Do these words seem strange to some of you? I doubt not that they
will: but if they do, that will be only a fresh proof to me, that
the Bible is inspired by the Holy Ghost. Yes, nothing shews me how
wide, how deep, how wise, how heavenly the Bible is, as to see how
far average Christians are behind the Bible in their way of
thinking; how the salvation which it offers is too free for them,
the love which it proclaims too wide for them, the God whom it
reveals too good for them: so that they shrink from taking the
Bible and trusting the Bible, in its fulness; and are perpetually
falling back on heathen notions--the very old heathen notions from
which this psalm delivers us--concerning what God's anger means, and
what God's punishment means; because they are afraid of taking the
words of Scripture literally and fully, and believing honestly the
blessed news, that God is Love.
They try to make God's ways as their ways, and God's thoughts as
their thoughts. But do not you do so. Receive the Bible in its
fulness. Believe that it tells you infinitely more of God's
character and dealings, than you can ever tell yourselves; that
God's ways are not as your ways, nor God's thoughts as your
thoughts, even at their best: but that God's ways are always wider
and deeper than yours, were you the most learned of men; God's
thoughts are always more loving and just than yours, were you the
most holy of men, and that when you have learned all that you can
learn, or that any man can learn, out of the Bible, there will be
still left behind treasures beside, which you have not yet found
out.
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