Their Witness Agreed not Together.
WHEN Jesus stood before Caiaphas, the high priest, there was no lack of witnesses, but they confounded each other by their own contradictions. Jesus had no need to explain, for they were self-refuted. There was a general agreement between the witnesses and the scribes and elders, that Jesus was to be disposed of by any kind of testimony obtainable. It was intended that the court and the multitude should be misled by the false witnesses, for they had no other. One witness after another was called, and each one destroyed the testimony of the preceding, till the whole malicious story, self-canceled, fell to the ground. There is a class of men who affect that the religion of Christ is upon its trial to-day, before the court of public opinion; but the witnesses, like those who appeared against our Lord, agree not together. Among the witnesses against the Bible there are no masters of moral or of mental philosophy; for the world knows now that both heart and brain attain their highest and best, when swayed by the mind that was in Christ. Social science cannot be tortured to say anything else than that to live under Christ enthroned in the heart, and in the family, and in the community, would be the happiest condition of life. Political economy knows that the golden rule would adjust all the conflicting human interests as sweetly as gravitation balances and marshals the stars of heaven. These witnesses refuse to testify except for the defence. The witnesses against the Bible are all from the school of natural science. Their very sameness is suspicious. But as of old their witness agrees not together. The geologists assert that the record of rocks contradicts that of Moses, especially upon two points, viz., that the earth is probably a thousand million years old and that man existed before the time of Adam. These experts come into court each one contradicting all the rest. No three anti-Bible geologists agree either in their facts or their theories. There is one class called the catastrophists, who believe that King Accident has always ruled this planet, and another called progressionists, who hold that law is king of matter. These differ endlessly among themselves. Then, as to the earth which now is, Hopkins proves that its crust is eight hundred miles thick; Lyell asserts that it cannot exceed twenty-four; De Beaumont thinks its crust thinner in proportion than the shell of an egg; Cordier teaches that the central heat must be 450,000 degrees; while Davy thinks that so great a heat would melt the crust, like thin ice over boiling water. Among these Hugh Miller rises and says: "There are no calculations more doubtful than those of the geologist." Sir John Lubbock, President of the British Scientific Association, says, "The theory of an interior fluid is untenable;" and Professor LeComte says, "The whole foundation of theoretic geology must be reconstructed." Now let us rest on the old foundations, and breathe awhile until these men reconstruct their foundation. Our old Book is the defendant, having gained a right by thousands of years of possession, and we have little to fear as long as each new assailant drives all his predecessors away. Geologists, when attacking revelation, lack modesty as much as their theories want confirmation. If the chief priest wanted the truth, why did he not call Peter and James and John; why not examine Jairus, or the widow of Nain, or Lazarus of Bethany, or somebody else that knew, and would tell the truth? But no, they wanted a certain kind of testimony, and they employed men to make it; and their witness agreed not together. If truth is the object in reference to the relations of science to revelation, why not call up the men who are best acquainted with both? Why do they not call into court such witnesses as Sir David Brewster, Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers, Rev. Dr. John Pye Smith, President Edward Hitchcock, Dr. Taylor Lewis, Prof. J. S. Jewell, Leibnitz, Carpenter, McCausland, Hugh Miller, and their like, if their like ever lived. Meanwhile we shall rest without a fear on the old foundations of revealed truth: and after they shall have reconstructed the whole foundations of geology, it will be time enough to ask if it can teach us anything in accord with revealed truth.—Golden Censer.