Witnesses to Truth

by Edward Hoare

But, whether there are or not, my point is that the difficulties themselves are “witnesses to the truth of the Word of God.” The Bible says, plainly and repeatedly, that there are things “hard to be understood,” and, therefore, if I were to meet with nothing of the kind, and if everything contained in St. Paul’s Epistles and the other Scriptures were perfectly plain, the only conclusion at which I could arrive would be that those Scriptures had not given a true description of the fact. Now, however, I find them in this most important matter perfectly true. The objection of the sceptic only leads me to trust my Bible. If there were no difficulties, then I should begin to be afraid that my Bible could not be from God. But now the infidel himself is one of the best “witnesses” that I can put into the witness-box, and the very argument which he brings against the possibility of the fulfilment of the promises of God is an evidence, as clear as the noonday sun, of the wisdom, the foreknowledge, and the perfect acquaintance with the human understanding, with which God inspired, 1800 years ago, (by His Holy Spirit) the Scriptures of truth. It reminds me of the words of the apostle—“Let God be true, but every man a liar.”

But this is not all; for not only are these difficulties exactly what are revealed in the Scriptures, but they are also exactly what, as thinking men, we ought to expect in a divine revelation.

Let us think what we mean by a divine revelation. We mean, the communication from an infinite God to fallen man, of His own plan for the salvation of the sinner. Now what would a reasonable person expect in such a communication? He would expect Him to inform us of all that concerned our own action, and to make plain to us the way of life in which it is His will that we should walk; but he would not expect Him to indulge our craving after full information respecting His own hidden being, or the mode and power by which He would carry out His promises. He would expect Him to make His promises plain, but he would not expect Him to explain to us His divine plan for their fulfilment; he would expect Him to do exactly what He has done in the case of the resurrection—promise it faithfully, and so lead us to trust Himself, without giving any explanation as to the mode or the instrumentality by which that promise should be fulfilled. And this is exactly the principle which He Himself has laid down in His own Word, as when He said (Deut. xxix., 29), “The secret things belong unto God,” i.e. they are hidden in the depths of His own infinite mind; “but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law;” i.e. all that He has revealed we may freely make use of, and even our little children may learn in it the blessed secret of a Father’s love.

But does it not follow that the moment we attempt to reach into the secrets of God we are perfectly certain to meet with difficulty? We get out of depth directly, and are like people who cannot swim. For how can the human mind, for one moment, expect to solve the mysteries of the deep things of God? How can it aspire either to fathom its depths, or to scale its heights? Think for one moment what man is, a little creature on this little ball of earth, here for a few years, and then passing away for ever. And think what He is, “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy,” the “everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.” And is it likely that man should be able to put as it were into the balances the deep mysteries of His eternal will? When Zophar thought of it he said (Job xi. 7, 8), “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?” When David thought of the knowledge of God, he said (Psalm cxxxix. 6), “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” When St. Paul was meeting the objection of those who cavilled at the righteousness of the government of God, he met them with the words (Rom. ix. 20), “Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” And when the Sadducees put a difficult puzzle on the subject of the resurrection, our Lord Himself silenced them with the words, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” (Matt. xxii 29.) And were they not all right? Shall the finite sit in judgment on the infinite? the created on the Creator? the man of to-day on the God of all eternity? And are we to doubt His revelation because we cannot fathom the depths of His wisdom nor the hidden mysteries of His being? Nay, rather, are not those very depths witnesses to the divinity of His revelation? If it were all so shallow that any young man could wade in it without wetting even his ancles, might we not then believe that it came from some shallow mind no deeper than his own? If it contained no mysteries, might we not begin to doubt whether it really came from a mysterious God? So these difficulties of which we hear so much in modern times, these difficulties on which so many of our young men are so perfectly ready to decide, and on account of which they are even tempted to cast aside the revelation of God—these very difficulties are to us who believe, divine “witnesses” to the divine authorship of the whole. Had the Book been a man’s book, drawn up by man to commend itself to the mind of man, it never would have had in it those high and holy mysteries by which we see the intellect of man altogether baffled. Man’s mind would have produced nothing which man’s mind could not comprehend.

We may rejoice, therefore, in “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;” and, instead of being dismayed or disheartened because we cannot fathom the unfathomable depths of the unfathomable counsels of our God, we would rather say with St. Paul, “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?” and cling, with more tenacity than ever, to this sacred and holy Book, thus shown by its very mystery to be superhuman and supernatural, nothing less than a revelation from God.

THE RACES.

Our subject now is one of almost unlimited extent, for we are to call as “witnesses” the races of the world. We are to take the evidence of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and of all the nations, tongues, peoples, and languages that are dispersed throughout them; and we are to consider the evidence which they bear to the inspiration of the Scriptures.

As some limit must be put to such an enquiry, I propose to confine our thoughts to the study of one passage of Scripture; viz., Gen. ix. 25–27, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” Some people appear to speak with great disrespect of the Pentateuch. It is well, therefore, to take from it an ancient prophecy, and to study first the historical truth, and secondly the prophetical accuracy of these remarkable words.

I. The Historical Truth.

It is not an uncommon thing in these days to set science in opposition to the Scriptures, and to speak as if the one were opposed to the other. As a general rule, the persons who do so are persons who have a very shallow acquaintance with either, for the truly scientific man, and the true student of the Scriptures, are both so conscious of their own limited attainments in the face of the vast fields of unlimited knowledge which are still unexplored, that they are sure to feel humbly on the subject, and to be very shy of bold assertions respecting matters that they do not understand. But, instead of science being opposed to the Scriptures, we are quite prepared to call in science as a witness to its truth; for science is the study of the creation of God, and it would be indeed strange if His own works were at variance with His Word. So we will turn now, if God permit, to one of the great results of modern scientific discovery, and see what testimony it bears to the truth of the Pentateuch.