OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 294, 3 August 1865, Page 2

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

The Sunday Magazine, Edited by Dr. Gdthexb.

May-June, 1865. Had the English Mail arrived true to its date we should have been enabled to have given these two parts a separata notice ; but owing to the delay of that mail we have now double duty to perform, and the limited space at our disposal will prevent us doing justice to either of them. The general character of this magazine appears to be much the same as its elder compeer. Good Words, as it contains interesting tales, together with a variety of instructive essays and sketches. These, however, seem to us to be of a more profound and strictly religious character than the other, as might, indeed, be supposed by its name. We have received almost unqualified pleasure from their perusal, and consider the illustrations to be of a superior class in design and execution to those usually found in this class of works. It would afford us great pleasure to take each article in succession, and give a critique thereon, but as this is out of the question, we will commence with the fifth, entitled “ The harmonies of the written and the unwritten revelations of truth,” by the Rev. J. H. Rigg. We choose this as a fair specimen of the argumentative essays, as shewing the depth of reasoning they contain, and being written for the people presupposes an advance in the intelligence of the general public greater than we should have thought it had made in the eighteen years that have passed since we left homo. The essay in question is one of a series, and, therefore, (to us) lacks the completeness it would have if we had read those that preceded it; at the same time it must be admitted that it commences this particular branch of the subject at its beginning, in these words:— “ If God has given some revelation of himself to the reason and consciences of men, both as apprehended in His Works and also in His providential government, i.e., both as Creator and as Moral Rider j and if, besides, He has since the days of Moses, ‘at sundry times and in divrs manners, revealed His will and councils in His written word; may He not also have made Himself known to the positive apprehension and the worship of mankind, in some effective mode of illumination, prior to the earliest of the revelations contained in the sacred Scriptures? Was there no revelation—unwritten, indeed, but not the less real oy which the Supreme Being was discovered to the apprehensions of men, for example, the great early patriarchs, even before He spake to Abraham, and apart from the positive discoveries of Himsslf which are handed down to us in Script ure ? ”

There are some whose belief in the affirmative answer to the above question amounts to a certainty, and who have no difficulty in proving from the Woid itself, that snch a revelation did exist in the time of the most ancient people, who had an innate perception of Divine Truth. The law being written on their hearts, and that later than this there was another written revelation, but which (although often quoted in that we now have) was withdrawn as unsuited to the men of succeeding ages, this course of argument is not taken by the writer, but ho argues:—lst. Mon were in possession of a body of truth anterior to, and apart from, the Mosaic revelation. Abraham himself having knowledge of a Creator and Moral Governor. Melchizedec, apart from it, was high priest of the Most High God. 2nd. The Scripture itself presupposes the existence of such knowledge, and does not set forth an j theological system or method of worship, barely alluding to the future world and state. The knowledge of these things is taken for granted, and its primary subject is the revelation of salvation, which is the soul alike of history, prophecy, psalm, and doctrine.

This being proved, the writer proceeds to show that our written Word is the sequel and complement of that primeval reTelation, given to man, just as the other was melting rapidly away under the influence of mythical invention and priestly corruption, that while harmonising with the other it revealed what without it must be unknown to man, the primary and central truth of God as the Saviofe. “ God as Creator is revealed in his works—as Providential Ruler in the primitive revelation, and through man’s conscience—but as the Saviour exclusively in the Scriptures.” We wish we could transfer more of this valuable paper to our columns, but the above must suffice, although insufficient to convey an adequate idea of its character.