THE KING’S BUSINESS
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A poor man cannot very well carry a Carnegie library in his trunk, and it would not do him much good in the great emer gencies of life if he could. But here in this book we have a Bible that a man can carry in his pocket wherever he goes, and in this one small book he has more of truth of eternal value than in all the libraries of the world. No, the Bible is not in any danger, for there is nothing else to take its place. IV . T h e Bible is n o t in d a n g e r because The Bible has the distrust and hatred of some, but it has the confidence and affec tion of the wisest, and especially the holiest of men and women. The men who know the Bible best are the men who trust it most and love it best. A superficial knowledge of the Bible, such as Col. Ingersol, for example, had, or Tom Paine had, or that many a college and even theological professor today has, may lead one to distrust it and hate it, but the deep and thorough knowledge of that book that comes from a pure heart and profound study will always lead one to love and trust it. The. Bible is distrusted and hated by those whose influence dies with them. The Bible is loved and trusted by those whose influence lives after them. Lucian, Celsus, and Porphyry were great men, but their influence died with them, but the influence of John and Paul lives on in ever widening power. Voltaire and Volney were able men, among the ablest men of their day, but their influence belongs wholly to.the past, but the influence of Whitfield and Wesley is greater today than when they were here on earth. Col. Ingersol was a man of brilliant gifts, but his influence has not lived after him. Indeed it is amazing how completely he has sunken out of sight in the eighteen years that have elapsed since his death. But the influence of Spurgeon and Moody is with us still. No, the Bible is not in it h as a ho ld th a t c an n o t be sh ak en , on th e confidence an d affection of th e w isest a n d best m en a n d w om en.
danger, for it has the ever-increasing con fidence of the best men and women, of those men and women whose influence lives after them, and only - the distrust and hatred of those whose influence dies with them. V . T h e Bible is n o t in d a n g e r because it is th e W o rd of God. I have not space to go into that at this time. Many things prove that the Bible is the Word of God: its fulfilled prophecies, its unity, its Divine power, its inexhaustible depth, the fact that as we grow in knowl edge and holiness-^grow Godward—we grow toward the Bible. Just a moment on its fulfilled prophecies. Look at the 53d chapter of Isaiah. This chapter has been the rock upon which infidelity has always gone to pieces. Men have tried to get around the force of the argument by the desperate expedient of saying that the chapter does not refer to Christ but to suffering Israel, but even one careful read ing of the chapter will show that it cannot refer to suffering Israel. Look at Daniel 9:25-27 with its prediction of the exact time of the manifestation of the Messiah to Israel and its prediction of His death and what Would follow. Look at Micah 5 :2 and its prediction of the very place in which the Messiah should be born. Right before our own eyes in the last two years we have seen predictions from the Bible fulfilled that men said never could be ful filled. They told us that wars were at an end forever, that man had made such pro gress in his evolution that a great war would never be possible again among civil ized nations of the earth, and that the pre dictions of the Bible that greater wars and times of distress were coming than the world had ever seen were foolish and im possible of fulfillment, but today we see these prophecies being fulfilled before our very eyes. The other arguments to prove that the Bible is the Word of God I have not time to go into at all, but they are absolutely conclusive. The Bible is not in danger because it is God’s book. “Heaven and earth may pass away, but God’s Word
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