5.  Another indispensable qualification of scriptural interpretation is sympathy with divine truth; in other words, that harmony of spirit with the truths of revelation which comes from a hearty reception of them, and a subjection of the whole life, inward and outward, to their control.  “If any man,” said our Saviour, “will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”  John 7:17.  In these words our Lord proposed to the unbelieving Jews the true remedy for their ignorance and error respecting his person and office, which had their ground not in the want of evidence, but in their perverse and guilty rejection of evidence.  Their moral state was one of habitual rebellion against the truth of God; and they could not, therefore, have sympathy with the Saviour’s doctrine.  They hated the light, and would not come to the light, because their deeds were evil.  John 3:20.  What they needed was not more light, but that obedient spirit which loves the light, and allows it to shine through the soul.  The man who would be a successful interpreter of God’s word must begin where the Saviour directed these Jews to begin.  So far as he knows the truth, he must give it a hearty reception not in theory alone, but in daily practice.  Then he will be prepared to make further progress in the knowledge of it, and to unfold its heavenly treasures to his fellow-men.  But if he comes to the study of God’s word with a heart habitually at variance with its holy precepts, and an understanding darkened by the power of sinful affections, no amount of scholarship or critical sagacity will avail to make him a true expositor of its contents.  Having no sympathy with the great foundation doctrines of the gospel, but regarding them with positive aversion, he will neither be able to apprehend them in their true light, nor to explain them aright to his fellow-men.  In the work of interpretation, a good heart—­good in the scriptural sense—­is not less important than a clear understanding and well-furnished mind.

6.  How extensive and varied should be the acquirements of the able interpreter will be manifest to any one who considers the extent and variety of the fields of knowledge covered by the Holy Scriptures.

The languages in which they are written are no longer spoken.  The knowledge of them, like that of all dead languages, is locked up in books—­grammars, lexicons, ancient versions, and various subsidiary helps—­and can be mastered only by severe and protracted study.  It is not indeed necessary that the great body of Christians, or even all preachers of the gospel, should be able to read the Bible in the original languages.  But it is a principle of Protestantism, the soundness of which has been confirmed by the experience of centuries, that there should always be in the churches a body of men able to go behind the current versions of Scripture to the original tongues from which these versions were executed.  The commentator, at least, must not take his expositions at second hand; and a healthy tone of feeling in regard to the sacredness and supreme authority of the inspired word will always demand that there should be a goodly number of scholars scattered through the churches who can judge from the primitive sources of the correctness of his interpretations.