Revelation and inspiration, being really two aspects of the same process, can never be separated from each other. Revelation, like inspiration, is a process, not a static condition. There are adequate reasons for putting the Bible in a class by itself, above all other books; but not for regarding it as the primary ground of Faith. The only word that our Lord ever wrote, so far as we know, was traced with His finger on the unrecording ground. It was not His will that His religion should be, like Islam, the religion of a book. He wrote His message on the hearts of a few faithful men, where it was not to be imprisoned in Hebrew or Greek characters, but was to germinate like a seed in fruitful soil. "The words which I have spoken to you,' says the Johannine Christ, they are spirit and they are life.'

The office of authority in religion is essentially educational. Like every good teacher, it should labour to make itself superfluous. The instructor should not rest content till his pupil says, 'Now I believe, not on thy saying, but because I see and know for myself.'

Theology is the most conservative of the sciences, and among other tendencies of bygone days it has retained a timid and superstitious reverence for the written word, whether it be text or commentary. Too many theologians persist in looking back, though the people are looking forward. They look back, and they pay the penalty for doing so, like Lot's wife. The deserts of theological literature are strewn with these dreary pillars of salt. Commentaries on the Old and New Testaments, full of palpably absurd explanations borrowed from the Fathers; books on dogmatic theology constructed on the same principles; anxious researches into the liturgies and ritual of the Middle Ages with a view to careful imitation-all alike show how potent the dead hand is in matters of religion. The scribe who is instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven, said our Lord, is like a householder who brings out of his

treasure things new and old. The wise scribe does not, however, bring forth some things that are new and other things that are old, but he gives a new life to things that are old (for indeed we cannot truly believe in our authority unless we believe with it-the truth must be born anew in the heart of every believer), and he discerns the ancient, eternal truth of what seems to be new. In part, our objection to orthodox dogmatism is that it does not go back far enough. Res ipsa, quae nunc Christiana religio nuncupatur, erat apud antiquos, nec defuit ab initio generis humani, quousque ipse Christus veniret in carne, unde vera religio, quae iam erat, coepit appellari Christiana.' 1

The ultimate authority, which alone is infallible, is the eternal and living Truth.

1 Augustine, Retract. i. 13, 8.

CHAPTER VIII

AUTHORITY BASED ON JESUS CHRIST

WE have discussed two great historic attempts to make Faith rest on external authority. We have investigated the claims of the infallible Church and of the infallible Book, and have found them both defective. At the same time we have found that each contains a true principle. The authority of the Church, rightly understood, is the authority of the redeemed race, the elect-the stored spiritual experience of humanity. The authority of the Book, rightly understood, is the authority of the records of revelation, the testimony of those who have been inspired, to whom truth has been revealed. Neither authority is, or can be, absolute or infallible; for there is no way of escape from the objection that an infallible authority requires infallibility in the recipient as well as in the author of the revelation. If such infallibility were in the possession of any man or any institution, there would be no room for Faith.

My subject in these lectures is Faith, not the Christian Faith. But I have naturally taken my examples from our own religion, and as my aim in choosing this subject is not purely speculative, but also practical, I have felt no scruple in approaching each department of it mainly from the side which is familiar to thoughtful persons in our own age and country. And having said so much about the Catholic Church and the Bible, as the alleged seats of authority in matters of Faith, I feel that I cannot

leave the subject without considering, however cursorily and inadequately, what for very many Christians, and in a sense for all Christians, is the ultimate court of appeal, viz. neither the Church nor the Bible as a whole, but the recorded utterances of Jesus Christ, and, in matters of conduct, what those records tell us of His example and character.

I shall maintain that there is a sense in which every Christian must own the authority of Christ as the primary ground of his faith. It is not enough even to say that Christ is our primary authority, leaving it open to admit other grounds of Faith besides authority. But it will be necessary to explain how this is consistent with my thesis that the primary ground of Faith is an instinct or faculty which impels us to seek and find God. We must also remember that, in connecting the name of Christ with what is primary and essential in Faith, we must be careful not to do less than justice to what is true and spiritual and genuinely religious in non-Christian ages and countries, and in high-minded Agnostics among ourselves. I hope, before the end of these lectures, to deal with both these difficulties.

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What kind of authority did Christ Himself claim, so far as we can judge from the Gospels? We know that it was a distinguishing feature of His teaching, that He taught as one having authority, and not as the Scribes.' The doctrine of the Scribes was founded on documents, traditions, responsa prudentum; that of Christ was fresh from the mint; it was all at first hand, clean-cut and unhesitating. He also required that His disciples should adopt a definite attitude towards His Person. They were to take up the cross and follow Him.' For His sake and the Gospel's, they were to be ready to sacrifice all earthly goods, and life itself. They were never to be ashamed of Him and His words, on pain of being disowned at the great day. An action done in His name is meritorious; a friendly act done to Him has the same value as an act done for God

Himself, who sent Him. That man is blessed, who shall not be offended in Him. He is the stone on whom whosoever shall fall shall be broken, and on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall scatter him as chaff. These sayings are all from the Synoptics. In the Fourth Gospel this personal claim is even more dominant and all-embracing.

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In His teaching He calmly sets aside even the revered law of Moses in one particular after another. 'Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time but I say unto you'-something quite different. Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am,' He tells His disciples. In spite of His meekness and gentleness He rebukes sharply any one, no matter whom, who presumes to offer Him advice. Two of the severest rebuffs recorded in the Gospels are inflicted upon His Mother and the foremost of His disciples for attempting to suggest to Him what He should do. So far as we can judge from our records He claimed absolute obedience, unqualified trust and confidence. He taught and acted with authority' in the fullest sense of the word.

And yet there is another side. In the Fourth Gospel, no less than in the other three, Christ always declares that 'the Word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.' I came not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.' It is, after all, His cause rather than His Person, the Revelation rather than the Revealer, on which He desires to fix men's thoughts, and for which He claims their homage. He will resent no personal affronts, avenge no private injuries. The Samaritan village which refuses to receive Him remains unpunished. He declares that a word spoken against the Son of Man would find forgiveness: it is only blasphemy against the Holy Ghost that is unpardonable. He never sought to be anything of Himself as man, but only as the vehicle of redemption and salvation.

This combination of unlimited claims with unlimited