tions of the Spirit of God and of truth. Even Jude (19, 20.) blames those who "have not the Spirit" and urges all men to "pray in the Holy Ghost." Thus do the writers of both the Old and New Testaments teach us that all goodness every where-in all persons and things-is attributable to divine Inspiration, that such Inspiration is essential to every man in order to his being a member of the kingdom of heaven or a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that Inspiration is of various value, according to the excellence which it produces, so that inspired preaching (or "prophesying ") is better than the amazing but irrational gift of " tongues;" and love, like that depicted in 1 Cor. xiii. 4-7, is superior to any other result of Inspiration.

It is very remarkable that nowhere-not even in Jeremiah-do we find the inspired penmen-Jewish or Christian pronouncing their own writings inspired.* Yet we doubt not they believed every writing-like every thing else to be inspired in proportion to its goodness. They would find no difficulty in pronouncing the histories or parables (to whichever class each case

* One of the nearest approaches to such a statement is Paul's expression (1 Cor. vii. 40.) "But she is happier if she so abide, after my judg"ment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God." This certainly looks as if, whenever Paul wrote the expression of any of his strong convictions, he supposed such writing to be inspired: but two further observations, which should not be lost sight of in connexion with this passage, are, that manifestly Paul could not always-if he could everdistinguish between his natural and his inspired thoughts; and that, just as on our principles we should expect, his doubt about the inspiration of any thought appears to be proportioned to the questionableness of the wisdom, utility and holiness of that thought.

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may belong) of creative power in Genesis, or of deceptive temptation, or of believing Abraham, or of holy Joseph, to be inspired. The care for and constant remembrance of God and religion manifested in "the Law;" the lesson, of repentance and pardon through God's mercy, as taught in all the historical books including Judges and Chronicles; the piety and intense earnestness of the Psalmists and prophets; the patience of Job; the suggestive aphorisms of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes; the simple and beautiful affection of Ruth; the truthfulness to human nature and to the principle of providential government in Esther, a book which never names God; and the important and, as all history strangely proves, the much required lesson of Canticles that the Creator approves the playful, virtuous fondness of the bride with her bridegroom-all these and countless other excellences, in the Old Testament, and the matchless holiness of the New Testament, compel every man, who, like the Jews and early Christians, ascribes all that is good to the inspiration of God, to acknowledge that the Bible is an inspired volume, or—which is the same thing said in the Greek or Hebrew idiom-that the divine Ruach, the Pneuma of God, was in the writers and is in the writings of Holy Scripture.

It is noticeable, in connexion with the general subject of our previous chapters, that, not only does no sacred penman claim for his writings the character of inspiration, but, moreover, that the very idea of Inspiration, as it was held by the Old and New Testament writers, had not the slightest connexion or even compatibility

with infallibility. For instance, what could be more profanely absurd than to call the inspired Samson infallible? Or, what could be further from Paul's meaning than to describe the Corinthians as infallible though he told them the Spirit of God dwelt in them, that is, that they were inspired-yea and though he even said of them (2 Cor. iii. 3.) that they were "declared to be the epis"tle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, "but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of "stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart." Here was verily an inspired writing, spoken of by Paul: yet no man says this writing, the Christians namely of Corinth, was infallible. The truth is, as has been observable to the reader throughout this chapter, that, amongst the pious Jews and the early Christians, the idea of Inspiration was wholly unmixed with the notion of infallibility, and was, in addition to referring each good thing to God as its giver, simply equivalent to what we mean by any or all the several words good, strong, orderly, wise, clever, inventive, brave, instinctive, holy.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 66 GENIUS" AND "INSPIRATION." THE difference between the idea of genius, in point of fact, and that of divine inspiration is, not in the result produced, but in the originator recognised. Thus we— referring Milton's Paradise Lost or Bacon's Novum Organon to the man who wrote each, (genius or creative thinker) or to the sprite that was in the man (genius, a heathen dæmon)-describe each of these books as a

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"work of genius:" but the far truer and grander mode of speaking would be to refer the creative power of thinking to Him, who alone made Milton or Bacon to differ from ordinary writers, and thus to call their books works of the Spirit of God, written by divine Inspiration. In this manner, without a doubt, David or Solomon or Isaiah or Paul would have spoken of every thing which may with propriety be called a work of genius or of cleverness, or of holiness.

When the reader has perused our next Book we shall not be justly chargeable with under-rating the peculiar authority which, in consideration of its Inspiration and on many other grounds, attaches to the Bible more than to any book: but, in the meanwhile, this which we have written, seems to us to be the Bible's own teaching on the subject of Inspiration, namely, that every thing good in any book, person or thing, is inspired and that the value of any inspired book must be decided by the extent of its inspiration and the importance of the truths which it well (or inspiredly) teaches. Milton and Shakspeare and Bacon and Canticles and the Apocalypse and the Sermon on the Mount and the eighth chapter to the Romans are-in our estimationall inspired but which of them is the most valuable inspired document, or whether the Bible, as a whole, is not incomparably more precious than any other book, these are questions which must be decided by examining the observable character and tendency of each book and the beneficial effect which history may show that each has produced.

CHAPTER IV.

THE USE OF THE WORD INSPIRATION IN ITS TRUE AND ANCIENT SENSE AMONG THE CHURCHES OF CHRISTENDOM.

THE materials for our definition of the true meaning of the sacred word "Inspiration" are now complete: but we wish, in closing this Book, briefly to draw attention to the undeniable fact that by us, Christians of all parties and denominations, in the nineteenth century, this word and its kindred or cognate terms are still employed, quite apart from all reference to infallibility, in their true, wise and scriptural sense as well as in that other sense in which an unhappy and superstitious confusion of thought attaches the notion of infallibility to whatever is inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.

Thus we find the Liturgy and the Articles of the Established Church in England employing the terms in such instances as the following:

"Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all "desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; "cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name, through Christ our "Lord. Amen."--Collect in Communion Service.

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“O Lord, from whom all good things do come, grant "to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration "we may think those things that be good and by thy