The Hawera Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1925. THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 4 August 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1925. THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock -u Huwera, Mar.aia Nonnanby, Okaiawa,' Eltham, Mnngatoki, Kaponga. Alton, Hurleyvi’.ic, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara. Ohangai. Mereniere, Fraser Road. an Ararata.

It is not our intention to enter the controversy which, admitted to our columns as a reasonable echo of the Scopes trial in America, seems to be getting farther and farther away from any defined issue with each succeeding letter. Tn the contribution from Mr C. A. Beaufort (“Rationalist”) published to-day, however, is an attack upon the authority and inspiration of the Bible, which we hope will not be allowed to pass unchallenged. Wholly overlooking the fact that inspiration is to be sought rather in the pages of the Word and in its ever-widening influence upon the world, Mr Beaufort attempts to discredit its authorship by a scries of sweeping generalisations. Tn another sphere of learning, and with much more modern writings in dispute, scholars cannot agree upon the source of what have come down to us as the works of Shakespeare. Does Mr Beaufort contend that, even if it could be established beyond all doubt that no man by the name of Shakespeare had any part in their composition, these masterpieces of English literature would lose one jot of their charm and appeal ? It is the writings that endure, not the, name or the year of the •writer. So with the Bible. Although there are many ripe scholars who would join issue with our correspondent’s confident assertions that the origin of Scripture is lost in the mists of history, it does not matter so very greatly if the actual hand that wrote cannot be determined. The writing itself furnishes the proof of inspiration. Mr Beaufort’s own theory of inspiration—or, rather, the theory lie sets up in order to have a suitable target for Ills shooting—is somewhat unique and wholly grotesque. “Inspiration,” he tells us, “was invented in, order to win for the Bible an influence it could not otherwise have had.” Supposing it had been; supposing the. Bible were nothing more than a jumbled collection ,of early manuscripts; could it. then have exercised the power over mankind that it lias 1 ’ If any one of .us were to walk across to his bookshelf to-night, take down a volume, and say, “Here is an inspired writing,” would that book mean anything more to us than before? “Invented inspiration” might, in the course of time, create a certain superstitious and superficial awe, of any work; but not in all the ages could it give rise to that deep and abiding faith, which burns in millions of hearts today from the knowledge of experience, and of trust in God’s Word. And there, after all, is to be found the final proof of inspiration. “Fulfilled prophecy,” in the words 'of one eminent commentator, “is a. proof of inspiration, because the Scripture predictions of future events were uttered so long before the events came to pass that no merely human sagacity or foresight could have anticipated them, and these predictions are so detailed, minute, and specific as to exclude, the possibility that they were mere fortunate guesses. ” But that is external proof, coldly logical; it is treating the Bible simply as pages and print. To Mr Beaufort, indeed, the Book is nothing more, rather less, for he would class it an imposture. Yet the one great and impregnable proof of the inspiration of the Bible, and of the divinity of the God whom it reveals, is contained in the hearts of men. When the Rationalists can point to any other book which has endured so long in the face of constant opposition, which has published its message so widely, which is woven so plainly into the fabrics of civilisation, which has so often brought rest to the weary, comfort to the stricken, hope to the hopeless and light to the dying—then will it be time enough to question the power of the Bible. “Why,?’ demands Mr Beaufort, “teach fables when facts are at our disposal?” Why, we would rather ask, preach the fable of “ invented inspiration,” when the facts oft the divinity of the Word, and of its unfathomable riches, are there for all to read in the lives of men and women, in cottage, ami castle, in happiness and sorrow, through all the lands of the earth ?