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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
July 1924
Word of God, and in this abiding fellowship with our Mas ter will come that force, freshness, fragrance, and fiber in spiritual life which will be the best possible means of at tractiveness in soul-winning. As water never rises above its level, so our work for God never rises above the level of our fellowship with him. We must “ dwell with the King for his work,” and in so doing we shall have his Spirit, his power, and his blessing. This, then, is our work,— the work of “ fishers of men.” But perhaps these lines may be read by some one who has not yet known the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Sav iour. Let it be said to such an one that there is a previous word to “ Follow me,” and that is “ Come unto me.” Christ needs you, Christ wants you, Christ waits for you, Christ offers you salvation in order that he may use you in his kingdom. First salvation, and then service. Will you not, therefore, accept him now, taking him by simple faith as your own personal Saviour, Lord, and King? And then go forth, in the power of the Holy Spirit, attract men by your life and testimony, so that there may be an increase of men won through individual effort, and the work may extend and deepen on every hand until the kingdom of God shall come. Scriptures in which the truths of the Creed are revealed: “ To believe therefore as the word stands in front of the Creed . . . and not only so, but is diffused through every article and proposition of it, is to assent to the whole and every part of it, as to a certain and infallible truth revealed by God (who by reason of His infinite knowledge cannot be deceived, and by reason of His transcendent holiness can not deceive), "and delivered to us in the writings of the blessed apostles and prophets, immediately inspired, moved and actuated by God” (p. 16). This treatment of Scripture as a whole is based upon the teaching of the Fathers, and upon the attitude of our Lord and His Apostles to the Old Testament. Those who decline to apply the title “ the Word of God” to the whole Bible do so for theoretical rather than for practical purposes. They would be the last to admit that special Divine authority attached to all those parts of the Old Testament introduced by such expressions as, “ Thus saith the Lord,” or to offer any practical division of the Bible into its authoritative and unauthoritative portions. It is unnecessary to labour the point further, for it is really unquestionable that when in the Church of England for mularies the Bible is spoken of as the Word of God, that expression is attributed to it as a whole. (b) The nature of the authority attributed to the Bible in the Articles is undoubtedly Divine. They place it above human traditions which have no force of obligation unless they can be proved by Holy Writ; it is placed above the authority of General Councils, since they are not all, though they should be, governed by the Spirit and Word of God; it is superior to the Church itself, which may not decree anything contrary to it nor enforce anything essential apart from its authority. In the days of- the Reformation it was asked, and the same question is being asked by Modernists today; How can Divine authority reside in a book? Is not every book by its nature finite in its contents, bound up with the
alone we have at least seven interviews between individuals and the Lord Jesus Christ, and on each occasion with wis dom and power the Lord dealt faithfully and effectively with the soul and led it to himself. The more detailed ac counts of Christ’s dealings with sinners, as, for example, in the story of the woman of Samaria, will reveal some of the methods and secrets of the greatest of all soul-winners. “ Follow me” means, among other things, “ Imitate my ex ample.” As a soul-winner Christ’s example is peerless. Obey Him. Following always includes and involves obe dience, and therefore, “ whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” The Lord is calling upon every one of us to do as much as we possibly can in the direction of soul-winning. It is not sufficient, blessed though it is, to live a quiet, consistent life. This we must do, of course, but in addition to this there must be the testimony of the lip, and the endeavor, lovingly yet aggressively, to win souls to the Master. And if we do not do it our spiritual life will suffer, and we shall not be following our Master. Abide in Him. Following Christ is not only an act, but an attitude,- t —the attitude of a lifetime. Abiding in him means continual and ever-increasing fellowship. It implies living in his presence through faith, prayer, and the It is generally agreed amongst evangelical Churchmen that their attitude towards the Bible is distinct from that which characterizes the Modernist school of thought; and that the distinction may fairly be expressed by saying that Evangelicals accept the teaching of the Thirty-nine Articles heartily and without reservation, giving them broadly that same evangelical interpretation which was originally in tended. It is the object of this paper briefly to inquire into the nature of the Authority of the Bible as declared in the Church of England formularies, and then to apply it to cer tain present and practical considerations. I. (a) At the outset it is of importance to observe that whatever meaning be given to such phrases as “ God’s Word written,” or “Holy Writ,” the qualities implied in them are predicated of the Bible as a whole, and not to any part or portion of its content. There is a phrase in current use that the Bible is not the Word of God, but contains the Word of God. Such a dis tinction is entirely contrary to the teaching of the Church of England formularies. There is not the slightest hint in them of a division of the Bible into two parts, one of which may be regarded as gems of revealed truth, and the other as a casket in which they are contained. It is invariably treated as the Word of God, and not as a record of certain words of God. There is nowhere any suggestion that even the words of Christ are to be regarded as a superior stan dard by which the truth or value of the remainder is to be judged. On the contrary, the final authority of Holy Scripture over the counsels of men, even over General Councils of the Church, is clearly regarded as inherent in the Scripture as a whole; and lest any should contend upon the basis of one portion of Scripture alone, the in ternal harmony and consistency of the various parts of Holy Scripture is the subject of special and explicit declarations. What Bishop Pearson wrote about belief in the Creed well expresses the attitude of the Church of England to the
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The Authority of the Bible By the Rev. G. T. Manley, M. A., Secretary of the Oburch Missionary Society in the Bulletin of the Bible Union of China
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