It is a very perplexing thing to many, both in and out of the church, that so many differing doctrines are taught from the Bible; and many have concluded that the Bible must be rather indefinite and that it lends itself to the support of almost any theory. "They all prove their doctrines from the Bible, and they are all good people," is a very common verdict. The implication is, it does not matter so much what you believe, if you are only "good" and sincere. Now, almost any preacher can indeed "prove" (or do what commonly passes as "proving") his doctrine from the Bible. But there is a vast difference between preaching a "doctrine" and then "proving it from the Bible," on the one hand, and preaching the Bible as your doctrine, on the other. "I charge thee," said Paul to Timothy, "preach the word." Not a theory that can be propped up by various and sundry fragments of the word but the word itself. Whether we can harmonize the statements of the word or not; whether we can systematize them or not; at any rate and by all means, "Preach the word!" The man who takes up a portion of scripture, shows its setting in the context, brings out its thought, illustrates and emphasizes it as [76] the need may be without changing, diminishing, adding thereto, explaining away--that man is doing the best preaching.

      April 29, 1905.

[TAG 76-77]