144 Christ's application of CHAP. 



which are written," then, has nothing to do with 

 principles of interpretation, but is directed, with the 

 whole of the first four chapters of this Epistle, against 

 the temper of self-sufficiency, boastfulness, and strife. 



If read according to the mere letter, the saying 

 that God is the God of the ancient patriarchs, proves 

 that God is a God of the dead, because the patriarchs 

 have died. But the spirit giveth life, and the spiritual 

 mind has the power and the right to read, between 

 the lines of the Old Testament, the truth that the 

 Divine perfection makes it impossible for God to lose 

 His own elect, or to abandon them in death ; that He 

 must therefore be the God of the living, and that the 

 patriarchs, though dead, must be heirs of life. Our 

 Lord, in His comment on this passage, has taught us 

 that in the interpretation of Scripture we ought to go 

 beyond the things which are written beyond the 

 letter to the spirit. 



Let us now see how He applies this principle to 

 the actual problems of life. 



He more than once calmed a storm on the Lake of 

 Galilee. On the first of these occasions the disciples 

 who were with Him in the boat were much alarmed 

 when the storm came on suddenly ; but Christ, when 

 they called on Him, made a " great calm," and then 

 said, "Why are ye so fearful 1 have ye not yet 

 faith 1 " 1 implying that they ought to have faith 

 enough to know that He would not only be Himself 

 1 Mark iv. 37-40. 



