INTRODUCTION.

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THE REVELATIONS OF GOD TO MEN PROGRESSIVE.

IT is supposable that God might have made his entire written revelation of himself to men at once, through one inspired prophet and one only; in one definite locality (Eden or Jerusalem), and all brought within a twelvemonth. But he did not deem this the wisest way. He preferred to speak at considerable intervals of time--through a long succession of "holy men of old;" "at sundry times and in diverse manners " (Heb. i: 1). Among the choice results of this progressive method we may name the following: (1.) That by means of it God made large and admirable use of history. This was revealing himself to men, not simply by his words but by his works. In ways which men could not well mistake, he was thus able to manifest himself as the God of nations; also as the God of families; and not least, as the God of individual men. It was vital to human welfare that he should place himself before men as being not a heathen Brumha, sunk in unconscious sleep for ages, but as the All-seeing; ever-active One, exercising a real government over men, ruling in equity and yet with loving-kindness; ever present amid all their activities and impressing himself upon the thought and the heart of the race. In this line of policy how admirably did he give promises to his servants to inspire their faith in himself; then prove that faith through years and ages of trial and delay; but at last confirm his word by its signal fulfillment! By what other method could He so effectually reveal himself as a personal God--the personal Friend of his trustful children--evermore worthy of their supreme confidence, whether they could or could not see at once all the reasons of his ways?

His providential rule over nations as such found in this method ample scope for the fullest illustration. The record of this ruling in the ministrations of prosperity and adversity; in the rise and the ruin of great nations through the lapse of the world's early centuries, constitute a marvelously rich portion of this progressive revelation of God to man.--A Bible made up of words from God without any deeds of God would be open to dangerous misunderstanding and thus might in great measure fail of its purpose. At best it would be tame and unimpressive compared with the method God has chosen of revealing himself largely in actual works at innumerable points along the ages for more than four thousand years.

(2.) Again; no small gain accrued from the large number and various qualities of the holy men through whom God spake. The personal blessing to themselves was too rich to be limited to any one man. Rather let it be shared by many scores of men, standing forth before their respective generations age after age from Adam down to him of Patmos.--We may also note the large range of diversity in their personal character and in their endowments as authors. How varied were the circumstances of their lives and the moral trials which were the refiner's fire to their spiritual life! How abundantly by this means did their personal experiences illustrate the ways of God with those who come nearest to him in the fullness of heart communion! How many chapters are thus provided of the most reliable most varied and easily applied Christian experience!

By means of the diversity of inspired writers, the Bible is enriched with the charms of a large variety in style, as well as in the experiences of the Christian life. Among all the sacred penmen, no two minds are cast in the same mold. Poetry, eloquence, imagination, logic, sublimity, pathos--in what endless combinations do we find these gifts apportioned and manifested! How should we admire the wisdom which chose out men of gifts so diversified, and then adopted a method of inspiration which left each writer's mind to the unrestrained development of its own peculiar genius.

(3.) Yet farther; the progressive historical method of making up the Bible opened the door widely for miracles and prophecy. The occasions for miracles were multiplied. They could be introduced naturally where manifold and not single results should accrue. In this way there was no need to manufacture opportunities for miraculous interposition. Abundant occasions arose to demand them, when consequently they had a most thrilling effect. We may see this in the scenes of the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the rescue of Hezekiah and his people.

So also of prophecy. It asks for time. On the supposition that the fulfillment is to appear in the Scriptures, an interval of some duration must come between the utterance and the fulfillment. It was also wise that prophecy should subserve the superadded purpose of spiritual comfort to God's people during the ages between comparative darkness and forth-breaking light. In fact it gave to God's people the first single beams of morning twilight, bearing the grateful assurance that the Sun of Righteousness would surely rise on the nations in the fullness of gospel times.

(4.) Still again; by this method of making up inspired history it is placed side by side with profane history and the most ancient monuments of the race, and thus invites investigation on the point of its truthfulness. Is this progressive history of God's ways toward men confirmed by whatever reliable history of the same period has come down to us through other sources? This point well deserves and richly rewards a careful examination.

(5.) Moreover, it is to be presumed that God would commence his revelation of himself, to our race in the very infancy of their existence. The Bible shows us that he did. Assuming that at this point they had every thing to learn, we ought to expect that their first Bible lessons would turn their thought to the great truths of natural religion--the manifestations of God in his works of creation, and providence. In harmony with this reasonable, expectation, we read--"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In that opening chapter of revelation, God said, "Let there be light," and it was; also "a firmament" above, and it was; "Let the dry land appear," and it appeared; "let there be light-bearers in the heavens," and they shine forth; let grass and herbs grow;--let creatures live in the waters, in the air, and on the dry land, and it was so; and finally, "let us make man," far unlike all the rest--"in our own image and likeness"--and god-like man sprang into being. So onward the narrative witnesses to the ever-present hand of God in the mists, the rains, and the teeming vegetation of the new-made world. God, the great Author of nature; God in nature and evermore over all nature, was the first lesson recorded in God's revelation of himself to men.

In natural order, the next lesson like this, is God in providence--God administering the agencies of earthly good or ill, making his presence manifest among his intelligent and moral offspring, and even "coming down to see" (as the early record has it) what men were doing and whether the cry coming up to him told truthfully of the guilty violence perpetrated by man upon his fellows. This idea--God ruling over the race in righteous retribution for their good or evil deeds--was obviously one of the first great moral lessons to be illustrated, enforced, impressed. So vital is this conviction to the ends of a moral government that it should not surprise us if the actual administration of present rewards and punishments in the common course of human life in this world should be made far more prominent and palpable in the early than in the later ages of the race, so much so as to force itself upon the dullest eyes and compel the attention of the most stupid and reluctant observers.--Such (we shall have occasion to notice) was unquestionably the divine policy throughout the earlier stages of human history, abundantly apparent in the records of the Bible. In later times, the exigencies of a system of probation, and especially the importance of giving large scope to faith, after sufficient evidence has been afforded, served to impose narrower limits upon present retribution, reserving the larger share to the perfect adjustments of the great future. In the earlier stages of human history, it would obviously be vital to give men sufficient demonstration that God does rule, and therefore is to be believed when he threatens to punish either here or hereafter, and consequently is evermore to be feared as the certain avenger of crime. Hence the imperative need in those early ages of such manifestations of God's justice as would impress the fear of his name. With our eye open to the native pride of depraved souls and to their appalling tendency to disown God and bid him "depart" and not trouble them with his "ways," it will not surprise us that God should shape his earliest agencies of providence to inspire fear rather than love. It needs but the least thought to see that this policy was a simple necessity--the most obvious dictate of wisdom. In this point revelation might naturally be progressive, advancing, as soon as was safe and wise from manifestations inspiring fear to those which would reveal his love.

The doctrine of divine providence in regard to the sufferings of good men--one of the hardest problems of human life--might be expected to unfold itself gradually. It would be quite too much for the infancy of human thought and knowledge to grasp this problem and master all its intricacies. Hence the scope for a gradual unfolding (as we may see) all the way from the discussions in Job and the Psalms to the clearer light which shines in the epistle to the Hebrews, as also in Peter and Paul. This beautiful illustration of progress in divine revelation will well reward attention in its place.

(6.) On the supposition that God's scheme for the recovery of our lost race contemplated some atonement for sin--a provision in its very nature and relations toward both God and man exceedingly delicate and critical--it is at least presumable beforehand that God would bring out this idea with great care--with the wisest precaution against misconception, and not improbably with some foregoing illustrations of its significance and of its intended application. Precisely this we see in the great sacrificial system of the Mosaic economy. We only put essentially the same idea into other and more general terms when we say that a protracted course of successive revelations provides for making an antecedent economy pave the way for a subsequent one--a first revelation preparatory to a second--one set of ideas imprinted and impressed upon the human mind, made conducive to other and higher revelations yet to follow. The wisdom of such progressions can not fail to impress itself upon all thoughtful minds.--Thus God's revelations of himself from age to age were adjusted to the advance in spiritual development which he had provided for in the human mind. As training and culture developed higher capacities, new lessons were in order and higher attainments were made. "Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand" the loving-kindness and matchless wisdom of the Lord.

To forestall misapprehensions (possible and sometimes actual), let it be noted that progress in the revealed science of God by no means supersedes what has gone before. Naturally it only serves to place old truths in new and richer light. No one fact affirmed concerning God in the earlier ages is denied in the later. Certain features of his character may be brought out more prominently in the later lessons, but there is no unsaying of the things said before. Nothing can conflict with this axiom of divine science--"I am the Lord; I change not." Prominence may be given in the early ages to such manifestations as impress men with fear and as set forth God's righteous justice toward transgressors; while later revelations may disclose more fully the depths of divine love and compassion. Yet let none infer that God is less just in the New Testament than in the Old, or that the earlier policy of God's throne has been modified to a larger leniency toward persistent criminals. The men who flippantly talk of throwing aside the older revelation "as they do an old almanac" mistake most egregiously. God has written nothing to be thrown aside. The oldest records still give us lessons of God shining with unfading freshness and undimmed glory. The statutes binding on Israel in the wilderness and in Canaan may not be in the same sense binding on our age, but they have not for this reason become valueless. They made revelations of God then, truthful and rich; they make revelations of God still which it were but small indication of wisdom or good sense to ignore.

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