And what about the Old Testament? Why, this about it: that whatever may be the conclusion as to the date and authorship of any of the books in it,--and I am not careful to contend about these at present;--and whatever a man may believe about the verbal prophecies which most of us recognise there,--there is stamped unmistakably upon the whole system, of which the Old Testament is the record, an onward-looking attitude. It is all anticipatory of 'good things to come,' and of a Person who will bring them. Sacrifice, sacred offices, such as priesthood and kingship, and the whole history of Israel, have their faces turned to the future. 'They that went before, and they that followed after, cried "Hosanna! Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord!"' This Christ towers up above the history of the world and the process of revelation, like Mount Everest among the Himalayas. To that great peak all the country on the one side runs upwards, and from it all the valleys on the other descend; and the springs are born there which carry verdure and life over the world. Christ, the Son of God, is the centre of Scripture; and the Book--whatever be the historical facts about its origin, its authorship, and the date of the several portions of which it is composed--the Book is a unity, because there is driven right through it, like a core of gold, either in the way of prophecy and onward-looking anticipation, or in the way of history and grateful retrospect, the reference to the one 'Name that is above every name,' the name of the Christ, the Son of God. And all its incompleteness, its fragmentariness, its carelessness about persons, are intended, as are the slight parts in a skilful artist's handiwork, to emphasise the beauty and the sovereignty of that one central Figure on which all lights are concentrated, and on which the painter has lavished all the resources of his art. So God--for _God_ is the Author of the Bible--on this great canvas has painted much in sketchy outline, and left much unfilled in, that every eye may be fixed on the central Figure, the Christ of God, on whose head comes down the Dove, and round whom echoes the divine declaration: 'This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'