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A N N O U N C E M E N T A NEW CORRESPONDENCE COURSE B O O K S T U D Y THROUGH THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR BY REV. W. H. PIKE. BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES B OU W ILL WANT THIS COURSE. Nothing exactly like it has ever been prepared. It m il take you through the entire Bible giving you a compre hensive view o f each book. Fourteen points on each book are treated and the same outline is held to through out the whole Bible. I. T h e k e y Word? - 2. Th e K ey V erse 3. T h e K ey Ch apter 4. T h e Writei* or W riters 5. T o Whom Written 6 . D ate Book Written _ 7. Scope of the Book 8 . Summ ary of Book 9. Gist of T eachin g v\ 10. P ractical T eachin g 1 1. The V iew of Christ 12. D ispensational Setting 13. How to M aster the Book 14. Setting of the Book Begin this valuable study at once. Total C 9 st only $3.00. Full benefits of our Correspondence School and a Bible Institute Certificate when course is successfully finished: Write for circulars of other courses.
Secretary Correspondence School BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES
T H E K IN G ’ S B U S IN E S S MOTTO: “ 1, the Lord, do keep it, I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 1--------- ----- - Isa. 27:3 ..'■ ' ' • ■■"■r P U B L IS H E D M O N T H L Y B Y T H E Rev. T. C. HORTON, Editor in Chief BIBLE I N S T I T U T E . O F L O S A N G E L E S Rev. KEITH L. BROOKS, Managing Editer Entered as Second-Class Matter November 17, 1910, at tke Post Office at Los Angeles, California under the A ct of March 3, 1879 Acceptance for mailing at special rate o f postage provided for in Section 1103^ A ct of October 3, 1917 authorized October 1, 1918.
Number 5
May, 1920.
Volume XI
CONTENTS
Editorials: ■ ' ■; The Bible (435) Bread and Meat (435) Money and Men (436) Noisy Nothings (438) Blessed with a Bible (439) John Wesley’s Epitaph (439) * Religious Pits (440) The Words of Christ (441) Is Demon Possession Possible (442) Sentence Sermons (443) The Bible in the Light of the Bible— By Dr. A. C. Dixon (444) Rightly Handling the Word of God— By Rev. John McNeil (448) Where Are the Dead?— By Dr. R. A. Torrey (453) Bible Institute Notes (456) Evangelistic Experiences— By Institute Workers (458) Homiletical Helps (466) Notes on the Jews and Palestine (468) Thoughts for the Unsaved (470) The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error (472) Rome and the Bible— H. A. Sullivan (475) Sunday School Lessons (476) Daily Devotional Readings— By Dr. P. W. Parr (512) Missionary Notes (519) IF THE LORD SHOULD LEAD YOU—to invest some money in this magazine, we will be able to use it for His glory by sending the magazine to worthy ministers-and missionaries. PLEASE When sending subscriptions, address correspondence to Office of The King’s Business, Bible Institute of Los Angeles, 536-55S South Hope Street. Checks may be made payable to Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Do not make checks or money orders to individuals connected with the Bible Institute. Y E A R SUBSCR IPTION PRICE— In the United States and Its Possessions and Mexico, and points in the Central American Postal Union, $i.oo per year. In all other foreign countries, including Canada, $r.a 4 . ( 5 c. fld.) Single copies 10 cents. See expiration date on the wrapper, BIBLE I N S T I T U T E OF LOS ANGELE S 556-558 South Hope Street • - - - Los Angeles, California O N L Y O N E D O L L A R A
DON’T FA IL TO READ THIS PAGE ! A PRACTICAL PROPOSITION . . Insure Your Investments For The Lord You are entitled to know WHERE and HOW your money is used in the Lord ’s work. AVOID ALL WILD CAT CALLS The world is the field. The work is definite. What the Lord has laid upon your heart to do with your funds you should have the joy o f doing, and we will gladly help you to do this by giving you 'the benefit o f our years o f experience in studying the world field, the work and the workers. We are in touch with missionary enterprises in this and other lands, where loyal-hearted men and women are laboring with unfeigned faith in the whole Word o f Hod, and with unfailing devotion to the souls o f the lost. Don’ t waste a penny! Make it go as far and as fast as you can in the saving o f souls out o f a ruined world. We will joyfully serve you in the matter without any charge, and put you in touch with dependable agents and agencies. Write us for any desired particulars. A good investment may be a foe o f the best. OPPORTUNITY SPELLS OBLIGATION
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E 3 E 3 E 3 B IBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES. T. C. Horton, Superintendent.
T HE fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the ju d g ments of the L ord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Mo reover by them is thy servant w arned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. a » 4 »
THE Bible Number This is the Bible Number of The King’s Business.
The Bible is “ the Jesus Book” . It has one great central theme—one great message to men. There are ten thousand strings to the Bible harp, but every note from every string is in perfect harmony and attuned to one word —JESUS! That is the exalted Name. That is the theme. ' God has ordained that in due time He will pronounce the name of Jesus and then every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to thé glory of God the Father. The Bible is one Book, with one theme, one message, one purpose,—the exaltation of the last Adam to the place of King of kings and Lord of lords. Hold the Old Testament to your ear and listen. It says—“ He is com ing.” Hold the New Testament to your ear and it says, “ He is coming.” The Bible pulses and vibrates with the sweet song—JESUS ! It is the oldest book in the world. It reaehes back in its story beyond the shores of the delugé and touches the day-dawn of creation. You can hear the sons of God shouting for joy. The story of seven millenniums is told, and then, beyond, the new heavens and the new earth break upon our vision. Blessed Book—claiming its birthright as God’s infallible Word; chal lenging assault from every foe ; changeless in its message ; undimmed in its lustre; the one safe, sane source of Divine wisdom for the children of men in their earthly journey ; the Bible ! Wonderful Book ! Search its pages. Send it on its mission of grace and glory to the ends of the earth. Stand for it ! Stand by it ! For it is indeed THE JESUS BOOK. —T. C. H*. B r ea d and Meat “ You should not eat bread with meat.” Thus says the doctor. The vegetarian says, “ You should never eat meat.” One health specialist says, “ Never drink while you are eating” , and another says, “ Drink all you please. ’ ’
436 THE K I N G ’ S B US I NE S S We are in the hands of our friend, the enemy. What shall we do with sp many doctors to doctor us? Those were good old days when we didn t know so much, just had a good appetite and never missed a meal. Just followed the injunction of the Bible, “ Eat what is set before you, asking ho questions for conscience’s sake” , and we had no conscience! Between the food doctors and the fool doctors who are handling the Bible, we are in a mess all the time. What shall we eat? What shall we believe ? Now the Bible makes some claims for itself along the dietary line. It says the Word of God is milk, good for babies; therefore, give it to your children. There is plenty of cream in it and it will make them grow. It is also meat, strong meat, makes men and women, puts red blood into their veins. Eat heartily of it and take time to digest it, and you can laugh at the critics and grow fat. Jesus is in the Book and He says He is the Bread of Life and also the Water of Life, and “ If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink.” Why go a second time to hear a lecture given by one of these new-fangled divinity doctors with their shorter Bibles* their mouldy bread of stale, threadbare theories, and their dried goat’s meat? “ Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” (Isa. 55:2). “ He that 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. This is that bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.” (John 6:56-58). This is the kind of food that produced martyrs. The other makes mountebanks. —T. C. H. ’ ^1^. ^>4. M MONET and Men The Interchurch Movement has been wonderfully successful in securing subscriptions by the millions, and if these subscriptions were all to be paid in cold cash into the treasury today, what would be done with the money? Where are the men to do the work? We mean the real work of the church; the work committed to the church to d o ; the giving of the Gospel to the perishing multitudes. Of course there are plenty of people who could use the money in social service; in establishing and maintaining pink teas, oyster suppers, banquets, lectures, entertainments, movies, gymnasiums, etc., but we are talking about the Great Commission from the Great Commissioner; about the Gospel of grace and glory for dying men. Where are the men? There is an appalling shortage for present need. There are thousands of vacant churches throughout the land, and there are great barren fields
THE K I N G ’ S B U S I NE S S 437 with no one to care for the souls therein. There is a tremendous growth in the population of this land and of the world. Where are the men? Who is to go? . The ministry has no strong appeal to young men. The theological semi naries are able to offer big inducements to young men to enter their walls. Young men need not worry about financial help if they want to go to a seminary. But, somehow, there is-something lacking, and the young men of the churches have no appetite for the job. Thousands of these young men have been in the army and have acquired something of the soldier spirit, and a mutilated Bible, and a garnished, glossified message, composed of glittering generalities, has no appeal to Them and would never draw them away from a Sunday baseball game or a real movie-picture stunt. If there is no authoritative Word of God; no definite, heart-searching, conscience-stirring message; no defining of God’s plan for the children of men; no warning of the fires of eternal hell for the wicked,—why should young men be interested? Why should they not say—as they do—“ Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die?” , , l Where are the men? Men who will be loyal to the whole Word of God? Who will be loyal to the crucified Christ whose shed blood is the only sufficient atonement for the sins of men? Who will be willing to go up against, the tide of indifference in the world, unbelief in the church and infidel teaching in the schools; go out against the sophistry, the skepticism, and the seductive Satanic teaching so rampart everywhere? Where are the men? Not men looking for a job, but red-blooded men, men with the spirit of the martyrs with a call from the risen Christ, to take up His cross,—npt a
A Vacant Lot
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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I NE S S mythical cross, nor a silver or gold cross to wear on a chain,—but the hated cross against which rulers rail and chief priests pronounce, and the multi tudes malign; the cruel cross where there are nails and blood and spear thrusts,—to take up such a cross and follow Him ! You cannot get many such men from the schools and seminaries now, for there men are confronted at every turn with question marks concerning the verity of God’s'Word, and the need of an atonement; there the atmos phere is perfumed with theories of the Fatherhood of God and the Brother hood of man; there it is “ milk and water” rather than “ iron and blood.” If we are to have men they must come from the school from which God-called the prophets, and from which Christ called His disciples; the school where faith lays hold of the prophetic Word and where the heart is laid^ against the heart of our Lord, and where from that heart has been imbibed the sympathy and compassion that compel a glad following to the uttermost parts of the earth with a Gospel of good news to the lost, a mes sage of salvation by grace to the lowly and to the lowest. , Money,—yes ! •Money to burn. But men,—alas, where are the men to come from? Men ready to bum if need he, bum at the stake? —T. C. H. as afe N oisy Nothings A man sought to contract with a hotel-keeper to deliver to him a car load of frog’s hind legs. It was more than the manager could think of using. “ Well,” said the man, “ I will bring you a hundred dozen.” But even that was too many. They finally compromised upon a dozen of dozens. When the frog-catcher returned he had secured a half dozen hind legs, and reported that he had seined the pond and finally drained it, and the'result was only the half dozen. He had thought from the noise they made that the pond was full. What a lot of noise the “ HIGHER CRICKETS” make! You would think from the fuss and feathers that they had discovered a new frog pond. You need not be afraid to contract with them for a carload of.mistakes and errors in the Bible. They can never make delivery. It is always the same old Jonah story, and the question of where did Cain get his wife. What a lot of noise they do make f But have you ever noticed that they never de liver the goods? Mary Baker Eddy said a brilliant thing and very apropos in this connection,—although she meant it for truth, “ The nothingness of nothing is nothing!’ ’ Meditate on it. __T. C. H. m m m OUIJAMANIA The ouija board is on the boom. The devil is certainly working over time, yes, all the time. He is working hard in the schools and churches, and won’t even let his followers go in peace to perdition, but is setting them crazy. Twelve hundred people in a little town in California,—El Cerrito__ are said to he subject to examination as to their sanity, following an epi-
THE K I N G ' S B U S I NE S S 439 demic of ouijamania. Three women and one fifteen-year-old girl spent twenty-four hours at a stretch over the ouija hoard and were committed to the State Hospital for the Insane. It is said by city authorities that sacrifices to the ouija board were made daily, and in one instance $700.00 in bills were burned to the evil spirits when children in the same house were starving. By order of the ouija board the'hair of the children was clipped, and when the police broke into the room they were about to have important revelations from them. "Was this in our country? Yes,—in the United States of America, Twentieth Century, and sunny California! Sir Oliver Lodge has certainly served the devil well in his trip to this country, and while he is too big to fool with the ouija board, he is small enough to play into the hands of the devil and make many people believe a devil’s lie. We are just in the beginning of the ouija business. The harvest is not yet. But there is one grain of comfort. The pastor of the Roman Catholic church in an adjoining city has advised his parishioners to abstain from the ouija board during Lent! — T. C. H. .$»£. ■£¥■£- B lessed Witk a Bible Visiting a very godly woman some time ago who had been sick for a long time, it was learned that a certain Christian Scientist had been urging her to take up Science. Finally a book was left and she was asked to read it. After the Scientist had gone, the invalid said: “ Now, Lord, if you want me to read this book and take up Christian Science, just show me.” Then she took from the table THE BOOK and opening it her eye fell on Jer. 51:63, which reads: “ And it shall be when thou hast made an end to the reading of . this book, that thou shalt bind it to a stone and cast it into the ' midst of the Euphrates.” It’s a good thing to have a Bible handy. Many people would have been spared the sorrow which has come to them from following cunningly devised fables had they gone to the Bible. The Lord never directed any one into Eddyism, but the Word of the Lord has brought many a one out of it. —T. C. H. ■Wi, ¿ste, J ohn weslets Epitaph Over the grave of John Wesley words were written that Methodists ought never to forget. His epitaph says he was raised up of God to ‘ ‘revive, enforce and defend pure apostolic doctrine and practices of the primitive church. ’ ’ Wesley taught specifically: (1) The spread of the Gospel as a testi mony to all nations. (2) An apostasy already at work in Christendom and to be more developed. (3) The literal restoration of Israel to their own land. (4) That the revelation of the antichrist would precede the second advent. (5) That it is the duty of the church to observe the signs of the
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THE K I N G ’ S B US I NE S S time. (6) The visible personal coming of the Lord. (7) The establish- ment ot the millennial kingdom with Christ’s second coming and the re moval of the curse. (8) A transfiguration of the planet into a new earth Concerning the truth of the Second Coming, Wesley’s word to Rev Thomas Hartley, rector of Winwick, Northamptonshire, England, concern ing Hartley s book on the millennium and the Lord’s coming, has been pub lished many times. It was this:, • . Your book was lately put into my hands. I cannot but thank you tor your strong and seasonable confirmation of that comfortable doctrine of which I cannot entertain the least doubt as long as I believe the Bible. ’ ’ . , The very foundations 0f the Methodist Church were laid deep* in the faith of the primitive, apostolic and martyr church. That the great Bible doctrines dear to Wesley’s heart, preached and defended by him and at- tested by the blood of martyrs, should be opposed by Christian men is one ot the astounding developments, in the so-called progress of the church. What a conflagration of holy fervor and soul winning would sweep over the churches if the faith that kindled the souls of the two Wesleys Fletcher, Coke, and the Oxford Methodists should really he revived once more. Would to God that the millennial songs of Charles Wesley, Watts, Heber, Montgomery and others of later times might resound again in every church and camp ground to the praise of the coming King. As Wesley “ Lo, He comes with clouds descending, Once for favored sinners slain. Thousand thousand saints attending, Swell the triumph of His train. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, God appears on earth to reign.” —K. L. B. ¿Mfc .$!£. Jsk JÉ? Êè R eligious Fits (and Misfits) A friend wrote us some time ago of the apparent failure of an evange- - listie campaign in his town due largely to the fact that one of the leading pastors publicly expressed his disbelief in revivals and stated that in his opinion a revival was “ a religious fit.” A second pastor in the same town completely froze up. What an influence upon the flock over which the Holy Ghost made them overseers! That pastor who tries to hinder the work of soul saving because he does not subscribe to some of the Gospel truths which most evangelists preach, will have something to answer for. A man’s wife died, so the story goes. In driving to the cemetery the hearse ran into a tree. As a result of the jolt the woman is said to have come to life. She lived a whole year and died the second time. The same undertaker applied for the job of conducting the funeral. The husband replied (according to the story), “ I cannot employ you. You are alto- a it0° care*es? a driver.” What some preachers seem to want, if they will tolerate a revival at all, is an evangelist who would drive a dead church to the cemetery without waking up the corpse. __K. L. B.
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T he words of Christ The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: “ If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, EVEN THE "WORDS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, and to the- doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing. ” (1 Tim. 6:3-5). _ _ *n n The final commission of Jesus Christ was, “ Go ye therefore and TEACH all nations * * * teaching them to observe ALL THINGS "WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU.” (Matt. 28:19-20). And was not this com mission renewed in the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:8) when Jesus said, “ Ye shall be WITNESSES UNTO ME, both in Jeru salem, and in all Judea and unto the UTTERMOST PART OF THE EARTH?” Previously Jesus had said, “ The Comforter, which is the. Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, shall bring all things tq your remembrance, WHATSOEVER I HAVE SAID UNTO YOU.” It seems strange that any question should arise as to WHAT TEACH INGS were referred to by Jesus, or as to what dispensation it was in which He intended these teachings to be promulgated. The Church has always emphasized the teachings of Jesus as set forth in the Gospels, and up to but a very few years ago, there was no thought of eliminating, these teach ings as not directly applicable to the present age. All the old commen taries, while taking into consideration the intermediate character of the four Gospels because of their falling between the dispensations of Law and Grace, apply Jesus’ teachings directly to the Church. Naturally the Bible student would view all Jesus’ teachings in the light of the work of the Cross m which the Gospels culminate, and in the light of the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower believers to carry out all that Jesus requires. Indeed, it would seem that Jesus requires nothing that is not re-emphasized in: the Epistles, and certainly the “ fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22-23) embraces everything in the Sermon on the Mount. The warning we are seeking to sound is simply this Beware of the lazy man’s attempt to consign to the Jews everything that galls the flesh in the teachings of Jesus, and be slow to try to slide out .from under the Sermon on the Mount by letting it drip off your umbrella onto the Mil lennial age. The Sermon on the Mount closes with the words: “ WHOSOEVER heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. # * * And EVERY ONE that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.” (Matt. 7 :24-27). This final warning is directed to “ WHOSOEVER” and “ EVERY ONE.” The writer does not care to be among those who say that “ whosoever” and “ every one” in this passage has reference only to the Jews in another dispensation for then we could not consistently say that “ whosoever” in John 3:16 and many other passages embraces Jew and Gentile, bond or free. The distinctly Jewish application of some things Jesus said, we do not seek to deny. That some statements have reference to oriental conditions and customs of the time, is doubtless true. That some of Jesus’ sayings partake of the spirit of the age of Law in which He was ministering and which He was bringing to a close, is evident. That some difficulties are
442 THE K I N G ' S B U S I NE S S due to hazy translation is more and more evident. Beyond this, may the Lord help us to be cautious, for it was Jesus who said: “ If a man love me,' he will KEEP MY WORDS.” “ The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” —K. L. B. IS DEMON Possession Possible? The papers have recently been reporting the experiments of a French Doctor, M. Mangin, a specialist in psychotherapy, in the case of a woman who for seven years has been suffering from a sort of anti-religious mania. The sight of a church or any sight or sound connected with religion, or any thing that suggested Christ or God to her would bring on attacks of violence in which she would tremble violently and sometimes faint. Doctors whom her husband consulted gave up the case, when Mangin began to experiment. He conceived the idea of transfering the woman’s malady, with all its painful manifestations to someone else who was so constituted that they could cast off the malady. He picked out a woman of peculiar temperament, easily susceptible to suggestion, and the young woman consented to the experi ment. She was put to sleep with the afflicted woman holding her hand. A short time afterward a remarkable transference took place; a fit of agonizing convulsions seized the young woman, while the patient grasped the doctor’s hand and assured him with much emotion that the mania had left her. The other woman threw herself in a frenzy to the floor, beating her head and crying out as the patient had formerly done. The doctor made soothing sug gestions to her until she returned to sleep, and when she awoke, she was in a normal mental condition. The erstwhile patient has since found herself able to attend church without any distressing symptoms. Dr. Mangin admits he does not know what force was responsible for the cure and makes no pretense of interpreting the facts. Is any better demonstration needed of the reality of demon possession? No one can doubt that Jesus Christ taught the reality of demons in men and science does not disprove. Some specialists in insanity have expressed the belief that certain patients in the asylums were possessed by a personality not their own. Jesus Christ distinguished between disease and demon pos session and treated them differently. Demon possessed persons usually shrieked in terror of Jesus and when He cast out demons, the persons relieved of them are recorded as acting very similar to the young woman info whose body the evil power was transferred. What became of the demons, we do not know, but the young woman who submitted to the experiment may not have finished her story as yet. —K. L; B.
SERMONS REMARKABLE REMARKS GATHERED FOR BU SY READERS SliWWW9W?W?W??W9y?WWW9999W99W9W999W9^^^^^99WW99W999999999999999W9W99?99999999W99W999999^
Christianity has suffered little from those who bear not the name of Christ. It has suffered,much from those who do. The secret of a Christian’s life is to walk upon a narrow path with a wide heart. The true Christian is like the figure 6. Turning it upside down only in creases its value. The puddle does not contain the heavens, but it reflects them. Can we not reflect the Master’s image? The Bible, like the star, was not meant to dispel the darkness, but it was meant to guide the mariner. The most helpful commentary on the Bible is affliction. Literature is a gymnasium. Go there to stir up the blood. The Bible is a pantry. Go there for something to eat. Higher criticism is a torrent which, rising in the mountain, may be harm less to the mountain, but it is sure to bring devastation to the valley. It is much easier to die bravely for religion than to live bravely for it. Men are religious naturally. They are Christians supernaturally. It may cost you a lot to be a Chris tian now. It will cost you a heap more later not to be. In the street you learn a man’s man ners; at home, his breeding; at church, his creed; in the shop, his religion. To be on the way to heaven is to be already partly in heaven. Some men use their religion only as a life preserver; only during a storm. Men are clamoring for “ religious lib erty” . What they really want is irre ligious liberty. Eternal life may be gained only by
recognizing Christ. It may be lost sim ply by ignoring Satan. That is true Christianity which en ables even the poor to become givers and even the rich to become receivers. The evidences of Christianity which were never meant to be out of print are the lives of Christians. To see earth, open your eyes. To see heaven, shut them. In the early centuries Christianity suffered most from its avowed enemies. In reeent years it suffers most from its professed friends. No binding to the Bible is lasting that is not sewn together with scarlet thread. Religion is man forcing himself upon God. Christianity is God implanting Himself in man. We are all black, only some are bleached blacks. The anchor of the Christian’s hope is cast upward not downward. Christians are living far too much in the newspapers and far too little in the Bible. ' / The everyday Christian has seven chances to the Sunday fellow’s one. The church, is full of willing people. Some are willing to work and others are.willing to let them. Some believe in a very great God in Nature but a very little God in Grace. Set the pillow of God’s promises be tween your back and your burdens. It is far better to have your bank in heaven than to have your heaven in a bank. How much good talent is lost in the church, merely for the want of a lit tle courage! What most people need in their work is not more brains, but more pains.
Tke Bible in tke
Ligkt o f tke Bible What tke Bible Says About Itself, and tke Scriptural Waÿ of Studying It. Address Given at Bible Institute. • By DR. A . C . D IXON
John 5:39; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; 2 Pet. 1:9.
Scriptures” meant, a body of writings marked off from all other writings as inspired and authoritative, what we have from Genesis through Maiachi, the Old Testament writings. It is interest ing to trace in them their own history. God said to Moses, “ write a book” and we have the record that he wrote the book, and the Levites placed it beside the ark of the covenant, if not within it. Just what material he used in writ ing that book I don’t know. He wrote a part of it upon stone. He might have used the papyrus plant, or linen cloth, such as I have seen wrapping -mummies in the British Museum, al most as fresh in appearance as if it had been woven fifty years ago in a New England loom, 4000 years old! He might have used vellum, the skin of animals; but whatever he used, he wrote that book of the law. And it does not strain my faith a bit to be lieve that the very manuscript that Moses wrote was in the hands of Joshua, the very manuscript that Moses wrote Josiah found in the Temple a thousand years afterwards, right where it sometimes gets lost today, and that very manuscript may have been in the hands of Ezra as he read from the pul pit of wood, a great revival the result; and the same manuscript might have been in the hands of the translators 280 years before Christ when they rendered the Old Testament scriptures from the ^Hebrew and Chaldean into the Greek. I have seen two manuscripts older than
?E BIBLE is like the sun; you can study it only in its own light. You cannot study the sun in the light of the moon or the stars, much less of an electric light or a candle. The moon, the
stars, and even the candle light have their places; they are useful, but not useful as substitutes for the sun, and there are other books that are useful, but all of them together are not use ful as a substitute for the Bible. When you read another Book, bring it into the light of the Bible, not the Bible into the light of that. A friend said to me, “ I have just read a book which has thrown immense light on the Bible.” I hastened to buy it, and I had not gone into it 50 pages until I saw that the Bible thre,w a thousand times more light on that book than it did on the Bible. We will now look at this sun in the heavens in its own light. Out of these three Scriptures comes a four-fold definition, a synthetic defini tion, “ Search the Scriptures,” and an analytic definition, “ every Scripture is God-breathed,” a utilitarian definition, “ every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable,” and then, the climax of it all, a comparative definition, “ we have a more sure word of prophecy” . A Synthetic Definition “ Search the Scriptures.” Every Jew to whom Jesus spoke knew what “ the
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that, the Alexandrian manuscript in the British Museum and the Vatican manu script at Rome. And it is interesting to note the arks in which God has kept His Book, the ark of the manuscripts, 3800 of them, the ark of the translations, the ark of the quotations, and the ark of the heart of God’s people. So I think we have a general definition of the Scriptures out of this setting. Literature written at the command of God, by men chosen of God, under the guidance of God, and preserved by the Providential care of God. I believe the Bible is not only in spired in the writing but inspired in the keeping, that God inspired men to write it and then He has kept it in His arks of safety all down the centuries. The Analytic Definition “ Every Scripture is God-breathed,” breathed out from God and has in it the breath of God, for “ the breath is the Life.” This Book is alive, alive with the life of God. And we ought to be very careful how we cut up live things, even live plants, certainly live animals, and live men. There ought to be reverence for life and especially for the life of God. “ All Scripture is God-breathed.” But are there not some things in it that are not inspired? Didn’t the devil say, “ All that a man hath will he give for his life” ? and millions of young men have proved that to be a lie. But the fact that the' old liar said just that is God-breathed, and what Judas said is God-breathed in the sense that every word of it is recorded just as it was spoken. I have been greatly interested lately in studying the interpolations. You know how they got in. When'there was no printing and scribes copied the manuscripts, now and then one would put in his own comment on the margin and the next scribe that copied it would bring that into the text, and we have to: trace it back through the manuscripts. You will find a sentence or two of that
kind in the 8th chapter of Acts, another in the 3rd chapter of John. But I found this: that everyone of those in terpolations of any importance are sub stantially Scripture. That is, the scribe in copying, seems to have said, “ I re member something just like this at an other place,” and he puts it down in the margin. It is an echo of Scripture that he has read elsewhere, and the only thing that answers to the higher critic’s definition of the Bible, “ it contains the Word of God” on the interpolations. If therefore you tell a man that the King James version, the English Scriptures, is the word of God, you are not very far wrong. In the autograph manu scripts, word for word, it is God’s in spired truth; but even the interpola tions have in them the truth of Scrip tures. Utilitarian Definition All Scripture is “ God-breathed and profitable.” Profitable . for eight things, that we can barely mention: (1) Profitable “ for doctrine” , for teaching, for creed. Creed is a definite statement of what a man believes, and can there be any harm in making a defi nite statement of what you believe, if you believe anything? But a man said to me, “ I have no creed and I glory in a Christianity without a creed.” I soon found he had a creed and a very nar row one at that. His creed was that you ought not to have a creed, his con viction was that no one should have a conviction, his belief was that you need not believe, and he was so intense in his creed against all creeds that he be came really bigoted. He became so broad that he could not endure any one who was not as broad as he. Creed is character. Tell me what a man really believes and I will tell you what he is. Not what he does. He may do things mechanically, but he cannot believe me chanically. He can hold opinions me chanically, but a man’s creed is his character; and if he believes nothing,
THE K I N G ' S B U S I NE S S while the Bible just lives on. In Paris there is a literary morgue where scien tific theories, which had their day, now dead, are laid out for inspection. I was charmed, when in college, with the atomic theory. The old professor in chemistry would sit there with his big glasses on and talk about atoms as if he had seem atoms all his life; and if you asked him, if he ever saw an atom, he would have to tell you “No.” Did anybody ever see an atom? Any micro scope strong enough to reveal an atom? No; and yet he would give us the most intricate formulae about atoms that would make our heads ache as we went into the examination room. Now my son, who has recently come out of the university, tells me that my atomic theory is in the morgue. There was an other theory that simply fascinated me. We called it the “ Nebular Hypothesis” . It was a wonderful theory. Away back in the distant past, Kant said, all the material world was in a rarified, gas eous, homogeneous state, so thin that it took a million cubic miles to weigh a grain. My! didn’t that get thin? Can you think of anything thinner than that? The very thinness of it fasci nated me, and held me spellbound; but now, my son tells me, that dear old ‘‘nebular hypothesis” is dead and in the morgue. Something else has come in to take its place. Well, while other books and theories are born, live, die and get into the morgue, this old Bible lives right on (Amen). While men try to put it into the morgue, it puts them in. Voltaire said he would have it in the morgue in less than one hundred years; Voltaire is in the morgue, while the Bible lives on. The Inquisition said they would have it in the morgue; the Inquisition is in the morgue, while the Bible lives on. All the men and all the institutions that have tried to put it in the morgue are themselves in the morgue, while the Bible lives and will live forever.
446 he is nothing. Just show me a man that really believes nothing, and you have nothing on two feet with two eyes and two hands and a mouth walking around. He is something just in pro portion as he believes something; and, if he has no creed, he has no character. (2) Profitable for “ reproof” . There is no thought of rebuke in that word. You get your bricks for your wall of creed out of the Bible, and then you can take the Bible as a plumb line and drop it down beside the wall to see whether or not your wall of creed is straight. (3) Profitable for “ correction” . The plumbline may show that the wall is crooked, but cannot straighten it. But the word “ correction” has in it the thought of straightening the wall, when it finds it to be crooked. The Bible not only shows that your creed is crooked but straightens it. There are good things in creeds written by uninspired men, but correct your creed by the standard Book. Get what God has said and work that into the wall of your creed; then try it by the plumb line of revelation, and whenever you see that the wall is crooked, straighten it by the Word of God. (4) Profitable for “ instruction in righteousness” . There is instruction in history, in poetry, in science, but the Bible’s specialty is righteousness. The only book that is up-to-date and beyond date on all subjects is the Bible. The critics told us thirty years ago that the Bible was mistaken when it said Sargon was king of Assyria, no such person in history. But within the last 25 years the spade and the shovel have brought to lights tablets of the biography and record of the reign of Sargon.' So you see the Bible was 2000 years ahead of the professors in the universities. It took them 2000 years to catch up with it. And I have been surprised to no tice books that in their day were stan dard works have died and are buried,
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than what? Peter said, “ I was on the mount of Transfiguration, I s&w the majesty of God, I beheld His Glory, and I heard His voice when He said ‘This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’ ” More certain than the voice of God, spoken from the cloud in the midst of the glory, is the prophecy of ■Scripture. Have you not heard it said and have you not felt, “ If I could just hear the voice of God out of the sky, if I could see a flash from heaven, if God Himself should speak to me with His own voice and let me see His own glory as He speaks, to be sure I would believe” ? No, Peter says “ though I saw that glory, I beheld that majesty and I heard that voice, a more certain prophecy than that is in the Writings.” You can imitate voice and glory more easily than Scriptures. If God should speak to you out of the skies, if He should give you a glimpse of the glqry and majesty in these days of electric light and clairvoyance and all that, somebody might imitate it, the devil himself might imitate it; but he cannot imitate the Scriptures. More certain, than the voice of God from the sky amid the glory of God is the writing in the Book. Do you know that the sky is filling with clouds? Some of our colleges and universities and seminaries are cloud- manufacturers. God help us! Some of our pulpits have also been turned into cloud manufacturies, and instead of pointing to the sky they are cover ing the sky with clouds of doubt and shutting out the Morning Star from the souls of the people. This convention and these Bible schools are God’s great movement over the world for the ban ishing of the clouds and bringing out the sky with the Morning Star heralding the sunrise of the coming glory.
(5) Profitable for character-build ing. “ That the man of God may be complete.” If you want to be a man or a woman symmetrical and complete, you must get that completion and sym metry through studying the Bible. It will make your head and your heart just the right size. If you study other books only, if you don’t mind your head will get too big; but the Bible gives you such things to think as infinity, immensity, eternity, immortality— great thoughts, that expound and strengthen the mind as you think them. If you think only after other books, you will find yourself narrow in heart and sym pathy, but think along the line of this Book, and you become as broad in sym pathy as “ the Son of Man” , with a heart big enough to take in the whole world. (6) Profitable for equipment. “ Thor oughly furnished, unto all good works.” Studying about the Bible is good, but studying the Bible itself will give you the. equipment for service, which you can get in no other way. (7 ). Profitable for assurance. “ Search the Scripture, for in them ye think ye have eternal life.” You have eternal life in Christ, but all your think ing about it is in the Book. “ Think” is stronger than hope, or believe. “ In them ye “ think” , every part of your mental being is brought into action. Life is in Christ but assurance of life is in the Book; and if you will depend upon the Scriptures for your knowl edge of eternal life you may have the assurance of salvation all the time. (8) Profitable „for testimony. “ They are they that testify of me.” As you study the Book everything in it turns into the face of Jesus. Its great pur pose from beginning to end is to reveal Christ. The Comparative Definition Now we come to what I think is the climax text: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy.” More sure
The page opposite the first editorial-
did you read it?
Rightly Handling
The W ord o f God
A Warning of the Danger of Going Astra;? From the Bible in the Midst of all Our Orthodox^. By REV. JO H N M A C NEIL
for if you leave out any little leader, you will hear about it, and you will be sorry for it. Inside of our own ranks, one of the dangers today is this word “ Leadership” . I hear the word often, oftener than I want to hear it. I have no jealousy, and may God send us gifted men, who are large of heart and wide in their views. But they should be humble men, or they should not be leaders, and the conspicuous thing about them should be their self-efface ment and their modesty. And David saicl unto all the assembly of Israel, “ If it seem good unto ‘you, and if it be of Jehovah, our God.” God mentioned last— a mere splash of piety, to turn a phrase, to give the thing a religious flavor. For we are a religious people, and we must put it in some way ’ to make it devout looking. Just think of it; Captains of thousands and of hundreds and every leader, and if it seemed good to them and if it be of Jehovah our God! Bring God in at the end. God won’t have it! We cannot cheat God! No amount of seeming de voutness even among His own Israel Can put Him off. Now, instead of consulting with cap tains of thousands and of hundreds and with every leader, if dear old David liad only turned up the Book of Exodus! If he had only turned up Exodus, or Num bers, or Deuteronomy, instead of con sulting with all these people, when he went to move the ark. But he got into this wave of enthusiasm— and while David was the means of writing some
)W there is one passage here that just helps me to say what I want to say in de fense of the Bible. It is that well known passage, I Chronicles 13, where David and all of them went around so unanimously, so harmoniously and so enthusiastically, and— “ consulted with the captains of hundreds and thousands, even with every leader. And David said unto’ all the assembly of Israel, ‘If it seem gopd untò you and if it be unto Jehovah, our God, let us send abroad everywhere unto all our brethren that are left in ah the land of Israel, with whom the priests are in their cities that have suburbs that they may gather them selves unto us; and let us bring again the ark of our God to us; for we sought not unto it in the days of Saul. And all the assembly said that they would do so,'for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. So David#assem bled all the people together from the Shihor thè brook of Egypt, even unto the entrance of Ham ath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath- jearim.’ ” Now, we all know how God inter rupted this great unanimous mood. Let us see if we cannot find out some reason for what happened so markedly. Can we not find some “ Little rift within the lute at the beginning, that by and by will make the music mute.” Of course, we all know how the story goes on. There is a dead man on the road. Then we have David angry, and then David frightened, and the music stopped, and the ark hustled into the nearest house that would take it. We will go back to the beginning, and we find that David consulted with the captains of thousands and of hun dreds, and even with every leader. And remember, if you are going along that line, you had better do it thoroughly,
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grand things in the Bible, in this case he was the means of writing a chapter of shame. God will take no substitute for His own Word, and if He would not take it of His dear delightful David, do you think He is going to take it from you and me? Neglect of the Bible—He wouldn’t take it from David. All the "while the Bible was being neglected, ignored, we have this enthusiasm, this shouting, this unanimity—what you would call here in the United States, “ hot air” , This is the judgment of God upon “ hot air” . Thus we see how we can so easily go astray. If a movement is popular, we are apt to take that popularity as, “ Thus saith the Lord” , and to think that it is as good as the Bible. But it is not— and God won’t have it. And did David say that God was nar row and fitful and capricious, and the kind of Being that you never know when you have Him and when you have not got Him; and when you mean to do your best for Him, as this people did, He was arbitrary and unjust? The ark was a very sacred symbol, more sacred than any smoking altar, being symbolical of the very presence of Jehovah in the midst of the people. And it looks as if God were a Being you never can be sure of. But it is about us that God never can be sure. I de clare, it looks as if, to speak with rev erence, He never knows where we are going to break out next in a wrong place. Thank God for His Word. For where would we be without it. And even with it, how we can contrive to go astray. My message to you is, “ Take care that with all our seeming orthodoxy, we may still not be sound about the Bible and depart from it in ways that grieve and anger the Holy One of Israel as David did.” Yet, “ all the congregation said that they would do this thing, for it was right in the eyes of all the people.”
And so by a unanimous, enthusiastic resolution they went about it, and the wrath of Jehovah was kindled. Re member, God’s anger is always right eous, holy, without a trace of sin, the same as His love, absolutely. “ So David gathered all Israel together—to bring the ark of God. And David went up and all Israel to bring up thence the ark of God Jeho- vaiT i , ^ sitteth between the cherubim, that is called by the Name. And they carried the Ark of God and brought it out of the house of Abinadab; and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart. And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs and with harps and with psalteries; and timbrels and cymbals and with trumpets.” What a fine illustration this is of “ hot air” . Let us beware of false en thusiasm— and I am going to say, of false unanimity. ' And take care about some certain unions, that are so much heralded. Let us all fall on each other’s necks and let us have a great Union! And if there are differences in our creeds— “ Oh, bother the creeds — never mind the creeds, if we are all right in our hearts.” Take care now, that may be “ hot air” , and there may be things in creeds. Our fathers loved them, but our fathers did not make them, and if our fathers got them from God, we must not play ducks and drakes with them, or God will be of fended. “When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzza and he smote him because he put forth his hand to the ark, and there he died before God.” There is something in that verse that always strikes me as characteristic of the Bible, and that is how the Bible runs everything up into God’s hand. It is a daring book. It has a philosophy that is positively sublime. Sublime in its daring. It runs everything up into God’s hands, even the devil. I grow more Cal- vinistic every year, in spite of myself. Run everything up into God and wait. He will clear Himself when He is judged, and that day is coming. Listen to that verse: “ The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza and he smote him because he put forth his hand to the ark; and there he died before God.” The
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down his brows at that dead man. Why should anyone be smitten, when we all meant so well, and we were all so en thusiastic, and all so unanimous, and it was in honor of God—why should any body be smitten? And so men have always gathered around our “ dead man in the road” — . Christ Jesus. They have gathered around the Cross, and like David they have pulled down their brows, and said, “Why should anybody be smitten?” Royal brows in philosophy, royal brows in literature, and royal brows in science are pulled down when they meet the Cross— and “ Why should anyone be smitten?” Why can’t God take us any way we like, and why should there be any “ thus saith the Lord?” And why should there be any old fogey preachers like you and me quoting chapter and verse? Well, the matter never was straight ened out until David went back to the Bible for his instructions as to how to handle the ark— chapter and verse in structions as to how to handle the ark. If he had gone to them at first this trouble would not have happened. Now, if God will not allow His dear, delightful David to go on ignoring Exo dus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, will He take it from us, do you think? He will not, and He is not taking it. We are suffering and the blessing of God is being withheld from us. The great talk today is about the Fatherhood of God, and they try to get rid of the Cross, and the stricken Man on it. And do you not know, dear friends, that “ Fatherhood” can be just about the weakest, most sentimental slush that you could dream of? Look at David weeping over Absalom, his handsome, abandoned Absalom — “Would God I had died for thee, Absa lom, my son, my son!” Without the Cross, the Fatherhood of God is little more than the Fatherhood of David, weeping over his son— “ Would God I
man who wrote that verse had no doubt at all about the position of God— and he put it in so plainly that you can’t by any twisting take it out. God is not at the Bar, gentlemen. God is'on the Bench. I think this generation is apt to forget this. He is not at the Bar' and His Word is not at the Bar. This Word shall judge us— judges us now. I weuld not take it off the Bench. “He died before God.” Do you think that we have gone past that in these days - of evolution, and that we have changed everything now that our views have become so much broader? The Cross of Christ has done nothing to re lieve that aspect. It has intensified it. It has awful intensity, and I trust we are going to stand up for it in our preaching and in our lives, for things today are getting very soft and sentl- mental, and there is a general idea of making a God really according to soft, sentimental ideas. As I stand over that dead man, I al ways feel inclined to utter a word from Moses. “ He is the Hock. His work is perfect.” And according to. the text that smitten man is God’s work. God’s ways are perfect and without iniquity— just and right— and I love Him, although His Justice and Righteousness might well consume me into nothing. I was trained to love Him on that side as on the other, and I bless God today for the training. For we are getting very sentimental, and today there is a very soft, sugary jube- jube sort of preaching, and all this sort of thing about smiting is to be left out. Now, let us return to this picture— David is angry—was displeased because the Lord smote Uzza, and then David was frightened and said, “ How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?” He had to turn back to the Bible, be cause there was a dead man in the road. 1 Did you ever stop to think that, the whole crux of our Christian religion is the “ dead man in the road?” There is no use in shirking it. David pulled
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