Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-12

ment Scriptures. and declares that to all
diligent readers they will be profitable for
salvation" Even our Lord Himself had
said that the Old Testament Scriptures were
as much as men needed. "Thev have Moses
and the prophets, let them hear them. F"
1t is the fashion among some in these days
to deny the Old Testament. Sometimes it
seems as if there were reason for such dis
arrangement, Evidently the New, in this
case, is better than the Old. 1t is hardly
| likely, however, that any of us are more
enlightened or more loyal Christians than
| st. Paul. 1t is q good plan in this matter to
| take ST. Paul's advice. The Old Testament
was written for our learning.
A MIRROR OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE.
There was shortcoming then and sin as
there is now, and there were brave and earn
est men who denounced iniquity, and there
were penalties which followed in the steps
! of transgression. There were good men who
fell. There were instances of those who had
all that the earth can furnish, and yet were
neither good nor happy. There were
prosecuted saints who in their poverty
were richer than all the Kings.
There were obscure and humble people
who were of more account in the sight of
God than all the Nimrods and Pharoahs of
their day. There is no phase of human ex-
perience but has its counterpart somewhere
in the Old Testament. Nor is there any
possible temptation but we may get arms to
fight against it out of that ancient armory.
"All Scripture" even the Old Testament,
''given BY inspiration of God is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof for conviction, for
instruction in righteousness, that the man
of God NAV be perfect, thoroughly furnished
with all good works. Whatsoever things
were written aforetime were written for our
learning"
Indeed, these pages in the Old Testament
which are marred by mistakes or stained by
crime, and which make us wonder a good
deal where we can fud any '1earning" in
them, are the very pages which teach most
emphatically that lesson of the Bible which
is the second statement of the text. Here,
above all other places, we learn the lesson of
hope.
The truth which is written on the blank
pages is that God works gradually. That
is the most hopeful truth in the world. 1t
means that in the hour when everything
seems worst when the good are down and
the bad sit on all the thrones-it means that
even then God has by no means forsaken the
race. We look back over these old records
covering the space OF centuries, and we learn
the lesson of hope.
Step BY step, through more milleniums
than we can number, God brought the world
toward physical completion. Once there
was nothing visible save the darkness which
lay upon the "tace of the deep" But there
was hope, there was something better ahead;
for God was working. By and by there was
a world without a man upon it. All its
beauty, all its wonder was displayed before
the unappreciative eyes of animals. 1t was
a world with a great defect IN it. Still,
there was hope, for God was still working in
the world. Presently came man.
GRADUAL APPROACH TO COMPLETENESS.
Step by step, through more thousands of
years than anybody knows, God has been
bringing man toward physical, moral, men
tai and spiritual completeness. 1t has been
gradual process. At every stage of it
there have been defects of all sorts. That is
what the Old Testament tells us. We read
in the oldest and longest and truest of all
the records of the race how man has grown.
Gradually he grows in knowledge of the
world about him. Gradually he grows in
knowledge and love of God above him.
There is defect all along. We look back
and there is no lack of material for criti-
cism. There is cruelty, idolatry, sensuality,
mistaken ideas of duty between man and
man, mistaken beliefs about God. But all
along there is growth. In the darkest DAYS
there is still shining of hope in the pages
Us
men. All through the most of it God was
still patient, still caring, still loving. He
was making ready the best way to bring
about the triumph OF the right In the
DAYS of Noah, in the days of Abraham, in
the DAYS of Moses, it seemed as if there
were were but one man in the world on
Coos side. Nevertheless it came true then,
and will come true always, that one man
with God beside him is a majority.
Think how long was the delay before
Christ came. Think OF the centuries upon
centuries which lay between the entering in
of sin into the world and the advent of the
Savior. Generation after generation came into
being and passed away again, looking for
One who, in their day, came NOT. But He
did come at last.
HOPE is THE LESSON.
Patience, the Old Testament teaches.
Hope is the lesson of these ancient pages.
As it was then so it is to-day Still is de-
feet about us. Still are we far from any
kind of completeness, physical, moral. men
tai, spiritual. But behind us lie the ages of
growth, and before us lie ages OF growth also
We, too, like the people of the Old Testa-
ment, look for an advent. We, too, pray
for the coming of kingdom in which Christ
shall be the King, out of which all ignorance,
all injustice, all iniquity, all disease and
death, all grief and crying shall be done
away. Sometime it seems as If the
Lord is delaying His coming a long
time Sometimes we look about at the evil
of the world, and note the small progress
of the good, and wonder if the kingdom of
God will ever come at all. 1t will come
zone day is with the Lord as thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning His prom
Use, as some men count slackness. but is
lOng-sufering to us-ward, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come
TO repentance" ''The day of the Lord will
come"
That word 'come' is tie central word of
the whole Bible. "He will come" is the
promise of the Old Testament. "He is
come" is the affirmation of the gospels
HE will come again" is the promise which
is made to us. That promise will come true,
in Gods own time. just as the first promise
did. That is what the Bible teaches.
Whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, that we
through patience and comfort of the Script
ures might have hope"
GEORGE HODGES.