CHAPTER VII.

THE SACRED WRITINGS OF CHRISTIANITY-THE OLD TESTA

MENT-THE NEW TESTAMENT.

WE have already dwelt on the fact, that the appearance of

earlier revelations, and especially by the existence of the Jewish Church. That Church possessed its collection of Sacred Writings, which our Lord and His Apostles recognised and endorsed; so that the Scriptures of the Old Testament are numbered among the Sacred Books which Christians hold dear.

In the appeal which has already been made to the prophetic intimations of the expected Deliverer, contained in the ancient Scriptures, we have not entered upon the question of their Divine authority. Our object was, to call attention to the remarkable fact that, during a series of ages, the Mosaic institute had existed with its peculiar rites, and that a succession of men who professed to be inspired, and whose writings were received as inspired, foretold the coming, the ministry, the sufferings, and the triumph of the Messiah. In exhibiting the character of Christianity as preeminently a religion of fact, not of abstract truths, it was essential to take note of these preparatory arrangements; while the accomplishment in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus of these prophetic declarations forms one link in the chain of evidence by which His claims are attested.

The authority of the Mosaic institute, and of all the announcements of truth which Moses was commissioned to make, was evinced by the miracles which marked his career, and

especially by those which were connected with the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt,-a deliverance commemorated by that people in every subsequent stage of their history. The impressive scene of Sinai crowned the whole. That revelation of Jehovah not only invested with the highest authority and a peculiar sacredness the great moral precepts which He there delivered, but attested the character of Moses as His prophet, whom His people were to follow and obey.

It is not maintained that similar attestations established the authority of all the other writers of the Old Testament. But it is undeniable that there was a succession of prophets, who claimed to receive and utter Divine messages; and the Jewish Church, under the guidance of some of these, received as inspired and authoritative the Books which we now recognise as those of the Old Covenant. With regard to some of these writings, the fulfilment of the predictions which they contained -predictions which no human foresight could have enabled their authors to utter-stamped them as of Divine authority; while their general character and the spiritual power which they were calculated to exert were an additional evidence of this. The claim of inspiration, as put forth by men who had been trained under the Jewish economy, was one peculiarly solemn. Professor Wace has forcibly illustrated this thought. Speaking both of the Prophets and the Apostles, he says, "These men were not pagans by birth and education, and accustomed, like Greeks, to think lightly of a Divine Being, and of communications with Him. They were Jews, who had the third commandment continually before their eyes, and for whom the very name of God possessed an awful and almost unutterable solemnity. To a Pharisee of the Pharisees like St Paul, the idea of a communication from God must have been far more overpowering than it is to a modern sceptic. The traditions of his nation, indeed, rendered him familiar with its possibility, but at the same time enhanced its solemnity. Neither in the Prophets nor in the Apostles is there any other feeling than that of supreme awe and responsibility in view of the tremen

dous privilege conferred upon them. "Woe is me," exclaims Isaiah, "for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." To quote Professor Kuenen's acknowledgment on this point, "We see here," he says, 66 men who can find no words sufficient to declare the might and majesty of Jahveh, who have a deep and lively feeling of their own utter nothingness before Him, and nevertheless, in spite of the distance which separates them from Him, declare emphatically that they know His counsel and speak His word."'*

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But when the claims of the Lord Jesus are established by those converging lines of evidence which we have endeavoured to trace, we may safely rest the Divine authority and inspiration of the Old Testament on His recorded testimony. He ever appealed to the Scriptures'; and He has stamped all the Books received by the Jewish Church of His own day with His own authority. Illustrations of this are found on almost every page of the evangelical histories; but we can only select a few. In one of His controversies with the unbelieving Jews, He cited a passage from one of the Psalms, adding The Scripture cannot be broken' (John x. 35). On a later occasion, when conversing with the chief priests and scribes, He replied to their exclamation God forbid,' 'What then is this that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner?' (Luke xx. 17.) On His way to Gethsemane, He said to His disciples, This which is written must be fulfilled in Me, And He was reckoned with the transgressors for that which concerneth Me hath fulfilment' (Luke xxii. 37). In the garden, after reproving Peter for his rash act, in smiting the servant of the high priest, He said, 'Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech My Father, and He shall even now send Me more than twelve legions of angels? How then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?' (Matt. xxvi. 53, 54.) After His resurrection from the dead, He exposBampton Lectures, 'The Foundations of Faith,' Lecture III., pp. 73, 74.

tulated with the two disciples going to Emmaus, 'O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory?' and then, beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself' (Luke xxiv. 25-27). And in one of His interviews with the assembled company of His Apostles, He said to them, 'These are My words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning Me' (Luke xxiv. 44).

But the Sacred Writings of Christianity comprehend also the Books of the New Testament. Our Lord Himself did not write; but He prepared His Apostles to establish Christian Churches after His departure, and to provide for the perpetuation and universal diffusion of the truths which He had declared. He gave to them the promise of the Holy Ghost as 'the Spirit of truth,' to unfold to them the whole Christian scheme, to guide them into all the truth, and to bring all His teaching to their remembrance. In His last discourse with them before He suffered, when the traitor had retired, He repeated this promise again and again. These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you' (John xiv. 25, 26). 'But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me; and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning' (John xv. 26, 27). 'I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: nd He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He

shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you' (John xvi. 12-14). And while He thus provided for their spiritual illumination, He constituted them the authoritative teachers of His religion. After His resurrection from the dead, He said to them, 'As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you' (John xx. 21). And to attest this claim, He empowered them to perform miracles in His name; while the living energy of the Holy Ghost, which accompanied their message, and wrought decided spiritual changes in the hearts of all who embraced it, was the crowning seal of their authority.

It is instructive also to observe that the Apostles claim inspiration and Divine authority for their teaching; and the solemnity of that claim, as put forth by men trained under the Jewish economy, must be borne in mind. The quotation already given from Professor Wace forcibly illustrates this. That claim itself, as made by religious and earnest men, would demand attention; but when it is combined with the promise of special illumination given by our Lord, and with the miracles which He enabled them to work,-when, still further, it is viewed in connection with the character of the writings which they left to the Church, and the moral and spiritual influence which those writings have exerted,—it becomes irresistible. We may select a few passages in which this claim is expressly advanced. 'For this cause we also thank God without ceasing that, when ye received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, ye accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe’ (1 Thess. ii. 13). 'But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual' (1 Cor. ii. 12, 13). If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandments of the Lord' (1 Cor. xiv. 37). St. Peter, it may be added, places