Beyond the Power of Man
There is a place where human genius falters. It can go no farther. For man is a finite being. Soar though his spirit may, its pinions inevitably grow weary. The point is reached beyond which he can rise no higher. At such height great spirits feel the steady beat of their wings slacken with fatigue. Death, or, worse than death, decline of their powers, falls upon them. They are cut off — even the Homers, the Dantes, the Miltons — having failed to leave behind them words great enough to rehabilitate the depraved and fire the noble to deeds of godlike beauty.
There comes a time, then, when the spirit of man can rise no higher, when all is expectant for the quickening breath of the Almighty to brush the words of humanity
86 and make them divine. Such is inspiration. Moses, David, Paul, Luke, John — these men could of themselves never have written a line inspired as God inspires. But the Creator looked kindly upon them. Into their minds and into their hearts He breathed His spirit, and thus He spoke through their pens. It was another creation, this act of inspiration, a creation that has endured throughout centuries. The Word came into existence. While it was yet unfinished, this creative inspiration, the Word became flesh and dwelt among men. A trinity of creations! God, the Father, working through the creation of the universe; the Holy Spirit working through the inspiration of the Word; Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh, manifest through the incarnation.
In the canons of literary criticism there stands a doctrine known as the law of universal consent.” What men have acclaimed
1Cf. Longinus On the Sublime (vii. 4). 87 throughout the ages is, by reason of this universal acclamation, great. True indeed. Yet the Bible demands a special case even of this law. It is the only book that hosts of men have not only united in calling great, but have also read daily. Of all the aristocracies, the aristocracy created by literature is the most exclusive. Men who read the classics in such a way that their lives are materially shaped by their reading are more rare than princes and kings. And the Bible, too, creates its aristocracy. Witness the choice band of scholars who in all ages have given their minds to its exposition. Yet, linked with this aristocracy of the Bible, is an even greater democracy. The Bible, supreme among books, is nevertheless read by such numbers of men that it stands as the most widely known piece of literature there is. If the law of universal consent has any force, the Bible is the greatest book in the world.
There are few books with which one can
88 live day by day even for a month or a year. Continuous association is the final test of art. The picture that can be looked at each day, the music that can be played over and over again, the book that can be read and re-read — these possess preéminence. There is but one book that can survive the test of continuous association throughout a lifetime. When read morning, noon, and night; when turned to in sorrow or in happiness — not for one year or a score of years, but for life — even Virgil palls, Shakespeare’s “finefiled phrase” grows dull, and the sweetness of Keats turns into cloying honey. Livingstone, inspired by the simple words, “And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,’” opened a continent for Christ and for civilization. Has there been even one man led on to a life of great achievement through the power of a dozen words from any human book? Martyrs have died with
7 Matthew XXVIII, 20. 89 the words of the Bible on their lips. Who but delirious actors have died quoting from any other?
In a very real way, then, the Bible is the staff of life. Without this Book, existence would be hideous darkness for the Christian. Destroy this Book, and you have taken away Christ from the Christian. Like Mary at the empty tomb, he can only cry despairingly, ‘““They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.’* For the Bible is above everything the Book of Christ. All of its parts fit together like some beautiful mosaic portraying the wonderful story of Jesus and redemption.
As in beauty so in structure the Bible stands apart. One of the attributes of the great writer is the sense of form, the architectonic power. This feeling for structure is what makes Dante so very great. The many cantos of the Divine Comedy all
* John XX, 13. 90 belong to a magnificent whole, ever consistent in its elaborate imagery. Because Spenser was deficient in this architectonic power, the Faerie Queene, despite the splendor of its verse, is hopelessly obscure as an allegory. John Bunyan, ignorant as the world estimates ignorance, wrote Pdlgrim’s Progress, the clearest allegory ever written. He knew but one book — the Bible. From it he learned all he knew. He had architectonic power in the highest sense. Shakespeare, describing the relentlessly subtle villainy of Iago that eats away the peace, the happiness, and the very life of Othello and Desdemona, showed high feeling for structure. The play is as strong as a pyramid.
Now let us imagine a combination of works by Dante, Shakespeare, Bunyan, and scores of others — each one a masterpiece of constructive power. Would it be less than a phenomenon if this combination showed underlying unity of structure greater than that of a single masterpiece of literature?
This is precisely the phenomenon that we have in the Bible. The highly gifted author of Job sings, “For I know that my redeemer liveth.”* Moses writes over and over again of the Messiah. Isaiah not only tells the manner of the Saviour’s unique birth but also describes in detail His sacrificial death. David, much concerned with the Coming Prince, gives of the crucifixion an even more perfect picture than does Isaiah. Daniel, Micah, Malachi utter testimony concerning the Christ. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give us four biographies of the Promised One and reveal Him in four great aspects of His work. Paul, Peter, John, James, and Jude carry forward the revelation concerning this One, Whom even the winds and the waves obeyed. And finally John, transported in his Patmos vision, writes his sublime prophecy, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Yes, the Bible has structure. It is
‘Job XIX, 25. 92 bound together by the great theme of Jesus Christ. Subsidiary to this are other themes — sin, death, faith, the Jewish people. These all fit into the great whole. It is a structure amazing in detail, awful in strength. It is like the architecture of some great cathedral. It is indeed a phenomenon, a miracle, call it what you will. Can it be the result of anything but the definite guidance of God?
We come then to this conclusion — the Bible is the Word of God. In no other way can its unique character be explained. In history it is without parallel; in effect upon man, upon the whole course of humanity, it is without compare; in its message it is unique. The final proof, after all, lies within the Book itself. It tells us all we know of God. It tells us of the Christ Who died for us. It tells us how that Christ rose from the dead and how He left with us a Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. In it we see God, the omnipotent, the just, the loving Creator, one God,
93 yet triume im persom. Im it we see how this God, at the wery beginning of history, promised a Redeemer, how throughout the ages the way for this Coming One was prepared, how finalliy Hie was born into the world, the Son of a Virgim of lowly estate. The Bible is the only Book that can satisfy utterly the yearnings of our imner natures. It is filled deep withn the thimgs of God and contains
“a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Amd because it is all of these things, the wery cornerstone of our Christian faith, it must be the constant companion of all who would know that faith.
The divime command, “Search* the Scriptures: for im them ye think ye have eternal “Although the MRewised Wersions render this an indicative;, “We sean” there is strong authority for the imperative as here queited from the Authorized Version. Chrysestem, Augustine, Theophylact, Lather, Calvin, Cartwright, Gretiias,, Jamsenias, Leigh, Stier, Alford, and Ryle: alli faxer tie immperetive. It seems more forcible
and more im keegime with it he context. The Greek form is identicall fer tie imdiicetive and the imperative.
94 life: and they are they which testify of me,’”® cannot be ignored. Common sense demands that the Christian know the Bible. The physician who is ignorant of the materia medica is but a tyro. Is the Christian who does not know the Word of God a whit better? Well does the Saviour command’ to “search” the holy writings. And what, pray, is the connotation of this word “search”? Does it not imply the constant covering of the same ground, the retracing of steps to look for something that has been lost? As a matter of fact, the word in the original,
*John V, 39.
“Chrysostom’s comment is enlightening: “When Christ referred the Jews to the Scriptures, He sent them not to a mere reading, but to a careful and considerate search. He said not, ‘read,’ but, ‘search.’ Since the sayings about Him required great attention (for they had been concealed from the beginning for the advantage of men of that time), He bids them now dig down with care, that they might discern what lay in the depths below. These sayings were not on the surface, nor were they cast forth to open view, but lay like some treasure hidden very
deep.”
95
épaware,° was often used when describing a hound on the scent. The command is wise with the wisdom of divinity. Man has lost eternal life — it must be found. God, through His infinite mercy and tenderness, has provided a way whereby everlasting life may be reclaimed by all men. And God has told of this way in His Book. Only, therefore, through searching the Book, through searching the Scriptures, can the lost be found, can eternal life be regained.
The Bible is no book of cryptic utterance, understandable only for the few great minds of the race. There is a key whereby all may attain to the proper knowledge of its message. The key is expressed in the axiom, Spiritual things are “spiritually discerned.’” Unless the Bible is read with right discernment, its full meaning can never be grasped. One may study it in Hebrew and in Greek,
*Cf. D. J. Burrell, “The Teachings of Jesus Concerning the Scriptures,” p. 137. I Corinthians II, 14, 15.
96 one may know every detail of its history, one may appreciate all the beauty and all the sublimity of its phrases, and yet know far less of its central message than the newly converted native from the hill country of India who has learned to spell out in some Hindustani dialect a few verses from the Gospel of John. Here, despite the apparent paradox, is a great truth. The perfect character of God includes perfection in justice, and perfection in justice demands that all human-kind be given an equal chance to know the love of God. The deeps of His compassion must be capable of being sounded by savage and scholar alike. His book would be the most awful failure in history were its great theme of salvation by grace incomprehensible to a single soul. Its very claim to divine inspiration demands that it be universal in the widest sense.
In the perfection of His justice God has met the problem by the simplicity of His Gospel. The spiritual discerning of His
97 message rests upon but one foundation — faith, faith simple but strong with the tenacity of the trusting child. Belief on the Saviour, faith in His redemptive power, brings regeneration of the spiritual faculties. The Bible becomes a dynamic in the life of the Christian. His steps are guided by it. It is his chief source for strength and comfort. He lives by its precepts.
Sir Francis Bacon, in The Advancement of Learning, spoke appositely of the contrast between the natural and the spiritual discerning of the Word of God. “It was most aptly said by one of Plato’s school,” he writes, “that the sense of man carrieth a resemblance with the sun, which, as we see, openeth and revealeth all the terrestrial globe; but then again it obscureth and conceals the stars and celestial globe: so doth the sense discover natural things, but it darkeneth and shutteth up divine.”
The intellect alone can never open up the Bible. For the things of God it is hopelessly
98 inadequate. “It darkeneth and shutteth up divine.” Only that faith which is the foundation of spiritual discernment can open up the divine. Only that faith which believes on Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world, sacrificed for you and for me, can give peace of heart and soul through revealing the true message of the
Bible.
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