SERMON I.[243]
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE RECOMMENDED; AND A METHOD OF STUDYING IT DESCRIBED.
St. John vi. 68.
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of Eternal Life.
It was probably in that synagogue which the faithful Centurion built at Capernaum[244] that our Saviour had been discoursing. At the end of His discourse, it is related that "many of His Disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." Thereupon, He asked the Twelve, "Will ye also go away?" the very form of His inquiry (Μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς) implying the answer which the Divine Speaker expected and desired. And to this challenge of Love to Faith, St. Peter replied, not only on behalf of his fellow-Apostles, but on behalf of all faithful men to the end of time:—"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of Eternal Life!"
You perceive that St. Peter's confession takes a peculiar form,—resting the impossibility of unfaithfulness in the Apostles on the gracious discourse of Him to whom they had been listening. "A hard saying," and unpalatable, it had proved to many; but to his own taste it had seemed "sweeter than honey and the honeycomb." So that while, to those others, it had been an occasion of going back, and walking with Christ no more,—to himself it had been a reason why he could never, as he felt, be persuaded to forsake Christ. Nay, it was to himself, (and, as he boldly assumed, to his fellow-Apostles,) a sufficient evidence that the Speaker was none other than the Son of God. "And we believe, and are sure, that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!"
Here then, surely, a very solemn picture is set before us. The same message proves, in the case of some, the savour of death unto death: in the case of others, of life unto life. It is an image of what is still taking place in the world. The Gospel, whether veiled in the Old Testament, or unveiled in the New, is confessedly "a hard saying:"—to some, their very crown and joy; to others, only an occasion of distress and downfall. It was so, when proclaimed not by the tongue of men and of angels, but by the lips "full of grace and truth" of the Incarnate Word Himself: and it is so still. The temper of mankind is still the same as it was of old, and the instrument of man's trial is still the same.
Of the written Gospel, many of the self-same things are said in Scripture which are said of Him by whom that Gospel was preached. Thus, it is proclaimed to be "the power of God to salvation[245]." It is described as "a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart[246]." It is declared to be eternal,—a thing which "shall never pass away[247]." "In the last day," it is prophesied that the words which Christ has spoken "shall judge" men[248]. The very Name by which St. John designates the Eternal Son, in the forefront of his Gospel[249], is the appellation by which the Gospel is emphatically known.—But even more remarkable are the analogies which subsist between the written record of our Lord's Life and Teaching, and the actual person of our Lord. And proposing, as I now do, to say a few earnest words to the younger men in recommendation of a more punctual, methodical, as well as attentive study of the Bible, than, I am persuaded, is practised by one young man in a thousand,—it may not prove unavailing in awakening attention, if I advert, in passing, to some of the circumstances whereby an even balance, (so to speak,) is established between the opportunities of the men of this generation, and of those who were blessed with the oral teaching of the Son of Man.