This book is admired and respected above all others for its antiquity,
its usefulness, its conflicts, and character. It has been expressly
denominated "The book of books." Its professions are such that no
reasonable man can consistently lay it aside without giving it a careful
examination. The nature of every question determines its claims upon our
intelligence. If it professes to involve only a small interest its
claims are not so pressing.
The questions of the Bible hold in their principles the present and
eternal interests of our humanity, and therefore challenge the attention
of the world. Thousands of the wisest and best men of the ages have been
intensely interested in its contents. Its great influence and reputation
are evidences of its trustworthiness, and of the consistency and
intelligence of those who give it their attention; for sensible men do
not disregard questions of great importance. This book contains a
record of many ugly, dark and wicked deeds, known in the lives of wicked
men and nations, with imperfections and apostacies of individuals in
high places. This is what we must look for in a book of its pretensions.
It professes to contain a revelation of God and his will to man. The
ugly, wicked, licentious, and bloody things constitute the background of
the picture, representing man in all his ways. It is also shaded with
all there was, and is, of moral and noble character in the human. God
with his attributes, as the true, grand and glorious Bible picture,
shines out through this human background. The justice of God, with his
love, long suffering and tender mercies, his approbation and
disapprobation, must in the very nature of things be revealed in
connection with human character as it presents itself in iniquity and
crime, in piety and virtue, both individual and national, in order that
the revelation may be complete, full and perfect. The history of men and
nations must also be true, sufficiently full to call out, in the divine
dealings, all there is in the divine character; otherwise, the
revelation would be partial and imperfect.
No physician ever revealed his skill without his patients. No court has
ever revealed its justice without its cases. The doctor's dealings with
his patients measure the extent of his known skill. Allowing that he
understands himself and the conditions of his patients perfectly, and
does his whole duty, the revelation of his skill must be perfect, to the
full extent of its connection with the diseases treated. So it is with
the revealed justice of the court. This rule is a necessary law,
governing all revelations of character, both human and divine; otherwise
we are left in the dark with reference to the true character of the one
who makes the revelation. Our common sense is such that we are always
led astray by improper action, unless our superior wisdom enables us to
know that the action is improper. Improper action upon the part of a
doctor reveals imperfect skill; on the part of the court it reveals
imperfect justice, if it is not an entire want of skill and justice.
No such imperfection belongs to our God; therefore the revelation which
he made needs only to be understood and it will never mislead us. These
great principles of common sense are to be applied in the revelations of
God to the nations as the God of nations. Such being the case, we have a
very interesting field of thought before us in the bloody scenes that
are known in the history of nations, as it is given in the Bible. Where
is the morality and righteousness of the wars of which we read? Where is
the justice and goodness of God in the bloody wars of Israel? Where is
the righteousness of capital punishment? A great many persons say, in
their ignorance, there is no righteousness in those things. Friend,
travel slowly over this ground. "Take the shoes off thy feet, for it is
holy ground." Go into the Bible and look! God is there. You knew it not.
Principles never change. Circumstances change and necessitate changes of
law, but that which was right at any time in the history of our race is
right at all times, under the same circumstances. Is there such a thing
as morality carried into public relations? Is there such a thing as
jurisprudence? Yes; jurisprudence is morality carried into public
relations in the following law: "That course of conduct which pertains
to the greatest good of the greatest number is right." This law is of
universal application. It belongs to men in all their relations, both
public and private, collectively and individually. In the relation of
the State to its citizens it taxes them for the support of government,
it fines, imprisons and puts them to death for crime. In the relation of
nation to nation it imposes tariffs and declares war, filling history
with scenes of blood and woe. The common sense of mankind approves this
law, and the Bible declares it just. Wars were approved of God, when
they were for the greatest good of the greater number. It was upon the
same principle that all the divine judgments were administered, from the
destruction of the Antediluvians down to the overthrow of Jerusalem by
Titus.
This law is the substratum in moral righteousness, underlying all that
is right. Such is its wonderful latitude and longitude that, in order to
carry it out, it sometimes becomes necessary to tilt a nation into a
sea of blood and replace it with a better people. Unbelievers and
skeptics who admit this are guilty of wresting Bible facts from their
proper places and testing them upon the plane of morality, regardless of
the laws of jurisprudence.
This erroneous method of reasoning leads the minds of many ignorant and
unsuspecting persons away from the right ways of God. The guilty
reasoner justifies taxation, fines, imprisonment and wars in the history
of his own country.
It sometimes seems cruel to carry out this great moral principle of
which we are treating; it is nevertheless right, and men who abuse its
facts and turn things upside down are guilty of opposing the right.
Unbelievers are guilty of selecting from the Bible all that can be
tortured out of its place in the laws of jurisprudence and made to look
ugly out of its proper relations, and are continually holding such
things up before the people, turning them into ridicule, and at the same
time they have been through all the bloody scenes of war and justify
themselves, wishing to be known in many instances as Major, General or
Colonel. We have some such in our own country. They seem to have never
learned that many things which are good for humanity are very ugly out
of their proper relations. I am glad that God has revealed himself in
the jurisprudence of nations, for the facts given inspire confidence in
rulers and officials, strength to judges upon the bench, and nerve to
warriors who are acting with direct reference to the "greatest good of
the greatest number."
A history of God in his dealings with states and nations in order to a
perfect revelation of himself necessitates a history of states and
nations so far as it is necessary to make known the approbation and
disapprobation of God in connection with all that may ever enter into
national or state character. Without this we would find states and
nations where God did not see fit to show himself. We must find him
wherever we find man, approving or disapproving. This is just what we do
in the Bible. We do it in no other book. But let us ever remember that
all that is wicked had its origin with wicked men and demons, and that
the Divine Being, with all his attributes, appears in the foreground in
all his relations to men and their conduct, as the grand Bible picture
shining out through all the darkness and gloom, surrounded with the
virtues and noble deeds of all his worshipers, and that he is building
up and throwing down as his righteous judgment approves or disapproves.
This revelation of God is like the sun at noonday bursting through dark
and heavy clouds and blessing the earth with its rays. In making this
revelation, which is related negatively or affirmatively to all there is
in human history, God saw fit to communicate his will through man, and
in his own language, except in the gift of the great charter of the
national existence of the children of Israel and the great foundation
truth of the church of God. These he uttered with his own wonderful
voice.
Was it reasonable to expect a revelation from God? Is it necessary to
the greatest good of the greatest number? If so, it is a thought at once
involving the moral character of God and necessitating a revelation of
himself. In answering these questions intelligently we must look after
the demands for such a communication. Where shall we find them? Answer,
in the wants of our humanity. Here two kinds of light are needed for two
pair of eyes in order that we may be happy in two respects. First,
physical light for the physical eyes, in order to the enjoyment of
physical life in a material world. Second, the light of knowledge for
the eyes of the understanding, in order to the enjoyment of spiritual
life in a spiritual world. It is universally conceded that there are
means provided in nature to meet man's physical wants and adaptations
that manifest the wisdom that belongs to God; also, that it would have
been the work of a demon to create man with these wants, like so many
empty vessels, without any provision to satisfy or fill them. Without
those supplies our suffering would be great and our wretchedness
unendurable. Is there no liability to mental suffering? Are there no
spiritual wants consequent upon the nature of mind?
Is it not unreasonable to allow that "Infinite wisdom" provided for all
our physical wants and left our spirits with all their demands, like so
many children away out in the darkness without hope, uneasy, restless,
always dissatisfied, and ever trying to get into the possession of the
knowledge of the unseen and future, without one ray of mental light
shining out from the heavens upon our relations to perfect our condition
and declare the glorious goodness of an all-wise Creator? Volney says,
"Provident nature having endowed the heart of man with inexhaustible
hope, he set about finding happiness in this world, and failing in his
efforts, he set out in his imagination and created a world for himself,
where, free from tyrants, he could have all his wrongs redressed and
enjoy unsullied bliss." This is Volney's account of the origin of
religion, the tap-root of the tree. It contains a most wonderful
concession, one that Tyndal made when he said, "There is a place in
man's psychological nature for religion." Is there a place in man's
physical nature for bread and meat, for food of every variety that man's
soul desires? Do we attribute all the mercies of physical life to a
supreme intelligence? Has that intelligence created us and left us
endowed with "Inexhaustible hope," to be disappointed forever, and the
only result, the "imaginary" creation of the Christian's happy heaven.
But Volney makes another grand concession in the quotation which I have
given, and that is the nature of the Christian's future world in its
relations to wrongs as well as tyrants, neither are to exist there. That
the Christian's religion, with its beautiful world, does fill up the
soul's demands is a fact unintentionally conceded by Volney, and known
throughout the land in the contentment and bliss and heroism of the
dying Christian. In this hope alone man's spiritual wants are met. This,
with all that pertains to it, is in the revelation that God has made to
our race. How could this be made? I answer, it was made by the spirit of
God. "Holy men of old spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit."
This is what we call _inspiration_. This word is a translation of
"_Theopneustos_," which is from "Theos," _God_, "pneuma," _spirit_,
_Spirit of God_. Is it reasonable to allow that this revelation could be
given by the spirit of God through holy men? I will let an infidel
answer this question. Bolingbroke said, "It is just as easy to
comprehend the operation of the spirit of God upon the mind of a prophet
in order to give his will to us as it is to comprehend the operations of
our own spirits upon our physical nature in order to an expression of
our own thoughts." Has such a revelation been made? From all we know of
man, his wants, and the adaptation of means in nature to those wants, we
are driven to the conclusion that it has, presenting the means adapted
to our spiritual wants so perfectly as to enable us to realize fully
what Volney declares our very nature, as creatures of hope, impelled us
to create "in our imaginations for ourselves." There is no consistent
ground that any man can occupy between Christianity and Atheism. And if
there is no God, "nature," or the "forces," or whatever lies behind
them, to which they belong, as the manifest energies of the same, call
it what you may, has made a very unreasonable, bungling mistake in
giving in the very nature of man's mind an empty vessel that is to be
filled only by the false whims of the imagination of an ever restless
and dissatisfied spirit, which, in that case, is to be eternally
disappointed and plunged deeper down by the realization of the fact that
all its anxieties and hopes were only so many misleading demons.
In order to a perfect revelation of God to man it was necessary that the
entire page, the "background" as well as the "foreground," or the human
as well as the divine, should be truth, and in every case, all the truth
that was necessary to enable man to realize and understand the whys and
wherefores of the divine procedure; and also to call out in word or
action the Divine Being in all his relations to the conduct of the
children of men. Such a record is found in the Bible, given to us by men
who were impelled and borne by the Holy Spirit when they wrote and
spoke. But it was not necessary that anything upon the dark human
"background" of this picture should have its origin with God; it was
only necessary that, having originated with man, men or demons, it
should be put to record just as it was in all its heinousness and
wickedness in order that we might see the true character of God in his
relations to it. If a wise physician should undertake to make himself
known to the world he would not give us a history of all he did with
every patient, and at the same time fail to give us just so much of the
true history of each patient as would be necessary to enable us to
understand him in all that he did, for both stand or fall together. So
it is in the Bible revelation of God to man. Take away the "background"
of the picture, and the picture itself is destroyed. That which skeptics
in their ignorance are always trying to ridicule is just as essential to
a revelation of God in his justice, purity, love and power as the word
of God himself. That is to say, the revelation has an objective as well
as a subjective side. The subjective is God in his attributes, and the
objective is man in his works. It was the objective that drew out the
subjective, because all was done for the objective. Take either side
away and the revelation ceases to exist. On the subjective side all is
of God in its origin, is charged up to him, being spoken by him, and in
his name, or done by him, or by his authority. The indices to this great
truth are in these or similar phrases, "Hear, O, Israel, thus saith the
Lord, thy God," "Thus saith the Lord," "And the Lord said," "The Lord
spake, saying," "The Lord said unto me," "The word of the Lord came unto
me," "The Lord commanded," "The burthen of the word of the Lord to,"
"The Lord answered, saying." We are not authorized to charge, as many
through their ignorance or wickedness have done, all that we read about
in the Bible to God as the author. The words and doings of wicked men
and demons are truthfully recorded there, and they are often licentious
and blasphemous. The words and doings of good men and angels are there,
and the words and doings of God are there. We are authorized to charge
to God's account that only which is spoken in his name, or by his
instructions, along with that which was done by him, or by his
authority, or approved by him. When we get outside of these
common-sense thoughts in our interpretations of Bible history we are
acting upon our own responsibility, and are liable to be found doing
violence to the divine will. If we contradict the record we call in
question the veracity of the spirit which controlled the writer, whether
the statement relates to God, man or demons. But this statement does not
apply to mistranslations, for it is one thing to contradict an
uninspired translator, and another altogether to contradict the
statement of one controlled by the spirit of God. We fearlessly assert
that the Bible is just the book that common-sense and reason demands
that it should be in order to contain a revelation of God to man. We
would as soon attempt to destroy the divine and lovely side, as change
its character, so far as to take from its pages its record of
wickedness, misery and woe, for it amounts to the same thing. One more
question of importance bearing on this subject demands our attention,
and that is the question of miracles. Men have, without any authority
from the Bible, treated all miracles as violations of natural law. But
it would be well for us to determine the extent of our knowledge of
natural laws before we thus dogmatize. That which we call miracle may be
in perfect harmony with law that lies just beyond our knowledge.
Omniscience seems to be a necessary qualification for such theorizing as
asserts that miracles are violations of the laws of nature. Omnipotence
is an essential attribute of the Ruler of the universe. But in order to
its existence, the Infinite one must be above the laws which he has
established, able to take hold of those laws and handle them as he sees
proper, otherwise he is not all-powerful. On the simple plane of nature
we get lost. Who can account for "Partheno Genesis," or generation
without any known sexual organs, which obtains in the animal kingdom.
"The spirit of God moved upon," "brooded over" the face of the great
deep and life filled the waters. "The Holy Spirit overshadowed the
Virgin" and the Nazarene was begotten. The original expresses the same
idea in both cases. Scientists who are radical materialists admit this
wonderful feat in the animal kingdom as a natural affair, and yet,
without any authority from the Bible, speak of the birth of Christ as
the result of "Miraculous conception," in the sense of a violation of
natural law. What natural law is violated in "Partheno Genesis?" With me
it is allowable that a thousand more just such beings might be, and if
necessary to the accomplishment of the great purposes of God, would be
produced under the same circumstances and by the same instrumentalities.
The feature of the question of miracles which bears on the subject of a
divine revelation must now be considered. It is this, would a book
containing such a record as that which we have in the Bible, except the
record of miracles, reveal God in his attributes to our world? We lay it
down as a correct proposition that we must have creative and life-giving
power manifested in order to a revelation of God.
If the Bible contained no record of the exercise of powers above the
human it would reveal only a human God, which would be no God; and
common sense would declare, "It is a book treating of, and presenting
man in his attributes." Those facts upon its pages which are in the
power of God alone confirm, that is, make sure, the revelation of God to
man. Without this feature of the book common sense would have at least
one good excuse for rejecting its claims. The Master recognizes this
fact in the saying, "If I do not the works of my Father believe me not,
but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may
know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him." Here we have
the fact of "God revealed in the flesh," evinced by the works which the
Savior performed. The foundation of faith, or the obligation to believe,
is identified with those works. They were a greater evidence of his
divinity than the words of any prophet, although those words were the
words of the Divine Spirit. Jesus said, "I have greater witness than
that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish,
the same works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father hath sent
me." "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did,
they had not had sin; their rejection of my claims would be justifiable
but for the fact that my divinity is demonstrated in the works which I
do." The same thought accompanies the introduction of the gospel of
Jesus Christ in the preaching of the Apostles. Paul said, "Our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit."
"They went everywhere preaching the word; the Lord working with them and
confirming the word with signs following." The confirmation was not in
the simple fact that miracles were wrought, but in their character. The
miracles of Christ were not in the power of false prophets, magicians,
or demons. They were in the power of God. Peter said, "God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power," and that "He
went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed of the devil;
for God was with him." The presence of God was manifested in his
miracles.
The question is often asked, "Why were they not continued throughout the
Christian dispensation?" Answer: If they had been continued, they would
have lost all their power over the mind by becoming ordinary, and then
they would cease to have any bearing whatever in the establishment of a
divine proposition. It was not necessary to continue them beyond the
witnesses whose testimony closed up the revelation of God. "A covenant
once confirmed no man disannulleth or addeth thereto." A continual
repetition of the evidence of confirmation was not necessary in order to
give faith in a communication already confirmed and left in a historic
age for the faith of the world. It is true of sense that the continual
sensuous experience causes the object experienced to lose its
controlling power, but the opposite is true of faith. So he who knew
best what man's nature required ordained that the just should walk by
faith and not by sense. And to this end he confirmed "once" the
revelation of himself and his will, and left it in the world as his
witness to produce faith. "If we receive the witness of men the witness
of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which he hath
testified of his Son. He that believeth hath the witness in himself; he
that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not
the _record_ that God gave of his Son." Is it not a dangerous thing to
make God a liar? Is it not a great insult? All unbelievers are thus
guilty before God. Our Savior did not speak unadvisedly when he said:
"He that believeth not shall be condemned."
"Life and immortality are brought to light through the Gospel." Is it
not strange that dying men will reject the motive of life? "This is the
record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son; he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life." Jesus "came to his own and his own received him not, but
as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of
God." Will we possess him through faith and live, or shall we make God a
liar, die in our sins, be condemned and banished from the presence of
God and the glory of his power?
* * * * *
The practice of dating from the Christian era was first introduced about
the year 527, by Dionisius, surnamed "Exiguus," but better known as
Deny's le Petit, a monk of Scythia and a Roman abbot. It was not
introduced into Italy until the sixth century. It was first used in
France in the seventh century; it was universally established in France
in the eighth century. It was used in England in 680; it was in general
use in the eighth century. The years of the Christian era are described
in ancient documents as the years "of Grace," of "the Incarnation," of
"our Lord," of "the Nativity," etc.--_Chambers._
* * * * *
The cardinal virtues are Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude.
_Cardinal_ signifies, in a general sense, principal or pre-eminent. It
comes from the Latin word _cardo_, a hinge. Take cardinal things away
from any science and its foundation is gone. Everything in science turns
upon cardinal things, as the word _cardo_ signifies.