pre-eminently formidable. Bibliolaters though we may be called, we take our stand upon the infallibility of "the oracles of God." And our bibliolatry is so intense that, claiming infallibility for the utterances of inspired Scripture, we claim infallibility, no less, for its silence. It is silent, not from mistake nor inadvertence nor negligence nor undesigned omission but, from inspiration. The same Spirit who taught a Moses and a Matthew and a Paul what to write, taught them also what to omit; or, rather, withheld his Divine light and promptings. The declaration of Dr. Wordsworth in reference to one point of this silence, to which, by-and-by, your attention will be directed, we extend to every point on which silence is maintained. "THIS SILENCE OF SCRIPTURE IS INSPIRED;"* and because inspired, instructive. Well has Dean Trench written, "Nor is it only what Scripture says, but its very silence, which is instructive for us. It was said by one wise man of another, that more might be learned from his questions than from another man's answers. With yet higher truth might it be said, that the silence of Scripture is more instructive than the speech of other books."+"There is such fulness in that book," says Boyle, " that oftentimes it says much by saying nothing; and not only its expression but its silences. are teaching, like a dial in which the shadow as well as the light informs us." We feel then-to adapt to the silence of Scripture the words of the lamented Archer Butler in reference to the promissory "spirit of the future" which pervades the Old Testament-" that all we see is holy, and all we see not holier still."

"The Divine Being is pleased to conceal much in the economy of grace and redemption. In the manifestations.

• Occasional Sermons, xii. p. 100.

+ Trench's Hulsean Lectures, 1845: vi. The Inexhaustibility of Scripture. Sermons by Rev. William Archer Butler, First Series, p. 200.

of his will, even in that dispensation which is intended to afford some knowledge of himself, and of his gracious purposes and designs to the children of men, he maintains the same character, and mingles, in almost equal proportions, obscurity and brightness. Revelation, indeed, by its very nature, is intended to impart information. We are taught in Scripture, in the New Testament especially, many of the 'deep things of God;' and we are under unspeakable obligations for that 'Dayspring from on high which has visited us, to guide our feet into the way of peace, and give knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins. . Yet the revelation contained in the Scriptures extends only to facts, not to the theory of those facts, or their original causes. The most important truths are communicated in a dogmatic, not a theoretic, manner. We are taught, on the testimony of Him that cannot lie, insulated facts which we cannot connect with those reasons with which they are undoubtedly connected in the Divine mind. They rest solely on the basis of Divine authority; and we are left as much in the dark with respect to the mode of their existence as if they were not revealed."*

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Oracles were in high repute among the ancient heathen, means of ascertaining the will of their gods. Responses were obtained by costly sacrifices and rich offerings. But we read that, "to keep up their esteem with the better sort, even they were only admitted upon a few stated days; at other times, neither the greatest prince could purchase, nor persons of the greatest quality anywise obtain, an answer." On one occasion the great Alexander was peremptorily denied by the Pythia (the priestess), till she was by downright force compelled to ascend the tripos (or prophetic seat), when, finding herself unable to resist

• Robert Hall's Works, vol. vi.: "The Glory of God in Concealing."

any longer, she cried out, Thou art invincible!' which words were thought a very lucky omen, and accepted instead of a further oracle." * A rude and royal mode this of forcing the oracle to break silence, which will remind you of the effective means adopted, in later times, by one of no less indomitable will than the Macedonian hero for the speedy liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples. The priests declared that the blood of the saint obstinately refused to liquify, according to annual custom. The peremptory message, that, if the wonder did not take place in half-an-hour the presiding priest should be shot or hanged, brought the exhibitioner to his senses and liquified the blood. But no theological Alexander nor iron-willed inquirer can thus break the silence and force the utterances of the oracles of the living God.

Our subject is one which, for its full development, requires a volume. And such a volume, from a competent pen, would form a valuable and deeply interesting addition to our stores of Christian evidence. The silence of Scripture-the omissions of the Bible-are not among the least of the proofs that it is the book of God. In a single lecture I can but hope to be suggestive, to open up a train of study and of thought, which may be pursued largely and diligently. And this is one great aim of our modern fashion of lecturing; to suggest topics of study and lines of thought to those among you, who, in your attendance, have a higher aim than merely to hear a given lecturer, or pass an otherwise unfilled hour.

Let me sketch out the course over which I shall ask you to follow me.

We must first instance this " SILENCE OF SCRIPTURE." It will then naturally occur to us to examine how far, in this respect, the book of God resembles or differs from the Apocry

This story is given in Potter's Grecian Antiquities, vol. i. 309.

phal books, and from the religious books of false systems. This inquiry will present to us, as our next point, a special argument for the authenticity of the Bible. It will be well for us then to notice the mischief to the cause of truth and to the purity of the faith which have resulted from the unwillingness of man to abide by "the silence of Scripture." Concluding lessons of much practical importance may be gathered, as we review the ground we have traversed.

I. In instancing "the silence of Scripture," it is scarcely necessary to remind you, at the outset, that we are not now concerned with all the countless points on which this silence exists, but only with such as are contrary to the expectation we might à priori have entertained, when the general object of revelation was borne in mind.

1. On no point am I more curious than THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD in which I live.* How-when-came this material system into being? The oracles answer, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be And the narrative proceeds

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light and there was light." with the simple record of a progressive work of creation, occupying six days. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." But stay, Moses. Is this all? I have many questions to ask? You have left many points of deepest interest unsettled. In these last days a new science has been developed. The geologist tells me that the earth is of far higher antiquity than is indicated

Since this Lecture was written I have had my attention called by a Christian brother to a passage in one of Dr. Arnold's Sermons, which directly bears on my first point and on the general subject of the Lecture. -Sermon on the Interpretation of Scripture, pp. 2–6 and 9-11. It is given in an Appendix to this Lecture.

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in your cosmogony. He has dug into its bowels, and the testimony of its rocks and strata and remains is irrefragable. This earth of ours is more than 6000 years old. Is this first announcement of the oracles of truth-" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth "-an account, not of the original creation of matter but, simply of the arrangement of matter, created in remote ages, into this present form and system? Or is this announcement, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,"-the simple and solitary record of the original creation of matter? and are we to put between the first and second verses of Genesis an interval of vast duration, sufficient for the action of all those second causes to which the phenomena of geology are to be traced? The Hebrew scholar can philologize over the verb rendered "created." Geologists theorize and differ. The infidel watches the controversy, in eager hope to gather from the geological argument a new and irresistible weapon against Moses and the Old Testament. A line would have superseded controversy, by giving us the date of the creation of matter and of the world's birthday. A single chapter might have been a textbook for geologists, detailing the story of rocks and strata, of megatheria and icthyosauri, of volcanic forces, and of those mighty convulsions and changes on which now we can offer but conjecture. "The oracles of God" are dumb; Scripture is silent.

2. "There is no subject within the whole range of knowledge," says Sir David Brewster, "so universally interesting as that of A PLURALITY Of worlds. It commands the sympathies, and appeals to the judgment of men of all nations, of all creeds, and of all times; and no sooner do we comprehend the few simple facts on which it rests, than the mind rushes instinctively to embrace it." And this eminent philosopher has written a volume to prove this plurality. Are