^ I do not mean to say that the Old Testament has no value apart from the historical Jesus ; and that a Jew may not be warned and corrected, and instructed in righteousness thereby. Far from it. But this is certain, that men fed and nourished on the law and the prophets, and on them only, will remain children of Israel still ; and the work of God in the education of the world
2 TIMOTHY III. 14-17 219
for the last nineteen centuries will reach them only in a very enfeebled and ineftective way. It is Christ who gives universal meaning to the contents, and sanctifying power to the truths and hopes, and triumphant energy to the redemptive idea of the Old Testament. He is the Light of the Word as well as of the world ; and even the Jew will reach his ideal only through that greatest Jew, Christ Jesus. The Scriptures are able to make men wise unto salvation ; but it is through faith which is in Him.^
*|| There is a splendid recklessness in the use which the Apostles make of the Old Testament, penetrating to the very core of its spiritual meaning in the power of a new fact, the fact of the crucified and risen Jesus. That ancient code, which under the authority of those who sat in Moses' seat had well-nigh become a barren and unprofitable absurdity, lived again in the great conviction that to the believer the end of the law is Christ. The Christian re-read his Bible not in the rabbinic schools of Jerusalem or Galilee, but by the empty sepulchre where the body of Jesus had lain. It is the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Eomans which crown and consummate the prophets, not the puerile pedantries of the Talmud. Well has it been said that it is the atoning death of Christ which is the true guarantee that every Scripture is inspired of God.^
^ The " thoroughly evangelical " note of Stanton's preaching which struck Bishop Wilberforce no one would deny. It was sounded all the time. That love for the Bible which comes of knowing what it contains and is kept alive by close and intimate study of the sacred Scriptures — for with most of us only when we leave off rending the Bible do we cease to care for it, and the same thing is true, of course, of the w^ritings of many profane authors — was a great factor in Stanton's ministerial life, and mightily affected his preaching. The " music of the Gospel " was ever leading him home, and he must needs bring all who would give ear within sound of the brave song. It was this love for the Bible, with the Evangelicalism that dwelt so constantly on the Personal Saviour, that endeared Stanton's preaching to many old-fashioned, earnest-minded Protestants, both Nonconformist and Church of England, whom the "higher criticism" and the " new theology," and the general incursion of rationalist modernism, had driven from their accustomed places of worship. . . . For him the Bible was indeed the Book of books, containing the priceless words of truth and life, and wealth of treasure that not all the rest of the books ever written could match. A lady once asked
1 John Clifford. * J. G. Simpson, Christian Ideals, 184.
220 THE USE OF SCRIPTURE
Stanton what book he would advise her to read during Lent. " I told her," said Stanton, " why not read the Bible ? " ^
2. " Through faith which is in Christ Jesus." St. Paul speaks of this as the condition of our knowing the real power of the Old Testament. We may learn from him, surely, a great lesson in regard to an anxiety felt by many in the present day. There is no better course by which each one of us may strengthen his position in regard to the Old Testament than by using every means to make more real and sure his union with Christ. It is hard for us to do justice to that which St. Paul meant by " faith which is in Christ Jesus," the word " faith " has been dragged through so many controversies, and thrust so often into false antitheses. But we can see that he meant not less than this — the surrender of one's life to Christ, to be conformed to His example, guided by the daily disclosure of His will, informed and strengthened by His grace ; the conviction that for His sake, and by the power of His perfect sacrifice, we can be set free from the sins that hinder and defile us, and know the miracle of God's forgiveness ; the growing certainty that He Himself, our Blessed Lord, vouchsafes to come and dwell within us, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, giving us His own life, and making us strong to be true, and humble, and patient, and unselfish ; strict with our- selves, as knowing how much need we have of strictness ; gentle, and making large allowances for others, as never knowing how sorely they are tried ; enabling us, in spite of all that is past, to follow the blessed steps of His most holy life.
^ When he read his Bible, he knew that he was travelling through beautiful country — he kept his eyes open for fair visions and his ears for heavenly songs — it was his book of wonder and surprise, of song and of love. He was of opinion that it should be bound in red because it is the book of Eed Romance. It never became an " old " book to him — for it was always more modern to him than the daily paper. I have many pictures in my mind of his reading the Word, but the one which is most vivid is that of the way in which he read the story of the Crucifixion. When he read it in public the under-refrain of it all was, How could they do it ? How could men reject and crucify Love ? The mystery of the Cross was to him not only in Love dying for others (he knew something of that), but also in men scourging and hissing and ij. Clayton, Father Stanton, 131.