reached that point in our progress when we have out-grown the wisdom of that Word? Do we need another revelation that will meet all the wants of heart and mind, and carry us forward through another cycle of thirty centuries? Or will the Deity now leave us alone in the world, with no prompters but our own passions, with no guide but our own feeble and short-sighted intelligence? Can we then believe that the Divine Being who tends with such unceasing care our outward life, and who has carried us forward step by step from the barbarism into which we had fallen to our present point of civilization and material well-being, will leave us all untended and uncared for in that which relates to the soul's advancement in the Good and True? We have been wont to believe that this universe with its countless systems, its prodigal display of wisdom and of power, as well in its minutest details as in the simple grandeur of its general laws, is but the subordinate means to the grand end of creation-the growth of the human spirit in the image and likeness of God. We have been wont to regard the indefinite advancement of the human race in the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, as the grand purpose that includes and subordinates every other. For this, through countless ages, stratum rose above stratum until continent and island stood disclosed; for this Spring brings its verdure, Summer its flowers, and Autumn its plenty; for this exist sun and moon, and all the stars of night. If the soul be not made wise and good, creation is futile; that accomplished, its end is attained. Shall we then conclude that the Word of God is no adequate supplement to these His Works? In sight of this vast and munificent preparation of physical means, shall we conclude that His Word is powerless to connect these with their ultimate purpose, the indefinite spiritual progress of mankind? Surely, while His Works are boundless in their displays of wisdom and of power, every where exhibiting law, order, purpose, His Word will not confine us to the narrow limits of the history of a single nation, its laws, customs, rites, and prophecies. While the one provides for indefinite advancement in external civilization and well-being, the other cannot be less wisely adapted to promote the soul's progress in goodness and wisdom. And if in the bosom of nature there are hidden laws and principles which it behoves us to investigate with our whole faculty and industry, surely the golden grains scattered here and there over the surface of the Word can be no more than indications of the inexhaustible spiritual wealth concealed in its inner depths. If the Word and the Universe be the work of the same God, each must be worthy of the other. There is no middle term between the Fintie and the Infinite,

and in claiming a divine origin for the Sacred Book, we claim for its teachings the Perfection of its Author; if it be less than Perfect and Infinite, it ceases to be infallible and divine. And if the Scriptures are to cease to be the slaves of the sectaries, the butt of the infidel, and regain their legitimate power over humun hearts and in human affairs, it must first be seen that a divine spirit everywhere animates its literal frame. For the so-called wisdom of the Past has become the fable of the Present; to-day men must enter, if at all, "intellectually into the mysteries of faith." But humanity may still draw the water of truth from that Fountain at which the nations for centuries have quenched the thirst of the soul. The Book is not yet obsolete—not yet has it spoken its last word; but the letter no longer sufficeth, for times are changed.

Not that the world can be said to have risen to a moral altitude exceeding the standard erected even by the letter of Holy Writ. The Ten Commandments are not yet universally obeyed; men have not yet risen in action beyond the precept, 66 As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." How holy and beautiful that life would be which should exhibit in action what the “Sermon on the Mount" teaches in words, all may in some sort understand. All, too, must sadly admit, that so far as the common life of ordinary humanity is concerned, the teachings of that divine discourse are rather among the future possibilities of the race than its realised achievements. It is not, then, to meet the moral necessities of the time so much as the intellectual want of a faith at once spiritual and rational, that the inner spirit of the Divine Word needs to be opened. But that the inner teachings of the Divine Word do also open still loftier possibilities in the spiritual progress of mankind, none can doubt, who know of their divine beauty and grandeur. For if they afford to the intellect a rational basis for strong faith in God and His Word, none the less do they more searchingly purify the heart and give to life a higher character and purpose. Still the letter of Scripture was as indispensable even to the intellectual wants of the past as its spirit and life are to those of the present. We do not expect, in the efforts of human genius, universality of application. The narrow range of human capacity, even in its highest flights, prevents this. He who writes or speaks as to philosophers, fails, in a large part, to make himself intelligible to the comparatively ignorant and unlettered. True it is, indeed, that the loftier the genius, the wider is its range, and the larger its audience; but complete universality-the power to speak intelligibly to the lowest and highest order of intellect, can be predicated of no product

of merely human faculty. But the utterances of the Divine Teacher must be universal-they must speak to every human heart, and be equally true to-day, yesterday, and for ever. God is not the God of the rich, or of the poor, of the wise or of the simple, of the past or the present. He is the Universal Father,-loves all and speaks to all. Hence, then, universality must be one primary attribute of any revelation that owns a Divine Source. But universality implies that it shall be applicable to humanity in its lowest as in its highest conditions, applicable to it in every intermediate stage of progress. If a revelation failed to meet the needs of humanity in its humblest condition, it would be as fatal to its claim of universality, and of a divine origin, as if it failed to satisfy the demands of the loftiest intelligence. Hence, had Divine Revelation uttered in its letter only profound abstract truths, developed in metaphysical disquisitions the constitution of the human soul, declared the deepest truths that concern the Divine Nature, and the relations of the Creator to the creature, it might, indeed, have satisfied the needs of a cultivated and intelligent age, but it would have failed in its applicability to the individual and the race with perceptions obscured and deadened by ignorance and sin.

But mankind were as dependent for guidance when, in their rude and uncultured childhood, the senses were the only inlets to knowledge, as they are in these days of greater maturity and intelligence. And the Divine Word so fitly clothes and accommodates its teachings as to speak with power to humanity, when prompted by the lowest motives, and misguided by the most fallacious appearances, and was as true to human nature when the Law-giver of Israel declared the penalties of sin and the rewards of obedience, as it is at this day. And since it seemed good to the Divine Providence to reveal to the Jewish people, by judges, kings, priests, and prophets, the Scriptures we now possess, the adaptation of these revelations to the mental and moral condition of that people was necessary at once to their acceptance and usefulness. Revelation comes from God to man; while, therefore, in its essence and its origin it is divine, in its form and adaptation it must partake of the human. But the people of Israel, as their history evidences, were a race peculiarly external and sensuous. They were allured to obedience by the hope of temporal rewards,—and the terrors of the blight, the pestilence, captivity, or death, withheld them from sin. Flocks and herds, bounteous harvests, teeming vineyards, and all the forms of outward prosperity, were the blessings chiefly desired; and the loss of these was the direst calamity. To them the Divine

Nature, as it is, would have been unintelligible; nor would the intrinsic excellence of divine truth have gained for it acceptance, had no miracle authenticated its teachings, and inspired them with awe and fear at the power of the Teacher. The moral law, which bears in its bosom its own sufficient sanctions, would have failed to be authoritative with them, unless enforced by the thunders and lightnings of Sinai. It was to this people, then, whose restraint was fear,-who were allured to obedience by the hope of reward,—to whom the senses were the final court of appeal,—that the Word of God came. To their condition of character and intellect, therefore, its teachings were adapted. And, clearly, a revelation fitted to restrain and guide a people thus accessible only to the most external motives, and to teaching in its most sensuous form, would be equally fitted to reach humanity when most remote from God, and to deliver it from bondage to self and senses. Doubtless there were in that nation peculiarities of character which especially fitted it to become the recipient and repository of a divine revelation to the human race. But whatever nation had been chosen as the medium of communicating a revelation from the Creator to the creature, to the genius of that nation the Divine Truth must have been accommodated.

And the Divine Teacher spoke to that peculiar people as he speaks to the sensualist and the sinner even now, according to the heaviness of their eyes, and the hardness of their hearts. They attributed to Him human passions and human mutability. If the mildew, and locust, and pestilence came, they were the expression of the anger of the Lord; and if these afflictions were removed, it was because He had repented. If they were happy, He was merciful; and in their misery, anger and fury were His attributes. A God of love, wisdom, and power, whose omnipotence was only exercised according to the promptings of love, and ever under the guidance of wisdom,—and who, in His Infinitude, remained eternally immutable,-was a conception impossible to that age and nation. They humanised the Deity, and reflected upon Him their own passions and frailties and mutability of purpose. Hence, in the Law, Psalms, and Prophecies, we find attributed to the Deity, anger, vengeance, wrath, fury. And though at one time He is represented as a God in whom is no change or shadow of turning, yet, He repented that He had made man. He repented of evil intended. Though His mercy endureth for ever, yet, He is angry with the wicked every day. Though all His works are done in truth, yet, He makes peace and creates evil. And any careful reader of the Sacred Scriptures may accumulate for himself numerous passages in which the most

opposite attributes and actions are attributed to the Divine Being. But who cannot see that this admixture of apparent and real truth was a consequence of the immature condition of humanity when this revelation was given? And even in these times, when so much barbarism and ignorance, so much of the selfish and the sensual, exist in the midst of our boasted civilisation, these appearances and shadows of truth have not ceased to be applicable. And so far from these apparent truths and seeming inconsistencies being any evidence of the fallibility of the Sacred Scriptures, they but yield an additional proof of the infinite love and wisdom of that Being who thus accommodates His teachings to the apprehension of the simplest and most external natures. They were, indeed, rather the expression of the mental and moral attitude of the creature to the Creator, than of the nature of Him who is ever merciful and immutable.

But even in the letter of the Word that genuine truth is expressed which will enable us to correct and qualify those appearances which are found in its pages. The Divine Being is exhibited even there clothed in His true attributes-Love, Wisdom, Power, Infinitude, Eternity, and Immutability. Human duties are expressed there with a clearness that precludes mistake. Love to God and man is the burden of its teaching— this is the Law and the Prophets. Every doctrine of a sound religious faith can find in the literal teachings of the Scriptures their sufficient ground and confirmation. But if we approach the Word with fixed preconceptions and prejudices, and refuse to accept the lights of great principles which everywhere it holds forth for our acceptance-then it becomes, indeed, a pliant reed bending before the varying winds of our fallacious reasonings. Then it comes to pass that the varied appearances of truth expressed in the letter in accommodation to every state are confirmed as realities, and form the basis of antagonistic creeds, and the centres of conflicting sects. And if, even now, with nothing but the letter of the Word for our guidance, we could approach the Scriptures in an impartial, patient, and humble spirit,-even now, the bitterness of sectarianism might be softened, and union might be established among us based on a common acceptance of the plain teachings of the Word of God.

The characteristic of all effective teaching, then, finds its most perfect manifestation in the Divine Word. Vague abstractions and recondite disquisitions are nowhere discoverable in its literal sense. It does not rudely rend the veil of appearances that obscures the perceptions of truth both in the individual and the race. It speaks to men after the