612
INCORRUPTION
INSPIRATION AND REVELATION
for fso RVm, more accurate than with, RV] the prayers of the saints. Some interpreters think that the incense added by the angel is here sup- posed to give some kind of efficacy to the prayers ; but, while interceding angels and archangels appear in the Book of Enoch (ix. 3-11, xv. 2, xl. 7, xl"\ni. 2, civ. 1), the thought in Rev. is probably no more than that the prayers of earth are ratified in heaven. The prophet's symbohsm indicates that the saints are pra^dng for things agreeable to God's \\ill, so that their petitions cannot fail to be granted. James Strahan.
INCORRUPTION.— See Uncorrttptness.
**INSPIRATION AND REVELATION.— Definition of terms. — Revelation is the 'discovery' or 'dis- closure' (a.woKa\v\pLs) of God {i.e. of the being and character of God) to man. Inspiration is the mode, or one of the modes, by which this discovery or disclosure is made ; it is the process by which certain select persons were enabled, through the medium of speech or of wi'iting, to convey special information about God to their feUows.
It wiU be obvious that the two terms must be closely related. To a large extent the}^ are strictly correlative. Revelation is in large part the direct product of inspiration. The select persons of whom we have spoken imparted revelation about God because they were inspired to impart it. So far as revelation has been convej^ed by speech or writing we call the process inspiration ; we say that holy men of old spoke and WTote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 P l^i). What is meant by this we shall explain later.
A. ^£ TELA rjo.V.— Revelation is the wider term. There is such a thing as revelation by facts, as well as by words. And revelation by facts is again of two kinds : there is the broad revelation of God in Nature; and there is also a special revelation of God in history.
1. Revelation by facts. — [a) Revelation of God in Naticre. — The Jew under the OT rose up from the contemplation of Nature with an intense belief in Di%ane Providence. For him the heavens de- clared the glory of God, and the firmament showed His handiwork. The sight of the heavens brought home to him the contrast between the majesty of God and the littleness of man. The phenomena of storm and tempest heightened his sense of Divine power and of the goodness which intervened for his own protection. The beneficent ordering of Nature turned his thoughts to thankfulness and praise (Ps 65 104). The tendency of the Hebrew mind was towards optimism. His rehgious faith was so strong that the darker side of Nature did not trouble him ; its destructive energies only filled him with awe, or else he regarded them as directed against his owa. enemies and God's. The questions that perplexed him most arose not so much from Nature as from the observation of human fife.
The most pressing problem of aU was the suffer- ings of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked. To this problem are devoted several Psalms and the whole Book of Job. But, how- ever urgent the problem might be and however imperfect the solution, it never shook the deep- rooted faith that was Israel's greatest heritage. The same may be said even of the complicated questions which exercise the author of Ecclesiastes — a late and comparatively isolated phenomenon.
ih) Revelation of God in history. — The truth which Israel grasped with the greatest tenacity was the intimacy of its o\s'n relation to God as the Chosen People. Not all the shocks which it en- dured in its political career, tossed to and fro as a shuttlecock between its more powerful neighbours, could weaken its hold on this. It idealized its
•* Copyright, 1916, bu Charles Scrihner's Sona.
history — emphasized its dehverances, dwelt on its few moments of comparative greatness and pros- perity, and explained its own dechne as due to its faithlessness and disobedience. It saw the hand of God throughout, even through suffering and failure, guiding it in unexpected ways towards the better fulfilment of its mission. The nation became a Church ; and even in exile and dispersion Israel still bore witness to its God. Then, on the top of all this, comes Christianity. Another apparently insignificant series of facts — the Life and Death of One who lived as a peasant in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire — is followed by enormous con- sequences. A wave of rehgious enthusiasm passed over an exhausted world, and its veins were filled with new Life which has lasted down to the present day.
2. Revelation in word. — Ideally speaking, it might be supposed that the historical panorama roughly sketched above would impress itself on the mind of all observers ; that, so far as it con- tained a revelation of God, that revelation would be intuitively apprehended. But to expect this would have been to expect too much, especially when we think of the poor and low beginnings from which the human race has gradually risen. It has alwa3's needed leaders and teachers. Large and penetrating views, such as those involved in the process we have been describing, have always belonged to the few rather than to the many, and have been mediated to the many through the few. In this way it will be seen that revelation by facts has had to be supplemented bj' revelation convej^ed in words. The facts have been there all the time ; but, apart from Divine stimulus and guidance, working upon minds sensitive to them, the great mass of mankind would have allowed them to pass unheeded. The pressure of mere physical needs is so great that ordinary humanity would be apt to be absorbed in them, if it were not for the influence of a select few more highly endowed than the rest. But these select few have never been wanting — not in Israel alone but in every race of men, and conspicuously in those races that we call the 'higher.' The Di\nne edtication of mankind has alwaj's worked in this way — by an infinite number of graduated steps, leading men onwards from one trtith to another, from truths that are simi)le and partial and rude in expression to other truths that are more complex and more comprehensive, more nicely adjusted to the facts which they embrace.