SEC. 1. OUR SUBJECT DEFINED.--Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation. It is derived from the Greek Hermes, the messenger of the gods and the interpreter of Jupiter. Every Hermeneus was, therefore, an interpreter, as he was supposed to inherit some of the mystic qualities of this god of philology, this patron of eloquence. Sacred hermeneutics is the science of interpreting the Scriptures. Exegesis (from ex, out, and egeisthas, to guide or lead), means to lead out. It is the application of the principles of hermeneutics in bringing out the meaning of any writing which might otherwise be difficult to understand.

      SEC. 2. GOD EXPECTS US TO USE HIS BOOK IN BECOMING ACQUAINTED WITH HIS CHARACTER, AND IN GAINING A KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL.

      (1.) The Bible to be used as other books.--An interpreter implies a misunderstanding, between two parties, or, at least, a liability to such a misunderstanding. And it is at once objected that if the Bible is of God, it should be so plain that no one could misunderstand it; that, if God could give us such a book, and would not, He was certainly to blame. But if He would, but could not, He is not [1] perfect in wisdom or ability to execute. This logic is not good. We might as well say that if God is the Author of Nature, its meaning should be so apparent that all would perfectly understand it, and therefore, understand it alike. And yet we know that our scientists are quite disagreed about many things in nature, and that the great masses of men are in ignorance, almost from first to last, respecting the whole question. God has, therefore, made it necessary to study nature in order to get its lessons. Geology, astronomy, physiology, etc., etc., are known only to those who study them. It is reasonable, therefore, that He should make it necessary to study His word.

      (2.) The weakness is with, man.--Man is fallible, and his judgment is very imperfect. Nothing has ever been written which has been understood by all alike. (a) Our laws are made by, our wisest and most careful men; they are made with special reference to the people for whom they are intended, so that no man may be misguided respecting his duty, and no criminal go unpunished. And yet our shrewdest lawyers and ablest jurists are in doubt as to the meaning of much of our law. (b) Not only so, but the creeds that have been wrought out by the ablest and purest of men, are variously interpreted. Churches wrangle and divide over them. Leading divines differ widely as to the meaning of many of the articles, while the common people have not even the most indistinct idea of their original intent. We can not say that these were not plainly written, in the first place. And, perhaps for the first quarter of a century after any one of these was published, all parties were agreed as to the import of its articles. But age has come, custom has changed, religious sentiment has veered, [2] words and forms have become obsolete, or have changed their meaning: hence the many interpretations. Man misunderstands his fellow man, and even himself, and is competent to misinterpret the Lord also.

      (3.) God does not inspire the interpretation.--It is sometimes supposed still that the Holy Spirit directs men in their inquiries after truth, so that no hurtful mistake can be made. But we know that the very best of men differ very widely in their views of the word of the Lord. We know, too, that these men make their investigations a matter of daily prayer. And knowing that truth is never contradictory, that error is dangerous and injurious, that very pious men are permitted to blunder in reference to the meaning of the Scripture, we feel assured that, whatever helps the Lord may see proper to give His servants in their efforts to understand the Bible, he does not guide them by inspiration, or the mistakes which are now made would not occur.

      (4.) Divine wisdom has adopted the word-method of revelation.--This being true, it is implied that all the weaknesses which belong to such a medium of communication were adopted at the same time. There would be no reason in giving a revelation which would need inspiration to interpret. If the inspiration has to be given, there is no need of the word itself. The inspiration would make known all the truth as well without the word as with it. Indeed, it would be better to have the inspiration alone than to have a faulty word revelation, which might mislead those why have not the needed inspiration. While the word would be of no practical value whatever, it might do a great deal of harm. Better that God had never given it, since its only power is to deceive. But when He made choice between a [3] direct revelation to every one, and the selection of a few who should be the teachers of the many, He chose the latter. Hence to those whom He has chosen as His revelators, must we look for a knowledge of the divine will.

      It does not change the question to claim that a few men are now chosen to interpret that word. We must have some means of knowing that they are favored above the common people in thus being divinely endowed. And since those who have equal claims to a special call to this work differ widely respecting very important matters, we are incredulous respecting these exalted assumptions. The truth is, their claims are not sustained. Besides, there is no reason that God should give special inspiration to interpreters now. He has no other truth now to reveal, nor can He make it any plainer than He did when He gave us the Bible. The words of the men whom He now inspires, if there are any, are as difficult to understand as the words of the men He inspired eighteen hundred years ago. If we can not understand those, how shall we understand these?

      The ancients supposed that they must look to the law and the testimony for a knowledge of the will of the Lord, and that the truth was to be had by the same methods of study that were applied to any other branches of knowledge.

      Ezra vii. 10: "For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments."

      Deut. xxix. 29: "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that. we may do all the words of this law." Nehemiah viii. 1-8 shows how they had to learn [4] the law, Ezra reads the law from morning till noon, and is assisted by chosen men, who go among the people and explain to them the meaning of any words which they did not understand.

      From Psa. i. 1, 2; xix. 7; cxix. 39-105 we shall get David's idea of coming to the knowledge of the will of the Lord. They must read that word, study it day and night, get all its precepts in the mind in this way, and then may they assure themselves that they have more knowledge than the ancients--than all their teachers.

      Jesus makes Abraham say to the rich man, respecting his five brothers: "They have Moses and the prophets; . . . if they hear not Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead" (Luke xvi. 29-31).

      Paul holds this view of the question. He says to Timothy, that although he has known the Holy Scriptures from his childhood, which were able to make him wise unto salvation, he must study to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly setting forth the word of truth. Hence he must give attention to reading, to, exhortation, to teaching.

      SEC. 3. A CORRECT HERMENEUTICS WOULD GO FAR TOWARD HEALING THE DIVISIONS OF THE CHURCH.

      (1.) A wrong interpretation is not the only cause of divisions.--That the followers of Christ should be one, does not admit of a doubt. Jesus prayed for the unity of all those who should believe on him through the word of the apostles. The apostles condemned divisions on all occasions; even in an incipient form, they were regarded as being carnal, and proceeding from hearts not [5] in unison with the will of Christ. Men who were division-makers were regarded as unworthy of a place in the church, and after the first and second admonitions were to be avoided. They were spoken of as not serving the Lord Jesus, but their own passions. But while we regard carnality, in the form of unsanctified ambition, as the great cause of the divisions that now serve to mar the beauty of Zion and destroy the peace and power of the kingdom of Christ, it is not the only cause.

      (2.) Selfish ambition can not be removed by rules of interpretation.--Even in the days of the apostles, in the presence of divine inspiration, in the presence of the divine authority which had been committed to the chosen twelve, ambitious men rose up to draw away disciples after them, ready to make merchandise of them. Even then the mystery of iniquity was secretly at work. The desire for place and power led men then to adopt the claim of sanctity, that they might gain a leadership which could come to them in no other way. It would be idle to undertake to prevent men from being hypocrites, from loving this present world, or from seeking their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ, by rules of interpretation. Sound exegesis can have but little effect on such conditions of the heart. But when we are not able to change the goods, we may do something in changing the market. A correct hermeneutics may do something toward rendering it impossible for these men to continue their work of deception. If we could bring all the followers of Christ to a common interpretation of the word of God, the power to create divisions would certainly be gone.

      (3.) All divisions, however, are not the result of ambition, carnality, or a sectarian spirit.--Among the purest [6] and best of earth, there are many differences of faith and practice. They can not be accounted for upon the basis of dishonesty, nor upon the ground of general ignorance, for these divisions in the church contain men of equal learning. Of course, many of these learned men were born in their particular views, and all their study in the Scriptures has been to sustain these tenets, and in their maintenance there may be the spice of dishonesty. Still, the unfairness that comes from the prejudice of early training will not account for the many conflicting faiths among the followers of Christ.

      (4.) The Bible is not at fault.--Skepticism to-day feeds and fattens on the divided state of the Christian world. It declares that the book which we regard as God-given is to blame for all this misunderstanding. Skeptics charge that the Bible either teaches doctrines which are contradictory, or that they are so obscure that a man is about as liable to make one thing of them as another. This we can not admit. If the Bible is of God, it does not contradict itself, nor is it so obscure in its teaching that those who are seeking the way of life can not understand it. We reason that God gave man such a book as he needed, and that man needed a book which, with honest effort, he could understand; hence, if the Bible is God's book, it can be understood by all those who wish to know the way of eternal life.

      (5.) The method of interpretation is to blame for much of the inharmony which now exists.--It is evident to every student of the times, that the great body of Protestant Christians want unity; that they deplore the divisions which now disfigure the church and retard the progress of the truth; that divisions are not sufficiently accounted for upon the basis of dishonesty; and we can [7] not admit that the Bible is at fault in the matter: hence there is nothing else that we can say but that our manner of interpreting the word of God is wrong. These facts compel the thought that he who can bring before the world a correct system of interpretation, will do more to heal the divisions than any other man of this century.

      SEC. 4. A SOUND HERMENEUTICS WOULD BE THE BEST POSSIBLE ANSWER TO INFIDEL OBJECTIONS TO THE BIBLE.

      (1.) A wrong interpretation is not the only cause of unbelief.--Much of the infidelity of the age is the result of impure hearts and bad lives. Many men have made themselves opposite to the purity of the gospel of Christ, and so have gone beyond the limits of the faith-condition of the mind. Men may cultivate distrust in their fellows till it is impossible for them to trust themselves to the virtue and honesty of any one. Skepticism is a plant that may be grown, nay, that is grown. It is suited well to a barren soil, and luxuriates in afoul heart. Many things are believed because men wish them to be true, while others are disbelieved for a like reason. In such cases, it would matter but little what the evidence might be, they would not accept of the gospel.

      (2.) But false interpretation is a strong support of unbelief.--Some one has well said that "the Bible is its own best defense." But in order that it may be any defense at all, its teachings must be understood; and this can never be without a correct knowledge of the principles of interpretation. Before we assume that Geology and Genesis are at variance, we ought to be absolutely certain that we have accurately interpreted both. For the want of a correct hermeneutics, men have imagined [8] that they have found discrepancies, and even palpable contradictions, in the Bible. They would find any other book equally contradictory if they should treat it in the sauce way. But men know that the laws of language must be observed in reading any other book. If they would use the same care and common sense when reading the Bible, infidelity would find no place to set the sole of its foot. Hence it becomes evident that a correct exegesis will greatly weaken the power of infidelity, if not utterly destroy it.

      SEC. 5. THE LAST GREAT NEED OF A SOUND EXEGESIS, OF WHICH WE NOW SPEAK, IS THAT WE MAY FIND OUR WAY TO HEAVEN.

      (1.) Inquirers discouraged by the different answers given.--The question, "What shall I do to be saved!" receives so many different and conflicting answers, that the seekers after eternal life are confused and disheartened, and they do not know what to do. They are told that there is nothing they can do, that they must wait for the Lord to come and save them; and that they can not do anything that will conduce to their salvation. Others tell them that they can and must give themselves to Christ, that they may be saved; and that unless they do, they will certainly be lost. Still they do not tell them how to give themselves to Christ. If they are sent to the word of God to learn the way of life, they are not told how to read it or where to look for directions on the subject. They would be as apt to go to the book of Job as to the Gospels or the Acts of the Apostles, to find the way of salvation in Christ. If men were inquiring into any question of law or history, they would be told where they could get the desired information-what book treated on that subject. They would not only be pointed to the [9] book containing the desired intelligence, but to the chapter and section where the information might be found. If the Scriptures were studied in this way, there would be but little difficulty on this most important of all questions.

      (2.) Not only is the question of salvation involved, but the assurance of pardon also.--Persons who have had the same religious experience, differ widely as to the import of what they have heard, and desired, and felt. One believes he is a child of God, and no doubt lingers to chill the ardor of his soul. Another, who has had the same experience, hopes that he has a hope, but is only certain that he is not certain of anything respecting his standing with God. It is vain to say that this must be the direct teaching of the Holy Spirit, or that a Christian knows by his feelings just what his relations are with God. For if God taught one of these servants in this direct way, He certainly would not have left the other to grope his way in darkness, doubt and uncertainty on the same subject. The truth is, one has had the same joys and sorrows that are known to the other, and the reason that the one regards himself a favorite of heaven and the other is in doubt as to his standing with God, is in the creeds of the two men. They are equally good, equally pure, and have passed through the same repentance, and have the same trust in Christ as the only Saviour of men; in fact, there is no perceptible difference between them, except as by their creeds they have interpreted these sorrows and joys differently. And this difference of creed has arisen from the difference in their modes of interpretation. To one, these things have had one meaning; to the other, they have had quite a different meaning. Now, if it is God's will that one Christian should know his sins forgiven, [10] it is certain that it is His will that all His servants should rejoice because of like intelligence. Right methods of the interpretation of the Scriptures will certainly remove the trouble, and enable our joyous and doubtful brethren to see themselves in the same condition before the "one God and Father of us all." [11]

[HATB 1-11]