e Grace of Christ, the Love of God,
and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost. In the degree in which every
Christian receives, or refuses, the several gifts expressed by that
general benediction, he enters or is cast out from the inheritance of
the saints,--in the exact degree in which he denies the Christ, angers
the Father, and grieves the Holy Spirit, he becomes uninspired or
unholy,--and in the measure in which he trusts Christ, obeys the Father,
and consents with the Spirit, he becomes inspired in feeling, act, word,
and reception of word, according to the capacities of his nature. He is
not gifted with higher ability, nor called into new offices, but enabled
to use his granted natural powers, in their appointed place, to the best
purpose. A child is inspired as a child, and a maiden as a maiden; the
weak, even in their weakness, and the wise, only in their hour.

That is the simply determinable _theory_ of the inspiration of all
true members of the Church; its truth can only be known by proving it
in trial: but I believe there is no record of any man's having tried
and declared it vain.[39]

[Footnote 39: Compare the closing paragraph in p. 45 of 'The Shrine of
the Slaves.' Strangely, as I revise _this_ page for press, a slip is
sent me from 'The Christian' newspaper, in which the comment of the
orthodox evangelical editor may be hereafter representative to us of
the heresy of his sect; in its last audacity, actually _opposing_ the
power of the Spirit to the work of Christ. (I only wish I had been at
Matlock, and heard the kind physician's sermon.)

"An interesting and somewhat unusual sight was seen in Derbyshire on
Saturday last--two old fashioned Friends, dressed in the original garb
of the Quakers, preaching on the roadside to a large and attentive
audience in Matlock. One of them, who is a doctor in good practice in
the county, by name Dr. Charles A. Fox, made a powerful and effective
appeal to his audience to see to it that each one was living in
obedience to the light of the Holy Spirit within. Christ _within_ was
the hope of glory, and it was as He was followed in the ministry of
the Spirit that we were saved by Him, who became thus to each the
author and finisher of faith. He cautioned his hearers against
building their house on the sand by believing in the free and easy
Gospel so commonly preached to the wayside hearers, as if we were
saved by 'believing' this or that. Nothing short of the work of the
Hol