in or possession of the Word. We would be left on the dead level of all heathenism, as soon as the present re sults of the Bible could wear away; and the great war taught us that the devil in men soon gets the mastery if Christian restraints are withdrawn. 4. We would lose almost the only experience o f God and religion. The Word is His main means of talking with man, and of our cultivating inti mate relations with Him. The Word Itself says that it is “ God-breathed," as the word means in 2 Tim. 3:16, which is translated "inspired.” One who reads the Word as merely a hu man “ record" of “ literature" gets fallibility from it, and casts God out or discounts Him in it, as he may think or wish, just as Mormonism and other cults do. But he who reads it as the very Word of God gives Him a chance to speak to his soul, and then naturally speaks back in prayer, and so grows in grace by personal com munion with God. It is characteristic of speakers and writers holding the human idea of the Word that they almost never mention religious expe rience, or evidence much of it in their lives— the very thing the Bible was in tended to produce. Let us never lose this estimate of the Word, or the close fellowship with Him which it alone can produce. True religion is pri marily inward love to God and knowl edge of Him; not mere outward deeds. “ God looketh upon the heart;” and eternal destiny is decided by what He sees there, while it is also the source of outward condufct. Hence the belief we hold of the Bible is fundamental, and the loss of the true idea means the loss of almost everything Christian, as soon as cause could produce effect. Nothing will kill one’s prayer-life and personal walk with God more quickly than neglect of devotional use of the Word; unless it be other wilful sin. Many other results deserve mention, but space has already been exceeded. Surely the only rule for every.Christian .should be to cher ish faith in the Bible most closely, and to use the blessed Book devotionally and often! Doing away with or weak ening the power of the Bible on men would mean in religion just what do ing away with the multiplication table would mean in mathematics— RUIN! Religious truth is Just as positive, sci entific and certain as mathematical, on all the great points, and the Book is Its revelation.
After the Bible,What? REV. JOHN D. HUTTING Cleveland) 0kio Secretary of The Utah Gospel Mission Editor "Light on Mormonism"
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Such standards are all the carnal man has to offer, and the last half of Romans 1 portrays their legitimate outcome. Bible standards would soon be forgotten, or at once outlawed, with the Book. 2. There would be no standard of belief left. Read Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill for the very best that re ligion without the Bible can offer-— continual questionings about "some new thing,” altars “ to. the Unknown God,” Intellectual gropings and uncer tainty for even the highest minds, with the immorality, blood and wickedness of every kind which every student knows was characteristic in such lands! "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he”— with nothing to tell him definitely about such things, what is possible but blindness and such un certainty and evil? And so surely as belief- shapes conduct, so surely will the life become immoral in whatever line its tendencies may be. The very idea of morality or immorality is left unsettled, and is the prey of its own surmisings, and temptations, or of despair. “ The road downward is easy:” we need all the incitements and help possible if we are to progress in the 'upward way, and of all these an im plicitly valued and faithfully used Bible is greatest. Here is probably the greatest n e e d of the present law breaking— the standard is gone in so many minds and its teaching about eternal penalty! 3. Our one source of knowledge even about Christ would be gone. The Bible is the only record of this Life and its events and results in this age. It would be ludicrous, were it hot so awful, to hear and read aspersions on the reliability of the New Testament and in the same breath professed lau dations of Christ and His “ loving spirit,” etc., of which we know nothing save from that Book and the early Church which grew out of its events. All genuine Christian love comes from hearts which have been born again of God; and the very knowledge of the new birth would vanish with belief
OULD It not be well for per sons who are " p e c k i n g away" at the faith of men in the Word of God to stop
and think, “What next, | if my ideas should prevail?" The Mormon has his answer ready. His “ prophet” began his course with affirming the insuffi ciency of the Bible and hence the need of his “ continued revelation” on points where the Book was "deficient,” and he made these professed “ revelations” the sum and substance of his great system of error. Christian Science is based on the same idea about the Word, expressed differently, and every other cult which we recall in Christian lands has done practically the same thing. Priestcraft can only get control by crowding out the Bible. Often this Is accomplished by peculiar, forced in terpretations of the Word, which amount to the same thing while out wardly maintaining belief in the kr Word, making the plain, real sense of the Bible untrue and substituting for this their own purposeful variations. But when men go still deeper, and act ually avow that the Bible is not the Word of God but the words of men, what then? Many a man these days, some standing even in professedly Christian pulpits, has thus denied the Word. Causes are Judged by their results. If such a position could pre vail, what then would be the inevitable result in our faith and life? morality left. Aside from the Word there is no such standard. Every- cult has its own standard when it departs from the authoritative Word; Mor monism believes in polygamy, in many "gods” grown up from men and with all fleshly attributes and temptations; almost or quite every other cult sooner or later gravitates toward the same goal and for the same reason; the true God of the Bible is lost, and their standards made for themselves are sensual, and are gradually lowered to fit their deeds— see all heathenism. We can only suggest a few of the many things which seem inevitable: 1. There would be no standard of
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