I. WHAT SCRIPTURE IS, AND WHAT EDUCATION IS.

There is hardly need to insist today on the value of education. It is rather apt to be overestimated than underestimated. When a well-known man, who must be credited with the desire to speak soberly, or not too extravagantly, can tell us that it is a mistake to say that the millennium is at hand merely, but that it is come,-as proved by the money which the men of wealth are pouring into the cause of education, into colleges and schools and libraries,-the words and the deeds both show us how much its importance is insisted on.

On the other hand, a certain value will perhaps be nowhere denied to Scripture also as an educator. Those who insist, as commonly now is done, on the value of the knowledge of all religions, of the Veda and the Zenda-vesta, will hardly deny what is allowed in the case of Hindu and Persian scriptures, to the Christian Bible. It is quite true that no Christian will be or ought to be satisfied with this, which reduces to mere literature that which has quite another claim.

We are not going to dwell upon this now,- nor has it interest enough to dwell upon it; but much more what is urged, that we must at any rate be satisfied with according to the Bible its religious value. It may be allowed even to be authoritative in its own sphere, but that does not at all embrace the whole compass of knowledge, as education does. There are large fields beyond, in which it has no authority. And of course we allow it will not teach you how to till the ground or do the meanest sum in arithmetic:there is no desire to make any pretension of the kind on its behalf. But it is urged again that as it appeals to reason, so it must submit to reason everywhere ; we may, therefore, listen to its persuasion while we must entirely refuse its dictatorship.

But to appeal to reason arid to submit to reason in a limited and fallen creature, are quite different things. Scripture does appeal not merely to reason, but to the heart and conscience also-to the whole of man. But, nevertheless, it affirms-and there is plenty of ground outside of it to believe its affirmation-that man is as corrupt throughout, as he is plainly diseased in body and under a law of death which, however natural he may call it, he shrinks from in his innermost soul. But this is penalty, and supposes sin; and thus, whatever the way out, reason in man must be allowed to be continually perverted by what is in his heart; and He who stoops to reason with man as to the evil, in earnest desire to deliver him from it, is not thereby appearing at man's judgment-seat, but summoning him to His.

If we believe in God at all, we must surely believe that He is capable of speaking to His creatures; and that He can speak in such a manner as to make all that is in man bear witness to the Speaker. It is plain, however, that at the present day those who can in no wise agree with each other, believe themselves, nevertheless, quite competent to disagree with Him, and to justify the disagreement, each one after his own peculiar fashion. Thus come in the questions as to inspiration, where there is evidently a very great departure from what was, but recently even, a common teaching.

To leave this for the present,-What is the sphere of education ? for what is it competent ? and what is necessary to it ? The body is, as we know, being more and more claimed, not merely as itself needing it, but as needed by the mind also. The effect of disease or lack of vigor in the body will have its corresponding effect upon the products of the mind. The body, therefore, must not be left out of account when we speak of education. Moreover, as the head, so to speak, is behind the hand, so the heart is behind the head, and as just now said, the perversion of the heart may make the mind to err to mere insanity. The whole man, therefore, needs the disciplinary training which is implied in education.

But there are other considerations which we must take into account if we would realize just what is before us when we speak of what it -may be trusted to accomplish. Plainly, the present generation has not begun the world:some would say that began hundreds of thousands of years ago. And then they are equally sure that heredity counts for something. It is plain indeed that we do inherit a good deal, and not merely in ourselves, but in our surroundings also. We cannot start afresh as if nothing began before we did; and if we would fain do this, our own nature would witness against it. For it is plain we came into the world not full grown, not with all these much-prized wits about us, but in a condition in which we were destined to a long process of discipline (in our circumstances, at least,) before we could attain the competence which we may suppose perhaps that we have now attained. Nature gave us into our mother's hands naked in body, bringing nothing with us, feeble and dependent. We must submit, therefore, in the first place, absolutely to what is taught us. Reason itself will not start until we have got something to start it with , and in the meanwhile how much must we take on trust !

Here, too, is that which most manifestly speaks for the value, nay, for the necessity of education if we are to be anything at all in this life. We are too poor in our own resources to be able to start without something, and how much are we encompassed with, which we must, to begin with, accept, whatever question may be raised afterwards ! We cannot even go back to simple barbarism, to that out of which we are told the race was so long emerging. Our lives are not long enough to make the thought of such an evolution comfortable, by any means.

But are we not handicapped at the best in this matter of education ? Can we, if we would,, eradicate the ideas instilled into us from our birth, and start afresh for ourselves ? Even here, trust brains and senses it is plain we must. History, too, is furnished to us. Science is furnished to us; nay, it is in all this that we are to be educated. Can we, with all our will to do it, correct even our text books ? Can we all verify the experiments, of which so many have been made, and which make the science of the day to have its justification, as a well-known scientist has told us, by verification ? Can we set ourselves above all the wisdom of the past, .affirm our own competence to review at least the main elements of knowledge ? Nay, plainly that is impossible. We must accept at least what is ordinarily accepted, and trust, whatever errors there may, nay, must be in this, that they will not lead us very far astray from truth. Our whole civilization plainly depends upon this.

And now, in connection with all this, what about religion ? We receive our religion, to begin with, as we receive other things. Are we handicapped, then, here as elsewhere ? or can we receive from it such help as it is plain we need ? In the very nature of it we must assign it, if we allow the mere possibility of God and eternity, the very highest place. What is its relation to all the other fields which education has to do with ? If there is even a question as to whether we have a God who made us, there must follow the question, Has He not a will concerning us ? Is He not competent to make that will known? But if we are_ left simply to traditional knowledge, and if we are to look around at the different religions of the world, what elements of doubt will naturally be bred in us ! How are we to ascertain the truth here ? If He has made us, we ourselves and the whole frame of nature around us, spite of a certain plain disorder which is in it, declare His interest in those that He has made. Has He spoken then ? Has He spoken so that He can be heard without any question at all ? Can we allow doubt here such as we may and must in other things ?

Now here we must notice a great difference which at once impresses us. These other things have their verification in things that are seen. They have to do with what is visible and what is tangible-with what we can see and touch. There are certainly things unseen. What about them ? What have we here if' there be not, after all, some authority higher than our own reason to which we can submit ? This does not, of necessity, make such submission credulity at all. It is true that we are so constituted that we cannot intelligently submit ourselves to that which does not give its proofs to our intelligence, and these proofs also must be in that which is seen. Notice, then, how all important the question is whether Scripture can be proved false or not as to that which is seen, for here is what must show it to be absolutely trustworthy. If it be not that in things in which I can test it, how can it be possibly worthy of credit where no test can be applied ?

But thus it may be easily proved that Scripture knowledge, if it be what it claims, must really be the foundation of all other knowledge that is worth calling that. The earth, it is allowed, is but a mere speck, as it were, in the universe, and governed absolutely by the things that are around it. It is true that our knowledge of these things may have nothing to do with the good government of the earth itself. That goes on apart from us altogether. We have no hand in it; but at least here is a witness of how immense is the sphere of the unseen. If it is to be, in that which is most important, unknown because unseen, then how shall we decide as to all that is thus unknown ? Who can tell how largely it will affect all our conclusions as to the known ? Who can reason about that which is unknown ? How dependent we are upon some knowledge which must be communicated to us here !

Now here it is that the claim of that which professes to reveal all that is of the highest interest to me in the unknown must first be settled. Yet its credentials are to be certified in the sphere of the known. What then about the constant affirmation now, that Scripture is not designed to teach us science, and that it may be as false as you please about sensible things, and yet as true as we desire it about things out of reach ? It is plain that Scripture some way does pronounce, or how does it manage to come into conflict so often with what we are told is science itself ? Something it does say, and more important evert than what it does say as to such things is the fundamental matter of its authority to say this. Who, if his heart were right at all, would not cry out here for a lesson-book absolutely reliable ?

And now if we turn to Scripture and look at it in this respect, in what a perfect way does it answer to the requirement ! It is plain that if it be a lesson-book, it contemplates and provides for the education of the masses at least as what is in God's mind for us, whether man's mind be to refuse or bow to it. It is the first qualification of a lesson-book,-a primary one as this is, whatever else,-that it should speak in the simplest manner and at the same time with the most perfect decision. The text-book at least ought to know no doubt; it ought to deal with what is sure, for unless we have certainty as to the foundations, how are we to build upon them ? This is indeed what men find fault with so much in Scripture. It is so exceedingly positive; it will not allow in itself a possibility of error. It is, as we have said, very much what people find fault with; but the heart must be leading wrong the head, if reason here is so unreasonable. How can it gain our confidence if it is not confident itself ? All the more can it appeal to man to verify it as much as he will. The Lord Himself so appeals, and acknowledges man to be so constituted that, spite of all that may be amiss with him, he is, nevertheless, fully and rightly responsible to receive the truth just as truth. " If I say the truth," He asks, "why do ye not believe Me ?" Here there is no wavering as to its being truth He teaches. Here He ventures to appeal to the very nature of man itself as being witness for Him. Scripture then cannot use the language of doubt, because it is not teaching doubt, but giving assurance. Shall we be glad or sorry for that ?

But its language, people say, is not scientifically true. It may be perfectly true without clothing itself at all in the technical language of science, as indeed it must not, if it is to be every one's textbook. Where is the last edition of all the books that clothe themselves with this proud name ? How many variant editions have preceded them ? If Scripture had been written, let us say, in the scientific language of a hundred years ago, would it be right for the present time ? And, if it were written in the language of to-day, would it be as true and scientific language a century hence ? How it appeals to us as the very voice of God Himself, that it comes right home in this respect to the comprehension of the poorest, with a sweet interest in him which is not the least of all the witness that it has of being God's voice to his soul ! Where shall I find another book or another set of books like it ? There are Hindu scriptures and what not ; but who will compare them ? The authority and the simplicity are both perfectly suited to Him whose word it is.

And then as to verification, how plain that it is not in the least priestly, in the evil sense that we have had, alas, to attach to this ! It does not put me into the hand of an interpreter; it does not speak to me second-hand at all. It speaks to me as having to decide for myself, in the full sense of my responsibility, in the full sense of all that there is around me that is doubtful, calculated to beget doubt, and it bids me verify for myself that which it says. . In it all, characterizing it all, too, there is for me to-day the sweet sense of a human voice which speaks in this divine voice, the voice of One who spake as never man spake (let man bear witness if it is not true), but who above all was Himself, according to the picture that we have of Him, a Man such as never before man was, never since.

It is the voice of such an One I am called to accredit,-the voice of One who died, who has entered into all the shadow that is over man himself, but who abides, nevertheless, as the living One,-speaks to me and invites me to Himself. Here I may find, if I will, and surely know that I have found it, what He declares He will give me if I come to Him. No man and no multitude of men can touch this link between Himself and myself. If He is not worthy to be trusted, who else is? And still He says, "Which of you accuseth Me of sin ? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?" This is the Teacher from whose hand we are to receive our lesson-book; and here we may find not a justification by verification instead of faith, but a justification of our faith by verification; and with this, spite of the shadow that is over man at large, we pass out of the shadow; yea, spite of the contradiction of multitudinous voices, into the joy and blessedness of truth, and only truth.

Here is our first lesson out of our primary book; but let us go on and prove for ourselves, as prove we may if we will, how immensely beyond all other books is the range of its teaching. F. W. G.

( To be continued, if the Lord will.)