We desire to offer to all who may read these pages a few earnest words on a subject which we deem to be of commanding interest and importance at the present moment; it is this—The divine sufficiency and supreme authority of holy Scripture, and the urgent need of submitting ourselves absolutely to its guidance in all things.
And in thus stating our thesis we would not have our readers to suppose for a moment that we undervalue human writings in their proper place. We know that God does use, and that very largely, human writings. We receive them as refreshing streams from the fountain head, which often reach the beloved sheep of Christ in barren places where they have no ministry at all. And further, we would add, that we have rarely met anyone who affected to despise human writings on the plea of reading nothing but the Bible, that was not shallow, contracted, and one-sided.
We might just as well say that we would not listen to a brother speaking to us in the assembly, as refuse what God had given him to write. The more we love the Bible, the more we shall value whatever agent the Spirit may use to help us to understand and appreciate its contents. How often has a book or tract been made a rich blessing to the soul, either in bringing one to Christ, or building up, or leading on in Him! How often may we have read some passage of Scripture and seen nothing in it, until the Lord had used some paragraph in a human writing to unfold its treasures to our hearts! We are, none of us, self-sufficient. We are dependent one on another. We grow by that which every joint supplieth. We need all the "helps" which God has set in the body for our common profit and blessing.
And having said thus much to guard against misunderstanding, and to put human writings in their proper place, we return to our special object in this brief paper.
There is but one supreme and paramount authority, and that is the Word of God. Scripture is all-sufficient. We want absolutely nothing in the way of guidance and authority beyond what we possess in the holy Scriptures—that peerless, precious volume which our God has written for our learning.
No doubt it is only by the Holy Spirit we can understand, appreciate, or be guided by Scripture; and, moreover, God may use a human voice or a human pen to help us; but Scripture is divinely sufficient. It can make a child wise unto salvation; and it can make a man perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (See 1 Tim. 3:15-17.)
Now, having such a guide, such an authority, what becomes us as Christians—as children of God and servants of Christ? Why, clearly to submit ourselves absolutely and unreservedly to its teachings in all things; we are bound, by every argument and every motive which can possibly sway the human heart, to test everything in which we are engaged, or with which we stand associated, by the Word of God; and if we find aught, no matter what, which will not stand that test, to abandon it at once and forever.
And it is precisely here that we feel there is such serious failure in the professing church. As a rule, we do not find the conscience under the immediate action and government of the Word. Human opinions bear sway. Human creeds and confessions of faith govern the heart and form the religious character. Human traditions and habits of thought are allowed a formative influence over the soul. And if it be merely a question of personal salvation, profit, or blessing, Scripture will be listened to. People are glad to hear how they can be saved and blessed. Everything that bears upon the individual condition will get a hearing.
But the moment it becomes a question of Christ's precious authority over us, in spirit, soul, and body—when the Word of God is brought to bear upon our entire practical career, upon our personal habits, our domestic arrangements, our commercial pursuits, our religious associations, our ecclesiastical position—then, alas! it becomes apparent how completely the authority of holy Scripture is virtually thrown overboard.
In point of fact, the enemy seems to succeed as completely in robbing professing Christians of the real value, power, and authority of the Word of God, as when, during that long and dreary period of the middle ages, it was wrapped in the shroud of a dead language, and buried in the dark cloisters of Rome.
It is perfectly appalling, when we come in contact with the actual condition of things among professing Christians, to observe the ignorance of Scripture and the carelessness about it. Nor can any thoughtful person doubt but that the latter is the producing cause of the former. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." But if the Word of God be neglected and practically ignored as an authority, need we marvel when we find people ignorant of its precious contents?
We have been much struck of late in our intercourse with professing Christians, in noticing the little moral weight which Scripture seems to possess. You will rarely meet with anyone who is prepared to start with this one grand point, that the voice of the Holy Spirit in Scripture is absolutely conclusive—it admits of no appeal—it closes all discussion. We speak not now of man's interpretation of Scripture—of anything in which it can be said, "That is your opinion." We speak only of the written Word of God, which we possess and to which we are individually responsible to submit ourselves, in all things. God has put His precious Word into our hands and He has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us to understand the Word; and we are solemnly bound to be guided and governed by that Word in all the details of our practical career.