nd
exposition of the same. No theology can levy upon the well-defined facts
of science in confirmation of the sublime teachings of inspiration. The
Christian student need not hold himself in timid dread for fear the
scientist will discover aught in the realms of nature that will
contradict the Word of God: for as sure as God is the Author of both, so
surely shall we find an agreement between revelation and science at every
point truly understood--increased light means increased evidence.
Nations and men, nature and Providence, are united witnesses for God, and
the Scriptures, and the more we know of the past, the better shall we
understand the present and forecast the future. Let us recognise the
future. Let us recognise the important difference between the Bible
subjectively and objectively--that is, between what the Bible really is
and what men think it is. Let us be free enough, bold enough, and wise
enough, to claim the Bible itself. Let us unyoke it from tradition,
which claims to be superior, or even equal. Let us divorce it from
councils, from creeds, from sects and denominations; let us lift it up
out of the ecclesiastical rut of ages. Let us with a commendable pride
count ourselves worthy and able to formulate our own creeds, make our own
prayers and confessions, accounting that the liberties of our fathers
have been bequeathed to their children, and that the same God who gave
them liberty and power is no less gracious to us, their offsprings.
Traditions, councils, creeds, and degrees are worth much unto us as aids
to a higher life, and a nobler civilisation. The Christian fathers, the
Luthers, Calvins, Knoxes, Wesleys, and others, were our servants, as we
will be the servants of coming generations. They worked grandly, they
wrought well, they procured for us a goodly heritage; to them we are
indebted. Yet it was not their purpose nor the design of Providence to
enslave us, or to stereotype the Church for the ages to come. Increased
light is increased evidence, enabling us the better to understand the
Word of God. When a publisher has stereotyped a book, he is naturally
loath to make any change or correction; so Churches who have stereotyped
the Bible are very unwilling to change, to receive light. Hence, they
are sometimes found opposing the march of a better civilisation, proving
and sustaining all manner of institutions and tyrannies: the torturing
and terrible Inquisition of Spain, the punishmen