The Wonderful Book of God by G. B. T.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 19, 1916

The Wonderful Book of God

By G. B. T.

TRULY the Bible is a wonderful book. Its sublime utterances take hold on the soul as do the words of no other book. Other books become antiquated, but not the Bible. Men write books on various subjects, and in a few years others produce writings on the same subject far in advance, and previous writings are out of date. But the Bible is never out of date. Its words are equally true in all ages. When men have established, as they think, the fact that some statement is historically inaccurate, the spade of some explorer digs up a tablet, and the Scriptures of truth are found to be correct.

Men advance theories concerning science, and others come along with theories which devour these as fast as they are born. But the Word of God stands the acid test of all time and of all theories. While men are floating rudderless on the sea of speculation, wondering what is coming to pass, those enlightened by the Word, casting aside vague and uncertain theorizing, are guided by a sure chart and compass.

“O holy Book of truth divine! Eternal as thy Maker’s name; Through countless ages of decline Thy glowing truths have stood the same.”

Skeptics have done their worst to destroy the Scriptures, but at no time in the history of the world were so many copies of the Bible, in so many different tongues, being circulated. On one occasion when some skeptics were railing at the Christian religion and the Bible, James Russell Lowell said to them:—

“When the microscopic search of skepticism which has hunted the heavens and sounded the seas to disprove the existence of the Creator, has turned its attention to human society and has found a place on this planet ten miles square where a decent man can live in decency, comfort, and security, supporting and educating his children, unspoiled and unpolluted; a place where age is reverenced, infancy respected, manhood respected, womanhood honored, and human life held in due regard,—when skeptics can find such a place ten miles square on this globe, where the gospel of Christ has not gone first and cleared the way, and laid the foundations and made decency and security possible, it will then be in order for the skeptical literati to move thither and there ventilate their views.”

The Bible has stood and will ever stand impregnable against all the assaults of its enemies. There is, of course, a reverent criticism to which it is proper to subject the Scriptures. This has to do with authorship of writings, the date of manuscript, and correct translation. But though infidel criticisms may impeach the Word of God, and throw uncertainty over all it contains, and seek to rob man of the hope which it holds out, not only for this life, but for the life to come, it cannot take from the world the light and influence of God’s Word. It is much to be regretted that in addition to the infidels, and unbelievers, and free-thinkers, and deists, and atheists, and skeptics, and agnostics, who have rejected the supernatural inspiration of the Scriptures, we have come to a time when there must be added higher critics, who are professed Christians, but are sowing doubts regarding the authenticity of much of the Bible. But the Bible will withstand the assaults of all. God’s Word is here to stay. Heaven and earth may pass away, but God’s Word will remain, to bless and enlighten the world. A writer states it in this way:—

“If men should try to put it away from us, they would be obliged first of all to get rid of all the copies in all the languages—there are 160,000,000, say of the Old and New Testaments in one book and in portions of the Book. You must have all these piled together in a pyramidal mass and reduced to ashes before you can say you have destroyed the Bible.

“Then go to the libraries of the world, and when you have selected every book that contains a reference to the Old and New Testaments, you must eliminate from each book all such passages; and until you have so treated every book of poetry and prose, excising all ideas of grandeur and purity and tenderness and beauty, for the knowledge of which the poets and prose writers were indebted to the Bible,—until you have taken all these from between the bindings and turned them to ashes, leaving the emasculated fragments behind, not until then have you destroyed the Bible.

“You must then go to the galleries of art throughout the world, and you must slash and daub over and obliterate the achievements that the genius of the artist has produced. Not until then have you destroyed the Bible.

“Have you done it then? What next? You must visit every conservatory of music, and not until the world shall stand voiceless as to its masters—not until then have you destroyed the Bible.

“Have you done it then?—No. There is one thing more you must perform. There is one copy of the Bible still living. It is the cemetery of the Christian. The cemeteries, while they exist, are Bibles; and to suppress the Book, to let not a trace of it be discovered, you must pass from gravestone to gravestone and with mallet and chisel cut out every name that is Biblical and every inspiring passage of Scripture graven thereon. To destroy the Bible you must also blot from the memory of every Christian its promises and comforts. Not until you have done all this can you destroy the Bible.”—“Another Mile,” pp. 28, 29.

“Word of the everlasting God, Will of his glorious Son, Without thee how could earth be trod, Or heaven itself be won?”

G. B. T.