II. Our first point being, then, so far established as to show that the Word of God is inspired, and so permits no doubt, we have next to see that it is complete, and so neither needs nor permits any addition.

It is complete in its scheme. It is the revelation of God to man; and it professes to be the direction which leads man to eternal life. It begins with an account of man in his innocence, and, almost immediately, his fall: God's favour forfeited, and the curse brought by man's disobedience on him whom God created very good. Then follows at once a prophecy of the Saviour who alone could restore fallen man, and the idea of propitiation by a victim's death, introduced by the slaughter of the animals whose skins covered the shame of our first parents.

To enable man to see his need of a Saviour, then follows the Law, which expresses God's will, and says, "This do, and live." And the history following shows that man cannot do this, and so must die if left to himself; while every page of history, poetry, and prophecy, prepares for the coming of "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

Then follows the Gospel: the good news of man's salvation in Christ Jesus; His blameless life, His teaching, His death, His victory over death, and His ascension with man's nature into heaven-the first-fruits from the dead.

But as man cannot of himself understand these deep truths, the Word of God next records the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and the inspired teaching of the Apostles, the founders of the Church, on the Rock Christ Jesus; while the whole winds up with a glorious account of what is in store for man who accepts it in Christ.

Thus the scheme of Scripture is complete and may be described thus: paradise lost-an atonement promised-prepared for-offeredpreached-paradise regained and glorified.

The Word of God is also complete in its structure: each part has its corresponding part, and all, so to speak, fit in together. Thus the Old Testament, with its old covenant, its types, sacrifices, and prophecies, finds its completion in the New; where the new covenant absorbs the old, and the types and sacrifices all find their fulfilment in Jesus Christ. Nor can any one read the first two chapters of Genesis with the last two of Revelation, without noticing this completeness in a remarkable way. The heaven and earth, old and new, the river, the tree of life, the natural and spiritual marriage, the rest, "the curse," the "no curse," "the serpent the liar" "the entrance of nothing that defileth, or maketh a lie"; these are all proofs of completeness of structure.

Then, again, how clearly we can trace the same completeness throughout: in the history of God's chosen nation, applied as it is by St. Paul to the spiritual Israel; in the exact analogy between the types and the antitypes; in the bearings of its different parts on the one central point of all, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And the same completeness is borne out in the doctrinal portions; for no one part of a doctrine is ever stated without its application or counterpart. Faith is always followed by practice: Christ in the heart, carried out into Christ in the life.

Many other points might be mentioned in which the Word of God is complete: such as that it embraces all kinds of writing, corresponds with all the workings of the mind of man, and includes all methods of teaching; but it will be sufficient for our purpose if we establish its completeness as a Rule of Faith. It gives us the object of faith, points out its origin, nature, and working; and then having shown the application of faith to practical life, it does not leave the matter till it has brought us to where faith is lost in sight.

Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Perfect Man, the Redeemer, the Victor of death, the Sacrifice accepted, the Mediator, Advocate, and Judge, is shown forth in every aspect, by every means, as the object of faith throughout the book; and lest we should underrate the importance of faith, one thrilling sentence tells us that "he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 16). As to the origin of faith we are told in Romans x. 17, that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." As to its nature, our Lord's discourses are full of it, showing its power to remove doubts; its growth; and, in His miracles, its position as the link between man's wants and Christ's grace, and the instrument by which His grace and merit are accepted. The Epistles are distinct as to its working: St. Paul calling it in Gal. v. 6, "faith which works by love," and in Rom. xii. showing how the acceptance of the mercies of God, or, in other words, the knowledge that we are not our own, must lead us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, and to "glorify God with our bodies and with our spirits which are His." St. James, too, in the second chapter of his epistle shows that the existence of living faith can only be proved by works.

Nor are we left in doubt as to the end of faith. Our Lord says (John vi. 47), "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life"; while St. Peter (I. i. 9) speaks of "the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls"; and in the Revelation, where the state of the redeemed is brought before us, we find that faith is lost in sight, for (xxii. 4) "they shall see His face and His name shall be in their foreheads."

Surely, then, we must see the completeness of God's word as a rule of faith. What to believe in, how to believe, the nature, effects and final consequences of believing, are all clearly set forth; and, lest we should be tempted. to add anything of our own, we are met by those remarkable words in Proverbs xxx. 6, "Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar."

III. The next point for our consideration is, that the Word of God is sufficient in itself, and therefore needs no human interpretation. This is the point on which the Protestant Church takes her stand; for Rome and Romish followers declare : first, that there are oral traditions which are required for the full understanding of the Rule of Faith; and secondly, that the Bible is so hard to be understood that it should not be independently read, but that its interpretation is committed to the Church.

Our proposition is, that Holy Scripture is not only complete in all the parts necessary for a Rule of Faith, but in itself sufficient, and therefore it requires no human interpretation or addition. This may be proved first by the Scriptures themselves.

Many passages may be quoted on this point, but it shall suffice to mention the most impor