IMPLICATIONS AT LARGE 



121 



The progressive nature of the revelations contained in 

 Holy Scripture, and the defective and erroneous nature 

 of certain beliefs and ideals that gain uncorrected ex- 

 pression in the Old Testament, are very generally 

 acknowledged. They are indeed too evident to be 

 denied by inteUigent students. 



But if spiritual errors were left uncorrected, we may 

 readily believe that mistaken views of natural history 

 were also left as they stood, and only so far modified 

 as was necessary in order that they might be employed 

 as suitable vehicles and contexts of divine teaching. 

 The authority of the context in each case lies in its 

 being thus divinely employed, and its bibhcal meaning 

 lies in the manner and connection of its use by the Holy 

 Spirit. I am distinguishing here between the bibhcal 

 or inspired purpose and meaning, and the merely 

 human content of the narratives in question, considered 

 apart from their relation to divine revelation. We 

 do not need to believe that the human writers were 

 enabled to anticipate in their historical narratives the 

 results of modern discovery in order to believe that 

 these narratives are divinely inspired contexts of 

 spiritual teaching.^ But just as it required the acquisi- 

 tion of fuller spiritual knowledge to enable men to 

 detect the spiritual errors which had been left uncor- 

 rected in the earlier Scriptures, so it has taken modern 

 scientific discovery to compel men fully to realize that 

 the Bible was not inspired for the purpose of affording 

 accurate scientific information as to the natural order. 



1 Cf. p. 141, below. 



