1..THEINTELLECTUAL REPOSITOR~, AND NEW JERUSALkM MAGAZINE. VOL.XIII.-ENLARGED SERIES. 1866.LONDON:PUBLISHED BY THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE NEW CHURe If. SIONI.IED BY THB NEW JERUSALEM IN THE REVELATION:AND IOLD BYC. P. ALVEY, 36, BLOOMSBURY S"fREET, V.C.

2. 3. THE INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORYAND NEW JERUSALEM MAG.JZINE.No. 145.JANUARY 1ST, 1866.VOL. XIII.INSPIRATION.THEREis no serious believer in the superiority of mans nature and destiny to that. of the beasts which perish, t~ whom this subjectis not one of paramount interest. That it is widely felt to be so isnot more manifest in the readiness with which the Christian Churchfrom its earliest ages has held the Scriptures to be Gods gift forguiding men to heaven, than in the earnestness with which numbersin the present day are asking for evidences of the Divine authorship ofthe received Scriptures. It was well, perhaps, while the human intellectlay slumbering under the mesmeric manipulations of priestly domination,that the human heart could to any extent be bronght into rapport withthe inner life-the spiritual realities of the written Word, so thatalthongh its letter was little understood, the inflow of its spirit couldavail to turn men from evil courses to some love for righteousness.The full purpose bf the Lord, however, in sending His Word to men isto enlighten their understandings, and by means of the light received to renew their hearts that so they may excel in goodness and be prepared for the higher degrees of heavenly life. For this reason we are now living under a new outpouring of divine truth from heaven. And it is this new light which is flowing into mens minds and awakening their rational powers into new activity, causing them to ask of their teacherssatisfactory evidence for the truth of their doctrines; and when referredto the Scriptures, to ask again for proofs of the authority of the sacredwritings. Thus awakened to serious inquiry, they cannot be satisfied 1 4. 2INSPIRATION. with the assertion that the Bible is Gods own word communicated by inspiration to those who wrote it. Even with a sense of much instruc- tion to be found in it for the guidance of their spirits upward, and the right direction of their conduct, they fear to receive it as the unmixed truth sent from God, for the reason that riot only in its pages is there much that appears irrelevant to the purpose of a revelation of Gods will to men, but many things also seemingly opposed to goodness andto truth. No wonder that in their anxiety to exonerate inspired truth of all duplicity, they ignore the decision of ecclesiastical authority uponthe plenary inspiration of the Bible, and set about to discriminatetherein its inspired from its non-inspired parts, and that the kind of in-spiration which they allow to its better parts they equally attribute tomany other writings that make no pretension to Divine authorship.For if nothing higher than the sensually conceived appearances of truthwith which the Word has clothed itself in its literal sense be presentedto their opening rationality, and they hear of no diviner kind of in-spilation than suffices to produce excellence in human compositions,how can they subscribe to the divinity of the entire Scriptures?Are not the wisdo~ and mercy of the Lord manifest in the delightfulfact that the rational inquirer can now be met with a theory of Divineinspiration that-sans all priestly or scholastic authority-he may proveto be the true Qne,-a theory which, while it maintains all the beautifulconsistency and purity that must distinguish all diVine truths, calls forno expulsion of a single passage from the literal sense which, clothesthem, however numerous may be the instances in which that literalsense may seem to contradict spiritual or scientific verities. Is it not amercy that, however valuable or interesting an extensive Biblical know-ledge may be, or the ability to muster on the battle-field of criticism awhole host of versions in their various languages~ still that understand-ing of, and faith in, a Divine revelation with which the rational mindcan be satisfied, may beobtained by ascending above all the din :andobscurity of that battle-neld, and looking for truth in that new lightwhich the opened heaven is now shedding upon the human mind? Inthis new light, or this light of the New Dispensation, the written Wordof God discloses the transparency of its outer covering, and directs thespiritual eye to the living truths within, where the Divine inspiration ofall that is written is no longer a dogma of the church, but a clearlyrevealed fact. How accordant with the wisdom, as well as with themercy, of our Heavenly Father that it should be thus I-that His in-spired Word should be adapted to that common faculty of our humanity, 5. INSPIRATIOl-i the understanding, rather than to the rare acquirement of prodigiouSlearning ;-that it is sent, not to make scholars but men wise untosalvation. But although scholarship is not necessary to a rationalunderstanding of inspired truth, and the simplest minds appreciation ofit may lead to heaven, yet whoever wishes to be as wise as God wouldhave him be, must make the best use of his rational and perceptivepowers. Every piece of Divine workmanship in outward nature, is a unity ofinnumerable particulars most wisely formed and arranged for contri-buting to the perfection of the entire thing. H a plant, a 1l0wer, oran insect exhibit so much wisdom in its Creator, is it rational to thinkthat in the regeneration of man into His own image and likeness,Divine Wisdom will satisfy itself with just a few new formations, andthe impartation of a few general virtues? Can there be a lcss amountof wondrous reconstructi