at all; the plays themselves remain as
valuable as ever; their interpretation of life in its tragedy and
humor, its heights and its depths, is as true as it ever was. Whatever
views of their composition or authorship may be reached by literary
experts, the Scriptures possess exactly the same spiritual power they
have always possessed. The Lord has been "our dwelling-place in all
generations," whether Moses or some other psalmist penned that line; and
Jesus is the bread of life, whether the apostle John or some other
disciple whom Jesus loved records that experience. Scholars may make the
meaning of the Scriptures much plainer by their searching studies; and
they must be encouraged to investigate as minutely and rigorously as
they can. To be fearful that the Bible cannot stand the test of the
keenest study, is to lack faith in its divine vitality. To found a
"Bible Defence League" is as unbelieving as to inaugurate a society for
the protection of the sun. Like the sun the Bible defends itself by
proving a light to the path of all who walk by it. The only defence it
needs is to be used; and the only attack it dreads is to be left unread.

And in speaking of the authority of the Bible we cannot forget that it
is not for Christians the supreme authority. "One is your Master, even
Christ." We must be cautious in speaking of the Bible, as we commonly
do, as "the word of God." That title belongs to Jesus. The Bible
contains the word of God; He is for us _the_ Word of God. We dare not
overlook His untrammelled attitude towards the Scriptures of His people,
who let His own spiritual discernment determine whether a Scripture was
His Father's living voice to Him, or only something said to men of old
time, and given temporarily for the hardness of hearts that could
respond to no higher ideal. As His followers, we dare not use less
freedom ourselves. We test every Scripture by the Spirit of Christ in
us: whatever is to us unchristlike in Joshua or in Paul, in a psalmist
or in the seer on Patmos, is not for us the word of our God: whatever
breathes the Spirit of Jesus from _Genesis_ to _Revelation_ is to us our
Father's Self-revealing speech.

Nor do we think that God ceased speaking when the Canon of the Bible was
complete. How could He, if He be the living God? "Truth," said Milton,
"is compared in Scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow
not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of
conformity and