Olivet Nazarene University - Aurora Yearbook (Bourbonnais, IL)

Page 29 text:

m mxvtt (Hlje Hilling Math F. Haynes, D. D. I HEKE is and has ever been a desperate and detennined J- purpose and effort to set aside the authority of the Word of God. So desperate are the enemies of the Word in their pur- pose to undermine its authority that they scruple not at any ineans to acc omplish this end. They seek therefore to destroy confidence in it by discrediting it as the divinely inspired Word of God. They assail it from every angle and by any and all sorts of methods seek to get rid of its supernaturalness. There is a reason for this enmity. This Holy Book claims the right to control the actions of men. It claims also the final authority to prescribe the conditions for determining man ' s destiny. It opposes that ultra-democratic s ' pirit which dis- tinguishes this age which seeks to defy man, even at the cost of degrading God to the limitations of humanity. Finally this enmity is rendered very desperate by the pertinacity of the life inherent in the Word. Despite all the opposition the Book lives, its distribution increases with the years, the nudtitudes who read and study it are nudtiplying prodigiously until the Book has become the wonder of all the ages. Let i:s stress briefly this one phase of 1he Book; that it is a Living Book. Says the author of Ilel rews -1:12, For the AVord of (Jod is quick, (living) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, i)iercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and sj)irit and to the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We confine our attention to a single word in the above verse. The word (puck, which means living. The author declares tluat the Word of God is a living AVord. Page TwL ' nty-fi ' C | This life of the Word is implied in the very authority Avith which it speaks. It speaks not as man speaks. It commands. Dead things exercise no authority, issue no commands, exact no obedience. Its life is manifested again in the knowledge it conveys to us of ourselves — our thoughts, impidses, motives. Wo do not come to the Bible so much to learn other men ' s thoughts or motives or hidden purposes or needs. We come to the Bible rather to learn about ourselves and find that it reveals to us the inmost recesses of our souls. This is a wonderful indication of real life. The life of the AVord is indicated again in its boldness. It dares to abase man and exalt God, which is the very reverse of the world ' s democracy. It talks about every imagination of the thoughts of man ' s heart as only evil continually. Read what it dares to say of man in Eomans 1:29-32, and 3-10-18 and Eph 2 :l-3. The life of the Book is further seen in both the courage and knowledge it displays as it derides the wisdom of man. Hear it : AVhere is the wise? AVhere is the scribe? AAHuM-e is the dis- puter of this wor ld? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? — I Cor. 1:20. Read also I Cor. 2:14, au.l S :2. It derides also man ' s civilization. As against the boasted achieve- ments of our civilization of which we hear so much, vcml the gruesome delineation of the Word as found in 11 Timothy, 3vd chapter, describing the last days, which refer to this age . Tlie Book says: Perilous times shall come, lor men shnll he bivcrs of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, hhisplicnioiis, dis- obedient to pai-ents, unthankfnl, nnholy, Avithout nalui ' al affec- LIBRARY Oliv3t Na arene College KANKAKEE, ILL.

Page 28 text:

Aurora ' 17 Itblp QlnUptjPllitJiErgrabuatpa [Page Twenty- four

Page 30 text:

Aurora ' 17 tion, triice-1)reakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, dcspisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the poAver thereof. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being de- ceived. The Book claims to be a Book of life. Paul commands the Philippians that they hold forth the Word of life. Phi 2:lfi. Peter declares that in entering the religious life we are to be born l)y the Word of God. Being born again not of corrupt- ible seed, but of incorrupti1)le, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. The Word of the Lord en- dureth forever. ' ' I Peter 1 :23, 25. The Psalms say : ' ' Thy AVord hath quickened me. 119:50, and Uphold me according to thy Word that I may live. V. 116. Quicken me according to thy AVord, that is, Make me alive according to thy AA ord. V. 154. The Word is not only living but it ' s life is a groAving life. It multiplies by producing fruit after its kind in human hearts aiid lives. Paul says to Colossians in speaking of the AVord, AVhich is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fr iit. l:6. ' Again we learn from Acts 12:2-1: that, The AVord of God grew and multiplied, and in 19:20 So mightily grew the. AVord of God and prevailed. Again, Acts 6:7 And the Word of God increased ; and the number of the disciples mul- tipli -(l ill -JcrusHlem greatly. Again Peter exhorts, As new- l)Oi-n })abes, desii-e the sincere milk of the Word that ye may groAv tlierehy. — T Peter 2:2. Not only has the Pjible a growing life but it is life-giving. ( ' U ' i- says: Being liorn again, not of corruptible seed, but of ]uc n-y i Aih]( ' , by the AVord of God, Which liveth and abideth i(.r -vri-. - -T Peter 1:2:]. James declares: Of His OAVn will hcgHt He US with the Word of truth. — 1 :18. We read in Dent. 8:3: Man doth not live by bread only, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Jere- miah exclaimed, 15:16: Thy Words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the .joy and i-ejoicuig of mine heart. Paul charges Timothy, I Tim. 4:6, If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereiinto thou hast attained. Descriptive of the godly we read in the first Psalm: His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in liis season; his leaf also shall not Avither. The poAver of this Word of God to break hearts and bring men to God has been illustrated thousands of times. St. Augus- tine, Avhen a wanderer from God, Avas arrested in his Avicked career and brought to serious reflection and to repentance and finally to the faith of complete surrender to God by reading Pomans 13:13-14. A heathen Avoman Avho Avas miserable and Avretched in seeking the favor of her gods by all sorts of austeri- ties and self-imposed burdens in her blind devotions, picked up a little scrap of paper on Avhich Avere a fcAV Avords of printing in her native tongue. These Avere all the Avords the scrap of paper contained: For God so loved the Avoiid. Tlie thought of a god loving Avas new to her. She thought she kncAV much about gods Avho hated, Avho Avere vengeful and cruel, but her list of deities contained none Avho loved. The thought occurred to her that it nnist be the God of the missionaries, so she hurried to the mission station, shoAved the slip of paper, and the missionary led her to Christ. D. L. Moody Avas a Bible-made man. This impression Avill force itself upon any thoughtful man Avho ever heard Mr. Aloody [Page Twenty-six.