LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
 
 UNITED STATES OF .AMERICA. 
 
THE 
 
 DOCTRINE AND FUNCTION 
 
 OF 
 
 REVELATION, 
 
 Its Relation to the Doctrines of 
 Physical Science. 
 
 \J BY 
 
 JOSHUA H. HARRISON, B.A., 
 
 Principal McTyeire Institute. 
 
 PRINTSBl JOR THE^ gTHOR. 
 
 Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South. 
 J. D. Babbee, Agent, Nashville, Tenn. 
 
.W3 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, 
 
 By Joshua H. Harrison, 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 Tfru I 
 
V) 
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 This work is not the outgrowth of a contemptuous 
 disregard of the Christian whose life has been developed 
 under convictions herein controverted. It is not the 
 offspring of a feeling that denominates fool whoever 
 may not be able to agree with the author. But it has 
 come into existence in conditions of tender regard for 
 all who love the Lord Jesus and discover in the Bible 
 the marks of divine revelation to man for his sake. 
 
 Nothing more than an outline of the doctrine advo- 
 cated has been attempted. It will be well that the 
 reader be sure he understands the position taken before 
 he decides upon antagonism or repudiation. Whatever 
 truth it may contain, whatever may be its apparent at- 
 titude toward the orthodox faith, the volume is the ex- 
 pression of a profound desire to contribute what the 
 author may to the correct understanding of the Bible 
 in order to the fulfillment of its divine mission in the 
 world. 
 
 (3) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 DOCTRINE AND FUNCTION OF RE VELA TION. 
 
 Chapter I. page 
 
 Preliminary 9 
 
 Chapter II. 
 The Claim of Scripture 16 
 
 Chapter III. 
 Revelation , 22 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 Truth, Revealed and Incidental, Discriminated 39 
 
 Chapter V. 
 Conclusion 49 
 
 PART II. 
 
 RELATION TO THE DOCTRINES OF PHYSICAL 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 God as Presented in the Bible — Surface View 57 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 Relation of God to Nature 61 
 
 (5) 
 
6 Contents. 
 
 Chapter III. page 
 
 Miracles 75 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 Evolution 85 
 
 Chapter V. 
 Soul and Instinct 98 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 Why All Forms Do Not Reach up to Man 107 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 Evolution Not Fatalism 114 
 
 PART III. 
 MAN IN RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE, 
 
 Chapter I. 
 The Doctrine of Right 121 
 
 Chapter II. 
 The Doctrine of Depravity 136 
 
 Chapter III. 
 Death - 154 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 General Conclusion 165 
 
PAETL 
 
 DOCTBINE AND FUNCTION OF BE.VELATION. 
 
 (7) 
 
T 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 PKELIMINAKY. 
 
 HE conception one entertains of the pur- 
 pose and function of revelation will con- 
 trol his interpretation thereof. Hence the 
 necessity for a proper understanding of the 
 doctrine of revelation. The gravest troubles 
 of theology have been the results of efforts to 
 enforce particular views of revelation, which, 
 being out of harmony with its spirit, antago- 
 nized rather than conciliated the spirit of in- 
 tellect. Conscious of the discrepancy, yet 
 powerless to formulate the error, nothing re- 
 mained but to perpetuate the antagonism. 
 
 Intellect, ordained of God to follow the 
 mechanical trend of nature to trustworthy re- 
 sults, has gradually acquired vantage-grounds, 
 which have been with great reluctance con- 
 ceded. This gradual acknowledgment of the 
 trustworthiness of its results has not been 
 
 (9) 
 
10 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 without unfortunate effects. A demonstration 
 of truthfulness in one particular does not war- 
 rant equal truthfulness in all things, nor does 
 it suggest infallibility. 
 
 The conflict between belief in the doctrine 
 of revelation and the doctrine of physical 
 science extends only to the subjective rela- 
 tions — to the creed forms. The conflict lies 
 in the knowledge, not in the facts of revela- 
 tion and physical science. Several individu- 
 als may have conflicting knowledge of a given 
 object. Things entirely accordant may become 
 discordant when imperfectly known. Conflict 
 between revelation and physical science inev- 
 itably originates in imperfect knowledge. 
 
 There has been a gradual recession from 
 the doctrine of Biblical authority for scien- 
 tific statements. So marked and imperious 
 was the belief in the cyclopedic character of 
 the Bible that every form of science and phi- 
 losophy, in order to credible acceptance, must 
 preface itself with corroborative texts of Script- 
 ure. The mistake of such a position has been 
 long seen, and the point has been gradually 
 
Preliminary. 11 
 
 conceded. Older Christian authorities were 
 very slow to acknowledge the mistake. 
 
 Scientific men have urged that the Bible 
 should not be considered in the light of a 
 text of science or philosophy, but simply a 
 book of moral or religious significance. I 
 believe it is Mr. Huxley that claims only a 
 religious mission for the Bible, without de- 
 fining it. His purpose is to relieve science of 
 the trammel of Biblical authority, as gener- 
 ally interpreted; for the common Christian 
 creed forbids the acceptance of science not in 
 accord with the cosmogony of Genesis. 
 
 Dr. Geikie, in his " Hours with the Bible," 
 freely concedes the independence of science. 
 He says : " It is of supreme importance, more- 
 over, that we demand no more from Scripture 
 than God intended it to yield. It was given 
 to reveal him to us and to make known his 
 laws and will for our spiritual guidance, but 
 not to teach us lessons in natural science. 
 To expect them is to anticipate disappoint- 
 ment." And again: " It is not the object of 
 Scripture, moreover, to reveal what we may our- 
 
12 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 selves discover," etc. These passages may- 
 be considered fairly representative of the 
 more modern view of the Bible in relation to 
 science. 
 
 There are many, holding firmly to the in- 
 spiration of the Bible, that go a little farther 
 in their liberalism. 
 
 We cannot, in the light of investigations 
 made in Bible research, condemn as infidel 
 and atheistic all divergence from the ancient 
 faith, and all efforts to relieve the Bible of 
 unfortunate conflicts, and science of unneces- 
 sary trammels. 
 
 Dr. Summers, in his "Systematic Theolo- 
 gy," Yol. I., in the discussion of the Fifth 
 Article, under the "Pertinency of the Holy 
 Scriptures," says: "The sacred writings are 
 pertinent; their authors undertake to treat on 
 the subject of salvation, and what they write 
 is relevant to their theme. In a certain sense, 
 indeed, the Bible is cyclopedic in its charac- 
 ter." Again: "But upon closer examination 
 it will be found that the history of salvation 
 could not be given without giving, at least in 
 
Preliminary. 13 
 
 epitome, a history of the race for whom salva- 
 tion is provided. There must be an account 
 of its origin and primeval character, its fall, 
 and the preliminaries of its redemption. The 
 character of man is best seen in the concrete; 
 hence the histories and biographies of the 
 Bible. In them human nature is developed 
 in all its characteristics. Human nature, with 
 all its varieties, is essentially the same in every 
 age and clime." 
 
 While the students of Scripture make pro- 
 gressive movements in denning the function 
 of Scripture, the popular faith lags tardily be- 
 hind, and not unf requently suspects treachery 
 in the learned, or an imperceptible growth 
 into infidelity under honest purposes. Faith, 
 in connection with intellectual inactivity, will 
 gradually become superstitious and intoler- 
 ant. 
 
 Dr. Lindsay, of the Free Church College, 
 Glasgow, in his article on "Inspiration " in the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica says: "Revelation 
 is the objective approach of God to man, God 
 entering human life and. Jiistory for man's 
 
14 Doctrine and Function of 'Revelation. 
 
 salvation; Scripture is the record of this rev- 
 elation, and inspiration provides that the rec- 
 ord is complete and trustworthy." 
 
 Richard Watson, in treating of the Bible, 
 says: "As it contains an authentic and con- 
 nected history of the divine dispensation with 
 regard to mankind, ... as its chief subject 
 is religion, and as the doctrines it teaches and 
 the duties it inculcates pertain to the conduct 
 of men as rational, moral, and accountable be- 
 ings, and conduce by a divine constitution 
 and promise to their present and future hap- 
 piness, the Bible deserves to be held in the 
 highest estimation," etc. 
 
 I now proceed to discuss the subject I have 
 undertaken not in the spirit of defiance to the 
 popula faith, or in indifference or ignorance 
 of the a v ritude of many Christian standards 
 toward a large liberality of faith in the Script- 
 ures, T~ xi in the spirit of doing what I may in 
 the way of assisting the long line of spiritual- 
 ly minded men who have striven in honesty 
 of purpose to enforce the claims of Scripture 
 on the conscience of the world. 
 
Preliminary. 15 
 
 I have for several years been convinced 
 that many well-meant lives have inadvert- 
 ently trammeled rather than facilitated the 
 course of Scripture among men by insisting 
 upon the essential cyclopedic character of 
 Scripture, and that all science and philosophy 
 must be tried at the tribunal of its scientific 
 deliverances. 
 
 McKenzie, Term., 1889. 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 
 THE CLAIM OF SCKIPTUEE. 
 
 DOES the Bible claim any statement of 
 the doctrines of physical science? 
 This question is of vital importance, be- 
 cause it is pivotal. The history of theology 
 presents a dogmatic and persistent claim of 
 authoritative statement of universal doctrines. 
 There has been a wonderful uniformity of be- 
 lief in the authority of Scripture statements 
 over all lines of thought. The most conspic- 
 uous creed of Biblical authority constructs 
 out of the doctrines of revelation authorita- 
 tive data for universal thought. The concep- 
 tion of revelation which becomes regulative 
 of such a creed is that God designed to fur- 
 nish in the form of a body of revealed truth 
 a practical solution for every thing that was 
 to meet man; that Scripture was to be to 
 
 man a thesaurus in which he was to find what- 
 (16) 
 
The Claim of Scripture. 17 
 
 eyer the exigencies of his career might de- 
 mand. So that by reference to Scripture man 
 should solve all that nature had left mysteri- 
 ous or difficult. Not only was Scripture re- 
 garded as an absolute^ authoritative deliver- 
 ance in all matters of philosophy and science, 
 but it likewise contained illustrative examples 
 of all legitimate literature — love, romance, his- 
 tory, essay, fable, or parable. Every line of 
 legitimate thought had its authoritative mod- 
 el given under the hand of God. So absolute 
 was the influence of such a creed that every 
 thing that did not get its postulate from 
 Scripture was condemned as vicious and hos- 
 tile to the interests of man. 
 
 It was entirely natural that men should 
 exaggerate the disposition to render divine as- 
 sistance, when they regarded themselves the 
 objects of special dealings, and believed them- 
 selves the objects of a special love. There 
 can be no doubt that this view of man is, in 
 part at least, true. He was the object of spe- 
 cial love and special dealing. It was this 
 knowledge that led man to exaggerate the 
 2 
 
18 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 work of God for him in revelation. Feeling 
 himself an object of special concern, he readi- 
 ly made the passage to a supplementary reve- 
 lation, in every way filling tip what was left 
 vacant, enlightening what was left dark. Man 
 naturally locates and interprets the necessities 
 of which he becomes conscious, and defines 
 the character and manner of assistance con- 
 sidered necessary. So when he became the 
 depositary of a divine revelation he at once 
 defined the character and function of such 
 revelation, and construed all subsequent rev- 
 elations in the light of his own conceptions. 
 By nature first introduced into a physical 
 world, which appealed to his intellect through 
 processes as physical and inevitable as gravi- 
 ty, he became conversant with the physical 
 and recognized its magnitude and began to 
 construe its significance, while the signifi- 
 cance of the moral was less fully apprehend- 
 ed, and so regarded with less concern. Not- 
 withstanding the experience of the great 
 moral disaster precipitated by man's more 
 careful regard for the physical than the mor- 
 
The Claim of Scripture. 19 
 
 al, which tended to give greater emphasis to 
 the moral and to raise it to its proper signifi- 
 cance in the estimation of man, he found 
 himself nnder the law of the same relation to 
 the physical world that naturally tended to 
 the exaggeration of the physical. Under the 
 influence of conflicting forces of the moral 
 and the physical, man naturally felt that the 
 revelation that belonged only to the moral was 
 equally applicable to the physical. Regard- 
 ing the physical of more immediate and tan- 
 gible interest, he naturally enough sees a 
 physical side to all revelation, and applies it 
 to the solution of difficulties observed in the 
 physical world, and regards such application 
 as the specific purpose of God in its deliver- 
 ance. 
 
 I should use as a basic principle in the so- 
 lution of the problem of the current faith in 
 revelation the pronounced tendency in man 
 to the physical and secular sides of life and 
 to subordinate the moral side. The applica- 
 tion of great principles of life, involved in the 
 instruction of revelation or given in other 
 
20 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 ways, to the solution of the physical world 
 rather than the enlightenment of conscience, 
 is in line with the nature of man. The his- 
 tory of revelation, from its conception to its 
 conclusion, illustrates the grave difficulty of 
 introducing into the thought of man a purely 
 moral principle, a truth without physical or 
 secular application. This subjection of man 
 to the law of physical and secular life greatly 
 intensified the difficulty of salvation, because 
 it created a tendency to the secular side of life 
 that augmented the difficulty of high moral 
 and spiritual conceptions. It was this that 
 most embarrassed the system of graduated 
 revelation made to the Jews concerning Je- 
 sus and salvation. 
 
 The view of man as subjected to the law 
 of physical and secular life that creates an 
 antagonism to his spiritual interests suggests 
 a greater necessity for a purely moral and 
 spiritual revelation than for any deliverance 
 of God concerning the physical world. If 
 man's spiritual nature is right, his science 
 will accord with it. Sin introduced into the 
 
The Claim of Scripture, 21 
 
 intellectual relationships of man no such dis- 
 turbance as in the moral; created no such 
 necessities. I feel entirely safe in asserting 
 that the fundamental intellectual relations, as 
 well as the intellectual nature, remained un- 
 disturbed by sin. The region of profoundest 
 disturbance was in the spiritual relations and 
 nature. It is therefore more reasonable to 
 suppose that God should be concerned for the 
 spiritual attitude of man, and that any work 
 of revelation should be immediately connected 
 with man's spiritual nature rather than the 
 problems of the universe; for such problems 
 are capable of solution by man alone when he 
 is adjusted in his proper spiritual relations, 
 and need no subsidiary revelation farther than 
 the demands of man's spiritual necessities. 
 
 I therefore conclude that Scripture makes 
 no claims of authoritative statements of scien- 
 tific formulas, but claims only an authorita- 
 tive and specific revelation of spiritual truth 
 made to man in order to the restoration of his 
 disrupted spiritual nature. 
 
CHAPTER lit 
 
 REVELATION. 
 
 A QUESTION of much gravity is sug- 
 gested by the very palpable impression 
 made by the Bible upon the casual reader. 
 The primary impression made by the reading 
 of Scripture without special study is that it 
 reveals God as the creator and preserver of 
 the physical world, as well as of man. Such 
 a reading also makes the impression that God 
 is immediately connected with the phenome- 
 na of the natural world. He is represented 
 as directly causing the sun to shine, the veg- 
 etable world to grow. The animal world is 
 represented as immediately dependent upon 
 him. He controls the clouds, and sends the 
 rain and the frost. He holds the seas in the 
 hollow of his hand. The announcement that 
 God is the creator is its initial statement. 
 
 The numerous expressions of affectionate 
 (22) 
 
Revelation* 23 
 
 regard, and the representations of God as 
 disposing nature by personal influence and 
 supervision, disclose a well defined anthro- 
 pomorphism of possibly an intenser form 
 than the conceptions of God under the in- 
 fluence of New Testament instruction would 
 warrant. 
 
 It is patent to all that the writers of the 
 Bcriptures regarded God under the influence 
 of an intense anthropomorphism, and reflect- 
 ed such as the popular conception of him. 
 The Hebrew conception of God was a person- 
 al God who controlled the world and did much 
 for man ; a powerful personal being, who made 
 war for his chosen people, who blessed and 
 chastised according to their works. 
 
 The Jew certainly regarded God as a being 
 whom he could approach as a personal friend, 
 who loved him and was concerned for him as 
 a friend, who was angry at his wrong-doing 
 and well pleased with his righteousness. 
 
 Is not this primary impression, uniformly 
 made upon the casual reader of Scripture, the 
 understanding designed of God in its deliver- 
 
24 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 ance? It is declared that certain matters of 
 Scripture authority are so simple that "a 
 wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err 
 therein." It is a matter of some consequence 
 whether the surface view of Scripture repre- 
 sents the purpose of God in revelation. 
 
 I have already intimated that the design of 
 revelation was to supplement the spiritual 
 forces of man in order to salvation. Inas- 
 much as the salvation of man involved truths 
 that did not form any constituent or integral 
 part of the universe in relation to man as 
 originally created, at least were not elements 
 of the universe in the form in which they ex- 
 ist in relation to soteriology, some special 
 divine movement was demanded. Revelation 
 comprises only such movement. It is neither 
 logically nor ontologically connected with 
 physical science. It has only an incidental 
 logical connection with physical science. 
 
 Man is the agency of the formulation of 
 the truths of revelation. In his expression 
 of such truth man was subjected to all the 
 influences cf life. 
 
Revelation. 25 
 
 The truth to be revealed had no natural or 
 original conditions within the compass of hu- 
 man thought. Such truth was not an inte- 
 gral element of the universe, either in its 
 physical or moral composition, It was not 
 one of the original structural elements of the 
 universe. While redemption violated none of 
 the structural principles of the universe, it 
 was not accomplished by the simple natural 
 force of such principles, but by a special di- 
 vine movement, involving the introduction 
 into the consciousness of man of truths that 
 were not integral or constituent in the moral 
 universe. The method of such introduction 
 was wholly divine, but involved necessarily 
 the agency of man. The human element con- 
 stitutes a variable quantity, and becomes the 
 condition necessitating the graduation of rev- 
 elation. Truth without relation or condi- 
 tion within the compass of human thought 
 cannot be known or become factitive* in 
 
 * Factitive is used as an adjective from factor, and 
 signifies a relation in which the thing of which it is 
 predicated becomes to any extent able to affect general 
 
£6 Poetritie and Function of ihvetaiiott. 
 
 moral character unless subjected to sucli con- 
 dition or relation. The subjection of such 
 truth to the conditions and relations of truth 
 attainable by man, therefore making it a pos~ 
 sible knowledge, was the primary movement 
 involved in revelation. The truth was not 
 thrust into the mind in violation of the laws 
 of knowledge, but must become knowledge by 
 a process natural to man; so that revelation 
 in the form of knowledge is a human product 
 contingent upon the laws and principles of 
 human intellection. In order that it may be- 
 come potent in the life of man, it must thus 
 become human. Original objective truth ex- 
 erts a dynamic influence upon man only as it 
 becomes a subjective factitive element inte- 
 
 results as one of the integral elements. The factitive 
 element of moral character is an element of knowledge 
 that affects the moral character developed under such 
 condition of intelligence. Man as a factitive element of 
 nature, or in factitive relations to nature, signifies such 
 relations as make man's influence and life capable of 
 and actually affecting the general character of the world 
 —moral, intellectual, and physical. 
 
keDetatioiU %1 
 
 gral m man. This subjectization* of truth 
 in man relates it to him as a tangible force. 
 The extent and correctness of the knowledge 
 is the measure of the effect Truth, a thing 
 apart from man, through the laws and prin- 
 ciples of intellection becomes an integral ele- 
 ment in him. Such a process I shall call hom* 
 inism. The act of truth passing by the laws 
 of intellection into subjective integral forms 
 I shall call hominization* The final results of 
 hominization are the truths of revelation 
 made human in form— capable of affecting 
 
 * Subjectization is formed from subjective, and signi- 
 fies an act of placing in subjective relations. Here it 
 signifies the act of God in placing the truth revealed in 
 purely subjective relations to man, making a knowledge 
 of it possible without subjecting such truth to any nat- 
 ural or objective relations other than the purely subject- 
 ive one which involves the objective. The relation of 
 the truth to be revealed could not be physical, or in- 
 volve material conditions, as all other truth does — could 
 not be placed in material relations, in order to become 
 objects of possible knowledge. Hence the process of 
 conditioning such truth as object of knowledge involved 
 only subjective relations. 
 
28 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 human experience and character. Such truth 
 becomes by such process appurtenant to hu- 
 man life and thought. The truth is modified 
 and adjusted to the human elements of exist- 
 ence, in order to a perfect objective soteriol- 
 °gy> by being subjected to the law of thought 
 and human experience for its formulation. 
 It loses none of its spiritual force, but is so 
 shaped and conditioned that it becomes capa- 
 ble of exerting the fullness of its influence 
 upon human life. 
 
 You will therefore understand me when I 
 say revelation is the hominization of truth, 
 subjected by special divine movement, for 
 specific spiritual purposes, to the conditions of 
 hominism. Inasmuch as the truths of reve- 
 lation were not originally subjected to the law 
 of intellection in man, there must be an initial 
 subjectizt.tion of such truth as the condition 
 of hominization. 
 
 Eevelation, however, differs from ordinary 
 intellection in one important particular. The 
 hominization of revelation was guarded with 
 care, and the human mind was subjected to 
 
Revelation. 29 
 
 all the divine influence compatible with, its 
 nature and liberty. Its liberty may have been 
 transcended in the initial subjectization of the 
 truth to be hominized, inasmuch as such truth 
 had no natural relation to human thought. 
 This divine influence that assists the mind in 
 the hominization of truth is inspiration. We 
 should carefully discriminate revelation and 
 inspiration. Inspiration is divine assistance 
 in the apprehension of truth either already 
 hominized, or in the original hominization of 
 revealed truth. Revelation is the subjection 
 to the laws of hominism of truth not in facti- 
 tive relations in the universe previous to its 
 introduction in revelation; but its factitive, 
 integral presence in the moral world was made 
 necessary by the plan of redemption. Reve- 
 lation is concerned only about the great spir- 
 itual truths involved in man's spiritual resto- 
 ration. Inspiration finds application to truths 
 subjected to the laws of ordinary intellection. 
 Much of the Bible is truth formulated with- 
 out any special divine assistance or guidance. 
 Genesis is not a revelation. Revelation is 
 
30 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 used in the specific sense of disclosing by 
 special divine movement things that were not 
 naturally objects of knowledge and conld not 
 be known otherwise. God, creation, sin need- 
 ed no revelation. God and creation were 
 facts so related to man that they became the 
 inevitable objects of a legitimate speculation. 
 A cosmogony with the God worshiped the 
 principal factor was as inevitable as specula- 
 tion. In the original constitution and rela- 
 tionships of mind there was no place for rev- 
 elation. The progressive discovery of the 
 truth in nature, and its relations to the God 
 of man's conscience, is matter of sound intel- 
 lection. Also the revelation of the character 
 of God was a process purtenant to the orig- 
 inal correlation of mind and God. Sin was 
 a phenomenon of man's experience. Jesus 
 Christ as the Saviour of man, and the doc- 
 trines immediately involved, and the grad- 
 ual discovery of the character of God in 
 Christ constitute the body of doctrine called 
 revelation. The Bible is simply the inspired 
 record of the methods and processes of the 
 
Bevelation. 31 
 
 graduated revelation to man of this body of 
 spiritual doctrine. All else is left as orig- 
 inally subjected in the creation to the laws 
 of observation, analysis, and syuthesis. The 
 conclusions reached are to be regulated by 
 man's spiritual relations and life. 
 
 There is no warrant for the revelation of 
 the cosmogony of Moses. The materials ex- 
 isted before Moses wrote. He simply com- 
 piled a written, and therefore a permanent, 
 record of the highest advances made in the 
 direction of constructing a physical science. 
 It is hardly to be questioned that Moses select- 
 ed from numerous extant traditions, which 
 bear none of the marks of revelation. 
 
 The people who constructed those traditions 
 were those subjected to the special line of di- 
 vine influence connected with the methods of 
 revelation. Inevitably speculative concern- 
 ing the physical world, they naturally enough 
 applied the matter of the revelations made to 
 them to their physical speculations. Having 
 knowledge of God in the special dealings of 
 revelation, they naturally transferred the ar- 
 
32 Doctrine and Function of Revela- 
 
 tion. 
 
 bitrary dealings of God with the truths of 
 revelation to his dealing with nature. The 
 important truth involved in the traditions se- 
 lected by Moses for permanent record was 
 the conception of God as creator — the vi- 
 tal connection of God with the origin of the 
 universe. The manner of creation, as de- 
 scribed in the cosmogony, is purely incidental 
 and without vital significance. It is a correct 
 deliverance of God as creator and as immedi- 
 ately concerned with the organization of the 
 universe. It illustrates the thorough homin- 
 ization of that truth which permeated the 
 whole life of the people and was a potent 
 force in them. But in this hominization the 
 truth of revelation was so interwoven with the 
 logical forms consequent upon intellection 
 that its integrity was lost sight of, and its dis- 
 integration followed the definite construction 
 of physical speculations. The truth present- 
 ed in revelation was a spiritual one, but its 
 hominization converted it into a scientific 
 postulate. It does not claim authority as a 
 scientific deliverance, but only in its moral 
 
Revelation. 33 
 
 phase — only in so far as it asserts a spiritual 
 truth in relation to soteriology. Its initial 
 deliverance, "The seed of the woman shall 
 bruise the serpent's head," marks the line of 
 its authoritative deliverances. The form of 
 this statement must be regarded as the result 
 of intellection, and illustrates the degree of 
 the apprehension of the great truth revealed. 
 It represents only the human side of the Sav- 
 iour — "the seed of the woman." We can 
 scarcely believe that those who originally 
 formulated this truth of revelation perceived 
 the real significance of the doctrine. They 
 scarcely reached the truth of the incarnation 
 of the Son of God prefigured in this state- 
 ment. It reaches no higher in its literal doc- 
 trinal value than a victory of humanity over 
 the serpent, the agent of the temptation as 
 represented in the general account of Genesis. 
 This account is not to be taken as a revela- 
 tion, but rather as the results of speculative 
 efforts of mind suggested by the initial reve- 
 lation, involving the efforts of mind to con- 
 struct definite formularies of the truth re- 
 3 
 
34 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 vealed in relation to all other objects of 
 knowledge. The forms the truths of revela- 
 tion assumed after becoming knowledge are 
 incidental, and possess no doctrinal value. 
 They indicate the partial knowledge of the 
 truth revealed, and constitute a body of evi- 
 dence for a progressive revelation, which is 
 the inevitable result of the nature of mind 
 and the truths to be revealed, that cannot be 
 disregarded. This phraseology is the human 
 form, an expression that indicates the degree 
 of apprehension of the truth of revelation — 
 redemption. 
 
 It is well, just here, to remark that revela- 
 tion was projected upon the basis of a world- 
 object. It was not an endeavor to aggrandize 
 a particular people, but contemplated the spir- 
 itual restoration of humanity. The immedi- 
 ate recipients thereof could not, therefore, re- 
 ceive the fullness of its value. They were af- 
 fected proportionally to their insight into its 
 spirituality. 
 
 Such a revelation naturally is expressed in 
 figures and forms that reach beyond the vari- 
 
Beveled ion. 35 
 
 ableness of language, and become a perma- 
 nent heritage to the world, so that it may be 
 studied in its entirety after its conclusion. 
 The revelation made to the Jew was not a 
 heritage to him, but to the world, and he was 
 made its custodian. Naturally he gave its for- 
 mulation the complexion of his religious and 
 national character. Its expression and form 
 are Jewish, its doctrinal value and character 
 universal. Jesus oftentimes bitterly com- 
 plained of the Jew's failure to recognize the 
 spiritual character of the revelation given him, 
 and the specific function of his national or- 
 ganization. Indeed, the Old Testament con- 
 tains complaints of a similar character. 
 
 It is a law of mind to project spiritual con- 
 ceptions into all explanations of the physical 
 world. That creation is no matter of revela- 
 tion is sufficiently shown by the universal ref- 
 erence of the building of the earth and all its 
 phenomena to some deity. Atheism has never 
 originated or existed except as a reaction from 
 some popular cosmogony whose god was log- 
 ically incompetent to do the work assigned 
 
36 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 him. The primary law of thought, as exhib- 
 ited in the philosophy of the world, connects 
 the idea of God with the universe, and leads 
 to the construction of a philosophy of physic- 
 al existence. The idea of God affected by the 
 knowledge of God in revelation is made the 
 principal logical agent in the solution of the 
 problem of physical existence. Under this 
 law every additional revelation is construed 
 into matter of scientific character. Thus the 
 mind was gradually led to divorce revelation 
 from its proper ends; so that when Jesus 
 Christ came into the world, the fulfillment of 
 prophecy, to accomplish the final elaboration 
 of revelation in himself and his apostles, those 
 who had been made the recipients and custo- 
 dians of all the successive steps of revelation 
 were unable to recognize the continuity of 
 truth revealed. But the body of truth re- 
 vealed was given to the world, made by the 
 process of revelation, truth existent in the 
 world of thought, and subject to the laws of log- 
 ic, and dependent upon the conditions of accu- 
 rate knowledge for its saving effects upon man. 
 
Revelation. 37 
 
 Included in the body of revealed truth is 
 much adventitious matter interpolated by the 
 mind of man in the process of becoming con- 
 ditioned in thought. No intelligent reader of 
 the Bible can deny the difficulty of reaching 
 the truth. Certain general propositions con- 
 tain truths patent to all. Certain facts are 
 placed beyond question to all who accept rev- 
 elation at all; but their doctrinal value and 
 specific character are left to the integrity of 
 logic. It is oftentimes difficult to discrimi- 
 nate the facts of revelation and the forms of 
 thought creating their relations as objects of 
 analysis. 
 
 Genesis was constructed by its author as an 
 introduction to the written record he was di- 
 vinely directed to make of the system of truth 
 so far revealed, and to be completed in future 
 by successive revelations. It naturally includ- 
 ed the accumulated speculations upon the 
 questions of physical science, and only illus- 
 trates such speculations. These traditional 
 forms were thus incorporated in the perma- 
 nent record of revealed truth only because the 
 
38 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 revelations hitherto made were permanently 
 interwoven in the forms of cosmical philoso- 
 phy prevalent among the people to whom the 
 revelations were made. The history of Chris- 
 tianity illustrates the dependence of its doc- 
 trinal forms, and therefore its dynamic value, 
 upon the laws of intellection. The history 
 of revelation, the Bible, illustrates the de- 
 pendence of the truth revealed upon the laws 
 of hominism. Hence the truth of revelation 
 in Genesis is as much interwoven with the 
 cosmical philosophy as the religious and na- 
 tional character of its recipients. Its author- 
 ity is none the less positive because thus in- 
 volved. Such involution was inevitable. 
 
CHAPTEK IY. 
 
 TRUTH, REVEALED AND INCIDENTAL, DISCRIM- 
 INATED. 
 
 THE question that will most perplex de- 
 vout Christians is how to separate the 
 authoritative statements of Scripture from its 
 incidental, secular features. In the first place, 
 the popular belief that the Bible is an author- 
 itative deliverance in all matters whatsoever 
 is unfortunate. It is in part the product of 
 the law already referred to, that spiritual con- 
 victions are inevitably projected into all phys- 
 ical speculations. The system of special divine 
 dealings to which the Jew was subjected for 
 spiritual purposes connected with revelation 
 made him particularly sensitive to this law. 
 Hence the incidental features of Scripture. 
 
 In the second place, the principles that reg- 
 ulate the development of character regulated 
 
 the development of revelation. Spiritual in- 
 
 (39) 
 
40 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 fluences are always superable. The long, tort- 
 uous course of introducing revelation sug- 
 gests the dependence of God upon the laws of 
 intellection. Else why did he not immediate- 
 ly and infallibly discover to man the truth al- 
 ready formulated, and favor the first man 
 with the fullness of so gracious a revelation ? 
 Chosen characters, represented in Scripture 
 as principal factors in the method of revela- 
 tion, were not withheld by divine agency from 
 abominable sins. God abided the slow and 
 precarious movements of the human soul. 
 The spiritual influences under the dispensa- 
 tion of the Comforter operate no insuperable 
 dynamism upon the soul of man. His char- 
 acter is perfect in proportion to the inspira- 
 tion of his own agency. The fact that God 
 abides the agency of man in the all-important 
 work of personal salvation, the concrete end 
 for which revelation was made, furnishes a 
 warrant for the belief in a similar relation of 
 God in the initial work of salvation. We 
 cannot discredit the possibilities of doctrinal 
 Christianity by its negative results in practi- 
 
Truth, Revealed and Incidental 41 
 
 cal life. Nor can we discredit revelation by 
 the incidental features of hominization. The 
 character of God is indirectly revealed in 
 many of the incidental features of Scripture. 
 This is, no doubt, an important element in 
 the explanation sought. It at least makes 
 manifest God's absolute adherence to nature 
 in all his dealings with man. It puts beyond 
 question the adjustment of redemption to the 
 laws of human agency, including all things 
 concerned. 
 
 A correct conception of the function of rev- 
 elation is requisite for a satisfactory explana- 
 tion. We should discard the idea that the 
 first impression, made upon casual reading, is 
 the correct one. It must be remembered that 
 the Bible is the inspired record of the method 
 and work of introducing into human thought 
 a body of truth that was not originally corre- 
 lated to the mind of man; a work of grave 
 difficulties, and involving truth of such a char- 
 acter as to make its apprehension particularly 
 difficult ; and in so far as it became a factitive * 
 
 * Factitive — I appropriate this word to philosophic 
 
42 Doctrine and Function of Revelation, 
 
 element in knowledge it was subject to the 
 laws of intellection, and therefore, as necessa- 
 rily imperfect knowledge of such truth, was 
 particularly liable to more or less disintegra- 
 tion in the effort of mind to apply it to the 
 solution of the problems of physical specula- 
 tions. The law of mind to connect God with 
 nature, and to make its knowledge of God the 
 basis of definition, probably explains with suf * 
 ficient fullness the frequent statement of sci^- 
 entific doctrine. It is necessary to understand 
 that revelation is concerned about spiritual 
 truth, not scientific formularies> or models of 
 literature. These belong necessarily to the 
 process of reducing the truth designed to be 
 revealed to the conditions of knowledge, and 
 making it a permanent element in the life of 
 
 uses. It is used only in grammar thus far. I make 
 frequent use of it in the discussion of subjects farther on. 
 It is important to get a correct idea of the word. I use 
 it as an adjective from factor. It therefore signifies any 
 thing in such relations as to affect the general results 
 with which it may be connected — a force, an element 
 working together with other elements in producing cer- 
 tain results. 
 
Truth, Revealed and Incidental. 43 
 
 man. Every "thus saith the Lord" does not 
 preface a revelation, bnt rather a kind of per- 
 sonal instruction in the way of life. 
 
 The dealings of God recorded in the Old 
 Testament should not be regarded as repre- 
 sentative of universal dealings, but as specif- 
 ically belonging to his purpose to save the 
 world, and appurtenant only to his efforts in 
 working out doctrinal redemption. The dis- 
 pensation of the Spirit is the complement of 
 that system of providential dealing commenc- 
 ing with Adam and terminating with the life 
 of the apostles. 
 
 Just as the instance of God's causing the 
 sun to stand still cannot be construed into a 
 demonstration of a geocentric astronomy, so 
 all the apparent formularies of physical sci- 
 ence constitute no authoritative deliverance 
 from God concerning matters originally ap- 
 purtenant to man's career. Their value con- 
 sists in the inspired sanction of the doctrinal 
 integrity of the application of the intuition of 
 God in the speculations of physical science. 
 
 A correct met-hod of scientific procedure is 
 
44 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 to acknowledge the validity of the intuition or 
 idea of God, and to secure as correct a logical 
 structure of it as possible. The essence of 
 atheism is the denial of such validity. The- 
 ology would relieve itself of the burden of 
 reconciliation with science, or rejection, by ac- 
 cepting the view of revelation herein advocat- 
 ed. As long as science credits the intuitions 
 of mind, and attributes validity to its move- 
 ments in acknowledging the existence of God, 
 and its effort to construct a reasonable idea of 
 him, it is in harmony with Scripture and hon- 
 ors God. As long as science acknowledges 
 God, and accepts redemption as the fact of 
 revelation, not of nature, it is credible and 
 trustworthy. 
 
 The Bible has created no obligation to the 
 cosmogony of Genesis. It has created obliga- 
 tions to the body of doctrine revealed. This 
 body of revealed truth, doctrinal redemption, 
 is the "talents" or "pounds" distributed to 
 the " servants " for use until the return of the 
 master, thereby creating the obligations to 
 "occupy" till the return. The man who hid 
 
Truth, Revealed and Incidental. 45 
 
 his lord's money denied the obligation created 
 by the distribution of the money, and was 
 justly punished. The taking away of the 
 "talent" or "pound" from him, and giving it 
 to the man who had "occupied" his money 
 and gained other "talents" or "pounds," pre- 
 figures the final withdrawal of the body of 
 doctrine revealed from its relations as factitive 
 truth in human consciousness, so far as the 
 wicked are concerned ; that only the righteous 
 — those who acknowledge the obligation cre- 
 ated by revelation— will be in permanent pos- 
 session of the truth, and will be the recipients 
 of all its benefits, both personal and physical. 
 Simple matter of history is secular, unless 
 that history involves matter independent of 
 cosmical nature, yet manifested through nat- 
 ural channels. We can credit the secular his- 
 tory of the Jews recorded in the Bible as mat- 
 ter of inspiration, the phenomena of such 
 history being purely natural, involving, how- 
 ever, more than its natural features. It is 
 the concrete history of the development of 
 revelation. It is the duty of the world to find 
 
46 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 the movements of God impressed upon the 
 life of a people — the concrete impression of 
 the truth of God, and the concrete history of 
 its introduction into the world. Such a phe- 
 nomemon as the political, social, and religious 
 life of a people constitutes the physical basis 
 of revelation, and makes it a permanent ele- 
 ment in the civil and religious civilization of 
 the world. God certainly assumed the power 
 of mind to do the work of separation in pro- 
 jecting revelation upon such a basis. 
 
 We could not expect a revelation without 
 difficulties made upon such a basis. Nor 
 could we expect any other basis. Such a 
 basis renders revelation capable of being stud- 
 ied as a whole, and furnishes better opportu- 
 nity for investigating the system than was af- 
 forded to the people to whom it was originally 
 given. We can see it as a whole; they, only 
 in part, as it was successively made. We can 
 better compute its purpose and function, hav- 
 ing the entire system, than those having only 
 parts. We are better able to discriminate the 
 secular and spiritual elements of the Bible 
 
Truth, Revealed and Incidental. 47 
 
 than those living in the ages of its develop- 
 ment. We could scarcely be credited with no 
 more advance in the separation of the spirit- 
 ual elements, and therefore no better defini- 
 tion of revelation than the people constituting 
 its basis. With greater advantages for inter- 
 pretation our responsibility is greater. 
 
 It is all-important in the study of Scripture 
 to understand the nature of its secular ele- 
 ments and the circumstances of their pres- 
 ence, and to keep in mind that revelation is a 
 spiritual work for man, and furnishes the in- 
 tellectual basis for the kingdom of God. It 
 was the necessary antecedent of the kingdom 
 of heaven, and its methods and history con- 
 stitute a tangible introduction to that dispen- 
 sation of spiritual power contingent upon hu- 
 man volition for its manifestation in human 
 life under which we now live. The present 
 spiritual constitution of the world must be 
 seen as the practical illustration of God's pur- 
 pose in the inauguration of revelation, but its 
 final formulation exists only in the shadows 
 of prophecy and Biblical eschatology. We 
 
48 Doctrine and Function of Bevelation. 
 
 can readily see that it contemplates some gen- 
 eral re-adjnstmenfc. 
 
 Prophecy must be regarded as the concom- 
 itant of the method of procedure involving 
 revelation. The prophecy of secular events is 
 incidental to this method. 
 
 This is not the place to discuss the princi- 
 ples involved in prophecy. It is important to 
 recognize this department of the Bible as sub- 
 sidiary to the general purpose of God in reve- 
 lation, notwithstanding it involves statements 
 that reach beyond the kingdom of God. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 OUR conclusion concerning the function 
 of revelation is that "the Holy Script- 
 ures contain all things necessary to salvation; 
 so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor 
 may be proved thereby, is not to be required 
 of any man, that it should be believed as an 
 article of faith, or be thought, requisite or nec- 
 essary to salvation." Our Article states suc- 
 cinctly the purely spiritual function of Script- 
 ure, and properly interpreted it is never thrust 
 in the way of legitimate science. Science is 
 secular, Scripture spiritual. Our Article cre- 
 ates no obligation of antagonism to science. 
 Its spirit is to intensify the consciousness of 
 obligation to scriptural revelation, a work of 
 spiritual significance, without complication 
 with the purely secular and incidental affairs 
 
 of life, without any authoritative logical re* 
 4 (49) 
 
50 Doctrine and Function of Bevelat-ion. 
 
 lation to the affairs appurtenant to physical 
 science. The Article reaches farther in its 
 formulation of the spiritual function of Script- 
 ure than the Church has practically illustrat- 
 ed. It is not required of any man to adopt 
 any system of science as an article of faith, 
 nor is any system of science held by its most 
 ardent advocates as necessary to salvation. 
 Science, being purely human, an effort to ex- 
 plain the physical constitution of the universe, 
 as long as it is purely physical and does not 
 enforce a negation of Scripture, is compatible 
 with the Article, and therefore, as we accept 
 the Article as a correct formulation of the doc- 
 trine of the Scriptures, in accord with the 
 Scriptures. It is the sin of the individual, 
 not of his science, who yields to the mechan- 
 ical influence involved in purely physical 
 speculations, and grows into dogmatic athe- 
 ism. It is the function of the Scriptures to 
 furnish the rational basis for the quickening 
 influence of the Spirit upon the soul in order 
 to the regulation of the mechanical tendency 
 necessarily involved in scientific activity. 
 
Conclusion. 51 
 
 The individual is responsible for the correct 
 spiritual attitude. The Scriptures furnish 
 the doctrinal basis for a rational spirituali- 
 ty whose influence is to regulate all physical 
 speculations whatever. 
 
 We also conclude that the cosmogony of 
 Genesis is not to be enforced as an "article 
 of faith" nor as "necessary or requisite to sal- 
 vation." Its statement of creation by God is 
 introductory to the statement of sin, and all 
 this introductory to the statement of salvation 
 by Jesus Christ. Its statement of the fact of 
 sin must be accepted as correlated to its state- 
 ments of redemption. The drapery of these 
 initial truths of Genesis is not credible as mat- 
 ter of revelation. This cosmogony is only the 
 unavoidable incident of the rational basis of 
 revelation. It has no divine warrant or au- 
 thority either as matter of "faith" or science. 
 It has historical authority as to its statement 
 of the prevalent scientific thought of its age 
 — interesting and valuable as a statement of 
 scientific advancement made under the pecul- 
 iar conditions of theocracy. 
 
52 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 It is no more an attempt to regulate the 
 science of the world than the history of the 
 Jew was intended as an authoritative state- 
 ment of the civil history of the world. Its 
 initial statement, " In the beginning God cre- 
 ated the heaven and the earth," instead of be- 
 ing a revelation, is simply the postulate of 
 universal mind, a product of the combined in- 
 tellectual and spiritual necessities of humani- 
 ty. By an intellectual necessity we are forced 
 across the boundary of physical evidence in 
 search of physical continuity, and by a spirit- 
 ual necessity we make the passage from the 
 rational terminus of physical continuity to its 
 genesis in divine potentiality. 
 
 We conclude also that the Scriptures claim 
 no authority over science further than that 
 man maintain the integrity of the spiritual 
 intuitions against the mechanical tendency of 
 intellectual activity, and that he likewise main- 
 tain the integrity of intellect against the tend- 
 ency to superstition involved in his spiritual 
 activity. Furthermore, the most imperious 
 demand of the Scriptures is that its spiritual 
 
Conclusion, 53 
 
 function be clearly recognized, that it be val- 
 ued for what it proposes, a body of spiritual 
 doctrine concreted in human thought and 
 character, and made a permanent factor in the 
 rational life of the world. 
 
 When the universal Church shall recognize 
 the great mission of the Bible and divorce it 
 from its unfortunate antagonism to science, 
 and when Christian people shall use it as the 
 "sword of the Spirit" the world will begin to 
 live more "by every word that proceedeth 
 from the mouth of God" than "by bread 
 alone." 
 
PAET II. 
 
 Kelation to the Doctrines of Physical 
 
 Science. 
 
 (55) 
 
CHAPTEK I. 
 
 GOD AS PRESENTED IN THE BIBLE— SURFACE 
 VIEW. 
 
 THE discussion of the scientific side of the 
 question is of great interest and moment, 
 for all men look with more or less suspicion 
 upon the advancement of constructive philos- 
 ophy when they attribute to the Scriptures a 
 scientific authority. 
 
 The writers of the Scripture record attrib- 
 ute directly to God all the movements of nat- 
 ure. It was God that created and God that 
 moved in nature. They evidently had a defi- 
 nite idea of God's relation to nature. That 
 relation was a being who personally controlled 
 and supervised all the workings of nature. 
 He is represented as " reigning " in nature, and 
 the figure is simple. As they knew a mon- 
 arch to reign over his realm, so God reigned 
 
 in nature. 
 
 (57) 
 
58 Doctrine und Function of Revelation, 
 
 We are not at liberty to say that every writ* 
 er that spoke of the reign of God in nature 
 had no other conception of the matter. The 
 apostles of Jesus Christ* after three years' in* 
 timate association with him, and private in- 
 struction and observation, were ignorant of 
 the nature of "the kingdom of God," the 
 kingship of Christ, and the reign of right- 
 eousness, Is it any more improbable that 
 the men of an earlier age should mistake sim- 
 ilar figures of speech used to convey another 
 idea of power than that of civil monarchs? 
 While God was revealing himself as the su- 
 preme Buler they received the idea of ruler, 
 but lost its epithet. So thoroughly were they 
 imbued with the idea of tactual rule that they 
 saw God, the supreme Buler, in tactual rela- 
 tions to nature. 
 
 When we consider the tendency of the ages 
 during the formulation of revelation to the 
 gross forms of anthropomorphic polytheism 
 we find a reasonable explanation for the man- 
 ifestations of God in nature. All polytheist- 
 ic and anthropomorphic conceptions of God 
 
God as Presented in the Bible. 59 
 
 place him in tactual relations to nature. It 
 was the marked tendency of those ages to con- 
 ceive of God only as competent to do the phys- 
 ical work of nature as far as observed, and to 
 locate him in nature. To lead the Jew, and 
 through him the world, into the conception 
 of God as "Spirit" rather than a dynamic el- 
 ement of nature, and as a living being inde- 
 pendent of nature, not in anywise located in 
 nature, seems to be the purpose of the mani- 
 festations of God in nature to the Jew and the 
 early world. The whole of Jewish history 
 finds its significance as the record of the meth- 
 od of God in discovering himself as a great 
 spiritual being working for the moral restora- 
 tion of man and his final spiritual resurrec- 
 tion. I do not believe that the Scriptures 
 were ever intended to illustrate God in nature, 
 but to gradually conduct man into the knowl- 
 edge of God as a being without physical qual- 
 ities and relations, whom he should worship 
 under the sublime postulate, "God is a Spirit: 
 and they that worship him must worship him 
 in spirit and in truth." The Scriptures seem 
 
60 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 more concerned about the spiritual relations 
 of God to man than any relations to nature; 
 so much so that man, reaching after the rela- 
 tions of God to nature and overlooking his re- 
 lations to man, will fail of the great purpose 
 of Scripture, whatever advancement he may 
 make in the definition of the former. 
 
CHAPTEE IL 
 
 RELATION OF GOD TO NATURE. 
 
 UNDEE the law of soul that projects all 
 spiritual conceptions into explanations 
 of the physical world the Scriptures acquired 
 the phraseology of physical science. The 
 long association of these products of devout 
 souls with God's word has developed a decid- 
 ed tendency to attach unwarrantable value to 
 them. Here we are compelled to step with 
 gentle tread upon ground so sacred to many 
 hearts. 
 
 The relation of God to nature is the ques- 
 tion about which universal philosophy is most 
 concerned — theistic philosophy, to define and 
 establish; atheistic, to construct a logical ne- 
 gation; agnostic, to prove irrelevant to man. 
 
 The doctrine of design illustrated in the 
 structural development of nature, which de- 
 fines a law of sequence and mechanical inter- 
 
 (61) 
 
62 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 dependence of such character as to lead to the 
 inference of a personal intelligence control- 
 ling nature, readily developed the doctrine of 
 divine immanence as the final solution of the 
 problem of God's relation to nature and mir- 
 acles. Mind had passed through a long and 
 painful travail to delivery. This doctrine of 
 divine immanence stands forth the accredited 
 offspring of intellect and inspiration, and re- 
 ceives the pious homage of the Christian world. 
 It is not egotism or infidelity that emboldens 
 a divergence, but a profound conviction of 
 the logical impotence of the doctrine. 
 
 The doctrine of design cannot be considered 
 equally rational and valid in application to all 
 the phenomena of nature. Its strength lies 
 in its application to the fundamental forms of 
 nature. The principle of induction would 
 lead to confusion if the doctrine be applied 
 without discrimination. There is much in 
 nature that justifies the ancient Persian doc- 
 trine of Auramazda and Ahriman — the perpet- 
 ual conflict of two great principles, light and 
 darkness, good and evil. 
 
Relation of God to Nature. 63 
 
 The doctrine of immanence has had an un- 
 disturbed reign over Christian thought since 
 its triumph over the doctrine of divine re- 
 moteness. It is the easiest solution of the 
 difficult problem if it had logical competence. 
 This doctrine conceives God as in nature, 
 not identical with nature, the source of all the 
 phenomena of nature. The scientific formu- 
 lary of the doctrine is: " God's will is the work- 
 ing force of nature." It proceeds upon the 
 assumption that force is inconceivable other- 
 wise than as the action of intelligent will. 
 The acceptance of such a postulate leads in- 
 evitably to the conclusion that the working 
 force of nature is divine will. The force dis- 
 played in nature is considered an exercise of 
 will, and consequently involves intelligence. 
 In the growing of the trees, in the thunder of 
 the storm, in the twinkle of the heavens, in 
 the rising and setting of the sun God is seen 
 acting intelligently; in gravity and all the 
 fixed laws of nature God is seen acting intel- 
 ligently, but constantly. All such laws are 
 fixed and invariable because he chooses to act 
 
64 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 so in carrying out the purpose of creation. 
 Miracles are explained as " the unusual action 
 of God," God acting apart from his fixed 
 channels of natural movements for specific 
 purposes. As it is God's will in nature, and 
 God's will in miracles, God cannot contradict 
 himself; hence the consistency of miracles 
 with nature. Evolution is a natural phenom^ 
 enon, and belongs to the same intelligent 
 movement of will that all other phenomena 
 do. If it be proved a law of organic nature, 
 the Christian cannot refuse to accept it, be- 
 cause its rejection would do violence to the 
 doctrine of divine immanence. No doctrine 
 of science can do violence to the doctrines of 
 Scripture, for the same God moves in each. 
 
 Such a doctrine of God and nature is beau- 
 tiful for simplicity and its ready explanation 
 of the gravest difficulties of Christian thought. 
 This doctrine illustrates the same movement 
 of soul illustrated in all mythologies, with one 
 marked difference : it conceives divinity under 
 conditions of personal unity, while mytholo- 
 gies conceived divinity under conditions of 
 
Relation of God to Nature. 65 
 
 personal plurality. The personality of my- 
 thology was more intense and more closely 
 allied to human consciousness, and was griev- 
 ously irrational. The phenomena to be ex- 
 plained by the presence o£ their respective 
 gods are impossible results of such personal 
 agents. The agents and their work cannot 
 be logically combined. In proportion as the 
 forces of nature are personalized they are re- 
 moved from the phenomena attendant upon 
 them. The logical chasm increases with the 
 definition of personality. This law of thought 
 utterly negatives all systems of mythology as 
 explanations of nature. Herein lies the fatal 
 defect of the doctrine of divine immanence. 
 Theism demands a personal God. 
 
 The doctrine of immanence demands that 
 this God be the physical agent of nature. 
 Here is an implacable antagonism. The per- 
 sonal God of theism cannot logically do the 
 work of the physical agent of nature. Some- 
 times the advocates of immanence claim a 
 physical action and a moral action of God. 
 
 In nature is illustrated the physical, in the in- 
 5 
 
66 Doctrine and Function of Beveled ion. 
 
 fluence of the Spirit upon man is illustrated 
 the moral. Such a view only combines in the 
 divine personal agent the two essentially dif- 
 ferent agents known to man — the physical in 
 nature, the divine in connection with the soul. 
 But these are radically incompatible. The 
 integration of such elements into a divine per- 
 sonality for purposes of scientific exposition 
 can but exaggerate the difficulties. The work 
 demanded by the doctrine of immanence of 
 the God of theism destroys his personality. 
 Mr. Spencer's doctrine of divinity, as a simple, 
 ultimate unit of force, which is the "cause" 
 of all things that exist, illustrates the principle 
 of intellectual movement that disintegrates a 
 personal God in the effort to connect such a 
 God with nature as its physical agent. 
 
 We cannot discover in physical forces the 
 remotest resemblance to the character of in- 
 telligent action of will. Crucible and retort 
 and all manner of mechanical experimenta- 
 tion lead infallibly to the negation of will. It 
 is an incredible effort of faith that identifies 
 the intelligence of will with the mechanics of 
 
Relation of God to Nature. 67 
 
 physical forces. The doctrine of immanence 
 identifies the forces of nature with the will of 
 God. What better warrant have we for the 
 doctrine of human intelligence as different 
 from the divine ? 
 
 As the principal factor in the physical sys- 
 tem of nature God must be impersonal. As 
 the center of the religious systems of the 
 world he is personal, either unal or plural. 
 
 Herbert Spencer, the chief exponent of syn- 
 thetic philosophy, reduces God to an imper- 
 sonal dynamic unit. Frederick Harrison, the 
 exponent of positive philosophy in religion, 
 insists upon definite personality as an essen- 
 tial condition of worship. 
 
 As a scientific formulary of the doctrine of 
 immanence we must accept Spencer. As the 
 religious formulary of this doctrine we must 
 accept Harrison. Can these two extremes be 
 integrated into a consistent philosophy of 
 God and nature? Each destroys the other. 
 So when we make a serious test of immanence 
 it fails. It does not maintain its scientific 
 and religious validity when simultaneously 
 
68 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 applied. We are compelled by the doctrine 
 of immanence to see in the physical energies 
 of nature an exercise of divine will. The 
 fixed physical conditions of the energies of 
 nature utterly negative the character of intel- 
 ligent will projected into these forces. The 
 law of continuity of thought and being like- 
 wise negatives the proposition. If intelligent 
 will be made an integral factor of a physical 
 system that necessitates mechanical action, 
 the characteristics of will are eliminated, and 
 the only element of identity retained is the 
 continuity of the dynamic unit. It is only an 
 illustration of the impotence of thought that 
 identifies this ultimate dynamic unit with the 
 intelligence of will. The self-imposed condi- 
 tions of absolute constancy observable in nat- 
 ural forces cannot sufficiently relieve the 
 mechanism of the physical universe, does not 
 conserve the character of will so subjected. 
 We can readily understand how an intelligent 
 agent may adopt a given line of action and 
 maintain absolute constancy within that line. 
 But there is no adequate illustration in hu- 
 
Relation of God to Nature. 69 
 
 man possibilities of the divine subjugation in- 
 volved in the doctrine of immanence. Our 
 escape from infidelity and atheism does not 
 lie in this doctrine. It is the glory of this 
 doctrine that it locates God in nature acting 
 and moving according to its physical condi- 
 tions for the accomplishment of his purpose 
 in creation. It is not a pantheism, but con-^ 
 ceives God as existent independently of nat- 
 ure, and this God, whose being is not nature 
 or natural, works in nature, is its dynamic 
 agent. 
 
 We grant without rational explanation the 
 postulate of creation. We can readily accept, 
 without violence to logic, the existence of a 
 God of intelligent will, who created nature, 
 who exists in some relation to the universe 
 created. But the postulate of creation rather 
 negatives the doctrine of immanence. We can- 
 not see that the doctrine of creation reduces 
 the will of the creator to the physical agent 
 of the universe. If the physical agent of the 
 universe is the will of God, only a part of 'the 
 universe was created. Evidently the princi- 
 
70 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 pal factor was not. So that the doctrine of 
 immanence rather decimates the doctrine of 
 creation. The doctrine of creation, properly 
 construed, credits God with the creation of a 
 universe, an integral, objective unit, in some 
 definite relation to himself. The universe 
 should be conceived as a unit involving its 
 complemental dynamic and material elements. 
 Those who accept creation and advocate im- 
 manence hold that the will of man is a creat- 
 ure capable of originating its own actions, 
 and not identical with the will of God in any 
 sense, separate from the working force of nat- 
 ure. The doctrine of human intelligence and 
 responsibility drives us to the conclusion that 
 man is an entitative creature, significantly re- 
 lated to God, whose actions are his own, the 
 forces of whose being are nowise correlated 
 to the will of God. And we construct ration- 
 al theodicies with such independent factitive 
 agents in the government of God. It is like- 
 wise more rational and consistent to consider 
 the physical universe equally a creature of 
 God, force and matter the integral factors of 
 
Relation of God to Nature. 71 
 
 that creature unit; and to attribute to force, 
 the physical agent of the universe, an entita- 
 tive existence of an original dynamic nature, 
 simply to act. Whether such entitative exist- 
 ence or complemental relationship of integral 
 parts be predicated of matter and force or not, 
 we necessarily think matter and force respect- 
 ively under conditions of logical entitative- 
 ness. As we attribute to man an entitative 
 existence of an original moral and intelligent 
 nature, so we should attribute to the physical 
 its entitative existence of an original dynamic 
 nature, simply to act. Force and matter are 
 creatures, and they interact according to the 
 physical conditions of their existence in work- 
 ing out the ends of creation. It is easy to 
 conceive that God impressed nature when he 
 created and conditioned and related its facti- 
 tive, components so as to define a line of phys- 
 ical development that should in its funda- 
 mental features represent his purpose, without 
 designing or desiring that every phenomenon 
 of such a creature should be correlated to the 
 divine will. On this view a large proportion 
 
72 Doctrine and Function of Revelation, 
 
 of the phenomena of nature are only incident- 
 al to physical conditions that are not to be 
 considered under the immediate control of 
 any divine agency, but which arise from the 
 interaction of matter and force in the origi- 
 nal correlations iii cosmical nature. The di- 
 vine supervision required by theism consists 
 only in that influence necessary to maintain 
 the original fundamental correlations of the 
 factitive elements of physical nature. All the 
 physical connection that theism demands of 
 God is the maintenance of the physical integ- 
 rity of the universe. The forms assumed by 
 nature from time to time are the simple phys- 
 ical results of original creation, and are no 
 part of, nor are immediately related to, the 
 workings of the will of God; so that I can- 
 not concede that the doctrine of design leads 
 to the doctrine of immanence. Its only value 
 consists in proclaiming the universe the prod- 
 uct of intelligence, without defining the rela- 
 tionship. 
 
 It does not require the reach of faith or the 
 test of thought to postulate the creation of a 
 
Relation of God to Nature. 73 
 
 universe composed of all the requisite struct- 
 ural elements, dynamic and material, that 
 works out its forms according to its original 
 conditions, that the doctrine of immanence 
 does. In this way we conserve the doctrinal 
 personality of theism and the logical integrity 
 of physical science. The God of theism and 
 Christianity and the God of science can in no 
 way conflict. It is more the misfortune of 
 the human soul than the construction of nat- 
 ure that has precipitated the implacable an- 
 tagonism of theology and science. This con- 
 flict which has been carried on since the dawn 
 of intelligence has been subjective, without 
 any basis in nature. 
 
 This doctrine of God, as constituting no fac- 
 titive element of nature, but its creator and 
 preserver, leaves us free to follow the law of 
 induction in the study of nature without fear 
 of conflicting with revelation, and intensifies 
 the obligation to the life demanded by revela- 
 tions of the Scriptures. It gives a beautiful 
 emphasis to the injunction of Jesus: "Seek 
 ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
 
74 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 ness." It constructs of Scripture a call to 
 righteousness, and leaves science to the intel- 
 lect of man. 
 
 I cannot concede that force is thinkable 
 only as the attribute of intelligent will, and 
 therefore can find no necessity for making 
 the forces of nature attributes of divinity in 
 order to a theistic philosophy of the universe. 
 
CHAPTEK III. 
 
 MIRACLES. 
 
 SUCH a doctrine as I have announced does 
 not exclude God from nature. It makes 
 rational any special action of God needed in 
 the system of nature developed under such 
 conditions. If the study of phenomenal nat- 
 ure by the law of induction leads as surely to 
 the demand of supernatural action, upon such 
 a view it can readily be granted. It is a law 
 of God and of mind that the supernatural be 
 minimized in a system of nature, and that it 
 be conceded only when the natural phenome- 
 na cannot be rationally referred to physical 
 conditions and natural forces. A too ready 
 invocation of the supernatural is weakness. 
 We need to cultivate the disposition to call 
 the supernatural into the natural only upon 
 authoritative demands. It is weakness to de- 
 pend upon the supernatural for explanations 
 
 (75) 
 
76 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 of the natural. It is likewise weakness to 
 deny the possibility of the supernatural, and 
 to deny all demands for the supernatural in 
 the natural. 
 
 In any system of correlated forces and parts 
 a degree of interference from without is possi- 
 ble without violence to such a system. Any 
 mechanical correlation of parts operated by a 
 given force — e. g. } any complicated machinery — 
 will admit a degree of mechanical interference 
 without violence to the system. Any organism 
 — e. g., the body of man — is so constructed, and 
 the correlation of forces and functions is such, 
 that a degree of vital interference is always 
 possible without the destruction of the system. 
 It is by no means necessary to make the forces 
 of nature actions of intelligent will in order to 
 make any interference of supernatural action 
 possible or explicable. 
 
 The doctrine of immanence has as great sig- 
 nificance in rationalizing miracles as explain- 
 ing the universe. We cannot deny miracles 
 and accept the Bible. But there is some lat- 
 itude in explaining the phenomena called mir- 
 
Miracles. 77 
 
 acles. They are matters of history; so that 
 we are dependent upon the historical state- 
 ments of the Scriptures for the facts. This 
 record represents these remarkable phenome- 
 na as the immediate physical results of some 
 supernatural force. They cannot be consid- 
 ered, according to the record, facts that be- 
 long to nature. They cannot be referred to 
 the energies of nature in their natural corre- 
 lations. They cannot, however, be separated 
 from nature. They have always a physical 
 basis, and they testify to the integrity of the 
 physical forces involved. A miracle always 
 involves the exercise of natural forces more 
 or less. Natural laws and the principles of 
 physical energies are never violated. As far 
 as nature could be carried in its established 
 channels of action they are natural. 
 
 I have announced that we should conceive 
 God not as a factitive, dynamic element of nat- 
 ure, but as a being without physical relations, 
 without physical action, "(a) Spirit" that ex- 
 ists beyond natural bounds, who created a 
 universe of physical character comprising all 
 
78 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 the elements, dynamic and material, neces- 
 sary for structural development. We should 
 view nature as a composite unit, a creature, 
 its force as much a creation as its matter, in 
 nowise correlated to the will of God as its 
 working force. Such a physical system was 
 so related, so conditioned, and so impressed 
 by the Creator as to secure the initial move- 
 ments in a line of structural development that 
 illustrate a general purpose and show forth 
 intelligence, as a thought takes material form 
 by the hand of the artist, without making 
 God the agent of such materialization. 
 
 While God is not to be conceived as the 
 agent producing the physical effects of nature, 
 he must be conceived as capable of influenc- 
 ing or modifying in some way the conditions 
 under which the forces of nature act. By 
 modifying the conditions of force the effects 
 may be modified according to the purpose of 
 the agent capable of such influence upon the 
 conditions of physical energies. The forces 
 themselves are not affected nor influenced by 
 such an agent. They act according to their 
 
Miracles. 79 
 
 original dynamic nature, simply to act. They 
 may be conceived as incapable of being com- 
 pelled into action as the will of man, but for 
 different reasons. They can but act accord- 
 ing to the physical conditions originally es- 
 tablished. The only way of modifying their 
 effects is to modify the conditions of action; 
 for we may readily conceive that the effects 
 of force are determined by the conditions un- 
 der which it acts, and that these conditions 
 are capable of much modification; also that 
 these conditions are subject to change accord- 
 ing to the possible changes of molecular and 
 atomic relations. Such changes of conditions 
 may be determined upon the principle of 
 quantitative or qualitative atomic or molecu- 
 lar differences incidentally effected. The pres- 
 ence of electricity in water under certain dy- 
 namic conditions secures an atomic change, 
 whereby it is converted into gases; and like- 
 wise the gases, in proper proportions, are con- 
 verted into water. Here human intelligence 
 through material mediation effects atomic 
 changes exhibited under molecular forms by 
 
80 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 means of electricity. It is not difficult to con- 
 ceive God capable of manipulating physical 
 conditions in some way suggested by such 
 physical experiments of man. The physical 
 relations of electricity are so modified that it 
 becomes a mechanical agent in the hands of 
 intelligence. In some such way God accom- 
 plishes the modification of physical conditions, 
 and thus ultimate material results that repre- 
 sent specific purpose without himself becom- 
 ing the physical agent. The facts of nature 
 lead us to believe that the possible changes 
 are very great. 
 
 Now in the explanation of miracles we are 
 to understand that God has the power of 
 modifying the conditions of natural forces, 
 and that a miracle is produced by the direct 
 agency of the physical energies that consti- 
 tute the basis of the miracle. God fixes the 
 conditions under which the forces acting nat- 
 urally work out what he designs. There is 
 no display of divine will as a physical agent 
 that sets aside the forces of nature. 
 
 Christ made wine of pure water. Here there 
 
Miracles, 81 
 
 was displayed no supernatural energy project- 
 ed as a temporary factor in nature. In the 
 first place there was no violation of the fun- 
 damental principles or laws of nature. We 
 may conceive that God so modified the condi- 
 tions of atomic action that the ultimate par- 
 ticles of matter took up the forms and relations 
 of the molecules of wine. In other words, 
 God so modified the conditions of the ulti- 
 mate forces involved in the water that the 
 physical products of their natural action, un- 
 der the supernaturally established conditions, 
 was wine. Our chemistry declares the exist- 
 ence of only two constituent elements in wa- 
 ter — oxygen and hydrogen. But in addition 
 to the constituent elements water in a state of 
 nature always contains other matter in so- 
 lution or suspension; so that the matter 
 present in addition to the constituent ele- 
 ments is to be considered. Moreover, we are 
 not to think impossible the power of God to 
 so modify the ultimate conditions of our ulti- 
 mate chemical units as to bring forth by nat- 
 ural forces the physical effects desired. Such 
 6 
 
82 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 manifestations cannot be construed into evi- 
 dence of physical relations as predicable of 
 God. On the contrary, their entire evidence 
 is against the view of God as the physical 
 agent of nature. The force displayed in the 
 phenomena of nature effected by supernatural 
 influence is wholly physical and factitive in 
 nature. The supernatural influence is exhib- 
 ited as extraneous, wholly without factitive 
 relations in nature. So, instead of construing 
 the miracles of Scripture as evidence of the 
 doctrine of immanence, I am compelled to 
 view their evidence as against it entirely and 
 as favoring the doctrine of the entire material 
 integrity of the universe, and the spiritual 
 nature of God as existent without physical 
 correlations, yet capable of modifying the 
 conditions of physical forces. 
 
 The fact of creation we must accept without 
 explanation, for the passage from subjective 
 deity to an objective universe demanded by the 
 acceptance of creation is possible to man only 
 upon the principle of continuity which identi- 
 fies the universe with God, So far as thought 
 
Miracles. 83 
 
 is concerned we are compelled to think of the 
 objective universe as a subjective potentiality 
 prior to the act of creation, and the change 
 from subjective potentiality to objective enti- 
 tative existence made in the act of creation 
 we cannot upon the principle of continuity 
 think otherwise than a transformation of the 
 original deity. We are to assume a point of 
 time when nothing existed but God, or accept 
 an eternity of matter. Begin thus with pure 
 deity. By an act of deity the universe, a non- 
 deity, an objective entity, begins a physical 
 existence. It is impossible to think the gen- 
 esis of such an entity elsewhere than in deity. 
 Mind is equally impotent to think an absolute 
 beginning of existence in the universe. Hav- 
 ing postulated divine existence, the law of 
 thought requires its continuance in nature. 
 But there is a relief from this inevitable pan- 
 theism of thought. In all his manifestations 
 God leads man to conceive a being of entirely 
 different conditions from the nature he discov- 
 ers through his senses. He reveals himself as 
 incapable of discovery by the senses. Here 
 
84 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 mind, compelled to think an entity existent be- 
 yond all that is discoverable by the senses, is 
 satisfied to realize an essential difference of 
 entities at different poles of being, the one 
 related to intellect, the other to the soul. 
 
 Miracles may be regarded from the stand- 
 point of objective effects, as results accom- 
 plished in nature by means of natural ener- 
 gies, and existing as they appear; or from the 
 stand-point of subjective effects, as phenome- 
 na of soul without objective validity. 
 
 Some miracles were physical results beyond 
 controversy. Others may be regarded as pure- 
 ly subjective, with as much doctrinal and mor- 
 al value as a picture or fancy of the mind, or 
 a dream, in which divine communications 
 have been made. 
 
 The power of God to accomplish a moral 
 end through miracles, under the form of ob- 
 jective effects, involves the power to accom- 
 plish similar ends by means of miracles 
 under subjective forms. Miracles involving 
 influence upon instinct may be readily ex- 
 plained upon the principle herein advocated. 
 
CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 EVOLUTION. 
 
 EVOLUTION is the doctrine of the de- 
 velopment of species by natural laws in 
 natural conditions. 
 
 In the form which Darwin gave it, it at- 
 tempts only to explain the known phenomena 
 of animal and vegetable life. Evolution lo- 
 cates in nature the forces that work out the 
 results observed. Its postulate is: the forces 
 observed in nature are competent to do the 
 Work of nature, and these are physical. It 
 endeavors to show that one organic form was 
 derived from antecedent forms, and that there 
 is a law of graduation of organic structures 
 from simple to complex, so that the com- 
 plex were derived from the more simple. It 
 teaches that the varieties and species as well 
 as genera were derived by the gradual accu- 
 mulation of slight successive modifications of 
 
 (85) 
 
86 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 structure from antecedent forms. The organ* 
 ism itself tends continually to undergo change. 
 The interaction of environment and organ- 
 ism, with the natural tendency to undergo 
 change, gives rise to changes in the organism 
 that arise in a general Way according to the 
 general laws of nature, not according to any 
 specific purpose to be accomplished in the or- 
 ganism. Those changes of organism, very 
 slight when in anywise tributary to the good 
 of the species, serve to assist in adjusting or- 
 ganism and environment, by a law of nature 
 are preserved because they are useful and are 
 used by the organism in the functions of its 
 life. The slight successive modifications in 
 the line of that already contributing to the 
 general good of the species so effected are ac- 
 cumulated and preserved by the law of inher- 
 itance until visible and marked differences of 
 organic structure become fixed and transmis- 
 sible, correlated always to general environ- 
 mental conditions. 
 
 Darwin's hypothesis of evolution is that all 
 specific differences are the accumulations of 
 
Evolution. 87 
 
 slight successive modifications, nature never 
 making "leaps;" that there is a continuous 
 line of gradual accumulations of slight suc- 
 cessive modifications from the original homo- 
 geneous organism assumed to the culmina- 
 tion in man. He does not claim, of course, 
 the knowledge of all the forms necessary to 
 make out this continuous line of development, 
 but claims that his theory is not invalidated 
 by the absence of transitional forms until the 
 entire field is shown to afford no evidences of 
 such a development* 
 
 This theory of slight successive modifica- 
 tions without breaks is very much modified by 
 the force of evidence. There are strong evi- 
 dences in the field that the law of nature did 
 not conform to the principle of continuous 
 slight successive modifications, but on the 
 principle of correlation does produce marked 
 differences of organic structure without refer- 
 ence to immediate antecedent modifications. 
 The doctrine of evolution most advocated is 
 that "nature does make leaps," but the gen- 
 eral principles announced by Darwin are sup- 
 
88 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 ported by all subsequent investigations of ev^ 
 olutionists. 
 
 The doctrine of evolution is not only ap- 
 plied to the organic phenomena of the earth, 
 but is applied to cosmical nature likewise. 
 The physical system of the universe was de- 
 veloped by the inherent tendency to change 
 and general fitness, and adjustableness of the 
 modifications effected in nature. Modifica- 
 tions that do not conflict, but conserve the 
 general stability and integrity of nature, work 
 together in building up the system of univer- 
 sal nature. 
 
 Spencer and Haeekel apply the principles 
 of evolution to the genesis of organic nature. 
 The iaw of nature in regard to life is that life 
 proceeds from antecedent life ; but this law 
 leads either to a beginning or an eternity of 
 life forms ; so that, life being a form or phe- 
 nomenon of nature, evolution assumes the 
 formation of life by natural laws in nature at 
 some time in the history of the earth, like- 
 wise a genesis of life in each habitable planet 
 at some time in its history. This formation 
 
Evolution, 89 
 
 of life in nature is nature's miracle which in- 
 augurates the system of life to be modified* 
 developed, and localized by the general laws 
 of nature. 
 
 The facts of nature indicate "leaps" in the 
 line of organic development* Darwin and all 
 Who adhere to his doctrine explain these ap- 
 parent "leaps" by the loss of the intermedi- 
 ate forms completing the continuous line of 
 development. Huxley and others advocate 
 the modification of the Darwinian theory by 
 the insertion of "leaps," or breaks made in 
 the progress of organic development. This 
 latter is more consistent with facts as known, 
 but the former has more logical consistency. 
 And its advocates claim that before it can be 
 invalidated the whole earth must be known to 
 furnish no evidence of a continuous develop* 
 ment, and positive evidence of the former. 
 
 Mr. Wallace, by different means and at 
 different times and places, formulated a doc- 
 trine of evolution precisely identical with the 
 Darwinian in principle, and presented the 
 same class of facts to support it, with this 
 
90 Doctrine and Function of UevelatioiU 
 
 marked difference: the facts as known afford 
 evidence of a passage made without slight 
 successive modifications from a given form to 
 Well denned specific differences, and in the 
 case of man to differences bo marked as to 
 make it impossible to explain by reference to 
 purely physical forces. He therefore infers 
 the presence, in this and a few other cases, of 
 supernatural influence as the principal f acton 
 His whole argument is to substantiate the 
 doctrine of evolution as a law of nature, with 
 divine intervention in the case of man and a 
 few other instances. He contends that all the 
 elements of man's nature and his relations all' 
 indicate a force above nature in his formation. 
 Others contend that man is wholly natural* 
 and that lie presents no more evidence of su- 
 pernatural intervention than many other vital 
 phenomena. 
 
 The question that concerns us now is, Does 
 the system of nature, as explained by evolu- 
 tion, invalidate theism ? As Mr. "Wallace has 
 satisfactorily shown, the world is convinced 
 that evolution does not necessarily militate 
 
Evolution. 91 
 
 against the doctrine of theism. It may readi- 
 ly contribute to infidelity, not in virtue of any 
 essential atheism inherent in the system, but 
 in consequence of personal failure in spiritu- 
 al adjustment, Mr. Darwin himself grew so 
 gradually into atheism that he was not con- 
 scious of the total rejection of Christianity 
 into which he developed until he consciously 
 contrasted his views of nature with Christian- 
 ity. This lamentable decline of a noble char- 
 acter into atheism is the result of a gradual 
 neglect of the idea of God, revelation, and 
 moral convictions rather than the conse- 
 quence of any inherent antagonism of evolu- 
 tion to the doctrines of God and revelation, 
 People have been known to grow into atheism 
 from the study of mathematics or any me- 
 chanical line of thought. Atheism results 
 from an effort to make a theory, in itself in- 
 competent to do the Work of rational explana- 
 tion, explain natural phenomena on the prin- 
 ciple of some form of divine immanence. A 
 God logically incompetent to do the work re- 
 quired by the theism accepted is inevitably 
 
92 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 rejected, though oftentimes the rejection is 
 gradual and unconscious* A system of Chris- 
 tianity that demands the acceptance of a doc- 
 trine of physical science whose God as the 
 physical agent works out natural phenomena 
 loses its hold upon the mind, and therefore 
 the conscience of a people, when the advance 
 in science discovers logical incompetence in 
 the system or the God of such a system. In- 
 stead of reforming the system, the tendency is 
 to reject God and Christianity entirely, very 
 illogically assuming the given system to be 
 the correct statement of universal .Christiani- 
 ty. I announce most unequivocally that a 
 man may be a thorough-going evolutionist 
 and at the same time an equally thorough-go- 
 ing Christian. Infidelity attendant or con- 
 comitant upon evolution is a sin of the indi- 
 vidual rather than the theory, and suggests a 
 failure of the individual in the line of con- 
 science and religion. 
 
 No one can yet claim the demonstration of 
 evolution. There are points in this doctrine 
 that are far from rational statement. The 
 
Evolution. 93 
 
 theory compels a procedure beyond natural 
 evidence. Its gravest difficulties are thus 
 bridged, but not in violation of any law of 
 thought, or of possible continuity of being, 
 physical or psychical. It is not exactly the 
 doctrine of transformation of species, though 
 this is a possible corollary from it. 
 
 The system of evolution proceeds upon the 
 primary assumption of the ultimate identity 
 of the vital forces of the vegetable and animal 
 kingdoms, and likewise the identity of these 
 forces and the general energies of nature. 
 In some forms of the doctrine the identity of 
 psychic forces and physical energies is claimed; 
 so that there is a gradual passage from the 
 original homogeneous energy of nature to the 
 highly organized soul of man— different only 
 in the degree of organization which makes 
 possible the manifestation of force called 
 vital, and soul phenomena. This is the ma- 
 terialistic side of the theory. But Le Conte 
 adopts this ultimate identity of soul and life 
 forces, and claims that by a process of nature 
 the original homogeneous force was gradually 
 
94 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 individuated, or separated from the general 
 movement of physical forces, so that a por- 
 tion of force becomes ultimately so entirely 
 independent of the sum of physical energy 
 that its continued separate existence as an in- 
 dividual entity becomes a natural fact. It 
 cannot again be resolved because it has be- 
 come independent of all changes possible in 
 nature. All that can be effected by the proc- 
 ess of change in nature is the disruption of 
 its relations to those forms of nature that 
 change. This form of evolution claims for 
 soul all its characteristics as a spirit, with all 
 its possible future. It does not in any way 
 discredit the soul by considering its possible 
 origin in material conditions by a process of 
 evolution that so conditions force as to destroy 
 its physical character. All this is viewed as 
 the work of God, and claims Bible authority 
 — " God made man of the dust of the ground," 
 etc. 
 
 Evolution becomes theistic either by con- 
 sidering supernatural intervention at points 
 where all evidence of physical continuity fails, 
 
Evolution. 95 
 
 or by referring the entire system of forces to 
 the divine will. This latter I do not think 
 credible, as I have endeavored to show in an- 
 other place. The evidence of physical con- 
 tinuity, in part at least, is beyond dispute. 
 The most rational procedure would be to cred- 
 it the natural evidence of continuity as far as 
 it goes, and where logical passage cannot be 
 made between breaks in nature a judicious 
 invocation of the supernatural will violate 
 neither nature nor thought, and will afford the 
 most rational as well as the most creditable 
 explanation of the system of things about us. 
 The passage of mineral matter into organic 
 forms giving rise to vital phenomena, and the 
 reduction of organic to mineral can be ques- 
 tioned by no one acquainted with the facts. 
 Thus far there is demonstrated identity. 
 Thus far the natural evidences are trustwor- 
 thy. There is no such evidence in the field 
 for a similar relation of vital conditions and 
 soul phenomena. From the organization of 
 the body to the soul there is a painful absence 
 of experimental evidence. Here we are left 
 
96 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 to an intellectual procedure dependent upon 
 education. It readily passes into materialism, 
 following the law of physical continuity from 
 mineral to organic matter. But monism ar- 
 gued upon such a basis is not trustworthy. 
 It is not the highest form of intellectual 
 movement that predicates beyond trustworthy 
 evidence continuity of what lies in the field of 
 such evidence. It is better to search the field 
 of the soul's appurtenant phenomena, and to 
 combine the lines of evidence lying in organ- 
 ic nature and in the soul itself respectively. 
 Whatever may be considered the soul's origin, 
 its existence is unquestionable. 
 
 Taking up the line of natural evidence, and 
 following it to its extremity, we can authorita- 
 tively predicate of organization no more than 
 that within such natural conditions arise phe- 
 nomena that are absolutely without physical 
 characteristics. It is not the highest order of 
 philosophic thought that overlooks the evi- 
 dence of something more than material, or 
 matter in forms so entirely different in es- 
 sential characteristics as to compel the pred- 
 
Evolution. 97 
 
 ication of entities. A double-faced monistic 
 entity is logical dualism. In other words, 
 substance that on one side is physical, or ma- 
 terial, and on the other is immaterial or psy- 
 chical —a substance that is matter and soul at 
 the same time — gives rise to valid mechanics 
 and psychology, autonomy and volition. Em- 
 phatically the evidences of biology are not 
 conclusive for the identity of vitality and soul. 
 We accept the chemistry of vitality and assert 
 that the evidences do not in fact, and cannot 
 in logic, invalidate the conclusion of entita- 
 tive soul that moves and exists under condi- 
 tions and laws other than physical. 
 7 
 
CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 SOUL AND INSTINCT. 
 
 EVOLUTION does claim the identity of 
 vegetable and animal vitality. Like- 
 wise it asserts the essential identity of all the 
 elements and forces that characterize the ani- 
 mal. It maintains a significant difference in 
 the actual manifestations of the degrees of in- 
 tellectuality in the graduated system of ani- 
 mal life. It does not in any of its forms deny 
 the evidence of possible supernatural action in 
 the case of man. By assuming the identity of 
 universal vitality it does not deny soul. Vi- 
 tality must be considered a purely physical 
 phenomenon — a phenomenon of organic chem- 
 istry. Soul is known to be essentially con- 
 nected with such vital conditions, both for its 
 genesis and its manifestation and development. 
 We cannot predicate soul of all those phenom- 
 ena original in animal organization that indi- 
 (98) 
 
Soul and Instinct. 99 
 
 cate intelligence. They are denominated by 
 the general epithet instinct. We cannot deny 
 to instinct the characteristics of intelligence; 
 but we cannot therefore identify instinct with 
 soul. While instinct and soul possess in com- 
 mon the characteristic of intelligence, there 
 are additional elements in soul of so signifi- 
 cant difference that it is impossible to class 
 the two things together further than the gen- 
 eral characteristics. It will be observed that 
 I have used the word intelligence in its gener- 
 ic sense. If we explain instinct on the prin- 
 ciple of association, we have involved the ele- 
 mentary forms of intelligence as an essential 
 principle in association. All the phenomena 
 of instinct may be explained thus, but always 
 granting the elementary form of intelligence 
 mentioned above; and soul may be explained 
 as an entitative something conscious of- its own 
 existence, etc. Still the same class of phe- 
 nomena in connection with soul call for the 
 same explanation made of instinct. Discrim- 
 inative sense perception in man is explained 
 by the presence of mind or simple correlative 
 
100 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 nerve movement. Whatever explanation we 
 make of such phenomena in man, the same 
 must be made of the same class of phenomena 
 in all animals. Thus far there must be iden- 
 tity of rational existence. If, therefore, we 
 infer the ultimate identity of man and animal 
 rationality, and account for the actual differ- 
 ence in degree by assuming a potential or la- 
 tent form of human rationality in the animal, 
 we have asserted an actual, factal difference 
 great enough and significant enough to for 
 ever prevent the classification of man and the 
 animal on the basis of rationality; for poten- 
 tial rationality in the algce does not induce the 
 most fanatical evolutionist to classify such 
 weed on the basis of rationality. Latent or 
 potential character does not elevate the creat- 
 ure. The individual possessing such poten- 
 tiality can never under the laws of nature de- 
 velop such character for itself. By a long 
 lineage nature may bring into actual existence 
 in some of the derived forms such potential 
 character; but it counts nothing to the ante- 
 cedent forms. So that, whatever the identity 
 
Soul and Instinct. 101 
 
 of potential character in man and the animal 
 kingdom, it can count nothing in the investi- 
 gation of present forms. If the Darwinian 
 form of evolution be true, and man be the de- 
 monstrable product of a long line of "slight 
 successive modifications," it can prove nothing- 
 more than the inevitable fact of a difference 
 so great as to remove man effectually from the 
 kingdom of animal nature in regard to his in- 
 telligence. It brings man only insignificantly 
 nearer the animal than the doctrine of crea- 
 tion of species, and grants him all the wide 
 difference. It only intensifies his world rela- 
 tions. 
 
 If the modified form of Darwinian evolu- 
 tion, as advocated by Huxley and others, be 
 true, and man be the product of natural proc- 
 esses that leave no record of immediate ante- 
 cedence, he is shown to stand out conspicu- 
 ously in nature — a volume of revelation of 
 nature that must forever command admiration 
 and attention. 
 
 But this makes so easy Mr. Wallace's infer- 
 ence of divine intervention that it is in every 
 
102 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 way as consistent with facts and logic — indeed, 
 rather having the advantage in point of logical 
 consistency with the line of evidence — that we 
 naturally lean toward him, possibly from the 
 influence of theistic education, but I am in- 
 clined to think on purely rational evidences. 
 The evolution of Darwin or Huxley does not 
 of necessity exclude God from nature. Those 
 forms of the doctrine are compatible with the- 
 ism. Such doctrine of evolution is considered 
 as the expression of a system of nature, oper- 
 ated by natural forces, but under the general 
 supervision of God; else the law of evolution 
 is the law of nature, and the force that oper- 
 ates under such conditions is the will of God — 
 the doctrine of divine immanence applied to 
 evolution. Those who can accept the doctrine 
 of immanence can readily make such applica- 
 tion without conflict of principles. This is an 
 easy exit from the trouble. All that science 
 can or may do for evolution is to prove that it 
 is the law of universal nature. After that the 
 relation of nature to God, and the whole phi- 
 losophy of theism remains apart from physic- 
 
Soul and Instinct, 103 
 
 al philosophy. Its integrity remains, whatever 
 may be the demonstrations of physical science. 
 An actual demonstration of the doctrine of 
 evolution will not invalidate the doctrines of 
 theism. Some form of evolution will probably 
 be established as the law of nature. There 
 are many pointed evidences of such. There 
 are also many grave difficulties in the way. It 
 is true that such a system makes easy the pas- 
 sage to infidelity, but I have already shown 
 that such is more the sin of the individual 
 than the theory. 
 
 There is no need of fear and trembling on 
 the part of Christians. What is especially 
 needed is greater intelligence in the ranks of 
 Christians — a more intelligent faith, a recog- 
 nition of the validity of creed-modifications 
 compatible with practical piety. There should 
 be the recognition of the fact that doctrinal 
 Christianity is not in conflict and cannot be 
 in radical or rational conflict with the doc- 
 trines of physical science. It should be con- 
 tinually remembered that Christianity sets 
 forth no doctrine of science as an article of 
 
104 Doctrine and Function of Beuelation. 
 
 faith; that its claim is limited to the spiritual 
 life of man; that science will properly adjust 
 itself when man is properly adjusted in his 
 spiritual relations. It should be emphasized 
 that it is a duty of the individual to maintain 
 the spiritual integrity of his character while 
 he investigates the physical conditions of the 
 world It should be taught as a doctrine of 
 rational, religious science that there is a phys- 
 ical system of nature, having laws and energies 
 peculiar to itself, and competent to do the 
 work of nature; that the will of God is in no 
 sense the " working force of nature," and can- 
 not be rationally made the integral agent of 
 nature and the God of theism; that this sys- 
 tem of nature indicates in marked ways and 
 in indisputable points the presence of a force 
 not structural or integral in nature, but apart 
 from and above the working forces of nature, 
 capable of maintaining the physical integrity 
 of nature and the continuity of physical ener- 
 gies; that such a system makes easily rational 
 an exercise of creative power in nature under 
 natural conditions ; and that such an origin of 
 
Soul and Instinct 105 
 
 man is in every way as rational and as con- 
 sistent with natural evidences as his purely 
 physical origin. An inflexible monism cannot 
 remove the natural evidences of a practical 
 dualism, however it may prejudice the mind 
 of the evolutionist against theoretical dualism. 
 An absolute, ultimate monism cannot destroy 
 the actual dualistic form of rational creature 
 existence. Monism is forced to the necessity 
 of denominating its ultimate something "a 
 double-faced unity or somewhat, with one side 
 physical and one spiritual." The necessity for 
 the spiritual "side" of the monistic "unity" 
 arises from the facts of nature; and so inex- 
 orable are these facts that no ultimate monist- 
 ic unity can repudiate the presence of " spirit " 
 in some active, factitive form in nature as a 
 part of the system of nature. This necessity 
 for a spiritual agent in nature should be care- 
 fully distinguished from all lines of evidence 
 for the existence of God. The argument for 
 the existence of God is another matter alto- 
 gether. Were monism demonstrable it could 
 be construed as pertaining only to the system 
 
106 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 of the universe. The idea of God would re- 
 main, and the relation of such a universe to 
 God would have to be defined. The reduction 
 of the universe to the action of integral facti- 
 tive elements and forces could not in any way 
 destroy or invalidate the doctrine of God as 
 an existence beyond and independent of the 
 universe. 
 
 It is entirely natural to involve the God idea 
 in the idea of the Universe, and to combine 
 them variously in the solution of physical ex- 
 istence, but objectively they are radically sep- 
 arate as thinkable objects. An order of se- 
 quence is a logical necessity, however, when 
 the two are considered in their relations. 
 
CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 WHY ALL FORMS DO NOT REACH UP TO MAN. 
 
 ONE point in the doctrine of evolution 
 oftentimes discredits the system because 
 imperfectly expressed and understood only in 
 a vague way by the ordinary advocate of the 
 doctrine. I do not just now recall any defi- 
 nite discussion of the point by any eminent 
 evolutionist. Probably they have not regard- 
 ed the matter of sufficient significance. It 
 has become quite significant in the form of an 
 objection to the system among some who dis- 
 credit evolution either upon logical or relig- 
 ious grounds. 
 
 It is generally put in the form of a ques- 
 tion: If evolution is true, how is it that the va- 
 rious forms of animals stop by the way and 
 never reach up to man in the process of evo- 
 lution? How is it that only one family cul- 
 minated in man? 
 
 (107) 
 
108 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 The fact that historical modifications of or- 
 ganisms in a state of nature are limited to va- 
 rieties — never reaching specific modifications 
 — cannot really be construed against the doc- 
 trine of evolution. The fixedness of specific 
 limits allow a certain amplitude of vibration 
 in organic changes. The fixed character of 
 such limits is to be considered more as the 
 permanent adjustment of organism to general 
 natural conditions so as to suppress the tend- 
 ency to organic change beyond the specific 
 amplitude compatible with specific identity, 
 than any radical specific character. 
 
 Permanent structures acquire such prepo- 
 tent influence over the reproductive system as 
 to secure their transmission in such force as 
 to antagonize the tendency to change beyond 
 the given specific limits. The permanent 
 forms of specific types are the products of 
 cosmical in connection with organic modifica- 
 tions, and mark the history of organic nature. 
 The general physical conditions have so dom- 
 inated the system of organic nature that cer- 
 tain specific forms have been made perma- 
 
Why All Forms Do Not Reach up to Man. 109 
 
 nent, such specific forms having become fully 
 adjusted and contracted their organic poten- 
 tialities within the lines of development made 
 possible by the environmental conditions. The 
 entire system of life and nature is considered 
 as a whole, and these definitely fixed forms 
 constitute the system actually developed and 
 therefore permanent as such. The whole sys- 
 tem moving on a line of development toward 
 man, various divergences were made, the de- 
 velopments reaching as high as the general 
 physical conditions would admit, with sub- 
 divergences — all becoming permanent in rela- 
 tion to their environmental conditions. The 
 central line of organic movement that reached 
 up to man and became permanent in him pos- 
 sessed greater potency of change, and persist- 
 ed in the tendency to change in the line of 
 antecedent changes, until the accumulations 
 of "slight successive modifications," accord- 
 ing to Darwin, amounted to man. According 
 to Huxley, the specific limits were overleaped 
 at one bound into the immense differences of 
 man. According to Wallace, this movement 
 
110 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 was effected by divine intervention, and all 
 agree that man as a product of nature is of 
 such composition and relations that a change 
 from him and his relations as a factitive ele- 
 ment of nature would be degeneration; that 
 he marks the climax of possible changes ad- 
 vantageous within the limits of his natural 
 existence. The various permanent types of 
 life work together in the general system of 
 life developed to maintain the general system 
 of nature actually developed. Life forms and 
 nature forms are correlatives, acting upon 
 each other in the progress of nature, with si- 
 multaneous and successive developments. A 
 thoroughly informed man will not ask why 
 existent species do not proceed in their de- 
 velopment to man just as the one type that 
 reached up to man did. Such a condition of 
 organic nature as we find prevailing was the 
 result of that physical system of nature called 
 evolution. The principles claimed for the sys- 
 tem necessitating, without fatalism, just those 
 forms that exist, nature as it is is the out- 
 growth of such a system. The lower perma- 
 
Why All Forms Do Xot Reach up to Man. Ill 
 
 nent types and the gradual extinction of types 
 indicate the law of progress. 
 
 An individual may be subjected to a series 
 of circumstances in the formative period of 
 his development that make permanent in his 
 body certain modifications which are trans- 
 missible, and so become characteristic of a 
 family. This principle is applicable to the or- 
 ganic body of nature. Certain circumstances 
 at certain stages of organic development pro- 
 duced modifications that became, in conse- 
 quence of the correlation of organism and 
 general physical conditions, permanent types. 
 It counts nothing to argue the simultaneous 
 existence in the same general physical con- 
 ditions of all the species of animal and veg- 
 etable life. The present forms are complex 
 products. Likewise, the present conditions of 
 nature are by no means homogeneous. The 
 general environments of all organic forms are 
 composite quantities, containing elements cor- 
 responding respectively to the various life 
 forms. The gradual extinction of types is due 
 to the gradual elimination by general change 
 
112 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 of those elements of environment correspond- 
 ing to the forms of life becoming extinct. Just 
 as the inauguration of environmental changes 
 inaugurates modifications of organic forms, 
 and, adjusting themselves in permanent rela- 
 tions, mark the existence of a permanent type 
 of life, so the reversal of such environmental 
 movements works the extinction of types de- 
 pendent upon the forms or elements of envi- 
 ronments so changed; so that it would be 
 physically impossible for all life forms to 
 reach up to man in their development as well 
 as aside from the nature or requirements of 
 the theory of evolution. 
 
 The theistic evolutionist views the matter 
 in a little different light. His stand-point is 
 from the divine purpose. He sees in all the 
 forms a divine purpose. Life has developed 
 as God designed it should. The theist may 
 thus consider the matter, or he may consider 
 the whole matter with more special regard to 
 emphasis upon the physical system of nature, 
 and not attribute a divine purpose to every 
 life form, but regard only the final outcome, 
 
Why All Forms Do Not Beach tip to Man. 113 
 
 together with the important modifications 
 representative of purpose. He may regard 
 nature as the outgrowth of a purpose of God 
 modified by physical incidents of the process 
 of unfolding. Mr. Dana regards the entire 
 system of nature developed under the law of 
 evolution as the gradual unfolding of God's 
 purpose in nature, God in creation beginning 
 
 with a view to the final culmination in man. 
 8 
 
CHAPTEE YIL 
 
 EVOLUTION NOT FATALISM. 
 
 A SEMES of acts, connected each with its 
 antecedent so as to determine a law of 
 sequence, illustrates the fatalism involved in 
 evolution. It is a system of movements in 
 matter, the molecular and atomic conditions 
 of which necessitate sequence that marks its 
 progress in physical changes which illustrate 
 the mechanical sequence inevitable in material 
 movements. The system of changes begun in 
 any given direction might have been jostled, 
 or significantly modified, if not totally dis- 
 rupted. It is generally taught, however, that 
 the system must run its course before in- 
 terruption can take place ; that the planet goes 
 through the cycle of evolutional changes and 
 reverts to its original conditions, etc. Given 
 the original "star -dust," homogeneous and 
 
 "without form," the lines of possible devel- 
 (114) 
 
Evolution Sot Fatalism. 115 
 
 opment are indicated by the radii of a sphere. 
 In whatever line development actually begins, 
 the system of nature is developed in that par- 
 ticular line by a law of sequence inevitable 
 in the movements of nature. That the history 
 of our planet indicates a gradual progressive 
 movement toward man is unquestionable. 
 That the history of the universe indicates, as 
 far as discovered, a similar progressive move- 
 ment toward present forms is likewise unde- 
 niable. But the facts of nature, as far as 
 known, only indicate a line of development 
 actually inaugurated and mainly adhered to 
 up to the present. They furnish no warrant 
 for the theory of evolutional fatalism. They 
 furnish no evidence that no other lines of de- 
 velopment were ever wholly disrupted, after 
 partial development. As a physical system it 
 must be considered liable to fatal interruptions 
 along the lines of possible development. 
 
 The inauguration of initial changes marks 
 the departure from original homogeneous 
 forms. Some line of advance movement hence 
 becomes an inevitable fact, not a fatality. 
 
116 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 Whether the course of nature was jostled from 
 one to another line may not be knowable, but 
 is a thinkable and a probable phenomenon in 
 the early movements of universal matter be- 
 fore the present line of unfolding was made 
 permanent. Viewed apart from extraneous 
 influence, the movements of the homogeneous 
 mass mast be regarded as the inevitable action 
 of the forces of nature that cannot but act ac- 
 cording to their original dynamic nature sim- 
 ply to act. The original mass conceived as 
 homogeneous must not be conceived as mo- 
 tionless. The doctrine of immanence projects 
 the divine will into a motionless mass. Hence 
 motion is in the direction of divine purpose. 
 The doctrine advocated in this volume attrib- 
 utes to the physical energies appurtenant to 
 matter all the movements in the original ho- 
 mogeneous mass. God maintains the physical 
 integrity of the universe. Perhaps the line 
 of development originally entered and mainly 
 adhered to was the outcome of an initial inu 
 pression upon the universe in its primordial 
 simplicity. Else God may have so modified 
 
Evolution Not Fatalism. 117 
 
 the ultimate conditions of physical action as 
 to secure general material movement along 
 the line illustrated in nature. It also may 
 have required divine supervision to maintain 
 the integrity of the movements along this line 
 of essential advance. 
 
 It is probably more proper to consider the 
 line marked out by the progressive movement 
 of nature a zigzag rather than a radius — rec- 
 tilinear; for at each point of specific type the 
 possible lines of modification must be consid- 
 ered indefinite, with possibly greater tenden- 
 cy to change in the direction of antecedent 
 changes become permanent. 
 
 The argument from design is oftentimes too 
 prodigal of its applications. Purpose is found 
 illustrated in every sequence of events or 
 movements. Hence the existence of an In- 
 telligence independent and previous is in- 
 ferred. And if this principle be acted upon 
 thoroughly, every mechanical series of events 
 occurring in consecutive order becomes equally 
 illustrative of intelligent purpose ; whereas all 
 events occurring in such consecutive order as 
 
118 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 to define a series mark a law of sequence that 
 after the occurrence may be made to define a 
 credible purpose. All consecutive events or 
 movements that exist in the relation of ante- 
 cedent and consequent inevitably take on the 
 appearance of purposed action; whereas the 
 reality is only a dynamic relationship. The 
 reason for such dynamic relation lies in the 
 mystery of the origin of nature, imparted in 
 the act of creation, or originated in the gene- 
 sis of matter. 
 
PAET III. 
 
 Man in Kelation to the Universe. 
 
 (119) 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF EIGHT. 
 
 THERE are certain principles that mani- 
 fest their existence only through intelli- 
 gent will in the relations of such an entity. 
 Moral principles cannot be illustrated in me- 
 chanical relations. The existence of man in 
 the complex relations of man with man, and 
 man to God and to the world, is the condition 
 of the exhibition of these principles. All 
 these relations under the law of intelligence 
 inevitably reveal these principles, so that they 
 become objects of consideration, and regula- 
 tive of duty. The principle of right, when ap- 
 plied to cosmical movements, is entirely dif- 
 ferent from the principle regulative of human 
 action and life. The principle affects the ac- 
 tions and character of man proportionally to 
 the knowledge of it. It cannot be said that 
 
 the ultimate principle of right touches life at 
 
 (121) 
 
122 DottruM nnd Funttion x>f Ifevvtatmu 
 
 any practical point. It is only right in its 
 subjective form that affects character— right 
 as a form of knowledge, concrete. 
 
 I submit the query, Is the law of right in 
 the life of man a thing independent of the ac- 
 tion of his mind as the law of gravity, or the 
 forces of his body; or is it a thing whose ex- 
 istence and influence in the life of the world 
 is dependent upon the action of mind? The 
 world is affected by the solution of this query. 
 The query is one that must be answered. 
 Men may pose themselves in a negative at* 
 titude toward it, but the answer is given un- 
 consciously, and affects the whole current of 
 the life. The efficiency of practical Chris- 
 tianity is contingent upon the answer given 
 by the individual, and in general by the pop- 
 ular heart. Beyond any peradventure the 
 law of right is related to the life of man in 
 some significant way not yet fully appreciat- 
 ed. That he is conscious of impulses that 
 violate the deliverance of his soul upon the 
 question of right cannot be gainsaid. That 
 he is conscious of impulses in harmony with 
 
The Doctrine of Might 123 
 
 this fundamental consciousness is practically 
 demonstrated in the life of every man. The 
 whole current of life testifies to the conscious- 
 ness of a universal presence in the life of man 
 of the law of right, In every radius of action 
 he is met by its imperious claims, in many 
 instances erected into inviolable restrictions. 
 The consciousness of a universal presence of 
 right is equally authoritative in the revela^ 
 tion of its inseparableness from human life* 
 If violated or obeyed, it asserts with equal 
 emphasis its presence in man's life* 
 
 This universal presence and this insepara* 
 bleness of the law of right means more than 
 an organic tangibility, affecting life in conse- 
 quence of such relation. Universal presence 
 and tangibility do not involve universal or 
 necessary prevalence. The law of right and 
 the law of gravity are similar only in the point 
 of universality. Eight is not a property of 
 mind as gravity is of matter; yet mind is so 
 constituted and so related as to render an au- 
 thoritative deliverance concerning it. So far 
 from being in the relation of a property to 
 
124 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 mind, right has a factitive existence in con- 
 scious life contingent npon a conscious effort 
 of thought involving logical procedure. Such 
 presence of right is possible only under con- 
 ditions of intelligence. 
 
 Every phase, feature, and phenomenon of 
 right seems to indicate an existence in rela- 
 tions of externality to mind, capable of appre- 
 hending and construing such phenomena in 
 its own actions, the extent of its influence al- 
 ways proportional to the apprehension, the 
 intensity of its presence to the construction 
 thereof. 
 
 If the church drift unconsciously into the 
 creed of universal and necessary prevalence 
 of right among men, concrete as well as doc- 
 trinal Christianity cannot escape the effects, 
 and the whole creed of intelligent agency is 
 unconsciously subverted; for the doctrine of 
 an ultimate necessary prevalence of right and 
 intelligent agency are radically incompatible. 
 The former means that the prevalence of right 
 among men is independent of mind and hu- 
 man life; that it shall prevail, as the principle 
 
The Doctrine of Right. 125 
 
 of gravity, over universal humanity. The lat- 
 ter means the prevalence o£ right, as the prev- 
 alence of evil, is conditioned in a conscious 
 effort of mind — the voluntary construction of 
 the presence of right as the basis of action. 
 If the Church construct a creed of such char- 
 acter, it must be construed into an unintend- 
 ed antagonism to the prosperity of Zion. 
 Prevalence of the law of right among men is 
 impossible under any condition other than 
 the voluntary adoption of such law as the ba- 
 sis of action. From the numerous individual 
 rejections of such law we can legitimately in- 
 fer the possibility of its universal rejection at 
 any time or for all time, and hence the com- 
 plete failure of the doctrine of right to affect 
 human character. A moral mechanics is an 
 impossibility. Eight, in human vocabularies, 
 is concrete — the principle of right apprehend- 
 ed and construed. Like every other principle 
 that affects action and character, it must have 
 the sanction of judgment either positively or 
 negatively. 
 
 The development of faith in a creed of the 
 
126 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 necessary prevalence of right superinduces 
 a confidence in the spirit and forces compre- 
 hended in such a creed to effect such preva- 
 lence independently of all subjective relations 
 whatsoever. I submit that a faith and confi- 
 dence involving such violation of fundament- 
 al principles of human life are destructive of 
 the finest and highest possibilities of soul. 
 The popular mind may never make the dis- 
 crimination. But a popular faith that com- 
 prehends in its creed a dynamic system com- 
 petent to effect its greatest ends in human 
 life as a basis of operation renders man pow- 
 erless to individualize himself in the economy 
 of such a system. Any system of spiritual 
 forces that affects man thus degrades him. 
 The intense individualism of his life must be 
 preserved inviolate. 
 
 The prevalence of the law of right in nature 
 may work the elimination of man, unless he 
 intelligently adjust himself to its principles. 
 There is a necessary on-going of universal nat- 
 ure toward its ultimate forms. Man's intelli- 
 gence makes his participation in such univer- 
 
The Doctrine of Rigid. 127 
 
 sal movement voluntary rather than necessa- 
 ry. Nevertheless he is not wholly independ- 
 ent of this silent and resistless on-moving of 
 nature. 
 
 Instead of posing in an attitude of depend- 
 ence upon some indefinable element of hu- 
 man nature that will work out the ends of a 
 creed, the heroic part of life lies in regarding 
 one's self a factor in working out the ends of 
 life under the law of right intelligently con- 
 strued, with a creed that formulates the true 
 ends and the true nature of human existence. 
 The doctrine that "the right will prevail" re- 
 duces the forces of man's spiritual nature to 
 a composure subversive of the conditions of 
 such prevalence. How can a man exert him- 
 self as a factor in the moral economy of the 
 world, when his creed declares the contrary, 
 without doing violence to his moral nature? 
 A renunciation of creed, or its revision, must 
 first be accomplished. The formative power 
 that a creed has over the character of those 
 who adopt it is not fully appreciated. A 
 creed positing in supernatural elements of 
 
128 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 human life the forces that must determine its 
 ultimate issues jostles the interrelation of man 
 and nature, and disturbs the equilibrium of 
 his position. A creed that posits in man the 
 conditions under which the kingdom of God 
 must prevail emphasizes him and secures the 
 finest actions of his nature. 
 
 We must distinguish the principle of right 
 from its concrete form in human thought and 
 action. The application of this principle to 
 the life of man is wholly different from its ap- 
 plication in cosmical movements. If virtue is 
 a possibility only under conditions of intel- 
 ligent agency, its prevalence, to any degree 
 whatsoever, must arise under such conditions. 
 If the principle of right is self-assertive, its 
 prevalence is independent of human nature 
 save as a basis of its manifestation, as mass 
 becomes the basis of the manifestation of 
 gravity. Belief in the self-assertive character 
 of right, whether consciously or otherwise de- 
 termined, reduces man to a passivity incon- 
 sistent with his nature. If the prevalence of 
 right in human life does not have insuperable 
 
The Doctrine of Right 129 
 
 conditions in the will and intelligence of man, 
 upon what principle of equity can the pres- 
 ent state of the world be explained? Upon 
 what principle can we explain the introduc- 
 tion and subsequent dominion of evil in the 
 world? 
 
 The history of the Church and its life to- 
 day afford abundant evidence of the uncon- 
 scious power of the creed of the necessary 
 prevalence of the law of right in human life. 
 The indifference of the Church on the vital 
 issues of its existence is to be explained by 
 an unconscious or unacknowledged faith in 
 such a creed. Eight, in its application to cos- 
 mical issues, will prevail independently of man 
 — working ultimate good only to those that 
 love God, inasmuch as they conform their 
 lives to tho principle of right, thus perpet- 
 uating their relation to cosmical movements 
 as a correlative of their own existence, and 
 condition of man's development. Personal 
 responsibility in the world's history cannot 
 be developed to any degree of intensity under 
 
 such a creed. Without an intense conscious- 
 9 
 
130 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 ness o£ the structural value of life in the com- 
 position of the world man's nature first as- 
 sumes a negative attitude toward right, then 
 becomes positively evil, and all consciousness 
 of factitive relations gives place to an intense 
 personalization of life. 
 
 An individual without antecedents contin- 
 ued in indefinite isolation would be found to 
 have developed a sense of right only so far 
 as it applied directly to himself in relation to 
 some higher being whose particular form is a 
 structure of his own mind. Such isolation 
 would result in a formulation of the principle 
 of right essentially different from its formula- 
 tion growing out of the complicated relations 
 of a plurality of individuals having common 
 nature, relation, and interests. 
 
 The principle of right is found to have a 
 more complicated application in the relations 
 of individuals in a comunity than in the rela- 
 tions of an individual to the world. The sense 
 of right developed in the former relations will 
 be found to comprehend the application of 
 the principles in the latter, and to be more 
 
The Doctrine of Bight 131 
 
 complicated in nature and to exert a greater 
 influence on the life and actions of men. It 
 is not that right in different relations is es- 
 sentially different, but that applied in differ- 
 ent relations it takes on a concrete form mod- 
 ified by such relations. It is construed in 
 accordance with the demands and necessities 
 of such relations. It is not, therefore, unrea- 
 sonable to conclude that relationship becomes 
 the condition both of the sense and construc- 
 tion of right in the life of man. It is scarce- 
 ly necessary to add that relationship involves 
 capacity to comprehend and construe the 
 principles focalized in it so far as they affect 
 character. 
 
 Christianity, since its introduction into the 
 world, has been burdened with an intolerable 
 ignorance of its essential forces and relations. 
 And yet the Spirit of God has struggled un- 
 der such limitations to affect the life of the 
 world in some feeble degree. No doubt this 
 Spirit has turned away and wept bitterly over 
 the stolid setting of the will of man against 
 the higher truths of Christianity. The zeal 
 
132 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 of God's house has consumed him. God is 
 shut out of the life of man by ignorance of 
 his true relations thereto. The religious val- 
 ue of a man's life is proportional to the intel- 
 ligence involved in his religion. Purpose can 
 never transcend knowledge. Religion can nev- 
 er exceed its purposes. A man of stolid ig- 
 norance may be good, but such goodness is of 
 a low grade, and has but little practical value 
 in the economy of grace. Such a man is in- 
 capable of purposes commensurate with his 
 essential nature. He, therefore, is guilty of 
 trammeling his own nature. When a man's 
 purposes for good are commensurate with his 
 knowledge, he is as good as he can be under 
 such condition of intelligence, provided his 
 life measures up to his purposes. If the cir- 
 cumstances of such a man's life make greater 
 knowledge impossible, and if these circum- 
 stances were wholly beyond his control, it 
 seems reasonable and Christian that he have 
 the approbation of God; but if he might have 
 exerted an influence in the determination of 
 favorable circumstances, thus making greater 
 
The Doctrine of Right 133 
 
 knowledge, and therefore higher purposes, 
 possible, is it so reasonable or Christian that 
 this man have God's approval? A lack of 
 knowledge will render impossible a given 
 line of action, that has no other conditions of 
 impossibility. The economy of grace seems 
 to be adjusted to the purposes of man's heart. 
 I see nothing in the constitution of man or in 
 the economy of the world that could make a 
 disastrous prevalence of evil impossible. The 
 world may yet be called to pass its darkest 
 season. The devil certainly has free access 
 to the life of man. 
 
 Human nature is so constituted as to pro- 
 ceed in its development naturally upon a ba- 
 sis of right; for the ends of his existence can 
 be attained in no other way. However " natu- 
 rally " man sins, and however " natural " be his 
 " depravity," his ultimate nature certainly de- 
 clares for the right, and his career as indicat- 
 ed by his composition together with his rela- 
 tions and position in the economy of the 
 world makes the only natural course possible 
 to him one of righteousness. A course of sin 
 
134 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 puts him in conflict with nature, and in rad- 
 ical antagonism to his own interests. Hence 
 the ultimate issue of the system of nature is 
 the elimination of the sinner from all facti- 
 tive relations in its economy. What can hell 
 be but a place of no world relations for beings 
 whose natural existence is one of such rela- 
 tions? Do not all the figures used by Christ 
 to express it indicate such as the essential 
 feature of that place of "outer darkness?" 
 
 When all creeds teach that the prevalence 
 of right in human" life is conditioned in man 
 himself, and when men realize this truth, the 
 conquest of the world by the Spirit of God 
 will be easy. 
 
 Depravity, whatever it be, cannot render 
 man powerless to properly adjust himself 
 when it leaves him in world relations. In the 
 economy of grace the Spirit supplies in him 
 the conditions of such world relations. 
 
 The mission of the Spirit in the world, as 
 indicated by application to every individual, 
 is to teach every man his personal obligations 
 to the truth and to the world, and to fix jn 
 
The Doctrine of Right 135 
 
 liini convictions of personal responsibilities 
 inseparable from his life. So far from reliev- 
 ing the conscience of man on the line of duty, 
 Christianity is valuable only as it emphasizes 
 conscience and deepens the convictions of re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
CHAPTEK II 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF DEPRAVITY. 
 
 THE highest warrant for the final preva- 
 lence of right is its harmony with hu- 
 man nature, and an ultimate constitutional 
 tendency in human nature toward the right, 
 and the universal presence of the Spirit of 
 God to supplement the efforts of the soul in 
 such tendency. What is popularly called de- 
 pravity, and what is most visible in human 
 life, is the. subverted region of impulses, not 
 the ultimate tendency of his nature. The 
 subversion of the region of impulses, not 
 the ultimate tendency of his nature, ren- 
 ders man unnaturally sensitive to the influ- 
 ence of outward relations. Man is related to 
 the outward world in his feelings in such a 
 way as to make the forces of such world self- 
 assertive in this department of his nature. 
 The higher department of human nature con- 
 (136) 
 
The Doctrine of Depravity. 137 
 
 tains no self-assertive force. Such a charac- 
 teristic is incompatible with the nature of 
 virtuous activity. Unless man in the sover- 
 eignty of his agency assert himself, he will be 
 gradually and imperceptibly dominated by the 
 self-assertive forces of his lower nature, which 
 act according to their original dynamic nat- 
 ure. Sin has given a disproportionate activ- 
 ity to these forces. In this disproportionate 
 activity of the forces of man's lower nature, 
 which is exhibited in the continual encroach- 
 ments upon the forces of his higher nature, 
 thereby inducing conformity of action, is lo- 
 cated the "depravity" of the human race, 
 which exhibits a tendency to evil continually. 
 This unnatural sensitiveness to "earthy" in- 
 fluences renders conformity of action in the 
 region of moral forces easier than opposition. 
 The will, which is without self-assertion, may 
 be induced into the line of action of the 
 "earthy" influences in violation of what may 
 be called its constitutional tendency. Such 
 tendency must not be conceived as possessing 
 any determining value whatever. Induction 
 
138 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 of the will into any line of action does no vio- 
 lence to its nature. A purposive value at- 
 taches to every possible action of the will. 
 But such value is graduated on the basis of 
 intelligence. In the case of induction the 
 purpose involved fixes the direction of the 
 inducing forces as the line of action. 
 
 The will alone is without self-assertion. 
 All the elements of psychic nature except the 
 will act according to an original dynamic nat- 
 ure simply to act, and their activity is corre- 
 lated to physical conditions or objective ele- 
 ments. All the self-assertive forces in human 
 nature have relation to definite externality. 
 There cannot be a desire without an external 
 object, real or factitious. Love cannot exist 
 without, relation to a definite object, real or 
 factitious. Intellect cannot act without rela- 
 tion to something in the relation of object. 
 Truth is not a creature of mind, but exists 
 objectively to mind, and is independent of 
 mind. The law of intellect is in an important 
 sense mechanical. Mind follows the line de- 
 fined by evidence perceived, and its move- 
 
The Doctrine of Depravity. 139 
 
 meDts partake of the nature of the mechanic- 
 al rather than the volitional. That is, under 
 the law of perceived evidence intellect acts 
 inevitably. The will does not and cannot 
 originate action anywhere save in itself. It 
 is the creator of its own actions, the agent of 
 its own movements, but is powerless to orig- 
 inate action anywhere else. The other forces 
 of human nature act of themselves, after the 
 order of physical action. The will is self -de- 
 termining — it consciously determines itself 
 to conscious purposive action. Man's physic- 
 al nature is the basis of relationships to the 
 general physical world. His psychical nature 
 is correlated through his physical to the cos- 
 mical or general nature. In the region of 
 self-assertive forces he is responsive to the 
 movements of the physical. The self-assert- 
 ive forces act in relation to outward or inward 
 influences without regard to the principle of 
 right. Such actions cannot in themselves be 
 virtuous or vicious. There can be no moral 
 quality inherent in them. The original rela- 
 tion of the will to these forces was such as 
 
140 Doctrine and Function of Revelation, 
 
 to make easy and natural its control over 
 them. 
 
 As a rational creature under the law of re- 
 sponsibility it is the duty of man to conscious- 
 ly control all the forces of his nature. The 
 entire system of dynamic energies constitutes 
 in their integral relationships the structural 
 elements of character. They are not sinful 
 or virtuous inherently. The inevitable re- 
 sults of their action continued in any given 
 direction is character. It is the accumulation 
 of the psychic effects of these dynamic ele- 
 ments that in the aggregate constitutes char- 
 acter. The function of will is to control these 
 elements in the direction of virtuous activity 
 in order to the development of virtuous char- 
 acter. They cannot of themselves develop 
 such character. The responsibility of man 
 lies in the necessity of conscious, intelligent 
 mastery of these dynamic elements of his nat- 
 ure, and the persistent maintenance of their 
 continued activity in the direction of virtue 
 intelligently determined. If the will is sim- 
 ply negative toward these elements, they act 
 
The Doctrine of Depravity. 141 
 
 without conscious virtuous control. As man 
 is under the spiritual necessity of intelligent- 
 ly controlling their action, such a negative 
 attitude is sin; for the structural forces are 
 allowed to proceed in working out character 
 without spiritual motive. These forces are 
 naturally subject to the influence of will. 
 But if allowed to act without such control, 
 they acquire a potency of action that disrupts 
 the original relation of will to them. Such 
 disruption does not affect the will in any way 
 directly. It has its original constitutional 
 power of self -determinate action. Its ulti- 
 mate nature is not changed. It simply loses 
 its influence over the dynamic elements of 
 soul and life, and they proceed without refer- 
 ence to right, deprived of the spiritual influ- 
 ence of purpose. Such disruption is death. 
 That relation of will that makes practicable 
 its sovereignty over human nature is life. 
 Now this disruption may be accomplished 
 either by purposely directing the action of 
 these forces against the knowledge of virtuous 
 activity, willfully transgressing known law, or 
 
142 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 by a simple negative attitude toward their ac- 
 tivity, unconsciously assumed. The law of 
 virtue requires a positive, aggressive move- 
 ment on the part of will; so that a negative 
 attitude unconsciously assumed is as much a 
 violation of virtue as the purposed transgres- 
 sion. Original sin, whether by the uncon- 
 sciously assumed negative attitude of Eve or 
 the purposed transgression of Adam, consisted 
 in the movement of the self-assertive forces 
 without the aggressive, regulative action of 
 will in Eve, and the direction of those forces 
 athwart the known law of God in Adam, and 
 effected the disruption of the relations of the 
 will, and thus gave the predominance of ac- 
 tivity to these dynamic elements, rendering 
 the conscious, virtuous control by will forever 
 impossible. This was the death consequent 
 upon the violation of the law of right. As 
 the disturbance accomplished permanent re- 
 sults in human nature, the death was perma- 
 nent — " eternal " in its nature, since it was the 
 disruption of natural relations which nature 
 was powerless to recover. This natural rela- 
 
The Doctrine of Depravity. 143 
 
 tion was the basis of the Spirit's relation to 
 man. 
 
 In this natural disaster the will maintained 
 its integrity. Its power to act in lines of virt- 
 ue was unaffected. But it had forever lost 
 the power of executing its purposes upon the 
 structural forces of nature. Such a self-de- 
 terminate force, capable of originating he- 
 roic and virtuous purposes, but powerless to 
 control under such purposes the structural 
 forces, is of no virtuous service to a creature 
 whose responsibility lies in the purposive 
 control of these forces in directions of virtue. 
 "To will is present with" such a creature; 
 "but how to perform that which is good" he 
 finds not. 
 
 The self-assertive forces of nature, now act- 
 ing without the control of will in response 
 to simple physical influences, constitute "the 
 carnal mind." All forces that originate in 
 physical conditions are carnal. When they 
 dominate the will — that is, when the will is 
 powerless to influence them in any other than 
 their own direction of activity — the soul is car- 
 
144 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 nalizecl — "the carnal mind" prevails, and this 
 is "death" and "enmity to God;" death, be- 
 cause the will cannot control their action in 
 the direction of virtue, but can influence them 
 only in their own lines of prepotent action; 
 enmity to God, because they act without re- 
 gard to virtue and in accordance with phys- 
 ical conditions, and render the will powerless 
 to "perform that which is good." 
 
 The law in nature that antagonizes the law 
 of the Spirit is nothing more than the law of 
 the self-assertive forces not fully subjected to 
 the control of will. It is the unnatural sensi- 
 tiveness of these forces to outward or physic- 
 al — carnal — influences, and the disproportion- 
 ate tendency to independent action that renders 
 righteousness a struggle, virtue more difficult 
 than vice. It is this state of things in the 
 soul of man that explains the philosophy of 
 New Testament injunctions. Indeed, we find 
 in this fact the ultimate philosophy of re- 
 demption. In as far as man was the recipi- 
 ent of divine influence in consequence of re- 
 demption, such influence was exerted in the 
 
The Doctrine of Depravity. 145 
 
 restoration of an initial equilibrium between 
 the will and the carnal forces, so that man by 
 nature was born into life, that relation of will 
 that makes its control of the carnal forces 
 possible. But the will is not capable of ex- 
 erting that controlling influence of itself as a 
 simple natural element of soul. The ultimate 
 tendency of will is toward virtue; for the virt- 
 uous control of the carnal forces was its orig- 
 inal function, for which its relations rendered 
 it amply competent. The disruption of such 
 initial relations is accomplished in the indi- 
 vidual by sin — either the purposed violation 
 of law, or the unconsciously assumed negative 
 attitude toward the responsible control of all 
 the carnal forces. 
 
 The universal effect of redemption was the 
 natural restoration of spiritual equilibrium in 
 the race under conditions of the individual- 
 ism of the race. The fact of virtue must be 
 recognized as conditioned only in conscious, 
 responsible action of will in controlling the 
 dynamic elements of nature under conditions 
 of intelligence; so that the individual is born 
 10 
 
146 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 in a state as favorable for virtue as for vice 
 under similar conditions of intelligence and 
 association. The child seems naturally to go 
 wrong because its general surroundings are 
 more conducive to wrong impulse than virtu- 
 ous; its associations tend more to develop 
 the wrong; its knowledge of virtuous and re- 
 sponsible control of impulses is not developed; 
 its general education by example, and by in- 
 struction oftentimes, is in the line of preva- 
 lence of impulse. Whereas if the care and 
 time required for careful and accurate instruc- 
 tion were devoted by parents to children in 
 showing them how to control themselves, they 
 would as naturally go right as they appear to 
 go wrong. If parents would take the time 
 and exercise the requisite patience to have 
 children make their first steps in learning con- 
 sist of things that are right and belong to their 
 moral being, they would begin with conscious, 
 intelligent life to exercise the control over 
 themselves that virtue requires. Their first 
 conscious efforts would be in the direction of 
 virtue as naturally as we see them going in 
 
The Doctrine of Depravity. 147 
 
 the wrong. They go wrong so naturally be- 
 cause their first knowledge, making possible 
 conscious, purposive effort, is concerning 
 earthly things — things that belong to the 
 body. All the carnal forces, and all forces 
 that belong to the body as an organism acting 
 necessarily, according to their dynamic nat- 
 ure simply to act in the line of organic func- 
 tion without regard to the principle of right, 
 become the sources of the first forms of knowl- 
 edge, and therefore secure conscious effort of 
 will in their own direction, or superinduce a 
 negative attitude of will. 
 
 If the child be so taught that its first pur- 
 posive efforts be in the direction of virtue, 
 such efforts are as much credible acts of virt- 
 uous purpose as the similar acts of an adult. 
 If it is taught among its first lessons as far as 
 it can appreciate the character of Jesus and 
 God, and God's desire concerning its own life 
 and actions, and it consciously and intelligent- 
 ly acts under such conditions, these conditions 
 in the child are as valid conditions of divine 
 influence adjusted to the child's development 
 
148 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 as similar conditions in the adult; and this 
 conscious, virtuous effort of will in control of 
 its nature in the direction of God is as credi- 
 ble an act of faith in the child as a similar 
 act in an adult. Such an act is an act of wor- 
 ship; God, as known, is the object accepted 
 consciously and intelligently. Such is the 
 very essence of faith. We may formulate 
 thus: faith is the acceptance of God, under 
 conditions of knowledge, as the object of wor- 
 ship; and worship is the conscious effort of 
 the will to control the entire system of forces 
 in human nature in the direction of virtue. 
 If the effort is made early, before the carnal 
 forces have grown out of such control, this ef- 
 fort of will, being the condition under which 
 God exerts the spiritual influence upon the 
 nature of man that makes the control a fact, 
 the child begins a life of righteousness with- 
 out repentance. Its regeneration consists in 
 the spiritual influence exerted at the instance 
 of its faith. This intelligent effort of will in 
 the direction of the Spirit involves the faith 
 that is the condition of the divine influence 
 
The Doctrine of Depravity, 149 
 
 in the soul of man that makes righteousness 
 a fact of experience. If stich act of faith is 
 deferred until the carnal forces have worked 
 out a degree of their results without the virt- 
 uous control of the will, there is evidently 
 a different or additional Work of the Spirit 
 in the heart The effort of will under the 
 conditions of knowledge to exert a virtuous 
 control of nature, with the sorrow for the fail- 
 ure to do this and for the efforts in the direc- 
 tion of wrong, when known, is the condition 
 under which the requisite spiritual influence 
 is granted. And any work needed in the way 
 of making the virtuous control of nature by 
 will a possibility is effected in the individual 
 by the Spirit. This work done in the individ- 
 ual and the influence of the Spirit given at 
 the instance of faith is regeneration. The in- 
 dividual is "born again," literally "begotten 
 from above," when the conscious effort of will 
 to control is in the direction of the Spirit and 
 when the Spirit does for him whatever is nec- 
 essary for the actual control. The child is 
 "born again" when it begins the virtuous 
 
150 Doctrine and Function of Revelation* 
 
 control tinder conditions of knowledge, the 
 Spirit at the instance of such effort moving 
 into conscious, vital relation to the soul, and 
 exerting an influence graduated according to 
 development; the adult, when precisely the 
 same thing exists with the additional work of 
 the Spirit reducing the carnal forces to sub- 
 jection, and making a virtuous control possi- 
 ble under such spiritual relations. 
 
 The word rendered " born again " has aii act- 
 ive significance, " to beget, and to be begotten," 
 and a passive significance, " to be born." The 
 passive significance negatives human agency 
 involved in the word signified. " To be begot- 
 ten of the Spirit" means that the will begins 
 to act tinder the influence of the Spirit and in 
 the direction of the Spirit. Hence that which 
 is begotten of the Spirit is spirit When the 
 will begins to act under an influence origi- 
 nating in the carnal forces its action is in the 
 direction of the flesh, and the character result- 
 ant is " flesh." Hence that which is begotten 
 of the flesh is flesh. 
 
 It will be said, " Very good, if such infalli- 
 
The Doctrine of Depravity. 151 
 
 ble instruction can be provided for children;" 
 and it is protested that it is impossible to pro- 
 vide such instruction, since the race is fallible 
 and greatly liable to err. Such a religious de- 
 velopment from infancy does not require in- 
 fallible instruction any more than piety in 
 adults requires infallible knowledge. No par- 
 ent who is incapable of providing such instruc- 
 tion as the religious character of children de- 
 mands has the right of paternity. No one 
 whose occupation or character makes impossi- 
 ble the home influence necessary for the Chris- 
 tian growth of the children of such home has 
 the right to introduce children into the world, 
 unless such occupation or character be modi- 
 fied. No one who is unwilling to devote the 
 time and patience necessary for the Christian 
 growth of children has the right to assume 
 the relations in life that lead to children. 
 Love cannot be legitimately indulged unless 
 the parties are every way competent to meet 
 the responsibilities involved in the fulfillment 
 of its ultimate function. Love is the only con- 
 dition under which the race can be properly 
 
152 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 propagated. It is the inspiration of marriage 
 and of parental relationship. It is the basis 
 of the fulfillment of parental responsibility. 
 
 Parents may as readily teach their children 
 the ways of righteousness as they do the ways 
 of arithmetic, if they will be as determined 
 and careful. There is a difference of method 
 to be observed, but the principles are the 
 same. 
 
 The magnitude of parental responsibilities 
 and the possibilities of parental influence are 
 such that marriages projected in ignorance of 
 them and parentage acquired in indifference 
 to them are sins against the race. In this de- 
 partment of life is written a melancholy chap- 
 ter of our social history. 
 
 We conclude that if our children grow up 
 in wickedness there are defects in the admin- 
 istration of the parental charge. Parents are 
 more deeply responsible for the wickedness of 
 the world than they will readily concede, 
 God has vouchsafed the influences of his Spir- 
 it in the inauguration of the dispensation of 
 the Spirit, so that our failure to rear our chil- 
 
The Doctrine of Depravity, 153 
 
 dren in righteousness cannot bnt indicate 
 dereliction in duty. The failure may lie in 
 the tender personal relations to the Spirit, or 
 in an almost unconscious indifference to pa- 
 rental obligations. 
 
OfiAPTEB III 
 
 DEATH. 
 
 HOWEVEB life may liave arisen, wheth* 
 er by creation or by a natural miracle, 
 its continuance is a phenomenon of nature; 
 its organic basis is a fact of nature, Its rise 
 in nature indicates relationships other than 
 simple eosmical. In the general sense of life 
 it disappears with the disintegration of the 
 body. As a simple organic phenomenon, an- 
 imal life cannot be claimed to be capable of 
 an existence independent of its body; so that 
 life and death are things of nature, are worked 
 out by natural forces according to natural 
 conditions. So far as the animal world is con- 
 cerned we find no protest against this conclu- 
 sion. But when we consider the natural phe- 
 nomena of human life we are expected to note 
 a dignity in the facts of his experience that 
 necessitates the introduction of new relations 
 (154) 
 
Death. 155 
 
 and principles. "Whether man's subjection to 
 the law of mortality is a relation involved in 
 his original, natural existence, or is one sub- 
 sequently superinduced by the disaster of sin, 
 may afford grounds of reasonable discussion. 
 That he is now naturally subject to such law 
 cannot be questioned. An analysis of his 
 physical relations shows that this subjection 
 of man to death is rather an ultimate fact of 
 his existence than any incidental phenomenon 
 of nature. It is impossible to find in his 
 physical composition any element or condi- 
 tion or adjustment of forces that rationally 
 argues an organization independent of the 
 sum of the movements of general nature. On 
 the contrary, his body indicates a physical 
 correlation that all but infallibly argues an 
 ultimate, natural existence under the law of 
 mortality. 
 
 I shall not endeavor to justify the position 
 of Bishop Marvin and others that the tree of 
 life provided a mysterious contravention of 
 the law of mortality. So that the removal 
 of this tree left man, as a consequence of 
 
156 Doctrine and Function of Revelation* 
 
 sin, subject to the law of mortality under 
 which he was created. I am not inclined to 
 attach any natural significance to the tree of 
 life. It cannot be more than the effort of an 
 early age to represent the original condition 
 of mankind. I see no necessity for attaching 
 to it the doctrinal value of revelation. It is 
 to be viewed as an incident of the gradual liar- 
 monism involved in the revelation of the Bible. 
 It is certainly true that sin greatly modified 
 the condition of the race. It is probable that 
 the popular faith greatly exaggerates the nat- 
 ural effects. It must be conceded that the 
 popular interpretation of the Bible infers an 
 unwarrantable statement of physical effects. 
 Notwithstanding the dignity of the facts of 
 human experience, we are not warranted in 
 erecting into a distinct class the phenomena 
 of human life. There is no warrant for ex- 
 plaining the law of natural death in man in 
 any other way than the existence of the same 
 law in the animal world is explained — a sim- 
 ple, natural phenomenon. The nature of or- 
 ganization makes death inevitable at some 
 
Death. 157 
 
 time, liable to occur at any time. The fact 
 of death and its manner are incidental. We 
 are to regard nature a system whose con- 
 stitution is such that its resistless on-going 
 makes death an inevitable consequence of the 
 physical structure of the universe. The in- 
 itial movement of individual existence is as 
 physical as the growth of a tree. The indi- 
 vidual attains personal existence under con- 
 ditions and by the action of forces entirely 
 physical. Purpose has only a remote con- 
 nection. Death is nothing more than the in- 
 terruption of essential organic conditions, so 
 that the vital forces are reversed, or the ac- 
 tions on which life depends are prevented, 
 all of which involve physical agents. 
 
 • Death occurs without regard to its interrup- 
 tion of the design of God in human existence. 
 God certainly designed that the infant organ- 
 ism should mature and serve the purpose of 
 complete growth in the world. The maturity 
 of the organism is the basis for the career of 
 man. Death violates this law of life, and 
 therefore negatives life, when it occurs earlier 
 
158 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 than the laws of organic structure demand. 
 If nature is undisturbed in organization, death 
 is the natural conclusion of the career of an 
 individual, and in an ideal form would be the 
 mechanical resultant of all the activities of 
 the organism. But death without violence is 
 rather the accumulated effects of successive 
 interruptions of vital functions, or the imme- 
 diate result of violent interruptions. 
 
 The ultimate principles of nature render the 
 law of death in organic nature mechanically in- 
 evitable, and lead to the confession of its exist- 
 ence independently of sin. Could a tree have 
 grown indefinitely before the introduction of 
 sin? Or has sin affected the molecular me- 
 chanics of vitality? There is a tradition that 
 makes Adam before his transgression intol- 
 erably large — so large that "when he lay down 
 his head and his feet were so far apart that it 
 would have taken five hundred years to walk 
 from the one to the other." Tradition adds 
 that when he sinned " God laid his hand rrpon 
 him and reduced him to the more moderate 
 stature of a hundred and fifty feet " — so crude 
 
Death. 159 
 
 were the ideas of physical development under 
 original purity, and likewise extravagant were 
 the notions of the physical effects of sin. All 
 such speculations concerning the effects of sin 
 are puerile. It is better that we give more em* 
 phasis to the spiritual character of the great 
 disaster. It is in line with the general tend- 
 ency of mankind to emphasize the physical 
 and to regard all efforts of God to show the 
 character of sin a contribution to physical 
 science. 
 
 I am inclined to consider the use of the 
 word death as an object-lesson to teach man 
 the effect of sin upon the soul. The natural 
 phenomenon is used to denominate the spirit- 
 ual because it makes an easy passage to the 
 apprehension of the spiritual phenomenon 
 that concerns man in a far more significant 
 way than the natural. In some such way as 
 natural death interrupts the career of life we 
 are to conceive that sin works an interruption 
 of the spiritual career of man. It is an ex- 
 ceedingly difficult matter to teach moral and 
 spiritual truth by means of a vocabulary devel- 
 
160 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 oped under an intensely secular civilization. 
 Such a condition of affairs renders easy the 
 divergence from the truth in all ancient en- 
 deavors to formulate it. Such a principle ex- 
 plains the imperfect hominization of the sys- 
 tem of moral truth taught in the Bible. We 
 are to regard death, therefore, as an event of 
 nature occurring in accordance with the ulti- 
 mate principles of organization, over which 
 God exerts no more immediate control as to 
 the manner and time of its occurrence than 
 the death of an animal in the jungles of Af- 
 rica. Its occurrence as a chastisement has no 
 warrant in nature or revelation. It is no part 
 of the moral or spiritual system of govern- 
 ment under which we exist. It plays its part 
 as an incident of nature. The spiritual dis- 
 pensation taught in the Scriptures is adjusted 
 to it as to all inevitable natural facts of man's 
 existence. 
 
 An event of such nature could but com- 
 mand the religious attention of the world. 
 It is therefore naturally connected with the 
 systems of religious doctrines that have pre- 
 
Death 161 
 
 vailed in the world. An event that so affects 
 the individual and the family and society, and 
 so impresses the moral nature of man, would 
 not be overlooked by that Spirit that "num- 
 bers the hairs of the head" and knows the 
 falling of the sparrow, in his efforts to influ- 
 ence the soul of man. Without any physical 
 connection with the event, the Spirit sees the 
 fact as an experience of man, estimates its 
 effect upon the soul, and endeavors to use it 
 to make an additional impression for good. 
 
 The heart of man in the bustle of his life 
 does not hear the "still small voice" of the 
 Spirit that urges to piety. But when life has 
 been dethroned the heart becomes more sensi- 
 tive to divine influences, because the stern facts 
 of nature bring the soul face to face with truths 
 that have been hitherto repudiated as unwor- 
 thy of serious consideration because antag- 
 onistic to life. Nature forsakes the soul, and 
 in this extremity it turns to God. We look 
 upon death, and by its relation to us we too 
 are brought to face the sterner facts of nature, 
 and likewise become more sensitive to spiritual 
 11 
 
162 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 influences. Now on the occasion of death the 
 Spirit takes advantage of the unusual sensi- 
 tiveness of the soul to spiritual influences and 
 endeavors to "draw" men to Christ. In this 
 way we are to explain all the moral influence 
 of death and likewise the spiritual value of 
 afflictions. God does not afflict by death or 
 otherwise for the purpose of moral conviction. 
 Our afflictions, as death, come upon us with- 
 out God's purpose or agency. They are sim- 
 ply incidents of our existence, and God uses 
 them when they do come upon us for spiritual 
 ends. The function of the Spirit is only spir- 
 itual, affects only the soul, looks only to the 
 spiritual advancement of man, and accom- 
 plishes this by taking advantage of every in- 
 cident of man's life that is in any way related 
 to his moral nature so as to affect it. The 
 Spirit is capable only of a moral influence 
 upon man. We cannot predicate of such a 
 dispensation any mechanical action or phys- 
 ical results whatsoever. 
 
 I am thoroughly convinced that the teach- 
 ing of the New Testament concerning the 
 
Death. 163 
 
 function of the Spirit is confined to those 
 moral influences that look to the spiritual 
 elevation of man; and consequently that all 
 expressions of "chastisement," "scourging," 
 etc., are to be understood as referring to such 
 moral influence.. " For whom the Lord loveth 
 he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom 
 he receiveth." Here we can justly refer the 
 action of God to nothing more than the moral 
 influence exerted for spiritual ends. The mis- 
 sion of the Son of God is in no way phys- 
 ical. The forces introduced into the world 
 were exclusively moral. There is no evidence 
 that redemption involved a movement of God 
 to affect nature in any way. It was a spirit- 
 ual movement adjusted to a physical order of 
 things to secure spiritual effects in man. The 
 Scriptures intimate a great final physical re-ad- 
 justment in keeping with the spiritual changes 
 effected in man through redemption. In that 
 final state death is to be eliminated and the 
 prophecy is authoritatively made that the re- 
 deemed shall exist under conditions so totally 
 different from the present that, if physical 
 
164 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 at all, they are accomplished upon principles 
 of organization radically different from the 
 order of existence in which man was brought 
 forth. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 GENEKAL CONCLUSION. 
 
 WE are compelled by observation of 
 facts to consider man in some signifi- 
 cant way a product of nature, in natural fac- 
 titive relations. Upon the hypothesis of cre- 
 ation only the first man or pair were created. 
 Humanity was created with the power of re- 
 production, and expressed in the form of indi- 
 viduals in natural dependence for sustenance. 
 Individuals that make up the race under the 
 law of its individualism are the natural prod- 
 ucts of the created pair. The hypothesis of 
 evolution gives special emphasis to the nat- 
 ural relations of the race, but in nowise dis- 
 credits the facts of human life. It may be 
 made to eliminate God from the system of nat- 
 ure under which man developed; but this is 
 a sin of the individual rather than the hypoth- 
 esis. As existent and observable in nature 
 
 (165) 
 
166 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 evolution can be no more than the formulation 
 of a great law, such as gravity, that belongs to 
 the system of nature actually existent. Under 
 such a law animal life was developed, as also 
 vegetable. Man is existent under this law, 
 existing in a physical connection with the law 
 of animal life of such character as to suggest 
 fundamental relations. In no case, however, 
 is the divine or supernatural logically ex- 
 cluded by any necessity of the system. It 
 seems most reasonable and consistent to con- 
 clude that man was not independent of this 
 law of organic nature, and that in his imme- 
 diate origin there was something more than 
 the dynamic elements of nature involved. It 
 is not, however, to be concluded that the su- 
 pernatural element called for in the origin of 
 man was factitive in the system of nature ex- 
 istent. 
 
 If we accept the natural evolution of man, 
 excluding supernatural agency, we arrive at 
 the same creature found by the hypothesis of 
 creation. However we may explain the origin 
 and development of his fundamental charac- 
 
General Conclusion. 167 
 
 ieristics, he exists of necessity in the same re- 
 lations — moral, spiritual, and physical— that 
 creation finds. It does not change the essen- 
 tial character of a product to explain its 
 origin, even to demonstrate its development 
 from elements totally different from those 
 found to exist in it. Water is nevertheless 
 water, although it is developed by natural 
 process from elements having none of the 
 characteristics of the fluid. The fluid char- 
 acter may not be logically traceable to the 
 gaseous, but the facts compel us to see the 
 liquid potential in the gases. 
 
 It cannot discredit the moral and spiritual 
 elements of man's nature to find them devel- 
 oped from lower forms. It does not in any 
 way discredit the diamond to be demonstrated 
 to be the product of a long, natural process 
 beginning with pure carbon in some of its 
 combined forms, possibly vegetable. It may 
 be claimed, however, by the advocate of mate- 
 rial evolution that the evolution of the intel- 
 lectual, moral, and spiritual in a system of 
 nature is a demonstration of the ultimate ma- 
 
168 Doctrine and Function of Bevelation. 
 
 terial character of these elements, and there- 
 fore that man expresses no more than a more 
 highly organized being than the animal or veg- 
 etable, and that what appears as intellect is 
 no more than is invisible in the lower animal 
 and even in the plant — only a finer and high- 
 er manifestation of what belongs naturally to 
 matter. The further conclusion from such 
 facts is that man bears a relation to the uni- 
 verse in every way similar to that of lower 
 organisms; that his individual existence is 
 conditioned in organization; that we have no 
 evidence of such existence continued beyond 
 the integrity of the organism. 
 
 It is not at all necessary that the intellectual, 
 moral, and spiritual be considered a manifesta- 
 tion of the physical elements of the natural 
 system in which they were developed because 
 so developed. There is really no evidence for 
 the continuity of the physical into the intel- 
 lectual. The evidences afforded by nature are 
 against thinking such continuity. The form 
 the thought of continuity should take is that 
 what is seen as intellect existed in nature in 
 
General Conclusion. 169 
 
 an unorganized condition, without factitive re- 
 lations, until organization was accomplished. 
 The law of organization may be conceived as 
 gradually conditioning in such process the 
 force that finally takes the form of intellect, 
 or soul, when the organization is complete. 
 We may readily conceive the soul organized 
 in matter in its organic forms, but not depend- 
 ent for its existence on such organization. 
 That is, the soul as an entity is not originated 
 by organization, but its individual, factitive 
 existence is dependent upon organization. 
 Material organization is the condition of the 
 individualization of the soul, and its manifes- 
 tation as such. Under the law of reproduc- 
 tion we may rationally conceive the soul orig- 
 inating in the antecedent soul by a process of 
 gradually conditioning in seminal matter only 
 the potential soul which under material or- 
 ganization is itself developed into conscious 
 personal existence. It will be seen at once by 
 those acquainted with the physiological facts 
 that only a comparatively limited number of 
 potential souls ever arrive, under the law of 
 
170 Doctrine and Function of Revelation, 
 
 reproduction, at personal existence. Where 
 we see in organic matter so many possibilities 
 of soul-development, yet so many arrested in 
 their development, or wholly prevented, we 
 are forced by the facts of nature before us to 
 conclude that the potential soul in seminal 
 matter has no conscious or factitive existence 
 until complete organization is effected, or 
 else agree with material evolution that soul is 
 explained on condition of the continuity of 
 matter. 
 
 There is certainly room for speculation as 
 to which factor belongs the origin of soul — 
 maternity or paternity. The facts of reproduc- 
 tion seem to point to the origin of soul in the 
 paternal relation and the organization of both 
 soul and body in the maternal. We cannot 
 logically, in accord with evidences of nature, 
 assert that inasmuch as material organization 
 conditioned the organization of the individual 
 soul, therefore the destruction of the material 
 disintegrates the soul. The material was the 
 condition under which the soul became an in- 
 dividual, personal existence as known in life. 
 
General Conclusion. 171 
 
 We assumed as thinkable and reasonable 
 that what is known as soul existed in the 
 form of a force or element that sustained 
 no factitive relations in the universe; and 
 that it was so related in nature that organ- 
 ization conditions a similar movement in it 
 which results finally in the complete organ- 
 ization of personal existence in conditions of 
 bodily organization. We may readily claim 
 that the interruption of the physical organiza- 
 tion before complete to the extent of prevent- 
 ing its completion would naturally prevent 
 the completion of the soul organization begun 
 under such conditions. The soul thus inter- 
 rupted in the progress of organization may be 
 conceived to revert to its original form, which 
 is not to be conceived as soul at all in the 
 sense of the word as generally used, which 
 signifies a conscious personal existence. But 
 when organization is complete the soul is also 
 complete in its form of personal factitive ex- 
 istence; so that the natural evidences forbid 
 predicating annihilation or disorganization of 
 the soul at the instance of bodily disorganiza- 
 
172 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 tion. The whole weight of the doctrine of 
 Scripture concerning man is in favor of a per- 
 sonal existence independent of bodily organ- 
 isation after complete organization has been 
 accomplished. The condition under which 
 any thing begins to exist is not always neces- 
 sary for its continued existence. 
 
 The soul previous to organization into con- 
 scious, personal existence must be conceived 
 as existing in an unorganized state under cer- 
 tain organic conditions of matter in which the 
 soul proper is only potential. Traced back to 
 the first man, it assumes a form that admits 
 more or less speculation. The hypothesis of 
 creation claims its origin in creative acts of 
 God which brought forth a conscious personal 
 soul. The hypothesis of evolution will admit 
 of divine action in the origin, but whether it 
 was creative or formative is a question contro- 
 verted. If creative, the origin is the same as 
 above. If formative, the creative act is placed 
 at the beginning, when all matter and all things 
 were created. The creature of which God made 
 soul existed in material relations correlated 
 
General Conclusion, 173 
 
 to the law of organization, and was so organ- 
 ized in different degrees of perfection that its 
 full potential character does not appear until 
 man is reached. In this case there was a 
 formative act of God that gave higher perfec- 
 tion and greater permanence of existence than 
 was possible in nature alone. 
 
 The evidence of nature, the evidence of 
 Scripture, and of consciousness lead us to a 
 very strong faith in the continued personal ex- 
 istence of the soul after the destruction of the 
 body. There are no positive evidences any- 
 where against such a conclusion, whatever 
 may be said in favor of the protest. 
 
 As a product of nature man's career is oft- 
 entimes interrupted by natural changes that 
 completely estop the individual, disrupting 
 the conditions of his factitive relations in the 
 universe. He is not to be considered an ob- 
 ject of special providence that places God in 
 mechanical relations to the universe, or identi- 
 fies the forces of nature with the will of God. 
 
 The system of providence taught in the Old 
 Testament must be understood to be a system 
 
174 Doctrine and Function of Revelation* 
 
 of special dealings of God with man in order 
 to the completion of the revelation of trnth re* 
 quired in his salvation, and in nowise repre- 
 sentative of universal providential relations. 
 It is purtenant only to God's efforts in the 
 method of revelation, specific and absolutely 
 restricted to God as related to such methods. 
 The Bible is the concrete record of the op- 
 erations of God in this method, and contains 
 the truths as apprehended and expressed by 
 men " moved by the Holy Ghost " to speak such 
 things with divine authority. The word reve- 
 lation is not to be used in its ordinary generic 
 sense of to discover, make known by certain 
 processes or any process, but is to be used in a 
 specific sense as applied to God in making 
 known, discovering to man by methods adapted 
 to the laws of intellection and speech truth that 
 pertained to his salvation— doctrinal redemp- 
 tion. The record of this process of condition- 
 ing doctrinal redemption in human formularies 
 is a faithful record of the facts of God's dealing 
 and of the truth as learned and expressed by 
 man under the influence of the Spirit. Such 
 
General Conclusion. 175 
 
 revelation of God to man involves the discov- 
 ery only of spiritual truth, and the Bible as a 
 whole is the record of the dealings of God in 
 the method adopted for the perfecting of such 
 revelation. We are not to consider the Bible 
 as containing any other authoritative deliv- 
 erances intended to regulate the thoughts of 
 men. Its scientific appearance, or passages 
 that appear to have scientific value, are to be 
 considered more as incidental, originating in 
 the law of soul that applies all spiritual con- 
 victions to the explanation of matters of spec- 
 ulation, than as fundamental elements of rev- 
 elation. 
 
 The mission of the Scriptures is moral and 
 spiritual, having no logical or necessary con- 
 nection with the science of the world. We are 
 to find in the Scriptures an inspiration to holi- 
 ness of life, and the formulary of man's true 
 end — not to serve the secular side of life, but 
 to give prominence to the spiritual and make 
 the secular subsidiary to his true moral end. 
 
 Growing out of man's physical relations and 
 social nature, the intense secular civilization 
 
176 Doctrine and Function of Bevelation. 
 
 of the world lias been developed without con- 
 sideration of the moral or spiritual necessities 
 of the race, really in radical antagonism to the 
 spiritual life of man. Such a civilization can- 
 not be considered representative of a divine 
 purpose. To avoid the development of such 
 civilization was the purpose of the revelation 
 • of God in saving man. It was to be accom- 
 plished by introducing into the life of man 
 the spiritual forces of religion corrected and 
 pure. The world did not accept the truth and 
 live up to its requirements. Hence the com- 
 plexion of the world is carnal; its civilization, 
 entirely and intensely secular, operates a ter- 
 rific antagonism to the religious life com- 
 manded by Christ. The factitive presence in 
 the thought of the world of the truths of rev- 
 elation would naturally have worked a differ- 
 ent civilization — one in which spirituality 
 would have been as prominent as secularity is 
 in the present. 
 
 The law of right prevails in human life, and 
 therefore in the world, only as man makes it 
 prevail. There is no absolute condition of 
 
General Conclusion. 177 
 
 prevalence other than through the intelligent 
 agency of man. The ultimate right does not 
 prevail in the life of man. It is only right as 
 learned — the forms it takes in the knowledge 
 of man — that affects character and the general 
 civilization of the world. The knowledge is 
 the condition of its influence, but knowledge 
 of right, perfect or imperfect, does not inev- 
 itably affect life. Such is its relations that 
 there must be voluntary purposive activity in 
 the direction of right as known. 
 
 Death is a thing of nature, playing its part in 
 the system of nature under which man exists, 
 as all other things of its kind, occurring with- 
 out regard to the purposes of God in human 
 life, oftentimes violently interrupting the plan 
 of God in man, and is to have no more signif- 
 icance in the way of indicating the purpose of 
 God in the individual life than a thunder- 
 storm that prostrates a forest. The redemp- 
 tion of man is adjusted to his natural condi- 
 tions, and makes the pathetic appeal to " seek 
 first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
 ness;" and we have the significant warning, 
 12 
 
178 Doctrine and Function of Revelation, m 
 
 "for we know not what a day may bring 
 forth." The spirit of the warning is plain, 
 Righteousness should be made the primary 
 end of life, for we cannot estimate the work- 
 ings of that system of nature under which we 
 live. It may render us incapable of seeking 
 righteousness. It may permanently interrupt 
 life. We are to regard the contingencies of 
 life and prepare the spiritual man while nat- 
 ure permits. For there are no promises in 
 nature upon which we may depend. Death 
 of the young, the old, the middle-aged, the 
 strong and the weak, the wicked and the right- 
 eous is a continual warning that death is no 
 respecter of' persons or conditions, and regards 
 neither God nor man. 
 
 The only providence we can claim for the 
 world is one limited to spiritual influences. 
 God does not exist in any mechanical or phys- 
 ical relations whatsoever, and does not in any 
 way bring this or that upon men. The life 
 of man goes as he makes it, the Spirit always 
 operating a superable influence upon the soul. 
 Our fortunes and our property, our successes 
 
General Conclusion. 179 
 
 and our failures, our health and sickness, all 
 things denominated afflictions, come upon us 
 without God's immediate influence. He nev- 
 er afflicts, he never kills; he does not give fort- 
 une, nor does he withhold it. He does not 
 send disaster nor disease upon the world. 
 They come by nature acting in its own chan- 
 nels, and are legitimate natural results. Oft- 
 entimes nature has been interrupted by hu- 
 man agency, and the effort to re-adjust brings 
 about much suffering. 
 
 Pain is more a simple physical consequence 
 than any monitor of God. It serves a good 
 purpose; but we can scarcely imagine organ- 
 ization without the capacity of pain graduated 
 according to the degree of organization. There 
 are none of the elements of divine purpose in 
 pain. The Spirit of God was sent into the 
 world to "reprove the world of sin, of right- 
 eousness, and of judgment." He has no me- 
 chanical or physical function to perform. 
 The entire field of influence, according to the 
 postulate of the Spirit, is the soul of man. 
 He knows all that happens to man, and is 
 
180 Doctrine and Function of Revelation, 
 
 present to take advantage of all disasters, 
 misfortunes, afflictions, as Well as successes 
 and fortunes, and to bless them to the good 
 of man in the way of leading him to God and 
 a spiritual life. 
 
 The dispensation of the Spirit is confined 
 to the soul of man, and marks the departure 
 from the object method of the Old Testament. 
 He is to teach and to aid the spirit of man, to 
 rebuke, convict, and comfort* The dealings of 
 God with men are confined to the sphere of 
 the Spirit "which is the Holy Ghost, whom 
 the Father will send in my name." That 
 Spirit is now fully inaugurated in his great 
 world mission, and he that will not believe by 
 his teaching, assisting, rebuking, convicting, 
 "would not believe even though one should 
 rise from the dead." 
 
 I am more thoroughly convinced as I study 
 the subject that the proper sphere of prayer 
 is for spiritual influences and blessings. As 
 the mission of the Spirit is to give the " good 
 things" of the Spirit to those that ask, so the 
 sphere and compass of the request is limited 
 
General Conclusion, 181 
 
 by the power and function of the Spirit to ad- 
 minister; so that all expressions of Scripture 
 that indicate the privilege of asking "whatso- 
 ever you will," with the promise of obtaining, 
 are to be understood as based upon the pos- 
 tulate of the Spirit's mission to " reprove the 
 world " etc., to " teach all things whatsoever I 
 have said unto you," to "guide into all truth." 
 There is really no Scripture warrant for pray- 
 ing for physical things. We may pray about 
 our affairs of life, but to ask directly for such 
 a blessing as a good crop, a successful and 
 profitable business, etc., is entirely beyond the 
 function of the Spirit. It is legitimate to ask 
 for wisdom, for divine influence in the way of 
 assisting in the Christian management of our 
 life affairs, etc. The greatest value of prayer, 
 however, consists in its power to bring the 
 soul into more intimate union with God. It is. 
 ultimately the desire of the soul for God, a 
 consciousness of the want of God in the soul 
 and its effort to supply that want, and fixes in 
 the soul a continual sense of dependence upon 
 the Spirit's influence. When exercised in its 
 
182 Doctrine and Function of Revelation. 
 
 proper spiritual function greater spirituality 
 and more consistent piety prevail among men. 
 But when exercised in the direction of secular 
 affairs the tendency is to exclude the higher 
 and finer spiritual function and the soul grows 
 in the way of secular life and the "carnal 
 mind;" for the prayer is nothing more than 
 an effort to effect secular success with no 
 definite spiritual purpose. A people whose 
 prayers are most intense in the direction of 
 secular life are most worldly-minded and have 
 least deep interest in the kingdom of God. 
 Interest in the Church is no more than inter- 
 est in any secular enterprise. The Church 
 becomes to them a secular enterprise. 
 
 Likewise, thanksgiving for material pros- 
 perity is recognizing in God a secular sover- 
 eign, most interested in the material affairs 
 of man, and indicates the process of secular- 
 ization of the soul. To thank God for the 
 things of the world is to make him the dis- 
 poser of such things. To ask him for such 
 things in prayer is to depart from the postu- 
 late of his being: "God is Spirit, and those 
 
General Conclusion, 183 
 
 that worship him must worship him in spirit 
 and in truth.'" This indicates a spiritual rela- 
 tion which man is to most carefully regard, 
 in which he is to find his only approach to 
 God; and that thankfulness and gratitude 
 should be in the direction of spiritual bene- 
 fits that God bestows. 
 
 The secular blessings of God upon the an- 
 cient world are not to be taken as representa- 
 tive of any universal relation, but purtenant 
 only to that special method of God's dealing 
 in revelation. The Bible certainly discloses 
 a special line of divine providence, but always 
 in immediate connection with the method of 
 revelation. I do not believe that any of the 
 expressions of the Old or New Testaments 
 concerning the providence of God can be le- 
 gitimately construed into a statement of prov- 
 idential oversight beyond its specific applica- 
 tion in relation to revelation. 
 
 The End. 
 

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