ought_, but what the Author of the
Bible _told them to say_. The scribe writes as his employer dictates. "I
will put my words in thy mouth," said God to Jeremiah. "My tongue is as
the pen of a ready writer," said David. The prophets began, not with
"Thus saith Isaiah," but "Thus saith the Lord." Unless the Word of God
was utterly different from all his other works, it must transcend the
comprehension of man in some respects. The profoundest philosopher is as
ignorant of the cause of the vegetation of wheat as the mower who cuts
it down; but their ignorance of the mysteries of organic force is no
reason why the one may not harvest, and the other eat and live. Just so
God's prophets conveyed previous mysteries to the Church, of the full
import of which they themselves were ignorant; even as Daniel heard but
understood not. The prophets, to whom it was revealed, that they did not
minister to themselves, but to us, inquired and searched diligently into
the meaning of their own prophecies; which meaning, nevertheless,
continued hid for ages and generations.[303] If the prophets of the old
economy might be ignorant of the privileges of the gospel day, of which
they prophesied, at God's dictation, they might very well be ignorant,
also, of the philosophy of creation, and yet write a true account of the
facts, from his mouth.

Let us suppose, then, that the ancient Hebrews and their prophets were,
if not quite as ignorant of natural science as modern Infidels are
pleased to represent them, yet unacquainted with the discoveries of
Herschel and Newton; and, as a necessary consequence, that their
language was the adequate medium of conveying their imperfect ideas,
containing none of the technicalities invented by philosophers to mark
modern scientific discoveries; and that God desired to convey to them
some religious instruction, through the medium of language; must we
suppose it indispensable for this purpose that he should use strange
words, and scientific phrases, the meaning of which would not be
discovered for thirty-three hundred years? Could not Dr. Alexander write
a Sabbath-school book, without filling it full of such phrases as "right
ascension," "declination," "precession of the equinoxes," "radius
vector," and the like? Or, if some wiseacre did prepare such a book,
would it be very useful to children? Perhaps even we, learned
philosophers of the nineteenth century, are not out of school yet. How
many discoveries are yet