The Presbyterian Quarterly Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 Excerpt: ... II. THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. Plain men do not, to make use of a familiar phrase, take the Bible upon trust. It is true they have to rely upon testimony, but they do not accept the Scriptures without warrant. We all have to rely upon testimony in this as in other matters. But the humble reader of God's word may have, and often does have, the most overwhelming and conclusive evidence of its truth. The Bible contains within itself a self-evidencing power that cannot be gainsaid. When this power has once been exerted on any mind, no formal argument, no process of ratiocination whatever, is called for in order to convince that mind of its divine origin and inspiration. It is no mere outburst of poetic enthusiasm that "a glory gilds the sacred page " of which it is declared that it is "majestic as the sun.' Theologians, and sound theologians, have differed widely among themselves as to the value of this internal evidence in the case of the unregenerate; but all sound theologians, it is to be presumed, are agreed that, when the eyes of the soul have been opened by the supernatural operation of the Holy Ghost, that evidence becomes not only valid, but irresistibly cogent. It must be conceded that the precise limits of the word of God might still, nay, must still, be open to intelligent question. Whether, for example, the book of Esther should he included, and the book of Ecclesiasticus excluded, could not be certainly determined by the internal evidence alone. Here the plain reader is manifestly under .the necessity of accepting the testimony of the experts as to what constitutes the metes and bounds of the sacred canon. In this age, when so many have been sufficiently instructed for the purpose, there are few who have received any schooling at all who...