SIR CHARLES MARSTON has rendered splendid service to the Church in his excellent lecture as reported in the “English Churchman,” 19th February, 1931. When the Higher Critics are attacked on their own ground, by the lovers of truth, they have no ground to stand on, for the more Archaeology is searched into the clearer the historical evidence becomes as recorded in the Bible. We have no doubt but every jot and tittle of the Scripture is true to fact as the facts are stated, and recorded in the Bible. The enemies of the Bible will jump at any straw to make out their own theories, however contrary to the Word of God their speculations may be.
The Biblical account of Creation is assailed and attributed to a process of gradual development which took thousands of millions of years to develop; but the extraordinary thing is that the Higher Critics and Evolutionists differ from each other by thousands and hundreds of millions of years. If even two of them could agree on any known theory, they could claim some advantage, but the Higher Critical Theologian and the Scientists differ so deplorably that any man with the use of his reason will never accept their evidence on the ground of self-complacency.
The Modernist School is only the 20th century’s name for Agnosticism, Arminianism, Socinianism, and Anti-nomianism, all of them combined together, and all in harmony against the Word of God.
Sir Charles Marston says:—”One fundamental assumption of so-called Modernists required the belief (not yet altogether abandoned) that the art of writing was unknown in ancient times, we now know that the art of writing goes back at least four thousand years before Christ, therefore, the Modernist statement was to be regarded as utter nonsense. A remarkable discovery revealed that alphabetical writing goes back to the time of Moses. They were now able to read some of the scripts which had been found, which for a very long time were undecipherable. Thousands of cuneiform clay tablets have been unearthed. The
characters were formed by pressure upon soft clay, which was afterwards baked. Hundreds of these clay tablets have been found in Babylonia, which dated four thousand years before Christ.” Sir C. Marston mentions another remarkable discovery. “It was interesting,” he says, “to record the recent discovery that shorthand was known and largely practised in the time of Christ. Dr. Langdon, Professor of Assyriology at Oxford, brought clay tablets from the city of Kish in Babylonia . . . which gave positive and conclusive evidence that the art of writing was practised four thousand years before Christ. From the tablets it had been clearly proved that the original religion of Mesopotamia was Monotheism (worshipping one God), with a rapid decline to Polytheism (many gods) and belief in evil spirits.” Dr. Langdon, and Dr. Woolley at Ur, and Kish discovered the story of the Flood, and after careful examination by Dr. Langdon, he obtained the date of the Flood as 3,400 B.C. This was the same date given in the Bible. Many of the cuneiform tablets are dated so many years “after the Flood.” Although we need not, yea, must not lay any weight on Archaeology as far as the Word of God is concerned, yet we should be thankful that the very stones are loudly speaking His praise, and even witnessing with us against our adversaries that the Bible is the Word of God in every detail. The witness of two is essential in the courts of human justice against an accused person, but we have the witness of God Himself that the Bible is His own Word, also Prophets and Apostles and all believers, and over and above all these witnesses, we can bring forward “clay tablets” to witness against our opponents that they are deplorably deceived by Satan and led captive at his will to believe a lie, rejecting truth, and thereby rejecting God’s revelation to ruined man! It is most remarkable that all the recent discoveries that have been made in Archaeology have gone against the Higher Critics, but instead of confessing their sinful folly, they have gone almost all of them over to the Evolutionary theory. Satan is changing his ground but not his enmity against the Word of God. How obvious it is that it is Satan that is behind the minds
of the critics. They are born cowards! “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” The circulation of the Bible is on the increase, and the wonderful thing is that it is written almost in all the languages and dialects spoken and known throughout the world. The gold and wealth of this poor generation is largely at the disposal of Satan to carry on his evil designs against Christ, the Gospel, and the souls of men, yet, in the face of all this, the circulation of the Bible is on the increase! Britain alone receives three hundred millions sterling per annum from the sale of strong drink. Last year the national revenue on the sale of tobacco was sixty-three millions sterling! The annual national British income is four thousand millions—staggering figures these, but the painful aspect of all this is that not ten millions of all this wealth goes to the spread of the Gospel, nor anything like it. The few that love to help the cause of Christ in the world are undoubtedly doing their utmost in the face of determined opposition, and although they may be tried and tossed, and cast down, they shall prevail at last.
It will be a glorious day indeed when all the gold and silver of all nations shall be used by kings, governments, and people for the service of Christ, and all the learning of men shall be placed at the feet of Christ. That day may speedily come, but, at any rate, let all who love Christ stand steadfast, faithful, and true to Him, His word, cause, and people, and in the end they shall prevail over all their enemies to the eternal praise of His sovereign grace.
J. M., Glendale.
None who sleep soundly can seriously complain of sleepiness. Sorrow for a slumbering soul is a token of some watchfulness of spirit. But this is soon turned into weakness, as grace in us is too often abused; therefore, our waking must be watched over, else sleep will even grow out of watching, and there is as much need to watch over grace, as to watch over sin.
—Samuel Rutherford