The Fundamentals - 1917: Vol.2

Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves 87 justice of God, which as he looks up, lifts higher and higher. Infinite against infinite—infinite here, Infinite there—no bridge between them! Nature helps to no bridge. It no­ where speaks of atonement. Standing with Uriel in the sun, we launch the proposition that the Scriptures are Divine in their very message because they deal with three Infinites: Infinite Guilt; Infinite Holi­ ness; Infinite Atonement. A book must itself be infinite which.deals with infinites; and a book must be Divine which divinely reconciles infinites. Infinite Guilt! Has my guilt any bottom? Is Hell any deeper? Is there, in introspection, a possible lower, more bottomless nadir ? Infinite guilt! That is what opens, caves away under my feet, the longer, the more carefully I plumb my own heart—my nature, my record. Infinitely guilty! That is what I am—far, Oh, how far, below the plane of self-apology, or ghastly “criticisrn” of the Book which testifies to this. In­ finitely guilty! -That is what I am. Infinitely sinking, and, below me an infinite Tophet. I know that. As soon as the Bible declares it, I know it, and with it I know that witness­ ing Bible Divine. I know itffT do not know how-—by an instinct, by conscience, by illumination, by the power of the Spirit of God, by the Word without, and by the flashed con­ viction in me which accord. And, counterpoised above me, a correlative Infinite — -God! What can be higher? What zenith loftier? What doming of responsibility more dread or more portentous? Infinite God—above me—coming to judge me! On the way now. I must meet Him. I know that. I know it, as soon as the Bible declares it. I know it—I do not know how—by an in­ stinct. Even the natural man must picture to himself when thus depicted, and must fear, “A God in grandeur, and a world on fire.” An infinitely Holy God above me, coming to judge me. That is the. second Infinite.

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