liow necessary it is, if we would secure the truth, to have it as 
far as possible at first hand. This makes it necessary ever to 
distinguish between the teachings of the inspired writers and 
all interpretations of those teachings. Not that we would un- 
dervalue interpretation. When a mind full of vast and varied 
knowledge, reads a portion of the Sacred Scriptures, the divine 
thought which rises in that mind will be far more full than that 
which rises in the mind that has but little information. Con- 
sequently, the Avell-informed will often be able to help the 
ill-informed to more lofty and expanded views of divine things, 
or of things divinely spoken of, than could otherwise be reached 
by the less favoured among men. So the mind which is free 
from error, to a great extent, will be capable of far more 
truthful thought in reading the divine record, than that mind 
which has imbibed a great deal of false idea. There will be 
less mixture in the views suggested by revelation in the one 
mind, than in those which rise in the reading of it by the 
other. The man, therefore, who is comparatively free from 
misleading preconceptions, must often be of great use to the 
man who is not so. Hence the value of his interpretations. 
But if these same interpretations are allowed to take the place 
which can only be properly occupied by the sacred Word 
itself, it is not difficult to see that there must be great risk of 
evil. In so far as the interpreter enables the reader to see the^ 
meaning of the divine text more fully for himself, he proves of 
use and value; but the moment the person to whom the in-, 
terpretation is given is turned from thinking of the word of 
God, as addressed to his own mind, away to the thoughts of 
an uninspired interpreter, even if he is not led into error, he is 
led into a false position, in which he loses the peculiar influence 
which truth has on the mind when it is seen to come from God 
Himself. 
Here, then, it seems well to glance at Scripture iuterp rela- 
tion, as that has been affected by geological theories. The 
desire to accommodate men of science, and to accept their 
conjectures as established discoveries of truth, rather than to 
face the unpleasant consequences of sifting, their statements 
so as to show the visionary character of their most cherished 
theories, has had a powerful and, we think, a disastrous effect, 
on the exposition of the Bible. It is not an easy matter for 
those who have the duties and responsibilities of active minis- 
terial life resting fairly on their hearts, to find time to cultivate 
much acquaintance with geology. If they are earnest, they 
are likely to be swallowed up with what they deem more urgent 
work, so as to excuse themselves from that labour which alone 
can enable them to judge for themselves on so complicated a 
