The Bible As A Message ·~ F GOD has spoken to us in the Bible, and E if this Divine revelation is our supreme ~ -». authority, it is of course essential that we e-- . should know its contents, what it says, what it means to us-in a word, its message. That is our present subject-the message of the Bible. And the answer to the question, "\,Vhat is the message of the Bible?" is found in one word: CHRIST. · During the last fifty years quite a number of "Lives" of Christ have been written, representing all sorts of standpoints. I mention only a few of them: Neander, Lange, de Pressense, Geikie, Edersheim, and Farrar, not to go further afield or to deal with more recent works. For the most part these "Lives" are characterized by one feature: they commence at Bethlehem and end at Olivet; but our Lord's life did not begin at Bethlehem, nor did it close with the Ascension. The Life of Christ should cover the whole of the Bible, and this is why I say that the message of the Bible is Christ. Christ is the message of Scripture from beginning to end. Or to use the title of a well-known book by an honored friend (and Friend), Miss Hodgkin: "Christ in all the Scriptures." I have been told that in the British Navy every piece of rope has a red thread run ning through it, so that whenever it is cut at any part, or if any one should happen to help himself to it, it can be proved to belong to the British Navy. Now there is a thread running through the Bible from Genesis to Rev elation, and that thread is Christ; and if we look at the Bible at almost any part, we find traces of that thread, and aspects of that message. But some one may say:
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