Achievements in the Physical World— The Mightier Works Revealed Through the Great Book—To Preach the Book Is to Preach Christ—Our Composite Message
By JOHN WILLIAM McCORD
THIS age is preeminently the age of miracles, and miracles are only accomplished by faith. Measured by the past, the era in which we live is a new era, a new country, a new world.
By faith Columbus discovered a new world, and by faith the Pilgrim Fathers explored and settled it. By faith Benjamin Franklin bottled the lightning, Morse harnessed it for service; Bell taught it how to speak; and Edison gave it a general education. By faith Watts invented the locomotive, and enabled men to travel ten miles in the time they had formerly traveled but one. By faith Fulton crossed the ocean in a steamboat, and the Wright brothers traveled the air like birds.
These and many others were men of faith, and by faith they surmounted difficulties, spanned rivers, scaled mountains, crossed seas, harnessed the lightning, and did many wonderful works.
This was real faith applied to material things, and miracles have been the result thereof. Yet this wonder-working faith was based upon hard facts—facts which previously had been discovered in the laboratory. So it is with the miracle that changes a sinner into a saint. This miracle, beside which all others pale into utter insignificance, is also based upon evidence, namely, the evidence of God’s word; for “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Rom. 10:17.
The Book of Books
When we think of the origin of the Bible, its high morals, its fulfilled prophecies, and its wonderful preservation, we must conclude that this Book is different from all other books, and that its sacred pages are stamped with tokens of its divine authenticity.
When we pray, we talk to God; and when we read the Bible, the Lord talks to us. In this Book, God tells us His secrets and whispers His love. The Bible is, in reality, a letter from our heavenly Father, and the individual is wise who regards it as such and molds his life by its sacred teachings. When we believe the Bible, each promise becomes a link which binds the soul to God, and every fulfilled prophecy and promise becomes a round in the ladder of faith by which we climb to heaven.
Fellowship with Saints
It is said that the giants of literature live again in their books, and sometimes the sympathetic reader becomes better acquainted with these authors than were many even who lived with them. This is equally true of the Bible.
In the Bible we may love and work with Jesus; think and travel with Paul; study law with Moses, the drama with Job, eloquence with Isaiah, and statesmanship with Daniel; weep with Jeremiah, sing with David, and dream with John.
The Bible begins with the new earth, and ends with the earth made new. Its first pages chronicle the fall, its last pages show man restored to more than pristine glory. Its first pages show Paradise lost, its last pages Paradise regained. Its first pages are blotted with tears, and written with blood; its last pages show the curse removed, sin and death destroyed, and tears forever wiped away.
This old Book will help us to live, and teach us how to die. It will glorify our labor, and sweeten our rest. It will deepen our joy, and soften our grief. It is bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, a lamp to the straying, a friend to sinners, a safe guide to all. To obey its teaching is life in this world, and life everlasting in the world to come.790
Heroes of the Bible
The characters we love most in the Bible are those which most closely resemble the Master’s. We admire Abraham because he was faithful, Moses because he was unselfish, Joseph because he was pure, David because he was brave, Daniel because of his integrity, Job because he was patient, Paul because of his ministry, Peter because of his leadership, and John because of his love.
In Jesus Christ these priceless characteristics are to be found in their fulness. His wonderful personality has impressed itself upon the pages of Holy Writ from cover to cover. To Adam the Saviour was known as the “Seed of the woman,” to Noah as the Lord of the covenant, to Abraham as the “promised Seed,” to Jacob as “Shiloh,” to Moses as the great “I am,” to David as the “Head of the heathen,” to Isaiah as “Immanuel,” to Daniel as the “Messiah,” to Zechariah as the “Branch,” and to Malachi as the “Sun of Righteousness.” Thus the Saviour becomes the confirmation of every promise, the center of every prophecy, and the hope of every saint, for “by Him all things consist.” Col. 1:17.
To preach Christ and to preach the Bible are therefore synonymous, and every message that uplifts the Saviour will be based on the Book that reveals the Saviour. It was on the authority of God’s spoken word that Noah built the ark, and thus delivered his family. It was Bible teaching that brought about the great spiritual uplift in the days of Nehemiah. In the ministry of the apostles, the word of God was surely in evidence. The great Reformation of the sixteenth century had the Bible as its only basis. And the world-wide message that is being proclaimed by Seventh-day Adventists to-day is based on the same inspired Word.
Our Message
The message we preach is worthy of better treatment than it has yet received from God’s professed people. Doubtless this is due to the fact that the message we bear is not yet fully understood. To-day the world honors the memory of the Reformers, and this is right. Yet all that the Reformers stood for in their day, is to be found in the teaching of Seventh-day Adventists to-day.
Luther stood for justification by faith, and so do we. The Episcopalians stand for the law, and so do we. The Presbyterians stand for the Bible, and so do we. The Methodists stand for conversion, and so do we. The Baptists stand for Bible baptism, and so do we. The Seventh-day Baptists stand for the Bible Sabbath, and so do we. The cream of God’s people in every church stand for the second advent of Christ, and so do we.
Thus the Lord has made this church the repository of the truths of all the ages; and it behooves us upon whom this great light is focused, to be as faithful in giving this light to our generation as the Reformers were in giving the message for their time to that generation.
Yes, the greatest of all alchemists is faith. It has changed an old world into a new one, and sinners into saints.
