THE BIBLE
THE TRUE
UNIVERSITY
INTRODUCTORY HANDBOOK
By
S.Ridout
The Importance and Method of a Systematic Study of
Scripture, with Outline of Subjects Continual to the Last half
A Preliminary
Material Progress
in Inventions and Wealth
We are living in remarkable times in
every way. Civilization has made such vast strides during the past quarter of a
century that we are surrounded by almost a new world.
Inventions and
discoveries, with manifold appliances in the various arts and trades, have
largely altered our manner of living, so that undreamed of luxuries have now
become the everyday necessities even of the humbler classes of society. These
inventions have been accompanied by a vast increase in material wealth, both in
the size of the fortunes possessed by individuals and in the number of
millionaires, which is multiplied a hundredfold.
The fruits of the
earth have contributed of their vast abundance, and so far as supply is
concerned the whole world might well be living in comparative ease and luxury.
Complications Resulting therefrom
Accompanying this vast
increase of wealth, there has been a distinct development in the organization
of the various forces of civilization into two distinctly marked and hostile
camps. Capital has combined with capital in the formation of immense trusts
which control the majority of the industries of the country; and on the other
hand labor, in seeking to secure relief from oppression, real or fancied, and a
greater liberty, together with increase of wages, has formed itself into the
vast unions which, in some quarters at least, dominate the entire class of the
employed.
With all this the Christian has, directly, comparatively
little to do; but no one who has a heart for the welfare of mankind can fail to
take a deep interest in these great movements which, together with possible
beneficial results which have been attained, most certainly indicate that
spirit of selfishness and independence and that desire for power which mark the
natural man.
The Christian student of prophecy cannot fail to see in
these movements a tendency toward the heading up of things, which is most
clearly foretold in the word of God. If organizations continue to develop along
the lines which they have been following during recent years, we can see how
easily a complete restraint of all trade, save as permitted by the
organizations, will be effected; while organized labor, if carried to its
legitimate and not impossible limit, suggests that confederacy of the people
which Scripture also declares will mark the closing days.
Increase
of Education
In the field of education, both of the masses and in its
higher branches, like progress has been made. Our children are taught far more
in the public schools than were their parents, and there is a reaching out in
the higher fields of learning which transcends what was formerly called a
liberal education.
Modern research has explored many new fields, and
made further discoveries in those which had heretofore been worked. The result
has been a vast accumulation of observed facts, together with the discovery of
many hitherto unknown and remarkable laws of nature. In the gathering of facts
there can be little question that the efforts of modern science have been
crowned with success; although we may put in the proviso here to guard against
the too ready acceptance of facts which claim to substantiate theories hostile
to revealed truth. Of these theories, however, we must speak more definitely.
From the days of Darwin to the present time there has been a marked
effort to discover in the processes and laws of nature that which will
contradict the Scriptures. Without being avowedly hostile in every case, there
can be no question that the theories of a numerically large majority of
scientists have been hostile to the teachings of Scripture. They may generally
be classed as materialistic and evolutionary.
A few years ago the
theory of evolution was carrying all before it. "Development" was the magic key
which was to open every lock, and so use the treasures of nature. When applied,
however, the ascertained results of the use of this key were far from
commending themselves to the thoughtful, not to say Christian, mind. With more
or less modification, it was taught that the world as we see it to-day has been
developed from primary matter which has gradually organized itself according to
certain principles which are not supernatural, with the result of life in its
animal and vegetable displays, of which man is the latest product. So popular
did the theory become that it was adopted by many who still called themselves
by the name of Christian, In some cases it was modified in the effort to
harmonize it with the truths of revelation; while in most it was seen that if
the one were true, the other was necessarily untrue. Many of the people of God
trembled, like Eli, for the safety of the ark. Was it possible that all we had
learned of God as the creator and preserver of all things; of the essential
distinctions between the various classes of the animal and vegetable creation;
of the uniqueness, personality and responsibility of man to his Maker--was it
possible that all these were mistaken ideas of an old-fashioned religion which
were utterly inconsistent with the real facts in the case?
Evolution applied to the Bible
A brilliant young professor has
described, in a book which had an immense circulation a few years ago, how he
was led to apply the principles of science to the study of the Scriptures, and
vice versa. Mr.Drummond, in his "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," showed
how his studies in the realm of nature overflowed into his Bible work, and how
the process was to some extent reversed when he resumed his nature studies.
Each acted upon the other. We might say, in passing, that with this we have no
quarrel whatever as a principle. All truth is one, and we may be sure that in
the whole realm of creation there cannot be found one principle which will
essentially contradict another; but it is with the use which has been made of
this principle that we have now to do.
Evolution had been accepted as
a fact, and now the same principles were applied to the study of the
Scriptures. Modern criticism has asked, Why may we not look upon the Scriptures
which we hold in our hands, not as original documents, such as they purport to
be, but rather as the final result of a long process of evolution? This was
applied both to the form, the structure, and the doctrines of the various Bible
books.
Against a reverent study and inquiry into the form, structure,
and contents of the Scriptures we have no word to say. Indeed, the very purpose
of this present series of studies is to encourage a deeper, fuller, wider, and
bolder examination into the whole realm of revealed truth; but a casual
examination of the so-called modern criticism shows that it is hostile in its
intent; it is destructive, not constructive. As in nature God had been so far
removed from His creation as to have practically nothing to do with it, so in
revelation everything of a supernatural character was eliminated. Miracles were
therefore pronounced a priori impossible, or at least most unlikely, and
prophecy as well. So, too, the conceptions of God -- the earlier ones -- were
taken as necessarily materialistic and low, developing later on to the more
spiritual ideals as a result of the cultivation of the human family.
The Bible books themselves, instead of being complete works, the product of a
single writer, or the compilation of an inspired man, were looked upon as
compounded of discordant and contradictory traditions. Early myths which had
grown by being handed down from one generation to another were combined with
much later material by more or less skillful editors, so that, for instance,
the book of Genesis, instead of being the coherent and inspired account of the
earliest ways of man, and of God's ways with him, came to be a mass of material
upon which the higher critic expended his genius in sorting it into its various
component parts.
The same treatment was applied to other portions of
the Scriptures besides the Pentateuch. Law, Prophets and Psalms all shared the
same fate. Passing also into the New Testament, so called higher criticism
found much to encourage its activities in the work of destruction. Eliminating
the miraculous element from the first three Gospels, little was found
remaining, as we will readily admit; while the exalted teachings of the fourth
Gospel rendered it quite impossible that they could have been given by an
unlearned fisherman. Therefore this Gospel was the product of a much later date
-- was, indeed, an effort to graft upon the Christianity of the apostles the
more vigorous stock of new Platonic philosophy. Paul never wrote the most of
the epistles attributed to him, and the glories of the Revelation were but the
ideal dreams of millenarians of a later century, views utterly inconsistent
with the Judaism of the early Church.
It might almost seem that we
were describing some wild dream, rather than stating simple and solemn facts;
but, so far from overstating, we have really given a moderate view of the
teachings of higher criticism.
If the form of Scripture has thus
fallen under these attacks, so too its doctrines have shared the same fate. The
person of the Son of God has been assailed most ruthlessly by this destructive
criticism. This was necessary; for if He was indeed the divine Son of God,
whose words will remain when heaven and earth pass away, all the claims of
higher criticism would be brushed aside. For had He not declared that the
Scriptures could not be broken? And had He not ascribed the Pentateuch to Moses
as its author! Neither philosophy nor history could justify the assumption of
the Scriptures that He who was God became flesh. Therefore every form of
unbelief was set to work to overthrow the plain teachings of the word of God as
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
From the lowest, most materialistic
blasphemies of a denial of every element of divine truth as to Him, on to a
subtle and apparently reverent analysis of His person which still left Him
shorn of His glory, theories of every kind have abounded. We have no hesitation
in saying that if the teachings of higher criticism are true, the Christ whom
we have known, and who is revealed to us in the word of God, does not exist.
How is this to be Answered?
If what has been said is true
-- and we might say much more -- then it is high time for the people of God to
awake to the terrible danger which menaces the professed Church of Christ. His
Word is settled forever in heaven, and all the malice of man and Satan combined
can never remove one jot or tittle of divine truth. God's word abides, His
truth abides, and He who is the Truth, Christ Jesus, is "the same yesterday,
and to-day, and forever." We need not fear for the safety of the art, but, oh,
what shall we say of those who profess to be the people of God and who are thus
giving up His glory into the enemy's hands I What will the end be of that
testimony which has been entrusted with such priceless treasure, and which has
allowed it all to be so ruthlessly taken away?
Scripture here too
tells us unmistakably what the end will be; but so long as that is deferred in
divine patience, and so long as the true people of God, who love Him, remain
here, there must be conflict. We cannot stand idly by and see the word of God
torn asunder and cast into the dames of unbelief. As one has well said, "We are
fighting far our all." Take from us the inspiration of the Old Testament, and
you at once deny the inspiration of the New, for that sets its seal fully and
absolutely upon every jot and tittle of it. Destroy a belief in the absolute
verbal inspiration of the New Testament, and at once you rob us of our Saviour;
for He stands or falls with the complete and eternal truth of the New
Testament, and He has declared in an unmistakable way the entire inspiration of
the whole word of God.
But let us not be discouraged. "The battle is
not yours, but God's," is as true to-day as ever, whenever the enemy threatens;
and we may be sure, too, that when the enemy does come in like a flood "the
Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him." It is ours then to
inquire what is the work of the Spirit, in view of all the assault of unbelief
against divine truth in the material, intellectual, and religious world. It is
evident that His work is ever to manifest things as they are. If the Spirit of
God has inspired the Scriptures, we need have no fear that those Scriptures are
not abundantly sufficient in themselves to furnish an answer to every form of
unbelief which assails them. It is the Spirit's work also to glorify Christ;
and we may be sure that wherever He is allowed to do so, He will set forth the
glories of our Lord. It is ours therefore to see to it that nothing hinders the
full shining forth of the word of God. The great proof that the sun shines is
to look upon it and Me the results of its shining; and so the greet proof of
the perfection, divine origin and inspiration of the word of God is to let its
beams shine upon us.
But this brings us to the subject in hand. How
are we to let the full light of divine revelation shine into our minds? Most
certainly it is not by ignorance and neglect; and we can say, with all the
emphasis of which we are capable, that we have far more to fear from the
neglect, the ignorance and the imperfect knowledge of the Scriptures in the
people of God than we have from all the assaults of unbelief combined. The
great trouble to-day is not that such and such universities are denying the
Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and such and such modern scholars have
repudiated the virgin birth of our Lord and His resurrection. These are but the
by-play of Satan. We may expect them What could we expect from the enemy of
Christ and of man but blasphemous lies? But the dreadful thing is that the true
children of God allow so many things to interfere with their knowing really
what He has spoken.
Material interests, the daily struggle for a
comfortable livelihood, the well-nigh universal demand for amusements of one
kind and another, political agitation, and many other temporal things, an often
allowed to intrude and to monopolize the time, part of which at least should be
given by every Christian to knowing what the mind of God is. If any words of
oars can arouse an interest in the people of God in that amazing and priceless
treasure which we have in His word, we shall be thankful.
The Bible
will speak for itself. It will justify its divine origin. It will illumine our
whole lives with such a blaze of light as shall scatter forever for us all the
powers of darkness, so that all we need to do is to make sure that we are
letting that light shine. Neglect, then, on the part of God's people is the
greatest danger which is threatening them to-day.
But even where the
Bible is loved and read, how meagre is our knowledge of its full contents and
the scope of its various portions! How, for instance, we confound the great
principles of law and grace! How we fail to see the marked distinction between
the Old and the New Testaments! How the Gospels are confounded with the
Epistles! The result is that while we may have many very sweet and precious
promises in our hearts, which we have gathered from the Scriptures, we have
failed to recognize that the word of God is a living whole-organic, complete,
progressive; that, beginning with Genesis, and going on through the entire
Scriptures, we will find a purpose of God gradually revealed, coming into
greater clearness, ever centering about the sacrificial work and the person of
His blessed Son, together with the glorious purposes that refer to this world
and to His redeemed people, both earthly and heavenly, that will make it what
it really is, a divine Book.
Partial and incomplete views, resulting
in undue emphasis being given to any one book or doctrine, will often lead to
practical error. This is particularly true in connection with those portions of
Scripture which teach doctrines of which many have but vague ideas. Error, like
many disease germs, flourishes in the dark. The main remedy is, let in the
light and air.
While the Scriptures do not gratify mere curiosity, and
while they were not given to teach what is called science, we make a great
mistake when we think they are either unscientific or inaccurate. Indeed, an
increased acquaintance with Scripture will astonish us with the vast amount of
truth about material objects which it imparts. The attacks of higher criticism
need practically nothing else to meet them but a full, patient, harmonious
unfolding of the perfections of the word of God. If we let the Bible speak for
itself, it will speak with no uncertain sound, and it will be found that He who
could meet the assaults, from opposite quarters -- of the Pharisees with their
religious formalism, or of the skeptical Sadducees and the secular Herodians --
still lives, and still meets the same assaults with the same wisdom, and by
that same wonderful book, the Scriptures.
B The Bible as a Liberal
Education
Let us boldly declare that the Bible is the true university.
Necessarily, this does not mean that God has given us the details of those
things which we can glean from nature by reverent and persistent search; but He
has given us certain great principles as to all the various branches of
knowledge which would enable us, with the light thus obtained, to enter into
every field of research, with confidence that we could understand that which we
would find.
ASTRONOMY - We would thus approach astronomy in the light
of those sublime words: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the
firmament showeth His handiwork."
GEOLOGY - Would be for us but an
enlargement of the first verse of the book of Genesis: "In the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth"; and the successive days in which the earth,
which had been reduced to a formless void, was prepared to be the abode of man
as head over the beautiful creation, will be found also to suggest those vast
geologic periods which were connected with the original formation of the world.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY - As an outcome of this, would also set forth the
wisdom and the power of God in arranging the continents and oceans, with man
ever in view, so that his highest interests would be secured.
CHEMISTRY - With its ever-increasing wonders of varying and yet related
elements, its combinations, and the various properties of matter, would be seen
to be but another handmaid to revealed truth.
PHYSICS - The laws of
physics, of weights and measures, of distance, time and space would all have,
in the Scripture, a light thrown upon them which would transform them from dull
mechanics into an amazing expression of the mind and thought of God; while
light, heat and electricity bring us into closest touch with the groundwork of
truth relating to the functions of matter.
MINERALOGY - Opens up to us
the wonderful truths of crystallography and the allied functions of the various
materials forming the framework of the earth, with their properties and
applications, all of which furnish multitudes of illustrations of how God has
wrought by measure and according to the unvarying principles of His own laws.
BOTANY - All forms of plant-life would show us again the manifold
works of God; and every herb "after its kind," and the trees unfolding fruit
"after their kind," would again remind us that evolution, in the accepted sense
of the word, is contradicted by the observed facts of nature.
ZOOLOGY
- So, too, with animal life in its varied manifestations, from the minute
infusoria to the vast mammals. Thus zoology, with its unit of cellular organism
and its infinite variety of adaptation to special functions in genera and
species, shows us the manifold wisdom of God. How beautiful it is thus to have
every creature brought before us in somewhat the way in which it was done at
Eden, and in the light of divine truth not only to classify the animals, but to
learn many a spiritual lesson from their organism and classification. Here,
too, "after its kind " is the Creator's law, which science vainly endeavors to
break, in its eagerness to prove the evolution of species. It has ignominiously
failed.
ANTHROPOLOGY - When we think of the fearful use which has been
made of that unity of design already alluded to in the identity with special
adaptation, which has in evolution, as wrongly applied in Darwinism, been made
to serve the cause of infidelity, does it not show us that the Scriptures must
ever lead, not follow, in all our researches? It is the absolute truth of
revelation which must govern our conclusions from the observed facts of nature.
As is well known, the infidel scientist is not above resorting to untruth
and misrepresentations as to the observed facts of nature, in order to further
his own theories How important, then, that the relation between man and the
lower animals should be distinctly seen. In one sense the human body is that of
an animal of the highest type, but distinctly similar to certain mammals in the
lower orders. Comparative anatomy, with abundant illustrations, teaches the
profound truth that even in the creation of lower orders of life God had man in
mind. There was a prophecy in each order of something higher, leading up to the
head of creation. The Christian at once catches the still higher thought that
God ever had His beloved Son in mind as Head and Lord of the whole creation.
PSYCHOLOGY - Man, however, is not only body, but soul and spirit. Thus
psychology -- the science of personality and the attributes of knowledge,
feeling, and will -- can only get its full explanation in the word of God.
Scripture is very rich on the subject of psychology.
ETHICS - Man is a
responsible, a moral being by virtue of his nature. It is this, as much as his
mental endowments, which distinguishes him from the beasts. The science
therefore which treats of his moral nature, of obligation and responsibility,
of conscience, the sense of right and wrong, must ever occupy a leading place
in any true scheme of education. No wonder, then, that this has occupied men of
commanding intellect in all time.
But where are the great moral principles
which govern human action most clearly and fully set forth? Where is the great
question of responsibility -- and to WHOM -- raised and answered? Where the
blessed principle of true motive set forth, not in a cold ethical code, but in
the holy law which sets man in the presence of a righteous God, finds him
guilty and powerless to reform, forgives and saves him, and fills his heart
with motives of love, gratitude, truth, the fear of God -- as set forth in the
gospel of the Son of God?
Here, in the Scriptures, we repeat, is the one
infallible compendium of moral philosophy. The world's wisest have aimed at its
ideals without reaching them, and pondered the wreck of humanity without
providing a remedy.
MEDICAL SCIENCE - Speaking of comparative and
human anatomy, we naturally pass to what may be spoken of under the general
head of medical science. This includes human anatomy and physiology--the
structure and the functions of the human body.
Since the fall, disease,
the universal leveler and the precursor of death, has necessarily opened up the
entire and growing field of nosology and pathology. If the governing truth that
the introduction of sin into the world has brought in disease in its various
forms is seen, how suggestively do the different diseases remind us of the
various forms in which sin is expressed in the human family. Doubtless the
specific diseases which are mentioned in the New Testament miracles suggest
that there is a special significance underlying all disease. Thus, too, the
application of various remedies, as opened up in the department of
therapeutics, will be found to have fresh light thrown upon it by the
application of the gospel of Christ to the various forms of sin; and just as
death, the consummation of all diseases, is a type of that spiritual death
which is the consummation of all sin, so, too, the atoning death of our Lord
and His resurrection will sum up, doubtless, in ever-increasing detail, the
divine remedy for all the human woe that has come in through sin.
SURGERY - Will suggest the treatment of afflicted members of the body of
Christ, or of afflicted parts in the spiritual organism, where cleansing and
fresh granulation, together with emollient treatment, surely will have the
precedence over the more heroic, though sometimes necessary, use of the knife,
even unto the amputation of a hopelessly diseased member. The one feature of
aseptic treatment opens up a whole line of spiritual truth which long ago would
have pointed in that direction.
HYGIENICS - As we think of the
numberless rules about the laws of health, with all sorts of prescriptions of
exercise and diet, we can understand how a sober knowledge of the word of God,
with its primary principle that "a, merry heart doeth good like a medicine,"
would cast a hood of light upon a valuable and important part of medical
practice. How wide-reaching, and simple too, is the direction that we present
our "bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto God," our "reasonable
service"; which, while it does not provide for bodily exercise which profiteth
for a little, does secure that treatment of the body which will ensure its most
efficient and harmonious activity. Godliness hath "promise of the life which
now is and that which is to come."
DOMESTIC SCIENCE - Nearly the
entire life of women, and the most important part of that of men, is spent in
the home. Home is the centre of the human race, we might say. "God setteth the
solitary in families." Therefore we cannot ignore the apparently prosaic claims
of comfort in the home, with the recognition too of what is fitting in that
which we eat.
Cooking and dietetics have been elevated to the dignity
of a science; and we may be sure that some provision will be found in the word
of God to guide the Christian housekeeper. "Take no thought what ye shall eat
or drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed," guards on the one side from that
selfish absorption in material things which makes them the summum bonum of
human life. "Whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God" will check
both an intemperate indulgence in luxuries and a monkish abstemiousness "from
meats which God hath created to be received with thankfulness of them which
believe and know the truth."
With Israel, God gave the most elaborate
directions as to the character of their food, and, to a certain extent, the
manner of its preparation. While we are no longer under the Levitical law, and
while evidently many of the directions were entirely of a symbolic character,
we can learn much, no doubt, from these ordinances. Certainly the great truth
that nothing is too small for God to consider is a sweet and holy thought. Thus
our thanksgiving at the table is an act of worship in connection with our food,
and the busy housewife need not feel that she has left the sanctuary during the
time that she has been occupied with the preparation of the meal.
The
same general principle applies to the whole question of the house, its
furnishing, and the dress of the person. We rejoice in our Christian liberty
and the freedom from that uniformity which characterizes a, religion of the
flesh. Perhaps there is a danger of going to the other extreme of conformity to
the world in matters of display and luxury. We may be sure that the spirit at
least of the New Testament will check that extreme subservience to the fashions
of this world which marks those who belong to it. On the other hand, mere
peculiarity of dress or personal habits is not the mark of spirituality.
Untidiness in person, dress, or surroundings, is really the mark of sloth; and
the New Testament as well as the Old calls this by the name of "sin." A
Christian, while not obtrusively fashionable, will also be not obtrusively
shabby.
THE CARE OF CHILDREN - The prominent place given in the word
of God to the responsibility of parents as to their children shows the vast
importance of this momentous subject. Nothing that truly concerns the welfare
of the young will be found to have been, in principle, ignored in God's truth.
Their being brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, taught to
abhor evil and to love truth, to be obedient and respectful, to fear God, and,
above all, to learn the elements of that precious gospel by which alone they
can be saved, are so manifestly necessary that the mere mention of them will
suffice for the present.
Minor details as to association and early
habits also have a most important place, and Christian parents will find ample
instruction in the Scriptures to guide aright in bringing up their little ones.
How good to see, too, that divine interest in all that concerns our little
ones, as expressed by our Lord Jesus, "Suffer the little children to come unto
Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," and the sure
promise of reward in that word, "Take this child and bring it up for me, and I
will give thee thy wages."
Surely we shall find certain governing
principles in God's word which will enable us more intelligently to enter into
the various details of what we have glanced at here.
ELEMENTARY
BRANCHES OF EDUCATION - The transition from the home to the elementary school
is one of momentous importance, both morally and intellectually. It reminds us
of that time when the mother of Moses could no longer keep her child in
concealment, but had to put it out by the brink of that dreadful river, which
was the doom to which the cruelty of Pharaoh had sentenced it. Faith, however,
shines brightly in her case. She puts the child by the river, but in the ark.
We need hardly say that this ark is Christ, and that, as our children leave the
shelter and privacy of home, to be thrown with other children, the mass of whom
have been brought up in utter carelessness of God, and too often in a low moral
atmosphere, leading to vice, our only resource is to commit them to the
sovereign love, grace, and power, of our Lord Jesus.
School is not
merely a place for the training of the mind, and furnishing it with useful
knowledge, but it should also be a place where the moral faculties will be
developed. As the schools are largely of the world, much that they lack in
moral training has to be supplied by the Christian parent, as indeed spiritual
instinct and affection would dictate.
We come, however, to speak more
particularly now of that intellectual furnishing, and the beginning of the
education of the child. It is sad that too often the minds of children are
filled with trifling fairy tales, and other foolish things, instead of that
which is simple, and useful, and instructive. Of course the little one must
first learn to read, and its lessons may be from carefully selected portions of
Scripture. The Gospel of John furnishes a most excellent reading-book for
beginners.
The writing, too, could be taught in the same way, and thus
mind and heart be furnished with the priceless word of God at the same time
that hand and eye are being trained.
So also objects of nature in the
plant and animal life can be made familiar to the child, and many a useful
lesson in the fundamentals of natural science may be taught. In all this the
word of God may be found to furnish not only that which is interesting and
suggestive, but certain great and governing principles which are to form the
groundwork of the whole future education.
It is just here that great
firmness and courage must be had. As we look about us to-day we see education
and infidelity hand in hand. Indeed, the one, in the minds of many persons, is
a synonym for the other. Alas, as we think of our colleges and universities,
the young men in them being taught principles which will lead them further and
further from God, it should make us doubly careful that the foundations of all
learning should be rightly laid.
How good it is when little children,
with their first reading-lessons, are taught of God as the Creator, of the Lord
Jesus as the One who brought all things into being and preserves them by His
power, without whom not a hair of the head can perish nor a sparrow fall to the
ground! Let this lesson be pressed in upon the heart of the child: that Nature,
as we call it, is but another name for God's creation, presided over and cared
for by Him. We have here anticipated the assault of infidelity in its most
cunning form, and the child has received those impressions which cannot be
dislodged from its mind by the later teachings, with their extravagances of
undigested scientific research.
LANGUAGES AND MATHEMATICS - Little
babes have no language, and could be taught one, perhaps, as readily as
another, if their surroundings required it. This, at least, is suggestive that
early youth is the time to learn various languages. The mind is most sensitive
then to impressions of sound, and can more readily acquire a tongue than at any
other period. Each language learned is a window, we might say, to the mind, and
imparts a breadth of thought which perhaps no other study could.
Beginning early in life, there is little doubt that children could acquire a
fresh language every few years, so that they could use several ancient and
modern tongues by the time they were ready to leave school. The Bible here also
offers many suggestions. Itself written in practically two languages, it would
suggest that, to know it fully, we should be acquainted with Hebrew and Greek,
while the many versions in modern tongues would each contribute to a clearer
apprehension of its contents in those who knew those languages.
Mathematics presupposes a certain maturity of judgment, the result both of the
observation which comes with years, and of the training of the faculties by its
use; it would therefore naturally occupy the place after languages. While the
elements of numbers would be learned in early childhood, and the lessons
gradually increased until the primary laws of mathematics were learned, it
would be left to the somewhat mature judgment of the child to take up the more
advanced branches.
Here, again, the word of God would furnish much of
striking interest and truth. To learn the symbolism of numbers, and the way in
which they are used in Scripture, will be a useful guide in the study of
mathematics. That God is true; that He has wrought by weight and measure in the
whole vast creation; that every problem of mathematics, whether elementary or
advanced, in chemistry, physics, and astronomy, is a declaration that God is
true, that there is no variableness nor shadow of turning in Him--will press
home a deep moral lesson upon the student.
To learn that two and two
make four in the most distant heavenly body as well as upon earth will declare
the unity of the universe and the impossibility of escaping from God. The
precious truth, too, of atonement will be found perfectly consistent with the
great principles of mathematics; and a divinely accurate substitution in the
great equation expressed in that problem, "How shall a man be just with God?"
is answered only in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The laws of
progression and of differentiation, of proportion in light and heat, all
suggest and illustrate profound and fundamental principles of divine truth.
Coming now to the more general branches of education, we find the same
principle--that revealed truth sheds a light upon and imparts a directness to
all that can be learned.
GEOGRAPHY - This can be made most attractive
and interesting even to children if, instead of compelling them to learn long
lists of names and places which can have no meaning to them, the world can be
gradually unfolded to them. Thus it will lie spread open before their mental
view (as Canaan did to Moses' eye), with its various continents, countries,
mountains, oceans and rivers, its races and nations. This will all recall the
great truth of the unity of the human family, its subdivision into kindreds and
tribes, with different languages and customs. God "hath made of one blood all
nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the
times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should
seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him."
ETHNOLOGY - The more advanced student can apply the principles just enunciated
in the quotation from the book of Acts to the whole subject of ethnology--the
origin and character of the races, their connection one with the other, with
all that is peculiar to each, of custom, religion, and history.
Ethnology, in its various departments, can only find its explanation in the
narrative of the families descended from Noah. While comparative philology is
fully anticipated in the account of Babel and the confusion of tongues, these
will serve to suggest to us the vast amount of true science, which can be
learned only in subjection to the word of God.
ARCHEOLOGY - Modern
researches and discoveries in the Orient have brought to light many interesting
chapters of ancient history. The tombs and temples of ancient Egypt show us a
civilization which would not unfavorably compare with that in which the world
is now boasting. The ruins in ancient Babylonia are yielding up their treasures
of a literature wonderfully complete and exact. Unbelief has sought to use a
partial knowledge of an imperfect archeology against divine revelation; but
every fresh discovery only tends to confirm that which has already been
revealed to us in the word of God. Christianity has nothing to fear from
archeology. The light of divine revelation is needed to throw its quiet and
holy beams across the mass of ancient chronology and history.
HISTORY
- In the history of the human race archeology, instead of being a tower for the
enemy of truth, would be found to yield abundant and confirmatory evidence of
what is recorded in Scripture. The history of the nations we find to have been
outlined in the early chapters of Genesis; and the present grouping and
relations of the various nations of the earth would be found to have been
anticipated in the same wondrous book.
The history of Israel, first of
all, supplies the great framework for the history of the world. The place of
each nation and each country is found in connection with the chosen people of
God: "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He
separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the
number of the children of Israel" (Deut.30:8). The reason for this is seen when
we realize that the Son of David, the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, will one
day reign "from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." It is
in Christ that all things are to be headed up, and all earthly history must
have a relation to Him.
However, Japheth and Ham have been scattered,
and to a great extent have lost their relation with the current of God's
purposes for the earth. The history of each of these races -- largely the
record of a downward progress -- will therefore be in good measure separate
from Bible history. However, the great fundamental principles of righteousness
in a nation, of retribution or reward, will be found to apply in every such
history. Moreover, for Europe we have the added presence and influence of
Christian truth, which, of course, has somewhat modified and controlled the
policies of the various nations.
The unity of God's purpose, the "one
far-off, divine event to which the whole creation moves," which centres in
Christ and radiates out from Him in blessing to the remotest kindreds and
tribes, will furnish a key that will reduce the kaleidoscope of universal
history to a harmonious and glorious picture, the outlines of which are seen in
the visions of Daniel, with the successive world-powers of gold, silver, brass,
and iron, all displaced at last by the mighty Stone which fills the whole
earth.
History, calm, concise, true, impartial, and philosophic, is
set forth in the Old Testament. Written by the prophets who loved their own
nation, it shows the seeds of weakness and disintegration from the very outset,
and traces their development, with many a merciful hindrance, providential and
direct, and with many an appeal to the conscience of the people, had there been
but ears to hear. The history of the rise and fall of the Jewish empire is a
better philosophic treatise than the great work of Gibbon.
POLITICAL
SCIENCE - Will also have its place, and we shall find that the wisdom by which
princes rule is found alone in the word of God. The origin of government under
Noah is traced in Scripture to those great world-powers to which we have just
alluded. Various forms of government are described and characterized in the
Scriptures. The patriarchal -- an adaptation and enlargement of family
government -- naturally led up to the larger monarchical; while the present
democratic and socialistic forms of government have at least that element of
the recognition of the rights of the people which we find expressed as far back
as Solomon's day. No doubt a careful study of the great principles of rule
which are found throughout the entire Old Testament would cast a flood of light
upon the whole question of government.
While farthest removed from
atheistic pessimism, the dispassionate study of political science in the light
of the word of God will compel that conclusion which Scripture has clearly
revealed, that the human race, as at present constituted, is lacking in that
moral stability which alone ensures permanence. The thoughtful student, both of
history and political science, is compelled to own that regeneration, both
individual and national, alone can bring in a true Millennium, in which the
righteous Ruler over men, who rules in the fear of God, will be none other than
the Son of David and Son of God.
LITERATURE - Where shall we find a
literature like that of the Bible? Indeed, all that is best in literature,
medieval and modern, has been derived directly, or indirectly, from the
Scriptures; while a comparison of the masterpieces of ancient Greece and Rome
will show how (the light of revelation being wanting) even genius itself has
been left to grope amid the follies of a heathen mythology or the vain and
foolish theories of a philosophy which has no settled foundation.
BIOGRAPHY - There is no biography so concise, so pathetic, so intensely human,
and of such consuming interest, as the narratives which we find in the book of
Genesis and other portions of the Old Testament; while the one great biography
of the four Gospels stands alone in its solitary grandeur, even as it sets
forth Him who is like none other.
POETRY - What poetry can compare,
either in scope or sentiment, with that of the Bible? The great epic of Job,
with its wondrous but consistent theme, its magnificent imagery, and its
satisfying conclusion, is unspeakably more elevating than that which tells of
Achilles' wrath or the wanderings of Ulysses and AEneas.
Milton's
great epics are largely but adaptations of Scripture, and owe their sublimity
to the faithfulness with which he has adhered to the inspired page. What
elegies can be compared with the pathos of David's lament over Jonathan and his
bitter enemy Saul? What odes can rival the majesty of the nineteenth and one
hundred and fourth psalms? But we must leave this delightful and attractive
theme for later consideration.
ART - All that appeals to the esthetic
senses will be found abundantly provided for in the Scriptures. The lilies of
the field, and the "still life" of five little sparrows being exchanged for two
farthings, all appeal to the artistic sense; while the typology and symbolism
of the Mosaic ritual are gorgeous in their display. Indeed, there is a
symbolism underlying all nature which turns the whole world about us into a
vast gallery of art of no meretricious kind, which does not appeal to the
passions or give a false and gaudy glow to evil, but which, in the clear, quiet
light of divine truth, sheds a beautiful luster, with the golden-sunset promise
of a brighter to-marrow over all the fairest scenes of nature.
MUSIC -
Divine truth also gives a sweeter, deeper meaning to music than it could
possibly have otherwise. From the time that "the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy," on to the new millennial song when
"the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing, and all the trees
of the field shall clap their hands," music has been the highest expression of
the feelings of the heart of man. The fall stopped its note of exultation; and,
alas, the sons of Jubal have prostituted music into a servant of the passions,
to pander to fallen man. But even here the sweet note of divine grace, in a
quiet undertone, has been gaining distinctness, fulness and liberty; until now,
under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, it is the dominant theme which
controls the whole harmony which will one day burst out in a new and eternal
song, with no discord to mar it.
Music is as much an expression of the
great fundamental laws underlying its department of sound, as art appeals to
the eye, or as chemistry and physics deal with the laws in their department.
There must, then, be deep and rich instruction in its very principles and
expression, which will open up new lines, at least of illustration.
Here, as in all else, faith lays its hand upon all that is connected with the
creation of God and claims it to a higher use than mere secularity. How all
this suggests "the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness,"
where all the display of the wisdom and power of God in that new creation will
be enjoyed in communion with Him! Even now it is our privilege, in a higher way
than our parents in Eden, to realize that the garden is the planting of the
Lord, in which He would display all that He has given us richly to enjoy. Our
outward possessions may be few and poor, but who can dim "that inner eye which
no calamity can darken," the eye of faith which sees God in everything and with
the Psalmist declares: "All Thy works shall praise Thee and Thy saints shall
bless Thee."
Why do we thus speak of all true education and culture
being dependent upon the Scriptures? It is because all knowledge apart from God
leads into the darkness. We see this in the science of the day. How infinitely
pathetic and solemn it is to think of learned men spreading out before us a
vast area of facts as to the heavens above and the earth beneath our feet, and
being absolutely ignorant and blind to the fact which the babe in Christ exults
in--that all has been created by Christ and for Him! "The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom" and "the knowledge of the Holy is understanding." If
the glory of God is not seen in the heavens, all that science can tell us about
heavenly distances, sizes, laws, and all else, is comparatively worthless; and
so, too, with every other department of human knowledge.
The world
to-day is going rapidly on to destruction, because it has turned its back upon
God. We cannot arrest it in its course. We know that something even more than
the knowledge which we have intimated in the most of what we have said is
needed. Nothing short of the gospel of Christ, repentance toward God and faith
in the Lord Jesus, will avail to rescue men from that destruction which began
when the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was first taken in
disobedience to God, until the present time, when the fruit of that same tree
is being greedily devoured.
In view of what has been said, we need
make no apology for the present effort to seek to interest the people of God in
a methodical, thorough, patient and progressive study of Scripture, in its main
themes and corollaries connected with them, in which they will find an antidote
to modern error and a furnishing of both mind and heart which will garrison
them from the specious assaults of unbelief. It is particularly necessary in
this day, that the people of God should be supplied with what most of the
educational institutions are giving in a wrong way--a knowledge of the relation
between God's two great volumes, His written word and His created word. It will
be found that both alike point unmistakably to Him who is called preeminently
"The Word," who was in the beginning with God, by whom and for whom all things
were created.
C The Knowledge of the Word of God a Necessity for
the Knowledge of the Works of God
The question next arises, How are we
to possess ourselves of the truth of God, which lies ready for our believing
search in the world about us, and at the same time to keep it subordinate to
those far more necessary and important matters which are only revealed to us in
His written Word?
We cannot originate a whole system of schools, from
the primary class to the University, nor would it, indeed, be desirable that
our children should be removed from that necessary intercourse with others
which must mark our whole stay in this world. " I pray not that Thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil."
What is needed is that our children should be instructed in the way of
the Lord from infancy. The safeguard which was thrown about Timothy, that from
a child he had known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him "wise
unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus, " is the only and
all-sufficient one to guard from the prevailing forms of error which are all
about them and us.
It is a mistake to think that because the enemy has
intruded into the domain of truth and sought to make use of it to further
error, it should be relinquished into his hands. Truth abides, and all that is
needed is the faith to stand firmly and resist the deductions which error would
make from a partial or false view of the truth. If this principle is applied
and made diligent use of from the beginning, we need not fear that our youth
will grow up skeptics.
This shows us, however, the true order in which
we must take up our study of truth. It will not do for us to go to nature first
to the exclusion of revelation. That which is inspired of the Spirit of God and
given to us, without mistake must precede and dominate all our acquisitions in
the field of nature. Further than this, we cannot compare these two volumes of
truth as to their importance. Nature, even when best understood, cannot give
us, save in a symbolic way, those priceless foundation facts of the person and
work of Christ, the counsels and purposes of God. These are matters only of
revelation. We find them only in His Word. True, when that Word is known, we
can then turn with it to the field of nature and find abundant illustration, as
has already been said.
We address ourselves, therefore, to the question
of fundamental importance in all education --the systematic, thorough and
progressive study of the word of God. If we are to be thoroughly furnished unto
every good work, it must be as having acquainted ourselves with all Scripture,
which "is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished."
Mark, it is not that we are to
master the contents of Scripture. God forbid that there should be such a
thought in our mind. The more we go on to know the wondrous depths, the perfect
purity, the infinite holiness revealed in that Word, and the utter helplessness
and worthlessness of the flesh, the more we realize that it is not we who are
to grasp the Scripture, but rather, the Scripture which must grasp us as the
living hand of the living God. We do not master it. Our blessing is to let it
master us, and to set and keep us, by His grace, in communion with Him who is
the Source, the Author, and the Object of all Scripture.