The Divine and Human Word
By William W. Prescott
"The word of God is living, and active." "The word of the Lord abideth forever." "His name is called The Word of God." "The Son abideth ever." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." In the revelation of himself which the Lord has made to us in human language we have the same mysterious union of the divine with the human as we have in the revelation of himself which He has made to us in the flesh. In each case the divine light shines through the human medium. In each case the Lord makes himself known to man through the same channel through which man makes himself known to other men. Thus has divinity reached humanity by clothing itself with humanity. "I am . . . the truth." "Thy word is truth." In Christ, the Word of God, and in the written word, the truth has been revealed to us. We are not left to grope in darkness in search of truth, for the truth has been revealed. Some persons pride themselves in the fact that they are "only seekers after truth," when they really mean that they do not positively know what is truth, and do not think it possible for any one else to be certain of it. In this experience they are not in harmony with the will of God, "who willeth that all men should . . . come to the knowledge of the truth." They belong rather to the class who are "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." There is a great difference between claiming to know all the truth, and claiming that what we do know is the truth. Only a small portion of the whole light given out from the sun shines upon this speck of a planet called the earth, and only a small portion of that small portion shines upon any one individual, but what does reach each individual is sunshine just the same, and it is his privilege to recognize it as sunshine. While our knowledge of the truth may be very limited, yet if we are willing to be taught of God, it is our privilege to know truth, and to know that we know it. This is not the assumption of a boasting intellect, but the confidence of a humble heart that God's word is truth, and that He has brought the pure truth within our reach by clothing it with human language. The Scripture itself bears ample testimony to this effect: "The sum of thy word is truth." "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth." "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." "We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true [Him that is the truth]." "And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." The revelation of the truth which the Lord has made to us is much more than the verbal statement of that which is true. The truth is a living essence. The truth is life. The truth is a personality. The truth is the causative power which is revealed, and whose working is described, in the statements of those things which are true. Thus it happens that one may spend much time in reading the statements in the Scripture of that which is true, and yet "err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." No merely intellectual ability, the inheritance of the flesh, is capable of recognizing and dealing with the truth. The natural man cannot know "the things of the Spirit of God," and this is because "they are spiritually discerned." But these are the very things which we are to know, for "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." And this He does by enlightening and quickening these same intellectual faculties. Thus the truth is a gift to us, and must be revealed to us, but the gift and the revelation come to us through the active working of those mental powers with which we have been endowed. The highest use to which we can put our intellectual powers is in receiving the revelation which the Lord has made. This is the true purpose of all study. "If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." These principles have a very practical application in the study and teaching of the Bible. The subject-matter with which we deal is not abstract theory, mere verbal expressions, but revealed truth; this revelation can be known, and can be known to be the truth; but it can be thus known only when it is received as life, and life is received by believing. "And that believing [or by believing] ye might have life." And so faith is the real key of knowledge of the truth. "Through faith we understand." "We have believed and know." Therefore in the study of the Bible it requires more than mere intellectual ability. "What is most essential in Scripture is understood by the spiritual man, though as to the soul and body of Scripture he may be ignorant." "The best critical, grammatical, historical, and aesthetic or human understanding of Scripture . . . is utterly insufficient to seize the real meaning of the word." It is the work of the Spirit, received by faith, to make us "of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord." The same principles apply in the teaching of the Bible. It is not the primary work of the teacher merely to present the facts of Scripture, although these are very important, but rather to make one know the truth which is revealed in the facts; to impart from and through his own experience the very uplifting help which is needed to transform the life. "Such as I have give I thee." Such study of the Scripture as this, and such teaching of the Scripture as this, would result in conversions in the Sabbath-school and in constant additions to the membership of the church in consequence of the work done in the Sabbath-school. Is it not time that our Sabbath-school teachers studied more on their knees, and taught more from the heart? Such study and such teaching would constitute an important agency in establishing the truth in the hearts of the people, and in preparing the way of the Lord. W. W. P.