Vere. 27-31.-Limits lo inspiration. Many men seem to suppose that the pro- phetical inspiration, the Divine afflatus, whatever it was, which God vouchsafed in times past to his prophets, apostles, and evangelists, was absolutely unlimited-a sort of omniscience, at any rate omniscience on all those subjects on which they spoke or wrote. But Scripture lends no sanction to this supposition. "Let her a.lone," says Elisha to fuh&Zi; "for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told 'TM" (ver. 27). Ignorance of the future would also seem to underlie the instruc- tions given to fuhazi in ver. 29. And there a.re, in point of fact, limitations to every prophet's knowledge even with respect to the things concerning which he writes or speaks. "Now, behold," says St. Paul, "I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there" (Acts xx. 22). And a.gain," Now con- cerning ,irgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that bath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful" (1 Cor. vii. 25). 'fhe apostles spoke much of the coming of Christ to judgment, but "of that day and of that hour knoweth no man" (Matt. :u:iv. 36). Prophetic knowledge was always partial, limited. To Isaiah the return from Babylon, the establishment of Christ's kingdom upon earth, and the final triumph of Christianity, were blended together into a single vision of glory from which the chronological idea. was absent. Ezekiel probably did not know whether the temple which he described (xl.-xliv.) was to be spiritual or material. Zachariah knew that a day would come when there would be "a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness;" but the nature of the fountain was, apparently, not revealed to him. The prophets always "saw through a glass darkly," "knew in part " and prophesied in pa.rt; had not even e. full knowledge of the meaning of their own words. We must therefore not look in the inspired writings for an exactness a.nd accuracy a.nd completeness to which they make no pretence ; we must not cle.im infallibility for the obiter dicta of apostles or evange- lists; we must not be surprised at occasional slips of memory, as the quotation of "Jeremy" for" Zachary" (Matt. xxvii. 9), or at little discrepancies, as the various read- ings of the title on the cross, or at other similar imperfections. The Divine element in Scripture does not exclude the presence also of a huma.n element; and the human ele- ment cannot but show traces of human weakness, human ignorance, human frailty. The trifling errors that a microscopic criticism points out in the sacred volume no more interfere with its illuminating power, than do the spots seen by astronomers on its sur- face interfere with the light of the sun, or slight flaws with the magnificence a11d splendour of a unique diamond. The Bible is God's Word, the moHt precious treasure that man possesses, even although it be true that " we have this treasure in earthen ve11881s" (2 Cor. iv. 7).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-7.-The wi.dou/, ou increased. This simple and touching story is one of those many narratives which make the Bible a book for every one, and a book for enrvde.y life. The individual is never lost in the nation or the race. It is so in actual fact. Our own personal needs and struggles and anxieties are of more impor- tance and interest to us than the struggles of a nation or the general well-being of the human race. It ii the same in the Bible. The Bible is partly e. history of nations, &Dd particularly of the Jewish nation. But it i.& much more a history of individuals, OJ!. IV, 1-44.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 73