The Divine Thought in the Bible.
ALL the blessings we receive are ascribed in the gospel, not in the least to our desert or merit, but wholly to God's free grace. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” Thus in every unchristian scheme, there reigns a reliance upon man for the securing of the divine favor, while Christianity proclaims this favor as a free gift, founded on the merits of Christ, and the mercy of God alone. It shows a wonderfully shallow acquaintance, therefore, with the whole subject, when certain writers classify Christianity with other systems, and the Bible with other books, as though they were all only utterances, in different forms, of man's religious nature. This is true of Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Brahminism; of the Koran, the Vedas, and so on; these are utterances, sometimes pathetic, and often very profound, of man's sense of need and dependence, and also of his strivings for that divine fellowship which he feels he needs. But the Bible does not so much declare the human sense of want, as it does the divine supply. It is an utterance to man of the divine fullness. The difference between it, therefore, and all other books of religion is infinite, and any one who puts it into the same category with them shows a lack of discrimination, incapacitating him for any sound criticism of it, or of them. This peculiarity of the Bible shows it to be superhuman. God's love to man, his mercy, his willingness to forgive, are thoughts which man could not originate. The proof of this is seen, not only in the fact that, Christianity excepted, no religion has ever given a glimpse of such a thought, but the thought itself is not suggested by anything around us or within. —Prof. Seeley, in the Advance.