AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURES

We have seen that the Scriptures are Genuine, and Authentic and Inspired. It still remains for us to consider very briefly what reasons we have for regarding them as authoritative on all questions of morals and religion, duty and human conduct. Is the Bible the supreme authority in every matter of spiritual truth vital to the soul in this life? As illuminated by the Spirit, is it the last court of appeal?

We maintain the affirmative, on the following grounds:

1. The miracles of the Bible give its teachings authority. That was their purpose. Pharaoh was to know that God was speaking authoritatively to him through Moses, by the miracles he wrought. When the Children of Israel were led miraculously across the Jordan by Joshua, "On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him as they feared Moses, all the days of his life." The miracles gave his words divine authority.

When Elijah could lock up the skies that there should be neither dew nor rain for three years and six months, it made his message to Ahab authoritative. When he could call fire from the skies he had a right to demand judgment upon the false prophets that were leading the people to their doom.

He who could control the elements supernaturally, had a right to say to a guilty people "Thus saith the Lord." In like manner Jesus could point to His miracles as a proof of His authority. And His apostles after Him, by the signs and wonders they wrought, knew that they had a message from heaven. When a holy prophet or apostle gave valid evidence that he had a message from the Most High, he could with perfect propriety, demand to be heard and obeyed. So the mighty miracles of the Bible, so benevolent and worthy of,God, and so well attested by historic evidence, stamp the Book with Divinity and make its holy sayings and sublime doctrines the voice of God to the heart, from which there is no appeal.

2. Akin to miracles, is prophecy, as an evidence of the authority of the Sacred Word. Prophecy is a miracle of knowledge. It is a declaration or foretelling of some future event, beyond the power of human sagacity to discover or to calculate. Prophecies thus belong to the same category as miracles. They are deviations from the established laws of obtaining knowledge, and their purpose is the same. They are not designed to gratify an idle wonder or a vain curiosity, but for the manifestation of the mind of God and to show His presence and power in human history, for the encouragement and guidance of His creatures. "There is, however," says Field, "one very manifest difference between miracles of power, and miracles of knowledge. The former usually produce the greatest impression upon those who actually witness their occurrence; while prophecy, in the nature of things, makes its strongest appeal to posterity. The evidence of miracles is as full at first as it ever will be; that of prophecy goes on increasing from age to age."

Prophecy to have authoritative value must have four characteristics. 1. There must be evidence that the prophecy was uttered before the event, and was not palmed off as a prophecy after it. 2. That the event was such as could not be conjectured by any human sagacity. 3. That the prophecy should be so full and definite that there could be no chance of accidental coincidence of prediction and event. 4. That the event should have a striking and full correspondence to the prediction, and be so public that it is undeniable.

Such is the nature of a multitude of the Bible prophecies. The prophecies of Moses as to the future fate of Israel given in Deuteronomy 28, hundreds of years afterward came true so literally as to fill the soul with awe that meditates upon it.

The destruction of Nineveh was foretold by Nahum (3), and the destruction of Babylon was foretold by Isaiah (13), and Ezekiel (31), and the destruction of Tyre by Jeremiah (47), and Zechariah (9) when these cities were in the height of power and prosperity, and none but the omniscient mind could foresee their downfall. The succession of the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian and the Roman Empires, and other historic events far down the centuries, were foretold by Daniel with surprising accuracy and minuteness of detail. No wonder infidels hate and try to undermine the book of Daniel! They have reason to.

But "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." He and His kingdom are the great themes of prophetic vision. (1) He was to be the seed of the woman that was to bruise the serpent's head. (2) He was to be of the seed of Abraham. (3) He was to be of the Tribe of Judah. (4) Of the House of David. "There shall be a Root of Jesse." "I will raise unto David a righteous Branch." Isa. 11: 10 and Jer. 33: 5, 6. (5) He was to be born in Bethlehem, Micah 4: 2. (6) He was to be born while the second temple was still standing. Hag. 2: 7, 9. Dan. 9: 24. The time of His coming was so accurately foretold that even profane historians tell us that the coming of a great person was expected. (7) He was to be preceded by a remarkable person resembling Elijah. Mal. 3: 1, 4: 5 and Isa. 40: 3. (8) He was to work miracles. Isa. 35: 5, 6. (9) He was to have a public entry into Jerusalem. Zech. 9: 9. (10) He was to be rejected of His own countrymen. Isa. 8: 14. (11) He was to be despised and rejected of men. Isa. 53:2, 3. (12) He was to be scourged and mocked. Isa. 50: 6. (13) His hands and feet were to be pierced. Psa. 22: 16. (14) He was to be numbered with transgressors. Isa. S3: 12. (IS) He was to be mocked and reviled. Ps. 22: 7, 8. (16) He was to have gall and vinegar to drink. Psa. 69: 21. (17) His price was to be thirty pieces of silver. Zech. 11: 12. (18) His death was to be violent. Isa. 53: 8 and Dan. 9: 26. (19) His garments were to be parted by lot. Psa. 22: 18. John 19: 23. (20) He was to be pierced. Zech. 12: 10. John 19:34. (21) He was to make His grave with the rich. Isa. 53: 9. (22) He was not to see corruption. Psa. 16: 10 and Acts 2: 29-31. (23) He was to be born of a Virgin. Isa. 7: 14. Matt. 1: 23. Luke 1: 35. (24) He was to be driven down to Egypt. Hosea 11: 1. Matt. 2: 14-J5. (25) He was to be called "God." Isa. 9: 6. John 20: 28. (26) He was to be "an offering for sin." Isa. 53:10. Matt. 20:28. 1 Tim. 2:6. (27) He was to be "a prophet like unto Moses." Deut. 18: 18. Acts 3: 22. (28) He was to be "a priest." Psa. 110: 4. Heb. 5: 10. (29) He was to be "a King." Psa. 2: 6. Matt. 28: 18. 1 Cor. 15:, 25. (30) His was to be "a kingdom of peace." Isa. 9: 6, 7. Micah 4: 3. (31) It was to include the Gentiles. Isa. 49: 6. Isa. 60: 3-5.

This list of these wonderful prophecies is by no means complete. But we have pointed out enough to show that the divine foreknowledge of God was in this matchless Book. We see how Christ could not be born, or be hunted by a King's malice, or be betrayed by a traitor disciple, or be scourged, and rejected by Jews; His foes could not mock His dying agonies, nor the soldiers nail Him to the cross, and coolly sit down and gamble for His garments, without fulfilling Scripture-prophecy, uttered hundreds of years before.

And yet there are those who, with brazen impudence, tell us that these are no prophecies, and were never claimed to be, thus flatly contradicting scores of passages in the New Testament. But when we see these passages brought together; when we behold their remarkable convergence, so that the history of Christ from His ancestry and birth to His unusual death was only their counterpart; when we find that the Jews themselves referred most of them to the Messiah, and that they are expressly claimed by Christ and His apostles, the argument becomes exceedingly strong. Let all the infidel critics unite their wisdom, and try to apply one third of them to any other man that ever lived, and see how they will succeed. "If we admit that these prophecies were extant before the coming of Christ-and of that we have absolutely unquestionable evidence, because, as was said by an ancient father, the Jews, the enemies of Christianity, were the librarians of Christians,-and if we estimate mathematically by the doctrine of chances, the probability, that these circumstances would meet in one person, it would, as is said by Dr. Gregory, surpass the powers of numbers to express the immense improbability of its taking place."1 1. Mark Hopkins' Evidences, pp. 318, 319.

Many of these prophecies were seemingly incompatible. So much so that they did perplex the Jews of Christ's own day. He was to be at once a prophet, priest, and King; he was to be a triumphant conqueror, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling all nations, while also He was to be "despised and rejected of men," "oppressed and afflicted." It was said of His reign, "Of the increase of His government there shall be no end," and also that "after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off." What contradictions! A King who is to be "cut off" and slain, and yet is to have universal dominion and to reign forever. And, still, the demands of these seemingly incompatible prophecies are met in Christ."

And these prophecies were fulfilled not by any shrewd plots of Christ's friends, but by His enemies themselves. As St. Paul said, "They that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him." It was enemies, who would have been the last people in the world to prove His Messiahship by fulfilling prophecies, that hung Him on a tree, and paid thirty pieces of silver for Him, and afterward bought the potter's field with the price of His blood.

Nor is this all. The Old Testament dispensation, the ark of the Covenant, with all its arrangements, the passover, the sacrifices, the ceremonies, the priesthood, were all typical, and therefore prophetic; and the true import and substance of all of them is to be found in Christ's atonement and great salvation.

Still further, Jesus Himself prophesied. "Before the time of Christ and during His life, no false Christ arose; there was no war, and no prospect of one; and the Temple, and Jerusalem, were standing in all their strength. But He foretold that false Christs should arise, and should deceive many; that there should be earthquakes and famines, and fearful sights in heaven, and wars and rumors of wars, and great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever should be; and that Jerusalem should be compassed with armies; and that a trench should be cast round about it; and that one stone of the temple should not be left upon another; and that the Jews should be carried captive among all nations." Josephus verifies all these predictions to the letter. He was an eyewitness and a Jew, and nothing can be more striking than the comparison of his history with the prophecy. He tells of "fearful sights and great signs from heaven"; that "before sunsetting, chariots, and troops of soldiers in their armor, were seen running about among the clouds." "At the feast of Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the Temple, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and, after that, they heard the sound as of a multitude, saying, 'Let us depart hence!'"

Tacitus, a Roman historian, also says, "There were many prodigies presignifying their ruin which was not averted by all the sacrifices and vows of that people. Armies were seen fighting in the air with brandished weapons. A fire fell upon the Temple from the clouds. The doors of the Temple were suddenly opened. At the same time there was a loud voice saying that the gods were removing, which was accompanied with a sound as of a multitude going out. All which things were supposed, by some to portend great calamities."1 1. Hopkins' Evidences, pp. 322-324.

Josephus further says that "no other city ever suffered such miseries; nor was there ever a generation more fruitful in wickedness from the beginning of the world... In reality it was God who condemned the whole nation and turned every course that was taken for their preservation to their destruction. . . . The multitudes of those who perished exceeded all the destructions that man or God ever brought upon the world."

Famine did its slow but dreadful work so that women were known to eat their own children, just as Moses said they would do, fifteen hundred years before. The prophecy of Christ that not one stone of the Temple should be left upon another, was literally fulfilled. The Jews were carried into captivity among all nations, and their condition from that time till now has been an impressive proof of the truth of prophecy.

That noble scholar and Christian educator, Mark Hopkins, gives this wise summary: "Thus, whether we look at the prophecies which related to events before the time of Christ, or to those relating to Him, or to those which He uttered, or to the present state of the Jews, and, indeed, of the world, as indicating a complete fulfillment of the prophecies, we shall see the fullest reason to believe that 'the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost'."1 "Fools, make a mock at sin." Kindred fools mock at prophecy; but wiser souls bow in reverence to the authority of this old prophetic Book, because they hear in its wonderful words the voice of God. 1. Hopkins' Evidences, p. 326.

3. Still stronger ground for the authority of Scriptures comes from internal evidence. The proper development of this theme would fill a volume. We can only hint at some of the main truths.

(1) What the Bible reveals about.the nature and attributes of God is analogous to the teachings of natural religion; but it is vastly more complete and plain. It is free from polytheism on the one hand, and pantheism on the other, and has given to the world such a conception of a personal, spiritual and infinitely holy God, as to revolutionize human thought.

(2) The Bible teaches the perfection of natural and moral law. How natural, in the light of the holy Book, does it seem that the same God, who, in the universal control of His natural law, no more neglects the minutest particle than the largest planet, should also in His moral law, take notice of every word, and of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

(3) The Bible meets every moral need of man. There is not a great practical fact which a moral being can desire to know, concerning which it does not speak with perfect distinctness. The facts of a particular providence, of the freedom of man, of his dependence upon God, of the mercy of God to believing penitents, of the immortality of the soul, the fact of a full and perfect accountability to God, of the resurrection from the dead, and a future judgment, with its attendant rewards and penalties, and the need of holiness to meet God in peace,-each is made .known with ample fulness and explicitness of statement. Men are not left in doubt about either duty or destiny.

(4) The spiritual revelations of the Bible are in harmony with nature in that both are infinite. Burke said: "What subject is there that does not branch out into infinity?" Sir Isaac Newton, in studying nature, compared himself to a "child picking up pebbles on the beach, while the great ocean of truth is still before him." So the great Book tells us of the eternity that is past, and its teachings lead on into that which is to come. The Bible dwarfs the interests of time, and makes them petty, in comparison with the stupendous issues of eternity.

(5) Both nature and the Bible teach a remedial system. Does nature seek to heal up a bruise on a tree, or knit together the ragged ends of a broken bone? The Bible tells of the grace of God that would cure earth's sorrows, and heal the wounds and diseases of sinsick hearts.

(6) The Bible bears the test of Conscience. However enlightened it may be, by study and meditation, it can never get more than abreast with the Holy Word. There is no principle of moral government, no single course of action, not a temper of mind, approved by it which the most enlightened conscience does not endorse as right. The consciences of the most candid and intelligent men are compelled to admit the perfection of the moral teachings of the Scriptures. It enjoins the universal, law of love. The universal law of gravitation no more certainly binds all worlds to their orbit in absolute obedience, than this law of love holds every moral being to the discharge of every holy obligation. The Bible utters no precept opposed to it.

(7) The Bible teaches a perfect morality. Other religions have divorced morality. They have had no vital relation between them. But our Bible reveals a religion that comes from a holy God, who demands holiness in every moral being. Man could never have originated such a system of morals. It is intimately connected with the revelations of a holy Father in Heaven, and His government over His children, and the spotless character of the Son of God. It cannot be separated from a living faith in God, and His Son, Jesus Christ. Madame De Stael said: "If Christ had simply taught men to say 'Our Father' He would have been the greatest benefactor of the race." This is true because it would teach a perfect morality. The child should be like the Holy Father.

(8) The Bible is directly calculated to lead man to Ms highest possible development. First, it would, if obeyed, deliver us from those vices that dwarf the intellect and check the growth of the spiritual man. Then it exalts the truth as worthy of all pursuit. It looks humanity in the eye, and says, "Buy the truth and sell it not." Even Jesus said, "I came to bear witness to the truth," and he prayed, "Sanctify them through the truth." The Bible claims truth as the right of the human soul. This was the fundamental principle of the Reformation, and it is the mainspring of all human progress.

Still further, it stimulates the affections and gives the heart of man an object worthy of his deepest love. A historian says, "the ancient classic world, was a world without love." But Jesus gave us such revelations of God, that He taught us to love the Father and Himself with all our hearts. This indirectly teaches us to love one another. The twin truths, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man lighten the whole sky of human thought.

No other religion ever did this. No other sacred book ever taught it. The love of God never entered as an essential element into any heathen religion; nor, with their conceptions of God, was it possible. The heathen gods and goddesses could not call forth moral admiration, much less affection. They never displayed virtues, or made disinterested sacrifices for the good of men. Their characters were neither lovely nor lovable. From the very constitution of our minds, it was impossible to regard them with admiring affection. But our Bible reveals a God that satisfies the intellect, appeals to the conscience, and calls forth the purest devotion of the heart.

(9) The Bible stimulates and exalts the imagination. Nothing in all classic literature compares with its descriptions of God, who "dwelleth in light that no man can approach unto," "who filleth the heaven, and whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain"; "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance," . . . "that stretched out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in," . . . "Behold He taketh up the isles as a very little thing." "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. . . . Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hand."

"The faculty of imagination," says Stewart, "is the great spring of human activity, and the principle source of human improvement." Be it so. What biographies appeal to imagination like those of Holy Writ? What poetic imagery is so exalted? Where can its eloquence be matched? There are no conceivable scenes of grandeur equal to the resurrection of the dead, the conflagration of the world, the assembling of the moral universe for judgment, and the dispensing of final awards and penalties. Nothing can be more entrancing than the revelations of the New Jerusalem, and the future state and blessedness of the finally redeemed. The glory of the millennial day, and the purity and grandeur of the Christian's heaven, utterly eclipse any future ever imagined by the unaided mind of man.

(10) The Bible exalts and ennobles the human will. It always appeals to man as the sovereign arbiter of his own destiny. It arouses the will to action through the intellect, the sensibilities and the inflamed imagination. It appeals to the soul by the most sublime motives that it is possible to conceive. It sets before us as matters of choice, life or death, blessing or cursing. It makes the will of God our rule. It places us under His omniscient eye; it points us to the august tribunal of an omnipotent judge, to an absolutely just and irrevocable sentence, which ends in the eternal bliss of the saved, or the interminable horrors of the damned. What more could possibly be done to move the will to wise and holy choice? It pleads with us, by the love of God, by the mercies of Christ, by the passion of the cross, by the blessedness of piety, and the miseries of sin, and the bliss of heaven, to choose eternal life.

(11) The Bible is perfectly adapted to man as a restraining power. Man is a complex being, a little world in himself,-an animal and an angel dwelling together. "Body and soul, reason and passion, conscience and desire, are often opposing and conflicting forces, and man is left

"In doubt to act or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God or beast,
In doubt his soul or body to prefer."

"The intestine war of reason against the passions," says Paschal, "has given rise, among those who wish for peace, to the formation of two different sects. The one wished to renounce the passions and become as Gods; the other, to renounce reason and become as beasts."

Such a being needs guidance and restraint. The fiery steeds of passion must be put under bit and bridle, and be made to obey the dictates of right reason, instead of breaking away under the spur of desire. There is no natural and essential principle of our nature that needs to be, or can be, eradicated; but there are many that need to be subordinated and restrained. The abnormal and the depraved in them need to be removed by sanctifying grace. The Bible perfectly reveals this only way of harmonizing reason and conscience with the conflicting emotions and turbulent passions, and bringing them all into submission to the perfect will of God. It does not teach us to abuse and waste the body by torturing austerities; nor does it surrender us to the supremacy of wasting passions. It forbids everything that is malevolent and selfish and harmful; it permits whatever is benevolent, and calculated to enhance the good of man and the glory of God. It excludes from no enjoyment that is compatible with the highest good. It demands no self-denial but that willing sacrifice of perfect love. It represses only evil, and that at its source, by removing depravity from the heart. If the Bible had its way and was perfectly obeyed, it would everywhere produce characters of great symmetry and loveliness. It would put an end to wicked self-seeking and carnal ambitions, settle all the ills of human society, and make this world a vestibule of heaven.

(12) This Bible, when permitted to control the life has redeemed uncounted millions of men. It has found men in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity, slaves of appetites and passions, and made them freemen in Christ. It has transformed savage nations and cannibal tribes into civilized and God-fearing peoples. It has taken souls steeped in guilt, "having no hope and without God in the world," and made them the adopted sons and daughters of God. This is an argument from human experience that is unanswerable. Infidels may scoff and critics may deride; but faith in the Bible by those it has transformed, will remain unshaken. However dissected and set at nought, the Book will remain to them, their stay and hope and guide to heaven.

(13) This Bible is fitted for universal supremacy. It has the power to bring hope and help and healing to every son and daughter of Adam. It has never failed to bless any people in any age or clime. It is already translated in over eight hundred languages, and wherever it goes it carries "healing in its wings." "There are certain great moral interests which are common to the race,-certain cords in the human heart," says Hopkins, "which vibrate whenever they are struck; and it is remarkable that Christianity concerns itself only with those interests, and strikes only those cords. It has to do with individuals as guilty under the government of God, without respect to their earthly relations; and hence has the power to enter in as a new element, and to pervade and enlighten every form of society, as the sunlight enters into and pervades the whole body of atmosphere." Hence it diffuses itself everywhere as freely as the breezes of heaven past every human or national limit. It works like leaven that passes on from particle to particle, and finds no limit till the whole is leavened. Thus the Bible is to push on in its conquests, until "the earth is full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea."

(14) It has the right to be authoritative because of its blessed influence upon the world. It has never, when honestly and lovingly obeyed, led a soul astray. It has lifted mankind as no other book has ever done. It has pointed men to a Father in Heaven, and to the mansions He would prepare for all who will accept His grace. It has given us Jesus Christ as our ideal pattern of life, and given us a perfect morality springing from the law of love. It awoke the race from its slumbers of death, and infused it with the life of a new hope, which rose like a Sun of Righteousness upon an astonished world, and whose light shall never grow dim. It spoke to the mourners and they were comforted; it came to the weary and heavy laden, and gave them rest. It brought healing to the sick, and recovery of sight to the spiritually blind, and joy to the broken-hearted, and spiritual life to the sinsick and dying.

It caused the idol-gods to fall on their faces, and struck the heathen oracles dumb. It was a heaven-sent wind that swept away the poisonous malarias of heathenism, and let in the sunlight of truth, and the pure atmosphere of heaven. With its still small voice of holy influence it whispered to souls who were planning iniquity and in love with secret sin, and somehow the spell was broken, and the spirit of wisdom came, and they repented and turned to God.

It uncovered the world of despair to men rushing on in their mad career of wickedness, and they fled with fear and trembling from the wrath to come. Through all the years, it has rebuked every iniquity, and encouraged everything that was lovely and of good report. It put the spirit of human pity and brotherly love into the hearts of cruel men, and they tore down their amphitheaters and stopped their gladiatorial shows, and struck the shackles from the limbs of slaves.

It has revolutionized religion, turning men from polytheism and pantheism and disgusting idolatry to the elevating worship of a holy God. It has turned human society upside down, and put a new spirit into the heart of our race wherever it has been circulated, and lovingly obeyed. It has honored man as man, regardless of his rank or condition, solely because he was a child of God and an heir of immortality. It has protected the life of infants, and lifted woman from degradation to respect and honor as the equal of man. It is lifting savage tribes and races to Christian civilization and moral decency. It is lessening the horrors of war, and the frequency of it by spreading the spirit of "peace and good will to men." Yea, the nations are now moving to end all wars, and serve together the Prince of peace. It has introduced the spirit of disinterested benevolence, till men pour out vast sums munificently upon the poor and the helpless, and even upon the vicious and the thankless, and the undeserving, whom they have never seen and never expect to see in this life, as Jesus came to give Himself to a needy world because it needed Him.

Now what we say is this; this Book stands in a class by itself, unapproached and unapproachable. Whether we consider its singular origin, written by more than two score authors through a space of fifteen hundred years, or its internal harmony, or its single purpose to bring a sinful and lost humanity back to God, or its pure morality, or its heavenly spirituality, or its plan of salvation, by faith in an Atoning Savior, or its saving and transforming power over an individual or a people, or its sublime revelations of the yet future destiny of our race,-the Bible comes to us, instinct with Divinity, bearing the impress of heaven.

If obeyed it will produce in us a perfect morality. It offers blessing to every part of our nature, entire sanctification for our body, as well as for our intellect, affections, imagination, conscience and will. It reveals to us all that is necessary to bring human nature to its highest perfection here, and to eternal glory hereafter. It heralds its own greatness and announces its own supremacy, and divine origin. It proves its own inspiration by what it is, and by what it has done. It could no more have been produced by unaided man, than the mountains, or the ocean, or the stars of heaven. Such a Book, with such a history, and such a divine power, has a right to speak with authority. It says to a sinsick, sorrowing humanity, "Obey and live; disobey and perish."