To come then to the three samples of difficulty propounded a moment ago. And first, for the blind men of Jericho.
I. The difficulty lies all on the surface. Listen to a plain tale.
Our Saviour, attended by His Disciples and followed by a vast concourse of persons, had reached the outskirts of Jericho. A certain blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. He heard the noise of a passing crowd, and inquired what it meant? He was told that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He rose at once,—hastened down the main street through which, in due time, Christ perforce must come; joined another blind man, (named Bartimæus,—a well-known character, who, like himself, was accustomed to sit and beg by the road side;) and the two companions in suffering, having stationed themselves at the exit of Jericho, waited till the Great Physician should appear.
The crowd begins to approach; and the two blind men implore the Son of David to have pity on them. So importunate is their suit, that the foremost of the passers-by rebuke them. The men grow more urgent. Our Saviour pauses, and orders that they shall be called. At this gracious summons, both draw near; the more remarkable applicant flinging his outer garment from him as he rises from his seat; but both, when they appear in our Saviour's presence, making the same request. The Holy One, touched with compassion, laid His Hands upon their eyes, and grants their prayer: whereupon they both follow Him in the way.
Well, (you will ask,)—what then?—"What then?" I answer. Then there is no difficulty in the three accounts about which you spoke so unbecomingly a moment ago. Assume this plain, and not at all improbable version of the incident, to be true, and you will find that no difficulty remains whatever. Every recorded circumstance is accounted for, and fits in exactly with it. I wish there were time to enlarge on some of the details, and to make some remarks on the manner of the Evangelists in relating events: but there is no time. Besides,—without a huge copy of the Gospel open before us all, I could not hope to make my meaning understood.
For of course you are to believe that he who would understand the Gospel must first study it. You must ascertain, by some crucial test, confirmed by a large and careful induction, what the character of a narrative purporting to be inspired, is. You have no right first to assume exactly what Inspiration shall result in, and then to deny that there is Inspiration because you fail to discover your assumed result[367]. That were foolish.
I shall perhaps be thought to lay myself open to the rejoinder,—"Neither have you any right to assume that Inspiration will result in Infallibility." But the retort is without real point. I do but assert that, just as every man of honour claims to be believed until he has been convicted of a falsehood,—inspired Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles have a right to our entire confidence in the scrupulous accuracy of every word they deliver, until it can be shewn that they have once made a mistake.
If you will take the trouble to compare any of the cases,—in Genesis for example,—where a conversation is first set down, and then reported by one of the speakers,—you will find that it is deemed allowable to omit or to add clauses, even when the discourse is related in the first person[368]. Something before inserted, is withheld: or something before withheld, is inserted. No discourse was probably ever set down, word for word, as it was delivered. In sacred, as in profane writings, the exact substance, or rather, the real purport, of what was spoken, very reasonably stands for what was actually spoken. The difference is this;—that a narrative, by man abridged, may convey a wrong impression: whereas an inspired abridgement of any history soever cannot mislead.
Other characteristics of an inspired narrative,—the lesser Laws of the Divine Harmony, as they may be called,—will be discovered by the attentive reader. For example, that intervening circumstances are often passed over, without any notice taken of them whatever: while yet it is singular how often the Evangelist shews himself conscious of what he omits by some very minute allusion to it[369]. This must suffice however. It would require a whole sermon, a whole volume rather, to enumerate all the features of the Evangelical method.
II. The next sample of difficulty will not occupy us long. St. Matthew is charged with a bad memory, because he ascribes to "Jeremy the prophet[370]" words which are said to be found in Zechariah.—Strange that men should be heard to differ about a plain matter of fact! I have never been able to find these words in Zechariah yet!... There are words something like them,—but not those very words, by any means,—in Zech. xi. 12. Why then is St. Matthew to be taxed with a bad memory? Are there not other prophecies quoted in the New Testament not to be found in the Old? Yes[371]. Is not the self-same prophecy sometimes found in two different prophets,—as in Isaiah and Nahum? Yes[372]. Are not some prophetic passages common to Jeremiah and Zechariah? Yes[373]. The Jews even had a saying that the Spirit of the one was in the other. Where then remains a pretence for supposing that St. Matthew was troubled with a bad memory?