And what is the sovereign remedy for this widespread disease? Here it is: _Absolute and complete subjection to the authority of holy Scripture_. It is not men going to Scripture to get _their_ opinions and _their_ views confirmed; but going to Scripture to get the mind of God as to every thing, and bowing down their whole moral being to divine authority. This is the one pressing need of the day in which our lot is cast--reverent subjection, in all things, to the supreme authority of the Word of God. No doubt, there will be variety in our measure of intelligence, in our apprehension and appreciation of Scripture; but what we specially urge upon all Christians is that condition of soul, that attitude of heart expressed in those precious words of the psalmist, "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." This, we may rest assured, is grateful to the heart of God. "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word." Here lies the true secret of moral security. Our knowledge of Scripture may be very limited; but if our reverence for it be profound, we shall be preserved from a thousand errors--a thousand snares. And then there will be steady growth. We shall grow in the knowledge of God, of Christ, and of the written Word; we shall delight to draw from those living and exhaustless depths of holy Scripture, and to range through those green pastures which infinite grace has so freely thrown open to the flock of Christ. Thus shall the divine life be nourished and strengthened; the Word of God will become more and more precious to our souls, and we shall be lead, by the powerful ministry of the Holy Ghost, into the depth, fullness, majesty, and moral glory of holy Scripture. We shall be delivered completely from the withering influences of all mere systems of theology, high, low, or moderate--a most blessed deliverance! We shall be able to tell the advocates of all the schools of divinity under the sun that whatever elements of truth they may have in their systems we have in divine perfectness in the Word of God; not twisted and tortured to make them fit into a system, but in their right place in the wide circle of divine revelation which has its eternal centre in the blessed Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. CHAPTER I. "These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. (There are eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, unto Kadesh-barnea.)"