^ Without pretending to define inspiration, or to determine the mystery of its operation, we may, I suppose, say that what we mean by it is an influence which gave to those who received it a unique and extraordinary spiritual insight, enabling them thereby, without superseding or suppressing the human faculties, but rather using them as its instruments, to declare in different degrees, and in accordance with the needs or circumstances of particular ages or particular occasions, the mind and purpose of God.^
2. Every true and noble thought of man is indeed, in a sense,, inspired of God ; but with the Biblical writers the purifying and illuminating Spirit must have been present in some special and exceptional measure. Nevertheless, in the words of the prophet, or other inspired writer, there is a human element, not less than a Divine element, and neither of these must be ignored.
(1) The Divine element in Scripture is manifest to all. The " heavenliness of the matter " — to use the expressive phrase of the Westminster Confession — speaks in it with a clearness which none can mistake, and strikes a responsive chord in every heart that is open to receive a message from above. In the Old Testa- ment we read how God awakened in His ancient people of Israel the consciousness of Himself; and we hear one writer after
*S. R. Driver, Sermons on the Old Testament, 146.
2o8 THE USE OF SCRIPTURE
another unfoldiDg different aspects of His nature, and disclosing with increasing distinctness His gracious purposes towards man. In the pages of the prophets there shine forth, with ineffaceable lustre, those sublime declarations of truth and righteousness and judgment which have impressed all readers, to whatever age or clime or creed they have belonged. In the Psalms we hear the meditations of the believing soul, contemplating with adoring wonder the manifold operations of Providence, or pouring forth its emotions in converse with God. The historians set before us, from different points of view, the successive stages in the Divine education of the race. They show us how its natural tendencies to polytheism were gradually overcome. They show us how Israel was more and more separated from its neighbours, in order to be the effectual witness and keeper of Divine truth. Sin is indeed so deeply rooted in human nature that its extirpation upon this earth is not to be expected ; but the writers of the Old Testament explain to us how the ordinances of Israel were adapted to counteract its influence, and to maintain a right attitude of the heart towards God. And they interpret further their nation's history : they show us how a providential purpose dominates it ; how it is subservient to God's aims; how the past leads on to better possibilities in the future. And the crown and consum- mation of Israel's long and chequered past is set before us in the pages of the New Testament. In order to realize what the Bible is, we have but to imagine what the literature of Israel would have been, had not those to whom we owe it been illumined in some special measure by the light from heaven ; even though its external history had been approximately the same, its historians, its statesmen, its. essayists, its poets, would assuredly have written in a very different strain.
(2) But though the greatness and the spiritual importance of the Divine element in Scripture has often and rightly engrossed men's attention, still, in order properly to estimate the character of the book which is termed inspired, or the revelation as we actually possess it, the human element must not be overlooked. Not only is Divine truth always presented through the human organ, and thus, so to say, coloured by the individuality of the inspired agent by whom it is enunciated, but it is impossible to close our eyes to the fact that its enunciations are sometimes relative rather than
2 TIMOTHY III. 14-17 209
absolute; they are adapted to the circumstances of particular ages, they may even be limited by the spiritual capacity of the particular writer, or, in the case of his being a historian, by the materials or sources of information which he had at his disposal. The revelation of the Old Testament is avowedly progressive ; the teaching in its earlier parts may naturally therefore be expected to be imperfect as compared with that which is given in its later parts, or which is to be found in the New Testament. We cannot take at random a passage from the inspired volume and say, without qualification or comparison with other passages, that it is absolute truth, or the pure word of God, or an infallible guide to conduct or character.
^ The relativity of inspiration is observable very noticeably in the Book of Ecclesiastes. The melancholy conclusion to which the author's moralizings lead him is that life under all its aspects is dissatisfying and disappointing ; the best that can be done with it is to enjoy, while it lasts, such pleasures as it brings with it. " There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour," How strangely these words fall upon our ears ! How unlike the soaring aspirations of the Psalmists, or the spirit of generous philanthropy which breathes so often in the discourses of the great prophets or the exhortations of the law ! The teaching of Ecclesiastes, if followed consistently, could only result in paralysing human effort, and stifling every impulse of an en- nobling or unselfish kind. The author's theory of life is imperfect ; untoward and depressing circumstances, as it seems, embittered his spirit, and concealed from him a fuller and more satisfying view of the sphere of human activity. His conclusions possess only a relative value. It is upon life not absolutely, but as he witnessed and experienced it, that he passes his relentless verdict, "All is vanity." It was the particular age with which he was himself acquainted that prompted him to judge as he did of the uselessness of human endeavour ; and his maxims, at least so far as they possess a negative aspect, cannot be applied to a different age without material qualification and reserve.^