no great truth relating to the way of salvation through Christ is thus taught obscurely and in some single passage of Scripture.  Every such truth pervades the broad current of revelation, and shines forth from its pages so clearly that no candid inquirer can fail to apprehend its true meaning.  If, then, we find in the Bible dark and difficult passages, they must, if interpreted at all, be explained, not in contradiction with what is clearly and fully taught, but in harmony with it.  This is but saying that, instead of using what is obscure to darken what is clearly revealed, we should, as far as possible, illustrate that which is dark by that which is clear.

The Scriptures teach, for example, with abundant clearness, that Christ is the only foundation on which the church can rest.  Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:11; Ephes. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6.  This is, indeed, an office which plainly requires for its exercise that omnipotence, and that supreme power in heaven and earth which are expressly ascribed to him.  Matt. 11:27; 28:18; John 5:19-30; 17:2; 1 Cor. 15; 24-28; Ephes. 1:20-23; Phil. 2:9-11; Col. 1:15-19; Heb. 1:3.  When, therefore, our Lord says to Peter:  “Thou art Peter [that is, as the word Peter means in the original, Thou art Rock], and upon this rock will I build my church” (Matt. 16:18), to understand Peter, or any pretended successor of Peter, as a rock in any other sense than as an eminent instrument in Christ’s hand for the establishment of his church, is absurd and blasphemous.

Again:  Christ gives to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, with power to bind and loose (Matt. 16:19), and elsewhere the same power is conferred upon all the apostles (Matt. 18:18).  That Peter and his associates in the apostleship had the keys of the kingdom of heaven in any such sense as that in which Christ has them (Rev. 3:7); that is, that they had authoritative power to admit their fellow-sinners to heaven, or exclude them from heaven, is contrary to the whole tenor of the New Testament, which everywhere represents Christ as the supreme Judge, upon whose decision depends the everlasting destiny of every child of Adam.  Matt. 7:21, 22; 16:27; 25:31-46; John 17:2; Acts 17:31; 2 Cor. 5:10.  Christ’s words concerning the keys may be best understood of the special authority which he bestowed on the apostles, as inspired teachers and guides of his primitive church, to settle all questions respecting her.  For eminent examples of the exercise of this power, see the decisions concerning Gentile converts, Acts 11:1-18; 15:1-29.  In this sense the gift of the keys ceased with that of inspiration.  But if, as some think, the words may be understood of the common power conferred by Christ on his churches to regulate their own affairs, to administer discipline, and to admit or exclude from their communion, the power continues in this sense in the visible church, and is valid so far as it is exercised in accordance with God’s