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 li^fj^h. J-J JLJ Jb^ J=J S S -hJ S 
 
 AT THE 
 
 INAUGURATION 
 
 OF 
 
 Rev, EDWARD LEWIS CURTIS. Ph, D, 
 
 AS PROFESSOR IN THE 
 
 Mccormick theological seminary, 
 
 APRIL etti, issr. 
 
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 AT THE 
 
 INAUGURATION 
 
 OF 
 
 Rev, EDWARD LEWIS CURTIS, Ph, D, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT LITERA- 
 TURE AND EXEGESIS, 
 
 MCCORMICK THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 Of the PKESliYTERIAN ChURCH, CHICAGO. 
 
 APRIL 6th, 1887. 
 
 CHICAGO; 
 Kitttedge & Friott, Printers, 76-78 Market Street, 
 
INAUGURATION EXERCISES. 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the INIcCormick 
 Thcological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church in April iSS6, 
 Rev. Edward Lewis Curtis, Ph. D., who for the past five years had 
 acted as Instructor and Associate Professor in the Seminary, was 
 elected Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis. This 
 election was approved by the General Asseml^ly which met in Minn- 
 eapolis, Minn., in May iSS6. The formal inauguration took place by 
 appointment of the Board, on the evening of Wednesday, April 6th, 
 in the Chapel of the Church of the Covenant, Chicago. The Order 
 of Exercises on the occasion was as follows: 
 
 Prayer, by the Rev. J. F. JNIagill, D. D., Fairfield, Iowa. 
 
 Reading of the Scriptures, l)y the Rev. James INIcLeod, 
 D. D., Indianapolis, Ind. 
 
 SiNGiXG, by the Students. 
 
 The Ixtroductorv Address, by the Rev. J. L. Withrow, 
 D. D., Chicago. 
 
 The Charge, by the Hon. C. C. Brown, President of the Board, 
 Springfield, 111. 
 
 Inaugural Address, by Professor Curtis. 
 
 Benediction, by the Rev. S. J. Nichols, D. D., St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 The Board of Directors requested the speidcers to furnish their 
 addresses for publication. Dr. Withrow was unalile to comply with 
 this request. 
 
THE CHARGE 
 
 BY 
 
 Hon. C. C. Brown, President of the Board of Directors. 
 
 THE TEACHER OF THE PREACHER. 
 
 "All thy children shall be taught of God," is the claim which 
 inspiration makes for the members of the church in gospel times. An 
 intelligent piety is to prevade and distinguish the church of Christ. 
 
 This does not imply that the loaf is to be placed high on the 
 shelf, or that the teaching shall be such as to make it hard for him 
 that runneth to read, or for the fool to understand, but that the people 
 shall be so taught of the Lord as not merely to be saved, but to be a 
 power unto salvation as well. It requires no great amount of knowl- 
 edge to be a saved christian. But it requires some intelligence, some 
 acquaintance with the knowledge of divine things, to be a useful 
 christian, a christain of importance and value. Hence the New Tes- 
 tament church is to have this distinguishing feature, her children shall 
 all be taught of the Lord. More is to be expected of the rank and 
 file, the members of the church, under the gospel dispensation, than 
 in former times. It is a sad fact that there are many christians of 
 this day, who try to divorce intelligence from faith — many who do 
 not hesitate to speak slightingly of the evidences which substantiate 
 Christianity, to decry and depreciate the studv of them, and to pro- 
 nounce that study unnecessary; and yet they extol faith, and cry to the 
 multitude, "believe, believe," without offering a reason for the faith 
 that is in them. 
 
 As an eminent writer has justly said, "This is like driving to the 
 door of a hungrv family a bullock and inviting them to eat without 
 any preparation for their necessites or tastes." This is not the intelli- 
 gent faith that is inculated and applauded in the Scriptures. It is not 
 the faith that has destroyed so many false systems and beliefs in the 
 ages of the past, that has built churches, founded great institutions of 
 Larning, carried the gospel to the ends of the earth, and made the 
 
name of christian honored and respected in the world, and precious in 
 the sight of God. 
 
 God would have his children drink deep from the boundless 
 ocean of his grace, to draw into his very presence; he would not have 
 them walk in darkness but in the radiance of heavenly light. 
 
 If the people of God are to be taught, and a more intelligent piety 
 j^revaii in the church in order to its advanced usefulness, then how 
 important that those who are to be called to be God's immediate instru- 
 ments in teaching his people, should be well fitted and equipped for 
 instructing the people. God has his plan of teaching the people, the 
 priest's lips must not only keep knowledge but be able to give it 
 forth. " The church is the divinely appointed agency for saving sin- 
 ners, the preacher is the great moral and religious educator" — he is 
 the Lord's messenger, wdio is to receive the word at his mouth, and 
 give it to the people, but the preacher must be taught also. If the 
 mantle of Elijah falls on Elisha, the teaching of Elijah must fall on 
 the young man. He must go from the school of the prophets and 
 not from the workshop, the plow handles, or the other pi'ofessions of 
 life, and he must take with him the Word of the Lord. The power 
 and success of the preacher will always depend upon how his theo- 
 logical teacher has furnished and equipped him for his work. 
 
 The occasion which brings us together fittingly leads to the con- 
 sideration of this theme — the teacher of the preacher, what should he 
 be? Time will permit the mention of but a few of the necessary 
 qualifications. 
 
 First of all he must be a man of God — he must comprehend by faith 
 the riches in Christ Jesus, in whom all fullness dwells — he must grow 
 in grace, at the end of each year, each month, each day — he should 
 be able to report progress, to be more and more sensible of the presence 
 of God than ever before. The hopes engendered in his heart, the bless- 
 ings received in his walk with Christ on earth, and the happiness in 
 store for him in the world to come, should impel him to declare to the 
 young men in his care, surrounded as they are by the allurements and 
 the temptations of the world, that if the}^ would have this hope, this 
 joy, this comfort, and have fellowship with God and his son Jesus 
 Christ, they must walk worthy of the high vocation wherewith they 
 are called. 
 
 He should be an artist in his way or rather in his work. As the 
 artist stands above the amateur as being professionally interested in 
 any line of study, so the teacher of preachers should not be a novice 
 at his work any more than the preacher at his. He should not only 
 
have the taste or attachment for, Init the grace and art of the business, 
 and in imparting his knowledge to others, he must be patient — patience 
 is the daughter of faith. The troubles, the cares, the disappointments 
 of this life call for the exercise of his grace. 
 
 When the mother of John Wesley was engaged in teaching a 
 verse of Scripture to her children, her husband said, "I wonder at your 
 patience, you have tolil the chiUl twenty times the same thing." "Had 
 I mentioned the matter only nineteen times," replied that noble woman, 
 "I should have lost all my labor." 
 
 Line upon line and precept upon precept should he the motto of 
 every good teacher. The mind often cannot be impressed and yet 
 may drink in knowledge at certain times. 
 
 It is related, I think, of Dr. Spring, that grand pulpit orator and 
 preacher, that he was called to the bed-side of a dying man — a man 
 of large mental cajDacity and engaged in the railroad business, who 
 had listened to his preaching for a long term of years. He besought 
 the doctor to tell him the plan of salvation. The doctor had been 
 thundering from the pulpit in his hearing for numy years the doctrine 
 of salvation, whilst he was thinking of railroads, stocks, and bonds. 
 
 I knew a lady of line literary attainments, the daughter of a 
 celebratetl clergymen, converted in earh' youth, so ecstatic over a ser- 
 mon on the love of God that she declared that her father and all the 
 ministers she had ever heard, had failed to preach on that subject — antl 
 3'et her father with a power few preachers possess, had set forth in 
 her hearing time and again that love in burning words, and brought 
 thousands to the cross of Christ. 
 
 The theologian Is to be made yery much through the medium of 
 language, this is the vehicle of ideas, the track on which mental fur- 
 niture is to be shipped from the store-house of the teacher to the 
 brain of the scholar. An acquaintance, therefore, not onlv with the 
 science of language, but with its art is necessary, and the teacher shc^uld 
 not onlv kno\v himself, but the man whom he is trying to furnish, not 
 simply what his mental capacit\- is, but what are the principal avenues 
 to his nature. 
 
 We often talk of "-getting the hang of the house,"" \yhich is no 
 small difhculty, but getting the "hang" of the man in making preachers 
 is quite as important, and in order to know ones self, to know our own 
 character aright, we must first make ourselves acquainted with that of 
 God, for it is in his light that we see light clearly. Men of real 
 ability arc often pronounced failures simply because thcv are not 
 understood. The eminent professor Orfila was asked the precise dose 
 
of poison it would be safe for a fly to take. He replied, " I should 
 want to know something about the particular flv under treatment, his 
 size, age, health, habits of life, whether married or single and what 
 were his surroundings in life." Surely, if a flv deserves so much 
 study for wise treatment, an immortal soul preparing for the ministrv 
 needs to be understood and carefully studied. 
 
 The teacher or preacher in order to be a power, must have what the 
 ^vorld calls common sense, without this desirable furniture of the mind, 
 talents, genius, great learning, will be of little avail. This sense is not 
 attained, so much by the studv of books as by intercourse with men, 
 by studying their characters in all the vocations of life, and by some 
 attention to the practical business affairs of the \vorld — in other words 
 it is that sense that gives us the power to reject or repel that force 
 which would interfere with healthy thought and actions — it is that 
 power of self-balance or self-regulation ever ready to be utilized 
 when occasion demands — it is that 250wer which enables us to hold the 
 furniture of the mind in subjection and thus produce a state of ecpii- 
 poise until we are able to choose the wisest, safest and best course — 
 some may call it wisdom from intuition, but it is sharpened and seconded 
 by reflection and investigation. 
 
 How often do we see men of great learning, in all professions of 
 life unable to utilize their powers for want of this particular talent. 
 We must ask for this wisdom from the Father of Light with the full 
 assurance that He will not withhold any good thing from His children. 
 That ^\•as not a vain prayer which ]SIr. Aloody offered some years ago, 
 when he was annoyed beyond measure by a brother gifted in many 
 respects, and }et destitute of this wisdom, when he prayed in the 
 brother's presence that the Lord would give brother B. a little more 
 common sense. 
 
 Finally, the teacher of the preacher should not be satisfied with 
 merely storing the intellect with the treasures of knowledge. Intel- 
 lectual furniture there must be, and the times call for full ecjuipment 
 here, but this is not the end chiefly to be desired. It is not with the 
 intellect merely that men come to saving faith. Culture and educa- 
 tion are desirable, but earnest piet}' more important still — the heart 
 must be changed, the affections raised to God. The Lord does not say, 
 Except ye be intelligent, except vc be cultured. But, Except ye be 
 converted, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven — with the heart 
 men believe unto righteousness. The education of the heart, the af- 
 fections, should be a prime work with the theologian. Sir INIathew 
 Hale in sj^eaking of his intellectual endowments said, "I have not 
 
esteemed them the best furniture of my mintl,l)ut liave accounted them 
 but dross in comparison with the Ivnowlcdge of Christ and Him cruci- 
 fied." Teachers with heads there must be, but there is a heart 
 qualification which is the principal thin^-. A garden maybe enriched, 
 and yet the weeds will grow ranker than on the sterile soil that sur- 
 rounds it — culture of the intellect merely does not bring men to Christ. 
 "Let no man deceive himself." "If any man among you seems to be 
 wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise." "For 
 the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." "Know ye not 
 that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in 
 you. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, 
 for the temple of God is holy which temple ye are." "Taste and see 
 that the Lord is good." "Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink, abun- 
 dantly, O beloved." "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters." "Christ in you the hope of glory." These verses plainly 
 teach us that religion is to be best experienced in the heart. 
 
 My Dear Buotiier: The directors of the McCormick Theo- 
 logical Seminary, having confidence in your scholarship, in your piety, 
 in your zeal for the church of Christ, believing you to be in full 
 harmony and in love with the doctrines of the church with which we 
 are connected, have unanimously called you to one of the important 
 chairs of this institution. The directors do this with the full assurance 
 that you will perform its duties with credit to yourself and to the 
 institution. — Never has the institution been better equi^jped for work; 
 through the liberality of Cyrus McCormick, his executors, and especi- 
 ally the liberality of his noble wife, who, in sunshine and in storm, has 
 ever been the friend of this institution, it stands to-day, in point of 
 equipment, equal to any in the land. — I charge you to preach the Word, 
 let no uncertain sound emanate from its portals, let its walls ever re- 
 sound in the years to come with praises to the most high God — keep 
 it in harmony with our beloved church and make it a home for young 
 men, however lowly, who desire to carry the news of salvation to a 
 lost world. The time is short, the night cometh when no man can 
 work, be diligent, be faithful unto death. 
 
 "We live in deeds, not years. 
 
 In thoughts, not breaths, 
 
 In feeling, not in figures on the dial, 
 
 We should count time by heart throbs. 
 
 He lives most, who thinks most, 
 
 Feels the noblest, acts the best," 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Edward Lewis Curtis, Ph. D. 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT FOR OUR TIMES. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors : 
 
 The subject that I have chosen for this evenhig is one suggested 
 by the professor's chair into which I have just been inducted. It is, 
 The Old Testament for Our Times. 
 
 We live in a period of special interest in the Old Testament. 
 Men are working on and investigating that portion of God's Word as 
 never before. Many causes have led to this. The Bible as a whole, is 
 being studied to-day more than ever. This is because Christ's spirit 
 of saving the lost is so active within the church, and the multitude 
 is increasing of those eager to know of that which tells of Him. 
 This age also is pre-eminently protestant. Now Protestantism means 
 the Bible as supreme authority in reference to faith and practice, and 
 the right of free inquiry, touching the Bible along with everything 
 else. Men to-day are not satisfied in simply receiving old statements 
 of religious truth. They ask after the basis of them. Many desire 
 also statements which shall not be marked so much by human reason, 
 as by the fresh stamp of the Word of God. There is a wide spread 
 feeling that theology may have become too much a philosophical sys- 
 tem, rather than a simple expression of the teachings of the Word. 
 Hence a so-called Biblical Theology is demanded, and in search of 
 this the Old Testament is being studied. 
 
 Special, outside causes also have led to this great interest in the 
 Old Testament. The sacred writings of all people are now being 
 carefully investigated in connection with the new science of compara- 
 tive religion. The pursuit is intense to know the primitive faiths of 
 the world. Hence the Old Testament is studied from a purely 
 scientific point of view, to classify and bring into line the religion of 
 the ancient Hebrews. 
 
There is great interest also just now in the vSemitic languages. 
 Now all the literature of one of these, the Hebrew, save a few inscrip- 
 tions, is found in the writings of the Old Testament. They are its 
 classics. Hence linguistically, they have a great importance. The 
 Greek scholar need have but little, if any acquaintance with the New 
 Testament, but the HelM-ew scholar must know the Old. He cannot 
 find anything else to read. 
 
 Modern discovery also has helped in this direction. They read 
 like a romance, those results of eastern exploration, that the spade and 
 pick have brought to light writings four millenniums old, and that we 
 now know that Moses might have used documents, had he wished, 
 written five hundred years before he penned a line of the Pentateuch. ' 
 This Babylonian literature thus discovered has man}- points in common 
 with the Old Testament. Its language, having a close affinity to the 
 Hebrew, helps us to understand Hebrew phrases and gives new thought 
 to Hebi-ew words. There have been found narratives of similar sub- 
 ject with statements strikingly parallel to some in Genesis; Psalms of 
 the same structure and not unlike in sentiment to those of David; and 
 again and again records of the names of Israel's kings and events of 
 Israel's history. ^ A new setting has thus been given to portions of 
 the Old Testament, and it forms a part of the most fascinating field 
 of historical research and investigation. 
 
 Then also the Christian conception of the Bible as containing the 
 revealed Word of God runs counter to the modern deistic or rather 
 agnostic view of the world, and this may possibly lead some to study 
 the Old Testament with the intention of undermining Christian faith, 
 and men of the church study to save their faith and refute infidel 
 objection. 
 
 Hence, from all these causes there is now especial interest in the 
 Old Testament. Its study is in the air. Is there now anything 
 providential in this? Does this study fit into any present need? Will 
 it bear any special fruit of lesson or truth adapted to the immediate 
 hour? Or in other words, is the Old Testament significantly for our 
 times? I think it is. As containing a divine revelation it is, of course, 
 for all times. As a book of rich and precious consolation, as long as 
 there are troubled and heavy hearts here on earth, it will find a place. 
 The church can never do without its precious promises. "When thou 
 passeth through the waters I will be with thee: and through the rivers 
 
 1. See Art. Babylonia Ency. Brit. 0th Ed. 
 
 2. See Schrader'8 Cuneiforni luscriptions and Ch^yaeV^ Tran-^lation of the P.?alms. 
 
they shall not overflow thee." ' The church can never do without its 
 pi"ecious experience. "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want." = 
 The Psalms, the songs of Israel, are as much read as any other por- 
 tion of God's word. They comfort, they nerve, they sustain; they are 
 the cry of the thankful shouting for joy, of the distressed wailing from 
 the depths of despair, of believers humbly conscious of their own in- 
 tegrity, and of believers penitent and weighed down with a sense of 
 guilt. The harp of David sends forth an infinite variety of sounds 
 expressing every emotion of the believer's heart. The law also of 
 the Old Testament is always in place. Sinai must always stand oppo- 
 site Calvary; the knowledge of sin, over against the knowledge of 
 salvation. 
 
 I. 
 
 The church also can never do without its testimony for Christ. 
 This leads to the first specific point which I present. The Old Tes- 
 tament is for our times as, A/i Evidc7icc of Christiaiiity. 
 
 In this it fits into a special need of to-day which calls so loudly 
 for the foundations of belief, and demands a review of all testimonies 
 for truth. Blot out the Old Testament, then we blot out one of the 
 strongest reasons whv we should accept the statements of the New, 
 and believe that Jesus of Nazareth was both man and God. The 
 resurrection of Christ needs the evidence of the Old Testament looking 
 forward to that event. I need not recall how often it is appealed to 
 in the New Testament. Neither also is the belief in the incarnation 
 easil}' reasonable without the preparation for it found in these old 
 writings. The words, the thoughts of Israel's prophets, the significant 
 events of Israel's history, the belief, the hope of that ancient people, 
 there embodied, are historic facts, and stand as an impregnable fortress 
 of our Christian faith. These sacred records were written long before 
 Christ came, and their testimony of Him is unshaken by any school of 
 criticism. For however men may distort their narratives and shift 
 from century to century their composition, still here the}'^ are, written, 
 I repeat, long before Christ came, and presenting a wonderful con'es- 
 pondence between Him and them.. No criticism can ever wash that 
 out. Suppose Moses did not write the proto evangclium, or the promise 
 given to Abraham (although the evidence points to their origin in 
 Scripture through him ), yet some one wrote them, some one, and 
 
 1. Is. XLIII, 2. 2. Ps. XXIII., 1. 
 
even if at the time of the exile, then by the power of God, knowing 
 the purpose that God did have at the beginning of man's history and 
 Israel's history; giving also that which as a beam of hope, a ray of 
 light, must have been there, for there was one, ever advancing, growing 
 brio-hter and brighter in anticipation, taken up by one and another in 
 story and song, until at last it broke forth realized in the one who 
 said, "I am the light of the world," and to whom we now look back, 
 as they looked forward. Suppose Isaiah did not draw that wondrous 
 portrait of the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, who should yet 
 see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, yet some one did. The 
 picture was given by the power of God, revealing a divine purpose, 
 dimly understood and comprehended, it may be, until there appeared 
 
 its counterpart the vicarious, suffering Messiah, the risen and glorified 
 
 Redeemer. Thus it is with all Old Testament teachings and history. 
 The lines of their prefigurement of and preparation for Christ and 
 Christianity can never be obliterated. They are like the stars set in 
 the etherial blue. They shine undimmed and undisturbed by theories 
 of astronomers. Prof. Patton has well refused to make even the 
 utterly unwarranted reconstructions of Jewish history proposed by 
 Kuenen and Welhausen, the logical warrant for denying the super- 
 natural character of Christianity, saying: "For Judaism, however 
 explained, is genetically related to the Christian religion." "IMen may 
 refuse to believe that God appeared to Moses and delivered to him a 
 most completed system of jurisprudence and a complex sacrificial 
 ritual. But they cannot ignore the correspondence between the Old 
 Testament and the New." ' The candid historical scholar cannot 
 resist the belief that Je^vish history w as a series of preparations for 
 Christ's advent. Even if one should endeavor to reject the inspiration 
 of the book that records this history, he cannot doubt the inspiration 
 of the history itself. God was there. Finding God thus in the his- 
 tory will lead one also to find him in the writing of the Book. For 
 the Book and the history are one. 
 
 This studv of the Old Testament will do tlien for apologetics 
 that which has been accomplished l)y the recent study of the New. 
 This latter has given us the true historic Christ. This former will 
 give us the true historic Israel, prophetic of Christ. 
 
 1. Pres. Rev., vol. IV , p. 360. 
 
11. 
 
 The study of the Old Testament in its relation to the New teaches 
 us the important and especially timely lesson of Modesty in the 
 Interpretation of Scripture. The Old Testament is not the New. 
 In part it was of the Israel of Canaan and has been outgrown and 
 supplanted, or rather filled up and completed, certain elements, like the 
 husk or shell of ripening fruit falling away. The, "But I say unto 
 you," has taken the place of the, "It hath been said by them of old 
 time." This has been recognized in the church from the beginning. 
 It is too plainly taught in the New Testament to be denied. It has 
 caused men even to think the Old of little importance and scarcely 
 w^orth studying. That this is a mistake I need not argue. Old Testa- 
 ment study, however, reveals another fact in this connection well 
 worth heeding — that is the limitations of divine revelation and 
 the relativeness of the divine word. We are warned against abso- 
 lutely pressing the statements of Scripture into the four corners of 
 their literal meaning, and declaring that we know exactly how the 
 future purposes of God will be realized. "The Pentateuch knows 
 nothing," says Oehler, "of a future change in the law, or of an 
 abrogation of it even in part."' The various statutes given to Moses 
 are represented as perpetually binding in their force. The specific 
 day of the passover was to be observed by specific ordinance forever. ^ 
 The priesthood of Aaron was an everlasting priesthood. 3 The 
 ordinance of clean and unclean persons was a perpetual statute.-* And 
 yet how many of these in form have been completely set aside. 
 Promises and predictions also concerning the Messiah have not in their 
 letter been realized in Jesus of Nazareth. He never bore the name 
 Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of 
 Peace: He never sat upon the throne of David, his father, in a literal 
 sense. He never brought political {^eace to his people. He was a far 
 different person from that which an honest and candid and de\'out 
 study of Old Testament scripture might have led one to expect. The 
 story of Jesus of Nazareth in his life and death never could have been 
 written beforehand; only after he had appeared, after he had lived and 
 died and risen, was it seen how thus were to be fulfilled the promises 
 of Israel. Pro2:)hecy is known then only through its fulfillment. The 
 final purposes of God, save in great outline, are unknown and hidden 
 
 1. Old Testament Theology, g 97. 3. Ex. XL., 15. 
 
 2. Ei. XII., 13. 4. Num. XIX., 10, 21. 
 
15 
 
 to us. We have not yet reached the end of Divine Revehition. The 
 Old Testament church stootl waiting for the Messiah, with the confi- 
 dence expressed in the words of the .Samaritan woman, "When he 
 is come, he will tell iis all thin<^s." ' Christ came, but he has not told 
 us all things. The New Testament apart from its historic facts and 
 their explanation, advances very little beyond the Old, save in a fuller 
 revelation of divine love and of a future life. .So we await Ilis glori- 
 ous second coming, live in that blessed hope, and learn, I trust, to be 
 modest in our interpretations of Scripture and our claims of fully 
 imderstanding the Word; learn to take that which is clear and un- 
 mistakable, that about which the church has in all ages been of one 
 mind, and to leave the rest outside of the realm of authoritative 
 dogmn, to be matters of 2^i'i\''^te thought and meditati<jii. 
 
 HI. 
 
 The Old Testament impresses upon us also The Importance and 
 Significance of this life. It has been thought strange bv many 
 that the Old Testament scriptures had so little to sav concerning the 
 life beyond. Various reasons have been given for this fact. Some 
 have assumed that a conception of a future and immortal state was as 
 vivid and clear to the ancient Hebrews as to us, and that this is alwa\s 
 to be presupposed in reading those records, that no mention of it was 
 made because none was needed. This is a mistake. Consider the sad 
 pathetic words of the Psalmist^ clinging to life, of Hezekiah when he 
 said : 
 
 "The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: 
 They that go down into the pit, cannot hope for thy truth. 
 The living, the living, he shall praise thee as I do this day. "3 
 
 These could not have been written bv those who had the full New 
 Testament hope and belief. The New Testament also denies full 
 Christian knowledge and assurance to the past. Jesus Christ brought 
 life and immortality to light.4 It is wrong, however, to go to the other 
 extreme and deny to the Old Testament writers a belief in a future 
 life. Death with them was not an eternal sleep. Death also did not 
 leave them mere shades wandering aimlessly on another shore. No, 
 stronger than death was the love of Jehovah, and with him there must 
 be life hereafter. 
 
 1. Jno. IV., 25. 3. Is. XXXVIII., 18, 19. 
 
 2. Ps. VI., 5. 4. I. Tim. I., 10. 
 
i6 
 
 '•'•Gocl will redeem my soul from the j^ower of Sheol, 
 For he shall recci\e me."' 
 
 There is no idle speculation aliout this future state. Firm faith 
 rested in this assurance and therewith was content. This life was 
 the all important, and no destiny was known that did not grow out 
 of this. Here then is a needed thought, when men are prone on 
 the one hand to find a second probation, and on the other to em- 
 phasize to such an extent divine forgiveness and the final entrance 
 into gloiy, so as to make it appear that it made no difference whether 
 a life had been all wasted and thrown away, and then at the last moment 
 saved, or whether from the beginning it had been full of noble con- 
 secration and ser\icc. The Old Testament preaches the necessity of 
 right li\ing based upon a right heart. There is no mere legalism. 
 The source of all is divine grace: God calling, yet being called; God 
 knowing, 3'et being known; God loving, yet being loved; the heart, 
 the disposition, is everything. There is no magical formula of intel- 
 lectual knowledge or of external rite. 
 
 "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, I 
 dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite 
 and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the 
 heart of the contrite ones." 2 
 
 The rapture of the New Testament is not found in the Old. We 
 are not transported with Paul to the third heavens, but there is a 
 granileur, a solemnity, a heroism, in the conception of the true life 
 linked to Jehovah, reminding one of the familiar lines: 
 
 "A sacred burden is the life ye bear. 
 Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly. 
 Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly." — 
 
 A conception needed in this age of so much mawkish gush and senti- 
 mentality, and which is the keynote of so much of the best preaching 
 of the present day, which emjDhasizes continually ciiaractkr. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Old Testament enters also into Sympathy ivith the Anxious 
 Str//og-lcs of Men over the Mysteries of Life. Possibly these struggles 
 are no more to-day than they ever have been, and yet they seem so. 
 Men to-day think. They are not like dumb, dri\en cattle, blindly 
 
 1. Ps. XLIX., 15. 2. Ts. LVII., 15. 
 
17 
 
 accepting the traditions of the past. The scientific investigation of 
 both physical, mental and moral phenomena, has placed them in a new 
 world. Their thought environment is all different from that of their 
 fathers. And they are asking with pathetic earnestness, what is life? 
 Through the wide reaching philanthropy, that Christ-like mark of 
 our day, has come up also the old question, old and yet ever new, of 
 the problem of evil, and above all, why do the innocent suffer. This 
 now is the thought of the book of Job, and in that grand and match- 
 less poem I find Gpd's imprint of sympathy with all those who wrestle 
 to-day with these dark problems, and I find also the only remedy, God. 
 This old revelation does not brush aside with scorn the anguish and 
 bittei'ness of souls who find it hard, very hard, to submit to God's 
 dealings. Nay, it tells out the whole experience. There is the sad 
 cursing of the dav of birth,' the heart-rending longing that life mught 
 never have been,^ the bold complaint against God: 
 
 "Know now that God hath subverted me in my cause. 
 And hath compassed me with his net. 
 Behold I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: 
 I cry for help, but there is no judgment." 3 
 
 Full utterance thus is given, and though in the end there is condemna- 
 tion for lack of faith and submission, yet a still severer condemnation 
 is spoken against those self-appointed teachers, who insisted on the 
 application of their peculiar dogma, and wondered why their suffering 
 friend did not through it give God the glory. Of a similar tenor also 
 Is the book of Ecclesiastes, that strange riddle to many, which seems 
 with its sad refrain, "Vanity of vanities all is vanity," more full of 
 skepticism than faith, and echoes that discontent which lurks at times 
 in nearly every soul and finds expression in all literature. Appropriate 
 now for us is this voice coming from the Word of God, for while men 
 in all ages have thus sung, yet to our age has it been reserved to 
 elevate this pessimistic mood into a powerful system of philosoj^hy, 
 and this book brings us into sympathy with this mood, shows us its 
 reality, and gives us a clew of how we may help men out of the same. 
 Yes, as a recent commentator has said: "Those who study it will find 
 that it meets and has we may believe been providentially designed to 
 meet the special tendencies of modern philosophical thought, and that 
 the problems of life which it discusses are those with which our daily 
 experience brings us in contact. And if they feel, as they will do, that 
 there is hardly any book of the Old Testament which presents so 
 
 1. Job III., 3 ft. 2. Job III., 11 ff. 3. Job XIX., 6, 7. 
 
i8 
 
 marked a contrast in its teaching to that of the Gospels or Epistles of 
 the New Testament, they will yet acknowledge that it is not without 
 a place in the Di^■ine Economy of Revelation, and may become to those 
 who use it rightly, a school-master leading them to Christ."' 
 
 I believe the church has not generally apprehended the full and 
 true meaning of these old writings. They ai-e not profitable to every 
 mind, but, since found in the Word of God, it has been often thought 
 that in some way they must be. Hence they have been placed on the 
 procrustean bed of allegory and compelled to teach almost everything 
 that fancy could suggest, instead of being taken just as the}- are, the 
 bitter experiences of s,ouls, tossed and baffled by the problems of this 
 life, to reveal unto us how God sympathizes with such souls, how he 
 would have us deal with them, and how he may even use them to tell 
 us of him. 
 
 V. 
 
 The Old Testament presents notes of warning also touching upon 
 the great Social }^//cstio?i of Our Day. 
 
 The dangers of a material civilization rise and loom before us. 
 One class of people are growing richer, richer; another, relatively 
 poorer and poorer. Men are crowding into cities. These are becom- 
 ing the centres of a luxurious and effeminate civilization. This now 
 was much the case in the latter days of Israel and Judah. Men slept 
 on couches of ivory ;^ they had music and wine;3 they speculated in 
 grain ;4 they cheated ;4 they acquired great estates, buying up all the 
 land in their neighborhood ;5 they imported foreign articles of luxury -^ 
 they oppressed the poor;? their wives and daughters were decked out 
 in the most extravagant style. ^ All this life, centered in Jerusalem 
 and vSamarin, was a miniature of that going on in our own land. It 
 threatened destruction. The prophets, the preachers of those olden 
 times, made then these evils the subject of their earnest warnings, and 
 herein they are a needed model for our own day. We need ethical 
 preachers, men who will arouse the public conscience; an Elijah to 
 denounce Ahab's crime against Naboth,9 which has been repeated so 
 often by the strong white man against the poor Indian; an Isaiah to 
 say woe, not simply unto them that are mighty to drink wine,'° but 
 also woe unto them that join house to house and lay field to field,, 
 
 1. Cambridge Bible for fchool-. Ecclesiaffes by E. E. Pluiiiptre, P. D., p. 11, 12. 
 
 2. Am. VI., 4. 4. Am. VIIL, 5. 6. Is. II., 6, 7. 8. Is. III., 16 ff. 10. Is. V., 22. 
 
 3. Am. VI., 5. 5. Is. V., 8. 7. Mic. III., 2, 3. 9. I. K. XXI., 17 ff. 
 
19 
 
 until they be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land,' a woe 
 against grasping monopolies of every sort; a Jeremiah to intercede in 
 behalf of the man-servant and the maid-servant ;2 an Amos to threaten 
 divine punishment ujoon those that have sold the righteous for silver 
 and the needy for a pair of shoes, that pant after the dust on the head 
 of the poor;3 those who will combine to force up the price of food or 
 fuel, taking bread from the mouth of the hungry and heat from the 
 body of the cold. These, not to mention others, are needed voices that 
 come to us from the Old Testament. 
 
 Worthy of consideration also are the principles of land tenure of 
 the Mosaic law,* which commanded a reversal of landed property at 
 the end of everv half century to the original owners, thereby keeping- 
 it in the hands of small individual holders, preventing the accumulation 
 of great estates on the one hand, and the degradation into aliject 
 poverty on the other. Suppose these principles had been in someway 
 insisted upon by the church in the days of her direct power in the 
 past, is it too much to surmise that the land question, which has been 
 at the bottom of so manv woes and wrongs in Europe, might never 
 have been ? This legislation may be called ideal, or fitted only for an 
 ideal state or condition of affairs, yet it presents an ideal needed for our 
 own times, of a golden mean between opulence and want; a mean ex- 
 pressed in the prayer of Agur, 
 
 "Give men either poverty nor riches; 
 Feed me with the food that is needful to me; 
 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? 
 Or lest I be poor and steal, 
 And use profanely the name of my God.'s 
 
 This golden mean according to the Old Testament is intimated to 
 be the goal of humanity, for not only, "Nation shall not lift up sword 
 against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, but they shall 
 sit every man under his vine and vmder his fig tree."^ No mere 
 legislation can bring this about. The Gospel of repentance and faith 
 in Christ is the sole remedy for the woes of mankind, but that Gospel 
 carries with it certain ethical teachings, touching all phrases of social 
 and civil life, which gradually are formulated and enter into the con- 
 sistencies of a true Christianity. These must be sought for, according 
 to the need of the hour, in the whole Word of God, and the Old 
 Testament has its contributions in this direction. 
 
 1. Is. v., 8. 3. Am. II , 6, 7. 5 Prov. XXX.,8, 9. 
 
 2. Jer. XXXV., 8 ff. 4. Lw. XXV., 8-34. 6. Mic. IV , 3, 4. 
 
20 
 
 VI. 
 
 Another idea needed for our times is that of The Immanence of 
 God. He has been too often conceived of as simply transcendent. 
 That has been the drift of modern thouj^ht, Paley's watch picked up 
 on the sand has suggested not only a designer, but as applied to the 
 universe, a designer who, having finished his work, cast it aside to be 
 governed and run by the power and machinery placed within, he him- 
 self being so remote as to be unknown, if not unknowable. Thus 
 the very argument which would tell us of the existence of a God, 
 has been turned in the opposite direction, not to bring him near, but 
 to remove him afar. The true conception is given in the Old Testa- 
 ment, which finds God, not simply the Creator of the universe, but 
 ever present therein. The first chapter of Genesis has a counterpart 
 in Psalm CIV. Creation in the beginning by an absolute fiat passes 
 over into an unfolding preservation by a continued presence. 
 
 "Yonder is the sea, great and wide, 
 Wherein are things creeping innumerable. 
 Both small and great beasts. 
 
 There go the ships; [therein. 
 
 There is the leviathan, whom thou hast formed to take his pastime 
 These wait all upon thee. 
 
 That thou mayest give them their meat in due season. 
 That thou givest unto them they gather: 
 Thou openest thy hand, they are satisfied with good. 
 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled ; 
 Thou takest away their breath, they die, 
 And return to their dust. 
 
 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; 
 And thou renewest the face of the ground."' 
 
 "The whole universe exists in God, as the stars in the ether, as 
 the clouds in the air, the whole universe floats on the pulsing bosom 
 of God."^ Nature is his outer garment. All her movements are of 
 him, the thunder is his voice,3 the lightning from his mouth,'^ the 
 «arthcjuake his anger,5 the light his garment,^ the clouds his chariot, 7 
 the winds his messengers,^ the ice from his breath. 9 His throne 
 is above the cherubim, symbols of the living powers of nature. But 
 he is never identified with nature. His immanence is not pantheistic. 
 He giveth life to all, is the life of all, is in all natural phenomena, but 
 is independent, apart, separate, and Lord of all. 
 
 1. 
 
 Ps. CIV., 25-30. 
 
 4. 
 
 Ps. XVIII., 8. 
 
 7. 
 
 Ps. CIV., 3. 
 
 
 2. 
 
 A. A. Hodge, Pres. Rev. Vol.VIII., p. 10. 
 
 5. 
 
 Ps. XVIII., 7. 
 
 8. 
 
 Ps. CIV., 4. 
 
 
 3. 
 
 Ps. XXIX., 3. 
 
 6. 
 
 Ps. CIV , 2. 
 
 9. 
 
 Job XXXVII., 
 
 ,10. 
 
21 
 
 No natural scene or object in the Old Testament is ever pictured 
 for its own sake, to leave the impression of itself. The Psalmist 
 gazes at the starry heavens by night, he views the wondrous march of 
 the sun by day, but his words are no j^en pictures of these brilliant 
 objects: no, these are nothing in themselves, only in their grandeur 
 speaking silently of God. Beauty of form, harmony of color, were 
 conceptions foreign to the Hebrews. Ezekiel's cherubim defy artis- 
 tic representation. The creations of Job, his magnificent description 
 of a war-horse for example, suggest no pictorial treatment. Indeed 
 that may be said to refuse to come within the power of brush or pencil. 
 The reason is because the description is given not for the sake of the 
 horse, but to awaken religious remotion. This is the highest, the 
 truest study of nature, God ever there. This is much needed in the 
 present day, when in science, in art, in literature, the dominant schools 
 are realistic, and everything is presented for its own sake and nothing 
 higher. There must be scientific exactness, every line must be perfect, 
 but there need be nothing which shall touch once the>soul and liftmen 
 God ward. 
 
 VII. 
 
 For this reason we are glad also that the Old Testament is being 
 Studied as a Literature. It is needed as a welcome tonic; for in litera- 
 ture men's aims are becoming dwarfed as much as in art. The popular 
 writers of to-day are, as one has said, "photographic literateurs, who 
 do not create ideally, who leave out such grand themes as justice, holi- 
 ness and devotion; to whom the beauty of holiness is no concern; men 
 who will amplify a mouse or analyze a passion with utter indifference." ' 
 The Old Testament stands as the highest literature of the world to 
 counteract this tendency. Its study then ought to be encouraged as 
 such. The Holy Ghost gave its thoughts often a high literary finish, 
 we may believe, not without this object in view. It should come a sa 
 classic into our school rooms. Why confine ourselves to the literature 
 of the peoples who have given us art and law, and omit that of the 
 one who has given us religion ? 
 
 The Old Testament, as the whole Bible, is not to be made an 
 unnatural and unreal book, by attaching it exclusively to hours of de- 
 votion and detaching it from the experiences of ordinary life. "The 
 study of the Bible" says one, "will inevitably lead to holy and devout 
 
 1. w H. Ward in the ludeppndent, Dec. i», If^Sti, 
 
thoughts, will bring the student to the presence of God and his Christ, 
 but it is a sad mistake to suppose that the Bible can be approached 
 only in special frames of mind and with peculiar preparation. It is 
 not to be covered as wath a funereal pall and laid away for hours of sor- 
 row and affliction. It is not to be regard with feelings of bibliolatry, 
 which are as pernicious as the adoration of the sacrament. It is not to 
 be used as a book of magic, as if it had the mysterious pow-er of 
 determining all questions at the opening of the book. It is not to be 
 used as an astrologer's horoscope to determine from its words and 
 letters, the structure of its sentences and its w'ondrous symbolism, 
 through seeming coincidences, the fulfilment of Bibical prophecy in 
 the events transpiring about us or impending over us. The Bible is 
 no such book as this, — it is a book of life, a real book, a people's book. 
 It is a blessed means of grace when used in devotional hours, it has 
 also holy lessons and beauties of thought and sentiment for hours of 
 leisure and recreation. It appeals to the aesthetic and intellectual as 
 well as moral and spiritual faculties, the whole man in his whole life. 
 Familiarity with the Bible is to be encouraged. It will not decrease 
 but rather enhance the reverence with which we ought to ajoproach 
 the Holy God in His Word. The Bible takes its place among the 
 master pieces of the world's literature. The use of it as such no more 
 intcrfers with devotion than the beauty and grandeur of architecture 
 and music prevent the adoration of God in the worship of a cathe- 
 dral. Rather the varied forms of beauty, truth and goodness displayed 
 in the Bible will conspire to bring us to Him, who is the centre and 
 inspiration of them all."' 
 
 VIIL 
 
 I mention but one other aspect in which Old Testament words 
 are profoundly significant for our times. I refer to those touching 
 upon the great work of the church in this present hour. The Evangeli- 
 zation of the World. 
 
 It is frequently said that there are no promises of the world's 
 conversion in the New Testament, only Christ's command to preach. 
 But why there such promises? The Old Testament was the Scripture 
 of those days, and it is full of them. The one given to Abram : 'Tn 
 thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."- Did that mean 
 the meagre, narrow, small blessing of a little handful snatched out 
 
 1. Briggs' Biblical Study, pp., 4, 5. 2. Gen. XII., 3. 
 
and saved? Did that mean the blessing of having the gospel preached, 
 witnessed, to save a few and harden the many, making their dan"mation 
 the greater? That is not the Old Testament conception. "Blessed 
 be Egypt my people, and Assyi'ia the work of my hands, and Israel 
 mv inheritance."' The arch-enemies of God's people, the great 
 powers of the world, are to be one with them. 
 
 "Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance. 
 And the uttermost parts of the earth for th}' possessions. ■"'^ 
 
 "I will also give thee a light for the Gentiles, 
 That thou maycst be my salvation unto the end of the earth. "3 
 
 "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the 
 waters cover the sea."* These were the promises given to Israel; 
 these are the promises given to us. What courage, what hope, what 
 zeal should the church then have? The horizon of God's word is 
 roseate with the morning glow. The realization of our Saxiour's 
 prayer, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in 
 heaven," is assured. 
 
 With this I close: adding only that it has not been my intention 
 to present the main, as I have already intimated, or the most salient 
 and important features of the Old Testament, l)iit onl\- those corre- 
 sponding to the special thought and need of this hour, not to the 
 general thought and need of every hour. Had I purposed to present 
 the latter, I should have dwelt especially upon the doctrine of 
 Redemption, and spoken of the scarlet and golden cord which binds 
 all Scripture together; — scarlet, telling of the life that must be offered 
 for sin; golden, telling of the love-covenant that no faithlessness can 
 break. 
 
 Wondrous indeed is this Old Testament. It takes us back to the 
 beginning, "When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of 
 God shouted for jov."5 It carries us forward, with all its sad tales of 
 man's fall and Israel's perversity, with an unfolding revelation of 
 divine love and redemption, to the sublime outlook of a new heavens 
 and a new earth, death swallowed up fore\er, tears wiped away from 
 off all faces. 6 ^Liy God give me grace and wisdom to unfold it 
 ariirht. 
 
 1. Is. XIX , 25. 3. Is. XLIX., 6. 5. XXXVIII , 7. 
 
 ■2. Ps. II , S. 4. Is. XI., SI. 6. Is. XXV , 8. 
 
BS1187.P92 
 
 Addresses at the inauguration of Rev. 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00053 3226 
 
 IN 
 
 '■|.