God's living oracles

Front matter

Class Book.

Copyright N^__

COPYRIGHT DEPOSfT.

Chapter I

What the heart of a fortress is to its outworks and minor defences, that, to the Christian Faith, is the Inspired Word of God — its central stronghold. To give up that , in any measure , is , therefore , in so far, to yield up the whole fortress to the foe.

Infidelity and irreligion seem now to be massing all their united forces for a combined and final assault upon the whole system of Christianity, and there are signs of a subtle, ingenious and Satanic plot to undermine its very foundations by destroying all belief in the supernatural. All intelligent faith in the supernatural rests, ultimately, upon the divine origin, plenary inspiration and infallible authority of the Bible, as the Book of God; and hence, naturally and necessarily, this book becomes the very center both of the attack and the defence.

Such facts at such a crisis constitute a challenge to the believer to examine anew into the whole question whether there be ample evidence of the super-human authorship of this book, carefully to weigh its claims to divine authority, and to determine how far it utters a judgment and verdict from which there is no appeal. In such matters, doubt is disaster, for even an honest misgiving is destructive both of intellectual conviction and moral repose, unsettling, if not undermining, the very basis upon which rests human confidence in the stability of a structure, the like of which never was reared. On the other hand, whatever confirms and establishes faith in the Living Oracles of God correspondingly affects every interest dearest to the believer and to mankind. If intelligent investigation produces certainty of conviction, the results are manifold: the whole history of Christianity for nearly two thousand years is vindicated; fresh force is imparted to all holy living and new nerve is infused into mxodern missions at home and abroad, while such faith in the Bible inspires a grand hope for all coming ages. The remote results are correspondingly grand; for, in proportion as, in this generation, confidence in the Word of God is confirmed, generations, yet unborn, will feel more assured that they have a rock basis for their creed and conduct.

The subject calls for calm, candid, patient investigation. Rhetorical emphasis cannot be made to do duty for rational conviction, invective cannot supply the lack of intelligence, nor can abuse of those who are believed to be in error, take the place of the sound argument that compels conviction and grounds believers in the truth. In a game, he who only stands on the defensive, loses; in battle, victory seldom comes to an army that only hides behind entrenchments ; and what is needed for the vindication of Christianity is that we shall not simply be able to hold our own, but to carry the war into the enemy's territory. Men demand not negations but positions — positive proofs that the Bible is of God, proofs that will bear the searchlight and stand severe tests. It will not do for faith to be indistinguishable from credulity. God never meant that the believer's confidence in His word should be a blind bigoted assumption of what is unproven, hiding behind ignorance, tradition or superstition. If the Bible be a divine book, it has nothing to fear from rational inquiry. Investigation will issue in vindication, and the more searching the investigation, the more triumphant the vindication.

A few years ago a party of five, roped together, were climbing a precipitous cliff in the Alps. At a critical point in the ascent, the lowermost man lost foothold, and dragged after him the next above, and so on, till the increased strain caused all the party to lose their foothold except the leader, who, driving his axe and alpenstock into the ice, and bracing himself firmly, enabled the man, next below, to regain his footing, and so successively each of the four once more recovered himself, because the foremost man had stood the strain. It is not too much to say that, while the Word of God holds its place firmly in the minds and hearts of men, as God's own book, inbreathed of the Holy Spirit and to be believed and trusted in every part as a divine guide to doctrine and duty, all that is most precious in our Christian faith and life holds its place in our convictions and confidence; but that, if the Bible loses or loosens its hold upon us as an infallible standard of truth and duty, everything else goes down with it into the same abyss of doubt. For, let it be remembered, the Word of God is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Ghost, of the nature and secrets of all spiritual life; without it we have no authentic history of Jesus the Saviour, no knowledge of the way of salvation, no unfolding of the mystery of Godliness, no clear unveiling of a future life.

It is common, in these days, carelessly to say that, even if the Bible were taken from the believer, he cannot be separated from Christ who, by the Spirit of God, dwells within him; and hence it is argued that, while it is of supreme consequence to possess Christ, it is not needful to be concerned as to whether or not the Word of God be infallibly inspired. This fallacy is too shallow to deceive or mislead a thoughtful disciple; for it by no means follows that, after one has safely reached a secure resting-place, it is of no consequence what becomes of the road thither by which he traveled. Is one to feel no concern for those who are to come after and who will be dependent on finding a plain path to the same goal.? Only a madman or a monster would be indifferent to the obliteration of all the marks, blazed on the trees of a dense forest or dangerous jungle, for the guidance of lost travelers, because he himself had got into the open fields beyond. Were every Bible burned, and the teaching of that Book blotted out from the literature of mankind, how is another soul of man to know with any certainty, of Christ, of salvation by grace, of the Holy Spirit, and of the new birth in Him, of the plan of God for worldwide missions, of Christian stewardship, of the second advent of our Lord, and of the future state with its final awards? For such reasons, among many others, it is first of all needful for all believers to have an intelligent, rational, unshakable confidence in God's Word as divine in origin, inspired of the Holy Spirit, a safe guide in belief and a sure pattern for practice.

We say an intelligent and reasonable faith. "What do you believe?" asked Whitefield of a Roman Catholic worker in the coal pits of Cornwall. "What the Church believes," was the answer. "And what does the Church believe?" "What I believe." "And what do you both believe?" ''The same thing.''

Fides carbonaria — the "colHer's faith" — has long been ridiculed as a specimen of blind credulity. To believe only what, and only because, others believe, may be perpetuating false teaching, helping on what Cyprian called vetustam erroris — the old age of error.

The Spirit of God enjoins disciples to "be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh a reason for the hope" that is within them, (i Peter: 111:15.) The more intelligent and reasonable faith is, therefore, the more pleasing and honouring to God, the more helpful to men, and the more restful and forceful to oneself.

The interests of truth demand that we should take even a stronger and more advanced position. The presumption is against the Bible's claims, rather than in their favour. Every prominent false religion affirms the possession of sacred books, and virtually claims a divine origin; the Word of God, therefore, must vindicate its right to be accepted, while others are rejected, and prove its worthiness to hold the supreme place in man's confidence as the one unique, incomparable Book of God. It is true that for thousands of years this Book has, by common consent of disciples, been held to be divine; yet even this fact cannot, of itself, establish its right to intelligent acceptance. Every man and woman should so examine for themselves as to know why they receive this one book as entitled to the preeminence in both intellect and heart, swaying thoughts, affections and will.

God has constituted and capacitated human beings to weigh evidence, because He means that they shall use their faculties in ascertaining what is true and false, and what is right and wrong. Man is to weigh, in the scales of the reason, whatever claims allegiance as truth, and subject it to the test of searching scrutiny, that he may separate between truth and falsehood. Then he is to weigh, in the scales of conscience, whatever claims obedience as duty, and try it by the standard of moral excellence, that he may discriminate between right and wrong. What reason approves as true, and conscience sanctions as right, the will is prepared to embrace; for the judgment gives its decision, that such matters are to be held as convictions and followed as practices. Not only does the Bible never avoid or evade such tests, but it challenges men to apply them; courting the severest search, and claiming obedience only when investigation has first established its right to confidence as the authoritative Word of God.

The phrase, "Oracles of God," occurs four times in the New Testament, and the instances are significant.* Here four things are to be noted: first, they are called "living"; second, they are received from God, and committed in custody to men to be given to others, the fact of such entrustment constituting the supreme "advantage" or privilege of the Jew; third, these oracles contain and inculcate certain "first principles"; and fourth, it is to be the supreme aim of every preacher and teacher to be guided by them in his utterance. These four passages thus furnish an illustration of the way in which the Word of God supplies the reader with a guide to its own interpretation. Here is a body of divine communications or revelations. They are endowed with living and life-giving power, they announce great first principles for our belief and

♦Acts VII : 38. The Living Oracles. Romans iii: 2: Heb. v:12; 1 Peter IV: 11.

practise, and they should control all our speech and conduct in behalf of God.

The lines to be pursued in the following pages are thus laid down at the beginning. Taking for granted that, if the Bible be the Book of God» it contains within itself ample proofs of its divine origin, and satisfactory evidence to support its claims, let it be the joint endeavour of the Vvrriter and the reader to approach the subject with a candid mind and a pure conscience. Both intellectual and moral honesty are first requisites in such a study. The vision of man is binocular. He needs the clear seeing eye of the understanding and the equally unobscured insight of the heart, to read aright the Book of God. The intellectual and moral faculties should be focused upon the Divine Word, if its character and claims are to be intelligently and candidly examined and weighed. With such conditions attending the investigation, two marked results are sure to follow: first, the Bible will not be invested with a false halo, which, as the incense of superstitious worshippers obscures their idol, hinders clearness of vision; and, secondly, whatever be its real character and essential glory, it will be seen and acknowledged. The same law that forbids a blind credulity, prohibits an equally blind prejudice. An honest examination makes it alike impossible to believe without proofs and to "withhold faith when the evidence is adequate. While truth has nothing to fear from the most searching tests, no tests can satisfy him in whom truth is not enthroned. God therefore "desires truth in the inward parts." Light appears and appeals only to the seeing and open eye.

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CHAPTER II The Bible as a Book

The literary element in the Oracles of God naturally first claims attention. We have to do with a book.

In nature there are conspicuous phenomena which demand explanation. The boulder is such a phenomenon. Whether or not man's science can satisfactorily account for it, the boulder is an indisputable fact and as such must be dealt with.* The science would be blind, and the philosophy folly, that would deny or dispute its existence.

Inthe world of letters, there are also phenomena which call for investigation and explanation, and foremost among them all is this grand Book. Hitherto human science and philosophy have failed to account for it on any purely natural basis. Nevertheless the Bible is a fact, no less to be denied than the boulder. Within its pages may be found its own explanation. It claims to be a supernatural revelation. If this theory be accepted it adequately accounts for the book, and the

II important question is, is the Bible's explanation of itself to be accepted as true ?

It is necessary to look carefully at this literary phenomenon, viewing it from every side, in order to appreciate both its real greatness and the need of some extraordinary method of accounting for its existence, character, survival through the ages, and influence among men.

By universal concession and confession, this is the one Book of the ages, altogether unique and wholly unrivalled. Hence, its name "The Bible," attributed to "John of the golden mouth." At a time when all literature was but in its beginning, appeared a book that rather befits the ending. When the foundation for the pyramid of letters was being laid, there was brought forth one stone of matchless symmetry, itself a little pyramid, the only fit apex to complete and crown the whole structure, a capstone whose lines and angles might well determine the dimensions and proportions, lines and angles of the pyramid. Whence came this capstone, while as yet the cornerstone of literature was scarce laid? In what quarry was it found and by what hand was it hewn? It is, moreover, of no common material, but a precious stone, a colossal gem, the like of which is found in none of the richest quarries or mines of the earth.

Thus to describe the Bible is not merely to indulge in the poetry of rhetoric, but to state the most prosaic fact. This is the one book, which neither belongs to nor befits the infancy of the race, and yet it was found among men in the early days of the world's history ; and, with all the boasted learning and wisdom of the twentieth century, it still defies all competition. The philosopher and sage cannot equal it, neither shall it be exchanged for all the jewels and fine gold of the noblest poetry and richest products of the imagination.

Human hands had indeed to do with it. Scores of different writers contributed to its pages; but this, instead of accounting for it, rather deepens our perplexity as to its origin, unless there was manifestly, behind and above these human composers and compilers, some one true author who at least superintended and controlled the whole. Great Cathedrals, like those of Milan and Cologne, occupied centuries in building. Hundreds and thousands of workmen wrought upon them. Generations gave their successive relays of labourers who hoisted the marble blocks to their places and built up walls and buttresses, pillars and arches, spires and pinnacles. Surely no one needs to be told that, behind and beyond these builders, there must have been some one architect who built the fane in his own mind before the cornerstone was laid; who, first of all, drew the plans and furnished even the minute specifications; so that such a structure owes its matchless symmetry, not to the men of brawn that worked on it, but to that one man of brain that thought out the cathedral in its completeness, and whose detailed plans directed the day-labourers in their work.

The Bible is a stately cathedral. Many human builders have in turn wrought on the structure. Who is the architect? What one mind is that which planned and saw the whole building, before Moses wrote those first words of Genesis, which by no accident, as though to carve the architect's name on the vestibule, are these: "In the Beginning God."

Does the Bible, considered as a book, demand a divine author? To answer this, it behooves us, first, to look carefully at some of its leading characteristics, as a book, to examine it as a literary product and an achievement in the world of letters.

This question — ^whether the literary character of the Book comports with its claim to a divine authorship, is the natural vestibule by which the student approaches the inner teachings and contents of the Oracles of God.

One should make sure, as he treads this threshold that he brings to his investigation that first of all requisites, already referred to — a candid mind. Candor is a rare quality. We repeat by way of emphasis that many a truth is seen falsely, or not at all, because of defects in the mental or moral vision. Few have an unbiased mind, so open to conviction as to be prepared to weigh proofs with absolute impartiality, and to admit the full force of evidence, even when it upsets former convictions and disproves former conclusions. Bigotry hates light. Prejudice only contracts the mental eye as light is poured upon it, and may even close it so as to shut out the rays entirely. In order to form safe and sound opinions, it is necessary to lay aside prejudices and prepossessions, alike, so as to look at plain facts, and give them their full value. It is well also to bear in mind Paley's maxim, never to let what we do not know disturb our confidence as to what we do know; and Butler's still wiser proverb, that, if a fact is once settled, objections cannot unsettle it ; for the fact rests on our knowledge, but the objections on our ignorance.

Here then is a remarkable literary phenomenon to be accounted for ; if in any natural human way, by all means that should suffice: the "Law of Parsimony," or "Economy of Force," forbids needless admission of a miracle. But, if this greatest of books cannot be accounted for satisfactorily upon a purely natural and human basis, we are driven to accept its own self-explanation and concede the mysterious supernatural and superhuman element which it claims.

The Bible is assumed to be a phenomenon, wholly unrivalled in the world of letters, since, even its enemies being judges, this is not denied.

One of its most important features is its unity, and as marvellous as it is conspicuous. Every circumstance connected with its preparation and production, was calculated to prevent and prohibit such unity. Here are sixty-six different books, written by some forty different authors, in three different languages, and the periods of authorship cover a score or more of centuries. These human writers were brought up in different countries, and were so remote from each other in time and space, that they could have had no mutual acquaintance, and could neither have conspired for an evil end nor combined for the best purpose. The subjects on which they wrote were very diverse and various, some historical, some prophetical, some devotional, some ethical . The form of their writings was in some cases prose and in others poetry, and yet, notwithstanding all these divergent elements, they have

produced essentially one book. Not only is the

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Bible as a whole an unrivalled phenomenon, but its features are all phenomenal, and none more so than this convergence of contents like rays toward one common focal point.

As the reader takes up this Book, he finds, first of all, that it is in two parts, known as the Old and New Testaments. But each of these is multiplex and complex : in the Old Testament are thirty-nine parts, and in the New, twenty-seven. Yet, when these two Testaments are examined more closely, in each is found a historic, ethic and prophetic element. The historic gives the annals, or outline of events; the ethic adds the moral and spiritual teaching necessary for guidance in practical life, and the prophetic forecasts the future. Taking the three together, the reader finds, spread before him, past history, present duty, and future destiny.

This unity reaches not only to all great matters, but even to most minute details. The grandmoral and spiritual lessons, by whomsoever taught, or in whatsoever v/ay, essentially agree. Certain conspicuous conceptions or ideas pervade the whole book, like golden cords on which all else is strung — such as the ideas of the Kingdom of God, sin and salvation, sacrifice and priesthood. Many of these conceptions are so lofty and unique in sublimity and novelty, that it is impossible to account for them on any human theory. They are not the product of the times in which these men wrote, nor are the like found in any other literature of those or subsequent periods; moreover, for some of them no adequate words could be found then in use among men, so that old words and phrases had to be invested with a new meaning; as for instance, holiness, humility, love. In not a few cases, the conceptions were even paradoxical: they seemed to involve contradiction if not absurdity; yet they were too grand and aweinspiring to be set aside as mere vagaries of ignorance and foolishness, as for instance, the idea of eternity — endless duration without succession — or of absolute sovereignty which decrees all events, yet both allows and ordains freedom of choice and action; or the idea of a trinity in the Godhead without plurality of Gods, and many other like conceptions which seem above the mind of man to originate, or even to comprehend when suggested.

The unity of the Bible is absolutely unique. Never elsewhere have so many different treatises, historical, biographical, ethical, prophetical, poetical, been combined together, making one book, as all the hewn stone and timber make one building,

or better still, as all the bones, muscles and liga-

i8 ments combine in one body. This again, while indisputable as a fact, is unparalled in literature, all the conditions being, humanly speaking, not only unfavourable, but fatal to such combination. Wherever else we find diversity of writers, we expect diversity of matter, each writer having his own character, or individuality, reaching into all departments of his being and work. As no two faces or forms are precisely alike, the individual features of mind and heart are yet more marked. Charles the Fifth found that he could not even make two watches run exactly together, much less make two men think or feel alike. Temperaments differ. Dispositions, like lenses, magnify or minify or color whatever is seen through them. These natural peculiarities, inborn, are also inbred. Education, instead of removing, develops and intensifies them, making absolute uniformity and agreement the more impossible. The whole tendency of growth is from unity toward diversity. Society is a plant that, the more it grows, the more it branches and minutely ramifies. Men are kept alike only by keeping them from growing, and even then, the similarity is only seeming. The freedom that knocks off fetters and leaves them free to think and speak, also leaves them free to develop independence and individuality. The writers of the Bible have all the marks of individuality. How different Moses from Malachi, Isaiah from Daniel, James from John, Peter from Paul! This diversity of nature cannot but betray itself in style, which, as Buffon said, ''is the man;" language, Wordsworth called the "incarnation of thought," expression of feeling and words taking on all the varieties of the inner life.

Diversity of times, places and circumstances would ordinarily make unity impossible. These many writers belong to different generations, centuries and ages in human history. They lived in different lands. Their surroundings were various, they spoke different languages, were moulded in the matrix of diverse national life. How different a life of exile in Babylon from one of pilgrimage in the desert, or a home in Judea; how opposite the associations of the herdsman of Tekoa and the cupbearer in the Persian court! How far off in periods were Ezra in Jerusalem and John in Patmos; Moses in Egypt and Paul in Rome!

The diversity in subject matter is more striking.

In this one book may be found every variety of

theme that can well be imagined, from the story

of creation to the forecast of the new creation.

Here is endless diversity — fragments of national

history, and of individual biography, poems and speeches, proverbs and predictions, parables and ethical teachings, legal enactments and elaborate ritual, romances of love and awful tragedies of judgment, plain precepts for right living, and spectacular dramatic scenes, gorgeously painted in oriental imagery; miracles and mysteries, the prattle of a child, side by side with the prof oundest discourses of philosophers and sages.

All this diversity of subject implies corresponding variety in the immediate object or purpose in view. These various books were written to serve different ends. Sometimes they set forth the will of God as to daily life, and sometimes unfold His great plans for the race. Here are lyrics, intended to express and guide a devotional spirit ; and again, stories of suffering to illustrate the victory of faith and rewards of patience. The evangelists give a fourfold portrait of Christ; and the Epistles apply His teachings to the current needs and perils of existing churches. The book of Joshua is a book of the wars of the Lord; Solomon's Song is a dramatic love poem, and its scene, a court. The book of Judges treats of a period of semi-anarchy; the Acts, of a generation of primitive church life. No two of these treatises cover the same ground. The diversity, which, in any other book, would be fatal to unity — here, somehow, contributes to it, as a great variety of stones, of all forms, shapes and colours, combine in an exquisite mosaic. Does not such a mosaic argue a master hand that artistically arranges the stones according to a preconceived pattern?

In many other ways or forms this unity appears, and all are remarkable. Further examples may be found in some facts, generally overlooked, of which two may be mentioned.

I. The first mention of a number, person, place or subject usually, if not uniformly, determines its general usage afterward, and its relation to the entire remainder of the book. When we first meet the number "seven," it stands for a completed work, and a period of rest. Throughout the Bible that number seems to represent essentially the same conceptions. The first mention of the Spirit of God is in connection with brooding, like a dove, over the watery abyss to bring life and order out of chaos. From that point on, this seems to be His special work — a sort of maternal office, brooding over the chaos of a ruined race to develop celestial order, life and beauty. The first time the words, "believe", "counted" and "righteousness" appear, either separately or together, is in connection with the statement that Abram *' believed in the Lord and it was counted unto him for righteousness."* From that point on, faith and the imputation of righteousness are indissolubly Hnked. This law of "first mention" is so conspicuous that it suppHes a sort of lexicon of biblical terms, giving the reader of Genesis a keyto the meaning of the whole Scripture and making the Bible its own commentary. Yet it is plain that, without supernatural guidance, the writer who first used words or phrases in such a collection could not have forecast the subsequent use and application by other writers of the terms he used.

2. Again, it is essential in a book which is practically the guide for the faith and life of millions of men, that every great subject having to do with daily duty should have adequate treatment. Somewhere, between Genesis and Revelation, every such matter is treated, comprehensively and exhaustively, and usually once for all, very few instances of repetition occurring.

For instance, there is but one comprehensive portrait of charity (i Cor. xiii). The power of the tongue is once exhaustively treated (James, iii). Once for all the dual nature of the God-man is fully set before us (Hebrews: i, ii). The laws and principles of Christian giving are found in 2 Cor. VIII, IX. God's search for lost souls is set forth especially in Luke xv by a three-fold parable, and the mysteries of the kingdom in Matthew xiii in a series of seven parables. The last judgment of the great white throne is found only in Rev. xx. Faith, its nature and victories, only with any fulness in Hebrews xi, xii. There is no complete discourse on the resurrection except in i Cor. xv. The last discourse and intercessory prayer of our Lord, only in John xiv-xvii. Romans vi-viii is one complete discussion of the question, ''Shall we continue in sin?" There is no such chapter elsewhere as the twenty-first of Numbers, the twelfth of Exodus, or the thirty-eighth of Job, or the fifty-third of Isaiah. The present rest of faith is treated only in Heb. in : 7 to iv : 1 1 . And the final community of the redeemed finds adequate treatment only in Rev. xxi-xxii.

All this implies divine foresight. Humanly speaking, no writer could have foreseen what topics would be covered in the writings of other contributors to the body of Scripture. Yet we find, scattered throughout this sacred Book, monographs, each singularly complete in itself, and each making any other on the same subject unnecessary. While apparently there is no arrangement, yet there is obviously a consummate plan, by