In a speech given at Denver, Colorado, on the occasion of the Tercentenary Celebration of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible, Woodrow Wilson, then president of the United States, said: "This Book (the Bible) reveals men unto themselves—not as creatures under bondage, not as men under human authority, not as those bidden to take counsel and command of any human source. It reveals every man to himself as a distinct moral agent, responsible not to men, not even to those men whom he has chosen to be over him in authority, but responsible through his conscience to his Lord and Maker."
He continued: "There are kings upon the pages of Scripture; but do you think of any king in Scripture as anything else than a mere man? There was the great King David, of a line blessed because from it would spring our Lord and Savior. True, David was a man marked in the history of mankind as the chosen instrument of God to do justice, and exalt righteousness.
"But what does this Bible do for David? Does it utter eulogies upon him? Does it conceal his faults and magnify his virtues? Does it set him up as a great statesman would be exalted in a modern biography? No; the book in which his annals are written strips the mask from David, strips every shred of counterfeit and concealment from him. It shows him as indeed an instrument of God, but a sinful man; and the verdict of the Bible is that David, like other men, must one day be judged of God, not as a king, but as a man. Isn't this the Book of the people? Is there any man in this Holy Scripture who is exempted from the common standard and judgment? How these pages teem with the masses of mankind! Are these the annals of the great? These are the annals of the people-of the common run of men.
"And how many souls of men march across its pages: how infinite is the variety of human circumstances and of human dealings, of human heroism and love! Is this a picture of extraordinary beings? No! This is a picture of the common life of mankind. It is a mirror held up for men's hearts, and it is in this mirror that we marvel to see ourselves portrayed."
Sir Walter Scott, broken in fortune and shattered in health, said to his son-in-law: "Bring me the Book." "What book?" asked Lockhart.
"There is but ONE BOOK," was his answer.
Locke, the most acute thinker and reasoner known in two centuries, spent the last fourteen years of his life in constant Bible study. At the end of that time, he said: "It had GOD for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth without mixture of error for its matter."
Sir Samuel Johnson, addressing some young men, said, "Attend the voice of one who attained to a degree of learning and fame, now about to appear before his Maker: Read the Bible every day of your life."
You have heard the story of the African chief to whom an Englishman presented a looking-glass. After viewing himself he dashed it to the ground breaking it to pieces. Why? Because it revealed himself, without flattery! But his action did not alter his features, any more than man's refusal to own THE BOOK as divine can alter his condition. How true the President's words, "It is a mirror held up for man's heart, and it is in this mirror that we marvel to see ourselves portrayed."
In this wonderful Book of books we see, not only ourselves, in all our weakness and frailty, but THE BOOK was given to show forth the Perfect Man, a GLORIOUS PERSON.
From Genesis to Malachi, from Matthew to Revelation, the Person of Christ is the Bible's blessed theme—in type and prophecy in the Old Testament, in history and doctrine in the New, all is redolent with His glorious Person. He is heaven's answer to earth's degradation and sin; God's remedy for man's guilt and ruin; the only Savior who, in infinite love, laid aside His glory and came to this sin-cursed earth to settle once and for all the question of good and evil, to make full atonement for sin, to satisfy every claim of God's holiness, and by His death and resurrection to vanquish every foe, to lead captivity captive, and taking His seat on high to become the object of saving faith.
Reader, let this revelation from God be to you what it was to David: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Psa. 119:105105NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. (Psalm 119:105).
Wander no longer in the labyrinth of reason and doubt, but come into the blessed sunlight of the infallible Word, accept its truths, and make the Savior of whom it speaks your own heart's trust.
Here alone will your weary soul find rest, and your life given you by God be lived to His glory.