^ The Bible is, indeed, simple enough for the simple, but it is also unfathomably deep. No book takes such an entire sweep of all that affects and interests man. No book begins so low or ends so high. The most tainted being, whose face is one plague-spot from brow to chin, gets a new knowledge of himself here, not with the contaminating knowledge of curiosity, but with the healing and hallowing knowledge of repentance. And the most holy saint, the face that seems to its fellows already radiant with the beatific vision, looks in and says, " Hush ! for I see something higher, holier still." ^
3. Again, the Bible is profitable for instruction which is in righteousness. In the Bible we have a record of a growing insight into the meaning of righteousness. The earlier teachers had not risen to the level of the great Teacher in the Sermon on the Mount. Like all God's works, the Bible is characterized by growth. The stage reached by many of the Old Testament teachers ought long ago to have been passed by the Christian Church. Yet is the Bible, in the parts that belong to the immature youth of the Hebrew nation, as well as in the later parts, the world's lesson-book of righteousness. " If you want to know plastic art," says a modern Biblical critic, " if you want to know plastic art, you go to the Greeks. If you want to know science, you go to the Aryan genius. And why ? Because they have the speciality for these things, for making us feel what they are, and giving us an enthusiasm for them. Well, so has Israel and the Bible a speciality for righteousness ; for making us feel what it is, and giving us an enthusiasm for it." Eighteousness is tl.3 stuff of which character is formed, its basal element. This is
1 K. W. Barbour, Thmujhts, 18.
224 THE USE OF SCRIPTURE
the speciality of the Bible, the burden of its pages, the passion of its writers. At the beginning of it there might be written for motto or text, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."
4. This brings us to the high purpose for which the Scriptures were given to us, namely, to impart " instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may he complete " — right in every respect, in thought, feeling, character, and therefore right in state and condi- tion ; right in himself, right in his relation to his fellows, and right before God. The aim of the husbandman in the tree he plants and cultivates is to have fruit ; but nature is as careful of the blossoms and the foliage as of the fruit, for her purpose is a perfect tree. Men cultivate parts of their nature. Some educate and develop their physical nature, and not much else. Others pay attention to the sensuous soul — they love music, art, eloquence, and light literature. There are persons who are mere thinkers ; the cultivation of the intellectual powers is the one important thing in their estimation. Some spend their lives in small activities — things that are good in themselves, but which become harmful when done to the neglect of more important duties. There is good in all of these ; but none of them aims high enough. The Divine purpose is not physical perfection, or intellectual strength, or refinement of taste, not even morality and devotion, but the full development of the whole nature, " that the man of God may be complete."
^ From the cradle I was brought up in a religious atmosphere. All my relations on my father's side have for ages been known as eminent for their piety. Some of them were giants in stature, and still more so in spiritual attainments. I have even now very vivid recollections of the prayers offered up at the Saturday evening prayer-meetings by Uncles David and Eees. How they used to pour out their souls before God! How they would wrestle with God ! Each of them presented to my imagination a living picture of wrestling Jacob. All these godly men took the deepest interest in me. How much I owe to their prayers and loving counsel is known to God only. Then there was the Sunday School, with all its hallowed influences. In those days the Sunday School in Wales was a grand institution for imbuing the child's nniul with Biblical knowledge and Christian principles. I
2 TIMOTHY III. 14-17 225
seem to have been born and brought up in the House of God, and among God's people. It may be truly said of me, as it was said of Timothy, "And from a babe thou hast known the Holy Scriptures." ^
^ De Quincey divided all literature into two kinds, the literature of knowledge — such as hand-books of science, and all books of mere information — and the literature of power — books which sway the spirits of men and build up their character. In the literature of power the Bible takes a first place, for it is instinct with power of tbe highest kind ; spiritual power, power to touch the noblest springs of action, to develop the highest faculties, to form the truest manhood — power to influence men's lives to the grandest issues. And if we consider how the literature of power in general produces its effects, we shall discover how the Bible is to become for us a source of spiritual profit. A poem of Words- worth, a chapter of Euskin, or an essay of Carlyle are lost upon us unless they, in some measure, lift us into the spirit of the writers when they wrote. That is the use of the literature of power — to make us sharers in its power, its visions, its aspirations, its sympathies, its enthusiasms. So the Bible is to exercise power over us by lifting us up into the spiritual life of the writers, out of which its words have come. It is not enough to receive its doctrine into our heads, and to busy ourselves with the knowledge it conveys. What is needed is tliat we become inspired with tlie Spirit which inspired the sacred writers, and share their spiiitual vision. It is so that the Bible has worked upon men like St. Augustine, Thomas k Kempis, and John Bunjan. They were full of the Holy Ghost. The spirit of the Scri})tures breathed in their works, and has made the Confessions, the Imitation of Christ, and the Pilgrims Proi/ress a noble part of the liLeiatuie of s]»iritual power. The Scriptures have imparted to them something of their own genius.^