The canon has never been closed in the sense that competent men may not discuss the eligibility of the books to the place they hold. But the final statement of the Article shows definitely the position of the Methodist Episcopal Church: "All the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical."

ARTICLE VI

OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and Man. Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses as touching ceremonies and rites doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts thereof of necessity be received in any commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.

I. THE ORIGIN

This Article was framed by the English Reformers. Its first and second parts formed number VI of the Forty-two Articles of 1553; its third section was taken from number XIX of the same formula and appended in 1562. It was adopted by Wesley without material change.

II. THE AIM

Disrespect for the Old Testament appeared early in the Christian era. The Gnostic sects, who believed in the malignity of matter, would not allow that the supreme God was the Creator of the world. Marcion, who lived in the latter half of the second century, was the founder of a sect who taught that the law and the gospel could not be reconciled. He arrived at this conclusion because he could not find in the Old Testament the love manifested

in the gospel of Christ. Tertullian, writing against Marcion, said: "The very Old Testament of the Creator itself, it is possible, no doubt, to charge with foolishness, and weakness, and dishonor, and meanness, and contempt. The whole of the Old Testament, the heretic, to the best of my belief, holds in derision." The same views were held by other sects in different centuries.

The Reformers who framed this Article had in mind heresies of their own time quite as subversive of the doctrines of the gospels as those of the earlier age. They were troubled with various teachers, aside from the Romanists, who presented doctrines repugnant to the Word of God. Some held that the prophets lived and wrote only for the people of their own nation, under the old dispensation, and not for Christians under the gospel. Servetus and his followers denied the vital connection of Judaism with Christianity, and maintained that the Old Testament saints had no hope of life beyond the present. Some insisted that the whole ceremonial and civil law of the Jews was obligatory upon Christians. The Anabaptists discarded the revelations of past dispensations, and relied upon a present illumination of the Holy Spirit which they professed continually to receive.

All of these heresies the Reformers met. The third section is aimed especially at the Antinomians, who teach that Jesus abrogated the moral law, and that it is not binding on believers in Christ.

III. THE EXPOSITION

The Old Testament is not contrary to the New. Investigation of the Old and New Testaments shows that the two are closely united. The Old Testament is

1 Against Marcion, book v, chap. v.

not a record of a dispensation antagonistic to the New, but preparatory to it. The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms the Christian Church inherited from Judaism. Together they formed the only sacred book possessed by the apostolic Church. This was the Bible of Jesus and his apostles. The New Testament is the outgrowth of the Old. The Old was the bud; the New is the

flower.

Here we find a history stretching back over a prolonged period of time; not a history merely of human events or of human development, but more, a history of God's dealings with men, more particularly with one separate and distinct people. In it is discovered a divine purpose that relates to the entire human family. We of the present, having reached that period of time and that stage of the development of God's plan when we can look both ways, can see a unity of design, a continuity of achievement from age to age, and a promise of a future unspeakably glorious.

The old covenant was one of promise and blessing. Mercy was its keynote. Before a word of condemnation fell upon the transgressor a promise of help was given. The patriarchal dispensation is to us obscured by mist and shadow, through which we have glimpses of light and mercy. The first promise came as a ray of light: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3. 15). The full depth of this may not be clear to us, but it came to man when the first shadows of guilt fell upon his soul, and was a promise of victory. In every part of the divine record are earnests of mercy, precepts of morality and obligation, with promises of full and blessed reward for the obedient. "Get thee out of thy country," said God

to Abraham, "and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing" (Gen. 12. I. 2). This was the opening of a new epoch in the history of the race. There was a long interval of time and innumerable human events between Abraham and Jesus Christ, yet they were closely united. "Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8. 56). Abraham is a prominent figure in the New Testament; his movements and beliefs have influenced all after generations.

Moses had been dead more than a thousand years before Christ was born, and yet there was a close relation between them. In some respects the one foreshadowed the other. The awful and sublime scenes of Sinai so impressed the people that they feared a repetition of them, and desired some other medium of approach to God. God said to Moses, "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him" (Deut. 18. 18). Moses was a mediator, so was Jesus Christ. Moses was an intercessor; as such Christ was infinitely greater. Moses wrought great miracles attesting that he was sent of God, and miracles attested the divine mission of Christ. Moses was the lawgiver of the old dispensation, Christ was the lawgiver of the new. To no others did God ever give laws that were confirmed and ratified by indubitable signs and proofs.

There is in both Testaments the same revelation of God, and the same unity of purpose for the redemption of mankind. God is the author of both. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past