Solomon his son had the same experience.  For him, too, in spite of all his wisdom, the mystery of Providence was too dark.  Though a man laboured to seek it, yet should he not find it out.  All things seemed, at least, to come alike to all.  There was one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the clean and to the unclean.  Vanity of vanity; all was vanity.  Of making books there was no end, and much study was a weariness to the flesh.  And the conclusion of the whole matter was—­Fear God, and keep His commandments.  That—­and not to pry into the unfathomable will of God—­was the whole duty of man.

Job, too:  what is the moral of the whole book of Job, save that God’s ways are unsearchable, and His paths past finding out?  The Lord, be it remembered, in the closing scene of the book, vouchsafes to Job no explanation whatsoever of his affliction.  Instead of telling him why he has been so sorely smitten; instead of bidding him even look up and trust, He silences Job by the mere plea of His own power.  Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Declare, if thou hast understanding.  When the morning stars sang together; and all the sons of God shouted for joy.  Shall he that contendeth with The Almighty instruct Him?  He that reproveth God, let him answer.

But, it may be said, these are Old Testament sayings.  The Patriarchs and Prophets had not that full light of knowledge of the mind of God which the Evangelists and Apostles had.  What do the latter, the writers of the New Testament, say, with that fuller knowledge of God, which they gained through Jesus Christ our Lord?

My friends—­This is not, I trust, by God’s great goodness, the last time that I am to preach in this Abbey.  What the Evangelists and Apostles taught, which the Prophets and Psalmists did not teach, I hope to tell you, as far as I know, hereafter.

But this I am bound to tell you beforehand—­That there are no truer words in the Articles of the Church of England than those in the VIIth Article—­that the Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and man.

Yes.  That the Old Testament is not contrary to the New, I believe with my whole heart and soul.  And therefore to those who say that the Apostles had solved the whole mystery of human life, its sins, its sorrows, its destinies, I must reply that such is not the case, at least with the most gifted of all the writers of the New Testament.  We may think fit to claim omniscience for St Paul:  but he certainly does not claim it for himself.