Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword… We may affirm of the Bible, that he who reads it with attention, will find his own portrait given with so much accuracy, his heart so dissected and laid bare for his inspection, that there will be nothing left for him but to confess that the Author of the Bible knew him better than he knew himself; knew him better than he would have been known by any being who could not read the thoughts and search the spirit. Is there any one of you who has read so little of the Bible, or read it with so little attention, that he has never found his own case described — described with so surprising an accuracy, that he felt as though he himself must have sat for the portrait? When Scripture insists on the radical corruption of the heart, on its native enmity to God, and on all its deceitfulness, is there any one of us who will fail to allow that the affirmations are every way just, supposing his own heart to be that of which the affirmations are made? And when over and above its more general statements the Bible descends, as it often does, into particulars; when it speaks of the proneness of man to prefer a transient good to an enduring; the objects in sight, however inconsiderable, to those of faith, however magnificent; when it mentions the subterfuges of those whose conscience has been disquieted; when it shows the vain hopes, the false theories, the lying visions with which men suffer themselves to be cheated, or, rather, with which, they cheat themselves, who is there amongst us who will venture to deny that the representation tallies most nicely either with what he is, or with what he was — with what he is, if he have never repented and sought forgiveness of sin; with what be was if his nature has been renewed by the operations of God's Spirit? If there be anything like honesty in the mind of the student of Scripture, he must, we are persuaded, be continually startled in his pursuit, in finding his ,own thoughts and motives and designs set in order before him. And if this be true, then, as is very evident, there belongs to the Bible the character which is assigned to it in the words of our text. And though it may seem somewhat extraordinary that notwithstanding the confessed diversity in human character, we should thus make a simple description serve as the moral portrait of countless individuals, you will remember, that practically, all men are alike; the differences are only superficial, so that Solomon could affirm that — "as in water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man." The face in the water is not a more accurate copy of the face of the beholder, than is the heart of one man a copy of any other man's. And, therefore, with all the differences which there may be amongst men, differences in dispositions and tempers, partly from nature and partly from education, we still take the Scriptural characteristic as actually belonging to every one; and holding up this characteristic, we affirm that we hold up the perfect image or likeness of each man or each woman, without a solitary exception; and we boldly make our appeal to every hearer of the Word, and demand of him whether the preacher do not morally affect such an exhibition of him to himself, that that Word may most justly be described as — "a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart"? But, now, there remains a most important question — how comes it to pass that if the Word of God possess this dissecting power, so that it lays man bare and exposes to his own eye all the secrecies of his soul — how comes it to pass that so little effect is actually produced? This is only because the hearers are utterly inattentive; because they give no heed whatever to the statements of the preacher; but go through the business of the sanctuary as a matter of form, in which they have no interest. It is no marvel if to such as these the Word of God should not be as a "sword." They may be said to clothe themselves in that thick armour, the armour of indifference, and though dissection may be going on all around, they ward off from themselves the knife of the anatomist. But there is another class of hearers on whom considerable impression is often made by the preaching of the gospel, who, while they remain in church, and are actually hearkening to the solemn truths of religion, feel an interest in what is said, feel its power, and wish to use it for their guidance; and in whom there seems the best moral promise presented of such an attempt at amendment of life, as would issue in genuine conversion. Are there not some who would be ready to own that sermons have occasionally had on them a mighty and almost overcoming effect; so that they have felt constrained to give full assent to the truths uttered in their hearing, though these truths have convicted them of heinous offences, and proved them placed in terrible danger. If the man thus exhibited to himself, startled with the moral deformity which he has been forced to behold, would strive at once to act on the disclosure, and set about procuring a renovation of his nature, he would be immeasurably advantaged by the spectacle of his own sinfulness — soul and spirit will have been divided by conviction of sin, only to the becoming united in the blessed hope of forgiveness through Christ. But if he contents himself with having heard, and do not immediately and intently strive to act on its requirements, what is to be looked for, but that he will speedily lose all those feelings which have been excited within him, as the process went forward of dissecting the inner man? And then there will be no conversion, though there have been conviction, and that, too, through his own listlessness, his own indifference, and not through any want of truth in this emphatic declaration — "The Word of God is quick and powerful," &c. Now, let us recur again to that very important and interesting matter, the self-evidencing power of the Bible. We send a missionary to a barbarous tribe; he settles down amongst the savages; but he can employ no miracle; he can work no wonders to fix the attention, and win the confidence of his wild auditory. You would think there was no chance of his making any way with these barbarians. He seems to have nothing at his disposal by which the pretensions of Christianity may be substantiated. If he could heal the sick; if he could hush the elements; if he could raise the dead; then, indeed, the wild denizens of the distant land might be expected to give ear to him as a messenger from heaven; but just standing as a defenceless stranger on their shores, what probability is there of success when he proceeds to denounce their ancestral superstitions, summoning them away from idols that they had invested with all the sacredness of Divine, and declaring as the alone Saviour of mankind, a Being who died centuries back as a malefactor? But experience is all against you when you would conclude that Christianity cannot make way without miracle. The simple preaching of the sinfulness of man, and of the sacrifice of Christ, has proved a mighty engine in the hands of the missionary; and though he have done nothing but faithfully deliver his message, making no attempt at supporting its authority by an appeal to external evidence, yet have converts flocked in from the mass of idolators, and a moral regeneration has gone out over the long degraded territory. And what account do we give of this phenomenon? Shall we say that Christianity has been admitted without proof? The matter of fact is, that the gospel of Christ carries with it its own credentials. Wherever it is preached, there is a conscience to act upon; amid all the derangements of humanity, a sense of right and wrong is never wholly extinguished, but even where that nature is most sunken, the principle is in action which applauds the cause of virtue and utters a protest against vice; and which, stirring up forebodings when the mind looks onward to death, witnesses powerfully to our living under a retributive government. Conscience is everywhere man's attribute; therefore Christianity has everywhere an evidence. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. |
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