162 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868-1870] 



the ideal relation between Christ and the Church made 

 perfect. 



In all this Scripture can never wax old. To Scripture 

 we must ever turn to realise the true historic Christ until 

 the Risen and Ascended One returns to His people. But 

 all theology must advance, if it were only because the Christ 

 of the gospels so far transcends the theology of any age 

 that to cling to an unchangeable dogma is really to cease 

 to look to Him whom we must ever seek to comprehend 

 more fully, to love more singly, to follow more devotedly. 

 Finally, to apply all this in one word to our own case : 

 Three things, I suppose, will make our theological work 

 harmonious and profitable. 



1. That we take Christ as the A and ft of our theology : 

 the foundation of our theology, the historical Christ mani 

 fested in the gospel ; and the goal of our theology, Christ 

 coming again in glory as the Head of a spotless Church. 



2. That we seek to think and reason, not in our own 

 strength, but by the Holy Spirit strengthening us to see 

 Christ as He is. 



3. That we patiently and laboriously avail ourselves 

 of our historical position as inheritors of the theological 

 fund which the Church has already gained, not yielding 

 our freedom to man s judgment, yet not forgetting that 

 we are but parts of a great whole, and that true advance 

 is possible only by diligently developing those results 

 which God s providence has already given to the Church. 



And now may the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of 

 whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named, 

 grant us according to the riches of His glory to be 

 strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man, 

 that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we, 

 being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to com 

 prehend with all saints what is the length and breadth 

 and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ 

 which passeth knowledge that we may be filled with all 

 the fulness of God. 



