There are two methods which can be adopted in dealing with any article

of truth; we can adopt the form of a treatise, or we can adopt the form of

the biography:

'When we write a treatise we consider the subject throughout.  We

strengthen it with arguments, we clear it of objections, we enter into

details, and in short we leave nothing unsaid that properly pertains to

the subject' (Gilpin).

What do we mean by the biographical form of treatment?  We mean that method

of instruction adopted by the Holy Spirit in the writing of the Scriptures.

Had the Bible been a treatise, we should have had a formal disquisition on

the Nature and Being of God, followed by an elaborate and systematic

theological analysis.  Instead the doctrine of the Scripture is incorporated

in the lives of men and women.  Justification by faith is bound up with the

life story of Abraham.  The glorious fact of resurrection cannot be

disassociated from the life of Isaac.  The law is so linked with the lawgiver

Moses, that his name is often used when the law is intended.  We could, if we

would, have taken the subject before us a few stages further, but we believe

the reader will be better served if we now give a few examples from the

Scriptures where the writer expresses in his own words, and speaks out of his

own experiences, the recognition of the fact that we all, at the present

time, see but through a glass darkly.  Let us consider the heart utterances

of David, as found in Psalm 131:

'Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I

exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

'Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of

his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

'Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever'.

This Psalm of David was included by Hezekiah in his fifteen songs of the

degrees, a title given to Psalms 120 to 134.

'Dr. Thirtle has called attention to the use of the definite article.

The Hebrew reads "A Song of The Degrees" (Shir hamma'aloth).  In this

simple fact lies the key to the solution of the problem, which is as

simple in its nature as it is grand in its results.

'Once we note the use of the definite article, "The Degrees", we

naturally ask what Degrees?  The answer comes from the Word of God

itself, and not from the guesses and imaginations of men.  The only

"degrees" of which we read in the Bible are "the degrees" on the

sundial of Ahaz, by which the shadow of the sun went backward in the

days of his son Hezekiah, as a sign from Jehovah that he should recover

from his sickness, while Jerusalem was surrounded by the armies of the

king of Assyria, and Hezekiah was under sentence of death from the King

of Terrors (see 2 Kings 20:8 -11, and the structure of the chapters in

Isaiah 36 to 39).  Scripture knows of no other steps or "degrees" that

can be connected with the shadow of the sun.

'On recovery from his sickness, Hezekiah said (Isa. 38:20):

"Jehovah was ready to save me:

Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments