The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 117

INSPIRATION

-jy

by the preservation of the verbal tradition by the Holy Spirit. This is evident from the narrative of the Creation. Noted physicists like Agassiz, Dana, Guyot, and others have openly ceded, however,

declared that the narrative of the Creation recorded turies ago

what so

the present time

far

is

Hence the narrative

no

man

could

know

of himself,

many

cen-

and what

at

only partly revealed by the study of geology. of the Creation is not

viytJi,

but

history.

The

events took place as recorded in the opening chapters of Genesis.

The Creator Himself must have communicated them to man. From Adam to the time when writing was invented the remembrance of this communication must have been preserved correctly.

That there are two narratives of the Creation proves nothing to the contrary. Creation is considered from the natural and from the spiritual points of view hence it is perfectly proper that the image of Creation should be completed in a twofold sketch. If Adam did not receive the special charge, yet from the revelation itself he obtained the powerful impression that such information was not designed for himself alone, but for all men. Realizing its importance and the obligation it imposed, succeeding generations have perpetuated the remembrance of God's wonderful words and In this way there graddeeds, first orally, afterward by writing. ually arose a collection of documents which through Egyptian influence were put in book form by the great men of Israel. These documents being collected, sifted, compiled, and expanded by Moses, formed in his day the beginning of a Holy Scripture prop;

erly so called.

Whether Moses and those

were conscious of their Holy Spirit directed them, brought to their knowledge what they were to know, sharpened their judgment in the choice of documents and records, so that they should decide aright, and gave them a superior maturity of mind that enabled them always to choose the right word. Altho the Holy Spirit spoke directly to men, human speech and language being no human inventions, yet in writing He employed human agencies. But whether He dictates directly, as in the earlier writers

inspiration is immaterial; the

Revelation of

St.

John, or governs the writing indirectly, as with

historians and evangelists, the result is the

same

:

the product is

such in form and content as the Holy Spirit designed, an infallible

document for the Church Hence the confession

of God. of inspiration does not exclude ordinary

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