THE BIBLE, THE WORD OF GOD.

A PROMINENT object in this periodical will be to counteract the tendency at the present time to speak disparagingly of the Sacred Scriptures. Some deny the absolute authority of the Scriptures in matters of faith; some speak of them as mere human productions, bearing evidence of infirmity and error; while others sink the credit of the inspired volume, by exalting what they call the revelations of nature, and the efforts of genius, to equal authority and reverence.

We propose to show, in a plain way, in what sense the Bible is the Word of God.

We shall endeavor to prove that the Bible has the same authority and is entitled to the same reverence as though it had been written in heaven by the finger of God, and had been brought down in the sight of men and thus delivered to the world.

The several books of which the Bible is composed, were written by different men within a period of about two thousand years. Many books were written claiming to be inspired, besides those which we have received as such. It is natural to ask in what way the claim of being inspired is to be determined with regard to these different productions.

It is not enough, in arguing the subject, to say that the Jewish people, among whom all the writings appeared, decided, in view of the evidence then existing, what books were inspired. There is a natural desire to see the evidence for and against each book; to know the miracles, and the fulfilled prophecies, and the agreement with the moral sense and the religious feelings of men, by which the several portions of the Old Testament Scriptures were decided to be inspired. Referring the reader who may wish for information of this kind with regard to each book of the Old Testament, to such works as Horne's "Introduction to the Critical Study of the Scriptures," we proceed to state the reasons for believing that the decision of the Jews with regard to the inspired books is right.

Among the faithful and severe proofs which Christ addressed to the Jewish Scribes, in which he accused them of making the commandment of none effect through their traditions, he never accused them of having corrupted or altered the Sacred Scrip

tures. On the contrary, he appeals to the Scriptures as the authentic Word of God. He speaks of them to this effect: "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life," and Christ did not tell them that they were mistaken in thinking so. By this single expression, not to quote others, Christ sanctioned all the books of the Old Testament, which was the same, as to the books of which it is composed, as now. If, among the received Scriptures, there had been one book or part of a book of doubtful authority, Christ would have taught the people what was the Word of God, and what the word of man. If one of these books had been fraudulently inserted in the Sacred Canon, the great Teacher would first of all have expunged it. He who made a scourge of small cords, and drove out the traffickers from the temple, would not have been less jealous against a false prophet or a lying pentateuch. He knew the power which the Scriptures had over the Jewish mind; he saw those Scriptures on their way through coming generations of men; they were to be, through all time and to all men, the ultimate appeal in religion and morals. Had the Old Testament been other than it claimed to be, the Word of God, we may confidently assert that the Messiah, so far from sanctioning it, would have disabused mankind; and, if necessary, would have given them such a "law," such "prophets," and such "psalms," as would constitute a safe and an inspired directory. He saw no occasion to do so. "Think not," he said, "that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil."

Christ referred to the Jewish Scriptures as the decisive authority in religious and moral questions. On one occasion, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself, and said, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me." Those who have read Josephus know that the familiar designation of "the Bible" among the Jews, is "the Law," "Prophets " and "Psalms;" the word Psalms including all the books which are not included in the Law and the Prophets. In using this designation, therefore, Christ meant the Old Testament, which Jewish Catalogues, existing to this day, prove to have been the same, as to the books comprised in it, as at the present time.

With regard to the Books of the New Testament, the same process of investigation, comparison, examination of testimony, and experience, was employed by Christians for a considerable time, till at last the Christian world, at the latest, in some part of the second century, became established in the general acknowledgement and reception of the books now contained in it as the concluding part of the inspired Word of God.

The sources from which we draw the proof of this, are, history, the testimony of cotemporaries, catalogues made by them of the sacred books, and the manner in which they are quoted and referred to by the early fathers and writers in the first centuries after. Christ. In the same way that we prove that our present copies of Virgil, are in their contents identical with those of Virgil's time, do we prove that our Bible is the same which, as to the first and oldest part, the Jewish Church held as the Word of God, and our Saviour sanctioned, and apostles and early Christians regarded as of divine origin; and the second part of which, or the New Testament, the Christian world early recognized as inspired, and the only books which were inspired. So that when we proceed to show in what sense the Bible is the Word of God, we speak of the same Old Testament which Christ and his apostles and the Jewish Church held to be the Word of God, and of the same New Testament which the Christian world declared not long after the books contained in it were written, to be of the same authority; and to be, with the Old Testament, the entire Word of God.

The question before us is, What kind of inspiration does this Word of God possess? or, In what sense is the Bible the Word of God?

This question will be answered by the following proposition :

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God imparted revelations, guidance, and superintendence to the sacred penmen; so as that the Holy Scriptures were sanctioned by him, as his authorized Word, both in their truths, and in their essential language.

When it was necessary that the sacred writers should know things which the human mind could not discover, as for example, future events, God made them known by special revelation.

When they were writing histories of events long since passed, He assisted and guided their recollections so that they wrote true history.

When they wrote on common things, He superintended them,

so that they made no mistake, nor inserted anything inconsistent with, the harmony of truth, either in thought or expression.

This, it will be perceived, amounts to what is called plenary inspiration. We will now advance the proofs of it, mention some objections to it, and endeavor to remove them, with a view to establish the conviction that the Bible as we now hold it, is, in the highest sense, the Word of God.

We shall take for granted the truth or credibility of the Scriptures; that is, the fact that they are an honest record of events, related by men who had nothing of a worldly nature to gain by believing and asserting them; but did, many of them, suffer stripes, imprisonment, persecutions and death in attestation of the things which they had seen and heard. We take the writings of these men, acknowledged to be, at least, honest witnesses, and shall endeavor to show that these writings are as really a communication from God himself as though they had been written in heaven, and had been delivered by the hand of God, in the sight of witnesses, to mankind.

I. Christ promised those who were to write the New Testament, that they should be divinely inspired for their work.

In his last discourse with his disciples before his agony, he said to them: "And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive; - but ye know him, for he dwelleth in you, and shall be in you." "These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." "Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come."

Now if we believe that Christ said these words, and that they came to pass, as of course they did, if he were a true witness, we must believe that the Apostles were under the special guidance and inspiration of God. To crown all, after his resurrection, Jesus met his disciples and said, "Peace be unto you; as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Nothing could be more

complete than this divine commission. "As my father hath sent me, even so send I you." And when he had breathed on them, he said: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."

Christ had already told his disciples, that, when they should be brought before magistrates, they were to take no thought of what they should say: "for it shall be given you in that hour what ye ought to say, for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which is in you."

With such promises and such a commission, who can doubt that whatever they did or wrote professing to be the will and the truth of God, was under the full direction of the Holy Ghost? Christ here gives them an unqualified appointment to act in all things pertaining to his religion. But what could be of more importance to the world than a faithful record of what he did and said, and correct expositions of divine truth for the use of all future time. Only admit that Christ made these promises, and the necessary consequence is, that the writers of the New Testament were directed by the Holy Ghost.

Three writers of the New Testament were not included in the number of those to whom these promises were personally made. Paul was, however, called to be an apostle by Christ himself, and of course was invested with all the powers and privileges of apostleship. Luke was the companion of Paul, and is believed to have written his Gospel and the Acts under the eye of that apostle, as Mark is believed to have written his Gospel under the immediate inspection of Peter. Their claims were established in the minds of the early Christians to equal inspiration with the other sacred writers.

II. The writers of the New Testament received and gave the fullest evidence, that, in the apostolic office, they were commissioned from God.

On the day of Pentecost, the most of these men being assembled together, smal flames of fire, in the shape of a human tongue, divided or cloven, as some suppose, to represent multiplicity, sat upon each of them; and they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. By this miracle, which was soon noised abroad, they were proclaimed to the multitudes who were present at the feast from all parts of the world, as the authorized and