PRELIMINARY.

A. The Importance of the Subject.

The importance of the Doctrine of Inspiration needs scarcely any elaborate comment or proof. The theological atmosphere is full of discussion on the subject, either directly or indirectly.

Christianity is the Religion of the Book. It is not an external organization, nor a system of ceremonies, nor a philosophy, nor a vague inquiry and aspiration, nor a human invention for man's own convenience or advantage. It is a definite system divinely given, consisting primarily of

FACTS, occurring both on earth and in heaven;

DOCTRINES in connection with those facts;

COMMANDS growing out of both these; and

PROMISES based upon them.

The history is so interwoven with the doctrinal teachings, the precepts so combined with the promises, as to be inseparable; and the whole is contained in the volume or collection of writings which we call the Bible.

The question, therefore,

IS THE BIBLE THE WORD OF GOD?

is of the highest importance to us as Christians, as theological students, as ministers, for all our work and life, in our present and in our future labors.

Evangelical Christians generally have recognized this as a vital question. “ The Bible, the Bible only, the religion of Protestants," has resounded through many a hall of discussion as the watch word of victory, and has been re-echoed from many a pulpit as the battle-cry of freedom from ecclesiastical domination.

While not ignoring the noble and animating history of our Christian forefathers, or forgetting the testimony of all the witnesses for Jesus who have lived and died, we do not base our own confidence, or ground our appeals to others, on conformity to any other standard than' the Word of God. Historical associations, ancient confessions, compacts and compromises, the opinions of good and great men within or without the ranks of the denomination to which we belong, can have no decisive weight with us. We must go for guidance, not to the Fathers, but to those who were earlier and greater than the Fathers, — to the Apostles, and above all to the Lord JESUS CHRIST Himself.

B. Deficiencies of an Uninspired Bible.

The difference between an inspired and an un inspired Bible is of a momentous character. It is closely connected with the question whether we are following God or men; whether our religion is of divine or of human origin. An uninspired Bible, whatever its excellences might be, would have three serious defects.

First. It would furnish no infallible standard of truth. It would leave us liable to all the mistakes incident to failure of the writers, to their errors in judgment, or their defective expressions of correct thought. It would furnish no principle of accurate discrimination between the true and the false, the divine and the human.¹

Second. It would present no authoritative rule for obedience, and no ground for confident and ever lasting hope. It would contain advice instead of commands, suggestions instead of instructions, surmises of good men (perhaps not even of good men) instead of promises of the faithful God. It would give no firm ground on which to base our convictions, to build our hopes, or to order our life.

Third. It would offer no suitable means for testing and cultivating the docile spirit, for drawing man's soul trustfully and lovingly upward to its Heavenly Father. It would minister to the pride of reason, instead of to the culture of faith. It would generate perplexity instead of repose, conflict instead of submission, resistance instead of reverence.²

Yet we must guard against extravagance of statement, even here. Inspiration is not essential, as seems sometimes to have been stated or implied, to the historical credibility of Scripture. The facts there recorded would be true and immensely important, even though the record of them were not inspired. The facts given are amply established on historical grounds, and are sufficient, if admitted, to condemn those who reject the Bible; indeed, those facts are necessary logically to furnish a starting point from which to lead them, step by step, into the higher truths.³ Superficial information about the Scripture is better than entire ignorance, and a general confidence that it contains the Word of God is better than rejection, though not equal to the assurance that it is the Word of God. But for those who are set for the defence of the Gospel, it is important to recognize it to be just what it is, and what God meant it should be ministers especially, therefore, should not be con tent with any half-way ground, or rest satisfied in unsettled views. They should search thoroughly until they have reached a reliable conclusion. We can sympathize with and understand honest doubt, especially in young men assailed on every side by a multitude of conflicting opinions, and by the confident claims of the apostles of unbelief. But we should not, we cannot, abide in doubts. They paralyze the energies, they destroy our happiness, they hinder our usefulness. The truth can be ascertained, and the sooner the better. Meanwhile let us preach what we know, not what we do not know. “ If you know anything, tell me that,” said a great philosopher. “ Keep your doubts to yourself. I have enough of my own.”

C. Some Sources of Misapprehension.

All professed Christians agree in acknowledging in general that the Bible is “ from God, " and that it is inspired in some sense, and to some degree. But it cannot be concealed that great differences of opinion often take refuge under this ambiguous phraseology. It is of extreme importance, especially for ministers and teachers of God's Word, to have clear views and correct views of this subject. Inspiration has become the central topic of some of the great and burning controversies of the age. Doubts concerning it are widely felt, and are apparently spreading. These doubts originate, I will not say altogether, but certainly in large measure, in the following sources:

a. In misconceptions, either of the doctrine it self as generally held by Evangelical Christians, or of the evidences and arguments by which it is supported;

b. In presuppositions and assumptions hostile to any supernatural fact, and therefore to any personal, divine communication;

c. In faulty interpretation of particular passages of the Bible, bearing on the question.

An unwary advocate, with more zeal than knowledge, may honestly assume an indefensible position; and when driven from that may, in his panic, find no secure stopping-place. Or, on the other hand, a kind-hearted, liberal man, in striving to propitiate opponents, and to gain them over by making a specially mild and unobjectionable statement of truth, may unconsciously surrender the very citadel to the enemy.

1) The existence or not of an infallible standard of right and truth is a difference of kind, and not of degree, and therefore a fundamental difference. The more or the less of human error, the greater or less degree of man's fallibility, is a difference that sinks into unimportance in comparison with it. — BANNERMAN, p. 104.

2) He comes to the Bible, and sits over its contents in the attitude of a judge who is to decide for himself what in it is true and worthy to be believed, and what in it is false and deserving to be rejected; not in the attitude of the disciple who, within the limits of the inspired record, feels himself at Jesus' feet, to receive every word that cometh out of his mouth. . . . The assurance that the Bible is the Word of God, and not simply containing it, in more or less of its human language, is one fitted to solemnize the soul with a holy fear, and a devout submission to its declarations as the very utterances of God. The assurance, on the contrary, that the truths of revelation are mingled, in a manner unknown and indeterminate, with the defects of the record, is one which reverses the attitude, and brings man as a master to sit in judgment on the Bible as summoned to his bar, and bound to render up to him a confession of its errors, and not a declaration of its one and authoritative truth. — BANNERMAN, p. 107. Compare pp. 241, 242.

3) If on simple historical testimony it can be proved that Jesus wrought miracles, uttered prophecies, and proclaimed his divinity,—if it can be shown that he was crucified to redeem sinners, that he rose again from the dead, and that he made the destiny of men to hinge on their acceptance of him as their Saviour, — then, whether the records which contain those truths be inspired or not, woe unto him who neglects so great salvation! — F. L. PATTON on Inspiration, p. 23.