^ The reader will do well to keep in mind what is the one object we set before him in the present inquiry : to enjoy the Bible and to turn it to his benefit. Whatever else he may pro- pose to himself in dealing with the Bible, this remains his one proper object. In another order of interest, the poetry of Homer supplies here a useful illustration for us. Elaborate inquiries have been raised as to the date, authorship, and mode of com-
2 TIMOTHY III. 14-17 217
position of the Homeric Poems. Some writers have held, too, and have laboriously sought to prove, that there is a hidden, mystical sense running all through them. All this sort of disquisition, or at any rate some department of it, is nearly sure to catch at one time or another the attention of the reader of Homer, and to tempt and excite him. But, after all, the proper object for the reader of the Homeric poems remains this : to enjoy Homer, and to turn him to his benefit. In dealing even with Homer, we say, this is found true and very needful to be borne in mind ; — with an object where yet the main interest is properly intellectual. How much more does it hold true of the Bible ! where the main interest is properly not intellectual, but practical.^
(1) The Scriptures sliow us our need of heing saved. They describe how our first parents were created in righteousness and true holiness after the image of God Himself, and give us a bright picture of the blessedness of their first estate, but then they show us how Adam and Eve fell, and how the race fell with them. They describe how corruption and wickedness spread and pre- vailed on the earth, the imagination of men's hearts being evil and that continually, and how God brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. They show us how wickedness prevailed again, its cry going up to heaven, and how such cities as Sodom and Gomorrah brought down the consuming fire of the Divine wrath. They show us how in aftertimes, even among the people chosen to be the people of the Lord, there was ever present, as a reason for lamentation, grievous backsliding and sin. Even of them the Lord says : " It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways."
(2) But the Scriptures exhibit to us thus the sinfulness and the misery of our state with a view to awaken us, and rouse us to put the question. What shall we do that we may be delivered and saved ? And while they rouse and move us thus, they come to us expressly as the message of salvation from the Lord Himself. While they exhibit the whole of the Divine character, testifying to God's perfect righteousness, they are especially the witness to and the glorious revelation of the exceeding riches of His grace.
(3) The Scriptures guide us to salvation hy leading us to Jesus Christ. The Old Testament pointed from the beginning to the coming of Jesus the Saviour. Salvation was promised immediately
^ Matthew Arnold, God mid IJte Bible, 99.
2i8 THE USE OF SCRIPTURE
after the Fall, and the promise was contained in the announcement of the appearing of Him who should bruise the head of the enemy, who should destroy the works of the devil. And the announce- ment was made with ever-increasing distinctness and definiteness from generation to generation during the ages that followed. The prophets in that long line stretching from Moses to Malachi pointed to the coming great atoning redemption work and to Him, through whom, by whom it should be accomplished. The Scriptures led believers in ancient times to wait for Christ, and they found salvation looking forward to His Coming, and trusting in Him. When He appeared the Scriptures testified concerning Him, pointed Him out, led the inquiring to Him, to find their salvation in Him. Timothy was made wise unto salvation, being led by the Scriptures to Christ Himself.
Here is the paramount meaning of the Old Testament. It is a preparation, long drawn out, manifold and many-sided, for Jesus Christ. This is how the Apostles and the first Evangelists looked upon it, and this is how, we may reverently add, they were taught to look upon it by our Lord Himself. For was it not the Lord Jesus Himself who said to the disciples on their way to Emmaus, " Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory " ? Was it not the Saviour Himself who said that " all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me"; and who, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself " ? Was it not Christ Himself who said of the Old Testament Scriptures, " These are they which testify of me " ? who said in view of His Passion, *' How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be"? The roots, then, of the Christian religion are to be found in the Old Testament. The Eedemption postulates the Fall of man. We read the Old Testament, and find that Christ is the Key of it.