complex,-complex as the religious life of humanity

itself.

2

61. In the Bible, there is not one standard but many standards. There is a progressive morality unfolded to you throughout it. There are primitive and childish ⚫ views of God to be found there, which we cannot endorse without irreverence, because the world has outgrown them. The person who wrote down the story of Eden talks of the Almighty as of a man walking in the garden in the cool of the day,' smelling burnt meat and resting after work, and so forth. That is the expression of a simple age. It is a beautiful expression, but still it reflects a state of human culture that hardly exists in Europe at all. We could never bear to speak of God in that manner now. It would be irreverent in us to speak of God so, but it was not then; though we, like the ancients, have our partial views and our inadequate modes of thought and expression, yet is it vain to deny that in some things we have outgrown primeval man, and especially in our ideas about God.

But if the Old Testament presents us with inadequate views of God, it also fails to do justice to man. The Hebrew prophets, divine and far-reaching as were their utterances, were eminently sectarian. There was a good deal of genuine patriotism about them, but the great doctrine of the brotherhood of man-the very foundation of Christianity and the root of modern civilisationwas unknown to them. If our heart beats high at their

1 Gen. iii. 8.

2 Gen. viii. 21.

3 Gen. ii. 2.

spirituality, we see at a glance their narrowness. They saw nothing good outside the Jewish nation, no other nation had even a right to individuality. Let them all bow down before Zion. What legislator was worth naming by the side of Moses? What warrior was equal to David? What philosopher equal to Solomon? What poet equal to either?

Between Isaiah, 690 B.C., and Jeremiah 620 B.C., came Solon; but what recognition do we find of the fact that God was caring for Greece, or had raised up any lawgiver in that benighted country?

Between Zechariah 480 B.C. and Malachi 390 B.C. came the battle of Marathon, and the immortal sages, Plato and Socrates, but what did the Hebrew prophets know of Greek valour, or wisdom, or morality? Nothing.

Then again, if you believe in the infallibility of the Bible, there is no reason why you should not adopt practices from which a more enlightened morality revolts. You might be polygamists (Gen. xvi. 3, 4) or you might keep slaves, and under cover of so-called Divine law, beat your slaves almost to death (Exod. xxi. 20, 21). The morality of Moses was infinitely below the morality of the prophets, and the morality of the prophets below that of Jesus. There is a steady progression. Yes! It was from God, that hard Mosaic morality which permitted cruelty, but condemned murder. But what in it was from God? not the Mosaic Rule, but the Divine principle. The principle of humanity was revealed, that was from God; the poor application of it by Moses - perhaps the best the people could then

realise that was human.

So when we say Moses

taught from God, we must understand the one sense in which this was true. God revealed to him principles, but the way in which these principles were to be applied, the rules and precepts built upon them, were determined by his own wisdom and the hardness of the people's hearts. Christ teaches this in set words: 'Moses (not God) for the hardness of your hearts' gave you such and such rules, 'But I say unto you' (Matt. xix. 8, 9). I want you to understand that we go on gathering in the truth from one age to another, though men may have but imperfectly reflected it in any particular age. Well, this process of development is photographed for us in the Bible, and its stages are photographed.

What, then, am I taking away from you when I explain this, and when I deny your right to beat your servants almost to death, although the Bible allowed the Jews to do so, or to have a great many wives, as David and Solomon had, who lived in a far less advanced and self-conscious state of society? I am merely taking away the rubbish, that you may build upon a better foundation; when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. Take God's jewels and set them in your crown, cast the husks, but not the pearls to the swine, and learn as you read to read with the heart, and not with the eyes only, and to try the spirits whether they be of God. So shall you find in the Bible what is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, and be thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

62. But you may answer, It is all very well to say, 'Read, mark, and learn,' but how am I to discriminate, if all is not good, if all is not true, if all is not profitable; how do I know that any is good, or true, or profitable; how do I know when God speaks in the Bible, and when it is only man's imperfect utterances? Why, how do we know when a man is a good man, or when he is a bad man? By bringing our common sense to bear upon the subject I should say; and if a man does not use his common sense, depend upon it, God will not give him any better wisdom to make use of. You ask me whether a man is a good man or a bad man? Well, does he do right? Is he a selfish man? Is he a brutal man? Is he a weak and indolent man? Does he never try to mend his ways? Does he know his faults and glory in them? Does he wantonly sacrifice others to himself? Is he exacting, ungrateful, and hard to his servants? Is he a liar? Does he never try to do his duty? Has he never found any duty to do? Does he never pray? Does he never realise, or try to realise the truths of his religion, such as it is? If he is such a man, then he is a bad man, you don't want a prophet to tell you that. Common sense tells you it; it is written, that he is a bad man, and there is an end of it.

And now, if I see a man anxious to know what he was sent into the world to do, anxious to do it, sensitive to the rights of others, tender to the feelings of others, cultivating the large philanthropy of Christ, and wearing, if need be, the thorny crown of Christ as his reward; if I see a man the channels of whose spirit lie open to the

eternal springs, who is often in the Holy Mount with God, and who brings down a glory upon his face to brighten the ways of earth, and comfort the forlorn and weary; if I notice that he is the same through evil report and good report, that he can be trusted, that he can be loved, then he is a good man;-why no one who knows thus much of him doubts that he is a good man. Now, apply this to the Bible. If goodness finds you out in life, goodness will find you out in the Bible. This is the very characteristic of the Word of God; it pierces, it cannot be passed by, 'it is sharper than any two-edged sword.'

63. But you shall test the Bible for yourself, it challenges you to test it. You shall discover its value for yourself. The Bible professes to do and to be certain things. Be content with that, and do not insist upon the Bible doing and being something which it never professes to do or to be.

Amongst other things, the Bible professes to give us a picture of human life; it professes to paint its attainments and its possibilities, its failures and its follies; it holds the real and the ideal before us that we may see ourselves and learn to mend our ways. Well, is it not true that humanity is sifted in the Bible, its tragedies played out, its moral pointed? The colours are all bright, as though laid on yesterday. Where shall I find a truer picture of folly, weakness, and wickedness than in the story of Ahab, the whining king, too weak even to sin until stirred up by a passionate and