t and
say such and such things are human and such and such things are Divine,
though there are instances in which we may do this, and the Scriptures
would justify us in so doing. There will be much in Holy Scripture
which is at once very human and very Divine. The two aspects are not
incompatible with each other; rather, they are intimately united. Look
at them in one light, and you will see the one; look at them in another
light, and you will see {36} the other. But the substance of that
which gives these different impressions is one and the same.

It is from no irreverence, but because of the over-towering importance
of the book, that the best scholars (devout, prayerful scholars, as
well as the reverse) have given the best of their lives to the study of
its text, its history, its writers, its contents.

Their criticism has, as we know, been classified under three heads:--

(1) Lower, or _textual_ criticism.
(2) Higher, or _documentary_ criticism.
(3) Historical, or _contemporary_ criticism.

_Lower criticism_ seeks for, and studies, the best and purest text
obtainable--the text nearest to the original, from which fresh
translations can be made.

_Higher criticism_ seeks for, and studies, documents: it deals with the
authenticity of different books, the date at which they were written,
the names of their authors.

_Historical criticism_ seeks for, and studies, _data_ relating to the
history of the times when each book was written, and the light thrown
upon that history by recent discoveries (e.g. in archaeology, and
excavations in Palestine).

{37}

No very definite results have yet been reached on many points of
criticism, and, on many of them, scholars have had again and again to
reverse their conclusions. We are still only _en route_, and are
learning more and more to possess our souls in patience, and to wait
awhile for anything in the nature of finality. Meanwhile, the living
substance is unshaken and untouched.

This living substance, entrusted to living men, is the revelation of
God to man, and leads us to our last selected name--Revelation.

(V) REVELATION.

The Bible is the revelation of the Blessed Trinity to man--of God the
Son, by God the Father, through God the Holy Ghost. It is the
revelation of God to man, and in man. First, it reveals God _to_
man--"pleased as Man with man to dwell". In it, God stands in front of
man, and, through the God-Man, shows him what God is lik