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May 1929
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White - Sun - Tide (W h it sun t id e ) B y W illiam O lney The first word in the season’s special name Means that the converts who, then, owned their Lord, Were robed in W H ITE to signify their trust In lesus’ blood, that cleanses from all sin. Grant, Lord, this Whitsuntide, we may once more obtain The peace that comes from conscience freed from sin’s dark stain. Embosomed in the name is the word SUN , Bringing the thought o f Spring and sunny hours; O f buds and blossoms on reviving tree; And o f young lambs, frisking in pastures green. 0 Sun o f Righteousness! in this glad season shine, Till New Life thrill in us, and Faith and Love combine. Thou risen and ascended Lord, from Thy high throne Send forth Thy Spirit’s power, which multitudes shall own. inspired, but only by the spirit of Milton; Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” is inspired, but only by the spirit of a man who earnestly cried for light, and with no language but a cry. Lowell’s noble lines are inspired, but the strength and beauty in them emanate from an exalted human soul. The voice is that of his own better self, and never that of a god. Men who have written great- thoughts that will live as long as time lasts, have been influenced by inspired truth, and this is the secret of their power; but holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of Truth,— by a person of intelligent, designing mind. - II. W ells of S alvation S topped U p To affirm that the wells of salvation have been stopped up is to stress a well-known and pathetic fact. “An enemy hath done this” (Matt. 13:28). The great and gracious fact of a divine provision for sin needs to be dug from the rubbish that a lying devil and a skeptical world have heaped upon it, and announced with a new emphasis as man’s only hope. For the reason that divine wisdom could find no other way of putting away sin, the method of propitiatory sac rifice was adopted as a means of reconciliation between sinful man and a thrice holy God. Since human nature remains the same in all ages, it will be impossible to im prove upon the provision of Calvary. There is revealed not only the holiness of God and the vileness of man, but also a divine and therefore a perfect remedy for sin. “Without shedding o f blood there is no remission” and never will be, for the ages are built on the principle of vicarious sacrifice. Sacrifice, the greatest law of life, is the foundation of all permanent building, whether it is the home, the church or the state. The progress that centuries must bring demands new methods and new measures; but while human wisdom may search out many inventions and solve in some measure the social, moral and civic problems of life, neither time nor eternity will produce an intellect sufficiently wise to tell how a single sin against a holy God could be put away, or blotted out, apart from the precious blood of the Lamb The closing syllable of WhitsunTIDE Reminds us of the fair moon’s influence Over the mighty waves of deepest seas, Leading them on, again, sending back.
ing that Abraham was able to keep these wells of water for his own use. After Abraham fell on sleep, Isaac, journeying in the same land, found these wells filled up, “and Isaac digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days o f Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.” Apart from the historic interest that attaches to these wells, they speak eloquently of spiritual things, and may with good reason be regarded as ancient types of modern conditions in the modern world. Genesis, as the name implies, is a book of beginnings, a book of types, in which we may read the plan and program known to God from the beginning, and His purposes of grace for all the race (Acts 15:18). Here, more than in any other book of revealed truth, we must learn to read between the lines, also beneath the surface, and notice the different kinds of truth taught, as well as the different planes on which they have meaning and will have fulfillment. The Philistines represent the enemies of the Lord’s people in all the ages, and what they did in the days of Isaac they are doing in the twentieth century. Regard ing these wells in a spiritual sense, the meaning is not far to seek. The wells of living water dug out long centuries ago by the Prince of Life and Friend of man, for the renewing of a dying race and desert world, have been stopped up, and for the reason that they were dug out by a stranger in the land! Strange as it may seem to mor tals, Jesus the Christ was a homeless stranger in the world His hands had made. I. W ells of I nspired T ruth S topped U p In the first place, the wells o f inspired truth have been stopped up by the enemies of God. The foes of truth would have us believe that other books are inspired in the same way, and in the same degree, that the Scriptures are inspired,—that Shakespeare, Milton, and Tennyson; By ron, Burns and Bryant; Campbell, Collins and Coleridge, wrote under inspiration as did the prophets of old. The advocates of this theory fail to see that there are dif ferent sources of inspiration. Regarding the term in ref erence to Scripture, the Standard Dictionary defines it as, “ supernatural divine influence exerted upon the teachers and writers by the Spirit of God, by which divine author ity was given to their writings.” In ordinary use the word means “the inbreathing or imparting of an idea, emotion, or mental or spiritual influence.” There are three sources of inspiration; the Spirit of God, the spirit of the devil, and inspired truth. The Spirit of God speaks only through godly men; “Holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” The spirit of the devil speaks only through evil men, and doubtless Judas was inspired to betray his Lord when the spirit of Satan entered into him! In the same way, false prophets were inspired to speak lies in the name of the Lord, or in their own name! Let it be confessed, all good and great poets have been inspired by some great truth, and as far as they are influ enced by truth they sing unerringly of the facts of life; but the ease with which human imagination leaps beyond the bounds of revealed truth, the literatures of the world will abundantly prove. What is claimed for the Scriptures is not simply that they are inspired, but that they are inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Author and Revealer of the truth, and this can not be claimed for any other book. Milton’s great epic is
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