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with all the laws and usages of language. But to impose such a meaning upon it, in disregard of its connection, and in the face of this definition, is a violation not only of the nature of language, but also of the necessary laws of analytic thinking, such as tends to unsettle and confound all received principles of interpretation, and of thought itself.

These are some of the objections which lie against this method of harmonizing the Mosaic cosmogony with the results of modern science. Is it not evident that it imposes upon the words a sense which they were never intended to bear, imperils some of the most important of revealed truths, and thus introduces far greater difficulties than those which it claims to remove? But this is not all; for who can foresee where this procedure, applied to other parts of Scripture, may ultimately lead us? For it is not physical science alone with which we have to do. Anthropology, also, and psychology and biology, to say nothing of the science of historical criticism, are now putting in their claims to govern our interpretations of the word of Godsciences which have a direct bearing upon its moral and spiritual import. And when we come, for precisely similar reasons, to impose upon it every meaning which the sceptical tendencies of these sciences may seem to require, what is likely to become of the fall of man, of human depravity, of the incarnation, and the atonement?

These difficulties seem to us immeasurably greater than any which can arise from the principle of interpretation for which we here contend. For by it nothing in this cosmogony, or in any other part of the Bible, which can possibly be claimed as of any moral or spiritual import, is in the least affected. No such claim can be made for the length of time during which the work of creation was going on, nor for the order in which it took place, nor for any other forms or details of the picture, provided that God be understood to have created all things which are included in the universe. For evidently it was the object of the particularization given by Moses to cover this ground. But in these specifications

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he speaks of the physical world, as it is spoken of everywhere else in the Scriptures, in free and popular language, in accordance with the impressions which it makes upon the senses, and with the conceptions of it which prevailed when he lived, and which he, no doubt, shared with all others of his time. All this, therefore, is to be taken as the material framework, so to speak, of this sublime picture of the creation of the world, in which it is revealed to our faith that there is but one only living and true God; that he is a free, personal Being, of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness; that he created all things that exist by the word of his power, especially man in his own image, and male and female; that he consecrated one day in seven as holy unto himself; and whatever else there may be in this account which is of any moral or spiritual significance. It would seem that these revealed truths are enough for one short chapter in the Bible; for they lie at the foundation of all true religion, in direct contradiction to atheism, materialism, pantheism, dualism, polytheism, idolatry, and fetichismthose great and deadly errors which have always dominated over the human mind wherever they have not been driven out by the revelation of himself which God has given us in the Holy Scriptures.

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In conclusion, by the adoption and consistent application of this principle of interpretation, the malignant enemies of true religion that seed of the serpent who are permitted to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman whilst he crushes their heads would be deprived of their deadliest fangs. For, although they should find innumerable allusions and statements with respect to natural objects which are not in accordance with the scientific truths underlying the phenomena, what would it all amount to, more than is contained in the expression, "The sun rises and sets"? Science, moreover, would be left free to do her own great and blessed work, unimpeded by fear or misgiving lest her ever-multiplying discoveries might come into conflict with revealed truth. And as many of her votaries as are at all sensible of their

spiritual wants—who, no doubt, are as numerous as they are among any other people—would be relieved from their peculiar difficulties and temptations to unbelief, and would find that peace and joy which the gospel brings to the heart of every true believer. The aid which they would then bring to the defence of the Scriptures, and of our holy religion — who can estimate how great and effectual it would be? Also, the readers and interpreters of the word of God would be delivered from that sore temptation, with which they are now beset, to impose upon it meanings which it was never intended to bear, and which, without abuse, it cannot be made to bear-a procedure which must greatly injure the conscience, and mightily confound the science of hermeneutics. But that which is, perhaps, of greater importance than all other advantages is, that these "oppositions of science" would no longer dwarf and well-nigh paralyze the faith nor mar the peace of God's dear children, as in a multitude of cases they now do. Delivered from this incubus, the faith of the church might be expected to grow up to "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," and go forth to conquer the world.

ARTICLE IV.

IRENAEUS OF LYONS.

BY C. J. H. ROPES, RES. LIC., UNION sem.

THE history of the second Christian century has always been the arena of theological controversy, never more than to-day. Critics and apologists of all opinions still find their views represented in this formative period. The present problem of church history is the rise of the old Catholic church. And in the last few years a party has arisen, calling itself by this time-honored name, and claiming to re-establish the old Catholic faith.

This, therefore, is a peculiarly appropriate time to invite attention to the most influential churchman of the second century, to the best representative of its doctrine and polity, to the champion of the old Catholic church in the hour of its greatest peril, to the first uninspired theologian who "on all the most important points conforms to the standard which has satisfied the Christian church ever since " 1 - to Irenaeus of Lyons. And yet, when we seek the foundation for these statements in the character of Irenaeus, in his life, in his book which describes the home of the church as a fortress against the gnostics, we may meet with disappointment; for in him we find no trace of the rugged individuality of Ignatius, of the brilliant rhetoric of Tertullian, of the wide range of Origen's speculation, of the creative intellect of Augustine. The individuality of Irenaeus seems almost lost in his catholicity; his rhetorical armory is the Bible, his speculation moves in the plane of the Scriptures, and his creations in theology are almost unnoticed, because so familiar. In fact, the great difficulty in characterizing

1 Dr. Lightfoot, in Contemp. Rev., May 1875, p. 827, cf. Harvey's Irenaeus, i. p. clxxiii.

Irenaeus springs from the naturalness of his expressions, which relaxes the critical attention.

and

The worth of Irenaeus lies in his peculiar position, in the fact that he was the right man to fill it. Many lines meet in him. Two long lives, overlapping by nearly thirty years, link Irenaeus with the Founder of Christianity. Polycarp was a faithful disciple of John, but a zealous student of Paul; and in Irenaeus we find united the anthropological, practical tenets of Paul and the sublime theology of John.1

Again, the youth of Irenaeus was spent in Asia Minor, the cradle of theology; but his life-work was done in Gaul, under the practical influences of the Western church. So we find in him head, heart, and hand joined together in many-sided work. Lipsius has ably described the change which turned the attention of Christians in the second century from the heavenly to the earthly kingdom.2 They were no longer to "stand gazing up into heaven," but to extend and defend the faith. Here, again, Irenaeus unites both motives. He holds to the strong chiliastic hopes, and even to the gross realistic conceptions of the future; but he puts his hand vigorously to the work. We think of him as the great antagonist of gnosticism; and this he was. But while his book against the gnostics occupied a few of his later years, all his manhood's strength was given to his missionary work in Gaul. Trained in the school of John, and having all the advantages of a liberal education, growing up in the affluence of all Christian and intellectual privileges, he went in his prime as a missionary to the Celts of Lyons and Vienne. Before many years came the terrible persecution of A.D. 177. He escaped; but the bishop was martyred, and Irenaeus took the dangerous position. The work went on uninterruptedly until the dawn of the third century. Then another persecution; and, if a late tradition does not speak

1 Such thoughts as these may be found more fully in the introductions to Duncker's Christologie des Irenaeus and Graul's Christliche Kirche an der Schwelle des Irenaeischen Zeitalters.

Von Sybel's Historische Zeitschrift, 1872. p. 241 sqq.

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