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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
April, 1939
God for help, light, and revelation of His Son, if Christ be His Son, read the Gospel of John—all at one sitting if possible—and then act as the Holy Spirit urges and en ables him to do at the conclusion of this reading? If he will do this, I am sure the blessed and eternal result will coincide with that which Reuben A. Torrey said was in variable in his long experience and has been without exception in my own. And then I shall have another brother in the Lord as well as in the law. May God the Holy Ghost pass His hand over any blind eyes that they may see in Christ, not a Galilean peasant, but that they may behold the majestic form of the Son of God. The very dying form of One Who suffered there for me; And from my stricken heart with tears Two wonders I confess— The wonders of redeeming love And my own worthlessness.” [The End] A R O U N D T H E K IN G ’S T A B L E [Continued from page 132] treated similarly — “Good Samaritan” as “good' sport,” “wise virgins” as “smart girls,” “laying up treasure” as “making a pile,” “repent” as “getting wise to your self.” The professor's cheapening and vulgariz ing of the text should not be dignified with notice except for its more serious signifi cance. Both truths and words in the Scrip tures are important. W e believe not only in the inspiration of truth but as much in the inspiration of words, that is, in verbal inspiration. And while we recognize that this inspiration extends to the original auto graphs only, yet the careful guidance of the Holy Spirit can be noticed in the efforts of spiritually minded translators whose schol arly labors are responsible, under God, for our present King James translation and for the more recent American Standard Ver sion. Besides this, there have been helpful idiomatic translations into everyday Eng lish of both beauty and culture from the text of the original. But the brutal butch ery of this most recent attempt—or should we not say attack—is beyond justification and warrant. It is evidence that an in creasingly irreverent liberty is being taken with the Scriptures to change and rearrange to suit private opinion. . On the one hand, this translation cannot help but lessen public regard for a Bible so brazenly mishandled; yet on the other hand it will intensify the fervent zeal of every gospel minister to fulfill his commission with love and honesty. Such was Paul’s noble ambition as he wrote it to the Corin thians in 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (W ey mouth) : “But to God be the thanks who in Christ ever heads our triumphal procession, and by our hands waves in every place that sweet incense, the knowledge of Him . . . For, unlike most teachers, we are not fraudu lent hucksters of God's message: but with transparent motives, as commissioned by God, in God's presence and in communion with Christ, so we speak.” “Upon the cross of Jesus Mine eye at times can see
O B S E R V E D AND CONSIDERED, AND W ELL KNEW TO BE TRUE .” (Greenleaf, Testimony o f the Evangelists, paragraphs 30-32.) Facing the Evidence But these matters, which have already so far exceeded the limits assigned for this article, are but an introduction to the “many infallible proofs” of the inspiration of the Bible, the truth of Christianity and the resurrection of Christ. It is hard to leave unmentioned “a forgotten infallible proof” which is independent of and more conclusive than even the utterly conclusive (that “bull” is intentional) proofs above re ferred to. Without dependence at all on the histor ical credence these records deserve, and using only the material in every investi gator’s hands, it might also be said that the methods of the physical laboratory can be applied to this problem, and a demon stration made that there is only the chance “of one to infinity" that anything “but the reality of the fact” can account for the phenomena the Gospel records present to us.* But I do not want to delay a moment longer any brother lawyer who may have read this far in seeking that pardon and new birth and eternal life which at the time of this writing at least are open to any man who may seek and obtain God’s grace and power to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and confess Him before men as his Saviour, Lord and “very God of very God.” Will any lawyer not yet convinced that he is a sinner and that Christ came and has the power to save all who will come and trust in His atoning death. His imputed righteousness, and His “good word of promise” that “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out," then follow the simple and dependable formula indicated by the Apostle John? It is to be found in the words quoted from the conclusion of John’s Gospel record: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30, 31). Will such a lawyer, with an earnest prayer to *"In a number o f concurrent testimonies, where there has been no previous concert [negatived in the case o f the Gospels by the apparent, but completely reconciled, discrepancies in some o f their statements — as in the matter o f the inscriptions on the cross —L inton ], there is a probability dis tinct from that which may be termed the sum o f the probabilities resulting from the testimonies o f the witnesses; a probability which would remain, even though the wit nesses were o f such a character as to merit no faith at all. This probability arises from the concurrence itself. That such a con currence should spring from chance is as one to infinity; that is, in other words, mor ally impossible. If therefore concert be ex cluded, there remains no cause but the re ality o f the fact." — Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, c.v,b.l„ par. 3, p. 125; W hat ley’s Rhetoric, part 1, ch. 2, par. 4; Stark, on Ev., p. 487.
Who Will Roll the Stone? By HELEN FRAZEE-BOWER “Who will roll the stone?” they ques tioned Early on that Easter day; But when they had reached the garden, Lo! the stone was rolled away: Angel hands had been before them, Wasted was their anxious dread; They, who thought to touch the body, Found a risen Lord instead. In the garden of your worship, Does some rock of sad defeat Keep a dead Christ sealed before you Who was once alive and sweet? Christian, bring the spice of service To the place you left the Lord, There to find the tomb forsaken, Opened of divine accord: There to turn and meet, with wonder, In that hushed and holy place, Jesus Christ, alive and precious, Speaking with you face to face. “Who will roll the stone?” they ques tioned . . . Christian, question not today; Rise up early, seek the garden— . God will roll the stone away. when under strong temptations, yet he is not found persisting for years in a deliber ate falsehood, asserted with the most solemn appeals to God, without the slightest temp tation or motive and against all the oppos ing interests which reign in the human breast. If, on the contrary, they are sup posed to have been bad men, it is incredible that such men should have chosen this form of imposture, enjoining as it does un feigned repentance, the forsaking and ab horrence of all falsehood and of every other sin, the practice of daily self-denial, self- abasement, and self-sacrifice, the crucifixion of the flesh with all its earthly appetites and desires, indifference to the honors and hearty contempt for the vanities of the world; and inculcating perfect purity of heart and life and intercourse of the soul with heaven. It is incredible that bad men should invent falsehoods to promote the religion of the God of truth. The supposi tion is suicidal. If they did believe in a fu ture state of retribution, a heaven and a hell hereafter, they took the most certain course, if false witnesses, to secure the latter for their portion. And if, still being bad men, they did not believe in future punishment, how came they to invent falsehoods the direct and certain tendency of which was to destroy all their prospects of worldly honor and happiness and to insure their misery in this life? "F R O M T H E S E A B S U R D I T I E S THERE IS NO ESCAPE BUT IN THE PERFECT CONVICTION AND AD MISSION THAT TH EY W E R E GOOD M EN , T E S T I F Y I N G T O T H A T WHICH TH EY HAD CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE EVIDENCE! [Continued from page 138]
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