II

THE BIBLE

Jesus Christ not only endorsed the Old Testament as authoritative, but bore witness to its eternal truth.  “Think not,” He said, “that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:  I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.  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” (Matt. 5:  17, 18).

When one’s belief in God becomes the controlling passion of his life; when he loves God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind and with all his strength he is anxious to learn God’s will and ready to accept the Bible as the Word of God.  All that he asks is sufficient evidence of its inspiration.

After so many hundreds of millions have adopted the Bible as their guide for so many centuries, the burden of proof would seem on those who reject it.

The Bible is either the word of God or the work of man.  Those who regard it as a man-made book should be challenged to put their theory to the test.  If man made the Bible, he is, unless he has degenerated, able to make as good a book to-day.

Judged by human standards, man is far better prepared to write a Bible now than he was when our Bible was written.  The characters whose words and deeds are recorded in the Bible were members of a single race; they lived among the hills of Palestine in a territory scarcely larger than one of our counties.  They did not have printing presses and they lacked the learning of the schools; they had no great libraries to consult, no steamships to carry them around the world and make them acquainted with the various centers of ancient civilization; they had no telegraph wires to bring them the news from the ends of the earth and no newspapers to spread before them each morning the doings of the day before.  Science had not unlocked Nature’s door and revealed the secrets of rocks below and stars above.  From what a scantily supplied storehouse of knowledge they had to draw, compared with the unlimited wealth of information at man’s command to-day!  And yet these Bible characters grappled with every problem that confronts mankind, from the creation of the world to eternal life beyond the tomb.  They gave us a diagram of man’s existence from the cradle to the grave and set up warning signs at every dangerous point.

The Bible gives us the story of the birth, the words, the works, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Him whose coming was foretold by prophecy, whose arrival was announced by angel voices, singing Peace and Good-will—­the story of Him who gave to the world a code of morality superior to anything that the world had known before or has known since.