The Nail in the Sure Place

One phase of the overturning that has been going on throughout the world is a questioning of the Bible by those who consider themselves modernists in philosophy, literature, and general thinking. Why, it is asked, should the literature of the Hebrews, consisting of historical accounts, poetry, dramatic dialogues, essays, and epigrammatic precepts, be accepted by the modern world as divinely inspired for the guidance of daily living? Why should even the comparatively brief records of the New Testament be considered canonical, while many other similar writings are regarded as apocryphal? Why should not the records and the literature of the ancient Egyptians or Chinese be deemed of equal inspiration? For an answer to these questions, one who understands how Principle governs man needs only to point to the fruitage of the acceptance of the Old Testament and the New Testament as the inspired Scriptures.

The test of inspiration is demonstration. The reason why the Bible continues to guide the living of an increasingly large part of humanity is that the Hebrews, or at least the real thinkers among them, discerned enough of absolute Principle to put it into practice more than other nations of the ancients. With the Hebrews peculiarly there was a real expectation that the Christ, the Savior from every form of imperfection, would be manifest to them. In other words, they were eagerly expecting the sureness of Spirit, the true stability of Life, to take the place of the flux of discords in ordinary mortal affairs. This ideal they stated with splendid variety of language in both their histories and their prophecies, because it was continually active in their thoughts. Finally, then, the Christ was indeed manifest in their experience, in just the way that was right for their time and circumstances. Through all of their struggles with materiality suggesting itself as desirable and real to them, the inspiration of one intelligent Principle, one all-powerful God, was present as with no other people of ancient times, because of their earnest turning in the right direction. In proportion as they actually relied on the one ever loving Principle, they were successful in proving spirituality; and in proportion as they failed to depend on the true God, they found a further fight against materiality necessary.

Earnestly looking for the rulership of divine intelligence to stabilize their own government, they tended to outline that the Christ would appear to them as a person, a great king and successor of the prophets who would maintain perfect peace and joy for all with absolute equity. When any of their kings or prophets did show more than ordinary goodness, they thought of these as at least prefiguring the Christ, and celebrated their gladness in chronicles, poetry, and further prophecy. As an example of this prefiguring of the kingdom of the Christ, it is interesting to compare the twenty-second, the thirty-sixth, and the thirty-seventh chapters of Isaiah with the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of II Kings. Here we see that Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, was one of those who by considerable real consecration to Principle prepared the way for the full coming of the Christ. Of him Isaiah declares: "Thus saith the Lord God of hosts. ... I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: and I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house."