II. THE QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL OF GOD.
(Continued from page 69.)
Here, then, is our provision. If we turn once more to consider our lesson-book, we find in it the perfect guidance on the part of God in men led of the Spirit, as the apostle says, to "speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth " (i Cor. 2:13); and thus the prophets of old, as again we are taught (i Pet. 1:10, n), had to "inquire and search diligently" as to what was in their own prophecies, the Spirit of God leading them to express what was entirely beyond even their own understanding of it. This is the pattern of the Book which is in our hands now, the Book of books, as we may surely say, the Word of God, as in this sense we rightly call it, not because it is not instrumentally the word of man also, not because there is not tn it a very clear and decided human element, but because God has, nevertheless, been over all and in it all to guide in such a way as He alone can guide, so that we might have perfectly what He means to convey,-that this might not be taken from us by any defect in the way of communication.
And so competent is this Word, that in those days to which we look back, when men spoke consciously by the Spirit in a way that has now passed from us, yet everything was to be judged by those around according to that Word which was in all their hands. As to this, the principle was always maintained that nothing was to be added to it, as nothing was to be taken from it. Let us notice, therefore, that the indwelling of the Spirit in us is in no wise to set aside the word of God as that by which alone all truth is communicated to us. As the Spirit gave the Word, so it is by the Spirit that the Word is effectually given to our souls also, truly certified and made good there. Here then is our provision; here is how we are equipped for the school of God; and all this is simply and absolutely for all that will seek it from God, for all that will seek it in God's only way, which is through Christ Himself. Of the whole Book, Christ is the centre; and more, if it be more, of all creation Christ is the centre too. "All things were created," says the apostle, "by Him and for Him " (Col. 1:16). Thus it is plain that creation itself (the natural sciences, therefore,) cannot really be understood apart from Him who is the living Centre of the whole. The mind that is in all is the mind of Christ, and creation -without Christ is thus mindless, powerless to be realized by the mind of man. Take what is thought to be the great perplexity in it, what people call now, the "struggle for life," and the preying of one thing upon another. It is this very thing which makes the book of creation so suited for us to-day. That which we find in our own souls and in the world of men around us, is thus found everywhere throughout nature, and only if read in this way does it become everywhere for us the object-lesson which it ought to be. Scripture must interpret this also for us, for no picture interprets itself, and thus how necessary that the Spirit of God should be in us, in order that we should understand aright what creation teaches! Here is necessarily, therefore, the foundation of all science so far as science has to include the reason of things and not the mere method. Science is seeking to content itself simply with the method, and for many, the reason is to be ruled out. But thus science itself can yield nothing but despair to him who cannot find the satisfaction of his soul in a godless and therefore mindless nature. Science has here no longer any reason for its own existence, and the lesson most surely learned by its best student must be a lesson of despair.
F. W. G.
(To be Continued.)