Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-22

- 4A
of the race is parallel with our own history.
The knowledge of the great truths oi
religion came from the outside.
RELIGION OF THE RACES.
For consider what 1t is that we see when
we look out upon the religious knowledge oi
the race. We see great tracts of people,
having only O dim glimmer OF these hve
great truths. Some put the emphasis on
one, some on another. In China the I'M
portant truth is duty; in Egypt, immortal
ity. We see the greatest and wisest souls oi
these lands gaining only little closer
conception of these truths, and not able to
make the common people understand even
the knowledge they have gained. The EN-.
phasized truth is grasped, perhaps, but all
the rest is dim and vague. Here, we say, ls
revelation, but only glimmer OF reveia-
ton, such as might have come-as their
own writings, indeed, indlcate-from some
ancient and far-away communication OF
truth from God to man, dimly remembered.
In all these nations revelation is not only
dim, but unprogressiye. 1t tends rather to
degenerate.
But in the midst of these nations, as they
appeared upon the map of the world 20 GEN.
turies ago, is one quite different. In this
nation the great truths of religion are far
clearer. Every one OF the five is recog-
nized. Step by step we can trace in the old
records, which we call the Bible, how these
truths were emphasized. and confirmed, and
made more clear. The unity of God, the
rule of duty, the conception Of God as one
who cares. the fact of forgiveness set
out in sacrifices. and by and by
the fact of life certainly, are
all taught by the teachers of this nation
as they are taught nowhere else on earth.
Presently comes One who both teaches and
embodies all this perfectly, whose teaching,
the race-even that part which leads all the
rest of it-has not yet learned adequately.
With Christianity the knowledge of these
great truths begin to spread abroad.
NONE OTHER LIKE IT.
Now notice Q) here is nation which
does somehow have o clearer knowledge OF
truth than any other. We study the great
religions OF history. We compare them all
with this. We compare all other sacred
books with the holy Scriptures of the
Hebrews. The wonder is that there is so lit
tie in the other religions and the other
books. These Hebrew prophets and poets
stand among the sacred poets and prophets
of all other creeds as Plato and Aristotle
stood amidst the crowd of obscure cotempo-
rary philosophers. Nobody can be blind to
the difference.
There appears, then, in the history of the
race nation having a knowledge of relig-
ious truth so much fuller and more ade-
quate than is had elsewhere that we call it
q special knowledge.
Notice again (2) that among this Hebrew
people this religious knowledge is gradual
and progressive. One OF the objections
which is made to the Old Testament is that
there is so much imperiection in it. The
heroes blunder and the saints err, and the
standard OF morality is not our standard.
And some men make sharp comments upon
this state of things. But the men who make
the comments misunderstood the condi-
tions. The revelation to the Hebrews was
progressive revelation. And it must be
plain that there can be no progress without
imperfectlon. Progress is simply an ad-
vance from the less perfect to the more per-
ieet. Nobody who believes in evolution
can consistently fault the Old Testament.
1t is the frank, straightforward record Of
the evolution OF people.
IT MUST BE GRADUAL.
Revelation, indeed, must OF necessity be
gradual. Because the revelation is made
to man, and man can take in truth only in
proportion to his capacity for truth. Man
is growing animal, and accordingly mans
receptiveness to truth increases. Taking
man as he is, the only way in which a reve-
lation can be made to him is by revealing
one truth at time. After a truth is un-
derstood, second truth can be built up
upon it.
1t is perfectly true that God could have
taught all truths to man in the Garden of
Eden. All civilization, all sciences, all re-
ligions might have been unfolded to him at
the start. But that could have been done in
only one way-only be creating a different
kind of man, only by creating a man in
whose language there should be no such
words as progress, growth or evolution. God
could have revealed His will fully at once,
but only as He could teach partial differen-
tial equations to boy six months old-by
creating new kind OF brain. Questions as
10 such possibilities as these and wonderings
why God did thus and not so, can have no
end and no answer. Why any such condi-
.lon as time at all? Why any race of men?
Why any world? We might as we'll stop
before We begin.
RELIGION IS A GROW H.
Here is the point upon which am insist
ng: In whatever way we may account for
he gradualness of growth in religious
among the Hebrews, its grad
lalness is plain fact. Religion grew as
he world grew. Here is race, alone among
he nations of the earth, which possesses
lot only a special kind of theological |
knowledge, not possessed elsewhere, but |
zones into this possession by regular,
teady, gradual growth.
And now (S) a third point Step BY step
n the history of this race came new acces-
ions of religious truth-where from? Here
s Moses, here is Isaiah, here is Jesus of
Nazareth, each with his new message, and
he last with message including and tran
cending all the other; what have they to say
or themselves?
All along, century by century, the He
rev prophets with one voice declare that
rod has spoken to them. The truth which
hey teach came to them, not by discovery,
ut by revelation. Were the men mis-
aken? Nothing can be palmer than their
eclarations. God has spoken to them.
1t last comes Christ to be the revelation of
evelations. Was He mistaken? Or is it
ne people who deny that there is any reve-
ltion who are mistaken?
Here are the conditions of the question,
cd can make revelation to man; it is al
'gether likely that God would make a rev.
alton TO man; some OF the wisest, strongest,
and holiest men who ever
we'd said that God did make a revelation
them. The conclusion is that God has re-
ealed Himself, indeed.
GEORGE HODGES.