specially prepared receiver at the end where the explosion is desired.
Suppose it were possible for him simply to press a button and blow up
all the ships of the British Navy, or all the stores of munitions in
Germany. What would be the first duty of such an inventor? Very likely
it would be his immediate duty to keep the secret closely locked in his
own mind. If such a discovery were made known to European combatants in
their present temper, it is a question what would he left on earth at
the end of the next twenty-four hours. With European minds in their
present moral and spiritual plight it would not be safe to trust them
with any such revelation. And this illustration has significance for
more than the physical order of revelation. There are principles for
individual and social conduct that may well be put into effect one
hundred years from now. Men are not now morally fit to receive some
revelations. All of which means that any revealing movement is a
progressive movement in that it depends upon not merely the utterances
of the revealing mind, but upon the response of the receiving mind. In
the play back and forth between giver and receiver all sorts of factors
come into power. The study of the interplay of these factors is entirely
worthy as an object of Christian research. We may well be thankful for
any advance thus far made in such study and we may look for greater
advances in the future. For example, the historic students thus far have
put in most of their effort laying stress upon similarities between the
biblical conceptions and the conceptions of the peoples outside the
current of biblical revelation. The work has been of great value.
Nevertheless it would seem to be about time for larger emphasis on the
differences between the biblical revelations and the conceptions
outside.

Still when all is said the mastery of historical methods of study is but
preliminary to the real understanding of the Scriptures. If we come