the epistles of Paul.  Then what a rich unfolding we have in the apostolic epistles of the meaning of our Lord’s death on Calvary, and in connection with this, of the doctrine of justification by faith—­faith not simply in Christ, but in Christ crucified.  Faith in Christ’s person the disciples had before his death; but faith in him as crucified for the sins of the world they could not have till after his resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of God.  The abovenamed truths—­not to specify others, as, for example, what Paul says of the resurrection, 1 Cor., ch. 15; 1.  Thess. 4:13-18—­enter into the very substance of the gospel.  They are, in fact, integral parts of it.  Can we suppose that our Lord began the revelation of his gospel by his own infallible wisdom, and then left it to be completed by the fallible wisdom of men?  If Augustine and Jerome in the latter period of the Roman empire, if Anselm and Bernard in the middle ages, if Luther and Calvin at the era of the Reformation, if Wesley and Edwards in later days, commit errors, the mischief is comparatively small; for, upon the supposition that the apostles were qualified by the Holy Ghost to teach and write without error, we have in their writings an infallible standard by which to try the doctrines of later uninspired men.  But if the apostles whom Christ himself appointed to finish the revelation which he had begun, and whom he endowed with miraculous powers, as the seal of their commission, had been left without a sure guarantee against error, then there would be no standard of truth to which the church in later ages could appeal.  No man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, and that he came into the world to make to men a perfect revelation of the way of life, can admit such an absurd supposition.

In the second place, we have Christ’s express promises to his apostles that they should be divinely qualified for their work through the gift of the Holy Ghost:  “But when they deliver you up, take no thought”—­be not solicitous, as the original signifies—­“how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”  Matt. 10:19, 20.  “But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate:  but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye:  for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.”  Mark 13:11.  “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:  for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.”  Luke 12:11, 12.  “Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what ye shall answer:  for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.”  Luke 21:14, 15.  The above