160 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868- 



into living union with the substance. Our first appre 

 hension of a living Christ lies in the first spark of love for 

 Him who first loved us. And then, when this bond of 

 inner sympathy unites us to the person of Christ, the true 

 living substance shines effulgent through all the form, but 

 not at first in clear lineaments. Only by a gradual 

 growth, by constant experimental intercourse with the 

 historical person of Christ, i.e. by comparing every point 

 in the gospel history with our own personal necessities, 

 does our faith develop into knowledge. And even so 

 this knowledge is as yet empirical, in crude practical 

 form not grasped with scientific exactness. Side by side 

 with Christian experience, and acting on the data it 

 furnishes, must go an exercise of real hard thought before 

 our knowledge takes scientific shape and is really worthy 

 to be called theology. 



In this process Scripture is not, as it was in the old 

 dogmatic, the sole instrument of theology. Much rather 

 the instrument of our theology is the whole compass of 

 the regenerated mental powers. But Scripture is still the 

 sole foundation and rule of theology, for in Scripture only is 

 the object of that faith which we desire to comprehend 

 laid down in an authoritative form, i.e. as it presented 

 itself historically and was apprehended by men enlightened 

 by God s Spirit to grasp it truly. And, therefore, we are 

 called upon to construe the object of faith to ourselves, 

 as it appears in Scripture, to see the true depth of meaning 

 lying in the history. If our intelligible Christ differs 

 from the Christ of history, if the salvation we receive 

 differs from the salvation which Christ bestowed on those 

 who were eye-witnesses of His saving work, then we 

 may be sure either that we have argued falsely from our 

 faith, or that our faith itself is false, having its source within 

 ourselves and not in a true operation of God which can 

 never be out of harmony with His working in days gone by. 



The truth of all this is not really affected by the fact 

 that no theologian goes through this process in its ideal 



