Bible Studies

BIBLE STUDIES BY NEPHI L. MORRIS. I. INTRODUCTORY. There is nothing that so much strengtheneth our faith and trust in God, that so much keepeth up innocency and pureness of heart, and also of outward godly life and conversation, as constant reading and recording of God's word. For that thing which is deeply printed and graven in the heart, at length turneth almost into nature. Homily. If a man were asked why he believes in such and such a thing, he would very probably say, "Because the Bible teaches it." If he be asked why he believes in the Bible, or accepts it as truth, he will answer, "Because it says it is true " Now, that kind of reasoning may do in Christian society but we must not forget that it is altogether out of place in the company of skeptics or followers of other religions than our own. For example, the Mahommedans believe in the Koran and make great claims for its divinity. They say it was uncreated, and that it lay before the throne of God from the beginning of time. They claim that it was put into the hands of the angel Gabriel, who brought it down to Mahomet, and dictated it to him and allowed him at long intervals to have a look at the original book itself—bound with silk and studded with precious stones. That is a much higher claim than we ask for our Bible, and if we have to rely upon the Bible because of its own claims for verity, for the same reason the Mahommedan would have us believe in the Koran, and the Hindu in his Vedas. And, since there are millions of intelligent people believing implicitly in these two books, (to say nothing of

BIBLE STUDIES. 39 other books similarly revered) for the truth of which they make much higher claims than we do for our book; and, as we know next to nothing of their books and little more of our own, as concerns its real claims and history, how very needful it is that we attend to this important study and be able to give a reason for the faith that is in us. We cannot at present consider the conflicting claims of men for the Bible, for some of this age, and Christian clergymen too, label much of it "dream literature," "fiction," "fable" and "re-told tradition;" while men of similar profession in ages past have claimed for it infallibility—without error in all its utterances. Here is one of such claims. Dean Burgon said, "It is in every book, chapter, verse, word, syllable and letter the direct utterance of the Most High." Now, the Bible does not claim for itself perfection, nor even accuracy in geology, astronomy or history. It was not written for either of these special purposes. The real purpose for which it was written, speaking now in a general sense and in the words of one of its authors, "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. * * * They [the scriptures] are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith" (2 Tim. 3). The same author, speaking of theOld Testament, says: "They were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort might have hope" (Rom. 15: 4). In this, its own sense, the Bible has in all ages been a teacher of high morals, reproving and correcting error and rebuking sin, instructing men in higher conceptions of right and duty, in short, its aim is and has ever been to perfect men in righteousness. The holy scriptures reflect to us the highest ideal of manhood, and in them we see the highest and truest exhibition of God through his Son—the Son being the interpretation to us of the Father. In this way the holy scriptures have linked themselves to the human race and its destiny. Thus the history of the influence of the Bible is the history of civilization and happiness. The one golden parpose of the scriptures is to reveal to us "the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent," and as means to this

40 IMPR VEMENT ERA end, and in spirit, not detached words and sentences, its infallibility lies, and here it is absolute. Hence the Bible for this reason has the strongest claims upon our attentive and reverential regard. In considering this wonderful fabric of divine truth we are not to be mere spectators as we would if beholding the beauties of a landscape or the dying glory of a setting sun, to simply admire and exclaim ''How beautiful!" We must stand within and obey. We must open our souls to it as the flower does to the sun and receive therefrom strength, color, character and life. The homily says: "These books ought to be much in our hands, in our eyes, in our ears, in our mouths, but most of all in our hearts, for that thing which is deeply graven in the heart at length turneth almost into nature." We must enter into and unite ourselves with that which we would know, for Jesus said, "If any man will dohis will he shall know of the doctrine." Our readers must not confound this study of helps to the scriptures with the study of the scriptures themselves. This course of study will, we trust, lead some to a more consistent conception of what the Bible really is, and it may prove attractive and pleasing, but the great attraction is in the end. To cease with the study of how we got our Bible and what it is, without searching over its many pages and gathering for life-long use the gleaming gems of truth, would be like tunnelling, boring and blasting into the mountain's center and discovering the rich deposits of gold only to leave them there. Our true purpose in this study is to reach the "wells of salvation" and drink therefrom to thirst no more; to conceive and apply the message to us as it is given in the book of God, the "god of books." We live in thought, for thought is the father of action. If we think poorly we live poorly; if we think highly we live highly. Then from this book, which is the repository of the highest and purest thoughts, let us draw threads which we shall weave into our mental and spiritual garments. As a result of the customary reverence for the Bible and the remoteness of the happenings of the things recorded in it, we have grown to the idea that our religion came out of the

BIBLE STUDIES. 41 Bible. Now that is not true. It is the reverse. The Bible came out of religion. The Bible was produced by religion, just as our late American war literature was produced by the great civil war in these United States. Religion did not come out of the scriptures any more than did last year's plant and flower growth come out of a scientific treatise on botany written the year before. Plants grew before men knew anything of the science of plant life. So did religion exist before men knew anything of the Bible, or, for that matter, books of any sort. The fact must always precede the record of it in regard to time. As a practical illustration of this fact take one of the letters or epistles of the Bible and see how it grew out of the circumstances of the time. The first epistle to the Thessalonians, for example: In the year 52 Paul went to a city called Thessalonica and created a great disturbance by preaching a strange doctrine there. He was smuggled out of the city by night, but before leaving he succeeded in establishing a branch of the church. Finding it impossible to return to the place that he might teach and instruct the saints there in their duties, he wrote them a letter. That is how the first epistle to the Thessalonians came into existence. Toward the close of the first century John was persuaded by the Ephesian saints to write what he remembered of the Lord and his doings. In this way "the gospel according to St. John" came into existence. And thus we see how the scriptures arose out of the circumstances of the times and how human a book the Bible is, and how the divinity in it has worked through human hands. The Bible, then, came out of religion, not religion out of the Bible. Of course all understand that the Bible is not one book, the work of one author. It is a number of books written at different times and under different circumstances, but have been bound together in one volume for convenience. We now call it the Bible, which is a Greek term meaning originally a collection of books. The changing of the word from the plural to the singular noun began perhaps in the thirteenth century, and is decidedly fitter than otherwise in the high office as title of that which, by virtue of its unity and plan, is emphatically The Book. 4

42 IMPROVEMENT ERA The use of the term "Bible" cannot be traced further back than the fifth century. Prior to that time the Christians referred to sacred writings as the scriptures; but the Old Testament was called by the Jews, ' 'The Law, the Prophets and the Writings." Jesus, in speaking of the Old Testament in parts, named each thus: "The law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms" (Lev. 24:44; Jno. 10: 35; Matt. 11: 13, 22: 40). "The Law" and "The Prophets" are each used by Christ, and sometimes unitedly as one common term to designate the whole of the Old Testament. It is also called the Old and the New Testament or covenant, the term by which God was pleased to indicate the settled arrangement or relation between himself and his people. The term was first applied to the relation itself, as in Jeremiah, chapter 31: "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel," etc., but afterwards it was applied to the books or record of that covenant. In Exodus the scriptures are referred to as "the book of the covenant." We call the sacred writings of the Jews the Old Testament to distinguish them from the books and letters containing the Christian history and doctrines called the New Testament. This distinction was first made by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians. The holy scriptures were sometimes called the canon of scripture, from a Greek word signifying a straight rod and hence, in a figurative sense, a rule or law or guide. Paul said to the Galatians, "As many as walk according to this rule,' etc.; and to the Phillipians (3: 16), "Let us walk by the same rule.'" So that the canon of scripture may be generally described as "the collection of books which forms the original and authoritative written rule of the faith and practice of the Christian church. " But of all the titles "The word of God" is at once the most impressive and complete. We cannot invent a more simple or significant term, and it teaches us to regard the Bible as the utterances of divine wisdom and love.