free to enquire into the mode and the materials of the construction of the Scriptural books by their human sub-authors; but with one important exception. It does not leave me free, as I believe, to entertain the theory that any book of the holy Canon, being as to its ultimate authorship the work of the Spirit of Truth, was, from the side of its human authorship, a late fabrication, whose writer sought to borrow an illegitimate prestige by the use of a venerated name and an immemorial date, other than his own.1 In conclusion, if indeed the Holy Book is thus the work and word of the Holy Spirit, we have good cause to turn with humble and glad expectation to that Spirit, who dwells in 1 I take occasion to direct the reader's attention to the late Lord Hatherley's Continuity of Scripture, to the Rev. C. H. Waller's Authoritative Inspiration of Scripture, and to the Rev. A. Cave's recent Congregational Union Lectures on the Inspiration of the Old Testament. See also a recent sermon by Dr Liddon, The Worth of the Old Testament. It is scarcely needful to point out that the later "editing" (I use the term under some protest) traceable in many passages is a quite different thing from fabrication. The Book of Ecclesiastes may have undergone considerable linguistic editing, and yet be no fabrication. CHRYSOSTOM ON BIBLE READING. 61 Christ and in us, to open up to the inmost soul as we read it the things of Christ which, according to Christ, are in it everywhere. of high hills and Let me quote a few sentences from that grand and "Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture," our First Homily of the First Book, and so conclude:"The Scripture is full as well of low valleys, plain ways, and easy for every man every man to use and to walk in, as also mountains, which few men can climb unto. And whosoever giveth his mind to Holy Scripture with diligent study and burning desire, it cannot be,' saith St John Chrysostom, 'that he should be left without help. For either God Almighty will send him some godly doctor to teach him, . . . or else, if we lack a learned man to instruct and teach us, yet God Himself from above will give light unto our minds, and teach us those things which are necessary for us, and wherein we be ignorant.' And in another place Chrysostom saith that 'man's human and worldly wisdom needeth not to the understanding of Scripture, but the revelation of the Holy Ghost, who inspireth the true meaning unto them that with humility and diligence do search therefor.'" "Here is the cause of all our evils," says the same Chrysostom,1 our not Hom. ix. in Col. knowing the Scriptures." 1 Τοῦτο πάντων αἴτιον τῶν κακῶν, τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι τὰς γραφάς. This is but a specimen of the language about Scripture used by the Fathers of the first centuries. And yet their age was an age of seething speculation and discussion. They would scarcely have endorsed what has been recently said (not by a Romanist), "The Bible is the most dangerous of God's gifts to man.” THE CHAPTER IV. HE previous three chapters are in some measure introductory only. Let us proceed now to the more detailed study of our sacred subject, by the method, at once the simplest and the surest, of taking up some of the great passages of Scriptural revelation and discourse upon it and listening anew to their message in reverent, believing meditation. And as we do so we will remember that the blessed Spirit is not only the true Author of the written Word but also its supreme and true Expositor. Not all my readers know the noble hymn,1 found in few modern collections, strange to say, in which Cowper has set this forth; and I quote it accordingly in full: 1 Olney Hymns, bk ii., No. 62. "The Spirit breathes upon the word, "A glory gilds the sacred page It gives a light to every age; "The hand that gave it still supplies "Let everlasting thanks be Thine, As makes a world of darkness shine "My soul rejoices to pursue The steps of Him I love, Till glory breaks upon my view It is true; we need the Author to be also, in the inmost secret of the matter, the Expositor, the Interpreter. Then will the Written Word shine, like the Living Word, with the light as of a transfiguration, its countenance and its garments also. Then shall we trace all through the holy pages "the steps of Him we love," of |