SPURGEON THE BIBLE
“I have written to him the great things of my law,
but they were counted as a strange thing” Hosea 8:12
This is God’s complaint against Ephraim. It is no mean proof of his
goodness, that he stoops to, rebuke his erring creatures; it is a great
argument of his gracious disposition, that he bows his head to notice
terrestial affairs. He might, if he pleased, wrap himself with night as with a
garment, he might put the stars around his wrist for bracelets, and bind the
suns around his brow for a coronet; he might dwell alone, far, far above
this world, up in the seventh heaven, and look down with calm and silent
indifference upon all the doings of his creatures; he might do as the
heathens supposed their Jove did, sit in perpetual silence, sometimes
nodding his awful head to make the Fates move as he pleased, but never
taking thought of the little things of earth, disposing of them as beneath his
notice, engrossed within his own being, swallowed up within himself, living
alone and retired, and I, as one of his creatures might stand by night upon a
mountain-top, and look upon the silent stars, and say, “Ye are the eyes of
God, but ye look not down on me; your light is the gift of his omnipotence,
but your rays are not smiles of love to me. God, the mighty Creator, has
forgotten me, I am a despicable drop in the ocean of creation, a sear leaf in
the forest of beings, an atom in the mountain of existence. He knows me
not; I am alone, alone, alone.”
But it is not so, beloved. Our God is of
another order He notices every one of us. There is not a sparrow or a
worm, but is found in his decrees. There is not a person upon whom his
eye is not fixed. Our most secret acts are known to him. Whatsoever we
do, or bear, or suffer, the eye of God still rests upon us, and we are
beneath his smile, — for we are his people; or beneath his frown, — for we
have erred from him.
Oh! how ten-thousand-fold merciful is God, that, looking down upon the
race of man, he does not smile it out of existence. We see from our text
that God looks upon man for he says of Ephraim, “I have written to him
the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” But
see how when he observes the sin of man he does not dash him away and
spurn him with his foot; he does not shake him by the neck over the gulf of
hell, until his brain doth reel, and then drop him for ever; but rather, he
comes down from heaven to plead with his creatures; he argues with them,
he puts himself, as it were, upon a level with the sinner, states his
grievances, and pleads his claim. O Ephraim, I have written unto thee the
great things of my law, but they have been unto thee as a strange thing! I
come here to night in God’s stead, my friends, to plead with you as God’s
ambassador, to charge many of you with a sin; to lay it to your hearts by
the power of the Spirit, so that you may be convinced of sin, of
righteousness, and of a judgment to come.
The crime I charge you with is
the sin of the text. God has written to you the great things of his law, but
they have been unto you as a strange thing. It is concerning this blessed
book, the Bible, that I mean to speak tonight. Here lies my text — this
Word of God. Here is the theme of my discourse, a theme which demands
more eloquence than I possess; a subject upon which a thousand orators
might speak at once; a mighty, vast, incomprehensive theme, which might
engross all eloquence throughout eternity, and still it would remain
unexhausted.
Concerning the Bible, I have three things to say to-night and they are all in
my text. First, its author, “I have written;” secondly, its subjects — the
great things of God’s law; and thirdly, its common treatment — It has been
accounted by most men a strange thing.
1. First, then, concerning this book, who is THE AUTHOR? The text says
that it is God. “I have written to him the great things of my law.” Here lies
my Bible — who wrote it? I open it, and I find it consists of a series of
tracts. The first five tracts were written by a man called Moses. I turn on
and I find other. Sometimes I see David is the penman, at other times,
Solomon. Here I read Micah, then Amos, then Hosea. As I turn further on,
to the more luminous pages of the New Testament, I see Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, Paul, Peter, James and others, but when I shut up the
book, I ask myself who is the author of it? Do these men jointly claim the
authorship? Are they the compositors of this massive volume? Do they
between themselves divide the honor? Our holy religion answers, No! This
volume is the writing of the living God: each fetter was penned with an
Almighty finger; each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips, each
sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. Albeit, that Moses was employed
to write his histories with his fiery pen, God guided that pen. It may be that
David touched his harp and let sweet Psalms of melody drop from his
fingers, but God moved his hands over the living strings of his golden harp.
It may be that Solomon sang Canticles of love, or gave forth words of
consummate wisdom, but God directed his lips, and made the Preacher
eloquent. If I follow the thundering Nahum when his horses plough the
waters or Habbakok when he sees the tents of Cushan in affliction; if I read
Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven; if I turn to the smooth
page of John, who tells of love, or the rugged, fiery chapters of Peter who
speaks of the fire devouring God’s enemies; if I turn to Jude, who launches
forth anathemas upon the foes of God, everywhere I find God speaking: it
is God’s voice, not man’s, the words are God’s words, the words of the
Eternal, the Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovah of this earth. This Bible is
God’s Bible; and when I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it,
saying, “I am the book of God: man, read me. I am God’s writing: open
my leaf, for I was penned by God; read it, for he is my author, and you will
see him visible and manifest everywhere.” “I have written to him the great
things of my law.”
How do you know that God wrote the book? That is just what I shall not
try to prove to you. I could, if I pleased, to a demonstration, for there are
arguments enough, there are reasons enough, did I care to occupy your
time tonight in bringing them before you: but I shall do no such thing. I
might tell you, if I pleased, that the grandeur of the style is above that of
any mortal writing, and that all the poets who have ever existed, could not,
with all their works united, give us such sublime poetry and such mighty
language as is to be found in the Scriptures. I might insist upon it, that the
subjects of which it treats are beyond the human intellect; that man could
never have invented the grand doctrines of a Trinity in the Godhead; man
could not have told us anything of the creation of the universe; he could
never have been the author of the majestic idea of Providence, that all
things are ordered according to the will of one great Supreme Being, and
work together for good. I might enlarge upon its honesty, since it tells the
faults of its writers; its unity, since it never belies itself, its master
simplicity, that he who runs may read it; and I might mention a hundred
more things, which would all prove to a demonstration, that the book is of
God. But I come not here to prove it. I am a Christian minister, and you
are Christians, or profess to be so, and there is never any necessity for
Christian ministers to make a point of bringing forth infidel arguments in
order to answer them. It is the greatest folly in the world. Infidels, poor
creatures, do not know their own arguments till we tell them, and then they
glean their blunted shafts to shoot them at the shield of truth again. It is
folly to bring forward these firebrands of hell, even if we are well prepared
to quench them. Let men of the world learn error of themselves, do not let
us be propagators of their falsehoods.
True, there are some preachers who
are short of stock, and want them to fill up! but God’s own chosen men
need not do that; they are taught of God, and God supplies them with
matter, with language, and with power. There may be some one here tonight
who has come without faith, a man of reason, a free-thinker. With
him I have no argument at all. I profess not to stand here as a
controversialist, but as a preacher of things that I know and feel. But I too
have been like him. There was an evil hour when once I slipped the anchor
of my faith, I cut the cable of my belief; I no longer moored myself hard by
the coasts of revelation; I allowed my vessel to drift before the wind; I said
to reason, “Be thou my captain;” I said to my own brain, “Be thou my
rudder;” and I started on my mad voyage. Thank God it is all over now’
but I will tell you its brief history. It was one hurried sailing over the
tempestuous ocean of free thought. I went on, and as I went the skies
began to darken; but to make up for that deficiency, the waters were
brilliant with coruscations of brilliancy I saw sparks flying upwards that
pleased me, and I thought, ‘If this be free thought, it is a happy thing.’ My
thoughts seemed gems, and I scattered stars with both my hands; but anon,
instead of these coruscations of glory, I saw grim fiends fierce and horrible,
start up from the waters, and as I dashed on they gnashed their teeth and
grinned upon me, they seized the prow of my ship, and dragged me on,
while I, in part, gloried at the rapidity of my motion, but yet shuddered at
the terrific rate with which I passed the old land marks of my faith. As I
hurried forward with an awful speed, I began to doubt my very existence; I
doubted if there were a world, I doubted if there were such a thing as
myself I went to the very verge of the dreary realms of unbelief. I went to
the very bottom of the sea of infidelity. I doubted everything. But here the
devil foiled himself; for the very extravagance of the doubt proved its
absurdity. Just when I saw the bottom of that sea, there came a voice
which said, “And can this doubt be true?” At this very thought I awoke. I
started from that death-dream, which, God knows might have damned my
soul, and ruined this my body, if I had not awoke. When I arose faith took
the helm’, from that moment I doubted not. Faith steered me back; faith
cried, “Away, away!” I cast my anchor on Calvary; I lifted my eye to God;
and here I am alive, and out of hell.
Therefore, I speak what I do know. I
have sailed that perilous voyage; I have come safe to land. Ask me again to
be an infidel! No, I have tried it, it was sweet at first, but bitter afterwards.
Now, lashed to God’s gospel more firmly than ever, standing as on a rock
of adamant, I defy the arguments of hell to move me, for “I know in whom
I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him.” But I shall neither plead nor argue this night. You
profess to be Christian men, or else you would not be here. Your
profession may be lies; what you say you are, may be the very contrary to
what you really are, but still I suppose you all admit that this is the Word
of God. A thought or two then upon it. “I have written to him the great
things of my law.”
First, my friends, stand over this volume, and admire its authority. This is
no Solomon book. It is not the sayings of the sages of Greece; here are not
the utterances of philosophers of past ages. If these words were written by
man, we might reject them, but oh, let me think the solemn thought that
this book is God’s handwriting, that these words are God’s. Let me look at
its date, it is dated from the hills of heaven. Let me look at its letters: they
flash glory on my eye. Let me Read the chapters: they are big with meaning
and mysteries unknown. Let me turn over the prophecies: they are
pregnant with unthought-of orders. Oh, book of books! And wast thou
written by my God? Then will I bow before thee. Thou book of vast
authority thou art a proclamation from the Emperor of Heaven; far be it
from me to exercise my reason in contradicting thee. Reason! thy place is
to stand and find out what this volume means, not to tell what this book
ought to say. Come thou my reason, my intellect, sit thou down and listen,
for these words are the words of God. I do not know how to enlarge on
this thought. Oh! if you could ever remember that this Bible was actually
and really written by God! Oh! if ye had been let into the secret chambers
of heaven, if ye had beheld God grasping his pen and writing down these
letters, then surely ye would respect them. But they are just as much God’s
hand-writing as if you had seen God write them. This Bible is a book of
authority, it is an authorized book, for God has written it. Oh, tremble,
tremble, lest any of you despise it; mark its authority, for it is the Word of
God.
Then, since God wrote it, mark its truthfulness. If I had written it there
would be worms of critics who would at once swarm on it, and would
cover it with their evil spawn, had I written it, there would be men who
would pull it to pieces at once, and perhaps quite right too. But this is the
Word of God; come, search ye critics, and find a flaw; examine it from its
Genesis to its Revelations, and find an error. This is a vein of pure gold,
unalloyed by quartz, or any earthy substance. This is a star without a
speck, a sun without a blot! a light without darkness; a moon without its
paleness; a glory without a dimness. O Bible! it cannot be said of any other
book, that it is perfect and pure, but of thee we can declare all wisdom is
gathered up in thee, without a particle of folly. This is the judge that ends
the strife where wit and reason fail. This is the book untainted by any error;
but is pure, unalloyed, perfect truth. Why? Because God wrote it. Ah!
charge God with error if ye please; tell him that his book is not what it
ought to be. I have heard men with prudish and mock-modesty, who would
like to alter the Bible; and (I almost blush to say it) I have heard minister’s
alter God’s Bible, because they were afraid of it. Have you never heard a
man say, “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that
believeth not,” — What does the Bible say? “shall be damned.” But that
does not happen to be polite enough, so they say, “shall be condemned.”
Gentlemen! pull the velvet out of your mouths; speak God’s word; we
want none of your alterations. I have heard men in prayer, instead of
saying, “Make your calling and election sure,” say “Make your calling and
salvation sure.” Pity they were not born when God lived, far-far back, that
they might have taught God how to write. Oh, impudence beyond all
bounds! Oh! full-blown self-conceit! To attempt to dictate to the All-wise
— to teach the Omniscient, and instruct the eternal.
Strange that there
should be men so vile as to use the penknife of Jehoiakim, to cut passages
of the Word, because they are unpalatable. Oh ye who dislike certain
portions of the Holy Writ rest assured that your taste is corrupt, and that
God will not stay for your little opinion. Your dislike is the very reason
why God wrote it, because you ought not to be suited; you have no right
to be pleased. God wrote what you do not like; he wrote the truth. Oh! let
us bend in reverence before it, for God inspired it. It is pure truth. Here
from this fountain gushes aqua vitae-the water of life,” without a single
particle of earth, here from this sun there cometh forth rays of radiance,
without the mixture of darkness. Blessed Bible; thou art all truth.
Yet once more, before we leave this point let us stop and consider the
merciful nature of God, in having written us a Bible at all. Ah! he might
have left us without it, to grope our dark way, as blind men seek the wall;
he might have suffered us to wander on with the star of reason as our only
guide. I recollect a story of Mr. Hume, who so constantly affirmed that the
light of reason is abundantly sufficient. Being at a good minister’s house
one evening, he had been discussing the question, and declaring his firm
belief in the sufficiency of the light of nature. On leaving, the minister
offered to hold him a candle, to light him down the steps. He said, “No, the
light of nature would be enough, the moon would do.” It so happened that
the moon was covered with a cloud, and he fell down the steps. “Ah,” said
the minister, “you had better have had a little light from above after all, Mr.
Hume.” So, supposing the light of nature to be sufficient, we had better
have a little light from above too, and then we shall be sure to be right.
Better have two lights than only one. The light of creation is a bright light.
God may be seen in the stars, his name is written in gilt letters on the brow
of night; you may discover his glory in the ocean waves, yea, in the trees of
the field; but it is better to read it in two books than in one. You will find it
here more clearly revealed, for he has written this book himself, and he has
given you the key to understand it, if you have the Holy Spirit. Ah,
beloved, let us thank God for this Bible; let us love it; let us count it more
precious than much fine gold.
But let me say one thing before I pass on to the second point. If this be the
Word of God, what will become of some of you who have not read it for
the last month? “Month, sir! I have not read it for this year.-Ay, there are
some of you who have not read it at all. Most people treat the Bible very
politely. They have a small pocket volume, neatly bound, they put a white
pocket-handkerchief around it, and carry it to their places of worship.
When they get home, they lay it up in a drawer till next Sunday morning;
then it comes out again for a little bit of a treat and goes to chapel; that is
all the poor Bible gets in the way of an airing. That is your style of
entertaining this heavenly messenger. There is dust enough on some of
your Bibles to write “damnation” with your fingers. There are some of you
who have not turned over your Bibles for a long, long, long while, and
what think you? I tell you blunt words, but true words. What will God say
at last? When you shall come before him, he shall say, “Did you read my
Bible?” “No.” I wrote you a letter of mercy; did you read it?” “No.”
“Rebel! I have sent thee a letter inviting thee to me: didst thou ever read
it?” “Lord I never broke the seal; I kept it shut up.” “Wretch!”, says God,
“then thou deservest hell, if I sent thee a loving epistle and thou wouldst
not even break the seal: what shall I do unto thee?” Oh! let it not be so
with you. Be Bible readers; be Bible searchers.
II. Our second point is, THE SUBJECTS ON WHICH THE BIBLE TREATS. The
words of the text are these: “I have written to him the great things of my
law.” The Bible treats of great things, and of great things only. There is
nothing in this Bible which is unimportant. Every verse in it has a solemn
meaning, and if we have not found it out yet, we hope yet to do it. You
have seen mummies wrapped round and round with folds of linen. Well,
God’s Bible is like that; it is a vast roll of white linen, woven in the loom of
truth; so you will have to continue unwinding it, roll after roll, before you
get the real meaning of it from the very depth; and when you have found,
as you think, a part of the meaning, you will still need to keep on
unwinding, unwinding, and all eternity you will be unwinding the words of
this wondrous volume. Yet there is nothing in the Bible but great things.
Let me divide, so as to be more brief. First all things in this Bible are great;
but secondly, some things are the greatest of all.
All things in the Bible are great. Some people think it does not matter
what doctrines you believe; that it is immaterial what church you attend;
that all denominations are alike. Well, I dislike Mrs. Bigotry above almost
all people in the world, and I never give her any compliment or praise: but
there is another woman I hate equally as much, and that is Mrs.
Latitudinarianism, a well-known character, who has made the discovery
that all of us are alike. Now, I believe that a man may be saved in any
church. Some have been saved in the church of Rome – a few blessed men,
whose names I could mention here. I know, blessed be God, that
multitudes are saved in the church of England: she has a host of pious,
praying men in her midst. I think that all sections of Protestant Christians
have a remnant according to the election of grace, and they had need to
have, some of them, a little salt, for otherwise they would go to corruption.
But when I say that, do you imagine that I think them all on a level? Are
they all alike truthful? One set says infant baptism is right, another says it is
wrong, yet you say they are both right. I cannot see that. One teaches we
are saved by free grace, another says that we are not, but are saved by free
will; and yet you believe they are both right. I do not understand that. One
says that God loves his people, and never leaves off loving them; another
says that he did not love his people before they loved him: that he often
loves them, and then ceases to love them and turns them away. They may
be both right in the main; but can they be both right when one says “Yes,”
and the other says “No.” I must have a pair of spectacles to enable me to
look backwards and forwards at the same time, before I can see that. It
cannot be, sirs, that they are both right. But some say they differ upon nonessentials.
This text says, “I have written to him the great things of my
law.” There is nothing in God’s Bible which is not great. Did ever any of
you sit down to see which was the purest religion? “Oh,” say you, “we
never took the trouble. We went just where our father and mother went.”
Ah! that is a profound reason indeed. You went where your father and
mother did. I thought you were sensible people; I didn’t think you went
where other people pulled you, but went of your ownselves. I love my
parents above all that breathe, and the very thought that they believed a
thing to be true, helps me to think it is correct; but I have not allowed
them, I belong to a different denomination, and I thank God I do. I can
receive them as Christian brethren and sisters, but I never thought that
because they happened to be one thing I was to be the same. No such
thing. God gave me chains, and I will use them; and if you have any
intellect, use it too. Never say it doesn’t matter. It does matter. Whatever
God has put here is of eminent importance: he would not have written a
thing that was indifferent. Whatever is here is of some value, therefore,
search all questions, try all by the Word of God. I am not afraid to have
what I preach tried by this book. Only give me a fair field and no favor, and
this book, if I say anything contrary to it, I will withdraw it the next
Sabbath-day. By this I stand, by this I fall. Search and see but don’t say, “It
does not matter.” If God says a thing, it must always be of importance.
But while all things in God’s Word are important, all are not equally
important. There are certain fundamental and vital truths which must be
believed, or otherwise no man would be saved. If you want to know what
you must believe if ye would be saved, you will find the great things of
God’s law between these two covers they are all contained here. As a sort
of digest or summary of the great things of the law, I remember an old
friend of mine once saying, “Ah! you preach the three R’s, and God will
always bless you.” I said, “What are the three R’s?” And he answered,
“Ruin, redemption, and regeneration.” They contain the sum and substance
of divinity all for ruin. We were all ruined in the fall; we were all lost when
Adam sinned, and we are all ruined by our own transgressions, we are all
ruined by our own evil hearts, and our own wicked wills; and we all shall
be ruined unless grace saves us.
Then there is a second R for redemption.
We are ransomed by the blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish and
without spot; we are rescued by his power; we are ransomed by his merits;
we are redeemed by his strength. Then there is R for regeneration. If we
would’ve pardoned, we must also be regenerated; for no man can partake
of redemption unless he is regenerate. Let him be as good as he pleases; let
him serve God, as he imagines, as much as he likes, unless he is regenerate,
and has a new heart, a new birth, he will still be in the first R, that is ruin.
These things contain an epitome of the gospel. I believe there is a better
epitome in the five points of Calvanism: Election according to the
foreknowledge of God; the natural depravity and sinfulness of man;
particular redemption by the blood of Christ; effectual calling by the power
of the Spirit; and ultimate perseverance by the efforts of God’s might. I
think all those need to be believed, in order to salvation; but I should not
like to write a creed like the Athanasian, beginning with “Whosoever
should be saved, before all things it is necessary that he should hotel the
Catholic faith, which faith is this,”-when I got so far, I should stop,
because I should not know what to write. I hold the Catholic faith of the
Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible. It is not for me to draw
up creeds; but I ask you to search the Scriptures, for this is the word of
life.
God says, “I have written to him the great things of my law.” Do you
doubt their greatness? Do ye think they are not worth your attention?
Reflect a moment, man. Where art thou standing now?
“Lo, on a narrow neck of land
‘Twixt two unbounded seas I stand;
An inch of time, a moment’s space,
May lodge me in yon heavenly place,
Or shut me up in hell.”
I recollect standing on a sea-shore once, upon a narrow neck of land,
thoughtless that the tide might come up. The tide kept continually washing
up on either side, and wrapped in thoughts I still stood there, until at last
there was the greatest difficulty in getting on shore; the waves had washed
between me and the shore. You and I stand each day on a narrow neck,
and there is one wave coming up there see, how near it is to your foot; and
lo, another throws at every tick of the clock: “our hearts, like muffled
drums, are beating funeral marches to the tomb.” We are always tending
downwards to the grave each moment that we live. This Book tells me that
if I am converted, when I die there is a heaven of joy and love to receive
me; it tell me that angels’ pinions shall be stretched, and I, borne by strong
cherubic wings, shall out-soar the lightning, and mount beyond the stars,
up to the throne of God, to dwell for ever,
“Far from a world of grief and sin
With God eternally shut in.”
Oh! it makes the hot tear start from my eye, it makes my heart too big for
this my body, and my brain whines at the thought of
“Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me.”
Oh! that sweet scene beyond the clouds; sweet fields arrayed in living
green, and rivers of delight. Are not these great things? But then, poor
unregenerate son!, the Bible says, if thou art lost, thou art lost for ever; it
tells thee, that if thou didst without Christ, without God, there is no hope
for thee, that there is a place without a gleam of hope, where thou shalt
read in burning letters “Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not.” It tells you
that ye shall be driven from his presence with a “depart ye cursed.” Are not
these great things? Yes, sirs, as heaven is desirable, as hell is terrible, as
time is short, as eternity is infinite, as the soul is precious, as pains to be
shunned, as heaven is to be sought, as God is eternal, and as his words are
sure, these are great things, things ye ought to listen to.
III. Our last point is THE TREATMENT WHICH THE POOR BIBLE RECEIVES
IN THIS WORLD. It is accounted a strange thing. What does that mean – the
Bible accounted a strange thing? In the first place, it means that it is very
strange to some people, because they never read it. I remember reading, on
one occasion, the sacred story of David and Goliath, and there was a
person present, positively grown up to years of maturity, who said to me,
“Dear me! what an interesting story what book is that in?” And I recollect
a person once coming to me in private, I spoke to her about her soul, she
told me how deeply she felt, how she had a desire to serve God, but she
found another law in her members. I turned to a passage in Romans, and
read to her, “The good that I would I do not; and the evil which I would
not that I do!” She said, “Is that in the Bible I did not know it.” I did not
blame her because she had no interest in the Bible till then, but I did
wonder that there could be found persons who knew nothing about such a
passage. Ah! you know more about your ledgers than your Bible; you
know more about your day-books than what God has written. Many of you
will read a novel from beginning to end, and what have you got? A
mouthful of froth when you have done. But you cannot read the Bible; that
solid, lasting, substantial, and satisfying food goes uneaten, locked up in
the cupboard of neglect, while anything that man’s writes a catch of the
day, is greedily devoured.
“I have written unto him the great things of my
law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” Ye have never read it. I
bring the broad charge against you. Perhaps ye say, I ought not to charge
you with any such thing. I always think it better to have a worse opinion of
you than too good an one. I charge you with this: you do not read your
Bibles. Some of you never have read it through. I know I speak what your
heart must say, is honest truth. You are not Bible readers. You say you
have the Bible in your houses: do I think you are such heathens as not to
have a Bible? But when did you read it last? How do you know that your
spectacles, which you have lost, have not been there for the last three
years? Many people have not turned over its pages for a long time, and
God might say unto them, I have written unto you the great things of my
law, but they have been accounted unto you a strange thing.”
Others there be who read the Bible, but when they read it, they say it is so
horribly dry. That young man over there says it is a “bore;” that is the
word he uses. He says, “My mother said to me, when you go up to town,
read a chapter every day. Well, I thought I would please her, and I said I
would. I am sure I wish I had not. I did not read a chapter yesterday or the
day before. We were so busy. I could not help it.” You do not love the
Bible, do you? “No, there is nothing in it which is interesting.” Ah! I
thought so. But a little while ago I could not see anything in it. Do you
know why? Blind men cannot see, can they? But when the Spirit touches
the scales of the eyes they fall off, and when he puts eye-salve on, then the
Bible becomes precious. I remember a minister who went to see an old
lady, and he thought he would give her some precious promises out of the
word of God. Turning to one he saw written in the margin, “P,” and he
asked, “What does this mean?” “That means precious, sir.” Further down
he saw “T. and P.,” and he asked what the letters meant. “That,” she said,
“means tried and proved, for I have tried and proved it.” If you have tried
God’s word and proved it; if it is precious to your souls, then you are
Christians; but those persons who despise the Bible, have “neither part nor
lot in the matter.” If it is dry to you, you will be dry at last in hell. If you do
not esteem it as better than your necessary food, there is no hope for you,
for you lack the greatest evidence of your Christianity.
Alas! Alas! the worst case is to come. There are some people who hate the
Bible, as well as despise it. Is there such an one stepped in here? Some of
you said, “Let us go and hear what the young preacher has to say to us.”
This is what he hath to say to you: “Behold ye despisers, and wonder and
perish.” This is what he hath to say to you: “The wicked shall be turned
into hell, and all that forget God.” And this, again he has to say to you:
“Behold there shall come in the last days, mockers like yourselves, walking
after your own lusts.” But more: he tells you tonight that if you are saved,
you must find salvation here. Therefore, despise not the Bible, but search it
read it, and come unto it. Rest thee well assured, O scorner, that thy laughs
cannot alter truth, thy jests cannot avert thine inevitable doom. Though in
thy hardihood thou shouldst make a league with death, and sign a covenant
with hell-yet swift justice shall o’ertake thee, and strong vengeance strike
thee low. In vain dost thou jeer and mock, for eternal verities are mightier
than thy sophistries: nor can thy smart sayings alter the divine truth of a
single word of this volume of Revelation. Oh! why dost thou quarrel with
thy best friend, and ill-treat thy only refuge? There yet remains hope even
for the scorner. Hope in a Savior’s veins. Hope in the Father’s mercy.
Hope in the Holy Spirit’s omnipotent agency.
I have done when I have said one word. My friend, the philosopher, says it
may be very well for me to urge people to read the Bible; but he thinks
there are a great many sciences far more interesting and useful than
theology. Extremely obliged to you for your opinion, sir. What science do
you mean? The science of dissecting beetles, and arranging butterflies?;
No,” you say, “certainly not.” The science, then, of arranging stones, and
telling us of the strata of the earth? “No, not exactly that.” Which science
then? “Oh, all sciences,” say you, “are better than the science of the Bible.”
Ah! sir, that is your opinion, and it is because you are far from God, that
you say so. But the science of Jesus Christ is the most excellent of
sciences. Let no one turn away from the Bible, because it is not a book of
learning and wisdom. It is. Would ye know astronomy? It is here: it tells
you of the Sun of Righteousness and the Star of Bethlehem. Would you
know botany? It is here: it tells you of the plant of renown-the Lily of the
Valley and the Rose of Sharon. Would you know geology and mineralogy?
You shall learn it here: for you may read of the Rock of Ages, and the
White Stone with a name graven thereon, which no man knoweth, saying
he that receiveth it. Would ye study history? Here is the most ancient of all
the records of the history of the human race. Whatever your science is,
come and bend o’er this book; your science is here. Come and drink out of
this fair fount of knowledge and wisdom, and ye shall find yourselves made
wise unto salvation. Wise and foolish, babes and men, gray-headed sires,
youths and maidens,- I speak to you, I plead with you, I beg of you respect
your Bibles and search them out, for in them ye think ye have eternal life,
and these are they which testify of Christ.
I have done. Let us go home and practice what we have heard. I have
heard of a woman, who, when she was asked what she remembered of the
minister’s sermon, said, “I don’t recollect anything of it. It was about short
weights and bad measures, and I didn’t recollect anything but to go home
and burn the bushel.” So if you will remember to go home and burn the
bushel, if you will recollect to go home and read your Bibles, I shall have
said enough. And may God, in his infinite mercy, when you read your
Bibles, pour into your soul, the illuminating rays of the Sun of
Righteousness, by the agency of the ever-adorable Spirit; then you will
read to your profit and to your soul’s salvation.
We may say of THE BIBLE:-
“God’s cabinet of revealed counsel ‘tis!
Where weal and woe, are ordered so
That every man may know which shall be his;
Unless his own mistake, false application make
“It is the index to eternity.
He cannot miss of endless bliss
That takes this chart to steer by
Nor can he be mistook, that speaketh by this book.
“It is the book of God.
What if I should Say, God of books, let him that looks
Angry at that expression, as too bold,
His thoughts in silence smother, till he find such another.”