_Higher criticism_ seeks for, and studies, documents: it deals with the authenticity of different books, the date at which they were written, the names of their authors. _Historical criticism_ seeks for, and studies, _data_ relating to the history of the times when each book was written, and the light thrown upon that history by recent discoveries (e.g. in archaeology, and excavations in Palestine). {37} No very definite results have yet been reached on many points of criticism, and, on many of them, scholars have had again and again to reverse their conclusions. We are still only _en route_, and are learning more and more to possess our souls in patience, and to wait awhile for anything in the nature of finality. Meanwhile, the living substance is unshaken and untouched. This living substance, entrusted to living men, is the revelation of God to man, and leads us to our last selected name--Revelation. (V) REVELATION. The Bible is the revelation of the Blessed Trinity to man--of God the Son, by God the Father, through God the Holy Ghost. It is the revelation of God to man, and in man. First, it reveals God _to_ man--"pleased as Man with man to dwell". In it, God stands in front of man, and, through the God-Man, shows him what God is like. It reveals God as the "pattern on the mount," for man to copy on the plain. But it does more than this: it reveals God _in_ man. So St. Paul writes: "It pleased God to reveal His Son _in_ me";[11] and again, "God hath {38} shined _in_ our hearts".[12] The Bible reveals to me that Jesus, the revelation of the Father, through the Eternal Spirit, dwells in me, as well as outside me. He is a power within, as well as a pattern without. Yet again. The Bible reveals God's purpose _for_ man. There is no such other revelation of that purpose. You cannot deduce God's purpose either in man's life, or in his twentieth century environment. It can only be fully deduced from Revelation. Man may seem temporarily to defeat God's purpose, to postpone its accomplishment; but Revelation (and nothing but Revelation) proclaims that "the Word of the Lord standeth sure," and that God's primal purpose is God's final purpose. Lastly, the Bible is the revelation of a future state. Things begun here will be completed there. As such, it gives man a hope on which to build a belief, and a belief on which to found a hope. We must believe, For still we hope That, in a world of larger scope, What here is faithfully begun Will be completed, not undone. {39} Thus, we may, perhaps, find in these five familiar names, brief headings for leisure thoughts. In them, we see the _Scriptures_, or many books, gathered together into one book called _The Book_. In this book, we see the _Word of God_ delivered to men by men, and these men _inspired_ by God to be the living _media_ of the _Revelation_ of God to man. Our next selected book will be the Church of England Prayer Book. [1] Art. XX.