eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” When these words were first spoken many of those who heard them said, “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” Jesus asked His disciples: “Doth this offend you?” Then He told them, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the ‘words’ that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” It was from this time that many of his disciples went back, “and walked no more with him.” Why? “This was a hard saying,” they said. “Who can understand it?” We are too lazy in our generation to take time for the Word of God. Yet the Word is quick (that means it is living and operative); it is powerful, “and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discemer of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). As some one has so aptly stated: “The Bible, in deed, is not an ordinary book: hated and haunted as no other book has ever been, and yet indestructible; des pised and yet honored; derided, and yet esteemed; de clared dead and yet alive. Mighty emperors and kings and priests have spared no time and guilt in order to exterminate it; and now wise and scholarly men have, in the sweat of their brow, thoroughly repudiated it; and science has tried to do away with it; yet it is spreading over the whole world with astonishing rapidity in mil lions of copies and in hundreds of languages, and is be ing read from pole to pole. In the power of the Word, Negroes submit to be burned alive, and Armenians and Chinese to be tortured to death, and Russians to die a slow death by exile. It is complete in itself, calling down judgment on anyone who shall add unto or take away therefrom, and is unchanged and unchangeable. This BIBLE stands for centuries, unconcerned about the praise and reproach of man; it does not adjust itself to modern progress; it does not recant a single word; it remains very simple and divinely empowered; and in its sight all men are equal and feel their littlenes. It raises the deepest questions as if they were but trifles.” Consequently, what we need today is not a newly interpreted Bible as the modems would have us believe. We need the Bible just as God gave it to us through the ancients. If, therefore, we desire a generation of powerful Chris tian leaders, we must give our children the Bible — the whole, unadulterated Bible. This must begin in the home and be continued in the Sunday School. When the Bible is taught as the Word of God, it will produce men of God: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Let me conclude with the following quotation from an unknown writer: “The Bible is a universal Book. The aged and the youth, the educated and the illiterate, the rich and the poor, the Oriental, the Occidental, the white the brown, the yellow, the red, the black, the ancient, and the modern — all find in the Bible that which satis fies their soul — salvation from sin, fellowship with God, and the hope of glory. It is healing for the sin sick, sight for the blind, strength for the weak, food for the hungry, rest for the weary, knowledge for the ignorant, liberty for the captive, and life for the dead. “The Bible comforts in sorrow, strengthens in weak ness, cheers in despondency, guides in perplexity, and soothes in weariness. It is bread for the hungry, and drink for the thirsty. It offers milk for babes, and meat for strong men. Whatever the need of the soul, if one goes to the Bible, one can find the need supplied! It is the most wonderful Book in the world!”
place that as babes need food to grow, so also the babes in Christ need food tt> grow. The Word of God has power to make men wise. Con cerning this Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple.” There is a world of difference between wisdom and mere knowledge. Some may have knowledge of the Word of God by having studied it from the scientific, literary, or merely historical standpoint. But if we study the Word of God as God’s Word ‘to make one wise,’ we shall have true wisdom rather than mere knowledge. Men who have greatly affected the spiritual lives of others for good have been men of the Bible. The Word of God has power to produce fruit within. There is the fruit of assurance, for instance. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (I John 5:13). Then the Word produces peace. “And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God, who are the called according to his pur pose.” When we know this, according to the Word of God, peace comes to our souls regardless of what the circumstances around us may be. Then it produces the fruit of joy. “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11). The world cannot offer joy. It can offer things that will temporarily satisfy us, but the real joy comes from God through His Word. The Word of God has power to protect one from error and from sin. That is why Paul wrote to Timothy: “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been as sured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 3:13-15). Ne glect of the Word of God leaves the door wide open for false isms and false teachings. But there is power in the Word against all of these. It also contains the power against sin, for the Psalmist said, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” There can be no doubt then, that the instrument the Holy Spirit uses for power is His precious Word. No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ said, as we have recorded for us in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John: “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (v. 54). And as we read in verse 56: “He that Dr. Epp, founder- director of the
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AUGUST, 1963
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