Revelation. 297 



The defenders of natural religion cannot stop 

 when they reach the Bible. It is only when this 

 key in its place, that the arch of argument 



will stand. Natural religion can never supersede a 

 written Revelation. Nature simply assures us that 

 there is a God, and that He has established certain 

 relations fur us. It then leaves us in doubt in 

 ard to the consequences of our relationship to 

 Him. So far from taking the place of Revela- 

 tion, Natural T! when rightly studied, impels 

 the soul to cry out for the living God ; to desire 

 to hear the Word of Him whose handiwork is 

 :i in the heavens, and in the machinery and 

 adorning of our earth. It prepares men to expect 

 Revelation. And as men advance in civilization 

 and science, the Bible becomes more and more 

 necessary. 



But it may be said that this Bible is the work of 

 man, and it meets his wants because it has grown 

 out of his wants. These desires and capacities, 

 of which men are conscious, have led them to 

 wander in the field of imagination to find conditions 

 to meet the wants of their spiritual nature. And 

 these conditions are embodied in the God of the 

 Bible, and the future world which it reveals. 

 Men with different desires would have a different 

 Revelation, and thus it happens -that the Bible is 

 only one of the Sacred Books that have been ac- 

 cepted by men. 



The Bible is thus presented as the work of dream- 

 ing enthusiasts, who have given the outgrowth of 



13* 



