YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRAEY

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

H.A. KtL'.^'. M u

CHRIST -
AND THE

SCRIPTURES.

ADOLPH SAPHIR.

y

REVISED AMERICAN EDITION.

FRANCIS E. FITCH, Publisher,
47 Broad Street, New York, N. Y.

Paper, asc; Cloth, 40c.

PREFACE

The author of "Christ and the Scriptures" was one of the
most eminent Hebrew Christians of the nineteenth century.
The family from which he came is very well known and
highly respected by the Jews. His home was Hun
gary. One of his uncles was the famous German poet,
M. Saphir. The Saphir family, father, mother, daughters,
and young Adolph, .heard the Gospel through the mis
sion in Pesth established by the Church of Scotland, and
the whole family, after having believed, were baptized in
1843. It would lead us too far to follow young Adolph
Saphir throughout his useful career. Educated in Berlin,
he soon came to Scotland and was sent from there to preach
the Gospel to the Jews in Hamburg. He felt the great
necessity of circulating, among the Jews, literature, tracts
and books, a number of which were written and printed by
him, but the committee having charge of the work did not
approve of this method and he resigned. Returning to
Glasgowj he preached to the German people there and after-

4 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
wards preached the Gospel and taught the Word through
out England. He has generally been described as "an elo
quent man, and mighty in the Scriptures." This certainly is
an excellent description of what he was through the grace
of God. We quote the following from his biography:*
"He seemed to combine the gentleness and simplicity of
a child with the firm grasp of a strong man, when he dealt
with Holy Scripture. No halting or hesitating utterance
could be detected in his voice or manner, as he dwelt upon
the deep things of God, and lucidly spread out before a
hushed audience the magnificent truths concerning Jesus
Christ and God's way of salvation. There was none of the
obscurity which sometimes passes for profundity in his
preaching; very young listeners understood his meaning;
experienced believers were enriched by his discourse; anx
ious souls were comforted ; doubting opes found deliverance.
After enjoying the privilege of sitting at the feet of this
master in Israel for a season, other ministrations seemed
meagre, colorless, weak. He knew and handled Old Testa
ment Scripture as perhaps only a son of Abraham could.
Moses and the Psalmists and the Prophets were his familiar
friends and intimates ; and he clearly perceived that ignor-

*Memoirs of Adolph Saphir by Dr. Carlyle. This excellent volume
contains also many of his best sayings, expositions of Scriptures,
addresses and sermons. The volume has 475 pages. The edition is
nearly exhausted. Price $2. Can be ordered from the publisher.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 5
ance and neglect of the prophetic Word can well account
both for the hoUowness and declension in doctrine which
characterize these last days.
"Like his great countryman Paul, whom he resembled in
the weakness of his body as well as in spiritual insight and
might, he shunned not to declare to his hearers "the whole
counsel of -God," and his faithfulness found a reward even
here in a large circle of attached and appreciative Christian
friends from every Evangelical branch of the Church. He
is one of the examples in this age, of what will happen in the
next, when fully persuaded Jews will carry the Gospel into
all the world with a persuasiveness which no unbelief will be
able to withstand."
The last thought is significant. We felt the same when
some six years ago we spent a few days in KishnieiT, Bessa
rabia, with that other prominent Hebrew Christian, Joseph
Rabinowitch, now also with the Lord. Is it not highly
significant that towards the close of the nineteenth century
such men from the Jews, saved by grace, were raised up?
"Christ and the Scriptures" is undoubtedly the most able
and useful work Saphir wrote. It has been circulated in
England in large editions, but is comparatively little known
in America. We felt after having read it in the past that
it is one of the books which we would like to send forth and
scatter all over this land and place it in the hands of every
preacher of the Gospel. It is the strongest bpok on the

b CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
divinity and infallibiHty of the Bible we know. Oh, how
much it is needed these days! We are glad to be able to
republish the small volume. May our Lord make it a bless
ing to many. A. C. Gaebelein.
80 Second Street, New York City.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
By Adolph Saphir.

CHAPTER I.
THE BOOK AND THE PERSON.
"In the volume of the Book it is written of Me." Martin
Luther asks, "What Book and what Person?" "There is
only one Book," is his reply — "Scripture; and only one
Person — Jesus Christ."
There subsists an essential and vital connection between
the eternal Word of God, who in the fullness of time was
made flesh and dwelt among us, revealing the Father and
bringing salvation, even eternal life, to the sinful children
of men, and that written Word which testifies of Him, of His
person and work, of His sufferings and glory. It is im
possible for us to understand the nature of Scripture unless
we view it in relation to the Son of God, the Messiah of
Israel, the Redeemer of God's people; for He is the center
and kernel of the inspired record.
The Book lives amongst us — old, but not antiquated;
venerable on account of its age; powerful in never-faihng
youth and vigor. The echo of David's voice is still heard
in the chambers of meditation and prayer; the counsel of
Solomon's wisdom and experience is still aiding the wan
derer in the complicated paths of life; young Timothy is

8 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
still taught from his very childhood out of these hallowed
pages; the Apostle Paul, according to the wisdom given
unto him, is still unfolding to us the whole counsel of God ;
whilst the beloved disciple, in fulfillment of the Lord's pre
diction, still tarries with us, and lifts us up, as on eagles'
wings, to adore the Eternal Son, and to wait for His return.
The Person, the blessed Jesus, is a living One in the midst
of us. It is a striking peculiarity of our age, that the
attention of thoughtful minds is so pre-eminently fixed on
one point, and this the central one. It is the center of the
world's history, the center of the life of the Church, the
center of all questions which agitate the consciences and
hearts of immortal men, as it is the center of the Divine
counsels. What else can I mean but the history of Jesus
Christ on earth? In no age have there been so many at
tempts to reconstruct, so to speak, the history of
Jesus. In no age has the cry been raised from so many
quarters, "Ecce Homo!" — ^Behold the Man! Is it that
there is a growing consciousness among men that He was
"Wonderful," that never man spake hke Him, and that the
influence He exerted on the world is something that is
mysterious and unique?
Nor need we be astonished at the strange misconceptions
and grievous errors into which men fall, who are trying
to understand Jesus as they understand ' other historical
men. For the name of Jesus is "Pele," Wonderful. His
person, His character. His life, cannot be explained by the
ordinary rules. They refuse to be classified under the
ordinary categories. He is the Great Miracle, the Eternal
in Time, God and Man. He is not even in His humanity
intelligible, except on the territory of revelation, or to speak

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 9
more distinctly, on Jewish ground. From the Jewish Scrip
tures we must learn what is meant by His being the Son of
David and the Son of Abraham; what the words "Son of
Min" imply, and the word "Anointed," "Messiah," of whom
Moses and the prophets spake. For the history of Jesus
does not begin with his birth in Bethlehem. The first verse
of Matthew sums up the Old Testament history; nor can
the sequel of the Gospels, Epistles, and Apocalypse be
understood without it. His goings forth are from old.
He who understands not the election of Abram, the exodus
of Israel, the Angel of Jehovah, the types of the Tabernacle,
the High Priest, and the Sacrifices, the meaiiing of the
shepherd-king, the son of Jesse, and the sure mercies of
David, must find insuperable difficulties in the life of Christ.
All attempts to understand Jesus Christ, separate from the
Old Testament, are most unphilosophical, and can tend
to no satisfactory result. For Jesus Christ is the fulfillment
of Moses and the prophets. He is not the Christ of history,
but of a special history — the divine history of Israel. True,
He is the Light of the World, He is the Desire of all Na
tions, He is the Center and Life of Humanity; but He is
all this because He is the Son of David, the Son of Abra
ham, for salvation is of the Jews. The Gospel narrative
is like a high tableland, but we cannot be spared the ascent
from Genesis to Malachi.
When the beauty of Christ's character, and the simplicity
and depth of his teaching, attract men's minds, they flatter
themselves that Jesus is the efflorescence of humanity, that
history has produced Him, that nature is glorified in Him.
But salvation is of the Lord. Jesus is above all, because
lie is from gbov?. He came in the ful}ness of time,

lO CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
and belonged to Israel ; the God of Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When Jesus quotes the Scriptures, this does not merely
prove to us that He regarded them as authority and truth,
but it reveals to us the organic, vital, and necessary con
nection between the Christ and the Nation; and if there
are any who are not able clearly to understand the mean
ing of His life and the secret of His mission, to whom His
death appears as a mysterious problem, and who walk in
doubt and gloom even now that the Church testifies of
Him continually that He lives above for us, that He lives
on earth in us — in no other way can they be brought into
the clear and full light than as the disciples on their way to
Emmaus. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, the
risen Jesus expounded to them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning Himself.
It appears like reasoning in a circle when we say we
receive the Bible because of Christ, and we receive Christ
through the Bible. But the difficulty disappears when we
view Jesus Christ in connection with the nation of Israel,
and with God's dealings towards them, as recorded in
Scripture; and then we see that there is a nation different
from all nations — the Jews — chosen by God that He may
reveal Himself to and through them; there is a Man dif
ferent from all men, the Lord from heaven, Jesus the Son
of David, the Son of God, Messiah of Israel and Head of
the Church; and there is a Book different from all other
books, the record of God's dealings with Israel, culminat
ing in the manifestation of that Redeemer whose goings
forth are from of old, even from everlasting. The difficulty
disappears when we remember, secondly, that the same

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. II
Spirit of God convinces us of the supremacy of Christ and
of the supremacy of Scripture.
And, accordingly, we find that as the hearts of men are
• attracted by Jesus Christ, as the only Prophet, Priest, and
King, their minds are filled with reverence and love for
the Scripture. The Reformation is based upon the two
principles — Christ only, Christ above all ; and the Scriptures
only, the Bible above all human authority.* Luther found
peace for his troubled conscience in Jesus as the Righteous
ness of God. And because Jesus had become all in all to
him, he laid such stress on the Bible, where he had found
Jesus. It was Jesus who riveted his heart, and it was Jesus
on whose account and in whom he felt, as he expressed it,
wedded to the Bible.
For higher than the Bible is — not reason, not the Church,
not the Christian consciousness, but — the Holy Spirit, who
reveals Christ in the written Word, so that it becomes to
us, what it truly is, the Word of God, the voice of the Be
loved. The relation of Scripture to Jesus — the Messiah of Israel
and Saviour of the World, and to the Holy Spirit, whose
it is to glorify Christ, is the chief subject of the following
pages. And first we inquire. What did Jesus think and
teach concerning the Scriptures — the writings of Moses
and the prophets ?t
*The historical, Jewish, prophetic character of Scripture was not
clearly apprehended by the Reformers.
tThe Scripture — called by Jesus "Moses and the prophets," "the
law and the prophets," "Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms" —
embraced what are commonly called the canonical books of the Old
Testament, concerning whose authority there was no doubt in Israel,

12 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.

CHAPTER II.
JESUS AND THE SCRIPTURES.
I. HIS TEACHING IN GENERAL.
Jesus, in His teaching, constantly alludes to the writings
of Moses and the prophets. He refers to almost every
period of the history recorded in Scripture. He speaks of
the creation of man, the institution of marriage, the death
of Abel, the days of Noe, the destruction of Sodom, the
history of Abraham, the appearance of God in the burning
bush, the manna in the wilderness, the miracle of the
brazen serpent, the wanderings of David, the glory of Solo
mon, the ministry of Elijah and Elisha, the sign of Jonah,
the martyrdom of Zechariah ; events which embrace the
whole range of the Jewish record. And not merely do we
meet with these direct references. The allusions to Scripture
are almost innumerable ; and every careful reader of Christ's
discourses, who possesses a knowledge of the so-called Old
Testament, must feel convinced that Jesus knew the Scrip
ture from a child; and that His mind. His memory. His
imagination, His whole inner man, was filled with the treas
ures of the written Word.
Consider Christ in His relation to the people in general,
and to their teachers and spiritual rulers. In teaching them
and arguing with them, the Lord invariably refers to the
Scriptures as the authority which cannot be gainsayed; the
standard which is infallible, and against which there is no
appeal. He teaches according to Scripture : His doctrine. His
works, His aim. His life, are to fulfil that: which js written.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 1 3
When He entered the synagogue of Nazareth, and the eyes
of all were fixed on Him, He called for the roll of the
prophecy of Isaiah, and in the words of the prophet (Isa.
Ixi.) announced to them the object of His mission as the
Saviour of sinners. "How readest thou? What is written
in the law ?" is His frequent reply to the questions addressed
to Him. He reminds the cities which heard Him, of Tyre
and Sidon and Sodom. He speaks of the sign of Jonah to
the Pharisees who demand a miracle. He explains to the
messengers of John, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, the
works which prove that He is the promised Messiah.
To the Jews who followed Him in the wilderness. He
speaks of the manna ; to Nicodemus, of the brazen serpent ;
and frequently He shows that Moses wrote of Him, and that
the Scripture is the only and all-sufficient message of God;
leaving men without excuse, and proving their unbelief,
which even the apparition of one rising from the dead would
not conquer (Luke xvi). The conduct of the children sing
ing His praise He defends by the words of the eighth
Psalm: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou
hast ordained strength." He proves His Divine dignity by
quoting the Spirit-given words of David, "The Lord said
unto my Lord." When accused by the Jews of blasphemy,
because He made Himself equal with God, He shows from
the expression in the Psalms, "Ye are gods," that He whom
the Father hath sealed was high above those to whom the
Word of God had come ; and He fortifies His argument by
reminding the Jews of what they all admitted, that the
Scripture cannot be broken. Every link of the chain is
perfect ; — not one can be taken away, — even as every one of
them is reliable and solid. When He speaks of His rejection

14 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
and the future of the nation. He views it as the fulfilment of
prophecy, of what is written in the ii8th Psalm about the
stone rejected by the builders, and in Daniel of the stone
which should crush the ungodly. In arguing with the
Sadducees, Christ proves the resurrection by the spiritual
exposition of a single expression which God had used, and
which is recorded iDy the Holy Spirit in the book of Exodus.
And on this occasion He shows the source of error. If we
know not the power of God, and the Scripture, we err.
These two go together. An outward knowledge of the
letter of Scripture without an inward experience of the
power of God, is without avail; the spiritual experience ot
God's power is always accompanied with the knowledge and
love of Scripture.
These direct references to Moses and the prophets — so
numerous, so striking, so solemn, and so comprehensive —
must be taken in connection with the more concealed allus
ions to Scripture thoughts and teaching, with which Christ's
discourses are replete. In His sermon on the mount, in the
discourses recorded in the Gospel of John, in His conversa
tions with His disciples, in the parables, there is scarcely a
thought which is not in some manner connected with the
Scripture. All Christ's thoughts and expressions have been
moulded in that wonderful school of the testimony which
God had given to His chosen people. To mention only one
or two instances : He calls Himself the Bridegroom, and
thus defends the joy of His disciples, who did not fast.
This word "bridegroom" is an epitome of the whole Scrip
ture. The forty-fifth Psalm, the Song of Solomon, Jer. ii.
2, Hosea ii., etc., are all condensed in this one word. In the

Christ and the scriptures. iS
same way how significant the title Jesus gives Himself as
"the Son of Man" (Ezek., Dan., and Ps. viii).
If the sayings of Jesus had been understood in their
scriptural meaning and tone, it would have been impossible
for Socinianism to maintain its ground for a moment; and
in the refutation of this heresy the argument would not have
been limited so much to a few isolated texts. When Jesus
said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink,"
the reference is to Jer. ii. 13, where Jehovah calls Himself
"the fountain of living waters;" and this single word of
Christ manifests Him either as the Lord God or a blas
phemer. When Jesus declares of Himself that He is the
the Light and that He is the Life, He speaks as Jehovah
(Ps. xxxvi. 9), with whom is the fountain of life, and in
whose light we shall see light. His words, "Thy sins are
forgiven thee," are like the words of Jehovah, "I, even I,
am He that blotteth out thy transgressions." When the
Jews ask Jesus who He is, His reply is, "Even He that
speaketh unto you from the beginning ;" as Jehovah had said
in Isaiah, "Therefore my people shall know my name : there
fore they shall know in that day that I am He that doth
speak: behold, it is I" (John xiii. 25 ; Isa. lii. 6). Especially
in the Gospel of John is it remarkable how often Jesus
speaks of Himself as "I," "I am He," "I Am;" the name of
God in Moses and the prophets : even as his "Amen, amen,
I say unto you," refers to the promise in Isa. Ixv. 16 (the
God Amen).
Thus Jesus constantly quoted the Scripture, and con
stantly spoke out of its fulness and in its spirit. And when
the final and decisive question was asked by the high-priest.

l6 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
"I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether
thou be the Christ, the Son of God?" Jesus replies, "Thou
hast said : nevertheless I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see
the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the cioiids of heaven" (Matt. xxvi. 64, Ps. ex., and
Dan. vii. 13, 14). The testimony of Jesus is the word of
prophecy. When He speaketh Scripture, He speak
eth of His own; He revealeth Himself. Before the living
God, His heavenly Father and the God of Israel, before the
high-priest, as the representative of his person and future,
in the words of that Scripture which cannot be broken, be
cause it is inseparably connected with Himself. Remember
how Christ refers to the Scripture before friend and foe,
Pharisees and Sadducees, disciples and people, in the temple
and in the wilderness, from the first day in Nazareth to the
end of His life. Many other references might be added.
But consider Jesus referring to Scripture —
2. IN THE INNER CIRCLE OF HIS DISCIPLES.
We see Him here, as it were, in the bosom of His family.
He had chosen His- disciples out of the world to be His
companions. His witnesses. They are the friends whom
He loves, and to whom, as they were able to bear it, He
desired to reveal all His thoughts. Here we expect to gain
an insight into His true and inmost view of Scripture ; and
here we find the same implicit reverence for the written
Word, and the same faith in its authority, power, and
blessedness. When the disciples asked Him privately, why
He spake to the multitudes in parables. He replied by quot
ing the prophecy of Isaiah (vi. 9), and referred in general

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. I7
to the prophets and righteous men, who desired to hear and
see what it was now the blessedness of His followers to
witness. In like manner, when Jesus sat upon the Mount
of Olives, His disciples came unto Him privately, asking
Him about the end of the age; the Lord in His reply
confirmed the Scripture. He is here speaking as a prophet,
and in this His prophecy He refers His disciples to what was
spoken by Daniel the prophet.*
He likewise refers in the same chapter to Joel, and views the
history of the world in the days of Noah as prophetic of the
future. Especially during the latter part of His life on earth,
when He began to speak to His disciples of His sufferings,
He showed that He was continually bearing in mind what
was written concerning Him, and that He was looking
forward to the fulfilment of the prophetic word. His dis
ciples were not able to understand the mystery of the cross ;
they were not willing to accustom their minds to the idea
of humiliation, suffering, and death. But Jesus refers them
to Scrjpture. "Then He took unto Him the twelve, and
said unto them. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all
things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son
of man shall be accomplished. For He shall be delivered
unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully en
treated, and spitted on; and they shall scourge Him, and
put Him to death: and the third day He shall rise again"
(Luke xviii. 31-33). With desire He desired to eat the

?Daniel is placed by the Jews among the Hagiographa; but Jesus
here refers to him as a prophet. The importance of this single
word "prophet" has been specially noticed in recent criticism.

1 8 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
Passover with His disciples, thus confirming, by His last
solemn act in the circle of His disciples, the record of
Exodus, both in its historical truth and prophetic import.
And here again He refers to the prediction concerning His
betrayal (Matt. xxvi. 21-23; Ps. xli. 9), adding, "The Son
of man goeth as it is written of Him." That He would be
reckoned among the transgressors (Isa. liii. 12), was
another predicted feature of the sufferings of which He
spoke to His apostles (Luke xxii. 37).
When the soldiers came to seize Him, He asked them in
righteous . indignation and calm self-defence, "Are ye come
out, as against a thief, with swords and staves for to take
Me?" "But," He immediately added, "all this was done
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled." And when Peter
drew his sword to defend his Lord, how remarkable is the
Saviour's reply! "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray
to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than
twelve legions of angels ? But how then shall the Scriptures
be fulfilled?" (Matt. xxvi. 51-56.) Scripture must needs
be the perfect and immutable revelation of the inmost
counsel and will of the Lord, to which Jesus, as the right
eous Servant and the obedient Son, implicitly and heartily
submits. If the Jews hate Him without cause, it is as it was writ
ten: "The Son of man goeth as it is written of Him;"
"This that is written must be accomplished in Me." Judas,
who eats bread with Him, betrays Him, and the Scripture
is fulfilled. All His disciples. He foresees, shall forsake
Him, for it is written, "I will smite the Shepherd, and the
sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad."
And after His resurrection, when He appeared not to the

Christ and the sctipfuRES. 10
world, but to His disciples, how striking are His references
to Scripture. According to the words of the twenty-second
Psalm, He speaks now of His brethren (John xx. 17; Ps.
xxii. 22). When He appears to the disciples on their way to
Emmaus, He could have dissipated their doubts and gloom
by announcing that He, the Lord, was before them. A
single word, "Behold, it is 1 1" would have filled them with
assurance and joy. Instead of this, He remains to them a
stranger. Any one who believed Moses and the prophets
had the right to say to them, O fools, and slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets have spoken." And then
He began at Moses, and went through Moses and all the
Scriptures, and unfolded to them the things concerning
Himself. Thus He led them into the infallible Word of
God, which discloses to us the Divine counsel of the suf
ferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, that their
faith might rest on the testimony of God in the written
Word. And during the forty days after His resurrection,
the Lord spake to His disciples of the things pertaining
to the kingdom of God (Acts i. 3), showing that "all things
must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses,
and in the prophets,, and in the Psalms, concerning Me"
(Luke xxiv. 44-48). Jesus opened their understanding,
that they might understand — what? Some new revelation?
Some new disclosure about the unseen world ? Some secret,
esoteric teaching? — ^that they might understand the Scrip
tures, Moses and the prophets. What further testimony
is necessary? How perfect, how precious, how full of
Christ and His future glory, as well as His accomplished
work, must the Jewish Scriptures be! Disciple of Jesus,

20 CHRISt AND THE SCRlPtURfiS.
read these Scriptures, if you are anxious to know Him, and
to have a heart burning within you in love and reverence.
3. Christ's use of scripture for himself in his conflict
and prayer.
We have been in the outer court — Christ's dealings with
the people, Pharisees and Sadducees; we have been in the
sanctuary — Christ among His disciples; we are now enter
ing the holy of hoHes — Christ's own inner life. We have
seen already that Scripture was indeed His delight. His
meditation. His food. "Out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh."
When we read that Jesus increased in wisdom and
stature, and in favor with God and man, we are taught that
the, Saviour, who was true man as well as the eternal Word,
was in this respect also made of a woman, made under the
law; that in His body, soul, and spirit, there were growth,
development, progress. Not merely physical, but mental
and moral development is spoken of ; and it is not impossible
for us to conceive of this, while we hold fast the sinless
character of Jesus. The Lord became in everything like
unto us, sin excepted. He was the Son of man, and the
true Israelite. Doubtless the Scripture was taught Him by
Mary, who, as we know from her song of praise, possessed
so spiritual an insight into the Word, and by Joseph, who
was a righteous man, walking in the ordinances of the
Lord blameless. The Law and the Prophets were repre
sented in this wonderful household by Joseph and by Mary,
and the child Jesus was, according to God's commandment.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 21
instructed in the Scripture. Never till then was the Scrip
ture read by One who immediately understood it, and in
whose heart every word found a perfect response. And
when Jesus began to preach, and to show forth His Divine
mission. His words and His acts, as well as His method and
manner, proceeded from a heart in which God's Word was
hid, from One who had completely and fully identified His
spiritual life with the Scripture.
Some have said, that Christ only accommodated Himself
to the generally received view of Scripture authority. Let
us follow Him then into solitude. See Him in the wilder
ness. Here are no Pharisees to refute, no Jewish people to
convince. The Lord is alone, tested jDy the prince of this
world. How does Christ gain the victory? What weapon
does He use in His conflict with Satan? What is the light
to shine in this darkness, the lamp unto His feet ? He says :
"It is written." He refers not to conscience; He does not
appeal to His own feelings ; He does not bring, forward
thoughts and opinions, but the written Word. Three times
He refers to the Scripture ; to the Word containing the ex
perience of Israel in the wilderness, recorded by the Spirit.
As if He meant to say: The written Word is an ultimate
authority. Not merely on earth, but in the invisible realms,
in the world of spirits, among the blessed angels, as well as
the apostate demons, it is known that the Lord God has re
vealed Himself to His people in the Word. "It is written,"
Christ says to Satan, and Satan is vanquished.
"It is written," Christ says to Himself in this most solemn
hour of His life, in this decisive conflict of the soul. He was
tested ; and though the test never became temptation to Him
in our sense of the word, although He did not inhale the

22 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
poison, to which His perfect humanity was hermetically
sealed, yet He felt the weight, the burden of the test ; it was
a real test, painful, difficult, oppressive. He "suffered."
(Heb. ii. i8). And what was His cordial, as well as His
weapon ? His stay as well as His sword ? His inward song
of triumph, as well as his battle-cry? "It is written." Let
us remember what the written Word is in the estimation of
the spirit-world, what it was to the soul of the blessed
Jesus. We behold Jesus on the last evening before His death.
It is a most solemn moment. He had spoken His "last
words" to the disciples. He had eaten with them the Pass
over. He was now to enter into His sufferings. He re
views the past. He beholds in spirit the future. He lifted
up His eyes to heaven and prayed to the Father. Think of
the prayer .of Jesus at this most solemn hour. And in this
prayer to the Father He speaks again of the Scripture.
Refering to the son of perdition. He says, "that the Scripture
may be fulfilled." Thus Christ, in His communion with the
Father, remembers the Scripture, as the infallible and un
failing Word of the Most High.*

*Jesus, who had sung with His disciples the hymn of praise (Ps.
cxvi. — cxviii), refers in His prayer to the "Word," which is truth
Doubtless, the Word here refers primarily to the revelation of God
in and through Christ, and only indirectly to the Scripture. But
as little can it be doubteld, that even as David and all true spiritual
Israelites knew that the "Word of God" had a much larger mean
ing than Scripture, artd yet knew and believed that Scripture was the
Word of God, so the Saviour here thinks also of the "oracles of
God," entrusted to His people. The Principle (Heaid) of the Word
is truth (Ps. cxix. i6o, Hebrew).

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 23
And as He had always dwelt on the Scriptures as con
taining His own history, and especially His obedience unto
death, as in the garden of Gethsemane He referred again to
the necessity of the fulfillment of prophecy, so we find, that
when He was on the cross, the Scripture was in His mind,
in His heart, on His lips. The only insight which is given
to us into the mystery of His agony during the three hours
of darkness, is the exclamation: "My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken Me!" In these words the Holy Spirit
had foreshadowed the sufferings of the Substitute through
David, the type of the suffering King, of the Beloved — For
saken. The twenty-second Psalm was now fulfilled. The
adorable Saviour knew that He was now exhaustively ful
filling the typical experience and prophetic utterance of
David. He knew, and wished His church to know, that be
tween the Scripture and His own heart in agony there is a
profound and inseparable connection.
And then before the Lord said "It is finished," reviewing
all that had been predicted of Him, that the Scripture might
be fulfilled He said, "I thirst." One prophecy remained yet
to be accompHshed : "They gave Me also gall for my meat,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink" (Ps. Ixix.
21). And when this also was fulfilled, Jesus exclaimed, "It
is finished." His last utterance on the cross, the last words
from His lips which the world heard, were words from
Scripture : "Into Thy hands I commend my spirit"* (Luke
xxiii. 46).

*The words "It is finished" refer to Ps. xxii. 31, "God hath
done,"— i. e., made Christ to be Sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him,

24 christ and the scriptltres.
4. Christ's use of scripture in glory.
Jesus, after His resurrection, unfolded the Scripture. That
Scripture which He had learned from His childhood, which
He had heard from the lips of His mother Mary, to which
He had listened in the synagogue of Nazareth, and which
He had read and cherished in His heart during His whole
life on earth. He remembered after His resurrection. This
is also part of that blessed identity of the risen Saviour and
Jesus, as the disciples knew Him before His death. This
Scripture He remembers still in glory. Even now He is
expecting the fulfillment of Scripture in His future reign.
From His heavenly throne He sent seven epistles to the
seven churches ; here we have the mind of the exalted and
glorified Redeemer. And in these epistles He continually
refers to the Scripture : He speaks of the tree of life in the
paradise of God ; He refers to the history of Israel in the
wilderness ; He speaks of the manna, of the key of David, of
the true temple, and of the New Jerusalem. "Behold, I
stand at the door and knock," is the voice of Jesus from
heaven, even as in the Song of Solomon the bridegroom
speaks in the same language. One of the last sayings of
Christ is the most comprehensive as well as concise summary
of the whole writings of Moses and the prophets : "I am the
root and the offspring of David" (Rev. xxii. 16). Jesus, in
His glory at the right hand of God, remembers the Scrip
tures and fulfils the Scriptures, and looks forward to the per
fect consummation of the whole, and perfect, and unchangea
ble counsel of God, revealed in His written Word.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 25
CHAPTER III.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES.
We have thus considered the Scriptures as viewed by
Jesus. Let us now look at the Gospels, Epistles, and book
of Revelation, and notice their relation to the Jewish Scrip
tures. And here I cannot but express grief and astonishment at
the prevalent neglect of the Jewish Scriptures. The term
"Old Testament" may partly have contributed to this, people
imagining that what is old is antiquated. We have already
seen that these Scriptures are full of Christ ; and were it but
for the circumstance that they are the only writings of
which we know that Christ used and loved them, they ought
to be most precious to us. Christ's favorite book ! Christ's
only book! The book He always read, always quoted; al
ways His guide and companion during life; His meditation
and comfort in His sufferings and on the cross. If you love
the Lord, you ought dearly to love and diligently to read this
book. But the thought of many is, I can read all about the Lord
Jesus Christ, much better described, more clearly and more
fully, in the New Testament. I believe this to be erroneous,
and in part bordering on superstition. Take the Gospels.
How can we understand them without Moses and the pro
phets? The very first verse of Matthew is unintelligible:
"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of
David, the Son of Abraham." Who is David? who Abra-

26 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
ham? What meaning is there in his genealogy? And yet
we know that it is full of the most blessed meaning, viz.,
that Jesus is the seed of Abraham, in whom all nations are
to be blessed ; and the Son of David, the Beloved, the King
of the Jews and the Shepherd of the flock.
The name Jesus refers to Joshua ; the name Christ to the
anointing, the significance of which was well known to
Israel, who had been taught the meaning of prophet, priest,
and king.
The expression "I^amb of God," does not refer exclusively,
or even primarily, to the meekness of Christ. The natural
symbolism of the lamb was, indeed, the substratum ; but the
real symbol is that lamb of which we read in Exodus, and
which finds its perfect and minute fulfilment in Jesus, in His
death on the cross, in the sprinkling of blood on the con
science, in the believer's partaking of Christ, in the spirit
of repentance and separation unto God with which faith is
accompanied. Therefore is Christ called the Lamb of God.
"Bearing sin" is an expression based upon Leviticus, and
illumined by Isa. liii.
When we read the words "generation of vipers," we are
unable to understand their real import, and are in danger of
viewing them as the expression of an unrestrained anger
and abhorrence, except by referring to Gen. iii. 15; Ps. xci.
13, and other scriptures; where we are taught that there
are two seeds, two generations ; that of the serpent and the
children of God, the seed of the woman.
If we wish to understand the Gospels, the life and teach
ing of Jesus, we require the same preparation as Israel en
joyed. The evangelist Luke gives us a lovely description of
that garden of prepared IsraeUtes who received the Saviour

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 27
with joy. Notice, in the first place, Mary, the blessed Vir
gin. The angel had announced to her the birth of the true
David, and his words (an echo of 2 Sam. vii. 11, 12; Isa.
ix. , 7 ; Dan. ii. 44) sufficiently show that the prophetic word
is known and believed in the angelic world. Mary's song
is full of allusions to the promises of God as given to the
fathers. So is the song of Zacharias, who, being filled with
the Holy Ghost, praises God for His gracious fulfilment of
His word, "spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets, which
have been since the world began." Simeon, who, according
to Luke, waited for "the consolation of Israel" (what is
this? Read Isa. xl. — Ixvi.), rejoiced when he beheld the
holy Child, and confirms the prophecy of Isa. viii. 14, that the
Lord is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel.
The good news was joyfully received by them that looked
for "redemption" in Jerusalem — people who knew and be
lieved the Scriptures.
Again, how did John the Baptist prepare the way for the
Lord ? He preached, according to the Scripture, of a change
of mind, of the kingdom of God, of the great harvest, and
the separation between wheat and chaff, of baptism with the
Holy Ghost, of the Lamb of God. (Jer. iii. 13 — 14 ; Isa. Iviii.
6, 7; Ps. i. ; Isa. ii. ; Ezek. xxxvi.; Ex. xii. ; Isa. liii.) To
prove that the Gospels cannot be fully understood without the
Scriptures of Moses and the prophets would be to go through
the whole of the fourfold narrative. It is not sufficient to
say that many of our Lord's actions were performed ex
pressly with a view to the fulfilment of prophecy ;* it is not
sufficient to recognize His references to the written Word.

*Matt. iv. 13- i6 ; xii. 16—21 ; xiii. 34, 35 ; xxi. 4, 5.

28 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
The whole picture of Jesus given us in the Gospels is the
fulfilment of that outline which was sketched in word, and
sign, and fact, in Israel's record. The Gospels declare that
Jesus is He. "We have found Him." He is come that was
to come. But who and what that glorious and -divine HE
is, Moses and the prophets explain.
Consider, moreover, who were the Saviour's first disciples.
Andrew said to Simon, "We have found the Messiah."
Philip said to Nathanael, "We have found Him of whom
Moses in the law and the prophets did write." Nathanael
welcomed Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel.
These men knew the Scriptures. They were waiting for
the promised Messiah, the Anointed One. They had studied
Moses and the prophets, and recognized now the fulfilment.
Nathanael knew that God had a Son ; he had learned so from
Ps. ii., from Prov. xxx. 4; he Icnew that Israel's King was
to come from above, that David's Son was David's Lord.
Thus we also ought to enter on the study of the Gospels,
on the contemplation of the life and the words of Him
whose goings forth are from of old; and then we shall see
that it is He.
And in like manner the apostles preached Jesus, not from
their own writings, which did not exist then, but from the
Scriptures. What was Peter's sermon on the day of Pente
cost? He announced (i) the outpouring of the Spirit ac
cording to Joel ii. ; (2) the resurrection of Jesus according
to Ps. xvi.; (3) his ascension according to Ps. ex.; and on
this he bases (4) the lordship of Jesus as the Messiah.
When Peter is before the Jewish rulers he preaches Jesus
from the 11 8th Psalm; and when the apostles return to the
company of believers, the Church is of good comfort, be-

CHRIST ANt3 tHE SCRIPTURES. 29
Cause it knows (from Ps. ii.) that Christ, and not it, is the
object of man's persecution. It is on the ground of Scripture
that the apostles decide the great question concerning the
Gentiles and the law (Acts xv.), even as it was the prophetic
word which Peter had preached to Cornelius (Acts x.).
What did the evangelist Philip declare to the Ethiopian? He
expounded to him Isa. liii., and the eunuch beKeved, and
went on his way rejoicing. What did Stephen testify? Be
hold him, his countenance like the countenance of an angel ;
in the face of death his last word is a summary of Moses and
the prophets ! How clear was this word to his mipd I how
near to his memory and mouth! how dear to his heart!
What was Paul's preaching? He proved from Scripture
that Jesus is the Christ ; he opened the meaning of the pro
phetic word concerning the Messiah; he asked not merely
the Jews, but also King Agrippa, "Believest thou the pro
phets?" He sums up his teaching in these words: "that
Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and
that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day ac
cording to the Scriptures" (i Cor. xv. 3, 4). Apollos also
was "mighty in the Scriptures."
All the apostles preachea Jesus from Moses and the pro
phets. The book of Acts is a continuous unfolding of the
ancient Scripture. The Bereans are commended because
they compared apostolic teaching with the Scripture; from
which we learn not merely that the apostles based their
preaching on the Scripture, but that they were anxious their
hearers should believe the message, because it was in accord
ance with the infallible Word of God.
Look at the Epistles. What are they but the unfolding of
the gospel of the Scripture? Take that most important

36 CHRIST AND THE gCRlPfURES.
Epistle to the Romans. All Christians regard it as a very
fundamental epistle, our great defence and bulwark, the
basis of our instruction; containing so clearly the doctrine
of justification by faith which we teach in our schools and
congregations. Now analyse the epistle. From the very
outset Paul announces as his text and thesis the words of
Habakkuk, "The just shall live by faith." (Yet for a hun
dred people who read Romans, is there one who reads
the prophet Habakkuk?) He then proceeds to prove,
from the Psalms, the sinfulness of man. Then he shows
justification. But how? By referring to the mercy
cover, in Leviticus. If we understand the tabemade,
the meaning of the ark, of the testimony of the law
against us which it contained, of the mercy cover, of the
sprinkling of blood, we see the force of Paul's words, that
"God hath set forth Jesus to be a mercy cover (Hilasterion),
through faith in His blood" (Rom. iii. 25). He goes on to
explain the way in which the sinner is justified, by the Scrip
tures concerning Abram (Gen. xv. 6) and David (Ps.
xxxii.). He derives an additional argument from the date
and meaning of circumcision.
In Rom. V. he shows us how sin and death are connected
with Adam, and righteousness and life with Christ. Is this
chapter not inseparable from Gen. iii. ? If you know not the
history of the fall, can you understand the teaching of Paul ?
In chaps, ix.-xi. he explains the doctrine of election, the po
sition of Israel and the Gentiles, and the final conversion of
the Jews as a nation; always quoting and illustrating the
words of Moses and the prophets. In short, the whole Epis
tle to the Romans is an unfolding of Moses and the prophets,
even as Paul writes to them — "Whatsoever things were writ-

CHRIST AND THfi SCfelPTURfiS. 3i
ten aforetime were written for our learning." Take the
Epistle to the Hebrews, and its most striking points. Christ's
divinity is proved from various Scriptures, His humanity
and future glory from the second Psalm, the glory of His
priesthood from the history of Melchizedec. Hebrews is a
commentary on Leviticus. It is a book in a foreign tongue,
unless read in the light of the Scripture. Look at the Epis
tle to the Galatians, a Gentile church, only of recent date in
their experience of Christian truth. Paul's argument is
about Isaac and Ishmael, about Sara and Hagar. This most
fundamental, evangelical defence of the liberty of the chil
dren of God rests upon Genesis.
So with the apostolic epistles. In the ist Epistle to the
Corinthians Paul shows from Isaiah and Jeremiah the true
character of the world's wisdom, and that "eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."
His exercise of dicipline (chap, v.) he founds on Deut. xiii.
5. In chap. x. he explains the history of the wilderness, and
from the law of Moses he urges the duty and privilege of
the support of the ministry. I will only add his references
to the creation of the woman out of Adam (chap, xi.), and
his exposition of the resurrection (chap, xv.), so full of the
Scripture. How striking and powerful is his quotation in
2 Cor. vi. of four different passages (Levit. xxvi. 11, 12;
Isa. lii. 1 1 ; Jer. xxxi. 33, and xxxii. 38) , introducing them
with the words, "As God hath said !" And it is truly the
voice of God speaking to us to be separate unto Him.
How beautifully does Paul explain in the Epistle to the
Ephesians (this most characteristic portion of the book of

32 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
the Church) the words of the sixty-eighth Psalm. How
emphatic is his testimony concerning the Scriptures in his
Epistles to Timothy, possessed of special solemnity in the
prospect of his departure, and of perilous times.
Equally rich in Scripture quotation and illustration is
Peter in his Epistles; indeed, no apostle speaks more de
cidedly and clearly on the authority and Divine inspiration
and fulness of Scripture, even as no one uses more beauti
fully and abundantly the Scriptures for our instruction and
comfort. The Rock on which this rock was founded was
Christ, and Christ according to the Scripture. The little
Epistle of Jude refers to Cain, to Sodom, to Balaam, to
Korah, and speaks of the body of Moses, in harmony with
Deut. xxxiv. 6. "The Epistles of John are a powerful ex
position of the history of Cain and Abel."*
James speaks of Abraham offering up Isaac, of the faith
of Rahab, of Elijah and his prayer, of Job's patience and
the Lord's dealings with him, of the law in its unity; and
his epistle abounds in allusions to Scripture thoughts and
words. The book of Revelation is a compendium of Moses and the
prophets, referring especially to Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and
Zechariah; a summary of all the preceding revelation of
God, the beautiful culminating point of the whole record.
It is not too much to say, that as a dictionary is necessary
to explain the words of a new language, so the words and
facts of the Gospels and Epistles require the explanation of
Moses and the prophets. You cannot read the "New Tes-

*Kohlbrugge.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 33
tament" without using the "Old" as a dictionary ;* and it
is a very superficial view to think that, because we see the
word "Jesus," and the word "Lamb," and the words "blood"
and "mercy-seat," we have therefore clear and full views,
and solid and substantial ground of confidence, comfort,
and hope. Unless we know the meaning which God has
attached' to these words — a meaning which is explained in
the history, the types, the institutions, and the prophecy
given to Israel, we do not rest on a solid basis ; we are not
feeding on nourishing food; we are not growing by the
sincere milk of the Word.
Oh, that we were wise and read the Scripture, the whole
Scripture from Genesis to Malachi, and the inspired com
mentary from Matthew to the Revelation! That we went
into God's school, learning His ideas and language, and
explaining His Word-, not out of the dictionary of reason,
the opinions of men, and the traditions of the Church, but
out of the dictionary He Himself has graciously provided!
That we used a wholesome frugality in our reading of unin
spired books and tracts, and that we possessed a healthy
appelate for the nutritious and strengthening Word of God!
That we would not confine ourselves to our favorite chap
ters, but launch out into the free, majestic, infinite ocean
of Scripture! That we fed on the green pastures, so spa-

*"The most beautiful exposition of Moses, the prophets, and the
Psalms is the New Testament, and especially John and Paul; even
as the Old Testament is the foundation and fortress of the New
Testament. If I were younger, I would seek all the words of the
New Testament in Moses and the prophets. By placing expressions
and texts of the two together, grand and wonderful expositions of
Scripture would be obtained." — Martin Luther, Tischreden, i.

34 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
cious and so varied! Let me entreat the young especially
to read the whole Scripture, copiously, regularly, and sys
tematically. The older people among us enjoyed a train
ing in systematic theology, according to catechisms. It is
not the best way, but it is far preferable to what, alas! is
too much the state of things now, — that is, the absence of
systematic Scriptural training. Scripture knowledge de
rived from Scripture itself is the best. But what is to be
feared at present is, that our young people, fully sharing
in the general and somewhat exaggerated dread of cate
chisms and systematic manuals, live chiefly on popular ser
mons and tracts. Of too many it must be said, they are
not convinced by Scripture. They do' not possess an in
sight into the scope of the Bible. They know little of
Moses, and still less of the prophets. They do not under
stand the drift of an epistle. And therefore they may easily
be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. A good
flow of language, solemnity of manner, and plausible phil
osophy carry them away. Our armor is the .Word of God.
Read the Scripture, and prayerfully and diligently study
"the whole counsel of God."*

?There is much force in the remark by one who says, "We lament
that the catechetical books of any church should have come to play
such a conspicuous part in the foreground of the Christian stage,
and have not kept their proper inferiority of serving as handmaidens
to the Book of God. They are exhibitions, not of the whole of the
Bible, as is often thought, but of the abstract doctrines and formal
commandments of the Bible * * We are very discontented that
they should have stepped from their proper place of disarming
heresy and preserving in the Church the unity of the faith, that from
this useful office they should have come to usurp it as the great instru-

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 35

CHAPTER IV.
FIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE  EVIDENCES OF ITS
DIVINE ORIGIN.
The Scripture is its own evidence. God did not leave a
matter of such vital importance as the authority of Scripture
to depend upon minute investigation, for which only the
learned have leisure and ability ; nor upon abstruse and meta
physical argument, for which the mass of mankind have no
aptitude. There must be something about the Scripture
obvious and tangible, to prove its authority and demonstrate
its high origin. Apart from the testimony of the Spirit,
without which there is no true and vital faith in the Word

ment of religious education." This is true, yet the systematic train
ing through catechetical books is certainly much to be preferred to
the absence of all systematic teaching; and in order to carry out the
more excellent way of scriptural training, it is most desirable, nay,
an urgent necessity, that our young men and women should be
taught the Bible, its history, doctrine, and prophecy, in a systematic
manner. The chief defect of the catechisms seems to me their
utterly unhistorical character. They say nothing about the kingdom
of God, which was the subject of Christ's and the apostles' teach
ing, nothing about Israel and the purpose of God; whereas in
Scripture all is concrete, full of life and color, narrating the deal
ings of a living God with men, and connecting^ the past with the
future.

36 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
of God,* there seem to me to be five great and simple facts
in connection with Scripture, which declare distinctly and
clearly its heavenly origin.
I. ITS SUBLIME DOCTRINE.
We find in Scripture, doctrine which man never could
have discovered, and which, now that it is revealed, no man
and no age can exhaust. The one fact proves that a higher
than human mind is the Author of the book; the other is a
sign of its infinite and eternal character.
I. Take the idea of God, such as the Bible gives us. So
spiritual, and yet so simple. God is infinite and incompre
hensible, dwelling in light inaccessible, and full of glory;
high above all that is created and finite; whom the heaven
of heavens cannot contain, and before whom even the angels
veil their faces as they adore Him. And yet He is pre
sented as being near unto us, even unto all that are of a

*"No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."
There may be an intellectual assent to the claims of Jesus., The
evidence for His Messiahship, Divine mission, resurrection, may be
clearly seen and conscientiously accepted, and yet the apostolic
assertion still remains fully true, that to call Jesus Lord is not by
nature, but by grace; not the act of unenlightened reason, but the
result of the Spirit's work. The Lord receiveth not testimony from
man (John v. 34). In like manner the Bible asserts, that the nat
ural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. It would
therefore be against all analogy, and in contradiction of Scripture
teaching, if faith in the Bible, as a Divine revelation, could be at
tained by man through logical and historical argument. It is the
testimony of the Spirit by which we know that the Word is truth.
It need scarcely be added, that historical and philosophical argu
ments hold an important though subordinate position.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 37
broken and contrite heart; as listening unto the sighing of
every humble child, and condescending to reveal Himself
unto babes. How spiritual and sublime is. the Scripture
teaching of God! how homely and simple its revelation of
the Father! Scripture reveals to us God as the great
Creator of the universe, the Governor and Upholder of the
world, the adorable King of angels, who obey His command
ments ; and at the same time we are assured, that not even
a sparrow can fall to the ground without His will, and that
the very hairs of our head are numbered ; we are taught that
we may commend to His guidance the minutest duties of
our life, and expect His answer to our prayers on behalf of
/ur daily troubles and difficulties. Scripture reveals Him
as a God of holiness, justice, and truth, who is of purer eyes
than to behold iniquity, and whose throne is established in
verity and righteousness; and Scripture unfolds to us the
mercy, the compassion, the tenderness of God — His delight
in blessing. His glory in His wonderful grace. Whence this
idea of God, so sublime and yet so simple, so spiritual and
yet so tangible, so pure and holy, and yet so gracious and
loving? Do we find anything to be compared with it among
the Greeks and Romans? It has come down from above.
God revealed Himself.
2. Or take the idea of the law of God. What the Bible
teaches us concerning man is no less wonderful than the
idea of God which it brings before us. What is man? As
nations advance, their idea of humanity advances. While
savage nations value man according to his strength, subtlety,
courage, and even cruelty, civilized nations have a higher
and more intellectual and moral standard of human excel
lence. But what is the true, the perfect idea of man ? Look

38 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
at the Scriptures, teaching us that man is created in God's
image. And because since the fall we do not know clearly
what that means, God gives us in the law His idea of
humanity; the law teaches us that man is to love God with
all his heart, and his neighbor as himself. How wonderful
are the Ten Commandments ! How high is the law of God,
elevating man to communion in love with the Lord God!
How deep, — requiring truth in the inward part, the affection
of the soul, the surrender of the will ! How broad, — taking
cognizance of all our varied relationships, of all occupations,
circumstances, duties ; entering into all the minute detail,
into all the ramifications of our earthly life! And the idea
of man, existing in the original purpose of God, realized in
Adam, and subsequently described in the law of Jehovah, is
afterwards manifested in greater fulness and glory in the
person of Jesus Christ, the second Adam. This is the second
idea revealed in Scripture, above human thought and dis
covery, the Divine idea of man.
3. The Bible idea of redemption. Of sin we have no
adequate conception. Scripture reveals to us the depths of
sin, as offence against God and as a disease — as guilt and
pollution. But as the Bible-view of sin far transcends our
, thought, still more wonderful is the Bible" idea of redemp
tion ! Take a beautiful vase, a masterpiece of art, and dash
it to the ground, so that it is shattered into a hundred pieces.
Who can restore it? Who can unite the fragments, so that
the beauty and harmony of the original shall again show
forth the master's skill and thought ? Yet what is this com
pared to the fall, when man's understanding became dark-
ened< his heart alienated from God, his conscience burdened,
I b will enslaved, his imagination defiled, his soul and mind

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 39
and affections corrupt ; when man became dead in trespasses
and sin, so that from the inmost center of his being to the
very members of his body sin reigns unto death ? And then
see how the idea of redemption runs from the very threshold
of the Bible in Genesis to the topmost stone of the edifice in
Revelation. And such redemption! Full pardon of sin, so
that our souls are whiter than the snow ; enemies are recon
ciled, and adopted as children of God ; condemnation is re
moved, and the kingdom of heaven is opened; the heart is
changed, the will set free, the mind enlightened; in short,
as sin abounded unto death, grace doth much more abound
unto life! Whence such a glorious thought?
4. Man never could have conceived this. But could man
have conceived the superabundance of this grace, restoring
us not merely to the lost Paradise, and to the condition of
Adam before the fall, but giving us far more than we lost,
and placing us far higher than man at his creation. For we
are accepted in Christ, the Beloved, and by the Holy Spirit
we are one with Jesus, who is the Son of God, one with the
Father. Ours is not merely peace, but Christ's peace; not
merely life, but Christ's life. Christ is given to us for ever,
and we are members of His body, one with Him in the
Spirit. Thus are we partakers of the Divine nature, and
from Christ the quickening Spirit is our new Hfe. Who
could have thought of this?
5. And then notice how Scripture reveals to us all this as
portion of the counsel of God. Into the council chamber
of eternity, into the secret purpose which God purposed in
Himself, before the foundations of the world were laid, the
Word of God takes us, and shows us that according to this
purpose God created the world in Christ, elected Israel, sent

40 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
His Son, brought in the Church, Jews and Gentiles in one
body, that in the ages to come Christ and the Church should
manifest His glory, and that thus His grace should be seen
and adored by angels and the nations of earth (Ephesians
and Colossians). Who could have found out this, or
imagined it? A plan so vast, so grand, so beautiful, could
only emanate from Him who is God, who is love ; and none
could have known it but the chosen ones, to whom He re
vealed His will. And now that it is revealed, we cannot
exhaust the Scripture teaching. It is above us and beyond us.
We can only exclaim, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are
His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who
hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His
counsellor ? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are
all things. To Him be glory for ever. Amen."*

*If the Bible, revealing such truths, is peculiar. Christians who
hold these views, and live in them, must needs be also peculiar.
Their mode of viewing things is very different from that of the
world. To know God, to believe that man is fallen, to rejoice in the
redemption of Christ, to realize our oneness with Him by the Spirit,
and to wait for His coming from heaven — to believe, in other words,
what God has revealed to us in the Bible, this is so peculiar, and so
different from the general thought and tone of men, that it must
be regarded by the world of professing Christians as very strange.
But, alas! even among people who believe the Bible to be God's
Word, there are many who have scriptural views on certain points,
such as the atonement, faith, etc., but not understanding the "whole
counsel of God," in their views on the history and spirit of the
world, on the work of the Holy Ghost, on the position of the
Church, they savor not the things that be of God, but tljose that be
of men.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 4I
2. PROPHECY.
Scripture contains predictions which have been fulfilled.
These predictions are marvellous, both on account of their
comprehensive grandeur, containing great historical out
lines and principles, and on account of their circumstantial
and minute detail. The one was beyond the mind of the
prophets, the other beyond their calculation.
The element of prediction in Scripture has been lately un
dervalued, and under the specious plea that the moral and
spiritual, the ethical element in the prophets, is the chief
thing. This is a confusion of ideas. All prediction in Scrip
ture is ethical, or rather spiritual, because it refers to the
kingdom of God, and to its center — Christ. But the spiritual
element is intimately connected with the facts, the con
tinued manifestations and gifts of God unto His people.
That Scripture prediction is throughout ethical, that it dif
fers from all soothsaying, from the foretelling of isolated
events and incidents to satisfy curiosity; that it is
organically connected with the Divine education of
Israel, full of principles, warning, guidance, and encourage
ment for the people to whom it is given, ought to be perfectly
plain to every reader of the Bible. But equally clear it is,
that Scripture predicts events which none could have fore
seen. How could the thought enter into Abram's mind, or
even into the mind of Moses, that in Abram's seed all
families of the earth should be blessed ? What a marvellous
conception I It is impossible to account for it, except on the
ground of a direct revelation. In Scripture prediction the
ethical element is inseparable from the facts; the facts are
the revelation of God, educating and comforting His people.

42 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
Let US consider only one great subject of prediction, the
history of the Lord Jesus Christ. The whole life of the
Saviour, from His birth to His ascension and His sending
forth the Spirit, may be narrated in the words of Moses and
the prophets. Without referring to the four evangelists, the
whole history of Christ in its great outlines, as well as its
minute particulars, has been foretold by the Spirit through
the Scripture.
We ask first concerning His birth. And Gen. iii. in
forms us, that He is to be emphatically the seed of the
woman ; while Isaiah teaches us that the mother of the
Saviour, the great Immanuel, is to be a virgin, and that this
child thus born, this Son given unto us, is the Wonderful,
the Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the
Prince of Peace.
We inquire further, Whose Son is the Messiah to be?
The Scripture points out Shem, for "Japheth shall dwell in
the tents of Shem;" and still further we are directed to
Abram, and still further to Isaac (as distinguished from
Ishmael), and still further to Jacob: and from among the
twelve sons of Jacob, the patriarch on his deathbed singles
out the tribe of Judah; out of him shall come Shiloh, and
to Him shall be the gathering of the nations. But Scripture
is still more definite. The son of Jesse, even David, re
ceives the promise of the great King and Redeemer. Thus
we know that the Messiah is God and man; born of a
woman, even of a virgin ; a Sethite ; a descendant of Abra
ham, Isaac, and Jacob; of' the tribe of Judah; of the house
of David.
Where is He to be born? Like the wise men from the
^ast, we wopld naturally suppose in Jerusalem, the holy city,

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 43
the city of the great King. But Micah knows differently,
and points out Bethlehem Ephratah, little among the thou
sands of Judah : "Out of thee shall He come forth unto Me
that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been
from of old, from everlasting."
When is He to be born ? Jacob predicts the period : "The
sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come;" and Daniel more de
finitely speaks of a certain period.
Born in Bethlehem, He is to be taken into Egypt; as
Hosea saith, "I have called my Son out of Egypt."
What is to prepare the world for His coming? What
great event is to announce His advent ? Isaiah and Malachi
tell us it is to be a man, a messenger, "The voice of one
crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
What is to be His character ? "Behold my Servant, whom
I uphold; mine Elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have
put my Spirit upon Him. He shall not cry nor lift up, nor
cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised
reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not
quench." What is to be His work? "He shall open the eyes of the
blind, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. The
lame man shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb
sing." What is His preaching? "The Spirit of the Lord^God is
upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach good
tidings unto the meek." "The Lord God hath given Me
the tongue of the learned, that I shoijld know how to speak a

44 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
word in season to him that is weary ; He wakeneth mine ear
to hear as the learner."
How will the people receive Him ? how will the rulers and
guides of the nation welcome Him? "He is despised and
rejected of men." The builders reject the stone.
Is He to appear as Jerusalem's king? and in what manner?
Zechariah tells us : "Behold, thy King cometh unto thee :
He is just, and having salvation ; lowly, and riding upon an
ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass."
What is to be the end of His life on earth? Daniel tells
us He shall be "cut off."
Who is to deliver Him into the hands of His enemies?
The Psalmist tells us, one of His friends, he that eateth
bread with Him ; and Zechariah states that for thirty pieces
of silver He shall be betrayed.
Will His disciples stand by Him in His last sufferings?
No ; the Shepherd is smitten, and the sheep of the flock are
scattered. How is He to die? He is the Lamb; and is to suffer a
slow painful death, and not a bone of His body is to be
broken. Moses teaches us that His blood is to be shed, and
that He is to be lifted up as the serpent in the wilderness.
Zechariah adds another feature of His sufferings : He is to
be pierced. No other mode but that of crucifixion fulfils all
these descriptions.
What further happened during His crucifixion? The
twenty-second Psalm tells us : "All they that see Me laugh
Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head,
saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him :
let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him. I am
poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 45
My strength is dried up like a potsherd ; my tongue cleaveth
to my jaws. They part my garments among them, and cast
lots upon my vesture."
What further circumstances attend His death? "He
opened not His mouth." "He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so
He openeth not His mouth." "He was numbered with the
transgressors." Why did He suffer ? Isaiah answers : "He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and by His
stripes we are healed."
Was it only man who caused His sufferings? Isaiah
saith, "It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him ; He hath put Him
to grief;" and Zechariah saith, "Awake, O sword, against
the Man that is mine equal; smite the Shepherd." And in
the words of David His soul is to cry, "My God, my God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
Is He to remain in the grave? David says, "Thou wilt
not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer thine
Holy One to see corruption ;" "The stone which the builders
rejected is become the head-stone of the corner;" while
Jonah's history prophesies the same; and Hosea speaks of
the third day as the day of revival.
And after His resurrection? The sixty-eighth Psalm
says, "Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity
captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the
rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."
And in another Psalm it is written, "The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make thine
enemies thy footstool."

46 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
Thus we have the life of Christ in Moses and the
prophets.* The picture of the Messiah in its grand outlines
was quite above the conception of Israel, and even of the
prophets, at any time. Even after the fulfillment it was new
to the people, different from their ideas, high above their
thoughts and expectations. And as for the circumstantial
fulfillment of the wonderful detail, who can explain it on
natural principles?
The prophets spake of the grace of God, as the Spirit
revealed unto them the sufferings of Christ and the glory
that should follow. Theirs was not the insight of great
minds into future history, based on their profound knowl
edge of the present. It was a Divine prediction of events
intimately connected with the kingdom of God. It was not
in accordance with the ordinary laws which govern the
history of the world, but in harmony with the laws of the
Divine kingdom as they had already partially become mani
fest, and as they were more fully to be unfolded in the future.
The events which are singled out are not those which would
strike man as especially important; while events which by
us are regarded as the most influential are often passed
over with silence. But in the great day it will be seen that
prophecy throws more light on history than history on pro
phecy. These considerations are sufficient to show that the Scrip
ture prediction is essentially spiritual, and inseparably con-

*Gen. iii. IS; ix. 26, 27; xii. 3; xvii. 20, 21; xlix. 8 — 10; Isa. vii. 14;
ix. 6 ; xi. i — 10 ; 2 Sam. vii. ; Micah v. 2 ; Dan. ix. ; Hos. xi. I ; Isa.
xl. and Mai. iii. ; Isa. xiii. ; xxxv. ; Ixi. ; Isa. liii. ; Zech. xi. 13 ; xii.
10; xiii. 7; Ps. xli. 9; Ex. xii. 46; Ps. xxii.; xvi.; Ixviii. 18; ex. i;
cxviii. 22, 23.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 47
nected with its whole teaching and history. It may be added,
that although the people to whom the prophecy was ad
dressed, and even the prophets themselves, did not fully
understand the things signified by the Spirit, yet the pro
phecy was always connected with the peculiar history, trial,
and difficulty of the people at the time; so that it was a
warning to the ungodly, guidance and encouragement to the
God-fearing, and a new test which separated the precious
from the vile (Thus Isa. xl., Ixvi.; Dan. ix., etc.).
As Miracle is the intervention of God's grace in act,
prophecy is the intervention of God's grace in testimony.
Both appear on the background of man's failure; both are
intended by the Divine wisdom, which educates his children
and rules the world, as a help and consolation to the flock,
and the hardening of the wicked.
But prophecy — and this is our chief point here — is a proof
of the Divine origin of Scripture. Its force is, unlike that
of a miracle, not dependent on the credibility of testimony.
It is its own evidence. It is fulfilled before the eyes of the
world. The Jews, Tyre, Babylon, Nineveh, demonstrate to
all who have eyes to see that we have a sure word of
prophecy, and that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. The
words of the prophets find their best explanation in the
actual condition of the nations and lands of which they
spake ; and all men may see it, that the Lord God, who alone
can see the end from the beginning, hath revealed these
things to His servants the prophets.
The most striking fulfillment of prophecy is seen in the
existence of the Jewish nation. Forty centuries have run
their course since the first promise of the nation was given
unto Abram. As Balaam predicted, the people dwell alone.

48 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
and are not reckoned among the nations. While the ancient
Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Romans — the might
iest nations the world ever saw — have disappeared, Israel
lives, and has survived all the fearful calamities and perse
cutions which came upon them. Driven from their own
land, dispersed among the nations, for centuries denied the
privilege of possessing land, subjected to insult, robbery,
and persecutions of the greatest cruelty, they still exist,
numerous, energetic, in vigor of body and mind, mysterious
alike in their preservation as in their isolated position. In
the midst of the numerous changes which have occurred in
the history of nations, Israel is the historical nation, or, as
Isaiah calls his people, "the everlasting people" (Isa. xliv.
7; Heb.) ; a witness of the sacred history recorded in Scrip
ture, a pledge of the fulfillment of a yet greater and more
glorious Theocracy. And when the metaphysical subtleties
as well as the refined secularism of our age turn with aver
sion from all direct interference of God, whether in the past
as recorded in the history; or in the future as recorded in
the prophecy of Scripture, the Jews are a living sign and ir
refutable evidence of the truth of the Bible. Miracle and
prophecy find in them their living monuments. No wonder
that the greatest philosopher of our age (Hegel) felt the
Jewish history a dark and perplexing enigma. It is the
miracle of History as it is the history of Miracle ; its exposi
tion is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the light to lighten the
Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel.
A living God, as distinguished from idols, whether the
idols of heathenism or the idol of the abstract god of phil
osophy, appeals to this as one of His attributes that He re
vealeth future things. "Bring forth your strong reasons.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 49
saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth and
show us what shall happen: show the things that are to
come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." And
again, "Behold, the former things are come to pass, and
new things do I declare ; before they spring forth I tell you
of them" (Isa. xh. 21-23; xlv. 18-21; xlviii. 5, 14-16).
Even the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, a Heathen, ex
claimed, "Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods,
and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou
couldest reveal this secret."
Thus prophecy is declared by the Lord Himself to be a
manifestation and evidence of His wonderful wisdom and
infinite supremacy, as sent in order to prove to us that He
is dealing with us, and also to fortify us against the claims of
error. Common, unsophisticated, natural sense will receive
prophecy as a sure mark of "supernatural authority, and it
has been only the perverse ingenuity and pseudo-spiritualism
of our age, which, from the dreamy height of its speculative
wisdom, has spoken with half-contemptuous vagueness of
prophecy as an evidence of the truth of Scripture.
And every fulfillment of the events predicted, whether
that fulfillment be recorded in Scripture itself (as the pro
phecy about the captivity of Babylon, Cyrus, etc.), or re
corded in the annals of history (as the destruction of Jeru
salem, the dispersion of the Jews, etc.), renders to us "more
sure" the word of prophecy; so that we look forward with
the firm expectation that the Lord God will do nothing but
make manifest the secret which He hath revealed unto His
servants the prophets, while we are most fully convinced
that the Scripture contains the things which the Lord hath

50 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
spoken, attested as it is by the mark given by God, through
Moses, for our guidance and assurance (Deut. xviii. 20-22).
3. THE ISOLATED POSITION OF THE BOOK.
Contrast the Bible with the Apocrypha. How marked is
the difference! External authority sufficiently separates
between the canonical books and the apocryphal writings.
But who that has tasted the old good wine could mistake for
it the diluted and feeble work of man? "What is the chaff
to the wheat?" We need not underrate the value of the
Apocrypha, especially those which belong to the period be
tween Malachi and Matthew. The history of God's people
during this interval is most interesting and valuable, the
sufferings and faith of the Maccabees most edifying and
encouraging. The development of doctrinal views may also
be traced to the various apocryphical books. But in reading
them we cannot but feel, that here is the voice of man, and
not that Voice which speaks to us at sundry times and in
divers manner through the prophets.
What a contrast is felt between the four evangelists and
the apocryphical books ! How puerile are the miracles
which tradition attributes to Him who, in all His doings,
glorified and showed forth the Father!*

*The Church of Rome has been anxious to exalt the apocryphal
books, on account of some of their doctrinal statements. The
Rationalists of Germany have also manifested a partiality for these
books. Their importance has already been indicated. Their very
faults are useful, not merely to show the excellence of Scripture, but
also to bring out the fact, which is otherwise also sufficiently clear,
that the Jewish nation was in a state of darkness and spiritual weak
ness when the Lord came; and that He, though of Israel, was not

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. Si
And the writings of the apostolic Fathers, beautiful and
good as they are, only set forth more brightly the marvelous
peculiarity of the inspired apostolic epistles, their inex
haustible depth, their heavenly simplicity, their wonderful
condensation, their transparent clearness, their universality,
in short their Divine character.*

4. THE MARVELOUS PRESERVATION OF THE BIBLE.
It is wonderful how this record has been preserved. The
Jews have carefully watched over the letter of their sacred
writings. The most accurate and diligent research has
availed to discover only trifling variations in the manuscripts.
And although both the Hebrew and the Greek Scriptures
have often been the object of persecuting enemies, the

the product of the Jewish nation, deriving His wisdom and light
from man, — but the Lord from above.
It is significant, that in the Gospel of John (ii.) the miracle at
Cana is described as the beginning of miracles which Jesus did,
thus excluding all the miracles ascribed by tradition to Christ's
childhood. *With reference to the apostolic Fathers, Neander has the follow
ing important remarks ("Church History," ii., 405) : — "A phenome
non, singular in its kind, is the striking difference between the writ
ings of the apostles and those of the apostolic Fathers, who were so
nearly their contemporaries. In other cases transitions are wont to
be gradual, but in this instance we observe sudden change. There is
no gentle gradation here, but all at once an abrupt transition from
one style of language to the other, a phenomenon which should
lead us to acknowledge the fact of a special agency of the Divine
Spirit in the souls of the apostles, and of a new creative element
in the first period."

52 CHRIS* AND tHfi SCRIPTURES.
cruelty and ingenuity of man have not been able to destroy
their existence.*
This is still more wonderful when we consider by whom
these writings were preserved. The Jews were the con
scientious guardians of the book of the Kingdom. Rome
preserved the book of the Church. The Jews, who them
selves rejected the Messiah of whom Moses and the prophets
testify, preserve the very books which prove their unbelief,
and convince the world of the Divine authority and mission
of Jesus. t And where is there a nation preserving care
fully a record, which so repeatedly and emphatically de
clares that they are obstinate, ungrateful, and perverse ; and
which attributes all their victories and excellences, not to
their natural disposition and qualities, nor to their energy
and merit, but exclusively to the mercy and power of God.T

•The history of the persecution of the Bible would form an in
teresting chapter. Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned the roll of the
prophecy, which Jeremiah had dictated unto Baruch, having himself
received the word from the Lord. The king was not willing to
accept the message, and consigned the roll to the flames. But his
attempt to destroy the Word was in vain. God's Word must stand,
and according to the commandment of Jehovah, Jeremiah took
another roll, and wrote in it all the former words; and there were
added besides unto them many like words. When Diocletian perse
cuted the Church, he demanded all parchments containing portions
of the Scriptures, and not a few Christians sealed with their blood
their faith in the Word of God.
f Pascal, "Pensees des Juifs," 8.
tin speaking of the sources of Assyrian and Babylonian history,
M. von Niebuhr remarks: "The Old Testament stands perfectly
alone as an exception from the untruth of patriotism: it never
conceals and disguises the calamities of the nation whose history it

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 53
Look again at the Church of Rome preserving the writ
ings of evangelists and apostles. That church preserving
writings which declare that Christ hath perfected by one
sacrifice them that are sanctified ; that salvation is by grace,
through faith, and that not ourselves, it is the gift of (jod ;
that all believers are kings and priests unto God ; that there
is no mediator between God and men but the Man Christ
Jesus; that Peter savored the things that are of man, and
not the things that are of God, and that, even after Pente
cost, he had to be severely rebuked and energetically resisted
by Paul; that Mary is told by the Son Himself not to in
terfere in the concerns of His kingdom ; that freely we have
received and freely we are to give ; that men forbidding to
marry and to abstain from meats are the expected false
teachers ; that in the congregation we are not to pray in an
unknown tongue; and that Christians are commended for
subjecting even the teaching of apostles to the authority
and confirmation of the Scripture !
The Jews bear unwilling witness to Jesus, and Rome has
carefully preserved and transcribed her own condemnation.
5. THE CATHOLICITY OF THE BIBLE.
A Book which has existed for so many centuries, has in
fluenced so many nations, and has moulded the minds and
characters of the wise and simple, the rich and poor, the
civilized and the barbarian, may well be called a world-wide

records. Its truthfulness is the highest in all historical writings-
even for him who does not believe in its Divine inspiration. At the
same time I must also ascribe to it the most minute accuracy."—
(Quoted by Anberlen, Gottliche Offenbarung, p. 86.)

54 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
Book. When we hear the people in the north of Scotland
sing the Psalms which David, the king of Israel, wrote so
many centuries ago, while the lyrics of Greece and Rome
are known only to the learned few, we may well ask. How
is it that the sorrows and joys, the difficulties and doubts,
the aspirations and hopes of men, so apart in time and in
clime, should find expression in the same songs? When we
hear our little children conclude their prayers with the
Hebrew word, "Amen;" when we hear our dying saints
utter as the symbol of their victory and hope, the Hebrew
words, "Jerusalem" and "Hallelujah," we may well ask.
Why is Hebrew the language of our soul's life, from its
earliest commencement to its latest breath on earth ? Scrip
ture, the Jewish Word, is the universal Book.
The most cultivated nations bow before it, and learn as
docile children from its inexhaustible pages; to the rudest
tribes light and love are brought from its simple and power
ful declarations. It is the guide of Edward VI., the delight
of Francis Bacon, the study of Sir Isaac Newton and Pascal.
While kings and philosophers find wisdom and counsel in
this inspired volume, it is the companion of the artisan and
merchant, the comfort of the widow, and instructor of the
unlettered and uneducated. There is no age of man when
it is not suitable. It gives milk to babes, guidance to the
young, strength to men, and consolation to the aged. There
is no occupation or station in life in which it is not profitable
and healthful. It is an armory to those who are in battle,
a storehouse to those who are lonely, a protection to all who
are in peril, a rod and staff to the dying. There is no state
of mind for which it is not salutary. The tone of it is joyous,
hut its joy does not grate on us in our most solemn moments ;

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 55
its tone is earnest, but this earnestness only irradiates and
elevates our joy. The twenty-third Psalm is consolation at
a death-bed, and yet gives expression to our most joyous
and festive feelings. Wonderful Book, for all ages, all
nations, all men, all times ; no marvel thou has been called
Bible — ^The Book.*

*"Sir Walter Scott, during his last illness, asked his son-in-law
to read to him out of the Book. 'What book?' was the question, and
the great man's reply was, 'There is only one Book, the Bible.' In
the whole world it is called 'The Book.' All other books are mere
leaves, fragments. The Bible is the only complete, perfect Book.
Its light sheds brightness over the grave and into eternity. It is the
only Book." — Mallet, Altes and Neues, 1866, p. 105.

56 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.

CHAPTER V.
Israel's messiah — the living and the written word.
When Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, "Salvation is
of the Jews," He announced a fact which explains the his
tory of the kingdom of God and the peculiarity of the Scrip
ture. Jesus is of Israel, and to Abraham's seed belong the
oracles of God. The written Word was given to the Jews,
and the essential eternal Word was made flesh, and was
born of the Virgin Mary, the daughter of David. God has
thus connected from all eternity, and in a necessary and
inseparable manner, the Word, who is the brightness of
His glory, and the express image of His person; Israel,
His chosen nation; the oracles or Scripture; and Jesus,
the Son of God and man. As the Word was with God,
and the center of the Divine counsel, as the Word became
the center and medium of creation, so the Word was set
apart to be the center of redemption, and the center of the
future glory and inheritance.
The great plan of God, while it had the Son of God for its
center, had Israel, as it were, for its immediate and primary
conference. God selected Israel for the garden in which
the blessed Branch should appear. From all nations He
separated Israel, that out of them should come the Redeem
er and Saviour of mankind. And as Israel was chosen in
Christ, and for Christ's sake, so their whole history and edu-

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 57
cation were according to that great object. More than this,
Christ the Word was in reality the spirit of the nation,
moulding their history and character; He was their true
life; whence it is easily understood that since their rejec
tion of Jesus they are dead (Ezek. xxxvii.).
The Scripture, which is the testimony of God's dealings
in mercy as a Saviour, could therefore not originate any
where else but among the Jews. It was according to the
Divine plan that Jesus should be of Israel, and likewise
the Scripture must needs be Jewish.
Between Jesus and the Scripture there is therefore the
most striking resemblance ; a resemblance which must sub
sist where there is the same source and method of life.
Both are revelations of Grod; human and Divine, Jewish
and universal.
When people saw Jesus and heard Him teach, their
first impression was, that they knew Him as man. They
knew His mother, and brothers, and sisters. They knew
that He was from Nazareth. They had seen Him with
Joseph, the carpenter. His true, real, humble humanity
was not concealed; on the contrary, in all simplicity un-
^ disguised, unadorned, without an attempt to invest Him
self in appearance, manner, speech, with anything imposing
or mysterious, Jesus lived, spake and walked as man. And
this very simplicity struck people, and they spoke of it
as if it was against the claim of a peculiar Divine mission.
So truly did the Son of God take upon Him the form of
a servant, that it was necessary for Him to say even to
John the Baptist, "Blessed is he that is not offended in
Me."

58 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
It is SO with the, Bible. The style of this book is human,
more especially Oriental. Men say — Is not this a human
book? Is it not Eastern in language, diction, thought, and
imagery? Do we not meet its brothers and sisters, books
of cognate tribes? The human element, or rather aspect,
is very prominent. The Bible consists of historical books,
records of events, narratives of families, notes of geneal
ogies, and statistics of tribes and wars. Part of it is like
a diary which the nation kept of its experiences, inter
spersed with all kinds of detail, which would not interest
a stranger. The Bible contains poetry, parables, riddles,
maxims, letters* — every variety of human composition.
But this human character in no way militates against its
Divine origin. It was God's gracious purpose that the
Word should become flesh. Jesus was true man and very
God. The Bible is in the form of a servant, human, yet
Divine in its origin, truth and power.
Jesus was not merely man: He was a Jewish man; He
belonged to Israel. We have already seen that this was
according to God's idea. But it may be necessary to add,
that Jesus never gave up the Divine thought of Israel's
priority and peculiar position in the kingdom of God.

*It is worthy of notice, as quite in harmony with the peculiarity of
the book of the Church, that it contains so many epistles. We have
not merely the ^istles of the apostles, but of the gospels. Luke
wrote his narrative as a letter addressed to Theophilus, and John's
gospel (whether accompanied by his first epistle or not) concludes
likewise in the form of an address to a special circle of readers.
The book of Acts is likewise an epistle, and- in the book of Revela
tion we have the seven epistles of the Lord. In this we may see the
family character of the Book. The records of a family are letters.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 59
While He protested against the traditions of men, against
Pharisaic pride and narrowness. He confirmed the pro
mises made unto the Fathers (Rom. xv. 8). He spake of
Jerusalem as the city of the great King, of the times of the
Gentiles, and of Israel's future return to Him; and in the
full possession of the Spirit, He anticipated the time when
every jot and tittle of the law and prophets shall be fulfilled.
Jesus was the true Israelite. His nationality is apparent
throughout. Israel, the chosen nation, the servant of God,
the nation of priests unto God, finds its true exponent and
fulfillment, flower and perfect fruit, in Jesus, even as He
is the spirit and root of Israel, root and Lord of David.
And for this very reason is Jesus the man for all men
of all nations. For the only center of catholicity is Jeru
salem. The Jews were chosen to be a nation separate,
but in order to bless all mankind ; Israel is to be the center
of light and blessedness for all people ; the purpose of their
election is universal; the secret aim of their isolation is
expansion; the very joy and glory of their destiny is a
world-wide influence. Jesus as the King of the Jews, Jesus
as the true Israel, is appointed to draw all men and to rule
all men.*

*This view meets us in all the apostolic writings. I would direct
the reader's attention to the testimony of John, whose gospel
has been called "the Spiritual Gospel." His use of the word
"nation" (Israel) is striking (John xi. 52). Jesus should die, not
only for that nation, but "that He should gather together in one the
children of God that were scattered abroad." We have here a
nation and an election from among all peoples. Just as we read in
Rev. vii. of the twelve tribes, and after this a great multitude of all
nations, etc. Strange to say, this latter passage (verse 9) has been
quoted to show that there is no more distinction between Israel and
the other nations I

6o CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
As it is with Jesus, so it is with Scripture. It is Jewish
and universal. Universal, not in spite, but in virtue, of its
Jewish character. In order to be universal, it must not be
Paganized or Gentilized, or stript of its Jewish character.
Its Jewish character is not a garment in which it is acci
dentally clothed ; it is the body which the Spirit, according to
God's plan, has prepared. Eliminate the Jewish character,
and you lose the essence: Christ and Christ's thoughts are
Jewish, and that according to God's plan.
The Pagan and Gentile element in the Church has, to
a very great extent, been Ihe source of theoretical heresy
and practical apostasy. And not even the Reformation
has entirely got rid of the Gentile, though it freed itself
nearly altogether from the Pagan element. Shem is to
give room to Japheth ; not Japheth to modify Shem. The
facts and doctrines of the evangelists and apostles are Jew
ish ; not otherwise can they be truly understood.
The Messiah, the sin-bearing Lamb, the blood of Jesus
Christ and its efficacy, the kingdom of Israel, all the
great, substantial, and glorious truths of the so-called "New
Testament" have been often converted into Japhetic ab
stractions, in the well-meant hope of making them thereby
accessible, plausible, and practical, to the Occidental mind.
But in reality the offence of the cross is the ultimate source
of this procedure. "Salvation is of the Jews ;" and to Gen-
tilize (Platonize) Jewish facts and ideas, is to falsify the
Gospel, in order to please the Greeks who desire wisdom.
Our theology (even that of believers) is far too abstract,
unhistorical ; looking at doctrines logically, instead of view
ing them in connection with the history of the Kingdom and
the Church. It is Japhetic, not Shemitic; it is Roman,

cMriSt ANb tHE Scriptures. 6i
logical, well-arranged, methodized, and scheduled; not
Eastern according to the spirit and method of Scriptures,
which breathes in the atmosphere of a living (jod, who
visits His people, and is coming again to manifest His
glory. The Scripture is like Jesus Christ, because He is the
Spirit of Israel, and Scripture is the record of Israel. View
ing thus the Scripture as an organic growth (not an aggre
gate, a stone; but a plant), many interesting facts are ex
plained, of which I single out only three: —
First. Every part is complete, containing the seed, the
germ ; and though subsequent parts contain a much fuller
unfolding of the germ, they do not render their predeces
sors superfluous or antiquated. Thus the whole Gospel
is in Genesis; even in Gen. iii. the Protevangelion contains
the whole counsel of (jod in germ. More fully in Leviti
cus, more fully in David's Psalms, more fully in Isaiah's
prophecy, more fully in Paul's epistles. As Israel devel
oped and grew in stature and wisdom (or rather the revel
ation of Christ in Israel, for the nation always fell short
of the glory of God), so the Scripture develops. It is not
that something is added to the old stock (as one stone is a-
collection of small stones), but the plant, the organism, the
body, grows. Beautiful and benign arrangement of our
great and blessed God! Abraham rejoiced, and David re
joiced, and Isaiah rejoiced, and Paul rejoiced; because to
each there was given all, though on a different scale, in dif
ferent degree and measure.
But though Paul possesses this whole more perfectly
than David and Moses, does he throw aside David and
Moses as a scaffolding is thrown aside when the building is

62 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
finished? By no means: and, among many reasons, for this
reason also — that in Genesis and the Psalms and the proph
ets, there is a great revelation of a great comprehensive plan,
the fulfillment of which reaches into the ages to come; so
that without the previous portions of the Word, we and fu
ture generations cannot be perfect ; there is much of this
whole which yet remains to be unfolded, and manifested in
reality and actual existence. Thus the Apocalypse returns to
Genesis, and the eleventh chapter of Paul's epistle to the
Romans leads us back to Moses and the prophets.
If the Bible were like a collection of stones, we might
select some and put aside others, as less valuable and beau
tiful ; and although in such selections we might make great
mistakes, we should still be in possession of something
more or less complete. But the Bible is like a plant, and all
its parts are not mechanically or accidentally connected, but
organically united, and hence a law of life rules here; and
he who reveres life will neither add nor take away from
the beautiful plant, which the Father hath planted in and
through Christ by the Spirit.
Secondly. If the Bible is a plant, a growth, or body,
there are portions which are inferior in importance, value,
beauty, but none which can be separated from it, or in
which the same blood, or sap, or spirit does not live. No
person denies that in the human body the lungs are more
important than the hmbs ; the heart more essential to life
than the eye ; the eye a more delicate and noble part than
the foot. Nobody asserts that a man would be killed if you-
cut off his hair or his nails. But there is a vital union of all
the members. If you cut off my little finger I shall sur
vive it, but it is my little finger you cut off, and it is a loss.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 63
a disfigurement. So with the Bible. It is not like a piece
of cloth that you can clip and cut. It is a body, animated
by one Spirit. Who would assert that a chapter of names
in the book of Chronicles is as important and precious as
the third chapter of John's Gospel? or that the account
of Paul's shipwreck is as essential as the account of Christ's
sufferings? But what we say is, that all Scripture is one
organism, and that the same wisdom and love have formed
the whole ; and that down to every branch, and bough, and
leaf, it lives and breathes, and is beautiful and good. And
the reason why many historical, and statistical, and pro
phetic portions of Scripture seem to us unimportant and
even unmeaning, is because we do not sufficiently live in
the whole circle of Divine ideas and purposes.
Thirdly. Christ being thus the Spirit of Scripture as well
as the Spirit of Israel, the substance of Scripture through
out is Himself. All Divine revelations have Christ not
merely for their Mediator, but for their center. We have
not merely a succession of prophetic announcements of
His coming. His work, and glory, but in all God's dealings
with Israel He revealed Himself to them in Christ. Abra
ham beheld the day of Christ; the Rock that followed
Israel through the wilderness was Christ. In His love and
sympathy, in His sufferings and faith, David was a type of
the great Shepherd-King, even as Solomon prefigured His
glory and widespread dominion. Through all the festivals
and sacrifices shone the light of God in Christ. That God
would descend from heaven to earth was impressed on Is
rael by the constant appearance of God as angel or mes
senger, as Angel of the Covenant, Angel, in whom is God's
name; as God manifest, whom man can see face to face.

$4 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
And that from earth, from among Israel, would grow up
before God One who was perfect, the Servant of the Lord,
filled with the Spirit and the delight of the Father, a child
born unto Israel, a Son given unto them, and yet the
"Pele," Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the ever
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace ; this also the prophets
expressed. Christ was thus beheld in a twofold aspect
(which it must have been difficult to combine), Jehovah
coming down, and Israel's Representative, the Son of the
Virgin of Zion, ascending from earth to heaven. They
expected the Messenger of the Covenant from above. They
saw a man who was Jehovah's equal.
And as Christ's person was the substance of all Jewish
history and Scripture, his sufferings were continually wit
nessed in word, type, and experience.
Christ and Israel are thus connected, and for all ages.
Scripture testifies of this Jehovah as Israel's David, in whom
glory cometh to the nation, and salvation to the uttermost
ends of the earth. For the view which is so prevalent, that
Israel is a shadow of the Church, and now that the type is
fulfilled vanishes from our horizon, is altogether unscrip-
tural. Israel is not the shadow fulfilled and absorbed in
the Church, but the basis on which the (Dhurch rests (Rom.
xi.). And although during the times of the Gentiles Israel,
as a nation, is set aside, Israel is not cast away because
Israel is not a transitory and temporary, but an integral
part of God's counsel. The gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. Israel was chosen to be God's people,
the center of His influence and reign on earth in the ages
to come. The Church in the present parenthetic period
does not supplant them. The book of the Kingdom awaits

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 65
its fulfillment ; and the Church instructed by Jesus and the
apostles, is not ignorant of this mystery.
This view explains mafiy portions of the Scripture, and
likewise many portions are obscure, — passages which refer
not to the present dispensation, but to the Kingdom of
which all prophets bear witness.
In the book of the Church we see, rooted in Israel, and
beginning at Jerusalem, the history of Jesus and of the
body joined to Him by the Spirit.

66 CHRIST Al^t) fHlE SCRIPtUREg.

CHAPTER VI.
SCRIPTURE AND THE HOLT SPIRIT.
Some people (especially in recent times) have objected
to the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture, on the plea
that Scripture itself does not assert such a fact. But this
is erroneous. And not merely does Scripture fully and dis
tinctly assert the doctrine, but the whole teaching of Scrip
ture indirectly confirms this view.
In most cases where the "inspiration of Scripture" is
doubted or assailed, the opposition is not much against a
particular theory of inspiration (which would be of little
importance), but it is based on ignorance of what is meant
by "the Holy Spirit." It would be better to direct the
attention of people more to the general truth, that as there
is no Creator beside the Father, and no Redeemer beside
the Son, so there is none who can enlighten our minds and
renew our hearts except the Holy Spirit, who is, like the
Father and the Son, Divine in majesty and power. It is
because people do not believe that only the Spirit of God
can reveal the things of God and Christ to our spirit, that
they have no firm belief and enlightened view as to the
Spirit's special work — ^the Scripture. Had a scriptural view
of the person and work of the Holy Spirit been more power
fully prevalent in the Church, not merely in her formularies,
but in reaHty and life, there would never have been so

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 67
much occasion given to represent the teaching of the Church
on the inspiration of Scripture as "mechanical," "converting
men into automata," etc. ; and the whole question would not
have assumed such a scholastic and metaphysical form. For
then the living testimony would appear both as supernatural
and Spirit-breathed. The more the supremacy of the Holy
Spirit, divine, loving, and present, is acknowledged, the
more the Bible is fixed in the heart and conscience. But if
the "Book" is viewed as a relic and substitute of a now
absent and inactive Spirit, Bibliolatry and Bible rejection
are the necessary results.
The whole history of Israel was under the immediate
guidance of the Spirit. The tabernacle, as well as all the
other institutions, was framed not by human wisdom, but,
as Paul says, the Holy Spirit signified through them (Heb.
ix. 8). Israel received a word embodied in Scripture and
institutions which were formed by the Spirit. In like man
ner Jesus, the fulfillment, was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
The world did not understand Him, because He was from
above: how could they testify of Him whom they knew not?
Who can testify of Christ, but the Holy Spirit? If Scripture
is the testimony of Jesus, it must be by the Spirit.
This is granted by all Christians. But fix your mind on
this thought still further. Who can understand Christ fully?
Not even Paul could say he knew Him, but only that He
desired to know Him (Phil, iii.) ; and whatever measure of
knowledge he possessed was, according to his own confes
sion, by the Spirit. None can know Christ fully, except the
Spirit, even as none knoweth the Father but the Son. If we
have in Scripture a full and adequate testimony of Christ
(full and adequate, not absolutely, for no man knoweth the

68 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
Son but the Father, but relatively for our own life, in
doctrine and walk, for us individually and as members of
famiHes and society, for the Jews and the Church in all ages),
who but the Spirit could be the author of Scripture? He
only possesses the fulness, out of which He distributes sev
erally to the various writers according to their position and
character. 'But does Scripture give any direct teaching on the sub
ject ? It does, and that, not in a few isolated passages, but
frequently and copiously.
Notice the expression constantly used by the prophets —
"Thus saith the Lord;" "The mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it;" "The word of the Lord came to * * * "
In Hosea xii. lo, we read, "I have also spoken by the proph
ets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by
the ministry of the prophets." And so distinct is this char
acteristic of the true prophet that in Jeremiah we have the
most fearful denunciations against false prophets, who ran
without being sent by God, and who spake without having
received a message from God Qer. xxvii., xxix.). The
Spirit of Jehovah, the prophets assert, came upon them.
It is an influence from without and from above. The hand
of the Lord came upon them, in order to signify that it was
not their meditation which elevated them to behold future
things, but the Spirit of the eternal God. In the case of the
three great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they
had each a special vision and solemn commission, ^setting
them apart for their prophetic office. Isaiah's mouth is
touched with a live coal from off the altar: unto Jeremiah
Jehovah saith, "Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth:"
Ezekiel received and ate the roll God gave him ; the message

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 69
was divine, and according to God's commandment Ezekiel
said, "Thus saith the Lord God." Most of God's prophets
were unwilling to go ; the Lord had to compel them to go —
Moses, Jeremiah, Jonah — that it may be more evident that
God sent them to deliver His message and not their own
thoughts: the origin of their prophecy as well as the mes
sage itself was divine.
In accordance with this, we find that in quoting from
Moses and the prophets the Lord and the apostles some
times mention the name of the individual writer, as Isaiah,
David, etc., but more frequently the words are introduced
with the expression, "He saith," or, "the Scripture saith,"
or, "the Holy Spirit saith." In the Epistle to the Hebrews
the quotations are invariably attributed not to the human
writer, but to the Lord, to the Holy Spirit, or to "one in a
certain place," thus carrying out most fully, what is stated
at the very commencement of the epistle, that it was God
who spake by the prophets unto the Fathers.
The manner in which the Scripture is quoted by our
Saviour, the evangelists, and the apostles, clearly shows
that they regarded the men by whom the Word was written
as the instruments, but the Lord, and more especially the
Spirit, as the true author of the whole organism of the
Jewish record.*
So evident was this truth to the Jews, and to all whom the
apostles taught, and so confirmed were they in this belief

*Comp. John vii. 38 ; x. 35 ; xix. ,36, 37 ; xx. 9 ; Acts i. 16 ; Rom. ix.
17; Gal. iii. 8; i Pet. ii. 6. Scripture is quoted as spoken of the
Lord or God (Matt. i. 22; ii. 15; Acts iv. 25; xiii. 34; Rom. i. 2).
As the Word of the Holy Spirit (Acts i. 16; xxviii. 25; Heb, iii.
7 ; ix. 8, etc.) ,

70 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
by the constant practice of their teachers, tliat we scarcely
expect a formal deliverance on a point which indir^'tty-swas
continually impressed on the early Christians. But when
Paul looked forward to his approaching departure, and com
mitted the work of the ministry unto Timothy, in the pros
pect of perilous times and false teachers, he reminded his
dear son in the gospel of the supreme sufficiency of Scrip
ture, declaring that "all Scripture is given by inspiration
of God" (2 Tim. iii. 16). There can be no doubt as to the
meaning of the terms employed ; that "Scripture" means the
writings of Moses and the prophets, as acknowledged by
the Jews and confirmed by Jesus ; that "all Scripture" means
the whole of that Scripture (just as in Eph. ii. 21, the same
expression "all" means the whole building, and in Eph. iii. 15,
the "whole family," and in Pet. i. 15, the "whole conver
sation"), the whole showing both its organic unity (as Rom.
xi. 26, "all Israel"), and the perfection of all portions of the
Book ; and that "inspired of God" means that the Spirit
God is the author of this Scripture, influencing the men
who wrote in such a manner that their writings are pure
and absolute truth.
If on the basis of this declaration (which is in harmony
with the whole tone and teaching of Scripture) we dis
tinguish between the inspiration of the prophets and apostles
as men and their inspiration as writers, such a distinction is
absolutely necessary, and confirmed by the facts. As writ
ers, they were perfectly and adequately guided by the Holy
Spirit to write what is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness; as men,
they were eminent, but still on the same level with other
disciples of Christ ; and it was their work to meditate, pray

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 71
and watch in order to appropriate for their own spiritual
profit and growth that which was delivered to them. And
that between these two elements there was not merely the
difference of perfect and imperfect, but sometimes even of
positive and negative, is shown by the case of Peter. Fully
enlightened by the Spirit as to the position of the Gentiles
in the Church, and their relation to the law, he was unfaith
ful to his own knowledge and testimony. And when Paul
rebuked him, Peter acknowledged that his conduct had been
erroneous, and that his apostolic teaching had been true.
For the men, highly favored, and especially fitted for their
position as they were, delivered a testimony which, in a
special sense, was divine in its origin and substance, clothed
in that form which God deems perfectly sure and adequate
for all future generations.
If we believe the men inspired, and their writings worthy
of our acceptance, because proceeding from them, then our
faith would rest on the men, and for their sake we would
believe their message. But oiir faith rests on a divine
testimony, and our authority is the authority of God. Peter
and Paul believed the testimony they received from God, and
so do we, in believing through their writings, accept a
Divine testimony.
Still more explicit on this point is the teaching of Peter.
He declares to us (i Pet. i. 10-12; 2 Pet. i. 21) that holy
men of old spake as moved by the Holy Spirit; that this
Spirit, who was in them, was the Spirit of Christ, in whom
and for whom Israel was chosen ; that He revealed to them
the whole counsel (Christ's sufferings and glory), and that
they themselves did not fully understand their own writings,
but seaKhed diligently into them. How could we be taught

"^Z CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
more distinctly that the Holy Spirit (and not their own
spirit) revealed to them what they wrote^ and that their
writings were high above their own measure of spiritual in
sight? The quotations of Paul show, moreover, that he regarded
this inspiration as extending to the very form of expression.
To separate thought and word, spirit and embodiment, mat
ter and manner, is at all times a very difficult and danger
ous thing. In killing the body we lose the spirit. The
boundary line between the idea and the word is very difficult
to find. But especially on the ground of revelation is such
an attempt dangerous; for this simple reason, that God
reveals Himself not in spirit, but in flesh — not in abstraction,
but in embodiment. As Martin Luther, foreseeing the ap
proaching rationalism and pseudo-spiritualism, remarked,
"Christ did not say of His Spirit, but of His words, they
are spirit and life."
This is not deifying the letter as letter ; apart from the
indwelling Spirit, the letter throughout killeth. But God's
words are not merely letters, but spirit and life. Paul's
argument in Galatians (not to seeds, as many, but to the
seed, as one) is not according to the taste of Japheth. Paul,
who was determined not to be afraid of the offence and
foolishness of the cross, has often been criticised as falling
into Talmudical trifling, by men who little knew that their
vaunted intellectualism and spirituality are allied to that
rationalism by which Jewish, Papal, and philosophical Rab
bis have made the divine truth of none effect. But the God*
without whom not even a sparrow can fall to the ground,
and who shows wisdom in the minutest work of his hand,
may surely have watched over every expression used in His

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 73
Scripture; and to discover the wonders of God's Word by
microscopic examination, is the sign not of a trifling but
of a great mind.
But Paul derives an argument not merely from a word,
but from the silence of Scripture. The circumstance that
Scripture does not mention Melchizedek's parentage, is in
Paul's estimation significant ; and thus, even as in music, not
only the notes, but also the pauses, are according to the
mind and plan of the composer, and instinct with the life
and spirit which breathe through the whole, the very omis
sions of Scripture, be they great mysteries, such as the fall
of angels, or of minute detail, such as the descent of the king
of Salem, are not the result of chance, or of accidental ig
norance of the writer, but according to, and in harmony
with, the wisdom, of that eternal Spirit who is the true author
of the record.*

*"The title, which in Ps. Ixxxii. 6 is given to rulers, and which
consists of a single word, is quoted by Christ (John x. 34, 35) ; and
He adds, 'the Scripture cannot be broken' — that is, in reference to
such single expressions. The word 'all,' which occurs in Ps. viii. 7,
Paul takes in such an accurate sense in Heb. ii. 8 and i Cor. xv. 27,
that he adds, nothing is excepted, except He who put 'all' things
under Him. By the little word, 'to-day' (Ps. xcv. 7), the apostle
proves in Heb. iv. that there is yet a rest for God's people, and that
therefore they should not harden their hearts. How strictly does
Christ take the word 'Lord' (Matt. xxii. 44), and Paul the word
'new' (Heb. viii. 13), and also the word 'covenant' (Gal. iii. 15),
and the word 'seed' (ver. 16) (the last as in the singular number).
See also how Ps. ex. 4 is analyzed, and great truths deduced from
every single expression. The order of time in which, according to
Scripture, events took place, is noted, and important lessons derived
from it (Rom. iv. 10 and Gal. iii. 17). The silence of Scripture is
also important, and furnishes arguments. Because, in Ps, xxxji. i.

74 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
The most common objection urged against this view is
that it is jneousistent with the individuality of the writers.
-®«t whatever our difficulty may be in combining the two
facts, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the liberty and
individuality of the writers, both facts are sure and apparent.
The books of Moses, the Psalms of David, the Proverbs
of Solomon, the epistles of Paul, are all marked by very
decided peculiarities. The prophets and apostles not merely
wrote, but in their writings we see the influence of their his
tory, character, disposition, and mode of thought. It is
evident that the Spirit did not destroy men's individuality,
and that their peculiar history, experience, and conformation
of mind, formed not an obstacle, but a medium. In this we
can only admire the educating wisdom of God.
But the whole objection has its root in a vague idea of
what individuality truly means. Error and sin are not es
sential elements of individuality. A man free from error and
sin does not thereby lose his individuality ; on the contrary,
he gains it in the fullest sense. When the Holy Spirit fills
the mind with light and the heart with love, He sets us
free ; and man's spirit receiving God's Spirit is not in an
abnormal state, but is in the tnie natural state, according to
God's idea. Scripture thus teaches us that God's children
alone have individuality in the highest sense of the word.
They are called by name. Every one receives a name, which
is a secret between him and the Lord (Rev. ii. 17). Can
there be a more beautiful and glorious idea of individuality?

2, there is no mention made of good works, Paul concludes that
blessedness is of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness witli-
out works." — Roos, Glauhenslehre, p. 34.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 75
Will the saints in heaven not have the most marked individ
uality? Will there not be the greatest variety, liberty,
spontaneity there, and that from the very fact that sin is
¦"SMsiuded and knowledge perfect? Even here on earth what
is distinctive in men ts-suihk 'giiafl^^iHJ^ty, 'fheir affection,
courage, diligence, cheerfulness, etc. ; whereas in hell there
seems to be an utter absence of diversity, or color,'^
of peculiar character, and its inhabitants, although re
taining their separate identity and existence, seem to be
a mass of darkness, and hatred, and hopelessness.
The Scripture authors, inspired yet individual and free,
give us some idea of our future state. When filled with the
Spirit we shall be truly the sons and daughters of the Most
High, each having a name given by. God. There would be
more individuality among Christians, if instead of "turning
about" and looking at our fellow disciples, we simply fol
lowed Jesus (John xxi. 19-22).
We admit willingly the diversity of the authors. They
lived in very different periods ; their outward conditions, as
well as their mental and moral peculiarities, are very di
verse. Moses was brought up in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians ; Amos was taken from the simple scenes of shep
herd life ; Daniel was a statesman at the court of Babylon ;
Peter, a fisherman; Paul sat at the feet of Gamaliel. The
book of Job leads us into the earliest period of our history ;
the Gospels and Epistles bring us to the Roman monarchy,
under which we are still living. The languages also differ,
Hebrew, Chaldean, and Greek. The writings correspond to

''"Contrast with "the blackness of darkness" (Jude 13) the descrip
tion of the city in Rev. xxi., with its foundations of precious stone^.

76 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
these differences in time and country and position of life, as
well as of mental conformation. But with all this diversity
there is the most marvellous harmony and agreement not
only in the great outlines of thought, but in the minute
details of fact and doctrine, as well as in the delicate shades
of feeling. And not merely this, but the thread is often
apparently left for centuries, and then taken up after a long
pause in a way which cannot be explained on merely natural
principles. A few instances may suffice. I read in Genesis
the incident of Melchizedek blessing Abram. It stands there
isolated. No reference to this narrative occurs till the
Psalmist (Ps. ex.) applies it to the promise given to him of a
royal priest who is to be enthroned and to have a priest
hood different from Aaron's, and to endure forever. Mys
terious as this Davidic comment on Melchizedek appears, it
is fully explained, centuries after, by the author of the
Hebrews, where he develops from these two Scriptures the
nature and glory of the priesthood of Jesus, who is David's
Son, of the tribe of Judah, and who is now in the heavenly
sanctuary. Take the position assigned by God to man in
Gen. ii. The eighth Psalm refers to this word. In Daniel
we have again the Son of man spoken of in great glory and
power. In the second chapter of Hebrews the whole sub
ject is explained (as David liimself could not have explained
it) as referring to Jesus, made a little lower than the angels,
but now seated at the right hand of God, and crowned with
majesty and glory.
Take the doctrine of justification. Abraham is justified
by faith. David describes the blessedness of the man who
has righteousness without works ; Paul fully unfolds this in
Rom. iii, and |n the Epistle to th^ Galj^tians. The atone-

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 'Jj
ment in like manner is declared throughout Scripture. God
clothes man (Gen. iii.) ; and in Revelation we read of the
multitude whose robes were washed in the blood of the
Lamb. What harmony exists between Leviticus and the
Epistle to the Hebrews ! How striking is the unity of this
Book, and how impossible to account for it, considering
the diversity of the authors, unless we believe that all Scrip
ture is one great organic whole, possessed of the self-same
spirit and life, inspired by the Holy Spirit, who saw the end
from the beginning, and who unfolded, through successive
developments, the manifold fulness which existed from the
very earliest commencement of God's dealings with the
children of men.
That the Spirit of God, while He enlightened the mind,
preventing the erroneous and limited views, as well, as the
sinful and worldly tendencies of the writer from exerting
an influence on the deliverance of the message entrusted
to him, accommodated Himself to the individuality of the
chosen men, is in accordance with the whole method, the
condescending wisdom of God in educating and influencing
His children. It is our experience that the Spirit becomes
Paul to Paul, and Mary to Mary ; and that He, in wonder
ful love, like an allwise and considerate Teacher, adapts
Himself to our peculiarities in mind and disposition. He
knows us perfectly, watches all our steps, and, according to
the inner peculiarities of our character and the outward
development of our history, He brings light and truth into
our hearts. God influences us from within, so that often
we can scarcely separate between our thought and feeling
and His teaching and moving, for God dwells in us and
we in Him.

78 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
The condescension with which the Spirit adapts Himself
to man is strikingly illustrated by the vision which Peter
had at Joppa. The truth which God impressed on him
was one which was new to Peter, and which he, from
his previous education and thought, was not at
all prepared to accept, viz., that the Gentiles should
be received into the Church of Christ, without first
becoming disciples of Moses and submitting to the rite of
circumcision. This was not a thought developing itself
naturally in Peter's mind, but the communication of a
divine thought. Peter, we read (Acts x.), became very
hungry, and would have eaten. Naturally the subject of
food was in his mind. The Spirit takes hold of this physical
and mental state, and Peter beholds a vision of a certain
vessel .descending from heaven, wherein were all manner
of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and
creeping things, and fowls of the air, and he was com
manded to kill and eat. Now the lesson here was one which
came direct from heaven. It was not excognitated by
Peter's mind, but the Holy Spirit revealed unto Peter that
Jew and Gentile were now to form one community, and
that the Gentiles should be received without hesitation into
the Assembly. But the manner in which the Holy Spirit
taught him was by adapting Himself to the physical condi
tion of the apostle at the sixth hour of the day, and the
vision was in accordance therewith.
And the Spirit uses the individual characteristics of the
writers for great purposes. God the Redeemer is the same
as (jod the Creator. The natural endowments of His chosen
servants, as well as their experiences of life, are all under
the guidance of God, who makes them subservient to higher

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 79
ends in redemption. And thus, if David had not had the
experience of a shepherd trusting in God; of an exile per
secuted, suffering, and forsaken; of a king, who lifted not
his heart above his brethren, but who declared God's name
unto them, and sang praise unto Him in the midst of the
congregation; could we have received through him Psalms
such as the twenty-third and the twenty-second ?
If Jeremiah had not been naturally timid, easily cast down
and discouraged, sensitive, tender, shrinking from the oppo
sition of man, feminine in his delicacy, rich in sorrow and
in tears, how could there have been given to us such
a wonderful outpouring of heart as we have in his prophecy
and Lamentations, which reveal to us the anguish of a godly
and holy man in the midst of a rebellious and apostate
nation ; a loving, priestly spirit, who felt the unbelief and sin
of his nation as a heavy, overwhelming burden, and who
sought relief and comfort by unbosoming all his thoughts
and complaints before his God and Lord? What a mar
vellous foreshadowing of the mind and sorrows of Jesus;
what a touching and deep exposition of what is meant by the
"bowels of Jesus Christ."
From whom but Solomon could we have received the
books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs?
From the man who asked for wisdom as his chief desire;
from the philosopher who studied nature and observed the
ways "of men; from the king whose experience, so ample
and so diversified, illustrates so strikingly that "all is van
ity ;" and from the Jedidja of whom it is written, "the Lord
loved him" (2 Sam. xii. 24, 25), and again, "he loved the
Lord" (i Kings iii. 3) ; from him alone could we have three
such books of wisdom, of experience, of love.

8o CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
Consider the peculiar history, mind, and experience of
Saul of Tarsus ; it is by the Epistles, as revealing Paul, that
the Holy Spirit reveals to us precious truth.
The inspiration of Scripture is a fact, not a theory. We
find great difficulty in framing a theory even of those influ
ences of the Spirit which we ourselves have experienced, such
as Regeneration and Conversion. How can we, with any
degree of certainty, propound a theory of an influence of
which we have no personal experimental knowledge? We
receive the fact, asserted by the Scriptures themselves, and
abundantly confirmed by them, that, though written by
men, they are of God, and that the ideas they unfold are
clothed in such words as He, in His wisdom and love, in
tended, so that they may be safely and fully received as
expressing his mind, and the thoughts which He purposed
to convey to us for our instruction and guidance.
When such a view is described and condemned as mechan
ical, there is, after all, nothing said and proved. There
is scarcely a Christian, however illiterate, who imagines that
Isaiah did not feel awe and reverence when he wrote the
sixth chapter of his prophecy ; that Jeremiah, in writing the
book of Lamentations, was 'a mere amanuensis, who, with
out sympathy in his heart and tears in his eyes, obeyed the
dictation of a higher voice ; that David's heart was not filled
with joy and gratitude, when he sang the 23d or the 103d
Psalm; that Paul, in writing to his congregations, did not
pour out the rich treasure of his own experience and love.
However strong and unguarded may have been the expres
sions of some Christians regarding the objective authority
and perfection of Scripture, they never deserved to be char
acterized as teaching "cabalistic ventriloquism," which has

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES, 8l
been so frequently done, and by men who meant no irrever
ence. The Lord has spoken, and that it has pleased Him'
to speak, "at sundry times and in divers manners" through
prophets, may appear to us mysterious, but the fact is
received by faith with gratitude, and with assurance of that
light which is seen only in God's light.
We notice a difference of inspiration when we compare
the book of the Church with the book of the Kingdom. - A
difference, not as to authority and degree, but as to charac
ter. Before the coming of Jesus, and the outpouring of the
Spirit, the inspiration was, as it were, more direct and ob
jective. The prophets of old said, "Thus saith the Lord;"
and in delivering their message they pronounced, and after
wards wrote, the "ipsissima verba." As Bengel expresses
it, their inspiration was more according to the way in which
we dictate to children, while the apostles exercised more
that liberty which the Spirit had given unto them. It is
true, that in the Gospels we have the words of the Lord
Jesus ; but in the Epistles we find a testimony which accords
in its character with the peculiarity of the Church, which has
received the Spirit as indwelling light and power.
This more free and personal character does not exclude
the other equally true and important aspect of the Spirit's
influence on their writings. The prophets of old did not
understand their own predictions, and had to search into
them. There we have inspiration absolute and objective
(though as we have seen, not mechanical, nor without con
nection with the prophet's individuality, age, and position).
In the apostolic epistles we have the message delivered by
men who had received the Holy Spirit, and who spake in the
bright light of fulfillment. Of the prophets we read that

82 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
the Spirit came upon them; of the apostles we know that
the Spirit had His abode in them. While this invests their
writings with a personal character (identifying their testi
mony with their own inmost self and experience), the apos
tles emphatically declare that their teaching is by revelation
of God ; that the Spirit reveals the things of the Spirit ; and
that they speak not with the words which human wisdom
teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth. The Church
has the indwelling of the Spirit ; the promise of the Father
was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was
not given as an indwelling Spirit before Jesus was glorified.
The gift constitutes the great difference between the King
dom and the (Church ; and bearing this in mind, we recognize
at once the peculiarity of apostolic writings.
Nor have we any difficulty in seeing why the book of the
Church has not the same formal authentication as the doc
ument of the Kingdom. The Lord Jesus Himself confirmed
the latter. It is the Spirit who confirms the former.
In the case of Moses and the prophets, we noticed already
such a progress from the more formal to the more spiritual
authentication. The books of Moses are more especially
and formally an authoritative document. The books of the
prophets, equally emanating from God and given by the
Spirit, were recognized by the faithful people as divine, and
added in full conviction of their authority, as we read in
Dan. ix. 2 : I "understood by books the number of the years,
whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the
prophet." We notice here how the collection of Scripture was
not regarded as yet complete ; but book after book was added
through the spiritual conviction of the children of God, just
as Peter in his Second Epistle (iii. 16), in speaking of Paul's

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 83
letters, adds them, as equal in position and character, to the
"other Scriptures." In like manner Paul, in the Epistle to
the Romans, writes thus: that the gospel and the mystery
"is now made manifest by prophetic writings according to
the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all
nations for the obedience of faith" (xvi. 26). He here evi
dently refers not to the writings of Moses and the prophets,
which do not contain "the mystery" (compare Eph. iii.),
but to the writings after Pentecost, containing the full reve
lation of Christ and the Church.
Thus the Holy Spirit, whose power was not merely felt
in the apostolic Church, but whose voice was heard (Acts
XV. 28; xiii. 2), who taught his servants the things which
are spiritual, and the words wherein to teach them, produced
the record of the evangelists and apostles, and they, not less
than the prophets, though in a freer and more personal
manner, wrote "by revelation," and the things that they write
are the commandments of the Lord (Eph. iii. 3; i Cor. xiv.
36,37)- Although the apostles do not say in the same formal
manner, "Thus saith the Lord," they write with an authority
equal to that of the prophets, having received their message
not from men but from the Lord Himself, and being especi
ally set apart by the Holy Spirit to write for the instruction
of the Church of all times.
Nor does this authority belong to the writings of apostles
exclusively. The two Gospels of Mark and Luke, the
Epistles of James and Jude, fully manifest and evidence
their divine character and organic connection with the
"other Scriptures." And to conclude the whole volume of
the Book, connecting the twofold record of the Kingdom and

84 CHRIST AND The scriptures.
the Church, and protecting as it were the very last page of
that perfect and harmonious Scripture, the apostle John re
ceived from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself "the revelation
which God gave unto Him." Here we have again the
ipsissima verba of the Lord. This book is, in the most
formal and fully-authenticated manner, the "Book of the
Lord;" and the testimony which so solemnly concludes it
may v/ell be viewed as having a reference also to all the
"other Scriptures" : "I testify unto every man that heareth
the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall
add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book ; and if any man shall take away
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy
city, and from the things which are written in this book"
(Rev. xxii. i8, 19).
Believing the book of the Church inspired, we can under
stand it structure and harmony, which could not be ac
counted for otherwise. One instance may suffice — ^that of
the four Gospels. How could uninspired men adequately write
about the life of Jesus Christ? Plow could they select events
and discourses, — fixing on the most important, the essential
for all ages ? How could they record the sayings of Christ,
so profound, so inexhaustible, so perfect in every expression ?
— to say nothing of events which were not witnessed by man,
as the temptation in the wilderness? Again, the fourfold
narrative forms a complete whole. Jesus, as the Messiah,
the Son of David, is set forth by Matthew; Jesus, as the
righteous and obedient Servant of God, is described by
Mark ; Jesus, as the Son of man, the Redeemer, and Physi
cian, by Luke ; Jesus, as the Word, the Son of God, by John.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 85
The Spirit of God alone can give an adequate representa
tion of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ ; it would have been
impossible for men to write a narrative which is sufficient
for the wants of the Church in all ages.
A SUPERNATURAL HISTORY REQUIRES A SUPERNATURAL REC
ORD. The origin and history of Israel is recorded in the
books of Moses and the prophets ; the origin and history of
the Church is likewise recorded by the Holy Spirit. We
find the Scripture in accordance with the history. The
Church, during the times of the Gentiles, requires the record
of the life of the Lord, the Pentecostal origin of the Church,
and the Acts of the Spirit through the apostles ; the various
Epistles revealing the mystery, and unfolding the "whole
counsel of God;" and the Apocalypse containing what the
Lord Jesus Christ desires His disciples to expect and hope.
Israel required what is contained in the book of the King
dom, and for their future perusal and obedience that book
contains still much that is at present sealed. When we thus
see the connection between the sacred writings and the deal
ings of the Lord, and find, experimentally, what the book
of the Church actually is, our inference as to the Spirit-
origin of the book is one which is not merely logical (though
it has no cogency to the unbeliever), but which is a strong
conviction — nay, it partakes of that direct and spiritual as
surance which is independent of the testimony of man. The
Church of God learns from the whole organism of Scripture,
and i§ in communion with every portion of it ; nor is she in
terrupted in this docile and obedient attitude by the difficul
ties and discrepancies of historical testimony and critical in
vestigation. In every portion of the Word (including those whose

86 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
genuineness has been most doubted, as the Second of Peter
and Jude) there is a solemnity and an authority nowhere
found except in writings God-inspired. The Word appeals
directly to the soul, as light and life. It is pure, it is perfect.
Out of the fulness of the whole counsel of God it speaks,
and we feel that the Spirit of the eternal God is teaching us.
And the same Spirit who convinced the early Church of the,
authenticity of the books, convinces the believer in the present
day. For our faith is not based on human testimony, though
we honor and value it. In fellowship with the saints of all
ages, we hear the voice of the Shepherd. The flock will not
follow a stranger's voice, nor will it fail to recognize the
voice of the Son of God and the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
From this great fact of the inspiration of Scripture several
important features of the Bible may be deduced.
I. The Bible not merely was inspired, but is so still. The
Holy Spirit not merely inspired the men as they wrote, but
He is still connected with the Scripture. It was originally
Spirit-breathed, but the Spirit is still breathing on it. When
the soul, thirsting after God, reads the words, "Ho, every
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; buy wine and milk
without money and without price ;" when the burdened heart
and oppressed conscience reads the words, "Come unto Me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest," the words are breathed again by the Spirit. It seems
as if the ink was not yet dry, and as if the warm breath of
eternal love, from which these promises flowed, was even
now quickening and consoling the troubled soul. The Spirit
makes the Scripture a living word. The Spirit breathes here
as in no other book. He makes the writing spirit and life.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 87
and man lives by it, because it is word proceeding even now
out of the mouth of God. He who has experienced this can
have no doubt about the origin of Scripture; for in his meas
ure he receives it from God Himself, as David, Isaiah, Paul,
John, received it. It is to him a divine word. He knows
not merely it is written, but that it is the living word and
voice of the Lord. In obeying its precepts, he knows he acts
in obedience to his heavenly Father; in resting on the
promises and assurances which he reads in Scripture, he is
convinced he is trusting in the Lord his God and Redeemer ;
and when, in the hour of his departure, his soul clings to the
consolations of strong hope, set before us in the Word, it is
the voice of the Saviour Himself, who says to Rim, "Be of
good cheer; it is I."
^ 2. How can a Spirit-breathed book be understood without
the Spirit ? As no man without the spjjrit of poetry can ap
preciate poetry, or without the spirit of music, music, so it
is impossible for the natural man, who is not a Spirit-man,
to understand Scripture. He may understand Hebrew and
Greek, he may be well acquainted with grammar, history,
and antiquity ; but this refers only to the body of Scripture.
He may have a mind capable of appreciating the beautiful
and the sublime; he may be able to discern the human ele
ments in all their pathos and significance, and thus see Scrip
ture as characteristically different from Roman and Greek
literature, or as striking from the fidelity of its resemblance
to the various experiences of mankind. But this is only the
soul of Scripture : the spirit of Scripture is God's Spirit — the
Holy Spirit. And hence it is that David, to whom the
language and the customs of the Pentateuch were perfectly

88 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
familiar, prayed to God to open his eyes, that he may behold
wonders out of this law. Hence it follows, that what is
most essential in Scripture is understood by the spiritual
man, though as to the soul and body of Scripture he may be
ignorant; and that the best critical, grammatical, historical,
and aesthetic or human understanding of Scripture (valuable
and subservient to the pneumatic exposition) is utterly in
sufficient to seize the real meaning of the Word. An un
lettered, simple Christian applies the twenty-second Psalm,
for instance, straightway to Christ. He does not see, per
haps, its primary reference to David. He supposes, most
probably, that David saw without any mediating circum
stances and limitations, simply by the Spirit, the sufferings
of Christ. Such a view is imperfect, but it is not incorrect.
It is, after all, the main and true view, which God wishes us
to take. Whereas all historical expositions of the Psalm
(however correct the psychological analysis of it may be)
which do not see in it the suffering and exalted Messiah,
are false and shallow. No doubt, many an unlettered but
Spirit-taught man has given truer exegesis than erudite but
unenlightened scholars.*
3. If the Bible is the book of the Spirit of God the Eternal,

*This requires a word of explanation. There is a tyranny and
conceit of the unlearned as well as of the learned. A man may be
without scholarship, and without spiritual insight and humility.
The most humble and spiritual men most probably are also diligent
and conscientious students, availing themselves with gratitude of
whatever throws light on the Scriptures. And those who take the
deepest interest in the true welfare of the Church uniformly desire,
in the first instance a spiritual, and in the pext a learned, ministry.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 89
it must be a book for all ages. It cannot possibly be merely
a record of the past, or a guide for the present. Emanating
from Him who is, and was, and is to come, the Scripture also
must be a book for all generations. All God's acts as well as
words are in accordance with His counsel, and stand in rela
tion to that whole plan which shall be fully manifested in the
age to come. The Bible is therefore an eternal book. We
breathe here the atmosphere of eternity. The author is He
who is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Hence
we find in every Scripture narrative, and in every successive
revelation, limited and individual as it may be in its form,
an element which is universal ; it contains a lesson for every
period of the Church's history, even as it is connected with
the whole economy of God's dealings with men. The Scrip
ture is a whole in every part, a mirror of the world, and a
picture of all ages. The words of Scripture are according
to the all-comprehensive view of God; and though often
very limited and local, everything is of the widest applica
tion. Hence it is, also, that Scripture does not merely contain
prophecy, but that it is throughout prophetic. It is a super
ficial though not uncommon view, that prophecy does not
constitute one of the general features of the Bible, but is
limited to a few portions of the Word; this opinion is re
futed by a single view of the facts. We have not merely the
books pre-eminently prophetical, and thus designated by
common consent, as Isaiah, Daniel, Zechariah, etc., and the
Revelation ; but looking at the historical books, we find in the
Pentateuch, and in the subsequent historical portions, con
tinual prophecy. In that first gospel, by which the Lord
Himself broke the silence which sin had introduced, and

90 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
opened the gate of heaven, even before He banished man
from the garden of Eden, we have the most comprehensive
prophecy, which still awaits its final fulfillment, when Satan
shall be bruised under our feet, and the kingdom of right
eousness be established. In the words of Noah, in the prom
ises given to Abraham, in the blessing of Jacob, in the pre
dictions of Balaam, in the song of Moses, by the mouth of
Hannah, by the Lord Himself to David, etc., we have
prophecy. In the Gospels we have the prophetic discourses
of the Lord Jesus (Matt, xxiv.; Luke xxi.), and many
parables of a prophetic character; in the Epistles (for in
stance, Romans and Thessalonians), prophecy about Israel,
the Antichrist, the return of Jesus. In the book of Psalms
(where we would least expect it), we have, almost through
out, prophecy of the Messiah, His sufferings. His glory, and
His kingdom. There is scarcely a single book of Scripture
which does not contain prophecy. And how could it be
otherwise, when Jesus, His first and His second coming,
God's kingdom, the struggle with the great enemy, and the
victory, form the substance of the book?
We have also Scripture authority for viewing the history
and characters of the Bible as prophetic. Thus Christ views
the period of Noah as foreshadowing the days before His
coming to judgment ; the apostle Paul, in describing the Anti
christ, uses words of Daniel which had received only partial
fulfillment in Antiochus Epimanes. The history of Joseph
and his brethren is a striking type of Jesus in His relation
to the Jews, etc. The Song of Solomon is also prophetic, the
principles and spiritual experience it contains being, at the
same time, of immediate use and application.
If Scripture does not merely contain prophecy, but is

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURE*. QI
prophetic throughout, does it not follow, that any exposition
of Scripture or system of teaching which is without the
prophetic element, must be different from the tone of the
Bible, and must be defective even where it is correct ? Can
it be said of what is commonly called "orthodox preaching,"
that it is scriptural ; that it is the same as that of the apostles,
who we find invariably taught the people from the very out
set, not merely to turn to God, but to wait for the coming
of the Lord Jesus from heaven ? Jesus Christ, crucified and
risen, as the object of faith; Jesus, dwelling in, the heart by
the Spirit, as the object of love; Jesus Christ returning for
us, as the object of hope, — such was the simple and compre
hensive evangel.
4. The eternal character of Scripture may be viewed in a
twofold aspect. As opposed to the limitations of time it
manifests itself as prophecy. Scripture contains the gradual
unfolding of the counsel of God in constant reference to its
final consummation. But the eternal character of Scripture
manifests itself also in another way. Scripture reveals not
merely the things which are future, but eternal things which
are not seen. "Eternal" is that. which is spiritual, real, sub
stantial, heavenly. In nature and history, in men and na
tions, in conflicts and victories, there is an outward, tempor
ary, visible element, and an inward, spiritual, and essential
element. The Spirit of God deals with all in an eternal way ;
that is, His representation of the visible and partial manifes
tations of God in nature and history continually seize the
hidden meaning, and unveil the real and unfading substance.
Thus eternity, as a characteristic of Scripture, includes two
elements, the one opposed to the limits of time, the other as

92 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
showing the substance under the transitory form. Scripture
has thus, if we may say so, extensive and intensive eternity.
Hence it is that Scripture is throughout parabolic. It
views the visible as corresponding to, and showing forth,
the unseen. It explains the silent language of nature; it
beholds the principles of the spiritual world shadowed forth
in the manners and experiences of men. When Jesus speaks
in parables it is in accordance with the whole method of
Scripture. He is the true Son of David, who read the two
books of nature and of the written Word (Ps. xix.) ; the
true Son of Solomon, who saw in earthly prudence the
mirror of heavenly wisdom, and who uttered' proverbs — i. e.,
parables, dark sayings — clear in their primary meaning, but
suggestive of higher lessons. Jesus spake in parables, not
merely because He was the Son of David and Solomon, the
Israelite trained in God's school of revelation, but also be
cause He was the Son of man. Man ought to have an eye
for the beautiful works of God, for the light and the in
numerable hues of wondrous beauty; he ought to have an
ear to hear the thousand voices around him of deep solem
nity and exquisite tenderness, even as his mouth should
show forth the praises of God in response to God's message
of love and power at sundry times and in divers manners.
But there is a separation, through sin, between heaven and
earth, and it is faith only that can see the things which are
not seen in the things which do appear. Jesus was in heaven
while He lived on earth (John iii. 13) ; the essence of all
things lay before Him. God and His kingdom, Satan and
his kingdom. Pie beheld and traced throughout. He opened
His mouth in parables.
He spake of nature. He had watched the clouds and the

CHRIST AND The ScRip¥ur£S. 93
red sky at evening; the sun in His glory; the fowls of the
air in their blithe carelessness ; the flowers of the field in their
gorgeous beauty ; the wisdom of serpents, the guilelessness
of doves ; the eagle's keen eye and sudden descent ; the hen
gathering her chickens under her wings ; the wind blowing
where it listeth ; the vine and its branches ; the trees good and
bad ; the fig-tree and its leaves ; the mustard-seed and its de
velopment; — all this became to Him a picture of heavenly
things. He spake of man ; of the relationships and occupations of
human life ; of the eye as the light of the body ; of the eye
and hand which endanger life and health, and require to be
cut off ; of the sick, who need a physician ; of the father giv
ing good gifts to his child; of the mother rejoicing that a
child is born into the world ; of the friend showing himself
friendly to his neighbor ; of the shepherd and the flock ; the
king and his nation ; the master and his stewards ; the mer
chant seeking goodly pearls ; the sower going forth to sow ;
the fishermen casting out the net; even the little children
playing in the market-place; — and in all this He' beheld pic
tures of eternal truth and spiritual relationships.
He noticed also the foolish and the evil ways of men : the
unrighteous judge, who feared not God, neither regarded
man; the rich man trusting in his earthly possessions; the
unmerciful servant, who will not forgive, though himself a
debtor to mercy; the unjust steward; the man who begins to
build without counting the cost; the thief and robber; the
hireling ; — and here also He sees spiritual principles, eternal
results. He noticed the common objects and events around Him:
salt, the light and candlestick ; the house and its foundation ;

94 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
the door; bread and water; the ways of the good house
holder. He spake of the marriage feast and the wedding
garment ; — in all He beheld the things that are real and are
forever. And how constantly does He use the Scripture symbolism
— speaking of the temple as His body, the manna in the
wilderness, the brazen serpent, the water drawn at the feast,
the vineyard which bare no fruit — according to the way in
which God had spoken of them to His people.
This parabolic teaching is not for the purpose of making
difficult truth more easy to a passive intellect or an inactive
conscience. It has for its object to conceal the precious
jewel from the eye of the sluggard and worldly, and to rouse
the mind and to prepare the heart of the sincere. The chief
purpose, however, is, according to the spirit of parabolic
teaching, to impress on us that we are even now in eternity;
that everywhere we are surrounded by the same God; that
the invisible kingdom is manifested in the visible ; that God,
and His truth, and His righteousness, are the true reality
and substance.
The meaning of symbolism is based on the great funda
mental fact that God is the Creator, and that Christ is the
beginning of the creation of God. Thus there must be a
great parallelism between the realm of nature and that of
spirit. And as all things are upheld for Christ's sake, in
Him and unto Him, there must be a great parallelism be
tween history — ^thejevents and relationships which arise in
providence — and the history of grace in redemption. There is
only one Word of God, who expresses Himself in nature and
in the spiritual world. Hence we have such striking
resemblances. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTLTlES. 95
and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much
fruit." This mysterious law is true also in the spiritual
world, finding its most wonderful and perfect fulfillment in
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus we are
prepared to find in all the realms of God's kingdom, from
the lowest to the highest, symbols of Christ. In the lowest
we have Christ represented by the Stone, the Rock — ^the
emblem of strength, of firmness, of never-changing stability ;
the foundation which cannot be moved. But He is also like
the Plant. His is life, even as He gives life. He is there
fore called the Branch (or Zemach), simply and most
generally representing the idea of organic life. And this in
its highest and noblest form, for He is the Vine; and in its
loveliest and most beauteous manfestation, for He is the
Rose. But He is symboled forth in a higher kingdom than
that of the plants. He is strong and royal as a Lion ; He is
meek and gentle, attractive and patient, "made for suffer
ing," like a Lamb. But yet higher we rise. He is called
"the Son of Man;" for whatsoever is truly human (ac
cording to the idea of God) — wisdom and love, strength of
purpose and gentleness of submission, concentration in God
and expansive benevolence to all, work and energy, and
meditative rest and festive sabbath, — all that is truly man
finds in Him its prefect exponent and fulfillment. And
above all. He, the true Microcosm, in whom and by whom all
things were created and are upheld, and who is the very
Spirit of All, in so far as it is,* is the Lord of glory, the
Son of the Father, God of God, and Light of light. The
Father beholdeth all things in Him, who is the beginning of

*Sin is not substance.

96 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
the creation of God; and we, to our unspeakable joy, with
adoring hearts and light-filled eyes, learn to see all things in
Him and Him in all things.
Jesus speaks of Himself as the King, the Shepherd, the
Friend, and the Bridegroom; while the Spirit is spoken of
under the emblems of Wind or Breath, Oil, Water, and the
Dove. The book of Nature is more especially brought constantly
before us, that we may read in it, and trace in its pages the
same wonderful truths which the Word has spoken more
distinctly in the written book of God's testimony. It has
been noticed by Alexander von Humboldt ("Kosmos"),
that in no book of antiquity is there such a loving and faith
ful observation of nature as in the Bible. Such testimony
is welcome; it confirms what we could not expect to be
otherwise. Here also, as regards nature, we may say: God
loveth His children ; the works of His hands are dear to Him,
and He often refers to them, to the heavens and the earth
and the sea, to the stars, and to the trees and fields. Where
is there such a description of nature as we find in the book
of Job, in the words attributed to the Lord Himself? As
He said at the first. His works are very good, wonderful iii
their beauty, and marvelous in wisdom and greatness. But
here we may also say, "God is His own interpreter." He
explains to us the meaning of light and of the sun ; He ex
plains to us the meaning of the heavens being high above us,
and the symbolism of that sapphire blue which is above the
black clouds of Sinai. He explains to us the meaning of the
rain and snow, which come down from heaven and return
not thither, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and
bud, to give bread to the eater and seed to the sower. He-

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 97
Speaks to us of the mountains and rocks, and what is symbol
ized by their strength and immovable steadfastness ; of the
fountains and wells of water, refreshing in the wilderness ;
of honey from the honeycomb : of all that is in heaven, and
on earth, and in the sea, God often speaks, showing us that
all was made by the Word, even Christ, and therefore speaks
and testifies of Him.*
In this symbolism everything is so simple, so real, that it
speaks to the heart. There is nothing forced here. The
spiritual meaning does not supplant, nor even place in the
background, the immediate and primary meaning of God's
works, as showing forth His wisdom, power, and goodness.
Nor is this spiritual meaning a moral appended, as some lame
fables require an explanation. We love and appreciate the
works themselves the more we connect them, as God does,
with the inward idea. God interprets Himself in interpret
ing His works, for there is but one God, Creator and Re
deemer. This symbolism enters very minutely into all Scripture;
the measure of understanding it varies in us according to our
disposition and discernment. Colors and numbers, the very
hem of the garments of space and time, are significant.
Blue, purple, scarlet, and white (in the Tabernacle), black
and green — the rainbow with its twofold, outer and inner,

*"The whole visible world is a large Bible, full of parables, alle
gories, and doctrines. They were written before there were men to
read them, in order that, after man's creation, he might immediately
begin to learn and spell; as you have seen a schoolmaster write on
the blackboard before the children assembled, so as not to lose any
time, but to be able to begin his instructions at once." — Alban Stolz,
Vater Unser,

98 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
aspect. Again, the numbers three and seven, as relating
to God and heavenly things; four, the number of earthly
completeness; ten, twelve, forty, and others, which I only
desire now to indicate.
And in this symbolism there is (as must already be clear)
nothing arbitrary. The symbol generally runs through the
whole of Scripture, such as Serpent (from Genesis to Reve
lation), Marriage, Bridegroom and Bride, Woman, Daugh
ter of Zion, Bride of the Lamb; Babel (Genesis, Daniel, and
Revelation) ; Beast, the Power of the World ; Dove, the
Emblem of the Spirit (Gen. viii.. Matt, iii., Song of Solo
mon)., and many others. God speaks in a perfect way ; ex
pect perfection, and, according to your need and capacity,
you will find it.
God taught Israel by symbols : symbols on a very grand,
large, awful scale. Their own history was the parable. The
election of Abram, the birth of Isaac, the exodus out of
Egypt, Israel's wanderings in the wilderness, their wars and
victories, the reign of David, the glory of Solomon, the
captivity of Babylon — all this was symbolical. So were their
great men, Joseph, Moses, David, Jonah. So were their
festivals and ordinances. And as all pointed to the future,
even to Christ and His kingdom, the symbols became typical.
Hence every portion of Scripture has a meaning and ap
plication which no single age exhausts ; it fulfills itself con
tinually. No Scripture is of private interpretation. The
wanderings of Israel through the wilderness are our own
experiences in our pilgrimage on earth. Every Christian
speaks of his Marah and Elim, his Massah, and Meribah,
and Rephidim; the varied experiences of the Psalms have
been realized by thousands as their own ; and no pastor, ac-

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 99
quainted with their circumstances and sympathizing with
them in their sorrow, could have prayed with them, and
given expression to their feelings and wholesome guidance
to their thoughts, in more suitable words than those of
David, the son of Jesse.
The enemies of Jesus, Pharisees, Sadducees, Pilate, Herod,
the people crying "Crucify Him," the daughters of Jeru
salem weeping — these all exist in the present day, as they
did eighteen centuries ago. Mary and Martha, Peter and
John, Nathanael and Thomas, are eternal characters. The
pictures of Scripture never fade, because the Spirit writes
according to the essence.*
"Types were given to convey light, and in such a way as to
make an indelible impression. Besides, doctrines are more
securely handed down by types such as were in the Taber
nacle, — ^the altar, candlesticks, shew-bread, veil, etc., etc., all
signifying truths ; their very position, and the acts connected
with them, embodying important spiritual teaching. It by
no means follows that the thing typified was not seen and
known by the people ; on the contrary, we know from Psalms
Ii. and cxix., that the true Israelite believed that there was a
hidden wisdom and marvelous substance in the law and its
ordinances. How much the mind of the deepest and most

*"It is remarkable how the child of God naturally reads the Word
in this way, long before he knows the reason why he does so ; for
the spiritual sense within him, far in advance of his spiritual dis
cernment or strength, instinctively draws to and uses that which is
suited to it. * * * And the more he meditates upon these sub
jects, the more is he amazed at the fulness and exactness of the
analogy between himself and Israel." — Jukes. Mystery of the King
dom, p. 14.

lOO CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
spiritual believer dwells on symbols and types, is seen by
the fact of the Gospel of John containing more references
to the syir^bols of Scripture (both from nature and Jewish
history), than any other portion of the Word. How many
symbols are alluded to in the first chapter ! The Word, by
whom all things were made (Gen. i.) ; the Word tabernacling
among us (Exod. xxv. 8; xxix. 45) ; the Shechinah (Exod.
xl. 34) ; the way of the Lord (Isa. xl.) ; the ladder of Jacob ;
the Paschal Lamb. In chapter ii., we have the type of the
Temple. In chapter iii., the new birth; the Spirit as the
wind, which bloweth where it listeth (Ezek. xxxvii.) ; the
brazen serpent ; the offering up of Isaac ; the bridegroom and
his friend. In chapter iv., the symbolism of wafer (Isaiah
and Ezekiel) ; the symbolism of the harvest. In the sixth
chapter we read the Saviour's exposition of the manna;
and, in connection with the custom of the feast, we read in
the seventh Christ's reference to the water of life drawn
with joy out of the wells of salvation. Observe the symbol
of the light ; of servant and son (chapter viii.) ; in chapter ix.,
the spiritual meaning of blindness ; chapter x., the parables
of the door, the sheepfold, the hireling, the shepherd, the
twofold flock; chapter xi.. Resurrection, the spiritual and.
the real ; chapter xii., the great parable of the corn of wheat ;
chapter xiii., the symbolic act of washing the disciples' feet ;
chapters xiv.-xvi., the Father's house with many mansions;
the vine; the Friend laying down His life and the friends
treated with confidence; the woman rejoicing over the child
that is born.
It is John who notices that Christ's thirst on the cross was
a fulfillment of prophecy, and who records the fulfillment of

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. lOI
the typical predictions, "not a bone of His body was broken,"
and that He was pierced (Exod. and Zech.).
John especially dwells on the contrast of light and dark
ness — life and death. He speaks often of "eating and drink
ing," of "the bread of life," of the "water of life." I have
given this rapid reference to the more striking and obvious
allusions, in order to show that the symbolic view pre
dominates in the mind of one who was nearest to Jesus on
earth, and who has written what the Church in all ages has
designated the spiritual Gospel.
5. The Spirit of (jod is all-sided. As regards God, He is
One Spirit; as regards us. He is represented as Seven
Spirits. The Scripture, the work of the Spirit, is therefore,
notwithstanding its appearance of humility in the form of a
servant, all-sided. It contains the truth in all its aspects.
As in Nature so in Scripture, there is a "systematic want of
system," and therefore its completeness is not so obvious as
if it was arranged like a botanical garden, and had annexed
to it a table of contents, showing that from A to Z all was
contained in it. For many reasons God has thus ordered it ;
one doubtless is, that we may use the Book in a spiritual and
not in a mechanical manner. Not memory, but conscience;
not intellect, but the heart; not a superficial submission of
the will, but a conformity of mind — or rather, the Spirit
producing this — can enable us to use Scripture aright. Hence
the Saviour teaches us a profound lesson, when He refuted
Satan's quotation of Scripture by saying, "Again, it is writ
ten." What is the meaning of this word "again"? Does one
Scripture contradict the other? Or is one so clear and the

102 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
other so obscure, that we must cleave to the distinct declara
tion, and leave the dark saying unobserved? Or is one
Scripture extreme? does it go too far? has its teaching to
be modified and its counsel to be taken with abatement ? By
no means. All Scripture, we know, is divine and profitable.
What is meant, then, by "Again it is written"? It means,
that the Holy Spirit directs the conscience and heart to the
right passage, which gives light and commandment for the
present situation and want; and that while the passage
quoted by the adversary was perfectly true and most pre
cious, the application was erroneous and contrary to the
Spirit, so that "Again it is written," does not modify the
Bible statement, but places it in its true light.
Follow Scripture with all your might; go into the full
meaning of each doctrine and fact; do not blunt its edge
by an apparently contradictory statement. For instance,
Paul teaches justification by faith only; James lays great
stress on works. Do not add the two statements arithme
tically as it were, and draw an average. In this way you
are sure to misunderstand both Paul and James. "Without
works" is the very sum and substance, pith and marrow,
strength and glory, of Paul's testimony. His whole preach
ing is concentrated in this declaration of salvation by grace.
His whole history and spiritual experience find their center
there. All his usefulness and suffering, his influence and
work, are connected with this faithful saying of righteous
ness without works, of grace abounding to the chief of sin
ners. This is the root without which, as he shows, there can
be no true life, while it cannot exist without manifesting
itself in the fruits of righteousness. This, even grace, is
the discipline which teaches us to deny ungodliness and

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. I03
worldly lusts. Modify or dilute Paul's teaching on this point,
and the whole Paul, soul and spirit, doctrine and work,
ministry and epistles, vanish into vagueness. And as for
James, do the people who speak of him as practical, and are
inclined to view him as a necessary and wholesome cor
rective, not of Paul — because Paul is now "St. Paul," and
his epistles stand in the authorized Bible — ^but of the spirit
of Paul, of Paul's doctrine and gospel — do they understand
to whom, and of whom, James is speaking? Do they know
what he means by good works? Have they received his
testimony, that in order to bring forth fruit, man requires
to be born again of the sovereign and powerful will of God
through the implanting of the word of truth? Can they
also say, "Of his own will begat He us by the word of truth,
that we might be the first fruits of His creation" ? If you
understand Paul aright, James will only confirm you in the
true grace wherein you stand; and as he views faith as a
God-given power, and the believer as one begotten of God's
own will by the word of truth, his questions and exhorta
tions will, as wholesome tests and warnings, root you only
the deeper in that only Vine, apart from whom we can bring
forth no fruit.
When we are in doubt and sorrow, bowed down with a
sense of sin and unworthiness, or tempted to trust in our
own works and progress, let us remember that it is written,
"By grace and not by works." When we are tempted to
false security and negligence, let us remember that again
it is written, "Watch and be sober;" "Follow Me;" "Work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling." It is
written, "Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither
cast your pearls -before swine," but remember, again it is

104 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
written, "Preach the word in season and out of season." It
is written, "I am persuaded, that nothing shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus ;"
and again it is written, "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall
die." It is written, "AH is vanity ;" and again it is written,
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." It is
written, "No man can add a cubit to his stature ;" and again
it is written, "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Remember what is written
about Christ's divinity, and what again is written about His
growing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and
man. It is written again, but not against. Only ask thyself
who quotes, and for what purpose ? For Satan quotes Scrip
ture to his own purpose. That in us which savors not of
God, but of man, and which Jesus connects directly with
Satan (Matt. xvi. 23), quotes Scripture, leading us either
into false confidence or false fear, either into morbid pas-
siveness or false activity ; and the finding of the "again it is
written," is the work of conscience rather than that of
memory. Our errors of exegesis are far oftener moral than
intellectual. It is solemn life-work before God to use the
Bible aright. Here, again, we see the great position assigned
by God to the Spirit.
As the Book was written by the Spirit, it cannot be used
safely, it cannot fulfill its practical and solemn purpose, but
by the continual guidance and blessing of that selfsame
Spirit. It is of little use as a dead book; it requires a con
tinually quickened and exercised conscience.
6. In connection with this great truth, the inspiration

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. IO5
of Scripture, consider the peculiar style of Scripture. Every
reader of the Bible is struck with the wonderful style of this
book. There are in its pages a simplicity and depth, a
grandeur and beauty, a fervor and pathos, a brevity and com
prehensiveness, which no other literary production has ever
equalled. The greatest authors, poets, and artists have
noticed and acknowledged this. Johannes Von Muller
speaks of Moses as the grand model for historians. Goethe
confesses that there never was an idyl written like the book
of Ruth ; and that the narratives of Genesis possess a charm
exquisite and unique.
But, we ask, why is the Bible style so wonderful? The
men who wrote the Bible did not aim at artistic effect ; they
did not think about being sublime, or pathetic, or picturesque.
It is this very absence of self-consciousness, this quiet and
calm forgetfulness of self in the contemplation and descrip
tion of what, in its intrinsic importance and beauty, requires
no commendation and ornament, which invest their writings
with such wonderful power. In human poetry there is al
ways an element that is artificial, unreal, self-conscious. It
is not altogether the spontaneous and true outburst of in
ward thought and feeling. How different are the Psalms of
David and prophecies of Isaiah ! Here all is poetical because
all is real; and all that is real here, — God, His kingdom,
truth and love, faith and prayer, — is, in the highest sense,
poetical, ideal. The Bible poetry reminds us of the sweet
melody which in the lonely wood ascends from the joyous
bird. The difference between the Scripture style and the style
of human writings, is the same as between the work of God
in creation and a work of man in art. In this subordinate

I06 CHRISt AND THfi SCRIPTURES.
sense it is also true what the apostle says of the Word of
Ck)d, it is living; and what Luther used to express in his
realistic way, "It has hands and feet." It is the difference
which exists between a rose out of a garden, and a rose
made of wax. The work of art may be more perfect and
faultless than the living flower, in which there may be some
irregularity and flaw. Yet when we see the real rose, we
exclaim, "How beautiful! how fragrant!" When we see
the artist's work, we say, "How clever!" In the one case
our heart and eye are delighted, lost in admiration of the
object; in the other case there is produced a feeling of a
totally different and inferior character. "As it is in the
book of Nature, so it is in the pages of Holy Writ. Both are
from the same divine hand. And if we apply to the language
of Holy Scripture the same microscopic process which we
use in scrutinizing the beauties of the natural world, and
which reveals to us exquisite colors and the most graceful
texture in the petals of a flower, the fibers of a plant, the
plumage of a bird, or the wings of an insect, we shall dis
cover new sources of delight and admiration in the least
portions of Holy Writ."*
We may also say, that as the ocean is to a lake or river,
so is the Bible style to that of even the most spiritual and
profound men. For in the Bible everything is viewed from
the highest point, and according to its true essence and
position in the history of the divine economy. In the Bible
we breathe the atmosphere of eternity. "Scripture sees all
things from a great height, therefore the expressions it uses
are according to a different measure and perspective from

*Canon Wordsworth.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURfiS. io7
those of the world, for which reason the Scripture seems
exaggerated to the world. This absolute and perfect view
and measure of Scripture, which we ought always to regard
as the standard of all our thoughts and words, may be
specially noticed in the Scripture description of the creation,
redemption, and the end of all things. How paradoxical
and above nature!"*
We may also say that He, who alone knows the human
heart, is alone able to speak to the heart of man ; and while
other writings are pre-eminently logical and imaginative,
or addressed to the conscience and feelings. Scripture speaks
to man, to "all that is in him" (Ps. ciii. i), to the inmost
and hidden center, from which proceed all thoughts, words,
and works. This penetrating peculiarity of the Scripture
style is another feature of its divine origin. Scripture
speaks to the heart of man (Isa. xl. i, Heb.). That means,
not merely to speak so as to influence the will and rouse
strong feelings, but to reveal the secrets of the heart (i
Cor. xiv. 25 ; Jer. xvii. 10 ; Prov. xv. 11), and to fill its
desire for eternity with something perfect. Scripture repre
sents the heart as a little world. "When the man of God
speaks, his word seizes a hundred elements in this little
world; what was hidden is brought out, the false imagina
tions are brought to shame and despair cries for help and
seeks anchorage." The heart feels the difference between a
human and a divine word.
There is another peculiarity of the Bible style ; it is homely

*Oetinger, friend of Bengel, who died in 1782, as Prelate of the
Wurtemberg Church in Murrhardt. — Etwas Games vom Evangelio,
p. 148.

Io8 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
and confidential. Its tone is fatherly, friendly, winning our
trust and breathing out love. Scripture is wonderfully com
prehensive, and yet very minute and personal; uncom
promising and stern, majestic and awful, and yet most con
siderate and tender. God, while He reveals His omnip
otence and omniscience, and makes us feel that He is God,
and that there is none beside Him, at the same time speaks
to us in confidence, explaining to us His ways. His motives.
His plans ; causes us to listen to His covenant with His Son ;
asks us to rejoice in His future manifestations of goodness
and glory. "I read in my Bible," is the common expression
of the Christian, showing that in this book God speaks to
him individually as to His child; that in this book he finds
the special message of God, condescending to his individual
need and state. We have the same feeling of individual pro
prietorship in the Bible that a child has in a letter especially
addressed to himself, and with allusions to his work and
play — "his letter."
The Scripture speaks with authority, and not as other
books; out of an inexhaustible fulness it communicates to
us what is profitable. Mysteries, the knowledge of which
is not necessary for our present life, or not possible for us
in our present state, it leaves, without explaining the silence,
and gives us such fragments about Satan's history and that
of the angels as it sees fit, and in such a manner that we
feel convinced the fragments are from a connected and
perfect whole, well known to Him from whom the Scripture
truly comes. This very fragmentariness of the Bible pro
duces in us a profound feeling of awe and trust while we
listen to the voice of Him of whom are all things, whose

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. I09
ways are above our ways, and who in His mercy and wis
dom teacheth us to profit (Isa. xlviii. 17).
The Scripture style is thus very wonderful. He who has
tasted this wine, discovers at once the comparative insipidity
of all human books. Compared with other words, Bible
words are inexhaustible, but they are more easily remem
bered, and remain like nails fastened (Eccles. xii. 11, accord
ing to Stier's translation) : "The words of the wise are as
goads, and as nails fastened; the masters of collections (of
sayings, etc.) are ordained of one Shepherd." Compared
with other words, they are more solemn and awful, and yet
more heart-winning and encouraging; more catholic and
comprehensive, and yet more individual and minute : they are
more above us, and yet more within us. In short, they are
like God, who is the only One, Lord and Father.
We all must agree with the quaint remarks of old
Oetinger : "I am satisfied.only with the style of Scripture.
My own style and the style of all other men cannot satisfy
me. If I read only three or four verses I am sure of their
divinity, on account of their inimitableness. It is the style
of the heavenly court. * * * The writers of Scripture
observe all rules without having rules, because their word
proceeds from Life ; they never bring forth old things with
out new, which have never been thus uttered. They avoid
abstract definitions like a pestilence ; they clothe their ideas
and give them a body, but such a body as never misleads us
to the sensual. Scripture moves, describes, convinces. In
Isaiah we have not formal sentences, but real addresses,
which re-echo in the heart, calling on us to be comforted by
God's redemption: 'Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold
your God!' All is full of the nearness of God's Spirit:

no CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
'Fear not, I am with thee.' * * * The apostolic men
had not the habit of prefixing their theme, even as a painter
would not write above his picture of a horse, 'This is a horse ;'
and because divisions are chiefly of use to the learned, the
prophets had another method of fastening the great points as
nails into the heart, so that people did not require the art of
remembering, but, as Themistocles said of his bad conscience,
'the art of forgetting.' Isaiah has perfect divisions, but not
as a geometrical plane is divided into squares, but as a man
consists of members, and a tree of trunk and branches."

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. Ill

CHAPTER VII.
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE
PRESENT AGE.
We ought never to open the Scriptures except with a
feeling of profound reverence and gratitude. As one has
said, "They are heaven speaking upon earth; in them we
hear the voice of the living God." As the same witness has
declared on his death-bed : "When I shall enter the invisible
world, I do not expect to find things different from what the
Word of God has represented them to me here. The voice
I shall then hear, will be the same I now hear upon the earth,
and I shall say, 'This is indeed what God said to me; and
how thankful I am, that I did not wait till I had seen in
order to believe.' "*
In reading the Scriptures, we ought to approach as to a
sanctuary, with awe and reverence, with a collected mind and
a solemn, docile heart. And how thankful ought we to be
for this revelation, for its fulness and simplicity, for the
great truths it unfolds and the minute counsels it contains,
for its doctrine and consolation ; the history of the past and
the prophecy of the future, the example of the saints and
the varied experiences of God's children. If an angel from
heaven, who had been before God's throne for thousands of
years, came down to earth, and dwelling among us, was

*A. Monod's "Farewell."

112 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
willing to communicate unto us out of the treasure of his
knowledge of divine things, how eagerly we would seek his
society, and how attentively we would treasure up his words.
But the Bible is better than such a celestial messenger. It
is given by God Himself, as the best and most perfect
teacher. He, in His infinite wisdom, has adapted both the
matter and manner to our wants and peculiar position in this
world. He has revealed to us things into which the very
angels desire to look. What can be more precious than His
own language and His own words, revealing to us the in
most thoughts and purposes of His heart? We ought to
open the Bible with the most lively gratitude. Here is in
deed a treasure invaluable. "Oh, how I love thy Word ! it
is better than thousands of gold and silver ; it is sweeter than
honey and the honeycomb."
It is a weak and pale word, and not at all corresponding
to the real nature of the case and to the feelings of the
Christian, to speak of our duty to read the Scriptures. Where
there is reverence, love, trust, where there is joy in com
munion with God, we look upon the reading of Scripture not
as a duty; one among many others. It stands by itself.
Listening to the voice of God is not one of many duties, but
it is the source as well as the regulator of all duties. It is
not merely a work which our conscience declares to be right,
but our very conscience, and affections, and will, and mind,
our whole inner man, receives from this Word light and
strength. We feel it necessary to read the Scriptures, just as food is
necessary to sustain life, and as we desire to breathe pure and
fresh air. It is a necessity ; not a compulsion of an external
kind, which is opposed to our nature, and which is as a

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. I13
mechanical burden imposed on us. It is a necessity, in the
seilse that our whole spiritual life craves for it, and cannot
prosper without it. And is not one reason of our languid
and feeble life the simple fact, that we do not breathe suffi
ciently the Bible air? Sermons and tracts, and religious
books, contain not sufficiently that ozone, which is the ex
clusive characteristic of God's Word.
But it may not be unnecessary to add a word on the
copious reading of Scripture. Read the whole Scripture, for
Scripture is a connected whole. Do not neglect the histori
cal, or prophetic, or doctrinal portions. Forget not the
book of Proverbs nor the little Epistle to Philemon. Think
not that there is no food for the soul in the books of the
Chronicles. God has given us the whole, and means us to
use the whole, for it is all profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness. We Prot
estants speak much, and at times somewhat boastfully, of
our great reverence and love for the Bible. Is our glorying
in truth? Do we love the Bible, not merely as a text-book
from which to collect proofs for our doctrine, an armory
from which to select weapons to defeat our opponents, but
do we love the Bible as God's revelation, in which our minds
are to be moulded, by which our hearts are to be influenced ?
Are there not many portions of Scripture so neglected, that
if to-morrow some magic hand were to efface them from our
editions, very few of us would miss them? Have we not
received it "more as a theory than a real and practical belief,
that all the books of Moses, and prophets, and apostles are
inspired, authoritative, profitable ? Let us be really disciples,
learners, not selecting, not rejecting, but receiving all our
Lord has graciously caused to be written for our instruction.

114 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
If such a diligent study of Scripture should interfere with
our reading of religious literature we may rest satisfied that
we shall not be losers, to say the least of it. While we use
with gratitude the books in which men communicate their
thoughts and experience, we must always, not merely in
theory, but in practice, hold them in a subordinate position.
The more the Bible has the pre-eminence, the greater will
be our power of discernment, and the more shall we be
truly benefited by the writings of men. A diligent study of
Scripture will place us in the true position of not being in
bondage to man, and of being willing to learn with grati-
tude from all servants of the Lord.
Has a Christian ever regretted on his death-bed, that he
spent too much time in reading the Bible, and too little time
in reading men's writings? But many of God's people
have expressed their regret that they have not studied the
Word of (jod more. Let us then act as they would have
acted, had their life been lengthened; let us start now, as
they, by the solemn and clear light of their last days, saw it
was good, and wise, and blessed to start.* Let us give time
to the regular and diligent reading of "all Scripture."
Read Scripture connectedly. It is true, every word of
God is pure; precious is every expression, and on a single
line or verse we may meditate only to find that its depth is
inexhaustible. But besides this minute reading and medi
tation, there ought to be also a more rapid and connected

*This thought has many applications. One has often struck me.
Christians on their death-bed invariably look to Christ alone, and
to the mercy of God exclusively. They then understand clearly
"righteousness without works." They see eternal life as the free
gift of God. Starf with this,

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. II5
reading. It is a mistaken reverence which at times inter
feres with our understanding of the Word. We fancy every
word is printed in italics, and do not gain the meaning of a
whole chapter or epistle. Bring all concentration of mind
to the reading of Scripture, and then apply your intellect to
it as to any other book. Reverential reading includes the
lower attitude of attention, exertion of mind, and earnest
ness. The Spirit is promised to reveal and apply to us the
truths of Scripture. But one result of the Spirit's in
fluence is an honest application of the mind to the Bible. If
we read in a kind of mental paralysis, with a mysterious feel
ing of performing a duty which somehow or other will bene
fit us, we misunderstand the nature of the Bible. It is used
by the Spirit to convince, instruct, comfort, guide, and this
through the understanding, conscience, emotions ; therefore
in the Bible we have history, argument, poetry, maxim, sug
gestion, appeal. All that is within us is exercised by this
Word, and the more the Spirit aids us, the more will all our
mental and moral faculties be brought into activity in the
reading of Scripture. Again I say, let us give ourselves to
frequent, copious, honest reading of the Bible, in depend
ence on the grace of God, who alone giveth the increase.
2. BIBLIOLATRY.
The charge of Bibliolatry (worship of the Bible) has been
of late frequently preferred against those who maintain the
supremacy of Scripture. As far as this objection is urged
by those who do not fully and clearly acknowledge the
divine authority and inspiration of Scripture, it is easily re
futed. But as far as we ourselves are concerned, we may do

Il6 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
well to consider whether our opponents are not giving ut
terance to a truth which they themselves do not fully see, and
warns us against a danger the existence of which we are apt
to overlook. In other words, never mind whence and for
what purpose the charge of Bibliolatry is made, — consider
the thing itself ; is there such a tendency, such an evil, such
a danger? I know that many Christians will reply at once,
"We cannot value, and reverence, and cherish the Bible
sufficiently." And this is quite true. The danger is not of
a reverence too deep, but of a reverence untrue and unreal.
We cannot speak, think, and feel too highly of Scripture in
its vital connection with Christ and the Spirit; but there
maybe a wayof viewing Scripture by itself apart from Christ
and the Holy Spirit, and transferring to this dead book our
faith, reverence, and affection; and this surely would come
under the category of idolatry, — substituting something,
however good and great in itself, or rather in its relation
¦ to God, in the place of the living God. Gross idolatry is not
the danger of the Church. Since the Reformation, idolatry
must needs appear in a very subtle form.
On such an impOTtaqt subject it is a duty to be explicit,
although one is liable to d& misunderstood. Notice, that all
points which are of special importance at the present time
are always those on which one is most easily misunderstood ;
the truth which is clearly seen and universally accepted, is
not that truth which is specially needed to be pointed out at
the time. By Bibliolatry I understand the tendency of
separating, in the first place, the Book from the Person of
Jesus Christ, and in the second, from the Holy Spirit, and of
thus substituting the Book for Mim who alone is the light

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. II7
and guide of the Church. In explanation of this twofold
tendency, i submit the following considerations : —
The Jews regarded Scripture as the Word of God. They
reverenced its very letter, guarding it with scrupulous care
and studying it with indefatigable diligence. They were
zealous defenders of "the oracles of God" entrusted to them,
and boasted of the wonderful treasure in their possession.
How then was it, that with such a reverence and knowledge
of Scripture, they could not understand the Living Word,
Jesus Christ? The Lord explained the fact. "Vyhile they
thought that in the Scriptures thev had eternal life, thev had
not the Word of God abiding in them^ Was there not
Bibliolatry in their case ?
But not merely did they not understand and receive
Christ's word, .though it was so fully in accordance with the
Scripture, but they did not perceive the resemblance be
tween Jesus and that picture of the Messiah which Moses
and the prophets had delineated, and which was so wonder
fully and strikingly manifested before them in glorious ful
fillment. They were continually reading that Scripture in
which the features of the Messiah, the chosen servant of
God, were clearly and fully described; and when the Man
stood before them who was the Original of the portrait,
they did not know Him ; they recognized not who He was ;
nay, they ended in condemning Him to death "according to
their law" (that is, on Scripture grounds).
How is it, that with all their reading of Scripture, they did
not recognize Him of whom all prophets testified? They
did not fall down before Jesus in adoration and worship.
Then what did they worship ? Thejejter of Scripture they
reverenced ; the sum and substance, the reality of Scripture,

Il8 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
Jesus_Christ, they did not even recognize. Here we have a
total misunderstanding of Scripture, combined with an
orthodox belief in its authority, and great and zealous de
fence and praise of the inspired Record. How striking and
lamentable is this fact! The Jews believing the Bible and
rejecting Jesus ; glorying in the written Word, and casting
Jesus out of the beloved city ; holding the Bible in one hand,
and crucifying Jesus with the other ; nay, accusing Him of
blasphemy. Whether there is anything corresponding to this among
us, I leave the reader to judge. Whether to many the Bible
is as it was to the Jews, not the voice of the living God, but
instead of that voice, so that while they believe it contains
truth, they do not believe the truth it contains; whether with
the professed reverence for the Bible, there is much real
reverence for the word which comes from God, and treat
ment of it as such, is an inquiry which I simply indicate and
suggest. How can we account for such a nation. Scripture-loving
and Jesus-hating; reverencing the letter of Scripture, but
not able to recognize the voice of Him who had spoken af
sundry times and in divers manners to the fathers, and was
now speaking to them by His Son, the Lord Jesus? It is
"Bibliolatry" which explains it. They substituted "Bible"
for God speaking in and through this book. They thought
that instead of a living God guiding them and influencing
them, they had now a Book which contained all, and the
great thing was to explain it correctly. They asked (as our
people ask) "What was the text?" and not "What is the
Word, the message of God ?" It is evident from the Psalms
and the prophets that the books of Moses were diligently

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. II9
read, and yet the constant call to Israel was, "Return to
Jehovah." The difference between the true Israelite and
the Bibliolater was, — the one looked upon Scripture as lead
ing him to God, as a channel through which God taught,
influenced, and comforted him : the other looked upon Scrip
ture as a substitute for God; in other words, it became to
him a way of getting rid of God. The spirit of the God-
estranged text-worshippers is expressed in the saying of a
Rabbi, that now that God has given the Law, He has no
more need and right to interfere by future revelations. Under
the pretence of honoring the Bible, they virtually treated
God as one who had ceased to live and rule among them.
And now the rule of man began. For if instead of God we
have the Bible, the task of commentators, interpreters, casu
ists, commences. For the text is obscure, the commentary
distinct; the text is severe, the casuist accommodating; the
text is deep and many-sided, the interpreter shallow and one
sided; the text desires inward truth and radical cure, the
tradition heals the hurt of the daughter of my people super
ficially and falsely. In course of time the tradition came to
be regarded as more valuable, more necessary, more practi
cal, than the. Bible. Naturally so. Without a living God,
viewing the Bible as God's substitute, a clear and detailed in
terpretation of the code is in reality of greater importance
than the code itself.
This fact, Israel reverencing the Bible and crucifying
Christ, is patent and striking to all. But it may not have
been sufficiently considered, that it is a fact for all ages, and
that the principles involved in it have a special importance
for the Church.
But while this form of Bibliolatry is chiefly among those

lib CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
who have not accepted the message of God (though they ac
cept "the Bible"), and who are often encouraged in their
state by not having this dead acceptance of the Bible pointed
out to them, there is another form of Bibliolatry which is
more dangerous to the children of God. Such phrases as
"The Bible is the religion of Protestants," well-meant, and
true to a certain extent, already indicate an incipient decay.
Where there is life, and life in health, such expressions do
not exist. Paul never would have said that the Scripture was
the religion of the Christian. Christ was his Light and
Life. If asked further about Christ, he would describe Him
as the Scripture testifies of Plim, and as the Spirit revealed
Jesus to his soul. It is not that Paul thought otherwise
than we do about the divine authority, sufficiency, and ful
ness of Scripture, but he stood to Scripture in a true relation.
The Reformation-churches soon departed from the true
and living view of Scripture. Luther saw Scripture in its
relation to Christ and to the Spirit; indeed, many of his
sayings err on the side of subjecting the Scripture too much
to the testimony of the Spirit to our spirit. They are un
guarded, but in reality only strong and one-sided expressions
of what he felt so deeply, — that we do not place the Bible
as Christ's substitute or the substitute of the Holy Spirit;
that the great value of the Bible is that it testifies of Christ ;
and that the Holy Spirit is the true enlightener and teacher.
While Luther did not sufficiently guard his assertions
(forgetting, too, that the testimony of Scripture concerning
Christ was much more ample and full than his idea as to
what that testimony ought to be), his followers too soon
forgot the true position of the Scripture. The Holy Spirit is
above Scripture. Not that there is anything in the Scripture

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 121
which is not in accordance with the Spirit's teaching, for all
, Scripture is inspired of God, but the Church is in danger of
ignoring the existence of the Holy Spirit and her constant
dependence on Him, and of substituting for the Spirit the
Book. And now commences the reign of interpreters and
commentaries, of compendiums and catechisms; for if we
have the Spirit's teaching in the Book instead of the Spirit's
teaching by the Book, men wish to have it extracted, simpli
fied, reduced to a system, methodized. And then, practically
speaking, the creed is above the Bible.
Thus there has been, to a great extent, "text" preaching
instead of "Word of God" preaching. The Word was "out
side" of us, instead of "dwelling" in us. And our testimony
is different in tone and power from that of the apostles and
primitive Christians; for their testimony was in the Spirit
and of Christ according to Scripture, while ours has become
testimony concerning the Bible in reference to Christ and
the Holy Spirit. The apostles spoke of Christ, and con
firmed and illustrated their testimony by the prophecies of
Scripture. They looked to the Man in tne first place, and
secondarily to the portrait given of Him in the Book. Where
as the pseudo-apostolic preaching fixes its own eye and that
of the hearer in the first place on the Book, and deduces from
it the existence and influence of the Person. The impression
in the one case is: that the preacher announces a message
from Christ, who is a reality to him ; and this his experience
of Christ, he asserts, is according to Scripture. The im
pression in the other case is : that Isaiah, Paul, John teach,
according to the preacher's exposition, such and such doc
trine. The one is preaching Christ ; the other, about Christ.
The one is life and spirit ; the other is possible without the

122 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
spirit and vitality. The one is testimony ; the other is an ex
position of another man's inspired testimony. The one is
preaching the Word (with or without text) ; the other is
text-preaching without the Word. Paul preached Christ;
our tendency is to preach that Paul preached Christ.
Why is it that God, in speaking to His own people, says
so often, "I am the Lord"? Why does He speak so fre
quently and so earnestly against idolatry? Why does He
teach us continually that the Spirit quickeneth; that the
letter, even the good and inspired letter, killeth? Because
the root-tendency of man is to substitute shadow for sub
stance, the form and outline for the fulness, rules for life,
and dead things for the living God. Because we like to
stand on terra firma, and resemble children, who cannot
understand on what pillars earth, sun, and moon do rest.
Because we think of catching a sunbeam in a trap, instead
of depending on the sun in the heavens. Therefore we are
always apt to deify "brazen serpents," "Bible doctrine," past
experiences. The man who first made a crucifix, doubtless simply meant
it as an aid to his memory and devotion. The thought of
the Saviour's love and death filled his heart with contrition,
ardent affection, peace, and joy. "Oh, if I could always thus
see a crucified Redeemer !" And why not ? Is not the same
mercy and love, which manifests Christ unto the soul now,
continually with us? Will there be no manna to-morrow?
Ah, but he wants to fix and secure the impression. He
makes the crucifix; and now, instead of Christ, we have an
expedient — an aid to devotion, which will soon become an
obstacle, and then a substitute for the living Christ. For the
process of deterioration is rapid; soon is Christ forgotten.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. I23
and the crucifix becomes not a symbol, but an idol, and men
think not merely of the crucifix, but attach importance to a
special crucifix, with wood from such a place, and which has
been used by such a saint, etc.
But idolatry, in the large and spiritual sense, is not con
fined to "crucifixes." The Bible may be the Protestant
crucifix. And then it is that, as with the Jews, so nowadays, peo
ple will say : "If you take away the Sabbath and the Bible,
what remains?" And that is just what I ask: "What does
remain?" To a number of "reUgious people" so-called,
what is left? Oh, when the Spirit of thy Lord came unto
thee, and made thee see Jesus Christ, the Friend of sinners,
and hear His blessed voice declaring peace in His blood, was
thy consciousness that of a book or of a person, of a creed
or of life, of written guarantees for God, or of that love
which passeth knowlege and of that joy which is unspeak
able? To us to live is Christ, and nothing else; and our
safety is Christ and nothing else. And for this reason, the
testimony, which nowhere but in Scripture we have perfect,
full, and without error, is to us most precious.
The opinion of the world concerning us is, that we are
guided by the Bible ; and to defend ourselves and influence
the world, we begin to show that we are right logically, and
historically, and ethically, in believing the Bible. But what
we ought to have impressed upon the world is, that we are
guided by the Holy Spirit, and that Christ is our center and
our life.
The Bible is our storehouse, where we obtain nourish
ing food (even this illustration is dangerous, for apart from
the Spirit there is no nourishing food, even in the Gospel

124 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
of John and the very words of Christ). The Bible is our
armory, where there are swords and weapons for our con
flict. But what we have to testify is, not that we have food,
but that we have life, and that there is a Christ ; not that we
are equipped for war, but that we have strength, even the
Holy Spirit.
And as for defending either the Bible or Christ, who ever
asked us to do it? Certainly not CJirist, for He told us to be
His witnesses and not His advocates, and He has promised
that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church.
The defence is in His own hand, while He has left the
testimony in ours. The whole testimony of the Church is
Jesus Christ, and that testimony is by the Spirit of
God; and those who are convinced and added to our
number are so by the preaching which is in demonstration
of Spirit and power. But when the Church argues about
and for Christ, and especially about "the Bible," as if "the
Bible" was God's guarantee instead of God's witness, she
has insensibly got into a wrong position. The apostles were
witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus — but how? Why did
Jesus Himself not appear after His resurrection to the un
believing Jews? The apostles preached — not evidence prov
ing the miraculous fact of the resurrection — ^but a risen
Saviour: resurrection-power was theirs, and the Spirit con
vinced their hearers of that life in a risen Saviour! Our
faith is not to stand in the wisdom of men but in the power
of God. When the word of the Lord comes to the soul,
it brings its authority, power, and attraction with it, and
the response of the heart is, not "What is this Book ?" but,
"Who art Thou, Lord?"
Thus even the Bible may become dangerous. When we

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. I25
realize God, when we constantly remember that Christ
Himself is All in All, and when we believe that according
to the promise the Holy Spirit is the indwelling guide of
the Church, then indeed the Bible is most precious to us,
Word of the Most High, which we desire to receive with
reverence, gratitude and joy.
This, I believe, is what Edward Irving meant, when he
said, "With shame I declare it, they talk more after the style
of a Mohammedan talking about the Koran, or a Jew
about the Talmud, than of a spiritual Christian united to
Christ speaking about the Word of Christ. For if I have
Christ, I have more than His Word, I have Himself; He
dwelleth in me, and I in Him.
"Hence cometh that bastard notion of faith, which I can
not away with, that it is merely the link which joineth the
mind of man with the record of the Book. They go about —
and men they are, many of them, most dear unto my
soul — ^to speculate concerning Christianity, as they call it;
how intellectual, how moral, how political it is, beyond all
systems ; how it is accommodated to the faculties of the un
derstanding, to the feelings of the heart, to the well-being of
the community ; it will heal the distemperature of the moral
atmosphere of society, and do a thousand fine things; for
the sake of which they would pray men to be so gracious
as to give ear unto (jod. And thus they seek by smooth
and flattering words, and well-turned sentences, and well-
built arguments, to produce that natural faith, which is no
faith, but sight, intellectual, or moral, or prudential discern
ment. But I say unto you, ye cozeners- of human nature,
that faith is by pre-eminence the gift of God ; and, wherever
given, will fight against nature in all its courses ; it will beat

126 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
down the works of natural man, your beautiful nature it
will conflagrate ; your knowledge it v/ill blow away into thin
air, and sublime towards the limbo of vanity beyond the
moon ; your sentimentalists, your men of feeling, your song
sters sweet, your novelists, your moral scaffolders (for build
a wall or lay a stone in its true place they never did nor will
do), the whole tribe of your naturalists^, rationalists, and
neologians, with which the sunbeam swarms, and the very
glittering element itself in which they flutter this gospel,
whose suitableness to improve them all you fondly prate
and preach about, will first destroy, as so many gewgaws,
which Lucifer, the son of the morning, hath made to mis
lead and destroy benighted men groping their way darkly
on to death and destruction."

3. PRACTICAL CHARACTER OF THE BIBLE.
If we remember that God has given unto us His Word,
that we may find in it Him, and not food for our curiosity,
material for the exercise of our skill and erudition, relief
from feelings of gloom, and security in the superficial ac
ceptance of doctrines and promises, — then we shall use the
book for godly edifying in faith, and realize in our expe
rience that it is profitable. The practical character of the
Bible will then increasingly manifest itself to us. Practical
in the true and full sense of the word, not in the conven
tional sense, which opposes it to doctrinal, and has reference
merely to outward acts and habits of life.
Nothing shows more fully the peculiarity of our age than
the meaning; attached to the word "practical" in the sphere

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. I27
of Spiritual life. In other spheres men fully appreciate the
value of theory. The practical significance of mathematics,
astronomy, and chemistrj', is admitted by all ; we constantly
witness it, that a single idea, the discovery of a single law,
is the fruitful source of the most important and manifold
results. But while the world is becoming more philosophi
cal in everything else, in spiritual things it is becoming
more childish and superficial. The knowledge of (jod, of
His counsel, of His love to the eternal Son, of Christ, His
divinity and humanity, of the work of the Spirit, of the
Atonement, of union with Christ, of the Kingdom, of the
return of the Saviour, — in short. Theology, — is considered
a barren theory and speculation ; the pointing out of isolated
duties, and outward works and habits, is deemed "practical."
Life is expected from the dead, and a pure river from a
polluted fountain. Morality, like a castle in the air, is con
structed without the foundation of the fear of God. While
Christ tells us, that to know God and Jesus Christ is
Life, the world insists that theology — the knowledge of God
—is abstract, and has no immediate connection with the
reality of life. It is the old story, the philosophy of the
old serpent, of being good without God ; of being like unto
God without knowing, loving, and trusting Him. For
merly God was believed to be the source of all good, and
men who were not wilUng to obey Him, said, "We love sin :"
now men say, "We love virtue, but we can have it with
out God."
The great motives which God places before us, viz., the
return of Jesue and the glory which He shall give to His
servants; the great power by which God moves the heart,
viz., the light of His love, His revelation of Hinjselfj th^

128 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
whole counsel of God, which apostles preached, and through
which men became the salt of the earth and the living
epistles of Christ ; all this, — is not "practical" in the estima
tion of many : they do not recognize the divine power, full of
vitality, which this teaching possesses. And thus it is, that
they ascribe in reality more power to the word of man, to
the exhortations of human wisdom and earnestness, to the
oratorical enforcement of isolated duties and of ethical max
ims (not growing out of "the Root"), than to the very words
of God. They forget that God, after all, and God alone, is
life; that He hath life in Himself, and His words have also
life; and that Plis words bring with them not merely good
things, but that which is the first and essential requisite of
all good, viz.. Life.
For the Word is living ("quick," Heb. iv. 12) ; and when
it is recognized as the voice of God it is powerful. Christ's
words are spirit and life. They are therefore compared to
the seed, which appears insignificant, but which, if received
in good ground, soon shows its vitality. Often the seed
springs and grows up, we know not how; first the blade,
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. The Word
of God, received as such, does not remain in us as a dead
and inert mass, a mere addition to our knowledge, but is
continually active and growing in our thoughts and words,
in our character and walk, bringing forth in some a hundred
fold, in some sixtyfold, in some thirty; while "again it is
written" that we are to lay aside everything that hindereth
and receive with meekness the engrafted Word; we are to
keep the Word to hide it in our hearts, to give heed that the
enemy take it not from our memory and our affection.
Again, this Word, living and powerful, is as a sword;

' CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 129
it possesses a dividing, separating, piercing energy, which
penetrates into the very depths of man, and discerns the
thoughts and intents of the heart. With a most faithful
accuracy and searching minuteness it analyzes our motives.
It distinguishes between nature and grace, spirit and flesh,
the old life and the resurrection life. It divides, where we
in our blindness and self-sufficiency imagine that all is pure
and pleasing to God.
Thus the Word is a mirror true, and clear, in which we
may behold our likeness. And as a mirror is for the pur
pose that we should look not at it, but into it, so the Word
is not used by us according to God's purpose, unless we
look into it to see in it ourselves ; and all "objective" ad
miration of the Bible as a wonderful mirror of the world
and the Church, only increases our guilt when we neglect
the subjective use. We are the subjects, "Thou art the
Man." "Know thyself" has, from remote antiquity, been
the counsel of human wisdom. But the precept forgets one
great difficultj'. "The heart is deceiful above all things."
Who but God can know that mysterious fountain, out of
which are the issues of life? God alone knoweth and search-
eth the heart. We therefore need a mirror, such as man can
not provide., But while this mirror shows us faithfully our
true condition, we behold in it also the face of the Lord
from heaven, who is our righteousness, and whose beauty
thus shines on His believers, so that the Father delighteth
in them.
Seed, sword, mirror, — these are three aspects of the prac
tical character of Scripture. In reading it according
to God's purpose, in reliance on the Spirit, a wonderful
influence is exerted on us. Impressions of an eternal char-

130 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
acter are received. The influence of the Lord is on the
very heart, out of which proceed thoughts and works. Grace
is our teacher, and its discipline is through the Word. And
as God's dealings with us may all be comprised under the
two grand lessons, our sin and need, and His grace and ful
ness, so the Word continually kills and quickens ; takes away
our own life and gives us the Resurrenction Life; discloses
to us our nothingness, and unfolds to us (Christ's riches.
Thus the ultimate end of Scripture is always Comfort.
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," is the motto of the
Bible. But God's comfort is in righteousness and truth.
Sin is condemned in the flesh; life is given through the
righteousness of Christ. The consolation of the world and
the natural mind is based on the imperfect view of sin (think
ing it less evil than it is) and on the false view of the
creature-life (regarding it with hope) ; it ignores sin and
evades the cross; it does not humble man; it does not lead
through death unto life. Not so God's consolation. It
is the consolation of resurrection after the cross. And this
is our temptation, to separate what God has joined. His
promises and commandments; His blessedness and His
holiness ; the cross and the glory ; His earnestness and His
compassion; Christ representing us in heaven, and we rep
resenting Him on earth; this constant combination, so
harmonious, so vital, so immediately commending itself to
the conscience, Satan is always anxious to dissolve, and thus
render our use of Scripture to the flesh — comfort, and to the
spirit — terror ; whereas God's method is terror to the flesh
and comfort to the spirit, that we may bear about the
death of our Lord, and that in us may be manifested also
the life of Christ.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. I3I
The Word makes us wise unto salvation. The Word
teaches us what it is to be wise. For the world often mis
takes cleverness and prudence for wisdom, and sometimes
calls unworldliness folly. But Scripture teaches us that
wisdom is from above, that Christ is our wisdom, and that
the end of wisdom is salvation. Yet this wisdom embraces
true prudence in all earthly duties and relationships. And
if we are guided by the Word, if we seek God's kingdom
and His righteousness, if we have our eye fixed on His prom
ise, and our affections set on the things above, if we walk with
Him in humility and faith, our minds will be clear and calm,
our words sober, truthful and kind, our actions straightfor
ward and prudent; in our intercourse with our fellow-men
we shall commend and adorn the doctrine of the Gospel.
Oh, how beautiful and perfect are God's directions in Scrip
ture! If we obeyed God in all things, temporal as well as
spiritual, inward and outward, how blessed and attractive
would our lives be! What civilization attempts, and at
tempts superficially, God's Word realizes, and realizes rad
ically. What true wisdom would he possess and manifest who
followed the Scripture rule!* In his, heart he loves God

*The words of the profound J. G. Hamann may interest the
English reader : —
"I have tested the blessed Word of God, and found it the only
light whereby we can come to God and to a knowledge of ourselves ;
the most precious gift of divine grace, so far excelling all nature
and all her treasures as our immortal spirit excels the tabernacle of
our flesh and blood; the most marvelous and venerable revelation
of the mest sublime and profound mysteries of the Godhead, of the
divine nature, attributes, and great and stupendous counsels, specially
in reference to us poor men; full of the most important dis-

132 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
and hopes for heaven, loving and forgiving his brother and
thinking no evil; his speech is yea, yea, and nay, nay; his
words are in truth and kindness ; in dress simple, as becom-
eth one whose body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and
who knoweth what is the true ornament; in his behavior
taking the lowest place until he is bidden to go up higher ;
in business not slothful, yet not making haste to be rich,
and not anxious about to-morrow; in sorrow not over
whelmed, in prosperity not elated; a man who instead of
asking "Who is my neighbor?" always asks, "To whom
may I be a helpful neighbor?" A lover of solitude, but
ready to exhort and comfort the brethren as he has oppor
tunity, and to visit the fatherless and widow in' their afflic
tion; solemn and earnest, yet anointing his face when his
soul is fasting before the Lord ; a man faithful in that which
is least, just and benevolent to all, fervent in love to the
disciples of Jesus ; a man whose heart is in heaven and
in whose heart is heaven, who learns daily of Jesus to be
like Him who is the Wisdom from above.
The Bible is a book for life, and only he who desires to
use it for life can enter into its true meaning. The Bible

coveries, embracing all ages, even into eternity; the only bread and
manna of our souls, more indispensable to the Christian than food
to the natural man. Yea, I confess that this Word of God effects
as great miracles in the soul of a Christian, be he learned or illiter
ate, as are narrated therein ; that the meaning of this Book, and faith
in its teaching, can only be gained by the same Spirit who moved its
authors ; and that the unutterable groanings which He creates in our
hearts are of the same nature as the ineffable symbols and pictures
which He has formed in Scripture in greater abundance than all the
seeds of nature and her kingdoms.''

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 133
is profitable, but only when we read as disciples whose ob
ject is to "learn Christ." The children of God thus read
Scripture, not with the purpose of exhausting its fulness,
but of receiving from it what they need for the present,
though often they treasure up much which at the time is
scarcely understood, but is unfolded in the future. In read
ing the Word in which Christ is the substance, the believer
feels that the providence of the Father and the application
of the Spirit make the Scripture to have ¦ direct guiding,
' exhorting, and comforting meaning to him. He thus not
merely sees green pastures, but God Himself maketh him to
lie down in them, and he receiveth from the heavenly Shep
herd what is salutary and refreshing for his soul.
In like manner he feels that he must read with diligence
and meditation, not running hastily over the field in which
is hidden treasure, but digging deep to discover the precious
gold. Our hearts and lives must be framed in accordance
with the great and solemn work. For we know that the
difficulties in understanding the Word are not intellectual
but spiritual — in the heart, and conscience, and will. Hence
the study of Scripture is based on self-denial. In that won
derful 119th Psalm, the golden A B C of the Jews, as Luther
calls it, we have a most instructive description of the attitude
and discipline of one who loves the Word : "I have refrained
my feet from every evil way, that I may keep thy word. In
cline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness.
I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love." He who
desires to see the hidden things of the Word, prays,
"Cleanse Thou me from secret faults."
When we are thus combining the leadings of providence, the
study of the Word, prayer, meditation and obedience, how

134 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
blessed is it to receive the message from the Lord Himself.
And how many passages stand out in the Bible of the be
liever ; marked as it were by God Himself, and sent by Him
for great purposes in affliction, in times of anxiety, in im
portant turning points of life, in mental darkness and strug
gle. It is good for us to remember and to dwell often upon
such passages, even as we ought never to forget the Scrip
tures which were first opened to our hearts and consciences
by the Spirit.
Scripture brings out the hidden treasures of affliction,
even as affliction brings out the hidden treasures of Scrip
ture. Whatever the Word is, it is becatse of its relation to
Christ. Is the Word of God quick, — ^that is, living? It is
because Christ is the Life. Is it powerful? It is because
Christ is the power of God. Is it sharper than any two-
edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow? It is because
Christ is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel ;
because Christ divides between Peter who confesses Him as
the Son of God and Peter who savors the things of men.
Is it a discemer of the thoughts and intents of the heart?
It is because Christ knows what is in man; because He
seeth Nathanael when He is under the fig-tree, and the
Pharisees who think evil in their hearts. Is it said of the
Word, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto
the eyes of Him with whom we have to do?" It is because
the spoken and written Word is identified with the Lord
Himself, whose eyes, are as a flame of fire, even the Son of
man unto whom the Father hath committed all judgment.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 1 35
Is the Word spoken of as the sincere milk, the nourishing
food of the soul? It is because Christ is the Bread of Life.
Is it commended as light shining into darkness? It is
because Christ is wisdom. The essence of Scripture is that
Saviour in whom are all things which pertain unto life and
godliness. The soul that has found Jesus Christ, sees Him
in Scripture — alway and throughout. Jesus is the door,
by which alone we can enter the sanctuary of the Word.
And when we come to Jesus, we enter into possession of the
Word, for He has the words of eternal life. They are His,
and He only can give the Word (John xvii. 14). And as
we have the Word through Him, and in Him, so we find
Him in every portion of Scripture. "When I listen to the
accordant voice of all the holy prophets, and of the apostles
of our Lord and Saviour, methinks I stand in Jerusalem
at our Lord's triumphant entry, and hear the multi
tudes of those who go before, and of those who
follow after crying, Hosannah to the Son of David!
blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord to save !"*
"Jesus Christ only" is the true center of Scripture in all its
manifold revelations; and hence all Scripture is new cove
nant, the gospel of grace. The law shuts us up to "Jesus
Christ only," even as in "Jesus Christ only" it finds its true
exposition and manifestation. The Kingdom is "Jesus
Christ only," as glory; the Church "Jesus Christ only," as
Head. The sinner is accepted, because it is "Jesus Christ
only ;" the saint lives and grows, because it is "Jesus Christ
only." The Scripture method of sanctification is as much op-
''Boyle.

136 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
posed to nature, as the Scripture method of justification.
But how truly consoling is the way of God !
The saints of God whom we admire, David, Paul, John,
are revealed to us, and the source of their life is disclosed
before our eyes. Imagine not that they were free from diffi
culties and temptations, snares and falls; that they had not
"another law striving in their members ;" and that they had
any confidence in the flesh. Beside the righteousness of
Christ, beside the mercy of God, beside the strength of the
Spirit, they had nothing in which they trusted and by which
they lived; or rather, it was their constant prayer to know
nothing and have nothing but Christ crucified. Their life
was a life of faith in Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us ; and if they brought forth much fruit, it was not be
cause there was some other principle in their heart beside
the seed of the grace of God ; it was not because they added
some other power to impel them to labor and self-denial —
but exactly the reverse. It was because they knew that they
were not under the law, but under grace; that they could
do nothing without Christ or apart from Him; that empty
sinners cannot fulfill the requirements of the law, but only
take out of the fulness of Christ, and receive grace for
grace. The legal soul transgresses the law and despises the
gospel; the believer rejoices in the Saviour, and runs the
way of God's commandments. Faith is the victory which
overcometh the world, and the sense of Christ's love is the
strength of obedience. If we could only see Him constantly
in His dying love, in His unchangeable faithfulness and
grace — the Lamb, as it was slain — we should be His fol
lowers indeed, and bring forth fruit abundantly.
Hence, while Scripture abounds in exhortations to watch-

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. I37
fulness, diligence, and zeal, it represents all good frames,
words, and wtwrks, as fruit of the Spirit, and warns us con
tinually against departing from the simplicity that is in
Christ Jesus. God, as it were, says to us : "Do not use My
gospel in a legal spirit. Whenever you wish to understand
the manner of your growth. My gospel is changed into law.
But you are to look exclusively to the fountain of your
growth, and not to the mysterious process going on within
you. Christ is to you grace, righteousness, wisdom, strength,
without your being able to understand how the work is car
ried on in the soul. You do not understand how it is that
the rain fructifies the earth and contributes to the seed and
fruit. Through My Word you shall bring forth manifold
fruit; My grace is sufficient for you. Rest satisfied that I
assure you that My Word shall make you grow. All you
have to do is to use My Word as a word of life, into which
My Spirit, as a Spirit of repentance and faith, will guide
you according to Christ's method."* This is the most prac
tical truth, the central and vital doctrine. The power of
God is Christ. Law-power cannot do it (Rom. viii. 3).
Adam-power is of no avail (Matt. xix. 26) ; Law and Christ
cannot be combined (Gal. iv. 31) ; Christ, and Christ alone,
is the power of (]k>d.
While Christ is thus the center for us. Scripture leads us
into Christ as the center of the divine, eternal, life in God.
The Father loves the Son, and saith: "Hear Him." The
Spirit glorifies Christ, and His testimony is of Him. But
Christ again leads to the Father, of whom His testimony
is continually, that He sent Him. He declares His name.

?Oetinger on Isaiah Iv. — Etwas Games, p. 63.

138 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
and finished the work He gave Him to do. And as Christ
continually points to the Father, so He continually speaks of
the Spirit as the gift of God ; and His promise to the dis
ciples is that the promise of the Father, even the Spirit, will
be sent into their hearts.
The separation in our thoughts, heart, and life, of the
ever blessed and glorious Three, is the source of all error
and weakness. Truly to dwell on the Father is not to un
dervalue Christ; to dwell on Christ is not to forget the
Father, even as the influence of the Holy Spirit is fellowship
with the Father and the Son. To speak exclusively of
Christ, ignoring the election of the Father and the work of
the Holy Spirit, is the source of Arminianism, and in reality
ends in substituting an imaginary Christ for the true Lord,
and a self-wrought faith for the faith which is the gift of
God. To dwell exclusively on the election of the Father and
the work of the Spirit (and by exclusively, I mean viewing
Christ only in a secondary and subordinate manner to these),
is to conceal Christ as the open door, the Saviour of the
lost, the fountain free and open to "whosoever." It is to
look at the outline and profile, as it were, and not to see Him
as He presents Himself to the sinner, saying, "Behold Me,
behold Me !" To dwell on the Father's love and fhe grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not on the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit, is the source of that want of assurance or fulness
of faith which is always seeking for testimony and confirma
tion in that which is changeable, instead of recognizing the
testimony of God's Spirit to our spirit that we are the children
of Gpd. In short, the living God is Three in One ; and if we
have communion with Him, we praise equally Father, Son,

- CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 1 39
and Holy Spirit, — and yet Christ has, according to the
eternal counsel, the central position.
And thus only they who have received Christ, as made for
them of God Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and
Redemption, have received Scripture as the Word of God.
If the testimony of prophets and apostles centei^ as well as
agrees in this, that in Jesus is forgiveness of sin and eternal
life to all who believe, and that there is no other name given
in which we can be saved, then he who trusts not in "Jesus
only" as his Sa.viouT,rejects the whole testimony of Scriptur.
The expression, "I believe the Bible," has no meaning in the
lips of such. All it amounts to is, "I think those who believe
in the truths of Scripture are right." How is it possible, if
Jesus is the sum and substance, the center and kernfel of
Scripture, that there can be a reception of the testimony
without a reception of the Person of whom it witnesses?
In this- error we Christians have encouraged the unbelievers,
even by our false way of separating the Book from the
Lord, and substituting intellectual sight for that beholding
of the heart, which is faith. Receive Jesus, and thou re-
ceivest not merely the testimony, but thou thyself art an ad
ditional witness and seal to the truth of God. What is the
truth of God ? Ask not, "What ?" as they do, who are out
side of Judah, in the words of Pilate. Not "What?" but
"Who?" "I AM THE TRUTH."
4. CHRISTIANS THE BEST EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE.
If we receive Him and walk in Him, we are the best
arguments for the divine origin and power of Scripture.
Jesus sends us into the world as His witnesses. We are to be

140 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTLTIES.
His living Bibles; the resurrection-life of Christ is to be
made manifest in us. If we assert that the Bible is the
Word of God, and are not influenced by it as by a divine,
heavenly, glorious, message of peace and love ; if we do not
rejoice in God's salvation and walk in newness of life; if
we do not possess that faith which is the victory overcoming
the world, realizing the things that are not seen, and resting
in the mercy and strength of God; then we ourselves are
arguments against the Bible. But if in Scripture we have
found Jesus the Anointed, and have received from Him the
spirit of love, and of power, and of a sound mind; if in
Scripture we have heard a loving voice, even the joyful
sound, and, rejoicing in the salvation of Christ, we walk in
the light of God's countenance, then we ourselves are argu
ments for the Bible, even the epistles of Christ, written not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.
The light which is to shine in the midst of darkness is
the Church. "Ye are the light of the world." The center
from which is to sound forth the Word of God, is the Church
of Christ (i Thess. i.). And the messengers who are to go
forth into all the world, the dark places of our own land and
the distant regions of heathenism, are the disciples of Jesus
Christ, bearing the good news of God. Thankful as we are
for the society which spreads the Book of God, let us never
forget that the Church of living Christians is the true' Bible
Society, through whom the Word of God grows and is
glorified.

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES. 14I

5. JOYOUS.
Joyous is the Word of God. There is no other book in
which reigns such calm peace, overflowing in joy unspeak
able and full of glory. Here shines a light which triumphs
over every darkness, and breathes that hope which is full of
life (i Pet. i. 3) and strength. Paradise was not yet closed,
when the voice of a Saviour God interrupted the dread
silence which sin had introduced, by the promise of redemp
tion and victory; and throughout the whole Bible we hear
the joyful sound, that God hath given to us sinful men a
Benjamin's portion, double — for all our sins (Isa. xl.), even
abounding grace and infinite love. The triumphal song of
heaven and eternity, "Thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory," is already heard, though we are still crying
in this vale of sorrow and temptation, "Deliver us from
evil." Here sound the peals of marriage bells — even the
marriage of the Lamb and the Bride. Here iS revealed to
us God as our exceeding great joy. Glad tidings are here,
such as even angels, accustomed to the bUss of heaven, call
very joyous. Here is the gift of God; His own Son to be
ours forever. He, whom the Father regards as most pre
cious and glorious, whom He loves, and to whom He hath
given all things, is the gift of God to us, a gift never to be
recalled. For ever, Jesus Christ is our Lord and Head.
The Word of God is joy from heaven to the souls which
are in darkness and the shadow of death. It speaks of sin,
but in order to declare full pardon ; of our misery and bond
age, to declare our redemption ; of death, to announce resur
rection-life ; of our nothingness, to bring to us the All-in- All

142 CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES.
— Christ. When people accept God's Word, they rejoice.
Oh that in all declarations of God's message, we may be pre
eminently evangelists ! and that the prominent as well as the
deep impression of our preaching may be: He has brought
us good news from a far country. He has spoken to us of
the wonderful salvation of God, far exceeding all our
thought and all our hope. He has spoken of God rejoicing
over the sinner redeemed and restored ; and of Jesus Christ
dying for the ungodly, and living in the heart of the be
liever. He has shown us that we are now in heavenly places,
accepted in the Beloved, complete in Him, and sealed with
His Spirit; and that we are to be manifested with Him in
glory. Then is our testimony Scriptural, when it testifies
of Jesus as the Lamb, of God as the Father, of the Spirit as
the Dove ; when it speaks to the heart of Jerusalem, declar
ing grace and glory ; when it has its source and end in this :
"God is Love."

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