5. The finite mind exists because of the infinite mind. The gas jet burning above my head affords an illustration. It exists because of a well-stored gasometer two miles away; because of complicated machinery by which coal has been caused to yield up its hidden stores of light; because of a system of underground conductors that terminates in the burner on the wall. Without the burner and the light all these appliances would be useless; and they in turn exist only that there may be light. So the finite mind exists because of the infinite—nor can we think with satisfaction of infinite mind in the universe and no creation or correlated force.
6. The finite mind hungers to know the infinite; it peers into the measureless space which its eye can not pierce, and longs for the infinite to reveal itself. This fact is historical, “Canst thou by searching find out God?” has been the question of the ages; and the answer has been “the world by wisdom knew not God.” The cry of multitudes of hungering souls has been: “O, that I knew where I might find him.” As light is necessary to the eye, and air to the bird’s wing, and sound to the ear, that each may perform the work for which it is adapted, so a knowledge of the infinite mind that is of God, is essential that the finite mind—that is, man—may fulfill its destiny. And this knowledge is possible only through self-revelation by God to man. That such a revelation has been made we have already asserted. That the Bible is that revelation is our claim, which we will discuss in a future lesson. The present lesson will be content to inquire simply, how that revelation has been effected. We answer:
God wrought it out in the presence of the race in ways unmistakable, exhibiting every attribute of his character, even to those of mercy and forgiveness. God wrought (not wrote). What we call the inspired Word is a mediate, not an immediate act of God. God wrought, the work extending through many ages, perhaps not even yet finished.
Wrought (a) in nature, so that “the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made.” Creation then is itself a part of the revelation, but only a part; for out of it comes no hint of forgiveness or redemption.
(b) In man, by spiritual manifestations, by intellectual enlightenments, by illuminations of conscience, such as could not originate in the human soul. These revelations or workings of God in man mark a large portion of the history of thought through the ages; and in that dim twilight of the race, when men like Enoch walked with God, though history is but a shadow, yet it is the shadow of God working in man.
(c) In Providence—that is, in his ordering the work of the world. He not only “produced a supernatural history extending through centuries, ... and working out results which human wisdom could never have conceived, nor human power executed,”[J] but also he has directed all the workings of all history in accordance with the central purpose of his revelation.
(d) In grace, by his spirit revealing what the human mind could never have discovered for itself, redemption and atonement through forgiveness of sin.
IV. This divine revelation so wrought by God has been, and is being reported that all the world may know and confess that “the Lord, he is the God.” Reported:
1. Through Tradition.—There was an unwritten Bible before the written word, handed down from patriarchs to scribes; and even in lands destitute of the Scriptures, we trace the dim outlines of truth transmitted from ancient authority.