ght of history, was the
contribution of Israel to the development of the human race. "Israel,"
says G. W. Jordan,[33] "is comparatively young, politically it is
provincial, socially it is not brilliant, in the realm of science it is
narrow and dependent; yet when we lay stress on these limitations we
only cause the peculiar glory of this nation's life to stand out more
clearly; it has its own individuality; its real leaders are men of
genius, their ambition is to speak in the name of the eternal king;
they {61} hear the divine message and claim for it the supreme
significance." This is the judgment of a Bible student. The same
truth is expressed in the words of one who approaches the Bible from
the viewpoint of the scientist, namely, the eminent Italian astronomer,
Schiaparelli[34]: "Their [the Hebrews] natural gifts, as well as the
course of events, carried them to a different mission [from that of
Greece and Rome] of no smaller importance--that of purifying the
religious sentiment and of preparing the way for monotheism. Of this
way they mark the first clear traces. In the laborious accomplishment
of this great task Israel lived, suffered, and completely exhausted
itself. Israel's history, legislation, and literature were essentially
coordinated toward this end; science and art were for Israel of
secondary importance. No wonder, therefore, that the steps of the
Jews' advance in the field of scientific conceptions and speculations
were small and feeble; no wonder that in such respects they were easily
vanquished by their neighbors on the Nile and the Euphrates."

In conclusion: Permanent harmony between science and the Bible will be
secured when each is assigned to its legitimate sphere. Science has a
right to ask that, if men are seeking purely scientific information,
they should turn to recent text-books in geology, astronomy, or the
other {62} sciences. But in the sphere to which Jesus and the New
Testament writers assigned the Old Testament science cannot deny or
seriously question its inspiration or permanent value. Unprejudiced
science has never done this. It is perfectly ready to recognize the
inestimable religious and ethical value of even those Old Testament
narratives which refer to scientific facts, not because of their
scientific teaching, but because of the presence of eternal truth in
the crude form of primitive science. Fair-minded scientists readily
admit that if anyone wishes to know what c