true of intellectual life. Look at this new- born infant : how nebulous and chaotic its conceptions ! Your little one may grow into a Shakesj^eare ; but at pres- ent, and intellectually surveyed — forgive me, fond mother, for saying it — your little one is scarcely more than a little animal. Do we not apply indiscriminately to infants and animals the impersonal pronoun " it ? " Once more : it is true of moral life. That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural : then that which is s])iritual (Cor. XV. 46). Look at Humanity as a whole, and through 60 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the ages, ancient, mediaeval, modern. How vast but abor- tive its endeavors ! How besmeared its history with idol- atries, barbarisms, wars, butcheries, oppressions, crimes, blasjihemies ! Verily, Humanity, compared with its la- tent, transcendent possibilities, is indeed a chaos, without form, and void, and darkness is over its deep. And what is so sadly true of Humanity as a whole, is as sadly true of each member of Humanity, at least in his natural, or rather unnatural, denatured state. For each man is a mi- crocosm, a miniature world of his own. And each man, compared with what is conceivable concerning him, is a chaos. Gaze on him for a moment ; how dulled his reli- gious sensibilities, how disheveled his moral affections, how sterile his spiritual capacities, how perverted his conscience, how misconceived his goal, how ignoble his choices, how downward his tendencies! Tnie, the ivy of a graceful morality often exquisitely festoons the piers and arches and towers of the temple of his soul; but this very morality itself, hke the lovely ivy man- tling the venerable Abbeys of the Old AYorld, testifies, it may be, that the sacred fabric is crumbling into dust. Do you say that my judgment is too severe ? My re- ply shall be simple, and, as I think, decisive. Our own chaotic state does not permit us to be good judges in this matter. The reptile prol)ably is not aware of his own loathsomeness ; but let him become something nobler, say an eagle, a man, or an angel, and then he will see how reptilian he once was. Yes, friend, surveying man's ma- jestically promiseful yet stunted capacities, his vast em- bryonic but abortive powers, comparing him with what is conceivable for him, man is indeed a chaos, without form, and void, and darkness is over the face of the deep. GENESIS OF ORDER. 61 Is there any hope here ? Thank 2.-The Spirit still ^. ^^ ^j^^^.^ .^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^. the Organizing Force. ' ti xi p second lesson. Inat same isreath oi God which moved over the face of those ancient fluids, is moving to-day over the soul of humanity. Ah, this is the blessed Energy by which the chaos of our moral na- ture is being organized into order and beauty. Observe : as, in shaping the material Earth out of the old Chaos, the Spirit of God added no new elements, but simply fash- ioned into order the old ; so, in organizing the spiritual chaos. He adds no new faculties, but simply quickens and organizes the old. "What man needs is not creation, but re-creation ; not generation, but re-generation. And this it is which the Holy Ghost is achieving. Brooding, incu- bating as God's Holy Dove over the Chaos of Humanity, He is quickening its latent forces, arranging its elements, assorting its capacities, organizing its functions, apportion- ing its gifts, perfecting its potentialities : in short, com- pleting, fulfilling, consummating Man in the sj>here of Jesus Christ. In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the God- head bodily, and in Him ye are complete, completed, filled full, fulfilled, consummated (Col. ii. 9-10). Most meet then was it that when the Son of God was baptized, this same most Holy Spirit, even God's own blessed Bird, which had hovered over ancient Chaos, should descend in bodily shape like a dove, and alight upon the Representative of Human Nature, even that Son of Man in whom the Chaos of Humanity is being organized into the Cosmos of the Church. And no power but the Holy Ghost can achieve this. Disorder cannot unravel itself into order ; Chaos cannot evolve itself into Cosmos ; Beelzebub cannot cast out Beelzebub. Only the Spirit of God can organize Chaos. And this, praised be His Grace, He is doing. ISo 62 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. man knoM-s wliat is in liini ; no man really puts forth his better, his characterizing, his divine powers till his soul feels the life-giving warmth of the Sjiirit's touch. And then he awakes, oh, how gloriously ! to the sense of sublime energies, to the mastery of celestial ranges. And this it is which the Spirit has been doing, even from the beginning. True, the process has been a slow one, even as it seems to have been in the case of the physical chaos. See, e. g., how slow has been the growth of Christendom taken as a matter of geograjjhy. Eighteen centuries have rolled away since the Heavenly Sower declared that His field is the world ; and yet by far the greater portion of that field is still heathen, never as yet sown with the Heavenly Seed. Again : see how slow has been the growth of moral ideas. Eighteen centuries have rolled away since the Lord of the Kingdom pronounced His Beatitudes. And yet there are still in His Church the proud in spirit, and the ambitious, and the avaricious, and the self -loving, and the quarrel- some, and the revengeful. Nevertlieless, for let us be just, there has been growth — a real, positive, solid ad- vance. We have seen idolatry shaken, and polygamy curbed, and slavery abolished, and intemperance checked, and woman emancipated, and brotherhood asserted, and war preparing to go into perpetual exile. And tlie growth has been an orderly one ; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear (Mark iv. 26-29). It is true in respect to doctrine. First Peter, the Apostle of Form ; then Paul, the Apostle of Creed ; tlien John, the Apostle of Life. First Athanasius, exponent of the Doc- trine of Christ ; then Augustine, exponent of the Doctrine of Man ; then Anselm, exponent of the Doctrine of Grace. Kor has the growth or advancing order of due succession ceased. Tlic problem of this present age is the Doctrine GENESIS OF ORDER. 63 of tlie Cliurcli, or what constitutes tlie true Body of Clirist. And even now we see glimmers of the final Doctrine — the Parousia, or Doctrine of Last Things. And this law of orderly nnfolding is equally tnie in respect to personal character. We may not expect to see the full-bearded grain of saintliness preceding the blades of youthful piety, or the ripe, rich fruits of heavenhood clustered around the subterranean root of faith. First children, then young men, then fathers (i John ii. 12-14). Yes, Humanity as a whole is ever taking on symmetry, and peace, and beauty. Even the bad man, however much he may hate Christian- ity, would not exchange Christendom for Heathendom. Nay, more ; the world's future will ever be greater and diviner than its past, because, evermore beneath the SjDirit's brooding wing, it is evermore taking on growth and meth- od, evermore becoming more and more divinely purpose f ul, evermore becoming more and more conscious of a voca- tion to divine Sonship and everlasting praise. And so at last shall dawn the day of perfectation, even those Edenic Times of the Restitution of all things, of which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began (Acts iii. 21). Then, out of the Chaos of Hu- manity, even the spiritual heavens and earth, which now are, shall be seen rising in measureless amplitude, and daz- zling stateliness, and eternal stability, the Cosmos of the Church, even the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness (2 Peter iii. 13). Finally, would you be inserted as a A Personal Exbor- -,■ . , ' '.i', • m 10 livmg stone m that commg iemple? Then open the chambers of your soul to the Holy Breeze of God. Be wafted heavenward on the zephyrs of Ilis Breath. Even now, awake, O North Wind, and come, Thou vSouth, and breatlie on these dead, 64 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. that they may live (Cant. iv. 16). Yea, Thou risen Son of God, breathe on us all, that we too may receive the Holy Ghost (John XX. 22) ! Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTUEE lY. GENESIS OF LIGHT. "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light; and God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness ; and God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night; and the evening and tiie morning were the first day." — Genesis i. 3, 5. And, first, let us ponder our passage I. — Explanation • •, v^ i • -r> i 1 1 , ^, Ti m its literal meaning. 1 robably we of the rassage. '^ ;' cannot do better here than to take up the successive clauses in their order. " And God said." How are we to 1.— ' God said : ' ^j^derstand this phrase ? Are we to " An Anthropomorph- , , ., t, ^^ a * jgjjj take it literally « Are we to suppose that in that primeval solitude when the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, the Creator literally vented His will in articulate speech — His audible voice pealing and rever- berating through that chaotic, desolate, night-clad abyss ? I can hardly think it. Evidently it is what the theologians call an Anthropomorphism ; that is to say, an application to God of terms which properly belong to human beings. It is like those many Scriptural phrases which sjjeak of God's eye, God's ear, God's hand, God's face, God's mouth, God's voice. Moreover : recall what was said in the Introductory Lecture touching the mode of the Divine GG STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. revelation of the Creative Process to the original Narrator. According to the view then set forth this whole revelation of the Creative "Week was Divinely made known to the sacred, inspired Observer in a trance or spiritual vision, wherein he saw what seemed to him to be the Creator's form and movements, and heard what seemed to be the (Jreator's voice. But though the Story of the Creative AVeek is a Divinely inspired record of a Divinely vouch- safed vision, it is as Divinely true as any of the Apocalyp- tic visions Divinely vouchsafed the Exile of Patmos. " God said." It is the first occur- 2.-Thc God -Said ^.^^^^ ^f ^^jg remarkable phrase. Ten of Moses the God- . , . i • i • /-< . Word of John tunes it IS repeated m this Creation Archive. It is one of the characteriz- ing formulas of the Old Testament, constantly recumng and reappearing in such kindred phrases as these : " God spake, saying ; " " Thus saitli the Lord of Hosts ; " " The Word of the Lord came, saying," etc. A phrase so perpetually recurrent must carry in itself something fundamental. The key is to be found in the Prologue of St. John's Gospel : " In the beginning was the "Word, and the "Word was with God, and the Word was God " (John i. i). That is to say : The " God-Said " of the Old Testament is the " God-Word " of the New Testament ; the " God-Spake " of Creation, the Divine Logos, or Jesus Christ, of Iledemption. Moreover : from this Prologue of the Apostle John we learn that Jesus Christ Himself was the mediating agent of the Creative Act : " In the beginning was the AYord — the God-Said ; and the Word — the God-Said — was with God ; and the Word— the God-Said — was God ; all things through Ilim were made, and without Him was made not one thing that hath been made; in Him was Life; and the Life was the Light of men" (John i. i-4). Yes, in Jesus Chiist — in the GENESIS OF LIGHT. 67 God-Said of Moses and the God-Word of Jolin — "were all things created, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, the things visihle and the things invisible, ■whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers ; all things through Ilini and for Him have been created ; and He is before all things ; and all things in Him sub- sist " (Col. i. 16, 17). And how majestic the brevity of this Divine Dictmn of Liglit ! " God said, ' Let Light be,' and Light was." Longinus, the famous Greek critic of Pal- myra, writing on the Sublime, calls it an illustration of his theme. Recall the lifeless, orderless, chaotic, ebon abyss. And now the Eternal "Word speaks : " Let Light be," and Light is. Ah, man's M'ords are but sounds; God's words are deeds. He but speaks ; and lo ! light, sky, ocean, mountain, tree, animal, man, star, universe! He spake, and it was ; He commanded, it stood fast (Psalm xxxiii. 9) ! All that Is — what is it but the God-Said of Creation ? And yet just here an astronomic 3. The First Light rfl^ u • Ti ^ ii Chemical dimculty ai'ises. ihe sun, we are told, is the primary source of Light. And yet later on in this Creation Archive we are told that God did not make the sun till the Fourth Day (Gen. i. 14-19). How then could there have been Light on the First Day ? It is a difficulty on which the skeptics, I hardly need tell you, have not been slow to seize. And yet it is an exceed- ingly superficial objection — an objection which the scientist of all men ought to be the very last to make. For the fa- mous IS'ebular Hypothesis of Laplace, to which I adverted in the last lecture — a hypothesis stoutly maintained by many of the leading scientists of to-day — distinctly asserts that the condensation of the originally formless, void, dark, gase- ous chaos, accompanied by intense molecular or chemical 68 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. activity, must have emitted Light. Remember that the division of the Hebrew Bible into chapters, verses, clauses — in short, the punctuation of the original Hebrew — is not inspired ; this is altogether a human, artificial arrangement. I am not sure but that the marvelous phrase, " The Spirit, or Breath, of God moved on the face of the fluids " (Gen. i. 2), was meant to stand as the preface to the whole Cre- ative Week, as a caption to each of the Creative Days ; and assuming this to be so, we can easily conceive that the first result of the breathing of the Creator would be atomic movement or molecular activity ; and this, if sufliciently intense, would result in incandescence ; that is to say. Light. Thus the very Nebular Hypothesis itself, which some of the skeptics have undertaken to suborn as a witness against Moses, turns out to be an august witness for him. Why will not men be just ? Why will the Academy vote Moses a blunderer for declaring that Light existed before the sun, and yet vote Laplace a scientist for declaring precisely the same thing ? And yet Moses was no scientist. Liv- ing in that far-oif unscientific, infantile antiquity, he knew nothing about the Nebular Hypothesis, or incandescence as the issue of molecular activity. How came he then, babe of an unscientific antiquity though he was, to antici- pate the grandest hypothesis of Modern Science? Is there any more philosophical solution than this : Moses was Di^^nely inspired ? " And God saw the Light, that it 4. — Blessedness of i ti * i i . i i i ^i • j^j_^^j was good. Ah, Avhat a blessed thing is Light — blessed in itself, blessed in its effects. How deliciously and beneficently it floods moun- tain and meadow, city and hamlet, bearing on its swift wavelets bi'ightncss and beauty and health, and gladness ! It is to Light that the cloud, the sunset, the rainbow, GENESIS OF LIGHT. 69 the diamond, the violet, owe their exquisite hues. Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun (Eccl. xi. 1). Nay, more : Light is one of the essential conditions of all life itself — alike veffetal, animal, human, and, doubtless, angelic. Yes, there is a better curative than allopathy or homoeopathy, hydropathy or aeropathy ; it is heliopathy, or light of the sun. Phy- sicians understand this, and so seek for their patients the sunny side of hospitals. And so they unconsciously con- firm the Holy Saying, " To you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings " (Mai. iv. 2). Yes, our debt of thankfulness to Light is sim- ply incalculable. It is under its blessed ministry that the cloud takes its tint, and the rose its hue, and the cheek its blush ; that the farmer sows his seed, and the artisan plies his tools, and the pilot guides his ship, and the stu- dent reads his book, and the lover exchanges with his loved one the tender glance, and the invalid regains his health, and the worshiper finds his way to God's temj^le. It mat- ters not how perfect the structure and government of the world are in other respects ; how accurate the adjustments of the elements and forces of N^ature ; how mighty the in- tellect of man ; how indomitable his will ; how steady his arm ; how perfect his eye as an organ of vision — let only Liglit be annihilated, and the machinery of society comes to a stop, and earth itself dissolves into its primeval chaos. How horrible a sunless world would be, Byron has pictured in Ris terrible Poem on " Darkness." In brief : it is because there is such a thing as Light that earth is what it is — a theatre for the display of the Creator's effulgence, and not a sepulchre for entombing it. No wonder then, when God saw the Light He had spoken into being, it seemed to Him good. No wonder either that Light, in some one of its 70 STUDIES Ii\ THE CREATIVE WEEK. aspects — as sun, or moon, or star, or lire — lias been the ob- ject of adoration from time immemorial. The Phoenician had his Baal, the Egyptian his Osiris, the Persian his Oi-- nnizd, the Hindoo his Indra, the Greek his Phoebus, the Koman liis Apollo — for these are but different systems of Light "Worship. Listen to the Patriarch of Uz, as he pro- tests his innocence in this very matter : " If I beheld the sun when it shined, And the moon walking in majesty, And my heart was secretly enticed, And my mouth kissed my hand — This also were a crime to be judged, For I should have been false to God on high." —(Job xxxi. 26-28.) But what the heathen ignorantly worshiped, that the Bible declares to us. But let me not anticipate. " And God divided tlie Light froni °' ' tlie darkness : and God called the Lio-lit ing. ^ Day, and the Darkness He called Night : and the evening and the morning were the First Day." And here comes into view a second astronomic difh- culty : How shall the terms " day, night, morning, even- ing, first day," be imderstood in light of the subsequent statement that the sun was not made till the Fourth Day, and also of the apparent teaching of Geology, that im- measurable ages were occupied in world-building? Vari- ous solutions have been proposed. It is not necessary to detail them. My own conviction is, as already set fftrtli at leugth in the Introductory Lecture, that the best solu- tion is that which supposes that the original NaiTator was Divinely vouchsafed an apocalypse, or spiritual vision, in Vvhich a j>anorama of the Creative "Week was unrolled be- fore him, the successive events seeming to occur in periods GENESIS OF LIGHT. 71 of twenty-four hours each. In other words : the kmguagc is not scientific, hut optical ; not philosophical, but pic- torial ; not literal, but scenic. And yet, philosophically and morally interpreted, it is profoundly true. For observe the order of the words : It is not first morning, and then evening ; it is first evening, then morning : " And there was evening, and there was morning, day one." Translat- ing this primeval, childlike, scenic language into the rigid, elaborate language of the modern Kebular Hypothesis, see how marvelously true it is. First : the evening of the form- less, void, dark chaos ; then the morning of the atomic vi- bration, or chemical movement, issuing in incandescent light. And for aught we know, and, indeed, as there is immense reason for believing, that evening of chaos, and that morning of chemism, making a night of darkness and a day of light, continued through thousands and millions of years. How striking, in this connection, the Ninetieth Psalm, written, it is believed, by this very Moses w^ho transcribed for us the original, inspired Tradition of Creation : " Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, and Thou gavest birth to the eai-tli and the world, even from everlasting to ever- lasting, from olam to olam, from ?eon to aeon, from era to era. Thou art God. Thou turnest man to dust, and sayest, ' Eeturn, ye sons of men.' For a thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch in the night " (rsaim xc. 1-4). Yes, " one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day " (2 Peter iii. 8). Ah, this conception of the Primal, Infinite Cause, as working in succession, or measures of lunnan time--wliat is it but a testimony to human finite- ness and weakness ? Felicitously has the Laureate ex- pressed it : 72 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. " To your question now, Which touches on the Workman and His work. Let there be Light, and there was Light : 'tis so : For was, and is, and will be, are but is ; And all creation is one act at once, The birth of Light: but we that are not all. As parts can see but parts, now this, now that, And live, perforce, from thought to thought, and make One act a phantom of succession : thus Our weakness, somehow, shapes the shadow. Time." —("The Peinoess.") Sucli is tlie story of the Genesis of Light. n. Moral Mean- And now let us attend to the Moral ing of our Passage. Meaning of the Story. „ , . , . , First of all, I wish to direct your 1. — God IS Light. . ' 11111 • ^ attention to a remarkable declaration oi Holy Writ. The Apostle John tells us that he has received a message from Jesus Christ ; and then he proceeds to de- clare to us that message. What now is the message and dec- laration ? Is it that God is Truth ? 'No. God is Righteous- ness ? No. God is Love ? ]S"o. What then is it ? Listen : " This is the message which we have heard from Him, and declare unto you, that God is Light" (i John i. 6). An unexpected, impressive message, surely ! Had the Apostle told us that the message was, " God is Wisdom, Power, Holiness, Love," we might not have been surprised. But to be told, and this too after a preface of unwonted solem- nity, in which we are reminded that the message had come from Jesus Christ Himself, that the message was this : " God is Light : " this certainly is unlooked-for and even startling. Listen again : " This is the message which we have heard from Him, and announce unto you : ' God is Light.' " The announcement at once raises the surmise that there is not after all that radical difference between " Natu- GENESIS OF LIGHT. 73 ral Eeligioii " and " Kevealed Keligion," wliicli we so often imagine; but tliat tlie God of Creation and tlie God of Eedemption is absolutely one : Creation being the reflec- tion of IBs face shining matterward, and Eedemption the reflection of His face shining spiritward. For aught I know, the Apostle's message is literally true. Eemember that when we are talking of Light, we are moving in presence of a very subtile mystery. The Origin and ITa- ture of Light is still a profound problem. True, we talk learnedly and correctly about the laws of Light ; its laws of reflection, refraction, absorption, dispersion, polarization, etc. But these are only phenomena ; they tell us nothing about the nature or origin of Light itseK. All we know of Light is merely a knowledge of the mode and laws of its motion. We do not know the essence of Light itself. Modern Science is no wiser here than Ancient. Listen to the Almighty, as, addi-essing tlie Emir of Arabia, He speaks out of the whirlwind, saying : " The way— where is it to Light's dwelling-place? And Darkness— where the place of its abode? That thou shouldest take it to its bounds, Or know the way that leadeth to its house? " —(Job xxxviii. 19, 20.) One thing is certain : Light is the nearest known, sensi- ble approach to immateriality, being classed wath its appar- ent kindred— heat, electricity, magnetism— among the im- ponderables. Indeed, the modern magnificent Undulatory Theory denies that Light is material, and aflirms that it is but a mode of motion. We are accustomed to say that there are but two things in the universe — Spirit and Mat- ter—and that the chasm between these is infinite. Possibly this is one of those assumptions which, did we know more, 4 74 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. we would affirm less. Possibly Light is an instance of what the philosophers call Tertium Quid — a third Some- thing, intermediate between Spirit and Matter, etherially bridging the measureless chasm. Possibly Light is God's natural expression, outflow, radiation, manifestation, vest- ment : " O Lord, ray God, Thou art very great, Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Thou coverest Thyself with Light as with a mantle." — (Psalm civ. 1, 2.) Possibly, when the Creator moves in that finite world we call Time, He leaves Light as Ilis personal vestige and train — His mantle ripples into Light, is Light itself. Pos- sibly the Bard of " Paradise Lost " is right when he sings : " Hail, Holy Light I Offspring of Heaven, first-born, Or of the eternal, co-eternal Beam, Bright Effluence of bright Essence Increate." — (" Pabadise Lost," iii. 1-6.) In \aew of this possibility, how natural as well as fitting that the ancient token of God's Personal Presence among the Hebrews should have been the Shechinah, or dazzling Glory-cloud : " By day along the astonished lands, The cloudy pillar glided slow ; By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands Returned the fiery column's glow." — (Sir Walter Soott.) And, not only in Old Testament times, as when the Shechinah marshaled . the hosts of Israel (Ex. xiii. 2i), and rested on Sinai, and flashed over the Mercy-seat (Lev. xvi. 2), and flushed the Temple with its insufferable brightness (1 Kings viii. 10, 11), was tlic Glory-cloud seen; it reapi3eared in New Testament times, shining roimd about the Shep- GENESIS OF LIGHT. 75 herds of the Nativity (Luke ii. 9), hovering over the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. xvii. 9), receiving the ascending Son of Man (Acts i. 9), gleaming over Saul of Tarsus with a splendor above the brightness of the mid-day sun (Acts xxvi. 12, 13). Once more it will reappear, blazing as the great white Throne on which shall sit the descending Judge of quick and dead (Matt. xxiv. so). I^ay, more, the Holy City itself, Kew Jerusalem, yet to come down from God out of heaven, shall never have need of sun or moon to shine on it ; for tlie Glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb will be the Light thereof (Rev. xxi. 22, 23). This, then, is the message of the Son of the Highest through His Apostle John : God is Light. And as God is Light, so also are 2.-God's Church His children Light. Expressly are they is also Light. „ , n % • -, . t^ called sons 01 Light (Luke xvi. 8). h,x- pressly is He called Father of Lights (James i. 1I). We know that light is latent in every form of matter; for, when sufficiently heated, it becomes incandescent — that is to say, self-luminous. What is flame but a mass of heated, visibly glowing gas ? True, it doth not yet appear what we shall be (John iil. 2). Nevertheless, I believe that Light is latent within us all, and that by-and-by, at least in the case of God's saintly children, it will stream forth ; not that it will be evolved by the action of any heat or chemical force, but that, under the free, transcendent con- ditions of the heavenly estate, it will ray forth spontane- ously. I think we are peraiitted to read preluding hints of this in the solf-luminousness of the summer glow-worm, the fitful firefly, the ploughing steamship's gorgeous wake, the gleaming shaft along the crest of the breaking ocean- surge, the vision of stars when the brain receives a sud- den concussion as in falling, the sense of light when the 76 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. eyeball is accidentally pressed in tlie blackness of mid- night. But wby do I speculate ? Have ye never read in tlie Scri^jtures liow tliat tlie cliildren of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, because of the glory of his countenance when the skin of his face shone (Ex. xxxiv. 29-35) ; how that the martyr Stephen's face, when he stood before the Council, shone as the face of an angel (Acts vi. 15) ; how that the Son of Man Himself, when He was praying, was transfigured, and the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His face shone as the sun, and His very rai- ment became exceeding white as the light, so as no fuller on earth can whiten (Matt. xvii. 1-8) ; how that Moses and Elijah also appeared with Him in glory (Luke ix. so, si) ? Have ye never read in the Scriptures how that Gabriel declared to Daniel that they who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they who turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. xii. s) : or how that the Master Himself declares that in the end of the world the righteous shall shine forth as the sun — ay, shine fortli — not in reflected light as the moon, but in original Light as the sun, in the Kingdom of their Father (Matt. xiii. 43) ? Have ye never read in the Scriptures how that St. Paul tells us that wlien He, Who is our Life, shall appear, we too shall appear with Him in glory (Col. iii. 4) : or how that we are to look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who mil change the body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like the body of His glory — His efful- gence (Phil. iii. 21) — thus translating us into the glorious lib- erty — the liberty of the splendor, of the childi-en of God — even that hour of the manifestation, the revelation, the disclosure, of the sons of God — the hour of their shining apocaly]3se as God's Sons (Rom. viii. 2i)? Ah, that is the blessed hour, O saint, when thou shalt indeed arise and GENESIS OF LIGHT. 77 sliine, tliy light Ijreaking forth as the da-svn (Is. Iviii. 8). Ay, God is Light, and so also are God's children. Thirdly : Jesus Christ Himself, as .V- '^ J t r^ A Incarnate, is the Shadow of God's Liffht. the Shadow of God. -r ^ • r^ -, t^ • Infinite God, Deity as unconditioned and absolute, no man hath ever seen or can ever see, and live (Ex. xxxiii. 20). lie dwcllcth in Light which no man can approach unto (i Tim. vi. 15), is Light itseK. " Dark with excess of Light," we poor finite beings cannot behold Him except through the softening intervention of some medium. Therefore the Son of God, Brightness of His Glory and express Image of His Person (Heb. i. 8), Radiance of His Effulgence and Character or Impress of His Sub- stance, became incarnate, that in the softer morning star and suffused dayspring of the Incarnation we might be able to look on the dazzling Father of Lights, and not be dazed into blindness. How bright Christ's inherent Glory was may be seen from the fact that wdien He had risen again, and appeared to Saul on his way to Damascus, His splendor was so effulgent that it actually smote the per- secutor into blindness (Acts xxii. 11). The Eternal Word, who in the beginning was, and was with God, and was God (John i. 1), laid aside for a wdiile the Glory which He had with the Father before the world was (John xvii. 5), and became flesh (John i. 14), that through the mitigating veil of that flesh we might be able to gaze on the burning face of the Infinite One, and still live. The Incarnation was a benignant eclipse of the Light of Light, Christ's humanity casting its solemn, majestic shadow athwart the immensity of human time as His earthly nature swept in between Infinite God and finite man, thus graciously obscuring the otherwise intolerable, consuming Blaze. Wretclied the man whom the god of this world has so r^g STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. blinded that that eclipse becomes a total one ! Blessed the man who, however profound the obscurity, still per- ceives the flashing corona of immoi-tal Godhead! Yea, thrice blessed the man who abideth under- the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm xci. 1) ! Thus Jesus Christ is the shad- ow of God ; and this in a twofold sense : a shadow of interception, and so obscuring God : and a shadow of rep- resentation, and so revealing God. Yea, that God, who in the beginning commanded light to shine out of darkness, amid the night-palled chaos, saying, " Let Light be," and, lo, Liirht w^as — that same God hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. iv. 6). Fourthly : But Jesus Christ is not 4.— Jesus Christ ^^^j the shadow or tempered image of World ^^^ ^ ^ God : in the very act of becoming that shadow Jesus Christ also became the Light of the world (John viii. 12). Ah, how much the world needed His illumination ! Yerily, it was the land of dark- ness and the shadow of death — the land of darkness, as darkness itself, of the shadow of death, without any or- der, and where the light is as darkness (Job x. 21, 22). But, praised be Immanuel, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light ; and they who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon thein Light hath shined (Matt. iv. 16). The Dayspring from on high hath visited us (Luke i. 78), and the Sun of Righteousness hath risen on us with healing in His wings (Mai. iv. 2). The Son of God is tlie true Prometheus, descending from the true Olympus, bringing down to this darkened, groping, chaotic world the blazing torcli of Heaven's own fire. In His Light we see Light (Psalm xxxvi. 9). He is the true Light, which, coming into the world, is enlightening every man (John i. 9). GENESIS OF LIGHT. 79 And lie is enlightening every man throngli tlie manger in wliicli lie was laid, through the words He spake, through the works He wrought, through the example He set, thi'ough the character He was, through the death -He en- dured, through the resurrection He won, through the throne He holds. This, in fact, was the secret of the Christ's mission into the world. The very pm-pose why the Spirit of the Lord God had anointed Him was that He might proclaim recovery of sight to the blind (Is. Ixi. i) by becoming Himself the Light of men. True, the pro- cess of recovery has not been sudden : God knoAvs it has been very gradual. In regaining our spiritual sight we, like the bhnd man of Bethsaida, at first see men as trees walking (Mark viii. 24). Saved though we are. Duty still calls us to delve as in mines of the eartk And so, as in the ancient Prophet's vision, for a long time it is neither day nor night : but be of good cheer, O saint, at eventide it shall be light (Zeck xiv. 1). Yea, light is sown for the righteous (Psalm xlvii. 11) : and, when in due time it is reaped, the harvest will be larger than the seed. " We have but faith ; we cannot know : For knowledge is of things we see : And yet, we trast, it comes from Thee, A beam in darkness : let it grow."— (" In Memoriam.") Ay, the path of the just is like the light of dawn, whicli shineth more and more till the perfect day— the meridian, eternal noon (Prov. iv. 18). Fifthly : As Jesus Christ is the 5.-And so also is -j^. ,^^ ^^ ^^^^ World, SO also is His His Church. ^J^ , tt i \i i j: • Churcli : He, clear as the sun, she, lair as the moon, both together resplendent as an army with banners (Cant, vi. lO). Little as the world dreams it, the 80 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Cliurcli of tlie living God, everlastingly circling in tlie sweet gravitation of love around the shining Snn of Itight- eousness, and lustrous with His heams, is the world's ti"ue Pharos, majestically towering amid the wastes of time's immensity, flashing forth its rays, "Like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Through all the circle of the Golden Year." Ah, there are tunes when you and I and the wisest of men, suddenly awaking to some great question concerning God, or Duty, or Eternity, feel the horror of a great darkness creeping over us (Gen. xv. 12). Whither shall we turn for guidance ? To the phosphorescent light of Nature ? Alas, it is but the dim lustre of the glow-worm, the transient sparkle of the firefly, the deceitful ignis fatuus of the marsh. Shall we turn to the artificial lights of the Acad- emy ? Alas, its flickering torches, and flaring flambeaux, and dazzling calcium lights, however brilliant and useful for this Avorld, are quenched amid the spray of the surg- ing billows of death. "Whither tlien shall we turn for light? To that blessed halo, which, let down from the enthroned, radiant Son of God, encircles the head of the littlest of His babes. Ay, that is tlic Heaven-lighted au- rora before which earth's most refulgent orb " pales its un- eflectual fire." O children of the Eternal Father, hide not then your light (Matt. v. 14-16). ,„ T r. 1 Two thoughts in conclusion. III. — In Conclu- » , r , r i gj-Qjj And, first, a word ot clieer for the 1.— A Word of saint. Ye arc sons of Light. Kecall ciicer. jiQ^ Ijo-^v much Light means. It means all that is most bright and clean and direct and open and unselfish and spotless and lovely and healthful and true GENESIS OF LIGHT. 81 and divine. How exceedingly great tlien your wealth 1 Oh, live worthily of your rich estate. Walk in the Light, even as He is in the Light, and is Himself the Light (1 John i. 5-7). Let every sunrise summon you, not only to the true Light, but also to a closer, brighter walk with Him. The nearer Him, the more luminous. May the life of each one of us be in very truth a helianthus, evermore keeping our petals turned toward the Sun of Righteous- ness ! Yea, O Lord, evermore lift Thou upon us the light of Thy countenance, evermore cause Thy face to shine upon us. So shall we, with all Thy ransomed ones of every land and age, be made meet to enter into the ex- ceeding rich patrimony, even the inheritance of the saints in Light (Col. i. 12). Ay, in that day of noontide splendor, when the Lord shall have bound up the breach of His peo- ple, and healed the woamd of their stroke, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven-fold, as the light of seven days (Is. xxx. 26 ; ix. 19). Nay, more : in that day of eternal noontide, the sun shall no more be thy light ; neither for brightness shall the moon give light to thee : for the Lord shall be to thee an everlasting Liglit, and thy God, thy Glory. Finally : a word of entreaty to the „ /~~ sinner. Of what use, O friend, is the Eatreaty. ^ _ ' ^ ' , . most abounding light, if we persist m keeping our eyes closed ? Awake, then, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give thee Light (Eph. V. 14). Oh, that at this very moment the day miglit dawn and the day-star arise in your heart (2 Peter, i. 19) ! Re- member that that same God, who called Light out of dark- ness, divided the Light from the darkness, calling the Light Day, and the darkness He called Night. As there is an eternal Day for the Son of Light, so there is an eternal 82 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Niglit for tlie Son of Darkness. Crive glory, then, to Je- hovah, thy God, before it groweth dark, and before thy feet stumble upon the dark mountains : and, while thou art looking for light. He turn it into the death-shade (Jer. xiii. 16). Mehr Llcht ! gasped the great but Christless Goethe on his dying-bed. What Light is that which I see gleaming beyond tlie river, glinting even on the frowning crags which overhang the Yalley of the Shadow of Death ? It is the Light of the city which hath the foundations (Heb. xi. 10), even that eternal, dazzling city, which will never need the light of sun or moon ; for the effulgence of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the Splendor thereof Rev.) xxi. 23). " There is a region lovelier far Than sages tell, or poets sing, Brighter than noonday glories are, And softer than the tints of spring. It is not fanned by summer's gale ; 'Tis not refreshed by vernal showers ; It never needs the moonbeam pale. For there are known no evening hours. No, for that world is ever bright With purest radiance all its own; The streams of uncreated Light Flow round, it from th' eternal throne. In vain the curious, searching eye May seek to view the fair abode. Or find it in the starry sky : It is the dwelling-placo of God." Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTUEE V. GENESIS OF THE SKY. " And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament : and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." — Genesis i. 6-8. • I —Explanation -^^'^ ^^^ ^^'^^ attend to the Explana- of the Passage. tion of tlie Passage. And, first, what did the Sacred ■~~ T!^^^a, °° Chronicler mean by the term " Firma- ccption 01 the feky. "^ ment," or, more literally, " Expanse i Beware, then, at the very outset of trying to extort from the passage wliat is not in it. Beware of demanding from Moses the harvest of the Nineteenth Century of cm- Lord. Instead, then, of putting our meaning into Moses's words, is it not fairer, first of all, to ask what Moses himself meant? Having learned this, then it will be proper to ask whether his meaning is consistent with modern lights. Manifestly, then, the honest thing to do is, first of all, to forget modern attainments, and enter into sympathy with the simple, untutored conceptions of the ancients. Ee- membering now that the language of Scripture on such matters is not scientific, but phenomenal, let us try to 84 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. dwarf ourselves backward thousands of years, and catcli the primeval, childlike conception of the Expanse, or Heavens. To the ancient Hebrew the sky seemed a vast, outstretched, concave surface or expansion, in which the stars were fastened, and over which the ethereal waters were stored. In the light of this infant conception let me now recall to you, without comment, a few Scriptural ex- pressions. " He setteth a canopy over the face of the deep " (Piov. viii. 27) ; " He f oldeth up the heavens as a vest- ure " (lleb. i. 12), "and rolleth them together as a scroll" (Is. xxxiv. 4) ; " He stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in " (Is. xl. 22) ; " He walketh on the arch of heaven " (Job xxiL 14), " and sitteth upon the circle of the earth " (Is. xl. 22) ; " He spreadeth out the skies, firm hke a molten mirror " (Job xxxvii. 18) : " there was under His feet, as it were, a jDaved work of sapphire stone, as it were heaven itself for clear- ness " (Ex. xxiv. 10) ; " Praise Him, ye heavens of heaven, and ye waters that are above the heavens " (Psalm cxlviii. 4) ; " He opened the windows of heaven, and the rain wa& upon the earth forty days and forty nights " (Gen. vii. 11, 12). "But all this," you tell me, "is scientifically false; the sky is not a material arch, or tent, or bander, with outlets for rain ; it is only the matterless limit of vision." [Nei- ther, let me again remind you, is there any such thing as " sunrise " or " sunset." To use such words is to utter what science declares is a falsehood. And yet your as- tronomer, li^ang in the blaze of science fresh from the discovery of spectnim analysis and satellites of Mars, and knowing too that his words are false, still persists in talk- ing of sunrise and sunset. Will you, then, deny to the untutored Moses, speaking in the childlike language of that ancient, infant civilization, the privilege which you GENESIS OF THE SKY. 85 SO freely accord to the diploma-emblazoned, scientifically- speaking, nineteenth-century astronomer ? Taking now, as our cle^y, this primi- 2. — Panorama of ,. i -i ^^^^ .. e ,^ ^ the Emerging Sky. *^''^' duldlike conception of "the sky as an outstretched, ethereal expanse, and keeping distinctly in mind that the language of Scripture on such matters is not scientific, but optical, describing things as they seem, let us try to picture to ourselves the process of the Second Day as it appeared to the Sacred Narrator, when, from his mount of inspired vision, he gazed down on Creation's unfolding j)anorama. Every- where is still a shapeless, desolate chaos. True, the Breath of God is moving over the face of the fluids, and marshal- ing the atoms into molecules, the molecules into masses. True, though the sun has not yet appeared, there is light ; it may be the fierce light of incandescence, atom clashing with atom, molecule with molecule, discharging flashes at every shock. But although the organizing Breath and the fiery glow are here, yet all is still in seething, tumultuous, chaotic confusion. And now a sudden break is seen. A broad, glorious band or expanse glides through the angry, chaotic waste, separating it into two distinct masses — the lower, the heavy fluids; the upper, the ethereal vapors. The band, still bearing upward the vapor, swells and mounts and arches and vaults, till it becomes a concave hemisphere or dome. That separating, majestic dimension we cannot to this day call by a better name than the Ex- panse. And that Expanse God called Heavens. And there was evening and there was morning, a Second Day. Such is the panorama of the Birth of the Heavens, Still the question recurs, " Wliat are TeJm~"^ExpTnsf''^'' ^^ *^ understand by the tenn 'Ex- panse ? ' " Two answers have been given. 86 STUDIES IN TEE CREATIVE WEEK. a. — Tossibly the And, first, it has been commonly Atmosphere. supposed that the Expanse means the air or atmospheric heavens. Kemember that thongh there were ah-eady the brooding Spirit and the mys- terious light, yet earth itself was still a confused, tu- multuous chaos. And our passage, it has been com- monly supposed, marks the first separation of the ele- ments, or the beginning of tlie reign of Order, by repre- senting the atmosphere as the means of separating the waters on the surface of the globe from the clouds or aerial waters ; in other words, that it describes the beginning of tlie process of evaporation. Assuming for a moment that this is a correct sujiposition, let us briefly dwell on it. Perhaps you think that this separation of the original mass of waters into two masses, the one below and the other above, was but a little thing to do, hardly worthy of occu- pying one of the Six Creative Days, Ponder, then, what a stupendous thing evaporation means. Consider the vast amount of water which may be and actually is stored up in the atmosphere. The average quantity of aqueous vapor, or water held in the air, is estimated to be 54,460,000,000,- 000 tons. The annual amount of rainfall is estimated to be 18C),240 cubic miles. If this rain were at any one moment equally spread over the land portion of the globe, it would cover all the Continents — Asia, Africa, Europe, T^orth and South America — with water three feet deep. Of course this water did not originate in the sky : some time or other it must have ascended. Peflcct now that water in its natural state — i. e., water as water — is 773 times heavier than air. And now suppose that you had never heard or conceived of the principle of evaporation, and that you were required to lift up this vast mass of 54,400,000,000,000 tons of water one mile, two, three, four, GENESIS OF THE SKY. 87 Hve miles, into tlie air, and keep it suspended there. The hydrostatic press is among the most powerful of existing machines. And yet the hydrostatic press, gigantically powerful as it is, compared with the force requisite to lift the atmospheric waters, is as the pressure of a scarcely-felt zephyr to the impact of a thousand million broadsides. Nevertheless, what man, or all mankind combined, cannot do, or begin to do, God may have done on the Second Day, and in all events does daily ; and this too with infi- nite ease and noiselessness. Water as vapor occupies 1,600 times larger space than water as liquid. Hence water in its vapor state is vastly lighter than air, and naturally ascends. That is the whole secret. Thus, by the simple, noiseless, generally invisible process of evajDoration, this stupendous weight is raised to and kept suspended at this tremendous height. You know that the countless rivers of earth are evermore, day and night, pouring their vast volumes into the seas. Did you ever think why the seas do not overflow ? E, g., the narrow river Jordan alone annually discharges into the Dead Sea, say, a billion tons of water, and the Dead Sea has no apparent outlet ; and yet it does not overflow. And why ? Because as much water soars from it as flows into it. Did you ever think why the vast, inconceivable quantity of water suspended in the air does not fall on you in smiting, annihilating ava- lanches ? It is simply because the mists and clouds are but gigantic aerial reservoirs or tanks of water, oftentimes thousands of feet in thickness and tens of thousands of acres in breadth. Now, is all this mere chance ? You would never imagine it about any sample of human hy- draulics. Suppose that some one who had never heard of the system of supplying cities with water should be shown our own Faimiount Water- Works, with its elaborate ma- 88 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. sonries, and aqueducts, and reservoirs, and gauges, and mains, and service-pipes, and faucets ; and suppose he should see the whole system in actual operation all the way from the Schuylkill to the chamber in which he is lodging. Do you suppose that any amount of argumenta- tion would ever convince him that the whole system was in no wise a contrivance — nothing but pure accident ? The very suggestion would demonstrate to him that the arguer was an idiot. Now look at the august system which does actually supply this vast earth of ours with water; what is it but a gigantic system of Water-AVorks, occupy- ing very many thousands of miles in space, having its countless pumps of evaporation, and reservoirs of clouds, and service-pipes of rain ? And yet we are gravely told, and this by exceeding wise men, that this whole affair is no contrivance by an intelligent Designer — such as the imscientific and superstitious fancy ; it is only the fortu- nate result of a blind, unconscious movement of molecular activity. Nevertheless, this bhnd, unconscious movement of molecular activity, very remarkable to add, considering now very blind and unconscious it is, persists in repeating precisely the same movement of water-supply from season to season, from century to century, from millennium to mil- lennium. How much more philosophical the theory of the unscientific, and, if you please, superstitious writers of an- cient Scripture! "When God uttereth Ilis voice, lie causeth the vapors to ascend from the earth, and there is a multitude of waters in the heavens " (Jer. x. 13). " He bindeth up the waters in His tliick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them " (Job xxvi. 8), " Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds — the wonderful works of Him Who is perfect in knowledge ? " (Job xxxvli. 16) " He draweth up the drops of M^ater, they pour down rain ac- GENESIS OF THE SKY. gQ cording to its vapor, which the skies do drop and distill upon man abundantly " (Job xxxvi. 27, 28). " Yea, Thou hast visited the earth, and watered it ; Thou greatly en- richest it ; the river of God is full of water ; Thou water- est tlie ridges thereof abundantly ; Thou makest the earth soft with showers ; Thou blessest the sjiringing thereof ; Thou crownest the year witli Thy goodness, and Thy paths drop fatness" (Psalm Ixv. 9-11). There is a sense, then, in which we may truly speak of the atmosphere as an " Ex- panse," separating the waters into masses above and below. But, plausible as this interpretation is, there is this objec- tion to it : Our Chronicler not only represents the Expanse as separating the waters into two masses ; he also distinctly represents the upper mass as being above the Expanse : God " divided the waters which were under the Expanse from the waters which were above the Expanse." And, many a century afterward, a Psalmist, summoning all crea- tion to praise the Maker of heaven and earth, exclaims : "Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens, And ye Avaters that are above the heavens." — (Psalm cxlviii. 4.) And yet, as a matter of fact, the clouds and vaporous waters are not above the atmosphere ; they are in it. How constantly and densely the air is charged with aqueous vapor, the condensed drops on the outside of your ice- pitchers, even in the driest summer day, sufficiently prove. Moreover : if Moses by his word " Expanse " meant the atmosphere, it is fair to substitute the term atmosphere for the term Expanse ; and so our passage would read thus : "■ God said, ' Let there be an atmosphere in the midst of the watei"s, and let it divide waters from waters ; ' and God made the atmosphere ; and He divided the ^^'aters 90 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. wliicli were under the atmosj)here from the waters which were above the atmosphere, and it was so : and God called the atmosphere Heavens." And this term " Heavens," be it observed, is the very term which, in connection with the term " Earth," comprised, according to the first verse of the Creation Archive, the whole created universe, sidereal as well as terrestrial : " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. i. i). In brief, if by the word Expanse Moses meant the atmosphere, would he not have said so, especially as he already had the word for air at command, having just spoken of the Breath of God as moving over the face of the waters (Gen. i. 2) ? Accordingly I am inclined to believe . ro .a y c ^^^^^ ^^.^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^l^^ term Expanse as meaning that vast, indefinable exten- sion which stretches between the earth and the stars ; that is to say, the ethereal heavens. I have more than once alluded to the splendid Nebular Hypothesis : a theory which, notwithstanding it has suffered some formidable assaults, still holds its own with some of the most eminent scientists of the day, alike Skeptical and Christian. Accord- ing to this theoiy, the Solar System was originally a vast, chaotic, gaseous, rotating nebula, without form and void and dark. In process of time it condensed, and in con- densing, accompanied by atomic motion or chemical activ- ity, it became incandescent ; and in rotating it flung off successive portions from its own mass, which portions be- came in turn independent globes. We seem to see evi- dences of this in certain phenomena even now occurring, such as the nebulous stars, the comets, the rings of Saturn, tlie shooting stars, perhaps the Zodiacal Liglit. Now, if this famous Nebular Hypothesis be tnie, tlie work of the Second Day may liave consisted in swinging the earth GENESIS OF THE SKY. 91 from the original nebula, and so making a s^^^cc or ex- panse between it and the rest of the universe ; the ter- restrial fluids or condensing vapors forming the waters below the Expanse, and the ethereal fluids forming the waters above the Expanse. In other words, it was the formation of the Sky. As such, the work of the Second Day was sublime beyond conception. Not that the Sacred Chronicler consciously meant this. But, under the in- spiration of the Holy One, he builded larger than he knew. It is one of the properties of truth that it has an indefinite expansibility. Like the successive concentric circles of undulating water, it evermore repeats itself, and in repeating itself, it eveniiore widens. The Bible does not profess to be a scientific book. Accordingly it reveals in advance no scientific fact. But when, under the good Providence of our God, science does discover a new fact, it is also discovered that the Bible has from the outset mor- ally implicated it. And among the many blessed minis- tries of science none is more sacred than this : to decipher the Scriptural cipher. In all events, let us not be wise above what is written. Recall what was said in the be- ginning of this lecture. Beware of exporting from the text what after all is only our own import. When the statement is doubtful, instead of being dogmatic, let us modestly, calmly abide the tuition of events. One thing is certain : the God Wlio speaks in l^ature, and the God "VVlio speaks in Scripture, is one and the same God, and cannot contradict Himself. And sooner or later humanity will acknowledge that the two declarations are a spiritual rhyme, a Divine melody. Such is the Story of the Genesis of the Sky. IT. Moral Mean- And now what are the lessons of the ing of the Story. Story ? It teaclies many : e. g., it teaches 92 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the great lesson of Individuality. But as tins will come be- fore us still more appropriately in our next lecture, let us reserve our comments till then. Meantime let us take our chief lesson to-day from the central point of our passage. That central point is this : " God called the Expanse Heav- en."' In like manner also every human being has over him a possible firmament. Happy the day when the mists up- lift, and he awakens to the vision and sense of the arching Heavens ! And, first, the Heavens suggest the 1 Ti '° ' T ^"°' soul's true direction : it is upward. gests Human Aspira- ^ tions. To express moral excellence by terms of altitude is an instinct. How natu- rally we use such phrases as these : " Exalted worth, high resolve, lofty purpose, elevated views, sublime character, eminent purity ! " How naturally, too, we use opposite phrases: "Low instincts, base j^'^^ssions, degraded charac- ter, groveling habits, stooping to do it ! " " Down with the traitor, Up with the flag ! " In answer to the same instinct, the Jews always spoke of going up to their Holy City Jerusalem, even though in doing this they may have actually made a geographical descent, as was the case with the dwellers in Bethlehem and Hebron. In like manner, pagans instinctively local- ize their gods on mountain crests ; for example, the Per- sians on Caucasus, the Hindoos on Meru, the Greeks on Olympus. So the Jews themselves, when fallen into idolatry, consecrated high places and hill-tops. Doubtless here, too, is the secret of the arch, and especially the spire, as the symbol of Christian architecture : the Church is an aspiration. Even the very word " heaven " itself, GENESIS OF THE SKY. 93 like the Greek Ouranos, means height, and, according to the etymologists, is an Anglo-Saxon word, lieo-fan ; mean- ing what is heaved np, lifted, heav-en — ^heaven. Well, then, may the vaulting sky stand as the symbol of human aspiration. The true life is a perpetual soaring and dom- ing ; or rather, like the mystic Temple of Ezekiel's vision, it is an inverted spiral, forever winding upward, and broadening as it winds (Ez. xli. 1). The soul's tnie life is a perpetual exhalation ; her affections evermore evaporat- ing from her own great deep, and mounting heavenward in clouds of incense. Ah, it is not when man stoops downward to delve amid earthly treasures, it is not even when he strides forward to execute broad schemes, that he is greatest : man is greatest when, looking upward, he takes to himself wings' and flies. The yearnings after a better, purer, truer, diviner life, the aspirations heavenward : these are the true birds which God has made to fly above the earth, along the Expanse of the heavens. Yes, hail to thee, thou skylark of the soul ! " Higher still and higher, From the earth thou springest, Like a cloud of fire ; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest." — (Shelley.) . , ^. „ Secondly : As the Heavens sue^gest 2. And Divine Per- , . ^. ,. ^_. *=''=' fections human aspirations, so do the Heavens suggest their complement. Divine Per- fections. It is true, e. g., in respect to God's Immensity. Nothing seems so remote from us, or gives such an idea of vastness, as the dome of heaven. Climb we ever so high on mountain-top, the stars are still above us. Pierce we ever so far wdtli telescopic ken, beyond its utmost 94 STUDIES IN TOE CREATIVE WEEK. range still arches the same ever-receding vault. It is the symbol of God's infinite Altitude. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than man's ways, God's thoughts than man's thoughts (Is. iv, 9). He is the high and lofty One "Who inhabiteth eternity. Whose name is Holy, Who dwelleth in the high and holy place (Is. ivii. 15). As, then, we think of His exceeding height, how vividly does the measureless distance between sky and earth picture man's exceeding littleness, even in the moments of his supremest aspiration ! Again : It is tme in respect to God's Sovereignty. I^othing seems to be so absolutely beyond human control or modification as the sun and stars of heaven. " Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, Or loose the bands of Orion ? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season, Or guide Arcturus with his sons ? Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens, Or canst thou set their dominion over the earth ? " — (Job xxxviii. 31-33.) Yet it is the high and lofty One Wlio created all these, Who bringeth out their host by number, Who calleth them all by name, by the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power (Is. xl. 26). What to man is canopy, to God is throne. He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers (Is. xl. 22). Yea, heaven is His throne, and earth is His footstool (Is. ixvi. i). " Sing unto God then, O, kingdoms of the earth, Sing praises to the Lord ; To Him Who rideth upon tlie heaven of heavens of old : Ascribe ye strength unto God : II is excellency is over Israel, And Uis strength is in the skies." — (P.sALM Ixviii. 32-34.) GENESIS OP THE SKY. 95 Again : It is true in respect to God's Sj)irituality. Nothing seems so like tliat rarity of texture which we in- stinctively ascribe to pure, incorporeal spirit, as that subtile, tenuous ether which it is believed pervades the clear, im- palpable sky, and, indeed, all immensity. And in this sub- tile ether, so invisible to sight, so impalpable to touch, so diifused throughout earth and the spaces of the heavenly Expanse, we may behold a symbol of that invisible, intan- gible, ever-omnipresent One Who Himself is Spirit ; and "Who, accordingly, can be worshiped only in spirit and tnith (John iv, 24). Again : It is true in respect to God's Purity. Nothing is so exquisite an emblem of absolute spotlessness and eternal chastity, as the unsullied expanse of heaven, untrodden by mortal foot, unswej^t by aught but angel wings. Even the ancients called it the Empy- rean, as though it had been formed out of pure fire or liglit. How fit and glorious an emblem, then, the sky is of the Purity of Him Who is said to charge His angels with folly (Job. iv. 18), and in Whose sight the very heavens are de- clared to be unclean (Job xv. 15) ! Again : It is time in respect to God's Beatitude. We cannot conceive a more perfect emblem of felicity and moral splendor than light. Everywhere and evermore, among rudest nations as well as among most refined, light is instinctively taken as the first and best possible emblem of wdiatever is most intense and perfect in blessedness and glory. And whence conies light — the light which arms us with health, and fills us with joy, and tints fiower and cloud Avith beauty, and floods mountain and mead with splendor — but from the sky ? Well, then, may the shining heaven be taken as the elect emblem of Ilim Wlio decketh Himself with light as with a robe (Psalm civ. 2), Who dwelleth in light which no man can approach unto (i Tim. vi. 16), Who Himself is the Father 96 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE "WEEK. of lights (James i. 17) ; nay, Who is Light itself (i John i. 5), Himself taking the place of candle and moon and sun in the City of the Foundations (Rev. xxi. 23). Once more : It is tiiie in respect to God's Obscurity. For though God Himself is light, yet there are times when even the very heavens themselves obscure His brightness. There are times when clouds and darkness are round about Him (Psalm xcvii. 2), when He layeth the rafters of His palace in the upper waters, and maketh the clouds His chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind (Psalm civ. 3), and hath His way in the whirlwind, and the clouds are the dust of His feet, and His pavilion round about Him are dark wa- ters and thick clouds of the skies (Nah, i. 3). Tea, there are times when it is the glory of God to conceal a thing (Piov. XXV. 2), and there is a hiding of His power (Hab. iii, 4). Happy the man who when Jehovah thundereth in the heavens, and the Most High shooteth out lightnings, hailstones, and coals of fire (Psalm xviii. 13, 14), and darkness is under His feet, still sees through the thick clouds the opening heavens, and the Glory of God, and Jesus standing in the midst of the Glory (Acts vii. 55, 56). Yea, praise the Lord, ye fire and hail, ye snows and vapors, ye stormy winds, fulfilling His word (Psalm cxlviii. 8). Sucli are some of the particulars in which the heavenly Expanse is the symbol of Infinite Deity. And all this we hint, whether consciously or not, every time we pronounce those wonderful words. Our Father Who art in heaven (Matt. vi. 9). Heavenly Father : this sums up the meaning of the Sky. Such are some of the lessons of the Heavenly Expanse. In Conclusion. And now two thoughts in conclusion. 1. — Jesus Christ And, first, a thought of the past. the Nexus of Heaven Since God is SO very great, how can we and Earth. ^jyer hope to reach Him? Since His GENESIS OF THE SKY. 97 throne is so high and lifted up (Is. vi. i), even above the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, liow can we with our poor feet, or even with the wings of aspiration, ever hope to rest in His bosom, or even kiss His shining feet ? Be- • hold, then, a condescension as measureless as the Infinitude. Thus saith the high and holy One, Who inhabiteth eter- nity, Whose name is Holy : I dwell in the high and holy place, also with the humble and contrite of spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble ones, and to revive the heart of the contrite (Is. ivii. 15). Since we cannot soar to Infinite God, Infinite God stoops to us. Yea, in the Person of the Incarnate Son, He has bowed the heavens and come down. The Immanuel of the manger, His brow of the Heavens, Heavenly, His feet of the earth, earthy, is the blessed meeting-place of the Infinite and the finite ; the rapturous trysting-place of Human aspiration and Divine response. Ay, the prophecy of Bethabara beyond Jordan has already been fulfilled. Yerily, verily, we have seen heaven opening, and the angels of God ascending and de- scending upon the Son of Man (John i. 5i). And so in the stooping God of the Stall, and the soaring Man of the Cloud, even in Jesus the ISTazarene, the Infinite and the finite are in peace : " And Heaven comes down our souls to greet, And Glory crowns the mercy-seat." — (Stowell). „ Finally, a thought for the future. Every time you go forth under the open sky, be it cerulean, or be it overcast, let it be to you an eternal beckoner upward. God forbid that you should miss its meaning so deeply as to echo the Boyal Dane's lament : " This most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof 5 98 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. fretted with golden tire — wliy, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors " ("Hamlet," ii. 3). All, friend, none but that Iniinite God, of Whom the infinite sky is the symbol, can ever satisfy your own mighty aspirations. For '• Every inward aspiration is God's angel undefiled, And in every ' O, my Father,' slumbers deep a ' Here, My child.' " — (DsCHELnDEDDlN.) In yon measureless, ever-receding dome, you will ever find a limitless, exhilarating arena for all that in you is most noble and stout and true and Godward. Every time, then, that you go forth under heaven's arch, accept the sky as life's real meaning. On its azure, ever-soaring, infinite vault evermore read the sun-emblazoned legend, Excelsior. May the Lord of the skies evermore call the welkin of your soul Heavens ! Thus, evermore aspiring, it shall happen that when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the tnimpet of God, thou, too, with all His ransomed ones, shall be caught up in clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shalt thou ever be with the Lord (i Thess. iv. 16, 17). Meantime, evermore sing the Bird Song of the soul : " Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee ; E'en though it be a cross, That raiseth me, Still all my song shall be, Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee. " Or, if on joyful wing. Cleaving the sky. Sun, thoon, and stars forgot, Ul)ward I fly. GENESIS OF THE SKY. 99 Still all my song shall be, Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee." — (Mks. S. F. Adams.) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTUEE VI. GENESIS OF THE LANDS. "And God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : ' and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth : and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good," — Gen- esis 1. 9, 10. Translating this ancient, childlike, pictorial language into that of modem scientific prose, our Archive reads thus : The Creator outlined the general features of Physi- cal Geography, by causing the lands to emerge from the primeval ocean. I.— Explanation First of all, let us attend to the Ex- of the Passage. planation of the Passage. Peminding you of what was said in l.-Panorama of ^j^^ introductory Lecture touching the Emergent Lands. "^ . ^ phenomenal or scenic language of Scripture on such matters, let us now forget modern at- tainments, and, going back to the dawn of humanity's in- fancy, stand with the Inspired Seer on his mount of pano- ramic vision. And an awful vision it is. Tnie, the Breath of God is still moving over the face of the abyss. True, there is still the incandescent light. True, the Expanse of the arching heavens has separated the fluids into masses — the terrestrial and the ethereal. Nevertheless, the globe GENESIS OF THE LANDS. 101 itself is still a vast, reliefless, water j waste. ]^o continent is seen, no mountain, no island, no rock, no shore, no bay, no surf ; nothing but a universal, shoreless, desolate Blank. And now is heard again the Omnific Word : " Let the wa- ters under the heavens gather themselves to one place, and let the dry land appear ! " And, lo, the waters do hasten to their place, and the dry land does appear. And a sub- lime spectacle it is — this resurrection of the terrestrial forms out of Ocean's baptismal sepulchre — this emergence of island, and continent, and mountain — this heaving into sight of Britain and Madagascar and Cuba and Greenland, of Asia and Africa and Australia and America, of Alps and Himalayas and Andes and Sien-a ]S"evada ; more thrilling still, of Ararat and Sinai and Pisgah and Carmel and Le- banon and Zion and Olivet. No wonder that the holy poets so often allude to the majestic event. Let two or three examples suffice. Thus : " The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, The world, and they who dwell therein : For He hath founded it upon the seas, And estahlished it upon the floods." — (Psalm xxiv. 1, 2.) Again : " Jehovah is a great God, And a great king above all gods : In His hand are the recesses of the earth, And the treasures of the mountains are His : The sea is His, and He made it, And His hands formed the dry land."— (Psalm xcv. 3-5.) Once more : " Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment : The waters stood above the mountains : At Thy rebuke they fled, At tlie voice of Thy thunder they hasted away : 103 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. The mountains rose, the valleys sank, To the place which Thou didst found for them : A bound didst Thou set, that they should not pass over, Should not return, to cover the earth." — (Psalm civ. 6-9.) 2.— Geologic Con- And With this poetic Archive of the firmation. Emergent Lands the Geologic Eecord entirely agrees. Whatever doubts there may be touching the Nebular Hypothesis, or the original condition of our globe, the geologists agree that there has been a time in the history of this earth when its surface was almost entire- ly oceanic, and that subsequently the lands emerged in consequence either of the subsidence of the ocean level, or of the upheaving energy of fiery or chemical forces. In fact, it is this assumption of a primitive universal ocean, charged with mineral particles, and depositing them through untold ages, thus forming the sedimentary or stratified rocks, which rocks were subsequently uplifted above the ocean by sub-aqueous forces — it is this very assumption, I say, of a primitive universal ocean, subsequently relieved by visible land areas, which makes it possible that there should be any such thing at all as the science of Geology. How could the geologist make out his magnificent geo- logical calendar, if it were not for the successive layers of deposited or stratified rocks of the lands upheaved into view from the depths of old Ocean's sepulchre ? And so, at this very point, the ancient seer and the modern skep- tic agree ; both say that the earth was formed out of water and by means of water (2 Peter iii. 5). But they diifer as to the explanation. The ancient seer said, " The secret of Nature is God." The modern skeptic says, " The secret of Nature is Law." And yet both speak truly, for Truth is evermore unutterably large : God is the cause of Na- ture, and Law is God's means. In still briefer words, Law GENESIS OF THE LAXDS. 103 is God in movement. Ay, from Ilim, and tlirougli Ilim, and to Him, are all things : to Whom be the giory for ever. Amen (Rom. xi. 36). " And God saw that it was good." .— enc ccncc o j^^^ ^y^Yl mifflit He delight in it. For a the Arrangement. " .,..,. blessed thing this divme distribntion of lands and seas was. I do not think that we sufficiently realize its importance. Let ns halt, then, for a moment to glance at some of tlie essential features of the Physical Geography of our globe. For what I am about to say on this point, I am chiefly indebted to Prof. Arnold Guyot's very suggestive and valuable work, entitled " The Earth and Man." Look, first, at the general arrangement of Land and Water. The surface of this globe measures 196,900,000 square miles. Of this, 144,000,000 ai-e water, and 52,900,000 are land ; that is, dividing the surface of the globe into a hundred parts, twenty-seven parts Mxmld be land and sevent}^- three water. But you interrupt me with a question : '' Is not this an enormous waste ? Would it not have been better had the proportion been reversed, so that, instead of the land's being one-fourth of the sur- face of the globe, it should have been three-fourths ? " But you forget the momentous part which the ocean plays in the economy of life. Absorbing and radiating heat less readily than land, the ocean, with its great marine cuiTents and tides, is the grand regulator of earth's cli- mates, without which regulation the land itself would soon become uninhabitable. Moreover : were it not for the im- mense extent of the ocean area, there woidd not be evap- orating surface enough to feed those aerial tanks which are needed to meet the constant enormous demand for rains and dews — a method of water supply absolutely in- dispensable to the fertility of the soil, and so to human 104 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. life itself. Again : look at tlie breaking-up of the surface of tlie lands into inequalities of mountain and valley, high- land and plain. It is precisely this inequality of surface which tempers the action of the heat and the winds, and which makes possible the magnificent river systems of the continents. Let the earth be but an unbroken table-land, and it would swiftly become an uninhabitable desert. Once more : look at the horizontal contour of the conti- nents, and observe what an immense factor this has been in the history of mankind.- Look at Africa with its 11,314,300 square miles, and 16,200 miles of coast-line. And then look at Europe, with its 3,505,200 square miles, and 19,800 miles of coast-line. In other words, though Europe is three times smaller than Africa, yet it has 4,000 more miles of sea-coast, Africa having but one mile of coast-line to every 896 square miles of area, while Europe, including her islands, has one mile of sea-coast to every 143 square miles of surface. And now, which continent has produced the historic nations of the race : vast Africa, with its unbroken, comparatively short coast-line of 16,000 miles, or little Europe, with its sinuous, comparatively vast coast-line of 20,000 miles, everywhere indented with pen- insulas and promontories and bays and harbors, and so in- viting the interjjlay of commerce and civilization ? Are Greece and Italy and France and Germany and Great Britain in Africa, or in Europe ? Such are a few of the more remarkable features of Physical Geography. When we remember how very significant they are, and how pro- lific in momentous results : when we remember how pro- foundly and beneficently the seas affect the lands ; how immensely the ocean mitigates earth's climate ; how indis- pensable its vast surface is to the evaporation of water suflicient to supply the needed dews and rains and rivers GENESIS OF THE LANDS. 105 and lakes and springs ; how the relief of the continents — the range of their mountains and plateaus and lowlands — controls their drainage, and shapes their vast river systems and water-basins : when we remember that " the depres- sion of a few hundred feet, which would make no change in the essential forms of the solid mass of the globe, would cause a great part of Asia and Europe to disappear beneath the waters of the ocean, and would reduce America to a few large islands," or that " an elevation of 350 feet is sufficient to reduce the mean temperature of a place by one degree of Fahrenheit, that is to say, the effect is the same as if the place were situated seventy miles farther north : " when we remember that the effect of placing Italy and Greece in the north of Europe, instead of in the south, would be to turn them into Scandinavia or Kam- tchatka, or that the placing of Europe east of Asia, in- stead of west, would turn it into Siberia, or that the flow- ing of the Mississippi northward into the Arctic Ocean, instead of southward into the Mexican Gulf, would turn the larger part of the United States into a desert : when we remember that the very forms of the lands — their size, shape, elevation, relative position, indentation of coast-line, direction of mountain-range, and the like — de- termine the climate, the productions, the industries, the health, the habits, the civilization of each country : when we remember all this, we, too, may share in the Creator's delight, and with Him pronounce the gathering together of the waters and the appearing of the dry land very good. Such is the story of the Genesis of the Land. ^^ ,, ,,, And now, what are the moral les- n.— Moral Mean- . ,, , , t -n ing of the Story. ^^"^ ^^ ^^'^ ^^^'T ? I ^vill mention two. 106 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. And, first, the Birth of Individiial- 1. — Birth of ludi- '• t? \ .i • - . j_ ., ,. ity. J or observe the precise point at viduahty. i . i . T which we have arrived in these medita- tions on the Creative Week ; it is the point of differentia- tion, or division of forces. That we may conceive it more clearly, recall what has already been achieved : first, there Avas the creative origination of the elements of the uni- verse out of nothing ; secondly, there was the formless, orderless, chaotic, night-clad abyss ; thirdly, there was the organizing Breath of God ; fourthly, there was the liglit of chemical activity ; fifthly, there was the dividing Ex- j)anse, separating as by a measureless, dome-shaped parti- tion the fluid mass into separate masses, so tliat Earth sweeps into view a distinct, independent globe ; and now, sixthly, there is the separation on the surface of the globe itself, the Avaters grouping themselves in the places ap- pointed for tliem, and the land areas emerging. Thus our passage carries out and intensifies the lesson already hinted in our last study : the great principle of Individualism. For individuality implies diversity, or ratlier unity, the unity consisting of diversities in equipoise or melody. For a unity is something more and higher than a bare unit. Consider for a moment the difference between them. A unit is a single one, surveyed externally, in isolation from other ones ; a unity is a single one, surveyed internally in its parts, cacli and every part being a mutual adjustment to a common end. A unit is a bare one ; a unity is many and different things in a state of oneness. A unit is one in the sense of numerical singleness ; a unity is one in the sense of harmonious pluralness. Tims a drop of water, when considered in distinction from other di'o])s of water, is a unit ; but the same drop of water, when considered in its parts as made of eight weights of oxygen and one weight GENESIS OF THE LANDS. 107 of hydrogen, is a unity. So the earth of the Second Crea- tive Day, surveyed in distinction from the sun and pLinets, was a unit ; hut the earth of the Third Creative Day, sur- veyed in itself, as a system of seas and hmds poised in re- ciprocal activities, was a unity. So each member of a church, in distinction from otlier members, is a imit ; but the church, as a whole, composed of many members, all of whom are living in a state of oneness, is a unity. Be- hold, how good it is, and how pleasant, for brethren to dwell together in unity (Psalm cxxxiii. i) ! But unity implies something more than harmonious variety of parts ; it im- ])lies the subordination of these various parts to a common end. It is this harmonious conspiracy of diverse parts to a common end which makes the parts, as a whole, a unity. Thus the separate parts in a marble quarry are not a unity ; tliey are only units ; but actually bring them together, and iit them together in due proportion for the j)urpose of tcm- ])le service, and they become a unity. Apply, mnv, these thoughts to that possible instance of culminating unity — a man. lie is not all ej'e, or ear, or hand, or f(»ot ; he is not all conscience, or reason, or scnsibilit_y, or will ; he is spirit and soul and body (i Tbcss. v. 23), each in mutual adjust- ment, aiul all in nmtual cooperation for a common end, i. e., life. That is to say, he is an Individual. This is a term -which you would never apply to a homogeneous substance, e. g., a stone. For as uniformity is a mark of the lowest stage of existence, so variety is a mark of the higliest. As we ascend the scale of being, life becomes more complex and dilTerenced. Indeed, one of the hajipi- ost definitions of life is this : " Life is the mutual exchang- ing of relations." How wonderfully life complicates and diversifies as, starting with the l)ioplast in tlie lowest forms of animal existence, we trace its ever nudtiplying ditferen- 108 STUDIES IX THE CREATIVE WEEK. tiations in the amoeba, the poljp, the clam, the spider, the sahnon, the lizard, the eagle, the lion, Man ! Again, look- ing at man himself, contrast the child of barbarism and the child of civilization. How simple the wants of the savage ; how few and rude his implements ! — you might almost gath- er them on this platform. On the other hand, how divei'si- iied the wants of the civilized man ; how numberless and complicated his implements! — the Exhibition grounds of our glorious Centennial could not contain them. In brief, differentiation is the very condition of life. Everything grows by multiplication of organs and functions, and their consignment to specific ends. Develoj^meut is by special- ization. How wonderfully this comes out in the growth of the germinating vesicle of the egg ! And the higher the grade of being, the more individualized as well as numerous its organs and functions. This, then, is the point to which our passage brings us ; it marks the begin- ning of the sense of Individuality. Beginning, I say. For the sense of individuality is not a sudden attainment. It is a process more or less slow. How happily the Laureate has described it, in lines as profound as musical ! " The baby new to earth and sky, What time his tender pahn is prest Against the circle of tlie breast, Has never thought that ' this is I.' "But as he grows he gathers iiinch, And learns the use of ' I ' and ' me,' And finds ' I am not what I see, And other than the things I touch.' " So rounds lie to a separate mind. From whence clear memory may begin. As through the frame that binds liim in. His isolation grows defined." — (" Ix Memori.vm," xWv.) GENESIS OF THE LANDS. 109 In fact, it is this sense of individuality which marks off man from the lower forms of life. Spealdng accu- rately, you would never apply the term to a plant, or even an animal. And the higher the character, the more dif- ferenced and specialized it becomes : for, remember, de- velopment is by specialization ; moreover, it is this special- ization which gives to each man his characteristic ; that is to say, his character. Peter, like John, and Paul, and everybody else, was a man. But to call him simply a man does not distinguish him from other men. Peter M'as an individualized man ; that is, as the old Schoolmen used to say, Peter had Peterness ; and it was this Peter- ness which constituted him not only a man, but also Peter- man. Great, then, is the hour when man wakes to the sense of his own individuality. Yea, happy the day when the Lord of man speaks to the chaos of thy soul, saying : " Let the waters under the heavens gather themselves to- gether into one place, and let the dry land appear ! " For observe the effectiveness of a duly grouped, coordi- nated man. How is it that the steam-engine, small com- pared with the mass it moves, is able to drive the mighty craft, with her ponderous cargo, in teeth of billow and tempest from continent to continent? It is not merely because it is made of iron and worked by the expansive power of steam ; it is also because piston and cylinder, beam and connecting-rod, crank and fly-wheel, valve and condenser, pump and governor, all work in reciprocal ad- justment and harmonious conspiracy to a common end, namely, to send the steamer across the Atlantic. But let some slight derangement of the machinery take place — eome valve refuse to work, some cog interfere, some pin give way — and the engine, which was strong enough to send the Great Eastern speeding like a leviathan through 110 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the billows, is liardly strong enough to propel a tug across the Schuylkill. So it is with man. Let his heart be one with itself ; let it be a unity, as well as a unit ; let its seas of sensibility group themselves into their appointed places, and its lands of activity duly emerge ; in short, let him, like the Psalmist, praise his God with his whole heart ; and he will conquer in Time's Great Campaign. But let him have a disheveled heart ; let him halt between two opinions ; let him be a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James i. 8) ; and he will l)e swept before the breatli of Apollyon as the withered leaf before the hurri- cane. Thrice happy, then, the day when the Lord of souls sets in peaceful equilibrium the chaos of thy soul ; when Conscience approves Desire, and Desire takes delight in Conscience ; when Duty and Inclination henceforth and for evermore walk in saintly tM'inship ; when Faith tempers Keason, and Reason buttresses Faith ; when Imagination gives wing to Judgment, and Judgment guides Imagina- tion ; when Hope draws courage from Memory, and Mem- ory fortifies Hope ; when Humility soars into Confidence, and Confidence leans on Humility ; when Reverence chastens Joy, and Joy gladdens Reverence ; when every Faculty helps, and is helped by every other ; when all the ends are means, and all the means are ends ; Mlien the whole nature is in very deed a Cooperative Society — every sensibility and power of the soid being evermore engaged in one and the same holy, blessed conspiracy, even the gloiy of its Maker and Saviour. Then shall the soul be indeed Jerusalem, City of Peace. O Lord of Love, and K ing of Beauty ! unite my heart, even now, that so my earthly life may be in very truth the prelude of my heav- enly song ! This, then, is the first lesson of our text : The Birth of Lidividuality, or a heart set in Unity. GENESIS OF THE LANDS. HI The burnt-offering that God loves is a wliolc burnt-of- ferijig. But our passage teaches a second, kin- 2.— The Birth of , , , ^ '^ . ^ i; xi \c ^ T, ^ dred lesson, c-rowmo; out oi the hrst. Duty. ' ^ o It is this : The Birth of Duty. For each man is in himself a little world ; first, there is the night-mantled chaos of unregulated, unconscious powers ; next, there is the quickening, grouping, coordinating force of the Spirit of God ; next, there is the incandescent glow of nascent, tumultuous moral activity ; next, there is the awakening sense of the doming Expanse, or man's relation to God ; and next, there is the awakening sense of dis- tributed forces, or man's relation to man. For the indi- vidualization of each man is not so much for the man's .own sake as for the sake of all men. Yes, brother, that is a mighty hour in your life when you awake for the first time to the sense of the truth that there are others in the world besides yourself. And this is impossible except it comes to you through sense of separation, segmentation, isolation, individualization ; even as "the past will always win A glory from its being far, And orb into the perfect star AVe saw not when wc moved therein." — (" In Memori.vm," xxix.) And with this sense of individuality begins the sense of responsibility, the sense of duty, the sense of self-sacri- fice; in a single word, the 'sense of Manhood. Ay, great is the hour when we awake to the sense of Humanity. " 'Tis the sublime of man, Our noontide majesty, to know ourselves Parts ami proportions of one wondrous whole ! 112 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. This fraternizes man, this constitutes Our charities and bearings."— (S. T. Coleridge.) You see liow broadly the field opens. a.— e rue - j^ £^^, ^|^^ ^^^^ takes US into the very trill sm heart of the Christian Religion. Even the great Comte, in whose elaborate system of religion the Worshij) of Humanity lies as the corner-stone, discerned, as though from afar, this splendid tnitli ; for he taught that the key to social regeneration is to be found in what he called Altruism, or the victory of the sympatlietic in- stincts over self-love. Would to God that the scales had fallen from his eyes, and that he had recognized in the al- together lovely One of Nazareth and Calvary the true, infinite Altruist ! For Christianity, bearing the name of her Founder, Christ, has, on the one hand, nothing in com- mon with the spirit of a selfish monasticism ; she flies the desert and the cloister, to nestle in the family and brood over the market-place. And, on the other hand, Christi- anity has nothing in common with the spirit of a selfish communism ; instead of saying with the socialist, " All thine is mine," she says, with her Founder, " All mine is thine." Christianity's characteristic motto, distinguishing her from all other religions and jjhilosophies, is this : " We are members one of another" (Eph. iv. 25), Modern Sociol- ogy juts out into the sea of Time two opposite promon- tories : the promontory of Volatilization, or the dispersion of the individual into the community, and the promontory of Solidification, or the concentration of the community into the individual. Rome, alike the ancient civil and the modern churchly, rej^resents the former extreme, dissipat- ing the personal into the general. France, with her ideal notions of communism, represents the latter extreme, con- densing the general into the personal. The Church of the GENESIS OF THE LANDS. 113 living God, as answering to the Ideal of lier Divine Found- er and Head, is blending the two extremes, evermore say- ing : " "We are members of one another." Hence she has lessons for all classes and conditions of men, and this al- ways with reference to one another. To the Hnsband, she says : " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for her" (Eph. t. 22). To the Wife, she says: "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord" (Col. iii. I8). To the Father, she says : " Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord " (Eph. vi. 4). To the Child, she says : " Chil- dren, obey your parents in all things in the Lord : for this is well pleasing unto Him " (Col. iii. 20). To the Em- ployer, she says : " Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, forbearing threatening, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven, and that there is no respect of persons with Him " (Col. iv. i). To the Em- ploye, she says : " Servants, obey your masters accord- ing to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord " (Col. iii. 22). To the Ruler, she says : " Be wise, ye kings ; be instructed, ye judges of the earth (Psalm ii. lO) : judge righteously, plead the cause of the poor and needy " (Prov. xxxi. 9). To the Ruled, she says: "Citizens, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake ; whether it be to the king, as supreme, or to governors, as being sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well " (i Peter ii. 13). To the Nations, she says : " ISTations, beat your swords into ploughshares, your spears into pnniing-hooks, lift not up the sword against each other, learn war no more " (Is. ii. 4). To all man- kind, she says : " Honor all : love the Brotherhood : fear 114 rUDIES L\ THE CREATIVE WEEK. God : honor tlie King " (i Peter ii. 17). In short, slie teaches that each individual exists for the total, even as each mem- ber exists for the body. And how admirably she teaches it ! Listen to a classic paragraph from the writings of that Apostle who penetrated most deeply into the Genius of Christianity, and felt most pressingly its power, a para- graph singularly pertinent to the lesson of the hour : " The body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, ' Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body ? And if the ear should say, ' Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body ? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling ? But now God hath set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where would be the body ? But now there are many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, ' I have no need of thee ; ' nor again the head to the feet, ' I have no need of you.' I^ay, still more, those members of the body which seem to be feeble are necessary ; and those which we think to be the less honorable parts of the body, upon these we bestow more abundant honor ; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness, for our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to the part Avhicli lacked, that there may be no schism in the body, but that the members may have the same care, one for another ; and if one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it ; or if one member is honored, all the mem- bers rejoice with it" (i Cor. xii. 14-26). It is the Creator- Itedeemer"'s redistribution of the Seas and the Lands on the planet of His Church. GENESIS OF THE LANDS. 115 6.— The Spirit's Al- And with tliis fact of personal in- lotraent. dividualization for the sake of the com- mon weal, beautifully agrees St, Paul's doctrine of the Charisms or Spiritual Gifts. Listen to him again : " Now, there are diversities of gifts, hut the same Spirit ; and there are diversities of ministrations, but the same Lord ; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all. But to each one is e-iven the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all. For to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom ; and to another a word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit ; and to another faith, by the same Spirit ; and to another gifts of healing, by the same Spirit ; and to another working of miracles ; and to another prophecy ; and to an- other discernment of spirits ; and to another divers kinds of tongues ; and to another interpretation of tongues. But all tliese worketh the one and self -same Spirit, distributing to each one severally as He willeth " (i Cor. xil. 4-11). Friends, is not all this true ? Look around you on Christian Society as it actually is. Do all have the same gifts ? Are all apos- tles ? Are all prophets ? Are all teachers ? Are all workers of miracles ? Have all gifts of healing ? Do all speak with tongues ? Do all interpret (1 Cor. xii. 29, so) ? Verily, the one and self -same Spirit doth allot to each one severally as He willeth. Yes, there is the great, indiscriminate, monotonous ocean of the Church at large, the obscure por- tion of its membership always in the vast majority ; never- theless, evermore tempering Humanity's climate ; evermore evaporating in clouds of incense and aspiration and en- treaty ; evermore coming down again on the thirsty world in rains of benediction and dews of grace. And there are the islands of Christian genius, flecking here and there the immense, indiscriminate deep, sometimes verdant, some- 116 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. times rocky, always impressive because isolated and solitary. And there are the vast continents of the denominations ; the countless valleys and modest lowlands luxuriant with the prayers and examjjles of Christ's obscure ones; the bubbling springs and winding rills and leaping brooks and nishing rivers rich in fertilizing charities ; the many deserts of false j^rofession, ever and anon green and fra- grant M'ith oases of Christian character and deed ; the broad table-lands golden with the harvests of the Chris- tian rich and influential ; the lofty mountain-ranges radiant with sacred theologians and holy orators ; the very vol- canoes lurid with an Elijah and a John the Baptist, a Luther and a Moody. Even the very sands themselves have their- blessed jjart to play. What King Canute, enthroned by the seaside, could not do, Jehovah, our God, has ever been doing. " Will ye not fear Me, saith the Lord ? Will ye not tremble at My presence? WLo have appointed the sand as a bound to the sea, A perpetual barrier, which it cannot pass ? Though the waters thereof toos themselves, they do not prevail, Though they roar, they cannot pass over it." — (Jeeemiah iv. 22.) "What, then, is the lesson at this point of discourse ? Simply this : Cheerfully use your own gift in the place appointed for you, and cheerfully recognize the gifts of others in the places appointed for them. Having, then, gifts differing according to the grace given us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of the faith ; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering ; or he that teacheth, on his teaching ; or he that exhorteth, on his exhortation (Rom. xii. 6-8). Ay, on earth, not less than in heaven, the Father's house hath many mansions (John xiv. 2). GENESIS OF THE LANDS. 117 Thus our text is the complement of Our Text the Com- rr^, i • tt plement of our Last, our last : The dommg Heavens gave us God : the Emerging Lands give us Man. Of what use is it to evaporate into the cloud, if the cloud does not condense into the rain ? That text said : Upward ! This text says : Forward ! And, practically speaking, the moral life blends the two directions into an ascending di- agonal, soaring aslant even as does the bird. The arching sky awakens the sense of Divine Fatherhood : and so we say Heavenly Father. The distribution of Sea and Land awakens the sense of Human Brotherhood : and so we say —Our Heavenly Father. And the higher our zenith, the broader our horizon. Here is the key to the story of St. Paul : he soared very high— therefore, he saw very far : he saw very far— therefore, he was apostle to the Gentiles. Alas, how different are most other lives : nothing but stag- nant, malarial pools, without a solitary islet or even rock to reheve the dreary waste ! Ah, here is Life's great battle, the Duel of the 1 and the Not-I. Christianity reverses the doctrine of Natural Selection, or Survival of the Fittest. Instead of crushing out the feebler, she instinctively selects them for her special care, bestowing upon the less honor- able parts of the body more abundant honor ; so that our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness (i Cor. xii. 22-24). May God give you and me grace evermore to do to others as He evermore does to us ! So shall each of us find this great fact of Individuality a boon and not a curse on that approaching Day of Judgment when every one of us must give account of himself to God. This, then, is the stirring thought of A Summary. ^^^^ ^^^^^^ . Individualization for the sake of Mankind. Go forth then, brother, inspired with the majestic thought that you are a Personal I'nit- a man 118 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. among men— individualized from the mass of Humanity for the sake of Humanity and Humanity's King. Yes, happy the day, let me again say it, when God says to thee : " Let the waters gather themselves to one place, and let the dry land ajDpear." Thrice happy the day when thou obey- est, looking ujDward to the opening Heavens and outward to the broadening Horizon. This, then, is the twofold lesson of the day. " Hear, O Israel ! The Lord our God is one Lord : and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength : this is the first and great Com- mandment. And the second is like unto it, namely this : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Propliets " (Matt. xii. 84-40). Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTURE YII. GENESIS OF THE PL.VJS'TS. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yield- ing seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yield- ing fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind : and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the moi'ning were the tliird day." — Genesis i. 11-13. As is our wont in tlicse studies, let us attend, first, to tlie Explanation of the Passage, and, secondly, to its Moral Lessons. I.— Explanation And, first, the Explanation of the of the Passage. Passage. To this end, let us again stand witli 1.- Panorama of ^i^^ Sacred Seer on his Mount of Pano- the Emcririn'r Plants. . -,7-. . -ttti 1 ii i ii -r> j.i ramie vision. VVhat though the i>reatli of God has been moving over the face of the fiuids, or- ganizing the chaotic universe ? What though the light of chemical activity has lighted up the Cimmerian Abyss i "What though the sky, gliding in and arching through the fluid mass, has separated the Earth into an independent globe ? "What though the sea has received its bounds, and the mountains tower, and the lowlands spread, and the rivers flow ? All is still a lifeless waste — no germ, no liv- ing thing exists. From pole to pole nothing is seen but 120 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. surging billows and dull-brown soil and naked adamantine rock. And now sounds again the Deific AVord : " God said : ' Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, above the earth.' " And, lo, it is so. On all sides spring up, as though by magic, the floating algae, the cir- cling lichens, the luxuriant mosses, the branching ferns, the waving grasses, the graceful palms, the kingly cedars, the iris-hued flowers. And a blessed vision it is : this grateful exchange of dull uniformity and barren naked- ness for vegetable colors — for car2)ets of emerald, and tapestries of white and azure and crimson and orange and purple. Even the God of beauty Himself feels that it is good. And there is evening and there is morning, a Third Day. Such is the Vision of the Birth of Vegetation. And now let us dwell on it somewhat in detail. „ ^, „. , , " And God said : ' Let the earth put 2.— The Birth of „ ^, , ^ , . , \ . Li£g torth shoots, sprout, germinate : ' and it was so." It was the first appearance of that mysterious thing which we call Life. How shall we account for its introduction ? Naturally or supernaturally ? Spontaneously or executively 'i Atheistically or Divinely ? Observe what the precise question is. I am not speak- ing now of transmitted life, the life by inheritance from ancestors. I am speaking of the first Life, the Life of that primal, original Plant which existed before it yielded its first seed. Whence came that original first Life ? Did it originate itself, spontaneously evolving itself from blind, dead matter and force ? Here is the colliding point be- tween atheist and tlieist. Observe what the exact problem is. All living beings, alike plants and animals, are essen- tially composed of four chemical elements — carbon, hydro- gen, oxygen, and nitrogen — combined in proportions vary- GENESIS OF THE PL.VNTS. 121 ing with the character of the Hving substance. Suppose, now, you take into your laboratory these four elements in whatever quantities you please, and combine them in what- ever proportions you please. Can you make out of these four elements a single di'op of blood, a solitary microscopic diatom ? Here, then, is the problem. There has been a time in the history of the globe, so geologists tell us, when there was not in existence a single living thing. But car- bon and hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen were there. All at once there spi-ung up in earth's virgin soil a combi- nation of these elements in the living fomi of a blade of grass. AVliat now was the new subtile force which turned that dead carbon and dead hydrogen and dead oxygen and dead nitrogen into this living thing which we call a Plant ? Whence came that original iirst Life ? The answer to this question marks the boundaiy-line between theism and athe- ism, between plan and chance, between personal will and impersonal law, between first cause and eternal necessity, between God and zero. AVhence, then, came that first Life ? Is there any better answer, any answer more pro- foundly jihilosophieal or gloriously satisfying, than the childlike answer of the far-oif, hoary witness of the Crea- tion Panorama ? " God said : ' Let the earth bring forth grass.' God said : ' Let the waters swarm with the mov- ing creature that hath life.' God said : ' Let fowl fly above the earth in the expanse of heaven.' God said : ' Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind.'" This "God said," this Eternal Word, Who in the beginning was with God and was God (John i. i) : this " God said " of Moses and. " God AVord " of John— this it was Who on the Third Day spoke life-givingly, genninat- ingly, spermatically ; and, lo, in a way perhaps forever inscrutable to us, the Immaterial took on itself the mate- 6 122 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. rial, the Invisible swathed itself with the visible — the Life organized itself into the body. " And God said : ' Let the earth ^'~ J. , ' °' ! put forth shoots : ' and the earth did Matrix of the riant. ^ put forth shoots. Are we to under- stand these words literally ? Manifestly not. Eemember that in studying these Creation Archives we are moving, not in the region of philosophical statements, but of pic- torial ; not in the realm of science, but of panorama. The Sacred Chronicler is using language popularly, just as we ourselves use it in this very matter of the soil's j)i'oduc- tiveness. Yery scientific although we are, yet do we not to this day talk of the soil as though it were a living thing and bringing forth fruit of itself, using such words as pro- ductive, teeming, fruitful, exuberant ? And just because the soil does seem to bring forth plants as though they were her own oifsf>ring, there is everywhere, alike among savages and among sages, a sort of idolatry of the soil as being Mother Nature. And yet we know better. "We know that the soil is not the source of vegetation, it is only its sphere ; it is not the sire of the plant, it is only its matrix. Nevertheless it is quite proper, using the language of phenomenon, to speak of the earth as bringing forth grass and herb and tree. Nobody but the willfully unfair can misunderstand the Sacred Iweciter here. " And God said : ' Let the earth put 4.-rruit after its ^^^.^j^ ghoots, the herb yielding seed, the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself.' And the earth brought forth shoots, the herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree yielding fruit, in which is its seed, after its kiiul." Dwell for a moment on these profound phrases : " Fruit after its kind, whose seed is iu itself : " phrases which, in light of GENESIS OF THE PLANTS. 123 the modern discussion toucliing the Origin of Species, are profounder than ever. Observe, first, what an immense advance in the career of Creation is marked by these plirases : " whose seed is in itself, yielding fruit after its kind." These are expressions you would never apply to anything inorganic, e. g., a mountain, a bowlder, a molecule, an atom. It is only to living things, which do have seed in themselves, and which do yield fruit after their kinds, that you apply these expressions. Accordingly, these phrases mark the eternal boundary between the organic world and the inorganic ; between life and absence of life. Again : observe how strikingly these phrases : " yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself : " involve the doctrine of the Invariability of Species. " Ah, but this doctrine," you tell me, " is stoutly contested in these days." It is a proj)er point, then, to arrest our steps, and glance at the modern Hypothesis of Evolution. At the very outset, then, let it be remarked that clearness of conception here is absolutely essential. For it is quite astonishing to notice how loosely many intelligent persons use such words as " species, variety, development, evolution," etc. In the first place, look at the word " Species." A Species is a purely subjective thing, an Ens ratlonis, a mental out- line, an ideal paddock. Who ever saw or touched a species ? To talk, then, of the Origin or Transmutation of Species is to talk of a subjective, ideal thing, which never has had, and never can have, any actual, objective existence in the world of matter. If there is ever any "■ transmutation," the transmutation is a concept existing solely in the mind of the conceiver. In other words, the affair is an affair of metaphysics, not of physics. Here, as elsewhere in such matters, let us abide by the glorious rigor of the scientific method. Physical Science, we are 124 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. proudly told, deals only with objective, concrete realities ; it lias nothing to do with abstractions or concepts ; not but that concepts or abstract terms are useful, and even indispen- sable, as tools, as " working hypotheses." And with con- cepts as such — i. e., with abstract terms as instruments of thought and investigation — Physical Science does have to do. Nevertheless, concepts are not objective existences ; abstract terms are not concrete realities. And " Species " is an abstract term, or concept. Accordingly, the only evolution or transmutation which Physical Science, as an affair of observation and induction, can consistently con- sider, is the evolution or transmutation of an objective, concrete, definite plant or animal. And precisely here, where the proof should be decisive, is the weak point in the Hypothesis of Evolution. And no chain is stronger than its weakest link. Again : look at the word " Evolu- tion." It is another lamentable instance of the loose use of terms. To evolve is to unroll, unfold, develop. But you cannot unroll what was not inrolled ; you cannot un- fold what was not infolded ; you cannot develop what was not enveloped. And yet these exact Gentlemen of the Bal- ance and Micrometer confound unrollment with transition, development with transmutation. And just because these exact gentlemen use terms so inexactly, it happens that the term " Evolution " has become a very Shibboleth and Ariadne clew. Enough that we oracularly pronounce the M'ord " Evolution," and we imagine that we have the " Open Sesame," and have explained everything. Again I insist on the rigor of the scientific method. You cannot unroll what was not inrolled. Evolution not only implies in- volution, it Jilso implies that the involution is equal to the evolution. You cannot evolve a pound out of an ounce. Here is the reason why, in the Lecture on the GENESIS OF THE PLANTS. iok Genesis of the Universe, I persisted in endeavoring to sliow that the doctrine of Germs does not account for the weiglit of the Universe. The thing to account for is not the size or the shape— the thing to account for is the weight. If the Universe has been evolved from a few germs, and from nothing else, then the weight of the germs must be equal to the weight of the Universe. You cannot extract a ton out of a kilogramme. If a definite jjlant is devel- oped into another, if a specific animal is evolved into an- other, then the two plants, the two animals, are equiva- lents in weiglit. If the diatom is developed, however si- lently and indirectly, into the cedar— if the amoeba is evolved, however gradually and intermediately, into the elephant — then the diatom must weigh as much as the cedar, the aniojba must be as heavy as the elephant. We propose to be scientific ; and therefore we subject the Hypothesis of Evolution to the scientist's peculiar, decisive test— the test of the Scales. Nevertheless, there is a sense in which I must accept the doctrine of Evolution. It is in the orio-i- nal, etymological sense, viz., unrolling. I believe that the Process of Creation was the unrolling of a. Divine Plan or Conception. In this sense of the word, and it is the primary, fair sense, I am proud to confess myself an Evolutionist. " Premeditation prior to Creation : " this is the favorite formula of Louis Agassiz in his famous Essay on Classification. I believe that the story of " The Crea- tive Week" is the story of the unfolding of a Divine Plan or Idea, ascending from the creation of matter- atoms, along the pathway of soil, and plant, and animal, to IVfan. In the very attempt of the Evolutionists to estab- lish the hyjwthesis of physical development, there is an unconscious, powerful tribute to the Mosaic doctrine of Evolution ; that is to say, the doctrine of the unroUino- of 126 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. a Divine Plan or Idea. The advance may liave been, and in many cases probably was, genetic ; bnt the advance, in so far as it was an " evolution," was ideal,- And not only is Evolution, in this and the proper sense of the term, true of the Creative Process ; it is also true of every living thing to-day, whether plant or animal. The acorn unfolds into the oak, the babe into the man, along the ideal axis of a Divine thought or plan. The growth is indeed an evo- lution, but the evolution is not a physical development or unfolding; the growth is the physical accretion of sub- stance from without, along the ideal axis of a conception or scheme ; in fact, it is this ideal evolution, not the l^hysi- cal expansion or the community of substances, which is the secret of the identity of acorn and oak. And the thing for the physical evolutionist to account for is this : the weight of the oak, the immense preponderance of which was never in the acorn. Evolution, in the sense of physi- cal, objective unfolding of protoplast into Man, is false. Evolution, in the sense of ideal, purposeful unfolding of protoplast into Man, is true. And Science has it for her lofty vocation to endeavor to read the Creator's thoughts before they are materialized into things.* > Since delivoriiijf this Lecture, I have received from ray esteemed friend, the Kev. Dr. S. 8. Cutting, some verses, written by him, which felicitously express this thought, an which, by his permission, I incorporate in this volume : SCIENCE. Ere, from the gloom of cycling night, Earth woko, and knew the dawning light; Ere from old Chaos order sprung. And music through the ether rung ; — In Thee, O one Eternal Mind, Dwelt Laws which worlds In order bind, All Forms of Beauty, — Love's Delight, — All Koason,— all Unchanging liight. In earth and heaven, the Wonder wrought Is Evolution from Thy Thought; GENESIS OF THE PLANTS. 127 But, returning to the point under immediate discus- sion, let us observe precisely what the Sacred Clironicler declares. lie declares that the tree, whose seed is in it- self, yields fruit after its kind. And in thus declaring, he virtually asserts the Invariability of what we call " Spe- cies." Not that he consciously conceived this doctrine. But he was an observer, and, being an observer, the rec- ord of his observations is, of coui-se, scientific. And this matter of the invariability of vegetable species is as true to-day as it was in the days of the ancient Witness of Cre- ation's Panorama. The tree, whose seed is in itself, still yields fruit after its kind. As in the days of the Naza- rene Teacher, so now : every tree is known by its own fruit ; no sooner now than then do men go to thorns to gather figs, or to a bramble-bush to gather grapes (Luke vi. 44). " And God saw that it was good." 5. — Ministry of . , ,, . i , ,i r^ , •, ^• ^ , • Vcctaiion And well might the Creator delight m the Birth of His Plants. Ponder for a moment the immense and blessed part which vegetation ])lays in the economy of daily human life. In the first place, Plants are the source of all our food : directly, as in vegetable diet — e. g., bread, which we call the " Staff of Life ; " and indirectly, as in animal diet — these animals themselves having been fed on the vegetable world. An- nihilate plants, and where is food ? Annihilate food, and where is man ? Again : vegetation is the grand means of atmospheric purification. The countless living creatures of earth, human and animal, are ceaselessly inhaling from The Potence of Creative Skill Is sovereign flat of Thy Will ;— And Science, thence, Tut works to know; — That upward stopping, patient, slow, The reverent mind may find in Thee Creation in its Prophecy. 128 UDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the air its life-sustaining oxygen, and as ceaselessly exhaling into the air the deatli-dealing carbonic oxide. The vege- table world mercifully reverses the respiratory process : ceaselessly inhaling the deadly carbonic oxide, as ceaseless- ly exhaling the life-sustaining oxygen. Annihilate plants, and man and animal speedily suffocate. Thus, vegetation is alike life's grand compensating balance, evermore main- taining the needed atmosj)heric equilibrium, and also life's grand storehouse, evermore supplying animal existence with its indispensables of air and food. What the ancient Gibeonite was to the ancient Israelite, that the Plant is to Man : it is his hewer of wood and drawer of water. It is more than the ancient Gibeonite : it keeps him from ceasing to be a man, and sinking into a clod. And just here, as I pass on, let me speak a word in behalf of the primeval forests. They are an essential part of the vital economy of the nation, serving, not only as its great lungs, but also as one of the essential conditions of the permanent productiveness of the soil. "Witness the fertility of wooded Lombardy. Witness the sterility of woodless Palestine. Foster, then, the blessed woods of our loved America ! Girdle not, O hunter, that hemlock for thy camp ! Fire not, O thoughtless vacationist, that curling birch ! " O, Woodman, spare tliat tree ! " Once more : The vegetable world is a never-ending source of fcsthetic delight. The two great occasions and conditions of physical beauty are figure and color. The Plants, in their infinitely varied range from diatom to cedar, illustrate every conceivable line of figure, every conceivable hue of color. Their ravishing song ranges through the whole scale of possible figures, through the whole gamut of possible hues. They are not only minis- GENESIS OF THE PLANTS. 129 trants to a transient pleasure, tliey are also witnesses to an eternal Beauty. " Were I, O God, in cliurchless lands remaining, Far from all voice of teachers or divines, My soul would find, in flowers of Thy ordaining, Priests, sermons, shrines! " — (Horace Smith.) Kemembering, then, this threefold ministry of vegetation, tirelessly serving humanity as the gracious ministrant of daily food and vital equilibrium and exhaustless beauty, we, too, may share in the Creator's delight, and with Ilini pronounce the advent of the Plants very good, " And there was evening and there ^■"^^J^'':'! ^'"^ ^vas morning, a Third Day." Momen- a Day of Providence. i <• n i» -r> -i tons and lull ol 1 rovidence m very deed have been the events of the Third Day. First, tliere has been the Creator's distribution of Land and Water : the seas, islands, continents, mountains, taking their ap- pointed places. And, secondly, the earth has received from her Maker and Lord her iridescent mantle of flora. But these events were not their own end. Sublime as was the retreat of the Seas and the emergence of the Lands ; ex- quisite as were the springing up of the ferns, the towering of the oaks, the flowering of the roses, the fruiting of the vines — these splendid events were something more tlian the brilliant exhibition of the Creator's power and skill. They were prophetic of something mimensely greater than themselves, even the Coming Man. For, on that far-off Third Day, earth became a mighty storehouse for supply- ing the wants of the myriads on myriads of coming hu- manity. On that day of the Emerging Lands it became possible for man to obtain from the mountains and river- beds and subterranean depths those precious stones on which he loves to feast his eyes ; better still, those miner- 130 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. als and metals wliicli are more precious than any gem — clay and gravel and copper and iron and silver and gold and soil. On that day of the Birth of Vegetation were deposited and compressed those colossal coal-beds which to this day furnish to the civilized world the chief generat- ing power of its mechanical activities. You love to talk of Divine Providence. I know no sublimer instance of Divine Providence than the work of that far-off Third Day. In those emerging lands and in that emeralding soil I read the legend of One Who ' not only created, but Who also foresaw, even Ilim Who was the Creator — Provider. Oh, how those miss the meaning of ^Nature who think of those ancient deposits of coal as but the is- sue of accident, or, at most, of impersonal, blind, goalless law ! Yes, it is one thing to describe Nature : that the atheist may do, and this with the precision of a microme- ter ; but even then he speaks but a little fragment of the truth. It is another and vastly larger thing to intei*pret Nature : that no one can do who does not believe in a pur- poseful God — that is to say, a Providential Creator. Such is the Story of the Genesis of the Plants. IL— Mor.nl Moan- And now let us attend to the Moral ing of tlic Story. Meaning of the Story. 01)serve then, first : Tlie Plant is a 1.— The riant a , ^.j. , , ' Propliet of Man. hoautiful emblem, or, rather, a lu-o- ]ihetic type, of Man himself. The analogies between plants and aninuils — not, indeed, in re- sjiect to figure, but in respect to life — are manifold and striking. To start with the very first step, the beginning of life : so similar are the elementary, initial cells of tlie plant and the animal that, under the most detective micro- scope hitherto at command, it is impossi])le to say M-hich is the plant and which the animal. And though, when the GENESIS OF THE PLANTS. 131 cells begin to quicken and differentiate, the divergence speedily becomes very marked, yet the phenomena of plant-life do in many respects wonderfully resemble the ])henomena of animal-life. How naturally we apply to them both such physiological exj)ressions as embryo, quick- ening, growing, feeding, absorbing, assimilating, circulat- ing, secreting, breathing, sleeping, propagating, dying, re- viving ! Look at this little seed. See how mysteriously its embryo quickens and unfolds ; how vigorously it bursts its envelope ; how instinctively it sends its root downward and its stem uj)ward ; how greedily it takes in its appropriate food ; how skillfully, like a very chemist, it elaborates its nourishment ; how deftly it lays away the right substance in the right si)ot ; how sagaciously it arranges and spreads its leaves for light and air and wet ; how lovingly it clings as it aspiringly climbs ; how joyously it blossoms ; how far-sightedly its propagative apparatus makes provision for the future ; how nervously, as in the sensitive plant, it shrinks from injury ; how humanly it dies ; how humanly it puts forth its spring leaves. A'^erily, it seems to be a liv- ing person, self-conscious and self-regulating. And yet it is not. It is in this matter oidy a parable. It is a picture of the human soul. That, too, quickens, unfolds, feeds, assimilates, breathes, sleeps, awakes, blossoms, fniits, fades, dies, revives. Yes, profound is the lesson taught us Ijy the ])henomena of vegetation. The tree without us is an emblem of the Tree within. " Flower in the crannioil wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, Hold you here, root and all, in my }iand : Little flower, but if I could understand "What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and Man is." — (Tennyson.) 133 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. No wonder, then, that IIolj Scripture, written by tlie same Divine finger that has written the Scripture of Nature, is ricli in Georgics, or Plant-parables/ All Holy Scripture is verdured with tlie emerald tint of the Third Day. Secondly : The Birth of Powers. In 2.— The Birth of Studying this lesson let us keep within I'o^ers. the landmarks indicated in our passage itself. And, first, the Parable of Germina- («.)-The rarable ^-^^^ . a ^g^ the earth put forth shoots." of Germination. i c i io the tlioughtiul man there is some- thing inexpressibly marvelous in the quickening of a seed. Look at this tiny acorn. Little sign does it give of the vital energy with which it is instinct. The costly, flashing diamond is more promising. But plant that diamond : plant it most carefully in soil the richest, under skies and conditions the most genial. Let your descendants ten thousand years hence — if, indeed, the world shall be stand- ing — visit the spot. No dazzling tree is there, flashing with unnumbered, jeweled leaves. Let him carefully re- move the soil : and there, in the silence and dampness and darkness, he will find just wliat you had ])lanted, nothing more — an unchanged, cold, dead diamond. An autunm wind sweeps through the forest, shaking every twig and bough. A little, brown, seemingly dead acoiTi falls to the ground. The foot of the browsing deer presses it beneath the soil. There it lies in its grave, an unnoticed thing, silent and motionless as the pebbles sepulchred around it. But the germ of a giant life is in it : for the vernal days come again, and the finger of the Unsleeping One touches ' Psalm oxxvl. 5, 6. Is. xi. 1 : xxxv. 1. Hosoft xiv. 6-7. Matt. vi. 28-30 ; vii. Ifi- 20 ; Jx. ■■il, 88 ; xiii. 18-23, 24-30, 31-88 ; xxiv. 32-34. Mark iv. 20-29. Luk» xiii. 6-0. John iv. 85-3«-; xii. 24; xv. 1-S. Horn. .\i. 10-24. 1 Cor. xv. 35-44. Gal. vi. 7-9. Ucb. vi. 7, 8. 1 Peter i. 23. Rev. xxii. 2. GENESIS OF THE PLANTS. 133 its secret spring, and, lo ! the little brown nut germinates, and swells, and bnrsts its husk, and sends down its tiny radicle, and sends up its tiny shoot, and grows strong, and sets aside the bowlder which obstructs the pathway of its ascending doom, and a hundred years from now it rears its kingly head amid the stoniis, and from its stalwart and surging arms and quivering finger-tips it drops down a thousand infant acorns to become the sires of countless glorious oaks in the far-off ages, it may be, yet to come. Friends, it is a parable of the Human Soul. " For nature, crescent, does not grow alone In thews, and bulk ; but, as this temple waxes. The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal." — (" Hahi.et," Act I., Scene 3.) Tiny, doubtless, the soul is that lies infolded in the little framework of yonder sleeping infant : but the force of a giant life lies coiled up in it. In that little soul lie in- folded potentially all ranges of moral greatness, all splen- dors of spiritual beauty, all majesties of saintly experience, all heights of beatific glory, all exuberance of celestial har- vest — and all this forever augmenting, with the cumulative momentum of immortality, throughout the eternal cycles. Yea, when the favorable conditions come, when the Spirit of God breathes into this little chaotic soul His own vital- izing energy, this Seed of the Kingdom, though now it may be among the littlest of seeds, grows into the greatest of trees, towering into the heaven of heavens, so that the very angels of God, who excel in strengtli, love to alight among its branches and lodge in the shadow thereof (Matt. xiii. 31, 32). Secondly : The Parable of Evoln- of Ev^ution. '''''^ *" *^^'^ '■ " ^^* *^^^ ^^^^'^ y^^^*^ ^"^eed after its kind, whose seed is in itself." It is the 134 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. evolution of Growth, the seed unfolding, along the ideal axis of a plan, into the harvest, the harvest being of the same kind as the seed. The law of that kind of Evolution holds absolutely wherever there is life. It holds absolute- ly in the vegetable world. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap (Gal. vi. 7). If he sows wheat, he will reap from that wheat, not tares, but wheat. If he sows tares, he will reap from those tares, not wheat, but tares. The law holds with equal absoluteness in the spiritual world. If a man sows righteousness, he will reap from that righteousness, not sinfulness, but righteousness ; if he sows sinfulness, he will reap from that sinfulness, not right- eousness, but sinfulness. You cannot repeal the law of Evolution ; like begets like, and can beget no otherwise. You cannot annul the law of Propagation ; that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and cannot be anything but flesh ; that which is born of the Spirit is sj^irit, and cannot be anything but spirit (John iii. 6). You cannot cancel the law of the Harvest ; what a man sows that shall he also reap, always that. Alas, if the voices of Scripture, and Observation, and Experience, and Conscience, are to be trusted, all of us are ])orn of the flesh, and all of us, tlieiv- fore, are sowing to the flesh ; and tliereforo, again, all of us will of the flesh reap corruption. Marvel not then that the Lord of nature and of man has said to us all, " Ye must be born again " (John iii. 7). You do not marvel at the law of the harvest in the vegetable world. You plant corn in the certain expectation that, if you rca}) any- thing from that seed, it will be corn. And the God of Nature and the God of Morals is one and the same God. Marvel not then at the Lord's application of the Law of Evolution to the moral world. Ay, this statute, " Ye must be born again," is no new, special, exceijtional edict ; GENESIS OF THE PLANTS. 135 it is written in tlie constitntion of things. The Law of the Harvest settles the point. What hope is there then for us ? How can we be born again ? Poor, decaying, death- stnick trees are we ; liow then can we ever put forth tlie shoots of a living righteousness? Oh, the unspeakable condescension ! He Who is the true Tree of Life benignly offers to scion Himself into our poor, fallen, dying charac- ters, and to rejuvenate them with the vigor of His own innnortal youth-hood. Or, to reverse the figure, and at the same time give a new turn to the Apostle's argument, we, wild olives by Nature, are grafted into the true and heavenly Olive (Rom. xi. 16-24), and so share in His Divine Virtues and beatific Lnmortality. Thus scioned and thus alndino; in Him — the True Vine — we shall indeed brin«; forth much fruit (John xv. l-io). And this leads us to our last point : rt^~rr ' r^''''^'' The Parable of Fructification : " Let the 01 1? ructincation. earth put forth shoots ; and let the tree yield fruit." Fruitage : this is the meaning of Vegetation. It is the very nature of growth, the very law of the seed, to unfold and issue in harvest. It is with reference to this issue that the whole plant is organized ; it is toward this issue that the whole plant-life converges. Beware then of Icttiiiii; the seed of the kino-dom fall on the beaten wayside of a stony heart, where it cannot even germinate. Ik'ware of letting it fall on the thin, pebl)ly soil of a shallow, frivolous heart, where, though it quickly germinates, it as quickly perishes. Beware of letting it fall on the thorny soil of a preoccupied heart, where, though it germinates, and lives, and yields fruit, it brings forth no fruit to perfection. Take heed that the seed of the kingdom fall on the deep, rich soil of a good and hoTiest heart, where, quickened by God's breath, it shall yield a 136 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Imndredfold (Matt. xiii.). See to it then tliat your faitli is rooted in the Grace of God ; and then give all diligence, and add to your faith the other graces, sending up from the root of faith the trunk of wisdom and the sap of knowl- edge, putting forth the boughs of temperance, and the twigs of patience, and the leaves of godliness, and the blossoms of brotherly kindness, and the fruit of love (2 Peter i. 5-1). So shall you indeed pom* forth at Immanuel's feet the cornucopia of a Christian character, even those fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, long-suffer- ing, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance (Gal. V. 22, 23), Abundantly bringing forth these various fniits (Kev. xxii. 2) every month in the year, ye shall indeed glorify your Father, and prove that you are in very truth the disciples of His Son (John xv. 8). This then is the lesson of the hour: The Birth of Powers to issue in Heavenly Fruitage. Be not content then with the mere sense of individuality and of duty, mechanically taking your allotted place with the grouping lands and seas (Gen. i. 9, lo) ; actually put forth in living exer- cise your latent powers. Yes, happy the day when the Lord of seeds and of souls says to thee : " Let the earth put forth shoots, and the f niit-tree yield its fruits ! " Thrice hapjjy the day when thou obeyest, thy life becoming arbo- rescent, the leaves of thy tree spirally arranged so as to take in the most thou canst of God's air and sunshine, yielding the fruits of a Christian character. May it be for each one of us to flourish like the palm-tree and grow like the cedar, being planted in the house of the Lord, flour- ishing in the courts of our God, even in old age still bear- ing fruit (Psalm xcii. 12-11). Tlicu, wlicu death transjDlants us to the more genial clime of the Heavenly Eden, it will be seen that our branches are evermore interlaciuir with GENESIS OF THE PLANTS. 137 the bouglis of the Tree of Life. Meantime, as we wait amid the wintry blasts of earth for the great translation, let us catch inspiration from the Vision of the Flowers : " In all places, then, and in all seasons, Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings; Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons, How akin they are to human things. " And with childlike, credulous affection, We behold their tender buds expand ; Emblems of our own great resurrection, Emblems of the bright and better land." — (Longfellow.) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTUEE YIIL GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. " And God said, Let tliere be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years : and let them be for liglits in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth : and it was so. And God made two great lights ; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." — Genesis i. 14-19. I.— Explanation First of all, let us attend to tlic Ex- of the Passage. planation of the Passage. And yet, before proceeding; with the 1.— Twin Periods of -, J \ ^ \- ^ a.. .. the Creative Week, c^planation, let me direct your attention to what may be called the twin Triads of the Creative AYeek. This venerable Creation Archive evidently divides into two great eras, each era consisting of three days; each day of the first era having a corre- sponding day in the second era. Thus, to the chemical Light of the First Day correspond the sidereal Lights of the Fourth Day. To the terrestrial Individualization of the Second Day corresponds the vital Individualization of the Fifth Day. To the Genesis of the Lands and of the GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. 139 Plants on the Tliii'd Day corresponds the Genesis of the Mammals and of Man on the Sixth Day. Thus, the first era of the Triad was an era of Prophecy ; the second era of the Triad, an era of Fulfillment. It is a majestic in- stance of that wonderful, Divinely-arranged Parallelism which we see on every side of us — e. g.. Day and Night, Seed-time and Harvest, Man and Woman, Nature and Scrij)ture, Matter and Spirit — and which finds verbal, stately utterance in the rhythmic sentiments so characteris- tic of Hebrew Poetry, And now to our Passage. " And God said : ' Let there be 2.— The Twofold t i x • xi i? xi i j,.^^ . lights m the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth.' And it was so ; and God made the two great lights and the stars, and set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth." But you intermpt me wdth some objec- tions. First you ask : " Was not light already existing ? Have we not been expressly told in previous verses that light already existed as the issue of the First Day ? Is not then Moses inconsistent with himself in asserting that light existed on the First Day, and subsequently asserting that the heavenly bodies were not created till the Fourth ? " The answer is easy. Light may exist independently of the sun. There is, e. g., the light of phosphorescence, the light of electricity, the light of incandescence, the light of chemism, atom clashing with atom, and discharging light at every collision. Recall the famous Nebular Hypothesis to which I have so often adverted. According to this magnificent conjecture, there has been a time, untold ages ago, when our globe was surrounded by a fiery, luminous vapor, Hke the dazzling photosphere of our present sun. Is there anything in the Mosaic Archive of Creation to conflict with this splendid Hypothesis ? Why blame 140 STUDIES IX THE CREATIVE WEEK. Moses for asserting that light existed before the sun was visible, and yet praise Kant and Herschel and Laplace and Humboldt for asserting the same thing ? But I hear an- other objection, " The earth," you remind me, " is a con- stituent part of the solar system ; as such, it necessitates from the beginning the contemporaneous existence of the sun, to hold the solar system in balance, and to keep earth itself in its orbit ; but if the sun was not created till the Fourth Day, what becomes of the astronomic teaching that earth has been from the beginning an integrant part of the solar system?" Again the answer is easy. Ob- serve, first, that our passage does not assert that God created — that is to say, caused to come into existence for the first time — sun, moon, and stars, on the Fourth Day. All that our passage asserts in this matter is this : God on the Fourth Day for the first time caused sun, moon, and stars to become visible. Eemember that light is not an essential, constituent part of the sun. For aught we know, the sun itself may be a dark body, as indeed the " solar spots " have led some astronomers to think. Moreover : surveying the sun as the centre of gravitation for the planetary system, the sun can fulfill its gravitating oflice equally well whether luminous or not. Let me then again ask you to observe carefully just what the Sacred Chroni- cler says. He does not say : " God created the sun, moon, and stars on the Fourth Day." The creation of the heavenly bodies he has already implied in the very first statement of his Chronicle : " In the beginning God cre- ated the heavens and the earth " (Gen. i. i). What the Chronicler asserts is this : " God said : ' Let there be lights, luminaries, light-bearers, light-radiators, in the expanse of the heavens :' and God made the two great lights and the stars;" that is to say: God constituted them, appointed GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. 141 tliem, to become luminaries, or liglit-bearers. The Dic- tum : " Let lights be ! " is evidently equivalent to the Dictum : " Let lights appear ! " If you ask me how this great change was brought about, I cannot answer. It may be that dense vapors had hitherto prevailed ; vapors exhal- ing from Chaos, from the newly shaped globe, from the steaming lands just arisen from their watery sepulchre, from the rank vegetation of the Carboniferous Era ; vapors so dense as to hide the heavenly bodies : and that the work of the Fourth Day consisted in giving transparency to the turbid atmosphere, and so letting through it the light of sun, moon, and stars. Or it may be, on the Fourth Day, God endowed the heavenly bodies with power to excite those undulations of the assumed universal ether which, according to the modern teaching, are occasions of light ; thus concentrating or massing the diffused light of the First Day into apparently distinct, definite sources of light, or light centres, on the Fourth. As on the First Day lie may have given light immediately by impressing His edict directly on the universal ether, so on the Fourth Day He may have given light mediately by establishing here and there in the universal ether sun, moon, and stars, as distinct and permanent centres or occasions of luminous vibration. However this may be, the point in hand is this : the sublimest of modern scientific hypotheses, in de- claring that light existed before the appearance of the sun, simply echoes the voice of Moses. And now I have a question to ask : How came that ancient Clu'onicler, writing in that far-off unscientific age, to venture on so improbable a statement as that of placing the advent of the sun long after the advent of light "i Is there any better answer than this — he was Divinely inspired ? Nevertheless let me reiterate my oft-repeated caution. Do not try to extort 142 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. from tlie text what tlie writer did not put in it. Remem- ber that inspiration is not necessarily omniscience. Do not demand then that because Moses claims to be inspired, he must therefore know all about Gravitation, and Precession of Equinoxes, and Parallax. It is most unfair then to read his story as you would read Newton's " Principia," or Tyndall's " Lectures on Light." The reciter of this Crea- tion Archive does not claim to be a scientist. All he claims is that he has been permitted to gaze on the Creative Pro- cess as though it had been swiftly unrolled before him in panoramic vision. Accordingly, in describing what he has witnessed, he speaks visually, not philosophically ; scenically not scientifically. Let us then be just to him, taking him at his thought as well as his word. Accordingly, let us again ascend his 3.-Panorama of ^^^^^^^ ^f Panoramic Vision, and gaze the Eracrgmg Lunii- . , , . i , , . . F , jjjjj.jgg With linn on the unrolling section oi the Fourth Day. There is still light on the newly verdured mountain and mead. But it is a strange, weird light ; perhaps like that of the zodiacal gleam, or the dying photosphere, or perhaps like the iris-hued, lam- bent shimmer of the l^orthern Aurora. Suddenly the goldening gateways of the East open, and, lo, a dazzling Orb, henceforth the Lord of Day, strides forth from his cloud pavilion as a bridegroom from his chamber, and re- joices to run his course as a giant his race ; upward and upward ho royally mounts ; downward and downward he royally bows ; as he nears the goal of his resplendent march, lo, the blushing portals of the "West o]ien to receive him : and lo, again, his gentle consort, " Pale Empress of the Kight," sweeps forth in silver sheen, while around her planet and comet, Areturus and Mazzaroth, Orion and Pleiades, hold glittering court. No wonder the morning GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. 143 stars sing together, and all the sons of God shout for joy (Job xxxviii. Y). And now let us ponder the purpose 4.-rurposcofthe ^£ ^^^ Luminaries. "And God said: ' Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, for dividing between the day and the night ; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years ; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, for giving light on the earth.' And it was so. And God made the two great lights ; the greater light for dominion over the day, and the lesser light for dominion over the night; and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide between the light and the darkness." The pui-pose then was threefold. First : " To divide between the Day («.)-To divide be- j^j^^i ^i^g Night;" that is to say: to thc^Nif'ht bring about alternations of light and darkness. But why was this necessary ? Remember then that man as at present constituted must have recurrent periods of sleep. Every exercise of his powers, whether bodily, mental, or moral, involves a loss of vital force. That loss must be compensated by periodic seasons of repose ; otherwise he will become insane and die. In sleep there is a more or less complete suspension of vol- untary motion and consciousness. Sleep is thus one of the grand reservoirs for the supply of the constant waste going on in our working hours. As a matter of fact, the health- ful man does and must spend al)out one-third of his life in sleep. Ah, I know of no more touching evidence of Christ's real humanity, being in very tiiith bone of my bone and tlesh of my flesh, than when I read that, wearied 144 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. with the toils of an eventful and harassing day, He went on board one of the little crafts of Gennesaret, and in- stantly fell asleep, and, thougli a great tempest suddenly rose and raged. He still slept on (Mark iv. 36-38). And I know of no more glowing evidence of the transcendent superiority of the coming heavenly estate than when I read : " There shall be no night there " (Rev, xxii. 5). Mean- time we are of the earth, earthy, and must struggle on, as best we may, under the laws of this inferior stage of exist- ence. Labor, anxiety, sorrow, inexorably entail fatigue. And so it comes to pass that resting is at' times as tnily a duty as working : sleeping, as waking. When, then, jaded with the toils and cares and griefs of the day, the stilly evening comes, how delicious is the coming on of sleep — that blessed " Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast." — (" MxiCBETn," Act II., Scene 2.) And that we may sleep and wake at healthful intervals, how mercifully the Framer of our bodies and Father of our spirits has divided the day from the niglit ; at every sunset dropping the curtains of His evening, and so inviting to repose ; at every sunrise lifting the curtains of His morn- ing, and so inviting to labor ! Ah, it is one of the perhaps inevitable regresses of civilization that it tends to revei-se our Divine Father's method, bidding us close our shutters, that we may sleep during His sunsliine, and liglit our little candles and gas-jets, that we may work during His night. Is it not enough that tlie carnivorous animals — the tiger and hyena among beasts, and the burglar and assassin among GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. 145 men — should sleep by day and prowl by niglit ? May we not hope that in the still richer civilization which awaits ns, society will revert to the primeval simplicity, and witli the patriarchal witness of Creation's Panorama gratefully accept the sunrise as God's summons to work, and the smi- set as God's summons to rest ? But our passage assigns a second (M-ToWfcSigo, ,.^^„„ ^j P^ deator set the sun, Seasons, Days, Years. •' . moon, and stars m tlie expanse oi tlie heavens ; it is that they may be " for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years ; " that is to say, that they may serve us as notations of time. For in all ages of the world men have accepted the motions of the- heavenly bodies as the measure of duration or time. It is these motions, these sunrises and sunsets, these new and full moons, these morn- ing and evening stars, these transits of the meridian, which have enabled men to divide time into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, years, decades, cen- turies, millenniums. It is also to these motions of the heavenly bodies that we owe such words as dial, clock, chronometer, journal, Sabbatli, anniversary, era, almanac, calendar, chronology, even that august word — History. Sun, moon, and stars are man's natural chronometer. " Our watclies are but miniature transcripts of the celestial revo- lutions." Unlike the heavenly clocks, they ever and anon get out of order ; and tlien we have to go to the sun again in order to have them rectified. Verily, these lights which God has set in the expanse of the heavens do serve for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. True as these words were in those primeval days, when men had so little idea of the distance and vastncss of the stars, im- mensely tnier are they in tliese days of Copernican astron- omy and telescope and micrometer. Moreover : the mo- 7 146 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. tions of the heavenly bodies serve us not only as measures of time ; they also serve us as measures of space. Green- wich on the Thames owes its blessed celebrity to our text. A gallant ship freighted with that most precious of cargoes — a complement of passengers — has reached mid-ocean. A fierce gale, lasting hours and days, bursts upon her. Strong steersmen grasp the helm ; but the tempest is stouter than the rudder. Hour after hour, day after day, she flies with the sweeping, veering blasts. At length the tempest dies, and the clouds break away. But where is she ? How far has she drifted from her course ? No islander is there to answer — no guide-post within a thousand miles. True, her dead reckoning, worked from her departure, gives her i^osition ; but only approximatively. And the passen- gers are nervous, and the captain is conscientious. Where then is she exactly ? Eight o'clock a. m. approaches. The officer, sextant in hand, mounts the bridge. Speak not to him ; for he is about to talk with a far-off, celestial Pilot. Peering through his sextant, he observes the sun's exact altitude — and at the same instant notes his chronometer. Silently withdra\ving into his little cabin, he compares his observation with the sun's declination as given by the Nautical Almanac, with the approximate latitude as given by the dead reckoning, and the local time with the Green- wich as given by the chronometer. Presently he appears, saying : " Longitude, so many degrees, so many minutes, W." But this is not enough. Anxiously he awaits the noon. As the critical moment approaches, again he takes his sextant, and again he mounts the bridge. Do not speak to him, for again he is about to talk with the solemn heavens. Again peering through his sextant, he observes the exact instant the sun crosses the meridian. Again silently withdrawing into his little cabin, and consulting GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. 147 liis Nautical Almanac, he compares liis observation of the sun's altitude with his declination for that instant. Pre- sently he returns, and with a smile of triumph announces : "Latitude, so many degrees, so many minutes, N. ; from New York so many miles ; from Liverpool so many miles." Thus Earth has questioned Heaven, and Heaven has an- swered Earth. And so it has happened ten thousand times, alike in Atlantic, in Pacific, in Indian, and in Caribbean. Polyglot indeed is the language of the skies. There is no speech, nor language, where their voice is not heard ; their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world (Psalm xix. i-4). But our passage assigns still another !C.~ ° f!^^ '° ^ reason why the Creator set the lumina- on the Larth. _ ^ -^ ries in the expanse of tlie heavens ; it is that they may give light on the earth. " God made the two great lights ; the greater light to rule the day ; the lesser light to rule the night ; and the stars ; and He set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth." Resj^ecting the indispensableness of light as one of the essential conditions of human activity and of life itself, I need not speak to-day ; for we have already des- canted on it in our study of the First Day, when God said : " Let light be ; " and light was. Yet before leaving the point it will be proper to give a moment's consideration to a question which this light-giving office of the heavenly bodies, as asserted in our text, raises. TVlien, on the one hand, we remember that the sun outweighs 355,000 earths, and that, immense as the sun is, it is one of the smallest of the countless stars— Alcyone, e. g., being 12,00() times larger ; and when, on the other hand, we are told that the sun and stars were set in the heavens to give light to this tiny eartli : does it not look like a vast disproportion of 148 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. means to ends ? The answer is twofold : First, Moses is not giving us a history of tlie heavens ; he is giving us a history of the earth, mentioning the heavens only as they affect the earth. He does not profess to be an astronomer, knowing all about the distances and magnitudes of the stai's ; he only professes to describe things as he saw them in pan- oramic trance. Thus seeing them, the sun, moon, and stars did seem to him as though set in the heavens to give lio'ht on the earth. The other answer is this : Greatness does not depend on bulk. To human vision nothing was ever smaller than that grain of seed which fell into Calvary's soil and died. To angelic vision nothing will ever be vaster than that Tree of Life which, having sprung up from Cal- vary's dying seed, is ovei'shadowing.human space and human time, and sending out its boughs through all the immensities. Such is the threefold ministry of the heavenly bodies : to give alternations of day and night ; to give notations of time ; and to give light on the earth. No wonder, then, that the ancient world was so given to astrology, believing that the events of human life were influenced and dom- inated by the horoscope, or relative positions and aspects of the heavenly bodies at the moment of birth, or at any other critical instant. How curious to note the relics of this hoary supei*stition in such words as Sunday, Monday, Saturday, Saturnine, ill-starred, disastrous. Mercurial, Mar- tial, Jovial, Lunatic, etc. ! Nevertheless, there is an Astrol- ogy which is divinely true, dominating our everlasting des- tiny ; it is the Star of Bethlehem. God grant each of us that that Star in the East, rising in the firmament of our second birth, or true house of Nativity, may evermore be the Lord of the Ascendant. Ay, let Him be the true Jo- seph, before whom sun, moon, planets, and all stars of heaven make perpetual obeisance (Gen. xxxvii. 9-ii). GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. 149 " And God saw that it was good." ■~ ° ^ ' And M^ell mio-lit tlie Creator take de- was (jOOQ, , . ^ liglit in the advent of His hiniinaries. When Ave remember how beneficently the arrangements of the Fom'th Day affect all life — vegetal, animal, human ; how they give us the blessed alternations of day and night, spring and autumn, work and rest ; when we remember how they give us ability to make and keep appointments and obligations, whether secular or religious, enabling us to fix our railway time-tables, to know the time of the ma- turing of an obligation, to calendar human history, to date our documents and correspondence — e. g., 3 p. m., Febniary 2G, 1878 — to know when Sunday comes, to celebrate anni- versaries of Birthday and Centemiial, Christmas and Eas- ter, to divide our otherwise dateless, monotonous, stale life into refreshing changes of chapters, paragraphs, verses, and clauses ; when we remember that it is the periodically-re- current motions of the heavenly bodies which awaken the instincts of order and method, instigating us to arrange our lives systematically, and take on habits — that is to say, character — every moniing astronomically inviting us to pray: "Father, give us this day our daily bread;" when we remember how these " Far-reacliini? concords of astronomy, Felt in the plants and in the punctual birds," — (R. W. Emerson) regulate the vital periods or cycles of all terrestrial life, gi\nng to vegetation that year which it needs for its growth and its hibernation, its seed-time and its harvest ; to birds that twelvemonth which they must have for mat- ing, nesting, hatching, fledgiug, migrating, returning, thus enabling the stork in the heavens to know her appointed times, and the turtle-dove, and the swallow, and the crane, 150 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. to observe the time of tlieir coming (Jer. viii. l) — so tliat the very animals and plants become in their turn nat- ural chronometers, striking tally with the motions of the heavenly bodies ; when we remember that, without these divisions of time which the sidereal motions suggest and maintain, there could be no clock, no calendar, no chronol- ogy, no histoiy, no sense of progress, no goal of anticipa- tion — in short, when we remember that our very thinking consecutively depends on succession in time, which succes- sion is offered and regulated by the apparent motions of the starry hosts ; when we remember all this, we, too, may gratefully share in the Creator's delight, and with Him pronounce the work of the Fourth Day very good. " O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all."— (Psalm civ. 2-i.) " The day is Thine, the night also is Thine. Thou hast prepared the light and the sun ; Thou hast set all the borders of the earth ; Thou hast formed summer and winter." —(Psalm Ixxiv. 10, 17.) *' Yea, Thoa hast made everything beautiful in its time," — (ECOLESIASTES iii. 11.'' Such is the Story of the Genesis of the Luminaries. And now, what are the moral les- 'T^ ^^L *^^^' sons of the story ? It teaches many. I lug of the btory. -n . Will mention two. 1.— The Luminaries And, first : these mighty ordinances are Guides to Jesus ^f ^^^ ^^^ jj^^^j^^ ^^^ ^^.^^.^^ ^j^jg ^gSSed covenant of Day and Night, of Seasons and Years, are shining index-fingers, everlastingly pointing to Jesus the Christ. In fact, the Creator has expressly bidden us accept Ilis ordinances of the heavenly bodies as the pledge of His Covenant of Grace in the Divine Son GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. 151 of Mary : " Thus saith Jehovah, Who giveth the sun for light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for light by night: 'If ye can break My covenant of the Day, and My covenant of the Night, so that there should not be day and night in their season ; then also My covenant shall be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne ' (Jer. xxxi. 35 ; xxxiii. 20-26) ; ' for I have swom in My holi- ness to Da^dd, that his seed shall be forever, and his throne as the sun before Me_,- it shall be established for- ever as the moon, and as the faithful witness in the skies ' " (Psalm ixxxix. 35-37). Yea, Thou Creator-Eedeemer, we accept Thy glorious Heavens as the shining prophets of Thy Grace. Nor have they been pointing to Immanuel in vain. Ah, friends, not aiways shall Genius and Unbe- lief go hand in hand ; not always shall learning be philos- ophy of vain deceit (Col. ii. 8), or oppositions of Science, falsely so called (i Tim. vi. 20). In the homage of the "Wise Men from the East at the shrine of the Nativity, Faith and Science were betrothed, and the world will yet cele- brate their open bridal. Then will it be confessed that the Lord of Creation and the Lord of Eedemption is one; that the Finger which wi'ote on the tables of the Silurian sandstone is the Finger which wrote on the ta- bles of the Sinaitic granite ; that the Hand which reared the gigantic forests of the Carboniferous Era is the Hand which was nailed to Calvary's tree ; that the Dixit which islanded primeval space with nebulous masses is the Dixit which jeweled the Judean night-dome with tlie Star of Bethlehem, Tea, the day is at hand when Astronomy, conscious of her august calling, shall proudly inscribe on her frontlet the blazing legend : " Sun of Eighteous- neSS " (Mai. iv. 2). 152 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. The other lesson is this : Jesus 2.— Christ and His Christ and His Church and His Truths Church and His -i x t • • i • • • j.-i rr .u .u rr arc thc truc Luminaries, shinme; m the Truths the True ' , p Luminaries. tiTie Heavens. Jesus Christ Himself is the true Greater Light, ruling the day as the Sun of Kighteousness, coming out of the chamber of His Eternity as the King of the worlds, going forth from the ends of the heavens, circling unto the ends there- of, and nothing is hidden from His heat (Psalm xix. 5, 6). The Church of Jesus Christ — Immanuel's real, spiritual Church, the aggregate of Saintly Characters — is the true lesser Light : ruling the night as the moon of His Grace, shining because He shines uj^on her, silvering the patliAvay of this world's benighted travelers. The Truths of Jesus Christ — ^the Truths which He came to disclose — are the true Stars of Heaven, from age to age sparkling on His brow as His many-jeweled diadem. And Jesus Christ and His Church and His Truths are the world's true regulators — serving for its signs and its seasons, its days and its years. Let me cite a single instance. "Why do not the world's scholars still measure time from the Greek Olympiads ? Why do not the world's kings still reckon their annals from the Year of Rome ? "Why do not the world's scien- tists date their era from some memorable Transit or Oc- cultation? Ah, Jesus Christ and His Church and His Truth are too much for them. And so they all, even the most infidel, bow in unconscious homage before the Babe of Bethlehem, reckoning their era from that manger-birth, dating their correspondence, their legislations, their discov- eries, their exploits, with the august words : Anno Domini. Yes, Christianity is Humanity's time Meridian, dictating its measures of time and space, its calendars and eras, its latitudes and longitudes. AH history, if we did but know GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. 153 it, is Time's great ecliptic around the Eternal Son of God. Ilajipy the hour, brother, when the Fourth Day daAvns on thy soul, and thou takest thy place in the moral heavens, hencaforth to shine and rule as one of earth's luminaries ! And this leads me to my last point. A Personal En- rj.^^^ j^^^^ q f^.-^^^^ j^gt the day come treaty. , , ' n i .• • .^ - when the stars, now lighting in their courses for thee, shall fight against thee (Judges v. 20), In that coming day of sackclothed sun and crimsoned moon and falling stars, one thing shall survive the dissolving heavens and melting elements : It is the Blood-bought Church of the Living God. Even now I see her, as in visions of Patmos, clothed with the sun, under her feet the moon, on her head the diadem of twelve stars (Rev. xii. i). Oh, then, live worthily of thine ineffable calling. Let it not be enough that thy Maker, in reducing the chaos of thy soul to order, does the work of the First Day, shin- ing into thy dark heart, and giving thee light ; let the Fourth Day come, that thou, too, in thy turn, mayst be a light to othei-s, even those who are still walking in dark- ness, and dwelling in the land of the shadow of death. So shalt thou find that " the toppling crags of Duty scaled, Are close upon the shining table-lands To which our God Himself is moon and sun." — (Tennyson.) So shalt thou keep in chime with yon circling stars, doing thy Father's will on earth, even as they do it in the heavens. For, " There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in liis motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins. — (" Merchant of Venice," v. 1.) 154 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Oh, read tlien aright the lessons Ahnighty God has written in blazing characters on heaven's empjTean. With the Wise Men from the East be led by Bethlehem's Star to the House of Eternal Bread. Then, in that day of dis- solving nature, when many of earth's brightest ones, sons of the morning, shall, Lucifer-like, fall, to go out in ever- lasting blackness, thou shalt orb forth into everlasting splendor. Then shall the light of thy moon be as the light of the Sim, and the light of thy sun sevenfold, as the light of seven days (Is. xxx. 26) : for Jehovah shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory (Is. Ix. 19). Oh, that that promised day would swiftly come ! " Watchman, tell us of the night, What its signs of promise are. Traveler, o'er yon mountain height See that glory-beaming Star. Watchman, does its beauteous ray Aught of hope or joy foretell? Traveler, yes ; it brings the day, Promised day of Israel. *' Watchman, tell us of the night ; Higher yet that Star ascends. Traveler, blessedness and light, Peace and truth its course portends. Watchman, will its beams alone Gild the spot that gave them birth 1 Traveler, ages are its own ; See, it bursts o'er all the earth. " Watchman, tell us of the night, For the morning seems to dawn. Traveler, darkness takes its flight ; Doubt and terror are withdrawn. Watchman, let thy wanderings cease ; Hie thee to thy quiet home. GENESIS OF THE LUMINARIES. 155 Traveler, lo ! the Prince of Peace, Lo ! the Son of God is come." — (Sir John Bowbing.) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTUKE IX. GENESIS OF THE ANBIALS. " And God said : Let the waters bring forth abundantly -the mov- ing creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind : and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying: Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said : Let the earth bring forth the living creat- ure after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after.his kind : and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creep- eth upon the earth after his kind : and God saw that it was good." — Genesis i. 20-25. I.— Explanation First of all, let us attend to the Ex- of the Passage. planation of the Passage. At the outset, then, observe that I 'T^r!r^ \ J .1 l^ave inclnded in the passage not mere- sue of Fifth and Sixth T-l <• 1 -^ Days. ly the work oi the Fifth Day, but also the first part of the work of the Sixth. My reasons for thus considering them in one lecture is that they naturally form a single and distinct topic, name- ly, the Creation of Animals ; while the second part of the work of the Sixth Day as naturally forms another single GENESIS OF THE ANIMALS 157 and distinct topic, namely, the Creation of Man. More- over : remembering that the measures of time in this Cre- ation Archive are not Uteral days of twentj-four liom*s each, but eras of indefinite length, it is reasonable to sup- pose that the Creations on the various days more or less overlap each other, the Creation wrought on any given day being the characteristic work of that day. These explanations, then, justify me in considering in one lecture the work of the Fifth Day and a part of the work of the Sixth — that is to say, the Genesis of Animals, Kemembering, now, that onr Chroni- 2. — Panorama of ^^qy cloes not prof CSS to be a zoologist, ^^jg ° "" but only an observer and describer of a passing scene, let us again ascend his mount of vision, and survey the unrolling panorama of the Emerging Animals. The Fourth Day, with its flood of solar light, has come. But, though the soil is verdant with glorious vegetation, no beast walks the land, no bird flies the air, no fish swims the sea. And now is heard again the Omnific Word : " Let Animals be ! " And, lo, the nautilus spreads his sail, and the cateiiDillar winds his cocoon, and the spider weaves his web, and the salmon darts through the sea, and the lizard glides among the rocks, and the eagle soars the sky, and the lion roams the jungle, and the monkey chatters among the trees, and all animate Creation waits the advent and lordship of Man, God's Inspiration and therefore God's Image, God's Image and therefore God's Viceroy. For, observe that our passage sets 3. -The Animal ^^^^^^ ^j^^ Gencsis of the Animafs in an j.ggg ''^ ' ° ascending order. Fii-st, Animals of the water : " God said : ' Let the waters swarm with swarms of living beings ; ' and God created 158 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the great sea-monsters — literally, long-extended creatures — and every living thing that moveth, with which the waters swarm, after their kind." Secondly, Animals of the air : " God said : ' Let birds fly above the earth along the ex- panse of the heavens ; ' and God created every winged bird, after its kind." Thirdly, Animals of the land : " God said : ' Let the earth bring forth the living being, after its kind, cattle and reptile and beast of the earth, after its kind : ' and it was so." Fonrthly, Man : " God said : ' Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness :' and God created the man in His own image, in the image of God created He him ; male and female created He them." And with this Mosaic account of the Origin of Life, ascend- ing from plant, by way of animal, to man, the geological records substantially agree : first, plants and fishes of the Palaeozoic period ; secondly, birds and reptiles of the Meso- zoic period ; thirdly, mammals and man of the !N^eozoic jjei-iod. Remember, now, that our Passage, even as the most skeptical scholars concede, was in existence as a piece of literature at least twenty-five centuries ago. Kemember, also, that Geology has not yet celebrated her first Centen- nial. And now I have a question to ask. How hapj>ens it that that far-oif, unlored witness of Creation's panorama, writing, as I believe, centuries before the Trojan War be- gan, succeeded in so nearly formulating the teachings of modern Geology ? Look at this very curious, most sug- gestive fact. That ancient Chronicler tells us that God on the Fifth Day created the tanninim / that is to say, long- extended creatures. What, now, did he mean by these taninnim, or long-extended creatures^ Whales? So thought the scholars of 250 years ago. To them the whale was the longest creature known. Accordingly, when in IGll, by commission of James L, the learned GENESIS OF THE ANIMALS 159 Revisers of the " Bishops' Bible " gave to the world the translation known as the " Authorized Version," they ren- dered the word tannin by the word whale : " God created great whales." But in 1611 Geology, as a definite science, had not been born ; she is the blooming daughter of the nineteenth century. But, though her hands are youthful and delicate, she has succeeded in many a place in uj)heav- ing earth's rocky cmst ; and, lo, here and there, in Europe and Australia, in Asia and America, there come to light gigantic fossils of tannitiim indeed, vast animal exten- sions, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty feet long ; fossils of colossal creatures which became extinct untold ages before Adam awoke in Eden to kiss his Ileaven-given bride. The difference between the modem geologist and the ancient Chronicler is this: the Geologist calls these enormous fossils by names almost as enormous : Dino- saurs, Hydrosaurs, Icbthyosaurs, Mosasaurs, Plesiosaurs, Pterodactyls, etc. The hoary Witness of Creation's pano- rama was not a geologist ; he was only an observer, and therefore he called them " long-extended creatures." And so fair Geology, dowered with the glorious heirloom of untold ages, emerges from the rocky sepulchre of an im- memorial antiquity, and, ascending the witness-stand of Time, sets aside the mistranslations of the learned and ecclesiastical past, and, kneeling before the hoary transcri- ber of the primeval Creation Tradition, solemnly sweai-s that he alone speaks the truth. Ay, the very stones of the field are in league with the sons of God. But let me not be diverted from the point in hand. I was speaking of the ascending order of the animal creation. And the ascending order is prophetic as well as historic. The plant suggests the animal ; the animal suggests man. For man himself begins as a microscopic, plant-like cell, and, unfold- 160 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. ing along the scale of the animal creation, ciihninates in being a temple of God. Alas ! many men never outgrow the animal, forever contentedly creeping. Alas, alas ! some men never outgrow the plant, forever simply vegetating ; and this only as the flowerless cryptogams, the parasitic fungi of society. Kot that the ascending order of the 4. — "After their . ^ . tt t? i x- u; „. , „ animal succession was an " Ji, volution oi Kind, Species into Species." In the first place, as was shown in the Lecture on Plants, " Species " is but an abstract term, a mere concept, having no concrete, objective existence in the world of matter : who ever saw a Species ? Again : Evolutionists use their shibboleth — " Evolution " — v^eiy hazily, confounding it with transmutation, which is an utterly different thing. Evolution — if we use the word intelligently, not playing fast and loose with it — means un- rolling. But you cannot unroll what has not been inroUed ; you cannot evolve what has not been involved. In other words, the evolution of a concrete, definite, objective or- ganism, say a salmon, a turtle, an eagle, a whale, a gorilla, a man, is — if we use the word intelligently and accm-ately — an affair of weight : and you cannot evolve a ton out of a kilogramme. Nevertheless, there is an evolution in which I believe ; but it is an ideal evolution : that is to say, the evolution along the ideal axis of a plan and purpose : e. g., the unfolding of a leonine o-s^im into tlie adult lion is an evolution along the ideal axis of a vertebrate mammal. In this sense, our hoary Chronicler was an evolutionist. Ob- serve the emphatic, solemn frequency with which he uses the profound phrase : " After his kind ; " i. e., " After his plan, idea." Seven times is the phrase repeated in our brief passage. Like the previous, solemn iteration of the same phrase in the Story of the Genesis of the Plants, it GENESIS OF THE ANIMALS. Id almost stands like a prophetic caveat against tlie modern lijpotliesis of the Mutability of Species. Alike according to Moses and the observed facts of Xatiire, the tree, whose seedis in itself, bears fruit after its kind ; the fish of the sea bears fishes after its kind ; the bird of the air bears birds after its kind ; the beast of the land bears beasts after its kind. 5 _Th Creator's And now we pass to note the Crea- Blcssing. tor's Blessing : " And God blessed them, and said : ' Be f niitf ul, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.' " Observe : our Chronicler represents the Cre- ator as speaking to the animals. This is one of the many hints which drive us to the conclusion that this Creation Archive is not to be taken literally, but as tlie inspired portrayal of a j)anoramic vision. And the Divine blessing was the benediction of fertility. The fecundity of animals is simply amazing. Eecall, e. g., the enonnous ratio of increase of the shad and the salmon as propagated by the modern methods of fish-culture. It is asserted that a sin- gle spawning-gromid of the herring contains a hundred thousand million eggs. And as to the animalcules, the number is simply inconceivable ; earth's vast strata of lime- stone and reefs of coral and cliffs of chalk being the solidi- fied secretions of microscopic animal life. " And God saw that it was good." P^jj^jj^ And well might He rejoice in the ad- vent of His Animals. And so also may we. When we remember how wonderful are the con- trivances of the animal economy — contrivances of organ and tissue and nerve and muscle and bone and teeth — con- trivances of digestion and circulation and respiration and reproduction — contrivances of feeling and tasting and hear- ing and seeing and moving ; when we remember how 162 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. serviceable many of the animals are to man — how the camel bears him across the desert and the reindeer across the snows — how the ox and the ass and the horse draw his burdens — how the fish and the bird and the beef furnish him with food — how the sheep and the silk-wonn supply him with clothing — ay, how his very dog ministers to his pride and joy and love ; when we remember how capable of pleasure the animals themselves are — how gleefully the fawn gambols, how rollickingly the squirrel scampers, how blithely the bobolink sings, how sportively the trout darts, how merrily the cricket chirps, how friskingly the mote dances, how ecstatically the rotifer whirls ; when we re- member all this, we too may share in the Creator's delight, and with Ilim pronounce the setting-up of the Animal Kingdom very good. Such is the Story of the Genesis of the Animals. Xi,_jjf oral Mean- And, now, what is the Meaning of ing of the Story. the Story ? Problem of the It must be confessed, at least at first Animals. sight, that the story is singularly want- ing in ethical lessons. We can understand the meaning of light, heat, air, plant. But what is the meaning of Ani- mals ? They do not seem to be an essential, constituent part of the human economy. Had never one of them been created, we could have lived, as in fact the inhabi- tants of the tropics mainly do live, on vegetable diet ; we could have used, as in fact we are every day more and more using, steam power for horse. And yet, Ehrenberg tells us that " one cubic inch of chalk often contains more than a million of microscopic skeletons ; " and chalk exists by the furlong in depth, the mile in breadth, the league in length. And we cannot suppose that God has created anything in vain : " He saw everything that He had made, GENESIS OF THE ANIMALS. 163 and, lo, it was very good." Here, then, is a stupendous fact, and, at tJie same time, a stupendous problem — the Animal Creation. No thoughtful man, who believes in a purposeful God, can push it aside as unimportant. What, then, is the meaning of the Animals ? . . , ^ Consider then, first, that, if the 1. — Animals have . , , -. t • ^ ^ " Souls." Scripture is to be believed, animals have " souls." And here let me repeat some words given to the public more than ten years ago,' We must distinguish, as Holy Writ itself distinguishes, between Soul and Spirit. The Spirit is the capacity or organ by which man has the sense of God, by which he comes into contact with Him, and apprehends Him, and knows Him, and feels Him, and loves Him, and enters into fellowship with Iliin, and is made partaker of the Divine nature (2 Peter i. 4) ; the Spirit is " the organ of spiritual-minded- ness." On the other hand, the Soul is the principle of life, the vital principle, the mysterious force which makes the object which possesses it, whatever it be, a vital thing. What the nature of this force is, whether material or im- material — what its origin and laws of working — is the most baffling, as well as fascinating, of !N'ature's secrets ; hither- to, and probably for evermore, defying scalpel and micro- scope, physiologist and pliilosopher. And yet, although we do not understand its origin or nature, we do understand something of its movements and relations. Phenomenally surveyed, the Soul seems to be endowed with a mysterious- ly gathering, selecting, forming, organizing, directing force. In some utterly inscrutable way, it seems to gather around it material atoms for the body it infonns and vitalizes, and manifests itself in all varieties of sensation, emotion, in- stinct, reason, volition. It seems to be the inmost centre > See Baptist Quarterly, toI. i., No. 2. 164 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. and pivot of tlie i^ersonalitj, around which the whole man, as now constituted, gathers, crystallizes, and lives, according to an order of God's own establishing. In answer to its mystic power, the heart throbs, the lungs wax and wane, the sensibilities awaken, the jjassions take fire, the imagina- tion roams, the reason marches forth in logical sequence, the will strides on in exploits of conquest. And all this is shared, though in an immeasurably lower degree, by the animal world. Reason and instinct, I am disposed to be- lieve, are only rel{itive, comparative terms. What in man we call reason, in animals we call instinct. As that mys- terious force which vitalizes and builds up the fabric of the human body is the same mysterious force which vital- izes and builds uj^ the fabric of the animalcule, so that mysterious guide which teaches Newton how to establish the law of gravity, and Shakespeare how to write his " Ham- let," and Stephenson how to bridge the St. Lawrence, seems substantially to be the same mysterious guide which teaches the beaver how to build his dam, and the spider how to weave his web, and the ant how to dig his sj3iral home. The difference does not seem to be so much a dif- ference in nature or kind, as in degree or intensity. As the diamond is the same substance with charcoal — only under su]:>erior crj^stalline figure — so reason seems to be substantially the same with instinct — only in an intensely organized state. One thing is common to man and ani- mals : it is that mysterious principle or force which, in want of a better name, and in distinction from the term spirit, we call "soul." Accordingly, Scripture itseK as- cribes to animals the possession of souls. In this very ac- count of the Genesis of Animals, which we have in hand to-day, the tenns describing the Avater and land animals, and rendered in our Aversion " the creature that hath life " GENESIS OF THE ANIMALS. 1G5 or " living creature," are literally identical with the terms rendered in the account of the Genesis of Man : " Living: CI soul." Listen : " Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life," or,- as you may read in the margin of your Bibles, " living soul." Listen again : " Let the earth bring forth the living creature, the living soul, after its kind," Listen once more : " The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, a living creature " (Gen. ii. 1). Remember also the exceedingly meaningful circumstance that the higher or- ders of animals and man were created in the same era, even on the same Sixth, culminating Day. " God said : ' Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind : ' and it was so. . . . And God said : ' Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness : ' and God created the man in His image. , . . And there was evening, and there was morning, a Sixth Day." Ah, we little know what mystic bonds of kinship join animal and man. How humanlike the ways of the higher forms of animals! Whistle for your devoted Fritz. See how joyously he bounds toward you, wagging his tail in nervous ecstasy ; how lovingly he rests his paw and head on your knee. What Shylock, j)rotesti.ng to Salarino, said of his race, you may say of your Fritz : '' Hath he not eyes ? Hath he not organs, dimensions, senses, aifections, passions ? Is he not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, sub- ject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is ? If you prick him, does he n bleed ? If you tickle him, does he not langh ? If you poison him, docs he not die?" ("Merchant of Venice," iii. 1.) Verily, animals, even as the Scripture saitli, have souls. 166 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. And having souls, wlio knows but ■~ _, , ^^^'^^^ that animals, at least some of them, are are Immortal. ^ ^ , , ^ _ immortal ? True, it is one of our sapi- ent assumptions, so often repeated that it has almost taken on the imperial mien of an axiom, that man differs from the brute in that he alone is immortal. But assumptions, however natural or taking, are not necessarily facts. For asres men believed that the earth was the centre of the universe, and that the heavenly bodies revolved around it. But how gigantic, even grotesque, the lie ! Lives there the man who knows — demonstrably knows — that animals are not immortal ? Let us not be puffed up with our own conceits, impounding the activities of the Limitless One in the tiny paddock of om* own opinions : " There arc more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." — (" IIamlet," i. 5.) All, this mystery of Life, this problem of the Yital Principle common to man and animal, this riddle of the Psyche, this enigma of the Soul ! I do not wonder that men in all ages of the world have bowed do\\Ti before it. I do not wonder that in that far-off age, when intellectual Egypt was mapping out the heavens and rearing her own mighty pyramids, she knelt before her Sacred Bull and Ibis and Beetle, because she believed them endowed with souls and instinct with immortality. Do not blame poor Israel too harshly for so swiftly relapsing into the woi*ship of the Calf they had seen adored in Egypt ; wretched was their sin, but they had a profounder reason for it than our proud theology is willing to recognize. To him who pon- ders the mystery of Life the lowest microscopic protozoan, hovering on the dim border between plant and animal, is a sublimer thing than the solar system, or an infinite uni- GENESIS OF THE ANIMALS. 1C7 vor!=e of dead atoms. Did you ever think liow profound, in this connection, is the significance of the Chenibim of Scripture ; those wondrous beings wliich guarded the way to the Tree of Life (Gen. iii. 24), which ovei-shadowed the Mercy Seat (Ex. xxv. 18), which thundered along the sky as the chariot on which the God of the whirlwind royally rode (Psalm xviii. 10), which careered before the gaze of the Babylonian Prophet in trances of the Chebar (Ezek. i.), which the Exile of Patnios saw kneeling and ascribing around the great white throne (Rev. iv.) — Cherubim with the face of an ox and the face of an eagle and the face of a lion and the face of a man ? Ah, this solemn kinship of man and ani- mal ! No wonder that Israel's Lawgiver, proclaiming to his people the legislation dictated him from heaven, guarded so jealously the sacredness of animal life. Listen : " Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk " (Ex. xxiii. 19). " Whether it be cow or ewe, thou shalt not kill her and her young both in one day " (Lev. xxil. 28). " If a bird's nest cliance to be bcfoi'c thee in the way, in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young " (Dcut. xxii. 6, 7). " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the com " (Deut. xxv. 4 ; -1 Cor. ix. ; 1 Tim. v. 18). And here I must speak a word in hearty praise of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Remit not that gentle institution to the limbo of sentimentalities. It is but carrying out the merciful economy Divinely foreshadowed in the Mosaic Jurispru- dence, given to the world when humanity was yet in its cliildhood. Promptly report, then, to the proper authori- ties every instance of cnielty. Ah, here is the delicate, telling test of civilization : the way that we treat, not our superiors, but our inferiors. The gentleman is a gentle man. 168 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. " I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path ; But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live." — (Cowper's " Task.") The killing of an albatross in the South Seas has laid the foundation for one of the most touching ballads in English literature. What is the " Kime of the Ancient Mariner " but a poet's defense of the truth that animals have souls ? " Farewell, Farewell ! but this I tell To thee, thou Wedding Guest ! lie prayeth well who loveth well Both man and bird and beast. " He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small ; For the dear God Who loveth us, He made and loveth all." " Ah, this," you tell me, " is poetry." Listen, then, to the calm words of that Prince of Scientists wliom Chris- tendom not long since laid away amid the cypresses of Mount Auburn. I quote from that profound treatise by Louis Agassiz, entitled " Essay on Classification : " " Most of the arguments of philosophy in favor of the immortality of man apply equally to the permanency of the imma- terial principle in other living beings. May I not add that a future life in which man should be deprived of that great source of enjoyment and intellectual and moral im- provement, which results from the contemplation of the GENESIS OF THE ANIMALS. IGO liarmonies of an organic world, would involve a lamentable loss ? And may we not look to a spiiitual concert of the combined worlds and all tlieir inhabitants in presence of their Creator, as the highest conception of paradise ? " And now, to these weighty words of 3. — A Memorable , £ c • i j. ' u xi a master oi bcience, let me add the weightier words of a master of Theol- ogy : " I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are of no account compared with the glory which is to be re- vealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him Who made it subject, in hope that even the creation itself will be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now ; and not only so, but even we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we our- selves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body " (Rom. viii. 19-23). " Ah, poetry again," you tell me. Nevertheless, brother, you believe the rest of this glorious chapter. You exult in the eighth chapter of Romans as one of the stoutest bulwarks of Cliristian theology — one of the dearest treasures of Chris- tian experience. You never tire of quoting the first verse : " There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." You never tire of quoting the last verse : " I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- cipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God M'hich is in Christ Jesus our Lord." You believe what precedes, and you believe what follows ; why not believe what inter- S 170 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. venes ? Yes, it is poetry — genuine, sublime poetry. For wlio is the poet ? The man who makes melodious rhymes and metres ? If that is all he does, he is only a poetaster. The poet is the man who detects distant, recondite truth, and masterfully expresses it. And Paul is precisely sucli a poet. This magnificent paragraph is one of the noblest poetic bursts that ever fell on the ear of listening man. Let us dwell on it a little in detail. And, first : It is the picture of a sor- • n*- ^ ^^^^' rowful creation: "We know that the ing Creation. whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." JSTature's tones, we are told, are largely in the minor key. How sad, notwithstanding its majesty, the mournful booming, the funereal minute- guns, of the great surging sea ! Did you ever hear a more melancholy cadence than the wind of God as it sweeps through the sere foliage of autumn, or as it sets in weird tremors telegraph-wires spanning desolate regions? So, too, the wind and howl of the animal world is in the minor key: " I heard the wild beasts in the woods complain ; Some slept, while others wakened to sustain Through night and day the sad monotonous round, Half savage and half pitiful the sound. " The outcry rose to God through all the air, The worship of distress, an animal prayer, Loud vehement pleadings, not unlike to those Job ottered in his agony of woes." — (F. W. Faber.) Look, again, at the abortiveness of the Creation. Be- hold its droughts and floods, its fires and blights, its deserts and earthquakes, its monstrosities and abortions, its sick- nesses and deaths. Behold the incessant warfare of tlie GENESIS OF THE ANIMALS. 171 animal tribes, slaying each other almost as soon as born, earth's crust being largely made np of the murdered re- mains of those to whose parents the Lord of the Fifth Day gave the breath of life, or living soul. Yerily, the Crea- tion hath been made subject to vanity. But must this abortiveness forever continue ? Shall the bar sinister never be removed from Nature's shield ? Ah, this Sphinx of the Animal Creation ! Where is the (Edipus who shall solve it ? With what hopeful doubt and doubtful hope the Laureate sings it : " Oh yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of Nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood ; *' That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete ; " That not a worm is cloven in vain ; That not a moth with vain desire Is shriveled in a fruitless fire. Or but subserves another's gain. " Behold, we know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall At last — far off — at last, to all. And every winter change to spring. " So runs my dream : but what am I? An infant crying in the night : An infant crying for the light: And with no language but a cry. *' The wish, that of the living whole No life may fail beyond the grave, Derives it not from what we have The likest God within the soul ? 172 STTDLES IS" THE CREATIVE WEEK. " Are God and Xamre then at strife. That Xatnre lends such evil dreams ? So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life ; " That I, considering eTervwhere Her secret meaning in her deeds, And finding that of fifty seeds She often brings but one to bear : " I falter where I firmly trod, And, falling with my weight of cares Upon the great world's altar-stairs That slope through darkness ap to God, '' I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gather dost and cbafE. and call To what I feel is Lord of all. And faintly trust the larger hope.'' — (•' br IfEMOEiAX,'' liv.^v.) Turn we then from the strnggling, (6.)— The Glorioas . 4. ^ . *i ^ . veenno: poet to rest on the more sure PropnecT. ^ ^ word of Prophecv : '• The Creation was made subject to vanity, not of its own will, but br reason of Him Who made it subject, in hope that the Creation it- self will be set free from the bondage of corruption into the Hbertr of the glorv of the children of God." Xot only man, then, but also all Creation, whereof man stands as the head, and sensorium. and epitome, and representa- tive, is to be rescued from the thralldom of decay and dis- solution, and emancipated into the freedom of the splendor of God's sons. It is a blessed vision of that coming Kes- titution of all things (Acts iiL 21), that glorious Palingenesis, or Regeneration of Xature. to which the Son of God Him- self alludes when, addressing His disciples. He said : " In the Palingenesia, in the Pegeneration, when the Son of GEXESIS OF THE ANIMALS. I73 Man shall sit on the throne of His Glorj, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel " {Matt. xix. 28). That is to Say, in that coming Regeneration of Nature the curse shall be lifted off from Creation, and earth shall be Eden again. For there are to be not only the new heavens, thank God, there is also to be the new earth — ay, a new earth, it may be, like this very earth we are treading, only transfigured (2 Peter iii. 13). Then in that day when the Lord shall return to bind up the breach of His people, and heal the stroke of their wound (Is. xxx. 26), and to make all things new again, " The wolf shall indeed dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf, and the young lion, and the falling shall feed together, and a little child shall lead them ; and the cow and bear shall feed, their young ones shall he down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the Avcaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den ; tliey shall not hurt nor destroy in all His holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the coming waters cover the sea " (Is. xi. 6-9). Yes, in that coming Restitution of all things, the lion and the tiger, which now live only to prey on each other and be the dread of man, shall come trooping back again to man redeemed in the Second Adam, even as they had already gone trooping to the unfallen Adam in Eden (Gen. ii. 19). "What tliough tlic first Adam, earth's poor Sam- son, grasped in his blindness the pillars that supported the temple of Nature, and, falling, pulled down all Nature with him ? Earth's poor Samson shall yet hear the Resur- rection voice of the Son of God, and, " re-orient from the dust," shall again lift up with himself the pillars of Na- ture's temple. 174 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Observe now, finally, the Majestic Posture ^ ^^^^ ^^ Posture : " The earnest expectation of the Creation is waiting for the revela- tion of the Sons of God." The earnest expectation of the Creation is waiting. It is the Poet- Apostle's master-stroke : Weary Creation peering forward in the yearning attitude of outstretched neck and hand. There is on one of the mountains of New England what to me is the most mar- velous natural phenomenon in the world. For nearly a score of yeai*s, every summer that I have been this side the Atlantic, I have visited it ; every time I have vis- ited it, I have lifted my hat and bowed in its presence. I do not know why the Maker of heaven and earth has carved on the brow of the everlasting mountain that great stone Face of Franconia — that majestic, wonder- ful Face, peering away down the glorious Pemigewasset Valley, alike in sunshine and in storm-blast, day and night, century after century ; unless it be that that sol- emn Profile might represent the groaning Creation, dis- cerning from afar and patiently awaiting the coming Glory. And, as hundreds of times I have gazed on that stone Prophet of the Mountain, peering down the Yalley of the Future, I have secretly said to him : " Watchman, tell iis of the night, What its signs of promise are ! " and I have heard from those venerable lips the glorious answer : " Traveler, o'er yon mountain height, See that glory-beaming star." Yes, weary Creation is patiently waiting for the mani- festation, the revelation, the apocalypse, of the sons of God — that is to say, the shining exhibition of them as God's GENESIS OF THE ANIMALS. 175 sons. For man and animal, wondrously knit together in the sacred kinship of the Sixth Day, are alike groaning under the common Curse, alike hoping under the common Promise. All creation is in sympathy with the Church of the living God, in waiting for the disclosure of the Glory which is wrapped up in the sonship to the everlasting Father and the joint heirship with Jesus Christ, His eter- nal Son (Rom. viiL 17). Well, then, may those representa- tives of Creation, the four Living Creatures of the Apoca- lyptic Vision of Patnios, join with the blood-washed throng in the chorus of redemption, resting neither day nor night, chanting: Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come ! (Eev. iv. S). Then, in that day of Apocalypse shall the sad symphony of Time's dirges give way to the glad symphony of Eternity's paeans. Even now let us pray, as prayed the grand, blind bard of the English Commonwealth : " Come forth out of Thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth ! Put on the visi- ble robes of Thy imperial Majesty ! Take up the unlim- ited sceptre which Thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed Thee ! For now the voice of Thy Bride calleth Thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed ! " (Milton's Prose Works). Amen. Come, Lord Jesus ! Come quickly ! (Rev. xxii. 20). Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall bcj world without end. Amen. LECTUEE X. GENESIS OF MAN, " And God said : Let us make man in Our image, after Our like- ness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His image, in the image of God created He him ; male and female created He them." — Genesis i. 26, 27. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and hreathed into his nostrils the breath of life : and man became a liv- ing soul." — Genesis ii. 17. In the Introductory Lecture it was . \ . „ ' , , remarked that, ahhoiiffh the story of Archive Twofold. , ^ . -.tV i •< -■ ,. the Creative Week bears the name of the " Mosaic Record," it is not necessary to believe that Moses himself was the literal author of it. As was, then observed, there is strong reason for believing that the Ar- chive had already long existed in the form of a sacred, inspired Tradition, and that Moses, accepting it as Divine, simply incorporated it into his Preface to his Pentateuch, thus making it a part of his own chronicle. A scnitiny of the Creation Archive, as given us in the first two chapters of Genesis, shows us that it is manifestly twofold : the first a very ancient document, extending through the first chapter and including the first three verses of the second, GENESIS OF MAN. 177 setting fortli the process of Creation under its general as- pect, and representing the Creator by His general title— Elohim, or God, Deity ; the second account comprising the rest of the second chapter, a later document, occupied mainly with the story of the Creation of Man, and repre- senting the Creator by His particular, Hebrew title, Jeho- vah Elohim, or Lord God. It may be that the first account had come down from Adam himself, and that the second account has Moses for its literal author ; the first Archive being a Prologue, the second Archive being the first chap- ter of the History of Mankind. However this be, enough that Moses has incorporated the two accounts into his own stoiy, so that it is strictly correct to speak of them as the Mosaic Eecord. I have alluded to this matter because the account of the Genesis of Man is evidently twofold : the first a general, the second a specific. Let me then read to you the two Archives. The first is this : " And God said : ' Let us make Man in Our image, after Our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over tlie cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.' So God created the Man in His image, in the image of God created He him ; male and female created He them. And God blessed them ; and God said to them : ' Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' . . . And it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a Sixth Day " (Gen. i. 26-31). The other Archive reads thus : " Now there was yet no plant of the field in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up : for Jehovah God had 178 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. not yet caused it to rain on tlie eartli, and there was no man to till the ground : and there went up a mist from the earth, and it watered all the face of the ground. And Je- hovah God formed the Man of dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the Man became a living soul. . . . And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the Man, and he slejjt : and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead there- of. And of the rib which He took from the Man, Jeho- vah God formed a "Woman, and brought her to the Man " (Gen. ii. 5-22). Reserving for a special study the II. — Panorama ox £ ±\. r\ • £ -xht ^ j. . -r, ^ ,, ibtory 01 the Genesis oi Woman, let us 01 Lraergent Man. •' . ' occupy ourselves to-day with the Study of the Genesis of Man. According to our wont, let us first ascend again the Mount of Panoramic Vision, and gaze with the inspired Seer on the unfolding scene of Emergent Man. What though the Breath of God is mov- ing over the waste, ebon abyss, beginning to resolve Chaos into Cosmos ? No human being is there to rejoice over the birth of Order. "What though the light of chemical activity suffuses the inchoate universe ? No human being is there to feel its quickening warmth. What though the arching sky has separated the mighty mass into the heavens and the earth ? No human being is there to feel his spirit broadening and soaring with the swelling welkin. What though the waters have retreated to their appointed places, and the dry lands have emerged ? No human being is there to sail over the mighty main, or to climb the inspir- ing mountain. AVhat though the fern branches, and the grass waves, and the palm towers, and the rose blushes, and the vine fruits ? No human being is there to enjoy the shapes and hues, or scent the odors, or taste the fruits. GENESIS OF MAN. 179 Wliat though tlie sun blazes, and the moon beams, and the stars twinkle ? No human being is there to behold their glorj, or, watching their risings and settings, to take note of time. What though sea, air, and land teem with living creatures ? ]^o human being is there to give to them names, or to loile over them. All has been preparing for Man ; all is now ready for Man ; but Man himself is not. And now is heard once more the Omnific Word : " We will make Man in Our image, after Our likeness ; and they shall rule over the fish of the sea, and over the bird of the heavens, and over the cattle of the lands, and over all the earth." And, lo, a Form like to that of the Son of God stoops down, and, taking in His hand some of the dust of the soil. He moulds it into a figure like to His own Divine SeK, and, placing His hands against the new hands, and His mouth against the new mouth, He breathes into the new nostrils His own life breath ; and, lo ! the dust figure becomes, like the animals around him, a living soul ; ay, more than a living soul, even a Man, becoming, in very virtue of having been Divinely inbreathed, the Creator's Inspiration and Image and Son. Such is the vision of Emergent Man. And now let us attend to some of the details of the majestic picture. And, first : Man the Image of God. . an s Q^^ g^.^^ . t; ^y^ ^jll make Man in Our Image. image, after Our likeness." But what is meant by the Image i.-Jesus Christ ^^^ Likeness of God ? Without loiter- the Image of God. <• i o i ing amid the subtilties oi the School- men, let us take a shorter, simpler, truer method, even the answer expressly given in Holy Writ itself. Would you know what is meant by the Image of God ? Then gaze on Jesus the Nazarene, Wlio is the Image of the invisible 180 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. God (Col. i. 15), the brightness of His Gloiy aud express Image of His Person, or Impress of His Being (iieb. i. 2). "Without presuming to define with theological accuracy these expressions, without venturing to discuss their bear- ings on that profound, ineffable Mystery of the Christian Church — the Blessed and Adorable Trinity : distinctly disclaiming all attempts at j^reciseness of theological state- ment : it is enough to say that, practically, in the realm of personal apprehension and experience, Jesus of Nazareth is the Discloser of the Creator, the Revelation of the Father, the Representation of Deity, the Image of the in- visible God. And He becomes this in and by the fact of His Incarnation. I would not, especially on such high themes, be wise above what is written. It is but a con- . jecture, yet a conjecture seemingly well founded, that In- finite God can become knowable to man only through the intervention of some medium, or means of intercommuni- cation. Even earthly things become knowable to us only through the medium of the senses, visible things becom- ing visible through the sense of sight, audible things au- dible through the sense of hearing, tangible things tangible through the sense of touch. Let one be born without senses, and he is born without sense, actual or possible. How nnicli less then can the infinite, spiritual God become known to us except through media ! He is expressly de- clared to be tlie invisible God, dwelling in lidit whicli no man can approach unto. Whom no man hath seen or can see (1 Tim. vi. iG). If ever apprehensible, then, to finite worlds, He must become so through some kind of incarna- tion, or revelatio'n througli finite conditions. And all tliis, be it observed, irrespective of the fact of sin. If, then, mediation was needed before the entrance of evil, how much more since ! And the Incarnation meets the necessitv. GENESIS OF MAN. 181 " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, lie hath declared Ilim, made llim known, interpreted Ilim, made exegesis of Him " (John i. 18). Not that God was not known before. Prophets and Patriarchs knew Him and walked with Him. But even then He was known only through mediations, such as Shechinah and Covenant Angel. Even in the be- ginning was the Word, or God in articulation, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John i. i). If you ask me in what figure or condition the Precreative Word existed, I cannot answer ; for I have not been told. Nor is it necessary that I should know ; finiteness in some direction or another, not a human figure or a definite shape, is an essential of mediation. Enough that I know that in process of the Divine Revelation the Word, Who in the be- ginning was and was with God and was God, became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of an only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John i. 14). The God hitherto syllabled and j^artially and intermittently glimpsed in Covenant Angel and She- chinah, henceforth became completely and pennanently visible in the Man of Nazareth. The invisible God be- came visible through Incarnation ; i. e., through God's in- vesting Himself with a human spirit and soul and body, and so becoming finite in a liuman person. For what was the overshadowing of the Yirgin of Nazareth by the Holy Ghost (Luke i. 35) but the miraculous conception of a finite, spiritual nature, to be taken up, or incorj^orated — how, we can never tell — into the Person of the Divine Son, and to be, because a finite, spiritual nature and so apprehensible, the Image of that invisible One Who is Spirit 'i In the Nazarene's spiritual afiinities and kinship with the Eternal One as felt and expressed in human terms — in terms of 182 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. tlie Nazarene's sense of right, rectitude, equity, reverence, trust, communion, liarmony with the unseen and eter- nal Verities — in these we see the Image of Him Whom no man hath seen or can see, because He is Spirit (John iv. 24). Again : a spiritual nature must needs have what I may venture to call secular attributes — attributes of sensibility, cognitions, faculties of instrumentation, etc. So, also, in the secular attributes of Christ's human personality ; in His memory and reason and imagination and judgment, in His perceptions of beauty, in His loves and trusts and joys and griefs — we have hints and suggestions and par- ables of the character of Ilim Who, because infinite, must be supposed to be eternally outside the range of finite powers and sensibilities. It is through these that we know God ; and so Christ is the Image of God. Once more : a human personality, at least while in this world, must needs have a body ; that is to say, a vehicle and instrument of life. It is not only in and through the body that we live : it is in and through the body, e. g., through the inlets and outlets of the senses, that moral character is elicited. Em- bodiment, incarnation, was as essential to Christ's being the Image of God as was spirituality. He must not only be conceived by the Holy Ghost ; He must also be born into the sphere of matter. Thus in His taking on Himself a human spirit and soul and body, Jesus Christ became to man the Manifestation of Deity. The unseen God was, so to speak, elicited into ^-isibility through the attritions of barriers, or the limits of a finite condition. The Incarnate Son, in and by the very fact of His Incarnation, became a visible Image of the invisible God, because, O infinite paradox, in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. ii. 9). In Him M^e see, as we could have no otherwise seen or conceived, God's Holiness, Rectitude, GENESIS OF MAN. 183 Love, Magnanimity, Patience, Joy, Grief, Truth, Glory. For aught I know, this is the reason why Holy Scripture calls Him the Son of God ; for sonship is imageship. In Christ's own deeds and words and character — in the par- ables and hints and suggestions of His own incarnate career — we do indeed behold the Image of the invisible God, the Brightness from the Father's Glory, the express Image of His Person. The last night He was on earth as the Man of Sorrows, while He and the eleven were still reclining at the Paschal Table, Philip said to Him : " Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Jesus said to him : " Have I been so long time with you — have I spoken and wrought and lived before you all these months and years — and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip ? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ; how is it then that thou sayest, ' Show us the Father ? ' " (John xiv. s-io). Thus was the Son of Mary God's Prophet, speaking for Him, translating Him into human apprehension and state- ment. In a single Scriptural, all-comprehending term, Jesus Christ was God's Word. And this just because He was incarnated, the Word made flesh. For this end was He born, and for this end came He into the world, that He might bear witness unto the Truth (John xviii. 37). And the one Truth of the innnensities is this : God. Would you then know what is meant by the Image and Likeness of God ? Then gaze on Jesus the Nazarene. In Ecce Homo is Ecce Deus. And now we are prepared for a sec- 2 -Man the Image ^^^ ^^.^^^j^ . ^^ j^^^^^ qj^^..^^ -^ ^j^^ j^^^ of Jesus Christ, c/^l -»r - ^ • i- -r 01 God, SO Man is the image oi Jesus Christ. " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth " (Gen. i. i). " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God : all 184 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. tilings were made tlirougli Hira, and witliout Ilim was not anything made that hath been made " (John i. 1-3). The "God-Said" of the first chapter of Genesis is then the " God-Word " of the first chapter of John. Knowing all things from the beginning, predetermining all things ere as yet there was Incarnation, or Fall, or Man, or Earth, or Seraph ; foreseeing that as Incarnate lie wonld add to His eternal Godhead a human spirit and soul and body, the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. xiii. 8), makes solemn annunciation, using, as it would seem, the imperial plural : " We will make Man in Our image, after Our likeness." In the order of time, the Son of God made Himself like to Man ; in the order of purpose, the Son of God made Man like to Himself. It was an august illus- tration of His own saying when Incarnate : " The first shall be last, and the last first " (Matt. xx. 16). Do you ask in what respect Man was made in the image of Christ ? Evidently, I answer, in eubstantially the same respects in which Christ became the Image of God. Thus : In respect to a spiritual nature : When Jehovah God had formed the Man of dust of the ground, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The language, of course, is figurative. Nevertheless it must mean something. AVliat, then, does this inbreRth- ing by the Creator mean, if not the mysterious communi- cation of Himself — the eternal Air or Spirit — into Man ? As Christ, surveyed man-wise, was born of the Spirit in Nazareth, so Man, made in His Image, after His Likeness, was born of the Sj^irit in Eden. Again : a spiritual nature necessarily involves personality ; and personality, at least finite, as necessarily involves what I have called secular attributes, e. g., attributes of sensation, cognition, passion, action, etc. All these belonged to Christ; and through these He declared and interpreted the Father, being in GENESIS OF MAN. 185 very tnitli the Word of God, or Deity in articulation. And the Word has existed from the beginning, being the God- Said of the Creative Week. In man's potencies of what- ever kind — moral, intellectual, emotional, aesthetic — what- ever power or virtue or grace there may be — in all this we behold an image of the Lord from heaven. Once more : personality cannot, at least in this world, exist apart, from embodiment, or some kind of incarnation, which shall be to it for sphere and vehicle and instrument. Some kind of body is needed which, by its avenues and organs, shall awaken, disclose, and perfect character. And as Christ's body vehicled and organed His Personality, and so enabled Him to manifest the fullness of the Godhead which dwelt in Him body-wise, so Man's body was made in the image of Christ's, even that Body which in His eternal fore- knowledge was eternally His. This, then, was the Image in which Man was created, the Image of Christ's human Personality, or Christ's spirit and soul and body. Man is the image of Christ and Christ is the Image of God ; that is to say : Man is the image of the Image of God, or God's Image as seen in secondary reflection. But I hear an objection. " All this," (a.) -The Image ^^jj u jg true of the unfallen Defaced, not Efifaced. ^ , , , . » i i /• n Adam only ; but Adam has fallen ; sure- ly his sinful children are not made in God's Image." Yes, they are, I dare reply. It is this precise thing that Adam's children are still made in the Image of God, which makes them more than animals, even children of the Father celes- tial. Centuries after Adam's fall, God, in renewing to Noah Adam's charter, forbids murder on the expressly- mentioned ground that Man was made in the Image of God : " Whoso sheddeth Man's blood, by Man shall his blood be shed : for in the Image of God made He Man " 183 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. (Gen. ix. 6). Other centuiies roll away, and an apostle warns ns against sins of the tongue on precisely this same ground, that Man is made in the Image of God : " With the tongue bless we the Lord and Father, and with the tongue curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God " (James iii. 9). True, the Image of God has been terribly marred. Sin, the corroding, dissolving force that it is, has wellnigh ob- literated the Divine lineaments as they beamed forth in Eden. When we look at the awful guilt of the heathen world, ay, when we note the crimes and vices and ungodli- ness of civilized society around us, we feel that Man, like Moses, does indeed need a veil ; but, alas ! it is to hide, not his splendor, but his shame. Nevertheless, this image of God in Man, although so terribly marred, has not been en- tirely erased. Fearfully defaced, it has not been totally effaced. Deep down the grades of our fallen humanity, in the very lowest and guiltiest of our race, a generous vision shall detect, beneath wreck and rubbish, at least some dim sense of right, some faint idea of duty, some incipient, nebulous yearning after better things. And these and such as these are fragments, tiny and blurred indeed, neverthe- less real fragments of the Divine Effigy. And these and such as these are the prophets of hope, the human basis for the possibility of human redemption and perfectation. And this leads to the remark tliat ( .)— ns a IS- Qjjj-jg^'g mission, surveyed on its human sion a Restoration. . ■, . i i i t-< «» side, is to restore the shattered Effigy. The Incarnation, in its general sense, was to mediate be- tween God the Infinite and Man a finite. The Incarna- tion, in its specific sense, was to bring back Man from his apostas}', and reinstate him in God's full Image. Tliis is that promised era, even those times of Restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of His holy GENESIS OF MAN. 187 prophets since the world began (Acts. iii. 21). And this res- toration of the blurred Image is a process, continuing through seons or Dispensations. It begins in this world feon : Put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge and righte- ousness and holiness after the Image of Him Who created him (Eph. iv. 22-24 ; Col. iii, 9, 10). It will be continued in the life to come, aeon without end : Our citizenship is in the heavens ; whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ ; Who will transfigure the body of our humili- ation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory (Phil. iii. 20, 21). And this is the consummation of Redemp- tion, ay, of eternal Predestination. Whom He doth fore- know. He also doth foreordain to be conformed to the Image of His Son, that He may be the first-born among many brethren (Rom. viii. 29). If God became Manlike in Christ, it was that Man might become in Christ God- like, filled unto all the fullness of God, even the meas- ure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. iii. 19 ; iv. 13), in "Whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. ii. 9). Such, then, was the Origin of Man as given us in the first Creation Archive. " God created the Man in His Image : in the Image of God created He him ; a male and a female created He them." And now let us ponder briefly the T . ■"". Second Archive : " Jehovah God formed Inspiration. •, -%r <• i r ■, •, -, the Man from dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Man was a living soul " ' (Gen. ii. 1). Let us ponder these clauses a little ' Compare the curious tradition of tliat remarkable people — the Karens : " God took a eniall piece of His own life, blew into the nostrils of His son and daughter, and they became living beings, and were really human." 188 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. in detail. And, first, " Jehovah God formed the Man from dust of the ground." It is as true to-day as it was in that far-off yore when the inspired Seer beheld the vision of tlie Emergent Man. However various the opinions of scien- tists touching the Mosaic Story of Creation, they all agree at least on this point : Man's body is composed of the same chemical elements as the soil on which he treads. Dust he is : for out of dust was he taken, and unto dust does he return (Gen. iii. 19). The meaning of this very term, Adam, is clay, soil, earth : " There was no man to till the ground, no Adam to till Adamah " (Gen. ii. 5). Yes, the first Man was of the earth, earthy.' But, thank God, Man was to be something more than an organized mass of dust. That statue of clay was to become vital, vehicular, instrumental. And so we read, secondly : God " breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, the life breath." Or, as Elihu, Son of Barachel, phrases it : " The Spirit of God made me, and the Breath of the Almighty gave me life " (Job xxxiii. 4). The language, as on all such high themes, is of course figura- tive, and, as we have seen, panoramic, to be taken chiefly in way of hint. But the figure must be the figure of something. What, then, is the truth which underlies the figure, and, impregnating it, glorifies it ? What does this inbreathing by the Creator signify, if not the communi- cating, in some way augustly inscrutable, of the Creator Himself — even the Eternal Breath or Spirit into Man: Godhead into Manhead : the Divine Afilation becoming, so to speak, a human sufilation : God's expiration, Man's inspiration ? And now, thirdly : " Man became (or, as the verb might have been rendered, perhaps as correctly, was) a living soul." Accordingly, the passage affirms three in- ' IIow intorestiiiR, in liffht of this, the study of such words us humus, homo, human, humanity, posthumous, autochthon, etc. 1 GENESIS OF MAN. 189 dependent, yet coordinate facts. At the one extreme we have the Body, formed of dust of the ground ; at the other extreme we have the Spirit, inbreathed by the Holy One : connecting the two, acting as the nidus for them to dwell in, holding them, so to sjDcak, in solution, we have the Soul, or vital and sentient principle common to Man and animal. I do not, then, regard the " living soul " as a con- sequent or product of the union of body and spirit : Man would have been a " living soul " had he received from God no spirit, or inbreathing, just as the animals around him, and created on the same day with him, were " living souls." No, Man's peculiarity, as distinguished from ani- mal, comes out in the second statement of our passage : God " breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." I lay no very special stress on the phrase rendered " breath of life " considered by itself, although I believe that an ex- amination of all the passages in which it occurs will show that it is invariably applied to God or Man, never to ani- mal. But I do lay special stress on the verb rendered " breathed ; " a mysterious act of Deity, which, whatever it may mean, is never asserted in connection with brutes. Man alone has the inspiration of Deity. This is the august peculiarity which separates him discretively and everlast- ingly from the animal creation. Ay, this Divine inbreath- ing it is which converts Man's body into the temple of the Holy Ghost (i Cor. vi. 19) — the Divine Breath, which makes Man himself God's image, God's likeness, God's son. Yes, Chrysostom was right when he exclaimed : " The true Shechinah is Man." ' Such, then, is the Origin of Man as given us in the > For more extended observations on Man's threefold nature, the author may be per- mitted to refer to his articles on the " Scriptural Antbropologj'" in the Baptist Quarterlt/, vol. i.. pp. 170-190, 325-340, 42S-444. It is but fair, however, to state that, while he still holds the outlines of the theory there maintained, he would now modify some of the details. 190 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Second Arcliive. Infinite Deity was liis Maker. On liis body side he sprang from dust : on liis soul side he sprang Tip with the animals : on his spirit side he sprang from God. Thus, in his very beginning, in the original make- up of him, Man was a Religious Being. Coming into ex- istence as God's Inbreathing, Man was, in the very fact of being Divinely inbreathed, God's Son and Image. "Well then might Man's first home be an Eden — type of Heaven, and his First Day God's Seventh Day — even the Creator's Sabbath. V — Tl P •■ 1 And now ponder the Mighty Char- Oommissiun. *^^ • " -^^^ ^^^ blessed them, and God said to them : ' Be fruitful, and multi- ply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth on the earth.' " It was Man's original Commission, it/o7cr Nature"* '''' Humanity's primal Charter. And His- tory is the story of the execution of the Commission, Civilization the unfolding of the privileges of the Charter. "Wherever civilized man has gone, there he has been gaining dominion over the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth on the earth, ay, subduing earth itself. See, e. g., how he makes the fish feed him, and the sheep clothe him, and the horse draw him, and the ox plough for him, and the fowl of the air furnish him with quills to write his philos- ophies and his epics. All this was prophesied when Jeho- vah God brought every beast of the field and every bird of the air to the Man in Eden, to see what he would call them ; and the Man gave names to them all (Gen. ii. 19, 20). Again : see Man's supremacy over the face of Nature ; see, e. g., how he dikes out the ocean, as in Holland ; and GENESIS OF MAN. 191 opens up harbors, as at Port Said ; and digs canals, as at Suez ; and explodes submarine reefs, as in East Kiver ; and builds roads, as over St. Gotliard ; and spans rivers, as the St. Lawrence ; and stretches railways, as from Atlantic to Pacific ; see how he reclaims mountain-slopes and heaths and jungles and deserts and pestilential swamps, bnnging about interchanges of vegetable and animal life, and even mitigating climates, so that here, at least, Man may be said to be the creator of circumstances rather than their creature. Again : see Man's suj)remacy over the forces and resources of Nature; see how he subsidizes its mineral substances, turning its sands into lenses, its clay into endless blocks of brick, its granite into stalwart abutments, its iron into countless shapes for countless purposes, its gems into dia- dems ; see how he subsidizes its vegetable products, making its grains feed him, its cottons clothe him, its forests house him, its coals warm him. See how he subsidizes the mechanical powers of Nature, making its levers lift his loads, its wheels and axles weigh his anchors, its pulleys raise his weights, its inclined planes move his blocks, its wedges split his ledges, its screws propel his ships. See how he subsidizes the Natural Forces, making the air waft his crafts, the water run his mills, the heat move his en- gines, the electricity bear his messages, turning the very gravitation into a force of buoyancy. Yerily, Thou makest Man to have dominion over the works of Thine hands ; Thou dost put all things under his feet ; sheep and oxen, all of them ; yea, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas (Tsalm viii. 6-9). ^Vliat a magnificent illustration of all this was our o^vn glorious International Exposition of 1876 ! Ay, these and such as these are the majestic foot-prints of Man's triumphal progress through time. And these tri- 192 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. umplis are but prophecies of possibilities still more mag- nificent. Listen to the vaticination of the dreamer before Locksley Hall : " For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales; Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew. From the nation's airy navies grappling in the central blue; Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm. With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunder-storm ; Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled. In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the world." — ("Locksley IIaix.") But whether the Laureate's dream of aerial navigation be trae or not, this thing is certain : Every day discloses some new force, or, at least, some new applicability of force. We know not what majestic possibilities are still wrapped up in oxygen and nitrogen, in air and water, in heat and light, in electricity and magnetism. It may be that as Man has already subsidized the zephyr, so he will 3'^et subsidize the hurricane ; as he has already utilized the descending brook, so he will yet utilize the rising tide ; as he has already made the lightning liis servitor, so he will yet manipulate the very ether itself. Such is Humanity's Magna Charta. All is in right of Eden's majestic Com- mission : " Fill the earth and subdue it." 2— Yet Man but "^^^ "^ wliose name shall Man ad- Viccroy. minister the mighty Domain ? In his own name, or in Another's ? In An- other's, most surely, even in the name of Him in "Whose Image he is made. The Son of God alone is King, and Man is but His Viceroy ; viceroy because His Inspiration GENESIS OF MAN. 193 and Image. Man holds tlie estate of eartli in fief ; his only right the right of usufruct. Talents he has ; but they are intrusted talents (Matt. xxv. i4-30). A Vineyard he tills ; but it is a leased Vineyard (Luke xx. 9-16). O my country- men, beware of sacrificing to your own nets and burning incense to your own seines (llab. i. 16). Self-worship here is self-murder. For where are the master nations of an- tiquity, the Babel-builders of Babylonia, the pyramid- rearers of Egypt, the mariners of Phoenicia, the philos- ophers of Greece, the statesmen of Rome ? How their story illustrates and confirms the Lord's own solemn teach- ing : A Vineyard appropriated is a Vineyard forfeited ! (Matt. xxi. 33-43). No, the Only secret of our permanence as a nation is the sense of Trusteeship, administering Nature, not as monarch, but as the Image of the Son of God, and so His Viceroy. Such is the Story of the Genesis of Man. VI.— Concluding Looking back on our course of Observations. thouglit, I ask you : 1. — Jesus Christ pi^st of all, to note again Whose is the Archetypal Man. ^^^^ j^^^^^ j^ ^^^.^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ j . it is the Image of Him Whose goings had been from of old, from the days of eternity (Micah v. i), but Who became flesh in Bethlehem of Judea. Yes, Jesus Christ is the Original, Archet^'pal Man. From Him humanity was modeled : Jesus the Form, mankind the figure. The Ancient of Days was the Man of men, the univereal Man, blending in Himself all races, sexes, ages, temperaments. Holy Scripture does not call Him "A Son of Man;" neither does it call Him " The Son of Men ; " but it calls Him " The Son of Man," The Son of Mankind, The Son of Human Nature. As such, Jesus Christ was Humanity in epitome and embryonic outline, the Primal, Archetypal 9 194 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Man, And now we may understand, at least in some slight measure, snch wonderful expressions as tlie follow- ing : " The First-born among many brothers " (Rom. viii. 29) ; " The First-begotten before all creation " (Col. i. 15) ; " The Beginning of the creation of God " (Rev. jii. 14). „ ,, , , Secondly : Man's Unutterable Worth. 2. — Alans Incom- , "^ _ , parable Dignity. His starting-point is the Eternal, In- finite One. " Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And Cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, Who is our home : Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! " — (Wordsworth.) Ay, here is the discretive index which separates Man essentially and everlastingly from animals ; it is his capaci- ty for Inspiration and Imageship. Here is the tnie and only safeguard against materialism, the one stout cable that chains us in glorious thrall to the eternal, shining Throne. May the same Son of God, Who breathed into the First Man the Breath of Life, thus making him in Ilis own Image, after His own likeness, breathe upon us all to-day, saying : " Eeccive ye the Holy Ghost," the Divine Breath ! (John xx. 22). So shall we be restored in the Image of Him Who created us. A genuine coin, stamped in effi- gy of Kaiser or President, is worth what it represents. Man, stamped in the effigy of the King of kings and Lord of lords, is worth, let me dare say it, what he represents, even Deity. Little lower than the angels, little lower than GENESIS OF MAN. 195 Eloliim, did Eloliim make him (Psalm viii. 5). All tliis ex- plains why this earth, cosmicallj so tiny, morally is so vast. Jesus Christ came not to save the worthless. He came to save Divine Imageshij) : that is to say, all Godlike potentialities. He came to save Divine Imageship itself. I never read the closing words of St. Luke's Genealogy of our Lord without a thrill of awe in remembrance of the sublimity of my parentage. Listen : " Who was the son of Enoch, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God " (Luke iii. 38). Contrast that Pa- ternity with the ancestry allowed us by the evolutionists : ' " That was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr." — ("Hamlet," i. 2.) „ T , . ,, Thirdly : we see wherein the Unity 3. — Imageship the p ■, -n ^ • m Die of Race Unity. ^ the Kace truly consists. The ques- tion whether the Origin of Man was single or plural is, as you well know, one of the questions now engaging the attention of Ethnologists. For myself, I believe that the race, as Holy Scripture seems to teach, has descended from a single Pair. But suppose that it should hereafter be proved that there were a hundred original Adams and Eves, the discovery would not affect the time Unity of the Pace. The unity is not so much genealogical as moral ; not in blood, but in Lnageship ; not in the first Adam, but in the Second. As there is but one Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things, and we through Him (i Cor. viii. 6) ; so there is but one Die, one Mintage, one Humanity ; every man the kinsman of ' The reader may be surprised that I have not discussed the Origin of Man in tho light of the Evolution Hypothesis. My reasons for not doing so are two : Kii-st, I have already discussed that Hypothesis in Lectures vii. and ix. ; secondly, I did not wish to alloy the majesty of the Creation Archive with the dross of speculation. For a masterly monograph on Anthropologj-, see President M. B. Anderson's article on Man, in Johnson's " Cyclopajdia." 196 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. every other ; Mankind brotliered in tlie one monld of tlic Creative Word. Yes, profound is that word, " Mankind." It means two things : first, men are kind-ed, kinned, in the creative, common Die of the Sixth Day ; and secondly, all life, whether vegetal, animal, or human, yields after its kind ; and, therefore, Man, created in the Image of God, yields men after his kind ; i. e., Man-kind. May it ever be ours to recognize lovingly every human being, whether Caucasian or Mongolian, as a member of Mankind, and so our Kinsman ! When all men do this, Mankind will not only be the same as Humanity ; Mankind will also have Humanity. Fourthly : we see the secret of Man's Bai~of"TTutph!''' ^^^"^S.T™"P^^= i^ ^« Iniageship. " We will make Man in Our Imasre, after Om* Likeness : and they shall rule over the fish of the seas, and over the bird of the heavens, and over the cattle of the lands, and over all the earth." Jesus Christ is the Image of God ; as such, He is the Lord of all. Man- kind is Christ's Image lost. The Church is Christ's Image restored : as such, she, like her Image, is Lord of all. All things are hers ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come : all arc hers ; and she is Christ's ; and Christ is God's (1 Cor. iii. 21-23). Evcn HOW, this uuivcrse of God, these atoms and skies and seas and lands and plants and stars and beasts and men, are pouring forth their treasures at the feet of the Bride and Queen-Consort of the King of kings. The Church of the living God is the real power administering behind Earth's thrones and Nature's royal- ties. The vision of the Exile of Patmos is being fulfilled : The earth is helping the Woman (Rev. xii. ir,), Christ's Lady Elect. For her the sun rises and the rains fall ; the winds waft and the waves bear ; the soils fruit and the mines GENESIS OF MAN. I97 yield ; chemical agencies loose and gravitation binds ; civ- ilization, science, commerce, manufactures, agriculture, arts, wealth, brawn, brain — all I^ature, from Alcyone to atom, are harnessed as swift-footed steeds to her chariot, bearing her on from conquering to conquer, until Righte- ousness finds her Paradise in the new earth domed by the new heavens (2 Peter iii. 13). Go forth, then, my country- men, and all ye sons of Adam, go forth in right of Eden's Image Charter, and subdue the earth. Yea, go on with your gigantic enterprises, capturing and marshaling the forces of ligature, changing her very face, leveling her mountains, raising her valleys, sj)anning her continents with your railways, mingling her oceans through your canals : go on ; for in so doing you are really obeying a power mightier than your own, and are preparing in the wilderness the way of the Lord, and casting up in the des- ert a highway for our returning God (Is. xl. 5). Ay, that will be the true Triumphal Entry when, amid the kneel- ing ranks of the nations waving their palm-branches, and shouting hosannas to the Son of David (Matt. xxi. i-io), the Jerusalem of a restored earth shall lift up her gates, even her everlasting doors, and let the King of Glory in (Psalm xxiv. 7-10). Oh, friend, would you be a sharer in that com- ing entry and Triumph ? Then be joined, even this mo- ment, by a personal, living union with Jesus Christ, the Image of God, and therefore the Heir of all the ages and all the worlds (Hob. i. 3). And then, when He does re- turn, as return most surely He will, to make His true Tri- umphal Entry, before thee also shall the animal creation kneel, the stars dip, the forests stoop, the mountains bow, the skies bend, the molecules crouch, the atoms file, all ])owers of Nature salaam. And they will bow before thee because on thy brow sparkles the twofold crown, even the 198 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. diadem and the mitre, of one who, as created in the Image and recreated in the Likeness of God's Incarnate Son, is anointed King and Priest to the Father Eternal (Rev. i. 6). Lastly : would you know how to be 5. -The Coming restored in the Image of God? Then Satisfaction. ^ gaze on the character of Him Who is the Brightness from His Father's glory, and the express Image of His Person. Enter into the fellowship of that Character. Be everlastingly closeted with Him in the kin- ships and intimacies of a perfect friendship. Lovingly study every feature of that beaming Image. Beholding thus, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, even that light of the knowledge of the glory of the liord which is given back in the face of Jesus Christ,. Who is the Image of God (2 Cor. iv. 6) — gazing thus on the mirror of Christ's Face, and discerning in it the glory of Jehovah, thou slialt be changed into the same Image, from glory to glory, even as by the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. iii. 18). Thus gazing, and thus changed, it matters little what our earthly fate be, whether renown or obscurity, wealth or poverty, long life or early death. Enough that on the Resurrection Morn we shall perceive that as we had borne the image of the earthly, even of the first man Adam, so henceforth we shall bear the Image of the Heavenly, even of the Second Man, the Lord from heaven (i Cor. xv. 47-49). God forbid that on that Bosurrection Morn any one of us shall bear an Image which He shall despise (P^ialm ixxiii. 20). God grant that on that Besurrection Mom all of us shall bear the Imaore of His Eternal Son. Ay, satisfied shall we be when we awake, O Image of God, with Tliy Likeness (Psalm xvii. m). Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world witliout end. Amen. LECTUKE XL GENESIS OF EDEN. " And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden ; and there he put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food ; the tree of life also in the midst of the Garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden ; and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison : that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold ; and the gold of tliat land is good ; there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon : the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel : that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man and put him in tlie garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying : ' Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowl- edge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' And the Lord God said : ' It is not good that the Man should be alone : I will make him an help meet for him.'' And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air ; and brought tliem unto Adam to see what he would call them ; and whatsoever Adam called every livmg creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field ; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him." — Genesis ii. 8-20. 200 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. „, ^ " Eden ! " What a tlirillinff name ! I. — The Topo- TT J T • 1 •.. 1 graphical Problem. ^^^^ delicioiisly it awakens memories of all that is most exquisite in scenery, most sacred in purity, most bKssful in joy ! And yet where was Eden ? ]^o question in geography, secular or sacred, has been debated oftener, or with results more various. Men have sought for Eden in Armenia, in Babylonia, along the Caspian Sea, in Bactria, in Syria, in Arabia, in India — in short, all along between the Ganges in Asia and the Nile in Africa. And to-day the battle is as undecided as ever. True, the Creation Archive gives us two landmarks which we can identify : the river Hiddekel, or Tigris, and the river Euphrates. But the trouble is to identify the other two rivers : the river Pison, which, we are told, traversed the whole land of Ilavilah, wherein were bdel- lium, and gold, and onyx — and the river Gihon, wdiich traversed the whole land of Ethiopia, or Cush. All that we can determine at present is this : Eden lay to the east of the venerable witness of Creation's Panorama, some- where in the neighborhood of the Tigris and the Euphrates. And history strikingly confirms the chronicle of the hoary witness. Those confessedly competent to discuss such ques- tions agree that the cradle of mankind is to be looked for somewhere in the country of the Euphrates. Civilization has generally, with comparatively unimjiortant exceptions, moved from east to west. It was sober prose as w^ell as poetic measure, when the Erin-born Bishop Berkeley, in his verses on the " Prospect of Planting Arts and Learn- ing in America," sang : " Westward the course of empire takes its way." The oft-quoted line is truer to-day than ever. Not only is Europe coming westward toward us, we ourselves arc GENESIS OF EDEN. 201 going westward toward Asia. "VVlio knows but tliat we, the latest born of the nations, with the Continental rail- ways and Pacilic steamships in our grasp, are God's chosen instniments in carrying the Glad Tidings ever and ever westward, till, having crossed China, we reach again the Cradle of Humanity, and reinaugurate the lost Paradise on the very spot where our inspired Seer caught glimpse of the Tree of Life ? The truth, however, is, the exact site of Eden will probably never be discovered — at least, till the day when the voice of Him Who was Avont to walk in the Garden in the evening breeze (Gen. iii. 8) is again heard on earth. Not only was the ground cursed for man's sake the day he fell ; since then has occurred the Deluge ; and the man does not live who can say how much the convul- sions attending that awful catastrophe may have altered the whole surface and river system of the region in which Eden was situated. Probably, then, it is as hopeless to search for the exact site of Eden as it would be were the Cherubim still wavins; their flamino; sword before the Tree of Life (Gen. iii. 24). Moreover: alt] lough firmly believing of Emerging Eden. ^^'""^ *^^^^^ ^^""^ ^^^^ "^ ^^^^ f'^^*-^^ ^g^S an actual Eden, wherein the Creator in- stalled the Original Man, yet I also as firmly believe that the Eden of our passage, like the other scenes of the Crea- tive Week, was not so much a literal fact as a Divinely vouchsafed vision. Eecalling, now, that this account of Eden belongs to the second of the two Creation Archives, which, as we have seen, Moses has incorporated into his annals and made part of his OAm recital, let us again ascend the Mount of Panoramic Vision, and, in company with the inspired beholder of the second panorama, gaze on the un- rolling scene of the Emerging Eden. It is still early in 202 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the Creative Week, corresponding to the Third Day of the first Archive. So far as we can see, no plant of the field is yet in the earth, no herb of the field has yet sprung up. And no wonder. Jehovah God has not yet caused it to rain on the earth. But the hours fly apace. And now we see going up from the earth a mist, and it waters all the face of the ground, preparing it for vegetation. Alas ! there is no Man as yet to till the ground and develop its resources. The hours still fly apace. And now a Form like to that of the Son of God stoops down, and, taking in His hand some of the dust of the soil, and moulding it into a figure like to His own Divine Self, He breathes into the new nostrils His own life-breath ; and, lo ! the dust-figure becomes, in very virtue of having been Divinely inbreathed, the Creator's Inspiration, and so His Image and Son (Gen. ii. 5-7). A Being of origin so Divine, we cannot but think, will surely have a home worthy of him. Nor are we mis- taken. The same God who has formed the Man, plants on the east of our Mount of Yision, in the fair territory of Eden or Delight, a Garden, or pleasure-park, of inconceiv- able loveliness. There He causes to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. There, in the midst of the Garden, He plants two wondrous trees : the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There He causes a majestic River to flow, which, on issuing out of the Garden, parts into four great streams, Pison, and Gihon, and Tigris, and Euphrates. There He causes gold and onyx to sparkle, and awaken the sense of preciousness. There, in Eden's glorious Garden, He puts the Man He has inbreathed, and thereby made His Image, to till the Garden, and to keep it. There He announces His mysterious Edicts of Liberty and Prohibition : " Of every tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat ; but of GENESIS OF EDEN. 203 the Ti-ee of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt sure- ly die." There lie summons the animals before the In- spiration and Image of God, and there they receive from him their names. And there, ere this Sixth, concluding Day closes, the Creator will give to the Man a Second SeK, without whom even Eden itself would be a failure (Gen. ii. 21-22). Such is the panorama of the Emergent Paradise. And now let us attend to some of III. — Lessons of ,i , » ,, ,, ,^. . the lessons oi the story, the Vision. / And, first : the Birth of Industry ; 1.— The Birth of Jehovah God took the Man He had " ^''^^^' formed, and put him in the Garden of Eden, to till it, and to keep it. For, beautiful and perfect as Eden Nomai Condition!"' ^^s, spotless and exalted as Adam him- self was, he must work. And this be- cause he was like his Heavenly Father and his Heavenly Father's Christ : " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work " (John V. 17). And, first : man must work for the soil's sake. Generous as Mother Nature is, she is gen- erous as a rule only to those who industriously and skill- fully avail themselves of her resources. Her capacities are latent as well as vast, and need the quickening, unfold- ing, marshaling power of a tireless and skillful labor. A very laboratory she is, whence the husbandman — that true chemist for society — obtains by elaboration those indispen- sable products of the soil which are more truly treasures than the diamonds of Golconda. The first of all arts was agriculture, and the first of all laborers a sinless man. Again : Man is to work not only for the soil's sake ; he is to work also for his own sake. He, too, has latent capaci- 204 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. ties, and as vast as latent, which can be brought into light and usefulness only as they are subjected to the quicken- ing, unfolding power of a wisely-directed exercise. I^To man knows what reservoirs of force are within him till he sets himself to work in the way his Maker appoints for him. He who does not use his faculties is as though he had none. And so it comes to pass that indolence and barbarism go hand in hand. It is not possible that an idle nation should be at the same time a civilized. Herein is the secret of the difference of prospect for the Negro or the Chinaman, and the North American Indian ; the former are capable of civilization, because, as a rule, they are will- ing to work ; the latter incapable, because, as a rule, unwill- ing. The man, the family, the community, the nation, that will not work, cannot long hold their own against the stride of Industry. It is a law of Nature and of the God of Nature. God has said to Man : " Subdue the earth " (Gen. i. 28). And the man or the nation that refuses to obey must perish. We owe the Indians, with tingling shame be it confessed, vast debts of reparation for untold injustice and cruelties. All honor to Government for having un- dertaken the policy of the Peace Commission. Neverthe- less, until the Indians as a body are willing to work, their case as a body is hopeless. No legislation, no Peace Com- missions, no largesses, can save them. They must go to the wall, not because they are Indians, but because they are sluggards. The busy beehive that is large enough for its myriad workers is too small for a single drone. AVe see here also the key to that great problem, the cure of Pau- perism : it is Work. Regard with distrust every able- bodied man who is unwilling to work — i. e., when he has an opportunity. It is a mistaken kindness, founded nei- ther in reason nor in morality, which feeds the healthy GENESIS OF EDEN. 205 mendicant wlio would rather beg than dig. I know that it seems hard to turn away from the tattered wretch who, like your dog, piteously supplicates for the cnimbs that fall from your table. But it is precisely because this tat- tered wretch is not a dog, but a man, and can work, that makes it sinful to pamper him in his wicked laziness. Em- ployment for all is a more generous bounty to the suffering poor than a thousand soup-breakfasts or a thousand asylums. Ail honor to those business men and firms and corporations who, notwithstanding the present paralysis of trade, are still carrying on their entei'prises, in spite of receiving no profits, and even incumng losses, sustained by the noble consciousness that in so doing they are making employment in advance of returns, and therefore helping to buttress crumbling society. AVhen will legislators, prompted though they may have been by the purest philanthropy and guided by the wisest earthly statesmanship, cease substituting hu- man enactments in the shape of Poor Laws for the Divine arrangement that maintenance is the natural product of a properly encouraged and rewarded industry ? " We have commanded you," says an Apostle, " that if any one will not work, neither shall he eat " (2 Thess. iii. 10) ; and a Great- er than an Apostle has said : " The laborer is worthy of his hire " (Luke X. 7). Let these two principles be carried out, and the problem of Political Economy is solved. Once more : Man is to work not only for the soil's sake and his own sake ; he is also to work for God's sake. Not only is he to " dress " or till the Garden, and so develop its resources ; he is also to " keep " the Garden, and so hold it in trust for its real Owner. Thus Labor and Stewardsliip, Vigilance and Responsibility, have their birth in Eden. AVork — i. e., all true Work — means Kesponsibility. And it is the sense of Accountability which gives to Work its worth and its 206 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. glory. Herein lies the true Dignity of Labor. This phrase, so frequent on the lijDS of demagogues and on the pages of pamphleteers, they do not grasp in the majesty of its im- port. They understand it as simply meaning that labor is honorable because it contributes to the material and social prosperity of a people ; whereas the tnie Dignity of Labor consists, not in the mere accumulation of wealth, nor yet in the amelioration of earthly ills, but in the homageful and joyous returning of all the products of labor, physical and intellectual, to Him Whose is the earth and the fullness thereof (Psalm xxiv. 1). And since this is the duty of all, I see no reason for the distinctions which so many make between different kinds of labor, as though one kind were more honorable than another. I beheve that the devout fisher- men off the coast of Labrador, whose sanctuary is his little smack, whose lamps are the stars of night, whose music is the choir of wind and wave, pui-sues a calling as honor- able in the sight of Him Who seeth in secret as does the preacher whose holy eloquence stirs to their lowest depths the hearts of worshiping multitudes. No ; it is not the kind of employment itself, but the sense of responsibility accompanying it, which gives to Labor its celestial dignity. As good George Herbert sings : " A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine : Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws Makes that and the action fine." (6.)— Pursue your Since, thcn. Labor is God's Ordi- ?sm^ ^'^^ ^''*''"' ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^' pursue your calling, whatever it be, with diligence and cheer- fulness. If God have called you, as He called Adam, to till the ground, let your weedless field give evidence that Industry has holdcn the plough and the hoe in her hands. GENESIS OF EDEK 207 If He have called you to ply the instruments of the artisan, let your shop be musical the livelong day with the clicking of your tools. If He have called you to the pursuit of trade, let your well-arranged commodities and punctual ful- fillments testify that you are not slothful in business (Rom. xii. 11). If He have called you to the quest of knowl- edge, let your well-thumbed books attest that Diligence has reigned in your study. If He have called you to the wife- ly duties of the matron, look well to the ways of thy house- hold, and eat not the bread of idleness (Prov. xxxi. 27). Take care lest thy Garden degenerate into the sluggard's field, grown up with nettles, covered with brambles, breached with broken walls. Poverty prowling around thy dwelling, thy Wants leaping upon thee as armed men (Prov. xxiv. 30-34). In brief : whatever be the occupation to which the Provi- dence of God has called thee, pursue it with enthusiasm, doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col. iii. 17). This, then, is the lesson under the present head of dis- course : Industry is man's normal condition. His Maker imposed on liim the duty of labor while yet he was sinless, fresh from the Divine inbreathing. Thus does the first sentence in the History of Mankind record the Divine In- auguration of the Reign of Human Labor. Secondly : The Birth of Lan- 2.-The Birth of ^ . ,, rj^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^jj Language. o o o cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field." Were I asked what I thought was (a.) -Wonderful- ^^^ ^^^^^ wonderful faculty of man, I ness of Language. , ,, mi i> li. £ t should answer : The faculty ot Lan- guage. For, consider for a moment what a word is. A M'ord consists of two elements, which not only have noth- 308 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. ing in common, but are diametrically opposed. Suppose it is a spoken or audible word ; as such, it is but a sound — an aeriaL vibration striking tympanum and brain. Suppose it is a written or visible word ; as such, it is but a shape on a piece of paper. Yet in either case it is also a casketed, infigured idea. A word is an embodied thought or feeling. The same air that stirs a leaf incarnates and conveys to the percipient mind an immaterial idea. Language marries Thought and Matter, or rather Thought and Thought in the sphere of Matter. A word may incarnate the vastest conceptions, as, e. g., an astronomical fact ; or the subtilest conceptions, as, e. g., a biological hypothesis. Again: Words conserve the immaterial past, turning it into an im- mortal heirloom ; a word carries us back to Washington, to Shakespeare, to Mohammed, to Cicero, to Plato, to Abra- ham, to Adam. Words are the Manes of past centuries. You think that the phonograph is a wonderful thing, and BO it is ; but it does not compare in wonderf ulness with the most careless, insignificant word which it echoes and pre- serves. Even the childish prattle of the nursery is more wonderful than the most surprising transformation in chem- istry ; it turns vibrations of material, unconscious air into immaterial, intelligible, influencing ideas. Yes, words are the most wonderful of things. No wonder, then, that the Origin of (b.) — The First Lj^noruaore is such a f ascinatine; problem. Words Nouns o o ^ o i AVas it an invention? So some have taught. Was it the issue of a convention ? So some have taught. Was it an imitation of the sounds of Nature ? So some have taught. Was it a direct gift from heaven ? So some have taught. Most erudite men have pondered the problem ; and yet all speculation here is quite afloat. And so we fall back on the childlike, pictorial language of GENESIS OF EDEN. 209 Time's most hoary Archive : " Jehovah God formed out of the soil every beast of the field and every fowl of the heavens : and He brought them to the Man to see what he would call them : and whatever the Man should call every living being, that should be the name thereof; and the Man gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the heav- ens, and to every beast of the field." It was Man's first recorded act. Observe : it was an act of perception, dis- crimination, description. The animals were arrayed before him ; and animals suggest all the phenomena of life. And the vision of moving life stirred up within him the latent capacity of speech. In brief, it was the origin of Human- ity's vocabulary. As such, it is a profoundly philosophical account. For nouns, i. e., names, are the rudiments of language, the very A B C's of speech. Such is the Theory of the Genesis of Language according to Moses. Can your Max Miillers and Wedgwoods and Whitneys give a more philosophical theory ? Before dismissing this point, I must (e.)-Our Words ^^^ ^ ^^^ ^^^.^g touching the awful our Judges. grandeur of the Gift of Language. Its tremendous power is simply inconceivable. Not only is it the instrument of thought, reacting on the mind of him who speaks, giving to his thoughts solidity, order, clear- ness, energy; it is also the grand instrument of human edification, or society building. The best comment on this point is the fourteenth chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. Language it is which makes human society possible. Language is the bridge between man and man — the circulating medium of society, the wondrous power which converts human units into the Human Unity —men into Man. And so Language is the grand edificator of the race. Listen to some proverbs : " A well of life is 210 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the moutli of tlie rigliteous" (Prov. x. ii); " A wliolesome tongue is a tree of life " (Prov. xv. 4) ; " Words of kindness are as the honeycomb — sweetness to the soul, and a heahng to the bones " (Prov. xvi. 24) ; " Apples of gold in framework of silver is a word spoken in its season " (Prov. xxv. ii). But, alas ! death as well as hf e is in the power of the tongue. Listen, then, to another proverb : "As a madman that hurleth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is a man that de- ceiveth his neighbor, and saith : ' Am I not in sport ? ' " (Prov. xxvi. 18, 19). But the most burning description of the terrific power of the tongue is given us by the Apostle James : " Behold, how great a forest a little fire kindleth ! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is that among our members which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of Nature — the wheel of Creation — and is itself set on fire by hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of things in the sea, is tamable, and hath been tamed by man- kind : but the tongue no man can tame ; it is a restless mischief, full of deadly poison " (James iii. 2-10). Oil, what untold misery and anguish the tongue has brought into the world ; e. g., the tongue of the tale-bearer, taking up a re- proach against his neighbor, and giving it wings ; the tongue of the slanderer, blasting a fair name, and crushing glorious powers ; the tongue of the scandal-monger, filling a continent and world with noisomeness and pestilential stench ; the tongue of the insinuator, undermining success, and murdering character ; the tongue of the gossiper, car- rying into a household tears and anguish and death. Yer- ily, the tongue is an untamable mischief, full of deadly poison, a world of iniquity, itself set on fire by Gehenna. And not only is the power of words tremendous, their power is also immortal. Words are not the evanescent GENESIS OF EDEN. 211 sounds "we sometimes fancy them to be. For what is a word ? A spoken word is a series of sounds, so arranged as to embody an idea. And what is a sound ? A sound, to answer roughly, is a disturbance of the air, so that certain vibrations, or waves, reach the mind through the ear and brain. Now it is one of the solemn teachings of modern science that no atom of matter can undergo any change whatever without affecting each adjacent atom; nor can these adjacent atoms be affected without affecting, in turn, every atom adjacent to each of them ; and so on till the original impulse, or change, started by the first atom, is propagated through immensity, so that the whole material Creation is in a different state from what it would have been had not the disturbance of that first atom taken place. Nor is this all : inasmuch as these atoms, thus disturbed throughout the material universe, keep acting and reacting on each other perpetually, it is evident that the effects of the slightest atomic change are not only propagated throughout all Creation, but are propagated everlastingly. Thus the slightest word vibrating in the air, though it be but a whispered interjection, sets in operation a series of changes which undulate to the very outskirts of Creation, rising and falling like an everlasting tide. Milton utters but scientific truth when he speaks of "Airy tongues, that syllable men's names On sands and shores and desert wildernesses." — (" CoMtJS.") Thus the whole material universe, from tiniest atom at earth's centre to farthest orb in limitless space, is a mighty Whispering Gallery, in which the Infinite One is everlast- ingly hearing every word, every whisper, breathed by every human being, from the day Adam pronounced his first word to the day when time shall be no more. If, then, 212 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the scarcely audible rustle of an unconscious aspen-leaf sets in inexorable motion atom after atom — from leaf to tree, from tree to earth, from earth to star, till the whole mate- rial Creation responds in agitation — think you that any word, however "idle," spoken by conscious, responsible Man, will ever die away ? Oh, no ! Every word you and I have spoken has already taken the witness-stand before the Judgment Throne, to testify for us or against us. Words are immortal. " I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I know not where ; For, so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight. " I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I know not where ; For who has sight so keen and strong, That it can follow the flight of song? " Long, long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow still unbroke ; And the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend." — (Longfellow.) Such is the awful grandeur of the Gift of Speech. Words make earth a heaven or a helL I wonder not that when the wondrous Nazarene loosed the tongue-strings of the Mute of Decapolis He sighed (Mark vii. 32-35). I wonder not that the Nazarene Himself said : " I say unto you that, for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment : for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be con- denmed " (Matt. xii. 36, 37). For words are in an eminent sense revealers of character. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh : the good man, out of the good GENESIS OF EDEN. 213 treasure of liis heart, bringetli forth good things : the bad man, out of the bad treasure, bringeth forth bad things (Matt. xii. 34, 35). Speech is the exhaLation of the heart. Thus words are the representatives of character, translating char- acter into hinguage, which he who runs may read. In fact, this very word "character" etymologically means what is marked, engraved, lettered. Thus Orlando to Pwosalind in the Forest of Arden : *' These trees shall be my books, And in their barks my thoughts I'll character; That every eye, which in this forest looks, Shall see thy virtue witnessed everywhere." —("As You Like It," iii. 2.) A man's character is the inscription which his habits have engraved on him. And his words translate that in- scription. His words characterize him, i. e., they give his characteristics ; and this is but another way of saying they reveal his character. And so it is that our speech be- trayeth us. And therefore our words will be our judges on the great day: By thy words thou wilt be justified, and by thy words thou wilt be condemned. Thank God, Jesus Christ is Himself the true, eternal language. He Himself is the AYord of C^od. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John i. i). And just because He was and is the Word of God— God in utterance, in articulation, in exhibition — He was and is the Truth : and therefore by His words the world and the uni- verse is, year by year, century by century, seon by seon, justifying Him, the Word of God, more and more. And so it comes to pass that a Christly life is also man's true language. O friend, let thy words be like Christ's, and thou too shalt be justified. What though thou art un- versed in the school of earth's oratory ? Enough that thou 214 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. speakest the language of Christ's character ; for thus thou speakest correctly, according to the eternal Grammar : ay, even eloquently, according to the eternal Khetoric. Heaven grant that when you and I shall stand in the Judgment Hall of a Greater than Pilate, some friend of the Judge shall say to each of us : " Thou too art a Galilean ; for thy speech bewrayeth thee " (Matt. xxvi. 73). 3.-The Birth of Thirdly : The Birth of Immortality : Immortality. " Jeliovah God planted in the midst of the Garden the Tree of Life." ( 1 _ s'n- "fi "^^ *^^ thoughtful observer, perhaps, of Trees. ° there is no more profound object in Nature than a Tree. Its graceful figure, its wavy outlines, its emerald hue, its variety of branches and twigs and leaves — illustrating diversity in unity — its tinted and fragrant blossoms, its luscious fruit, its exhibi- tion of many of the wonderful phenomena of human life, such as birth, growth, respiration, absorption, circulation, sleep, sexuality, decay, death, reproduction : these are some of the particulars which make a Tree the living parable of man and of society, and, as such, perhaps the most inter- esting object in the natural world. JS^o wonder, then, that among all nations and in all ages trees have had a peculiar fascination, and even sacredness for the devoutly inclined. "Witness the Groves of the Hebrews, the Symbol-tree of the Ass}Tian Sculptures, the Dryads of Greece, the Druids of Britain, the Igdrasil of the Noi-semen.' We need not > " I like, too, that, representation they have of the Tree Ipdrasil. All Life is figrured by them as o Tree. Iqrdrasil. the Ash-tree of Existence, has its roots deep down in the Kingdom of llela or Death ; its trunk reaches up heaven-hijrh, spreads its bouphs over the whole universe : it is the Tree of Existence. At the foot of it, in the Death-KinKdom, eit Three Kornaa, Fates— the Past, Present, Future— watering its roots from tlie Sacred Well. Itsboufihs, with their buddings and disleafings— events, thinps suffered, tlilnps done, catastrophes— stretch through all lands and times. Is not every leaf of it a biography, every fibre there an act or word f Its boughs are Histories of Nations. The rustle of it is GENESIS OF EDEN. 215 be surprised, then, that on going back to Nature's Eden we learn that Paradise, rich in every element of beauty, was especially rich in trees. Jehovah God caused to spring up in the Garden of Eden every tree that is j)leasant to the sight and good for food. But amid all this variety of trees two stood forth in memorable conspicuousness, their very names having come dewn to us through the oblivion of millenniums : one was the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden; the other the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. (b ^— The Tree of '^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^® ponder the Tree of Life. Life. "What kind of life did that Tree represent ? Why was it called the Tree of Life ? If I conceive it rightly, it was called the Tree of Life, because it was the symbol of a bestowed Immortality. Observe precisely the statement here made : the statement is not that Man is not immortal ; the statement is that Man is not naturally, inherently, constitutionally, in the original make-up of his being, immortal. Observe again : I am not speaking of the evidences of Man's natural immortality as indicated by reason, or intuition, or the general sense of mankind. I am speaking of the doctrine of immortality as indicated in the Archive of Eden. And yet — for I would be candid — I must add that not a single passage of Holy Writ, from Genesis to Revelation, teaches, so far as I am aware, the doctrine of Man's natural immortality. the noise of Human Existence, onward from of old. It ^ows there, the breath of Human Passion rustling throujrh it; or storm-tossed, the storm-wind howling through it like the voice of all the gods. It is Igdrasil, the Tree of Existence. It is the past the present, and the future : what was done, what is doing, what will be done: 'the intinite conjugation of the verb To do.' Considering how human things circulate, each inextricibly in communion with all — how the word I speak to you to-day is borrowed, not from Ulfila the Meso-Goth only, but from all men since the First Man began to speak — I find no similitude so true as this of a Tree. Beautiful — altogether beautiful and great! The ^Machine of the Uni- verse '—alas, do but think of that in contrast." — ("'Hekoes and Hero-Woksuip," Lect- ure I.) 216 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. On the other hand, Holy Writ emphatically declares that God only hath immortality (i Tim. vi. 16) : that is to say : God alone is naturally, inherently, in His own essence and nature, immortal. He alone is the I Am — having this as His name forever. His memorial to all generations (Ex. iii. 13-15). If, then, Man is immortal, it is because immortality has been bestowed on him. He is immortal, not because he was created so, but because he has become so, deriving his deathlessness from Him Who alone hath immortality. And of this fact the Tree of Life in the midst of the Gar- den seems to have been the appointed symbol and pledge. That this is the meaning of the Tree of Life is evident from the closing words of the Archive of the Fall : " Jeho- vah God said : ' Behold, the Man hath become as one of Us, to know good and evil ; and now, lest he stretch forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever : ' therefore Jehovah God drove the Man forth from Eden, and stationed on the East of the Garden the Cherubim, and the Flaming Sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the Tree of Life " (Gen. iii. 22-24). If Man is inherently immortal, what need was there of any Tree of Life at all ^ This much, then, seems to be clear : Immortality was somehow parabolically conditioned on the eating of this mysterious Tree, and the Immortality was for the entire Man — spirit and soul and body. Fourthly : The Birth of Probation : 4.— The Birth of ,, ,^ » "^ , ^ 1 ^ , Probation ^^ every tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." By the Knowledge of Good and Evil I sujDpose is meant that sorrowful knowledge of them which comes through personally experiencing the loss of the one and the access GENESIS OF EDEN. 217 of the other. And this experimental knowledge of Good and Evil comes ordinarily through the sense of Prohibi- tion. In otlier words, and those, too, of Holy "Writ : " Sin is the transgressing of the Law " (i John Hi. 4) ; that is to say : Sin is a crossing of tlie limits or boundary-line, laid down for us by the Creator Who made us, and Who, having made us, has the right to appoint our limits. Here is the mean- ing of Eden's Forbidden Tree : it parabolically sets forth the fact of Moral Probation. And we may bless God that there was and still is such a Tree. For no one knows, or can know, himself till he has been tested. Ordeal is neces- sary to the proof of character — to character itself. What though Adam, when installed in Eden, was fresh from his Maker's hand and radiant with His Image ? He needed a Forbidden Tree in order that he might not only awake to the sense of right and wrong, and so of morality, but also that he might awake to the sense of his power of choice between right and wrong, obedience and disobedience. And so the Forbidden Tree tested him, alas ! too well. Nevertheless, the test was intended to be, and but for his own fault would have been, a genuine kindness. For the sense of obedience, not less than the obedience itself, is essential to moral joy. Thus a specific prohibition gave to Adam the opportunity of knowing whether he was obedi- ent or not. Had he obeyed the prohibition, that very sense of obedience would have been to him the source of a genuine bliss. Ah, friend, Adam was not the only man who has had this test of a Forbidden Tree. All human life — oh, that we more thoroughly understood it and be- lieved it ! — is a Probation, a Probing. In our moral con- stitution itself, in the very make-up of our moral stnicture, each of us necessarily has in himself a Forbidden Tree. In fact, Eden itself would not be an Eden unless it had 10 218 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. siicli a Tree. God grant that we may endure the test better than did our first Father ! God grant that we may endure it as triumphantly as did the second Adam ! Fifthly: The Eden of the Soul. 5. — The Eden of tt" x i i • i^ i ^i ^, „ , X or to every Jiuman bemg;, not less than the Soul. "^ t)' to Adam, God has given a Garden to till and to keep : it is the Garden within him. Alas ! this Garden of the Soul is no longer an Eden. An enemy hath come and sown tares (Matt. xiii. 25). Instead of the fir- tree has come up the thorn, and instead of the myrtle-tree has come up the brier {is. iv. 13). Nevertheless, the capacity of Paradise still lies latent within us all. Like seeds which liave for ages lain buried beneath the soil of our jjrimeval forests, there lie deep down in the subsoil of our moral natures the germs of giant spirit powers and experiences. Fallen as we are, we are capable of being redeemed, re- instated in the range of conscious sonship to the everlasting Father. In fact, this capacity for redemption is, on its human side, the basis of the possibility of Christ's Salva- tion. The Son of God came not to crush, but to save ; not to destroy, but to restore ; not to annihilate, but to trans- figure. And when we let Him have His way in our hearts ; when we let Him drive the ploughshare of His Spirit's conviction, uprooting tares and thorns and all bale- ful weeds ; when we let Him sow the good seed of the kingdom, which is the Word of God ; when we let Him quicken it with the waraith of His breath, and water it with the dews of His grace, and hue it with the sunshine of His beauty : then does Paradise Lost become Paradise Found ; then is brought to pass— oh, how gloriously ! — the saying of the Poet-Prophet : " The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose " (Is. xxxv. i). Ay, Jehovah will make GENESIS OF EDEN. 219 thy wilderness like Eden, and thy desert like the Garden of the Lord (Is. li. 3). Meantime, the Lord of Eden, in re- claiming it, uses agents. And His agent is the soul itself. Man is both soil and seed, both Garden and Gardener. Restore thou, then, thy Eden. Break up the fallow ground of thy heart (Jer. W. 3). Gather out the stones of insensi- bility. "Weed out the tares of worldliness, the thorns of selfishness, the briers of self-indulgence. Prune off the fruitless, dead branches of a professional morality. Put up the fence of self-restraint. Open the soil to thy Father's breath and light and warmth. Let His grace distill down into the very depths of thy being, quickening thy dead powers, unfolding thy latent, majestic possibilities, devel- oping all heroic virtues and saintly graces, fnictifying them into the heavenly cornucopia, even those fruits of the Spirit which are love, peace, joy, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance (Gal. v. 22, 23). Cultivate thy soil with the hoe and harrow of self-sacrifice. Fertilize it with the truth of God, and meditation thereon. Water it with the dews of prayer. Support the weaklier virtues with the trellis of a strong purpose stayed on God, and a heavenward aspiration, even the lattice of the princely sisterhood. Faith, Hope, Love (i Cor. xiii. 13). Guard against all inroads of thorn and blight and worm and poacher. Arrange and adorn with the parterres and walks and arbors and founts of a well-ordered life and godly conversation. And, finally, keep the whole in faithful, loving guardian- ship for Him Whose tenants and fiefs ye are. Ay, this is the dignity of your calling, this the grandeur of your mis- sion into the world, this the majesty of 3'our vocation as God's Inspiration and Image. What though earth has been cursed, and Nature's Paradise lost? Each one of you may, by the grace of God, have an Eden within you 220 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. as much nobler than Adam's as spirit is nobler than mat- ter. Keep, then, that which has been committed to tlij trust ; and then in the day when the Lord of the Garden shall take account of His Gardeners, thou shalt find that the park thou hast tilled and guarded is indeed the Para- dise of thy God. So shall the King desire thy beauty. He shall come into thy soul as into a Garden inclosed ; thy plants shall be to Him a park of pomegranates, with all most precious fruits, nard and crocus, sweet cane and cin- namon, myrrh and aloes, with all trees of Lebanon, and richest spices. Even now, O JSTorth Wind, awake ! Come, O South ! Breathe upon Thy Garden, that its spices may send forth their fragrance. So shall my Beloved come into His Garden, and eat His pleasant fruits (Psalm xl v. ii ; Cant. iv. 12-16). _ And so I come to speak, lastly, of 6.— The Heavenly ^, . , i f. -n. T jjjjgjj the commg and everlasting Paradise. For the Eden that has been was but a t)^e and humble hint of the Eden that is to be. The true Golden Age, of which the bards are ever singing, is not to be looked for in the Past, but in the Future, In fact, it is this conception of a Paradise which has been, and is not, and may yet be, which is the foundation and inspiration of all genuine poetry, alike heathen and Christian, whether the bard be a Homer or a Dante, a Yirgil or a Milton, a Tennyson or a Bonar. This Eestoration of Paradise be- longs to those Times of Eestitution of all things wdiich God hath promised by the mouth of His holy propliets since the world began (Acts iii. 21). Yet this Eestitution sliall be something more than a simple restoration of the lost Paradise. The Eden that is to be shall be as much grander than the Eden that has been as Christ, the Image of the invisible God, is grander than Adam, the image GENESIS OF EDEN. 221 of Christ. Listen : If by tlie trespass of tlie one, death reigned through the one, much more shall they who re- ceive the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righte- ousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ (Rom. v. 12-21). God grant that all of us may wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb, and so have right to the Tree of Life, and enter in through the gates into the city (Rev. xxii. 14) ! Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it Avas in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTURE XIL GENESIS OF WOMAN " And the Lord God said : ' It is not good that the man shou]d be alone : I will make him an help meet for him.' And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them ; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field ; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upoa Adam, and he slept ; and lie took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof ; and the rib, which the Lord God hath taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said : ' This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.' And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." — Genesis ii. 18-25. FresT of all, let us, as is our wont, e Ix -D attend to the Explanation of the Pas- of the Passage. ^ sage. For a remarkable story it is, and in an eminent sense it needs explanation. At the very outset, then, let me say T • 1 T> ^''^^.^^ that, for reasons indicated in our Intro- an Inspired Parable. ' ductory Study, I believe that this record of the Genesis of Woman is a Divine Parable. Of course, it is possible that the record is to be taken literally. Of GENESIS OF WOMAN. 223 course, it is possible that Almighty God, for Whom noth- ing is too hard (G<:n. xviii. 4), except to do wrong, could have performed on Adam in Eden a snrgical operation, admin- istering to him an anaesthetic (for it is scarcely conceivable that a loving God would have inflicted on a sinless Man in Paradise the pain of a bodily injury without the soothing of an anodyne), taking out of the slumberer one of his ribs, stanching the crimson flow, healing the wound, turn- ing the rib into a Woman. Of course, the Maker of heaven and earth, had He so chosen, could have done this, and many another even more incredible thing. Nevertheless, I cannot help feeling that to take the story thus hterally is not only to isolate it from other scenes of the Creative Week, which we are compelled, for reasons repeatedly as- signed, to regard as panoramic ; it is also to degrade a sol- emn, profound Parable into a grotesque, ridiculous affair, worthy to take its place, not with the august revelations of the Infinite One, but with the cunningly-de^nsed fables of heathen legends, as, e. g., the birth of panoplied Athene from the cloven brow of Zeus. Eemember, as I have often reminded you, that in this matter of the Creative Week we are moving in a region of incomparable Traths, altogether transcending human experience. The language, then, must, in the very nature of the case, be figurative, giving us the truth not so much in literal details as in shado\vy outlines, colossal hints, stupendous flitting vistas. No, friends, the Story of the Genesis of Woman is a Divine Parable. Be- ing a Divine Parable, it has been written for our instnic- tion, upon whom the ends of the world are come (iCor. x. ii). May God help us to catch the trae, momentous meaning ! Let us, then, again ascend the Mount 2. -Panorama of ^^ p.^^oramic Yisiou, and survey with Emergent \> oman. , . , r. i c i t £ the mspired Seer the unfoldmg scene oi 224 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Emergent Woman. It is still the Sixth Day. Eden, in all its ravishing beauty, lies before us. Adam, fresh from the hands of his Maker, respirant with His inbreathing (Gen. u. 7), radiant with His Image (Gen. i. 26), walks before us lord of all. And yet, in spite of the Edenic perfections, he is ill at ease. There is, somehow, the sense of an indefinable want. And now his Maker would teach him the secret of his disquietude. Accordingly, He summons before the Man the various forms of animal life, that Adam may catch a glimpse of what is meant by Society. And so every beast of the field and every bird of the air comes trooping to Adam, and he gives to each its name. The vision of this moving, sentient, abounding life awakes the latent capacity for companionship. But, amid all these varieties of animal life, he finds no true companion, no help meet, no mate suited to him. And now, wearied with his work of naming the animal creation, and still disquieted by the sense of defect, he lies down on the rich, odorous sward, it may be in the shadow of the Tree of Life, and falls into a profound slumber. It is the golden hour for Divine instruction ; for it is in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, that God openeth \ their ear, and sealetli up their instruction (Job xxxiii. 15, 16). 1 Wrapped in his deep sleep, Eden's dreamer beholds the Ivision of his Second Self. He sees his Maker taking from out of him one of his own ribs, forming it into a Woman, and presenting her in all her glorious beauty to himself, to be to him henceforth that blessed mate for whom he lias unconsciously sighed. And so his God has in very truth given to His beloved in his sleep (Psalm cxxvii. 2). Nor is it altogether a dream. Awaking from his sleep, he beholds still standing by him the fair, blissful vision. Instinctively recognizing the community of nature, he joyously ex- GENESIS OF WOMAN. 225 claims : " This, now, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh ; this shaU be called Woman, Isha, because from Man, Ish, was she taken." And hand in hand they stroU rai- mentless— the Man and his Wife— and are not ashamed. And so falls the curtain on the final scene of the drama of the Sixth Day. Such is the Vision of Emergent Woman. ,, ^, , ,f And now let us attend to some of II.~Moral Mean- ^^"^ -. , -rr- • ing of the Vision, the lessons of the Yision. 1 -The Essential And, first : The Essential Tnity of Unity of Man and Man and Woman : " This, now, is bone AVoman. of my bones and fiesh of my flesh ; this shall be called Woman, because from Man was she taken." But here, at the very outset, let me (rt.)— Woman's For- ^^ yQ^^j, attention to a significant fact. mai Inferiority to j^ ^^^^ Parable of Eden is tnie. Woman is inferior to Man. I am aware that I am entering on a debated, troublesome question. But I have undertaken to expound the Story of the Creative Week. I wish to do my task honestly, and, so far as may be, thoroughly, fairly meeting every question fairly raised. And our Passage does fairly raise the question of Woman's relation to Man in the matter of authority. The Woman was not created alongside with the Man ; the Woman was taken out of the Man. And millenniums afterward, in full blaze of Him Who, as born of Woman, is the Light of men. His Apostle Paul reaffirms the ancient Archive: " The Man is not from the Woman, but the Woman from the Man ; neither was the Man for the sake of the Woman, but the Woman was for the sake of the Man (i Cor. xi. 8, 9) ; for Adam was first formed, then Eve " (i Tim. ii. 13). And upon this fact the Apostle, throughout his Letters, bases his doctrine of Woman's subordination to Man. But what are we to learn from these deliverances of Holy Writ 226 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. touching Woman's subordination ? That Man is essentially superior to Woman ? Most certainly not. We are to learn chiefly this : Woman, in the matter of outward, fonnal, scenic authority, is to yield to Man. For every kind of organization, whatever it may be, political, military, finan- cial, ecclesiastical, domestic, must have some kind of nomi- nal head, or index-finger — e. g., King, President, General, Chairman, Bishop, Pastor, Husband. Look at grand old Fatherland. According to her theory of Government, England must have a Monarch. And who sits on Eng- land's throne to-day ? A woman — a pure, noble, true- hearted woman. But, because Victoria wears a crown as her nation's emblazoned figure-head, does it necessarily fol- low that she is intellectually superior to the Disraeli who holds her helm of state ; or morally superior to the Spur- geon who preaches that there is another Sovereign, even one Jesus ? Quite so is it with Woman in her relation to Man. According to Holy Scripture, she is subordinate to him. But this subordination implies in no sense what- ever any essential inferiority. Woman is Man's peer in all essential capacities — in capacities of sensibility, intellect, moral worth, humanhood. AVoman is Man's inferior sim- ply in the matter of scenic, symbolic, formal authority. Alas ! there are men who are brutes enough to take ad- vantage of this truth, and, complacently airing their own grandeur, talk patronizingly of Woman. " 0, it is excellent To liavo a giant's strength ; but it is tyrannous To use it like a ginnt. Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting, petty officer Would use his heaven -for thunder : nothing but thunder GENESIS OF WOMAN. 22< Man, proud man ! Dress'd in a little brief authority ; Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, His glassy essence — like an angry ape — Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven, As make the angels weep." — ("Measure foe Measitee," ii. 2.) And when any husband takes advantage of this Script- ural teaching respecting Woman's formal inferiority, and lords it over his wife, or talks slightingly of her, or of her sex, as an inferior creation, he does a mean, contemptible thing, and would God I could " Put in every honest hand a whip, To lash the rascals naked through the world, Even from the East to the AVest ! " —("' Othello," iv. 2.) Nevertheless, this formal, modal inferiority is one of Woman's essential, distinctive conditions as Woman. In no wise whatever is it a punishment, or degradation, or consequent of the Fall. It antedates the Fall itself. In her very make-up, as formed out of the First Man, Woman is, in the matter of technical, formal headshii), Man s sub- ordinate. And well is it in these days of Woman's Eights, falsely and stupidly so called — these days when Woman is invited to unsex herseK, and usurp the reins, and the toga, and the baton — to go back to first principles, ay, to her own Genesis, even to the Rib of the Sleeping Adam. No wonder that so many of the so-called Reformers — Heaven save the mark ! — are infidels. Paul and Moses, to say noth- ing of facts and common-sense, are inconveniently, outrage- ously, in their way. ,, , ,„ , _, Nevertheless, in spite of all this, (o.) — Woman's Es- _ ' . ^ • i -\r sential Etiuality. Woman is essentially one with Man. Listen to the First Man's speech : " This 228 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesli : this shall be called Woman, because from Man was she taken." Man and Woman, then, considered in their essence, are a Unity, But, observe, unity implies complexity ; that is to say, Uni- ty implies likeness and unlikeness, sameness and difference, community and diversity. (i.)-Community of Consider, then, first : the community Man and Woman. of Man and Womau. According to the Parable of Eden, Woman is generically of the same nature with Man, bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. Their community is something more than mere similarity of nature : it is in very fact con-nature it- self. Woman's very name is Islia, i. e., Man-ness, because from Ish, i. e., Man, was she taken. And " Woman was taken," some one has significantly said, " neither from Man's foot, nor from Man's head, but from Man's side ; " that is to say, from near Man's heart ; and the heart is at bottom the world's real Sceptre; and therefore Woman is the world's real monarch. Ay, " More royalty in woman's heart Than dwells within the crowned majesty And sceptred anger of a hundred kings." — ("EicuEUEu," iii. 2.) Woman, then, is something more than Man's image or counterpart: Woman is Man's essential Peer, his Alter Ego, his Second Self. There is notliing, then, in the es- sential nature of Woman which should exclude her from the rights, privileges, activities, or duties, which inherently belong to the genus Homo. Whatever is legitimately open to Man, not indeed as a man, but as a Human Being, is equally open to Woman : for both are equally human. Woman as well as Man can feel, think, reason, imagine. GENESIS OF WOMAN. 229 observe, classify, generalize, deduce. Woman as well as Man can sell goods, plan buildings, make statues, resolve nebulae, discover elements, diagnosticate diseases, construct philosophies, write epics. There is nothing in the nature of Woman as Woman which should forbid her having a specific employment or vocation as distinctively as the brother brought up by her side. True, there are some things which Woman cannot do as well as Man : not be- cause she is inferior in any of the essential attributes of humanity, but simjjly because she is inferior in the acci- dental element of physical strength. It is no more to Woman's discredit that she does not figure well in leaving her nursery to shoe a horse than it is to Man's discredit that he does not figure well in leaving his anvil to rock the baby. While, then, many of the occupations which Man has hitherto claimed as exclusively his own are in the growing wisdom of society admitted to be equally open to Woman, there are certain other occupations from which Woman is manifestly excluded. Evidently she is not called to hold the plough, or wield the sledge, or fell the forest, or hoist the mainsail, or seize the burglar, or harangue the caucus, Nevertheless, in all that constitu- ently belongs to Man as Man, in all that makes up the essentiality of his being, Woman is one with Man, sharing his nature, his inspiration, his imageship, his sonhood. Thank God, we are living in an age of the world when St. Paul's doctrine, that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, but both are one in Him (Gal. iii. 28), is beginning to be really believed, and when Woman, as Man's essential peer, is resuming those majestic, Heaven- endowed proportions which she wore in that far-off Sixth Day when God created Man in His own likeness, male and female created He them, and He blessed them, and 230 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. called their name Man, in the day when they were created (Gen. V. 1, 2), ^ ,. , ,„ " But how far are you sroinsj to cari-y Question of \yom- _ ^ J & o J an Suffrage. ^^^is doctrine of "Woman's Equality ? " I hear you asking. "Do you propose to extend it as far as the right of Suffrage ? " Yes, I do, I reply, and I trust that my answer is sufficiently unam- biguous. But observe precisely the ground on which I base the right of Woman to the Suffrage. It is not on the ground so generally, and as I think mistakenly, assumed by the over-zealous leaders of the Woman's movement, viz., that the right of the elective franchise is one of the essential, elemental rights inherent in humanity as such. The right of the elective francliise is, according to the theory of our political institutions, and as I think justly, only an incidental, contingent right, to be regulated by the Constitution and statutes. And, as a matter of fact, Govern- ment does discriminate. E. g., it discriminates in favor of the adult, and against the "infant," or minor. It dis- criminates in favor of an alien — but a brief time in our country — an alien, it may be, ignorant, drunken, scarcely able to pay his poll-tax of fifty cents, and ha\'ing no hered- itary interest in the country ; and against a native-born, adult, educated, virtuous woman, paying, it may be, hun- dreds of dollars of taxes, and having an inherited, pro- found interest in the welfare of the country. Since, then, the right of Suffrage is, as a matter of fact, a discriminated riffht, I base the riffht of AVoman to the elective franchise on the ground of equity and of policy, that is to say, pru- dence. The person, whether man or woman, who pays taxes has the right to have a voice in deciding who the Government shall be that imposes and receives those taxes. That is simple, sheer equity. And the man who does GENESIS OF WOMAN. 231 not concede the right to every tax-payer, whether man or woman, is an unjust man. Again : the right of Suffrage being a conferrable right, to be apportioned and reguhited by the Government or Constitution (and the Constitution is the Government), the right sliould be conferred emi- nently on those who, in virtue of being particuhxrly inter- ested in having a good government, and also in virtue of being especially endowed with the instinct of propriety, are likely to use the right of Suffrage intelligently and patriotically. And who are likely to use this right intelli- gently and patriotically, if it be not the women of Amer- ica ? "Who is likely to vote wisely, if it be not the wives, the value of whose husbands' property depends on a stable, just government, the mothers whose sons and daughter are to be the America of the next generation ? We hear a great deal said in our day about Civil Service Reform. I will tell you the surest way of reforming the Civil Ser- vice, and this not only as managed by the Administration, but also as managed by Congress and Legislators and City Councils : it is by appointing your polling-places elsewhere than next door to a groggery, and by inviting your mothers and wives and sisters to deposit ballots of their own free choice, and thereby save the country. America's salvation lies under God in America's Women. It is precisely be- cause I desire to conserve our Glorious Past that I plant myself on the platform of Woman Suffrage. There are times when Radicalism is the intensest Conservatism. And this is precisely one of those times. But, although this allusion to the ,, "", ^W"^''^' ^ ^ Rio-ht of Women to the Suffrage was Man and \V oman. ^ ^ _ _ o ^ ^ pertinent to the topic in hand, yet it is but an incidental point, and so we return to the main theme under this head of discussion, viz. : the essential 232 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. unity of Man and Woman. Nevertheless, tliis unity, as I have already said, implies diversity as well as community. In fact, as was shown in the Lecture on the Genesis of Lands, diversity is essential to unity. Diversities, coor- dinated, and duly bounded, make unity. Recall the differ- ence between a unit and a unity. A unit is a homogeneous one — e. g., an atom of oxygen, or an atom of hydrogen. A unity is a blended, coherent, systematized collection of diverse ones in a state of homogeneousness or oneness — e. g., the union of atoms of oxygen and hydrogen, forming a molecule of water. It is the blending of different and complemental colors — e. g., blue and orange, green and red, purple and yellow — which yields the harmonious white. Looking at the point under discussion in this light, there is no superber instance of Unity than Man and "Woman. Ke- call the phraseology of our passage : " Jehovali God said : ' It is not good that the Man should be alone ; I will make him a help meet for him : " that is to say, a helper suited to him, one over against him, correspondent to him, comple- mental to him, matching him. It was the Birth of Society. Woman is something more than a supplement or appendix to Man ; Woman is Man's complement. Man and Woman are the two poles of the sphere of humanity, opposite and complemental, complemental because opposite. And the one pole implies the other. Legislate as much as you please, you cannot abolish the fact of the sexes. Constituently, elementally the same, Man and Woman are organized on different bases. Like the stars, they differ in their glory (1 Cor. XV. 41). Each has certain excellences which are pe- culiar to each, and distinctive of each. Man's excellences are virtues ; Woman's excellences are graces ; and I sus- pect that, in the judgment of Ilim Who seetli in secret, the graces are diviner than the virtues. It is Woman's delicate GENESIS OF WOMAN. §33 beauty of sj)irit which gives her the right to win, and which, thank God, does win, Man's sturdy love. It is Woman's physical weakness which constitutes her claim on Man's physical strength. It is Woman's purity which con- stitutes her claim on Man's reverence. It is Woman's womanliness which constitutes her claim on Man's manli- ness. ISTo manner of sympathy, then, have I with those would-be reformers who, in their noisy and witless cham- pionship of what they imagine are Woman's Eights, fancy they can override the everlasting laws of Nature, and turn Woman into Man. Only one thing in this world is feebler than a womanized man ; it is a manized woman. It is only as Woman remains womanly that Woman remains im- perial. It is well, then, let me say again, that in these days of confused, riotous, infidel reform, we go back to first principles, even the Eden of the primal, sinless, per- fect Pair. In so doing we shall learn to lienor Man and AVoman equally. For each is essential to the other. And here let the same apostle wdio has taught us touching Wom- an's formal subordination teach us touching Woman's es- sential, necessary equality : " Neither is the Man without the Woman, nor the Woman without the Man, in the Lord ; for even as the Woman is from the Man, so also is the Man by the Woman ; and both are from God " (1 Cor. xi. 11-12). Each is incomplete without the other. It is the union of the hemispheres which makes the sphere. For so the Laureate sings : " For woman is not undeveloped man, But diverse : could we make lier as the man, Sweet love were slain : his dearest bond is this, Not like to like, but like in difference. Yet in the long years liker must they grow ; The man be more of woman, she of man ; 234 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. He gain in sweetness and in moral height, Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care. Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind ; Till at the last she set herself to man, Like perfect music unto noble words ; And so these twain upon the skirts of Time Sit side by side, full-summed in all their powers. Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be, Self-reverent each and reverencing each. Distinct in individualities, But like each other even as those who love. Then comes the statelier Eden back to men : Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and calm ; Then springs the crowning race of humankind. Consonant chords tliat shiver to one note: The two-celled heart beating, with one full stroke, Life."— (" The Princess.") This, tlien, is our first lesson : tlie Unity of Man and Woman. " This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh ; this shall be called Woman, because from Man was she taken." But our passage teaches a second les- 2. — Marriage a Di- -.r • • -nv • t x-j. j.- J ,., .. son: JMarriaffe is a Divine institution : vine Institution. o " Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife ; and they shall be one flesh " — i. e., one personality. The words are mem- orable as being the first statement of the Old Testament that is cited in the New. The Pharisees came to Jesus tempting Ilim, and saying : " Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause ? " Jesus, answering, said to them : " What did Moses command you I Have ye not read that from the beginning of the Creation God made them male and female, saying : ' For this cause shall a man GENESIS OF WOMAN. 235 leave liis father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh ? ' So, then, they are no more two, but one flesh. "What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder " (Matt. xix. 3-6). I know, indeed, that human legislation declares, and proper- ly enough, that any given marriage is a civil contract, or rather status. Nor can human legislation guard with a jealousy too keen the sacredness of the marriage-bond. That sacredness is the oegis of our firesides, the palladium of our homes. Nevertheless, marriage is something more than a civil contract or status, something more than a human device. Maniage is a Divine Institution, older than His- tory, or Fall, or Sabbath ; as old as Eden and the Primal Pair. Marriage is a constituent, elemental fact of Human- ity. As such, it is as much a Divine Fact as the Sabbath, or the Stars, or the Universe itself. In the very fact of creat- ing the "Woman and presenting her to the Man, the Lord of all ordained the Marriage Institution. Older than any other human relation, it takes precedence of them all : " For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh, one per- sonality." Thus the very idea of marriage, as existing in the Creator's mind, precludes its dissolution : " No longer twain, but one flesh." Only the God AYho joins can dis- join. AVhat, therefore, God hath joined together let not man put asunder. Accordingly, Marriage being a Divine Institution, it is an intensely religious Ordinance. Well may we speak of the " holy estate of Matrimony." Most fitting, then, is it that the marriage-ceremony should be ecclesiastical — that is to say, religious. Not that the min- ister really weds the couple ; it is God "Who joins them. The minister's function is not executive ; it is only declara- tive. But the minister is not omniscient. Alas, that he 336 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. sliould ever be mistaken, declaring those wedded whom God has not joined together ! ISTevertheless, marriage is a Di- vine Ordinance, and as such intensely religious. Consider, then, well, O young friends ! what you may be proposing. Marriage is, in sight of God, as sacred, solemn an act as Baptism. God grant that ye who are thinking of matri- mony may, indeed, be fellow-heirs of the Grace of Life ; that your prayers be not hindered (i Peter iii. l). This, then, is the second lesson of our passage : Marriage a Divine In- stitution. But our passage teaches a third les- Tir ' ~ ^ m ^"^ I son ; it is this : The earthly Marriage is Marriage a Type of ' ir xi tt i It j. - ^ the Heavenly. ^ ^TV^ ^^ ^^^^ Heavenly — that IS to say, in the story of the Unfallen Adam and Eve we may read a parable of the Story of Jesus Christ and His Church. We are expressly told that Adam was the figure or type of Him Who was to come (Rom. v. 14), and that the Church has been betrothed as a pure Virgin to one Husband, even Jesus Christ (2 Cor. xi. 2). In fact, this con- ception of Jesus Christ and His Church under figure of Bridegroom and Bride underlies the whole Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. It is foreshadowed in the Parable of Eden. It is typified in the Spiritual Marriage between Jehovah and His ancient Israel : " Thou slialt no more be termed Azubah, i. e., Forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed Shammah, i. e., Desolate ; but thou shalt be called Hej)lizibah, i. e., My Delight, and thy land Beu- lah, i. e.. Married : for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married : for thy Maker is thy Husband, the Lord of hosts is His name " (Is. Ixii. 4). It is the theme of the Forty-fifth Psalm, wherein are set forth the personal beauty, the warlike prowess, the divine majesty, the just government of a royal Bridegroom, and the gorgeous at- GENESIS OF WOMAN. 237 tire and retinue of a royal Bride. It is tlie underlying conception of the Canticles, or Solomon's Song of Songs. It furnishes the Proj^hets with their most frequent and powerful imagery in their denunciations of Israel's co- quetry with idols and open apostasy, setting forth her sins in this respect under the various terms of marital infidelity. It is expressly and emphatically asserted in the Kew Testa- ment. Let me cite a single example : " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for her ; that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing — by the bath, in the laver of the water of the Word : that He Himself might present to Himself the Church glorious, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing : but that she might be holy and without blem- ish. So ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loveth his own wife loveth himself : for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourish- eth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also doth the Church : because we are members of His body (being of His flesh and of His bones). For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. This mystery is a great one : but I say it in regard to Christ and the Church " (Eph. v. 25-32).* And this mystery of the Heavenly Bridegroom and Bride was foreshadowed, let me repeat, from the very beginning, even in Eden's primeval nuptial. And now let us ponder some of the analogies between the two Bridals : the Bridal in the Eden that has been and the Bridal in the Eden that is to be.' r \ rv. ■ * rt- And, first, as Eve owed her origin (a.) — Christ Him- ' ' ^ self the Origin of His to Adam, SO does the Church owe her Church. origin to Jesus Christ. She, at least, is ' See also Ex. xxxiv. 15, 16; Jer. iii. : Ezek. xvi., xxiii. ; Rosea i., il. ; Matt. ix. 15, xxii. 1-4, xxv. 1-13; John ui. 29 ; 2 Cor. xi. 2, 3 ; Rev. xix. 6-9, xxi. 2-9, xxii. 17, etc. 238 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. no instance of Spontaneous Generation. She is no Au- tochtlion, self-orient from humanity or I^ature. She is, so to speak, a Divine Gemmation, budding from the bleed- ing side of the Second and true Adam, pierced on the cross, and sleeping in that other Garden which, alas ! was no Eden, but a cemetery, out of whose sepulchre sprung the tnie Tree of Life/ In other words, Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, which is His Body. IsTevei-theless, secondly : As Adam (6.)-ChristandHis ^^^ -g^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^. ^^^^ ^^^ g^^j Church a Unity. . ' ' that IS to say, one personality, so are Jesus Christ and His Church. As sucli, they have com- munity of nature. As Eve was called Woman, because from Man had she been taken, being bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, so the Second Eve, even the Church, is one with the Second Adam, even the Christ, being mem- bers of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph. v. 30). As such, they share a common life, being one in nature, in character, in experience, in temptation, in passion, in tri- umph ; she His follower, sparkling with the jewels of His Graces, continuing with Him steadfastly in His tempta- tions (Luke xxii. 28), filling up what is yet behind of His aftiic- tions for His Body's sake, which is the Church (Col. i. 24), rising with Him from the dead (Col. iii. i), overcoming with Him, sitting down with Him on His throne (Rev. iii. 21), joint heir with Him (Rom. viii. 17) to His patrimony of the worlds (neb. i. 2). Not that the Church has yet attained to all this. 1 The Idea is as old as Augustine, but ho subsidizes it curiously in behalf of Sacramental- ism. "At the beg-inninp of the Imman race the Woman was made of a rib taken from the side of the man while he slept: for it seemed fit that even then Christ and His Church should be foreshadowed in this event. For that sleep of the man was the death of Christ, Whose side, as lie hung lifeless upon the cross, was pierced with a spear, and there flowed from it blood and water, and these we know to be the sacraments by which the Church is ' built up.' For Scripture used this very word, not saying, ' He formed,' or ' framed,' but 'built her up into a woniiin;' whence also the Apostle speaks of 'the building up of tho body of Christ, which is the Church.' "— (" City of God," Book xxii., ch. 17.) GENESIS OF WOMAN. 239 Slie is still but a child, speaking as a child, feeling as a child, thinking as a child. But the day is approaching when that which is perfect shall come, and that which is in part shall end. Then shall she put away childish things (1 Cor. xiii. 9-11). Then shall she attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a j)er- fect man, unto the proportions of a full-grown personality, even unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. iv. 13), standing before Him in very truth as His help meet and complemental, His Peer in the Second Eden as Eve was Adam's peer in the first. Then shall He indeed proudly present her to Himself as His Lady-elect, even the Church glorious and holy, without spot or wrinkle or blem- ish or any such thing (Eph. v. 27). Even now, in view of that magnificent certainty, she may well be called by her Divine Husband's name — Christ, Christian : Kvpi,o<;, KvpiaKrj, Kirche, Kirk, Church. Being thus one with Him Who is indeed the Lord, she also herself is in very truth Lordly, Heiress to the Universe by a double right, the right of Eden's Image Commission and Calvary's Blood-sealed Charter. O Church of the living God, betrothed as a chaste Virgin to one Husband, even Christ, beware lest by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ, led away from your single-heartedness toward Him (2 Cor. xi. 2, 3). Once more : as there was but one (c.)— As but One ^(j^^^ and One Eve, so there is but one Christ, so but One ^i . , -, r-n i tt p.. I Christ and one Church. How mis- taken, how egotistic, how sinful the sanctity of Catherine of Alexandria, and Catherine of Si- enna, in fancying each for herself that she was the spouse of Christ ! No, as there is but one Bridegroom, so there is 240 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. but one Spouse. And that Spouse is the one Church of the living God, of whatever hxnd or age or sect, wlio call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours (1 Cor. i. 2). Neither Christ nor His Church is a Mon- strosity ; neither the one hydra-headed, nor the other hun- dred-bodied. Many stones indeed, yet but one Temple (Eph. ii. 20-22) ; many branches, yet but one Yine (John xv. 5) ; many sheep, yet but one Flock and one Shepherd (John x. 16) ; many members, yet but one body (Rom. xii. 4, 5) ; many para- nymphs, or virgins (Matt. xxv. i-io), yet but one Bride. Ay, Monogamy is the law alike for both Edens. " I beseech you then, dearly beloved, that ye walk worthy of the call- ing wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meek- ness and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, en- deavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one Body, and one Spirit, even as ye were called in one Hope of your calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all. Who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. iv. 1-6). For even as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ ; for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free ; and we were all made to drink of one Spirit " (i Cor. xii. 12, 13). " Head of Thy Church beneath, The catholic, tlie true, On all her members breathe, Her broken frame renew ; Then shall Thy perfect will be done, When Christians love and live as one." — (RonmsoN.) Thus was the marriage in the Eden that has been the type and the prophecy of the Marriage in the Eden that is GENESIS OF WOMAN. 241 to be. That was the symbol, this is the Substance ; that the passing shadow, this the abiding Reality ; that the para- ble, this the Interpretation. Yes, the last Adam is older than the first ; the Church of the living God older than the Mother of all living (Gen. iii. 20). And so St. Paul, in de- claring to us his great mystery concerning Christ and His Church — to wit, that we are members of His body, being of His flesh and His bones, and so repeating Adam's own words in Eden — did ever, as was the wont of his own Master, utter things which had been ke23t secret from the founda- tion of the world (Matt. xiii. 35). Heaven grant that these natural relationships of ours may indeed accomplish in us the purpose for which they were ordained ; namely, to train us for the spiritual, teaching us through the blessed hints of the earthly marriage how to secure a share in the True and Everlasting Bridal. So shall we be ready to meet the Bridegroom, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. xxi. 2). So shall we be ready for the Midnight Cry, " Lo, the Bridegroom cometh ! " (Matt. xxv. 6). And thus we come to speak of that ^' T '^^^^ ^"^^' blessed event : the Bridegroom's prom- groom s Promisea . , -r> -r-i • • t i jigturn. 1^^^ Keturn. .bor now it is only the espousal time, the Church's secret be- trothal as a pure Virgin to Christ ; then shall be the open, everlasting Bridal, even the Bridegroom's joyous presenta- tion of the Church to Himself before all the Universe in all her unspeakable beauty. Then shall it be seen that though for a small moment He had forsaken us, it was that He might with great mercies and everlasting kindness gather us (Is. liv. 1). Heaven speed that blessed hour ! Even now may it be ours to hear as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, " Hallelujah ! For 11 242 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let ns be glad and rejoice, and give to Him the glory. For the Marriage of the Lamb is come, and His Wife hath made herself ready. Blessed are they who are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb " (Rev. xix. 6-9). " Ascend, Beloved, to the joy ; The festal day is come : To-night the Lamb doth feast His ovrn. To-night He with His Bride sits down, To-night puts on the spousal crown, In the great upper room. " Sorrow and sighing are no more. The weeping hours are past; To-night the waiting will be done. To-night the wedding robe put on. The glory and the joy begun; The crown has come at last. " Ascend, Beloved, to the feast ; Make haste. Thy day is come ; Thrice blest are they the Lamb doth call. To share the heavenly festival, In the new Salem's palace hall, Our everlasting home ! " — (Bonae.) Friends, no one will snp with Ilim The Bolted Door. .^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ sup with Him on earth. Listen, then, again, to the Bride- groom's knock : " Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any one hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me " (Rev. iii. 20). O friend, that knocking will not continue forever. Per- sist in keeping thy door closed, and thou, too, shalt ere long knock at a closed door. " While they went to buy, the Bridegroom came ; and they who were ready went in GENESIS OF WOMAN. 243 with Him to the Marriage-feast ; and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He answered and said : Yerily I say unto you, I know you not " (Matt. xxv. 10-12). " ' Late, late, so late ! and dark the night and chill ! Late, late, so late ! but we can enter still.' ' Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now.' " ' No light had we : for that we do repent ; And learning this, the Bridegroom will relent.' ' Too late, too late ! ye cannot enter now.' " ' No light ; so late ! and dark and chill the niglit! Oh, let us in, that we may find the light ! ' ' Too late ; too late ! ye cannot enter now.' " ' Have we not heard the Bridegroom is so sweet ? Oh, let us in, though late, to kiss His feet ! ' 'No, no; too late ! ye cannot enter now.' " — (" Guinevere.") But I cannot bear to close so sadly. The Bridegroom's t-x xi, xii-n-i ^ 1 Qg^jj Listen, then, to the Bridegroom's cheery call : " The voice of my Beloved ! Be- hold, He Cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My Beloved speaketh, and saith unto me : "Arise, My love. My fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past. The rain is over, and gone ; The flowers appear on the earth ; The time of the singing of birds is come. And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs. And the vines in blossom give forth their fragrance. Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away." —(Cant. ii. 8-13.) 244 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Yes, Thoii Bridegroom of tlie Church, we will arise and follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTUKE XIIL GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. " Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which lie had made ; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God hlessed the seventh day, and sancti- fied it : because that in it He had rested fi'ora all His work which God created and made." — Genesis ii. 1-3. I.— Explanation FmsT of all, let ns attend to the Ex- of the Passage. planation of the Passage. And, first, the Divine Cessation from 1. -Cessation of Creative Work: "Thus were finished the Creative Process. ,, , , ,, ,, i n ,i . the heavens and the earth, and all their host : and on the Seventh Day God ended His Work Avhicli He made." But observe precisely the kind of activity from which Deity ceased on the Seventh Day : it was not the activity of administration, either in Providence or in Morals — our Father worketh hitherto (John v. IV) : but it was the activity of creating : " God ended all His work which He created in making it." And science strikingly confirms the hoary Archive. However much scientists may disagree as to the origin of the universe, or the age of the globe, or the character and method of the geologic processes, or the antiquity of man, they all agree in one point — to wit : Man himself was the last to appear on this earth's stage. 246 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Secondly: The Creator's Resting, _ "T ^^ "^ " And God rested on the Seventh Day Resting. •'' from all His work which He made." " But how is this possible ? " you ask me. " Does not resting imply fatigue, weakness, infirmity, finiteness ? Does not His own Book declare : ' The everlasting God, Jehovah, Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ' (Is. xl. 28) ? How, then, can Infinite God be said to rest ? " Observe, then, first, and in a general way, the poverty of human speech and human thought when Deity is the theme. How can the finite ever take in the Infinite, the bounded the Boundless ? Infinite God can become known to us only in the measures of human capacities, through the interpretations and hints of human relations and feelings. Hence, all our thought and speech of Him is and must be in imagery. Hence the frequent Scripture representations of Him under figures of human organs and affections : e. g., the Hand of the Lord, the Eye of the Lord, the Voice of the Lord, the Lord did so and so, etc. To speak of Him as having these human organs, or as doing this and that thing in connection with days and years, or any human notations of time, is to speak of Him after the manner of men. Nevertheless, we cannot conceive Him except in measures of our own finiteness : and so we are forced to speak of Him, as does also the Scripture, as being situate in Space and act- ing: in Time. Thus we talk of Him as creatine^ and as resting, of His Six Days' creative working and His Sev- enth Day's Rest. Not that it was absolutely so, but that it appears so to us in our finiteness. God's seeming to rest was a sign, not of the Creator's fatigue, but of His condescension to human finiteness. He no more rested in the sense of taking refreshment than He uttered the GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 247 Creative " God-saids " in audible articulations, or breathed into the Man's nostrils, or took from him one of his ribs and turned it into a Woman. But, while this is tnie, there is a sense in which even God may be said to liave rested : it was the rest of holy, blessed, festal con- templation. The work of creation was finished, not only in the sense of being ended, but also in the sense of being perfected. Man's works, alas ! are oftener ended than finished. Twice only in this world of ours has that word — " Finished " — been used in absolute truth : first, in the end of the first Creation, when the Maker of heaven and earth had created the Man and the AYoman in His owti image and likeness, and so were finished the heavens and the earth and all their host : and secondly, in the end of the second Creation, when the same Maker of heaven and earth restored on the Cross the lost image and likeness, and so exclaimed : " It is finished ! " (John xix. 30). And how intense must have been the Creator's delight as He sur- veyed His finished work, and pronounced it very good ! Even in this world of imperfections and failures, where our ideals are so seldom reached, how intense the deliglit, e. g., the artist sometimes feels as he gazes on his finished statue, or picture, or building ! He not only ceases from toil : he verily rests — the rest not of repose, but of joy. Even so, if I may venture to compare Creator with creat- ure, did the Maker of the universe rest on the Seventh Day. It was the rest of a holy, festal celebration over a perfected work — a perfect filling-out of a Divine Ideal — an absolute equilibrium of Plan and Execution. It was the Sabbath of God. Thirdly: Tlie Sanctification of the of'tb^Sabbath-Daj. Seventh Day: "And God blessed the Seventh Day, and sanctified it." 248 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. " And God blessed tlie Seventh (a.)— even e j)j^y '? ^^ q^q familiar with the Bible Scriptural Number. "^ can fail to be struck with the frequency with which it mentions the number seven. Let me give some instances. Seven days was Noah allowed in which to stock his ark with the preservers of the Animal King- dom, and of each kind of the clean animals he was to take seven (Gen. vii. 2-4). Seven days elapsed between each of the three missions of his dove (Gen. viii. 8-12). Seven years did Jacob serve for Leah, and seven more for Rachel (Gen. xxix. 18-28). Seven well-favored kine and seven ill- favored, seven full ears of corn and seven blasted, did Pharaoh see in his dreams : seven years of plenty and seven years of famine did Egypt exj^erience (Gen. xli.). Seven altars did BaJak set up, and thereon offered seven bullocks and seven rams (Num. xxiii. i, 2). Seven Avas to be the aggregate number of the Holy Convocations of the Hebrew Year (Lev. xxiii.). The seventli day was to be the Sabbath-day : the seventh week after Passover the Sabbatli- week : the seventh month the Sabbath-month : the seventh year the Sabbath-year : the seven times seventh year the great Sabbath- Year of the Sabbath-years : i. e,, the year of Jubilee. Seven weeks were appointed as the interval be- tween Pentecost and Passover : seven days as the length of the Feasts of Passover and Tabernacles : seven days were the priests to be in course of consecration : seven things were to be offered in sacrifice : seven utensils were to be the indispensables of the Tabernacle, and tlie candle- stick was to be seven-branched : seven days were appointed for ceremonial lustration, and for the interval between birtli and circumcision. Seven was the number in com- pacts, in treaties of peace, in marriage settlements. Seven is solemnly embalmed in the Hebrew term for oath, the GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 249 term signifying to swear literally meaning to do seven times. Seven days was Jericho surrounded, and on the seventh day it was surrounded by seven priests blowing seven trumpets (Josh. \i.). Seven times was Naaman bidden to dip himself in Jordan (2 Kings v. 9). Seven periods were to pass over Nebuchadnezzar in his insanity (Dan. iv.). In the Restitution the light of the Sun is to be sevenfold, as the light of seven days (Is. xxx. 26), Jesus Christ Himself was the seventy-seventh from Adam, and He bids us for- give not only seven times, but also seventy times seven (Slatt. xviii. 22). Seven deacons were appointed by the infant church (Acts vi.). Seven is the Apocalyptic numeral : e. g., the seven churches, the seven spirits, the seven candle- sticks, the seven stars, the seven seals, the seven horns, the seven eyes, the seven angels, the seven trumpets, the seven thundei*s, the seven plagues, the seven vials, the seven visions, the sevenfold doxology to God and the Lamb (Rev. passim). But why cite more ? Holy Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, teems with this mystic numeral seven. And for aught we know, seven is still the Sym- bolic, Dominical number of God's Administration, regu- lating the whole world's history, from His rest on the Sev- enth Day in Eden to His Church's Rest on the Seventh Day in the Eden to come. If you ask me why the Script- ure selects this numeral seven, as its favorite, regent num- ber, I cannot answer. A vast amount of ingenuity has been spent on the prol)lem, but I have never met with any satisfactory solution. Perhaps we shall understand this, and many other similar riddles, when that which is perfect is come, and we shall no longer behold as in a glass darklv, or enigmatically, but face to face (i Cor. xiii. 12). Meantime, all I ask you to observe in this connection is this : Seven is the tonic, or key-note, of the scale of the Hebrew numera- 250 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. tion. And this fact, I have no doubt, is owing to the venerable circumstance that seven was the completing, perfecting number of the Creative Week. " And God blessed the Seventh Dav (6.)— The Seventh . ..^ , .. „ .-, . . . -,/ Day Sanctified. ^^^'^ sanctmed it" — that IS to saj, He separated it from the other Six Days of the Creative AYeek, setting it apart, distinguishing it, con- secrating it, hallowing it. Not that He made the Seventh Day holy, as though the other Six Days were unholy ; but He made the Seventh Day peculiar, as though the other Six Days were common. He made it sacred by resting on it. He did not rest on the Seventh Day because it was hallowed ; but the Seventh Day became hallowed because He rested on it. " God blessed the Seventh Day, and hal- lowed it, because on it He rested from all His work which God created and made." It is the colossal plinth on which is based Sinai's Fourth Commandment : " Eemember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work : but the Seventh Day is a Sabbath (a Rest- day) to the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in Six Days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the Seventh Day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day — (the Rest-day) and hallowed it" (Ex. xx. 8-11). "What though the seven days of the Sinaitic week were ordinary days of twenty-four hours each, while the Seven Days of the Creative Week were extraordinary days of indefinite length ? It affects not the reason which the Lawgiver as- signs for observing the Seventh Day as a Sabbath. That reason is based, not on the length of the Days, but on the fact that on the Seventh of the Days, whatever their length, GENESIS OF TUE SABBATH. 251 the Creator rested. And that Seventh Day of the Crea- tive Week still continues. Although thousands of years have swept by since God ended His work of Creation, it is still His Sabbath, or Rest-day. Works of necessity — i. e., works of providence and mercy — He still carries on : "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John v. 17). But Creation is not a work of necessity. That work He ended at the close of the far-off Sixth Day, and ever since has rested. This, in fact, is the underlying thought of the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The argu- ment of the chapter, in brief, is this : " God as Creator is resting from His works ; let us take care lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of us should seem to come short of it." There are, then, three Great Sabbaths : iirst, the Ionian Sabbath of God, resting from His Creative Work ; secondly, the weekly Sabbath of Man, resting from his six days of toil ; and, thirdly, the eternal Sabbath of Heaven, even the Rest, the Sabbatismos, which still remaineth for the people of God (Heb. iv. 9). " "When will mv pilgrimage be done^ The world's long week be o'er, That Sabbath dawn which needs no sun, That Day which fades no more ? " — (Edmeston.) Such is the story of the Genesis of the Sabbath. As such, the Sabbath comes doAvn to us venerable in all the hoariness of an immemorial antiquity, and imperial with all the sceptredom of the Creator's example. But there is a second account of the . ."•~?^e*??''r Genesis of the Sabbath, to which I now trme of the Sabbath. . . ,• i ^i i- -nr-i invite your most careful attention. JNlil- lenniums after our Sacred Chronicler caught glimpse of the 253 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. resting Creator, tliat Creator Himself, having been bom of woman, and walking in the cornfields of Galilee, an- nounced : " The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath ; tlierefore, the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath" (Mark ii. 23-28). It is one of the profouud- cst sayings of Him Who always spake profoundly. Let us now give to the saying our most studious and reverent attention. We learn from it — First : Man himself is the Basis of f ' ' , , ,, the Sabbath. " The Sabbath-day for of the Sabbath. -^ Man was made, and not Man for the Sabbath-day " — that is to say, the Sabbath, like any other Divine institution or ordinance, whether in Nature or in Morals, was appointed on Man's account, for Man's bene- fit, and not vice versa. Let us go a little into detail. (rt.)_Man Needs And, first, Man needs the Sabbath — the Sabbath for his i. e.. One day of rest after six days of Secular Nature. ^qjj — fQj. jjjg secular nature, alike bodily and mental. The testimony of physicians, pliysiologists, political economists, managers of industrial establishments, etc., is emphatic on this point. Let me cite some instances. Dr. John William Draper, the eminent physicist and author, writes as follows : " Out of the numberless blessings con- ferred on our race by the Church, the physiologist may be permitted to select one for remark, which, in an eminent manner, has conduced to our physical and moral well-being. It is the institution of the Sabbath-day. . . . No man can for any length of time pursue one avocation or one train of thought without mental, and therefore bodily, injuiy — nay, without insanity. The constitution of the brain is such that it must have its time of repose. Periodicity is stamped upon it. Nor is it enough that it is awake and in action by day, and in the silence of night obtains rest and GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 353 repair ; that same periodicity, whicli belongs to it as a whole, belongs to all its constituent parts. One portion of it cannot be called into incessant activity without the risk of injury. Its different regions, devoted to different func- tions, must have their separate times of rest. The excite- ment of one part must be coincident with a pause in the action of another. It is not possible for mental equilib- rium to be maintained with one idea, or one monotonous mode of life. . . . Thus a kind Providence so overrules events that it matters not in w^hat station we may be, wealthy or poor, intellectual or lowly, a refuge is always at hand ; and the mind, worn out with one thing, turns to another, and its physical excitement is followed by physi- cal repose" ("Human Physiology," page 627). Lord Macaulay, in his speech before the House of Commons on the Ten Hours' Bill, spoke thus : " The natural difference between Campania and Spitzbergen is trifling when compared with the difference between a country inhabited by men full of mental and bodily vigor, and a country inhabited by men sunk in bodily and mental decrepitude. Therefore it is we are not poorer, but richer, because we have, through many ages, rested from our labors one day in seven. That day is not lost. While industry is suspended, while the plough lies in the furrow, while the Exchange is silent, while no smoke ascends from the factory, a process is going on quite as important to the wealth of nations as any pro- cess which is performed on more busy days. Man, the machine of machines — the machine compared with which all the contrivances of the "SYatts and the Arkwi*ights are worthless — is repairing and winding up, so that he returns to his labors on the Monday with clearer intellect, with live- lier spirits, with renewed corporeal vigor " (" Speeches," vol. ii., page 28). Thus the Sal)batli is the detent, or " ratchet in 254 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the wheel of life," by regular interpositions of which life's machinery is prevented from turning back, and so failing. To him who has been toiling the six days, how sweetly does the Sabbath come as a day of repair for his jaded body, and of restful change for his weary brain ! Now may the stiffened fingers — which all the week have been grasping the plane, the awl, the crowbar, the type, the needle, the pen — be loosened ; and the cramped back, which has been wearily bending over spade or bench, anvil or ledger, be uplifted ; and the tethered intellect, which has been ab- sorbed in guiding the movements of hand or foot, be set free to expatiate at will amid the serene grandeurs of Truth, whether written on the pages of Scripture or Na- ture. Thus the Sabbath, surveyed as a compensation reser- voir, is as much a constituent part of the economy of Na- ture as are the nutritive organs and processes, or the alterna- tion of day and niglit. Well may it be called a Sabbath — i. e., Kest. And here, let me remark in passing, and here only, is the proper sphere of Sabbath legislation. Society has the right to enforce the observance of the Sabbath on the ground of the public weal — that is to say, on sanitary, economic, and social grounds. But society has no right to enforce it on religious grounds. The State must not be permitted at this point, or at any other, to invade the empire of conscience. If we allow it to interfere at the point of Sabbath observance, we may allow it to interfere at any other point, say the Trinity, or Baptism, or the Sec- ond Advent. We believe in the Church, we believe in the State ; but we, on this side the Atlantic, do not believe in Church and State, or a State Church. We j)ut not our confidence in princes (Psalm cxtIu. 9), nor go down to Egypt for help, nor rely on chariots because they are many, nor trust in horsemen because they are strong fis. xxxi. i). Not GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 255 bj miglit, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts (Zech. iv. 6).' (fi.) — Man Needs Again : Man needs the Sabbath for the Sabbath for his hls relij^ioiis nature. He needs it as a Religious Nature. j^y of conscious, formal, stately ac- knowledgment of the Divine Supremacy. He needs it as a day on which to dismiss wordly cares, and look through unobstructed vistas into the opening heavens. An English gentleman was once inspecting a house in Newcastle, with a view of buying it. The landlord, after having shown him the premises, took him to an upper window, and re- marked ; " You can see Durham Cathedral from this win- dow on Sundays." "How is this?" asked the visitor. " Because on Sundays there is no smoke from the factory chimneys." Ah, Man must have a day in which he can retire to some solitude, where his spirit — " With her best nurse, Contemplation, May plume her feathers, and let grow her wings, That in the various bustle of resort Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired." — (" COMTTS.") And how exquisitely the Sabbath meets Man's necessity ! The hushed bustle and din of life, the vacated Exchange, the closed factory, the barricaded shop, the arrested en- gine, the neatly-attired population, walking -with subdued ' The recent prosecution in Pennsylvania of the estimable Daniel C. Waldo, a Seventh- Day Baptist, for workinjj on Sunday, although he had scrupulously obeyed the letter of the Fourth Commandment, is not only a blot on our administration of justice, but also a violation of one of the fundamental principles of the American theory of the State, namely: Keliu:ious Liberty, or Rifihts of Personal Conscience. How clear and rinffinff the words of the English exiles of Amsterdam, published about lfil'2: "The magistrate is not to meddle with rclitrion, or matters of conscience, nor to compel men to this or that form of religion, because Christ is the Kin?, and Lawgiver of the Church and Conscience " (" Works of John Robinson," vol. iii., p. 2T7). Who art thou that judgest Anothers ser- vant ? To his own Master ho staadeth or fdleth (Rom. xiv. i). 256 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. tread the tranquil street, or strolling, with chaste buoyancy, the odorous grove, the deep-toned bell, the open Sanctuary, the subdued yet blithesome hum of Sunday-school, the voice of prayer and Scriptural reading, the uplifting ser- mon, the melody of hymn and chant — these are the angel voices which invite to restful worship. And these the Sabbath gives. Looping down, hke celestial festoons from the throne of God, at regularly recurring intervals along the highway of life, each recurring Sabbath invites the caravan of humanity to halt for a few hours, that it may gaze up, with worshipful vision, into the opened heavens. "Bright shadows of true Rest! Some shoots of bliss: Heaven once a week : The next world prepossessed in this: A day to seek Eternity in time : the steps by which We climb above all ages: lamps that light Man through his heap of dark days : and the rich And full redemption of the whole week's flight: The milky-way chalk'd out with suns : a clew That guides through erring hours: and in full story A taste of Heaven on earth : the pledge and cue Of a full feast : and the outconrts of Glory." — (Henry Vaughan.) Thus Man is the basis of the Sabbath : the Sal)bath was made for him, not he for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for him as much as is light, or air, or food. (c.)_The Sabbath -^^^ what Man needs, God has ap- a Divhie Appoint- pointed. Witness the Fourth Com- '"cnt. mandment. True, this passage, al- though a part of the Decalogue, is not to be taken as though it settled for all men, and all time, the question of the origin, the basis, or the authority, of the Sabbath. For although the Decalogue, in its spirit, is for all lands GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 357 and ages, yet, in its letter, it was evidently for the He- brews. The very preamble proves the assertion : " God spake all these words, saying : ' I am Jehovah thy God, "Who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage ' " (Ex. xx. i, 2), Then follow the Ten Commandments, based on the unique fact that Jeho- vah was the Covenant God of Israel. The Fifth Com- mandment is a striking evidence of the Jewish character of the Decalogue : " Honor thy father and thy mother : that thy days may be long upon the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee" (Ex. xx. 12): i. e., that thou mayest live long in the Canaan whither thou art going. And when we turn to the second account of the Decalogue, as recorded in Deuteronomy, we find that the very reason assigned for the Fourth Commandment is the gracious fact of Israel's Emancipation : " Kemember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm : therefore Jehovah thy God command- ed thee to keep the Sabbath-day" (Dcut. v. 12-15). Indeed God directs Moses to teach Israel that the Sabbath was appointed as a covenant sign between Jehovah and Israel, and as such a badge of the Jewish Nationality : " Jehovah spake to Moses, saying : ' Speak thou also to the children of Israel, saying : " Yerily My Sabbaths ye shall keep ; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your genera- tions : that ye may know that I am Jehovah Who doth sanctify you " ' " (Ex. xxxi. 12-17). And, nine hundred years afterward, the declaration is echoed by the prophet Eze- kiel (Ezck. XX. 12-20). And when we turn to the New Tes- tament, the Jewish character of the Sinaitic Sabbath be- comes still more evident. It is a significant fact that the only full twenty-four hours which the Lord of All spent 258 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. in the tomb was the Seventh Day, the Sabbath of the Decalogne, the Hebrew Sabbath. Indeed, if we base the Sabbath on the Decalogue, I do not see but that we are bound to keep Saturday, inflict the Mosaic penalty of death for Sabbath-breaking, keep Passover and Day of Atone- ment, and turn our churches into sacrificial slaughter-houses. Moreover : the Apostohc disregard of the Mosaic Sabbath is strikingly significant, especially when we remember that by far the larger proportion of the early Christians were converts from heathenism, and therefore needed special instruction in the matter of the Sabbath. The Aj^ostle Paul was wont to insist on a strict observance of all practi- cal duties, often mentioning them in detail ; and yet in all his extant Letters there is but one solitary allusion to the Sabbath, and even then he classifies it with the ceremonial observances which had been abolished : " Let no one judge you in eating or in drinking (i. e., call you to account in the matter of ceremonial distinctions of clean and unclean food), or in respect of a feast-day, or new moon, or Sab- bath : which are a shadow of the things to come ; but the body — the substance — is of Christ" (Col. ii. 16, 17).' All this shows that the Sinaitic Sabbath, or the Sabbath as an ordinance in the letter, was Jewish ; and, as such, local and temporary. On the other hand, the Sabbath as a necessity, or Nature's Sabbath, is Human, and, as such, as universal and abiding as Man. The moment that the Son of Man — even the Lawgiver greater than Moses — speaks, saying: " The Sabbath was made for Man, and not Man for the Sabbath : " we feel that He speaks, not as a Jew to Jews, but as the Divine Man to Men, instantly raising the Sab- ' Perhaps there is an allusion to the Sabbath in Rom. xiv. 5: "One man estecmeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alilcc. Let each one be fully persuaded in his own mind." That is to say: it is a question in casuistry, and each one must decide It for himself, as in the presence of God. GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 259 bath from a Jewish ordinance to a human necessity. And observe the authority which Christ quotes : it is not Moses, but Man ; not Scripture, but Nature. The Sabbath is in the Decalogue ; but it is there because it was before in Nature, and the Jew was a man. Thus Nature and Script- ure are in alliance : the one demanding a Sabbath, and the other appointing it. But Christ's Doctrine of the Sabbath th n th Sabbath teaches a second lesson ; it is this : Man is greater than the Sabbath. " There- fore, so that, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Observe the phrase — " Son of Man." AYithout staying to unfold this plirase with theological accuracy, let it be enough that I use it as expressing, in outline, the tmth that Jesus Christ was the Representative and Exemplar of Humanity — the Archetypal Man. As Divine, or the Son of God, of coarse He was Lord of the Sabbath. The point is that He is Lord of the Sabbath as human, as the Son of Man. " The Sabbath was made for Man : therefore the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." In other words : the Sabbath is to be used as a means, not as an end. This the Rabbis could not imderstand. They utterly failed to grasp this majestic word — Man. Man is Man, not because he is strong — ^the elephant is strong; not because he is ingenious — the beaver is ingenious ; not because he is af- fectionate — the dog is affectionate ; but because he is God's Inbreathing, God's Image, God's Son (Gen. i. 26, ii. 1 ; Luke iii. 38). As such, Man is God's heir, and Christ's joint heir, and so the Lord of all. " Thou hast made him a little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor: Thou make^t him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands, Thou dost put all things under his feet ; 260 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Sheep and oxen, all of them, Yea, and the beasts of the field. The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." — (Psalm viii. 5-8.) That is to say : Man, as God's Son and Image and Eep- resentative, is the end, and the Sabbath, like every other " ordinance," is a means. An immortal being, outliving institutions, economies, aeons — capable of carrying a heaven within him — God's own Image and Son: Man is more sacred than ordinances. Jesus Christ did not die for ordi- nances : Jesus Christ died for Man. The Sabbath is sa- cred, not in itself, but because Man is sacred. Hence the Sabbath is his servant — not his master. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. And in accordance with this principle Jesus Christ Himself ever acted. E. g., do the Pharisees charge His disciples with Sabbath-breaking, because, as they were passing through the grain-fields on a certain Sabbath, they plucked in their hunger some of the ears, rubbing them with their hands, and eating ? The Lord makes defense by a threefold citation from their own Scriptures. First, He reminds them of the case of King David : " Have ye never read what David did, when he and they who Avere with liim were hungry, how he went into the House of God, in the days of Abiathar the high-priest, and took and ate the shew-bread, which it is not lawful for any one to eat, but the priests alone, and also gave it to those who were witli him ? " (i Sam. xxi. i-6.) The Lord's argument is this : " "What though a law of Moses forbids laymen eating of the priest's shew-bread ? David and his comrades were men, and they were hungry, and Man is greater than ordi- nances." Next He reminds them of the case of their own priests : " Or have ye not read in the Law that on the Sab- GENESIS. OF THE SABBATH. 201 bath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless ? But I say unto you that a Greater than the temple is here ! " And His argument is this : " AVhat though the Law forbids all manner of work on the Seventh Day ? The priests, in carrying on their ministrations, are compelled to toil on the Sabbath. Yet they are not to blame : for ye need their ministrations, and Man is greater than temple and Sabbath." Once more : He reminds them of a weighty saying of one of their own Prophets : " But if ye had known what this meaneth — ' I desire mercy, and not sacrifice ' (Hosca vi. 6) — ^ye would not have condemned the guiltless." And His argument is this : " Hosea him- self declares that when Mercy comes into collision with ritual, so that the one or the other must yield, God prefers the Mercy to the ritual. Now if ye really had understood this saying of the Prophet, ye would never have con- demned My disciples for satisfying their hunger on the Sabbath. For, as Man is greater than institutions, so Mercy is greater than rubric." Then follows the passage setting forth Christ's Genesis of the Sabbath : " And He said to them : ' The Sabbath for Man was made, and not Man for the Sabbath : therefore the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath ' " (Matt. xii. i-8). Again : On another Sabbath, as He was teaching in one of the synagogues of Galilee, a man was present whose right hand was withered. And the Scribes and Pharisees were watching whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. But He knew their thoughts : and He said to the man having the withered hand : " Pise, and stand up in the midst ! " And he arose, and stood up. And Jesus said to them : " I ask you whether it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do evil ? to save life, or to kill ? " But they were silent. And He said to them : " "Wlio of 262 STUDIES IN THE CREA.TIVE WEEK. you that owneth one sheep, if it fall into a pit on the Sab- bath, \dll not lay hold of it, and to lift it out ? Of how much more worth now is a Man than a sheep ? So then it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath." And, looking round on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. He saith to the man : " Stretch forth thy hand ! " And he stretched it forth, and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees were filled with madness, and went forth, and immediately held a consultation with the He- rodians against Him, how they might destroy Him (Matt. xU. 9-14). Again : On still another Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues of the Perea. And, lo, a woman was there who had had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years : and she was bent together, and wholly unable to lift her- self up. And Jesus, seeing her, called to her, and said : " TVoman, thou art released from thy infirmity." And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she stood upright, and gave glory to God. But the ruler of the synagogue, being filled with indignation because Jesus had wrought a cure on the Sabbath-day, said to the multitude : " There are eix days in which it is proper to work : in these there- fore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath-day." But the Lord answered him and said : " Hypocrites, doth not each of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away and water him ? And oucrht not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be loosed from her bond on the Sabbath-day ? " And when He had said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed (Luke liu. lO-iT). Again : On a certain Sabbath Jesus was dining with one of tlie chief men of the Pharisees. And, lo, there was a certain man present who had the dropsy. And they were watch- ing Him. But Jesus knew their thoughts, and, answering, GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 263 spake to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying : " Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day or not ? " But they held their peace. And, taking hold of him, He healed him, and sent him away. And He answered them and said : " Who is there of you, who, if his ass or his ox fall into a pit, will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath-day ? " And they could make no answer to this (Luke xiv. i-6). Once more : On a certain occasion, when Jesus was in Jerusalem, He found lying by the Pool of Bethesda an impotent man, who had had his infirmity thirty-eight years, and He said to him : " Pise, take up thy bed, and walk ! " And straight- way the man was cured, and took up his bed and walked. But it happened that the day on which this miracle was wrought was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore were hor- ror-struck, and said to the man that had been cured : " It is the Sabbath-day ! It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed." Jesus, in self-justification, replied: "My Father worketh hitherto — is working even until now, and I work." And on this account the Jews pei-secuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He did these things on the Sabbath- day (John V. 1-18). Months afterward, in refemng to this cure, He justified Himself on the ground that rubric must yield to mercy — ordinances to men : " I have done one work, and ye are all wondering. Moses gave to you cir- cumcision, and ye on the Sabbath circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath-day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are ye angry at Me, because I made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath-day ? " (John vii. 21-24.) In other words : If the Sabbath must yield to man in the case of the mutilating rite of circumcision, how much more ought it to yield to man in the case of re- storing soundness to his whole body ! In view of these instances of Christ's teaching and practice, how resistless 264 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. the conviction that He believed that Man is greater than the Sabbath ! And yet He did not mean to diminish the obligation of the Sabbath : He meant only to emancipate it from the thrall of Pharisaic sanctimoniousness and super- stition. He destroyed not the Sabbath, but brought out its real meaning : and so in deepest sense He kept the Sabbath. God for evermore avert the day when the Ameri- can Sabbath degenerates into the European ! From what has been said, we cannot 3.-ThetrueMeth- ^^^i ^^ j^f^j. ^^^ ^^^^^ Method of Keep- Sabbath ^^S *^^ Sabbath : it is to be kept in such a way as will unfold Man heavenward the most thoroughly, totally, symmetrically. Thus : Being made for Man, the Sabbath must be used religiously : for the capacity for religion is Man's chief definition. The Sabbath must be kept in homage of God, in the study of His Word and Character and Will, in the spirit of worship, private and public. But full unfolding of Man's spiritual na- ture is possible only in the sphere of Edification, or Society- building. The Sabbath summons man to conjugate life in a new mood and tense ; but still in tlie active voice. And here the Son of Man is our Teacher and blessed Model. How many of His healings and works of mercy were wrought on the Sabbath-day ! And what is man's office in this fallen, sorrowful world, but a ministry of healing? And healing, or edification, is the highest form of wor- ship. Nothing can take the place of it. True, it is right and necessary that we engage in forms and acts of devotion, going to the House of God with the voice of joy and praise, with the multitude keeping holyday (Ps. xlii. 4). Neverthe- less, this is the minor part of worsliip. Is not this the fast, the service, the liturgy, which God hath chosen — to loosen the bands of wickedness, to undo tlic heavy burdens, to let GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 265 the oppressed go free, to break every yoke, to deal tliy bread to tlie hungry, to bring the poor that are east out to thy house, to clothe the naked ? (Is. iviii. 6, 1.) Ko one truly keeps the Sabbath, unless he keeps it as Christ kept it : and He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil (Acts x. 38). Again : Man's spirit, at least while in this world, lives in a body. And here comes up a question in casuistry, intensely practical, which each one must decide for himself. How far is it right for me to do on the Sabbath things which are confessedly secular ? Let me illustrate : Here is a poor, hard-working laborer, e. g., a shoemaker, or tailor, or operative. Six days in the week he bends over his last, or sits cross-legged, or manipu- lates wearily amid the din and whirl of an ill-ventilated factory. AYhen night comes, he is too jaded to enjoy even his family, and early seeks the unconsciousness of slumber. And so the tiresome days creep on till the Sabbath comes — the day appointed in God's providential working as Na- ture's compensation reservoir. In the morning our friend goes to the sanctuary, and is spiritually refreshed by its ministrations. But God has given him a body as \vell as a spirit — an aesthetic nature as well as a moral. Afternoon comes — a bright summer's afternoon — and our weary la- borer says to himself : " Oh that I could go out to the park to-day, and look on my Father's glorious trees and beauti- ful flowers, and breathe His fresh, pure, sweet air ! I am sure it would make me stronger and more worshipful ! Will it be wrong for me to go ? " Suppose the Lord Jesus Christ Himself were again on earth ; how do you think He would answer the question? I wiU tell you how I think He would answer it. He would say : " The Sabbath was made for Man, and not Man for the Sabbath. If you think it will do you good to take a stroll in the park, if it 13 266 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. will make you more reverent in spirit, if it will lielj) you to engage in your business the coming week more cheerily and effectively, and so honor Me more truly, then go ! I am not confined to temples made with hands. I made the trees as well as the sanctuary, the flowers as well as the pews, Nature as well as Scripture. That is the best kept Sabbath which is kept in such a way as to unfold you heavenward most totally — ^you who are spirit and soul and body (1 Thess.v. 23). This is the meaning and pur2:)ose of the Sabbath. It was made for you, not you for it. If, then, you think it will do you most good in every way to go to the park, go ; and the blessing of the Lord of the Sabl)ath go with you ! " — But, observe, because this man may have the right to go to the park, it does not follow that every one has the same right. As a matter of fact, circumstances do alter cases. He who forbade Mary to touch Him al- lowed Thomas (John XX. 17, 27). It is easy enough for a ruler of the synagogue, or a rich man of leisure, to say : " There are six days in which it is proper to work ; on these, there- fore, go and be cured ; but not on the Sabbath-day " (Luke xiii. 14). But, as a matter of fact, this poor friend of ours, by the very terms of our supposition, cannot, without what to him is a large expense, avail himself of the health and beauty and gladness of God's own Nature on the week days. What, then, may be right for the poor man may be wrong for the rich man. We must study circumstances. God treats us as men, not as babes. We must exercise our own best judgment. Not all things which are lawful are expedient (i Cor. vi. 12). The law of edification holds here in supreme force. While lenient to others, refusing to judge our brotlier in matters of casuistry, we must be severe with ourselves. Or if we judge at all, let our judg- ment rather be this, not to put a stumbling-block, or an GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 2G7 occaoion to fall, in a brother's way (Rom. xiv. 13). Each per- son must decide for liimself wliicli is the best way of keep- ing the Sabbath, i. e., the best way of unfolding to the fullest all his own powers heavenward ; for this is the very purpose for which the Sabbath has been made. Such, it seems to me, is Christ's Doctrine of the Sab- bath. And if any one has the right to define the Sabbath it is He, even that Son of Man Who is the Lord of the Sab- bath. But I hear some objections to this 4.-Objections. ^ .^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ Sabbath. It is but fair to consider them. And, first : " This view of the Sab- (ri.)-" Allows too i^j^^i^ .^iiQ^g ^QQ ^^^^^ liberty." My an- much Liberty." ^^^^^ .^ twofold. First : there are two ways of treating men, either as infants, incapable of guid- ing themselves, or as men, capable of reasoning, and so of self-guidance. The first was the Mosaic way, the Church being a minor, under tutors and governors, and the law being a letter, graven on tablets of stone : the second is the Christly way, the Church having come into the posses- sion of the privileges of majority, and the law being a spirit, graven on tablets of heart (Gal. iv. i-i • 2 Cor. m. 3). The first is the Romanist way, or the method of dictation, and so of slaveship : the second is the Protestant way, or the method of reasoning, and so of self-decision. Now it so happens, in the order of God's In-spiration, that the New Testament expressly mentions the Sabbath as being precisely one of those things concerning which each man is to be the law to himself : " Let no one judge you in eating or drinking, or in the matter of a holyday, or a new moon, or a Sabbath" (Col. ii. I6).' Yes, Jesus Christ ' Compare carefully, in this connection, St. Paul's discussion of the Law of Liberty in matters of casuistry, as set forth in Koni. xiv., xv. 1-7 ; 1 Cor. vi. 12-20, viii. Were these 268 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. does call His Cliurcli unto " liberty." But, secondly : Lib- erty is itself responsibility. The slave cannot understand, in any tliorougb, just sense, the meaning of the august word Responsibility ; none but the freeman can understand it. And just because the New Testament gives me liberty in the matter of the Sabbath, I am bound to be more con- scientious about it than was the Old Testament Jew. Ah, friends, it is easier to be a Hebrew than a Christian. But I hear a second objection : (&.) — "Perilous.' . r^ i ^ .-i • -i " Your View oi the Sabbath is danger- ous : men will pervert it, perhaps to their own perdition." Of course they may. It is one of the prerogatives of Truth to be 23erverted. Thus the Pharisees, as we have seen, perverted the teachings of the Lord of Truth in this very matter of the Sabbath, persecuting Him because, as they charged. He was a Sabbath-breaker ; whereas no one, before or since, has ever fulfilled the Ideal of the Sabbath so perfectly as this same " Sabbath-breaker." In fact, all truth is "dangerous," and the higher the truth, the more dang-erous. What trath so blessed as the tnith of Free Grace ? And yet what truth so perilous, and so often sui- cidally abused ? Meanwhile, Christ's Truth is ever able to take care of itself ; it is only falsehood that needs buttress- ing. Uzzahs, undertaking to steady Jehovah's Ark, as though it were in real danger, ruin themselves (2 Sam. vi. 6-8). Do not undertake then to be wiser or more pradent than the Lord of Truth Himself. Enough for the servant that he be as his lord (Matt. x. 25). The consideration of this grave topic, 5.-Secret of the j^]^!,^^ y, it lias bccn SO meagrely dis- Sabbath Victory. , . . . -, n rr.i cussed, IS in itsell opportune. Ine Sabbath question is one of the questions of the age, more inspired precopts more scnipulously observed, what a tliinning out there would be of tbo self-appointed Censors of the brethren I GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 269 talked about in the field and workshop and factory than we ministers dream. It is a question which we ministers must look squarely in the face. The foe is keen and powerful. Before such an enemy the question is not to be settled by ijise dixlts, or citations of ancestral creeds. If we would win the fight, we must wage battle on solid, abiding ground. How then shall we meet the question ? I know no other way than that which the Lord of the Sabbath has Himself indicated. The Sabbath was made for Man, not Man for the Sabbath. The basis of the Sab- bath is not God's outward, graven letter, but Man's in- ward, personal need. Meet the foe on the ground of the Mosaic ordinance, and you are bound to lose : for Mosaism was local and transient. Meet the foe on the ground of Man's need, and you are bound to win : for you have Na- ture, and Nature's Lord, on your side. Before closine; our study, it will be TIL— The Change , ^ i x i • +i ^ ^ , ^ proper to say a tew words touchmo; the from Saturday to ^^ '' o i i i _<• i o, g^j^^^ change oi the Sabbath irom tlie Sev- enth Day to the First — from Saturday to Sunday. How was this tremendous change brought about I Tremendous, I say, for, considering the circum- stances of the case, the change was nothing less than a moral revolution. When we remember that the Seventh Day had received the august sanction of the Creator's own example from the very beginning : that the commandment to keep the Seventh Day holy, proclaimed as it had been amid the trumpet clangs and lightnings and quakings and Divinely-ordained barricades of Sinai, was distinctly and emphatically based on the Creator's own exami)le in Eden (Ex. XX. 8-11) : that the keeping the Seventh Day had been distinctly set forth as one of the badges of the Jewish Nationality (Ex. xxxi. 16, 17) : that the keeping the Seventh 270 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Day had been promised the most glorious of rewards (Is. iviii. 13, 14), and that the breaking the Seventh Day had been threatened the direst of penalties — even death itself (Ex. xxxi. 14, 15) : that for more than fifteen hundred years the Hebrew people, with here and there an exception in times, of immense apostasy, had scrupulously observed the Sev- enth Day as the Divinely-appointed Sabbath : that this ob- servance had never been so scrupulous as in the days of Jesus Christ Himself — it being, in fact, the very point at which, as we have seen. He came into oftenest and sharp- est collision with His adversaries, and which was one of the precipitating causes of His premature death : that the saintly women, who had bravely stood by the Cross, and were yearning to minister to their dead Lord the last sepul- chral honors, yet scrupulously refrained from doing so be- cause the Seventh Day was over the land (Luke xxiii. 55, 56 ; xxiv. 1) : that the Apostles were Jews, and as such shared in the intense conservatism and traditionalism of their race : that there is no record of any Divine command to substitute the First Day for the Seventh : when we re- member all this, we are forced to admit that the change from Saturday to Sunday was indeed nothing less than a tremendous revolution. But revolutions do not take place without causes. How then will you account for this stu- pendous revolution ? It is a fair question for the philo- sophical historian to ask. Here is a venerable, sacred in- stitution — hallowed by the Creator's own Example in Eden, solemnly enjoined amid the thunders of Sinai, distinctly set apart as one of the chief signs that Israel was God's chosen, covenanted people, majestically buttressed by lofti- est promises in case of observance, and by direst threats in ease of non-observance, freighted with the solemn weight of fifteen centuries of sacred associations and scrupulous GENESIS OF THE SABBATH. 271 observance — suddenly falling into disuse, and presently supplanted by another Day, which to this year of Grace has held its own amid the throes of eighteen centuries. How then will you account for this stupendous revolution ? It is, I repeat, a fair question for the philosophical histo- rian to ask. And the philosophical historian knows the answer- Jesus the Nazarene had been crucified. All through the Seventh Day or Hebrew Sabbath He had lain in Joseph's tomb. In that tomb, amid solitude and darkness and grave-clothes, He had grappled in mortal duel with the King of Death, and had thrown him, and shivered his Sceptre. At the close of that awful Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the First Day of the Week (Matt, xxviii. 1), He had risen triumphant from the dead. And by and in the very fact of that tri- umphant Kising, He had henceforth and for evermore emblazoDcd the First Day of the Week as His own royal, supernal Day, even Time's first, true Sabbath. Ah, the Primitive Church needed no command. Conscious of their need of a Sabbath, and aware that the Hebrew Sev- enth Day, like the other institutions of the Sinaitic Econ- omy, had shared Christ's Sepulclire, but not Christ's Resur- rection, it was enough for them, and it is enough for us, that He Who Himself was the Lord of the Sabbath, and greater than Sinai and Eden, had risen on Sunday. By as much then as Spirit is nobler than matter : by as much as Grace is^ grander than law : by as much as the Eden to come is sublimer than the Eden that has been : by as much as a finished Redemption is auguster than a finished Crea- tion : by so much does the day which commemorates the achievement of a Redeemer transcend the day which com- memorates the achievement of a Creator. Not that the eai'lier achievement was not glorious : but it has ceased to be 272 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. glorious by reason of the Glory which excelleth (2 Cor. iii. lo). Ay, Saturday was but the Sabbath of Creation, Sunday is the Sabbath of Redemption : Saturday the Sabbath of the first Adam, Sunday the Sabbath of the Second Adam : Satur- day the Sabbath of Nature, Sunday the Sabbath of Grace : Saturday the Sabbath of tlie letter, Sunday the Sabbath of the Spirit : Saturday the Sabbath of perdition by Sinai, Sunday the Sabbath of Salvation by Calvary: Saturday the Sabbath of a rejected, executed, entombed Jesus, Sun- day the Sabbath of a Risen, Exalted, Triumphant Christ : Saturday Creator's day, Sunday Redeemer's Day. "Hail, Thou Lord of earrti and heaven ! Praise to Thee by both be given ! Thee we greet triumphant now ! Ilail the Resurrection, Thou! " — (Wesley.) Finally : Jesus Christ Himself is our ,l^-~f.^T^^'!''f Sabbath, alike its origin, its meaning. Himself Our Sab- . . ' j t i- ^ xi \c i I- , ., and its end. in tact, tlie final cause or the Sabbath is to Sabbatize each day and make all life sacramental. And Jesus Christ being our true Sabbath, Jesus Christ is also our true Rest — even the spir- it's everlasting Eden. May it be for us all evermore to be in the Lord's own Spirit on the Lord's own Day (Rev. i. lo)! So shall we keep His Sabbath as a Resurrection festival. Why seek ye the Living One among the dead 'I He is not here : He is Risen, as He said (Luke xxlv. 5, 6). Ours is not the Church of the Sepulchre : ours is the Church of the Resurrection. May it be for us all evermore to feel the power of His Resurrection (Phil. iii. lO), and so to enter the Sabbath's rest which remaincth for His people (Ilcb. iv. lo) ! Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. LECTUEE XIV. PALINGENESIS, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness ; looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Never- theless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dvvelleth righteousness."— 2 Peter iii. 10-13. We have now completed our study of L-The Retro- the Story of the Creative Week. Stand- ^'^^^^^' ing at the goal, it is natural for ns to look backward, and review the tield we have traversed. Even the Creator Himself, at the close of the Sixth Day, reviewed His own work, and took delight in it : " God saw every- thing that fee had made, and, behold, it was very good " (Gen. i. 31). May the Spirit of God help ns as we also vent- ure to join in the sacred Eeview ! Accordingly, ascending once more the Mount of Panoramic Yision, let us gaze with the inspired Seer on the unfolding sections of the Creative Week. Go we back, then, to an indefinite sand years : it may be six hundred thou- sand : it may be six million million : it matters not : enough 274 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. that it is sublimely called " The Beginning." The curtain uplifts. It is the First Scene. Alas, it is no scene at all ! Nothing but universal, absolute, infinite Space. "Illimitable, .... without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place, are lost." — (" Paradise Lost.") 2_T1 E • • k for. These words, I have no man- Heavens and Earth. ' ner of doubt, are to be taken literally. For we must be consistent : if we take the prophecy of the coming dissolution as literal, we must take the prophecy of the coming renovation as hteral. In all events, the burden of proof lies with him who accepts the one proph- ecy as literal, and declares the other prophecy spiritual. Beware of that attenuated, superfine transcendentalism which still tinges the modern Christian philosophy in the matter of the Future State. This extreme, unreal super- .spirituality is a relic of the old Zoroastrian doctrine of Dualism, which the Manicheans injected into Christianity, or, rather, on which they imposed a few of the Christian truths. It is amazing that a notion so thoroughly heathen was not long ago uprooted out of Christian theology. Were we pagans, we might join in the famous thanksgiv- ing of the Egyptian Plotinus that he was not tied to an immortal body, and, like him, refuse to have our portraits taken, on the ground that the human body is a thing too contemptible to have its image perpetuated. Ko ; Matter is no more inherently evil than Spirit is. The real antith- esis to God is not Matter, but Sin. When the Creative Dixit was pronounced, and the universe of Matter sprang into being, God saw all that He had made, and, behold, it was very good (.Gen. i. 3i). Moreover, it seems impossible — at least so long as we are constituted as we now are — that the spirit should consciously exist without a body. Ac- cordingly, the Apostle Paul longs, not to be unclothed, but clothed upon : not to be stripped of his earthly house and raiment, and so wander, a houseless, raimentlcss, disembod- ied spirit — hovering, like a ghostly phantom, an empty shadow, in the blank spaces of eternity : but he longs to PALIJfGENESIS. 287 be housed with his tabernacle— clothed upon with his rai- ment — which is from heaven — even that nobler, spiritual, pneumatic body wliich shall serve as the perfect vehicle and instrument of his spirit as redeemed, beatified, perfect- ed in the Paradise of his God (2 Cor. v. 1-4). But a body like this, however ethereal, is still material. And a ma- terial body must have a material home. Accordingly, I firmly believe that Heaven is a j^lace as well as a state, a locality as well as a character. In fact, it is precisely be- cause Heaven is a material locality that the present Earth is a training-school for Heaven. It is the material world round us to-day which serves as the arena for personal self- discipline. As a matter of fact, we do receive our moral training for eternity in to-day's school of Matter. It is the material world coming in contact with our moral person- alities, through the senses of touching and seeing and hear- ing and tasting, which is really and continuously testing our moral character. It is, therefore, a very solenm thought that the way in which we are impressed by every object we consciously see or touch is probing us, and will testify for us or against us on the great Day of God. Heaven grant that it may testify for us ! Thus the two worlds — the present and the future — are, in a sense, related to each other as means to ends. What we sow here we shall reap there : and the harvest will, of course, be of the same nature as the seed. Accordingly, I believe that the new iJ^L'^'llTZ !'«*™-^ ""ecially as that future is so little understood by us. Here, in this life, at any rate, at our very feet, is a world of suffering, which is to be alleviated : a world of ignorance, to be enlightened : a world of sorrow, to be comforted : a world of wickedness, to be purified. These are present duties staring us in the face. And the motives to the discharge of them, furnished by the actual misery of the race, are, or at least ought to be, sufficiently powerful, without seeking to strengthen them by motives drawn from a distant and comparatively obscure futurity." Now, in reply to this presentation of the case, and I think that those who hold this view will admit that I have presented it fairly, I answer that such sentiments are in- deed fine-sounding, and really have the appearance of a superior gcnerousness and magnanimity. I further admit that such sentiments are, to a certain extent, just. I will keep pace with the extremest of these philanthropists, and say that our duties are to bo found in the sphere of the PALINGENESIS. 295 present, I, too, insist on it that the noblest life a man can live is a life of Christian self-sacrifice for the good of others. And if a professing disciple of the Nazarene be so intent on the future that he overlooks the present — if his eyes be so dazzled by the coming crown that he sees not, much less stoops to give his helping hand to, the shapes of Poverty and Woe that throng his pathway as with flying feet he speeds on in his selfish race — I say of this professing Christian that he is leading an ignoble and false life, untrue to the world, untrue to himself, untrue to his God. ]^o, the truest life a man can live is a life of love to others in view of the Immortality that is proffered to all. And the philanthropy that draws none of its mo- tives, the philanthropy that does not draw its chief mo- tive, from that Immortality which was brought to light at Joseph's opened tomb, is an earth-born, narrow, transient philanthropy, born with the butterfly, and with the butter- fly dying. Tell a man that though there are to be new heavens and new earth, yet he had better not dwell too much on the theme — had better banish it from liis thoughts, and leave the Hereafter in the hands of his God, and de- vote himself to the stern duties of the present : tell him this : and you might as well teU him : " There is no Heaven. There is no Hereafter." For he will practically say to himself : " If the prizes of Immortality are to be kept out of mind: if, while I theoretically admit that there is a Heaven, I am practically to forget it : if I am to devote myself wholly to the present, even though it be for the good of others, and live in oblivion of the Hereafter : what is Immortality worth to me ? What care I for Im- mortality ? Let m.e eat and drink, for to-morrow I die." I tell you, my friends, it is only when a man feels within himself his immortality, and catches glimpse of the Pahn 296 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. and the Sceptre and tlie Diadem, that he will act like an immortal being. Keep Heaven out of sight, and man will believe himself to be but an ephemeron — the brilliant-hued but short-lived insect of a day, conscious, if consciousness can be said to belong to a creature so ignoble, of nothing but the worm from which it has just sprung, and the dust to which it is swiftly doomed. Thank God, not so did the Apostle Peter think. He at least believed and felt in his inmost soul that the doctrine of the Future Life was a doctrine of transcendent practical importance and power. Seeing that ye look for these things, even the new heavens and new earth, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasten- ing the coming of the Day of God ? Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. Ah, it was this coming of the Day of God, when the re- turning Nazarene shall descend in great power and pomp to set up His Kew Heavens and Earth, that was the Apos- tle's grand inspiration. I do not think that there could be a nobler theme for the greatest genius among earth's ar- tists, whether painter or sculptor, than these three lines of Watts : " While vi-e expect that blessed Hope, The bright Appearance of the Lord, And Faith stands leaning on His word." And observe : St. Peter not only looked for and longed for the coming of the Day of God : he also would, if it were possible, hasten the coming, giving it the accelerat- ing, blessed momentum of the whole Church's gravitation : looking for and hastening the coming of the Day of God. And as it was with the Apostle Peter, so was it with the whole church in that pristine age. Especially does this PALINGENESIS. 297 Apostolic expectation of the New Genesis, or re-creation of Nature, gleam out in the Epistles of Paul, making them iridescent with the ever-changing tints of the heavenly clime. Look at the writings of this Hero-Spirit. Xo fine, unmanly sentimentalizings are there about death. No feeble, effeminate talk about the peace and repose of the grave. No nerveless lying down in the funeral shroud. But the buckling on of a stouter armor — the straighten- ing up for a nobler, swifter race — the breathing in for a mightier grapple with the Powers of the world to come. Come, ye who think it a weakness to be dwelling much on the approaching sj^lendors, and who deem it more noble and magnanimous to forget the future in an arduous and unselfish devotion to present duties: come, survey this Hero of the Ages. Call ye him weak whose mighty spirit no dungeon could imj^rison, no chains fetter, no Csesar daunt, no executioner's axe rufl[le ? Call ye him selfish who could have wished, had it been right and j^ossible, that he were accursed from Christ for the sake of his brethren — his kinsmen according to the flesh : and yet who, not- withstanding such intensity of patriotism, also felt tliat he was debtor to Gentile as well as to Jew (Rom. i. 14, ix. 3) ? Call ye such a Hero, living though he did in the far-off islands that fleck the heavenly deeps, weak and ignoble and selfish ? And yet the secret of this man's strength and grandeur and victory was his hold on the coming Avorld. Look, I again ask you, at the writings of this kingly man. See how they blossom with the efllorefecence and exhale with the perfumes of the coming Eden. In them you behold a translated soul : a man whose body is on the earth that now is, but whose spirit is on the earth that is to be. It is as though that sea of glory, which his fellow-apostle saw in visions of Patmos, had been let down with St. Paul when 298 STUDIES IN TUE CREATIVE WEEK. lie descended from tliat third heaven into which he had once been canght up, and now swells and surges and breaks in celestial thunder on the barriers and reefs of his own human but majestic diction. And as it was in the first century, so it is in the nineteenth. The certainty of a Hereafter, big with all manner of eternal weights of glory, is still the awakening, purifying, buttressing, up] if ting force for Society. Let the sense of immortality once be aroused — let the power of an endless life once be felt : and the moral nature, however sunken, steps forth as from a tomb, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. " All greatest souls stretch themselves on the framework of the invisi- ble : " growing pure and strong and victorious by moving in the kinship of the coming eternals. He that hath this Hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure (1 John iii. 3). "Wherefore, brethren, seeing, that ye look for such things, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy behavior and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the Day of God ? Give all diligence then to become spotless and blameless, and so, when He comes, be found by Him in peace. So shall you, too, in company with those who have overcome, stand on the sea of glass, mingled with fire. So shall you too have haii3s of God, and shall evermore sing the Song of Moses, as he chants the ode of the first Creation, and the Song of the Lamb as He chants the pasan of the Second (Rev. xv. 2, 3). Such is the twofold Story of Crea- A Farewell Rrayer. t-ij xi ^ i tion — the story 01 the Lden that has been, and the Story of the Eden that is to be. May it not be in vain that we have thus sped from Eden to Eden ! All of us fellow-sharers in the disinheritance from the Eden that has been, may all of us, through Grace abound- ing, be fellow-sharers in the Inheritance of the Eden that PALINGENESIS. 299 is to be ! This is my farewell wish for each one of you, whether acquaintance or stranger. God grant my prayer even to-day ! So shall you be numbered among the spirits of the just made perfect, even those righteous ones who are to dwell on the New Earth domed by the New Heavens. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the b.eginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. APPENDIX. ARCnETYPAL FORMS AND TELIG FIGURATION'S. APPENDIX. ARCHETYPAL FORaiS AND TELIC FIGURATIONS/ " My substance was not liid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect ; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." — Psalm cxxxix. 15, 16. The theme we propose to establish is this : All natural structures are Telic Figurations from Archetypal Forms. At the outset, then, it is needful 1 iDoUs. orm ^1^^^^ ^^^ distino;uish carefully between and Figure. ^ -^ Form and Figure : not that the dis- tinction is to be found in the books, although it seems to me it ought to be. Form, in the large, philosophical sense of the teiTn, is not so much shape or visible outline as that prior, ideal Something which constitutes a given thing what it is — which is the essentiality of it. The Fomi is the Idea existing independently of Matter. The figure is the Form actualized in the sphere of Matter — the Idea materialized. Thus the Form is the essential : the figure • The substance of this Lecturn was delivered some years afro before the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. The author adds it to the precedins series because it is pertinent to the greneral scope of the Creative Week, considered as a Precreative Plan. It is but just to add that the subject-matter was sufrgested to him many years apo in reading "Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation," by Professors M'Cosh and Dickie. 304 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. an incidental. The Form is invariable : the fignre vari- able. The Form is common to a class : the figure is an individual of that class. The Form is the invisible, ideal Plan : the figure is a visible, more or less close copy from that Plan. The Form is the precedent Idea : the figure is the Form as it appears when it comes within the range of our senses. Let me illustrate. A caterpillar passes from the state of the larva into the state of the butterfly : it is an instance of transfiguration, not of transformation. True, we speak of the change as a " metamorphosis ; " but the metamorphosis is only phenomenal — a change in figure : it is not radical, or a change of Form or identity. The Form, which no mortal eye has seen or can see, is common to the caterpillar and the buttei-fly : the cater- pillar and the butterfly are different figurations from the one invisible Form. Were it possible for the caterpillar to be changed from an articulate into a mollusk or a verte- brate : i. e., were it possible for the caterpillar to undergo " transformation of species : " the change would in that case be more than a transfiguration : it would be a transforma- tion, or metamorpliosis in the strict sense of the term. This distinction between Form and The Distinction pjpr^.^. seems tO be recognized in Script- recognized in Script- ^ -p, ., -r> , /. i j. xi • ure. Jb. ff. : " Be not connmired to this ure. ~ ~ world, but be transformed by the re- newing of your mind;" i. e., nndergo more than trans- figuration — nndergo transforaiation (Rom. xii. 2). Again : Christ Jesus, " being in the Form of God," was " found in figure as a man ; " i. e., the Pre-incarnate Son was in the Fonn, the primal, essential Form of God : the Incarnate Son appeared in the figure — the assumed, incidental figure of a man : in other words, the Logos Incarnate was, so to speak, a visible figm'ation from the invisible Form of the APPENDIX. 305 Logos Pre-incamate (Phil. ii. 5-8). Once more : " Who will transfigure the body of onr humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His Glory " (Phil. iii. 21). Human identity lies not in the visible, incidental, variable figure : it lies in the invisible, essential, archetj'pal Form. Ac- cordingly, the Resurrection, or Spiritual Body, is not a re- emergence of the figure, but a new and nobler figuration from the Archetypal Fonn. That Archetypal Form, as in the case of the caterpillar and butterfly just cited, is common to the present figure, or natural body, and the coming figure, or spiritual body. It is in that Arche- t}^al Form that the identity consists. The Resurrection, then, will be a transfiguration, not a transformation. The same thing may be said of the New Heavens and Earth. The present heavens and the present earth are to be de- stroyed, not in \\\Qi sense of annihilation, but of transfig- uration (2 Peter iii. 10-13). The fashion, figure, cryrnxa^ of this world is passing away (i Cor. vii. 31) : but the Form, fiopcf)/), of it is abiding. In the Palingenesis, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His Glory (Matt. xix. 28), the new Cosmos will be identical in Fonri with the pres- ent, but it will be a new figuration. In like manner, as we saw in the Tenth Lecture, Jesus Christ Himself, in creating man on the Sixth Day, was the Archetjqjal Man. Foreknowing all things from the beginning, foreseeing that as Incarnate He would add to His eternal God- head a human spirit and soul and body : the Creative Word of God (John i. 1-3), even the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. xiii. 8), speaking, as it would seem, in the imperial plural, makes solemn annunciation : " We will make man in Our Image, after Our Likeness " (Gen. i. 26). In the order of time, the Son of God made HimseK like to man : in the order of purpose, the Son of 306 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. God made man like to Himself. Thus was Jesns Christ the Original, Archetypal Man. From Himself He mod- eled mankind : He the Form, mankind the figure. Ah, this it is which constitutes the true dignity of Human Nature : grand in its origin, grand in its destiny : grand in its origin, because modeled after Christ's own Image : still grander in its destiny, because appointed to share in the ineffable Glory awarded to Jesus as an incarnate sufferer and victor (Phil. ii. 5-11). The Son of God made man after the model, not of an angel, but of Himself ; the saint, therefore, renewed in the Image of Him Who created him (Col. Hi. 10), shall yet be exalted above angel and archangel, cherub and seraph. Know ye not that we shall judge angels ? (i Cor. v'. 3).' Now these primal, essential, invari- Definition of Arche- i i t? i j. t able, unseen Jborms are wJiat i mean type. by Archetypes. The term itself, it is hardly necessary to state, is a compound word : apxt'h ^^- ginning, and tutto?, stamp. An archetype, then, is the prototype, the original fundamental Form, the j^recedent, essential Idea. As such it does not have an objective, concrete existence in the world of matter. It is only the original pattern, the preexistent idea, as we suppose it to lie in the Divine Mind. Archetypes are, so to speak, the Creator's Thoughts before they are materialized into or represented in things : they are the typal font of God's Ideas impressed on the visible page of creation. The material, objective universe is a myriadfold illustra- tion of a few Archetypal Plans or Ideas in the Mind of the Creator. * For instructive comments on tlie Scriptural distinction between iiopi^ri and o-x^^ia, Form and Figure, see Trencli's "New Testament Synonyms," Section Ixx. ; Lijjhtfoot's " Notes on the Epistle to the Philipinans," pp. 1'25-131 ; and Cremor's " Biblico-Theokgical Lexicon of New Testament Greek," p. 438. APPENDIX. 307 " "What time this world's great Workmaister did cast, To make all tilings such as we now hehold, It seems that He before His eyes had plast A goodly patterne, to whose perfect mould He fashioned them as comely as He could, That now so fair and seemly they appear, As naught may be amended anywhere. That wondrous patterne, wheresoe'er it be. Whether in earth, laid up in secret store. Or else in heaven, that no man may it see With sinful eyes, for fear it to deflore. Is perfect beauty." — (Spenser.) To restate : the Arclietypal Doctrine, then, is briefly this : All natural structures are visible figurations, more or less exact, from ideal Forms. And now let us glance at some il- Illustrations of , , ,. /• ,i t\ x • -n ■ , , ,-r, lustrations oi the Doctrine — illustra- Archetypal lorms. . i • i t tions which, I trust, will also serve as confirmations. The field is universe-wide : of course I must content myself with selections. ,, . We take our first illustration from i rom Motion. the world of Motion. The modern theory of atomic motion is built upon the Idea of an Arehety])al Energy, which energy itself is, in the present stage of Science, conceived as motion. In other words : the originating, initial Force, whatever that unknow^l thing be, takes on in action different aspects, guises, modes, figures. E. g., in a lump of coal, which itself, we are told, is but a mass of " condensed sunbeams," Force appears in the condition of chemical union and molecular aggregation ; ignite the coal, and the Force assumes the guise of heat and light : imprison the heat in a boiler of water, and the Force emerges in the expansive power of steam ; let the expansive power of steam press against 308 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. a piston, and tlie Force reappears in the moving train ; or let it press against brakes, and the Force reappears in the heat of friction ; or let it escape through the valve, and the Force reappears in the scream of the whistle. Sound, heat, light, electricity, chemical affinity, magnet- ism, gravitation, seem to be but different modes of Mo- tion. The differences are phenomenal, not elemental ; they are modifications of an Archetypal Form, which, for want of a better name, we call Force, Energy, Motion, etc. In fact, this Idea is the basis of the modern doc- trines of the Convertibility of Forces and Conservation of Energy. The Form is one : the figures are practically in- finite. This doctrine of Convertible and Conservative Energy, let me remark in passing, is eminently true in the sphere of Morals. There is such a thing as metempsy- chosis of Christian Service. Herein is fulfilled the true saying : " One soweth, another reapcth " (John iv. 35-38). Genuine prayer is, sooner or later, here or there, conscious- ly or unconsciously, answered. If our God doth not give to His beloved in their waking hours, He doth in their sleep (Psalm cxxvii. 3). Moral Force, however versatile the guises it assumes, is indestructible. Our next illustration we take from From Number. ,011 c tv-t i the Sphere 01 JN umber. I select for special comment the number Three, which, from its extreme prevalence, we may well call the Arche- typal Number. Thus Three is the basis of Geometry ; it gives us the point, the line, and the surface ; and these are the three Geometric elements. Triangulation is itself one of the master keys of the problems of Space. Again : Three is the basis of Arithmetic. Addition is the union of two numbers, making a third : Subtraction is the separation of two numbers, also making a third ; Multiplication is but a APPENDIX. 309 complex and swift addition, as Division is but a complex and swift subtraction. The Rule of Three is the Golden Rule of Arithmetic, Recall also Kepler's famous problem of the Three Bodies. Again : Three is the basis of crys- tallography. All substances in solidifying tend to crystal- lize. Each substance in crystallizing takes on its own fig- ure. Each figure is built on the framework of three axes. The Triaxis is the Fundamental Form or Archet}T3e of the crystal world. In fact, crystalline axes are the most perfect samples of what I mean by Archetypes, because they are purely ideal. And the whole crystal world is built around the Triaxis. True, we may have numerous sub-classifica- tions of crystals — e. g., the Monometric, the Dimetric, the Trimetric, the Monoclinic, the Diclinic, the Triclinic, etc. — these terms taking their names from the various lengths and positions of the respective axes. But though for sake of convenience and description we may have these various classifications, yet the Triaxial conception includes them all. The author has amused himself for hours, not with- out intellectual and moral profit, in constructing numerous varieties of imaginary crystal figures by simply having a triaxial framework, the axes of which could be lengthened, shortened, rectangled, or inclined at pleasure ; and imposing on the ends of these axes, according to their various lengtlis and positions, tin surfaces of various geometrical figures, e. g., squares, parallelograms, triangles, rhombs, etc., and so building up before his very eyes a crystal figure- world. The ideal Triaxis is the common, invariable, fundamental framework or Archetj^al Form : actual crystals are im- posed, diversified figures. How simple the Form ! How in- finite the figures ! And this is tnie for all worlds, ' Again : ' " New on'stalline forms (flt^ures ?) iiiipht be found in the depths of Space, but the laws of crystallography would be the same that are displayed before us among the crystals of 310 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Three is the basis of Architecture, and, indeed, of every human structure. E. g. : AVhen the axes are equal and rectangular, we have the cubical style, as the square fort, or the square meeting-house of the Pilgrims. Inscribe a sphere in a cube, and bisect it ; the hemisphere be- comes a dome, as the Pantheon. Or when the axes are unequal and rectangular, we have the prismatic style, as the Parthenon, the Cruciform, etc. Inscribe a cylinder in a prism, and we have the column. The Gothic arch is the segment of a dome, or a cylindered prism. Thus, from the Archetypal Form of three axes we can figurate an endless variety of structures. Again : Three is the basis of Mechanics : a something to be moved, a moving force, and an instniment : these are the three essentials of Dy- namics. Again : Three is the basis of Society : Father, Mother, Child : from these Three Humanity in all its manifold relations is derivable. Once more : Three is the basis of Man : Spirit, Soul, Body, Trvevfia, ylrvx>h o-cofj.a ; these, according to Holy Scripture, are the three compo- nents of Man. Thus, everywhere in the universe we see the number Three ; and so everywhere in the universe we may seo a suggestion of the ever Blessed and Adorable Trinity. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the lioly Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. So, too, the laws of Gravitation, Statics, Acoustics, Chemics, Optics, Pneumatics, Magnetics, Astronomies ; the angles of Crystals, the spirals of Plants, the tentacles of Eadiates, the whorls of Mollusks, the rings of Articu- the earth. A text book on Crystallofrraphy, Physics, or Celestial Mechanics, printed in our printinpr-otlices, would servo for the universe. The universe, if open throughout to our explorations, would vastly expand our knowledL'e, and Science mifrht have a more beautiful superstructure ; but its basement laws would be the same."— (Dana' s " Ma>-uai. OF Geology," pp. 3, 4.) APPENDIX. 311 lates, the teeth of Vertebrates, the measures of Poetry and Music, etc. ; these are all reducible to numerical language. It is possible that some Newton may yet discover some Archetypal Number or Numerical Fonn which shall be common to all these endlessly-varied figures. Nor should we forget to mention the Archetypal Seven of Holy Scripture. Indeed, there seems to be a good deal of tnith in the doctrine of Pythagoras that Numbers are the Princijpia of the Universe, the essence of all things, the Paradigms, Trapahecyfiara^ of all that is. Not altogether fanciful is it to talk Avith him of the "Music of the Spheres." " From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began : When Nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head. The tuneful voice was heard from high, Arise, ye more than dead. Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, In order to their stations leap. And Music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony. Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man." —("St. Cecilia's Dat.") Our next illustration we take from From Embryology. ^^^^ ^.^^^^^^ ^^ Primordial Life. It is the teaching' of modern Science that every component of every organic structure is built on the Idea of an Arche- typal Cell, or rather Bioplast, the departures being telic. It is one of the most startling disclosures of the Micro- 312 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. scope. However vast the difference between the full- grown plant and the full-grown animal, plant and animal, at least so far as our present optical powers extend, seem gradually to approach each other as we analyze their com- ponent parts, and finally meet in an apparently common kind of structure — the individual, stnictureless, elementary bio- plast. The Archetypal, Ideal Bioplast is the Form ; the actual plant or animal is a visible figuration from that invis- ible Form. Every actual cell is the transfiguration of the Archetypal cell for a specific purpose : say, e. g., for pro- ducing, in the plant, fibre ; or, in the animal, man. Thus there is community as well as simplicity of Plan in ele- mental structure throughout the Organic w^orld. Yet what endless variety of modification for special purposes ! How diverse, e. g., are leaf, and pollen, and bark — epidermis, and muscle, and bone, and hair, and blood, and brain ! Let Botany furnish us with our next illustration. The modern doctrine of Yegetable Morphology is this : Every part of a plant is built on the Idea of an Archetypal Leaf, the departures being telic. It may be well at this point to indulge in a brief his- toric survey. In the year 1759, Wolff announced his be- lief in the identity of all the various parts of a plant. His language is : " In the whole plant we see nothing but leaves and stalk." His idea was that the different parts of a flower are nothing but green leaves in a state of arrested development. Here is a glimpse of our theory as applied to the vegetable kingdom, viz. : all the parts of a plant are figurations from an Archetypal Leaf. Linnneus, in his " Prolepsis Plantarum," published somewhere between 1Y60 and 1770, uses this singular phrase : " The princi- ple of flowers and leaves is the same." He declared that APPENDIX. 313 the calyx, corolla, stamens, pistils, are each evolved in suc- cession from the leaf, and this evolution he styled prol€j)sis, or anticij^ation. His idea was this : When a plant produces a flower, Nature anticipates the regular jjractice of several years ; that is to say, the plant, instead of bearing regular green leaves several years in succession, suddenly brings them all out simultaneously, so that the leaves, instead of being usually-shaped and green, become the different parts of the flower. In other words, the flower-leaves are stem-leaves anticipated. Here we have an awkward, bun- gling, violent attempt by the great botanist to account for what he felt to be true, and what has since been shown to be true, viz., the community of structure throughout all the parts of a plant. But the first distinct enunciation and elaborate unfolding of the grand principle which is now recognized in the councils of Science as the funda- mental law of vegetable morphology was made, not by an eminent physicist, but by a poet of singularly creative fancy, the weird genius to whose name " Faust " has given immor- tality. In 1790, Goethe gave to the world liis famous " Yersuch, die Metamorj^hose der Pflanzen zu erklaren." His idea was this : All parts of a plant are metamorphoses of its original principle. " Possessed with the idea of a poetic synthesis in !N^ature," and impelled by the over- mastering idea of unity in the vegetable world, he con- ceived that every part of a plant — leaf, calyx, corolla, stamen, pistil, fruit — is a successive metamorphosis of the original cotyledon. Goethe was right in reducing every part of a plant to a community of form. But Goethe was wrong in representing, e. g., the plant-leaves as metamoi'phosed stem-leaves. The true theory is this : not only the floral organs, but every part of the plant, are flgurations for special ends from what we call an Archetypal Leaf : that 14 314 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. is to say, every part of the plant is constructed on the model of an Archetypal Leaf, Wolff in 1759, Linnaeus between 1760 and 1770, Goethe in 1790, De Candolle in 1827, and Schleiden in 1836, alike asserted the commu- nity of structure in the folial and the floral leaves. Wolff explained it on the theory of arrested development ; i. e., as tlie sap ran higher it was less pure, and hence the flower was an evidence of imperfection. Linnaeus explained it on the theory of anticipation. Goethe explained it on the theory of metamorphosis, or development by elabo- rated sap ; i. e., as the sap ran higher, it became more refined, and so, in opposition to Wolff, the flower was an evidence of perfection. De Candolle and Schleiden explained it on the theory of a modified Archetj^al Leaf, And this latter theory may now be considered as estab- lished. Accordingly, Professor Schleiden has constructed the figure of a full-grown Archetypal Plant, every part of which from radix to pistil suggests a leaf. Kot that there is actually existing in the world of matter such a thing as an Archetypal Leaf or Plant, Schleiden's Idea of Leaf and Plant is a scientific creation, conceived for the purpose of meeting as approximately as possible the Archetypal Plan as existing in the Precreative Mind. Approximately, I say ; for since Science, in consequence of the limitations of our finitehood, must necessarily always be more or less imperfect, we can discover the Divine Plans or Archetypes only imperfectly. It. becomes us, then, when explaining these Archetypal thoughts of God, to proceed with diffi- dence and caution. This, in fact, is the real end of Science, viz., to discover, if possible, these moulding, typal thoughts of God. And each science is false, or at least fails of its proper end, in proportion as it leads us away from these primal, modeling thoughts of God. And each science is APPENDIX. 315 true, in proportion as it helps ns to discover, and worship- fully live over again, the moulding, archetypal thoughts of God, anterior to His Creative Fiat. Nor is this theory, that every part of an actual plant is a figuration from an Ideal, Archetypal Leaf, a mere conceit. It seems to be proved by the changes actually occurring in plant-life, as affected by accidents of position, nutriment, exposure, cul- ture, retarded and accelerated developments, etc. As a matter of fact, leaves do sometimes glide into bracts, or into sepals, sepals into petals, petals into stamens, and even stamens into pistils. The theory is confirmed by the phe- nomena of monstrosities, so called. In fact, the art of hor- ticulture is based on this idea of modifying the Arche- typal Leaf. The cultivated flowers of our gardens, such as the rose, tulip, camellia, double or neutral flowers, are examples of " metamorphosed leaves," or rather they are transfigurations of the Archetypal Leaf or Form. Thus the whole vegetable world, with its hundred thousand spe- cies of flora, has community of Plan, built throughout on the Idea of an Archet}^al Leaf. Let the Animal Kingdom supply us From Anatomy. . ^ a a ./ With our next illustration. Suppose we were endowed with creative power, and were purposing to make a world with as many different animals in it as there actually are in this. Two methods would lie before us. Either we might make each animal independently of every other, so that there would be noth- ing common to any two animals, except by accident or whim : or we might have one, two, three, or more plans, ac- cording to one of which we would make one class of ani- mals, according to another of which a second class, and so on. This latter — reverently I say it — has been the Crea- tor's method. Hence the Protozoates, Radiates, MoUuskates, 316 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. Articulates, Vertebrates, of Comparative Anatomy. Let us confine onr attention to that department to which we our- selves belong — the Vertebrates. The modern doctrine of Osteology is this : Every part of every skeleton is built on the Idea of an Archetypal Vertebra, the departures being telic. As in the case of Plants, so here, let me give a brief historic sketch. If, as we have seen, the grand concep- tion of Unity in Nature led an illustrious poet to the theory of vegetable metamorphosis, in order to account for the similarity of structure in plants, we need not be sui*prised that the same conception should have led the same poet to the theory of osseous metamorphosis, in order to account for the similarity of stnicture in certain animals. Profes- sional anatomists, indeed, sneered at the illustrious poet, as a " dabbler in comparative anatomy, who mistook his vo- cation when he left Parnassus for cabbages and bones." But Goethe, though no mathematician or physicist, as the signal failure of his doctrine of colors in opposition to Newton shows, though no metaphysician, was truly poet and philosopher. In fact, the line which separates the great poet from the great philosopher is the narrowest pos- sible, being, so to speak, a line contingent rather than a line absolute. A great philosopher is a great poet with his wings undeveloped. A great poet is a great philosopher with his wings clipped. Between the " Novum Organon " and the " Hamlet " is but an infant's tiny step. Bacon and Shakespeare need to have changed scarcely more than cir- cumstances to have changed fames. It is not strange, then, that a great poet — a true, real poet — should have discov- ered, among cabbages and bones, sublime tniths of which professional and merely scientific botanists and anatomists had never dreamed. Now to Goethe belongs the credit of APPENDIX. 317 being the founder of the grand doctnne of Typal Organic Morphology, i. e., the doctrine that animals, as well as plants, are constructed, with more or less of modifications, after certain Archetypes. The structure of man had al- ways been separated from that of even the highest animals by the assumed fact that man had no intermaxillary bone. But Goethe, in 1784, discovered this precise bone in man. Impelled and guided by the grand conception of Unity in Nature, he reasoned in this way : All animals having in- cisor teeth have also an intermaxillary bone : man has incisor teeth ; therefore man has an intermaxillary bone. " Anatomists, lost in details, and wanting that fundamental conception which now underlies all philosophical anatomy, saw no abstract necessity for such identity of composition, the more so as evidence seemed M'holly against it. But Goethe was not only guided by the true philosophic con- ception ; he was also instinctively led to the true method of demonstration, viz., the comparison of the various modifi- cations which this bone underwent in the animal series. This method has now become the method, and we need to throw ourselves into the historic position to appreciate its novelty at the time Goethe employed it. He found, on comparison, that the bone varied with the nutrition of the animal and the size of its teeth. lie found, moreover, that in some animals the bone was not separated from the jaw ; and in children the sutures were traceable. He admitted that, seen from the front, no trace of the sutures was visi- ble, but on the interior there were unmistakable traces. Examination of the foetal skull has since set the point be- yond dispute." ' Now the discovery, in 1784, on what we ' " Life and Works of Goethe," by G. H. Lewes, vol. ii., p. 140. This entertaining- biog- rapher adds : " I have seen one (a skull) where the bone was distinctly separated ; and I possess the skull of a female, the ossification of which is far advanced at the parietal sutures, yet internally the traces of the intermaxillary are visible." 318 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. may call an a priori method, of the intermaxillary bone, was the prelude to Goethe's Essay on the " Metamorphosis of Plants," published in 1790, and also to his " Sketch of the Universal Introduction to Comparative Anatomy, be- ginning with Osteology," published in 1795, Here we have the first distinct recognition of an osteological Arche- type, To say nothing of the testimonies of Carus, St.- Hilaire, and others, let me cite the testimony of Richard Owen, a supreme authority in such matters : " Goethe had taken the lead in inquiries of this nature, by his determi- nation of the homology of that part of the human upper maxillary bone which is separated by a more or less exten- sive suture from the rest of the bones in the foetus ; and the philosophical principles, propounded in the great phi- losopher's anatomical essays, called forth the valuable la- bors of the kindred spirits, Oken, Bajanus, Meckel, Carus, and other eminent cultivators of anatomical philosophy." ' Before dismissing Goethe, it may be interesting to allude to a curious charge of plagiarism alleged against the illustrious poet. It is the fashion to ascribe the Vertebral Theoiy of the Skull to Lorenz Oken. The current story is that, while rambling in the Hartz Mountains, Oken picked up the bleached skull of a roebuck, and, after contemplating the partially separated bones, exclaimed : " It is a vertebral column ! " Now here is another curious story : During one of his rambles in the Jewish cemetery near Venice, Goethe picked up the skull of a ram which had been cut longitudi- nally, and, on examining it, the idea occurred to him that the face was composed of three vertebrre. Goethe declares that he made his discovery in 1790. Oken declares that he made his discovery in 1806. Here is a difference of sixteen years between the two alleged discoveries. Now, » " Archetypo and Uumologics of the Vertebrate Skeleton." APPENDIX. 319 if there be any plagiarism in the affair, which is the plagi- arist ? Oken, who survived Goethe a score of years, de- fends his own claim with the ardor of personal and possibly piqued pride. Lewes defends Goethe's claim with the ardor of an admiring biographer. A comparison, such as Lewes himself suggests, probably gives the right solution. " Goethe had an apergu which he did not develop. Oken had an apergu which he demonstrated in detail. In Goethe's mind it was one of the many applications of a fundamental conception of organic evolution — a conception which led to his discovery of the intermaxillary. In Oken it was a special problem, which a young anatomist set himself to solve." * In other words, Goethe conceived the idea, Oken demonstrated the fact. But to resume the thread of the history. In 1795, Goethe published his "Animal Morphology." In 1807, Oken published his " Signification of the Bones of the Skull," in which he maintains that these bones are equal to four vertebrae. In 1815, Spix, in his " Cephalogene- sis," reduced the cranial vertebrae to three, and, moreover, extended the application of the Yertebr^il Theory to the heads of all classes of animals, especially of fishes. In 1824, St.-Hilaire presented a lithographic plate to the French Academy, entitled " Composition de la Tete Osseuse chez rHomme et les Animaux." In 1834, Cams main- tained the idea that the entire skeleton is nothing but a vertebra repeated. In 1848, Owen published his " Arche- type and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton," in which he has done immense service by giving to the Archetypal Doctrine a scientific form, and by inventing an admirably expressive terminology. In 1856, M'Cosh published his ^' Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation," in which « "Life of Goethe," voL ii., p. 161. 320 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. lie seeks, as his main object, to show, and, as it seems to me, triumphantly, that modifications of or departures from the Archetype are telic. But I shall recur to this. Meantime, observe what our proposition is. It is this : Every bone of every vertebrate animal is copied, with more or less of closeness, from some part of an Archetypal Vertebra. The simple fact that animals differing from one another so much, e. g., as the trout, and toad, and turtle, and viper, and eagle, and mouse, and whale, and man, are nevertheless referable to one and the same class, viz., the Vertebrate, shows that there is some Idea, Plan, Type, Form, common to them all. That common Form is the Vertebral Idea ; hence they are called Vertebrates. It does not need the practised eye of one initiated in the mysteries of Comparative Anatomy to detect the general resemblance between the skeletons of these various animals. What deceives us is that which is imposed on the frame- work of the animal, such as flesh, skin, feathers, shell, fur, scales. Remove all the soft parts from the skeletons of a man, a dog, an ostrich, a lizard, a salmon, leaving only the bony framework, and even an unprofessional will perceive a general resemblance. The skeleton of a creeping infant is like that of a quadruped ; the skeleton of a man recum- bent is like that of a fish. The penguin is a bird ; yet its wings remind us of the fins of a fish ; its wings and feet, of a quadruped ; its erect posture, of a man. These exam- ples are enough to show us that a common Idea per- vades the Vertebrate Kingdom : and that Idea is the Vertebra. Accordingly, as Schleiden has constructed an Archetypal Leaf and Plant, wliich Plant is but the Leaf repeated and modified for specific purposes, so Owen has constnacted an Archetypal Vertebra and Skeleton, which Skeleton, in its turn, is but the Vertebra repeated APPENDIX. 321 and modified to meet special requirements, Not that this Archetypal Vertebra or Skeleton has an actual, ob- jective existence in the world of matter : it is conceived to be the Primal, Ideal Fonn, from which every actual vertebra and skeleton is a figuration. And this Ideal Form or Archetype, as is evident from a glance at Owen's dia- grams, is common to the skeleton of the Fish, the Keptile, the Bird, and the Mammal. Yet the modifications of the Archetypal Yertebra, to meet the distinct needs of differ- ent animals, are endlessly varied. How different, e. g., are the fins of fishes, the wings of birds, the forelimbs of quad- rupeds, the arms of man ! Nevertheless, they are homo- logues, i. e., the same structural organ under a variety of figures. According to Sir Charles Bell, " the bat's wing is a highly-organized hand." The horse has one finger, the ox two, the rhinoceros three, the hippopotamus four, the elephant five. And the Yertebral Idea is common to them all. And it is true of the entire skeleton of each. It is asserted that ninety per cent, of the bones of the hu- man skeleton have their namesakes or homologues in the skeletons of all vertebrates. That is to say : the Arche- typal Fomi is one ; the figurations are practically count- less. And it has been so from the beginning, when the first Ganoid darted in the Silurian Sea. The Archet^-pal Yertebra has been the ideal, initial, potential, invariable, common Form ; the actual bone has been a modified, specialized, telic figuration. Our last illustration we take from From Man. , . /. t. r the realm oi Man. The Ideas of Space and Time and Cause ; tlie axioms of Geometry and Mechanics and Psychology ; the Ethical Intuitions ; the unconscious, automatic Fornnilas of Life : what are these but Archetyj^al Ideas or Forms ? All 323 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. tlionglit and sentiment and pnrj^ose crystallize, or rather move, about a few axiomatic axes. Axioms are, so to speak, the Archetypal Yertebrae of all thinking and feeling and willing and acting. What simplicity of Plan ! What infinitude of detail ! „ „ ,. „ . I have thus endeavored to show, by Pi-ofundity of An- . -n , ^. xi ^ n \- cient Utterances. fPecimen illustrations, that all creation is modeled after a few simple Plans. How significant, in light of this Doctrine, are some of the utterances of antiquity ! E. g., of Bacon, when he said : " Forms are the True Objects of Knowledge." Of the Mediaeval Realists, when they affirmed : " The Class exists before the Individual." Of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he wrote : " Through faith we per- ceive that the world was framed by the Word of God ; so that not from tlie things which appear was made that which is seen : " that is to say, the visible world is modeled after an invisible. Of Aristotle, when he assert- ed : " Forms are as necessary to the Universe as Matter." Of Plato, when he declared : " God is the Maker of Forms." Of David, when he sang : " My form was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, was curi- ously wrought in the depths of the earth: Thine eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Thy book were all my members written ;' day by day were they fashioned, when there was none of them." And we may bless the Creator that ■ T^l! ^^.^^^ ^ ^ He was pleased to construct the universe SIS of Classification. J^ .it -n • • i after a few, simple Plans. For it is the fact that there are Archetypal Forms which makes scien- tific classification possil)le. Tliere are two methods of classification : the artificial, which groups according to in- cidentals ; and the natural, which groups according to APPENDIX. 323 essentials. It is the figure which is incidental ; it is the Form which is essential. The Archetypal Form is coiu- mon to an indefinite, practically infinite number of figures, and so is the characteristic of each. In fact. Type and Character, Tyvro? and x^paKr/jp, are synonymous, meaning impress, mark, sign, and so characteristic. Accordingly, it is the recognition of the Archet^^al Fonn which is the basis of a natural, scientific, true classification. Precisely because Cuvier was dominated by the Idea of a Vertebra, he was able to group Fish and Reptile and Bird and Mam- mal into one class — the Vertebrate. Without Archet}^al Forms, men might have known heterogeneous rnidta, but not homogeneous multum. With Archetypal Forms, men, not knowing multa, yet may know multum. For Arche- typal Forms assort and label classes ; and classes may comprise countless individuals. The Final Cause of Archetjqjcs, then, so far as man is concerned, is to make possible for him classification, generalization, induction, science : a knowledge of generals, ever growing more and more inclusive. ArchetjiDes, therefore, are them- selves telic. They are for man's help, and so, through man's help, for God's glory. In treating our Thesis, I have had Variations from ^^^ed occasion to alludc to the fact ArcriL'tvncs Xclic. that departures from Archetypal Forms are telic : that is to say, with view to special exigencies. In fact, the subject of this Lecture is Archet^-pal Forms and Telic Figurations. Let me, then, briefly discuss the doctrine of Telic Adjustments. In doing this, let me draw my first illustration from the Vegetable AVorld. Let us start with a plant at its germination. The first thing which the embryo needs is nourishment. This is provided in the cotyledons or seed-leaves, which inclose the embryo, 334 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. and which usually form the chief bulk of the seed, as in the pea, almond, acorn, etc. The leaf-figure of these co- tyledons is often very marked : e. g., the bean. In fact, we call them seed-leaves. Thus the cotyledon is the Ar- chetypal Leaf modified for puq^oses of embryonic nour- ishment : it has become a nursing leaf. But now our plant is above-ground. Yet it still needs nourishment, though of a different kind and on a larger scale ; it needs air, light, warmth, moisture, etc. And for these purposes the stem-leaves, or leaves in the common use of the term, are a perfect contrivance. Observe how their arrangement follows the law of the Spiral : an arrangement which allows the largest exposure of leaf -surface : e. g., the fa- mous Washington Elm at Cambridge, averaging an annual production of T00,000,000 leaves, exposes, as a result of the Spiral arrangement, 200,000 square feet, or about five acres, of foliage. Thus aerial leaves are deviations from the Archetypal Leaf for purposes of nourishment by exposure to air, light, and wet. But our growing plant must not be selfish, living for itself alone : it must provide for succes- sors — it must be parental. Obsen^e how this is effected. Contract the distance between the leaves as spirally ar- ranged along the stem, by shortening their common axis, and you bring these leaves together into substantially the same plane, so that they appear as a series of concentric rings or whorls : that is to say — a flower. And the flower is the reproductive apparatus. Yet its various parts are but modifications of the Archetj^al Leaf. Even an un- professional calls sepals and petals flower-leaves. Tims floral leaves are variations of the Archet;^'pal Leaf for pur- poses of reproduction. And so every part of a plant, bark, bract, tendril, spine, pitcher, fly-trap, scale, etc., is a modification of the Archetypal Leaf for some specific end, APPENDIX, 325 e. g., nourishment, protection, climbing, etc. Again : Let me illustrate from Vertebrate Anatomy. The Archetype, or Fundamental Form, is the Vertebra. This Fundamen- tal Form may be modified for a thousand different and special ends, e. g., for purposes of swimming, creeping, burrowing, climbing, walking, flying, grasping, support- ing, hearing, masticating, etc., etc. It was this fact of telic modification, or adjustment to specific ends, which fur- nished Cuvier with that master principle by which he was enabled to reconstruct in such large and wonderful meas- ure the Pre-Adamite world. A fossil bone was brought before him ; he observed its shape and processes ; he asked what these things meant ; the answer was the reconstructed animal. In brief : the doctrine of Final Causes was the key to his magnificent success. And here it was that he came into collision with St.-Hilaire. M. Soret, in his " Supplement to Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe," tells a story quite in point : '■'■Monday, August 1, 1830. — The news of the Revolution of July reached Weimar to-day, and set every one in commotion. I went in the course of the afternoon to Goethe. ' Now,' exclaimed he, as I entered, ' what do you think of this great event ? The volcano has come to an eruption : everything is in flames ! ' 'A frightful story,' I answered ; ' but what could be expected otherwise under such no- toriously bad circumstances, and with such a ministry, than that the whole would end in the expulsion of the royal family V ' We do not appear to understand each other, my good friend,' said Goethe : ' I am not speaking of those people, but of something quite different ; I am speaking of the contest, so important for Science, between Cuvier and Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, which has come to an open rupture in the Academy.' " ' No wonder that Eckerraann was astonished ; yet he ought not to have been. The battle between St.-Hilaire 1 Lewes's " Life of Goothe," vol. ii., pp. 442, 443. 326 STUDIES IN THE CREATIVE WEEK. and Cuvier was a battle of Ideas ; and Ideas are the most real of things. St.-Hilaire championed the Doctrine of Analogies, or Unity of Plan in Nature : Cuvier championed the Doctrine of Final Causes, or Purpose in Nature. St.- Hilaire said : " I take care not to ascribe to God any in- tention : I observe facts merely, and go no further : I am content to be the historian of what is." Cuvier said : " Whatever exists has a purpose assigned it : every bone, joint, process, has a meaning. I nmst not only observe what is — I must also ask what the is is ybr." Thus ask- ing, that imperial Genius succeeded in re-creating, in large measure, out of torsos and fossil bones, the pre-Adamite animal world. „ While, therefore, the Theorv of Ar- Summary. i V, -, -, V.i . chetypal lorms demands a Plannmg Creator, the Theory of Telic Figurations demands a Planning Adjuster. What Mr. Darwin calls Natural Se- lection, I would call God's Telic Adjustment, coniiguring the Archetypal Form to a special need. It is not, as the evolutionists hold, that the pickerel was transformed by vertebral metamoi'phosis into the tortoise, and the tortoise into the owl, and the owl into the gorilla, and the gorilla into Adam. It is that pickerel, tortoise, owl, gorilla, Adam, are modifications of the Archetypal Yertebra for specific purposes. God as Creator conceived the Archety- pal Form : God as Arranger — whether directly, by a pres- ent, active volition, or indirectly, by natural laws of His own appointing, it matters not — evolves figurations indefi- nitely various, adjusting them to necessities as occasioned by new conditions : and this along the ideal axis of the Archetypal Yertebra. Reviewing, then, the Creative Week Ti-TTof Koi raoc ^g ^ g^g^^j^ ^f Archetypal Forms, and APPENDIX. 337 surveying the organic structures of to-day as a system of Telic Figurations, be it ours to join with the four Liv- ing Creatures and the four-and-twenty Elders of the Apo- calypse, in falling down before Him Who sitteth on the throne, and worshij^ing Him Who liveth for ever and ever, and casting our crowns before the throne, saying : " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power ; for Thou createdst all things, and by reason of Thy -will they are, and were created" (Rev. iv.). Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. raDEX OF TOPICS. PAGE Africa : and Europe contrasted 10 Air : the symbol of Holy Spirit. . . 52 Allotropy : sheds light on Palingenesis. 289 Altruism : the true 112 Altruist : the true 112 Animals: Creator's delight in making. . . 161 emergence of. 157 fecundity of 171 have "souls" 163 issue of fifth and sixth days 156 moral meaning of 162 sq. morphology of. 317 perhaps immortal 166 succession of, a process 157 Anno Domini : the phrase a testimony to Christ 152 Anthropology 183, 194 Anthropomorphism 65 Antediluvian patriarchs : largely cotem- porary 10 Aqueous Vapor : weight of 86 Archetype : definition of 306 Archetypes : final cause of. 823 variations from, telle 823 Archetypal Forms : the Creator's ideas. 306 Architecture : three, basis of 310 Arithmetic : three, basis of. 303 Astrology : the false and the true 148 Astronomic difficulties 67, 139 Authority : birth of. 190 Axioms, archetypal vertebrae of man 322 Bible : not a scientific book, yet impli- cates scientific truths 91 twofold : nature and Scripture 14, 29 Body : the present and future 290 Breath of God : meaning of 52 organizer of chaos 51 PAGE Causes : measured by effects 39 Chaos : organized by breath of God 51 original form of matter 43 picture of 49 traditions of. 49 Charisms : the Spirit's 115 Charter : man's original 190 Cherubim : significance of 167 Christ and Church : a unity 238 Christ : God in articulation 181 His mission, a restoration of Image. . 186 His nature threefold ' 181 the Archetypal man 193 the Image of God 179 the Light of the world 73 the Nexus of heaven and earth 96 the Parable speaker 28 the Shadow of God 77 the true Adam 25 the true Altruist 112 the true Bread 26 the true Bridegroom 236 the true Language 213 the true Prometheus 73 the true Sabbath 273 the true Sun 152 Christianity: the true meridian 152 Church : Christ's second self 239 Nature's real Lord 196 Parousia : the time of her bridal 241 the true Body 25 the true Bride 236 the true Moon 1.52 the true Pharos 80 Classification : two methods of 822 Coast-lines : and civilization 104 Correspondence : doctrine of. 24 Creation : a miracle 43 33:) INDKX OF TOPICS. PAGE Creation : an origination, not a formation 88 a problem for faith 42 a question of the times 22 a summons to worship 45 dissolution of 2S2 final cause of 44 measured by weight rather than bulk 33 not a failure 2&9 the expectant 174 the future of 2S1 the groaning 170 Creative Week : chief point of modern assault 14, 23 divided into twin triads 138 moral meaning of. 24 retrospect of 273 Crystallography : three, the basis of 307 Dead Sea : why it does not overflow 87 Deity : apprehensible only through med- itation 180 Design : shown in evaporation 87 Differentiation : essential to individuali- ty 108 the condition of life 103 Dissolution: not annihilation 2S8 suddenness of 285 Duty : birth of Ill Earth : the new 2S6 Eden : a parable of the soul 218 a topographical problem 200 emergence of 201 the heavenly 220 Effects: proportional to their causes... 39 Egypt : worship of animals in 166 Europe and Africa : contrasted 104 Evaporation : argues a designer 87 jiORsibly work of second day S6 Scriptural representations of 88 vastness of 86 Evolution : does not account for weight of universe 89 hypothesis of. 12.", 160 Implies involution 89 parable of 133 " Ex nihilo nihil fit" 39 Excelsior: summons of the sky 98 Figurations : from forms, tclic 803 PAGK Firmament : meaning of. 86 Form and Figure : discriminated 803 Forests : plea in behalf of. 128 Fourth Commandment : in its letter, Jewish 256 Franconia Profile 174 Fructification : parable of 13j Future Life : a present inspiration 291 Genesis of Things : a fascinating prob- lem 13 Geology : confirms Mosaic record. . 102, 153 rests on story of emergent lands. . . . 102 Geometry : three, the basis of 308 Germination : parable of. 132 " God-said : " an anthropomorphism ... C5 of Moses, the Logos of John CO God: cannot contradict Himself 15,91 is light 72 Goethe : dying exclamation of. 82 question of plagiarism 318 Golden age : the true 220 Greatness does not depend on bulk 148 ! Heaven : a locality as well as a character 287 etymology of 92 Heavens, the new 289 elementally identical with present ... 2=^7 phenomenally diflerent from present. 287 Identity: consists in form, not figure . . . S^!^ Image of God : defaced, not effaced 185 meaning of 179 Imageship divine: man^s discretive pe- culiarity 189 Imageship : meaning of 1 79 restored in Christ 1S6 the basis of triumph 196 the die of race-unity 195 Immortality : birth of 21 4 Inbreathing, God's : meaning of 1S9 Incarnation ; God's obscuration and rev- elation 77 Indians : problem of 2(14 Individuality : birth of. 106 secret of character 109 sense of, a growth 108 Individualization : purpose of 117 Industry : birth of 203 condition of civilization 204 INDEX OF TOPICS. 331 PAGE Inspiration : not omniscience 142 Instinct and reason : relative terms 164 Intermaxillary bone : Goethe's discovery of 817 Karens : tradition of man's origrin 1ST Labor, dignity of: meaning of phrase.. . 206 Lands : distribution of, beneficent. .... 103 emergence of. 100 moral meaning of distribution 105 Language : birth of 207 man's most wonderful faculty 207 origin of, a fascinating problem 2i)S the bridge between man and man. . . 2o9 tremendous power of 209 weds thought and thought in sphere of matter 208 Latitude and longitude : method of cal- culating 146 Leaf: the archetypal 324 Life : a duel of ego and non-ego 117 begins chaotically 59 Guyot's definition of. 107 origin of 55, 120 Light : blessedness of 68 essence of, unknown 73 latent in character 75 moral meaning of 72 possibly intermediate between spirit and matter 74 symbol of Church 75 the first, chemical 67 the symbol of God 72 Logos of John : the " God-said " of Moses 66 Luminaries: alternate day and night... 143 beneficence of their arrangement 149 emergence of. 142 give notations of time 145 give notations of space 146 guides to Christ 150 moral meaning of. 150 Man and 'Woman : community of 228 diversity of 231 essential unity of 225 mutually essential 233 Man : basis of Sabbath 252 emergence of 178 God's image in secondary reflection.. 1S5 PAGE Man : God's inbreathing 187 greater than Sabbath 259 has in himself Forbidden Tree 217 his authority over Nature 190 his formal superiority to woman 225 his incomparable dignity 194, 806 his nature a Cooperative Society 110 needs Sabbath for religious nature... 255 needs Sabbath for secular nature 2' 2 not King, but Viceroy 1:2 not naturally immortal 216 the image of Christ 183 three, the basis of 803 Mankind : figuration from Christ, the Archetypal Form 103 meaning of 196 Marriage : a Divine institution 234 Marriage - ceremony : should be reli- gious 285 Marriage : earthly, a type of heavenly . . 28<5 indissoluble 235 takes precedence of every other hu- man relation 235 the a>gis of our homes 235 Matter : not inherently evil 286 original condition of 49 our training-school for eternity 287 unlikely to be annihilated 283 Mechanics : three, the basis of 810 Monogamy : the law of the two Edens. . 240 Morphology : animal 315 vegetable 312 Mosaic Code : its care for animals 167 Mosaic Record : antiquity of 9 chief point of modern assault 14 grandeur of 13 language of phenomenal 19 moral meaning of 24 Moses not necessarily the author 9 twofold 176 Natural Selection : Christianity reverses doctrine of 117 Nature : a Bible 14 and Scripture correspondent 24 knowledge of, progressive 16 Nebular Hypothesis : confirms Mo.saic Record 50. CL 90 New Heavens and Earth . 266 i>q. a renovation, not absolute creation. . . 283 332 INDEX OF TOPICS. PAGE New Heavens and Earth antedate the present in Divine purpose 291 elementally identical with present... 287 identical with present in form, differ- ent in figure 806 phenomenally different from pres- ent 2S9 the true Holy Land 292 Nouns : the first words 208 Ocean : primeval, the basis of Geology . . 102 Oceans : economy of 103 Oken : question of plagiarism 318 Order : birth of 47 " Our Image " (Gen. i. 2o) : the imperial plural 184 Oxygen : the world-builder, possibly the world-destroyer 285 Palingenesis 172, 288 sg. the cheer of the Apostolic Age 296 the secret of holy U ving 298 the secret of Paul's career 297 Paradise ; capacity of, latent in man 218 Parallelisms of Creative Week 138 Plants : emblematic of man 130 emergence of. 119 frequent Scriptural allusions to 132 moral meaning 130 Moses's account of pictorial 122 purpose of 127 Poet : definition of 170 Probation: a possible blessing 217 birth of 216 necessary to character 217 Race-Unity : imageship the die of 195 Kainfall : annual quantity of 86 Keason and Instinct ; relative terms. ... 164 lieconstruction : the coming 285 Regeneration : necessity of 184 of Nature 288 Eesurrection-body : atomically identical with present, but molecularly dif- ferent 290 identical with present in form, but different in figure 805 Resting : the Creator's 246 Rcstilution 172, 220, 285 Revelation : relations, of lo Science 14 PAGE Sabbath : a means, not an end 260 change of dayatremendous revolution 270 changed from seventh day to first. . . 209 Christ's doctrine of 251 Jewish, classed by Paul with ceremo- nial observances 258 legislation, proper sphere of 264 made for man 252 objections to author's view 267 question, how to meet 209- the change of day a testimony to Christ's resurrection 271 detent of life's machinery 253 the three great 251 the true method of keeping 264 Satisfaction : the coming 198 Science and Rehgion : coming bridal of. 151 Science : relations of, to Revelation 14 confirms coming Dissolution 282 ministry of. 91 Scripture and Nature correspondent 24 Scripture: knowledge of progressive. .. 17 Seven : the Scriptural number 248 Seventh day : sanctified 250 Shechinah 74 " man the true " 189 Sky : ancient conception of. 84 emergence of 85 Scriptural representations of 84 suggests human aspirations and Di- vine Perfections 92 Sleep : necessity of 14 Society : three, the basis of 810 Sociology : two extremes of 112 an Eden to be tilled 218 Soul common to animals and men 1C4 Species : an abstract term 123 Specialization : characteristic of develop- ment 103 Spirit: man's discretive peculiarity 189 Spirit of God; meaning of phrase 52 organizer of chaos 61 organizer of humanity 60 Survival of the Fittest : Christianity re- verses doctrine of 117 Third Day: providential character of. . . 129 Three : an archetypal number 808 Time : the great expositor 18 Traditions : origin of prehistoric 10 INDEX OF TOPICS. 333 PAGE Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil : meaning of 216 Tree of Life : meaning of 215 Trees : significance of 214 Triads of Creative Week 138 Triumph : imageship the basis of. 196 Triumi)hal entry : the true 197 Trusteeship: birth of 205 Truth : indefinitely expansible 91 Unity and unit discriminated 106,232 effectiveness of 109 of race, imageship the secret of 195 Universe: a whispering gallery 211 origin of, a fundamental question 82 origin of, a legitimate question 39 practically infinite 37 Vegetable Morphology 312 Vertebra: the archetypal 320 Visions : God's ancient method of in- struction 21 PAGE Weight of the nniverse 85 the true measure of matter 84 Woman and Man : community of 228 diversity of 231 essential unity of 2-.'5 Woman : emergence of 223 essential equality with man 22T formal inferiority to man 225 man's second self. 228 Woman's Rights : false views of. . . . 227, 233 Woman Suffrage : question of 230 Woman: the story of, a Divine para- ble 222 Words : immortality of 211 nouns the fiist 208 our judges 2u9 revealers of character. 212 the manes of past centuries 208 Work : man's normal condition 203 the cure of pauperism 204 Worship of Light 70 INDEX OF SCEIPTUBES. PAGE Genesis i. 1 82 Genesis i. 2 4T, 68 Genesis i. 3-5 65 Genesis 1. 6-8 83 Genesis i. 9, 10 100 Genesis i. 11-13 119 Genesis i. 14-19 138 Genesis I 20 165 Genesis i. 24 165 Genesis i. 26, 27 176 Genesis i. 26-31 177 Genesis i. 28 " 204 Genesis ii. 1-3 245 Genesis ii. 5-22 178 Genesis ii. 7 52. 16.i, 176 Genesis ii. 8-20 199 Genesis ii. 16, 17 216 Genesis ii. 18 25 222 Genesis ii. 19, 20 190, 209 Genesis iii. 8 52 Genesis iii. 19 188 Genesis iii. 22-24 216 Genesis ix. 6 185 Genesis -xiii. 14-17 292 Exodus iii. 13-15 216 j Exodus xiv. 21 52 Exodus XV. 8 52 Exodus XX. 1, 2. 2,57 Exodus XX. 8-1 1 250 Exodus XX. 12 267 Exodus xxiii. 19 167 Exodus xxxi. 12-17 257 Leviticus xxii. 28 167 PAr.E Job xxvi. 18 52 Job xxxi. 26-28 7o Job xxxii. 8 53 Job xxxiii. 4 56, 68 Job xxxviii. 19, 20 73 Job xxxviii. 81-33. 94 Psalm viii. 5 194 Psalm viii. 6-9 191 Psalm xvii. 16 198 Psalm xix. 1-4 147 Psalm x.\iv. 7-10 19T Psalm xxxiii. 6 63 Psalm xxxvi. 9 78 Psalm xlv 236 Psalin xlvii. 11 79 Psalm Ixviii. 82-o4 94 Psalm xe. 1-4 71 Psalm xci. 1 78 Psalm xcii. 12-14 136 Psalm civ. 1,2 74 P.salm civ. 29, 30 63 Psalm ex viii, 9 2r4 Psalm cxxvii. 2 224 Psalm c.vxxiii. 1 107 Psalm cxxxix. 14-16 50 Psalm cxxxix. 15, 16 301 Proverbs iv. 18 79 Proverbs X. 11 210 Proverbs xv. 4 210 Proverbs xvi. 24 210 Proverbs xxv. 11 210 I'roverbs xxvi. 18. 19 210 Deuteronomy xxii. 6, 7 167 Canticles ii. 8-13 243 Deuteronomy xxv. 4 167 , Canticles iv. 12-16 220 INDEX OF SCraPTURES. 335 PAGE Isaiah xi. 6-9 173 Isaiah xxxi. 1 254 Isaiah xxxv. 1 218 Isaiah xl. 5 197 Isaiah !i. 3 219 Isaiah Iviii. 6, 7 2tU Isaiah Ixii. 4 236 Isaiah Lxv. 17 289 Jeremiah xxxi. 35 151 Jeremiah xxxiii. 20-26 151 Ezekiel xx. 12-20 257 Ezelciel xxxvii. 1-10 57 Ezekiel xU. 7 93 Hosea \-i. 6 2C1 Zeehariah iv. 6 255 Malachi iv 2 69 Matthew v. 5 292 Matthew vi. 9 96 Matthew xii. 1-S 261 Matthew xii. 9-14 202 Matthew xii. 36, 37 2X3 Matthew xii. 34-40 118 Matthew xiii. 43 76 Matthew xi.x. 3-6 234 Matthew xix. 2S 258 Matthew xx. 16 134 Matthew x.xi. 1-10 197 Matthew xxi 33-43 193 Matthew xxii. 29 291 Matthew xxv. 1-10 240 Matthew .xxv. 10-12 243 Matthew xxv. 14-30 '. 193 Matthew xxvi. 73 214 Mark ii. 27, 23 252 Mark iv. 26-29 -^7. 62 Mark vii. 32-35 212 Luke i. 35 181 Luke iii. 3S 195 Luke vi. 44 127 Luke viii. 54, 55 53 Luke X. 7 205 Luke xi. 2 2T Luke xiii. 10-17 262 Luke xiii. 14 i;6G PAGE Luke xiv. 1-6 262 Luke X.X. 9-16 193 Johnl.l 66 John i. 9 78 Johni 51 97 John iii. 6, 7 134 John iii. 8 53 John iv. 35-33 306 John V. 1-18 263 John V 17 245, -.51 John vi. 32-58 26 John vii. 21-24 2G8 John X. 16 240 Johnxiv. 2 116 John xiv. 8-10 183 John XV. 1-10 135 John XV. 5 240 John xviii. 37 183 John xix. 30 53, 247 John XX. 22 53 Acts il. 2^ 53 Acts iii. 21 1S6, 220 Acts xxii. 11 77 Romans v. 12-21 221 Romans viii. 19-23 169 Romans viii. 21 76 Romans viii. 29 187 Romans xi. l€-24 135 Romans xii. 2 304 Romans xii. 4, 5 240 Romans .xii. 6-8 116 Romans xiv. 4 255 Romans xiv. 5 258 Romans xiv. 13 266 1 Corinthians vl. 3 806 1 Corinthians vi. 12 266 1 Corinthians vi. 19 1«9 1 Corinthians xi. 8, 9 225 1 Corinthians xi. 11, 12 233 1 Corintliians xii 4-11 115 1 Corinthians xii. 12-27 25 1 Corinthians xii. 14-26 114 1 Corinthians xiii. 9-11 239 1 Corinthians xiii 13 219 1 Corinthians xiv 209 1 Corinthians .XV. 37-12 2t)0 1 Corinthians xv. 45 25 336 INDEX OF SCRIPTURES. PAGE 2 Corinthians iil. 18 198 2 Corinthians iv. 6 78 2 Corinthians v. 1-4 286 2 Corinthians xi. 2, 3 236, 239 Galatians lii. 28; 229 Galatians iv. 1-7 267 Galatians v. 22, 23 136 Galatians vl. 7 184 Ephesians 11. 20-22 240 Epheslans iv. 13 289 Ephesians iv. 22-24 187 Kphesians iv. 25 112 Ephesians v. 25-43 25, 237 Philippians 11. 5-8 305 Philippians ill. 21 76 Philippians iil. 21 805 Colossians 1. 15 194 Colossians i. 16, 17 67 Colossians il. 9 182 Colossians li. 9, 10 CI Colossians il. 16, 17 25?, 267 Colossians ill. 9, 10 187 1 Thessalonians v. 1-5 285 2 Thessalonians 11. 8 53 2 Thessalonians ill. 10 205 1 Timothy li. 18 226 1 Timothy V. 18 167 I I PAOX I 1 Timothy vl. 15 77 I 1 Timothy vl. 16 216 I Hebrews 1.8 77 I Hebrews Iv 261 Hebrews xi. 3 41 Hebrews xl. 3 322 ' James lii. 2-10 210 I James Hi. 9 186 1 Peter 11. 13 113 2 Peter 1. 5-7 136 2 Peter ill. 3-7 282 I 2 Peter lii. 5 102 2 Peter li'. 10-13 273, 805 i 1 1 John 1. 6 73 I 1 John lii. 2 76 I 1 John Hi. 3 298 jl John lii. 4 217 i Revelation 1. 6 197 Revelation Hi. 14 194 Revelation lU. 20 242 j Revelation iv 827 Revelation iv. 8 175 Revelation xll. 16 196 Revelation xv. 28 298 Revelation xix. 6-9 241 Revelation xxl. 1 289 Revelation xxl. 23 82 Revelation xxii. 6 144 raDEX OF AUTHOES. Adams, Mrs. : Aspiration 9S Agassiz: Divine Premeditation 125 Immortality of Animals 168 Aristotle : Archetypal Forms 822 Augustine : Ori^n of Church 238 Origin of Universe 44 Scripture inexhaustible 28 Bacon : Archetypal Forms 322 Athiism 44 The Writer's Prayer (see Preface) Berkeley, Bishop : Course of Empire... 200 Bernard of Cluny : The Celestial Country 293 I Keble : " Two Worlds are Ours " PACE Faber : Groans of Creation 170 Galen : His Life a Ilymn 81 Goethe: Theory of Plants 813 Guyot : Physical Geography 105 Definition of Life 107 Helwysse : Eelipious Liberty 255 Herbert : Dignity of Toil '. . 208 Jesus, Son of Sirach : All Things double 28 29 Bonar : Song of the Bride 242 Bowring, Sir J.: Star of Bethlehem. . . . 154 Browne, Sir Thomas : His Source of Di- vinity 14 Bulwer : Woman's Royalty 228 Butler, Bishop : Knowledge of Scripture progressive 17 Cariyle : The Tree Igdrasil 214 Chrysostom : The True Shechinah 189 Coleridge : Man's Culmination Ill Plea for Animals 163 (Copernicus : His Epitaph 81 Co^vper : Plea for Animals 168 Cutting : Poem on Science 126 Dana: Basement Laws true for all Worlds 310 Draper : Beneficence of Sabbath 252 Dry-den : St. Cecilia's Day 811 Dscheladeddin : Aspiration 93 Eckermann : Citation from Diary 825 Emerson : Concords of Space and Time. 149 15 Kepler : Conclusion of " Harmony of Worlds " 31 Lewes : Question of Plagiarism 318 Unity of Nature 81T Linnseus : Theory of Plaits 812 Longfellow : Immortality of Words 212 Lesson of Flowers 13T Substance and Shadow 29 Longinus : (Genesis i. 3) 67 Macaulay : Tribute to Sabbath 253 Milton : Apostrophe to Light 74 Chaos 49 Nature a Phonograph 211 Prayer for Parousia 175 Rest for Solitude 255 Spirit of God 59 Newcomb : The Coming Dissolution 284 Ovid: Chaos 60 Plato : Archetypal Forms 822 Plotinus: His Thanksgiving 286 338 INDEX OF AUTHORS. PAGE Scott, Sir W. : Shechinah 74 Shakespeare ; Castigating Rascals 227 Extent of Ignorance 166 Growth of Soul 133 Hamlet's Sky 97 Harmony of Worlds 153 Ministry of Sleep 144 Plea for the Jew 165 Ridiculousness of Tj-ranny 226 The Coming Dissolution 284 The Witnessing Forest 213 Shelley : Skylark 93 Smith. Horace : Ministry of Flowers 129 Spenser : Archetypal Forms 307 Tennyson : Birth of Individuality 108 Birth of Time 72 PAGE Tennyson: " Flower in the crannied wall" 131 Future of Creation 171 Glory of Distance Ill God our Light 153 Growth of Light 79 Peace of Golden Year 80 The Bolted Door 243 The Perfect Pair 233 Vision of the Future 192 Tyndall : Origin of Universe 42 Vaughan : Blessedness of Sabbath 256 Virgil : " Felix qui potiiit," etc 13 Watts : The Blessed Hope 296 Wolff: Theory of Plants 812 Wordsworth : Origin of Soul 194 THE END. D. APPLETON & CO.'S NEW PUBLICATIONS. HISTORY OF OPINIONS ON THE SCRIPTURAL DOC- TRINE OF EETRIBUTION. By Edward Beechee, D. 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The Foukfold Gospel : A Consolidation of the Four Gospels in one Chronological Narrative ; with the text arranged in sections; with brief Readings and complete Annotations, Belected from " The Choice and Best Observations" of more than two hundred eminent Christian thinkers of the past and present. With Illnstratiom, Maps, and Diagrams. Prepared by J. GLKNTWORTH BUTLER, D. D. [nearly ready.] HOMILETICAL INDEX: A Hand-Book of Texts, Themes, and Authors, for the Use of Preachers and Bible Scholars generally. Embbacikg Twenty Thousand Citations of Scripture Texts, and OF Discourses founded thereon, under a Twofold Arrangement : 1. Textual. II. Topical. 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