THE GREAT TOUCHSTONE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · May 1, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 18.

THE GREAT TOUCHSTONE.

THERE is one part of the Scripture canon over which there has been, until quite recently, no question, namely, the Pentateuch, or books of Moses. The efforts to ascribe to a part or all of it a later date have proved fruitless in the light of archeological revelations and just criticism. Even the skeptical and learned Sadducees, the higher critics of our Lord's own time, accepted the books of Moses.

But in the Pentateuch is found the germ and root of all God's promises and blessings to His people, the everlasting covenant; and the sum of all morality, the expression of God's will,—the Decalogue. In them we listen to God's voice, see God's mighty power, behold His wondrous love.

These books, therefore, become a great touchstone, or list, by which to try all subsequent writings. "To the law," is ever the appeal. Is the doctrine, the teaching, in harmony with God's voice? The writings of Moses abound in prophecies and types of Christ. They were so intimately connected with Christ and His work that to reject the former was to reject the latter. Jesus said: "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" John 5: 46, 47. The writings of Moses, to-day, as then, are a great test of all claims to divine authority.

The will of God is expressed in His holy law (Ps. 40:7, 8), found in the books of Moses (Ex. 20: 1-17). That prophet who led away from the worship of God, who taught contrary to the teaching of that law, who taught disobedience to the Decalogue, even tho his predictions came to pass, was a false prophet, and should not be tolerated (Deut. 13:1-5). He was known to be false. Our Lord brings the same test as regards profession: "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven." Matt. 7:21. To this law all the prophets and writers of the Bible defer as the one standard. Jesus declared that it could not be changed or fail in one single jot or tittle. Matt. 5:17-20; Luke 16:17. To its observance He points as the way of life (Matt. 19:17), and in His own life that law was worked out in its fulness (John 4:34; 6:38). Tested by God's law, the books of the Scripture canon stand.