…the Word is like its Author, infinite, immeasurable, without end. If
you were ordained to be a preacher throughout eternity, you would have
before you a theme equal to everlasting demands. Brothers, shall we each
have a pulpit somewhere amidst the spheres? Shall we have a parish of
millions of leagues? Shall we have voices so strengthened as to reach
attentive constellations? Shall we be witnesses for the Lord of grace to
myriads of worlds which will be wonder-struck when they hear of the
incarnate God? Shall we be surrounded by pure intelligences enquiring
and searching into the mystery of God manifest in the flesh? Will the
unfallen worlds desire to be instructed in the glorious gospel of the
blessed God? And will each one of us have his own tale to tell of our
experience of infinite love? I think so, since the Lord has saved us "to
the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly
places might be known by the church of the manifold wisdom of God." If
such be the case, our Bibles will suffice for ages to come for new
themes every morning, and for fresh songs and discourses world without
end.
We are resolved, then, since we have this arsenal supplied for us of the
Lord, and since we want no other, to use the Word of God only, and
to use it with greater energy. We are resolved—and I hope there is no dissentient among us—
to know our Bibles better.
Do we know the sacred volume half so well as we should know it? Have we
laboured after as complete a knowledge of the Word of God as many a
critic has obtained of his favourite classic? Is it not possible that we
still meet with passages of Scripture which are new to us? Should it be
so? Is there any part of what the Lord has written which you have never
read? I was struck with my brother Archibald Brown's observation, that
he bethought himself that unless he read the Scriptures through from end
to end there might be inspired teachings which had never been known to
him, and so he resolved to read the books in their order; and having
done so once, he continued the habit. Have we, any of us, omitted to do
this? Let us begin at once. I love to see how readily certain of our
brethren turn up an appropriate passage, and then quote its fellow, and
crown all with a third. They seem to know exactly the passage which
strikes the nail on the head. They have their Bibles, not only in their
hearts, but at their fingers' ends. This is a most valuable attainment
for a minister. A good textuary is a good theologian. Certain others,
whom I esteem for other things, are yet weak on this point, and seldom
quote a text of Scripture correctly: indeed, their alterations jar on
the ear of the Bible reader. It is sadly common among ministers to add a
word or subtract a word from the passage, or in some way to debase the
language of sacred writ. How often have I heard brethren speak about
making "your calling and salvation" sure! Possibly they hardly enjoyed
so much as we do the Calvinistic word "election", and therefore they
allowed the meaning; nay, in some cases contradict it. Our reverence for
the great Author of Scripture should forbid all mauling of his words.
No alteration of Scripture can by any possibility be an improvement.
Believers in verbal inspiration should be studiously careful to be
verbally correct. The gentlemen who see errors in Scripture may think
themselves competent to amend the language of the Lord of hosts; but we
who believe God, and accept the very words he uses, may not make so
presumptuous an attempt. Let us quote the words as they stand in the
best possible translation, and it will be better still if we know the
original, and can tell if our version fails to give the sense. How much
mischief may arise out of an accidental alteration of the Word! Blessed
are they who are in accord with the divine teaching, and receive its
true meaning, as the Holy Ghost teaches them! Oh, that we might know the
Spirit of Holy Scripture thoroughly, drinking it in, til we are
saturated with it! This is the blessing which we resolve to obtain.
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