ADDRESS BY MR. GEORGE FORREST, CANADA, AT A BIBLE SOCIETY MEETING.
AS the chief end of man is to glorify God, and the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the only rule to direct us how to do so, we need not go beyond the teaching of the Scriptures in treating this subject. For our Lord and Saviour said to the Jews, and to us as well as unto them: “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they that testify of me.” And in searching the Scriptures to which he referred—that is, the Old Testament—we find Moses in his parting address to the Israelites saying to them, “And these words that I command you this day shall be in your heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” We ought, then, first of all to search the Scriptures for our own personal benefit, so that we may find eternal life: and we can only obtain eternal life through Jesus Christ, who is the Living Word; and we can only gain the knowledge of Him through written word.
It is, then, a most solemn duty, as well as a great privilege, to search the Scriptures, so that “these words” shall be in our own hearts. And when we get the Word of God in our heart we are not to keep it shut up there. The next duty of those who have families is to teach them diligently to their children. And, oh, what a solemn duty and responsibility lieth on us in this respect! If we have the Word of God in our hands and in our hearts it is by the grace of God that it is there, and we are under obligation to Him to hand it down to the generation following, as it was the duty of the former generation to send it down to us. And by the authority of this same Word we are commanded to be diligent in this duty: talking of it when sitting in the house and when walking by the way, when lying down and when rising up; that is, availing ourselves of every opportunity of instructing our children in the Word of God. And when we consider the awful consequences involved in this duty, how intensely earnest should we be in our efforts to teach our children in this blessed Book. Our Saviour gave the commandment, “Suffer little children to come unto me.” But how can they come unto Him if they do not know Him, and they can only get the knowledge of Him in the teaching of this Book; and no parent can shift this duty from himself to another under the excuse that his children are being taught in the Sabbath School, for no matter how efficient the Sabbath School teacher may be he cannot assume the responsibility of the parent, and it should never be imposed upon him. It is a duty and a privilege which every parent should keep in his own hand; for his interest in his child and his duty to God both require it at his hands.
This much respecting those who have families. But in searching the Scriptures we find this question: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” and the question is quite as applicable to young women, and the answer applies equally to both: “By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word.”
Young people are starting out to travel through a world that is full of snares and temptations and dangers, on the right hand and on the left; but if their minds are well stored with divine truth, and they are ordering their way according to it, it will be to them as a light shining in a dark place, or as a voice behind them saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand or when ye turn to the left.”
But there is another duty devolving on those who have the Word of God in their hands. That is obedience to Christ’s command: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Perhaps, since the days of the apostles, there has never been so much missionary enterprise as there is at the present time. And we admire the courage and self-denial of those men who leave the comforts of home life to face the difficulties and dangers to which they are exposed in heathen lands. But what could the missionary do without his Bible? Some one has said: “We can trust to send the Bible without the missionary, but we cannot trust the missionary without the Bible.” But the Bible Society, in whose interest you are here to-night, is doing a great and noble work in publishing the Word of God in so many languages, and sending it to all parts of the world. It has, in the ninety-seven years of its existence, issued nearly 170 million copies of the Word of God; and when we add to that the issues of the American, Scottish, and German Bible Societies, we are amazed at the pile of Bibles that seem to rise up before us. But, after all, what is that among so many? It is estimated that one-half of the people now living in the world have never yet heard the name of Jesus Christ! And yet “there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”
This is, indeed, a great number of Bibles. But when we consider the great number that have been worn out or destroyed every year of the Society’s life, and the constant demand there is for new Bibles even in Bible lands, the number available for new fields is greatly reduced. When we think of that, and of the vast number of our race that are yet to be supplied—400 millions in China alone, and the vast multitudes in all other parts of the world—the magnitude of the work that the Society has before it is truly appalling. But we may be encouraged by the fact that the work of the Bible Society is in some respects like a prairie fire: as it spreads it throws off sparks which light new fires, each in turn becoming a new centre to send out still more; these all spreading and uniting soon burn over all the place.
So with the Bible Society and its work. Every new field that the Bible enters becomes in turn a new centre of influence to throw out, as it were, sparks into other new fields, and thus will multiply the centres of influence until “the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.” This is no idle dream, for the Lord reigneth, and the promise is, that He shall have the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. And the time is approaching when He shall be put in actual possession of this promised inheritance; and by contributing to the Bible Society we can help to bring about this grand result.
The opportunity to do so is a talent given to us by the Lord. May each one of us so occupy it that, when we are called to give our final account, the Master may say unto each of us: “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”