THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God."2 Timothy iii. 16.

THE inspiration of the Bible, (1) as claimed by the Scriptures themselves, and (2) as taught by the Church of England, is the subject for our consideration this morning. With such a subject for a single sermon, I must waste no time in apologies for its largeness, but at once betake myself to it.

The word inspiration, it has been observed,1 may be used in three different senses. (1.) It may be used of a merely natural inspiration, inasmuch as the genius of the poet, the wisdom of the philosopher, and the research of the man of science, are the results "of a natural action of the spirit of God on the souls of men;" (2) of a moral inspiration, or "a special action on the souls of the good and holy, to renew and sanctify them from day to day;" (3) of a prophetic inspiration, which is confined to those holy men of

(1) Rev. T. R. Birks.

God of whom we read that they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It is this latter that we have to consider, and in respect of it my object will be not so much to advance or to maintain any particular theory on inspiration, as simply to deduce from the Word of God itself, and the Prayer Book, and homilies of the Church of England, their respective teaching on the subject-the one as claiming inspiration, the other as acknowledging that claim. Inspiration we take to mean the exercise of such an influence over the minds of the several penmen of Holy Scripture by the Spirit of God, as should secure that the words they wrote should be the words of God to men, without any admixture of human prejudice or error. That such inspiration is necessary, in any revelation of God to man, is evident; for how could man reveal his God, except God should be pleased to reveal himself? or, how could he relate that which was past and unrecorded, except the Omniscient should bring it to his mind? or, how tell of that which was future, except God should give it him to reveal? or how, save by inspiration, could we speak of those things which it were beyond the mind of man to discover for himself? How, too, can that oft-repeated "Thus saith the Lord," or "The Lord spake unto me," or Hear ye the word of the Lord," be regarded, save as involving a necessity that that Bible, which contains such authoritative declarations,

be so inspired of His Spirit as to be the Word of God himself? That necessity, moreover, is the burden of the record of the ancients' groping for the light but finding rone; and that it is which the ignorance, the cruelty, and idolatry of modern heathendom bespeak. In short, if the Bible's revelations are to be any worthy object for the exercise of man's reason, or its promises any trustworthy resting-place for his faith, they must be the revelations and the promises of God. So again, as it is to contain the revelation of God himself-the record of that which is past, as well as the prophecy of that which is future-and as it is to be proved by miracle, and tested by the lapse of time, it is necessary that the book which claims to be all this should be inspired of God. But it may be objected to this, "If all be thus the Word of God, why did God make use of different channels for its communication? How does this consist with the fact of the difference of style that we find in the several writers of Holy Scripture?" To this objection we return Gaussen's answer, that the Bible is at once all human and all Divine. All so perfectly human that the style in which the truth is conveyed is purely the writer's own-all so perfectly Divine as to its matter, that its every word is the utterance of God himself. In his freedom from constraint, it is as if the writer were speaking to us of himself; but in the infallible truth that he declares, we recognise God the

Holy Ghost speaking through him. Therefore, we claim for the penmen of Scripture that which the Apostle Paul claims for them, when he says "that holy men of God spoke as they were moved," or "borne along by the Holy Ghost." Just as the same wind blows upon the several strings of the Eolian harp, and each string gives forth its own peculiar note, so has one and the same Spirit been pleased to inspire the several writers of Holy Scripture with His own words, in perfect consistency with the peculiarity of style of each. We have God speaking to us through human instruments, so that human instrumentality might not be set aside, and yet the voice of God be not marred thereby.

But it will be asked, "What claim do the Scriptures themselves make to such inspiration?" To this we answer, that it is true that they are-and it might well be expected that the Scriptures would besparing in external claims; but we maintain that internal claims are more to be relied upon in a matter so supernatural, and that the number of these in the case of the Scriptures more than compensates for the want of the former. And when we say that it is sparing of external claims, we by no means say that it is destitute of them. To take the Old Testament first, and begin with the books of Moses. In the course of the five books which bear his name we find reiterated more than fifty times, concerning that

which is recorded therein, "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying." Never does he speak anything to Israel without showing to them and to us his credentials that it is the Lord's word that he speaks. Let but that be withdrawn, and Moses would have ceased to be the Lawgiver and Mediator for the people. His words would have failed to have weight with Israel, for they would have lost the authority and the wisdom that they once possessed. Moses invariably represented himself as but the voice of God amongst them.

And after Moses we find Joshua calling the people to "hear the word of the Lord." The prophets, without exception, declared of themselves "The Spirit of the Lord came upon me, saying." And what is more, in the books of Chronicles1 we find possession by the Spirit insisted upon as the criterion of the right to speak, and punishment denounced upon the despisers of their word. Thus, by the inspiration of the Spirit, the Scriptures grew, until we find David in the book of the Psalms continually speaking of the collection then existing, as Thy-God's Word-saying that it is by taking heed to this word that a young man may cleanse his way; that it was by the hiding in his heart of that word that he hoped to be kept from sinning against God; that that word it was that had quickened him; and finally declaring of it, "Thy word is true from

(1) 2 Chronicles xxxvi. 15, 16.