His action is the expression of reason. His love itself is the expression of reason in acts of will. Redemption, then, does not merely express a divine compassion for sinners, but also the supremacy and majesty of the eternal reason, the unchangeableness of its truth, the authority and inexorableness of its law, the grandeur of its ideals, the blessedness of conformity to it, and the impossibility of blessedness without that conformity to it. If it expressed only the fond impulses and cravings of a nature seeking its own happiness or that of others, it could not be a spiritual power potent to lead men to God.

In this line of thought we see the moral power of the Bible. It is the inspired record of God's supernatural and providential action in redeeming the world in Christ and founding his kingdom under the dispensation of the Spirit. It contains the private revelations of his will to prophets and apostles incident to his redeeming action. It reveals God as the providential and moral Ruler of the world and as the Redeemer of men from sin. It necessarily carries in it the highest moral power; it must always be the instrument in advancing Christ's kingdom; and intimacy with it and reverence for it must always be the condition of a pure, strong Christian character in individuals and in nations.

V. God's Action in the Establishment and Administration of his Kingdom is continued through all Generations in the Holy Spirit.

The energy of God's redeeming grace did not cease to act with the events recorded in the Bible. Redemption is present, not less than past.

The divine agency now is not merely the moral power of the revelation already made, but it is also the present, personal influence of God through the Holy Spirit. The analogy here is not to the memory of a departed mother, but to the mother present with her child, always ready to counsel and help, impressing her influence on it every day, and thus accumulating her moral power. The Christian life is not

sustained merely by knowledge of the truth and meditation on God's action in the past, but by the present action of God upon the soul through the Holy Spirit.

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This doctrine is opposed to the doctrine of Romanism, that divine grace comes to men through the opus operatum of the church. It recognizes every Christian as in immediate communion with God, a recipient of God's grace. It is opposed to a certain rationalistic element which has shown itself even in the best forms of Protestantism; the impression that truth and meditation on the truth are the sole agencies in spiritual life and growth; the Lord's supper, for example, is profitable as an occasion for meditating on the love of Christ, not as an ordinance appointed to convey the influence of the Spirit to him who receives it in faith. This type of thought gives whatever ground there has ever been for the charge of Bibliolatry a charge brought by rationalism against the churches, the only ground for which is the admission by the churches of a rationalistic type of thought. The doctrine of the Spirit is opposed to the rationalistic tendency alleged to be inherent in Protestantism. If the allegation is true, it is only because Protestantism is a protest against errors and abuses; the tendency is not inherent in Christianity, nor in the affirmation of spiritual and historical Christianity which Protestantism makes. Finally, the true doctrine of the Spirit is distinguished from the fanatical by the facts, that the work of the Spirit is the continuance and world-wide extension of God's work of redemption; that it avails itself of the moral power accumulated by God's antecedent redemptive action and the revelation which he has made of himself in the same; that, as the progress and extension of that same redemptive action, it must be in harmony with all the work of redemption which has preceded and with the revelation of the same in the word of God. So Christ explicitly teaches: "He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you."

In the action of God recorded in the Bible he makes an entrance into human history; educates the race for the

coming Christ and the establishment of his kingdom; makes atonement; creates the moral power of the name that is above every name. In the Holy Spirit the redemptive energy becomes a world-power, and the life of Christ flows out into humanity as a life-giving and sanctifying power.

Thus the Spirit brings us into immediate connection with Christ. His presence on earth is a token that Christ lives. and reigns, administering and extending his kingdom. If a friend, going to a distant country, promises to send you on his arrival some curious product of the country, and if, in due time, the promised present is brought to you, you have in hand a pledge and token that he has safely accomplished his journey, and in that distant land remembers you and has kept his promise. So the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was the present token and pledge to the disciples that Jesus, according to his word before his death, had ascended to the right hand of the majesty on high, that all power was given him in heaven and on earth, that in his exaltation he remembered his disciples and kept his promise. And wherever the Spirit touches any human heart, it is in all ages the present token of the same. The Spirit, also, continues the work of redemption. He proceeds from Christ. In him Christ acts, administering his kingdom and advancing it to its triumph. In him the life and redeeming power of Christ, confined while he was on earth to his bodily presence, diffuses itself through the world and courses through human history, more effective than his bodily presence could be: "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come to you."

Thus in the action of the Spirit the redeeming energy of the Son of God is brought immediately upon us. We are brought into immediate contact with the Son of God, and thereby into contact with the Father, in whose love to the world redemption originates; whose love in redemption through Christ and the Spirit floods the earth with its glory and pours through the history of man. It is just as by the sunbeams we are brought into immediate contact with the

sun. So the Spirit touching human hearts with light and quickening, brings us into immediate connection with the Son of God, who is "the outshining of the Father's glory," and who reveals the otherwise unknown Father, and reveals him by flooding us with his love. Thus through the Spirit "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Thus redemption, with all its glory, comes upon us-redemption from the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Ghost.

Thus redemption is the channel in which all the fulness of the Godhead has been poured through human history, widening and brightening from the first promise to Adam until now. So Ezekiel represents it, a fountain bursting forth from beneath the threshold of the sanctuary, at first only up to the ancles, farther on to the knees, then to the loins, and afterwards a river too great to be crossed. We cannot originate that river of life; but we can embark on it as it flows by our doors, and be borne by its shining waves on into the ocean-fulness of God's eternal love.

ARTICLE V.

THE THREE FUNDAMENTAL METHODS OF PREACHING.THE WRITING OF SERMONS.

BY EDWARDS A. PARK.

[Continued from p. 598.]

II. Rules for the Writer of Sermons.

"There was a

politic sermon, that had no divinity in it, was preached before the king. The king, as he came forth, said to Bishop Andrews: Call you this a sermon?' The bishop answered: And it please your majesty, by a charitable construction it may be a sermon.'" 1 A man may easily write what is charitably called a sermon, and "make nothing of it"; but in writing what is actually a sermon, he must carefully train both his body and his mind. The following suggestions are expressed in the form of rules, because they are generally and more conveniently made in this form, and are adopted as rules by eminent authors, whose remarks will be quoted in illustration of them. Some of the suggestions refer to the minister's discipline in preparing to write, more than in his actual writing; some, to the general habit of composition, more than to the act of composing a single discourse.

1. Strive to make your external circumstances, and especially your physical state, conducive to your facility in writing. The associations and conveniences of a place may be made thus conducive. Moving under the shades of "Addison's walk" at Oxford, a man comes as near being a poet as he ever will come. Sitting in Sir Walter Scott's chair at Abbotsford, with his noble library easily accessible,

1 Lord Bacon, Works, Vol. i. p. 401.