The figure of the averted or hidden face (Dt 31", Is 53') that declines to meet the look of supplica- tion, owes its origin to the fact that Orientals are largely swayed by the strongest feeling of the moment, and can be moved from their previous purpose by well directed emotional apjieals. When one man is .seeking to appease or persuade another, it is customary, when the right moment has been reached, to put the hand quietly and tentatively under the chin, and thus turn the face so that eye may meet eye, and more kindly feelings prevail. Not to see the face at all is to intercept such emo- tional persuasion of prostration, pleading, and tears, and means that all hope must be abandoned. G. M. Mackie.
FACT AND THEORY.- Christianity is a religion which comes to man from God. It has to do \v\t\\ man's relation to God, and with God's will for man. Any knowledge, therefore, of the nature of Christi- anity depends upon revelation. This would still 1)6 true apart from the fact of sin and the fact that Christianity is a religion of rc(lcin]ition. For God is a personal Spirit ; ami tin- only way liy \\ Iiicli we can know even the linitc |..i-,,ii :ili,,ui ,, j, through their revealin;.' tlii-in-i-h .■- i.. u-. Wli.n. further, we bear in mind thi; tnilli that (lod i- ;iii infinite Spirit, and that wc men arc finite, it at
once becomes obvious that all knowledge of God ii* well as of His plan or purpose must rest upon a revelation by God. This revelation may be general. Thus the creation of the Universe and of man, with God's image in his heart and able to see God in the work of His hands, is to be regarded as an act of self -revelation ou the jiart of God. But sin is a reality in this universe, and the noetic effects of sin have rendered neces.sary a special revelation of the holy God to sinful man. Sin has not only made man blind to spiritual realities, it has dis- torted the purity of the Divine image in man's heart and in nature. Accordingly special revela- tion must be external, consisting in supernatural acts of God to restore the image of God, and must also consist in a supernatural word-revelation or communication of knowledge to explain the mean- ing of these acts. Special revelation, then, being soteriological, accompanies the redemptive activity of God. This Divine redemptive activity is his- torical, and has entered this world of time and space. This was necessary, because ^iii, the elicits of which the redemptive activity was to counterait, is a historical force at work in the w orld. Since, therefore, special revelation accompanies God's redemptive acts, it too is historical, taking place under the category of time. Hence we have, first of all, God's redeeming acts, culminating in the Incarnation, Death, and Kesurrection of Jesus Christ. These redemptive acts are also revealing acts. Thus God's Son came into this world in the flesh in order to save sinners, as St. Paul tells us (1 Ti 1"). But His incarnation is also a revelation ol God, as we learn from the prologue to St. John's Gospel. But we have also a word-revelation accompanying the Divine redemptive facts or acts, and giving us their meaning. Indeed, that which rendered necessary the fact-revelation, viz. the noetic effects of sin, also makes necessary an authoritative word-revelation to explain to us the meaning of those acts. Christianity, therefore, consists in facts which have a meaning, or in the meaning of the facts, whichever way we choose to put it. Take away either the facts or their authoritative interpretation, and we have no Chris- tianitj' left. The mere external facts apart from their meaning are, of course, meaningless, and therefore do not constitute Christianity ; while the abandonment of the facts no le.ss destroys the Christian religion, reducing it to a mere natural religion, or religious philosophy. Neither can the abandonment of the facts be justified because of the co-ordination of revelation and redemption, and of the historical character of the latter, to whirh ANc have alrca.ly alluded.
This i- llir c unrij.ti.Mi of revelation which the Scriiitnir V litris tlic'i.is,.|ves give us. They claim that they were spukcn to by God, and not merely that they had their religious intuition aroused by the facts of God's revelation. Hence their inter- pretation of the meaning of the great facts of Christianity, according to their own account of the matter, is not mere human reflexion upon the facts. If, therefore, we reject their interpretation of the facts as itself immediately from God, and therefore authoritative, we shall not be able to trust them for the occunence of the supernatural facts, and shall be driven logically to deny the immediacjr and supernatural character of^ the Di^^ne activity in the facts themselves. The mean- ing of the term ' revelation ' will have been changed. It will no longer signify the comnmnieation of truth by God's acts and w onl's," it will <lesign.ate .a i)roduct
• 111 ^jMiikitiL' ol \sortl-revelatiori, we are not confounding II K..|:,ii,,ii ;uiil in^pinttion ; the former denotini; the Divine -iij'enifitural (oiumunication of truth to the Scripture writer, th'' latter the l)i\iiie influence accompanying its record. The term 'word-revelation' is meant to denote especially the com-
FACT AND THEOEY