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THE REALITY OR OUR RELIGION
“Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended
in me.’’ Matt. 11:6.
ie‘
OME time ago it was my privilege to
attend a little meeting of some minis
ters. In that meeting a certain
brother recommended to the rest) of
us a certain book; a book, if I re
member rightly, which was entitled,
“The Psychology of Religion.” This
brother pastor said that out of this
book he had gotten a number of ser-
mons for his people, and he, therefore, recommend'
ed it to the rest of us. Among other things he said,
“I believe that this book contains the finest and
most convincing argument for the reality of matter
that I have ever heard.” I could not help saying:
“To be convinced of the reality of matter may be
a great thing in some sections of the world, and
it may be a great thing to some congregations, but
to my congregation there is not so much need
to be convinced of the reality of matter. Nobody
doubts that matter is real but a lot of sentimen
talists and lunatics; what the world needs, and
what my people need, is to be convinced of the
reality of religion.”
I believe that the greatest need that throbs in
the heart of the world is to be convinced that our
religion is a real, sure-enough thing. Everywhere I
go men are asking for convincing proof of the re
ality of religion; and they have a perfect right to
ask the question, and they have a perfect right
to demand that we who profess it shall furnish
the answer.
In the first place, they want to know if the Bi
ble is the sure Word of God. Then, there is the
question of salvation: They want to know if the
salvation of Jesus Christ actually produces a
change in the heart and conduct of the people
who profess it? Then the question of prayer:
They want to know if prayer actually prevails.
I say these are burning questions that are in
the hearts and minds of the world. They have a
perfect right to ask about them, and a perfect
right to demand that we answer them.
THE BIBLE THE WORD OF GOD.
Now, as to the reality of the Bible: Is the Bible
the infallible Word of God? There are, as you
know, two classes of teachers with respect to the
Bible. First, there is the man who believes with
out qualification that the Bible is the infallible
Word of God. Then, there is the other man who
does not so believe. Both of these two classes
have in them good men. I am the last man in
the world to say that there are no good men in
that class who do not believe and accept the Bible
as the infallible Word of God. There are good
men in that class, as tire world counts good men.
I would no sooner say that there are no good men
in that class than I would say that all the men who
accept the Bible as the Word of God are good
men. They are not all good men; thank God some
of them are, and in that class the best men and
women and the strongest minds and intellects, and
the warmest hearts are to be found, but they are
not all so.
But although there are good men in both of
these classes, we are all bound to admit that both
of them cannot be right about the Bible; either
the Bible is the infallible Word of God or it is
not. Which is true? Is the Bible the Word of
God? I shall undertake to affirm that it is. But
I am aware of the fact that my little affirmation
counts for nothing so far as the world is con
cerned. The world does not care about my affirma
tion. What the world wants to know is the basis
or background of my affirmation. Upon what do
I base my affirmation that the Word of God is in
fallible as it stands?
I understand thoroughly the magnitude of even
this one phase of our subject, and I shall, there
fore, only undertake to give one of the reasons
for my faith—it is the fact of Jesus Christ.
Every man in the world, at least in the civilized
The Golden Age for March 21, 1907.
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton.
world, acknowledges as a matter of history that
Jesus Christ lived; yet, outside of the Bible there
is absolutely no history of Him. Oh! there are
works on Christ, written by men, some of them
of great magnitude and scholarly production, but
every one of them is based upon the historic facts
gathered from the Bible. So, I repeat, outside
of the Bible, there is absolutely no accounting for
Jesus Christ.
When you go back into the Old Testament
Scriptures, which, according to the critics, is noth
ing more nor less than an aggregation of scattered
fragfiients of the history of the human race in
those far away periods, you find that from the
day when Adam traduced his Lord and fell into
sin and carried the race of man with him, until
the day when the morning stars sang together and
the angels chanted the choral song over the manger
in which lay the new-born Christ, t every great
movement in history was a sign-board pointing
to Christ. And not only was this true of the
great movements in the history of those thousands
of years, but it is true of the teachings of the
prophets who prophesied during all this period
of waiting and expectancy. And in the prophe
cies of these prophets, we find not only the fact
of Christ foretold, but we find, also, all the es
sential details concerning Him given.
I have made some effort to epitomize the strong
est and most convincing of the prophecies of the
Old Testament Scriptures concerning Christ, and
I shall give you a few of them. These old pro
phets, away back yonder in the dark period of
the world’s history, were enabled to look out and
read, beyond the blackness of darkness that was
over the world, the actual plan and program of
God concerning Jesus Christ.
They were enabled to tell us that Jesus Christ
was to be born of a Virgin; that He was to be
born in Bethlehem; that He was afterward to be
anointed with the Spirit; that He was to have
His triumphal entry into Jerusalem; that He was
finally to be betrayed by a friend; that He was to
be sold for thirty pieces of silver; that a potter’s
field was to be bought with the price of the trans
action; that He was to be spit upon and scourged
by his enemies; that He was to be given gall and
vinegar to drink; that they would cast lots for
His garments; that He was to be taunted by non
deliverance by God; that He was to be mocked
at and His feet pierced; that He would be de
spised and rejected, and yet that he would not
spised and rejected, and yet that He would not
moved from court to court, and, finally, that Fie
was to be proven guiltless by all.
These are just faint snatches gathered up from
the prophecies of the prophets who, for thousands
of years before the advent of Jesus, were enabled
to give us, under the touch of inspiration, a mi
nute and accurate description concerning Him.
And, every one of these prophecies was literally
and absolutely fulfilled. Tell me that Jesus Christ
is not in the Old Testament Scriptures! There is
scarcely to be found a page in the Old Testament
that does not point to Christ.
But not only is this true of the Old Testament
Scriptures. We find the Old Testament Scriptures
concerning Jesus Christ corroborated in the New
Testament. I know that they tell us that the New
Testament Scriptures is a simple aggregation of
mythical stories about the man, Christ Jesus, and
without any systematic arrangement of their
teaching, but there never was a bigger fallacy.
The man who claims that has simply never studied
Iris New Testament Scriptures.
I unhesitatingly say to you that I know of no
more systematic arrangement of teaching than that
which we find outlined in the New Testament
Scriptures concerning Christ. There are four gos
pels which present the person of Jesus Christ in
his fourfold relation: Matthew, writing for the
Jews concerning the Messiahship of Jesus; Mark,
writing for the Romans, who were men of power,
concerning the power of Jesus; Luke, writing of
His humanity, and His relation to the great world
of need; John, writing of His Deity.
Then, take the Acts of the Apostles, and we have
in them the story of the daily triumphs of those
who believed the story of Jesus; then the Epis
tles follow; and in them we have the body of writ
ing in which the teaching of Jesus is elaborated,
expounded and applied; then we have the book of
Revelation, which is the unveiling of the final
triumph of Jesus Christ as Lord and King. And
yet they say that there is no harmony and no sys
tem in the arrangement of the teaching that we
have concerning Him who is the head of our reli
gion. My brethren, in the New Testament Scrip
tures is presented to us the personality of Christ
in such away as that the world is bound to bow
before Him as God. In Christ a man is presented
to us; a man unfallen; a man without sin; a man
absolutely in all of the requirements of God’s
law fulfilling in the highest possible degree every
single requirement; a man presented as the Savior
of the race, and the Savior of the race through
and by His cross as the only way; a man, and yet
God. '
This same Christ stands before us today and the
man who will do away with his Bible has got to
account for Him.
THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS.
Then, there are the teachings of Jesus. Has it
ever occurred to you that Jesus Himself quoted or
used, without criticism, every mooted question in
the Old Testament 'Scriptures? Out of the thirty
nine books in the Old Testament Scriptures He
quoted from twenty-four, and this is the order
of his quotation: Sixty-six references from the
Pentateuch, forty from Isaiah, thirty-six from the
Psalms, and twenty-one from Daniel; and in all
of these references not one scintilla of criticism
does Jesus pass upon them. But take, also, His
bold claims for Himself. No man ever spake like
Him; hear Him, and after hearing, pass judgment
upon Him:
“I am from above. I am not of this world.
I am the Bread of life. I am the Light of the
world. I am the Door. I am the Good Shepherd.
I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Res
urrection and the Life. Before Abraham was I
am.”
Did He speak the truth in these claims? If so,
then He is God, and all criticism of Him ought to
be stopped, for I tell you it is an awfully serious
thing to criticise God.
And, if Jesus did not tell the truth, then he is
not only not, as the critics admit, a good man,
but He is a blasphemer and an ordinary street
liar. What think ye of Him? Is He God, or is
He a blasphemer and common liar? Now,
if Christ is God, then all this criticism of Him
and the Bible which tells of Him is blasphemy in
the sight of God. The critic will have to do away
with Christ before he can destroy the Bible. He
is to the Bible like the thread to the rock: candy;
around Him it all clings; He is its complete un
foldment.
THE REALITY OF SALVATION.
The world also demands to know about our sal
vation. They hear our declarations concerning it;
they read in the Word of God the nature of it;
they know the teaching about a clean heart and
a new life and a changed relation to the world,
and they ask: “Is this true?”
Does the salvation of Jesus actually produce a
change in the nature and affections and conditions
of men? If not, then they do not want it, and 1
trankly say that I am willing to put myself in
the place of the world and say that I do not want
it. I have come to the point in my life when I
cannot tolerate that which is pretentious. I want
the real thing, and the world wants the real thing;
and the world, before it comes to Christ, must see
that the salvation of Christ is real.
How are we going to show it? We could show
it by going back into the Scriptures. We could
