; and it is
that which differentiates it from the mere record which is of no
avail to anybody. So Paul himself in one of his other letters puts
it. This is his gospel: Jesus of Nazareth 'died for _our_ sins
according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and rose again the
third day, according to the Scriptures.' That is what turns the bald
story of the facts into teaching, which is the mould for life.

So on the one hand, dear brethren, do not let us fall into the
superficial error of fancying that our religion is a religion of
emotion and morality only. It is a religion with a basis of divine
truth, which, being struck away, all the rest goes. There is a revolt
against dogma to-day, a revolt which in large measure is justified as
an essential of progress, and in large measure as an instance of
progress; but human nature is ever prone to extremes, and in the
revolt from man's dogma there is danger of casting away God's truth.
Christianity is not preserved when we hold by the bare facts of the
outward history, unless we take with these facts the interpretation
of them, which declares the divinity and the sacrifice of the Son of
God.

And on the other hand, let us keep very clear in our minds the broad
and impassable gulf of separation between the Christian teaching as
embodied in the Scripture and the systems which Christianity has
evolved therefrom. Men's intellects must work upon the pabulum that
is provided for them, and a theology in a systematised form is a
necessity for the intellectual and reasonable life of the Christian
Church. But there is all the difference between man's inferences from
and systematising of the Christian truth and the truth that lies
here. The one is the golden roof that is cast over us; the other is
too often but the spiders' webs that are spun across and darken its
splendour. It is a sign of a wholesome change in the whole sentiment
and attitude of the modern Christian mind that the word 'doctrine,'
which has come to mean men's inferences from God's truth, should have
been substituted as it has been in our Revised Version of my text, by
the wholesome Christian word 'teaching.' The teaching is the facts
with the inspired commentary on them.

II. Secondly, notice that this teaching is in Paul's judgment a mould
or pattern according to which men's lives are to be conformed.

There can be no question but that, in that teaching as set forth in
Scripture, there does lie the mightiest formati