The record-union., 1897-04-25

first hand authority which it is in vain
to attempt to impart to it, tout de force,
by high theory of inspiration. We do
not doubt that God could have inspired
men to describe events that took place
a century before they We're born. but
such a theory of inspiration we feel
would be prompted by a desire to secure
the authority of the writings. From this
point of view, it is a matter of intense
satisfaction when we find that a scientific
critic like Harnack, whose competency
is thoroughly admitted by the most rev
olutionary theorists, and who has no
preiudices in favor of the traditional
view gives it as his deliberate convic-
ton that the evidence does not allow us
to separate the New Testament writings
from the apostolic age.
Evolution, it is said. is simply Gods
method of doing things. This is a prop
osition," says the Interior Q-res.) of
Chicago, (which does not need to be
disputed. Wherever we find in any
realm of being a law of continuity.
cause and consequence forever follow
ing each other in unoroken line, with
never an addition of any new force
from without, we may safely affirm
that that is Gods method CT doing
things. at least his method of doing
things in that part of the realm of ma
ture and life. But is God shut up to
one single method of doing things?
Has God himself no freedom? There is
nothing more certain in our thinking
than that we. at any rate. possess a
certain quality of spiritual freedom
The universal consciousness of man
kind on this point cannot be mistake
evolution or no evolution. If mans life
IS not fastened down into the iron
groove of necessitated causation and
continuity, SO that he is limited to only
one method of doing things. why need
it be asserted that God has less free
dom of action than we have? When a
man Boosting that he is a radical eVo-
iutonist undertakes to explain not only
the natural world but the spiritual
world as well. including all the great
facts of the Bible and of Christian his
tory, by the glib assumption that the
method of the radical evolution is the
only method God has ever used even in
the moral government of men, he is Ii
able to deceive himself, if not others
also, by specious facility in the use of
mere words
In the faith of Jesus Christ" saws
the New York Outlook" death was
simply the departure of the spirit from
the body. When he came to the cham
Der of death, He called back the spirit
OF the maiden to arouse again the
sleeping body; when He met the flu
neral procession, He called back the
spirit of the young man to reanimate
the hfeless body; when He came to the
closed tomb. He called with a loud
voice to the not far distant spirit of
Lazarus to come back and bring the
BODY forth into light and evident life
again; when the penitent brigand asked
TO be remembered his reply was. This
Gay shalt thou be with me in PARADISE.
when His own body was being dissolv-
ed ana his spirit was escaping from its
prlson-house, he felt himself departing
not to the charnel-house of the dead
not to long and dreary sleep. not to a
shadoWy hadeS, not to an ante-roon, of
immortality to await a future resurrec-
tlon, but to the Father of immortal
spirits, to Him concerning whom He
had said, God is not the God of the
dead but of the living This is the
first truth writ large in this last Word
of the Son of God; death is also resur-
rection. Earth to earth dust to dust
ashes to ashes, is not all: Christ teaches
us to add the words. the spirit to God
who gave it."