It should teach us, in the first place, the proper limits of human inquiry with reference to the Gospel. We must never forget that the human understanding has its own most important sphere of action, and that its enlightened exercise is essential to the right reception of the truth of God. We are not at liberty, for example, to shut up the understanding, and deliver ourselves blindfold to the guidance of any church which may call itself infallible, but we are bound as thinking men to examine the credentials of its assumed infallibility. And so with reference to the Word of God itself, it is our manifest duty to study well the proofs of its inspiration, and the careful examination of scriptural evidences is a legitimate and noble theme for the diligent exercise of an enlightened understanding. Then again the understanding must be employed in the patient study of the contents of the inspired Book. Having learned that it is the Book of God, we must next inquire what it teaches, and being satisfied that it contains the truth, we must proceed to examine what the truth is which it contains. But this truth being once ascertained, the understanding must immediately give place to faith, and the inquiring spirit must simply believe what the inspired Word is found to teach him. The Gospel is the power of God, and therefore the human mind must be prepared to find in it many things altogether beyond its range. If it were the work of man we should of course expect to find the whole within the compass of man’s intellect; but as it is the power of God, His own plan and His own purpose, we must be prepared to meet with deep and unfathomable truths, bearing some proportion to His infinite and unfathomable attributes. Thus, for example, our finite minds are unable to comprehend the great mystery of the incarnation, or how one person can be at the same time both God and man; but such a difficulty is no stumbling-block to the believer, for though by reason he cannot understand it, yet he finds it written in the Scriptures, and by faith he receives it, for the Gospel is the power of God. It was the neglect of this principle that led to the error of the Sadducees, as we are taught by our Lord in the twenty-second chapter of St. Matthew, and the twenty-ninth verse: “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” They had not employed their understanding when they ought to have done so, namely, in the investigation of their Bibles, but they had employed it where it could give them no safe guidance, namely, in vain speculation on fancied difficulties in the plans and purposes of God. To avoid a similar error we must bear in mind that the Gospel, being Divine in its origin, is likewise superhuman in its arrangements, and we must adhere strictly to the great principle of diligent investigation when we want to know what God has taught us, and of simple faith when we have once discovered the vast truths revealed to us by His Spirit.