02 - Foreword
Foreword in these days, when so many loose and unworthy ideas of the Bible are fashionable, I am always glad to speak my own word of reverent testimony to it. I believe that the arguments for its divine inspiration are as sound as ever; and my own experience is, that the more I let the Bible speak to my heart, so the more does it prove itself to be the Word of God. To me, the teachings of the Bible are not mere postulates of human philosophy, but "God-breathed" "testimonies" to truths divinely revealed, not humanly discovered. Overarching the whole wonderful revelation I see the inscription, "GIVE EAR, O EARTH, FOR THE LORD HATH SPOKEN" (Isaiah 1:2). Nor is that all; not only has God fixedly spoken in it. He is continually speaking through it, giving the written page an ever-living voice to all who have "ears to hear". Thus the Bible has an ever-contemporary originality; always springing new surprises, revealing new relevances for changing times, and new applications to successive generations of Christian believers. In this connection, it is my persuasion that the Bible is trying to say something fresh to us again today on the deeply important, sacredly sensitive matter of Christian sanctification; and in these studies I ask the reader to listen with me—to catch the accents of a new call to holiness as that living voice from heaven speaks again through the written Word. Let our prayer be, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth".
J. S. B.