True Words for Brave Men | Page 6

which was broken for you." He said,
"This cup is the New Testament in my blood." Is it? or is it not? And if
it is, is not Christ among us now, indeed? Is not that something better
than all the preaching in the world? Jesus Christ, the King of kings--the
Saviour--the Deliverer--the Lamb of God--the Everlasting Son--the
Word--the Light--the Life--is here among us ready to feed our souls in
the Holy Sacrament of His body and blood, as surely as that bread and
wine will feed our bodies--yea--to feed our souls and bodies to
everlasting life. "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and
drink. Come, buy wine without money and without price."

III. IS, OR IS NOT, THE BIBLE TRUE?
"If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?"--JOHN viii. 46.

Is, or is not, the Bible true? To this question we must all come some
day or other. Do you believe that that book which lies there, which we
call the Bible, is a true book, or a lying book? Is it true or false? Is it
right or wrong? Is it from God, or is it not from God? Let us answer
that. If it is not from God, let it go; but if it is from God, which we
know it is, how dare we disobey it?
That God, the maker of heaven and earth, should speak to men--should
set His commands down in a book and give it to them--and that they
should neglect it, disobey it--it is the strangest sight that can be seen on
earth! that God in heaven should say one thing, and a human being, six
feet high at most, should dare to do another!
If the Bible is from God, I say, the question is not whether it is better to
obey it or not. Better? there is no better or worse in the matter--it is
infinitely necessary. To obey is infinitely right, to disobey is infinitely
wrong. To obey is infinitely wise, to disobey is infinite folly. There can
be no question about the matter, except in the mind of a fool. Better to
obey God's word? Better indeed--for to obey is heaven, to disobey is
hell. That is the difference. And at your better moments does not the
voice within you, witness to, and agree with, the words of that book?
When it tells you to care more for your soul than your body--more for
the life to come, which is eternity, than for the present life which lasts
but a few years--does not common sense tell you that? The Bible tells
you to reverence and love God the giver of all good--does not reason
tell you that? The Bible tells you loyally to obey, to love, to worship
our blessed King and Saviour in heaven. Does not common sense tell
you that? Surely if there be such a person as Jesus Christ--if He is
sitting now in heaven as Saviour of all, and one day to be Judge of
all--by all means He is to be obeyed, He is to be pleased, whoever else
we may displease. Reason, one would think, would tell us that--and it is
just want of reason which makes us forget it.
What have you to say against the pattern of a true and holy man as laid
down in the Bible? The Bible would have you pure--can you deny that
you ought to be that? It would have you peaceable--can you deny that
you ought to be that? The Bible would have you forgiving, honest,

honourable, active, industrious. The Bible would have you generous,
loving, charitable. Can you deny that that is right, however some of you
may dislike it? The Bible would have you ask all you want from God,
and ask forgiveness of God for every offence, great and small, against
Him. Can you deny that that is right and reasonable? The Bible would
have you live in continual remembrance that the great eye of God is on
you--in continual thankfulness to the blessed Saviour who died for you
and has redeemed you by His own blood--with daily and hourly prayer
for God's Spirit to set your heart and your understanding right on every
point. Can you deny that that is all right and good and proper--that
unless the Bible be all a dream, and there be no Holy and Almighty
God, no merciful Christ in heaven, this is THE way and the only way to
live? Ay, if there were no God, no Christ, no hereafter, it would be
better for man to live as the Bible tells him, than to live as too many do.
There would be infinitely less misery, less heart-burnings, less
suffering of body and soul, if men followed Christ's