November, 1937
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
420
Around the King's Table
By PAUL W . ROOD
^Thanksgiving for the Bible G OD’S greatest gifts to mankind are the incarnate Word and the written Word. The incarnate Word is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ: “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The written Word is the Bible, God’s infallible revelation: “ Thy word is truth” (Johh 17:17). The Bible has been spurned, rejected, and hated throughout the centuries. Satan hates the Bible because it reveals his destiny, and men hate the Bible because it reveals their sins. But we owe to the Bible everything that is worth while in life. What is best in our laws can be traced back to the books of Moses. What is of value in our ethics can be found in its perfection in the teachings of Christ. Our best literature has been pro duced by those who were'most familiar with the Word of God. Shakespeare, Milton, and Tennyson found their inspiration in the Bible. Great artists like Raphael, Michelangelo, Dore, Tissot, and Sargent painted Biblical scenes. The greatest music has been produced by those who found in the Bible their fountain of inspiration. That matchless oratorio by Handel, The Messiah, is based entirely upon the Word of God. Christianity as revealed in the New Testa ment has been the stimulus for building philanthropic institutions to care for the aged, the orphans, and the needy. The noble characters of history have been those who knew the Bible and the Christ of the Bible. How grateful we ought to be for this Book I It tells us from whence we came, why we are here, and whither we are bound. It gives us an adequate philos ophy of life and answers our questions and solves our problems. Above all, it intro duces us to die One who is altogether lovely and who can forgive every sin and heal every heartache. The nation that rejects the Bible will surely deteriorate. The individual that be lieves and obeys the Bible is blessed, and the individual that rejects and disobeys God’s Word is cursed. Did you ever hear that any one on a deathbed has said, “The curse of my life is that I have lived ac cording to the Bible” ? Did you ever hear that an inmate of a penitentiary has said, “ I got here because I believed the Word of God” ? No, God’s Word obeyed brings light, and God’s Word refused brings dark ness and judgment. Terrible guilt lies at the door of those who seek to destroy the confidence of others u^the Word of God. Robert Ingersoll and Henry Ward Beecher met one day on a train. Beecher started to tell Ingersoll a
guages, and its circulation is larger than ever before. Critics of the Bible are in fact benefi ciaries of the teaching and the preaching of the Word of God, even though they do not realize or acknowledge the blessings that are theirs because of God’s wonderful Book. A concrete example of this fact is the French trader who came to the New Hebrides and found a chief reading his Bible on a cannibal island. “Ah,” said the trader, scornfully, “ so the missionaries have got hold of you I The Bible never did any one any good.” “ Oh, yes, it has,” said the chief. “ If it were not for this Bible, you would by now be in my oven.” It is this transforming power that makes the Bible unique and precious. Accepted as the truth of God, the written Word brings men and women into fellowship with the incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. An old couple were reading the Bible together. One night the husband said, “ W ife, if this Book is true, vie are lost.” Through their reading of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit had brought them to realize their lost and undone condition. They read on, and some time later, the husband said, "W ife, if this Book is true, w e can be saved.” They both turned to the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as their personal Saviour, and they became new creations in Christ Jesus. When they rose from their knees, the husband said, “ W ife, this Book is true, and vie are saved/” Thank God that this Book is true I Thank God for the plan of salvation clearly re vealed in the Word of God. May every reader know this wonderful Book and the wonderful Christ it reveals! Why We Should Study the Bible No one can afford to be ignorant as to the contents of the Word of God. Every one should study the Bible. No one is truly educated who does not know the Bible, and no one is uneducated who does know the Bible. In spite of the fact that the Bible con tains the world’s best literature, the most authentic history, and the only authorita tive information regarding eternal issues, the great majority of mankind is woefully ignorant of this precious Book. In Christian lands there is no excuse for this ignorance. The first reason that we should study the Bible is that it is God’s Word. This Book is not a human book. It is divine. This Book is different from all other books in the world. Other books may sparkle, but this one burns. This Book was in spired, not as the writings of Tennyson and
story: “ I was walking along one day and saw a crippled boy on crutches. A huge bully came up and kicked the crutches, with the result that the cripple fell sprawl ing to the ground and was crushed by an onrushing conveyance.” “He ought to be damned,” interrupted Ingersoll. “ Thou art the man,” answered Beecher. “ Crippled humanity on the way to eternity is leaning on the crutch of divine revela tion—a dependable support—and you with your infidelity are seeking to knock those crutches from beneath mankind.” Ingersoll has many followers in our day. The tragedy is that they are to be found in places of authority in tax-supported schools and in churches that have been built by the sacrifices of godly men and women. The Bible, however, survives the attacks of its enemies. Voltaire remarked that it took twelve men to establish Christianity, and he added: “ I will show the world that it takes but one to destroy it. One hundred years from now there will not be a Bible left in the world.” Voltaire has been dead for 150 years, and the Bible has been translated into more than 900 lan BIO LA ’S N O O N D A Y BROADCAST Tune In on Blola's Noonday Broadcast conducted by President Paul W . Rood speaking on "The Revival W e Need" over KFA C (1300 kilocycles) dally (except Saturday and Sunday) from 12:IS to 12:45 in the noon hour.
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