and Language, of the Bible; but only Heaven's Wisdom can give Heaven's mind, for "the natural man

receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them

because they are spiritually discerned." (I Cor. ii. 14). Scholarship may understand the written letter, but only

the man who is taught of the Spirit who gave the prophecy, can grasp its meaning. It is as true to day, as

when God said it by David: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and He will show them His

covenant" (Marg. "and His covenant to make them to know it") (Ps. xxv. 14). Such an one shall "know about

the teaching." The student of prophecy needs a more thorough equipment than any which mere efficient

scholarship, or Biblical criticism can give him. The highest gifts must be sanctified by the Divine interpreter

When any man, or any Church, assumes this prerogative of the Holy Spirit, the claim to infallibility is the

logical sequence of such an assumption. This, therefore, is the great, first, and important point. "Knowing

this first," says the Holy Spirit by St. Peter, "that no prophecy of the Scripture, came from the prophets own

It is remarkable, and interesting to note, that the two men who stand out in the Old Testament as interpreters

of dreams and visions sent from God, Joseph and Daniel, both pointedly emphasise this truth. Joseph said

to Pharaoh, when asked to make known the future revealed in the dream, "It is not in me: God shall give

Pharaoh an answer of peace," (Gen. xli. 16): and Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, "He that revealeth secrets

maketh known to thee what shall come to pass, but as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any

wisdom that I have more than any living." (Dan. ii. 29, 30).

The subject before us is purely a subject of Revelation. Outside of this blessed Book we know absolutely

nothing of the future. The world is dark, and this Book is the only light in it. Speculation, Imagination,

Reason, and Philosophy, have no part nor lot here; they have no value whatever in answering the question

"What is Truth." There would be no difficulty in having a Bible exactly according to our own minds if each

one might set up his own reason, as the standard as to what is likely to be, or what God is likely to do. That

is just how people are everywhere acting. But that is not what settles questions revealed in this book. This

book claims to be from God. It claims to make known His thoughts, and to reveal His will and purposes. The

men who wrote it, wrote down not what they imagined, or presumed to reason out; not what they thought

would prove acceptable to others; not what they themselves might deem wise, or think beneficent; but they

wrote down what God thought, what God chose to say, what God commanded, yea and what God meant!

"Holy men spake from God." What our attitude ought to be therefore, is perfectly clear, and our duty is very

simple, viz., to accept what they reveal, as the truth of God. We have no option whatever, no right of debate

or appeal as to things revealed, we are merely like students who sit down to study the statutes of the Realm.

The one and only question is, what do they say? No matter whether the student can understand them,

explain them, or harmonize them with his own views or with the views of others. His duty as a student, is to

know them; and as a citizen, to obey them!

So these Holy Scriptures reveal what God pleases to say, and our duty is to accept and believe them

because of that, and not because of our ability to understand them. The one great difficulty is, that the

authority of Scripture is not regarded as absolutely supreme. So long as men insist on squaring Scripture

with reason, so long can there be no certainty in the things of Faith. There can be no unity of doctrine

unless there be first a unity of authority. We have no more to do, and no less, than Israel had when Moses

came forth from God, and down from Horeb, and made known what God had written and revealed.

We, therefore, have not to interpret Revelation, because Revelation is given to interpret to us what we

otherwise could never have known. This must be our ground, and this our spirit, in approaching the "word

of prophecy." This must be our foundation, and the deeper and the firmer this is laid, the higher ma y be the

superstructure that we build upon it; whereas, a lofty structure, erected on a feeble foundation, must end in

ruin and disaster.