saw that no stress of circumstances could justify the abandonment of principle or neutralize the consequences in case it should be resorted to (8: 12-15).

From the first he saw the hollowness of Egyptian promises, and it was doubtless owing chiefly to his exertions and influence that the alliance with Egypt was deferred for so many years.

"As a reformer Isaiah labored to correct all political and social abuses. To elevate statesmanship, to purify justice, to reform religion, to fight against inconsistency, to redress social wrongs, were the aims which he set himself in life; and his book discloses to us the persistency and uncompromising earnestness with which he pursued it."

And again: "True, this aspect of a prophet's work, to enforce a proper standard of action, to remind a nation of the moral obligations which its professions of religion impose upon it, was in no way peculiar to Isaiah, it is common more or less to all the prophets."

Note here again what is true and what false in this conception of the prophet. True it is, as is seen from the foregoing, that the prophets may in the highest sense be called preachers, teachers and statesmen, but, notwithstanding the fact that they render incalculable service in these capacities, it is not true that these offices were the highest characteristics of the prophets; they were not even the conscious motif of these prophets (as will be seen in the following chapters). For it is evident, without further argument, that preachers, teachers and statesmen, no matter how eloquent, pure and far-seeing, are not prophets, and hence the prophet cannot be converted into these.

(E) SUMMARY. A SOUL OF TRUTH IN THINGS ERRONEOUS

With Herbert Spencer I believe that there is a soul of truth in things erroneous.1

We have seen indeed that the prophets predicted the coming of a Messiah, but as we understand it they meant an ideal king, such an one as would be a worthy descendant of the idealized king David of the golden age; one who might bring order into political chaos, harmony out of confusion, rule in equity and justice, rejuvenate and recreate his people, and be in every sense a prince of peace.

These prophets were wonder-workers, indeed, not in the sense of bringing confusion into the physical laws of nature, but in a deeper and truer sense of recognizing the spiritual laws in the unseen kingdom, and creating out of a religion of ceremony, animal and human sacrifice, and superstition, a religion of beauty and truth, of spiritualized and ethical monotheism, such as the world will perhaps some day understand. And finally, whatever the explanation, the fact remains that these men saw many events before their time, and were enabled by their clearer vision and higher aspirations, to preach, teach and lead in national affairs.

1" First Principles," p. 3.

CHAPTER III

MIRACLES OR SUPERNATURAL PHYSICS

No study of prophecy can afford to overlook the subject of miracles inasmuch as the prophet is often supposed to be a miracle. For, no matter how one views the history of Greece and Persia, Egypt and China, England and Mexico, the history of Israel is usually set aside as in great measure unrelated to universal history, replete with supernatural and unnatural phenomena. In other nations it is allowed that history works itself out in a natural way, under the guidance of Providence, that is, in accordance with well-known physical and spiritual laws, everywhere operative; while in Israel there was direct interference with the natural laws by supernatural agency. It is not intended to convey the idea that the content and result of Israel's history and religion are identical with, or even similar to, the content and result of the religion and history of other nations. Neither are the content and result of China's history identical with, or similar to, England's, and yet each is in every sense a natural product. Going just one step further, we might easily affirm that there is no similarity and surely no identity between a watch-dog and a lily, and yet the process of cell-building in each is not essentially different, and the relation of activity to growth in each is the same, because all organisms are primarily descended from a fertilized germ. "And in all cases-in the humblest alga as in the oak, in the protozoon as in the mammal-this fertilized germ results from the union of the contents of two cells.”1 Yet, because the lily differs so widely from the watchEssay on Transcendental Physiology," p. 66.

1

1 Spencer:

dog and the protozoon from the mammal, no one would think of calling either the one or the other a supernatural product.

There can be no objection to the word Miracle, if by it is meant the impossibility of explaining objects and phenomena satisfactorily, for no man is so presumptuous as to believe that he knows aught of the incomprehensible and forever mysterious way in which the seed grows into the rose and the germ into the child, or why or how brain activity makes possible consciousness, or consciousness brain activity. Nevertheless these tangible objects and intangible phenomena are called natural, because no matter how inexplicable and mysterious they all may be on the one hand, they are all, on the other hand, capable of being studied, and when so studied or observed, are seen to follow definite laws. And by law is not meant a power from without, impelling the thing to act in a certain way; but the observed way or mode in which the thing uniformly acts or operates is called its law. Hence when we find a thing to act, or a phenomenon to appear, in a certain uniform way under definite conditions, we say we have discovered its law. Therefore, whatever can be observed or experienced, whether it be the growth of the embryo or the metamorphosis of the caterpillar, whether the absorption of motion and disintegration of matter or the integration of matter and dissipation of motion, whether the walking on water or conversion of staff into serpent, if these are experienced facts, phenomena observable or observed, then are they natural phenomena pure and simple.

If now we designate the observed uniform ways or modes in which the physical universe acts as laws of physics, and the observed uniform ways or modes in which mind acts as laws of psychology, then miracles, which are phenomena not classifiable under any known

law of physics or psychology, would have to be designated by some such term as not-natural, unnatural or supernatural physics or psychology. If miracles are designated by their synonyms: unnatural physics and supernatural psychology, it seems to me, that even the crassest miraclist will pause a moment to think.

How, then, shall we study the Bible in order to wrest from her pages the truth? There are three ways of approaching the study of Biblical problems:1 (1) To accept everything as literally true; (2) to reject everything as literally false; (3) to pick out from the great mass of myth, unscientific observation and child-age credulity, the kernel of truth. There is no other way of approach.

The first method we must reject unless we believe that we shall be especially interesting to God, if we retain child-like credulity in matters Biblical, no matter how logical and critical we may be in other fields of investigation. The second method we must also reject unless indeed we wish to go to the other extreme and deliberately close our eyes to the fact that there is a soul of truth in all things erroneous. Hence the only thing left is to accept the third method. And indeed this method is the most rational and the one most calculated to get at truth. The problem, however, is how to get at this kernel of truth from out of the many layers of tradition, myth, embellishment and one-sided view-point. Here, in this endless labyrinth, psychology alone can be our true guide, accompanied only by what we know of the nature of physical laws; for, in the last analysis, physical laws require mind for their perception and interpretation.

1 1 Cf. Budde: "Religion of Israel to Exile," New York, 1898, p. 2, note 1.