CHAPTER VIII THE PRESENT STANDING OF THE Bible is now everywhere accepted by Christian believers as a revelation from God, teaching the truths of religion and the duties of life as no other book does. But it has not been so accepted because of the claims of the authors, nor yet because of the faith of the people to whom the various books were written, but because a living spiritual energy has gone forth from it, producing fruits that reveal the character of the tree. The ages have been full of pretended revelations, sanctioned by assumed miracles and visits of angels. Even in this most enlightened period of the world's history impostors boldly strut before the public, claiming to be sent of God to teach mankind the way of life. One of the latest of these has stolen and misappropriated to itself two of the most influential words in our modern life, for Christian Science is neither Christian nor scientific; that is, it does not make Jesus Christ supreme as the Saviour of men, nor does it proceed according to the facts of human experience as testified to in all the course of history. Striking cases of the kind that have had large success through longer periods are Mohammedanism and Mormonism, but other equally fraudulent but less successful claims have been innumerable. A skillful artist can deceive "the very elect" in pretended miracles. The magicians of Egypt were able to match the miracles wrought by Moses up to a certain point. The acceptance of a revelation by an individual to whom it is made may be sufficiently warranted by attending circumstances, but to prepare a book for general acceptance through long periods of time requires corroborating evidences that appeal to the cool judgment of mankind with convincing force. The Christian Scriptures were subjected to the learned criticism of the best scholars of the age when they were written. They were put on trial and tested in the practical experiences of life by thousands of people in all positions of life. All the thinkers, scholars, and preachers of the faith were set to work comparing them with the accepted standards of religious belief and with their own religious consciousness, and no production found its way into the canon that had not successfully passed all of these tests of its genuineness and truth. In all these processes we assume what was promised by our Lord, that the Holy Ghost directed the course of thought in the church and led to such conclusions as were according to truth. The Bible is cordially accepted by the believers of this age as the Word of God, but it is conceded that the human element in it is large. It appears in the style of writing, in the expression of taste, temper, passion, national bias, and other peculiarities of the writers. Saint Paul looks at Christianity from the standpoint of the law, as a system of righteousness and salvation above law and yet not without law; Saint Peter views Christianity from the standpoint of fulfilled prophecy; and Saint James looks at it as a perfected system of ethics and practical precepts. The human element is everywhere in evidence, its weakness as well as its strength. The Word that was made flesh also presents this double aspect, "very God" and "very man.” The human element was so pronounced that many could see only that, while his closest friends of most spiritual type fully recognized it and thought it no derogation from his deity that he ate fish and bread like other hungry men. His favorite title for designating himself was "Son of man." As with the Word made flesh, so with the Word made literature, the human element, with common human limitations, is the visible, the outstanding feature that adapts it to human intelligence and makes the strongest appeal to the human heart, yet is it the Word of God. It has many limitations that speak for themselves. Among these is incompleteness. It is in fragments, as though men became weary, or knew but a part, or had not time and other resources for writing fully. No writer completes his task. Saint Matthew omits very important utterances of the Lord reported by Saint Luke, and both fail to give some of the best things spoken by the Master, as reported by Saint John, and he declares in the closing verses of his Gospel that if he should record all the works and words of the Lord, “even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." It was limited also by man's knowledge and capacity for understanding. This accounts for differing styles of writing, sweep of thought, depth of reasoning, and height of poetical genius in the different books of divine revelation. The revelation must be according to the capacity for understanding and expression of the person receiving it. The ablest teacher could not give instruction in algebra to one who did not know the alphabet. The messages of God to men had to be adapted to their intelligence, the range of their vocabulary, their experience and capacity for spiritual understanding. Therefore the Master said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." They must learn more, experience more, and rise to a higher plane of life before they could be fitted to receive the revelation he had to make. A good illustration of this principle is in the use of the word "holy," or "holiness." |