114 VEN. ARCHDEACON WILLIAM SINCLAIR^ D.D.^ ON 



Christians . . . The works of great spirits have been bestowed 

 by God upon the peoples, in order that they may model their 

 development upon them, and may continue to feel their way 

 through the confused labyrinth and the unexplored pathwaj^s of 

 their earthly lot. God has certainly 'revealed' Himself to divers 

 persons in divers ways corresponding to the position of a nation and 

 the standard of civilization it has attained ; and He still does so in 

 our day. For just as we are most overwhelmed by the grandeur 

 and might of the glorious character of the creation when we 

 contemplate it, and as we contemplate, marvel at the greatness of 

 God which it reveals, so surely may we recognize with gratitude 

 and admiration, in everything really great and glorious which an 

 individual or a nation does, the glory of the revelation of God, He 

 thus acts directly upon us and among us. 



" The second kind of revelation, the more strictly religious, is 

 that which leads up to the appearance of our Lord. From 

 Abraham onwards it is introduced slowly but with prescient vision, 

 infinite wisdom, and infinite knowledge, or else mankind would 

 have been lost. And now begins that most marvellous operation, the 

 revelation of God Himself. The seed of Abraham and the nation 

 developed therefrom, regarded with iron consistency the belief in 

 one God as their holiest possession. They were obliged to cherish 

 and form it. They were disintegrated during the captivity in 

 Egypt ; Moses welded together the separate fragments for the 

 second time, and they always persisted in their endeavour to 

 preserve their ' monotheism.' It is the direct intervention of God 

 which makes it possible for this people to emerge once more. And 

 so the process continues through the centuries until the Messiah, 

 foretold by prophets and psalmists, at last appears. This was the 

 greatest revelation of God in the world, for he appeared in the Son 

 Himself : Christ is God : God in human form : He delivered us : 

 He inspires us : He attracts us to follow Him : we feel his fire burn 

 in us, His compassion strengthens us. His displeasure destroys us : 

 though at the same time we feel that His intercession rescues us. 

 Assured of victory, relying on His Word alone, we endure labour, 

 scorn, wretchedness, distress and death : for we have in Him the 

 revealed Word of God, and God never hes." 



You have then absolutely nothing to fear from the more rash 

 and destructive school of the Higher Critics. From the devout, 

 serious, and reasonable school you have everything to learn. 

 You will be able to study the Old Testament more intelligently, 

 to teach it to your children more usefully, to obtain its comfort 

 and teaching more effectually for your own souls. Eemember 

 always that it was to the Old Testament that Christ and the 

 early Church appealed in proof of His Divinity. " Search the 



