King's Business - 1923-05

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T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S

lamp, th e gas plant, th e eleciric light, these are instances. We have th e same thing w ith reference to inter-communi­ cation: a messenger on foot carrying th e message; post horses properly stationed, greatly increasing th e speed of transm ission ; steam, train s and steam ships, carrying these messages a t a vast increase of speed; th e tele­ graph and the telephone, cutting down th e tim e requ ired still fu rth er, and now th e radio, giving us communica­ tions for thousands of, miles w ithout any appreciable lapse of time. “W hat 'm an 'm akes, man ‘can improve.” Mr. Bryan said th a t th e Bible, somehow or other, never had been improved. It commands everything th a t is right and good and helpful to men; it forbids everything th a t is wrong and injurious to man and society; it has never been improved in all th e years th a t it has been in th e world. No sane man pro­ poses to improve it.' It stands alone. 3. This W onderful Book is th e Oldest Book in th e W orld th a t is generally known and which has any practical influence upon human society. A few older books exist. They come to us from Egypt, from In­ dia, from China. But these books have never produced any great impression upon hum an society. They do not now; we have no reason to suppose th a t they ever will. They are in the hands of a few scholars; they are placed in a few g reat libraries, but th e millions of men and women in th is world know nothing about them ; care nothing about them . The Bible as a practical book for th e world is th e oldest book. All intelligent people know th a t books wear out. They grow old and die and are forgotten. Thou­ sands of books die every year; thou­ sands of books are born dead, never produce any impression upon human society, b û t here Is a book which com­ mands everything th a t is good; which forbids everything th a t is evil and

which n atu rally would be hated by wicked people, yet it outlives all other books; it is th e oldest book in th e world. Who w rote such a book as th a t? 4. This Book is th e Most Popu lar Book in th e World. It condemns all sin; it Requires all righteousness. Many men wish to sin and therefore hate it and many men are unw illing to do w hat is righteous and therefore they hate th e book, yet somehow or other th is oldest book in th e world lives on and its popularity increases. There are two methods of determ in­ ing th e popularity of a book; one is by the number of languages into which it is tran slated , ano th er is th e number of copies required to satisfy th e popular demand. Now the Bible is tran slated into hundreds of languages. No other book even d istantly approaches it in th is particular. At th e present tim é it is p rin ted in more th a n five hundred different tongues. How are we to ac­ count for. a fact like th a t? W hat man has ever w ritten a book which his fel­ low men though t of sufficient im port­ ance to tran slate into a hundred lan­ guages? Yet, here we have an old book, finished nearly two thousand years ago, yet vital and growing today and published in more th a n five hun­ dred different tongues. Who could w rite a book like th a t? Men? Not at all. A book like th a t must be w rit­ ten J)y th e One who created men; who knows what they need and undertakes to supply th a t need. 5. The Bible is th e Only Book in th e World Which is Up to Date. By th is I m ean-that it never has to be revised in order to make it harmonize w ith th e latest discoveries in history and science. All other books do have to b e revised. If they are not, th ere are errors in them which decrease th e ir value, if they do n o t entirely destroy it. The Bible, however, has REMARKABLE RESULTS FROM

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