of Sardis: "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, Rev. iii. 4. that have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy." LECTURE XXX. STUDY OF THE WORD OF GOD-SACRED PSALMODY COL. iii. 16, 17. 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God and the Father by him. OUR apostle comes now to the third means of The our rising more and more to a heavenly taste. study of the Holy Scriptures; the letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, so as to supply us with the matter of sacred psalms, and teach and direct us to do all in the name and to the glory of the Lord Jesus. The first clause of these verses is obviously the most important, as leading to all the rest. Here then let us consider, in what respects the holy Scriptures are the word of Christ; then, the manner in which they are to be studied; and the refutation of the whole Romanist system as to the suppression and supercession of the Bible, which the exhortation contains. 1. For by the Word of Christ, our apostle seems to have meant the whole of the inspired Scriptures; not excluding the word or doctrine of Christ as preached by the apostles "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," and afterwards communicated in written epistles; but embracing the whole volume of inspiration. The universal terms employed, and the reference to the Book of Psalms in the following clause of the verse, appear to imply a well-known book, acknowledged and received as the Word of God or the holy Scriptures; and this, I conceive, the apostle calls, with a particular view to the case of the Colossians, the Word of Christ. And the Holy Bible may well be thus styled as containing our Lord's personal preaching of the Gospel with his own lips; as revealing the mystery of his redemption; as dictated by his Spirit; and as terminating, in all its parts and bearings, in the manifestation of his glory. For the holy Scriptures contain our Lord's personal teaching; all the Gospel in its main particulars, as preached by him when he was on earth. The four Gospels are only the narrative of the words of Christ proclaiming salvation to man. His divine voice preached the good tidings, appealed to the Old Testament Scriptures; gave a divine attestation to the law of Moses, the psalms, and the prophets; formed the connecting link of the old and new dispensation; and exhibited the first specimens of the "opening the door of faith to the Gentiles." For example, we read on one occasion, that when our Lord "came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, there was delivered to him the Book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to bind up the broken-hearted;"" and he closed the book," and began to say unto him, "This day is this Luke iv. 16 Scripture fulfilled in your ears." -21. 10. But the Scriptures, in all their amplitude, are the word of Christ, as revealing the mystery of his great redemption, with a continually increasing developement. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Rev. xix. prophecy." From the very fall of man, a revelation of the future Messiah was made in the brief but pregnant promise of "the seed of the woman." Then followed Abel's sacrifice; the covenant with Noah; the call of Abraham, and the Mosaic types, ceremonies, priesthood, and great day of atonement, all typical and prophetical of Christ. The Book of Job, also, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs; and the prophecies from Jonah to Malachi E E 1 Pet. i. 10, 11. are, with various degrees of light, resplendent with the mystery of Christ. So far as to the Old Testament; the New speaks for itself. This very Epistle to the Colossians, what does it treat of but "Christ in" and among "the Gentiles the hope of glory? And as it was in this mystery that the Colossians especially needed to be established, the apostle may, therefore, have chosen to call the whole inspired volume, the Word of Christ. But the Scriptures are the Word of Christ because they are inspired by the Spirit of Christ. "The prophets," we learn from St. Peter, "searched what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." The people in the wilderness are said to have 1 Cor. x. 9. “ tempted Christ." The apostle calls Moses' enHeb. ii. 26. durance of the afflictions of Egypt, "his preferring 19. the reproach of Christ to all the treasures of Egypt." "That rock was Christ," saith St. Paul, speaking of the rock pouring out its streams for the refreshment of the multitude in the desert. St. Peter teaches us, also, that "Christ went by his Spirit in the 1Pet. iii. prophets, and preached in the days of Noah." Thus it was the Logos, the Eternal Word, the "Creator of all things visible and invisible; the image of the invisible God; in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt," who inspired " the prophecies of old time;" 2 Pet. i. 21. which " came, not by the will of men; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Accordingly, our Lord thus directs the ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of The Scriptures are, further, the Word of Christ, because they terminate, in all their parts, in the manifestation of his glory. Christ is the burden and end of them. Take away Christ from the Bible, and you blot out the sun from the firmament. Take away Christ from the Bible, and you leave only a lifeless mass of precepts and ceremonies. The Holy Scriptures have their sum, and centre, and scope, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelations, in his glory. Not only have we in the Bible his personal preaching-not only the mystery of his redemption—not only the inspired dictates of the Holy Ghost as sent by him, but much more; Christ is the end of the whole volume, the golden thread to guide through the labyrinth, the pearl of unknown price which the evangelical merchantman having found, went and sold all that he had, and bought; the treasure hid in the field, which when a man had discovered, he went, and selling all that he had, purchased that field. Christ is the key of the arch; the corner-stone of the foundation; and the sun illuminating with his righteousness and salvation the whole system to its remotest limits. The design of the Almighty therein was to "give the light of the 2 Cor. iv. 6. knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus |