The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-07-28

And the fact that is does not clear
away all the mystery which men find
in connection with it's sublime truths
is no more valid objection to it than
is such an objection to medical SCIENCE
that it does not remove all the rnys-
terry that hangs about the nature of
life and the workings of the human
system.
But in the second place, these diff
culties of which men complain are
not found in the Bible at all. For
even in its theological teachings it
simply states facts which in them
selves are as comprehensive as any
other. All the difficulty lies not in
our understanding these statements
of fact, but in our comprehending
their philosophy or their harmony.
The Divine humanity of Christ, how
eyer, for instance, is considered one
of the greatest mysteries of Scripture.
But what does the Bible say about
it? 1t says that Christ was God. 1t
affirms this fact in many different
ways, and with an explicftness that
would have precluded all doubt but
for our inability to harmonic the fact
with other things. But this declara.
ton of fact is perfectly clear. When
we read that the ''Word was God"
we all know what the language
affirms. Nothing could make the
meaning of the words more plain.
Whether or not we can understand
hOlO the Word who "became flesh and
dwelt among US" was at the same
time God, we can certainly under
stand what the evangelist Says on the
point Of fact, just as we can under
stand what the scientist says when he
tells us about gravitation, while, If
we ask what gravftatfon is, and how
this power operates upon matter, the
only answer the scientist can give, is:
mo man knows"
But the Diety of Christ is only one
hemisphere of the truth concerning
Him. The Bible teaches another
fact. He was a complete and verita-
table man. It affirms this as plainly
as language can affirm anything. But
surely there is nothing in the state
ment OF this fact at all difficult to I'M
derstand. 1t is as easy to compre-
hend the language when the Scrip
lures assert that Christ Jesus was a
man as when we are told that Adam
was. But if each half of the Bible
teachings concerning the nature Of
of Christ is so simple and so intelligi-
BILE, where lies the mystery of the
Incarnation 1t lies entirely in our
inability to see the harmony between
the two classes of facts which the
Bible presents. We can not compre-
bend hOW Christ could be man and at
the same time God. But upon this
point the Bible does not attempt to
teach us. 1t is perfectly silent in re-
gard to the mode in which the Divine
and human co-existed in the one
person of Christ. What it does say
in regard to His two-fold nature we
can easily understand. What we
can not understand is that part of the
subject which the Scriptures make no
attempt to reveal. The difficulty of
the doctrine, in other words, does
not lie in what the Bible says but en-
tirely in what it does not sag.
So is it with nearly all of what are
called the difficulties of Scriptures,
The difficulty of comprehension does
not attach to anything which the
Bible teaches. 1t all inheres in that
part of the subject on which the sa-
cred writers say nothing. 1t is not
the revelations of the Bible that are
mysterious. In strict accuracy all
the mystery lies in our liability to
supply what the Bible has left I'M
said. But is the -}ible to be held re-
sponsible for the mysteries which
are born simply of our ignorance?
Are the starry heavens to be censur-
ed because our feeble vision can not
pierce their depths ? Are the reve-
lations of science to be denounced be-
cause underneath every enc of its
wonderful facts lies an ocean of mys-
terry which no human plummet has
ever yet fathomed? 1t is one of the
illustrations of the superhuman wis
dom by which the sacred writers
were guided that they did not at
tempt to remove mystery which, to
such minds as ours, must of necessity
accompany such facts as they had to
reveal. Chicago AdU0,ace.
We understand that blank memo.