THE K I N G ’S BUS I NES S
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Book was torn apparently into shreds. He took it in front of his audience and tore page after page out of it and even the covers he threw into the fire. He has gone into oblivion and is forgotten, but the Book still s'tands. I passed through a period of criti cism when inside of the Church, the nominal Church, (and the greatest en emies are always inside the walls, never on the outside) when strong men, noble men in my presence, men who have been presidents of theological semin aries, said, ‘’"The old Book is gone. They have cut it to pieces.” Schools have taken up what we call higher criticism and destroyed our Bible. We do not hear very much about higher criticism now. That is all past and gone. Their books are all thrown in the fire and on the rubbish heap and no one would pay a penny for them today. The Bible still stands. I passed through a period of what they called rationalism and that turned itself over finally into what w e . have named all over the world New Theol ogy. When men lost their, authority and depended on their own experience and other j things and this Book was gone, Germany led 'the way and spread it over the earth. The Bible was gone. Rationalism was the false god thait scholars and other people worshipped.^ I passed through th a t period but ration alism is dying or dead and this Book still lives. The Word of the Lord en- dureth forever. There grew out of this all kinds of “isms” until we are living in a day men call materialistic. We are living in a day of spiritualism. We are living in a day of Christian Science and living in a day of Russellism and all manner of devilisms. We are in th e delta of the great Mississippi. We have passed thirty years of criticism from those who have tried to destroy this Book. Now we are in the delta and all these things are destined to be lost in the great ocean of God’s
everlasting truit’h. What the ministers of God need to day is to understand that this Book is not, can not, will not be shaken. This is the authority and only authority. It is not in any Pope, it is not in. any ration alistic idea. It is not in any man-made authority. This Book comes from God and is the divine authority and His revelation to men, and I hold it as mine. Our ministers have lost their author ity, their soul conviction. They are not burning up with a passion for souls or ' zeal for everlasting truth. I read of a minister who preached on “Why does a Dog Pant?” He had no gospel, no message, no Bible. An other minister preached on “Who took thè ham out of Abraham?” . All kinds of topics of th a t kind instead of the great truth out of God’s Book, burning with a holy passion and ready to sweat blood, backed up by the message of divine authority—the Book of God, the tru th from cover to cover. N6t merely that the Word of God is in it, but it is the Word of God. That always accom plishes its purpose. God’s Church Something else remains. I have my authority for it too. It came from the lips of the Son of God and He ought to know. I do not, but He does. He said, “The gates of. hell shall not prevail against it.” Whatever He may have meant by that expression He meant un doubtedly the extreme of all language to express the fact th a t there was noth ing on earth or in hell th a t could ever shake the foundations of His church. That is a great comfort, is it not? He built His church according to His own statement on the heart of His gospel, that the great central fact of Christian ity is in His deity. He said th a t was the foundation stone on which His church should be built. Peter made the statement and Christ said, “That is where my church stands.” Not an example; not as a teacher, good as He
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