not involved in its calamities, to have power to redeem. Boaz, the near kinsman, buying back the lost inheritance and marrying Ruth, suggests Jesus, the God-man, our near kinsman, yet of a higher family, the redeemer of our lost estate, and bridegroom of the redeemed Church.

The Epistle to Philemon seems at first only a letter to a friend about a runaway slave. But this letter is full of illustrations of Grace. The sinner has run away from God and robbed Him besides. The law allows him no right of asylum; but grace concedes him the privilege of appeal. Christ, God's partner, intercedes. He sends him back to the Father no more a slave but a son, and says: "I beseech Thee, receive him; if he hath wronged Thee aught, put that to mine account."

The second law of organic unity is that all parts are necessary to complement each other.

Cuvier has framed in scientific statement this law of unity. Organized being, in every case, forms a wholea complete system-all the parts of which mutually correspond; none of these parts can change, without the others also changing; and consequently each taken separately indicates and gives all the others. For instance, the sharp-pointed tooth of the lion requires a strong jaw; these demand a skull fitted for the attachment of powerful muscles, both for moving the jaw and raising the head; a broad, well-developed shoulder-blade must ac company such a head; and there must be an arrangement of bones of the leg which admits of the leg-paw being rotated and turned upward, in order to be used as an instrument to seize and tear the prey; and of course there must be strong claws arming the paw. Hence from one tooth, the animal could be modelled though the species had perished.

Thus the Four Gospels are necessary to each other and to the whole Bible. Each presents the subject from a

different point of view, and the combination gives us, like a series of concentric mirrors, not an outline picture or a mere image, but a divine Person reflected, projected before us, like an object with proportions and dimensions.

Matthew wrote for the Jew, and shows Jesus as the King of the Jews, the Royal Lawgiver, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Mark wrote for the Roman, and shows Him as the Power of God, the Mighty Worker, the Ox for service and sacrifice. Luke wrote for the Greek, and shows Him as the wisdom of God, the human Teacher and Friend, the man Christ Jesus. John, writing to supplement and complement the other gospels, shows Him as Son of God, as well as Son of man, having and giving eternal life, the Eagle soaring to the sun, undazzled by its splendor.

These Four Gospels are the counterpart of the Four Living Creatures (Zwa) of Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Apocalypse. Marvellously joined, intertwined with coincidences, yet separated by differences, they face different ways, yet move in one direction, as one Spirit guides; wing with wing, wheel within wheel, full of eyes, the scope of their wings dreadful, and their speed like that of lightning.

These are not Gospels of Matthew, etc., but one Gospel of Christ, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first three present the person and work of Christ from the outward, earthly side; the last, from the inward and heavenly. In the beginning of each gospel we find emphasized, in Matthew, Christ's genealogy, in Mark His majesty, in Luke His humanity, in John His divinity. So, in the close of each: in Matthew His resurrection, in Mark His ascension, in Luke His parting benediction and promise of enduement, and in John the added hint of His second Coming.

The Epistles are likewise all necessary to complete the

whole and complement each other. They form the "church-section" of the New Testament. The Church, now founded both among Jews and Gentiles, needs the germs of doctrine, found in the Gospels, amplified and applied, for fuller instruction of believers, solution of practical problems, and exposure of errors. This is done in the twenty-one Epistles.

There are five writers, each having his own sphere of truth. Paul's great theme is FAITH, and its relations to justification, sanctification, service, joy, and glory. James treats of WORKS, their relation to faith, as its justification before man. He is the counterpart and complement of Paul. Peter deals with HOPE, as the inspiration of God's pilgrim people in the temptations and trials of the wilderness. John's theme is LOVE, and its relation to the light and life of God as manifested in the believer. In his gospel, he exhibits eternal life in Christ; in his epistles, eternal life as seen in the believer. Jude sounds the trumpet of warning against apostasy, which implies the wreck of faith, the delusion of false hope, love grown cold, and the utter decay of good works. What one of all these writers could we drop from the New Testament?

The unity of the Bible is the unity of one organic whole. The Decalogue demands the Sermon on the Mount. Isaiah's prophecy makes necessary the narrative of the Evangelists. Daniel fits into the Revelation as bone fits socket, or as those strange bones in the vertebral column mutually form the axis at the neck. Leviticus explains, and is explained by, the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Psalms express the highest morality and spirituality of the Old Testament, and anticipate the clearer beauty of the New; they link the Mosaic code with the divine ethics of the gospels and the epistles. The Passover foreshadows the Lord's supper, and the Lord's supper inter

prets and fulfils the Passover. Even the little book of Jonah makes more complete the sublime gospel according to John; and Ruth and Esther prophetically hint the Acts of the Apostles. Nay, look more closely, and after following the course of history and prophecy, gospels and epistles, when you come to the last chapters of Revelation, you find yourself mysteriously touching the first chapters of Genesis; and lo! as you survey the whole track of your thought, you find you have been following the perimeter of a golden ring; the extremities actually bend around, touch, and so blend, that no point of contact is detected. You read in the first of Genesis of the first Creation; in the last of the Revelation, of the new Creation-the new heaven and the new earth; there, of the river that watered the garden; here, of the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal; there, of the Tree of Life in the first Eden; here, of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God; there, of the God who came down to walk with and talk with man; here, we read that the Tabernacle of God is with men; there, we read of the curse that came by sin, of the serpent whose trail is over all human joys; here, we read: “And there shall be no more curse; nothing shall enter that defileth or maketh a lie!"

The third and last law of organic unity is, that one life-principle must pervade the whole. The Life of God is in His Word. That Word is "quick"-living; it "liveth and abideth forever." Is it a mirror? yes, but such a mirror as the living eye; is it a seed? yes, but a seed hiding the vitality of God; is it a sword? yes, but a sword that omnisciently discerns and omnipotently pierces the human heart. Hold it reverently; for you have a living book in your hand. Speak to it, and it will answer you. Bend down and listen; you shall hear

in it the heart-throbs of God.

This Book, thus one, structurally, historically and prophetically, symbolically and scientifically, dispensationally and didactically, personally and organically, we are to hold forth as the Word of Life and the Light of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. We shall meet opposition. Like the birds that beat themselves into insensibility against the light in the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, the creatures of darkness will assault this Word, and vainly seek to put out its eternal light. But they shall only fall stunned and defeated at its base, while it still rises from its rock pedestal, immovable and serene!