4
77/E S GENUINENESS
N dealing with this phase of our sub
ject we find so much matter on hand
that it is hard to select that which is
most helpful to us. As a part of the
history of the world’s movements from
the time that Adam and Eve were mated
together in the Garden of Eden, down
to the present hour, the word of God
has been recognized as the one thing
I
of supreme importance.
It is true, of course, that for more than two thou
sand years God spake to men directly, without the
aid of the printed word, but His words were none
the less forceful. In all matters of life and govern
ment the word of God was authority.
Beginning with Moses, as we have already seen,
the plan of God was to reduce His teaching to the
written and printed word, which finally culminated
in our Bible. Since that time no book has played
so important a part in the history of the world as
the Bible.
In speaking on this line, Mr. Gladstone, Eng
land’s greatest statesman, said, “There is no book
in all the range of books that has had such influence
in civilizing the world as the Bible.” Surely, it is
the word of God, and every part of it is important,
for every part of it bears His impress.
In recent years Li Hung Chang, China’s great
est statesman, is quoted as saying: “Whether there
is anything in the Christian religion or not, the
Bible has made an everlasting impression upon the
civilization of China. There is something in it that
tends to the elevation and advancement of man
kind.”
These testimonies to any mind, even the most
biased, are entitled to great weight, and they have
it whether acknowledged or not.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.
Many of you doubtless will recall reading the tes
timony of William Jennings Bryan concerning the
Bible. It was given after making a tour through
the heathen countries. It was given from the stand
point of a statesman. He said himself that he was
not speaking as a religionist, for while he is a de
vout Christian man and adheres to the old book
with simple, childlike faith, yet in this connection
he was speaking simply as a statesman. “Every
where I go,” said he, “in these heathen countries,
I see the force of our Bible. Wherever the Chris
tian missionary has adhered to it and expounded it,
there is seen distinct evidences of a growing civili
zation. The people are more thrifty, their lives
more beautiful, and conditions of all kinds im
proved. ’ ’
Certainly such a testimony is valuable. Mr. Bry
an is a great man. He has his faults. Many do
not agree with him in matters pertaining to the
government. This is proven by the fact that twice
he has been defeated -for the highest office within
the gift of the people. But no man, not even his
bitterest enemies, would discredit such a testimony
as he has given of the Bible. No man will doubt
that he said what he thought and that he was capa
ble of passing judgment upon the conditions that he
found.
THE BIBLE CANNOT BE DESTROYED.
The Bible is the one book that cannot be de
stroyed. Infidels have written books, great
books many of them, but where are they ? Where
are the works of Hume, Voltaire and Bolingbroke?
No man ever reads them today. But the Bible is
read everywhere in the lands of civilization, and
where civilization has not yet gone it stands knock
ing at the door ready to enter and shine forth its
light.
The Bible has met with effort after effort to de
stroy it. During the reign of Henry V. a law was
passed in England against the reading of the scrip
tures. The penalty attached was that all lands,
chattels, and life should be taken. Readers of the
Bible were considered to be the enemies of the
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. Broughton, T). D.
Stenographically reported for The Golden Affe. —Copyright applied for.
crown, and the most arrant traitors to the land.
We can scarcely conceive of such a law when
we look in upon old England today, where the Bible
is read and loved as in no country on the face of the
globe. It shows that God is back of His Word, and
that He has planned for its keeping and provided
for its use; and woe be unto that nation or people
that attempts to hold it down or prevent it from
doing its God-given work. Individuals have suf
fered martyrdom in thousands of ways rather than
deny it. I have recently been greatly stirred in
reading again the history of the martyrs of
the mother country. How those men and women
proved their fidelity to the Bible. We will never
be able to fully appreciate them. They were true,
even unto death, ready at any time to give their
lives for their faith. The Bible did this. No other
book could have done it. In it they had learned
about God and Jesus their Savior. In it they had
learned the precepts for right living and about their
home in heaven.
A MARTYR’S TESTIMONY.
Hear a martyr’s testimony. He had been tried
and convicted of the crime of reading his Bible
The punishment was death at the stake. When the
day for his burning came he was found early in the
morning kneeling in prayer in the old dungeon
where he spent months without being privileged
to speak to a living soul, his meals being let down
to him by means of a rope. But he was not despond
ent when they found him. he was the reverse. He
was bright and happy.
“Good morning,” said he, as the guard entered
to take him to the stake. “I have had a delightful
night, and I fancy now you have come to give me
my liberty.”
“Your liberty!” shouted the guard.
“Yes, my liberty,” said he.
“Well, I should think I have not. I have come
to take your life, if you call that liberty.”
“Oh,” said he, “I understand that! I referred to
my liberty to enter the mansion in heaven, for I
have just been reading, ‘Let not your heart be
troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In
my Father’s house are many mansions. I go to
prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a
place for you I will come again and receive you
unto myself that where I am there ye may be
also.’ ”
“You say,” interrupted the guard, “that you
have just been reading these words ? Where did you
get vour Bible? You have not been allowed to read
your Bible.”
“Oh,” said he, “that is just where you are mis
taken! I have read from my memory’s Bible. The
Bible, kind sir, is now in my heart.”
From the dungeon this poor man was led to the
stake where the fagots were piled around him, and
then set on fire. A large crowd of cruel, hard-heart
ed men stood around, rejoicing over the flames as
they climbed higher and higher. Not a word was
spoken by him until finally he shouted in the words
of Elisha when he saw Elijah going up in the chariot
of fire, “The ch riot of Israel and the horsemen
thereof! ”
The Bible did this. In a time like that no other
book could have brought such comfort; and the
record of men and women like him if written would
make a volume of such size as to dazzle the eye of
the world.
THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the his
tory of the Bible, at least to literary people, is that
part which it plays in the world of literature, and
on this point I know nothing better than an extract
from an address carefully thought out and well pre
pared, which was recently delivered by the Rev.
Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, the president of Davidson
College. He says:
“The Bible is a part of world-literature. The
Koran is literature, but the Bible is a literature.
The Golden Age for April 9, 1908.
With the exception of the novel and the editorial,
both of which arose in the eighteenth century, there
is hardly a type of modern literature or form of
modern discourse that may not be found in the Bi
ble. Throughout your college course you will come
in contact with no book whose purely literary claims
equal those of the Bible. I yield to no one in my
admiration of the classical literatures, of the modern
literatures, and of the more technical literature of
scientific achievement. But in vividness and inten
sity, in elevation of appeal, and in the duration of
her sovereignty, the Bible takes easy and secure
precedence. The most advanced nations of the
world are the children of her fireside; the centuries
themselves have been but handmaidens in her service.
There is no modern literature worthy the name that
has not felt her influence; there is no regnant peo
ple whose strivings she has not shepherded.”
Dr. Smith is not by himself in the estimate he
places upon the Bible as literature. In the literary
world everywhere are testimonies of its pre-emi
nence as a book of literature.
Dr. Henry Van Dyke, one of the most distin
guished literary characters that we have today, has
found more than four hundred direct references to
the Bible in the poems of Tennyson.
Coleridge says of the Bible’s place in literature,
“The intense study of the Bible will keep any writer
from being vulgar in point of style.” Ruskin de
clares that the Bible, to him, was the most essential
part of his education. Surely such testimonies are
not to be discarded when we come to make up our
estimate of the Bible.
THE TESTIMONY OF PROPHECY.
But without doubt the testimony of prophecy is
the strongest argument that we have for the gen
uineness of the Bible. Take the prophecies concern
ing Christ which are found in the Old Testament.
There are no less than 333 of these Old Testament
prophecies that center in the person of the Mes
siah and every one which relates to His first ad
vent, has been literally fulfilled. Look at some of
them, and then look at their fulfillment, and there
will be found in them a testimony for the genuine
ness of the Bible that absolutely defeats the. most
skilful critics.
Prophesying about Jesus, the Messiah, the Bible
declares:
Isa. 7:14 —Born of a virgin.
Micah 5:12 —At Bethlehem.
Hosea 11:2—Anointed with the Spirit.
Zech. 9:9 —Entry into Jerusalem.
Ps. 51:912 —Betrayed by a friend.
Zech. 13:7 —Forsaken by his disciples.
Zech. 11:12 —Sold for thirty pieces of silver.
Zech. 11:13 —Potters’ field bought.
Isa. 50:6 —Spat upon and scourged.
Ex. 12:46 —Not a bone broken.
Ps. 69:21 —Gall and vinegar.
Ps. 29:18 —Garments parted and lots cast.
Ps. 22:8 —Taunted for non-deliverance by God.
Ps. 22:7 —Mocked at.
Ps. 22:16 —Feet pierced.
Isa. 53:3 —Despised and rejected.
Isa. 53:7 —Opened not His mouth.
Isa. 53:8 —Moved from court to court.
Isa. 53:9 —Pronounced guiltless by all.
Isa. 53:10 —Bruised by God.
How forceful this testimony! Who can look at
it and not know that back of it all is an all-seeing
eye that penetrates far into the mysteries of the be
yond ? Mho can fail to see also the planning of an
all-wise Mind, and the directing of an all-powerful
Hand? No accident could have brought about the
fulfillment of these prophecies. The men that wrote
them had naturally no better opportunity for see
ing into the future than the other men of their time.
But they were inspired. God gave them the knowl
edge. He pulled back the curtain that cut out the
future and enabled them to see and write the things
that he desired to bo forever kept as a part of His
holy Word.
