The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-28
BELIEVING THE BIBLE.

It Is Worthy of Implicit Confidence I'm All
Its Parts or of None at All.
Sermon of d. l.. Moody.
When man commenced picking at the Bible
he was apt to cut it to pieces If he found any
thing that was against him he cut it out. He
didn't like it because it condemned sin and was
against his sins The speaker hoped the young
men who heard him would not give up one line
OF the good book. He believed every word that
was contained il it. He believed the story of
Noah ana the flood as much as he believed the
story of the temptation on the mount When
the food was doubted the divinity of Jesus
Christ was questioned. He believed every mir
acle and recorded incident in the entire book.
Christ had put His seal to everything contained
in the Old Testament when he was upon the
earth. Christ believed them. He believed the
story of Lots wife, and connected the story of
Sodom and Gomor-ah with His return to this
world. There were many who believed the story
of Jonah and the whale as impossible, and
scientists had shown the whales throat was not
large enough to admit the swallowing of man.
Suppose it was! Could not God prepare a fish
that was sufficiently Target He had heard of
fish that would swallow a half-dozen men, and
their boat, too. He had no doubt of the story,
and he presumed the captain Of the boat report
ed it long before any one else. 1t must have
caused great excitement upon the streets of
Nirevah, as it was passed from mouth to mouth.
The incident of dead man coming
again to life was sign that the
it had been fiction would not the people have
put Paul to death for preaching such things?
There was no ground for unbelief. The Script
ures were all given by inspiration. The reason
they did not take the whole Scriptures as inspired
there were so many spotted Christians was that
Christ had said the Scriptures could not be
broken For six thousand years the devil ard
man had been trying to break them, and they
had not succeeded. What jubilee there would
be in hell ii they could accomplish it'll
II was abSurb for any to beliava the New Tas-
lament and not believe the old one. The New
Testament was largely made up of quotations
from the Old Testament. In Matthew there
were over one hundred quotations from the Old
Testament; in Luke there were twenty-five, and
in the eighty-nine chapters of the four gospels
there were 140. When men got to cutting they
took out the Old Testament then they com
menced cutting at Revelation, and finally mar
rowed the entire book down to four apostles at
the best Then, even, they were likely to be
mutilated. Revelation contained 240 quotations
There were SO many mysteries in it that men
could not understand it. and so they did not like
it. It told of Satan's downfall, and so Satan
stood at their elbow and induced them to throw
it aside.
There were some Christians who liked to be-
lieve what corresponded with their reason, but
they did not want to believe the supernatural
Then they would have to throw awav the whole
book, for it was filled with the supernatural II
the man who wrote Genesis recorded nsle lie
that threw out his whole testimony and so
with each book. Every one of them was filed
with tine supernatural. There were more super
natural things mentioned in the four apostles
than anywhere else If they never occurred. the
men who wrote them wrote lies. From the time
of the baptism up to the ascension the book was
full Of supernatural things. The Jehovah OF
the Old Testament was the Christ of the
New Testament Christ laid His life
down. No one couN take il from Him.
When it was found He was risen
from the tomb it might have been asked why He
had not been kept, but there was no power could
have kept Him. He lay down as lamb, but
He rose a lion.
The gospel was supernatural, aud what was
wanted was supernatural power to preach it.
Christ said: Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my word shall not pass away"