Epistle to the Ephesians
claims, as we shall find, to be an 'inspired' man, a recipient of
divine revelation, and makes a similar claim for the apostles and
prophets generally. 'By revelation,' he says, 'God made known unto me
the mystery (or divine secret), as I wrote afore in few words, whereby,
when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of
Christ; which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as
it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the
Spirit.' Inspiration is a term not easily susceptible of definition.
We are inclined in our generation to recognize its limits more frankly
than has been done in the past, and {5} its compatibility even with
positive error on subjects which are matter of ordinary human inquiry
and not of divine revelation[1]; but its positive meaning in the region
of divine revelation--in what concerns God's moral will, purpose,
character and being, and the consequent moral and spiritual
significance of our human life--ought not to be less apparent to us
than formerly. Thus when we call a writer of the New Testament
'inspired' we must mean at least this: that the same divine Spirit who
put the message of God in the hearts of the prophets of old, and who
worked His perfect work without let and hindrance in the manhood of
Christ, is here so working upon the will and imagination, the memory
and intelligence, of one of Christ's commissioned witnesses as that he
shall interpret and not misinterpret the mind and person of his Master.
Practically, an inspired writer of the New Testament means a writer
under whom we can put ourselves to school to 'learn Christ' with {6}
whole-hearted confidence and faith. This, of course, gives an
additional reason of the most cogent force why we should continually
recur to the sacred books of the New Testament. If Christianity is to
be deterred from a fatal return to nature--that is to the religious or
irreligious tendencies of mankind when left to itself--or if it is to
be recalled when it has lapsed, this can only be by an appeal to
Scripture constantly reiterated and pressed home. There is for ever
the testing-ground alike of doctrine, of moral character, and of
ecclesiastical tendency; there is the only perfect image of the mind of
Christ.

ii.

The Epistle to the Ephesians gives us St. Paul's gospel of the Catholic
Church. So far from being a man of one idea, St. Paul fascinates and
sometimes bewi