The Word of God.
"The Word of God." The infinite Father has spoken two great words to his intelligent family. One word is nature. "The heavens declare his glory," etc. The other word is Christ. He is the Logos. The latter word is specially addressed to fallen humanity, and is a soul-redeeming word. In relation to this Word the following things may be predicated. He is—
I. THE WORD OF ABSOLUTE INFALLIBILITY. Conventionally, men call the Scriptures the Word of God. Mere traditional believers assert their infallibility. The best, however, that can be said concerning that book is that it contains the Word of God. It is not the Divine jewel, but the human chest. Christ is the Word itself, absolutely true, the Bible. He is the Word. By him every word, whether oral or written, written in whatever form, language, style, or book, is to be tested, whether true or false. "No man hath seen the Father at any time:" nor Moses, or the prophets, or the evangelists, but "the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him." Let us, therefore, reject all words, wherever we find them, if they agree not with the spirit, character, and aim of Christ.
II. THE WORD OF EXHAUSTLESS SIGNIFICANCE. There are faculties and possibilities in him, ideas, purposes, and susceptibilities in him that will take ages upon ages without end fully to develop. "In him dwells all the fulness of God." In this he meets the law of mind, which bids it ever to search after the new and the fresh.
III. THE WORD OF ALMIGHTY POWER. The character of a word is determined by the character of the mind that utters it. Weak minds utter weak words; strong minds, vigorous words. The words of some are as empty as the wind; others are as vigorous as electricity; they shatter the mountains and shake the globe. Christ, as the Word, is Almighty. He has not only created Christendom, but by him were "all things created."
IV. THE WORD OF UNIVERSAL INTERPRETABILITY. Even the written words that make up what we call the Bible are frequently uninterpretable. Hence their renderings and meanings are constantly fluctuating, and often contradictive. But here is a word that stands forever—"the same yesterday, and today, and forever." This Word is a life. A life a child can interpret; and the greater the life of a man, the more generous, truthful, loving he is, the more readily a child can read and understand him. Hence no life is so interpretable as Christ's life.—D.T.