voices of many generations; it represents the feelings and habits and opinions of many peoples; it is the work of many hands; it is the record of the modes of life and belief of the men, and of the deeds, of distant and very different ages. Its thoughts and language are adapted, like those of every other book, to express the mind of its numerous authors, writing under every variety of time and place and circumstances; and are addressed to its original readers in such a way, as to speak as really as any other books to the present condition and circumstances of their minds. Of the writers of Scripture, at the distance of hundreds of years from each other, each belongs to his own day and place and nation, and speaks and writes to the men and times and circumstances in the midst of which he lives. Their writings may contain in them a revelation for all time and all people; but they had in the first place, and primarily, a meaning, and conveyed a message, for their own.

In the case of ordinary human authors so circumstanced, each speaking out of the thoughts of his own mind, as it is moved and influenced by the circumstances around him, and speaking with words adjusted to meet the thoughts and minds of those who, as his contemporaries, were his hearers, we should expect the utmost diversity in their writings, and such an amount of variety, or even contrariety, in their opinions and views, as to make it difficult to harmonize, and impossible to interpret, them, the one by the other. It would be vain to seek to reduce to one system of thought and belief authors living at the distance of hundreds of years from each other, thinking according to the modes of thought peculiar to their day, and writing independently, and each under the influences of the particular emergency that called forth his writing. Still more would it be vain to attempt to elucidate the views of one author by the opinions of another, or to pretend to adopt a system of interpretation which, embracing all, should apply to them one standard, and bring together, for the purpose of mutual explanation or illustration, statements of men" a whole millennium apart." Any rule of interpretation, fitted or sufficient for such a case, would be founded far more upon the strong diversities and marked peculiarities distinctive of each author in his day and circumstances, than upon anything that they possibly could possess in common.

In the instance of the Scripture authors it is different. In so far as regards their productions as writers, they are indeed marked by all that diversity of character and form and tone which could distinguish human authorship. They are never seen to lose their individuality in the Divine influence that possessed them, or to blend their diversity of character in the common character of inspiration that belonged to them all, or to forget that they are speaking to the men and case of their own day, in looking forward to the future for which they prophesied. But, amid all this human diversity, there is a Divine unity that binds their writings into one. In virtue of that one and undivided Mind which moved and instructed all the penmen of Scripture from Moses down to John, there is a oneness of thought that is seen to pervade all their writings, however distant from

each other in date, or different in outward character; and which is not broken, but only variously expressed, by the human diversity of thought through which it speaks. There is a unity in the Bible which will always be found in writings which are the utterances of one mind. Amid the varied forms in which it is exhibited, the truth throughout is the same. Coming from the same Divine Author, although conveyed through the channels of the many thoughts and words of different and independent human authors, there is a perfect sameness of doctrine, although multiplied diversity in its form. From end to end of the Bible it is the same Voice that speaks through the lips of ancient prophets and of New-Testament evangelists; and therefore the utterance of truth is the same throughout. If a supernatural inspiration is confessed in all Scripture,-if, above the human authorship so diversified and different, there be acknowledged a Divine Authorship, which never varies in respect of the one system of truth which it was the object of Scripture from beginning to end to reveal, -there will be no difficulty in recognising that higher unity that binds into one and harmonizes the human diversities which mark the Scripture writings.

The marked difference in this respect, between the writings of inspired men and of profane authors, justifies and demands a different treatment to be applied to the interpretation of them. It were worse than folly, in the case of human authors separated by a thousand years, and by diversity of thought, language, and habits, to bring the opinions of one to explain the opinions of another; and to attempt to blend into one system their different views, so as to make the statements of any one of them the key to interpret authoritatively the rest. But there is no such folly in applying such a method of interpretation to Scripture. To refuse to apply it, is virtually to affirm that the human writers were the only authors of their respective writings; and that the diversities of outward statement and character witnessed on the page of Scripture, are not harmonized and reduced to connexion by the Divine idea which underlies the human.

If the very first principle involved in the notion of a Divine inspiration of the Bible is not to be denied, and if God, from Genesis to Revelation, speaks to us throughout by the men whom He inspired, there must be a doctrinal unity from first to last, which warrants and demands that, in interpreting its many books, we should look upon them as one Authorship, in so far as regards the system of truth which they contain, and that we should read and interpret them as conveying to us the thoughts of the same Mind. There may still be the diversities of language which belong to all human writings coming from different authors; and, so far as the use of language is concerned, it may be vain to expect that the idiom or usage of one Scripture writer is to rule or explain that of another, differently circumstanced as to time and other conditions. But in respect of the truth or doctrine revealed in them, the writings of Scripture must be taken as a whole, each helping to interpret and illustrate the other. They form part of one Divine Authorship; and, unless we hold that the many

communications of the one and undivided Spirit are inconsistent with each other, we must be prepared to acknowledge the justice of that method of interpretation that would compare Scripture with Scripture throughout the whole range of the inspired volume, and make the one to interpret the other.

The principle of Scripture interpretation which has been so often objected against,—the principle of explaining what is doctrinally obscure in one passage by truths that may be clearly revealed in another, or by the analogy of faith,-is one plainly to be justified on this principle. Within the limits of the same human authorship the principle is readily admitted and largely employed; and the obscurities of an author are explained by the analogy of the system of opinion which he has plainly avowed and advocated in other places of his writings. If the different books of Scripture, although written by different men, and at dates widely separated from each other, are yet, in the proper and highest view of them, the work of the one inspiring Spirit, there can be no difficulty felt in applying the principle to all the writings so inspired. The refusal to modify our canons of interpretation to the extent demanded by this peculiarity of the sacred volume, amounts to a practical denial of the same supernatural Authorship belonging to it all.—Bannerman's "Inspiration of the Scriptures."

THE DUCHESS OF GORDON.*

A SCOTTISH laird, and a truly godly man, who lived in the disturbed days of Charles I., and who left copious diaries of religious experience, makes in one place the following remark: "God can make use of poison to expel poison. In London I saw much vanity, lightness, and wantonness. O, that the seeing of it in others may cure and mortify the seeds of it in myself!" Such was the process by which, some two hundred years afterwards, a descendant of this pious laird was first led to feel the hollowness of all earthly gaiety and grandeur, and to ask, with a dissatisfied and aching heart, if there were nothing to be found that could give true contentment and happiness. Eminently gifted with all those personal attractions which win attention and admiration, moving in the highest circles of society, and destined, as the future Duchess of Gordon, to fill a yet loftier position amongst the aristocracy of the country, the Marchioness of Huntly-for such was now her title-had almost everything of this world that heart could wish.

At the time we commence our sketch she was in her twenty-seventh year, having been eight years previously united in marriage to the Marquis of Huntly, the heir to the ancient honours of the house of Gordon. Her early training had been strictly moral, though not by any

* "Life and Letters of Elizabeth, last Duchess of Gordon. By Rev. A. Moody Stuart, Second Edition, London: James Nisbet and Co. 1865."

means religious; and in the brilliant but utterly godless society into which her new family connexions and rank had introduced her, there was at that time so complete a lack of all high and virtuous sentiment and principle, that, at length, she became almost intolerably wretched. "To escape from her distress she sought refuge in reading the Bible; and became at once so deeply interested in its unfamiliar pages, that, instead of finding there a mere soothing balm for an hour's relief, she could not refrain from searching the hidden treasure daily." One day, while intent upon her secret study of God's word, her retirement was unexpectedly intruded upon by one of her gay friends. The strange discovery which had been made soon got abroad, and great was the merriment and scorn in which the irreligious and frivolous associates of the Marchioness indulged. They determined to laugh and joke until they had made an end of her Bible-reading, and put her out of heart with everything serious. By way of completing their description of the character which her new tastes indicated, and to fix upon her a name of the keenest reproach, they satirically called her "a Methodist."

But the work in her heart was begun and sustained by a Power whose origin and energy they knew nothing about. It was like Bunyan's "fire against the wall, which did burn higher and hotter," notwithstanding all the water cast upon it, because fed by the secret oil. Taunts and sneers only served to drive her with fresh earnestness into the retirement in which she could renew her reading of the volume, which every one around her scorned; and the resolute reply of her heart to their railleries was, "If for so little I am to be called a Methodist, let me have something more worthy of the name."

Sadly ignorant as she had hitherto been of the truths of Scripture, and an entire stranger to the nature of spiritual religion, she felt much her need of instruction and guidance. In this state of mind she came, in the course of her reading, to the seasonable promise, "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" that time," she remarks, "I began to pray for the Holy Spirit." her prayer unanswered. The Divine Enlightener led her on along the bright and blessed pathway of truth, shining "more and more unto the perfect day."

"From

Nor was

In the following year she spent some time in Geneva, and there met with a lady, Madame Vernet, who "spoke to her with affection and faithfulness on her lost condition, showed her her need of conversion, and opened clearly the plan of redemption by Jesus Christ." Through her teaching, Lady Huntly appears to have apprehended the truth as it is in Jesus, to the enlightenment of her mind, although she had not fully embraced Him" with the heart unto salvation." Neither does she appear yet to have seen the necessity of withdrawing from customs and amusements which, though perfectly lawful in the estimation of the world, were inconsistent with those higher tastes which the Spirit of God had implanted,

and to the growth of which they were unfriendly. But hereafter she learned the way of the Lord more perfectly.

The winter of 1822 was spent at Kimbolton Castle, the residence of the Duke of Manchester, Lord Huntly's brother-in-law. It was here that the Marchioness believed she first obtained a clear sense of acceptance with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Referring, afterwards, to this period, she remarks, "I knew Christ first, if I really know Him, at Kimbolton. I spent hours there in my dressing-room in prayer, and in reading the Bible, and in happy communion with Him."

The work of grace in her soul, although genuine, was, however, not yet accompanied by that open testimony in behalf of Christ which, in after years, she so unhesitatingly bore. Her biographer remarks, "The change was deep and everlasting, (in herself,) and must have been great in all her tastes and feelings; but for awhile it was very partially made known to others. Some of them knew that she had sympathies into which they could not enter; but she saw afterwards that she was not dealing fairly by them in bearing so faint a testimony against the way that was leading down into the chambers of the dead. But the slowness of her own withdrawal from the world made her always tender in judging the state of others who remained in too much conformity with it, while she decidedly condemned their inconsistent walk."

A great help in enlarging her views of the necessity of more outward decision, as well as a means of promoting the vigour of the inward life of religion, was found in the renewal of an early friendship with Miss Home; a lady who, to an enlightened knowledge of evangelical truth, united much firmness and simplicity of personal character.

Wearied of the frivolous acquaintances into whose company she was so much thrown, in the thoughtless world of rank and fashion, Lady Huntly eagerly embraced every opportunity of intercourse with her intelligent and spiritually-minded friend. During her visits to London they spent much time together in reading God's word, with conversation on the subject of personal religion, and in mutual prayer. In calling on Miss Home, the Marchioness "sometimes alarmed her a little by saying that she had ordered the carriage to return in three hours. In her own hunger for the bread of life no time seemed long enough; while her companion doubted how she might be able to entertain her so long. But while Lady Huntly unburdened her mind of its cares, first to her friend, and then along with her before the Lord, and while they searched the Scriptures together, the hours passed rapidly as well as profitably away."

When we read the account of Christian fellowship of these kindred hearts, drawn to each by the strongest sympathies, we could not help saying to ourselves, "Why, here is just the old Methodist Band-meeting without the name ;" and we could not but earnestly pray from our inmost soul, "O for that religious awakening and quickening, that revived and deep interest in the great concerns of the soul, which would most certainly create anew the taste and appetite for Christian fellowship!" The only