Chapter 1
1. There are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture depends: the
mode of ascertaining the proper meaning, and the mode of making known the
meaning when it is ascertained. We shall treat first of the mode of
ascertaining, next of the mode of making known, the meaning;—a great and
arduous undertaking, and one that, if difficult to carry out, it is, I fear,
presumptuous to enter upon. And presumptuous it would undoubtedly be, if I
were counting on my own strength; but since my hope of accomplishing the work
rests on Him who has already supplied me with many thoughts on this subject, I
do not fear but that He will go on to supply what is yet wanting when once I
have begun to use what He has already given. For a possession which is not
diminished by being shared with others, if it is possessed and not shared, is
not yet possessed as it ought to be possessed. The Lord saith, "Whosoever has,
to him shall be given." He will give, then, to those who have; that is to
say, if they use freely and cheerfully what they have received, He will add to
and perfect His gifts. The loaves in the miracle were only five and seven in
number before the disciples began to divide them among the hungry people. But
when once they began to distribute them, though the wants of so many thousands
were satisfied, they filled baskets with the fragments that were left. Now,
just as that bread increased in the very act of breaking it, so those thoughts
which the Lord has already vouchsafed to me with a view to undertaking this
work will, as soon as I begin to impart them to others, be multiplied by His
grace, so that, in this very work of distribution in which I have engaged, so
far from incurring loss and poverty, I shall be made to rejoice in a
marvellous increase of wealth.
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