LECTURES ON THE BIBLE.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 627, 17 April 1852, Page 3

LECTURES ON THE BIBLE.

The following is an abstract of the Lecture on the "Doctrines of tho Bible," delivered, in the Primitive Methodist Chapel on Tuesdayevening the 80th March, by the Rev. A. Macdonald, being the third of the course of Lectures on the Bible by the Ministers of the Auckland Branch of the Evangelical Alliance.

"I give jou good doctrine foisake ye not my law."— Prov. lv 2. The subject of this evening's lecture is one of great importance. The docirines of the Bible have been well defined to be the "science of eternal life." To us who are the beings of a future eternity this must b*e the most momentous of all subjects. If so, with what thrilling interest ought we to reregard the truths that relate to such a theme ! The inspiration of the Bible you have heard clearly illustrated and ably vindicated in a previous lecture, and it devolves upon me (his evening to direct your attention to the doctrines of thai; blessed Book. Allow me to do so by considering the subjects and excellence of the doctrines of the Bible and also the reception they meet with, in the world. The most essential truths may be comprehended in those that relate to God, man, Redemption, and Retribution. What we know of God is what Pie has himself revealed, and this He has done in such a way, and and to such an extent, that renders it a rev elation thoroughly adapted to secure the great purposes for which it was given — His own glory and the welfare of man. It is never attempted in the Bible to prove the existence of God. This is assumed. It comes to us as the word of One whose existence is known by the manifests f ion of his Eternal Power and Godhead in the works of creation. (Ps. xix. L, Rom. i. 20.) It tells us that God is a self-existent Being— the ever living one — having life in Himself and the source of life to every living creatui'e. That He is a Spirit, present everywhere, knowing all things, the high and the lofty one inhabiting eternity. Heaven is his throne the earth his footstool. He is the greatest of all beings — the nations of the earth are as nothing before him. All-powerful and glorious the object of the profoundest reverence to those exalted intelligences who are ever around the throne of His glory in the attitude of adoration, wonder, and praise. He is the one God — there is none else beside Him, none like Him, none to be compared unto Him. " The Lord our God is one Loid." The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost— these I three are one ; here there is mystery, but no con- | tradiction. The Trinity of the Divine nature is a doctrine of the Bible and is therefore to be believed. The Bible tells us what God is in His moral perfections. He is holy. Holiness is the purity of the Divine nature, absolute purity. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and he cannot look on iniquity. "The Lord our God is holy" — glorious in holiness. This attribute of God is developed in the love of all that is pure, holy, and excellent, in the hatred of evil and of every impurity. He is just ; just in His character and conduct as the Lawgiver of the universe. This attribute is eminently displayed in the law which is a transcript of the mind of the Eternal. The law is holy, just, and good; just in its requirements as they are in perfect congruity with the different relations which are sustained by the ruled. God is just in the reward He bestows upon the obedient and the penalty he indicts upon the transgressor. God is faithful : He is a " Gwl of truth" whose "works are all done in truth." The faithfulness of God is the conformity of His character and conduct to the previous declarations of His truth. His promises then will certainly be fulfilled in the happy experience of every believer, and with equal certainty will his threatenings find their accomplishment in the punishment of every impenitent soul. The Bible reveals to us that God is good ,■ " The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. ' " There is none good but one, that is God. " God is love." This attribute is developed in various aspects ; in supplying the wants of every living creature, it is bounty; in pitying the condition of the wretched, it is mercy; in pardoning the sinner, it is grace ; and bearing with the presumptuous and impious conduct of the perverse and impenitent, it is patience; in contriving schemes and methods in order to accomplish the benevolent purposes of God, in respect to the happiness of its objects, it is wisdom. How great, and glorious a Being then is the God of the Bible ! He has revealed Himself as sustaining important relations to man. He is man's Creator. He created him in His own image — in "knowledge, righteousness and true holiness." This is the primeval condition in which God created man. There is another character which God is pleased to assume in respect to man; lie is hio moral governor. This character was developed in a course of conduct towards man altogether adapted to the natural and moral constitution of his nature — the rationality, rectitude, and excellence of which rendered him fit for the obligations, duties, and purposes which such a connection involved. The law of God is the standard to which He requires the perfect conformity of character and conduct from man as the subject of his government. To secure obedience to the law and to prevent its transgression, He promises gloi'y, honour, and happiness as the reward of the one, and threatens indignation and wrath, tribulation, and anguish, as the punitive results of the other. These are strong moral inducements — strong when they are considered as appealing with power to the strongest emotions of our nature, hope, and fear. By disobedience man fell ; he became a transgressor of the law ; the result is the entire extinction of holiness in the soul, and an entire alienation of heart from God. Guilt, impurity, and estrangement, stamp him as an outcast, unfit for fellowship and intercourse A\ith an infinitely pure and holy God. The Bible declares man to be the subject of a depravity — not partial — but total. "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in him." He is dead in trespasses and sins. He is at enmity with the God that made him. Such is fallen man. How wretched his condition — no peace, no comfort, no happliness to the wicked. How dreadful his prospects a " certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." A subject of the awful condemnation of the sentence the ' soul that sinneth it shall die' — death, spiritual, temporal, and eternal. Is there then no eye to pity, no arm to save? Yes, God's eye has pitied — Ills Omnipotent arm has wrought out a wonderful salvation ! Human redemption is the theme of the Bible. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believcth in Him should not perish, but bave everlasting life." Christ, who is the true God and eternal life, has come down from the throne of His glory to become man in order to accomplish the woik

was given him to do. Tie is Emmanuel — God ■with us — none but God, manifest in the flesh, could undertake and fulfil such a charge as the redemption of the human soul. He has become man, that he might save man, by suffering and dying in his stead. Sin has separated man from God ; nothing can destroy this separating barrier but blood— shed blood ; "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." Christ has died that we might live. " Herein is love ; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins." Christ, the just one, died for the unjust, that He might bring us to God — bring us near by His blood. Nearness to God, then, is the effect of shed blood ; to be at* one-ment with Him is the result of Christ's death. This is the atonement which alone can render satisfaction to God for sin, and thereby enable Him, consistent with the holiness of His character, the justice of His law, and the honour of His government, to pardon the penitent. The claims of Deity and the wants of humanity are fully answered and richly supplied by the atonement of Christ. God is now seated on a throne of grace, revealinn- Himself to be the God of pardons to every child of .sinful humanity who believes in Jesus. Here then is a cognate theme to the doctrine of atonement— Justification by Faith. Justification is the pardon of sin, including every spiritual blessing intimately connected with reconciliation with God. God pardons the believer in Jesus, and treats him as righteous for the sake of what Christ has done. The work of Christ is the meritorious cause of this* blessing to men. "No flesh can be justified by the law, in the sight of God;" we are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus-justified by His blood,— being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God is represented in the Bible as a necessary agent in the important work^ of man's salvation. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to apply the blessings of redemption to the soul of man. Man must be the subject of a twofold change before he can be brought to enjoy fellowship with God-, he must pass from a state of guilt to that of pardon and acceptance. The blood of Christ is the procuring cause of this important transition. He must also experience a moral change in the inner man : the Spirit is the agent in effecting this change, -which he does through the instrumentality of the truth. The necessity of this change is found in the dp - pravity and corruption of man— a corrupt and depraved nature is incompatible with a holy destiny. " Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God." The doctrine of a future retribution is clearly revealed in the Bible, also that of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body : " They that have done good shall come forth from their graves unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done .evil unto the resurrection of damnation." The immortality of the soul is a truth which was received into "the heart of the Father of the Faithful: it influenced his conduct; if hissoul was to suffer annihilation, whence that " looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God?" At death "the dust shall return to earth as it was ; and the spirit shall return unto God, who gave it." God declares himself to b3 connected with the spirits of those who have departed this life, as their God ; He is not therefore the God of the dead, but of the living. " Today," said Jesus to the dying thief, " shalt thou be with me in Paradise." The prayer of the dying martyr contains the same truth, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." The Bible speaks to us of a great and dreadful day of the Lord, when an assembled world must stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, who will reward every man according to his work : the subjects of Christ's redemption will receive the welcome invitation, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." The neglecters of God, and the despisers of the Gospel of His Son, will hear the dreadful mandate from the lips of the Righteous Judge, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." " And these shall go away into everlasting punishment ; but the righteous into life eternal." The doctrine which. God gives unto us is good. This we consider the testimony of God respecting the excellence of the doctrines which He graciously condescends to reveal. Their excellence appears in their truth ; they ! are the sayings of God. This being granted, it follows that they must be true ; for the God of Truth can never be the author of what is false — God has been pleased to set His seal to the truth j of the doctrines of the Bible. This He has done by prophecy and miracles ; look, for example at the prophetic description of the promised Messiah in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and compare it with the character, events, and circumstances of the life of Christ, as narrated by the Evangelists, so complete, then, will the coincidence appear, as to force home to any unprejudiced mind the convic- | tio'n that the prophecy has found its full accomplishment in the person, character, and life of the iiiU3tiious Subject of the Evangelical history. ! This, then, is a seal which sets at defiance all the machinations which infidelity can suggest to invalidate the truth of the doctrines of Jesus. God confirms the truth of the Bible by the exertion of Hi 3 power to produce effects manifestly contrary to the well-known laws of nature : by the word of His power, " the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead rise to life again. " Such are the wonders which testify to the Divine origin of Christianity, and the infallible certainty of her doctrines. How well adapted they are to bring the ingenuous mind to the feet of the Great Teacher of Truth, and profess the convictions of a "believing bearfc, — "^Ve know that Thou art a teacher of truth, and what Thou teachest is the truth of God, Thou art a Teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles which Thou doest, except God be with him." " Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief." Human experience is a strong testimony to the truth of the Gospel. Every man's heart is here described, and every man who looks into this truthful mirror must see the accurate description of the nature and workings of his heart of which he himself is conscious, and so strongly is the complete conformity of the portraiture to the reality of the mental state felt, that conscience approves of the justness and shrinks not from the directness of the charge — "Thou art the man." The cordial recipient of the doctrinal truth of God's book "has the witness in Himself," and this witness is the blessing of eternal life, and the possession of this blessing is a proof of the truth of the doctrine that God gives eternal life to every believer in Jesus. Suppose a person to be the subject of a deadly disease — in vain have all known meansbeentriedto effect a cure — at last he hears accounts of an extraordinary man whose medical skill is such as to render infallibly certain the cure of nil who come under his treatment. The accounts appear to him to be too pleasing to be true; he meets with one who had seen this physician ; he tells him that he was the subject of the same disease with which he is a/Ricted ; that he went to the physician and subjected himself to his treatment and the complete restoration to health was the happy result. Here then the conscious posBession of health is a testimony, which is not to be invalidated, to the truth of all that was said concerning the willingness, skill, and efficiency of the physician. lie that goeth to the physician will be cured. if Fe that believeth on the Son of God Jiath the witness in himself." "He that believeth on me, saith the Saviour, hath everlasting life." " One tlimg I know that whereas I was blind, mow I see." The doctrines of the Bible are excellent, bocause they are in harmony with the Divine character and human reason. God has not re-

Aealed any thing that is ut variance with his character 'as a holy, faithful, and benevolent Being. "The words of the Lord are pure—th e word of God is truth— it is the word of his grace. The word of God is the light in a dark place which displays with glorious splendour the holiness, truth, and benevolence of His character. The doctrines of the Bible can never be shown to be contrary to human reason ; many of them do surpass the power of reason to comprehend, but never do any of them militate against its dictates. They are in perfect harmony with each other. There is not in the whole one doctrine which contiadicts another. They constitute a "well belanced and harmonious whole, exerting together an influence directed towards the accomplishment of one common and important purpose." It is true that there are those who, under the influence of prejudice, come to the Bible with the avowed purpose to find out contradictions and discrepancies, and thereby destroy this harmony of connection and influence which we maintain exists in the system of doctrinal truth. They fancy they find some contradictions, and thus assert what they think a reasonable ground for their rejection of the whole — prejudice here warps their judgment. They distinguish not, between apparent and real discrepancies; the former we admit, the latter we positively deny. Lot the objector stand on the shore of Tahiti and there he will see it to be high water at noon every clay, with little or no variation of the time and flow of the tide. Here then is a fact which appears to militate against the truih of the moon's influence upon the tides, notwithstanding the united testimony of a thousand other facts in confirmation of the reality of such an influence. I leave the objector, who professes to be in the full enjoyment of the powers of his i rational nature, to say whether this apparent discrepancy is a sufficient ground for him to reject in natural science the important doctrine of gravitation, j There is a beautiful relationship of dependence which the doctrines of the Bible sustain to each I other. Divest this system of truth, of the doc- j trine of atonement, and it is like taking the sun from the centre of our system, darkness, desolation, and chaotic confusion will be the result. Doctrinal truth is connected with character, and character is connected with destiny. As beings of immortality we ought never to lose sight of this important connection. If our character be not under the transforming and purifying power of Bible truth, certain it is that the holy and exalted destiny of Heaven can never be ours. The doctrines of the Bible are excellent because they are adapted to the character and condition of man. Is man ignorant and degraded in mind? What more adapted to enlighten and elevate the j soul than Divine truth? Is he guilty? The 1 Bible gladdens his heart with the news of pardon. Is he depressed with doubt and uncertainty with respect to the future ? The Bible comforts and animates his drooping spirits with the light of life and immortality. The excellence of Bible truth will appear in the object for which it was revealed — to glorify God by renovating the soul of man and restoring it to fellowship with himself— bringing it to Heaven there to participate in the blessings and joys of eternal life. What is the reception Bible truth meets with in the world ? Infidels reject it. We call upon such before they persevere in such rejection, to accept the challenge, to search, to examine with a desire to know the truth and certainty of Bible doctrines, and the result will be such as to increase the confidence of e\ cry Christian, in that Book, the truths of which are the very aliment of his Spiritual nature. Bible truth is seriously injured by some who profess to receive the revelation from God. They do violence to its doctrinal system by wrenching from it the important and essential doctrines of the Trinity — the atonement and eternal punishments — such doctrines their elevated minds will not stoop to believe. They thus make a gospel of their own which assuredly is destitute of that life — giving power which drew forth the confidence of an inspired Apostle. lt lam not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Others corrupt the doctrinal truths of the Bible by teaching for doctrines the traditions of men. We have the intercession of saints, purgatory, thereby derogating from the character and work of the ever blessed Redeemer. To urge upon the belief of man the efficacy of water baptism in the regeneration of the human soul, is to insult the dignity of that pure and exalted Spirit whose work it is to effect that necessary change in the heart of man. The doctrines of the Bible are received by some to be trifled with to their own ruin. Bible truth is in their intellect, but not in their heart. They are all life and energy in contending for the truth of this and that doctrine, and discussing the important position which this or that doctrine may occupy in the Christian system. All this may be done and often is done, while the heart is an entire stranger to that peace and joy in believing, which are experienced only by those whose hearts are under the sanctifying influence of that faith which unites the soul to Christ. Christians give the truth the reception it well deserves — the all acceptation of their hearts. It is precious to their souls. It is the strength and consolation of their hearts. It brings the joys of Heaven to their minds. Thus connecting them with the world of bliss and drawing their hearts to anticipate with unspeakable delight the time when they will be introduced into the regions of rapturous joy and unwithering glory. Christians! value the Bible. Treat it as you have received it — not as the word of man, but as the word of God. Neglector of the great salvation ! if you would be pardoned — if you would escape from Hell and obtain an entrance into Heaven — receive the doctrines of the Bible and surrender your heart to their benign influence, and everlasting life will bo yours.