A hundred years ago most of the infidelity and unbelief were outside of the professing church. If a man did not believe the word of God he was not looked upon as a Christian at all; he had his proper place outside the church and was recognized as "an infidel," or "unbeliever."

In our day much of this is within the bounds of the professing church of Christ. Men who are paid by the congregations to preach the word of God, preach that which undermines it. Men who are paid to teach others how to become preachers of the gospel, instil into the young minds committed to them, doubt and unbelief.

In no field is this more apparent than in current teaching concerning the inspiration of the word of God-our Bible. And yet the Scripture claims a unique place. It is either God's word, or it is not. Its claim is, " Every scripture is given by inspiration of God." The man who doubts God's word in one place will soon doubt it in another. The man who refuses the Pentateuch as from God, soon doubts the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Doubts as to Moses soon lead to unbelief as to the Incarnation, Atonement and Resurrection. As our Lord told the Jews-" Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me:for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? " (John 5:46, 47).

God has testified of His word. "Every word of God is pure " (Prov. 30:5)-purified, or refined, like silver is refined in the fire, when all the dross is burned away. The Lord Himself testified to the everlasting stability of every jot or tittle (Matt. 5 :18), or as we would say,"The dot of an i, and the cross of a t."

So pure and refined is every word of the Bible, so carefully selected by the Spirit of God when inspiring the writers of the various books, so completely over-ruled, by God were they in writing them, that an entire argument often turns on a single word, yea, even on a letter. In Gal. 3:16 the immense difference between Law and Grace is shown to depend on one letter-s. In Luke i:47, two letters-my, refute the worship of Mary. She confesses herself a sinner like the rest of us, for she calls God my Saviour.

Surely here are most important truths that are greatly affected by a letter or two. How carefully then should we read the Holy Scriptures, and how particular should we be that no human theories of "dynamic" inspiration (that is, inspiration of thoughts only, and not of words), or any other teaching of unbelief, have place with us for one moment.

Seeing then how every word of God is purified, or chosen according to God's wisdom, and He has given it to us as He would have it, we may well hold fast, love and cherish it, search it, meditate upon it, bow our heart and mind to it, and direct our steps in keeping with its instructions and commandments. Christ is the theme of its pages. Satan ever seeks to overthrow it, that we may be
left as vagabonds, with no aim, no purpose, no compass to guide us, and put back in midnight darkness, groping and crawling as do the denizens of night.

All Scripture centers around Christ. Both Old and New Testaments lead on to Him. Searching and believing them will therefore draw us to Christ, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). F.