“A discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
THE Word of God comes to man, and asserts its own authority over his conscience and his heart in a way that no books or writings of men can do, and man himself is an unwilling witness to this fact—that the authority of the Scriptures is divine.
And why? Because they break in, like a sudden light, upon his darkness; and thus (as the quality of light is "to make manifest,” and man "loves darkness rather than light,") the Word of God comes upon him like an unwelcome detective.
Without the Word of God man would be a problem to himself, which all his boasted powers of reason could never fathom nor explain. He would neither know his origin nor his future. He could neither know himself nor God. “Man by wisdom knows not God; " and this was man's own testimony of himself in that brief but comprehensive confession, inscribed upon his altar, in the highest seat of wisdom and learning more than eighteen centuries ago, " To the unknown God.”
But the Scriptures assert their own rightful authority over man's conscience. Hence the Bible is the only book against which he persistently continues his vain and fruitless attacks. The writings of men may provoke controversy from opponents, but it is momentary, like the passing cloud, soon dispersed and forgotten.
Not so the Bible; its claims, its power, and its authority over the conscience of man are in no way enfeebled by time. It has survived, does survive, and will yet survive, through Him whose voice it is, all the assailing enmity of man. " The word of the Lord endureth forever;" when its proud opponent has passed out of the sphere, where his insults against its divine Author have been expressed; when, too, he has entered upon that eternity of despair where he must own his folly. Solemn, unspeakably solemn, and sad will be the remembrance then of what that Word declared in former days that "God is light," that "God is love," and of that Gospel of grace and mercy he despised.
T. H. W.