We have as yet, however, not, entered upon the field of science
proper. We are about to do so, and to inquire what help may be gained
from Scripture for the detailed study of nature. In this numerical
system, of which both Scripture and nature are immensely fuller than
has been thought, we ought to find a wonderful help, if it be (as we
have essayed to show) the same system that pervades both. Of this too,
all future applications will be a continual test. Thus every real
discovery will be verified as it is made, in complete accordance with
the not unreasonable demand of Mr. Huxley. Nay, it may be justly
doubted whether he can produce, for a large number of what he accepts
as scientific verities, any verification so complete. That it comes to
him from Scripture ought not to prejudice it in his eyes; nor can the
refusal of it for this reason be justified in the least degree under
the warrant of science.
And out of how many sloughs is he
saved at once who can accept Scripture as the interpreter of nature!
What light is poured in there where the mere naturalist has to own that
there is none; and how this heavenly ray irradiates all nature! How
grand a thing for the man of science to be able to stand at the
beginning of things with God, and to see, if it be "through a glass
darkly," the birth of all that exists around us! What a new and vast
field of research opens before him in Scripture itself, so little
explored in this way as it has been, even to the present time: a field
in which induction is as fully in place as any where, and where
microscope and telescope will open up new worlds, as in nature!
Standing, as I do, but at the threshold of all this, or given to enter
but a little way, I dare predict to him who shall bring together, as in
a stereoscopic picture, the two worlds of Science and of Scripture into
the unity which they really have, that he shall achieve for himself a
triumph and a joy beyond utterance. For me even to lisp but a few
things is yet much; and I do it in the hope that others with better
knowledge will utter them plainly.
A general view of nature is
in some sense the easiest to accomplish; just because broad features
are more easily read than minute ones. And my hope is in this chapter
to look at the kingdoms of nature, and to define them, or rather to
show how Scripture defines them; a work which may seem quite
superfluous.. But it is important to begin at the beginning; and if
some have no need, we believe there is need for many.
Classification,
if it be a true one, must be of the greatest importance in order to
knowledge; if false, it must be correspondingly injurious. As putting
things in their place, and exhibiting their difference from, and their
relation to, one another, a true and all-embracing classification would
be indeed, what one has called it, "a summation of knowledge."
proper. We are about to do so, and to inquire what help may be gained
from Scripture for the detailed study of nature. In this numerical
system, of which both Scripture and nature are immensely fuller than
has been thought, we ought to find a wonderful help, if it be (as we
have essayed to show) the same system that pervades both. Of this too,
all future applications will be a continual test. Thus every real
discovery will be verified as it is made, in complete accordance with
the not unreasonable demand of Mr. Huxley. Nay, it may be justly
doubted whether he can produce, for a large number of what he accepts
as scientific verities, any verification so complete. That it comes to
him from Scripture ought not to prejudice it in his eyes; nor can the
refusal of it for this reason be justified in the least degree under
the warrant of science.
And out of how many sloughs is he
saved at once who can accept Scripture as the interpreter of nature!
What light is poured in there where the mere naturalist has to own that
there is none; and how this heavenly ray irradiates all nature! How
grand a thing for the man of science to be able to stand at the
beginning of things with God, and to see, if it be "through a glass
darkly," the birth of all that exists around us! What a new and vast
field of research opens before him in Scripture itself, so little
explored in this way as it has been, even to the present time: a field
in which induction is as fully in place as any where, and where
microscope and telescope will open up new worlds, as in nature!
Standing, as I do, but at the threshold of all this, or given to enter
but a little way, I dare predict to him who shall bring together, as in
a stereoscopic picture, the two worlds of Science and of Scripture into
the unity which they really have, that he shall achieve for himself a
triumph and a joy beyond utterance. For me even to lisp but a few
things is yet much; and I do it in the hope that others with better
knowledge will utter them plainly.
A general view of nature is
in some sense the easiest to accomplish; just because broad features
are more easily read than minute ones. And my hope is in this chapter
to look at the kingdoms of nature, and to define them, or rather to
show how Scripture defines them; a work which may seem quite
superfluous.. But it is important to begin at the beginning; and if
some have no need, we believe there is need for many.
Classification,
if it be a true one, must be of the greatest importance in order to
knowledge; if false, it must be correspondingly injurious. As putting
things in their place, and exhibiting their difference from, and their
relation to, one another, a true and all-embracing classification would
be indeed, what one has called it, "a summation of knowledge."
Even in the large and general way in which alone we can speak
of it here, it is important to know what is the truth. Where, for
instance, shall we assign man his place?
"The question of
questions for mankind," says Prof. Huxley, "the problem which underlies
all others, and is more deeply interesting than any other, is finding
the place which man occupies in nature and of his relation to the
universe of things."
There are in reality two questions here instead of one; but
the second answer he takes evidently, and with some reason, to be
involved in the first. And this is shown in his conclusion: -
"The
structural differences between Man and the manlike apes certainly
justify our regarding him as constituting a family apart from them;
though inasmuch as he differs less from them than they do from other
families of the same order, there can be no justification for placing
him In a distinct order . . . . It is as if nature herself had foreseen
the arrogance of man, and with Roman severity had provided that his
intellect, by its very triumphs, should call into prominence the
slaves, admonishing the conqueror that he is but dust.
"The facts, I believe, cannot be disputed; and if so, the conclusion appears to me to be inevitable."
"But if Man be separated by no greater structural barrier
from the brutes than they are from one another - then it seems to
follow that if any process of physical causation can be discovered by
which the genera and families of ordinary animals have been produced,
that process of causation is amply sufficient to account for the origin
of man."
And, accordingly, evolution accounts for him "Man's
place in nature" is thus in the order Primates, suborder, Anthropoidea,
and family, Anthropidæ, next above (and not very far off) the apes
proper; and this position of his means blood-relationship with the
beasts that perish, and the extinction of every hope of immortality
that cannot be shared with them.
If the body be all, it is
impossible to dissent from these conclusions. But although it be
admitted that the body is not all, and that psychical phenomena, as
sensation, affection, intelligence, are not the products of
organization merely, still it is in dispute as to the real difference
in this respect between man and the beast. Even De Quatrefages, who
claims on behalf of man (as he says, with continually growing
conviction) that he must be referred to a human kingdom, bases this
entirely on the ground of his moral and religious faculties. On the
other hand, many now see in this respect also no difference save of
degree between them. It cannot but be of importance, then, to have the
testimony of another witness, and to see what Scripture - and with what
grounds in nature - affirms as to this.
Let us recur once more
to our numbers, then, and ask ourselves what is the number of nature,
or, as Scripture usually prefers to speak, of creation. Here there is
not a moment's doubt: the number 4, as we have already seen, is the
number of the creature.We have, of course, no right to say, on this
account, that there are four kingdoms in nature, instead of three, as
nearly all the world says. We have no right to predict in these
matters, but only to interpret. Yet, if there were four, we should have
a right to take it as a new witness of the harmony between nature and
the Scripture numbers.
Suppose, for a moment, there were four
kingdoms; there could not be a doubt, of course, that to the Animal,
Vegetable, and Mineral we must add the Human one. We should have, then,
three organic kingdoms and one inorganic. But here at once we have
another note of harmony. For the Scripture 4 divides commonly into 3 +
1, as we have seen, the numbers speaking of creation as manifesting the
Creator. We are entitled to look further, then, with hope.
The
fourth must stand here for the Mineral kingdom: has it the
characteristics of that number? Assuredly, if weakness and passivity
characterize this, it has these fully. The inertia of matter is a
well-known attribute of it. And from matter, we call that which yields
itself up to the hand that fashions it, "material." These are strange
coincidences, if they be no more than that. But are they no more? Let
us examine the organic kingdoms and the numbers attached, and see.
These
three organic kingdoms, then, may be seen as one, in that they are
pervaded by the common principle of life, and answer to the number 3,
in that they are organic. Life is the basis of individuality in nature,
as is evident. Every living thing is a unity in such sense as a stone
or a rock is not. The rock can be divided, and is not altered, except
in size. The living unit may recover itself after division, indeed; but
if it cannot do this, dies: it cannot be indifferent to it, as the rock
is. Thus the four kingdoms of nature clearly fall into two divisions -
the living and the non-living, which, according to the meaning of
numbers, stand as 1 and 2. The living, though three, are one.
They
are one also in that they are all organic. Yet this organization which
characterizes them, while itself one in the harmony of its parts, is
more than one in the fact that there are parts, organs, individual,
though harmonious. Life implies activity, and in this way a various
activity, a division of labour for the good of the whole. And this we
shall find really coming under the number 3, according to the
definition already given of that number.
Three is the number
of sanctification; and the idea in sanctification is that of setting
apart in some special place or to some specific office. When the Lord
says, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself" (Jno. xvii. is), He is
speaking of the place He is going to take as Man in heaven. So Jeremiah
was sanctified to be the Lord's prophet, and Aaron and his sons to be
His priests. All the vessels of the tabernacle and of the temple were
thus set apart or sanctified to a special use in connection with the
service of God. And here in nature, where all things serve Him,
everything filling its place and doing its work, this specializing is
but, so to speak, a natural sanctification. We shall find this thought
in various modifications under this number, as we investigate the
numerical series which are presented to us in nature.
The
three organic kingdoms thus far fill their place, then. But we have to
go much further. We have to find the place of each one as tested by the
numerals also: where, if the mineral kingdom stands as 4, the human,
animal, and vegetable kingdoms stand as respectively 1, 2, 3. Let us
begin once more at the lowest, the -
VEGETABLE KINGDOM.
How in this series does the number 3 specifically characterize the vegetable kingdom?
With
regard to man and beast, the vegetable kingdom has an indispensable
part to fulfill. Ultimately, it has to feed them both. For even the
carnivorous animals are sustained by the herbivorous; and did the
beasts prey simply upon each other, there would soon be of necessity an
end of all. But this place filled by the vegetable depends upon this,
that it alone has the power of taking up and transforming the inorganic
material into organic upon which alone the higher organisms can
subsist. It is the price they pay for their elevation in the scale of
being, that they must be more dependent; and this is a constant law of
nature.
The vegetable is in this way the great transforming
agency in creation, - the producer, as the animal is the consumer.
Every naturalist in the world will agree to this definition of it. And
yet this, again, clearly lies within the compass of the number 3. The
Spirit of God, whose number it is, is thus the Great Producer and the
Great Transformer. Specialization implies transformation.
Sanctification, when an inward work, is the same thing. The water, the
type of the Spirit, is that which prepares the root for the soil and
the soil for the root: with out its mediation, no food could be got
from the barren ground. Thus the number of its rank in this series
fully characterizes the plant in the organic creation: its numerical
stamp is completely justified.
Let us pass to the -
ANIMAL KINGDOM,
still with our guide, and
see how the more complex nature of the higher being will submit itself
to the simplicity of this arithmetical law.