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THË KING’S BUSINESS
valuable, (c) Fixity. There is a per manence about the Written Word that makes it essentially valuable and import ant for human, life, (d) Purity. We can have purity in connection with writing, in a way that we cannot possibly have by any other method. We cannot be sure of these four qual ities in reason, because that is unsafe and variable. We cannot be sure of them in any institution, for- it is always uncertain. This written form .of revelation is there fore the best available form. It is guar anteed to us by the fact that the New Testa ment has come from uniquely qualified men. I remember once when in conversation with a friend, asking him this question: “What is the ultimate reason why you ac cept the New Testament? Deep down below everything else; what is it that causes you to accept it, and reject other books?” My friend, said,he did not know that he had ever, really faced it in that way. S6 I went on: “Do you accept it because it is old? There are older books. Do you accept it because it contains truth? Well, there are other books that contain truth. No; beneath its age, beneath its helpful ness, beneath its truthfulness is the bed rock—this book came from men who were uniquely qualified to convey God’s will to men; and the bed-rock of our acceptance of the New Testament is what is called in technical language Apostolicity; because the books came, either from Apostolic au thors or through Apostolic sanction.” APOSTOLIC WRITERS. I am not now concerned with authorship, but with sanction. These books came from Apostolic men. Out of the eight writers of the New Testament, five were Apos tles, and the other three were immediate associates of the Apostles. Some one says: “Is not this what is called ‘Bibliolatry ?’ ” No, it is not. You do not interpose the Bible between your selves and Christ. You use the Bible as a medium by which you come to Christ. If I go out tonight and desire to see the stars with the telescope, will that be an inter-
We believe the Bible to-be our authority, the seat of authority, because it preserves the revelation of Christ in its purest and clearest form. Christianity is an historic religion. We are a long way from the commencement of Christianity. It started centuries ago, and has been ever since an historic religion. Now what we need to day, in this twentieth century, is the very best form of that historic religion which we can find. It does not at all matter where it is, or what it is, or how it has come, so'long as we can make sure that we have the best available form of God’s rev elation in Christ. It might come through a man, or it might come through an insti tution, or through a book'; but we need not mind in the least about the vehicle, so long as we can make sure that we have got the genuine revelation. GREATEST BOOK. • Now Christianity is at once life and liter ature. The-Ilfe seems to require the liter ature for its nourishment. As already no ticed, it is at least significant that all the great religions of ther world have their books.. It has seemed as though a book were really necessary for the maintenance and continuation of all religion. Literature is the nearest possible approach to reliabil ity. Truth in literary form has four qual ities which are pre-eminently necessary for a world-wide religion: (a) Durability; litera scripta manet: the Written Word abides. There is a durability about any written form of communication which stands the test of time, (b) Catholicity. There is a universal element in a written form which appeals and applies to the whole world. The Bible, by way of illus tration, is the easiest book to translate into universal language today. I wonder what China or Uganda would make of one of Shakespeare’s plays? Every one knows how impossible it is to translate Heine’s ballads into English. There are French poems of exquisite thought and expression that cannot possibly be put into our lan guage. But the Bible is a Book of uni versal—shall I . use the word ?—interpret- ability. And it is this catholicity of the Written Word that makes the Bible, so
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