CHRIST THE SUBSTANCE OF IT.
The whole Bible might be labeled, “The Word of Christ,” it is so full of him; in all parts of it you find a word from him, or a word about him; take him away from it, and it would be a book without a meaning. It has been well said—“What a babe’s clothes are when the babe has slipped out of them into death, and the mother’s arms clasp only the raiment—that would the Bible be if the Babe of Bethlehem and the great truths that clothed his life and death should slip out of it.” But there is no possibility of putting Christ out of the Bible, for he is its very substance. In ancient times a celebrated artist made a most wonderful shield, and worked his own name into it, so that it could not be removed without destroying the shield. It is just so with the Bible and Christ. As long as the Bible stands, his name must be above every name in it. His name shall endure forever. One of the kings of Egypt employed a renowned architect to build an important light-house, and desired to have the royal name sculptured on the front; but the architect thought that the king, who only supplied the money, ought not to have all the credit; he secretly carved his own name in the lasting granite, and then covering it with imitative plaster, he formed the king’s there; so in the course of time the plaster wore away, and the king’s name was gone, but the architect’s name appeared in characters that could not be effaced! Thus, notwithstanding the schemes of ungodly men, it will be with the name of Christ; it will still remain in the Bible to be as the light and glory of the sacred page; and thus the Bible will be to all generations what the star was to the wise men of the East, a light to guide mankind to the Saviour. You may still take up the Bible and say: This volume of my Father’s grace
Doth all my griefs assuage;
Here I behold my Saviour’s face
Almost on every page.