between these two, who communicate so easily with each other, a barrier that of the flesh in which their spirits are respectively imprisoned. And cannot the Father of the spirits of all flesh communicate with the spirits that have sprung from Him, and which are constantly receiving life and being from Him? The question is not to know whether He can, but whether He has been willing to do so. Experience alone can supply an answer, and it has done so. 2. There have been revelations of particular facts. The picture of the resurrection of the dry bones announcing to Ezekiel the re-establishment of Israel after the Babylonian captivity, and that of the servant of Jehovah (Isa. liii.), which tells of the expiatory death of the Messiah, of His resurrection, and of the consequent redemption of men, are among the most striking examples of prophetic revelation. But we might quote many others. In Isaiah (chap. xlix.) the Messiah complains by the mouth of the prophet of having "spent His strength for nought" in endeavouring to save the people of God. "Israel refuses to be gathered" at His call. God promises then to give him as a compensation "the ends of the earth.” This prevision of the unbelief of Israel, and of the faith of the Gentles in the work of the Messiah, is too astonishing for one to believe that it was suggested to the prophet merely by his own moral instinct. In Malachi the coming of a forerunner to prepare the way for the Messiah is foretold. In the New Testament Jesus replies to the Samaritan woman, "Thou hast well said, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." The fact of a prophetic revelation cannot be denied unless the whole incident be pronounced an invention. Jesus foretells His betrayal; and not only the fact that Peter would deny Him, but also the circumstances in which the deed would be done-that night before the cock had crowed twice. Revelations of special facts are made to the Apostle Paul. "Go to Damascus, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." "As thou has testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." "Fear not, thou must be brought before Cæsar, and God hath given thee all them that sail with thee," If only one of these particulars is authentic, experience has spoken: there has been a revelation-even if only one. 3. There is a general revelation of a plan of God for salvation. The purpose of salvation exists in God. Jesus indicates the final end of it: “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." He has chosen, prepared, and instructed His disciples in view of the execution of this plan: "It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." The Divine facts which concur for the execution of this plan can only be known and revealed to men by the word of Him who came down from heaven (John iii. 13). These are the incarnation, redemption by the ignominious death of the Messiah, and the love of the Father, who gave His only-begotten Son for the salvation of the world (vers. 13-16). As for the Apostles, the revelation He gave is only the beginning of their education; He promised them another after His departure, which would be given them by His Spirit (John xvi. 12, 13). In the case of the Apostle Paul we see in the clearest manner the fulfilment of this promise (vide Gal. i. 11, 12, 16); 1 Cor. ii. 6 et seq.). In chap. v. of 2 Cor. he represents himself as the ambassador of God, charged to hold forth the hand of reconciliation to every sinner. An ambassador is provided with a message from the Sovereign who sends him, and thus Paul says, "God hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation" (ver. 19). In short, if God has really conceived and drawn up a plan for accomplishing the salvation of mankind, He must also have provided, by revealing it to some men chosen by Him, that all should know it, and either accept or reject the hand of reconciliation held out to them. 4. Revelation is accompanied by inspiration, but differs from it. In revelation. God speaks to man; by inspiration, the man who has received the revelation com municates it to other men. This relation between the two is stated by St. Paul. After having described revelation just as we have represented it, he adds, "Which things also (i.e., things revealed) we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." The domain of inspiration is much larger than that of revelation. Revelation is for him who receives it a momentary state, though the result of it is permanent; inspiration is, at least in the new dispensation, a continuous state; it may vary in intensity, but it does not cease. In the teaching of Jesus all is inspired, but all is not revealed. When He speaks of the price of sparrows, of three measures of meal used for a baking, and of the folly of piecing old garments with new cloth, He evidently does not declare things which have been revealed to Him from on high. These are earthly things which the experience of life and the use of the senses have taught Him. None the less is it true that the use He makes of this knowledge is inspired by the same Spirit by which He consecrates all He is and knows to the great work entrusted to Him. What, then, will be the limit which. within the general domain of inspiration, will circumscribe the more limited circle of revelation? So far as His teaching is concerned, Jesus Himself has defined this circle by contrasting the heavenly things which He alone knows, because He has seen them, with, the earthly things which He reproaches Nicodemus with not having known as well as Himself (John iii. 12). Now, the basis of all the New Testament writings is salvation by the death and resurrection of Christ—the expiatory death implying His holy life, and the resurrection inaugurating His sovereign rule. Besides this, there is often allusion made to certain special revelations, such as the future conversion of Israel (Rom. xi. 25, 26), and the change to be experienced by those who are alive at the coming of the Lord (1 Thess. iv. 15-17; 1 Cor. xv. 51). St. Paul reckons also, among commandments coming from the Lord, certain rules for the administration of the Church. It is, then, with the teaching of Jesus and with decisions represented as coming from the Lord, and not from man, that there is connected, at least for those who accept revelation and believe in the narratives and declarations of the Apostles, the character of infallibility. CURRENT SWISS THOUGHT. THE DOCTRINAL AUTHORITY OF JESUS CHRIST. BY A. BERTHOUD (Le Chrétien Evangélique).-All Christians are agreed in ascribing to their Master a certain kind of authority. The question that divides them, and on which it would be very desirable for them to come to some understanding, is whether the authority of Christ extends to the matter of doctrine. The present article is intended to answer that question in the affirmative. On a subsequent occasion we shall consider the limits within which that authority acts. The contemporaries of the Saviour had the unspeakable advantage over us of seeing Him with their eyes, of hearing His words, full of life and warmth and colour, and emphasized by look and gesture. Those words are now fixed-crystal lized one may say-in the sacred volume, and have not the animation and vivacity that rendered them so popular when they were first spoken. Yet so far as the subject-matter is concerned, they are now what they have always been. When we read them we are not surprised that those who first heard them were impressed both by the substance and the form of His teaching, and that they said He spoke as one having authority (Matt. vii. 28, 29). Jesus was not different from other men in appearance or dress; there was nothing extraordinary about Him. No doubt He had the outward appearance of an ordinary working-man. If He had studied theology, it had not been at the feet of any Gamaliel; He had no diploma from any of the schools. Nevertheless, from the beginning of His ministry the title of Rabbi (master, teacher) was spontaneously conferred upon Him; and this title, which He never claimed for Himself, He accepted as His right-so much so, indeed, as to say to His disciples, "One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren" (Matt. xxiii. 8). This pre-eminence of Christ as a teacher was instinctively felt by those who heard Him. They contrasted His teaching with that of the Scribes; theirs was the shadow, His the reality. They were indebted for their authority to their official rank and title; it was quite the opposite with Him-His authority made itself felt and this led to the title being given Him. His authority reveals itself in the calm assurance with which He sets forth the most sublime truths, the most startling paradoxes, and in the dignity and sweet gravity which all His discourses breathe. It is from the abundance of His heart that His mouth speaks. We feel in listening to Him that truth is His natural element-it streams from His lips without an effort and in inexhaustible richness. His presence of mind never fails Him; He is never embarrassed or afraid of objections. No effort to confute or entrap Him has the least success. He always speaks as if His statements were of universal value; His teaching does not express simple opinions, but absolute precepts and incontrovertible judgments. Yet His words are not peremptory or abrupt; they are full of grace. He unites an unvarying gentleness with an inflexible firmness. He speaks as one who tries the reins and heart." His words penetrate to the conscience, lulled to sleep though it be in formalism, or obscured by prejudice, and in its depths He finds traces of that nature which God created in His own image, and on which He has written His law. At Sinai the moral law had been communicated, one may say, in a material form; it contained life as fruit contains a germ. The Scribes had still further materialized it by adding to it minute and frivolous regulations. Jesus gave that law fresh force by making it more spiritual, by breaking the encumbering husk and giving the germ of life room to expand and come to its full growth. In opposition to Him, therefore, we have those who imprison life in forms and formulas, which, since they are founded on the shifting sand of tradition, and not on the eternal rock of truth, cannot control the conscience, but merely secure an outward and servile obedience. 66 That which attracted the multitude to Jesus Christ is an authority altogether moral and spiritual. It alone deserves the name, for it is more searching and weighty than that which has sometimes usurped its place. It is not satisfied with a blind and passive submission, and it uses no force to secure its rule. Although it has no other power than that which lies in the truth, or rather on that very account, it knows that it is invincible, that it has but to show itself to be recognized for what it is. The authority of Christ is spiritual in essence, and whatever may be the form in which it manifests itself, it never loses that character. Whether it is displayed in words or acts, in teaching or in example, in commandments or in promises, in revelations of the unseen world or in exhortations, it respects our liberty and never 66 uses any other method than that of persuasion. It has, as its only object, the coming of the kingdom of God in our hearts and in the world. And as the spoken word is the means by which spirit communicates with and acts on spirit, Christ uses it as His principal instrument of royal power. "I am a King," He said to the Roman governor, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice" (John xviii. 37). He is Himself "the truth" (John xiv. 6). We see in His person God as He is and man as he ought to be. In Him the normal relation which should exist between the Creator and the creature is realized in all its fulness. He has never uttered a statement concerning religion or formulated a precept which has not corresponded exactly to the state of His soul. His words are the reflection of His inmost being, and the authority which emanates from Him is radiant with His holiness. Jesus is, therefore, the ideal realized, truth incarnate, the Divine life concentrated in a human personality, in order to be within the reach of sinners. But this substantial truth cannot be manifested, cannot become a saving influence, except by testimony-by being transferred from the domain of life to that of thought; in other words, by becoming formal truth. It results, therefore, that the doctrinal authority of Jesus Christ, by which we understand the right which He has to be believed on His word in the things He has taught, is a necessary postulate of His spiritual authority. The two are inseparable—the former being only the intellectual expression of the latter. Intellectualism which subordinates life to dogma, the practical element of faith to the intellectual, or at least identifies them, has been one of the great evils of the Church in the past, especially in times of dead orthodoxy, and one cannot but rejoice at seeing it fall into discredit. But the reaction of the present day passes all bounds. If we assert that His authority is spiritual, do we therefore deny that it is doctrinal ? In other words, is the doctrinal teaching of Jesus Christ authoritative for the Church? If we put the question to the believer in the full ardour of his first love, the answer is soon given. He kneels before his Master, and exclaims with Simon Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." He does not say, "Lord, I reserve my judgment in the matter of Thy doctrinal teaching. I do not share Thy ideas concerning angels, e.g., nor as to the Old Testament, the resurrection of the body, nor as to the final judgment. On these points, and on others, perhaps, be it said without offence, Thou art a Jew, imbued with the prejudices of Thy nation." Such an attitude towards Him is so contradictory as to be morally impossible. By devout, unsophisticated minds all that Jesus taught is received as Gospel truth." Instinctively and irresistibly, the believer who yields himself to the impulse of faith is predisposed to receive, without reserve, all the doctrines his Master taught. But Christian sentiment is not the only ground on which the doctrinal authority of the Lord rests. That authority is implied also in the part which knowledge has in that worship, which is "worship in spirit and in truth." It was not simply as a Jew that the Saviour spoke when He said to the woman of Samaria, "Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews" (John iv. 22). It is in the domain of knowledge that we first come in contact with the Divine life, and not only then, but in the subsequent development of that life knowledge has a prominent place. And as the teaching of Christ is the direct source of that knowledge, we must understand that teaching in order to receive what it contains. Doctrine is not indeed life, but it is the indispensable medium through which we receive life. "It is the sincere milk of the word " (1 Peter ii. 2) in a concentrated form. 66 Jesus Christ demands, therefore, to be believed on His word. He reproved His disciples for their unbelief, though they had a deep attachment to His person, a sincere affection for Him. In His eyes a docile acceptance of His teaching is a proof of confidence in Him, and an act of obedience to Him. He never distinguishes between truths that are obligatory, and truths that are optional, as St. Paul does in counsels he gives his readers (1 Cor. vii. 12). All parts of the testimony of Jesus Christ are stamped with the same authority, not because they are all of equal importance, but because they all bear the signature of Him who said, Ye call Me Master and Lord; and ye say well, for so I am." And what justifies this claim to doctrinal authority? What but the consciousness that by Him alone God was speaking to men? "Whatsoever I speak, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak " (John xii. 50). Modern theology quotes readily that other saying of His, "If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself" (John vii. 17). But this luminous utterance exactly corresponds with the views of the truth we have here endeavoured to set forth. It unites both a statement of spiritual method and of doctrinal authority. It is by the way of obedience, of moral experience, that one comes "to know." But "to know what? The Divine mission of Jesus, His character as Saviour? Yes, doubtless, but also, and at the same time, the divinity of His doctrine, the value of His teaching. On a subsequent occasion we shall endeavour to indicate the limits within which that doctrinal authority extends, though the endeavour is one which we may only too easily fail to carry out. SUNDAY IN CHURCH. THE MORNING LESSONS. SECOND SUNDAY AFTER WATER FROM THE ROCK :-DISTRESS And there was no water for the congregation, &c.-NUM. xx. 2-8. THIS familiar incident illustrates some of the common features and of the more strenuous experiences of our life. It brings before us : I. THE RECURRENCE OF DISAPPOINTMENT. When the children of Israel had made their miraculous march through the Red Sea, and had witnessed the utter overthrow of their enemies, and when they had sung their song of victory (Ex. xv.) they probably imagined that they would pursue a pleasant and unchequered course until they reached the land of promise. If so, they were soon convinced of their mistake (see Ex. xv. 23; xvi. 2, 3), and now, again, they found themselves in NO. V.-VOL. I.-THE THINKER. difficulty, if not in danger. Water, the price- us. II. THE BITTER LANGUAGE OF COMPLAINT. Three verses (vers. 3-5) give us some idea of the exceeding bitterness of the reproaches in which the Israelites indulged. We are inclined to condemn them, to tax them with GG |