Strauss have gone down beneath the proof of the historic Christ. There remains only the denial of Renan and others, based upon the assumed impossibility of the supernatural. Here however we encounter the strongest opposition, for belief in the supernatural is undoubtedly the great stumbling block to the spirit of the age, and have to meet the combined forces of infidelity. However much they may differ on other matters, all ranks of unbelief are agreed in declaring the supernatural is impossible. For this unproved assertion, put forward as though it were a self-evident truth, lies at the bases of the more important modern philosophical systems, and is regarded as an axiom by the materialists and rationalists, and skeptics of the present day. But here we should not give an inch. We should hold that nothing is so firmly established as the supernatural because the very life of faith we live, and which we are so perfectly conscious of living, is essentially supernatural. It is fatal to assume as some of our leaders have done, that miracles merely belong to the outworks of Christianity, and even though these fall the essential truths remain. On the contrary, as Christlieb says, "If we banish the supernatural from the Bible there is nothing left but its covers."

This modern negation of the supernatural is met by the whole line of Christian truth. It is shown to be frivolous by the philosophical necessity for postulating the metaphysical with the physical. It is shown to be in vain by the scientific necessity for assuming creative acts in the formation of organic life and the introduction of man with the law of conscience upon the arena of the world as well as by indubitable evidences that the universal laws, or developments, of nature are broken by startling exceptions at certain points within the sphere of life itself. Thus, for example, water alone among all forms of matter on the globe expands while a fluid after reaching a certain temperature under the abstraction of heat. At 4° Cent. from the point of solidification it reaches its maximum density and expands as it cools till it becomes ice. Were this wonderful behavior of water observed but once, it would be as plain a miracle as the rising of an axe to the surface of a river; yet notwithstanding it occurs repeatedly it is no less a wonder—a sign and witness of the presence of the supernatural in the

kingdom of nature, for upon this break in the development of nature depends the very existence of nature itself as found on the globe. The water, therefore, in another wonderful sense, "bears witness on earth" to the supernatural and the Divine Sonship of Jesus Christ.*

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But this denial of the supernatural is met most effectively by the unanswerable argument of the supernatural character and life of Christ. The last veil of skepticism concerning the historic Christ, through the searching criticism of the last few years, has been withdrawn. The person of Jesus, together with his matchless life, his unapproachable character, and his divine claims stand forth to-day in whitest light upon the page of history. In vain does Renan magnify Jesus as the best and greatest of the sons of men, while he rejects his supernatural claims. Either Christ was the Divine Son of the living God which should come into the world, or else he was the worst of the deceiving and self-deceived impostors of our race. This is the alternative and the unchanging issue. The Christian hosts are pressing this alternative with decisive results wherever conscience and thinking are in fashion. Let us continue to press forward this centre of our battle array. For Christ is not only the Divine answer to the modern denial of the supernat ural but is also the substance of Christianity itself. Whoev nat truly believes in him will believe in God and in the authori ion of the Scriptures. Let us press him also as the Divine ansv to all human questionings, especially that deepest, most Vtself question which conscience puts to every heart, "Who sthan * Water is not the only break in the laws of nature. The muse muselogi fibres of the heart are of the transversely striped variety. All mušcular fibres of this class save those of the heart are under the control of the will, and are therefore called voluntary muscular fibres. But the striped fibres of the heart are involuntary-the will exercises no control whatever over their contractility. It is by virtue of this singular and unique exception to the laws of physiological development that the heart is both enabled to perform its functions and preserved from ceasing them altogether under those minor casualties and disturbances to which animal life is constantly exposed. Thus this exception within the sphere of man's very existence, plainly points towards One who is the fountain of life, and shows that the uniformity of the development of nature's laws on which the assumption of the impossibility of the supernatural depends is not absolute.

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save me from sin and death?" delity, paganism, and sin be broken, and the world confess: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

This day of victory may still be distant. Not all at once, as we may see in the Apocalypse, do things melt into the peace of the kingdom of God. Vials yet may have to be poured out and judgments descend and the winepress be trodden and the kings of the earth join their armies with the forces of death and hell to battle against the Lamb that was slain and the armies of heaven. But toward the consummation of the kingdom of God the Christian hosts and the purposes of heaven are steadily going. Signs of the coming day are on the horizon. Skepticism has reached the bottom of the abyss and there must come presently a favorable reaction. Knowledge is growing, charity is growing, and faith and hope abide. The several divisions of the Christian army, long separated from one another and cooped up within their respective strongholds, are uniting their forces on the open battle-field, and preparing for a combined assault upon the enemy all along the line. The Church is in motion. It is looking out upon the world and is 1 gathering enthusiasm from the prospect of its possession. The battle plain is widening. The hosts of truth are marching wl. owards the ends of the earth where angels hold the corners. on will come the last struggle and the final victory when ere shall be heard great voices in heaven and earth saying, nece he kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our d and of his Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.”

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ARTICLE IX.-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

CREATION.* The intent of this book is admirable, and the spirit in which the intent is carried out is both reasonable and devout. The attempt to reconcile the narrative of creation as given in Gen. i-ii. 3, with the cosmogonic theories which have grown up through the development of modern physics and geology, has been frequently made by distinguished students of science and theology. Few of these attempts, however, have been more worthy of respectful attention, and even of the hope that they might prove successful, than this one of Professor Guyot. The author tells us in the preface that the outlines of his scheme 66 flashed upon "his mind as long ago as 1840. The scheme itself had already become somewhat widely known through reports of lectures, articles in review of these lectures, but especially through the celebrated Manual of Geology of Professor J. D. Dana, who, according to Professor Guyot's statement, has "endorsed" his view "almost in full."

No one but a trained geologist is competent thoroughly to criticize the positions of the author so far as they rest upon grounds. of pure physical science; and such criticism, if it is to be adverse, must probably be expected from those scientific observers that have little confidence in any scheme for a detailed reconciliation of Genesis and geology. It is our opinion, as that of a layman and one unskilled, that the whole geologic period offers itself quite as well to be broken up into grand divisions other than those made by Professor Guyot, and that the trend of geologic science is away from this somewhat arbitrary manner of breaking up the continuity of that period. But however this may be, the considerations which are to be urged against the views of the author are mainly derived from another science, with which he was not so familiar as with geology. Indeed, it cannot be too often or too strongly urged that the "reconciliation" of the conclusions of modern natural science with the biblical narrative always involves dealing with this other science, and that this other science must have its rights respected, or the proposed reconcilia* Creation. or the Biblical Cosmogony in the light of Modern Science. By ARNOLD GUYOT, LL.D. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1884.

tion is not a reconciliation at all. We speak, of course, of the science of biblical interpretation. Biblical interpretation is older, by far, than geology, and it is no less truly scientific in its own way than is geology. Now a frequent, an almost daily experience proves that skill and knowledge in the physical sciences by no means necessarily involves skill and knowledge in the science of interpretation. Are we not constantly being reminded of the fact that a man may have considerable scientific knowledge about terminal moraines and little or no such knowledge about the origin, history, and diction of the New Testament books; or that he may be familiar with the character and order of the geologic strata and be quite incompetent to consider the fact of literary strata in the Pentateuch?

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It is, then, chiefly with Professor Guyot's method of interpretation that we find difficulty. For example, in Chapter VI. (p. 33), he tells us that "the primitive state of matter when first created" is described in the words, "And the earth was without form and void." According to Professor Guyot, the word "erets" does not mean in this passage "our terrestrial globe"; it means rather "the primordial cosmic material out of which God's Spirit. was going to organize. . . the universe and the earth." Genesis tells us, then, of an erets (earth which does not mean "earth") out of which God is going to organize an erets (earth which does "earth "). But there is absolutely no proof whatever that the Hebrews had the idea of a primordial cosmic gas, much less that they ever used the word erets to designate such an idea. The meaning of this word is perfectly well fixed in Hebrew; the word does not offer itself as an indefinite term under which one may cover whatever meaning one wishes. The same thing may be said of the word maim. In order to carry out the author's scheme of reconciliation, it is necessary to assume that this word may mean a subtle, etherial fluid, a gaseous atmosphere, and is "descriptive of the state of cosmic matter comprised in the word earth" (p. 36). But, in face of such an unauthorized assumption, it is only necessary to say that Biblical interpretation, as a science, knows no such meaning for the word maim. The word always means water" or "waters "-only this, and nothing more. In proof that the words erets and maim can have the meanings which are demanded by his scheme, the author has only the necessities of the scheme itself to urge.

66

What, further, shall be said of Professor Guyot's translation of