There is thus a natural transition from revela- tion by fact to revelation by word. The fact comes first ; it is there, so that all who run may read. But it is not read, because it is not understood ; it is a bare fact ; it needs an interpreter. And the interpretation is supphed by the inspired man who sijeaks and wTites, who seizes on the secret and then pubhshes it to the world.
3. Apostolic treatment of these matters. — This, then, is substantially what we find in the OT, and in the Jewish writings Avhich follow upon the OT. The prophets and psalmists and wise men lead the way in expressing the feelings aroused by the con- templation of God in Nature and in history. Such Scriptures as Ps 19^"® 65 104, Is 40^-'^^ are spontane- ous outbursts excited by the external world ; such passages as Job 38 39 (cf. 2 Mac 9^) enforce the lesson of Ps 8'^f- ; Ps TT'i-^" 105 106, Hab 3 are tvi)ical retrospects of the hand of God in Israel's history ; Pr S'^'-^S Job 28, Sir 24, Wis 7 8 are equally typical examples of the praise of Divine ^^'isdom as expressed in creation and in the order- ing of human life.
All this the apostolic writers inherited, and they go a step further in philosophizing upon it. They not only give expression to the feelings which the contemplation of the works of God excites in them.
INSPIRATION AND REVELATION
INSPIRATION AND RE\T:LATI0N 613
but they distinctly recognize the different forms of external revelation as parts of the method of Divine Providence in dealing with men. The most instruc- tive passages from this point of view are to be found in the speeches of Acts, both in those ad- dressed to heathen (as in Ac 14^-'-^'' 17"'^^) and in those addressed to Jews (as in Ac 7 13^®-*^). We need not enter into the question how far these speeches represent what was actually spoken on the occasions referred to, and how far they embody what the historian thought appropriate to those occasions. A comparison of the speeches attri- buted to St. Paul with the contents of the Pauhne Epistles would suggest that, however much the shaping of the discourse may be due to the his- torian, he probably had before him some authentic notes or traditions of the discourses actually de- livered {d.JThStxi. [1910] 171-173). In any case, the views expressed seem to have been practically common to all the leaders of Christian thought. We may, therefore, proceed to set them forth with- out discriminating between different circles. At the same time the major part of the extant evidence is derived (mediately orjimmediately) from St. Paul, (a) Of the revelation of God in Nature. — It is to be noted that, although St. Paul shared to the full his countrymen's horror of idolatry — both as inherently wrong in itself and because of its cor- rupting influences — he nevertheless clearly recog- nized the elements of good in heathen rehgions, and regarded them as having a place in the wider order of Divine Providence. The heathen, too — with God's revelation of Himself in Nature before them — had ample opportunities of knowing God, and it was only by their own deliberate fault that thev suppressed and ignored this knowledge (Ro
118-21).
And yet all was not lost. God had implanted in the human breast the desire for Himself ; men were seeking Him, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him ; even pagan poets had reahzed that mankind was His offspring (Ac 17^'"^*). He took care that they should not be left without witness to His goodness, in that He gave them from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness (14^^).
We observe how the Apostle singles out at once the best and the most prominent side of pagan religion, making abstraction of its worst features. The most urgent of human needs was that the earth should bring forth fruits in their seasons. Men were conscious of this, and they were really thankful for the bounty of Nature. At the bottom of most of the pagan cults that prevailed over the East — as, for instance, in the wide-spread worship under the names of Osiris, Adonis, Attis — was the celebration of seed-time and harvest. WTiat there was of e\'il mixed up with such worship was a pro- duct of the root of evil in the human heart, and was capable of being eliminated without loss to the fundamental idea.
The revelation of God in Nature was thus not altogether in vain. And there was another form of revelation which came really under this head. There was a certain reflexion of God in the heart of man : His will was made known through the conscience. And here, too, there was many a pagan who, though without the privileges which the Jew enjoj^ed through the possession of a written law, faithfully observed such inner law as he had. St. Paul fully recognized this, and used it as an a fortiori argument addressed to his o^^-n Je^-ish converts, and to those whom he desired to make his converts.
Another point that may be worth noting is that, when St. Paul appeals to the revelation of God in Nature, he singles out in particular those attri- butes of God as revealed which the impression