evolved therefrom. Men's intellects must work upon the pabulum that
is provided for them, and a theology in a systematised form is a
necessity for the intellectual and reasonable life of the Christian
Church. But there is all the difference between man's inferences from
and systematising of the Christian truth and the truth that lies
here. The one is the golden roof that is cast over us; the other is
too often but the spiders' webs that are spun across and darken its
splendour. It is a sign of a wholesome change in the whole sentiment
and attitude of the modern Christian mind that the word 'doctrine,'
which has come to mean men's inferences from God's truth, should have
been substituted as it has been in our Revised Version of my text, by
the wholesome Christian word 'teaching.' The teaching is the facts
with the inspired commentary on them.

II. Secondly, notice that this teaching is in Paul's judgment a mould
or pattern according to which men's lives are to be conformed.

There can be no question but that, in that teaching as set forth in
Scripture, there does lie the mightiest formative power for shaping
our lives, and emancipating us from our evil.

Christ is _the_ type, the mould into which men are to be cast.
The Gospel, as presented in Scripture, gives us three things. It
gives us the perfect mould; it gives us the perfect motive; it gives
us the perfect power. And in all three things appears its distinctive
glory, apart from and above all other systems that have ever tried to
affect the conduct or to mould the character of man.

In Jesus Christ we have in due combination, in perfect proportion,
all the possible excellences of humanity. As in other cases of