Chapter XV - Duty learned from two sources
In this discussion we learn our duty
from two sources. Two authorities are recognized.
One is the revelation of God in his written Word.
The other is the book of nature; this includes the
ethical nature of man, his social relations, and the
laws that govern material things.
The author of the Bible is the God
of nature. They are but two volumes from the
same mind and hand. They must speak in harmony
when both are understood. Truth found in the
inspired Word cannot be contradicted in nature; and
no facts in the works of God can be found in conflict
with the Word He has spoken. A truth found in
either is always consistent with the truths made plain
in the other.
Familiarity with one prepares us to
better understand the other. The devout student
of the Word has his mind aroused, and his susceptibility
so quickened that he is able to read more clearly the
lessons in the volumes of nature open before him.
The student of nature, who has searched its mysteries
and taken in its beauty and designs of infinite wisdom
everywhere appearing, must be the more ready and competent
to appreciate the revealed love and grace.
The Bible is not a treatise on natural
science, nor does natural science teach revealed religion,
yet they do not conflict. The special student
of either may have perfect confidence that whatever
he has found true in his chosen field will be found
consistent with truth in other fields of special study.
Chemistry, biology and all studies
of nature, are found only to give a higher conception
of the God of all grace. The same wisdom and power
shine out in His works that are revealed in His Word.
Again, the laws of God, whether fixed
in nature or revealed in His Word, are for the highest
interest of the physical, mental and spiritual man.
Every truth in the Word works for the welfare of man’s
body and soul. The laws of nature, physical and
psychological, obeyed, promote man’s bodily
and mental vigor. Strict obedience to the laws
of God, as revealed in both Word and nature, produces
the completest physical and mental manhood.
God had the highest welfare of every
man at heart when He prepared the earth for his abode
and gave him dominion over it. And He yearned
for his deliverance from a fallen estate when He gave
him a revelation of His infinite redeeming love.
The eye of God is upon each individual of the race,
as upon every sparrow. He has in thought, in word
and in works, not the favoring of one of an hundred,
while the ninety and nine are crushed or neglected,
but the happiness and highest good of every one of
the hundred.
The ethics of the Bible and the ethics
of nature, as wrought out by the earnest heathen philosophers,
mainly agree. It is an astonishment to some that
there is so much agreement in the systems of heathen
morals and the revealed moral law. The moral law
is written on men’s hearts, and can be read
there by the diligent and careful student; but the
consciences of men, enlightened and quickened by the
revealed Word, produce the highest ethical types the
world knows.
The Bible is not a work on political
economy, yet there is nothing out of harmony with
the most perfect political institutions. When
we find political principles clearly revealed, we
shall find the same truths when we study the most
orderly relations of men in their social organization.
The Bible is not a work on economics,
yet it advances no economic principles that work a
hardness or injustice to any. When we find economic
principles clearly stated, we shall surely find the
same truths confirmed in a careful study of the nature
of things.
As the written Word forbids usury
or interest, it can be presumed that the nature of
things and man’s highest good also forbids it;
that it is not an arbitrary prohibition, but is given
in love because it is in its very nature a ruinous
evil. As we find a positive prohibition of taking
usury or interest in the old dispensation and the confirmation
of it in the new, both by the words of the Master and
the understanding and practice of the disciples and
fathers, we may confidently expect that it will be
confirmed by a correct and careful study of ethics
and of the relation of man to things.
We may learn duty from either or both
sources. To some men the Bible comes with the
greatest clearness and the utmost force of authority.
Others find in nature their highest conception of the
Infinite, and their best directions for a correct
life. If usury or interest is found to be a sin
from the Word, there is no need for those to enter
into the economic proof who have no taste for this
character of study or reasoning. If it is found
to be “malum per se” from the nature
of things, even those who reject the divine revelation
must array themselves against it. If it is shown
to be evil by both revelation and economic law, then
all peoples, Christian and heathen, should combine
against it.