perfections, scientific, historical, linguistic, that is what_must be included within the range of Biblical Inspiration. Every fact which we thus ascertain from the astronomer, geologist, ethnologist, scholar, or divine, is the best approach to the true solution of the only question at issue, namely, What is the intrinsic nature of the Bible itself? Again, it cannot be gainsaid that the paramount glory and power of the Bible has become far more evident to us by this Deeper nearer, closer investigation. I speak not here of that appreciation Divine Faith and supernatural spiritual excellence, of the Bible. which is wholly independent of all such lesser details, but of the increased profit, delight, veneration, derived from a knowledge even of these. Can anyone, for example, doubt that the enjoyment which a mere ordinary student now possesses of the Song of Deborah, or the Book of Job, far exceeds that of the Fathers and the Schoolmen, in whom those magnificent poems inspired hardly a spark of poetic recognition, who saw in them chiefly the repetition of allegories, which might equally well have been drawn from any other book? Can anyone doubt that the characters of David and St. Paul are better appreciated, more dearly loved, by a man like Ewald, who approaches them with a profound insight into their language, their thoughts, their customs, their history, than by a Scholastic or Puritanical divine from whom the atmosphere in which the King and the Apostle moved was almost entirely shut out? And, further, if the original sources of the written Revelation be thus known to us in a manner in which they were not, and could not be, known before, is not this of itself appreciation almost equivalent to a new Reformation? Does not of the supe- the very magnitude of the subject thus brought home the theology to us throw our former systems of theology into new of the Bible. proportions? Is it possible that we can now return from this higher knowledge of the Bible to the grooves of the 'Summa Theologiæ' or of the Westminster Confession? Most useful are these and like works in their place and for their own purposes. But wherever the Theology of the nineteenth century has spread, they are no longer in the first rank. celebrated Benedictine monk, Padre Tosti, was speaking not long ago of the effects of modern criticism, partly with praise, partly with blame. 'At least,' he said, 'it has had this advantage, that it has caused you to shut up all your Symbolical ' Books.' 6 I do not say that it has done this; but it has Increased riority of 6 The Referring, of course, to the well-known collections of Reformed and Lutheran Confessions of Faith. placed them for the first time in entire subordination to the higher theology of the Scriptures, to which they never before actually paid the obedience which in words they had always professed. And it is this which produces a kind of unity of religious thought unknown before since the revival of independent inquiry. When French Catholics and French Protestants, and German Catholics and German Protestants, and English Churchmen and English Nonconformists, are for the first time employed in studying the same Book on the same general principles, it is impossible but that greater unity will emerge greater unity of interest, if not of sentiment. Christian Theology ceases to be a collection of statements, hung on strings of texts often misapplied, and becomes a coherent attempt to ascertain the real design and scope of each book, each prophet, each apostle, in the different parts of the Bible; to form a sum total of the results of the whole; to view its own conclusions in the light of the knowledge thus acquired. Most applicable to this are the words of Lord Bacon: No perfect discovery can be made upon a flat or a level; neither is it 'possible to discover the more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand but upon the level of the same science ' and ascend not to a higher science.' That higher science has been given us by mounting into the higher region of the theologians of the Bible itself. II. This leads me to the relations of Theology to philosophy and history generally. As the Theology of our age is distinIts relation guished by its appeal directly to the facts of the Bible, not to theories concerning the Bible, so also and philo- it appeals to the facts of history, science, and philosophy. sophy outside of itself, and endeavours to include to history them within itself. In former times, no doubt, something of this sort was intended when medieval Theology claimed to be the mother and mistress of all the sciences, then in their infancy. Now that they have attained to maturity, the aim and instinct of modern Theology is no less to recognise and attach them to itself. There are three great characteristics which may be selected from modern forms of thought as forcing themselves on the attention of theologians, and which have, to a great extent, been appreciated by them. 1. The mutual connexion of the different stages of history, philosophy, and religion with each other.-This has at once opened a wider view of the relations of Christianity to the whole universe. Mr. Maurice's book on 'The Religions of 'the World,' for example, is a work which could not in any Mutual connexion of different systems. case have been written before our age. And the effects of this larger appreciation of what is due to other forms of thought than our own is felt throughout our whole system. How far higher does it raise the standard of Missionaries, how much more fruitful does it render their field ! The knowledge, the counsel of such a student of Indian philosophy and religion as Professor Müller becomes a fresh and living guide. Amongst the many striking proofs of the connexion of the most modern theology with their labours, is Dr. Rowland Williams's elaborate prize essay on 'Christianity ' and Hinduism'-by the testimony of most impartial witnesses, one of the best of manuals for dealing with the difficulties of heathen India. How much nearer we are than we were ever before-I will not say to an outward reunion (for that is altogether a political or temporal affair)-but to a better understanding of Foreign Churches, East and West, Roman Catholic and Protestant, than in any previous time; partly, no doubt, from that larger and truer interest in the Bible, of which I spoke, but also from that increased mutual knowledge which books, travelling, and the intermixture of ideas have given to all of us. How completely has our relation shifted towards heathens, aliens, assailants of the established forms of religion. On the one hand, what a change has come over them; how deeply the religious spirit of the time has penetrated those who doubt, misbelieve, and disbelieve! Where is Voltaire? Where is Frederick II.? Where (amongst the educated classes at least) is Thomas Paine? Where the blaspheming Jew; the scurrilous infidel? The change is so great, that, looking at realities and not at names, we might call the present posture of philosophers, of Jews, of sceptics towards Christianity, almost a conversion. And is there not, or ought there not to be, a corresponding amelioration of tone amongst Christian theologians towards them? The scurrilous violence of the Apologists of the last century, the perverse misrepresentations by which the statements of adversaries were met, are now confined to narrower classes. The time past may suffice to have returned railing for railing. Is it not possible that a more excellent way may be open, in which the long-pending strife may be settled by arbiters, who shall show to both sides their weakness and their strength, and claim some at least of the seeming aliens to be themselves the true though unconscious servants of the same heavenly Master? 2. The whole principle of the development of doctrine, whether in or out of the Bible. The very word development ment. is one which would not be found in books of a hundred years ago. But it has now taken the first place in every field Develop- of religious and philosophic thought. Whether we condemn or approve Dr. Newman's Essay on that subject, it is a proof how deeply the idea has penetrated into spheres apparently the most jealously guarded from the intrusion of novelty. It is the idea which lies at the bottom of those works so peculiar to the nineteenth century, and by all acknowledged to be so inestimable-Histories of Doctrine.' It is this which gives a continuity to any distinct account of the progress of Christendom, a life to any intelligent analysis of creeds and articles. A work like that of Dorner, on the 'Doc'trine of the Person of Christ,' well illustrates the force of this tendency. There is also one important effect of this theory of Development on the proper understanding of the Bible itself, namely, its bearing on the relation of the Old to the New Testament, and of the different parts of the Scriptures each to the other. One of the greatest difficulties which the human mind had built up for itself in the pathway of understanding the Bible and the ways of God to man, was its refusal to admit the varieties, the degrees, the growth, the gradual, 'partial,' imperfect forms, in which Revelation had manifested itself. Though this was a truth over and over again announced or implied by the sacred writers and by our Lord Himself," yet still there was an inclination to insist on the absolute equality of every part of Christian doctrine, especially of every part of the Holy Scriptures. This has at last given way before the overwhelming evidence of facts, before the keener apprehension of the possibility of shades of truth, degrees of light, varieties of character. No doubt there are many who still cling to the notion that we must have all or nothing; that the Bible, like the Koran, is one single book, in which the slightest variety or shade is inadmissible, and that every word and fact contained in it is of equal importance. But, on the whole, the doctrine that Revelation has been made not uniformly and all at once, but 'in sundry times and in divers manners,' has now, we may trust, been so firmly rooted, that the 'moral difficulties' created by requiring in the Old Testament a perfection which was never claimed for it by Christianity will soon almost cease to exist. Once grant that 'the Jews were not premature Chris'tians, any more than they were premature astronomers, or 'geologists,' and our exaggerated disappointments will fall to 8 7 Jer. vii. 21; Ezek. xviii. 3, 4; Mat. v. 43, 44; xix. 8; Luke ix. 55; John i. 17; Heb. i. I. "I owe the expression to Dean Mil man. the ground with our exaggerated expectations. Chrysostom in former ages, Hooker and Baxter in our own Church, had laid down the principle. But probably the first and clearest statement of it in England was in Arnold's 'Essay on the 'Interpretation of Scripture.' 'Of all the things,' he used to say, 'that I have written, that is the one for which I have been the most attacked, and for which I am the most thankful.' In a well-known recognition lately made, that some books of the Bible are less largely inspired than others, is happily involved the whole acknowledgment of the superiority of one dispensation to another-of the gradation, the accommodation, by which truth has been made known to men. 'There may 'be any degree of difference in the love and fear, the awe and 'the gratitude, with which Almighty God means us to receive one portion and another of the sacred books, according to the manner in which He vouchsafes to disclose Himself or to 'draw nearer to us; and, again, according to the manner in 'which His several gifts of grace are allowed to manifest 'themselves through the several human writers.' This principle not only explains, justifies, and illustrates the Biblical history, in a hundred directions, but also enables us to understand in a Christian, and at the same time philosophic spirit, the whole history of mankind. Once look on the course of events as the 'education of the world,' and each of the great epochs, systems, and races of mankind will take its proper place, and Theology will not dwindle away, but flourish the more, because of having received in all its different forms the fulness of the Gentiles. Lacordaire had truly caught the spirit of his age when he said, 'There are some who would be content to see the ocean dried up to a thread of water, in the 'hope of keeping it pure. But the ocean is only the ocean by 'virtue of its receiving all the waters which flow towards it. 'The instinct of every true Christian is to seek truth and 'not error in every doctrine, and not only to seek it, but to 'make every effort to find it, every effort, as you grasp roses across thorns.' 'Celui qui fait bon marché de la pensée d'un 'homme sincère; celui qui dit d'un homme travaillant à ce 'qu'il croit pour la gloire de Dieu: "Qu'importe un homme ? ""Est-ce que Dieu a besoin des gens d'esprit?" celui-là est un 'Pharisien, la seule race d'hommes qui ait été maudite par 'Jésus-Christ.' 3. The third fact which forms a characteristic of modern theology is the importance which it attaches to the moral and |