IT is quite impossible to over-estimate the deep importance of this great
subject, for on our conclusions respecting it must depend our confidence
in all the great mysteries of the Gospel. There is a sphere within which
the human mind is capable of astonishing achievement, and I would be the
last to undervalue human intellect. It has done vast things already, and
is doing great things now. But there is a limit beyond which it has no
power to pass; a world in which it has no means of investigation; an
unseen kingdom which lies quite outside its range. Yet, though unseen,
this kingdom is all important; and, though an undiscovered country, it is
one in which we are all most deeply concerned, for we are all rapidly
hastening thither, and He who is our Father, our Creator, our Redeemer,
our Lord, our life, is the great and unseen Head of it. Thus, no science
can ever inform us as to the nature of the Godhead, the plan of
salvation, or eternal life; and it is altogether unphilosophical and
unscientific to attempt to reduce such subjects to the ordinary rules of
science and philosophy. God’s plan of salvation can only be known from
God Himself; so that, if He has not imparted to us all needful knowledge
respecting it, there is no human power that can ever supply the
deficiency, and we must live and die convinced of the soul’s immortality,
but still in utter ignorance of the plan which God has arranged for its
safety. Hence the inexpressible value of the inspired word of Scripture.
It is the communication from God to man respecting the deep things of the
unseen world. It supplies that which lies beyond the reach of human
investigation, and gives us exactly that information which dying man
requires. It unfolds to us the eternal nature of God, and the plan of
salvation which He has prepared in tender mercy for a fallen world. If
therefore our Bible fail us, our whole hope fails with it, and if we
cannot rely on its sacred statements, we are left without any trustworthy
information as to all those great truths which most deeply concern us.
If we cannot rely on Scripture as a communication from God we have
nothing to take its place; and all our present joy, as well as our future
hopes, must melt away into utter ignorance respecting all that lies
beyond the range of science, and utter hopelessness as to all beyond this
present world.
It is not my present object to attempt to prove the inspiration of
Scripture. It is a great and noble subject, and one which I should
rejoice to investigate. But it is not the subject of this paper. My
object is to examine the extent and nature of inspiration, and to that I
must exclusively confine myself. I take it for granted therefore that
inspiration is an admitted fact, so that my only business is to consider
how far it carries us, and what security it gives us for certain,
reliable, infallible truth, in all the statements of the inspired word.
It has been said that ‘Inspiration is that idea of Scripture which we
gather from the knowledge of it,’ {5a} and an attempt has been made to
show how by such a definition all difficulties are overcome. I freely
grant that such a theory does present a very easy and ready method of
getting rid of difficulty, for, if we decide on reducing the authority of
Scripture to our own ideas respecting it, it is not likely that there
will be much left to embarrass us. There is however one difficulty, and
that a most important one, which it cannot solve. It can give no solid
foundation for the anxious soul to rest on, and must leave us floating
into eternity with no better support than a vague idea of our own
creation.
St. Peter differs very widely from the author of that essay; for though
the author boldly asserts that {5b} ‘for any of the higher or
supernatural views of inspiration there is no foundation in the Gospels
or Epistles,’ St. Peter broadly and plainly asserts that ‘Holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ (2 Pet. i. 21.) Here then
we have the Apostolic definition of the work of inspiration, and by that
definition we are taught that there are two distinct elements to be
considered, the divine and the human; the divine, for the Holy Ghost
moved the writers; and the human, for the communication did not come as a
direct voice from heaven, but holy men spake as they were moved.
In order therefore fully to investigate the subject, it will be necessary
to examine (1) the divine element, (2) the human element, and (3) the
combination of the two; after which we may consider some of the
difficulties which have been thought to lie against the doctrine.