VII. TRUTH: (A) THE TEACHING CHURCH We have seen that man, by membership of Christ’s Church, receives the three things necessary — truth, law, life. The next step is to examine each of these three in more detail. This chapter and the next will be concerned with Truth. Christ gave to His Church, in the person of its first officials, the apostles, a mass of truth concerning God and man : concerning the nature of God, His threefold personality. His attributes. His purpose in making man, the means by which His purpose was to be achieved. This teaching, given by Christ to the apostles, was by them passed on to others, who in their turn passed it on. Some of it was, by the inspiration of God, written down. The part written down, what we now call the New Testament, was small in relation to the whole mass of teaching, but of priceless value. THE SCRIPTURES In thus inspiring men to write God was continuing in the Church what He had begun with His chosen people. This fact of Inspiration marks off certain books from all other writings in the world. It 69