The Book of the Past, Present and Future

The Book of the Past, Present and Future "THE BOOK OF THE PAST, THE PRESENT,
AND THE FUTURE"
By W. D. CAMPBELL

Introductory Remarks: I want to speak to you, be loved, about "the Book of the Past, the Present, and the Future". The oldest, the grandest, and the most wonder­ful Book in the world—This precious gift of God from the skies to the children of men—This book covers all time from eternity past to eternity future: It reveals to us, that "behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own": It is the only book in the world able to make us wise unto salvation; the Bible begins its history "in the beginning"; it ends not at death; it stops not at the grave, but opens to our view "an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens": It is the word of God—to which I invite your attention: I want to place at the head of my address, these inspired words of Paul to a young worker for Christ:"But continue thou in the things, which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child, thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto sal­vation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God; and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof—for correction; for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." And to this the same great writer adds: "Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman, that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth."

There is no book in the world read more than the Bible and it would seem, that no book so generally read is less understood. There are reasons for this: If other books were read, as too many read the Bible, without any though of order or system, as if it had not divine arrangement; in cither words in a disconnected way; and if such books, had as many systems based upon them; had as many debates upon them—and as many different construc­tions put upon the meaning of the words found therein— do you not think, that they too would be as little under­stood? Beyond a doubt they would—it is a fact that the Bible is treated as no other book in the world. It is made responsible for all kinds of conflicting theories and dogmas. It is injured in the house of its friends—there is another thought, that I wish to emphasize in bringing my theme before you—while it is true that the Bible is read and studied by so many; I want to ask you, why is it, that so little of its spirit is possessed, and exhibited, by those, that read it? Why beloved? Let me suggest, that too many read the Bible, simply to learn what it contains; perhaps feeling that their education would not be complete without such knowledge; or it may be to use the knowledge thus gained, as a means to prove" "our doctrine", or to appear wise, by being able to explain its mysteries to others; or to be able to argue well. But few comparatively appear to read the Sacred Text, with an earnest desire to prac­tice it; to conform the life to its holy teaching and grow into its spirit: It is the only reading of the word that is
profitable unto men—let us never for a moment lose sight of the fact, that it is the revelation of God to mankind, that it is able to make us wise unto salvation; make us perfect, throughly furnish us unto all good works; that a knowledge of this book is the only knowledge that is absolutely essential for a person to have in order to be saved from his sins and reach heaven—Beloved, it is our highest duty to study this book, and grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The first division of the Bible consists of two departments, called the Old Testament and the New Testa­ment. A clear idea of the meaning of the word—"testa­ment" is of great importance. It means a "will". In many cases will and testament are used as synonyms—thus the Bible consists of an old will, and a new will, a first will, and a second will. In the Old Testament we have the formal expression of God's will, as anciently made known through Moses, and the prophets to Israel. In the New Testament, we have God's will made known through Christ, and his Apostles, to Jews and Gentiles; as to how to become his children, and grow into the life and likeness of Jesus. Indeed Christ is the central figure in all Bible history. Everything centers in him—the Old Testament with its types, and shadows, and prophecies, points down to the fullness of the time; when Jesus, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world in purpose, became the Saviour, and Redeemer of humanity in fact; the New Testament points us back to Christ. The Bible is thus but the development of the plan of human redemp­tion through Christ: This divine purpose like a scarlet- thread runs through the sixty-six books of the Bible, binding them into one divine, blessed Book of the past, the present and the future—We are, beloved, living in the age, when the words of the prophet are being fulfilled. "Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase". It is the golden age of the world: Schools are plenty and good: we have books without number: the people are well read and intelligent: The common people are educated—But as I have already intimated, the only knowledge that it is absolutely essential for a person to have is a knowl edge of this Book: a man may have mastered all the stu dies, as taught in the schools, so that he might be a perfect walking encyclopaedia: might be able to tell u of all the stars, that twinkle in the sky, like blue forget- me-nots; and discourse about the hidden things in the earth from morning till night, and yet be lost, with ah his knowledge, by remaining ignorant of the Bible: On the other hand a man may be ignorant of what is taught in the schools; but if he reads his Bible, believes it, obeys it; he can go from this earth where we have to dig graves —to that deathless country, the city of God: without learn­ing, or worldly wisdom, but not without the Bible: it is the guide Book there. The writing of the Bible covered a period of about 1,500 years. This book was written by about forty different writers. Holy men of God, who spake, and wrote, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit: That is God taught the writers what to say. The majority of those writers never saw each other face to face. They wrote at different times: There was no chance for the writers to have any collusion: They wrote independently of each other, and yet when their writings are brought together, there is perfect harmony and agreement: They present to the world, the beautiful harmonious system revealed in the Bible. Do you think that this could be the work of chance—never. You could not get forty men to-day, to write upon any subject covering only a few years; and have anything like unity and continuity in thought and teaching in their writings: human minds differ so. We are forced to the conclusion, that the great God was back of the writers of the Bible, and taught them what to say. This book has been put to the test, during the ages past, it has been criticised, blasphemed, and burned—and yet it remains unchanged; the only thing in this world that has not been changed, by the changing hand of time. It is the only infallible thing on earth, and the only source of light, and life. We can judge nations, as well as indivi­duals by their treatment of the Bible: show me a nation that reveres the word of God, and I will show you a na­tion, that stands high in civilization, and in all that is for the betterment of mankind: a nation that has no reverence for the Bible, is low in its morals, and lacking in every­thing, which makes for true civilization. We can not very well overestimate the influence of the Bible on nations and men—Indeed every charitable institution in the land owes its existence either directly, or indirectly, to the in­fluence of this blessed book: and little does the scoffing infidel think—when far from his home and friends, and kindly nursed when ill in some hospital, that he possibly owes his life to the influence of that Book, which he de­spises, and endeavors to overthrow—and when we come down to die, and are conscious, that we are about to pass into the unseen world: we want—yes, the good and the bad, the saint and the sinner, to have one good man in whom we have confidence to come by the bedside, and read from the pages of one good Book: Yes, beloved, give me my Bible, my faith, and hope based upon its precious promises, and I will bear life's trials, toils, and tears, and when the end comes die in peace— "A sacred glory guilds its page; majestic as the sun;
It gives a light to every age; it gives but borrows none."

Like the sun in the heavens, it gives light: It is the source of all light, and life; But it is important to know, how to read it, and understand it.

Paul said to a young preacher, "study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman, that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth." We can not very well overestimate .the importance of a proper division of the word in order to understand the Sacred Text. Indeed three great events divide Bible history into three great ages, or dispensations: The giving of the law at Mt. Sinai—The descent of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost after Jesus died; and the death of the Apostle John. From creation to the giving of the law, we have the first age, sometimes called the Patriarchal Age. From the giving of the law, to the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Jewish Age; and from the descent of the Holy Spirit to the Death of John, the Christian Age. You should read the Bible in the light of these ages, and give careful atten­tion to dispensational truth and teaching. In the first age we have a family; in the second, a nation; in the third, the world. Thus we have revealed in the Bible, a family religion, a national religion and a universal religion, the Christian religion. God spoke in the first age to families through their fathers; in the second, to the chosen nation, through Moses; in the third, in these last days he speaks to the world through his Son. Much of the religious confusion in the world today is due to an improper div­ision of the word, to wrongly dividing the word of truth, and failing to make a distinction, between the law and the gospel. When I was a boy, my grandfather, who was a weaver, used to give me my task, to do a certain amount of quilling before I could go out to play, and sometimes when not in the best of humor, and anxious to get out with the boys, I would go about my work in a hurried manner, and would not be careful to get the right end of the skeins. I can well remember, that I would have no end of trouble, with tangled yarn, broken threads, and knots to tie, but when I got the right end of the thread, there was no trouble, the skein unwound beautifully. So it is in our study of the Bible. If you only make a right beginning, rightly divide the truth, get the right end of the thread of revelation, the plan of God unfolds beau­tifully, but if you get the wrong end of the thread you will have trouble, theological knots to tie as long as you live.

We have the example of Jesus in rightly divid­ing the truth. In the beginning of his ministry, he went to Nazareth and entered the Synagogue, as was his custom, and stood up to read. He read the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah's prophecy: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me", and he concluded his reading in these words, "To preach the acceptable year of the Lord". He closed the book and sat down. Why did Jesus so abruptly close the book? He .stopped his reading of the word in the middle of a verse. You say the Bible was not then divided into verses. Grant it. Then he stopped the reading in the middle of a prophecy. Why? He wanted to apply the truth of the prophecy to the people. He said: "This day is this scrip­ture fulfilled in your ears". Had he read the complete prophecy he could not have made this application. The prophecy reads, "To preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God". The day of vengeance was then in the future, and is still in the future. Jesus rightly divided the truth. If you were to send your boy to a private teacher to help him master some subject in which he is deficient, say, grammar, and the teacher would give him a geography and say read and study the book. The boy would make no progress in grammar. Because the book is not designed to teach what he wants to know. But if the teacher would say, here is a grammar, this book is designed to teach just what you need, read it, study it, he would learn grammar. The teacher has rightly divided the branch of study for the boy. We have sixty-six books in the Bible, and each book was written with a specific design.

If you know the design of a writer, why the book was written, it will help you to understand what is written. Should a man come to me, and ask where can I read about the beginning of everything, the origin of man, the beginning of sin? I would answer, ''read the first book of the Bible. It is called Genesis which means the beginning". I would rightly divide the word for the man. It is the only book that would give him the information he wants. Should a man want to know about the call, of Moses, the man of God, the deliverance of the children of Israel under him, I would direct him to read the book called Exodus, the word means, a going out. Again I rightly divide the word, and so if I had the time, we could go through each book of the Bible. But if a man should come to me and say, " Mr. Campbell, where can I read for myself the answer to the question that is burning in my soul.: What must I do to be saved? What a momentous question". Should I say "read the book called Proverbs, it contains the say­ings of the wisest men?" I would not only wrongly divide the word of truth, but I would mislead the man, and God would hold me responsible in the day of judgment. We want to make sure work here. Proverbs contains many good lessons, but the question concerning the salvation of the soul is not asked there. A sensible person would go to the book, where this question is asked to find the answer, and there is only one book out of the sixty-six of the Bible where this question is asked, and that is the book called Acts of Apostles. We begin to see the impor­tance of rightly dividing the word. If a doctor would prescribe for a sick man, and call the attention of the nurse to his serious condition, saying, "I want you to give this powder in the white paper, at a certain hour, and the powder in 'the blue paper an hour later, and the powder in the red paper at a later hour specifying it, the man is very ill", says the physician, "see that you follow the direc­tions". He returns the next day, and finds the man's pulse at one hundred and thirty, the man dying. He calls the nurse and asks if she gave the medicine as directed, the different powders at the hours specified. She replies, no I did not divide them as you directed, but mixed them up into one dose, and gave them to him. You smile, but seriously, is not this the way too many religious teachers treat dying men and women. Quote a little from the Proverbs, or Psalms, or the law, then from the Gospel narratives, and Epistles and Revelation, a little here and a little there, taken out of their connection, all mixed up and preached to the lost of earth. Do you wonder my friends that intelligent men and women turn from it, and drift into infidelity?

Let me divide the Sacred Text for you. When we )open our Bible, we find here, a blank page. On one side we have the old Testament, on the other the New Testament. The old Testament contains God's law to the Jewish nation. Under the old Testament age God spoke through Moses and the prophets to Jews only. He never spoke authoritatively to a Gentile. We are Gentiles. In the New Testament age God spoke through his Son and his Apostles to all peoples, all nations. Now when did the New Testament age begin? We would naturally think with Matthew Levi's narrative of the birth of Jesus. But not so. Jesus was born, lived, loved and died under the old Testament age, under the law. Let me quote here an inspired statement of the Apostle Paul. Speaking of Christ he said, "But now once in the end of the world (or age) hath he appeared to put ,away sin by the sacrifice of himself". The death of Jesus marks the end of the old Testament times, and the beginning of the New. Again "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth". It is said that at the head of the river St. Croix, the boundary line, between Maine and New Brunswick, there stands a stone pillar, as a mark, on one side of which is engraved the words Great Britain, on the other side the United States. Here is a traveller, approaching this stone and he reads "Great Britain". You ask him if be knows in what territory he is, and he answers "yes, I am on British soil". He passes the stone, and you say stranger, where are you now? And without any hesitation he replies, "I am in Uncle Sam's dominions, I am under the stars and stripes". He says "there is the mark". So the great God has placed a mark between the old covenant and the new. It is the cross of Calvary on one side you read by faith, Moses, on the other side Jesus. "For the law was given by or through Moses, but the grace and the truth came by Jesus Christ". No matter what the question is, that comes before you, ask yourselves, on which side of the cross does it stand. If on the other side of the cross it was never addressed to you, is not the law for you, but if on this side of the cross, it has to do with you, and comes with authority from him, who has all authority in heaven and earth.

Let me now briefly divide the New Testament. Notice its perfect adaptation to mankind. The first por­tion is intended for the eye of the unbeliever in Jesus. The writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are de­signed to produce faith in Christ as a world's Saviour. No man can believe without evidence. The inspired his­torians have placed before us sufficient testimony to lead any honest mind into faith of the Son of God. John wrote, "These are written that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name". Matthew Levi wrote to con­vince the Jews of Judea of the claims of Jesus, as the promised Messiah. John Mark wrote for the Romans and Luke for the Grecians, and Jews living in Greece, and John for the people of Asia. The Acts of Apostles, gives to us the record of Apostolic preaching. From that book we learn what the believer in Jesus, was required to do in order to come into the family of God, to become a Christian. The Epistles teach us how to live as Christians, and serve God acceptably, how to grow into the divine likeness and life, and the book of Revelation gives to us a picture of the final triumph of the people of God, and the home of the redeemed. Thus what we learn from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John lead us to Christ, The Acts of Apostles teach us how to come into Christ, and the Epistles show us how to follow Christ, and the hook of Revelation assures us that we shall be glorified with Christ. In Toronto, Canada, God used me in leading an intelligent Jew to become a Christian brother. I can not take the time to relate to you at any length this most interesting incident. I had several private interviews with him in the basement of the church house. When I opened the New Testament I said you people reject this hook and yet in the first chapter Matthew Levi gives the ances­try of Joseph, the reputed father of Jesus, and shows that Joseph stood in the line of the Kings of Judah, and was heir to David's throne, and as Jesus was born after Joseph married his mother, He was legally the son of Joseph, and heir to David's throne, as your own prophets predicted the Messiah would be. I turned over to Luke's testimony and showed him that Jesus was David's seed his son according to the flesh by his birth of Mary. That he fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Messiah. That he was of the right tribe, the tribe of Judah, of the house of David. Born at the right place. I showed him how Jesus entered at the door of his own prophecies, and fulfilled them. That he even predicted the overthrow of the city of David, forty years before its fulfillment. That it is now recorded on the pages of history. Step by step we went over the testimonies, until he expressed his convic­tion of the claims of Jesus of Nazareth. We then studied together the second chapter of Acts. I shall never for­get the expression on his face, when he read "Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles, men and brethren what shall we do"? I said they were Jews. You are a Jew. They were believers, you are now a believer in Jens. The inspired preacher said, "Repent and be bap­tized every one of you, an the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit". I said you want to make sure work here. Take your time, and read carefully the Acts of Apostles, and you will see for yourself, that men believed, repented and obeyed Christ by baptism into his death in becoming Christians. He did this, and. I had the pleasure of taking his confession and baptizing him into the saving name of Christ. Should I meet him again which would be a great joy to me, and ask him "Bro. Silverman, what do you think of the New Testament?" I am sure he would answer: "It is a wonderful book. Years ago it found mc out in the world in cold unbelief, rejecting my precious Saviour. What you taught me from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, led me to believe and love the Lord Jesus. What I learned from Acts of Apostles, showed me how to perfect my faith, to put on Christ, and become a child of God, and in all the years since I have made it my guide hook. It has taught me how to behave myself in the Church of God. I am still reading the word. I have been reading the revelation of Jesus Christ to John. True I can not understand it all but my soul feasts upon the wonderful visions which John saw, and which assure u of final victory, and peace in the place where God and angels live".

I have now called your attention to this "great Book of the Past, the Present and the Future", the Book of God.
Some years ago a saintly man in New York City, realizing that the end of life's journey had come, called his daughter, and said, will you bring the book and read to me. She replied "which book father"? He had a large library, He said "THE Book, there is but one Book, bring the Bible". She sat by the bedside of a dying father, and read as best she could, with her heart breaking in sorrow, the fourteenth chapter of John, "Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also". She turned over to the twenty first chapter of Revelations and read of the new Jerusalem coming down from God. She saw the end had come. He reached out his hand, and said, "that is the book my dear, I com­mend it to you. Fifty years ago, it led me to my Saviour. It has been my guide, and comfort in life, I want it to be my pillow in death". The daughter raised the head of her sainted father, and placed his Bible beneath it, and he breathed his last, with his head pillowed upon the precious promises of the Book.

"Blessed Bible, how I love it,
How it doth my bosom cheer,
What hath earth like this to covet?
O what stores of wealth are here.
Man was lost, and doomed to sorrow.
Not one ray of light, or bliss
Could he from earth's treasures borrow,
Till his way was cheered by this.
"Yes, I'll to my bosom press thee,
Precious word I'll hide thee here,
Sure my very heart will bless thee
For thou ever say'st " good cheer" .
Speak my heart and tell thy ponderings,
Tell how far, thy rovings led,
When this book brought back thy wanderings,
Speaking life, as from the dead.
Yes, sweet Bible I will hide thee Hide thee, richly in this heart,
Thou, through all my life, wilt guide me And in death, we will not part,
Part in death? No, never, never
Through death's vale I'll lean on thee,
Then in worlds above forever,
Sweeter still thy truths shall be".