practically every
Christian who seeks spiritual nourishment in the Sacred Book. Who has
not passed through experiences such as are suggested in these words of
Marcus Dods?--"Who is at the reader's elbow as he peruses Exodus and
Leviticus to tell him what is of permanent authority and what is for
the Mosaic economy only? Who whispers as we read Genesis and Kings,
'This is exemplary; this is not'? Who sifts for us the speeches of
Job, and enables us to treasure up as divine truth what he utters in
one verse, while we reject the next as Satanic ravings? Who gives the
preacher authority and accuracy of aim to pounce on a sound text in
Ecclesiastes, while wisdom and folly toss and roll over one another in
confusingly rapid and inextricable contortions? What enables the
humblest Christian to come safely through the cursing Psalms and go
straight to forgive his enemy? What tells us that we may eat things
strangled, though the whole college of apostles deliberately and
expressly prohibited such eating? Who assures us that we need not
anoint the sick with oil, although in the New Testament we are
explicitly commanded to do so? In a word, how is it that the simplest
reader can be trusted with the Bible and can be left to find his own
{35} spiritual nourishment in it, rejecting almost as much as he
receives?"[7] These questions call attention to a common Christian
practice. But, if the practice can be justified as Christian, the
principle underlying the practice may be Christian also; and so it is,
for it is recognized as legitimate in the New Testament.

A single sentence from a New Testament book suggests the answer to the
above questions: "He that is spiritual judgeth all things."[8] The
Scriptures are included among the "all things." But notice, Paul does
not say that anyone may set himself up as judge, but "he that is
spiritual"; that is, the man who is controlled by the spirit of the
Christ. If Jesus has given to the world the highest revelation of God
and truth, then the expressions of all other revelations must be
measured by his revelation, either as an external standard, or as an
inner criterion by him who, in his own experience, has appropriated the
character, spirit, and life of Jesus. He who has thus appropriated the
Christ in his fullness will be able to judge all things. But until he
has reached that standard man's judgment will remain imperfect and more
or less unreliable, and though for his own gui