m rY "Verbal inspiration" is meant: The originals of the Old and New Testament Scriptures were word for word the words of God. How "holy men of God" were led to freely write His very words we need not inquire. We have to do with the result. This view of inspiration, we are told, is past. It is not so. Men of first rank still hold it. Nor can it be given up. When it goes all goes. Mere human opinion is all that is left. If it is false, let it go—let all go. But age-long criticism has failed to convict Holy Scripture of error. History and christian experience have verified it. But what says the Book of itself? What does it claim to be? That settles the question for us. Thousands of times it reads; "GOD SPAKE," or like words, they are called God's* "words." Its vital doctrines o f t en hang on the tense, number, or grammatical order of words. Jesus silenced the Sadducees with "lam," as against was, "(Matt. 22:32). He was near ston- ' God's Spirit, and ing for saying "I - . thatif God's willis am" as against VERBAL INSPIRATION. K N O WN H E T "Iwas "(Jno.8:58) , , . v , „ 0 „„ • " 'The Book' contains, not 4s, God 's Word," " a v e told it out. The first case in- t h e y s a y . volved t he r e s u r- "Men thought His thoughts, He aia not IS " o l ,, speak, but they; a disconnected se- rection: t he sec- The concept, or the substajnce, is divine, ries. n i o t / i. u- ond His deitV Paul But reason must assay the ore we mine." " " i s r a r y, Dl- , S* That can't be true which one's disposed to OfiTranhv l a w s a r g u e d f r o m doubt, . r , ™ ' t i s o „ j >> „ s n r t ft f The word is human, so he rules it out; types, prophecies, been, d, soi u H e h a g a n o t i 0 n, say, respecting sin, j n detail are ono seed, as against The thought's divine, and so he reads it in. . ' u " e << il '• ^ ' ay a Thus with his scissors, and his pot of paste, mosaic, where ev- seeas, a l v e r s Each suits a revelation to his taste; „„„i. , sorts of s e e d s . Amends the- Sacred Text, and writes in- ery scale,snapeand (Gal. 3:16). We What^God Almighty would or should have ® r e ' a t e d ' havp nrpqpnt as- ®i«S to. the fin i s h e d have present as Explores the depths of the Unfathomed w o r t ™ „ „ s u r e d salvation Mind, w o r K . j j r o m , . _ And naught beyond his plummet's reach can ohakespere a word because it says find. (i "hath" not "man" Then tenders us, what time his task is done, c a n n o t b e • a His Jack-o-lantern for our glorious Sun. knocked out with or sriCLii n s v 6j <>ufi>" B H i , a sledge hammer' ; Uje ( j o nn «s.aoj. N o t s o t h e S c r j p t l , r e: "God spake all these . , f Of man's word it w o r d s- s d a , ' t . „ l e s s i r o m „ , , "Words Which the Spirit teacheth, God's Book. Any could n e v e r . b e "words," "words," "words," J ooirl "It, raw mot Precept, prediction, history and song; more liberal theo- said It can no z , < T h y w o r d „ n o t t h o u g h t , s a i a one, "was r y l s b o r n o f u n _ be broken" (John in my tongue." y H UUI1 0 1 u n 1A .QK1. nnr Till tunes are played with neither note nor belief, and of that l u . d o j . n or JUI, UI horn; < ! ^ »» u- v. tittle shall not Till souls of men are without bodies born; Wisdom wnich _ „ „ , M a t r.iov "A wordless thought" shall be a thought- ; s " f 0 0 l i s h " with pass ^iviai. .-). iof . less word, — , . _ P o l l ' s mmnsri. A fool's conceit to contradict his Lord. God (1 Cor. 1:20). compari writings are inbreathed of God; Tt . son' (1 Cor. 2:11) The word, the letter, the tittle, and the yod. 1 1 18 a n opening s h o w s that just H e t a u & h t t h e Prophet, and impelled his wedge to dislodge as none know a From "In Beginning" to the last "Amen!" Truthand inserter- man's secret thot ^ ^ ^ p r e s u m p t u o u s ror. By his amend- but the man him- Shall add thereto, or dare diminish ought. ments man makes self, so none could J ' H ' S A M b ' himself the au- know God's will : ! thor of the Book, and purpose but the source above which the stream of knowledge and authority can not rise. He substitutes for our Rock a foundation of sand. He who notes a falling sparrow; numbers the hairs of our heads; fits the tiniest atom to form a creature man could not dream, has not l e ft the atoms of His word, which He has "magnified above all His works, " to the chance and choice of sin-blind men; but has woven them, with His own fingers, into mysteries eye hath hot seen; ear hath not heard; nor heart Qf man conceived.
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