of the activity.

After this emphasis upon obedience as the organ of spiritual knowledge
some one may ask what provision we are making for infallibility and for
inspiration. We can only say that we are dealing with a Book which has
come out of concrete life, and that in concrete life not much
consideration is given to abstract infallibility. In daily experience
the righteous soul becomes increasingly sure of itself. To return for
the moment to Paul, we may think of the certainty with which he grasped
the thought of the reward which would be his. The time of his
departure, or, of his unmooring, was at hand. He was perfectly confident
that he was to go on longer voyages of spiritual discovery and
exploration. Can we say that this splendid outburst came from devotion
to an abstract formula? Did it not, rather, spring from the sources of
life within him-sources opened and developed by the experiences through
which he passed? The biblical heroes wrought and suffered through living
confidence in the forces which were bearing them on and up. They would
have answered questions about abstract infallibility with emphatic
avowals as to the firmness of their own belief. In other words, they
could have relied upon their life itself as its own best witness to
itself. They felt alive and ready to go whithersoever life might lead.

And so with inspiration. It is the merest commonplace to repeat that the
inspiration of the Scriptures must show itself in their power to inspire
those who partake of their life. Does a fresh moral and spiritual air
blow through them? Is there in them anything that men can breathe?
Anything upon which men can build themselves into moral strength? This
is the final test of inspiration. Physical breathing is in itself a
mystery, but we know when the air invigorates us. Abstract doctrine of
inspiration apart from life and experience is a very stifling affair