THE 
 
 IMei'M^ -'Maitiir e 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ©I Grace 
 
^-0Hfni!rc 
 
 BL 240 .M55 1919 
 Miller, Joshua Houser . 
 The Bible of nature and 
 Bible of grace 
 
 the 
 
THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 and 
 
 THE BIBLE OF GRACE 
 
■v^ 
 
 The Bible of Nature 
 
 and 
 
 The Bible of Grace 
 
 \By 
 JOSHUA H.*MILLER, Ph.D. 
 
 Boston 
 THE ROXBURGH PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. 
 
Copyrighted 1919 
 
 By Joshua H. Miller 
 
 Bights Beserved. 
 
To My Wife, 
 
 Anna Levering Miller, 
 
 And to ray Children, 
 
 Theodore Kenneth, and Adeline Elizabeth, 
 
 This Book I Lovingly Dedicate. 
 
 J. H. Miller. 
 
"I have learned to look on Nature, not as in the hour 
 
 Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes 
 The sad, still voice of humanity, 
 
 Not harsh or grating, though of ample power 
 To chasten and subdue. And I have felt 
 
 A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
 Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
 
 Of something far more deeply interfused. 
 Whose dwelling is in the lights of setting suns, 
 
 And the round oceans and the living air, 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man, 
 
 A motion and a spirit that impels 
 All thinking things; all objects of all thoughts, 
 
 And rolls through all things. 
 
 ^'Therefore am I still a lover of the meadows and the 
 woods and mountains, 
 
 And this prayer I make, 
 Knowing that Nature never did betray 
 
 The heart that loved her. 'Tis her privilege 
 Through, all the years of this one life to lead 
 
 From joy to joy; for she can so inform 
 The mind that is within us — so impress 
 
 With quietness and beauty, and so feed 
 With lofty thoughts, — that neither evil tongues, 
 
 Rash judgments, nor the sneers of evil men, 
 Nor greetings, where no kindness is. 
 
 Nor all the dreary intercourse of daily life. 
 Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb 
 
 Our cheerful faith.*' 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book does not pretend to exhaust the 
 subject; on the contrary, I have sought to be 
 as brief as possible and yet try to make clear 
 to the average reader that the Bible of Na- 
 ture and the Bible of Grace must have a com- 
 mon author, as is manifest in their harmony. 
 
 There seems much need in our day to re- 
 affirm that since ever the world began, and 
 so long as heaven and earth shall last, there 
 never has been, and never will be, a fact to 
 prove that there is no God, or that the soul is 
 not immortal, or that Jesus Christ did not 
 come to earth as God-man to die for our sins ; 
 and there is no fact which proves that there 
 is no resurrection of the dead, and that the 
 sick cannot be healed by prayer, for the rea- 
 son that facts have no negative proof-power. 
 Facts by themselves are, like the unpointed 
 Hebrew consonant writing, hollow, colorless 
 forms, without any meaning. They only be- 
 come alive with color and sound by the addi- 
 tion of the vowels. 
 
 Because to so many the Book of Nature is 
 like the unpointed Hebrew consonant writ- 
 ing, for them I want to add the vowels of the 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Book of Grace and thus give color and life 
 and meaning to all truth. I want to express 
 my sincere conviction in a living and personal 
 God who is manifest alike both in natural and 
 revealed theology. Their history, laws, 
 poetry, prophecy and Gospel tell that the God 
 of Nature is the God of the Bible, and vice 
 versa. 
 
 I wish to show to my readers that the con- 
 ception of the universe which is most logical, 
 most harmonious, and most in accordance 
 with facts, is the conception of the Christian 
 — it is more scientific than all systems, ma- 
 terialistic and atheistic, which often confound 
 fact with explanation. 
 
 I wish also to express my sincere regard 
 for the facts which the truly great men of the 
 past have given us from their study of na- 
 ture's book, and encourage every man to pon- 
 der the same; for whoever says he lost God 
 through studying Nature's Book never really 
 possessed Him. 
 
 Joshua H. Miller. 
 
 Irwin, Pa. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Two Books. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Chronology — The March of the Centuries. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Creation — Its History in Nature. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Flood — Its History in Nature. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Decalogue — In Natural History. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Psalms in Nature. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Prophecy in Nature. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Gospel in Nature. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Conclusion : 
 
 (a) The Alleged Controversy Between Sci- 
 
 ence and Religion. 
 
 (b) The Greatest Scientists Were Religious 
 
 Men. 
 
■ CHAPTER I 
 
 Two Books 
 
 There are two books that all of us should 
 read, and we should read them with dili- 
 gence and care; for they contain all truth 
 man may know from the animalcule in the 
 sod to the seraph on the throne. These 
 two books are the Bible of Nature and the 
 Bible of God's word. They have a 
 common author, whose character is 
 written on every page. To observe their 
 common authorship is not optional with us 
 as rational beings, but obligatory. We are 
 commanded to ''Consider the lilies of the 
 field how they grow." We are told to "Be- 
 hold the fowls of the air." We are thereby 
 encouraged, jea, admonished to study the 
 sciences of Botany and Ornithology. The 
 great Teacher, as was His custom, hereby 
 intended to declare a universal principle. 
 He intended to say to you and me that it is 
 well for us not only to read the chapter on 
 Botany and the chapter on Ornithology but 
 all other chapters contained in the great 
 Book of Nature; that Christians every- 
 where — whether they are in the university 
 or on the farm — should feel it an imperative 
 duty, or, should I say, a privilege, to acquire 
 a knowledge of those wonderful laws which 
 
12 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 govern the universe, and to study as well the 
 composition of a minute grain of sand as 
 that of a magnificent sun ; the structure of 
 a tiny flower or of a banyan tree ; the life 
 and habits of an amoeba, or those of a saurian. 
 Look where you will in nature and you will 
 find it pregnant with thought — thoughts for 
 a botanical library — thoughts for an em- 
 bryological library — thoughts for a paleon- 
 tological library; and thus we might con- 
 tinue to multiply. 
 
 Men have busied themselves with the text 
 of Nature's sacred scriptures, and have 
 given us a large part of the libraries of the 
 world. But if they had translated into 
 books all the thoughts that nature contains, 
 hidden and revealed, "I suppose that even 
 the world itself could not contain the books 
 that should be written." 
 
 The ancients did not realize the unity of 
 authorship. Their science consisted of iso- 
 lated facts and discordant laws. Was there 
 any wonder? They believed in many gods. 
 Modern science has come to realize unity 
 of thought — a harmonius oneness — one God 
 as the author of life. (And all stability of 
 character rests on the contemplation of 
 changeless unity.) 
 
 Twenty-six letters of the alphabet spell 
 out all the books that are written in the 
 English language. Compare this with the 
 25,000 characters of the Chinese and you 
 
AND THE BEBLE OF GRACE 13 
 
 will not wonder at the advancement of 
 the Aryan characters as compared with 
 that of the Turanian. 
 
 If you are acquainted with the permuta- 
 tions of numbers, it is not strange, after all, 
 that by means of some eighty elements you 
 may be able to spell the myriad forms of 
 plant and animal life. For example, con- 
 sider the numbers as elements and observe 
 the combinations in the accompanying dia- 
 gram. 
 
 I I I 2 3 I I 3 I 2 I 
 
 I 2 I 3 2 3 I I I I I 
 
 I 3 I I I 2 I 2 I 3 I 
 
 Thus you observe that six columns of dif- 
 ferent combinations can be made with three 
 figures. The possible permutations of any 
 number of things or elements may be easily 
 ascertained by . multiplying consecutively 
 the figures from one upwards, thus — i x 2 x 
 3 — 6, as in the diagram. The addition of 
 only one element or number greatly in- 
 creases the number of possible variations in 
 the order; for, while three elements could be 
 placed in six different ways, seven elements 
 could be arranged in 5040 orders; 1x2x3x4 
 X5x6x7— 5040. 
 
 Thus the Yale lock makers, by such a 
 simple device as a screw and fifteen bits, 
 could so change their combinations as to 
 produce 1,307,674,368,000 varieties of locks; 
 
14 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 more than enough to supply every human 
 being the world over with a different key. 
 
 Perhaps this simple illustration will help 
 us to understand the possibilities for the ele- 
 ments to unite in such a way as to produce 
 the forms "ad infinitum" all around us. 
 What a volume of thought this earth con- 
 tains if only we can interpret the combina- 
 tions of letters ! On nature's first page 
 we meet with a monosyllabic word — yet it 
 is a word with a fixed meaning. The ar- 
 rangement of the letters is a fact to be ex- 
 plained. We see this word often occurring 
 in nature ; and wherever it occurs it is al- 
 ways spelled in the same way. Its letters 
 - — chromosomes in the cell — (that which 
 causes the cell to bring forth according to 
 its kind) are always the same in each spe- 
 cific word of life. In the opening sentences 
 of the Bible of Nature we read other words, 
 formed of similar letters, but longer and 
 more complex ; they also are always spelled 
 correctly with their definite number of let- 
 ters and syllables, of chromosomes and 
 cells. 
 
 We turn tke pages and find that these 
 words of nature are not single and detached. 
 Behold ! they arrange themselves in certain 
 relations to each other for which they seem 
 to be intended. When we examine more 
 closely, we find that they are mutually 
 adapted ; and thus arranged, a new order 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 15 
 
 appears — a sentence is composed. And then 
 naturally, sentence follows sentence co-or- 
 dinate or complex. The separate sentences 
 fall into groups; we mark the paragraphs 
 on nature's pages; one leads up to the 
 next; each part takes meaning from that 
 which precedes, and enlarges the idea on 
 the next page. Like the Bible of God's 
 Word, so with the Bible of Nature, we 
 can understand no sentence or paragraph 
 aright if we read it out of its connection 
 and relation. For these larger paragraphs 
 and chapters belong to some great argu- 
 ment running through all the words and 
 sentences, evidently looking beyond our 
 present understanding toward some vast 
 system of thought. St. Augustine calls the 
 creation the poem of Divine ideas. We have 
 not yet learned all of that poem. But 
 though "we know only in part," yet we 
 know. All the verses and paragraphs we 
 have learned have intelligence and tell of 
 an author. And the meanings we have 
 spelled out are enough to show clearly that 
 they belong together, fashioned by one 
 author to constitute the Bible of Nature. 
 
 Macfie says: "It is very strange that 
 a little association of carbon, oxygen and 
 nitrogen should have the power of adding 
 to their number and it is stranger still that 
 the addition should take such shape, and 
 produce such a mechanism as a multicel- 
 
16 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 lular organism. If a brick were to grow into 
 a pile of bricks and if the bricks were to ar- 
 range themselves into the form of a Cathe- 
 dral, what a miracle it would seem; yet 
 every day single cells grow into heaps of 
 cells and the heaps of cells arrange them- 
 selves into trees, and flowers, and birds, 
 and beasts and men, and no one seems par- 
 ticularly surprised." 
 
 Only twenty-six letters of the alphabet 
 were required to convey to us all the 
 thoughts in the Bible of God's Word. Let- 
 ters were so arranged as to constitute a 
 book — the Bible. And the harmony and 
 intimate connection subsisting between 
 all the parts of scripture (notwithstanding 
 the fact that the various parts were penned 
 by different persons and at very different 
 times) tell of an editor-in-chief — of one 
 whose mind and will and spirit should be 
 revealed. 
 
 Think! How often does it happen that 
 contemporary writers contradict each other 
 in relating a fact which has happened in 
 their own time and within the sphere of 
 their own knowledge ! But in the Scrip- 
 tures there is neither dissent nor contradic- 
 tion. The Scriptures do not consist of a 
 book compiled by many hands acting in the 
 same age in collusion or collaboration. Most 
 of the writers lived at very different times, 
 and in distant places, through the long space 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 17 
 
 of about sixteen hundred years so that no 
 collusion could be possible; and yet their 
 narrations agree with and mutually sup- 
 port each other. 
 
 The writers, men of different education, 
 faculties and occupations — prophets, evan- 
 gelists, apostles — notwithstanding the di- 
 versity of time and place, the variety of 
 their subject matter — consisting of myster- 
 ies of providence, as well as of mysteries 
 of faith, all are uniformly in accord 
 in carrying out one consistent plan. All 
 constantly propose the same invariable 
 truth, flowing from the same fountain 
 through different channels. Can you find 
 one writer controverting the statements or 
 opinions of his predecessor? One historian 
 who disputes any fact which another has 
 stated? Is there in the prophets any dis- 
 crepancy in doctrines, precepts or predic- 
 tions? However they may vary in style 
 or in manner of illustration the sentiment, 
 the doctrine and the morality are always 
 the same. In their predictions some ex- 
 ceed others in particularity and clearness, 
 but there is no contradiction. 
 
 The same is true of the New Testament. 
 The doctrines of Christianity harmonize. 
 One writer may enlarge upon and ex- 
 plain what another has said — he may add 
 to his account and carry it further but 
 he never contradicts him. Whence then 
 
18 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 arises this harmony of Scripture? Had the 
 writers been under no peculiar divine in- 
 fluence they would have reasoned and specu- 
 lated like others, and their writings would 
 have opposed each other. But if they were 
 inspired — if they all wrote and spoke the 
 will and counsel of one another, then is this 
 harmony accounted for. 
 
 And as there is unity of thought and har- 
 mony in the Bible of God's Word and unity 
 of thought and harmony in the Bible of 
 Nature, so they in turn reveal such har- 
 mony as to indicate a common authorship. 
 These two books, like the two cherubs 
 (Exod. 25:20) look steadfastly towards 
 each other, and towards the mercy-seat 
 which they encompass. 
 
 The Eternal Spirit expresses his arche- 
 typal thought in the physical universe. This 
 is the primitive medium of revelation, the 
 first word of God. The Book of nature is 
 the primer, in which he sets his children 
 first to spell out his name and to read what 
 he is. Therefore in all languages the names 
 of spiritual things continue to indicate the 
 primitive medium of revelation. 
 
 But if Nature is God's first word it is 
 not His only word. If it is the primer for 
 His children, it is not the means or medium 
 through which His highest thoughts are 
 expressed to the full-grown man. The 
 character of the message must dictate the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 19 
 
 nature of the medium through which it 
 shall be communicated. If nature is God's 
 first word it is not His only word. If it is 
 the primer for His children, then surely 
 there is another book for those in the full 
 stature of manhood. This medium of ex- 
 pression is a universal principle, full of in- 
 terest. In literature we call it "style." The 
 common thought must be clothed in very 
 simple, familiar and homely words. The 
 grander and loftier conception creates for 
 itself a worthy vesture and moves in the 
 glory of some picturesque and stately 
 phrase. Some things can be properly told 
 only in prose, others only in verse, and 
 finally you pass beyond what language has 
 the power to express at all. 
 
 What is the meaning of art and of music? 
 There is that which the instrument can tell 
 which, after the instrument has ceased, you 
 know has been said, of which you are sure 
 that while you sat and listened it was be- 
 coming your possession, yet which you are 
 powerless to give an account of in any way 
 adequate or fit. 
 
 Other messages come to you through the 
 marble or canvas, and others still through 
 nature which is God's book of Art — His 
 great orchestral multitudinous unity of 
 voices which speak to ears attuned to listen, 
 things which they alone can hear. And with- 
 in the region of each special art there are 
 
20 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 adaptations. The drum and bugle may give 
 out the wild and stirring summons to the 
 battle. The stately organ, the subtle violin 
 or harp, must lend their voices for the rich- 
 er and more pathetic stories which the soul 
 can hear. There is that which you must carve 
 in ivory and that which you must hew in 
 granite. Wax cannot bring the revelation 
 which can shine forth from marble. The 
 true artist is he in whom the feeling of the 
 fitness of message and medium for one 
 another is perfect. For the message is 
 dumb without its true medium of expres- 
 sion, and the medium without its worthy 
 message is insignificant and weak. In 
 these two truths lie the secret of the fail- 
 ure of all that tries to be art and is not, and 
 the secret of the success of all that is finally 
 and truly art. 
 
 We can well see where such a principle 
 will make its highest exhibition, for the 
 highest and finest element in the world's life 
 is human nature. Therefore it will be 
 through the medium of human natures that 
 the loftiest and completest revelations will 
 be given. This the ancient Greeks believed. 
 That which could not be spoken in words, 
 nor breathed through music, nor intimated 
 in the subtle harmonies of nature, nor paint- 
 ed on canvas, nor cut in brass will be told 
 where only it can be told, in man. A human 
 life will be God's voice to utter His highest, 
 
AKD THE BIBLE OF GRACE 21 
 
 His divinest truth. This is what made the 
 Incarnation a living epistle. ''The Heavens 
 declare the glory of God," and *'God, w^ho, 
 at sundry times and in divers manners^ 
 spake in the time past unto the fathers by 
 the prophets, hath in these last days spoken 
 unto us by His Son." The highest human- 
 ity is required to bring the highest mes- 
 sage of Divinity. The tidings w^hich the 
 stars and trees bring are good and inspiring, 
 but they are not the only truths. There 
 are other truths concerning a loving God 
 they cannot tell. 
 
 All science rests on the assumption that 
 nature is intelligible. It finds all things in 
 nature to be symbols and it interprets them. 
 It deciphers nature and learns the thought 
 Vv'hich it expresses precisely as Champollion 
 deciphered the hieroglyphics on the obe- 
 lisks of Egypt. If those strange letters 
 on the monuments had not first been sym- 
 bols of intelligent thought, no intelligence 
 could have found intelligence in them. 
 
 "When the sculptor develops his Apollo 
 or his Venus from the quarried marble, it 
 is his own creation and has his image 
 stamped on it ; but the truth which the man 
 of science extracts has an absolute charac- 
 ter of its own, which no power of genius 
 can transform, and which is neither attribu- 
 table to accident nor born of human 
 parentage. It pervades the meanest chip 
 
22 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 of Stone which the artist rejects." (Prof. 
 Benjamin Pierce.) If you should ask what 
 kind of ideas are in nature I would answer 
 a whole Bible of ideas ; for if you know na- 
 ture at all you are aware of the fact that 
 there is much that is history, much that 
 is law^ much that is poetry, much that is 
 Gospel and much that is prophecy. Are the 
 scientists, then, also among the prophets? 
 Comte goes so far as to insist that the 
 power of foreseeing and foretelling phenom- 
 ena is characteristic of science and that all 
 knowledge which does not reach this power 
 is unworthy of the name of science. We 
 realize that Physical science has attained 
 this power in many cases. It knows so ex- 
 actly the laws under which the forces of 
 nature are ordered that it can foretell events 
 ages distant in the future to the fraction 
 of a second. 
 
 The scientist who discovers or invents 
 is a prophet. The mind forms its hypothesis 
 of what must be; and then goes out into 
 nature and finds that it is so. The genius 
 of the discoverer creates a prophetic pic- 
 ture and says : Nature must be so and so ; 
 then he goes out into nature and finds his 
 conception there already realized in nature 
 ages before he had thought of it; and yet 
 a pure intellectual conception. This is al- 
 most the universal history of discovery; it 
 is an intellectual creation, a prophetic idea, 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 23 
 
 afterwards found expressed and realized in 
 the material creation. And frequently the 
 prophecy is announced many years before 
 it is actually discovered and verified in na- 
 ture. Invention is also prophecy. The in- 
 ventor creates his machine in thought be- 
 fore he realizes it in actual construction; 
 and the steel and brass and wood, the water, 
 the fire, the electricity, created as expres- 
 sions of intellectual thought, yield readily to 
 the thought of the inventor, obey the laws 
 which guided him in creating his idea and 
 steadily do the work which he directs. And 
 when he investigates nature he finds in it 
 similar contrivances doing the same kind of 
 work according to the same laws. And of- 
 ten it is the contrivance in nature which 
 suggests the invention to man. The divine 
 art in nature is the model for human^ art. 
 
 True, we do not always read aright. 
 Theologians should recognize the truth 
 that the discovery of facts may necessitate 
 the correction of their opinions in order to 
 adjust them to the newly discovered facts, 
 laws or truths. If a person holds a theo- 
 logical doctrine which obliges him to ob- 
 ject to vaccination or to lightning rods, as 
 interfering with God's Providence, evi- 
 dently he is required to change — not the 
 text of Scripture, but the interpretation, the 
 reading thereof. 
 
 Likewise many conflicting theories have 
 
24 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 been advanced regarding the Bible of Na- 
 ture. In the last century the French Scien- 
 tific Association printed a list of eighty 
 theories of geology that had been believed 
 in and afterwards rejected. Lyell, the Sci- 
 entist, announces fifty theories regarding 
 nature that had been adopted and after- 
 wards rejected. These theories do not mili- 
 tate against the Books. The texts remain un- 
 changed and still contain their everlasting 
 truths. And truth in one department of 
 knowledge can never conflict with truth in 
 another. Conflicting theories only say that 
 men have not been reading the text aright. 
 From the religious viewpoint the all-im- 
 portant thing for us to do is not to read 
 theology into science or science into the- 
 ology; but to read theology out of both 
 alike, that is, out of the Bible of Nature 
 and the Bible of God's Word. 
 
 That is what Sir Thomas Browne did as 
 he tells us in his ''Religio Medici." "Thus 
 there are two books from which I collect 
 my divinity ; besides that written one of 
 God, another of his servant nature, that uni- 
 versal and public manuscript that lies ex- 
 posed unto the eyes of all, those that never 
 saw Him in the one have discovered Him 
 in the other ; this was the scripture and 
 theology of the heathens ; the natural mo- 
 tion of the sun made them more admire Him 
 than its supernatural station did the chil- 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 25 
 
 dren of Israel ; the ordinary effects of nature 
 wrought more admiration in them than in 
 the other of his miracles. Surely the hea- 
 thens knew better how to join and read these 
 mystical letters than we Christians, who 
 cast a more careless eye on these common 
 hieroglyphics, and disdain to suck divinity 
 from the flowers of nature." 
 
 'TIME" 
 
 I saw Time in his workshop carving faces; 
 Scattered around his tools lay, blunting griefs. 
 Sharp cares that cut out deeply in reliefs 
 Of light and shade; sorrows that smooth the traces 
 Of what were smiles. Nor yet without fresh graces 
 His handiwork, for ofttimes rough were ground 
 And polished, oft the pinched made smooth and 
 round : 
 The calm look, too, the impetuous fire replaces. 
 Long time I stood and watched: with hideous grin 
 He took each heedless face between his knees. 
 And graved and scarred and bleached with boiling 
 tears. 
 I wondering turned to go, when, lo' my skin 
 Fell crumpled, and in glass my own face sees 
 Itself all changed, scarred, careworn, white with 
 years. 
 
 — F. G. Scott. 
 
THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Clironology— The March of the Centuries. 
 "Consider the years of many generations."— Deut. 32:7. 
 
 As an army is divided into brigades and 
 regiments and companies, and as, when they 
 observe this order, their march and their 
 tread are majestic, so the time of the world's 
 existence is divided into an army, divinely 
 commanded. The eras are the brigades, 
 the centuries are the regiments, and the 
 years are the companies. Forward ! 
 
 While obeying the text, "Consider the years 
 of many generations," I propose to write 
 of Chronology — The March of the Cen- 
 turies. We make a distinction between 
 time and eternity, and chronology has been 
 engaged in the sublime work of dividing 
 up this portion of eternity that we call time 
 into compartments, and in putting events 
 into the proper compartments. 
 
 However, as measures of time are mere 
 notions or ideas of motion in the clock-work 
 of the universe, chronology and astronomy 
 necessarily go together, Thus, when we 
 say another year has ended, we mean that 
 the great wheel of time has performed an- 
 other hour. Thus upon its revolutions on 
 its axis and around the sun, the earth fixes 
 its notions of days and years. 
 
 But there is another movement going on 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 27 
 
 in this universe of much grander and wider 
 range, and of special importance with re- 
 gard to chronology. It forms a sacred clock 
 whose face is the sky, and from which the 
 astronomer may read backward for thou- 
 sands on thousands of years without the 
 possibility of confusion, exactly as we read 
 the hours and the minutes on a timepiece. 
 It is what astronomers call "The procession 
 of the equinoxes." Remember, there is a 
 two-fold year ; one called the siderial year, 
 or the year of the stars ; and the other, the 
 year of the earth's revolution around the 
 sun. The former is a fraction longer than 
 the latter. That is to say, the equinoxes 
 in our ordinary practical year comes a little 
 earlier every time than the siderial time. 
 This precedence in the equinoctial presenta- 
 tion amounts to about fifty seconds each 
 year, and hence is called the procession of 
 equinoxes. It means that the setting of the 
 stars occurs about fifty seconds later every 
 year. 
 
 It was Hipparchus, about one hundred 
 and fifty years before Christ, who first with- 
 in historic times noted this fact ; and since 
 his day the rising and setting of the stars, as 
 compared with the common year, has fallen 
 back about thirty degrees from what their 
 time was then. At this rate of retardation 
 it takes about twenty-five thousand and 
 eight hundred and sixty-eight of our years 
 
28 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 for this rising and setting to come back to 
 the exact point at which we began the cal- 
 culation. We thus have a great astronom- 
 ical cycle, less than a fourth of which has 
 passed since man was placed on the earth. 
 The cycle furnishes a singularly valuable 
 means of noting and determining remote 
 dates. Knowing the relative places of the 
 stars which most plainly mark this cycle, 
 wte can tell exactly how they stood in any 
 year or date since time began ; and knowing 
 how they stood at the time of any given 
 event, we can thus calculate the precise 
 year almost to the day and hour in which 
 that event took place. 
 
 And finally, when we remember that a day 
 is with the Lord as a thousand years, and 
 a thousand years as one day, and couple 
 with it the fact that when we consider the 
 days of creation, we have to do not only 
 with the earth, but with all the heavenly 
 bodies, it indicates a presence for a siderial 
 method of reckoning time over the days 
 and years as measured by the earth in its 
 rotations and revolutions. In this creation 
 of the worlds, consider the years of many 
 generations, and behold the stupendous 
 march of the centuries. 
 
 Historical chronology was at one time cal- 
 culated from new moon ; then from harvest 
 to harvest. At this time the year was pro- 
 nounced to be three hundred and fifty-four 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 29 
 
 days; then three hundred and sixty days, 
 and not till a long time after, three hun- 
 dred and sixty-five days. In one place the 
 events vi^ere calculated from the founding 
 of Rome; another from the Olympic games, 
 but most universally from dynasties or the 
 reigns of certain kings. The Babylonians 
 had their chronology, and the Romans 
 theirs; the Armenians theirs; and the Hin- 
 dus theirs. In attempting to lay a plan by 
 which all questions of date might be settled, 
 and by which events, as far as possible,' 
 might be put into their proper place in the 
 march of centuries, chronology had to bring 
 into its service the monuments of Egypt 
 and the cylinders of Assyria ; the bricks of 
 Babylon and the pottery of Nineveh; the 
 medals struck at Antioch for the battle of 
 Actium, and, finally all the hieroglyphics 
 that could be deciphered. 
 
 It was not until the sixth cenury, A. D., 
 that Dionysius, a Roman abbot, proposed to 
 have events date backward and forward 
 from the birth of Christ. He said: *'Let 
 everything date from the birth at Bethlehem, 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the 
 World." What a splendid thought for man- 
 kind ! What an excellent thing for Chris- 
 tianity! Forever it is fixed that all history 
 be dated with reference to the birh of 
 Christ. 
 
 This matter settled, the chronology of 
 
30 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 the Old Testament takes six steps — six 
 steps only, but they are steps so long that it 
 makes us hold our breath as we watch the 
 march of the centuries. Here they are ; six 
 gigantic strides ; First from Adam to Abra- 
 ham; then from Abraham to the exodus 
 from Egypt; then from the Exodus to the 
 foundation of Solomon's temple; following 
 thus from the foundation of the temple to 
 the destruction of the temple; again, from 
 the destruction of the temple to the return 
 from the Babylonish captivity to the birth 
 of Christ. 
 
 The geneologicai tables in the fifth and 
 tenth chapters of Genesis were not, how- 
 ever, designed to teach, and do not teach 
 a definite chronology ; but they serve simply 
 to throw emphasis upon the direct line of 
 descent without shedding any definite light 
 upon the length of that time. While we 
 can, in point of fact, go back to Abraham 
 and fix dates with certainty, beyond that 
 pivotal date the only thing that the Bible 
 attempts to do is to fix the line of descent 
 by genealogies. It is not intended to tell 
 us in scientific terms the chronology of the 
 creation of the world, but in religious terms ; 
 for a day with the Lord, as we have seen 
 is as a thousand years, and a thousand 
 years as one day. 
 
 The Hebrew word ''yom" means at 
 times, ages, and again it may mean years 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 81 
 
 or days. And I wish to emphasize the state- 
 ment that in Genesis fifth and eleventh, as 
 elsewhere in the Old Testament, the Bible 
 simply means to give the order of events, 
 and does not aim at scientific chronology. 
 In the genealogies in the fifth chapter of 
 Genesis, the generations are mentioned be- 
 tween Adam and Noah, and the age of the 
 parent at the time of the birth of the son 
 who is next in the chain is in each case 
 given; in the eleventh chapter ten more gen- 
 erations between Noah and Abraham are 
 mentioned, and in the same manner; that 
 is, the age of the parent at the birth of each 
 successive son is given in definite figures. 
 By adding together these sums to the date 
 of Abraham (which is 1918 B. C.) as Arch- 
 bishop Usher did, we get the dates which 
 are found in the margins of many of our 
 English Bibles; namely, of the creation of 
 man 4004 years B. C ; and of the flood 2348 
 B. C. 
 
 Upon the face of it, it looks as though 
 there could be here no way of avoiding 
 conflict between a clear Bible statement and 
 the result of modern investigation in geol- 
 ogy and archaeology, which give a much 
 higher antiquity to man and to the civili- 
 zation in Egypt and Babylonia; and the 
 flippant, shallow critic refers to this again 
 and again. 
 
 Geology dates the creation of the earth, 
 
32 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 etc., in terms of millions of years. Arch- 
 aeology tells us that long before the date 
 assigned by Usher, for the creation of 
 man, the Egyptians and Babylonians had 
 attained a high state of civilization. The 
 first of the Egyptian kings of whom men- 
 tion is made upon the monuments of the 
 Nile Valley is Mena or Menes. Manetho 
 had given a statement, according to which 
 Mena must have lived nearly six thousand 
 years before the Christian era. This was 
 looked upon for a long time as utterly inad- 
 missible, as it was so clearly at variance 
 with the chronology of our own sacred 
 books ; but as time went on, large frag- 
 ments of the original work of Manetho 
 were more carefully studied and distin- 
 guished from corrupt transcriptions, the 
 lists of kings at Karnak, Saquarah, and the 
 two temples at Abydos, were brought to 
 light and the list of court architects were 
 discovered. "Among all these monuments 
 the scholar who visits Egypt is most im- 
 pressed by the sculptural tablets giving the 
 lists of kings. Each shows the monarch of 
 the period doing homage to the long line of 
 his ancestors. Each of these sculptural mon- 
 archs has near him a tablet bearing his 
 name." That great care was always taken 
 to keep these imposing records correct is 
 certain; the loyalty of subjects, the de- 
 
AKD THE BIBLE OF GRACE 33 
 
 votion of priests, and the family pride of 
 kings were all combined in this ; and how 
 effective this care was, is seen in the fact 
 that kings now known to be usurpers are 
 carefully omitted. The list of court archi- 
 tects, extending over the. period from Seti 
 to Darius, throw a flood of light over the 
 other records. After a careful study of the 
 work of Manetho, the Egyptologists of our 
 time concur in fixing the date of the reign 
 of Mena at possibly 4500 B. C. 
 
 But the significance of this conclusion 
 cannot be fully understood unless we re- 
 member the high state of civilization al- 
 ready attained at this period. Recall now 
 their great engineering and architectural 
 skill as manifest in the Great Pyramid, the 
 canals, dikes, and public buildings. As to 
 sculpture, we have not only the great 
 Sphinx of Gizeh, but we have ranges of 
 sphinxes, heroic statues, showing that even 
 then this branch of art had reached an amaz- 
 ing development. 
 
 Their social conditions force us to the 
 same conclusion. Not only did they have a 
 separation between the priests and military 
 orders, but agriculturists, manufacturers, 
 and trades, with a whole series of subdivi- 
 sions in each of these classes. The early 
 tombs show sculptured and painted repre- 
 sentations of a daily life, which even 
 
34 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 then had developed into a vast wealth and 
 variety of grades, forms, and usages. 
 
 All this, and much more, tells of a devel- 
 opment in art, science, law, customs, and 
 languages, which must have required a vast 
 period before the time of Mena. And this 
 conclusion is forced upon us all the more in- 
 vincibly when we consider the slow growth 
 of ideas in the earlier stages of civilization 
 as compared with the later. Benson, one 
 of the most learned of Christian scholars, 
 declares that for the development of such 
 a civilization no less than ten thousand 
 years were required prior to the Jime of 
 Mena. 
 
 In view of geological and archaeological 
 investigations what becomes of Arch- 
 bishop Usher's chronology? How shall the 
 boy who goes to college or the university 
 answer? He need only answer that the 
 chronology of Bishop Usher is not the 
 chronology of the Bible — that it is simply 
 the idea of a man, as the chronology of 
 books on geology and archaeology express 
 simply the idea of men. We must not al- 
 ways take them at their face value. 
 
 Close study of the subject, however will 
 convince any judicial minds that even the 
 linked genealogical tables of these chapters 
 in Chronicles and in Matthew, were not in- 
 tended by the writer, nor understood by his 
 readers, to teach a definite chronology, but 
 are inserted simply to show lines of descent^ 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 36 
 
 in which any number of intermediate links 
 may be omitted without interfering with 
 the purpose of the tables. This conclusion 
 is reached, not by speculative investigation, 
 but by the manifest usage of sacred writers 
 in numerous passages and by a careful con- 
 sideration of the tables themselves. 
 
 As one of the most striking examples, we 
 may turn our attention to the first chapter 
 of Matthew, where seemingly the complete 
 genealogical table is given, extending from 
 Abraham downward to Christ. In the first 
 verse of tjhe same chapter, notice also that 
 Christ is called the ''Son of David" and the 
 "Son of Abraham." It is obvious here that 
 the names are divided into three groups of 
 fourteen each, and that, to bring within the 
 limit of these numbers, three names are 
 omitted in verse eight. It is said here that 
 Jorarn begat Ozias. From the book of kings 
 likewise, the three names of Ahaziah, Joash 
 and Amaziah have been omitted; while 
 again in verse eleven, Jehoiakim is omitted 
 after Josiah. 
 
 What now is it reasonable to conclude 
 from these passages? Shall we say that the 
 writer of this chapter did not know of the 
 existence of those links which he dropped 
 out? Certinly not, for this is the Gospel 
 that was written by a Hebrew for the He- 
 brews, and both he and his readers had 
 ready access to, and were devoted believers 
 
36 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 in the Old Testament. Besides they were 
 surrounded by Jewish opponents, who 
 would readily find fault with any serious 
 misuse of it. The only explanation, there- 
 fore, is that all were so familiar with the 
 use of genealogies to indicate simply lines 
 of descent, without reference to lines of 
 chronology, that nobody thought of raising 
 any question concerning such use. 
 
 Turning to the Old Testament, we notice 
 one of the clearest examples in i Chron. 
 26:24, where we read that Shebuel, the son 
 of Gershom, the son of Moses, was ruler 
 over the treasures. Again, in i Chron. 23: 
 15-16, we read that the sons of Moses were 
 Gershom and Eliezer, of the sons of Ger- 
 shom, Shebuel was the chief. But Shebuel 
 was appointed over the treasury of David 
 four hundered years after Moses ; so that 
 eight or ten generations must have inter- 
 vened between Gershom and Shebuel. 
 Again, in Ezra 7:1-6, the writer of this 
 book, certainly with full knowledge of what 
 was written in the Chronicles before him, 
 gives Ezra's genealogy in the line of Aaron, 
 but in the table skips from Meraioth to 
 Azariah, omitting six names which appear 
 in the parallel passage in i Chron. 6: 3-14. 
 The writer certainly knew what he was 
 doing and his readers did not object to this 
 abbreviation, as they were accustomed to 
 
 it. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE ST 
 
 These examples illustrate the fact that 
 instead of complete (accurate) chronology 
 the Jews were accustomed to condensed 
 genealogies. There are dozens of instances 
 where genealogical tables are given and 
 where it is clear that the chronological ques- 
 tions with them are not taken into account 
 in the least. The consideration of genealo- 
 gical tables was with the Jews the rule and 
 not the exception. That the genealogical 
 tables in Genesis fifth and eleventh are ab- 
 breviated, is evident from the tables them- 
 selves. First, the history of Cain and Abel 
 indicates that Seth was not Adam's first 
 child, as one would infer from the tables. 
 Secondly, no chronology is ever deduced 
 from these tables by the sacred writers. 
 They were used as intended, to indicate 
 lines of descent. There is no computation 
 anywhere in the Scriptures, of the time 
 that elapsed from the creation or from the 
 deluge, as there is from the descent into 
 Egypt, or from the Exodus to the building 
 of the Temple. Thirdly, the structure of 
 the genealogies in Genesis fifth and eleventh 
 also favors the belief that they do not reg- 
 ister all the names in these respective lines 
 of descent. Their regularity seems to indi- 
 cate internal arrangement, which is artificial 
 rather than natural. Thus each genealogy 
 includes ten names, Noah being the tenth, 
 and each ends with a father having three 
 
38 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 sons. It seems, therefore, in the highest de- 
 gree probable that the symmetry of these 
 primitive genealogies is mechanical rather 
 than natural 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that the Scriptures 
 furnish no date for a chronological com- 
 putation prior to the life of Abraham ; and 
 that the Mosaic records do not fix, and were 
 never intended to fix, the precise date either 
 of the flood or of the creation or of the 
 length of the days of creation. Thus, it 
 is evident that the flood and the creation oc- 
 curred much earlier than v^^ould appear from 
 chronology ordinarily obtained from the 
 scriptural language. 
 
 What then of the "days" spoken of in the 
 first chapter of Genesis? Were they days 
 of twenty-four hours, as the days with 
 which we are so familiar, or were they 
 epochs, periods, or eras or time? The 
 Christian here is free to take his own choice 
 in the matter. As for me I choose to con- 
 sider those days long periods of time. And 
 here I desire to add that science did not 
 alone suggest this idea to the Christian. The 
 Scriptures plainly indicate that ''day" (the 
 Hebrew yam) often sign'ifies indefinite peri- 
 ods of time. In Genesis 2 14, we read : "These 
 are the generations of the heavens and of 
 the earth when they were created, in the day 
 (yam) that the Lord God made the earth 
 and the heavens." 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 39 
 
 If we are to take the word "day" to mean 
 twenty-four hours, then this verse says 
 thart the heavens and the earth were created 
 in one day, and not in six, as stated in the 
 first chapter. But if we are to understand 
 by "day" an indefinite period of time, then 
 the matter is clear enough: viz; that the 
 first account shows a series of steps in crea- 
 tion, and the second statement is a summing 
 up of the whole of these acts within the en- 
 tire period occupied by creative processes. 
 
 Again, God told Adam that in the 
 day he should eat of the forbidden 
 tree he should surely die. If in this 
 case an ordinary day was meant, then he 
 should have expired before midnight on the 
 day of his disobedience, and we know that 
 he did not expire on that day. In Duet. 
 IX: I, Moses says: "Hear, O Israel, thou 
 art to pass over Jordan this day," and yet 
 he knew that they would not do so until 
 after his death. Another instance will suf- 
 fice for my argument. In Ps. XCV:VIII 
 we find, "Harden not your heart, as in the 
 provocation, and as in the day of tempta- 
 tion in the wilderness." Here the word 
 day would mean forty years. Again, if in 
 Daniel a week meant seven years and seven- 
 ty weeks meant four hundred and ninety 
 years, it is quite evident that the words days 
 and weeks had frequently a wider meaning 
 than that which they now convey. Still 
 
40 THE BIBLE OP NATURE 
 
 another authority to substantiate this — one 
 who indeed lived before the dawn of phys- 
 ical science. He was, moreover, a good He- 
 brew scholar, and read, many times. Gene- 
 sis in the original. I refer to the Apostle 
 jPeter, H Pet. ni:8. "but beloved, be not 
 ignorant of this one thing, that one day 
 (yam) is with the Lord as a thousand 
 years, and a thousand years as one day 
 (yam). 
 
 But lest the geologist fall into the error 
 of contradicting nature itself in making 
 those periods or epochs too long, he should 
 also remember that it is a law of nature that 
 subordinate formations arise more rapidly 
 than the higher ones; and furthermore that 
 life in the warm glowing moments of its 
 origin moves more rapidly than its later and 
 more matured development. For example, if 
 a man continued to grow as rapidly for the 
 twenty years required to attain his full 
 stature, as during his pre-natal state, he 
 would increase beyond the tallest cedars of 
 Lebanon or the giant trees of California. 
 Then in reality we would see "men as trees 
 walking." 
 
 We recognize that many times the Bible 
 of Grace has been misinterpreted, and that 
 more often still the expounders of the Bible 
 of Nature have been untrustworthy. 
 Nevertheless, it is significant that in the 
 main there is harmony between science and 
 
AKD THE BIBLE OF GRACE 41 
 
 relig-ion, and it is this agreement that I de- 
 sire to point out in this book. But we must 
 continually discriminate between the com- 
 mentaries and the original text. It is in 
 the latter that we affirm that there is com- 
 plete harmony. 
 
42 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Creation — Its History In Nature 
 
 Let us now look at the title-pages of 
 the Book of Nature and the Book of God's 
 Word. So remarkable is the co-ordination 
 between the inferences of science and the 
 statements of Genesis that they lead such 
 a competent and cautious geologist as Prof. 
 J. D. Dana to pronounce it "utterly unex- 
 plainable on any other than the theory of 
 Divine inspiration of the author of Genesis." 
 Looking at this general order from his point 
 of view as a scientist — not considering the 
 question of religion or inspiration — Quen- 
 stedt, the well-known professor of Geology 
 and Paleontology in the University of Tue- 
 bigen, became enthusiastic and wrote thus : 
 "This Moses, no matter where he obtained 
 his learning, whether from Memphis or 
 Babylon, was a great geologist." As regards 
 the creation of the plants this same distin- 
 guished scientist says : "Here also the ven- 
 erable Moses is right ; because the algae are 
 the first organisms." 
 
 This is refreshing to hear such distin- 
 guished authors in their field of knowledge 
 
AKD THE BIBLE OF GRACE 43 
 
 recognize from their viewpoint the truth 
 of the Bible account. Men who are honest- 
 ly seeking after the truth and are not sim- 
 ply feigning wisdom above their fellows 
 might well "sit up and take notice" when 
 Quenstedt and Dana speak. No matter 
 what theory we hold geologically, whether 
 it be that of the Catastrophists, the Uni- 
 formitarians, or the Evolutionists, we all 
 alike recognize that, according to Genesis, 
 the universe was brought to its present 
 condition, not instantaneously, but by pro- 
 gressive stages, corresponding in a remark- 
 able degree to the actual order as inferred 
 by modern science. 
 
 In the first place, it is not surprising that, 
 in the unscientific age in which the book 
 of Genesis originated, a writer should have 
 spoken of the creation of light before sun, 
 moon and stars. I have known people, among 
 them the editor of a fairly respectable daily 
 paper, who ridiculed the account in Genesis 
 on the basis of this statement. But to those 
 rightly informed in astronomy, this corre- 
 sponds with the discoveries of science which 
 have ascertained that light is th« result of 
 chemical action. Ether, says the astrono- 
 mers, condensed and formed luminous ne- 
 bulae, which afterwards still further con- 
 densed into suns and worlds. Astronomical 
 science points to the theory that before 
 there was earth, sun, moon and stars, all 
 
44 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 space was filled with bright nebular matter, 
 having the appearance of the light of the 
 milky way, or the diffused light of a comet's 
 tail.'' This nebular matter was in motion, re- 
 volving around an indefinite number of foci, 
 and gradually collected until out of it were 
 formed earth, sun, moon and stars. One 
 of the very first results of the accumulation 
 of this nebular matter would be the crea- 
 tion of light, which, as in the case of elec- 
 tricity and heat, is but a mode of motion. 
 As the Nebular Hypothesis has attained to 
 a doctrine of science, it is evident that both 
 science and the Bible say that there was 
 light before the sun was created. Referring 
 to this theory, S. Newcomb speaks of Gene- 
 sis 1 :3 as being in perfect accord with it, 
 light before the sun, moon and stars. 
 
 The second stage as mentioned by Gene- 
 sis tells in remarkable terms of the forma- 
 tion of a firmament subsequent to the form- 
 ation of light, and previous to the appear- 
 ance of dry land — thereby it meant a firma- 
 ment which separated the waters above from 
 the waters below. Although the Egyptians 
 thought that the sky was a solid canopy, in 
 which were placed the sun and stars, and 
 although Moses was educated in the Egyp- 
 tian schools and took care to teach the 
 Israelites in phrases familiar to them, he 
 did not use the word signifying firmament, but 
 the word rakiang, to expand, *'to stretch out." 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 45 
 
 It seems to me it will be helpful at this 
 pomt to remember that elements chemically 
 united, frequently occupy very much less 
 space than when they are disunited. For 
 example, a cistern twenty feet by twenty 
 feet at its base and thirty feet high, would 
 contam twelve thousand cubic feet of oxygen 
 and hydrogen in a gaseous state. The same 
 elements combining to produce water would 
 occupy only one cubic foot. At this time 
 the earth must have been a mighty caldron 
 where the Divine chemistry was elaborating 
 the materials of its ultimate condition. As 
 the earth continued to cool, a time arrived 
 when its temperature became insufficient to 
 maintain in a state of vapor the vast masses 
 of water which floated in the atmosphere. 
 These vapors would pass into a liquid state 
 and then the first rain would fall upon the 
 earth. 
 
 There is scarcely any doubt that the earth 
 was at one time a molten mass, with a 
 temperature of two thousand degrees 
 (centigrade) above zero. Nearly all authors 
 agree in this. And so, evidently, during the 
 long time which would be required because 
 of the tremendous heat to cool the earth's 
 crust to a temperature of five hundred de- 
 grees to six hundred degrees above zero, 
 there could have been no water upon it! 
 At the same time it must, however, have 
 been surrouded at some distance by a cloud 
 
46 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 of vapor of immense thickness, so dense 
 that it could have been cut with a knife. 
 This cloud of vapor could have been re- 
 moved and broken up only after a very 
 lon^ period of time, though the gradual 
 cooling of the earth would remove it; a 
 considerable portion of it would then locate 
 upon and enter the earth, while the remain- 
 der would pass off in the clouds, thus pro- 
 ducing firmament — a separating of the 
 waters below from the waters above. I 
 quote the words of a distinguished scien- 
 tist: *'It would be difficult to chose a brief 
 statement of the case which should more 
 happily express in phenomenal language 
 that stage of creation brought into view by 
 modern science, in which the nebulous mat- 
 ter became localized, and separated into re- 
 volving systems, such as the astronomer 
 now delights to study." In a word, both 
 astronomy and Genesis say that the second 
 stage of creation is characterized by the 
 localization of the nebulous matter — that is, 
 a firmament separating the waters above 
 from the waters below. 
 
 In his query as to which were created 
 first, plants or animals, Grant Allen says 
 that such a question is as absurd as if we 
 were to ask which were first, beasts of 
 prey or the animals they preyed upon. So 
 far as known, animals are not able directly 
 to assimilate mineral matter. This the plants 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 47 
 
 must do for them, and hence their prece- 
 dence. Plants also will endure a much 
 higher temperature than any known animal. 
 Some forms of plant life will even sur- 
 vive a temperature of two hundred and 
 twenty degrees above zero; that is, they 
 would not be destroyed by boiling water. 
 They could have lived at a much earlier 
 period in the history of the earth than would 
 have been possible for animals. We read of 
 the plants on the first pages of the earth's 
 history. In the earliest known rocks, viz., 
 the Archaean, there are extensive deposits of 
 graphite or "black lead." It must be re- 
 membered that this, though called black 
 lead, is not lead at all, but pure carbon or 
 coal, and of vegetable origin like other coal. 
 Very evidently, the plants of the coal 
 period did not depend on the light of the 
 sun. Hugh Miller speaks of the thick cloud 
 which wrapped the earth as with a mantle, 
 during the earlier geological periods, and 
 in that connection compares the earth to a 
 vast greenhouse covered with smoked glass. 
 He means to say that, at the time when the 
 earth, as is manifest in the rocks, brought 
 forth most luxuriantly the same kind of 
 vegetation all over it, the same temperature 
 must have prevailed everywhere. This is 
 due to the fact that the earth was mantled 
 by a dense cloud of vapor so thick that the 
 sun*s rays could not penetrate it. It is in- 
 
48 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 teresting to remember that it is precisely 
 this method which is pursued today in se- 
 curing the best results in growing the 
 species of those early days. If you visit 
 any large garden you will find that most 
 of the fern-plants are in greenhouses, from 
 which rays of the sun are cut off by thick 
 glass, colored green, and that the tempera- 
 ture is kept at an equal warmth the whole 
 year round, whilst the atmosphere is sat- 
 urated with moisture. 
 
 Every observer of plant life knows also 
 that the Thallophytes, Bryophytes and 
 Pteridophytes, lichens, mosses, and fern 
 allies, grow most luxuriantly in the conifer 
 forests which are so dense as scarcely to 
 allow the rays of the sun to reach them. 
 I will add yet another interesting fact 
 which will aid us in these considerations. 
 In the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Chili, 
 there is an island named Chiloe, where it 
 rains for three hundred days in the year, 
 and where the light of the sun is shut out 
 by perpetual fogs. On this island, says one 
 writer, "arborescent ferns form forests, be- 
 neath which grow herbaceous ferns, which 
 rise three feet and upwards above a marshy 
 soil, and a mass of cryptogamia plants flour- 
 ishes there, resembling in its main features 
 the flora of the coal fields." 
 
 Some have offered objections to the ac- 
 count of the creation of the vegetable king- 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 49 
 
 dom in Genesis on the ground that it de- 
 scribes the higher species of plants, which 
 in reality are introduced at a much later 
 date — such as grass and fruit trees. They 
 contend that the account should be confined 
 to the older orders of the vegetable king- 
 dom; such as Algae, Fungi, and Lichens; 
 the Club-Mosses, the Fern Allies, and so 
 on. A better translation of the St. James's 
 version regarding the advent of vegetable 
 life will prove the correctness of the state- 
 ments of Moses. I have consulted a 
 number of authors, all of whom confirm 
 Dr. Kitto's explanation of this verse : viz., 
 that the Hebrew word deshe, translated 
 "grass," is applicable to every kind of ver- 
 dure in the state of sprouting. How 
 natural here to think of Algi, Fungi, and 
 Lichens, the lowest forms of plant life ! 
 Esebh, rendered "herb" denotes a higher 
 order of plants propogated by seeds. 'Est 
 P*ri, "fruit trees," may refer to cone-bear- 
 ing trees and those of other Devonian and 
 carboniferous periods. The seed vessels 
 of that period might be properly styled 
 fruit. 
 
 Of the fruit of this period, I must es- 
 pecially mention that of the trigonocarpon, 
 which at one time was supposed to be the 
 fruit of the palm, but Sir Joseph Hooker 
 states that it may be referred to that large 
 section of Coniferous plants which bear 
 fruits and not cones. "On the whole," 
 says Joseph Hooker, "these fruits are 
 
50 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 preferable to a highly developed type 
 exhibiting extensive modifications of ele- 
 mentary organs for the purpose of tlieir 
 adaptation to special functions ; and these 
 modifications are as great and the adapta- 
 tion as special as any to be found amongst 
 analogous fruits in the existing vegetable 
 world." The earliest forms of vegetable 
 life were cryptogams, such as the algae, 
 lichens, fungi, and ferns propogated by 
 spores and not by seeds. Dr. Hicks has 
 found ferns in the lower places in Wales. 
 
 Following the cryptogamic plants came 
 the lowest class of phaenogams, or flower- 
 ing plants called gymnosperms such as the 
 conifers. Dana says that conifers were 
 found in the lower Devonian. These were 
 followed by a higher class of phaenogams, 
 or flowering plants, bearing a low order of 
 fruit, found in the middle Devonian and 
 Carboniferous strata "Spores, seeds, fruit" 
 is the order given in Genesis. This same 
 order is written on the strata of the rocks. 
 
 Now let us turn to the Bible of Grace, 
 and here I will quote the words of Dr. E. 
 P. Borrows: *Tn our view Moses, in de- 
 scribing the creation of the vegetable king- 
 dom on the third day describes neither the 
 creation of the particular existing species as 
 contrasted with the extinct species of for- 
 mer ages, nor of these extinct species as 
 contrasted with the species now existing. But 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 51 
 
 he describes the establishment of the vege- 
 table kingdom in its laws and general forms 
 which are valid for all the subsequent 
 geological eras." 
 
 The grand fact revealed is, that on the 
 third day the vegetable world was brought 
 into being under the immutable principles 
 which now regulate its operations. And 
 we ask: Why is this not a fair interpreta- 
 tion of the words, "and the earth brought 
 forth grass, the herb yielding seed after its 
 kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose 
 seed is in itself, after its kind?" The reader 
 will notice that the two things made promi- 
 nent in this account are law, as expressed 
 in the formula, "after its kind, and general 
 forms "grass, 'herb', fruit-tree,' yielding 
 fruit is in itself." 
 
 And so the very strata of the rocks (on 
 the third page of the book) accord with the 
 account in Genesis; viz., that on the third 
 day the vegetable world was brought into 
 being under the immutable principle, which 
 regulate its operation even to this day. 
 
 In the description of Genesis, the fourth 
 grand stage in the creative plan tells of 
 the establishment of days and seasons upon 
 the earth through its relation to the sun 
 and moon. "God set them in the firma- 
 ment of the heaven to give light upon the 
 earth and to rule over the day and over 
 the night." Previous to this time, it is 
 
62 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 generally supposed that there was no dark- 
 ness upon the earth, though it was sur- 
 rounded by dense clouds, which at the 
 same time (had there been eyes on the 
 earth to see) hid the view of the sun from 
 an observer on the earth. These clouds 
 were luminous bodies filled with electrical 
 disturbance somewhat like those of the 
 Aurora Borealis of our day. 
 
 This description of Genesis does not 
 mean that the sun, moon, and stars did 
 not already exist, but that now, for the 
 first time, they fulfilled the object for 
 which they were "set in the firmament," 
 viz., for signs and seasons and days and 
 years. In the first chapter of Genesis a 
 quite different word, in the original, is used 
 to express "created." Here the word used 
 should be translated "appointed." It should 
 read: "And God appointed, etc." In I 
 Kings, XII:XIII; I Sam. XII:VI, etc; the 
 identical word is translated, appointed. I 
 have intimated before that the sun, moon 
 and stars must have been created contem- 
 poraneously with the earth, but that dur- 
 ing the early ages of the world much of 
 their light was hidden from our globe by 
 the dense vapors which surrounded it ; that, 
 up to the time now under consideration, a 
 similar climate existed all over the earth; 
 and that, consequently, there were no sea- 
 sons properly so called until after the car- 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 65 
 
 boniferous period. When, however, the sun 
 blazed forth in all its glory, then seasons 
 began, as both flora and fauna testify. 
 
 In the Permian epoch, the profuse vege- 
 tation of the Carboniferous period no long- 
 er existed; but the fossil remains of plants 
 show a great increase of woody tissue, 
 which could only have been produced by the 
 presence of unclouded sunlight and its mag- 
 ic effect upon chlorophyll. All the trees ancl 
 plants previous to this time were of a soft 
 and pulpy nature (like the endogenous 
 plants of our day) which is manifest from 
 the fact that huge trunks, compressed and 
 flattened, are found in the coal; that is, 
 when they are in a horizontal or inclined 
 position. Doubtless these would have been 
 cylindrical if the wood had been of a hard 
 texture. 
 
 How different now when we come to the 
 flora of the next higher strata, such as 
 the Trias, the Juras, and so on, for there 
 we find season-rings — exogenous plants. 
 The animals from the Silurian up to the 
 end of the Carboniferous era, in widely 
 separated districts all over the earth, cor- 
 respond to one another. Those of the 
 Trias and higher periods, on the other hand, 
 are very dissimilar in form and appearance 
 when found in localities distant from one 
 another, while the organisms of the Ter- 
 tiaries in different latitudes differ as much 
 
64 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 from each other as the animals and plants 
 of our own era. 
 
 Do you ask wherefore this sudden change 
 in the fauna and flora? The answer is 
 obvious. The sun began to shine upon the 
 earth. The facts indicate that, previous to 
 the Permian age, there was a uniform 
 climate which was probably the result of 
 central heat diffusing an equable tempera- 
 ture throughout the whole earth. This 
 equability ceased, and a diversity of climate, 
 of which the sun was the principal cause, 
 began, and has existed since then through- 
 out the world; consequently, the sun be- 
 came at this era not only the visible sign for 
 distinguishing days and years, but also the 
 efficient cause of the seasons. 
 
 When the earth's swaddling bands of 
 clouds were all one blaze of electric light, 
 the sun did not divide between the dark- 
 ness and the light, and the moon and the 
 stars did not rule over the night. They 
 could do this only when they became vis- 
 ible from the surface of the earth. Here 
 also there is unanimity, the indication of a 
 common author. 
 
 We come now to the order of life, as it 
 is described in Genesis, and as it is revealed 
 to us by the geologist's crowbar. While 
 we do not expect scientific literalism nor 
 scientific details in so brief a statement as 
 is given by Moses, such as it would be 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 55 
 
 natural to look for in an extended scientific 
 treatise, at the same time the Biblical ac- 
 count in its general outlines is remarkable 
 for its co-ordination with the discoveries 
 and inferences of geology. I repeat the 
 origin of life in the order which here follows. 
 It is the order of life as set forth in the 
 first chapter of Genesis : first, plants ; second, 
 animals that swim in water and fly in the 
 air; third, reptiles; fourth mammals; fifth 
 man. That is essentially the order as re- 
 corded on the rocks. Geologists difiFer in 
 their opinions, it is true, but here there is 
 remarkable agreement. As already stated, 
 Genesis puts vegetation first in this order; 
 Science does likewise. 
 
 Following the order as given in Genesis, 
 we next find aniamals that swim in water 
 and fly in the air. This comprised the Silu- 
 rian and Devonian periods geologically. 
 Associated with the fact that birds and 
 fishes were created on the same day as re- 
 vealed by the Bible and confirmed in the 
 rocks, their remarkable analogies in funda- 
 mental characteristics are worthy of note. 
 Both birds and fishes have fan-like tails, 
 serving as rudders ; both have hollow bones, 
 filled with air; one has wings for flying, 
 the other fins for swimming; both have un- 
 usually strong means for locomotion ; and 
 both possess an unaccountable instinct for 
 migration. Associated with the command 
 
66 THE BIBLE OF NATUEE 
 
 "let the waters bring forth abundantly," we 
 read, "and fowl that fly above the earth." 
 Geologists tell us that during the Silu- 
 rian, and especially during the Devonian 
 periods, the waters brought forth abund- 
 antly — that the seas literally swarmed 
 with life trilobites, brachiopods, crinoids, 
 cephalopods, and fishes. The Devonian has 
 been called the age of fishes, not with the 
 idea of asserting that those were the only 
 animals, but merely that the most noticeable 
 creatures were true fishes. They were, 
 however, not like the food fishes of today 
 but rather mail-clad forms and species like 
 the sharks. 
 
 Turning another page, we come to the first 
 chapter on birds. I think I am stating it 
 correctly, up to the last hour, as regards 
 the record of birds, when I say there is no 
 trace of life until we come to the New Red 
 Sandstone of the Trias. In none of the 
 great trees of the carboniferous epoch can 
 it be seen that birds built their nests. The 
 tall sigillaria, the gigantic calamites, and 
 the thick bushy ferns, had none of those 
 beautiful forms of life fluttering about them, 
 and imparting the additional charm they 
 now lend to our forests. In the Connecticut 
 Valley, and in more than twenty places in 
 Massachusetts, Dr. Deane discovered foot- 
 prints of no less than thirty species of birds. 
 
 As in the Trias we first find traces of 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 57 
 
 birds, so on the next higher strata, we 
 suddenly come upon those huge sea- 
 monsters, amongst the most important of 
 which are the Ichthyosaurus and Plesio- 
 saurus. This is the age of Reptiles, the 
 age of the great saurians. The chapter 
 which records their advent follows that of 
 the birds. The Bible of Grace speaks of 
 fishes, birds and sea monsters. That is the 
 order of the record on the rocks also. The 
 reptilian family, biblically and geologically, 
 preceded that of the true Mammalia. The 
 former, acording to the Bible, were water 
 animals; the latter were land animals, such 
 as cattle and beasts of the earth. The very 
 names of those great reptiles antedating 
 land animals were marine and lacustrine. 
 In the fifth edition of LeConte's Geology 
 page 502, that standard author names the 
 four large Reptilian orders, viz., Enalio- 
 saurs, Dinosaurs, Plesiosaurs, and Croco- 
 dilians, and on the same page tells us that 
 their fossils were found in marine and la- 
 custrine (lake and swamp) deposits. That 
 means that they lived in and about those 
 early lakes and swamps and died there. On 
 the same page he adds still another order ; 
 viz., Mosasaurs, and says that they were 
 "wholly marine in habits." Moreover 
 what child does not know the marine habits 
 of the Crocodilians? The very word 
 Enaliosaurs means marine lizard. It is evi- 
 
58 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 dent that the ''great whales" — saurians — of 
 the Bible account and the reptilian family 
 of geology, coincide in the fact that they 
 were pre-eminently marine in habits, where- 
 as the "beasts of the earth and cattle," that 
 is, the mammals which followed later, were 
 pre-eminently the land animals. 
 
 We do not mean to draw the lines so 
 sharply as to say that no mammals are 
 found in the sea and that no reptiles are 
 found on the land. The whale suckles its 
 young in the sea, and occasionally a crocodile 
 comes up out of the water to sun itself on 
 the river's brink or on the shore of the 
 lake. But we do mean to affirm the ac- 
 counts, both of nature and of revelation, 
 that the reptilian family which preceded 
 was composed pre-eminently of marine 
 animals ; while the mammals which followed 
 were pre-eminently land animals in the car- 
 boniferous period, and some saurians called 
 Labyrinthodonts existed in those early days. 
 In the Triassic period there were some large 
 saurians and also others in the Colite ; but 
 it was during the latter time of the 
 Ichthyosaurus that numerous monster land 
 animals appeared such as the Palaeothe- 
 rium, the Dinotherium, the Megatherium, 
 the Mastodon. Surely they are rightly called 
 the ''beasts of the earth." The oxen which 
 existed in the Post-Pliocene period, if not 
 identical with, was at least very near to our 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 59 
 
 living species. The first fossil remains of 
 the ox, deer and elk are found in a later 
 stratum than the monster land-animals just 
 named, and that also corresponds to Gen. 
 1 :25 — '*and God made the beasts of the earth 
 after their kind and cattle after their kind." 
 I venture to affirm now that no recognized 
 geologist ever gave any other order of life 
 on the earth than the following: 
 
 1. Plant life — Laurentian period, etc. 
 
 2. Fishes — Silurian and Devonian peri- 
 ods, etc. 
 
 3. Birds — Triassic period, etc. 
 
 4. Reptiles — Jurassic and Cretaceous 
 periods, etc. 
 
 5. Mammals — Eocene and Miocenne 
 periods, etc 
 
 6. Man — Psychozoic Era. 
 I have said nothing regarding the recent 
 advent of man, for the reason that it is uni- 
 versally recognized that last of all "God 
 created man" to "have dominion over the 
 fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
 and over every living thing that moveth 
 upon the earth." It seems to me that the 
 geologist, after he has read the handwriting 
 on the strata of the rocks, and then takes 
 his Bible and there reads the same record, 
 can arrive at no other conclusion than that 
 the same God who overhung the galleries 
 of the coal mines with such beautiful pro- 
 portions of extinct vegetable forms and 
 
60 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 covered the roofs thereof with so gorgeous 
 a canopy of tapestry, enriched with festoons 
 of the most graceful foliage over all its 
 surface, that the same God who has given 
 us a record of life on every stratum of the 
 rocks, must be the only personality in all 
 the universe who, in an unscientific age, 
 could have inspired his servant Moses in 
 such a way that he could give us a record 
 that would harmonize with the geological 
 record in such remarkable degree. Here 
 are facts that the skeptic might well ponder, 
 for if he is rational, he must account for 
 this harmony, and this can be done in but 
 one way ; viz ; that God is the author both 
 of the Bible of Nature and the Bible of 
 Grace. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 61 
 
 "Lest we forget" the bow in the cloud: 
 ''When o'er the green, undeluged earth 
 
 Heaven's covenant thou didst shine, 
 How came the world's gray feathers forth 
 
 To watch thy sacred sign! 
 And when its yellow lustre smiled 
 
 O'er mountains yet untrod 
 Each mother held aloft her child 
 
 To bless the bow of God. 
 How glorious is thy girdle cast 
 
 O'er mountain, tower, and town, 
 Or mirrored in the ocean vast, 
 
 A thousand fathoms down. 
 As fresh in yon horizon dark, 
 
 As young thy beauties seem, 
 As when the eagle from the ark 
 
 First sported in the beam. 
 For faithful to its sacred page 
 
 Heaven still rebuilds thy span, 
 Nor lets the type grow pale with age 
 
 That first spoke peace to man." 
 
 Campbell. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 The Flood — Its History in Nature. 
 
 In the year 1823 the Rev. William Buck- 
 land, D. D., F. R. S. published a book en- 
 
«2 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 titled "Reliquiae Deluvianae" (Relics of the 
 Flood.) I believe he was the pioneer in 
 this matter as regards the Bible record of 
 the Deluge, calling attention, as he does, ta 
 the fact that the very earth on w^hich we 
 tread from day to day bears testimony to 
 the account of the flood as given in the 
 Scriptures. Dr. Buckland's observations 
 were, for ttie most part, limited to the Os- 
 siferous Fissures. But he set the pace, and 
 since his day many others, with a much 
 wider range of observations, have put their 
 findings on a firm foundation. Strange in- 
 deed that traditions of a flood are found 
 among nearly all the nations and tribes of 
 the world ; but stranger still is the fact that 
 recent geological investigations have re- 
 duced the marvel to such reasonable propor- 
 tions that no one need hesitate to accept the 
 Biblical story, when properly interpreted, 
 upon the strength of the documentary evi- 
 dence. 
 
 Space will not permit me to do more than 
 attempt to make clear to the average reader 
 the fact that in this matter of a deluge, the 
 earth itself, as read by most faithful and 
 trustworthy geologists of recent times, 
 bears a similar testimony to the recorded 
 deluge of Genesis. Anyone who desires to 
 enter more largely into this subject, I would 
 direct to the very elaborate monogram by 
 Prof. Joseph Prestwich, F. R. S. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 63 
 
 The facts revealed by geologists go to 
 show that about six thousand years ago, 
 since man has appeared on the earth, a 
 widespread submergence of northern, cen- 
 tral and western Asia, Europe and North 
 America, occurred which was followed by a 
 still more rapid uplifting of the continents, 
 with numerous very sudden catastrophies. 
 Such a continual dropping, amounting to 
 about fourteen hundred feet in Western 
 Europe and about three hundred feet in Cen- 
 tral Asia, would convert into one great sea, 
 all European Russia (except the Ural Moun- 
 tains,) all western and northern Siberia 
 and the Aral-Caspian basin ; it would make 
 Baikal Lake an arm of the Sea, and let 
 oceanic water into the Desrt of Gobi, and 
 thus fill a basin in Central Asia larger than 
 the Mediterranean Sea. Similar results 
 would follow in the entire valley of the 
 Euphrates, and about the borders of Ar- 
 menia. That we may grasp the full mean- 
 ing here, it is important to realize that by 
 this hypothesis of submergency, with a cor- 
 responding emergency, a large and accumu- 
 lating class of facts dovetail, which, indeed, 
 refuse any other explanation. 
 
 Before naming the facts, however, let me 
 briefly state the reason for the hemispheres 
 playing see-saw in the manner indicated. 
 Many are agreed that the interior of the earth 
 is a molten mass — plastic — verily like a sea 
 
«4 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 on which the relatively thin crust of the 
 earth rests. This crust of the earth is like 
 a pontoon bridge — the more you pile on at 
 one end the higher it will rise at the other. 
 At the time of the glacial epoch, snow ac- 
 cumulated over about six million square 
 miles of North Amercia and northern 
 Europe. Under the pressure of its own 
 weight, this snow consolidated into ice un- 
 til it attained a depth of a mile. This is 
 known from the fact that it covered the top 
 of Mt. Washington in New England, leav- 
 ing foreign boulders on its very summit. 
 At the present time the thickness of the ice 
 covering Greenland, especially the central 
 part, is probably much more than this. This 
 would mean an accumulation of six million 
 cubic miles of ice distributed over the 
 northern hemispheres at the close of the 
 glacial period. 
 
 Now, to furnish this amount of snow an 
 equal amount of water was lifted from the 
 ocean — an amount sufficient to lower the 
 ocean level two hundred and fifty feet the 
 world over. It has been estimated that the 
 total amount of weight thus transferred from 
 the ocean to the northern part of Europe 
 and America would be twenty-four thou- 
 sand million million tons. According to 
 one estimate, the weight of the entire con- 
 tinent of North America would be (esti- 
 mating the ice to be one mile deep) only 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 65 
 
 one-third more than that of the ice of the 
 glacial epoch; if the ice was two miles deep, 
 It would be one-third less. 
 
 The plasticity of the earth is proven by 
 a wide range of geological facts. The equil- 
 ibrium is indeed so delicately balanced that 
 it is very easy to believe that the glacial 
 epoch produced such a temporary instabil- 
 ity as is described in the story of the flood. 
 The very fact that the ocean was relieved of 
 such a tremendous weight by the abstraction 
 of three hundred feet of water from its en- 
 tire surface, would no doubt produce the 
 see-saw motion between the continents. In 
 the readjustment of parts the Asiatic con- 
 tinent would sink of itself and then rise 
 again as soon as the ice was melted. The 
 waters would then return to their natural 
 position, leaving many marks behind of their 
 downward rush as the mountains and hills 
 were perhaps rapidly lifted. The ill-founded 
 criticism of the Biblical account of the Flood 
 claims that there is not water enough in all 
 the oceans to cover the tops of the highest 
 mountains. Such shallow flippancy over- 
 looks the fact that the Biblical account rep- 
 resents the flood as caused, not so much by 
 the rising of the water, as by the sinking of 
 the land. It says that all the fountains of 
 the great deep were broken up. 
 
 The glacial epoch is of recent date and in 
 this respect can easily be harmonized with 
 
66 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 the Bible chronology, as I have already ex- 
 plained in the third chapter of this book. 
 Nearly all of the water-falls in the glacial 
 regions came into existence and began 
 erosion since the melting of the ice of that 
 period. And so> by actual measure- 
 ments compared with those made fifty 
 years ago, it is shown that the 
 wearing away of the rocks of the falls of 
 St. Anthony, Niagara, and others, is at the 
 rate of nearly five feet per annum. This 
 would place the beginning of these various 
 cataracts at about 500 B. C, at which time 
 there was a high civilization both in Baby- 
 lon and in Egypt. Because so many falls 
 have thus been tested, and such harmony in 
 the rate of erosion observed, the date is al- 
 most a fixed quantity. 
 
 Another fact corroborative of the world- 
 wide submergence theory is well estab- 
 lished ; viz., that at the close of the Miocene 
 period (geologically) on both continents 
 there occurred a remarkable extinction of 
 animals. Among these there were three 
 species of dolphins, a walrus, and two spe- 
 cies of the sea-cow; two species of bears, 
 four species of the dog family, and two of 
 the cat family as large as lions ; six species 
 of the horse, two species of elephants and 
 two of mastodons ; two species of bison, a 
 camel, and three species of sheep ; a species 
 of megatherium, huge and terrestial sloths 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 67 
 
 as large as the rhinoceros which ranged 
 over the southern states as far north as 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 The sudden blotting out of a large list 
 of animals in the old world at the same time 
 is equally remarkable. The number is very 
 large, but I will simply name one species, 
 the mammoth. The largest of them fairly 
 swarmed over the plains of Siberia and 
 spread over all western and central Europe. 
 
 So recently has the mammoth become ex- 
 tinct in Siberia, that one is still occasionally 
 found frozen in the ice with the flesh unde- 
 cayed. When Columbus discovered Amer- 
 ica, the horse, which lived and flourished up 
 to a recent geological time, had entirely dis- 
 appeared from the continent. . Russel Wal- 
 lace says : 'Tt is surely a marvelous fact, this 
 sudden dying out of so many large mamma- 
 lia, not in one place only, but over half the 
 land surface of the globe. We cannot but 
 believe that there must have been some 
 physical cause for the great change; and it 
 must have been a cause capable of acting al- 
 most simultaneously over large portions of 
 the earth's surface." 
 
 Startling also is the announcement that at 
 Lansing, Kansas, near Leavenworth, a 
 human skeleton was found buried at the 
 base of an undisturbed section of loess (a de- 
 posit of the glacial period), showing that 
 man was in the valley of the Missouri River 
 
68 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 before these floods, and very likely was ex- 
 terminated by them. 
 
 At Kief, on the Dneiper River, in the west- 
 ern part of Asia, Prof. Armaschevsky has 
 found human implements and burnt stones 
 in connection with the bones of extinct ani- 
 mals, at a depth of fifty-three feet below the 
 undisturbed surface of the glacial deposit of 
 loess which covers the region. This dis- 
 covery was at an elevation of three hundred 
 feet above the river, where an old camping 
 place of paleolithic men rested on the sur- 
 face of a geological deposit containing gran- 
 ite pebbles from Scandinavia, about two 
 hundred miles away. 
 
 The ultimate origin of the deposits of loess 
 is glacial. For microscopic examination shows 
 that the particles of loess the world over are 
 of mechanical origin. Chemical analysis also 
 shows that loess is not clay, but ex- 
 tremely fine sand, with a little carbonate of 
 lime. In the United States it is practically 
 limited to those portions of the Mississippi 
 and the Missouri Valleys contiguous to the 
 glacial area and to the lines of drainage 
 leading from it. In Europe the great depos- 
 its of loess are those over the southern 
 plains of Russia, which form the belt of 
 black earth which produces such wonderful 
 crops of wheat and other cereals. In Cen- 
 tral Europe and in Central Asia the deposits 
 may easily have been derived from the Alps 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 69 
 
 and the high mountains of Central Asia. 
 Similar extensive deposits of loess occur in 
 the valley of the Araxes in Armenia, up to 
 the very base of Mt. Ararat, where tradition 
 says the ark rested. 
 
 The facts connected with loess every- 
 where strongly confirm other evidences point- 
 ing to the occurrence of a recent catastrophe 
 analogous to the Bible account of Noah's 
 flood. A single illustration must suffice. The 
 greater part of the island of Guernsey in the 
 English Channel consists of a plateau of 
 granitic rocks from three hundred to three 
 hundred and fifty feet above the sea level, 
 but without any commanding heights. The 
 plateau is covered by a deposit of loess from 
 five to ten feet thick extending over the 
 highest points of the surface. In character 
 this is identical with that on the mainland. 
 Profs. Jam.es, Geikie, and Prestwich, tell 
 us that it is not possible to account for this 
 deposit of loess on any of the theories of 
 river floods, glacial inundations, or rain 
 wash as the distributing agencies. Sub- 
 mergence and re-elevation from beneath 
 deep water is the only true history. 
 
 At Sangatte, in France, and at many 
 places in the south of England, there are 
 deposits of angular gravel containing pale- 
 olithic implements and the bones of many 
 extinct animals associated with prehistoric 
 men. This deposit bears no relation to 
 
70 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 the present drainage system of the coun- 
 try, and shows clear marks of rapid and 
 tumultuous accumulation. The drift is 
 found at elevations of nine hundred feet 
 and far removed from the ocean, and cer- 
 tain broken bones of many species of ex- 
 tinct animals in such a perfect state as to 
 show that they could not have been trans- 
 ported for a long distance. They show 
 signs of fracture, but not of wear. Prof. 
 Prestwich described about twenty-five of 
 these rubble drifts which occur in southern 
 England alone. These drifts differ from 
 all ordinary gravel in that (i) the frag- 
 ments of stone and the fractured bones re- 
 tain their sharp angles; (2) the material is 
 all of local origin ; (3) there is a total ab- 
 sence of marine shells. Submergence and 
 re-elevation were evidently too sudden for 
 marine animals to make them their home. 
 ''Ossiferous fissures abound in the lime- 
 stone regions of South England, on the 
 Island of Sicily near Palermo on the 
 rock of Gibraltar, and on Mt. Santenay. 
 They are fissures in the rocks open at the 
 top and extending down perpendicularly or 
 nearly so to the depth of three hundred feet 
 and more. These fissures are filled with a 
 mixture of broken and splintered bone, the 
 fractured edges of which are unworn and 
 sharp. They are rock fragments, earth and 
 clay through which lime has filtered, the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 71 
 
 mixture of which is called breccia. The 
 bones of the animals found are essentially 
 those representatives of extinct species al- 
 ready named in the first part of this chapter. 
 That these fissures have been filled from 
 above is acknowledged by all. That they 
 did not fall in, as by accident, is evident 
 from the fact that in no case has a complete 
 skeleton of any animal been found, or scat- 
 tered bones to complete a skeleton. The 
 question then arises how to account for this 
 mixture of sharp-edged bones and stones in 
 a deep crevice at the very top of a mountain 
 — especially, how to account for such a mix- 
 ture of herbivorous with carnivorous ani- 
 mals, their avowed enemies. It could only 
 have been a great and common danger, 
 such as the sinking of the earth and the en- 
 croachment of the sea, that could have so 
 paralyzed their natural instincts as to have 
 driven those various animals to flock to- 
 gether in search of a common place or 
 refuge, as the top of Gibraltar, for example, 
 from a catastrophe which threatened all 
 alike. But the hills sank beneath the waters 
 and they were drowned ; and when the hills 
 suddenly emerged, the downward current 
 of the water presumably carried their bones 
 into the crevices. 
 
 In the Sicilian area there was an amphi- 
 theater of steep hills encircling the great 
 plain on all sides except the seaward side, on 
 
72 THE BIBLE OF NATUEE 
 
 the slope of which the Cave of San Giro is 
 located. Granting the submergence theory, 
 as the waters rose, the area became more 
 and more circumscribed and retreat more 
 and more impossible, until at last the great 
 herds of hippopotami and other wild ani- 
 mals were dirven together at the base of the 
 hill, where the heavier animals were 
 stopped by impassable precipices, while the 
 more agile escaped to the mountain beyond. 
 Hence their bones are not found here. Re- 
 treat being entirely cut oflf, the only paths 
 yet open to the imprisoned herds were those 
 that led to the cave, a little above the level 
 of the plain. Hither they must have 
 thronged in multitudes, rushing into the 
 caves where, overtaken by the water, they 
 perished. As the land rose from beneath 
 the water (per hypothesis) the rocky debris 
 in the sides of the hills was hurled down by 
 the effluent waters on the piles of bones 
 below. More than twenty tons of bones 
 were shipped from this one place for com- 
 merical purposes during the first six months 
 after their discovery. 
 
 Add to all this the fact that at the present 
 time there are arctic seals in the waters of 
 the Gaspian Sea and Baikal Lake, and you 
 will find that there is no theory that will 
 account for the facts, apart from the theory 
 that accords with the account of the flood 
 in the days of Noah. The fountains of the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 73 
 
 deep were opened and the waters returned 
 from off the earth. The earth was sub- 
 merged and re-elevated from beneath deep 
 waters after a brief time. The pages of 
 Nature's Book read like the Bible of God's 
 Word. 
 
 Still further confirmation is added to the 
 account of the flood as found in the Bible of 
 Nature and the Bible of Grace, when we 
 remember that similar traditions are found 
 among nearly all the nations and tribes of 
 the world. Indeed so persistent and wide- 
 spread are these traditions that those who 
 have carefully studied the subject cannot 
 resist the conviction that they relate to a 
 common event with which the ancestors of 
 the world's present population were eye- 
 witnesses. This tradition, as might be ex- 
 pected, took on such a local coloring and 
 extravagant inventions that the kernel of 
 truth has become much warped. The ac- 
 count in Genesis stands out conspicuously 
 among them all as the Divine Word re- 
 vealed of God in connection with the catas- 
 trophe. That the reader may compare it 
 with the Bible narrative, and for conven- 
 ience, we place on opposite pages the Bible 
 story and a translation of the cuneiform 
 tables discovered by George Smith about 
 1870 and supposed to date back at least as 
 far as 300 B. C. 
 
74 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 BIBLE ACCOUNT 
 
 **Gen. VI. 5. And God saw that the 
 wickedness of man was great in the earth, 
 and that every imagination of the thoughts 
 of his heart was only evil continually. 6. 
 And it repenteth the Lord that he had made 
 man on the earth, and it grieved him at his 
 heart. 7. And the Lord said, I will destroy 
 man^ whom I have created, from the face of 
 the earth; both man, and beast, and the 
 creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for 
 it repenteth me that I have made them. 8 
 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the 
 Lord. 
 
 "9. These are the generations of Noah: 
 Noah was a just man and perfect in his 
 generations, and Noah walked with God. 
 10. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, 
 Ham, and Japheth. 11. The earth also was 
 corrupt before God, and the earth was filled 
 with violence. 12. And God looked upon 
 the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for 
 all flesh had corrupted his way upon the 
 earth. 
 
 "13. And God said unto Noah, The end of 
 all flesh is come before me ; for the earth is 
 filled with violence through them: and, be- 
 hold, I will destroy them with the earth. 
 14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; 
 rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and 
 shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 75 
 
 15. And this is the fashion which thou shalt 
 make it of : The length of the ark shall be 
 three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty- 
 cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 
 
 16. Window shalt thou make to the ark, and 
 in a cubit shalt thou finish it above and the 
 door of the ark shalt thou set in the side 
 thereof; with lower, second, and third 
 stories shalt thou make it. 17. And, behold, 
 I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon 
 the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the 
 breath of life, from under heaven ; and 
 every thing that is in the earth shall die. 
 18. But with thee will I establish my cov- 
 enant; and thou shalt come into the ark; 
 thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy 
 sons' wives with thee. 19. And of every 
 living thing of all flesh, two of every sort 
 shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them 
 alive with thee; they shall be male and fe- 
 male. 20. Of fowls after their kind, and of 
 cattle after their kind; of every creeping 
 thing of the earth after his kind; two of 
 every sort shall come unto thee, to keep 
 them alive. 21. And take thou unto thee of 
 all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather 
 it to thee ; and it shall be for food for thee 
 and for them. 22. Thus did Noah; accord- 
 ing to all that God commanded him, so did 
 
 he. 
 
 VII. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come 
 thou, and all thy house into the ark; for 
 
76 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 thee have I seen righteous before me in 
 this generation. 2. Of every clean beast 
 thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male 
 and his female ; and of beasts that are not 
 clean by two, the male and his female. 3. 
 Of fowls of the air by sevens, the male and 
 the female ; to keep seed alive upon the face 
 of all the earth. 4. For yet seven days, and 
 I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty 
 days and forty nights; and every living 
 substance that I have made will I destroy 
 from off the face of the earth. 5. And Noah 
 did according to all the Lord commanded 
 him. 
 
 "6. And Noah was six hundred years old 
 when the flood of waters was upon the 
 earth. 7. And Noah went in, and his sons, 
 and his wife, and his sons' wives, with him, 
 into the ark, because of the waters of the 
 flood. 8. Of clean beasts, and of beasts 
 that are not clean, and of fowls, and of 
 every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 
 9. There went in two and two unto Noah 
 into the ark, the male and female, as God 
 had commanded Noah. 10. And it came to 
 pass, after seven days, that the waters of 
 the flood were upon the earth. 11. In the 
 six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the 
 second month, the seventeenth day of the 
 month, the same day were all the fountains 
 of the great deep broken up, and the win- 
 dows of heaven were opened. 12. And the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 77 
 
 rain was upon the earth forty days and 
 forty nights. 
 
 "13. In the selfsame day entered Noah, 
 and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons 
 of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three 
 wives of his sons with them, into the ark; 
 14. They, and every beast after his kind, 
 and all the cattle after their kind, and every 
 creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth 
 after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, 
 every bird of every sort. 15. And they 
 went in unto Noah into the ark, two and 
 two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of 
 life. 16. And they that went in, went in 
 male and female of all flesh, as God had com- 
 manded him : and the Lord shut him in. 
 17. And the flood was forty days upon the 
 earth ; and the waters increased ; and bare 
 up the ark, and it was lifted up above the 
 earth. 18. And the waters prevailed, and 
 were increased greatly upon the earth ; and 
 the ark went upon the face of the waters. 
 IQ. And the waters prevailed exceedingly 
 upon the earth ; and all the high hills, that 
 were under the whole heaven, were covered, 
 
 20. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters 
 prevail ; and the mountains were covered. 
 
 21. And all flesh died that moved upon the 
 earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of 
 beast, and of every creeping thing that 
 creepeth upon the earth, and every man : 
 
 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of 
 
78 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 life, of all that was in the dry land, died. 
 23. And every living substance was destroyed 
 which was upon the face of the ground, 
 both man, and cattle, and the creeping 
 things, and the fowl of the heaven ; and they 
 were destroyed from the earth; and Noah 
 only remained alive, and they were with 
 him in the ark. 24. And the waters pre- 
 vailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty 
 days. 
 
 VIII. And God remembered Noah, and 
 every living thing, and all the cattle that 
 was with him in the ark; and God made a 
 wind to pass over the earth ; and the waters 
 assuaged ; 2. The fountains also of the 
 deep and the windows of heaven were 
 stopped, and the rain from heaven was re- 
 strained ; 3. And the waters returned from 
 oflf the earth continually : and after the end 
 of the hundred and fifty days the waters 
 were abated. 4. And the ark rested in the 
 seventh month, on the seventeenth day of 
 the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. 
 5. And the waters decreased continually 
 until the tenth month: in the tenth month, 
 on the first day of the month, were the 
 tops of the mountains seen. 
 
 "6. And it came to pass, at the end of 
 forty days, that Noah opened the window 
 of the ark which he had made. 7. And he 
 sent forth a raven, which went forth to and 
 fro, until the waters were dried up from off 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 79 
 
 the earth. 8. Also he sent forth a dove from 
 him, to see if the waters were abated from 
 of? the face of the ground. 9. But the dove 
 found no rest for the sole of her foot, and 
 she returned unto him into the ark, for the 
 waters were on the face of the whole earth; 
 then he put forth his hand, and took her, 
 and pulled her in unto him into the ark. 10. 
 And he stayed yet other seven days, and 
 again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 
 II. And the dove came in to him in the 
 evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive 
 leaf, pluckt off: so Noah knew that the 
 waters were abated from off the earth. 12. 
 And he stayed yet other seven days, and 
 sent forth the dove, which returned not 
 again unto him any more. 
 
 "13. And it came to pass, in the six hun- 
 dreth and first year, in the first month, the 
 first day of the month, the waters were 
 dried up from off the earth : and Noah re- 
 moved the covering of the ark, and looked, 
 and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 
 14. And in the second month, on the 
 seventh and twentieth day of the month, 
 was the earth dried. 15. And God spake 
 unto Noah, saying, 16. Go forth of the ark, 
 thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy 
 sons' wives with thee. 17. Bring forth with 
 thee every living thing that is with thee of 
 all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of 
 every creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
 
80 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 earth; that they may breed abundantly in 
 the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply 
 upon the earth. i8. And Noah went forth, 
 and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' 
 wives with him: 9. Every beast, every 
 creeping thing, and every fowl, and what- 
 soever creepeth upon the earth, after their 
 kinds, went forth out of the ark. 
 
 "20. And Noah builded an altar unto the 
 Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of 
 every clean fowl, and offered burnt offer- 
 ings on the altar. 21. And the Lord smelled 
 a sweet savour: and the Lord said in his 
 heart, I will not again curse the ground any 
 more for man's sake ; for the imagination of 
 man's heart is evil from his youth : neither 
 will I again smite any more every thing 
 living, as I have done. 22. While the earth 
 remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold 
 and heat, and summer and winter, and day 
 and night, shall not cease. 
 
 IX. And God blessed Noah and his sons, 
 and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multi- 
 ply, and replenish the earth. 2. And the 
 fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be 
 upon every beast of the earth, and upon 
 every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth 
 upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of 
 the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 
 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be 
 meat for you ; even as the green herb have 
 I given you all things. 4. But flesh with 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 81 
 
 the life thereof, which is the blood thereof 
 shall ye not eat. 5. And surely your blood 
 of your lives will I require ; at the hand of 
 every beast will I require it, and at the hand 
 of man ; at the hand of every man's brother 
 will I require the life of man. 6. Who so 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his 
 blood be shed: for in the image of God 
 made he man. 7. And you, be ye fruitful, 
 and multiply: bring forth abundantly in 
 the earth, and multiply therein. 
 
 "8. And God spake unto Noah, and to his 
 sons with him, saying, 9. And I, behold, I 
 establish my covenant with you, and with 
 your seed after you : 10. And with every 
 living creature that is with you, of the fowl, 
 of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth 
 with you; from all that go out of the ark, 
 to every beast of the earth: 11. And I will 
 establish my covenant with you; neither 
 shall all flesh be cut off any more by the 
 waters of a flood; neither shall there any 
 more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12. 
 And God said. This is the token of the cove- 
 nant which I make between me and you, 
 and every living creature that is with you, 
 for perpetual generations : 13. I do set my 
 bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token 
 of a covenant between me and the earth. 
 14. And it shall come to pass, when I bring 
 a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall 
 be seen in the cloud: 15. And I will remem- 
 
82 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 ber my covenant, which is between me and 
 you, and every living creature of all flesh; 
 and the waters shall no more become a flood 
 to destroy all flesh. i6. And the bow shall 
 be in the cloud ; and I will look upon it, that 
 I may remember the everlasting covenant 
 between God and every living creature of 
 all flesh that is upon the earth. 17. And 
 God said unto Noah, This is the token of the 
 covenant, which I have established between 
 me and all flesh that is upon the earth." 
 
 CUNEIFORM ACCOUNT 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 I 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 ID 
 II 
 
 Nuh-napishtim saith to him, even to 
 Gilgamesh : 
 
 Let me unfold to thee, Gilgamesh, a 
 secret story, 
 
 And the decree of the gods let me tell 
 thee! 
 
 Shurippak, a city thou knowest, — 
 On the banks of the Euphrates it 
 lieth ; 
 That city was full of violence, and the 
 
 gods within it — 
 To make a flood their heart urged 
 them, even the mighty gods. 
 Their, father (i. e. adviser: Gen 
 45 :8) was Anu, 
 
 Their counsellor the warrior Bel 
 Their throne-bearer Ninib, 
 Their champion, Innugi. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 8S 
 
 12. Nin-igi-azeg, even, la, had sat or 
 lurked near them, and 
 
 13. Their talk (or purpose) he repeated 
 to the reed-fence : 
 
 14. 'Reed-fence ! House-wall, house-wall ! 
 
 15. Reed-fence, listen! and house-wall 
 give heed! 
 
 16. Man of Shurippak, son of Ubara- 
 Tutu, 
 
 17. Pull down the house, and build a 
 ship! 
 
 18. Leave goods, seek life! 
 
 19. Property forsake, and life preserve! 
 
 20. Cause seed of life of every sort to go 
 
 up into the ship! 
 
 21. The ship which thou shalt build, 
 
 22. Exact be its dimensions, 
 
 23. Equal be its breadth and its length! 
 
 24. On the ocean launch it ! 
 
 25. I understood, and said unto la my 
 
 Lord : 
 
 26. *The command, my lord, which thou 
 
 spakest thus, 
 
 27. I honour, I will do it ! 
 
 28. But what shall I answer the city, the 
 people, and the elders? 
 
 29. la framed his mouth and spaketh, 
 
 30. He saith unto me, his slave : 
 
 31. Answer thus shalt thou make unto 
 
 them : 
 
 32. "Bel hath rejected and hateth me, and 
 
t4k THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 33. I may no longer dwell in your city, 
 
 and 
 
 34. Toward Bel's ground I may no longer 
 
 turn my face: but 
 
 35. I will go down to the ocean, and with 
 
 la my lord will I dwell! 
 
 36. Upon you it will rain heavily ..." 
 
 (About twelve lines are broken or 
 have entirely disappeared) 
 
 37. On the fifth day I laid down the frame 
 
 of it; 
 
 38. At its bulwarks (?) its sides were 140 
 
 cubits high ; 
 
 39. The border of its top equaled 140 
 cubits (i. e. every way). 
 
 40. I laid down its form, I figured (or 
 fashioned) it; 
 
 41. I constructed it in six stories, 
 
 43. Dividing it into seven compartments; 
 
 44. Water-pegs inside it I drove it in (to 
 
 stop leaks.) 
 
 45. I chose a mast (or rudder-pole), and 
 supplied what was necessary ; 
 
 46. Six sars of bitumen I poured over the 
 
 outside. 
 
 47. Three sars of bitumen I poured over 
 
 the inside. 
 
 48. While the basket-bearers were carry- 
 
 ing three sars of oil abroad, 
 
 49. I reserved one sar of oil, which the 
 libations ( ?) consumed ; 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 85 
 
 50. Two sars of oil the shipmen stowed 
 away. 
 
 51. For the men's food I slaughtered 
 oxen ; 
 
 52. I slew small cattle every day ; 
 
 53- New wine, sesame wine, oil and grape 
 wine, 
 
 53. The people I gave to drink, like the 
 
 water of a river. 
 55- A feast I made, like New Year's 
 Day .... (Five lines.) 
 
 56. With all that I possessed I freighted 
 
 it; 
 
 57. With all that I had of silver I freight- 
 ed it; 
 
 58. With all that I had of gold I freighted 
 
 it; 
 59- With all that I had of seed of life of 
 every sort I freighted it ; 
 
 60. I put on board all my family and my 
 
 clan; 
 
 61. Cattle of the field, wild beasts of the 
 field, all the craftsmen, I put on 
 board. 
 
 62. A time Samas appointed saying: — 
 
 63. 'When the Lord of Storm at eventide 
 
 causes the heavens to rain heavily, 
 
 64. Enter into the ship, and shut thy 
 door!' -^ 
 
 65. That time came: 
 
 66. The Lord of Storm at eventide caused 
 
 the heavens to rain heavily. 
 
86 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 67. I dreaded the appearance of day; 
 
 68. I was afraid of beholding day ; 
 
 69. I entered the ship and shut me my 
 door. 
 
 70. For the steering of the ship, to Bezur- 
 
 Bel, the shipman 
 
 71. The great vessel (deckhouse ?) I 
 handed over, with its freight (or 
 gear). 
 
 72. When the first light of dawn ap- 
 
 peared, 
 
 73. There rose from the foundation of 
 
 heaven a black cloud; 
 
 74. Rimmon in the heart of it thunders, 
 and 
 
 75. Nebo and Merodach march before; 
 
 76. The Throne-bearers march o'er moun- 
 
 tain and plain. 
 *jj. The mighty Dibbarra (or Girra) 
 wrenches away the helm; 
 
 78. Ninib goes on, pouring out ruin. 
 
 79. The Anunnaki (earth-spirits) lifted 
 
 torches ; 
 
 80. With their sheen they lighten the 
 
 world. 
 
 81. Rimmon's violence reacheth to 
 
 heaven; 
 
 82. Whatever is bright he turneth into 
 
 darkness. 
 
 83 
 
 84. One day the southern blast 
 
 85. Hard it blew, and . . . 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 87 
 
 86. Like a battle-charge upon mankind 
 
 rush the waters. 
 
 87. One no longer sees another; 
 
 88. No more men discerned in (described 
 from) heaven. 
 
 89. The gods were dismayed at the flood, 
 
 and 
 
 90. Sought refuge in ascending to the 
 
 highest heaven (lit. the heaven of 
 Anu) : 
 
 91. The gods cowered like dogs; on the 
 
 battlements (of heaven) they 
 crouched. 
 
 92. Ishtar screams like a woman in tra- 
 
 vail, 
 
 93. The loud-voiced Lady of the gods ex- 
 
 claims : 
 
 94. 'Yon generation is turned again to 
 clay! 
 
 95. As I in the assembly of the gods fore- 
 
 told the evil — 
 
 96. Like as I foretold in the assemby of 
 
 the gods the evil : — 
 
 97. A tempest for the destruction of my 
 
 people I foretold. 
 
 98. But I will give birth to my people 
 
 (again), though 
 
 99. Like the fury of fishes they fill the 
 sea! 
 
 100. The gods because of the Anunnaki 
 wept with her ; 
 
88 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 loi. The gods were downcast, they sate 
 a-weeping ; 
 
 102. Closed were their lips . . . 
 
 103. During six days and nights. 
 
 104. Wind, flood, storm, even more fiercely 
 whelmed the land. 
 
 105. When the seventh day came, storm 
 
 (and) flood ceased the battle, 
 
 106. Wherein they had contended like a 
 
 host: 
 
 107. The sea lulled, the blast fell, the flood 
 
 ceased. 
 
 108. I looked for the people (udma), with 
 
 a cry of lamentation; 
 
 109. But all mankind had turned again to 
 clay : 
 
 no. The tilled land was become like the 
 waste. 
 
 111. I opened the window, and daylight 
 fell upon my cheeks ; 
 
 112. Crouching I sit (and) weep; 
 
 113. Over my cheeks course my tears. 
 
 114. I looked at the quarters (of heaven), 
 
 the borders of the sea; 
 
 115. Toward the twelfth point rose the 
 land. 
 
 116. To the country of *JS[izir the ship 
 made way; 
 
 117. The mountain of the country of Nizir 
 
 caught the ship, and suffered it not 
 to stir. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 89 
 
 Ii8. One day, a second day, the mountain 
 of Nizir, etc. (as before) ; 
 
 119. A third day, a fourth day, the moun- 
 
 tain of Nizir, etc. (as before.) 
 
 120. A fifth, a sixth, the mountain of Nizir, 
 
 etc. (as before.) 
 
 121. But, when the seventh day was come, 
 
 122. I brought out a dove, (and) let it go, 
 
 123. The dove went to and fro, but 
 
 124. Found no foothold (lit. standing 
 place), and returned 
 
 125. Then I brought out a swallow (and) 
 
 let it go. 
 
 126. The swallow went to and fro, but 
 
 127. Found no foothold, and returned. 
 
 128. Then I brought out a raven (and) let 
 
 it go: 
 
 129. The raven went off, noticed the dry- 
 
 ing of the water, and 
 
 130. Feeding, wading, croaking, returned 
 not. 
 
 131. Then I brought out (everything) to 
 
 the four winds, offered victims, 
 
 132. Made an offering of incense on the 
 mountain top; 
 
 133. Seven and seven tripods I set, 
 
 134. Into their bowels I poured calamus, 
 
 cedar, fragrant herbs ; 
 
 135. The gods snuffed the odour, 
 
 136. The gods snuffed the pleasant odour, 
 
 137. The gods like flies swarmed above the 
 
 sacrificer. 
 
»0 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 138. But when Ishtar was come from afar, 
 39. She lifted up the Great Gems(?), 
 which Anu had made to adorn her. 
 
 140. These gods' (she cried), 'by mine 
 azure collar (lit. by the lapis lazuli of 
 my neck), I will never forget! 
 
 141. These days will I bear in mind, and 
 nevermore forget! 
 
 142. Let the gods go to the incense-offer- 
 ing! 
 
 143. (But) let Bel never go to the incense- 
 offering ! 
 
 144. Forasmuch as he took no counsel, but 
 caused the flood, 
 
 145. And delivered my people to destruc- 
 tion.' 
 
 146. But when Bel was come from afar, 
 147- We saw the ship, and Bel waxed wrath- 
 ful; 
 
 148. He was filled with rage at the gods, 
 (and) the Igigi (i. e. the spirits of 
 heaven) : 
 
 149- 'Some soul' (he cried) 'hath escaped! 
 
 150. Let not a man survive the destruc- 
 tion ! 
 
 151. Ninib frameth his mouth and speak- 
 
 eth-— 
 
 152. He saith to the warrior Bel: 
 
 153. 'Who then but la doeth the thing? 
 
 154. la is versed in every wile/ 
 
 155. la frameth his mouth and speaketh — 
 
 156. He saith to the warrior Bel : 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 91 
 
 157. Thou, O sage of the gods, (and) 
 warrior — 
 
 158. In nowise hast thou been well-coun- 
 selled in causing a flood! 
 
 159. On the sinner lay his sin! 
 
 160. On the guilty lay his guilt! 
 
 161. (But) remit (somewhat) ! let him not 
 be cut off! forbear! let him not be 
 swept away! 
 
 162. Instead of thy causing a flood, 
 
 163. Let the lion come and minish man- 
 kind ! 
 
 164. Instead of thy causing a flood, 
 
 165. Let the Leopard come and minish 
 mankind ! 
 
 166. Instead of thy causing a flood, 
 
 167. Let famine break out and desolate 
 the land. 
 
 168. Instead of thy causing a flood, 
 
 169. Let pestilence (lit. Girra ; i. e. the god 
 of plague) come and slay mankind! 
 
 170. I divulged not the decision of the 
 mighty gods; 
 
 171. (Someone) caused Atranasis to see 
 visions, and so he heard the decision 
 of the gods.' 
 
 172. Thereupon he took counsel with him- 
 
 self (or made up his mind) ; 
 
 173. Bel came on board the ship, 
 
 174. Seized my hand and led me up (out 
 of the ship), 
 
92 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 175. Led up my wife (and) made her 
 
 kneel beside me; 
 
 176. He turned us face to face, and stand- 
 ing between us blessed us, (saying) : 
 
 177. 'Ere this, Nuh-napishtim and his wife 
 
 shall be like us 
 
 178. But now Nuh-napishtim and his wife 
 
 shall be like us gods ! 
 
 179. Nuh-napishtim shall dwell far away 
 from men) at the mouth of the 
 rivers !' 
 
 180. Then they took me, and made me 
 
 dwell far away, at the mouth of the 
 rivers." 
 
 By comparison we note the following: 
 
 1. The Cuneiform account is polytheistic 
 (lines 3-17) ; the Bible account is monothe- 
 istic. 
 
 2. The Cuneiform agrees with the Bible 
 in making the Deluge a divine punishment 
 for the sins of the people, (lines 5, 6.) 
 
 3. In all the traditions the ark is repre- 
 sented as floating up stream. The Bible 
 represents the ark as finally resting in the 
 mountains of Ararat. 
 
 4. The cuneiform account tells of the col- 
 lecting of the animals for preservation, and 
 in this agrees with the iBible, but diflfers 
 from Genesis when it includes other persons 
 beside the family of the builder. (lines 
 66-69.) 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 93 
 
 5. All accounts agree with Genesis in 
 sending out birds; but thev differ in the 
 details, (lines 121-130.) 
 
 6. All accounts agree in the building of 
 an altar to offer sacrifices after leaving the 
 ark. The cuneiform account, however, has 
 the polytheistic coloring, (lines 132-143.) 
 
 7. Both accounts agree in stating that 
 the human race shall no more be destroyed 
 by a flood. (Gen. 9:11 ; lines .) 
 
84 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Decalogue — In Natural History. 
 
 I. IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 11. VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 III. X. 
 
 The First Commandment. 
 
 "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt 
 have no other gods before me, etc." 
 
 The Second Commandment. 
 
 "Thou shalt not take the name of the 
 Lord thy God in vain ; for the Lord will not 
 hold him guiltless that taketh His name in 
 
 vam." 
 
 The Third Commandment. 
 
 "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
 holy, etc." 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 95 
 
 The Fourth Commandment. 
 
 "Honor thy father and thy mother, that 
 thy days may be long upon the land which 
 the Lord thy God giveth thee." 
 
 The Fifth Commandment. 
 "Thou Shalt not kill." 
 
 The Sixth Commandment. 
 "Thou shalt not commit adultery." 
 
 The Seventh Commandment. 
 "Thou shalt not steal." 
 
 The Eighth Commandment. 
 
 "Thou shalt not bear false witness against 
 thy neighbor." 
 
 The Ninth Commandment. 
 
 "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
 house." 
 
 The Tenth Commandment. 
 
 "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, 
 nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, 
 nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is 
 thy neighbor's." 
 
 On the surface of his book, entitled 
 
96 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 "Natural Law In the Spiritual World," Sir 
 Henry Drummond erred in asserting that 
 "the laws of the natural and the spiritual 
 realms are identical." This is not true even 
 of laws which obtain within different parts 
 of the natural world. The laws of chemistry 
 and physics, for example, describe the 
 modes of action of energy under different 
 conditions ; and a law of description of the 
 one process will not answer for the other. 
 But the truth which he saw and sought to 
 lead others to see throughout h:s entire 
 scientific and religious work was the reality 
 of the underlying spiritual unity of the 
 world. Mr. Drummond said : 'T am well 
 aware that many see no such thread binding 
 Nature and Grace. Others not only see no 
 thread, but see no use in one. I can only 
 say that for me there is no alternative but 
 to see it. Now a thing that we cannot help 
 seeing must either be really there, or one's 
 vision must have some constitutional 
 defect." In these ten commandments, then, 
 we desire the reader to see, not arbitrary 
 laws, but certain fundamental laws or uni- 
 fying principles constituting the background 
 of Natural iHistory and making of all the 
 animal kingdom one glorious revelation. 
 The first three commandments sum up 
 our duty to God, and have a purely spiritual 
 bearing. The last seven refer to our duty 
 to our fellow-men and have a physical bear- 
 
Am) THE BIBLE OF GRACE 97 
 
 ing. There is nothing- in the animal world 
 to suggest the recognition of the Supreme 
 Being, but it is intensely interesting to 
 observe that, for the animals, man is a 
 supreme being, as God intended in Genesis 
 I -.26 — supreme, I mean, in the animal king- 
 dom. That man should have dominion over 
 the beasts of the field and the fowls of the 
 air, is a fact not only written on the sacred 
 page of Genesis, but manifest to every 
 naturalist who studies the world's fauna. 
 Instinctively the lower orders of creation 
 show a kind of reverence and awe for, 
 obedience to, and fear and trust in man — a 
 faint gl'mmering of the beginning of mental 
 attributes. 
 
 Remarkable indeed that a dog, a horse, an 
 elephant, should come and go at the bidding 
 of a man. But more remarkable still that 
 the beasts of the forest should so trust and 
 confide in him that in times of great peril 
 they will go to him for protection against 
 a superior foe. Dr. G. B. Grinnell relates 
 that, upon a certain occasion, when out 
 shooting with General Custer's party near 
 the Black Hills, in 1874, they saw a falcon 
 in pursuit of a wild pigeon. When the 
 pigeon saw it could not escape its winged 
 foe, it took refuge among the men, resting 
 on one of the saddles. Another instance is 
 given by George F. Guernsey, who says that 
 some years ago a neighbor and his wife, 
 
98 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Standing in their cattle yard, saw a pack of 
 five coyotes chasing a fox. The fox was 
 nearly worn out when it ran right up to the 
 woman and crouched for protection at her 
 feet. 
 
 Earnest Thompson Seton tells the follow- 
 ing: "In October of 1898, I was riding 
 across the Bighorn Basin (Wyoming) with 
 Mrs. Seton and A. A. Anderson, when we 
 noticed near the horizon some bright white 
 specks. They were moving about, now dis- 
 appearing and now re-appearing. Then two 
 of them seemed to dart erratically over the 
 plain, keeping always just so far apart. Soon 
 these left the others and careered about like 
 twin meteors, this way and that, then our 
 way; at first in changing line, but later 
 directly toward us. Their wonderful speed 
 soon ate up the intervening mile or two and 
 we now saw clearly that they were ante- 
 lopes, one in pursuit of the other. High 
 over their heads a golden eagle was sailing. 
 On they came ; the half-mile shrank to a 
 couple of hundred yards, and we saw that 
 they were bucks, the hinder one larger, 
 dashing straight toward us still. As they 
 yet neared, we could see the smaller one 
 making desperate efforts to avo-id the savage 
 lunges of the big one's horns, and barely 
 maintaining the scant six feet that were be- 
 tween him and his foe. We reined up to 
 watch, for now it was clear that the smaller 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 99 
 
 buck had been defeated in battle with an 
 exceptionally vicious rival and was trying 
 to save his life by flight. But his heavin| 
 flanks and gasping, dribbling mouth showed 
 that he could not hold out much longer. 
 Straight on he came toward us whom he 
 fears more than all others. He was between 
 two deaths (it would seem) ; which should 
 he choose, he seemed not to hesitate— the 
 two hundred yards shrank to one hundred 
 the hundred to fifty— then the pursuer 
 slacked his speed. It would be folly to come 
 farther. But the fugitive kept on until he 
 dashed right in among our startled horses. 
 The eagle alighted on a rock two hundred 
 yards away. The victorious buck veered 
 off, shaking his sharp, black horns and 
 circling at a safe distance around our caval- 
 cade to intercept his victim when he should 
 come out on the other side. But the victim 
 did not come out. He felt he was saved and 
 he stayed with us. The other buck, seeing 
 that he was balked, gave up the attempt, 
 and turning back, sailed across the plain 
 until he became again a white speck that 
 joined the other specks, no doubt the does 
 that had caused the duel. The vanquished 
 buck beside us stood panting, with his 
 tongue out and showing every sign of dire 
 distress. It would have been easy to lasso 
 him, but none of us had any desire to do 
 him harm. In a very short time he regained 
 
100 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 his wind, and having seen his foe away at 
 a safe distance, he left our company to go 
 off in the opposite direction. The eagle 
 realized now that he was mistaken in sup- 
 posing that something was to be killed and 
 that there would be pickings for him. He 
 rose in haste and soared to a safe distance." 
 
 These illustrations might be multiplied. 
 While man is the only being that has a soul 
 made in the image and likeness of God, and 
 hence is the only being that can keep the 
 first table of the decalogue (according to 
 the spirit), yet, deeply hidden though it be, 
 there is a manifest instinct which prompts 
 the animal in great extremity of peril, to 
 seek out a recognized superior being, man, 
 to call upon him by coming to him and 
 expecting to find mercy. This, after all, to 
 a considerable degree, is contained in the 
 germ principles of the first three command- 
 ments though it is entirely a blind groping. 
 
 The physical phase of the third command- 
 ment may be illustrated from every sphere 
 of nature. One or two must suffice to show 
 the need of a day of rest in seven. 
 Page after page of testimony is at hand 
 from eminent physicians to show, from a 
 purely economical viewpoint, the importance 
 of this command. Mechanics tell us that 
 even locomotives and car-wheels need rest- 
 days to give the best results. At the Dublin 
 meeting of the British Association for the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 101 
 
 Advancement of Science, on the fourth of 
 September, 1857, Mr. Bianconi, to whom, 
 before the days of electricians, Ireland was 
 greatly mdebted for establishing and main- 
 tammg its system of public horse-cars, pre- 
 sented m a scientific paper the results of his 
 extensive experiences. ^I found," he said, 
 
 that 1 could work a horse with more ad- 
 vantage eight hours a day for six days, than 
 SIX hours a day for seven days ; and therefore 
 I discovered that by not working on Sunday 
 I made a saving of twelve per cent." I 
 remember reading somewhere of two men 
 who were engaged in a similar enterprise, 
 each man employing the same number of 
 horses. (If I recall correctly, each man 
 owned three hundred horses.) One man 
 required that his horses work seven days a 
 week ; the other, only six days a week. The 
 man whose horses worked s'x days did more 
 work than he whose horses worked seven. 
 To this should be added the fact that the 
 horses of the Sunday observer lived much 
 longer than those of his competitor. 
 
 The British Parliament, in 1832, appointed 
 a committee, with Sir Robert Peel as cha'r- 
 man, to investigate these two facts: viz., 
 whether men who labor six days in a week 
 are healthier and live longer than those who 
 labor seven; and, secondly, whether they 
 will do more and in a better manner. 
 Experiment was made on two thousand men 
 
102 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 through a series of years, who were required 
 to work seven days in the week. To render 
 them contented, each man received double 
 pay for his Sunday work. Two evils fol- 
 lowed — physical exhaustion and spiritual 
 demoralization. 
 
 The fourth commandment emphasizes due 
 regard for parents and superiors. It is the 
 very foundation-stone of all government, be- 
 cause the family is the social unit. The ani- 
 mals obey it unconsciously. Whenever they 
 do not, their days are not "long on the 
 earth.'' 
 
 E. T. Seton says : "A hen sets out with 
 her chicks a-foraging; one loiters, does not 
 hasten up at her cluck-cluck of invitation 
 and command ; consequently he gets lost 
 and dies. Another neglects to run to the 
 spot when she calls in the established way 
 that she has found good food. He is not so 
 well nourished as the others ; he becomes a 
 weakling and in the first hard pinch he is 
 the one that fails — he dies. Again she may 
 call out hawk! and run for shelter; the 
 obedient ones run with her, and are safe; 
 the disobedient loiter — and die. They pay 
 the penalty, their days are short in the land." 
 
 F. J. Thompson, Superintendent of Cin- 
 cinnati Zoo, tells of a black bear in the 
 garden that produced a family of two cubs 
 in January, 1879. When they were seventy- 
 one days old, one of them left the den for 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 103 
 
 the first time, and followed the mother in 
 her quest for food. This, in a wild state, 
 would have been a fatal mistake for the 
 young one, *'As soon as the mother found it 
 out, he writes, '^she immedately drove it 
 gently back; and, on the second attempt 
 she cuffed It soundly, which put a stop to its 
 wandermg propensity." 
 
 In 1878 two of my cousins in company 
 with two fellow-workmen on their way 
 home from the 'Tine Swamp," leading over 
 the Pocono Mountam, overtook three such 
 disobedient cubs and captured them and 
 carried them home to the little village 
 of Appenzell, at the foot of the mountain. 
 Several times I have overtaken a pheasant 
 in the woods, with a brood of young 
 ones. Quick as a flash, the little ones 
 vanished out of s'ght. They obeyed the 
 mother who told them to hide under the 
 leaves, and their lives were spared to her. 
 This law of obedience is vital. Its violation 
 means death to the individual, and if per- 
 sisted in, death to the race. 
 
 The principle of the fifth commandment is 
 the ^ preservation of the species, and is 
 against its destruction. And likewise we 
 find that there is a deep-rooted instinct 
 against murder, in this sense, in most of the 
 anmals. They recognize their own kind 
 and instinct tells them: "Thou shalt not 
 kill" them. 
 
104 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Reared at the foot of the Pocono Moun- 
 tain, where rattle snakes were more 
 numerous than we preferred, I saw their 
 new-born babies strike quickly at any other 
 species that came near, but never at their 
 own. Minks, like kittens, are born blind. 
 My uncle told me that on one occasion he 
 found several of these young ones in their 
 snug home, took them with him and allowed 
 them to be suckled by a mother cat. When 
 well fed he said that they instantly tried to 
 take her life. Though creatures so blood- 
 thirsty, they never would have attacked 
 their own mother. Animals not unfre- 
 quently fight, usually on account of mates, 
 but in nearly all cases the fight has ended 
 when one yields. Many times you have 
 seen a dog groveling on the ground to 
 disarm his superior in the fray. When two 
 cats fight, the conquerer is satisfied when 
 his antagonist runs away ; he will not follow 
 him a hundred feet. Buit had the fight been 
 between dog and cat, or between cat and 
 rat, the victor would have followed with 
 avowed intent to kill. 
 
 What makes the diflference? All will 
 admit that the conclusion was not arrived 
 at by reason. You say it was instinct. You 
 might say truthfully that it is because of 
 an unconscious recognition of an unwritten 
 law or principle against killing one's own 
 kind. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 105 
 
 There are exceptions to this rule, but so 
 there are exceptions among men. There 
 are cannibals among the most uncivilized 
 of men ; and some higher ones that have 
 been demoralized by captivity. But to the 
 highest instinct cannibalism is repellent. 
 The records tell us that it was actual starva- 
 tion that finally induced Nansen's dogs to 
 eat the flesh of their comrades, even though 
 it was offered to them in a disguised form. 
 Experience has often told trappers that it is 
 useless to bate a trap for the higher animals 
 by using the flesh of their own species. And 
 this law, the preservation of their kind, is 
 so fully established, says Thompson-Seton, 
 that ''not only will they abstain from killing 
 their own kind, but they will actually rally 
 to save one whose life is in jeopardy." 
 
 We turn now to the sixth commandment, 
 or the fundamental of purity. Sometimes it 
 is said that all the noted characters of the 
 Old Testament were polygamists. This, 
 however, is a statement made by those who 
 are too ignorant to understand, or too indo- 
 lent to read. Read the roll of monogamous 
 honor. From Adam to Noah but one case 
 of polygamy, and that case issued in murder. 
 Adam and all the antediluvian patriarchs, 
 Abraham and Isaac, Joseph and Moses, 
 Aaron and Joshua, all the prophets and all 
 the apostles, were advocates and supporters 
 of monogamy and forbade the intermarriage 
 
106 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 of near relatives. Here again nature is a 
 great teacher, older than revelation. Even 
 nature says with Paul, ''Let every man have 
 his own wife." The equality in the numeri- 
 cal proportion of the sexes speaks loudly. I 
 have before me statistics showing male and 
 female population in the decades from 1850 
 to the present time. Its findings are 
 remarkable, though they would require too 
 much space to be given here in detail. The 
 following fact, however, is so striking that 
 I must not omit it. In i860 there was in 
 this country an excess of 727,087 males, and 
 in England an excess of 700,000 females, so 
 that in these two great countries there was 
 almost an equilibrium of the sexes 
 numerically. 
 
 But what say the animals? The evil 
 called "inbreeding" or the mat'ng of near 
 kin is so well established, and so well known 
 to anyone who has spent some time on the 
 farm, that I will not dwell upon it here. 
 But as regards polygamy and monogamy 
 "let there be light." In his "Antelope and 
 Deer of America," Mr. Caton observes the 
 following: Referring to Sulton, a distin- 
 guished character among the Wapiti Deer 
 tribe, he says: "At first his progeny were 
 reasonably numerous, but during the last 
 few years of his life they gradually dimin- 
 ished from a dozen to a single fawn in 1875, 
 though with about twenty-five females, 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 107 
 
 more than half of which had previously 
 produced fawns." He was replaced by a 
 younger male and "the result was that I 
 had twelve fawns the next season, including 
 one pair of twins." 
 
 The Wapiti, the most polygamous of the 
 deer in America, are the first to disappear, 
 while "the survival of the fittest" belongs to 
 the common white-tailed, the least poly- 
 gamous. ''One of the common difficulties 
 besetting the growing of blue foxes for their 
 fur, on the islands of the Bering Sea, is what 
 has been called the obstinate and deplorable 
 monogamy of those animals. The breeders 
 are working hard to break down this high 
 moral sentiment and produce a blue fox 
 that does not object to polygamy." 
 
 The wild goose is a most exemplary bird. 
 The tame goose, like the dog, has been 
 spoiled. There is, however, one domestic 
 bird that maintains its honorable wild tradi- 
 tion in spite of all that sinful man can do; 
 this is the pigeon. "The breeder knows 
 that the young in a given nest are unques- 
 tionably the offspring of their alleged 
 parents." (E. T. S.) 
 
 It is not surprising then that Gadow, the 
 distinguished ornithologist, should call the 
 pigeons the birds of the future. By this he 
 means to say that when all other species 
 have paid the penalty of polygamy, the 
 pigeons will possess the earth because they 
 
108 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 obey the command, ''Thou shalt not commit 
 adultery." 
 
 Seton says that the most successful wild 
 quadrupeds in America today are the gray 
 wolves. They are strict monogamists and 
 they defy all attempts to exterminate them. 
 True, nearly every kind of abominable vice 
 known among men and forbidden by the 
 Mosaic law, has been noted among animals. 
 These are the exceptions, not the rule among 
 wild animals. Those who have lived among 
 "the birds and the beasts" agree that most 
 wild animals instinctively obey the Mosaic 
 law and are rewarded ; and that where the 
 marriage of near kin is avoided and mono- 
 gamy practiced, there will result the 
 survival of the fittest. 
 
 Lazarus was no more virtuous than 
 Abraham. The sin of violating the seventh 
 commandment consists in "bringing into our 
 possession by unfair dealings and fraudulent 
 means" that which belongs to our neighbor. 
 
 Seton says the animal law is this : "The 
 producer owns the product ; unproduced 
 property belongs to the first who discovers 
 and possesses it." I believe this would hold 
 among men in a court of justice and in a 
 school of theology. 
 
 Property among animals consists of food, 
 home, wives, and playground. Ownership 
 is indicated in two ways ; one by actual pos- 
 session, the other by visible marks or smell 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 109 
 
 marks. Seton says that many animals, as 
 rabbit and bears, rub their bodies against 
 trees in their range, to let other animals 
 know that this place is already occupied. 
 Some creatures, as the weasels, have glands 
 that secrete an odor which they use for an 
 ownership mark. The odor varies with each 
 mdividual and thus answers admirably. I 
 have seen wolves, foxes and dogs, marking 
 their property in this way. I have also seen 
 foxes and wolves store away food in the 
 earth; after it was buried, they defiled the 
 place in a characteristic way, thereby putting 
 their mark. It is proverbial that it is unwise 
 to disturb a bone buried bv a dog. It is his 
 property and he intends to protect it. You 
 have no doubt observed at some time a 
 small dog guarding its property success- 
 fully against a large Newfoundland in- 
 truder, only on the grounds that the large 
 dog instinctively yields to the moral law, 
 "right of possession." The little dog felt 
 himself to be in the right, the big dog that 
 he was in the wrong. 
 
 On the Pocono Mountain in Eastern 
 Pennsylvania, I have seen the bear's mark- 
 ings, where he tore the bark of trees with 
 claw or teeth. This is the mark for the other 
 bear who sees it from afar. In the summer 
 of 1906, a college mate and I drove to the 
 top of this same mountain for a day's out- 
 ing. Our wives were with us to enjoy the 
 
110 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 day. For the comfort of the horse, and to 
 get nearer to nature's heart, my friend and 
 I walked up the mountain. As we walked, 
 I enlarged on the idea I had often heard of, 
 but had never seen exemplified ; viz.., that a 
 horse very much feared a bear and by scent 
 recognized the boundaries of his marked-off 
 territory. 
 
 It was a delightful day on the mountain. 
 On our return, about half way down the 
 mountain, the horse raised his head and ears 
 in a manner denoting something unusual. 
 The men sat in front. We were both silent 
 for a minute as if overtaken by a spell, all 
 the while half expecting a bear, when sud- 
 denly about a hundred yards in front of us 
 we saw Bruin cross the road. It required 
 some urging to have the horse venture on 
 forbidden ground. 
 
 Dr. F. W. True, writing of the blue foxes 
 on the islands of the Bering Sea, says that 
 they will follow a man, in the hope of being 
 fed, "to the boundary of his domain ; for 
 each fox, like his ne'ghbor, the bull seal, 
 seems to have a definite territory which he 
 regards as his own, and upon which he 
 resents intrusion." Animals recognize their 
 own food, home, territory and wives, and 
 they will defend them. ''Any cock will fight 
 on his own dung-hill." *'He is a poor thing 
 that won't fight for his own." These 
 familiar sayings illustrate this law. The 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 111 
 
 law of ownership is recognized by possessor 
 and non-possessor, and those who depend 
 on stealing will suffer the penalty, if not in 
 the individual, then in their species. 
 
 The eighth commandment says: "Thou 
 shalt not bear false witness, etc." Exod. 
 20:16. ''Thou shalt not ra'se a false report." 
 Exod. 23:1. Untruthfulness is an abomina- 
 tion unto the Lord. It is even so to ani- 
 mals. Note the significant illustration in 
 the following poem, which is also verified 
 by other noted naturalists than the author 
 of the verse, which was written by E. L. 
 Hickey, and appeared in "Leisure Hour," 
 volume 1892-3 : 
 
 "It was many and many a league away 
 from the place where now we are, 
 
 And many a year ago it happ'ed in the land 
 of the great White Czar. 
 
 It was morn — I remember how cold it felt 
 — out under a low pale sky, 
 When we moored our boat on the river 
 bank, my companion Leigh and I. 
 
 "And the plunge in the water unwarmed of 
 
 the sun was less for desire than pluck ; 
 And we hurried on our clothes again and 
 
 longed for our breakfast luck ; 
 When all of a sudden he clutched my arm 
 
 and pointed across, and there 
 We stood up side by side and watched, and 
 
 as mute as the dead we were. 
 
112 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 "We saw the gray-wolf's fatal spring, 
 And we saw the death of the deer; 
 And the gray-wolf left the body alone, 
 And swift as the feet of fear 
 His feet sped over the brow of the hill. 
 And we lost the sight of him 
 Who had left the dead deer there on the 
 ground uneaten, body or limb. 
 
 "So when he vanished out of our sight 
 
 we rowed our boat across. 
 And lifted the carcass and rowed again to 
 
 the other side. 
 The loss for you, good Master Wolf, much 
 
 more than the gain for us will be. 
 'Twere half a pity to spoil your sport, except 
 
 that we fain would see 
 The reason why with hunger unstanched, 
 
 you have left your quarry behind; 
 Red-toothed, red mawed, foregone your 
 
 meal; Sir Wolf, we'll know your 
 
 mind. 
 
 "Hungry and cold we waited and watched, 
 to see him return on his track ; 
 
 At last we spied him atop of the hill, the 
 same gray-wolf come back ; 
 
 No longer alone, but a leader of wolves, 
 the head of a gruesome pack. 
 
 "He went right up to the very place where 
 the dead deer's body had lain. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 113 
 
 And he sniffed and looked for the prey of 
 
 his claws, the beast that himself had 
 
 slain; 
 The deer at our feet and the river between 
 
 and the searching all in vain. 
 He threw up his muzzle and slunk his tail 
 
 and whined so pitifully, 
 And the whole pack howled and fell on 
 
 him — we hardly could bear to see. 
 Breaker of civic law, or pact, or whatever 
 
 they deemed of him. 
 He knew his fate, and he met his fate, for 
 
 they tore him limb from limb. 
 
 "I tell you we felt as we ne'er have felt 
 since ever our days began — 
 
 Less like men that had cozened a brute than 
 like men that had murdered a man." 
 
 To covet is to desire the "forbidden fruit." 
 Covetousness is an eager and intense desire 
 for that which is not lawful for a man to 
 have. This was the sin of Achan: "When I 
 saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish 
 garment, and two hundred shekels of silver 
 and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels, then I 
 coveted them." A man may desire a house, 
 but not the one that belongs to another, 
 without paying for it ; a man may desire a 
 wife, but not another's ; he may desire a 
 horse or a trusty servant, but not to the dis- 
 advantage of another : an ox, an ass, a field, 
 
114 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 but not to the injury of its owner. You 
 should not be surprised to find that the ani- 
 mals resent the idea that another should 
 covet and take possession of the home they 
 have built. 
 
 Under the eaves of my father's barn a 
 colony of swallows had been established, 
 dating back longer than I can remember. 
 They went to the warmer country in the 
 autumn and returned in early spring, t 
 would think it was in the spring of 1876, 
 "Centennial Year," that a pair of blue-birds 
 fixed their covetous eyes upon one of the 
 nests and took possession of it. First the 
 owners tried to eject the invaders; then the 
 whole colony of swallows joined in the at- 
 tempt, but without success. The blue-bird 
 inside was fortified behind a hard mud wall 
 and would neither yield to force nor to the 
 moral right of ownership. Apparently the 
 swallows abandoned the attempt. (But pre- 
 ceding the storm there is also a calm.) Be- 
 hold ! they all came in a body, each with a 
 pellet of mud, and walled up the entrance 
 to the nest. The blue-bird in possession 
 starved to death, and my brother and I 
 found it there some days later. 
 
 This fact is verified by H. Dallas through 
 E. T. Seton in a similar account. This 
 comes very near being parallel to the fate of 
 Achan whom all Israel stoned to death with 
 stones. In both cases death was the penalty 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 115 
 
 Of covetousness. Naturalists who are at 
 home with ''the beasts and the birds" could 
 multiply these illustrations manifold; but 
 I believe these will suffice to illustrate the 
 premise. Deep down in their inmost life in 
 some way God has written fundamental 
 laws, if not on ''the tablets of their hearts," 
 at least in the very fabric of their being; 
 and, as among men, the rule is that they 
 assent, while the penalty of transgression is 
 death. If this does not appear directly, it 
 is yet "visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
 upon the children unto the third and fourth 
 generation," and showing mercy unto 
 thousands that obey his commandments. 
 
116 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Psalms in Nature. 
 
 Above the couch of David, according to 
 tradition, there hung a harp. The midnight 
 breeze, as it rippled over the strings, made 
 such music that the poet-king was con- 
 strained to rise from his bed ; and, till rosy- 
 fingered aurora was seen in the eastern sky, 
 he wedded words to the music. Whether 
 this tradition be true or not, it reminds us 
 of our kinship to Nature's Book, differen- 
 tiating for us the clear notes of the Psalms 
 of Life. 
 
 The composer writes music by combining 
 sounds of different pitch — it may be a lulla- 
 by, a march, a waltz, or an oratorio. In a 
 single composition a musician can combine 
 every sentiment of which the human being 
 is capable, from the grave to the gay, or 
 from the despairing to the triumphant. 
 Music is thus largely descriptive. Composi- 
 tion that consecutively describes such con- 
 flicting emotional conditions, must neces- 
 sarily be complex. Aside from this, these 
 rapid changes would be nothing but discord ; 
 but our musician, by rapid modulations, can 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 117 
 
 change, without jar upon your ear, a minor 
 into a major, or a major into a minor, and 
 in a twinkling- convert a w^ail of despair into 
 a poem of hope ! The musician in truth can 
 combine and can correlate and bring into 
 mutual relations, things most dissimilar, 
 unrelated, and seemingly opposed — harmony 
 out of apparent chaos. The musician in a 
 sense can make a carol out of the universe, 
 and correlate not only the things of earth, 
 but bind planet to star and star to 
 constellation. 
 
 Through the use of common chords, the 
 musician, by bringing into mutual relation- 
 ship things unrelated, separate and apart 
 from each other, unifies in a manner all the 
 things of his kingdom, and thus he is a 
 prince among the synthesists. To do th's 
 requires oftentimes that which is known 
 as close harmony; but to the refined musical 
 ear, *'the closer the harmony, the more 
 exquisite the delight." 
 
 A child with his forefinger can pick out 
 note by note, in a limited way, a simple 
 melodious exercise. The musician by the 
 practical combination of chords, with both 
 hands and by the use of many octaves in 
 his instrument, can elaborate his harmony 
 and make tones and progressions unthought 
 of by the child. The history of harmony is 
 the history of ever-increasing richness of 
 combinations of common chords. This was 
 
118 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 not done in a day. It required centuries of 
 labor and thought. 
 
 There are in music, as in other arte, 
 infinite possibiHties of arrangement of 
 harmonious material, and infinite combina- 
 tions of these related parts — all of which are 
 pleasing. Thus there can be no end to 
 harmony in composition. The best harmony 
 no doubt is found in the large orchestra, 
 where there are scores of instruments, all 
 of which have differing sounds, differing 
 notes, and differing chords. Yet all this 
 variety when in accord and harmony won- 
 derfully enrich the melody. But we must 
 not forget that all modulations require a 
 return to the keynote before the end of the 
 musical composition (this is true in Nature 
 and in Grace), but in the meantime the 
 player may have brought into harmonious 
 use every note of his instrument. To 
 compose harmony among the present war- 
 ring nations and among individuals, the 
 kings and priests are no less restricted than 
 the musicians; for to compose harmonies in 
 the moral world the author joins, correlates, 
 combines and brings into mutual relation- 
 ship those who were apart and seemingly 
 unrelated. The keynote of a neighbor may 
 be very foreign to his own. But, happily, 
 there are such things as modulations, 
 progressions, and gradations. To compass 
 the end may require close harmony, yet it is 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 119 
 
 harmony, perhaps all the more beautiful. 
 
 In the harmonious material that lies be- 
 tween yourself and the world, and between 
 God and the world, there is infinite 
 arrangement and re-arrangement. In the 
 moral world, also, there can thus be no end 
 to harmonious composition. God's thought 
 for the world is that it may be a mighty 
 orchestra, antiphonal to the orchestra of 
 Heaven — "Blessed are the peacemakers." 
 
 The coming of Christ means peace and 
 harmony and oneness in the world. I in 
 you, you in me, and God for us all and in 
 us all ! In this composition no man can live 
 to himself or die by himself. No matter how 
 far away and though lost he may be, you 
 can reach Him — by modulations. 
 
 We all need to get a finer sense of quality. 
 The quality of the violin, cornet and trom- 
 bone — they all dififer widely ; but instead of 
 making orchestral discords, they wonder- 
 fully enrich the melody. 
 
 Pythagoras said that the seven planets 
 were the seven notes of the octave, and that 
 all the heavenly bodies were a part of an 
 universal orchestra ; not one, thought he, 
 ''but that in its motion like an angel song." 
 
 In the highest sense I do not doubt the 
 truth of this, nor do I doubt the universal 
 brotherhood to be — just as soon as the 
 nations and the individuals at war correlate 
 themselves, the one with the other and with 
 
120 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 the angels and with God ! This can be done 
 through Jesus Christ. He is the keynote of 
 the un verse. In Him alone can all things 
 be one: — one in harmony and peace, and one 
 in eternal purpose. This is the Psalm of 
 Life. 
 
 Many treatises have been written on the 
 Beauties of Nature, and still we inquire, 
 what is the true interpretat'on of the 
 Beautiful in Nature? Darwin has told us 
 that the gaudy colored petal has a utilitarian 
 motive. Its intent is to lure the insect, 
 which, in gathering its honey, will at the 
 same time serve as slave to carry pollen 
 from plant to plant, and thus help to 
 perpetuate the species. 
 
 Then follows another who says that 
 "there is an order in the color scheme 
 independent of its use in life — an order 
 which is definite and predetermined 'n the 
 very constitution of matter" (nature), 
 which means essentially that the beauty 
 dates back to its origin. 
 
 Now this beauty, according to *ts kind, 
 we see everywhere in nature. We see it in 
 the fauna and in the flora. We see it 
 through the microscope, the telescope, and 
 the spectroscope. We see it wherever we 
 open our eyes to look. We see it 'n the 
 starry night and in the glare of the noon-day 
 sun. And of all this beauty, as regards 
 order, symmetry, harmony, adaptation, "Day 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 121 
 
 unto day uttereth speech, and night unto 
 night showeth knowledge," and in the 
 language of this order and adaptation is 
 gone out ''through all the earth and their 
 words to the end of the world." 
 
 Many times, no doubt, have most of us, 
 when alone in the garden, the field, or the 
 wood, meditated on that strange kinship 
 between us and the outer w^orld. The art in 
 nature suggests to us thoughts which are 
 not foreign to our experiences in life — 
 thoughts of joy and gladness, pleasure or 
 pain— thoughts which are all real to us, and 
 hence they must be real in themselves. And 
 if they are real to us who are not artists, 
 how intensely must they be "lived over" in 
 the heart and mind of the true poet! And 
 when we penetrate the deeper meaning of 
 this kinship between nature and the individ- 
 ual mind and the mind of the whole human 
 race, how nature is fitted to mind and mind 
 fitted to nature ; if we vividly feel the reality 
 of this adaptation, we first pause and wonder 
 at self, and then at that which is outside of 
 self. We pause and wonder, and are seized 
 with a conviction deeper than the findings 
 of a syllogistic argument. We do not ask at 
 this point for major and minor premise. 
 But, with a conviction deeper still, we 
 answer: ''One thing I know, that whereas I 
 was blind, now I see." The fact of these 
 two entities, so answering the one to the 
 
122 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Other — such beauty and order without 
 answering to beauty and order within — 
 strangely holding communion, is all from 
 reason for reason. It is the revelation of 
 reason to reason. "One thing I know," and 
 I may know it as truly as the poet or the 
 painter knows it, that this kinship in self 
 and nature is rooted and must be rooted in 
 the one central and universal intellect, from 
 whence emanated the Divine idea which is 
 revealed to us alike in the Psalms of David 
 and the Book of Nature. 
 
 On the occasion of something absurd or 
 unusual, we have heard men of more than 
 ordinary intelligence dismiss it by saying : 
 "Oh, that is poetry !" And there are a good- 
 ly number of sensible people who share this 
 view — people to whom poetry is only an- 
 other name for what is fantastic and untrue. 
 If poetry is not true, if it has no real 
 foundation in the very nature of things, if 
 genuine poetry is not as true a form of 
 thinking as any other, and is not, indeed, 
 one of the highest forms of human thought, 
 then the sooner we abandon it, the better. 
 But I believe, as Wordsworth says, that it 
 is "the breath and finer spirit of all knowl- 
 edge;" "immortal as the heart of man." 
 
 Now the raw material is essentially the 
 same for the man of science and the man of 
 art. The analytic structure, however, the 
 poet leaves to physics and metaphysics to 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 123 
 
 settle between themselves. But, besides the 
 various aspects of nature which physical 
 science explains in subduing apparent con- 
 fusion into unity, law, and order — over and 
 above those laws, there are other sides or 
 aspects of Nature which come to us through 
 other than scientific avenues and bring 
 home to us new and sublimer truths and 
 raise us to nobler contemplations. When 
 the harp-strings over David's couch caused 
 him to "sing and make melody in his heart 
 unto the Lord," the emotions evoked were 
 as true and as rational as the law of gravi- 
 tation or the law of the atomic theory. The 
 soul witnesses to beauty as truly as the eye 
 to light. Jacobi calls it ''the spiritual eye 
 for spiritual objects." 
 
 Such realities are there in the world of 
 art — such real ideas and ideals that they 
 served as the guiding stars to lead the 
 heathen poets of Greece in their admiration 
 and adoration of the beautiful to the very 
 borders of the land of promise. I do not 
 forget the danger emphasizing art to such a 
 degree (as in the case of the Greeks also) 
 that religion and art become synonymous 
 terms. I do not forget that Plato saw the 
 danger in the witchery of form and color and 
 music. But I am just as truly aware that, 
 in spite of this danger, it was their intense 
 admiration of the beautiful that lifted the 
 
124 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Greeks to a higher plane of think'ng than 
 all the rest of the heathen world. 
 
 The Greek had strong human feelings 
 and sympathies. He projected himself on 
 nature — humanized the clouds, forests, 
 rivers and seas. With the Greek it was not 
 merely power, but human power; not only 
 beauty, but human beauty; not only life, 
 but human life which was the subject of his 
 profound veneration. In h:s conception of 
 God, his effort was to realize a human 
 being who was altogether lovely. True, 
 they erected in Athens an altar to the 
 Unknown God; but when that God should 
 be revealed, their fond hope was that it 
 should be the Divine under human limita- 
 tions. They looked for humanity in its 
 glory — they asked for the Son of Man. Here, 
 then, it is apparent that the Book of Nature 
 in its poetic form led those heathen (as it 
 were almost a Divine inspiraton) to the 
 very gate called Beautiful ; and had they, as 
 the wise men of the east, consulted the 
 prophets, they might have entered the 
 Temple of God. 
 
 There is another truth in the Book of 
 Grace that receives wonderful confirmation 
 and verification from the Beauties of 
 Nature. I refer to the fact of spirit. Apart 
 from the plain Word itself, there is no 
 source from which we rece've such over- 
 whelming evidence as here. Shakespeare 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 1.25 
 
 makes Hamlet say : "There are more things 
 in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are 
 dreamed of in your philosophy." Not that 
 I would charge it against the author of 
 Evolution (for I do not hold him respon- 
 sible), yet it is a fact that, since his day, 
 there has been a decided materialistic ten- 
 dency in science— a tendency to deny the 
 existence of anything but that which we can 
 see, hear, taste, touch and smell. To such 
 a degree has this skepticism been carred 
 that its advocates, who decried dogma in 
 religion, became the worst of dogmaticists. 
 ''Now the natural man receiveth not the 
 things of the Spirit of God; for they are 
 foolishness unto him; neither can he know 
 them for they are spiritually discerned." 
 It is clearly a law in nature that, when a 
 man is totally absorbed in that which is 
 material, he loses all hold upon the spiritual, 
 and becomes like the Queen of Sheba, who 
 so riveted her thoughts on the material 
 splendors of King Solomon's home that 
 when she had seen "the meat of his table 
 and the sitting of his servants and the 
 attendance of his ministers and their apparel 
 and his cupbearers and his ascent by which 
 he went up unto the house of the Lord, 
 there was no more spirit in her." There is 
 in nature just as much or as little as the soul 
 of each person can see in her. And in order 
 to see other than that which is material, the 
 
126 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 soul must be trained and moved in the 
 things of the spirit. If anyone is so exclu- 
 sively the man of science that he never gets 
 beyond analyzing, comparing and reasoning 
 on the phenomena that he sees, then he will 
 look without emotion on the grandest 
 truths of nature. Then he will see in nature 
 nothing but a subject for investigation and 
 analysis ; no beauty, no art, no spirit. 
 
 During the early part of the month of 
 June, in the summer of 1912, in company 
 with my wife and three friends, I toured the 
 State of Pennsylvania, from west to east, in 
 an automobile. The weather was most 
 deligJitful. Not only was it in the month 
 of roses, but the month when many of the 
 wild flowers were at their best. Especially 
 on the Allegheny Mountains the shad-bush, 
 hawthorn, and dogwood were still in bloom, 
 and the laurel and the rhododendron had 
 reached the zenith of their glory. But the 
 mountaintop was delightful for other 
 reasons also — it gave one a larger outlook 
 on life. As we ascended the mountain from 
 the lowlands, our horizon was constantly 
 enlarged. From the summit we were 
 delighted to look out upon the fertile fields 
 in the valleys below, as far as the eye could 
 reach. What thrill of joy one experiences 
 on the uplands ! It is an experience we 
 should enjoy many times both literally and 
 metaphorically. The descent of the eastern 
 
AKD THE BIBLE OF GRACE 127 
 
 Slope brought us to the beautiful village of 
 Bellefont nestling at the foot of the moun- 
 tain Here, in conversation with a fairly 
 intellectual gentleman who had lived there 
 all his life, I dwelt at some length on the 
 fact that we who live in Pennsylvania need 
 not go to the far west for mountain scenery 
 inasmuch as we have it at our door- 
 although, I added, "there are many who 
 have lived in this state all their lives who 
 never knew of the uplands." (They have 
 spent all their lives in the lowlands and 
 quagmires— down in the valley of despair.) 
 To my surprise, this somewhat well-read 
 man, who had lived at the very foot of the 
 grandest scenery east of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, told me he had never visited the 
 uplands— the mountain top. Truly, "where 
 there is no vision the people 'perish." 
 Hemmed in on sides by mountains, their 
 vision IS limited to small things; down 
 in the lowlands they do perish for want of 
 a vision. Their motto should be Excelsior; 
 h'gher, ever higher, until they reach the up- 
 lands from the summit of which they may 
 look out upon the grandeur of a larger hori- 
 zon ; where the poetry of nature may inspire 
 them with a brighter view of life and a 
 nobler sphere of living. 
 
 I am inclined to believe that there are 
 men of science and men of the world who 
 so fix their every thought on dollars^ 
 
128 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 "house and land, and other property," or 
 limit their vision to the four walls of the 
 laboratory, thinking of vortex-rings, atoms, 
 and of, I had almost said molly-coddles for 
 molecules, that they can scarcely expect 
 anything else, according to the teachings 
 of the same laws they so fondly desire to 
 emphasize, than that soon there will be no 
 more spirit in them. What they need is to 
 get out of the haze and mist of the labora- 
 tory, out of the damps and quagmires of the 
 lowlands, into the uplands of the mountain, 
 and breathe the purer atmosphere, and see 
 with clearer vision a broader horizon, where 
 they will be seized with a conviction that 
 there is an idea in every leaf, and song of 
 bird, and babbling brook, and setting sun. 
 Their spirit will revive and they will live. 
 They need to pray: "Lead me to the rock 
 that is higher than I." 
 
 Inasmuch as the outer worlds are so con- 
 structed that they answer to the inner, so 
 that when mere qualities (not material) 
 such as length and breadth, solitude and 
 gloom, sunshine and shadow, affect the soul 
 in certain well known ways and awaken in 
 us emot'ons of peace and joy, of sadness or 
 solemnity, we naturally ask ourselves the 
 question, "What is there of kinship in the 
 outer world that awakened these emotions?" 
 It is an inevitable question from anyone who 
 has been thus moved. He realizes that this 
 
AXD THE BIBLE OF GRACE 129 
 
 emotion was not the outgrowth of mere 
 chance. When the spirit within was so 
 moved, by an entity intensely real, though 
 it came through something material, it was 
 more than physical ; it w^as spiritual. Like 
 produced like — spirit agreed with our spirit. 
 Evidently this could not be otherwise, for 
 it carried the perceptive faculty quite be- 
 yond the material appearance till it found 
 self in communion with a kinship to its own 
 spirit. The beauty that came to us through 
 the senses, we felt belonged more especially 
 to the same order as that which addresses 
 the moral aspect to the heart and conscience. 
 It must have been the Great Spirit behind 
 the veil. It is the only way to account for 
 the intense love which ''these sights and 
 these sounds" of Nature have awakened in 
 the purest and best of men ; and the more as 
 they advanced in age and calmness of soul. 
 But if nature is to foreshadow something 
 higher than itself, man must come to it w^ith 
 the thought of God already in his heart. 
 Even water will not rise higher than its 
 source. And the water of life which alone 
 satisfies, comes from the reservoirs on the 
 hills of God. So a man must not expect to 
 get a religion out of the mere sight of na- 
 ture, either from its manifold design or from 
 the beauty it manifests as telling of char- 
 acter. If it shall be for him an element of 
 reconciliation and helpfulness in so many 
 
130 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 ways as are intended to lead the soul up- 
 wards, he will approach it with his moral 
 convictions clear and firm and a faith con- 
 necting him as directly with his God. 
 
 Here it is, then, that we find the answer 
 to account for the different degrees of 
 poetry. Poetry has three objects with 
 varying degrees enter into it — man, nature 
 and God. The presence of the last pervades 
 all great poetry, whether it bows the knee 
 in reverence directly before Him, or 
 whether the presence be only indirectly felt, 
 as the centripetal force toward which all 
 deep thoughts about man and nature ul- 
 timately tend. The deeper tones and the 
 sublimer beauty hidden in nature will be 
 inaudible and invisible unless the eye and 
 the ear penetrate the deep things of the 
 heart. And it is the work of the artist to 
 set it forth for others in its breathing life. 
 
 For the soul, however, to take in all that 
 nature contains, there must be present not 
 only the observing eye, but also the feeling 
 heart alive to all that is most real in life, 
 its source and destiny. And in every 
 ''study" there must be the upward look 
 toward the uncreated. As man looks out 
 upon the face of the earth, sky and sea, and 
 is moved by the thought whence their origin 
 and whither their destiny, the answer must 
 unconsciously enter in and give color and 
 character to all he does. It can hardly be 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 131 
 
 Otherwise than that a man's inner thoughts 
 about these answers will find their way to 
 some expression, whether he be painter, 
 musician, sculptor, or poet. In fact, so 
 closely and deeply interwoven are all the 
 parts of the universe that only as a man 
 rises to a full conception of it and of its 
 manifold harmonies, can he set forth for 
 others that central harmony which sets it 
 right with man and God. This Homer and 
 Lucretius and many other Greek and Roman 
 poets did to a remarkable degree. This 
 many Christian poets did to a still greater 
 degree. 
 
 But nowhere do we find this central 
 harmony in all its fulness and effulgence as 
 we find it in the Hebrew writings; in the 
 Psalms of David, and the Book of Job. 
 These Hebrew poets reflect their faith in 
 the unity of God and His immediate pres- 
 ence in all created things. By such inspira- 
 tion, Job was enabled to say, long before 
 science said it, that the earth was globular 
 and that it hung in space. By the Hebrew 
 poets the world is described not in detail, 
 but as a whole in extension and movements ; 
 and if the individual object is dwelt upon, 
 it is as a visible witness of the Infinite One. 
 Here you do not find nature spoken of as 
 an independent or self-subsisting power, but 
 as the outer garment, tTie veil of an unseen 
 presence. Search through all the literature 
 
132 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 of Greece and Rome in the palmiest days, 
 and you will not find anything to compare 
 with the 104th Psalm in the setting of the 
 entire universe in its completeness, grandeur 
 and beauty. Here you have a picture of the 
 entire universe — earth and sky, and the 
 progress of man in the midst of them — set 
 forth "not as the scribes, but as by one hav- 
 ing authority." Listen to one who can read 
 aright the poetry in nature in all its fullness 
 and richness : 
 
 "Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my 
 God, thou art very great; thou art clothed 
 with honor and majesty. 
 
 Who coverest thyself with light as with 
 a garment ; who stretchest out the heavens 
 like a curtain; 
 
 Who layeth the beams of his chamber in 
 the waters ; who maketh the clouds his char- 
 iot ; who walketh upon the wings of the 
 world ; 
 
 Who maketh his angels spirits ; his minis- 
 ters a flaming fire ; 
 
 Who laid the foundations of the earth, 
 that it should not be removed forever. 
 
 Thou coverest it with the deep as with a 
 garment ; the waters stood above the moun- 
 tains. 
 
 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of 
 thy thunder they hasted away. 
 
 They go up by the mountains; they go 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 133 
 
 down by the valleys unto the place which 
 thou hast founded for them. 
 
 Thou hast set a bound that they may not 
 pass over ; that they turn not again to cover 
 the earth. 
 
 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, 
 which run among the hills. 
 
 They give drink to every beast of the 
 field; the wild asses quench their thirst. 
 
 By them shall the fowls of the heaven 
 have their habitation, which sing among the 
 branches. 
 
 He watereth the hills from his chambers, 
 the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy 
 works. 
 
 He causeth the grass to grow for the 
 cattle, and herb for the service of men; that 
 he may bring forth food out of the earth; 
 
 And wine that maketh glad the heart of 
 man, and oil to make his face to shine, and 
 bread which strengtheneth man's heart.' 
 
 The trees of the Lord are full of sap ; the 
 cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; 
 
 Where the birds make their nests ; as for 
 the stork, the fir trees are her house. 
 
 The hgh hills are a refuge for the wild 
 goats ; and the rocks for the conies. 
 
 He appointed the moon for seasons; the 
 sun knoweth his going down. 
 
 Thou makest darkness, and it is night; 
 wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep 
 forth. 
 
134 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 The young lions roar after their prey, 
 and seek their meat from God. 
 
 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves 
 together, and lay them down in their dens. 
 
 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his 
 labor until the evening. 
 
 Lord, how manifold are thy works! in 
 wisdom hast thou made them all ; the earth 
 is full of thy riches. 
 
 So is this great and wide sea, where:n are 
 things creeping innumerable, both small and 
 great beasts. 
 
 There go the ships; there is that 
 leviathan, whom thou hast made to play 
 therein. 
 
 These wait all upon thee ; that thou 
 mayest give them the'r meat in due season. 
 
 That thou givest them, they gather ; thou 
 openest thine hand, they are filled 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 
 earth. 
 
 The glory of the Lord shall endure for- 
 ever; the Lord shall rejoice in his works. 
 
 He looketh on the earth and it trembleth ; 
 he toucheth the hills, and they smoke. 
 
 1 will sing unto the Lord as long as I 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 135 
 
 live ; I will sing praise to my God while I 
 have my being. 
 
 My meditation of Him shall be sweet; I 
 will be glad in the Lord ! 
 
 Let the sinners be consumed out of the 
 earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless 
 thou the Lord, O my soul, praise ye the 
 Lord! 
 
136 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Prophecy of Nature. 
 
 It has often been said by those who regard 
 nature as a system of mechanics that, if a 
 man had a sufficient mathematical knowl- 
 edge of the universe at a given period of 
 time, he might predict its condition at any 
 future age. From the knowledge of a lim- 
 ited arc, the whole curve of time might be 
 described. What is lacking is an intelli- 
 gence omniscient enough to make the cal- 
 culation. The presumption is that the uni- 
 verse is as intelligible as an equation, but 
 there is still lacking the master to work it 
 out. We will not state the pros and cons 
 of the argument, but let it remind us that 
 the world is rationally made and hence 
 admits of rational forecast to a remarkable 
 degree. It reminds us that, inasmuch as the 
 world is orderly and intellgible, the known 
 parts and the observable tendencies of 
 things may warrant many prophecies of 
 future conditions and of future fulfillments. 
 
 It is not my purpose here to commit my- 
 self for or against the theory of evolution. 
 It is not necessary that I should do so, but 
 I do desire to say to those who accept it 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 137 
 
 that for them nature is a clear word of 
 prophecy in her principles of completion. 
 Imagine yourself as an observer in some 
 earlier geological age and from that point 
 endeavoring to predict the future of this 
 earth. If you were a logician you might read 
 forward with much prophetic assurance, 
 facts which we now learn to read backward. 
 The sure principle of natural prophecy is 
 that nature will not stop nor tarry till all 
 her decrees of perfection shall be completed. 
 And on the last height of nature's ascent 
 appears the unfinished life of man. What 
 does this prophesy for us? It marks the 
 culmination so far as has been revealed 
 within the limits of visible nature. All lines 
 in nature converge upon man, and thence 
 nature's prophecies find in man their prom- 
 ised Messiah. Th's principle of perfection 
 in nature is recognized. (Vide Nageli, the 
 eminent botanist, in the introduction to his 
 book in which he sums up his investigations 
 of plant life, shows that, and it applies to 
 our life, and prophesies that we also shall 
 be made perfect.) 
 
 Then also eternal life involves in its sci- 
 entific "dea perfect environment. On the 
 one side there must be a real spiritual free- 
 dom,) — that is, there must be a character 
 made safe in its moral integrity — and on the 
 other side there must likewise be an en- 
 vironment correspond'ng to its being, as the 
 
138 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 light answers to the eve for its vision. This 
 is the complete harmony of the spirit of man 
 in the presence of God. Or, as Jesus said : 
 "To know God is eternal life." But his 
 present life, spiritual in character, is only 
 nature's prophecy of its final consummation. 
 This is but the embyro. The age of spirit — 
 the golden age — is not yet here ; it is only 
 coming. Now man is only heir apparent 
 and not yet king enthroned. But heir he is, 
 for toward completion ''the whole creation 
 groaneth and travaileth," and surely tends. 
 This is the positive momentum of the argu- 
 ment in nature for our immortality — and 
 this is a welcome prophet. 
 
 Look at another clear word of prophecy : 
 The last word of organic development is the 
 individual. In any scientific conception, the 
 idea of the perfection of the individual is 
 involved. You cannot conceive of the ful- 
 fillment of life — a perfect life — apart from 
 this. Low in the scale the individual was 
 sacrificed for the benefit of the species. On 
 the highest round the species exists also for 
 the individual, and man, the individual, has 
 acquired survival value. Personal immortal- 
 ity is henceforth nature's best, and nature's 
 best is nature's sure prophecy of the com- 
 ing life. In their hunger and thirst for life 
 our own human hearts become their own 
 true prophets ; and our best life is our best 
 interpreter. The history of life affirms that 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 139 
 
 the world's hunger is nature's true prophet, 
 telling us that we shall be satisfied. And 
 while hunger may seem cruel for the time 
 being, at last it will be crowned with a 
 beatitude: "Blessed are they that hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness, for they shall 
 be filled." Upon this highest mountain we 
 behold our humanity transfigured and glori- 
 fied in the Son of Man. In Him life and 
 immortality were brought to light. 
 
 And yet, remember that the prophet must 
 have insight before he can have foresight. 
 In so far as the books are true to nature, we 
 may rightly claim that history, geology, 
 chemistry, biology, astronomy, as also 
 natural history, physics and botany, are all 
 among the prophets, some major and some 
 minor. To say that history repeats itself is 
 but another way of saying that it foretells. 
 By a knowledge of the laws of meteorology 
 we are enabled to predict the coming storm. 
 The Revealed Word, long years ago set 
 forth the fundamental principle of that pet 
 science of today. "The wind goeth toward 
 the south and turneth about unto the north 
 — and the wind returneth again according 
 to his circuits." Eccles. i :6. 
 
 But especially astronomy — *'the stars 
 also" — shall be counted among the proph- 
 ets. Some years ago Dr. Joseph Seiss pub- 
 lished a remarkable book entitled "The 
 Gospel in the Stars." He might have called 
 
140 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 it, with equal truth, 'Trophecy in the 
 Stars;" for while this ancient teaching 
 sets forth in picture form the cardi- 
 nal points, enfolding the whole story 
 of the fall and redemption, death and 
 life eternal, and the ultimate tri- 
 umph of God over Satan and evil, it does all 
 this by way of prediction and hence it is 
 prophetic. 
 
 The book attempts to interpret the signs 
 of the Zodiac, a picture of the heavenly 
 bodies, so ancient that many believe that it 
 was handed down from antediluvian times ; 
 while some even date its origin back to the 
 days of Seth or of Enoch, ''who walked with 
 God." Whence it came and what it all 
 means, are the questions answered in the 
 author's book. Dr. Seiss acknowledges the 
 valuable a'd of Frances Rolleston in her 
 book entitled "The Mazzaroth ; or, The 
 Constellation." In Frances Rolleston's book, 
 as regards the names of the constellations, 
 she advances what I believe is the true 
 theory: viz., that, as the Arabs and Greeks 
 and others have carried over the traditions 
 of the signs in broken and legendary form, 
 so that they may all be traced to a common 
 original, so have they carried over many of 
 the names, not translating them, but retain- 
 ing them without holding the original sense ; 
 and hence all that is necessary for the stu- 
 dent is to refer these name forms to the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 141 
 
 Hebrew roots, and he will thus obtain a 
 consistent and rational confirmation of the 
 wisdom of the method. It is my purpose in 
 the briefest possible way to set forth the 
 substance of the prophecies in the stars as 
 seen in the signs of the Zodiac, and direct 
 you to Dr. Bullinger, Miss Rolleston, and 
 Dr. Seiss, for further investigation. 
 
 It seems to me that the fact is well estab- 
 lished that, in the absence of a written reve- 
 lation, the doctrine of redemption was in- 
 scribed upon the heavens for the antedlu- 
 vians, and linked with the discoveries of 
 astronomical science. A book entitled 'Tri- 
 meval Man Unveiled" advances this theory, 
 and many portions of the Bible imply this. 
 When you read Job 9 124 and 38 you feel as 
 though that author knew all about the signs 
 of the Zodiac and their attendant (decans). 
 It is as reasonably certain as anything can 
 well be that, with the stars that look down 
 upon the earth night after night unchanged 
 from age to age, there has been associated 
 from the earliest ages the great purpose of 
 redemption. When this fact, associating 
 with it the marvelous interpretation of the 
 signs of the Zodiac, is compared with the 
 written Word, the wonderful likeness be- 
 tween them must compel the assent of the 
 mind to the proposition that the signs and 
 the written Word emanated from a common 
 author. 
 
142 THE BIBLE OF NATUEE 
 
 As relates to those ancient people, we 
 confess with the apostle that ''the invisible 
 things of Him from the creation of the 
 world are clearly seen, being perceived by 
 the things that are made, even His everlast- 
 ing power and divinity." In the story of 
 creation, when the "lights" were made, it 
 was expressly said, ''and let them be for 
 signs and for seasons ;" and, • lest there 
 should be a mistake as to what was includ- 
 ed, it was said, ''the stars also." 
 
 A sign is something arbitrarily selected to 
 represent some other thing. The letters of 
 the alphabet are signs — signs of sound and 
 number. The notes on a clef of musical 
 writing are signs — signs of the pitch and 
 value of certain tones of voice or instru- 
 ment. There is no relation whatever be- 
 tween these signs and the things they signi- 
 fy, except that men have agreed to employ 
 them for that purpose ; and so with an 
 astrological sign. When God said, "Let them 
 be for signs," He meant them to be used to 
 signify something beyond, and additional 
 to, what they express in their nature and 
 natural offices. Nor can any sense be 
 naturally deduced from the words, consist- 
 ent with the dignity of the record, says 
 Seiss, "without admitting that God intended 
 from the beginning that these orbs of light 
 should be made to bear, express, and con- 
 vey some special teaching, different from 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 143 
 
 that which is naturally deducible from 
 them." And as the Creator named and 
 numbered the stars, "the heavens declare 
 the glory of God." 
 
 Much emphasis in our day is laid on the 
 principle of teaching by illustrations, by 
 pictures, picture galleries, and moving pic- 
 tures. We even teach the relative parts of 
 a sentence by a picture — a diagram. I said, 
 in our day we emphasize this method, but 
 the truth is, that the farther back we go, the 
 more this method was used; and the first 
 kind of writing of which we have knowl- 
 edge consisted nearly altogether of pictures. 
 The Old Testament gives instances of 
 Mnemonic devices whereby the children of 
 Israel were kept in remembrance of the 
 Divine promises and fulfillment. 
 
 When we study astronomy, we are first 
 reminded that, from the very earliest days, 
 the sky has been conceived of as being a 
 vast picture-book containing strange 
 figures. This picture-book is known as the 
 Zodiac, and it has been handed down to us 
 from the dimmest antiquity ; or with but 
 slight variation, as has already been stated, 
 probably from the days of Seth or Enoch. 
 ''These signs were known in all ages and 
 among all nations. Any zodiac plate 
 gives a view of their forms and their re- 
 spective positions, as assigned by the 
 original designer. 
 
144 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 What is the Zodiac and what does it 
 mean? The word means a way. Along a 
 path in the heavens, known to us as the 
 ecliptic, the sun seems to make an annual 
 revolution of the heavens. This path is a 
 nature-indicated belt, about sixteen degrees 
 wide, extending around the entire circuit of 
 the heavens, half the year north and half 
 the year south of the equator of the earth 
 extended into the sky. It is divided into 
 twelve seasons, through each of which the 
 sun journeys in the course of a month, so 
 that at the end of the twelfth month he ap- 
 pears to be about where he started at the 
 beginning of the first month. Each of these 
 sections contains a number of stars which 
 make up a group or constellation, which 
 has its own particular picture or "sign" to 
 designate it and after which it is called. 
 These are known to us in the memory 
 verse : 
 
 *The ram, the bull, the heavenly twins, 
 And next the crab the lion shines, 
 
 The virgin and the scales ; 
 The scorpion, arches and sea-goat, 
 The man that carries the water-pot. 
 
 And fish with glittering tail." 
 
 Three decans, indicated on the chart by 
 connecting lines, belong to each main 
 constellation (th'rty-six in all). The inter- 
 dependence of the designs show that they 
 could not be accidental; and clearly the 
 entire picture-book is a single concerted 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 145 
 
 work, intended to convey some instruction 
 to men in a form easily remembered. 
 
 Here, then, we have before us the ancient 
 picture-book. Let us read it and see how it 
 confirms the statement that, ere the writte*!! 
 revelation was given, God did not leave 
 Himself without witness, and that in the sky 
 "domed above us with its heavenly frescoes, 
 painted by the thought of the Great Artist/* 
 the sons of men possessed in pictured out- 
 line the story of His great redemption. 
 
 Modern writings are divided into books, 
 chapters and paragraphs. A careful study 
 of any zodiac chart (you should follow the 
 chart) shows an orderly arrangement, as it 
 were, into books and chapters. The twelve 
 signs of the Zodiac are divided into a trin- 
 ity (three) of four signs each, and each 
 trinity presents one main theme. Then 
 each main theme is again divided and sub- 
 divided by its sign and decans. 
 
 It is generally agreed by students of this 
 picture-book that the initiatory sign of the 
 Zodiac is Virgo, and the internal evidence 
 will satisfy you that here is the place to be- 
 gin to read. 
 
 Trinity I. 
 
 A Redeemer Prophesied. 
 
 Sign I. 
 
 The Seed of the Woman. 
 
146 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Having determined the method and the 
 starting point, we begin the reading. The 
 first trinity contains the Virgin, the Scales, 
 the Scorpion and the Archer. (Follow them 
 on the chart.) They all tell a story which 
 opens with the woman and her seed, and 
 closes with the casting down of the Dragon. 
 The attendant decans help to tell how the 
 seed of the woman accomplished all this. 
 The promise in the written work pointing 
 to a Redeemer, is in Gen. 3:15 'Tt (her 
 seed) shall bruise thy head and thou shalt 
 bruise his heel." I need not tell the reader 
 of the agreement of these two prophecies 
 and their literal fulfillment. 
 
 Constellation I. — Coma. 
 
 The first attendant constellation or decan 
 to Virgo is Coma. It is the name of the 
 child in the Virgin's arms, and means de- 
 sired or longed for. ''The desire of all na- 
 tions shall come." Haggai 2 7. 
 
 Constellation II. — Centaurus. 
 
 The second constellation is known as 
 Centaur. It is below the Virgin and is rep- 
 resented as man and horse-man. The figure 
 clearly represents two natures. The Hebrew 
 name for this figure is Bezeh, which means 
 the despised on.e. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 147 
 
 Constellation III. — Bootes. 
 
 In this constellation we have the figure 
 of a man walking rapidly, carrying a spear 
 in his right hand and a sickle in his uplifted 
 hand. This Greek name is most likely a 
 remnant of the Hebrew root Bo, meaning 
 the coming: 'He who cometh to judge the 
 earth." ''Thus these star pictures tell us (in 
 this first chapter) that it would be as a 
 child that the Promised Seed should come 
 forth and grow and wax strong in spirit 
 and be filled with wisdom ; and that as a 
 man having two natures He should suffer 
 and die. Then the third and last section in 
 this first sign of this first trinity goes on to 
 tell of His second coming in glory." (Dr. 
 Bullinger.) 
 
 Sign 11. 
 
 The Work of the Redeemer Foretold. 
 
 The first sign sets forth the broad outline 
 of the whole subject, and each succeeding 
 sign supplies the details. 
 
 Following the Virgin in the pathway of 
 the Zodiac is a pair of balances. Libra, with 
 one scale higher than the other. The 
 Hebrew name is Mozanaim, the scales. This 
 suggests the helplessness of human effort. 
 "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be 
 justified." The human race is weighed in 
 
148 THE BIBLE 01 NATURE 
 
 the balance and found wanting. In the 
 southern scale the name of the star is Zuben 
 al Genube, and means, the price deficient. 
 (This is man's effort.) But, thanks be to 
 God, the name in the scale which pulls 
 down is Zuben al Akrabi, and it means "the 
 price which covers." 
 
 Constellation I. — The Cross. 
 
 Remarkable indeed that at this point of 
 considering the price, we should turn to 
 the darkest of the heavens and there behold 
 the cross. The Hebrew name for this 
 constellation was Adom, and means cutting 
 off, as in Daniel 9:29: ''After three score 
 and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off." 
 
 The picture of the Zodiac was construct- 
 ed in northern latitudes, and on it the cross 
 appeared very low down to the south. ''The 
 southern cross was just visible in the lati- 
 tude of Jerusalem at the time of the coming 
 of our Lord to die. Because of the recession 
 of the Polar Star it gradually disappeared 
 and became invisible at Jerusalem just 
 when the real sacrifice was offered — the 
 price paid." 
 
 Constellation II. — The Victim. 
 
 The second decan associated with Libra 
 continues the thought suggested by the 
 cross. Here is an animal falling on its 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 14& 
 
 back, pierced and slain. The ancient Hebrew 
 and Arabic names Aseda and Asedation 
 mean to be slain. The New Testament 
 reads^: ''By ^ wicked hands crucified and 
 slain." Yet it is nevertheless true that our 
 Lord "laid down His life for the sheep." 
 
 Constellation HI.— The Crown. 
 
 Whatever the theme of these stellar reve- 
 lations, the}^ always end with the great con- 
 summation. This constellation is a beautiful 
 crescent of stars. The Hebrews called it 
 Atarach, a kingly crown. If this heavenly 
 picture-book illustrates the same story as 
 the Bible, we should expect to find the 
 humiliation and the exaltation set forth; 
 and that :"s what occurs. For here we have 
 the cross and the crown. 
 
 Sign HI. 
 The Great Conflict Foretold. 
 All up and down the Old Testament we 
 are reminded of a mighty conflict between 
 the evil and the good. This prophetic pic- 
 ture is carried forward and is more clearly 
 revealed — fulfilled I should say — in our 
 Lord's temptation in the wilderness and in 
 His conflict in the Garden of Gethsemane. 
 Does this find a place in the heavenly 
 picture-book? Rising just above the scales 
 in the circles of the Zodiac is a group of 
 stars known as the scorpion. "The scorpion. 
 
150 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 as a living thing is a spider-like insect, 
 formed something like a small lobster, with 
 an extended chain-like tail, ending in a 
 crooked horny sting loaded with irritant 
 poison. To be struck by a scorpion is often 
 fatal, though not necessarily so ; but the 
 pain from it is the intensest that can be in- 
 flicted on the human body." The figure and 
 its attitude have a story to tell, and it is 
 prophetic of the story in the written word. 
 In the land where these figures originated, 
 the scorpion surely was the symbol of dark- 
 ness and danger, and of being in league with 
 death. The fuller meaning also appears 
 when we consider its decans. 
 
 Constellation I. — The Serpent. 
 
 As, in the first decan of Virgo, there is 
 carried forward the idea of the Seed, found 
 in the main sign, so in this decan there is 
 carried forward in the serpent the idea of 
 the scorpion power. So we may expect 
 here, as we find it, the serpent struggling 
 to reach the crown. The iHebrew name is 
 Alyah, the accursed. 
 
 Constellation 11. — Ophiuchus. 
 
 The name of this man, both in Hebrew 
 and Arabic, is Afeichus ; and it means the 
 serpent held. The serpent, by subtlety, 
 robbed the first man of the dominion held 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 151 
 
 out to him ; but he has now to reckon with 
 the second man, the Lord from heaven. In 
 vain he tried temptation in the wilderness ; 
 in vain he tried persecution and the cross. 
 But the picture is complete in what follows. 
 
 Constellation III. — Hercules. 
 
 This constellation is represented on the 
 chart as a mighty man resting on one knee 
 with heel uplifted, as if wounded. His left 
 foot is set upon the head of the great 
 Dragon \vhich wands its scaly length about 
 the ecliptic pole. He has a great club in 
 one hand and in the other he holds a three- 
 headed monster and a branch with fruit 
 upon it. Surely this foretells of the Con- 
 queror of the serpent, and the fruitful 
 branch, the All-Powerful King. **God and 
 truth and right must triumph in the end. 
 The Ophiuchus who holds fast will not lose 
 his crown. The scorp'on may sting the heel, 
 but the foot will crush its head. The faith- 
 ful wielder of the club of righteousness may 
 be brought to his knees (humiliation,) but 
 he shall yet lift up the instrument of his 
 power in glorious success, strangle Cerbe- 
 rus, and bear off in triumph the apples of 
 gold, whilst the great dragon writhes 
 through all his length with his head under 
 the heel of the conqueror." (Dr. Seiss.) "He 
 shall be King of Kings and Lord of Lords !" 
 
152 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Sign IV. 
 
 The Warrior and His Victory Foretold. 
 
 The story of the Bible is the story of the 
 conflict between the powers of good and 
 evil. The plan whereby victory shall be ac- 
 complished is told in history and in 
 prophecy ; and the more that plan is studied, 
 the more it will be admired by the reader. 
 Now see how all this is set forth by those 
 early signs. Following the scorpion on the 
 Ecliptic there is pictured a centaur carrying 
 a bow, with an arrow fitted on the string 
 and drawn to its head, ready to be dis- 
 charged. This arrow is aimed directly at 
 the head of the scorpion. Observe now 
 that this is the second centaur and that it 
 faces the first. Both carry weapons. That 
 of Centaurus is aimed at the victim, but 
 Sagittarius is about to find its way to the 
 heart of the enemy. Before this "men be- 
 gan to call upon the name of the Lord." 
 What can this mean if not Him of whom 
 Enoch and other preachers spake? Here is 
 the same divine being with the two natures 
 as pictured in Centaurus There He is the 
 ''despised and rejected," here He is going 
 forth conquering and to conquer. There He 
 is low down in the horizon with the out- 
 stretched serpent between Him and the 
 patch of the sun ; here He is high up with 
 His head on the line of the ecliptic, no long- 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 153 
 
 er humiliated, but exalted, with a name 
 that is above every name, "riding 
 gloriously." 
 
 Saggitarious was called Kesith by the 
 Hebrews, and meant the Archer. Cuneiform 
 inscriptions designate Saggitarius as the 
 strong one, the Giant King of War. 
 
 Constellation I. — Lyra. 
 
 The decans give additional information. 
 Lyra is represented as a harp hung on an 
 eagle's neck. The word means. He shall 
 be exalted. In the Scriptures, praise is rep- 
 resented as following the victory of the 
 King. "I will sing unto the Lord; for He 
 hath triumphed gloriously." So here; and 
 so, as on eagle's wings, shall praise ascend. 
 
 Constellation H. — Ara. 
 
 The Greeks used the word Ara, generally 
 in the sense of crushing. And there is fire 
 on this altar which is upside down. Is not 
 this the symbol of judgment? "A fire goeth 
 before Him and burneth up His enemies 
 round about." — A fire awaiting the enemy, 
 in perdition, when he shall be "cast down." 
 
 Constellation III. — Draco. 
 
 From the fires of the inferno, the eye 
 sweeps the heavens toward the North Pole. 
 
154 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Here is a long and huge serpent, winding in 
 folds about the Pole. In the Aramic it is 
 still called Al Waid, who is to be destroyed. 
 It is so placed that whatever its position, 
 as it circles the pole, it is always falling. As 
 seen on the chart, the foot of Hercules is 
 planted over the head of the dragon, a 
 prophecy of that which shall come to pass ; 
 viz., his destruction ; but in this picture we 
 see him falling towards the burning fire, 
 "prepared for the devil and his angels." 
 
 This closes the first book. With one 
 gigantic curve, the story sweeps from the 
 fall to the great redemption. Marvelous 
 indeed is the harmony of this picture with 
 that of the written word. One cannot help 
 but feel that, to the early men, this open 
 book had a great religious significance and 
 was intended to perpetuate truths originally 
 given them by God himself. 
 
 Trinity 11. 
 
 The Life-Giver Prophesied. 
 
 Sign I. 
 
 Death and New Life Foretold. 
 
 The first trinity has shown the work of 
 the Redeemer in procuring blessing for the 
 world by His death on the cross and by His 
 victory over the Great Enemy. This trinity 
 carries forward the story and shows the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 155 
 
 blessings which come to those who will be 
 redeemed. In this trinity, the Goat opens 
 the sign and the ram closes it. The refer- 
 ences in Scripture to these animals show 
 them as sacrificial. The signs coming be- 
 tween these are connected with water and 
 fishes. 
 
 The forms in th's second trinity, not 
 found elsewhere, are intended to teach a 
 special lesson. Capricornus is pictured in 
 the Zodiac as fallen, with his right leg bent 
 under his body. He makes a futile attempt 
 to rise. The Hebrew name is Gedi, the 
 Goat ; or, cut off. Especially, if one studies 
 the name of the attendant stars, he has no 
 difficulty in drawing the conclusion. Here 
 are the symbols of sacrificial death. But of 
 whom and for whom? The vigorous tail of 
 the fish, which is in one body with the dying 
 goat, forms a picture which has no parallel 
 in nature ; but it as a true counterpart in 
 grace — life from the dead — the same person 
 who d'es and lives again. By means of 
 sacrificial death, life was secured for the 
 church — the sign of which was that of a 
 fish. 
 
 Constellation I. — Sagitta. 
 
 Sagitta is an arrow shot from an invisible 
 bow, and by an unseen archer. The arrow 
 speeds its way to the heart of the Redeem- 
 
156 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 er ; and "We did esteem Him stricken, smit- 
 ten of God and afflicted." Isa. 
 
 Constellation 11. — Aquila. 
 
 Aquila is the second decan. It is the 
 picture of an eagle, a royal bird, falling 
 pierced and wounded. It is as the Lord 
 saying, "Thine arrows stick fast in me." 
 Ps. 38:2. 
 
 Constellation III. — Delphinus. 
 
 This is a figure full of life. The head of 
 the wounded eagle was downward, that of 
 the dolphin is towards the pole. The sacri- 
 ficial animal, the arrow of death and the 
 falling eagle, all tell the story of life given 
 and taken. What can this last be but the 
 divine completion to the story, the resurrec- 
 tion from the dead? The figure of the vig- 
 orous upspringing fish shows the transition 
 to a new life — a life of another order. 
 
 Sign 11. 
 
 The Water of Life. 
 
 "If any man thirst let him come unto me 
 and live." John 7:37. 
 
 Look now at the main characteristic of 
 this group opening with Aquarius. Vitality 
 is in every line of this group. The preceding 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 157 
 
 group told of death in the Goat, the Arrow 
 and the Eagle. But from that death there 
 came forth life, manifested in the vigorous 
 tail of the fish and the living Delphin. But 
 in this group, that vitally is carried forward 
 and appears in every constellation. Here 
 IS a man who appears to be in the act of 
 running swiftly, his left hand uplifted. He 
 holds on his right arm an urn from which 
 flows, as from an inexhaustible reservoir, a 
 stream which enlarges as it flows. Beneath 
 his feet is a fish swimming forward to meet 
 the stream. The fish drinks it all. Im- 
 mediately above the water-bearer, is the 
 forepart of a winged horse at full gallop. 
 Higher still and midway to the pole is a 
 swan, a bird of land and water, speeding its 
 way in rapid flight through the heavens. 
 Consider this picture in its parts. How 
 significant Aquarius becomes to us as we 
 listen to the conversation with the Samari- 
 tan woman! '*If thou knewest the gift of 
 God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give 
 me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of 
 Him, and He would have given thee living 
 water." The written word shows that He 
 has made the picture a glorious fact. 
 
 Constellation I.— Piscis Australis. 
 
 This is the fish low down on the chart 
 that consumes all the water. The bright 
 star in this group is called Fomalhant, 
 
158 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 the mouth of the fish. If, in the main sign, 
 we have the Giver and the gift, no less 
 clearly are we shown in this sign the gift, 
 the recipient, and the vigor it received. 
 
 Constellation 11. — Pegasus. 
 
 The Greeks called this decan Pegasus, 
 horse of the fountain. Pegasus carries with 
 it the idea of returning swiftly, bringing 
 joy. But observe this speedy advent in the 
 last decan. 
 
 Constellation III. — Coyquus. 
 
 The chart gives it as the figure of a mighty 
 bird, sweeping through mid heaven. In all 
 modern languages, at least, it is represented 
 as a swan; and, as that is a bird linked to 
 air, earth, and water, it fittingly symbolizes 
 the universality of the blessings to be 
 brought. ''Beautiful picture of most 
 precious prophetic truth ! A picture which 
 I can interpret in no other way than as 
 designed by men fully informed beforehand 
 of these glorious facts! And if, perchance, 
 these constellations were not meant in 
 token, testimony, and prophecy of what is 
 foreknown, believed, and expected by the 
 primeval patriarchs who arranged them; 
 the picture is still true to what has since 
 come to pass, and which it is part of our 
 holy religion to accept and rejoice in as the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 159 
 
 great mercy of God to a fallen world." 
 (beiss.) 
 
 Sign III. 
 Life and Dominion. 
 
 ..1?"^ p' Denderah Zodiac this sign is 
 called Pisces Hon, the fishes of Him that 
 Cometh. Here are two fishes, vigorously 
 swimmmg one along the line of the ecliptic 
 towards the water-pourer, and the other 
 shootmg upwards towards the pole But 
 the picture being our guide, they are held 
 m by the band of ribbon which, fastened to 
 the tail of each, binds them to the sea 
 monster. Carrying forward the idea of 
 bondage here suggested, we next see a 
 woman who is chained to the sky— fetters 
 on her wrists and ankles, showing how com- 
 plete appears to be her captivity. The last 
 figure of the form is that of a man whose 
 othcial position is clearly indicated by the 
 crown he wears and by the sceptre he holds 
 m his right hand. What do they mean? If 
 as already stated, the first chapter of this 
 second book shows the gift of life to pro- 
 cure life, and the second shows the 
 bestowment of that life— then, clearly, this 
 chapter puts beiore us the life in vigorous 
 manifestation. By the fall two things have 
 been forfeited— life and dominion. The 
 gospel prophecy dealt with these two items 
 
160 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 and was designed to show how they should 
 be regained. The fish in the other sign 
 represented life. Two fishes represent life 
 more abundantly — life and dominion. "I 
 am come that they might have life, and that 
 they might have it more abundantly." 
 John io:io. 
 
 Constellation I. — The Band. 
 
 "By this band these two fishes are insep- 
 arably tied together, so that the one cannot 
 get on without the other." Its Arabic name 
 is Al Risha, the band or bridle. The fishes 
 speak of life. This band fastened to the sea 
 monster suggests that, with all that life, 
 still, so long as we are in this world we are 
 subject to bondage. 
 
 Constellation II. — Andromeda. 
 
 The next picture is a peculiar one. It is 
 that of a woman with fettered feet and 
 arms, bound in helplessness to the sky. 
 Andromeda is Greek, and means man-ruler. 
 This carries forward the idea given in the 
 band, and shows, in concrete form, the 
 bondage from which deliverance is sought. 
 "O wretched man that I am, who shall de- 
 liver me?" The next decan answers. 
 
 Constellation III. — Cepheus. 
 
 Cepheus is from a Hebrew root and 
 means branch. Here is the figure of a king. 
 
AND THE ETBLE OF GRACE 1«1 
 
 wearing a royal robe, having a crown on 
 his head, and holding in his right hand the 
 sceptre of dominion. Is not this the answer 
 to the question, ''Who shall deliver?" As 
 we look now over the four signs, may we 
 not say that the double truth is clearly sug- 
 gested by the double sign? The one fish 
 swims towards the water-pourer, as if for 
 fresh draughts of life, and the other towards 
 the pole, where sits in royal splendor the 
 Deliverer— the King of Life and Dominion. 
 
 Sign IV. 
 The Ever-Living Conqueror. 
 
 This sign gives the triumphant deliver- 
 ance from the power of the enemy. Glance 
 at the figures of this sign and catch the idea 
 of the matter and course of its teaching. 
 Here we find, as the first picture, a Ram 
 lymg at rest on the ecliptic, over the head 
 of the sea monster. It reminds us strongly 
 of the Goat in the opening sign of this book. 
 Both are animals of sacrifice, and both as 
 such have the closest possible relation to 
 the purpose and bestowment of life, in the 
 scriptures. Their position — one at the be- 
 ginning and the other at the end of the 
 book, suggests that, in the order, the death 
 of the sacrifice is followed by its triumphant 
 possession of life in full vigor. Two 
 thousand five hundred and forty years ago 
 
162 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 the Ram opened the year. "The emblem 
 and the names, existing before what they 
 indicate took place, were prophetic, and are 
 among the many proofs that God hath 
 spoken. He commanded Moses so to fix 
 the Passover, that, during the darkness of 
 the crucifixion, the star so named should be 
 close to the sun and the whole of the con- 
 stellation Aries. He who cometh would ap- 
 pear around it. Man could not predict this 
 coincidence, but God by Moses prefigured 
 it. For 1500 years, the lamb was yearly 
 slain when the sun was among these stars ; 
 but the Equinox had not receded thither. 
 "Seasons, months, and years may vary, but 
 the Solstice and the Equinox never." (Rol- 
 leston.) Some may say it was blind chance, 
 but "it is easier to believe that it was de- 
 sign. It makes a smaller demand on faith." 
 Surely it is "the Lamb that was slain," but 
 now liveth. 
 
 Constellation I. — Cassiopeia. 
 
 Its Arabic name is El Seder, the freed. 
 How striking the difference between this 
 woman and that of the last chapter! 
 Andromeda is seen bound helpless to the 
 sky. This woman is free and is adorning 
 herself for some festal occasion. Cossiopeia 
 is the Church, the bride of the Lord placed 
 near Cephus, the king, and is freed by Him. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 163 
 
 Constellation II. — Cetus. 
 
 Heb. Mehumah Tehom (the chaos of the 
 deep.) It represents primarily the state of 
 chaos (Gen. i :2.) Is not this great sea 
 monster the great enemy of the Bible who 
 is put before us as Leviathan? Isa. 27:1. 
 
 Constellation III. — Perseus. 
 
 Heb. Peretz, the Breaker. This is the 
 word that is found in the prophecy of 
 Micah, who tells of a time when the flock 
 of God shall be gathered: "The Breaker is 
 gone up before them — and the Lord at the 
 head of them." Micah 2:13. 
 
 Trinity III. 
 
 The Great King Prophesied. 
 
 Sign I. 
 
 His Advent in Power. 
 
 As the first and second trinities, or books, 
 of this heavenly library had each its specific 
 theme to present, so also has this third 
 book. No sooner do we open it and view its 
 signs than we notice that the main idea pre- 
 sented, is that of the great King as regards 
 His victory and triumph, associated Avith 
 the idea of rest and safety. The trinity 
 opens with the figure of an enraged bull, 
 
164 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 "thrusting through" his enemies with his 
 long sharp horns ; and it closes with the 
 lion aroused to wrath, and in the act of 
 rending his enemy to pieces. Between these 
 two powerful signs are signs suggestive of 
 possession and safety. Here is wide diversity 
 of representation, but a wonderful and help- 
 ful harmony. 
 
 Taurus or Heb. Shur, the bull coming, 
 is represented on the Zodiac as if springing 
 from the body of the ram ; and thus the one 
 person, in his two advents in redemption, is 
 visibly set forth. In this constellation are 
 two groups of stars, the Pleiades and the 
 Hyades, that have always had a peculiar in- 
 terest to men. What is intended, then, by 
 these significant groups and star-names? 
 We need not search far for an answer. Here 
 is presented the Advent in Power. It is a 
 picture of the resistless advent of the Judge, 
 as He comes to destroy His legioned foes; 
 but it is, at the same time, a picture which 
 tells of the safety of them that are His. 
 
 Constellation I. — Orion. 
 
 The first of the group linked with 
 Taurus is Orion. To the unaided eye, it 
 presents a glorious assemblage of stars. 
 Orion is figured on the map as a "giant hunt- 
 er, with a mighty club in his right hand, in 
 the act of striking ; and in his left the skin of 
 
AND THE riBLE OF GRACE 1^ 
 
 a slain lion." The Scripture refers to this 
 constellation by name. (Job. 9:9.) The 
 ancient Accadian name was Ur-ana, the 
 light of heaven. It is equivalent to the' New 
 Testament title, The Light of the World. 
 
 Constellation 11. — Eridanus. 
 
 From the foot of Orion there flows a 
 stream of stars, curving from side to side, 
 and passing under the paws of the sea 
 monster, flowing ever downward till it 
 passes quite out of sight. Heb. Eridanus, 
 the river of the Judge. This is "A fire that 
 goeth before H m and burneth up His 
 enemies, round about." Ps. 97:3. 
 
 Constellation III. — Auriga. 
 
 Here is perfect quietude, rest and safety. 
 The figure is suggestive of the passage of 
 Scnpture which speaks of the Redeemer as 
 the Shepherd— the Shepherd of Power. In 
 the midst of the scenes of judgment and 
 wrath. He shows mercy. Isa. 40: 10, 11. 
 
 Sign II. 
 
 Harmony in Rule and Redemption. 
 *'So like they were, no mortal 
 Might one from the other know." 
 
 This second sign presents us with a pic- 
 ture of two human figures. Its decans, three 
 
166 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 four-footed creatures — a hare and two dogs. 
 As in the Word of God there are truths re- 
 peated in other aspects by other metaphors, 
 so here also. The star names and the fig- 
 ures plainly remind us here again of the 
 dual nature of Christ and His two-fold work 
 as Redeemer and Conqueror. 
 
 Constellation I. — Lepus. 
 
 Rest and repose can come only as 
 the enemy who hinders it is put out 
 of the way. In Genesis is begun the 
 history of the enemy, and the Revelation 
 gives its close; but long ere John on the 
 Island of Patmos saw this, the fathers of 
 the race knew of the overthrow of the 
 enemy. 
 
 Constellation 11. — Canis Major. 
 
 As this star is the brightest in the 
 heavens, so is He the brightest among the 
 princes of the earth. The Wonderful Coun- 
 selor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting 
 Father, the Prince of Peace. 
 
 Constellation III. — Canis Minor. 
 
 Hebrew name, parag, redeemed. Thus 
 He is the Redeemer or Deliverer. He is 
 the prince in that representation of His 
 work set forth in the second figure of the 
 twins. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 167 
 
 Sign III. 
 
 Gathering the Ransomed. 
 
 The aspect of the safety and shelter of 
 the redeemed is here set forth in minute 
 detail. In the last group were two dogs — a 
 greater and lesser; and in this figure are 
 two bears, a greater and a lesser. The 
 main sign is cancer, a crab, and 
 the last decan is Argo, the ship. 
 The names indicate that the primitive idea 
 to be conveyed was that of holdings, or bind- 
 ing together, and rest secured. "And He 
 saw a resting place that it was good." Gen. 
 49:11. 
 
 Constellation I. — Ursa Minor. 
 
 This is the fact of two-tailed bears. From 
 the name it seems evident that the meaning 
 attached to the main sign belongs also to 
 this. But let us look at the next. 
 
 Constellation II. — Ursa Major. 
 
 This is usually known as the great bear. 
 In the Old Testament it is mentioned : 
 ''Which maketh the Bear, Orion, and the 
 Pleiades, and the Chambers of the South." 
 Job 9:9. As the names indicate, we are 
 here shown the gathering and sheltering of 
 the flocks before the storm of wrath bursts 
 forth. 
 
168 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Constellation III. — Argo. 
 
 This is represented on the maps as a ship 
 coming to rest, having reached port, its long 
 voyage over. The names agree with this. 
 
 Sign IV. 
 
 The Overthrow of the Enemy Prophesied.- 
 This group shows a lion roused to wrath ; 
 in the full vigor of his strength he is ready 
 to rend his foe in pieces. Beneath him is the 
 long, outstretched body of the serpent. 
 Upon it is a cup, so closely united to it that 
 the bottom of the cup is formed of stars 
 which are in the body of Hydra; while a 
 bird of prey, the raven, is engaged in 
 feasting upon the still living body of the 
 serpent. This is the group, and we venture 
 the assertion that, apart from the story of 
 redemption, it has no possible coherent 
 explanation; but with that before us it be- 
 comes beautifully clear, and puts in picture 
 form what the prophets of God have 
 sketched in His word in clear language. 
 The Book of Revelation shows the Lion 
 (of the tribe of Judah) aroused in his 
 majesty to action. There also is the "Old 
 Serpent," and there, too, is the pouring 
 forth of the cup of divine anger. And, 
 lastly, there is the call to the ''birds that fly 
 in midheaven" to feast upon the enemies of 
 the Lord. Is this merely coincidence? I 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 169 
 
 think not. And what do the decans say? 
 They complete the story. 
 
 Constellation I. — Hydra. 
 
 This is the longest constellation in the 
 sky. In this long, outstretched form of the 
 swift or fleeing serpent (Job 26:13), are 
 gathered all the ideas of the enemy which 
 has been before us in these heavenly pic- 
 tures; and, as the lion is shown as aroused 
 to wrath, alert, and ready to spring, so the 
 enemy is represented as fleeing from him. 
 This is "leviathan the swift (gliding or flee- 
 ing) serpent, and leviathan the crooked 
 serpent." Isa. 27:1. 
 
 Constellation II. — Crater. 
 
 In a word, this is the cup of wrath — '*the 
 cup of His anger." 
 
 Constellation III. — Corous. 
 
 "It is the sign of the absolute discom- 
 fiture and destruction of the serpent and his 
 power; for when the birds once begin to 
 tear and gorge the flesh of fallen foes, no 
 further power to resist, harm, or annoy 
 remains in them." Also shown in Rev. 
 19:17, 18, etc. 
 
 This brings us to the end of our story of 
 the circle of the Zodiacal signs, with their 
 decans. 
 
170 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Beginning with the sign of Virgo, the 
 successive groups have presented a grow- 
 ing and consistent display of the 
 prophecy, even to its final consummation 
 of the Redeemer's triumph, in the enemy's 
 final overthrow ; and Revelation agrees with 
 the picture to such a remarkable degree, 
 that infidels have made the charge, at times, 
 that the latter was taken from the former. 
 Their charge, though absurd and unfounded 
 and needing no reply, does remind us that 
 this harmony must be accounted for. God 
 did not leave His ancient people without 
 witness. In some way he spake to them 
 and set forth in picture form, so that to them 
 literally the heavens declared the glory of 
 God. And something after the fashion of 
 the bow of promise to the post-diluvians, so 
 to the antediluvians the stars of heaven 
 prophesied of a calmer day and a kingdom 
 wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 171 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Gospel In Nature. 
 
 Evidently it is the intent and purpose of 
 the Gospel of Grace to lead the unwise, as 
 well as the wise, to seek and to find Jesus. 
 But the Wise Men saw a star in the East, 
 and it almost served that same purpose. 
 That Gospel in nature guided them to the 
 very temple of God where they made further 
 inquiry, and the prophet's word directed 
 them to Bethlehem, where they found the 
 Savior whom they worshipped, presenting 
 unto Him gold and frankincense and myrrh. 
 
 Now astronomy is a science which has 
 arisen from man's need of religion. Other 
 sciences are often promoted by the utilita- 
 rian spirit. But in astronomy the first im- 
 pulse came, not from the craving of the in- 
 tellect, but from the wants of the soul. 
 Astronomy was the relation of the world's 
 youth. The Wise Men were led by a star 
 to Christ. Their astronomy was the 
 very pathway to the Saviour. Hence 
 the folly of decrying human wisdom 
 — science or philosophy. Of all vanities, the 
 world over, th« worst is the vani-ty of ignor- 
 ance. It is a fact, as stated in a former 
 chapter, that some Christian people depre- 
 
172 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 ciate learning as though it were a disadvan- 
 tage^ in religion. If the Christian who 
 decries science, simply means thereby to 
 affirm that science is not religion and that 
 it does not necessarily make people religious, 
 he is stating a truth; but if he means that 
 such learning is a positive hindrance to re- 
 ligion then he is virtually saying that the 
 Bible of Nature does not accord with the 
 Bible of Grace — that the God of Nature is 
 not the God of Grace — that the more you 
 study the Creator's works, the farther you 
 remove from Him. And, to be consistent 
 and logical, we must press the matter to its 
 inevitable conclusion and hold, as most uncul- 
 tured and barbarous nations do; viz; That 
 the state of idiocy brings us nearest to God. 
 This is the logic of Buddhism, losing self in 
 Nirvana; and its twin sister, Christian 
 Science, of our day. 
 
 Some of St. Paul's expressions are quoted 
 by some as sanctioning this idea. He tells 
 his converts to beware *1est any man spoil 
 you through philosophy." Whereupon they 
 take for granted that modern philosophy is 
 the enemy of Christianity. This is one 
 instance of many of the ways in which an 
 ambiguous word misunderstood becomes the 
 source of great error. And this error has 
 crept into that otherwise most excellent 
 series of pamphlets under the title ''The 
 Fundamentals" in an article, "Modern Phil- 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 173 
 
 osophy," by Philip Mauro, Counsellor-at 
 Law, New York City. Listen to St. Paul. 
 He tells Timothy to ''Beware of Profane and 
 old wives' fables." He speaks of "endless 
 genealogies" — ''worship of angels" — "in- 
 truding into those things which men have 
 not seen." This was the philosophy of those 
 days — a system of wild fancies spun out of 
 the brain — something that has kinship to 
 fortune-telling, spiritualism, demonolatry; 
 but as different from philosophy as we know 
 it in our day as any two things can be. This 
 the author of "Modern Philosophy" does not 
 seem to realize. We should also know that 
 philosophy has become Christian, and that 
 science has knelt to lay down its offerings at 
 the altar of Jesus. There is a deep signifi- 
 cance in that search, homage, and worship of 
 the wise men. For it is a specimen of what 
 science has often done. 
 
 In a former chapter attention was called 
 to the fact that the Greeks, guided by Na- 
 ture's Book, came to the very gate of the 
 kingdom. The truly wise men of every age 
 and every clime seek, and by a little help 
 from the prophets, find Jesus. All the 
 universe tells of Christ. The stars even now 
 preach the mind of Christ. Not as of old 
 when mysteriously a star guided their feet 
 to Bethlehem, but to the mind of the astron- 
 omer they now tell of eternal order and 
 harmony and changeless law. You may cal- 
 
174 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 culate to the day and hour and minute the 
 star's return. Here is the gospel of God's 
 fidelity. These mute masses obey the law 
 impressed upon them by their Creator's 
 hand, and that law is the law of their own 
 nature. Kepler said **0 God, we think thy 
 thoughts after Thee! To understand the 
 laws of our nature, and consciously and 
 reverently to obey them, — that is the mind 
 of Christ and the sublimest spirit of the 
 Gospel. But, with all that, it was only a star 
 when compared with the great luminary. 
 Stars may lead willing hearts to the neigh- 
 borhood of Christ and salvation, but the 
 words of God's chosen prophets must be 
 consulted to discover its exact locality, and 
 to disclose all its fulness. ''All pure arts 
 and useful knowledge" lead Christward. 
 Nature's book on so many pages tells of that 
 which is heavenly and divine ; and needs but 
 a translator to open its hidden treasure of 
 law and harmony and love. But all this 
 world's light is mere starlight, till the 
 records of Revelation pour forth their day- 
 beams and give us certainties. The truly 
 wise men are never so wise but that they 
 can learn more of Christ in a few lines from 
 the prophet Micah than from all material 
 sources. 
 
 And now that we have the great luminary 
 why shall we go star-gazing at noon-day? 
 It would be folly unbounckd to make this 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 175 
 
 cold, dark earth the center of the universe, 
 with all the evidence that we now have that 
 the sun holds that unique place in the 
 system of the worlds. And, living in the 
 noon-day of grace, when the Sun of Right- 
 eousness has reached its zenith of glory and 
 splendor, it would be greater folly still to 
 seek religion on the outer rim of the circle ; 
 that is, in the evidence manifest in the stars, 
 the strata of rock, and in the fauna and flora 
 of our day, instead of going direct to the 
 central Son from which radiates all true 
 light— "The Light of the World." 
 
 Many young men suddenly thrust into the 
 critical atmosphere of the natural sciences, 
 become dazed for a time; and, not assisted 
 in the readjustment of methods, they imag- 
 ine that they have lost faith. They have not 
 lost faith. Their only trouble is that they 
 have not learned that the method of faith 
 is the method of all other knowledge. 
 
 The end of all true philosophy is to learn 
 that we must believe; and science confirms 
 this. Some years ago. Prof. Marsh, Pres- 
 ident of the American Association for the 
 Advancement of Science, in an able address 
 before that body, made an appeal for faith, 
 stating that thus the mystery of life might 
 eventually be solved. And here we should 
 realize that all progress is by this method 
 of faith ; whether it pertains to things polit- 
 ical, social, religous, or scientific. The man 
 
176 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 of science begins with what he believes to 
 be a verity — an idea — an hypothesis. He 
 verifies it according to its domain — in 
 astronomy by mathematics — in chemistry 
 by retort and blowpipe. 
 
 Astronomy, previous to this inductive 
 method in its application to what are known 
 now as Kepler's laws and the Newtonion 
 hypothesis of gravitation, was in a state of 
 chaos, and its votaries were hopelessly 
 divided by conflicting theories. This is 
 equally true when applied to chemistry and 
 all the other branches of learning. But the 
 advent of the inductive method, beginning 
 with an idea, an hypothesis, has ushered in 
 every golden age of achievement — it has 
 given the human race astronomy for astrol- 
 ogy; chemistry for alchemy; freedom for 
 serfdom ; commerce for piracy ; missions for 
 monasticism ; medicine for magic ; and reli- 
 gion for superstition. 
 
 This inductive or faith method has given 
 us the modern view of physics which 
 destroys the old naturalism, for it shows 
 that the atom has structure and that its 
 component parts are probably electrical in 
 character. Of electricity itself the physicist 
 has no knowledge other than what electric- 
 ity VN^ill do, and, inasmuch as electricity can 
 not be directly perceived by our senses, all 
 this information has come to him through 
 the agency of matter. Electricity is truly 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 177 
 
 invisible. The everyday laboratory faith of 
 the physicist is now not in visible material 
 as formerly understood, but in the invisible 
 thing we call "electricity." He has repu- 
 diated the atom as a unit, observing in it a 
 wonderful and complex system of unending 
 interest and great experimental possibilities, 
 and has accepted the atom of electricity as 
 the basis for his scientific belief. This new 
 conception of science should remove from 
 the minds of the people that depressing in- 
 fluence upon religious thought which has 
 accompanied the extension of the known 
 domain of physical law. For now we see 
 more clearly that the explanation of the 
 material world about us can be written only 
 in the terms of the invisible. The reality of 
 matter, as formerly conceived, is now aban- 
 doned, and the invisible becomes the every- 
 day reality of the scientific laboratory. This 
 does not lead to the formation of a new re- 
 ligious faith, but the exclusion of the hinder- 
 ing influence of the old naturalism. The 
 new naturalism cannot exclude God, for 
 there is as much opportunity for him in the 
 complex system called the atom as there 
 used to seem to be in the solar system. 
 Indeed, the atom of electricity, which is but 
 a minute portion of the atom, must be itself 
 divisible. One familiar with physics thinks 
 at once of the possibility of the electron 
 "being merely a manifestation of that mys- 
 
178 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 terious hypothetical medium termed *'the 
 ether." At the present time the problems 
 of the ether are the most perplexing and 
 fundamental, undoubtedly perplexing 
 because fundamental. The only cognizance 
 we have of the ether is due to the action of 
 electricity. It would therefore seem reason- 
 able for us to consider the atom of electricity 
 to be produced by the ether, and if this be 
 accepted, the description of the whole realm 
 of matter in terms of the medium, the ether, 
 becomes possible. The tenableness of this 
 attitude on the part of the physicist 
 strengthens the tendency to interpret all in 
 terms of the unseen, the immanent mind, 
 God. Indeed, the modern conception of the 
 immanence of God finds splendid reenforce- 
 ment in the view of modern physics. 
 
 The shifting of the scientific faith of the 
 physicist from the atom to the electron gives 
 us a clearer view of the unending search for 
 the ultimate unit. The wonder and com- 
 plexity of the atom gives us a greater con- 
 fidence in the immanence of God and builds 
 for us a vision which makes clearer than 
 ever the Gospel in Nature so aptly expressed 
 by Lodge : 
 
 '*We are deaf and blind, therefor, to the 
 immanent grandeur around us, unless we 
 have insight enough to appreciate the whole, 
 and to recognize in the woven fabric of ex- 
 istence, flowing steadily from the loom in 
 
AND THE BIBLi: OF GRACE 179 
 
 an infinite progress toward perfection, the 
 ever growing garment of a transcendent 
 God." 
 
 The fact that the literal correctness of a 
 given hypothesis is not demonstrable, except 
 by results, in no wise militates against its 
 value in the domain to which it belongs. In 
 fact, it would cease to be an hypothesis the 
 moment it were demonstrated. Gravitation 
 is undemonstrable except from results. 
 Kepler's Principia is undemonstrable except 
 from results. You cannot prove that they 
 are correct, only as you put them to the test. 
 And yet no one would hesitate to depend on 
 them in the most important concerns of life 
 — nay, to stake his very existence upon 
 conclusions based upon such well-tried 
 theories — in other words, upon the conclu- 
 sions of faith. I say faith, for the reason that 
 all science is built on the hidden and the 
 unseen, just as truly as is religion. In as- 
 certaining the essential reality of all that is 
 perceived by the senses, science goes behind 
 all that which men commonly have in mind 
 when they think of the material, to the real- 
 ity which cannot be perceived by the senses ; 
 or, as Kant called it, ''the thing in itself." 
 In so doing they find the essential, but 
 hidden reality. As the essential reality of 
 material they find atoms ; of sound, undula- 
 tions of air; of heat; light and electricity, 
 vibrations of an all-pervading ether. But 
 
180 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 who ever saw an atom? Who ever saw, 
 heard, touched, or tasted that mysterious 
 something we call ether, "a medium which 
 fills the universe and penetrates all bodies?" 
 Who, I ask, with micrscope, or telescope, or 
 spectroscope, has ever seen the links of the 
 mighty chains of gravitation stretching 
 across the desert space and binding to- 
 gether suns and stars and systems? 
 So, then, the essential realty of the 
 tangible is the intangible ; of the 
 audible is the inaudible ; of the visible 
 is the invisible ; of the perceptible is the 
 imperceptible. Thus science puts itself on 
 record as saying: ''Back of all these visible 
 and tangible and audible things is to be 
 found the thing in itself, which no human 
 eye shall ever see ;" and this is scientific con- 
 firmation of that other Book, which says: 
 "We look not at the things which are seen, 
 but at the realities which are unseen ; but 
 the realities unseen are eternal." 
 
 So, then, the method of the man 
 of science is by faith. It sounds verily like 
 the faith chapter in Hebrews, when the 
 scientist testifies. It was by faith that Dal- 
 ton proposed the atomic theory and thus 
 explained the laws of definite and multiple 
 proportions. By faith LaPlace proposed the 
 Nebular Hypothesis to account for the earth 
 and the worlds as they now are. By faith 
 Newton discovered the law of gravitation, 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 181 
 
 which has been the stepping-stone to such 
 marvelous discoveries in the solar system 
 and has been the key to unlock so many 
 hidden things in nature. By faith Lavoisier 
 has been enabled to tell us of the conserva- 
 tion of matter and energy, and that light, 
 heat and electricity are but modes of motion, 
 which cannot be destroyed, but may be 
 transformed. It was faith that enabled 
 Morse and Edison to make us live in a new 
 world by transforming energy and harness- 
 ing it to the mill-wheel and the factory band. 
 Back of all that is visible and tangible, we 
 believe there is the atom, ether, and gravita- 
 tion, though we have never heard, seen, 
 tasted, or touched them. The chapter in 
 Hebrews is in entire accord with the 
 methods of science when it says : ''Through 
 faith we understand that the worlds were 
 framed by the word of God, so that things 
 which are seen were not made of things 
 which do not appear." 
 
 We must approach the Gospel of Grace 
 by the same method. Here is a life to 
 account for— the life of Jesus so marvelous, 
 so unique. The outward facts diflferentiate 
 this from all other human lives — born of a 
 virgin, a sinless life, "love so amazing, so 
 divine." (By the way. Dr. James Orr has 
 written a wonderful book on 'The Virgin 
 Birth," to which I beg to call the attention 
 of my readers.) 
 
182 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Another unique and solitary fact in 
 human history is this absolutely sinless man. 
 In his birth immaculate; in His childhood, 
 youth, and manhood ; in public and private, 
 in death and in life, He was faultless. 
 Listen to the witnesses. His enemies tes- 
 tify. The Pharisees watched Him. I quote 
 again: ''There were the Pharisees, mighty 
 in every crowd, hiding behind every tree. 
 They examined His disciples, they cross- 
 examined all around Him. They looked 
 into His ministerial life; into His domestic 
 privacy, and His hours of retirement. They 
 came forward with the sole accusation they 
 could muster — that he had shown disrespect 
 unto Ceasar. The Roman judge, who ought 
 to know, pronounced it void." 
 
 There was another spy, Judas. Had there 
 been one failure in the Redeemer's career, 
 in his awful agony, Judas would have 
 remembered it for his comfort ; but the bit- 
 terness of his despair, that which made his 
 life intolerable, was, *T have betrayed the 
 innocent blood." He challenged His bit- 
 terest enemies to convict Him of sin. The 
 prayer of the forgiveness of trespasses which 
 He teaches and urges upon others. He needs 
 not for Himself. 
 
 The testimony of His friends I need not 
 recite. His life was like a ray of light, 
 which, parting from the fountain of light, 
 can pass through the foulest medium and 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 183 
 
 Still be unstained and untouched? Do you 
 want an ^ illustration of true devotion. 
 Behold Him whole nights in prayer! Do 
 you want an illustration of suffering? See 
 His path across Palestine tracked in blood ! 
 Do you want an example of patience ? See 
 Him abused and maltreated and never 
 offering one sharp retort ! Do you want an 
 example of industry? See Him without one 
 idle moment ! Do you want a specimen of 
 sacrifice? Look at His life of suffering, His 
 ignominy and death, His sepulchre of hu- 
 miliation! What an example! His feet 
 wounded, yet He submitted to the journey ! 
 His back lacerated, yet He carried the cross ! 
 With wounds in His hands and wounds in 
 His feet and wounds in His side and wounds 
 on His brow, He cried out ''Father, forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do." 
 This is *'love so amazing, so divine." 
 
 All honest men must account for these 
 facts ; and, by the same method of induction 
 as that used by the man of science, we 
 arrive at the deeper hidden idea, the Logos. 
 Truly this was a righteous man — the 
 Messiah that should come into the world. 
 And the more you observe the facts, the 
 more you are assured of this verity. 
 
 Still another word regarding method as 
 it applies to the individual life of the Chris- 
 tian. It is no discredit to a child to believe 
 in the things of life and religion, what his 
 
184 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 parents and teachers tell him, but it is to his 
 discredit as a man to continue to believe 
 these things purely on the ground of priest- 
 ly or parental testimony. ''When I became a 
 man I put away childish things." Forbid 
 that I should say anything against the 
 creeds of the church — those grand and glori- 
 ous testimonies that have come down to us 
 from our fathers. Creeds are testimonies 
 witnessing for Christ. If the tes- 
 timony of one is good, the testimony of 
 many is better. But, for all that, we dare 
 not mistake the creed for the life of God in 
 the soul. When we become men, we must 
 put our religion to the test — practice it, 
 test it, reaching up to a general truth 
 through the study and testing of a large 
 body of particulars — the inductive method — 
 the laboratory method with retort and blow- 
 pipe. You may call that pragmatism. I will 
 call it practical religion. The method was 
 recommended by our Lord when he said : 
 ''If any man will do His will he shall know 
 of the doctrine, whether it be of God." 
 
 There is a significant illustration of this 
 very fact in the person of the brilliant Eng- 
 lish scientist, George John Romanes. And 
 there are many who, to return to the king- 
 dom, like him, must live life over again. He 
 had been reared under strict religious in- 
 fluences. His religion was largely of the 
 inherited kind — parental authority kind; 
 
AM) THE BIBLE OF GRACE 185 
 
 and, until he found himself inside the 
 university, he had never questioned the 
 validity of his beliefs. But he became inter- 
 ested in the then new doctrine of evolution. 
 Not able to reconcile the scientific method 
 with his inherited religion, he forsook his 
 faith with bitterness and tears; and, as did 
 Voltaire, he wrote a book which was 
 intended to shatter the foundations of re- 
 ligion. Some years passed by and by chance 
 there fell into his hands a little volume of 
 science describing the researches of a foreign 
 missionary to China by the name of Gulick. 
 This little book reveals an intimate knowl- 
 edge of nature. Romanes was greatly 
 surprised at its contents, and wrote to the 
 missionary, asking him how a Christian who 
 believed in the supernatural could make so 
 valuable a contribution in the field of pure 
 science. Gulick replied to the sceptic that, 
 in the domain of faith, he applied the same 
 method as in the field of science, — the induc- 
 tive method both in religion and science. 
 This was a new thought to Romanes. He 
 began to realize that he had started at the 
 wrong end. He determined to seek God. 
 He began by looking at that unique will and 
 life of Jesus. He began the slow, patient 
 effort of living that life ; and, from the dark- 
 ness and the damps of the valley of unbelief, 
 he rose to the uplands of clear sunlight and 
 living faith in a personal Redeemer. His 
 
186 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 salvation was one of method — it was the 
 gospel of Nature — and may it not be the 
 means of helping many others? 
 
 Look at the miraculous in nature ! And 
 now a word concerning the miraculous in 
 the Book of Grace. When the Lord gave 
 sight and speech and hearing to one 
 possessed with a devil, the sceptics, unable 
 to deny or discredit the fact, immediately 
 attempted to explain it in such a way as to 
 obviate the conclusion that *'no man can do 
 such things except he be from God." And 
 so they attributed the m.iracle to the prince 
 of devils. 
 
 How very different their method of treat- 
 ing this subject of miracles from that 
 adopted by unbelievers in our day. Modern 
 sceptics assert that there were no miracles. 
 However, they are unanimous in this; that, 
 if Christ did work the miracles, the inev- 
 itable conclusion would be that He was 
 from God. The great masters of infidel 
 logic cannot tell how to get away from the 
 divinity of the Gospel, if they admit the 
 reality of miracles. In this they agree with 
 the Christian. And so, to avoid the con- 
 clusion, they must deny the premise. 
 
 But beyond a doubt, the ancient infidels 
 were the better judges of that which 
 occurred before their very eyes. The tes- 
 timony of the eye-witnesses should surely 
 be worth more than any modern specula- 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 187 
 
 tions on the subject. And, if there had been 
 the shadow of an opportunity for them to 
 discredit the facts, surely they would have 
 done that rather than seek refuge in such 
 an absurd theory. His enemies understood 
 Jesus to affirm His divinity when he said, 
 ''Before Abraham was, I am." Taking- the 
 eye-witnesses as the most competent judges 
 of the facts, and our modern infidels as the 
 best judges of the logic of the case, between 
 the two (from the most bitter enemies of 
 Christianity,) we have everything we need 
 to settle unmistakably the Messiahship of 
 Jesus and the divinity of His religion. 
 
 But it is to the first miracle that I wish 
 especially to direct you. Christ's glory did 
 not begin with the miracle ; the miracle only 
 manifested it. During all the years while 
 He lived on earth, the same glory was in 
 Him. It was no more divine now than at 
 any other time — no more divine at any time 
 than it was when in obedience to His mother 
 and in love to his brethren. It was just as 
 divine in those simple, daily acts of life, as 
 when it showed itself in a way startling and 
 wonderful. It was just as much the life of 
 God on earth when He did an act of ordinary 
 human love or human duty, as when He did 
 that which was extraordinary, such as turn- 
 ing water into wine. 
 
 Grod was just truly in the daily life and 
 love of Christ as He was in His miracles. 
 
188 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 The miracles only made that hidden glory 
 visible. The extraordinary only proved that 
 the ordinary was divine. That was the 
 very object of the miracle; viz; to manifest 
 His glory. And if, instead of quickening 
 men to see the real glory ever present in 
 Him, the miracle only fastened men's atten- 
 tion on itself, then the whole intention of 
 the miracle was lost. 
 
 The gospel of nature will illustrate this. 
 If you have ever thought on this matter, 
 you are aware that the lightning only man- 
 ifests the electric force which is everywhere, 
 and but for a moment has become visible.' 
 As often as we see it, it reminds us that the 
 lightning slumbers invisibly in the dewdrop, 
 the cloud, and the mist, and binds together 
 every atom of water that we use in daily 
 life. But to the unthinking worldling, 
 lightning is something unique and does not 
 exist unless it appears. To him there is 
 wonderful glory in the lightning's flash, 
 because he sees it ; but none in the dewdrop, 
 simply because he does not see it. And so, 
 to the half-believer, a miracle is the only 
 evidence of God. But to a believer, a 
 miracle only manifests the love and power 
 which are silently working everywhere — 
 shown just as truly in the slow work of the 
 Epileptic Home and the cure for the insane, 
 as in the sudden giving of speech and hear- 
 ing to the one possessed with a devil — as 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 189 
 
 truly divine in the gift of daily bread, as in 
 the miraculous increase of the loaves and 
 fishes. God's power is at work not only in 
 the growth of the vine and the ripening of 
 the grapes, but just as truly in the fermenta- 
 tion of the grape-juice as it passes into wine. 
 It is not more glory, but glory more man- 
 ifest when water is commanded to pass 
 immediately into wine. 
 
 And so even what we consider oft-times 
 the ills of life, have their mission for good if 
 only we could read aright. Concerning the 
 man born blind, Jesus was asked, ''Who 
 sinned, this man or his parents?" Jesus 
 answered, "Neither this man nor his parents, 
 but that the works of God might be made 
 manifest." If we study aright the Gospel 
 of Nature, then every tree and shrub will 
 become to us a burning bush from which we 
 may hear the voice of God lovingly speak 
 to us. 
 
 "Flower in the crannied wall, 
 
 I pluck you out of the crannies : — 
 
 Hold you here, root and all, in my hand. 
 Little flower — but if I could understand 
 and know 
 
 What you are, root and all, and all in all 
 I should know what God and man is." 
 
 And be sure of this one thing, that if you 
 do not recognize God's presence in the 
 
190 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 annual miracle of harvest, and God's pres- 
 ence in the vintage of every year, then you 
 will not be convinced by the miraculous. "If 
 you hear not Moses and the prophets 
 neither v^^ill you be persuaded though one 
 rose from the dead." Miracles have only 
 done their work when they teach us the 
 glory and the wonders that surround our 
 common life^ — when they teach us to read 
 the gospel in nature, and when they teach 
 us the many lessons we may learn from 
 nature's pages if only we can read aright. 
 
 In a little booklet entitled, "A Scientific 
 Confession of Faith," Emily Lovira Gregory, 
 Ph. D; the author, says of her German 
 materialistic professor at Zurich, that in 
 speaking of the mystery that inheres in the 
 simple drop of protoplasm, which is the 
 germ from which the plant springs, he was 
 accustomed, in his dignified way, often to 
 say: 'Ich biege mich vor dem Geheimniss," 
 "I bow myself before the mystery" — ^before 
 the mystery, that is, enshrined in the tiny 
 drop, of protoplasm. Though the savant 
 cannot explain the mystery, he admits the 
 fact. 
 
 So also there are mysterious facts in the 
 life of Jesus which we designate as miracles. 
 No one pretends to understand and explain 
 them. They are mysterious facts. Concern- 
 ing the conception, the nativity, and the 
 incarnation; the changing of water into 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 191 
 
 wine, the feeding of the five thousand, and 
 the calling of Lazarus from the dead. I will 
 say as the German Savant says with ref- 
 erence to the mysterious fact of ordered 
 potentiality resident in the simple drop of 
 protoplasm; "I bow myself before the 
 mystery." Here again there is kinship in 
 the Book of Nature and the Book of Grace. 
 But from this mystery there goes forth 
 from both books the glad message in the 
 phenomena so eagerly read by the men of 
 science and by the followers of Christ. With 
 this knowledge as a starting point, how easily 
 all other questions are met and answered! 
 Then all will blossom as the rose. 
 
 Why not look upon a miracle as that 
 which it professes to be, and apart from 
 which it would be no miracle — as something 
 happening outside the laws of nature so far 
 as we know them, whether it be an occur- 
 rence in obedience to higher laws or whether 
 it be an arbitrary and supernatural interven- 
 tion of God. From this simple position with 
 regard to a miracle, and this definition which 
 is contained in the word of God itself, two 
 things follow : First, the absurdity of deny- 
 ing it. For, to maintain that no miracle 
 has ever taken place, that such a thing is 
 impossible, is to maintain that we know all 
 the forces and laws and possibilities in the 
 universe! We see what a foolish proposition 
 that is. "It is the presumption of human 
 
192 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 iterance to hold that a thing is impossible, 
 simply because it seems to us incomprehen- 
 sible." (Mandsley.) Science never has been, 
 and never will be, in a position to decide 
 infallibly what can and what cannot be. 
 Therefore, the possibility of a miracle, as 
 something apparently incomprehensible, is 
 not to be denied. The old discussion as to 
 vj^hether it resulted from a direct dispensa- 
 tion of God or from the operation of 
 -unknown laws, is for us idle and unprofitable. 
 What we, for the sake of brevity and con- 
 venience, call natural forces, are in reality a 
 continual exercise of the power of God, as in 
 Revelations IV:II, the heavenly choir sang, 
 "Thou hast created all things, and for thy 
 pleasure they are, and were created." 
 
 The second result that follows from the 
 above definition of a miracle is the impos- 
 sibility of scientifically disputing it; for a 
 miracle is entirely outside the domain of 
 scientific criticism. This was acknowledged 
 by Tyndall (so much revered by scientists,) 
 who was by no means a believer in the Bible, 
 yet admitted that if there is a God He is 
 Almighty, and therefore can work miracles; 
 and that miracles have nothing to do with 
 science, but lie outside her province. We 
 would recommend this utterance of a man 
 of rank to those of no rank, but who delight 
 in confronting miracle with science — a proc- 
 ess much like shooting at the sun with a 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 193 
 
 revolver, and thinking if only the weapon 
 were more powerful we should hit it. The 
 very essence of a miracle is its intangibility 
 by proofs and reasoning, its incomprehen- 
 sibility, and its incapability of being proved. 
 He who tries to explain it shows that he does 
 not know what a miracle is, and in his 
 attempt only succeeds in making a fool of 
 himself, both from the scientific and the 
 Christian point of view. He who allows his 
 belief in miracles to be reasoned away, or 
 even shaken by professedly scientific argu- 
 ments, is, to say the least, sadly lacking in 
 perspicuity, and would do well to test His 
 conception of an Almighty God and find out 
 what he really does believe. He who does 
 not believe in miracles, does not believe in 
 God, even though he believes that he be- 
 lieves in Him ; that is to say, he is mentally 
 too weak to grasp both. In all times, small 
 natures have been inclined to ridicule the 
 idea of a miracle, just because it goes be- 
 yond their horizon, while in all ages and 
 nations there have been great, deep- 
 thinking, and clear-sighted men who have 
 believed it. 
 
 The Book of Nature, as well as the Book 
 of Grace, teaches us to believe in the super- 
 natural. The child and the sage alike live 
 in a world largely made up of the super- 
 natural element, and the latter sees even 
 more wonderful things than the former. It 
 
194 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 is, however, easier to believe in the 
 supernatural in general than in the miracles 
 of the Bible, for between the two lies the 
 great difference between theory and prac- 
 tice. This accounts for the fact that many 
 people who have no difficulty in believing 
 that long ages ago God created the world, 
 would think it very strange if they were 
 told that God has this morning created a 
 grain of sand. And others who grant the 
 existence of a Supreme Being somewhere 
 far off, would smile if I told them that this 
 morning He had answered my prayer. They 
 can put up with the supernatural; that 
 belongs to philosophy, almost to science. 
 But to believe in miracles ! Think of all it 
 means ! Think of all it leads to ! 
 
 Men cannot get away from miracles; even 
 the materialists believe in them. Not in 
 those, it is true, which happened nearly 
 nineteen hundred years ago, and to which 
 many trustworthy men are witness; but in 
 such as happened millions of years ago, 
 which were observed by none who could 
 testify to their genuineness. That he may 
 not be obliged to believe in the miracle of 
 creation he believes in an improved spon- 
 taneous generation or imports at great 
 expense life-germs from other worlds. That 
 Christ raised the dead, made an organism 
 which had lived, live again, he does not 
 believe ; but he does believe that organisms 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 195 
 
 were generated by dead matter. That God 
 for a special purpose endowed an ass with 
 speech, that it spoke certain words, is too 
 absurd to believe ; but that an ape, without 
 knowing why, gradually began to talk, and 
 that all the asses in the world will one day 
 speak, is, or ought to be, seriously believed 
 by those who hold the doctrine of evolution. 
 That God, the creator of fire and of men, 
 should have made three men fireproof for 
 a few minutes, seems to them a ridiculous 
 legend; but they believe that organized 
 germs existed for millions of years in the 
 glowing cosmic gas and in molten granites. 
 Even Tyndall believes that all life-germs, 
 the inventive faculty, reason, and the will, 
 in all their manifestations were once *'latent 
 in a fiery cloud !" If that is not a miracle, 
 what is it? Truth is a mighty weapon, 
 whether you find it in the Book of Nature 
 or in the Book of Grace. It drives men to 
 believe in the miraculous even though the 
 facts are accounted for by such an absurd 
 statement as that a God cast out devils 
 through the prince of devils. When you 
 accept miracles as truth, there is harmony. 
 When you deny them, you are caught on 
 the horns of a dilemna. 
 
 The Bible of Grace is full of nature— the 
 New Testament as well as the Old. Paul 
 is preaching the gospel from the Book of 
 Nature when he declares, "to all that be in 
 
196 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Rome," beloved of God, that ''that which 
 may be known of God is manifest in them; 
 for God hath shown it unto them ; for the 
 invisible things of Him from the creation of 
 the world are clearly seen, being understood 
 by the things that are made." Rom. 1:19, 
 20. To the pagan Athenians he said that 
 "in God we live and move and have our 
 being," and gave their own poets credit for 
 having read this gospel from the Book of 
 Nature. It seems to me unnecessary to 
 dwell on this, beyond that of pointing out 
 the mere fact that it was our Lord's meth- 
 od invariably to teach by parables, which is 
 only another way of saying that He pointed 
 them to the great Book of Nature, which 
 was constantly before their eyes and making 
 things of the kingdom otherwise hid from 
 them would be manifest. 
 
 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net 
 that is cast into the sea; like unto a house- 
 holder; like a treasure hid in a field; like 
 a grain of mustard seed ; like a merchant 
 seeking goodly pearls. 
 
 When we learn a science, such as geom- 
 etry, algebra, astronomy or botany, our 
 intelligence does nothing but recognize and 
 contemplate the presented truths. These 
 truths existed just as truly before we recog- 
 nized them ; but they were not truths for 
 us until we personally became sensible of 
 them. When the laws governing the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 197 
 
 heavenly bodies became sensible to Kepler, 
 then in ecstasy he cried out, "O God, we 
 read Thy thoughts after Thee !" And 
 almost as soon as we recognize the fact that 
 they are thoughts for us at this end, we also 
 recognize that they must have been 
 thoughts at the other end. Thus, if order, 
 harmony, beauty and intelligence are recog- 
 nized in nature — come out of nature — they 
 must somehow have been potentially in it. 
 And if there is logos at the end, we may 
 be sure that there was also logos at the 
 beginning. 
 
 When the five or six-year-old child of the 
 Scottish philosopher, Beattie, was begin- 
 ning to read — a child to whom the father 
 had not as yet sought opportunity to talk of 
 God — an opportunity to find entrance into 
 his mind for this great idea in a manner 
 suitable to his age, the father thought of the 
 following expedient. In a corner of a little 
 garden, without telling anyone of it, he drew 
 with his finger on the earth the three initial 
 letters of his child's name; and sowing 
 garden cresses in the furrows, covered the 
 seeds and smoothed the earth. He tells 
 us : "Ten days after, the child came running 
 to me, all amazed, and told me that his name 
 had grown in the garden. I smiled at these 
 words, and appeared not to attach much 
 importance to what he had said. But he 
 insisted on taking me to see what had hap- 
 
198 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 pened. "Yes," said I, on coming to the 
 place, "I see well enough that it is so; but 
 there is nothing wonderful in this — it is a 
 mere accident," and I went away. But he 
 followed me; and, walking beside me, he 
 said very seriously: ''That cannot be an 
 accident. Some one must have placed the 
 seeds to produce this result." *'You think, 
 then," said I to him, "that what here appears 
 as regular as the letters of your name, can- 
 not be produced by chance?" "Yes," said 
 he firmly, "I think so." "Well, then, look 
 at yourself, consider your hands and fingers, 
 your legs and feet, and all your members, 
 and do they not seem to you regular in 
 their appearance and useful in their service? 
 Doubtless they do. Can they then be the 
 result of chance?" "No," replied he, "that 
 cannot be ; someone must have made them 
 for me." "And who is the someone?" I 
 asked him. He replied that he did not 
 know. I then made known to him the name 
 of the great Being who made all the world ; 
 and regarding his name, I gave him all the 
 instruction that could be adapted to his age. 
 The lesson struck him profoundly, and he 
 has never forgotten it or the circumstances 
 that was the occasion of it!" 
 
 And so it is true in all the universe that, 
 w^herever there is thought, beauty and order 
 at the end, we know that it was at the be- 
 ginning. When we know what is at the 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 199 
 
 end, we know what was at the beginning. 
 If we see the marks of a loving father's 
 hand at the end, we know that a loving 
 father's hand was at the beginning. It is 
 nature revealing itself 
 
 Though a subject so commonplace, it 
 seems to me that this chapter would be in- 
 complete without a reference to the fact that 
 springtime and flowers mean resurrection. 
 Some branches of learning you may study 
 at your option. But the Lord commands 
 you to "consider the lilies of the field, how 
 they grow." 
 
 During the long winter months, down m 
 the dark, damp grave, the lily bulb, the 
 crocus, the tulip, the hyacinth, and the 
 dafify-down dilly were sleeping, as it Avere, 
 "the sleep of the just." Apparently the 
 floral world was dead— had disappeared 
 from off the face of the nether-world. If we 
 had never seen a springtime, with its resur- 
 rection of glory, then the resurrection day 
 itself would not fill us with greater wonder 
 and admiration than the first days of sprmg, 
 when "the winter is past, the rain is over 
 and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, 
 the time of the singing of birds is come, and 
 the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our 
 land ;" "when the fig tree putteth forth her 
 green figs, and the vines with the tender 
 grape gives a good smell." "How are the 
 dead raised up? and wi^th what body do they 
 
200 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 come?" some ask. What a foolish question! 
 Says Paul : 'That which thou sowest is not 
 quickened except it die; and that which 
 thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that 
 shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of 
 wheat or some other gram; but God giveth 
 it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to 
 every seed his own body." Paul means to 
 say that the book of nature tells the story — 
 the life-history of the individual. If we ac- 
 cept the one revelation, we are morally 
 bound to accept the other. It is scientific 
 confirmation of the Gospel of Grace. A 
 shrivelled grain of wheat is buried in the 
 ground. There it dies, and the farinaceous 
 part of it decays and forms a peculiarly fine 
 soil, into which the life-germ strikes itself, 
 and upon which the life-germ feeds. The 
 seed itself dies with the exception of a par- 
 ticle too small to be seen with the naked 
 eye. Soon we see a green blade springing 
 up. That swells, grows and increases until 
 it comes to be the full corn in the ear. No 
 one has any suspicion but that the same 
 wheat arises from the soil into which it was 
 cast. Put into the earth, we believe that it 
 springs up, and we are accustomed to talk 
 of it in our ordinary language as being the 
 very seed that was sown, although the dif- 
 ference is striking and marvelous. Now you 
 have a plant about three feet high, bearing 
 many grains of wheat, which the other day 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 301 
 
 was an insignificant shrivelled grain ; yet no 
 one doubts that the two are the same. 
 
 So shall it be in the resurrection of the 
 dead. The body is here like a shrivelled 
 grain — there is no beauty in it that we 
 should admire it. It is put into the grave, 
 like wheat that is sown in the earth ; there 
 it decays; ("earth to earth, ashes to ashes, 
 dust to dust,") but God preserves within it 
 mysteriously a sort of life-germ which is 
 immortal, and when the trumpet of the 
 archangel shall shake the heavens and the 
 earth, it shall expand to the full flower of 
 manhood — far more glorious — a glorified 
 body. 
 
 "Wouldst learn to know one little flower, 
 
 Its perfume, perfect form and hue? 
 Yes, wouldst thou have one perfect hour 
 
 Of all the years that come to you? 
 Then grow as God hath planted, grow 
 
 A lordly oak or daisy low. 
 As He hath set His garden; be 
 
 Just what thou art, or grass or tree ; 
 Thy treasures up in heaven laid 
 
 Await thee sure, ascending soul. 
 Life after life — be not afraid." 
 
 Joaquin Miller. 
 
203 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Conclusion. 
 
 (a.) The Alleged Controversy Between 
 Science and Religion. 
 
 The alleged Antagonism of Theology to 
 the Progress of Science is, we believe, very 
 much exaggerated. The great majority of 
 the men whose names are memorable in the 
 history of science and who have contributed 
 most to its advancement were men of faith 
 — monotheists — men who devoutly and 
 reverently believed in the God of the Chris- 
 tian's Bible and not in the gods of the 
 heathen. Even the Greek philosophers, 
 Plato and x\ristotle, were not materialists, 
 but metaphysicians ; they believed in re- 
 ligion and attained more clearly to mono- 
 theism than to polytheism. When we think 
 of the scientific achievements of the Arabs 
 in the Middle Ages, let us remember that 
 they believed in one God. And when we 
 think of the Renaissance of the Revival of 
 Learning, let us not forget that it was de- 
 veloped by Christian civilization, while the 
 partial civilization, of Mahomet declined 
 and fell. 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 203 
 
 As regards the charge of Dr. Draper in 
 his ''Conflict between Religion and Sci- 
 ence," that the Catholic church is responsi- 
 ble for the condition of Europe from the 
 fourth to the sixteenth century, Dr. Samuel 
 Harris correctly says : "Certainly an author 
 is destitute of the historical spirit and utter- 
 ly incompetent to write history, hvho can 
 make so amazng a generalization and ac- 
 count for the course of events during all 
 those centuries by a single cause." It is 
 like saying that intemperance is the only 
 sin in the world. 
 
 It is true that Roman Catholicism, with 
 Christianity left out, does hold principles 
 incompatible with freedom of thought. This 
 the Encyclical of Pope Pius IX. indicates 
 clearly. But the institution of Roman Cath- 
 olicism is so far away from the spirit, doc- 
 trine, and life of Jesus and the primitive 
 church, that it seems to me far from fair to 
 lay its faults at the door of the Christian 
 church. The Protestant Reformation was 
 the true development of Christianity, reas- 
 serting its primitive and essential spirit and 
 truth, and re-establishing freedom of 
 thought and speech, by which very freedom 
 Rome itself has been benefited. Dr. Draper 
 seems entirely unconscious of the fact that 
 he, a Unitarian, furnishes a striking 
 example of extremes meeting, when he 
 cites Romanism as his conception of the 
 
204 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 church as an outward visible institution, and 
 thus confounds the errors thereof with 
 Christianity. As a matter of fact that in- 
 stitution which Dr. Draper calls the church 
 and stigmatizes as the one cause of the evil 
 conditions of the Middle Ages, did often 
 stand in the way of science and progress. 
 And yet in so far as it did so it is void of the 
 pure teaching of God's word and the right 
 administration of the sacraments, and in so 
 far as its life is not in accord with the Iffe 
 of Christ and with a true and living faith 
 in Him, it is not the church at all; it is a 
 monster, anti-Christian and contrary to the 
 church which lived invisible during those 
 dark days. This true church all honest men 
 must admit was the very means most ef- 
 fective in resisting the man-made institution 
 of Romanism (so powerful in its worldli- 
 ness) and in bringing out of it at last the 
 Revival of learning and the Reformation of 
 religion. 
 
 When Lord Lindsay was in Egypt, wan- 
 dering amid the pyramids, and seeking out 
 the mysteries of the tombs, he discovered a 
 mummy, afterwards ascertained to be two 
 thousand years old. Unwrapping it, he 
 found in its closed hand a bulbous root, 
 which he carried home and planted where 
 it might have the warm sunshine and the 
 rain. To his surprise and astonishment it 
 SDrouted and budded and blossomed into a 
 
AXD THE BIBLE OF GRACE 205 
 
 beautiful flower. Let this be a parable of 
 what I mean by the church invisible, re- 
 taining still its hidden potencies. 
 
 It would be well for those who stigmatize 
 the Christian religion as being opposed to 
 progress and invention, to remember that 
 Wiclif, the morning star of the Reforma- 
 tion, had arisen; that Huss had aroused his 
 countrymen to intense activity of thought 
 and to religious reform, before printing was 
 invented; that Luther had nailed his ninety- 
 five theses to the castle church door in Wit- 
 tenberg before there was a telescope or a 
 microscope. Before there was a post office 
 system in England or a carriage on springs 
 in Paris ; before James Watt and Arkwright 
 were born, these great religious awakenings 
 had taken place in Europe. Here, as al- 
 ways, spiritual truth has gone in advance 
 of science in its work of rousing the mind 
 to action. 
 
 It is also in keeping with fairness and 
 truth if I say that during the nineteenth 
 century very many of the scientists of the 
 first rank in all departments of the natural 
 sciences were at the same time devout 
 Roman Catholics. Direct antagonisms on 
 the part of the clergy against scientific dis- 
 covery are comparatively few, notwithstand- 
 ing the insinuation by some, tending to 
 convey the impression that discover}- in sci- 
 ence has usually in all ages been opposed 
 
206 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 by the clergy. There is no foundation for 
 this ; or at most, it is a gross exaggeration. 
 The one illustration which we have heard 
 since we sat on the rude bench in the little 
 red school house at the cross-roads, is 
 Galileo and his doctrine of the antipodes. 
 Dr. Draper, in the ''Conflict Between Re- 
 ligion and Science," does not seem to realize 
 that there has always been a greater con- 
 flict; viz., that between Scientist and Sci- 
 entist. For it is a fact very evident to those 
 who know history, that scientific discov- 
 eries have met with more opposition from 
 the students of natural science themselves 
 than from all the theologians the world 
 over. 
 
 Copernicus, in the dedication to Pope 
 Paul III., of his work, "Concerning the 
 Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs," says, 
 that he had kept his book four times the 
 nine years required by Horace because he 
 knew how absurd his doctrine would ap- 
 pear; and Whewell adds: "It will be ob- 
 served that he speaks of the opposition of 
 the established school of astronomers, not 
 of divines." The theory did encounter great 
 opposition from astronomers, as Copernicus 
 had anticipated. Scientific men were slow 
 to accept it. Lord Bacon rejected it to the 
 end of his life. And mark this, if you please! 
 Whewell adds : "Perhaps the works of the 
 celebrated Bishop Wilkins — a clergyman, 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 207 
 
 you will observe — tended more than any- 
 other to the diffusion of the Copernican sys- 
 tem in England." And Wilkins' book was 
 published in 1638 and 1640, nearly a hun- 
 dred years after Copernicus had published 
 his system. 
 
 Huygens, Bernouilli, Cassini, Leibnitz, 
 and others, the most distinguished physi- 
 cists and philosophers of the close of the 
 seventeenth and the beginning of the 
 eighteenth centuries, opposed Sir Isaac 
 Newton's system of gravitation. Dr. Jen- 
 ner's discovery of vaccination was opposed 
 and denounced by physicians. The anti- 
 phlogistic controversy against those who 
 recognized the discovery of oxygen was 
 long and bitter. 
 
 A century after the discovery of microbes 
 had been made by Swammerdam and Lee- 
 wenhoeck, the Academy of Paris (scien- 
 tific) attempted to overthrow it with a 
 sneer! "One can generally see," said they, 
 "with the microscope whatever one imag- 
 ines." Aubry says of Harvey's discovery 
 of the circulation of the blood : ''After Har- 
 vey's book, 'Of the Circulation of the 
 Blood,' came out, he fell mightily in his 
 practice, and it was believed by the vulgar 
 that he was crack-brained. And after his 
 discovery was accepted in England, it was 
 still opposed abroad." 
 
 As regards Geology, H. S. Williams, in 
 
208 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 his story of Nineteenth-Century Science, 
 says, that a great controversy was waged 
 between the two schools (of scientists as- 
 suredly) known as Neptunists and Pluto- 
 nists, headed by Werner and Hutton re- 
 spectively. Williams says : "The history of 
 geology during our first quarter-century is 
 mainly a recital of the intemperate contro- 
 versy between these opposing schools." 
 
 The same author says concerning Chem- 
 istry: "Of all the contests that were waged 
 in the various fields of science in this 
 iconoclastic epoch, perhaps the fiercest and 
 most turbulent was that which fell within 
 the field of chemistry. Indeed, this was one 
 of the most memorable warfares in the his- 
 tory of the polemics." The main point at 
 issue was the old doctrine of phlogiston and 
 the antiphlogistic movement championed 
 by Lavoisier with the help of Priest- 
 ley's discovery of oxgyen. Williams says : 
 Lavoisier "fell by the guillotine, a victim 
 not only of the 'Reign of Terror,' but like- 
 wise a victim of national frenzy." At Ber- 
 lin the scientists began by burning the 
 French reform leader in effigy, but soon 
 ended by accepting the new theories. In 
 England the fight was more stubborn. This 
 conflict, you will note, was between sci- 
 entist and scientist. 
 
 The real point of interest in this contest, 
 however, for those who think that the 
 
x\ND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 209 
 
 clergy has stood in the way of progress in 
 science, is, of course, the fact that Dr. 
 Joseph Priestley, an ordained minister, was 
 the discoverer of oxygen, and thus made 
 possble for Lavosier the new chemistry. 
 Furthermore, a generation later, Davy said 
 of this preacher that "no other person ever 
 discovered so many new and curious sub- 
 stances as he." 
 
 Yes, the conflicts above alluded to, and 
 many, many others, were conflicts between 
 scientist and scientist. And this is the rule 
 which obtains where there has been opposi- 
 tion to the advancement of science ; viz., 
 that the conflict has been between opposing 
 schools of science, so that clergymen may 
 well say, as Aesop's wolf did when he saw 
 the shepherds eating a lamb, ''If I had done 
 this what an outcry would have been heard!" 
 
 (b) The Greatest Scientists Were Religious 
 
 Men. 
 
 In modern times the greatest scientists 
 were, without doubt, devout men. Hear 
 them 6peak, and then answer the ques- 
 tion. Were they opposed to religion? Hear 
 Carl Von Linne, the father of Botany and 
 the son of a Lutheran Vicar — listen to his 
 voice raised amid his researches among the 
 Flora: "God, the eternal, omniscient, I have 
 seen from behind the flora as He passed by 
 — and I stood in awe." 
 
210 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton records his testimony 
 at the close of the Principia : "This beautiful 
 system of sun, planets and comets could 
 have its origin in no other way than as the 
 purpose and at the command of an intelli- 
 gent and powerful Being. He governs all 
 things, not as the soul of the world, but as 
 the Lord of the universe. He is not only 
 God, but Lord or Governor. We know Him 
 only by His property and attributes, by the 
 wise and admirable structure of things 
 around us, and by their final causes ; we ad- 
 mire Him on account of His perfections, we 
 venerate and worship Him on account of 
 His goodness." 
 
 Sir Humphrey Davy (scientist) said: *'I 
 envy no quality of mind or intellect in 
 others, be it genius, power, wit, or fancy; 
 but if I could choose what would be most 
 delightful, and I believe most useful to me, 
 I should prefer a firm religious belief to 
 every blessing ; for it makes life a discipline 
 in goodness, creates new hopes when all 
 earthly hopes vanish, throws over the decay 
 and the destruction of existence, the most 
 gorgeous of all light, awakens life in death, 
 and from corruption and decay calls up 
 beauty and divinity." 
 
 Listen again to the rapt devotion of 
 Kepler, with which he closes The Har- 
 monies of the Universe : "Thou who by the 
 light of nature hast kindled in us the long- 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 211 
 
 ing after the light of Thy grace, in order to 
 raise us to the light of Thy glory, I give 
 thanks to Thee, Creator and Lord, that thou 
 hast given me delight in thy creation, and 
 that I have exulted in the works of Thy 
 hands. I have completed the work which I 
 proposed, with such force of intellect as 
 Thou hast given me. I have manifested the 
 glory of Thy works to the men w^ho will 
 read these demonstrat'ons, so far as my lim- 
 ited mind can comprehend Thine infinitude. 
 If I, a worm and a sinner, have set forth 
 anything unw'orthy of Thy counsels, in- 
 spire me to correct it and to set forth what 
 Thou wouldst have me know. If by the 
 admirable beauty of Thy works, I have been 
 hurried into any rashness, if I have sought 
 mine own glory among men while prose- 
 cuting a work intended for Thy glory, 
 wilt Thou, gentle and compassionate one, 
 forgive. And deign propitiously to cause 
 that these demonstrations may promote 
 Thy glory and the welfare of men. Praise 
 ye the Lord, ye heavenly harmonies; and 
 ye that understand the new harmonies, 
 praise ye the Lord. Praise God, O my soul, 
 as long as I live. From Him, through Him, 
 and in Him is all the material, as well as 
 the spiritual; all that we know, and all that 
 we do not know as yet, for there is much 
 to do that is yet undone." 
 
 Hear also Lord Bacon in this choir of 
 
212 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 kingly worshipers : "Thou, therefore, Father, 
 who gavest the visible light as the first 
 fruits of the creation, and at the completion 
 of Thy works didst inspire the countenance 
 of man with intellectual light, guard and 
 direct this work, which proceeding from 
 Thy bounty seeks in return Thy glory. If 
 we labor in Thy works. Thou wilt make us 
 partakers of Thy vision and Thy Sabbath. 
 We pray that this mind may abide in us ; 
 and that by our hands and the hands of 
 others to whom Tliou shalt impart the same 
 mind, Thou wilt be pleased to endow with 
 new gifts the family of man." 
 
 Perhaps it will interest us more to know 
 the attitude to the Scriptures and the Chris- 
 tianity of the leading Scientists of the nine- 
 teenth century. You may want the facts 
 up to date, and so I will call the roll of 
 honor and let them speak. 
 
 The first general statement of the law of 
 the Conservation of Energy we owe to the 
 German scientist, Robert Mayer, a Protes- 
 tant. In 1891 Tyndall wrote: "No greater 
 genius than Mayer has appeared in our 
 country." This same great scientist (when 
 on a voyage) wrote to his parents, "I will 
 ofifer up under all skies incessant prayers to 
 the Almighty that He may keep my be- 
 loved parents safe and well." At the end 
 of the voyage: *T waved on high my Bible 
 and my hymn-book, for which, before all 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 213 
 
 Other books, I had longed." "My early 
 feeling (said he at another time) that sci- 
 entific truths are to the Christian religion 
 much what brooks and rivers are to the 
 ocean, has become my most vital convic- 
 tion." At another time he quotes Matt. 
 10:32 in defense of his religious testimonies. 
 "Whosoever therefore shall confess me be- 
 fore men, him will I confess also before my 
 Father which is in heaven." 
 
 William Thompson, (Lord Kelvin) a 
 Protestant, was, says Von Helmholtz, "at 
 the age of thirty-one, one of the first mathe- 
 matical physicists in Europe." He is the 
 author of more than three hundred im- 
 portant works, and the father of the theory 
 of vortex rings. Having in mind the lesser 
 lights who advocated materialistic evolu- 
 tion, this great luminary said: "Science 
 positively affirms creative power. Science 
 makes everyone feel a miracle in himself." 
 (London Times, May, 1903.) And again: 
 "If you think strongly enough, you will be 
 forced by science to believe in God, which 
 is the foundation of all religion. You will 
 find science not antagonistic, but helpful to 
 religion." (-'Nineteenth Century" for June, 
 
 1903-) 
 
 Allow me to call attention briefly to the 
 mathematicians. I should at least mention 
 the name and one fact of Euler (Protes- 
 tant,) though he belongs to the eighteenth 
 
214 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 century. He wrote a book entitled "De- 
 fense of Revelation against the Objections 
 of the Freethinkers." 
 
 Karl Frederick Gauss (Protestant) was 
 one of the foremost mathematicians of all 
 time. Of him, his biographer says: "The in- 
 destructible idea of personal survival after 
 death, the steadfast belief which he had in 
 a Supreme Ruler, a just, eternal, omniscient, 
 omnipotent God, formed the foundation of 
 his religious life, and in unison with his 
 matchless scientific achievements formed a 
 perfect harmony." 
 
 Cauchy (Catholic), the greatest mathe- 
 matician of his day in France, made this 
 confession : "I am a Christian ; that is to 
 say, I believe in the Div'nty of Jesus as did 
 Tycho-Brahe, Copernicus, Newton, Leib- 
 nitz, Euler — as did all the great astrono- 
 mers, physicists and geometricians of past 
 ages.'' 
 
 Of Victor Puiseaux (Catholic,) the suc- 
 cessor to Cauchy, Gilbert testifies that he 
 was a man of profound religious conv'c- 
 tions. Reiman (Protestant,) regarded daily 
 self-examination in the presence of God as 
 one of the elements of religion. Herman 
 Grassmann (Protestant), described by 
 Cantor and Leskien as "one of the most 
 remarkable mathematicians of our time," 
 was a loyal Christian; was much inter- 
 ested in Foreign Missions, and left behind 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 215 
 
 him a work which bears the title "On the 
 Decay of Belief." 
 
 Concerning LaPlace it is well to mention 
 that there is an anecdote which relates that 
 when he presented one of his works to 
 Napoleon, the latter said: "Newton in his 
 work speaks of God. In yours I find no 
 mention of God." To which LaPlace is 
 said to have replied: 'T find no need for 
 that hypothesis." Now let us, for a moment, 
 suppose that LaPlace did use such words 
 (though I doubt it), it does not follow that 
 he was aa atheist." It would simply mean 
 that he contrasted his theory with that of 
 Newton ; in this view of the case, it is nec- 
 essary only to bear in mind the points on 
 which he was at variance with the great 
 Englishman in order to grasp the sense of 
 the epigram. At the sight of so many 
 planets and worlds, Newton had given way 
 to the fear that these countless, intricate 
 movements of orbs must result at last in 
 confusion, and that the intervention of 
 God from time to time was necessary to 
 obviate this confusion. But one of the 
 greatest achievements of LaPlace was pre- 
 cisely his proof that such intervention is 
 unnecessary. He showed by mathematical 
 calculation that such confusion can never 
 occur. If LaPlace did reply in the words 
 contained in the anecdotes, he by no means 
 necessarily intended to deny the existence 
 
216 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 of God, but probably only meant to assert 
 that the intervention of God was not neces- 
 sary to prevent the collision of worlds. It 
 is true that LaPlace cannot be held up as a 
 model in religion. It is worthy of note, 
 however, that he was never in his own 
 estimate a materialist. J. B. Dumas says 
 that the great mathematician commissioned 
 Arago to see to it that his biography should 
 not represent him as an atheist, but as a 
 believer, and adds that when he came to die, 
 he sent for a priest and devoted himself to 
 settling his accounts with heaven. 
 
 Let me now cite a few examples from 
 among the chemists. Klaproth, the chemist 
 (Protestant), was a ''profoundly religious 
 man." Chevreul, the chemist, said : "Those 
 who know me, know that, born a Catholic 
 and of Christian parents, I live and wish to 
 die a Catholic." Schoenbein (Protestant) 
 said : "Yes ! everything in nature reveals a 
 God whose wisdom and power humble our 
 pride ; for in His works we have learned to 
 know and to worship Him." Berzelius, 
 Dumas, Leibeg, Chevreul, one and all, 
 opposed materialism. Wurtz, Friedel, 
 Dalton and Henry, were all Protestant 
 Christians. 
 
 Dumas, for thirty years the leading 
 French chemist, was a devout Catholic, and 
 Lavoisier (Catholic) "died in the Christian 
 faith." Karl Fresenius, a Protestant, whose 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 217 
 
 hand-book of quantitive analysis ran to 
 sixteen editions in German and was trans- 
 lated not only into every European 
 language, but even into Chinese, was as 
 enthusiastic in religion as in science. Henri 
 Devill ''remained faithful all his life to the 
 religion of his boyhood and died in its 
 bosom." 
 
 Karl Ritter who made geograph}^ a 
 science, was a Protestant Christian. F. M. 
 Maury, master of Physical Geography, was 
 a Protestant Christian. D'Abbadie was a 
 zealous Catholic. Hausmann was a Protec- 
 tant Christian. Buckland and Conybeare 
 were ministers of the Anglican Church. G. 
 Von Roth and H. Von Dechen were 
 Protestant Christians. 
 
 Among the men who in the nineteenth 
 century did great things in Physiology, 
 Zoology, Embryology, and Botany, we 
 name the following who w^re Protestant 
 Christians: Cuvier, Wagner, Volkmann, 
 Spiess, Ruete, Flourens, Bell, Simpson, 
 Dana, Braun, Von Martins; while Laennec, 
 Carnoy, Pasteur, Bernard and J. Mueller 
 (the Cuvier of Germany) were Roman 
 Catholic Christians. 
 
 Among all the scientists of the nineteenth 
 century Pasteur ranks supreme as a bene- 
 factor to mankind. It is far under the truth 
 to say that he has saved more lives than 
 Napoleon destroyed. Pasteur's faith was 
 
218 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 as genuine as his science. He wrote at one 
 time: "Happy the man who bears within 
 him a divinity, an ideal of beauty and obeys 
 it; an ideal of art, an ideal of science, an 
 ideal of country, an ideal of the virtues of 
 the gospel." (The Catholic Encyclopaedia.) 
 
 Christian G. Ehrenberg (Protestant) 
 won his reputation in the sphere of the 
 infinitely small. Kings and princes sum- 
 moned him and his microscope. He 
 conceived nature as ordered by the reason- 
 able, purposive laws of the conscious 
 Creator. (Teleological Interpretation.) 
 
 Louis Agassiz (Protestant) wrote: 'The 
 animal kingdom is the visible manifes- 
 tation of the thought of God. Since man 
 has been created in the image of God, he 
 can lift himself up to the conception of the 
 Divine plan in creation." Referring to God, 
 he called Him *'the same Being that proph- 
 esied that the Son of the Virgin should 
 crush the head of the serpent." 
 
 Alfred Russell Wallace says : "We thus 
 find that the Darwinian theory, even when 
 carried out to its extreme logical conclu- 
 sions, not only does not oppose, but lends a 
 decided support to, a belief in the spiritual 
 nature of man. It shows us how man's 
 body may have been developed from that 
 of a lower animal form under the law of 
 natural selection ; but it also teaches 
 us that we possess intellectual and 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 219 
 
 moral faculties which could not 
 have been so developed, but must 
 have had another origin ; and for this 
 origin we can only find an adequate cause 
 in the unseen universe of Spirit." 
 
 At one of the morning prayer services at 
 Northfield Lady Hope, a consecrated 
 English woman, told the remarkable story 
 printed here. Later Lady Hope wrote the 
 story out for the "Watchman-Examiner." 
 It will give to the world a new view of 
 Charles Darwin. "It was one of those glo- 
 rious autumn afternoons, that we sometimes 
 enjoy in England, when I was asked to go 
 in and sit with the Well-known professor, 
 Charles Darwin. He was almost bed-ridden 
 for some months before he died. I used to 
 feel when I saw him that his fine presence 
 would make a grand picture for our royal 
 academy; but never did I think so more 
 strongly than on this particular occasion. 
 
 He was sitting up in bed wearing a soft 
 embroidered dressing gown, of rather a rich 
 purple shade. Propped up by pillows, he 
 was gazing out on a far-stretching scene of 
 woods and cornfields, which glowed in the 
 light of one of those marvelous sunsets 
 which are the beauty of Kent and Surrey. 
 His noble forehead and fine features 
 seemed to be lit up with pleasure as I 
 entered the room. He waved his hand 
 toward the window as he pointed out the 
 
220 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 scene beyond, while in the other hand he 
 held an open Bible, which he was always 
 studying. 
 
 ''What are you reading now?" I asked as 
 I seated myself by his bedside. 
 
 ''Hebrews !" he answered — still Hebrews. 
 'The Royal Book,' I call it. Isn't it grand?" 
 
 Then placing his finger on certain pas- 
 sages, he commented on them. 
 
 I made some allusion to the strong 
 opinions expressed by many persons on the 
 history of the Creation, its grandeur, and 
 then their treatment of the earlier chapters 
 of the book of Genesis. 
 
 He seemed greatly distressed, his fingers 
 twitched nervously, and a look of agony 
 came over his face as he said : *T was a 
 young man with unformed ideas. I threw 
 out queries, suggestions, wondering all the 
 time over everything, and to my astonish- 
 ment the ideas took like wildfire. People 
 made religion of them. 
 
 Then he paused, and after a few more 
 sentences on "the holiness of God" and 
 "the grandeur of this book," looking at the 
 Bible which he was holding tenderly all 
 the time, he suddenly said: 
 
 'T have a summer house in the garden, 
 which holds about thirty people. It is over 
 there," pointing through the open window. 
 *T want you very much to speak there. I 
 know you read the Bible in the villages. 
 
 ^ 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 221 
 
 Tomorrow afternoon I should like the ser- 
 vants on the place, some tenants and a few 
 of the neighbors to gather there. Will you 
 speak to them?" 
 
 "What shall I speak about?" I asked. 
 ''Christ Jesus!" he replied in a clear, 
 emphatic voice, adding in a lower tone, 
 **and his salvation. Is not that the best 
 theme ? And then I want you to sing some 
 hymns with them. You lead on your small 
 instrument, do you not?" 
 
 The wonderful look of brightness and 
 animation on his face as he said this I shall 
 never forget, for he added: 'Tf you take 
 the meeting at three o'clock, this window 
 will be open and you will know that I am 
 joining in with the singing." 
 
 J. Hanstein (Protestant), a Botanist of 
 Bonn, said that organic life becomes intel- 
 ligible only when interpreted teleologically. 
 J. W. A. Wiegand (Protestant), the great 
 Botanist, was also a fervent Christian. F. 
 Von Fueller (Protestant), a Botanist, made 
 it a practice to enrich his works with care- 
 fully chosen Latin mottoes, commonly 
 drawn from the Bible, declaring the glory 
 of the Almighty as manifested in creation. 
 Max Westerm'aier (Protestant), says in 
 1903 : "The reward set on a true knowledge 
 of the physical universe is no other and no 
 less than a true knowledge of God. This 
 path to God is open to all men, even to those 
 
222 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 who have never heard of Christ or Chris- 
 tianity, an<d all reasonable men must 
 perceive and pursue it." 
 
 I need not tell you what Volta, Ampere, 
 Ohm, and Galvani did in the domain of 
 electricity. They were all devout Chris- 
 tians! Faraday, "the greatest experimental 
 philosopher the world has ever seen," was 
 one of the most pious Protestant Christians. 
 Stokes, Maxwell, and Lord Kelvin won for 
 the Cambridge School of Physics the repu- 
 tation which it still enjoys. The Encyclo- 
 pedia Britannica (1902) ranks them as the 
 three greatest physicists of the day. They 
 were all devout Protestant Christians. 
 
 Sir William Crooks, one of the world's 
 greatest chemists of the day, writes : "I 
 cannot imagine the possibility of anyone 
 with ordinary intelligence entertaining the 
 least doubt as to the existence of a God — 
 a Law-Giver and a Life-Giver/* 
 
 Sir Oliver Lodge, perhaps the greatest 
 living physicist and certainly an earnest 
 believer, writes: ''The tendency of science, 
 whatever it is, is certainly not in an irrelig- 
 ious direction at the present time." 
 
 Sir George Stokes, the great physicist, 
 (died 1903) affirmed his belief that dis- 
 believers among men of science form a very 
 small minority; and Sir James Geikie, dean 
 of the faculty of science at Edinburgh Uni- 
 versity, impatiently writes : 'Tt is simply an 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 223 
 
 impertinence to say that the leading scien- 
 tists are irreligious or anti-Christians. Such 
 a statement could only be made by some 
 scatter-brained chatter-box or zealous 
 fanatic." 
 
 In their zeal for their specialized work 
 religion is often simply crowded out of their 
 lives. 
 
 Guglio Marconi, whom every boy knOws 
 as an inventor of wireless telegraphy, is a 
 loyal member of the Waldensian (Protes- 
 tant) Church. The two Herschels, the 
 greatest astronomers of all time, were very 
 consistent Protestant Christians. Leverrier 
 (a Protestant) said that the study of the 
 heavens had only deepened his living faith 
 in Christianity. Harve Fae writes much to 
 show the agreement of science and the Old 
 Testament Cosmogony. He says that the 
 study of Astronomy leads to a recognition 
 of God. Many Catholics rendered great 
 service in this branch of science during the 
 nineteenth, as in former centuries. 
 
 As concerns the attitude of Geologists 
 toward the subject of religion, I will say 
 that the great mass of those of the first rank 
 in the last century were not at variance with 
 it, but on the contrary found it their chief 
 joy to point out the harmony that existed 
 between the Bible of Nature and the Bible 
 of Grace. Hundreds have referred to this 
 fact and many have written entire volumes 
 
524 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 on this subject. For example, De Luc 
 (1817), George Cuvier (1813), MacCulloch 
 {1835), Von Fuchs (1856), Buckland 
 (1856), Hugh Miller (1856), De Serres 
 (1862), Hitchcock (1864), Pfoff (1886), 
 Dana (1895), Dawson (1899), Waagen 
 (1900), Kinns (1881), Rentsch 1910, 
 Wright (1907), etc., etc. 
 
 To save space and yet to accumulate 
 facts bearing on this point, I will add also, 
 that at the time of the meeting of the British 
 Association for the Advancement of Science, 
 in 1865, a manifesto was drawn up and 
 signed by six hundred and seventeen scien- 
 tific men, (many of whom were of the 
 highest eminence) in which they declare 
 their belief not only in the truth and author- 
 ity of the Bible of Grace, but also in its 
 harmony with the Bible of Nature. This 
 manifesto was printed with the signatures 
 attached, and the original document depos- 
 ited in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It 
 is as follows: "We, the undersigned, 
 students of the Natural Sciences, desire to 
 express our sincere regret that researches 
 into scientific truth are perverted by some in 
 our own times into occasions for casting 
 doubt upon the truth and authenticity of 
 the Holy Scriptures. We conceive that it 
 is impossible for the Word of God as writ- 
 ten in the Book of Nature, and God's Word 
 written in Holy Scripture, to contradict 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 225 
 
 each other, however much they may appear 
 to differ." Among the list of signers of the 
 above manifesto, I find such names as Sir 
 David Brewster, in the case of whom no 
 less than eleven lines of the volume are 
 required to enumerate his literary an^ 
 scientific titles. Here we have the united 
 testimony of more than six hundred men, 
 skilled in science, telling us of the harmony 
 of Revelation as it is written in the Bible 
 of Nature and in the Bible of Grace. 
 
 Must, then, the science of the nineteenth 
 century and of the centuries preceding, be 
 regarded, as a whole, as hostile to, and in 
 conflict with, the Christian religion? Has 
 there been such great hostility, as is often 
 portrayed in anti-Christian journals, be- 
 tVv'een Christianity and men of science? 
 Why, I ask, should there be need of it when 
 great men of science such as we have named 
 have themselves been on the side of the 
 Revealed Word, and who with the Bible of 
 Nature at their command have ever wielded 
 that mighty weapon in its defence? 
 
 It is perfectly true that in many of the 
 universities at home and abroad professors 
 can be found who are materialists, and not 
 Christians. It is true that men like 
 Virschow, Tyndal, and DuBoise Reymond 
 can be found upon the side of unbelief, but 
 that does not disannul what I have desired 
 to show. When a disciple of the school of 
 
226 . THE BIBLE OF NATUR^ 
 
 Elea had proven conclusively to another 
 Greek philosopher that the idea of motion 
 is self-contradictory, and that, consequently, 
 motion is impossible, his hearer replied, not 
 by argument, but by simply walking up 
 and down. We have tried to use the same 
 method by quoting the confessions of many 
 great scientists to show^ that science and 
 religion are not at variance — that there is 
 no need of conflict as alleged. 
 
 We are not forgetful that physical science 
 is not complete, but is only in condition of 
 progress, and that at present our finite 
 reason enables us to see only as through a 
 glass darkly; but we confidently believe 
 that a time will come when the two records 
 will be seen to agree in every particular, 
 and we cannot but deplore that natural 
 science should be looked upon with sus- 
 picion by many who do not make a study 
 of it, merely on account of the unadvised 
 manner in which some are placing it in 
 opposition to Holy writ. We believe that 
 it is the duty of every scientific student to 
 investigate nature simply for the purpose of 
 elucidating truth, and if he finds that some 
 of his results appear to be in contradiction 
 to the written word, or rather to his own 
 interpretation of it, which may be erroneous, 
 he should not presumptuously affirm that 
 his own conclusion must be right and the 
 statements of Scripture wrong. Rather let 
 
AND THE BIBLE OF GRACE 227 
 
 the two stand side by side until it shall 
 please God to allow us to see the manner 
 in which they may be reconciled ; and in- 
 stead of insisting upon the seeming 
 differences between science and the scrip- 
 tures, it would be as well to rest in faith 
 uiion the points in which they agree. 
 
 There is a difference, of course, between 
 men of notoriety and men of great scientific 
 attainment. Just as falsehood always 
 travels at a much greater speed than truth, 
 so also the scientific apostles of unbelief 
 possess, in a much fuller measure than their 
 Christian colleagues, the faculty of getting 
 themselves talked about. The former con- 
 stitute the whirlwind and the storm; the 
 latter, the still, small voice. Everybody in 
 Germany knows the names of Haeckel and 
 Karl Voght, and everybody in England 
 knows the names of Tyndal and Huxley, 
 and everybody in America knows the names 
 of Ingersoll and Paine. These are men of 
 notoriety — because they were storm-centers 
 of controversy between scientist and scien- 
 tist. Many who far excelled them as 
 scientists are not known, and in the 
 accounts of their lives in encyclopaedias 
 and elsewhere, we seek in vain for the 
 slightest references to their attitude to 
 religion. Although we are certain that by 
 far the greater number of the really great 
 scientists of the centuries were men whose 
 
228 THE BIBLE OF NATURE 
 
 convictions were in accord with the prin- 
 ciples of Christianity, it has not been our 
 aim to be concerned about numbers. We 
 were concerned, however, to inquire 
 whether the great masters found anything 
 in their science to turn them from the 
 Christian religion, and we were likewise 
 rejoiced to learn that where infidelity did 
 exist, it existed from other causes than that 
 of real facts attained by empirical methods. 
 What a contrast between the depth and 
 height of the religious sentiments of these 
 mighty men of science and philosophy, and 
 the flippancy and superficiality of some of 
 the would-be scientists of our day ! When 
 in the history of the natural sciences we 
 observe that the greatest minds incorporate 
 such sentiments into their scientific treatise, 
 as we have quoted above, we have good 
 reasons to know that there is no conflict 
 between true science and the knowledge and 
 worship of God. 
 
 The End. 
 
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