One thing that struck me very forcibly when young was the wonderfully elevating power of the Word of God. Far-off islands of the southern seas, the scene of unspeakable horrors—cannibalism, tribal wars, and the like—have come under the influence of the Bible, and have been made perfectly safe places to dwell in. Cannibalism has ceased, the horrors of stark heathendom have been exchanged for prosperity, security and peace.
As I walked the streets of Suva, the capital of the Fiji Islands, I reflected that a short century before heathen horrors had reigned. I saw the islanders, formerly cruel cannibals, well disposed, happy and prosperous. Life and property were safe. There is no denying that this was due to the influence of the Bible in the hands of self-denying missionaries. The case of Fiji could be duplicated in hundreds, nay thousands of places. The missionary with the Word of God has ever been a civilizing agent wherever he has been successful. If he seeks only to be a civilizing agent then he is a failure from the Divine standpoint, and his civilization rests on a rotten foundation. " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
It may, however, be asked as to the state of the world today. Europe, where Christianity has had its greatest triumphs, the scene of the great and glorious Reformation, is literally an armed camp. Millions of men are in arms. Its leaders are guilty of the most wanton aggression. Money is being poured out like water in the manufacture of weapons to destroy human life on a vast scale. Nations are being bled white to gratify the blood lust of totalitarian rulers. Civilization totters to its collapse.
You may turn round and ask, How does this agree with the example you give of the Fiji Islands? I answer it only emphasizes what I have just said. For what is the root cause of the trouble in Europe these many years, especially at this present time? The trouble is caused by the refusing of the influence of the Bible in the life of the nations, where it once had some measure of sway. If these totalitarian rulers were to be obedient to the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, would they act as they are doing? Would they murder, have blood baths and wage wars of ruthless aggression, employ-ing millions of men in the task of wholesale slaughter, if they had paid attention to " Thou shalt not kill "? Would they treat their plighted word as made only to be violated, when it suited the furtherance of their evil ends, to treat it as a mere " scrap of paper " with no binding force, if they had paid attention to "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor"? Would they pounce upon little defenseless nations, enslave them, and strip them of their possessions, had they paid attention to " Thou shalt not covet they neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet they neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's"? Would they act in the cruel and diabolical way they do towards the Jews, and the Christians, who refuse to be stampeded into heathendom, if they had paid heed to the Sermon on the Mount, " Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you "?
Anyone can see with half an eye that the cause of the trouble is not the Bible, but the refusal of its influence, and the setting at defiance every law of God. Man becomes immeasurably worse than the brute when he ceases to be held in check by the Bible.
Words carry a peculiar weight when an opponent of Christianity pays tribute to the Bible. The late Professor Thomas W. Huxley, a declared agnostic, said: -" I have always been strongly in favor of secular education without theology, but I must confess that I have been no less seriously perplexed to know by what practical measures the religious feeling, which is the essential basis of moral conduct, is to be kept up in the utterly chaotic state of opinion on these matters without the use of the Bible."
What a tribute to THE Book of books! Of all the books in the world, in his judgment the moral effect of the Bible is stronger than any other book in the world, though personally he refused to bow to its claims. When an enemy of Christianity can write like this, it constitutes a more powerful testimony to the Bible than could be rendered by even the very best of its friends.
Heathen devotees will tell us that in their religion there may be the most exalted ethics, but that it furnishes no power to carry out these precepts. On the other hand, the Chinese convert wrote to the missionary, " I am diligently reading the Bible and BEHAVING it." In that attitude lies the true peace and happiness of the world.