beams of the Cross on which was prepared the Bread of Life?" 1 A little book has been published entitled, "The Gospel in the Book of Esther." The author speaks of it as "This precious story of grace in this little book of God." The interpretation given is that Haman represents the devil, and the letters which he sent to all the provinces conveying the sentence of death on all the Jews denote the condemnation and death which have come upon all men through sin, which "Satan introduced." Mordecai represents faith active and energizing; Esther represents "the state into which one is brought by faith," though with all the race under sentence of death.2 If interpretations like these are admissible any allegorizing is admissible.

In interpreting the Bible we are not to seek for a double sense, a deeper meaning hidden under the legitimate significance of the words. Underlying all interpretation of the Bible should be the maxim of the great Jewish writer Maimonides (A. D. 1135-1204), "The law speaks in the language of the children of men." And Thomas Aquinas said, "All meanings of Scripture are founded on the one literal meaning, from which alone argument can be drawn; but argument cannot be drawn from allegorical interpretations." 8

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It is also true that underlying all interpretation of the Bible should be the recognition of the fact that the Bible is the record of God's historical action through many ages redeeming men from sin and developing his kingdom until the coming of God in Christ and the development of the kingdom into Christ's spiritual and universal kingdom. Even when the historical character of the revelation is acknowledged, the tendency to disintegrate is often seen. The significance of the life of an individual, or of an event or series of events in the national history of Israel, is 1 Four Conferences on the operation of the Holy Spirit, delivered at Newark, N. J., and repeated by request in Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, by Rev. F. C. Ewer, S. T. D., 1880, pp. 43, 44.

2 This type of interpretation by the uneducated is exemplified in an anecdote related by a distinguished clergyman of South Carolina. Before slavery was abolished a negro preached on this text in the Song of Solomon: "The voice of the turtle is heard in our land." He reminded his hearers that they all knew that a turtle never sings. The noise it makes is when it plunges into the water. Therefore, he explained, the text means that a blessed time is coming when all over our country people will be baptized by being plunged into the water.

8 Summa Theologiae, I., Quaest. I. Article x.

found only in the influence of a good example, or a warning against wickedness in the history of evil-doers. The interpreter overlooks the fact, patent in every book of the Bible, that the history recorded is primarily the history of God's action progressive through the ages in the redemption of men from sin and the development of his kingdom. Thus he overlooks the unity and continuity of the divine action and the significance of particular events in their relation to this unity and continuity of divine action and revelation. So doing, the interpreter simply scratches the shell without even seeing the living seed germinating and ripening within it. So the old maxim is fulfilled, "Qui haeret in

litera haeret in cortice." There must indeed be the careful investigation of the particular facts and prophecies recorded. There must be also the study of every fact of the history, of every prophecy, of every didactic and preceptive passage, in its relations to the whole revelation in its continuity and unity. We must have regard to the literary character of the Bible. It contains history and biography, didactic and preceptive teachings, proverbs, poetry, rhetorical figures, parables and fables, peculiar national and oriental coloring of thought, symbols and types, apocalyptic imagery, inspired prophecy. The interpreter must take note of these peculiarities. And they are to be interpreted according to the reasonable principles and laws of interpreting language. But always regard must be had to the fact that the Bible is the record of God's progressive action through the ages developing his kingdom, and each part must be considered in its relation to the whole progressive revelation. Here the old principle of interpretation from "the analogy of faith" reappears with a new meaning. It is not that we are to interpret particular texts in accordance with the established creed of the church; but we obtain light on the meaning of a particular passage by considering its place and significance in the progressive revelation as a whole. It is what has been called "the trend of the Scriptures." And familiarity with the Bible is not so much holding many separate texts in the memory and facility in citing them, as it is familiarity with the historical course of God's action in the development of his kingdom, and experience of the truth of that revelation of God in guiding and quickening the spiritual life. Thus the Scriptures come to be held in solution in the spiritual life. We know them as the bread and water of life, by

which we spiritually live and grow and work; as the light of the Sun of Righteousness, at once enlightening, guiding, and quickening the spiritual life. And we are always to remember that by disintegrating the Bible into texts, and by scholastic and hairsplitting definitions and distinctions supported by isolated prooftexts, we may construct a hedge about God's revelation as obstructive as the rabbinical hedge about the law; and so may substitute the letter which killeth for the Spirit that giveth life, and make the word of God of no effect through the traditions of men.

It follows that the ultimate appeal is through the Bible to the God in Christ redeeming men from sin and reconciling the world unto himself, as revealed in the divine action recorded in the Bible and in the ever-present Spirit in whom the divine work of reconciliation is continued through all ages. This must be so, because God's revelation of himself is by his historic action, and this has reached its highest form in Christ and the Spirit. God in Christ is the light of the world, the revealer of all truth respecting God. God shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God in Christ is the source of all right spiritual life. He in his earthly life is the pattern and exemplar of all Christian character, life, and work. In him are the great motives inspiring the Christian life. In him are revealed man's likeness to God; the possibility of man's union with God and the way of attaining it; the love of God to men; the duty and privilege of man to exercise love the same in kind with that of God as he has revealed it in Christ. The goal of all right endeavor is to be like Christ and to lead and help all men to the same union with God and likeness to him in love. Thus the ultimate appeal is through the revelation of God recorded in the Bible to God in the living Christ and the everpresent Spirit.

4. Another misconception on which the objection to theology rests is the assertion that theology deals exclusively with abstractions. The whole course of thought in this chapter shows that this is a gross misconception. Our knowledge of God is not worked out solely by subjective processes of thought. It presupposes God's revelation of himself. Theology therefore begins, like all science, in the observation of facts. God's revelation of himself is by his action in the constitution and evolution of the

physical universe; in the constitution and history of man; and pre-eminently in his action redeeming men from sin, and developing his kingdom, recorded in the Bible and continued through all subsequent ages in the Holy Spirit. The sphere of man's observation of facts in attaining the knowledge of God is the whole universe and its evolution from its beginning. Theology also recognizes the three grades of scientific knowledge, the empirical, the noetic or rationalistic, and the theological. It begins with observing facts. It brings the observed facts into the light of reason to ascertain their causes and laws, their relations to one another, and the unity of all in a reasonable system. It finds their cause and laws, their harmony and unity in a system, only in the recognition of God, the absolute and universal Reason. So, in studying the particular line of God's revelation of himself recorded in the Bible, we begin with the empirical study of the Bible to find out what it is and what it records; we find the record of God's action continued through many centuries, developing his kingdom, and so progressively revealing himself to men. Then studying it in the light of reason we find its significance, progressiveness, harmony, and unity as the revelation of God culminating in Christ and the Holy Spirit. Every science in its sphere discloses God revealing himself to men, and so is tributary to God's revelation of himself in Christ, perpetuated in the Holy Spirit, which is the highest form of his Self-revelation. Thus the sphere of facts on which theology or the knowledge of God rests is nothing less than the universe itself, its constitution and evolution, physical and spiritual.

Besides this, each individual, in the exercise of religion, comes into touch with God, and knows him in personal experience. All worship implies the reality of communion with God. In all the religions of the world men have assumed the reality of personal communion with God. Christ has pre-eminently revealed its reality in the glad tidings that God is graciously seeking man before man seeks God; that whoever in penitential trust yields to the gracious divine influence finds God already knocking at the door and waiting to be gracious, and receives the fulness of his grace. Therefore, theology rests both on the observation of facts and on personal experience. And theology, or the knowledge of God, is corroborated by the testimony of millions, in the course 1 See "Philosophical Basis of Theism,” chap. xiii.

of the ages, who have themselves both found God revealed in the universe and known him in their own personal experience.

Therefore, instead of dealing only with abstractions, theology deals with the fundamental reality of the universe. The range of its observation and investigation of facts extends through the constitution and evolution of the physical universe, and through the constitution and the entire history of man.

II. The effort to ascertain true theological doctrine is accordant with the teaching and spirit of the Bible, to which the objection is in direct contradiction. The utmost diligence in attending to the law and teaching it to children is explicitly and repeatedly enjoined (Deut. vi. 7–9; xi. 18-20). It is spoken of in the Psalms as the object of intense and enthusiastic study: "Oh how love I thy law! it is my meditation day and night' (Ps. cxix. 97; Ps. i. 2). Jehovah appeals to the people to examine and judge of the reasonableness of his doings. "Come and let us reason together, saith Jehovah. Are not my ways equal? Are not your ways unequal?" (Isa. i. 18; Ezek. xviii. 29; xxxiii. 17, 20). Christ in his oral teaching was continually correcting the erroneous conceptions of the Scribes and Pharisees as to the coming of the Messiah and the character of his kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount and his farewell address and prayer (Matth. v.-vii.; John xiv.-xvii.) are full of the most important theological instruction respecting the person and work of the Messiah, the true nature of his kingdom, and the real significance of the revelation of God in him. In the Epistles we find a large development of theological truth and its practical applications. We are told that the Christian religion is a "reasonable service" (Rom. xii. 1). We are exhorted to be "ready always to give an answer to every one who asketh a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Pet. iii. 15). We are commanded, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. v. 21). In fact, the very conception that God reveals himself by his gracious action, redeeming men from sin, and developing his kingdom by prophetic communications, and in the coming of Christ and the descent of the Spirit, implies that man is to study the revelation, and by the earnest use of his highest powers find out its true significance.

Here it is objected that this revelation supersedes the use of human reason in seeking to know God. As a recent writer put it,