March 24

My word. - Isaiah 55:11.

AS we are the creatures of God, and as he hath made us reasonable creatures, it is natural to suppose that he would give to us a revelation of his mind and will concerning us. Without this we cannot walk so as to please him, or obtain a knowledge of his approbation, upon which all our happiness depends. In the Holy Scriptures God has made this revelation, which is emphatically designated the Word of God. “My word,” says God. Abundant evidences establish the divine origin of the Scriptures-evidences derived from various proofs, and proofs so convincing that a man must have closed his eyes not to perceive the force of them. “Holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” All we have met with in the Scriptures constrain us to say, “This is the finger of God.” We have here prophecies, precepts, promises, admonitions, the achievements of the best of men, and the convictions of the wisest of men. We have internal evidence in the purity and dignity and consistency of its contents. We have external evidences in the numberless miracles openly performed in the presence of enemies, who would have gladly denied them if they could. We have prophecies, many of which have been fulfilled, and others which are fulfilling under our own eye; and the establishment and spread of his cause by means which could never be considered adequate to the production of the result without a divine interposition and agency.

And how delightful is it, in a world of uncertainties and suspicions, of conjectures and errors, to find something concerning which we may say, This is truth; this is something upon which we may rely, firm and secure; and here we have something upon which we can depend, with more assurance than upon the continuance of the earth and heaven, for our Saviour says: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.”