My beloved friend,
The more deeply I ponder the intensely interesting history of Josiah, king of Judah, the more convinced I am that it has a special voice, and a special lesson for the church of God, in this our day. I refer particularly to the beautiful way in which he bowed to the authority of the word of God. I am well assured that Josiah would have had not one atom of sympathy with the spirit and principles so rife at the present moment, or with the teachings of those whose whole aim and object seem to be to rob us of that inestimable treasure which we possess in the holy scriptures. He felt and owned the power of the word of God, its power upon his heart and conscience, its power over his entire course and conduct. He did not, on the one hand, question whether or not God had spoken; nor yet, on the other, whether or not God could make him understand what He said.
Now, these, as you well know, dearest A., are the two great questions of the day. Infidelity, with bold and impious front, stands before us, and raises the question, " Has God spoken?—Has He given us a revelation of His mind?" Superstition; with an air of piety,—but it is the piety of profound ignorance,—admits that God has spoken, but raises the question, " Can we understand what He says? Can we know it to be the word of God, without human authority?"
These questions, though apparently differing so widely in tone, spirit, and character, meet in one point; indeed they are essentially one in their effect as to the word of God, inasmuch as they both alike completely rob the soul of its power and authority.
The infidel denies altogether a divine revelation. He presumes to tell us that God could not give us a full and perfect revelation of His mind such as we have in the holy scriptures. Infidels, it seems, can tell us—and certainly they do tell us very plainly what is in their minds; but God cannot tell us what is in His. We have no such thing as a book-revelation of the mind of God. We have plenty of book-revelations of the mind of infidels; but God cannot give us anything of the kind.
Such is the monstrous, bare-faced, audacious ground taken by the infidel, the skeptic, and the rationalist. Excuse my strong language, dearest A., but I find it impossible to speak in measured terms of what I must call the impudence of infidelity which presumes to tell us that our God cannot speak to us—cannot communicate to us what is in His heart—cannot do what any mere earthly father can do with his children, or any earthly master with his servants—cannot express His will.
And why not? we may lawfully ask. Because infidels tell us so. And we are to believe what infidels tell us, though we cannot believe what God says. We are to trust the Lucians, the Paynes, the Voltaires, and the thousands of others of the same miserable school; but we must not, cannot, trust God. And what warrant have we for putting our trust in them? What security do they offer for the truth of their statements? What do we gain by rejecting the word of God, and accepting the speculations of infidelity? Have we a more solid ground to rest upon Ah! my friend, the one grand object of infidelity in all its phases, in all its stages, in all its varied shades of thought and argument, is to shut out from the human soul the blessed light of divine revelation. And I think you will agree with your correspondent in saying that, when once that light is shut out, there is no consistent standing ground short of the pantheism which declares that everything is God, or the atheism which declares there is no God at all.
I confess, my beloved friend, I am deeply impressed with the awful solemnity of all this. People are not aware of what is involved in the very first and faintest shade of skepticism. They do not see that to admit into their hearts a doubt as to the divine authenticity of the Bible, is to get upon the edge of an inclined plane which leads directly down to the blackness and darkness of utter atheism. The only real knowledge we can have of God is contained in the scriptures; and hence, if we are deprived of thorn, we are deprived of God.
The infidel may tell us that God is to be known in creation. Did anyone ever find Him out there? No doubt, creation does prove the existence of a Creator, as we read in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans, " The invisible things of him from the creation are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Creation yields a testimony which the heathen were bound to receive, and, had they received it, a higher light would assuredly have shone upon them. But they did not receive it, nay, they actually worshipped the things that were made, instead of the One who made them. Philosophers talk of rising from nature up to nature's God. But nature is a ruin, and man himself a ruin in the midst of ruin; and instead of rising to nature's God, he makes a god of nature, and degrades himself below the level of a beast. See Rom. 1:21-3221Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: 25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:21‑32).
The plain fact is, we cannot do without a divine revelation; and that revelation we possess in the holy scriptures. God has given us a hook,- all praise and thanks to Ms name!—which speaks to our hearts with divine power and (dearness. There is no mistaking it, it carries its own credentials with it. It judges us thoroughly, unlocks every chamber of the heart, discloses the deepest moral springs of our being, lays bare every motive, every thought, every feeling, every desire and imagination.. It is, as the inspired apostle tells us, " Quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. 4:1212For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
But not only has He given us a book; but He can make us understand what it says. And here, my beloved friend, you and I join issue—triumphantly and thankfully join issue with the ignorance of superstition. We confront the cool impudence of infidelity, with the calm and firm statement that our God has spoken. We meet the blind ignorance of superstition with the distinct and decided declaration that our God can make us understand what He says.
This, I believe, is the true way to meet both the one and the other of these evil agencies of the devil, in this our day, which, as I have said, do both alike rob the soul of the inestimable boon of holy scripture. It is well that our young people especially should be convinced of the fact that they are as thoroughly deprived of the word of God by superstition as by infidelity. If I must look to man to assure me that scripture is the word of God or to interpret its meaning to my heart, then I maintain that it is not the word of God at all, and my faith does not stand in the power of God, but in the wisdom of man. If God's word needs man's guarantee or interpretation, it ceases to be a divine revelation to my soul.
It is not, dearest A., that you or I would undervalue what are called external evidences in proof of the divine authenticity of the Bible; nor yet that we do not prize human ministry in the exposition of scripture. Nothing of the kind. I believe we very highly estimate both the one and the other. But then what I feel is important, just now, is that the word of God should be received in its own divine sufficiency, authority and supremacy. It needs no credentials from man. It is perfect in itself, because it is from God. It could not add a single jot or tittle to the power, value, and authority of holy scripture, to say that all the councils that were ever convened—all the doctors that ever taught—all the fathers that ever wrote—in a word, the voice of the universal church for the last eighteen centuries bore testimony to the authenticity of the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. And, on the other hand, it could not, in the smallest degree, touch the integrity of those peerless writings though all these authorities that I have named were to call in question their divine inspiration. If the scriptures be not received on their own authority, if they need human testimony to assure us of their divinity, or if they need human aid to enable us to understand them, then they are not the word of God. But, being the word of God, they are divinely perfect, not only for the salvation and guidance of the individual soul, but also for all the exigencies of the church of God during its entire history in this world.
This, my beloved and valued friend, is the solid ground on which we stand—all praise and thanks to our God for giving us such a ground! We firmly and reverently believe in the divine authority, the all-sufficiency, and the absolute supremacy of holy scripture. The speculations, the reasonings, the learned arguments and fine-drawn theories of all the infidels, skeptics, and rationalists that ever lived or are now living on this earth have no more weight with us than the pattering of rain upon the window. And why? Because we know we have a divine revelation. How do we know it? Ask a man at the back of a mountain how does he know the sun is shining? Tell him that many very learned men have found out by their learning that there is no sun at all; while others declare that though the sun does shine, he cannot enjoy its beams without their assistance. Can we not well imagine his reply? I believe he would say, " I know nothing and care nothing about learned men, but I know the sun shines, because I have felt the power of his beams."
Now, I am quite sure that learned infidels would sneer at such a mode of settling the question. But I am very much disposed to think it is about the best mode after all. I do not see that much is gained by arguing with infidels. It is all very well to help souls that are afflicted with honest doubts, or troubled by the suggestions of the infidel mind. But to attempt to argue with infidels about the divine inspiration of the Bible is about as hopeless a task as to discuss the differential calculus with an ignorant crossing-sweeper. The power of the word must be felt in the depths of the soul. Where this is the case, no argument is needed. Where it is not, no argument will avail. " Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" This was sound reasoning. Yes, and it is equally sound for you and me to say, " Come, read a book, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the word of God?"
Yes, my beloved friend, I do believe the internal evidences of the word of God are, at once, the most precious and powerful of any that can be produced. If it be true, as one of our own poets has told us, that " God is His own interpreter" in providence, it is none the less, but very much more true that He is His own interpreter in scripture. If God cannot make me understand what He says, no man can; if He does, no man need. When this solid ground is clearly seen and firmly occupied, we are, through grace, prepared to meet the insolence of infidelity, the ignorance of superstition, and the feebleness of many of our modern apologies for the written word of God. And, in addition to this, we are in a position to estimate at their proper value all the external evidences that can be produced in proof of the divinity of our precious Bible. Such evidences are of the deepest interest. Who, but the most thoughtless, can fail to be arrested by the very history of the book? Take that one fact of its having been, for over a thousand years, in the custody of a corrupt and apostate church that would, most willingly, have crushed it into annihilation. There lay the peerless volume, buried in the dark cloisters of Rome, chained, like a hated prisoner, in the gloomy vaults of her monasteries. Who watched over it there? Who preserved it? Who warded off the destructive hand? Who but the One whose Spirit penned its every line? Who can fail to see the hand of God in the preservation of the book, just as distinctly as we recognize His Spirit in its inspiration?
Assuredly, we can say, " It is not that we value external evidences less, but we value internal evidences more." A man might be intellectually convinced by the marvelous array of facts in the history of the Bible that it is, in very deed, the word of God, and yet never have felt its living, quickening, saving power in his own soul. Whereas the man who has felt this latter, while he prizes the former, is entirely independent of them.
But there is one other fact, dearest A., to which I must call your attention, ere I close this letter, and that is the marked honor and dignity put upon the holy scriptures by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In His conflict with Satan, in the wilderness, His one reply was, " It is written." In His conflict with wicked and wily men, His one standard of appeal was the holy scriptures. When equipping His servants for their work, He opens their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And then, just as He is about to ascend into the heavens, He casts them simply upon the same divine and eternal authority, the holy scripture, " It is written."
What an answer is here, both to infidelity and superstition! He gives us the holy scriptures, and He enables us to understand them. What a mercy! What an unspeakable privilege! What a grand reality! We possess, each one for himself, that precious book on which our blessed Lord Himself ever fed, by which He lived, as a man, in this world, by which He shaped His way, by which He silenced every adversary, which He ever used in His public ministry and in His private life—the blessed word of God which He Himself has put into our hands, in order that we may find it to be what our adorable Lord and Master ever found it in the whole of His marvelous life and service.
Will my beloved friend think I have wandered far away from my thesis? I trust not. I believe you will feel with me that the line which I have pursued in this letter bears, most pointedly, upon " the present condition of things in the church of God." We may have another glance at Josiah, and, meanwhile, I shall subscribe myself, as ever,
Your deeply affectionate yoke-fellow,
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