THE K I N G ’ S B US I NE S S
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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,
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