December 1928
718
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illumination from the Holy Ghost in extraordinary mea sure, as well as inspiration, but God, who often conjoined these two gifts in man, often also saw fit to disjoin them, proving that they differ essentially and that when united they are independent. Every true believer has the Holy Ghost, and may have a mind illuminated by the Spirit to appreciate and enjoy the truth of God, but this does not mean that he is inspired as were the writers of Scripture. When we behold some of the very prophets who en
speak through an inspired pen. Listen to the last stanza and remember that God Himself is speaking: “ ‘The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not, desert to his foes That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.’ “Neither Moses, nor Isaiah, nor David, nor Paul ever trans mitted a divine message more directly or consciously.” Most assuredly when a devout servant of God yields
joyed the highest de gree of illumination, bending o v e r their own pages a f t e r having written them, trying to discover the meaning of the things they had been led to write by the Spirit who came up on them, and ac knowledging t h a t they could not un derstand their own words, it should be apparent that divine inspiration is some thing entirely dif ferent from illumina tion (1 Pet. 1:11). Our Lord Himself tells us that the sim plest-minded believer on this side of the cross knows m o r e about the meaning of s o m e of t h e things these prophets
himself to the con trol of the Spirit of God and writes in harmony w i t h the Word of God, he transmits a divine message and brings what we often call “i n s p i r a t i o n” to others. As Dr. Millard s a y s fur the r: "If one will turn over the pages of any good hymnal he will easily find a score of instances in which God is speaking through the sacred poet just as t r u l y as He : did through the Psalmist of old.” But h a v e Dr. Millard and his sev enty editors care fully examined the unique c l a i m s of Scripture as to its method a n d extent
Ì O U R
TO EVERY READER
h r i s t m a s
/
W I S H
l y
M ay Christmas joys
o'er whelm your heart,
And peace, goodwill to you impart, Which will throughout the year hold sway To gladden every passing day.
(Fred S. Shepard)
wrote, than the greatest of them ever knew (Mt. 11:11). We maintain that nothing can be added to the revela tion we have in Scripture. .God has given us His plan to be carried out until Jesus comes again. Not a single new truth has any Christian writer been able to add to what is revealed within the two covers of the Bible. “The impugners of these doctrines,” says Dr. Gaussen, “ask us if we are bold enough to maintain that the Holy Scrip ture is a Jaw of God even in its words, as hyssop, or as an oak, is a work of God even in its leaves. We reply, with all the fathers of the church—Yes, even in its words, even to one jot or one tittle.” Dr. Millard contends further that the poets of the Supplementary Bible were prophets in the same sense as the Scripture writers. This point we will discuss in our next issue. T HE adversary of souls toils with consummate skill to prevent the vision of spiritual things or, in the case of those who behold “the Lord in the beauty of holiness,” does all he can to divert them from the vision and to nullify its power. When Stephen “saw the glory of God,” Satan led those who had no such vision to rush upon him and to take his life, and up to the present time if the spiritual vision of God’s children be clear and gen uine there will be a host of visionless.souls to rush upon them, to charge that it is blasphemy and to make outcasts of those whose eyes have seen the King.
of inspiration? These editors seem to be talking about a very different kind of inspiration from that about which we read in the Bible. If we accept Jesus Christ as the Infallible Teacher, the very Son of God, we must reckon ourselves His students and receive what He believed. Speaking of the Old Testament, He said: “I t is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one T IT TLE o f the law to fail” (Lk. 16:17). Did the saintly George Keith have anything to add to the revelation of the mind of God as given in His Word, and was he controlled by the Holy Ghost to the extent the curse of God should rest upon the man who should alter the dot of an “i” or the cross of a “t ” ? Would he have dared to say: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but M Y WORDS shall not pass away”? (Lk. 21 :33.) We contend that only in so far as George Keith quoted the very Word of God in his beautiful hymn, could he have said “My words cannot be broken.” Are we to understand that upon Lord Byron, whose poems we find in the Supplementary Bible, was put forth divine power in the same sense as upon the “holy men of God” who were moved, not by the will of man, but by the Holy Ghost, to write the plan and program of God for the human race? We are told that they set forth the purpose of God, “not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth” (2 Pet. 1 :21). Was Byron a man who communed with the Holy Ghost and wrote under His control? The difference between illumination and inspiration, we believe to be a difference of kind, and not of degree only, as our friend Dr. Millard is wont to understand. There is no doubt but that the Scripture writers received
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