CENTDRY'S WITNESS TO THE BIBLE. 



93 



Rev. John Tuckwell, M.R.A.S., said : — Although not agree- 

 ing with all that has been said, I have no desire to complain 

 of the free expression of opinion. The attacks made upon Scrip- 

 ture during the past century on scientific grounds have shown 

 up more clearly than ever the supernatural element in that 

 volume. For instance, the discoveries of science have disclosed 

 the fact that the Creation story in Genesis i. is so extraordinarily 

 exact that it could not have been written without supernatural 

 knowledge. If anyone doubts that statement I am quite prepared 

 to discuss the question, as I have so often done before, at a fit time 

 and place. 



Or take the discoveries of Archseology. The last century 

 witnessed the extensive promulgation of what is known as the 

 Yaweh Elohim Theory in the supposed composition of the Penta- 

 teuch. But the cuneiform tablets containing the story of the Deluge 

 have shown us that the supposed " J " and "E " strata in the Hebrew 

 are found also in the Babylonian and in almost the same order, 

 so that if we dissect the one into these strata we shall have to 

 dissect the other in the same way. But if any man were to apply 

 this theory to the Babylonian story his medical man would be called 

 in to prescribe for him. Let me remind you also of Genesis xiv. 

 Professor Noldeke in 1869 declared that criticism had for ever 

 disposed of the claim of that chapter to be historical. But the 

 Chedorlaomer Tablets in the British Museum compel every fair- 

 minded critic to restore to it its historic character. 



Take again the Evolution Theory. The manner in which that 

 theory has captivated the educated mind is phenomenal, and the 

 Christian faith as represented by Holy Scripture has not escaped 

 its application. But the Scriptures both of the Old and New 

 Testaments are historic — they are records of facts, and a record 

 of facts cannot be produced by an evolutionary process. It has been 

 more and more conclusively proved to the modern mind that there 

 was such a Person as Jesus Christ ; that He was born, lived, taught, 

 suffered, died, and rose again. No process of evolution could 

 produce the record of these facts ; or it would be fiction and not 

 history. Moreover the Scriptures tell us how God can forgive sin 

 and take the sinner back into fellowship with Himself. Now unless 

 pantheism is true and the mind of God and that of man are one, then 

 God must have communicated this plan of salvation to man, which 



