Edward Hoare

“ In His sure Word of prophecy our heavenly Father told us what He would do, and the desolate hills of Palestine bear witness that He has done it. We may long to see them clothed once more with the vine and the olive, and we may profoundly pity their lawful proprietors, who look on their lawful home—once so beautiful, but now so desolate! But yet we cannot look even on that desolation without thanksgiving, for it is an evidence to all thinking men of the certain truth of God’s inspired Word. ”

“ And when the Sadducees put a difficult puzzle on the subject of the resurrection, our Lord Himself silenced them with the words, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” (Matt. xxii 29.) And were they not all right? Shall the finite sit in judgment on the infinite? the created on the Creator? the man of to-day on the God of all eternity? And are we to doubt His revelation because we cannot fathom the depths of His wisdom nor the hidden mysteries of His being? Nay, rather, are not those very depths witnesses to the divinity of His revelation? ”

“ I propose to call the evidence of an unwilling witness, and to ask the scoffer himself to bear his “testimony to the truth” against which he scoffs. There is no better evidence than that which is given unwillingly—than that of a man who is put into the witness-box in order to prove one thing, and when closely examined is compelled by the force of truth to prove the opposite. Now as a general rule the scoffers desire to dishonour the Scriptures; they ridicule its statements, and deny its inspiration. ”

“ We get out of depth directly, and are like people who cannot swim. For how can the human mind, for one moment, expect to solve the mysteries of the deep things of God? How can it aspire either to fathom its depths, or to scale its heights? Think for one moment what man is, a little creature on this little ball of earth, here for a few years, and then passing away for ever. ”

“ I am not now speaking of those who delight in magnifying difficulties, and whose only object in reading their Bible is to find out something at which they may cavil; but I am speaking rather of thoughtful men who respect religion, and are not opposed to truth; who have never set their face against the Gospel; and to whom it would be a real cause of heartfelt thanksgiving if they were able to receive, in the simplicity of faith, the great salvation revealed to them in the Word of God. They have no wish to be unbelievers; their hearts are not set against the truth ”

“ It is impossible to believe that it is the result of design in our scientific men, for such an idea would indeed dishonour science. It is equally impossible to believe that the agreement was the result of chance or accident; for there are far too many points, both in the history and prophecy, to render such accidental coincidence possible. ”

“ We have a rock under our feet which nothing can shake. We have facts which cannot be disproved, and an accumulation of evidence which is not to be found respecting any other book in the world. But we must not let our weapons remain locked up like old armour in some baronial hall, but we must have them out, and use them with vigour. ”

“ That beautiful bow, the token of the covenant, is formed by the reflection of the sun from unnumbered millions of minute drops of falling rain. Each drop is in itself a mere speck, a nothing, falling rapidly, but shining as it falls; and all these millions of falling drops combine to form the one beautiful arch, which remains perfectly still, and bridges the interval between earth and heaven. So these two Sacraments are maintained throughout the world by the faith and piety of millions of insignificant and short-lived individuals, each one undesignedly fulfilling his own little part ”

“ So in America there is not much fusion between the European races and the negroes; but there again we must remember that there is the almost impassable barrier of the difference of colour as well as the slave curse on Canaan. But in ordinary cases there is always fusion, and when there is no such barrier the races soon amalgamate. In our own country, for example, there are Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans; but who can distinguish them? We are all merged into one race, and the distinction of our nationality is totally lost. ”

“ We put, as it were, Shem, Ham, and Japheth into the witness-box, and the result of their testimony was that Noah was inspired, and the Bible true. Such a subject as that has a tendency to lose power through the vastness of its extent. Our reading is not sufficiently wide, nor our minds sufficiently large, to enable us to take in the whole. We are dependent, moreover, on scientific men; and it is a strange thing, but a fact, that those who talk most of science are generally the least disposed to receive the conclusions of scientific men, when those conclusions differ from their own. ”

“ The Bible has been compared to a river in which a child may wade, and an elephant swim; by which is meant that it is full of practical truth so plainly revealed that a little child may rejoice in it, while at the same time it is full of truth so deep that the loftiest intellect of man is very soon out of its depth in the study of it. ”

“ While, therefore, we grieve over the Jew, and long to see, not only the nation safe in Palestine, but the individual safe in his own Messiah, we consider it no small gift in these sceptical days that we have him living amongst us as one of a separate people, and so bearing an unconscious testimony to the truth and inspiration of the prophecies of God. ”

“ But, instead of science being opposed to the Scriptures, we are quite prepared to call in science as a witness to its truth; for science is the study of the creation of God, and it would be indeed strange if His own works were at variance with His Word. So we will turn now, if God permit, to one of the great results of modern scientific discovery, and see what testimony it bears to the truth of the Pentateuch. ”

“ If he add that on that account he cannot believe, I altogether dissent from his conclusion; but as to the existence of difficulties he is undoubtedly right. We, who believe, know perfectly well, and fully admit, that there are things in divine revelation which we are altogether unable either to explain or understand.
Think, for example, of the divinity of our blessed Lord and Saviour, and the perfect union of a divine and human nature in His one sacred person. I am not afraid to state plainly my firm conviction that no human intellect can explain it. ”

“ We see what we have to do, and we do it. We take our place in the train, we go on board the ship, we send our telegram, we eat our food, and we move our limbs, without ever endeavouring to solve the mysteries which underlie all that we are doing. Now all I ask is that men should act on the same principle with reference to the Gospel. There are, as I have said, difficulties, and if you never act until they are solved, a weary time you will have to wait. But there is also a plain, simple, clear word of invitation; there is a great salvation prepared, presented, and proclaimed. ”

“ If the judgment be certain, so also is the salvation. If the minister of wrath be sure to fulfil the Word of judgment, so also is the blessed Saviour perfectly sure to fulfil the promises of life. If the law condemn with infallible certainty, so also does the Gospel proclaim that the claim of the law is satisfied in the great propitiation by the Son of God; so that any one, even the least and most unworthy of His people, may peacefully rest in the certainty of His never-failing Word, and abide in perfect peace, and perfect safety, in the perfect truth, and never-failing covenant of God. ”

“ If that be granted, we can afford to be scoffed at; and if that be ours, we should be stirred in the very depths of our soul to fresh energy as the witnesses for Christ. The scoffer himself is a witness to Him, inasmuch as he is a living, speaking, visible proof of the fulfilment of the prophetic Word. But it is not so that we must bear our testimony. ”

“ I believe it is agreed by all parties that they are Semitic, or from Shem. So that the result is that poor Canaan has been enslaved by both his brethren—on the west by Japheth, and on the east by Shem; and however deeply we deplore the woes of Africa, and however earnestly we should arise as one man to urge our rulers to use their powers to put down the accursed trade, we must look on the fact of its existence with reverent wonder, and learn from those miserable slave gangs a most solemn lesson as to the abiding truth of the prophecies of God. ”

“ Canaan. There is something inexpressibly awful in the words respecting Canaan, and they are full of instruction respecting sin. They show what an awful thing sin is in the sight of God, and how superficial is man’s estimate of its guilt; for here is a whole race laid under a solemn curse in consequence of the sin of its head. As Adam brought a curse on the world, so Ham brought one on Canaan. The curse inflicted in that case was bondage, and the prophecy was that Canaan should be a servant of servants to both his brethren: i.e. to both Shem and Japheth. And now look at the fulfilment. ”

“ For when we have such a prophecy, so full in its prediction, and so clearly proved by its fulfilment to have been inspired by God, we are bound by every principle of allegiance to Him to listen to His counsel and act on His warning. If we believe His Word, the least we can do is to be on our guard; and if God has predicted scoffers, we ought to be prepared to meet them. This is the application which the apostle Peter makes of his own prophecy, and the passage is a remarkable instance of the application of a prophecy by the prophet who was employed to give it. ”

“ If it were all so shallow that any young man could wade in it without wetting even his ancles, might we not then believe that it came from some shallow mind no deeper than his own? If it contained no mysteries, might we not begin to doubt whether it really came from a mysterious God? ”

“ Do they know of any other people that was ever so completely removed from its home, that was ever so effectually dispersed amongst the nations, that has been kept so distinct, that has endured such reproach and persecution, and that, notwithstanding all, has been so long preserved? ”

“ But now, as the Jews are witnesses to one class of prophecy, so are the scoffers to another; and while we grieve for the poor men, and most heartily desire to see them saved with the great salvation, we may be at the same time thankful for their evidence, and may accept their scoffing is an unanswerable testimony to the prophetic truth of the inspired Scripture. ”

“ But now I am about to call witnesses, in the examination of whom we do not want the help of science; for in their case there are no scientific difficulties. Their evidence is within reach of us all, and if we choose we may test it for ourselves. ”

“ In some there are old churches that have existed for centuries, and in some churches of modern formation recently called into being through colonization and missions; and yet, though the two Sacraments are so perfectly simple that there is nothing in themselves to spread or perpetuate themselves, wherever you go you find them. Place and space have made no difference. Go to Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, it makes no difference; wherever you go there you find God’s two Sacraments essentially bound up with the Christianity of the people. ”

“ Consider well the five facts; test them both by history and the statements of modern travellers; and I cannot doubt for one moment that the conclusion of any thinking and intelligent man must be that the history of the Jewish people has been ordained of God, and that the Scriptures foretelling it were inspired by His Spirit, I cannot imagine how it is possible to avoid the conclusion that it is His hand which has ordered all in His sovereign providence, and His Spirit which has so clearly and so unmistakably foretold it all in His Word. ”

“ But, whether there are or not, my point is that the difficulties themselves are “witnesses to the truth of the Word of God.” The Bible says, plainly and repeatedly, that there are things “hard to be understood,” and, therefore, if I were to meet with nothing of the kind, and if everything contained in St. Paul’s Epistles and the other Scriptures were perfectly plain, the only conclusion at which I could arrive would be that those Scriptures had not given a true description of the fact. ”

“ Think of Europe as the home of the sons of Japheth according to the Scriptures, or of the Aryans according to the men of science. And may we not appeal to any one who will take the trouble to look around the world at this present day, and ask whether this power of spreading is not one of the most peculiar and exceptional features of the European family? Ham and Shem are not spreading anywhere ”

“ He who has reduced those fertile hills to desolation, cannot He equally desolate the soul, and reduce the poor ruined heart to a similar condition of barren hopelessness? And will He not do it if His great salvation be neglected? I know that it is the fashion to believe that He is too merciful to punish ”

“ What physician, or what scientific philosopher, can explain how the dead shall be made alive? Whenever it is done it must be done by some power of which man knows nothing, so that the resurrection of the dead is something which, to the knowledge of man, appears impossible.
Then again, in conclusion, look around on all the sin and misery of the world. We know that it is explained in the Scriptural account of the fall, and that there is a remedy provided in Christ Jesus. But there is something inexpressibly appalling in the facts. ”

“ But if people prefer prophecies of a later date they shall have them; for time makes no difference to truth, and the inspiration of the Scriptures extends through its whole length.
We find that they have been driven from their country, and can no longer inhabit the land which is their own. Now what did the prophet Isaiah say? “Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” ”