The social, financial, governmental, religious and moral condition
of the present time have been portrayed in the book we call the
Bible. The coming of a special class called "rich" men as a
particular characteristic of this age, the revolt of labor, and its
cry against the wrongs of capital, were all set forth in the epistle
of James, nigh two thousand years ago, with an accuracy that is not
to be explained on natural grounds. So absolutely unnatural is it,
that it is perfectly safe to say--these things are not such as a man
_could_ write if he _would_.

That the book is not to be explained on natural grounds is evident
from the fact that it is not a CONSTRUCTION, but a GROWTH; not an
ORGANIZATION, but an ORGANISM, growing up from Genesis to Revelation
like a tree from root through trunk and branch to leaf and fruit.

Each book of the Bible will be found on examination to stand related
organically to one another; and that each occupies its necessary and
sequential order.

In _Genesis_, you have the beginning of things, the germ and outline
of everything afterwards revealed.

_Exodus_ gives the redemption by blood of a people foreseen and
covenanted in Genesis, their deliverance by the hand of God from the
power of the king and the dangers of the land.

In _Leviticus_, the redeemed people draw nigh to God by virtue of
the blood of sacrifice and find access to the presence of God
through the intercession of a priest.

In _Numbers_, this blood-redeemed people are seen on their journey
to the better land; we read of their trials, their temptations,
their unbelief, their backslidings and continual moral failure by
the way, and the never-failing grace and love of a covenant-keeping
God who leads them in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night.

In _Deuteronomy_, the people have the way over which they have come,
and the dealings of God, rehearsed to them, and are instructed and
prepared for the land whither they go.

In _Joshua_, the _second_ generation (which stands always for
regeneration) gets into the promised land.

_Judges_ tells how, after being blessed with all covenant blessings
in the covenant land, the people fell into a state where every man
did that which was right "in his own eyes."

_Ruth_, the Gentile woman, becomes the bride of a Hebrew Lord; and
the covenant promise of God concerning Israel goes straightway down
from a Gentile mother and a Hebrew father towards the throne which
is set up