the skilfulness and efficacy of alleged defects will be understood, the several objectionable features, abstractly considered, blend into a symmetrical shrine. In the Old Testament we see how marvellously God condescended to human infirmity and taught by worldly parables, symbols, and ceremonies when scientific and æsthetic mediums were impossible; how skilfully through rude ages by gracious concessions He insinuated the purest kingdom of all; and how by a carnal dispensation He prepared for the advent of the final spiritual age, as in nature the most delicate blossom unfolds from the roughest sheath.

Contemptuous critics of the Old Testament are lacking in imagination as in gratitude. Are not these very books the source of our great ideas, purest inspirations, and reigning civilizations? It is scarcely becoming for a rose glowing in the sun to look down and gibe at the root which bears it, because that root lacks grace, colour, perfume. The root is perfect after its kind, perfect as a root, and its supreme vindication is the flower on its top. Thus is the Old Testament perfect as a root, perfect in its place and function; and it may justly chide its present-day superfine mockers, "If thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee." And this order of remark applies to the whole range of revelation. Certain sections of God's Word may be called imperfect, just as some parts of nature are similarly described; but a wider outlook shows that when duly considered in their place

and service they are alike elements of a larger perfection. Considered in their relation to the thought and usage of successive generations, in their relation to the various stages in the history of the race and the whole scheme of saving truth, these primitive Scriptures must be acknowledged to be necessary, indispensable, and beautiful as everything is in its season.

Everything is good for its purpose. We have seen that when men complain of the imperfections of certain natural structures, they forget the purpose of such structures; and, complaining of the imperfections of revelation, critics too often seem to forget the end proposed by revelation. What, then, is that end? To teach geology, astronomy, political economy? Surely not. The aim of God's Word is to bring men to God, to illuminate them concerning His character, to make known to them His will, to reveal the way of salvation, to melt them by His mercy, to purify them by His grace, to show them the way to Himself. A metaphysical treatise which gave satisfaction to a few literary artists would have been useless to the race at large; it would have failed because of its very intellectual perfection. God's Word, however, does not fail. At various points it may fall short of a literary or philosophical ideal, yet it does its glorious practical work, and that, not in spite of its defects, but by virtue of them. No instrument could appear more rude and unpromising in moral service than the Cross. Another "blundering contrivance," cries the idealist; and age

after age the rude sign has provoked contempt. Yet the moral effect through twenty centuries has been most powerful and delightful. He who best knows. the inherent truth and relevancy of things divined the fitness of the Cross for an unparalleled exigency; and the scorned symbol, disclosing the depths of eternal wisdom and love, has gone on from age to age, from clime to clime, captivating men, filling them with rich comfort, working in them a living righteousness, kindling in them a burning charity, inspiring them with boundless hope. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." "For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."

"Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." Here is a great truth for the times. We dare not have spoken of the "foolishness of God" and the "weakness of God"; yet the Spirit has used this language, and it has for us a direct and profound signification. The imperfection of man, the unnatural imperfection, has rendered inevitable many other imperfections in His

ways who governs to redeem, and these imperfections may be acknowledged with awe and gratitude. But the concessions of God are passages in a prevailing diplomacy; His crooked lines are the master-strokes of a supreme artist; when He appears to strike a false note, we are surprised by a richer harmony; and whenever He seems to stoop beneath Himself, it is only the prelude to a fuller revelation of His glory. When we discover the foolishness of God, it is still wiser than the wisest of us; when we charge Him with weakness, it is yet stronger than the strongest. The potter knows more than the clay. "Be still, and know that I am God." "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"

V

SUCCESSFUL SIN

The vintage of the wicked.-JOB Xxiv. 6.

HE transgression of the law is sometimes visited by immediate punishment; ungodliness

T

and unrighteousness end speedily and disastrously, as we feel they ought to end; it is as when one touches fire. This is not, however, always the case. Men succeed in false courses: they get their vineyard unjustly, as Ahab secured the vineyard of Naboth; they cultivate it in the spirit of selfishness, they consume its fruits on their lusts; yet, from the carnal point of view, the thing throughout is a success. This was the spectacle that for the moment puzzled Job. In the first verse of this chapter he asks, "Wherefore are not evil times hoarded up by the Almighty? and wherefore do those that honour Him not behold His days of revenge?" Throughout the chapter he reverts to the experience which he had already often maintained against his adversaries, viz., that there is in this world a discrepancy between our actions and their consequences, often injurious to the pious.* The

* Umbreit.