e.
But they are both mistaken. The Bible is not one book, but a
collection of books, a slow growth extending over centuries. It has
come to be reverenced not because of any supernormal attestations of
its authority, but because we have found it helps us more than any
other book. The fact that the best part of it was written by good and
serious men, men who were living for the highest they were able to see,
does not necessarily give binding authority to the opinions of these
men. I question whether we should ever have heard of the Old Testament
if it had not been for Jesus, and the New is only a statement of what
some good men thought about Jesus and his gospel at the beginning of
Christian history. Jesus knew and loved the Old Testament scriptures,
but whenever He found a statement therein that jarred upon His moral
sense, He rejected it in the name of the higher truth declared by the
Spirit of Truth within His own soul: "Ye have heard that it was said by
them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall
be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is
angry with his brother without a cause"--and even "without a cause"
seems to have been interpolated in later days--"shall be in danger of
the judgment." "Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of
old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the
Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, Swear not at all, neither by the
heavens, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His
footstool. Let your communication be Yea, yea, nay, nay; for
whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." "Ye hath heard that it
hath been said, Thou shalt love thine neighbour and hate thine enemy:
but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you
and persecute you." Jesus knew what He was doing. In all these
instances He was quoting from the Old Testament, and deliberately
superseding in the name of truth certain prescriptions of the very law
which He said He had come to fulfil. Everyone was taken by surprise at
His daring to do this. Matthew vii. 28, 29, says, "And it came to
pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were
astonished at His teaching; for He taught them as one having (in
Himself) authority, and not as the scribes." No doubt some people
would say to-day that this authority came from His Godh