“In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord; and it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.”—Isaiah xix. 19.
THE STONE WITNESS. [159]
Discourse XVII.
THE GREAT PYRAMID—WHO JOB WAS—WHO BUILT THE PYRAMID—WHAT IT WAS BUILT FOR—AN EPITOME OF THE EARTH—THE HISTORY OF MAN CONTAINED IN IT, PAST AND FUTURE—SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE, ETC., ETC.
The wonderful discourses of the Rev. Dr. Wild, of Brooklyn, were continued last Sunday evening, before a thronged congregation in Elm Place Church. Under the organ gallery, behind the pulpit, was a representation of the Pyramid, or as the learned doctor terms it, “the stone Bible,” its massive rectangular dark stone foundation and some of the most interesting of its interior passages, chambers, and mysteries. All eyes were fastened in scrutiny upon it, well knowing that some revelation of unusual Christian interest would be made by the Doctor from it as soon as his lecture commenced. The preliminary exercises of singing
by a well-trained choir and prayer were therefore impatiently listened to by many whose thoughts were concentrated on the wonders of the Pyramid and its astounding confirmation of the prophetic Scriptures. Dr. Wild read a lesson from Job xxxviii., remarking that the author of that book was also the engineering director or architectural author of the Pyramid and identical with Shem and Melchisedec. The book of Job is the oldest book in the world by 200 or 300 years. Shem, or Job, was ninety-eight years old when he entered the ark, and he lived thirty years after Abraham, with whom therefore he shook hands, as well as with Methuselah, who shook hands with Adam. Only one man, therefore, stood between Adam and Shem, and only two, or not quite two, between Adam and Abraham. The book of Berosus, of Babylon, is the only one that compares with Job in antiquity. This was the age of tradition before Moses compiled the first portions of it. In the days of Abraham, Shem was the patriarch, or oldest, of his family; and it was therefore to him he did homage, according to the patriarchal custom, under the name of Melchisedec, when returning from the slaughter of the kings. Shem had brought with him from the days before the flood much of the knowledge and wisdom which had been accumulated in the earth during the 2,000 years previous to that event, and which was swept away when only eight persons were saved in the ark. We have been told that the human race has gradually improved, and that our ancestors in far off ages were monkeys, or something of that sort, but the remains of the ruins and knowledge of antiquity show everything the reverse of this to be the truth. Look at that Pyramid. We could not build it to-day, with all our boasted science. It will bear in every respect the closest scientific scrutiny. Our greatest scientists are only beginning to comprehend the depths of its mysteries, yet it is over 4,000 years old. The capstone on top of it is a Pyramid in itself, in miniature, unlike anything of the kind or any other building on the earth. The
reverend gentleman then continued to read from Job xxxviii., and shew that the writer of it was master of astronomical and geographical science and the builder of the Pyramid, which is a miniature of the measurement of the earth and indicates the history of the human race. After this preliminary dissertation he took for his text Isaiah xxviii. 29: “This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.”
The Bible is a growing book, being more read and better understood as the years pass by; and as men shall increase in knowledge and power, so the Bible will gain in influence and authority. Opposition to its teaching, and vaunting denial of its authority, shall be made subservient to its interests by goading on the Church to a wiser and more noble defence and exposition of the same. No theology can levy upon the well-defined facts of science in confirmation of the sublime teachings of inspiration. The Christian student need not hold himself in timid dread for fear the scientist will discover aught in the realms of nature that will contradict the Word of God: for as sure as God is the Author of both, so surely shall we find an agreement between revelation and science at every point truly understood—increased light means increased evidence. Nations and men, nature and Providence, are united witnesses for God, and the Scriptures, and the more we know of the past, the better shall we understand the present and forecast the future. Let us recognise the future. Let us recognise the important difference between the Bible subjectively and objectively—that is, between what the Bible really is and what men think it is. Let us be free enough, bold enough, and wise enough, to claim the Bible itself. Let us unyoke it from tradition, which claims to be superior, or even equal. Let us divorce it from councils, from creeds, from sects and denominations; let us lift it up out of the ecclesiastical rut of ages. Let us with a commendable pride count ourselves
worthy and able to formulate our own creeds, make our own prayers and confessions, accounting that the liberties of our fathers have been bequeathed to their children, and that the same God who gave them liberty and power is no less gracious to us, their offsprings. Traditions, councils, creeds, and degrees are worth much unto us as aids to a higher life, and a nobler civilisation. The Christian fathers, the Luthers, Calvins, Knoxes, Wesleys, and others, were our servants, as we will be the servants of coming generations. They worked grandly, they wrought well, they procured for us a goodly heritage; to them we are indebted. Yet it was not their purpose nor the design of Providence to enslave us, or to stereotype the Church for the ages to come. Increased light is increased evidence, enabling us the better to understand the Word of God. When a publisher has stereotyped a book, he is naturally loath to make any change or correction; so Churches who have stereotyped the Bible are very unwilling to change, to receive light. Hence, they are sometimes found opposing the march of a better civilisation, proving and sustaining all manner of institutions and tyrannies: the torturing and terrible Inquisition of Spain, the punishment and hanging of supposed witches by England and New England, the bondage and slavery of the South. So, to prove their creeds and systems correct, they each have a mode of their own, Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, &c. So also, theologians have often been impatient to reconcile the Scriptures with history, even to suggest mistakes in the sacred record. Instance Daniel being made the Third Ruler. They supposed it meant second, but later researches show that Babylon had two rulers at that time—namely, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar—so Daniel was made a third. See the remains of Borsippia, near Babylon (Dan. v. 29). Now we know that both Daniel and Berosus, the old Babylonian historians, were right, and the Bible was right in using the word third. God in His revelation has always been equal to man’s need. Tradition—Abraham