THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES. No other religion meets all these requirements of the human constitution; therefore the religion of the Bible is the only true religion. ""Tis revelation satisfies all doubts, We wish to observe, however, that the Bible is only a record of the divine revelation. As Professor Drummond has said, "The Bible came out of religion, not religion out of the Bible. The Bible is a product of religion, not a cause of it."1 But this sacred record of the divine manifestations upon which the Christian religion is based contains blessed promises of what God will yet accomplish in behalf of the race, and therefore the WORD comes to us as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Psa. 119:105. Since this revelation alone meets the religious requirements of mankind and endures every rational test, we accept it as of divine origin, and from this time forward we shall appeal to the Bible as an authoritative standard. 1 Drummond's Addresses, p. 381. CHAPTER VI. GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM. We now come directly to a consideration of the revelation which God has given to man. After the fall in Eden, God, according to the record in Genesis, made himself known in some manner to the antediluvians. During that period, however, we discover but few indications of any future plan of redemption. But coming forward to the time of Abraham, we find a wonderful revelation of his future workings made known unto that patriarch. With the departure of Abram from Ur of the Chaldees, Hebrew history opens, and a new era of heavenly inspiration begins. This introduction is set forth in beautiful words in a prayer offered by his descendants in the days of Nehemiah: "Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham: and foundest his heart faithful before thee, and MADEST A COVENANT WITH HIM." Neh. 9:7, 8. The Chaldeans, we know, were idol-worshipers. How Abraham, under polytheistic surroundings and influences, came to be a faithful man, with a knowledge of the one true God, the sacred narrative does not inform us; but a venerable tradition represents him as turning from their custom-sanctioned idolatrous worship to a simpler and purer faith. "The mythical story of his conversion is not without beauty and instructiveness. It represents Terah, his father, as a maker of wooden idols; and shows how the son's antagonism to the corruption of religion, which the business symbolized, developed and culminated. Being left one day in charge of the stock in trade, Abraham was profoundly impressed at the folly and superstition of a woman, who devoutly brought food to satisfy the hunger of things, which though they had mouths, could not eat, and which were as unable to appreciate gifts as they were to appropriate them. But his indignation grew fiercer, and his views of duty clearer, when an aged man entered his tent and desired to purchase of his wares. 66 66 66 "How old art thou?' "Threescore years.' 'What, three score years!' answered Abraham, and thou wouldst worship a thing that my father's slaves made in a few hours? Strange that a man of sixty should bow his gray head to a creature such as that.' "Unable longer to restrain his scorn, and reason asserting its sovereignity over conflicting doubts, after the departure of his would-be customer he broke all the idols to pieces except one. The largest one he spared, and placed in its hands the hammer which had served him in his iconoclasm. When Terah returned, he was filled with horror and consternation at the work of destruction which he beheld, and angrily demanded the name of the irreverent wretch who had dared to raise his impious arm against the gods. 'Why,' quietly replied the then youthful patriarch, 'during thine absence a woman brought them food, and the younger and smaller ones immediately began to eat. The older and stronger god, enraged at their unmannerly boldness, took the hammer which you see in his hands, and crushed them all before him.' "Dost thou deride thine aged father?' cried Terah. 'Do I not know that they can neither move nor eat?' "And yet thou worshipest them,' exclaimed Abraham; 'and thou wouldst have me worship them as well.' "This rebuke was too much for the outraged parent, and, consequently, according to the legend, he sent the wayward youth to the king for admoni tion and correction. count of his infidelity and impiety, instead of condemning him hastily and harshly, he sought to win him to some form of faith. When Nimrod heard the ac ""If thou canst not adore the idols fashioned by thy father,' said the accommodating monarch, 'then pray to fire.' 66 'Why not to water, which will quench the fire?' "Be it so; pray to water.' "But why not to the clouds, which hold the water?' "Well, then, pray to the clouds.' "Why not to the winds which drive the clouds before them?' ""Certainly, please yourself; pray to the winds.' "Be not angry, O king,' finally replied Abraham. 'I can not pray to the fire, or the water, or the clouds, or the winds, but to the Creator who made them: him only will I worship.' Neither would he be persuaded to adore the sun, moon, and stars, for he discerned that they were not stationary, and he said, as he contemplated the heavens, 'I like not things that set; these glittering orbs are not gods, as they are subject to law: I will worship him only whose law they obey.' "1 1 Lorimer, Isms Old and New, pp. 41, 42. |