THE mistake that men make in thinking that the other sciences are not to be found in the Bible, is second only to the mistake that they make in thinking that the Bible itself is not scientific, and that Salvation is not science.
God is the Author of all true science, and to all who will have God for their teacher He will give knowledge of the other sciences as well as of the science of Salvation. He has done this before, and the fact is recorded that all may know that he will do it always for all who will have him for their teacher.
Solomon was but a youth—about eighteen—when he became king of Israel. Yet with God for his teacher, in a short time he became the greatest scientist that ever lived either in ancient or in modern times.
He knew thoroughly the whole range of Botany “from the cedar that is in Lebanon to thy hyssop that springeth out of the wall.” HE knew just as thoroughly, zoölogy and ornithology and entomology and ichthyology. For he spoke not only of trees from the mighty cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop, but “also of beasts, and birds, and creeping things, and fishes.”
Solomon was better acquainted with all these sciences together than any other man has ever been acquainted with any one of them. Yet this was not the complete range of his scientific attainments: for he was just as well acquainted with meteorology and others as with any of the ones named. Nor did he hold this knowledge in any exclusive spirit. He taught it freely to the people: and to all people, too, for they came to him from all nations to hear his instruction in science and philosophy. Thus a thousand years before Christ, hundreds of years before the so-called and boasted wise men of Greece had ever breathed, there was in Israel an understanding of science that has never been attained in any nation since.
Nor did this knowledge pass away with Solomon. Four hundred years afterward, when the first captives were taken from Jerusalem to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had a selection made of certain youth from among the Jews to be taught in the learning of the Chaldeans. These youth were selected upon both their mental and physical standing. They were chosen by a strict examination. The requirements, in the examination which they must pass, were that they should have “no blemish” but should be “well favored, and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them.”
It is well known that at that time Babylon itself stood high in scientific attainment; and was qualified to conduct an examination in science. And it is a fact that there were found even among the youth of the Jews those who were able successfully to pass such an examination. The fact that the Jewish youth understood these things, demonstrates that the sciences were understood and taught in Israel: and shows that the scientific instruction established by Solomon had remained among the people of Israel and was still taught in their families and in their schools.
Among these Jewish youth selected to be taught in the Chaldean learning, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel was about eighteen. At Babylon they were put under the Chaldean instructors to be taught. They remained in the Chaldean school three years. At the end of that time there was an examination held. The result was that of all who were in school, none were found as learned as these four youth.
Nor was it only the other students in the school that were surpassed in knowledge by these four. They outstripped all the men in the empire. For “in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.”
No man can teach what he does not know. No man can teach ten times more than he knows. This testimony therefore shows that Daniel and his three brethren knew ten times more than did the men who were over them as instructors. It must be borne in mind that Babylon is held even at this day, to have been then well versed in a number of the recognized sciences. All these things were certainly taught in that school where were these four young Jews. Yet when examination came these four were found to be ten times better versed in all these things than were all the professed wise men in all the realm, and that is certainly ten times better than were their own Chaldean teachers.
Well then, since no man can teach ten times more than he knows or understands, the question is, How did these youth learn what the examination demonstrated that they knew? Whence came to them this knowledge that was so far beyond that of all the wise ones of Babylon, including their own teachers?—Here is the answer: “As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.”
God was their teacher. This is why they learned so much more than all the teachers knew who were placed over them as instructors. God was Solomon’s teacher, and this is why he too had understanding in philosophy and science beyond all that the rest of the world knew or that it has ever known since. These examples are sufficient to make it plain that God is a capable instructor in the recognized sciences as well as in religion. Yea, more than this: these examples make it perfectly plain that God is a better teacher in all true philosophy and in all true science, than is any man or all men together. This idea that true science can be taught without God, or that heathen infidels and atheists are better able to discover it than God is to teach it, is a most pernicious error.
These examples are given in Holy Writ to teach all men that God is as ready and willing to be their teacher in all these things as he was to be the teacher of Solomon and the four brethren in Babylon. God will teach people to-day as truly and as fully as he did those in that day. All that is needed is the faith and devotion in people to-day, such as was in those of that time. There is no respect of persons with God. God favored Solomon and Daniel and his brethren, no more than he is ready to favor every soul every day. Let men, youth and children, to-day choose God for their teacher in all things, as did Solomon and the four in Babylon, and they will find him to be to-day the all-efficient teacher that he was then in all philosophy and all science—we say not “as well as in religion,” because the religion, the Salvation of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, is both philosophy and science.
But people do not believe, even many professed Christians do not believe, that the religion of Christ is philosophy; they do not believe that the Salvation of God is science. They do not believe that even the recognized sciences are known to the Lord or that, if known to him, he cares to teach anything concerning them. They do not believe that the Bible is science, nor do they believe that the Bible knows anything of the recognized sciences. They do not believe that God will teach these things to men. Therefore they go to the heathen, to infidels and atheists, to learn all that and think that such men are wondrous wise, and that they themselves are wise, in [515] following the “science” of such teachers, that is without God, that leads away from God and from faith in his word, his wisdom and his power.
A good illustration of this is found in the fact that Harper’s “Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates,” the standard work on the dates of important events, says that the sun dial was invented by Anaximander, who lived about 530 B.C., when there stands in the Bible that is in everybody’s house the plain circumstantial mention of “the sun dial of Ahaz” which shows that the sun dial was in use in Jerusalem two hundred years before Anaximander ever breathed. Thus it is expected that the people shall give to Anaximander credit for the invention of a thing that the Bible shows was in daily use two hundred years before he lived. If that was indeed a thing so new in Greece that Anaximander could claim it as an original invention, then the belated science of the Greeks may sincerely be deplored. But as for us we must be pardoned for not believing that Anaximander was the original inventor of a thing that we know was in use two hundred years before he was born. There are in the Bible more interesting facts and truths than many people think.
Oh that those who profess to believe the Lord would believe him indeed! Oh that they would believe that he is what he is! Oh that with a whole heart they would choose him, for all that he is to the children of men, that they might find him to be the great, wise, and blessed teacher that he is to all who will choose him for their teacher in all things. “Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?”