fails to be instructive. Christianity accomplishes all this: Vere Tu es Deus absconditus 1."

I.

Accordingly, with our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, keeping in view the general conditions of the revelation given by Him, and bearing in mind "the entangled and complicated character of all human questions 2," let us approach the subject which is to engage our attention this evening-that of the Bible in the Church. And first the question arises, How is Jesus Christ represented in the world now-since the time when at the Ascension His visible presence was withdrawn? The answer of the New Testament is plain enough. Christ is represented in the world by a Church, or Society; a body which is no fortuitous aggregation of individuals, but a divine creation, called into being to perpetuate and extend on earth the Redeemer's work; to be the visible guardian of the revelation made in and by Jesus Christ, the pillar and ground of the truth, the witness of the faith once delivered to the saints; to be

1 Pensées, iii. 7.

2 R. W. Church, Human Life and its Conditions, p. 164.

the channel of God's gifts, the treasure-house of His grace, the abiding place on earth of His eternal Spirit.

This much will be generally conceded; but further it may be taken for a matter of historical fact that this Christian Society existed before there was a Christian Bible. There was a living body indwelt by the Spirit of God before there was an inspired New Testament. There were congregations of believers requiring instruction in Christian faith and duty, long before either gospels or epistles were written. The New Testament is clearly written for Christians1; it presupposes an antecedent knowledge of the faith; and a moment's thought will remind us that each Church to which, for example, an apostolic epistle was addressed, could only read and understand such a document by the light of a faith which it already possessed. In all communities so addressed there would be preserved the Scriptures which from time to time might reach them, and the traditional creed in accordance with which the written Word would naturally be interpreted. Thus beyond all question the Church received

1 See Dr. Hawkins' (late Provost of Oriel College) Bampton Lectures (1840), No. ii, pp. 38 f.

the Christian meaning of the Scriptures, at least in broad outline, before she received the Scriptures themselves. As a matter of fact the New Testament was not completed for at least sixty-probably more than sixty— years after the Day of Pentecost. Here then we start with a plain fact which obviously has an important bearing on our subject: viz. that the Christian Church was planted and flourished long before the Christian Scriptures existed. The general consent of the Church, gradually ascertained and enunciated in her synods, determined the contents and limits of the canon; to the Church the Scriptures belong; she is their guardian and interpreter, and she appeals to them for confirmation of the faith which she has cherished and handed down from the first day until now 1.

II.

The Church, then, and the Bible exist in the world, or rather co-exist, as "two authorities mutually corroborative of each other, and so far as individual interpretation of each [is concerned], mutually corrective of each other2";

1 Note A.

2

Bp. Forbes, An Explanation of the XXXIX Articles, p. 95.

and this brings us to the question, What are the principles which actually guide the Church in her use of Scripture? The answer to this question will next occupy our attention.

1. First, then, the Church gives the Bible. to her children, and earnestly encourages them in the study of it, with a view to confirming the faith she has taught them; to enable them to fill in, so to speak, and give substance to, the form or outline of sound words which they have already learned in the Creed. Two good illustrations of this use of the Bible are furnished in the New Testament itself. S. Luke, for example, explains the purpose of his gospel to be, that Theophilus may know the certainty concerning the things wherein he had been orally instructed1. Again, in the Acts, we find the Jews at Beroea commended because they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures of the Old Testament daily, whether these things (the doctrines concerning Christ taught by S. Paul) were so 2. On the other hand, the case of the Ethiopian eunuch before he was instructed by S. Philip illustrates the need

1 S. Luke i. 4.

2 Acts xvii. 11.

of some authoritative guidance, of a "hermeneutical tradition," in the reading of Scripture1. It is plain that the Church in exhorting her children to study Scripture for themselves, previously takes care to give them "the right point of view for their study 2." As Hooker points out, “Utterly to infringe the force and strength of man's testimony were to shake the very fortress of God's truth. For whatsoever we believe concerning salvation by Christ, although the Scripture be therein the ground of our belief; yet the authority of man is, if we mark it, the key which openeth the door of entrance into the knowledge of the Scripture. The Scripture could not teach us the things that are of God, unless we did credit men who have taught us that the words of Scripture do signify those things 3." But the Church having once imparted to her children the right point of view, impresses on them the importance and value of the private study of Scripture. Subjects which the traditional faith orally delivered had only sketched in outline, or had left doubtful and obscure,