475 laden, and I will* give you rest,’ the words are breathed again by th e Spirit. It seems as if th e ink was not yet dry, and as if the warm breath of etern al love, from which these promises flowed, was even now quickening and consoling th e troubled soul. . The Spirit makes' th e Scripture a living word. The Spirit breathes here as in no o ther book. He makes th e w riting sp irit and life, and man lives by it, because it is a word proceeding even now out of th e mouth of God. He who has experienced th is can have no doubt about the origin of Scripture, for in his measure he re ceives it from God Himself, as David, Isaiah, Paul, John received it. It is to him a Divine word. He knows not merely it is w ritten, bu t th a t it is the living word and voice of the Lord. In obeying its precepts he knows he acts in obedience to his Heavenly F a th e r; in resting on th e prom ises and assur ances which he reads in Scripture he is convinced he is tru stin g in th e Lord his God and Redeemer; and when, in th e hour of his departure, his soul clings to th e consolation of strong hope set before us in th e Word it is th e voice of th e Saviour H imself who says to him, ‘Be of good cheer, it is I.’ “How can a Spirit-breathed book be understood w ithout the S p irit?” DIVINE CARE OVER BIBLE Dr. Angus (for many years P rin cipal of R egent’s P ark College) wrote: — “How rem arkable, how decisive as an evidence of Divine care, th a t while all th e libraries of th e world contain ing copies of the sacred Scriptures have been examined, all ancient ver sions extant compared, th e MSS. of all countries from th e th ird to th e six teen th centuries collated, th e commen taries of the F ath e rs again and again investigated, nothing has been discov ered, not even a single general reading, which can set aside any im po rtan t pas sage h ith erto received as genuine.”
T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S or body, th e re are portions which are inferior in importance, value, beauty, but none which can be separated from it, or in which th e same blood, or sap, or sp irit does not .live. No person de nies th a t in th e hum an body the lungs are more im po rtan t th a n the limbs; th e h eart more essential to life th a n the eye; th e eye a more delicate and noble p a rt th a n th e foot. Nobody asserts th a t a man would be killed if you cut off his h air or his nails. B u t th e re is a v ital union of all the members. If you cut off my little finger I shall su r vive it; b u t it is my little finger you cut off, and it is a loss, a disfigurement. So w ith the Bible. It is not like a piece of cloth th a t you can clip and cut. It is a body anim ated by one Spirit. Who would assert th a t a chapter of names in th e Book of Chronicles is as im portant and precious as th e th ird chapter of Jo h n ’s Gospel? or th a t the account of P au l’s shipwreck is as es sen tial as th e account of Christ’s suf ferings? But w hat we say is th a t all Scripture is one organism , and th a t the same wisdom and love have formed th e whole; and th a t down to every branch and bough and leaf it lives and breathes, and is beautiful and good. And th e reason why many historical and statistical and p rophetic portions of Scripture seem to us unim portant, and even unmeaning, is because we do not sufficiently live in th e whole circle of Divine ideas and purposes. “The Bible not merely was inspired, b u t is so still. The Holy Ghost not merely inspired th e men as they wrote, b u t He is still connected w ith th e Scripture. I t was originally Spirit- breathed, bu t th e Spirit is still* b reath ing on it. When the soul, th irsting afte r God, reads .th e words, ‘Ho, every one th a t th irste th , come ye to the w aters; buy wine and m ilk w ithout money and w ithout p rice ;’ when the burdened h ea rt and oppressed con science reads the words, ‘Come unto Me, all ye th a t labour and are heavy
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