Parish Papers by Norman Macleod
page 39 of 276 (14%)
page 39 of 276 (14%)
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through faith in Christ, advancing the kingdom of Christ, labouring
for Christ and keeping _His_ commandments--in one word, that whole life of the Christian towards God and man, every portion of which is permeated by Christ as the sunlight fills the atmosphere, can never be separated from the morality of the New Testament. Nor can we any longer rely upon Old Testament facts, or on anything there revealed regarding God, as distinct from what could have been discovered without such a revelation, if our faith has been shaken in the facts and the characters of the New Testament. He who can reject the Christ of the New Testament, must necessarily reject the God of the Old; and he who cannot rely on the apostles, cannot possibly rely upon the prophets. All must be given up, and the Bible become a mere curious record of falsehood. 6. Is this all? Enough one would think! But can we even fall _back on God?_ What evidence has any man of the existence of a living personal God, stronger than what he possesses of a living personal Saviour? Can _any_ revelation of God during _the past_, and recorded in history, be received as worthy of credit, if _this_ alleged history of Jesus is rejected as unworthy? If the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not the only living and true God, where is the true God to be found? If Jesus neither knew Him truly, nor truly revealed Him, who can do either? And when, moreover, we have thus lost faith in the character of Jesus and of His apostles, from what better evidence of moral character or moral design on earth can we henceforth reason upwards as to the moral character of a Divine Being? In what position do we thus find ourselves? The Church of Christ must be given up as a great falsehood, a huge idolatry, a society of weak, |
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