CHAPTER

III

THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES TO

THEMSELVES
BY REV. GEORGE S. BISHOP,
EAST ORANGE,

NEW

D. D.,

JERSEY

My subject is, The Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves-their own self-evidence-the overpowering, unparticipated witness that they bring.
Permit me to expand this witness under the following
heads:
I.
Immortality.
2.
Authority.
3. Transcendent Doctrine.
4. Direct Assertion .
1. IMMORTALITY-"!
have written f" All other books die.
Few old books survive, and fewer of those that surv ive have
any influence. Most of the books we quote from have been
written within the last three or even one hundred years.
But here is a Book whose antemundane voices had grown
old, when voices spake in 1 den. A Book which has survived not only with continued but increasing lustre, vitality,
vivadty, popularity, rebound of influence. A Book which
comes through alI the shocks without a wrench, and all the
furnaces of all the ages- like an iron safe-with every doctt..
ment in every pigeon-hole, without a warp upon it, or the smell
of fire. Here is a Book of which it may be said, as of Immor~
tal Christ I-Iimseif: "Thou hast the dew on Thy youth froJ:11
the womb of the morning." A Book dating from days as
ancient as those of the Anc~ent of Days, and which when all
that makes up what we see and call the universe shall be dis ...
solved, will still speak on in thunder-tones of majesty, and
38

Testiniony

of the Scriptures

to Themselves

39

Whisper-tones oi light, and music-tones of love, for it is wrapping in itself the everlasting past, and opening and expanding
from itself the everlasting fut~re; and, like an allirradiating
sun, will still roll on, while deathless ages roll, the one un ...
changing, unchangeable Revelation of God.
2. Immortality is on these pages, and AUTHORITY SETS
This is the second point. A Standard.
lIERE HER SEAL.
Useless to talk about no standard. Nature points to one.
Conscience cries out for one-conscience
which, without a
law, constantly wages the internal and exctuciating war of
accusing or else excusing itself.
There must be a Standard and an Inspired Standard-for
Inspiration is t.he Essence of Authority, and authority is in
proportion to inspiration- . the more inspired the greater the
authority-the
less, the less. Even the rationalist Rothe, a
tnost intense opponent, has admitted that "that in the Bi~le
which is not the product of direct inspiration has no binding
power."
Verbal and direct inspiration is, therefor~, the "Thertnopylae" of Biblical and Scriptural . faith. No breath, no
syllable; no syllable, no word; no word, no Book; no Book,
1
no religion.
'
. We hold, from first to last, that there can be no possible
advance in Revelation-no
new light. What was written at
first, the same thing stands written today, and will stand forever. The emanation of the .mind of God-it is complete,
perfect. "No thing can be put to it, nor anything taken from
it''; its ipse di.1:it is peremptory, final. "If any man shall add
unto these thing s, God shall add unto him the plagues that are
Written in this Book; and if any man shall take away from
the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away
his part out of the Book of life, and out of the Holy City,
and from the .things which are written in this B99k."
The Bible is the Word of God, and not simply CONTAINS
IT. This is clear.

40

The Fundamentals

Because the Bible sty1es itself tl1e W ,ord of God. ''T 'he
Word of the Lord is rigl1t," says tl1e Psalmis it. Again, ''Thy
Word is a lamp to my feet." ''Wl1erewithal shall a young
man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to
TJiy J,Vord." ''The grass withereth,'' says Isaiah, ''the flower
t h ereof fadeth, but tlte Word of our God sl1all stand forever.''
Not only is the Bible calle d the Wo rd of God, but it is
distinguished f r,om all other 'books by that very tit le . It is so
distinguished in the 119th Psalm, and eve rywhere the, contrast between it and eve1y human book is (leepened arid sus1

tain 1ed.

.
If we will not call the Bible the W ord of God, tl1en we

cannot call it anything else. If w e insist upon a description

rigorously exact and unexposed to shafts of wanton criticis111,
then the B.ook r emains anonymous.
We cannot more consistently say, ''Holy Scripture," because the crimes recorded
on its pages are not l1oly; b,ecat1,se expression s lilce ,"Curse
God and die," and others irom tl1e lip s of Satan and of wicked
men, are unhol y. The Bible, however, is ''holy'' because its
aim and its methods are holy. The Bible, likewi se, is the
Wor d of God, because it comes from God; because its every
word was penned by God; because it is the only exponent of
God; the only rule of His procedure, and the Boole by which
w e must at last be judged.
.
( 1) TI1e Bible is authority because in it, from cover
to cover, God is tlie Spe,aker. Said a leader ,of our so-called
OFthodoxy to a crowded audience but a littl e while a,go: ''TI,e
Bible is true. , Any man n ot a foo l mus ,t believe what is true.
What difference doe s it mak e who wrote it?'' This difference, brethren; tl1e solenin bea1'ing down of God on the so1,ilI
M .Y friend may tell n1e what is true; my wife may tell me
what is true; but what they .say is not solemn. Solemnity
comes in when God Jooks into tny face God! and bel1ind
Him everlastin .g destiny and ta 'lks ,vitl1 n1e about my s.oul.
In the Bib 1e God sp eaks, and God is ],istened to, .and men are
1

..

Testiniony

of the Scriptures

to T/iems~lves

41

born again by God's Word. "So then faith cotneth by hearing,

and hearing by the Word of God." It is God's Revelation that
faith hears, and it is on God revealed that faith rests.
(2) The Bible is the Word of God. It comes tp 1=1s
announced by miracles and heralded with fire. Take the Old
Testament-Mount
Sinai; take the New Testament-Pentecost. Would God Himself stretch out His hand and write
on tables in the giving, and send down tongues of fire for
the proclamation of a Revelation, every particle and shred of
which was not His own ? In other words, would He work
miracles and send down tongues of fire to signalize a work
merely human, or even partly human and partly Divine?
How unworthy of God, how impious, how utterly impossible
the supposition!
( 3) The Bible comes clothed with authority in the highhanded and exalted terms of its address. God in the Bible
speaks out of a whirlwind and with the voice of Elias. What
grander proof of literal inspiration can be than in the highhanded method and imper ative tone of prophets and apostles
which enabled them-poor
men, obscure, and without an
influence; fishermen, artisans, publicans, day-laborers-to
brave and boldly teach the world from Pha raoh and from
Nero down? Was this due to anything less than God speak
ing , in them-to
th e overpowering impulse and seizure of
God? Who can Lelieve it? Who is not struck with the
power and the wisdom of God ? "Hi s word s were in my
bones," cries one. "I could not stay. The lion hath roared,
who will not fear; the Lord hath spoken, who can but
pr ophesy?"
( 4) The Bible is the opti1ne of authority, because it is
from first to last a glorious projection on the widest scale of
the decrees of God. The sweep of the Bible is from the
creation of angels to a new heaven and new earth, across a
lake of fire. What a field for events! What an expanse

42

The Funda1nental's

beyond th ,e sweep 0 r even reach o,f human f ore-thot1ght,

,c ritici sm, or co-op,eratio ,n ! What a laby rin ,th up,on who ,se
least and minutest turning ,hangs ent .ire redemption, since a
chain is, never s,tronger than its, sma ,llest link ! Who then
wi,]1 dare to spe .ak till God has , spoken? ''I wil 'l declare , tl1e
decree!'' Tl1,at pus 'hes everything aside that makes the declaration ,a .n extension, so to sa,y, of the D eclarer. ''I will
declare the decree f'' When we consider that the Bible is, an
exact p,rojec tion of the ,decree s of God into the future, this ,
argum'.e11t is, seen to, lift, inde ,ed, to a climax; and, in f'act .., j,t
does reach to the. very crux of controversy; for. the hardest
tl1ing for u.s to believe about God is to believe that He exac'tl,y.,
ab solutely knows, , because He has ordained, the future"
Every att1~ibute of Go,d is easier t ,o ,.gra ,sp than tha 't of an in f,allible 0mniscience.
''I will declare the d,ecree,' ' therefore,
calls for direct inspiration,
(5) The Bible is . the optime of authority, be ,cause tJie
ho:oks at tlie end' of the 1chain prove the dictated i'nsp,iration
of
.
its every link. Compar ,e the ,f 'al] in Genesis one t,inl< with
the resurrection in tl1e Apocalypse
the othe r. Comp ,are the
old creation in the first ch~pters of the Old Testament With
the new cr,eation i11 the last chapter s of the New. ''\Ve open
the fir st pages of the Bible,'' says . Va,llotton ,, ''and ' we find
there the recital of the creation of the world by the Word of
God of the fall of man, of his exi le far from God, far f ro1n
Paradise, and far f ro111the tree of l'ife.. We open tl1e last
pages of tl1,e last 0 the 66 bo oks dating 4,000 years , laterj God
is st ill speaking. . He is still creating. He creates a new
heaven and a ne ,v .earth. Man is found the1e recovered~ He
is restored to coII:1-munionwith God. He dwells again in
Par ,adise, he'neath the sha ,dow of the tr ,ee of 1ife. Wl10 is ,not
st1uck by the strang e corr espo,n denc e of this end with tha t
beginning?
Is not the one the prologue, , the other the epi:..
,logue of ' a drama as vast as unique?' '
1

'

Testimo,ny of tlie Scriptures

to Themselves

43

Another argument for the supreme authority of

Scripture is the character of the investigation challenged for
the Word of God. The Bible courts the closest scrutiny. Its
. open pages blaze the legend, ''Search the Scriptures!''
Ereunao "Search.''
It is a sportsman's term, and borrowed
trom the chase. ''Trace out," ''track out'' follow the word
1
Scent it out t~ its remotest
~ all its usages and windings.
meanings, as a dog the hare. ''They searched,'' again says St.
Luke, in the Acts, of the Bereans. There it is another word,
?nakrino ''they divided up,'' analyzed, sifted, pulverized, as
in a mortar . to tl1e last thought.
What a solemn cha11enge is this f What book but a Divine
(6)

Written by man, it is at tl1e mercy of men. Men can go

through it, riddle it, sift it, and leave it behind them, worn
out. But tl1e Bible, a Book dropped from heaven, is ''Godbreathed.''
It swells, it dilates, with the bodying fullness of
God. God has written it, and none can exhaust it. Apply
You~ microscopes, apply your telescopes, to tl1e material of
broaden out its nebulae, but find th em cJustered stars.

They

touch on coarseness in tl1e fabric, nor on limitations irt hori-

zon, as alwa ys is the case when tests of such a char.acter are
Water, or a fly's wing, under a microscope . . The stronger the
an ocean filled with sporting animalcules. The higher the
power, the more exquisite, the more silken, become the tissues
of the fly's wino-, until it attenuates almost to the golden and
gossamer threads of a seraph's.
So is it with the Word of

We cannot bring to it a test too

tion, the more perfection.

Penetrating, nor a light too tancinating, nor a touchstone too

exacting.
.
.

44

The Fundamentals ,

The Bible i s beyond all attempts at not only exhaustion .,

but comprehension.
No human mind can, by searching, find
out the fullness of God. ''For what man knoweth the tl1ings
o,f a man save the s,pirit o,f mlan which is in him? even so the
things of God knoweth no man save the S,pirit of God.''
3. That leads up to the third point. The Scriptures
testify to their Divine Original by their TRANSCENDENT DOC1

TRINE,

THEIR

OUTSHINING

LIGHT.,

THE GLOW OF THE DT\7INE,

THE

THEIR

WITNESS

NAT 'IVE

RADIANCE,
'

OF THE SPIRIT.

' We sho uld expect to find a Bo,ok, that cam.e from God,
penciled with points of jasper and of sardine stone enh~loed
with a brightness from the everlasting hills. We should look
for that about the Book which, flashing convictio~ at once,
slioutd carry overwhelmingly
and everywhere by its bare,
tta'ked witness - by wh.at it .s.imply is., That, ju.st as, God, by
stretching out a 11and to write upon the ''plaister'' of a Babylonian palace,' stamped, through mysterious and disjointed
words, conviction of Divinity upon Belshazzar, and each one
of his one thousand ''lords'' ; so, after that same analogue,why not? God should stretch out His hand along the unrolling palimpsests of all the ages,. and write upon them largeir
words, wh ich, to the , secre ,t recognition of each human soul,
should say, not only, ''This is Truth,'' but ''This , is Truth,
God-spoken !''' .
The Bibl ,e is the Word o,f God, be cause it is the Book of
Infinites the revelatio ,n of what 11ature, without it, never
c,ould have attained, and, coming short of the knowledge of
. which, nature were lost.
Tt1e greatest need of the soul is salvation. It is such a
knowledge of God as shall asst1re us of ''co mfo rt' here an d
hereaf ter. Su ch a knowledge, nature outsid1
e of . the Bible
does not contain. Everywhere groping in his darlcness, man
is confronte4 by two changeless facts. One, his guilt, which,
as b.e looks down, sinks deeper a11d deepe,r. The o,ther, the ,
1

'

Testimot1,y of tlie Scriptures to Thetnsclves

45
'

justice of God, which as he looks up, lifts higher and higher.

Infinite against infinite infinite here, Infinite there no
bridge betWeen them! Nature helps to no bridge. lt nowhere speaks o,f aton en1ent.
Standing with Uriel in the sun, we launch the proposition
that the Scriptures are Divine in their very message because
they deal with three lnfi1iites: Infinite Guilt j Infinite H oli- ,

ness; Infinite Atonement.

A hook must itself be infinite w11ichdeals wi,th infinites;,
and a book must be Divine which divinely reconciles infinites.
Infinite Guilt! Has my guilt a11y bottom? Is Hell_ any
deeper? Is there, in introspection, a possiPle lower, more
bottomle ss nadir? Infinite guilt I That is what opens, caves
'

away under my feet, the longer, the more caref u]Iy I plumb
tny own heart my nature, . my record. Infinitely guilty ! That is
what I a1n far, Oh, ]10,,v far, below the 11laneof self-apology,
or ghastly ''criticism'' of the Book which testifies to this. In- .
finitely guilty! That is what I am. Infinitely sinking, and,

~ng Bib]e Divine. I I<now it I do not l<no,w how by an

ins~i?ct, by conscience, by illumination, by the power of the .

viction in me w'hich accor,d,.

And, counterpoised above me, a correl~tive Infinite

GodI

-~ble declares 1t. I know it I do not know how by art instinct . EVen the natural man n1ust picture to himself when
thus d-ep1cted,

,and 111ust
. fear,

''A God in grandeur, and a world on fire.''

That

ts

the second Infinite. .

46

The Fundamentals

Then the third and wl1at co111pletes the Triangle, an.d .

makes its sides .eternally, divinely equal:-..:.-lnfinite
Atonement
........
an Infinite Saviour God on the cross making answer to
God on the thrones -my Jesus my Refuge my Everlasting
Jel1ova,h.
By tl1ese three Infinites especially this last, --this Infinite
Atonement, for which my whole being cries out its last cry
by this third side of the stupendous Triangle
of exhaustion
. -the ,side whicl1, left t 0 my self, I cou.1d never mal<:e out the
Bible proves itself the soul's Geometry. the one Eter-11al
M ,athematics , the true Revela .tion 0 God,.
We tal<:ethe ground that these three things Guilt, God,
Atonement set thus in star-like apposition and conjunction,
speak from the sky, more p,iercingly than stars do, saying:
'' Sinner and suff erer, I thils Revelation is Divine 'I''
We take the open ground that a single stray lea of God's
Wor ,d, ,found by th e ways ,ide by 0ne wl10 nevet had see11 it
before, would convince him at once t~at the s.tra.nge and tl1e
wonderful word ,s were th,os,e of' his God were Divine.
The Scriptures are their own self-evidence. We take . tI1e
ground that the sun requires no critic trttth no diving-bell.
When the sun sl1ines, l1e shines the sun. When God speaks,
His evide11ceis in t'he ac,c,ent of His wor ,d.s.
How did tl1e prophets of old know, ,vhen God spoke to
them, tI1at it was G,od? D.i1d they subject the voice, that shook
their every bone, and make their flesh dissolve upon them, to
a critical test? Did they pu t God, so to say - -as .so,n1e of our
modems would seem to have done into a crttcible, into , a
chemist's retort, in orde ,r to certify that He was God? !)id
they find it necessary to ho ld tl1e handwriting of God in
front of the blow -p,ipe of anxious phllosophical examination,
in order to hring out and to make the invisible, visible? The
very suggestion is rnadn,ess.
.
. The .Scriptures are their own se]f-evid ence. Tl1e ref ttsal
1

'I

Testimony

..

47

of the Scriptur,es to Themselves

of the Bible on its simple presenta ,tion is e11ought 0 damn a.ny

tnan, and, if persist ,ed in, will damn hi1n for

'' A glory gilds, 'tl1e sacr,ed pag,e,
Majestic, like the sun;
It gives a light to every age ;
It give ,s, bu't borr ,ows none.''
,
..
4. Glory spreads ,over the face of the Scriptures, but this
glory, when scrutiniz,e.d closely, is seen to c.ontain c,ertain
. features and outlines testimonies i11side of itself, direct assertions, which conspire to illustr~te aga i11its hign Divinity,
and to c.onfirm i't ,s claim.
.
This is our fourth point: Tr-1ESCRIPTURES SAY OF THEM-S'ELVES THAT THEY ARE DI\ TINF,.
They not only ass,uine 'i't ;,
tlie,y say it. And thi s, ''Thus saith the Lord, ," is intrinsi c. a
Witness inside 0 the witness, and 011eupon which some~ in,g
~ore th,an conviction coizfid,e,nce, or S,pirit -born, and savin,g
f aitli depends.

'

The argument from the selfpassertion, of Scripture is

cum ul a,e
ive .
(I)
Tl1te
' Bible cl'aims tlzat, as a Book, it comes fro trt G'od..

In va rious ways it u.rges this claim.

One thing: it says so. ''God in old times spake by the
Prophets ; God now speaks by His Son.'' The question of In~
spiration is, i,n its first sta ,tement, th e q,ue,stion of Revelatio ,n

. .itself. If the Book be Divine, then what it says of itself is

ll'ivine. The Scriptures are inspired because tl1ey say tl1ey
are inspired. The question is simply one of Divine testimony,
and our business is, as sin1p1y,to receive ,that testimony. ''Insp~ration is a"s much an assertion,'' says Haldane, ''a ,s is jt1sti6eation by faith. Both stand and equally, on the authority of
Scripture, which is as much an ultimate authority upon this
Point as upon any other.'' When God speaks 1 and when He
says, ''I speak ?'' there is the ,vhole of it. He is bound to be
heard a11d obeyed.

.
1

'

...

48

In the Bible God speaks, and spealcs not only by proxy.

Leviticus i.s a S'ignal example of tl1is". Cha.pter af 'ter chapter
of Leviticus begins : '' And tl1e Lord spake, saying ;'' and so it
ru11s on 'through the c.hapter. Moses i,s simply a. 1.istener, a
scribe. The self-announc ed Speaker is God,
In the Bible God Himse lf com es down an,d s.pealcs, not in
the Old Testament alone, and not alone by proxy. '"The New
Test ament presents us," says Dean Burgon, ''with tl1e, augt1st
spectacle of the Ancient of Days ho1ding th ,e entire volurne of
the Old Testament Scriptures in His hands, and int erpreting it
of Himse 'lf. He, the Incarnate Word, who was in the beginning with God, and who was God tl1at same Almighty One is
1
set f'orth in th e Gospels as hol ding the 'volume of the Book
in His hands, as, opening a11d u11folding it, and explaining it
everywhere of Hin1self .''
Chris .t everywher e r,eceives the sc 1ipture, and sp,eaks Orf the
Scriptures, in their entirety the Law, the Prophets, , arid ~he
Psalms, the who 1e Q ,] d Testament c.a11on as the living Oracle
of God. He a ccepts and He endorses , everything written,. a11d
even mal<es most prominent thos .e miracles which infidelity
regards . as most incredible~ And He does aI1 t.his upon tl1e
ground of the authot'ity of God. He p asses over th e writ ,e1..-~
J,eaves l1im out. of account. !11 all I-Iis quotation .s from tl1e
Old T estan1ent, He mentio11s but four of the writers by name.
The questi.on w.ith Him i,s not a question of the reporter, but
of the Dictator .

And this position of our Saviour which exalted Scripture

as the mouthpiece of the living God was steadily maintained
by the Apostles and the apostolic Church. . Again and over
again, in the Book of the Acts, in all the Epist les, do we find
such expressions as ''He saith,'' ''G ,od saith,'' ''T he oracles of
Go~,'' ''The Holy Ghost saith,'' ''We ll spa~e the Holy Ghost by
E,saias the prophet.''
.
The Epistle to t'he Hebrews furnishes a splendid iltustration of this , where , setti11g forth the whole economy of the

49

Testi2nony of t'h.e Scriptures to Themselves

Mosaic rites, the auth or ad ,ds, '''The Holy Ghost this signifying.'' Further on, and quoting .words of Jeremiah, he
enfo ,rces. thern. with tl1e rernark, ''.T 'l1e Holy Gho.st is witness
to tts also.'' Tl1e imper .ia] argument on Psalm 95, ]1e clenches
with the application, ''Wherefore, as the Holy GI1ost saith,
Today if ye will hear His voice.'' Throughout the entire
Epistle, whoever tilay have been the writer quoted tom, the
Words of the quotation are ref e1red to God.

(2) But now let us come close r, to th e very exact and catego1,.ical and unequivocal assertion. If t.lie Scriptures as a
Book are Divine, , then wlia,t t.hey say of the~nselv,es is Divine.
w 11at do they say?
In this i11quiry, let us lceep our fingers on two words, and
always on two words, the apostolic keys to the whole Church

pos1t1on:
. 11ot som1ebcidy,I
''Gra .pl1e'' wr ,i.ting, , w1"iting, th.e W1iti11gsomething baclc of the Writing . The Writing, ~'He Grapl1e;''
.that was inspired.
And what is meant by inspired? ''Theopneustos," Godbreatl1,ed.
. .
' 'God br eatl1e,d I'' Tl1at sw eeps tl1e wl10le ground.
G od
comes down as a blast on tl1e pipes of an organ i11 voice like
a whirlwind, or in still ,vhi spers like Aeolian tones, and saying the Word, I-le seiz es the haad, and makes that hand in
Ii .is own the , pen of a most 1eady writer.
,
Pasa Graphe Theopneustos I ''All sacred writing.', More
e:x:actly,''Every sacred writing," e,rery mark on the parchn1ent,

is ''God-breathed,"
So says S,t. Paul.
.
Pasa Graphe Theopne1.estos! T11e sacred . assertio11 is not
0f the i11strun1ent.s, b.ut of the Au .thor ; not of the ag ents, but ,
of the product. It is the sole and sove1eign vindication of
what has been left on th.e page wlien !1ispi1,ationgets through.
''What is written,'' says Jesus, ' 'how readest thou?'' i-1:ancan
on]y read what i,s written.
.
1

'

50

Pasa Graphe The opneustos ! God in spires not men, bu1~

language. The p,11ta s,e,, ''in spired men," is not fo,und in the
Bible. The Scrip ture never employs it. The Scripture say ~
that ''ho ly men w,ere moved' " pherotnenoi
but that th ei:r
writing, . their manu script, what they put down and left on the
page, w,as God-breathed.
You b,re athe upon a pane o,f glas.s. .
Your b reath congeals there; f re,ezes th ,ere; stays th.ere; fixes
an ice-picture there. 'That is the notion. The writing on th e
page beneath the hand ,o.f P',aul was just as mu~h br ,eathed 0n,
breathed int,o that p.age, as wa s His soul breathed into Adam.
\
The cl1iro,grapl1 wa s Go,d's 'inca rna te voice, as truly as the
flesh of Jesus ,sleeping 0 n the ''pillow'' was incarnate God.
We take the grou nd that on tlie, original parclime11t the
membr ,ane eve1y sentence, word, line , mark, point, pen-stroke
jot, tittle wa s put t'he re by God.
On the origi1ialparchme1it. There i,s no question ,of. other,
ante .rior parc hment s .. E ven were W e to indulge the violent
extra ~Scriptura] noti on tha t M,o ses 01 Matthew transcribed
f1om mem ory or fr om othe r book s the things tl1ey. have 'teft
us; stillt in .any, in every case, the Selection, t]1e expression ,
the shapi ng and tu1n 0 f the phra se on t.he membrane was th e
work of an una ided God.

But what? Le t us have done witl1 extra -Scriptural, presumptous , sup po sitions .. The bttrni:ng Isaia h, the perf ervid,
wheel- gaz ing Eze kiel ; tl1e ard ent , S,eraphic St. Paul, caught
up, up, up, up into thiat Par adi s1e which h.e him self calls t.he
' ttl1ird l1eaven'' -w ,e r e th ese m en only ''copyi sts," mere ,selfmo ,ved ''r eda ctors '' ? I tro w not. T heir pen s urge d, sway ed,
. moved hither and thitl1er by the sweep of a heavenly curr ent,
stretched their f ea ~l1ered t.o,ps , lil{e that of Luke upon St .
Peter's dome, into th,e far-o ff E mpy rean,, winged f'ro.m the
tl1rone .of God.
,
.
We tak ,e the gr,ot1nd that 011 the original par ch1nent . thle
membr ane a ,ever y sentence, word, line, marl<, point , pe n-stroke
jot, 'tittle wa s put th ere by God ~

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On t~e original .Parcliment. Men n1ay destroy tl1at parchme,nt. Time may destroy it. To say that th.e membranes have
suffered in the hands of men, is 'but to say that everything
Divine must suffer, as the pattern Tabernacle stiffered, when
C'ommitted to o,ur hands . To say, ho "vcve1,, 'that the writing
has suffere ,d the wor ds and letter s is to say tha t Jehovali
h.as f aile d..

. The writing . remains, . Lil<e that of a palimpsest, it will

survive and reappear, no matter what circumstances, what
,changes, come in to scat ter , obscu1e, ,~isfigure, or b'lot it aw.ay.
Not .even one lonely Tii:Eos* writ large by the Spirit of God on
the Great Uncial . ''C'' as, with my own ey es I have seen it .
plain, vivid, glittering, out sta rting from behind the pale and
overlying ink of Ephraim the Syrian can be buried. Like
Banquo's ghost, it will ri :se ; a11clGod I-Iimself rep ,lace it, and, ,
with a hammer-stroke, beat down deleting l1ands. . The parch- .
' ments, tl1e memb1ra.ne,s,, decay; tl1e w1itings, thee words, are
eternal as God. Strip ,off' the , plaister from Be lshazzar's p,a}-
ace, yet Mene ! Mene r Tekel ! Upharsin ! remain. They
remain~
Let us go through them, and from the , beginning, and see
What the Scriptures say of thems elves.
Q,ne thing; they say that G,od sp,ake, ''anciently and all the

Way do1.,vn,in the prophets.'' One may make if he pleas ,es the
''en'' . ins,trume ,ntal as it is 1110
,re ,of ten ins,trumental
i. ,e.,
c'by''' the prophet s ; but in either case,, in them or by them, tl1e
Speaker was , God.
~
Again; the .Scripture .s ,say tl1at the, laws the writers promul -gate1d,, tI1e doctrin .es they taugl1t, the s~ories they recorded. above all, their prophecies of Christ were not their own;
Were not origi1riated, nor conceiv,ed by them f r ,01n any outside
~ources were not what they had any means before of know. tng, or of comprehending, but were immediately from God;
*God was manifest in the flesh (1 Tim,. 3 :16) . .

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they themse1ves being only recipien t, only concurre nt with

God, as God moved upon them.
.
\
Some of the speakers of the Bible, as Balaam, tl1e Old
Prophet o,f Bethe], Caiaphas , are seized and 1nade to speak in
spite of thems~]ves; ar:id,. with the greatest reluctance, to ut ter
wh .at is farthest fr ,om tl1eir minds and h.earts. Other .s in
fact all are purblind to the very oracles, , inst ructi .ons, vi:sions,
they announce. ''Searching what, , or what manner of ' time,
the Spirit of ,Christ which was in tl1em did signi fy 1'' i. e.', th,e
prophets th em,se.lves did not kn.ow wl1at tl1,ey wrot e. What
pictu r ,e can be more impres!ive than tl1at of the prop he:t himself hanging over and c,ontemplating in surprise ., in wonder, in
amaz eme nt , his own autograp l1 as if . it had be en left upon
th e table there = the retict of some st1ange and s;uper11atural
l1and? How .do es, that pict ur e lift away th ,e Bible fro1n ,all
human hands and place it back, .as His or igi11al deposi t, in
t l1e hands of .God.
Again ; it is .said that ''the Word of the Lor ,d came'' to
s11ch an ,d su.cl, a writer. It . is not sa id that the . Spirit came, .
,,1hich is true .; but that the W ord itself cam e, the Daba rJehovah. , And it is said: ''H ay,o Haya Dabar,''. that it .sub-.
stantially came, essen ti ally catne; ''essendo f uit'' so say Pag~
ninus, Montanus ., Polantts i,. e., it came germ, s,ee.d .and husk
and blossom in its total ity . 1.vo,rds wl1ich tl1e Holy Gl1ost
teacheth the ''word ,s.'''
Again; it is denied, and most emphatically, that the w ords
,a.re the w,ords of the ma,n of the ag ent. '''The word was i11
my tongue''. St. Paul asserts that ''Ch~ist spake in him'' (2
Cor. 13 :3). ''Who hath n1ade man's mouth? Have not I,
the Lord? I will put My wo rd s into thy mo uth.'' T .l1at looks
very much li.ke w'hat has been stigmatized as the ''mechanical
the ory.''
It surely makes tl1e writer a mere organ, altl1ough
or
'
g
an.
Could
not an unconscious, or unwilling , uns ponta11eous
.
language more p lainly as sert or defend a verb ,al direct inspiration?
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Testi m ony of the S crip htres to T hen1selv es

53

In the li.ne with the fact, again it is said that the word came
to the writers without any study-"suddenly"-as
to Amos
where he is taken from following the flock.
Again; when the word thus came to the prophets they had
not the power to cottceal it. It was "like a fire in their bones"
which must speak or write, as Jeren1iah says, or consume its
human receptacle.
And to make this n1ore clear, it is said that holy n1en were
pheromenoi, "moved," or rather carr ied along in a superdelectatio scribendi. They were
natural ecstatic current-a
not left one instant to their wit, wisdom, fancies, memories,
or judgn1ents either to order, or . arrange, or dispose, or write
out. They were only reporters, intelligent, conscious, passive,
plastic, docile, exact, and accurate reporters.
They were like
men who wrote with different kinds of ink. They colored
their work with tints of their own personality, or rather God
colored it, having made the writer as the writing, and the
writer for that special writing; and because the work ran
through them just as the same water, running through glass
tubes, yellow, green, red, violet, will be yellow, violet and
green, and red.
God wrote the Bible, the whole Bible, and the Bible as a
whole. He wrote each word of it as trul y as He wrote the
Decalo gue on the tables of ston e.
Hi gher criticism tells us- the "New Departure" tells usthat Mo ses was inspired, but the Decalogue not. But Exodus
and Deuteronomy seven times over declare that God stretched
down the tip of His finger from heaven and left the 1narks,
the gravements, the cut characters, the scratches on the stones.
(Ex. 24 :12.) "I will give thee tables of stone, commandments, which I have written" (Ex. 31 :18). "And He gave
unto Mo ses, upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables
of stone iuritten with the finger of God" (Ex. 32 :16). The
tables ~vere the work of God and the writing was the writing
of God, gra ven upon the table s. ( Deut. 4 :12). "The Lord

54

The Fundamentals ,

spa ke unto you out of the midst of tl1e fire, and He declared
unto , y ou His covenant, even ten commandments and He wrote
tlieni upon two tabl es 0 stone'' ( De ,ut. 5 :22). ''These words
the Lord .spake, and He wrote them in two tables of sto ne, and
delivered them unto me'' (Deut. 9 :10). ''And the Lo ,rd delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of
God'~I
.
Seven times, and to 1nen to whom writing is instinct; to
beings who are most of all impres sed, not by vage vanishing

voices, but by words arrested, fixed, set down ; and .who tl1eme to commit . theit"',own wo1rds 1to,
S1elves cannot resist the impuls 11
some written deposit,. even of stone, or of bark, if they have
not the paper; seven times, to men, to whom writing is instinct
and who are inclined to r ely for their highest convi ct,jon O'n
what t11eyhav ,e sty,ted ''docu1nentary evidence," i. e., on books;
God comes in an,d declares, ''I l1ave written' !
Th ,e Scriptures, whetI1er W'it'h the ht11nan instrument or .
withottt the human instrument, with Moses or without Moses,
were written by God. . When God had finished, Moses had
nothing else to do but carry down God's autograph. That is
our doctrine. Th e Scriptitres
if t en words, then aII the words
~ if the law, then the Gospels the writing, the writings; He .
Graphe Hai Graphai expressions repeated . more than .fifty
times in the New Tes ta ment alone this, these were inspired.
Brethren, the danger of our present day the ''down .
grade'' as it has be,en ca.lled, of doctrine , of convi ction, of the
moral sentiment a decline niore constantly patent, as it is
more blatantly proclaimed does it not find its fir st step in our
1
1
1
101st hold upon thle v~ry ins,pirat iio,n 0 f th e Word 0 f Glod ?
D'oes not a fre s11 conviction here lie at the root of every
remedy which we desire, as its s,ad lac k lies at the r oot of
every ruin we dep lore?
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