/2..^.2.^ . LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. BS 2A15 .GA8 1892 Girdlestone, Robert Baker, 1836-1923. Doctor doctorum -— - Doctor Doctorum.-^^^^^ ^•T. Criticism, cr. Svo. i IDoctor Boctomm: The Teacher AND The Book, mitb Some IRemarl^s on ®l^ Testament Criticism. R. B. GIRDLESTONE, M.A. HON. CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH ; LATE PRINCIPAL OF WYCLIFFE HALL, OXFORD I AUTHOR OF "the FOUNDATIONS OF THE BIBLE," ETC. ETC. LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW AND CO. 48 PATERNOSTER ROW. 1892. LATELY PUBLISHED BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Zhz jfounDatlons ol tbe :©ible: STUDIES IN OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM. Eyre & Spottiswoode. 3s. 6d. In this work the literary claims of the Pentateuch and the Historical Books are set forth in the light of such critical principles as are applied to other ancient histories. The writ- ings are traced back towards the period of their original composition. Marks of compilation and editorship are pointed out. Linguistic, literary, and historical tests are applied to the Books. Their substantial integrity and the fidelity of the writers are vindicated. Inquiry is also made into the state of the text and spelling of the Hebrew Bible. The book is intended not only for the critical student, but also for the ordinary reader of the English Bible ; who, it is hoped, may gain from its pages a firm foothold on a solid foundation. 1bow to StuDg tbe jEncili6b :fiSible, Religious Tract Society, is. 6d. The object of this little book is to give practical hints to young students on the chief objects and methods of study. ^be ipatbwag ot IDictorg. NiSBET. IS. A guide to beginners in the Christian life, pointing out the Christian ideal and the scriptural way of reaching up towards it. PREFACE. These papers are reprinted from the columns of the Record. They aim at setting forth the bearing of the Lord's Incarnation on His authority as a Teacher. They also touch on the great question concerning the Old Testa- ment which is agitating so many minds. The literary side of this question has been dealt with in some measure by the author in **The Foundations of the Bible." ^ There were some points discussed by the critics which seem to be closed by the decisive utterances of the Lord Jesus, consequently it is of vital im- portance to weigh and estimate His authority ; and this is what is now attempted. R. B. G. Hampstead, May 1892. ^ Published by Eyre & Spottiswoode. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. The Incarnate Logos is the Revealer of God by virtue of His character, His works, His teachin n. The naiure of the Incarnation set forth III. The Logos on taking our nature stripped Himself not of His essential attributes but of His glory IV. Among the restrictions involved in the Incarnation we must include reserve in the communication of knowledge V. While this reserve did not mean the absolute dismissal of knowledge, it left our Lord free to go through the pro cess of learning so far as it was needful VI. The Lord's position among men unique, as shown by His titles, His actions, His teaching VII. His knowledge of human nature VI IL Of the Old Testament IX. Christ's original teaching . X. Insight into His Father's counsels XL Secret of His accuracy and authority XII. Counter-evidence .... XIIL Christ's verdict on the Old Testament XIV. His testimony to the Authorship of certain Books XV. The theory of accommodation . XVI. Method of modern criticism XVII. Cautions for Critics : Conclusion Index of Subjects 41 53 62 71 78 91 98 109 113 133 146 157 173 188 S)octor Boctovum: THE TEACHER AND THE BOOK. CHAPTER I. THE QUESTION STATED. " I ^HE fundamental truth of Christianity is, ^ that the invisible God has been mani- fested, unveiled, and made known to man in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we turn over the pages of the Gospels we feel that Light has come into the world. The entrance of Christ upon the scene was like the rising of the sun. However much men knew of God before through the testimony of con- science, through, the witness of reason, and through the announcements contained in the Old Testament, the world was practically in the dark ; the nations lay in darkness and in the shadow of death. But now the darkness is past, and the true light shineth. It seems to have been the special mission of the Beloved Disciple to set forth this. He tells us that "no DOCTOR DOCTORUM. man hath seen God at any time," but that ''the Only-begotten Son, Who is In the bosom of the Father, hath declared Him." In the pages of His Gospel are recorded such words as these : '* I am the Light of the world," " I am come a Lieht into the world," "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Every Christian acknowledges the Lord Jesus as the hix immdi, the exegesis or exposition of the unseen God. However much we differ in our views of In- spiration, Atonement, or the Supernatural, we agree in this — that to see God in Christ is the best way of seeing Him, and that to look for God without reference to Christ is a fatal mis- take, and can only end in failure. There are three special elements in the life of Christ which we have to study in order to gather the truth concerning God. First, we look to His spirit, bearing, and character as a whole, as the manifestation of the moral and spiritual attributes of the Father. Secondly, we regard His mighty works as the exhibition of the power of the Most High. Thirdly, we study His teaching as the utterance of the wisdom and knowledo^e which are treasured up in the Omniscient. No one of these three elements can be fully considered without regard to the other two. The Lord's Person, life, work, ways, and words are all blended into one, and must be read too^ether. Moreover, we have to THE QUESTION STATED. view them in connection with the three great stages of His manifested Hfe, viz., the Ministry, the Sacrifice, and the Risen Condition ; nor can we safely shut our eyes to \kv^ prcEparatio Evan- gelica in the Old Testament, and the demon- stratio Evangelica as exhibited in the Acts and Epistles of the New Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures prepare the way for the Epiphany of Christ in many respects. They give a series of promises of Divine manifesta- tion and intervention. They contain a fore- ground of moral government, with its numerous interpositions, and a background of salvation, far-reaching in its nature and effects. They preserve a hidden programme, to which many prophets independently and unwittingly con-, tributed, setting forth the advent, ministry, rejection, and exaltation of the Anointed. But beyond and above all these, the Old Testament gave to the Israelite, and gives to us, a true, vivid, and detailed picture of the nature and attributes of God Himself With- out this all the rest would have been in vain. In order that the Divine in Christ might be recognised there must be some intimations of the Divine nature in the Scriptures which pre- pare His wa}^ It is an interesting study to gather up the intimations of the attributes of God set forth in the Old Testament and com- pare them with the manifestation of God in lo DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Christ. Thus, does God heal all our diseases ? So did Christ. Was God the friend of the widow ? So was Christ. Does God fill the hungry with good things ? So did Christ. Does God open the eyes of the blind ? So did Christ. Does God execute judgment for the oppressed ? So did Christ. In a word, the things which are expressed as the truth concerning God in the Old Testament are embodied and so made clear in the life of Christ. The moral and spiritual teaching con- tained in the Law and the Prophets was written on the tablets of Christ's heart and exhibited in His daily life. The principle of sacrifice foreshadowed in Patriarchal and Levitical rites found its true expression in the self-sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the Cross. The mysterious intercourse which was held between God and His saints of old was a preparation for the ap- pearances and conversations of the risen Lord with His followers during the great forty days. Enough has been said to show the leading points of relationship between the Revelation contained in the Old Testament and the Mani- festation recorded in the New. It is organic; it invests the Hebrew Scriptures with profound significance. No one who fully realizes the theological value of these ancient documents can watch the processes to which they are being subjected by some critics without deep interest, THE QUESTION STATED. and some degree of apprehension. Like the Three Children of old, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms are thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Will they come forth ? Is the Son of God among them or not ? What will the fire do to them? How much will be left when the critics have completed their opera- tions ? We have no reason to be panic-stricken. There is criticism and criticism. So-called results of modern criticism are frequently of a highly speculative nature. Some of them are old foes in a new garb. Others are based on solid considerations which had slipped out of our sight and needed to be reinstated. Meantime the question has become compli- cated by the introduction of our Lord's autho- rity upon the scene. It is natural that those who uphold the traditional view of the Old Testament as held alike by Jew and Christian in early times should rest upon the testimony of Christ to the Scriptures. This has always been done when criticism has assailed the Bible. But it has led to a re-examination of the teaching of Christ, and to a reconsideration of the authority of His utterances, so far as they bear on the controversy. Those who are taking part in this inquiry are in earnest. They are serious and devout men. They approach the question from very 12 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. different points of view, and are by no means all of one type of churchmanship, or of one calibre in critical matters. They demand, and ought to obtain, a respectful hearing. The object of the present volume is to clear the ground for such a hearing by opening an inquiry into the Lord's position as a Teacher. Three branches of the subject will have to be taken up. The first has to do with the Lord's Person and Incarnation. In dealing with this question technical words will be avoided as far as possible, and the old controversies and de- cisions of Councils will not be reopened. Mr. Litton's work on Dogmatic Theology and Dr. Bruce's treatise on our Lord's Humiliation may be consulted by those who want a full and clear account of the abstruse discussions connected with the Lord's Incarnation. Our business will rather be to examine the nature of the limita- tions imposed upon Christ by the assumption of human nature, and to consider how far those limitations affect the accuracy and authority of His Teaching. The second department of our inquiry must consist of a careful investigation of the Four Gospels, which will be taken for this purpose as an accurate report, in order to discover what indications of our Lord's knowledge they con- tain, and to find out any marks of limitation or reserve imposed upon Him as a Teacher. THE QUESTION STATED. 13 In the third place, the Lord's own words must be strictly investigated, so that we may gather from them the source and authority of His utterances. Counter-evidence must be looked for and counter-theories must be examined ; and, finally, the bearing of the discussion on some modern critical questions must be gone into. The aim of the work, however, will be constructive rather than critical and destructive. It is far more useful for ordinary people to have something positive to rest upon than to listen to a tirade ao^ainst hostile critics. May the spirit of counsel and wisdom animate the mind of the writer and reader, and may no mistaken, short-sighted, or bitter word be uttered ; for the ground on which we are stand- ing is Indeed holy ground. CHAPTER II. THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION. AS soon as the Lord Jesus came forth in public, He attracted attention as a Teacher of no ordinary stamp. Many were the inquiries made concerning Him. Who was He ? Whence came He ? What were His aims ? From what source did He draw His learning? Who gave Him His authority ? Was He a prophet ? Was He ^/le prophet whom Moses had spoken of? Was He the anointed King, the Son of God, Who should come into the world ? Various answers were given, according to the feelings, prejudices, and experiences of His hearers. His enemies, who grew more numerous and hostile as time went on, an- swered one way ; His followers, another. Amongst the authoritative statements on the subject given by His disciples there are three worthy of special attention : — (i.) The Gospel according to St. John opens thus : "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. . . . All things were made through Him, and apart from Him was not anything made that was made. . . . And the Logos was made DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION. 15 flesh and tabernacled amongst us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only- begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Without entering into any abstruse discussion about the use of the term Logos, or Word, we may take it as signifying the living personal expression of the mind and will of the Father ; as the Agent through Whom all the Divine counsels and purposes are carried out ; as the Channel through Whom all the gifts and graces of heaven flow down. (ii.) The Epistle to the Hebrews opens thus : " God, Who in sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by the Son ; Whom He hath appointed heir to all things ; through Whom also He made the worlds ; Who was the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person." This passage falls in with the earlier one, and gives a still clearer idea of the relationship existing between the Father and the Logos, The Greek terms used imply that this relationship is analogous with that which exists between the sun and his rays, or between the seal and the impres- sion made by it on the wax. The Lord Jesus is, therefore, to be regarded as the exact embodiment and transcript of the Father's nature, being one with Him, and in some sense inseparable from Him, and wholly de- i6 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. pendent on His will and power in respect to the exercise of His functions. (iii.) The First Epistle of St. John opens thus : " That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen- with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life (the living Logos) ; for the Life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us." Here the Lord Jesus is set forth as a manifested Life. The hidden though glorious life of the Father is brouorht out from behind the veil and lived in the Person of the Son. This manifestation of the Divine life was set forth in the presence of a certain number of privileged persons, who were thereby enabled to know God by personal contact, and to transmit to others something of the knowledge which they had attained. Such, then, is the nature of the Being Whom the Father sanctified and sent forth into the world. His name may well be called Wonder- ful. As we draw near with reverence to see this strange sight the question rises in our minds, For what reason, and with what aim, has this manifestation of the Logos been per- mitted in this minute corner of God's creation which we call Earth ? What is man that God is mindful of him, and the son of man that God so regards him ? Scripture does not fully answer DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION. 17 the question ; but one thing is clear. The Son of God has been manifested for the salvation of sinners. He has come to enable men to conquer sin and death, and to make them in deed and truth sons of God and heirs of everlasting life. A careful examination of the Four Gospels will lead us to the conclusion that every detail of the Life of the Lord Jesus was planned and regulated in accordance with this end. Every step was ordered ; everything that was of the nature of chance was eliminated ; the birth, the early life, the ministry, the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ were arranged and timed in accordance with what seemed best to the Divine wisdom. The same must have been true with respect to all the other phenomena or manifestations of the Divine life in the Lord Jesus. Every word that He said and every work that He did contributed to the o^eneral effect, and may be regarded as a link in the chain which brings God into touch with man through the Word. Never had there been such a thino-. Israel had been blessed with great prophets and great deliverers, but these were all servants in God's House. Christ was a Son over His own House. Holy men of old had been subjected to special influencesof God's Spirit toenable them to speak, write, and work as the agents of God. But to Christ the Spirit was not given by measure. Though so many generations have passed away, i8 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. we still owe all that is worth calling life to Him, and all the ends of the world — with a width of meaning unsuspected when the words were first written — have seen through Him the salvation of God. We have yet, however, to bring into pro- minence the essential truth concerning the nature of Christ. Manifestation is one thing ; Incarnation is another. It might be possible for the Logos to have exhibited the Divine life amidst human surroundings and in a human form without taking our nature upon Him. We can conceive an angel assuming a human appearance, or even occupying a human body, and living amongst men for a time, as the Anofel of the Lord seems to have done more than once in the Patriarchal age. Some objects of the Manifestation might thereby have been accomplished — but not all. There were reasons which made it fitting and becoming in the sight of God that the Logos should take our nature, as well as our appearance and our body. The nature of man is evidently more than the body of man. We may not be able to distinguish between spirit, soul, and body ; but we know that we have these elements in our nature. When God created man in His own image He gave him a certain nature, generically different from all the brute creatures below him and from all the angelic creatures above him ; and this nature, as originally constituted, the Logos DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION. 19 must needs partake of. Whatever Adam was when created from the dust, that Christ must become when born of the Virgin Mary. God of the substance of His Father, begotten before the world; and man of the substance of His mother, born in the world. And this not by- conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God. This simple but oruarded statement oriven to us in the Athanasian Creed is most helpful to the mind. It keeps us from regarding the Virgin Mary as in a theological sense the mother of God, and shows that she was the mother of the Lord in respect of the manhood which He took into the Godhead. It reminds us that there was no absorption of the Divine in the human, but rather an annexation of the human to the Divine, or a combination of the human with the Divine. It also teaches us that the manhood of Christ is true manhood, not a sham or an unreality. He was the seed of a woman ; but was un- tainted by the bias or tendency to go astray from God, from which we all suffer ; this freedom from taint being secured by the truth that the manhood of Christ was the fruit of a pure virgin. And so He who lives God's life through Eternity, and who could say, " Before Abraham came into being, I AM," lived man's life in Time. The Divine personal Being Whom St. John calls the Logos, and Who had hitherto 20 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. acted on human nature but not in it, super- induced the manhood in its original condition and perfection, and became thereby the pos- sessor of two perfect natures, the Divine and the human, remaining, nevertheless, One Per- son. This is the foundation-stone of the Gospel, and is never to be forgotten as we read the sacred pages of the four Evangelists. For this due preparation was made in history and prophecy, in law and in type. In the fulness of time God sent forth His Son, made of a woman ; and thus the first chapter of the story of Redemption was written. All that is super- natural in the Older Dispensation leads up to this ; and all that is mysterious or miraculous in the New Testament finds its solution in this '* Mystery of Godliness." The Atonement cannot be grasped until the true doctrine of the Incarnation has been received. It is only then that we can understand that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. But when this Truth in its grandeur is once revealed to the heart by the Holy Spirit, we have something to rest upon. We are on the Foundation which God has laid in Zion. CHAPTER III. THE LORD'S HUMILIATION. WE have seen that the primary truth of Christianity is the taking of the man- hood into the Godhead by the Logos or Word of the Father. Certain conclusions would ap- pear to follow naturally, unless anything to the contrary can be drawn from the Scriptures. (i.) We should expect to find in Christ an embodiment of all the Divine moral per- fections without flaw or failure. We should also look for the special mark of the Logos, as the Son, viz., loving submission to the Father's will and commandments, however trying and difficult these might be. Only, instead of looking for these excellences in their infinity as shadowed forth in the varied revelations of truth contained in the Old Testa- ment, we expect to find them exercised and developed by Christ along the line and in the course of human life, and under the restrictions which Manhood necessarily involves ; so that what had been revealed beforehand as the moral attributes of God are seen to be the natural but gradually developed characteristics of the Man Christ Jesus. (ii.) In the same way, and for the same 22 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. reason, we should expect to find that the Divine powers which the Word naturally and eternally exercised, as the Agent of the Father s will and purposes, would be manifested in Christ. But these powers would be put forth within the limitations and through the faculties which belong to human nature as it existed before the fall of man ; human life thus provid- ing a sphere for the exercise of the practically unlimited powers which are delegated by the Father to the Word, and used in subordination to the Divine will. (iii.) So also the Divine knowledge, insight, and wisdom, which we ascribe to Him Who from eternity has been '' Light of Light," must be looked for in Christ. He would not leave li^ht behind Him when He came into the world. But the expression of it in teaching would only be permissible through the exercise of human faculties and under the restrictions involved by unfallen manhood. What mysteries ! Who shall unravel them ? Strange that the characteristics of the Word should be associated with the life of an un- developed infant ! That even before the Child began to live a separated life He should be in a special sense holy, and that He should exercise within the sphere of infancy, so far as was fit- ting, the attributes of the Word ! The life of godliness needs, so to speak, to be created in us ; but in Him it was natural, and needed THE LORD'S HUMILIATION. 23 only to be developed through exercise. As He grew up, the boundless stores of goodness, power, and knowledge which He brought with Him into the world would find their way more and more perfectly through the channels of human nature. He Who had been God's Agent in creation and the Medium of all true Revelation — Who had talked with Abraham, revealed Himself to Moses, and presented Himself to Joshua — now became the Seed of Abraham, submitted to the law of Moses, and dwelt in the land which His namesake Joshua had conquered. No wonder that we get lost when we try to adjust the relationship between the two whole and perfect natures of Christ. No wonder that we go astray when we attempt to deter- mine what in Him was human and what Divine. Again and again have we to lay aside, as too speculative, ideas and illustrations which at first seemed suggestive. It is evident that manhood In Christ was not a mere disguise. He did not come down to earth after the manner of some Eastern poten- tate, who might wish to wander amongst his subjects unfettered by the trappings of state. The Incarnation was not a disguise, but a manifestation ; yet it necessarily involved some of the elements of a disguise, as was .the case when Moses put a veil over his face to reduce its brightness. 24 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Let us look at some Important passages which throw hght on what actually took place. (a.) In 2 Cor. viii. 9 we read, '* Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." The Greek word translated " he became poor" {eirTwyeva-e) is used nowhere else in the New Testament. It is to be found in the old Greek version of Psalm xxxiv. (xxxiii.) 10, where the English version is, "the young lions do lack and suffer hunger," but the Greek rendering is, " the rich became poor and suffered hunger." The poverty spoken of by St.* Paul is evidently voluntary poverty. There may be a reference to the fact that when our Lord was upon earth He had none of this world's riches, and lived as a poor man ; but it seems rather to refer to the fact that a life of limitation and dependence was necessitated by His entrance into the human family. This was indeed a stripping off the riches which belonged to Him by Whom all things were made. {b.) We now turn to Phil. ii. 7, 8. Two expressions call for special notice in this pas- sage. First, '' He humbled Himself" {eraireLvwarev kavTov). The word answers in its general usage to the Hebrew n^y, and means to make oneself low, to occupy a mean position, to be lowly. It is used both in a moral and in a social sense, THE LORD'S HUMILIATION. 25 as setting forth lowliness of spirit, or as imply- ing the reduction of one's position in rank or one's condition in life. Here the voluntariness of it is specially noticeable ; and this leads us to see how the two senses of the word are combined in Christ, for He showed His lowli- ness of mind by the act of assuming a position as a man which was mean indeed when com- pared with His original position as Word. The other expression in this passage to which attention must be called is rendered in the English version, '* He made Himself of no reputation " {eavrov kevwa-e). From the Greek word here used the doctrine of the Kenosis derives its title. What does the word really mean ? The revisers have boldly adopted the rendering, '' He emptied Himself" But are they right in so doing ? The word answers to the Hebrew b^)^ in Jer. xiv. 2 and xv. 9. In each of these passages, and in almost every other place where this Hebrew word is used, it is translated "languish" in the Authorised Version. The idea of the word seems to be not so much emptiness as feebleness. It fits in with the thought that Christ was " crucified in weakness." He who is *'the mighty God" took upon Himself the condition of feeble man and the position of servitude and dependence. His might and majesty were laid aside, and He was amongst men as one who served. If this be the true idea of the passage, the 26 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. thought occurs to the mind that St. Paul's meaning- may have been somewhat misappre- hended by the Revisers and by those who have pressed a classical sense of the verb /cej/oco, instead of guiding themselves by its usage in the Septuagint. Some theologians speak a little too loosely of the Kenosis, as of Christ's voluntary abeyance of the Godhead and of His divesting Himself of the Divine attributes, without fully weighing the words on which they found such teaching. The Kenosis is the assumption of a condition of weakness rather than of emptiness. (^.) There is another passage in the Epistles which must not be passed over. In Heb. ii. 7 the Authorised Version runs thus : '* Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels." The writer quotes the 8th Psalm, and applies it to the humiliation of Christ. The Revisers have translated the passage in the Psalm, " Thou hast made Him but little lower than God." But the old Greek translation substi- tuted the word ''angels" for the word Elohim, or God, as they did in other passages. No one can fairly quarrel with the Revisers for return- ing to the word " God." But is the verse as a whole rightly rendered by them ? The word translated " made lower " does not necessarily or naturally refer to the original making of man, but to the lowering him from his original position to one which is in some sense inferior. THE LORD'S HUMILIATION. 27 The sentence seems to mean, ''Thou hast lowered Him for a little while beneath the Divine position." The only other passage where the verb ("iDfi) is used in the Piel or In- tensive voice is Eccles. iv. 8, where it is trans- lated " bereave." Calvin adopts a similar rendering {ntinuisti). It gives a sense of re- duction, or diminishing, or stripping; and the Greek rendering {rikaTTwcrai) does the same. It is strange that the Revisers ignored this both in the Old Testament and in the New, and that they retained "made lower" instead of "put" or "set lower." What, then, is the force of the passage as used in the Epistle to the Hebrews ? There are so many natures or conditions of created being in existence, rising grade above grade from the material up to the angelic. Man stands towards the top, but he is not absolutely the highest. The angels are above him, and above them is the uncreated Word, the medium between God and creation. What, then, is the present position assigned to Christ ? He is made (has become — 'yevoixevo^^ so much superior to the angels as He hath inherited (or had allotted to Him) a more excellent name than they (Heb. i. 4). This superiority of Christ over the angels is attri- buted to Him in connection with His session at the right hand of the Majesty on high. But what preceded this glorification ? The answer lies in Heb. ii. 7, where the writer, adapting 28 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Ps. viii. 5 to his purpose, affirms that God had put His Son beneath His original position, and even beneath the angelic condition, for a definite purpose, and has subsequently crowned Him with glory at His right hand, the final triumph standing over until the time appointed by the Father, when all things shall be put under the feet of the Son of Man. [d.) There are other passages in St. Paul's Epistles bearing on the humiliation of Christ. Thus in Rom. viii. 3 we are taught that God sent His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (though not in sinful flesh) ; and in Gal. iv. 4 God is described as sending forth His Son made {^evofxevov — coming into a new state of being) from woman. But let us turn to our Lord's own words on the subject. It is striking that although the Lord spoke so often of having been sent from the Father into the world. He did not unfold to His disciples any particulars concerning the nature of the Incarnation. This, it would seem, was among the things which they were not yet ready to receive. We have to turn on through the Gospels until we reach John xvii. in order to find what we need. Here the Lord is speaking, not to His disciples, but to His Father. His words run thus: "Now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own Self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." These words imply THE LORD'S HUMILIATION. 29 that there had been a reduction of £-lory — not of nature — to which the Lord had been sub- jected on His entrance into the world, and they point forward to the reinstatement of the Son in His original position or condition of glory. This reinstatement was doubtless ful- filled in part when the Lord was seated at the right hand of God, and was put far above all principalities and powers and every name which is named, not only in this age, but in that which is to come (see Eph. i. 21) ; and it will reach another stage of fulfilment when we see all things put under His feet, when death is swallowed up in victory, and the day of the manifestation of the sons of God shall be ushered in. On reviewing these passages as,, a whole it may be concluded, that when the Lord took human nature He impoverished and restricted Himself not in respect to His personality, or essential attributes, as Word, but in respect to His glory, that is, to the exhibition of those attributes amongst men. It was fitting, neces- sary, that in entering the domain of human nature He should stoop, and should submit to certain restrictions and limitations inseparable from manhood. Before His Incarnation the only restriction to which He was subjected as Eternal Son of God and Word of the Father was subordination to the Divine will. Now, however, in obedience to that will, He volun- 30 DOCTOR DOCTORUM, tarily and gladly submitted to a series of secondary restrictions, which covered the whole period from conception to crucifixion, many of them being of a nature absolutely inconceivable to us. Afterwards these were withdrawn. It was not, indeed, the case that Christ discon- nected Himself with human nature after His death, but rather that His human nature was glorified, so that its possession should be no longer a restriction of His position as the L0£'0S. The complete manifestation of the re-glorified Logos in human nature — this is the hope of the Church. CHAPTER IV. RESTRICTIONS INVOLVED BY OUR LORD'S ASSUMPTION OF MANHOOD. IT has been pointed out in the previous chapter that when our Lord took the Manhood into the Godhead He assumed a position of weakness, and submitted volun- tarily to a veiling of His majesty and glory. This was essential to His entrance upon true brotherhood with the human race, and it en- abled Him to come into personal contact with all the ills which flesh is heir to. A kind of antagonism with evil to which He as Logos was a stranger was now open to Him. Con- flicts which had been outside Himself were now carried on within. He became personally engaged in the battle with wrong, with impo- tence, with ignorance, which was raging in the world. The strain of natural appetite which had hitherto only been conceived by His Divine omniscience was now realized in His human experience. Laws of growth were submitted to. Many things associated with the weakness of human nature must have been put up with. Death itself was tasted. Who of us can realize what it was to the 32 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Logos thus to humble Himself. As Man He must needs hold back and keep down the energies which were natural to Him as God. When stones could readily be turned into bread, when angels could easily protect Him from risk, when legions of heavenly beings were at His command \i only He asked for them, He must abstain, and be as other men. He to Whom all things were open and naked must keep back His knowledge. He Who was privy to the mysteries of creation, history, and redemption must tell no man of the structure of earth or the beauty of Paradise, of the circumstances of the Flood or the down- fall of Sodom, of the deep meaning of atone- ment or the details of the life to come. The ocean of Eternity must be confined within the straits of Time, and the inexhaustible reservoirs of grace must trickle through the conduits of human capacities. This was indeed humilia- tion. In these respects, and such as these, subordination to the Divine will became a new experience, being shown not only in what He did and suffered, but in what He abstained from saying and doing ; not only in what He taught, but in what He kept back ; not only in what He manifested as Divine, but in the restraint He put upon Himself as human. Turning now to the question specially before us, we have to inquire in more detail how far ASSUMPTION OF MANHOOD. 33 our Lord's entrance into human nature put a limitation on His powers of communicating Divine truth. In answer, we have to consider first the mode or form of His communications ; secondly, their substance. (i.) It is plain that in adopting human nature and in teaching human beings our Lord must needs express Himself in human language. All revelation in previous times, whether through prophets or angels, or by voices from the spirit world, had been made in human laneuaee ; otherwise they w^ould have been unintelligible. Still, language is of the nature of a restriction on a being who is naturally capable of com- municating truth through direct spiritual illu- mination, without the medium of articulate utterances. Speech and language are conve- nient instruments adapted to the requirements of human nature as it now exists. Other beings may not need them, and may have totally different methods of intercourse. Moreover, human speech is constructed in great measure with reference to the outer world, and is only adapted in a secondary degree to the world of mind. The visible is used as the illustration of the invisible, the audible as the exponent of the inaudible, the sensible as the expression of the spiritual. All languages illustrate this phenomenon, ''First the natural, then the spiritual." Thus we have c 34 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. not in the teaching of Christ that presentation of truth which would be adapted to the needs of purely spiritual beings. It is accommodated to the mental requirements and linguistic habits of the children of men. This is no new thing ; anthropomorphism, as it is called, runs through the Bible. Though God's ways and thoughts are not man's, yet they have to be set foi-th in the light of human analogies, by means of human illustrations, with the restrictions implied in human methods of reasoning or persuasion, and in human words, sentences, and grammatical distinctions. In the Old Testament God is described as cominor down to see the tower of Babel, as looking down upon the children of men to see if there were any who went right, as wondering that there was no man, and as going and returning to His place to see if men would repent. These and similar expressions give us no difficulty. We readily interpret them with reference to the spiritual realities which they exhibit. (ii.) The selection of one particular language rather than another, e.g., Palestinian Hebrew, and the special kind of Greek which represented it, rather than classical Greek or Latin, involves a further restriction. Every language has its own class of expressions and ways of putting things, which will not exactly coincide with those of other tongues. There are not only '' modes of thought" but also "forms of speech" in every ASSUMPTION OF MANHOOD. 35 country. They grow up through a variety of causes and become a national inheritance, giving birth to idioms, many of which are startHng to other races. In these and other respects our Lord neces- sarily accommodated His modes of expression to the minds of His contemporaries in Palestine, never sinking into that which was coarse or (in the bad sense) vulgar, and- never rising into the abstruse or unintelligible, either in His choice of words or in His method of putting things, though frequently startling His hearers by the force, point, and strangeness of His utterances. His object was to teach, not to bewilder, and He did not hesitate to use the plainest of speech, to re- peat Himself, to put the same truth in various lights, to correct misapprehensions, to expound His own discourses, so to adapt His teaching to the needs of His hearers, whilst building up truth upon truth. Passins: now from the form to the substance of our Lord's teaching, we have already observed that the natural inference to be drawn from the fact of the Incarnation is, that it restricted the Lord, not so much in the possession as in the communication of knowledge, and that in this respect it was parallel with the other manifesta- tions of His Divine nature. The idea of enforced reserve in the communi- cation of what we know is not altogether strange to us. When a statesman takes high office, he 36 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. is bound to be silent about many things which he may know ; also, he may know from private sources many things which he does not know officially. He may say, *' I have no official knowledge of a certain matter ; " and then no more can be asked. An English Prime Minister may hold private intercourse with the Queen, but may be prohibited from uttering a word of what has passed. His lips may be absolutely sealed until a certain day, and then he may be author- ised to break silence and to reveal the secrets of the Palace. Is there anything at all analogous wuth official ignorance or official reserve in the case now under discussion } It is clear that, just so far as the Son was, through all eternity, privy to the mind of the Father, that amount of familiarity with the Divine Counsels was retained by the Logos when He was made flesh and dwelt among us. But on the other hand, on assuming human nature. He took an official position, and was subjected to restrictions which are, at least in some degree, parallel with those just pointed out. He knew in one sense what He did not know in another. Manhood had been assumed for a specific purpose and was official. So it would come to pass that the Lord's manhood would exercise a restraint on His communica- tions, and He might teach as Son of man less than He knew as Son of God. ASSUMPTION OF MANHOOD. 37 At the same time we should suppose, unless anything is revealed to the contrary, that the Lord's original knowledge would be a guard on His human utterances, and we cannot con- ceive that He would utter in His human capacity that which He knew to be untrue by virtue of His Divine nature. Reserve is one thing, duplicity is another. We all have a right to state less than we know, but no man has a right to state anything contrary to what he knows ; and our Lord must have been sub- ject to this very ordinary rule of morality. There are indications in the Gospels of two things, which may be regarded as in some sense analogous with official ignorance and official reserve, and in both cases our Lord makes an open statement, in order to keep us from any mistake in the matter. So far as we can gather from the records, there was only one thing of which the Lord was officially ignorant. It had to do with the future, not with the past, being concerned with the day and hour of certain future events (Mark xiii. 32). But there were many things on which He was officially reserved during His earthly ministry, though that reserve was subsequently broken down. Accordingly He says (John xvi. 12, 13), "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now ; how- beit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all Truth." 38 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. We may, however, pursue our inquiry from another point of view. It is a well-known fact that knowledge may lie latent within us and may not be available even though we are con- vinced that we have it. We search in our minds for some particular name, and fail to draw it forth from the mystic recesses of the brain. We say, " I know it, but I cannot re- member it." Suddenly a communication flashes along the track of some old association, and the missing name rises to our lips. Was this, or anything similar to it, the case with Christ ? Had His original knowledge receded from His consciousness, so that the human faculties could not at once reach down to it and avail themselves of it ? Or we may put the question in a still stronger form. When He, Who as the Logos had been privy to all the human activities of the historic past, took upon Him our nature, did He deliberately or of necessity discharge from His mind and banish from His memory all that He knew .^ Did He leave it behind Him when He came into the world ? Was this possible ? Was it necessary ? Much seems to hang upon the answer to these questions ; yet who shall dare to dogmatise on them ? We may be guided in part here again by human analogies. There is this peculiarity in knowledge, that if we once know a thing it is impossible to unknow it. We may forget through ASSUMPTION OF MANHOOD. 39 natural infirmity, we may burn our books and memoranda, we may be silent ; but sound know- ledge, once firmly established in our minds, be- comes part of our nature. This is one of the principles of Truth. This mental phenomenon is clearly elucidated in one of the late Isaac Taylor's luminous essays.^ '^ We are forbidden," he writes, '' by the constitution as well of the intellectual as of the moral world, to recede from a position to which we have spontaneously advanced. It is not allowable to take up the cup of knowledge and then to forget that we have tasted it. The taste will remain as a bitter- ness on the palate ever afterwards unless we go on to sip and to drink anew. Be ignorant ; or, if you would not be ignorant, then learn whatever may be learnt. Think not at all, or else think on to the end." The writer proceeds : " I am not at liberty to release myself from the burden that has come upon me,for it has come in consequence of a great extension of my range of vision, and in consequence also of a knowledge of facts that were not heretofore known, or if known resfarded. The perplexities which darken my prospect and sadden my meditative hours could not in any way be dispelled unless I might unknow what I have come to know, and then mieht cease to feel what I could not wish to feel. If I labour to forget what I know, the mere attempt fixes it the more firmly in my memory." 1 Lo^'u in Theology^ and Other Essays. 40 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. It will be noted that in these passages the writer is not discussing the matter which is specially under our consideration. He is deal- ing with the mental and moral characteristics of human nature. He is pointing out the re- sponsibility which the possession of truth of any kind brings with it, and showing that we cannot retrace our steps in knowledge. A man may adopt a new name, he may disguise himself in rags, he may take the most menial of employments, he may mix with the ignorant and the outcast ; but wherever he goes and whatever he does, he cannot get rid of his knowledge. He need not exercise it ; but there it is, stored up in his brain. Just as his faculties are part of himself, so is the knowledge which he has gained through the use of those faculties. This law of human nature seems appHcable to the case of Christ. Although no one would venture to speak dogmatically on such a subject, yet the analogy of human nature would lead us to believe — unless Scripture afford any testi- mony to the contrary — that although our Lord doffed the robes of glory and stripped Himself of His resplendence and majesty, yet He did not divest Himself of that knowledge which was natural to Him as the Logos. He ever held it in reserve, and its possession would make it impossible for Him to utter a single sentence which was inconsistent with fact. CHAPTER V. HOW WAS OUR LORD'S DIVINE KNOWLEDGE CONSISTENT WITH HIS HUMAN LIMITATIONS? TN discussing the bearing of the Incarnation •^ on our Lord's teaching we have been led to the view that the knowledge which He possessed as Son of God would exercise a controlling influence on His words. Two objections to this view may be urged. I. It may be said that by emphasising the fact of our Lord's Divine knowledge, we are throwing into the shade the truth of His thorough manhood. How could He be a dond fide partaker of human nature, and yet remain in the possession of such knowledge as is here implied ? The question thus raised is a serious one, and demands full considera- tion. But even if we cannot answer it, we are not at liberty to reject the view given above if it seems otherwise consistent with truth and reason. Things may seem incon- sistent which are not so really ; and the case before us is unique. Let us, in the first place, inquire particularly in what respects our Lord's manhood was like ours, and in what respects a distinction is to 42 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. be drawn between His human nature and our own. It is clear that He took everything that belongs to the perfection of man's nature ; but it does not necessarily follow that He partook of all man's imperfections. Though made from woman, His origin (physically speaking) was different from that of all other human beings. That which was conceived in the Virgin Mary was of the Holy Ghost. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, but He was not sinful. In Him was no sin. He was thus " separate from sinners " in respect to His origin, and also in respect to His moral being. The way is therefore open to consider whether the Incarnation limited Him to the ordinary avenues of knowledge which other men possess, or whether, in this respect also, He lived in a sphere different from that of fallen men. No solution can be obtained until we push the question back into another region, and ask whether it was essential to the special purposes of our Lord's mission that His knowledge should be purely human. Of course, if it was necessary or fitting that the Loo-OS should discharge from His conscious- ness all that He knew by virtue of His original nature, it would have been so ; although we have seen in the previous chapter that such a discharge is not according to human analogies. On the other hand, if there was no such neces- OUR LORD'S DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. 43 sity, it is hard to see that our Lord's limited and human expression of truth proceeded from an equally limited and human possession of truth. What, then, was needed in order that the Lord might finish the work which His Father gave Him to do in the flesh ? We may answer that there were seven notable elements in His humiliation. (i.) The Lord must needs become a kinsman and a brother to the whole human family. He must be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He m^ust thus be capable of holding a position analogous partly with that of Moses (Deut. xviii. 15, 18), partly with that of Aaron (Heb, ii. 17), partly with that of Melchizedek (Ps. ex. 4). (ii.) It was needful that He should endure temptation, or moral probation ; and accordingly we read that He was tempted in all respects, i.e., in all departments of His nature, in a sense similar to that in which we are tempted (Heb. iv. 15). ^ (iii.) This temptation involved suffering. He must suffer being tempted (Heb. ii. 18). The fact that our Lord did so suffer is clear from the Gospels, and is emphasised in the Creeds. (iv.) These temptations and sufferings, and the moral and physical strain which they in- volved, must needs find their climax on the cross (Heb. xii. 2, i Pet. ii. 24). 44 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. (v.) In the course of these sufferings, and by means of them, He must become obedient (Phil. ii. 8), learning obedience through the things which He suffered (Heb. v. 8, 9), and being thus made perfect (Heb. ii. 10). (vi.) He must bear the sin of the world whilst on the cross, beinof made a curse for us, and being offered as a lamb without blemish and without spot. And so He Who knew not what sin was, so far as His own experience went, must be made sin, i.e., must be dealt with as sin deserves to be dealt with. (vii.) Finally, He must taste death for all men (Heb. ii. 9), entering the dark valley as a volunteer on our behalf. Putting these seven points together, we may say that in taking manhood upon Himself it was essential that everything should be laid aside which would be inconsistent with true human brotherhood, or with liability to temp- tation, suffering, crucifixion, sin-bearing, and death. Further than this we need not go, and the way is now cleared for us to ask, how far these seven elements in Christ's humiliation necessitated or made fitting the banishment of the knowledge which He had as Logos. Let us take them in the same order and con- sult the analogy of human nature so far as we can. There are many degrees of knowledge and enlightenment in human nature. Some men have such a vast range of knowledge OUR LORD'S DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. 45 that their acquirements seem little less than omniscience in the view of ordinary mortals ; and in the light of this fact we can proceed. (i.) It is certain that the highest human in- telligence is consistent not only with human nature, but with brotherly sympathy. The processes of study are absorbing, and often put men out of touch with their neighbours ; but it is not so with the results, whether scientific, linguistic, or otherwise. Moses was learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians, and Daniel in the lore of the Chaldeans ; but neither of them lost a feeling of brotherly love towards their people. (ii.) It will also be allowed that knowledge does not in itself save us from the power of temptation. The desires and passions which give rise to sin may exist and assert them- selves in company with the most advanced in- telligence. Many fall into temptation in this so-called enlightened age who ought to know better and who do know better ; but their knowledge of the nature and consequences of evil-doing is temporarily eclipsed by the urgency of animal desire. (iii.-vii.) Further, it is clear that knowledge is no bar to suffering, and that the most educated and cultured are often the most alive and sensitive to pain of every kind. Conse- quently, the Lord's tasting of death on the cross as a sin-bearer, in obedience to His 46 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Father's commands, is not inconsistent, so far as we can judge, with the possession of perfect knowledge. We may, however, bring this branch of our inquiry to a further test. During the last year of the Lord's ministry He began to unfold to His disciples the things which were to happen to Him. He was to go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes. They would condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles, who should mock, scourge, and crucify Him. (See Matt. xvi. 21 ; xx. 19.) Here was know- ledge. Did it disqualify Christ from suffering ? Did the Lord's intimate acquaintance" with the things He should suffer, and with the glory that should follow, reduce the intensity of His agony } The Evangelist whose words have just been cited reports also, that when the time came for carrying out the programme the Lord began to be sorrowful and very heavy, and said to His disciples, ^' My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Matt. xxvi. 2>7^ 2,%). The other Evangelists confirm this state- ment. The Lord is described as "sore amazed and very heavy" by St. Mark (xiv. 33); as *' straitened " in Luke xii. 50 ; and " troubled " in John xii. 27 — the last two expressions being taken from the Lord's own lips. In the light of them no one would venture to say that the possession of knowledge dulled the pain of the OUR LORD'S DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. 47 cross, and alleviated the burden of the sin of the world, except in the sense in which every human being may have his woes relieved, namely, by the -stimulus of hope and by the prospect of final triumph. (See Heb. xii. 2.) We are thus confirmed in the view that by retaining the knowledge which the Lord pos- sessed as the Logos, He neither detracted from His true and perfect humanity, nor set up an obstacle in the way of those purposes which He came to carry out. This intimacy of the Logos with the Father's will was one of the things which marked Him out as distinct from every other member of the human family ; and no Christian who acknowledges this truth is thereby saying anything against the perfect manhood of Christ. H. There is, however, a second difficulty which must be touched upon. We assume that when our Lord took the manhood into the Godhead He came into possession of all those human faculties, feelings, and desires which belong to man's proper nature ; though the exercise of these did not debar Him from the retention of His natural Divine knowledge. According to this view, from His birth up- wards the Holy Child daily gathered fresh human experience through the operation of His senses, His intellect, His passive emo- tions, and His active powers, and so onward to the great moment when He yielded up His DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Spirit to the Father. It would be part of this training to receive such instruction as His parents thought fit to convey or procure. There are, indeed, no indications that our Lord was taught at a school, though it may have been so. The legends in the Apocryphal Gospels are worse than worthless. But no pious Jewish parents neglected the instruction of their children ; and we may be certain that, as the human intelligence of the Child Jesus developed with His growth, His Mother would instil, or draw out, the truths which were precious to her own heart ; whilst, doubtless, marvelling (as others did a few years later) at His understanding and answers. Now, it is objected that if the Logos retained His Divine knowledge, that there would be something of unreality in His going through any process of learning. Why should He learn, or pretend to learn, what He knew already ? On further thought, however, we may see that such a course was fittino^. Reverting again to human analogies, it must be borne in mind that the most learned of us may consent to be taught things which we knew long ago. We may go through a course of instruction, or through a process of ap- prenticeship, for some special reason, e.g., the companionship and welfare of others, learning for their sakes and in their way what we already know. An Englishman who is master OUR LORD'S DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. 49 of his own tongue may, for his child's sake, go through the process of learning English grammar. This is a bond fide exertion, and the result is a real attainment. We thus go up the steps of the ladder to a height from which we had purposely come down. We are plainly told concerning the Lord Jesus that "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." He was a Son before He came to earth. It was His eternal nature to obey the Father ; but it cannot be said that He went through the process of *' learning " obedience until He entered human nature. And what was true concerning learning in things spiritual may well be regarded as true in other respects. To learn is human ; to know without learning is Divine. The learning of certain things which He already knew as the Logos, may have been, and probably was, part of His probation upon earth. It may perhaps be affirmed that whatever it was necessary for Him to know as man, that He learnt in the ordinary way. What- ever He had to know as Prophet, that also He may have learned as prophets learned truth in former times. But when we have said this we have not said all. The incident at the Passover when the Lord was twelve years old is very instructive. We see what, for want of better words, may D 50 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. be called an indication of a double conscious- ness. On the one hand, there is the child nature ; on the other, there flashes out unmis- takably the dignity springing out of the Lord's mission and out of His special relationship to His Father. We must not omit to notice that some writers have lately viewed our Lord's knowledge in con- nection with problems In higher mathematics or with researches in modern science ; and things have been written in apparent forgetfulness of what mathematics and science really are. Man does not invent truth ; he only discovers it. The binomial theorem, the law of gravitation, and such-like, are merely human efforts to reach after truths which already exist. The definitions of Euclid are simply a man's way of expressing what he saw when considering dimensions in the world around him. The laws of nature as stated by any particular person in any special age are only general ways of putting things whereby some light may be thrown on the phenomena of existence. Moreover, the in- telligence of the mathematician and the chemist is not home-made ; it is a gift. Whence comes nature with its dimensions and its forces ? W^hence comes the reasoning power whereby men are enabled to see a little way into the wonders of the Creation ? St. John's answer is, "All thino^s were made throuoh Him;" '* He is the Light that lighteth every one." And who OUR LORD'S DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. 51 is the Person thus spoken of? It is th^ Logos, Who in the fulness of the time pitched His tabernacle amongst us. The Logos did not need to study mathematics or science before He could carry out His Father's mind in the creation of earth and man. He existed in immediate con- tact with the Father's Spirit, and as He knew so He acted. The physical and mental defini- tions, axioms, and theorems which the school- boy and the philosopher puzzle over are human ways of putting into words what the Logos has already put into deeds. If it had been neces- sary that He, when becoming man for purposes already touched upon, should commit to memory the mathematics and science of His own aee, or of our age, or of the next, of course He would have gone through the process, and would thus have learnt what men thought of His own work ; but it was not needful, because it did not bear on redemption. We conclude that though the knowledge which the Lord gained in the course of His human life from infancy upwards was not an absolutely new possession to Him, yet the pro- cess of acquiring it was a new experience. It was a real acquisition and a special discipline. We also conclude that beneath this human know- ledge there was retained in the Lord s conscious- ness, and held in reserve, that original perfect knowledge of the Father and of all created things which He had as the co-eternal Logos. And just 52 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. as any one of us may seem to know less than we actually do know, yet all our utterances may be guarded from error by our deeper insight into truth, so our Lord's teaching, however little He may have learnt from human sources, would be controlled and kept from error by His internal consciousness of truth. He might teach less than He knew, but He could not teach contrary to what He knew. CHAPTER VI. THE LORD'S UNIQUE POSITION AMONGST HIS FELLOW-MEN. \'\7E have now reached a stage where we ^ ' may examine the phenomena presented by the Four Gospels, so far as they bear on our Lord's knowledge and teaching. For this purpose we must take the Gospels to be true. We beheve that we possess in them a faithful account of the words and works of the Saviour. Every Christian feels, that if Christ is anything to us, He is everything, and that each detail of His life and teaching is precious. From primi- tive times, believers must have desiderated some record of Him which they could trust. What, then, did these early Christians possess? And what have they handed down to us ? Not, indeed, a full and complete report of all that our Lord said and did during even a single day of His ministry ; but Four Docu- ments which give us an impression of His personality and character, which awaken in our mind some idea of the nature and amount of His mighty works, and whicli give us a characteristic selection of His public and private utterances. These Memoirs have been 53 54 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. handed down to us as the work of four of the Lord's earliest followers, two of whom were accredited by Himself, whilst the other two were associates of St. Peter and St. Paul. This much must be taken for granted in the present inquiry ; and if any reader wishes to pursue the matter further, he will find ample help in the works of Drs. Westcott, Sanday, and Salmon, or in such short popular treatises as Dr. Wace's " Present Day Tract" on the F'our Gospels. It is true that we have not the ipsissiina verba, the very words Christ uttered, because the Gospels are all in Greek, and it is gene- rally believed that our Lord spoke in Hebrew. We must not forget, however, what Dr. Roberts pointed out long ago in his " Discussions on the Gospels," that the Jews in our Lord's time were to a great extent bi-lingual, that Galilee of the Gentiles contained a mixed population which could be reached by Greek more easily than by Hebrew, and that our Lord would not wholly iornore the Hellenistic element in His northern audiences. But, without pressing any particular theory, we may rest satisfied that we have an accurate presentation of the most important and typical of our Lord's public and private utter- ances as addressed to the Galileans, the Jews, and the inner circle of followers. Taking, then, the Four Gospels as sufficient and trustworthy materials, we ask, in the first place, what was the position or attitude which THE LORD'S UNIQUE POSITION, 55 the Lord assumed when He came forth from His seclusion and mixed with men ? John the Baptist was a prophet and more than a prophet ; he was the voice preparing the way of Jehovah ; he came to tell the glad news that the promised Kingdom was at hand ; he was a witness to the true Light ; he baptized with water that men should believe in One Who should come after him, Whose sandal-thong he was not worthy to loosen, and Who should baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. If such was the attitude of John, what was the position of Him to Whom John witnessed ? Several answers may be given : — (i.) We may be guided by the titles which our Lord assumed. We have, however, to remember that in studying this or other aspects of Christ's personality and position we must distinguish between His Own words and those of the Evano^elists. When talkinof to one another about Him the disciples usually spoke of Him as the Master; that is, the Teacher or Rabbi. In writing about Him the Evangelists usually called Him Jesus. If people approached Him with some question or difficulty they called Him Lord, that is. Sir. W^hat did He call Him- self? All the Gospels answer that He called Himself **the Son of man." The title was especially used by Him when speaking of His mission, His crucifixion, and His glorious re- appearing. It seems to set forth not only His 56 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. manhood, but also His assumption of manhood for a definite purpose. The second title which our Lord used of Himself was ''the Son of God," or, rather, simply " the Son," in contra- distinction to the Father. And this not in a secondary sense, as any godly person may be called a son of God ; nor only in a Messianic sense in accordance with the terms of the second Psalm; but in the theological sense, as the Only- begotten of the Father. Thus in Matt. xi. 27 we read that no one knoweth the Son, but the Father ; and no one knoweth the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son willeth to reveal Him. (Compare Mark xiii. 32 and Luke X. 22.) The Fourth Gospel abounds with instances of this title; see, for example, chap. V. 19-27; and chap. xvii. indicates that this Sonship was original, whilst the position in- volved in the title "Son of man" was assumed. The same truth may be gathered from some of our Lord's parables, e.o-.^ the parable of the Vineyard (Matt. xxi. ^'/), and the parable of the Marriage (Matt. xxii. 2). Special force is given to it through the voice from heaven at our Lord's baptism and transfiguration ; nor can we forget that the inhabitants of the spirit world recognised the Lord specially as Son of God (see, for example, Mark i. 24, 34). (ii.) We may be guided by the Lord's refer- ences to His mission. The narrative in the second chapter of St. Luke teaches that the THE LORD'S: UNIQUE POSITION. 57 Lord, whilst yet comparatively a child, was conscious both of His peculiar relationship to the Father and of His having special work to do; and His words imply a faint rebuke to His parents, who might have known these things. On entering His ministry the Lord begins to act as One sent from God. In Him such prophecies as Isa. Ixi. were fulfilled (Luke iv. i6~2i)- He came to speak as no one else ever spoke, and to do such works as no one else had done, in order that they might turn to the Father ; and His advent threw a new and heavy responsibility on His contemporaries (John XV. 22-24). He was God's missionary in His life, and God's Mediator in His death. In all He said and did and suffered He was carrying out the will of the unseen Father Who had sent Him into the world, and Who had in- dicated beforehand in the Old Testament the line He was to take. There could be no greater contrast than that which existed between the ordinary Jewish expectations of the Messiah and the course which the Lord actually took. He read the Old Testament from within, they from without ; and unwittingly they fulfilled part of the Divine programme by condemning Him — '' Thus it must be." (iii.) We may be guided by the attitude the Lord assumed towards sin, disease, and death. They were outside Himself; they could not claim Him ; yet He deliberately came into 58 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. contact with them. Though tempted at the beginning, middle, and end of His ministry, and doubtless all through His life, yet He never associated Himself with sinners. He does not once use the word ''We" when speaking of sin. The Prince of this world had nothing in Him, no point of contact with Him, no advantage over Him. Consequently He could say, with a force which none other claimed, Thy sins are forgiven thee. Though free from disease Him- self, yet He made the diseases of others His own ; and though death had no dominion over Him, and no claim upon Him as the Second Adam, yet He had power to lay down His life and to take it again, and this power or authority He assumed by His Father's command. In a word, the language of Ps. ciii. may be applied to Him : — - " He forgiveth all thine iniquities ; He healeth all thy diseases ; He redeemeth thy life from destruction ; • ^e crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercy." There is a voice of command running through the Gospel narratives wherever our Lord's mighty works are recorded, which is worthy of careful consideration. Men felt that they were in the presence of God, and occasionally there must have flashed into their minds that wonderful thought embodied in the Lord's words to Philip, '' He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." THE LORD'S UNIQUE POSITION. 59 (iv.) We may be guided by the unique power which the Lord exercised when communicating spiritual gifts to His followers. These gifts were of two kinds. First, there were special powers bestowed on the Twelve and on the Seventy for immediate use, the only condition being that those who possessed them should exercise faith when using them. In accordance with this grant of special force the Apostles and others acted as the Lord's deleo^ates durinor the period of His ministry, perhaps to a very large extent, even the devils being made subject to them ; though with their usual reserve the Evangelists have not seen fit to record any instances. After the Day of Pentecost similar gifts were bestowed in the name of the ascended Saviour through the operation of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, there were spiritual gifts and pri- vileges available for all Christians and for all time. In announcing their bestowal the Lord Jesus always pointed to Himself as the Foun- tain whence they spring. He was the Vine, the Shepherd, the Door, the Light, the Resurrec- tion, the Life. All who believed in Him were to receive from Him pardon, strength, enlight- enment, protection, and eternal life. Such an- nouncements were as clearly made in the begin- ning of the ministry as at its close. They draw a line round Christ. No one either before or after, in Palestine or in any other country, claimed to have such ofifts and to hold such 6o DOCTOR DOCTORUM. a position. All that the Father had was His (John xvi. 15). (v.) We may be guided by the authorita- tive position which the Lord assumed in His dealing with other men. He is " Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark ii. 28). He claims- according to the ordinary interpretation of Matt. xii. — to be greater than the Temple, greater than Jonah, greater than Solomon. His Father's House must suffer no indignity at the hand of the merchants. What He needs is to be supplied without questioning (Mark xi. 3). What He orders is to be done at once and without argumentation. Even His enemies feel His power, and fall back before His presence at the great crisis of His life. (vi.) We may be guided by the weight which He attached to His own words. He refers again and again to His Doctrine or Teaching, and claims for it an authority of the hio^hest kind. Heaven and earth mi^ht pass away, but His word should never pass away. The receiving of His words and belief in His mission were the conditions on which eternal life was granted. Their rejection was . the most sinful of sins, and would rise up against men in the Judgment. W^hatever sub- ject He dealt with He settled. His authority as a teacher was absolute. The more one con- siders the stress the Lord lays upon His own words the more one feels that they are part THE LORD'S UNIQUE POSITION. 6i of Himself and of His mission. We are not free to pick and choose amongst them. We may say of them what the Lord said of the Old Testament Scriptures, " They cannot be broken ; " that is to say, we must give them their full weight and their full meaning ; inter- preting them to the utmost of our power, with every help, human and Divine, which we can obtain ; omitting nothing which can illustrate, elucidate, or qualify ; comparing utterance with utterance, Gospel with Gospel ; distinguishing what is of immediate application from that which is intended for all time, and that which is adapted specially for one nation, or for one class of hearers, from that which is for the world at larcre. The Lord not only knew what He ought to say, but also knew w^hat would be recorded. His Spirit guided those who wrote the Memoirs in after times. Nothing was left to accident or to chance. Nothing was omitted which the Lord saw fit to have recorded. Nothing was added by way of embellishment. Every word was purified (Prov. xxx. 5). Nothing may be put aside as an obiter dictiun, a passing remark, an unweio^hed utterance. Such are the impressions that a reader of the Gospels is likely to gain from a general study of the books as a whole. But we must go into some particulars in order to get light on the subject before us. CHAPTER VII. OUR LORD'S KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE. IT is one of the attributes of^God that He knows the heart of man. " The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts" (i Chron. xxviii. 9). If it were not so He could not form a riofht estimate of human life, or decide on the future destiny of each individual. Accord- ingly Jeremiah, as His mouthpiece, says, " I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings " (Jer. xvii. 10). It is a remarkable fact that the terms of this grand verse are applied to Christ in the New Testament; for in the letter to the Church of Thyatira the Lord Jesus is described as saying, '' I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts : and I will give unto every one of you according to your works" (Rev. ii. 23). We thus have the testimony of the Spirit to the Divine power of searching the heart as an attribute of Christ ; and it adjusts itself with the oft-repeated truth that God has assigned to His Son the position of Judge over all mankind, for which He was especially 62 KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE. 6^ qualified, first, through possessing this power of insight, and secondly, through being Son of man as well as Son of God. We have now to inquire, how far such insight into human nature as will be needed in the Day of Judgment was possessed and exercised by the Lord when He was on earth. When Isaiah described the coming of the Messiah he said, ** The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and under- standing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make Him of quick under- standing in the fear of the Lord ; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears : but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth" (Isa. xi. 2-4). What a combination of spiritual excellences we have here ! They are the characteristics of God and of His Christ. But when were they to be exercised ? Not till the Great Day ? Surely we may expect to see some traces of these precious qualities during our Lord's lifetime upon earth, and in His dealings with men. Believing, as we do, that the Lord Jesus was the Logos, we hold that He was the Son of the heart-searching God, and that through Him all things were made; and so by virtue 64 DOCTOR DOCTORUM, of His original Being, He knew what was in man. How could He, Who had been the fashioner of the human heart, and who was privy to the construction of unfallen human nature, be ignorant of man's structure or ways? Moreover, on entering manhood He became possessed experimentally, or, as we might say, subjectively, of an acquaintance with human nature which He had before known only ob- jectively or externally, and this in two respects: first, as living a human life ; secondly, as in daily contact with fallen humanity. What a burden this last experience must have been to Him, no man can conceive. If Paul's spirit was stirred within him when he wit- nessed the idolatries of Athens, how much more must the Lord's spirit have been stirred at Nazareth, at Capernaum, and at Jerusalem, as He beheld the formality, the hypocrisy, the impurity, the oppression, the covetousness, the practical godlessness of the people round Him! Our Lord's insight into human nature may be detected on almost every page of the Gospels. It comes out incidentally in His words and deeds and methods ; and occasionally it is referred to in a special way, as if it had made a deep impression on the writer. Thus, in John ii. 23-25, we are told that when Jesus was in Jerusalem, early in His ministry, ''many beheved on His name. . . . KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE. 65 But Jesus 4id not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man : for He knew what was in man." It seems, at first, strange that Jesus did not commit Himself to these believers. Conscious of His mission and of His integrity, knowing what a blessing it would be to any one to be associated with Him, we might have expected Him to welcome the honest enthusiasm of the people, and to commit Himself to them, and so become their Leader. He would thus apparently have got the reception He sought. But no ; He saw their hearts ; He knew how mistaken their belief was, and how short-lived and worldly their loyalty would prove ; and so — knowing what was in man — He did not commit Him- self to them. The result proved that He was right. Three years later, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were for a second time stirred up to enthusiasm in His favour. But again He reads their hearts ; and their Hosannas served to extort not His gratification but His tears. Our Lord's knowledge of human nature may be studied from another point of view. No one can fail to notice what marvellous insight He had Into the personal and Individual char- acteristics of those with whom He came in contact. Simon is brought to Him (John i. 42), and without a moment's hesitation the E 66 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Lord ^^ives him a new name, indicative not only of his future position but of his latent characteristics. Nathaniel comes on the scene (John i. 47), and his guileless nature is de- clared in a single sentence by the Lord before the two had actually spoken to each other. Nathaniel is surprised ; but the Lord's answer showed that He had been privy to the most sacred and secret moments of his life. It might have been supposed that Judas Iscariot would not have been chosen into the number of the Twelve had the Lord known his nature, but Jesus twice over affirms that He was no stranger to the betrayer's real character ; He had known it "from the beginning" (John vi. 64, xiii. 11). Again the rich man comes run- ning to Jesus (Mark x. 17), and the Lord's heart is specially drawn out towards him by his ardour and purity, but ere a few sentences had passed between them, the Lord had put His finger on the weak place in his character, and the young man goes away sorrowful. The Lord's knowledge of the past history of the Samaritan woman (John iv.) produced such an impression on her, that she believed Him to be not only a prophet but also the Messiah. "Come," she says, ''see a man which has told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ ? " We hear a great deal of thought-reading in KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE. 67 these days, and there is much in it to excite our astonishment. But our Lord was the true thought-reader. He discerned the faith of some, and the secret sighing of others (Matt, ix. 2, 4). He "knew in Himself" the ques- tioning of His disciples (John vi. 61) ; their contention concerning primacy (Luke ix. 47) ; their lack of faith and stedfastness (John xvi. 32). He detected the murmuring of the Phari- sees and others (e.£'. Matt. ix. 4 ; Luke vi. 8) ; the mental criticism of Simon his host (Luke vii. 40) ; the hypocrisy of those who questioned Him concerning the tribute money (Mark xii. 15) ; and their evil suggestion concerning Beel- zebub (Matt. xii. 25). What shall we say to these things ? Our Lord evidently possessed the key to every character, to every history, to every thought. How is it to be accounted for ? Was it simply cleverness and insight ? Some persons have marvellous intuitive power. They see much further into their neighbours' thoughts and intents than other people do. This, however, seems an incomplete solution. Human insight largely consists in the reading into others what we see in ourselves. It springs from self- knowledge. And this would not account for the phenomena which have been observed in our Lord's case. Shall we say, then, that Christ's human in- 68 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. sight was quickened and stimulated by the prophetic spirit ? There are remarkable in- stances of prophetic insight in the Old Testa- ment. The Samaritan woman was at first content with this theory. ''Sir," she said, "I perceive that Thou art a prophet." This was the common idea about Jesus. All men be- lieved Him to be a prophet. But there seems to be a distinction between prophetic insight and our Lord's discernment, in degree if not in kind. Prophets had flashes of illumination, but they were liable to be deceived and to be taken unawares. Joshua was in close com- munion with God, yet he and his company were deceived by the Gibeonites. Elisha was unprepared for the Shunammite's trouble. Not so, however, with the Lord Jesus. He was, by virtue of His original nature as Logos, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. He was a Discerner of the thouofhts and intents of the heart (Heb. iv. 12, 13). Was He ever deceived ? Can we conceive such a thing ? We instinctively answer. No. The true answer, then, seems to be that our Lord's marvellous insight was natural to Him because He was the Son of God ; and it was needful to Him for the purpose of His mission. It was fitting that He Who was to identify Himself with human interests, and Who was to KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE. 69 bear men's sins and sorrows, should gauge the nature of man to its depths, both experimentally and unerringly. He must hiow before He could justify (Isa. liii. ii). Great must have been the strain of this constantly suppressed knowledge of human nature. Yet He bore it as part of what the Father laid upon Him, and He drank it as an ingredient in the cup given Him. This thought gives us new views of His longsuffering, self-restraint, and compassion. It also bears on His teaching. The more we know of those whom we desire to teach, the better able shall we be to approach them. We can more thoroughly adapt ourselves to their general needs and special requirements. The Lord was the Good Physician. He knew what human nature was capable of, what were its proper faculties, what were its failings and weaknesses. He detected the hidden poison within the heart, and could enumerate the lead- ing evils which spring from that tainted source and defile the life. It is not only that He knew the Jew, but He knew the man, and that from the Divine side as well as the human, and so He could speak and teach and provide for all the world and for all time. There have been many teachers, many philosophers, many orators ; but there are none whose words "go home" as His do. 70 DOCTOR DOCTORUM, His illustrations were so human; His criti- cisms so profound ; His words so gracious ; His subjects so sublime; His treatment so sympathetic; His teaching so authoritative. No one else saw what He saw, and conse- quently never man spake as He did. CHAPTER VIII. CHRISTS KNOWLEDGE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. \1{7"E now come to another department of ^ ^ our inquiry, namely, the Lord's know- ledge of the Old Testament. We read in John vii. 15 that our Lord's public teaching in the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles caused the inquiry to be made, " How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" Moses had been brought up in the wisdom of the Egyptians ; Daniel in the wisdom of the Magi- cians ; by whom had Jesus been taught ? Not by any of the recognized teachers of the schools of Hillel or Shammai ; not by Gamaliel. No one claimed to be the instructor of Jesus. How was it, then, that He knew so much ? It is evident that the class of knowledge re- ferred to in this inquiry was not philosophy, mathematics, or any kindred subject. The ''letters" are the *' sacred letters" [ra lepa ypafx/mara), i.e., the Scriptures of the Old Testa- ment. We shall see further on that the Lord appealed to them largely in the course of His teachinor ; that He regarded them as an abso- 72 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. lute authority which could not be broken or relaxed (John x. 35); and that He never re- jected a single word of them. But we are now concerned with His knowledge. It is clear that He not only knew the Sacred Text, but also understood how to use it. He discerned its real bearing, and while respecting its letter He drew out its spirit. He had a Master's in- sight into its true meaning, and could detect the substance, and kernel, and all that was of per- manent value, beneath its surface. He drew illustrations from the Sacred His- tory in the same way as we might do from the earlier history of our country, selecting incidents from all parts, and grouping them with singular wisdom. Thus, He puts the case of Noah alongside of that of Lot (Luke xvii. 26-30) ; the story of the widow of Sarepta with that of Naaman (Luke iv. 25-27) ; the mission of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon with Jonah's mis- sion to Nineveh (Luke xi. 30, 31). Similarly, He detects the vital connection between some things reported in the Old Testament and certain things that must needs happen to Himself "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up ;" " As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth," KNOWLEDGE OF OLD TESTAMENT. 73 He deals boldly with Moses and the Prophets. On the one hand, not a jot or tittle of their teaching was to be neglected or set aside, and any one who taught to the contrary would only bring discredit upon himself. He came not to destroy them but to fulfil them, i.e., to exhibit the fulness of their meaning. On the other hand, He is not content with a tame exposition of their writings, and a servile fol- lowins: of their words. He is a Master, not a servant ; and while others were fumbling at the lock. He held the key. Men stood amazed while He disentangled the Word of God from the traditions of men. A still greater shock must have been produced by His assertion that the Mosaic legislation was neither primeval nor final, but was accommo- dated to the hardness of the Israelite heart. Accordingly, He does not hesitate to take men back from the Mosaic to the Patriarchal period in the matter of circumcision (John vii. 22), and to the paradisaical period in the matter of marriage (Mark x. 3-6). Again, He discerns distinctions where His contemporaries had not noticed them. Thus, He gives the verdict of His approval, strange as it may seem, to David's conduct concerning the shew-bread (Luke vi. 3), but points out that Elijah's course in the matter of calling down fire from heaven was not to be imitated 74 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. by the Apostles (Luke ix. 54), who were to be in some respects of a different spirit from that of the Old Testament prophets. In dealing with the Messianic Scriptures the Lord is equally clear and bold. He publicly expounds Isa. Ixi. in connection with His own mission (Luke iv. 16-21). He absolutely silences the Scribes by pointing out the signi- ficance of the first words of Psalm ex., as He had silenced the Sadducees by His open- ing out of the true meaning of the words spoken by God to Moses at the Bush, when He said, '' I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Mark xii. 26). He openly associates the Messianic passage in Psalm cxviii. 22, with His own rejection and subsequent exaltation (Mark xii. 10), and affirms again and again, as the hour for His crucifixion drew nigh, that all which He was to go through was in fulfilment of the Scriptures, definitely quoting in this connection certain passages from the Psalms {e.£'. " They hated Me without a cause"), and others from Isaiah (e.g; "He was numbered with the transgressors"). See Luke xxii. ^y, and observe the force of the words '*the things concerning Me have an end," i.e., an accomplishment. On reviewing these phenomena we see that the Lord knew the Scriptures as no one; else KNOWLEDGE OF OLD TESTAMENT. 75 ever did. Whether expounding in the Syna- gogues, or teaching in the Temple, or illustrating by the roadside ; whether silencing the gain- sayer, or confronting the great adversary in the wilderness, the Scriptures were His natural and constant resource, and He showed Him- self to be the Lord of the Scriptures in the same sense as He was Lord of the Sabbath. How are we to account for these things ? The nearest parallel to our Lord's method of using the Old Testament is the way in which the Prophets use the Books of Moses. The Pentateuch was to them what the Old Testa- ment was to Christ. They used it freely, effectively, and with authority. Yet the parallel Is by no means exact. The Prophets generally use the law without formally citing it. They are neither defending it nor expounding it ; nor are they defending their own utterances by its words ; they are rather preaching to the people and reminding them, as we might in our sermons, of the recorded words and ways of God. But they were not its masters in any sense. The more we meditate upon the facts before us, the more we shall be brought to the conclu- sion that the Lord's knowledge of the Scriptures was unique. Ordinary teaching, such as might be given Him by His parents, would not reach far enough. Natural insight would not be strong enough. Prophetic illumination barely seems 76 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. to have been exercised in this special sphere. He knew by inherent Hght. He neither used the formulae of the Prophets nor the shibboleth of the Rabbis. Whenever questioned on a subject connected with the Old Testament, He was ready with a reply which went to the root of the matter. He needed not to tell His questioner to come again another day. He had the knowledge with Him, either possess- ing it inherently or having obtained it by means of instantaneous communication with His Father. Thus the solution lies where we have found it before — in the fact of His original and natural knowledge as the Word of the Father. His knowledge of Scripture was like the rest of His life ; as all things had been made by Him, so all things had been taught by Him. Many wonder- ful things were done by the Prophets ; in fact, we might find parallels for most of the things which the Lord did, in the narrative of the mighty works wrought through Moses and the rest of the Prophets. And many wonderful revelations of Divine truth are to be found in Moses and the Prophets. There is no impass- able gulf between their teaching and that of Christ ; yet they are comparatively broken lights, while Christ is ^/le Light ; and what He drew forth from the Scriptures of the Old Testament His Spirit had previously put in KNOWLEDGE OF OLD TESTAMENT. 77 (i Pet. i.-ii). This accounts for the fact that He speaks as one who was privy to the mind of the sacred writer. What they wrote was given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Who was in Him without measure even whilst He was upon earth. CHAPTER IX. OUR LORD'S ORIGINAL TEACHING. \\ 7'E have considered our Lord's insight into ^ ^ the nature of man, and His mastery over the Scriptures. We now approach another department of this investigation. It Is manifest on a thorough survey of the Gospels that the Lord's recorded teaching goes a great deal further than the Old Testament. No study of the Hebrew Scriptures would account for the whole of His utterances. Moreover, they have this peculiarity as compared with the writings of the Prophets, that they are entwined with His personal history and spring out of His life-work and mission. Whether we regard His Temple discourses, His roadside utter- ances. His private talks with disciples, or His conversations with solitary individuals, we find Him giving expression to vital truths which impress us at once by their sublimity and by their novelty. It cannot be denied, indeed, that they spring out of the Old Testament In one sense. The roots of all truth may be found there by dill- gent searching ; but in many cases we should fail to recognise them were it not for the 78 OUR LORD'S ORIGINAL TEACHING. 79 appearance of the full-grown utterances of Christ in the Gospels. In other words, a great deal which was not absolutely original assumed a dehniteness and prominence in Christ's teaching which leads us to regard it as practically new. Let us survey our materials a little more closely in order to see how far Christ was in this sense a revealer of truth. We instinctively turn, in the first place, to the Sermon on the Mount, of which the early Christians made so much use in their practical and apologetic "works, and which is a condensation of what the Lord taught on various occasions. What do we find it to be ? A series of dogrmatic utterances, some of which, indeed, may be paralleled from the Old Testament, and some from the Apocrypha and from later Jewish writings, whilst others may be illustrated from the words and works of Gentile sages ; and yet when we have allowed this we are com- pelled to hold that the teaching on the whole is unique. It has not been derived from any known human source. We are led to observe, in the first place, the weight which Christ assigned to character, and to the spirit and motives of life and action. This is shown to be specially developed in our dealings with those whom we naturally regard as our enemies, and in our bearinof under the adverse circumstances and anxieties of life. 8o DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Again, we find in this "Sermon" an idea of what may be called the concentrated essence of godliness, namely, filial reverence for God ; thorough confidence in His providential care ; a recognition of His willingness to forgive sins, to hear prayer ; and a loyal and uncompromising acceptance of the eternal principles of love, righteousness, purity, truth, and sincerity. We notice, also, before passing on, that this '' Ser- mon " is of the nature of an authoritative decree. All the Lord's utterances were to be regarded as absolutely true and as universally binding. And why ? Not because they could be proved out of the Scriptures, but because Christ pro- nounced them. The Sermon on the Mount, however, does not stand alone. Though almost unique in its form, it is, as regards substance, only a sample of the Lord's teaching. He is perpetually laying down laws or principles of spiritual life which are of permanent value and of universal obligation. Let us remind ourselves of some of them. (a.) There is the law of true Greatness or Supremacy : " If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all " (Mark ix. 35); ''Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister ; and whoso- ever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all " (Mark x. 43, 44) ; " Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased ; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke xiv. 1 1 ; xviii. 14). OUR LORD'S ORIGINAL TEACHING. 8i (d.) The law of No Compromise : ** No man can serve two masters ; for either he will hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. vi. 24). (c.) The law of Self-sacrifice: "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the same shall save it" (Mark viii. 35); "He that loveth his life shall lose it ; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal" (John xii. 25). (d.) The law of Development and Decay : " Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance : but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath" (Matt. xiii. 12; xxv. 29); "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much : and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much" (Luke xvi. 10). (e.) The law of Proportionate Responsibility: " Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have com- mitted much, of him they will ask the more " (Luke xii. 48). Other laws might be referred to, e.o^., the law of spiritual worship (John iv. 24), the law of for- giveness (Mark xi. 25, 26), the principle of cumulative retribution (Luke xi. 51), the law of recompense (Luke xiii. 2), the relationship of saying and doing (Matt. vii. 21), the principle F 82 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. of accountableness for speech (Matt. xil. 37), and the law of beHeving and receiving (Mark xi. 24). It is customary to speak of these as laws, and rightly so, for they are permanent principles and of universal application. St. Paul gives the weight of his authority to a kindred use of the word ''law" as a binding principle, in Rom. viii. 2 and elsewhere. At the same time, our Lord does not lead us to regard them as absolutely automatic or self-acting, but rather as the ways in which the righteous rule of God is beinor exercised in the affairs of men — in other words, as His methods of moral government. They do not act independently of God, and He does not act independently of them. They set forth His principles of action in and on human nature. There is a further peculiarity about these laws. They are usually set forth in connection with the new Kinordom, which is called " the Kingdom of Heaven " or " of God," over which Jesus Himself was in due time to preside, and they are frequently introduced in such a way as to imply that the Lord is in some sense answer- able for their being carried out, or that He em- bodies them in Himself. Thus, when unfolding the principle of true greatness in relation to service, He fortifies it by the illustration of His own case : " For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark x. OUR LORD'S ORIGINAL TEACHING. 83 45). Similarly, He applies the principle of ab- solute renunciation, not only to our relation to God, but also to Christian discipleship ; and the same is the case with the principle of self-sacrifice (Luke xiv. 25-27; John xii. 24). Thus, we read that " there went a great multitude with Him ; and He turned and said unto them, If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he can- not be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple." The conditions of enterino^ the Kinordom of Heaven — that is, Christ's Kingdom — are affirmed by Him with a clearness which almost savours of severity. The rich young man had hardly left the Lord when He turned to His Disciples and said, " Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God " (Mark X. 24, 25). Nicodemus had hardly begun to open his lips when the Lord cut him short with the world-wide announcement that " except a man be born again" (z.e.y into a spiritual life which is from above) " he cannot see or enter into the Kingdom of God" (John iii. 34). On another occasion, when the Disciples had been contend- ing for greatness — and we are thankful for the 84 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. honesty of the recorders who tell us about it — they approach their Master on the subject. Ever ready, He calls a little child from amongst the company and puts him in the midst and says, '* Except ye turn and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt, xviii. 1-4). Incidents of this kind help us to understand what must have been a startling announcement at the time of its first delivery, *' Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt. v. 20). The announcement of these laws often takes the form of a promise or threat. Perhaps we attach a wrong idea to the promises in Scrip- ture, and fail to recognise that whilst some of them are personal, arbitrary, or selective, they are all based on eternal principles of right. The Beatitudes are something more than promises. There is a vital connection between the character and the blessing pronounced on it, probably much in the same way as between the seed and the fruit. All character Is fruit-bearing, for good or for evil. In Mark ix. 41 we read, " Whoso- ever shall give you a cup of cold water to drink In My Name, because ye belong to Christ, he shall not lose his reward." The act is a little one, but the thought beneath It indicates that OUR LORD'S ORIGINAL TEACHING. 85 the soul is in relation to Christ ; and this rela- tion is fruit-bearing. The promise to the dying thief, " This day shalt thou be with Me in Para- dise," has in it something which is very special and personal, but something also which is for all time. Such promises are like the pledges of a king who has not yet entered upon his kingdom. All the promises which are connected with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are really spiritual laws. For instances of these we naturally turn to St. John's Gospel, wdiere, though the word " faith " is never used, there is so much about the act of " believing." Ac- cordingly, we find here that to believe in the Son of man as the Son of God, sent from the Father, is to insure being saved from a lost condition and being brought into a permanent and blessed life — a life which God cannot con- demn (see, for instance, John iii. 14-17 ; v. 24). Where this faith appropriates Christ's flesh and blood, that is to say. His giving up of Himself in human nature for the life of the world, there the recipient enjoys not only pardon and peace (Matt. xxvi. 28), but also life and spiritual nourishment (John vi. 35-58). To come to Him and drink was to receive the refreshinor o and invigorating influence of the Holy Spirit (John iv. 14; vii. 39). Continuance in His Word would bring liberation from the power of sin (John viii. 31-36). To be one of His sheep was to secure the possession of an imperishable 86 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. life (John x. 27-29), and was the earnest of the resurrection of the body (John xi. 25). These passages ilhistrate the fact that the Grace and Truth of God are embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ, and hang on His fulfilment of the mission assigned to Him by His Father. Of this mission He seems to have been at all times conscious. When He was a boy of twelve, His life-work was before His mind, and His course must needs be shaped accord- ing to it. At the beginning of His ministry He knew well that the Temple of His body was to be destroyed and to be raised up again in three days, and He frequently put this forth as a sign and credential of His mission. His object in coming was to call sinners to repent- ance, to save life, and to seek and save the lost, and this at the expense of His own life, which was to be given as a ransom for many. His being lifted up on the Cross would thus make Him become a centre of attraction to all (John xii. 32). He knew, also, that certain secondary results would follow upon His mission. Thus, although He was primarily a Saviour and a King of Peace, He came, not to send peace, but a sword (Matt. x. 34), a fire (Luke xii. 49), and judgment (John ix. 39). His coming, His death. His resurrection, were to be regarded as manifestations and developments of a Divine intervention on behalf of men, and His teaching and life needed to be read together, for they OUR LORD'S ORIGINAL TEACHING. 87 belonged to one another. He had His "hour" for working and for walking, for teaching and for preaching, for suffering and for dying; and when these had passed away there were yet new stages of Hfe before Him. For He taught ao^ain and again that when the hour fixed on high should strike He would be manifested in glory (Mark xiii. 26; John xiv. 2, 3). The orreat truths thus exhibited in the life o and words of Jesus were illustrated by Him in a series of parables, which were at the time of their utterance unique in form. We find in these a bold, clear, and striking enunciation of the characteristic features of the Kingdom of God, its method, its spirit, its various stages, and its ultimate triumph over all opposition. They at once conserved and concealed the Truth. The outsider could not always see their drift ; some of them puzzled even the Apostles ; others (especially those which had to do with our Lord's rejection) were equally intelligible to friend and foe. The remarkable thing about them is, that they tend to bring closely together the two ends of the Lord's mission, and to make us feel that to one who can look over the mountain tops of the centuries, the *'day of the Lord" is indeed nigh, even at the doors. Nothing looks very distant from us if we can clearly see it. There is one other department of our Lord's teaching which we must touch upon — the con- 88 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. fidential address given to the Disciples in the course of the evening in which He was be- trayed. As we read we seem to enter upon a different atmosphere. All is quiet ; the Dis- ciples' hearts are clouded with strange forebod- ings ; the betrayer has started on his baleful errand ; the Lord is specially tender, whilst He for the last time before His death pursues the office of teacher. Some important matters had been reserved till this moment, in order that they might be for ever associated with the things which were just about to happen. The rite of the Lord's Supper has just been grafted on the Paschal Feast ; the most menial of ser- vices has been performed by the Master for His servants ; and the last conversation is taking place. On this occasion Christ does not travel over the old ground ; we find no- thino- about the Kins^dom of Heaven and its characteristics, nothing in the form of a parable, but plain, weighty, loving words — words calcu- lated to go down deep into the heart, and to run far and wide through the world. He is going to His Father, and yet not in such a sense as that His Disciples should be left alone. He was still to be everything to them — far more, indeed, than He had been before. Four special Truths are brought out in these precious chapters. The first is the privilege of prayer in the name of Christ. This was a totally new subject, though shadowed forth in OUR LORD'S ORIGINAL TEACHING. 89 Matt, xviii. 20. How bold and gracious the words are : — '' Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it" (John xiv. 13, 14). The second great Truth is the mutual abid- ing of the Lord and His followers, He in them, and they in Him, in order that they might become fruitful. '' He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for apart from Me ye can do nothing" (xv. 5). The third Truth has to do with the Lord's commandments, which are put on a level with those of God. In Exodus xx. we read that God shows mercy to those that love Him and keep His commandments; and now the Lord says, " If ye love Me, keep My command- ments. ... He that hath My commandments," and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me." . . . " If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him" (John xiv. 1-5, 21, 23); "A new commandment I will give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John xiii. 34;.xv. 12). The fourth and most remarkable of these Truths is the promise of the coming of the Comforter; "another," and, therefore, distinct from Christ, though related to Him. His coming depended on Christ's departure to His Father. The one had been a visible and external Friend ; the other would be in- 90 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. visible and would act within. His business would be to continue the work which Christ had begun, carrying on the Lord's teaching to a further stage, whilst bringing to the Dis- ciples' remembrance all the Lord had taught (xiv. 25), guiding them into the truth He should receive of the Father, as the Lord had been doing (xvi. 13), and deepening the con- victions which Christ had been planting in men's hearts. Such is a brief survey of the phenomena presented by the original teaching of Christ. Let the facts speak for themselves. CHAPTER X. CHRISrS INSIGHT INTO HIS FATHER'S COUNSELS. \li7"E have seen that our Lord's teaching ran ^ * far beyond the Hmlts of Old Testament revelation. It was to a large extent original. He seemed to possess a fountain of truth in Himself; and doctrine poured forth from His lips with the utmost directness, naturalness, and authority. Much of what He said was prim- arily for His immediate hearers. His mission during His earthly ministry was to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, and we should try and put ourselves into their position in order to estimate its nature and value. The common people who heard Him with such pleasure were Israelites. They had the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms. These ''Scriptures" told the story of their ancestors, and conserved their statutes, their poetry, and their hopes. No nation had such a literature. " He hath not done so with any nation ; neither had the heathen knowledge of His law." It may be a question how much the people really knew of the Scrip- tures, and how far their beliefs influenced their lives ; but the least instructed must have known 92 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. something of God's nature and attributes, and something of the promised Messiah. The Bible students of those days — the scribes and lawyers — ought to have known much more. They had the key of knowledge, and it was largely their fault if the common people were poorly in- structed. So far as we can judge, however, from the rabbinical writings, it would seem that whilst prying curiously into the letter of the law they frequently missed its spirit. They were so occupied with their mystical interpretations, their far-fetched expositions, and their hair-splitting distinctions, that the great verities of God's Word slipped from their grasp. They strained out the gnat, but swallowed the camel ; they forgot mercy while tithing mint ; they so magnified the importance of the traditional views received from earlier rabbis, that these w^ere allowed practically to supersede the Scripture itself And so the light that was in them was darkness. Such was the state of things when the Teacher of teachers rose amongst men. He came a Light into the world, reinstating the Scriptures, recalling men to the central truths of the Old Testament, opening out new doctrines to their astonished minds, confronting the teachers of the day, silencing their criticism, exposing their sophistry, and dragging into daylight their hidden sins. That jealousy and opposition should be aroused against this new Teacher was natural. That His authority should be CHRISTS INSIGHT. 93 questioned was only fair. Our Lord freely exhibited His seals of office. The testimony of John the Baptist, the voice of the Father, the witness of Moses and the Prophets, the works which His Father had given Him to do, the sinlessness of His life — these were His credentials. Was there any remaining doubt ? Let men wait a little and they should see a great sign. On a certain day He should be crucified. Yes ; not " stoned," which would have been a Jewish penalty for a religious offence, but "crucified," a Roman penalty for crime. Let men w^ait yet three days further, and the grave which had contained His body should be empty. He should rise again. The Lord evidently staked His credit before friend and foe on His resurrection on the third day. But how did He know that this was certain to take place ? Two answers may be given. First, He knew it (though no one else did) from the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Secondly, He had power (or authority) to lay down His life, and He had power to take it again. His death was permitted for a purpose by His Father's will, as part of the Divine plan for the redemption of man, and His resurrec- tion must needs follow for the same reason. This is but one instance of what we see all through the Gospels, viz., Christ's insight into the purposes of His Father. And here we note a remarkable difference between the 94 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Lord's mental condition and that of the Prophets of the Old Testament. It is true that some elements in our Lord's prophetic illumination may be paralleled by incidents recorded in the Old Testament. Thus, we are often led to observe His know- ledge of facts to which He had no natural human access. He sees what Nathanael is doing under the fig-tree, though Nathanael is sure that no human being was standing by. He looks up into the sycamore-tree and calls Zacchseus by name. He knows the circum- stances of the poor widow who puts her two mites into the treasury. In the darkness of the night He sees the Disciples far off toil- ing in rowing. He confronts Peter, who had been too free with the Master's name, in the matter of the tribute. He is privy to the proceedings of Judas Iscariot. He knows that Lazarus is dead, when others only thought him ill. He gives exact directions concerning the ass and the colt, and still more minute details concerning the man bearing the pitcher of water. As we meditate on these things, we naturally compare certain Incidents in the Hebrew Scrip- tures. We Illustrate by Samuel's knowledge concerning the missing asses of Kish, and by his directions to Saul (see i Sam. ix. 20 ; X. 2-6) ; and we compare such preternatural intelligence as Ellsha displayed in the days of Jehoram (2 Kings vi. 11, 12). CHRISTS INSIGHT. 95 Accordingly, we grant that the Lord's know- ledge in this department was prophetic in kind, though it was super-prophetic in degree and in naturalness. It may, indeed, be conjectured that in the days of the Prophets, God was showing what were the possibilities of human nature, and was exhibiting how far a being might be purely human and yet capable of doing that which is superhuman. If this suggestion be allowed, it throws new light on the whole prophetic scheme as a prepara- tion for the advent of the Lo^os. But when we turn from this class of pheno- menon to our Lord's utterances concerninof the future, we feel that we are listening not to a servant but to a Son. Let us briefly survey the facts. Our Lord's knowledge of the future is mainly exhibited in reference to four subjects. First, He knew all that was to befall Him — what death He should die, when, where, with what accompaniments, and how His Apostles would behave under the circumstances ; also, how He should arise from the dead, go into Galilee, and ascend to His Father. Secondly, He saw as if before His eyes the destiny of Jerusalem, its siege, and the horrors which would attend it. Thirdly, He knew the future history of His Church — its formation and growth under the illuminating and quickening power of the Comforter Whom His Father would send in 96 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. His name. He foresaw the violence of the persecution to which beHevers should be sub- jected, the incorporation of the Gentiles with the Jewish community, the rising up of false teachers, the continuity of the Church through all ages, and the final glorification of its worthy members. Lastly, His knowledge embraced the future history of the world. He saw its ''end" or final stao^e, and knew that He Him- self was to be the Judge of all mankind ; that He would come in clouds of glory with all His holy angels, and sit on the throne of His glory ; and that all mankind would pass before Him to receive His verdict on their past lives, and His decision as to their future destiny. These things were ever present to His mind, and wove themselves naturally into His teach- ing all through His course. They were not introduced with a formal '' Thus saith the Lord." They were not fragmentary, like the commissioned utterances of the Prophets. They were not enigmatical ; neither were they conditional. The speaker was fully con- scious of all that was before Him. He knew that the destiny of myriads was hanging on Him, on His faithful submission to His Fathers will in loving self-sacrifice, and on His fidelity to His Father's principles in the judgment of the human race. Where can we find anything like this before or after } Many things were revealed to holy men of old. CHRIST'S INSIGHT. 97 Abraham knew that his seed should go into bondage and come out again ; Moses knew that he should die in the wilderness; Elijah had a conviction that he should be taken up ; Jeremiah saw beforehand the troubles which were impending over Jerusalem; Daniel had revealed to him an outline of the world's politics for many generations. But in all these cases (with one exception) the knowledge was com- municated through dreams and visions ; whilst in the case of Moses, with whom the Lord spake face to face (Num. xii. 6-8), the prophetic element, as distinct from the legislative, was reduced comparatively to a narrow compass. But it was very different with the Lord. He tells the future simply and without an effort, in the course of His ordinary conversation and teaching. It was evidently mapped out before His eyes. Eternity was to Him close behind Time. He was a Son privy to most of His Father's counsels, if not to all, and was per- mitted to make them known to His friends (John XV. 15). Heaven and earth should pass away, but His Word should not pass away. G CHAPTER XL THE SECRET OF THE LORD'S AUTHORITY AND ACCURACY AS A TEACHER. WE have now passed under review the leading indications of our Lord's super- human knowledge which may be gathered from an attentive study of the Four Gospels. We have observed His marvellous insight into human nature, His mastery of the Old Testa- ment, His acquaintance with facts to which He had no natural access, and His intimacy with the counsels of His Father. We have found in His teaching a wonderful combination of things new and old, a building up of vital truth on the moral and theological lines laid down in the Hebrew Scripture, and an authori- tative pronouncement on matters of doctrine. In all these respects we find Him unique, LI is powers and His very nature being on a different plane from that which the Prophets occupy. He was a well-spring of knowledge. Men went to Him as a Fountain-head. He was emphati- cally THE Teacher ; and this title is used of Him in more than forty places In the Gospels. Whether in the Synagogue or in the street, in the house or on the lake. He was perpetually THE LORD AS A TEACHER. 99 teaching, enlightening, correcting, convicting His hearers. Christians were first called Dis- ciples because they learnt from Him; and it is a remarkable fact that the word " disciple " is only used of His original followers, and is not to be found at all in the Epistles. Men came to Him not only because He was an expounder of the Law, but because He set forth the Truth concerning things unseen and eternal in strong and simple language, and on a large and com- prehensive scale. They felt that Light had come into the world. A Master had arisen in Israel Who combined insight, sympathy, and courage. Seekers after truth, weary of rabbini- cal subtleties, and heavy-laden with Pharisaic burdens and Sadducaic questionings, turned to Him, and in Him they found rest for their souls. Two impressions are conveyed to the mind by an attentive survey of the Lord's teaching. First, He speaks as One Who knew far more than He taught. There was a store of truth held in reserve by Him. On some subjects he only gave glimpses, outlines, suggestions, hints. In fact, though it may sound strange at first, Christ's oral teaching was in many respects pre- Christian. He had many things to say which could not be endured at the time (John xvi. 12), and it was not until He had died and risen and ascended, and the Comforter had come down, that the full light of Christian teaching could shine forth. Let any one compare the teaching DOCTOR DOCTORUM. of the Gospels with that of the Epistles, and he will see that it is so. Christ came not only to speak the Truth but to do the Truth, and whilst much of what He said referred to the things He was to do, much had to be left unsaid or only hinted at until He should be removed from the sio^ht of men. Secondly, He always spoke positively, and expressed the Truth in decided language from which there was no drawing back. There was nothing tentative, experimental, or hypothetical about His words. He spoke ez cathedra. He left no sense of uncertainty on the minds of His hearers. His yea was yea, and His nay nay. Hence that remarkable expression "verily" (lit. Amen), so frequently introduced as a single w^ord in the first three Gospels, and in a reiterated form in the fourth, and never used by any one else in the same way either in the Old Testament or in the New. In these respects, as in so many others, what was supernatural to the Prophets was natural to Him. They were (pMo-r^ipe? (light-bearers) ; He was (pm (light). Such being the case, and considering the bearing of the Lord's teaching on the present and future welfare of mankind — especially on the Final Judgment of all men — it becomes a matter of the gravest importance that the authority of His words snould be verified. Here is One Who claims to be an infallible THE LORD AS A TEACHER. Teacher, and Who assumes an authority wholly different from that of His contemporaries. May we trust Him absolutely ? And if so, on what ground ? Let us consider the answer which He gives us with His own lips. Does He appeal to His natural gifts as a man ? or to the possession of prophetic powers ? What does He say of His teaching ? The solution given us by our Lord is — put shortly — this : His words came from the same source as His works. They were part of His Mission. The Lord's words and works stand and fall together. "■ My teaching," He says, *' is not Mine, but His that sent Me" (John vii. 1 6). "He that sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him" (viii. 26). ''I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things. And He that sent Me is with Me ; the Father hath not left Me alone, for I do always those things that please Him " (vers. 28, 29). ^* I speak that which I have seen with My Father" (ver. 38). 'M have not spoken of (i.e. from) Myself; but the Father Which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. . . . Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak " (xii. 49, 50). " Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works" (xiv. lo). ''The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's Which sent Me" (ver. 24). It is clear from these passages that the Lord gave what He had received, and only what He had received. All He had to do was to trans- late into the language of earth what His Father spoke to Him in the language of heaven. The Lord throws the whole credit and responsibility of His words, as of His deeds, on His Father. As the Logos, it was His eternal and essential attribute to embody the Father's mind, to carry out the Father's counsel, to do the Father's works, and to speak the Father's words. This characteristic of His Nature was now beine exercised by Him in human life and through the instrumentality of the human faculties which He had taken into the Godhead. Now, as ever, the Word was the exponent of the unseen Father. The relationship between the Father and the Son is inconceivably close ; in fact our words "father" and "son" give but an imper- fect expression of that relationship ; and we have to check or add to their force by such words as those used in Heb. i., where we read of the Son of God that He is the imprint of God's substance and the effulgence of His glory. Nothing can be more clear from Scripture than the absolute dependence of the Son on THE LORD AS A TEACHER, 103 the Father, whether in eternity or in time. And if there is a dependence on the one side, there is superintendence on the other. If the Son is always lovingly yielding, the Father is always lovingly ordering. These two sides of truth are put together by Christ in such pas- sages as John v. 19, 20, where we read that " The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what tie seeth the Father do; for whatsoever things He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all thinos that Himself doeth ; and orreater works than these will He show Him, that ye may marvel." We come to this conclusion, that the Lord's authority and infallibility as a Teacher are to be accounted for simply and solely on the ground of His original and inalienable relation- ship to His Father, Who is the prime source of all Truth. The indwellinor of the Father in the Son, and the overruling presence of the Holy Spirit, would appear to cover the whole domain of Christ's teaching. Nothing is ex- cluded. Whenever the Lord assumed the attitude of a Teacher He spoke not from the treasures of a well-stored human mind, nor under the sudden excitement of a prophetic rapture, but as the Word of the Father. Possibly we can get no further light on this hidden influence which passed from the Father to the Son. The Lord in this respect had food 104 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. to eat that we know not of, and His inner nearness to the Spring of all Being is utterly beyond our ken. But one suggestion may be offered with reverence. We imao^ine that the original relation between the Father and the Son, the One ordering and the Other yielding, is wholly outside our conception of Time. But when the Logos took the manhood into the Godhead we should conceive that a new kind or method of dependence arose. The Lord manifestly came under the limitations of Time, as of Space. He would thus have a succession of opportunities for acting and speaking on behalf of His Father; consequently it would seem that there would be a succession of in- fluxes of power and truth from above answering to the needs of each moment. If we compare the manifestation of our Lord's knowledge with the exercise of His power, we should be led to believe that our Lord always looked up (spiritually) into His Father's face before acting or speaking. In John xi. 41 He thanks His Father for hearing Him in respect to the raising of Lazarus, and adds, ** I know that Thou hearest Me always ; but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me." It thus seems reasonable to believe that Christ waited on the Father before communi- catinof truth to men. One internal flash of loving dependence on the one side, and one THE LORD AS A TEACHER. 105 answering breath of truth on the other, and He was ready, and could give to His Disciples the words which His Father had orlven to Him (John xvil. 8). This is the impression produced by the class of passages In St. John's Gospel, of which so many instances have been given above. It is best, however, that we should not define what the Lord has not defined ; and it is enough to be convinced that the spirit of filial depend- ence and subordination which characterised the Logos through eternity was exercised by Him when He took upon Himself the office of Teacher of men. It was the Father's good pleasure to let light and truth flow freely into the mind of Christ and pass forth from His lips ; to Him the Father gave the Spirit with- out measure (John ill. 34) ; and so, the Lord was always speaking " under instruction," and was never for a single moment at loss what He should say or what He should speak. We thus take the Lord's words and works to be the result of delegated power ; but whilst in some degree this power was within His reach from the dawn of His human life, we look to the period of His baptism as the era at which His ministry as teacher and worker began. It was then that- the Holy Ghost came down under an outward appearance and settled on Him. It was then that "God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and with io6 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. power" (Acts x. 38). It was then that His special work and His special temptations began. This view seems to be generally and rightly held. The Lord's power, however, though dele- gated, must not be regarded as limited. The limitations to which it was subjected were, so far as we can see, only those by which God has always allowed Himself to be influenced in His dealings with the children of men, viz., first, the general fitness of things, and, secondly, the faith or lack of faith in those who might become recipients of His grace and truth. Apart from these necessary limitations, there is a freeness about our Lord's speech and action which constitutes a gulf between Him and the Prophets of the Old Testament. We have pointed out instances of this in regard to the Lord's knowledge and teaching ; but it is true also as concerns His working. There were certain prophets who did mighty works similar to those wrought by Christ. Elisha cleansed the leper and fed the hungry ; Moses brought water out of the stony rock with his rod ; and Elijah dried up the river with his mantle. But these and a few other thinors are isolated and (so to speak) unnatural to the doers. They by no means invite us to feel towards the Prophets what we feel towards Christ. In imagination we stand by His side as He walks on the sea, lifts the sinking Peter, quells the storm, heals THE LORD AS A TEACHER. 107 the centurion's servant and the nobleman's son without going to their houses, lifts up the bent- down woman, casts out devils, and calls Lazarus forth from the grave ; and the impression con- veyed to our mind is that He has all force at His command, and selects from His inexhaustible treasures just what is suited for each occasion — all beinof done in subordination to His Father as the absolute and eternal Fountain of Force. He is not a Servant but a Son. It may be well before closing this department of our subject to add that the analogy between our Lord's words and works may be pursued into the other department of His Being, viz., His moral character. In this respect also He was led by the Spirit at every step during His life and ministry, and it was through the Eternal Spirit that He finally offered Himself without spot to God. When we speak of Christ as sin- less we do not only mean that He was so by virtue of His original nature, but that the filial and loving spirit which was His natural attribute in heaven was exercised also by Him on earth within the limitations of human nature. There was no break affected in His moral and spiritual continuity by His assumption of manhood. The Spirit Which dwelt in Him without measure in eternity did so also when He visited us in great humility, and enabled Him to conquer all possible evil at every step in His human life. A deep conviction of this truth helps us to io8 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. steer clear of various errors. One only must be mentioned. Some have thought that Christ availed Himself of no help on earth which is not equally open to His followers, and that con- sequently we might become as good as He was. But we have no right to affirm this. The Spirit Which was in Him is in us if we belong to Him ; but not in the same degree nor in the same continuity. In Him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and of His fulness we receive. The Spirit was given to Him without measure, and was used by Him continuously. Christians have much, but they cannot say this of them- selves. CHAPTER XII. COUNTER-EVIDENCE CONSIDERED. ^ I ^HE study of the phenomena presented by -^ the Gospels has fallen in with the con- clusion previously arrived at on general theo- logical grounds, viz., that the Incarnate Lo£-os retained through His life and ministry that relation to His Father in respect to knowledge which He had before His Incarnation, so that His utterances are invested with an authority and an accuracy which may be regarded as unique and absolute. Our next business is to inquire whether there are any indications in the Gospels which would lead us to modify this conclusion, and which would incline us to deduct something from the continuous infallibility which characterises Christ's teaching, and which puts it on a higher level than the occasional utterances of Old Testament prophets. With this object we investigate our materials. (i.) There are certain expressions in the Authorised Version which might seem to imply that Jesus only gradually came to the knowledge of what was going on round Him. We meet with sentences beginning thus: "When Jesus knew," ''When Jesus saw," ''When Jesus per- no DOCTOR DOCTORUM. ceived." This class of expression, however, is really a toning down of the original. If any one will take the trouble of examining the Greek where such words occur, he will see that they by no means imply that there was a pause or interval between some event happening and our Lord's knowledge of it. The expressions might be strictly rendered, " knowing," ^'seeing," " per- ceiving ; " or even more literally, " inasmuch as He knew, saw, perceived," &c. (ii.) No deduction is to be made from our Lord's knowledofe on the oround of His usine ordinary idioms, illustrations, and metaphors, or of His adopting popular language with respect to the sun rising and similar matters. He would have been unintelligible if He had done otherwise. To have introduced a new class of technical words and expressions in Hebrew or Greek for the ordinary occurrences of nature would be indeed a strange proof of His teaching powers. Whether we may class under this head our Lord's adoption of current views concerning the Old Testament must be postponed for special inquiry. (iii.) It has sometimes been thought that when our Lord is described by St. Mark (xi. 13) as going to a fig-tree ''if haply He might find anything thereon, ''there is an indication of His ignorance. But a very little reflection will show that it was rather a proof of His know- ledge. The incident concerning the barren COUNTER-EVIDENCE CONSIDERED, iii fig-tree was an acted parable, and the words in question maybe compared with Isa. v. 2, where we read of God that " He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." As the vine in one case represented degenerate Israel, so the fig-tree represented the fruitless professors amongst the Jews ; and the lesson lying in the words of the penalty, " Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth," is amongst the most solemn in the Bible. (iv.) It is strange that the numerous questions put by Christ should have been thought by any one to be indicative of His ignorance. The fact of our Lord's knowledge of the hearts and lives and histories of the people round Him is so unmistakable that it seems almost puerile to suggest ignorance in certain cases. When He said to the Samaritan woman, ''Go call thy husband," was He ignorant of her case ? When He said to Philip, "Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?" did He not know what He should do ? It seems hardly * possible that any one could misinterpret the force of such questions as " What is thy name?" '* Whose is this image and superscription ? " ^' Whom seek ye ? " " How long is it ago since this came unto him ?" " Who touched Me ? " They are simply ways of drawing out the thoughts and words of those with whom the Lord was in contact. They are no more to be taken as symptoms of ignorance than are 112 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. the kindred questions asked by God in the Old Testament, such as, '* Where art thou?" " Where is Abel thy brother ? " " What doest thou here, Elijah ? " " What said these men ; and from whence came they unto thee ?" (v.) Some have thought that our Lord's questioning of the Rabbis when He was a boy of twelve is to be put into a different category, and that here at least He was asking for His own information. This, however, hardly seems probable in view of all the circumstances of the case. The Lord was at the age when He might be reckoned, according to Jewish usage, a student of the Law. Perhaps, for the first time in His human life, the Incarnate Logos was brought into contact with the Doctors of the Law. Hitherto there had neither been fitness nor opportunity for Him to speak of the great questions underlying the Old Testa- ment. But now the day has come. Sanctified child-life was developing into another stage of human existence. His age and circumstances permitted Him — nay, impelled Him — to enter His Father's House and engage in His Father's business. He must question the recognised teachers, and He must be prepared to answer them in turn. Accordingly, we find Him first a listener, "hearing them;" secondly, a questioner, "questioning them;" thirdly, an answerer, "All those that heard Him were utterly astonished at His understanding and answers." Every true COUNTER-EVIDENCE CONSIDERED. 113 teacher is a questioner, and the art of putting questions is a mark of great skill on the teacher's part. This skill "the boy Jesus" (Luke ii. 43) possessed. His parents did not understand the matter. Do we ? Surely we ought to, for we hold the doctrine of the Incarnate Logos, and have much more light on it than was permitted in those days. (vi.) We now come to a passage frequently referred to in connection with the present dis- cussion. St. Luke specifically states that our Lord "advanced in wisdom" (ii. 52). Let us examine the words in their connection. The chapter begins with a narrative of the birth of Jesus. His entrance into the world is announced by an angel to the shepherds, who are told that the babe lying in the stall is "Saviour, Messiah, Lord." A few weeks later He is o^reeted in the Temple as "the Lord's anointed" by Simeon, who sees in this Child an embodiment of sal- vation, light, and glory. Anna, the prophetess, also regards Him as Redeemer. Such is the first stage of the earthly life of the Incarnate Logos. Nazareth now became His dwelling- place, and here "the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom ; and the grace of God was upon Him." What a picture of the infancy and childhood of the Redeemer ! Nothing unnatural, exciting, terri- fying ; but a life in which the spiritual domi- nated over the animal nature, in which wisdom H 114 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. (in the Biblical sense of the word) was fully manifested in proportion to the fitness of things and the opportunities presented, and in which the favour of God was manifested in the Child's aspect and ways day by day. The Sun of Righteousness was thus shining through the Child-nature. But now the Child becomes a Boy. The Jerusalem incident is recorded. When it is over the Lord returns to Nazareth, lives in subordination to His parents (rjv viro- Tacra-oiuLevog avrok), and makes Steady advances in wisdom as in stature, and in favour with God and with men. In this simple but careful statement we have the account of the Lord's growth from boyhood to manhood, and we find again wisdom specified as increasingly charac- terising the life. And what is this wisdom ? Is it the wisdom of earth ? or that which cometh from above? Is it the wisdom of men? or the wisdom of God ? The passage is frequently quoted, even by high authorities, as if it signified that our Lord grew in knowledge — whether book knowledge, or technical knowledge, or knowledge of the world. We have already seen that the Lord on entering human nature deliberately submitted to the laws of physical and mental growth, which must have limited in some sense the expression of the grace and truth which was in Him by virtue of His being the Incarnate Logos. His capabilities, which were practically infinite, were thus restricted both by the fitness of things and COUNTER-EVIDENCE CONSIDERED. 115 by the limited nature of the opportunities pre- sented to Him for teachinor and action. Now what St. Luke specially tells us in this passage is, that from the time of the remarkable mani- festation in the Temple when He was twelve there were seen day by day fresh advances in Divine wisdom. But wisdom, according to the fixed Biblical usage of the term, is a very diffe- rent thing from knowledge. Knowledge implies the acquisition of Truth, whereas wisdom is the adaptation of what we know to the needs and cir- cumstances of life. It may show itself in speech or in silence, in action or in passive endurance. It is a moral rather than an intellectual excel- lence, and it begins with the fear of the Lord. The wisdom of God is seen in His adaptation of means to ends, whether in nature or in erace. The wisdom of Christ showed itself from infancy up to boyhood, and from boyhood up to man- hood, in His saying and doing the right thing at the right time and in the right way. We have no recorded instances of it until the time of His ministry, but then we see it in His everyday deal- ings with friends, followers, and foes. It shines out in His words and deeds, in His utterances and silences, and especially in His treatment of individuals. The study of our Lord's wisdom during the ministry may help us to see how the early stages of His life would give Him daily opportunities of adapting the light and force which He possessed by virtue of His being the ii6 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Logos to the needs and requirements of home life. Thus the advance in wisdom which the parents daily observed in Christ, so far from being a proof that He was proceeding from a greater to a lesser stage of ignorance, or from a less to a greater degree of knowledge, was really an increasing manifestation of the light that was in Him, and may be compared to the increasing development of sunshine from dawn to midday, (vii.) Twice over we are told that the Lord expressed astonishment ; and it is thought by some that astonishment implies ignorance. The occasions were the unbelief of the Nazarenes (Mark vi. 6), and the belief of the centurion (Luke vii. 9). The Lord must evidently have felt, and shown, and expressed real wonder on these occasions, and perhaps on others. Is it, however, the case that astonishment pre-supposes ignorance ? Cannot omniscience itself wonder? Let Isaiah answer. In chap, lix. 16, we read concerning the Lord Jehovah that "He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor ; " and in chap. Ixiii. 5, the Lord is represented as saying, " I looked and there was none to help ; and I wondered that there was none to up- hold." Thus there is an element in wonder, which may be felt even by God Himself. We cannot, therefore, see any trace of ignorance in the Lord's wonder, unless such ignorance can be clearly shown in some other way. COUNTER-EVIDENCE CONSIDERED. 117 (viii.) There is, however, one matter in which the Lord deHberately avowed His ignorance. It is recorded in Mark xiii. 32, that He said, '* Concerning that day or that hour no one knoweth — neither the angels which are in Heaven, nor the Son — except the Father." Attempts have been made to " amend " the Greek text, so as to remove the apparent in- consistency betw^een this and other passages. Such attempts have an interest of their own, but in this case they have failed to give satis- faction to the great body of students, and we must fall back on the text as it stands. The passage teaches that a reserve was imposed by the Father on the Son, not only as a Teacher, but as a Learner. We have seen that the Lord Jesus only taught what He learned from the Father, and we gather from the passage before us that there was one thing which — at that time, at any rate — He had not so learnt. It had to do with the day and the hour of His Second Coming. The circum- stances of this great day were clearly before His mind, but the exact date was not so. It was not revealed to Him as Logos, and consequently He could not teach it. We feel thankful that the Lord Himself told us this, and that St. Mark was fortunate enough and bold enough to be able to record it. Some light is thrown thereby on the uncertainty which runs throuorh the books of the New ii8 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Testament with regard to the time of the Lord's appearing in glory, which has perplexed many of the acutest commentators. The pas- sage does not stand alone. It seems to fit in with Christ's words in Acts i. 7 : '' It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father hath kept under His own control." But how do they bear on our immediate subject ? In the first place, the fact that this reserve was specifically stated by Christ and recorded by St. Mark gives us more confidence than ever in the Lord's teaching and in the Gospel narrative. It confirms our conviction that the Lord only uttered what He knew to be true, and that the Evangelists only wrote what they knew to be trustworthy. Further, we know so little of the relationship of the Logos to the Father, whether before or after the In- carnation, that we see nothing to be surprised at in the announcement that one future event was unfixed as regards its exact time, except in the hidden counsels of the Father. Thirdly, we feel sure that reserve on so great a matter must have been dictated by Divine wisdom, and that the revelation of the day and hour of our Lord's Second Coming would have done infinite harm to the Church. Lastly, reserve as to the future is a very different thing from ignorance concerning events already past. Of this we see no trace whatever in the Gospels. To sum up ; we look in vain, either in the COUNTER-EVIDENCE CONSIDERED. 119 Scriptures themselves or in the pages of those who have discussed the question before us, for any vaHd reasons caUing us to modify the con- victions already arrived at. It only remains for us to consider how these convictions should in- fluence our judgment on certain grave questions which are much agitated at the present day. CHAPTER XIII. OUR LORD'S VERDICT ON THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A WHOLE. npHE conclusion we have arrived at con- -■- cerning our Lord's knowledge is that what He did not know by virtue of His manhood He did not know by virtue of His Godhead, and that whilst the Divine in Him was re- stricted by the Human, the Human was guarded from evil, from weakness, and from error, by the Divine. In Christ, during His earthly life, men who had their eyes open saw all that it was possible to see of God — infinitely more than they could behold in any ordinary man, and far more than they could have seen in the greatest of the prophets. "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Regarding our Lord's teaching as an absolute standard of truth, we propose to examine in its light certain questions concerning the Old Testament which are being freely and anxiously discussed amongst us. We feel that we may trust His decision so far as He has given one ; there can be no error in it ; so that the only VERDICT ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. t2i questions that come before us are these : Has He pronounced a verdict ? and, if so, what is it? Before, however, examining details there are certain distinctions to be borne in mind. Thus we must discriminate between the Lord's own teaching and the comments of the Evangehsts who record it. Again, we must distinguish between our Lord's use of Scriptural words or incidents for the purpose of illustration and His reference to them as an authority. Further, a line may be drawn between His appeal to what is written as a weapon whereby His Jewish audience might be silenced or satisfied, and His conviction that the Scriptures prescribed a course for Himself. It is always important, also, to notice the class of persons to whom the Lord addresses Himself, whether they are disciples, scribes, the common people, or the Personal Evil One. Again, we may subdivide the Old Testament into certain departments, books, or subjects, and may inquire into the view He takes of the Antediluvian period, of the Patriarchal age, of the Moral Law, of the Levitical Law, of the Historical Books, of the Psalms, of the Prophets. What, for example, is the Messiah's view of Messianic prophecy ? Once more, we must bear in mind that our Lord's verdict concerning the Old Testament may be confirmed or modified by His utter- 122 DOCTOR DOCrORUM ances after the Resurrection, when He had passed through the mysterious valley, had entered the world of spirits, had penetrated a region hitherto unexplored, and had assumed a nature which was in advance of that which He had shared before. If, after bearing all these distinctions In mind, we find that our Lord sets His seal on the Old Testament as historically true and as of Divine authority, and if He attests the authorship of certain sample books, we may rest secure and satisfied with His verdict, and may read our Old Testament as we have read it hitherto, with the conviction that the criticisms launched against it are harmless in their nature, or have been pronounced without full regard to some of the essential features of the Sacred Books. (i.) In the first place, attejition may be called to the strong line of demarcation which Christ draws between the Word of God and the traditions of men. We are told in Matt. xv. (which ought to be read with the end of the previous chapter) that a deputation of Scribes and Pharisees went to the Lord when He was In the land of Gennesaret to ask why His Disciples transgressed the tradition of the elders in the matter of ceremonial washing. Our Lord practically answers that the Scribes themselves were breaking a far higher law. They were neutralising God's Word by putting human VERDICT ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. 123 precepts on a level with it. He proceeds to illustrate the expression "God's Word" by means of two passages from the Law of Moses ; and He enforces His own accusation by an utterance of Isaiah. What we desire specially to call attention to here is, that the Jews were regarded by Christ as in possession of certain messages from God, recorded in Scripture, which were to be held in a wholly different way from anything prescribed by men, however excellent. As St. Paul afterwards said, it was one of the high privileges of the Jewish nation that to them were committed the oracles of God. These '' oracles " evidently differ, not only in de- gree but in kind, from ordinary human writings, (ii.) The second point to be noticed is that there was, in Christ's estimation, a certain collection of books containing and conserv- ing these " lively oracles," and that our Lord attached the greatest importance to these Scriptures or written books. In His teaching, whether He had before Him the learned or the unlearned, He referred again and again to what was written. The Scriptures were to Him the text-book of Truth. He invited men to search them as a whole, and to consider them in detail. He appealed to the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, in order to clench His words. Not a single dis- course of any length is to be found in the 124 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Gospels, in which our Lord does not refer directly or by implication to this collection of books. Can the Lord's hearers have had any doubt as to what the books were which He included ? No one would suppose so from the tone of Christ's own words, or even from the language of His opponents. We may take it for granted that our Lord appealed to the books which were considered sacred and authoritative by the religious teachers of His day ; and, unless there is anything to show to the contrary, we may conclude that He referred to that collection of books which Jew and Christian have held in common ever since as the Hebrew Scriptures. Although the Gospels are in Greek, it is almost universally believed that our Lord's chief discussions with the Jewish authorities were in Hebrew. It was, therefore, the sacred Hebrew Scriptures which He referred to, not the Greek Septuagint, and consequently not the Apocryphal books. It was that collec- tion of which the Jewish historian Josephus, writing whilst the fourth Evangelist was yet alive, says : " They are justly believed to be Divine, ... no one being bold enough to add to them or to take from them, or to alter them " [Against Apion i. 8). It is evident that the Lord assigned the very highest position to these Scriptures. They cannot be broken, loosed, or relaxed (John x. VERDICT ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. 125 35). The truths which they contain are God's truths, and must override all other teaching. He instructs His followers out of them ; He confronts His critics with them; He silences Satan out of them ; He shapes his own course when in the greatest straits by their verdict ; He claims them as God's testimony to His position as Messiah, so that we might say, ** No Scriptures, no Messiah." They are re- garded by Him as a handbook of promise and precept, indicating the ways of God and the prospects of man in time and in eternity. (iii.) Thirdly, while thus setting His seal on the collection as a whole, He discriminates between the various dispensations and depart- ments of truth contained in these Scriptures. In dealing with the question of circumcision He reminds His hearers that it dates not from the time of Moses, but from the patriarchal age. In discussing the binding nature of marriage. He takes His hearers back to "the beginning," I.e., to the Paradisaical narrative. There is but little reference to the Levitical laws in His teaching, the mental condition of His hearers being such that He had to impress the moral rather than the ceremonial law on them, but at the same time, He gives the Levitical law due honour in the matter of the cleansing of the leper. He also refers to it when illustrating from the use of salt for sacrifice (Mark ix. 49, 126 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. 50) ; and from its pages He draws the great moral precept to which He assigns the second place among all the Commandments (Lev. xix. 18). The Book of Deuteronomy is His armoury wherewith to foil the assaults of the Evil One. The narrative portions of the Old Testament supply Him with illustrations, ex- amples, and warnings whereby His hearers might have their interest and sympathy aroused. The story of the Deluge, the overthrow of Sodom, the life of Abraham, the call of Moses, the lifting up of the serpent, the doings of David, the glory of Solomon, and certain strik- ing events in the lives of Elijah, Elisha, and Jonah, are brought out by Him from the pages of the Old Book with unequalled force and aptness. Certainly the conviction produced on the ordinary mind must have been that He held these things to be true. Would He — could He — have spoken as He did if He thought otherwise ? (iv.) Again, the theological and prophetic elements in the Psalms and the Prophets become potent instruments in His hands for the enforcement of sacred truths. See the weight attached to Isaiah's utterance, as God's mouthpiece, in the passage already quoted from Matt. XV., or the use made of Isaiah's vision of God in Matt. xiii. Note the practical use our Lord makes of Isa. Ivi. 7 when cleansing the VERDICT ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. 127 Temple, and of Isa. liv. 13 when expounding God's method of drawing souls to Himself. Still more striking, however, are the Lord's references to the Scriptures which deal with Messianic doctrine ; and it is here that we see the great value of His post-resurrection teach- ing. If any one will take the trouble to go through a list of Messianic passages he will speedily see that the greater number of them remained unfulfilled during the Lord's ministry. It could not be otherwise, for they had to do with His death and the circumstances attending it, and also with His resurrection and the events which followed. Consequently we must con- clude that those who believed in Jesus as the Messiah during the time of His ministry must have been led more by what they saw and heard from Him than by what had been written in the Old Testament. But again and again, as we read the detailed narrative of the steps which led to the Crucifixion we find our Lord leaning on the Scriptures as the revelation of His Father's will, and this not only for the instruction of His followers but for His own satisfaction. The more one scrutinises this part of the Lord's history, the more one is convinced of the pressure which the Scriptures exercised on His own soul and course. They must be fulfilled. Putting these things together, we see that the Lord claimed an absolute autho- 128 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. rity for the Scriptures as conveying the mind of God, whether for the Jew, for the Christian, or for Himself. In His view, Moses and the Prophets and the rest of the Books contained the charter of Divine promise, and the pro- gramme of the Messianic course. They were not appealed to simply as the best books the Jews knew, or as a pious compound based on old myths, containing the gold of good advice amidst the dross of human tradition ; but rather as monumental books authorised by God Him- self, the possession of which imposed a heavy obligation on all the people. It is easy now for us to conceive what must have been the impression produced on the minds of our Lord's followers by His teaching concerning the Scriptures. Their reverence for these venerable books, which they already regarded (in company with every pious Jew) with extreme veneration, must have been greatly enhanced. It is true that they were in those days but poor interpreters, and would have been very blind guides to other people ; but they believed in the Book, and in God Who gave it ; and they must have looked with ever- deepening interest and affection on the rolls of the Law and the volumes of the Prophets which were opened before their eyes Sabbath after Sabbath in the various synagogues which they visited. They had been taught to revere what VERDICT ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. 129 they could not yet interpret; for as to the meaning of the sacred pages they would have been very little advanced beyond the Ethiopian eunuch when he questioned concerning Isa. liii., " Of whom speaketh the Prophet this ? Of himself? or of some other man ? " (v.) We now advance to another stage of our Lord's life in order to point out that, having established the authority of the Old Testament during His ministry, He expounds its meaning after His resurrection. Then it was that His authorised followers received light on the written Word. Then it was that the new school of Old Testament expositors arose, of which Peter, Stephen, Philip, Paul, and Apollos were signal samples. What student has not longed for a record of the Lord's talk with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, when He expounded from Moses and all the Prophets the things con- cerning Himself.-^ Who has not wished that he might have been in the upper room when the Lord opened men's understanding to under- stand the Scriptures, and set forth the central teachings of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning Himself ? Well, these long- ings seem vain ; but they are not wholly so. We have the results of what then took place in the writings of the New Testament. We turn over the books of the Evangelists and I30 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Apostles and Prophets of Christ, and we can trace in them the illuminating power of the risen Saviour and of the Pentecostal Spirit. Althouorh we have few details concerninof our Lord's teaching during the great Forty Days, we have enough to assure us of two things. First, there was no retracting, qualifying, or modifying of His previous utterances; secondly, there was a distinct advance in the way of in- struction concerning the Old Testament. We find the Apostles suddenly become mighty in the Scriptures. They quote the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms with freedom and with force. They are familiar with certain notable passages in the Pentateuch, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Amos, Zechariah, and the Psalms ; and they argue upon these passages in such a way as to convince many and to silence others. Their hold of the Old Testa- ment is quite different from what it was before. It has become their text-book, and its truths constitute the main force by which they push the claims of Jesus as the Christ. We see as we survey the contents of the New Testament the true reason of the exist- ence of the Old. Ancient traditions slowly accumulating and reduced to writing after long ages — the fittest only surviving — this would be sufficient in the way of history for most peoples and tribes. But here is a prepared VERDICT ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. 131 people, marked out from all others by the providential hand of God Himself, holding with tenacity certain beliefs which had been branded into them under the fire of affliction. In the fulness of time the True Light shines upon them, and their Creator sends to them His only Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. The written books not only serve to prepare the way for Him and to identify Him, but also justify the nation in taking a new departure. Moses himself announces the coming of a Legislator like unto himself. David looks forward to another King. Jere- miah sees that the old Covenant must eive way to the new. The structure and ordinances of the Tabernacle imply the imperfection of the Levitical dispensation. The existence and characteristics of Melchisedek teach that Israel must look to a better priesthood than that of Aaron. The promises made to Abraham, and echoed through the Law and the Prophets, show that the whole world is to be blessed in ''the seed." The strains of Messianic pro- phecy indicate that the coming Servant must first be rejected before He can become Prince and Saviour. Let any one examine the comments on Mes- sianic passages given us by St. Matthew and 132 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. St. John in their respective Gospels, the argu- ments of St. Peter in the Acts, the discussions on Jewish questions in St. Paul's letters, and the treatment of the Levitical law in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and he will see how these Christian teachers were impregnated with the Messianic spirit of the Old Testa- ment ; how they saw eye to eye as to its meaning and application ; and how they were guided and invigorated by the conviction that its words were true and Heaven-sent. CHAPTER XIV. CHRISTS TESTIMONY TO THE AUTHORSHIP OF CERTAIN BOOKS. ^ I "HE verdict of Christ concerning the ■^ authority of the Hebrew Scriptures as a whole seems clear and decisive. It leaves no doubt as to the views and feelins^s with which we ought to regard them. But our inquiry must be pursued one step further. Has our Lord left on record any special utterances bear- ing on the authorship of particular books ? The subject is manifestly a limited one, for Christ dealt more frequently and urgently with the Divine truths which the book contains than with the names of the human writers. But there are four questions of authorship on which His recorded words may be consulted, and they are cases of supreme importance : they have to do with Moses, David, Isaiah, and Daniel. (i.) Putting aside some passages which are general in their character, we call attention to certain notable testimonies concerning Moses. In Mark i. 44, the Lord addresses the leper whom He has just cleansed, and orders him to show himself to the priest, and offer for his 134 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. cleansing the things which Moses commanded. On turninor back to Lev. xiv. we have an account of the ritual for the cleansing of the leper. It opens with a well-known formula, '' And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying." The cere- monies appointed are most peculiar. They are never referred to between the time of Moses and the time of Christ, though a hint at their existence may possibly be gathered from the dipping of Naaman ''seven times" in the Jordan (2 Kings V. 10). They are adapted primarily for camp life (Lev. xiv. 8), whilst ''the tabernacle of the congregation" was standing (verse 11). We should therefore suppose, from their position in Leviticus, from the introduction to the chapter, and from its terminology, that these strange rites were prescribed by God through the great law- giver ; and we should attach no importance to the fact that they are not referred to at any later stage of Jewish history, for there was no need of such a reference. Now Christ by His words to the leper, convinces us that this is the true view of the matter. He fastens the chapter securely into the Mosaic Code ; and speculation has no more that it can say. In Mark ii. 25, when defending His Disciples from a certain charge, the Lord refers to what David did in the matter of the shewbread. The incident in question is recorded in i Sam. xxi. 6, where we are told that "the priest gave David CHRISrS TESTIMONY. 135 hallowed bread ; for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when It was taken away." Our Lord not only takes the narrative concerning David to be true, putting His seal thereby on the Books of Samuel, but also points further back to the ordinance of the shewbread, which is to be found In Leviticus (xxlv. 5-9). This particular ordinance is re- ferred to from time to time through the sacred history. In the later books, Chronicles and Nehemiah, an expression is used for it which differs from that used in the earlier (see Fotm- dations of the Bible, p. 161). It is also to be observed that the table for the shewbread is ordered in Exod. xxv., but the making and arranging of the bread In Lev. xxlv., and is Introduced by the Mosaic formula. We thus conclude from the conjoint testimony of Exodus, Leviticus, and Samuel, combined with certain linguistic considerations, that the institution of the shewbread is of Mosaic origin, and with this view our Lord's testimony coincides. The bear- ing of this subject on the position and privileges of the priests, to which our Lord calls attention, and which is the special point in Samuel, ought also to be noticed. In Matt. xli. 3, &c., where we have a parallel account of this Incident, the writer records a further utterance bearing on the subject, and 136 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. the terms in which he does so are noteworthy. The Lord introduces the case of David by the words '* Have ye not read ? " but He adds a reference to the Pentateuch with the preface, "Have ye not read m the Law?'' He thus distinoruishes the Law from the books which follow, and the Pharisees whom He is addressing would quite appreciate the dis- tinction. The new point to which He refers is that the priests in the sacred enclosure (ej/ rw te^ow) profane the Sabbath and are blameless. Our Lord must have been referring to the special rites commanded for the Sabbath, which involved a good deal of work (see Num. xxviii. 9, lo), and the argument is thus analogous with that contained in John vii. 22, to which we next invite attention. In this passage from St. John the Sabbath law of cessation from work seems to be in con- flict with the circumcision law. Circumcision was imperative on the eighth day according to the Mosaic Law (Lev. xii. 3), and Christ teaches that this law must be taken as covering the patriarchal institution. The one law is so definite that it was made by the Jews to govern the interpretation of the other. Now it is a re- markable thing that Moses did not order the rite of circumcision, except in the brief sentence just referred to ; and its importance would not be known had it not been that he also re- CHRISrS TESTIMONY. 137 published the patriarchal ordinances contained in Genesis. It is thought possible from Exod. vi. 1 2, 30 that Moses himself was uncircumcised, and this is supposed by some to account for the strange scene described in chap. iv. 24-26. The circumcision of strangers is ordered in Exod. xii. 44,48, as a necessary preliminary to the sharing in the Passover, and it is taken for granted that the Israelites were themselves already circum- cised, though the fact is not stated till Josh. v. 5. We are thus compelled to go back to Gen. xvii. for the oricjin of this covenant of circum- cision ; which is there associated with certain exceeding great and precious promises. Our Lord, by one little sentence thrown in by the way, reminds us of these things, and puts His stamp, not only on the Mosaic Law, but on the patriarchal institutions recorded in Genesis which that law presupposed. Passing over Mark vii. 10, where we see that both the Decalogue and the precepts which follow are attributed to Moses, we come to the incident recorded at the beginning of chap. x. A deputation of hostile Pharisees has come across the Jordan to Him to discuss divorce. The question is put by Christ, "What did Moses command you ? " Now our Lord per- fectly well knew what would be the answer, and that He Himself would not be content with it, so that it might have seemed needless to drag 138 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Moses' name into the discussion. He delibe- rately does so, however, in order to plant an important lesson. Moses gave permission to write a bill of divorcement under certain circum- stances, which are to be found in Deut. xxiv. i, &c., and the permission in question is referred to in Isa. 1. i and Jer. iii. 8. Observe, however, the Lord's reply, " For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept." The permis- sion to divorce is regarded as authoritative, and hence called a "precept." It was also written by Moses. It comes not amongst the laws given in Exodus, Leviticus, or Numbers, but in one of the speeches delivered thirty-eight years later, when Moses was in extreme old age. These speeches are partly a republication of older laws, and partly a modification or expan- sion whereby the people might see more clearly what they might do and what not. They were addressed, not to the priests, but to the people, and were written out, of course, by scribes, and kept with the other archives. Moreover, they ought by right to have been read every Sab- batical year in the Feast of Tabernacles. Our Lord, having stamped with His verdict the words '' Moses wrote this law " (Deut. xxxi. 9, 24), proceeds to show that, whilst the people were in a low moral condition the permission to divorce was needed, but that the original law of marriaee was the higher standard and ouorht to CHRISTS TESTIMONY. 39 be stuck to. In order to find this original law, He goes back to the roots of history and to the foundations of society, an account of which He discovers in the second chapter of Genesis ; and this He claims as the voice of God. The Phari- sees have no answer to make. The criticism was, no doubt, surprising, but the conclusion was inevitable. The list of passages bearing on the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch would not be complete without a reference to its prophetic element. In John v. 45-47, our Lord defi- nitely says that the Jews to whom He w^as speaking would have believed Him if they had believed Moses. " For (He says) he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words ? " This is not a figure of speech or a way-side utterance, but an argument in the form of an assertion and a challenge. The Lord evidently claimed Moses not only as a contributor to the Old Testament, but as a prophet whose inspired testimony to the Messiah demanded belief. It is needless to inquire what were the passages in the Penta- teuch which the Lord claimed as Messianic ; but, guided by the speeches of St. Peter and St. Stephen, we can have little doubt that the celebrated utterance concerning "the Prophet" which is recorded in Deut. xviii. 15-19 was among them (see Acts iii. 22 and vii. 2^7) ; and I40 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. our Lord seems tacitly to refer to this important passage when He says, " I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father Which sent Me : He gave Me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak" (compare Deut. xviii. i8). On reviewing the passages now cited we come to the conclusion that the Lord not only accepts the Pentateuch as true and authoritative, but as Mosaic ; passages from Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy being deliberately cited by Him as the words of Moses, and passages in Genesis being regarded by Him as presupposed by Moses. After His resurrection He reasserts that there were things written in the Law of Moses concerning Himself (Luke xxiv. 44), and it is on His authority that St. John (i. 17), St. Peter (Acts iii. 22), St. Stephen (Acts vii. 37), and St. Paul (Rom. x. 5, 19) quote Moses by name as the writer of the Law, and notably of the Book of Deuteronomy. Many subsidiary questions may be left open, but the substance of the Pentateuch, as autho- rised by God's servant Moses, may be taken as secured by the testimony of the I ncarnate Z^^^i-. (ii.) We pass from Moses to David. In Mark xii. 35, our Lord raises a question con- cerning the anticipated Messiah. The passage is often misquoted. Jesus is not asking what men thought of Himself. It is not a parallel to that which the Lord privately asked His CHRISrS TESTIMONY. 141 Disciples, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am ?" It is rather a Biblical question — What is your view of the Messiah ? From what family will He spring? Of course the Lord knew what the answer would be. It was in everybody's lips. The Messiah, or anointed King, was to be the offspring of David, and in Him, when He came, were to be fulfilled the sure mercies promised to David in 2 Sam. vii. Having extracted the expected answer, our Lord proceeds to put a question which is also Biblical, though partly theological. There is a certain psalm written by David. But in this psalm the writer speaks of the coming Messiah as his Lord and Master. How can you speak of a person as your Lord and Master if He is your own son ? Yet David did this very thing. How is it ? We are told by St. Matthew, who was, no doubt, standing by, that no one of the Pharisees was able to answer the question. Yet there were two possible answers. It might be said that David wrote without understanding fully what he wrote. This would have been a reasonable answer, for he wrote, as the Lord tells us, under the influ- ence of the Holy Ghost. Or it might be said that David had been instructed that the promised seed would be a superhuman being. This answer might fairly, also, be given in the view of other compositions which in those days were attributed to David. A third answer, 142 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. ■ which would be readily suggested now, namely, that David did not write the psalm, is precluded by the very wording of our Lord's question. He takes for granted that the psalm is from David, and that it definitely refers to the Messiah, and apparently no one but the Messiah was intended to be referred to in verse i. There is no room for discussion on this question. The Lord thus gives His verdict on this psalm both as Davidic and as Messianic. The argument absolutely hangs on this view of it. Other psalms were used by Him, as the 22nd, the 41st, the 69th, and the 11 8th. In all these He recognises a Messianic element, but He does not name David as their author. His testimony to one psalm, however, goes a long way towards establishing the authorship of others, and inclines us to give great weight to the words of His authorised followers when they assign to David the 69th and 109th psalms (Acts i. t6 and Rom. xi. 9), the 1 6th (Acts ii. 25), the 2nd (Acts iv. 25), and the 32nd (Rom. iv. 6). We thus obtain a standard both of Messianic and of Davidic psalms, by which we may be guided in forming our estimate of other writings of a similar kind, (iii.) The three great names that ring out through the New Testament as bearing witness to God's truth are Moses, David, and Isaiah ; and we have now to consider the case of Isaiah. The question concerning this Prophet which is CHRIST'S TESTIMONY. 143 most freely ventilated is not whether he wrote parts of the book, but whether he is the author of the whole, and especially of the 40th and fol- lowing chapters. In Matt. xiii. 14, the Lord cites Isaiah by name as the author of the sixth chapter of the prophecy, and in Mark vii. 6, He claims him as the author of the 29th, but beyond this He does not go. There cannot be any doubt, however, that the Book of Isaiah in our Lord's time was substantially the same as it is now. When He was in the synagogue at Nazareth this book was brought to Him, and He read parts of the 6ist chapter from it, and gave His verdict on it as a prophetic and Messianic Scripture, applying it to Himself, as He did also the 53rd and other chapters. Still, it must be acknowledged that, so far as we know. He did not affirm that what we now call " the disputed chapters" were really the work of I saiah. H is followers, however, were quite clear on the point. St. Matthew claims Isaiah as the writer of the 40th, the 42nd, and the 53rd (Matt, iii. 3 ; xii. 17; viii. 17). The other Evangelists give similar testimony. St. Paul also cites Isaiah as the author of the 53rd and 65th chapters (Rom. X. 16, 20). Due weight ought to be given to this testimony. It leaves little doubt in our minds as to what the Lord's verdict would be on the remaining parts of the book, (iv.) The last case to be considered is that 144 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. of Daniel. In the 24th of St. Matthew, the Lord gives a sketch of the future, and leads up to a certain point which He describes thus : " When ye shall see the abomination of desola- tion, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place — whoso readeth, let him under- stand — then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountain " (verse 15). There was evidently no necessity for referring to Daniel at all. The Lord might have contented Himself with the paraphrase which St. Luke gives us, which ex- pounds the passage as meaning that Jerusalem should be encompassed with armies. But He deliberately referred to Daniel by name, and pronounced him to be a prophet, though his book is not associated with those of the other Prophets in the traditional order of the Sacred Books. He also points to a particular expres- sion used in the series of visions revealed to Daniel as indicating an event yet future. Now the writer of the history of the Maccabees had already referred to the expression "the abomina- tion of desolation" as fulfilled in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes (i Mace. i. 54), but the Lord teaches that it was yet to have another fulfilment. We are not now concerning our- selves with the interpretation of the prophecy, but. with the Lord's testimony to the writer of the book, and we cannot well avoid the con- clusion that our Lord did give His verdict in CHRISTS TESTIMONY. 145 favour of the actual and historic Daniel as having recorded the vision in question ; whilst He also testifies to its prophetic character. Whatever weight we give to counter-evidence, we must not disregard this deliberate utterance of Christ. On reviewing the testimony of Christ to Moses, David, Isaiah, and Daniel, we conclude that wherever the authorship of a book was Im- portant the Lord named the author, and that His verdict in such a matter adds great weight to the current Jewish belief of the time. K CHAPTER XV. THE DOCTRINE OF ACCOMMODATION. nPHE modern critical view of the Old Testa- -■- ment books may be seen in its least objec- tionable form in Professor Driver's Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament^ a work bristling- with critical learning, written cautiously, and manifestly intended to offer no violence to Christian doctrine. Speaking generally, Pro- fessor Driver holds that the historical books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings are mainly based on good and trustworthy material, and that the traditional view of Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Hag- gai, and Malachi may be excepted. The same is true (with the exception of a few sections) of Jeremiah and Micah. Let us thankfully ac- knowledge this. With regard to Isaiah, the first thirty-five chapters are his except xiii. i, xiv. 23 (written towards the close of the Exile), xxi. I- 10 (probably the same), xxiv.-xxvii. (after the Return), xxxvi.-xxxix. (extracted from the Book of Kings by the compiler of Isaiah). Chaps, xl.-lxvi. are regarded as a continuous work written towards the close of the Exile — an age which seems to have been prolific in 146 THE DOCTRINE OF ACCOMMODATION. 147 anonymous writers. The Book of Jonah was written about the fifth century B.C., but is based on tradition. Zechariah wrote the first eis^ht of his chapters, the remaining- portions being doubtful as to their age, but certainly not his. Great pains is taken with the Book of Daniel, which is supposed to have been written in B.C. 168 or 167, under Antiochus Epiphanes ; but the book rests on a historical basis. Daniel was a real person and a seer. Hardly any of the Psalms are David's ; for example, the i loth cannot claim him as its author. The Book of Proverbs is a collection of various ages ; Job was written towards the age of the Babylonian Captivity ; the Song of Solomon is not by Solomon ; Ruth was prepared late in the kingly period ; Lamentations is not by Jeremiah ; Ecclesiastes is not by Solomon ; Esther is a romantic work on a historical basis, and written between 300 and 200 b.c. ; Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah w^ere written about 330 b.c. The only other books are the Pentateuch and Joshua. These are largely the work of two writers who were blended into one in or about the eij^hth century B.C. Their authors are designated for convenience by certain initials. Thus there was J., an excellent writer who lived between the time of David and that of Uzziah, in the Southern Kingdom, and E., a Northerner of the same age. A third writer was P., a priest who wrote about the time of 148 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. the Babylonian Captivity, and who fitted the material supplied by J. and E. into a systematic chronological framework. There was also D., about the same period, who wrote the Book of Deuteronomy ; and Dl, who introduced some later matter; and H., who wrote a particular section of Leviticus. These all lived in or about the age of the Babylonian Captivity. These various writers drew a great deal from ancient sources — mostly oral, but partly written. Some songs may have been put together into a collection as early as the time of David ; the Ten Commandments were also in writing in an early age, and probably some other ordinances. Moses was a real person, and was the original lawgiver to Israel, and it was thought desirable that when these Exilic and post-Exilic books were compiled they should be associated with his honoured name, as otherwise (we may w^ell sup- pose) it would not be easy to get them accepted. Such is the view of the Old Testament held by a sober and learned critic holding a high and responsible position as Professor of Hebrew at Oxford. In parts, it hardly seems consistent with the verdict of Christ. It is suggested, how- ever, by critics that the apparent difficulty may be solved by the doctrine of accommodation. Let us see if this is so. All critics who are in any sense Christians will grant that God the Father knows by virtue of His Godhead who wrote each book of the Bible. THE DOCTRINE OF ACCOMMODATION. 149 Most of them will grant that the Logos, through Whom all things were made, must have shared this knowledge. Some believe that the Logos on assuming human nature discharged this know- ledge, or let it lie latent and did not make any use of it. In previous chapters this theory has been sufficiently discussed ; but we cannot expect that all will see the matter in the same way. The Bishop of Manchester, for example, in his little work on The Teachmg of Christ, suggests that the limitation of our Lord's knowledge would be specially displayed in relation to those matters which are not naturally objects of spiritual in- tuition. If the phenomena of the Gospel har- monised with this view we should have to confess that the Lord's knowledgeon questions of author- ship would only be on a level with that of His age. But the facts point to another conclusion. There are those that hold that if Christ had read such and such books, written by certain modern critics and professors, He would have spoken differently. With such a supposition we have not a particle of sympathy. The matter is thus narrowed down to a question concerning our Lord's reserve ; for we cannot allow Him to be ignorant of anything that has ever happened in past time. The case of the critics may be put thus : " We decline to say that our Lord did not know the facts about the Old Testament books ; but we consider that He made as if He did not. He ISO DOCTOR DOCTORUM. adapted Himself in this and other respects to the views and beliefs of His day." According to this theory, the Lord quoted Moses as the assumed writer of the Pentateuch, or as the first contributor to its contents ; and so with David, Isaiah, and Daniel. It is held, moreover, by the critics that in those days there was no discussion about authorship of particular books, that people blindly accepted the view that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, David the Psalms, and Isaiah and Daniel the books that go by their names. The consequence of such a view is that a great deal must be deducted from the force of Christ's areu- ments. They were intended to silence the gain- sayers at the moment, and not to teach believers in future ages. The modern critic would see through the appeal to Moses in a moment, and would be able to say that an argument based on the Davidic authorship of Psalm ex. was futile. An unpleasant impression is thus conveyed to the mind which one hardly likes to put into words. The moral character of Christ oueht to be unimpeachable and beyond the breath of suspicion. Would it be so if it were true that the Lord deliberately based arguments on literary assumptions which He knew would not bear the light of criticism ? We trow not. The critics are honestly anxious to avoid having the matter put this way. Many of them areChristian men. It is not our business to accuse or condemn a single soul. Yet we must face facts. Is the THE DOCTRINE OF ACCOMMODATION. 151 doctrine of Christ's reserve on the matter of the authorship of certain books consistent with the spotless perfection of His moral character, or is it not ? Let each reader weigh the facts set forth in the previous chapters and draw his own conclusion. The case, however, may be looked at from another point of view. In some respects, cer- tainly, to the Jew the Lord became a Jew. But it cannot be said that He adapted Himself to the prejudices of the people, though He did not needlessly offend them. He was frequently sur- rounded with watchful foes who scrutinised His every word and His every deed. They by no means approved of some of the things He per- mitted His Disciples to do, e.£'., in the matter of hand-washing, fasting, and rubbing ears of corn on the Sabbath. He shocked them by eating and drinking with publicans and sinners, and by drawing a distinction between the outside and the inside of the cup and the platter. Social dis- tinctions based on wealth were very small in His eyesc A Samaritan, in His view, had a soul and might be saved. We cannot, therefore, think that mere respect for Jewish prejudice would hinder Christ from teaching the truth concern- ing certain books if there were important reasons why the truths should be told. And were there not such reasons ? It could hardly be considered of no consequence whether or not the legislation contained in the Pentateuch was authorised by 152 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. Moses. He was a well-known historic person- age living in constant and direct communication with God, and standing alone in the whole of Israel's history, up to the time of Christ, as a law-giver. It is not a mere matter of anti- quarianism, or of text, or of interpretation. It is a matter of authority ; and the authority of Christ hangs on the authority of Moses. The matter may be compared with the case of certain well-known Papal Decretals. By whom were they issued ? Everything hangs on the answer. Again, it is not the space of a few years which is involved, but the course of many centuries. The Books of Moses are brought down by modern critics from, say, 1400 B.C. to somewhere between 800 and 400 B.C. Once more, it is not a question of a few passages being inserted into ancient books by a later hand ; the books as a whole are dismissed from their ancient historic position, and are alleged to have crept into exist- ence no one exactly knows how, or when, or why. We take it, then, that whilst our Lord accom- modated Himself to Jewish modes of thought, not only in respect to ordinary idioms, such as the sun rising, but also in methods of arguing, yet the facts underlying His arguments are true. Thus, when in Luke xx. ;^y he is speaking con- cerning Moses at the bush, the facts on which He builds up His arguments are true, and the conclusions which He draws — which are a most important revelation concerning the spirit-world THE DOCTRINE OF ACCOMMODATION. 153 — are true also. Similarly we hold that our Lord by appealing to an author by name gives his verdict on the question of authorship. It will be noticed, further, that the accom- modation theory Is based upon the supposition that the authorship of certain books was not questioned in our Lord's time. It occurs to one naturally to ask, How is it that there was this unquestioning belief in Moses as the authoriser of the Pentateuch, in David as the composer of some at least of the Psalms, and in Daniel as the author of the book which bears his name ? If the matter was settled then, how long had it been settled ? Had there never been any discussion on the matter ? Or when did It arise, and when did it cease ? Professor Driver, who now definitely takes rank among the most diligent of the modern critics, has lately told the world in his Introditc- tion that 'there is no foundation in antiquity whatever for the current view that tlie Canon of the Old Testament was closed In Ezra's time. As Is remarked In a very favourable review in the Tinted with reference to this statement, "Antiquity Is, perhaps, a relative term, since Josephus certainly held that the Canon was closed In the time of Artaxerxes." Still, taking the statement as it stands, we are led to suppose that there must have been con- siderable discussion about some of the Old Testament books at some later period than 154 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. that of Ezra and Nehemiah if the Canon was no^ closed in their day. For the prophetic order was then held to have come to an end, and it is doubtful whether there was any indi- vidual, or even any collection of individuals, of sufficient position and insight to justify them in doctoring up such a book as the Pentateuch, in welding together the various writings which we now have under the name of Isaiah, or in attaching to the Canon so remarkable a book as Daniel. Such books as these occupy a very different position with respect to the Jewish and Christian creed from that in which Job, Ecclesiastes, Esther, or the Song of Solomon stand. Whatever vagueness there may have been in "antiquity" concerning some books, we know of none which touches the integrity of the Pentateuch or of Isaiah. To say the least we must regard these as part of Nehe- miah's Bible. Most critics allow this much ; but it is necessary to reiterate the fact. Whether we need stop here, the next chapter will show. There were two schools of Rabbis in our Lord's time — a strict and a comparatively lax one ; did either school propagate doubts con- cerning these books ? There were two parties with wholly diverse beliefs on very important matters — the Pharisees and the Sadducees ; did either of them deny the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch or the integrity of Isaiah ? The Law and the Prophets were read in the syna- THE DOCTRINE OF ACCOMMODATION. 155 gogue every Sabbath-day. Can any one tell how long this had been going on before our Lord's time, or who decided that these particular works should be read at Divine service ? Was there any doubt as to what constituted the Book of the Law one hundred and fifty years before the time of Christ in the age of the Maccabees, when Antiochus Epiphanes ordered the copies to be burnt ? (see i Mace. i. 56). Standing in imagination in that age amidst this bigoted, fanatical, and conservative people — the Jews — we ask whether it is reasonable to suppose that they regarded the Law as a late compound, put together by certain unauthorised persons. If the Canon, as a whole, was the work of that ao^e, it is most strange that we have not been told of it by the historians. But they are silent ; and we fall back on the oft-cited testi- mony of Josephus as true. It falls in with the reference to the Law which we find in the Apocrypha, and it adjusts itself to the teaching of the New Testament. It leaves us with this conviction, that Christ accommodated Himself to the Jewish beliefs about the Old Testament as a whole, and about the authorship of the Pentateuch, not in spite of their being false, but because He knew them to be true. We are often told that the whole thing is a balance of probabilities. Many things are theoretically possible which are not probable. It is theoretically possible that the Pentateuch 156 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. is a late composition, that the Jews of the Maccabean age were recipients of Scriptures which had been put together by artful priests or well-meaning scribes in various earlier ages, and that Christ was taking the current beliefs at what they were worth ; but these theoretical possibilities do not stand the test of reason ; they are not probabilities ; and they land us in what we must consider moral impossibilities. If the matter is to be regarded as doubtful when discussed without reference to the New Testament, the consideration of Christ's definite teaching on the subject wholly alters the case, and leads to the reinstatement of certain books as the works of certain authors. Criticism is left sufficiently free ; but it must conform and adapt itself to the verdict of the Teacher of teachers. We propose in our remaining two chapters to point out what we take to be certain funda- mental errors in the method of modern critics, and to sueeest the direction in which criticism must^run if it is to retain its loyalty to Christ. CHAPTER XVI. THE METHOD OF MODERN CRITICISM. THE Lord's testimony concerning the author- ship of certain books, and concerning the stability of the Old Testament, is so strongly in favour of the traditional view, that we cannot see how its opponents can stand against it. Yet the higher critics are certain that they are right in the main, and no one can read their books with- out being impressed with the weight and num- ber of their arguments. Before attempting to analyse their method we must acknowledge with thankfulness that many of the representatives of the German critical school in this country are men of high character and reverent spirit, some bearing honoured names and holding respon- sible positions in our seats of learning. They are not writing against miracles, against* pro- phecy, or even against inspiration. They are simply attempting to adjust what they hold on critical grounds with what they believe as Chris- tians. Even if we are compelled to part com- pany with them on serious questions we may yet live with them as brethren, believing that they see a way of escape which we do not ; and we must credit them with the courage of their con- 157 158 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. victions — for It does need couraofe for Christian men deliberately to take the side which we associate with the names of Colenso, Renan, Kuenen, and Wellhausen. It would ill become us also to forget that the writers to whom we refer are highly gifted men, whose scholarship, diligence, and knowledge of the Hebrew text and of German criticism is beyond question. No one would care lightly to measure swords with them. Certainly the present writer would not venture to do so had he not been an in- dependent Biblical student for more than a quarter of a century. As one rises from the patient reading of such a book as Professor Driver's Introduction, one is at first overwhelmed by the phantasmagoria of references to Biblical texts and to German writings. The amount of microscopic criticism seems endless ; the conclusions are bewilder- ing ; all seems shifting sand ; we know not what or whom to trust. But gradually the eye gets accustomed to the mist, and one begins to de- tect the method by which certain "results "are attained. Now it happens — shall we say unfortunately? — that the most important parts of the Old Testament, from a Christian point of view, are just those which criticism finds it necessary to bring down from the position assigned to them by pre-Christian tradition. They include Genesis, the Law of Moses, some of the Psalms, METHOD OF MODERN CRITICISM. 159 and certain of the Prophets — notably Isaiah, Jonah, Daniel, and Zechariah. Let us take the case of Genesis, and see how it is dealt with. The traditional view — on which our Lord bases His teaching — is that Genesis is a true record of pre-Mosaic history. Its con- tents are presupposed in Exodus and the other books, and it has been regarded as the first part of the Law, or as a preface to it, from time im- memorial. It can only be dethroned from this position through arguments derived from the age of writing, from the style or language in which it is written, or from the nature of its contents. Now that we know that writing is as old as Abraham, nothing can be said against the book on the first score. There is no reason, in the nature of things, why Abraham should not have possessed the outline at least of the first eleven chapters of the Bible in a written form — though of course oral tradition in those ages was almost as good as writing. There is nothing of the nature of an argument on the second or linguistic aspect of the question. The Hebrew is not 'Mate," but is of the same kind as that of the books which follow. We are therefore driven to suppose that Genesis is to be dethroned on the ground of its contents being inconsistent with its traditional date, and that the book as a whole bears the marks of having been written above a thousand years after the Patriarchal age. But here, again, i6o DOCTOR DOCTORUM. facts are not forthcoming. There is no array of arguments against the substance of the book being pre- Mosaic ; still less is there any array of arguments in favour of its being a compound partly of the age of Uzziah and partly of the Captivity period. It is surely a serious matter to disestablish a book from its traditional posi- tion without very strong reason and without a systematic investigation of its claims. There are, indeed, several notes in Genesis, some of which may have been Mosaic and some post- Mosaic, but they do not touch the substance of the book, as may be seen from the instances given in Driver's Introdttction (p. 117, note).^ On what grounds, then, are the critics pro- ceeding ? They are mainly two. First, the Book of Genesis contains inconsistencies which can best be accounted for by the theory that it has been compiled from different sources. Secondly, there is a resemblance between the different hands which contributed to Genesis and the different hands which contributed to the later books of the Pentateuch and Joshua ; and as these are going to be brought down to 800-500 B.C., Genesis must go down too. The second of these arguments is decidedly frail ; it withers beneath the light of day, it can hardly endure to be touched. Let us suppose that there were three contributors to Genesis, say A, B, and C, each having his own * The first edition is quoted throughout. METHOD OF MODERN CRITICISM. i6i style, and that similar differences of style may be detected in later books; are we to suppose without further reason that the A, B, and C of the one book are the A, B, and C of the others ? Is this logic ? May we say that because there were eight men and a coxswain in the Oxford boat in 1891, and the same number of men in a similar position in 1892, therefore the men are the same ? Let us imagine that some of the primitive writers were more diffuse than others ; we can well understand that later writers (if there were such) might be attracted by these varieties, and that so their narratives might show similar variations of phraseology. (See Driver, p. 149.) Do such similarities, however, prove identity of authorship ? It will hardly be seriously maintained. Yet this seems to be taken for granted by modern critics. But what shall we say. concerning the in- consistencies in Genesis ? This is a far more serious matter. If it does not touch the date of the book, at least it affects its truthfulness. In the first place, we must note as a peculi- arity of ancient style that it had a tendency to repetition, and consequently to variation. Thus in Gen. xxxii. 22, 23, we read, "And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok. And he took them, and made them pass over the L i62 DOCTOR DOCTORUM, brook, and made what he had pass over." Professor Driver crives the first of these verses to J. and the second to E. But if repetition impHes different writers we should have to divide the 23rd verse of that chapter into two parts. So with Gen. xl. 12, 1. 12, 13, and many other passages. There is considerable danger of our creating an imaginary st)le and forcing everything into consistency with it ; and it is the duty of criticism to point out and avoid the danger. {See Driver, p. 122, bottom.) Variations, however, are more serious when they amount to inconsistencies. We all feel this in the matter of the Four Gospels, the supposed inconsistencies of which have been bandied about for ages. Inconsistencies in ancient narratives largely depend on the brevity of the narrative, and on the different ways in which things were put (even by the same person) at different times. Of course no one knows exactly how Genesis was put together, or how many ''recensions" there may have been of certain traditions, and that long before the time of Moses. But we have to be specially careful in dealing with the Sacred Books of Israel, on which so much depends, lest we should unwittingly exaggerate diversities into inconsistencies. Take the case of the first and second chapters of Genesis, where we meet with the first of Professor Driver's inconsistencies. We all aoree that there is METHOD OF MODERN CRITICISM. 163 a definite order in the first chapter ; but Professor Driver affirms (p. 7) that there is also an " order of creation " in the second chapter ''opposed to the order indicated in the first." He puts it thus: (i) Man; (2) Vegetation ; (3) Animals ; (4) Woman. It seems strange that any one could have sup- posed that man was created before there was anything first to eat. But we fail to find any indications of an order of creation in the chapter ; and the strange thing is that J., who is supposed to give this new order, is usually regarded as in partnership with E., who when he wrote Exod. xx. fell back upon the order given in the first chapter. This "incon- sistency" is made the head and front of Canon Driver's argument. It is hardly satisfactory. We cite another Instance from the narrative of Joseph, which is said (Driver, p. 16) to be ''excerpted alternately from J. and E., each, however, em.bodylng traits derived from the other," and " not in entire harmony with the context." One writer is thought to know that Joseph charged his brethren as spies ; the other did not know it. " Had the whole nar- rative been by one hand, it would have been natural to find Simeon mentioned in the parts of chapters xliii. and xllv., where he Is un- noticed." J. prefers to use the name Israel, and E. the name Jacob, and "the preference is so decided " that counter-evidence must be i64 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. explained away. A peculiar word is used for the " sack " by J. ; it is also found in two verses of E. These two verses are said at first to *'have (as it seems) traces of J." (p. 15), for they refer to an inn which J. refers to later qn, and on the strength of this they are boldly assigned to J. (p. 17). It must have been an unpleasant task for a reverent mind to drag into the daylight of nineteenth-century criticism such minute differences as these, many of which would be easily explicable if we knew more of the facts. The original authorities for this section must have been Joseph and his brethren, and if we could catechise them many of these inconsistencies would doubtless vanish away. Before passing to the later books it may be well to give some of the results of the critical theory. The narrative of the death of Jacob is distributed thus : — His age when he died (Gen. xlvii. 28) is ascribed to P. ; his adjuration con- cerning his burial (vv. 29-31) to J. ; Joseph's visit to him with Ephraim and Manasseh (chap, xlvlii. I, 2) to E. ; Jacob's adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh (vv. 3-6) to P. ; his blessing on them (vv. 8-22) to E. It occurs to one that if this section is compiled from three sources or sets of materials, the books from which they are extracted must have been very much like one another. Passing on to Exodus, in chap, vii., verses METHOD OF MODERN CRITICISM. 165 1-13 are given to P.; verses 14-18 in the main to J. ; verses 19, 20, to P. ; verses 20 (last half), 21, to E. ; verse 22 to P. ; verse 23 to J. ; verse 24 to E. ; verse 25 to J. Again, Exod. xiv. is divided between P. (1-4) ; J. (5- 7) ; P. (8, 9) ; J. (10) ; E. (last sentence of 10) ; J.(ii-i4); P. (15-18); E. (part of 19); J. (20), &c, &c. One writer tells us of Israel's trouble, another makes them cry to the Lord, and a third encourages them to trust in the Lord. . P. describes Pharaoh's heart as hardened to pur- sue ; E. explains that the angel of the Lord removed and went behind ; J. says that the pillar did so ; P. makes Moses stretch out his hand ; J. makes the Lord cause the sea to go back. Bear in mind that whilst J. and E. are some 200 years before the exile to Babylon, P . is supposed to be the historic framework pre- pared during the Exile. Accordingly we find that the structure of the Tabernacle is Exilic, but the incident of the golden calf pre-Exilic. Leviticus is mainly Exilic, but chapters xvii. to xxvi. are by a special writer, and rather earlier. Numbers is mainly Exilic (a troublesome book, we should think, for the Jews to write during the Babylonian Exile) ; but not wholly so, for whilst the matter of Korah is Exilic, the inclu- sion of Dathan and Abiram is pre-Exilic. In Num. XX. 3, the people's contention is pre-Exilic, but what they say is Exilic ; the incitement to sin with the daughters of Moab is pre-Exilic, i66 DOCTOR DOCTURUM. but the incident concerning Phinehas is Exilic. Deuteronomy is by a still later writer than any of these. Shall we say mid-Exilic ? or post- Exilic ? It cannot be of any serious conse- quence. But the last chapter of it is divided thus: — Exilic (verse i), post-Exilic (to end of 7), Exilic (8 and 9), pre-Exilic (10), post-Exilic (i I and 12). The Book of Joshua, being of about the same age as these four books, Joshua having been Moses' personal friend and servant, naturally comes under the same treatment. If it be asked why the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are no longer to be assigned to Moses, the main answers are two. First, it is said that the laws contained in Deuteronomy are in some respects not con- sistent with those in the other three books. This, if proved true, might be a reason for suppos- ing that there is some defect in the accuracy of the record of the speeches contained in Deu- teronomy ; but it could go no further. It would not affect the position of the other three books, nor even of Deuteronomy, as a whole, in the face of the assertions in the book itself and of our Lord's verdict. But another reason is forth- coming, viz., that the testimony of the historical books (Judges, Samuel, and Kings) is incon- sistent with the supposition that laws attributed to Moses were already in existence. The laws as they stand must therefore go down to the age METHOD OF MODERN CRITICISM. 167 (say) of Josiah, and the historic framework must go down too, and the books must be divided out amongst writers very much as the critical instinct of the modern scholar may suggest. It is not, however, alleged that a// the laws are comparatively modern, but that the books as such, together with a considerable portion of the laws, are so. For example, there may have been an ark, and some rites, and a priesthood, and some ordinances, as far back as the days of Moses, and these became the nucleus of later ordinances and of the complete books which we possess. This theory involves the conclusion that the books of Moses are a fabrication, in fact, a collection of forged decretals ; for not only is the narrative to all appearance a contem- poraneous record with a very few later notes and appendices in it, but the ordinances con- cerning the Tabernacle, the Levitical rites, and other matters are definitely ascribed to Moses — the one person with whom God in those days spoke face to face. The inconsistencies mentioned above must be very formidable indeed if they are to lead us to the conclusion that these books are forgeries ; and a sense of hopelessness clouds the soul at the thought that they are the result of a "growth" which found its full expression, for a particular purpose which we need not enter upon, many centuries later than their professed age. Moreover, if i68 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. one reads the books in the h'orht of the critical theory, the difficulties seem infinitely greater than before. We cannot understand how the authors so wholly threw themselves into desert life, camp life, tabernacle worship, and Mosaic surroundings, and never let a word escape them which could indicate that these were all things of the past or the product of the imagination after centuries had passed away ; and that the writers themselves were born and bred after the disruption of the twelve tribes, after the Assyrian Captivity, and (In some cases) after the Babylonian Exile had begun. Again, we fail to comprehend how it was, If this surreptitious use of Moses' name was a natural and moral thing, as some critics seriously hold, that no hint escapes the writers of the Kings or of the Prophetical Books as to the names and character of the men who privily brought in these books, with their elaborate ordinancesand bits of ancient records, or as to the reasons which led to their introduction at certain crises of Israel's history. We read a great deal in Jeremiah and other writings of false prophets who spoke In the name of the Lord when the Lord had not sent them. Jeremiah gave such men the direct lie (Jer. xiv. 14; xxvii. 15, &c.). Did the false prophets have a hand in these artful compositions } We can hardly imagine true and honest men to have put their hands to the task. What, however, are the arguments which lead METHOD OF MODERN CRITICISM. 169 the critics to bring down the Mosaic legislation to such a very late period in the history of the Kings ? They are chiefly of a negative descrip- tion. How is it (they say) that kings, priests, and even prophets wink at things which were in- consistent with the Mosaic ordinances ? How, for example, is it that "no disapproval of what Micah instituted (viz., an ephod and teraphim), appears to have been entertained " (Driver, 1 58). The simple answer seems to be that the writers of the historical books were chroniclers rather than commentators, and that such prophets as Samuel, Nathan, and the rest may have pro- tested against many things both in public and private, although their protests are not recorded. Let us ask two questions on our part. Why did the wicked kings put the Prophets of God to death if they did not protest against idolatrous and other practices ? And how is it that all through the period of such good kings as Jeho- shaphat and Hezekiah, in both of whose reigns there were notable prophets, no attempt was made to remove the High Places sacred to Ash- toreth, Chemosh, or Milcom, which Solomon had built on the Mount of Olives ? (2 Kings xxiii. 13). Could Isaiah have looked on these structures with equanimity ? Was his theology of such a milk-and-water kind that he put up with these things ? Did he think that they were permitted ? We are evidently ignorant of much that took place in ancient times. It 170 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. is not for Christians, however, to level a charge of inconsistency against Israel for not keeping the law. As we study the Church history of the Middle Ages we are sometimes inclined to ask, Was the New Testament in existence in those days ? and when we find Irishmen in our own time believing that " Mary so loved the world that she gave her only begotten Son," we are beset with the same puzzle. In dealing with Deuteronomy we have to remember that it is made up of popular ad- dresses professedly uttered thirty-eight years after the ritual and social laws of Israel had been propagated, and we must read the laws and the speeches together. The divergences pointed out by Professor Driver (p. yy) have been dealt with by many writers, e.^:, Macdonald and Vos. It is said that some fundamental in- stitutions of the Mosaic law were unknown by the Deuteronomic writer. We give the first instance which is offered by Professor Driver : "While Lev. xxv. 39-43 enjoins the release of the slave in the year of jubilee, in Deut. xv. 12-18, the legislator (speaker?) prescribes the release of the Hebrew slave in the seventh year of his service." But, as a matter of fact, the law of Deut. xv. is an old one. It is to be found in Exod. xxi. 2. Why should not Moses mention it ? Besides, he certainly did know Lev. xxv., for he cites a passage from it. {Cf. Lev. xxv. 36 with Deut. xxiii. 19.) METHOD OF MODERN CRITICISM. 171 Enouorh has now been said concerning the method of modern critics as regards Genesis and the four books that follow. We set these speculations and all which they involve on one side, and the books themselves, with the Lord's verdict concerning them, on the other. We find that in spite of our ignorance concerning many things, and in spite of the impossibility of solving many puzzles — for these may well be expected in studying ancient Hebrew books which are at times detailed and at times concise — criticism presents no valid reason for the dethronement of the books. A very few words concerning the Psalms and Daniel must close this chapter, which is only intended to touch on the most salient points of modern criticism. Ps. ex. is dealt with by Professor Driver in a note (p. 362). The only reasons which have led him to conclude that David is not the author of the psalm are — (i) that ''my lord" is a title for an Israelitish king ; (2) that Messianic prophecies have regu- larly (though not necessarily) some institution of the Jewish theocracy as their point of de- parture, and none is to be seen here which suits with the Davidic authorship ; (3) that in later verses (3, 5, 6, and 7) the king in question is regarded not as a spiritual superior, but as a vic- torious Israelitish monarch. This is all. Not a word concerning " the sitting at the right hand," of which much is made in the New Testament ; 172 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. and not a word about the fourth verse, where this triumphant king is set forth as a ''spiritual superior" — a priest after the order of Melchize- dek — a fact on which the writer to the Hebrews founds so serious an argument. It is needless to criticise. In the case of Daniel most of the criticism is levelled against the terminology of one or two early chapters. But since Professor Driver acknowledges that Daniel was a seer, and that he perhaps left writings behind him (p. 479),. we shall venture to include in those writino^s the prophecies to which the Lord so definitely refers in Matt. xxiv. — thouorh we fear that critics would shrink from orivinor- their assent to this course. o o CHAPTER XVII. CAUTIONS FOR CRITICS: CONCLUSION. " I ^HE examination of the method of Old ^ Testament criticism by no means leads us to the conviction that the modern, critics are safe guides. We propose in this conclud- ing chapter to offer a few suggestions which a fairly long experience has tested, and which, if adopted, would keep Christian critics from running into dangerous extremes. I. It is desirable that if critics accept the truth of the historical narratives contained in the Old Testament from Genesis downwards they should plainly say so, and should guard us against supposing that their criticisms had landed them in unbelief. The historic truth of the Old Testament is the key to the New. It would be strange if any Christian denied the . supernatural narratives of the pre-Patriarchal, the Patriarchal, and the Israelite periods. Yet the supposition that these records were put together many centuries after the events nar- rated, seriously interferes with the grounds of belief. Eastern traditions are exceedingly 174 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. strong, but the supernatural element in the Biblical narrative is so predominant and so constant that we feel the need of something more than oral tradition to convince us of its truthfulness. May it not be said that this super- natural element imperatively calls for a record written not far from the time when the chief actors were living. 2. Christian critics must give credit both for insight and for purity of purpose to those who compiled the Canon of the Old Testament. Much obscurity now envelops their work ; but probably it was simple as daylight at the time. The ''inspiration of selection" needed to be supplemented by the " inspiration of detection," which Jeremiah, and also Nehemiah, so eminently possessed (see Jer. xiv. 14 ; xx. 6 ; Neh. vi. 12). The compilers of the Old Tes- tament must have been men in authority — probably priests, or scribes, or prophets — such men as Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, and Ezra. They would not wittingly include falsified books among the Scriptures, and they would not easily be deceived, even apart from inspiration, though this was their true security. They unhesitat- ingly rejected the collections of heroic poetry, such as the Book of Jashar, and such secular works as the Books of the Chronicles of Israel and Judah. They had the ordinary means of distinguishing truth from error, and would have CAUTIONS FOR CRITICS. 175 been blameworthy if they had put amongst the " Divine hbrary " such works as are included in the Apocrypha. Moreover, they had an inspired instinct which enabled them to say of certain books, ''These are sacred, authoritative, and of prophetic origin, whilst the others (however excellent) are not." A very large amount of ancient Hebrew literature is hopelessly lost, but of the Sacred Books of Israel probably not one is lost. 3. Jewish traditions concerning the Canon must be allowed their full weight. Josephus' testimony is exceedingly strong, and ages before his time there was a deep conviction, abundantly testified to in the Apocryphal books and else- where, concerning the trustworthiness and authority of the Old Testament. Some of the literary evidence as to the formation of the Canon in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, must have been extant in the days of the Maccabees, though it perished subsequently. The argu- ment concerning the Old Testament is in this respect similar to that which relates to the New. Much of the evidence which satisfied the early Church is not now forthcoming, but we allow for it. The verdict of past ages must be taken to be true unless dispossessed by unimpeachable witnesses. It may not be equally valuable for all books ; doubts concerning the age of Job or Ecclesiastes are one thing, but doubts concerning 176 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. the integrity and authority of the Pentateuch are another. We can conceive no period of Israel's history when the " five-fifths of the Law " can have been accepted except on the conviction that they are mainly authenticated by the great Lawgiver, and that in this respect they stand apart from Joshua and the later books. 4. Full credit must be given to each of the Biblical writers for honesty, accuracy, and dis- cernment in the use of materials. Inspiration allows of limitation but not of lying. We must not impute to inspired writers such ulterior motives as the bolstering up of the priesthood. Nor must we suspect a narrative because it savours of the supernatural. There is no necessity for paring down miracles. The Bible is unique because redemption is unique. We do not expect that the events which led up to the manifestation of the Logos would be on a par with those which we read in the daily paper. If two ways of putting things occurring in the same narrative are at first sight inconsistent (see, e.£:, what is said of God's repentance in I Sam. XV.), we must not jump to the con- clusion that two independent works have been rolled together into one. The more barefaced the inconsistencies the more certain we may be that there is a solution, though we may not be CAUTIONS FOR CRITICS. 177 able to find it. We are used to such incon- sistencies in comparing the Gospels with one another ; and if the inconsistencies between four contemporary records, say, of our Lord's resurrection, are not thought to detract from the truthfulness of the narrative, why should we be staggered if we find, in a single narrative, sentences which we cannot harmonise ? Some of them may be owing to mistakes of copyists, others to ancient modes of putting things, or to peculiarities of style in the nation or the in- dividual. In this way the large round numbers in Chronicles as compared with Kings may be accounted for. Again, as we are loth to accuse the writers of exaofaeratinor we should be still more slow to charge them with inventinof arti- ficial numbers. Thus, it is unreasonable to doubt the accuracy of the 480 years mentioned in I Kings vi. i, on the ground that they are 40 multiplied by 12. There is a tendency in some critics to over- throw a Biblical statemient if it seems to run counter to a cuneiform inscription. We know very little of the writers of these inscriptions, and even where they are certainly issued by responsible persons, there is no more reason for trustinof them than there is for trustinor the Biblical writers. Very few inscriptions are absolutely free from blunders. Critics are also in too great a hurry to sever INI T78 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. certain songs from their surroundings. If a Biblical writer tells us that Moses, Deborah, David, or Jonah composed a hymn on a certain occasion, we must accept the statement on his authority, and must accommodate our criticism to his statement. It is a very great help to us to have certain literary matters fixed for us by ancient trustworthy writers. We feel it to be so in the case of the songs recorded in the first and second of St. Luke ; and why not in these other cases ? 5. Every book must be taken as a whole un- less there is irrefragable proof to the contrary. This rule would not apply to a collection of compositions like the Psalms, but it is of general value. The completion and arrangement of the prophetic books must have been largely done by the Prophets themselves or by their scribes, as was the case with the Koran in later times. The Book of Isaiah must have stood substan- tially as it does now long before the time when the Septuagint was translated or Eccleslasticus was written. If it was the work of several men and ages, why is not the fact stated } It is ques- tionable whether any authorised compiler would venture to join an Exilic book to Isaiah without a line of introduction, for such a thinor would be a needless injury to the religious sense of the people. If separate introductions were thought necessary in such a book as Proverbs, how much CAUTIONS FOR CRITICS. 179 more would they be so in such a book as Isaiah or Jeremiah ! 6. Testimony to part of a book should be counted as testimony to the whole of it, unless there is strong reason to the contrary. We act on this principle with regard to the New Testa- ment ; wdiy should we not do so in the case of the Old ? We can hardly demand that each writer, in deference to the needs of later ages, should give lists of all his subjects and utterances. The thirty-third of Numbers is specified as the work of Moses ; why should w^e doubt that the rest of the book is the work of his a^e ? Nehe- miah in his first prayer quotes from Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Daniel ; on what ground should we doubt that he was acquainted with the whole of these books substantially as they stand now ? 7. Full weight must be given to quotations. Certain chapters are quoted far more freely than others, e.o-., Lev. xxvi., Deut. xxix. and xxxii. ; and certain Prophets quote freely from their predecessors. There are a few cases where w^e know that the writers were contemporary, Isaiah and Micah, for example, and in these there may be a difficulty in deciding which is the original ; but, generally speaking, if we accept the old view of the integrity of the books, there is no difficulty in noting the force of the quota- tions. t8o DOCTOR DOCTORUM. 8. We must recognise the existence of notes which have been introduced into the Sacred Text at certain times. The date of a book as a whole must not be brouQ^ht down to the date of its latest note, unless the general character of the book demands it. This is equally true of the earliest and of the latest historical books. ' 9. Aramaisms and other peculiaritiesof dialect do not prove the lateness of the books which contain them. We have yet much to learn both about the stages of Chaldean or Aramaic as it existed in Exilic and post-Exilic times, and also about the Northern, Eastern, and Southern dialects of Hebrew in the Patriarchal and kingly periods. The introduction of foreign words, €.£:, names of particular objects connected with music, natural history, &c., by no means necessitates a late date. Civilisation in Asia Minor was practi- cally Greek, and its benefits were freely imported into Eastern Imperial Courts. The Assyrian slabs in the British Museum frequently illustrate this point. 10. We must not limit writers too narrowly in matters of style and diction. Some of the Biblical writers lived to a great age, and may have adopted different styles at different periods of their life under different circumstances. What are now called ''stylistic" distinctions, whether CAUTIONS FOR CRITICS. i8i in Hebrew or in English, are very delicate matters to deal with ; especially when we have no contemporaneous literature by which to check our results. II. We must not dictate to the Prophets either what they should predict, or in what terms they should express themselves. There is a tendency in critics to tie the Prophets down to very narrow limits. In Davison's old and standard work on Prophecy, the doctrine of the foreground and background, which is discernible in so many prophetic utterances, is carefully explained ; but, whilst granting that this was a rule or habit of prophecy, Mr. Davison by no means asserted that it was a necessity. So many exceptions are exhibited by the critics, that we are driven to the conclusion, not that certain passages are to be eliminated from the prophetic writings because they do not harmonise with the analogy of others, but that the Prophets very frequently departed from the analogy in question and acted on some other principles. We must also bear in mind that the Prophets were sometimes lifted out of their ordinary style and spoke in terse, rugged, and broken sentences. The brevity of prophetic style is peculiarly diffi- cult to us Westerns. But we must not detach passages from the books because they seem to us out of place. A true grammar of prophecy has yet to be written ; and it must make allow- i82 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. ance for all the existing literary phenomena which the Prophetic Books exhibit, and must not lightly reject anything. There is a teleology in the Bible as there is in nature. Just as we find in the depths of the earth stored up from distant ages provision for our present needs, e.o-., coals, petroleum, mineral waters, quicksilver, &c., so at certain stages in Biblical revelation provision was made for future times. Moses provided for the days of the Kings ; David for the later period ; Isaiah for the Captivity. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world ; and He has revealed in the Old Testament many things which have not yet had their fulfilment ; the writers of the New Testament inherited and passed on a large residuum of unfulfilled prophecy to the ages yet future. Our Lord by His teaching really throws as much light on the Prophets as they throw on Him. 12. Last, but not least, the verdict of Christ on the books must be recognised. The differ- ence between the critics of the old and new school appears in some respects to be one of degree ; but it is in danger of becoming, if it has not already become, one of principle. The most thoughtful of English critics are by no means indisposed to grant that there is some amount of ancient material incorporated in the Pentateuch, though they will not allow the CAUTIONS FOR CRITICS. 183 framework to be old. Those who stand in the old paths believe that the framework as well as the greater part of the materials are old ; in other words, that the books are substantially what they profess to be, though there are notes, and possibly sections, introduced at later periods. This view they consider to be most in accord- ance with the literary phenomena of the books, and they are strongly influenced in its favour by the positive teaching of Christ. Modern criticism barely refers to the Lord's teaching, and thus cuts itself adrift from any definite ground on which to proceed. Christ leaves many things open ; there is manifestly plenty of room for higher criticism within the bounds fixed by Him. Every Biblical question is open just so far as Christ has left it open, but no further. It is here that the real point of divergence comes in. We are told to dismiss prejudice, or, as the critics kindly put It, /r^- judicmm. We are to approach the Old Testa- ment as if Christ had neither come nor taught. We are not even to read the books from a Jewish point of view, but simply as critics. This we decline. The books of the Old Testa- ment are not only to be read in connection with one another, but are to be studied in the liorht of the New. The dispensations of which they speak are related. We might as w^ell study the bones of the body without reference to the head i84 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. as study the Old Testament without reference to the New. Criticism without Christ is shift- ing sand. We have not enough materials to go upon without taking Him and His words into account. We must view the Old Testament from His point of view rather than from the German critical point of view. Germans may err, and have erred. Christ has not erred, and cannot err. Men are slow to give way ; but few of our English critics are so pledged, or have so far committed themselves, that they cannot in- troduce new safeguards into their books. Why should they not consent to abide under the shadow of the Lord's teaching ? Much depends on the upshot of the present controversy. The effect of modern criticism on the average mind Is to destroy the sacred authority of the Old Testament, to reduce its history to doubtful tradition, to bring down its prophecies to the level of forecasts, and to lower the authority of Christ's utterances. This last is the most serious of all considera- tions. If Christ's verdict is not to be wholly accepted with regard to the past, why should we accept it with regard to the future ? The Old Testament is the foundation of our theo- logy, and of the Messianic doctrine. If its position is weakened, our own prospects in CAUTIONS FOR CRITICS. 185 connection with the Second Coming of Christ and the great events related thereto are materially affected thereby. St. Paul said that he preached nothing else but what " the Prophets and Moses did say should come, that "the Christ should suffer, that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles" (Acts xxvi. 22, 23). "To him" (says St. Peter) "all the Prophets testify that through His name whosoever liveth in Him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts x. 43). Mission-work at home and abroad would be paralysed if the new criticism were allowed to have free course amongst us. The first of all questions which the inquiring soul in any land asks about a Bible statement is this: "Is it true?" If we doubt, hesitate, trim in the matter — if our own hearts are doubtful — our words are vain. St. Paul says, " I believed, therefore have I spoken." This is what v/e must do if we would be ambassadors for Christ amidst our vast home populations or the still vaster nationalities in other countries. The Bible and the conscience answer to one another. The doctrines of Sin, of the Fall, of the Judgment to come, and of the Propitia- tion through the self-sacrifice of the Son of God, are the instruments whereby the con- science is reached. These are the truths which i86 DOCTOR DOCTORUM. the vSpirit brings home to the soul. But they depend as much on the truthfulness of the Pentateuch and on the voices of ihe Prophets, as on the direct word of Christ. Those of us who walk in the old paths have much to learn from the present controvers}'. We have been, perhaps, too indiscriminate in our reading, and have regarded all the books too much as if they were on a dead level. Perhaps, also, we have been in too great haste to condemn others, as if they were almost infidels, for holding views which they believe to be consistent with faith in Christ. Our first business is to look well to the grounds of our faith, and to live according to it ; to hold the truth rather than to condemn others. Further, it is better to examine than to protest. Much patience and wisdom is required by those who were contending earnestly for the faith. They sorely need to have their hands upheld by the prayers and sympathy and co-operation of others. Each of us may do something in the cause of truth. Each at least can make it a matter of frequent prayer that God will raise up a band of sound and faithful and able students who shall consecrate all their intellectual powers to the defence of His Word. Our convictions ought to be, first, Christian, and secondly, liter- ary. As Protestants we are led more by literary and internal testimony than by Church authority. CAUTIONS FOR CRITICS. 187 We hold the New Testament on the strength of the verdict of many witnesses, both com- munities and individuals, and on internal ex- perimental evidence also. Similarly, we hold the Old Testament partly on the strength of the verdict of the ancient Jewish community, but, above all, on the testimony and authority of Him Who is the Teacher of teachers. THE END. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Accommodation to Jewish prejudice . Anthropomorphism .... Apostles, their view of the Old Testament Astonishment expressed by Christ . Authority of Christ .... Biblical criticism, its modern phase . Must defer to Christ . Biblical writers, honest and accurate Compilers of the Old Testament Copyists' mistakes .... Creation, order of ... . Daniel quoted by Christ . Rejected by critics David the writer of the iioth Psalm . Denied by critics Dependence of Christ on the Father Deuteronomy the work of Moses Rejected by critics Dialectal peculiarities in Old Testament Driver, Prof, his work on the Old Testament His conclusions . His method criticised . Faith Forged decretals Foreign words in Old Testament Genesis, how dealt with by the critics Supposed inconsistencies in it Growth of Christ In learning .... In wisdom .... PAGE • 34 . 129 . 116 . 60 146, 164 156, 182 . 176 . 174 • 177 . 163 . 144 . 172 . 141 . 171 . 104 . 138 . 170 . 180 . 146 . 147 . 158 . 85 ^S3, 167 . 180 • 159 ■ . 160 • 47 . 48 . 113 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Humiliation of Christ Did it afifect His knowledge Chief elements in it . Ignorance, any signs of it in Christ Incarnation of the Logos . Inconsistencies reconcilable Inspiration not consistent with dishonesty Integrity of the Sacred Books . Isaiah, his Book used by Christ Cut to pieces by critics Jesus Christ the Light of this World . The Teacher of teachers Amid the doctors in the temple . His knowledge of human nature His knowledge of the future His knowledge of the Old Testament His last discourses His teaching after the Resurrection Jews, their view of the Old Testament canon Josephus, his statement on the Old Testament Ke?iosis, its true meaning .... Kingdom of Heaven . Language of Christ . Laws of spiritual life . Limitations of Christ as a Teacher As a Son .... Mission of Christ Modern criticism, illustrations of it Its effect on the mind . Moses the writer or authoriser of the La\\ His Books dethroned by the critics Reason assigned for bringing down their dates Natures of Christ, how adjusted Notes in the Sacred Books Old Testament, when completed Modern theories about it . PAGE 23, 29, 32 • 39 • 43 no, 117 14,21 . 176 174, 176 . 178 . 142 . 146 8, 102 92,98 . 112 . 62 • 95 . 71 . 88 . 129 4, 153, 175 , 124 . 25 . 82 56, lOI . 80 33, 106 • 117 5 6, loi 164 184 133 166 169 23 180 153 146 igo INDEX OF SUBJECTS. PAGE Prepares the way for Christ . . . . 9, 184 Why we hold it . . 187 Original teaching of Christ . 78 Pentateuch, the work of Moses . 140 Power of Christ . . 58 Prejudice, did Christ yield to it 151, 155 Prophetic insight 68,94 Power .... . 106 Prophetic revelation . 181 Style .... 181 Psalms taken from David by critics 171 Questions put by Christ III Quotations in the Old Testament 179 Reserve of Christ in teaching . 36, i49j 151 Scriptures endorsed by Christ . 122 Fulfilled by Him 127 Sermon on the Mount 79 Sinlessness of Christ . 107 Songs in the Old Testament 178 Sonship of Christ 103 Style of sacred writers 180 Sufferings of Christ . 46 Supernatural element in Old Testament • 174 Teleology in the Bible 182 Testimony to ancient Books 179 Thought-reading 67 Titles of Christ .... 55 Tradition, ancient, deserves respect 175 Variations not necessarily inconsistencies 162 Wisdom of Christ .... 113 Word of God and traditions of men . 122 Words of Christ .... 60 Writing conserves tradition 174 WORKS by Rev. H. SINCLAIR PATERSON, M.D. FAITH AND UNFAITH : THEIR CLAIMS AND CONFLICTS. Crown Svo, cloth extra, 33. 6d. " Clear and forcible in style and expression, masterly in grasp of thought, and trenchant in argument, these Lectures on present-day aspects of unbelief will be simply invaluable in the help they will render to intelligent young men and others who have become entangled in the meshes of modern doubt." — Literary World. '*IN DEFENCE." THE EARLIER SCRIPTURES. Crown Svo, cloth extra, 5s. "It is to be wished that this book may have a wide circulation as an able and well-written defence of the earlier Scriptures, boldly con- ceived, carefully elaborated, thoughtfully compressed, and considerately adapted to the general reader." — Prin'CIPAL Cave, in The British and Foreign Evangelical Review. '*IN DEFENCE." THE FOURFOLD LIFE. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5s. "In this book we are brought face to face wiih the citadel of Christianity, to wit, the historical records of the person of Christ and His work upon earth, as one of the most distinct and powerful evidences of the inherent truth of our holy religion. . . . We expect that many persons will ejaculate, ' How full this book is of the Lord Jesus Christ ! ' So it is. ' What an enthusiastic writer this is on such a grand theme ! ' So he is. And we thoroughly recommend the book." — Clergyman s Magazine. CHRIST AND CRITICISM ; Or, THE WITNESSES EXAMINED AND CROSS-EXAMINED. One Shilling. "These Lectures certainly form one of the ablest of all the contribu- tions to the literature of the evidences that have been made in recent years." — Christian Leader. LONDON : JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. WORKS by Rev. C. H. WALLER, Mi, PRINCirAL OF THE LONDON COLI.EGE OF DiVINITY AND MacNeILE BiBLICAL Professor; Examining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Liverpool. A HANDBOOK TO THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5 s. "The name of the Principal of the London College of Divinity is a sufficient guarantee for soundness in the Faith and a scholarly treat- ment of any theological subject he may take in hand. This, his latest work, contains a brief summary of St. Paul's Epistles, with suitable comments, explanatory and practical. Sunday-school teachers will find it invaluable, while the younger clergy will find in it much useful matter to assist them in preparing for the pulpit." — English Chitrchinan. EVERY-DAY LIFE; Or, the uneventful JOURNEY. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3s. 6d. "Intense has been our enjoyment of the deep spiritual thought contained in this volume. . . , This is no common book. Those who love solid Scriptural teaching, and deep fellowship with God, will revel in these sermons. Our Sabbaths at Mentone were brightened with one of these holy meditations ; we felt that we had seldom met M'iih more satisfying food for thought. We hope to meet with this author again." — Sword and Trowel. WHEN YE PRAY; Or, lessons ON PRAYER. New Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3s. 6d. "An exposition of the Lord's Prayer which is truly an aid to devotion." — EdluburgJi Daily Review. "Truly original, and both scholarly and evangelical." — The Chris/ian. LONDON : JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 4S PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. JOHN F. SHAW & Co;s NEW VOLUME BY REV. CANON GIRDLESTONE, M.A. DOCTOR DOCTORUM : The Authority and Accuracy of Christ's Teaching. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3/6. This very timely and important work should be in the hands of every Christian minister and worker. NEW VOLUME BY REV. J. BENNETT, D.D. CRUX CHRISTI ; Being a Consideration of some Aspects of the Doctrine of Atonement. With especial reference to the recent suggestions of Bishop Westcott. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3/6. SKETCHES OF THE QUIET IN THE LAND; or, Lights in the Dark Ages of Protestant Germany. By Frances Bevan, Author of "Three Friends of God," &c. Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 5/-. " Mrs. Bevan's book is the more valuable and interesting from the circumstance that she has devoted her attention to a period and subject with which the average English reader is but very little acquainted." — Record. " Will be read with great interest." — Guardian. "This is a volume of great excellence, and one likely to be most useful ; full of tender thought, spiritual truth, and strong inspiration." — English Churchman. "A work of peculiar interest. With a generous sympathy Mrs. Bevan combines a very instructive method of treating her subject. We heartily commend the book as a charming recital of great spiritual struggles." — The Christian. NOTES ON THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION. By Thomas Newberry, Editor of "The Englishman's Bible." New and Enlarged Edition. Price 4/-. " We are pleased to welcome a second edition of Mr. Newberry's Notes on the Book of Revelation. There are some corrections and additions which help to make this little work more worthy of its theme ; but, even as it first appeared, it is invaluable. It is clear, terse, and bears throughout the stamp of spiritual discernment. We most heartily commend the book." — Word atid Work. WHAT ARE WE TO BELIEVE? or, The Testimony of Fulfilled Prophecy. By Rev. John Urquhart. Second Edition. Cloth, 2/6; Paper Covers, 1/6. "The cream of many great books is to be found in these 230 pages. Nevertheless, all is simple and compact ! " — TJie Christian. "This precious treatise should be scattered by tens of thousands." Sword and Trowel. London: JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row. E.G. A I WORKS by Reu. ADOLPH SAPHIR, D.D, EXPOSITORY LECTURES on the Epistle to the HEBREWS. New Edition, Two Vols., cloth, 13/6, "Singularly independent in his line of thinking, and unconventional in his way of expressing his thoughts, the author has succeeded in throwing much and varied light upon the high argument of the apostle." — Daily Rcvieiv. THE HIDDEN LIFE. Thoughts on Communion with God. New Edition, Crown 8vo, cloth, 5/- " Quite worthy to take its place beside 'Goulburn's Thoughts on Personal Holiness.'" — New York Cfu-istiati World. OUR LIFE-DAY. Thoughts on John ix. 4. " I must work the works of Him that sent Me." New Edition, Crown 8vo, cloth, 3/6. " A more seasonable book could hardly be supposed. It is a treasury of happy and helpful thoughts." — Edinburgh Daily Reviezv. FOUND BY THE GOOD SHEPHERD. Bible Records of Conversion. New Edition, cloth, 3/6. " I know no book like it on the subject." — D. L. Moody. THE LIFE OF FAITH : Its Nature and Power, as Illustrated in Hebrews xi. Republished from the Author's Exposition of that Epistle. Small 8vo, cloth, 2/6. "Practical, deeply experimental, and replete with Biblical instruction." Divine Life. THE COMPASSION OF JESUS. A mine of comfort for the sorrowing and depressed. Cloth extra, 1/- THE EVERLASTING NATION. Third Edition, Demy Svo, 6d. "One of the weightiest arguments, and at the same time one of the most winning appeals, it has ever been our privilege to read. ... It deserves frequent reading, and will amply repay the most careful study." — Word and Work. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. An Address on Phil. ii. 12-21. New Edition. Demy Svo, 6d. SMALL BOOKS BY DR. SAPHIR. Price TWOPENCE each. The Golden A B C of the Jews. Weep Not With Jesus Now and for Ever. "Be of Good Cheer." The Early Days of the Pentecostal Church. The Christian's Memory. The Pearl of Great Price. A Bible Story for the Children. London : JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.C. Works by Rev. C. H. WALLER, M.A., Principal of ihe London College of Divinity and MacNeile Biblical Professor; Examining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Liverpool. A HANDBOOK TO THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5/- "The name of the Principal of the London College of Divinity is a sufficient guarantee for soundness in the Faith and a scholarly iieatment of any theological subject he may take in hand. This, his latest work, contains a brief sunmiary of St. Paul's Epistles, with suitable comments, explanatory and practical. Sunday- school teachers will find it invaluable, while the younger clergy will find in it much useful matter to assist them in preparing for the pulpit." — English Churchtnan. EVERY- DAY LIFE; or, The Uneventful Journey. Crown Svo, cloth extra, 3/6. "Intense has been our enjoyment of the deep spiritual thought contained in this volume. . . . This is no common book. Those who love solid Scriptural teaching, and deep fellowship with God, will revel in these sermons. Our Sabbaths at Mentone were brightened with one of these holy meditations ; we felt that we had seldom met with more satisfying food for thought. We hope to meet with this author again." — Svjord and Trowel. WHEN YE PRAY; or, Lessons on Prayer. New Edition, Crown Svo, cloth extra, 3/6. "An exposition of the Lord's Prayer which is truly an aid to devotion." Edinburgh Daily Review. "Truly original, and both scholarly and evangelical." — Tlie Christian. Ctjoicf Boofe^ for ^parf iHomcnte. One Shilling each. CROSSES AND CROWNS. By H. Sinclair Paterson, M.D. "Well fitted to be a little manual to be read day by day." — Christian Treasury. SONGS IN THE NIGHT. By Rev. Octavius Winslow, D.D. "Spare moments are enriched by books like this." — Tlie Christian. BETWEEN TIMES. By Lady Hope. "Beautiful without and within, a credit to the publisher, an honour to the writer." — Daily Revieiv, IN THE SHADOW OF HIS HAND. Thoughts for Lonely Hours. By Rose Porter. MY MORNING WORD. Counsel and Comfort for Daily Need. "The original idea is very effective, and by its means a rich portion of Scripture teaching is given." — Woman's Work. THE GUEST CHAMBER. By Lady Hope. "This delightful little book. . . . a good travelling companion." — The Christian. HIMSELF. Treasured Words from Mildmay. GOD'S FEAR NOT AND MAN'S RESPONSE. London: JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 3 By captain DAWSON, 5Late Innisfeillmg ©vagoons. THOUGHTS IN THE VALLEYS. Lessons from the Valleys of the Old Testament. With Illustrations. New Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3/6 ; cheap edition, 1/6. "Singularly fresh and interesting in the beautiful teachings gleaned from the Old Testament valleys. A book for those passing through the shadows of affliction, but by no means lacking in bright glimpses of the sunshine above." Word and Work. " It will be sweet to many a true believer. Its outside is certainly in fine taste, and the interior is gracious and suggestive." — Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. Price SIXPENCE each, paper covers; ONE SHILLING each, cloth extra; HALF-A-CROWN each, leather. SALVATION AND SERVICE. THE GOSPEL OF GRACE FROM THE GOD OF GLORY. NOTES AND THOUGHTS ON PSALM XXIII. New Edition. GRACIOUS WORDS & GLORIOUS WORKS. The Healing Touches of Jesus. THE STORY OF JONAH. COMMUNION AND CONFLICT. Thoughts on Life and Service. BRAVE HEARTS AND BUSY HANDS. Lessons for Workers. GOD'S MESSAGE TO OUR HOMES. New Edition, enlarged. Sewed 2d.; cloth, 4d. "We have read with much comfort, and we trust profit, the whole of Captain Dawson's works, and recommend them as worthy of the widest circulation." ^ Notes for Bible Sttidy. ILLUSTRATED PACKETS. Price Sixpence each. LIFE PICTURES. New Packet of Six Illustrated Books. LIGHT AND LIFE. A Packet of Six Gospel Books. LIVING AND WORKING; or, Thoughts by the Way. " An exceedingly Scriptural, pointed, and useful series of books for Christians, well adapted for wide circulation." — Word and Work. With Picture Cover, price ONE PENNY. FOUR BEES WITHOUT STINGS. A Message for the New Year. GIVE ATTENTION TO READING. A Talk on the Reading of Books. Price ONE PENNY each. Comers and Helpers of the War. Jesus Himself. Repentance. Christ and the First Disciples. Faith the Saving Link. Price ONE HALFPENNY each Nil Desperandum: The Missioa and Message of Wisdom. A New Start. Happiness. The Christian's Weapon. Four Counsels. Who is the Builder? Address to Young Men. Notes on the Story of Jericho and the Scarlet Line. The Pharisee and Publican. The Story of the Calliope. God's Call : " Come Thou." Notes on Story of Bartimaeus. Conversion and Consecration. London: JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.C. 4 WORKS by Rev. W. H. M. H. AITKEN, M.A. THE LOVE OF THE FATHER. A Volume of Sermons on the Parable of the " Prodigal Son," and other Subjects Illustrative of the Fatherly Love of God. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3/- " There is no thought neglected, no contingency overlooked ; while the literary excellence, the tender pathos, combined with higher qualities of the theologian, all combine to render it, in our opinion, one of the most notable books on the subject, of the present or any other age." — The Homilist. EASTERTIDE. Thoughts on the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3/- THE REVEALER REVEALED. Thoughts upon the Revelation of Christ to and in His People. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3/- AROUND THE CROSS. Some of the First Principles of the Doctrine of Christ. New Edition. Crown Svo, cloth extra, 3/- THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS. Helps to the Spiritual Life. New Edition. Crown Svo, cloth extra, 3/- THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. A Volume of Mission Sermons. New Edition. Crown Svo, cloth extra, 3/- GOD'S EVERLASTING YEA. - Divine Provision for Human Need. New Edition, Crown Svo, cloth extra, 3/- THE SCHOOL OF GRACE. Expository Thoughts on Titus ii. 11-14. New Edition, Crown Svo, cloth, 5/- WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? Addresses specially suited to Young Men. Crown Svo, cloth, 3/- MISSION SERMONS. Series I. Series II. Series III. Crown Svo, cloth, 3/- each Volume. NEWNESS OF LIFE. A Series of Sermons and Addresses to Believers. Crown Svo, cloth, 3/- " Cannot fail to instruct, to stimulate, to guard, to encourage, to search and try the heart of all who may be attracted to its burning pages." — The Christian. HINTS FOR CHRISTIAN WORKERS. A Manual for Parochial Missions, containing Suggestions and Hints for Clergy and other Christian Workers. Cloth, One Shilling. -London : JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 5 WON AT LAST ; or, Mrs. Briscoe's Nephews. Large Crown 8vo, cloth, with Illustrations, price 3/6. "A personal knowledge of these boy nephews must be made by our readers, and we can very heartily assure them that they will have very great enjoyment and profit in making it." — Freejuan. HIS ADOPTED DAUGHTER ; or, A Quiet Valley. Large Crown 8vo, cloth, 5/- "A thoroughly interesting and good book." — Birminghajii Post. "We should like to see many such volumes on the shelves of our school libraries." — Schoobnaster. THE EARLS OF THE VILLAGE. Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 2/6. "A pathetic tale of country life, in which the fortunes of a family are followed out with a skill that never fails to interest." — Scotsman. THE OLD HOUSE IN THE CITY; or, Not Forsaken. Crown Bvo, cloth, 2/6. "An admirable book for girls. The narrative is simply written, but there is a good deal of quiet force that deserves special notice." — Teachers' Aid. FLOSS SILVERTHORN ; or. The Master's Little Handmaid. Crown Bvo, 2/6. "Thoroughly interesting and profitable, as Miss Giberne's tales always are. We should like to see this in every home library." — The Nczvs. MADGE HARDWICKE ; or, The Mists of the Valley. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 2/6. "An extremely interesting book, and one that can be read with profit by all." The Schoolmaster. WILL FOSTER OF THE FERRY. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 2/6. " We are glad to see this capital story in a new shape." — Record. "A most appropriate book for Parish Libraries." — English Churchman. TOO DEARLY BOUGHT. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 1/6. "A timely story, which should be widely circulated." Author of "Our Coffee Room," &c. WILD HYACINTHS. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3/6. " This is a beautifully written work. Its sketches of life are bright and grace- ful, but the glow on all the pretty pictures is that of the evangel. For young women of culture 'Wild Hyacinths' is an excellent gift hook."— The Churchman. EST ELLA ; or. Who is my Neighbour ? Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5/- " Life and love are the spirit and soul of this beautiful thrilling story." The Chf istian. "An extremely well-written simple tale, which will be most attractive to young readers. " — Daily Review. London : JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.C, 6 By MRS. PENNSyATHSR. SONGS OF THE PILGRIM LAND. New Edition. Small 4to, cloth extra, 5/- "A volume that will live and soon become as well known to the Christian pubhc as are the poems of the late Miss Elliott and Miss Havergal." Efiglisk Churchman. "It is seldom we meet with pieces so fraught with heart-searching and heart- stirring thoughts, in simple yet graceful and touching language." — Baptist. "FOLLOW THOU ME." DISCIPLESHIP. New and Cheaper Edition, Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 2/6. "Into this little volume the devout authoress has managed to condense an immense amount of Scriptural teaching, and withal she has enforced it in a sweet, simple, but powerful manner. For guidance to young Christians of whatever age, we know nothing better than this. The more of such holy, able writing, the better. May the book have an increasing sale." — Sword and Trowel. "FOLLOW THOU ME." SERVICE. New and Cheaper Edition, Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 2/6. " Their practical suggestions and lessons of truth will be found very valuable and helpful." — fVomau's Work. "All who peruse these profitable pages will thank the Author for giving to the Christian public the fruits of her large and deep experience " — The Christian. CHOICE BOOKS by Mrs. PENNEFATHER. Price One Penny each. AM I GUIDED? I THE PEACE OF GOD. HINTS ON BIBLE READING. I A NEW COMMANDMENT. Price Sixpence per Dozen. THE BLESSED HOPE. | WOMAN'S WAYSIDE MINISTRY. These little books may be enclosed in letters, and thus often form a word of counsel and comfort. LIFE of Reu. W. PENNEFATHER. Neiv and Cheaper Edition, Unabridged, with Portrait, Cr. 8vo, 8/6 c/oth. LIFE and LETTERS of Rev. W. PENNEFATHER, B.A. Edited by Rev. R. Braithwaite, M.A. "This volume will be welcomed in thousands of Christian homes. As a model for ministerial study, this portraiture of Mr. Pennefather is invaluable." Rev. C. Bullock, B.D., in The Fireside. THE BRIDEGROOM KING: A Meditation on Psalm XLV. By the late Rev. W. Pennefather, B.A. Cloth, 1/6 ; sewed, 1/- ORIGINAL HYMNS AND THOUGHTS IN VERSE. By the late Rev. W. Pennefather, B.A. New Edition, limp cloth, 1/4; cloth extra, gilt edges, 2/- LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.C. 7 DEVOTIONAL BOOKS. THE HIDDEN LIFE. Thoughts on Communion with God. By Rev, A. Saphir, D.D. New Edition, crown 8vo, cloth, 5/- " Quite worthy to take its place beside 'Goulburn's Thoughts on Personal Holiness.'" — New York Christian World. OUR LIFE-DAY. Thoughts on John ix. 4. "I must work the works of Him that sent Me." By Rev. A. Saphir, D.D. New Edition, crown 8vo, cloth, 3/6. "A more seasonable book could hardly be supposed. It is a treasury of happy and helpful thoughts. " — Edinlncrgh Daily Review. THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS. Helps to the Spiritual Life. By Rev. W. Hay M. H. Aitken, M.A, Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3/- This volume stands almost alone among this Author's well-known series as exclusively presenting subjects bearing on the Christian life and character. THE LIFE OF FAITH: Its Nature and Power, as Illustrated in Hebrews xi. By Rev. A. Saphir, D.D. Republished from the Author's Exposition of that Epistle. Small Bvo, cloth, 2/6. "Practical, deeply experimental, and replete with Biblical instruction." Divine Life. THE BRIDEGROOM KING : A Meditation on Psalm xlv. By the late Rev. W. Pennefather, B.A. Cloth, 1/6 ; sewed, 1/- FAITH'S MIRACLES;^ or, The Power of Prayer Exemplified in the Life of Beate Paulus, By Mary Weitbrecht. With an Intro- duction by Rev. Adolph Saphir, D.D. New Edition. Cloth, 1/6; sewed, 1/- COMMUNION AND CONFLICT. Thoughts on Life and Service. By Capt. Dawson. Sewed, 6d.; cloth, 1/- GO AND TELL JESUS. By Rev. O. Winslow, D.D. New and Enlarged Edition. Cloth, 1/- THE LORD MY PORTION ; or, Daily Need Divinely Supplied. By Rev. O. Winslow, D.D. Cloth, 1/6 CHRIST IS EVER WITH YOU. By Rev. O. Winslow, D.D. Cloth, 1/6. "Precious little books, full of comfort and encouragement to those who are followers of the Lamb." PERSONAL DECLENSION and REVIVAL OF RELIGION IN THE SOUL. By Rev. O. Winslow, D.D. Fifth Edition. Cloth, 5/- "This is a book of rare excellence." — The Covenanter. London : JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 8 ^mmmwiB^ Bm^MBWMw^ SKETCHES OF THE QUIET IN THE LAND; or, Lights in the Dark Ages of Protestant Germany. By Frances Bevan, Author of " Three Friends of God," S:c. Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 5/-, "A work of peculiar interest. With a generous sympathy Mrs. Bevan combines a very instructive method of treating her subject. We heartily commend the book as a charming recital of great spiritual struggles." — T/ie Christian. A CHILD OF THE MORNING. The True Story of Little Emily. By Miss Marsh, Author of "English Hearts," "Life of Hedley Vicars," &c. Small 8vo, cloth extra, price 1/- "This is a charming narrative, and the Christian public owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Authoress for the way in which she has performed her task." E7iglish Churchman. **A VOICE THAT IS STILL." Memorials of Esther Beamish. By her Sister, F. L. M. B. With Preface by Miss E. Jane Whately. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Portrait and Illustrations, price 6/- This is a volume we should like to know was in the hands of many of our readers." — Otir Own Gazette. LIFE and LETTERS of Rev. W. PENNEFATHER, B.A. Edited by Rev. R. Braithwaite, M.A. New and Cheaper Edition, Un- abridged, with Portrait, Crown 8vo, cloth, 3/6. "This volume will be welcomed in thousands of Christian homes. As a model for ministerial study, this portraiture of Mr. Pennefather is invaluable." Rev. C. Bullock, B.D., in The Fireside. CLEAR SHINING LIGHT. Memorials of Caroline W. Leakey, Author of "God's Tenth," &c. Edited by her Sister. New Edition, Small 8vo, cloth extra, 3/6. "A touchingly written record of a bright and useful though often suffering life. Will be read with delight and profit." — Church Missionary Gleaner. A "LIVING EPISTLE;" or, Letters of C. S. Blackwell. New Edition, cloth extra, 5/- " We have found much profit in reading these fragments so far as we have gone, and are promising ourselves a great treat in looking over the rest." Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. LIFE IN JESUS. A Memoir of Mrs. Mary Winslow. By her Son, Octavius Winslow, D.D. Twenty-sixth Thousand, with Frontispiece, cloth, 5/- " It is indeed a most precious addition to the stores of our Christian Biography." Evangelical Magazine, LETTERS OF MRS, MARY WINSLOW. A Sequel to "Life in Jesus." Selected by her Son. Cloth extra, 3/6. MIRACLES OF MERCY ; or. Asked of God. By Emily P. Leakey, Author of "Clear Shining Light." Crown Svo, cloth extra, 3/6. "These true life stories are far more touching than most of the fictions now streaming from the press." — The Christian. London: JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 9 f^M^m^imm K^&^B&m'^i&m WORKS by REV. H. SINCLAIR PATERSON, M.D. FAITH AND UNFAITH : Their Claims and Conflicts. Crown 8vo, Cloth extra, 3/6. The Antagonists and the Alternatives. The Conflict: its Purpose and Progress. Agnosticism; or, Nescience and Science. Intuition versus Revelation. Materialism ; or. Atom versus Person. Evolution; or, Becoming versus Creation. " Clear and forcible in style and expression, masterly in grasp of thought, and trenchant in argument, these lectures on present-day aspects of unbelief will be simply invaluable in the help they will render to intelligent young men and others who have become entangled in the meshes of modern doubt." — Literary World. "IN DEFENCE." THE EARLIER SCRIPTURES. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5/-. " No work on the Pentateuch has ever given us so much satisfaction." Young Metis Christian Association Notes. " It is to be wished that this book may have a wide circulation as an able and well-written defenceoftheearlier Scriptures, boldly conceived, carefully elaborated, thoughtfully compressed, and considerately adapted to the general reader." Principal Cave, in The British and Foreign Evangelical Review. "IN DEFENCE." THE FOURFOLD LIFE. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 5/-. " In this book we are brought face to face with the citadel of Christianity, to wit, the historical records of the person of Christ and His work upon earth, as one of the most distinct and powerful evidences of the inherent truth of our holy religion. We have noted many things in the Gospels which this volume has cleared up. . . . We expect that many persons will ejaculate, ' How full this book is of the Lord Jesus Christ ! ' So it is. ' What an enthusiastic writer this is on such a grand theme ! ' So he is. And we thoroughly recommend the book." — Clergyman's Magazine. CHRIST AND CRITICISM ; Or, The Witnesses Examined and Cross-Examined. One Shillinf . " These Lectures certainly form one of the ablest of all the contributions to the literature of the evidences that have been made in recent years. A better book to place in the hands of a thoughtful sceptic it would be hard to name." Christian Leader. CROSSES AND CROWNS. Uniform with the Parchment Library. One Shilling. " Thirty-one forcibly written essays of a few pages each, and so full of sterling wisdom that we suggest the book as valuable for a month's daily reading, especially as the articles are systematically arranged, and deal with practical truths in the Christian life," — Clergyinaii s Magazine. "A dip into this little book will be to mind and heart what a brisk walk on a clear frosty morning is to the body." — Literary World. London: JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 10 ST01I1S BY IMMA MAESHALL. EVENTIDE-LIGHT. The Story of Dame Margaret Hoby. Large Crown 8vo, cloth, wdth Illustrations, 5/- "A charming gift book, especially to girls in their teens; it deserves, and will no doubt command, a wide circulation." — The Record. THE END CROWNS ALL. A Story of Life. Large Crown Svo, cloth, 5/- "A most exciting story of modern life, pervaded as Mrs. Marshall's tales always are by a thoroughly wholesome tone. " — Record. BISHOPS CRANWORTH ; or, Rosamund's Lamp. Large Crown Svo, cloth, Illustrated, 5/- "This is a delightful story, with a considerable flavour of romance. The elder girls of our families will give it a special welcome." — Baptist. LITTLE QUEENIE. A Story of Child Life Sixty Years Ago. Large Crown Svo, cloth, with Illustrations, 3/6. " A delicately conceived character, and her simple story is bright and pleasing." "Deeply interesting." — English Chttrchviati. The Queen. LITTLE MISS JOY. Crown Svo, cloth, Illustrated, 2/6. "A capital story for girls." — Baptist. " A very pretty story of a charming little girl." — Freeman. HURLY-BURLY ; or, After a Storm comes a Calm. Crown Svo, cloth, with Illustrations, 2/- " Its pathos is sweeter and more winning than any happy close to the story could have been." — Birmingham Mercury. CURLEY'S CRYSTAL ; or, A Light Heart Lives Long. Cloth, 1/6. "A readable narrative, forming the vehicle of good thought as to life and its duties." — Tlie Christian. ROBERT'S RACE ; or. More Haste Less; Speed. Crown Svo, cloth. Illustrated, 1/6. "Written in the author's well-known and attractive style, and is both cheap and good." — Teachers Aid. Author of "A Nest of Sparrows," etc. CITY SNOWDROPS ; or, The House of Flov/ers. Large Crown Svo, cloth, Illustrated, 5/- " This is a most touching story." — English Churchman. "We have read very few stories of such pathos and interest." — British Weekly, THE WITCH OF THE ROCKS. Crown Svo, cloth, Illustrated, 2/6. "Miss Winchester's quiet, earnest style adds fascination to a tale of genuine interest." — Scotstnan. " Will do any one's heart good to read." — Spectator. LOST MAGGIE ; or, A Basket of Roses. Cloth, Illustrated, 1/- "A pathetic and interesting story." — Record. " Fronf the always charming pen of Miss Winchester." — Manchester Ej!:amtner. London : JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. II Eng:li8li: I^^h in the ©Id^ti Time< CHEAP RE-ISSUE of the WELL-KNOWN STORIES of -^IIIIIT S. HOLf^^ In large Crown 8vo, Price THREE SHILLINGS and SIXPENCE each, in uniform binding. Admirably adapted for all Hojiie, School, and Parish Libraries, combining, as they pre-eminently do, correct history, interesting narrative, ajid Christian teaching. ASHCLIFFB HALL. A Tale of the Last Century. LETTICE EDEN. A Tale of the Last Days of King Henry VIII. CLABE AVERY. A Story of the Spanish Armada. THE WHITE ROSE OP LANQLEY. A Story of the Olden Time. IMOGEN. A Tale of the Early British Church. MARGERY'S SON. A Story of the Fifteenth Century. ISOULT BARRY OF WYNSCOTE. A Tale of Tudor Times. ROBIN TREMAYNE. A Tale of the Marian Persecution. SISTER ROSE; Or, The Eve of St. Bartholomew. JOYCE MORRELL'S HARVEST. A Story of the Reign of Elizabeth. "We desire to call attention to a Re-issue of MiSS Holt's Popular Books, at a greatly Reduced Price. There can be no question that Miss Holt stands in the front rank of Protestant tale writers for young and old. The extensive circulation of her books will prove one of the most effectual means of English Churchmen educating the people in Reformation principles. These Standard Volumes so illustrative of the story of our land should, in their new and cheaper issue, find a place in everj' home or School Library." — E7iglish Churchtnan. London: JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 12 i)uW^ Womt g)ette^. 6d. each.] with coloured wrapper & MANY ILLUSTRATIONS. [6d. edCll. FROGGY'S LITTLE BROTHER SCAMP AND I . . . . MISTRESS MARGERY SISTER ROSE. The Eve of St. Bartholomew THE BOY'S WATCHWORD ONLY A TRAMP .... WATER GIPSIES .... JOHN DE WYCLIFFE IN THE DESERT .... NOTHING TO NOBODY . WINIFRED ; or, An English Maiden THE THREE CHUMS MARCELLA OF ROME OUTCAST ROBIN LOST JEWEL .... CRIPPLE JESS, THE Hop Picker's Daughter JACK AND JILL .... THE WELL IN THE DESERT ALICK'S HERO . . ■ . . HIS MOTHER'S BOOK JEAN LINDSAY, the Vicar's Daughter . THE WITCH OF THE ROCKS MADGE HARDWTCKE THE SLAVE GIRL OF POMPEII . ROB AND MAG .... SILVERDALE RECTORY . MINNIE GREY; or, For Conscience' Sake DOT AND HER TREASURES THE EMPEROR'S BOYS . MARJORIE'S PROBATION IN THE CITY. A Tale of Old Paris BRITAIN'S QUEEN . • . LITTLE FREDDIE AUNT HESTER & WHY WE LOVED HER NOBODY'S LAD . FRANK USHER ; or. Soldiers of the Cross MARJORIE AND MURIEL DAVID'S LITTLE LAD FAIRY PHCEBE ; ok, Facing the Footlights JONAS HAGGERLEY WILL FOSTER OF THE FERRY . CLIMBING HIGHER YOUNG ISHMAEL CONWAY WALTER ALISON : His Friends and Foes AT THE GRENE GRIFFIN JOYCE TREGARTHEN THE CAGED LINNET GIPSY MIKE; or. Firm as a Rock TOO DEARLY BOUGHT . DICKIE'S ATTIC .... THE PILOT'S HOUSE SENT TO COVENTRY DICKIE'S SECRET THE KING'S DAUGHTERS LITTLE MISS MOLLIE . FAIR AND SQUARE ; or, Berne's Bargain By Brenda. L. T. Meade, Emily S. Holt. Emily S. Holt. J. Harrison. Grace Stebbing. L. T. Meade. Emily S. Holt. Author of "The Spanish Brenda. [Brothers." L. E. Guernsey. M. L. Ridley. F. Eastwood. L, T. Meade. A. L. O. E, L. Marston. Mrs. Stanley Leathes. Emily S. Holt. Catharine Shaw. E. Everett-Green. Emily Brodie. M. E. Winchester. Agnes Giberne. Emily S. Holt. L. Marston. Grace Stebbing. Anon. L. T, Meade. Ism ay Thorn. Anon. D. Alcock. Pearl Fisher. E. Everett-Green. Anon. Leslie Keith. Anon. E. Everett-Green. L. 1'. Meade. C. Parlor. J. Jackson Wray. Agnes Giberne. J. Armstrong. Author of "Us Three." M. L. Ridley. Emily S. Holt. E. Chillon. Mrs. Stanley Leathes. Anon. A. Giberne. Catharine Shaw. Brenda. M. L. Ridley. Catharine Shaw. Emii.y S. Holt. L. Marston, J. Chappell. London: JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 13 SHAW'S PENNY SERIES, In Wrappe7'^ with Illusirations. RIGHT-ABOUT-FACE; or, Ben the Gordon Boy THE EXILE OF WARSAW .... A CLUSTER OF BITTER FRUIT . MORE DROWNED IN BEER THAN WATER . THROUGH THE FLAMES ; or, Master and Man JERRY'S LITTLE NELL .... WATCHING FOR WHITE WINGS . HOW THE TIDE TURNED .... CORA CORELLEE ; or. From Ring to Re-Union FRED THE FOGGER WASTE NOT WANT NOT, and other Stories HE WHO SERVES GOD SERVES A GOOD MASTER OUT IN THE STORM THE EXPECTED GUEST; or. True to his Colours THE BOY-M A RTYR. A Story of the Inquisition ALL FOR THE BEST . HE LOVES ME— Hump and AU OUT WITH THE COLOURS . LONELY LILY ALEPPO THE GIPSY . By E. Brodie. Sydney Watson. Sydney Watson. Anonymous. Sydney Watson. A. Pittis. Sydney Watson. Sydney Watson. Sydney Watson. Sydney Watson, Anonymous. Anonymous. Catharine Shaw. Anonymous. Anonymous. Emily S. Holt. E. L. Gordon. Pearl Fisher. M. L. C. Pearl Fisher. THE BEST CHILDREN'S MAGAZINE. ^d. Weekly.] kx [3d. Monthly. OTJE DAELINGS. Edited by Dr. Barnardo. THE STORIES are by well-known Authors. THE ILLUSTRATIONS are very plentiful, and in the best style. nSTTJAdlEI^OTJS I>IiIZES Are offered for Stories, Scripture and other Questions, Puzzles, &c. 1^^ The Magazine abounds with attractions for the little ones, while the spirit of a bright childlike trust in the children's Heavenly Friend pervades all its teaching. London : JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 14 A JOURNAL FOR CHRISTIAN HOMES. "WORD AND WORK;" OK, QLl)t CI)ristian Cl)urcl)» Edited by the Rev. John Urquhart. a iveeklv record of christian testimony and effort. Price One Penny. Annual Subscription, post-free, 6/6, object is to promote a deeper knowledge of the Scriptures, and a firmer grasp of itial truths. It is entirely unsectarian, and seeks to enlist the sympathies of all Its its essentia who love the Lord Jesus Christ THE KING'S OWN. a monthly magazine for the study and the home. Edited by Rev. John Urquhart. Illustrated. Price Sixpence. Annual Subscription, post-free, 7/-. " I am thankful to recognize the ability and attractiveness of the writing and editing."— Rev. H. C. G. Moule, Ridley Hall, Cambridge. FOOTSTEPS OF TRUTH an independent christian journal and record of grace and truth. Edited by C. Russell Hurditch. Monthly, One Penny. Annual Subscription, post-free, 2/-. "This is a Spiritual monthly richly stored with good things."— C. H. Spurgeon. SERVICE FOR THE KING. A RECORD OF MILDMAY MISSIONS. Price 2d. Montbly. Annual Subscription, post-free, 2/6. THE CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR. Edited by C. Russell Hurditch. Monthly. Price 3d. per dozen; 28. per 100. ^ AH these may be ordered through any Bookseller, or will be supplied at the above yearly charges direct from the Publishers. London : JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 15 ISSUED MONTHLY. THE PROTESTANT OBSERVER. Pfice Id. Annual Sttbscription^ 1/6, post-free, THE CHURCH INTELLIGENCER. A Record of Work in Defence of the Protestant Principles of the Estabhshed Church. Price Id. Annual Subscription^ 1/6, post-free. NIGHT AND DAY. Edited by Dr. Barnardo. Price 2d. Amiual Subscription, 2/6, post-free. MEDICAL MISSIONS AT HOME AND ABROAD. Monthly, Id. Anmial Subscription, 1/6, post-free. IN HIS NAME. The Record of the Ragged Schools and Mission Union. Edited by Pearl Fisher. Price Id. Annual Siibscription, 1/6, post-free, THE FEMALE MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCER. A Monthly Record of Woman's Work in the East. Price Id. Annual Stibscription, 1/6, post-free. PRAY AND TRUST. Designed to strengthen the Faith of Believers. Edited by J. H. Smith. Price Id. Annual Subscription, 1/6, post-free. THE YOUNG HELPER'S LEAGUE. All the World Over. Edited by Dr. Barnardo. Quarterly, 2d. Anmial Stcbscription, lOd., post-free. ^ All these may be ordered through any Bookseller, or will be supplied at the above yearly charges direct from the Publishers. London: JOHN F. SHAW & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.G. 16 IV\ DATE DUE ^^^.^^^0^ 1NTEDINU.S.A. ^^c II.