Why Do Not Men Produce Such Books To-Day? Never So Well Equipped for It as Now
Human Failure, and the Divine Origin of the Book
By GEORGE B. THOMPSON
THE Bible is indeed a wonderful volume. It is a library, consisting of sixty-six books, written by many writers, covering a number of centuries. Its light and power have permeated and changed the map of the world. No other book has been hated as the Bible has. It has been cursed and burned, and yet it continues its work of blessing and uplifting humanity. It is a rock, impregnable to the assaults of infidelity. While its enemies are denouncing it as a human production, millions of people are ready to testify that it is the product of an infinite God.
The divine origin of the Bible was most forcefully set forth by the distinguished statesman, William J. Bryan, the present secretary of state, in a most eloquent address somewhat recently delivered in Washington, D. C. From this inspiring address I take the following paragraphs:
CHALLENGE TO ATHEISTS
WILLIAM J. BRYAN
“Atheists and materialists declare that it is merely the work of man — that it was written under the limitations that apply to human wisdom. Taking this position, they must necessarily contend that, unless man has degenerated in ability and declined in wisdom, he can now produce a book equal to the Bible. Let them produce it.
“Judged by human standards, man is far better prepared to write a Bible now than he was when our Bible was written. The characters whose words and deeds are recorded in the Bible were members of a single race. They lived among the hills of Palestine, in a territory scarcely larger than one of our counties. They did not have printing-presses, and they lacked the learning of the schools. They had no great libraries to consult, no steamboats to carry them around the world and make them acquainted with the various centers of ancient civilization. They had no telegraph-wires to bring them the news from the ends of the earth, and no newspapers to spread before them each morning the doings of the day before. Science had not unlocked nature's door and revealed the secrets of rocks below and stars above. From what a scantily supplied storehouse of knowledge they had to draw, compared with the unlimited wealth of information at man's command to-day!
“And yet these Bible characters grapple with every problem that confronts mankind, from the creation of the world to eternal life beyond the tomb. They have given us a diagram of man's existence from the cradle to the grave, and they have set up signposts at every dangerous point along the path.
“We turn back to the Bible for the Ten Commandments, which form the foundation for our statute law; and for the Sermon on the Mount, which lays down the rules for our spiritual growth. The Bible gives us the story of the birth, the words, the works, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Him whose coming was foretold in prophecy, whose arrival was announced by the angel voices, singing peace and good will — the story of Him who gave to the world a code of morality superior to anything that the world had known before or has known since — the story of Him who is the crowning figure of all time, whom the world is accepting as Saviour and as the perfect example.
WILL THEY ATTEMPT A BETTER ONE?
“Let the atheists and the materialists produce a better Bible than ours, if they can. Let them collect the best of their school to be found among the graduates of universities — as many as they will, and from every land. Let the members of this selected group travel where they will, consult such libraries as they please, and employ every modern means of swift communication. Let them roam at will wherever science has opened a way. Let them take advantage of all the progress in art and in literature, in oratory and in history. Let them use to the full every instrumentality that is employed in modern civilization. And when they have exhausted every source, let them embody the results of their best intelligence in a book, and offer it to the world as a substitute for this Bible of ours.
“Have they the confidence that the prophets of Baal had in their god? Will they try? If not, what excuse will they give? Has man fallen from his high estate, so that we can not rightfully expect as much of him now as nineteen centuries ago, or does the Bible come to us from a source that is higher than man — which?
NO REFUGE IN RETROGRESSION
“But our case is even stronger. The opponents of the Bible can not take refuge in the plea that man is retrograding. They loudly proclaim that man has grown and that he is growing still. They boast of a world-wide advance, and their claim is founded upon fact. In all matters except in the science of how to live man has made wonderful258progress. The mastery of the mind over the forces of nature seems almost complete, so far do we surpass the ancients in harnessing the water, the wind, and the lightning.
“For ages the rivers plunged down the mountainsides and exhausted their energies without any appreciable contribution to man’s service; now they are estimated as so many units of horse-power, and we find that their fretting and foaming was merely a language which they employed to tell us of their strength and of their willingness to work for us. And while falling water is becoming each day a larger factor in burden bearing, water rising in the form of steam is revolutionizing the transportation methods of the world.
“The wind that first whispered its secret of strength to the flapping sail is now turning the wheel at the well.
“Lightning, the dread demon that, from the dawn of creation, has been rushing down its zigzag path through the clouds as if intent only upon spreading death, has been metamorphosed into an errand boy, and brings us illumination from the sun, and carries our messages around the globe.
THE BIBLE AN UPLIFTING POWER
“Inventive genius has multiplied the power of a human arm, and supplied the masses with comforts of which the rich did not dare to dream a few centuries ago. Science is ferreting out the hidden causes of disease, and teaching us how to prolong life. In every line, except in the line of character building, the world seems to have been made over; but the marvelous changes by which old things have become new, only emphasize the fact that man, too, must be born again, while they show how impotent are material things to touch the soul of man and transform him into a spiritual being.
“Wherever the moral standard is being lifted up — wherever life is becoming larger in the vision that directs it, and richer in its fruitage — the improvement is traceable to the Bible and to the influence of the God and Christ of whom the Bible tells.
THEY MUST CONFESS IT
“The atheist and the materialist must confess that man ought to be able to produce a better book to-day than man, unaided, could have produced in any previous age. The fact that they have tried, time and again, only to fail each time more hopelessly, explains why they will not — why they can not — accept the challenge thrown down by the Christian world to produce a book worthy to take the Bible’s place.
IMPRESS IS ON THE WORLD
“They have prayed to their god to answer with fire — prayed to inanimate matter with an earnestness that is pathetic. They have employed in the worship of blind force a faith greater than religion requires, but their almighty is asleep. How long will they allow the search for the strata of stone and fragments of fossil and decaying skeletons that are strewn around the house to absorb their thoughts to the exclusion of the Architect who planned it all? How long will the agnostic, closing his eyes to the plainest truths, cry ‘Night, night,’ when the sun in his meridian splendor announces that noon is here?
“The Bible has stamped its impress upon the map of the world. Its boundaries are clearly marked, and the light that emanates from the Christian nations is flowing outward toward those who sit in darkness. Back of the progress that marks the present day is the code of morals that Christ proclaimed, and back of that code of morals is the divine character of Him who is both Son of God and Saviour of mankind.”
THEIR ORACLE IS DUMB
This challenge to the god of unbelief and skepticism we judge will go unanswered. Their oracle is dumb. “That which is noted in the Scripture of truth” will stand. The predictions of the ancient seers, covering millenniums of the future, have all been accurately fulfilled, and will stand.
“The tumult and the shouting dies,
The captains and the kings depart;
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
“Far called, our navies melt away.
On dune and headland sinks the fire.
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!”
— Kipling.
But while we see that all earthly things are stamped with decay, and in a few brief years crumble into ruins, the word of our God stands fast forever and ever; and those who keep their feet upon this imperishable rock will endure the trials and disappointments of life, and share finally in the reward which it promises.
