ft^P ^ggH»tS«*! THE BIBLE IN OUR DAY. BY W. P. BONE, Professor of New Testament Interpretation in Cumber- land University, Lebanon, Tenn. S* B5530 B7I . B3HH ''W'O&J .Hi:;- ■•7 , :- , * , s- >*«>*:'^ •■•- I ■ ■^ a** ^ l^c 3HfM»h»0fas/ '*. PRINCETON, N. J. */i # Division.^X J f.^J-^ \-s .187/ Section THE BIBLE IN OUR DAY. BY W. P. BONE, Pkoftessor of New Testament Interpretation is Cl-mjif.r* land university, lebanon, tenn. NASHVILLE, TENN. : Cr.MBKRi.ANn Presbyterian Publishing Hqttsk. 1899. THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE. This is a question which has long been a subject of discussion among Rationalists, Roman Catholics, and Protestants. It is an oft-recurring question, arising in a thousand different forms, and having much to do with every-day life as well as doctrinal opinion. The Roman Catholic takes a position which practi- cally makes the authority of the Church greater than that of the Bible. The Rationalist denies either that a supernatural rev- elation has been made, or that it has any binding au- thority, granting that one has been made. The liberal Protestant view is that which allows more or less authority to the Scriptures — authority here and there, in this place or the other, wherever the reader may choose to recognize it. Lastly, there is the regular Protestant view, which holds that the Bible is really and truly the word of God, and that its authority is final. The last view is the one to be maintained, and for two reasons: 1. The first of these is tlu fad that the Bible contains a supernatural rerelrrtion. 4 The Bible in Our Day. Man instinctively feels that God is near him, and over him, and has to do with him. He feels that he needs a revelation, and that God is good enough and powerful enough to grant him one — a thing which the greatest philosophers have ever been unahle to do. xigain, if we do not accept the Holy Scriptures as containing a revelation, how can we account for the existence of these hooks? They are either genuine and authentic, or they are forgeries. If the latter, then why docs not some man rise up wise enough and strong enough to establish their spuriousness? All elf oris in this direction so far have failed. We next inquire as to the credibility of the writers, and we find that the lives they lived, the reputation which they bore, the persecutions which they endured, the accuracy of their statements, and their agreement with one another — all strengthen the view that their testimony is true. Another link in this chain of evidence may be added when we consider the contents of the Bible — their ele- vated character, their dignified tone of utterance, their consistency of detail, their unity of purpose, their re- markable sanity, their practical bearing, their silent majesty, and indescribable sublimity. This is all the more remarkable when we remember that the sixty- six books were written by forty or fifty differeni authors The Bible in Ottb Day. 5 — prophets, priests, kings, a lax gatherer, a physician, a shepherd, a tent maker, a fisherman — written at in- tervals through a period of fifteen hundred years, all the books together constituting an organic whole, bear- in g unmistakable evidence of being the product of one luind, and all being peculiarly adapted to the needs and the longings of the human soul. Without the ISible what did the Egyptians, or the Persians, or the Assyrians, or the Greeks, or the Romans, or the Goths, <;i the Vandals, know about God? Nowhere but to the Bible can men go for the true knowledge of God, or immortality, or salvation, or the future life. Xo where but in the Bible can we find a •: 1 de of morals so comprehensive, so spiritual, so simple, -0 practical. Another proof for the doctrine of a supernatural rev- elation is that derived from the personal character of Christ. The Scriptures make Christ known to us — his birth, life, death, resurrection, works and teachings, in all of which he reveals God to us, being himself the fullest and clearest revelation of God that has ever been made to man. He is portrayed in the four gospels as 1 he Perfect One. Xo other perfect Son of Man, real or imaginary, has ever been found. But the Bible does much more than furnish all this evidence as to what it is in itself. One of the strongest proofs of its divinity is the great fruit which it has 6 The Bjble in Oub Day. borne. In the face of the fiercest opposition, and not- withstanding all the weaknesses and inconsistencies of its friends, it has driven back the tide of heathenism, planted its banners in all the continents of the world, turned the whole course of history, prepared the great highway for the highest civilization, and filled the whole earth with songs of peace and good will to men. Turning once more to the line of evidence found in the Scriptures themselves, we find that two of the strongest arguments are yet to be mentioned — argu- ments which we are accustomed to base on miracles and prophecy. Without here attempting to define miracles, we may say that they were certainly intended as at- testations of a supernatural revelation. They were the credentials, so to speak, of a divine authority. Said John Foster, "They are the great bell of the universe which draws men to God's sermon." It was only when God was speaking in some wonderful man- ner that miracles were performed. They were the most frequent in the days of Moses and Christ, and ceased with the labors of the apostles. "They were," said Beecher, "candles lit before the dawn, but put out after the sun had arisen." The evidential value of prophecy is similar to that of the miracle. It witnesses the fact that the revela- tion is from God, for prophecy could not be without the direct intervention of God. The prophecies of the The Bible in Our Day. 7 Old Testament, which are clearly fulfilled in the New, constitute one of the strongest evidences we have of a supernatural revelation. 2. The second reason for accepting the authority of the Bible as final is the fact that it is fully inspired of God. To say that the Bible contains a divine revelation is not the same thing as saying that it is inspired. The distinction is a very important one, and is made on scriptural and rational grounds, though there are many who confound the two statements. The object of revelation is to impart truth. The object of inspiration is to malfe a correct record, and to make it teach what God would have taught. When man receives a revelation, God giants him knowledge which none but God can communicate; when a man is inspired, God makes him write without error. When the gospel of Luke or the book of Acts was written, there was inspiration, but not revelation. When the Apocalypse was written both inspiration and revela- tion were present. When the children of Israel re- ceived the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, there was revelation without inspiration. There are men who profess to be evangelical, and who admit the authority of revelation, but fail to see any authority beyond that Do they admit inspira- tion? They say they do. But they practically deny it when they say they are willing to hear Christ but 8 The Bible in Oub Day. aj-e not willing to be governed by the epistles of Paul, or when they reserve to themselves the right to dissect the Scriptures and accept some parts as authoritative and others as not. The man who rejects the doctrine of an infallible Bible, "comes to the Bible," says Ban- nerman, "and sits over its contents in the attitude of a judge who is to decide for himself what in it is true and worthy to be believed, and what in it is false and deserving to be rejected; not in the attitude of the dis- ciple who, within the limits of the inspired record, feels himself at Jesus' feet, to receive every word that cometh out of his mouth. . . ?• The assurance that the Bible is the word of God, and not simply containing it, in more or less of its human language, is one litted to sol- emnize the soul with a holy fear, and a devout su It- mission to its declarations as the very utterances of God. The assurance, on the contrary, that the truths of revelation are mingled, in a manner unknown and indeterminate, with the defects of the record, is one which reverses the attitude, and brings man as a mas- ter to sit in judgment on the Bible as summoned to his bar, and bound to render up to him a confession of its errors, and not a declaration of its one and author- itative truth." Happily we are not without some authoritative state- ments on this subject. We hear the apostle Peter say- ing in his second epistle: "For the prophecy came not The Bible in Our Day. 9 in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." In his second epistle to Timothy Paul says: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." Here Paul plainly declares the doctrine of full inspiration. If we take the reading of the Revised Version, it is still plainly implied. Perhaps it will not be out of place to enumerate some of the various theories of inspiration: * There is what we may call the mechanical, or dic- tation, theory, which makes the biblical writers mere machines, uttering no words of their own, but uttering the very words of God, syllable by syllable. This view is almost universally rejected to-day. Another theory which may be regarded as unsatis- factory is that of partial inspiration. The parts of the Bible which are admitted to be inspired are those containing doctrinal teachings and precepts, or things supernaturally communicated, or the general ideas found in the Scriptures. It is a view held by those who deny that the Bible is the word of God, allowing only that it contains the word of God, a view which may be traced back to Grotius, and to the Jewish rabbi, Maimonides, of the Middle Ages. Still another view is that there are different degrees of inspiration. All Scripture is inspired, we are told, but some parts are more fully inspired than others. It ■•See Hodye, Strong-, Manly. io The Bible in Our Day. is a view which had its origin with the Jews who wished to put the law higher than the prophets, and the proph- ets higher than the books of wisdom. Then there is what we may call natural inspiration, or inspiration of genius, such as that possessed by Homer, Plato, Socrates, Dante, Milton, and Shakes- peare. This view degrades the whole idea. It allows everybody to be inspired. It practically denies inspi- ration, making what is supernatural natural — as natural as the falling of the rain or the shining of the stars. Again, there is the view that the biblical writers were inspired just as all Christians are inspired. This was the view of Fred. W. Robertson and Martineau in Eng- land and James Freeman Clarke in America. It is the illumination theory. But inspiration is something more than Christian illumination, else why do we not have written to-day such books as were produced in the first century? There is a view yet to be mentioned which has more to commend it than all those which have been de- scribed. It is the theory of the full inspiration of all the books of Holy Scripture, so that in every part we have the troth that is without a mixture of error, and an authority that is final. This is the view held by the majority of evangelical writers. Says Dr. Philip Schaff: "The New Testament pre- sents in its wav the same union of the divine and The Bible in Our Day. ii human natures as the person of Christ. . . . The Bible is thoroughly human, though without error, in con- tents and form, in the mode of its rise, its compila- tion, its preservation and transmission; yet at the same time thoroughly divine, both in its thoughts and werds, in its origin, vitality, energy and effect." Dr. R. V. Foster, in his Systematic Theology, page 124, says: "It is sufficient to say, that the theory which best conforms itself to all the accepted results of a well- balanced and reverent biblical criticism, is that which regards inspiration as dynamical in its mode and pie- nary in its extent. . . . But of course those who hold (as most persons do) that we cannot think without thinking in words, will see at once that this plenary inspiration must at the same time be verbal, but not in any such sense as to override the linguistic and rhetor- ical predilections and preferences of the respective writers." While, then, the Bible bears all the marks of human authorship, it is also the word of God in every part, from the beginning to the end. This applies, of course, only to the original autographs of the inspired writers. And yet the blemishes and defects which have crept into the Bible through the hands of copyists and trans- lators, are so slight that we may feel sure that we prac- tically have the same Bible to-day as it was when it was originally written. 1 2 The Bible ix On; Day. If this view of full inspiration be correct, we see more force than ever in the claim that the Scriptures are our only infallible rule of faith and practice, and that they voice for us — in Paul's Epistles as well as in the gospels — the very commands, precepts, and promises of God. The authority of the Bible is based on what it is in itself — on its truthfulness, sacredness, and grandeur, or rather on the fact that it is God's book. This judg- ment is not weakened by the admission of the human element in the authorship of the Scriptures. It is bad reasoning in this case to say, "Human, therefore fal- lible; fallible, therefore false in some measure." This might be true if the human were not superintended and modified by the divine. If the writers were super- Baturally controlled, we have at least the right to pre- sume that they wrote a correct account of all matters Intended to be recorded. It is true that some of the enemies of the Bible, and even some of its friends, have had a great deal to say about the errors supposed to be in the Bible. There are biblical scholars in our country to-day, who, in recent books and published articles, have affirmed their belief that there were errors in the Bible as originally written. A greut deal has been said about errors in matters of science, but these are not so easy to find as one might think. It would be rather difficult to lind a list of biblical passages which have been corrected by The Biblb in Ouk Day. 13 science, though it may be admitted that science has now and then corrected a false interpretation of some scriptural passage. Then we hear of errors in matters of history. But when we make allowance for the mis- takes of copyists and for misapprehension of the real facts of history, this objection largely disappears. Discovery and archeology have done much to verif) the truthfulness of the Bible. Besides these we hear of errors of morality, errors of chronology, errors of (juotation, errors of prophecy. But these are only al- leged errors, most of which can be reasonably explained, and all of which might possibly be explained if we had all the facts before us. IL THE PRESENT STATE OF BIBLICAL CRITI- CISM. In some respects it is unfortunate that the word "criticism" has ever been used in connection with live Bible, for its real meaning has perhaps been misunder- stood by the majority of people. Some have understood it to mean finding fault with the Scriptures, or cutting them to pieces. The example of some critics has made the impression that this was the meaning of the word. But the word does not mean hostility to the Bible, nor a rationalistic attitude to the Bible, nor a particular set of results. It is a method of discovering and verify- ing facts relating to the Bible, and which we ought to know before attempting to interpret it. Some critics, indeed, are hostile to the Bible, but the fault is with the critic — with his spirit or his at- titude — rather than with the processes of criticism. There is certainly no harm in studying the foundations of Christian belief; for if there are any flaws in the Christian argument, let them be exposed, and if there is anything which needs to have the light turned upon it, let the light stream in. As a rule, the more men investigate the facts pertaining to the Bible, the stronger and more intelligent is their faith in Christianity. When we examine thoroughly and honestly all the (14) The Bible in Our Day. 15 attacks made upon the Bible, or any part of it, and see how baseless and how trivial the objections are, it is no small gain for the student of God's word. The subjects discussed under the head of Biblical criticism are all such questions as the origin, form, and value of the writings, the languages in which they are written, the condition of the text, and the prin- ciples by which the writings are to be interpreted. When we consider, for example, the origin of a book, we ask, Who was the author? What were Ms qualifica- tions for authorship? His occupation, or his habits? Or, we ask, Is the writing genuine? Is it authentic? Is it by one author, or is it a compilation? Or, When and where was the book written ? It is certainly proper and important to study these questions. Very truly has Dr. C. M. Mead said: "Genuine criticism is noth- ing but the search after truth; and of this there cannot be too much." But, however important such study is, it is not indispensable. These are only matters of detail, and do not touch the great and vital truths of the Bible. Millions of Bible readers who have long since passed through the gates of pearl, never knew anything about the questions of Biblical criticism. Criticism is not, therefore, essential to the life of the Christian. Men do not accept the Bible on the authority of a pastor, or Sunday school teacher; nor do they accept it on the authority of some learned critic. There is some- 1 6 The Bible in Our Day. thing in the Book itself which commands the reverence and faith of men. If we should limit the field of criticism to the contents of the books and their char- acteristics, the methods employed would be three in number, and are called respectively, the literary, the historical, and the theological methods. When the literary method is followed such features are studied as the author's vocabulary, idioms, phrases, figures of speech and style. The historical method considers all such matters as allusions to historical persons, intitutions, or events; such matters as are not mentioned when we would ex- pect them to be mentioned, and such matters as do not appear to be in their proper chronological order. The theological method deals more with the subject matter of the books, the object being to determine as much as pos- sible the system of thought, or the form of doctrine held by the author. But what of the present state, or outlook, of Biblical criticism? If we look to the litera- ture of the day for an answer, it will be something like this: "The darkness lingers, but the day is dawn- ing. *' The great tendency is toward the evangelical position. The destructive critics have been able to see that many of their positions are untenable, and (lie evangelical critics are not so timid as they were formerly. The evangelical critics have, with the same scholar- ship and industry shown by their opponents, examined The Bible in Our Day. 17 the same sources of information, pursued the same Hues of investigation, and obtained results more positive in their character. The great skeptic is not as oracular in our day as he was in other days, and his marches through the land are not as triumphal. It is because the light has been diffused, the average of intelligence has been raised, and the processes of investigation have been much more generally carried on. liiblical criticism is not a new thing. It goes back to the time when the Ebionites rejected Paul's Epistles because of their doctrinal teachings, and when the Marcionites rejected all but some of Paul's writings be- cause these only, they thought, were in harmony with their doctrine. These decisions were made chiefly on internal grounds. At a later period the stress was laid on external evidence, or the testimony of the successors of the apostles, whenever the origin or acceptance of the books of the Xew Testament was in question. The reformers came back to internal evidence, which was especially emphasized by Luther and Calvin. It was on such evidence that Luther rejected the Epistle of James. The Rationalists continued this process till the third decade of this century, when the historical school led the way back to a new study of the extra-canonical literature. In our day there seems to be a disposition on all sides to profit by the mistakes which have been 1 8 The Bible in Our Day. made by others in the past, and a desire to do unbiased, unprejudiced work — work of a truly scientific character — and to accept light from any quarter. Among the more important problems in New Testament criticism, and which are still discussed, are the following: The origin of the Synoptic Gospels, the authorship of the fourth gospel, the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles, the authorship of Hebrews, and the genuineness and integrity of the Apocalypse. In 1885 a Tubingen professor (Yoltcr) attacked the integrity of the Apocalypse. About the same time a pupil of Harnack (Vischer) made a similar attack on the same book. In 1888 came an attack on Galatians from the University of Berne, in 1891 one on Acts from the University of Strasburg, and in 1892 one on the Synoptic Gospels from the University of Heidel- berg. These are all subjective in character, and hence onesided, and transitory in their effect. Occasionally work of a similar character is done in the United States. This is the evidence that we have that "the darkness still lingers." But such criticisms as these are excep- tional, and are comparatively unimportant when we consider the illustrious names on the positive side, and the growing army of men who are no longer swayed by prejudice, or biased by schools of thought, as many in the past have been. And this is the evidence that "the day is dawning." m. MEN OF TO-DAY AS INTERPRETERS OF THE BIBLE. As exegesis naturally follows criticism, our next in- quiry will be concerning men of to-day as interpreters of the Bible. We cannot go far without being im- pressed by the fact that the interpreter has a much greater opportunity of rendering a real service to hu- manity than has the critic. His time is consumed not so much with introductory details and external features as with the very essence of God's revelation itself — not so much with the shell as the kernel. Reference here is made, of course, to men whose schol- arship and labors entitle them to an honorable place among the interpreters of the Bible. But it would be very easy to extend the meaning of the word so as to include all who at any time undertake to preach the gospel, for all such persons are, in one sense, inter- preters of the Scriptures. What the churches need to-day more than any other one thing is men who are spiritually and intellectually qualified to expound the Scriptures to their fellowmen. Paul's advice to Timothy was, "Preach the word." But there are thousands of sermons preached, even in this (19) 20 The Bible in Our Day. age of ours, in which the word of God is almost entirely ignored. It is perhaps a string of pearls from the litera- ture of the past, or a dip into the learning of our times, or a sensational leap into notoriety, or a series of pic- tures merely for entertainment, or an unedifying per- formance of the voice. If the deep, full, real meaning of God's Word were made known to God's people hy his preachers; if these same preachers were more careful in declaring the whole counsel of God than in warping and twisting certain isolated texts; if in all our churches the word of God were faithfully expounded from year to year, then you would see a hardier, more A'igorous body of Christians, more solidity and moral stamina in Christian char- acter, and a more speedy arrival of the better day that is coming. It is a blessed fact that we have an open Bible. It is also a blessed fact that all alike, the lettered and the unlettered, may read the Bible with profit. Neverthe- less it is true that a great deal of the Bible cannot be understood without much laborious study. Many chap- ters and books of the Bible we read over and over again, each time adding something new to our stock of biblical knowledge. It is not surprising that we should need commentaries on the Bible, when we iwvd them on the writings of the Greeks and Romans, and on all the other literatures that have come down to us from an- The Bible in Our Day. 21 cient times. We know that words change their mean- ing, and modes of thought are constantly changing. It might he a matter of some interest if we made a comparison between the commentators and commen- taries of our day with those of other days. Perhaps the first thing we will notice is that more reliable methods are used in our day. We know how unsparing Jesus was in condemning the methods of Jewish interpreters who nullified the commandments of God and taught for doctrines the commandments of men, and how vigorous Paul was in denouncing "Jewish fables and commandments of men/*' "foolish question- ings and genealogies and strife and fightings about the law," and "philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradi- tion of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." We read how Philo, who loved to allegorize the Scrip- tures, made the four rivers in the garden of Eden mean prudence, temperance, courage, and justice; how Clement, of Alexandria, maintained that the laws of Moses had four meanings — the natural, the mystical, the moral, and the prophetical; how Swedenborg found three senses everywhere, the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial; how the followers of Kant abandoned the literal and historical sense; how Paulus in his New Testament commentary rejected all supernatural agency in human affairs; how David Strauss turned much of 12 The Bible in Our Day. gospel history into a myth; how Kuenen and Wellhausen were controlled by speculative philosophy; and how many narrow sectarians have illegitimately turned the Scriptures to sectarian advantage. But tins is not all that may be paid about the misinterpretation of Scrip- ture. Let us listen to the strong words of Canon Farrar on this subject in his "History of Interpretation," "The misinterpretation of Scripture/' says this brave and eloquent preacher, "must be reckoned among the gravest calamities of Christendom. . . . The Crusaders, think- ing that they did God service by wading bridle deep in the blood of infidels, who were often morally superior to themselves, justified their massacres by the exter- minating wars of the Book of Judges. ... A crime so atrocious as Ihc massacre of St Bartholomew was hailed by Pope Gregory XIII. with acclamation. . . . Even the Spanish Inquisition — that infamy of Christendom -r-appealed to scriptural warrant for the right to im- molate its holocausts of victims, and the bloodstained Alva received from the Pope a jeweled sword with the inscription, 'Receive the holy sword, a gift from God.' . . . Not only cursings and anathemas, but the axes, the stakes, the gibbets, the thumbscrews, the racks and all the instruments of torture kept in the dungeons of priests to deprave the heart of nations, and to horrify the world, were defended by scraps of text* and shreds Tbe Bible in Our Day. 23 of metaphor from the mercy breathing parables of Christ. Texts have been used a thousand times to bar the progress of science, to beat down the sword of freedom, to destroy the benefactors of humanity, to silence the voice of truth." It is not so as a rule with the interpreters of our day. Their methods are more commendable in spirit, more thorough in detail, and more scientific in their processes. Even the various denominational commen- taries are less and less biased by the sectarian spirit, the desire being rather to make a contribution to Christian scholarship, or to biblical knowledge. And while the commentaries of our day are characterized, as a rule, by "scholarship and thoroughness, they are at the same time reverent, honest, devout, and conservative in their tendencies. It is only now and then that one goes off on tangent lines, or rides a hobby horse, or runs wild with speculation, or is turned into the Shibboleth of churches with or without written creeds. Before leaving this subject it may be also remarked that the tendency in exegetical theology is not towards the extremes in theological thought, but rather towards a conservative or medium position. IV. TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE WHICH NEED EMPHASIS IN OUR DAY. My last topic is perhaps of a in ore practical character tlian the others — the teachings of the Bible which should be specially emphasized in our day. 1. The teaching which I would have emphasized first of all, is that concerning the presence of a holy, per- sonal God in the daily life of men— in the social, busi- ness, intellectual, and religious life of men. It is not that this great truth, "God in us, and we in God," has never been preached, or is not preached at all to-day. What I mean is that this great doc- trine of the divine immanence, the divine indwelling, needs to be emphasized more than ever in our day. Perhaps no loftier truth was ever revealed to men than that they were created for fellowship with God, and this is their highest privilege on the summits of the great mountains of redemption. Why is it we have so many shams in religion, so much hollowness and dead- ness in the churches, or so much drifting with the muddy currents of the world? It is because the people have not been thinking about God, or it is because they (24) The Bible in Our Day. 25 have not had the proper conception of God, or it is because they have never had a deep, genuine experience of the presence of God. Then perhaps there is some truth in the words of a recent prominent writer, who says: "In the craft and subtlety of the devil and man, religion i:pg evcT tended to wither away into Judaism, into Rabbinism. into scholasticism, into Romanism, into sectarianism, into the dead schemes of dogmatic belief, into the dead routines of elaborate ceremonial, and into the dead exelusiveness of parly narrowness/ 5 Hence it is that men need to come hack to God, to get a vision of God, to see him in the burning bush, to get some proper conception of Iris holiness, majesty, and glory, to hold exalted fellowship with him, and to love him with a love that is made up of all that is noblest and best in their natures. Above all it is for the preacher to have his life in God, and God in his life; to know of a surety lhat God is with him, and that God is speaking to h"m and through him. Above all it is for the preacher to be a man of prayer, of faith, and of constant com- munion with God. Above all it is for the preacher to have God in his thoughts, to have God in all his plans, to have God in all his sermons, and in all his private and public affairs. How can he ever hope to win men over to a \ital piety, or persuade them to live at the foot of xho cross, unless they see that he himself has been with God? 26 The Bible in Ouk Day. But it is not the preacher I would dwell on so much as the message. We do not need anything new, or novel, or startling in religion. We need nothing one- sided, or vague, or indefinite. But we do need the re- ligion which comes down from heaven — the religion that fired and filled the hearts of St. Paul, and Martin Luther, and John Knox, and Ewing, and King, and McAdow, and Donnell. What I con- tend for is that the preaching most needed in our times, when German pantheism and Indian philosophy are afloat in the air, and when religion often means nothing but the mumbling of cant phrases or wearing line clothes to church, is that winch gives men a proper conception of a personal and holy God, and of the coming into right relations with him through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. The second teaching of the Bible, winch I would have emphasized is that concerning what we are to do for humanity's sake. Have you ever thought about how much God himself has done? The Sabbath was for man, the Bible was for man, and the life of Christ was for man. If you will read the four gospels again and again until your mind is saturated with the story, if in the solitude of the quiet hour you will ponder all the events between Bethlehem and Calvary, yon will get a vision fairer than mortal man has ever found elsewhere. Something for humanity's sake is the ecu- The Bible in Our Day. 27 *• tral feature of that vision, and hence it follows that every- Christlike life must be for humanity's sake. Such a truth is peculiarly appropriate for the day in winch we live, because it is pre-eminently the day when the hearts of men everywhere are widening, when the enthusiasm for humanity is at high tide, and when ten thousand gates are swinging wide open to the mes- sengers of charity and good will. It is the new era of good works for humanity's sake, when kings and presi- dents, diplomats and statesmen, armies and navies, are kindling new fires upon the altars of patriotism. It is a time when the conception of national and inter- national responsibility for the welfare of men is growing rapidly — as rapidly as the years are going by. It seems to be, therefore, a peculiarly opportune time for preach- ing with more emphasis the Bible doctrine of service and sacrifice for man. 3. A third Bible teaching which needs emphasis in our day is that concerning right living. What we need is more ethical preaching, based on the religion of Christ. Men need to be morally in- structed, to have their consciences made more tender, and to have more of honor and integrity in the warp and woof of their lives. Perhaps it is as much the business of the home as that of the pulpit to give this instruction, but the pulpit must give it even if the home fails to do so. If the moral tone of the individual, or 28 The Bible in Our Day. the home, or the community is not as high as it should he, it is the duty of the pulpit to raise it. How im- portant, therefore, that right living should be practiced by the pulpit before moral instruction is given to tbe people. The greatest obstruction in the road of the kingdom's progress is not infidelity, but the moral in- consistencies of church people. Men of the world stand at a distance and point the finger of scorn when they sec ministers and laymen in unseemly scrambles for place and power, or when they see them in conspiracy to destroy the rights of others, or when they see them; so to speak, doing evil that good may come. -1. The fourth Bible teaching, which I would have emphasized, is that which bears on the greatest of themes — the evangelization of the world. In these latter times, after one hundred years of missions, after so much heroic and fruitful service has been done by the Careys, the Judsons, the Livingstones, the Moffats, the Taylors, and the Pa tons, church people everywhere are beginning to be seized with the convic- tion that the finger of God is pointing to missionary fields as the field for the last and the suprcmest effort of the Christian Church. The time for church debates, theological wrangles, and sectarian bitterness is gone by, and a new era is upon us. We live at a time wheu a nation is converted in a day; when ten thousand trumpet calls are coming from different parts of the The Bible in Oub Day. 29 globe; when large fortunes are laid on the altar for the spread of Christianity; and when statesmen, scientists, inventors, editors, teachers, and merchants, all have a share in the work of evangelization. We have had the Parliament of Eeligions, and the two great lessons com- ing from it are: First, that Christianity did not suffer by comparison; second, that it cannot, on principle, l>e expected to take a place among the other religions of the world. Christianity is the only religion about which it could be said that it is final, universal, and absolute. This is the age of missionary responsibility, and es- pecially for English speaking peoples. Shall we bear a manly part, or shall it be an ignoble one? Let it be the former; and, to carry out this purpose, let all our colleges and seminaries be endowed, let all our publish- ing work be sustained, let all our people be trained in systematic giving, and let all our preachers be pure and strong, preaching the Word of God in the power of the Spirit — all in the name of a religion which is as "broad as the path of God's commandments, deep as the ocean of lus love, free as his common air, bright as his im- partial sunshine, loving as his all-embracing^ mercy, universal as his omnipotent rule." LIST OF BOOKS STUDENTS NEW TESTAMENT NASHVILLE, TENN. : Cumberland PREgBYTKRiAN Publishing Houbb. 1899, List of Books for Students of the New Testament. Note. — The books in the following list are recommended as aids to New Testament study, but this recommendation does not carry with it an endorsement of all the opinions expressed. Any of these books may be ordered through the Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, Nash- ville, Tennessee. Publishers' prices are given. i. New Testament in Greek, Westcott and Hort : The New Testament in the origin*! Greek. Harpers. $1.00. Macmillan. $1.00. Students' edition, with Lexicon. $1.90. Teschendorf: The New Testament in Greek. Gebhart's edition. Leincke & Buechner (N. Y.), $1.35. Weymouth: The Resultant Greek Testament. Exhibiting the variations of all the leading editions. Funk and Wag-nails. $3.00. Scrivener: Parallel New Testament, Greek and English. Containing in four parallel columns the Authorized Version, the Revised Version, the Received Greek Text, and the variations of the Revisers' Greek Text- Cambridge Press. $4.50. Palmer : Parallel New Testament, Greek and English.. Same as preceding except that Revisers' Greek Text is given, with variations of Received Greek Text. Oxford Press. $6.00. List of Books fob Students 2. New Testament Lexicons. Thayer : Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Harpers. $5.00. Best. :Robinson : Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Houghton and Mifflin. $4.00. •Cremer : Biblico-Theological Lexicon of the New Testa- ment. .Scribners. $8.00. 3. New Testament Greek Grammars. "Winer : Grammar of the N. T. Idiom. Translated by W. F. Moulton. vScribners. $5.00. Best. Buttman: Grammar of N. T. Greek. Thaj'er's edition. W. F. Draper. $2.75. Burton : Syntax of Moods and Tenses of New Testament. University of Chicago Press. $1.50. Green: Grammar of the Greek Testament. (London edi- tion, 1886.) Religious Tract Society. 7s, 6d. 4. New Testament Greek Concordances. Moui/TON and Geden : Concordance to Greek Testament. Scribners. $7.00. Best. Bruder : Concordance to Greek Testament. Bredt (Leipsig.) 25 marks. Wigram: Englishman's Greek Concordance. London, 1883. £l t Is. 5. Language of the New Testament. SiitfCOX : Language of the New Testament. Whittaker. 75 cents. of the New Testament. 5 Simcox : Writers of the New Testament. Whittaker. 75 cents. Hatch : Essaj-s in Biblical Greek. Macmillan. $2.75. Trench : Synonyms of the New Testament. Macmillan. $3.50. Schaff : Companion to Greek Testament and English Version. Harpers. $2.75. 6. New Testament in English. Scrivener : Cambridge Paragraph Bible. Critical edition of Authorized Version. Macmillan. $6.00. Bagster's Engeish Hexapea. Bagster (London). 2£, 2s. The Variorum Bibi.- ? v.'i-','A' : - W' E TO» ' I "'• ' HI - V- pHb BBS WBBA £ ■•."•■■;••• Y XS " '. ''•'•'' S ■'•''■' SSf8 ''■' "••'•■'■' ; ■■'■■■'" v- •>;•* -j ''v •'• ■ raft - •■"'• mta • '