modern, the living Word which abideth forever, and my conviction is that every humble reader of the everlasting record is encouraged to pray, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law; yea, open thou mine understanding, that I may understand the scriptures." I would go even farther, and would resolutely test every sermon by the Bible, rather than test the Bible by the sermon, by whomsoever preached. Jesus I know and Paul I know, but I do not know any man who sets them aside. Having listened to the discourse of the truest and wisest preacher, I would reserve the right to search the Scriptures daily, that I might know whether I had been listening to the word of man or to the Word of God.

VI.

FUNDAMENTALS.

HE form of personal testimony has thus far been

Tpurposely adopted with a view to the strict limi

tation of responsibility. I have tried to state my own faith-the faith on which I live-in words as clear and simple as I could find. faith must be a man's own.

More and more I see that

pass faith on from hand to

We fail when we try to hand as a set of words Words were made for There need be no wonder

which no man may change. men, not men for words.

It

that in the coming and going of words some things may seem to be new which in fact are really old. is only the word that is new; the truth has put on a new form for a new day. The old trees dress themselves in new leaves every spring. I have come to see how possible it is that even doubt itself may be a form of faith. The mind does not always move in

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straight lines. But if it did, may it not be true that straight lines are impossible in a universe of circles?

The mistake may be in thinking that there are any straight lines. Even a diameter is limited by the circumference. Teachers recognizing diversities of constitution and temperament will make a difference between one doubter and another-" on some have compassion, making a difference"-but they must always meet sincerity with patience, and not allow themselves to see perdition in every troubled or even hostile inquiry. Our cross-examiners may be only feeling their way to the Rock and the Altar.

What is to be our answer to those who are always calling out for some new thing even in religion? The call may not be frivolous. Even newness is not necessarily despicable. It is not unreasonable, however, if any good use is to be made of the past, to meet newness with some degree of suspicion. It has sometimes falsified its own credentials. Yet a householder should bring out of his treasure things new and old. May I venture upon the paradox that only the old can be the really new? Your house is new, but how old is the earth on which it is built? furniture is new, but how old was the walnut wood

Your

out of which it was cut? And what is our hoary "old" compared with the true antiquity? The gray old minster on which centuries have written their cipher is of yesterday compared with the rock out of which it was cut and on which it rests. Or if the newness that is admired and desiderated partakes of the nature of what is called "originality," the same remark applies. Originality is always on the road to commonplace. It is on the commonplace that we live. Life feeds on bread. The unique is only the universal brought to a point. This is so with personality. You and I and the common multitude make Shakespeare possible. If all men were Shakespeares there would be no Shakespeare. If all plains were mountains there would be no mountains. hill is only the valley as high up as it can get. You would be surprised how poor the bust looks when it is taken off the pedestal. All this applies to doctrine. All this is a reply to the clamor for originality. Notwithstanding the modern prophets and yesterday's untested inspiration, I do not believe in new doctrines. I believe in new ways of combining the seven notes, but I am not sure that an eighth note has been discovered. Other Handels and Bee

The

thovens will arise, but the seven notes abide forever, ready to respond in new obedience to new masters. New illustrations we should welcome: new doctrines we should suspect. In comparing old things with new it is but common justice to remember that all the Christian miracles, by which I now mean all the wonders of home and foreign evangelization, were wrought by the old doctrines and the men who were prepared to die for them. I put in the history of missions as evidence. I never heard of a new hypothesis founding a missionary society. The men who believed in the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, in heaven and hell, in verbal inspiration and in eternal punishment, proved their faith by their works. They may have been intellectually misguided, but they were faithful and noble to the point of self-sacrifice, and we who think they were mistaken have entered into their labors, and ought to be their grateful debtors forever.

Can we take an optimistic view of the present Christian outlook? Has not Christianity had its day, and has it not gone down as a sun that is set? Yes. It has gone down precisely in that way. I am not