to realize as never before that God has
spoken and still speaks in a variety of ways. Manifestations of God
may be seen on every hand:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night showeth knowledge.[23]

What is the universe but a manifestation of God? The whole realm of
nature is in a real sense a record of divine revelations, which science
seeks to interpret. "Now," says A. H. McNeile,[24] "If God created all
things and carries the universe along by the utterance of his power, it
is clear that every fresh item of knowledge gained by {54} scientific
investigation is a fresh glimpse into the will of God. Strictly
speaking, there is no such thing as secular knowledge. A man only
makes his studies secular for himself as he divorces them from the
thought of God, so that all the scientific experiments in the world
form part of the study of one aspect of God's Word."

On the other hand the purpose of scripture has come to be more
adequately apprehended. The New Testament makes it perfectly clear
that the aim of the Old Testament Scriptures is to bring man into
harmony with God, to make him morally and spiritually perfect, and to
point to the consummation of the redemptive purpose of God in and
through the Christ.[25] There is no warrant anywhere for the belief
that the Old Testament writers meant to teach science of any kind.
This is admitted even by some who insist upon the accuracy of the
scientific teaching of the Bible. "It is true that the Scriptures were
not designed to teach philosophy, science, or ethnology, or human
history as such, and therefore they are not to be studied primarily as
sources of information on these subjects."[26] Evidently, then,
wherever the Old Testament touches upon questions of science it treats
them only in so far as they serve a higher ethical or spiritual
purpose. Is it necessary to have absolute scientific accuracy in every
detail in order to do this {55} effectively? A moment's thought will
show that it is not. The writer heard not long ago a powerful appeal
on behalf of the boys in a certain community, in which the speaker
referred to the "Gracchi, the most renowned citizens of Athens." The
historical inaccuracy in no wise affected the moral force of the
appeal. No one would be foolish enough to assume that the spiritual
and ethical value of sermons preached by the early Church