THE

PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE.

MARCH, 1856.

Miscellaneous Articles.

OUR GUIDE IN RELIGION.

"THY word," says David, "is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." We find in almost every verse of the hundred and nineteenth psalm some expression of delight in the Holy Scriptures. And we must confess that the author's reverence and love for the word of God was far above that of most religious people in our time. In the almost infinite extent and variety of our religious literature, how seldom have we any such effusions of humble and holy delight in our sacred writings!

Yet David had but a small part of our present Bible. All the sacred records then known to the people of God were the first seven books of the Old Testament, and perhaps the book of Job,-a part of our Holy Scripture by no means the most instructive or attractive to the church of the present day. The later history of the Hebrew commonwealth, the writings of the prophets, the wise maxims of Solomon the son of David, and the whole New Testament, with its records of the life, the character, and the doctrines of David's greater Son,-all these formed no part of David's Bible. And if so small and inferior a portion of Holy Scripture was so precious to him, how much more precious to us should be the complete revelations of our Bible!

Ever since the fall this world has been in itself a scene of spiritual darkness. Sin closes the eyes of men against the light of nature; so that from what may be clearly seen in the things that are made they learn little or nothing of the true God. They do not learn from the teachings of natural conscience, nor the study of their own constitution, either their interest or their duty. By the sunlight of the old creation they do not see the way to heaven.

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They can travel the broad way without light. The blind instinct of our fallen nature leads men along the path of their iniquity. But, when a sinner would turn to God and seek his highest good, he has no light from nature which can show him the way. If he finds out a way that seemeth right to his natural eye, the end thereof are the ways of death. The history of heathenism bears witness of this. The heathens had reason and conscience, with only natural light; and whither have they gone in search of heaven? Well did the prophet say, "They that make idols are like their idols; having eyes, and seeing not; ears, and hearing not; neither understanding with their heart."

But the people of God have a light. Our Holy Oracles, complete as revelations, plain and safe for instruction, are the light which shineth into our natural darkness and disperseth it, as the sun the mists of the morning. And we see their value as a fountain of religious knowledge when we observe

1. That, for the purpose of our religious instruction, the Holy Scriptures stand alone.

When sin had closed the human mind against right views of God from nature, there were special revelations given in various ways. In Eden, and after the expulsion from Paradise, the Lord spoke face-to-face with his chosen servants, but always in the person of the eternal Son, who alone reveals God to men. There were also visits and visions of angels, and voices from heaven, which told the mind of God to the people, addressing sometimes the outward eye and ear, while the secret working of the Spirit enlightened the mind within, all the appearances and voices being a language conveying to his people the knowledge of himself and of his will. When certain of these divine communications were written down, with a record of some circumstances attending them, they became instructive to others, and grew by degrees into the full and permanent form of our present Holy Scriptures. Then the inspiration of God ceased to give new revelations, warned men not to add any thing to those records nor take any thing from them, and left those sacred writings to stand alone as the religious light of the world.

Thus, our only guide in religious doctrine and duty, our only final test of the truth of our thoughts and the righteousness of our deeds, is the word of God contained in the Old and New Testaments. Whatsoever is contrary to this in doctrine is untrue; whatsoever is contrary to this in practice is unrighteous. "To the law and to the testimony;" we must say of all men, if they speak not according to this rule, it is because there is no light in them. No conceit of inward light can be set up against the Holy Scriptures; no dreams or visions; no messages or responses from invisible beings, whether angels or spirits of men: no one nor all of these have any weight against or beside the Bible. The reason of every man wants help in discerning and applying truth; and that

help is the Holy Spirit who graciously lends his eye to the sinner. But the truth which any man's reason discerns by the help of the Spirit is given or implied in the Bible. If any one, by what he may call spiritual light, has discovered a doctrine which is not in the Bible, the doctrine has no authority, and the spirit which discovered it is not of God. The Bible, the written record of the doctrines and commandments of God, read in the light of an humble, childlike, spiritual experience, is our only unerring guide in religious faith and works.

There is great and precious knowledge to be found by a deep and genuine religious experience. By this means we learn much concerning our duty and character, and even the character of God. But all true religious experience is of the Holy Spirit, and is, therefore, either by means of the Scriptures, or strictly agreeable to them. The true religious experience consists in feeling the force of the truth taught in Scripture. The Spirit wrought in the inspired penman the thoughts and feelings recorded in the Bible; and He will not contradict himself by working any different thoughts and feelings in other people. The broken heart, which expresses itself in David, is the pattern of true contrition for us all. We know our experience to be genuine when the words of Holy Writ express it. We know that our thoughts and feelings are of the Spirit when they are such as the Spirit gave to Paul and the other apostles. The Scriptures are rays of the Sun of righteousness; and, when the sun shines into our hearts, it will shine with rays like those. If some may, possibly, by spiritual illumination, reach the measure of the Bible, no one could tell if he had. But, if any claim to go beyond it, they must show us mighty works that may bear them witness that they are of God, or we must not believe them. The thoughts of eminent Christians can never displace the doctrines of the Bible, for their agreement with the Bible must ever be the proof of their truth. Tradition can add nothing to the Bible, except its help in interpretation; for any teaching of tradition against or beside the Bible has no divine authority. Experience is nothing, except as it agrees with the Bible. With entire assurance, therefore, and in the broadest sense, must we say, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as a rule of faith and practice, stand alone. Whoever hath not this light walketh in darkness.

2. And, while they stand thus alone, they are also infallible. On all the subjects treated in them they speak the truth and enjoin the right. No doctrine of Scripture will ever be found untrue. Their word abideth forever. Whatever they teach of the character, duty, and destiny of man, and of the character, government, and will of God, will never be contradicted by any word of authority. Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. The course of nature goes on without variation, because God himself remains