THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS It is said that out of every 1000 pub lications, 600 never pay the cost of printing; 200 just pay, 100 yield slight profit; fewer yet are profitable. 650 books out of 1000 are forgotten within a year; 150 more in three years; less than 50 out of 1000 survive 7 years pub licity. Out of over 50,000 publications of the 17th century only about 60 are known to have been maintained and re printed. Most libraries are cemeteries of dead books, because man’s writings are so soon exhausted and because their state ments so soon go out of date or are found to be erroneous. Outside of the Bible, the most endur ing books have been Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress; Milton’s Paradise Lost; Har riett Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin — all religious books founded on the Bible. How is it with the Bible? A lifetime of study cannot exhaust it. Genera tions of men giving their time to it can not get to the bottom of its wisdom. Thousands of volumes are written yearly in comment on Bible themes. Thousands of volumes are written year ly in criticism of the Bible, a fact which in itself proves the Bible has a mysteri ous quality, that so many intelligent men devote their time to fighting it. But the Bible lives on— in spite of those who are trying to fathom it; in spite of those who write against it; in spite of the fanaticism of many of its friends. Its promises are still being tested. Its prophecies are still coming to pass. No changes have ever been necessary in it. Conclusion:— The Bible cannot be a humanly devised book because human beings cannot exhaust it. 4. An Existence That Is Miraculous. Men have always fought the Bible because it is the one book that fights them in their sins. It is “ The sword of the Spirit.” Demons and men have employed everything to. put the Bible out of com mission. Science, philosophy, ridicule, wit, brutality—-have always been em ployed against it, and never with such organized force as the present day. The infidel Voltaire said that it took 12 men to start Christianity, but that one (himself) would destroy it. The very room where he wrote afterward fell into the hands of the Foreign Bible Society and was stored full of Bibles.
73 The very desk on which Ingersoll wrote much of his infidel literature, fell into the hands of a great Bible student who has sent Christian literature through out the earth. The more the Bible is fought, the higher it rises. It never had such a mighty hold upon the world as it now has. Conclusion:— If man wrote the Bible he could get rid of it. “ The Word of the Lord abideth , forever”— therefore no man can defeat it or destroy it. 5. An Influence That Is Mighty. The Bible is the only miracle work ing book in the world. It is an ever present and everlasting miracle-working power. Its message has picked up thou sands from the gutters and given the most helpless human wrecks power to stand victorious over sin and to serve God. Where there is no Bible, sin runs rampant. No infidel chooses to live in a land where there is no Bible. Where pulpits are untrue to the Bible, godless ness and worldliness exist to an alarm ing degree. The greatest nations are what they are because of their attitude to the Bible. Nations that have sunk back into heathenism, and those that are today sinking, have everyone of them, turned their backs on the Bible for their self-devised philosophies. The only reason men do not want the Bible is because it would change their lives. A stream will rise to its own level. The water in the pipes will rise' as high as the level of the reservoir. The Bible is the Book that lifts men to God. From whence then, must it have come? Conclusion:-—A Book which has such mighty power to elevate life toward God must have been inspired by God. 6. A Fulfillment That Is Manifest. The claims of the Bible are over whelmingly proven by fulfillment of its prophecies hundreds of years after they were written. So detailed and specific, uttered so long before the events tran spired, are its prophecies, that it is cer tain no human foresight could have an ticipated the events. (a) Some argue that predictions were written after the events. But what of the fact that, although nothing has been added to the prophecies, they are still being fulfilled before our eyes and that details of prophecies partly fulfilled years ago are only recently being com-
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