psalms, we felt obliged to agree with them against the evidence of the psalms themselves. If they said that Isaiah wrote the whole of the book of Isaiah we must defend the statement even though it is plain in the book that the second half was written two hundred years after the first half. We must make the facts fit the theory.

When Jesus told the disciples that Elijah was mistaken, he liberated us from allegiance to the Old Testament, and bound us only to Old Testament truth,—to Old Testament truth certified by the knowledge and spirit we are of. When we encounter errors of statement and deficiencies of doctrine in these pages we are not to shut our eyes to them, to conceal them, to deny them, or to behave ourselves in any unnatural or insincere manner. We are to follow the example of his frankness. Out of bondage to these ancient books, he has set us free.

III

WHAT, THEN, IS INSPIRATION?

AN we read the Bible in this free way,-prefer

CA

fusing there, agreeing but sometimes disagreeing,and still believe that it is an inspired book? It depends on what we understand by inspiration.

The verb "to inspire" means to breathe in or upon. Thus "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." In this sense all human beings are inspired: inspired with life, of which breath is the symbol, and of which God is the origin. The only occurrence of the word "inspiration" in the Old Testament is in the book of Job (32:8) where it says, "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." In the Revised Version this reads, "the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding." Here again, we are all inspired of God, but to the idea of the divine origin of our life is added the idea of the divine origin of our reason. We are able to think and to know because the breath of God is in us.

A similar expression is the "spirit of God." The spirit of God comes upon the prophets, and they prophesy. This is at first different from the sober

words of the inspired books. Thus Moses "gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit which was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders; and it came to pass that when the spirit rested upon them they prophesied, and did not cease." (Num. 11:24, 25.) The account is vague, but it seems to imply something other than the pronouncing of decisions or the imparting of divine truth. There was probably an incoherent or ecstatic element in it, as in the oracles of other religions.

In the New Testament, along with the phrase the "Spirit of God," there are many references to the "Holy Spirit," the "Holy Ghost." The inspiration thus derived is described plainly as resulting in some form of ecstasy or incoherence. Thus St. Paul, discussing the gift of speaking with tongues (I Cor. 14) says, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also": making a distinction. And he adds, "If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?" At the first hearing of the tongues, on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:13), some of the bystanders said, "These men are full of new wine."

Gradually, both in the Old Testament and in the New, the phases of inspiration which suggested intoxication or insanity passed, and we have the sober

words of prophets and apostles. There passed also, for a time, the idea of limiting the gift of inspiration within the circle of a class. Even in the case of the seventy elders, "there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad; and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, 'Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.' And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, 'My Lord Moses, forbid them."" These young men had the enthusiastic exclusiveness of youth. "And Moses said unto him, 'Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!" Long after, in a day when the barrenness of the official prophets was notorious, an inspired man, Amos, who declared concerning his words "thus saith the Lord," declared also that he had no connection with any prophetic society. "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son. The Lord took me as I followed the flock."

So in the New Testament. At first, the apostles alone are inspired. The Gospel of St. John leaves the matter without exact determination, calling the group whom the Lord especially blessed "disciples" (John 20:19); but the Gospel of St. Luke specifies the eleven who remained after the death of Judas (Luke 24:33-36). These were they to whom he said, " "Peace be unto you; as my Father hath sent me, even so send

I you.' And when he had said this he breathed on them, and saith unto them, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost.'" But a little later, when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, they who were all with one accord in one place seem to have been not only the apostles but the brethren of Jesus, and his mother, and a group of devout women (Acts 1:14). Upon all these came the Holy Ghost, with a sound as of a rushing, mighty wind, and an appearance as of tongues of fire. They were all inspired alike. And they went out inspiring others. The primitive signs of inspiration followed them. On whomsoever they laid hands, they received the Holy Ghost (Acts 8:19). Indeed, the Spirit waited not even for a laying on of hands. In the house of the centurion, Cornelius (Acts 10:44), while Peter was speaking, "the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." The same inspiration accompanied the ministry of St. Paul, remote as he was from the apostolic society; "when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues, and prophesied." Like Eldad and Medad.

In the only place in which the word "inspiration" is used in the New Testament (II Tim. 3:16), the reference is not to inspired persons but to inspired writings. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." The preceding sentence speaks of "the holy scriptures," which Timothy has known "from a