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LECTURE XXVII.

THE PERFECT BOOK.

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book."-Revelation xxii. 18.

LAST Sunday evening I addressed you on the text that follows naturally in order, verse 17, and I then showed you the fulness of the salvation which is provided in the Saviour, and the perfect welcome with which you are invited to partake of it. I endeavoured to show you that great truth-which, indeed, you scarcely needed to be shown, because in your own experience and impulses and feelings, you have sufficient evidence of it—namely, that all flesh is athirst, that every man in the world, whatever be his profession, his age, his circumstances, or his condition of life, is athirst: that there is in man's heart a depth that nothing but the waters of the sanctuary can fill- -a want that nothing but the gospel can satisfy-an aching chasm that he has tried to remove by going to broken cisterns which he has laboriously digged, and, disappointed, has digged again and again; yet he feels, when he comes to the close of his pilgrimage on earth, that this text is the true inscription for every thing upon earth: "If any man drink of this water, he shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that Christ shall give him, shall never thirst, but it shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." I showed you then, that to such as these the invitation is addressed, "Come." The Holy Spirit bids you come; the Bride, the church in glory, that comes down, when complete, as a bride ready for the bridegroom, bends down and bids you come. "And let him that heareth say, Come,"—that is, exemplify the missionary spirit. Many Christians are disposed to cherish much of the essence of Romanism, in looking to the minister as praying" for them, and spreading the gospel also for them: in short, they

wish to do every thing by proxy, and to do nothing themselves. The minister is your leader, not substitute. The moment that any man becomes a Christian, that moment he feels that he has a mission. There is no such thing as a selfish monopoly in the experience of a Christian. The moment he becomes a saint that instant he feels the obligations and responsibilities of a servant." And, therefore, "he that heareth"-the word here is used in Scripture in the sense of hearing and accepting-"he that heareth says, Come." Since I addressed you, have you done so? Masters, have you said so, when you had opportunity, to your servants? Fathers, have you said so, when you had opportunity, to your children? Employers, are you prepared to wear out the last sinew, and to take away and wear down the last atom of existence in the physical strength of the employed; and yet, while this is going on, have you not even whispered, "Come: let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely?"

I now come to a solemn warning, as important as it is solemn. I testify to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him all the plagues that are written in this book." This primarily applies to the Apocalypse; but almost every divine who has looked at the text and offered an analysis of it, admits what I think they rightly admit, that the text is a close to the whole of the Scriptures of truth; that as the Apocalypse is placed, not only in the providence of God, but, I believe, in the express arrangement of God, at the end of the New Testament, so this solemn warning against addition to it implies and involves a no less solemn protest against any addition to that book, which is perfect and sufficient for the salvation of us all. I need not tell you, that, in almost every age of the Christian church, there has been a tendency in some men of corrupt minds," as well as in a few good men of weak minds, to add to the word of God. At the close even of the second century, we read of other gospelsliterally and truly so. I dare say some of you have read of such names as "the Gospel of the Infancy," "the Gospel of Nicodemus," and others assuming to be revelations of the mind and the will of God, which it was attempted to add to the sacred canon.

You have also, I dare say, heard skeptics remark, that our four gospels were selected from a number. Were it so, I venture to assert that the best evidence of the absurdity of the additions, and the clearest evidence of the inspiration of the originals, would just be to read them. Those men who make the remark have never read them. These false gospels were not heard of till the close of the second or beginning of the third century; they were never quoted by a writer previous to that period. They were never quoted by the enemies of Christianity; and they contain so many specimens of nonsense and extravagance, that if they had been in existence, or had been received by Christians, the bitter and sagacious enemies of the gospel would have rejoiced to lay hold of them, quote them, and circulate them. If you examine them, you will find they contain anachronisms and absurdities so many and plain that the very reading of them will produce a smile. But, I repeat it, the best proof that the Bible is inspired, and of its superiority to all human writings, is just the study of the Bible. Let any man read the First and Second Epistles to the Corinthians by St. Paul, and the Epistle to the Corinthians by Clement, a writer subsequent to the days of Paul, and supposed to have been a fellow-labourer of Paul-let any man, I say, just read the Pauline Epistles, and then those of the primitive father, and he will need nothing more to convince him. that God inspired the one, and that the unaided genius of man composed and indited the other. I may give you one very striking specimen of contrast in style between an inspired apostle and an early father. You have all heard of the name of Ignatius; many of his writings are disputed, or disposed of as spurious, but there is one sentiment of his very frequently quoted: "Do nothing without the bishop. The presbyters are in the room of the apostles; and the bishop, of Jesus Christ." I think I quote correctly his words. Having thus read what Ignatius writes about ministers, let us turn to the words of St. Paul on the same subject: "Who is Paul, or who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed?" Do you observe the contrast? With Paul, the minister is comparatively nothing, Christ is all; with Ignatius, the minister is almost God, and Christ is lost in his greater or equal glory. Ignatius substantially writes, that

John must increase, but Christ must decrease: Paul writes, that John must decrease, that Christ may increase, and Christ be all in all.

Such is a specimen of additions to the word of God—additions that need but the influence of common sense, not any higher or stronger one, to be seen and admitted to be the folly of man, professing, blasphemously, if not ignorantly, to be the workmanship of God.

Another class of additions to this book which are condemned in the solemn warning I have read, are all pretensions to prophecy, all predictions of events that are future, under the pretence that the parties predicting are inspired by the Spirit of God to do so. Such prophets and prophetesses, I need not tell you, have existed from the days of Simon Magus down to the days of Joan of Arc, Joanna Southcote, and the Mormon prophet. These parties professed to have a mission directly from above; and to be able, not only to pronounce what is truth now, extrinsic to the Bible, but also to be able to predict what shall take place in the future, beyond the horizon of man's view and the cognizance of man's mind. Such parties we at once denounce as either deluders or deluded. There is no evidence that a prophet exists in the church to whom God reveals things to come, or that such shall be in this dispensation. If such a one were to appear, we should at once, without testing his credentials, say, You are adding to what God has given; and, on the authority of the God who inspired the Bible, we can have nothing whatever to do with you. This, however, we are to distinguish it is one thing to form an estimate, more or less probable, of things to come, from reading and soberly interpreting the prophecies of God; and it is quite another thing to assume to be a prophet, and to predict, on the pretended strength of inspiration from on high, things that are yet in the future. The first is a solemn duty; for "blessed is he that readeth, and they that understand, the prophecy of this book:" the last is deliberate wickedness; for "if any man add to the things which are written in this book, to him shall be added the curses that are contained in this book."

To a third class of additions to God's perfect word, I have

called your attention sometimes before the addition which the great Western Apostasy has made, of the books called the Apocrypha. You need not be told, I am sure, because most of you are aware, that the books of the Apocrypha, as they are calledthe book of Ecclesiasticus, for instance, the book of Tobit, and the two books of Maccabees, and some others, constituting what is called the Apocrypha, the meaning of which is "hidden," as distinguished from Apocalypse, which means "revealed,"-were received by the Council of Trent, the sectarian synod which met about the year 1564, and declared to be just as inspired as the prophecies of Isaiah, or the Gospel according to St. John. Now I conceive that the Church of Rome, from and after that council, became fully developed as the great predicted Apostasy; and this is my great charge against that church. If the Church of Rome were like the Greek Church—a church that has erred, but is reformable-then I could think of it with less hatred of the dishonour it does to God, and brighter hopes of its restoration. But, if I understand my Bible, that church is marked out as the irrecoverable and hopeless Apostasy, doomed to destruction, not destined to reformation. And I believe that one of the gravest sins that that communion has committed, and one of the springs of those grievous heresies by which she is defiled, is her tampering with that blessed word. For whenever a church tries or desires to add a corruption to God's word, sooner or later she receives into her heart a curse from God's throne. That church has added what is called the Apocrypha. Now is there any evidence that these books are part of the word of God? I believe, on this day* many devoted men are calling the attention of their flocks to the great principles of contrast between the Apostasy and the gospel of Jesus; and perhaps I may contribute to enlighten your minds, in these days when one needs to see one's standing clear and to feel one's footing firmly, if I show you, by a very brief recapitulation, that there is not the shadow of a shade of ground for incorporating these Apocryphal books with the word of God.

First of all, these books were not written in Hebrew, like the

November 5.