The Bible the Living Word by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 22, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 20.

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The Bible the Living Word

By W. A. S.

Synopsis of Present Truth — No. 2

The Bible the Living Word

(Concluded)

The Word Our Safety and Defense

WHEN Christ came to live as our example in the flesh, and to give his life a sacrifice for sin, he, the divine Son of God, made himself like unto his brethren. “I can of mine own self do nothing,” he said. John 5:30. Tempted and tried, he found his defense in the Holy Scriptures. When Satan came to tempt him to sin, the Saviour said, “It is written.” He clung to the sure defense. Again the tempter came. He was met with the word, “It is written again.” The third time it was the same weapon of defense, “It is written.” Matt. 4: 1-11.

Christ found safety only in the Scriptures of Truth. So the Bible is the Christian’s shield against the enemy’s attacks. As Jesus studied the Scriptures and kept the words ever in his heart, for a defense against temptation, so must every Christian study and meditate upon God’s Holy Word if its counsels and precepts are to be the defense in the moment of sudden temptation to sin. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart,” said the psalmist, “that I might not sin against thee.” Ps. 119: 11. It was the only way for Christ, our Pattern; it is the only way for us.

It Is the Bread of Life

The Word of God is the daily food for the soul. “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matt. 4: 4.

Who has not, in hurried times, missed a meal, working on through the day, never thinking of the prolonged fast? But after a time there came a sense of weakening force, a lack of physical power. What was the trouble? At once the reason was evident, he had not taken food, and the system was calling for a renewal of its forces. Just so the spiritual life must needs be fed by the Word of God.

Do we at times find a sense of a weakening of the spiritual power, a letting down of the vital forces of the soul? Ah, in the hurry of life we have neglected to feed upon the living bread. We can no more sustain spiritual vigor and health without feeding daily upon God’s Holy Word than we can maintain physical power without eating our daily bread. Eat of the life-giving Word. The taste for it grows with the partaking.

There is life in “every word.” The psalmist found the Lord’s testimonies “sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb,” or, as the marginal reading has it, than “the dropping of honeycombs.” Ps. 19: 10. We get the picture of the honeycomb inverted, the cell caps broken open, the sweetness of the honey dripping down. Just so every word of the Lord is a cell, full of sweetness and life for the soul that feasts upon the Holy Scriptures.

The Source of All Doctrine

The Bible is the complete and perfect rule of faith and doctrine. Here every doctrine of salvation is found. Inspiration has declared it in the words of the apostle Paul to Timothy:—

“From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim. 3: 15-17.

The divine command is, “Study.” For every generation there has been a message borne by this living Word, making call to reformation of life, or giving warning and comfort. “The Bible is not a collection of truths formulated in propositions,” said Dr. Samuel Harris, of Yale, “but God’s majestic march through history, redeeming men from sin.”

In every age God has been ruling and overruling, witnessing by his Spirit through the living Word. The experiences recorded of past ages have their special lesson for the present:—

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Rom. 15: 4.

“Let vs therefore all with feruent desire,” as the Old English of 1549 spelled the exhortation of Erasmus, “thyrste after these spirituall sprynges, . . . Let vs kisse these swete wordes of Christ with a pure affection. Let vs be newe transformed into them, for soche are oure maners as oure studies be.”

The Book for All Mankind

It speaks in every tongue to the human heart. Its power to transform has been shown through all the centuries in every clime and among every race. One of the Gospels was put into the Chiluba tongue of Central Africa. After a time a Garenganze chief came to Dan Crawford, the missionary, changed from the spirit of a fierce, wicked barbarian to that of a teachable child. Explaining his conversion, the chief said:—

I was startled to find that Christ could speak Chiluba. I heard him speak to me out of the printed page, and what he said was, “Follow me!”

Of the Bible’s universal speech to all mankind, Dr. Henry van Dyke has said:—

Born in the East, and clothed in Oriental form and imagery, the Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet, and enters land after land to find its own everywhere. It has learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart of man. It comes into the palace to tell the monarch that he is the servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to assure the peasant that he is the son of God. Children listen to its stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as parables of life. It has a word of peace for the time of peril, a word of comfort for the day of calamity, a word of light for the hour of darkness. Its oracles are repeated in the assembly of the people, and its counsels whispered in the ear of the lonely. The wise and the proud tremble at its warnings, but to the wounded and penitent it has a mother’s voice. . . .

Its great words grow richer, as pearls do when they are worn near the heart. No man is poor or desolate who has this treasure for his own. When the landscape darkens and the trembling pilgrim comes to the valley named the shadow, he is not afraid to enter; he takes the rod and staff of Scripture in his hand; he says to friend and comrade, “Good-by, we shall meet again,” and comforted by that support, he goes toward the lonely pass as one who climbs through darkness into light.—Century Magazine.

Christ the Central Theme

All the Bible bears witness of him as the Saviour of the world. Christ himself said of the Scriptures, “They are they which testify of me.” John 5: 39. “To him bare all the prophets witness.” We see him as the coming Messiah in promise and prophecy, in type and shadow. His is the divine, living personality standing out in every book that makes up the Sacred Volume. As we read with loving heart, the author seems near in every page:—

“Reading, methinks I bend Before the cross Where died my King, my Friend. The whole world’s loss For love of him is gain.”

And having beheld him giving his life as the divine sacrifice, and rising in triumph over death to be our great High

Priest in the heavenly temple, as we read these Sacred Scriptures yet again, in every book, from Genesis to Revelation, we see him as the coming King of kings, coming to take his children to the eternal home of the saved. The whole Book is a bright window through which we gaze on coming glory.

“And yet again I stand Where the seer stood, Gazing across the strand, Beyond the flood: The gates of pearl afar, The streets of gold, The Bright and Morning Star Mine eyes behold.”

And the word of God “liveth and abideth forever.” “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matt. 24: 35. W. A. S.