Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1916-01-15

- NAAi AAAt NtAN hnAu Ol 1Dti. hllUW-
ing this first, that no prophecy OF
scripture is of any private interpre.
tation. That is-the sacred writer's
have given US their own opinions as
TO what God meant, but they have
given us in Gods words exactly what
God meant that we should know.
This is evidently true, for the
prophecy came not at any time mere
~ by the will OF man, mit men from
God spake as they were borne on by
the Holy Ghost. In the Bible there
fore we have Gods own mind con.
veyed to us in the very lanbuage
which God choose to employ.
II follows therefore. l. That the
Bible is an inspired Book. II Is not
the expression of human w',dom,
proceeding from mans darkened I'M.
Outstanding. 3. Since the Bible is
inspired of God. it follows also the
Bible is an infallible guide in all
things pertaining TO the sinners sal
walton. In the great multitude OF
TRANSACTIONS into which these sacred
books have passed it is not strange
that errors should be found. Yet
it seems to assure us of the super
intending hand of God in these trans
lations there should be found as few
mistakes as there are and that of
these, none is of such character as
to obscure materially any important
doctrine Of grace.
1t may not be amiss to speak of
a foolish statement that is some-
times made TO the effect that the
church made the Bible The idea is
that the church of the early time,
gathered up certain writings which
were in existence and called them the
holy scriptures and pronounced them
the authoritative rule of faith and
practice by which the conduct of
men was to be regulated.
1t will not be without interest to
recall therefore the way in which the
sacred books of our Canon were col
lected and why they were held to
be inspired. II must be borne in
mind that these particular books and
the epistles were not collected by any
ecclesiastical authority. II was not
the voice of a great council sitting
in Judgment upon certain writings
and deciding by their authority what
books should be held TO be inspired
are what ones not. The one great
question before the minds of these
men to determine whether a given
book or an epistle had been written
by an inspired apostle or by some one
writer, the direction of an apostle.
as was the case with Mark and Luke,
neither of whom was an apostle bur
wrote, the one under the eye of Peter
and the other under Paul's superin-
tending mind.
When any writing was presented
to be read in any church the one
question which had to be settled be
fore it was permitted to be read in
the worship of the congregation was
this. Was it written or approved by
an apostle? If the evidence was sat
isfactory as to such authorship. that
settled the matter and it became a
sacred writing and was recognized as
of divine authority. The different
congregations did not assume to de-
termine what they thought God ought
to say, but simply did He say it.
| All the books of the New
Testament passed through this
test before being received into
the Canon of scripture. 1t was
no difficult matter to determine
the authorship of those writings
at that time while the apostles were
still alive or many were still living
who knew them personally and knew
whether they written what they had
before them. The gospels were COM
mitted to writing at an early period
and circulated among the various
congregations and were copied and
sent out into other congregations to
be read in their worship. So of the
epistles.
Great care was exercised too in the
examination of the evidences of the
letters that would be sent or carried
to the churches. for there were many
enemies to the gospel who were per-
sistent in their efforts to foist spur
ious documents upon them in order
te destroy the influence of the true
word of God. So far from the church
making the Bible to suit itself, the
Bible was thus formed before the
va t.iouc CONGREGATIONS were unified