CHAPTER VII. PROVE ALL THINGS. "Truth crushed to earth will rise again, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."—1 THESS. v. 21. IN our last chapter we learned that there is evidence for all the facts and doctrines of Christianity, from the days of our Lord onward to the latest centuries, external to and independent of the New Testament Scriptures at all. I quoted the memorable correspondence of Pliny and Trajan; the testimony of Josephus, not unimpeached, but really vindicated as true; the remarks of Celsus, and Porphyry, and Julian; all condemning the truths of Christianity, but, by an overruling Providence, guided in their condemnation of the doctrines to embosom in that condemnation the assertion, and therefore evidence, of the facts. So that if we wished to construct a creed external to the Bible, and without calling in the aid of a single writer of the patristic ages favorable to Christianity, we might gather the leading tenets of our common Christianity out of the writings of Josephus the Jew, Julian the apostate, Porphyry the infidel, from the letter of Pliny to Trajan, and Trajan's reply to Pliny. Now this is a point of some importance; and if it does not add any thing to our knowledge, it disposes of the sceptic's cavil. The sceptic prefers, why it is difficult to say, a heathen witness to an upright, honest, and consistent Christian one. We will now briefly allude to and vindicate some of those great truths that are revealed within the book. We tarried outside the book in our last. To-day we will enter inside, and investigate some of those great doctrinal truths which have been perverted or misunderstood; and that need only to be faithfully evolved and plainly stated in order to be fully and triumphantly vindicated. The prescription, "Prove all things," need not be made to the man of pleasure. Eat, drink, to-morrow we die, is the sum and substance of his creed. It need scarcely be addressed to the thoughtless; for such will say, We have no time to think of these things. We are so busy with the shop, and trade, and traffic, or our profession, that we have no time to think upon the subject at all. Strange, indeed, are such apologies: a man trembling on the borders of eternity every moment has no time to think what the issue will be which a single step may irretrievably precipitate! Our common idea is that we are walking towards the precipice of death; and that we can calculate, to-day we are so many miles distant, to-morrow so many fewer, the next day so many fewer; till we reach the very edge. But this is not the fact. We do not walk towards the precipice; we are walking along the slippery edge of the precipice; and know not what step may place us where all recovery is beyond our reach, because all is fixed; and all repentance impossible, because no place is found for it, though sought with tears. Nor will these words be accepted by the formalist. If we say to him, "Prove all things," his answer will be, The calendar is my rule of faith; whatever saint's day, or whatever festival, or sabbath it is, that is all I think about; and having said my prayers, and sung my hymns, and heard the sermon, I have done my duty, and am quite happy; and must be happy hereafter. It is in vain that we address those that are overconfident, unless we have first shaken their confidence. They think all is right, they have never investigated; but like the ostrich in the desert when pursued by the fleet Arab steed, they hide their heads in the sand or dust of absolute indifference or ignorance, and fancy that because they cannot see the avenging pursuer all is well, and will be well for ever. But there is a class to whom we may address these words, "Prove all things;" and to that class, we specially appeal. A member of the church of Rome would probably feel the text as addressed to him to be an insult. He would say, It does not matter that an apostle has said so; the pope has substantially said, Prove nothing, but believe every thing I say! He objects to private judgment altogether. And yet, strange enough, the Romanists object to private judgment, while they are working by private judgment to lead us to adopt their system as the best. What strange conduct; to object to private judgment as the most mischievous inhabitant of the human breast; yet to make use of private judgment to carry us over the threshold of the church into the midst of its superstition. I do not assume that the text is a call to entertain every wild notion that seeks hospitality in our minds, and give a candid investigation to all its objections or its demerits. If we were to indulge in this ceaseless process of ceaseless testing, we should be always proving, and could scarcely be said to be ever holding fast. But many things are daily presented to us which we are forced to discuss. Notions will spring up in our minds, either weeds indigenous to our nature, or sowed by the enemy when men sleep, that we are obliged to canvass and to dispose of. There are many doctrines in the word of God that need to be clearly seen that they may be heartily grasped, and carried out into vigorous daily practice. And, besides, the word "prove" holds a sense which I have scarcely yet assigned it. It is in the original doktualete, a word applied by goldsmiths to the testing of metals. A goldsmith has gold with a certain alloy in it; it is either fifteen, seventeen, or twenty, or the maximum twenty-four, carats fine. He tests it, and he then tells you the exact amount of alloy of silver or copper that is in the gold, and thereby the exact value of the gold. The word here translated "prove" means, test, separate the dross from the metal, the alloy from the gold; hold fast the precious gold, let go, as speedily as you can, the worthless, the comparatively worthless copper. We have the word employed in this sense by the Apostle Peter, where he states, in 1 Peter i. 7, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried" that is the same word; and if it were translated as it is in my text, it would be, "though it be proved" "with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Error is never so dangerous as when it is the alloy of truth. Pure error would be rejected; but error mixed with truth makes use of the truth as a pioneer for it, and gets introduction where otherwise it would have none. Poison is never so dangerous as when mixed up with food; error is never so likely to do mischief as when it comes to us under the pretensions And this prescription, and patronage of that which is true. too, shows us that our creed, our religion, does not shrink from inquiry. You may depend upon it, a doctrine that dreads light, a religion that shrinks from discussion, is like a gilt trinket in a goldsmith's hand, which he will neither test nor place in broad daylight. Our religion shrinks not from discussion. It is not the rationalism, it is true, that puts reason on the throne of God; nor is it, on the other hand, the fanaticism that substitutes feeling for fact; nor is it a gloomy asceticism that crushes instead of encouraging and elevating human nature; nor is it a lawless system that emancipates from all control. But it is the consecration of man's noblest powers; the concentration of all he is to the elucidation of God's word; and the deep persuasion that, like pure gold, that word will come forth from the ordeal brighter and more beautiful than before. But it does happen, and it is important to state it, that there are current in this realm two Bibles; one bearing the superscription that we love, of royal authority; not making it true, but recommending it as true; and another bearing the imprimatur of Papal authority, called the Vulgate Version of the word of God. Both these versions, I admit, differ in their translations of the New Testament in very few respects; and I would feel the utmost confidence in arguing with a member of the church of Rome, not from my Bible, but from his In fact, in his translation, there are some passages wickedly wrong; there are other passages even more beautiful than our own. For instance, in one verse, our translation is, "When Christ had made an end of sin." In the Roman Catholic version it is, "When Christ had exhausted sin;" which is a finer translation. At the close of the Book of Revelation in our Bible it is, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life." The Roman Catholic has taken another reading, which I think the better reading, and it is: "Blessed are they that have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, that they may have a right to the tree of life." In these two respects, I think it is superior to ours; but then in others it is lamentably defective. But on this I dare not here enter. The two Bibles differ not so much by diversi own. |