King's Business - 1914-04

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THE KING’S BUSINESS

personal witnesses to the teaching of the Old Testament. Any person who can read English or German or French or Latin or Greek or any other tongue of the civilized world can easily ascer­ tain what Jesus Christ and His disci-. pies thought about the Old Tes­ tament. The New Testament is the work of the personal disciples and followers of Jesus Christ. Of course, they become not simply auth­ ors, but witnesses. They do not write from a literary point of view, but as religious leaders and teachersj and in general they sacrificed their property interests, their reputations, their liber­ ties, even their lives in confirmation of the testimony which they gave. If we believe what these men said, we shall accept the Bible in its historic sense. If we look upon the Bible as some of the so-called scholars of our times represent, we shall have a totally different opinion concerning it. His­ torically it will have no value for us. The historic view is absolutely nega­ tived by these alleged scholars. His­ torically the first five books of the Bi­ ble are assigned to Moses. All the witnesses of the nation and of the time when it was beginning its great Work ascribed it to him. After hun­ dreds of years, men of alien race, of alien tongues, of inferior acquaintance with the language, manners, customs, social, political, industrial, religious in­ stitutions of the Hebrew race, under­ take to negative the testimony of the cloud of witnesses who were by place and time and education best qualified to give an opinion. Both in General and in Detail This statement is true both in gen­ eral and in detail. The Bible in its various' portions is discarded as a whole, and the particular doctrines which it teaches are by these same men called in question; e. g., take the birth

this in this book. What we know of Him, we know through this book, and it is idle far beyond the limit of ab­ surdity to talk about the Christian church, the Christian faith as derived from any other source. The Bible a Unit It is equally absurd to speak of the Bible as made up of a large number 01 books of differing value, some of which may be rejected while others are retained. A thoughtful student sees, as he goes forward in Bible study, that while it is made up of parts as other organic beings are, these parts are all related, and each has its im­ portant place in the completed work. Sin; a plan of salvation; the working out of that plan; the end of the plan; this is the plan. A sinless pair in a sinless world; a sinful pair with sin­ ful descendants working out the shames and miseries which have fol­ lowed, which do follow, which will follow sin; a Saviour prophesied; a people separated; a Saviour present; a church begun; the rage of the world; the rage of Satan; the bush burning, but not consumed; the Saviour come again for the glorification of His •church, for the destruction of His ene­ mies, the throne of His father David; the universal empire of the righteous king among his majestical people; this is the Bible. Now, the question is, how shall we think of this book? This question is to be determined by the testimony of witnesses and by the testimony of work. What people say of it, what we see it do; these are the questions which must be answered in order to .get a rational judgment respecting this matter. Jesus Christ and Sir Oliver Lodge Jesus Christ and His disciples are

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