es of the
regenerate life. Do we not know how modern progress and discovery have
even put new meanings into many English words, so that one must be in
"the spirit of the age" in order to comprehend them?[8] Thus {179}
likewise, even in the work of verbal criticism, it is essential that
one possess the spirit of Christ in order to translate the words of
Christ.

As to the question of the "inerrancy of Scripture," as the modern
phrase is, we may well pass by many minor arguments, and emphasize the
one great reason for holding this view, viz.: If it is God the Holy
Ghost who speaks in Scripture, then the Bible is the word of God, and
like God, infallible. A recent brilliant writer has challenged us to
show where the Bible anywhere calls itself "The word of God."[9] The
most elementary student of the subject can, with the aid of a
concordance, easily point out the passages which so describe it. But
we dwell on the fact that is not only called _o logos tou theon_, "_the
Word of God_," but _ta logia tou theou_, "_the oracles of God_." This
collective name of the Scriptures is most significant. We need not
inquire of the heathen as to the meaning which they put upon the words
as the authoritative utterances of their gods; let the usage of
Scripture make its own impression: "What advantage then hath the Jew?
or what is the profit of circumcision? Much every way; first of all,
that they were intrusted with _the oracles of God_" (Rom. 3: 2, R.
V.).[10]

This comprehensive expression is very helpful {180} to our faith. When
critics are assailing the books of the Old Testament in detail, the
Holy Spirit authenticates them for us in their entirety. As Abigail
prayed for a soul "bound in the bundle of life" with the Lord, so here
an apostle gives us the books of the Law and the Prophets and the
Psalms bound together in one bundle of inspired authority. Stephen, in
like manner, speaks of his nation as "those who received the _lively
oracles_ (of God) to give unto us" (Acts 7: 38); and Peter says, "If
any man speak let him speak as _the oracles of God_" (1 Peter 4: 11).
And not only this; the same apostles who submitted to the authority of
the Old Testament as the oracles of God, themselves claimed to write as
the oracles of God in the New Testament. "If any man," says Paul,
"think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that
the things that I write unto you are the _commandments of the Lord_" (1
Cor. 1