GOD." What word could more
fittingly stand at the head of the first line of the first
paragraph in this noble epistle! Each structure must rest
on him as foundation; each tree must spring from him as
root; each design and enterprise must originate in him as
source. "IN THE BEGINNING-GOD," is a worthy
motto to inscribe at the commencement of every treatise,
be it the ponderous volume or the ephemeral tract. And
with that name we commence our attempt to gather up some
of the glowing lessons which were first addressed to the
persecuted and wavering Hebrews in the primitive age, but
have ever been most highly prized by believing Gentiles
throughout the universal Church. The feast was originally
spread for the children of the race of Abraham; but who
shall challenge our right to the crumbs? In our endeavor
to gather them, be thou, 0 God, Alpha and Omega, First and
Last. In the original Greek, the word "God"is
preceded by two other words, which describe the variety
and multitudinousness of his revelation to man. And the
whole verse is full of interest as detailing the origin
and authority of the Word of God, and as illustrating the
great law which appears in so many parts of the works of
God, and has been fitly called the law of VARIETY IN
UNITY.
That law operates in Nature.
The earliest book of God. No thoughtful man
can look around him without being arrested by the infinite
variety that meets him on every side. "All flesh is
not the same flesh; . . . there are celestial bodies, and
bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one;
and the glory of the terrestrial is another. . . . One
star differeth from another star in glory." You
cannot match two faces in a crowd; two leaves in a forest;
or two flowers in the woodlands of spring. It w~ld seem as
if the molds in which natural products are being shaped
are broken up and cast aside as soon as one result has
been attained. And it is this which affords such an
infinite field for investigation and enjoyment, forbidding
all fear of monotony or weariness of soul.
And yet, amid all natural variety,
there is a marvelous unity. Every part of the universe
interlocks by subtle and delicate links with every other
part. You cannot disturb the balance anywhere without
sending a shock of disturbance through the whole system.
Just as in some majestic Gothic minster the same idea
repeats itself in bolder or slighter forms, so do the same
great thoughts recur in tree and flower, in molecule and
planet, in diatom and man. And all this because, if you
penetrate to Nature's heart, you meet God. "Of him,
and through him, and to him, are all things."
"There are diversities of operations; but it is the
same God which worketh all in all." The unity that
pervades Nature's temple is the result of its having
originated from one mind, and having been effected by one
hand, the mind and hand of God.
That law also operates
throughout the Scriptures. There is as great
variety there as in Nature. They were written in different
ages. some in the days of "the fathers"; others
at "the end of these days" for us. In the
opening chapters, under the guidance of the Spirit of God,
Moses has embodied fragments of hallowed tradition, which
passed from lip to lip in the tents of the patriarchs; and
its later chapters were written when the holy city,
Jerusalem, had already been smitten to the ground by the
mailed hand of Titus.
They were written in different
countries: these in the deserts of Arabia; those
under the shadow of the pyramids; and others amid the
tides of life that swept through the greatest cities of
Greece and Rome. You can detect in some the simple
pastoral life of Palestine; in others the magnificence of
Nebuchadnezzar's empire. In one there is the murmur of the
blue Aegean; and in several the clank of the fetter in the
Roman prison-cell.
They were written by men belonging to
various ranks, occupations, and methods of thought.. shepherds
and fishermen, warriors and kings; the psalmist, the
prophet, and the priest; some employing the stately
religious Hebrew, others the Chaldaic patois, others the
polished Greek-every variety of style, from the friendly
letter, or sententious proverb, to the national history,
or the carefully prepared treatise, in which thought and
expression glow as in the fires--but all contributing
their quota to the symmetry and beauty of the whole.
And yet, throughout the Bible, there is
an indubitable unity. What else could have
led mankind to look upon these sixty-six tractlets as
being so unmistakably related to each other that they must
be bound up together under a common cover? There has been
something so unique in these books that they have always
stood and fallen together. To disintegrate one has been to
loose them all. Belief in one has led to belief in all.
Their hands are linked and locked so tightly that where
one goes all must follow. And though wise and clever men
have tried their best, they have never been able to
produce a single treatise containing that undefinable
quality which gives these their mysterious oneness; and to
lack which is fatal to the claims of any book to be
included with them, or to demand the special veneration
and homage of mankind.
The world is full of religious books;
but the man who has fed his religious life upon the Bible
will tell in a moment the difference between them and the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The eye can
instantly detect the absence of life in the artificial
flower; the tongue can immediately and certainly detect
the absence or presence of a certain flavor submitted to
the taste; and the heart of man, his moral sense, is quick
to detect the absence in all other religious books of a
certain savor which pervades the Bible, from Genesis, the
book of beginnings, to the Apocalyptic announcements of
the quick coming of the King.
And in the possession of this
mysterious attribute, the Old and new Testaments
are one. You cannot say there is more of it
in the glowing paragraphs of the Apostle Paul than in the
splendid prophecies and appeals of the great evangelic
prophet, Isaiah. It is certainly in the Gospels; but it is
not less in the story of the Exodus. Throughout, there is
silence on topics which merely gratify curiosity, but on
which other professed revelations have been copiously
full. Throughout, there is no attempt to give instruction
on science or nature; but to bend all energy in discussing
the claims of God on men. Throughout, the crimson cord of
sacrifice is clearly manifest, on which the books are
strung together as beads upon a thread. And throughout,
there is ever the subtle, mysterious, ineffable quality
called Inspiration: a term which is
explained by the majestic words of this opening verse,
"God, having spoken of old to the fathers, hath at
the end of these days spoken to us."
Scripture is the speech of God
to man. It is this which gives it its
unity. "The Lord, the mighty God, hath spoken, and
called the earth." The amanuenses may differ; but the
inspiring mind is the same. The instruments may vary; but
in every case the same theme is being played by the same
master-hand. We should read the Bible as those who listen
to the very speech of God. Well may it be called "the
Word of God."
But the Scripture is God's
speech in man. The heavenly treasure is in vessels
of earth. "He spake unto the fathers in the prophets.
. . He hath spoken unto us in his Son." It is very
remarkable to study the life of Jesus, and to listen to
his constant statements as to the source of his marvelous
words. So utterly had he emptied himself, that he
originated nothing from himself; but lived by the Father,
in the same way as we are to live by him. He distinctly
declared that the words he spake, he spake not of himself;
but that words and works alike were the outcome of the
Father, who dwelt within. Through those lips of clay the
eternal God was speaking. Well might he also be called
"the Word of God"!
And here the words of the prophets in
the Old Testament are leveled up to the plane of the words
of Jesus in the New. Without staying to make the least
distinction, our writer tell us, beneath the teaching of
the Spirit, that he who spake in the one spake also in the
others. Let us then think with equal reverence of the Old
Testament as of the New. It was our Saviour's Bible. It
was the food which Jesus loved, and lived upon. He was
content to fast from all other food, if only he might have
this. It was his one supreme appeal in conflict with the
devil, and in the clinching of his arguments and
exhortations with men. And here we discover the reason.
The voice of God spake in the prophets, whose very name
likens them to the up-rush of the geyser from its hidden
source.
As God spake in men, it is
clear that he left them to express his thoughts in the
language, and after the method, most familiar to them.
They will speak of Nature just as they have
been accustomed to find her. They will use the mode of
speech whether poem or prose which is most habitual to
their cast of thought. They will make allusions to the
events transpiring around them, so as to be easily
understood by their fellows. But, whilst thus left to
express God's thoughts in their own way, yet most
certainly the divine Spirit must have carefully
superintended their utterances, so that their words should
accurately convey his messages to men.
In many parts of the Bible there is
absolute dictation, word for word. In others, there is
divine superintendence guarding from error, and guiding in
the selection and arrangement of materials: as when Daniel
quotes from historic records; and Moses embodies the
sacred stories which his mother had taught him beside the
flowing Nile. In all, there is the full inspiration of the
Spirit of God, by whom all Scripture has been given. Holy
men spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, . . .
searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of
Christ which was in them did signify" (2 Tim. iii. i6
; 2 Pet. i. 20, 21 ; 1 Pet. i. ii).
We need not deny that other men have
been illuminated; but the difference between illumination
and inspiration is as far as the
east is from the west. Nor do we say that God has not
spoken in other men, or in these men at other times; but
we do say that only in the Bible has God given the supreme
revelation of his will, and the authoritative rule of our
faith and practice. The heart of man bears witness to
this. We know that there is a tone in these words which is
heard in no other voice. The upper chords of this
instrument give it a timbre which none other
can rival.
The revelation in the Old
Testament was given in fragments (or portions). This
is the meaning of the word rendered in the Old Version sundry
times, and in the Revised divers portions.
It refers, not to the successive ages over which it
was spread, but to the numerous "portions" into
which it was broken up. No one prophet could speak out all
the truth. Each was intrusted with one or two syllables in
the mighty sentences of God's speech. At the best the view
caught of God, and given to men through the prophets,
though true, was partial and limited.
But in Jesus there is nothing of this
piecemeal revelation. "In him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily." He hath revealed the
Father. Whosoever hath seen him hath seen God; and to hear
his words is to get the full-orbed revelation of the
Infinite.
The earlier revelation was in
many forms. The earthquake, the fire,
the tempest, and the still small voice-each had its
ministry. Symbol and parable, vision and metaphor, type
and historic foreshadowing, all in turn served the divine
end; like the ray which is broken into many prismatic
hues. But in Jesus there is the steady shining of the pure
ray of his glory, one uniform and invariable method of
revelation.
Oh the matchless and glorious Book, the
Word of God to men-to us; revealing not only God, but
ourselves; explaining moods for which we had no cipher;
touching us as no other book can, and in moments when all
voices beside wax faint and still; telling facts which we
have not been able to discover, but which we instantly
recognize as truth; the bread of the soul; the key of
life; disclosing more depths as we climb higher in
Christian experience: we have tested thee too long to
doubt that thou art what Jesus said thou wast, the
indispensable and precious gift of God.
