GOD S WITNESS TO
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GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
GOD S WITNESS
TO HIS WORD
A STUDY OF THE SELF-WIT
NESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
TO HIS OWN WRITINGS
BY
HUGH D. BROWN, M.A., T.C.D.
BARKIS TER-AT- LAW
aw Ti:n nirv D?iy?
PSA. cxix. 89.
TO ct ft?! [i a Kvpiov n ivii tic riv altava.
i PET. i. 25.
LONDON - HODDER
AND STOUGHTON 27
PATERNOSTER ROW 1904
U--
IL
-77 /
TO
THE LOVED
OFFICE-BEAKERS AND MEMBERS
OF THE BAPTIST CHUKCH, HARCOURT STREET, DUBLIN,
I DEDICATE
THIS VOLUME IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE
OF TWENTY YEARS OF HAPPY
FELLOWSHIP IN WORK,
WITNESS, AND
WORSHIP.
THE substance of this volume has already appeared
in the pages of The Sword and Trowel, and is now
reprinted on account of the kindly request of several
friends from different portions of the United Kingdom.
No originality is claimed, the object simply being to
unfold through the Words of God Himself His own
testimony concerning " the Holy Scriptures." I offer,
therefore, no apology for having quoted at such length
so many utterances of the Holy Spirit, experience re
vealing that the majority of even earnest Christians,
when only references are made to certain passages of
Scripture, do not look up and verify these sufficiently,
in extenso, for themselves. This much may, however,
be said, that sentences which can be read in a few
seconds have often caused as many hours of Biblical
research, and that every paragraph of the volume
has been conscientiously written and carefully prayed
over.
It will be at once evident that I do not presume to
defend the Bible, that were an act of impertinence ;
but simply to let "the Holy Scriptures" vindicate
themselves. On this account no evidence of a purely
viii PREFACE
external and archaeological nature has been introduced,
nor do we see our way to hold with those who buttress
up their argument with such testimonies, since should
those evidences fail, or become discredited, then, as a
logical sequence, material damage must affect their
witness concerning the Bible itself. This statement
does not of course apply to fulfilled prophecy, which
stands upon an entirely different basis, both as being
in itself indisputable, and as having been foretold
centuries before the faintest vestige of its fulfilment
seemed probable or indeed even possible.
I am indebted to, possibly the most masterly book
ever written on the subject of Biblical inspiration,
that of the late Professor Gaussen " Theopneustia " ;
also to Dr. Saphir s " Christ and the Scriptures " ; and
to a little pamphlet by that man of God, Dr. Jas.
H. Brookes, of St. Louis, entitled " Is the Bible In
spired ? " ; and in the matter of fulfilled prophecy to that
unique volume, Dr. Keith s "Evidence of Fulfilled
Prophecy"; Mr. John Urquhart s "What are we to
Believe?" and Dean Goode s " Warburton s Lectures
on Fulfilled Prophecy " ; all of w r hich volumes merit
a prominent place in the library of every student.
I also desire to express my grateful acknowledg
ments to Mr. A. U. G. Bury, M.A., Principal of the
Irish Baptist College, Dublin, for many valuable hints,
and much kind aid.
As regards the vexed question of the higher criticism,
I have spoken strongly, believing that we are inevitably
forced up to the solemn and terrible issue, either to
accept in this matter the testimony of the Lord Jesus
PEEFACE ix
Himself or else discrediting it, are deliberately driven,
however unintentionally, to impair His essential deity,
and the efficacy both of His person and work, as the
Redeemer of lost and ruined sinners. Undoubtedly
some of those who advocate, after a moderate fashion,
the views of this so-called "higher criticism" are
themselves not only erudite, but godly men, but this
fact renders it even still more important, that their un
conscious patronage of falsehood should not be quietly
passed over, when involving as it does a direct vote of
censure upon the claims and utterances of our Divine
Redeemer Himself. " Aut Christus aut nidlus" must
therefore in the present conflict be the war-cry and
rallying-point of all those who love our Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity and truth.
DUBLIN,
April, 1904.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE . . . . . . . vii
INTRODUCTION . . . . . .1
A " God-breathed " Bible or no revelation. A priori argu
ment for infallible court of appeal. A posteriori argument
for inquiry.
PART I
WHAT THE HOLY SCKIPTUBES CLAIM
THE BOOKS OF MOSES . . . . .9
A God-given revelation. Verbal inspiration claimed. Moses,
God s mouthpiece. Critics of Moses, foes of God. Death-
scene of Moses.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS . . . . .19
Joshua claims an authority equal to Moses. Judges a
Divine revelation of man. God s character-sketches. Biog
raphies of unimpeachable truth. God s danger-signals.
Ruth an old love story. All Scripture, though " God-
breathed, "not essential for salvation. Verbal inspiration not
claimed for translations. Samuel speaks God s words. To
Nathan and the prophets, "the word of the Lord came."
Divine intervention for Israel. "Thy Spirit in Thy pro
phets." Old Testament Scriptures mainly refer to Israel
as a nation Individualism and old-time genealogies.
Esther God s sovereignty written large on history.
xii CONTENTS
PAGE
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG . . .53
Job an enlarged photograph of life s mysteries. God-
inspired records of uninspired speeches. "The Holy Ghost
by the mouth of David." The Messianic Psalms windows
to the heart of God. An epitome of life s experiences.
Maledictions on the seed-plot of sin and sorrow. Solomon s
wisdom from God. Proverbs " Laws from heaven for life
on earth." " The tongue ... a fire." God s condensed
wisdom. " Our home life." Ecclesiastes Immortality
satisfied alone in God. "The Song of Songs."
THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS . . . .83
Isaiah "Hear . . . for the Lord hath spoken." Jeremiah
" My words in thy mouth." Ezekiel " The Spirit of the
Lord . . . said unto me, Speak." Daniel s Predictions in
words he understood not demand verbal inspiration. So also
those of Isaiah. Prophets revealers of God s will, but not
necessarily foretellers of it. A cloud of witnesses to whom
" the word of the Lord came."
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS . . . .93
The ministry of the Holy Ghost. The dispensation of the
Spirit. " Words which the Holy Ghost teacheth." No
further revelation. "Things to come." Dogmatic claims
of the Gospellers. Unique claims and dicta of the Lord
Jesus. Apostolic utterances placed on the same level as
Christ s. Paul speaks " by the word of the Lord." Peter
"a more sure word of prophecy." John "the message
which we have heard of Him."
PART II
THE ENDOESEMENTS OF THE BIBLE
THE TESTIMONY OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST . . 121
An unqualified acceptance of verbal inspiration. Christ s
ambition to glorify the Father. Verbal inspiration routs the
devil. " One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass." Christ s
subservience to the Scriptures. Moses and all the prophets
CONTENTS xiii
PAGE
endorsed by Christ. " The Lord of glory " believes the so-
called legends of the Old Testament. Jesus no Jesuit. Our
Lord never accommodated His teaching to popular views.
Christ stakes His divinity and the resurrection upon verbal
inspiration. Christ s testimony from the cross. Was our
Divine Lord s knowledge limited? "Jesus knew their
thoughts." Testimony of the Holy Ghost. Christ s resur
rection testimony. Christ s testimony from heaven. God
the Father behind the Son s testimony.
THE TESTIMONY OP THE APOSTLES . . . 155
Pharisees and Sadducees acknowledge the supremacy of the
Scriptures. So do all the Apostles. The witness of five
representative Scriptures. The Gospel of Matthew. The
historical record of the Acts. The Epistle to the Romans.
The " two Isaiahs " unknown to Christ and His Apostles.
The book of Hebrews. An epistle which disappears if
quotations omitted. Intricate teachings depend on single
words. The letter of Jude. How did Jude quote from
Enoch ? Peter s preaching and writings. Paul s Scriptural
heresy. He based arguments upon historical sequences.
Paul versus modern critics.
EXCURSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST . . . 175
I. THE CLAIMS OP JESUS CHRIST. Christ s teaching as
authoritative as that of God Himself. He accepts adoration
and worship due only to the Eternal God. Affirms His
possession of the very functions and powers of Deity. Claims
actual equality with God the Father.
II. THE ENDORSEMENT OP THESE CLAIMS. The character
of Christ. His teaching. His miracles. The testimony of
the Apostles. Who associate the name of the Lord Jesus on
terms of practical equality with that of God the Father.
Assert the possession of the very attributes and powers of
Godhead by Jesus Christ. And that Jesus was literally very
God. The evidence of fulfilled prophecy. The objective
facts of history. The subjective witness of my own life.
III. THE CONSEQUENCES OP THESE CLAIMS. A gospel
appeal. The Kenosis theory. Two difficulties.
FULFILLED PROPHECY . . . . .211
Predictions concerning the circumstances of the Saviour s
incarnation. His character and sufferings. " And the glory
xiv CONTP^NTS
PAGK
that should follow." His universal empire coming. Types
and sacrifices foreshadowed Jesus. Outline sketches of
Christ. Daniel fixes date when Messiah shall be cut off.
The sixty-nine weeks commence B.C. 444. Scriptural and
prophetic years. Uninspired conclusions.
THE JEWS . . . . . .233
Ten million Jews testify to verbal inspiration. Siege of
Jerusalem predicted 1,500 years ahead. The dispersal yet
preservation of Israel. Desolation of the land. Predicted
blessings.
GENTILE NATIONS ..... 243
The curse of slavery. The untamable Arab. The extinction
of Edom. The destruction of Nineveh and Babylon. Judg
ments on Tyre and Sidon. Egypt" The basest of the
kingdoms." No native prince for millenniums. The City
of the Seven Hills. A group of latter-day predictions. A
general bird s-eye view of prophecy. A microscopic investi
gation of certain details connected with each prediction.
Arithmetical calculation of the chance of prophecy being
fulfilled in globo and in detail. Contrasted prophecies.
THE SELF- WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST . . 267
The unity of the sacred books. One great Master-Mind
behind them. A progressive revelation. The harmony of
the sacred books. Old and New Testament inseparably
interwoven. The uniqueness of the sacred books. No
writings comparable with the Bible. It is a revelation
unique reliable terse yet comprehensive unlocks all
mysteries. The universality of the sacred books. Bible
suits all ages and sections of society. Moulds languages
and nations. The one changeless factor in the literature
of earth. The unconqucrability of the sacred books. The
miraculous conception of the Bible Individuality of the
writers. Miraculous preservation of the Bible. Its desti
nation and miraculous results. All God s promises
" justified."
MY SUBJECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS . . . 303
A SUMMARY OF THE GENERAL ARGUMENTS FOR
VERBAL INSPIRATION . 308
CONTENTS xv
PART III
THE CONSEQUENCES AND DUTIES ARISING
FROM SUCH CLAIMS
PAGE
THE OBJECTIONS ..... 317
A record of sins. Acts and speeches of ungodly men. The
imprecatory Psalms. Insignificant details. Opposition of
science falsely so-called. The earth created perfect, then
blasted. Creation versus evolution. The hen or the egg.
Joshua and the sun. Opinion of six hundred and seventeen
members of the British Association. Modern discoveries
anticipated. Alleged inaccuracies in the Word of God.
Due to ignorance mistranslation absence of inquiry.
Stephen s speech. The healing of the blind men. A sample
case of manufactured difficulties. The Gospels written from
different view-points. Supposed misquotations of Old
Testament Scriptures. Bishop Kyle s advice. Have the
very words of the Holy Spirit been preserved ? A reverent
literary criticism. Adaptability of the Scriptures for all
dialects. Care taken by copyists. The Massorites. "Writ
ten by hand." No article of faith varied by readings. The
Bible exists in spite of " the Church." Difficulty re
1 Cor. vii.
THE DUTIES OF THE LOYAL-HEARTED . . . 359
A deadly combat against the higher criticism. Dr.
Chalmers " tampering with limits destroys everything."
Unswerving obedience demanded. " Idiot " spells " original
thinker." Souls nourished by child-like faith. Dependence
upon the Word of God alone for victory. The last great
dramatic scene of the Bible.
to tbe angel of tbc cburcb in fl>bilaDelpbia write:
bese tbings saitb 1be tbat is bole, 1be tbat is true, 1be
tbat batb tbe fce\? ot DaviD, 1be tbat openetb, anD no man
sbuttetb ; anD sbuttetb, anD no man openetb ; 3- hnow tbg
works: bcbolD, 3- bav>e set before tbee an open Door, ano no
man can sbut it: for tbou bast a little strengtb, anD bast
kept dE>Y> IflorD, anD bast not DenieD dftg name.
"JBcbolD, J will make tbem of tbe synagogue of Satan,
wbtcb sap tbee are Jews, ano are not, but Do lie ; bebolD, 5
will make tbem to come ano worsbip before tbg feet, ano
to know tbat 5 bave loveo tbee. Because tbou bast
tbc lUorD of /Bbg patience, 5 also will keep tbee from tbe
bour of temptation, wbicb sball come upon all tbe worlo,
to trv tbem tbat Dwell upon tbe eartb.
"33ebolD, 3- come quicklg; bolD tbat fast wbicb tbou bast,
tbat no man take tb crown, tbtm tbat overcometb will
3- make a pillar in tbe temple of /Dbg <BoD, anD be sball
go no more out: anD 3 will write upon bim tbe name of
nifi OoD, anD tbe name of tbe cits of /toe <SoD, wbicb is
1Rew Jerusalem, wbicb cometb Down out of 1beav>en
from fthy (5oD: anD J will write upon t)im /IfcB new
name.
U 1be tbat batb an car, let bim bear wbat Cbe Spirit
saitb unto tbe cburcbes.^
TIIK LORD JESUS CHRIST
(Kevelalion iii. 7-13).
INTRODUCTION
A " God-breathed " Bible or no Revelation
BEYOND all doubt, the great battle of the twentieth
century must rage around the Inspiration of the Word
of God. Has the Almighty really spoken to erring
mortals ? Or are we mere derelicts, tossed to and fro
upon the ocean of life s enigmas, without a chart or
compass ? Beside this issue, all other questions, how
ever important, dwarf into comparative insignificance.
For if the Bible goes, all vanishes ; our preaching is
vain, our faith is also vain, we are yet in our sins.
Sadly we bid "Good-bye" to the old Gospel; yea,
even the Christ Himself melts into the unknown amid
the tearful farewells of those who only knew and loved
Him through the Holy Scriptures ; and we stand help
lessly face to face with the unsolved problems of sin
and sorrow, life and death, judgment and immortality.
If the Bible be not a revelation from God, of God, but
merely the creation of human philosophy, imagination,
memory, argument, and tradition, then are we con
fronted with the greatest and most audacious imposi
tion ever pawned off upon the credulity of the human
race, the tragic afterglow of which but casts its pathetic
sadness over our hearts as we realise that the fading
glory of a magnificent illusion has flitted by for ever.
The very thought is ghastly, shivery ! But let us
face the remorseless facts like men. Either God has
2 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORT)
broken silence, or He has not ; either we have a revela
tion from Heaven, inspired, infallible, authoritative, or
we have not ; either the Bible is Divine in its concep
tion, preservation, and destination, or, as the mere
writings of certain men, however amiable and pious,
claims no more our reverence or loyalty than the utter
ances of Socrates, Mohammed, Ignatius Loyola, and
Shakespeare. It may suit the convenience of Rational
istic theologians to becloud this issue, for who indeed
would endow a Christian Professorial chair (and
salaries are helpful in these mundane days !) if the
Holy Scriptures be false, and their Author and central
figure discredited ? But the conclusion is clear-cut,
and irresistible, either the Book is what it claims to
be, " God-breathed," or, as an aggregated mass of
legendary lore, historic incidents, pious platitudes,
metaphysical reasonings, philosophical thought, and
deliberate falsehoods, merits instantaneous and con
temptuous consignment to the waste-paper basket, or,
at the best, a position in our libraries alongside the
literature of Herodotus and Aristotle, Seneca and
Bacon.
Some, indeed, who apparently revel in reasoning
that all contradictions are harmonies, that darkness is
but light suppressed, and light darkness illuminated,
that black is white, and white is black, who trim and
twist and torture words and sentences, whether in
Hebrew, Greek, or Anglo-Saxon, to mean what their
great minds read into these passages, and anon use
terms and phrases with a forged and different meaning
than that accredited by the Standard Dictionaries and
universal custom, such reasoners may arrive at another
conclusion ; but, to simple and honest minds, there can
be no alternative. If the Bible be but a human pro
duct, then are our title-deeds for eternity defective an4
INTRODUCTION 8
delusive ; the Gospel of Christ and the Christ of the
Gospel come crumbling down upon our broken lives
and blighted hopes, and amid the gathering darkness
we feel the touch of Death s skeleton fingers, and hear
the roar of the swollen torrent ahead without a single
ray of hope or joy to glint us to the mystery of the
great spirit- world beyond. To put the matter bluntly,
if the so-called findings of the Higher Criticism be
true, we have no Sacred Scriptures, but record the
funeral of a mutilated, defective, errant, contradictory
book, buried with maudlin pious tears by those officials
who were salaried to propagate and keep alive its
doctrines ; and again we have to say that our preach
ing is vain, our faith is also vain, we are yet in our
sins.
A priori Argument for Infallible Court of Appeal.
Now, that the Almighty God, whose designs are
everywhere stamped by order, beneficence, harmony,
should break the silence, and convey to the objects of
His creation His will and programme concerning them,
is but a likely and reasonable deduction ; so that
we might easily form a legitimate a priori argument
why the Great Supreme Being should thus make
revelation of Himself, and His laws and purposes of
righteousness and grace. Indeed, it seems more
natural to assume this than the contrary, if mortals be
expected to exercise any relationship of conscious
responsibility towards God, or carry through in some
intelligent manner the objects for which the All-wise
Creator originally fashioned them. Revelation, there
fore, has the stamp of likelihood upon it ; and following
this thought there arises a needs-be, a necessity for
infallible and inerrant guidance. Intuition, reason,
4 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
conscience, these all fail to lead towards unity of
thought and harmony of being ; nay, rather, as we are
at present constituted, do they inevitably tend to dis
cord, strife, and pandemonium, as, amid the Babel of
conflicting voices, each man claims supremacy for his
own opinion, and forces his dictum, as the only
siunmum bonum, upon his fellow-men. An infallible
Court of Appeal, to which all can turn, and which will
utter its pronouncements with precision, authority,
finality, is therefore an absolute sine qua non if
harmony, usefulness, progress, and love are desiderata
in our present or future state of being. The hungry
yearning of our immortality craves for certitude ; the
duties and intricacies of life demand it ; the unknown
and future mysteries enshrouding our existence all
force us to cry out, " Great God, more light, more
light ! " From Him who made us, to whom we bow,
and to whom alone we are responsible, we expect an
answer authoritative, infallible, that the conflict of
conscience, the struggle of opinion, the discords of
reason, and the varied leadings of intuition may cease,
and certitude be stamped upon our life down here, and
light and glory thrown upon the world beyond.
This certitude, this infallibility, we cannot find in
earthly Councils, nor in human fiats ; for it we look,
not to Jerusalem, Constantinople, Canterbury, Edin
burgh, nor even to Borne, but to Heaven. Vatican
pretensions, conceived in vanity, and begotten in
division, we reject contemptuously, for is not their
so-called infallibility but of yesterday a younger
creation than ourselves, a child of the very latest gene
ration, only some thirty years of age, whose birth we
watched, and whose boyish claims and struggles
awakened but alternate pity and anger within our
breasts? To God, therefore, we turn. If He has
spoken, it is well ; but if not, then all must remain
confused, chaotic, perilous, for no man, however vain
and puerile be his thoughts, dare, for his own soul or
honour s sake, yield blind and unconvinced obedience
to the whims, dictates, and imaginations of his dying
and fallible fellow-man. The Holy Scriptures claim,
however, as the distinct and definite utterances of
Almighty God, to give us this infallible revelation and
authority ; and, by the sheer audacity of such an asser
tion, compel our careful and anxious investigation
concerning the self-witness of the Bible to itself.
A posteriori Argument for Inquiry.
Besides all this, there is also an a posteriori reason
which demands our inquiry into this matter. The
Book holds pre-eminent sway in the world of literature
to-day. Tens of millions of thoughtful, kindly, upright,
moral men and women, of all grades and sections of
society, of every clime, and race, and temperament,
acknowledge its claims, avow allegiance to its precepts,
faith in its Gospel, and a comfortable assurance in its
teaching that, when death comes, the glory of a sinless,
blissful state will dawn upon their souls. Two hundred
million copies of the Sacred Scriptures have, in our
time alone, been issued in practically every language of
the earth by our great Bible and publishing Societies ;
and so great was the interest awakened, even in pro
gressive America, a few years ago, when the Kevised
Version of the New Testament Scriptures was issued,
correcting certain verbal errors or mistranslations which
had crept into our Anglo-Saxon Authorised Version
(none of which alterations affected in the smallest
degree any of the great central doctrines and precepts
of the Christian faith), that gay, godless Chicago, had
(5 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
some two hundred thousand words flashed across the
wires in order to anticipate by one day the advent
of "the lightning express" from New York to that
great city.
Were there no other reason than this, the unique
power and position which the Book occupies in all
civilised and even heathen lands to-day, the results and
transformations which flow from its perusal and in
fluence, we stand compelled, as thinking honest men,
to consider its claims, its arguments, its evidences.
Nay. more ; every one is bound to read the Bible for
himself if, on the very lowest ground of literary know
ledge, he would keep pace with that Book which
moulds and governs the thinking and living of so large
a proportion of the most civilised, humane, progressive,
philanthropic, and liberty-loving of the human race.
We would, therefore, consider
Firstly, WHAT THE HOLY SCRIPTURES CLAIM ;
Secondly, THE ENDORSEMENT OF THESE CLAIMS ;
and
Thirdly, THE CONSEQUENCES AND DUTIES ARISING
FROM SUCH CLAIMS.
PART I
WHAT THE HOLY SCRIPTURES CLAIM
THE BOOKS OF MOSES
A God-given Revelation.
" IN THE BEGINNING GOD." These are the first
words of Revelation and History, as of Creation and of
Grace. Without the smallest shred of explanation, or
any petty apologetics for His existence, the curtain
rises upon GOD ; and in the thirty-six verses describing
the origin of Nature, Life, and Man, we have exactly
the same number of references to God in His action,
speech, and contemplation. Ten times (practically,
eleven, see verse 22) in the first chapter of Genesis
alone, w r e read the pithy, pregnant sentence, " And
God said.
So is it all through " the Book of Beginnings." In
connection with the institution of marriage, the Lord
God said, "It is not good that the man should be
alone. * Concerning " the Fall," we read, " the Lord
God said unto the woman," "the Lord God said unto
the serpent," "and unto Adam He said." "and the
Lord God said." + Of the first murderer, we find it
thrice recorded, "the Lord said unto Cain." * About
the antediluvians, and to Noah, the sentences occur
again and again, "the Lord said," "and God said,"
" God spake." Of proud man s wild Babel tower, we
::: Gen. ii. 18. t Ibid. iii. 13. 14, 17, 22. ; Ibid. iv. 6, 9, 15.
j Ibid. vi. 8, 7, 13; vii. 1 ; viii. 15, 21 : ix. 1. 8, 12. 17.
10 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
read, " And the Lord said, . . . Let us go down, and
there confound their language." The history of the
great father of the faithful practically began with the
words, " Xo\v the Lord had said unto Abram " ; and
on thirty-one other occasions ; + it is recorded, in some
sncli phrase, that the Almighty and Eternal One
conversed with His friend Abraham ; and wandering
Jacob, to whom God spoke definitely at least seven
times, testifies to his beloved Joseph, when dying.
" God Almighty appeared unto me at Lux, . . . and
said unto me"; * while of even the outcast, broken
hearted Hagar and her boy, and the righteous heathen
king, Abimelech, it stands narrated that they received
blessing and deliverance from high Heaven when " the
angel of the Lord said" or "God said." $ A careful
reading of Genesis xxii. 11-18 demonstrates that "the
angel of the Lord," who called unto Abraham, was
none other than the Lord Himself: " thou hast not
withheld thy son, thine only son from Me," kc.
Add to all these startling and unique statements the
hundreds of references to the Divine interferences,
actions, thoughts, remembrances, of the Lord God, and
it will be at once seen that the whole Book of Genesis
is so thoroughly saturated and interwoven with asser
tions of God s speech, authority, and revelation, that,
if its incidents, statements, and histories be not in
spired, we cannot do otherwise than brand it as the
most audacious and shameless piece of literary hypocrisy
* Gen. xi. 6. 7.
I Ibid. xii. 1, 7 ; xiii. 14 : xv. 1. 4. o. 7, 9. 13, 18 ; xvii. 1, 3, 9.
lu, 19; xviii. 10. 13. 15, 17. 20, 26. 28-32; xxi. 12; xxii. 1, 2.
11, 12, 16.
\ Ibid, xxviii. 13 ; xxxi. 3. 11: xxxii. 28; xxxv. 1. 10: xlvi. 2 :
xlviii. 3, 4.
s Ibid. xvi. 9-11 ; xx. 3. 6. See also Exod. iii.
THE BOOKS OF MOSES 11
and falsehood the world has ever seen, since it claims,
without a doubt, a thoroughgoing, out-and-out, full-
orbed inspiration from God.
Verbal Inspiration Claimed.
Passing on to the BOOK OF EXODUS, we are at
once confronted with similar if not even stronger
statements. Moses, destined to be the great law-giver
and emancipator of the children of Israel, stands with
bowed head and bared feet before the mystery of the
burning bush, while the Almighty, "I AM THAT 1
AM," " the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob," speaks to His servant, and ordains
him for his magnificent mission, saying, " Certainly
I will be with thee." * But the trembling, diffident
prophet replies, " my Lord, I am not eloquent,
neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto
Thy servant : but I am slow of speech, and of a slow
tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made
man s mouth ? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf,
or the seeing, or the blind ? have not I the Lord ?
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth,
and teach thee what thou shalt say." t Notice, not
merely with the mind, but with the mouth ; not
simply suggesting thoughts, but actually (jiving words ;
and so, all through the life-ministry of Moses, whether
in Egypt addressing Pharaoh, or in the wilderness
enacting laws for Israel, arranging even the minor
details concerning the erection of the Tabernacle, and
its simple yet solemn ritual, or delivering prophetic
utterances and warnings concerning days to come, we
tind that he claims to utter the ipsissima verba, the
actual words of God, unto the people ; and, on that
* Exod. iii. 4-18. I Ibid. iv. 10-1-2.
12 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
ground, meek, shrinking man though he was naturally,
he demanded unswerving loyalty, undeviating obedience
to every trivial, because God-breathed, detail. It was
because the Lord said unto Moses, " Thou shalt speak
all that I command thee," * that the prophet, in
his last address, exclaimed, " Ye shall not add unto
the word which I command you, neither shall ye
diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the com
mandment of the Lord your God which I command
you;" . . . "Behold,! have taught you statutes and
judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded
me." " And these words, which I command thee
this day, shall be in thine heart : and thou shalt
teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk
of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when
thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down,
and w r hen thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them
for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as
frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write
them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."
" What thing soever I command you, observe to do it :
thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." +
Such assertions of supernatural dignity, linked with
pathetically tragic warnings of the dangers incident
upon the smallest addition to or diminution from the
words given through Moses, afford most emphatic
testimony that the prophet held, and that with no
bated breath, or qualified claim, the doctrine of Verbal
Inspiration touching his own utterances, as fully and
as unreservedly as he predicted it concerning those of
his great Antitype, our blessed Saviour : " And the Lord
said unto me, ... I will raise them up a prophet
from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will
put My words in His mouth ; and He shall speak unto
:;: Exod. vii. 2. Dent. iv. 2. 5 : vi. 0-9 ; xii. 32.
THE BOOKS OF MOSES 13
them all that I shall command Him. And it shall
come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My
words which He shall speak in My name, I will
require it of him. But the prophet, which shall pre
sume to speak a word in My Name, which I have not
commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the
name of other gods, even that prophet shall die."
When we look back over the Books of Exodus,
Leviticus, and Numbers, even the most superficial
reader must be immediately arrested by the tremen
dous sentence prefacing nearly every chapter : "Then
the Lord said unto Moses," " And the Lord spake unto
Moses." + Indeed, it is only necessary to hold the Bible
in your hand, and just let page after page flit by, and
as though by a panoramic effect, these words seem to
stand out as the root and essence, the heart and mani
festation, the centre and circumference of the whole
Pentateuch, as indeed they are, for while the five
Books are divided by men into one hundred and
eighty-seven chapters, which might, with greater
wisdom and continuity of thought, be easily reduced
to say one hundred and sixty-seven, we have in all,
it is computed, Jive hundred and one distinct assertions
in them of supernatural authority, being an average of
three such claims in every chapter.
Moses, God s Mouthpiece.
Verily, well may we ponder over this condescending
grace of that wonderful Jehovah who " spake unto
Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his
::: Deut. xviii. 17-20.
f Exod. vi. 1 ; vii. 1 ; viii. 1 ; ix. 1 ; x. 1 ; xl. 1, &c. Lev. i. 1 ;
iv. 1 ; vi. 2 ; viii. 1 ; xxvii. 1, &c. Numb. i. 1 ; ii. 1 ; iv. 1 ; v. f> ;
vi. 1 ; xxvi. 1, &c.
14 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
friend";* and note, with humble gratitude, His
object in it all, that the prophet might simply be
His honoured mouthpiece to pass on, unsullied and
unalloyed, God s words of light, and life, and love, to
lost and erring men. Thus, whether it be in the
cleansing of the leper, awarding justice to the
daughters of Zelophehad, making and sounding silver
trumpets, or facing and routing rebels,! Moses in
variably claims a " Thus saith the Lord " for his
every action, while the Almighty Himself speaks words
of strongest condemnation, direct from His own lips,
to Miriam and Aaron for audaciously exclaiming,
" Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses ? hath
He not spoken also by us ? " " Hear now My words :
If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make
Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak
unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so,
who is faithful in all Mine house. With him will I
speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in
dark speeches ; and the similitude of the Lord shall
he behold : wherefore then were ye not afraid to
speak against My servant Moses? And the anger
of the Lord was kindled against them ; and He
departed." * Indeed, God s deep love and jealous
sympathy for the character and reputation of His friend
and servant Moses is one of the most beautiful things
in the whole Bible, and cannot possibly be exaggerated.
On every debateable occasion, He, the Almighty, is
represented as accepting the challenge made against
His honoured prophet as one rather directed against
Himself, whether in the case already cited, or in the
rebellion caused by the grumbling report of the un-
:;; Exod. xxxiii. 11.
I Lev. xiii., xiv. ; Numb, xxvii. 6, 7 : x. 1-10; xiv. 26-39.
1 Xunib, xii, 6-9,
THE BOOKS OF MOSES 15
believing spies, or in the ecclesiastical revolt of
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, when Jehovah s anger
flashed out, and consumed, not only all the antagonism,
but also the antagonists themselves.*
Critics of Moses, Foes of God.
The truth is, the glory of a God-given immortality
still clings so closely round the man, that all who
touch his prophecies and person become thereby them
selves enwrapped with an unenviable but lasting
notoriety. Who would have ever heard of Jannes and
Jambres, to-day, had they not dared to cross swords
with this especial protege of Jehovah ? Nor would our
own Colenso be remembered but for the fact that he
borrowed immortality from the prophet he assailed.
Let critics of the Pentateuch, those who " resist
the truth : men of corrupt minds, of no judgment
concerning the faith," beware, since " they shall
proceed no further ; for their folly shall be manifest
unto all men, as theirs (that of Jannes and Jambres)
also was." I For it is a dangerous thing to touch
the utterances of God s beloved servant, since the
* Numb. xiv. 10, 12, 35, 37 ; xvi. 20-35.
f 2 Tim. iii. 8, 9. This allusion to " the higher critics " of
Pharaoh s time is particularly significant when we note its imme
diate argument and context : " In the last days," Paul writes to
Timothy, " evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,
deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of
whom thou hast learned them ; and that from a child thou hast
known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous
ness : that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished
unto all good works " (ibid. iii. 1, 13-17).
1(5 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Almighty, His sympathetic Partner, will Himself in
dignantly respond thereto. Did not our Lord bury
Moses, as though not one of those grumbling, un-
appreciative millions was worthy to take part in the
great man s obsequies, and He would say to them,
"Let the funeral be private; I alone can understand
Moses, and therefore 1 will act as chaplain " ? and so
they still were "face to face," as Jehovah buried
him,* after they had gazed together over the goodness
of that land where, fifteen hundred years afterwards,
they spake together once more upon the Mount of
Transfiguration and glory ; t and, in heaven, John tells
us that this man s name alone is mentioned alongside
that of Jesus Christ, our radiant, risen Lord, for
" they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and
the song of the Lamb." * Again I say, let assailants
of the Pentateuch "consider how great this man was,"
and is, and beware and tremble lest the memory
of " higher critics " should live only like that of
assassins of emperors, presidents, reformers, and phi
lanthropists, stained with indelible ignominy and never-
ending disgrace, for " there arose not a prophet since
in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face
to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which the
Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh,
and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all
that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which
Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel." $
Death-Scene of Moses.
"But," exclaims some shallow thinker, whose words
babble like the superficial brook, "how can you ask
* Deut. xxxiv. 4-6. f Matt. xvii. 3.
: Rev. xv. 3. > Deut. xxxiv, 10-12.
THE BOOKS OF MOSES 17
me,* a man of intelligence, to believe that Moses wrote
an account of his own funeral?" Well, I might
easily answer, Where does Scripture claim that he
did so ? The postscript chapter to Deuteronomy may
have been given by Joshua ; and yet, to me, there
seems an indescribable grandeur in the thought that
the old hero literally recorded his own death-scene !
Indeed, the thing came with no surprise to Moses, for
God and he had personally talked the whole matter
over before ; * and if the prophet could pen a detailed
and graphic picture of the siege and destruction of
Jerusalem sixteen hundred years before that grim
tragedy took place, + surely he could also anticipate
and recount the occurrences concerning himself not
twenty-four hours ahead ! Yet this is not the all-
important crux at issue, for were there not two
present on that Pisgah mount, when the Lord showed
Moses all the land, and said unto him, " This is the
land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and
unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed :
I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes,
but thou shalt not go over thither " ? * Who heard
that saying ? Who recounted that solemn, simple,
dignified, gladsome death and burial scene ? Why,
naturally, the Survivor of the twain, Almighty God
Himself ; for, after all , we believe that Moses did
not compose the Pentateuch, THE LORD DID THAT ;
and thus the explanation of Creation s mysteries and
the recital of prehistoric events, as well as the pro
phetic records concerning the unknown future, stand
explained, God spake, God revealed, Moses heard and
transcribed the Divine Message, whether looking back
ward to creation, forward to the scattering of Israel,
:: Xumb. xxvii. 12-14; Deut. iii. 23-29; xxxii. 48-5 2.
I Ibid, xxviii. 49-57. j Ibid, xxxiv. 4.
3
18 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
upward for Heaven s will, or downward to the people
and their responsibilities, all was of Jehovah, lite
rally, absolutely, verbally.
This is the claim of Moses and his writings, a
claim accepted by Jewish teachers, and so wrapped up
with their religion and history that its acknowledg
ment became the open source of all their testimony
as a nation, and the secret spring of every genuine
revival* a claim accredited by our blessed Lord 1
and His inspired apostles, * one of them daringly
asserting that not only the leadings, teachings, words,
and acts of Moses were through Divine suggestion
and control, but that even the very symbolism of the
Tabernacle and its ritual ivas immediately and directly
under the Verbal Inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
Josh. xiv. 10 ; 1 Kings ii. 3 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 25 ; 2 Chron. xxiii.
18; Ezra iii. 2 ; Xeh. ix. 13, 14, 20 ; Psa. ciii. 7 ; Dan. ix. 11, 13.
i Luke xx. 37 ; xxiv. 27, 44. John v. 46, 47 ; vii. 23 ; ix. 29.
; Acts iii. 22; vi. 11; xv. 21 .; xxvi. 22 : v xv iii. 23. Rom. x. 5. 19
Cor. ix. 9.
i Heb. viii. o : ix. 8. 19, &c.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS
Joshua claims an authority equal to Moses.
PASSING over to the BOOK OF JOSHUA, we are imme
diately confronted with the same claim of Divine
authority in the familiar words, "The Lord spake unto
Joshua, saying"; while again and again God magnifies
Joshua in the sight of all Israel, lifting him up to a
dignity and position equal to that of his predecessor,
" that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I
will be with thee " * which position was so fully and
unreservedly acknowledged that death was pronounced
as the penalty of disobedience: "Whosoever he be
that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will
not hearken unto thy words in all that thou command-
est him, he shall be put to death." + In short, now
that Moses was dead, Joshua became in his stead the
mouthpiece of Almighty God, who Himself directly
commanded, reproved, and intervened in connection
with the varied details of Israel s history, whether in
the crossing of Jordan, the circumcision at Gilgal, the
taking of Jericho, the . punishment of Achan, or the
ambushment at Ai. Ten times, in the first eight
chapters alone, we find the definite utterances of
Jehovah recorded ; * while, when the prophet-warrior
Josh. i. 5 ; iii. 7 ; iv. 14. | Ibid. i. 18.
; Ibid. i. 1 ; iii. 7 : iv. 1. 15 ; v. 2, 9 ; vi. 2; vii. 10 ; viii. 1. IS.
20 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
was old and stricken in years, God gave him detailed
and explicit directions concerning the division of
Canaan among the tribes, and the appointment of
cities of refuge for the manslayer ; and his valedictory
address, like the swan-song of Moses, was prefaced by
the claim of supernatural authority: "Thus saith the
Lord God of Israel ; " ;; and, indeed, the parallelism
between the testimony and experience of Joshua and
his mighty leader is so marked throughout this Book
that even " higher critics " have spoken of " the
Hexateuch," thus bracketing Joshua s writings with
those of Moses, and putting them on the same level.
Judges A Divine Revelation of Man.
When we reach the BOOK OF JUDGES, one is almost
immediately conscious of such a distinct fall in the
spiritual atmosphere that, although the record com
mences, "And the Lord said," the thought naturally
and almost necessarily arises, " Can the Inspiration
here be on as high a plane as that of the preceding
revelations, things seem so mundane, sin-stained,
sensual?" Ay; the atmosphere is lower, because this
is a record of human failure, of lives, alas! more
nearly approximating to our ow r n; for, while Joshua
recounts the triumphs of Jehovah, the Book of Judges
lays bare the rebellion, ingratitude, unbelief, and re
peated transgressions of His chosen people. Thus is
the revelation dark and sickening, not bright and
glorious; but it is true, a picture of ourselves,
drawn by a master-hand, a mirror wherein we see
the carnality of the natural heart made manifest.
The Inspiration is just as definite and complete,
* Josh. xiii. 1 ; xx. 1. 2; xxiv. 2. Dent. xxxi. 19. Juclg. i. 2.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 21
although, because its searchlight is turned earthwards,
rather than heavenwards, to man s soul rather than
to God s heart, we find it not enchanting, albeit
profitable and real.
We must ever remember that THE OBJECT OF THE
DIVINE REVELATION is TWOFOLD, not only to make
manifest God, but also to lay bare man ; and we can
know neither fully without the unfoldings of a Heaven-
given Inspiration. Truly, this history is a sad and
humiliating record, failure after failure, slaveiy after
slavery; but, on the gloomy background, flash again
and again the goodness, and glory of the great long-
suffering God, mercy after mercy, deliverance after
deliverance; while a close study of its narratives shows
how Jehovah spoke repeatedly to Israel as a nation *
or to God-raised deliverers like Deborah, + and Gideon,*
concerning whom the statement occurs eleven times
over, " The Lord said unto (him) Gideon" ; how the
Almighty is represented as Himself directly, not onlj r
permitting, but sending judgments upon Israel, and
afterwards emancipating them when the}" cried for
mercy; how " the Spirit of the Lord came upon"
Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah, and even Samson ; r for
the whole Book of Judges is instinct with God ; and
the responsibility of the chosen people to Him, and to
::: Judg. ii. 1-4, 20-22 : vi. 8-10 ; x. 11-14 : xx. 23, 2K.
! Ibid. iv. 6.
I A careful review of the scenes where the angel of the Lord
appeared at Bochiin (Judg. ii. 1-5), Ophrah (vi. 11-24), and to
Manoah and his wife (xiii. 18-22), would seem to confirm my
previous statement, that these were none other than visitations of
the Lord Himself.
Judg. vi. 12, 14, 16, 20, 23, 25 ; vii. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9.
| Ibid. ii. 14-16; iii. 8-10, 12, 15; iv. 2. 23.; vi. 1 ; ix. 23: x. 7.
12; &c.
Ibid. iii. 10 ; vi. 34 ; xi. 29 : xv. 14.
22 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
His Divine presidency, is as much revealed during His
absence from them as in His presence with them, in
their humiliations and disasters as well as in their
restorations and successes.
Yet is there, throughout, a distinctly falling tendency
in the record. Man sinks lower and lo\ver, and God
seems removed farther and yet farther away, as we go
stage by stage from the son of Joash made magnificent
because " the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon," * to
the strange, pathetic story of Samson, mighty victor
when in fellowship with God, weak, helpless, blind,
degraded, when abandoned of Jehovah ; and, finally,
from Jonathan, the priest who carried his soul-destroy
ing Ritualism from Micah s private chaplaincy to the
ultimate destruction of a tribe, for the sake of wider
usefulness (?) and larger salary (!) to the last sentence
of the Book: "In those days there was no king in
Israel : every man did that which was right in his own
eyes." 1 Are there any Gideon s now? Possibly,
some ; though few are small enough to grow so great.
Samsons ? Yes ; up and down, godly and worldly ; yet,
withal, chosen of God,* and strong through faith. $
Jonathans? Many ; rub your eyes, brother, and look
around you ; bring these three characters of three
thousand years ago to London, plant them in City life,
and there would be no discord, no strange intrusive-
ness, for they would truly fit in up-to-date, as we can
see their miniatures at least in all the churches.
God s Character Sketches.
And while in this connection, we may emphasise the
truth that the great charm and force of the Historical
: Judg. vi. 84, margin. Ibid. xxi. 2a.
Ibid. xiii. 5. j Heb. xi. 32. 38,
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 23
Books, especially of the Kings and Chronicles, lie here,
in God s nnfoldings, in one character-sketch after
another, of what man naturally is apart from grace,
and what grace can enable him to be, to do, and, if
need be, to suffer. That some of these biographies
might have been narrated apart from Inspiration, we
frankly admit ; but that they should be so recounted as
to touch, in every phase and detail, our many-sided
life to-day in a way that Homer and Herodotus, Virgil
and Tacitus, utterly and ludicrously fail to do, we
cannot conceive, except on the assumption that God,
who knew what w y as in man, Himself wrote these
memoirs. In them all, the subtle and metaphysical
movements of our nature, fallen and regenerate, stand
revealed by a master-mind, in the most terse yet
trenchant sentences. Life after life flits by upon the
platform, and in thought and passion, failure and
success, we see ourselves predated and described in
these marvellous object-lessons of God s Kindergarten
School, and grasp, with helpfulness and warning, the
truth that "whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, that we through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." *
The narratives of David, Jehoshaphat, Ahab, and
Hezekiah throb with a wonderfully practical applica
tion of theology, which doctrinal statements, however
systematically expressed, could never by themselves,
without this pictorial representation, adequately con
vey; and that such histories, expounded and driven
home, can still hold sway, and transform the hearts of
all sorts and conditions of men, is proved by the
notable success attending the ministries of two such
utterly diverse ministers in thought, style, speech, and
mannerism, as Tohn McNeill and F. B. Meyer, whose
Rom. xv. 4.
24 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
charm as preachers lies mainly in their power to make
these old-time characters live again, and speak to us in
Biblical, yet twentieth century language, until we
almost think their deeds and voices are but imitations
and echoes of our own, while above and behind them
all WE DISCOVER GOD in a way that nought else, save
alone the Christ of Calvary, can reveal Him for our
personal need and benediction.
Biographies of Unimpeachable Truth.
Nor is there any masking or glossing over the sins
and follies of God s noblest heroes ; all is laid bare
ruthlessly, everything stands revealed. What book,
save the Bible, would, in chaste yet definite language,
in marked contrast to modern de-mortuis-nil-nisi-
bonum memoirs, record Noah s drunkenness, Abraham s
equivocations, David s adultery, Elijah s craven fear,
Hezekiah s vanity, Jehoshaphat s worldliness, Peter s
blasphemies, and Paul s quarrellings ?* True, certain
sentimental purists would fain gloss over these pages,
and edit a more moral (?) edition of the Scriptures
with these parts expurgated ; but do such men never
read the papers, or apply their theology and gospel
to practical and every-day life; and do they not know
that society is, at present, rotten to the core through
these very sins, which, like a cancer, eat the sap and
strength, not only of our nation, but of our churches,
too? Why! these selfsame critics tell us that, to
know how to preach, one must forsooth read every
modern book where vice is unblushingly laid bare,
and a glamour of romance is thrown over the most
- Gen. ix. 21 ; xii. 18 ; xx. 2, 11-18. 2 Sam. xii. 9-14; 1 Kings
xix. 3, 4 ; 2 Kings xx. 12, 13 : 2 C hron. xxxii. 25: xviii. 1 : xix. 2.
Matt. xxvi. 74 ; Acts xv. 39.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 25
infamous transgressions. Yes ; and do not some of
them even patronise theatres, which would not pay
were their plays untinged hy evil innuendoes and
unholy suggestions, and do they not know that, while
the stage and novel rival each other in the desire
to make sin charming in its conception, and inoffensive
in its consequences, the Bible records paint it black
and loathsome as of the very devil, insisting upon the
terrible nature of its character, and the damnable
results which follow its practice, so as to deter and
safeguard men from evil and from hell ?
God s Danger Signcih.
The preachers who blur over or pass by these
narratives are but covering or removing God s danger-
signals of warning to men and women on the down
ward track. Did any critic ever hear of a young row
reading Gen. xix., or % 2 Sam. \i. and xii., as a
preliminary tonic to a night s sin in some gilded
salon ! Nay ; it is the suppression of these warnings
which is damning and destroying the souls of men,
while the non-recital of God s pardoning grace to Noah,
and David, and other great sinners, has kept many and
many a weary wanderer away from Heaven and home,
because he saw not, glinting through the clouds of
iniquity and sorrow, bright beams of pardon, restora
tion, and hope. Blot out these narratives, and men
may go on sinning more and more with absolute
impunity, while others, despairing, yet longing for
nobler things, dare not take courage, and hie back
again to the glory of a moral life. To truly know
self, and man, and God, the depths of depravity in the
human heart, the utter vileness of sin, and the amazing
grace of Heaven, we must read these God -given,
20 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
honest, uncoloured memoirs of good yet erring men,
for these Historical Books are not mere man-made
records of incidents and biographies grouped together,
but inspired revelations from God of what man is and
may he, and of what- God is and ever must remain?
" Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of
the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire
of the wonder that was done in the land, God left
him, to try him, that he might know all that was
in his heart." " Now all these things happened unto
them for ensamples : and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are
come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation
taken you but such as is common to man : but God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above
that ye are able ; but will with the temptation also
make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear
it."
An Old Love Story.
We next come to that most beautiful idyll, the
BOOK OF RUTH, which, while it does not in itself
distinctly claim Inspiration, yet has always been
recognised among the Jews as belonging to the
Canon of the Old Testament Scriptures, and was,
as such, accepted by our Lord and His apostles in
the Septuagint Version (from which the apocryphal
writings were most rigidly excluded). But if any
litterateur doubts the God-breathed record of this
sweet old love-story, we would issue a simple
challenge. Let him, or any other author, pen an
equally powerful, tragic, pathetic, and eminently
human narrative in the space of eighty-five short
* 2 Chron. xxxii. 81. j 1 Cor. x. 11-13.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 27
verses, which will so throb and scintillate with life
that volumes of exposition can be written on it, and
yet the spring remain still sparkling, clear, and
inexhaustible. Why ! even Shakespeare s noblest
creations are wordy, stilted, jagged, beside this
exquisite romance, while Tennyson and Longfellow
taste but as water after mellow wine.
The physical hunger, leading to soul-famine in
the far-off land, bereavement following bereavement,
till greater trouble drove back home again the
widowed Naomi, whose tears and pleadings failed
to turn aside the persistent, God-given love of
widowed Ruth ; the entry of the Jewess and the
Gentile into Bethlehem, the gleanings of the stranger
in the fields of wealthy Boaz, the manly, kindly
revelation of his character as kinsman, the dramatic
redemption of Elimelech s inheritance, the solemn
joyous marriage amid the prayers of hundreds, and,
finally, the birth of Obed, to give new purpose and
cheer to the lonely heart of Naomi, these scenes
still live, and will as long as weddings, births, and
funerals remain, and love and sorrow sway the hearts
of men and women, for God has put the romantic
into our being, and spirits still yearn for creature
sympathy ; and so the whole Book, whether viewed
from a merely literal or a strongly spiritual standpoint,
is in Jehovah s revelation but one of God s " handfuls
of purpose," let fall that mortals may glean rich
comfort from His harvest-field of providence and
grace.
And when we further consider that this narrative
was w 7 ritten more than three thousand years ago, and
remember how every story loses much of its charm,
and nerve, and realism, when translated into a colder,
poorer language, and read amid totally altered sur-
28 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS W01U.)
roundings by people of different social, climatic, and
national ideas, we marvel yet more, and feel that
all comparisons of this chaste, homely, and yet
exciting and magnetic Book, with the inanities of
Horace, or the vileness of Terence, is nothing short of
hlasphemy itself ; especially when we remember that
the record was transmitted and preserved because
it was the love-story of royal David s great-grand
mother, and gives the explanation why a lonely,
bankrupt, Gentile woman should be accorded the
privilege of being reckoned among the blessed ancestry
of our beloved Lord. That genealogical fact accounts
for tlte survi.ral of Ruth s name, and the recital of Jicr
history.
All Scripture, though " God-breathed," not Essential
for Salvation.
Here let us clear the ground upon another matter also.
While we believe that ; all Scripture is God-breathed,"
we do not for a moment contend that every part is
equally essential as regards the salvation, comfort,
and edification of man. Our Lord s utterances to
Nicodemus are of much more tremendous importance
than the words of Boaz, and the fifteenth chapter of
first Corinthians must always bulk more largely before
our eyes than the death-scene of Josiah.* Millions of
believers are now in glory who, while on earth, enjoyed
much precious intimacy with the messages of God
through Paul and Peter, but scarcely knew ought
except the names of Jeremiah or Ezekiel. (How
ashamed some of us will be to see those worthies !)
Vet nothing not even the gift of Artaxerxes, of " salt
John iii. H- 21 : Ruth iv. .). 10: 1 Cor. xv. : 2 Chron, xxxv.
20-27.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 29
without prescribing how much," * nor <; the cloak . . .
at Troas + may be regarded as insignificant or un
important, any more than the homely daisy or the
modest bluebell might in the world of being, for the
God who made the book of nature also wrote the
volume of grace, and as He who made the forest made
the leaves, so He who inspired the Bible inspired the
verses. In revelation, as in creation, there are
magnificent manifestations of almighty power which,
like the Deity and Atonement of our beloved Lord,
stand as the Himalaya peaks, and the great cedars of
Lebanon, supreme above such petty things as the
falling snowflake or the clinging lichen; but all is of
God, whether lilies or worlds, sparrows or seraphim,
sigh or sacrifice, breakfast or resurrection ; * and in
the Scriptures, as in nature, every homely bush or
other commonplace is all aglow with the great glory
of a greater God.
Verbal Inspiration not Claimed for Translations.
It should be remembered that the upholders of
Verbal Inspiration do not claim that the Holy
Scriptures, in the translations as we have them, are
necessarily in every part verbally accurate. Even in
our splendid Revised Version, there have crept in,
: Ezra vii. 22. i 2 Tim. iv. 12.
; Matt. vi. 28-30; Isa. xl. 20; Matt. x. 29: Psa. civ. 4;
Mark vii. 34 ; x. 3b, 34, 45. John xxi. 9-13 ; Acts xiii. 30.
j For example, the Name Jehovah" is used some seven
thousand times in the Old Testament, yet it is so translated only
four times in the Authorised Version (Exod. vi. 3 ; Psa. Ixxxiii. 18 :
Isa. xii. 2 ; xxvi. 4) ; and thrice when combined with another
word, " Jehovah-jireh," " Jehovah-nissi," and Jehovah-shalom "
(Gen. xxii. 14 ; Exod. xvii. 15 ; Judg. vi. 24). This seems
peculiarly unfortunate, as the Lord s own utterance with marked
30 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
strangely enough, some mistranslations ; while varied
readings of different copies of original manuscripts
have led to long and closely-reasoned discussions as to
which was the more accurate and preferable text.
Dealing especially with such a language as the
Hebrew, the occurrence of some small inaccuracy of
eye or hand on the part of the copyist, however
careful and conscientious, seems well-nigh unavoidable ;
and, possibly, to these errors in transcription may be
ascribed some apparently contradictory though trivial
details as regards numerals and dates in the Historical
Books; but, in their broadest significance, such errata
are practically of no importance, affecting neither the
genuine character of the records, nor tinging even
with the shadow of a suspicion of variation any point
of doctrine, the " shalls " of promise and the " haves "
of possession remaining unimpaired.
We only admit that these may and possibly do exist
in certain cases, and in full sympathy with that
reverent "Lower Criticism" which patiently and
prayerfully investigates, and in scholarly fashion
significance emphasises the importance of that Name: 1
appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the
Name of God Almighty, but by my Name JEHOVAH was I not
known to them " ; and the Revised Version renders it consistently
"Jehovah" throughout the passage (Exod. vi. 2-8); but, in the
tenth verse of the same chapter, falls back on the old expression.
The very fact that this "incommunicable Name" "The Self-
existent," " The Eternal One, can scarcely be translated, but
strengthens our contention that it should be rendered " Jehovah. 1
If the two-fold name of Isaac s son has marked import in such
passages as " He said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob,
but Israel ; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with
men. and hast prevailed " (Gen. xxxii. 28) ; and " one told Jacob
and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee : and Israel
strengthened himself and sat upon the bed " (xlviii. 2) ; surely
the Names under which the great God reveals Himself are of
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 31
compares the most reliable copies extant of ancient
manuscripts, wait for more light upon such difficul
ties, fully persuaded that, one day, it shall shine upon
the page, and reveal how " the words of the Lord are
pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times ";* and that they shall emerge
from the fires of textual criticism as perfect as ever.
We well recall how, in very youthful days, the reading
of Isaiah ix. 3 " Thou hast multiplied the nation, and
not increased the joy : they joy before Thee according
to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they
divide the spoil " seemed always to confront us with
an apparently insuperable difficulty, the whole tenor
and structure of the passage suggesting what one lad
read into it "hast" instead of "not." Imagine,
therefore, our delight in finding it so rendered after
wards in the Revised Version ; and if Martin Luther
had grasped the fact that a qualifying adjective was
before the word " faith " in the Epistle of James (" can
that faith save him?" f the gigantic antagonism
more significance ! In a passage like Nehemiah x. 29, " to
observe and do all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord,"
much beauty is lost by not calling attention to the different terms
" Jehovah " and " Adonai."
If the word baptiso remains untranslated lest certain sectarian
susceptibilities should be offended, why should our God s Names
be translated as though the different Holy Ghost-given appellations
were a matter of indifference ? We marvel also that the pre
position "e," while translated some thousands of times " in,
and occasionally " among," should be persistently rendered " with,"
almost only when it refers to baptism, and also that " dia " should
not have been translated " thrcntgh," in preference to " by," in
such a passage as Acts xxviii. 2u, " Well spake the Holy Ghost
through Isaiah the prophet, saying ; and wish that our English
brethren had followed the less sectarian and more scholarly action
of the American Revisers in these matters.
::: Psa. xii. 6. ! Jas. ii. 14, R.V.
3-2 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
which, to his mind, existed between the writings of
that apostle and Paul, would have immediately dis
appeared into the blending of a delicious harmony.
However, these apparent contradictions and inaccu
racies are extremely few ; and, indeed, even a superficial
but prayerful comparison of texts will explain many
that sceptics and even " higher critics," with astonish
ing ignorance and audacity, again and again reproduce
(such as the number of Israel s family who went into
Egypt, and the price paid to Oman for his threshing-
floor) ; while the unsolved ones may well wait till God
reveals the hidden things to us, since the acknowledged
law of science, that a great principle should never be
given up on account of difficulties as yet unexplained,
should surely apply with even greater force to the
greatest and most important of all investigations the
discovery and comprehension of Eternal Truth.
Our contention, therefore, is not that every word, as
we have it in our Version, is necessarily verbally accu
rate, but that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments, as they originally came from God, were
absolutely perfect, without a flaw or blemish in
thought, or speech, or word, or writing; and that,
further, by a peculiar and special intervention, God,
in nothing short of a miraculous w ? ay, has so watched
over the preservation of His own writings, that errors
of copyists and transcribers are comparatively few, and
in all cases of a trivial and insignificant nature, leaving
absolutely unimpaired the fulness and clearness of the
Divine revelation.
Sam-u-el speaks Goci x Words.
Passing on to the first BOOK OF SAMUEL, we find,
in the thirty-nine verses describing the sorrow, prayer,
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 33
and song of Hannah, and the birth, and dedication to
the Lord, of Samuel, no less than thirty-six references
to " the Lord " or " God " ; while, in the third chapter,
narrating the remarkable call of the young boy to the
dignity of being Jehovah s prophet, we have exactly
two more such allusions than there are verses (twenty-
one) ; and, indeed, the singular parallelism in God s
elections to ministry, shown in the choice of Moses,
Samuel, Jeremiah, and Paul as prophets of the Most
High, must be obvious to all.* The little lad, startled
by the thrice-repeated call of Jehovah, becomes, on the
fourth occasion, the Lord s messenger to pass on to old
Eli words, the terrible, tragic import of which the child
himself could not thoroughly grasp or comprehend ;
yet, from that night, young Samuel stood acknowledged
by all Israel as the very mouthpiece of Jehovah :
"And Samuel told him every whit" (margin: "all
the words"), "and hid nothing from him. And he
said, It is the Lord : let Him do what seerneth Him
good. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him,
and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all
Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, knew that Samuel
was established to be a prophet of the Lord. And the
Lord appeared again in Shiloh ; for the Lord revealed
Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord." t
Thus was it all through the life of Samuel. In the
deliverance of Israel from their implacable enemies,
the Philistines; in the election of a king ; the anointing
of Saul ; the destruction of Amalek ; Saul s rejection
by the Lord, and the subsequent choice of David, and
his ordination ; * we invariably find God giving His
* Exod. ii. 6-10 ; iv. 12-16. 1 Sam. i. 27, 28 ; Jer. i. 4-9 ; Gal.
i. 1, 11, 12, 15, 16. f 1 Sam. iii. 18-21.
J Ibid. vii. 9; viii. 7, 9-19; ix. 15-17; x. 18; xv. 2, 3, 10, 11;
xvi. 1-7, 12, 13.
34 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOliD
definite verbal authority to and through the prophet for
every one of these actions, while the whole historical
record bristles with bold assertions of the direct inter
vention of Jehovah for or against Israel ; * and this
deliberate claim of supernatural Inspiration and Sove
reignty so manifestly pervades all subsequent writings
in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, that one is
driven to characterise such records either as forgeries
or as histories created and preserved by the absolute
fiat of the Almighty Himself.
To Nathan and the Prophets " the Word of the
Lord came."
Thus David is again and again described as seeking
Divine guidance, and holding definite communication
with High Heaven ; * and of other prophets we read :
" The word of the Lord came unto Nathan saying,"
"According to all these words did Nathan speak unto
David," " The word of the Lord came unto the prophet
Gad," "The word of the Lord came unto Solomon,"
" and God said to Solomon," &c., &c. ; * while it forms
a peculiarly interesting Bible Study to note how, even
in the building of Solomon s temple, the Lord Himself
gave as explicit directions to David and Solomon, in
reference to every detail, as He did to Moses concern
ing the tabernacle in the wilderness ; and in every
;: 1 Sam. v. 6-9; vi. 19; vii. 10-13; xii. 18; xiv. 23; xvii. 47;
xxviii. 19.
| Ibid, xxiii. 2, 4, 11 ; xxx. 8 ; 2 Sam. ii. 1 ; v, 19, 23-25 ;
xxi. 1 ; xxiii. 1-3 ; 2 Chron. iii. 1.
! 2 Sam. vii. 4, 5, 8-17; xii. 1, 7, 11; xxiv. 11, 12, 18, 19; 1
Kings iii. 5, 11 ; vi. 11 ; ix. 2, 3 ; xi. 11 ; 1 Chron. xvii. 3, 4, 7, 15 ;
xxi. 9-11, 18; 2 Chron. i. 7-11 ; vii. 12.
1 Kings viii. 15-18 ; 1 Chron. xxii. 7, 8 ; and especially 1 Chron.
xxviii. 3, 11, 12, 19 : " Then David gave to Solomon his son the
THE HISTOKICAL BOOKS 35
chapter of the first Book of Kings, subsequent to Solo
mon s time, we find similar assertions of infallible
authority.
Of Ahijah the prophet, the record runs, "he said to
Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord." * " The word of
God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
Speak unto Rehoboam." + " There came a man of
God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto
Bethel." * " The Lord said unto Ahijah " ; " accord
ing unto the saying of the Lord, which He spake by
His servant Ahijah." " The word of the Lord came
to Jehu the son of Hanani." ** " The word of the Lord
came unto Elijah." ** " There came a prophet unto
Ahab, saying, Thus saith the Lord." * + And Micaiah,
the unpopular prophet of evil, who drew a startling
distinction between true and lying spirits, said, " Hear
thou therefore the word of the Lord." +* In the same
connection we can only glance (for time and space
would fail us if we were to multiply our proofs), at
Elisha and Isaiah with their "Thus saith the Lord,"
" Hear the word of the Lord," &c. ; " the young man
the prophet," who, with a " Thus saith the Lord,"
anointed Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over
Israel " ; | ! the unknown, but equally-inspired wit-
pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the trea
suries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner
parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat, and the
pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house
of the Lord, &c. . . . All this, said David, the Lord made me
understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the works of
this pattern."
:;: 1 Kings xi. 31. ! Ibid. xii. 22. Ibid. xiii. 1.
$ Ibid. xiv. 5. i| Ibid. xv. 29. T Ibid. xvi. 1.
Ibid. xvii. 2, 8 ; xviii. 1 ; xix. 9, 15 ; xxi. 17, 28.
if Ibid. xx. 13, 28, 35, 42. *J Ibid. xxii. 19.
2 Kings iii. 16 ; vii. 1 ; xix. 6, 20, 32 ; xx. 16. Ibid. ix. 6.
36 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
nesses, who testified ineffectually for God and against
idolatry, "until the Lord removed Israel out of His
sight, as He had said by all His servants the pro
phets " ; * Jehovah s warnings through other unspeci
fied mouthpieces to Manasseh ; * and His words of love
and wrath through " Huldah the prophetess" unto
Josiah ; * and just indicate that the second Book of
Chronicles abounds with similar instances, such as,
" the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah " ; "the
Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded ; "
the testimony of " Hanani the seer " to Asa ; * of Jehu,
his son, to Jehoshaphat ; ** of Jahaziel the son of
Zechariah ; + + of Elie/er the son of Dodavah ; * * of the
" writing from Elijah the prophet, saying (to Jehoram),
Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father ; of
how " the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the
son of Jehoiada the priest," who was stoned in
consequence of his fearless denunciation : " Thus
saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments
of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper ?"; of the
prophet who warned Amaziah ; " " of Oded;*** and,
final!} 7 , passing the experiences of He/ekiah, Manasseh,
and Josiah, already alluded to ; M of Zedekiah, the
last king of Judah, who " humbled not himself
before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth
of the Lord," but, with his nation, "mocked the
messengers of God, and despised His words, and
misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord
arose against His people, till there was no remedy,"
* 2 Kings xvii. 13, 28. i Ibid. xxi. 10 ? 12. | Ibid. xxii. 14-20.
i 2 Chron. xi. 2-4 ; xii. 5-7. Ibid. xv. 1. Ibid. xvi. 7-10,
** Ibid. xix. 2 ? 3. f! Ibid. xx. 14-17. .^ Ibid. xx. 37,
;;; Ibid. xxi. 12. Ibid. xxiv. 20-22.
Ibid. xxv. 15, 16. - Ibid, xxviii. 9,
H4 Ibid. xxix. 15; xxx. 12; xxxiii. 10; xxxiv. 23-28.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 37
and they were carried away to Babylon " to fulfil
the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah." *
In short, overwhelming evidence necessitates the
conviction that these memoirs and their historians
claim throughout nothing less than a " Thus saith the
Lord " for the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and of
Judah a claim recognised and acknowledged equally
by Jews and apostles ; t by our beloved Lord ; I and
by the prophet who more immediately heralded in the
advent of the Messiah. $
Divine Interventions for Israel.
How singularly appropriate, therefore, are the closing-
verses of these Chronicles, which record the decadence
and captivity of Judah, and the opening ones of Ezra,
heralding the revival and restoration of the nation,
" that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of
Jeremiah might be accomplished." The Lord called
Cyrus, elect by name before his birth for this very
purpose, from his wild highland life amid the ozone of
the everlasting hills, to overturn as prince of an invin
cible army the might} but luxurious pow r er of Babylon ; I
till, constrained by grace, he proclaimed in writing
throughout all his kingdom, " Thus saith Cyrus kin
of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord
God of Heaven given me ; and He hath charged me to
build Him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Who is there among you of all His people ? The Lord
his God be with him, and let him go up." ^ Ay ; man
reads, " Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia," for, verily,
the proclamation and the writing are his ; but, to the
;: 2 Chron. xxxvi. 12, 15, 16, 21. f Neh. ix. 30 ; Rom. xi. 2.
I Matt. xii. 3, 4. Zech. vii. 12.
II Isa. xliv. 28; xlv. 1-6, ( 2 Chron. xxxvi. 23,
38 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
eye of faith and revelation, the words and voice are
those, not of an earthly monarch, but of Almighty God
Himself; and "Thus saith Cyrus" spells the old-time
message, in the dialect and power of Heaven behind it,
" Thus saith the Lord" since Cyrus and Darius, equally
with Jeremiah and Daniel, were but pieces upon the
great chess-board of human history, whereby Jehovah
had ordained to check and overturn the devil s hatred
of His chosen people, and to work out for erring but
beloved Israel His own sweet sovereign and predestined
will.
In THE CLOSING HISTORICAL BOOKS we find even
less claim to Inspiration, and direct supernatural
intervention, than in the Book of Chronicles.
True, it is as easy to trace God s sovereign grace in
counteracting the plottings and letter-writings of
Israel s antagonists ; * in Ezra s repeated recognitions
of " the hand of the Lord his God upon him " ; f in
the depression of Sanballat, Tobiah, and company,
when contempt, conflict, conspiracy, and compromise
alike failed to overthrow Nehemiah in his noble pur
pose, and in the God-given exultation of Jehovah s
people ; * as it is in the instances of Rehoboam s
humbling, Ahab s death, Sennacherib s overthrow,
and Manasseh s conversion ; but it would appear as
if Jehovah s visible presence was getting farther and
farther away from Judah and Jerusalem. Had not
Ezekiel seen " the glory " departing slowly, sadly, and
as though reluctantly, first from the temple, and finally
from the city, never to return, at any rate in its first
::: Ezra vi. 1-12 ; vii. 11-26 ; Neh. ii. 1-8.
) Ezra vii. 6, 9, 27, 28 ; viii. 22, 31 ; see also Neh. ii. 8, 18.
I Neh. iv. 1-4, 7, 9-15 ; vi. 2-4, 12-14, 18 ; xii. 43 ; E/ra vi.
21, 22.
j 2 Chron. xii. 12 ; xviii. 22 ; xxxii. 21, 22; xxxiii. 10-13.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 39
majesty, until the Incarnate Word appeared, and men
" beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth " ? * God had con
tinually been withdrawing from His people ; and even
when revivals came each such movement but proved
less solid and more evanescent than its predecessors ;
and thus the revelations, interventions, and utterances
of Jehovah demanded, every century, ears and vision
more spiritually acute to catch the Divine message and
to recognise the Lord s presence. So it has ever been in
the history of apostate nations and backsliding Churches
" He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the Churches " ; but all men religious,
philanthropic, and may be orthodox men, have not
ears trained to the subtle whisperings of Heaven, and
attuned to know the accents of the Holy Ghost.
" Thy Spirit in Tlnj Prophets:
We must also remember that all the great prophetic
deliverances, from Isaiah to Zechariah, were so inter
woven with the history of Judah from the days of
King Uzziah until the captivity and restoration, that
one could scarcely dissect prophecy from history with
out disintegrating the whole ; that Haggai and
Zechariah (to whom " came the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,
and to Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest,
saying, thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, this
people say, the time is not come, the time that the
Lord s house should be built " ; " The Lord hath been
sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou
unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts ; Turn ye unto
:;: Ezek. x. 18, 19 ; xi. 22, 23 ; Hag. ii. 7 ; Mai. iii. 1 ; Luke ii.
9. 46 ; John i. 14 ; ii. 13, 14, &c.
40 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you,
saith the Lord of hosts ") * were both leading figures
in the Ezra Reformation, and preached with such
Heaven-given persuasiveness, in the name of the God
of Israel, that " the Lord stirred up the spirit of
Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,
and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high
priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people ;
and they came and did work in the house of the Lord
of hosts their God," t that Ezra, the priest, and
Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, offered prayers of wonderful
humility yet power, quite equal in dignity and pathos
to those of Solomon and Daniel,* and evidently claimed
to be as Divinely appointed leaders of the Jewish
remnant as Zerubbabel or Joshua, and acted with the
full authority of such assertions ; and that the secret
and source of both revivals originated with " those that
trembled at the commandment of our God," and was
associated with a confession of disobedience to that
" which Thou hast commanded by Thy servants the
prophets," and a glad and prompt obedience to that
which was "found written in the law which the Lord
had commanded b}^ Moses." Then will the solemn
words of Nehemiah, unconsciously placing himself
alongside God s previous prophets and witnesses in
their testimony for Jehovah, and against Israel, come
home with special emphasis and power. " Thou
earnest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with
them from Heaven, and gavest them right judgments,
and true laws, good statutes and commandments : and
madest known unto them Thy holy Sabbath, and com-
:;c Haggai i. 1, 2 ; Zech. i. 2, 3.
f Ezra v. 1, 2 ; Haggai i. 13, 14.
| Ezra ix. ; Neh. ix.
Ezra ix. 7, 12 ; x. 1-4 ; Neh. viii. 1-3, 8, 14-18 ; ix. 3 : xiii. 1-3.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 41
mandest them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the
hand of Moses Thy servant. . . . Thou gavest also Thy
good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not Thy
manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for
their thirst. . . . Nevertheless they were disobedient,
and rebelled against Thee, and cast Thy law behind
their backs, and slew Thy prophets which testified
against them to turn them to Thee, and they wrought
great provocations. . . . Yet many years didst Thou
forbear them, and testifiedst against them by Thy Spirit
in Thy Prophets : yet would they not give ear : there
fore gavest Thou them into the hand of the people of
the lands." *
This, as the deliberate utterance of the last of the
Old Testament historians, demands particular attention,
as Nehemiah thereby fully endorsed the words and
actions of all Jehovah s prophets and witnesses from
Moses unto himself as being of God, a statement all
the more remarkable and emphatic when placed along
side the similar pronouncement of Zechariah, the last
but one of the Old Testament prophets (practically,
we might say, the last, for Malachi occupied much the
same position towards the New Testament writings as
John the Baptist did towards the person of our blessed
Lord) ; for which he particularly asserts Divine
authority : " Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying,
. . . But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the
shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not
hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant
stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words
which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His spirit by the
former prophets : therefore came a great wrath from
the Lord of hosts." f
* Neh. ix. 13, 14, 20, 26, 30, { Zech. vii. 9, 11, 12,
42 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Old Testament Scriptures mainly refer to Israel as
a Nation.
It should never be forgotten, by the modern reader
of the Bible, that the Old Testament Scriptures have
almost exclusive reference to Jehovah s elect and
chosen people Israel. While it is true that God s
mercy reached Rahab the Canaanite, Ruth the Moabi-
tess, Naaman the Syrian, Nebuchadnezzar the Baby
lonian, and the Ninevites, these were but exceptional
instances when the river of grace, overflowing its
natural boundaries, touched Gentiles with blessing.
The inquirer, who deliberately and doggedly persists
in adopting a process of interpretation whereby the
terms Jerusalem, Judaea, Israel, and Judah, apply to
the Jews when maledictions are concerned, and to the
Church when benedictions are in store, is unconsciously
taking a liberty with the Word of the Eternal God
which he would not dare do with any other volume.
Whether in Deuteronomy or Isaiah, Jeremiah or
Ezekiel, an honest reception of the prophetic message
demands that, as truly as the judgments, disasters, and
dispersions were carried out to the very letter upon the
Jewish nation, so shall the blessings, restorations, and
ingatherings be literally fulfilled. God s full promises
to Israel were never, even in Solomon s time, com
pletely realized ; but a day is coming when they shall
be : " for if the casting away of them be the reconciling
of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but
life from the dead?" Of course, we Gentiles are
perfectly justified in gleaning comfort and instruction
from God s amazing grace revealed to backsliding
Israel, and from His many marvellous promises, stud
ding the midnight sky with radiant hope ere " the Sun
: Tiom. xi. 15.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 43
of righteousness" arose " with healing in His wings,"
for Jehovah s character and dealings with sinners are
evermore the same, and Israel s wanderings and mur-
murings but typify too accurately, alas ! the poor
wayward lives of those who, being "of faith," "are
the children of Abraham," and " heirs according to
the promise," and of "the Israel of God " ; * but the
Bible-student must be hopelessly perplexed who will
not or cannot see that Jew means Jew, and Jerusalem
means Jerusalem except in such cases where it is
distinctly specified otherwise; * and that even prophetic
mysteries and human history from the Divine stand
point revolve round God s ancient people, and the
actual city where they dwelt. Thus Daniel is informed,
" I am come to make thee understand what shall befall
Gal. iii. 7, 29 ; vi. 16.
I Do not let us be misunderstood. All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works "
(2 Tim. iii. 16, 17) : and we have preached joyous, comforting
truths to Gentile believers from such passages as this : " Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee :
because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever : for in
the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength" (Isa. xxvi. 3, 4), and
felt quite justified in so doing, for Jehovah s promise broadens out
the reference to the man that trusteth in Him ; yet, in its primary
application, the chapter manifestly refers to " that day " when
" this song shall be sung in the land of Judah ; we have a strong
city ; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks " (Ibid,
xxvi. 1). Thus, likewise, one may sweetly preach the Gospel
from such a passage as this : " Behold, God is my salvation ; I
will trust, and not be afraid : for the Lord JEHOVAH is my
strength and my song ; He also is become my salvation " (xii. 2) ;
and yet dare not do otherwise than recognise also its local
significance : " Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion :
for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee " (xii. 6).
Rom. ii. 28, 29 ; Heb. xii, 22; Kev. xxi. 2.
44 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
thy people in the latter days"; and Paul, in perfect
harmony, exclaims, " For I would not, brethren, that
ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be
wise in your own conceits ; that blindness in part is
happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be
come in. And so all Israel shall be saved : as it is
written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer,
and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob " ; while
our beloved Lord Himself declares that the Jews
" shall be led away captive into all nations : and
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until
the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled ; * and it is, we
believe, largely because of this fact that such special
emphasis is, in the Old Testament Scriptures, and
among the Jews themselves at the present day (some
of whom can trace back their ancestry for unbroken
periods of many centuries), laid upon long dreary
genealogical lists which contain what appear but
unimportant and eccentric items to us ; since, one
day, they will fit in, as all-important factors, in the
distribution of the promised land among those families
to whom God pledged it in His covenant with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. At any rate, whether such a con
jecture be correct, or not, this much is certain ; the
taking of a Jew r ish census, involving as it did, not only
the enrolment of the names of Israelites, but also the
recognition and payment of the atonement money, was
a most solemn event in national history ; * and
Nehemiah, in doing so, makes this claim, " my God
put into mine heart to gather together the nobles, and
the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned
by genealogy " ; + and we find that, of the priests, some
" sought their register among those that were reckoned
- Dan. x. 14 ; Romans xi. 25, 26 ; Luke xxi. 24.
| Exocl. xxx, H-16, Neh. vii. f>,
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 45
by genealogy, but it was not found : therefore were
they, as polluted, put from the priesthood." What
an unfrocking there would be in certain quarters to-day,
if spiritual genealogy * were demanded as a pre
requisite to modern priestly pretensions !
Individualism and Old Time Genealogies.
And here let us put in a plea for the careful reading
of these very genealogies, " dry, musty, old-world
records," as some would call them ; for even amid the
wilderness of strange names there are oases, like the
all-comprehensive holy prayer of Jabez, the duty-and-
privilege touches concerning those that " dwelt with
the king for his work," the urgent cry and splendid
deliverance of the Reubenites, and the pathetic sorrow
of heart-broken Kphraim,* which burst forth with
blessing, like water out of the flinty rock, to the soul of
him who reads and ponders. Then let the student
project his thoughts forward, some centuries over a
millennium, to that category in the last chapter of
Paul s Epistle to the Romans ; and, may be, a little
more glimmering of intelligent sympathy will cluster
round the names of " Andronicus and Junia, my
kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners," " Urbane, our
helper in Christ," "them that be of the household of
Narcissus, which are in the Lord," " Tryphena and
Tryphosa," " Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother
and mine," " Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and
all the saints which are with them ; for one can
almost, from these skeleton sketches, outline the home
life, ministries, and characters of these diverse yet
united brethren and sisters in Christ.
Next, substitute for Ezra s list of those who came up
>;; John i. 12, 13. ! 1 Chron. iv. 10, 23 ; v. 18-22 ; vii. 21, 22.
46 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
from Babylon to Jerusalem, the nobles of our national
Magna Chart a, or " the men of the Mayflower," and
date the signatories to Nehemiah s solemn league and
covenant two thousand years nearer our own time, and
imagine it to be subscribed in Scotland ; and will not
the interest deepen and gather more and more around
the unknown worthies who thus witnessed for God
and the Kirk in their day and generation ? Above all,
take a quiet stand, say in Grey-friars Cemetery, Edin
burgh, and read the memorial words of gratitude and
thanksgiving inscribed to the Marquis of Argyle, James
Ken wick, Guthrie and his noble band of fellow-martyrs,
some 18,000 in all ; and, gleaning some light from your
guide-book, or " The Scots Worthies," ask, " Who
were they ? " Few even know their names ; but every
Christian, with bared head and hushed soul, there veils
his face as in the presence of the Eternal, and praises
God that he shall have the privilege of meeting these
heroes of grace, by and by, in Heaven ; for, verily, their
genealogy is of high origin, since their names have
been written from all eternity " in the Lamb s book
of life."
Ay, and this is the unique charm of Christianity.
God s Gospel reaches the unit, the individual. In His
great programme there is a special place, a particular
niche of joy and service for one and all. From ever
lasting God loved each one. Christ died for every
individual believer as though he were the only one for
whom the Saviour shed the price of precious blood upon
the cross. In Heaven He intercedes for those whose
names are graven on His hands, and written on His
heart. Yea, even sparrows fall not save by the all- wise
permission of our Father, and the very hairs of every
head are all numbered in His sight * (therefore, how
* Luke xii. 6, 7.
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 47
much more the heads !) and thus these old genealogies
tell me that each man s little world of sin and need, of
struggling and sorrow, of ambition and joy, of hope
and fear, is known to God. watched over by Him,
scanned in Heaven ; and even if all earth fails, and at
its noblest, and best, and most successful climax, it
must prove wanting, God has provided " a second
innings," another sphere of ministry and gladness for
His people, where every saint, however poor and
unostentatious, the seamstress with the princess, the
labourer with the Lord Chancellor, shall shine in his
own peculiar and distinguishing radiancy and beauty,
as " one star differeth from another star in glory ; * and
if I received no other blessing from these long lists of
names than this one marvellous, overwhelming, super
natural thought, conflicting with and transcending all
the very best theologies and philosophies of man, that
God s religion recognises and grasps the individual as
such, and marks and stamps his personality for ever
more, it would seem to me one of the strongest and
sweetest, most inspiring, and most stimulating truths
of the revealed volume ; for Christianity alone uplifts
out of his native nothingness the lonely unit not into
absorption, abstraction, annihilation, but into con
scious, joyous, holy, useful, kingly fellowship with
God ; and herein lies the differentiating principle between
it and all earthborn, man-manufactured religions and
economics Confucianism, Buddhism, Utilitarianism,
and even Altruism since all these, with despotism and
democracy, would alike stifle and destroy the God-
given, eternal personality of man. But the Bible
reveals that God hath heart, and work, and universe
large enough for each and all, where every isolated
ransomed spirit shall still exist, himself, with his
:;: 1 Cor. xv. 41.
48 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
peculiar service, and special and unique ministry for
God, for ever and for ever.
In a little rural town in England, which I sometimes
visit, just at a spot where the grey houses melt into the
soft country lanes, there lies, in " God s acre," one
tomb which has a strange, weird fascination, calling me
back, again and again, to gaze upon its inscription,
"John Harris, died 1898. Redeemed. I know
nothing of this buried saint, nor would the name
attract me ; but the great wealth of meaning and
glory in the one word " Redeemed " has often brought
tears to the eyes, and flutterings to the heart, and I
have felt as though I would almost like to stretch down
under the very earth, and grasp the hand, cold skeleton
though it be, of this unknown brother in our common
Lord and Saviour (pity, is it not, that the same sym
pathy is not sometimes practical and real enough to
touch the living hands above the sod ?) and thus, I am
persuaded, would we feel towards men and women in
God s genealogies if we had but His heart ; for all
believers are brethren, and "we are members one of
another," through grace into glory.
Esther God s sovereignty written large in history.
One cannot help being struck with the extraordinary
contrast between the opening verses of Genesis, which
literally blaze with the very Name of God, and the
closing BOOK OF ESTHEB, wherein there is no mention
of the Almighty whatsoever ; and yet I venture to say
that there is no record in the Inspired Volume where
the Lord God, in His absolute sovereignty, is more
strikingly and manifestly revealed ; yea, he must be a
very fool who cannot read GOD written in largest
capitals over the entire narrative. An Eastern woman s
THE HISTOBICAL BOOKS 49
obstinate refusal to obey her royal husband s mandate,
and exhibit her magnificent beauty to his assembled
guests ; the whims of his pride in her, and her pride in
herself, uniting to secure her deposal; a simple
Jewish maiden introduced to court, and winning the
king s favour against all competitors ; her old cousin,
sitting at the palace gate, and hearing of the projected
attempt to murder Ahasuerus, and giving warning con
cerning the plot, his non-rewardal then, and the pre
servation of the record of the incident amid the musty
archives of the Persian chronicles ; the sudden rise of
Haman the Agagite to power ; Mordecai s refusal to
bow the knee to an Amalekite ; Haman s fiendish
resolve to crush the whole race of the Jews in order
to destroy one man ; the casting of Pur, the lot, and
its falling on the furthest off month in the whole year;
Esther s resolve, prayer, and fasting her perilous
entry into the king s presence, presaging most likely
death, his gracious reception of her, and proffer of even
half his kingdom, her modest request for a dinner
party of three ; the king s growing irritability at
Haman s increasing pride and familiarity ; the sleep
less night which followed, when the dry records of
the court chronicles were read to amuse the king, or,
more probably, to send him to sleep; the book opening
at the narration of Mordecai s vigilance and the
attempted assassination, and the monarch s inquiry,
"What honour and dignity hath been done to Mor-
decai for this? " ; Haman s footfall in the early morn
ing so eager was he to slay Mordecai, overheard by
the wakeful king, the royal favourite brought in, and
interrogated, " What shall be done unto the man
whom the king delighteth to honour?" his haughty
suggestion, absolutely wresting the crown, for a day
at least, from the hands of Ahasuerus, carried out with
50 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
himself as lackey and his sworn enemy Mordecai as
hero ; the fiery speech of Esther, at the second day s
banquet, which would have been untimely and in
judicious at the first; the monarch s wrath, Hainan s
craven fear, his very physical posture, in pleading with
the queen, the chance upon which his ruin turned, his
removal from the palace, and his hanging upon the
very gallows which he himself had prepared for Mor-
decai s speedy execution; the second edict of the king,
giving the Jews liberty to stand for their lives against
their enemies, which edict, since the lot had fallen on
the twelfth month, had time to reach the farthest pro
vince ere the previously ordained slaughter of the Jews
began ; their deliverance, the spread of Jewish prin
ciples, Mordecai s advancement, Esther s greatness,
Ahasuerus s glory, and the blessing of the whole
realm ; who but a purblind sceptic could regard these
chances, occurrences, and circumstances all aggregated
thus, and in such order, as other than the rulings and
over-rulings of the great God who had destined to
deliver and preserve His people Israel, to " blot out
the remembrance of Amalek from under Heaven," and
to hang all Hamans, be they human or Satanic, on the
gallows which they themselves had reared? Every
page, every incident of the Book radiates the presence
of the Almighty. Ay, though the roar of God s artillery
and the jagged levin bolt be absent, surely quiet,
thoughtful men can hear Jehovah speak, and recognise
His interference in facts.
Shake the kaleidoscope a little, for, while God never
duplicates His creations in history, any more than in
nature or in grace, yet is there, often, a kinship and
sympathy in His programmes. Two thousand years
roll by ; and, lo ! we find well-nigh a parallel when the
grim struggle of the Reformation is taking place in
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 51
England. Not Vashti now, but proud, self-contained
Catherine of Aragon; not Esther, but gentle Protestant
Anne Boleyn, with the lovely face; not Ahasuerus, but
whimsical, irritable, imperious Henry the Eighth ; not
Hainan, but haughty, kingly Cardinal Wolsey, "ego
et rex ineus " ; not Mordecai, but Tyndall leavening
the country with English Bibles ; Cranmer, the diplo
matic theologian, fighting for the Reformed Religion ;
Thomas Cromwell battling for civil liberty ; the Pope,
angry and fearful, vacillating, lying, uncertain, giving
and withholding dispensations, and finally rousing royal
Henry s wrath, until he makes Cranmer Archbishop,
drives Wolsey to death, tears the papal supremacy to
shreds, and frees England from the yoke of Rome.
Can God not be seen in all these subtle, unexpected
sequences, and in the swamping of Philip s Armada,
and the flight of pale-faced James, without a blow,
before Dutch William ?
I am no connoisseur in art, yet could I easily tell the
inimitable sheep of Sydney Cooper, and the marvellous
mosaic work of Alma Tadema. Lady Butler s war
pictures and Millais portraits need not the inscription
beneath them, " This is a battle scene," or " This is a
lady s likeness." Nor need God s Name be added
where His own unique handiwork is manifest upon
the canvas, since every spiritual mind at least must
utter forth the thought, " This verily is none other
than the finger of our God." Thus say we of the Book
of Esther, and wonder whether to marvel more at the
magnificent power of that Jehovah who can, at every
point in the narrative, reveal while concealing Himself,
or at the stupid blindness of silly mortals who cannot
see the hand of the Eternal without the lightning flash
or thunder roll.
I have not calculated the exact number of pronounce-
52 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
ments of "Thus saith the Lord," "The word of the
Lord came," and similar assertions of supernatural
authority in the Historical Books ; but I know that
they are somewhat nearer three hundred than two
hundred, while the chapters total in all some two
hundred and forty-nine, leaving thus at least an
average of one such definite claim for every chapter.
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG
Job An Enlarged Photograph of Life s Mystery.
THUS Esther, the last of the Historical Books, reveals
to us, in a striking object-lesson, how " the Lord
reigneth," and, in the absolute sovereignty of His
Divine purpose concerning His chosen people, " worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will," among
the nations of the earth ; and, with a peculiar appro
priateness, JOB follows, glinting the dark enigmas of
permitted evil with some solution of the mysteries of
sorrow and temptation in individual life ; for the
patriarch s experience is but an enlarged photograph
of what takes place, in lesser measure, with every
genuine believer, as God fights out and wins His
great controversy with the sin and self -righteousness,
the pride and "ego " in every one of us. How many
new words in Heaven s vocabulary are learned, and
learned only in this school, humility, sympathy,
endurance, grace ! How many lessons are here taught
to men and angels, for I believe that eternity alone
will declare how every life, with its vicissitudes and
conflicts, has been scanned with the closest and most
curious scrutiny of higher intelligences * for their own
instruction and God s eternal glory.
Here we have the almighty, holy Jehovah s estimate
concerning Job : " There is none like him in the earth,
* Job i. 8; Eph. iii. 10; Heb. xii. 1.
53
54 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God,
and esche weth evil " ; * yet God would teach this most
blameless of men how poor and broken, how corrupt
and vile, he is naturally ; and, by that revelation, so
manifest the latent evil of self unto the patriarch as to
lift him ultimately to a higher level of perfection and
grace. Thus would He do with all of us ; and in this
great purpose, three factors are pre-eminently in the
forefront, sorrow, temptation, and the manifestation
of God. So Paul, who, even in his unregenerate days,
was " touching the righteousness which is in the law,
blameless " ; t and who, afterwards, by Inspiration
could affirm, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also
am of Christ";* had to be schooled of his great
Master, through the "thorn in the flesh" which he
describes as "the messenger of Satan to buffet me,
lest I should be exalted above measure" ; while of
trickster Jacob it is written, " there wrestled a man
with him until the breaking of the day"; and even
God Himself had to put "the hollow of Jacob s thigh
out of joint " ere He brought to an end that great
wrestling match with His stout, self-willed opponent,
which had been going on for twenty years, and which
culminated at Jabbok s ford in the confession, "Lord,
I am but Jacob a supplanter"; and the Divine
response, " Nay, but thou art now Israel a prince of
God " ; and be it carefully noted that, while the self
and God revelation came as Heaven s most gracious
benediction to these men, yet the one carried "the
thorn " and the other " the limp " to his dying day, for
the very best of mortals need daily and ofttimes sting
ing reminders of both self and God, of human impo-
tency and almighty grace.
;;: Job i. 8; ii. 3. ^ Phil. iii. 4-9. \ 1 Cor. xi. 1.
j 2 Cor. xii. 7-9. ; Gen. xxxii. 24-32.
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 55
Now, in this great practical drama of Job s sorrow,
humbling, and uplifting, we find seven different com
batants enter the arena against the patriarch. Satan
himself twice essays to overthrow Job s faith and
patience, but in vain, and retires from the encounter
absolutely baffled. Then the temptation, "Curse God,
and die," comes from the despairing wife of his bosom;
but, with the exclamation, "What? shall we receive
good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive
evil?" he repudiates her hellish suggestion, and the
Divine verdict reads, "in all this did not Job sin with
his lips." * Next, his three friends, Eliphaz the Te-
manite, with his observationalism ("I have seen") ; (
Bildad the Shuhite, with his traditionalism ("the
fathers ") ; + Zophar the Naamathite, with his
legalism ; alternately wrestle in argument with
Job, the last-named twice, the others thrice each ;
but, on all occasions, the patriarch, overthrowing the
philosopher, the " Tory," and the lawyer, remains
victor, albeit the growing revelation of his dormant
self-righteousness becomes more and more manifest
until, in his last address, there are no less than one
hundred and ninety-seven references to the " ego " in
ninety-six verses. Then Elihu, risen as Job wished
" in God s stead," r speaks with such wonderful
dignity and power "words for God" in an address,
which practically claims Inspiration,** that the patri
arch, abashed and humbled, merely listens, attempt
ing no reply ; and, finally, Almighty God Himself
" answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who
is this that darkeneth counsel by words without know-
* Job ii. 10. f Ibid. iv. 8 ; v. 3 ; xv. 17 ; xxii. 19.
I Ibid. viii. 8-10. Ibid. xi. 13-20.
I Ibid, xxix., xxx., and xxxi. *i Ibid, xxxiii. 6.
:;: Ibid, xxxii. 8, 18 ; xxxvi. 2-5.
56 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
ledge ? Gird up now thy loins like a man ; for I will
demand of thee, and answer thou Me " ; * and pressing
still ever closer and closer in His argument at last
forces the man to cry, " Peccavi," to fling down his
arms, and unreservedly acknowledge (what none but
God could discover in, and reveal to him), "Behold, I
am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay mine
hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken ; . . . but
I w r ill proceed no further." One more challenge,
" Gird up thy loins now like a man : I will demand of
thee, and declare thou unto Me," + and the controversy
is for ever ended, and God s victory of grace complete :
"Then Job answered the Lord, and said, "I know
that Thou canst do everything, and that no thought
can be withholden from Thee. Who is he that hideth
counsel without knowledge ? therefore have I uttered
that I understood not ; things too wonderful for me,
which I knew not. Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will
speak : I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto
me. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear :
but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor
myself, and repent in dust and ashes." $ Job is
utterly humbled, self-emptied, reduced to nothing
ness. God is almighty, all-sufficient, everything !
This is the drama enacted, albeit on a smaller scale,
in each believer s earth-life until the " ego " is effec
tually subdued, and God alone, in grace or glory,
becomes "all and in all."
God-inspired Records of Uninspired Speeches.
Again note that, while in this remarkable Book we
are confronted with the old, familiar, distinct assertions
* Job. xxxviii. 1-3. i Ibid. xl. 4, 5.
t Ibid. xl. 7. j Ibid. xlii. 1-6.
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 57
of definite Divine authority, " The Lord said unto
Satan," " The Lord answered Job," " The Lord said
to Eliphaz," * we also learn that everything which the
Holy Ghost here records is not necessarily God-inspired
as regards its utterance. What we mean is, a short
hand report of Job s speeches, and those of his friends,
is preserved for our instruction by supernatural power;
but what they said, in many instances, was not of God,
but actually contrary to His supreme mind and will.
This Elihu declares: "Job hath spoken without know
ledge, and his words were without wisdom. . . . For
he addeth rebellion unto his sin, he clappeth his hands
among us, and multiplieth his words against God " ; t
"Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain: he
multiplieth words without knowledge "; t and the
Lord answers Job, "Who is this that darkeneth
counsel by words without knowledge ?"; while to
Eliphaz He says, " My wrath is kindled against thee,
and against thy two friends : for ye have not spoken of
Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath."
:;: Job i. 7, 8, 12 ; ii. 2, 3, 6 ; xxxviii. 1 ; xl. 1, 6 ; xlii. 7.
) Ibid, xxxiv. 35, 37.
I Ibid. xxxv. 16.
;; Ibid, xxxviii. 2 ; see also xl. 2 ; xlii. 3.
j Ibid. xlii. 7. Here, probably, some " higher critic " may inter
pose with a great blast of words, and show of special erudition,
What ! is not this a gross and palpable contradiction ? Job s
words are condemned by Elihu, and even by God Himself, as being
without knowledge, and yet, in the Divine censure of Eliphaz and
his friends, we read, ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is
right, as My servant Job hath. " Ay, verily, it is a fair sample
of "modern difficulties" irreconcilable, maybe, to professors, but
simple to "little children" in the faith. Much of Job s first
orations was condemned, and rightly so, but his last words
(xlii. 1-6), indicating a total change of thought and feeling, were
as strongly eulogised, for, in the interval, the man s heart and
mouth had been converted to God s way of thinking !
58 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
There are certain sayings, recorded in the Bible,
which those who hold the strictest, most conservative
and Evangelical views of Inspiration, believe to be
verbally accurate in their recital, but altogether of
man or devil in their conception and utterance ; since,
as we have already emphasised, the Book is given to
reveal humanity in its depravity as well as God in His
grace. Thus, the serpent s sablety and falsehood in
the Garden of Eden, the speech of the men of Sodom,
the haughty, defiant words of Pharaoh, the murmurings
of the children of Israel, the unbelieving crv of David
o */
( I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul"),
the blasphemies of Sennacherib, the impertinent
answer of Jonah unto Jehovah, (" I do well to be
angry, even unto death "), the prayer of the Gadarenes,
the bigoted cry of John for "fire from Heaven," the
boastful and cowardly utterances of Peter, the sceptical
words of Thomas, the temporising policy of Gamaliel,
and the legal oratory of Tertullus* these and other
similar speeches were not God-spoken words, but the
blunt, honest report of them is Inspired, since the
devil, who was a liar from the beginning, would never
have advertised his own treachery, nor would relatives
and historians have written the account of sin and
failure in the memoirs of their departed friends ; and
thus, in marked contrast to the claims of Moses,
Samuel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel to supernatural In
spiration, we read here, " the words of Job are ended,"
the man alone being responsible for many of his utter
ances, while God Himself has given us a verbally-
inspired record of the same. Now, as this remark
:;: Gen. iii. 1-5 ; xix. 5-9 ; Exod. v. 2 ; Numb. xix. 2-4 ; 1 Sam.
xxvii. 1 : 2 Kings xix. 10-13 ; Jonah iv. 9 ; Matt. viii. 31 ; Luke ix.
49, 54 ; Mark xiv. 29. 31, 66, 72 ; John xx. 25 ; Acts v. 34-40 ;
xxiv. 1-8.
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 5 ( J
may occasion the difficulty to some readers " How,
then, can we discern between the Inspired and the
uninspired speeches in the Scriptures ?" please let
me again emphasise the fact that we believe most
firmly that all portions of the Bible are fully Inspired,
but every speech or action is not necessarily " God-
given." Indeed, in many of the cases I have quoted,
we can actually produce Divine authority in a " Thus
saith the Lord," for censuring and condemning utter
ances which never, in any instance, claimed to be
" God-breathed," as do the words of prophets and
historians. Whereas if, on this line of argument, any
doubt exists concerning the speeches and actions of
godly men like the apostles and evangelists, as narrated
in the New Testament HISTORICAL Books, it is mani
festly our wisdom to give credit for Divine sanction to
such words and deeds unless some Scriptural evidence
be clearly deducible to the contrary. Thus, Peter s
impulsive " Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any
thing that is common or unclean," was evidently,
according to the context, an Inspired record of an
uninspired utterance ; while the apostolic affirmation,
" It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us," is the
Inspired record of an Inspired utterance.* Let it
always be remembered that the prophecies rather than
the prophets were Inspired, the writings rather than
the writers. "All Scripture is God-breathed," but
some sayings and deeds, even of good men therein
recorded, were of self, and sin, and earth ; while even,
on the other hand, occasionally, bad men like Balaam
and Caiaphas were compelled, the one unwillingly and
the other unwittingly, to voice sentences which were
the very words of God put into their lips, the impulse
not being in the speakers, but in the external and
:;: Acts x. 14 ; xv. 28.
GO GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
overpowering will of the Holy Ghost behind them.*
These last-named and reluctant prophecies of ungodly
witnesses prove conclusively at least their Verbal
Inspiration, while the true meaning of the term
prophet as a revealer of God s will, and not only a
foreteller of future events, is more particularly dealt
with in subsequent paragraphs.
The Holy GJiost by the Mouth of David.
The Inspiration of the royal psalmist, David, is even
more clearly affirmed, if that were possible, than that
of any Old Testament prophet, Moses himself included.
His own farewell utterances and dying men, with the
breath of eternity upon them, are careful of their
words are emphatic and distinct in the claim of
supernatural authority; " Now these be the last words
of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man
who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of
Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit
of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my
tongue " ; J while the Lord, reasoning with His oppo
nents, argues, " for David himself said by the Holy
Ghost " ; and Peter, speaking concerning the betrayal
of the Saviour, exclaims, " Men and brethren, this
Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the
Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before con
cerning Judas, which was guide to them that took
Jesus" ; |j and the same apostle, on the sacred day of
Pentecost, in the full power of the Holy Ghost, declares,
" Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God
had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his
loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ
* Numb. xxii. 88 ; John xi. 49-52. i See pp. 89-91.
;j 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2. $ Mark xii. 66. i Acts. i. 16.
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 61
to sit on His throne ; he seeing this before spake of the
resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in
hell, neither His flesh did see corruption." * Also the
great Inspired prayer of the persecuted early Church
was, " and when they heard that, they lifted up their
voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, Thou
art God, which hast made Heaven, and earth, and the
sea, and all that in them is : who by the mouth of Thy
servant David has said, Why did the heathen rage, and
the people imagine vain things? "I And Paul, preach
ing at Antioch, asserts, " God hath fulfilled the same
unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus
again ; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou
art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee . . .
Wherefore He saith also in another Psalm, Thou
shalt not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption! " *
and in the first short, wonderful chapter of the Epistle
to the Hebrews, consisting only of fourteen verses, we
read at least six quotations from the Psalms, where it
is definitely stated, "He (God) saith," or " said."
The Messsianic Psalms Windows to the Heart of God.
It should be always borne in mind that most of the
Davidic Psalms were Messianic and prophetic, dealing
often primarily with the ever-varying experiences of
"the shepherd-king," but in their deepest, truest
meaning and significance, with " the sufferings of
Christ, and the glory that should follow." Thus,
while even the Gospel narratives of the crucifixion
give but the very faintest glimpses of our Lord s soul
agonies, in such Psalms as the twenty-second, fortieth,
sixty-ninth, eighty-ninth, &c., we see, as it were
:;: Acts ii. 30, 31. f Ibid. iv. 24 25.
J Ibid. xiii. 33, 35. Heb. i. 5, 6, 7, 8, 13.
fi-2 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
through windows, into the very heart of the Lord s
sorrow, passing through the outer court of His physical
anguish, into the inner "Holy of Holies," where He
cried, " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me? " since as C. H. Spurgeon tersely and strikingly
put it, " The bodily sufferings of Christ were but the
body of His sufferings" ; and none but God Himself
can gauge the depths of the tremendous statement,
" For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew
no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him." * Then the glories of Immanuel are
predicted in Psalms like the second, twenty-fourth,
forty-fifth, sixty-eighth, and seventy-second, where
David winds up his most ambitious and unselfish
desires in marked contrast to the utterances of Job s
pessimistic and egotistical philosophy, "Let thistles
grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley.
The words of Job are ended " ; t with the doxology,
" and blessed be His glorious Name for ever : and let
the whole earth be filled with His glory ; Amen, and
Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are
ended." I
In the Psalms, therefore, pre-eminently, we have a
revelation of the very heart of God the Father,
"merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous
in mercy," who " hath not dealt with us after our sins ;
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities " ; of the
very heart of God the Son, who, in His substitutionary
agonies for fallen man, as "the waters came in unto
His soul," and He sank " in deep mire, where there
was no standing," . . . . " looked for some to take
pity, but there was none ; and for comforters, but
found none " ; and of the very heart of God the Holy
Ghost, who spake, through David, these Psalms which
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG fitf
form the very centre of the Divine Revelation, standing
midway between Genesis and the Apocalypse ; and,
indeed, an approximate estimate might fairly lead to a
computation that the very centre of the Bible lies
between the seventieth Psalm and the ninetieth ; and
I like to cherish the sweet conceit that the very heart
of the Book is somewhere near those much-loved words,
which certainly are the core and essence of the Gospel,
" Mercy and truth are met together ; righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring
out of the earth ; and righteousness shall look down
from Heaven.*
An Epitome of Life s Experience.
But if, in the Psalms, we have revealed, in a pecu
liarly rich and experimental way, the electing, change
less grace of the Father, the redemptive and triumphant
work of the Son, and the choice consolations of the
Holy Ghost in short, the secret throbbings of the
great heart of the holy Triune God, so full of love and
righteousness to lost and rebel sinners, the Book also
possesses another unique charm, in that it pre-eminently
meets the needs, soothes the spirits, and exhibits in all
their multiform variations of ecstasy and depression,
sin and holiness, backsliding and communion, the inner
workings of the hearts of men ; touching sympathetic
ally at some point, and often at every point, the expe
riences of all sorts and conditions of God s children.
: : Psa. Ixxxv. 10, 11. The length of chapters and verses being
so unequal, the middle ones cannot give us a clear clue as to the
centre of the Bible ; but a rough calculation, based upon the
paging of Bagster s Edition, Old Testament, 585 pages, New
Testament, 188 pages, produces the following interesting result:
585 + 188 = 773 -|- 2 = 386, or, Psa. Ixxxiv. and Ixxxv.
64 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
How instinctively almost, when pressed by the weari
ness of life, the burden of sorrow, the overwhelming
consciousness of failure and sin, the temptations of the
devil, the calumny of the world, the difficulties of the
homeward, uphill way, one turns to David s Psalms,
even more than to the Gospels, and finds rest and hope
and victory coming into the soul ! The reason is not
far to seek ; they are as full of humanity as of Divinity;
for David, if I may put it reverently, was not only, in
certain aspects and experiences of his life, a type of
our beloved, suffering Lord, but also of ourselves
" A man so varied that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind s epitome."
Shepherd boy and mighty monarch, deserted yet be
loved, a trembling fugitive and splendid victor, a gross
backslider and a joyous saint, a man whose sorrows
were only paralleled by his seasons of communion, who
here touched God and there touched devil. We, little
men and women, just as big Luther did, run to his
Divinely-inspired songs for stimulus and comfort ; and
all the more, maybe, that while " God breathed," they
yet retain the throb of David s humanity, as would a
cornet, mute and helpless in itself, reveal its personality
when moved and thrilled by that external and infilling
force without which it must always remain powerless
and dumb.
Thus, in the Psalms, we find expressions and expe
riences adapted to the moods and temperaments of
every phase of human being. The Puritan, riding on
to victory, made this his war song
"Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered:
Let them also that hate Him flee before Him," ;
:;: Psa. Ixviii. 1.
while the Quaker quietly whispered
" Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity ! "
In times of national distress the old familiar strains are
poured forth from the lips of hundreds of thousands
* God is our refuge and our strength,
In straits a present aid," f
and when revival comes the words are quoted
"When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion,
We were like them that dream." {
Iii days of marriage, parting, funeral, and burial,
Psalms cxxviii., cxxi., xc., and xvi., are aptly spoken,
while pardoned penitents learn the secret of confession
and absolution in li. and xxxii. Comfort to puzzled
spirits, amid life s enigmas, in the assurance that " THE
LORD KEIGNETH," is furnished in xxvii., Ixxiii., and
xcvii. ; and those seeking and finding through com
munion, obedience, and the covenant the joy of
" giving thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for
His mercy endureth for ever," are satisfied in the
fellowship of sentiment expressed in xlii., Ixxxiv.,
Ixxxix., cxix., cxxxvi., and cxlv. The eighth Psalm
describes the glory and destiny of man as ruler over
God s creation. The thirty-sixth (vers. 5-10) is one
of those which, when on holiday, we can deliciously
enjoy in the old Scotch version
"Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens;
Thy truth doth reach the clouds ; "
while the twenty-second shows us Adam s ruin, sin,
and utter failure, as Christ, " the second Man," taking
* Psa. cxxxiii. 1. | Ibid. xlvi. 1. J Ibid, cxxvi. 1.
6
66 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
his place and bearing his penalty, leads us through the
awful agony of
"My God, My God. why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
into the "green pastures" and "beside the still
waters " ; * and on resurrection ground, and in ascen
sion splendour, emerges crowned Victor and Redeemer
as "the King of glory" through the "everlasting
doors," t into the completeness of His Jerusalem
peace t and millennial triumph
" He shall have dominion also from sea to sea,
And from the river unto the ends of the earth. . . .
His Name shall endure for ever :
His Name shall be continued as long as the sun ;
And men shall be blessed in Him :
All nations shall call Him blessed.
Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel,
Who only doeth wondrous things.
And blessed be His glorious Name for ever :
And let the whole earth be filled with His glory ;
Amen, and Amen ; "
while, for the expression of personal adoration or the
collective utterance of our highest, noblest, most un
selfish gratitude, w r hat can surpass
" Bless the Lord, my soul :
And all that is within me, bless His holy Name,"
and
" All people that on earth do dwell " ? *
Indeed, in God s great recipes for spiritual diseases, I
know none better than this, " Take a Psalm " ; and
soon, like David, gradually forgetting self, and reniem-
* Psa. xxiii. f Ibid. xxiv. \ Ibid, cxxii.
Ibid. Ixxii. 8, 17-19. || Ibid. ciii. * Ibid. c.
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 67
bering Him, you will slug yourself from the minor key
of earth s depression, " Out of the depths," * into the
heights of covenant and redemption privileges, and
worship and magnify
" the God of Heaven :
For His mercy endureth for ever." I
Maledictions on the Seed-plot of Sin and Sorrow.
From some of the expressions used in what are
generally known as the maledictory Psalms, there is
undoubtedly a shrinking in certain sensitive minds ;
and I suppose, viewed from the ordinary standpoint of
untypical interpretation, with a measure of Gospel truth.
The Old Testament prophets and leaders still lived under
the stern yet upright Mosaic "lex talionis " principles
" an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth " and
their righteous anger against long-continued tyranny
and wrong demanded prompt and effective reparation.
With the same spirit in their hearts, Hollanders and
Huguenots fought their more modern conflicts, Crom-
wellians won their victories, and Covenanters prayed
God s blasting power upon their enemies.
We do not, in all such cases, necessarily defend their
action, nor contend that it was in sympathy with the
teachings of the meek and lowly Lord Jesus ; I but,
surely, even in God s economy, there is still a place
for indignation as well as sentiment, for righteousness
as well as grace. Ye gentle spirits, make the matter
practical, touchable. When cable after cable flashed
in the harrowing details of bloody, devilish massacres,
and the story of how men had been brutally murdered,
women hideously outraged, and little children literally
* Psa. cxxx. f Ibid, cxxxvi. 26. Matt. v. 44 ; xxvi. 52,
68 GOD S WITNESS TO k HIS WORD
dashed to pieces by that consistent and persistent
enemy of Christianity and civilisation, Moham
medanism, did not all Christendom rise tender
women, little children, robust men and cr} T as with
one voice, "Away with the Turk!" Justice, nay,
Philanthropy itself demanded an extirpation of the
scourge and pestilence which, century after century,
has blighted the East for over a millennium ; and, in
the light of present and future prospects, taking even
into account the babes and unborn of both sides in this
contention, was not the criticism right ; and if so, what
difference is there between Britain and Turkey up to
date, and Jerusalem and Babylon in pre-Christian
years ? The truth is, righteousness must be extolled
as well as pity, and holiness hath partnership with
grace. I know some men, loving and tender-hearted ;
so kind that they could not even hurt a fly, and yet so
full of veneration and sympathy for God the Father s
outraged feelings concerning the deliberate, contemp
tuous rejection of His Son, that they durst not do
otherwise than cry " Hallelujah ! " when the traducers
of His cross and the opponents of His grace, the blas
phemers of His Gospel, and the seducers of mankind
are baffled, overcome, destroyed.*
Besides, let it be always remembered that there is
much of the figurative (" many bulls have compassed
me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round")
blended with the literal (" they part my garments
among them, and cast lots upon my vesture " f) in the
Psalms, and the innumerable sins of God s ransomed
people are unquestionably sometimes described as the
sworn foes and persecutors of " great David s greater
;: Psa. ii. ; Isa. xxviii. 16-21 ; John iii. 35, 36 ; Acts. xvii. 31 :
Horn. ii. 8, 9 ; 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16 ; 2 Thess. i. 7-9 ; Heb. x. 29-31 ;
Kev. xviii., and xix. f Psa. xxii. 12, 18.
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 69
Son," and must, as such, be beaten down, trodden out,
annihilated ; and while, though through God s won
derful covenant of grace, the believing sinner and his
sins are separated by virtue of the latter being laid
upon and judged in the suffering Substitute, the Christ-
rejector and his sins remain for ever so interwoven as
warp and woof that both must perish as did Hercules
and his fatal garment in the day when he and it were
both alike consumed.
Solomon s Wisdom from God.
Passing on from the sobs and songs, the depressions
and ecstasies of earth s and Heaven s sweetest Psalmist,
we come to the PROVERBS of his royal son Solomon, to
whom God said, "Ask what I shall give thee" ; and
who made the touching response, " Lord, my God
... I am but a little child : I know not how to go out
or come in. ... Give therefore thy servant an under
standing heart"; which so "pleased the Lord" that
He replied, " Behold, I have done according to thy
words : lo, I have given thee a wise and an understand
ing heart ; so that there was none like thee before
thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee;*
and God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding ex
ceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand
that is on the sea shore. . . . For he was wiser than
all men. . . . And all the kings of the earth sought
the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, that God
1 Kings iii. 5-14 ; 2 Chron. i. 7-12. It is instructive to note
how God also gave Solomon " both riches and honour " uncondi
tionally, and " length of days " conditionally : " If thou wilt walk
in My ways," &c., and that, while the covenant of grace secured
him wisdom, wealth, and fame, the covenant of works ended in
his comparatively early death.
70 GOD S WITNESS TO HTS WORD
had put in his heart." Thus Hiram, King of Tyre,
alluding to the supernatural wisdom given to Solomon
in building the temple, exclaimed, "Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who
hath given to David the king a wise son, endued with
prudence and understanding, that might build an house
for the Lord, and an house for his kingdom " ; I while
the queen of Sheba, who "came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon,"
and "to prove him with hard questions," testified, in
the joy of her humbled spirit, as " she communed with
him of all that was in her heart," "It was a true
report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts,
and of thy wisdom : howbeit I believed not their words,
until I came, and mine eyes had seen it : and, behold,
the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not
told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard." *
These quotations, affirming, as they unquestionably
do, a direct supernatural revelation to Solomon in "his
wisdom that God had put in his heart," would be in
themselves sufficient to establish the Inspiration of his
Proverbs and Songs, even if we had not the more
emphatic record in immediate connection with the
"wisdom and understanding exceeding much ichich
God gave Solomon," "and he spake three thousand
proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five."
And herein we find the explanation why his terse and
pithy sayings are more lasting, clear-cut, and up to
date, than the lengthened out and somewhat laboured
utterances of yEsop and Seneca, just because God s
wisdom is condensed in these short, practical sentences,
* 1 Kings iv. 29-34 ; v. 12; 2 Chron. ix. 22, 23.
f 1 Kings v. 7-12 ; 1 Chron. xxviii. 6. 11 ? &c. ; 2 Chron. ii. 11. 12.
| Matt. xii. 42 ; 1 Kings x. 1-13 ; 2 Chron. ix. 1-12,
i 1 Kings iv. 82.
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 71
which Dr. Arnot (of Edinburgh) with great happiness
of expression called
" Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth."
Verily, if these Proverbs of Solomon were hung up
and acted upon in the Senate House, the Chambers of
Commerce, the Stock Exchange, the social clubs and
homes of any nation, a millennial gladness would soon
dawn upon this old sin-stained earth. If young men,
for example, " read, marked, learned, and inwardly
digested" the first volume of Proverbs (chaps, i.-ix.),
and grasped how that " a man cannot take fire in his
bosom, and his clothes not be burned"; that " the
harlot s house is the way to hell, going down to the
chambers of death"; that "many strong men have
been slain by her" ; and that, while she saith to him,
" Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is
pleasant ; but he knoweth not that the dead are there ;
and that her guests are in the depths of hell " ; there
would be no need for purity addresses, initiating lads
often into those very vices which they denounce, and
stimulating, while forbidding, a feeding upon "the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Frankly, I
have little or no faith in lectures " to men only," but I
have absolute confidence in the moral safeguard pro
vided by God in the reading of the Books of Genesis,
Leviticus, Proverbs, and 1st Corinthians.
If the slothful man would but gaze over the broken-
down wall of his own soul s vineyard, and see, as the
lease of his life is fast running out, amid the thorns
and nettles there, " whose end is to be burned," God s
great signboard, " so shall thy poverty come as one
that travelleth ; and thy want as an armed man";*
* frov. xxiv. 30-34.
72 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
and if the drunkard and the glutton would read the
wonderful description and warning in the twenty-third
chapter of this Book of Proverbs, what an impetus
would be given to diligence and sobriety ! If the
truths, " Eighteousness exalteth a nation ; but sin is a
reproach to any people "; and " Remove not the old
landmark ; and enter not into the fields of the father
less," * formed the principles of our national and inter
national life, how speedily wars, "strikes," and class
conflicts would cease, and a true brotherhood cause
" the rich and poor (to) meet together, (since) the Lord
is the maker of them all." -j- But while " wisdom
crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the
coming in at the doors ; Unto you, men, I call ; and
my voice is to the sons of man " ; J yet men will have
their own way of folly and death, rather than God s
sure path of holiness and life. True, they may let the
words stand graven in stone on our great Royal
Exchange buildings : " The earth is the Lord s, and
the fulness thereof" ; but the inscription must remain
severely OUTSIDE ; and if some need not tremble at a
practical application, in its present-day syndicate rami
fications, of the pronouncement, " A false balance is
abomination to the Lord : but a just weight is His
delight," yet how many, even of our godliest men,
are suffering, simply because they never heeded, as the
command of God Himself, the warnings, " Wealth
gotten by vanity shall be diminished : but he that
gathereth by labour shall increase " ; "he that maketh
haste to be rich shall not be innocent " ; and " he that
is surety for a stranger shall smart for it : and he that
hateth suretyship is sure." Ay, men lose much by
being total abstainers from the practice, or even from
* Prov. xiv. 34 ; xxiii. 10. f Ibid. xxii. 2. | Ibid. viii. 3, 4.
$ Ibid. xi. 1. ! Ibid. xiii. 11 ; xxviii. 20; xi. 15,
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 73
the study of those " laws from Heaven" which would
make both our public and private life strong and pure,
prosperous and happy.
"The Tongue . . . a Fire."
Then look at the oft-repeated, almost pathetic
warnings against wordiness (from whence nine-tenths
of our social troubles come), peculiarly applicable to
this talking age: "in the multitude of words there
wanteth not sin." The man who incessantly gambles
with words must utter folly, and cause sorrow, how
ever amiable his intentions, for " death and life are in
the power of the tongue : and they that love it shall
eat the fruit thereof"; and "a whisperer separateth
chief friends"; but " where no wood is, there the fire
goeth out : so where there is no tale-bearer, the strife
ceaseth "; and " whoso keepeth his mouth and his
tongue keepeth his soul from troubles "; while a cheap
but unfashionable mode of winning fame is still open
to all of us, since " even a fool, when he holdeth his
peace, is counted wise : and he that shutteth his lips is
esteemed a man of understanding " ! But, alas ! few
heed the warning : " The beginning of strife is as when
one letteth out water "; or melt down their enemies
with burning deeds of love.*
I know two men, both believers ; one " can scarcely
ever find a Christian decently civil," while the other
"never meets anything but kindness from everybody."
Solomon explains the internal cause of these different
external effects : "A man that hath friends must show
himself friendly " ; * and we perceive that the former
::: Prov. x. 19; xviii. 21; xvi. 28; xxvi. 20; xxi. 23; xvii. 28;
xvii. 14; xxv. 21, 22.
f Ibid, xviii. 24.
74 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
man is not suffering "for conscience sake," but, rather,
on account of his own vile temper.
God s Condensed Wisdom.
How inimitable, instructive, faithful, and practical,
are such pithy Proverbs, culled well-nigh at random,
as the following: "A merry heart doeth good like a
medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones."*
" Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee : rebuke a
wise man, and he will love thee." t " He that passeth
by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is
like one that taketh a dog by the ears." * " Withdraw
thy foot from thy neighbour s house ; lest he be weary
of thee, and so hate thee." " The heart knoweth
his own bitterness ; and a stranger doth not inter
meddle w r ith his jo} T ." (Don t shovel in your tracts,
and talk pious platitudes, but just give a hearty hand
grip, a kindly smile, and pass on.) " The Lord
will . . . establish the border of the widow."*
(Was this contract ever yet broken?) "A man s gift
maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great
men." ** "Faithful are the wounds of a friend ; but
the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." ft "Whoso
despiseth the word shall be destroyed : but he that
feareth the commandment shall be rewarded." 1 1 "The
fear of man bringeth a snare : but whoso putteth his
trust in the Lord shall be safe." ^ " If a wise man
contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or
laugh, there is no rest." " A fool uttereth all his
mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards."* *
* Prov. xvii. 22. -| Ibid. ix. 8. i Ibid. xxvi. 17.
j Ibid. xxv. 17. Ibid. xiv. 10. Ibid. xv. 25.
* Ibid, xviii. 16. -j! Ibid, xxvii. 6. JJ Ibid. xiii. 18.
jj Ibid. xxix. 2", Ibid, xxix, 9, * " Ibid. xxix. 11,
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 75
" Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a
stalled ox and hatred therewith."* "He that hath
pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord ; and that
which he hath given will He pa} 7 him again." I " He
that covereth his sins shall not prosper : hut whoso
confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." *
"The Name of the Lord is a strong tower; the
righteous runneth into it, and is safe." " Answer
not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like
unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he
be wise in his own conceit." (A paradoxical faculty
which has rendered some men famous !) "In the
multitude of counsellors there is safety." r (A w r ord
for much-abused committees, since even the wisest
man did not believe in a committee of one ! But
such should be counsellors, not critics ; helpers, not
hinderers.) Then look at
" Our Home Life."
Some men thank God that they are " on the road"
or " evangelising " because " the contentions of a wife
are a continual dropping "; and "it is better to dwell
in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an
angry woman "; ** while others sweetly realise the best
of earthly blessings in the endorsement of the truth
that " a prudent wife is from the Lord "; ft and is it not
increasingly true that, among the many signs of the
last days, disobedience to parents t I is pre-eminently
characteristic of the twentieth century? For he is
hopelessly fossilised who even dares to quote the
* Prov. xv. 17. I Ibid. xix. 17. | Ibid, xxviii. 13.
Ibid, xviii. 10. j! Ibid. xxvi. 4, f>. Ibid. xi. 14.
Ibid. xix. 13 ; xxi. 19 ; xxvii. 15.
H Ibid, xix, 14. H 2 Tim. iii. 2.
7f> GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
proverb, " Spare the rod, and spoil the child "; and the
great, wise, loving God, who scourges His own beloved
children,* is practically voted in error for so doing by
the deliberate inaction of an unkind sentimentalism,
w r hich would rather risk a boy s damnation than
whip him ! *
Touching questions of personal experience and
sanctification, the Book of Proverbs contains many
passages that are always timely. " The thought of
foolishness is sin." "A just man falleth seven times,
and riseth up again : but the wicked shall fall into
mischief."* "Before honour is humility." "The
backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways"
(ay, even though these ways be those of holiness,
testimony, and Gospel services !) " and a good man
shall be satisfied from himself " (i.e., in God, in
Christ, the Word, the covenant). "He that trusteth
in his own heart is a fool," * therefore " keep thy heart
with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."**
(Another paradox ! Did Harvey first discover the
circulation of the blood ?) And to conclude with, " get
wisdom," for he exclaims, " I love them that love Me ;
and those that seek Me early shall find Me. Eiches
and honour are with Me ; yea, durable riches and
righteousness. . . . For whoso findeth Me findeth
life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that
sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul : all they
that hate Me love death." + *
* Heb. xii. 5-11.
I Prov. xiii. 24 ; xix. 18; xxii. 15 ; xxiii. 13, 14 ; xxix. 15, 17.
[ Prov. xxiv. 9, 16. Ibid, xviii. 12.
Ibid. xiv. 14. r Ibid, xxviii. 26. ::::: = Ibid. iv. 23.
if Ibid. viii. 17, 18, 35, 36. The arguments in favour of the
theory that " Wisdom " in the Proverbs points towards a Divine
Personality seem very strong in the light of a careful perusal of
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 77
Here, preacher, in this Volume, thou hast not only
" feathers for arrows," but verily the shafts themselves.
Hesitate not to draw, therefore, from this quiver full of
practical, up-to-date, common yet Divine sense ; for
Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom Himself did so, with
Paul the orthodox, and James the practical ; and in
the commerce of business, in lip and in heart, thou
wilt find that "every word of God is pure: He is a
shield unto them that put their trust in Him"; but,
above all, " Add thou not unto His words, lest He
reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." *
Immortality Satisfied alone in God.
Passing from the Chamber of Commerce and God s
" Laws from Heaven for life on earth," we not un
naturally find ourselves in the Sinner s Court of
Bankruptcy, + and listen to the solemn, thoughtful
i. 20-38 ; iii. 18-26 ; and especially viii. 30, 81, which verses in the
Revised Version read, " Then I was by Him, as a master work
man, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him ;
rejoicing in His habitable earth ; and My delight was with the
sons of men "; but whether this be so or not, it is evident that
Solomon speaks with an authority more than merely paternal in
such multiplied injunctions as " My son, keep my words, and lay
up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and
live ; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy
fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart" (vii. 1-8) ; " Bow
down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine
heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep
them within thee : they shall withal be fitted in thy lips. That
thy trust may be in the Lord I have made known to thee this day,
even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things in
counsels and knowledge that I might make thee know the
certainty of the words of truth ; that thou mightest answer the
words of truth to them that send unto thee ? " (xxii. 17-21).
-:: Prov. xxx. 5, 6. | Ecclesiastes.
78 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
judgment of the wisest of men concerning all earthly
delights and studies : " Vanity of vanities, saith the
Preacher . . . all is vanity " : * for Solomon, with a
practically unlimited power to gratify his every phase
of appetite, physical, mental, social, botanical, musical,
philosophical, and royal, remained, by virtue of the
very reason that his God-given wisdom would not
allow him to settle down to merely material or intel
lectual contentment, a dissatisfied man.
This God-breathed Book, denounced by many as the
morbid, sour utterances of an irreconcilable pessimist,
voices in reality the feelings of a soul of wonderful
capacity, who, having backslidden from grace, dis
covers the great world of natural and social life to be
too small to meet the hungry cravings of an immor
tality, which cannot be filled except by GOD ; and
those who have ever had dealings with the Eternal
must always find it so. Nothing " under the sim" can
satisfy ; and these three words crystallise and explain
the trend and argument of Ecclesiastes, being used
some twenty-eight times in the brief space of two
hundred and twenty-two verses. If the smile of God
be lost, then all else indeed, however beautiful and
winning, is (as reiterated thirty times) " vanity and
vexation of spirit " ; but with Him, all is golden and
joyous. We must grasp the position and experiences
of Solomon, when he wrote this Book, in order to
thoroughly appreciate its inspired revelation of how
everything " UNDER the sun " fails to please a heart
which has lost the radiancy of THE SUN HIMSELF, t
just as God s love-letter to backsliders, through the
prophet Hosea, can only be properly understood by
those who have, alas ! themselves been wanderers.
Yet is there also much rare charm of philosophic
::; Eccles. i. 2; xii. 8. | "The Lord God" (Psa. Ixxxiv. 11).
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 79
thought in Ecclesiastes. Again and again, the epi
grammatic, sentences ring truly upon the experience of
the heart and life ; avenues of deep thought, meta
physical and practical, are opened up ; and even a
sanctified sarcasm is harnessed for the glory of eternity
compared with time. Stern facts and powerful pathos
are strangely blended, while Shakespeare s much-
vaunted summary of the " seven stages of man " reads
coarse, unsympathetic, and commonplace beside the
most poetic and inimitable description of decay and
death ever given, as portrayed in the closing chapter.
The Song of tionys.
Nor is it accident * which causes " the song of
songs, which is Solomon s," t to immediately succeed
the great, wise, rich king s confession of heart-bank
ruptcy and earth-failure, since therein is splendidly
and tenderly set forth the full and overflowing joy of a
soul ravished with the love of God, and yearning ever
more and more for His companionship. Yet here
again, by their captious, flippant criticism, " fools
rush in where angels fear to tread." Even though
it be granted that the Song is fashioned as a highly-
dramatic poem, surely English, American, and German
egotism does not demand that all the Bible should be
cast in the mould of cold, prosaic, Western, Anglo-
Saxon, and Teutonic thought, and none of it appeal to
the rich imagery of the Eastern and Asiatic mind?
;: We fully accept the theory, so ably expounded and main
tained by the late Dr. Bernard (in his Bampton Lectures), that
the Lord God, in His infinite wisdom, so overruled the present
order of the Holy Scriptures that His revelation of grace and
truth should, in its progressive teaching, appeal by their very
arrangement, in the most fitting and powerful way, to our sym
pathies and faculties alike. t Ibid. i. 1.
80 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
That the Lord has taken the most secret and sacred
of all human relationships, surpassing even those of
father, mother, brother, friend, as a type of the love
and union existing between Christ and His Church,*
cannot certainly be questioned by those who believe
the record of the opening scene of earth s great drama
and the crowning prediction of its joyous closed
After all, modern condemnation of the Canticles is
largely the outcome of a mere veneering of sanctity,
which scarcely conceals the sensual feelings of the
critics who read out of the Book what they themselves
have first read into it; the evil being, not on the page,
but in the eye, since the coloured spectacles of our
diseased and fallen vision make vicious what God
made holy, and men, alas! carry their own atmosphere
of sin into experiences which were otherwise honour
able and undefiled.*
I boldly test the matter by this simple challenge : Is
there a single sentence in the Song which a true hus
band and faithful wife might not read together under
the very scrutiny of the all-pure God ? And is it not
a fact that the very saintliest of Christ s elect and holy
servants, such as Rutherford, Gill, McCheyne, C. H.
Spurgeon, Frances Ridley Havergal, and Sir Edward
Denny, culled their sweetest expositions of heavenly
joy from this Book, which the ancient Jews them
selves called "The Holy of Holies" of the Old Testa
ment Scriptures? The purest-minded preachers of
all generations have lived much in this " song of
songs," quotations from which have formed their
expressions of love, suppressions of self, confessions of
backsliding, and impressions of "The Beloved. "
The eternal and enduring nature of Divine Love, the
* Eph. v. 22-33. i Gen. ii. 18, 21-25 ; Rev. xix. 7-9 ; xxi. 2.
t Heb. xiii. 4. 4 Cant. i. 2-6 ; v. 2-7, 10-16.
BOOKS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SONG 81
delights of exquisite communion, the lovely yearning
of the spouse for her absent but returning Lord ; *
these thoughts so rilled the holy Samuel Eutherford
that all his letters are perfumed still by a breath from
the garden of spices ; I and Mrs. Cousin s beautiful
paraphrase grows daily dearer to the hearts of
millions :
Oh, Christ He is the fountain,
The deep, sweet well of love !
The streams on earth I ve tasted,
More deep I ll drink above :
There, to an ocean fulness,
His mercy doth expand ;
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Immanuel s land.
Oh ! I am my Beloved s,
And my Beloved s mine !
He brings a poor vile sinner
Into His house of wine.
I stand upon His merit
I know no other stand
Not e en where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel s land.
The bride eyes not her garments,
But her dear Bridegroom s face ;
I will not gaze at glory,
But on my King of grace ;
Not at the crown He gifteth,
But on His pierced hand :
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Immanuel s land."
Ay, and even here on earth, the most delicious and
yet solemn moments at the Lord s supper, when we
are " brought to the banqueting house, and His banner
* Cant. viii. 5-7 ; ii. 16, 17 ; iv. 6, 7 ; vi, 2, 3 ; viii. 14.
t Ibid. iv. 12-16.
82 GOD S WITNESS TO HTS WORD
over us is love," discover their doxologies in this "song
of songs" ; and the favourite inscription in our moss-
grown cemeteries echoes on our weary, lonely hearts
this joy-note, "Until the day break, and the shadows
flee away";* while the last verse of the Song is in
perfect harmony with the closing prayer in the
Apocalypse as the Bride sighs urgently, " Even so,
come, Lord Jesus; come quickly." t Thus, pure,
tender-hearted humanity has, in its sweetest, and its
saddest experiences endorsed the Book ; but, above all,
Christ Himself held Ecclesiastes and the Canticles in
the Septuagint Canon, concerning which He, the
Lord of life and glory, said, " The Scripture cannot be
broken," while that great Hebrew scholar, Paul,
enjoined the youthful Timothy to read these words
among "the Holy Scriptures" which were able to
make him "wise unto salvation through faith which
is in Christ Jesus." I
::: Cant. ii. 3-6, 17. | Ibid. viii. 14 ; Rev. xxii. 17, 20.
J John x. 35 ; 2 Tim. iii. 15.
THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS
Isaiah "Hear . . . for the Lord hath spoken."
THE writings of the major and the minor * prophets
contain more definite affirmations of Verbal Inspiration
than even the Pentateuch does. Indeed, from Isaiah
to Malachi, there are, on an average, five references
in each chapter to " the word of the Lord came,"
"Thus saith the Lord," and similar claims of Divine
authority; and if such verses were withdrawn,, the
whole structure of the Prophetical Scriptures would
fall helplessly to pieces.
The Book of Isaiah commences: "The vision of
Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O
heavens, and give ear, earth : for the Lord hath
spoken "; f and five more assertions of Jehovah s
authorship are found in his first chapter, while ten
occur in the last chapter alone. |
The solemn surroundings of the prophet s ordination
:;; I use these terms merely to dismiss them, for when God
speaks there can be neither "major" nor "minor" prophets.
True, the men may vary, but His revelation through each is
supreme, and Zechariah is therefore as important and authorita
tive as Jeremiah, or Malachi as Ezekiel.
t Isa. i. 1, 2.
I Ibid., i. 10, 11, 18, 20, 24 ; Ixvi. 1, 2, 5, 9, 12, 17, 20-23.
84 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
service, when the Lord said to him, " Go, and tell this
people";* the frequent repetition of the suggestive
phrase, "the burden of Babylon," Moab, Damascus,
Egypt, &c. ; + involving the conception of a man
weighted down with a God-given message, and in
tearful, awful haste to deliver his soul of it ; and the
emphatic denunciation of Spiritualism (a much-needed
warning for the present day), "And when they shall
say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar
spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter :
should not a people seek unto their God ? for the
living to the dead ? To the law and to the testimony :
if they speak not according to this word, it is because
there is no light in them " ; * all combine to show
that Isaiah occupied a position of authority in no way
inferior to that of Moses or Samuel.
Jeremiah "My words in thy mouth."
The parallelism is even more clearly marked in the
case of Jeremiah, to whom "the word of the Lord
came, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew
thee ; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb,
I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto
the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God ! behold, I
cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said
unto me, Say not, I am a child : for thou shalt go to
all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command
thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces :
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my
mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have
put My words in thy mouth." The Lord is de-
Isa. vi. 7-10. f Ibid. xiii. 1 ; xv. 1 ; xvii. 1 ; xix. 1.
I Ibid. viii. 19, 20. Jer. i. 4-9,
THE PKOPHETICAL BOOKS 85
scribed as speaking to His chosen servant ten times
in this very chapter ; * and almost every subsequent
one is prefaced by the declaration, " the word of the
Lord came unto me, saying"; t besides being inter
spersed with many a " Thus saith the Lord " ; I and
in Jehovah s terrible denunciation of those who
prophesy smooth things in His name, whom He hath
not sent, and in their coming doom, we find the Lord
God s own contrast between the false and the faithful
messages, " The prophet that hath a dream, let him
tell a dream; and he that hath My word, let him speak
My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat ?
saith the Lord. Is not My word like as a fire ? saith
the Lord ; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock
to pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the
prophets, saith the Lord, that steal My words every
one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the
prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and
say, He saith."
Ezekiel " The Spirit of the Lord . . . said unto
me, Speak."
Concerning Ezekiel the prophet, who, in obedience
to the Divine command, ate the roll given him of God,
" written within and without " fit emblem of how
the man and his message become incorporated the
very definite statement is made, " The word of the
Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son
of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river
Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon
* Jer. i. 2, 4, 7-9, 11-14, 19.
I Ibid. ii. 1 ; vii. 1 ; x. 1 ; xi. 1 ; xiv. 1 ; xv. 1 ; xvi. 1, &c.
I Ibid. ii. 2, 5, 9, 12, 19, 22, 29, &c.
j Ibid, xxiii. 28-31. || Ezek. ii. 9, 10; iii. 1, 2.
86 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
him";* "and He said unto me, Son of man, stand
upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And
the Spirit entered into me when He spake unto
me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard Him that
spake unto me. And he said unto me, Son of man, I
send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation
that hath rebelled against Me : they and their fathers
have transgressed against Me, even unto this very day.
For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do
send thee untp them, and thou shalt say unto them,
Thus saith the Lord God. And they, whether they
will hear, or whether they will forbear (for they are a
rebellious house), yet shall know that there hath been
a prophet among them. . . . And thou shalt speak My
words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether
they will forbear : for they are most rebellious " ; t
and the Book of Ezekiel, like Exodus, Leviticus, and
Jeremiah, abounds with "The word of the Lord
eame unto me"; t and in a very emphatic way the
absolute guidance of the Holy Spirit is asserted, " The
Spirit entered into me," " the Spirit lifted me up,"
" the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said unto me,
Speak; Thus saith the Lord; Thus have ye said,
house of Israel : for I know the things that come into
your mind, every one of them."
About two hundred references to supernatural speech
and intervention occur in Ezekiel s mysterious expe
riences and prophecy, and it is absolutely impossible
for any fair-minded critic to do otherwise than
denounce Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel as lying
prophets, if he believes their statements, reiterated
* Ezek. i. 3. f Ibid. ii. 1-5, 7.
I Ibid. vi. 1 ; vii. 1 ; xi. 14 ; xii. 1 ; xiii. 1 ; xiv. 2 ; xv. 1 ; xvi. 1 ;
xvii. 1 ; xviii. 1, &c.
j Ibid. ii. 2 ; iii. 12, 14, 24 ; xi 1, 5, 24 ; xxxvii. 1,
THE PEOPHETICAL BOOKS 87
again and again, to be erroneous and unfounded, since
these men unreservedly claim to have been the mouth
pieces of Almighty God, and stand or fall by the truth
or falsehood of this tremendous assertion.
Daniel s Predictions in words Jie understood not
demand Verbal Inspiration.
Daniel to whom " God gave understanding in all
visions and dreams";* and who " understood by books
the number of the years, whereof the word of the
Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would
accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jeru
salem " ; * and who, in his remarkable confession,
said, God " hath confirmed His icords, which He
spake against us, and against our judges that judged
us, by bringing upon us a great evil : for under the
whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done
upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses,
all this evil is come upon us : yet made we not our
prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn
from our iniquities, and understand Thy truth " ; * and
who was shown "that which is noted in the Scripture
of truth " ; cannot have the Inspiration of his
prophecies questioned by any believer who humbly
accepts the supreme and authoritative endorsement of
our Lord and Saviour, " When ye therefore shall see
the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let
him understand)." That the devil would fain, by all
or any means, overthrow Daniel s testimony, we
readily believe, since the rise and fall of antichrist, the
" resurrection both of the just and of the unjust," and
:;: Dan. i. 17 ; ii. 19, 28 ; ix. 22, 23 ; x. 14. j Ibid. ix. 2.
; Ibid. ix. 12, 13. Ibid. x. 21. Matt. xxiv. 15.
88 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
the triumph of Messiah on the cross and in the glory
are predicted in an unmistakable manner ; * while the
strangest and strongest evidence of his Verbal Inspira
tion lies in the fact that even this " man greatly
beloved" was completely mystified and puzzled even
to weariness and fainting by his successive visions,
the meaning and trend of which he but imperfectly
grasped and sometimes utterly failed to understand.
"And I heard, but I understood not : then said I,
my Lord, what shall be the end of these things ? and
He said, Go thy way, Daniel : for the words are closed
up and sealed up till the time of the end." *
Now that, under certain circumstances, it might be
possible for a man of supreme intelligence and particu
larly retentive memory, to pass on, in an absolutely
correct wording, such revelations as were given to him
by God if he himself clearly apprehended their mean
ing, we do not deny ; but that even a prophet could
accurately predict future events, of which he stood
confessedly ignorant, and which were utterly incom
prehensible to him in many details, must be a sheer
impossibility, except on the ground of a thorough-going
and complete Verbal Inspiration. Human wisdom
might, possibly, pass on occasionally the mind and will
of God unsullied, but it is utterly incredible that
human ignorance could be the medium of such a
revelation. Men only think in words; and, surely,
w r hat they cannot understand, it is impossible for them
to convey in language of intelligence to others.
How could David and Isaiah, for example, by any
other possible theory of Inspiration, depict the
mysterious sufferings of our Lord and Saviour, and
* Dan. vii. 25-27 ; viii. 23-25 ; xi. ; xii. 2. 3 ; ix. 26 ; vii. 13, 14.
> Ibid. vii. 28 ; viii. 27 : xii. 8, 9.
THE PEOPHETICAL BOOKS 89
the glory that should follow ; yea, record even the very
utterances and anguish of the great Sufferer Himself ?
Think you that it was ever left to them to fill in the
details of the tragic scene on Calvary in language of
their own choice and pleasure ? And following out
this same principle and line of argument, we find that,
whether looking backwards into the mysterious past, as
Moses did when unfolding the creation of the world,
or Jude in alluding to the disputation re the body of
Moses ; * or forwards towards the unknown future,
like Isaiah or Daniel ; f or inwards to the great secrets
of the heart of God or man ; \ or aroundwards to the
passing circumstances and incidents of national and
social life, like Joshua and Elijah ; or upwards to the
glories of a reigning Christ and an opened heaven, like
Zechariah and John ; ,i or downwards to the details of
an anguished hell, like Isaiah and Peter ; II there is a
Divine needs-be, and absolute sine qua non for un
sullied Verbal Inspiration.
Prophets Bevealers of God s Will, but not Neces
sarily Foretellers of it.
At this stage, it seems appropriate and needful to
give a clear and Scriptural definition of the term
"prophet," which rather means a revealer of the
message, thoughts, and will of God, than a mere
predictor of future events, although the latter function
naturally, and perhaps necessarily, constitutes to us
the most striking, if not the most important, item of
such testimony. Thus, for example, the ministry of
* Gen. i. ; Jude 9. I Isa. xxv. 8 ; Dan. vii. 21, 22.
\ Gen. viii. 21 ; 1 Sam. xvi. 1.
Josh, vi., vii. ; 1 Kings xvii., xviii.
|| Zech. xiv.; Rev. iv., v., vii., xxi. r Isa. Ixvi. 24; 2 Peter ii.
90 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
prophets like Samuel and Jeremiah had almost
exclusively a local significance ; its particular and
definite character dealing with Israel s relationship to
and wandering from Jehovah, and His emphatic warn
ings and love messages to that elect people, while
Moses and Haggai (though also foretellers of coming
sorrows and glories), Nathan and Elisha, were simply
God s mouthpieces to declare His heart and will in
different experiences of national and private life. *
Thus also we find the New Testament prophet defined
as one who " speaketh unto men to edification, and
exhortation, and comfort ; f and in so doing conveys
a direct and supernatural message from God Himself."
"If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by,
let the first hold his peace " ; I and again we read,
concerning " the mystery of Christ which in other ages
was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now
revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit."
Under such definite guidance, Barnabas and Sau
;: Exod. xiv. 1 ; Numb. xvii. 1 ; Lev. xxiii. 1 ; Deut. viii. 1 ; &c.
Hag. i., ii. 1-5 : 2 Sam. xii. 1-7 ; 2 Kings iii. 14-18 ; vi. 12.
I We need scarcely point out that there are no such prophets,
any more than apostles, nowadays ; nor are they needed, since
then the New Testament Scriptures were unwritten, but now we
have the fullest and clearest revelation of God s will therein. The
foolish and illogical conclusion that, because prophets spake " to
edification, and exhortation, and comfort," therefore those who
speak " to edification, and exhortation, and comfort," are prophets,
need only be thrown into a syllogistic form to reveal its absurdity.
For example
All Englishmen are noble and handsome.
These men are noble and handsome,
Therefore, these men are Englishmen !
, 1 Cor. xiv. 30. j Eph. iii. 5 ; see also ii. 20 and iv. 11.
THE PKOPHETICAL BOOKS 91
were appointed to Evangelistic and Missionary work ;
and at Antioch, Judas and Silas " exhorted the
brethren with many words, and confirmed them " ;
while, on the other hand, Agabus (no doubt a teacher
as well) predicted future events, such as famine and
Paul s imprisonment. * In short, in pre- and post-
Pentecostal days alike, holy men of God spake as they
were BOKNE ONWABD by the Holy Ghost" ; f and even
unwilling Balaam, ignorant Saul, and unwitting
Caiaphas, enemies of the truth, were compelled to utter
words, the substance of which they did not compre
hend, or, understanding, would fain never have
proclaimed. *
A Cloud of Witnesses to whom " the Word of the
Lord came."
As regards the other Old Testament prophets, their
claim to supernatural Inspiration is easily established,
since we find it written : " The word of the Lord came
unto Hosea " ; "The word of the Lord came to
Joel"; "The words of Amos . . . Thus saith the
Lord";^i "The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the
Lord God";** " Now the word of the Lord came unto
Jonah"; ft " The word of the Lord came to Micah " ; t +
" The book of the vision of Nahum. . . . Thus saith
the Lord"; "The burden which Habakkuk the
prophet did see. . . . And the Lord answered me, and
said, Write the vision"; "The word of the Lord came
* Acts xiii. 1, 2 ; xv. 32 ; xi. 28 ; xxi. 11. | 2 Pet. i. 21.
J Numb. xxii. 20, 85 ; xxiii. 12, 26 ; xxiv. 13, 16 ; 1 Sam. x. 10 ;
xix. 23 ; John xi. 49-52.
$ Hos. i. 1. l| Joel i. 1. *i Amos i. 1, 3, 6, 9, 11.
** Obad. i. 1. H Jonah i. 1. JJ Mic. i. 1.
Nah. i. 1. 12; ii. 13. |||| Hab. i. 1 ; ii. 2.
92 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
unto Zephaniah " ; * "In the first day of the month,
came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet.
. . . Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying; " + " In
the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord
unto Zechariah " ; * " And the word of the Lord came
unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of
hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy
and compassions every man to his brother : and
oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger,
nor the poor ; and let none of you imagine evil against
his brother in your heart. But they refused to
hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped
their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made
their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear
the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath
sent in His Spirit by the former prophets : therefore
came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts ; " and,
finally, "The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel
by Malachi " ; this closing Book of the Old Testament
Scriptures repeating no less than twenty-four times in
fifty-five verses the majestic clarion utterance, which
occurs also forty-nine times in Zechariah, " Thus saith
the Lord of hosts," ending nearly twelve hundred
similar claims in the Prophetical Books, and about
two thousand in the Old Testament Scriptures, that
such writings are verily and indeed the actual words
of the living God, as the Jewish philosopher Philo puts
it, " Oracles having an unction from God " ; or as
Josephus says, " According to Inspiration which comes
from God."
* Zeph. i. 1. ! Hag. i. 1, 2. t Zech. i. 1.
i Ibid. vii. 8-12. Mai. i. 1.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS
The Ministry of the Holy Ghost.
I ALMOST tremble as we pass on from the holy place
of the Old Testament Scriptures into the holy of holies
of those New Testament writings which narrate the
stupendous facts connected with the incarnation,
baptism, ministry, teaching, crucifixion, burial, resur
rection, and ascension of our Divine Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. The very groundwork of the Gospels,
which record His life and death, and furnish us with
the actual utterances of our beloved Eedeemer, is
sacred; and we can scarcely conceive of any "who
profess and call themselves Christians," questioning
the authority of these narratives, and doubting the
freedom from errorism and defect of our Lord s own
words.
If the report of His sayings and addresses be not
verbally inspired, then we have no assurance of
infallibility, no security against error, no guarantee of
Divine authority, no pledge of accuracy ; and Christ s
Sermon on the Mount, and the farewell discourse to
His apostles in the upper room are merely haphazard,
broken, and therefore worthless recitals of what He
may have said on these momentous occasions ; in
short, we have lost everything which tells for certainty
in the Christian revelation, and therefore for strength
93
94 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
in service, purity in life, comfort in sorrow, or hope in
death. Thus the question is necessarily an all-
important and vital one : Did Christ affirm for Himself
and His apostles Verbal Inspiration, and do the New
Testament Scriptures claim this ? Our answer is :
Yes, since both speeches and writings are under the
guidance and teaching of the Holy Ghost.
And here at once we are confronted by a tremen
dous mystery. The revelation and preservation of the
Gospels and Epistles is, in itself, a miracle as great as
the incarnation of our adorable Lord ; and quite as
solemnly affirmed, and just as true. If ever human
utterances are to be relied upon, surely it must be
when, under the shadow of death, and upon the thres
hold of the great Eternity, " Good-byes " are said, and
pledges given ; and here, as " God manifest in the
flesh " is facing Gethsemane and Calvary, what is the
comfort wherewith He consoles His broken-hearted
disciples? "I tell you the truth; it is expedient for
you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send
Him unto you." * In fact, granting for a moment
that John s narrative was but a broken memory of this
pathetic farewell scene, yet is the great argument clear
and lucid to the most superficial reader as it bulked
strangely before the puzzled, saddened minds of the
eleven, " Another Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost." "The Spirit of truth will come. He will
take My place, and more than compensate for My
absence. I will go back to God, and He, whom the
Father will send in My Name, will come to you, to
cast light upon the backward track, as regards all My
words and actions, and to bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you ; to
- John xvi. 7.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 95
teach you more and more concerning Myself and truth,
since He shall testify of Me, and explain the strange,
clouded mysteries of the unknown to-morrow, for He
will shew you things to come.
The emphatic declaration of our Divine Saviour on
this point is heyond all controversy if words have any
meaning, and the pledges of the Son of God are worthy
in their guarantee : " The Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name,
He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
"When the Comforter is come, whom I will send
unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth,
which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify
of Me." " When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He
will guide you into all truth : for He shall not speak of
Himself ; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He
speak : and He will shew you things to come. He
shall glorify Me : for He shall receive of Mine, and
shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father
hath are Mine : therefore said I, that He shall take of
Mine, and shall shew it unto you." *
This strong, God-like declaration, then, solves such
childish difficulties as How could the disciples re
member Christ s addresses, or detail the sweet but
secret confidences of those interviews He had with
sinners? They did NOT recall them, nor could they;
but the Holy Ghost did; and so, whether it was
Matthew reciting the Sermon on the Mount, and re
cording miracles and parables ; t or Mark detailing our
Lord s Exposition of Eschatology ; t or Luke narrating
the incidents of the sinful woman and of the prodigal
son ; or John reporting the Saviour s private con-
* John xiv. 26 ; xv. 26 ; xvi, 13-15. | Matt, v.-vii. ; viii. ; ix. ; xiii.
J Mark xiii. Luke vii. 37-50; xv. 11-32.
96 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
versations with Rabbi Nicodemus and the woman at
Sychar s well, and the Paschal Sermon ;* Matthew,
barrel-pen ; Mark, sharp quill ; Luke, fine steel nib ;
and John, golden one ; alike record what the Divine
Hand holding them wrote ; or changing the illustration,
the four full-length portraits of our Lord as the King of
the House of David, the obedient Servant, the Son of
man, and the Son of God, were sketched on different
canvases, from different aspects, w r ith varied touches,
yet all were equally inspired by the same great Master
mind behind them ; the Holy Ghost, the Remembrancer
of forgotten incidents, misunderstood speeches, mysterious
parables, and social conversations being Himself the
Biographer of these many-sided memoirs of Our
Lord.
The Dispensation of the Spirit.
But, further, we find in the Acts of the Apostles, the
last Historical Book of what Mr. Archibald Brown
happily terms " The New Testament Pentateuch,"
that the dispensation of the Holy Ghost is ushered in,
and God the Spirit, in a unique and special manner
such as had never occurred previously, came down on
earth at Pentecost to Himself directly regulate, legis
late, and control the details of church life and evange
listic effort. It is impossible to read " The Acts "
even in a superficial way, without being struck by
the tremendous fact that "the Spirit of truth" is
everywhere prominent as the Maker of history, the
Revealer of truth, the Director of ceremonies, and the
Superintendent of the church and individual life.
From the memorable day when the apostles " were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with
:;: John iii., iv., xiv.-xvi,
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 97
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance,"
resulting as it did in the conversion and baptism of
three thousand believers, until the aged and beloved
John penned the last soothing words of the Comforter :
" The Spirit and the bride say, Come " ; * the writers
distinctly affirmed for their utterances, decisions, and
writings, the definite guidance and inspiration of the
Holy Ghost.
Thus, for example, Peter boldly claims the Spirit s
power in preaching at Pentecost, and equally in the
solemn judgment of Ananias and Sapphira ; the per
secuted street-preachers at Jerusalem assert, " And we
are His witnesses of these things ; and so is also the
Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that
obey Him " ; while the church at Antioch set apart
Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto the Holy
Ghost had called them : the decision of the apostles,
elders, and brethren, sending greeting unto the Gen
tiles, affirms as authoritative, " it seemed good to the
Holy Ghost, and to us " ; and in his farewell charge
at Miletus, Paul says to the Ephesian elders, " Take
heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock
over which the Holy Ghost hath made you over
seers "; * and, again, Philip, conducting a great
revival movement, is suddenly bidden to "go toward
the South unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem
unto Gaza, which is desert; "a certain disciple,
named Ananias," with trembling heart, is sent to " lay
hands " on Saul the persecutor ; (a layman to ordain an
apostle !) Peter is directed, sorely against his Jewish
prejudices, to visit the household of Cornelius ; Paul
is sent forth by the Holy Ghost unto Seleucia, and is
distinctly " forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the
* Acts ii. 4, 41 ; Rev. xxii. 17.
| Acts ii. 17 ; v. 3-9 ; iv. 31 ; v. 32 ; xiii. 2 ; xv. 23, 28 ; xx. 28.
8
98 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
Word in Asia " ; and though he and Silas " essayed to
go into Bithynia," " the Spirit suffered them not " ;
while the Lord spake to Paul, " in the night by a
vision," commanding him to remain, fearless of all
consequences, at Corinth, "for I have much people in
this city." *
Then note how the Lord checks lying, hinders quar-
rellings, strangles Simony, overturns antagonisms, heals
diseases, works miracles, raises the dead, shakes down
prisons, slays kings, delivers from storms at sea and
vipers by land, + and, above all, again and again, in a
marked and supernatural way, fills converts at the
moment of their conversion, believers on the occasion
of their baptism, wearied and harassed disciples in
danger of their lives, preachers at the time of their
acceptance or rejection, and martyrs in the last minutes
of their death-agony, with the joy and courage, the
peace and power of the Holy Ghost, I while the
pledged prophecies of our Lord concerning special,
immediate, and Verbal Inspiration for His disciples,
in days of persecution before earthly tribunals find
* Acts viii. 26, 29, 39 ; ix. 10-18; x. 19, 20; xi. 12 ; xiii. 4; xvi.
6, 7 ; xviii. 9, 10.
f Ibid. iii. 6, 12, 13 ; iv. 10, 29 ; v. 9, 39 ; vi. 1, 7 ; viii. 18, 24 ;
ix. 34, 40 ; xii. 7-10, 23 ; xiv. 8-10, 20 ; xvi. 26 ; xvii. 22, 44 ;
xix. 12 ; xx. 9-12 ; xxviii. 5, 9.
I Ibid. ii. 4 ; iv. 8, 31 ; vii. 55 ; ix. 17, 18 ; x. 44-48 ; xi. 15, 24 ;
xiii. 52 ; xix. 6.
j " But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or
what ye shall speak ; for it shall be given you in that same hour
what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of
your Father which speaketh in you " (Matt. x. 19, 20). " But
when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought
beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate : but
whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye, for it is
not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost" (Mark xiii. 11). "And
when they bring you into the synagogues, and unto magistrates,
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 99
such wonderful fulfilment in the defences of Paul, the
dying oration of Stephen, and the intensely courageous
speeches of Peter, that all who hear them are impressed
by an overwhelming conviction of more than merely
human power : " Now when they saw the boldness of
Peter and John, and perceived that they were un
learned and ignorant men, they marvelled ; and they
took knowledge of them, that they had been with
Jesus." *
" Words which the Holy Ghost Teacheth."
Let us, however, carry the argument a little further,
and observe the extraordinary claims, made by the
great apostle to the Gentiles, to this selfsame super
natural revelation. Paul, while defining himself as
" less than the least of all saints," yet magnified his
office lest the Divine message, through him, a God-
ordained (not man-made) apostle, should be neglected
or despised,! and in the second chapter of his first
Epistle to the Corinthians, distinctly and unreservedly
asserts that without " the Spirit of God " man can
know nothing, reveal nothing, teach nothing ; that,
in brief, the natural cannot apprehend the spiritual,
and powers, take ye no thought how or what ye shall answer, or
what ye shall say ; for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same
hour what ye ought to say " (Luke xii. 11, 12). " Settle it there
fore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer :
for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries
shall not be able to gainsay nor resist " (Luke xxi. 14, 15) ;
promises remarkably verified, not only in Apostolic days,
but also in Reformation times, and in the history of foreign
missions.
:;; Acts iv. 13.
f Eph. iii. 8 ; Rom. xi. 13 ; 1 Cor. xv. 9 ; Horn. i. 1 ; 2 Cor. xi. 5 ;
xii. 11, 12 ; Gal. i. 1 ; Col. i. 1 ; &c.
100 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
nor man s wisdom search " the deep things of
God," for " they are foolishness unto him." We
make no apology for quoting this passage in
extenso, since it is truly one of the deepest and yet
clearest, most philosophic and yet simple, in the Holy
Scriptures : " But as it is written, Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea,
the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the
things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him ?
even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit
of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also w r e speak, not in the words which
man s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth ; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him :
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things,
yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct
Him? But we have the mind of Christ.* Here we
have the unpalatable but obvious truism insisted upon,
that while " the spirit of man " can know " the things
of a man," and " the spirit of the world " " the things
of the world," only " the Spirit of God " can know
"the things of God." Nor is the apostle content
merely to deal with generalities, but affirms a definite
and unqualified theory of Inspiration : We speak, not
in the words which man s wisdom teacheth, but which
1 Cor. ii. 9-16.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 101
the Holy Ghost teacheth " ; not alone the thoughts,
but their expression in speech ; not alone the ideas, but
the words are God s, for " we have the mind of Christ."
Surely, a more thorough-going claim for Verbal Inspi
ration was never written ; and it was dictated, as we
believe, by the thinkings of the Holy Ghost Himself
(the Author of all Revelation), in words through the
mind of the apostle.*
No Further Eevelation.
May I here, however, most courteously add a word of
caution? Even the apostles and prophets of the New
Testament dispensation ! were not in themselves in
spired, save as the} 7 were God s representatives. The
words of quarrel between Paul and Barnabas stand
fortunately unrecorded, but Peter was manifestly
"trimming" at Antioch, and Paul appears to con
trovert all his previous convictions (strange example
of how many Scriptural heroes fell in their very
strongest point) by identifying himself with Judaistic
observances which he had so often condemned. * The
truth is, as we have already emphasised, not the men,
but their writings were inspired ; not their personal
actions, but their Holy Ghost deliverances ; and if this
were so then, how much more needful is the warning
now, since the canon of Scripture is closed, nor can
* While mortals may possibly (?) think without words, yet it is
evident that such thinkings can only be revealed through symbols
or language. Paul, when " caught up into paradise," had thinkings
which it was not possible for a man to utter," simply because
the words on earth could not convey and translate the things he
had heard ; human language broke down in attempting to describe
the glories of the third Heaven (2 Cor. xii. 1-4).
f Eph. iii. 5.
t Acts xv. 39; Gal. ii. 11-13; Acts xxi. 23-26.
102 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
man add to any more than diminish therefrom. *
There must be no recognition of ex cathedra pro
nouncements in the twentieth any more than in the
second century, whether they proceed from Darby,
Irving, Renan, or Dowie, ancient Popes, or "Friends"
with their "inward light," - mystics, Perfectionists,
faith-healers, Ritualists, or Spiritualists. "To the
law and to the testimony : if they speak not according
to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." I
To-day without the Holy Spirit, there can be no
power, no real conversions, no genuine revivals ;
nay, He must illumine the hearts and eyes of those
who gaze upon the sacred page ; but let it be clearty
emphasised that there will be no fresh revelation, no
amendment or improvement of or postscript to God s
Word, and truth, and Gospel, until the silence of the
centuries shall be broken, and He shall come " whose
right it is to reign." Meanwhile, on the lines of a
Divine right, " The Bible and the Bible alone is," must
be, and shall, by God s grace, remain, " the religion of
Protestants."
" Things to Come. "
Thus far we have traced the ministry of the Holy
Ghost, the Comforter, as God s Remembrancer, and
the Teacher of Christ s Church in its past and present
aspects. NOW T let us view our Lord s promise in its
third and future application : " He will shew you things
to come." Agabus " signified by the Spirit that there
should be great dearth throughout all the world : which
came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar; "and,
again, binding Paul with his own girdle, the same
prophet said, " Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the
:;: Rev. xxii. 18, 19. ! Isa. viii. 20.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 103
Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this
girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the
Gentiles ; " while Paul knew, by the same Witness,
" that bonds and afflictions " aw r aited him ; * but it is
pre-eminently in THE GEEAT PROPHETIC UTTERANCES
concerning (1) " the last days," (2) " abounding
iniquity," (3) the growth of false teachers with
" damnable heresies," (4) the rise and fall of " that
man of sin," (5) the second advent of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, (6) the Kesurrection of the blessed
dead, (7) the restoration of the Jews, and the ingather
ing of the heathen nations, (8) the judgment of the
ungodly, (9) the glories of Heaven, and the anguish of
" the lake of fire," (10) the new Heavens and new
earth, (11) the glory of that great city, the Holy
Jerusalem, and (12) the deathlessness, purity, service,
and fellowship of the eternal state, that the Holy
Spirit s teaching stands out paramount and unmistak
able. Man could not, dare not, pen the second chapter
of Second Thessalonians, the third chapter of Second
Peter, the Epistle of Jude, or, above all, blasphemously
write the fifteenth of First Corinthians, the fourth of
First Thessalonians, and the Book of " the Eevelation
of Jesus Christ." Our Lord gave and pledged the Holy
Ghost to do this, and He did it, so that, in the Gospels,
we have Him bringing " all things " concerning Jesus
to the Gospellers remembrance ; in the Acts and
Epistles, teaching and revealing to the apostles, and the
Church," all things " ; and in the prophetical chapters,
and the Apocalypse, unveiling " things to come," the
unknown to-morrow, with its wealth of wondrous
glory and its weight of endless shame. It is, therefore,
with hushed hearts and reverent faces that we read the
New Testament, since here we catch the actual
* Acts xi. 28; xxi. 11 ; xx. 23,
104 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
breathings and touch the very heart of God, the living
Holy Ghost.
Dogmatic Claims of the Gospellers.
But even outside and bej^oud the solemn and
emphatic assertion of the Holy Ghost ministry in the
authorship of the New Testament Scriptures, we find
the writers of the Gospels and Epistles claiming, not
only negatively, but positively by affirmation as well
as implication, a direct and supernatural authority.
MATTHEW most dogmatically states, some twenty- two
times, that certain incidents recorded in his history of
Christ were definite fulfilments of Old Testament
prophecy.* MARK commences his narrative by the
remarkable preface : " The beginning of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God ; as it is written in the
prophets." |- LUKE, as an eye-witness, claims "cer
tainty " and "perfect understanding of all things"
"Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth
in order a declaration of those things which are most
surely believed among us, even as they delivered them
unto us, which from the beginning were eye-witnesses,
and ministers of the AVord ; it seemed good to me also,
having had perfect understanding of all things from the
very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent
Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of
these things, wherein thou hast been instructed," +
makes seven distinct references to the Holy Ghost in
his first two chapters ; and again, in the Acts, resumes
the history where he left off in " the former treatise "
* Matt. i. 22; ii. 5, 15, 17, 23; iii. 3; iv. 14 ; viii. 17; xi. 10 ;
xii. 7, 17 ; xv. 7 ; xxi. 4, 13, 16, 42 ; xxvi. 24, 31, 54, 56 ; xxvii. 9, 35.
f Mark i. 1, 2. t L"fce i. 1-4,
i Ibid. i. 15, 35, 41, 67 ; ii. 25, 26. 27.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 105
" of all that Jesus began both to do and teach ; * while
JOHN S magnificent opening is on its very surface
Godlike and Divine : " In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
" And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." t
Altogether, the assertions of fulfilled prophecy,
quotations from and allusions to the Old Testament
Scriptures, in the New Testament Pentateuch, amount
to considerably more than one in each chapter ; and
the recitals of Christ s wonderful miracles and Divine
power force us up, however reluctantly, to the inevit
able conclusion that, if the evangelists and apostles
were not inspired men, these biographers were either
the victims of well-nigh indescribable delusions, or else
the perpetrators of the greatest fraud which was ever
palmed off upon the credulity of the human race, since
it is utterly impossible to entertain, for even a moment,
the absurd contention that they were really good men,
who loved and adored their earthly Leader so exceed
ingly as to cast round about Him the glamour of fiction
and the exaggeration of deceit ; but there is no shadowy
suggestion of hysteria, sentimentalism run riot, or un
balanced imagination in their writings. Calmly,
almost coldly, are miracles recorded, resurrection scenes
depicted, incidents in their Lord s life, and, above all,
the details of His tragic sufferings and death set down
in terse, prosaic language. If ever four men were
clear-headed and self-possessed, it was the quartette
who wrote the memoirs of the Saviour; and, un
questionably, their claim is not only to declare Divine
things, but to declare them after a Divine fashion ;
therefore, if the narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
* Acts i. 1. | John i. 1, 14.
106 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
and John be poetical, imaginative, exaggerated, they
were not inspired, and we have, in consequence, no
authentic biography of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Then look again at the strange, mysterious be
ginnings and endings of these Books, so unlike all
human memoirs, and ancient or modern historical
records. Matthew who, in his very first verse, " The
Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of
David, the Son of Abraham," * binds the Old and the
New Testaments together in a strong and tender
sympathy, commences with the birth of the Ba be Jesus,
and closes by leaving Him as the crucified but risen
Conqueror, issuing His marching orders unto eleven
men to evangelise the world ! Mark, in his opening
words, describes a baptized, tempted Preacher, who
was afterwards "received up into Heaven, and sat on
the right hand of God." Luke begins with an astound
ing account of angelic visitations to the households of
Zacharias and Mary, details the birth of " the prophet
of the Highest," and the miraculous conception of our
Lord ; and winds up with a Bible-reading, from the
Old Testament Scriptures, to two ignorant and down
cast men ! John starts with the profoundest words
ever penned : "In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God. All things were
made by Him ; and without Him was not any thing
made that was made. In Him was life ; and the life
was the light of men. And the light shineth in dark
ness ; and the darkness comprehended it not " ; t and
ends with a commonplace description of how seven
hungry fishermen were breakfasted one early Spring
morning ; while the Book of the Acts of the Apostles
commences with an ascending Jesus and a descending
* Matt. i. 1, | John i. 1-5,
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 107
Holy Ghost, and concludes with a picture of one aged,
lonely prisoner teaching Jew and Gentile " out of the
law of Moses, and out of the prophets." Truly, we may
well exclaim, as we compare these books with those
of human origin, " And is this after the manner of man,
Lord?"
Unique Claims and Dicta of the Lord Jesus.
Nor dare any mortal man, except indeed a blasphemer
of the first order, utter such authoritative dicta and
Divine claims as those which proceeded from the lips
of our Lord Jesus Christ, heralded in by John the
Baptist, who said, "For He whom God hath sent
speaketh the words of God : for God giveth not the
Spirit by measure unto Him;"* since He (Christ),
with a unique dogmatism in His teaching, professed to
speak such words as were given Him of the Father, to
expound "the mysteries of the Kingdom of God," to
narrow and yet to broaden the practical application of
the Mosaic law ; and, finally, having wrought miracles
of healing, and forgiven sins, to fulfil, in His own
person, predictions concerning the suffering Messiah,
was crucified because He said, " I am the Son of
God." f
Whereas, in the Old Testament Scriptures, we are
continually confronted with the statement, " God
said," " Thus saith the Lord," &c., in the Gospels, on
the other hand, we find Jesus Christ actually taking His
Father s place, and repeating no less than fourteen
times, in the Sermon on the Mount, the significant and
* John iii. 34.
I John viii. 28 ; xvii. B. Matt. xiii. 11 ; Luke viii. 10 ; Matt. v.
17, 44 ; xii. 1, 13. Luke xiii. 10, 17 ; Matt, viii., ix. ; xxvi. 54.
John xix. 28 ; v. 18 ; x. 33, 38 ; xix. 7.
108 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
decisive utterance as a settlement of all controversy,
" I SAY UNTO YOU " ; * a sentence repeated on fifty-two
occasions by our Lord, as recorded in Matthew alone,
and used some one hundred and thirteen times
altogether in the Gospels, with such prefaces as
"But," "Now," "Therefore," "Nevertheless,"
"Verily"; to say nothing of such phrases as " He
saith unto them," " He said unto him," &c., showing
that He, " God manifest in the flesh," "The Word"
had come down to earth, and spake with all the
authority and dignity of Jehovah, t Warnings of im
pending judgment are pronounced by Christ upon
" every one who heareth these sayings of Mine, and
doeth them not," " and whosoever shall be ashamed of
Me and of My words, while those who receive, keep,
and obey "My words are signalled out by Him for
distinguished blessing and particular favour. * Christ
argues from special incidents, quotations, phrases,
words, and even tenses, not only in the spirit of one
who holds the clearest and simplest theory of Verbal
Inspiration, but with a Divine dignity, as the Son of
God, which contrasts strangely with the captious
criticisms, petty trivialities, and shuffling formalism of
Sadducees, scribes, and Pharisees.
We quote a few passages, selected almost at random
from one Gospel, to show what weight and importance
our Lord attached, not only to His general teaching,
commandments, and ideas, but even to His words :
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My
- Matt. v. 18, 20, 2-2, 26, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44 ; vi. 2, 5, 16, 25, 29.
I 1 Tim. iii. 16; John i. 1, 14.
Matt. vii. 24-29 , Luke vi. 46-49 ; Mark viii. 38 ; John viii.
31 ; xvii. 8 ; xiv. 21- 24.
j Matt. xxii. 23-46 ; John x. 34-38 ; Matt. xxi. 42-46 ; Mark
vii. 1-13 ; Matt. vii. 29.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 109
word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath ever
lasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ;
but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God : and they
that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in
Himself ; so hath He given to the Son to have life in
Himself; and hath given Him authority to execute
judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.* " It is
the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing :
the loords that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life." t "He that is of God heareth God s
words : ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not
of God." * "And if any man hear My words, and
believe not, I judge him not : for I came not to judge
the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth
Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth
him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge
him in the last day. " Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words : and
My Father will love him, and We will come unto him,
and make Our abode with him." " If ye abide in Me,
and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you." *~ "I have given unto
them the ivords which Thou gavest Me ; and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came out
from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst
send Me."** As we read these utterances, with impul
sive but true-hearted Peter, we cannot help exclaiming,
" Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life " ; ft especially as, amid solemn predictions
concerning the second advent and " the end of the
:;: John v. 24-27. | Ibid. vi. 63. ; Ibid. viii. 47.
Ibid. xii. 47, 48. || Ibid. xiv. 23. Ibid. xv. 7.
** Ibid. xvii. 8. f| Ibid. vi. 68.
110 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
world," we catch the ringing, triumphant, clarion
sentence, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My
words shall not pass away " ; * and bow before Christ s
words, and power, and person, with a reverence
befitting puny mortals in the presence of the almighty
and all-conquering God.
Apostolic Utterances placed on the same level as
Christ s.
But this is not all, for Christ passed on His autho
rity, in the most definite and positive fashion, to His
apostles, placing them, as God s mouthpieces, upon an
exact level with Himself. To say nothing of the
promised Holy Ghost teaching already alluded to, we
find, again and again, such sentences as these, " Who
soever shall not receive you, nor hear your -words, when
ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust
of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the
day of judgment, than for that city." "He that
receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me
receiveth Him that sent Me." -f "He that heareth
you heareth Me ; and he that despiseth you despiseth
Me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that
sent Me." I " Kemember the word that I said unto
you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they
have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you ; if
they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.
" For I have given unto them the words which Thou
gavest Me; and they have received them, and have
known surely that I came out from Thee, and they
have believed that Thou didst send Me. ... As Thou
: Matt. xxiv. 35 ; Luke xxi. 33. f Matt. x. 14, 15, 40.
I Luke x. 16. j John xv. 20.
has sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent
ihem into the world. . . . Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me
through their word 1 ;* while our risen Lord s great
farewell commission to the eleven runs, " All power
(authority) is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach (disciple) all nations, bap
tizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world "; t
and Mark tells us, " So then after the Lord had spoken
unto them, He was received up into Heaven, and sat
on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and
preached everywhere, the Lord working with them,
and confirming the Word with signs following" \ the
inauguration of which power took place on the day of
Pentecost, as the descending promised Holy Ghost
ushered in His dispensation by a stupendous miracle of
Verbal Inspiration, when Peter and the rest of the
eleven " spake with other tongues as the Spirit gave
them utterance" and " every man heard them speak in
his own language." That the unlearned and ignorant
apostles preached in various dialects is evident from an
ordinary reading of the narrative ; but even if the
strained and fanciful interpretation of some were true,
that the miracle was wrought upon the ears of the
hearers rather than through the lips of the speakers,
it was no less a miracle ; indeed, rather more so,
touching, as it must then have done, a wider consti
tuency ; and to account for the first Pentecostal bless
ing under any other theory than that of Verbal
John xvii. 8, 18, 20. See also Mark vi. 11 ; Luke ix. 5 ; x. 11,
12, 16 ; John xiii. 20 ; xx. 21-23. | Matt, xxviii. 18-20.
I Mark xvi. 19, 20. See also Acts i. 1.
112 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
Inspiration, is manifestly impossible, any more than
to explain the subsequent address of Peter, filled with
the Holy Ghost," and Stephen s irresistible eloquence
by reason of " the wisdom of the spirit by which he
spake." *
Paul speaks " by the Word of the Lord."
In concluding this review of the claims of the New
Testament Books to supernatural authority, we would
present a few more positive affirmations of this fact
from the writers of these Scriptures. PAUL says,
" Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me,
which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you ; +
" For this cause also thank we God without ceasing,
because, when ye received the Word of God, which ye
heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but
as it is in truth, the Word of God, "which effectually
worketli also in you that believe " ; J and in giving
definite directions about marriage, " female headgear,"
the position and ministry of elders, brethren, and
women in the Church, the provision for the needs of
aged widows, and the Gospel ministry, the obligation
resting upon Christians to pray for kings, and all sorts
and conditions of men, he claims invariably to " have
the mind of Christ," and speaks in all things with an
authority co-equal with that of his Master : "If any
man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let
him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you
are the commandments of the Lord."
::: Acts ii. 1-18 ; iv. 8-13 ; vi. 10 ; vii. 55. ) 2 Cor. xiii. 3.
I 1 Thess. ii. 13. See also Rom. xv. 19; xvi. 25, 26; 2 Cor.
xi. 17 ; 1 Thess. iv. 8 ; 2 Thess. ii. 15 ; 2 Tim. i. 13.
5 1 Cor. xiv. 37. See also 1 Cor. vii. ; xi. 1-16 ; xiv. ; xvi. 1 ;
1 Tim. ii. ; iii. ; v.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 118
Besides, when alluding to special and particular
revelations received from God, and delivered by him
concerning the solemn, gladsome truths of the Gospel,
the mystery, the Lord s supper, the second coming,
and the resurrection of the body, the apostle inter
sperses such startling statements as these, " But I
certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was
preached of me is not after man. For I neither
received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by
the revelation of Jesus Christ " ; " If ye have heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given
me to you-ward : how that by revelation He made
known unto me the mystery ; (as I wrote afore in few
words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my
knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other
ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it
is now revealed unto His holy apostles, and prophets by
the Spirit" ; " For I have received of the Lord that
which also I delivered unto you " ; " For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received" ;
" For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord" ;*
and finally, when the time of his departure was at
hand, writing his LAST Epistle to Timothy, his beloved
son and lieutenant in the faith, he thus enjoins him,
" But continue thou in the things which thou hast
learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them ; and that from a child thou
hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is
in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the
man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto
* Gal. i. 11, 12 ; Eph. iii. 2-5 ; 1 Cor. xi. 23-26 ; xv. 3, 4, &c. ;
1 Thess. iv. 13, 18.
9
114 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
all good works" ;* and in the Epistle to the Hebrews
we find New Testament teaching put on even a higher
level than the word spoken by angels, or even by
Moses : " God, who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by
His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things,
by whom also He made the worlds";! "Therefore
we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things
which we have heard, lest at any time we should let
them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was
stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward ; how shall we
escape, if we neglect so great salvation ; which at the
first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was con
firmed unto us by them that heard Him ; God also
bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders,
and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost,
according to His own will ? " I
Peter "A more sure Word of Prophecy."
JAMES is not so emphatic as Paul ; yet he, too, in
his practical Epistle, speaks of "the Word of truth,"
"the engrafted Word, which is able to save your
:;: 2 Tim. iii. 14-17. Even assuming, what we are not by any
means prepared to admit, either from a Greek or English stand
point, that the Revised translation of this passage, " Every Scrip
ture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching," is more
accurate, yet the preceding verse, where Paul speaks of the " Holy
Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation,"
necessarily governs and determines the scope and meaning of the
following words ; and thus, whichever rendering be adopted, the
overwhelming argument for the Inspiration of the sacred writings
remains unimpaired.
f Heb. i. 1, 2.
I Ibid. ii. 1-4. See also Mark xvi. 20 ; Heb. x. 28, 29.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 115
souls," " doers of the Word " ; * but PETER, who, with
John his brother-fisherman, was even after Pentecost
" perceived to be unlearned and ignorant," t in the
most deliberate fashion, claims for the word of himself
and all the apostles, Paul especially, an authority just
as supreme and final as that of any Old Testament
prophet: "We have also a more sure Word of pro
phecy ; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts : knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any
private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost " ; I " Be
mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the
apostles of the Lord and Saviour"; "and account
that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation ; even
as our beloved brother Paul also according to the
wisdom given unto him hath written unto you : as also
in ALL his Epistles speaking in them of these things ;
in which are some things hard to be understood, which
they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do
also THE OTHER SCRIPTURES, unto their own destruc
tion"^ and JUDE exclaims, "But, beloved, remember
ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles
of our Lord Jesus Christ " (verse 17).
John " The Message which ice have heard of Him."
JOHN, in fellowship with his brother-apostles, affirms
" That which we have seen and heard declare we unto
you. . . . This then is the message which we have
* Jas. i. 18, 21, 22. f Acts iv. 13. J 2 Pet. i. 19-21,
Ibid. iii. 2, 15, 16. See also 1 Pet. i. 10-12, 25,
116 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
heard of Him, and declare unto you";* using the
phrase "we know," or "ye know," thirty-nine times
in the 105 verses of his first Epistle ; while the preface
to that strangely sweet yet mysterious Book of the
Apocalypse runs, " The Revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants
things which must shortly come to pass ; and He sent
and signified it by His angel unto His servant John :
w y ho bare record of the Word of God, and of the testi
mony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words
of this prophecy, and keep those things which are
written therein : for the time is at hand " ; t and the
apostle, who was " in the Spirit on the Lord s day," is
commanded by the risen Lord, "write the things which
thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the
things which shall be hereafter." *
Accordingly, each of the brief Epistles following to
the seven churches, commences, " Unto the angel of
the Church of Ephesus," &c., "write " ; and concludes,
" He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches " ; and John, in describing
his successive visions and revelations, says, " I looked,"
" I saw," " I heard," " I was in the Spirit," "He saith
unto me, Write " ; " These are the true sayings of
God," &c ; and finally closes his Volume with the
words, " And he said unto me, These sayings are faith
ful and true ; and the Lord God of the holy prophets
sent His angel to shew unto His servants the things
which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly ;
* 1 John i. 3, 5. f Rev. i. 1-3. J Ibid. i. 10, 19.
Ibid. ii. 1, 7, 8, 11, 12, 17, 18, 29 ; iii. 1, 6, 7, 13, 14, 22.
|| Ibid. iv. 1,2; v. 1 ; vi. 1 ; vii. 1 ; viii. 2 ; ix. 1 ; x. 1 ; xii. 10 ;
xiv. 1, 13 ; xv. 1 ; xvi. 1 ; xvii. 3 ; xviii. 1 ; xix. 1, 9; xx. 1 ; xxi. 1 ;
5, 10, &c., &c.
THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS 117
blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy
of this Book " ; * WHILE THE VERY LAST SENTENCES OF
THE BIBLE, except the responsive prayer, "Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus," and the Benediction, ARE
SPOKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE LIPS OF THE ASCENDED
AND RETURNING LORD JESUS CHRIST HlMSELF, " For
I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the
prophecy of this Book, If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are
written in this Book ; and if any man shall take away
from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall
take away his part out of the book of life, and out of
the holy city and from the things which are written in
this Book." " HE ivhich testifieth these things saith,
Surely I come quickly" ; t and, in startling harmony
with the emphatic denunciation of Moses, the first
great prophet, " Ye shall not add unto the Word which
I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from
it," I form a solemn peal of warning thunder from the
gates of Eden, and the crags of Sinai, to the cross of
Calvary, and the golden city, the new Jerusalem.
We contend, therefore, that the Bible claims,
throughout, a thorough-going, full-orbed Verbal In
spiration, subject to such errors of translators and
copyists as we have already alluded to, and that " the
Book of the law of the Lord," "the oracles of God,"
" the Holy Scriptures," " the Word," of the Old and
New Testaments alike, as they originally came from
the lips of the Eternal, are nothing less than the God-
breathed utterances of the Holy Ghost.
* Rev. xxii. 6, 7. t Ibid. xxii. 16-20. } Deut. iv. 2.
j 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14; Rom. iii. 2; 2 Tim. iii. 15 ; 1 Pet. ii. 2.
PART II
THE ENDORSEMENTS OF THE BIBLE
THE TESTIMONY OF THE LORD
JESUS CHRIST
An Unqualified Acceptance of Verbal Inspiration.
THE pledge and prophecy of our blessed Kedeemer
that "the Paraclete" should come and recall, reveal,
and foretell all truth, cast Christ s endorsement for
wards over "the Acts" and Epistles of the apostles,
whom, by His life statements, and farewell words, He
had lifted, as we have already seen, into a position
of commanding authority equal to His own, as the
verbally-inspired mouthpieces of the eternal Jehovah ;
and thus, anticipatively , the Lord binds Himself to
the as yet unwritten utterances of the Holy Ghost
through them : "He shall bring all things to your
remembrance"; "He will guide you into all truth:
. . . He will shew you things to come";* since,
indeed, clearer and more emphatic words could scarcely
be spoken ; while, retrospectively, He stands by the
very words of the apocalyptic vision as " signified unto
His servant John " ; f and, with the solemn sanctions
of this final statement, I cannot help thinking by the
whole Canon of both the Old and New Testament
Scriptures.
Then, again, as regards the Gospels, though, on the
first blush, it may seem merely arguing in a circle to
* John xiv. 26 ; xvi. 13. i Rev. i. 1 ; xxii. 18,19.
122 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
make the authenticity of these memoirs depend largely
upon the witness of Him whose life-claims and
character they alone narrate, yet is the reasoning not
vicious, at any rate to those who profess to accept
Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord ; since, as we
may and do dare to stake our belief in the Divinity of
Jesus upon the magnificent exposition of the Godhead
in His inimitably pure and spotless humanity, so do
we accept the Gospels because they, in revealing a
supernatural life, do so by a manifestly supernatural
agency ; and, indeed, to all others this simple challenge
may suffice. Let some critic write a fifth biography
worthy of a place beside these four, or let the centuries
evolve another Jesus Christ ; and if the boasted pro
gress of two millenniums cannot accomplish this, we
need not bandy idle words in combating the arrogant
claims of those development theories which have lived
long enough to falsify themselves.
It is, however, pre-eminently in connection with the
authenticity and Inspiration of the Old Testament
Scriptures, as the Canon was jealously preserved and
unreservedly accepted by the Jewish nation, that we
cite the evidence and testimony of our Lord and
Saviour. In language of the strongest literalism, He
never fails to express unstaggering belief in the
strangest and most unlikely of Old Testament incidents,
cleaves to the Verbal Inspiration of the Law in its
minutest details, wins controversies by the tense of a
verb, hangs arguments on single words, and defends
His Godhead by quotations from somewhat obscure
and mysterious utterances of David ; * in short, Christ
accepts in the simplest fashion, and reasons from, as in
every point final and conclusive, " all things which
:;: Matt. xii. 40; Luke xvii. 32 ; xvi. 17 ; John x. 34 ; Matt. xxii.
32-45.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 123
were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets,
and in the psalms" ; speaks with a most humble and
holy reverence concerning the very "jots and tittles"
of those Sacred Scriptures which He affirms " cannot
be broken ; " * and in the most thorough-going and
emphatic manner, endorses by lip and life the super
natural, prophetic Verbal Inspiration of the Old Testa
ment writings ; and, indeed, so palpable is this fact,
that the highest of higher critics can only evade
the inevitable consequences of the tremendous issue
by attributing " accommodation " and " limitation "
theories to the speech and knowledge of our blessed
Lord, unbefitting and discreditable alike to His integrity
and His Godhead.
Christ s Ambition to Glorify the Father.
We should ever remember that, even beyond and
above the deep self-sacrificing desire of our beloved
Redeemer "to seek and to save that which was lost,"
His most supreme ambition was in all things to please
and honour the Father, glorifying Him with a whole
heart in the observance of the Law, and the redemp
tion of fallen man. Thus, Christ s first recorded utter
ance, at twelve years of age, was, " Wist ye not that I
must be about My Father s business ? " while His last
words were, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My
Spirit " ; so also the baptismal preface to His public
ministry, " Suffer it to be so now : for thus it becometh
us to fulfil all righteousness " ; the proclamation of
the Father s love to rebel men, " God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son" ; the
burning indignation wherewith the vendors of sheep
and doves were rebuked, "Take these things hence;
- ;: Luke xxiv. 44 ; Matt. v. 18. John x. 35.
124 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
make not My Father s house a house of merchandise " ;
the startling pronouncement, " The Father hath not
left Me alone ; for I do always those things which please
Him"; and the final prayer on the threshold of
Gethsemane, "Father, . . . I have glorified Thee on
the earth : I have finished the work which Thou gavest
Me to do";* were but the revealings of how com
pletely Christ carried through His dogmatic statement,
" My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me,
and to finish His work " ; I and this necessarily
involved a working out of the Divine purposes by our
Saviour s complete fulfilment, in His life and death, of
those Old Testament writings of the Holy Ghost,
through " Moses and all the prophets," which predicted
"the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should
follow " ; so that, with the rare unselfishness which is
always beautifully characteristic of the work of each
Person of the Sacred Trinity, our Lord lived pre
eminently to magnify the will of the Father and
to fulfil the predictions of the eternal Spirit ; I and
thus, with not only the testimony of the lip, but
the most exquisite sufferings of His life and death,
Christ bound up in the same bundle of being
His own earth-history and character with the pro
phetic utterances of Moses, the psalmist, and all the
prophets.
;;; Luke ii. 49 ; xxiii. 46. Matt. iii. 15 ; John iii, 16 ; ii. 15-17 ;
viii. 28, 29 ; xvii. 1, 4.
j John iv. 34.
I Luke xxiv. 25, 27, 44-46 ; 1 Pet. i. 11 ; Heb. ix. 14 ; x. 9.
See also Matt. iv. 14-16 ; viii. 17 ; xi. 25-27 ; xii. 17 ; xxvi. 54-56 ;
John i. 18 ; v. 19 ; vi. 37-40 ; ix. 4 ; xii. 14, 27. 28 ; xix. 28-30 ;
quotations, not from those Gospels which mirror Christ rather in
the aspect of the obedient servant (Mark), and the Son of man
(Luke), but from these which manifest His highest dignity as
King (Matthew), and Son of God (John).
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHEIST 125
Verbal Inspiration routs the Devil.
Now, these multiplied testimonies and endorsements
of our Divine Lord are of such vital importance that,
even at the risk of seeming redundancy, we would trace
some of them more or less in detail. When, on the
threshold of the Saviour s life-ministry, He was assailed
fiercely by the tempter, the only defensive and offensive
w r eapon which our blessed Redeemer condescended to
use was " the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God." * Thrice craftily attacked, He on each occa
sion routed the adversary by the simple yet sublime
retort, "It is written," all the quotations being from
the much-hated and belittled Book of Deuteronomy ;
which line of defence proved so effective that Satan
actually endeavoured to defeat the Lord by imitating
His tactics, and placing himself ivith the mildest, least
offensive, but most dangerous school of higher critics,
who contend that the Bible CONTAINS, but is not the
Word of God, argued from the 91st Psalm, omitting,
however, from two verses of thirty-two words, the
seven pregnant monosyllables, "To keep thee in all
thy ways," upon which the entire force and argument
of the promise turn ; and receiving, in consequence,
the trenchant rebuke, " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God." + Again, at Nazareth, when our Saviour
entered the synagogue, and delivered His first-recorded
Sermon, and so much depended, humanly speaking,
upon His favourable reception, reading from the Book
* Eph. vi. 17.
f Matt. iv. 4, 6, 7, 10.
It is not a little remarkable that, in this memorable con
troversy, Christ routed the devil, who quoted Scripture defectively,
by the strong emphasis laid on two adverbs : " Man shall not live
by bread alone " ; " Him only shalt thou serve."
126 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
of the prophet Esaias (and that, too, from a chapter
subsequent to the 40th !), " He began to say unto them,
This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears " ; * and
quoting from the historical Books of Kings, endorsed
the miraculous incidents concerning Elijah and the
widow of Sarepta, and Elisha and Naarnan, the leprous
Syrian, proving His position by a largely negative
argument based upon the silence of these sacred
narratives. We may well ask, with a measure of
pardonable sarcasm, how or in what sense did our Lord
"accommodate" Himself to the traditional theories of
His congregation when, "filled with wrath," "they
rose up " to "cast Him down headlong" from "the
hill." !
" One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass."
Further on, in supporting and amplifying the teach
ings of the Law as given through Moses, we find the
Saviour uttering this very remarkable and unequivocal
statement, " Think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till Heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law, till all be fulfilled " ; t " jot " or " yod "
being the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and
a " tittle " one of the slightest strokes or projections of
these letters ; the English parlance for such expres
sions practically being, " not the particle of a syllable
or of a letter" ; and the Latin, " not an iota " ; and
if words have any meaning, we challenge contradiction
in affirming that language could scarcely be conceived
more emphatic and thorough-going in its maintenance
of Verbal Inspiration.
* Luke iv. 21. t Ibid. iv. 16-30.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHEIST 127
But more, this assertion is deliberately repeated as
conclusive in no less important a connection than that
of the marriage relation : " it is easier for Heaven and
earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail " ; * and,
in another passage, the Lord, as though He would for
ever settle all controversy concerning the Scriptural
GENESIS of events PEIOR TO THE FALL, stretches away
back, and speaking on the sanctity of the same
" bonds," says to the quibbling, hair-splitting, tempt
ing Pharisees, " Have ye not read, that He which
made them at the beginning made them male and
female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife : and
they twain shall be one flesh? " t while, on the other
hand, when alluding to John the Baptist, Christ claims
a fulfilment from the very LAST Book of the Old Testa
ment Canon : " This is he, of whom it is written,
Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, which
shall prepare Thy way before Thee."t
Christ s Subservience to the Scriptures.
And so, ever and anon, in all the life-ministry of our
beloved Kedeemer, we find such familiar phrases as
"It is written," Have ye never read?" &c. ; as
from historical incidents, vague prophecies, and distinct
allusions alike, our Lord supports His arguments, and
lays down the foundations of His teaching. If it be in
interpreting the Divine conception and object of " the
Sabbath," Christ quotes thrice successively from the
* Luke xvi. 17, IB.
| Matt. xix. 4-6 ; see also Mark x. 6-9.
\ Luke vii. 27.
Matt. xxi. 13, 16, 42 ; Mark ii. 25 ; xii. 10. Luke x. 26 ; xix.
46 ; &c.
128 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
historical Book of Samuel, the law of Moses, and the
prophet Hosea : " Have ye not read what David did,
when he was an hungred, and they that were with
him? ... Or have ye not read in the law, how that
on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane
the Sabbath, and are blameless ? . . . But if ye had
known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless."*
If it be in denouncing old-time Bazaars, our Saviour
appeals to Isaiah : "It is written, My house shall be
called the house of prayer ; but ye have made it a den
of thieves." f If it be in predicting solemn judgments
against the rejectors of His love, the Lord produces
His testimony from the Psalms : " Did ye never read
in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected,
the same is become the head of the corner ? This is the
Lord s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." I
And, indeed, when the humble subservience (I use
this expression with great reverence) of our Divine
Lord to " the Holy Scriptures " of the Old Testament
as God-breathed, all -authoritative, conclusive, and final,
is contrasted with the present attitude of the majority
at least of the so-called higher critics towards " the
Sacred Writings," one yearns for a revival of the day
when none but the highest criticism shall be reverenced
and acknowledged, even " the Word of God," which
" is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-
edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of
soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner (kritikos) of the thoughts and intents of the
heart "; when men, however saintly and erudite,
* Matt. xii. 3-8 ; ix. 13. Mark ii. 25 ; Luke vi. 3.
-( Matt. xxi. 13 ; Mark xi. 17 ; Lake xix. 40.
I Matt. xxi. 42 ; Mark xii. 10, 11 ; Luke xx. 17.
$ Heb. iv. 12.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 129
shall bow unreservedly and instantly to the decisions of
Scripture, and not bring the Word of the living God to
the tribunal of their fallible wisdom, fallen judgment,
and errant consciences. Till then, at any rate, we
shall rest content with the sublime yet childlike
endorsements and sanctions of our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ.
Moses and all the Prophets endorsed by Christ.
Assuredly, He at least spoke with no bated breath or
subdued reticence concerning the personality, character,
teachings, words, and writings of the mighty Moses;
and, in His omniscient wisdom, knew nothing of Ezra s
hand in Leviticus, nor of Deuteronomy being written
in or about the time of King Josiah. " Jes.us saith
unto him, See thou tell no man ; but go thy way, shew
thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses com
manded, ion: a testimony unto them."* "For Moses
said, Honour thy father and thy mother ; and, Whoso
curseth father or mother, let him die the death : but
ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is
Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. And ye
suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his
mother ; making the Word of God of none effect through
your tradition, which ye have delivered : and many
such like things do ye." + " And he said unto him, If
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will
they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." t
" Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father :
there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom
ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have
believed Me ; for HE WROTE OF ME. But if ye
* Matt. viii. 4. f Mark vii. 10-13. { Luke xvi. 31.
10
130 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My
Words?" *
Thus, to Jesus Christ, the words and commandments
of the Pentateuch were unquestionably those of Moses,
the prophet, friend, and mouthpiece of the almighty
and eternal Jehovah ; while, concerning the Psalms,
we find the Son of God saying, "For David himself
said by the HOLY GHOST, The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies
Thy footstool"; t and quoting from an obscure verse
in the 82nd Psalm as "the Word of God," Christ
founds His tremendous and intricate argument on this
deliberate assertion, " the Scripture cannot be broken." I
Our blessed Lord also bears special witness to the
predictions and writings of Isaiah : "Ye hypocrites,
well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people
draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth
Me with their lips ; but their heart is far from Me.
But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines
the commandments of men " ; and nowhere does He
indicate any knowledge or acceptance of the supposed
dual authority of Isaiah; ;j a gratuitous assumption
which, we shall hereafter see, was unconsciously but
emphatically repudiated by the apostles, Matthew,
John, and Paul ; and finally, as if anticipating the
latest attacks of modern criticism on the Book of
Daniel, our Lord Jesus most deliberately accepts the
utterances of that Book, and its writer, in the words,
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of
desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in
* John v. 45-47 ; see also vii. 19-23, &c.
|- Mark xii. 35-37 ; Matt. xxii. 43-45 ; Luke xx. 42-44.
.{ John x. 34, 35.
Matt. xv. 7-9 ; xiii. 14. Mark vii. 6, 7.
II See Luke iv. 17-21. John xii. 38-41.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 131
the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand :)
then let them which be in Judaea flee into the moun
tains." *
" The Lord of Glory " believes the So-called Legends
of the Old Testament.
But this is not all. Our Divine Lord appears to
have gone out of His way to emphasise and endorse
nearly every old-time incident which is now derided as
legendary lore, poetic fiction, or historic falsehood.
While many leaders, even of our Evangelical schools,
to-day speak timidly and with bated breath concerning
"Jonah and the great fish," "Lot s wife," "Noah s
flood," and the destruction of " the cities of the plain,"
Christ unhesitatingly and unreservedly sets the seal
and sanction of His authority and character as perfect
God and perfect man to all these so-called Jewish
fables, t Nay, further, the Lord pronounces His un
compromising convictions concerning the origin of
humanity, " God made them male and female," the
blood of martyred Abel, the personal identity and
existence of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, the incident of Moses and the burning bush,
the lifting up of the brazen serpent, the feeding of
the multitude with. manna from heaven, -the Queen
of Sheba s visit to Solomon, and the repentance of the
Ninevites ; J while Elijah s closing for three and a half
years the windows of heaven, his marvellous ministry
to the widow of Sarpeta, and calling down fire upon
- Matt. xxiv. 15, 16 ; Mark xiii. 14.
f Matt. xii. 40 ; xvi. 4. Luke xi. 29-32 ; xvii. 26-32. Matt. xi.
23, 24 ; xxiv. 37-39. Mark vi. 11 ; Luke x. 12.
| Matt. xix. 4 ; Mark x. 6 ; Matt, xxiii. 35 ; Luke xi. 51 ; Matt,
xxii. 31, 32 ; Mark xii. 26, 27 ; Luke xx. 37, 38 ; John viii. 37-40,
56-58 ; iii. 14 ; vi. 31, 49. Matt. xii. 41, 42 ; Luke xi. 31, 32.
132 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
his enemies, and Elisha s miraculous healing of
Naaman, all stand as facts believed in by our blessed
Saviour,* who, on the transfiguration mount, inter
viewed that self-same Elijah, and his old friend Moses,
" who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which
He should accomplish at Jerusalem." *
Let higher critics face these inexorable issues ! To
our Divine Lord, " My friend Abraham " was no mere
hero of Jewish mythology, but a real personality.
Moses was not discredited as the writer of the Penta
teuch, David regarded as a dreamy sentimentalist,
Isaiah shorn of half his individuality, Jonah thrown
overboard as allegorical, and Daniel voted a creation
of subsequent generations; therefore,
Either the higher criticism is on these points ignorant,
blatant, false ;
Or else terrible conclusion, Jesus of Nazareth was a
Jesuit or an ignoramus !
I blush to pen this impious sentence ; but on the
higher critics be the penalty ; since, in thus discrediting
our Lord, they have brought, and will bring, shame,
confusion, and condemnation on their own heads from
all those who love, and trust, and worship, our Divine
and holy Saviour.
Jesus no Jesuit.
" But," exclaim some smooth-tongued, easy-going
critics of our blessed Saviour, whose consciences must
surely be elastic, and their consciousness of honour,
to say the least of it, sadly stunted, " is it not possible,
or conceivable, that our Lord accommodated Himself
:;: Luke iv. 25, 26 ; ix. 54 ; iv. 27.
i Ibid. ix. 30, 01 ; Matt. xvii. 3 ; Mark ix. 4.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHKIST 133
to the generally-accepted traditional and popular, albeit
somewhat legendary and historically-false, views of the
Jews, in order to evade unnecessary discussion, and
avoid awakening continual hostility and prejudice ? "
Our answer is frank and unequivocal, No, sirs ; to us,
it is not possible. That Abraham, Moses, Peter, or
even Paul, might fall after this fashion, is conceivable,
for, at their best, they were only errant mortals ; but
to whisper such a suggestion about our all-perfect and
spotlessly-transparent Eedeemer, is nothing short of
an impious libel, and a base calumny upon His reputa
tion. No honest man could act thus ; and to admit
such a thought concerning our Divine Lord, " who
knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,"
is to degrade Him to the level of a shifty, trimming
Jesuit ; and, in so thieving away His character, to rob
us of our Saviour. Surely, in all conscience, this is
bad enough ; subverting, as it does, all our Christian
principles and Gospel hopes ; but when we seek for
evidence, and discover absolutely none ; no, not even
the shadow of a scrap ! (since the Lord Jesus, through
all His life, deliberately ran full tilt against the
traditional theories and sentiments of priests and
people alike, and because of that antagonism was
crucified) and find this accommodation conception
only the immoral fancy of a fallen brain, it makes
matters even worse for those who, under the guise of
pretended friendship, attempt to puncture the un
tarnished purity of our Saviour s speech and action.
Our Lord never Accommodated His Teaching to
Popular Views.
We may, accordingly, well inquire whether it was to
accommodate Christ s teaching to the views of the
134 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
multitude, and the practices of those hypocritical pro
fessors whom He denounced, that the Lord preached
His memorable Sermon on the Mount, amplifying,
yet deepening and heightening the commands " of old
time" with His emphatic, authoritative, "But! say
unto you" ; * whether it was to please the indignant
scribes and Pharisees that He, again and again, wrought
miracles of healing on the Sabbath day, and defended
the action of His hungry disciples in plucking ears of
corn by a quotation from David s history ; t whether
it was to curry favour with the religious leaders of the
day that He denounced these men in such scathing
terms as these, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers,
how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"* and
whether it was to court popularity with His congrega
tion that He said to them, " Ye are of your father the
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." When
the people of Nazareth tried to hurl our Lord headlong
from the brow of the hill on which their city was
built, because He magnified God s electing grace in
saving Gentile sinners,; and afterwards strove to stone
Him for claiming an authority above, and an existence
before, His illustrious friend, Abraham, *. was He en
deavouring to accommodate Himself to their peculiar
beliefs and prejudices ? Or, when the chief priests,
and Pharisees, and rulers waited and plotted to destroy
Him, did He ever turn aside from any act, or even
trim a single sentence to modify their wrath ? **
It would be easy to augment this argument to
positive weariness ; but, surely, such a course is un
necessary, since the whole trend of our Divine Saviour s
:;: Matt. v. I Luke vi. 1-11 ; xiii. 10-17 ; xiv. 1-6.
I Matt, xxiii. 38. $ John viii. 44.
IS Luke iv. 26-30. " John viii. 52-59.
** Luke vi, 7-11 ; xx. 17-20. Mark iii. 1-6 ; xiv. 61-64.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 135
life, and ministry, and death, was hostile to every con
ception and sentiment of His age, whether among
high or low, religious or profligate, educated or foolish,
priests or people; and, therefore, we will conclude by
simply asking, Was it to accommodate Himself to the
wisdom of Rabbi Xicodemus that the Lord Jesus ex
claimed, quoting the incident of Moses and the brazen
serpent, " Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest
not these things ?"* Was it to accommodate Him
self to the ignorance of the Samaritan woman that the
Lord said, " Ye worship ye know not what : we know
what we worship: for salvation is of the Jew T s"?f-
Was it to accommodate Himself to the Rationalism of
the Sadducees that the Lord made this inquiry and
assertion : "as touching the dead, that they rise : have
ye not read in the Book of Moses, how in the bush
God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob ? He is not the God of the dead, but the God
of the living : ye therefore do greatly err " ? I Was it to
accommodate Himself to the Ritualism of the scribes
and Pharisees that the Lord condemned their tradi
tional practices : " Thus have ye made the command
ment of God of none effect by your tradition. Y r e
hypocrites, w r ell did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth,
and honoureth Me with their lips ; but their heart is
far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teach
ing for doctrines the commandments of men " ? Was
it to accommodate Himself to the ignorance of the
Pharisees and Sadducees that the Lord said, " An evil
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and
there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the
John iii. 10-14. I Ibid. iv. 22.
j Matt, xv. 1-9 ; Mark vii. 1-13.
136 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
prophet Jonas " ? * Was it to accommodate Himself
to the ignorance of the multitudes that the Lord spake
unto them in parables . * Was it to accommodate
Himself to the ignorance of the disciples that the Lord
uttered " hard sayings " and "things they understood
not " ? I Was it to accommodate Himself to the
ignorance of the devil that the Lord thrice hurled the
"It is written " at His assailant ? And, finally, was
it to accommodate Himself to the ignorance of almighty
God that the Lord Jesus exclaimed, in prayer to the
Father, " Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and
none of them is lost, but the son of perdition ; that the
Scripture might be fulfilled " ?
Verily, such an accommodation theory violates all
common sense, common logic, common conscience,
and common honesty ; and sentiments of even
common respect to our liege Lord and Sovereign
Prince, Emmanuel, demand its well-merited repudia
tion with feelings of mingled indignation and con
tempt.
Christ stakes His Divinity and the Resurrection upon
Verbal Inspiration.
Yet our beloved Saviour goes further than this ;
and, as we have already stated, deliberately stakes
arguments, wins intricate controversies, and even
hazards His Divinity upon isolated words, quotations
from Moses and the Psalms, the tenses of a verb,
possessive adjectives, and nouns in the singular and
plural number ; and, in the full consciousness that He
is debating with the most erudite, able, and crafty
* Matt. xii. 38-41 ; xvi. 1-4. f Ibid. xiii. 10-15.
I John vi. 60-66; Matt. xvi. 21-23 ; Luke xviii. 31-34.
i Matt. iv. 4, 7, 10. || John xvii. 12.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 137
opponents, bases His defences, expositions, affirmations,
and attacks, upon simple appeals to the absolutely
conclusive evidence of Verbal Inspiration, which line
of procedure was never, on a single occasion, challenged
by His routed adversaries, who held as strong views
on this subject as our Lord Himself did.
Take, for example, two incidents ; the one recorded
in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke alike ; the
other, only narrated in that of John, when the Phari
sees, Herodians, Sadducees, and scribes successively
strove "to entangle Him in His talk," and "to take
hold of Hisw r ords"; and Christ knew that, possibly,
His liberty and even His life depended upon the
wisdom of His answers. He did not hesitate to drive
home upon the Sadducees the question, " Do ye not
therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures?"
and produced, as all-authoritative and final, a quotation
from the third chapter of Exodus : "I am the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob," * which testimony from " the Book of Moses,"
"how in the bush GOD SPAKE unto him," immediately
ended the Resurrection Controversy although the Lord s
entire argument liung upon the PRESENT tense of the
verb "To be" ; and then, having silenced the lawyer,
when " no man after that durst ask Him any question,"
He boldly carries the war right into the enemies
camp, and contending in the very temple itself, ex
claims, "How say the scribes that Christ is the Son
of David ? For David himself said by the Holy
Ghost, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit Thou on
My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy
footstool. David therefore himself calleth Him Lord ;
and whence is He then his Son? "I proving His
position from a possessive adjective and a single noun
* Mark xii. 26, 27. I Ibid. xii. 35-37.
138 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
in the Book of Psalms,* wherein He affirms that "David
said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord." +
Thus, bij a single word, and that, too, the tense of a verb
taken from a historical Book, and uttered bij God to
Moses, amid the mysteries of a strange "old-time"
miracle, nearly four hundred years after the death of
Abraham (who, some critics say, never existed !) ; and,
by another word, and qualifying adjective, quoted from
a highly poetic and prophetic Psalm, our blessed Ee-
deemer establishes the two great cardinal and essential
doctrines of a living Christianity, viz., His own Divinity
and the Resurrection of the dead. Surely, in the light of
these facts, we may well ask, Who dares to affirm other
than that our supreme Lord at least accepted, in the very
plainest and simplest manner, the most old-fashioned
and now much-belittled views of Verbal Inspiration ?
Then, as regards the other instance, t Jesus, in
answer to the interrogation of the Jews, " How long
dost Thou make us to doubt ? If Thou be the Christ,
tell us plainly," had just delivered His memorable
discourse upon the eternal security of His people :
" None is able to pluck them out of My Father s hand.
I and My Father are one " ; when " the Jews took up
stones again to stone Him," indignant that Christ
should thus, as they considered it, blasphemously
" make Himself God." Note that, not only the
Saviour s life, but also His character is in jeopardy.
One false move, or a single thoughtless word, will ruin
everything. Upon what ground, therefore, does our
Lord deliberately choose to join issue with His
assailants ? We almost marvel as we perceive how
He, unhesitatingly, stakes all upon the inerrancy of
* Psa. ex. 1.
| Mark xii. 36. See also Matt. xxii. 15-46; Luke xx. 19-47,
John x. 22-39. Ibid. x. 24,
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 139
one word, in the eighty-second Psalm, which occurs in
the plural, and not singular number; a word selected
also out of a curious, difficult, and somewhat enigmatical
passage, " Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are
gods ? If he called them gods, unto whom the Word
of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken ; say
ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent
into the world, Thou blasphemest ; because I said, I
am the Son of God? " * Thus, the Divine Redeemer
lays down, authoritatively and solemnly, two startling
propositions; firstly, that " the Scripture" (writing)
cannot be broken " ; taking in, as we notice here, under
the term " law," the Psalms as well as the Pentateuch ;
(and, indeed, this nomenclature is elsewhere used to
include the whole canon of the Old Testament Scrip
tures) ; clearly implying that all the " Sacred Writings"
must stand in their integrity or fall together, one breach
being sufficient to shatter and invalidate all ; and,
secondly, that His defence against the charge of
blasphemy, in "making Himself God" depends upon
the Hebrew noun ; or if, as is most likely, Christ quoted
from the Septuagint, its Greek equivalent, being in the
plural number, while the fact that it is difficult to give
a satisfactory exegesis of this intricate and somewhat
mysterious Psalm but strengthens and renders more
remarkable our Saviour s uncompromising attitude
towards and jealous reverence for those Scriptures
concerning which He Himself said, "It is easier for
Heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle (one
particle of a letter) of the law to fail." t Verily, if
words have any meaning, and language is still to be
regarded as a medium of communication between mind
and mind, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, was a
strong Verbal Inspirationist.
:;: John x. 34-36, j Luke xvi. 17.
140 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Christ s Testimony from the Cross.
Let us advance one step further in this argument.
Even on His way to the cross, and in the unutterable
agonies of Calvary, Christ quoted sentence after
sentence from the Old Testament Scriptures to
enemies and disciples alike as prophetic, God-inspired,
and explanatory of His actions and sufferings. When
the multitude, in the one passing glimpse they seemed
to get of His glory as Messiah, exclaimed, " Blessed is
He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in
the highest " ; and even the children cried in the
temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," He said to
the chief priests and scribes, " Yea ; have ye never
read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou
hast perfected praise ? " And when the dark shadow
of the coming betrayal cast its gloom across all spirits
at the paschal feast in the upper room, Christ pointed
out to His inner bodyguard of loyal followers that
there was a needs-be for it, it must be so, " that the
Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with
Me hath lifted up his heel against Me." " The Son
of man indeed goeth as it is written of Him ; but
w r oe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed !
good were it for that man if he had never been born." *
After the glad yet tearful institution of the Lord s
supper, " when they had sung a hymn," and gone out
into the mount of Olives, Jesus said to them, " All ye
shall be offended because of Me this night : for it is
written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall
be scattered." " For I say unto you, that this that is
written must yet be accomplished in Me, and He was
:;: Matt. xxi. 16. f John xiii. 18.
; Mark xiv. 21. j Ibid. xiv. 26, 27 ; Matt. xxvi. 31.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHKIST 141
reckoned among the transgressors, for the things
concerning Me have an end." *
Thus, also, in the strange weird sadness of the
garden scene, our Lord rebuked His impetuous
defender, Peter, in the words, " Put up again thy
sword into his place : for all they that take the sword
shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I
cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently
give Me more than twelve legions of angels? But
how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it
must be ? : " In that same hour said Jesus to the
multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with
swords and staves for to take Me ? I sat daily with
you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on
Me. But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the
prophets might be fulfilled ; + and, pre-eminently and
finally, on the cross, when " reproach had broken His
heart" at the hiding of the Father s face as "He
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin," Christ,
our beloved, suffering Substitute, and Saviour, broke
the silence of His infinite and unknown agonies,
through the three hours darkness, with the piteous
death-cry from the twenty-second Psalm, " My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" "After
this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accom
plished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I
thirst " ; and every prediction concerning His cruci
fixion being consummated, immediately exclaimed,
" It is finished" ; and then gently breathed His spirit
into the guardianship of God with words quoted from
another Psalm (the 31st), "Father, into Thy hands I
commend My spirit : and having said thus, He gave
up the ghost." + Thus, both in the ministry of life
::; Luke xxii. 37. f Matt. xxvi. 52-56 ; Mark xiv. 48, 40.
{ Matt, xxvii. 46 ; Mark xv. 34 ; John xix. 28-30 ; Luke xxiii. 46.
142 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
and in the unparalleled agony of death, our blessed
Redeemer testified, with unbroken tenacity, His un
swerving belief in the God-breathed utterances of
David, and "all the prophets"; and, in the light of
such a witness, we may well pity and pray for those
critics who, to the wonder of mortals, the mourning of
angels, and the exulting of devils, dare impertinently
and blasphemously to contravene this unequivocal
testimony of our unimpeachable and sovereign Lord,
Jesus Christ.
Was our Divine Lord s Knowledge Limited.
There is, however, another school of thought, much
more reverent in its criticism of our Lord, but possibly
even more dangerous and seductive under the guise
of an apparently plausible position. Christ these
teachers, affirm, being circumscribed by the limitations
of His humanity, was deficient in His knowledge ; and,
therefore, as man, ignorantly and mistakenly endorsed
many incidents and utterances of the Old Testament
Scriptures, which a fuller acquaintance with facts, and
a higher education would have caused Him (as it does
them !) to deny. Now that, in the great mystery of
the Incarnation, the Son of God " made Himself of no
reputation," " and being found in fashion, as a man,
He humbled Himself";* that "Jesus increased in
wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and
man " ; + and that there is much difficulty encompassing
the interpretation of such an utterance as " But of
that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the
angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the
Father," t we honestly admit. But further than this
we dare not go, since such a theory, while assuming
:;: Phil. ii. 5-8. ) Luke ii. 52. t Mark xiii. 32.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHKIST 143
to safeguard the honour and character of our Divine
.Redeemer, directly impugns and assails His essential
Deity. Thus, while " Accommodationists " would rob
us of Christ s integrity, " Limitationists " would ap
parently undermine His Godhead, if they could.*
We must ever remember that, when "the Word"
which, " in the beginning was with God," and " was
God," " because flesh," and " the only-begotten Son,
which is in the bosom of the Father," "expounded"
and revealed God ; I Jesus Christ, while possessed of
a dual nature, was ONE PERSON (NOT TWO), who, all
through His earth-life, continually manifested both the
human and Divine elements in His unique and perfect
personality. When the weary, worn-out " Son of
man" was aroused from slumber by His affrighted
disciples in the Gennesaret storm, He, as " Son of
God," commanded the winds and waves into " a great
calm." + When the humanity of Jesus wept with
Mary and Martha at their brother s grave, His Godhead
issued the mandate, " Lazarus, come forth " ; and, from
the corruption of death, the man was resurrected. $
Yet there were not two Christs, two Redeemers ; but
one, " the very same Jesus " ; while, even if there
were, occasionally, not only a veiling, but also a
restraining of the Divine nature, through the handi
capping influences of the human nature of our beloved
Saviour, which we do not for a moment concede ;--
yet, surely, our Lord s opinion, even as teacher and
man, is worthy of more weight and credence than the
dicta of any modern critic whose judgment, however
sagacious and impartial, must necessarily be formed
from evidence two millenniums further away from the
original source of the Old Testament Manuscripts and
:;: See " Excursus on the Deity of our Lord," pp. 175-210.
1 John i. 1-4 ; 14-18. J Mark iv. 37-41. John xi. 33-45.
144 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Writings than that possessed by Christ and His
apostles ; and in the competition between present-day
scholarship, however excellent, and the findings of the
Founder of Christianity with the witness of the Holy
Ghost and of God the Father behind Him, and that
great Hebraist, Paul, there can be no hesitancy what
ever on the part of Christian men in unreservedly
accepting the conclusions of the latter.
" Jesus knew their thoughts."
But the acts and speeches, miracles and records of
our Divine Lord remove this question altogether out
side the range of any possible controversy ; at least, to
those who respect the teachings of the Gospel memoirs.
On only one occasion, in the first thirty years of the
Saviour s life, is the veil lifted, and a slight glimpse
given us of His inner mind and methods ; and that,
singularly enough, by the biographer Luke, prior to
the words already quoted, "And Jesus increased in
wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and
man";* and subsequent to the testimony recorded
immediately after Christ s Incarnation, "And the
Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, tilled with
wisdom : and the grace of God was upon Him."
When " twelve years old," one year before the age
at which Jewish lads, according to custom, accept
personal instead of parental responsibility for their
thoughts and actions, at the feast of the Passover,
" The Child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem ; and
Joseph and his mother " . . . " seeking Him "...
"it came to pass, that after three days they found
Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors,
both hearing them, and asking them questions. And
::; Luke ii. 52. I Ibid. ii. 40.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 145
all that heard Him were astonished at His under
standing and answers." * Surely, in the light of
this wonderful incident, and the impression it created
upon " all that heard Him," we may well ask, was
this, any more than the evidence of the astonished
Jews, some twenty years subsequently, " And the
Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters,
having never learned? " t indicative of a limited know
ledge, or of Divine omniscience ? Certainly Joseph
and Mary did not teach our Lord this wisdom, nor did
He learn it at the feet of His antagonists ! Whence,
then, came it, and that wonderful power to read the
secret thoughts and sentiments of friend and foe alike ?
Verily, there can be but one feasible answer given ;
JESUS WAS GOD ; and, therefore, " He knew all men,
and needed not that any should testify of man : for He
knew what was in man." I
Thus, the quiet prayerfulness of godly Nathanael,
the soul-anxiety of Zaccheus the publican, the hypo
critical captiousness of Simon, Christ s host, the
hidden sins of the poor woman at Sychar s well, the
hidden money in the fish s mouth, the vacillation
and unreliability of His disciples, the treachery of
Judas, and the quarrelling of the apostles, all stand
revealed to Christ as fully as though petitions and
murmurings, had sounded directly on His ears ;
while, especially in His contentions with the scribes
and Pharisees, we get familiarised with such phrases
as "Jesus knew their thoughts," "and He answered
them," although, in many cases, they had only
silently watched and criticised, the omniscience of
the Divine Eedeemer reading the innermost reasonings,
* Luke ii. 42-52. f John vii. 15. J Ibid. ii. 24, 25.
Ibid. i. 46-50 ; Luke xix. 3-6 ; vii. 39, 40. John iv. 17-19, 29;
Matt. xvii. 27 ; John vi. 61-66 ; xiii. 21-28. Luke ix. 46, 47.
11
146 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
reflections, and plottings of His opponents hearts as
they spake within themselves. "There were certain
of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their
hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies?
who can forgive sins but God only ? And immediately
when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned
within themselves, He said unto them, Why reason ye
these things in your hearts / " *
Testimony of the Holy Ghost.
And surely even if our beloved Lord were limited in
His knowledge by reason of the environment of His
humanity, an assertion which we indignantly deny,
had He not also behind His utterances as fully and
unreservedly as any of the Old Testament prophets,
the power and wisdom of the Holy Ghost ? Therefore
such critics as on this ground dispute His accuracy are
only driving the inexorable argument back a stage
further, and impeaching thereb} r the trustworthiness
of another person of the Trinity. As perfect Man
obedient in all things to the Father s will, it is
definitely affirmed concerning Christ that He was " full
of the Holy Ghost." Thus immediately after His
solemn baptism on the very threshold of His great
life ministry, we read, " Jesus being full of the Holy
Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness " ; while a little further on it is
recorded " and Jesus returned in the power of the
Spirit into Galilee," and shortly afterwards, preaching
at Nazareth, He deliberately applies the prophetic words
of Isaiah, " And the Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to
;c Mark ii. 6-8. See also Matt. ix. 3, 4 ; xii. 25. Luke vi. 7, 8 ;
xi. 17, 38, 39 ; xiv. 1-5.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 147
the poor, &c.," to Himself; * and at the close of His
earthly testimony we find it written that " He through
the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the
apostles whom He had chosen," t so that all charges
of inaccuracy and ignorance levelled against the Lord
Jesus are nothing short of libels against the witness of
the Divine Spirit also. We could proceed further on
this line of argument, but presume it is unnecessary,
for assuredly no Christian at least will controvert the
testimony of Christ s illustrious forerunner concerning
Jesus : " For He whom God hath sent speaketh the
words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by
measure unto Him" ; t " the Father loveth the Son,
and hath given all things into His hand " ; " He that
believeth " (involving, of course, faith in His statements
as well as in His doctrine, deity, sacrifice and cha
racter) " on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath
of God abideth on him.
Christ s Resurrection Testimony.
In the light of such statements, it seems almost
incredible that any believer in the Gospels should still
maintain this God-dishonouring tenet of the Saviour s
circumscribed knowledge. Yet, even were it true,
assuredly such limitations must, at any rate, have
ceased AFTER THE RESURRECTION. We look, ac
cordingly, with great concern, to see what attitude
was adopted by the risen Jesus towards the question
* Luke iv. 1, 14, 16-21. f Acts i. 2.
\ While the words " unto Him " are not in the original, yet are
they essentially true as expressing the evident argument and
teaching of the context, which applies especially and pre-eminently
to the Messiah only. John iii. 34-36.
148 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
of Old Testament Inspiration ; and, somewhat to our
surprise, find, not only the same wonderful reverence
as of yore manifested by the Lord in handling " The
Sacred Writings," but His revelation of Himself as
the Kisen One brought home to His disciples, on the
occasion of the remarkable walk to Emmaus, through
the overwhelming and enlightening evidence and
exposition of " Moses and all the prophets." And
herein is a truly wonderful thing, to meet the scep
ticism and disappointment of these two lonely broken
hearted followers, Christ did not disclose His majesty,
make bare His glory, or work a mighty miracle, but
simply, through a course of Bible study, proved to
their burning hearts, on the authority of the opened
Scriptures, that, in the eternal purposes of God, He,
the Crucified, must rise again, and " enter into His
glory." "Then He said unto them, fools, and slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken :
ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to
enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, He expounded unto them in ALL the
Scriptures the things concerning Himself";* and,
again, unto "the eleven gathered together, and them
that were with them," in the upper room, He said,
" These are the words which I spake unto you, while
I was yet with you. that all things must be fulfilled,
which were written in the law of Moses, and in the
Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then
opened He their understanding, that they might under
stand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is
written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to
rise from the dead the third day ; and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His Name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." t Con-
* Luke xxiv, 25-27, f Ibid. xxiy. 44-47.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHEIST 149
fronted with this unreserved, comprehensive, and
deliberate endorsement, by our risen Lord, of " all
the Scriptures" in "the law of Moses, and in the
Prophets, and in the Psalms," does any critic seriously
assert, in order to evade the inevitable issue of Plenary
Inspiration, that Jesus Christ, in resurrection power
and glory, was really deficient in knowledge, ignorant
of history, and handicapped by the limitations of a
human body / We can scarcely conceive it possible ;
yet, if he does make such an assertion, it can only be
by a necessary, although perhaps unintentional, denial
of our risen Saviour s essential Deity and Godhead.
Christ s Testimony from Heaven.
Nor is this all, for the ascended Jesus goes even
further, and QUOTES SCRIPTURE FROM THE GLORY;
and that, too, with special emphasis upon what some
regard as certain old-time legends from the Penta
teuch. When " He that liveth, and was dead " ; and
is " alive for evermore," said unto His servant, John,
"Fear not; I am the first and the last:" "Write
... To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the
tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of
God," . . . "To him that overcometh will I give to
eat of the hidden manna" ; * thereby endorsing inci
dents in the Eden Paradise, and the miraculous wilder
ness provision made by God for Israel, was our Lord
encompassed by the ignorances and limitations of
humanity ? When He spoke to the Laodiceans as
" the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the begin
ning of the creation of God " ; t or when rebuking the
church at Pergamos, He spoke warning words to
" them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught
* Kev. ii. 7, 17. f Ibid. iii. 14.
150 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of
Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to com
mit fornication " ; * was He only alluding to an
allegorical and mythical person mentioned in the
Book of Numbers ? When "He that is holy, He
that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that
openeth, and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, and no
man openeth," f cheered the church at Philadelphia
by pledges of aid and blessing, was He deliberately
applying or misapplying a quotation from Isaiah as
applicable to Himself? When "the Son of God, who
hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire," t promised to
the faithful in Thyatira, " To him that overcometh
will I give power over the nations ; and he shall rule
them with a rod of iron ; as the vessels of a potter shall
they be broken to shivers : even as I received of My
Father," did He discredit, or accept as God-inspired
and prophetic, the burning utterances of a maledic
tory Psalm ? Are these allusions to a past notorious
individual mentioned in the record of Moses, to a
present fact foretold in the prophecy of Isaiah, and to
a future event predicted in " the Book of Psalms "
accidental, haphazard, and illusory ; or are they not
rather in harmony with that great plan whereby, in
life, in death, in resurrection, and in glory, Jesus, our
adorable Redeemer, who exclaimed, " The Scripture
cannot be broken," continuously bore witness to the
authority and Inspiration of " Moses, and the Prophets,
and the Psalms"? Were such incidental references,
in "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto Him," as those to " Jezebel " mentioned in the
historical Book of Kings, "Michael" in Daniels
"Scripture of truth," and "the song of Moses the
* Rev. ii. 14. f Ibid. iii. 7. \ Ibid. ii. 18.
Ibid. ii. 27. Ibid. i. 1.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHKIST 151
servant of God, and the song of the Lamb," recited
in the records of " the Exodus" inspired or uninspired,
intentional or unintentional ; * and was the final claim
of our Divine Lord, the "Alpha and Omega, the begin
ning and the end, the first and the last," + to be " the
root and the offspring of David, and the bright and
morning star," * merely a highly-poetical termination
to an unmeaning book of splendid imagery, or a
definite assertion that He, in Himself, fulfilled the
prediction alike of godly Isaiah and ungodly Balaam,
who, the one willingly, and the other unwillingly,
spake words given them direct from God Himself?
Frankly, if the memoirs and teachings of the Gospels
and " the Revelation " be reliable, we can conceive no
"via media" between a Christ discredited in character,
and shorn of His omniscience, or an absolute and un
qualified acceptance of those Old Testament Scriptures
which our Divine Lord always treated with punctilious
and scrupulous reverence as the " ipsissima verba "
of His almighty Father ; while the splendid bene
diction upon the devout reader, with which the
Apocalypse opens, linked with the solemn male
diction upon that man who " adds to " or " takes
away from the words of the Book of this Prophecy,"
make us tremble for the fate of those who, in the
name of a fickle and superficial learning, presume to
amend, revise, excise, or augment the very utterances
of the eternal God.
Thus we have, in direct antagonism to the " findings "
:;: Rev. ii. 20 ; xii. 7 ; xv. 3. I Ibid. xxii. 13.
I Ibid. xxii. 16. Ibid. i. 3 ; xxii. 18, 19.
|| Of course, this criticism, as already pointed out, does not
refer to greater accuracy in the translation of the Holy Scriptures,
or to any prayerful and sanctified effort to obtain the truest
verbiage of the best copies of the original manuscripts.
152 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
of the higher critics, not only the claims of the Holy
Ghost ; and, as we shall shortly see, the self-witness
of the Divine Spirit to His own Writings ; but also
the undeviating testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ ;
and behind, and at the back of all the Saviour s words,
and miracles, and dogmatic teachings, the sanctions,
commandments, and authority of God the Father,
whose honour and wisdom are therefore invalidated
and impaired, " for He whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God : for God giveth not the Spirit by
measure unto Him," * if "the Messiah," " the Christ,"
" the Sent One," " the Anointed One," was in His
earth-life defective in His utterances, or limited in His
knowledge.
God the Father behind the Son s Testimony.
A few citations, from one Gospel alone, will easily
establish this : " Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself,
but what He seeth the Father do : ... that all men
should honour the Son, even as they honour the
Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth
not the Father which hath sent Him." * "It is
written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught
of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and
hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me." +
" Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not
Mine, but His that sent Me." " He that sent Me is
true ; and I speak to the world those things which I
have heard of Him ... I do nothing of Myself ; but
as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things ;
. . . the truth, which I have heard of God. . . . He
* John iii. 34. I Ibid. v. 19, 23.
1 Ibid. vi. 45. < Ibid. vii. 16.
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 153
that is of God heareth God s words : ye therefore hear
them not, because ye are not of God." * " This com
mandment have I received of My father." f " And if
any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him
not : for I came not to judge the world, but to save
the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not
My words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that
I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day. For I have not spoken of Myself ; but the
Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment,
WHAT I should say, and WHAT I should speak. And I
know that His command is life everlasting : whatsoever
I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I
speak." I " Believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in Me ? The words that I speak unto
you, I speak not of Myself. . . . He that loveth Me
not keepeth not My sayings : and the word which ye
hear is not Mine, but the Father s which sent Me.
... As the Father gave Me commandment, even so I
do." " All things that I have heard of My Father I
have made known unto you." "For I have given
unto them the icords which Thou gavest Me ; and they
have received them, and have known surely that I
came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou
didst send Me."*" By these passages we note how
even our Divine Lord, as " Son of man, and as " the
only-begotten Son of the Father," invariably supported
His position and assertions by a definite claim of
God the Father s supreme authority, from whom He
received not only the commandments, but the very
* John viii. 26, 28, 40. 47. i Ibid. x. 18.
t Ibid. xii. 47-50. j Ibid. xiv. 10, 24, 31. || Ibid. xv. 15.
"I Ibid. xvii. 8. See more fully John v. 17-47 ; vi. 27-58 ; vii.
15-18; viii. 16-47; x. 18; xii. 47-50; xiv. 10, 24, 31; xv. 15;
xvi. 15 ; xvii. 8.
154 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
words ivhicli He delivered; so that the rejection of
Christ s evidence involves a denial of the Father, and
of the Son, especially as the former, by direct and open
testimony, thrice; at the commencement, continuance,
and close of the Saviour s ministry, at His baptism, on
the transfiguration mount, and when the shadow of
the cross clouded the Redeemer s spirit,* emphasised
His appointment of and delight in His Son s witness
and ministry. Therefore, if the higher criticism be
valid, we are driven either to utterly impugn the entire
veracity and force of the Sacred Scriptures, or else,
accepting these as authoritative and inspired, to con
front such modern theologians with THE UNIMPEACH
ABLE AND UNDIVIDED WITNESS OF THE FATHER, SON,
AND HOLY GHOST.
::: Matt. iii. 16, 17 ; xvii. 5. John xii. 27, 28.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES
Pharisees and Sadducees Acknowledge the Supremacy
of the Scriptures.
IT is a significant fact, and pregnant with weighty
argument, that on no single occasion, in the course of
our Lord s intricate controversies with scribes and
Rabbis, Pharisees and Sadducees, was His appeal to
Moses, and the Psalmist, and the Prophets repudiated,
rejected as invalid, or in any way disputed. Indeed,
Christ s antagonists maintained, as firmly and un
reservedly as He Himself did, the authority and
Inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures, while the
most advanced and rationalistic section among the
Jews (the Sadducees) bowed to reasonings based upon
the historical records of Exodus ; and, as w y e have
already noted, even the devil himself succumbed to
utterances from the Book of Deuteronomy.*
Now, that this verdict of contemporary Jewish
history (endorsed as it was also by the strong state
ments of Josephus) should be in complete harmony
with the testimony of the Lord Jesus, is in itself a
remarkable evidence of the high esteem in which " the
Sacred Writings " were held by that nation, unto
whom "were committed the oracles of God";
especially when we remember the scrupulous accuracy
:;: Matt. xxii. 29-84 ; iv. 4, 7, 10. i Rom. iii. 2.
155
156 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
with which not only verses and sentences and words
were memorised, but also the extreme care wherewith
letters, and even particles of a letter, were often noted
down and counted. Accordingly, we have arrayed
against the so-called "findings" of certain modern
progressive divines the solid testimony of all that was
strong, erudite, religious, and reliable in the whole
Jewish national life ; priest and common people,
Pharisees and Sadducees, who were nineteen hundred
years nearer the original sources of evidence than the
sceptical and in many cases superficial critics of the
present day, being alike fully persuaded that Moses
wrote the Pentateuch. Thus, the group of expectant
saints, " waiting for the consolation of Israel," "gave
thanks unto the Lord" by the Holy Ghost for the
accomplishment of those promises of redemption
which God "spake by the mouth of His holy prophets
which have been since the world began " ; * and,
thirty years afterwards, John the Baptist claimed that
his own ministry was a fulfilment of Isaiah s prophecy,
and Philip argued with Nathanael concerning the
Messiahship of Jesus, " We have found Him, of whom
Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of
Nazareth, the Son of Joseph ";+ while, two years
later, the people and rulers, reasoning out the same
question, " Shall Christ come out of Galilee?" made
the whole conclusion hinge upon the, to them, un
impeachable authority of the psalmist David, and a
single verse in Micah, an obscure prophet! "Hath
not the Scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed
of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where
David was? " * the citation of Scripture proving, in
all such cases, a final court of appeal concerning every
controversy, and a conclusion of all argument.
: " Luke i.. ii. f John i. 23, 41, 45. [ Ibid. vii. 40-52.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 157
So do all the Apostles.
We are not, therefore, surprised to find that Matthew,
and, following him, the other Gospellers, speak through
out their entire writings in language of the simplest
faith concerning fulfilled prophecy, and make allusion
after allusion, in perfect confidence, to Old Testament
incidents and teachings. Indeed, there seems a quiet,
unambiguous assertion of the supreme authority, abso
lute accuracy, and fullest Inspiration of the Old Testa
ment Books, right through the Gospels, the Acts, and
all the New Testament Epistles ; the suggestion of a
partial or limited inspiration never seeming even to
occur to the apostles and other representatives of our
Lord and Saviour.
Mark, for example, opens by heralding in the ministry
of John the Baptist with the emphatic testimony, "As
it is written in the prophets," quoting from Isaiah,
the first, and Malachi, the last of the prophets ; and
incidentally mentions, in connection with the closing
scenes of the Redeemer s life, " And the Scripture was
fulfilled, which saith, And He was numbered with the
transgressors. * The letter to the Galatians, full of
deep theological argument, equally with the Epistle of
James, weighted with solemn practical truth, abounds
with illustrations and incidents drawn from the
historical Books, while "The Revelation" suggests,
in analogy and metaphor, inevitable comparisons with,
and references to, nearly every phase and style of
Old Testament writing, poetical, prophetical, and
historical.
We cannot, obviously, trace out this line of argu
ment in all its many ramifications and conclusions ;
but, for our present purpose, it may suffice to assert
* Mark i. 2, 3 ; xv. 28.
158 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
that any position, which assails the accuracy and
Inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures, must,
necessarily, also undermine the character or know
ledge of Matthew, John, Peter, Paul, and the
remainder of Christ s apostles. Thus, we have, not
only the affirmations of the Lord Jesus, and behind
Him those of God the Father, and the witness of the
Holy Spirit, but the learning and undivided faith of the
(in great measure hostile) Jewish nation, and the un
wavering testimony of all the apostles ranged alongside
the full-orbed Inspiration of Moses, the Psalmist, and
" all the prophets." Surely, this in itself should be
sufficient to cause any thoughtful man to pause, and
pray, and shudder ere walking over, possibly carelessly,
to join the ranks of those opposing forces, who shift
their ground, their arguments, and their " findings,"
like men who tread a quagmire (as indeed they do !) or
are swayed, in \veathercock fashion, by variable and
conflicting winds of earthly thought and evanescent
criticism.
The Witness of Five Eepresentative Scriptures.
Let us, however, in this connection, look at five
Books, totally different in style and purpose, which
we may fairly take as representative of the entire
New Testament ; the Gospel of Matthew, a memoir
of our beloved Saviour ; the Acts, a historical record
of the Early Church ; the Epistle to the Romans, a
doctrinal and practical treatise ; the Book of Hebrews,
concerned with priesthood, sacrifice, and worship ;
and the little Letter of Jude, dealing with apostasy
and prophetic hope; and we shall easily discover
that they all, abounding as they do with quotations,
incidents, illustrations, and arguments from the Old
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 159
Testament writings, are so interwoven in thought and
reasoning with these, as to depend absolutely for their
own cohesion and integrity upon the Inspiration and
authority of "the Law and the Prophets."
Matthew, including, as it of course does, the utter
ances of the Lord Jesus, contains nearly one hundred
citations, references, and allusions to the Old Testa
ment Books, mentioning by name Moses, David, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Daniel, and Jonah ; * and quoting freely
from such prophets as Hosea, Micah, Zechariah, and
Malachi. \ The Acts, amid the solemn scenes of the
upper room and Pentecost, opens with direct appeals
to David, Joel, Samuel, " and all the prophets," and
ends with warnings drawn from Moses and Isaiah ; t
while the apostles, in the most fearless manner,
whether answering anxious sinners or facing hostile
priests and people, simply crowded their addresses
with proofs from David, Moses, Isaiah, and even
Habakkuk. Speaking in holy prayer to almighty
God, the disciples reverentially quote the Lord s own
words, " bij the mouth of Thij servant David " ; Stephen,
arguing for his life in the power of the Holy Ghost,
delivers his entire apology from the Historical Books
of the Old Testament, quotation following quotation,
and incident succeeding incident ; Philip, speaking to
the eunuch, leads him to the Lord Jesus out of the
prophet Isaiah ; James, at the anxious council meeting
in Jerusalem, bases his important " sentence " upon an
argument drawn from the prophet Amos; "Paul, as
his manner was, reasoned with them (the Jews) out of
* Matt. viii. 4 ; xxii. 43-45 ; iv. 14-16 ; ii. 17 ; xxiv. 15 ; xii.
39-41.
f Ibid. ii. 15, 5, 6; xxi. 4, 5 ; xi. 10.
| Acts i. 16 ; ii. 16-21 ; iii. 24 ; xxviii. 23-27.
Ibid. ii. 25-31 ; iii. 22 ; xiii. 40-47.
160 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
the Scriptures " ; the Bereans were counted " more
noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received
the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the
Scriptures daily, whether those things were so " ;
Apollos, the wonderful orator, displayed great power
and eloquence in preaching because he was "mighty
in the Scriptures";* and, in fact, it is utterly im
possible to read through such addresses as those
delivered by Peter in the earlier, and Paul in the
latter portion of the Acts, without the most profound
conviction that these men, speaking through the direct
guidance of the Holy Ghost, staked absolutely all upon
" those things which God had spoken by the mouth of
all His holy prophets since the world began." t
Next glance at that memorable Epistle addressed
"to all that be in Borne, beloved of God, called to be
saints." Note its commencement: "Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto
the Gospel of God (which He had promised afore by
His prophets in the Holy Scriptures}, concerning His
Son Jesus Christ our Lord, \vhich was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh ; and declared to
be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit
of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" ; and
its conclusion : " Now to Him that is of power to
stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching
of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the
mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the ever
lasting God, made known to all nations for the
:;: Acts iv. 25, 26 ; vii. ; viii. 28-35 ; xv. 15-17 ; xvii. 2, 11 ;
xviii. 24.
| Ibid. ii. ; iii. 12-26 ; iv. 8-12 ; x. 34-43 ; xiii. 16-41 ; xxiv.
14-16 ; xxvi. 1-24 ; xxviii. 23-28.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 161
obedience of faith ; to God only wise, be glory
through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen." In this
remarkable Book, to say nothing of quite a multitude
of allusions to history, type, and teaching, there are at
least sixty direct quotations from the Old Testament
Scriptures constituting ONE-SEVENTH PORTION OF THE
ENTIRE EPISTLE ; the phrase, " it is written," occurs
no less than eighteen times as conclusive and final in
the apostle s argument ; t prophets like Moses, Isaiah,
David, and Hosea are mentioned by name ; I and
citations from Kings, Proverbs, Ezekiel, Joel, Habak-
kuk, and Malachi are produced as authoritative ;
while, in establishing the cardinal doctrines of justifi
cation by faith, the sovereignty of God, and the free-
ness of the Gospel offer: "whosoever believeth on
Him shall not be ashamed " ; the existence in days of
worst apostasy of "a remnant according to the election
of grace " ; and the fact that " whatsoever things were
written aforetime, were written for our learning, that
we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope"; Paul invariably appeals to "the
Scripture" or "Scriptures," and, in one instance, to
that weird Horeb incident narrated in the Historical
Book of Kings, " Wot ye not what the Scripture saith
of Elias? " It is, therefore, evident that any criticism
which discredits or mutilates the Pentateuch, the
Psalms, and especially the prophet Isaiah, dislocates
and destroys the teaching, reasoning, and authority of
the Epistle to the Komans.
:;: Kom. i. 1-4 ; xvi. 25-27.
I Ibid. i. 17 ; ii. 24 ; iii. 4, 10 ; iv. 17, 23 ; viii. 36 ; ix. 13, 33 ;
x. 5, 15 ; xi. 8, 26 ; xii. 19 ; xiv. 11 ; xv. 3, 9, 21.
J Ibid. x. 19, 20 ; xi. 9 ; ix. 25.
Ibid. xi. 2 ; xii. 19 ; ii. 24 ; x. 13 ; i. 17 ; ix. 13.
|| Ibid. iv. 3 ; ix. 17 ; x. 11 ; xi. 2; xv. 4.
12
162 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOliD
The " Two Isaiahs " Unknown to Christ and His
Apostles.
And here it may be strongly emphasised that, in
making his eighteen quotations from " the Evangelical
prophet," the apostle had evidently no knowledge of
the modern theory of a dual authorship of Isaiah, since
not only are his citations nearly equally divided, eight
being from the first thirty-nine, and ten from the last
twenty-seven chapters of the Book, but he deliberately
quotes two utterances, in the ninth chapter of his
Epistle, under Isaiah s name, both from chapters
PRECEDING the fortieth, and two more, in his tenth
chapter, " as Esaias saith," SUBSEQUENT to the
fortieth chapter of his prophecy. * Similarly, the
apostle MATTHEW, in recording incidents relating to
the Saviour s life, writes, " that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Esaias the prophet," referring
to the ninth, fifty-third, and forty-second chapters
respectively, t JOHN THE BAPTIST, quoting from the
fortieth chapter, says, "I am the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord,
as said the prophet Esaias " ; I and OUR LORD exclaims,
alluding to the twenty-ninth chapter, "Well hath Esaias
prophesied " ; while, in the synagogue at Nazareth, He
read from the sixty-first chapter of "the Book of the
prophet Esaias," and applying the words to Himself,
said, " This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your
ears." JOHN the beloved, also, in accounting for
the rejection of Jesus by the Jews, gives an explana
tion based upon " the saying of Esaias the prophet " ;
and, in two verses immediately succeeding each other,
quotes from the earlier and latter portions of Isaiah,
Rom. ix. 27, 29; x. 16, 20. f Matt. iv. 14; viii. 17 ; xii. 17.
; ( l John i. 2o. j Mark vii. 6 ; Luke iv. 17-21.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 163
indiscriminately (or perhaps I should rather say, dis-
criminately, and deliberately), as the utterances and
predictions of God, through ONE man" :* and LUKE,
the historian, describes the eunuch reading from the
fifty-third chapter of " Esaias " ; and Paul, citing
warning words from the sixth chapter, "-Well spake
the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet." f Thus, if
the modern " two Isaiahs " theory be correct, the
Divinely-ordained apostles Matthew, John, and Paul,
the Inspired historians, Mark and Luke, the God-
appointed preacher, John the Baptist, and, above all,
our adorable Lord and Saviour, were ignorant and
destitute of the knowledge and learning assumed by
certain ephemeral divinity professors of the boastful
twentieth century. In the face of such a tremendous,
and we must, in all kindliness, say blasphemous asser
tion, surely we may be pardoned the satire of quoting
a sentence from the lips of a notorious though anti-
Christian authority, hoping, however, that its attendant
consequences will not overtake these hardy critics,
" Jesus I know, and Paul I know ; but who are
ye?";
An Epistle which Disappears if Quotations Omitted.
Then, again, take the Epistle to the Hebrews ; not
only does that Book contain some forty-one direct
quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures, but its
teachings and arguments depend so absolutely upon
the last half of Exodus, a few chapters in Leviticus,
and certain Psalms, that, if these were, cut out of the
Bible, the ivhole Letter to the Hebrews (except, perhaps,
two chapters), would necessarily vanish; while the
* John xii. 38-41. f Acts viii. 28-35 ; xxviii. 25-27.
t Ibid. xix. 15.
164 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
symbolism and ritual of the tabernacle priesthood,
worship, and sacrifice, typical and transitory though
they were, form not merely the scaffolding, but the
very foundation of the apostle s reasoning, without
which he could not deduce nor lay down his impor
tant teaching concerning Christ s finished sacrifice and
the ascended Saviour s priestly intercession. *
For example, after the preface to the Epistle, the
remainder of the first chapter consists exclusively,
until the last verse, of six quotations strung together
from the Book of Psalms, all heralded in by the signifi
cant assertion, " He (God) saith," and ranging from the
second Psalm to the one hundred and tenth, t Nor is
this all : profound conclusions concerning the believer s
eternal security and the second advent of grace and
judgment are boldly proclaimed upon the authority of
sentences cited from such prophets as Habakkitk and
Haggai, and nearly half the eighth chapter of the
Epistle consists of one long quotation from Jeremiah ; *
it being distinctly affirmed that the Holy GJiost spake
through David, Moses, and Jeremiah. The expression
already alluded to, " He saith," and its cognates, occur
with prodigal profusion through the Book ; and
strange, old-time incidents and histories are mentioned
in language of the clearest simplicity and assured faith.
Thus, the mysterious ministry and position of the
angels ; 1 the creation of the earth ; ** and God s own
rest day in connection therewith ; -t- t the supremacy of
the first man over an unf alien creation; * * the superiority
:;: Heb. vii.-x. t Ibid. i. 5-14.
I Ibid. x. 37, 38; xii. 26; viii. 8-12. j Ibid. iii. 7; ix. 8 ; x. 15.
Ibid. i. 2, 5-8, 10, 18 ; ii. 12, 13 ; iii. 10, 11, 18; iv. 3-5, 7 ;
v. 5, 6; vi. 14 ; vii. 21 ; viii. 5, 8, 13 ; x. 5, 7-9, 15, 30; xiii. 5.
Ibid, i.-ii. ** Ibid. i. 10 ; xi. 3.
ft Ibid. iv. 4. I Ibid. ii. 6-8.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 165
of Abel s sacrifice to Cain s, and Cain s consequent
murder of his brother ; * the holy life and translation
of Enoch without death ; t the faith of Noah, his ark-
building and the flood ; t the literal existence of " the
pilgrim fathers," Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; the
miraculous conception of Sarah ; \ ( the sudden, weird,
sublime introduction and departure of the king-priest,
Melchisedek ; li" the sacrifice on Mount Moriah;** the
selling of Esau s birthright for a mess of pottage ft
the carrying of Joseph s bones out of Egypt into
Canaan ; 1 1 the hiding, preservation, and nobility of
Moses, the paschal feast, and redemption of the
children of Israel by blood, the dry passage through
the Red Sea, and the overthrow of the Egyptians;
the thunders and judgments of Mount Sinai; |||| the
priesthood of Aaron, and the miraculous budding of his
rod; rf y the leadership of Joshua;*** the falling of the
w r alls of Jericho, the salvation of liahab the harlot, the
heroism " of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and
of Jephthae ; of David also, and Samuel, and of the
prophets ; -f-ft are all spoken of as FACTS, not legends ;
and lessons, both doctrinal and practical, are deduced
and driven home therefrom.
Intricate Teachings Depend on Single Words.
Yea, the writer of the Epistle goes even further, for
he urges, reasons, builds up, and overthrows theories
from single words in his quotations, " Son," " God,"
:;: Heb. xi. 4 ; xii. 24. ) Ibid. xi. 5. ;j; Ibid. xi. 7.
Ibid. ii. 16 ; vii. 1-10; xi. 8-21. j| Ibid. xi. 11, 12.
11 Ibid. vii. * Ibid. vi. 13-15 ; xi. 17-19.
f| Ibid. xii. 16, 17. [ \ Ibid. xi. 22. j j Ibid. xi. 23-29.
{HI Ibid. xii. 18-21. 1Tf Ibid. v. 4 ; ix. 4.
#** Ibid. iv. 8. Iff Ibid. xi. 30-32.
IfiG GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
" all/ " my," " to-day," " for ever," " new," " hearts,"
" son," " yet once more " * and even, occasionally, from
the silences and omissions of the Old Testament Scrip
tures, just as a pause in music has a rhythmic eloquence
that sound alone would fail to suggest ; t and that, too,
on no mean or unimportant themes, the absolute,
essential Deity, and unique Sonship of our Lord, and
yet His kinship with His brethren ; the superiority of
His everlasting Melchisedek priesthood over that of
Aaron and all his dying and fallible successors ; the
passing away of the old legal covenant of death and
bondage, and the introduction of the new glad one of
Gospel grace and liberty ; the supremacy of the spiritual
and eternal over that which was merely ritual, mundane,
mechanical ; and the final convulsion and overthrow of
all anti-Christian powers and systems, " that those
things which cannot be shaken may remain " ; these
positions and truths are all enunciated, and, in many
instances, regarded by the writer as established and
proven through the strong emphasis placed upon single
words. Therefore, manifestly, and pre-eminently even
above all other New Testament Books, the Epistle to
the Hebrews becomes full of light and leading, or dark
and valueless, according to our acceptance or rejection
of the Verbal Inspiration of the Old Testament
Scriptures.
Hoiu did Jude quote from Enoch
We have traced the application of this principle
through a Gospel Memoir, a Historical Book, a
Doctrinal Epistle, and a Treatise on spiritual sacrifice
:;: Heb. i. 5, 8 ; ii. 8, 12 ; iii. 7, and iv. 7 ; iii. 11, and iv. 5 ; v. 6 ;
vii. 17, 21 ; viii. 8, 13 ; viii. 10, and x. 16 ; xii. 5 ; xii. 27.
| Ibid. vii. 3, 14, &c.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 1G7
and worship ; now let us glance at the little Letter of
Jude, nestling, as it does, upon the very threshold of
ImmanueFs Land, and the Golden City ; and written
because " there should be mockers in the last time,"
expressly to warn believers in "the common salvation,"
in days of deepening apostasy and lasciviousness, that
they " should earnestly contend for the faith which
was once for all delivered unto the saints." * Amid
the tremendous solemnities of his profound convictions
concerning present sin and coming judgment, and in
the full consciousness that Paul and Peter had both
penned their last words of pregnant warning t the
apostle writes his brief and only Epistle, in language
of the strongest dogmatism, regarding past history as
well as unfulfilled prophecy; and, after reading his
Letter, we indignantly and instinctively repel the
insinuation that such a man, of such a spirit, would
recall to mind merely traditional legends, much as
nurserymaids conjure up "bogies" to frighten into a
doubtful and spasmodic goodness wicked children !
and yet, here they are ! these disputed, ridiculed
incidents of the Pentateuch, the overthrow of Sodom
and Gomorrha by fire from heaven ; I " the way of
Cain," " the error of Balaam," " the gainsaying of
Core " ; the destruction of the unbelieving Israelites
in the wilderness ; |j the fall and consequent judgment
of the rebellious angels ; 1~ the previously unrecorded
prophecy of " Enoch, the seventh from Adam" ;** and
the strange, mysterious disputation between Michael
and the devil " about the body of Moses." ft How did
Jude get and give these last-named circumstances, except
upon the laws of Verbal Inspiration ? Indeed, it is
::: Jude 3, 18. ) Ibid. 17 ; 2 Tim. ; 2 Pet.
\ Jude 7. Ibid. 11. || Ibid. 5.
1T Ibid. 6. ** Ibid. 14, 15. ft Ibid. 9.
168 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS AYOKD
impossible to attach any credence or weight whatso
ever to his Epistle unless we also accept, and that, too,
in a frank and unreserved fashion, the absolute infalli
bility of the Books of Moses.
Peter s Preaching and Writings.
Nor do the ministries and writings of the apostles
Peter and Paul anywhere indicate the smallest devia
tion from this same New Testament method of a full
and authoritative endorsement of the Old Testament
Scriptures. Thus we find Peter exclaiming, " The
Holy Ghost through (Greek, dia) the mouth of David
spake " ; * " This is that which was spoken through
the prophet Joel " ; t " David speaketh," c. ; t " God
hath spoken through the mouth of all His holy
prophets," . . . "Moses truly said," . . . "All the
prophets from Samuel have spoken."^ On the solemn
day of Pentecost, fully half oi. the apostle s memorable
sermon consisted of the actual words of Joel and
David ; \\ and his address to Cornelius and the Gentile
brethren concludes with the unqualified assertion,
"To Him (Jesus) give all the prophets witness, that
through His Name whosoever believeth in Him shall
receive remission of sins; IT of the pre-Calvary prophets
he writes, " The Spirit of Christ which was in them
did signify ; " ** " Holy men of God spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost"; ft and in his reasonings
he quotes and applies Scriptures from Leviticus,
Isaiah, and the Psalms; H while one entire argument
practically hinges upon the single word "lord" used
::: Acts i. 16. | Ibid. ii. 16.
I Ibid. ii. 25, 30, 31, 34. Ibid. iii. 18-24.
|| Ibid. ii. 14-36. r Ibid. x. 43. ** 1 Pet. i. 11.
I) 2 Pet. i. 21. t + 1 Pet. i. 16; ii. 6, 7.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 169
by Sarah to her husband Abraham.* The building,
by Noah, of the ark, " wherein few, that is, eight souls
were saved" from the flood which drowned "the
world of the ungodly," is thrice mentioned, t The
terrible condemnation of " the angels that sinned,"
the overthrow of " the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha
into ashes," and the deliverence of "just Lot," the
iniquity of Balaam, and even the miraculous testimony
of "the dumb ass speaking with man s voice," t are
incidents alluded to by Peter as facts, not fables,
ancient judgments full of solemn warning to the
apostate, profligate, and sceptical.
Pauls Scriptural Heresy.
The greater portion of his " beloved brother Paul s "
first recorded speech is also a recital of narratives from
the Historical Books, " the voices of the prophets
which are read every Sabbath day," and quotations
from the Psalms of David, where "He (God) saith,"
and winds up with a powerful appeal to his hearers,
" Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which
is spoken of in the prophets." When anxious to
persuade the Jews, he invariably " reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures " ; defending himself before Felix
and Agrippa, he reiterated his creed of Scriptural heresy,
" This I confess unto thee, that after the way which
they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers,
believing all things which are written in the law and
in the prophets " ; " having therefore obtained help of
God, I continue unto this day witnessing both to small
and great, saying none other things than those which
::: 1 Pet. iii. 6. | Ibid. iii. 20 ; 2 Pet. ii. 5 ; iii. 6.
\ 1 Pet. ii. 4; 6-8; 15, 16. Acts xiii. 27, 29, 82-35, 40.
170 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
the prophets and Moses did say should come." * If
it be a matter of breaking through sectarian bondage,
and preaching Gospel liberty to the Gentiles, main
taining reverence to those in lawful authority, giving
the exclusive glory of man s salvation and righteous
ness to God, or advocating adequate ministerial pay
ment, Paul clinches every argument or testimony with
an "It is written," or, " The Scripture saith." f
In the incomparable fifteenth chapter of First
Corinthians, possibly, the supremest utterance even
of Divine revelation, when defining the Gospel, the
apostle says, " For I delivered unto you first of all that
which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures ; and that He was buried,
and that He rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures" ; and in emphasising the ultimate King
ship of the risen Christ, the creation of " the first man
Adam," and the triumphant swallowing up of death in
victory, he quotes successively from David, Moses, and
Isaiah ;* concerning whom he says, in another place,
" Well spake the Holy Ghost through Esaias " ; and
so W 7 e find it in all his writings, whether by suggestion
and implication, as in 2 Corinthians hi., or by direct
citation, as further on in the same Epistle, where
" God hath said," or some such phrase occurs four
times over in one chapter.
He bases Arguments upon Historical Sequences.
Thus, for example, in Paul s deep and intricate
argument with the Galatian Church, in a passage of
sixty verses, he quotes no less than ten times from the
:;: Acts xvii. 2 ; xxiv. 14 ; xxvi. 22.
f Ibid. xiii. 47 ; xxiii. 5. 1 Cor. i. 31 ; 1 Tim. v. 18.
; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4, 25, 45, 54.
j Acts xxviii. 25. 2 Cor. vi. 2, 16, 17, 18.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 171
Old Testament Scriptures, appealing principally to
Genesis and Deuteronomy, and using such expressions
as "The Scripture, foreseeing, "It is evident, for,"
"The Scripture hath," &c. ;* and, on the historic
sequence of events, the giving of the covenant prior
to the law, and the birth of Ishmael, " the son of the
hondwoman," before Isaac, " the child of promise,"
demonstrates beyond all disputation our Christian
liberty from legal fears and ceremonial bondage ; and,
indeed, like Peter, and our adorable Saviour, stakes all
upon a singular noun in that old pledge given by " the
Lord God Almighty" to a man some critics say never
existed, " Now to Abraham and his seed were the
promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of
many ; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is
Christ. "t Similarly, in the apostle s Letter to the
Ephesians, a knowledge of the temple ritual, and of
the marriage relationship before the Fall, is necessary
to fully trace and appreciate the teaching of the second
and fifth chapters * while, at the same time, he also
quotes, according to Divine precedent, from " Moses,
and the Prophets, and the Psalms," to sustain his
positions and doctrines on other matters.
Paul versus Modern Critics.
Not only, however, does Paul thus preach and reason
from the literalism of Old Testament Scriptures ; but,
* Gal iii. 8, 10-13, 16, 22 ; iv. 22, 27, 30.
f Ibid. iii. 6-18 ; iv. 22-31. It is important to notice that verse
17 proves that God s covenant with Abraham was one of free grace
only, the birth and subsequent circumcision of Ishmael occurring
some twenty-three years later. (See also v. 2-4 ; and llomans
iv. 10.) Note, in addition, how Paul reasons in Rom. ix. 7, making
all depend upon the one word " Isaac."
I Eph. ii. 11-22 ; v. 22-83. Ibid. vi. 2 ; v. 14 ; iv. 8.
17-2 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
in common with our beloved Lord, and all His apostles,
he also unreservedly accepts and endorses those facts
and incidents from the Pentateuch which are, in cer
tain " cultured " quarters to-day, discredited and
despised ; the creation of Adam and Eve, the ser
pent s subtlety in tempting her, the woman s trans
gression, " being deceived," the fall of Adam through
disobedience, and the transmission of sin, and the
curse, and death, in consequence, upon the whole
human race.* The blasted cities of the plain ; t the
literal existence of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah,
Hagar, and Rebekah, the miraculous birth of Isaac,
and his superiority over Ishmael, the supremacy of
Jacob over Esau by Divine decree;* the triumph of
Moses and the overthrow of his opponents, Jannes
and Jambres ; the passage of the Israelites through
the Red Sea ; the destruction of Pharaoh ; the veil
upon the prophet s face after communion with God ;
the smitten rock, the fiery serpents, and the judgments
of God on His murmuring and disobedient people,
&c., are incidentally alluded to, and, in every case,
acute and practical deductions made therefrom for our
benefit and warning. What wonder, therefore, that in
the last Letter which the apostle wrote, he should
enforce upon youthful Timothy how " all Scripture is
given by Inspiration of God, and is profitable for doc
trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works."
* 1 Tim. ii. 13, 14 ; 2 Cor. xi. 3 ; Bom. v. 12-21.
| Rom. ix. 29.
; Ibid. iv. 1-3, 18-21 ; ix. 10-14. Gal. iv. 24, 25.
< 2 Tim. iii. 8; 1 Cor. x. 1; Rom. ix. 17; 2 Cor. iii. 13-18;
1 Cor. x. 4-11.
,1 2 Tim. iii. 16. 17.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 173
Shall we ? need we ? can we ? say more, in con
cluding this endorsement of the Old Testament
Writings, save that JAMES, the blunt and practical,
who brought the teaching of Christianity into the
common places of daily life, equally with JOHN, the
mystic and prophet, who lived upon the heights of
communion and fellowship with the God of light and
love, stand here in fullest harmony with all the other
witnesses; as the former reasons, "according to the
Scripture,"* and writes concerning Abraham and
Isaac on the mount of sacrifice ; Kahab and her salva
tion from the ruin of Jericho ; " the patience of Job " ;
and Elijah s marvellous shutting and opening of the
very windows of heaven ; t and the latter speaks of
" that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan" ; of Cain,
his brother s murderer ; of Baalam, mentioned in the
Book of Numbers ; of Jezebel, in the history of the
kings ; of Michael, in the prophecy of Daniel, " the song
of Moses," " angel s food,"; " the river" and " the tree
of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." J
Verily, unless the apostles of our Lord were men
who merely juggled with words, or " wrested the
Scriptures to their own destruction," slaves to tradi
tion, deficient in knowledge, dishonourable in charac
ter, and unreliable in statement, we must accept or
reject the testimony of Matthew, Peter, Paul, James,
Jude, and John, as we believe or discredit the writings
of Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Zecha-
riah, and "all the prophets." Thus may I nay, I
must, "I can do no other, God help me!" again
repeat, if the Old Testament characters be mythical,
the Old Testament histories legendary, the Old Testa-
Jas. ii. 8, 23 ; iv. 5, 6. f Ibid. ii. 21, 25 ; v. 11, 17, 18.
I Kev. xii. 9 ; 1 John iii. 12 ; llev. ii. 14, 20 ; xii. 7 ; xv. 3 ; ii. 7 ;
xxii. 1, 2.
174 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
nient teachings undepe>idable, and the Old Testament
prophecies illusory, ice are forced to the terrible and
irresistible conclusion that Jesus ivas not God, and His
apostles were but dupes or charlatans ; but what of
that? Mr. A. still preaches "sanitary reform" to
large and fashionable congregations ! Dr. B. exposes
every Sunday the mistakes of Moses ! Professor C
has shut Daniel in his den, and put Jonah under
water ! Mr. D. lectures on music, and has an occa
sional " seance " ! The very Kev. Dr. E. tells us there
is no hell, no judgment, no resurrection, and is, confi
dentially, not even sure of Heaven ! " Let us eat and
drink, for to-morrow we die" ; and when we do, it
will gild our last moments with a glow of satisfaction
to know that when we and the preachers are buried
and forgotten, Moses, David, Isaiah, and, above all,
Paul, will live no longer in the memory of men, or
or
Will Peter s words (borrowed from Isaiah, too) come
true :
" All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof
f alleth away ;
But the Word of the Lord endurethfor ever.
And this is the Word which by the Gospel is
preached unto you " ?
And will Daniel s prophecy have a resurrection,
" Many of them that sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake,
some to everlasting life, and some
to shame and everlasting contempt . *
- 1 Pet. i. 24, 25 ; Dan. xii. 2.
EXCURSUS ON THE DEITY OF
CHRIST
IT may be as well immediately to boldly and simply
state our conviction that after all Christianity is
Christ. If any stain or defect be discovered in His
life and character, the mirror wherein He expounds
God the Father is necessarily sullied, and becomes
exactly in that same proportion a non-conducting
medium of revelation, as His kingdom, ethics, and
subjects stand or fall by Himself. And because our
only knowledge of such a revelation depends exclu
sively upon the Holy Scriptures, it is therefore of
paramount importance, since He has so unquestionably
and fully endorsed the sacred writings of Moses and
of " all the prophets," that we at once and clearly
affirm or deny our belief in the integrity of His
character and the infallibility of His testimony. To
have a limited belief in Jesus as a supremely good but
partially ignorant man is necessarily to open the door
to an inevitable scepticism, since some faith must lead
logically to none, and shatter both the Incarnate and
the written Word ; therefore aut Dominus aut niillus,
either the God-man or an Impostor is, as we shall
see, not only the terrible alternative involved in the
claims of Christ and His apostles, but a necessary corol
lary to the mind of those who profess any substantial,
pure, soul-satisfying faith in Christ and Christianity.
176 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
Neither are we reasoning on vicious lines, nor in
a circle, when upbuilding Christ s claims of equality
with God the Father upon those very Scriptures which
we also assert possess their strongest credential and
guarantee in His endorsement of them, because
simply (at this stage) we only ask for these records
the same reliance and respect afforded to any properly
accredited historical writings, as true and honest
memoirs of the birth, life, character, and death of
Jesus of Nazareth. Nay, let it never be forgotten
that without them we are bereft of any knowledge
whatsoever of that life, the purity of which, and those
teachings the ethics of which even the most pro
nounced and hostile sceptics admit stand unparalleled
for holiness, grace, unselfishness, and dignity amid all
annals of men and histories of creeds ; therefore, if we
be wrong in appealing to such records for evidence of
Christ s claims and proofs of His divinity, all others
are also in error in even mentioning that life, or
quoting from these teachings at all, since only from
the one and the selfsame source can any information,
whether accurate or errant, complete or fragmentary,
be derived.
We will accordingly consider : (1) The CLAIMS ;
(2) the ENDORSEMENTS ; and (3) the CONSEQUENCES of
the tremendous affirmation of Jesus Christ, "I am
the Son of God* upon the truth or falsity of which
Christianity itself to this moment stands or falls.
1. THE CLAIMS OF JESUS CHRIST.
(a) CHRIST S TEACHING AS AUTHORITATIVE AS THAT
OF GOD HIMSELF. The supremely high and dignified
: Matt. xxvi. 63, 65 ; Mark xiv. 61, 64 ; Luke xxii. 66-71 ; John
x. 36.
EXCUKSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHEIST 177
tone adopted by the Lord Jesus in all His public and
private utterances and teachings, in which He dis
tinctly and definitely asserted an authority co-equal to
that of God the Father, must be at once obvious to
even a superficial reader of the Gospel narratives. It
was not merely that " He taught them (the people) as
one having authority, and not as the scribes," * and
invariably elevated His speeches above those of the
scribes and Pharisees, who taught "for doctrines the
commandments of men," t controverting, amending,
and denouncing many of their words and actions, nor
yet that as God s mouthpiece like Moses, David, or
Isaiah, He declared in an infallible fashion unto the
multitude the unfoldings of the Divine will, but that
with a persistent and unique self-assertion He placed
His teachings upon a platform exactly similar to those
of God Himself, substituting for a " thus saith the
Lord," or "the word of the Lord came," His oft-
repeated, terse, commanding, pregnant sentence,
"but I say unto you," I and as the Founder
of a new Empire, the foundations of which were
moral and spiritual, promulgated His laws and
commandments, the applications of which were to be
world-wide, reaching down all time until His second
advent in the clouds of heaven, [\ unswerving in their
integrity, universal in their love, holy yet tender in
all their applications, palliating no truce with sin or
popular prejudice, and admitting of no revision or
amendment, since " Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but My words shall not pass away. "IT These facts,
combined with His emphatic warnings that those who
reject His testimony and message, even though given
* Matt. vii. 29. f Ibid. xv. 1-9.
I See ante pp. 107, 108. Matt. xiii. ; John xviii. 36, 37.
|| Matt. xxvi. 64 ; Mark xiv. 61, 62. * Matt. xxiv. 35.
13
178 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
through His disciples, would be treated with as dire
and terrible judgment as any who despised His
Father s will, * and the authority of His great and
final commandment " All power is given unto Me in
heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make dis
ciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost :
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you ; and, lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the age. Amen " I which linked His
own name on an equality with those of the Father
and the Holy Spirit, all unite in establishing the
assertion that Christ spake and acted with an
authority and dignity never before claimed even by
the holiest of God s Spirit-filled prophets, and in
harmony with the tremendous truth which He con
tinually emphasised, " All things are delivered unto Me
of My Father : and no man knoweth the Son, but the
Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
Him," + afford startling evidence that Jesus as " the
Son of man" ever insisted also upon His grand and
solitary position as " the Son of God."
But in addition to this (b) we find our Lord during
His earth-life fully and deliberately accepting such
ADORATION and WORSHIP AS is DUE ONLY TO THE
ETERNAL GOD,
and that too without a whisper of expostulation or
reproach, though in His controversy with the devil
He quoted as conclusive against such a tribute to
any creature the startling, clear-cut statement from
::: Matt. xi. 20-24 ; xxi. 42-44. Mark viii. 88 ; Luke x. 10-16 ;
John iii. 18 ; xii. 48.
f Matt, xxviii. 18-20. j Ibid. xi. 27.
EXCURSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST 179
the Book of Deuteronomy, "It is written, Thon shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou
serve." * Now such action on the part of a purely
human Christ is utterly incompatible with His oft-
repeated assertions of lowliness and meekness, unless
on the simple ground of His own Godhood. If
not divine, Jesus was neither humble nor unselfish,
as He unquestionably made a practice of attracting
and drawing forth the loyalties and reverence of
mortals unto Himself, which attitude, when displayed
towards themselves, the apostles Peter, Paul, and
John indignantly and instantly checked as grossly
dishonouring to Almighty God. So that we are at
once brought face to face with this simple, solemn
issue, Should such homage have been paid to Christ as
Himself God, or should it not ? For that He received
and even encouraged it is beyond all shade of con
troversy. Thus not only the "Magi," shepherds, and
angels rendered it to the infant Jesus, t but cleansed
lepers, troubled parents, wayward disciples, anxious
sinners, pious rulers of synagogues, dying men,
Roman officers, tender women, raging demoniacs,
ay, and even devils, all did likewise ; I while the
exclamation of Nathanael, "Rabbi, Thou art the
Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel," the
confession of Simon Peter, " Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God," jj and the adoration of
Thomas, " My Lord and my God," IT so far from
meriting rebuke, but called forth from Christ the
::: Matt. iv. 10. | Ibid. ii. 1, 2, 11 ; Luke ii. 8-20.
\ Matt. viii. 2 ; ix. 18 ; xv. 25 ; xiv. 83 ; xxviii. 17. John xx. 28 ;
Luke v. 8 ; viii. 47. John ix. 88 ; Luke xxiii. 42 ; Acts vii. 59 ;
Matt. viii. 8-10; xxvii. 54; xx. 20; xxviii. 9. Mark i. 24 ; v. 7.
Matt. viii. 29 ; Luke viii. 28 ; iv. 34, 41.
j John i. 49. Matt. xvi. 16 ; John vi. 69. ; John xx. 28.
180 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
simple, startling, and sublime affirmations, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of man"; "Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto
thee, but My Father which is in heaven" ; " Because
thou hast seen Me thou hast believed : blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet have believed " ; " that all
men should honour the Son, even as they honour the
Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth
not the Father which hath sent Him. *
We proceed, however, further than these assertions
of authority, and ascriptions of worship, and note (c)
how our Lord distinctly affirms His possession of the
divine attributes, and actually
CLOTHES HIMSELF WITH THE VERY FUNCTIONS AND
POWERS OF DEITY.
Thus Christ is not content with deliberately proclaim
ing His perfect obedience to the Father s will and
unswerving sinlessness, exclaiming to His accusing
enemies, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?"
" for I do always those things w r hich please Him," t
a claim of immaculate purity sustained and endorsed
by the apostles in their post-pentecostal testimony, I
but He even lays hold of the attributes of God Himself
by affirming power to elect and sanctify His disciples,
to forgive sins, to read the hearts of men,* 7 to work
miracles in His own right,** to restore life, to send down
* John i. 50 ; Matt. xvi. 17 ; John xx. 29 ; v. 23.
f John viii. 46, 29.
J 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Heb. vii. 26 ; 1 Pet. ii. 22 ; 1 John iii. 5 ; &c.
John xiii. 18 ; xvii. 18, 19. \\ Matt. ix. 6 ; Mark ii. 10.
IT Matt. ix. 4 ; John ii. 24, 25 ; iv. 17 ; &c.
:;::;: Matt. viii. 7-10.
EXCUESUS ON THE DEITY OF CHEIST 181
the Holy Spirit,* and finally raising the bodies of just
and unjust from their graves to personally judge and
sentence such at the last great day, the rejection of
His message and gospel involving solemn and eternal
doom t "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and
quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath
committed all judgment unto the Son : that all men
should honour the Son even as they honour the
Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth
not the Father which hath sent Him. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and
believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into judgment ; but is passed from
death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The
hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God : and they that hear shall
live. For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath
He given to the Son to have life in Himself ; and hath
given Him authority to execute judgment also, because
He is the Son of man. Marvel not at this : for the
hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves
shall hear His voice, and shall come forth ; they that
have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they
that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damna
tion." " Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of
Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, of Him also shall the Son of man be
ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father
with the holy angels." I It is needless to add that
such claims are simply full of unadulterated blasphemy
if proceeding from the lips of any mere human or
angelic creature, however gifted, graced, and holy.
* John xvi. 7. f Matt. xxv. 31-46.
t John v. 21-29 ; Mark viii. 38. See also Matt. xi. 20-30.
182 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
But finally our Lord asserts, in language of the
simplest and most unequivocal description
(d.) HlS ACTUAL EQUALITY WITH G OD THE FATHEB,
a claim which, as we have already said, underlies His
entire attitude of life, whether towards the Father or
mortal man ; indeed, from the Incarnation to the
Ascension the whole career of Jesus is surrounded with
an atmosphere of the divine and supernatural,* as He
stills the tempest, multiplies the loaves, miraculously
safeguards His own life, reveals His transfiguration
glory., penetrates sealed doors, and raises the dead, t
Not only does He, as we have stated, deliberately
associate Himself in a communion of such close in
timacy of thought and authority with the Father,
Who "loveth the Son, and hath given all things into
His hand," t as to exclaim, " All things are delivered to
Me of My Father ; and no man knoweth who the
Son is, buttheFather ; and who the Father is, but the
Son, and he to w T hom the Son will reveal Him " ; " All
things that the Father hath are Mine ; therefore said I
that he shall take of Mine, and shall shew r it unto
you," but He throws that partnership backwards to a
pre-existent life "it is My Father that honoureth Me";
" Before Abraham was I am " ; "I came forth from the
Father, and am come into the world : again I leave the
world, and go to the Father" ; " And now, Father,
glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory
W 7 hich I had w T ith Thee before the world was " ;
:|: Luke 1, 35 ; xxiv. 51.
i Mark iv. 37-41 ; Matt, xviii. 34-38 ; Luke iv. 29, 30 ; John
viii. 59 ; Matt. xvii. 1-5 ; Luke xxiv. 31-36 ; John xx. 19-28 ;
Mark v. 35-43 ; Luke vii. 11-16 ; John xi. 43, 44.
I John iii. 35.
$ Luke x. 22 ; John xvi. 15. See also Matt. xi. 27.
John viii. 54-59; xvi. 28; xvii. 5.
EXCUKSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST 183
asserting His descent from God, and ascent to God
" I proceeded forth and came from God " ; " What and
if ye shall see the Son of rnan ascending up where He was
before ? " ; " And no man hath ascended up to heaven,
but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of
man, which is in heaven " ;* and affirms the possession
of omnipresence,! omnipotence,! omniscience. Con
cerning His life as regards His coming death and resur
rection, Christ says pointedly, " I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again"; asserts
His love to be as grand, eternal, and infinite as the
Father s; 51 makes utterance of His will that His people
should be with Him in the glory with the Father ; **
definitely explains to inquiring Philip, " Have I been so
long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me,
Philip ? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ;
and how sayest Thou then, Shew us the Father? " ; +t
and gives His guarantee that " whatsoever ye shall ask
in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son." it Nor is this all, but in the
assertion of His Messiahship and second advent claims
Jesus distinctly affirms that He Himself is " the
Son of man" predicted by Daniel | M j and the universal
Lord spoken of by David as linked in royal partnership
with His Father" The Lord said unto My Lord "
(Heb., " Adonai "), " Sit Thou at My right hand until I
:;; John vii. 42 ; vi. 62 ; iii. 18 ; xiii. 3.
f Ibid. iii. 13 ; Matt, xviii. 20 ; xxviii. 20.
I John v. 25 ; Matt, xxviii. 18 ; Rev. i. 7.
Matt. ix. 4 ; xvii. 27 ; xxi. 2. John i. 49 ; iv. 17, 18.
i| John x. 17, 18. ! Ibid. xv. 9. ** Ibid. xvii. 24.
ft Ibid. xiv. 9. JJ Ibid. xiv. 13, 14.
Matt. xxiv. 30 (it is worthy of note that our Lord is here
answering His disciples question, " What shall be the sign of Thy
coming?" ver. 8) ; xxv. 31; xxvi.64. Mark xiii. 26; xiv. 61,62.
Luke xxi. 27 ; xxii. 67-70. || Dan. vii. 13, 14.
184 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
make Thine enemies Thy footstool " ;* and for the affir
mation of those very claims was on several occasions
nearly stoned by the indignant Jews, because thus
" making Himself equal with God," f and ultimately
condemned by the High Priest and people as guilty of
blasphemy, since " by our law He ought to die, because
He made Himself the Son of God." *
Surely all this wealth of cumulative evidence and
it couli be easily augmented is amply sufficient to
establish the clear and unmistakable claims of Jesus
claims that no one can possibly under any circum
stances, linked as they are with His life of exalted
intelligence, calm dignity, and perfect grace, associate
with those of any historical fanatic or well-meaning
ignoramus, but which, facing us as they do in such a
clear-cut fashion that the humility, unselfishness,
integrity, and honour of Jesus vanish if His claims be
false, compel the acceptance of one or other of the only
solemn and possible alternatives either that the Jews
were right in condemning Jesus of Nazareth as a rank
impostor, and guilty of arrant blasphemy, or else that
the Eoman centurion spake after a Divine inspiration,
when he said, " Truly this man was the Son of God."
2. THE ENDORSEMENTS OF THESE CLAIMS.
(a.) i. The CHARACTER, ii. the TEACHINGS, and iii. the
MIRACLES of CHRIST HIMSELF.
As I hold the self-witness of the Bible constitutes
the strongest evidence of its inspiration, so does the
character of Jesus Christ demonstrate by its inherent
:;: Psa. ex. 1 ; Matt. xxii. 42-45 ; Mark xii. 35-37 ; Luke xx. 41-44.
f John v. 17, 18 ; viii. 40, 59 ; x. 30, 33.
I John xix. 7 ; Matt. ix. 3 ; xxvi. 65, 66. Mark xiv. 63, 64 ;
Luke v. 21 ; xxii. 71.
Mark xv. 39.
EXCUESUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST 185
purity and transparent beauty the reality of His
claims to be "God manifest in the flesh,"* since,
as even Eosseau and other hostile critics have prac
tically admitted, the inventor of the Gospel history
and of such a sublime yet simple life must have
been Himself divine, as great a miracle being de
manded to conceive the character as to live the
record ; and if any man doubt this we simply challenge
him to produce a fifth gospel or to create, discover, or
evolve another Jesus. That no mortal man ever came
within measurable distance of our Lord s immaculate
purity, unswerving unselfishness, fearlessness yet
grace of speech, and untarnished righteousness of
action, must be and is readily admitted by every honest
critic. In fact, all controversy concerning Christianity
necessarily circles around the person of Jesus, and, as
already affirmed, Christianity is Christ. It is needless
for me, therefore, to emphasise this position or strive
to detail the charm and holiness of Him who is
"altogether lovely," "full of grace and truth ";t indeed,
the very effort but reveals the utter barrenness of
human portraiture, it being as impossible to write an
uninspired memoir of the Saviour as to put on canvas
a satisfying conception of His blessed face. And of all
modern lives of Jesus may be remarked what the negro
preacher is reported to have said about a commentary
on the Holy Scriptures, "It is one great book, very
learned and difficult, but the Bible does throw much
light upon the commentary." The fact that no one can
even discover the strongest point in the character of
Christ as in the lives of Abraham, Moses, Paul, and
John, simply because there are no weak ones, and every
thing is in exquisite proportion and perfect equipoise, is
in itself an unexpected evidence that His life is super-
:;: 1 Tim. Hi. 16. f Cant. v. 6; John i. 14.
186 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
natural and divine, the manhood no less real because
ideal and sinless God s great headline for human
copying, wrought out with His own finger. Unlike
other heroes who loom great because obscured amid the
mists of bygone millenniums, the myths and legends
which gather round the early life of Jesus have no
place in the New Testament records, and when the
strange reticence of thirty years is broken the very
intimacy of His wayward, captious, quarrelsome dis
ciples leave Him an incomprehensible mystery and
hero to them still. For remember one flaw of temper,
one shade of selfishness, one word of guile, one action
of unkindness, one whisper of fallibility, must have
immediately obscured the mirror and shattered the
life of their ideal Lord. And in the honest record of
the foundation and growth of Christianity these same
biographers did not suppress, disguise, or extenuate in
even the smallest fashion any fault and slip of its most
noble leaders ; while the impossibility of Christ
maintaining a lifelong lie, and of such falsity yielding
a harvest of moral and social blessing to life and cha
racter, families and nations, all down the centuries,
must be borne irresistibly inward upon the thought of
any logical and reflecting mind. We accept Christ as
divine because the outworking perfections of His
humanity convince us of the indwelling presence of
His Godhead. His whole career is crowded with the
supernatural simply because He is supernatural, and
His entire life is a miracle because He Himself is one.
Then
(ii.) L()OK AT HlS TEACHING,
its spotless, high-tone morality, yet self-sacrificing
ever-enduring love, its searchlight criticism revealing
the reality and exposing the shams of life, and placing
EXCUKSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST 187
this earthly time-bound world in its proper setting as
regards eternal destiny and the greater universe beyond.
Its ethics, touching the common sense and practical, as
well as the high-souled and mystical, denouncing and
damning every taint of sin, the slightest thought of
such being in germ the action, and therefore as detest
able and loathsome in the sight of God, and yet
preaching hope and help and grace, regeneration and
ultimate glory for every needy, broken, and repentant
sinner, in a gospel narrowed down to the need of each
unit, but broadened out to all the world in every age.
a gospel which not only tells a man how he should
live, but, unlike Buddha or Confucius, enables him to
do it ; incarnated, unlike the teachings of Seneca,
in its Founder s own life, and throbbing on still in
a world of sin and death, and shadows to the spiritual
Utopia, the bright millennial morning, the hoped-for
Paradise towards which His followers work and watch
and pray. Why, the veriest sceptic must admit that
if but the maxims, commands, and teachings of Jesus
Christ were carried out the earth would speedily melt
into heaven, and peace and love and purity and joy
rule sweetly over a united, happy, holy, and regenerated
race ; while there is practically nothing bright and
pure, humane and philanthropic, in the philosophies of
earth, which has not borrowed its radiancy and sun
shine from the character and words of Him who is
"the Light of life."*
Once more
(iii.) REMEMBER His MIRACLES,
differentiated from all modern, historical, and evanescent
cures by an infinity of distance, characterised in every
instance by practical benefit to the sick, and needy
:|: John vii. 12.
188 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
ones receiving blessing, and vouched for by so many
unimpeachable witnesses who obeyed the mandate,
" tell . . . what things ye have seen and heard ; how
that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the
poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he whoso
ever shall not be offended in Me." *
If any historical records are to be accredited as true,
and any evidence whatsoever be accepted as testifying
to facts, we cannot on mere grounds of common and
impartial honesty dismiss the witness of these holy
apostles and followers of the Lord Jesus, whose lives
were admittedly pure and unselfish, whose writings
were sublime and intellectual, and whose whole attitude,
whether in living or in dying, was marked by an utter
absence of hysterical sentiment or exaggerated fancy,
and who were men equally incapable of uniting in the
diabolical conspiracy of a gigantic lie or letting their
imagination run wild riot with their customary and
admitted common sense.
Above all, consider the stupendous and crowning
miracle of the resurrection, attested to by hundreds of
clear-headed, simple-hearted, God-loving, man-helping,
eye-witnesses,! which was after all but a necessary
corollary to the profound mysteries of the incarnation
and the cross, and accept it not so much on the past
testimony of dead men only, however good and gracious,
but rather on the present, up-to-date witness of
millions, who, living quiet, humble, kindly lives, give
evidence, "I know the resurrection of Jesus to be a
fact, because its spiritual counterpart has taken place
in my own experience, and He the living One,
- Luke vii. 22, 23 ; Matt. xi. 5 ; John v. 36.
| Matt, xxviii ; Mark xvi; Luke xxiv ; John xx., xxi. ; Acts i.
21-22 ; iv. 10-33 ; x. 38-41 ; xiii. 29-31. 1 Cor. xv. 1-9 ; &c.
EXCUESUS ON THE DEITY OF CHKIST 189
Who was dead, and is alive for evermore, * heard
and helped, and answered me by direct intervention in
many a time of strain and many an hour of sorrow."
Therefore I reaffirm the miracle of Christ s life is
the miracle of the incarnation, and the miracle of
regenerated and transformed lives the strongest witness
to the miracle of the resurrection.
(6) THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES.
We have already touched upon the evidence of these
good and noble men concerning the supernatural in
Christ s life, miracles, and resurrection, and accord
ingly now simply tabulate their clear and written
testimony to the essential deity of Jesus Christ, "our
Lord, both theirs and ours."t To trace this line of
argument separately through the Gospels and the
writings of the apostles would prove an extremely
interesting and instructive course of study, revealing
how the mystical yet simple witness of John, equally
with the logical and argumentative testimony of Paul
and the enthusiastic and impulsive evidence of Peter,
unite in one perfect harmony of beauty from diverse
view-points and temperaments in the tremendous affir
mation "Jesus is God." Time and space, however,
compel us to economise our thoughts, and suggest the
preferable course of dealing with these combined testi
monies rather as one complete whole, for such indeed
they are. Accordingly we would notice (i.) how it was
the undeviating practice of the apostles to deliberately
Associate the name of the Lord Jesus on terms of
practical equality with that of God the Father.
Thus following the example of the baptismal formula,
" Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations,
* Rev. i. 18. f 1 Cor. i. 2.
190 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost,"* (a) in the preliminary
and loving greetings to the Churches, and the benedic
tions of grace and power, (/;) in the ascriptions of
doxoiogy and worship, (c) in the setting forth of the
great programme, method, and objects of redemption,
and (d) in the solemn pronouncements concerning the
resurrection, judgment, and eternity, we invariably dis
cover the Father and the Son, and often also the blessed
Spirit, linked in such close partnership of thought and
action that it seems well-nigh impossible to dissever
those Whom evidently the apostles believed a divine
unity had joined together. It is needful only to sub
join a few quotations in evidence of this position,
selected from quite a multitude of similar passages,
(a) " Paul and Sylvanus and Timotheus, unto the
Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father
and in the Lord Jesus Christ : grace be unto you, and
peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus
Christ"; "grace and peace be multiplied unto you
through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ
our Lord."+ "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Him
self, and God, even our Father . . . comfort your
hearts"; " The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost
be with you all. Amen. "I (b) " Wherefore God also
hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name
which is above every name : that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things
* Matt, xxviii. 18-20.
j 1 Thess i. 1 ; 2 Pet. i. 2. See also Horn. i. 7 ; 1 Cor. i. 3 ;
2 Cor. i. 2 ; Gal. i. 3 ; Eph. i. 2 ; Phil. i. 2 ; Col. i. 2 ; 2 Thess. i. 2;
1 Tim. i. 2 ; 2 Tim. i. 2 ; Titus i. 4 ; Phil. 3 ; 2 John 3 ; Jude 1 ;
Rev. i. 4, 5.
{ 2 Thess. ii. 16, 17; 2 Cor. xiii. 14. See also Rom. xvi. 20;
Eph. vi. 23 ; Heb. xx. 21 ; 1 Pet. v. 10 ; Jude 21.
EXCUKSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST 191
on earth, and things under the earth ; and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father." " Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and
strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all
that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour,
and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."*
(c) "Unto all riches of the full assurance of under
standing, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of
God, and of the Father, and of Christ ; in Whom are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ : according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love." "God . . . hath in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son, Whom He hath appointed heir of
all things, by Whom also He made the worlds ; Who
being the brightness of His glory, and the express
image of His person, and upholding all things by the
word of His power, when He had by Himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high." " Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and
with His Son, Jesus Christ." "Who is a liar, but he
that denieth that Jesus is the Christ ? He is anti
christ that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever
denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." t
* Phil. ii. 9-11 ; Rev. v. 12, 13. See also John xx. 28 ; 1 Cor. xi.
24 ; Col. i. 3 ; 2 Pet. i. 16, 17 ; iii. 18. Jude 24, 25 ; Eev. i. 5, 6.
f Col. ii. 2, 3 ; Eph. i. 3, 4 ; Heb. i. 1-3 ; 1 John i. 3 ; ii. 22, 23.
See also Eph. i., ii., iii. ; iv. 1-16. Col. i. 19 ; ii. 9. 1 Pet. i. 2, 3 ;
192 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
(d) " And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and
joint heirs with Christ." " Looking for that blessed
hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God,
and our Saviour Jesus Christ." " The Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in
flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not
God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ." "I charge thee, therefore, before God and the
Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick and the
dead at His appearing and His kingdom."*
Now it is utterly impossible to argue away the force
of this testimony, unless, indeed, on lines which
repudiate the apostles altogether, equally with their
teaching, especially since it proceeds from men who
discountenanced in the strongest fashion the reception
of worship by any earthly saint or merely angelic
being, t and claimed in language of the clearest
emphasis, grace and adoration and glory to belong to
God alone, and yet dying Stephen and tempted Paul
prayed to the Lord Jesus,* while Peter s overflowing
heart exclaims concerning Jesus in the same ascription
of praise he gives unto the Father, " to whom be glory
both now and for ever. Amen " ; and John lies pros
trate "as dead" in lowly worship at the feet of the risen
Jesus, |i Who all through the closing book of the Reve-
Bom. v. 11 ; vi. 23 ; viii. 39 ; x. 1 Cor. vi. 15-20 ; 2 Cor. v. 19-21 ;
Tit. ii. 11-14 ; 1 Tim. ii. 5 ; 1 John ii. 1 ; Jude 1; 2 Cor. i. 19-20;
x. 5. Jas. i. 27 ; ii. 1. 1 Thess. iii. 11 ; 2 Thess. i. 12 ; 2 John
9-11; Jude 4; 1 Cor. i. 30-31.
* Rom. viii. 17 ; Tit. ii. 13; 2 Thess. i. 7-10; 2 Tim. iv. 1. See
also Rorn. ii. 16 ; xiv. 10, 11. 1 Cor. iv. 1 ; 2 Thess. iii. 5 ; 1 Thess
iv. 16, 17 ; 1 Cor. xv. 57 ; 1 Tim. v. 21 ; vi. 13, 16.
f Acts x. 25, 26; xiv. 11-18. Col. ii. 18; Rev. xxii. 8, 9.
| Acts vii. 59, 60 ; ix. 5, 6. 2 Cor. xii. 8.
2 Pet. iii. 18. See also 1 Pet. v. 10, 11.
ii Rev. i. 17, 18.
EXCURSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHEIST 193
lation is under the sweet incognito of " the Lamb,"
so closely and inseparably associated with the Father
in all His holiness of grace and judgment from the
throne as to constitute with that Father all the bright
ness, joy, and " glory of Immanuel s land." *
But the apostles proceeded further, and (ii.) re
peatedly and persistently affirmed
The possession of the very attributes and powers of
Godhead by Jesus Christ,
establishing His superiority to the innumerable host of
angels, and indeed over all created beings of every
form and essence, as Himself the supreme Creator (and
Heir) of all things, and the pre-existent One. They
claimed for our Kedeemer nothing short of an ever
lasting sonship, which, as that of no inferior or created
being, stretches back prior to the resurrection, incar
nation, and the creation of all things, into the great
eternity with God the Father, thus enabling Jesus
with divine dignity to exclaim, " And now, Father,
glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory
which I had with Thee before the world was." t "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by Him ;
and without Him was not any thing made that was
made." " For by Him were all things created that are
in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities,
or powers : all things were created by Him and for Him."
" His Son ... by Whom also He made the worlds." I
* Rev. v. 6-14 ; vi. 16, 17 ; vii. 9-17 ; xii. 8 ; xiv. 1-4 ; xvii. 14 ;
xxi., xxii. | John xvii. 5.
I John i. 1-3 ; Col. i. 16, 17 ; Heb. i. 1-3. See also Eph. i. 21 ;
Heb. i. 4-14 ; 1 Pet. iii. 22 ; 1 Cor. viii. 6 ; Eph, i. 4 ; Rev. i. 8.
14
194 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
The apostles also affirm of Him those attributes
of uncreated and essential deity, omnipotence, omis-
cience, omnipresence, and immutability, whether as
the "Author of life" or as the Judge and King
of men, who all of them, living or "in the graves
shall hear His voice, and shall come forth, they that
have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and
they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation." *
Finally, (iii.) the apostles assert, absolutely and in
language of the utmost clearness, their endorsements
of the claims of
Jesus to be literally and really very God.
This is necessarily involved (a) in such utterances as
" In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily";! "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in
the first resurrection : on such the second death hath
no power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years"; I
" For there is one God, and one Mediator between
God and men, the Man Christ Jesus "; "The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.
Amen";! conveying and assuming as they do the
essential Godhead of Christ; and also (6) in a number
of passages in which the Son is magnified, as the
17,18; xxii. 13. John i. 14-18; iii. 13-18 Rom. i. 3, 4 ; viii. 3.
Gal. iv. 4 ; Heb. ii. 14-18 ; 1 John iv. 9-15 &c.
John v. 28, 29 ; i. 14 ; ii. 24, 25 ; iii. 1 3. Acts iii. 15 ; x. 36-
38. 1 Cor. i. 24; xv. 24, 25. 2 Cor. v 10; Col. i. 16-19;
ii. 3, 9. Phil. iii. 21 ; 2 Thess. i. 7-9 ; 2 T in. iv. 1 ; Hob. i. 1-3,
10-12 ; ii. 14, 15 ; iv. 13 ; xiii. 8. Rev. i. 8, 13-18 ; ii. 18, 19 ; iii. 7 ;
iv. 11 ; v. 12-14 ; xi. 17; xix. 11-16; xxii. 3.
f Col. ii. 9. I Rev. xx. 6.
1 Tim. ii. 5, || 2 Cor. xiii. 14.
EXCURSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST 195
Revealer and Expounder of the Father, setting forth
His glory not merely as the moonlight reflects the
sunshine, but rather as the sunbeam, or more cor
rectly speaking, theologically, all the sunbeams, make
manifest and radiate forth the sun. " God . . . hath
. . . spoken unto us in His Son . . . Who being the
effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His
substance." * Further, we find it affirmed (c) in the
deliberate application of Old Testament Scriptures
concerning Christ " the Messiah," " the Man that is My
(God s) fellow," &c., to Jesus of Nazareth ; thus quoting,
for example, from Isaiah, " I saw also the Lord sit
ting upon a throne, high and lifted up. And the
seraphim, one cried unto another and said, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full
of His glory." John states, " These things said Esaias
when he saw T His glory and spake of Him" ; t w r hile
" I am the First and I am the Last, and beside Me
there is no God," " there is no God else beside Me, a
just God and a Saviour," "Unto us a Child is born,
unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be
upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the ever
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace," + are practically
verified in their references to Jesus by the same apostle,
Luke, and Paul.
Thus such startling utterances from the Psalms as
" The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day
have I begotten Thee," where the Son s universal
:;: Heb. i. 1-3, R.V. See also John i. 14-18 ; xiv. 8, 9 ; 2 Cor.
iv. 4; &c.
f Isa. vi. 1-3 ; John xii. 38-41.
I Isa. xliv. 6 ; xlviii. 12 ; xlv. 21-23 ; ix. 6, 7.
Rev. i. 8-17 ; Lukeii. 10-15. Compare also Isa. ix. 1, 2; Matt.
iv. 15, 16 ; Phil, ii, 10, 11.
196 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
kingdom is predicted;* " THY THRONE, GOD, is
FOR EVER AND EVER," where the KING is called
God, and His kingdom constituted to be an eternal
one ; * the remarkable words quoted by Christ as re
ferring to Himself, " The Lord said unto My Lord "
(Hebrew, "Adonai." "Never applied to any other
than the supreme God." Hodge), " Sit Thou at My
right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool,"
" The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art
a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek ; " * are
in the most simple and emphatic fashion applied to
the Lord Jesus, and the birth of Christ at Bethlehem
is stated by Matthew to be a fulfilment of Micah s
prophecy, " Out of Thee shall He come forth unto Me,
that is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have
been from of old, from the days of eternity " ; and
Mark, quoting from Malachi concerning the Messiah s
forerunner, refers the prediction to John the Baptist,
and by necessary inference and argument its sequence
in the coming of "the Lord ^ Whom ye seek . . .
suddenly to His temple, even the Messenger (Angel)
of the Covenant," to our Redeemer;** and many
subtle connections, if carefully looked into, such as
those between Zech. xiii. 6, 7 and Matt. xxvi. 31,
Psa. Ixxii. 8, Zech. ix. 9, 10, and John xii. 12-16,
* Psa. ii. 7-12. f Ibid. xlv. 6. |: Ibid. ex. 1-4.
$ See Acts xiii. 32-41 ; iv. 25-28. Heb. i. 5-13 ; Matt. xxii. 42-
46; Mark xii. 35-37 ; Luke xx. 41-44 ; Heb. v. 5, 6.
|| Mic. v. 2 ; Matt. ii. 4-6. See also John vii. 42.
*[ " Henderson, in his commentary on this passage, points out
that the Messiah is here called the Lord, or the Sovereign, a
title nowhere given in this form with the article to any but
Jehovah ; that He is predicted as coming to the temple as its Pro
prietor, and that He is identified with the Angel of the Covenant,
elsewhere shown to be one with Jehovah Himself" (Strong).
** Mai. iii. 1-2; Mark i. 1-11,
EXCURSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST 197
trace out easily the same undeviating ascription of
Messiahship unto our divine but suffering Lord. Then
follow (cZ) quite a number of texts, the argument and
line of teaching concerning which, if it has any point
and meaning, demands the essential deity of our
Saviour "preaching peace by Jesus Christ (He is
Lord of all ") ; * " they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory";! "to wit, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself "; J "Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" ;
" This Man was counted worthy of more glory than
Moses, inasmuch as He that builded the house hath
more honour than the house, for every house is
builded by some man, but He that built all things is
God " ; ; " Christ Jesus, Who being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon
Him the form of a servant " ; 1[ " One like unto the
Son of Man . . . and when I saw Him I fell at His
feet as dead";** "But to us there is but one God, the
Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him ;
and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all
things, and we by Him." ft "Looking for the
blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great
God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself
for us " ; 1+ "the Church of God, which He hath
purchased with His own blood "; while, lastly,
(e) John records, " In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and THE WORD
WAS GOD . . . And the Word became flesh, and dwelt
among us." ;, ; " Thomas answered and said unto Him,
* Acts x. 36. f 1 Cor. ii. 8. See Psa. xxiv. 8-10.
I 2 Cor. v. 19. Rom. x. 13. | Heb. iii. 1-6.
IT Phil. ii. 5-7. Rev. i. 13-18. ft 1 Cor. viii. 6.
H Tit. ii. 13, 14, 11. V. ^ Acts xx. 28. !| John i. 1-14.
198 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
My Lord and my God "; " we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and
eternal life." * Paul states, " of Whom as concerning
the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for
ever. Amen." "God was manifest in the flesh." t
Peter writes to " those who have obtained like precious
faith through (in) the righteousness of our God and
Saviour, Jesus Christ ("en dikaiosune ton Theou
hemon kai soteros lesou Christou "), I and Jude con
cludes his epistle by the much-loved doxology, " to the
only wise God our Saviour " be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen."
Verily, if words have any fixed and definite meaning
we cannot conceive of statements more clear and
emphatic than those of the apostles concerning " our
Lord and Saviour," iy linked especially as they not
unfrequently are with solemn denunciations of im
pending doom to all those " denying the only Lord
God and our Lord Jesus Christ,** such heresy being
even in the opinion of the most tender and loving of all
the apostles more than a mere matter of theological
frailty and speculative misfortune, and fellowship
therein involving nothing short of gross and unpardon
able treachery against the Godhead, "both the Father
and the Son" " Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
:;: John xx. 28. See also ver. 31 ; 1 John v. 20.
) Rom. ix. 5; 1 Tim. iii. 16. ;[ 2 Pet. i. 1.
i If it be contended that this outburst of worship is ascribed
to God the Father, we are not careful to dispute the matter,
simply emphasising the truth that similar utterances are offered
to the Son (2 Tim. iv. 18 ; 2 Pet. iii. 8 ; Rev. i. 5, 6, &c.), and that
all true Christians recognise the Unity equally with the Trinity of
the Godhead.
|! Jude 25. r . 2 Pet. i. 11 ; iii. 2, 18.
Judo 4; Acts iv. l!, 12; 2 Thess. i. 7-10; Ileb. x. 28-31;
1 Pet. ii. 6-8 ; iv. 17. 1 John ii. 22, 23 ; iv. 2, 3.
EXCURSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST 199
not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the
Father and the Son. If there come any unto you and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him God-speed ; for he that biddeth him
God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds.*
(c) THE EVIDENCE OF FULFILLED PROPHECY.
This constitutes to any impartial student of the Old
Testament Scriptures an extraordinary and cumulative
mass of evidence concerning the true Messiahship of
our divine Lord, whose birth, death, resurrection, and
ultimate and eternal reign it predicts in language
of detailed accuracy. As we have already in some
measure touched upon this (ante pp. 195-197), and do so
at greater length later on (see pp. 211-232), it is only
needful here to point out that it seems clearly provable
that the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Jesus of
the New are one and the same Person; Johni. 18, vi. 46,
being emphatic that the manifestations under human
or angelic forms given to Abraham in the plains of
Mamre, Jacob at Penuel, Moses at Horeb, Joshua
before Jericho, Manoah in the fields, and Isaiah,
Ezekiel, and Daniel in their prophetic visions could
not have been those of the Father, " for no man hath
seen God at any time " (i.e., I take it in His essential
unveiled deity) ; " the only begotten Son which is in the
bosom of the Father He hath declared (expounded)
Him." Thus only in the humanity of Jesus has mortal
eye looked upon God, for it will be apparent from a care
ful reading of Gen. xviii. 17, xxxii. 30; Exod. iii. 6;
Josh. vi. 2 ; Judg. xiii. 20, 21 ; Isa. vi. 3; E/ek. i. 26;
Dan. x. 5, 6, that these were revelations of a Being
* 2 John 9-11.
200 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
Who whether under the appearance of man or angel
claimed to be Jehovah, and as the Angel of the Lord
wielded the power and received the worship due to
God alone, and as such was recognised as God.*
(d) THE OBJECTIVE FACTS OF HISTORY.
That Christianity has wrought practical miracles in
the regeneration and transformation of millions of
lives, revolutionised society, permeated international
law, overthrown and conquered bestial heathenism and
" abominable idolatries," and leavened with teachings
of purity, desires for peace and principles of general
philanthropy and civilisation the greater portion of
the world, in spite of insuperable difficulties, allied
antagonisms, universal and innate corruption, false
and man-pleasing forms of philosophy and religion, is
a fact written large upon the face of history and the
::c See also Hos. xii. 3-5 ; John viii. 56, 58 ; xii. 41. as corrobora-
tions of this argument.
Space forbids our entering into a general argument concerning
the Three Persons (not three aspects or manifestations merely)
of the blessed Godhead, but we would call attention to (a) how
the divine action all through such passages as Gen. i. is described
by a singular verb joined to a plural noun, ELOHIM created, said,
sain, made, &c., (b) how the suggestive phrase occurs, " Let us
make man," " Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? "
(Gen. i. 26 ; xl. 7 ; Isa. vi. 8, &c.) ; (c) how the Old Testament
triple blessing and the threefold ascription of worship (Numb,
vi. 24-27 ; Isa. vi. 3) fit in with the New Testament baptismal
formula and the gospel benediction (Matt, xxviii. 19 ; 2 Cor. xiii.
14); (d) how the words " Elohim " and "Jehovah" are often so
interwoven in thought and action as to be well-nigh inseparable,
as, for example, " when Jehovah saw Moses," and " Elohim called
unto Him " (Exod. iii. 4) ; (c) how a distinct personality is also
definitely affirmed of the Holy Spirit, who as God came down at
Pentecost in the living, working individuality of that " other
Paraclete" Who Himself throbbed through the "Acts of the
EXCUKSUS ON THE DEITY OE CHEIST 201
maps of geography ; a fact the more remarkable be
cause its original propagators were only a small and
unlearned band of insignificant men, belonging to an
obscure and decaying nation, the vast majority of
which, then as now, w r ith a most bitter and deter
mined religious enmity endeavoured, supported by all
the temporal forces of the then universal and well-
nigh almighty Koman empire, to crush out and destroy
both Christianity and Christians. Accordingly, to this
present up-to-date argument we appeal, demanding as
it does the consideration of thinking men, and inquire
of such whether the old-time infallible test may not be
applied again in this matter, " by their fruits ye shall
know them," and simply ask, Is it really possible and
believable that the false and hypocritical could thus
bring forth that which admittedly inculcates, consti
tutes, and conceives all that really includes the true,
the beautiful, the loving, and the pure in modern
Apostles," " to will and to do of His good pleasure " (Acts ii. 1-4 ;
iv. 31 ; v. 3, 4, 32 ; viii. 29 ; x. 47 ; xi. 12 ; xiii. 52 ; xv. 28 ; xvi.
6-7 ; xix. 6 ; xx. 28; xxi. 11 ; xxviii. 25), and in His feelings, frames,
and influences (speaking according to the frailty of human lan
guage), was capable of searching, convincing, sanctifying, inter
ceding, pleading, grieving, &c., statements which are meaningless
if behind such feelings there be no definite personality (see Gen.
vi. 3 ; Isa. Ixiii. 10 ; John xvi. 8 ; Acts vii. 51 ; Rom. viii. 26 ;
Eph. iv. 30 ; &c.) ; and (/) how a prayerful consideration of the
threefold aspect of the work of the Trinity in Unity in the sovereign
and electing love of the Father, the redemptive and priestly work
of the Son, and the regenerating and sanctifying power of the
Spirit, together with an analysis of such passages as John xiv. 26 ;
xv. 26; xvi. 13-15; Acts i. 4-11 ; v. 30-32; xix. 2-6; Rom. viii.
16, 17, 26-32 ; Eph. iii. 14-21 ; iv. 3-6 ; Heb. ix. 14 ; 1 Pet. i. 2,
&c., reveal the three distinct personalities, separately yet unitedly
working out for men the divine programme of redemption, restora
tion, and eternal fellowship " with the Father, and with His Son
Jesus Christ " (1 John i. 3).
202 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
society and morals ? Thus from the effects of Christi
anity, which are surely nothing short of divine, I argue
back to a definite cause, and find such not only in a
divine gospel, but in a divine Christ, as its Founder,
Teacher, and Incarnation.
(e) THE SUBJECTIVE WITNESS OF MY OWN LIFE.
This evidence appeals, of course, primarily to one
man only, but that one man being myself, its conclu
sions are for and to me at least final and absolute.
By a process which frankly I can neither accurately
define nor describe, except in so far as it is a witness
of the Holy Spirit with and upon my spirit, Jesus of
Nazareth has become "my Lord and my God," and
this conviction leading to a conscious fellowship with
the charm of His personality has become the supreme
spring, source, motive, dominating factor, and con
trolling influence in "the life that now is, and that
which is to come," impelling, compelling, repelling,
constraining, restraining, sustaining. Like the little
boy, who responded, when asked how he knew that his
kite, which had vanished from vision in the heavens
above, was still up there, " Because I feel it s tugging
me," so do all true believers say with Paul, " The love
of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that
if One died for all, then were all dead ; and that He
died for all, that they which live should not henceforth
li-ve unto themselves, but unto Him which died for
them, and rose again." * True, the world may sneer
at this, but it cannot sneer away from me what has
now become literally and actually part and parcel of
my moral being. This argument may or may not
appeal to others, but flanked as it is by the testimony
* 2 Cor. v. 14, 15.
EXCURSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST 203
of many millions of the holiest and kindliest of sane,
shrewd, sound-headed, whole-hearted men and women
living, should count for at least something with the
historian and philosopher, the metaphysician and
logician.
3. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THESE CLAIMS.
A very few sentences will suffice to deal with these.
Briefly, they involve a frank and loyal recognition of
(a) Christ s infallibility, since with His Godhead there
cannot surely be associated conceptions of errancy
and acknowledgments of ignorance ; of (b) His
sovereignty over our thoughts, wills, and actions
" casting down imaginations (reasonings) and every
high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ " ; * and of (c) His position as the
supreme Judge, " Who will render to every man
according to His deeds, to them who by patient con
tinuance in well-doing seek for honour and glory and
immortality, eternal life, but unto them that are
contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey un
righteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and
anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of
the Jew first and also of the Gentile, t
A GOSPEL APPEAL.
Here I would solemnly pause and very earnestly
and tenderly say to each reader, You may know, admit,
and even contend for all this, and yet possibly be
yourself only intellectually converted, recognise in the
clearest and fullest sense the deity and atonement
of the Lord Jesus and the truths of evangelical
2 Cor. x. 5. | Horn. ii. 6-11. See also v. 16.
204 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS AVOKD
protestanism without their power and sweetness
having ever touched your heart, for remember our
divine Redeemer has laid no lesser statement than
this down as Heaven s ultimatum, and that too to a
religious Eabbi, " Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born again (from above) he cannot see
the kingdom of God"; "And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of
man be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in Him,
should not perish, but have eternal life." "He (Christ)
came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God." "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father : for so it seemed good in Thy sight.
All things are delivered unto Me of My Father, and
no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he
to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." " Come unto
Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of
Me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall
find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and
My burden is light." " AVhosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God," " for whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world ; and this is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that
believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" "Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for
EXCUESUS ON THE DEITY OE CHRIST 205
ever." " He that heareth My word, and belie veth on
Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into the judgment, but is passed out of death
into life." " He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not
My words, hath One that judgeth Him. The word that
I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day." * Listen then sinner, to an inspired definition
of the gospel, for it is "how that CHRIST DIED FOB
OUR SINS according to the Scriptures, and that He was
buried, and that HE ROSE AGAIN the third day accord
ing to the Scriptures " ; for "The word is nigh thee, even
in thy mouth, and in thy heart : that is, the word of
faith, which we preach ; that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness ; and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation." t
Therefore,
" Believe in thine heart,"
" Confess with thy mouth,"
and be
Saved."
NOTE ON THE KENOSIS THEORY.
We cannot help thinking that distinctly wild and
unscriptural deductions have been unnecessarily made,
and in some evangelical expositions quietly accepted,
from the tremendous condescension whereby Christ
Jesus, " being in the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God ; but made Himself
* John iii. 3, 14, 15 ; i. 11-13. Matt. xi. 25-30 ; 1 John v. 1-5
1 Pet. i. 23-25 ; John v. 24 ; xii. 48.
| 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4; Rom. x. 8-13,
206 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men : and
being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Him
self, and became obedient unto death, even the death
of the cross." * The very surface argument concerning
lowliness of mind, gathering around this great mystery
of the incarnation, in which " the only begotten Son
of the Father," "Who being in the form of God . . .
took upon Him the /orw of a servant," and surrendered
thereby on earth in His life of " obedience unto death "
the exercise of His independent will and rightful
faculties apart from the Father ; and in the abandon
ment of " the glory which he had with the Father before
the world was," " made Himself of no reputation . . .
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross." As man, "God manifest in the flesh," "the
effulgence of His (the Father s) glory, and the very
impress of His substance," Christ became willingly the
servant, being made in the likeness of men. If in the
first Adam, through whom we fell, there existed a
moral dualism and conflict within a single will, as
expounded in the 7th of Romans, in Christ, the
second Adam, "the Lord from heaven," that dualism
existed in the perfection of a complete harmony
"not My will, but Thine be done"; and indeed the
existence of the divine and human natures in the
one person of our Lord suggests no difficulties greater
in quality, although many arise, much greater in
quantity, than those presented by the mysterious
union of spirit with matter.
There is no suggestion through the earth-life of our
Lord Jesus of any withholding or diminution from
Him as Man of His divine power, save when He
voluntarily wills it "I have power to lay down My
* Phil. ii. 6-8,
EXCUESUS ON THE DEITY OF CHKIST 207
life, and I have power to take it again " ; * and it was
only as the representative Man, " the Goel," the
Redeemer, taking the place of sinners and becoming
through His incarnation the second federal Head of a
restored people, that Christ, in order to accomplish the
divine purpose, was manifested at every stage and
point of life, as the willing servant in all things to the
Father "I do always those things which please
Him" ; + " This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am
well pleased." I Thus as man, in His human nature,
under His earth-name, Jesus, He " became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross." Consequently,
" having made an end of sins, and brought in everlasting
righteousness," He is now, as man, risen from the
grave, " highly exalted, and given a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in
earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
glory of God the Father " ; Christ as God-man,
under the earth-name Jesus, being this day upon the
throne of His universal empire. In short, Phil. ii. G-8
is but an exposition of 2 Cor. viii. 9, "For ye know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He
was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye
through His poverty might be rich," and refers simply
and primarily, as already stated, to the tremendous
fact that our Lord, "being in the form of God,"
voluntarily laid aside, for a while, "the glory which
He had with the Father before the world was," " and
took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made
in the likeness of man"; and indeed if Christ were
merely and only human, it is easily perceived there
* John x. 17, 18. f Ibid. viii. 29.
I Matt. iii. 17. Phil. ii. 9-11.
208 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
can be neither point nor argument at all in the
recorded condescension of Phil. ii.
Two Difficulties.
As far as any evangelical sanction of this kenosis
theory is concerned, it would appear to have arisen
largely from the efforts of really pious men who,
" trembling for the ark of God," thought they saw
thereby an avenue of escape from certain critical
difficulties and an opportunity of happily reconciling
antagonistic schools of thought. We need scarcely
say that, as is nearly always the case, this course of
procedure has played deliberately, albeit unconsciously,
into the hands of the adversaries of true, old-fashioned
evangelicalism, and we must honestly confess without,
as it appears to us, the smallest shred of genuine
evidence why the argument of Phil. ii. should lead to
any such conclusion. That there are difficulties facing
verbal inspirationists in two utterances concerning our
Lord s knowledge w T e frankly admit, but the incarna
tion in itself not only confronts us with difficulties,
but mysteries, and so also do the atonement, the
resurrection, and the second advent ; and it ill-becomes
thoughtful, and especially godly, men to abandon an
evidently scriptural position on account of apparent,
and comparatively trivial, difficulties ; yea, rather let us
wait patiently, assured that ultimately light will break
through all these dark clouds, and dispel the seeming
inconsistencies.
The first of these utterances is that recorded by
Luke, " And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature,
and in favour with God and man." * It is true this
sentence compels us to face, to our finite minds, many
subtle, metaphysical problems, but they are all, as we
:;: Luke ii. 52,
EXCUKSUS ON THE DEITY OF CHEIST 209
have already said, common and inherent to the great fact
and mystery of the incarnation, which every Christian,
whether his views be those of broad, high, or low
churchmen, must meet, and under no circumstances
does it support the position of those who doubt and
question the inspiration of the Saviour s testimony,
since if (speaking after a carnal fashion, owing to the
poverty of earthly thought and language) Jesus did
thus grow amazingly in wisdom, this statement in
itself linked with its evident recognition by the learned
doctors, who when Christ was but twelve years of age
" were astonished at His understanding and answers," *
and the startling inquiry of the general public in after-
years, " Whence hath this man His wisdom ? " t affords
conclusive evidence that Christ not only claimed, but
knew, what He was talking about as clearly as He
read and diagnosed the thoughts and needs of men,t
since " The Word was made (became) flesh, and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
The second difficulty is that arising from the recorded
utterance of our Lord, as given in Mark s Gospel, " But
of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the
angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the
Father." M It is worthy of note that following out our
previous line of argument this sentence, which
singularly enough is omitted in Matthew s Gospel, T
occurs in the record which narrates our Lord s expe
riences and actions from the special view-point of
" the Servant," and a comparison with Acts i. 6, 7,
suggests the probability nay, certainty that the
revelation of such knowledge w r as actually unprofitable
:; Luke ii. 46, 47. \ Matt. xiii. 54 ; Mark vi. 2 ; John vii. 15.
I See ante pp. 144-146. :> John i. 14.
i| Mark xiii. i)2. *i Matt. xxiv. 36.
15
210 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
for His disciples ; but even if the furthest assumption
possible were conceded it would only establish that in
this one particular instance the Son as such was un
authorised to convey authoritative information to His
followers, and by the very fact that this statement is
recorded we have a strong and practically unanswerable
proof that all other utterances of our Lord, unaccom
panied by any such reservation, stand absolutely
unimpaired and authoritative. For be it carefully
noted that limitation of knowledge does not necessarily
imply liability to error or fallibility of utterance, where
an affirmed knowledge is proclaimed. Thus, for
example, Paul and Peter were in themselves fallible,
but as inspired exponents of the mind and will of God
infallible, their limited knowledge involving only
ignorance in so far as they had received no revelation
from heaven, and in nowise affecting the absolute
inerrancy of their God-breathed utterances. Let me
not be misunderstood. I do not for a moment refer
this parallelism to our blessed Lord, and only have
gone thus far to show how even upon the lines of our
antagonists argument the very exception proves the
rule, and recoils, boomerang-like, upon their heads.
But, as already showed, Christ knew nothing of these
suggested limitations, as the Authoritative Teacher, the
Recipient of adoring worship, the Absolver of sins, the
Quickener and Judge of the dead, and the affirmed
Co-equal with the Father, nor did the Gospellers, and
the apostles ; while behind Him, all through His life s
ministry, was the testimony of the Holy Ghost and the
witness of the Father, and even beyond the earth-life,
in resurrection and glory, as the triumphant Jesus He
still affirmed His endorsements of the utterances of
Moses, the Psalmist, and "all the prophets."*
* See ante pp. 147-154.
FULFILLED PROPHECY
WE now proceed to consider the practically unanswer
able argument of fulfilled prophecy, the cogency of
which, especially as regards the Verbal Inspiration of
the Old Testament Scriptures, can scarcely be disputed ;
and, in order that all unnecessary controversy may be
avoided, we deliberately refrain from touching any
prediction, concerning which the allegation MIGHT be
made, "This statement was written after the events
occurred ; and is, therefore, simply a recital of facts ;
or, at best, nothing more than the record of cotem-
poraneous history."
(1) PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Although we have already pleaded the endorsement
of the Son of God as the strongest argument why His
disciples, at least, should accept the Plenary Inspiration
of " Moses, the Psalmist, and all the Prophets," yet is
there nothing vicious in our making these self-same
prophecies a pledge and proof of their own "God-
breathed " origin, as well as of His Divinity; unless,
indeed, the utterly untenable position be alleged, that
Christ deliberately fitted in and pieced His life to
correspond with these predictions. Such a theory,
however, scarcely merits solemn treatment, and may
be, surely, summarily dismissed as incredible, since it
211
212 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
would not only violate and destroy the character of
our Lord, but also because His birth and death experi
ences, at any rate, could not possibly be so manipulated
as to correspond with the utterances of Micah, David,
Daniel, and Isaiah.
Accordingly, dealing with those Scriptures which,
beyond all criticism, were written long before the
advent of Jesus Christ, and preserved for us by that
nation which crucified Him as an impostor, we find
Predictions concerning the Circumstances of the
Saviour s Incarnation.
(a) In the very dawn of Revelation and human
history, when the shadow of death and the curse fell
over our guilty, shivering ancestors as they were
driven forth from Eden s garden, a coming Deliverer
not angelic, but human was prophesied : " And I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise His heel," * while, a little
further on, His genealogy was predicted as belonging
to the seed of Abraham : " And in thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed," t thus limiting
His nationality to that of the smallest and most insig
nificant people on the earth ; and dying Israel foretold
that " our Lord" should spring " out of Judah," still
further narrowing the circle of probability to one
tribe from among the twelve, and also defining the time
of the Messiah s advent : " the sceptre shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
until Shiloh come ; and unto Him shall the gathering
of the people be," J and numerous prophetic utterances
force matters to a tighter conclusion still by limiting
:; Gen. iii. lu. f Ibid. xii. 6 ; xxii. 16-18. Ibid. xlix. 10.
FULFILLED PROPHECY 213
the Saviour s genealogy to the house of David : " And
there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots : and the Spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon Him," &c.* Then, again,
Isaiah tells us Christ should be born of a virgin: " Be
hold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall
call His name Immanuel "; f and Micah adds that this
should take place at the little obscure toivn of Bethle
hem : " But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou
be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee
shall He come forth unto Me, that is to be Ruler in
Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old,
from the days of eternity, " t the recognition of which
prediction blinded the minds of the Lord s friends and
foes alike in the light of the circumstances which
caused His home to be at Nazareth; while Malachi,
the last of the Old Testament prophets, after foretelling
the advent of John the Baptist as the immediate fore
runner of our Lord, predicts how Christ should preach
and witness in the temple : " Behold, I will send My
messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me :
and the Lord, w r hom ye seek, shall suddenly come to
His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom
ye delight in : behold, He shall come, saith the Lord
of hosts " ; and Daniel, as we shall see more fully
afterwards, names the exact date when " Messiah the
Prince " should be crucified as Substitute for the sins
of His people.,.
Now let us carefully digest and thoughtfully appre
ciate the force and clearness of this argument. These
Old Testament Scriptures, written centuries before the
:;: Isa. xi. 1-10 ; ix. 6, 7. Psa. Ixxxix. 3, 4, 29 ; cxxxii. 11. Jer.
xxiii. 5,6; xxxiii. 15-17.
) Isa. vii. 14. \ Mic. v. 2.
; Mai. iii. 1, 2 ; iv. 5, Dan, ix. 25, 26,
214 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, demand that His
genealogy must be human, not angelic ; that He must
be an Israelite, not a Gentile; of the tribe of Judah,
not of Ephraim, or Levi, or Manasseh ; of the family
of David, born of a virgin, in the town of Bethlehem,
while the temple was still standing, but Judaea a
Roman province ; and remembering that Judah, with
" little Benjamin" was the only tribe remaining when
our Lord teas born, tJtat about tJtis time the sceptre
departed from Judah (as proven by the taxing under
Cyrenius, and the subsequent appointment of Governor
and Tetrarchs,* and that, less than forty years after
the crucifixion of our Lord, the temple no longer
existed ; let us note how each separate prediction
lessened the likelihood of an absolute and complete
fulfilment of these prophecies, and rapidly narrowing
the possibilities of certainty, widened proportionately
the probabilities of inaccuracy, especially in the definite
location of those events which so environed the incar
nation, ministry, and crucifixion of our Lord, as to
render His birth and death equally impossible taking
a wide margin either fifty years before or after the
date of their occurrence.
Concerning the Character and " the Sufferings
of Christ. "
Nor is this all ; the Old Testament abounds with
almost innumerable references to the character, ministry,
miracles, sphere, teaching, audiences, and sufferings of
the Messiah, all of which, both in detail and in globo,
fit in, in the most accurate and astounding manner,
with the recorded history of our Lord Jesus. His
humility yet dignity, tenderness and truth, healings and
:; Luke ii. 1, 2 ; iii. 1.
FULFILLED PEOPHECY 215
despisals, the trend and matter of His Gospel, His
Divinity and humanity, philanthropy and rejection, and
especially the marvellous and minute predictions con
cerning the manner and even the comparatively trivial
incidents of His death, are so graphically depicted in a
series of prophetic writings spread over a millennium,
that it would lay an infinitely heavier burden upon our
faith to believe, in the face of such clear, specific, and
unambiguous statements, that men could invent or
guess at those events (and particularly men belonging
to that nation which misunderstood the Scriptures
while fulfilling them), than to accept the doctrine of
definite and prophetic inspiration ; and when we review
this abundant and continuous evidence as a whole,
for the force of the argument is largely frittered away
by dissociating one prophecy from another, and note
how apparently conflicting and discordant predictions,
each having some little point of difference and truth
from the rest, since no one was slavishly copied from
its predecessors, all unite with perfect harmony in the
life and death of Christ, one cannot help thinking that
such a chain of honest reasoning has been forged around
any unbiassed or even doubting mind as to render
liberation impossible from the conclusion that, after all,
(i Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost." *
But especially and very particularly is this the case
when we trace the minute and detailed prophecies
concerning those sufferings of our Lord Jesus which
He or man could neither impulse nor control ; how,
.from an evanescent blaze of popularity, Christ rode
amid the ringing of " Hosannas ! " into Jerusalem as
* See, for example, in Isaiah alone, vi. 9-11 ; vii. 14 ; ix. 1, 2, 6,
7; xi. 1-4; xxxv. 4-6; xl. 3-11; xlii. 1-7; xlix. 6,7; 1. 4-6;
lii. 13-15 ; liii. ; Iv. 3, 4 ; Ixiii. 1-3,
216 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
King upon an ass ; how, speedily, the dark betrayal
scene followed, when Judas, "His own familiar friend,"
sold Jesus for "thirty pieces of silver"; how He (the
Messiah) "gave His back to the smiters, and hid not
His face from shame and spitting "; how "He was led
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep dumb before
her shearers so He opened not His mouth "; how He
was crucified, not stoned, as "they pierced His hands
and His feet"; how "He was numbered with the
transgressors," how " they parted His raiment among
them, and upon His vesture did they cast lots "; how
priests and passers-by in scorn reviled, wagging their
heads, and saying, "He saved others; Himself He
cannot save " ; how He cried out from the anguish of
a broken heart, " My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me ? " how, in His thirst, they gave Him to
"drink water mingled with gall"; how "He made
His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His
death." These and many other predictions w r ere ful
filled in such a startling and specific manner, albeit
some were apparently contradictory and mutually self-
destructive, such as a king upon an ass, the Messiah
upon a cross, the Lamb of God pierced, but " not a
bone broken," the Redeemer numbered with thieves,
yet buried with the noble ; that, were not the evidence
and its preservation unimpeachable, one would imagine
David, Isaiah, and Zechariah had penned their Scrip
tures, not before, but after* the solemn scenes of
:;; The strange silence of Jehovah, from the days of Malachi
until the Incarnation, becomes invested with a profound signifi
cance when we reflect that God thus placed, between these
prophecies and their fulfilment, a minimum and unbridgeable
chasm of some four hundred years ; and, in so doing, prevented
any possible charge of collusion being made against the writers of
the Old and New Testament Scriptures.
FULFILLED PEOPHECY 217
Golgotha and Calvary. When where how, then,
did such prophecies originate ? Not even one of which
failed, or was discredited, although on any mere theory
of probabilities the chance of all these predictions dove
tailing in connection with the birth, life, and death of
one person, in the places, under the circumstances, and
at the time they did, was about a million to one ! Surely
our very instincts, fallen though they be, cry out in
answer and amazement "From none other than a
supernatural source the Almighty God Himself." *
"And the glory tliat should follow."
Moreover, proceeding further, w r e discover other
paradoxical prophecies explained and unified, but
always in the one self-same Person. " The Man of
sorrows " is "the Lord of glory," "the Son of David,"
David s Lord; the obscure and lowly Nazarene, "the
King of the Jews"; the dead Jesus, "whom God
raised up," possessed of an incorruptible body ; while,
speaking generally, " the sufferings of Christ, and the
glory that should follow," are so inseparably associated
in the prophetic Scriptures, that one would almost
expect an immediate sequence of events as well as of
ideas, forgetting that, in God s purposes of grace, " one
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day." t Standing on the Pisgah height of
Revelation, these old-time prophets seem, in gazing
down the panorama of the future, to have only seen
the two great vantage points of Calvary and Olivet,
the cross and the coming glory, thus overlooking the
intervening space or valley of some millenniums. So,
: : Psa. xxii., Ixix. ; Isa. 1. 6; liii. Zech. ix. 9-11; xi. 12;
xii. 10 ; xiii. 7 ; &c.
f 2 Pet. iii. 8,
213 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
for example, Isaiah prophesies concerning "the accept
able year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our
God,"* albeit our Lord, at Nazareth, closed the book
at the end of the first sentence, and " the day of
vengeance" has been, in grace, postponed now well-
nigh tw r o thousand years, t
We are fully persuaded that times of wonderful glory
are yet in store for this old world, and that the Christ,
who rode upon an ass, shall yet reign "from sea even
to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth,"
as is most singularly predicted by Zechariah in the one
passage,* that Israel shall once more enjoy, in Jeru
salem and the Holy Land, a greater than their lost
pristine glory, with their Messiah as King, and the
millennial age cause the world to laugh and sing with
gladness under the beneficent rule of the God-man; but,
as these thoughts lead us into the domain of unfulfilled
and debatable prophecy, we must content ourselves with
simply pointing out that there has unquestionably been,
at any rate, a partial fulfilment of those predictions,
which had not even a vestige of fruition when Christ
was crucified, and His few humble fishermen essayed
to evangelise the world. Now, truly, from quiet and
insignificant Judaea, the wave of grace and blessing
has widened out, touching all the nations of the world,
and the triumphs of the Gospel of truth, duty, righteous
ness, and peace are manifested in every continent and
corner of the earth. Outward transformations are
visible over entire nations, as the humanising influences
of Christ s kingdom have overthrown idolatry, canni
balism, the suttee, heathenish bestiality, and slavery,
and introduced philanthropy, justice, liberty, and the
world-wide rights of man. That the change is largely
superficial, the veneering of civilisation without, in
* Isa. Ixi. 1, 2. t Luke iv. 17-20. J Zech. ix. 9, 10.
FULFILLED PKOPHECY 219
many cases, moral regeneration, we readily admit ; but,
for all that, it is fraught with well-nigh countless and
priceless blessings, and is the herald of that deeper and
more lasting work, when all the prophecies, focussed
in the beneficent reign of the One Man, shall be fulfilled,
and the Son of God Himself shall come.*
Christ s Universal Empire Coming.
Meanwhile, the " stone cut out without hands," of
Daniel s vision, is rolling on conquering and to conquer,
and shall yet " fill the whole earth." Already, Babylon,
the first great world-power, has disappeared ; and
following it, the double-armed Medo-Persian Empire
has fallen ; Greece, the seat of poetry, philosophy, and
power, has faded from the zenith of Alexander s glory,
when it "ruled over all the earth," to but a fifth-rate
monarchy; while Imperial Koine, "strong as iron,"
"dreadful and terrible," dividing the empire of the
world with its Eastern and Western feet, and dividing
itself, afterwards, into ten toe-like kingdoms, has lost
every vestige of its ancient national arid political
supremacy ; but of the fifth and last great world-wide
monarchy it is written " The God of Heaven shall set
up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : and
the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it
shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms,
and it shall stand for ever." t Till the crowning triumph
of this kingdom no universal empire can be established.
Charles the Fifth first, and the great Napoleon later on,
strove to do so, but all in vain. Where is the power of
Spain to-day? Let the Eepublics of South America,
* Psa. ii., Ixxii., ex. ; Isa. ii. 1-4 ; ix. 6, 7 ; xi., xiii. ; xxxii. 1,2;
xlii. 6-10 ; xlix. 6, 7, 22, 23 ; Iv. 3-5 ; Ix., Ixii., Ixvi., &c., &c.
i Dan. ii. 44,
220 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
the United States navy, and the Philippines bear
witness ! Where is Buonaparte s dream of a sub
jugated world ? Seek answer from the field of
Waterloo and that lone island rock in the Pacific
Ocean ; above all, recall that white-winged army of
the eternal God as, silently, overwhelmingly, the snow-
flakes massed together crush down the cohorts of the
hitherto unconquerable general. Men blame the foolish
obstinacy of a certain pious but stupid king, who,
unmoved by the tearful pleadings of England s most
illustrious statesman, quarrelled with and lost our
brethren of the United States. I do not, for God was
behind that invincible stupidity, since His and His
alone must be the fifth world-wide and universal
empire ; and every thinking man knows well that ultra-
loyal though Britain s Colonies are to-day, the impolitic
act of some despotic Colonial Secretary or Prime Minister
might, at any moment, lose us Canada, South Africa,
Australia, or India. Howbeit, Christ s Coronation Day
is coming ; and although mortals could not forecast
that of his gracious Majesty, King Edward, God has
Himself ordained the time when "the stone which the
builders refused shall become the head stone of the
corner. This is the Lord s doing ; it is marvellous in
our eyes." *
Travelling down from the far North of Scotland to
London, one cannot help being struck by the large
number of telegraph wires, which, gathering from
different districts, finally coalesce and mass themselves
together towards the metropolis ; and, reversing as you
journey northwards, one after another is left behind at
Crewe, Preston, Carlisle, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and
Wick, until, lost from vision, the cable sweeps under
the ocean to the Orkneys ; so is it, likewise, with the
::: Psa, cxviii. 22, 23,
FULFILLED PROPHECY 221
prophetic communications of our God. Adown the
millenniums, concerning the Messiah King, from every
quarter of the Old Testament Scriptures they proceed
towards Calvary, and thence, via the empty grave, on
to the glories of the New Jerusalem. See how the
nearest wire is laid from Malachi, away then we wing
our flight to Daniel, " greatly beloved," and listen
awhile to seraphic Isaiah ; thence, touching the sweet
singer of Israel, we proceed right on to the great law
giver, Moses ; and now, as the wires lessen, to Abraham,
"the friend of God." But three lines of communica
tion still remain ; and, passing into the antediluvian
age, we pause to hear the voice of " Enoch, the seventh
from Adam," then enter the gates of Eden, as the Lord
God Himself throbs, through our Mother Eve, the
message of deliverance down the ages ; and, finally,
standing on the shore of earth and time, see the last
wire strike upwards, lost from sight amid the fleecy
clouds, to find its terminus in the council chamber of
the Triune God, whose purpose and programme being
registered " in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world," must stand until
"the kingdoms of this world" shall "become the
Kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ : and He
shall reign for ever and ever." *
Types and Sacrifices Foreshadow Jesus.
(6) Another line of argument, almost equally con
vincing to thoughtful and reverent minds, concerning
definite Old Testament Inspiration, is found in the
actual and literal fulfilment of the Levitical types and
symbols, in the life, death, resurrection, and priestly
intercession of our Lord and Saviour. Constructed
: llcv. xiii. 8 ; xi. 15.
222 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
after the very patterns and instructions given to Moses
and David, in which every detail, however minute, was
most specifically and scrupulously described ; * we
find that, in tabernacle and temple service alike,
furniture, ritual, sacrifice, and worship, "every whit
of it uttereth glory." t The gold, silver, + and wood ;
the gate, brazen altar, laver, door, curtains, shewbread,
candlestick, altar of incense, veil, the ark, and mercy-
seat all symbolise, in the most clear fashion, the
glories and bloodshedding of our Divine Redeemer,
pointing forward the believing sinner and the grateful
worshipper to that cross, when atonement being an
accomplished fact, " the veil of the temple was rent in
twain from the top to the bottom, " and Jewish ritual
ended because the type had merged into the anti-type ;
and to that inner Holy of Holies, where "Christ being
come an High Priest of good things to come," has
" entered in once, having obtained eternal redemption
for us.",,
Similarly, the different unblemished victims and
sacrifices, presented in their varied aspects of redemp
tive work to God, the burnt offering, the meat offering,
the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offer
ing, the lambs, goats, birds, sacrifices offered daily,
and on particular occasions, such as the cleansing of
the leper and the great day of atonement, all speak
eloquently, though silently, in Jehovah s Kindergarten
School of Judaism, concerning the essential and all-
c Exod. xxv. 40; xxvi. 30 ; 1 Chron. xxviii. 11-19. Heb. viii. 5.
j Psa. xxix. 9, margin.
I Atonement money, Exod. xxx. 11-16,
Matt, xxvii. 51.
(I Heb. ix. 11, 12. See also John x. 9 ; Rom. iii. 25 ; Tit. iii. 5 ;
Heb. ix., especially verses 8, 9, 23, 24 ; x. 1-25, particularly verse
20 ; xiii. 10-12. 1 John ii. 2.
223
sufficient merits of " Jesus Christ and Him crucified " ;
while even feasts and holy days, to the devout reader,
symbolise in distinct stages the cardinal truths of
our common Christianity, the Passover, resurrection,
Pentecost, Gospel music, pilgrimage, and Heaven.*
To assert, as some do, that all the old-time imagery
fits in by chance, or, rather, through some strange
" faddish " perversion in the mind of the pious Bible
student, with the details of the death, sacrifice, and
resurrection of our beloved Lord, is to place indeed a
heavy burden upon our credulity, more especially as
the New Testament writers, assuming an intimate
knowledge of these symbols and sacrifices, continually
appeal or allude to such phraseology in their Scrip
tures ; t and, indeed, one such Holy Ghost hall-mark
on these God-ordained types as the bona-fide conversion
of the two Australian murderers, who, after reading our
honoured Brother Frank White s book on "Christ in
the Tabernacle," lent them by a godly bishop,
exclaimed, " Jesus is the Lamb of God ! Jesus is the
Lamb of God ! " is, to our mind, sufficient in itself to
contravene the irreverent and shallow criticism uttered
recently, concerning these very types and offerings, by
a \vell-known Divinity Professor, since " Jesus is the
Lamb of God " remains a phrase bereft of meaning
except through the symbolism of Old Testament
typology.
Outline Sketches of Christ.
(c) A third and final argument, though essentially
and inherently defective because it is necessarily
* Lev. xxiii.
f Matt. xxvi. 28 ; Luke xxiv. 27 ; John i. 29 ; iii. 10-13. 1 Cor.
v. 7 ; xv. 23. Col. ii. 16, 17 ; Heb. vii. 27 ; ix. 12, 24-26 ; x. 1-13.
1 Pet. i. 18, 19 ; Rev. v. 6 ; xxi. 22, 2tf.
224 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
wrapped up with the imperfect symbolism of errant
living, may be found in the self-evident and Divinely-
asserted fact that some of the Old Testament heroes
were, in part at least, shadow T y outlines of the Saviour,
faint, though broken, reflections of our Lord. It is
sufficient to merely mention, in this connection, Adam,
Abel, Melchizedek, Isaac, Moses, Aaron (in his priestly
offices and offerings), Joshua, David, Solomon ; and,
above all, Joseph, who, in his rejection, betrayal,
sufferings, and subsequent uplifting from the pit and
prison to the practical sovereignty of Egypt, where he
lavished the granaries of grace upon his brethren
and the world, most suggestively portrays the true
Messiah.* Those who are spiritual will appreciate
this argument, and those who are hypercritical will
probably reject it " though a man declare it unto
them."
Thus have we discovered our first proof, in this con
nection of Old Testament Inspiration, in the definite
predictions spread over a thousand years, and written
centuries before their actual fulfilment in the life and
death of Christ, without any possible collusion or
slavish imitation on the part of the writers ; and a
second and equally perfect one, though linked with
material things, in the ritual service and symbolic
teaching of the Mosaic economy ; while a third,
broken and defective, yet true in part, and in so
far as it was so intended, can be found in the
shadowy outline of representative men typifying, in
certain details, the character and history of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
::: See Rom. v. 14-21 ; 1 Cor. xv. 22, 45-49 ; Eph. v. 31, 32;
Heb. xi. 4 ; v. 6 ; vi. 20 ; xi. 17-19. Jus. ii. 21 ; Gen. xxii. ;
Deufc. xviii. 18; Heb. iii. 1-6; v. 1-5; ix. 7-28; iv. 8. Acts ii.
25-36 ; xiii. 32-38. Matt. xii. 42 ; Acts vii. 9-16.
FULFILLED PROPHECY 225
Daniel Fixes Date lohen " Messiah shall be Cut Off."
(d) There is, however, one prediction so specific
and emphatic in its character, that its importance
demands distinct and separate consideration. " Daniel
the prophet" so called by no less an authority than our
Divine Lord Himself,* received, in answer to prayer
and fasting, a direct revelation, through Gabriel, from
God, in which the following remarkable sentences
occur : " Know therefore and understand, that from
the going forth of the commandment to restore and
to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall
be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks : the
street shall be built again, and the wall, even in
troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself." t Now,
passing by the many intricacies and difficulties sur
rounding this passage, we have here most clearly set
forth two great termini of the prophecy viz.,
"from the going forth of the commandment to restore
and build Jerusalem " until " Messiah be cut off," and
are definitely informed that the exact period of time
intervening between these two events should be sixty-
nine weeks ; or, as it might be more accurately
rendered, sixty-nine septenaries, or Hebdads, or sixty-
nine sevens, the word "week" not being in the
original, though a perfectly correct and explanatory
translation of the same. Among the Jews, it was,
especially in Scriptural and prophetic matters, a
frequent custom to let days count for years. Thus, for
example, Jacob " fulfilled her (Rachel s) week " " seven
other years " ; I and Ezekiel was commanded to lie on
* Matt. xxiv. 15.
f Dan. ix. 25, 26 ; entire passage, 20-27.
{ Gen. xxix. 18, 27, 28. See also Lev. xxv. 8.
16
226 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
his left and right side respectively : " For I have laid
upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the
number of the days, three hundred and ninety days ;
so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of
Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie
again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the
iniquity of the house of Judah, forty days I have
appointed thee each clay for a year." *
Therefore, the Book of Daniel, which, waiving all
questions of present-day criticism, was undoubtedly
written centuries before the birth of Christ, declares
that an interval of sixty-nine sevens, or four hundred
and eighty-three years, must constitute the parenthesis
between " the commandment to restore and build
Jerusalem " and the " cutting off " of Messiah, our sole
duty being to verify the dates in question, and thereby
to test the accuracy or incorrectness of this remarkable
prediction. Accordingly, ransacking quite a multitude
of books and pamphlets dealing with theology and
prophecy, a perfect maze of conflicting theories and
statements presents itself. Amidst much difference of
judgment, the majority of commentators fix the time
alluded to by Daniel as occurring " in the seventh year
of Artaxerxes the king," the commencement of that
monarch s reign being dated variously from 463 to 467
B.C. ; and many insist that the four hundred and eighty-
three years were completed at the baptism of our Lord,
others say it was at the cross, and some even at the
Incarnation !
The Sixty-nine Weeks Commence B.C. 444.
Now, a careful perusal of the three great edicts of
Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, mentioned in Ezra s
* Ezek. iv. 4-6,
FULFILLED PROPHECY 227
history, shows clearly that in none of these decrees
does there occur a word about the rebuilding of the city,
but that each of them was concerned alone with build
ing " the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem," a
phrase used some ten times (and " the house of God "
eight times) in connection with the three edicts.
Thus Cyrus says, " The Lord God hath charged me to
build Him an house at Jerusalem " ; and Darius, sub
sequently endorsing this decree, " Let the house be
builded," writes, "Let it be done with speed " ; while
Artaxerxes, sending up Ezra " to teach in Israel
statutes and judgments, and bring all the silver and
gold that thou canst find," and " whatsoever more
shall be needful for the house of thy God," calls forth
this touching doxology from the pious priest : " Blessed
be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a
thing as this in the king s heart, to beautify the house
of the Lord which is in Jerusalem." * Nehemiah,
however, on the other hand, mourning over the news
that " the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and
the gates thereof are burned with fire," narrates how r ,
"in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artax
erxes the king," in response to his request, " send me
unto Judah, unto the CITY of my father s sepulchres,
that Imay build it," made a decree and had "letters
given " to that effect, " according to the good hand of
my God upon me." t
So that " the going forth of the commandment to
restore and build Jerusalem " can accordingly be dated
" in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king" ; and
to ascertain when he began to reign, the fairest course
would appear to be, avoiding the opinions of all
theological experts, to simply cite the evidence of some
* Ezra i., especially verse 2 ; vi. 1-12 ; vii., especially verse 27.
f Neh. i. 3 ; ii. 1-8.
228 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
thoroughly respectable and unbiassed secular historian.
We open, therefore, Haydn s celebrated " Dictionary
of Dates," and find it stated therein that Artaxerxes
ascended the throne 464 B.C., which brings us to the
year 444 B.C., as the starting-point of the prophecy.
Proceeding in the opposite direction, the phrase,
" Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself " is surely
most conclusive that neither the Incarnation nor life-
ministry of our Lord can possibly be alluded to by
the prophet, but rather His death. We must also
courteously demur, albeit with a measure of hesitancy,
to the generally-accepted belief that Christ had fully
completed the thirty-third year of His life when He
was crucified, since Luke tells us that, at the time of
His baptism, " Jesus Himself began to be about thirty
years of age " ; i.e., was twenty-nine, or in His thirtieth
year, which would make His death take place A.D. 32 ;
or, in His thirty-third year, in the month Abib or
Nisan, the first month of the Jewish sacred year, when
the first Passover was ordained and held, and the
definite command of Artaxerxes was given.* Thus
we have the termini of the prophecy fixed at B.C. 444
and A.D. 32, producing, as the totalled result, a period
of four hundred and seventy-six years, which would
appear to give us exactly seven less than the required
four hundred and eighty-three.
Sir Isaac Newton on Scriptural and Prophetic Years.
Here again, however, an interesting point arises.
With the easy-going self-consciousness of the Latin and
Anglo-Saxon races, nearly all commentators, with a
recent notable exception (Sir Eobert Anderson, C.B.,
LL.D., following the great Sir Isaac Newton, and
: : Luke iii. 28 ; Exod, xii., xiii. 3, 4 ; xxiii. ly, Neh. ii. 1.
229
surely there can be no higher authority on this matter,
from every view-point, than the illustrious astronomer),
have quietly assumed that prophetic and Biblical years
must necessarily run parallel with our own methods of
chronology. On the contrary, it is a well-known fact
that the Jewish year consisted of lunar months, and
the Scriptural year, as we can easily prove, of 360
days only, or twelve months of 30 days each. For
example, going back to " The Book of beginnings, 1 we
find it recorded that the flood commenced " in the
second month, the seventeenth day of the month," and
that " the ark rested in the seventh month, on the
seventeenth day of the month," a period of exactly
five months, defined twice over, in other verses as 150
days, or five months of 30 days each.* Further, pass
ing onward to the last book of the Bible, we read how
" the Gentiles shall tread the holy city under foot forty
and two months," while God s two witnesses shall
prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days ;t
which again gives us a similar result (1260 -^ 42 = 30) ;
so that the Scriptural month consists of 30, and the
prophetic year of 360 days. This demands that we
should deduct from each of the aforesaid Latin years
the excess amount of five and a quarter days, or
(476 x 5| = 2499) two thousand four hundred and
ninety-nine days, which after allowing one leap year
off for each century produces (2499 -- 4.76 = 2494.24),
say, two thousand four hundred and ninety-four days,
which, divided by 360, results in six years, eleven
months, and slightly over three days (2494.24 -i- 10 -j-
3 4- 12 = 6.9284416), or running thus into the twelfth
month, practically the seven years requisite to make the
four hundred and seventy-six Latin years into four
Gen. vii. 11 ; viii. 4 ; vii. 24 ; viii. 3.
f Kev. xi. 2, 3 ; see also xii. 6 ; xiii. 5.
230 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
hundred and eighty -three Scriptural or prophetic ones,
this being the exact number of septenaries to fulfil the
prediction to the very month, it being impossible for us
to discover the actual day of Abib when the prophecy
commenced, and when the Messiah was "cut off"-
and the Saviour crucified.
Uninspired Conclusions.
This is all so remarkable and convincing that we not
unnaturally look for the appearance of some contradic
tion and difficulty ; and, somewhat to our surprise,
discover such a thing in the uninspired marginal note
in some editions of our English Bible " Fourth year
before the account called Anno Domini." * Of course,
if this be indisputably correct, the foregoing argument
is immediately destroyed. However, as Puritan Pro
testants finding the consensus of vulgar opinion still
holding by the current chronology, we instinctively
hesitate to accept the mere ipse dixit of certain
pious Archbishops and impious Popes without an
inquiry whether the Gospels and cotemporaneous his
tory justify such a conclusion. Accordingly, looking a
little closely into the matter, we discover (1) that, con
cerning the statement of Luke, " This taxing was first
made when Cyrenius was Governor of Syria," profane
history remains absolutely silent ; and, with our pre
sent light, no evidence whatsoever is cast upon the
time alluded to in these words.! On Matthew s testi
mony, we also learn (2) that Herod the Great survived
the birth of our Lord, and therefore the conclusion
follows that, if the period of Herod s death can be
reliably fixed, it goes far to solve the question at issue; t
:;: Bagster, margin, Matt. ii. 1 -Matt. iii. being headed A.D. 27,
and Matt. v. A.D. 31 !! f Luke ii. 1-7. J Matt. ii. 19, 20.
FULFILLED PKOPHECY 231
but here again historians, commentators, ecclesiastics,
and prophetic students vary hopelessly in their conclu
sions, some naming B.C. 1, and the majority B.C. 2 to
B.C. 4 (ordinary chronology) ; expressing, however,
with tolerable unanimity, the opinion that Christ was
born between B.C. 1 and B.C. 4 ; and, preferably, nearer
the latter date.
Still, so much uncertainty prevails that the question
naturally arises, Is there, then, no other circumstance
whereby the time of our Saviour s birth can be really
and accurately computed ? and, to our profound delight,
we find there is one incident, plain and unmistakable,
so fixing the date, that confronted therewith, we have
little doubt, these shiftings, findings, and deductions
concerning Herod will one day submit themselves.
Luke, again in language of the utmost simplicity and
clearness, tells us (3) that John the Baptist commenced
his ministry " in the fifteenth year of the reign of
Tiberius Caesar, " and, as he some months after,
solemnly immersed our Lord, if we can fix the acces
sion of Tiberius, the time is settled when " Jesus began
to be about thirty years of age " ; * and here again we
turn preferably to purely secular sources for informa
tion ; and, on the high authority of that most accurate
and careful modern historian, the late Professor Free
man, learn that Tiberius commenced to reign A.D. 14 ;
and, consequently, John began his ministry and Christ
was baptized A.D. 29, which we believe, as we said
before, proves our Saviour s death to have taken place
A.D. 32 (14 + 15 + 3 = 32). This date re Tiberius is
definite and certain ; and, therefore, while waiting
further light, necessarily overweighs all arguments
concerning Herod s death, which cannot with any
assurance be fixed within some years, and thus estab-
;;: Luke iii. 1-2U.
232 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
lishes, to our mind at least (while fully conscious of
the varying merits of alternative suggestions and
interpretations), the unvarnished truth that, as God
had predicted, so God fulfilled, absolutely, simply, and
unequivocably, and to the very month, this old-time
prophecy, delivered centuries before the birth of Christ,
concerning the crucifixion and "cutting off" of the
Messiah.
THE JEWS
THERE is, however, another endorsement of Old Testa
ment Inspiration which is, in some respects, actually
more irresistible in its conclusions than the foregoing
testimonies concerning fulfilled prophecy in the life,
ministry, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Sceptics, of a certain " advanced " school,
may not only repudiate the doctrine of the resurrec
tion, but they may also bluntly impugn the honesty
and accuracy of all the Gospel narratives ; yet is there
one objective, living, up-to-date fact which even they
can neither challenge nor deny ; I mean, the con
tinued and miraculous preservation of that unique yet
scattered nation, the Jews.
Ten Million Jews testify to Verbal Inspiration.
It is recorded that, when Frederick the Great once
suddenly turned upon his chaplain, and asked him to
supply a proof of Biblical Inspiration in a word, the
minister, without a moment s hesitancy, gave as his
answer, " The JEWS " ; and, indeed, the existence of
the Jews, outside of prophetical explanation, is an un
solved enigma. Here we have, dispersed in every
country of the world to-day, a people, whose facial,
social, and religious peculiarities single them out, and
differentiate them from all those other nations among
233
234 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
whom they live, and trade, and have their being ;
who, alone, after the lapse of millenniums, have
retained their distinct nationality, and never merged
or coalesced with the encompassing peoples ; deprived
of the special characteristics of their ancient religion,
without Prince, Sacrifice, or native land ; not held
together by any great political organisation, central
government, King, High Priest, capital, or special
rallying-place, yet surviving every variation upon the
swiftly-changing map of history, each whim of fortune,
and desire of Empire-builders ; albeit the continual
victims of bitter and unparalleled persecution wherever
they have been scattered, harried, robbed, murdered,
by Christians and heathens, Mohammedans and
Romanists, Despots and Democrats alike, the
National Immortality of Israel fairly defies all allied
antagonisms, and laughs at each successive attempt to
destroy or merge its racial personality. This marvel
lous survival in the history of peoples and the world,
in spite of the handicapping experiences of such a
unique dispersion, confronts the Infidel and Rationalist
with a fact which cannot be quietly smiled at, frittered
away, gainsaid, or ignored ; flashing its evidence upon
us, as it does, in every portion of the habitable globe
from ten millions of distinctively Jewish faces ; and
all this was, with peculiar accuracy and definiteness,
foretold in their own Scriptures, some fifteen hundred
years before the destruction of Jerusalem, when, amid
unheard-of horrors, that dispersion commenced, which
has now lasted over eighteen hundred years.
The Siege of Jerusalem Predicted 1,500 years ahead.
Let us, accordingly, look at a few of these old-time
predictions concerning Israel and Jerusalem, preserved
THE JEWS 235
and handed down to us by the Jewish race, and uttered
by their most honoured and trusted prophets. Moses,
the greatest and best-beloved of all their leaders,
speaking on the very threshold of his death-scene,
solemnly prophesied that, if Israel forsook and dis
obeyed Almighty God, although His elect and chosen
people,* yet should their cities be overthrown, their
land sterilised, and their nation scattered to the four
winds of heaven ; and, as one reads the twenty-eighth
chapter of Deuteronomy, with its terse but pathetically
tragic forecast of the destruction of Jerusalem, when,
in the straitness of the siege, men and women turned
cannibals, and " the tender and delicate woman, who
would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon
the ground for delicateness and tenderness," devoured
her own offspring secretly, it might almost be put in
parallel columns with the sad history of Josephus,
written after the event; while the description of the
conquering enemy as " a nation from far," not, as
might naturally have been expected, one of the sur
rounding peoples ; " as the eagle flieth," suggestive of
the Roman standards; "a nation of fierce coun
tenance, which shall not regard the person of the old,
nor show favour to the young," a marked characteristic
of the relentless Roman policy of extermination ;
which "shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy
high and fenced walls come down," alluding to the
peculiarity of the war, which was one of sieges rather
than of open field conflicts, and the terrible battering-
rams, of which Josephus gives an account still instinct
with the terror which such onslaughts produced within
his mind ; together with the predictions of how the
unfortunate Jewish captives would be taken " into
Egypt again with ships," the slave-market so glutted
* Deut. vii. 6-8.
23(5 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKT)
that "ye shall be sold" (some hundred thousand),
..." and no man shall buy you " ; how " ye shall
be left few in number," and " plucked from off the
land whither thou goest to possess it," this remarkable
prophecy being pronounced before the Jews had actu
ally entered Palestine; how " the Lord shall scatter
thee among all people, from the one end of the earth
even unto the other"; and "thou shalt become an
astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all
nations, whither the Lord shall lead thee"; "and
among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither
shall the sole of thy foot have rest : but the Lord shall
give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes,
and sorrow of mind," &c., fulfilled as they were and
are to the very letter, demand and command the reve
rential wonder of any impartial mind, especially since
they were spoken centuries before the city of Rome
existed, or any one could even forecast or conceive the
possibility or trend of such events.*
And the Dispersal yet Preservation of Israel.
Now, this literal and tragic object-lesson of the
judgments, which Moses said to Israel, " shall be upon
thee for a sign and for a wonder," together with many
similar and subsequent predictions from the lips of
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Amos ; " I will deliver
them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth
for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt
and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them " ;
" the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all
the winds " ; "I will sift the house of Israel among
all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not
the least grain fall upon the earth " ; " they shall be
:;; Deut. xxviii. ; Lev. xxvi.
THE JEWS 237
wanderers among the nations " ; is written large upon
the face of history.* With a fierce and terrible fury,
inexplicable even on the ground of mediaeval harshness
and intolerance, the Jews have been driven from land
to land, and city to city, robbed, maltreated, harried,
tortured, imprisoned, slain ; the victims of every
brutal caprice and diabolical whim, whether on the
part of Princes or Peoples, Christians or Mohamme
dans ; and yet, unextinguished and unextinguishable,
they remain " wanderers among the nations," an inde
structible and imperishable witness to the truth of
God, and the Inspiration of the Pentateuch. It would
be well-nigh an impossibility to exaggerate the horrors
of their persecutions down the centuries as they were
expelled successively from Jerusalem, Rome, and
Alexandria, scourged, mutilated, murdered, the
common prey of rich and poor, learned and vulgar,
pious and impious alike, in Spain, France, Austria,
Germany, and even England, while, if a passing lull
has come, to-day, in such countries as are dominated
by the liberty-loving tenets of Protestantism and of
Scriptural and Evangelical Christianity, the storm-
clouds are still lowering darkly in South-Eastern
Europe, and the gathering anti-Semitic feeling in
France and Russia may, at any moment, burst forth
in a whirlwind of fury unparalleled by even those
tragic sufferings of the past.
Desolation of the Land " Flowing with Milk and
Honey."
But this is not all. Palestine, " the delightsome
land," "flowing with milk and honey," concerning
* Jer. xxiv. 9 ; Ezek. v. 10 ; Amos ix. 9 ; Hos. ix. 17. See also
Jer. viii. 3 ; ix. 15, 16 ; xxix. 18 ; xxxi. 10. Ezek. xii. 15 ; Amos
ix. 4; &c., &c.
238 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
the extraordinary fertility and beauty of which pro
fane historians have borne abundant and unimpeach
able testimony, has been also cursed, and, under the
solemn judgments of God, remains to-day barren and
blasted, a land of " waste cities " and " desolate
sanctuaries," in fulfilment of the Mosaic prediction,
" the generation to come of your children that shall
rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come
from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues
of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath
laid upon it ; ... Wherefore hath the Lord done thus
unto this land ? what meaneth the heat of this great
anger ? Then men shall say, Because they have for
saken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers
. . . and went and served other gods, . . . the anger
of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring
upon it all the curses that are written in this Book :
and the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger,
and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them
into another land, as it is this day."* We cannot, in
this connection, do better than quote the words of
Volney, the celebrated traveller, himself an infidel :
" The temples are thrown down, the palaces demolished,
the ports filled up, the towns destroyed, and the earth,
stripped of inhabitants, seems a dreary burying-place.
From whence proceed such melancholy volutions ? For
what cause is the fortune of these countries so strikingly
changed ? Why are so many cities destroyed ? Why
is not that ancient population reproduced, and per
petuated?"! Thus did "the stranger from a far
land" not only bear involuntary witness to the
detailed truth of these predictions, but, in so doing,
* Deut. xxix. 22-28. See also Lev. xxvi. 31-35 ; Isa. vi. 11, 12
xxxii. 13-15. Jer. iv. 27; Ezek. vi. ; Mic. i. 6; &c., &c.
f Volney s " Ruins," chap, ii., p. 7.
THE JEWS 239
himself unconsciously fulfilled the only item wanting
to complete the all-round accuracy of the prophecy.
Nor did the Jews submit to God s inevitable pro
gramme without many a severe conflict. After the
destruction of Jerusalem, when one million three
hundred thousand people w r ere slain, they agonised
again and again to rebuild the city and consolidate
the nation, but all in vain. In A.D. 135, for two long,
bitter years, they desperately fought the iron power
of Kome, losing over half a million of lives, exclusive
of those who perished through famine and disease ;
but whether the Emperor Adrian thundered or Jus
tinian helped, it mattered nought, a power unseen,
invincible, irrevocable, blasted all their fairest hopes,
and disappointed all their stoutest struggles. Christ,
the rejected Messiah, had predicted the destruction
of the temple, and its charred stones were thrown
down so that there was " not left one stone upon
another"; and a ploughshare, driven by Terentius
Eufus, tore up the foundations of the sanctuary and
city, as foretold by Micah nearly eight hundred years
before ; * and when the loyal-hearted, under imperial
favour, sought afterwards to rebuild it, no less an
authority than the infidel historian Gibbon records
how, on " the unexceptionable testimony of Ammianus
Marcellinus, horrible balls of fire, breaking out near
the foundations, with frequent and reiterated attacks
rendered the place from time to time inaccessible to
the scorched and blasted workmen " until the enter
prise had necessarily and hopelessly to be abandoned.!
And all repeated efforts to retain and maintain some
form of central government or organisation under a defi
nite leader were, likewise, equally unavailing, because,
eight hundred years before Titus assailed Jerusalem,
:;: Mic. iv. 13. f Gibbon s " Decline and Fall," chap, xxiii.
240 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
the Holy Ghost, through Hosea, had prophesied, " The
children of Israel shall abide many days without a
king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice,
and without an image, and without an ephod, and
without teraphim."* Thus ethnarchs claimed power,
and faded away, and "princes of the captivity"
assumed a feeble affectation of authority until the
last lost head and rule together. Since the destruc
tion of Jerusalem no holy place exists, and to-day
priestly intercession has given place to Rabbinical
admonitions, while even still the Jews solemnly and
sadly keep their " great day of atonement," with
prayers, tears, confessions, and fastings, but no
atonement. Now, that Israel, of all nations of the
world, with a God-appointed ministry and ritual,
should remain still without a priest or a sacrifice ;
that the people, who so incessantly grieved Jehovah
by their idolatry as to bring about those curses which
are fulfilled in their present dispersion and sorrows,
should now refuse steadfastly, at peril of life itself, to
bow down before an image or an icon; that "their
silver and their gold," which it was predicted "shall
not be able to deliver them because it is the stumbling-
block of their iniquity ; t and which, again and again,
provoked their relentless persecution, should still be
held pre-eminently in Jewish hands at this moment ;
that this quiet, obscure people, driven from their own
land, and scattered over the wide world, touching every
shore of earth, like the fragments of a stately vessel
after some mighty hurricane, should yet remain, in
every kingdom, a distinct, unmerged entity, without
the centralising advantage of any unifying power, or
prince, or priesthood, while Britons, Danes, Norse,
aad French have melted into an indistinguishable
* Hos. Hi. 4. f Ezek. vii. 19.
THE JEWS 241
nationality in England, and every people of the world
blended into one in the great Eepublic of the West,
and Assyria and Babylon cannot produce a representa
tive of their extinct races ; these things, and especially
the twin facts of Israel s dispersion among all the
peoples under heaven, and their continued, unbroken
nationality, in spite of relentless persecution, are
explicable only on the ground of God s eternal pur
pose detailed in the verbally-inspired predictions of
the Pentateuch ; and we fearlessly challenge sceptics
and critics alike to afford any other solution of this
standing miracle, which Hegel says "is an enigma I
cannot solve," or themselves to foretell, not three
thousand, nor three hundred, but thirty, or, for that
matter, three years ahead, the changes which may
take place upon the face of history, or the groupings,
blendings, mergings, and overlappings of national life.
Predicted Blessings yet for Israel.
"But," some one exclaims, "are there not now,
however, brighter days dawning for God s ancient
people, and do not tokens everywhere herald the in
gathering and consolidation of the race? " Assuredly,
and very likely speedily ; but then these blessings are
also as clearly predicted as were the curses in Israel s
dispersion and day of trial, and it is because of this
that the Jews have been so wonderfully preserved by
God, since He will yet again restore them to Judaea
and Jerusalem as a nation. Nor does it matter to
the believer whether the fulfilment of these auspicious
prophecies be worked out through the medium of
Zionist Congresses and national aspirations, or politi
cal plottings and diplomatic strategies ; whether the
enforced exodus of persecution drive them, or the
17
242 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
drawings of kindness move them "home"; since, in
any case, over and above the natural and temporal will
reign the Supernatural and Eternal. Thus, in the very
next verse to the quotation already given, there follow
the very remarkable and pregnant words, "Afterwards
shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord
their God, and David their King ; and shall fear the
Lord and His goodness in the latter days."* Yes, for
both land and people, bright, glad, golden times are
yet in store, when "the veil shall be taken away"
from Israel s heart, and the Gentile parenthesis of
grace having passed away, Christ s prophecy concern
ing the Jews shall have an absolute and literal accom
plishment, "They shall fall by the edge of the sword,
and shall be led away captive into all nations : and
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until
the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Then shall
that people, which fulfilled Isaiah s predictions regard
ing the Messiah in His rejection and despisal, receive
"the Spirit of grace and of supplication," "look on
Him whom they have pierced," and, through God s
covenant of grace, enjoy His overwhelming benedic
tion in that millennial peace and glory foretold so
graphically by that self-same prophet who predicted
their sufferings and shame, t The Lord hasten it in
His time !
:;: Hos. iii. 5.
f Luke xxi. 24; 2 Cor. iii. 15, 16; Rom. ix. 25-36; Zech. xii.,
xiii., xiv. ; Isa. liii. 1-4; Ix., Ixi., Ixii., Ixvi., &c.
GENTILE NATIONS
THE actual fulfilment of many definite Old Testament
prophecies, uttered unquestionably centuries at least
before their complete accomplishment, is stamped in
large letters upon the page of history and the face of
geography. That such facts ever could have been
forecast by human wisdom is incredible, especially
since most of them were at utter variance with what
might reasonably be expected as a likely and natural
development of events, while the predictions were
uttered also by representatives of a small, obscure
people, narrow and exclusive in their tastes and
sympathies, who, though dwelling among mighty
nations, were singularly destitute of philosophic states
men and world-wide politicians, a people who only
produced one Book of literary merit, and that the very
Scripture containing those clear-cut and detailed state
ments concerning the extent and character of that
utter ruin, often ending in actual extinction, which it
foretold would inevitably overtake the greatest dynas
ties and cities. To whittle away or refuse to acknow
ledge the force of this practical argument, which can
be clearly established from the unimpeachable testi
mony of profane writers and up-to-date facts, must
only indicate either an unconquerable bias and pre
judice against revealed religion, or else mental incapa
city of the very lowest order.
243
244 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
1. THE CURSE OF SLAVERY.
Roosevelt cannot equalise Black and White.
Accordingly we note how, in the very morning of
post-diluvian history, when the great threefold division
of the human race took place, a solemn curse was pro
nounced by Noah upon Ham s descendants, and an
equally distinct blessing upon the children of Japheth :
"Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be
unto his brethren. . . . God shall enlarge Japheth,
and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem " ; * and
waiving all controversy concerning the question of a
deluge, and, for that matter, of even Noah s existence,
we simply inquire, Is or is it not to-day a fact that
the sons of Japheth Englishmen, Americans, and
Continentalists, migrating from their own borders,
dwell in the Asiatic tents of Shem (witness the magni
ficent New Year s Durbar and Lord Curzon s well-nigh
Imperial honour) ; and that the offspring of Canaan,
whether in Africa or elsewhere, were and are in a
condition of miserable bondage and slavery ? It is
easy to censure the present treatment of "Blacks"
in the United States as but a scanty improvement
upon that existing before the great civil war, denied,
as they are, equality of admission to public conveyances,
hotels, and even the Lord s table, with the "Whites " ;
and yet American philanthropy should not be unduly
condemned in this matter, since it is only the fulfil
ment of an old-time prophecy, outside human control,
recorded millenniums ago, which even President
lloosevelt s recent broad-minded policy cannot render
inoperative and void !
:;: Gen. ix. 25-27.
GENTILE NATIONS 245
2. THE UNTAMABLE ARAB.
Furthermore, another equally clear, but perfectly
opposite prediction stands over against the descendants
of Ishmael, of whom God said, " He will be a wild
man ; his hand will be against every man, and every
man s hand against him"; "and I will make him a
great nation."* Observe carefully the contrast, the
children of Canaan were to be enslaved, but those of
Ishmael, on the contrary, to be free with a wild, breezy
liberty, untamable and unsubduable. Is or is not this
a true description of the Arab race as it now exists ?
Once " a great nation " stretching from India to the
Atlantic, yet even then, as to-day, utterly unaffected
by the luxury and civilisation of surrounding peoples,
acute and active, "plunderers by profession," trading
on their wits, a wild, rough, isolated, primitive race,
unconquered and unchanged, they remain still, as
Gibbon puts it, " armed against mankind," such living
witnesses and embodiments of that very verse, written
more than three thousand years ago, that, in our
current phraseology, the terms " Ishmaelite " and
"Arab" have a significance and social meaning
borrowed exclusively from this ancient prophecy and
its fulfilment in their self-centred existence and wild,
isolated life.
3. THE EXTINCTION OF EDOM.
Again, we find in the prophecies concerning the
children of Esau, not predictions of how, like Ishmael s
sons, a nation shall continue primitive, untamable, and
unabsorbed, nor how, as in the case of Canaan s
* i Gen. xvi. 12 ; xvii. 20.
246 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
posterity, generation after generation shall remain en
slaved ; but how a great people shall become entirely
extinct, her industries cease, her land become " most
desolate," and her strongest cities abodes of " owls and
dragons." * A rich and powerful nation, while Israel
was insignificant and mean, Virgil sings of the glories
of the Idumoeans, and Sir Isaac Newton speaks of
Petra, their principal city, the bustling centre of
Eastern commerce, built like a nest "in the clefts of
the rock," as the nursery of the arts and sciences
from whence even Egypt learned the secrets of astro
nomy and navigation ; yet the almighty God Himself
proclaims, centuries before the Christian era, " Though
thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I
will bring thee down from hence, saith the Lord" ; t
" and there shall not be any remaining of the house of
Esau ; for the Lord hath spoken it." I The issue is
an extremely simple one, Has Petra been overthrown ?
Is Idumaea desolate ? Are her cities ruined and is the
race of Esau absolutely extinct ? Ask those travellers
who, discovering with difficulty the ruins of the most
impregnable city of ancient or modern times, were
driven thence by the onslaught of most venomous
scorpions, and found Idumaea " a dreary expanse of
stones." Lifting their hands in astonishment, they
bear witness, "It is hardly credible that such desola
tion was ever inhabited." Though an army of 20,000
Idumaeans took part in the grim tragedy of Jerusalem s
destruction, and Petra was the seat of a Christian
bishopric (Metropolitan), and flourished till the seventh
century, yet no single individual on God s wide habit
able earth to-day claims kinship with Esau or the
name of Edom, while, on the other hand, the descen-
* Isa. xxxiv. ; Jer. xlix. 7-22 ; Ezek. xxxv. ; Obad.
f Jer. xlix. 16. t Obad. 18.
GENTILE NATIONS 247
dants of his brother Jacob remain marvellously pre
served, an intact people, though " scattered to the four
winds of heaven." Is this chance, accident, a fortui
tous conglomeration of circumstances, or the will of
God ? Surely only one answer is at all satisfactory or
possible.
4. THE DESTRUCTION OF NINEVEH AND BABYLON.
We pass on to Nineveh, that "exceeding great city
of three days journey," * the capital of the mighty
Assyrian dynasty, with its walls sixty miles in com
pass, one hundred feet high, and fortified by 1,500
towers ; now so utterly destroyed that when the
memorable conflict between the Romans and Persians
took place, A.D. 627, "the city, and even the ruins of
the city, had long since disappeared, and the vacant
space afforded a spacious field for the operations of the
two armies"; + and ask, Have or have not the pro
phetic words of Nahum been fulfilled, "I will make
thy grave" "I w T ill cast abominable filth upon thee,
and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-
stock " ? t Why! Lucian, in the second century,
testifies that even in his time Nineveh had so com
pletely perished that no trace of the wonderful city
then remained. The Lord God Almighty had buried
it ! And but recently from under the " abominable
filth" He has ordained that there should be dug up
from its grave most marvellous witnesses of its original
greatness in the exhumed walls of a supremely grand
and beautiful palace, containing still fully two miles of
bas-reliefs, inscriptions, sculptures of great elegance
and precision representing historical events, battles,
sieges, and triumphs, swords, shields, and drinking-
* Jonah iii. 3. f Gibbon, vol. v. p. 408. \ Nah. i. 14 ; iii. 6.
248 GOD 8 WITNESS TO HTS WORD
cups highly finished and adorned, besides furniture
and ornaments of the most tasteful description.
Add to this testimony the evidence of Babylon with
its massive walls broad enough for six chariots to drive
abreast, one of "the seven wonders of the world," its
brazen gates, most wonderful of temples, hanging
gardens, artificial lake, and the extreme fertility of
encompassing Chaldaea, now utterly overthrown and
consisting of " a vast succession of heaps of rubbish "
interspersed with "pools of \vater" ; its sole inhabitants
wild beasts, lions, jackals, and wolves, an "astonish
ment" to the explorer and a source of superstitious
fear to the wandering Arab, who will not even pitch
his tent there ; while the surrounding country is one
vast desert, all of which details and many more were
definitely foretold with startling vividness by Isaiah
and Jeremiah : " Babylon shall become heaps," and
" pools of water." " The broad walls of Babylon shall
be utterly broken." "I will roll thee " (the mount
with the temple of Belus) "down from the rocks, and
will make thee a burnt mountain." "It shall never be
inhabited, . . . neither shall the Arabian pitch tent
there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold
there. But w T ild beasts of the desert shall lie there ;
and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures."
"Every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished."
"I will punish the land of the Chaldseans, and will
make it perpetual desolations." "Cut off the sower
from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the
time of harvest," &c., &c.*
Let the mystery be squarely faced and explained by
Bible doubters of how this mighty city, a synonym
for everything substantial and magnificent, so great
* Jer. li. 37 ; Isa. xiv. 23 ; Jer. li. 58, 25 ; Isa. xiii. 20, 21 ;
Jer. 1. 13 ; xxv. 12 ; 1. 16.
GENTILE NATIONS 249
that Alexander even in his time contemplated making
it the capital of his world-wide empire, is to-day thus
completely devastated and even so dreaded that no one
can or will dwell there, although the town of Hillah,
only six miles distant, contains 6,000 people, and
houses built exclusively of BRICKS carried from the
ruins of Babylon for that purpose, another fulfilment
of prophecy : " Let nothing of her be left " ; and yet
in full harmony with the apparently, at first sight,
contradictory prediction, " They shall not take of thee
a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations." *
To us at least it frankly seems impossible to do other
wise than recognise God s hand in this overground
witness of fallen Babylon and underground testimony
of buried Nineveh and see Himself as the Fulfiller of
those events which He predicted through His prophets
with such unerring accuracy centuries before.
Let it be remembered that, in these references to
Nineveh and Babylon, we have scrupulously adhered
to our determination to produce no fulfilled prophecy
as evidence of Old Testament Inspiration concerning
which it MIGHT, however unfairly and erroneously, be
asserted, "These predictions were written after or
simultaneously with the events." Had it been other
wise, it would form a most interesting study in this
connection to trace the parallelism between the pro
phetic utterances of Nahum and Jeremiah t on the
one hand and the graphic accounts given of the
remarkable captures of these well-nigh impregnable
cities by the profane historians, Diodorus Siculus and
Xenophon, on the other ; a parallel as striking as that
already mentioned which connects the words of Moses
* Jer. 1. 26 ; li. 26.
| Nah. ; Jer. 1., li., &c. See also Isa. xlv. 1-4.
250 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKI)
concerning the siege of Jerusalem with the records of
Josephus ; but, however fascinating the temptation,
we forbear, only advising all ministers and Christian
workers to procure and peruse that incomparable and
unrivalled book, Dr. Keith s " Evidence of Fulfilled
Prophecy," which, with Mr. John Urquhart s recent
well- written and conclusive volume, "What are we to
Believe?" should be stocked, read, marked, and in
wardly digested in every library.*
5. JUDGMENTS ON TYKE AND SIDON.
The very Dust obeys Jehovah s Predictions.
The temptation, however, to make one exception to
the foregoing principle is so great, in the case of
ancient and modern Tyre, that, like Mr. Urquhart in
his charming chapter on that subject, we cannot
refrain from alluding to the extraordinary fulfilment
of Ezekiel s prophecy in the capture and destruction
of the latter city by Alexander, two and a half
centuries subsequent to the overthrow of the former
by Nebuchadnezzar : "Therefore thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I am against thee, Tyrus, and will
cause many nations to come up against thee, as the
sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall
destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her
towers : I will also scrape her dust from her, and make
Amid many authorities, we specially acknowledge indebtedness
to the above for reliable and most interesting information, and
also to Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, Rawlinson s "Ancient
Monarchies," Dean Goode s " Warburton Lectures on Fulfilled
Prophecy " ; the Greek writers, Herodotus, Xenophon, and Dio-
dorus Siculus ; Josephus, the Jewish annalist ; Gibbon, the famous
historian, and Volney, the intrepid traveller, both themselves
pronounced sceptics.
GENTILE NATIONS 251
her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the
spreading of nets in the midst of the sea : for I have
spoken it, saith the Lord God."* After a siege of
some thirteen years duration, Nebuchadnezzar, as
also predicted t in spite of her powerful fleet, captured
and destroyed Tyre upon the mainland, nor was any
effort henceforth made to rebuild it, for God had said,
" Thou shalt be built no more" ; but the inhabitants,
fleeing to an island, half a mile distant, built there,
instead, a new city, the glory and prosperity of which
ultimately eclipsed the old one, the afterglow of its faded
splendour remaining until A.D. 1291, when it was over
thrown by the Mamelukes of Egypt. In Alexander s
days, however, the ruined walls of ancient Tyre still
stood, but were pulled down by that mighty conqueror,
in order to form out of their very dust (" Humus aggera-
batur," Quintus Curtius), a massive causeway whereby
to bridge the little belt of intervening sea, and join
the mainland with the island," thus literally fulfill
ing the eccentric prophecy, " They shall lay thy
stones and thy timber and thy dust in the
midst of the water," * the ruins of the ancient
city being actually cast into " the midst of the
water," while the impoverished occupants of a few
miserable hovels, still remaining in modern Tyre to-day,
" spread their nets in the midst of the sea," Bruce, the
famous traveller, describing her as " a rock whereon
fishers dry their nets."
Nor is this all. Of Sidon, the mother-city of Tyre,
the Lord God predicts, through the same prophet, and
in the same connection, a doom of sorrow, and the
sword, " I will send blood into her streets," taken
and retaken ; once set on fire by its own citizens, and
:;: Ezek. xxvi. 3-5. f See Ezek. xxvi. 7-11.
t Ezek. xxvi, 12, ^ Ibid, xxviii, 23.
252 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
the theatre of conflict after conflict, even until the time
of our late beloved Queen, Sidon is yet occupied by some
ten thousand people, while ancient Tyre is absolutely
extinct. How complete the overthrow of old Ezekiel s
words, and God s predicted programme, if, as Mr.
Urquhart suggests, the names or prophecies had
changed places, but they have not ; and so, annihilated
Tyre and existing Sidon bear twin testimony to the
fulness, completion, and detailed accuracy of the
foretellings of the Holy Scriptures.
6. EGYPT " THE BASEST OF THE KINGDOMS."
Hitherto we have been dealing with the predicted
extinction of races, dynasties, and cities ; now let us
consider the prophesied perpetuation of the most
ancient and learned nation of the world as " the
basest of the kingdoms," of which it is also written,
"there shall be no more a prince of the land of
Egypt." * Beyond all doubt, Egypt, the granary of
the world, with its 20,000 cities, famed for its erudition
and research, its commercial influence and political
importance, w r ith those marvels of architectural and
engineering skill which, in their ruined beauty, call
forth to-day the envy and astonishment of modern
criticism, was once the greatest of all nations, so
great that its majesty still shadows those who gaze
upon its monuments as, in reverential awe, the
traveller feels the impress of the great Napoleon s
words, "Forty centuries look down upon you"; and
yet now, in spite of multiplied efforts, struggles,
rebellions, upheavals, and reformations, what sentence
can more aptly portray the present condition of sunken
:: Ezek. xxix. 15 ; xxx. 13
GENTILE NATIONS 253
Egypt than this pregnant phrase, " the basest of the
kingdoms " ?
But there are ruins of cities remaining, grander and
even more majestic than those of Nineveh or Babylon ;
of Thebes, the "No " of Scripture, with its hundred
gates, sung of by Homer ; spoken of by Tacitus as able
to raise an army of three-quarters of a million ; and
mentioned, about the Christian era, by a noted
historian and traveller, as the finest city he ever
saw; the prediction runs, "Thus saith the Lord
God," "I will cut off the multitude of No," "and
No shall be rent asunder" ; * and so completely has
it been fulfilled, that Thebes with its famed temple
of Carnac, the most massive and grandest palace ever
built, the faded glory of which defies description, with
the colours of 3,000 years ago still fresh upon its
walls, and avenues of stately pillars in girth some
thirty feet, has been aptly called by a modern writer
" the metropolis of ruins," and has remained, for the
last two thousand years, broken up into nine distinct
hamlets. Of mighty Memphis, which existed as an
important political and commercial centre until the
seventh century, Jehovah decrees, " I will cause their
images to cease out of Noph," t and, a few years ago,
only two exquisitely moulded statues, face downwards
in pools of water, were in existence amid its ruins,
an insignificant number, indeed, considering the thou
sands gone, but sufficient to invalidate the literalism
of the prophecy. These were, however, I have been
informed, recently removed by the British Govern
ment, showing how accurately every item delineated on
the map of prophecy has found its reflex on the map
of geography. Of the famous rivers, and once fertile
land of Egypt, God proclaimed, " I will make the rivers
:;: Ezek. xxx. 15, 16. f Ibid. xxx. 13.
254 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked :
and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein,
by the hand of strangers : I the Lord have spoken
it," * and thus, to-day, we find, out of the seven
branches of the Nile mentioned by Herodotus, only
those two remaining which were artificially con
structed, while it is a historical fact that no country
has ever been subjected to such tyrannical oppression,
systematic corruption, and gross misgovernment " by
the hand of strangers," Persians, Macedonians,
Eomans, Arabs, Mamelukes, and Turks successively ;
and the land itself is one vast desert stretching from
the very walls of Cairo to those of Alexandria. Nor is
this all, a blight has fallen also upon her trades and
industries. The arts of spinning and weaving, the
manufacture of cut glass, porcelain, mosaics, and
furniture, the secrets of dyes and colours, and the
knowledge of medicine, have all disappeared as com
pletely and mysteriously as the fisheries failed, and the
hidden science of engineering triumphs remains a
tantalising problem without a whisper of solution.
And why all this ? Simply because Isaiah foretold,
" The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that
cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they
that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.
Moreover, they that work in fine flax, and they that
weave networks, shall be confounded." "Neither
shall there be any work for Egypt, which the
head or tail, branch or rush, may do," t and this,
too, though be it remembered Alexandria was great
in even Cleopatra s and Caesar s time, possessing
the most famous library in the world, and being
the second city of the vast world-wide Koman
empire.
* E/.ek. xxx. 12. i Isa. xix. 8, 9, 15.
GENTILE NATIONS 255
No Native Prince for Millenniums.
Now, this predicted decadence, but not annihilation
of the Egyptian people, its continuity as a kingdom,
but " the basest of the kingdoms," is surely as remark
able an accomplishment of prophecy as the preservation
of the Jews, or the extinction of the Edomites, especially
when we trace the extraordinary and supernatural ful
filment of the words, " there shall be no more a prince
of the land of Egypt,"* each successive rebellion to
assert her independence from her oft-changing lords
failing so utterly, that she has manifestly existed as an
unabsorbed nation, not through any inherent vitality,
but rather in spite of absolute and unparalleled weak
ness. Since the complete conquest of Egypt by the
Persians under Ochus, 350 B.C., followed by the Mace
donians, Alexander and the Ptolemies, the Eomans,
30 B.C., Saracens, 641 A.D., Mamelukes, 1250 A.D., and
Turks, 1517 A.D., no native prince has sat upon the
throne of Egypt : and never, in the strange and
changeful history of the world, was such an eccentric
and idiotic system of government foisted on any
country as that introduced and maintained by the
Mamelukes. Gibbon, the illustrious infidel historian,
describes it thus: "A more unjust and absurd con
stitution cannot be devised than that which condemns
the natives of a country to perpetual servitude under
the arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves. Yet
such has been the state of Egypt above five hundred
years. The most illustrious Sultans of the Baharite
and Borgite dynasties were themselves promoted from
the Tartar and Circassian bands ; and the four and
twenty beys, or military chiefs, have ever been succeeded,
not by their sons, but by their servants." + In the light
:]: Ezek. xxx. 13. t History, vol. vii. p. 274.
256 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
of such testimony, who can twist aside or evade the
sledge-hammer force of this fact, that, for upwards
of two millenniums, none but strangers have ruled the
land of Egypt, as the Lord God Almighty prophesied
2,500 years ago, through the lips of His servant
Ezekiel ?
" But," exclaims some one, " are not things brighten
ing and broadening for this unhappy country under the
beneficent administration of the British Govern
ment? " Assuredly, we hope so ; yet, here again, we
recognise but dawnings of that restoration of the
nation which has also been predicted, and that, too,
in the very self-same chapter which foretold her long
period of sorrow and darkness : " He shall send them
a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them."
" In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and
with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the
land," * for the Lord God, who so marvellously
scattered and preserved Israel, and He who made
Egypt " the basest of the kingdoms," will yet restore
and build her up, " the zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this."
7. THE CITY OF THE SEVEN HILLS.
This argument from fulfilled prophecy would be
obviously incomplete without some passing allusion,
at least, to political and Papal Home. While not
inclined to agree with those many good and thought
ful men who see " the scarlet woman " everywhere on
the horizon of prophecy, and leaning, personally,
towards the futurist rather than the historical school
of interpretation, it seems most clear that no impartial
mind can carefully read the Book of Daniel, 2nd
::: Isa. xix. 20-25.
GENTILE NATIONS 257
Thessalonians, Timothy, and the Revelation, without
discovering therein predictions so significantly sugges
tive of the history, character, and pretensions of Rome
that, to pass by such evidence altogether would be a
violation of the most elementary rules of prophetic
study. It seems as though the truth, as already stated,
touches both preterist and futurist systems, a partial
and shadowy fulfilment heralding a more complete and
substantial one (as, for example, in the cases of Isaiah
Ixi. ; Joel ii. 28-32; Haggai ii. 6-9; Zechariah ix. 9,
10; Malachi iii. 1-4, iv.; &c.); and it should be remem
bered that language of admitted symbology, even under
the most advantageous circumstances, yields itself
naturally to somewhat varying interpretations. That
(a) Daniel, however, meant ROME when speaking of
" the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be
diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole
earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces,"*
and that this " dreadful and terrible, and strong ex
ceedingly," world-wide power, " diverse from all the
others " in being that strangest of political paradoxes,
a democratic despotism, which, extinguishing all
opposition, " devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped
the residue with his feet": was ultimately, in
Imperial days divided into two empires, Eastern
and Western, by Diocletian, A.D. 287, and that each
section had under it five kingdoms, and that three of
these, the Heruli, Ostragoths, and Lombards, were
rooted up by the uprisal of Papal Rome ; t are matters
:;: Dan. vii. 23. See also ii. 40-43 ; vii. 7, 8, 19-26.
f We do not say that there may not be a broader and fuller
accomplishment of this prophecy, but we do insist that re
markable circumstances, such as those mentioned by Dr. G rattan
Guinness, in his " Approaching End of the Age " (p. 173-178),
deserve and demand most serious consideration.
18
258 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
of historic fact, and cannot be contradicted. That
(6) the whorish woman-- -a symbol never used to
describe pagan nations and heathen systems, but
invariably applied in the Scriptures to a fallen and
apostate church (spoken of by John as " arrayed in
purple and scarlet," "drunken with the blood of the
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,"
and as " that great city which reigneth over the kings
of the earth," seated on "seven mountains"), repre
sents Papal Rome as she climbed into eminence under
the name of Christ, and upon the back of what had
been successively democratic and Imperial pagan
Rome,* seems to us, at least, perfectly evident, and
doubtless did so much more clearly to those who
witnessed millions of inoffensive, godly, and simple-
hearted Christians massacred for no other fault save
that they rejected her fables, masses, mummeries,
ordinances, pretensions, and spiritual sovereignty.
That (c) the extraordinary and ever-growing position
given each successive Pope over and above all,
honour, human piety, or even ecclesiastical egotism
could conceive, who, as " another God on earth "
(5th Lateran Council), as one who "represents not
a mere man, but a true God " (Innocent III.),
and " as Jesus, who, in the person of Pius III.,
reigns on earth, and must reign till He hath put
all enemies under His feet " (Cardinal Manning,
"Temporal Power," p. 245), &c., &c., is adorned with
the altar, which is avowed to be the seat of the
body and peculiar presence of Christ, as his foot
stool, startlingly corresponds with the words of Paul
concerning " that man of sin," " who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or
that is worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in
Rav. xvii,, and especially verses 6, 9, and 15.
GENTILE NATIONS 259
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,"*
is clear to the most superficial reader ; and while
I do not assert that the Papacy is the absolute
and complete fulfilment of this prediction, I err,
at any rate, in wise and fitting company in
" Amen"-ing a statement attributed to the great Lord
Bacon that, if an advertisement, with this descrip
tion, appeared upon the hoardings of London city,
offering a reward for the apprehension of " the
man of sin," we would at any rate be justified in
arresting the Pope upon suspicion (! !) ; and that (d)
Koine " forbids to marry, and commands to abstain
from meats," and is full of " profane and old wives
fables," "signs and lying wonders," t no one who is,
even in a cursory manner, conversant with her impo
sitions, miracles ( ?), tricks, ecclesiastical and social,
Jesuitry, and utter and flagrant self-seeking, regard
less of every sacrifice of morality, truth, and honour,
will for one moment deny ; and if, in spite of ever-
increasing pretensions, infallibility to wit, she now
trembles on her throne, that, too, is but another
verification of how John s inspired prediction re her
downfall will be fulfilled, since the very kingdoms
which ruled with, and under her, shall finally agree to
" make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh,
and burn her with fire," I as we see to-day in Con
tinental Europe.
8. A GROUP OF LATTER-DAY PREDICTIONS.
Passing by Christ s solemn words concerning the fate
of " the seven churches," we content ourselves with
merely pointing out how Ephesus now consists of but
::: 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4. I 1 Tim. iv. 1-7. ; 2 Thess. ii. 9.
! Rev. xvii. 12-18.
200 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
a few miserable hovels ; and Laodicea, formerly the
mother-church of sixteen bishoprics, with its glory,
wealth, churches, theatres, and a circus capable of
holding 30,000 people, is but the home of jackals ;
while Smyrna has, on the other hand, 100,000 inhabi
tants, and Philadelphia still remains "a pillar," as
Gibbon puts it, " erect, a column in a scene of ruins " ;
and call attention to (a) DANIEL S WORDS, " many shall
run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased,"*
suggestive of the unprecedented discoveries of present-
day science, with its well-nigh annihilation of space
and time ; wireless telegraphy, &c. (by the way, is
Nahum ii. 4, a prophecy of electric and motor
cars ? "The chariots shall rage in the streets, they
shall jostle one against another in the broad ways ;
they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the
lightnings ") to (&) PAUL S PREDICTIONS, " Now the
Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of demons," t a pointed and
pithy denunciation of Spiritualism, Theosophy, Chris
tian Science, and their attendant evils ; and " that in
the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall
be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, un
holy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that
are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of plea
sures more than lovers of God ; having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof " ; " men
of corrupt minds, reprobate (of no judgment) con
cerning the faith " ; " deceiving and being deceived " ;
who " will not endure sound doctrine; but after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,
:: Dan. xii. 4. \ 1 Tim. iv. 1-5.
GENTILE NATIONS 261
having itching ears ; and they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."*
Could any words more aptly describe the thought,
action, character, anarchy, and indifferentism of
present-day self-centred society, social, and religious,
it being also emphasised that the only weapon
whereby to combat and remedy these evils is an
old-fashioned confidence in "the Holy Scriptures"
" given by Inspiration of God." f
(c) PETER LIKEWISE PROPHESIES "that there shall
come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own
lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming ?
for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as
they were from the beginning of the creation " ; * and
is not this scepticism a marked characteristic of the
twentieth century ? Men scoff at the Creation, old-
time miracles and judgments, laugh at impending
doom, and sneer when one speaks of the second advent
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; while (d) THE
PREGNANT WORDS OF OUR DlVINE REDEEMER fitly
portray the present state of things in the civilised
world: " distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea
and the waves roaring ; men s hearts failing them for
fear, and for looking after those things which are
coming on the earth " ; the rising tide of socialism
and anarchy, statesmen staggering and at their wits
end, as humanity treads carelessly on latent volcanoes;
" wars and rumours of wars," and that, too, in spite
of Hague Conferences ! " famines, and pestilences,
and earthquakes, in divers places " ; and coupled
together the strange and apparently conflicting pre
dictions, "and because iniquity shall abound, the love
of many shall wax cold," " and this Gospel of the King-
* 2 Tim. iii. 1-8, 13 ; iv. 3, 4. f Ibid. iii. 14 to iv. 2.
I 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4.
202 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
dom shall be preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations; and then shall the end come."*
These, and many other events, foretold two thousand
years ago, surely cannot and should not be dismissed
with a light laugh as mere happy coincidences, but
appeal to the thoughtful consideration of every grave
and cautious mind.
Finally, summing up this argument, may I reiterate
that all these prophecies were indisputably uttered cen
turies, and often millenniums, before their accomplish
ment, and when there was no likelihood of such a
fulfilment ; and that I do not ask any one to accept
deductions of mine therefrom, but simply to note how
the predictions foretold future facts which fit in with
present-day realities as a key does to a lock ; and that,
whether prophecy be viewed from a comprehensive
survey as one great whole, or gazed at analytically, and
in detail, as regards its several component parts, or
treated from the common arithmetical theory of pro
babilities, or the more striking law of contrasts in
parallel predictions, the irresistible force and logic of
plain reasoning should compel any candid sceptic to
ask himself the question, " Do I impose a greater
burden upon faith in accepting these prophecies as
Divinely inspired, or in assuming that a strange con
census of haphazard circumstances has led to their
fulfilment? " Let us, therefore, in conclusion, glance
briefly at the matter from this quadrilateral standard,
and take,
FIRSTLY, a general bird s eye view of prophecy.
Accordingly, sweeping the telescope over the wide
and varied panorama of centuries, we survey the great
map as a whole ; and fixing upon a few prominent
::: Luke xxi. 25, 26; Matt. xxiv. 6, 7, 12, 14.
GENTILE NATIONS 2G3
planets in the constellations of predicted events, ask,
How was it foretold that the Messiah should be born
in Bethlehem when Jewish independence had melted
away, while the temple was still standing, and, though
the most wonderful of teachers and gracious of men,
be rejected and crucified by His own nation ? How
was it foretold that the Jews should be scattered and
yet preserved among all peoples of the earth ? How-
was it foretold that the natives of Africa should remain,
as they do to-day, under the curse of serfdom and
slavery? How was it foretold that the untamable
Arab should continue, millennium after millennium,
free, yet untutored and undomesticated ? How was it
foretold that the descendants of Esau should become
absolutely extinct ? How was it foretold that mighty
Nineveh should be a " gazingstock," and far-famed
Babylon " perpetual desolations " ? How was it fore
told that Tyre s greatness should shrivel down to a
mere rock where fishers dry their nets ? How was it
foretold that Egypt should continue through all her
vicissitudes as "the basest of the kingdoms"? How
was it foretold that the city upon the seven hills should
be "drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus " ?
How was it foretold that Spiritualism, scepticism, and
apostasy should, in the last days, run parallel with
earthquakes, scientific discovery, and a wonderful
extension of both real and formal godliness ? We
challenge the unbeliever to account for these facts,
and many others which might easily be cited ; bidding
him remember, in his explanations, that the chasm of
millenniums forbids the theory that Moses was in collu
sion with Josephus, Ezekiel with Gibbon, or John with
Merle D Aubigne in his "History of the Reformation."
SECONDLY, let us make a microscopic investigation of
certain details connected with each prediction ; and,
264 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
considering not only the vastness of the extent of
prophecy, but that circumstance in conjunction with
the detailed accuracy of every several part, in its bear
ing upon the harmony of the whole, we confront the
sceptic with another series of interrogations. How
was it foretold that Christ should spring from Judah,
the only tribe remaining, with little Benjamin, when
the Messiah was born ? How was it foretold that, in
the destruction of Jerusalem, " the delicate and tender
woman" should secretly eat her offspring in the
straitness of the siege ? How was it foretold that
the children of Japheth should dwell in the tents of
Shem? How was it foretold that the Ishmaelites
should always continue with " their hand against
every man, and every man s hand against them"?
How was it foretold that fertile Idumaea should become
a dreary expanse of stones ? How was it foretold that
Babylon should " become heaps" and " pools of water,"
and that God should make the " grave " of Nineveh ?
How was it foretold that the very dust of Tyre should
be scraped off her, and thrown into the midst of the
sea ? How was it foretold that no native prince should
rule the land of Egypt ? How was it foretold that
Romanists and Theosophists should advocate celibacy
and Vegetarianism ? How was it foretold that " wars
and rumours of wars" should exist and develop side
by side with widening knowledge, education, commerce,
and research ? And as these inquiries of a more minute
description are put alongside those former ones of a
broader and more general character, we boldly dare
the unbeliever to assert that any theory of chance
alone, however plausible, can adequately solve the
problem of prophecy, or account for the accomplish
ment in particular, and as a whole, of these old-time
utterances of the servants of the living God.
GENTILE NATIONS 265
Again, THIRDLY, to these main lines of thought, let
another question be added, viz., What are the arith
metical chances, on any ordinary calculation, of all the
aforesaid prophecies being thus fulfilled " in globo," and
still more in detail ? And we stand confronted with
the amazing circumstance that, on any legitimate
theory of probabilities, the possibility of each and all
being carried through is ONE TO SEVERAL MILLIONS, or
almost as a drop of water to the mighty ocean ! Let
doubters face this fact ! Nay, more ; if unable to evade
it, let them pray over it until, at last, they may, not by
chance, but through grace, be led to exclaim, concerning
the wonderful predictions of Jehovah studding His
starry skies of promise, " The hand that formed them
is Divine."
FOURTHLY, one more supplement to all this, and a
further argument, is that of Contrasted Prophecies.
If God s programme, like a kaleidoscope, admitted
of incessant change and ever-varying groupings, what
horror, discord, and disaster would befall the verbal
Inspiration of "the prophetic Scriptures"! If the
Messiah had been stoned, like Stephen, and not
pierced in both hands and feet ; if the children of
Esau had been dispersed to " the four winds of
heaven," and those of his brother Jacob had become
extinct; if the descendants of Canaan had been freed,
and those of Ishmael remained in perpetual slavery ; if
Nineveh had become "pools" and " heaps," and Baby
lon had been buried under "abominable filth"; if
Sidon had been cast into the waters, and ancient Tyre
had remained unto this day ; if Memphis had been
"rent asunder," and Thebes bereft of images; if Egypt
had ceased to be a kingdom, and Borne had remained
a universal Empire ; why, on each or any of these
and a hundred more similar contingencies depends the
2f>G GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Inspiration of the God-breathed records ; and yet, in
not one single instance can it be affirmed that the shift-
ings of even a copyist s hand hare produced "errata"
in the predictions of the Holy Ghost ; but, as Moses,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel gave us the proof-sheets
of God s great programme for the world, so have we
the counterpart printed upon the page of history, and
the face of geography at this very hour.
THE SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY
GHOST
IN taking up the Bible, any candid reader must
speedily discover that its utterances are not merely
the dry records of a dead book, but the present, throb
bing, up-to-date words of God the living Spirit ; yea,
the very ground whereon we stand is holy, for the
atmosphere around is such as breathes from the very
heart of the almighty Jehovah Himself, fresh, life-
giving ozone from the lips of Him who is " from ever
lasting to everlasting." Thus, a prayerful analysis and
study of the Sacred Volume reveal to us, behind its
marvellous unity, one great master mind ; behind its
unique matter and diction, a supernatural mind ;
behind its universality of application, an omniscient
mind ; and behind its miraculous conception and pre
servation, an omnipotent mind ; and these great phases
of thought and argument form, as we believe, the four
strong lines of evidence whereby the Holy Spirit
personally witnesses to the truth and inspiration of
His own writings.
1. THE UNITY OF THE SACRED BOOKS.
The wonderful symmetry and harmony of the Bible
consisting of sixty-six Books, penned by some forty
different writers, the first of whom died fourteen him-
207
268 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
dred and fifty years before the last was born, and
between whom there could be no possible collusion or
intercourse, must necessarily strike with profound
astonishment any careful student of the Holy Scrip
tures, especially when the very last three chapters of
the New Testament demand for satisfactory exegesis a
reference to and knowledge of the first three of the
Old Testament. Nor were these Books written by
men whose social condition, temperament, and educa
tion welded thought into at least some measure of
harmony ; but all sorts and classes join in the compi
lation, -kings and herdmen, poets and reformers,
lawyers and fishermen, warriors and captives, states
men and agriculturalists, prophets and rate-collectors,
priests and physicians, rich and poor, sages and illite
rates ; could we, by any possibility, gather together a
more motley, heterogeneous, and uncongenial group ?
Yet, in all the varied Writings of these diverse men, a
perfect sympathy of thought and teaching, speech and
prophecy, prevails. Nor can this essential unity be
more easily proven than by an appeal to the higher
criticism, " our enemies themselves being judges,"
which, at its very worst, can only fasten upon a very
few apparent trivial contradictions between the sacred
writers, some of which have been solved, and all of
which we confidently rest persuaded may be explained.
Neither, let it be remembered, did that strong tie of
patriotic devotion, which cements peers and peasants,
Conservatives and Radicals, learned and unlearned,
bind the testimony of these men together in witness
ing for the glory of their race, the nobility of its charac
ter, and the triumphs of its heroes ; since they all, with
one consent, reluctantly portray the sin and failure of
princes, prophets, priests, and people alike, and the
gross apostasy and merited slavery of their beloved land.
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 269
One Great Master-mind behind the Scriptures.
Whence, then, comes this unity of thought and
speech ? We reply, From the one mind which was
in them because of the one mind which was at the back
of them, and which spake His words and ideas through
them. Were our contention not one concerning
Theology, but concerning Science, Medicine, or
Philosophy, no doubt copies of manuscripts might
be produced many modern, some ancient, bearing
more or less upon the same theme ; and, occasionally,
with concurrent lines of argument ; but, in the main,
each generation, while recapitulating the past, would
but do so to criticise and to condemn all former
teaching, and everything would have to be re-written,
amended, and re-edited for twentieth-century consump
tion. It is not so, however, with the Bible, although
the last letter of the series was written over eighteen
centuries ago ; for Daniel and John, Isaiah and Paul,
Moses and our Lord, speak in perfect harmony, the
Old Testament, casting forward and the New throwing
backward shafts of light and sympathy upon the
teachings of the other.
Imagine the works of forty ancient and modern
authors from the days of Pythagoras to Darwin,
Hippocrates to Koch, Aristotle to Kant, and Homer
to to Alfred Austin ! being bound together, with
their diverse theories and mutually destructive tenets,
would not the result be Babel, "confusion worse
confounded," Pandemonium itself ?
Yet, in the Holy Scriptures, truth is so dovetailed,
and teaching so interwoven, that the whole complex
machinery of thought and argument would be seriously
impaired by the loss of any little wheel or piston rod.
How can such a mystery be explained, except on the
270 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
ground that some great master-mind devised the
whole, since even its conflictings end in harmonies
(such as the Aaronic ritual and the teaching of the
Epistle to the Hebrews) ; and the whole Book throbs
ever onward towards one great definite consummation,
the triumph and glory of our blessed Messiah and
Lord over a regenerated world by way of Calvary and
the cross ?
A Progressive Revelation.
Of course, the Divine Revelation is progressive, and
develops, growing broader and simpler down the dis
pensations of the ages, as the natural, physical body
of a child proceeds from stage to stage of strength and
beauty towards maturity. Doctrines, purposes, pro
phecies, and mysteries become clearer and clearer as
Judaism widens into Christianity ; and, as Paul puts
it, "secrets" "which in other ages were not made
known unto the sons of men, are now revealed unto
His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit " ; * just as
the oak lay buried in the acorn, or as, in true science,
the astronomer or geologist makes bare what was
before, not non-existent, but hidden, only awaiting
revelation and investigation ; so, in Genesis, we have
the germ and seed-plot of the entire Bible ; as, in the
Apocalypse, we have its final and full-blown glory and
crown ; and this seedling was begotten, planted,
watched over, nourished, and developed by God,
perfect in its primary conception, like the body of our
Lord, and perfect in its successive developments as it
grew down the centuries. Or, to vary the metaphor,
God laid the foundation of the temple of His Word by
the hands of Moses, reared the walls through inspired
- Eph. iii. 8-11 ; Col. i. 25-27 ; 1 Pet. i. 10-1 2.
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 271
historians, songsters, prophets, and apostles, and
finally roofed in the building by His beloved disciple,
John ; yet every portion of the structure was necessary
to a completed whole, part of the temple itself, and not
mere scaffolding, to be thrown away when the edifice
was complete. Thus, the earlier portions of the Bible,
perfect in themselves, yet progressed onward towards
the fuller and more completed perfection of the entire
Canon of Holy Writ.
The Harmony of the Sacred Volume.
We have shown, in previous chapters, how this
harmony existed between the Old and the New Testa
ment Scriptures, more especially in such Books as
Isaiah and the Romans, the Psalms and the Acts,
Leviticus and the Hebrews ; and the same truth has
been brought out more fully when dealing with the
important subject of fulfilled prophecy. It may, there
fore, now suffice to point out that arguments,
analogies, symbolisms, types, and, even in some cases,
colours and numbers, carry and bear the same unify
ing force right through the Old and New Testament
Literature.
Take, for example, such a historical person as the
strange, weird, Godlike king, Melchizedek, introduced
in Genesis, incidentally mentioned, one thousand
years after his meeting with Abraham, by David, who
wrote five hundred years later than Moses, and finally
referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews, after another
interval of a millennium; and note how the shuttle of
thought and argument weaves backward and forward
from past history to coming prophecy,* or glance at
Paul s reasoning concerning the fundamental doctrine
Gen. xiv. 18-20 ; Psa. ex. 4 ; Heb. vii.
272 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
of justification by faith, and mark in what fashion
Genesis and the Psalms are alike blended with Romans
in bulwarking his strong position that salvation is all
of grace.* In symbol, trace the teaching and meaning
of the term " mercy-seat " from Moses to David, and
in Luke s record of the publican s prayer, and Paul s
pronouncement concerning " the remission of sins,"
and John s world-wide offer of mercy, and see how
nearly all the sweetness, strength, significance, and
meaning underlying their allusions to " propitiation "
disappear if the imagery of Exodus be not plainly
grasped and understood.! Why, even the devil s
suggestive alias, " the serpent," passes from Eden,
through Isaiah, right along to the Revelation * and
the windings of " the river " may be traced from
Genesis to Ezekiel, and from Ezekiel to the Golden
City, while colours and stones have in the Levitical
dispensation and the Apocalypse an interwoven mean
ing, and such references as those to "Babylon,"* and
"the Bride"** demand, and presuppose an intelligent
knowledge of Old Testament history and metaphor.
The Old and New Testament Scriptures inseparably
Interwoven.
In fact, the truth is, it is utterly impossible to
thoroughly and intelligently understand the New
:;: Gen. xv. 6 ; Psa. xxxii. 1, 2 ; Rom. iv.
f Exod. xxv. 17-22 ; 1 Chron. xxviii. 11 ; Psa. Ixxx. 1 ; Luke
x\ iii. 13 ; Rom. iii. 25 ; 1 John ii. 2.
I Gen. iii. ; Isa. xxvii. 1 ; 2 Cor. xi. 8 ; Rev. xii. 9.
Gen. ii. 10 ; Psa. xlvi. 4 ; Ezek. xlvii. ; Rev. xxii. 1, 2, 17.
! Exod. xxviii. 15-21 ; Rev. xxi. 9-20.
* Gen. x. 10; Isa. xxi. 2-9; xlvii. Jer. Ii. ; Rev. xvii., xviii.
;;: Psa. xlv. ; Solomon s Song ; Isa. liv., Ixii. ; Ezek. xvi. ; Hos.
ii. ; Rev. xix. 6-9 ; xxi. 2-9.
SELF-WITNESS OE THE HOLY GHOST 278
Testament apart from the Old, each volume being
complementary of the other, so that in the Old we
have the New contained and concealed, and in the
New the Old explained and revealed ; and any student
attempting to satisfactorily master the teachings of the
New Testament Scriptures, if unacquainted with those
of the Old, would require a special dictionary explana
tory of Old Testament words, phrases, metaphors,
types, sacrifices, characters, and allusions, hefore he
could make any real all-round progress in the sacred
art of understanding God s unified Revelation to man.
Though the Gospel plan of God s " so great salvation "
to a rebel race is, thank Heaven, through grace, so
plain and simple that "the wayfaring men, though
fools, shall not err therein," yet the most profound
scholar, knowing only the New Testament, could not
even explain the meaning and teaching of such a term
as " The Lamb," used by John the Baptist, Philip,
Peter, and John, and occurring especially twenty-nine
times in the Book of the Revelation, nor grasp the
wealth and sublimity of argument encompassing this
phrase ; but a little Sunday-school girl could scarcely
fail to at once tell you that it carried her thoughts of
substitutionary sacrifice and salvation, through blood-
shedding, right along from Abel to Noah, Abraham to
Moses, Samuel to Solomon, and Isaiah to Calvary,*
since, as it has been well said, " the crimson thought
of Redemption runs through the Word of God, from
Genesis to Revelation, as the scarlet thread through
every rope in the British Navy."
Thus it is also with all the other great mysteries
of Divine Revelation prophetical, practical, doctrinal,
* Gen. iv. 4 ; viii. 20 ; xxii. 7-13. Exod. xii. ; 1 Sam. vii. 9 ;
2 Chron. vii. 1 ; Isa. liii. ; Acts viii. 32-35 ; 1 Pet. i. 18--20.
19
274 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
and typical. Look, for instance, at the light falling on
all these four sides of the rough, ugly word " stone"
forwards from Jacob, David, Isaiah, and Daniel, and
backwards from Peter, Paul, John, and our beloved
Lord,* for, as each tiny dewdrop reflects the glorious
sun, so, in the several portions of the Bible, do we see
a whole in every part of the still greater whole ; and,
in God s great Revelation-temple, every whit of it
uttereth glory ! grace ! ! and Jesus ! ! !
We append, in parallel columns, a list of Old
Testament Books or writers endorsed in the New,
one text out of many sufficing in each case for
our present purpose. It will be seen that, with the
exception of nine Books, by the direct statement of
the New Testament Scriptures, evidence is thus
afforded of the endorsement of the entire Old Testa
ment Canon.
2. THE UNIQUENESS OF THE SACKED BOOKS.
That the Holy Scriptures stand easily head and
shoulders above all other writings, ancient and modern,
every dispassionate reader, whatever be his religious or
irreligious convictions, must readily admit. Sublime,
yet simple in its style ; beautiful, but practical in its
diction ; comprehensive, though terse in its suggestive-
ness ; profound, still clearly to be understood in its
wisdom ; homely, yet authoritative in its utterances,
the Bible differs as widely from every human book as
the work of God in nature does from man s noblest
efforts in art to paint the same on canvas, or tell it
forth in song.
:;: Gen. xlix. 24 ; Psa. cxviii. 22, 23 ; Isa. xxviii. 16 ; Dan. ii.
34, 35; Acts iv. 11, 12; 1 Cor. iii. 9-17; Eph. ii. 20-22; 1 Pet. ii.
3-8 ; Rev. iv. 3 ; Matt. xxi. 42-44.
NEW TESTAMENT ENDORSEMENTS OF THE OLD.
" The Scripture cannot be broken." THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST. (JOHN x. 35.)
OLD TESTAMENT
BOOKS.
NEW TESTAMENT
ENDORSEMENTS.
Genesis.
Matthew xix. 4, 5.
Exodus.
Mark xii. 26.
Leviticus.
Hebrews ix. 8.
Numbers.
1 Corinthians x. 11.
Deuteronomy.
Matthew iv. 4, 7, 10.
Joshua.
Hebrews xi. 30, 31.
Judges.
Ruth.
Hebrews xi. 32.
Matthew i. 5.
1 Samuel.
Matthew xii. 3, 4.
2 Samuel.
Matthew i. 6.
1 Kings.
2 Kings.
Romans xi. 2.
Luke iv. 27.
1 Chronicles.
Acts vii. 46, 47.
2 Chronicles.
Matthew xii. 42.
Ezra.
Nehemiah.
Esther.
Job.
James v. 11.
Psalms.
Acts i. 16.
Proverbs.
Ecclesiastes.
James iv. 6 (cf. Prov.
iii. 34, Septuagint).
Song of Songs.-
Isaiah.
Acts xxviii. 25.
Jeremiah.
Hebrews x. 15, 16.
Lamentations.
Ezekiel.
Romans ii. 24.
Daniel.
Matthew xxiv. 15.
Hosea.
Romans ix. 25.
Joel.
Acts ii. 16.
Amos.
Acts xv. 15, 16.
Obadiah.
Jonah.
Matthew xii. 40.
Micah.
Matthew ii. 5, 6.
Nahum.
Habakkuk.
Romans i. 17.
Zephaniah.
Haggai.
Zechariah.
Hebrews xii. 26.
Matthew xxi. 4, 5.
Malachi.
Matthew xi. 10-15.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God." 2 TIM. iii. 16.
276 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
What candid critic could possibly dream of comparing
the " Iliad" of Homer with the Psalms of David, the
records of Herodotus (" the father of History") with
the writings of Moses, the fables of .ZEsop with the
Proverbs of Solomon, the books of the Apocrypha with
those of the Prophets, the teachings of Confucius,
Buddha, and Socrates with those of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, the ethics of Aristotle and
Seneca with those of the New Testament, the Sacred
Books of the East with the Epistles of the apostle
Paul, the writings of " the Fathers " with those of
"the Grandfathers" (the apostles), and the Koran of
Mohammed with the Gospels, Epistles, and the
Revelation of the beloved disciple John ? Certainly,
no one who has quietly, carefully, and conscientiously,
studied the entire Bible, even from the standpoint of a
mere litterateur ; and no man, however erudite, should
lay claim to be thoroughly educated who has not at
least read the Scriptures. I remember once, at a
drawing-room gathering, hearing a gentleman of un
doubted intelligence, and head of one of the oldest
families in our country, roundly assert that he believed
and accepted the Mohammedan religion in preference
to Christianity. Now, having personally just failed in
four most painful but honest efforts to read the Koran,
I thought the opportunity one to draw a bow at a
venture, and accordingly exclaimed, " Pardon me, but
your assertion is both unworthy and foolish, since I am
tolerably persuaded you have never read the Koran
through, and absolutely certain you never did the
Bible." Nor had he ! and though, later on, in a more
subdued tone, he intimated how he had mastered all
the intricacies of "the Irish question "(!), I have
noticed his unappreciative county has not yet returned
him to the Imperial Parliament ; and this man is a fair
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 277
specimen of the average fashionable semi-sceptic, who
only skims the surface of the Holy Scriptures, and
crudely forms his opinion from fragmentary and often
garbled extracts of literary criticism.
No other Writings Comparable with the Bible.
There is much truth in rough, honest, sarcastic
Thomas Carlyle s opinion of the Koran : " It is a
wearisome, confused jumble, crude, recondite, abound
ing in endless iterations, longwindedness, entangle
ment, insupportable stupidity. In short, nothing but
a sense of duty could carry any European through the
Koran with its unreadable masses of lumber." (Heroes
and Hero Worship.) As for the Sacred Books of the
East, while we admit that there is in them much of
charm and high-toned morality and beauty, especially
as read in Professor Max Miiller s version, yet, if ALL
of these writings had been translated, there would have
been revealed, alongside some fascinating extracts, a
very cesspool of iniquity. It is little wonder, therefore,
that such a chaste and noble writer and historian as
Sir Walter Scott exclaimed, when dying, as they
wheeled him to the bow window to take a last view of
the lovely river Tweed, and Mr. Lockhart inquired
from what book he should read to him, " Need you
ask? There is but One"; after which the soothing
triumphant words, " Let not your heart be troubled,"
&c., calmed his wearied soul into a great peace ; for,
though Confucius taught a high-toned and righteous
theology, and Socrates a practical and unselfish
altruism, yet neither had a Gospel for sinners, nor
could they give their disciples power to overcome temp
tation, and grace to live their teachings out ; and no
glory streaked backwards down the valley of the
278 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
shadow of death from the light beyond which, to the
Christian, speaks of Resurrection, Heaven, and Home.
It is a Revelation.
And this it is which, altogether apart from its
wonderful beauty and diction, the simple and homely
yet authoritative and sublime style of the Holy Scrip
tures, makes it utterly impossible and foolish for us
to compare the noblest words of Homer, Virgil, Shake
speare, or Milton, with those of the Bible, since it
alone brings a revelation of God s Gospel of pity,
pardon, and power, to lost and broken men, and tells
how, on lines of righteousness and grace, Paradise lost
may become Paradise regained. What a sad, lonely
wail is that of brilliant, dissolute, infidel Byron, in his
Euthanasia,
" Count o er the joys thine hours have seen,
Count o er the days from anguish free ;
And know, whatever thou hast been,
"Tis something better not to be " ;
contrasted with the stirring faith of the apostle Paul,
" For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain " ; " for
I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to
be content. I know both how to be abased, and I
know how to abound. Everywhere, and in all things,
I have learned the secret, both to be full and to be
hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do
all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." *
The opening verses of Genesis, and John, and Hebrews,
and the closing chapters of the Gospels and the Revela
tion ; the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, and the eighth of
Romans ; the twenty-third and seventy-second Psalms,
* Phil. i. 21 ; iv. 11-1B.
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 279
and the thirteenth and fifteenth chapters of 1st Corin
thians ; the eighth of Deuteronomy, and the Sermon on
the Mount, the farewell discourse of our beloved Lord,
and the First Epistle of John ; these and many other
passages of sublime and thoughtful beauty and com
fort, bear even to minds brimful of doubt and captious-
ness, the very stamp and ring of Divine messages.
How feeble is Homer after such, with his redundancies
and repetitions, his countless adjectives and impossible
conversations ; and Virgil, a plagiarist and copyist, at
best, of the much greater Greek, seems poorer still ;
while Shakespeare and Milton mainly shine because
their noblest thoughts were borrowed broken lights
from the radiancy of that Book in the simple faith of
which they lived, and wrote, and died.
Take, for example, probably Homer s finest passage,
and tell me, does it not taste as brackish water
compared with David s mellow wine?
" Prayers of Penitence are daughters of great Zeus,
halting, and wrinkled, and of eyes askance, that have
their task withal to go in the steps of sin. For sin is
strong, and fleet of foot, wherefore she far outrunneth
all prayers, and goeth before them over all the earth
making men fall, and prayers follow behind to heal the
harm. Now, whosoever reverenceth Zeus s daughters,
when they draw near, they greatly bless and hear his
petitions ; but when one denieth them, and stiffly
refuseth, then depart they, and make prayer unto
Zeus, the son of Kronos, that sin may come upon such
an one, that he may fall, and pay the price." *
" Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits : who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who
healeth all thy diseases ; who redeemeth thy life from
destruction ; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness
:;: " Iliad," ix. 502.
280 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
and tender mercies. . . . The Lord executeth righteous
ness and judgment for all that are oppressed. . . . The
Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
plenteous in mercy. . . . He hath not dealt with us
after our sins ; nor rewarded us according to our
iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth,
so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed
our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.
For He knoweth our frame ; He remembereth that we
are dust. . . . But the mercy of the Lord is from ever
lasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and
His righteousness unto children s children." *
Unique.
Then again the Bible is eccentric and unique in that
which it records, supernatural interventions, angelic
visitations, blendings of heaven with earth, and deals
continually with matters supernal, infernal, and eternal.
Yet does it never in so doing descend from a supreme
and dignified grandeur to the mawkish stories, con
temptible and useless miracles, weak fairy-tales, and
lying legends of cotemporaneous sacred and profane
writings, subsequent revelations, (?) and even of
Patristic and " Church " literature. Ordaining and
describing a stately ritual, still is its narration freed
from the burdensome and weary overloading of Tal-
mudical commands, senseless tradition, and unmeaning
ceremony ; while a strange prominence, not after the
manner of human writings, is rendered to those things
which God the Eternal estimates of first importance,
and a singular reticence observed concerning such
:;: Psa- ciii.
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 281
matters as man would deem deserving of prolonged
and painful history.
Thus, for example, we find forty-one chapters occu
pied with the details of a mere wooden tabernacle, its
ministry and sacrifices ; * and the creation of the
world and of man almost carelessly dismissed in
thirty-eight short verses, t The memoir of a well-to-
do pilgrim shepherd, Abraham, "the friend of God,"
covers some fifteen chapters I while the birth and
death records of two millenniums of an earthly history
are condensed into thirty-two verses. The descrip
tion of the glories of Solomon, the wisest, richest, and
most illustrious of kings, and the golden age of Judaism,
takes only about half the space allotted to the record
of that monarch s prayer, and purpose in the building
of a temple for Jehovah.;! And "in the book of the
generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son
of Abraham/? the essentially Jewish Gospel, we find
mention of but four women, three of whom had been
notorious sinners, and all of whom were Gentiles.
These and many other equally singular and striking
characteristics differentiate Biblical history from all
merely human writings, compelling us to exclaim with
David, " And is this after the manner of man,
Lord ! "
Reliable.
So also the Bible is peculiar and solitary in the
absolute inerrancy and thorough-going honesty of its
history and memoirs. "Paint me as I am, wart and
all," said mighty Cromwell, when sitting for his
portrait ; and never has there been presented such an
* Exod. xxv.-xxxi., xxxv.-xl. ; Lev. i.-xxvii. f Gen. i., ii. 7.
I Ibid, xi.-xxv. j Ibid. v.
!| 1 Kings i.-xi. ; 2 Chron. i.-xx. IF Matb. i. 1.
282 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
unveiled yet chaste diagnosis of the human heart as
that which the Holy Ghost gives in recording the
failing characters and sad actions of the very best of
men ; Noah s drunkenness, Abraham s lying, David s
adultery, Elijah s cowardice, Peter s blasphemy, Paul s
quarrelling. Therefore it is that these pen and pencil
sketches of kings and peasants, prophets and sinners,
still live with helpful sympathy, warning, encourage
ment, and power, since honesty, unartificiality, relia
bility is written large upon every page of the Holy
Scriptures ; and we see, as in a mirror, our own poor
faltering selves ; while, all the time, such revelations
of sin lead, very singularly, not to transgression, but
towards morality, as the searchlight of Inspiration lays
bare, not only the heart of God and the love of Heaven,
but the fall of man and his need of grace ; teaching us,
as nothing else could, our utter, innate, absolute
depravity and inefficiency, and yet fairly swamps that
failure and need with God s overwhelming mercy and
all-sufficiency ; until the man, who had once a devil s
heart within him, becomes " conformed unto the
likeness of God s dear Son " ; and having once touched
hell in sin, now touches Heaven in holiness. The
impossible is put before us in man s memoirs of perfect
men till, crushed and despairing, we feel that we
cannot attain thereto. The impossible is put before
us in God s biographies of erring men ; and, taking
heart, we pray, and strain, and struggle, till, by
sovereign grace, we largely reach it here on earth,
and wait a complete consummation in Heaven. Thus,
the immortality of perfect truthfulness secures the
immortality and helpfulness of Biblical characters, for
the believers buried in God s-acre were not all perfect
men and saintly women, but sinners saved through
grace and cleansed by precious blood, whose epitaphs
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 283
are written large by a Divine hand that others coming
after may hope and fear and trust and watch and pray.
Terse yet Comprehensive.
And then, as regards comprehensive brevity, what
book but the Bible could record a biography so tersely
suggestive as this, "And Enoch lived sixty and five
years, and begat Methuselah : and Enoch walked with
God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years,
and begat sons and daughters : and all the days of
Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years : and
Enoch walked with God : and he was not, for
God took him " ; * or narrate, freed from every
superfluity of language, a story so pathetically
picturesque as this, " Now when He came nigh to the
gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried
out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow :
and much people of the city w r as with her. And when
the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said
unto her, Weep not. And He came and touched the
bier : and they that bare him stood still. And He
said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he
that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He
delivered him to his mother" ? t What book but the
Bible could, four thousand years ago, link together a
system of Ethics unparalleled for justice and purity
(especially as amplified and more fully expounded
afterwards by our Lord), with one of sanitation, the
neglect of which, in England, has generated typhoid
fever, a disease unknown in bygone days, and largely
the evolution of our progressive engineers ! regulate,
with judicial discrimination of the highest order, the
responsibilities between man and man in connection
:;: Gen. v. 21-24. ! Luke vii. 12-15.
284 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
with such details as " pushing " oxen, sheltering
parapets, the ubiquitous and ever-troublesome land
question ; and, in the same code of laws, provide a
great day of Atonement for the sins of a guilty people,
and protection for a poor mother-bird and her helpless
young ? *
Unlocks all Mysteries.
But, above all, the Book is unique because it alone
offers an explanation of things dark, unknown, and
supernatural, the hidden mysteries of the ages past
and of the dispensations yet to come,- the cradle and
grave of Creation, the genesis and ending of sin and
sorrow, the blendings of Divine holiness and love,
the justification of the sinner and the maintenance of
the Law, the almighty God caring for a sparrow and
the great Creator sympathising with little children ;
fragmentary touches, catholic, yet minute, concerning
Angels, Devils, Death, Paradise, Heaven and Hell.
The Bible is a perfect repertoire of information, over
which may w r ell be written, " Inquire within upon
Everything"; the master-key to open closed doors
and unlock the heart of God and the plan of redemp
tion ; an up-to-date commentary and criticism upon
the actions of men and habits of society. Old classics,
dusty with antiquity, may lead to laughter or tears,
and other dead books touch, at most, our lives
occasionally at some points in a dim, half-hearted,
uncertain way ; but the Holy Scriptures are always
throbbing, instinct with life, as we march onwards
through an always-widening, undiscovered continent
of truth, and love, and purity, and beauty, towards the
goal of a perfect life in a perfect Heaven.
- Exod. xxi. 28-32 ; Deut. xxii. 8 ; Lev. xxv. 1-24 ; xxiii. 27-32.
Deut. xxii. 0, 7.
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 285
I have been informed that, in the far-famed Yosernite
valley, there is only one place, where standing, the
traveller can get a comprehensive view of the entire
panorama in its marvellous charm and beauty. This
spot is named, with singular appropriateness, " Inspira
tion Point." From many other standpoints you may
obtain glimpses of rare loveliness, and grasp different
portions and details of the whole ; but, from that
position alone can you get a comprehensive survey of
the complete panorama. Thus is it with the Bible ;
fragmentary conceptions, more or less incomplete,
concerning God, the devil, man, sin, society, judgment,
and eternity, may be obtained from conscience, argu
ment, history, tradition, philosophy, and nature ; but, to
grasp and understand the whole in all its wonderful joint
ings and overlappings, the student and inquirer must
gaze above, beneath, around, forward, from Inspiration
Point. Here will he learn to take a broad, intelligent,
and Scriptural view of the history, circumstances, and
surroundings of humanity, with its past, present, and
future prospects, and see how all are working together
towards that end which, in the Divine programme of
redemption, God has ordained from the beginning ; and
the difficulties, contradictions, engimas, and mysteries
of life, death, evil, grace, salvation, and immortality,
can be, by the devout believer, surveyed as one blended
whole from the standpoint of that Revelation given to
man through the Sacred Writings.
3. THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE SACRED BOOKS.
Suits all Ages and Sections of Society.
The extraordinary manner in which the Holy Scrip
tures dovetail into the life-experience of men, women,
and children of all ages, classes, and countries, is in
286 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
itself sufficient to differentiate the Bible from all other
writings. It does not, like most great books, appeal
only to a select group of cultured minds, or suit alone
some special section of society ; but touches the needs
and conditions of everybody at every point. Thus, in
the morning of life, the little child learns to lisp,
" e Lord s me s eperd, I ll not vant " ; and, in after
years, when evening comes, the old man lies down
to die to the same sweet lullaby. In all the diverse
stages of life s development and vicissitudes, and to
the totality of manhood in every part, intellectual,
spiritual, social, emotional, inquisitive, devotional, and
lovable, the Bible comes touching a hundred different
strings in the heart, and causing all to respond in
harmonious music. Who ever heard of Greek lyrics
and Eoman odes laying hold upon the thoughts and
lives of mortals, and shaping, comforting, and mould
ing them as have the Psalms of David ? Do men seek
Shakespeare, Dante, Darwin, Herbert Spencer, or
Emmanuel Kant, when the great sin question weighs
upon the soul, or the vacant chair is faced after that
sad visit to yon lonely cemetery ? Vie know they do
not ; and therefore this great surprising fact remains,
that the Bible whatever critics may say concerning
its merits or demerits although written two to three
thousand years ago, is the most popular and universally
read book in the world to-day, suiting every sort of
mind, and every state of mind, meeting the classes
and the masses, the eagle-eyed intelligence of a Sir
Isaac Newton as he looks out upon the myriad stars,
and the simple faith of some half-witted farm lad as
he goes home singing,
" I m a poor sinner, and nothing at all ;
But Jesus Christ is my All-in-all."
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 2H7
The Poet and the Politician, the Prince and the
Peasant, the Duchess and the Dairymaid, the Bar
rister and the Blacksmith, the Student and the Sailor,
the General and the Gardener, the Historian and the
Handyman, the Philosopher and the Ploughboy, the
Bootmaker and the Bishop ! men of diverse minds
and temperaments, thoughts and surroundings, differ
ing socially, politically, educationally, and geographi
cally, whether on thrones or in prisons, in prosperity
or adversity, in health or sickness, in crowded cities
or on the lonely veldt, alike read the Scriptures, and
in dark, sad, and struggling days, find light and con
solation therein, since the Bible is not praise God !
a sealed book for the educated few, albeit there are
depths therein which none can fathom ; but, em
phatically, the heritage of the common people, and
on the very surface of its soil abounds rich ore of
grace and love which any hand may gather and every
heart enjoy.
Yes ; let it never be forgotten that, whilst the Scrip
ture has fought its way to world-wide popularity
against unrivalled antagonisms, by no means the least
of these was the incessant effort made by Schools of
Theology, and, generation after generation, of " the
clergy," to specialise its teaching, like that of Law
and Medicine, to an ordained and initiated order of
interpreters ; but all in vain, since the Bible cannot
be monopolised by any sect of Divines, for it is
universal in its Gospel and Benedictions, nor is
there need of any ecclesiastic to interpret to even
the simplest mind how man may know the absolu
tion of all his sins, or find a solace for life s sorrows,
obtain the conquest over earth and hell s temptations,
and, finally, immortal glory in the world beyond ;
the Book explains it all !
288 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Moulds Languages and Nations.
And as this, the Book of the common people, the
Bible, has not only entered into, but even in many
cases formed and moulded the very languages of
nations. What the great Bismarck effected in
a united German nationality, Luther s Bible did
centuries before in gathering together the different
dialects of the same race, and welding them into one
great mother-tongue ; while Wycliffe s Bible, and,
following it, our own splendid Authorised Version,
more than any other influence, governed and stamped
the great widening Anglo-Saxon current of speech and
expression ; and, in newly-opened countries, where
languages have to be built up, and Grammars made,
the invariable pioneers of educational progress are the
Bible and the Missionary. Nor are there any other
writings so peculiarly adaptable to translation. The
noblest of Greek Classics suffers lamentably when
rendered into English. The charm of Shakespeare
and Dickens niters sadly away when read in German,
while Schiller and Goethe can scarcely be translated
into French. But the Holy Scriptures come out so
admirably in all dialects that even ignorant people,
in every nation, have imagined that the Book was
actually written in their language, and in that alone !
In the light of all this, it is little wonder, therefore,
that, in our own time, men of such diverse phases
of thought and character as Huxley* the scientific
;;: Professor Huxley, although an unbeliever, in the great Edu
cation Controversy of 1870, strenuously advocated the necessity
of Biblical instruction in English schools, on the ground that
no education could be thorough or complete without a know
ledge of that Book which had moulded our language, and become
interwoven with our history as a nation.
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 289
Agnostic and Moody the homely evangelist, Glad
stone the democratic statesman and Victoria the
beneficent Queen, Buskin the renowned art critic
and Carlyle the rough rider of Iconoclasts, should
alike unite in singing the praises of the Bible, since
no other book, even from a moral, literary, and educa
tional standpoint, has ever so touched and thrilled the
world. It is true that Bunyan s immortal allegory
comes easily second to the Holy Scriptures in its
wonderful and extensive circulation ; yet, I suppose,
for every copy of "The Pilgrim s Progress" that is
printed, there are one hundred of the Bible. Thomas
a Kempis with his "Imitation of Christ," and Spur-
geon s Sermons, may possibly compete for the third
position ; but each and all of these owe their sur
prising circulation to the fact that they are full of
quotations, truths, illustrations, and arguments drawn
from the Bible, and gain thus even their fame from its
borrowed light. Shakespeare alone remains standing
immeasurably head and shoulders above all non-
religious writers, yet many of his sentiments are also
manifestly culled from suggestions of the Holy Scrip
tures ; as, for example, Portia s famous speech,
"The quality of mercy is not strain d ;
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath ; it is twice bless d,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes ;
It is an attribute to God Himself ;
And earthly power doth then show likest God s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy."
20
290 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Besides, Shakespeare is still only read by the cultured
few, or the inquiring student ; nor are his writings
widely known outside the English-speaking race and
Germany, while men seek not to him when in the
strain and stress of life, the time of temptation, the
hour of sorrow, and the crises of death and judgment ;
but, in company with those of dusky race and far-off
climes, find strength and solace rather where the great
poet-dramatist reposed his own soul s need, as stated
in his final will and deposition, even in the merits
of that crucified Redeemer who died in the room
and stead of guilty men.
The One Changeless and Growing Factor in the
Literature of Earth.
The permanent and ever-widening influence of the
Bible is still more remarkable when we consider that
the Holy Scriptures remain alone, after two millen
niums, the one changeless factor in the great world s
life. Customs, habits, social and political laws,
governments, nations, continents have changed ; and
yet, amid the developments of society, the upheavals
of revolutions, the discoveries of science, the opening
up of new territories, and the fluctuation and transi
tion of all things ; the one great item in the life of
the England of Alfred the Great which is not obsolete
in that of Edward the Seventh is the Sacred Book,
once translated by the Venerable Bede, and handed
(we pray, as an augury of richest blessing) on " Coro
nation Day " to His Gracious Majesty ; fitting in as
well now as then with both Eastern and Western life,
in harmony with the needs, and sins, and sorrows,
and cravings of all ages, characters, ranks, and countries;
a mirror of the world three thousand years ago, and yet
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 291
as true a picture of society to-day ; as ever- widening
in its usefulness and influence, from its translation into
thirty languages, with an issue of some four millions,
a century ago, it has now passed into four hundred
dialects, with a circulation of nearly half a thousand
million of printed copies. Verily we may well
exclaim, Whence comes this Book, what is the
secret of its origin, its history, its power, its destiny ;
especially when we remember that it has been
handed to us by a race insignificant in number,
and unimportant amid mighty nationalities, narrow-
minded and exclusive in their sympathies, without
any special learning or national literature, who lived
an isolated existence in a small corner of God s wide
world, and only produced, in their millenniums of
being, one Book, and that, this Book, which has
since throbbed and pulsated, governed and judged
the great heart of human history ? The answer is
irresistible ; it comes, like the world- wide blessing of
the sunshine and the rain, the springtime and the
Resurrection, from Heaven, Eternity, and God.
4. THE UNCONQUERABILITY OF THE SACRED BOOKS.
Again, the Bible is indestructible and invincible,
Divine in its conception, preservation, and destination.
Its Inspiration, like everything that is of God, is in
itself a miracle ; and miracles cannot be explained,
defined, reasoned about, reduced to theories, but must
simply be accepted and believed. To ask HOW God
inspired the Bible, to seek to get within and behind
the will and mind of the Absolute and Eternal, must
ever prove as vain an effort as an endeavour to solve
the mysteries of the Incarnation and Resurrection.
Accordingly, since the very existence and origin of
292 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
such a Book constitute an argument and demand for
supernatural power, we bow before THE FACT, without
attempting any theory concerning it, save that "all
Scripture is God-breathed," and " Holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
Let us, however, consider
(1) THE CONCEPTION OF THE BIBLE.
Its Miraculous Birth.
In a profound and very reverent passage, Gaussen,
the eminent Swiss professor, alluding to the part
occupied by man in the transmission of the Divine
message, speaks of the power of the Holy Ghost
overshadowing the womb of human thought, as God,
through man s mind, and in His (God s) own words,
declared His Revelation to a fallen world. Thus, also,
in the carrying out of the Almighty s programme
concerning earthly events, we find that He used, in
history, as an Inspiration, special men and women for
special objects, creating, preparing, and moulding their
characters, experiences, temperaments, and surround
ings, physical, social, and national, for His own
ends, taking the heathen King Cyrus, Esther the
Jewish maiden, Samson the Danite Hercules, and
Boaz the generous farmer, and laying hold even of
accidental (? !) circumstances in the environments of
His servants, such as David s shepherd life at Beth
lehem, and Peter s hunger and vision at Joppa, and
shaping them for the outworking of His own definite
purposes. But, in all these things God was supreme,
absolute, the Ruler, Originator, and Fulfiller of His
own decrees ; and yet, in infinite wisdom, He con
descended to link humanity with Himself, and to work
His Divine will through mortal agents ; and, in so
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 293
doing, chose such instruments, in each case, as were
more peculiarly adapted, by actual temperament, ex
perience, and surroundings, to carry out His pro
gramme. One can hardly imagine, for example,
Aaron as an irate Iconoclast destroying golden calves,
or Amos slaying the prophets of Baal upon Mount
Carmel ; but Moses and the " Prophet of Fire " seem
eminently suitable in such capacities ; and a diversity
of character as strongly marked is manifested in the
prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the apostles Paul
and John, each man, each writer clearly revealing
his own distinct personality, the poetical joy, the
deep sadness, the irresistible logic, and the abound
ing love, and retaining his individuality even
when uttering Divinely-given and God-breathed mes
sages. That God the Holy Ghost need not have
used the minds and mouths of sinners to convey
His thoughts to men, we readily admit ; but that He
did, however, deign to do so remains an incontro
vertible fact.
To what extent, then, do we affirm a human
element in the Bible? Emphatically, no further
than as the medium whereby God breathed His own
thoughts, clothed also in His own words, through His
chosen messengers, the prophets, unto the people. To
admit an intermingling of the Divine and human
elements in the Holy Scriptures, part being of God,
and part of man, would be to immediately stultify the
integrity and accuracy of the entire Revelation ; for
we believe that the Bible not only contains, but is the
Word of God ; and the prophets and apostles them
selves, as we have already proved, claim for their
utterances, in the fullest and most unreserved fashion,
an absolutely Verbal Inspiration, and that Jehovah
put His words into their mouths ! Indeed, were it
294 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
otherwise, who could possibly presume to decide
between the Divine and human element, and arbi
trate concerning the claims of different passages
and writings ? Assuredly I dare not. Nor, on the
other hand, w r ould God s Word consent to bow-
before the dictum of any mortal, however erudite
and spiritual ; if it did, each man would have a Bible
of his own, edited and revised according to his poor,
fallible, errant judgment, and all finality, authority,
assurance, and infallibility would immediately dis
appear.
" But," exclaims some proud man, rather hotly,
"surely this reduces the prophet to a mere machine,
or, at best, to nothing higher than a first-rate short
hand reporter!" Quite so; and any believer in the
ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans cannot, at
any rate, stumble over such a proposition as that.
Besides, it is no mean position for a skilled and
accurate reporter to transmit to the world the
thoughts and utterances of our mighty men ; yet such
an one is content to simply take down the ipsissima
verba of the speaker, in order to convey to others his
inner ideas and thinkings. In fact, such ideas and
thinkings can only be intelligently interpreted through
language as it is passed on unsullied and complete
from the author s lips ; and, therefore, it is surely
inconceivable that Almighty God, if deeming it fitting
to speak to us, should prove less careful concern
ing His eternal message than statesmen and poets
are regarding the ephemeral utterance of an hour.
We simply demand for the statements of Absolute
and Unerring Wisdom the same accuracy of report
that Hansard (an illustrious name) has so long
secured for the members of the British House of
Commons.
SELF-WITNESS OE THE HOLY GHOST 295
Individuality of the Writers Maintained and Used
bij God.
As we, however, said before, the personality of the
prophet yet tinges and pervades the Divinely-given
message through his lips. Subtle allusions to past
experiences are laid hold of, and pressed home by God,
for His own glory ; characteristic expressions, asso
ciated by the Holy Ghost with the individuality of the
writer, are easily distinguished ; and the temperament
or disposition of the prophet is used as a medium to
convey the one great eternal message, which comes
through all, toned, however, in each case, with his
own peculiar sympathies and emotions. Yet all is
God-breathed, ay, to the very words ! Here is
gathered together a mass of musical instruments,
both large and small, some highly ornamental, others
perfectly plain and simple ; silver, brass, wood ; a
reed-pipe organ, cornet, trombone, bassoon, piccolo ;
very varied in their capacity for making sound, and
all absolutely mute and useless until wind is poured
through them from without, and skilful fingers handle
them ; but when the breath comes, and hands touch
them, then does each instrument, in responding,
simply obey the master-power outside it, in every
note and detail, and yet remain itself ; as, with the
Spirit (Pneuma) poured into it, it gives forth sweet
music, the message of an external and compelling
force, tinged and toned, however, by its own dis
tinctive and peculiar sound. Thus was it also with
the holy prophets ; each voice remained silent, dumb,
helpless, messageless, until God breathed ; each testi
mony poor and worthless until God touched. Then,
all the mouthpieces of the Holy Ghost sounded forth
His utterance in joyful and united song, a wonderful
296 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
chorus of redemption melody ; while in that perfect
harmony one can discern the simple, honest voice of
James, the silver tongue of John, the plaintive notes
of Israel s sweet singer, and the high-toned poetry of
seraphic Isaiah ; the entire band absolutely dependent
upon and simply obeying their Master, mute without
infilling, God-directing power ; yet every one unique
in rendering such heavenly music as the breath and
finger of the Eternal brought in, and out, through each
of them.*
(2) THE PRESERVATION OF THE BIBLE is ALSO, ix
ITSELF, A MIRACLE.
Assuredly there never was any other book so
assailed, denounced, and persecuted ; and yet, through
all antagonisms and criticisms, it not merely survives
to-day, but lives with an ever-increasing and widen
ing power, for " The words + of the Lord are pure
words : as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times. Thou sJialt keep them, O Lord, Thou
shalt preserve them (margin : " every one of them ")
from this generation for ever.* As the great prophet
Moses, when a babe, was wondrously preserved by
the Egyptian dynasty, which had determined on his
destruction, and which he ultimately vanquished, so
was the Old Testament retained intact by that nation
whose sin, idolatry, apostasy, ruin, judgment, and
dispersion it most graphically narrated and predicted ;
while our New Testament came to us principally
through the heads of that Church whose teachings,
:;: Exod. iv. 12 ; 2 Sam. xxiii. 2 ; Isa. vi. 7 ; Jer. i. 9 ; 2 Tim. iii.
16; 2 Pet. i. 21.
f " Oracles" (Septuagint) ; see also Rom. iii. 2.
[ Psa. xii. 6, 7.
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 297
ordinances, traditions, priestcrafts, pretences, and
fables it utterly condemns ; and it is, indeed,
strikingly remarkable that neither Jews nor Romanists
were ever permitted to alter a single sentence in the
Manuscripts, so as to soften such criticisms, or mould
the words of Scripture into a harmony with their own
thoughts, ambitions, and practices. Nay, more, the
Jews, who carefully counted every letter of the Law,
would willingly have died rather than countenance the
smallest variation of one jot or tittle ; and Rome,
who never scrupled, by fire, sword, poison, money,
treachery, falsehood, flattery, or force, to cover her
iniquities and achieve her objects, could not effect this
end, since God Himself preserved through her those
Scriptures which shall yet accomplish her destruction
and final overthrow.
Again, some one has justly remarked that, out of a
grim antiquity, a few fragments only of the archives
of Oriental nations remain to-day cast up upon the
shore of time ; but the Pentateuch, like Noah s ark,
has floated triumphantly and safely above all the
deluge of human change, conflict, and history. Thus,
when lost for centuries, " The Book of the Law " was
unexpectedly recovered by godly Josiah during his
renovation of the temple.* The roll of Jeremiah,
containing " the words of the Lord " written by
Baruch from the prophet s lips, and read in wicked
Jehoiakim s ear (fit type of certain modern critics),
was penknifed first, and then cast into the flames by
the angry monarch; but in "another roll " Jehovah
ordained that there were to be " written all the former
words," and " there were added besides unto them
many like words." t Antiochus Epiphanes, sweeping
Jerusalem with the besom of his wrath, burnt every
:;: 2 Kings xxii. 8-13 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14-16. ) Jer. xxxvi.
298 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
parchment he could discover, and punished all
custodians of such writings with the supreme
penalty of death ; while Diocletian, and many others
afterwards, similarly essayed to stamp out the Scrip
tures, but all in vain. Pope, prince, and prelate
interdicted, denounced, and sought to destroy the
Bible ; for Rome, while supernaturally restrained from
tampering with the Sacred Word in detail, yet again
and again assailed it venomously "in globo" ; and
still out of all fires it has risen, Phoenix-like, from its
very ashes ; and though its friends and adherents may
be burnt or imprisoned, " The Word of God is not
bound " ; and, like the young Josiah, hidden amid the
wickednesses and murderings of apostate religion, has,
times without number, come forth to slay its enemies
and overturn the powers of all its persecutors.
Innumerable sceptics have attacked its pages, and
foul-mouthed writers, like Voltaire, predicted, "In
fifty years no one will read this Book"; yet he and
they are long since buried, while his very house is
used to-day for the offices of a Bible Society ! Thus
mightily grows the Word of God, and prevails.
Whereas, formerly, the devil was accustomed to salary
his own agents in their attempted demolition of the
Sacred Scriptures, he now gets them salaried bij the
Church, and seeks to achieve his purpose more in
sidiously, as not only German and American, but also
Edinburgh and Oxford Professors, from their endowed
chairs of Biblical Criticism, deny in some cases not
merely the Inspiration of Moses, David, Isaiah,
Daniel, Paul, and Peter, but even the very virgin
birth and literal resurrection of our beloved Lord
and Saviour ! Still, notwithstanding and withstand
ing, the Bible has outlived, and will continue to
outlive, all these critics who betray it with a kiss ; and
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 299
they, too, must one day face its criticism, and be
condemned at the judgment bar of the Eternal. The
truth is, there is a Divinity in the Book ; and the Holy
Ghost Himself, being its Author, Witness, and Defender,
it simply cannot be got rid of, nor even be preached
out through the assistance of its so-called friends. Dr.
Dryasdust may be as dry as dust, but it is evergreen,
fresh, breezy, solemn, soothing, all instinct and aglow
with life and pardon, peace and purity, grace and glory;
and, in the power of God, and the demonstration of
the Holy Ghost, must infallibly and eternally prevail.
Why, the very history of the preservation of the
various Manuscripts reads like a veritable fairy tale ;
as, for example, the discovery, only sixty years ago, by
Tischendorff (in his casual visit to the monastery of
St. Catherine s) of one of the most ancient, the now
famous Codex Smaiticus, which he literally rescued
from the waste-paper basket ere its impending careless
consumption as fuel by the monks. The nation, also,
which preserved " The Oracles of God " has lost all
else. The holy vessels of the sanctuary are no more ;
the sacred ark of the covenant has disappeared ; the
noble city of Jerusalem lies broken down and desolate ;
Judasa languishes, and the very soil is sterilised ;
Israel, persecuted and outcast, is still scattered to the
four winds of heaven, but "The Holy Scriptures"
remain at once the heritage and condemnation of the
Jewish race, and also the pledge and prophecy of Israel s
restoration, " life from the dead," and coming glory.
(8) THE DESTINATION OP THE BIBLE.
Its Miraculous Results.
We have already shadowed forth the goal towards
which the Holy Scriptures trend, as the Divine
300 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
promises throb ever onward to complete fulfilment
and triumphant victory. Even to-day the Lord is still
"confirming His Word with signs following";* for
not only is the creation and preservation of the Book
a miracle, but " the Word of God " is itself the author
and parent of innumerable miracles. Individuals,
whose lives and practices have been of the foulest
and most debased kind, have been transformed,
regenerated: "old things are passed away; behold,
all things are become new ; and all things are of
God."+ Many a stern antagonist of the Gospel, like
Saul of Tarsus, or John Newton, "now preacheth the
faith which once he destroyed"; * and when education,
remonstrance, persuasions, logic, threatenings, and
punishments have failed, the Bible has effected a
peaceful revolution, and placed purity, self-control,
love, and the Lord Jesus upon the throne of Mansoul.
These transformations, explain them as you will, are
facts ; and to a myriad such witnesses we confidently
appeal as living testimonials of its wonder-working
power.
And then, as regards the nations of the earth, has it
not been demonstrated, again and again, that, where
the Scriptures go, whether in India, Africa, the Fiji
Islands, or New Zealand, murder, infanticide, demon
worship, bestiality, all shades and forms of loathsome
and unmentionable sins, Sutteeism, tyranny and
superstition disappear, as flies the darkness before the
dawning of God s day. To convert, transform, uplift,
a Tierra Del Fuegan, was pronounced by Charles
Darwin to be the very climax of a moral impossibility ;
yet the Word did it, and that, too, so effectually as to
call forth a frank and public acknowledgment of the
astounding fact from the great Agnostic, who, ever
* Mark xvi. 20. \ 2 Cor. v. 17, 18. [ Gal. i. 23.
SELF-WITNESS OF THE HOLY GHOST 301
afterwards, contributed annually to the Bible Society
working in that land. It has been well stated that,
in those countries where there is NO Bible, tyranny,
vice, and sorrow are absolutely rampant ; that, where
there is a CLOSED Bible, superstition, ignorance, bond
age, and decay exist ; and that where there is an
OPEN Bible, liberty, progress, and security of home
and public life prevail. Take down the great world s
map to-day, and contrast it with that of one hundred
years ago ! and tracing the argument for yourselves,
you will see that there can be no denying that "the
leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."
Even hospitals, Belief Societies, and the varied phases
of philanthropic effort in our great cities, are but the
reflections of God s grace; while, in such matters, the
very thoughts and actions of a professed Agnosticism
are, unconsciously, but certainly, tinged and influenced
by the teachings of the Holy Book.
All God s Promises "Justified."
In ancient Saxon language, the word "justified" is
strikingly and suggestively enough applied to book
binding, when each page enclosed the other so perfectly
that no one protruded or was jagged, each completely
filling over and covering the rest ; so shall it also be,
in that great day when all the promises of God are
justified, each separate prophecy so covering its fulfil
ment that all pledges and completions will be of iden
tical shape and measurement. Then shall the Jewish
nation realise and enjoy all the Divine blessings promised
to Abraham, Moses, David, and Solomon ; and the
Church, without a single member missing, be with
and like her reigning Lord. Then shall the millennial
peace and gladness spread its widening waves of bene-
302 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
diction over all nations ; and, finally, the glories of " a
new Heaven and a new earth " shall usher in the
ecstasies of that eternal, sinless, tearless, deathless
state, when "God shall be All-in-all." This has the
Bible promised, and this also it is going to perform,
for the man of sin shall yet " be consumed with the
Spirit (Pneuma] of His mouth, and destroyed with the
brightness of His coming," and the conquering " King
of kings and Lord of lords " must triumph under His
eternal title, " The Word of God." *
I have sometimes wondered whether a copy of the
dear old Bible will be preserved in Heaven, just as the
pot of manna was in the temple of King Solomon after
the wilderness journey was complete. Would we not
feel lonely without it? At any rate, our memories will
then recall the helps and aids it gave us on the pilgrim
way ; and David will recite once more his Psalms, and
Isaiah his Cross-centred Prophecies, and Paul his Ex
positions of the Doctrines of Grace, and John his grand
Doxologies. Above all, the Author of the Book, who
Himself indited the very words, will be there ; and then,
gazing on Him, how sweet shall be our triumph, as we
confess and realise that, though dynasties have perished,
philosophies faded away, Schools of Theology risen
and disappeared, scientific discoveries (?) been buried
in contempt, the very sun, and moon, and stars,
rolled from their places, and the heavens and the earth
passed away, yet that " there failed not ought of any
good thing which the Lord had spoken (unto the house
of Israel) ; all came to pass " ; and that " the Word of
the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word
which by the Gospel is preached unto you."
* 2 Thess. ii. 8 ; John i. 1, 14 ; Rev. xix. 13-16.
I Josh. xxi. 45 ; 1 Pet. i. 25.
MY SUBJECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS
ONE other argument, endorsing the interpretation
and authority of the Holy Scriptures, and to those
who experience its power a final and unanswerable
one, is that drawn from the believer s subjective
experience. To me, at least, the fact that " God, the
mighty Lord, hath spoken"* is conclusive, simply
because I have personally heard His voice, His words
have thrilled my spirit, and His promises laid hold
upon my heart. " The things which God hath pre
pared for them that love Him, God hath revealed them
unto us by His Spirit " ; and while " the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they
are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them
because they are spiritually discerned " ; t yet all the
spiritual instincts of the regenerate man echo "Amen"
to the teachings of the God-breathed Book.J And
* Psa. 1. 1. | 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10, 14.
j While conscious that this position is eminently unpalatable
" to the natural man," and essentially unpopular even amongst
Christians, yet is our conviction clear, both from the Holy Scrip
tures and practical every-day observation, that the Bible can only
be duly appreciated by regenerate minds, illumined by the teach
ing of the Holy Ghost Himself, and that therefore in a supreme
sense it needs a Divine revelation to enable men to fully
understand THE Revelation. Even at best the natural man can
but grasp the very shell, the framework of the Scriptures, a further
insight, viz., a mind capable of responding to God s mind, and a
303
304 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
this argument is no whit lessened whether one leans
to the Idealist or Realist School of Philosophy, since
if, as Berkeley and Mill taught, man is but " a bundle
of sensations," then these sensations have sympathy
with the Spirit of God, as the .ZEolian harp gives forth
its music to the passing wind ; while if, on the other
hand, we are grossly materialistic, then that which is
exquisitely refined and sensitive in us, as "we walk by
faith, not by sight," answers to the call of God, in
spite of these handicapping influences. In the one
case we have changed sensations ; in the other, the
spirit capable of responding to His Spirit, being necessary to
apprehend their spirit and inner meaning. As it is written, " Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit : for
the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For
what man knoweth the things of a man. save the spirit of man
which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but
the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. ii. 9-11).
Indeed it has been well pointed out, speaking of merely human
writings, that an Ayrshire ploughman is much more competent to
pass an accurate criticism upon the poems of Burns than any
London expert ; while an actual incapacity to sympathise with
the Cameronian and Puritanical spirit of Covenanting Scotland
has left its manifest blemish upon many of the noblest books
written by " The Wizard of the North," and an unconverted man
cannot understand God or the Bible, nor has he instinct to
feel its spiritual power and subtleties, since " aliens from the com
monwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise,"
while speaking, perhaps, a few words of a foreign language, can
not assuredly think therein, nor can they be spiritually familiar
with the idioms, or even axioms of the Kingdom of God. Doubt
less to some "this is an hard saying" (John vi. 60), and should
beget in all genuine believers a spirit of deep humility and true
sympathy with honest doubters, to all of whom we would com
mend the promise of the Lord Jesus : "If any man will do His
will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God"; " take
MY SUBJECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS 305
much more important fact of changed actions.* Of
course, men who have not experienced this subtle half-
unconscious yet almighty power working upon their
souls, cannot accept, or even possibly appreciate, this
argument ; but to those who carry about a witness in
their own hearts, each one knowing it for himself, as
strong as that of personal identity, nothing can dis
lodge us from our position, since even external scep
ticism only indicates that others are spiritually colour
blind, while we are under what we believe to be a
Divine conviction " that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, has given unto us the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him, the eyes of our understanding being enlight
ened." t
And yet we are not asking too much in asserting
that those who do not believe should, at any rate,
weigh the solemn force of this practical, every-day
argument. I accept many things in this life on the
testimony of reliable witnesses, why should I not this
also ? If the evidence founded upon subjective ex
perience were but a rare and almost solitary thing, it
might well be cavilled at as the product of sentimental
fancy, hysteria, or religious ecstasy (though not
logically by an Idealist !) ; but to my testimony must
be added that of tens of millions of men and women,
diverse in race, mind, character, temperament, fortune,
My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of
heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for My yoke is easy
and My burden is light " (John vii. 17 ; Matt. xi. 29, 30).
: While writing thus, we repudiate any sympathy with the
Berkeleyan Philosophy, which seems distinctly antagonistic to
New Testament teaching concerning the Incarnation and the
Resurrection.
4 Eph. i. 17, 18.
21
30(5 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
experience, position, social and climatic surroundings,
who deliberately make a similar affirmation ; and in
every age and country, all down the millenniums, these
millions of thoughtful, clear-headed, sound-living,
truthful and kindly people have borne witness to the
same assured conviction, enwrought in their souls,
influencing their actions, guiding and controlling their
living and dying ; and many of these, let it be remem
bered, were once rank antagonists of this very doctrine,
scoffers at Inspiration, rejectors of the Bible, and op
posed to its tenets and truths. We may well ask,
Does all this count for nothing with the thoughtful
mind ? My subjective experience may indeed claim
only little ; but, supplemented by that of millions, it
must amount to something ; and supported by the
objective facts, resultant as effects from the subjective
inner cause, it should surely count for much.
The morning after a recent terrible storm burst
over the city of Dublin I met an aged gentleman,
who informed me that he had quietly slept through
all its devastating rage. I asked him, " Then, you
have not seen the wind? " " Certainly not ! " " Nor
heard it?" "No." "Nor even felt it?" "No."
" Then, perchance, you disbelieve in the existence
of the storm altogether?" "Nay," responded he,
half-laughingly, " for my fallen oaks and elms too
sadly demonstrate its presence, reality, and power."
And are we demanding any more than we have
a right to, in asking of a sceptical age that
the Scriptures testified to not only as Divine and
" God-breathed " by individuals in their own inner
consciousness, but publicly manifested as possessed of
miracle-working powers as seen objectively in the
regenerated hearts and transformed lives of men, be
accorded such credence and respect as mortals readily
MY SUBJECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS 307
render in connection with natural phenomena? For
the believer, however, albeit outsiders may deride and
despise the argument, the conviction remains, because
written upon our hearts by the very ringers of Almighty
God, that " the Spirit Himself beareth witness with
our spirit " that the Word of God is true.
A SUMMARY OF THE GENERAL
ARGUMENTS FOR VERBAL
INSPIRATION
HERE let me briefly recapitulate the principal reasons
why old-fashioned evangelicals are convinced that "the
sacred writings " are " God-breathed," or that the
Divine revelation as originally given from Him through
the prophets was received by the process of verbal
inspiration.
Now it is obvious, on the very surface of the subject,
that words to convey any intelligible meaning, must
come to us in the way of ordinary language, and that
we can only deal with these, not as the writers think
them, but as they are themselves expressed, thoughts
without words, being as incommunicable as a tune
without notes, so that whatever metaphysical subtleties
may be indulged in concerning such possibilities of
thinking, it is prosaically certain that prophets and
writers must emphatically speak in words ; and if this
position be true and it cannot be contradicted we
can unquestionably only obtain the Divine revelation
in Divine words, or, to speak more clearly, God s ideas
in God-given words, else such a revelation will prove
but a broken, errant, mutilated, and defective thing,
carrying with it neither Divine dignity, authority, nor
certainty. In short, the ordinary care taken by mere
308
A SUMMAEY OF THE AKGUMENTS 309
mortal speakers and writers, concerning the proper
conveyance and interpretation of their ideas in that
language which they have deliberately chosen in order
to most evidently do so, must not be denied to that
revelation which, coming from the Omniscient, Omni
potent, and Everlasting One, is of supreme and trans
cendental importance as touching questions not only
of mortality, but immortality, not merely of to-day and
earth, but of eternal destiny and heaven. It is incon
ceivable that God should be less careful of His words
than poets, philosophers, lawyers, and politicians are
of theirs, whereas if the conception of a Divine
message lacking these safeguards be suggested, all
true and dependable revelation disappears, since if to
the mistakes of translators and slips of copyists there
be added this modern popular, theological dictum, that
the Scriptures contain, but are not, the words of God,
then frankly we are still derelicts upon the ocean of life,
without chart or compass, and are unable to discern
between true and false lights upon the eternal shore ;
every man as already stated, becoming the compiler of
his own Bible, and none being competent to decide for
another where God and where man speaks or writes,
thus all finality and supremacy disappears while the
book is brought for judgment to the bar of a fallible
human conscience, instead of man s thoughts and
controversies being subjected and subordinated to the
authority of the Holy Scriptures.
And this argument becomes intensified when we
remember the tremendous fact that we are receiving
through these writings, not the philosophies and
philanthropies of man, however graced and gifted,
but of the Holy Ghost ; that the supernatural is
brought down to the natural, the infinite to the finite,
the eternal to the temporal ; that thoughts as supremely
310 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
beyond our mind and ken " as the heavens are higher
than the earth" *" are herein conveyed to us through
the medium of fellow-mortals as ignorant and un
sympathetic naturally as ourselves of these Divine
laws, loves, and mysteries, and even incapable with
feeble understanding of ever containing the mind and
thoughts of the great Supreme. Thus the Holy Spirit
(a) unfolds to a fallen world the very character and
ideas of God, bringing us creatures of a day into a new
territory of speech and thought ; the very A, B, C of
which we cannot spell or understand, and conveying
therein not merely a broken revelation of God, but His
very mind and personality, as expressed and expounded
in His own words ; (Z>) recalls and illumines the dark
past, reciting with verbal accuracy the forgotten words
and utterances, and interviews of Jesus, the deeds and
sayings of holy patriarchs and unholy sinners, and
pushes back through the gloom and mist of creation s
mysteries into the very arcana of a bygone eternity; and
(c) unfolds through willing, and sometimes unwilling
lips, and often through unwitting and ignorant ones,
the strange prophetic Scriptures concerning the
sufferings and the cross of Christ, the glories of the
risen Saviour, and the future prospects of Israel, the
Church, a regenerated world, heaven, hell, and the
great universe and eternity of being. Surely such a
threefold revelation of God the past and the
future would be absolutely impossible through any
channel of merely human intelligence, or mortal trans
cription, and still less so through the medium of an
avowed ignorance on the part of the prophets, unless
on the theory of a verbal "God-breathed" inspiration
such as occurred at Pentecost when the astounding
miracle of unlearned and ignorant men,! speaking in
Isa. Iv. 8, 9. ) Acts iv. 18.
A SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENTS 311
some sixteen different languages conveyed God s gospel
accurately to the representatives of each separate
nationality, as they (the apostles) "filled with the
Holy Ghost began to speak with other tongues as the
Spirit gave them utterance," * and indeed nothing
short of this is unquestionably the claim of both Old
and New Testament writers, from Moses, David,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Malachi, to Peter,
Paul, Luke, and John, t all of whom affirm that the
Almighty God Himself put His words into their mouths;
while even our Lord Jesus, speaking from the stand
point of His servant and obedient life (which in the
surrender, as the second Adam, of His independent
will, and His perfect conformity in all things to that
of the Father, and not in the binding or limitation of
of those Divine attributes, which He unquestionably
exercised, is the true explanation of the kenosis) also
spake and acted " through the Holy Ghost." I
Indeed, any suggestion of apology for, withdrawal
from, or explanation of such a high standard of verbal
inspiration is never so much as whispered, or in the
most indirect fashion hinted at, by any one of the
sacred writers. "Thus saith the Lord," giving solemn
grace and dignity to their prophetic message, omni
potence to their very words, and power and irresistible
success to their evangelical ministry.
Besides all this, the deliberate and definite endorse
ments of not only the historical, but also the verbal
accuracy of the Old Testament Scriptures, in the most
Acts ii. 4.
| Exod. iv. 12 ; Deut. iv. 2 ; xviii. 18. 2 Sam. xxiii. 2 ; Neh. ix.
80 ; Jer. i. 9 ; Ezek. xi. 15 ; Zech. vii. 12 ; Mai. i. 1 ; Mark xii. 26,
36; Luke xxiv. 27, 44 ; Acts i. 16 ; iii. 18; iv. 25 ; xxviii. 25. 1 Cor.
ii. 13 ; 1 Thess. iv. 15 ; 2 Tim. iii. 16 ; Heb. ii. 7 ; ix. 8 ; x. 15.
1 Pet. i. 11, 12; 2 Pet. i. 21; llev. xxii. 18, 19.
j Luke iv. 1, 18; John xii. 49, 50; xiv. 24; xvii. 8. Acts i. 2.
312 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
unqualified and unambiguous fashion, by our Divine
Lord, and His apostles, their intricate and conclusive
arguments from single words, verbs, tenses, names, and
despised and trifling incidents, involves an impossible,
absurd, and even Jesuitical position, except on the
basis of a verbal revelation, which exalted claim the
Pharisees and Sadducees, singularly enough, never
dreamt of contesting, although routed on such lines in
many a hard-fought field ; and the uniqueness of the
scriptural writings, the extraordinary interweaving of
ritual, sacrifice, metaphor, and design in the harmonies
of the entire book, and the very silences and omissions
of the Scriptures, every " Selah," being as eloquent
and suggestive as any "hallelujah," confirm the
:;: As instances of this, note how " Mary the mother of Jesus,"
fades from history and is never heard of again after the Day of
Pentecost (Acts i. 10) ; how the name of Peter is never mentioned
either in the epistle "to all that be in Piome " (Rom. i. 7; xvi.
8, 15) or among those whose Christian greetings are conveyed
from Piome unto the brethren (Col. iv. 7-14 ; 2 Tim. iv. 10-14,
19-22 ; Tit. iii. 12-15 ; Philemon 23-24) ; how Paul bases subtle
analogies and arguments upon these silences of Scripture (Heb. vii.
3-14, &C.), and the reader will concur with me that the loose and
perverse habit which has grown up in our Churches of systemati
cally omitting the old " Selah" (rest pause be silent) when
the Psalms of David and the Book of Habakkuk are being read,
is to be deeply regretted, as indeed we might as well leave out the
joyous word " hallelujah " (praise ye the Lord), for these Selahs of
the Holy Ghost are equally inspired with His hallelujahs, and
God s calls to silence as grand!}- impressive and suggestive as His
demands for song. How divinely proper is the pause of a deep,
reverent, astonished, submissive, grateful thanksgiving, after a
recital of the judgments and mercies of Jehovah, as it follows in
such connections, for example, as the ninth, thirty-second, forty-
sixth, and forty-ninth Psalms (Psa. ix. 16, 20 ; xxxii. 4, 5, 7 ; xlvi.
3, 7, 11; xlix. 13-15). Alas, poor mortals! we babble but too
frequently when God would bid us be silent, and on the other hand
are ofttimes dumb when He would provoke doxologies.
A SUMMARY OF THE AEGUMENTS 813
claims and confidences of Biblical inspirationists that
the Divine volume consists of heaven-given messages
and records, joined together, miraculously preserved
and handed down to us. in "God-breathed" words,
while all difficulties attending this doctrine of verbal
inspiration and every miracle must present difficulties
to the merely human and mortal mind are equally, if
the matter be fairly and logically thought out, in
evidence in all other theories of inspiration, which,
however unlike the Mosaic and Pauline one, can give
no guarantee of accuracy, but rob our hearts and lives
of certainty, and leave poor sinners helplessly stumbling
amid the darkness of an unreliable and errant revela
tion, within which we cannot distinguish the voice of
God from that of mortals, and the utterances of heaven
from the vagaries, platitudes and inanities of earth.
We are compelled, therefore, by this and other fore
going reasons to take our stand unhesitatingly on the
matter of inspiration by Moses, David, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Peter, Paul, and our adorable Redeemer, as
they emphatically proclaim this clear and simple old-
fashioned doctrine, that "the Holy Scriptures" as
originally given were definitely " God-breathed," not
only as regards the ideas and thoughts, but " in the
words which the Holy Ghost teacheth," * and main
tain that such is the only truly evangelical, final,
intelligent, soul-satisfying, and Scriptural view of
Biblical inspiration.
"I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what
thou shalt say"; "I will raise them up a Prophet
from among their brethren like unto thee, and will
put My words in His mouth " Moses. +
" The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word
was in my tongue " David. I
1 Cor. ii. 13. | Exod. iv. 12; Deut. xviii. 18. t 2 Sam. xxiii. 2.
314 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
" The Lord said unto me, Behold I have put my
words in thy mouth" Jeremiah.*
" Son of man, all My words which I shall speak
unto thee . . . speak unto them " EzekielA
" The words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in
His Spirit, by the former prophets " Zechariah.l
" All Scripture is given by inspiration of God "
Paul.
" Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost" Peter.
"I have given unto them the words which Thou
gavest Me"- The Lord Jems Christ. *
Tev. i. 9. j Ezek. iii. 10, 11. \ Zech. vii. 12.
; 2 Tim. iii. 16. \ 1 Pot. i. 21. r John xvii. 8.
PART III
THE CONSEQUENCES AND DUTIES ARISING
FROM SUCH CLAIMS
THE OBJECTIONS
SINCE " the carnal mind is enmity against God : for it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be," * we need not be surprised that quite a host of
doubts and objections is raised, not only concerning
the inerrancy of the Word of God, but also against the
very fact of Inspiration itself. That many true and
tender minds have honest difficulties, we readily admit,
and would simply urge all such, preferably, to humbly
wait, as finite beings, with circumscribed powers of
thought, for fuller light and reconciliation hereafter,
than to drift as derelicts upon a sea of scepticism : for,
after all, God is Himself a mystery, and so are the In
carnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the
Bible mysteries.
" God only knows the love of God,"
and we may add, God only knows the holiness
and faithfulness of God, and God only can Himself
expound and explain, in all its depth and fulness,
His own Divine and sacred revelation. The finite
cannot grasp the Infinite, and theology and Chris
tianity have always suffered heavily through the vain
and ineffectual attempts of man to measure the
* Horn, viii. 7.
317
318 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Almighty by his twelve-inch rule, and to dissect and
analyse the inscrutable and everlasting thoughts of
God.
These objections are, however, mainly ancient ones,
coined in the early centuries of the Christian era,
re-uttered in coarse and vulgar language by eighteenth-
century blasphemers, and finally presented in elegantly
bound and well-typed volumes, by gentlemanly pro
fessors, in beautiful diction, wherein arrogant assump
tion and insidious scepticism blend most fittingly
together. For Celsus and Porphyry we mourn ; over
poor Tom Paine, and despairing Voltaire, we can even
shed a tear; but for Divinity Professors, occupying
high ecclesiastical positions, and filling theological
chairs, who quietly subscribe to certain articles of
faith, and pocketing large retaining fees for the
defence of Inspiration, then, with an extraordinary
bias, act as counsel for the prosecution, we can have
no tolerance whatsoever. I have hitherto refrained
from mentioning names, but cannot help recording, in
this connection, with deliberate emphasis, the opinion
that a candid antagonist like Mons. E. Eenan com
mands a sad respect from orthodox men, while the
Kev. Canon T. K. Cheyne, D.D., for example, denying
as he does, the virgin birth, the substitutionary sacrifice,
and the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, and
leaving us only some fragmentary utterances in the
Gospels as the accredited sayings of Jesus Christ,
demands from honest hearts and lips the strongest
condemnatory criticism for his gross betrayal of that
trust committed to his charge by the Church of which
he is professedly a member, as Oxford " Professor of
the Interpretation of Holy Scripture. We challenge
such men, if on no higher and holier grounds than
THE OBJECTIONS 319
common honesty to the long-suffering and deluded
British ratepayer, to come out boldly into the open,
abandon their professorships, relinquish their salaries,
and emulate, in this matter at least, the straightfor
wardness of Paine and Voltaire, who, with all their
many faults, never descended to the unutterable and
contemptible meanness of attacking the Bible from a
vantage-ground, which they could never have occupied
but for their most solemn promises to defend the
Sacred Writings.
Having thus freed our conscience, in language of
undoubted strength, let us add thereto the prayer of
Stephen, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," and
proceed more specifically to consider THE OBJECTIONS,
several of which we have already dealt with, and will
only accordingly touch en passant. It is alleged
that :
(1) THE BIBLE CONTAINS RECORDS OF IMMORALITIES
AND SINS, UNWORTHY OF A RELIGIOUS BOOK.
Verily, we live in a most amazing and innocent age !
Do these critics forbid their children novels, and access
to the theatres (which we quite agree they would do
well to avoid) and refuse their sons permission to take
honours in Latin and Greek classics, and their
daughters the unrestricted perusal of the daily and
weekly papers ? Is it not well known that the Bible
is perhaps the only book which, mercilessly exposing
society, describes sin invariably but to denounce and
damn it to portray its evil, and emphasise its dark
and terrible consequences ; and that there is a reticence
which may issue in the ruin of souls, a covering of
" danger signals " which may wreck the young life, one
transgression, like David s, leading often to an awful
and life-long harvesting of sorrow, and a non-recording
320 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
of grace and mercy which may end in the despair and
suicide of erring men? The Scriptures must show
me my unregenerate heart in a mirror, as well as
reveal God in the person of Jesus Christ ; for man is
after all at best but a poor frail creature, liable to any
sin but for Divine and counteracting grace ; and Holy
Ghost memoirs must be wholly true as well as tender.
A Bible without narration of sin and failure would be
an absolutely useless, unreal, and unpractical book, to
a world of sinners who need a message proclaiming
that " God is love," but vice is vile, and yet that,
through His Divine Gospel, sin can not only be
pardoned, but hated, not only be encountered, but
overcome (see ante pp. 24-26).
Passing by this trifling objection, the real malignity
of which is only superficially veiled under a mere
veneering of modern sentimentalism, we next notice,
as already stated, that
(2) MANY ACTS AND SPEECHES OF UNGODLY, AND
SOMETIMES EVEN OF GODLY MEN, WERE NOT
ACTUALLY INSPIRED.
But the record and recital of them were (see ante
pp. 56-60, 281, 282). That
(3) THE JUDGMENTS ON THE CANAANITES AND THE
IMPRECATORY PSALMS
fit in with the stern laws of nature as well as the facts
of history, progressing down these dark avenues to
fuller freedom, civilisation, and enlightenment ; that,
if Chaki be substituted for Adoni-bezek, and Turkey
for Babylon, and the necessary and God-ordained ex
tinction of wicked, pestilential, and unprogressive
peoples before the uprisal of others, be considered,
even a modern philanthropist will be compelled to take
THE OBJECTIONS 321
his stand instinctively beside Joshua and David (see
ante pp. 67-69) : and that the eminently small and
human difficulty about
(4) GOD MENTIONING INSIGNIFICANT DETAILS
and non-essential matters (although nothing GOD
thinks, or says, or does, can be considered non-
essential by the devout believer), is easily answered by
pointing out that, to an almighty mind, nothing can
be unimportant or mean, any more than the existence
of the daisy or bluebell in the world of nature ; and it
was because " the babe wept" * that Pharaoh s
daughter s heart was touched, Moses delivered, and
Israel afterwards emancipated; and because, " on that
night could not the king sleep" \ that Mordecai was
promoted to signal honour, and the Jewish nation
saved from a pre-arranged extinction.
I could covet few greater joys than to hear dear
Samuel Rutherford, for example, with his delicate
pathos and poetic sympathy, or John Bunyan, with
his terse insight and wonderful descriptive power,
picturing the poor old rheumatic apostle lonely and
shivering in his prison cell for lack of " the cloke " he
left at Troas, \ and getting, in that very experience of
privation, nearer than ever to His blessed Lord, of
whom it was written, " and for MY VESTURE they did
cast lots " (see ante pp. 28, 29).
All these, however, are surely, at best, but difficulties
of a very minute and puerile sort ; let us, accordingly,
face three more practical and important ones and con
front the
(5) OPPOSITIONS OF SCIENCE FALSELY so CALLED. I 1
This title we use deliberately because Holy Scripture
* Exod. ii. 6. f Esther vi. 1. \ 2 Tim. iv. 13.
John xix. 23, 24. || 1 Tim. vi. 20.
22
322 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
and true science are becoming, every day nearer to
perfect reconciliation. It should never be forgotten
that (a) science is only, like some fair maiden, still
knocking at the door of the palace of truth; whereas
revelation, on the other hand, comes forth therefrom ;
that (b) many eminent men have lived long enough to
see their own pet theories falsified ; and, speaking
generally, that little scientific finality has been yet
attained, the discoveries of one generation often
destroying the findings of another ; and that (c) the
Bible was never written as a text-book about astronomy
or geology, but to teach man how salvation, holiness,
and communion with God are possible ; to point out,
not how the heavens go, but how to go to Heaven ;
and that (d) we should also be scrupulously careful not
to read into the Scriptures, either through intelligence
or stupidity, thoughts and teachings which they them
selves do not suggest or testify.
The Earth Created Perfect ; then Blasted.
Thus, for example, opening the Bible, we are struck
immediately by the majestic utterance, " In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth," *
and going on quickly, add to it, without a thought of
chasm or parenthesis, the words, " And the earth was
without form, and void ; and darkness was upon the
face of the deep " ; or, as it should more literally be
translated, "And the earth became ruined and empty,
and darkness was upon the face of the abyss." t Now,
reader, pause ! for, as a believer in Verbal Inspiration,
I am convinced that Almighty God does not string
sentences together, and spread out words, like a
French novelist writing to space and order. Is there
v Gen, i. 1. f Ibid. i. 2,
THE OBJECTIONS 323
no depth of hidden yet definite meaning in the sug
gestive copulative "And"; also, can you imagine
that the Lord ever originated or created anything other
wise than perfect ? With these thoughts in mind, we
find in Jeremiah exactly the same two words, "without
form" (Hebrew, tohu) and "void" (Hebrew, boJm),
connected with a description of the earth in a condition
of darkness and disaster,* and still more emphatically
read in Isaiah, " God that formed the earth CREATED IT
NOT TOHU," "without form" or "ruined" t a most
definite and dogmatic assertion ; so that it would
appear as though the earth, which originally came
forth perfect at Elohim s word, was blasted, possibly
on account of primeval sin, and remained ill-shaped,
lifeless, dark, until God again, in grace and wisdom,
intervened. However, the word of God, through
Isaiah, is clear and definite, God did NOT create the
earth " tohu ; and since Genesis i. 2 revealed it in
that state, the blight and wreckage must have occurred
between the "aeons" in verses 1 and 2 coupled together
by the conjunction " And " ; and, accordingly, you
have here a chasm of millenniums, a huge gaping
parenthesis where geologists may explore and scientists
investigate till hand and eye and brain alike grow
weary, and yet produce no genuine discovery in the
smallest discord with "that which is noted in the
Scripture of truth." \
Proceeding further, we discover that " the Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the waters " ; and so,
breath and motion both atmosphere and light begin
their gracious ministry upon the ruined earth. Note,
it does not record that God created light, though
subsequently He "made two great lights," the sun
::: Jer. iv. 23. f Isa. xlv. 18.
{ Dan. x. 21. Gen. i. 2
324 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
and moon, as reservoirs to contain it for this world s
benefit; but He said, "Let there be light," * for "God
is light " ; and in the side flashes from Paul s
inspired and beautiful parallel between the regene
ration of a lost man and a fallen world this truth
becomes more clearly manifested : " For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," I the
analogy being, both earth and man were created
perfect, both fell, and, by a similar process, both have
been, through grace, restored.
Creation versus Evolution.
We have neither time nor space to trace, seriatim,
the order of creation as described through Moses, but
content ourselves with the remark that the sequence of
events is admittedly in harmony with scientific research,
and thus Genesis alone, of all old-time books, gives a
clear-cut, God-like, and satisfactory account of creation.
Compared with it, how grotesque and mythical appear
the absurd cosmogonies of ancient science, history,
philosophy, and religion, albeit men of eminent genius
suggested or narrated them ; but we must enter an
emphatic protest against the unscriptural theory that
blind, senseless matter was in itself eternal, since
" through faith \ve understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, so that things which are
seen were not made of things which do appear " ; and
especially do we warn believers against the danger of
coquetting with the modern doctrine of evolution,
which, in its logical consequences, assails the fall of
* Gen. i. 14-19, 3-5. f 1 John i. 5.
2 Cor. iv. 6. Heb. xi. 3.
THE OBJECTIONS 325
man, the incarnation of " God manifest in the flesh,"
the vicarious sacrifice of our Divine Lord, and the
solemn judgment of those who die impenitent ; and not
only leads to these developments, but is, in language of
the plainest sort, flatly contradicted by the Word of
God. Indeed, no Christian can consistently accept
the teachings of Darwin and the utterances of Moses ;
and if rejecting those of the latter, must also, in so
doing, logically break loose from faith in the endorse
ments definitely and unambiguously given by our Lord
and his apostles concerning the first three chapters of
the Book of Genesis.*
Let us not be misunderstood ; we do not for a
moment deny that consistency, and in many cases
uniformity of design, are stamped as clearly upon the
personality of God s handiwork as upon that of man ;
that there is a great sympathy of purpose and thought
in all God s wonderful creation, and a kinship among
the different species, and a blending, development, and
outgrowth through intermarriage among the same ;
that there are links binding life to life, and family to
family ; but what we do emphatically deny is that
some chasms have been or ever can be bridged over ; and
taking our stand beside Paul, in the words of perhaps
the most unique and marvellous chapter in the Bible,
affirm that " all flesh is not the same flesh : but there is
one kind of. flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another
of fishes, and another of birds." t
The Hen or the Egg
Then, again, the old controversy as to whether the
oak preceded the acorn, or the acorn the oak, the hen
::: Matt. xix. 4-6 ; Mark x. 6-9 ; Bom. v. 12-21 ; 2 Cor. xi. 3 ; 1 Tim.
ii. 13, 14 ; Heb. ii. 6, 7 ; iv. 4 ; xi. 3. llev. ii. 7 ; xii. 9 ; xxii. 1, 2.
4 1 Cor. xv. 39.
320 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
the egg, or the egg the fowl, is settled once for all by
the great Lawgiver s decisive words, "And the Lord
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a
living soul"; "so God created man in His own image."
" In the day that God created man, in the likeness of
God made He him";* flanked, as this statement is, by
a parallel concerning the brute creation : " And out of
the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the
field, and every fowl of the air" ; + and the startling
and simple words, "and every plant of the field BEFORE
it was in the earth, and every herb of the field BEFORE it
grew"; * while the oft-repeated phrases," GOD CREATED,"
" GOD MADE," "the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit whose seed teas in itself" ; "great
whales, and every living creature that moveth," "every
winged fowl," "beasts," and "cattle," and "every thing
that creepeth upon the earth " " AFTER THEIR KIND,"
render it absolutely impossible, on any honest theory
of interpretation, to reconcile the record given through
Moses concerning the creation of "Adam, which was
the son of God," with the dogmatic but yet unproved
hypothesis that our first parent was rather the son of
the baboon, which was the son of the tadpole, which
was the son of the jelly-fish, which was the son of
the protoplasm! Wherefore, "choose you this day
whom ye will serve"; and if Moses be a prophet
of the Lord, follow him ; but if Darwin, then follow
him.
The truth is, it seems to us, that another and an
utterly opposed theory might be deduced theologically,
:;: Gen. ii. 7 ; i. 27 ; v. 1.
| Ibid. ii. 19. See Septuagint version, formed yet farther."
Ibid. ii. 5. j Ibid. i. 11, 12. 20-25, 29. Luke iii. 38.
THE OBJECTIONS 327
and possibly even scientifically, that of DEvolution.
The teaching of Genesis iii., Romans iii. and v., of
Philippians ii., and Hebrews i. and ii., revealing how
man fell, and "the only-begotten Son of the Father"
" stooped to conquer,"* would easily lead in this direc
tion, and the denunciation of a death penalty, under
the law of Moses, upon those committing certain un
natural and unmentionable sins, might suggest the
possibility of " the descent of man," and a race of
hybrids, with certainly as much plausibility as the
views advanced by some concerning the origin of
"the Nephalim."
After all, however, the great point for the believer is,
not what man thinks, but what God has revealed.
" To the law and to the testimony : if they speak not
according to this Word, it is because there is no light
in them." t This great sheet-anchor holds through
every storm, and yet I know three lesser ones, any of
which would seem to me sufficient to save the bark
from drifting. (1) The argument of the ordinary layman
(scientifically), Is not the opinion of Sir W. J.
Dawson, who believed in Genesis i., as good as that
of Professor Tyndall (both ex-Presidents of the British
Association), who denied it? (2) The argument of the
metaphysician: " Must not the whole be greater than
the part, THE CAUSE THAN THE EFFECT?" And
(3) the argument of " the man in the street," who,
however loose in his religious convictions, believes in
a Supreme Being. Grant me a God ! and the Mosaic
account of creation inevitably follows as more natural,
* How inconsistent these higher critics are ! Nearly all of them
hold tenaciously the doctrine of evolution, and yet as firmly assert,
in its wildest sense, the " Kenosis " theory, views which any one
can easily see are mutually destructive.
Isa. viii. 20.
328 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
simple, noble, and Divine, than the protoplasm, jelly
fish, tadpole, monkey, Darwin theory.
" HE SPAKE, AND IT WAS DONE." *
" HE COMMANDED, AND THEY WERE CREATED." t
Joshua and the Sun Can Almighty God not stop
the Clock?
" But," exclaims some reader, raising one of these
petty and superficial objections which are peculiar to
Bible criticism alone, " is not the language of the
Scriptures unscientific in speaking of sunrise and sun
set . Well, we would ask, " W T hat other terms
ccoi be used?" I find them in the weather headings
of the daily papers, at the tops of diaries, amid the
astronomical information of almanacks, ay, and even
in scientific manuals ! Listen to the words of the
illustrious Kepler himself, uttered centuries ago upon
this very subject, " We say, with the common people,
the planets stand still, and go down, the sun rises and
sets ; these forms of speech we use with the common
people, meaning only that so the thing appears to us,
although it is not truly so, as all astronomers are
agreed " ; and, only the other day, a well-known
astronomer of high European reputation, pointing out
to a friend the dying glories of the ! ! (I
must call it sunset, there is no other succinct and
suggestive term), could use no more appropriate and
descriptive language than the exclamation, " What a
wonderful sunset ! " Yet the Bible is, forsooth, to be
condemned as unscientific because it contains the very
same words and we might add, practically the only
words which scientists themselves employ ! Surely,
:;: Psa. xxxiii. 9. f Ibid, cxlviii. 5.
THE OBJECTIONS 329
the unfairness and prejudice of such reasoning must be
obvious to every unbiassed mind.
And then our old friend Joshua, and " the sun stand
ing still in the midst of heaven," an amazing miracle,
concerning which it is definitely affirmed " there was
no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord
hearkened unto the voice of a man " * are brought
forward, and we are calmly told by men, who profess
to believe in an Almighty God, that such a thing was
impossible ; ordinary mortals can arrange a common
clock, so that the progress of time, the movements of
the moon, the passage of years, and even the odd
"leap" day can be planned out; but the Creator is
incapable of so ordaining the solar clock-work of the
universe for His own eternal purpose, or of stopping
the entire machinery altogether if it so please His
blessed will.* The truth is, in this case, just as in the
incident endorsed by our Lord concerning " the great
fish which the Lord prepared to swallow up Jonah," *
the real question at issue is, Do we, or do we not,
believe in the supernatural? Is GOD GOD, infinite,
omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, superior even to His
own laws, or is He some poor frail creation of our
finite minds, circumscribed by the findings (?) of
scientists, the dicta of theologians, and the red-tapeism
of the earth-worms of a fallen world ? There is no
advantage in skirmishing round about the outworks in
such an argument; admit a Creator, concede the
miracle of the resurrection, and all else follows ; deny
these, and we have no Christ, no light, no hope ; we
* Josh. x. 12-14.
f Is not the theory of diurnal motion here suggested ? " Sun,
stand thou still upon Gibeon ; and thou, Moon, in the valley of
Ajalon."
1 Jonah i. 17.
330 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
are yet in our sins, and nought is left save the empty
and blatant gassiness of talkative, self-sufficient, and
dying man.
Yet we have read of a more marvellous scene than
that of Joshua at Makkedah. Our Divine Lord, " God
manifest in the flesh," the Creator of all things,* is
walking quietly along with His disciples, followed by a
great multitude of people. Just as He is emerging
from Jericho, the city of the palms, a tattered, blind,
beggar man, by the wayside, cries out, again and
again, with agonised importunity, " Jesus, thou Son
of David, have mercy on me." Those around rebuke
him callously, but still he perseveres: " Thou Son of
David, have mercy on me." "And Jesus stood still,
and commanded him to be called." " What wilt thou
that I should do unto thee ? The blind man said unto
Him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus
said unto him, Go thy way : thy faith hath made thee
whole. And immediately he received his sight, and
followed Jesus in the way." + Familiarised, as we are
with the life and gentleness of the Divine Redeemer,
we forget to note this wonderful fact. Here is THE
CREATOR Himself, " who is over all, God blessed for
ever," t standing still at the call of a blind and ragged
beggar; who then need marvel if even creation itself
should also stand still in response to the cry of a pray
ing saint ?
Opinion of 617 Scientists.
Frankly, however, we are not surprised to discover
ourselves surrounded, both in the world of nature
and of revelation, with difficulties, perplexities, and
mysteries ; the wonder would rather be, were it other-
: ; 1 Tim. iii. 16 ; Col. i. 15-17 ; Heb. i. 2, i5.
t Mark x. 46-52. J Kom. ix. 5.
THE OBJECTIONS 331
wise, especially in our formative stage of experience,
in the very infant school of knowledge. Innumerable
things are above reason although it does not necessarily
follow that any are contrary thereto, if we but think
intelligently and accurately from the premises of
assured truth ; and this humble and reverential attitude
has been adopted by many of the greatest scientists,
such as Sir Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Sir
Humphrey Davy, Sir James Simpson, Hugh Miller,
Sir David Brewster, Professor Dana, Sir W. J.
Dawson, &c. ; and in the Bodleian Library at Oxford
there lies a document, signed by six hundred and seven
teen leading members of the British Association, A.U.,
1865, which reads as follows :
"We, the undersigned students of the natural
sciences, desire to express our sincere regret that
researches into scientific truth are perverted by some
in our own times into occasion for casting doubt upon
the truth and authenticity of the Hoi) 7 Scriptures.
" We conceive that it is impossible for the word of
God as written in the book of nature, and God s written
word written in Holy Scripture, to contradict one
another, however much they may appear to differ.
" We are not forgetful that physical science is not
complete, but is only in a condition of progress, and
that at present our finite reason enables us only to see
through a glass darkly, and we confidently believe that
a time will come when the two records ivill be seen to
agree in every particular."
Modern Discoveries Anticipated.
Finally, on this point, we think it needful to again
affirm that the Holy Scriptures were not written to
gratify mere idle curiosity, or even intelligent research
332 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
concerning geology or astronomy, but to reveal God
and Calvary, grace and glory ; and yet, wherever the
Bible does incidentally touch such matters, it has
invariably anticipated all that is true in modern re
search : "the expanse" "a world hung upon
nothing, " " the weight of the winds," " the circle
of the earth," the innumerable stars, the connec
tion of light and sound " when the morning stars sang
together," "the earth stored with fire" for coming
judgment, &c. * How did Job record that the earth
was hung upon nothing, and that the wild, capricious
winds could be weighed, or Isaiah tell that the world
was round, millenniums before these facts were actually
discovered, and Galileo flung into prison for maintain
ing them? Had liome possessed more knowledge of
the Holy Scriptures, the church of that day would not
have persecuted the man of science, since it was
priestly ignorance, and not a divine revelation, which
led thereto. When Abraham s keenest vision failed to
reach beyond three thousand stars, who but God could
have drawn a parallel between the myriads upon
myriads, like tiniest pinpoints, since revealed by
photographic investigation, and "the sand which
is upon the sea shore innumerable " ; while what
was deemed but a beautiful metaphor of poetic licence,
the singing of the morning stars, is now demon
strated to be actual fact, every ray of light having
its own sound, and each star its song, as all creation
utters one grand doxology, and "the music of the
spheres" breaks in wavelets of light upon the ears
of the almighty Creator? "Praise ye Him, sun and
moon ; praise Him, all ye stars of light, t
;: Gen. i. 6 ; Psa. xix. 1; Job xxvi. 7 ; xxviii. 25. Prov. viii. 27 ;
Isa. xl. 22 ; Gen. xv. 5 ; xxii. 17. Job xxxviii. 7 ; 2 Pet. iii. 5. R.V.
i Psa. cxlviii. o.
THE OBJECTIONS 333
So might we continue ; but these remarks must
necessarily be suggestive, not exhaustive ; and, there
fore, we will only add that our Divine Lord s pro
nouncement concerning His second advent involves
and predicts a state of things impossible upon a flat
earth, but in full harmony with a round world, since
the event taking place, like lightning flash, at the same
moment in different portions of the globe, will naturally
find some in " bed" sleeping, some " grinding at the
mill," others working "in the field," thus, literally,
overtaking the ready and the unready, " at even, or at
midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning. *
The next series of objections arises from the assertion
that :
(6) THE WORD OF GOD CONTAINS INACCURACIES,
MIS-STATEMENTS, AND CONTRADICTIONS,
a charge of the very gravest importance, the conse
quences of which, if proved, we cannot evade, and the
gravamen of which demands our most patient and
serious investigation. Examining these, however, we
find that quite a number are due to
(a) Ignorance and careless reading.
Thus, the apparently conflicting accounts of the
anointings of our Lord become perfectly intelligible
when we recognise that they are narratives of three
different anointings";! and the third manifestation
of the risen Jesus to His DISCIPLES in no way
contradicts the record that He also interviewed Mary,
the women, Peter, the two journeying to Emmaus,
" over five hundred brethren at once," and James, on
:;: Luke xvii. 34-36 ; Matt. xxiv. 40-42 ; Mark xiii. 35.
f Luke vii. 37-50 ; John xii. 1-11 ; Mark xiv. 1-9.
384 GOD S WITNESS TO HTS WORD
separate occasions. Similarly with the angels at the
tomb, the miracles of the loaves, the crossings of
Gennesaret, &c., &c.* God often duplicates and even
triplicates His actions with His people ; and, indeed,
repetition is rather a characteristic of Jehovah s method
of dealing with stubborn and stupid man.
I remember well the apparently unholy delight where
with a preacher obtruded on me, with much show of
erudition and authority, what he conceived to be
palpable evidence of dual authorship in connection
with the Book of Genesis. " See," he exclaimed,
" how the narratives about the change of Jacob s
name to Israel evidently differ in chapters xxxii. and
xxxv." " Of course they do," was my immediate
response, " because each records a distinct event,
Jehovah revealing Himself twice to the patriarch in
the matter, even as, nearly two centuries before, He
did to Abraham, and, seven hundred years later, to
royal Solomon." Besides, the words occur, "and
God appeared unto Jacob AGAIN " ; I and it is sur
prising how many so-called difficulties literally melt
away after a careful and prayerful analysis of the
passages under consideration.
Then there are many objections founded largely
upon
( b ) Mis t ran si a tion s .
As we pointed out before, the presence of the
suggestive and characteristic adjective " that " in
the fourteenth verse of James s second chapter, if
=:; Matt, xxviii. ; Mark xvi. ; Luke xxiv. ; John xx., xxi. ; Acts i.
1-12 ; 1 Cor. xv. 1-8 ; Matt. xiv. 13-21 ; xv. 32-39. Mark vi. 31-44 ;
viii. 1-9. Luke ix. 10-17 ; John vi. 1-14 ; Matt. viii. 18-27 ; xiv. 22-
34. Mark iv. 35-41 ; vi. 45-54. Luke viii. 22-26; John vi. 15-21.
f Gen. xv. 5 ; xvii. 4-6 ; xxii. 15-18 ; xxxii. 27-30 ; xxxv. 9-13
1 Kings iii. 5-14 ; ix. 2-9.
THE OBJECTIONS 335
recognised by Luther, would have saved such an
eminent saint from the error of calling this Scripture
"An epistle of straw," and brought the teaching of
Paul and James into perfect and blessed harmony.
Thus, for example, I am ashamed to confess that,
for years, the interpretation of Matthew xxiv. 34
fairly baffled me. I dared not twist the term " gene
ration " into " dispensation," nor could I believe that
"all these things" had been "fulfilled." Imagine,
therefore, my delight in discovering what I should have
known, long, long ago, for it lay there in my Greek
dictionary, that the root and primary meaning of
" genea" is "a race" or "nation," and the difficulty
is immediately turned into a magnificent instance of
Christ s prophetic vision concerning the miraculous
perpetuation, through all vicissitudes and sorrows, of
the Jewish race : " This nation shall not pass till all
these things be fulfilled."
Similarly the great controversy of the centuries
about the headship of Simon Peter would have ended
had the disputants noted that while "petros a
stone," is masculine, " petra a rock," is feminine,
and the adjective "this" is feminine also (taute t<~
petra),* showing that whether the foundation of the
Church was Peter s confession, or the fact upon which
the confession was based, or still more probably the
confession resting upon the fact, it could not under any
circumstances be Peter himself. Then again the weak
and apologetic " as I suppose " of Peter concerning
Sylvanus t loses its uncertainty, and becomes a
definite affirmation when we find the original Greek
word (logizomai) is rendered "counted," "reckoned,"
"imputed," in such passages as Mark xv. 28; Luke
xxii. 37 ; Komans iv. 3-5, &c. ; Romans viii. 18, 36
::: Matt. xvi. 18. t 1 Pet. v. 12.
336 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
(see also 2 Corinthians xi. 5). I remember also as a
boy, in the earnestness of juvenile enthusiasm, receiv
ing two missionary boxes, labelled the one "Jews"
and the other " Gentiles," and in some vague fashion
associating the latter term exclusively with the Chinese
and North American Indians, and am still wondering
on what principles of an intelligent translation the
word ethnos should be rendered nations in such con
nections as Matthew xxviii. 19 ; Luke xxi. 24, 25 ; xxiv.
47, &c. ; and remain untranslated in such other pas
sages as Acts ix. 15; xiii. 46-48; xv. 3, 7, 12, &c. ;
xviii. 6, &c. ; xxii. 21 ; xxviii. 28 (see ante pp. 29-32).
Further, most of
(c) The alleged historical inaccuracies in the Holy
Scriptures
vanish after a little impartial and painstaking in
quiry. For instance, the purchase of Araunah s
" threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of
silver," as narrated in 2nd Samuel, and "the place
for six hundred shekels of gold by weight," as
detailed in 1st Chronicles, presents no real contra
diction whatsoever between the two historians, since
David, no doubt, paid fifty silver shekels for "the
threshingfloor and the oxen," and also a vastly larger
sum for the encompassing land of Mount Moriah,
upon which the temple of Solomon was subsequently
erected ; * and \ve may well ask, Has no one ever
heard of a man purchasing a mere shed for temporary
purposes, and afterwards buying in the whole adjoining
property ?
As a specimen example of difficulties which even a
superficial knowledge of the Word of God easily
removes, we may mention the case of Zedekiah, the
* 2 Sam. xxiv. 18-25 ; 1 Chron. xxi. 18-30; 2 Chron. iii. 1.
THE OBJECTIONS 837
last King of Judah, concerning whom Jeremiah pre
dicted, " Behold, I will give this city into the hands
of the King of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire ;
and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt
surely be taken and delivered into his hand ; and thine
eyes shall behold the eyes of the King of Babylon, and
he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou
shalt go to Babylon." * The word of the Lord also
came through Ezekiel, saying, " I will bring him to
Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans ; yet shall he not
see it, though he shall die there." t
" Thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the King of
Babylon."
" Thou shalt go to Babylon."
"Yet shall he not see it, though he shall die
there."
What an apparent mass of contradictory predictions,
even after a reference to the Chronicles; I yet, how
simple the solution when, turning to the Second Book
of the Kings, we read, " so they took the king and
brought him up to the king of Babylon to Eiblah ;
and they gave judgment upon him. And they slew the
sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes
of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and
carried him to Babylon."
Then, our Divine Lord Himself is, with strange
temerity, accused of an evident mistake in charging
home upon the scribes and Pharisees the murder of
" Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between
the temple and the altar," |j it being asserted, by
critics, whose thinking is surely of the most superficial
order, that this reference must necessarily have been to
* Jer. xxxiv. 2, S3. f Exek. xii. 13.
{ 2 Chroii. xxxvi. 10-20. 2 Kings xxv. 6, 7.
|| Matt, xxiii. do.
23
338 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
" Zechariah the son of Jehoiada" who was stoned, at
the commandment of the king (Joash) in the court of
the house of the Lord." * But why these strange
assumptions ? Why this apparent desire to treat the
affirmations of Holy Scripture with a harshness undis-
played towards the statements of men of the world
with an ordinary reputation for common honesty?
Wherefore this continued effort to produce contradic
tions where even a careless student can easily discover
that there are none ? Could no other Zacharias (the
name was a common enough one) save the son of
Jehoiada, have died for the sake of the truth ? Was
there not, at any rate, another prophet " Zechariah the
son of Berechiah," who lived three hundred years later,
and of whose birthday and deathday we are absolutely
ignorant ? t W T as it likely that, in this condensed
argument of our Lord, reaching back to Abel, the first
martyr, the more up-to-date application would cease
eight hundred years before the Incarnation ; and when
the historian says "the son of Jehoiada" was mur
dered " in the court of the house of the Lord," why
should it be even thought that our blessed Redeemer
was referring to him when He spake of the "son of
Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the
altar" . I must honestly add that commentators, who
present difficulties of this type, should really apologise
for asking any average reader of mediocre intelligence
to waste his time in combating such theories of straw.
Assumed Errors in a Man "full of the Holy Ghost."
" But," says some more serious man, "do not many
conservative theologians admit that Stephen s speech,
for example, was simply full of historical inac-
2 Chron. xxiv. 20-22. i Zcch. i. 1.
THE OBJECTIONS 330
curacies?" Was it? How strange, if so, that his
learned accusers, "unable to resist the wisdom and the
spirit by which he spake," did not then prove this
ignorance, and thus obtain the very evidence they longed
for in order to establish the deacon s guilt ! * Yet what
are these inaccuracies? Touch the three principal
alleged ones. There are contradictions, it is stated
(1) between the records of Moses, Stephen, and Paul,
referring to different periods of 400 and 430 years, and
also it is a well-known fact that the children of Israel
were only in Egypt a little over 200 years ; to which
we make answer that a careful analysis of Genesis
xi. 31, 32; xii. 1-5; xv. 13-16; xvii. 1-10;
Exodus xii. 40 ; Acts vii. 2-8 ; and Galatians iii.
14-17 ; shows that the 430 years commenced with the
call of Abraham, and the promises of God, often after
wards repeated, but Jirst made to him when in Ur of
the Chaldees (see also Neh. ix. 7, 8), while the 400
years began with the birth of Isaac ; \ and that the
period of "THE SOJOURNING of the children of Israel,
who dwelt in Egypt," included not only the bondage
there, but also the journeyings " in the land of promise
as in a strange country." J
Again, (2) it is said that Stephen manifestly erred in
saying that seventy-five souls came with Jacob into
Egypt, whereas Moses speaks only of threescore and
ten. Ay, but read the Scriptures. Genesis records
how "all the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt,
which came out of his loins, besides Jacob s sons wives,
all the souls were threescore and six ; and the sons of
Acts vi. 9-15.
f Abraham was a hundred years old at the birth of Isaac, and
seventy-five when leaving Haran. We presume, therefore, that
he dwelt there five years until the death of Terah.
\ Exod. vi. 4 ; Heb. xi. 9.
340 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, w r ere two
souls : all the souls of the house of Jacob, which
came into Egypt, were threescore and ten " ; and
Stephen says, " then sent Joseph, and called his father
Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and
fifteen souls."* Now, may not the word "kindred"
include here the wives of, say, nine patriarchs (assum
ing two to be widowers), who could certainly not be
described as among them " which came out of the
loins of Jacob," although their children and his grand
children could ; and thus we have the sixty-six souls
that came with Jacob into Egypt, excluding Jacob s
sons wives, agreeing with the threescore and fifteen
souls, including Jacob s sons wives, which were
"called" by Joseph, with his father; and the final
difficulty (3), viz., the purchase of the sepulchre at
Sychem by Abraham, not Jacob, finds, at any rate, a
remarkable solution in the thoughts suggested by the
fact that " Emmor, the father of Sychem," should be
rendered rather " the son of Sychem " ; that " he
(Jacob) and our fathers (the patriarchs) died, and
THEY (this is the literal translation) were carried over
into Sychem" (Jacob had been previously buried at
Machpelah), w r here were also afterwards laid, by
special commandment, the bones of the great Joseph
himself ; the wealthy Abraham having probably
bought two burial grounds (I have heard of a much-
travelled man with three in different portions of the
laud), one of which, that at Sychem, had to be possibly
repurchased, together with the surrounding "parcel of
ground " owing to the troubled and uncertain tenure of
property in those days, by his grandson, t These, I
* Gen. xlvi. 26, 27 ; Acts vii. 14.
I Gen. xii. 6, 7 ; xxiii. ; xxxiii. 18-20 ; xxxiv. 4-13. Josh. xxiv.
32 ; Acts vii. 15, 16.
THE OBJECTIONS 841
admit, are only explanations, probably inaccurate, yet
possibly accurate ; but, surely, until a clearer light
streams through the clouds, we dare not face the
responsibility of asserting that Stephen, who, with
a "face as it had been the face of an angel,"
died triumphantly, gazing through an opened Heaven
upon the risen Son of man, and "full of the
Holy Ghost," was not keenly acquainted with the
records of Moses, and as reliable in his historical
knowledge as the self-satisfied, easy-going, unper-
secuted, and uninspired critics of the twentieth
century.
Cannot God Heal Three Blind Men in One Day ?
Just one other specimen case ; I allude to the
alleged discrepancies between the Gospel narratives
concerning Christ s healing of the blind men at
Jericho. Matthew relates that two received blessing,
while Mark only mentions one, and that one by name,
" Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus." Well, what of
that? Surely, no conceivable difficulty arises here,
any more than in the incident where Matthew again
details the healing of two demoniacs, and Mark records
how T one was cured, the more prominent and notorious
character coming, in each instance, very naturally to
the forefront in his Gospel. * But then Luke says
that a blind man was healed when Christ " came nigh
unto Jericho," t and the other Gospellers say that the
miracle took place as "He went out of" the city.
Well, again we ask, " What of that ? " No less an
authority than Godet points out how there were two
Jerichos, only a little over a mile apart, and how our
* Matt. viii. 28-34 ; xx. 29-34. Mark v. 1-20 ; x. 46-52.
f Luke xviii. 34-43.
342 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Lord might actually be leaving the one. and approach
ing the other, when the healing was wrought ; hut
whether that he so or not, there is really no necessary
contradiction, since Luke does not suggest that his
man was Bartimaeus, and, to my mind, the surprise is
rather that only three, and not thirty blind men were
cured on the occasion, for Judsea abounded with them,
and there was, perhaps, no miracle which our Lord
performed more frequently, while many of those
healed used similar language, and exhibited the like
faith.* If, when his gracious Majesty King Ed\vard
the Seventh, visited Ireland, The Times next day
recorded how he had bestowed a .5 Bank of England
note on some blind beggar ere entering Dublin, and
The Standard narrated how, on leaving the city, he
acted similarly to two blind men, and The Daily News
mentioned a specific case, that of Michael Flaherty,
would the reporters quarrel, and the critics tear the
London press to pieces ? I trow not. No ; the only
astonishment would be that all the blind beggars in
Dublin did not sit them down by the king s highway,
and cry, with painful monotony and importunity, the
exact same words used by, and in every possible way
imitate, the other successful applicants. Why, the
strongest Presbyterian would, under such circum
stances, become a confirmed adept in using such
liturgical forms as resulted in the healing of blind men,
or the obtaining of 5 notes ; and, accordingly, all we
ask is simply this, in common fairness, give the
apostles, at any rate, the same credit of speaking
truthfully that you would do to any every-day
newspaper correspondent.
* Matt. ix. 27-31 ; xi. 5 ; xii. 22 ; xx. 30-34. Mark viii. 23 ;
x. 46-52. Luke iv. 18 ; vii. 21 ; xviii. 35-43. John ix. 1 ;
&c.
THE OBJECTIONS 343
A Sample Case of how Difficulties may be
Manufactured.
Pardon a personal illustration of how difficulties
may be easily and apparently honestly manufactured.
Four letters reach Dublin, on a certain Monday
evening, from diverse sources, and addressed to
different individuals; the first written by the Rev.
Mr. A , stating that he saw Pastor Hugh D.
Brown worshipping at the evening service of the
Church of England, a few miles outside the little town
of D , and observing, with solemn interest, the
sprinkling of an infant ; the second, from Mr. B ,
saying that he had met and spoken to Mr. Brown and
one of his elders at both gatherings at the Baptist
chapel on the opposite side of the town, where they
took part in an immersion service ; the third, from
Mrs. C , narrating that the Sunday evening
preacher at the Union Church was Hugh D. Brown,
of Dublin, who also worshipped there in the morning;
and the fourth from Dr. D , alluding to his meeting
and conversing with Mr. Brown and a friend by the
river side when the bells of the nearest church, fully a
mile away, were actually ceasing to ring for evening
service.
Now, if we approached these apparently conflicting
statements in a biassed spirit, how easy it would be to
reject one or other of such testimonies as evidently
false, Mr. Brown at the evening service of an Episco
palian church some miles outside of D , solemnly
listening to the words, " Seeing now that this child is
by baptism regenerate," &c., Mr. Brown preaching
at the evening gathering connected with the Union
Church, Mr. Brown worshipping, with a friend, at both
services in the Baptist chapel the other side of the
344 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
town, and advocating the doctrine of Believers
Immersion, and Mr. Brown, with the same com
panion, walking by the river side when the evening
service was just commencing at least one mile away
from the nearest place of worship ; one man two
men, three evening church services attended, one
connected with infant sprinkling, another with Be
lievers Immersion, and the third a Union gathering,
the church bells ceasing to ring, " Come to worship,"
while the tw T o friends walked by the river side fully a
mile away; the Union chapel attended at both services,
and the preacher at the evening gathering, and at the
exact same hour in the Baptist chapel being Mr.
Brown ; how can these irreconcilable statements be
harmonised ? Yet the explanation is exquisitely easy.
My friend and I did worship, at both services, in the
Baptist chapel, which was a Union church, where also
I preached a baptismal sermon in the evening, having
previously attended (albeit fifteen minutes late owing
to a thunderstorm) the Clmrcli of England evening
service, which was held at 5 p.m., two miles away in the
country. How simple when you have got the clue
(although a few more truthful letters might have made
it all more unintelligible still) ! Why not, therefore,
give the Word of God the same credence until oppor
tunity arises for it to explain itself, and, meanwhile,
trust and wait for further light ?
The Gospels Written from Different View-points.
It should also be considered, in a prayerful spirit,
that each biographer of our Lord Jesus Christ w T rote,
through the Holy Ghost, from a different view-point,
desirous of bringing forward and emphasising some
diverse phase of truth ; and that, as Dean Burgon
THE OBJECTIONS 345
suggestively observes, there are not four Gospels, but
one, " according to Matthew," and " according to
Mark," and " according to Luke," and " according to
John," just as from Eden the one river went out to
refresh and water the garden, and " was parted, and
became into four heads." Thus with the fourfold
inscription on the cross, " which was written in
Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin," let the different
records be pieced together, and the elongated writing,
" This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,"
contains without an atom of contradiction all the rest ;
and, indeed, the apostle John narrates how the very
chief priests, when quarrelling with Pilate, only quoted
a portion of the superscription as he himself gave it ;*
and the genealogies of our Lord, the one recounting
His legal and Jewish descent: "The Book of the
generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son
of Abraham," and the other His pedigree as " the Son
of man," through Heli, the father of Mary,+ are in
perfect harmony ; for that Matthew and Luke could
err in the name of Joseph s father is utterly incredible;
and, indeed, the very existence of apparent contra
dictions in the Gospels is a strong primci facie
argument that each separate Book is thoroughly
reliable, and that neither collusion nor copying existed
between the writers of the Sacred Memoirs.
There are also
(d) Alleged inaccuracies arising from supposed mis
quotations of the Old Testament Scriptures,
most of which likewise disappear when closely in
vestigated. We must, of course, reverently recognise
Matt, xxvii. 37 ; Mark xv. 26 ; Luke xxiii. 38 ; John xix. 19-22.
f Matt. i. 1-17 ; Luke iii. 23-38.
346 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
that the Holy Spirit is not accountable for the errors
of copyists or translators ; and where such existed,
doubtless exercised His unquestioned prerogative of
quoting correctly in accordance with His own original
utterance ; also that Christ and His apostles generally
cited from the Septuagint, and not the Hebrew
Version, from which our translation is taken ; and
above all, that God became His own Interpreter,
explaining symbols, types, historical characters and
incidents, poetic and prophetic phrases, so as to supply
us, in the New Testament Scriptures, with an Inspired
Commentary on the Old. Indeed, this is so much the
case that unregenerate critics, and even some spiritual
men also, have stumbled over what the merely erudite
mind conceives to be strained allusions, forced argu
ments, and hair-splitting metaphors, while underneath
the whole Bible there lie subterraneous connections,
which only the Holy Spirit Himself reveals to the
devout reader, until he, though, maybe, an illiterate,
ignorant of Hebrew, Greek, and even elementary
English, finds in them an exquisitely interlaced
argument for Plenary Inspiration wrought into his
very spiritual being, which no shaft of ridicule or
clamourings of criticism can weaken, gainsay, or
overturn.
For example of the foregoing, we need only refer
to the Epistle to the Galatians, and the Book of
Hebrews, to the verbatim quotations of our Lord,
" They twain shall be one flesh," and of James, " God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble,"
from the Septuagint Version ; * and, for similar sug
gestive lines of thought, may simply point out how
such a discrepancy as that existing between Leviticus
xi. 44, "Ye shall be holy," and 1 Peter i. 16, " Be ye
Gen. ii. 24 ; Matt. xix. > ; Prov, iii. 84 ; Jas. iv. 6.
THE OBJECTIONS 347
holy" (A.V.), is reconciled by the more accurate
rendering of the Revised Version sweetly transforming
a stern command into a predestined pledge of grace ;
nor need the reader even stumble over "that which
was spoken by Jeremy the prophet,"* for Zechariah,
who fed his soul evidently on the older prophet s
words, could much more easily have quoted from him
than did Jude from the prophecies of Enoch,! which,
by the way, a higher critic might, with equal fairness,
affirm must have been rather those of that self-same
Zechariah, or even of the august Moses himself, t A
spoken word is not necessarily a written one, and the
Holy Ghost could surely inform Zechariah of the
utterances of Jeremiah as easily as He did Jude
concerning those of Enoch, or the apostle Paul of
those of the Lord Jesus.
Bishop Ryle " Wait Patiently . . . Apparent
Difficulties . . . will all be Solved."
Frankly, however, we do not and cannot pretend to
solve all difficulties, and reconcile all apparent contra
dictions. That such are very few and utterly outside
the main drift and argument of revelation, we are
deliberately assured ; and that more light will still
break forth from God s Word, we are perfectly con
fident, and so wait patiently the illumination which
shall dispel the darkness. It is, however, a significant
" sign of the times " that now, when the historicity of
many Old Testament incidents is being roughly denied,
there should occur, simultaneously, as the outcome of
archaeological research, a marvellous resurrection of
buried witnesses to the truth of the Bible, writings
* Matt, xxvii. 9, 10. I Jude 14.
J Zech, xiv. 5 ; Deut, xxxiii. 2, Acts xx. 35,
348 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
on stones and tablets, cuneiform inscriptions, sculp
tured histories, &c. ; and that, on the other hand,
antagonistic discoveries (?) like those of Sir C. Lyell in
the Nile Delta, should be so completely discredited and
overturned .
I conclude with a quotation from the late honoured
Bishop of Liverpool, concerning an illustration bor
rowed by him from the erudite Archdeacon Lee :
" Never give up a great principle in theology on
account of difficulties. Wait patiently, and the diffi
culties may all melt away. Let that be an axiom
in your mind. Suffer me to mention an illustration
of what I mean. Those conversant with astronomy
know that, before the discovery of the planet Neptune,
there were difficulties which greatly troubled the most
scientific astronomers respecting certain aberrations
of the planet Uranus. These aberrations puzzled
the minds of astronomers, and some of them sug
gested that they might possibly prove the whole
Newtonian system to be untrue. But at that time
a well-known French astronomer, named Le Verrier,
read before the Academy of Science a paper, in
which he laid down this great axiom, that it did
not become a scientific man to give up a principle
because of difficulties wliich could not be explained.
He said, in effect, We cannot explain the aberrations
of Uranus now ; but we may be sure that the New
tonian system will be proved right sooner or later.
Something may be discovered one day which will
prove that the aberrations may be accounted for, and
yet the Newtonian system remain true and unshaken.
A few years after, the anxious eyes of astronomers
discovered the last great planet, Neptune. This
planet was shown to be the cause of all the aberrations
of Uranus ; and what the French astronomer had laid
THE OBJECTIONS 349
down as a principle in science, was proved to be wise
and true. The application of the anecdote is obvious.
Let us beware of giving up any first principle in
theology. Let us not give up the great principle of
Plenary Verbal Inspiration because of apparent diffi
culties. The day may (must?) come when they will
all be solved. In the meantime, we may rest assured
that the difficulties which beset any other theory of
Inspiration are tenfold greater than any which beset
our own."
Have we the Original Words now .
Finally, this last and very practical difficulty con
cerning Biblical Inspiration arises in the minds of
thoughtful men,
(7) HAVE WE, INDEED, NOW IN OUR OWN HANDS,
THE VERY WORDS AND THOUGHTS OF THE HOLY
SCRIPTURES AS ORIGINALLY GIVEN THROUGH THE
PROPHETS AND APOSTLES BY THE HOLY GHOST?
To this question I answer, In a wonderful manner,
yes ; albeit not absolutely so in every case, as the
defects of translation, slips of copyists, and occasional
corruptions of the text have passed on to us, sometimes,
as through stains on a window, the untarnished bright
ness and glory of the sun, and it is the work of a reve
rent and sanctified scholarship to remove such stains,
and give us the most accurate and critical rendering
of the original Scriptures possible ; and, therefore, for
the labours of such men as Bengel, Scholz, Kennicott,
Hort, Tregelles, Tischendorf, and others, we are
profoundly grateful, since every research and revision
brings us daily nearer and nearer to an absolute per
fection as, through the fires of textual analysis, we
350 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
find that " the words of the Lord are pure words : as
silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven
times " * (see ante, pp. 29-3:2, 334-330).
A Sound, lievcrent Literary Criticism of the Highest
Importance.
It must, however, be carefully noted that these
questions, concerning the text only, do not affect the
main fact of Inspiration, the thoughts, words, and
writings, as they originally came from God, being
perfectly untarnished, absolutely unimpaired ; and it
is for them Evangelicals claim Verbal Inspiration.
Thus, the prayerful comparison of manuscript with
manuscript, the sifting of the dates and genuine nature
of each, the blending together of arguments for one
reading in preference to another, and the true trans
lation of the most accurate Hebrew and Greek Text,
into the different languages of the earth, is a task of
the most solemn importance ; and, under the overruling
providence of God, has always been undertaken in the
spirit of a true and unbiassed literary criticism, which
sought to discover and pass on the ipsissima verba
of the original Scriptures. This, we need scarcely
say, is a very different position from that adopted by
the Higher Criticism, which, while accepting the
manuscripts, and translations, quarrels not with them,
but rather with the doctrinal teachings, historical
incidents, arguments and dicta of the Book itself.
Holding, for example, in my hands, the best translation
of the works of Homer, Plato, and Josephus, though
there may be some slight discrepancies from the
originals, I may, practically with perfect accuracy,
state that these are the very words and thoughts of
:; Tsa. xii. 6.
THE OBJECTIONS 351
the great poet, the illustrous philosopher, and the
celebrated historian ; but when I find fault with the
style of Homer s "Iliad, 1 quarrel with the teaching of
Plato s "Nicomachean Ethics," and impugn the truthful
ness of the narrative given by Josephus of the destruction
of Jerusalem, I am immediately entering upon a
different territory, and sitting in judgment upon the
authority and wisdom of the men themselves ; while,
if I assert that Homer never existed, that there were
two Platos, and that the history of Josephus was
written, two hundred years after the great Jew was
dead, by some unknown men on the Pseudepigraphical
hypothesis, character, influence, and even existence
disappear, and nothing remains but MY GKEAT SELF,
AND MY OPINIONS, my absorbing and all-important
personality, concerning which, strange to relate, few
men care a jot or tittle, and which will be completely
buried under the sod in one or at most two gene
rations, " for all flesh is as grass, and all the
glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away ; but
the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this
is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto
you." *
This difficulty, which we have stated fairly, is,
however, more apparent than real when we consider
(a) The singular adaptability of the Holy Scriptures
for translation into all the dialects of the earth.
Never has there been a book which more completely
triumphs over the poverty of certain languages, and yet
throbs out its splendour to the very finest points of
wealthier ones. Thus, there is often a tenderness in
the French version which our more prosaic Anglo-Saxon
:: 1 Pet. i. 24, 25.
352 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
lacks, and a massive ruggedness in the German which
contrasts strangely with Oriental translations ; but,
through each and all, the same great truth and love
of God, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, are perfectly
revealed, and all peoples and sects vie with each other
in eulogising "our own dear Bible" as presented in
their native tongue ; while the differences of such
translations are very trivial, and rapidly reaching a
vanishing point ; and, we believe, this Book, the gift
of the God of Pentecost, is destined yet to overthrow
the Babel of millenniums, and hasten on the unification
of the human race.
It should be also borne in mind
(b) With what scrupulous and even painful care
the copyists of the Old Testament Manuscripts
reckoned the verses, ivords, and even letters of
the Holy Scriptures ;
counting them so accurately that they could even
tell the central letter of the Pentateuch, conducted
to and from their work with a care almost rivalling
that displayed over the bullion of the Bank of
England, and approaching it with a caution equalised
by that of modern surgery, every parchment upon
which a single error, or even an erasure, occurred
being instantly rejected, and another absolutely accu
rate papyrus substituted, while the Sacred Writings
were watched over with a holy jealousy by all sections
of Jewish thought alike. Surely, if words could be
preserved intact and unimpaired, the Massorites did
it ; and though, possibly, an insignificant slip may
have happened here and there, as errata occur in
modern printing, yet, read and re-read, copied and
re-copied, counted and re-counted, nothing on God s
earth could certainly be more free from error, or
OBJECTIONS 353
passed on more unsullied from generation to gene
ration.*
Manuscriptum = " Written by Hand."
The words "Manuscript" and "the Scriptures"
simply mean " written by hand " and " the Writings " ;
and it would be a most interesting and faith-
strengthening study to trace the use of the terms
"write," "written," " Scriptures," and their cognates,
also such expressions as " The Book of Moses," " The
Book of the Law," "The Book of the Lord," "The
Word of God," &c., right through the whole Bible,
did time and space permit. Suffice it, however, to
point out how Moses is again and again stated to have
written the law and revelation which God gave unto
him,t a copy of which was to be preserved by the
priests " in the side of the ark of the covenant " and
the words of which were to be freshly written out " in
a book" at the installation of every ruler ;* how
Joshua, David, Hezekiah, Nehemiah, and many more,
though separated from each other by the lapse of
centuries, alike endorsed the Pentateuch as written ;
: : A few of our readers may, possibly, be unaware that there
are now in existence no original Manuscripts of the Old and New
Testament Writings, these having long since perished ; but copies
of unquestioned reliability and great antiquity remain. For a
most instructive account of these, we would recommend " Our
Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts," by Dr. Kenyon, and simply
point out the significant and interesting fact that the four greatest
Manuscripts of the Bible, now existing, are preserved at St. Peters
burg, Rome, London, and Paris, the practical centres of the Greek
Church, Romanism, Protestantism, and Free Thought respectively.
| Exod. xxiv. 4 ; Deut. xxxi. 9, 22.
I Deut. xxxi. 26 ; xvii. 17, 18.
Josh. viii. 32 ; 1 Kings ii. 3 ; 2 Chron. .xx.x. 1-8 ; xxxiv. 14
to end ; xxxv. 12. Neh. viii. 14.
24
354 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
how, passing by Samuel and David, Jeremiah also
wrote all the words that God gave him in a book, and
Daniel, in his turn, refers to these writings as Divine ; *
how our Lord and His apostles continually quote,
in the Gospels and Epistles, from "The Scriptures"
(Writings) ; t how Paul, in his last letter, refers to
"the Sacred Writings" "given by inspiration of
God," I accepting thus the Canon of the Old Testament
Scriptures, and Peter links those of Paul "written"
" according to the wisdom given unto him," with
" the other Scriptures," while the last solemn male
diction in the Apocalypse thunders twice its condemna
tion upon those who " add unto " or " takeaway from "
"the things which are written in this Book," and
whatever occult metaphysical processes may take place
in thinking, it is absolutely certain that men can, at
any rate, only write in words, and thus God s repeated
command to His prophets, "write" "WRITE,"
"WHITE," as He dictates His messages, not only
presupposes, but demands the doctrine of Verbal
Inspiration.
Besides, as we have often emphasised
(c) No dogma, article, or even incident of the Christian
faith has ever been touched, much less changed,
by any variation of conflicting readings.
Griesbach, quoted by Gaussen, affirms that in " Paul s
letter to the Romans, for example, the longest of
the Epistles, only five renderings out of four hundred
: 1 Sam. x. 25 ; 1 Chron. xxviii. 19 ; Jer. xxx. 2 ; Dan. ix. 2.
f Matt. xxii. 29 ; Luke xxiv. 32 ; John x. 35 ; Acts i. 16 ; viii.
32 ; xvii. 2. Bom. iv. 3 ; xi. 2 ; xv. 4 ; xvi. 26. Gal. iii. 8 ;
Jas. iv. 5 ; 2 Pet. i. 20. | 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16.
j 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16. ! Rev. xxii. 18, 19.
THE OBJECTIONS 355
and thirty-three verses in the slightest degree change
the meaning of any sentence," although no less than
ninety-seven Greek words, unused elsewhere in the
New Testament, occur; while Dr. Hort, than whom
there was admittedly no more competent authority,
states that only one out of every thousand of such
variations in the Manuscripts of the New Testament
affects any change of importance, a fact the more
remarkable since, citing Gaussen again, "the six
comedies of Terence, though copied but seldom,
manifest no less than 30,000 variations ! " This,
linked with the circumstance that the opponents of
revelation have now shifted their position from con
tending against the reliability of the Manuscripts
rather to an attack upon the Bible itself, enables us
to say, with the erudite and gracious Bengel, " Eat
the Scripture bread in simplicity, just as you have it ;
and do not be disturbed if, here and there, you find a
grain of sand which the millstone may have suffered
to pass. You may hereby avoid all the doubts which,
for a season, so horribly tormented me. If the Holy
Scriptures, which have been so often copied and have
so often passed through the erring hands of fallible
men, were absolutely without variations, this would
be so great a miracle that faith in them would be no
longer faith. I am astonished, on the contrary, that
from all these transcriptions there has not resulted a
greater number of different readings."
Finally, we frankly confess our conviction that
(d) The very existence of the Book is in itself
miraculous.
Surviving its friends, assailed by its foes, guarded by
conflicting sects and parties, whose teachings and sins
it ruthlessly condemns, the history of the growth and
356 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
preservation of the Scriptures, from the first little
sapling planted by Moses on and on to the full com
pletion of branches and foliage until "the leaves of the
tree were for the healing of the nations," can be
accounted for on no other ground than that of Divine
superintendence and interposition. Face to face as
we are with stubborn facts, no assertion can be more
erroneous than that we have received the Bible through
the intentional assistance or upon the authority of the
Church, for history indeed proves how, on the very
contrary, we got the Booh in spite of " the Church."
Again and again it was neglected, cut to pieces, lost,
or overwhelmed with Talmudical literature by Jewish
priests and princes, and yet survived them all ; anathe
matised, burnt, assailed, and criticised by so-called
Christians, its phosnix-like uprisal from the flames of
persecution is a standing miracle which we deliberately
attribute to the indwelling power of God the Holy
Ghost. To say that the Church sanctions the Bible
is as absurd as to affirm that a child graciously gives
permission for the existence of his father ; since the
Church, in so far as she is pure and Scriptural, is the
child, and not the parent of the Scriptures.
Just take the one case of Tyndale, who exclaimed to
an ecclesiastic in the heat of controversy, " If God
spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that
driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than
thou dost." Trace his flight for life to Hamburg, the
destruction of his New Testament, just issuing from a
Cologne press, by printers made drunk for that purpose
by priestly subtlety, its subsequent printing at Worms,
followed by the buying up and burning by the English
bishops of all available copies,* a procedure which was
::; So completely was this work of destruction carried out that
of Tyndale s octavo New Testament only two copies, one imper-
THE OBJECTIONS 357
overruled of God to give Tyndale money sufficient to
proceed with the printing of the entire Bible, his
kidnapping, imprisonment, and martyrdom ; and note
how, though ecclesiastics burned both the man and
the Book, yet could they not overturn its power, for
"the Word of God" cannot be bound by fetters of
clericalism or buried by spades of modern thought.
What, then, are the endorsements of the Holy
Scriptures ? We reply, To us at least, behind the
Old Testament, the witness and attitude of Christ and
His apostles ; behind the New, the indwelling power
of the Holy Spirit witnessing, not to ecclesiastical
councils or man-made gatherings, but with and to the
spirit of every genuine believer, that these Scriptures
are verily the words of the living and eternal God.
We close by alluding to
An objection levelled against the Inspiration of the
apostle Paul s Epistles,
because once, when dealing with a matter of great in
tricacy and delicacy, it would appear as though he were
allowed to interject an opinion of his own amid the
distinct and definite commandments of Almighty God.
Well, what of that ? Even assuming it were so, yet
his statements are most carefully guarded and hedged
round by the words, "And unto the married I com
mand, yet not I, but the Lord," "But to the rest speak
I, not the Lord";* so that this very emphasis of a
distinction between his words and those of the Lord
proves how scrupulous Paul was, and how, under no
circumstances, would he, though the greatest of the
apostles, give his own opinion amid God s words
feet and the other perfect, remain to-day, the former in St. Paul s
Cathedral and the latter in the Bristol Baptist College.
* 1 Cor. vii. 10-12.
858 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
without definitely labelling it as suck. Indeed, his
very attitude in this matter becomes thus a strong
evidence against the critics ; God would not here
command upon His people a burden greater than they
could bear, and Paul, who touched his Divine Lord
more closely than any other man, in the light of such
experiences as 2 Corinthians xii. 8 and Colossians i. 24,
may have been allowed to suggest his advice. All
Evangelical commentators, however, maintain that the
distinction here is rather that between a command of
the Lord heretofore given, and cited by Paul, and an
advice now expressed for the first time by him in his
apostolic capacity as guided by the Holy Ghost ; and
as regards doheo, rendered "I think" in verse 40, a
comparison of Luke xvii. 9, Acts xv. 28, and 1 Corin
thians iv. 9, where the same word occurs, clears up
any difficulty ; and the smart but superficial sneer,
" Did not the Holy Spirit know whether Paul was in
the body or out of the body ?" * falls to the ground
immediately upon the stinging response, Yes, the
Holy Spirit did know, but was not desirous of inform
ing either Paul or you or me concerning the matter.
* 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3.
THE DUTIES OF THE LOYAL-
HEARTED
IN conclusion, if the definite claims of the Holy Scrip
tures to Verbal Inspiration flanked as they are by the
unambiguous endorsements of Christ and His apostles,
Fulfilled Prophecy, and the Witness of the Holy
Spirit, be accepted, certain consequences inevitably
follow as the manifest duty of all true believers ;
and,
FlESTLY, WE MUST FIGHT UNTO THE VERY DEATH
AGAINST THE HlGHEE CRITICISM ;
since, in the language of Athanasius, quoted recently,
in this very connection, by the erudite and gracious
Bishop of Durham, "WE ARE CONTENDING FOR OUR
ALL." Verbal Inspiration is the Thermopylae* of
Evangelical Christianity ; yea, we might even add of
Christianity itself; and "No Surrender" must be
inscribed upon our banners, as, emulating the ancient
hero, amid the plot of lentiles, we struggle, may be,
single-handed, to maintain the property of God and
Israel against the foe. I W r e can neither live nor die
upon a mutilated Bible ; and any theory of Inspiration,
- I paused, while penning these words, since Thermopylae was
lost, yet let them stay, for it need not, and would not have been
lost, had not the noble Spartans been asxailed in the rear, and
miserably betrayed by their Boeotian allies !
-I 2 Sam. xxiii. 11. 12.
309
360 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
which imputes blunders to the Holy Ghost, must be
immediately rejected. Like the boy, who risked limb
and life for Holland, as he plunged hand and arm into
the aperture from whence the sea-water first trickled
through the dyke, so must we combat the very earliest
and smallest insinuation of the enemy ; or else, all is
gone, and a flood of desolation and apostasy will over
flow our country ; for, as Charles Haddon Spurgeon
said, in his last memorable Conference Address, " The
Greatest Fight in the World," "Attacks are fre
quently made as against Verbal Inspiration. The
form chosen is a mere pretext. Verbal Inspiration
is the verbal form of the assault, but the attack is
really aimed at Inspiration itself.
I know that many quiet, peace-loving folk will say,
" Why all this anxiety and excitement, for, after all,
the loss of a few chapters and verses cannot impair
that revelation which, at any rate, contains the words
of God ? These men are erudite, and many of them
hard-working, some of them pious also ; why cause
unrest and separation in Zion ? Let things be as they
are ; the evil will die out ; and, like many another
epidemic, speedily pass away." Well, possibly, it
may; but men and women arc. meanwhile dying of the
plague; and, besides, where is the thing to stop?
Years ago, sane and godly ministers of the Gospel
prophesied that this harmless (!) tampering with verses
and incidents of the Pentateuch would lead on to a
denial of the Davidic authorship of the Psalms, and
the Inspiration of the other prophets ; and, possibly,
even touch the New Testament Scriptures also ; and
has not this prediction been startlingly verified? for the
most aggressive critic, of a quarter of a century ago, -
would stand amazed, to-day, at his successors attitude,
and call an urgent halt in the down-grade path !
THE DUTIES OF THE LOYAL-HE AETED 361
Formerly, Moses was assailed ; now, it is THE DIVINE
LORD HIMSELF ! Then, it was a question of chrono
logies and numbers ; now, it is one concerning the
cardinal doctrines of revelation ! Yea, the present
destructive criticism has left no raison d etre for our
common Christianity, but only the blurred figure of
a peccable, errant Christ, whose incarnation and resur
rection are alike denied, and who was, at best, but
a slightly better mortal than ourselves ! Let us be
clearly understood ; we are not presuming to defend
the Bible, it can and will easily take care of itself, and
the modern Dagon one day fall before the ark of God ;
but we do want to preserve the souls of men, since
churches and chapels are being emptied, and people
rapidly driven into semi-infidelity as the logical out
come of these false teachings. Surely, it is little
wonder that, in England, Scotland, and Germany,
there should be, at present, a startling dearth of
divinity students, since the chivalry leading to
devotion for the old faith has gone, and mere
"professionals" naturally prefer the more lucrative
occupation of law or medicine to that of a theology
which has only a skeleton outline of its original
dogmatic freshness and strength. I implore those
who read these lines to see the end from the begin
ning, and to recognise that the Higher Criticism
has started on a downward career, which even the
strongest brakes, touched by anxious and penitent
hands, will not be able, one day, to arrest from crass
and open infidelity. We are enjoined to "try the
spirits, whether they are of God : because many false
prophets are gone out into the world";* and there
can be no harshness or even discourtesy in thus doing,
since " by their fruits ye shall know them " ; t and if
:: 1 John iv. 1. i Matt. vii. 20,
362 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
critics presume to criticise the Christ, how can they
consistently object to be themselves criticised ? A
malaria of unrest and doubt is in the air, driving some
to Roman Infallibility (so-called) for satisfaction, and
causing others to embrace an openly-avowed Agnos
ticism ; let it be ours to heed the words of Nehemiah,
" Be not ye afraid of them ; remember the Lord,
which is great and terrible, and fight for your
brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives,
and j T our houses," and God will bring their counsel
to nought";* yea, "turn the counsel of (these)
Ahithophel(s) into foolishness."
THAT MAGNIFICENT CHAMPION FOR THE TRUTH OF
GOD, DR. CHALMERS,
years ago wrote, and how much more necessary and
apposite are his words to-day: "It is the part of
Christians to rise like a wall of fire around the in
tegrity and Inspiration of Scripture, and to hold
them as intact and inviolable as if a rampart were
thrown around them, whose foundations are on
earth, and whose battlements are in Heaven. It is
this tampering with limits that destroys and defaces
everything ; and, therefore, it is precisely when the
limit is broken that the alarm should be sounded. If
the battle-cry is to be lifted at all, it should be lifted
at the outset ; and so, on the first mingling, by how
ever so slight an infusion, of things human with things
Divine, all the friends of the Bible should join heart
and hand against so foul and fearful a desecration." *
We are all familiar with the suggestive incident of
the young soldier, whose breast, when charging the
foe, was struck by a bullet fired by the enemy ; and
* Neh. iv. 14. 15. I 2 Sam. xv. 31.
| Christian Evidences," vol. ii. p. 396,
THE DUTIES OF THE LOYAL-HEABTED 363
yet, singularly, he fell not, because it became im
bedded in the leaves of an old Bible which he bore
upon his heart. The mere cover, without the leaves,
would scarcely have effected this result ; and if the
heart of the young manhood of our country is to be
kept sound and pure, true and tender, it can only be
by the self-same guardianship, as he who leaned most
closely upon the Master s bosom tells us, "I have
written unto you, young men, because ye are strong,
and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have
overcome the wicked one."*
It will have been noticed that, all through this
volume, we have deliberately refrained from appeal
ing to any argument outside the Scriptures themselves,
and such objective evidence as is furnished by the
existence of Israel, and the fulfilment of Prophecy.
While not condemning those, who feel free to do so,
for appealing to the witness of tablets and inscriptions
of undoubted antiquity as corroborations of Old Testa
ment histories, we cannot personally, however, reason
on these lines, since doing so seems to suggest a
departure from the stronger and more God-honouring
position the abandonment of which heralded the
dawning of the Higher Criticism, of letting the
Book be its own testimony, and the teachings of
the Holy Ghost His own endorsement. We accept
the Bible as a revelation from Heaven expressing God s
criticism of us, not our criticism of God ; and to pass
our opinion on "the Holy Scriptures" is, practically,
the first unconscious step towards Rationalism ; while,
if the produced evidence should prove faulty, such a
line of defence is immediately stormed, and the enemy
nearer the citadel of the position. We contend, there
fore, for the self- witness of the Sacred Book.
:;: 1 John ii. 14.
364 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
SECONDLY, IT is OUR DUTY TO BOW, WITH THE
UNSWERVING LOYALTY OF AN UNQUESTIONING
OBEDIENCE, TO THE ABSOLUTE SUPREMACY OF
THE WORD OF GOD.
The Book, and it alone, should be the sole standard
of our life, creed, walk, and conversation ; the only
infallible authority we recognise ; the final court of
appeal in all matters of disputation and controversy.
"What saith the Scripture?" should clinch and end
all argument for the believing soul, as it did for our
Divine Lord Himself, and the great apostle Paul.*
The men who, in olden days, trembled before the
Word of God, were stout in heart and limb to rout
ecclesiastics and tyrants from the field in the grim
battle between " God s truth and the devil s falsity
and darkness" ; and error and superstition, worldli-
ness and sin, bowed down and fled before the radiancy
streaming from faith s glittering shield, as Principal
McCaig once so aptly put it, in a choice and trenchant
quotation from an English classic, when " Orgoglio
the Giant," " Proud Duessa," and " her purple beast "
struggled fiercely against their final overthrow,-
" But all in vain ; for he has read his end
In that bright shield, and all his forces spend
Themselves in vain ; for, since that glancing sight
He hath no pow r to hurt, nor to defend.
As when th Almighty s lightning brand does light,
It dims the dazed eyen, and daunts the senses quite."
(Spenser s "Faerie Queen," Book I., Can. viii., v. 21.)
" Thus saith the Lord, The Heaven is My throne,
and the earth is My footstool ; where is the house that
ye build unto Me ? and where is the place of My rest ?
for all those things hath My hand made, and all those
* Mark xii. 10, 24-37 ; Rom. iv. 3.
THE DUTIES OF THE LOYAL-HEAETED 365
things have been, saith the Lord ; but to this man will
I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth at My Word." "Hear the Word
of the Lord, ye that tremble at His Word; your
brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My
name s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified ; but He
shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed ;*
and the reward day, the judgment bar is coming,
whereof our Lord Himself affirms, " Whosoever
therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My icords,
in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also
shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in
the glory of His Father with the holy angels"; but
" if a man love Me, he will keep My words, and My
Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and
make Our abode with him."t Surely, the loyal-
hearted, with the crimson marks of redemption s
claims upon them, can do, would do, nought else than
say, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth " ;
" Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God " ; J
and, in matters great or small, "follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth," careless of the frown or
praise of man, and indifferent alike to the arrogant
claims of philosophy and the vain ones of tradition.
"Idiot" Spells " Original Thinker."
Beading, some years ago, in my Greek Testament,
in the eighth chapter of John s Gospel, the words of
the Lord Jesus, " Ye are of your father the devil, and
the lusts of your father ye will do ; he was a murderer
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth because
there is no truth in him ; when he speaketh a lie, he
* Isa. Ixvi. 1, 2, 5. I Mark viii. 38 ; John xiv. 23,
I 1 tiaiu. iii. 9 ; Psa. cxliii. 10. j liev, xiv. 4.
366 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOBD
speaketh of (or from) his own (Greek, ek ton idioti),
for he is a liar, and the father of it," * I was greatly
struck by the apposite suggest! veness of the sound
" idion," idios (nominative), idiot ! and taking down
Ogilvie s Dictionary, speedily discovered that our
English word idiot actually has its root origin in the
Greek " idios, and literally signifies " a private, vulgar,
unskilled person, one wholly taken up with his own
affairs," or, practically, an original thinker, i.e., one
who spins out his own ideas from himself, and lives in
careless cold contempt concerning the opinions and
discoveries of superior minds ;t and I thought, Could
anything be more significant of the Higher Criticism as
contrasted with the attitude of our Lord, who exclaims,
"He that speaketh of (or, from) himself seeketh his
own glory " ; "I have not spoken of (or, from) Myself,
but the Father, which sent Me, He gave Me command
ment what I should say, and what I should speak " ; *
and of the Holy Spirit, of whom it is stated, " He
shall not speak of (or, from) Himself; but whatsoever
He shall hear that shall He speak "; and of Paul,
who wrote, "which things also we speak, not in the
words which man s wisdom teacheth, but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth " ; than this very characteristic ?
Original thinkers, yes ! So also was Satan ; the first ;
and as Mr. Spurgeon justly and wittily observed, Greek
Agnostic only spells Latin ignoramus, so we may add
thereto, w r ith apologies to John Milton, " Original
thinker is but idiot writ large," for he who, in Divine
;: John viii. 44.
f Mentioning this thought to a friend, Pastor Alfred Hall, of
Port Elizabeth, he has since pointed out to me that no less an
authority than John Ruskin supports this position.
|; John vii. 18 ; xii. 49. j Ibid. xvi. lij.
1 Cor. ii. 13.
THE DUTIES OF THE LOYAL-HEAKTED 387
things, " speaketh of his own," but utters idiot s
babbling upon the ears of men.
THIRDLY, AS SIMPLE BELIEVERS IN THE HONOUR
OF OUR GOD, WE SHOULD CONTINUALLY NOURISH
OUR SOULS BY A CHILDLIKE TRUST IN ALL THE
WORDS WHICH HE HAS SPOKEN.
Amid the strange vicissitudes of life, its ever-varying
experiences, moods, tenses, temptations, and sorrows,
let it be ours, in the dependence of an absolute faith,
to rest ourselves, not upon the sensuous attractions
of an elaborate ritual, nor in the sweet, weird charm of
soothing music, nor the magnetic force of powerful and
pathetic oratory, nor even in the sacred associations of
the blessed ordinances, -but upon the w r ords of the
King, assured that
" They who trust Him wholly
Find Him wholly true."
Thus nourished by "the sincere milk of the Word,"
feeding on the Heavenly "manna," and sustained by
the "strong meat " of doctrinal truth, we will, like old
Ezekiel, incorporate God s revelation into our own
spiritual being, and learn how to live holily and die
happily upon His rich promises of grace. For, after
all, outside the pages of the Bible, we know nought
concerning "that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ," nor "the hope of the promise made of God
unto our fathers . . . that God should raise the dead,"
and that " them also which sleep in Jesus will God
bring with Him," nor that, "absent from the body"
means being " at home with the Lord," nor of that
" new Heaven " and "new earth " where " God shall
wipe away all tears," " and there shall be no more
368 GOB S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
death, neither sorrow, nor crying," where His
servants shall serve Him ; and they shall see His face ;
and His name shall be in their foreheads "; " and they
shall reign for ever and ever"; and " the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb" be "the temple," "glory,"
and " the light thereof " ; * and we cannot die in peace
amid the shadows of an errant revelation from a broken
book, with uninspired chapters and tattered verses ;
and so, whether it be Prince or Peasant, Philosopher or
Pope, old man or little child, with our last breath,
when all around fails and fades away, we murmur,
with the Prince Consort,
" Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling " ;
or, with Bishop Butler,
" He that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast
out " ;
or, with the wee laddie,
" Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so " ;
or, with Pope Leo XIII,
" Christ is at hand to pity,
None shall pardon ask in vain,
And from the true believer s heart
He will wash every stain " ;
: Tit. ii. lo ; Acts xxvi. 6, 8 ; 1 Thess. iv. 14 ; 2 Cor. v. 8 ;
llev. xxi. 1, 4 ; xxii. 8-5 ; xxi. 22, 23.
THE DUTIES OF THE LOYAL-HEAKTED 369
or, with Jack the Huckster,
I m a poor sinner, and nothing at all ;
But Jesus Christ is my All-in-all " ;
or, with a dear girl-friend of our own,
"I was a guilty sinner, but Jesus died for me";
or, with saintly A. J. Gordon,
"Victory" ;-
or, best of all, with Paul,
"For to me, . . . to die is gain," " to be with Christ ;
which is far better." *
Ay, believe in the revelation, and it will speedily
become a revelation to you ! "If any man will do His
will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of
God." - "Ifs," doubts, and " perad ventures " will
disappear, and the calm assurance of a perfect peace
reign in their stead. Is it a question of the pardon of
sin, or of everlasting life, or of preservation through
grace, or of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, or of
fellowship with God, or of victory over temptation,
or of comfort in trial, or of guidance in difficulty, or
of patience in mystery, or of power in service, or of
eternal glory ? Then, we unhesitatingly accept God s
definite, dogmatic, clear-cut statements ; and, relying
upon the integrity of His character and Word alone,
deliberately cast on Him entire responsibility for the
carrying through of these His promises, and the
* Phil. i. 21, 23. I John vii. 17.
25
370 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
triumphant vindication, in every particular, of "the
Holy Scriptures " of His Truth ; and thus can we face,
with equanimity, yea, and even with joy, not only
the short, sharp passage of dying, but the more
lengthened testing experiment of living, for we can say
of our God, " Thou through Thy commandments hast
made me wiser than mine enemies,"* and "rejoice in
hope of the glory of God," since " God is not a man,
that He should lie ; neither the Son of man, that He
should repent : hath He said, and shall He not do it ?
or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good ? " J
I remember reading in one of our monthly magazines,
a short, crisp fancy by Mr. Robert Barr, w r hose humour
was pregnant with the satire of a sound and splendid
theology. A shipwrecked youth is cast up, by the sea,
upon an unknown lonely island ; and, at signs of
recovering consciousness, the lovely, gentle young
womanhood gather around the stranger, and weep that
he should live ! Amazed, he wonders at these tokens
of apparent harshness, and receives the childlike,
innocent, and beautiful explanation, " The Bible and
our elders teach us that Heaven is preferable far to
earth, and that the dead in Christ are blessed
infinitely above the living." I laughed with joy over
the humourist s conceit, and said, " The man speaks
truly"; and should not we live as though we also
believed it. Men eagerly grasping, with both hands,
the gross materialism of this passing world, and women
weeping tears which often speak more eloquently con
cerning scepticism than sorrow ; tJtcse cannot combat
and conquer the infidelity of our age ; but other- w r orldly
men, like the apostle John and Murray McCheyne, and
sweet songsters of joy amid the sorrowing gloom like
Habakkuk and Fanny Crosby ; such are the living
:;: Psa. cxix. 98. f Rom. v. 2. ^ Numb, xxiii. 19.
THE DUTIES OF THE LOYAL-HEARTED 371
witnesses to an enduring Gospel ; and even at the risk
of being misunderstood, I may say that never is there
in my heart a sad but deeper gladness than when a
believer s rest-day having come, the battle over, the
victory won, we sing, with Paul, around the open grave,
" But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ " ; * for brethren, though
weak and worthless in myself, with all my heart I
BELIEVE GOD.
LASTLY, DEPENDING UPON " THE HOLY SCRIP
TURES" ALONE, WE SHOULD ESCHEW ALL OTHER
HELPS, AND REST EXCLUSIVELY UPON THE WORD
OF GOD FOR VICTORY.
The Lord God Almighty has definitely pledged Him
self to use this weapon, and it is surely about time we
stood aside, and gave the Holy Ghost a chance to wield
" the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God " ; f
not our sword, let it be noted, but His ; and, as the
old-time warrior " smote the Philistines until his hand
. . . clave unto the sword," and the arm and weapon
became practically part and parcel of each other, so
the words of the Holy Spirit are intimately interwoven
with His own personality, and in and through them
shall the enemy be overthrown, for " where the w r ord
of a king is, there is power" ; | and if the utterances
of Caesar were mighty, surely those of Jehovah must
be almighty; therefore, " PREACH THE WORD," and
that, too, with no apology or bated breath, but in
all its own convincing, sweet, royal dogmatism, and
the Lord will confirm it " with signs following";
for it can convict of sin,<" and it can save,** and it can
::: 1 Cor. xv. 57. | Eph. vi. 17. [ Ecclcs. viii. 4.
2 Tim. iv. 2. |] Mark xvi. 20.
F Heb, iv. 12, :;::;: Acts xi. 14 ; xiii. 26.
372 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WORD
sanctify,* and it can solace,! and it can " overcome the
wicked one" ; J and all genuine, lasting, Heaven-born
revivals, whether in Old Testament or Pentecostal
days, drew their source and power from thence as men
" went everywhere preaching the Word." This was
the spring of Paul s great ministry, of Peter s testi
mony, of Timothy s usefulness, and the Ephesian
elders loyalty. Herein lay the secret of Huss s noble
martydom, of Luther s indomitable courage, of Ruther
ford s heavenly grace, and of Calvin s world-wide
influence. It w r as this preaching which made Latimer,
B uny an, Whitefield, and Spurgeon the dominant
pulpiteers of their successive centuries ; through faith
in it, George Miiller founded and maintained the
Bristol Orphan Homes; and Moody s message throbbed
the hearts of millions, while his successor, Torrey,
explains the Australian revival in the terse and
pregnant sentence, " The Book did it." Ay, though
congregations be dry and dead as those in Ezekiel s
vision, yet can they be quickened by its resurrection
breath ; * and though error be strong and sinewy, like
the fabled hydra-headed monster slain by Hercules, it
also can be overcome by this almighty power. There
fore I say, " Hands off ! Cage the Word of God no
longer ; but, with a sublime and holy daring, as C. H.
Spurgeon said, Let the lion out, and he will, right
speedily, prove his power, and sceptics flee before
his all-conquering might." But disquisitions, lectures,
and essays upon that power, its origin and character,
* John xvii. 17. f Jer. xv. 16. I 1 John ii. 14.
j Acts viii. 4 ; 1 Kings xxii. 8-13, &c. ; Ezra ix. 4 ; x. 3. Xeh.
viii. ; Acts ii. ; viii. 4, 14 ; xix. 20. 1 Thess. i. 5-10, &c.
Rom. i. 16 ; x. 17 ; xvi. 25-27. 2 Cor. ii. 13 ; 1 Pet. i. 25 ;
2 Pet. i. 19-21 ; 2 Tim. iii. 15 to iv. 2 ; Acts xx. 32.
. xxxvii. 1-14,
THE DUTIES OF THE LOYAL-HEAKTED 873
will not prevail ; and still less, frothy platitudes con
cerning Utilitarianism, Altruism, or even morality
itself, or philosophical treatises, weighted down with
elaborate quotations from the classics, or sanitary
lectures, or geological researches, or social reform, or
Education Acts, or second-rate concerts, lantern
exhibitions, and "washing competitions," or essa) 7 s
about botany and flowers. Why all this useless talk,
and powerless soft-sawdered babble ? " Open the cage,
man! let the lion out ! " and, in the twinkling of an
eye, he will accomplish more than all your arguments
about his genealogy, the strength of his teeth, and the
greatness of his might. You are wasting time ; and
puny mortals, encouraged by your diffidence and apolo
getics, are drinking in the dangerous indifference of an
unholy familiarity. " Let the lion himself out," again
I say ; for, as truly as God s sun shines bright and
strong in the blue heaven above us, so
"The Lion of Judah shall break every chain,
And lead us to victory, again and again."
Besides, there is no other message which can truly
satisfy, fitting in, as it does, to the needs of all our
variety of being, -a master-key to unlock the secrets
of a myriad hearts. How the sad, despondent disciples
warmed and glowed as the Lord opened unto them the
Scriptures ! * I recall a godly rector telling me of
the trepidation which seized hold of him when he
learned that, among his audience, on a certain Sunday
morning, in a little seaside village, were a saintly and
erudite bishop and a pre-eminently clever Lord
Chancellor ; but though and, really, because he had
preached a simple Gospel sermon, they both bore will-
* Luke xxiv. 25-27, 32, 44-47.
374 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOED
ing and emphatic testimony to the delightful message,
and the strength and gladness they received in hearing
about Jesus; and when dynasties have perished, philo
sophies faded away, schools of thought risen and
decayed, and all things earthy and earthborn melted
into the oblivion of the past, then, amid the conflagra
tion of an expiring world, " the Word of our God shall
stand for ever."
When Gutenberg had just completed his invention
of the printing press, it is narrated that strange
temptations troubled the man ; the whispered sugges
tion reached his ear, Satan and all his allied forces
will use this discovery for a vast crusade of evil, and
flood the globe with literature contrary to the truth of
God, and the well-being of man ; and so stern and
awful was the prophecy that the inventor, lifting a
huge mallet, prepared to destroy the handiwork of
years ; when it seemed as though another voice
exclaimed, " This discovery will yet be the greatest
medium, in all time, for spreading the Gospel of the
grace of God, and the glories of Jesus, through the
world." So he stayed his hand, and we have the
printed Word to-day ; and I, for one, believe that
Luther s half-dream of a vanishing devil before the
ink-pot was no mere idle jest ; it brought about the
Reformation, and overthrew the Papacy ; and it shall
eventuate in the destruction of " the man of sin, . . .
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His
coming." In
THE LAST GREAT DRAMATIC SCENE
of the Apocalypse, ushering in, as it does, the binding
of the devil, and the advent of the Millennium,! the
:;: 2 Thess. ii. 8. ! Rev. xix. ii. to xx. 6.
THE DUTIES OE THE LOYAL-HEAKTED 375
Incarnate Word, whose "eyes are as a flame of fire,"
and " out of whose mouth goeth a sharp sword, that
with it He should smite the nations," " the King of
kings, and Lord of lords," as He rides onward to the
crowning victory, followed by His white-robed armies,
is portrayed as " clothed with a vesture dipped in blood,
and His name is called
THE WORD OF GOD " ;
and the Church of Christ, the suffering saints, the
groaning creation, ay, and the Lord Himself, are wait
ing for that day, " for the vision is yet for an appointed
time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie : though
it tarry, wait for it ; because it will surely come, it will
not tarry . . . but the just shall live by his faith." *
May it be ours, in bright anticipation of
" The crowning clay that s coming by and by,"-
to be found among " them which keep the sayings of
this Book," f and ultimately receive the "Well done,
good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord." *
"Lord of all power and might,
Father of love and light,
Speed on Thy Word !
O let the Gospel sound
All the wide world around,
Wherever man is found,
(j od speed His Word !
Lo, what embattled foes,
Stern in their hate oppose
God s holy Word ;
Hab. ii. 3, 4. | Rev. xxii. 9. ! Matt. xxv. 23.
370 GOD S WITNESS TO HIS WOKD
One for His truth we stand,
Strong in His own right hand,
Finn as a martyr band,
God shield His Word!
Onward shall be our course.
Despite of fraud or force,
God is before ;
His Word ere long shall run
Free as the noonday sun,
His purpose must be done,
God bless His Word ! "
(The late THOMAS KELLY, Dublin.)
" FOB EVEK, LOUD, THY WOKD IS
SETTLED IN HEAVEN."*
:; "- Psa. cxix. 89.
UN WIN BHOTHEKS, LIMITED, THE GKESHAM PBEBS, WOKING AND LONDON.
