UNIFORMITY OF ITS TESTIMONY.

When the Bible is studied carefully, a very remarkable fact is presented to the reader. He finds a Book of sixty-six separate books or treatises, one of which contains one hundred and fifty Psalms, and these books were prepared by about forty writers, appearing; at various periods through, some sixteen hundred years. The first, as already seen, lived a thousand years before Herodotus, and the last died nearly a hundred years after the birth of Christ. They embrace every class of society, every condition of life, every degree of culture, kings, legislators, priests, scholars, shepherds, fishermen, tax-gatherers, and treat of every conceivable subject in heaven, earth and hell.

The remarkable fact is, that, from beginning to end, they bear the most uniform testimony upon every doctrine and duty they discuss. The gentleman who presided over the Convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln for the second term of his Presidency, was formerly a prominent lawyer and politician. He published an article, advocating the supernatural origin of the Bible, in which he refers to its many writers as follows:

Yet all these men, through all these centuries, treating of all these subjects, so wrote, that although they have been subjected to the fiercest scrutiny during more than seventeen centuries since the last of them died, it has been found impossible to detect the smallest solecism in the entire productions of all of them put together, or the smallest discrepancy of fact, of principle, or even of opinion of any one of them from any other throughout their voluminous writings. Every one agrees in all things with all the rest.

Many illustrations of this statement might be given, if time permitted, but one will answer the purpose for the present. Let us take the method of approaching God acceptably, or the way of salvation. Surely no more important point can be raised to test the question of uniformity in the teachings of the Bible.

In the chapter immediately following the story of the fall, we are told of two brothers, the firstborn of the race, presenting their offerings to the Lord. The one brought the fruit of the sin-cursed ground; the other “the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering,” Gen. iv. 4. So the. blood of slain victims is seen in the first recorded act of worship which received the favor of the Lord, as afterward “Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour,” Gen. viii. 20, 21.

It is clearly affirmed, again and again, that the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, drew near to God on the ground of sacrifices laid upon the altar, and thus it continued until the time of Moses, when the same mode of worship was required in the sacrifice of the burnt offering, the peace offering, the sin offering and the trespass offering, Lev. i.-v. On the day of atonement also the high priest went with blood into the most holy place within the tabernacle, and was commanded to “sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat” It was upon the merit and value of this blood the sins of the people were put away, Lev. xvi. 25. It is distinctly stated, “For it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul,” Lev. xvii. 11.

But God could not be satisfied with outward forms of worship. Unless they were the expression of the inward offering of the soul, they were of no value. “Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a con trite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. . . . THEN shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar,” Ps. li. 16-19. “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting,” Isa. i. 11-13.

In view of the utter failure of Israel, as shown in their heartless ceremonies, God is represented in an attitude of earnest beseeching, immediately following this stern denunciation: “Come, now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool,” Isa. 1. 18. The only hope is in the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. ‘Tie was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” Isa. liii. 5, 6.

Precisely the same doctrine is found everywhere in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ said at the Last Supper, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins,” Matt. xxvi. 28. So Paul writes, “Being now justified by His blood,” Rom. v. 9; “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,” Gal. iii. 13; “In whom we have redemption through His blood. .. Now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ,” Eph. i. 7; ii. 13; “Without shedding of blood is no remission,” Heb. ix. 22. Peter writes, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your foolish conduct received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. John tells us, “God is light,” 1 Jno. i. 5; “God is love,” 1 Jno. iv. 8; and says, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin,” 1 Jno. i. 7. At the opening of the last book of the Bible, we have an ascription of praise “unto Him that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen,” Rev. i. 5, 6.

That this doctrine of the blood, which pervades the entire Bible, is not natural, nor agreeable to men, is shown by the fact that it is utterly rejected by vast numbers of professing Christians. There is no desire now to defend the doctrine, but only to refer to the multitudes, claiming to believe the Bible, who scoff at one of its most plainly revealed truths, as a proof that the Bible is not of or from men. The corruptions of Christianity have always been along the line of natural inclinations, demonstrating that the requirements of the Bible are opposed to these natural inclinations. Look at the savage persecutions of dissenting Christians by the Church itself, the bitterness and envy and rivalry of ecclesiastical factions, the refusal to recognize the rights of conscience, the demand for union between the Church and State, the persistent prying into unseen things, all so natural, and all so contrary to the teachings of the Bible, and then let the impartial skeptic decide, if he can, that the Bible had not a supernatural origin.