Divine Selection or The Survival of the Useful/Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII
of
Revelation
THE field of Revelation is the spiritual. Its office is to make known the otherwise unknowable. The soul, the spiritual world, life after death, and God, can be known in the first instance by revelation only. As long ago as the days of Job it was of general knowledge that man unaided by revelation could know nothing of these things. Says Zophar, "Canst thou by searching find out God?"
If by scientific investigation spiritual things could be searched out, revelation would be unnecessary, and the economy of creation would have withheld it. If it were true, as some urge, that only the scientifically demonstrated can be known, there would be an absolute bar to any progress in things higher than the grosser material, for only the natural and external fact is subject to scientific proof.
How thoroughly the limitations of scientific proof would forbid progress and dwarf faculty, can be appreciated only by those who recognize that there is a mind higher than the natural part of man that deals merely with natural science and ponderable things, a mind to which the invisible and spiritual are as real and comprehensible as matter is to the corporeal senses. The existence of faculties that perceive and handle spiritual things as the senses do material things, makes the natural mind the mere handmaid of the higher and interior mind, in the power of which it is a menial servant doing on the material plane the bidding of the man himself.
It is not because spiritual things are uncertain and vague that science does not appertain to them, but for the reason that spiritual things are above the material to which science by definition is confined. The facts of science are the evidence addressed to the corporeal senses. Spiritual knowledge, the knowledge of causes, is addressed to the senses of the soul. Paul gave definite expression to the principle involved in the discernment of interior causes. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Yet if "scientific" is used in the sense of rational, reasonable, or knowable, there is nothing more scientific than the knowledge of spiritual things and interior causes. For not only must spiritual knowledge be mentally grasped and seen through, but it must be in harmony with natural science, receive its full support, and be illustrated by it. Spiritual knowledge, to be knowledge, must be clear, comprehensible, and as conclusive as any knowledge.
Because science, in the generally accepted sense, does not reach up to spiritual things, does not deal with that invisible and intangible to the corporeal senses, revelation is imperative, and for this reason it is given. Revelation brings to the perceptions what reason can confirm. Revelation is the guide of reason and the goal to which it should ascend.
Primarily the spiritual is the subject of revelation, because reason unaided by revelation would never suggest even so much as the existence of the spiritual.
Because the spiritual lies beyond that plane of the mind which science occupies, it should not be thought that the spiritual is more uncertain, speculative or imaginative than science itself. There is another plane of the mind as much higher than the scientific plane as the scientific plane is higher than the sensual plane.
Science appeals to the senses of the body. Its facts are gathered by the physical senses and are put together by the lowest order of reasoning. The sensual mind can draw accurate conclusions on the natural plane, but not a single conclusion can the sensual mind form in regard to causes on a plane higher than that material plane on which the senses operate. If we had no other faculties than those of the senses and sensual reasoning, human development must have stopped with science. But such has not been the case because the corporeal senses and the natural-rational are but the lowest agencies of the mind. They are to the internal mind what the hands and feet are to the body.
Revelation is not addressed to the corporeal senses, but to perception and judgment. It appeals to the human, and implies a higher development of man and a more interior opening of his faculties. Revelation is addressed to what in the Sensist are the "eyes that see not," the "ears that hear not," and the "understandings that do not understand."
There is a perception from interior enlightenment that is the guide of reason. The office of reason is relatively lower than perception, for reason does not lead perception, but follows it. Reason neither discovers nor sees, but confirms what perception recognizes as true. Perception sees through reason, arranges its facts, and corrects its errors. The conclusions of reason are the beginnings with perception. The office of reason is therefore not to lead perception, but to confirm its observation. If reason controls perception, the man is bound down to the senses and is their servant. If perception leads reason, the senses become the servant, the man is the master, and the way is open for a higher enlightenment. The difference between a false reasoner and a true reasoner is that in the former the senses are above and rule the reason. In the latter intelligence is above and rules the reason.
Unaided by revelation it can but be concluded that all our sciences, "all our art, Plato, Shakespeare, Newton and Raphael, are potential in the fires of the sun."[1] Revelation rescues us not only from ancient sun-worship, but also from this equally dangerous sun-worship of modern times. To enlightened reason the doctrine that the sun will burn out and the earth freeze, is as pitiable a faith as the most fanciful superstition of the savage. That man's career is ended by death is as impossible as the creation of the earth by itself. That material force could evolve the universe by natural selection is more ludicrous than the healing power of fetiches.
It is the office of revelation to address the higher faculties of intelligence and judgment and to provide spiritual facts and things that rescue from the inevitable conclusion of sensual reasonings. Revelation shows us that science, art, and human ability are not potential in the sun, but that they and all faculty and power are absolute in the Creator, coming to us from Him and unfolding out of the spiritual sunshine that He sends upon the evil and upon the good. Revelation not only opens a new world of interior causes and realities, but it also discovers human faculties that can cognize them and enter a life of spiritual understandings and blessings through intelligence from Him who is "the light of the world."
It is evident from history that there has never been a time when man did not claim to have revelation in some form, and even spoken "by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been reason for doubting and every reason for believing that the world has ever had revelation adapted to its condition. The fountain of revelation in the world to-day is that Sacred Scripture, called the Bible, or, more reverently and appropriately, the Word. Its own claim is that it is the Word of God from God to man. It may appear imperfect from the literal and historical standpoint, yet it does not purport to teach historical facts, but rather by means of fact and fiction to embody spiritual principles in a form accessible to man. This the Word does without error as to spiritual truth, to which the literal history is accommodated when necessary.
Though the Word appear faulty to some, it is what should be expected, for even the providence that is good to all is criticised adversely, and the laws that govern human kind are called unequal in the dispensation of justice. Perfect man would find the Word perfect as a medium of the revelation of spiritual truth. It is a necessary consequence that the non-spiritual, looking from the standpoint of self and measuring with false standards, should regard the Word of God erroneous and inadequate; but the errors are in the view-point of the individual, and not in the Word.
The Word is a perpetual source of revelation.
In the Old Testament particularly the relation of God to man obedient to His law and disobedient is fully exemplified, and the principles of the providence over us are set forth. However barbarous the story may appear, the spirit and the truth are there. In the New Testament, the laws of life here, the nature of death, the spiritual world, the resurrection of the person unchanged, the life everlasting, the love of God, are as fully defined and declared as infinite wisdom could express them. The Word is the fountain of all such conceptions. If these things were not set forth in Scripture through revelation, or if no record of their revelation had been made, we would know no more of them than do the beasts of the field: but being set forth in the Word, or in revelation, human knowledge of spiritual things gets its start. There man obtains his first conceptions of things that are above the animal.
The Word has met opposition from its beginning, cunning and subtile as well as open and blatant, from avowed enemy and pretended friend. When infidelity, working under one guise, has been found out, rendered unpopular, and rejected, it has been quick to array itself in novel garments and assume a new name.
The term agnosticism has now, in public esteem, become quite synonymous with infidelity, and few care to be included in that class. And so the same spirit reappears under the new name of "Higher Criticism."
At first the so-called "higher criticism" was mild and tentative. But a short time only has been necessary to disclose that in essence, spirit, argument, and conclusion, it is nothing other than the old-time infidelity of the Atheists, with whom it originated, clothed in a new vesture that it might appear respectable, and gain entrance into Christian lives.
The errors of the "higher criticism" originate in an absolutely wrong conception of the fundamental principles upon which the Word is written and of what it is intended to teach and to do, as well as of how it is to do it.
The divinity of the Word in no wise rests upon the validity of reputed, finite authorship. It proclaims its own authorship and penmen in sufficient particularity. "The Lord gave the Word: great was the company of those that published it." Its divinity rests in the spirit of truth contained in and reflected through the literal narrative. Its purport is not to teach historical facts, but by means of historical facts and fiction to weave a garment that invests otherwise inexpressible, divine truth, and reflects it as the clouds do the colors that are in the sun.
The office of the Pentateuch would not be affected if there had never been a Moses, and the five books had been written by John the Baptist. Nor would the Word in one iota fail if it should be proved that Josephus wrote the entire volume, any more than the story of the Prodigal Son would lose its import if its historical facts were entire fiction.
The essence of the Word is entirely above and within the human authorship and form, just as a nut-meat is within the shell. Yet its essence rests upon the external form as the teachings of an allegory are founded upon the words and elements of the narrative.
Strange that it cannot be seen that though the Word is criticised, questioned, and doubted; though it be called antiquated and unsuited to present needs, it yet goes on, the most potent, effective, inspiring, and living of all things, doing its work of enlightening, comforting, and blessing as perfectly as infinite wisdom and love can, and at the same time give to each intellectual and spiritual freedom to believe or to reject and to crucify.
The first requisite of judgment in regard to the Word is that we ascertain the true purpose that it is intended to fulfill. A correct conception in this regard shows that it does not return void unto Him who gave it, but that as gently and quietly as nature brings forth our bread, so the Word accomplishes what the Father pleases and prospers in the thing whereto He sent it.
The value of the volumes that we know under the title of Shakespeare are instructive and valuable primarily because they so vividly, accurately, and fully portray the affections, thoughts, and passions of the natural man, which we call human nature. But is their value as a teaching force one whit lessened if it should be proved that they were written by Lord Bacon? If their authorship were thrown into doubt, who wrote them would be a matter of idle and worthless curiosity to him who cared only for their intrinsic worth. The Word is valuable because it vividly, accurately, and fully portrays the affections, thoughts, and passions not only of the natural man, but also of the spiritual man and of God. It reveals not only human nature, but spiritual nature, angelic nature, and the Divine nature. The Word ought not in the least to be diminished as a teaching, spiritualizing power if Providence had formed the same through the agency of any other than the reputed penmen. To those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of its spirit, who were the mere scribes is a matter of idle and worthless curiosity; for the tests of its divinity are in the light, joy, and peace of God's presence in the universe and in the heart, revealed by the humble, reverent, prayerful living of its teachings. No one is competent to question the divinity of the Word until he has found it wanting in its self-imposed proof, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." Nor can the truth of the Word be adequately tested from any other standpoint than that of individual obedience to its principles. No one ever honestly made this test and failed to find through the Word peace and God.
Whatever errors may appear in the letter of the Word, when viewed from a natural, scientific, or historical standpoint, its internal is spirit and life. From the standpoint of its spirit and life it should be determined whether or not the Bible is the source of revelation from God to man to-day. When studied as a book whose purport is to teach history and science, it is natural that one should become agnostic or fall into the sophistry and the consequent apostacy of the pseudo-learning of the higher criticism—a costly fad, but one whose days are already numbered. But when the Word is viewed as a book whose purpose is to teach spiritual truth; to teach each that amount of spiritual truth that he will live up to, and at the same time withhold what he will not live up to and so bring upon himself the guilt of profanation; when it is read as a means of leading men away from evils and into a true life whereby he may receive in his heart the love of God that cannot be expressed in type; when its letter is taken as an avenue to that other and internal revelation of the wisdom and love of God to the heart; when it is put to the self-imposed tests of its Divinity—the living of it—it is sufficiently evident that the Word is the source of Divine Revelation, accommodated to the eternal needs of human kind, and ever yielding to them the wisdom and love of God in ratio to their ascending states of regeneration.
- ↑ Professor Tyndal, "Fragments of Science," p. 163.