III.  When the inquiry is concerning a long series of events intimately connected together so as to constitute one inseparable whole, two methods of investigation are open to us.  We may look at the train of events in the order of time from beginning to end; or we may select some one great event of especial prominence and importance as the central point of inquiry, and from that position look forward and backward.  The latter of these two methods has some peculiar advantages, and will be followed in the present brief treatise.  We begin with the great central fact of revelation already referred to, that “the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” 1 John 4:14.  When this is shown to rest on a foundation that cannot be shaken, the remainder of the work is comparatively easy.  From the supernatural appearance and works of the Son of God, as recorded in the four gospels, the supernatural endowment and works of his apostles, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and their authoritative teachings, as contained in their epistles, follow as a natural and even necessary sequel.  Since, moreover, the universal rule of God’s government and works is, “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear,” (Mark 4:28,) it is most reasonable to suppose that such a full and perfect revelation as that which God has made to us by his Son, which is certainly “the full corn in the ear,” must have been preceded by exactly such preparatory revelations as we find recorded in the Old Testament.  Now Jesus of Nazareth appeared among the Jews, the very people that had the scriptures of the Old Testament, and had been prepared for his advent by the events recorded in them as no other nation was prepared.  He came, too, as he and his apostles ever taught, to carry out the plan of redemption begun in them.  From the position, then, of Christ’s advent, as the grand central fact of redemption, we look backward and forward with great advantage upon the whole line of revelation.

IV.  We cannot too earnestly inculcate upon the youthful inquirer the necessity of thus looking at revelation as a whole.  Strong as are the evidences for the truth of the gospel narratives considered separately, they gain new strength, on the one side, from the mighty revelations that preceded them and prepared the way for the advent of the Son of God; and on the other, from the mighty events that followed his advent in the apostolic age, and have been following ever since in the history of the Christian church.  The divine origin of the Mosaic institutions can be shown on solid grounds, independently of the New Testament; but on how much broader and deeper a foundation are they seen to rest, when we find (as will be shown hereafter, chap. 8) that they were preparatory to the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  As in a burning mass, the heat and flame of each separate piece of fuel are increased by the surrounding fire, so in the plan of redemption, each separate revelation receives