as a Message
By Rev. W. H. Griffith Thomas, D. D. An address delivered at Montrose Bible Conference, August 4, 1915
has a red- thread running through it, so that whenever it is cut at any part, or if any one should happen to help himself to it, it can be proved to belong to the British Navy. Now there is a thread run ning through the Bible from Genesis "to Revelation, and that thread is Christ; and if we look at the Bible at almost any part, we find traces .of that thread, and aspects o f that message. But some one may say: Does not this mean twisting the Bible to see Christ in every part? No, it does not. As some one has said, the real danger is the twisting away from Christ in the Bible. W e must1, o f course, be careful about that, for. we know it is possible to go to extremes. There was a time when some devout men saw Joseph o f Arima- thea in the first psalm, that he was the man o f God depicted there, but we have' now gone to the other extreme, and do riot see anybody in it. W e believe in nei ther o f these extremes, but we nevertheless believe that Christ is the substance o f all Scripture. How, then, are we to look at it? My subject is large and comprehensive. 1. Christ in the glory of the eternal post. This is where His "life commenced. John i, 1: “ In the beginning was the Word, and the W ord was with God, and the Word
F GOD has spoken to us in //% the Bible, and if this Divine revelation _ authority, IJmiCfo • < Iessential is our supreme it is o f course that we should
know its contents, what it says, what it means to us—in a word, its message. That is our present subject—the message o f the Bible. And the answer to the question, “What is the message o f the Bible?” is found in one word: CHRIST. During the last fifty years quite a num ber o f “ Lives” o f Christ have been writ ten, representing all sorts o f standpoints. I mention only a few o f them: Neander, Lange, de Pressense, Geikie, Edersheim, and Farrar, not to go further afield or to deal with more recent works. For the most part these “Lives” are characterized by one feature: they com mence at Bethlehem and end at Olivet; but our Lord’s life did not begin at Beth lehem, nor did it close with the Ascension. The Life o f Christ should cover the whole o f the Bible, and this is why I say that the message o f the Bible is Christ. “Christ is the message o f Scripture from beginning to end. - Or to use the title of. a well-known book by an honored friend (and Friend), Miss Hodgkin: “ Christ in all the Scriptures.” I have been told that in the British Navy every piece o f rope
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker