THE BIBLE.

Southland Times, Issue 20207, 18 June 1927, Page 9

THE BIBLE.

To the Editor. Sir,—The minister of Knox is undoubtedly a good man with knowledge of the subjects he is handling, but unless he exercises more care in regard to the manner of dealing with them he will surely do more harm than good. Why did he not tell his people what the Bible is rather than what it is not? Mr Sykes is on the right track: let Mr Chisholm follow his lead. But why report only the sermons delivered in Knox? First Church pulpit should be the mouthpiece of Southland Presbyterianism if such honour is to be given to any one church.— I am, etc., COUNTRY PRESBYTERIAN.

To the Editor, Sir, —On reading Mr Sykes’ letter in your Thursday’s issue I wondered whether it had ever occurred to him that it is necessary to be “born again” (John 3.3) and to have received the Holy Spirit of God (Rom. 8. 14, 15, 16) before an individual can live a life pleasing to God or address God as Father or become a member of His church. “There is none righteous no, not one. There is none that doeth good no, not one.” is the condition, through sin, of every per* son bom into this world. And until an individual realises that his or her only way of approaching God is through the all-suf-ficient work of His Son on Calvary’s Cross (John 3.16) and (Acts. 4.12) it is impossible to please God. Mr. Sykes’s sneer at the story of Jonah and the fish betrays an inferior intelligence and gross ignorance of an every day fact. First: In Matt. 12.40 Christ set his own seal upon the subject. “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” If it is only in an allegorical sense that Jonah was in the belly of the whale, then it follows that it is only in an allegorical sense that Christ was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But, as we all know, that was actually true of Christ. An English whaling ship “Star of the East” was fishing in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands, when, during the process of the capture of a whale, one of the boats •vas smashed and two men disappeared. After a period of about forty-eight hours, one of the two (James Bartley) was recovered from the stomach of the whale, still alive and after recovering from the shock was able to resume and enjoy a normal life. Finally, Sir, the Bible says that “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Pet. 1.21). “Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.” The internal evidence is a proof to all true believers that the Book is what it claims to be, the written word of God, just as Christ claimed to be the Living Word and took his stand by the side of God’s revealed truth (John 5.47). To reject the authenticity of the one is to reject the claim of the other. Where does Mr. Chisholm stand with regard to this issue?—l am, etc., J. B. MALCOLM.

To the Editor. Sir, —I have read your report of Mr. Chisholm’s sermon of Sunday evening last, and have since followed the replies, for and against, wtih interest. A year or two ago certain men in the same line of business as Mr Chisholm, declared that they were “never away” from the Bible. I certainly thought that they were, so was pleased to read Mr Chisholm concluding statement in his sermon of last Sunday evening, “We need to get back to the Bible to-day, etc.” It is nice to see this modern preacher state boldly his denial of the Word of God, if only to allow people to know where he stands. A danger that is seen can be guarded against. Regarding Mr Sykes’ letter in support of Mr Chisholm’s sermon, as published in your Thursday edition, he says: “We not only believe, but know that the Scriptures are true.” I liked that expression, but from the remarks which followed in the letter it seems to me as if Mr Sykes neither believes the Scriptures, nor knows the God of the Scriptures nor the Lord Jesus who is God incarnate. Mr. Sykes seems to know one side of God’s character, that of love. But he appears ignorant of the other side, that of Divine Holiness’ and perfect justice. He knows the Divine love which would bless a guilty sinner but does not seem to know the divine justice which cannot allow sin to go unpunished. The impressions that Our Lord’s life made on the men with whom He lived and laboured during His life on this earth are vividly expressed in those characters that

were named as describing the common belief as to who He really was. Some said He was Elijah. What style of man was he ? Strong, fearless, the man who could stand alone and challenge 500 idolatrous prophets and order their execution and who was bold enough to warn and rebuke the wicked King Ahab. There was certainly nothing in his life that savoured of that anaemic sentimentality which let wrong go unchallenged. Others said He was John the Baptist arisen from the dead. What style of man was he? Vigorous and virile, the man of dauntless spirit that could rebuke a Herod and reprove proud Pharisees. What then must Christ have been when these two rugged characters are chosen to express the people’s impressions of Him. We cannot over-estimate the compassion of Christ, but we are all too frequently occupied with the form of Christ weeping with women, sympathising with the sick and sorrowful, to the obscuring of that figure with piercing eye, firm step, and authoritative word, who could overthrow tables of money-changers and drive men from the temple courts with a whip of cords. We lose sight of that stern feature with set lip, that could scathingly rebuke PharL see, denounce hypocrisy, and when the hour of final conflict arrived, set His face as flint to go to Jerusalem. John the Baptist was a terror to wickedness and made strong men tremble but intensely more so did Christ with His inflexible will of unassailable righteousness and His perfect physical, moral, mental and spiritual powers that had never been weakened with sin. This is the Christ who one day will confront the person who rejects Him during this dispensation of grace. Ingersoll said that if he found that he had made a mistake in his estimate of God he would go to God and “tell Him so like a man.” But at that great day every mouth shall be stopped before the Holiness of God. They will then if not before realise the heinousness of sin. Many professing to “know” Christ will not be “known” by Christ but will receive the command from the Great Judge of the quick and the dead “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” Matt. 7: 22-23.—1 am, AN UNKNOWN CHRISTIAN.