Confirming the faith ...

Table Of Contents

EXPLANATORY.

Chapter 1

THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 1. ITS PLACE IN THE WORLD OF LITER- ATURE: Shakespeare — Tennyson — Daniel Webster — Charles Dudley Warner — Senator Beveridge, Etc. 2. THE TESTIMONY OF GREAT MEN: The personal testimonies of Ex-President Roosevelt — The Converison of Lincoln — Grover Cleveland — Patrick Henry— Mr. Bidwell — Queen Victoria — W. E. Gladstone- — Sir Oliver Lodge — Coleridge, Etc. 3. THE BIBLE IN CIRCULA- TION: (a) From the Bookseller's Point of View, (b) From the Student Standpoint — The Sunday Schools of the W^orld — The New Adult Bible Class Movement — World's Alliance of Y. M. C. A.'s — World's Student Christian Federation — International Bible Reading Association. (c) The Standpoint of Publication and Distribution — The British and Foreign Bible Society — The National Bible Society — The American Bible Society — Oxford University Press. 4. THE PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: One Hundred Years in China — Ffty Years in Syria — Eight Y''ears in the Philippines — The Bible in the South Sea Islands, Etc. 5. WHY^ POPULAR?— MEETS THE SUPREME NEED OF THE HUMAN HEART: The Conversion, of the Brahmin — The Death of Socrates — The Death of Tom Paine. Pages 9-75.

Chapter II

THE BIBLE. THE RELATION OF THE OLD AND

NEW TESTAMENTS.

Objections to the Old Testament — Identity of Theme — Christ and the Old Testament — The Gospel in the Old Testament. Pages 76-100.

Chapter III

THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 1. Objections to the Bible. 2. The Meaning of Divine Inspiration. 3. Evidences of Divine Inspiration. (a) INTERNAL EVIDENCE. The Testimony of Christ. The Testimony of Miracles. The Testimony of the Morality of the Bible. The Testimony of Prophecy (b) EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. The effect of the Religion of the Bible in the Lives of Nations and Individuals. The Testimony of Science. The Testimony of Archaeology. The Testimony of Fire. Pages 101-130.

Chapter IV. The Bible And Science

1. Conjecture in Science and Religion. 2. Objections and Answers. The Fact of Creation. (Bryan's Watermelon). The Mature Creation. The Voice of Archaeology. 3. Harmony Between Science and Religion. 4. Harmony Between Science a Strengthening Force of Christianity. Pages 131-164.

Chapter V

THE BIBLE. ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY OR WHERE DID WE GET IT?

1. THE STEPS IN BIBLICAL HISTORY: — (a) Printed Bibles, (b). The Three Oldest' Manuscripts, The Vatican. The Sinaiticus. The Alexandrian, (c) Ancient Versions and the Works of the Fathers. 1. The Syriac and Old Latin Version. 2. Ancient Fathers: — Tertullian — Justin Martyr — -Irenaus. 3. Apostolic Fathers: — Clement of Rome — Polycarp. 4. The Bible of Christ and the Apostles. 5. The Septuagint. 6. The Formation of the Old Testament Cannon. 2. THE GENEALOGY OF OUR BIBLE: — 1. The Septuagint. 2. The Old Latin Version. 3. The Vulgate. 4. Tyndale's Version, 5. Miles Covdale's Version. 6. Matthew's Bible. 7. The Great Bible. 8. The Genevan. 9. The Bishop's Bible. 10. Our Authorized Version. 11. Our Revised Version. 3. OTHER ROMANTIC

TRANSLATIONS:— 1. The Samaritan Pentateuch. 2. The First Anglo-Saxon Bible. 3. Wycliffe's Version. 4. The Poor Man's Bible. 5. The Douay. or Roman Catholic Bible. 6. Elliot's Indian Bible. 7. Judson's Burmese Bible.

EXPLANATORY.

The value of anv work is best seen when it accomplishes the end for which the task was wrought. No book can be of great value unless when writing, the author had some particular end in view.

Let it be at once understood, that this volume, is not intended as a text book for the Theological Seminary, nor for the student of the ministry. There are plenty of books for such, and more exhaustive than this. It is prepared for the layman; those who have not the privileges, afforded the student of the ministry, who sit in the pew and who, listening to the words as they fall from the lips of the preacher, wonder if, after all, these things are really so.

The aim of this work is to intelligently confirm the hearts of men, in the great and important truths of God, as declared in the Bible. The Apostle Paul urges that the ministry of God shall confirm the hearts of the believers in the faith of Jesus Christ, and yet this can only be done as men and women shall have an unwavering confidence in the Bible as the Word of God.

I have yet to find any man, however high in ecclesiastical office, whom I can trust, to devise a scheme that shall save my poor soul, and because of this, in seeking an authority in Religion, my only hope is in the Bible as God's revealed plan of-Human Redemption. And so in leading others into Truth and Life, which I believe to be the supreme business of the Christian ministry, I am powerless to lead that soul unless there is an acceptance of the Bible as the Word of God, and the Final Authority in determining the Eternal destiny of mankind.

Possibly one of the saddest things that the mind of man can conceive, is to see immortal souls adrift on a sea of doubt, like a ship adrift without a pilot, and without a harbor of safety in sight. Today there are thousands of souls, both in the churches and outside the churches who are drifting on the stormy seas of doubt, in a continual state of unrest of soul, and likely to be shipwrecked at any moment, because they are not sure that the Bible which they would like to take as their guide to Eternal Truth and Life, is the Word of God.

The consciousness of this state of unrest in the hearts and lives of so many, has called forth the pages of this volume and I am glad to know, that in part at least, its purpose has been reached. Some of the members of my congregation came to me on one occasion and informed me that they didn't like to hear me preach from the Old Testament, and when I asked why, replied: "Well, there are so many strange things in the Old Testament that I can't believe that God ever had anything to do with it." The incident is a very common one, and gave reason for the address "The Relation of the Old and New Testament," which, after it had been delivered, caused these same people to come to me again, with the words : "We will never again say anything against the Old Testament."

Thank God, it had accomplished the purpose for which it was prepared, and it is now sent forth with the other addresses, with a prayer, that many souls may be comforted by the teachings of the Bible as the Word of God.

Dr. Halley, the English astronomer, once said something disrespectful about religioninthepresenceof Sir Isaac Newton, when Newton silenced him by saying: "I have studied these things; you have not." In these pages I have not tried to merely express my own mind, but the minds of the great men of the world, who have studied these things, and then after several years of study, saving and filing away, I now give out what has been of great help to myself.

J. T. SHARMAN.

CHAPTER I. The Bible— Is It Popular?

The right answer to the question of the popularity of the Bible certainly demands our keenest investigation. To answer the question indefinitely, yes and no. If we would judge its popularity from the number of persons who make it their business to spend a certain portion of each day in the study of its pages, ^ve would be compelled to say, no; the Bible is not popular, even among the professing church. We read in the Acts of the Apostles of a class of Chris- .tian people who went by the name of Bereans, because they made it their business to study God's Word each day, but today the number of individuals in the average church congregation, who follow the example of the Bereans are comparatively few. In fact, it is amazing that so great ignorance prevails among classes who are generally ac-

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credited with a knowledge of the Bible.

A few years ago the New York Independent, writes Dr.W.W.White, told of a college president in the Middle West, who tested thirty-four freshmen by giving them twenty-two extracts from Tennyson, each of which contained an allusion to some Scriptural truth or scene, and asking for explanations. These students were the sons of preachers, teachers, lawyers, merchants and farmers, and their matriculation showed that all except one declared ecclesiastical' affiliation. More than half of them claimed adherence to the Congregational and Presbyterian churches, which, as well as if not better than any, are supposed to represent intelligent Bible knowledge. Fifteen of the twenty-two extracts given were from the Old Testament. Referring to these alone, the following is the report as given by the examiner: Eleven failed to apprehend the "manna on my wilderness," sixteen were ignorant of the significance of

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Striking the rock, a like number knew nothing of the wrestling of Jacob and the angel; only two of the thirty-four ever heard of the shadow turning back on the dial of the Ahaz; twenty-six were ignorant of Joshua's moon; nineteen failed to indicate the peculiar condition of Esau's hand; twenty-four failed to explain the allusion to Baal; nineteen had never read of Ruth and Boaz; eighteen failed to indicate the meaning of Pharoah's darkness; twenty-eight were laid low by the question of Jacob's gourd; only nine were able to explain the the allusion to Lot's wife; eleven did not understand the mark which Cain bore; twenty-four were unable to write anything about Jepthah's vow and eleven were unable to explain the allusion to Jacob's ladder. In a word, out of a possible seven hundred and forty-eight correct answers, only three hundred and twenty-eight were given. Now, this is, of course, an extreme case, yet it is indeed lamentable that individual Chris-

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tians do not study the Bible more than they do, when it is so essential to Christian Hfe and character. And so I say, judging the popularity of the Bible by the number who give it a daily study, we are compelled to say no, it is not popular. But is this not judging the popularity of the Bible in the extreme sense, and this criticism is hardly fair and just. Well, then, how shall we pursue our enquiry? We will do so, first according to

Its Place in the World of Literature.

If you would study the history of literature, you must know the Bible, for hundreds of thousands of volumes in our great libraries were written because the Bible exists. Possibly more books have been written on Theology than upon anything else in the world, and whence the source of Theology, the greatest science in the world and Theology would be unintelligible without the Bible. The same is true of the

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books on Archaeology. The Bible is the key to the understanding of the discoveries of Archaeology, and without it, this science would be unexplained. And who has failed to notice the large place given to the Bible in poetical literature. The works of Shakespeare, and Tennyson and Longfellow and Browning teem with it. It is said that there are in Shakespeare's works alone, more than five hundred and fifty biblical quotations and allusions, that he quotes from fifty-four of the biblical books, and that not one of his thirty-seven plays is without a Scriptural reference. Professor Clark, writing in his "Cloud of Witnesses" declares that Lord Ten- •nyson's debt to the Bible, is one of the most striking incidents in the history of letters. It sustains Professor Huxley's admission that the Bible has been woven into all that is best in English literature. There are four hundred and sixty quotations and allusions in the Laureate's works, two hundred and one

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from the Old Testament and 259 from the New Testament, and these quotations are from fifty-two out of the sixty-six books of the Bible.

Benjamin Franklin the American statesman and phisosopher, tells of how, in early life, he was an avowed skeptic and of loose morality, but later his practical good sense, led him to correct his immoral tendencies, and to respect at least, the Christian system, though he at no time professed decidedly any religious faith. During his residence in Paris, he was at one time in company with certain skeptical courtiers who were commenting with severity on the Bible. They appealed to Franklin. He replied: "I am hardly prepared to give a suitable answer, as my mind has been occupied of late by the merits of a certain book which I found in one of the book stores in Paris, and which I think of rare excellence." The company desired him to read certain passages. He consented, opening and reading the

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prayer of Habakkuk. All were deeply impressed with the grandeur and sublimity of the passage and expressed great eagerness to know the title of the rare book, the name of its author, and if the passage read was a specimen of the merits of the book. Franklin, with a smile of triumph, replied: ''This passage is from the Bible."

But Benjamin Franklin is not the '»nly one who highly prizes the literatui*e of the prophet Habakkuk. Daniel Webster reads another portion of this ?ame book, and regards it as one of the sublimest passages in sacred literature. He tells of how, on one occasion, a small company of select friends spent an evening at his house. Tea over, the Bible and the relative beauty of its several parts, became the topic of conversation. Each one of the guests had a preference. When the turn came to Webster, he said: "The masterpiece of the New Testament is of course, the Sermon on the Mount. That has no rival, no equal. As

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to the Old Testament writings, my favorite book is that of Habakkuk, and nn^ favorite verses, chapter 3. 17, 18,: 'Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines — tlie labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat — the flock shall be cut ofif, and there shall be no herds in the stall — yet v^ill I rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of my salvation. This,'' continued Webster, "I regard as one of the sublimest passages of inspired literature." And often have I v^ondered that some artist equal to the task, has not selected the Prophet and his scene of desolation as the subject of a painting. "When in Paris some years ago," continued Webster, 'T received an account of a French infidel, v^ho happened to find in the dravs^er of his library some stray leaves of an unknown volume. Although in the constant habit of denouncing the Bible, like most infidel writers he had never read any part of it.

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These fugitive leaves contained the above prayer of Habakkuk. Being a man of fine literary taste, he was captivated with its poetic beauty, and. hastened to the club-house to announce the discovery to his associates. Of course they were anxious to know the name of the gifted author, to which inquiries the elated infidel replied: 'A writer by the name of Ha-ba-kook, of course a Frenchman.' Judge of the infidel's surprise when informed that the passage he was so enthusiastically admiring was not produced by one of his own countrymen, nor by one of his own class of so-called free-thinkers, but was penned by one of God's ancient Prophets, and was contained in that much despised book, the Bible."

Speaking of its place in the World of Literature, Charles Dudley Warner says, ''Wholly apart from its religious, or from its ethical value, the Bible is the one book that no intelligent person can afford to be ignorant of. All modern

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literature and all modern art are permeated with it. There is scarcely a great work in the language that can be fully understood and enjoyed without this knowledge, so full is it of allusions and illustrations from the Bible. It is not a question of religion, or theology, or of dogma, it is a question of general intelligence. A boy or girl at college in the presence of the works set forth for either to master, without a fair knowledge of the Bible is an ignoramus and is disadvantaged accordingly.'' It is sincerely hoped that these words of Warner will fall on the ears of a large number of our young men and women of this generation.

I was very much impressed upon reading an article some time ago, on "Why Senator Beveridge carries a Bible." The Senator says, 'T carry a Bible with me as a matter of literary relaxation. The tellers of the Bible stories, tell the stories and stop. "He builded a city" — "He took her to his mother's

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tent." You are not worried to death by the details. Go into any audience addressed by a public speaker, and you will perceive that his hearers interest depends on whether he is getting to the point. ''Well, Why doesn't he get to the point?" is the common expression in public assemblages. The Bible ''gets to the point; and it has something for everybody. If you are a politician, or even a statesman, no matter how shrewd you are you can read with profit several times a year, the career of David the cleverest politician and one of the greatest statesmen that ever lived. If vou are a business man, the Proverbs of Solomon will tone you up like mountain air. If you are a woman, read Ruth. A man of practical life, a great man, but purely a man of the world, once said to me, "If I could enact one statute for all the young women of America, it would be that each one of them should read the book of Ruth once a month."

And what place shall we give to Mil-

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ton, the author of "Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained," and to John Bunyan, the author of ''Pilgrim's Progress" in the field of Biblical Literature, to say nothing of the rest, and so, if we would judge the popularity of the Bible from the place it occupies in the World of Literature, we are drawn to admit that the Bible is indeed very popular.

We search the world for truth; we

cull The good, the pure, the beautiful From graven stone and written scroll, From the old flower-fields of the soul; And, weary seekers of the best. We come back laden with our quest, To find that all the sages said Is in the Book our Mothers read."

2. — The Testimony of Great Men.

If there is any one message that is proclaimed in the Bible today it is this; "The Divine plan of Human Redemption for All People." This to me was the message of the Apostle Paul, when he

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wrote to the Christian Church at Rome "I am a debtor both to the Greek and to the Barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise; so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also" Romans 1:14. 15. Now this message of Pauls is being fulfilled and accepted today. There is a common complaint made today, although absolutely without foundation, that the Bible is not equal to the demand of the educated people of today, and that it is only accepted by the unlearned and ignorant, and they say that this is why people are accepting the learned teachings of Mrs. Eddy and others. Now if this be true, let me say that it is not because of their abundance of intelligence, for I have yet to find one person who has an intelligent understanding of Christian Science.

But then again can it not be truly said that the greatest intellects of to-day are found in our churches on the Lord's day worshiping the God of the Bible. While

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it is true that the Bible is so plain that the wayfaring man though a fool need not err therein, yet the keenest intellects in all ,the various callings of life have bowed their heads and hearts before the presence of God, and worshiped Him and have gladly learned of His laws and precepts, and have accepted them. To satisfy my own mind that this were really so, I have given this matter a special study, endeavoring to find out the place the Bible has occupied and today does occupy in the minds of great men.

In pursuing our study, let us give to our own Presidents, and American Statesmen the honor of heading this list of great men to speak on this matter. Writing to President Roosevelt, now Ex-President, I asked Mr. Roosevelt to what place in his mind did he give the Bible, and replying through Secretary Loeb he sent me a copy of an address delivered by himself before the American Bible Society, from which I

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have taken the following extracts; ''Every thinking man, v^hen he thinks, realizes what a very large number of people tend to forget, that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally — I do not mean figuratively I mean literally — impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards towards which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves" — ''The Bible has been the Magna Charta of the poor and the oppressed. Down to modern times, no State has had a constitution in which the interests of the people are so largely taken into account; in which the duties, so much more than the privileges, of rulers are insisted upon, as drawn up for Israel in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. Nowhere is the fundamental truth that

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the welfare of the State in the long run, depends upon the righteousness of the citizen, so strongly laid down. The Bible is the most Democratic book in the world" — "If we read the Bible aright, we read a book which teaches us to go forth in the work of the Lord; to do the work of the Lord in the world as we find it; to try and make things better in this world, even if only a little better, because we have lived in it. That kind of work can only be done by the man who is neither a weakling nor a coward; by the man who in the fullest sense of the word is a true Christian, like Great Heart, Bunyan's hero. We plead for a closer and wider and deeper study of the Bible, so that our people may be in fact as well as in theory, doers of the word and not hearers only. Surely we have reason to be thankful for the esteem and reverence which Ex-President Roosevelt gives to the Bible.

Next to Mr. Roosevelt we will consider the testimony of our beloved mar-

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tyred President, Abraham Lincoln. Who has not yet become acquainted with Lincoln as a man of faith in God, and one who was acquainted with the Scriptures. For some reason or another there seems to be great diversity of opinion as to the religious sentiments of Mr. Lincoln. Some people are unwilling to admit that Lincoln was a Christian man, while others are totally ignorant of his attitude toward religious things. That we might be thus enlightened, I quote from a recent issue of the Literary Digest, the statement of Dr. Jacquess, who was Colonel of the Seventy-third Regiment, Illinois Infantry Volunteers, during the Civil War, also a Methodist Preacher at Springfield in the days of Lincoln. Dr. Jacquess writes. "The mention of Mr. Lincoln's name, recalls to my mind an occurrence that perhaps I ought to mention. I notice that a number of lectures are being delivered on Abraham Lincoln, but they all when they reach one point, run against a

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stone wall and that is in reference to Mr. Lincoln's religious sentiments. I happen to know something on that subject that very few persons know. My wife, who has been dead nearly two years, was the only witness of what I am going to state to you as having occurred. Very soon after my second year's work as minister in the Illinois Conference, I was sent to Springfield. There were ministers in the Illinois Conference, who had been laboring for twenty-five years to get to Springfield the capital of the State. When the legislature met there were a great many people here and it was thought to be a matter of great glory among the ministers to be sent to Springfield. But I was not pleased with my assignment. I felt my inability to perform the work. I did not know what to do. I simply talked to the Lord about it, however, and told him that unless I had help I was going to run away. I heard a voice saying to me, 'Fear not,' and I understood it per-

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fectly. Now I am coming to the point I want to make. I was standing at the parsonage door one Sunday morning, a beautiful morning in May, when a little boy came up to me and said: 'Mr. Lincoln sent me round to see if you was going to preach to-day.' Now I had met Mr. Lincoln, but I never thought any more of Abe Lincoln than I did of anyone else. I said to the boy: 'You go back and tell Mr. Lincoln that if he will come to church he will see whether I am going to preach or not.' The little fellow stood working his fingers and finally said: 'Mr. Lincoln told me he would give me a quarter if I would find out whether you are going to preach.' I did not want to rob the little fellow of his income, so I told him to tell Mr. Lincoln that I was going to try to preach. I was always ready and willing to accept any assistance that came along, and whenever a preacher or one who had any pretense in that direction would come along I would thrust him into the pulpit and

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make him preach because I felt that anybody could do better than I could. The church was filled that morning. It was a good-sized church, but on that day all the seats were filled. I had chosen for my text the words, "Ye must be born again,' and during the course of my sermon, I laid particular stress on the word ^must'. Mr. Lincoln came into the church after the services had commenced, and there being no vacant seats, chairs were put in the altar in front of the pulpit and Mr. Lincoln and Governor French and his wife, sat in the altar during the entire service, Mr. Lincoln on my left and Governor French on my right. I noticed that Mr. Lincoln appeared to be deeply interested in the sermon. A few days after that Sunday, Mr. Lincoln called on me and informed me that he had been greatly impressed with my remarks on Sunday and that he had come to talk with me further on the matter. I invited him in and my wife and I talked and prayed with him for

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hours. Now I have seen many persons converted; I have seen hundreds brought to Christ and if ever a person v^as converted, Abraham Lincoln was converted that night in my house. His wife was a Presbyterian, but Mr. Lincoln was not inclined that way. He never joined my church, but I will always believe that since that night, Abraham Lincoln lived and died a Christian gentleman.' What a beautiful sight it must have been, to see this great man; great in body, great in mind, great in spirit bow before Almighty God, repentant and seeking pardon for his sins. And how well did he display the beautiful graces of his Christian character in the walk of his life. Just after his first election as president, Mr. Lincoln made this declaration of faith. 'I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming and I know His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me — and I think He has — I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but

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truth is everything. I know I am right, because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it and Christ is God. I have told them that a house divided against itself cannot stand and Christ and reason say the same; and they will find it so. Douglass doesn't care whether slavery is voted up or down, but God cares and humanity cares, and I care; and I shall be vindicated; and these men will find that they have not read their Bibles aright.' Another occasion when Lincoln though president of the United States, displayed his spirit of reverence and worship for the God of the Bible, was during the Gettysburg campaign. When tremendous issues depended on a turn of battle. General Sickles asked the President if he had felt no fears when all others were alarmed. 'No' said Lincoln, and added : 'Well I will tell you how it was. In the pinch of your campaign, when everybody seemed panic stricketi and nobody could tell what was going