,christ1 ,christianity and the ,bible ,,by ,i4 ,m4 ,,haldeman1 ,d4,d4 ,pastor ,first ,baptist ,church1 ,new ,york ,city ,author of ,how to ,study the ,bible1 ,the ,coming of ,christ1 ,the ,signs of the ,times1 ,christian ,science in the ,light of ,holy ,scripture1 etc41 etc4 ,,new ,,york ,,charles ,c4 ,,cook #aej ,nassau ,street ,copyright1 #aiab1 ,by ,charles ,c4 ,cook ,,contents ,christ ,christianity ,the ,bible ,christ ,,if ,,not ,,god--,,not ,,good ,,by ,i4 ,m4 ,,haldeman1 ,d4,d4 ,why callest thou me good8 there is none good but one1 that is ,god 7,matthew #i3ag74 ,,the world has accepted ,jesus ,christ as a good man4 ,the evidences of his goodness are manifold4 ,he was full of compassion4 ,he never looked upon the people as a crowd4 ,he never thought of them as a mass4 ,he saw them always as individuals4 ,his heart went out to them4 ,all his impulses were to pity them1 sympathize with1 and help them4 ,he went among them4 ,he entered into all conditions1 accepted all situations4 ,he was present at a wedding1 he ate with publicans and sinners and1 anon1 was guest at a rich man's table4 ,he saw the ravages of disease1 the shame of sin1 the tragedies in life4 ,he knew there was torture in body and anguish in spirit4 ,he took the mystery of pain and laid it upon his heart1 until tears were his meat and his drink1 by day and by night4 ,he became a man of sorrows and an expert in grief4 ,he took upon him the woes of the world till he was bowed and bent1 as with the weight of years4 ,the tears of sympathy grooved his cheeks1 as when streams carve their way down mountain sides4 ,because of this men looked at him and saw neither form nor comeliness2 neither was there any beauty in him that they should desire him4 ,he was a beneficent man4 ,multitudes of men are benevolent1 but not beneficent4 ,benevolence is well wishing4 ,beneficence is well doing4 ,he was always well doing1 giving sight to the blind1 healing the sick1 cleansing the leper1 feeding the hungry1 raising the dead1 unloosing the bonds of ,satan--unwinding the serpent's coil4 ,he was absolutely unselfish4 ,he emptied himself and made room in his soul for other lives4 ,he had no office hours and never interposed secretaries or major-domos between himself and the people4 ,he received all who came unto him-- ministering without money and without price4 ,there is one scene that might well be painted by a master hand4 ,it is evening4 ,the western sky is all aglow with the glory of the setting sun4 ,far up in the dome of the infinite blue1 the evening star swings golden1 like a slow descending lamp let down by invisible hands4 ,the street is in half-tone4 ,it is packed by the strangest of throngs1 by the blind1 the lame1 the halt1 the paralyzed and the leper-derelicts of humanity--borne thither on a surging tide of life in which every wave is an accent of pain2 they are driven and piled up in great1 quivering heaps against a door which is partly shut1 as in self-defence1 by the sweltering crowd within4 ,jesus of ,nazareth is in that house4 ,he is healing the sick4 ,he is giving health1 and strength1 and peace to all who seek him4 ,he turns no one away4 ,compassion1 sympathy1 beneficence1 the tenderness of a mother for her helpless babe--these are the characteristics which his daily ministry revealed4 ,no one ever brought a charge of evil doing or evil speaking against him4 ,the people who followed him said1 ,he hath done all things well4 ,police officers sent to arrest him as a disturber of the peace found him in the midst of the people1 speaking words that hushed their tumult1 quieted their murmurings and gave them rest2 and the officers returning to them who sent them1 said1 ,never man spake like this man4 ,pilate's wife dreamed a troubled dream of him1 and sent word to her husband not to lay hands on him--seeing that he was a just man4 ,thrice before heaven and earth--in a testimony that still echoes through infinite spaces1 and is heard by listening worlds--,pilate himself proclaimed1 ,i find no fault in this man4 ,he lifted up his voice against sin and unrighteousness4 ,against nothing did he so much speak as against religious hypocrisy4 ,nowhere1 in any record1 is language so terrible1 so penetrating1 so hot1 so full of the flame of fire and scorching analysis1 scorching and burning in its denunciation of those who on the outside 7in their religious profession7 were like whitened sepulchres1 but on the inside 7in their actual lives7 were full of dead men's bones and corruption--nowhere1 outside the twenty-third chapter of ,matthew1 does language fall with such tremendous vibration of thunderous indignation1 and the accent of aroused and fully angered justice4 ,ye serpents1 ye generation of vipers1 are some of the phrases2 and the words1 fools1 blind hypocrites1 mingle again and again with the far-sounding1 judicial menace1 ,woe1 woe unto you4 ,he seemed to be dominated and controlled by one idea--the idea of ,god4 ,the ,god thought held and moved him4 ,he could not go anywhere1 or see anything1 or utter the shortest discourse1 that he did not1 in some fashion1 connect it with the infinite ,father4 ,was a sower sowing seed1 he saw in that incident an illustration of the fact that the true seed is the ,word of ,god1 and the true sower he who casts it into the mightier ground of the human heart4 ,did a flock of sheep lie at rest upon the hillside1 guarded by a shepherd's care1 at once he would unfold the shepherding of a ,father's love4 ,a tiny sparrow1 flying an unnoticed speck in the distant sky1 or falling ground-ward with its weary flight1 was a winged witness that the ,father knew and saw even the smallest details of human life4 ,a lily in its lowliness1 and yet a lily in its beauty shaming a king's array1 a lily1 toiling not1 but upward growing1 furnished him a text from which to preach the providence of ,god2 and a wandering beggar boy far away from home and kindred1 stained with sin and dark with sorrow1 gave occasion for the wondrous story of the ,prodigal ,son and a father's changeless and tender love4 ,god6 ,god6 ,god6 this was the supreme note of his life4 ,on the cross he gave utterance to words which reveal the inner character of his soul4 ,when a man has been lied about1 falsified1 his good evil spoken of and his reputation assailed 7as was his before the ,sanhedrin--in the mock trial given him there71 when such a man has been hounded from one end of the town to the other1 spit upon and jibed at and1 finally1 nailed through hands and feet to a torturing cross2 when such a man with his heart bursting 7because of the impeded circulation1 driving the surging1 tumultuous blood back upon it71 with the sun scorching his bare temples1 a crown of thorns stabbing him at every helpless turn of his restless head2 when such a man1 under such circumstances1 can rise above the wickedness1 cowardice and cheap treason that have nailed him to the cross1 and pray 7and pray sincerely7 that his guilty murderers1 villainous detractors and unscrupulous slanderers may be forgiven1 that man bears witness that he has1 at least1 a heart of good4 ,and it was just such a prayer which came from the parched1 dry1 cracked lips of this man of ,nazareth as he hung upon the cross and cried out1 ,father1 forgive them1 for they know not what they do4 ,again he spoke from the cross4 ,there was standing near1 a woman who had been chosen of ,god to give him birth4 ,she was sobbing convulsively4 ,she was realizing what had been foretold of her more than thirty years before--a sword shall pierce through thy own soul1 also4 ,mary1 the mother of ,jesus1 stood there1 brokenhearted4 ,jesus turned his head and looked at ,john1 his cousin1 bidding him take that weeping mother to his home1 his heart and care1 and be unto her henceforth a loving son4 ,o the man who1 in the hour of his own agony1 shall remember his mother1 and crown her1 make her the queen of his life1 and ordain that others shall love and reverence her1 proclaims for himself the lustre of a manhood without spot4 ,once more he spoke from the place of anguish--that moment on the edge of death4 ,there his soul1 rising from the depths of the overwhelming waves of agony1 cries3 ,father1 into thy hands ,i commit my spirit4 ,he who in the hour and article of death can face ,god and eternity1 and commit himself to the hand of supreme justice as a confident child to the arms of a loving father1 bears witness that in his soul there is no ghastly memory of sin1 no sharp1 remembered pang1 no fear of offended law4 ,such a confidence and such a committal of triumphant calm bear witness that the heart is at rest with ,god1 and is conscious of its own good4 ,for two thousand years the world1 without a dissenting voice1 has borne witness that he is the one man who came into the earth and walked through it superlatively good4 ,among the voices in the common consent of the world that ,jesus ,christ was a good man1 there are those who with equal insistence deny that he was ,almighty ,god4 ,they agree that he had the spirit of ,god2 that he had it in measure such as no other man before or since4 ,they announce their belief that he is the mightiest advance on humanity ever known2 that all other religious teachers pale before him as the stars before the sun4 ,they speak of his spotless life with fervent admiration1 and draw special attention to his discourses as models of exhortation to righteousness and truth4 ,to them the sermon on the mount is a chef d'oeuvre4 ,out of that sermon they take the maxim about doing unto others as you would they should do unto you4 ,they take that maxim and frame it about and make it the ,golden ,rule of human life4 ,they exalt ,jesus as the perfect example1 telling us that if we shall govern our life by him1 make him our constant copy1 imitate him1 we shall fill our daily existence with righteousness and truth4 ,in fact1 if we seek a panegyric on the humanity of ,christ2 if we desire to see his goodness exalted to the heavens1 and his humanity put beyond compare with the sons of men--we must needs go to the ,socinian1 the ,arian and the ,unitarian--those who deny the deity of ,christ4 ,but this exaltation of the human ,christ is simply setting up a man of straw that with one blow of deific discount he may be knocked down again4 ,he is set up as man that he may be cast down as ,god4 ,they will not accept him as ,god4 ,god ,almighty 7we are told7 cannot be confined or shut up in any one man4 ,man as man and1 therefore1 every individual man in his part1 is the avatar of ,god4 ,each man is in some sense the incarnation of ,god4 ,god is more or less enthroned in all men4 ,god is to be found in all men as he is to be found in all nature4 ,a good man--call ,jesus a good man--set him up as high as you please1 build as lofty a pedestal for him as you will1 but ,almighty ,god-- ,never6 ,over against this exaltation of ,christ as a merely good man1 and the persistent denial that he was ,god1 stands the unmistakable claim which ,jesus ,christ himself made--that he was ,god4 ,he made that claim in many ways4 ,he claimed it by declaring his power and authority to forgive sin4 ,that was a striking moment when he proclaimed it for the first time4 ,four men had brought a paralytic to the house where he was preaching4 ,when they could not get in because of the crowd1 they climbed up on the roof1 took off some of the tiling1 and by means of ropes or corners of the mattress let the man down to the very feet of ,jesus4 ,when he saw their faith1 he turned to the sick man and said1 ,son 7son of ,abraham71 thy sins are forgiven thee4 ,at once there was an uproar4 ,the leading men1 sitting round and watching him1 burst out with a protest1 charging him with blasphemy1 saying that ,god only could forgive sin4 ,and they were right4 ,no mere man can forgive sin4 ,again and again the ,scriptures teach us that forgiveness is with ,god that he may be feared4 ,in announcing the man's sins forgiven1 ,jesus clearly claimed the prerogative1 power and authority1 which belong to ,god4 ,he claimed this equality by declaring himself to be the ,son of ,god4 ,to the ,jews1 ,son of ,god was equivalent to ,god the ,son4 ,it meant to them1 the moment he styled himself by that name1 an unqualified claim to essential equality with the ,father4 ,because of this they raged against him and would have killed him1 crying out that he had made himself equal with ,god4 ,he made this claim in terms which admit of no misunderstanding4 ,he said3 ,i and my ,father are one4 ,when ,philip said1 ,shew us the ,father1 and it sufficeth us1 he answered and said3 ,hast thou been with me so long time and hast thou not known me1 ,philip8 ,from henceforth ye know him and have seen him4 ,to ,philip he had also said3 ,i am the way and the truth and the life--no man cometh unto the ,father but by me4 ,by this statement he deliberately shut out all other men as the ground and means of approach to ,god4 ,he declares that ,god1 the ,father1 can be found in and through him alone2 that he is the supreme way1 the very truth and the very life2 not that he knows some truth and has a measure of life in common with men1 but that he is the truth--the absolute life4 ,such attitude1 such claimed rights1 privileges and powers1 belong alone to ,god4 ,but he goes beyond this4 ,he testifies that he has been from all eternity the manifestation of the very selfhood of the ,father4 ,hear what he says3 ,and now1 ,o ,father1 glorify thou me with thine own self1 with the glory which ,i had with thee before the world was4 ,he traces his personality backward beyond the hour when the world was launched into space1 before the stellar systems were created4 ,he goes beyond time1 he takes us into eternity1 and in that unbegun and measureless distance declares with all the calm assurance of accustomed truthfulness that he had the glory1 the visibility1 the outward manifestation and splendor of the ,father's own essential selfhood2 that his relation to him was that of one who was from all eternity his determination1 definition and utterance4 ,such claims as these are the claims of one who declares himself to be1 and without restraint1 nothing less than ,almighty ,god4 ,on one occasion when talking to the ,jews he said that ,abraham had rejoiced to see his day1 had seen it and was glad4 ,they turned upon him and reminded him that he was not yet fifty years old1 how then could he have seen ,abraham1 or ,abraham him--that ,abraham who had been dead nearly two thousand years8 ,he faced them and said3 ,verily1 verily ,i say unto you1 before ,abraham was1 ,i am4 ,the striking thing in the statement is not the claim of pre -existence--great as that is--not that he claimed to have been in existence already--not fifty years merely1 but two thousand--no6 all these utterances are remarkable enough1 but these are not the astounding thing he said4 ,the astounding1 the unspeakably extraordinary thing he said is found in just two words3 ,i am4 ,there is one place in ,holy ,scripture where this phrase is supremely used4 ,in the third chapter of the book of ,exodus it is recorded that ,god manifested himself to ,moses at the burning bush1 and there declared himself to be the ,god of ,abraham1 the ,god of ,isaac and the ,god of ,jacob4 ,he commanded ,moses to return to ,egypt1 appear before ,pharaoh and demand the release of the ,children of ,israel from their cruel bondage2 and when ,moses inquired by what name he should speak to the people1 he answered3 ,say unto them1 ,i ,,am hath sent me unto you4 ,i ,,am4 ,to the ,jew these two words set forth the supreme name and title of the eternal ,god4 ,in saying1 therefore1 ,before ,abraham was--,i ,,am1 ,jesus announced himself to be the eternal1 self-centred1 supreme being1 ,almighty ,god4 ,when he said this1 and because they understood him1 because they knew exactly what he meant by these words1 the ,jews took up stones to stone him4 ,if ,i were seeking to demonstrate by object lesson1 and in a fashion that would admit of no reply1 that ,jesus claimed to be ,almighty ,god1 ,i would summon the mightiest and most masterful artist the world knows to come and paint for me the scene which takes place a little later as a consequence of that moment when he emphasizes his claim by saying3 ,i and my ,father are ,,one4 ,the picture would represent a great crowd of scowling1 fierce1 angry ,jews1 their hands filled with stones--some of them drawn back1 the whole figure intense with readiness to cast the fatal stone--and ,jesus1 standing a little distance apart1 looking calmly on4 ,underneath the picture ,i would have written in great golden letters 7letters so artistic1 so startling1 so wonderful in form1 that at the risk of art itself--almost at the risk of minimizing the picture at the first glance1 subordinating it to interest in the letters and dividing the mind of the onlooker between the actual scene and the letters themselves7--,i would have written in letters that should smite the eye and the innermost thinking of the beholder1 the words recorded in the tenth chapter of ,john's ,gospel1 given by the ,jews in reply to the demand of ,jesus when1 speaking with amazement1 he asks1 ,for what good work do ye stone me8 ,i would have every gazer at the picture read these words till they rose up in vastness against him1 smiting his attention as the very stones in the hands of the ,jews-- these words3 ,for a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy2 and because that thou ,,being ,a ,,man ,,makest ,,thyself ,,god4 ,the ,jews were not deceived4 ,they knew what he had done4 ,they knew that he claimed to be no less than very ,god himself4 ,there can be no doubt that he claimed to be ,god4 ,there need be1 really1 no discussion about it4 ,the ,new ,testament records the claim4 ,i am not making any issue as to whether the ,new ,testament is true1 or reliable4 ,i am saying thus far1 only1 that the ,new ,testament 7the ,gospels of the ,new ,testament71 in language concerning which there can be no possible mistake or even ground for misinterpretation1 records the fact that ,jesus ,christ did claim to be ,almighty ,god4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,almighty ,god 7as he claimed to be7 he was not a good man 7as it is said he was74 ,the proposition ought to be self-evident4 ,no mere man can claim to be ,god and be good4 ,he who1 as mere man1 claims to be ,god1 robs ,god of the glory that is exclusively his4 ,he who thus claims to be ,god1 and bids men go into eternity trusting him as ,god1 is a deceiver4 ,no man who robs ,god of equality1 and who deceives men into believing that he is ,god1 can be good--he is a wicked and blasphemous deceiver4 ,there is only one way in which the character of ,jesus ,christ can be saved on this claim of his to be ,god--if that claim were not true4 ,it can be saved only by assuming that he was self-deceived2 that he sincerely believed himself to be ,god1 but was blinded and held fast by his own mistaken concept4 ,but the man who claims to be ,almighty ,god1 and claims it as he did1 can be self-deceived only when he is a mental weakling1 unbalanced in mind1 or absolutely insane4 ,none of these things can be predicated of ,jesus ,christ4 ,on the contrary1 he was the most intellectual man the world has ever known4 ,mark how he met the wisdom and the genius of the men who surrounded him4 ,again and again they came to him with crafty and perplexing questions4 ,with a word he solved their problems1 flashed truth into their shame-smitten faces1 and silenced them4 ,in all the universe there is no soul meaner1 more contemptible1 more cowardly1 and utterly lost to every sense of decent manhood than the man who1 for the sake of entangling a good man in his speech1 asks him questions in public1 before an audience ready at every turn to misquote and misinterpret his slightest utterance2 and that is what they did4 ,they came to him1 not with the desire to know the truth1 but to confound him1 cast him down and destroy his prestige with the people4 ,to every question he gave an answer having in it spiritual truth1 but bearing the unmistakable stamp of rare wisdom and intellectual superiority4 ,his words1 the simple speech he used in the midst of them1 or alone with his disciples1 have been the impulse of the mightiest intellectual activity the world has ever known4 ,out of his words have grown systems of theology that may well call for all there is of brain power and capacity in those who study them4 ,here are to be found the keenest speculations and the farthest outreach of metaphysical suggestion and the most detailed analysis of which the human mind is capable4 ,book after book1 treatise after treatise1 discourse after discourse1 have been produced out of the simplest and most detached things he said4 ,no man can read his speeches and not find the mind stimulated1 shocked1 quickened and impelled forward even upon the most daring lines of thought4 ,it would be easy to call the roll of the princes and kings in the realm of intellect1 men whose thoughts burn and flame like great quenchless lights2 men whose minds are the storehouses of knowledge1 and whose utterances by word and pen have moved the quickest and most forceful lives in the world4 ,it would be easy to call the long roll of these names shining like stars and constellations in the firmament of thought--princes and kings of intellect who acknowledge that ,jesus ,christ is not only superior to them morally and spiritually1 but intellectually4 ,what man is there to-day with any degree of mental self-respect who would dare to stand up and assert himself the equal of ,jesus ,christ intellectually8 ,without necessity of demonstration1 it ought to be a truth beyond question that ,jesus ,christ was the most intellectual man the world has ever known4 ,such a man as that could not be self-deceived4 ,if he were not ,almighty ,god he knew it4 ,he knew it as well as these good ,unitarians1 and these wondrously advanced scholars who cannot get beyond the glamour of his humanity4 ,he knew it at first hands4 ,if he were not ,almighty ,god--if he were only a man--he knew it1 knew it through and through1 in every fibre of his being4 ,there is no possibility then whatever for him to have been deceived4 ,if he were not deceived1 if he knew he was not ,god1 then-- ,,he ,,was ,,not ,a ,,good ,,man4 ,this is his own argument3 ,a young man came to him and said1 ,good ,master1 what good thing shall ,i do1 that ,i may inherit eternal life8 and he said unto him1 ,why callest thou me good8 there is none good but one1 that is ,god4 ,the argument is simple enough4 ,you call me good4 ,god alone is good4 ,if ,i am not ,god1 ,i am not good4 ,not good6 ,nay6 ,if he were not ,god1 he was the most wantonly wicked man of whom ,i ever heard4 ,if he were not ,god1 not only does disaster fall upon himself in the total destruction of his character1 and in the consequent and final driving of him from the suffrage and consideration of men1 but the disaster falls upon all who have put their faith in him4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god1 then he never forgave the sins of a single soul1 and all those throughout the two thousand years who have gone into eternity trusting in his name have gone into that eternity unforgiven and unshrived of ,god4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god1 then he has not forgiven the sin of a single human being alive to-day4 ,you had sinned6 ,there were memories of the sins you had committed4 ,they allowed you no rest4 ,they gave you anguish of mind4 ,others could not forgive you4 ,you could not forgive yourself4 ,the consciousness that you stood naked before the all-seeing eye of a holy ,god2 that he knew the circumstances and every detail thereof1 down to the very intents and purposes lying behind your deeds1 and even your thoughts2 that he looked into and saw all that was in your heart2 in the consciousness growing clearer and stronger and more terrible each day that you had no excuse1 no place that you could hold for a moment2 that if he summoned you to his presence1 you would stand in the white light of his unmixed holiness1 and the inexorable and unrelenting wrath of his essential antagonism and just hatred against sin2 all this consciousness taking voice in you and through you1 cried out in your soul1 ,i am guilty and undone4 ,and this filled you with a horror of great darkness and the utter blackness of a hopeless despair4 ,then you heard the voice of ,jesus ,christ saying1 ,come unto me4 ,him that cometh unto me ,i will in no wise cast out4 ,you came4 ,you fell at his feet4 ,you owned his death as your atoning sacrifice4 ,you claimed him as your substitute4 ,you claimed forgiveness through his blood4 ,he said to you1 as he said to the paralytic1 ,thy sins are forgiven thee4 ,you rose and went away as when one is released from a galling chain2 as when a burden that was crushing to earth has been lifted from the sore1 bleeding shoulder2 as when one who has been tossed on a midnight sea enters the haven while the dawn is breaking1 casts anchor and touches shore4 ,for years you have had peace4 ,the memory of your sins are there 7for though ,god when he forgives forgets them1 you cannot74 ,like ,david1 perhaps1 you cry1 ,my sin is ever before me6 ,the sin marks are there as the nail holes in the wall1 but you have been able to look at them and have peace because you have said to yourself1 ,i am not an unwhipped of justice1 my sins have been punished in my substitute2 they have been fully answered for in his blood4 ,he has forgiven me and justified me and made me clean4 ,in him ,i stand clothed in the very 'righteousness of ,god4' ,i hate my sin and despise it for what it is in itself1 for what it made him1 my redeemer1 to endure1 but ,i have peace because he has fully satisfied in my behalf4 ,i have actually satisfied in him and am delivered before ,god's court of holiness both from the guilt and the demerit of sin4 ,i have1 in short1 gone through the judgment with ,christ on the cross4 ,he has pronounced forgiveness--absolution--upon me1 and he has done so by virtue of his power and authority as the living one in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily--as my saviour and my ,god he has forgiven me and ,i am at peace4 ,all this you have said within yourself and testified4 ,but ,i ask you now to face the terrible fact--if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god--this terrible fact--that you have been deceived4 ,you have had a false peace4 ,you have been living in a fool's paradise4 ,you are before ,god an unpardoned and as yet unpunished criminal awaiting your doom4 ,all this is absolutely your state-- ,,if-- ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,almighty ,god4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,almighty ,god1 he had no authority nor power to forgive your sins4 ,,no6 ,and if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god ,i know not where to bid you turn4 ,you must carry the load of your sins all your days2 and when you die1 go into eternity and face a holy ,god who tells you by every law and fact of nature that he never forgives in a single case till he has first punished the sin and with it the sinner4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god1 his death was not an atonement4 ,and this surely should be plain enough4 ,only ,god can atone to ,god4 ,only an infinite being can satisfy an infinite being4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god he could not make an atonement4 ,if he did not make an atonement1 then the world has never been reconciled to ,god nor brought up on mercy ground4 ,instead of being lifted up to the plane of grace and mercy1 the world is still under the condemnation and judgment of ,god1 no longer under a suspended sentence1 but sheer and defenceless1 with nothing to hinder the crash of doom at any moment4 ,there is no hope4 ,there is no daysman4 ,there is no one to offer unto ,god what he demands1 and unto man what he needs4 ,there is no mediator between a holy ,god and a sinful man4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god1 then he did not rise from the dead4 ,he did not bring life and immortality to light1 and1 as for me1 the preacher1 ,i have no light to hold out to you in the all-embracing gloom and night of death4 ,there is no hope4 ,if a man shall tell me there is no hereafter1 that death ends all1 ,i shall take up the law of induction and argue him to a standstill along the line of unfathomable mysteries and inexplicable psychological phenomena in the constitution of man1 and the inexplicable absence of the phenomena in the state of death1 inexplicable upon any known materialistic ground1 and ,i shall laugh at his inability to maintain his thesis beyond the poor shred of a hypothesis4 ,if a man shall tell me as the result of pure reasoning that he concludes for the endless existence of the soul after death1 and shall do this even upon the plane of induction1 ,i shall turn and tell him that all his argument is based upon inference and not fact1 finding its largest emphasis in the region of the unknowable and guessable--in the things he cannot explain1 where certain conclusions can neither be successfully affirmed1 nor successfully denied1 and where1 by consequence1 he may console himself1 if he wish1 with his side of the guess2 and ,i shall feel a keen sense of sorrow at his inability to hold his premise in the final region of the sure4 ,and what does all this mean8 ,is it playing fast and loose with the mind8 ,am ,i turning in upon myself and playing the mere harlequin in the arena of mental gymnastics8 ,no6 there is sane meaning to this double method--it is this3 as much may be said along one line of reasoning as the other4 ,each is a non-sequitur to the other4 ,each negatives the other and leaves us with reason's torch inverted--the light out1 the darkness deeper than ever2 and standing on the threshold of the grave we are forced to cry out in the sharp agony of a continual self-smiting perplexity3 ,to be or not to be--that is the question4 ,question it is--always a question--always coming back from the side of every dead body--always coming back from the clod-filled grave-- coming down from age to age1 coming back a question no man1 not the wisest mere man who ever lived1 could answer1 or any living wise man can answer to-day4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god it cannot be answered2 for if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god1 he did not rise from the dead and by divine power carry himself out of the region of death forever4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god1 you may go and sit by the tomb of your dead and weep bitter 7because hopeless7 tears4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were not ,god1 then he was not a redeemer and saviour4 ,all the beautiful things that have been taught about him as such are false4 ,all the hopes of heaven1 the beauty of the celestial city1 the tree of life1 the river of crystal1 the company of the saints1 the arch-angelic song1 the meeting and the knowing of those who long ago have left us--none of these things are so4 ,if he were not ,god1 then it is not true that he sits upon the throne1 high and lifted up1 listening to the plaints of the weakest heart that shall trust him1 and hearing the sound of every falling tear4 ,if ,jesus ,christ be not ,god1 then the whole system of ,christianity built upon his person and work falls to the ground1 is broken into fragments1 and like wind-swept dust can never be gathered4 ,if ,jesus ,christ be not ,god1 the ,new ,testament record of him is untrue4 ,the ,new ,testament impeached in its prime particular becomes a worthless book--a book full of exhortations to holiness and truth1 in the name of him who is proven to be 7if he ever lived at all7 a blasphemer1 a deceiver of men and the concrete of human wickedness4 ,if the ,new ,testament is not true1 neither is the ,old2 for the ,old ,testament finds its meaning and value only in the ,christ of the ,new ,testament4 ,take ,jesus ,christ out of the ,old ,testament 7which you must do if you set aside the ,new2 for he alone fulfils the types1 the symbols and the prophecies of the ,old ,testament2 he alone makes its testimony and history intelligible2 he alone gives unity1 harmony and authoritative meaning to its exhortations7--take ,christ out of the ,old ,testament and you take away its one and only key4 ,and mark you--when ,christ goes out of the ,bible as ,god--,god goes out of the ,bible4 ,the deity which has preserved it1 the power which has made it living and unchangeable in the midst of change and death1 will have been dethroned4 ,without ,christ as ,god you are without any sane and satisfying knowledge of ,god4 ,where will you turn to find ,god and know him to your comfort8 ,you might as well look into the bottomless pit as into your own heart4 ,no more satisfactory will it be to look into the heart of others4 ,we are all built on the same plan4 ,the difference is only in degree or extension4 ,the basilar fact is1 ,god cannot be found in any natural man4 ,you cannot find or know him to your heart's content in nature4 ,what kind of a ,god does nature reveal to you8 ,i will answer for you--a ,god who puts you in this world and does not tell you whence you come1 whether from the all mud or the ,almighty1 from an angel or a devil1 from jelly or genius1 from the heights of heaven or the depths of hell4 ,a ,god who puts you here and fills you with questions he alone can answer and--refuses so to do4 ,a ,god who calls you into the world and gives you eyes to see everything but yourself4 ,a ,god who hides you from yourself1 so that you do not know whether you are a function or a soul2 whether you are matter or spirit2 whether you are a personality or a cellular part of a general whole--called man4 ,a ,god who gave you mind with seemingly infinite possibilities in thought1 and gave you a body that is finite and temporary in construction4 ,a ,god who gives you an intellect which grasps after eternity1 and is always saying on the summit of any endeavor achieved1 ,what next8 and yet is limited to a few inconsequent years4 ,a ,god who sets you face to face with the imminency of death1 and never allows you to know at what moment you must go1 and gives you no hint of the beyond--or whether there is a beyond4 ,in ,france they do not tell the man who is to be guillotined till a few moments before the fatal hour4 ,he is sleeping on his couch4 ,he is dreaming of pleasant fields1 of running streams1 of boyhood's days1 of to-morrows that shall be better--a heavy hand is laid on his shoulder--he starts up in bed--the gray light of early morning is filtering in through the barred window of his cell--stern-faced men are standing before him--they say1 ,your hour is come2 follow us4 ,it is terrific4 ,but this is the case of every human being4 ,no one can tell when the summons may come--or where4 ,a man was sitting in his room at close of day4 ,it had been 7so he said7 the best day of his life4 ,he had said to his wife that he never loved her more than he did then 7and they had been married many years71 never did he feel more content that they had chosen to walk together through life than then4 ,he was full of plans for himself and for her 7saying with great earnestness that their last days should be their best days74 ,she answered back that she was glad with a great gladness that it was so4 ,she turned away for a moment to glance in another direction1 still speaking to him4 ,when she looked back he was gone--gone while the love words and the hope words were still on his lips--the finger of death had touched his heart--a voice had whispered in his ear1 ,come4 ,there was only a lifeless bit of clay where a moment before had been a body pulsing with life1 with love1 with hope4 ,it is terrific--doomed--and not knowing how soon the bolt will strike4 ,what sort of a ,god is this who laces your body with a network of laws1 the breaking of the slightest of which--all unknown to you--may send you forth upon a path of diseased and tortured existence--in which the body from whence you cannot escape shall be to you as a chamber of horrors--a place of the thumbscrew1 the rack and the fagot4 ,what kind of a ,god is that who allows the aged to linger out in a miserable prolongation of wretched days1 a burden to themselves1 a burden to others1 and takes away the widow's only son --her only support8 ,who is the ,god who creates one man with all the equipment for life1 and another man with all the lack of it8 ,what kind of a ,god is this who looks down out of the heaven of day and the heavens of night1 and sees all the sorrow1 the anguish1 the pain1 the unspeakable tragedies1 and sends no wing of angel to cleave the pitiless sky1 no voice out of the silence to console1 no hand to help8 ,what man is there of you1 if he had the power1 would not banish sickness1 sorrow1 pain and death8 ,what man is there of you who1 if he could1 would not make every human being well and happy8 ,what then8 ,what is the conclusion of the matter concerning you8 ,simple enough--you have the heart to do it1 but not the power4 ,what is the conclusion concerning this ,god of nature8 ,he has the power--but does not manifest the heart4 ,what will you say of this ,god of nature in such a scheme8 ,what can you say but that your heart is better than the heart of the ,god which nature reveals8 ,can you hear1 understand and love a ,god like that8 ,can you climb through nature up to nature's ,god and say1 ,i have found him1 ,i know him8 ,you can climb up1 but where will you find him8 ,you will find him wrapped in the black thundercloud or girded with the robe of the lightnings3 ,you will find him the ,god who splits the earth in twain with the earthquake's riving blow1 loosens the bands of the sea1 sends tidal waves in surges of destruction1 pours out the lava streams from the volcano's cone1 as kings pour wine from an earthen cup1 spilling the wine and breaking the cup2 the ,god who turns an earthly paradise 7like ,messina7 into a fire-smitten desert1 and a city of the living into a cemetery of the unburied dead4 ,when your heart aches1 will such a ,god care for you8 ,will his thunders console you8 ,when your soul is dark1 will his lightnings illumine it8 ,when you yearn for love1 will his inexorable law supply it8 ,ah1 sirs1 without ,christ you are without a ,god whom you can love1 whom you can trust1 to whom you can go1 and in whose strength you can lie down and--at last--be folded in peace4 ,if ,jesus ,christ is not ,god1 if the only ,god to whom you can go is the ,god of nature1 then you might as well fall down in the sand at the base of the far ,egyptian sphinx1 open your eyes for a moment to the blue sky that spreads away to the horizon before its staring face1 its cold1 chiselled1 inscrutable smile1 and the next moment shut your eyes against the pelting dust the idle winds blow thither4 ,ah6 ,nature is a sand-dune--and the ,god of nature is a ,sphynx4 ,do you care to kneel and worship there8 ,if ,jesus ,christ be not ,god the disaster is not alone to him1 but to you--to me4 ,if he were not ,god1 then we are in a world where the very day is no better or brighter than a starless midnight4 ,if ,jesus ,christ were a good man1 a supremely good man and a supremely intellectual man1 then he was and is 7as he claimed7 ,almighty ,god4 ,the ,new ,testament says he was a supremely good1 and a supremely intellectual man4 ,for two thousand years the most brilliant men in the world have corroborated this record by freely testifying that ,jesus ,christ was a supremely good and a supremely intellectual man2 all this being so1 ,i change the conditional form of the proposition to the indicative and declarative and now say3 ,since ,jesus ,christ was a supremely good and a supremely intellectual man1 he was1 therefore 7as he claimed71 ,almighty ,god4 ,he could not be a supremely good and a supremely intellectual man and claim to be ,god unless he were ,god4 ,since he claimed to be ,god1 therefore1 he was ,god4 ,yes2 he was ,god4 ,the evidences are manifold4 ,he was sinless4 ,he said3 ,which of you convinceth me of sin8 ,for two thousand years he has been in the concentrated light of a hostile world's merciless investigation4 ,the light has been turned on the land in which he lived4 ,every rod of ground over which he travelled has been dug up1 or surveyed1 or trodden4 ,his words have been weighed1 balanced to a nicety against any probability of error1 mistake1 imagination1 fancy or misquotation4 ,his words have been split open as men break open rocks4 ,all the contents of his words have been put in the crucible of criticism4 ,every thought has been insistently and unsentimentally assayed for1 even1 the suspicion or the slightest hint of an alloy4 ,his teachings have been chemically dissolved and turned into their component parts4 ,the saline base of truth has been sought for at any risk to the compounded speech he made4 ,and after all6 not one self-respecting1 authoritative lip has uttered a charge against him4 ,in the hush of a world that cannot even murmur1 he steps forward and once more rings down his challenge3 ,which of you convinceth me of sin8 ,he stands out among his fellows as a white shaft under a starless midnight4 ,he rises above the passions of men as an unshaken rock in the midst of a wild1 lashed sea4 ,he is to man's best character as harmony is to discord1 as a smile is to a frown1 as love is to hate1 as blessing is to cursing1 as a garden of lilies to a desert of sand1 as heaven is to earth1 as holiness is to sin and as life to death4 ,if he were sinless1 he was absolutely holy2 he was so holy that his very presence brought out the sin in others4 ,sinful men and women fell at his feet and confessed their sins4 ,at sight of him demons tore their way out of the bodies they possessed and fled as clouds of darkness before the sun1 crying as they fled1 ,thou art the holy one of ,god--hast thou come to torment us before the time8 ,tormented as they were even then1 as sin always is when confronted by holiness2 as vice is before virtue2 as a lie is before the truth4 ,he was sinless4 ,he was holy4 ,his sinlessness and holiness cannot be accounted for on natural grounds4 ,all his natural ancestry were sinful4 ,his sinlessness cannot be accounted for unless he were ,god2 for1 sinlessness and holiness come alone from ,god and1 as essential qualities1 take their rise alone in ,god4 ,his power over nature proved him ,god4 ,his look changed water into wine1 his word gave sight to the blind1 healing to the deaf1 speech to the dumb4 ,at his word the lame man leaped as a hart1 the leper was cleansed4 ,he said1 ,peace1 be still1 and the wild tempest of the sea was hushed1 and there was a great calm1 a calm like unto the stillness of the unruffled rest of ,god4 ,for two thousand years his regenerative power in a world of sin has been the proof that he was ,god4 ,for two thousand years1 in every age1 in every clime1 among all classes of men1 from the refined infidel to the vilest sinner1 from the cold atheist to the brutal idolater1 men have been changed-- transformed4 ,men who have been the bond slaves of passion1 whose daily lives have been the output of iniquity1 whose deeds have been for destruction1 whose words have been poison1 and whose inmost thoughts have been as the vapors of miasma--these all--have been transformed into fountains of purity1 into angels of mercy1 or as illuminated missals have been written full of the name and the glory of ,god2 men whose every fibre was as the coarse and tangled threads of a brutal unrefinement have become men whose every line of character was as the woven gold of ,ophir--and the speech that once smote with discord the ears that heard it has become as the sound of singing across silent waters and under listening stars4 ,and you ask these transfigured human beings1 as you find them travelling along the highway of twenty noteful centuries1 what it was that so changed them1 put such new force and impetus in them1 making them to be as men new created1 and they will tell you that ,jesus ,christ came along that way1 they saw in his face the stain of blood1 the marks of nails were in his hands and feet1 he had the appearance of one who had been cruelly slain4 ,he stopped1 looked at them and said3 ,come unto me4 ,they obeyed1 they fell at his feet4 ,he touched them1 a strange1 keen sense thrilled through them4 ,he said to them1 ,arise4 ,they arose and found themselves new men--men twice begotten4 ,ask the drunkard who tried to be sober1 broke every pledge and drank in his cup the very life blood of those he loved and who loved him-- how at last he found strength to say a final no1 turn from the accursed thing1 and enter a world all new in which to live1 a freeman and no more a slave--he will tell you1 ,jesus ,christ did it all4 ,ask any of the bond slaves of passion1 men who have been gripped by every form of human desire1 and whiplashed1 and stung1 and tortured by their gratification1 and driven to fresh and maddening excess by the never satisfied and always burning lust within 7ever crying like the horseleach's daughter1 ,give1 give72 ask them how it is that to-day they are freemen and walk as kings1 and they will tell you that ,jesus ,christ laid hold of them1 and by the might of his power1 the tenderness of his love1 and the wealth of his grace1 made them free4 ,and this has been going on for two thousand years4 ,the story has recently been told of a great thinker lecturing one day before a large audience of medical students--some eighteen hundred men who pressed in to hear him4 ,he took from his desk a letter1 and holding it up before him1 said something to this effect3 ,gentlemen6 ,i have here a letter from one of your number1 in which he tells the story of his life--a record of shame1 of sinful indulgence1 that makes me shudder even to look at the letter4 ,at the close of this fearful confession he asks1 ',can your ,god save such an one as ,i am8' ,stopping for a moment and surveying his audience1 the speaker said3 ,when ,i came to the city this afternoon 7it was the city of ,edinburgh7 there was a beautiful1 fleecy cloud spreading itself like a thing of glory in the upper sky1 and ,i said1 ',o cloud1 where do you come from8' and the cloud answered me and said1 'come from the slums and the low1 vile places of the city4 ,the sun of heaven reached down and lifted me up and transfigured me with his shining4' ,looking about upon the now deeply impressed throng1 the speaker1 after a solemn pause1 said3 ,i do not know whether this young man is here or not1 but if he is1 ,i can say to him that my ,saviour and my ,master1 ,jesus ,christ1 he who is our great ,god and ,saviour1 he can reach down from the highest heaven to the lowest depths into which a human soul can sink1 and can lift you1 and lift you up and up1 till he shines in you and through you1 and transfigures you with the light of his love and glory4 ,he can4 ,he does4 ,he is doing it now4 ,and who is he who can do this but the living ,god alone8 ,that ,jesus ,christ was ,god is the testimony of the men who lived in intimate communion with him and knew him best4 ,john leaned on his breast at supper4 ,john heard and knew the beating of the ,master's heart1 and ,john says3 ,in the beginning was the ,word1 and the ,word was with ,god1 and the ,word was ,god 7,god was the ,word74 ,the same was in the beginning with ,god4 ,all things were made by him2 and without him was not anything made that was made4 4 4 4 ,and the ,word was made flesh1 and dwelt among us 7and we beheld his glory1 the glory as of the only begotten of the ,father7 full of grace and truth4 ,again this same ,john writes3 ,jesus ,christ 4 4 4 ,,this ,,is ,,the ,,true ,,god4 ,writing to the ,philippians1 ,paul declares1 that ,jesus ,christ was in the form of ,god1 laid aside his glory as such1 took upon him the form of sinful man1 became obedient unto death1 even the death of the cross1 carried his humanity through hades and the grave1 rose out from among the dead1 and took that humanity to the throne of the highest4 ,there ,god the ,father reclothed him with the unbegun and uncreated glory which he had laid aside1 gave him a name which is above every name1 even the name of ,jesus1 and has highly and eternally ordained that every knee in the wide extended universe shall bow1 and every tongue confess1 that he is ,lord to the glory of ,god the ,father4 ,in his epistle to the ,colossians1 the ,apostle ,paul announces that this same ,jesus is the image of the invisible ,god2 by him were all things created that are in heaven1 and that are in earth1 visible and invisible1 whether they be thrones or dominions1 or principalities or powers2 all things were created by him1 and for him4 ,to the same ,colossians he further writes3 ,in him dwelleth all the fulness of the ,godhead bodily4 ,to the ,hebrews he says3 ,he is the brightness of the ,father's glory1 and the express image of his person 7the word image is charakter and signifies an engraving1 the very engraving of ,god in the flesh1 the engraving of ,god in humanity7 and upholding all things by the word of his power4 ,upholding all things6 this earth in its orbit about the sun2 the sun in its orbit about some other sun2 all suns and systems in their orbits of splendor1 whirling onward in ever-widening distances over highways of infinite spaces1 through extensions that are measureless1 and where time does not count4 ,in that unmeasured expansion where the points of the compass are lost and dimension is a meaningless term2 in that incomprehensible and indefinable vastness1 filled with the might and the majesty of form1 of weight1 of motion and limitless power--all things--are hanging on his word and obeying his will4 ,not only does the ,new ,testament proclaim him ,god--the ,old ,testament does likewise1 and with unmistakable speech4 ,the prophet ,isaiah says3 ,unto us a child is born1 unto us a son is given1 and the government shall be upon his shoulder2 and his name shall be called ,wonderful1 ,counsellor1 the mighty ,god1 the everlasting ,father4 ,micah1 the prophet1 glorifies the little town of ,bethlehem1 least as it is among the thousands of ,judah1 and foretells that he who shall be born there1 and is to be ruler in ,israel1 is he whose goings forth have been from old1 from everlasting4 ,he who has been the outgoing and the forth-putting of the invisible ,god2 and who is1 and who alone can be1 the visibility of ,god4 ,when we turn to the ,new ,testament once more1 we are given a vision of him1 in ,patmos1 where he appears to that beloved ,john who had leaned so heavily on his heart in the days of the earthly pilgrimage4 ,it is a vision of wonder1 of glory1 and divine splendor4 ,he is seen as a man--as one who had become dead1 who was now alive1 who had conquered both death and the grave4 ,his face shone with the light of the noonday sun1 his eye glances were as a flame of fire1 and when he spoke1 his voice was as the sound of many waters2 and this is what he said for himself3 ,i am ,alpha and ,omega1 the beginning and the ending1 saith the ,lord1 which is1 and which was1 and which is to come1 the ,almighty4 ,this is the climax4 ,he claimed to be ,almighty ,god while on earth4 ,he claims it from heaven4 ,he says ,i am ,god--he says that because he declares himself as embracing the whole extent of being4 ,listen3 ,i am he that is--that is to say1 the self-existing one2 for the statement is the cognate of that1 ,i am that ,i am1 which is the pre-eminent appelative of deity4 ,i am he which was--and this extends being into the past2 that past he himself defines4 ,he does not say ,i am in the beginning1 but ,i am the beginning--beginning itself--the origin of things and1 therefore1 himself unbegun1 eternal1 from everlasting4 ,it is the echo of that far-flung phrase of old3 ,even from everlasting to everlasting thou art ,god4 ,i am he which is to come--this includes eternity future--the unendingness which stretches without a horizon beyond the present4 ,here is fulness--and the fulness of the ,godhead bodily4 ,in saying these words upon ,patmos1 then1 our ,lord ,jesus ,christ says3 ,i am ,god--,i am ,almighty ,god4 ,nor is this a mere conclusion from the premise here6 ,he says it directly1 plainly and squarely himself4 ,he says not only that he is1 and was1 and is to come--but he says-- ,i ,,am ,,the ,,almighty4 ,and ,paul1 the special apostle of the ,church1 unites with ,thomas 7the believing1 but material evidence demanding representative of the elect remnant in ,israel7 in proclaiming the deity of ,god's ,christ4 ,thomas falls at his feet and cries3 ,my ,lord and ,my ,god4 ,paul bows his head in adoration before him and writes3 ,our great ,god and ,saviour--,jesus ,christ4 ,upon the august throne of the universe he is seated4 ,he who lay a babe upon a woman's breast2 who1 although he was infinite1 became an infant2 who being in the form of ,god1 did not hesitate to put off the divine glory and put on mortal humanity that 7as an infinite person7 he might1 through the prepared body of his mortality1 offer an infinite sacrifice for men2 who died under a malefactor's doom1 but with his nailed hands1 in the hour of his agony1 saved a thief from hell--opening to him the gates of ,paradise2 he who refused the deliverance of angels when they bent above his cross1 that by his cross he might give to men the deliverance angels could not give2 lie who was buried in a borrowed grave2 who rose as an immortal man1 ascended as the ,second ,adam-- the ,new ,head of ,humanity--the ,life ,giver to a world1 and took his seat on the ,father's throne1 as witness of redemption achieved and salvation secured--he sits there now1 and having taken to himself the glory which he had with the ,father before all worlds were1 having clothed his immortal humanity with that form of ,god which ever was his1 now sits the centre of a world's adoration and heaven's amaze1 as the ,,god ,,man--the highest form of ,god and the ultimate form of man2 the proclamation that man in ,christ is the archetype of ,god and ,god in ,christ the archetype of man4 ,as we thus gaze upon him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the ,godhead bodily2 as we meditate upon him1 seek to reason about him1 are touched by his love1 held by his power1 and filled with his life1 we say with the inspired apostle3 ,without controversy1 great is the mystery of godliness3 ,god was manifest in the flesh4 ,our great ,god1 repeats ,paul1 and he adds1 to balance the wonder of it1 and our ,saviour ,jesus ,christ2 he who1 in some glad day nearer than we think1 is coming back to this old1 sin-stained1 grave-digged world--to be owned and saluted by all nations1 peoples1 kindred and tongues as-- ,,the ,,god ,,of ,,the ,,whole ,,earth4 ,with all this glory and this wonder he is1 as the angels said1 7who spoke of his ascension1 session and ,second ,coming71 ,,this ,,same ,,jesus1 full of tender mercy1 and loving compassion2 by virtue of his perfect sacrifice able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto ,god the ,father by him2 saying from heaven as he once said on earth3 ,him that cometh unto me1 ,i will in no wise cast out2 but saying at the same time1 and with unfailing faithfulness3 ,no man cometh into the ,father but by me2 saying it faithfully because1 of a truth1 only in the ,son can the ,father be found4 ,let me exhort all who may read these lines1 if you have not already done so1 to fall down at his pierced feet1 and with deep contrition for all your transgressions and for your very nature of sin which helped to nail him to the accursed tree1 say with voice of unfailing love and unfaltering faith3 ,my ,saviour and my ,god4 ,if you have already owned him as your ,saviour1 then1 as ,thomas of old1 with the voice of deep devotion say3 ,my ,lord and my ,god4 ,to those of you 7if there be such7 who still deny his deity and persist in calling him good1 he1 himself1 is asking you from heaven as he asked it aforetime upon earth3 ,why callest thou me good8 ,in asking you that he is putting upon you the responsibility of the terrible conclusion of your own premise3 ,,if ,,not ,,god--,,not ,,good6 ,are you willing to face him in eternity with that inexorable alternative3 ,,if ,,not ,,god--,,not ,,good8 ,christianity ,,what ,,is ,,christianity8 ,,what is ,christianity8 ,the question seems a belated one4 ,it never was more pertinent than now4 ,its pertinency rests upon two facts4 ,first3 the modern drift in ,christianity and its absolute failure4 ,second3 the phenomenal triumph of primitive ,christianity4 ,the modern drift is antagonistic to doctrine and repudiates the miraculous4 ,it sets aside the virgin birth1 has no toleration for atonement by sacrificial death1 and positively refuses to accept the bodily resurrection of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,it holds that ,god is the ,father of all men4 ,each man is inherently a son of ,god4 ,he has in him all the elements of the divine lineage4 ,exercise and culture are alone needed to reveal these elements and demonstrate this lineage4 ,salvation is not the redemption of a child of the ,devil1 but recovery of a child of ,god from the hands of the ,devil4 ,salvation is the restoration of the individual to the consciousness of this relationship2 but salvation is effectively individual only as it is primarily social4 ,the time has passed 7so we are told7 when the individual may be discussed and his social condition ignored4 ,to seek out an individual here and there and endeavor to redeem or recover him while the environment remains unchanged1 is a waste of force3 as foolish as it would be to spend millions on remedies for people sick with malaria in a pestilential and malarial district1 and ignore the condition of the district4 ,true wisdom would demand first of all that the district be purged1 the environment made healthy1 the cause of malaria destroyed4 ,human beings are neither sinning nor suffering because a possible first man away back somewhere ate forbidden fruit at the insistent appeal of his too persistent wife4 ,men are sinning and suffering because social conditions are all wrong4 ,these wrong conditions fill the multitude with discouragement and depression4 ,they are unable to breathe an inspiring life force4 ,they cannot obtain sufficient impulse to live above low levels4 ,the laws1 the customs1 the inequalities of life1 hedge them like brutes in a corral4 ,this corralling and hedging of humanity en masse1 while the few pull away from the crowd and create an environment satisfactory to themselves at the expense of the crowd1 is the raison d'etre for all evil conditions4 ,let us have right legislation4 ,let us make right laws4 ,the moment the social condition enables a man to discover the divine things in him1 he will live right by preference4 ,we are no longer to spend eloquence1 prayer and time on revivals1 and now and then1 here and there1 get an individual to live fairly right in spite of hindering conditions4 ,the sermon of the preacher should appeal to the law-maker rather than to the law-breaker2 it should arouse men1 not to the danger of a hell far off1 but to a hell near at hand1 the hell of unjust laws1 of sanitary neglect1 of oppression of man by man4 ,social redemption6 that is the watchword4 ,social salvation6 that is the crying need4 ,all this 7we are told7 is to be accomplished by appealing to the divine in man1 to his hitherto ignored resources4 ,this appeal can be made of avail only by setting up some human figure in which this divine life has been fully proved and clearly portrayed4 ,in the nature of the case1 for a modernist ,christian1 such a person is to be found alone in our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,by such he is now hailed1 and continually announced1 as the advanced man1 the quintessent demonstration of evolution as applied to humanity1 the way-shower1 the exemplar and true copy4 ,he is incarnate altruism4 ,his whole life was self-denial4 ,his daily interest was in social conditions4 ,to him society was the objective1 the individual an incident4 ,his teachings1 when fairly construed1 involve the overthrow of the old1 and the bringing in of a radically new society1 in which the divine life in man may have an opportunity to unfold4 ,his doctrines1 when analyzed1 are explosive2 if practically carried out would be revolutionary4 ,he is1 in short1 the true socialist4 ,if we follow him as such1 if we work out his intent1 we shall have individual salvation1 but we shall have it as a consequent of social redemption4 ,there may be shining worlds beyond this4 ,there may be holy cities with golden streets4 ,there may be robes of righteousness and trees of life4 ,what we need to do1 as ,christians1 is to take care of the world in which we now live1 build first-class holy cities here1 see that the streets are well paved1 and the sewers in order1 put fit clothing on the backs of the poor1 fill the mouths of the hungry with actual bread1 make the hours of labor minimum1 and the hours of personal culture maximum1 and thus weave a garment of civic1 social and individual righteousness that shall stand the test of this world or any other4 ,in other words1 we are to live the life that now is-- and let that which is to come take care of itself4 ,this is the trend of the modern drift4 ,it is an endeavor to bring the church down out of the clouds1 place it on the level of human experience1 meet present human needs in practical ways1 and establish a system of natural1 rational and universal ethics4 ,and yet--in spite of this widely heralded liberalism2 in spite of the effort to accommodate itself to the rationalism1 the unbelief and downright infidelity of the hour2 in spite of the determination to cut loose from the primaries of the first century and ally itself with the fast-going advance of the twentieth1 this movement in the name of ,christianity has not succeeded in winning and holding the multitude either to a personal and modified ,christ1 or to a reorganized and elastic church4 ,the churches in which it flourishes2 the churches which have renounced faith in the supernatural and miraculous2 the churches which have swung the doors wide open on the hinges of worldly wisdom and easy tolerance2 the churches which have substituted natural generation for supernatural regeneration1 evolution instead of revolution1 the working out of human life1 instead of the coming in of divine life2 the churches which teach that man is to go up and take hold of ,god1 instead of ,god coming down to take hold on man2 the churches which are broad enough to allow men of all faiths1 and men of no faith at all1 to occupy their pulpits1 are not overcrowded1 nor have righteousness and holiness extraordinarily increased in their neighborhood4 ,on the contrary1 in face of every effort to conciliate the naturalism in man1 men look upon these churches1 and the ,christianity they advocate1 with suspicion4 ,they see these churches have their goods still marked with the words1 supernatural1 miraculous4 ,it is true1 these churches may practically put such goods out of sight2 even then1 men will not be attracted beyond the expression of a condescending tolerance2 and while admitting1 as they will1 that the church is earnestly endeavoring to get rid of its ancient incubus of theology1 free its hands and take hold of the plow handle of progress1 ready1 if needs be1 to drive a furrow deep enough to bury all memories of primitive faith1 yet will they turn away from that kind of a church and that sort of ,christianity1 with the feeling that all this action on the part of the church is but another feeble effort at competitive morality4 ,they will turn from it and seek their own organizations wherein no issue of the supernatural has ever been raised2 where the quasi personality and questionable existence of an unseen ,god are not at all discussed2 and where man and his present life are the only subjects deemed worthy of consideration4 ,if this drift as thus indicated shall continue another ten years1 and enlist the support and open advocacy of leading and representative thinkers in the church2 if the theological seminaries shall continue to turn out on graduation day1 with their all too mechanical regularity1 men who do not believe in the virgin birth1 who find no real reason why our ,lord ,jesus ,christ should have died at all1 except the fatality of his genius that he was too far ahead of his time and was caught by the whirling wheel of the world's evil and torn in pieces2 if the repudiation of the ,bible as the final and inerrant revelation of ,god for this age shall continue so short a space as a decade1 by that time1 at the present rate of development1 we shall have not only a very modern ,christianity1 a ,christianity without miracles1 without even a hint of the supernatural1 but a ,christianity without spiritual power or moral authority1 standing as a delinquent on the street corners1 and amid the hurry and rush of more vital things1 begging permission simply to exist4 ,over against this modern drift and its amplitude of failure stands the phenomenal success of original and primitive ,christianity4 ,and yet1 the conditions which confronted this nascent faith were appalling4 ,it was the era of materialism4 ,force was the prime minister1 self -gratification the supreme legislator4 ,exaggerated superstition was balanced by decaying faith4 ,it was a time of coordinately high mental activity1 an intellectuality that cynically rejoiced at its own failure to solve the riddle of the universe1 maliciously suggested new difficulties1 raised barriers against its own research1 and prostrating itself in the name of mere brutism1 worshipped nature as the ready panderer to its worst passions1 while owning it as a cruelly smiling and pitiless sphinx4 ,the one hundred and twenty men and women who faced the ,roman world with the determination to impinge their faith upon it1 seemed the most audaciously unwise of all forlorn and hopeless fanatics4 ,they had neither wealth nor social standing4 ,their culture was at zero1 their knowledge indifferent4 ,localism and tradition environed them1 and the story they had to tell was not only an affront to the course of nature1 but a direct repudiation of old faiths and cherished religions4 ,itself a religio illicita1 ,christianity challenged governmental law and invoked1 logically1 the keenest persecution4 ,the mountains which surrounded ,jerusalem were not so high1 nor so difficult of ascent1 as the prejudice far and near over which they needs must climb1 even if they would gain but a tolerated hearing4 ,yet they went forth6 and so preached1 that they not only saved and transfigured individuals1 but so molded and transformed society1 that in its every-day achievements1 ,christianity itself seemed like a miracle to astonished and silenced onlookers4 ,startlingly enough this moulding of society1 this overturning of old conditions--this bringing in of the radically new1 so that their enemies said of them they had turned the world upside down2 this repudiation of brutality and the exaltation of unselfishness2 this building up of a condition in which a community now judged itself by the standards of chastity1 righteousness and neighborly kindness2 this renovation of whole centres of life till the erstwhile deserts wherein not a flower of gentleness had bloomed1 now blossomed as gardens of delight1 watered with never-ceasing streams of brotherly love--were produced1 not by an appeal to society itself1 not by denunciation of laws and customs1 however bad1 but by laying hold of a human soul1 estimating it in value by the weight of a whole world1 and changing the individual life4 ,this was the triumph of original and primitive ,christianity4 ,in view of such a triumph and the unqualified failure of the modern drift which claims the name of ,christianity1 it should seem a perfectly legitimate and altogether pertinent question to ask1 ,what is ,christianity8 ,the answer is given by the apostle ,paul in his second letter to ,timothy1 his son in the faith1 the preacher of his own ordination4 ,he says3 ,our ,saviour ,jesus ,christ 4 4 4 has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the ,gospel4 7#b ,timothy #a3aj47 ,according to this declaration1 the ,gospel is the good news that our ,lord ,jesus ,christ came into the world to accomplish three things-- abolish death1 bring in a new life and reveal immortality4 ,as the ,gospel is the heart beat of ,christianity1 then the three things which proclaim its constituent and objective characteristic are3 ,the abolition of death4 ,the gift of a new life4 ,immortality4 ,first--,the abolition of death4 ,death is a black fact4 ,it is the shadow the sun never penetrates1 the robber who steals the treasure more precious than gold1 the guest who never waits to be invited1 the intruder who feels at home whether in palace or in cot1 has no respect of persons1 and lays his hand with equal familiarity on the king upon his throne1 or the tramp by the wayside1 saying come to the sick1 tarry not to the well1 is sure of the old1 and revels like a reaper in the harvest of the young4 ,it breaks the plans and disorganizes the relations of life2 and then1 like a coarse comedian or a heartless satirist1 compels those who survive to turn away from the memory of their dead1 reorganize their lives and live on as though those who once lived with them and formed an intimate part of their daily experience had never existed4 ,unless ,god himself shall intervene1 death is the certain end of the longest life4 ,side by side with the certainty of death are two things which give it emphasis3 the brevity of life and its uncertainty4 ,how brief it is6 what are sixty or seventy years as measured by hopes and fears1 by splendor of genius1 by forecasts that outreach the ages1 by thoughts that climb and climb with ease to the infinite1 by energy of mind1 which1 rising superior to the combined hindrances of every day1 is always peering beyond the last endeavor1 and stretching itself towards unbroken continuance1 cries1 ,what next8 ,extract from the allotted time of three score years and ten1 the puling days of infancy1 the immature years of youth1 the hours of indecision as to the route to take1 the right profession to follow2 take the hours given to eating and drinking 7that eating and drinking which in spite of the glamor we throw about it is simply repairing the mechanical waste and renewing the chemical energy that will enable us to go on a little while and a little way farther72 take out the time spent in sleep--in practical nonentity--and the remainder is a pitiful handful of years1 so few1 that to number them seems like a mathematical mockery1 like numerical trifling4 ,and the uncertainty of life6 ,what man is he who can assure himself of ten days8 ,in that time he may die1 be buried and be forgotten by the world that scarcely heard the tolling of his funeral bell1 and had no time to stay and hear the falling of the grave clods upon the coffin lid4 ,this emphasis of brevity and uncertainty has affected men more or less from the beginning4 ,in the hour when ,christianity was born it affected them well nigh unto delirium4 ,so brief was the vision of life1 so tumultuous its incidents1 so conscious were men of its uncertainty1 that they played with it as gamblers throw dice4 ,it became cheap1 cheaper than the ground in which their bodies were so soon to be laid2 and in derision of its cheapness they built great monuments to hold their scattered dust1 monuments that should outlast by centuries their latest breath2 with light laughter they rode past these chiselled tombs and scorned themselves as the builders of a longevity their own being could never know4 ,this fact of death is impressing men now4 ,in proportion as life increases in knowledge2 in proportion as men become masters of nature's forces2 in proportion as they measure the universe1 make daily incursions therein1 and bring back always some conquered thing1 some new discovery as a tribute to the limitlessness of mind1 in this proportion the unequal brevity and the disintegrating uncertainty of life1 lead men to ask with more and more insistence1 whether1 after all1 it is worth while4 ,is it worth while to carry burdens which force us to look down into the dust of the highway1 and not up and out to the wider landscape8 ,is it worth while to put so much force of soul and spirit1 brain and heart into things from which we may be summoned without a moment's notice8 ,is it worth while to live1 and then go to pieces through the effort at living1 live on day after day like a machine out of gear 7held together oftentimes only by the surgeon's skill71 then break down completely1 give a final sigh and be hurried away to add a lot of useless fragments to the already accumulated scrap heap of the still more useless graveyard8 ,into this emphasis of brevity and uncertainty1 there enters another element which increasingly raises the question--,is it worth while8 ,that added element is the silence of the grave4 ,the grave is terribly silent4 ,you can hear the gravel rattling out of the grave digger's shovel with a thud upon the coffin lid2 or1 you can hear the crunching1 jarring sound as the casket is slid into its place in the receiving vault1 and you can hear the turn of the key and the snap of the bolt as the gate or door of the sepulchre is shut and locked4 ,you may stand above the simple mound of the churchyard1 in front of some monumental shaft1 or before the sculptured urn2 it may be the dust of a king1 a scholar1 or some nameless beggar which is heaped within--the silence will be unbroken--except by the sound of your own voice as you ask3 ,where are they8 ,what are they8 ,,are they8 ,although the sun may be shining in full splendor over row after row of graves1 no light will be there in which to read the answer to your questions4 ,instead of light there will be thick darkness upon the graves1 and gross darkness within4 ,men peer into this darkness4 ,there is no vision--no speech--and they ask3 ,is it worth while to toil1 to labor1 to accumulate1 to make great advance in knowledge1 to build higher every day the conning towers of science1 and then leaving these high points of achievement1 enter into that realm where no surveyor's chain has ever measured the extent1 where no geographer has ever named a headland1 and where the one supreme fact that meets us on the threshold is ignorance--a black1 blinding1 all-pervading ignorance as to the next moment after death2 so that at the end of our reasoning1 deduction and amplification1 the one thing remaining to the scholar and the fool alike concerning death is a guess1 a guess in which the wish of existence is father to the thought1 but where the hope of to-morrow is1 easily1 the despair of to-day4 ,with life so brief1 so uncertain1 and ending in the starless night of silence1 men in one form of utterance or another are1 in substance1 calling to each other and saying1 ,let us eat and drink-- for to-morrow we die4 ,thus the contemplation of death and its impartial and unprejudiced analysis leads to a belief in materialism and a greater or less surrender to mere sensualism2 for1 if men cannot go up they will go down2 if they cannot live in the spirit1 they will grovel in the flesh4 ,what then shall we say concerning this fact of death8 ,shall we say it is a part of nature's economy--as legitimate as birth8 ,because we know nothing of any pre-existent state and are content to go forward in life1 shall we now balk and hesitate to discharge our functions or meet our opportunities1 because we have no evidence of an after existence8 ,is death really natural8 ,absolutely it is not6 ,the whole being of man revolts against it1 morally1 intellectually and organically4 ,every law of nature in man is against it4 ,pain and suffering are its protest4 ,to say that it is as natural as birth is to be guilty of pure bathos2 even the worm crushed and quivering denies the sentiment4 ,schwann1 the author of the cellular theory1 says3 ,i really do not know why we die4 ,there is no reason in nature4 ,the process which renews the body every seven years--so far as any law in nature shows--might go on indefinitely2 there is no reason in itself why it should cease1 and the soul within is never conscious of the added years4 ,no one ever thinks of asking1 ,why do we live8 ,always1 and involuntarily1 we ask1 ,why do we die8 ,always we are seeking to continue life1 inventing something to make it immune from death4 ,to live1 therefore1 is natural4 ,not to live is unnatural4 ,being unnatural1 it is an interference with nature4 ,an interference with nature is superior to nature4 ,that which is an interference of and superior to nature is a direct imposition upon nature4 ,an imposition upon nature could not be possible without the permission and will of ,god4 ,if ,god allows and wills it1 then the imposition is for cause2 being such1 it is a judicial act1 a judgment1 and becomes1 necessarily1 a penalty4 ,penalty stands for violated law4 ,violated law is transgression4 ,transgression is sin4 ,sin1 in final analysis1 is lawlessness1 and lawlessness is treason against ,jehovah4 ,death is1 therefore1 an imposition of ,god1 and is his penalty against the treason of sin4 ,this1 then1 is the explanation of death--it is the penalty of sin4 ,this is the definition which ,christianity gives--as it is written3 ,by one man sin entered into the world1 and death by sin2 and so death passed upon all men4 7,romans #e3ab47 ,again it is written3 ,it is appointed unto men once to die4 7,hebrews #i3bg47 ,in thus determining and defining death1 ,christianity reveals both its essence and its mission2 for1 through its ,gospel1 ,christianity brings the good news that the issue of sin and death as between ,god and man has been settled by our ,lord ,jesus ,christ2 that he has settled it perfectly and forever according to the terms of divine righteousness by dying as a sacrifice for sin and as a substitute for sinners4 ,in order to be a substitute it was necessary that our ,lord ,jesus ,christ should be a sinless man2 otherwise1 his death would be only his own execution under the penalty of sin1 and could not avail either for himself or others4 ,none of ,adam's race is sinless2 a sinless person must be of another race4 ,to be of another race and be human would require a new creation and would be a new and distinct humanity4 ,our ,lord ,jesus ,christ was sinless4 ,he was1 therefore1 of a new and distinct humanity4 ,in incarnation1 ,god did not take the humanity of ,adam into union with himself1 the humanity of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ was the repudiation of the humanity of ,adam4 ,by that incarnation ,god was saying3 ,i have tried the old humanity4 ,i find nothing in it that responds to my claims4 ,at its best it is sinful1 only sinful and fit for judgment--the end of all flesh is come before me--and that end is death4 ,the humanity of ,christ is1 therefore1 not an evolution1 but a new creation2 it is not an invitation to the natural man1 but a condemnation of him4 ,it does not say to him1 ,follow me1 imitate me and you will be like me2 it says3 ,i am from above1 ye are from below4 ,i am from heaven and ,god--ye are from the earth4 ,my humanity is as distinct from yours as the heavens are from the earth4 ,such a man is not an example1 a copy to be set before men4 ,and never1 not once1 do the apostles so set him before the natural man4 ,always they set him before the natural man as the man who came into the world--not to live as an example--but to die as a sacrifice for men2 as one who was fit to die because he was free from the stain and penalty of sin4 ,but in order that the death of ,christ should be of infinite value1 he must himself be an infinite person4 ,the value of a deed depends upon the person who does it4 ,the quality resides not alone in the act1 but in the actor4 ,the value of the death of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ is not to be measured by its duration1 but by himself--by what he was in himself2 it does not depend upon the length of time in which as a substitute he suffered the punishment of those whose place he was taking1 but the essential quality of his person4 ,did our ,lord suffer but a moment of time on the cross1 the value of his suffering as a satisfaction to the law1 government and being of ,god would be infinite4 ,an infinite person is ,god4 ,always as such do the apostles present our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,their testimony to his deity rings out like the blast of far-sounding trumpets4 ,in terms that are precise1 and so strong and clear that he who runs may read1 they proclaim that he is ,god of ,god1 very ,god of very ,god4 ,as ,god the ,son1 in co-operation with ,god the ,father and ,god the ,spirit1 he who is presented to us as the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 took a cell from the substance of the virgin ,mary1 made it a mould and with generating power wrought from it a real humanity--a new and distinct humanity--and united it to his eternal personality2 so that he stands forth as the eternal ,god endowed with a human nature--with two natures1 human and divine1 in one body and one person forever-- the infinite ,god-man4 ,never do the apostles present him as a mere man4 ,they present his humanity as the background for his deity4 ,his humanity in its most literal revelation is always declared by them to be the revelation and the manifestation of ,god4 ,never do the apostles attempt to reason about the incarnation1 with superb affirmation and sublime dignity they declare1 ,without controversy1 great is the mystery of godliness2 ,god was manifest in the flesh4 ,and it is this ,god whom ,christianity presents as coming down from the heaven of glory1 and clothing himself with a new1 a distinct1 but a mortal humanity in which to die as an infinite substitute for guilty men1 that through death1 he might abolish death for men4 ,having died as a sacrificial substitute1 death considered as a penalty1 and the guilt and demerit of sin which induced the penalty1 have been set aside for all for whom his substitution avails4 ,nor does ,christianity leave us long in doubt as to those for whom the substitution obtains4 ,in full and precise statement of doctrine it tells us that this substitution is on the behalf of1 and for1 all who individually claim our ,lord ,jesus ,christ on the cross as a personal sacrifice for sin1 and who by faith offer him to ,god as the sacrifice and sin offering which ,god himself has provided4 ,thus it follows1 that for every believer--death as a penalty has been abolished1 brought to nought4 ,this is the first great and joyous proclamation of ,christianity1 ,death has been abolished as a penalty for every believer4 ,it has been abolished de jure1 not yet de facto4 ,the ,christian still dies1 but his death is no longer penal1 it is providential and provisional4 ,in the hour of death the ,christian is not seized as a culprit and hurried away to execution4 ,on the contrary1 when the hour of death sounds for him1 a voice inspired from heaven assures him that he has reached the threshold of the far better2 he arises and departs1 that he may be absent from his home in this body and present at his home with the ,lord4 ,his death is not a defeat1 but a begun victory1 and1 inasmuch as both soul and spirit are delivered from the underworld and the shades of death1 he has the assurance that the penalty will yet be completely abolished concerning his body3 it is both the assurance and the prophecy of it4 ,christianity is1 then1 primarily1 the good news1 and the doctrinal demonstration1 that death as a judicial sentence has been abolished for the ,christian4 ,but ,christianity is something more than the abolition of death--it is-- ,second--,the bringing in and revelation of life4 ,through the ,gospel1 we are told1 life has been brought to light4 ,in the nature of the case this cannot mean natural life4 ,there was no necessity that it should be brought into light4 ,it has never been in darkness4 ,it is manifest everywhere4 ,light and life are synonymous4 ,there is not a condition in which in some form or other it does not exist4 ,while one class of life may not live in a certain environment1 there are other forms to which this environment would be as a hotbed for their production4 ,life is1 indeed1 universal1 and may be said to be omnipresent4 ,you will find it in the deepest depths of earth1 and in the highest reaches of air4 ,it expands on the mountain top1 it dwells in the sea2 it is organized in the infusoria1 it exists in the infinitesimal1 and reveals itself at last1 in the beauty of woman and the strength of man4 ,as natural life has always thus been in evidence2 as it has never been in the dark at all1 then the life which our ,lord ,jesus ,christ has brought to light is not natural life--it is new life--a life unknown to the world before4 ,it does not come from the natural man4 ,it is not produced by natural generation4 ,it comes from our ,lord ,jesus ,christ and by supernatural generation4 ,it did not come from him while he walked the earth4 ,at no time during his earthly career did a human being receive it4 ,the disciples who followed him--he who leaned upon his breast at supper and was the disciple whom ,jesus loved--knew nothing of it4 ,this new and unique life was brought into the light only when that light shone from his empty grave4 ,he gave it forth and communicated it to men only when1 as the risen man1 he ascended up on high4 ,it comes from him as the second man1 as the last ,adam1 that ,adam to whom the first was only as the clay model to the completed statue1 as concept is to consummation4 ,it comes from him who is both ,god and man1 in one body and one person forever2 and who1 as such1 is the head and beginning of the new creation of ,god4 ,by him it is communicated to those who own him as their atoning sacrifice4 ,the instrument is the word of the ,gospel4 ,the agent is the ,holy ,spirit4 ,the ,word is preached--it falls into the heart of the believer as seed into the ground4 ,the ,spirit quickens it--the new life is germinated4 ,that new life is the life and nature of the risen one1 our great ,god and ,saviour ,jesus ,christ1 the man in the glory2 it is the mind of him who is called ,christ1 and it is1 therefore1 in final term--the mind of ,christ4 ,it is wrought1 not in the soul1 but in the spirit of the believer4 ,by no slow process does it enter--this life of the risen ,lord--but by absolute fiat--the fiat of him who said--,lazarus1 come forth4 ,it is fiat life4 ,its entrance into a human being is as light flashes into darkness4 ,it is as instantaneous as when ,god of old said1 ,let there be light1 and light burst over a world cataclysmically fallen into chaos4 ,it is as transforming as when morning awakens the sleeping earth and hill and dale1 river and sea1 shine forth in their beauty4 ,it is as startling as when ,lazarus himself1 obeying the voice of his ,lord1 rose from the dead and came forth4 ,behold the illustration of it4 ,here is a man who grovelled in the lowest animalism4 ,he was a husband and father4 ,what a husband6 and what a father6 ,she who was his wife fled oftentimes at the very sound of his footsteps1 shivering with the same fear1 as though he who had solemnly sworn to love and protect her1 were a mad brute intent on gratifying his own fierce lust1 and ready with unchecked sensualism to trample her in the mire of his bestiality4 ,a father1 whose very name made the cheeks of the children grow white and their pulses almost to cease with terror4 ,a drunkard1 who drowned in his cup1 not only wife and children and home and all outward decency1 but every characteristic of truth and honesty and manhood of his own soul4 ,a man1 who through self-indulgence and the incessant yielding to unspeakable desires1 had become little better than a human sewer1 through whom the slime and indescribable filth of fallen and degraded humanity found its unhindered course4 ,a human being1 who had become a lazar spot1 a walking pest1 whose inmost thought rotted and putrified his own mind2 and whose words without license were a poison and contagion to every one whose ears caught their unwelcome sound4 ,mark the change in that man6 ,the wife now watches at the door with a gladsome smile to greet his return4 ,the children1 who once in their rags trembled with fear1 now clean and wholesomely clad1 and gay with laughter1 gather at his knee1 the moment he enters his home4 ,he is himself well dressed4 ,he holds his head erect1 his eyes1 no longer bloodshot1 meet your gaze with frank and open glance4 ,his tones are soft and modulated1 his speech gentle4 ,the ,bible1 the one book he always hated1 is his constant study4 ,his mouth once filled with cursings that might well have chilled the blood to hear1 now give utterance to the voice of prayer and earnest thanksgiving4 ,the church he never entered and always avoided has become the centre around which the best activities of his life are continuously moving4 ,he who was once shunned1 despised and feared1 is now honored and respected of all4 ,the man has been transformed4 ,those who saw him in former days and see him now might in all reason ask1 ,is this he1 or some other man8 ,it is both he and yet another man4 ,the same person1 but possessing another character4 ,what is the secret of it all8 ,let the answer be graven on every heart4 ,he has received a new life1 a new1 a pure1 a holy and spiritual life4 ,he has received that life from above1 from the second ,adam1 the ,lord in heaven4 ,he is now a twice-begotten man4 ,and herein is the glorious1 distinctive feature of ,christianity in so far as it touches a human soul4 ,to that soul it brings the good news that a new generation is possible2 the good news that any human being may start over4 ,the good news that1 no matter how much you may be handicapped by your original genesis2 no matter what the terrific law of heredity may have transmitted to you1 you may be generated again4 ,in a moment1 in the twinkling of an eye1 you may have a genealogy that shall carry your name above the proudest of earth2 a genealogy by the side of which the bluest blood of most ancient kings shall be as the palest and poorest of plebeian stuff4 ,this ,gospel of ,christianity brings the good news that you may receive from the throne of ,god life from ,god1 as directly as did ,adam when ,god breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul4 ,in an instant you may be recreated morally and spiritually1 and have in you all the assets which1 when fully capitalized by the grace of ,god1 shall insure your sonship with ,god here1 making you master over every disturbing and disquieting passion1 and guaranteeing to you an eternal entrance into the endless inheritance of ,god1 wherein you shall be1 indeed1 the heir of ,god and joint heir with our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,in short1 you may have the bequeathed ability to glorify ,god and enjoy him forever4 ,this is the life which our ,lord ,jesus ,christ has brought to light4 ,the ,gospel is the good news of this life of which the life giver himself has said1 ,i came that ye might have life1 and that ye might have it more abundantly4 ,that is to say3 ,i came that ye might have this spiritual life and have it without limit here4 ,and this ,gospel of the new life brought to light by and through the death and resurrection of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ is one of the elemental facts and forces which definitely answers the question-- ,what is ,christianity8 ,but ,christianity is something more than the abolition of death as a penalty and the bringing in of a new and spiritual life4 ,christianity is through its ,gospel--the good news that-- ,third--,immortality has been brought to light4 ,the word here translated immortality is incorruption2 but it signifies in final terms the fact of immortality2 for1 as mortality is identified with corruption and is its consequent1 so immortality1 which is the opposite of mortality1 is the consequence of incorruption and is inseparable from it4 ,this word immortality is greatly misunderstood1 and almost always misapplied4 ,it is continually applied to the soul4 ,it is a common thing to hear or read the expression1 immortal soul4 ,the truth is1 that phrase cannot be found in ,holy ,scripture4 ,the terms are misleading--their conjunction is false4 ,applied to the soul1 the word immortal is a misnomer4 ,throughout ,scripture the original word and idea relate to the body--never otherwise4 ,the word mortal is never used of the soul2 you never read in ,scripture the expression1 mortal soul4 ,you will find the words mortal body4 ,a mortal body has for its opposite an immortal body4 ,a mortal body is subject to corruption and death4 ,an immortal body is incorruptible and not subject to death--an immortal body can never die4 ,the mortal body is the scandal of the race and the open label of sin4 ,a mortal body puts us in the category of condemned criminals awaiting execution4 ,the scandal is not only moral1 but organic4 ,to be filled with disease1 with pestilence1 with fever1 and then die and the body turned back to its component parts--this is a scandal in construction2 as much a scandal as when a house not properly built falls down2 a dead body1 whether of man or dog1 is the most shameful blot on the face of the earth1 and with the gaping mouth of the graveyard1 justifies the estimate and the declaration of the living ,god1 that death is an enemy1 not a welcome thing like birth and life--but an enemy4 ,such a scandal is it1 indeed1 that when our ,lord ,jesus ,christ came to the grave of ,lazarus1 he was himself moved with indignation2 for the words1 groaning within himself1 miss the true force4 ,the ,greek verb used signifies that he was inwardly filled with indignation and a sense of outrage at the sight of the grave and the announcement that the body of ,lazarus was already corrupt4 ,whatever groaning came from his lips and whatever tears fell from his eyes as he wept--these were his protests against death and the grave2 for he recognized this dead body not only as due to the penalty of sin1 but as the work of him who had the power of death1 that is1 the devil4 7,hebrews #b3ad47 ,even though the ,christian as to soul and spirit be delivered from death2 even though he does not go down to ,hades1 but at death is safely housed and at home with ,god in heaven--yet the fact that this body1 which was not only the dwelling place of his soul1 but the temple and shrine of the ,holy ,spirit1 should become a banquet for worms1 a thing of repulsive decay1 a residuum of forgotten dust1 is a scandal1 even to the ,christian1 and gives emphasis to the shame of death4 ,the ,son of ,god came into the world to remove this scandal4 ,he died and rose again1 not only that he might have power and authority to give a new and spiritual life to men1 a character befitting them for the high things of ,god1 he died and rose again that he might have power and authority to give an immortal body to all who would receive from him this new and spiritual life4 ,he brought this immortality to light when he rose from the dead4 ,he brought it to light by rising from the dead in the body in which he had died4 ,if our ,lord ,jesus ,christ did not rise from the dead in the body in which he died1 then immortality in the ,new ,testament sense of the word has never been brought to light4 ,but he did so rise4 ,he made that clear on the first ,sunday night after his resurrection4 ,the disciples were gathered together in the room4 ,the supper table was spread4 ,no one cared to eat4 ,the story had been going all day that ,jesus had risen4 ,the women said so4 ,they persisted that they had seen and talked with him4 ,two men claimed1 also1 to have seen him1 walked1 talked and broken bread with him1 that very afternoon4 ,the disciples did not believe it4 ,they were afraid to believe it lest it should prove to be untrue4 ,then1 suddenly1 he stood in the midst4 ,they thought it was his ghost4 ,this was a proof to them that he had not risen2 for a ghost is a disembodied thing4 ,he was a ghost--he was disembodied--therefore he had not risen4 ,so they felt--each one of them4 ,they did not say it--but they thought it4 ,he knew their thoughts4 ,he asks them why these thoughts arise in their hearts4 ,he upbraids them for their unbelief4 ,he tells them plainly1 a ghost does not have flesh and bones4 ,he says1 ,i have flesh and bones4 ,they are still silent4 ,then he stretches out his hands towards them4 ,he shows them his feet4 ,there are great marks in them--there is around these marks as the stain of blood1 or of wounds whence blood had flowed4 ,still they do not speak4 ,they are afraid to believe2 it is too good to be true4 ,he says to them1 ,handle me and see--take hold of my feet--feel me-- examine me for yourselves4 ,they are as immovable and speechless as men changed into stone4 ,he turns upon them quickly and says1 ,have you anything to eat8 ,they point to the untasted supper4 ,then comes the climax4 ,he goes to the table4 ,he sits down4 ,he eats before them4 ,it is of record that he did eat broiled fish and an honeycomb4 ,either this is the worst fable ever palmed off on the church of ,christ--on the credulity of aching human hearts--or it is the truth of ,god4 ,call it the truth of ,god--then the body in which our ,lord ,jesus ,christ rose was the body in which he died4 ,that body1 stamped and sealed with the stigmata of the cross1 is the living1 quivering definition1 and indisputable demonstration of immortality4 ,immortality is the living again in a body which was dead and dieth no more2 or1 it is the change of the body in which we now live into an incorruptible1 glorious body which shall never die4 ,in that body which he raised from the dead1 and which never saw corruption1 our ,lord ,jesus ,christ now sitteth at the right hand of ,god4 ,he is there as the vision and standard of immortality4 ,he is there as the forerunner1 the prototype1 the sample and prophecy of immortality for the ,christian4 ,until the ,christian is made immortal his redemption is not complete4 ,the ,christian who dies is transported to heaven4 ,his estate there as compared to this is far better4 ,but far better is not the best4 ,it is only a comparative4 ,the superlative requires that the ,christian shall have a body4 ,without a body the ,christian is neither a complete human being nor a perfect son of ,god4 ,the divine ordination is spirit1 soul1 and body4 ,unless the ,christian receives an immortal body the victory of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ over death and over him who has the power of death 7that is the ,devil7 is not complete4 ,satan as the strong man armed holds the goods and keeps them secure within his house4 ,the instrument with which he is armed is the law4 ,that law which requires that it shall be appointed unto men once to die4 ,the goods are the bodies of the saints1 and the house is the dark and dismal grave4 ,o the pitifulness of it6 that our ,lord ,jesus ,christ should possess the ,christian as a ghost in heaven1 and the ,devil hold his blood -bought and spirit-sealed body in the grave4 ,a risen ,christ in an immortal body1 surrounded by disembodied ,christian ghosts in heaven forever--that is a concept too hideously grotesque to consider4 ,an immortal ,christ who redeemed his own body from the power of the grave1 but is unable to deliver the bodies of those for whom he died--to think it is blasphemy6 to believe it--impossible6 ,if the ,devil be the strong man armed1 the risen ,lord is the one stronger than he1 who has met and equalled all the demands of the law1 and by his death nullified its ultimate power over the bodies of those for whom he died4 ,in the very nature of the case1 then1 full redemption requires that the body of every ,christian shall be delivered from the grave1 and that every ,christian1 whether living or dead1 shall be clothed finally with an immortal body4 ,this is the great objective of salvation--not just to save men from vice and immorality here2 not just to fit them with an antidote against the poison of sin2 or give them an impetus to holiness and truth for a few brief years in this mortal body1 then let them die under various circumstances of suffering and pain and be carried away to heaven to live there as attenuated1 invisible ghosts forever6 ,o no6 it is not that6 ,it is true men are to be saved here and now in such moral and spiritual fashion as that each saved person should make the world sweeter and better and nearer to ,god for living in it4 ,all that is true1 but it is only a part of the glorious truth4 ,the supreme objective--the ultima thule of redemption--is-- ,immortality--the ,christian eternally and incorruptibly embodied4 ,and this immortality1 this eternal embodiment1 is to be accomplished for every ,christian4 ,the fact that death has been abolished officially as a penalty for the ,christian is a demonstration that abolition of death means abolition for the whole ,christian2 as a whole or complete ,christian must have a body1 then the abolition of death for the ,christian means abolition of death from the body4 ,the abolition of death from the body is immortality2 by virtue1 then1 of the abolition of death1 immortality is assured to every ,christian4 ,not one will be forgotten even though centuries may have broken into dust above his grave4 ,this immortality will be brought to pass by him who is the ,resurrection and the ,life4 ,it will be brought to pass at the ,coming of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,he is coming to this world again4 ,by every law of necessity he must come4 ,he is coming to complete redemption1 to bring on the capstone amid shoutings of grace1 grace unto it4 ,he will raise the dead who have fallen asleep in his name4 ,he will change the living ones who are his at his coming4 ,he will make the body of each incorruptible1 deathless1 immortal1 like unto his own glorious body1 as it is written3 ,we shall be like him2 for we shall see him as he is4 7#a ,john #c3b47 ,and again it is written3 ,we are citizens of a country which is in heaven2 from whence also we look for the ,saviour1 the ,lord ,jesus ,christ2 who shall change the body of our humiliation1 that it may be fashioned like unto the body of his glory1 according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself4 7,philippians #c3bj1 #ba47 ,at the last he will regenerate the earth4 ,he will make it over4 ,he will make all things new4 ,he will set this race of redeemed immortals within it4 ,perfectly recovered from the spoliation of sin and death1 they shall inhabit it forever4 ,god shall get his own world again4 ,paradise lost shall become paradise regained1 and ,god's purpose to make man his constitutional1 governmental1 moral and spiritual image shall be fulfilled4 ,man shall be ,god incarnate1 and incarnation shall be seen to be the beginning and the ending of the purpose of ,god4 ,this is the consummation to which ,christianity leads us--a perfect race of immortal beings in a perfect world1 a perfect world in which no man shall say1 ,i am sick2 where sin is unknown2 where the funeral bell does not toll1 and a grave is never dug4 ,where ,god is all in all4 ,this is the hope and the ultimate ,christianity sets before us4 ,not once in all its record does it offer us heaven or bid us prepare for it as the ultimate1 but always it exhorts us to look for and wait patiently for immortality and glory at the ,coming of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,this is the ,christianity of the primitive centuries4 ,this is the ,christianity of the ,new ,testament4 ,it is the ,christianity that fully met the needs of men4 ,it met the needs of men who gave themselves up to unrestrained passion1 to the gluttony of every appetite2 who lounged away their day in cool marble halls1 or leaned half drunken from the cushioned seats of the amphitheatre1 while the sands of the arena were reddened with human blood to give them a holiday4 ,look at them there4 ,they passed their unsatisfying hours in idle jest1 wreathed themselves with freshly plucked1 but swiftly fading flowers1 drowned their senses from moment to moment1 still deeper in the spiced and maddening wines1 gave unbridled freedom to their lust2 and then1 at close of day1 in the splendor of the sinking sun1 went forth to cool their fevered brows in the ,campagna's freshening but deadly air1 and drove with furious pace and brutal laughter along the ,appian way between rows of monumental tombs whose chiselled epitaphs told the hopeless end of human life2 then back again they drove with still more reckless haste to spend the night in wild debauch and meet the gray dawning of another day with its mocking routine and disgust4 ,loathing their very joys1 revolting at their own gratification1 these men asked3 ,is there nothing better than this1 that we drain the cup of pleasure to the dregs1 open our veins1 watch the life blood ebb away1 and laugh1 and mingle our laughter with curses that so cheap and easy an ending should have cost so much to reach8 ,o the woe1 the horror1 the emptiness1 and the crying1 agonizing need of lives like these4 ,and ,christianity fully and richly met the need of lives like these4 ,it met the needs of men who in the midst of an environment of the flesh1 with the wild beast of appetite struggling within1 now and then had longings for a power that should enable them to put their feet upon the neck of passion4 ,it met the needs of men who1 standing above their dead1 asked again the old and oft-repeated question of ,job1 ,if a man die1 shall he live again8 ,christianity met all these needs4 ,through crowded streets of populous towns and lonely lanes of silent villages1 in lordly palace and before straw-thatched hovels1 to listening throngs and wayside hearers1 it rang forth its wondrous proclamation4 ,it told men that a man had been here who had proven himself stronger than death and mightier than the grave2 a man who had burst the bars of death asunder1 spurned the sepulchre wherein human hands had laid his body1 had ascended up on high1 and now1 from heaven's throne1 had power to impart to men a life that hated sin1 rejoiced in virtue1 could make each moment of earth's existence worth while1 and carried within it the assurance and prophecy of eternal felicity4 ,far and wide1 over land and sea1 it rang the tidings that this perfect life might be had by king or cotter1 by freeman or slave1 without money and without price1 for so simple a thing as genuine faith in1 and open confession of1 him who had died and risen again4 ,with rich1 exultant note it announced that he who as very ,god had clothed himself with a new and distinct humanity1 who had loved men unto death and died for them1 had not forgotten the earth wherein he had suffered1 his own grave from whence he had so triumphantly risen1 nor yet the graves of those who had confessed his name2 but1 on the contrary1 was coming back in personal glory and with limitless power to raise the dead1 transfigure the living1 make them immortal1 and so change this earth that it should no longer be a swinging cemetery of the hopeless dead1 but the abiding home of the eternally living sons of ,god4 ,men held like ,laocoon in the winding coils of sinuous and persistent sin1 and who vainly sought to escape from its slowly crushing embrace1 heard the good news and turned their faces towards the rising hope of present deliverance4 ,men standing in the shadow of the tombs and waiting their turn smiled until their smiles turned into joyous laughter as they said3 ,if we die1 we shall live again--the grave shall not always win its victory over us4 ,do you wonder the world stopped1 listened1 and that multitudes turned and followed after8 ,do you wonder that this ,christianity of the primitive centuries triumphed so phenomenally8 ,this is the ,christianity we need to preach today4 ,it is full of a great body of doctrine4 ,it is full of the supernatural4 ,miracle and miraculous are woven into its texture from beginning to end4 ,you cannot touch it1 or handle it1 or look at it from any angle of vision that it does not suggest the miraculous4 ,the moment the miracle is out of it it is no longer the ,christianity of the first century1 it is not the ,christianity of the ,new ,testament--the ,christianity that has a miraculous ,christ for its centre and the miracle of an infinite ,god for its environment4 ,a ,christianity of doctrine6 ,a ,christianity of miracle6 ,and why not8 ,it is as superior to the ,christianity1 so called1 that sets aside miracle and doctrine1 turns its back on the hereafter1 makes its appeal in behalf of the present alone1 and grounds its claim to authority1 not on a thus saith the ,lord1 but on a thus saith science and reason2 a ,christianity that owns the law of evolution as its present force and defining motive2 it is as superior to that sort of ,christianity and as high above it as the heavens are above the earth4 ,one night this summer ,i stood upon a mountain ridge and watched the revelation of the starry sky4 ,the great constellations1 like silver squadrons1 were sailing slowly and majestically to their appointed havens2 from north to south and from south to north again1 the ,milky ,way swept upward from its double horizon to the zenith like a highway paved and set with diamonds--a highway over which the wheels of the king's chariot had sped1 leaving behind that cloud of dust in which every gleaming particle was a burnished sun4 ,i gazed spellbound until it was as the vision of an unfathomed sea1 an ocean tide of light1 where the shimmering foam was the rise and fall of single and multiple systems1 the surf beat breaking on the shores of converging universes4 ,i gazed on this wealth and congeries of far -flung worlds1 in which some that appeared the most insignificant and twinkled and trembled as though each glimmer would be the last1 were actually so great that beside them our own poor little world was but as a mole hill to earth's ,himalayas2 as ,i gazed ,i thought of the distance from world to world--measured as light travels--till the count of years fell away1 and there were no more numbers with which to count1 and ,i knew that at the end of this calculation ,i had but entered the suburbs of that realm for which we have but one word1 whose inadequacy we all confess--the ,infinite4 ,i listened1 the silence seemed to utter forth majesty and might and honor and omnipotence1 the air had in it the breath of sacred and adoring things1 and unwittingly ,i cried out1 alone in the night there1 ,the heavens1 ,o ,god1 declare thy glory and the firmament showeth thy handiwork4 ,and when ,i look at this ,christianity set forth in the ,new ,testament1 and anticipated in the ,old1 the constellations of doctrine1 this ,via ,lactea of truth in which every statement is a sun of splendor2 when ,i begin to get the sweep of the divine purpose coming up from the opening pages of ,genesis and culminating in the book of the ,revelation2 when ,i see that ,christianity is the presentation to us of the ways and means whereby the original thought of incarnation 7and this was the very first thought stamped upon the first pages of the ,genesis record of the creation of man2 for incarnation is conceived in ,eden before it is brought to the birth in ,bethlehem7-- when ,i see this original thought of incarnation1 in spite of sin and failure1 and the world's captivity to the ,devil and his angels2 when ,i see this high purpose of ,god at last realized1 and realized so completely that each redeemed soul is in final terms the glorious enthronement of ,god in humanity1 and that ,god in ,christ and in the ,christian1 gets his own world again1 ,i cry out with full tribute of heart and intellect3 ,o ,lord1 this is the ,christianity which thou hast wrought1 thy name is written in every doctrine1 every line justifies1 as it proclaims thee1 the infinite and gracious author4 ,this is the ,christianity to preach4 ,let the preacher preach a ,christianity of doctrine4 ,there are three important things every preacher should preach4 ,the first thing is doctrine4 ,the second thing is doctrine4 ,the third and pre-eminent thing is doctrine4 ,the church is starving to death for the want of it1 the preachers are becoming emasculated apologists for lack of it1 and the world1 looking on1 is laughing at a limp1 genuflecting thing calling itself modern ,christianity and for want of vertebrate strength1 unable to stand alone4 ,it was doctrine believed in and preached which sustained the martyrs and gave courage to missionaries4 ,he who believed in the sovereignty of a redeeming ,god1 the certainty that ,god would get his elect1 the ,coming of ,christ1 the millennial triumph1 and a rebel world surrendered at the feet of ,god1 could endure the agony of the stake1 the privation of the wilderness1 and all the discomforts and all the discouragements of fields of endeavor well sowed but scantily reaped4 ,let the preacher preach the supernatural--the things that are miraculous1 and be unafraid4 ,he need not be afraid4 ,the world wants that sort of preaching4 ,it is growing tired at heart of mere machinery and this eternally running up against a formula of the laboratory or a mathematical calculation and analyzed force1 as explanatory of everything in heaven and in earth4 ,it would like1 if it were possible1 to believe in something a little beyond the length of its eyelashes and the touch of its finger tips2 something that cannot be summed up always in avoirdupois2 something1 indeed1 beyond the ability of man4 ,let the church get back to the old-fashioned doctrinal1 supernatural1 miraculous ,christianity that underwrites itself with the name of ,god4 ,let it be boldly proclaimed that ,christianity is miraculous1 because it is1 first and last1 the ,christianity of that ,god who is himself--the eternal miracle4 ,the very salvation of the church as a church depends upon this retrograde4 ,if the church hesitates1 compromises1 seeks to accommodate its formulas to modern nomenclature4 ,if it is willing to carry its baggage at half weight2 if it is willing to make its proclamation a continual denial of all that it has heretofore professed as fundamental2 if it believes the twentieth century has the call on the first1 and that modernism outranks primitivism2 if1 in short1 it looks upon primitive and apostolic ,christianity as the feeble hint which the modern thinker has known how to modify and improve1 then1 as already suggested1 the days of its spiritual and moral bankruptcy are in sight1 and the sooner good business arrangements are made to hire out its meeting houses for ethical and social culture the better4 ,let the church persevere in turning its back upon the hereafter2 let it continue the folly of ignoring the eschatological emphasis of ,christianity2 let it keep on giving to men the anodynes of mere moral maxims2 let it direct all its energies to improving and perfecting a society which ,god has already judged and condemned at its best1 and presently these drugged and befooled people will awake1 the drugs will no longer be effective1 and they will turn in indignation upon a ,christianity which began by professing to be a revelation from ,god and ends by confessing to be nothing more than an evolution from man4 ,it is time for preachers to arouse if they would have the hearing1 and not the indifferent ears4 ,let them refuse to apologize or defend4 ,let them have the courage of divine conviction4 ,let them refuse to admit into their fellowship men who are willing that a bar-sinister shall be stained across the birth hour of the ,christ2 who are ready to smile away such a title as the ,blessed ,virgin2 who can read no deeper meaning in the cross than a brutal murder1 and who do not yet know that in the garden of ,arimathea there is still an empty tomb4 ,let them refuse ministerial ordination and partnership with men who1 bearing the university brand1 claim the authority of a self-elected scholarship to make the ,word of ,god secondary to the word of man4 ,let them go forth and proclaim to the world with the voice of assurance which permits of no debate and will accept no recall1 the ,christianity that is summed up1 is perfectly defined and holds inclusively all its splendor of doctrine in the three immense facts which its ,gospel proclaims3 ,the abolition of death1 the gift of a new and spiritual life1 and the guaranty to every believer of a resplendent immortality like unto his who sits on yonder throne--both eternal ,god and immortal man--,coming ,bridegroom and ,triumphant ,king4 ,let them preach this4 ,let them tell the guilty sinner that the blood of ,our ,lord ,jesus ,christ meets his case and can make the foulest clean2 let them tell the slave-bound sinner that in a moment1 in the flash of an eye glance1 a risen ,saviour can deliver him and set him free2 let them tell the dying that death has lost its sting1 and at death a convoy of heaven's host shall bear him away from his home in this mortal body to be at home in heaven with his ascended ,lord2 let them cry above every ,christian grave1 louder than the sound of any falling tear3 ,jesus is coming to raise your dead and change the living and clothe each saint with immortal beauty2 let them look abroad upon a world full of the storm of sin1 the tumult of high passion and long rebellion against our ,god1 and shout aloud that victory cometh in the end2 that ,christ is ,god as well as man2 that the days of his glory are at hand1 when the ,god of the whole earth shall he be called2 and when all beneath a perfect heaven in a perfect world shall know him as ,lord and ,god from the least to the greatest4 ,let them preach this1 and with unbroken confidence repeat the exultant words of ,holy ,writ1 the words which shall warrant all their speech1 that our ,saviour ,jesus ,christ hath abolished death1 and hath brought life and immortality to light through the ,gospel2 and it will be this ,gospel echoing forth with all the music of its joyful tidings that shall answer infallibly and beyond all dispute the question of the hour--,what is ,christianity8 ,the ,bible ,,the ,,word ,,of ,,god ,when ye received the word of ,god which ye heard of us1 ye received it not as the word of man1 but as it is in truth1 the word of ,god4 7#a ,thessalonians #b3ac47 ,,the ,apostle here testifies that he believes himself to be the bearer of a revelation direct from ,god2 that the words he speaks and the words he writes are not the words of man1 but the ,word of ,god1 warm with his breath1 filled with his thoughts1 and stamped with his will4 ,in this same epistle he writes3 ,for this we say unto you by the word of the ,lord4 7#a ,thessalonians #d3ae47 ,the preposition by is the dative of investiture as well as means1 and is ,paul's declaration that what he is writing to the ,thessalonians are not his ideas1 clothed in his own language1 but ideas and thoughts whose investiture1 whose very clothing1 is no less than the word of the ascended ,lord--he who is none other than the ,word of ,god4 ,writing to the ,corinthians he says3 ,which things we speak1 not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth1 but 7and grammar requires us to understand7 in the words which the ,holy ,ghost teacheth4 7#a ,corinthians #b3ac47 ,according to ,paul's testimony1 therefore1 the fourteen epistles which he wrote to the churches are not letters written by a mortal man1 giving expression to the ideas and thoughts of man1 but are the very words of the infinite ,god1 giving utterance by the ,holy ,ghost to the thoughts of ,god4 ,an examination of the other epistles of the ,new ,testament will show the same high and unqualified pretension4 ,the apostles write 7all of them7 not as men who are giving an opinion of their own1 but as men who know themselves under the domination of the ,spirit1 and as giving authoritative expression to the mind and will of ,god4 ,nor is this peculiar to the writers of the ,new ,testament4 ,constantly1 the writers of the ,old ,testament introduce their message with the tremendous sentence3 ,thus saith the ,lord4 ,again and again they declare the ,lord has spoken by them4 ,david says3 ,the words of the ,lord were in my tongue4 ,jeremiah says the ,word of the ,lord came to him and the ,lord said3 ,take a roll of a book and write therein all the words that ,i have spoken to thee4 ,then we are told that ,jeremiah called ,baruch1 the son of ,neriah2 and ,baruch wrote from the mouth of ,jeremiah all the words of the ,lord1 which he had spoken unto him1 upon a roll of a book4 ,after these words had been read to the princes of ,israel1 they asked ,baruch1 saying1 ,tell us now1 how didst thou write all these words at his mouth8 ,then ,baruch answered them1 ,he pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth1 and ,i wrote them with ink in the book4 ,the process is clear enough4 ,the ,lord spake his words in ,jeremiah4 ,jeremiah received the words direct from the ,lord1 dictated them word for word to ,baruch1 ,baruch wrote them as they were pronounced in a book2 and when written1 the words were the written words of ,god4 ,ezekiel declares when the ,lord commanded him to speak to the children of ,israel1 he said to him3 ,speak with my words unto them4 ,ezekiel not only speaks them1 he writes them in the book of his prophecy4 ,ezekiel gives an account of how the ,lord spake to him and inspired the book which bears his name4 ,he says3 ,the ,spirit entered into me when he spoke to me2 4 4 4 the spirit entered into me and spake with me4 ,the ,spirit said unto him3 ,when ,i speak with thee1 ,i will open thy mouth1 and thou shalt say unto them1 thus saith the ,lord4 ,the ,apostle ,paul1 speaking in commendation of ,timothy because from a child he had known the ,holy ,scriptures 7and by ,holy ,scriptures the ,apostle meant the ,old ,testament from ,genesis to ,malachi--these were the ,scriptures ,timothy as well as every ,jew knew as such71 tells him that all ,scripture 7and of course any decent exegesis of the passage with its weight of context would recognize that the ,apostle was referring to the ,scriptures ,timothy had known from childhood1 the ,scriptures as we have them to-day from ,genesis to ,malachi7--,paul tells ,timothy in the most precise terms that all these writings are inspired of ,god4 ,the ,apostle ,peter1 corroboratively speaking of these very ,scriptures of the ,old ,testament1 says they came not by the will of man1 but holy men of old spake as they were moved 7literally1 carried along7 by the ,holy ,ghost4 ,thus1 this book we call the ,bible comes to us with the enormous and uncompromising claim that it is not a man-made book1 but a book whose real and sole author is the living and eternal ,god4 ,this claim stands face to face with human need4 ,here we are from birth to death1 pilgrims on the highway of time1 not knowing whence we come1 nor whither we go4 ,we need a guide to lead us1 a light to shine when we stand at that parting of the ways --where eternity becomes the end of time4 ,this book meets us and claims to be all that--a guide through time1 a light to shine upon the road that leads to ,god and to be1 in every line and accent1 the inspired1 incorruptible1 infallible ,word of ,god4 ,how may we know it is all it claims to be8 ,never more than now did we need to know it4 ,voices in the air are crying that we have been deceived2 that this book upon which our fathers pillowed their heads when at the end of life's journey1 they laid them down to die2 this book we have held as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path is1 after all1 at its best1 only the word of man and not the ,word of ,god at all4 ,every now and then resounding blows are heard as they strike against the old foundation4 ,those who pretend to be working in the interest of the truth bid us stand aside1 lest we and our hopes be buried in the impending ruin4 ,we need to know at any cost whether this splendid and sustaining faith has deceived us2 whether this book we have looked upon as holy and divine is nothing more than the word of man1 spoken with his stammering tongue and written with his stumbling pen4 ,we must know1 and know for a certainty that will leave no peradventure to arise as a troubling after-ghost1 whether this ,bible is1 as ,paul says it is1 in truth1 the ,word of ,god2 and the question will insistently repeat itself3 ,how may we know the ,bible is the ,word of ,god8 ,the question need not make us tremble4 ,the answers are at hand4 ,the evidence is so great1 its very wealth is an embarrassment4 ,that evidence stated1 detailed1 analyzed and elaborated1 would require--not a few pages--but whole libraries4 ,one broad and general proposition may be laid down4 ,it is this3 ,the ,bible is proved to ,,be the ,word of ,god when it is shown to be ,,not the word of man2 and it is proved to be not the word of man when it is shown to be--not such a book as a man ,,would write if he ,,could2 nor such a book as a man ,,could write if he ,,would4 ,that it is not the word of man--not such a book as a man would write if he could1 is made clear enough by the picture it paints of the natural man4 ,this picture is so sharply drawn1 the figures stand out in such living and apt delineation1 that no one can mistake the import4 ,according to the ,bible1 man came direct from the hand of ,god4 ,god created him body1 soul and spirit--a tripartite being4 ,the soul was the person1 the seat of appetite and passions4 ,the spirit was the seat of the mind1 the centre of reflection4 ,spirit and body were the distinct agents of the soul4 ,the spirit1 the agent to connect the soul with ,god--the body1 the medium of the soul's manifestation or materialization in this world1 and the instrument for its use and enjoyment4 ,the mind1 seated in the spirit1 was intended1 under the influence of the spirit1 to be the governor and regulator of the soul--enabling the soul rightly to use its appetite and legitimately to satisfy its passions4 ,thus organized1 ,god set man up in the world to be his constitutional1 moral1 spiritual and governmental image--his likeness morally--his image 7his representative7 administratively4 ,man turned his back on ,god1 listened to the appetite of his soul1 and surrendered to the demands of sensual hunger4 ,the soul1 at once1 sank down into the environment of the body4 ,the mind sank down into the environment of the soul and became1 henceforth1 not a spiritual mind1 but a mind sensual1 devilish1 a mind continually suggesting to the soul fresh and unlimited gratification of its desires4 ,with the breakdown of soul and mind1 the spirit lost its vital relationship to ,god1 lost its function as a connecting link with1 and a transmitter of1 the mind and will of ,god2 so that it could no longer enable man to know and understand ,god2 and feeling the influence of the mind1 instead of influencing it1 followed it in its downward course into the environment of the soul4 ,out of this dislocation the soul came forth dominant over mind and spirit4 ,soul appetite and soul desires became supreme2 the body1 the willing and active agent thereof4 ,from this period on1 man was no longer a possible spiritual being1 but a natural man4 ,the word natural is soulical4 ,in ,scripture it is twice translated sensual4 ,the much-used word psychological is a derivation of it4 ,in the ,bible sense of the word1 a psychological person is just the opposite of a pneumatical or spiritual person4 ,man was now psychological1 soulical1 sensual4 ,he had been transformed into a being no better than an intellectual animal1 and the slave of his physical functions4 ,instead of being the master of his appetites1 he was mastered by them4 ,his passions intended1 under right use1 to be blessings1 became curses2 instead of angels1 they became as demons4 ,instead of dwelling in the midst of his endowment in harmony with it and able to direct it1 he found himself at its mercy1 incessantly smitten by it and suffering his own equipment4 ,repudiating faith1 walking by sight1 talking of reason and governed by his senses1 he threw himself open to invasion by the world1 the flesh and the ,devil4 ,as a result of his fall1 man has become a degenerate1 full of the germs of evil1 every imagination of the thoughts of the heart only evil continually--an incurable self-corrupter4 ,in him there is not one thing that commends him to a holy ,god2 and even should he succeed in living a life of perfect morality1 his best righteousness in the sight of ,god would be no better than a bundle of filthy and contagious rags4 ,there is no power within him by which he can change the essential character and determined trend of his life4 ,men do not gather grapes of thorns1 nor figs of thistles4 ,all the effort that the most devoted and laborious of men might give to the culture of a hedgerow of thorns would not succeed in producing one grape4 ,though men spent life and fortune in cultivating a field of thistles1 they would not gather a single fig4 ,no sooner 7says the ,bible7 can the natural man bring forth the fruit of righteousness unto ,god4 ,the ,ethiopian may change his skin1 the leopard his spots1 before a natural man can change himself into a spiritual man4 ,the carnal mind is enmity with ,god2 for it is not subject to the law of ,god1 neither indeed can be4 ,the natural man 7the word 'natural' is psuchikos1 soulical7 receiveth not the things of the ,spirit of ,god3 for they are foolishness unto him3 neither can he know them1 because they are spiritually 7pneumatikos1 pneumatically7 discerned4 ,the heart is deceitful above all things1 and desperately wicked3 who can know it8 meaning thereby that ,god alone can sound the depths of its measureless capacity for sin and iniquity2 therefore1 he says3 ,i the ,lord search the heart1 ,i try the reins4 ,the end of man is to die4 ,such an end is not natural4 ,it is unnatural4 ,it is violent4 ,it is penal4 ,it is an appointed punishment3 as it is written3 ,it is appointed unto men once to die4 ,by one man sin entered into the world1 and death by sin2 and so death passed 7literally1 passed through1 pierced man2 the seeds of death entered him for himself and all his posterity74 ,when he dies1 therefore1 be he never so moral and upright1 his death is judicial1 his taking off is the execution of a criminal4 ,he is to be raised from the dead as to his body 7in the meantime1 his soul is dragged downward to the prison of the underworld1 where in conscious suffering he awaits the second resurrection and the judgment hour71 he will be raised1 judged1 found guilty and cast forth into the lake of fire 7which is the second death71 from whence there will be no resurrection of the body 7the body will perish in the fire--for an immortal body belongs only to the sons of ,god--the participants in the ,first ,resurrection72 then1 as a disembodied spirit--a ghost--he will go forth with an inward1 deathless worm1 and an inward1 quenchless fire1 to be like a wandering star unto whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever1 an exile from ,god1 outside the orbit of divine grace1 love and life--a hopeless1 an eternally hopeless--human derelict1 upon the measureless sea of night and space4 ,that is the ,bible picture of the natural man4 ,is that the picture the natural man paints of himself8 ,i trow not6 ,man looks upon himself as a son of ,god by nature1 having in himself all the elements of divinity1 and all the forces necessary to shape his life aright4 ,he is proud of himself1 and talks of the dignity of human nature4 ,he describes himself in panegyric1 magnifies his virtue and minimizes his vice4 ,he flatters himself in his own eyes4 ,the two concepts--that of the ,bible and that of the natural man--are as far apart from each other as the heavens are from the earth4 ,to man1 the ,bible concept is false1 belittling1 wholly disastrous and degrading1 the death knell to any possible inspiration for human effort and attainment4 ,it is a concept against which he revolts with all the nature in him1 and hates with an exceeding great hatred4 ,in the very nature of the case1 then1 the ,bible concept of man is not due to man2 it is not such a concept that he would write if he could4 ,the picture which the ,bible paints of sin is not such a picture as the natural man has ever painted4 ,the ,bible declares that sin is something more than fever or disease or weakness1 it is high treason against ,jehovah1 it is a blow at his integrity1 a rebellion against his government1 a discord to his being and a movement whose final tendency would be to dislodge him from his throne4 ,the ,bible hates sin and has no mercy for it4 ,the very leaves of the book seem to curl and grow crisp under the fire of its hatred4 ,so fearful is its denunciation that the sinner shivers and hastens to turn away from a book whose lightest denunciation of sin has in it the menace of eternal judgment4 ,like a great fiery eye it looks into the very recesses of the heart and reveals its intents and purposes4 ,it sees lust hiding there in all its lecherous deformity and says1 he who exercises it solely in his mind is as guilty in ,god's sight as though he had committed the act4 ,it looks into the heart and sees hate crouching there with its tiger-like fangs and readiness to spring1 and says that he who hates his brother is already a murderer4 ,the ,bible has no forgiveness for sin until it has been fully and fearfully punished4 ,in this it simply echoes the law stamped and steeped in nature4 ,nature never forgives its violated law until it has punished it4 ,the ,bible demands satisfaction1 complete and absolute1 before it offers even the hint of forgiveness4 ,it takes the guilty sinner to the cross of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ and shows him ,god's hatred of sin to be so great1 that the moment his holy and spotless ,son representatively takes the sinner's place1 he smites him and pours out upon him a tidal sweep of wrath in a terror of relentless judgment and indignation so immense1 that the earth quivers like an aspen1 rocks to and fro1 reels in its orbit till the sun of day refuses to shine1 and the moon of night hangs in the startled heavens like a great clot of human blood4 ,the ,bible declares that forgiveness of sin can come to the sinner only by way of the anguish and punishment of the cross2 and that no sinner can be forgiven till he has accepted the downpour of the wrath of ,god on the cross and the substitutional agony of the ,son of ,god as the punishment he himself so justly deserves4 ,the ,bible teaches that in the awful cry1 ,my ,god1 my ,god1 why hast thou forsaken me8 the sinner should hear the echo of his own agony1 as of one forsaken of ,god and swept out of his presence forever2 and that the only ground of approach to this righteous ,god is the atoning blood of his crucified ,son2 that he who would approach ,god1 find forgiveness and justification1 must claim that crucified ,son of ,god as his sin-offering1 his vicarious sacrifice1 his personal substitute4 ,by the hell of the cross alone can he find the heaven of forgiveness and peace4 ,is this man's attitude to1 and definition of1 forgiveness and peace8 ,it is not4 ,man does not hate sin4 ,he loves it4 ,he rolls it as a sweet morsel under his tongue4 ,he condones it in its worst form4 ,to him it is genital weakness or an overplus of animal life--an exuberance of the spirit4 ,it is a racial inheritance and not an individual fault4 ,it is temperamental and not criminal4 ,the ,bible concept and the natural concept of sin contradict each other2 both1 therefore1 cannot have the same author4 ,the ,bible concept of holiness is not the concept of the natural man4 ,in the ,bible1 holiness is not goodness and kindness1 nor even morality4 ,holiness as the ,bible sets it before us is the correspondence of the soul with ,god1 the soul reflecting the intent1 desire and innermost character of ,god2 so that1 were ,god to enter into the soul1 he should find himself as much at home as upon his own exalted throne4 ,such a definition as that makes human perfection and all its claims to holiness seem no better than a painted wanton dressed in the garb of purity and mouthing the words of virtue and chastity4 ,whence comes this wisdom of holiness which makes the loftiest ideal of man no higher than the dust of the roadway1 his best righteousness criticizable goodness and altogether a negligible quantity8 ,if it is from man1 it must arise from two sources--human experience or human imagination4 ,it cannot come from human experience6 no natural man in the past has experienced it--none today experience it4 ,it cannot come from imagination2 for a man cannot imagine what he has not seen1 known or experienced4 ,as he has not experienced holiness he cannot imagine it4 ,in the nature of the case--the ,bible concept of holiness did not originate with man1 and that much of the ,bible1 evidently1 is not of man4 ,that the ,bible is not the word of man is shown by its statements of accurate science1 written before men became scientific1 and while as yet natural science did not exist4 ,the record of creation is given in the opening verses of ,genesis4 ,whence came the wisdom which enabled the writer in a pre-scientific age to set forth a cosmogony in such a fashion that it does not contradict the latest findings of the geologist8 ,the ,bible says the earth was without form and void4 ,science says the same thing4 ,over a hot granite crust1 an ocean of fire1 and beyond that an impenetrable atmosphere loaded with carbonic acid gas4 ,cuvier1 the founder of paleontology1 says in his discourse on the revolutions of the globe1 ,moses has left us a cosmogony1 the exactitude of which is most wonderfully confirmed every day4 ,quensted says1 ,moses was a great geologist1 wherever he may have obtained his knowledge4 ,again he says1 ,the venerable ,moses1 who makes the plants appear first1 has not yet been proven at fault2 for there are marine plants in the very lowest deposit4 ,dana1 of ,yale ,college1 has said that the record of creation given by ,moses and that written in the rocks are the same in all general features4 ,whence came the wisdom which kept ,moses from hopelessly blundering8 ,moses places the account of the original creation in the first verse4 ,in the second1 he states the earth fell into chaos4 ,it became 7not was7 without form1 and void4 ,isaiah1 the prophet1 declares definitely that ,god did not create the earth without form and void--,god never was the author of chaos--he made the earth habitable from the beginning4 ,the first verse of ,genesis records the creation of this original and habitable earth4 ,the second verse shows1 as the result of some mighty cataclysm1 that the original earth fell into a state of chaos4 ,the second verse1 and the verses following1 are the record of the making over of the earth after it had fallen into a state of chaos4 ,whence the wisdom which taught ,moses what science in our day is only beginning to spell out1 that the present earth is not an original creation1 but a remaking2 that the original creation goes back beyond the time of shifted crust1 of tilted rock1 of ice and fire and mist and formless chaos8 ,whence came the wisdom and knowledge which led ,job to say that it is impossible to count the stars for number1 when it was possible in his day1 and is equally possible in our day1 to count them with the naked eye8 ,how did he know1 what the telescope alone reveals1 that the number of the stars as flashed forth in the field of these telescopes is utterly beyond our computation2 and that in the attempt to number them1 figures break1 fall into dust1 and are swept away as the chaff of the summer's threshing floor4 ,how did he1 looking up with that naked eye of his1 how did he know that in the ,milky ,way there are countless thousands of suns--and these the centres of other systems8 ,how did he know that world -on-world ranges in the upper spaces of the silent sky1 so multitudinously that each increase of the power of the telescope only adds unaccountable myriads until1 looking from the rim of those nightly searchers1 the eye beholds reach on reach of luminous clouds1 and learns with awe profound1 that these clouds are stars1 are suns and systems--but so far away from us and from one another that they cannot be separated and distinguished by the most powerful glasses2 and that these clouds1 if we really could separate them and bring them within the field of our particular vision1 would reveal themselves as suns and systems so numerous1 that only1 the ,creator himself could number them8 ,how did ,job know all this in that far day when he sat at his tent door in the beauty of the cloudless sky and without a telescope8 ,how did he know all this so that he could tell us with absolute certainty what we now know only by the aid of modern science--that the stars cannot be counted for number8 ,how did he know what only the modern telescope reveals1 that the ,north is stretched out over the empty place8 ,how did he know that there in the ,northern sky there is a space where no star does shine --a dark abyss of fathomless night--as if1 suddenly1 the universe of worlds had come to an end8 ,how did he know1 at the moment when the wise men of his day were saying that the earth was supported on the shoulders of a giant1 that the giant stood on a platform made of the backs of elephants2 that the elephants stood on the back of a mighty tortoise1 but where the tortoise stood none of them said2 how did he dare at that time to write that ,god hangeth the earth on nothing8 ,how did ,isaiah know that the world is round8 ,how did he learn to speak of the circle of the earth1 at the time when the scientific men of his day said that it was four square and flat8 ,how did he know of that imponderable ether in which the stellar universe is said to float8 ,who taught him to say that ,god spread out the heavens as thinness1 when the wise men of that hour were teaching they were a solid vault8 ,how is it that he made use of the most scientific term when he speaks of the heavens as thinness8 ,it is true in our ,english version he is made to say that ,god spread out the heavens as a tent2 but the word tent in the ,hebrew is 7doq7 and its root meaning signifies a thing that has been beaten out or stretched into thinness--an elastic thinness2 it is a word accurately describing the ether which scientific men tell us is so thin that a teacup full of it may be blown out into a transparent bubble as large as the earth1 and1 even then1 its attenuation would seem no greater than at the beginning4 ,how did ,isaiah know all this8 ,evidently his knowledge and wisdom did not come from the knowledge and wisdom of his day4 ,that the ,bible did not come from man is seen in the fact of fulfilled prohpecy4 ,page after page of this book is filled with prophetic announcements4 ,history and human experience record their amazing fulfilment4 ,the prophet ,daniel gives the history of four great world empires1 ,babylon1 ,medo-,persia1 ,greece and ,rome4 ,the rise and fall of these empires are foretold centuries ahead4 ,the total ruin and perpetual desolation of ,babylon were announced when the city shone forth in the zenith of its splendor4 ,daniel writes an account of ,alexander the ,great two hundred and fifty years before he is born1 calls him the first king of ,greece1 describes his march for the conquest of the ,east1 the battle of the ,grannicus1 his sudden death at ,babylon1 and the division of the empire among his four generals4 ,at the hour when ,rome was practically passing through her travail pains of national birth1 ,daniel foretold its ascension to power1 and described it as a wild beast1 trampling down the nations1 absorbing into itself the three kingdoms which preceded it1 occupying the territory once possessed by them1 and becoming the supreme governmental power of the earth4 ,centuries before it took place he foretold the division of the ,roman ,empire into two equal parts4 ,he announced1 also1 that it should be the last universal political power till ,christ the ,lord should come to set up his worldwide kingdom4 ,centuries have passed since ,rome ruled the world4 ,from that day to this it has remained the last supreme world-power4 ,the territory once ruled by it is filled with mighty nations--not one of them1 great as it may be1 is a universal world-power4 ,where did ,daniel get the foresight which enabled him to look on down through two thousand years of human history and1 in the face of battle1 intrigue and change1 declare1 what so far has come to pass1 that ,rome should be the last universal empire till ,christ came8 ,ezekiel1 the prophet1 said that the great and populous city of ,tyre should be taken1 cast down1 and never rebuilt2 and that the ,lord would make it to be like the top of a scraped rock to spread nets upon4 ,the city was taken and destroyed4 ,the people moved to an island just off the mainland and there built a new city4 ,two hundred and fifty years after ,ezekiel made his prophecy1 ,alexander came1 besieged the new city2 and1 in order to take it1 built a causeway from the mainland4 ,in doing this he tore down and utterly demolished the ruins of the old city2 took its stones and timber and cast them into the sea2 and then1 actually1 set his soldiers to work to scrape the very dust that he might empty it into the waters4 ,from the hour when it was overthrown to this1 the city has never been rebuilt2 and for centuries it has been1 and is to-day1 like the top of a scraped rock--a place where fishermen spread their nets4 ,where did ,ezekiel get this knowledge8 ,certainly not from man4 ,it will not do to say he guessed it6 ,egypt was a land of cities and temples4 ,the cities were populous1 the temples and monuments colossal4 ,avenues of gigantic sphynx led to gateways whose immense thresholds opened into pillared halls1 where the carved columns seemed like a forest of stone4 ,pyramids rose as mountains1 and their alabaster-covered sides flashed back the splendor of the cloudless skies4 ,the land bloomed as a garden4 ,the papyrus grew by the banks of the ,nile4 ,the fisheries of the mighty river filled the treasury of kings with a ceaseless income4 ,art1 literature1 knowledge and culture were enthroned supreme--yet was it a land of false gods and a people given over to their worship4 ,speaking in the name of ,god the prophet announced the coming desolation of ,egypt4 ,it should be cast down4 ,its fisheries should be destroyed1 its papyrus withered1 its cities and temples overthrown and the ruins scattered over the plain1 no native prince should ever again sit upon its throne1 it should become the basest of kingdoms4 ,it has become such4 ,its cities are destroyed4 ,its temples are roofless1 its columns fallen1 the statues of its kings lie face downward in the dust1 the pyramids1 stripped and bare1 stand scarred and silent in the sun4 ,the singing ,memnon are as songless from their chiselled lips as the tongueless ,sphynx half buried in the yellow sand4 ,the fisheries are gone1 the papyrus has withered2 for centuries no native prince has been seated on the throne4 ,it is a land of the dead4 ,the dead are everywhere4 ,at every step you stumble over a mummy1 the mummy of a dead cat1 a dead dog1 or a dead and shrivelled ,pharaoh4 ,its greatest asset is its departed glory1 and every grain of sand blown from the mighty desert1 and every wave of reflected light flung back from the ,lybian hills1 proclaims the terrific fulfilment of the prophet's words4 ,the prophets foretold the final siege and destruction of ,jerusalem4 ,it should be trodden down of the ,gentiles4 ,the people should be carried away captive and sold into all lands4 ,they should be scattered from one end of the earth to the other4 ,all nations should despise them4 ,they should become a by-word1 a hissing and a scorn4 ,they should be hunted1 hounded and persecuted4 ,their sufferings should be unparalleled1 horrible1 unspeakable4 ,the sound of a shaken leaf should startle them4 ,they were to become the people of the trembling heart and the wandering foot4 ,the prophecies have been singularly fulfilled4 ,jerusalem was besieged by the ,romans4 ,the city was taken4 ,the city and temple were destroyed4 ,hundreds of thousands perished by famine1 by fever1 by fire and by sword4 ,titus1 the ,roman conqueror1 drove a ploughshare over its smoking ruins4 ,the people who remained alive after the general slaughter were carried away captive4 ,they were scattered from one end of the earth to the other4 ,they have found their dwelling place among all nations4 ,they dwell everywhere and are at home nowhere4 ,they have been a by-word1 a hissing and a scorn4 ,every hand has been turned against them4 ,they have been hunted on the mountains4 ,they have been chased through the valleys4 ,they have been walled up in the narrow and filthy ghettos of cities4 ,their goods have been stolen4 ,their wives and daughters have been ravished4 ,they have been whipped and racked and tortured4 ,they have been broken on the wheel1 burned at the stake1 buried alive1 and sent to sea1 thousands of them1 in sinking ships4 ,every cruelty that the ingenuity of man and the inspiration of fiends could suggest has been practised upon them1 until the heart revolts and the soul sickens at the mere recital of their blood and woe2 and to this hour1 through twenty long centuries1 ,jerusalem1 as announced1 has been trodden down of the ,gentiles2 all nations have tramped through her streets1 overridden her people and torn down her walls4 ,the prophets said ,god would make a full end of the nation which persecuted them2 but he would not make a full end of them1 he would preserve and multiply them4 ,the promises have been kept4 ,rome has become a past tense4 ,with thoughtful steps we pause amid her ruins1 painfully locate the palace of her kings1 the arenas of her pleasure1 the abodes of her vice2 on fallen column or broken tablet1 we read the story of her past victories1 her mighty conquests1 and standing beneath a crumbling triumphal arch1 gaze on the sculptured figures of ,jewish captives who once followed in an emperor's triumphal train1 more enduring to-day with their stony faces than the ruined city which lies prostrate at their feet2 for while ,rome has passed away1 the ,jew still lives1 he has been preserved and has multiplied4 ,the ,jews to-day number twelve millions of people2 and these represent but two tribes out of the twelve2 so that the two are four times as numerous as the whole nation when it came out of ,egypt under ,moses4 ,their vitality is phenomenal--it is miraculous--their multiplication is against all the laws and precedents of history4 ,persecution and trial have but increased their fecundity4 ,like the burning bush ever burning but never consumed1 they continue to exist2 and when you draw nigh and consider their strange story1 out of the midst1 as of old out of the bush1 the voice of him who is the ,i am1 that ,i am is heard saying --,these are my disobedient but covenant people1 whom ,i have sworn shall be to me as the 'apple of mine eye'2 saying1 ,whosoever toucheth them toucheth me4 ,it was foretold that in the closing hours of this age and as a prelude to their final restoration1 they should bud and blossom and fill the face of the whole world with fruit4 ,if to-day you seek a representative person in every department of human genius and achievement1 you will find that representative in a ,jew4 ,the ,bible testifies1 and testified it centuries ago1 that in the closing hours of this age1 the ,jews should turn their faces towards ,palestine and ask 7or plead7 their way to ,zion4 ,the prophecy has been1 and is being1 fulfilled to the letter4 ,the faces of thousands of ,jews are being turned towards ,palestine2 thousands of ,jews are asking how is it possible to return to ,zion4 ,zionism has passed from the realm of dreams to the solid ground of fact4 ,everywhere over the earth societies are formed among the ,jews to emphasize the return to ,zion and the setting up of the ,jewish ,state4 ,it was further foretold that many should return thither in radical unbelief and open materialism2 that at the entering in of the gates of ,jerusalem land should be bought and sold and speculation become rife4 ,to-day there are more ,jews in ,palestine than at any time since the return from ,babylon4 ,land is bought and sold at the gates of the city1 and speculation in real estate values is running high4 ,there is the hum of expectation in the sacred city4 ,palestine is being colonized by ,jews4 ,the ,turkish government has taken off the ban1 the ,jew is owned as a citizen and may become a representative in its administration4 ,the deserted cities are being occupied4 ,millions of ,mulberry trees are being planted1 the desert and the waste places cultivated4 ,the lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep are heard once more4 ,in ,jerusalem1 the wailing place of the ,jews is more crowded than ever4 ,the penitential psalms are recited1 tears are shed and the cry goes up with keener lamentation that the city1 beautiful for situation1 the joy of the whole earth1 has become the prey of the ,gentiles2 that the walls are broken down1 the holy places laid waste1 our holy and beautiful house1 they cry1 where our fathers praised thee1 is burned up with fire3 and all our pleasant things are laid waste4 ,wilt thou refrain thyself for these things1 ,o ,lord8 ,wilt thou hold thy peace1 and afflict us very sore8 ,and the prayer ascends with ever-increasing supplication that ,jehovah will again make bare his arm in the sight of the ,gentiles1 build up the place of the holy assemblies1 beautify ,jerusalem and establish his people4 ,synagogues are built within the shadow of the sacred rock1 the one-time threshing floor of ,ornan1 which ,david bought and whereon the holy temple stood4 ,the latter as well as the former rains are falling4 ,everywhere it is evident that the land is reviving1 and the thought of ,judah as a kingdom and power among nations1 finding utterance on the lips--both of ,gentile and ,jew4 ,and all this activity and ,zionward movement taking place with the ,jew in a condition of spiritual blindness1 unbelief and godless materialism--as foretold4 ,the very leaders of ,zionism 7some of them7 the most outspoken in their repudiation of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ as ,messiah of ,israel4 ,the ,bible foretold that the ,jews as a people would never receive the ,gospel3 ,as concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sakes 7the ,gentiles74 ,on the other hand1 it was announced that the ,gentiles1 who despise the ,jews1 should receive the ,gospel1 accept a rejected and crucified ,jew as ,israel's king1 and own and acknowledge him as the redeemer and saviour provided for themselves4 ,this prophecy has been fulfilled4 ,for nineteen hundred years the ,jew--as a ,jew--has steadily rejected a crucified ,christ4 ,here and there an individual1 paying the penalty of scorn and contumely from his own people1 has believed the ,gospel and owned the crucified and despised man of ,nazareth as his very ,lord and ,god4 ,he has done so according to that election of grace which the ,bible foretells 7an elect remnant is seen through all the ages1 under one dispensation or another1 responding to the call of ,god--like the seven thousand who would not bow the knee to ,baal2 and belonging to that election of grace the believing ,jew stands out marked and sealed of ,god7 but the ,jew as a nation with unbroken solidarity refuses to-day the only ,jew who can establish him in the land of his fathers and fulfil the covenant promises4 ,equally fulfilled is the other side of the prophecy4 ,the ,gentiles1 who1 racially considered1 despise the ,jew and everything of the ,jew1 to-day own and accept this rejected and crucified ,jew of ,calvary1 not only as ,israel's ,messiah and king1 but as the redeemer and saviour provided of ,god for ,gentiles2 so that the ,gentile world now worships and adores him as very ,god1 holding up the cross of his shame and death as the symbol of highest honor and most radiant glory4 ,the ,bible has predicted the final characteristics of the present age in terms precise and clear4 ,by type1 figure and direct prophecy it announces that the last form of government among the nations just previous to the ,coming of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ will be democracy--the rule of the people3 ,the government of the people1 by the people1 and for the people4 ,that prophecy practically has been fulfilled4 ,democracy is1 nearly1 the universal mode of government4 ,england in some respects is more democratic than the ,united ,states4 ,france1 ,portugal and ,switzerland are republics4 ,spain1 ,italy and ,greece are constitutional monarchies2 that is to say1 the people are recognized as the ultimate authority4 ,the ,northern nations1 ,norway1 ,sweden1 ,denmark1 ,holland and ,belgium1 are liberal kingdoms4 ,the monarchy is simply a fashion--the people are the rulers4 ,germany is a military nation4 ,the ,kaiser1 speaking at times as the war lord1 gives the impression that he is absolute emperor4 ,he is far from it4 ,the socialists count their votes by millions1 and while the ,german people accept the empire1 they do so because it is the most satisfactory agent for their business and prosperity4 ,the ,german people behind the throne are the absolute power2 and the voice of democracy makes no more radical utterance and demand than in the ,german kaiserreich4 ,recently1 in a public interview1 the ,kaiser is reported to have said1 he expected his son to be the last emperor of ,germany1 as within fifty years the whole world would become democratic4 ,austria is still more or less under the influence of ,caesarism1 but beneath the surface1 the various peoples and nationalities constituting that empire are restless1 feverish1 and full of democratic ideas4 ,turkey has been shaken by a revolt of ,the ,young ,turks1 and the demand for more popular government4 ,japan has broken loose from the customs and traditions of centuries--her flag is the symbol of the rising sun1 and indicates that she is seeking to take her place in the new dawn of popular sovereignty4 ,china1 the oldest civilization and the mightiest population1 has become a republic1 her young men returning from the universities of ,europe and ,america having sown broadcast the seed of democracy and the claim of the people4 ,russia1 alone1 remains absolute in name1 but the absolute has been shattered even there--it is supported only by bayonets and drawn swords4 ,every now and then a sullen sound is heard1 dying away to be renewed in deeper tones2 it is the voice of the people1 in spite of the knout1 the prison and ,siberian exile1 calling for what they claim to be their rights4 ,everywhere the evidence is manifest that the prophecy of ,daniel announcing the rise of the clay 7,daniel's symbol of the people7 and the warning of ,isaiah that the nations should rush like the rushing of many waters1 and make a noise like the noise of the seas1 are being fulfilled4 ,after ,clay1 or ,democracy1 there remains only anarchy1 or power in the hands of an absolute ruler4 ,that absolute1 world-wide ruler is declared by all the prophets to be the ,son of ,god1 and his kingdom is symbolized by a stone--a stone is the very opposite of clay4 ,,the ,,clay ,,is ,,here6 ,centuries ago the ,bible declared that in the closing hours of this age the whole world would be under arms1 preparing for a gigantic and final war2 that each nation would turn itself into a vast army1 and that the whole earth would become a military camp and field of manoeuvre4 ,this prophecy is being fulfilled4 ,a universal preparation for war is going on with maddening haste4 ,nations are seeking to outdo each other in their colossal preparation for the approaching strife4 ,armies are no longer mere levies or hired cohorts1 every man in the nation capable of bearing arms or in any wise doing military duty is enrolled1 and must take his place as a soldier4 ,during the summer immense armies move out of their barracks and play seriously the game of war4 ,each nation has its field manoeuvres and theme of attack and defence4 ,on every side is heard the tramp of marching feet1 the sound of bugle call1 the rumble of artillery1 the sharp word of command4 ,nations are vying with each other in the endeavor to cover the sea with the swiftest and most powerful battleships4 ,millions are being put into guns and ammunition4 ,the money of the people is being poured out like water to obtain war material4 ,forges and foundries are working to turn out the most destructive implements4 ,the arsenals are being gorged with cannon1 with shot and shell4 ,enormous sums of money in gold are stored away in impregnable fortresses that1 as the sinew of war1 it may be ready to respond at a moment's notice4 ,never before in the history of the world has there been such a spectacle4 ,on land and sea men are silently1 ceaselessly preparing for the irrepressible and impending conflict4 ,each nation feels its existence is at stake2 not a thinking statesman who does not feel assured that1 sooner or later1 the clash will come4 ,all feel it will be fierce1 titanic1 fateful and final4 ,the ,bible foretold the great apostasy as manifested in the ,roman ,catholic ,church1 the rise of ,protestantism1 its ultimate breakdown in rationalism and open infidelity 7that condition of which it should be said1 they will not endure sound doctrine74 ,it foretold the rising again of ,romanism into the place of power and authority 7as we see it to-day in the ,united ,states1 where it holds the balance of political power and is fast becoming a social triumph74 ,who would have had the hardihood to prophesy in the hour when ,protestantism was delivering its terrible blows against ,romanism1 overturning the tables of the priests1 who sold their infamous wares of papal indulgences1 breaking idols and images in the churches1 and driving the church of the priesthood1 the mass and auricular confession swiftly downwards to the waters of the ,mediterranean and1 while it was repudiating this apostate church 7which set up saints and images in the place of the ,son of ,god1 exalted works of merit instead of the cleansing power of the blood7 continually cried aloud the glorious doctrine of justification by faith1 and whose supreme watchword was--,the ,bible and nothing but the ,bible2 who1 under such conditions as these1 would have had the courage to proclaim that in the closing hours of this age1 this aggressive and biblical ,protestantism should break up by self-division1 become fragmentary1 its leading thinkers and teachers repudiating the ,bible as the infallible ,word of ,god8 ,who would have dared to say that ,rome would come back1 ascend into the place of authority1 sit upon the throne of the world's respect and receive its honors8 ,who would have said that this church which has set itself up above the ,bible1 claimed the right to change times and seasons in defiance of a thus saith the ,lord1 and has burned men at the stake for their love and devotion to this very ,bible1 should1 at the last1 by reason of the infidelity of ,protestantism1 its recognition of divorce and its indifference to a thus saith the ,lord1 come forth as the defender of the ,bible1 the champion of the home and the guardian of the sacredness of marriage1 concentrating all its thunders against the shame and indecency of divorce8 ,yet these prophecies are written on page after page of this book1 and their complete and amazing fulfilment looks us in the face4 ,what a picture is painted for us in the words that follow3 ,this know1 also1 that in the last days perilous times shall come4 ,for men shall be lovers of their own selves1 covetous1 boasters1 proud1 blasphemers1 disobedient to parents1 unthankful1 unholy1 without natural affection1 truce breakers1 false accusers1 incontinent1 fierce1 despisers of those that are good1 traitors1 heady1 high minded1 lovers of pleasures more than lovers of ,god1 having a form of godliness1 but denying the power thereof4 ,the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine3 but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers1 having itching ears2 and they shall turn away their ears from the truth1 and shall be turned to fables4 ,it is a picture which finds its counterpart in the ,protestantism of to-day--a ,protestantism full of worldliness1 having a form of godliness1 a great religious profession1 but denying its only power 7the ,holy ,ghost71 repudiating doctrine and listening to every fable of rationalistic philosophy sooner than to the truth of ,god4 ,in the letter to the church at ,thyatira it is written3 ,that woman ,jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess 7a teacher7 to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication 7fornication in the book of ,revelation signifies idolatry--image worship and1 also1 union with the principles and ways of the world7 and to eat things sacrificed unto idols4 ,jezebel was the ,pagan wife of ,ahab1 king of ,israel4 ,jezebel stands for the union of ,paganism and ,judaism4 ,but ,jezebel here represents a professed church of ,christ4 ,in ,jezebel1 therefore1 you have a professed church of ,christ in which there is a combination of ,paganism and ,judaism4 ,this symbolic ,jezebel teaches the servants of ,christ to commit fornication--that is1 not only identification with the world1 but idolatry 7image worship74 ,in its full detail1 then1 we have a professed church of ,christ in which may be found a mixture of ,paganism and ,judaism4 ,a church where the professed followers of ,christ are taught to worship by means of images4 ,could you find a better1 more accurate delineation of the apostate ,church of ,rome--a ,church which borrows the priesthood of ,judaism and the idolatry and image worship of ,paganism8 ,in this book of the ,revelation there is still another picture4 ,in the seventeenth chapter a woman is seen seated upon a scarlet colored beast4 ,she is arrayed in purple and scarlet4 ,she is decked with precious stones and pearls1 and in her hand holds a golden cup full of the abomination and filthiness of her fornication 7idolatry74 ,she is seen to be drunken with the blood of the martyrs of ,jesus4 ,the woman is1 also1 said to be seated on seven mountains and is1 finally1 spoken of as that great city which rules over the kings 7nations7 of the earth4 ,the woman is called ,,mystery1 ,,babylon ,,the ,,great1 ,,the ,,mother ,,of ,,harlots ,,and ,,abominations ,,of ,,the ,,earth4 ,in the twenty-fifth chapter of the book1 the ,,bride ,,of ,,the ,,lamb1 the true church of ,christ1 is symbolized by a city--,,the ,,new ,,jerusalem4 ,babylon and ,jerusalem stand always opposed to each other4 ,babylon is the centre of ,satanic power and testimony--its name signifies mixture1 confusion4 ,jerusalem is the centre of ,god's dealings and testimony--it signifies peace and righteousness4 ,if1 therefore1 the city of ,new ,jerusalem is a symbol of the true church of ,christ and the church of ,christ is called a mystery1 then this woman called ,babylon1 said to be a ,city and also called a mystery1 is a symbol of the false church of ,christ2 and1 being a harlot1 and the mother of harlots1 or churches like herself 7and thus the ,mother ,church71 and harlot signifying fornication1 and fornication1 idolatry--image worship--then a professed ,church of ,christ1 which teaches and practises image worship4 ,the great city ruling over the kings of the earth in ,john's day and situated on seven mountains1 or mounts1 is ,,rome2 as the city represents the woman ,babylon who is the symbol of the false ,church of ,christ1 then you have a false church of ,christ seated 7and remember1 the word is seated7 in ,rome4 ,a ,church seated in ,rome is a ,roman ,church2 and as the city rules over the earth1 over the world2 and a world-wide rule is a universal rule2 and the word for universal1 worldwide1 is1 also1 catholic1 you have a catholic church2 and1 seated in ,rome 7,rome its capital centre71 ,,the ,,roman ,,catholic ,,church4 ,this ,church is said to be drunken with the blood of the martyrs of ,jesus2 and the pages of history glued together with the blood of these same martyrs1 and the burning1 blistering record of the ,holy ,inquisition1 affirm that the astounding picture is true in all its crimson and scarlet details4 ,but the striking feature in the picture1 and the one that is first presented to us1 is that the woman 7the ,church7 is carried by a beast4 ,this beast is a symbol of government and teaches that the ,church rules over the governments of the world1 is sustained by the ,state1 has attained to temporal power4 ,as the picture occurs in the third division of the book1 and that division relates to things still future1 we have here a distinct prophecy that this ,apostate ,roman ,church shall again attain to temporal power1 become a ,state ,church1 supported and carried officially by the nations of the earth4 ,the exactitude with which the picture has been painted1 and that1 too1 at a time when ,rome had not yet come into the place of full -blown apostasy and power2 the startling way in which1 step by step1 the prophetic outlines have been fulfilled even in our day1 are tremendously suggestive concerning the possibility of its complete and final fulfilment2 and bid us ask most earnestly--whence came the mental eyesight which enabled the writer of the book to sketch out for us centuries ahead of time1 that which the page of after history reveals to us as facts8 ,the social1 financial1 governmental1 religious and moral condition of the present time have been portrayed in the book we call the ,bible4 ,the coming of a special class called rich men as a particular characteristic of this age1 the revolt of labor1 and its cry against the wrongs of capital1 were all set forth in the epistle of ,james1 nigh two thousand years ago1 with an accuracy that is not to be explained on natural grounds4 ,so absolutely unnatural is it1 that it is perfectly safe to say--these things are not such as a man could write if he would4 ,that the book is not to be explained on natural grounds is evident from the fact that it is not a ,,construction1 but a ,,growth2 not an ,,organization1 but an ,,organism1 growing up from ,genesis to ,revelation like a tree from root through trunk and branch to leaf and fruit4 ,each book of the ,bible will be found on examination to stand related organically to one another2 and that each occupies its necessary and sequential order4 ,in ,genesis1 you have the beginning of things1 the germ and outline of everything afterwards revealed4 ,exodus gives the redemption by blood of a people foreseen and covenanted in ,genesis1 their deliverance by the hand of ,god from the power of the king and the dangers of the land4 ,in ,leviticus1 the redeemed people draw nigh to ,god by virtue of the blood of sacrifice and find access to the presence of ,god through the intercession of a priest4 ,in ,numbers1 this blood-redeemed people are seen on their journey to the better land2 we read of their trials1 their temptations1 their unbelief1 their backslidings and continual moral failure by the way1 and the never-failing grace and love of a covenant-keeping ,god who leads them in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night4 ,in ,deuteronomy1 the people have the way over which they have come1 and the dealings of ,god1 rehearsed to them1 and are instructed and prepared for the land whither they go4 ,in ,joshua1 the second generation 7which stands always for regeneration7 gets into the promised land4 ,judges tells how1 after being blessed with all covenant blessings in the covenant land1 the people fell into a state where every man did that which was right in his own eyes4 ,ruth1 the ,gentile woman1 becomes the bride of a ,hebrew ,lord2 and the covenant promise of ,god concerning ,israel goes straightway down from a ,gentile mother and a ,hebrew father towards the throne which is set up in ,david and owned of ,god as the throne of ,christ4 ,the books of ,samuel1 ,kings and ,chronicles1 take up the story of the kingdom1 and the ,old ,testament leads us on through symbol1 figure and open prophecy1 to a ,coming ,messiah and a glorious kingdom till1 when we reach the last verse in ,malachi1 we lean across four centuries of prophetic silence1 waiting to greet that promised ,christ who shall be born in ,bethlehem2 and who is to be called the ,son of the ,highest2 who is to sit on the throne of his father ,david1 to order it1 and to establish it with judgment and with justice1 from henceforth even forever4 ,we listen for the angelic song and the salutation to men of good will2 and we are expecting1 later on1 to see ,zion's king riding up the slopes to the ,holy ,city and all the people coming forth to cry1 ,hosanna to the ,son of ,david1 and ,blessed be he that cometh in the name of the ,lord4 ,when you open the ,new ,testament you find four books--,matthew1 ,mark1 ,luke and ,john4 ,the order of these books is fixed--it cannot be changed4 ,if ,mark be substituted for ,matthew1 then the ,new ,testament begins without an account of the birth or genealogy of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ2 no intimation is given that he is born king of the ,jews1 and is the expected ,messiah4 ,if ,luke be given the place of ,matthew1 little mention will be found of the ,jewish kingdom of heaven2 and our ,lord will be seen with a leaning towards the ,gentiles4 ,if the ,gospel of ,john begin the ,new ,testament instead of ,matthew1 then we shall read of him who is ,son of ,god rather than ,king of the ,jews1 and the expectation raised by ,malachi will seem unfulfilled4 ,but the moment the order named is followed all is perfect1 all is harmony4 ,matthew presents our ,lord ,jesus ,christ as the ,son of ,abraham and ,son of ,david2 heir of the covenant land1 and the covenant throne1 and at once links the ,new ,testament with the ,old4 ,mark announces that this ,king of the ,jews came into the world to be the ,servant of ,god and a blessing in his service to men4 ,luke1 although he announces our ,lord ,jesus ,christ as ,king1 sets him forth pre-eminently as ,the ,man1 going among men1 eating and drinking with them1 and speaking in such plain and simple terms that the common people heard him gladly4 ,in ,john1 this ,jewish ,king1 this ,servant of ,god and men1 this ,man among men1 who received sinners and ate with them1 is revealed as the ,mighty ,god1 the eternal ,word1 the ,holy ,one of ,israel1 who came down to visit his people1 was made flesh and tabernacled among them1 as of old he dwelt in the tabernacle of the wilderness in the ,shekinal glory above the ,mercy ,seat and between the outstretched wings of the golden ,cherubim4 ,take away the book of ,acts1 and nothing can be known of the origin of the church and its apostolic history4 ,without the book of ,acts the epistles are wholly unintelligible when they refer to the ,church4 ,do without the ,second epistle to the ,corinthians1 and you have no revelation of the state of the ,christian dead either as to their location or condition4 ,without the ,second epistle to the ,thessalonians you cannot fix the identity of the ,antichrist4 ,leave out the epistle to the ,hebrews and there is no key to ,leviticus4 ,without the book of ,daniel it is impossible fully to understand the book of ,revelation4 ,no matter at what period the book of ,revelation may have been written1 it can have but one place in the ,bible1 and that the last4 ,it must have this place because it shows us the foreview of ,genesis fulfilled3 the seed of the woman has bruised the serpent's head1 ,satan has been bound and ,paradise is regained4 ,the ,old and ,new ,testaments stand related to each other as the two halves of a perfect whole4 ,in the ,old ,testament the ,new is concealed2 in the ,new ,testament the ,old is revealed4 ,genesis finds its key in the first chapter of ,john's ,gospel1 and identifies the creator of heaven and earth with him who was made flesh and dwelt among us as the ,son of ,god4 ,exodus is explained by the ,first epistle to the ,corinthians1 in which we learn that ,christ is the ,passover sacrificed for us4 ,leviticus is expounded by the epistle to the ,hebrews4 ,numbers has its correspondence in the book of ,acts4 ,in ,numbers you have the experience of the ,children of ,israel in their journey through the wilderness4 ,in ,acts we get the story of the ,church in its pilgrimage through the world4 ,deuteronomy is to be read with ,colossians4 ,in ,deuteronomy the people of ,israel are being prepared for an earthly inheritance4 ,in ,colossians the ,church is being prepared for a heavenly inheritance4 ,joshua stands over against ,ephesians4 ,in ,joshua the redeemed people have to fight with flesh and blood in order to possess the covenant land4 ,in ,ephesians we wrestle not against flesh and blood1 but against wicked spirits in the heavenly places4 ,judges may be understood by reading the first chapter of the first epistle1 and the twelfth chapter of the second epistle to the ,corinthians4 ,the book of ,ruth is illuminated by the third and fifth chapters of the ,ephesians4 ,in ,ruth you have the ,gentile bride of a ,hebrew ,lord1 the kinsman1 redeemer and advocate2 who presents his bride to himself in the gate before all the assembled judges4 ,in ,ephesians1 the ,gentile ,bride is seen to be the ,church1 the kinsman1 redeemer and advocate1 our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 who1 having loved the ,church and given himself for it1 will present it to himself a glorious church1 not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing4 ,the books of ,samuel1 ,kings and ,chronicles1 may be read with the four ,gospels and the book of ,revelation4 ,in ,samuel1 ,kings and ,chronicles1 you have the story of ,david1 the anointed king1 man of sorrows and acquainted with grief1 triumphant warrior1 exalted king--,solomon1 prince of peace1 ruling over the established kingdom and the queen of ,sheba coming from the uttermost parts of the earth to own and celebrate his glory4 ,in the ,gospels we get the story of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ as anointed king and man of sorrows4 ,in ,revelation he is seen coming forth at the head of the armies of heaven1 a mighty warrior1 a triumphant king and1 at the last1 as ,prince of ,peace ruling in splendor over his established kingdom2 while the ,gentiles1 coming from the uttermost parts of the earth to ,jerusalem1 bow the knee before him and acknowledge his glory4 ,ezra may be read with the latter half of the second chapter of the ,ephesians4 ,in ,ezra you have the building of the material temple4 ,in ,ephesus the building of the spiritual temple4 ,nehemiah can be read with the twenty-first chapter of the ,revelation4 ,nehemiah gives us ,jerusalem below4 ,revelation1 ,jerusalem above4 ,in the book of ,esther the name of ,god is not once mentioned2 but it shows us the unseen ,god acting in his secret providence to deliver his covenant people1 the ,jews1 from the hand of the ,gentile oppressor1 and setting them in the place of authority and power over the ,gentiles4 ,the eleventh chapter of the ,romans explains the book of ,esther4 ,in the eleventh chapter ,paul shows that ,god has not forgotten the people whom he foreknew4 ,the nation as such has been set aside4 ,it is now1 as ,hosea says1 ,lo ,ammi1 not my people1 not the people of ,god4 ,an election according to grace is going on among the ,jews4 ,these are being called into the ,church and will form a part of the ,body and ,bride4 ,the ,gentiles have come dispensationally into the place of ,israel1 and ,god is sending his ,gospel among them--calling out those whom he has foreseen and known among the ,gentiles4 ,the nation as such would seem to be cast aside4 ,the people are walking in darkness and the name of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 their true ,god and only ,saviour1 is not owned among them2 but while the ,lord is thus denied by them1 he has not forgotten them4 ,his providences are round about them in their preservation and multiplication1 and in his judgment of the nations which persecute them4 ,their present condition nationally is temporary4 ,paul warns the ,gentiles that the ,jews have been cut off and set aside because of unbelief4 ,the ,gentiles have been brought in1 and stand alone by faith4 ,it is well for them not to be high-minded1 but to fear2 for so surely as ,god spared not the nation and set it aside because of unbelief1 just so surely will he deal with the ,gentiles if the ,gentiles fall into unbelief4 ,the ,gentiles must not be wise in their own conceits4 ,the blindness and the setting aside of ,israel will last only till the fulness of the ,gentiles be come in1 that is1 till the election among them is complete2 then the ,lord will take up ,israel as a nation again1 and precisely as he delivered ,mordecai and the ,jews of ,esther's and ,ahasuerus' time and made them to be accepted and feared1 so1 it is written1 the ,lord himself will come forth in behalf of his ancient people4 ,there shall come out of 7unto7 ,sion the ,deliverer1 and1 so all ,israel shall be saved4 ,the book of ,esther read in the light of the eleventh chapter of the ,romans is illuminating as to the unchanging faithfulness of ,god and his unceasing love for the nation and people of his choice4 ,thus book after book of the ,bible may be studied2 and the more they are examined and studied1 the more manifest will be the intimate relation and marvellous correspondence between the ,old and the ,new ,testaments4 ,when you realize the fact that these ,old and ,new ,testament books1 so remarkably related and inter-explanatory of each other1 have been written by different authors1 without possibility of collusion or agreed plan2 that each part fits into the other2 that it cannot have one book less or one book more2 that to take from it would destroy the completeness1 to add would mar the harmony2 that it is perfect in itself1 having the key of each book hung up at the entrance2 that it gives but never borrows light2 that it cannot be explained or interpreted outside of itself2 that to him who diligently searches it1 it will reveal itself and make him wise both for this world and for that which is to come2 when all these facts are faced1 it ought to be evident that in the ,bible we have a living thing and not a mere handiwork wrought by man2 that man can no more claim to be the actual author of it than of the mountains that are round about ,jerusalem or the heavens that are high above them4 ,the unity of a book demands unity of objective4 ,this book has a great objective--a supreme theme4 ,that theme is not ,israel--although two-thirds of the book considered as a whole are taken up with the history of that people4 ,the great theme is not the ,church of ,christ--although the ,church in this age is the supreme thing in the sight of ,god4 ,the one great theme1 the one immense objective of this book towards which it moves through history and prophecy1 through figure and symbol1 through self -sustained prose and musical song--the one great objective is-- ,,our ,,lord ,,jesus ,,christ4 ,it seeks to present him in his person1 his work1 his present office and coming glories4 ,it sets him before us as1 ,the ,child born4 ,the ,son given4 ,the ,counsellor4 ,the ,mighty ,god4 ,the ,prince of ,peace4 ,the ,everlasting ,father4 ,the ,lily of the valleys4 ,the ,rose of ,sharon4 ,the ,branch4 ,the ,lord our ,righteousness4 ,the ,lord's ,fellow4 ,the ,man of ,god's ,right hand4 ,he whose ,goings forth have been from of old1 from everlasting4 ,the ,burnt ,offering4 ,the ,meat ,offering4 ,the ,peace ,offering4 ,the ,sin ,offering4 ,the ,trespass ,offering4 ,the ,sum of ,god's ,thoughts4 ,the ,man of ,sorrows and acquainted with grief4 ,son of ,abraham4 ,son of ,david4 ,son of ,mary4 ,son of ,man4 ,god the ,son4 ,king of the ,jews4 ,king of ,israel4 ,king of ,kings4 ,lord of ,lords4 ,god the ,creator4 ,god manifest in the flesh4 ,the ,second ,man4 ,the ,last ,adam4 ,the ,first and the ,last4 ,the ,beginning and the ,ending4 ,the ,way1 the ,truth1 the ,life4 ,the ,light of the world4 ,the ,bread of life4 ,the ,good ,shepherd1 who lays down his life for the sheep4 ,the ,great ,shepherd who came again from the dead4 ,the ,chief ,shepherd1 who shall appear with his flock in glory4 ,the ,sin-bearer4 ,the ,rock4 ,our ,great ,god and ,saviour ,jesus ,christ4 ,he who is4 ,he who was4 ,he who is to come4 ,he who before ,abraham was1 is1 by his own announcement1 the ,i am4 ,the ,almighty4 ,,this ,,same ,,jesus4 ,and to these might be added more than five hundred other names and titles1 together with their cognates1 to say nothing of the various characteristics assigned him1 the things predicated of him1 until it is found that he is the very warp and woof of the book4 ,to proclaim him1 exalt him1 make him known1 set him forth in his many roles1 his functions1 his offices and his covenant glories1 prophets recite their visions1 a ,psalmist sings his rarest songs1 and apostles unfold their matchless doctrines4 ,when you contemplate the fact of this one objective2 this tremendous unity of intention in the book1 you have an overwhelming demonstration of the unity of its inspiration4 ,whether the inspiration be a true or a false one1 it is beyond all question one inspiration4 ,a book whose construction extends over centuries1 written by men separated by time and distance from each other1 with no possibility of personal or mental relation to each other--all writing to one objective--and that to set forth the ,christ of ,god in his varied relations--a book with such a unity of purpose demonstrates in the most self-evident fashion that the writers were moved by a common impulse and1 therefore1 a common inspiration4 ,and this unity of objective and inspiration coordinates with the wonderful fact that the book has but ,,one ,,key4 ,the key which can alone open this book and make every line intelligible from ,genesis to ,revelation is ,our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,take ,christ out of the ,bible and it is a harp without a player1 a song without a singer1 a palace with all the doors locked1 a labyrinth with no ,ariadne thread to guide4 ,put ,christ into the ,bible1 and the harp strings will be smitten as with a master's hand4 ,put ,christ into the ,bible1 and the voice of song is heard as when a lark from the midst of dew-wet grasses sings1 as it soars aloft to greet the coming dawn4 ,put ,christ into the ,bible1 and all the doors of the palace are swung open and you may pass from room to room1 down all the ivory galleries of the ,king1 beholding portrait and landscape1 vista of beauty and heaped-up treasures of truth1 of infinite love and royal grace4 ,put ,christ into the ,bible1 and you will have a scarlet thread--the crimson of the blood--that will lead you through all the winding ways of redemption and glory4 ,put ,christ into ,genesis1 into the verses of the first chapter1 and it will chime like silver bells in harmony with the wondrous notes in the first chapter of the ,gospel of ,john1 and tell you that he who created the heavens and the earth is he who in the beginning was the eternal ,word1 the voice of the infinite silence1 and who1 creating for himself a human nature1 and clad in mortal flesh1 walked on earth among the sons of men as ,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,put ,christ into the twenty-second1 the twenty-third and the twenty -fourth chapters of ,genesis1 and you will have placed before you in perfect type the birth of ,christ1 the sacrifice1 the resurrection on the morning of the third day1 the setting aside of the ,jewish nation as the first wife1 the coming of the ,holy ,spirit in the name of the ,father and the ,son to find a ,bride for the ,son1 the calling out of the church1 the endowment of the church with the gifts sent from the ,father in the name of the ,son1 the pilgrimage of the church under the guidance of the ,holy ,spirit1 the ,second ,coming of ,christ1 the ,rapture and meeting of ,christ and the church in the field of the air1 and the marriage of the ,son4 ,put ,christ into the dryest and dullest page of the book of ,kings and ,chronicles1 and it will bloom with light and glory2 and if you watch in faith1 you will see the ,king's chariot go by1 and catch a vision of the ,king himself in his beauty4 ,put ,christ into the ,tabernacle1 and it will cast its treasures like a king's largess at your feet4 ,you will see the brazen altar to be the cross1 the brazen laver1 the bath of regeneration1 even the ,word of ,god4 ,in the ,holy ,place the table of shew bread will speak of him who once said1 ,i am the bread of life4 ,the golden candlestick will remind you that he said3 ,i am the light of the world4 ,the golden altar and the priest with his swinging censer of burning incense standing thereat will proclaim him as the great high priest4 ,the beautiful veil of fine linen embroidered with figures of the cherubim in blue1 purple and scarlet color is 7according to a direct ,scripture7 the symbol of his flesh1 his mortal humanity while on earth4 ,every board and bar1 every cord and pin1 the coverings1 the curtains1 the blue1 the purple and the scarlet color1 the golden vessels as well as the furniture1 each and all1 proclaim him1 illustrate and illuminate him in his person1 his work1 his present office and coming glories4 ,all these are analogies1 types1 pictures1 are so related to ,christ that he alone explains them2 the explanation is filled with such perfection of harmony in every detail1 the relation between them and our ,lord ,jesus ,christ as the ,antitype is so strikingly self-evident1 that any discussion of it would be useless4 ,when you find a key and lock which fit each other1 you conclude they were intended for each other4 ,in the light of facts already cited1 what other conclusion can be drawn than that ,christ and the ,bible were intended for each other8 ,and when you see this ,bible coming together part by part1 foretelling the ,christ and explained alone by him1 what sane conclusion is possible other than the book which is opened and explained by him who is not only the ,christ but the ,personal ,word of ,god1 must be1 and is1 ,,the ,,written ,,word ,,of ,,god6 ,let your mind dwell for a moment on the style of the book4 ,it is so simple that a child may understand it2 so profound1 that the mightiest intellect cannot go beyond its depths4 ,it is so essentially rich that it turns every language into which it is translated into a classic4 ,at one moment it is plain narration2 at another1 it is all drama and tragedy1 in which cataclysmic climax crashes against climax4 ,it records the birth of a babe1 the flight of an angel1 the death of a king1 the overthrow of an empire or the fall of a sparrow4 ,it notes the hyssop that groweth out of the wall and speaks of the cedars of ,lebanon4 ,it shows us so pastoral a thing as a man sitting at his tent door in the cool of the day1 and then paints for us a city in heaven with jasper walls1 with golden streets1 and where each several gate that leadeth into the city is one vast and shining pearl4 ,it is full of outlines--outlines as large and bare as mountain peaks1 and then it is crowded with details as minute as the sands of the sea4 ,there are times when clouds and darkness float across its pages and we hear from within like unto the voice of him who inhabiteth eternity2 in another moment the lines blaze with light1 the revelation they give is high noon--and all the shadows are under the feet4 ,it is terrible in its analysis and cold and emotionless in the hard impact of its synthesis4 ,it describes moments of passion in passionless words1 and states infinite conclusions without the hint of an emphasis4 ,it shows us a man in hell 7hades7 and1 although it describes sufferings more awful than mortal flesh can know1 causing the soul to shudder at the simple reading of it1 it takes on no quickened pulse1 no feverish rush of added speech4 ,in a few colorless lines it recounts the creation of the heavens and the earth4 ,in language utterly barren of excitement it describes the most exciting and soul-moving event that can occupy the imagination --that moment when the heavens shall be on fire1 the elements melted with fervent heat1 the earth and the works therein burned up1 and a new heaven and a new earth brought into view4 ,it is a book of prose and yet a book of sublimest poetry4 ,the book of ,job is a poem by the side of which the hexameters of ,horace1 the drama of ,shakespeare1 the imagination of ,milton1 are not to be compared4 ,in all literature the book of ,job alone introduces a spirit into the scene and reports its speech without utterly breaking down into the disaster of the commonplace4 ,listen to the account which ,eliphaz the ,temanite gives4 ,he says3 ,in thoughts from the visions of the night1 when deep sleep falleth on men1 ,fear came upon me1 and trembling which made all my bones to shake4 ,then a spirit passed before my face2 the hair of my flesh stood up2 ,it stood still1 but ,i could not discern the form thereof2 an image was before mine eyes2 there was silence1 and ,i heard a voice1 saying1 ,shall mortal man be more just than ,god8 ,shall man be more pure than his ,maker8 ,here is the threshold of the unseen4 ,before he sees or hears anything1 the ,temanite has the sense of fear--the fear of something more than human4 ,the unknown weighs upon him and presses him down1 all the life and energy in him are at low ebb--he feels as though the tides of life were running out4 ,a spirit passes before his face4 ,it is like a breath of scarcely moving air out of the night4 ,the hair of his flesh 7mark the psychological and physiological fact71 the hair of his flesh stood up4 ,it was as if a current of electricity had passed through him4 ,then the spirit stands still4 ,it is as though this breath of air out of the night were no longer moving4 ,he cannot discern any form4 ,there is nothing fixed or stable enough for him to perceive4 ,an image is before his eyes4 ,he makes no vulgar attempt to describe it--it is indescribable4 ,there is a great silence2 then1 as the margin has it1 he heard a still small voice-- not a loud and jarring voice--but a voice low1 soft1 still2 and yet6 the utterance of that voice6 what immensity of self-conscious power what authority and dignity--the dignity of infinite integrity3 ,shall mortal man be more just than ,god8 ,shall man be more pure than his ,maker8 ,how the night is full of a sudden law of proportion4 ,mortal man and eternal ,god4 ,you feel the distance widening and widening between them there in the stillness of the night4 ,the justice of man6 man6 the unjust--the law breaker2 man1 who is of yesterday and is gone to-morrow--mortal man1 more just than he of whom it is said1 ,justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne4 ,fallen man1 man full of iniquity1 shall he be more pure than he who made him2 he who breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and made him a living soul2 he whose name is holiness and righteousness and very truth8 ,as the question lingers man shrivels and sinks into the dust1 and the whole night is filled with stillness--with the stillness and immensity of the all-pervading and holy ,god4 ,read the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters4 ,they record the highest reaches of human language1 so great that our own version cannot dim their splendor4 ,nothing ever written surpasses them1 not only in the felicity of expression1 but in the sense of deity pervading them4 ,each succeeding verse sustains the other and1 at the last1 you feel that ,god1 very ,god1 indeed1 has spoken4 ,the ,almighty answers the complaining ,job4 ,he answers him1 not out of the midst of a deep1 unbroken calm1 but out of the whirlwind2 and yet1 from the centre of that mighty vortex of unlimited force and energy and power1 the voice comes forth with the calmness of one who knows himself superior to the whirlwind and the storm4 ,who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge8 ,this is the abrupt and sudden question4 ,it is the fitting question of him who knoweth the end from the beginning4 ,in the very asking of it all the boasted knowledge1 the attainment1 the self-consciousness and vanity of man fade away1 and man himself is as nothing--,god alone remains upon the vision--all knowing--all wise--supreme4 ,this ,bible is a book of history4 ,it will spend page after page in describing the doings of a rebellious king1 and then compress the story of twenty-five hundred years into a few dozen lines1 but will do this in such a way1 by means of exact symbols1 that the twenty-five centuries thus compressed will reveal a clearer outline and fuller vista than thousands of ordinary volumes could set forth in detail4 ,mark the providence that has guarded the book4 ,kings and potentates have sought to destroy it4 ,it has been thrown into the flames4 ,volume after volume has been burned4 ,but always1 and at the critical moment1 some copy has been preserved--here in the cottage of a devoted peasant at the risk of his life1 hidden in the crevice of a rock from the inquisitor's search1 or cast aside by a careless hand and forgotten amid a pile of swept up dust in a neglected corner of some impregnable castle2 from whence it has come forth to be copied by slow and painful1 yet loving1 toil1 passed from house to house secretly as a priceless treasure1 then printed on concealed presses and at last cast forth as living and fruitful seed4 ,men have denounced it and demonstrated that it is false both in history and science2 then1 unexpectedly1 the stroke of a pick or the turn of a shovel uncovers some startling witness of its exact truth and the excuseless folly of those who deny it4 ,the fourteenth chapter of ,genesis has been set aside by the critics as historically worthless4 ,the excavations in ,babylon have brought to light a tablet with the name of ,arioch1 the fourth king mentioned in that chapter1 stamped upon it4 ,the statement in ,exodus that ,pharaoh forced the ,children of ,israel while building his treasure cities to make bricks without straw1 has been treated as a fable4 ,the treasure chambers themselves have been found1 the rooms divided by brick partitions eight to ten feet thick--and great quantities of these bricks made without straw4 ,luke says that ,sergius ,paulus was pro-consul of ,cyprus4 ,the critics denied it and proved thereby the fallibility of the ,new ,testament4 ,the homely but truth-telling spade1 and without consulting the critic1 dug up some coins in the island of ,cyprus itself1 and on the coins were stamped both the image and the name of ,sergius ,paulus4 ,luke declares that ,lysannius was tetrarch of ,abilene2 and again the critics denied it and more than ever discounted ,luke as an historian4 ,renan1 the plausible and analytical infidel1 read the record carved on the stones of ,baalbeck1 and announced1 openly1 that ,luke is correct4 ,from the ruins of ,nineveh and ,babylon1 ,tyre and ,sidon2 from the trenches of ,tel el ,armana2 by the key words of the ,rosetta stone and the black but speaking face of the ,moabite stone2 from newly discovered papyri and parchment1 and the mystic page of cracked and crumpled palimpsest2 from the rocks of earth1 the depths of the sea and the heights of heaven--and from the latest discoveries of science1 there arise amazing witnesses1 which speak in tones that cannot be hushed1 with facts that cannot be denied1 and bear testimony beyond all possibility of dispute to the truth and accuracy of the book2 so much so1 indeed1 that such an one as ,sir ,john ,herschell1 the great astronomer1 has said3 ,all human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths contained in the ,sacred ,scriptures4 ,consider the vitality of the book4 ,in less than ten years a text-book is out of date1 a cyclopedia worthless1 and a library a cemetery of dead books and dead ideas2 but this book keeps living right on--keeps abreast of the times1 has a testimony for every day1 and every day borrows its youth afresh as from the womb of the morning4 ,science has laughed it out of court4 ,two hundred and fifty years ago ,voltaire said3 ,fifty years from now the world will hear no more of the ,bible4 ,self-elected scholarship has pronounced it out of date and dead4 ,again and again its funeral services are held4 ,kind and condescending eulogiums are uttered over its past history and its good intent4 ,with considerate hands it is lowered into its grave4 ,the resquiescat in pace is solemnly pronounced and lo6 before the critical mourners have returned to their homes it has risen from the dead1 passed with surprising speed the funeral coaches1 and is found--as of yore--in the busy centres of life1 thundering against evil1 revealing the secrets of the heart1 offering consolation to the sorrowing1 hope to the dying1 and flashing forth from its quivering1 vital pages the wonders of coming glory4 ,while copies of the classics--,virgil1 ,zenophon1 ,caesar1 ,sophocles1 ,pindar and ,martial--are to be counted by a few thousands1 and are cast aside by students as soon as they have graduated1 and are forgotten in a twelvemonth1 this ,bible goes on printing every year millions of copies in all languages and dialects of earth2 so far from casting it aside1 when once read1 men take it up and read it again and again1 study it through life1 dig into it as for hid treasure1 and make it the pillow on which to lay their dying head4 ,with each succeeding year the demand for it increases and voices are continually crying--give us ,the ,book4 ,it is the supreme book4 ,it is the book we need when the fire of sin gleams in our eye and its poison burns in our veins4 ,it is the book we need when the heart is sore1 when our soul is troubled1 and when peace is no longer a guest in our home4 ,it is the book we need2 for from its pages alone do we behold the light which shines from a ,saviour's empty grave2 from its pages alone do we receive assurance of the resurrection of the dead1 of immortality and the life to come2 and from its pages alone do we hear the tender and welcoming words which seek to greet us and to comfort us while we struggle here ofttimes beneath the burden's growing weight1 those words of heavenly music3 ,come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and ,i will give you rest4 ,what author on earth would think his book dead and out of date if year after year the publication of it taxed the printing presses of the world8 ,what author would deem his book out of date when the voices of everywhere proclaimed it the book of books1 and multitudes unnumbered confessed that from its pages alone they found the way of life and peace8 ,such a book is neither out of date nor dead2 and its throbbing vitality tells of a life impulse and inspiration that are not of man4 ,and1 finally1 ,this book inspires men for ,god4 ,every year books on morality and essays on conduct are written and published4 ,they get as far as a first edition and are never heard of again2 but this book1 which binds all its parts about the person1 the work1 the office and the glories of ,christ1 changes the life1 the character1 the time and the eternity of men4 ,place this book in the midst of the vilest and most abandoned community of desperate and devilish men and1 sooner or later1 you will hear a cry coming from the depths of sin and shame1 bitter cries of repentance and yearnings after ,god2 and by and by that community will be transformed1 men will no longer be demon filled1 but possessed with a spirit of truth and love2 and ,god will be found to reign and rule in the midst4 ,whatever there is of sweetness and truth and righteousness in the world to-day2 whatever there is that gives hope and comfort on earth and holds men back from very madness and despair1 is due directly and indirectly to this book4 ,take up a map and find the lands where sin and vice skulk in the darkness2 where virtue is honored and purity enthroned2 go mark on the map the lands where the men are the most manly and the women the most womanly1 and you will find it in those lands where the ,bible is exalted1 not as the word of man1 but1 in deed and truth1 as the ,word of ,god4 ,find the men and women who know most of ,god1 who have the deepest consciousness of him in the soul1 and who walk every day with the assurance of his real presence--to whom the unseen becomes from hour to hour the thing that is alone real--and who live as kings above their prostrate passions--and they will be those who make this book the supreme authority in their daily lives2 who hear it when it speaks to them as the very voice of ,god4 ,a book which thus inspires men for ,god is1 indeed1 a book which1 by every law of logic1 must have been inspired by ,god4 ,from the evidence cited two things are apparent3 #a4 ,the ,bible is not such a book as a man would write if he could4 #b4 ,the ,bible is not such a book as a man could write if he would4 ,by these conclusions1 therefore1 the ,bible is shown to be not of man4 ,as the book is thus shown to be not of man--either by inclination or ability2 and as from the beginning to the end its object is to glorify the unseen ,god in the revelation of his incarnate ,son1 then this book is of ,god2 and being the utterance of his mind and will1 is his ,word2 so that the statement of the apostle concerning it is justified4 ,it is to be received as he says3 ,not as the word of man1 but as it is in truth1 ,,the ,,word ,,of ,,god4 ,to him who so approaches it--who puts his shoes from off his feet as on holy ground1 and with the silence of expectant faith listens and looks1 it will disclose itself1 speak to him1 and so lay hold of the inner recesses of the heart that he shall know he has been face to face with ,god1 has had glimpses of the delectable mountains and the city foursquare that lies beyond2 from henceforth he shall walk1 not as one in a vain show or in the mixing of darkness and light1 but where the night shineth as the day2 where the road is no longer paved with the stumbling stones of doubt1 nor the signboards filled with a guess1 but where the way leadeth on and up--shining more and more bright unto the perfect day4 ,take up this book1 ,o friend4 ,do not read it with a hurried glance4 ,let thine eyes rest a while upon some single word1 and if thou art patient1 it will bud and blossom and bloom and grow unto thee as a tree of life2 and the leaves shall be as medicine for the healing of thy hurt4 ,take it into thy mouth and learn a lesson from the meadow kine who chew the tender grasses1 and turn them over1 and chew them again1 till they have extracted sweetness and life therefrom4 ,chew the words of this book over and over again 7it is impossible to do so with any other book71 meditate upon the words 7to meditate1 to reflect1 are highest functions71 mediate upon their meaning--upon their direct and cognate meanings2 let the thoughts they suggest find full and free reaction in thy soul1 and from some simple word or phrase thou shalt draw the sweetness of divine love1 and more and more the consciousness that thou hast received into thine innermost being very spirit and very life4 ,read it on bended knee4 ,take up the words and breathe on them with the warm breath of sincere desire to know their intent1 and music will come forth as from the fabled horn of old--music that shall have in it all the hallelujahs and hosannas of the heavenly host4 ,if you will take this book to your heart1 you will find it bread such as kings' ovens never baked1 water more crystal than that which bursts from mountain springs1 wine the like of which was never pressed from purple grapes1 meat which cattle on a thousand hills never furnished1 and fruit no man ever gathered in royal gardens-- the fruit of the ,spirit4 ,you will find it a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path1 a hammer for breaking the flinty rocks by the way1 a fire that will burn out the stain of sin1 and warm benumbed fingers for quickened service in ,his ,name4 ,give it the first place in your life4 ,you will want to hear from it as the last thing when you go hence4 ,the words of loved ones will be sweet in your ear as you leave these mortal shores 7if our ,lord ,jesus ,christ should not hasten his coming1 you must go71 but you will want to hear its utterance above all the tones1 even of those you love1 speaking the final word of hope and cheer to you4 ,be very patient with it4 ,it has great things to say to you--and you will not always be fit to hear them4 ,you will not always--at the first--be able to understand them2 but if you do not understand to -day1 to-morrow1 or other morrows after that1 it will speak to you and you shall fully know4 ,perhaps it will wait till the unshed tears are in your heart1 and the moan the common ear has never heard--then it will speak--and the words will fall into the sore place of the soul1 as though angel lips had touched it2 it will wait1 perhaps1 till the storm is high1 and your frail craft 7life's poor1 frail craft7 is tossed as though it would go down in the whelming waters 7and the shore so far away71 and then it will speak and say1 ,peace --be still1 and in that driven life of yours shall be a great and holy calm4 ,do not attempt to cross-question it as though you hesitated to believe all it said4 ,to accept some parts and reject others will be fatal to you4 ,god does not reveal himself to those who doubt him4 ,he that cometh to ,god must believe that he is1 and that he is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him4 ,so must you approach this book--with reverence and submissive faith2 for this book1 ,o friend6 is not the word of man1 but in very truth--,,the ,,word ,,of ,,god4