himself is the Light which enlightens, and is the Truth, which is evident from the following passages:

"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.'-JOHN vi. 63. Jesus said to the woman at Jacob's well, 'if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.'-iv. 6, 10, 14.

"The well of Jacob here signifies the Word, as also in DEUT. xxxiii. 28. Therefore the Lord, because He is the Word, sat there and talked with the woman. Living water also signifies the truth of the Word:

"Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'-vii. 37, 38. Peter said to Jesus, Thou hast the words of eternal life.'-vi. 68. Jesus said, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away' (MARK Xiii. 31.). The Lord's words are Truth and Life, because He himself is Truth and Life, as He teaches in John: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life,' xiv. 6. . . . For this reason

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the Word which is from the Lord and is the Lord, is called 'the fountain of living waters' (JER. ii. 13); 'the rivers of waters' (xxxi. 9); 'the wells of salvation' (ISA. xii. 3) ; a fountain' (ZECH. xiii. 1); and 'a river of water of life' (Rev. xxii. 1); and it is said that 'the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto fountains of living waters' (vii. 17); besides other places where the Word is called the Sanctuary, and the Tabernacle, wherein the Lord dwells with

man.

"But still the natural man cannot be persuaded by these considerations that the Word is Divine Truth itself, in which there is divine wisdom and divine life; for he looks at it from its style in which he does not see these things. Yet the style of the Word is the truly Divine style with which no other, however lofty and excellent it may appear, can be compared. The style of the Word is such that it is holy in every sentence and in every word; nay more, everywhere, in the very letters. Therefore the Word unites man to the Lord and opens heaven.

"There are two things which proceed from the Lord, Divine love and Divine wisdom, or, what is the same thing, Divine good and Divine truth. The Word in its essence is both. And because it unites man to the Lord, and opens heaven, there

fore it fills man with the goods of love and the truths of wisdom,- his will with the former, and his understanding with the latter; consequently man obtains life through the Word.

"But it must be well understood that only those obtain life through the Word, who read it for the purpose of drawing from it, as their proper fountain, Divine truths, and at the same time for the purpose of applying to life the truths thence drawn ; and that the contrary takes place with those who read the Word merely for the purpose of securing honor and worldly wealth.

"No man who is ignorant that there is a certain spiritual sense in the Word like the soul in its body, can judge of it in any other way than from its literal sense; when, nevertheless, this is like an envelope enclosing precious contents, which are its spiritual sense. While, therefore, this internal sense is unknown, men can no more judge of the Divine sanctity of the Word, than they can of a precious stone from the matrix which embraces it, and which sometimes appears as a common stone; or than, from a casket made of jasper, lapis lazuli, amianthus, or agate, they can judge of the diamonds, rubies, sardonyxes, oriental topazes, and the like, arranged within it. The fact that these are within the casket being unknown, it is not to be wondered at that the casket

is esteemed only according to the value of its material, which is visible.

"It is the same with the Word as to its literal sense. Therefore, lest man should remain in doubt as to whether the Word is Divine and most holy, its internal sense, which in its essence is spiritual, and which resides in the external or natural sense like the soul in the body, has been revealed to me by the Lord. This sense is the spirit which vivifies the letter. It can, therefore, testify to the Divinity and sanctity of the Word, and can convince even the natural man thereof, if he is willing to be convinced."- Emanuel Swedenborg, T. C. R., n. 189-192.

All this is confirmed by what we read in the first verse of the fifth chapter of Luke: "And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon Him to hear THE WORD OF GOD, He stood by the lake of Gennesaret."

The Lord Jesus Christ himself is the Living Word, the "Word made flesh;" and He came into the world to fulfil all things of the written or prophetic Word.

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IV. Two Kinds of Books in the Bible.

As we open our Hebrew Bible we discover two grand divisions in the arrangement of the Books. First, there are those included under the term, "The Law and the Prophets," as having the greatest importance; and then follow the others, called 'Kethubim," or Writings, in the Hebrew, and in the Greek named "Hagiographa," that is, Sacred Writings. Some of the earliest phrases used to indicate this division are like the following: "The Law and Prophets, and the other writings;" or, "The Law and the Prophets, and the other books of the fathers;" meaning the Jewish fathers. This comes to us from the earliest times, and is the most ancient division known.

"The rabbinical writers maintain that the authors of the "Kethubim" enjoyed only the lowest degree of inspiration, as they received no immediate communication from the Deity, like that made to Moses, to whom God spoke face to face; and that they did not receive their knowledge through the medium of visions and dreams, as was the case with the prophets or the writers of the higher class; but still that they felt the Divine Spirit resting on them and inspiring them with suggestions."Kitto's Cyclo. Art. "Hagiographa."