[182] Isaiah x. 15; xi. 1; Zeph. iii. 12. [183] Hosea xi. 1. [184] Amos ix. 7. [185] Ezekiel xvi. 3. [186] It is interesting to note that, according to the record preserved by Israel of their own history, that which Kuenen says of later time,--that 'at each turning-point of the history stands a man who claims to bring a word from God.'--is exactly true of the older history too; Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, are all in this sense prophets. Yet there is no appearance of a later age forming a past in its own likeness. The prophets do not imagine an earlier row of prophets like themselves, put in like the portraits of the early Scottish kings at Holyrood, to fill the blanks of history. The early figures are not cut to prophetic pattern; they have each their distinct individuality of character and office, only they have a unity of Divine commission and service. [187] _Pensées_, ii, 7 § 2. [188] S. Matt. xii 45. It should be observed that the words were spoken of 'this wicked generation.' [189] 1 Cor. i. 22. [190] S. John iv. 25. [191] S. Luke xvii. 20. [192] S. Matt. xii. 38; S. John vi. 30, 31, in each case following some of our Lord's own signs. [193] This comes before us vividly in Justin Martyr's account of his own conversion. _Dial. c. Tryph._ 3 ff. 'Thus and for this reason I am a philosopher.' [194] S. Matt. xvi. 16. V. _THE INCARNATION AND DEVELOPMENT._ J. R. ILLINGWORTH. I. The last few years have witnessed the gradual acceptance by Christian thinkers of the great scientific generalization of our age, which is briefly, if somewhat vaguely, described as the Theory of Evolution. History has repeated itself, and another of the 'oppositions of science' to theology has proved upon inquiry to be no opposition at all. Such oppositions and reconciliations are older than Christianity, and are part of what is often called the dialectical movement; the movement, that is to say, by question and answer, out of which all progress comes. But the result of such a process is something more than the mere repetition of a twice-told tale. It is an advance in our theological thinking; a definite increase of insight; a fresh and fuller appreciation of those 'many ways' in which 'God fulfils Himself.' For great scientific discoveries, like the heliocentric astronomy, are not merely new facts to be assimilated; they involve new ways of looking at things. And this has been pre-eminently the case with the law of evolution; which, once observed, has rapidly extended to every department of thought and history, and altered our attitude towards all knowledge. Organisms, nations, languages, institutions, customs, creeds, have all come to be regarded in the light of their development, and we feel that to understand what a thing really is, we must examine how it came to be. Evolution is in the air. It is the category of the age; a 'partus temporis'; a necessary consequence of our wider field of comparison.