the
historical and prophetical books which follow; for these unfold the
divine purpose in the establishment of the Theocracy as recorded in the
Pentateuch. The Pentateuch itself gives us only the _constitution_ of
the Theocracy. The books that follow, taken in connection with, the New
Testament, reveal its _office_ in the plan of redemption; and not till
we know this can we be said to have an intelligent comprehension of the
theocratic system. The same is true of every other part of revelation.

The words of the apostle: "Ever learning, and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 3:7), apply to many
learned commentaries. Their authors have brought to them much
accurate scholarship and research; but they have not seen the
unity of divine truth. They have written mainly in an
antiquarian spirit and interest, regarding the work under
consideration simply as an ancient and venerable record. They
have diligently sought for connections in philology, in
antiquities, and in history. In these respects they have thrown
much light on the sacred text. But they have never once thought
of inquiring what place the book which they have undertaken to
interpret holds in the divine system of revelation--perhaps have
had no faith in such a system. Consequently they cannot unfold
to others that which they do not themselves apprehend. On a
hundred particulars they may give valuable information, but that
which constitutes the very life and substance of the book
remains hidden from their view.

2. It is necessary that we understand, first of all, the relation of the
Old Testament as a whole to the system of revealed truth. It is a
_preparatory_ revelation introductory to one that is _final_. This the
New Testament teaches in explicit terms. "When the fulness of the time
was come, God sent forth his Son." Gal. 4:4. Christ could not have come
in the days of Enoch before the flood, nor of Abraham after the flood,
because "the fulness of the time" had not yet arrived. Nor was the way
for his advent prepared in the age of Moses, or David, or Isaiah, or
Ezra. The gospel everywhere assumes that when the Saviour appeared, men
had attained to a state of comparative maturity in respect to both the
knowledge of God and the progress of human society. The attentive reader
of the New Testament cannot fail to notice how fully its writers avail
themselves of all the revela