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and necessity on the part of the befriended. Such were our ignorance and helplessness that we could never have arrived at the knowledge of the truth but for a divine communication, and such was the goodness of God that he did not leave us to ourselves. This clause, you will observe, is capable of a double interpretation; and it may be a question whether the inspiration applies to the writer or the reader of Scripture. That it belongs to the former, seems probable from another passage, "God in time past spake unto the fathers by the prophets," Heb. i, 1: it is explained by St. Peter to mean, 2 Eph. i, 21, “Prophecy came not in old time, by the will of man; but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." One who was mighty in Scripture renders it, "All Scripture is inspired of God," thus happily avoiding the ambiguity of the expression: and he maintained that, in point of fact, the word of God, when it proves spirit and life to the believer, is carried into the heart by the inspiration of that very Being who at first gave the word. This opinion is rendered more probable by what St. Paul saith to the Thessalonians, "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance," 1 Thess. i, 5. Two truths suggested by the passage are equally beyond the reach of doubt. The communications of Scripture are such as unassisted reason could never have reached or imagined: and this is as true when the creation of the world, the fall of man, and the history of patriarchs, are in question, as when prophecy and gospel are regarded. And these communications asked the agency of the Divine Spirit, not only in the first instance, to afford them, but daily and hourly, to

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LECTURES ON SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS.

INTRODUCTORY LECTURE.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works," 2 Tim. iii, 16, 17.

THERE are two considerations which go to prove that the "Scriptures" in question must have been the Old Testament. The writings of the New Testament were not then collected into an accessible volume; and some parts of that book, such as the gospel of St. John and the Apocalypse, were not then written. And, again, the apostle congratulates Timothy on his early and intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures; but in the early part of his life no part of the New Testament was committed to writing, therefore it must have been with the Old Testament that he was, from a child, familiar. Whatever is said in the text, therefore, applies especially to that portion of the Scriptures. We propose, however, for a reason to be hereafter explained, to limit your consideration of the passage, in its present application, to the historical and narrative Scriptures of the Old Testament.

We proceed to explain the clauses of the verse seria

tim.

I. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God."
A gift supposes generosity on the part of the donor,

and necessity on the part of the befriended. Such were our ignorance and helplessness that we could never have arrived at the knowledge of the truth but for a divine communication, and such was the goodness of God that he did not leave us to ourselves. This clause, you will observe, is capable of a double interpretation; and it may be a question whether the inspiration applies to the writer or the reader of Scripture. That it belongs to the former, seems probable from another passage, "God in time past spake unto the fathers by the prophets," Heb. i, 1: it is explained by St. Peter to mean, 2 Eph. i, 21, “Prophecy came not in old time, by the will of man; but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." One who was mighty in Scripture renders it, "All Scripture is inspired of God," thus happily avoiding the ambiguity of the expression: and he maintained that, in point of fact, the word of God, when it proves spirit and life to the believer, is carried into the heart by the inspiration of that very Being who at first gave the word. This opinion is rendered more probable by what St. Paul saith to the Thessalonians, "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance," 1 Thess. i, 5. Two truths suggested by the passage are equally beyond the reach of doubt. The communications of Scripture are such as unassisted reason could never have reached or imagined: and this is as true when the creation of the world, the fall of man, and the history of patriarchs, are in question, as when prophecy and gospel are regarded. And these communications asked the agency of the Divine Spirit, not only in the first instance, to afford them, but daily and hourly, to

render them of benefit to the individuals who peruse them. These were the Scriptures on which David meditated day and night, which he hid in his heart, and on which when he reflected, his heart burned within him, and he spake with his tongue.

II. We have stated the origin of the Scripture of God, and, of course, of the historical writings, We proceed to mention its uses.

1. "It is profitable for doctrine." The word doc tor means one learned in science, and himself a teacher of it. It follows that the corresponding word doctrine must mean the elements of a science or the act of teaching. Now the Old Testament is profitable, be cause it furnishes the basis of instruction in righteous ness. From it we learn the innocence and the fall of man, and the means of his recovery, and in it we are furnished with many and memorable examples of men who "out of weakness were made strong" by the might of the God of Jacob. Human wisdom has affected to teach man all that it concerned him to know, but wo be to him who comes short, or goes beyond, the holy communications of this book; and, though to us they are abundantly more ample and enlarged than they were to the Israelites, yet they had "a light in a dark place." We have no knowledge of God and of ourselves beyond what hath been revealed from on high, and it is really melancholy and affecting to think of the earnest and unsuccessful efforts which the most enlight ened of heathen nations have made to acquire such a knowledge. And it is doubly affecting to think of the presumption and crime of those men in our own day who would be "wise above that which is written," and who affect to teach what is widely different from that

which Scripture describes. It (to the comparative exclusion of every other thing) is "profitable for doctrine" for it contains the only truth unmixed with error, the basis on which we may rest, the guide we may securely follow.

2. It is "profitable for reproof," that is, for the detection and exposure of error-for explaining wherein it consists and what is its blame. In this point of light the historical Scriptures are passingly useful. In the history of the fall and corruption of man they trace sin to its source in the heart, and to its origin in paradise. In the lives of the patriarchs, their every error and their every excellence is a reproach to us. We have fallen into their errors, and we have done so in the neglect of a higher and a brighter dispensation; and our sin is, in proportion, more offensive. These Scriptures furnish us with the reason and the measure of reproof; they explain to us what is offensive to God, and thus teach us to bow down under his mighty hand. The sin of the elders exposes ours; their faith, by which they "obtained a good report," is a reproach to our unbelief; their heavenly walk and conversation throw ours into the shade.

3. It is "profitable for correction." It were a small benefit to have errors exposed, if they were not corrected. It were a task as ungrateful as it would be unprofitable, to convince a man he was far gone from original righteousness, that he had very far wandered from the right way, if you were not prepared to reclaim his wanderings. How ungracious would it be for a man who finds his brother straying over the pathless desert without a guide, and amidst storm and darkness, to tell him that he has missed his path, unless he should direct him how to retrace the way by which he has

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