Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/On Christian Doctrine/Book I/Chapter 1

Chapter 1.—The Interpretation of Scripture Depends on the Discovery and Enunciation of the Meaning, and is to Be Undertaken in Dependence on God&#8217;s Aid.

1.&#160; There are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture depends:&#160; the mode of ascertaining the proper meaning, and the mode of making known the meaning when it is ascertained.&#160; 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.&#160; 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.&#160; 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.&#160; The Lord saith “Whosoever hath, to him shall be given.” &#160; 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.&#160; The loaves in the miracle were only five and seven in number before the disciples began to divide them among the hungry people.&#160; 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. &#160; 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.