THE BIBLE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 3134, 20 November 1893, Page 2

THE BIBLE.

The following Is a precis ot the sermon preached on Sunday morning by Rev George B. Inglis, in the Presbyterian Church :—Chosing by way of text, John v. 39—"Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me "--the rev. gentleman said no other book in the world was so widely read aa thb Bible, so highly prized or reverenced. From the original languages in which it was written> it had been translated into 300 different languages and dialects, so that all nations could read in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. And it had been J laboriously studied by the master minds of the ages, so that such a book on any ground was worthy of attention. When he spoke of the Scriptures he meant the sacred writing* contained in the Old and Bew Testaments. These were the Word of God—the revelation, of His mind and will. In the sense in which the words of a man were his words, revealing his thoughts, will, and purposes, so were the Scriptures the Word of God. He was their author, and their contents rested on His authority. They were not merely His aa written by pious men, not a human form of divine truth, but God's own exhibition of truth. They were the words which His divinely chosen messengers spoke by the inspiration of the Spirit, It followed then that they were infallible. He had no wish to introduce debateable matter into his discourse, but he said he thought he would carry all his hearers with him if he said these Scriptures weie infallible in all that pertained to faith and manners. The sacred writers were the organs of God, so that what tbey thought, God (aught. But God used His creatures according to their nature. Men were intelligent, voluntary agents, and they were used as fiuch. They were not unconscious or Irrational, and the " spirits of the prophets were subject to the prophets." They were not machiaes. Their selfconsciousness was not suspended, nor were their intellectual powers laid aside .from action for the time. They were holy men who spoke, and inspiration did not interfere with the free exercise of the distinctive mental chatacteristics of the individual. If the man used were a Hebrew, it was Hebrew he spoke ; if he were a Geeek, he gave God's message in Greek ; if he were an educated man, he gave it as a man of culture ; if he were not educated, his language was that of the common people. And the writers of the Bible left the impress of their peculiarities on their books ; so that as the student of literature of to-day could tell Shakespeare, or Scott, or Dickens when in the course of reading he found these writers quoted, so the man who knew his Bible well could recognise the language of Amos, (he shepherd, or David, or Isaiah. This waß one of the phenomena of the Bible, but underlying it was this—that throughout the whole was to be found something proclaiming the superhuman origin of the book. If, then, the Scriptures are infallible they must be holy. God is a holy God. And his word is like himself. It must exert a holy or sanctifying influence on all who read it intelligently and honestly. The Scriptures deal with the most sublime truths, with the destiny of man, they give insight into the moral government of God, and must exercise a benefisial influence ; and, when blessed by the Holy Spirit, must make wise the simple And the Word was quick and powerful. It had moulded the thought of the wisest and best men in past ages as well as to the present time, and had determined the action and destiny of men and nations. It had been mighty to pull down strongholds ; it had been stronger than fire, and sword, and death. Although written by so many different men, and extending over 1500 years the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were entirely consistent. There was no contradiction in teaching or doctrine, and any variation was about numbers, dates, and matters of minor importance, deme apparent discrepancies may be fairly ascribed to errors in copying, as the Scriptures were laboriously transcribed by hand so that copies may be multiplied and the word disseminated among the people of one language; or translated in the same way for the benefit of another people. But in spite of all the dangers of error they have passed through, we have in the Scriptures substantially the very word of God. In this respect the Bible stands alone. It was enough to impress the mind with awe to contemplate the Scriptures, filled as they were with important truth, speaking with the authority of God, and so free from the soiling touch of human fingers. This was unaccountable under any other supposition than that the writers were under the guidance of the Spirit of God. Then, the Scriptures were appointed to be a means of salvation. We must therefore " Search them," We are begotten, enlightened, sanctified, and saved by the truth. We can learn about Christ and His salvation only in the Scripture, and if the Bible is a neglected book, little looked at, and studied only in a half earnest desultory way if studied at all, there was little likelihood that the halfhearted student would gather salvation from its study. But God's people read God's words, and to them they were a continual communication between their hearts and the heart of their Father in Heaven. The Scriptures were complete, containing all the extant revelation of God, and nothing cou'd be added, no new matter could be revealed. Gcd had given in the Bible all he designed to be the ruleot faith and practice, and no other was needed. The preacher then went on to speak of the Scriptures as a plain book for plain people, carrying light with it and scattering darkness, and afterwards said it was not denied that there were in the Scriptures many things hard to be understood. He had no doubt that in the meat moat of his hearers would eat at dinner that day would be a proportion of bones. He would be a foolish man who would waste his time choking himself with the bones when he ougnt to be turning his attention to the meat. The hard things in the Bible required diligent study, and could not be elucidated by superficial skimming. All men needed the guidance of the Holy Spirit in order to arrive at a right knowledge and true faith. The Egyptian hieraglyphics were undecipherable until Champolion discovered the key. God's word yields its meaning to those who have the Spirit—the meaning must be spiritually discerned. But on all things necesi»ry to Salvation the Scriptures were Sufficiently plain to ue under* stood even by the uiuearped. A number of youn? men standing at the street i corner once thought to ■'? take a rise "—as colonial talk has it-out of a bishop pf the Church of England and as tfrp bishop passed they asked him the shortest way to heaven? " Turn to $c n^f, and go straight on," said the bishop, and the bishop's words were words of wife and wisdom. After a stirring appeal to earnestness in the search of the Scriptures, which testified of Christ and His salvation, the preacher painted a vivid word picture of the wonders of the volume -its history, poetry,-philosophy, and morality —before which %c wonders pf sil ptherte werepuMn fc^e sh.* de ' *nd W t]f pared the rifihea of jtj» knowledge to the boundless and unfathomable s*a, the stores °f knowledge treasured up ,"„ which no man fiouW exhaust, The sea might be studied for a lifetime ! under d igerant aspects. It might be viewed frrreference to its distribution and topography; its great'e&pansd as it spreads from pole tp pole ; its Indentations, gulfs

distribution has on cliti^ winds, rain, fertility, and hence on coerce, and the destiny of iho race. It i^ t be studied as to its basin, its depthfc n( j shadows ; as to its animal*, the inmi ra ble genera and pp?cies of living oi D j s ms with ■ which it abounds ;as to its k St currents, prevailing winds, chemifetry n( i so forth. There was betides the knowjge of how to use it. how to aval ouiives tf its power and resources. A si% r method of btudy could be applied j-the Bible, It could be studied uno different aspects, and in each furnish Exhaustible stores of knowledge, The^ble—as a history, as a chronicle of fac^ud their bearing on ethnography, civ'f Ht i..,n, the destiny of nations aid reli«io^_ was re* commended as a study, as wel^ wna t it taught of th<i nature and per&i onß of God ; what of man, his originate, his fall, his ability and responsibly,'and the plan of salvation provided j r him. The moral code of the Bible wa&nother wide field of study, including aUt did social, political, and religious dafc^with the limits set to human auth^ty in Church and State. After a few Iriher sentences, in which a high esfcimat, was placed upon the book, the preachelyent on to say that by an Act of the^ew Zealand Legislature this book waiexpressly excluded from the State Schnls. Thii to him seemed worse than a bluier. It was a dishonor to God, a reproacflto ourselves, an injury to our children, in such education the moral and spirital nature of man was wholly ignored. U was conceded that children ought to \e religiously educated, and Christianitr inculcated. " What," said the preachei "do you and I want our children to-be P God fearing and patriotic citizens, »»< this they could only become if they, wen Christian. Even family instruction, Sunday Schools, and religious teaching of the clergymen was inadequate. In all ages of the Church and in every part of Christendom it had been considered m a first principle that religious teaching should be incorporated with the common school system. But our school system was a novel and featful experiment, peculiar to the nineteenth century, and it was with alarm that one looked forward to what must be the result of bringing up the great body of the people in ignorance of God and His Word, for the common school was the only place of education for a large class of the people of this colony. Education without religion was irreligious, and the Bible was the best of all books. A banker arid his nephew; who was of a sceptical turn of mind, travelling in the western States of America sought shelter in what did not look like the most inviting quarters. They decided to sleep and watch by turns, and the young man took the first sentry watch. Through a chink in the wall he saw the host of the forbidding looks reach to a shelf, take down a Bible, and proceed to his evening devotions. The watcher went off duty at once and to bed; The uncln whispered, "I thought you were going to sit up and watch." But the young man knew there Was no need to tit up and watch in a hut that was hallowed by the word of God and prayer. Would a rum bottle and a pack of cards have quieted the young infidel's fears 1 In a drunken row was a woman's head broken with a Bible? No—a bottle. Where the Bible bore sway rows and quarrels come not. He urged his hearers to prize the book and give it to their children, search in it for the knowledge of God, for consolation, fcr holiness; to search reverently and submissively with a determination to believe every truth it affirms ; to search with diligence, depending on God's spirit,—with prayer and self application.