WHEN ISAIAH SAW THE KING
By
O. J. SMITH
Isaiah has more to say
about the King and the kingdom than any other writer in the Bible.
He saw both His sufferings and His glory, and he describes both. His sufferings
we interpret literally. The fifty third chapter, we
all know, was fulfilled nearly two thousand years ago. If
then, His sufferings are to be interpreted literally, why not His glory?
What right have we to spiritualise the predictions concerning the kingdom and
apply them, to the Church? I believe they are to be
interpreted literally. GOD meant
what He said and said what He meant. He saw the end from the beginning. Let us
hear, what Isaiah said when He saw the King.
NO MORE WAR
First of all, let us turn to Isaiah 2: 1-4: The word that Isaiah the son of
Amos saw concerning
It has to do with the tribe of
PEACE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
Let us
read from Isaiah 11: 1-13 and 12: 1-6: And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: [2] And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; [3] And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the
Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of
his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of
his ears: [4] But
with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and
reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and
he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. [5] And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. [6] The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
and a little child shall lead them. [7] And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. [8] And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the
cockatrice den. [9] They shall not hurt nor destroy in ail my holy mountain:
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord, as the waters cover the sea. [10] And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people, to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. [11] And
it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to
recover the remnant of his people, which shall
be left, from Assyria, and from
Isaiah 12: 1-6: And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee:
though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and
thou comfortedst me. [2] Behold,
God is my salvation; I
will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord JEHOVAH
is my strength and my song, he also is become my
salvation. [3] Therefore
with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. [4] And in that day shall ye say, Praise
the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. [5] Sing unto the Lord; for he
hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. [6] Cry out and shout, thou
inhabitant of
SAFETY, BLESSING AND PROSPERITY
We have come now to one of the
most glorious prophecies ever uttered. The entire passage has to do with the
King and the kingdom. None of it was fulfilled at the first
advent, and none of it can be spiritualised, for it has no fulfilment in the
Church, in spite of what the great commentators say. GOD did not see fit to enlighten
them. Knowledge was not to increase, according to Daniel, until the latter
days. The prophet begins by tracing the human ancestry of the King back to
Jesse, the father of David. Once again JESUS is the Branch. GODs Spirit
possesses Him, so that He is the wisest of the wise. He is the mighty
Counsellor. All knowledge is His so that He does not err in judgment. He is
always right. In Him the defenceless have a righteous
Advocate. He speaks and it is done. The wicked are slain and the righteous exonerated. During His reign
over the earth the instincts of animals are changed.
No longer is it the law of the tooth and the fang. No longer must they kill or be killed. Even among the beasts of the earth, for the first
time in history, there is friendship. Never before had the lamb dwelt with the
wolf unless it was on the inside.
Now both dwell together, while
the leopard and the kid live in harmony. The calf and the lion become friends. And in the midst of it all, a little child - playfully and
fearlessly - makes them his pets. Bears and cows feed side by side and their
young sleep together in perfect safety, utterly unafraid. Even their appetite
is changed, for the lion - a meat-eating animal - becomes
domesticated and eats straw or hay as does the ox.
Then to prove that there is no danger anywhere, the prophet sees a little baby
with its hand over the hole of the asp, and an older child at the den of a
cockatrice, and he says, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain! A mountain in prophecy
is a kingdom. This mountain is GODs kingdom. None will hurt, none
will destroy in any part of that
kingdom. There will be safety throughout the entire world during the reign of CHRIST. The Golden Age will at
last become a reality, for the Millennium will be here. Can you picture such a
world? Ferocious animals become the pets of children. Blood ceases to flow, for
they never kill again. Danger is an unknown word. Lions gambol on lawns. Wolves
lose their fierceness. Leopards no longer lurk in their hiding places and
spring on their victims. Little children know no danger, for safety is the
order of the age. I always have hated violence, brutality and cruelty, either
to animals, to birds, or men. GOD does,
too. In that day there will be no more destruction.
Animals, birds and men will rise to their highest height of perfection and
security and will at last fulfil their God-intended destiny, All
will live together as a happy family, never again to hurt or destroy. What a
picture! And what a day that will be!
WORLDWIDE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
Today
the world knows but little of GOD. Most
nations are almost entirely ignorant of Him. In that [millennial] day,
the prophet says, the earth will be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea. How much of the sea is covered by
water? All of it, is it not? So, too, will it be with
the knowledge of GOD. All the world will know Him. The most backward island, the
jungle of South America, the heart of
The Eskimos in the Arctic, the
tribes in the great forests of Brazil, the Hottentots of Africa, the wild pygmies
of the jungles - red, yellow, black and white - all will know Him in that day.
At last the world will be Christianised, its people converted, and society, as
a whole, become God fearing and righteous, GOD
speed the day; it cannot come too soon. But who is the
King, the Leader, the Ensign? A root of Jesse. And who is
that Root? JESUS
CHRIST. Will it be for
A SPIRITUAL OUTPOURING
Moreover they will
experience a great and wonderful outpouring of the [Holy] Spirit,
that will cause them to praise the Lord for His goodness to them. Their hearts
will he changed and they will become a truly spiritual nation. At last they will be comforted. Their years of wandering over,
they will find rest to their souls. Trust will take the place of fear. Praise
will fill their hearts, and their songs will be of GOD and His mercy to them. I will trust, and not be afraid, they will say, Oh, what joy
will then be theirs! What exultation of spirit! Isaiah is beside himself as GOD reveals it to him, and he cries
out, Sing unto the Lord. ... Cry out and shout, thou
Inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of
Israel in the midst of thee. He sees the Messiah, JESUS CHRIST. He
dwells in
Let all the
world bow before Him, rulers and potentates, kings and queens - let them cast
themselves at His feet and acclaim Him Lord of lords and King of kings. Take
off your crown, ye kings; bare your heads, ye rulers; lay aside your badge of
authority; bow the knee, ye people of the world, and worship at His throne. All
hail the power of JESUS name! Let angels prostrate fall; Bring forth the royal diadem, And
crown Him Lord of all! In Isaiah 27: 6 we read,
Our passage here is Isaiah 33: 20-24: Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities:
thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. [21] But there the
glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. [22] For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the
Lord is our king; he will save us. [24] And the inhabitant
shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
Now for
a look at
THE GLORIES OF THE MILLENNIUM
Turn now to Isaiah 35: 1-10: The wilderness and the solitary
place shall be glad for them, and the desert
shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. [2] It shall blossom
abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and
singing: the glory of
In these ten verses
we have another of Isaiahs greatest and most wonderful prophecies, not about
the Church. but about
Lands uninhabited will be populated. Deserts are to blossom and rejoice. I can
immagine, from the sublime description, such rich and
abundant vegetation, that the whole territory will be alive with the singing of birds and the joys of a
plentiful harvest. - Deserts will be gone. Waste places will produce. - No
longer will the weak be weak, or the feeble, feeble. - No longer will the
fearful be afraid. All will be strong and courageous. - Fountains of water,
never before discovered, will he found; and through lands where once there was
nothing but sand, rivers will flow, bringing luxurious vegetation and an abundance of everything.
Parched ground will then be unknown. That age, we are told,
will be characterized by holiness. Highways, where once
travellers were threatened by wild beasts, will now be safe. Sinners
will not journey on them. No pollution of any kind will be
encountered. But language fails me. What a
land! What a people! What a city! What a reign! Look now, as the ransomed of
the Lord - with hearts overflowing with joy - turn their faces toward
COMFORT
JOY AND BLESSING
Turn to Isaiah 40: 1, 2: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. [2] Speak
ye comfortably to
Here is unspeakable and glory
indescribable. - Here is fearlessness and courage. - Here is deity itself, the
deity of JESUS Christ. Behold your God is the proclamation
to the cities of
Behold,
these shall come from far: and, lo these from the north
and from the west; and these from the
Therefore
the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come
with singing unto
JOY IN
Turn to Isaiah
52: 9, 10, 13: Break forth into joy,
sing together, ye waste
places of
LIGHT AT LAST
Let us read Isaiah 59: 20: And
the Redeemer shall come to
NEITHER VIOLENCE OR DESTRUCTION
Here we read Isaiah 60: 18-20: Violence shall no
more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. [19] The sun shall be no more thy light by day;
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. [20] Thy sun shall no more go down;
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the
Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the
days of thy mourning shall be ended.
Violence - how GOD hates it! How every true
Christian hates it, too! Robbery with violence, what a crime!
Surely the death penalty would not be too severe a
sentence. Destruction - will the world ever see its end? Think of the bombed
cities of Europe, the waste and destruction in
CHRIST IN
Let us turn now to Isaiah 65: 17-25: Behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth: and the former shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind. [18] But be ye glad and
rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create
What a glorious prophecy! The
Golden Age has come. CHRIST reigns
in
Now, at last, he will be able to
live and enjoy the work of his hands. Old men will be numerous and they will
seem young. If they die at an hundred, they will be looked
upon as children. It will then pay to take time to build, for men will build
for hundreds of years to come. They will live to rejoice and enjoy the fruit of
their labours. So long will they live that GOD compares them to trees and says that the life of a man, in
that day, will be as the life of a tree. Now, again, we have the prediction
about the wolf, the lamb, and the lion. They dwell together. Their appetites
are changed. No longer are they meat-eating animals. They now exist on
vegetation. Harmony prevails on every side. All is peace, not only among men,
but also among animals. No longer do they hurt each other. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
mountain, saith the Lord. Perfect security in the
* * *
* * *
*
THE REWARDS FOR OVERCOMERS
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
That by overcomers our
Lord does not mean believers in general, the mixed mass of the saved, but - as
the word implies - a faithful and conquering section only, is put beyond all
doubt by one crucial and decisive case. Thou hast a few names, He
says to the Sardian Angel (Rev. 3: 4) - names; as
though looking over the Angels shoulder at the church roll lying open before
Him - who, because clean-robed, should one day walk with Him in white. These few,
walking in sanctity, cannot be the only regenerate souls in Sardis; for the Lord accepts the whole
church as an ecclesia, that is, a body of the
vitally out-called; and
the dead Angel himself,
who is not among the few names, is reminded of his conversion
- Remember how thou hast received, and didst hear. Throughout the Letters it is he that overcometh - not
an overcoming church, nor even an overcoming group, but the solitary saint
shining like a star above a corrupt church and a midnight world. Every one of
the Churches our Lord thus separates into two sections: only a perfect church
could consist of one division alone, and He names no such church: seven times
He holds out peculiar glories matching exceptional nobility, and seven times
the gravest warnings (by implication) ever given to the servants of God. In the
words of Bengel:- There is a
remarkable difference between each address and each promise. The address has
immediate respect to the seven Churches in Asia, and consequently also to all
churches and pastors, in all times and places: the promise, on the other hand, is given forth to all spiritual conquerors,
not excluding those in
THE TREE OF LIFE
The first promise takes us back
into the dawn of the world. It is
* These promises all refer to the
blessings of the future state of glory (Alford).
** There can be no reference here admitted to the lower
THE CROWN OF LIFE
The only two churches
which are blameless are the only two which are warned of persecution; and
the promise to
* Before the end no man is crowned;
though from the beginning, and throughout all the conflict, the crown is held
out and exhibited as a reserved treasure (Stier). When one of Napoleons
generals asked him for a marshals baton, It is not I,
said Napoleon, that make marshals; it is victory.
THE WHITE
STONE
To the overcoming Pergamite is promised a reward second to none in its exquisite wonder.
It is the loftiest peak of intimacy with God ever revealed in the Bible, and
ever experienced in eternity. To him that overcometh, to him will I give the hidden manna - hidden
because, as angels food (Ps. 78: 25) and
bread of heaven (Ps. 105: 40), it
is at present invisible * - and I will give him a white stone - both white and lustrous,
probably a diamond - and upon the
stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it
(Rev. 2: 17). This marvellous gift is probably a
duplicate of the Urim and Thummim; on which appears, in divine crystal vision
(of old seen by the High Priest alone) a new name; a new name expressive of a
new blessedness, and a consequence of the new life kept new. The conferring of a new
name by our Lord always signified final approval as Kingdom saints: so, in
human honours, Scipio Africanus, or
* The hidden manna represents a benefit
pertaining to the future Kingdom of glory (Lange).
NATIONAL AUTHORITY
The promise to Thyatira reveals,
among other things, the critically important truth that these promises and
warnings are purely and solely Millennial. He that overcometh, and he that keepeth
- watchfully performs, obeys (M. Stuart) my works - both the example and the precepts of Christ *
unto the end - therefore
these promises are never fulfilled in this life; the end of trial or probation,
or of life, is here meant (Moses Stuart)** - to him will I give authority over the nations - I will make
him king (Moses Stuart) - and he shall rule them with a rod of iron
(Rev. 2: 26).
He who conquers, as Dr. Swete
says, is he who keeps: works are in these addresses
to the Churches constantly used as the test of character. The Only Begotten Son
of God imparts to His brethren, in so far as their sonship has been confirmed
by victory, His own power over the nations. That this royal rule is
confined to the Millennium is certain from nations shattered as pottery: crushed or shivered, as multitudinous fragments collapsing
into an heap (Alford): because rebellious
nations, foretold as in the Kingdom (Zech. 14: 18), are
unknown in the
* Here is a grave proof that believers
who, on principle, dissociate themselves from the body of our Lords teaching
on the ground that it is Jewish will, in that
day, experience the saddest disillusionment.
** So long as a man still lives on the
earth, however far he may have attained, he cannot say, I have overcome
(Hengstenberg). The highest that is now possible is a strongly assured hope:- We desire that each one of you
may show the same diligence unto the full assurance of HOPE
even to
the end (Heb. 6: 11).
*** He
that overcometh shall be present at the first entrance and dawn of my true Kingdom
over the nations, and share it with me (Stier). The comment of
Victorinus is:- I will give
him the first resurrection.
WHITE ROBES
The Sardian promise gives, more than any other, the direct relationship between sanctity and
glory. He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white
garments; and I will in no wise blot his name
out of the book of life, and I will confess his
name before my Father and before His angels (Rev. 3: 5). The little band of the
undefiled bursts into glory in the dawn. They
who have kept their garments here, as a few in Sardis had done, shall have
brighter garments given them (Trench), glittering robes: the bright
garments, as Dr. Stier says, are something other and
greater than the clean,
of which they are the reward. As Dean Alford says:- They have kept their garments
undefiled, they of all others then are the persons who should walk in the
glorious white robes of heavenly triumph. *
* It is not asserted in this passage that the names of any who shall finally perish
were ever entered in the Book of Life, nor is it necessarily implied (E. C. Craven, D.D.).
THE IMMOVABLE PILLAR
The Philadelphian reward reveals
peculiarly the stability of coming glory. He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in
the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence
no more; expelled no more for ever, for any cause, either of
external foe or internal sin: and I
will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, and mine own new name (Rev. 3: 12).
The victors probation is finally over: stability in grace culminates in
stability in glory: more than a living stone
quarried by grace for the heavenly
THE THRONE
The rewards (as Dr. Stier says)
close on their highest peak the severest rebuke of all is
counterpoised by the most lustrous promise of all. It gathers all the promises into one (Alford). To
the Laodicean the Lord says:- He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with
Me in my throne; (the Eastern throne is much ampler and broader than ours:
Trench):* as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in His
throne (Rev. 3:
21). Our Lords throne, as separate from
the Fathers, is purely and solely the Messianic, the Millennial; for it never appears before or after the Kingdom: and therefore the proof here is beyond
challenge or doubt that, whoever the overcomer is, to him, and to him alone,
belongs a share in Millennial Royalty.
None can ever share the eternal Throne of God and the Lamb. It is obvious that though the lukewarm Laodicean is
converted - as many as I love I rebuke and chasten (Rev. 3: 19) **
- co-session on the Lords Throne is impossible to him as a
lukewarm Laodicean, in momentary
peril of being spewed out of the mouth of Christ. This
enthronization, as Prof. Moses Stuart says, will
be granted to all who prove to be final victors in the contest with the world,
the flesh, and the devil. The overcomer (the Lord says) conquers in the
sense that He conquered; even as I also overcame: which, obviously, is not conversion, but life-long
sanctity. Thus to a believers grossest carnality is
presented, so long as the day of grace has not yet merged into the day of wrath,
the most golden reward; and these promises,
as Dr. Seiss has said, are to brace up the courage of
the Church, to carry her to the pitch of bearing the cross and crucifying
herself with Christ, and actualizing her professed expatriation from this world.
* In my throne (not
. but
[see Greek]), which occurs nowhere else A. Plummer, D.D.).
**A proof
of his conversion past all doubt is his star
shining, in the Upper Sanctuary (Rev. 1: 16), locked
in the grasp out of which none can pluck.
-------
EUMENIA
An extraordinary proof that a
Laodicean believer can nevertheless (through grace
appropriated) achieve the summit of devotion before he dies is found in
the neighbourhood of
* * *
* * *
*
CHRIST AND VERBAL INSPIRATION
That a
document can be inspired, word for word, by God, so that no word is in
it save such as God has selected, is not only perfectly conceivable, but (in
several cases) is a matter of historic fact. It was so in the Decalogue. The two tables were written on both their sides; and the tables were the work of God even
the parchment of granite on which the words were engraved was His own
manufacture - and the writing w as the
writing of God (Ex. 32: 15): the
Lord delivered unto me, Moses says, the two tables of stone written with THE FINGFR of God, according to all the words which the Lord spake (Deut. 9: 10).
A second example occurred in
Now our Lord, alone of all the
authors of Scripture, fastens on the minutest fragments of the body of
Scripture in the hands of the Jew, and isolates verbal minutiae the least conceivable
in any human language. He says:- One jot or one tittle - one only, in each case - shall not pass away (Matt. 5: 18). Jot is the tiniest letter in the Hebrew
alphabet, from which we get our own expression. not an iota: tittle is a minute finish to a Hebrew letter,* like the dot of our i or the crossing of a t; such a finishing touch as an accent or a hyphen.
It would be impossible to isolate tinier fragments of written language than our
Lord here deliberately, studiedly selects.
* That our Lord quotes from the Hebrew proves - had proof been needed -
that His assertion is true only of the originally delivered text, and that He
means it of this text only. The
[see Gk.] is also the smallest letter in Greek, and so
the statement equally embraces the later sacred text, as it came from apostles
and prophets.
But before He thus singles out
Scriptures least and lowest ingredients, the Saviour creates a tremendous
background to what He is about to say by using the unique formula expressing
His Divine authority which is never used by other human lips, and which He here
uses for the first time in public. Verily I - the
decisive Amen, the incarnate Word, the final Authority, - say unto you, One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law. * This formula our Lord retains
solely for statements which rest upon His authority
alone: so purposely He produces the situation that anyone who challenges the
statement, challenges the Godhead.
* In the LAW Jesus
includes the Psalms (John 10: 34); and Paul sums up the whole of the Old
Testament - quoting Prophets, Proverbs, and Psalms - as the LAW (Rom.
3: 19).
Now therefore our Lord launches
His revelation on the exact texture of Scripture. Verily I say unto you, One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,
till all things - that is, all things
in the Law; even the minute thought expressed by a jot, or the subtle shade of
meaning in an iota - be accomplished. No statement on verbal
inspiration could be more drastic or final. There is small and great in
Scripture, massive revelations and minute touches; but all is so woven of one
web, so organic a breath of God, that (our Lord says) nothing in it can be lost;
no type, prophecy, truth, promise can fail of exact fulfilment; for the
Scripture is, and must ever be, a living and imperishable whole. In uninspired language the iota is often superfluous (Stier): in Holy
Scripture, placed there by a Master Hand, it is essential to the meaning, and is
watched over by a sleepless providence, until accomplished. Nothing else, in
reason, could be the logical issue of inspiration at all. Sentences,
expressions, combined utterances are all ascribed to God in Scripture: but if
so, the single words that compose these must be His also, for they combine to
make the utterance; and, still further, the letters, to their least minutiae,
must be so also, for words are but a conglomerate of letters. Pauls revelation
is that the letters (
[See Greek]) of Scripture are holy (2 Tim. 3: 15): the
Lords revelation is that every fragment of every letter is imperishable. *
* It is stated that the Bible contains
3,536,489 letters.
But the statement of the Son of God next soars
into a region incomprehensibly more wonderful. Lukes report gives
it thus:- It is easier for heaven and
earth to pass away - the universe is in itself more destructible - than for one tittle - Luke names
only the tittle: the tittle was minuter and more
insignificant than the jot:
it is only part of a letter, and so it is the smallest verbal fragment conceivable
- of the law to fail (Luke 16: 17).
The Lord balances the slenderest minutiae of Scripture, its
most apparently perishable verbal elements, against the granite rock of which
the worlds are made; and the less perishable - He reveals,
who made the worlds - the one which will outlast the other, is not the granite,
but the tittle.
But the
utterance of the Lord infers a truth more august and awesome even than this
stupendous revelation. Till heaven and earth pass away - for pass they must* - one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass: that is, the entire
universe waits on the fulfilment of Scripture; and the vast retinue of glowing
worlds depend for their very life on each Scriptural tittle, and expire with
the finishing of Scriptures last iota. The least
element of holiness which the Law contains has more reality and durability than
the whole visible universe (Godet).
[* See 2 Pet. 3: 10. Cf.
Rev. 21: 1.]
The Saviours revelation finally
comes to rest on a plateau where only God Himself could put it. Jesus attributes
fulfilment to Scriptures lightest iota:- One jot, He says, or one tittle cannot pass till all things be accomplished. In an uninspired document letters, and
even accents, can be so exactly accurate as to be as
imperishable as truth; for they are truth: but in no uninspired document, invariably fallible
somewhere, could every iota be found flawless. But fulfilment implies vastly more than accuracy. Fulfilment implies
forecast: so the Law abounds in types, prophecies, conditional offers, contingent
challenges: every one of these, the Lord says, once
uttered, must be accomplished. Forecasts, infallible
to an iota, are possible only in a Purely Divine document. So verbally inspired is the body
of Scripture, so plenary is the inspiration of its minutest dot and accent,
that its every photograph must become fact, and its every statement is more
reliable than all the laws of nature combined - laws which it will outlast, and
which depend upon it for their life. It is a statement of verbal inspiration
more drastic and final than any ever uttered before or since.*
* There would never have been the remotest difficulty concerning
the process of verbal inspiration if only modern investigators had included
Spiritualism in their investigations. Verbal inspiration (demonic) is a daily common-place in sιances round the globe. When the work is in progress, says a member of the
United States Congress, I am in a normal condition,
and seemingly two minds, intelligences, persons are practically engaged. The writing is in my own hand [cp. Gal. 6: 11], but the
dictation not of my own mind and will [cp. 2 Pet. 1: 21], but
that of another [cp. 2 Sam. 23: 2], upon
subjects of which I can have no knowledge [cp. Rom. 16: 25, 26], and
hardly a theory [cp. 1 Pet. 1: 10, 11]; and I
myself consciously criticize the thought, fact, mode of expressing it, etc.,
while the hand is recording the subject matter and even the words impressed to
be written [cp. Num. 23: 12]. If I refuse to
write the sentences, or even the word, the impression instantly ceases [cp. Jer. 14: 14], and my
intelligence must be mentally expressed before the work is resumed [cp. 1 Cor. 14: 32], and it is resumed at the point of cessation,
even if it should be in the middle of a sentence
[cp. 1 Cor. 14: 30]. Sentences are commenced without
knowledge of mine as to their subject
[cp. 1 Cor. 14: 2, 13] or ending. In fact, I have never known
in advance the subject of disquisition.
-------
MY WEAKNESS
It is a fragrant memory with me
how once in my ministry, when my heart was overwhelmed, the Apostles language
in 2 Corinthians 4: 7 and 12: 9, succoured me and put a new song in my
mouth.
I am very weak, and once my prayer
Was, Master, my weakness see,
And give me strength that I may bear
The load Thou hast laid on me.
But Thou hast
shown me a better way,
And taught
me a wiser prayer:
To Thine
Altar I go and my weakness there
A humble
offering lay;
And I
plead, Behold my weakness, Lord,
For serving Thee all unfit:
O take it, according to Thy good word,
And perfect Thy strength in it.
- DAVID SMITH, D.D.
THE END