It is quite impossible to over-estimate the deep importance of this great subject, for on our conclusions respecting it must depend our confidence in all the great mysteries of the Gospel. There is a sphere within which the human mind is capable of astonishing achievement, and I would be the last to undervalue human intellect. It has done vast things already, and is doing great things now. But there is a limit beyond which it has no power to pass; a world in which it has no means of investigation; an unseen kingdom which lies quite outside its range. Yet, though unseen, this kingdom is all important; and, though an undiscovered country, it is one in which we are all most deeply concerned, for we are all rapidly hastening thither, and He who is our Father, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Lord, our life, is the great and unseen Head of it. Thus, no science can ever inform us as to the nature of the Godhead, the plan of salvation, or eternal life; and it is altogether unphilosophical and unscientific to attempt to reduce such subjects to the ordinary rules of science and philosophy. God’s plan of salvation can only be known from God Himself; so that, if He has not imparted to us all needful knowledge respecting it, there is no human power that can ever supply the deficiency, and we must live and die convinced of the soul’s immortality, but still in utter ignorance of the plan which God has arranged for its safety. Hence the inexpressible value of the inspired word of Scripture. It is the communication from God to man respecting the deep things of the unseen world. It supplies that which lies beyond the reach of human investigation, and gives us exactly that information which dying man requires. It unfolds to us the eternal nature of God, and the plan of salvation which He has prepared in tender mercy for a fallen world. If therefore our Bible fail us, our whole hope fails with it, and if we cannot rely on its sacred statements, we are left without any trustworthy information as to all those great truths which most deeply concern us. If we cannot rely on Scripture as a communication from God we have nothing to take its place; and all our present joy, as well as our future hopes, must melt away into utter ignorance respecting all that lies beyond the range of science, and utter hopelessness as to all beyond this present world.

It is not my present object to attempt to prove the inspiration of Scripture. It is a great and noble subject, and one which I should rejoice to investigate. But it is not the subject of this paper. My object is to examine the extent and nature of inspiration, and to that I must exclusively confine myself. I take it for granted therefore that inspiration is an admitted fact, so that my only business is to consider how far it carries us, and what security it gives us for certain, reliable, infallible truth, in all the statements of the inspired word.

It has been said that ‘Inspiration is that idea of Scripture which we gather from the knowledge of it,’ [5a] and an attempt has been made to show how by such a definition all difficulties are overcome. I freely grant that such a theory does present a very easy and ready method of getting rid of difficulty, for, if we decide on reducing the authority of Scripture to our own ideas respecting it, it is not likely that there will be much left to embarrass us. There is however one difficulty, and that a most important one, which it cannot solve. It can give no solid foundation for the anxious soul to rest on, and must leave us floating into eternity with no better support than a vague idea of our own creation.

St. Peter differs very widely from the author of that essay; for though the author boldly asserts that [5b] ‘for any of the higher or supernatural views of inspiration there is no foundation in the Gospels or Epistles,’ St. Peter broadly and plainly asserts that ‘Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ (2 Pet. i. 21.) Here then we have the Apostolic definition of the work of inspiration, and by that definition we are taught that there are two distinct elements to be considered, the divine and the human; the divine, for the Holy Ghost moved the writers; and the human, for the communication did not come as a direct voice from heaven, but holy men spake as they were moved.

In order therefore fully to investigate the subject, it will be necessary to examine (1) the divine element, (2) the human element, and (3) the combination of the two; after which we may consider some of the difficulties which have been thought to lie against the doctrine.