The Bible : its Revelation, Inspiration, and Evidence. By the
Rev. John Robson, D.D. (aodder and Stoughton.)—Dr. Robson takes, on the whole, a conservative line. He does not accept the division of Isaiah, a view which has for it a considerable weight of opinion, and he also holds to the Mosaic or, anyhow, the early origin of Deuteronomy. This makes his views on inspiration the more interesting, and inspiration is certainly the most urgent question of modern controversy. Till that finds an adequate answer, it seems impossible to meet with any success the attacks of scepti- cism. Dr. Robson draws a distinction between the Mahommedan and Christian views. The mechanical or scribe theory is the theory of Mahommedanisrs. The Koran was written, think the devotees of Islam, by Mahommed, as by the pen of Allah. The advocates of of verbal inspiration among us hold the same view. Dr. Robson draws out what he considers to be the distinguishing Christian theory with much ability. Here are passages from his argument :— "Hence we may expect to find in the writers of the Bible an in- dividuality as complete as in any profane writers. We may expect to see the influence of race and culture. The characteristics of the nation will appear as well as the characteristics of the individual ; the science of the age and the errors of the age may impress them- selves on their writings ; nor need we suppose that the historical references even, which they may make, rest on any other basis than the records of the nation or the teaching of their schools. Inspira- tion gives knowledge and power in a sphere to which ordinary human faculties do not extend—the sphere of divine purpose and will ; but it leaves those whom it has instructed to communicate their message after their own fashion He [Moses] had nothing but the science or tradition of his time ; these were the facts with which his inspiration had to deal. And how would inspiration deal with them ? It gave him insight, but insight into what ? not into science, but into the existence of God, his purpose, his will for man's life, conduct, and salvation. This was the great purpose of all God's revelation ; and the inspiration of the Bible deals with the facts of nature and history only in so far as they affect these. Now, the par. pose of the narrative of creation is to show that the world originated from God, that He is its Creator, and that He prepared it for man's abode. That is the revelation which Moses' inspiration enabled him to see in the cosmogonies of his time, and it is all we need lay stress upon. Let those who choose, by all means try to reconcile geology with the first chapter of Genesis ; but let them do it as an attempt to reconcile modern with primitive science. To call it reconciling Science with Revelation, utterly misapprehends Revelation. To call the dis- crepancies between geology and the first chapter of Genesis proofs that it is not inspired, is equally wide of the mark. Its cosmogony was the cosmogony of the age and country, and was known to the Israelites before it was written by the inspired penman. His inspira- tion was not given him to instruct him in those facts. There are indeed some things in the chapter which might make us believe thathisinspira. tion did extend even into this sphere. Its marvellous harmony with the great epochs of the development of life on the globe, as dia. covered by modern science, so great that it might be accepted as a poetic rendering of them, seems almost to indicate that the power which gave insight into spiritual facts gave insight also into those facts of nature with which modern science deals. But these were not the truths which the Israelites learned from inspiration. The truth they learned from it was that God, who had created the earth, who had prepared it for man's abode, who had first placed man upon it, was their God, who had given them his law, who required their service, who would reward them for obedience and chastise them for rebellion."
But the whole of these chapters deserve careful study.
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