because likewise His perfect obedience to the will of God, without strain, without effort, without any apparent pressure of a sense of responsibility, may teach us that our own sense of responsibility should be manifested, not by strife or debate, but by simple submission to God's will.

But now, Christian brethren, let us look a little more closely at our own position with respect to this matter. We wish to regard ourselves as laid under a pressure of responsibility by the fact of our having received a revelation from God. And certainly it is impossible to deny that responsibility, without denying everything that makes us men; even those who would make the least of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, and of the peculiar position in which we stand as Christians, would still, I apprehend, maintain that God had revealed Himself to us in some manner, and that the revelation had certain moral consequences. But the point for which we have to contend, the thing which we really mean, and which unfortunately many people will deny, is this, that we have received from God a definite revelation which can be expressed in words, and which is contained in God's own Book. We have to maintain that this volume contains a divine account of the divers manners in which God has made Himself known to our fathers, and notably of that transcendent revelation which He has made to us in the person of His own Son. We are not bound to tie ourselves down to any special theory concerning the composition of the book, the machinery (so to speak) of its construction, the manner in which God's Spirit has been breathed into it; but we are bound to hold that it contains God's revelation of Himself, and that in it and through it we are to seek humbly, as members of the Church to whose keeping the book

I

has been entrusted, for the knowledge of His will. am not going to enter upon an elaborate discussion of a very difficult subject, but I wish to observe that to my own mind the objections so often and so flippantly made to what is called a book-revelation, are, both upon religious and philosophical grounds, frivolous and empty. The religious ground need hardly be argued; because if we have no book-revelation, if the Holy Scriptures be not the revelation of God, it is impossible to say that any religion exists at all, except that dim feeling after God which we call natural religion, and which has proved during many sad centuries of human history, and is proving in some parts of the world still, its utter impotence to do more than erect an altar, as it did at Athens, to the "Unknown God." But I would have you to perceive that, giving up for the moment the religious ground, it is not reasonable or philosophical to make light of a book-revelation, or to deny its possibility. For what is a book, but imprinted language? And what is language, but the very mark of man's supremacy, the very electric current which enables the influence of heaven to enter his soul? What is it but thought, the outcoming of mind, of the truly human faculties, and so the indication that man has been created worthy of a revelation from heaven, and that he is likely to receive one? I can conceive other ways by which God may and does to a certain extent make Himself known to man. I do not wish to depreciate any one of these ways. He speaks in nature, He speaks by providence, He speaks by the conscience, which tells man of good and evil, and by those inward questionings which lead us to guess whence we have come and whither we are going; but surely no one of these means of communication is so wonderful or so effective as that of human speech,

that transformation of matter into thought, that change by which "the very dross of the body is used for the coinage of the mind." And therefore when I find it solemnly asserted that God, having first created man in His own image, afterwards assumed that image in very deed Himself, and that in human flesh and blood He spoke to us concerning Himself, and when I find a record of this great visit of Him who made Himself known as the Word, and I find moreover that this record has proved (as I might have expected that it would) to be the source of a new spiritual life in the world, and that all that is most bright and hopeful is connected with it,-why am I to say that it cannot be the revelation of God? what homage do I do to philosophy or reason by rejecting that, which comes to me as the Holy Scriptures have come, and which is commended to me as they are commended?

Of course it is impossible for me to enter fully into an argument which has already filled libraries; but I think it right to warn you in passing against the flippant tone of lofty condescension, with which persons often speak of the Holy Scriptures. I say that although it is very easy to make a flippant remark or a damaging observation, yet the whole argument for the truth of Holy Scripture as the revelation of God, is a massive argument, which cannot be successfully assailed; and though efforts have been made in all generations to sap its foundations, those foundations are too deep to be sapped, and go down to the solid rock of the truth of the eternal God.

My business, however, is not so much to prove to you

a For this striking view of human speech I am indebted to a lecture "On the Importance of the Study of Physiology as a Branch of Educa tion for all Classes," by James Paget, Esq., F.R.S.

the truth of the revelation which God has made, as to assume that truth and erge spre you the corresponding responsibility. Lent is scarcely a time for controversy; it is not a time to argue about Christ, and enquire whether He has spoken, so much as a time to be with Christ and to listen to His words; times for controversy there must be, and there must also be for us all, especially in the days of our youth, times of doubt, and of fear, and of anxious questioning concerning the revelation of God; how shall we wonder at this, when we remember that even Christ was tempted, and asked by Satan to renounce His allegiance? Still there are times when controversy may be hushed, and when quiet watching with Christ will commend itself to us as our best occupation, and when we may hope to lose sight of all anxious questionings in the sweet presence of Jesus Christ Himself. Hence, I say, that Lent is scarcely a time for controversy or argument, but rather for the earnest enforcement of those duties which arise from admitted principles and from recognised truths. Let us then take the Holy Scriptures in our hands, or press them to our hearts, and say, Here is the record of the way in which God has at sundry times and in divers manners spoken to our fathers by the prophets, and has in these latter days spoken to us by His Son; and having done this, then let us go on to ask ourselves what ought to be the practical consequences of having such a possession? It is a common saying in these days that property has its duties as well as its privileges, and so the possession of the Word of God, compared with which all other possessions must be poor and trifling, must bring with it very great duties: what are they? These, at least; to honour it, to love it, to strive if necessary, or even to die, for it;

but besides these, there is the more common and perhaps the more important duty, of exhibiting in our own lives the ideal which Holy Scripture sets before us, the duty of living like Christ, and becoming (as it were) a living practical commentary upon the contents of God's book. This is just the difference between this book and others; other books you may read and forget, this you must not forget; others you may have on your shelves and not read unless you like, this you must read if you can; upon others you may pronounce any opinion you please, but this must govern your opinions, and you must take it as the light of your feet and the lamp to your paths.

Yes, this is the way in which you must treat the Scriptures, not only for your own sakes, but for the sake of others. I said just now that you must strive, if necessary, for the Holy Scriptures, but undoubtedly the most effective way of defending them from assaults, and making men honour them, is to act them out in your conduct, and let Christ be revealed to men in your lives. St. Paul speaks in the text of Christ being revealed in him. I have spoken of the force of that phrase; and now, finally, I would ask you to compare it with a similar phrase with which the Apostle closes the chapter from which I have taken my text; he says, "they glorified God in meb" they saw his life, they saw the change made by God's revelation, and they glorified God in him when they saw Christ revealed in him; and so, Christian brethren, if we have received a revelation from God, and if a deep responsibility is laid upon us by the reception of that revelation, then the best mode of discharging our responsibility is to lead a holy and godly life. That will shew forth Christ;

b Gal. i. 24.