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CHAPTER IV.

THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THE EVIDENCE OF "THE WORD," "JUSTIFIED IN THE SPIRIT.'

BEFORE beginning to track the river of salvation, I must for a moment glance at the internal evidence of Revelation. The Bible is an organ of God's power; and, in order to make it valid and efficient, He has given to it His own name, nature, and personality. Christ, the Author of it, was "slain from the foundation of the world;" and then God in Christ came down from heaven publicly to enrol His own name in the Testament, or covenant made with the world through Him. He openly before the then known world canonized His own name in the public document. "Two tables of testimony written with the finger of God." (Exod. xxxi. 18; Deut. ix. 10.) This was the first authorized page of the Sacred Volume; although, doubtless, the Book of Job, and some part of the Book of Genesis, had before been prepared, conventional matter been compiled, ready to add to the Sacred Canon. And then mark what occurred. God Himself witnessed the covenant, prefaced it with His own autograph.

"I am the Lord thy God." (Exod. xx. 2.) This was the first word of the Bible, "written with the finger of God." His name is in it. If we had only the two tables that He wrote with His own finger, would it not be enough to discern His great name-enough to set up His great name upon the earth? Does not the standard of the Decalogue, of Revelation, at once announce to us the name of God? The Bible is heaven. A perfect attainment to its standard would be heaven; and thus it was the Lawgiver said, in rehearsing the law, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." And again, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." This is the name of God in His Word. Men do not disbelieve this; they believe and tremble, as the devils do. They want not to believe; they want to rid their conscience of this belief and fear that torments them. The standard, God's own name, that is set up there, is too high for them; and so they try to make that Word darkness, which is light, lest their deeds should be reproved. If they had perfect love, it would cast out the fear. I cannot conceive how anybody can take the trouble to confute the deniers of Inspiration. I should as soon think of trying to

make men believe that light is darkness; day, night; mind, body; or spirit, matter. As a reasonable being, I would not descend to reason with persons who wilfully profane their reason to the service of the destroyer, for by no surer means can he destroy souls than by effacing the name of God from the Bible. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." This was written with God's own finger. Beware, beware, mad trifler! how you trifle with that name! "How should my name be polluted?" "The man of wisdom shall see thy name." Daniel could lay no greater charge against himself than this, "We have not hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name." God said of Christ by David, "I will set him up on high, because he hath known my name." And I shall show you later how He did confess and walk by that name as enrolled and received in the Sacred Volume. "Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, I have both glorified, and will glorify it again." (John xii. 28, 29.) There have been some words added to this verse by the translator, but I think they destroy the meaning, which is that the Father would glorify the name of His Son with His own. Jesus said, "This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me." (xvii. 11.)

"Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy, for all nations shall come and worship

(Ps. lxxiv. 10.)
(Ps. lxxiv. 10.)

before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest." (Rev. xv. 4.) And so, I think, the judgment of the third vial of time will be the best answer, refutation of the heretical writings which so inundate us at this moment, that has been written. It will be a voice, a thunder that will tell us the name of God is in the Bible: "Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?" One of the most sublime features in the Psalms of David is the manner in which he extolled the name of God, "I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." (Ps. cxxxviii. 2.) And shall we blaspheme it? Shall we deny, blot out the name of God, if we find a human flaw in a volume that has been written, rewritten, translated, and retranslated times without number during nearly four thousand years. I ask the whole world if it is not a miracle, a Godlike wonder of truthfulness? None but God in it could have preserved it thus pure; and instead of blaspheming His holy name, it would be well if we worship Him as "the Truth, the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God."

Secondly, I say, God has given to Revelation His own nature. What is that nature? that ether, etherial existence? What is the metaphysic of Revelation? Essential holiness. "I the Lord your God am holy." Hence the designation of "The Spirit of Truth," "The Holy Ghost." This is the

nature of God, God. The Spirit of Truth, teaching, ani mating, leading on to perfection, to a perfect, everlasting state, is the metaphysic of Revelation. The Spirit of Truth revealing man a sinner, corrupt in nature, a revolter from his God; revealing to him God in Christ, a Healer, Restorer, Redeemer, Father, a reconciled God, is the metaphysic of Revelation, the nature of God in Revelation. "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." Now to beget is to cause to be produced, therefore the assertion of the Apostle is not of an ideal conception, but of a procreation by the power of God, and that power is an existence, His own essential nature, holiness, and truth. We can never return to Him, but by thus returning to His bosom; but by thus enfolding ourselves in His nature, being in union with His Holy Spirit through Christ, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God;" this is the way to heaven, this is the ocean of eternal bliss.

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"In Him was life," and as "the head of the body, the Church," we, one body with Him, do receive life through Him: "As many as received Him to them gave He power become the sons of God, to them that believe on his name which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." And hence the volume of life, ever

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