CENTUEY^S WITNESS TO THE BIBLE. 



87 



Scripture as it has come down to us were mistaken and unten- 

 able. They failed to show that we have not in the Bible such a- 

 revelation of God in Christ as rightly draws men to Him. 



Moreover, as old impeachments were revived, or new doubts^ 

 were suggested, a counter-process was in progress which has 

 resulted in many fresh vindications of the Bible's accuracy. 

 From the long-buried inscriptions and clay letter-books of 

 l^ineveh and Babylon — from the ancient tombs, and dry 

 rubbish-heaps of Egypt — from excavations in the Holy Land — 

 from old coins and fragments of broken pottery, and in other 

 ways, relics of past ages have been unearthed which have 

 confirmed the correctness of Bible statements. Sceptical critics 

 have been put to discomfiture by excavators and archaeologists. 

 The century has been made memorable by such discoveries as 

 those of the Rosetta Stone (1799 ; ceded by France to England, 

 1801), the Moabite Stone (1870), the Tel-el-Amarna cuneiform 

 tablets (1887), and the engraved code of Khammu-rabi (Am- 

 raphel). The debatable region in which our imperfect knowledge 

 of facts left room for plausible subjective theories adverse to the 

 Old Testament, has been sensibly curtailed. And as for the 

 New Testament, researches like those of Sir W. M. Eamsay in 

 topography, and those of Professor Deissmann in the Philology 

 of the Greek Bible, suggest the confident expectation that, 

 as our knowledge advances, we shall find that this later portion 

 of the Book also rests on undeniable facts, and is no " cunningly 

 devised fable."* 



VIII. Unique influence of the Bible on individuals and peo2)les. 



Lastly, let us briefly call to mind some of the many facts that 

 occurred in the last century which illustrate the unique 

 influence of the Bible in changing the lives and characters of 

 individuals, and nations. Striking instances of the first might 

 easily be adduced from our English homeland. The work of 

 foreign Christian Missions, which so marked the century, would 

 furnish many examples of both. 



Often the study of the Bible with a view to refuting its 

 teaching has issued in changing an opponent into a friend of the 

 Book. To quote but one example. 



In his autobiography the late learned and Eeverend 

 Dr. Imad-ud-din tells us how, among other acts of worship in 

 his earnest search after union with God, he used to spend whole 

 nights in reading the Koran. At length, hearing that his old 



* II Peter i, 16. 



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