name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This
also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns
and hoofs." Psa. 69:30, 31. "Take thou away from me the noise of thy
songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run
down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Amos 5:23, 24. If
the Old Testament insists on obedience to all God's commandments as an
indispensable condition of salvation, so does the New: "Whosoever shall
keep the whole law, and offend in one point, he is guilty of all," James
2:10; "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from
thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should
perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." Matt.
5:29, etc. The Old Testament, as well as the New, teaches the doctrine
of regeneration and sanctification by the Holy Ghost: "Create in me a
clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me," Psa. 51:10.
"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from
all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and
I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you
a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." Ezek.
36:25-27. The Old Testament, as well as the New, denounces
self-righteousness in every form, and teaches men that they are saved
not for the merit of their good works, but through God's free mercy:
"Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart dost
thou go in to possess their land," Deut. 9:5; "Not for your sakes do I
this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and
confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel." Ezekiel 36:32. When
the holy men of the Old Testament so often beseech God to hear and
answer their prayers _for his name's sake_, they renounce all claim to
be heard on the ground of their own merit. Faith that works by love and
purifies the heart from sin--this is the substance of the religion
taught in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This wonderful unity of
doctrine and spirit that pervades the books of the Bible from first to
last, finds its natural explanation in the fact that they were all
written "by inspiration of God."

5. The Bible is distinguished from all other books b