BIBLE
BIGVAI
299
rather than the nspinition. The reality of the Utter is a small matter apart (ri'in the character of the former. 'The essential function of inspiration is the formation of the personalities — both the minds for the thought and the thought for the minds — through whom the religion is to be realised ; and the essential function of revelation is to embody in liistorical form— literature, character, worship, institution — what inspiration has created.* But it is surely a false distinction thus to make the inarticulate divine and the articulate human. How can the former be a guarantee for the latter? And in so far as inarticulate, how is the inspiration of Hebrew prophet* and Christian apostles to be distingui.4hed from that of Umdu or Persian poet or sage ? It is true ttiat ' the inspiration of the men who read ' is made ' as intrinsic and integral an element in the idea of revelation as the inspiration of the men who wrote.' But in both cases the theory proposes a test which has all the subjectivity of the appeal to the testimonium Spiriiut Sancti witiiout the recog- nition of the divine qualily of the revelation itself which enters into the latter. It seems open also to the same kind of criticism which Sir Wm. Hamilton, in a well-known essay, applied to Bchelliog's metaphysical theory : the intellectual intuition being only possible in the absence of consciousness, is no help to the coiuaoiis apprehension of what it alone can give assurance of ; it is * in the state of personality, and non-intuition of the Absolute, that the philosopher writes ; in writing therefore about the Absolute, he writes of what is to him as zero.' What, in like manner, is to connect the revelation which man gives to man, with the inspiration, the state of possession, in which it is supposed to be received ?
These instances serve to illustrate the difficulties Burrounding the question. It is probable that no theory of inspiration will ever solve all these difficulties or be regarded as entirely satisfactory. It may be fully and freely recognised that the B. has a unique excellence of its own, qualities which set it apart from even the greatest literary achieve- ments of the race, while yet it has been constructed in such a way that the liuman element, the pecu- liarities and even the limitations of its writers, have been consistently maintained. In two re- spects, we of tliis age are perhaps in a more favourable position for dealin" with the question than those who have gone before us. On the one hand, it is pos.-iible to compare the Christian religion and its Scriptures with the non-Christian religions ;ind their sacred books with both a knowledge and a
STnpathy which in earlier times were undreamt of. n the other, a closer and more intimate know- ledge of the Bible itself as a living book and not as a mere repertory of proof texts, is one of the marks of our time. ' Criticism has, by bringing the sacred Imoks into relation with sacred history, done something to restore them to their real and living si™ilicance ... by binding the book and the people together, and then connecting both with the providential order of the world, it has given us back the idea of tlie God wlio lives in history through His people, and a people who live for Him through His word' (Kairbairn, I.e. p. 508). What- ever be the results of the literary analysis of the biblical books, or the bearing of archaeological dia<.'overy upon tlie history they record, this is the aim of historical criticism, and it can scarcely be doubteil that tlie service it has rendered to cla.s.sical and Oriental literature may be, and must be, rendered to the 15. also. As a part of it, that practice which we have noticed of studying the thought of the B. in its development, and tracing it through its succes-sive representations, is of the highest significance and value. In any case it is to be remembered that the B. contains the most ancient and most authentic documents bearing upon tlie origin, tlie nature, and the characteristic features of the Christian religion, and especially upon the person and work of its Founder. This gives to it an interest, if not an authority, which cannot be disputed. Of the revelation which we believe to have come through Christ, it is the early and reliable record. To it, therefore, the Chunli of later ages has naturally turned to correct licr aberrations, and to obtain a renewal of her life. What the B. has been to individuals cannot be told._ If the history of the world has a meaning, and IB not a succession of fortuitous circumstances,
we cannot fail to recognise the centre of that history in Christ, and the animating force of its later stages in the spiritual movement He inaugu- rated. Without the B. this movement could not be understood, or its influence continued and extended. We cannot doubt, therefore, that the God whose providence has ruled and sliaped the history, whose Spirit moved and spoke in Christ, has also inspired the B. and made it what it is — the vehicle of the highest spiritual thought, tin- purest moral guidance man Uiis known. It itself invites inquiry, and takes its place in the historical development. Sacred scholarship must finish the work upon it which it has begun. But withal the B. remains, and will remain, the most precious heritage of mankind.