Through the efforts of earnest men who have appreciated the value of the teaching contained in the Bible, its message of truth has been translated into all the languages of the world. Among peoples who had no written language, the teaching has been given by the invention of signs which would express the sounds of the spoken language. The question at once arises, What is the value of these writings which are so much appreciated as to be read by all the nations on earth?
We have in our Scriptures the result of the deep meditation and prayer of those who are spoken of as holy men; we have also the records of the foresight of prophets who understood national conditions more wisely than the political leaders of the time, and saw clearly what would be the effect upon the nation of the policies in operation. They were able to foretell the future of peoples and countries. An interesting feature of present-day excavations in storied countries is the discovery of monuments, tablets, and other records which corroborate the word of the long-gone prophets. We have, too, in the Bible the revelation of Truth from the seers whose developed insight gave them some understanding of "the deep things of God." Furthermore, we have the most vivid kind of teaching.
Our Master for a time taught after the manner of the rabbis, but there came a time when he almost continually used parables. There remain some of the records of his teachings by conversation, and some sentences from his sermons and public addresses; these records are necessarily fragmentary, but we have every reason to believe that the parables have come to us in their completeness. Dogmatic teaching is likely to be perverted by those who do not understand it, and who alter the form of words into such speech as they do understand. On the other hand, a story that is vividly presented is easily remembered, and even though the listener may not understand its meaning or inferential teaching, he is not likely to alter its construction. Consequently we have in the parables and illustrative stories used by Jesus a form of teaching which in all probability preserves his original statements; and this cryptic teaching is now becoming understood in proportion as men and women follow the example of Christ Jesus in working out such demonstrations as constituted the proof of divine power among his disciples and in the early Christian church.
