necessary to salvation. But against such an assumption, not the intellect only, but the heart and conscience of humanity increasingly rebel. Yet we freely grant that such a notion could hardly have taken so strong a hold of mankind as it has done, unless it had been a perversion of truth rather than entirely false. What is true in it I believe to be this; that we always need in the future the growing light of some ideal, fairer than anything we have attained. But this ideal, by necessity of the case, just because it is higher and better than any past attainment, is to that extent a revelation of God; and therefore devotion to that is loyalty of soul and faith in God. So Abraham was saved, that is, delivered from base associations, purified, exalted, and made a saint, not by faith in Christ, at least as that phrase is generally understood, but by faith in the Providence that guided him away from an idolatrous house towards an independent and more spiritual life. He followed an ideal higher than had been attained; and in this he showed the loyalty of soul, which is always in one way or other equivalent to faith in God. So David was saved, not by the meek virtues of a later age, but by truth to the kingly instincts which came as an inspiration from God. So Elijah ascended the heavens of sacred fame in a chariot of fire, not by a creed like that of Augustine or Calvin, but by the ardour with which he followed the high calling of God, in protest against the

* But if the words be taken as equivalent to faith in the Love of God, then it is very true that Abraham was saved by faith in Christ.

baseness of the times. Now in the divine humanity of Christ the world received an ideal, which as we believe needs no renewal, save in "the Christ that is to be,” the ideal embodied in a race instead of in a man. He breathed upon the world and it arose from death. Since His day it lives a new life, because of the spirit with which He has inspired it. And if there is any failure in the force of our religious life now, it is not a new ideal that we want, but only an expansion of His spirit. Why should you be alarmed at the responsibility of living in the spirit instead of on the letter? God is with you, God is in you; and because He is with you He asks, "why even of yourselves judge ye not that which is right?" He will not condemn you for any intellectual mistake; but only for the disloyalty of soul, which will not follow the guidance of his Spirit towards a higher tone of life and a larger hearted faith. But he who in reverence, sincerity, and self-sacrifice follows the brightest shining of God's light, may feel assured that like the ship with its compass he carries a guide within him, which shall bring him right at last.

LECTURE V.

THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE BIBLE.

"Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.-John v. 39.

As this is our concluding lecture, it will be well to recall your attention to the chief points on which we have insisted in the preceding discourses; because those points are directly suggestive of the remarks I have to offer on the final subject announced. In the first two lectures I asked your attention to certain admitted facts of Human Nature, which imply the absolute necessity of religion for all the ultimate aims of progress; and at any rate make Atheism impossible as the finality of human thought. The longing for a Final Cause, such as can give significance and rationality to the bewildering maze of forces around us, is so ineradicable a characteristic of mankind, that we may well suppose it has some reason in the ultimate reality of things. Some feeling of the Divinity about us is an element in

the generic consciousness of the race; and this we have maintained to involve a susceptibility to direct perceptions of God, and to personal communion with the Eternal Spirit. The instinctive reverence which is awakened in the heart by any enlarged view of Creation ; the warm loyalty with which the soul recognizes universal law; the feeling of a mystery in life; the prophetic forecaste that this must be unfolded more and more, yet never can be wholly revealed-all these are forms of the Godconsciousness in man; nay, I believe its signs may be detected in the humblest emotions of wonder, faithfulness, and even curiosity, which distinguish the lowest barbarian from the beast. On the other hand, if the noblest historic experiences of the race, nay if our own highest moments which live in memory mean anything, this sensitiveness to the Divinity which underlies and over-rules the world is capable of becoming a direct and personal communion with God. What then is the food on which this God-consciousness lives and grows? God breathes upon it the breath of life; and in proportion as it is awakened to a realization of its own instincts, it can find God everywhere. But in the weakness and uncertainty of its youth which is not yet overpassed, it most readily and naturally seizes on the inspired utterances of other men and other ages. For such utterances sum up and set in store the accumulated spiritual experiences of days gone by, thus enriching our souls with the concentrated life of great crises in which the progress of centuries bore fruit.

Pursuing this subject in another lecture, we argued that to look for an infallible standard of truth, which can correct the notions of the God-consciousness as exactly as the standard imperial yard corrects the tradesman's measure, is to misunderstand the divine discipline of our souls, and to misread all human history. In this course of thought we have made repeated and special reference to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and have endeavoured to show that the principles we have maintained are of necessity applicable to them. As regards their spiritual teaching, we have contended that these Scriptures are supreme but not alone in their inspiration; while we have also endeavoured to show that their infallibility is entirely untenable, and indeed is practically abandoned even by those who strive for the name. The question then naturally arises, what is the right use of the Bible in the cultivation of our spiritual faculties? At the same time the very necessity for asking the question suggests the possibility of abuse; and experience shows that abuse of the Bible has been far too common, with the most mischievous results, not only to religious philosophy, but to piety and morality.

In an attempt to meet such questions, we cannot do better than follow out the suggestions arising out of the instructive and impressive words of our Lord which we have taken for our text. I venture to agree with those who would read those words thus: "Ye do search the Scriptures, because in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me: and ye will