ANCIENT Athenian architecture, which to this day commands worldwide admiration, owes its popularity, among other things, to the skillful way in which optical illusions have been overcome by what, from a mathematical point of view, would be regarded as distortions.
An abstract examination of the individual parts would reveal some curious features, which, without reference to the design as a whole, would be inexplicable.
The aim in view was the construction of an object of beauty, not the demonstration of a scientific problem, and the parts were often so constructed to perfect the view from a particular station point. The end was attained, seeing there were no distracting elements in the effect produced to mar the harmony.
Mathematics were but an handmaid, not the end and aim in view.
A hasty mind confronted with an isolated portion of such a structure would have accepted it as food for criticism; but men are wiser in matters temporal than spiritual. The structure bore testimony to the profound skill of the architect. Surely, therefore, it was well thought, “there must be design in all these apparent irregularities.” Thus by careful study a door was unlocked, which might have been for ever closed to carping criticism.
We might take a lesson from this when difficulties in connection with the Scriptures occur, or are presented to us. People presume to judge the Scriptures, and choose what parts they are prepared to accept as having divine authority, or even wholly to reject them as not answering to their ideas.
The design and structure are so vast that men are apt to forget them altogether, and content themselves with contemplating a fragment which comes within the range of their vision. They would measure the Book of Joshua by their scientific theories of the sun, forgetting that, even were modern theories indisputable, the expression of them in former ages would have been a distraction from the object in view. God cannot adjust His revelation, which is for all time, to suit the particular fashion of nineteenth century thought to which any individual is pledged. His revelation stands unmoved and unchanged amid the ever-varying and ceaseless surge of centuries of human thought―a beacon to light each wayfaring mariner who heeds its ways―a rock of offence, nevertheless, on which heedless and willfully blind ones will make shipwreck, “rending it to their own destruction.”
We must bear in mind that the divine scheme of the Scriptures, too, has its station point; it is focused in one central object―the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is centered all human and creature blessing. Undoubtedly, difficulties frequently arise to honest minds; but these should be approached with reverence and humility. The fulfilment of the prophetic Word alone entitles them to the former, while the frailty of human opinions, at their best, demands the latter.