366 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



Interpretation Not Revelation. 



In the consideration of questions like the present, 

 we must never, be it remembered, lose sight of the 

 fact that interpretation is not revelation ; neither is 

 revelation interpretation. Superficial readers are but 

 too frequently misled into believing, that the decla- 

 rations of the Bible must necessarily bear the mean- 

 ing which commentators have fancied they should 

 have, when, as a matter of fact, the real sense is often 

 entirely different, if not, indeed, quite the contrary. 

 The opinions of men may change, and are, of a truth, 

 perpetually changing, but the declarations of the 

 Holy Spirit are ever infallible and immutable. We 

 can never too carefully discriminate between the 

 truth of God's revelation to His creatures, and the 

 truth of our apprehension of His revelation. In 

 the beginning we may have but occasional glimpses 

 and faint adumbrations of the truth, and it often 

 happens that we come into possession of the whole 

 truth, in all its significance and beauty and gran- 

 deur, only after the lapse of long ages of persistent 

 effort and tireless investigation. Hence the anthro- 

 pomorphic and anthropocentric views entertained by 

 the early interpreters of Scripture respecting divers 

 questions pertaining to the Deity, and the creatures 

 which are the work of His omnipotence. Time and 

 reflection and research show that such views are ill- 

 founded, and substitute in their place a nobler con- 

 ception of the Creator, and one that is, at the same 



dit : Cette fois celle-ci est 1'os de mes os et la chair de ma 

 chair; celle-ci sera appelee isschah (femme), parce qu'elle a etc" 

 prise du isch (Thornine).'" 



