CONTENTS. I. THE BIBLE NOT A TEXT BOOK ON NATURAL SCIENCE. II. THE BIBLE CONSIDERED AS CAUSE TO AN EFFECT, OR PAGE. 187 201 III. THE MEANING AND USE OF .(SELAII) סֶלָה By R. W. Landis, D. D. IV. PERJURY EXEMPLIFIED IN SECESSION. By Rev. Jacob Cooper, Ph. D. V. THE MEN OF DANVILLE.-No. II. By J. A. Jacobs, Esq. VI.-EXPERIMENT IN TRANSLATION OF THE TALMUD VALUABLE THINGS IN THE TALMUD. VII. THE DIVINE ORIGIN AND SUPREMACY OF CIVIL By Rev. S. A. Mutchmore. 214 248 274 310 327 NOTE TO OUR PATRONS.-The delay in the issue of the June number has been occasioned by the departure of the hundred days' volunteers, through which our publishers were so stripped of their force that they could with extreme difficulty print for us at all, and then only slowly, and with repeated interruptions. We hope, however, our subscribers will bear with us through sympathy with the patriotic movement which occasioned the delay. We would also remind our patrons that the prices of printing and materials used by publishers have advanced 200 per cent., and that we have to pay cash. This renders it necessary that we be paid punctually, and may require an advance in price soon, as the highest rate now charged by us scarcely covers cost of publication. DANVILLE REVIEW. No. II. JUNE, 1864. ART. I.-The Bible not a Text Book on Natural Science. THAT the Bible was not intended by its author to discuss and explain the various topics of Natural Science, will be admitted by most, if not all, of the careful readers of its pages. Any elaborate discussion of the subject, briefly, though imperfectly, stated in the heading of this article, is therefore unnecessary. Yet, objections are urged against this book because its scientific allusions are not more technical and in detail. Now, if it can be shown that it does not, and can not, consistently with its professed character, enter into scientific details, the objection disappears. The principle which underlies this discussion is, that the Bible uses the facts of science, so far as they are pertinent to its main design, without any attempt to explain the laws of the facts. This principle will be found to have an application to other subjects than scientific ones. Any one, who chooses to pursue the investigation, will discover that it is adhered to in the Bible upon every subject with singular tenacity, and is a marked characteristic of the work. A fuller recognition of this principle would save much unreasonable clamor and needless disputes. The Bible teaches plainly and explicitly what it most concerns us to know, but it does even this with wonderful brevity. This article may prepare the way for another, showing what rule of interpretation should be adopted in explaining those subjects in the word of God, which involve scientific questions. It is obvious, if it be the design of Revelation to instruct men in the laws and phenomena of Science, that the investigation and explanations should be absolutely exhaustive, for nothing less would be in keeping with its claims. Any thing short of this would be held an imperfection, and so charged against the Bible. It must be in advance of man's possible knowledge in all time to come, otherwise its claim of .perfection would be discovered to be a cheat. Let us examine for a little, and see what method the Bible does pursue upon scientific subjects. When God, in the thirty-eighth chapter of Job, propounds a variety of questions-most of them of a scientific nature-He offers not the slightest explanation of any of them, though so numerous are the natural phenomena referred to in that chapter that a partial elucidation, even, would fill many volumes. "Where is the way where light dwelleth," is inquired, but no information is given; and yet here is the place, had God so designed, to instruct us as to the origin and nature of light. Which of the two great theories of light is true, might have been settled forever by a single sentence from its Creator. "Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth?" we listen, but not a word in reply is given as to its size and form. "Who hath divided the water courses?" and still no answer. And to the present time geologists are discussing the formation of hills and valleys. "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?" is asked; but neither the nature, distances or uses of the bodies embraced in these constellations, are stated. Many valuable facts are indeed implied, and it is an interesting item of history that the stars were grouped into constellations at that early day. That inimitable illustration, by the growth and adornment of the lily, of God's care of even trivial objects-hence much more of intelligent, responsible man-gives no phytological explanation of the laws of growth, or botanical classification of the lily; or of the principle which governs its harmony of colors; or why such a beautiful adaptation of its colors and our tastes to each other. A great fact, however, far more important than any scientific laws of growth in plants and animals, does lie nestled in this beautiful figure. It is that Nature's laws, as we sometimes irreverently call them, are but modes in which 'God works in the material world. They are recognized as laws by us, because of their uniformity and constancy. And how the human mind can so readily stop at modes of working, and fail to see, perhaps may even deny the existence of the worker, is a puzzle, or rather would be, were there not also revealed certain great facts touching the tendencies of that mind. When God, after the Deluge, assures Noah that a like catastrophe shall not again visit the earth, and gives the "bow in the cloud" as a seal to His promise, He leaves us in utter ignorance as to the manner in which the bow is produced. There is not even a hint that light is the agent concerned. Nor does He inform us whether the bow did or did not exist before that time. We are at perfect liberty to settle the question by determining whether the same conditions of rain and sunshine existed before as after the flood. The wonderful longevity in ancient times, and the causes which have reduced the term of human life to threescore years and ten, and the average to half that, are great scientific facts which we long to know; but which, if produced by secondary causes, lie hid from us in the mysteries of our being. Physiologists may assert that the present length of human life is necessarily the result of our constitution; that laws of growth and decay must reach their elimax and decline in about seventy years; in fine, that the body is so constituted that it must wear out in about that period; and that though great care and moderation may adjourn the hour for a little when its beautifully adjusted forces shall cease to play, and its consummate mechanism shall be shattered beyond the power of any but the Divine Architect to restore, yet that its life could extend to a thousand years, is impossible. To all this the Bible deigns no reply. It leaves its simple statements of scientific facts, or its allusions to them, without proof or argument. As a man, conscious of his truthfulness, never asserts. that he is no liar, but, in dignified silence, bides his time; so the Bible leaves its facts to be believed or disbelieved, as the reader may choose. Amid the heavings of human passion, and giant struggles of human intellect, it awaits the decisions of time. Those heavings and struggles may beat against its wall of adamant, but they find it unmoved and immovable. The account of the Deluge exhibits the same, we might say, studied avoidance of every thing which would appear like instructing the scientific engineer in the deep mysteries and physical laws of that terrific ruin. "The fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights," is all the scientific explanation which God gives of one of the greatest epochs in human history. That gush of waters which thrilled with unutterable agony the hearts of all earth, and stifled the breath of a world, remains to this day an inexplicable mystery in science. A few verses record, with unaffected symplicity, the most terrible catastrophe, excepting the crucifixion, which ever darkened the earth's surface. It is natural, nay it is hard at times not to wish that some brief explanation had been given of the means by which the result was attained. But it is best as it is. Something far more valuable is bestowed than the most elaborate unfolding of the physical operations concerned in the Deluge. The statement as it stands in its simplicity, singleness of purpose and conscious truthfulness, secures the confidence of every impartial reader. We enter upon no investigation here, whether the terms expressing the universality of the Deluge were or were not used by the writer in the sense we generally attach to the corresponding terms in our translation. That is a question for philologists to settle. If they, after careful investigation, decide that the original words apply as often to a part as to the whole of a thing, then we are at liberty to consider the Deluge partial or universal, as future investigations may, if they can, determine. No Christian need perplex his mind about it. Let him accept the great fact of the overthrow, for the purpose assigned, of the world which then was, the Bible taxes his belief no further. With a wisdom, very significant, it binds us to no philosophical theories in physics, but rises above them in its sublime generalizations. It invites and challenges the fullest and freest research in the rich fields of Science. It is, indeed, a generous-hearted old Book, inviting to the largest liberty of thought and action consistent with holy living, strong in its conscious truth and abiding power. It utters great principles, not in morals only, but even in its incidental allusions to Science, and then bids the intellect and heart search and find in God's great domain of truth. But let us glance at another of those singular phenomena, at which some have scoffed. We refer to that strange occurrence when the sun and moon stood still at the command of Joshua. We have nothing to say to those who make it highly-wrought figurative language. To such the event presents no difficulty. But, |