The Expositor's Bible has been published in a period of exceptionally active work in Biblical criticism. A survey of recent study in the Old Testament and in the New by very competent scholars is supplied in this volume. I confine myself to general considerations. Whatever criticism has accomplished or has not accomplished, we may be sure that the supremacy and the finality of the Bible are as they were, and will continue secure and unassailable. The ultimate testimony that the Bible is the Word of God cannot be derived from external witness or from a process of reasoning. It is in the heart of the believer to whom the voice of God is personal, and it is given by the Holy Spirit that still bears witness in and with the Word. It is and has always been to the Church not a matter of probable evidence, but one of Divine certainty. If we could see the living Church! It would be much to see the Church Triumphant, and in a sense that privilege is ours. For we are come to Mount Zion where God has set His King, to the festal host and Church of the firstborn which are written in Heaven. Yet a hush hangs over the everlasting hills, and the light that falls on them now for us is but starlight to the glory that clothes them. But what if we could see the living in Christ, if the sheath of the Church Visible should suddenly fall away and the flower of the Church Invisible should unfold itself before our eyes. Those who have heard in His written Word the true voice of God are the Church Invisible, and it is to them and to them only that the conviction of its Divine riches is assured. But even for them--and in these days this is specially true--there are difficulties about the content, the meaning, and the form of Scripture. Upon these there are great differences, but there is ground on which we may all meet. There are arguments which appeal to every Christian heart for the finality of the Word of God.