GOD'S WORD AND OTHER STANDARDS.
THE true standard can be tested by nothing but itself. Men may believe the Koran, the Vedas, the Book of Mormon, the teachings of Mrs. Eddy, the dreamings of theosophy; but they can not test the Bible by any of these. The Bible can be tested by no other standard. Not believing it as inspired, we may compare its ethical teachings with that of the standards of other religions, and find them superior, but that is no test of its truth. The banker does not test a questioned banknote by a counterfeit, but by the genuine. His test would be no more satisfactory if he believed his standard to be genuine when it was counterfeit, or believed the tested bill to be genuine or counterfeit. His belief or non-belief would not affect the matter. The test of a genuine or counterfeit by a false standard proves nothing. Therefore the Bible can no more be tested by false standards than can righteousness by sin, or the Righteous One by sinners. The soul lost for years in the mazes of false isms, who truly accepts Christianity at last—who accepts Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour—does not do it because of any test which he has brought upon Christianity by these religions, does not do it by a “comparison” of ethics; no, he embraces Christ because he has found that which meets the need of his own soul. He was a sinner, and he needed a Saviour; and Christ met the need. Did you ever see a carpenter test a square? He may do it by a square which he knows to be true, but he more frequently does it by the square itself. He puts that square flat on a board. He measures accurately three inches on one arm and four inches on the other, and if the square is square it will measure just five inches between the two points. Six, eight, and ten bear the same ratio. The Bible may be tested by itself; that is the only test. It furnishes always agreeing witnesses, witnesses between whom there can be no collusion, to its divinity and authenticity. Its own law of witness, often repeated, is applicable to itself: “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” To put it in another form: God writes two or more times His testimony in such a way that there can be no question as to its truth. His multiplied prophecies He has in His providence produced again in the rise and fall of empires, in the histories of men and cities. His holy law has been reproduced in the life and example of Jesus Christ. “If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching whether it be of God.” It is an infallible rule. God by His creative power in Christ Jesus will write in the heart of the yielding one the same law which he wrote centuries ago on tables of stone. Jesus Christ knew the holiness, immutability and perfection of God’s law because the law was written in His heart. The law of Sinai witnessed to the law in Christ and so witnesses in those who accept Him. Rom. 3:21, 22. “And hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” The world compares the religion of Christ with other religions, and accepts after its own heart. The worldly theological school has its department or branch of comparative theology, or study of comparative religions, in which Christianity is compared with the great “historic religions” of the world, religions, the devotees of which are the decadents of earth, notwithstanding all their subtle philosophies. And these modern theological seminaries are graduating missionaries whose chief endeavor is to find basic ground for all theologies, and to convert the heathen to this broad tolerant “Christian” theology, while his religion remains the same. There is no comparison between Christianity—the life of God sent down to men—and false religions, however beautiful may be some of their borrowed ethics; there is only contrast, contrast between the true form of life and the dead, dry forms of men’s and demon’s devisings framed and formed to satisfy the human heart with the empty husk, while Christianity offers the bread of life.