“BIBLE SUNDAY”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 107, 8 May 1934, Page 7

“BIBLE SUNDAY”

SERMONS AT WANGANUI WHAT THE MINISTERS SAID. “Bible Sunday’’ was observed in Wanganui last Sunday, when appropriate sermons were preached in the various churches. Preaching at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, the Itev. John Paterson took as his test the opening words of the epistle to the Hebrews, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.’’ “These words make a claim that God has revealed Himself to man, and that that revelation is through the Hebrew prophets and finally in Jesus Christ,” said the Bev. Paterson. “The record of that revelation is in the 'Bible which is not the story of man’s search for God but of God’s making Himself known to man, not the record of man’s desire but of God’s word. That is the value and authority of the Bible: the proof of that authority lies in a self-authenticating experience, when some word from God’s book speaks direct to the human soul in its sin, sorrow or need, as the very voice of the Eternal Spirit. “But, to anyone who has come so to know the Bible, there is an eager duty to give the word of God to his fellows. To-day, I would enjoin on you all a threefold duty: (1) To read the word of God diligently and prayerfully yourselves; (2) To work for the giving of the Bible a definite place in our system of education, and (3) the support of the work of the Bible Society, that great agency of which the one aim is to give the Bible in the mother tongue to every race on the face of the earth.” Of the labour invalued and the heroic work of and distributors the preacher proceeded to give several striking examples. “The Word With Power.” “Spurgeon was once asked to join a society for the defence of the Bible. ‘Defend it!’ he exclaimed, ‘I would as soon defend a lion. Let it loose — it can defend itself! ’ ” said Archdeacon J. R. Young, at Christ Church. “To-day, as never before in the world’s history, the Bible is being ‘let loose’ among mankind, and is, as usual, proving itself afresh ‘a word with power.’ The magnificent work done by the British and Foreign Bible Societyin translating and distributing the scriptures in all parts of the ear, so that countless thousands of people may read it or hear it ‘in their own tongu-e wherein they were born,’ is ‘letting it loose’ far and wide throughout the world,’’ he continued.

“Modern Biblical scholarship is ‘letting it loose’ in another way—freeing it from ignorant and superstitious (if often very well-meaning) misuses, and opening up for us new depths of truth and revelation. For instance we are beginning to realise afresh (what the Greek word from which our name ‘Bible’ is derived should have told us long ago\ that it is not ‘a book’ but ‘the books.’ It is a divine library, containing many kinds of literature—history', poetry, drama, allegory, biography, letters and so on. And each conveys its truth in its own way.

But through it all, and, as it were, behind it all is one tremendous truth — that here, in these wonderful writings we have the record, not of man’s discovery of God, but of God making himself known to man! I find it startling to be confronted with the fact that God wants us to know Him! ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent..’ No wonder our Bible, which brings us such knowledge, is proving itself ‘A Word with Power. ’ / “The Book Nobody Knows.” At Trinity Church, the Rev. R. Dudley took as his text, “The grass witherest and the flowers thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” (Peter I, v.v. 24-5.). The Bible is the book of everlasting things; a library of inexhaustible richness. But theological and doctrinal emphases have unfortunately precluded a wise and reasonable estimate being formed of its stupendous literary worth. Yet to-day it remains solitarily supreme; the best seller; a fountain of truth, exerting, as it has always done a profound and beneficent influence, not so much over the form and technique but over the matter and spirit of the world’s literature,” he said. “Its historical value we have not sufficiently recognised yet archaeological discoveries of recent years are serving to confirm much that gleams from its pages. We can read those inspired words without their hearts being caught up by holy and tumultuous emotions too deep for tears. The Bible stands today as the world’s greatest book of devotion. It is a book of laughter and joy; patience and hope; serenity and love.

“Its theological significance, however, can never be over-emphasised. It is God’s word to the world. Progressively unveiling the Divine Heart and Face it answers the searching question of eternity. ‘What is God like?’ And not that alone: it tells to a world wistfully, turn-

ing heavenword for salvation what God can really do: how He can save, pardon and cleanse. Who can worthily assess the influence of this book? Amid the great centres of civilization, as well as in the islands of the sea and the far off places of the round earth, that mystic "word is still enthralling hearts; capturing them; guiding them; continuing to be what it was long, long ago to the great singer of Israel —‘a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path.’ ” ____________