Part 17 (1/2)

The historical difficulties of the Bible amount to little They do not affect its scope and tendency, as a moral and spiritual teacher Nor are they inconsistent with the doctrine that the Scriptures were given by inspiration of God, as that doctrine is presented in the Scriptures themselves They may be inconsistent with the views of Scripture inspiration taught by certain Theologians; but all we have to do is to set the views of these Theologians aside, and content ourselves with the sis of Scripture

Now the doctrine of Scripture inspiration as taught by the Scriptures theives me no authority to expect the Scriptures to be free from historical and scientific errors, or from any of those so-called ie or from human nature It authorizes me to expect that the Scriptures shall aim at my moral and spiritual instruction and salvation, and that they shall be adapted to answer that great end It authorizes me to expect that the body and substance of the Book shall be true and good, and that a spirit of wisdo it a rousing and a sanctifying power It authorizesme into harmony and fellowshi+p with Christ, to fill e me into His likeness, to enable me to live as He lived, and to labor as He labored It authorizes me to expect in the Bible all that is necessary to coive me patience, to sustain my hopes, and to support and cheer me in the hour of death And all this I find in infinite abundance I find it in aand impressive I find it presented in the plainest, simplest style I find in the Bible an infinite treasury of all that is holy, just and good,--of all that is beautiful, subli, strengthening,--of all that is cheering, exhilarating, transporting,--of all that I can wish for or enjoy,--of all that my powers can comprehend,--of all that my soul can appropriate and use I find in it, in short, riches unsearchable, beyond all that I could ever have asked, or thought And what can I wish for iven us no perfect teachers, no perfect preachers, no perfect churches; why should we suppose it necessary that He should give us a perfect book? He has not given us any perfect books on ardening, on education, or on poetry Why should we expect Hiion? As a matter of fact, He has not done so Our common Bible is a translation

So are all the common Bibles in the world And all translations are imperfect The translations are made from Greek and Hebrew Bibles, and those are all imperfect The Greek and Hebrew Bibles are compiled or formed from Greek and Hebrew manuscripts But these also are imperfect

They all differ froinals, for the originals are lost So that whether there was an absolutely perfect Bible at first or not, there is no such Bible now

God His, that all the Bibles in the world, like all the preachers, churches, and teachers, share the innocent iinal Bible to have been perfect, and to have been preserved from destruction, only one person could have possessed it The rest would have had to be content with iht Himself have written perfect Bibles for all ht have inal Bible, but He did not choose to do even that Hecopies of the Bible; but _that_ He did not do He left the work to be done by men, and men have done it, as they do all their work, ih The poorest h The h The poorest translation is good enough It is so good, we mean, that those who are able to read it, ood, and useful, and happy on earth, and to fit them for the blessedness of eternal life in heaven

There is a sense in which no translation of the Scriptures is good enough, if we can make it better; and we have no desire to preventtheir best to ies as much as possible But do not let them make the impression that a perfect translation is necessary or even possible; for it is not God has caused the Bible to be written in such a way, He has put all important matters of truth and duty in such a variety of forms, that any translation,and honesty, is sure to h in some of the forms in which they are presented in the Book

The Bible, like the Church and the Ministry, is a great le book, nor a single passage perhaps, in the whole volume, in which the weaknesses of man and the perfections of God are not blended Everywhere we have revelations of the divine glory, and everywhere we have manifestations of human imperfection We have human errors side by side with divine truths We have neither a perfect teacher nor a perfect example in the whole Book, but one; and of that one we have not a perfect record, either of His teachings or His life We have nothing but brief, ih; but they are very imperfect

And Moses, and the Prophets, and the Apostles, are perfect enough; but they are all i to the ordinaryof the word, still imperfect

We do not need perfection, we do not need infallibility, in anything; and we have it not I

And all this is in keeping with God's doings in other cases, 'The inspiration of the Holy One giveth ;' but does not make his mind infallible Christians 'have an unction, an inspiration, fros:' and yet they do not know all things; but only those things which pertain to God and Christ: and even their knowledge of these is acquired not all at once, or without the use of rees only, and by the faithful use of their natural powers

The Apostles were not machines Their inspiration did not take away their liberty, or suspend the use of their natural powers Nor did it teach them natural science, or history; or lift them above ordinary, innocent errors Nor did it cause theained their knowledge by degrees Soine, that the moment the Apostles received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they were perfect and infallible; whereas it took them nearly ten years to learn that they were to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles They had the words of Christ, 'Go ye into _all the world_, and preach the Gospel to _every creature_;' yet it required nearly ten years, and a special vision, to make them understand that _every creature_ included the Gentiles

Nor have we any proof that the Spirit ever made the Apostles infallible in every littleof the resurrection, 'That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die' Now the truth is, that the seed fros, does not die It siht, but the notion on which he grounded his illustration of it was an error But it answered his purpose And there is a sense in which seed dies It ceases to be a seed in becorain of wheat must become _rotten_ before it can sprout;' but that is not the case It ceases to be a rain to become a plant; but it does not become rotten; it remains alive and sound

The Apostle is an able lorious interpreter of Christ and His doctrine; and there is nothing seriously amiss in his illustrations; but several of the misconceptions

So, their writings would be of no use to us If they ht err in others, and we could have no certainty of the truth of anything' But that is not true On one occasion, Paul says, 'I knew not that it was God's high-priest' And on another, he says, 'I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius' Afterwards he says 'I baptized also the house of Stephanas:' and he finishes by saying, 'I know not whether I baptized any other' Will you say, 'If Paul could be ignorant or h-priest, or the nunorant or mistaken on every subject?' The truth is, a s, would be sure to think but little of s but Christ; would be sure to keep hinorance on soe on others And Paul is all the reat matters of Christian truth and duty, because of his indifference to matters of little or no importance And say ill, the Apostles were not infallible on every point, and they never professed to be so

They professed to be inspired, and inspired they were, but they did not profess to be wholly infallible, and it is certain they were not so

And the admission of the truth on this point, will _not_ destroy our confidence in them on others We may believe that the Apostles were fallible on matters of little moment, and have the fullest assurance possible that they were right on reat importance

The Apostles themselves were sufficiently assured of the truth of those ih their eyes and ears; yet neither the eyes nor the ears of man are always or absolutely infallible I have reen, and yellow for white; and I recollect two occasions on which coal or jet, seeht, as white as snow And I have often thought things to be s to be at rest, which wereYet I have the fullest confidence in ard to sounds I have thought a sound to be near, when it was far off; and I have thought a sound to be far off, when it was near And I have often mistaken one sound for another Yet I have all the confidence I need to have in my ears Both eyes and ears may need the help of the mind at times; but the mind is always at hand with its help In short, I know that all my senses are fallible; yet on every point of s sensible, that is needful to iouslike infinite or absolutely perfect knowledge or infallibility in any man: yet every one s moral and spiritual needful to his comfort and salvation

Our assurance of the truth and excellency of Christian doctrine rests on soical andand heart-cheering faith rests on theological theories, and that if those theories were exploded, it would perish, are, happily, under a great mistake Your faith, and hope, and joy, rest on the harmony between Christianity and your souls My faith and trust in the outorld, and ements, rest, not on any philosophical theory; but on the wonderful, the perfect adaptation of every thing to my nature, to my wants, to my comfort and welfare Nature answers tonature wasrequires They match They answer to each other exactly, all round, and lorious and blessed whole

And this is the secret of ard to Christianity and my soul They are made for each other They fit each other My soul just wants what Christianity brings; and Christianity just brings what ht and beauty answer to the eye, and as sound and music answer to the ear, and the whole of nature to the whole of reement Christianity and lorious match

They are one: as I and my life are one Christ is my life Christ is my all And He is all that round of the good Christian's faith It is not external or historical evidence; it is not metaphysical niceties or theories; it is not the endlessevidences of any kind which lie indivines, that makes you feel at rest in Jesus; but Jesus Himself, whose fulness just answers to your wants, and whose life and love juste as celebrated for the wisdoments, but often censured for the weakness or folly of the reasons which he gave for thee They make a wise and worthy profession of faith; but when they atteive reasons for their belief, they betray the ood reasons, but they cannot put them into words They do not always knohat their reasons for believing are The reasons they assign are not their real reasons They believed, and believed on good grounds, for sufficient reasons, years before they heard of the reasons they give for their belief to those who question then did not at first convince them, and they are not the kind of reasons likely to convince others

And it would be better if, instead of assigning them, they were to say: 'Well; I do not know that I can tell you the reasons why I believe the Bible; but I have reasons I aht I a for s in it that s in it that will not let ood I s in it that support me in trouble; that hts, good feelings, good purposes, good hopes, great peace, sweet rest, strong confidence, and a blessed prospect of a better life I like the Bible God: He is a great protector, and a blessed colorious things it says about His love and salvation In short, the Bible is a great part of , and I don't knohat I could do without it I cannot argue I don't know the reasons why I believe But the Bible just suits my soul, and I am inclined to believe that the world would be a dark place, and life a poor affair, without its blessed revelations and precious pro thus,the reasons or grounds of their faith The great reason really is, the perfect adaptation of the Bible to their nature and wants They believe unconsciously and unthinkingly in the divinity of nature, on account of the wonderful adaptation of its provisions to their natural wants They believe in virtuous love, and honorable e, and family life, and natural affections, and friendshi+p, and society, and governrounds The reasons of their faith are real, and good, and strong; but like the roots of a tree, they are lon, out of sight, under the ground They do not reflect on theive theaining favor day by day It is preferred by the ablest modern writers to all others It was the evidence that vanquished the infidel socialists of five and thirty years ago It is the evidence that makes our modern infidel advocates wince and waver

They hardly think it necessary to notice the historical evidences They know that they seldoet hold of men's hearts But they cannot afford to despise the internal evidences They are a real power Thousands are touched by a sight of Jesus as presented in the Gospels, for one that is uments from miracles or prophecies Even the miracles of Jesus owe their chief power to their benevolent character