icular case cannot be determined within wide limits, so that the
history of Israel will always embody an element of 'mystery' much more
than any other history.

It was not until twenty-five years later that I saw clearly the full
implications of my present views on natural causation. As applied to
this particular case these views show that to a theist, at all events
(i.e. to any one who on independent grounds has accepted the theory of
Theism), it ought not to make much difference to the evidential value of
the Divine Plan of Revelation as exhibited in the Old and New
Testaments, even if it be granted that the whole has been due to
so-called natural causes only. I say, 'not much difference,' for that it
ought to make some difference I do not deny. Take a precisely analogous
case. The theory of evolution by natural causes is often said to make no
logical difference in the evidence of plan or design manifested in
organic nature--it being only a question of _modus operandi_ whether all
pieces of organic machinery were produced suddenly or by degrees; the
evidence of design is equally there in either case. Now I have shown
elsewhere that this is wrong[73]. It may not make much difference to a
man who is already a theist, for then it is but a question of _modus_,
but it makes a great difference to the evidence of Theism.

So it is in evidence of plan in proof of a revelation. If there had been
no alleged revelation up to the present time, and if Christ were now to
appear suddenly in His first advent in all the power and glory which
Christians expect for His second, the proof of His revelation would be
demonstrative. So that, as a mere matter of evidence, a sudden
revelation might be much more convincing than a gradual one. But it
would be quite out of analogy with causation in nature[74]. Besides,
even a gradual revelation might be given easily, which would be of
demonstrative value--as by making prophecies of historical events,
scientific discoveries, &c., so clear as to be unmistakeable. But, as
before shown, a demonstrative revelation has not been made, and there
may well be good reasons why it should not. Now, if there are such
reasons (e.g. our state of probation), we can well see that the gradual
unfolding of a plan of revelation, from earliest dawn of history to the
end of the world ('I speak as a fool') is much preferable to a sudden
manifestation sufficiently late in the world's history to be
historically attested