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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmis d des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^T TfiB BIBLE AM) BY@LiaTieN- BY W. H, SFARSHOTT 3ilontrcal: F. E. GRAFTON. 1882. PR1€E, FIFTEEN CENTS. . ) Entered, according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, by W. H. Sparshott, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture. Primed by S. C. Kyte. 663 Craig Strki.t, Montrkal. > PREFACE. ar one , in the There are in the Bible manifold food for many minds and precept and example for every age. This it is that makes the Scriptures lively oracles, always speaking to the times that need them ; while no one can really study them without hav- ing brought home to his sense, as well as his faith, that, un- der the many authors and styles, there is one Author, one design, throughout. All the history, all the ritual, all the prophecy, all the morality, culminate in One Person, from '' In the beginning" to the last " Amen." Can such unity be found in any other national literature ; above all extending over such an immense period ? Here is the great prayer-book which puts supplications applicable to each and all into our mouths ; here is the pattern for all prayers, and here is the history of the coming of the Comforter who strengthens us to be holy. Here we are shown redemption for our sins, and the means of grace for applying its benefits to our souls. Here is our hymn- book of praise, and here is the glimpse we have of our eter- nal home— Charlotte M. Yonge, Otterbounie, Winches- ter, England. \.. THE BIBLE. ii rriHE Bible is none other than the voice of Him that 1 sitteth upon the Throne. Every book of it — every chapter of it — every verse of it — every word of it — every syllable of it — every /ef/er of it is the direct utterance of the Most High ! The Bible is none other than the word of God ; not some part of it more, some part of it less, but all alike, the utterance of Him that sitteth upon the Throne — absolute, faultless, unerring, supreme !" These are, I believe, the words of an Oxford professor. 1 read them some ten or twelve years ago in Dr. Colenso's work on the Pentateuch, and now quote them from memory. The statements are somewhat extravagant, it must be admit- ted, even if the writer referred only to the original Scriptures ; but it is certain that the Jews regarded the Scriptures in this light, and did not consider themselves at liberty to alter one single letter ; though we have to thank them for adding, in later times, a barbarous system of vocalization, which has been the plague of every student of Hebrew since. A more modern opinion about the Bible may very aptly be expressed in the very words which Lord Macaulay applies to the history of Herodotus. Macaulay says that Herodotus " has written something better, perhaps, than the best history ; but he has not written a good history : he is from the first to the last an inventor. We do not here refer to those gross fictions with which he has been reproached by the critics of later times. We speak of that coloring which has been equally diffused over his whole narrative, and which perpetually leaves the most sagacious reader in doubt what to reject and what to receive." And again : " The great events are no doubt faithfully narrated ; so |)robably are many of the slighter circumstances ; but which of them it is impossible to ascertain. The fictions are so much like the facts and the facts so much like the fictions, that, with respect to many most interesting particulars, our belief is neither given nor withheld, but re- mains in an uneasy and interminable state of abeyance. We know that there is truth, but we cannot exactly decide where it lies." Now the enquiry arises, whether either of these represen- tations is true, or if the truth respecting the position, authority, and claims of the Bible upon us is to be found in some compromise between the two. This is the enquiry which I propose briefly to follow, and I will state why. My theological studies commenced when I was about fifteen. I was at the time a member of a Young Men's Christian Association in which religious opinions, somewhat various and sometimes conflicting, were freely ventilated and discussed. One result to me was that I soon became an ardent controversialist ; and I have a very good recollection of a three hours' discussion on the subject of baptism which I had one evening with a clergyman who is now Bishop of the Transvaal. It is, indeed, with something like amazement that I occasionally recall the self-confidence with which I maintained hastily adopted and half-formed opinions, some of which it is hardly neces- sary to say I, in the course of cime, was led to modify or abandon. But since those early days I have had a consider- able acquaintance with the religious world and with reli- gious beliefs and controversies ; and I have seen some of the bitter fruits of religious dissension, the influence of which upon ■I ■lit %. 7 niv mind has been to f^ivc nic almost as gicat an aniipathy to tontroversy as at the time I have referred to I had tend- ency to it. The fact is. having become settled in my own reh'gious l)ehet". and satisfied witii it. I liave been of late years inclinetl to hold to my own opinions and leave others to en- joy theirs. lUit. wh.atever m\' iiuiination, my jinii^ment as- sures me that this would not be a i)ro[)er course to pursue : and that, though I do not occupy any official position in connection with the religious world, this fact does not relea.se me from the obligation of seeking to inijjart to others what I have been able to gather up by the use of opportunities such as have fiillen to the lot of but few. eve: amongst recognized religious teachers. Moreover, during the three years that I have been in Canada I have become j)ainfully conscious of the prevalence of infidel opinions. es|)ecial]y amongst young men. and I have thought that those who are seeking the truth may be assisted by the considerations wiiich I am about to present. It appears to me that the evidence of the divine authority of the Scriptures is two-fold. Inhere is the nature of the communications themselves, and there arc the signs which accompany their delivery or reception. It was thus with God's demand upon Pharaoh to let Israel go, that they might serve him. No argument was used to prove Jehovah's right to issue such a demand, nor were there any explanations entered into. It would appear that Israel's (iod considered the character of the message to be such that Pharaoh ought to have submitted to it without gainsaying ; but, in response to the representations of Moses, God gave him signs, by which he could, when in the presence of Pharaoh, demonstrate that Jehovah had indeed sent him, and thus leave the Egyptian monarch without any excuse in the event of non-compliance. 8 This was God's usual plan in those early times, when there was no written revelation, notably at Mount Sinai. When Christ came, he did not depart from this ancient method. Some were convinced by his miracles, whilst others were per- suaded by the character of his testimony alone, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded from his mouth. The Samaritan woman with whom he conversed at Jacob's well had no difficulty in discovering that he was a prophet, after a few minutes' conversation with him. The narrative of this interview is most instructive, and throws a flood of light upon the causes of infidelity. The acknowledgment of Christ's messiahship on the part of this woman involved the further acknowledgment that she herself was a sinner — that she had had five husbands, and was then living in adultery. It is fair to assume that only a small proportion of Christ's hearers were guilty of this particular sin ; but it may l)e safely assert- ed that there was not one of them who could acknowledge Christ's claims without placing himself on the same plat- form as this woman. If they were willing to do so, there was an end of contention, because Christ was willing to lift them up out of the mire : he had come for the very purpose. But it is not wonderful, considering the sacrifice of personal pride that had to be made, that many rebelled. It is the same to- day. The Bible not only reveals God, but it shows what man is. It tells us just where we are, and what we are — an unpleasant revelation ; i. u it is not surprising that many should refuse to accept the strongest evidence, and then ask for a sign, as the earlier sceptics did. Now that the written revelation is complete, the evidence from the peculiar nature of the communications is stronger than ever, because there is a unity of testimony extending over long periods. We have now one harmonious whole, one part corroborating and explaining another, and all bearing unmistakable testimony to the fact that '• under the many authors and styles, there is one Author, one design, through- out." Only consider how the facts of Christ's life, as detailed in the New Testament, fulfil the types and shadows of the Old. But we have external evidence also. Take, for exam- ple, the fulfilment of prophecy as one class of signs, and the fruits of Christianity as another. We know what became of Egypt, Babylon, and Tyre, which occupied such exalted positions in the world at the time their overthrow was foretold by the prophets. We know what happened to " Zion the city of our solemnities," and to God's ancient people. As to the teaching of the Bible, it is remarkable how the Bible exposes and condemns every rrupt affection, passion and tendency of the human mind and heart, inculcating at the same time the opposite v" ies ; ^o that, if its precepts were universally carried out, we shou/i — notwithstanding the fact thai the world is but the wnck of a nobler edifice — be almost back in Kden again. A few years ago, after spending an evening at a village inn in the South of England (and I may say that some of the pleasantest evenings of my life have been so spent), I got into a religious discussion with an intelligent farm-laborer, who used to study botany, geolqgy, algebra, and Euclid, was familiar with the English poets, had read the writings of Macaulay, John Stuart Mill, &c. In the course of the discussion he said, 'Jesus Christ said ' Love your enemies': I think that is ridiculous." 1 replied, "It runs counter to your natural tendencies; does it not?" " Yes," he said. " And contrary to the natural tendencies of every other man?" " Yes." " Then," I said, " it must have had some other than a human origin." To this he had no answer. The sublime code of morals contained in the Bible 10 ll: lias drawn forth, and still draws forth, the commendation of professed infidels, and they have often joined with those who said of Jesus Christ, " he is a good man." But it is not pos- sible logically to go so far and no further ; for if he is not the Judge of quick and dead, before whose tribunal all must ap- pear — if he is not the Son of God, and one with God — it is not possible to regard him as a good man at all ; but he was the greatest of impostors. It is not possible logically, I say, to take any middle platform Then the truth of Christianity is proved by its moral fruits. 'Inhere is, it is true, a great deal of coriuption also connected with it ; but no one doubts but this would have existed had Christianity never been introduced, so that it cannot be made responsible for it. It simply represents the extent to which Christianity has been embraced only in name, whilst the good that exists side by side with it — which no one can question is the natural outcome of its teaching — represents the extent to which the truths of Christianity are in practical operation. It has been denied that Christianity is the greatest factor in civilization. If it is not, how comes it to pass that China and India are so far behind European countries, when they were on the road to civilization so much earlier ? Ancient Greece has been held up as an example of civilization without Chris- tianity. It was not so civilized as some fancy ; and there were no elements of unity or continuity. The passions of men were unsubdued, and Greece, like a volcano, was rent asunder by civil wars, which were carried on for many years with a deadliness, a treachery, and a cruelty, anything beyond which I suppose we have no record of in connection with either civilized or savage tribes ; so that Greece destroyed hexself. No more fitting example could be given of the impossibility of men making a satisfactory use of natural advantages unaided by revealed religion. 'I II on of i who t pos- ot the St ap- — it is le was I say, fruits. nected ed had nade ) which le good 311 is the v'tent to leration. ■actor in lina and ey were eece has t Chris- id there ssions of was rent ny years r beyond ion with lestroyed 1 of the f natural But the greatest proof to the individual of the divine au- thority of the Scriptures is practical experience of their power and truth ; and thus it is that, ordinarily, a true christian is never troubled with the question at all. He knows the Bible to be the word of God, just as a man knows the facts of his own life and relitions. He does not concern himself about evidences unless the question is brought before him by objec- tois ; and when the question is thus brought before him, and he is asked for evidence of the divine authority of the Scrip- tures, the probability is that he hardly knows what to say in reply, just as he would hardly know what to say if some one should ask him, " How do you know that you are a living being ?' Having said this much as to the divine inspiration of Scripture in general, I will proceed to enquire, to what extent Scripture is inspired. To put the issue in a few words — Is the Bible the word ot God, or does it simply contain the word of God ? There are in the present day a small party in the Church of England, a much larger party among the Congregationalists in England, and a sprinkling of men amongst other religious bodies, who maintain the latter view. I am speaking of the condition of things in England; my acquaintance with the religious bodies on this continent not being sufficent to enable me to speak with much certain- ty of them. This new school comprises some well known and some certainly very able men. They differ a good deal amongst themselves as to the importance to be attached to Scripture as compared with other writings ; but they would all leave us in uncertainty as to what portions of Scripture are to be accepted as divine truth and what to be refused. They say in effect — " We know that there is truth, but we cannot exactly decide where it lies." rr^TZ 12 Now, does it not at the outset seem very strange that if God should undertake to communicate his mind to man, he should do it in this mixed way, so that nobody could with any certainty discover it ? If one will take the trouble to read the 119th Psalm he will see that this was not the light in "'hich David regarded the Scriptures which were in use in his day. It is, moreover, certain that this is not the light in which Christ and the apostles regarded the Old Testament. They quoted it as the Word of God — as an authority from which there was no appeal. When Christ declared that not one jot nor tittle should pass from the law till all was fulfilled, are we to suppose he was saying anything so meaningless as that what was true would come to pass? He was speaking of certain writings, known to those he addressed as " the law," or " the law and the prophets," and he was maintaining leir validity in every particular. The apostles also quoted the Old Testament as that which was to silence all controversy ; and they claimed the same authority for their own testimony. There is just one exception which proves the rule. I refer to the advice which St. Paul gives on the subject of marriage in I Cor. vii, where he says that for some of his recommen- dations he had no divine command, and, therefore, they were to accept them as his counsel, not the Lord's, though he spoke as one who had the spirit of Christ, v. 40. Can anything more clearly show how utterly at variance the views of the apostles respecting divine inspiration were from the notions of the new school to which 1 have referred, who represent that the writers of Scripture were inspired only in the same way as religious teachers generally are ? Is it for one moment conceivable, if the Old Testament contained a good deal of fiction, and a good deal which is merely the product of oriental ignorance and prejudice, as is 13 alleged, that he who when in the world was " the light of the world " should have left the scene without indicating to his followers what these untrustworthy portions were ? it is a source of the deepest consolation that Christ and the apostles left behind them their oft repeated and unmistakable testi- mony to the inviolable sacredness and unqualified trustworthi- ness of the whole of the Old Testament. But these modern lights are so much better acquainted with the subject ; and though Jesus Christ made the world, he was not so well ac- quainted with the details of the operations as they are ! Let it be borne in mind that the gentlemen to whom I refer are not atheists nor avowed infidels, but those who believe the Bible contains a revelation from heaven ; that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he came into the world to reveal God and to teach the way of life to man. If there were half the contradiction in the Bible that there is in their opin- ions, one might indeed despair of discovering what is truth from it. I will now just notice some popular objections. I do not for a moment deny that there are some difficulties in con- nection with the Bible. He who comes to the study of the- ology with the idea that he will find it so much easier than chemistry, astronomy, physiology, or any other science, will assuredly be disappointed. Notwithstanding that we have the promise of divine assistance, if we seek it, the things of God can be learnt only by the same uphill process as is the conditions of success in all other studies ; and if after years of research, and the removal of many diflficulties, some diffi- culties should remain, this should not prove a stumbling-block, for the same thing occurs in the study of the material world. In this department also there are things which no one can explain or account for by any known law. 14 Many difficulties and obscurities in Scripture arise from inaccurate transcription or translation ; and Mr, Robert Young, of Edinburgh, who has translated the whole of the Bible liter- ally, and from a revised text, goes so far as to say that nine- tenths of the objections of sceptics and unbelievers are com- pletely removed by this new version. We must, however, make some allowance for the fact that this gentleman is commend- ing his own work. But many of the difficulties are created by those who complain of them. Some, for example, arise from the rejection of the supernatural. Now, 'f you start in the study of Scripture with the assumption that nothing has happened or can happen that is at variance with naiural laws, you will meet with difficulties at every step ; but the fault is not with Scripture, but with your assumption. Upon this point I will say more under the head of Evolution. Again, some object to the representations which the Bible gives of God, because they are not in accordance with their notions of what God is or ought to be. If people come to the Bible with the idea that God is nothing but love and tenderness, they will meet with difficulties which can be explained only by the fact that " Our God is a consuming fire," a truth which is as consistently and persistently enforced in Scrip- ture as its great parallel thai " God is love." The Bible re- veals God : it is from it alone that we can get an accurate conception of Him ; but to first arrive at a conclusion as to what God is, and then to complain because the representations of Scripture contradict this hypothesis, is to turn things up- side down. Unbelievers like to make capital out of the divisions amongst those who profess the Christian faith, and they ask, how can the Bible be an intelligible guide when those who profess to submit to its authority differ- so widely? Now, e from Young, ►le liter- It nine- re com- r, make mmend- created e, arise start in King has ral laws, ; fault is pon this Again, gives of r notions the Bible nderness, ined only ' a truth in Scrip- Bible re- accurate iion as to sentations :hings up- divisions they ask, those who J ? Now, 15 these differences prove nothing against the consistency or in- telligibility of the Scripture testimony any more than the fact that two lawyers dispute the interpretation or application of a particular law proves that the statute has not been properly framed. The Christian church is not composed of angels, but of those who are being pn'pired for a perfect sphere. These differ much as to intelligence, knowledge, and devo. tion. God does n Jt force divine light upon any ; but, in the words of another, " the fulness of God wails upon an empty vessel." He dispenses divine light and grace to those who seek the same, and in proportion as they seek them. " \{ thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for un- derstanding : if thou seekest her as silvei", and searches! for her as hid treasures ; then shall thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledire of God." Let it be borne in mind how repugnant divine truth is to the natural heart, and it will not appear wonderful that those who profess to follow it, or even those who truly receive it, should not give it an equally cordial recejition. In the case of Christ's dis- ciples, after they had grasped the fundamental fact that Jesus was the Son of God, how much ignorance, not to say perver- sity, remained I But the divisions in the Church are not so serious as many represent. In many cases they turn upon such questions as Church government, respecting which no very definite rules are laid down in Scripture ; and those who thus differ can and do fully acknowledge one another as Christ's disciples and servants, and frequently co-operate as such. I think I need sa> very little about principles of interpre- tations, as this is a subject which rarely troubles those who read the Bible with the desire to know the mind of God ; though it is a subject of great interest to the theologians who i6 have " an axe to grind," or theories of their own to establish ; just as the preparation of milk for the breakfast table is a subject of great interest to the dairyman, who, having lost faith in nature, believes that milk direct from the cow is inimical to the public health. But if I should lay down any rules, I should simply quote the words of Prof. Riddle, of Hartford, Connecticut : " The Bible is to be interpreted in accordance with the plain historical sense of its words, as determined by the ordinary laws of language. " Read the Bible copiously with the single aim to know the meaning of the writer. Pray God to give grace to accept and apply that meaning when found. This is practically the illumination of the Spirit Begin with the plainer passages, reserving the more obscure ones until greater skill is acquired." As to the canon of Scripture, we can have no difficulty in regard to the Old Testament. The phrase, " the Law, the Pro- phets, and the Psalms," describes the whole of the Old Testa- ment as divided in the Hebrew Bible, the last division in- cluding some other books with the Psalms ; and it was the whole of the Old Testament, and thus divided, that Christ and the apostles attached divine authority to. Two or three of the books of the New Testament have been subjects of dispute. I am quite satisfied with the canon myself; but if any one has any conscientious scruples about receiving the disputed books, let him put them on one side, and accept and practice the teaching of those that remain. The apocry- phal books were not added to the Old Testament and declared canonical by the Latin Church until the Council of Trent in 1545. They were not written in Hebrew, but in Greek. I ,'/ecf aimed at is the same in all, namely, the accurate registration of time. So the Creator formed a number of animals, differing in size, form, intelligence, &c., but remarkably alike in their structure, because the object aimed at in each structure was the same — the performance of the functions of life. As to an analogy be- tween natural operations and the development from inorganic matter to organic, and thence to a living being, there is none whatever. The vitalized egg is the production of two animals equal in all respects to that which the egg ultimately becomes, but in the other case Mr. Huxley is supposing a similar pro- gression and result without a similar cause or starting point. What we have in nature is the regular reproduction of the same animal, and no progression from a lower to a higher type. In this very work Mr. Huxley admits that the oldest remains of man do not take us appreciably nearer to the monkey tribe ; whilst ancient literary remains and the records of history serve to show that tliousands of years ago there were men equal both intellectually and physically to any who are now living. We, of c )urse, know more to-day than peoj)le did a thousand years ago, and Mr. Huxley compares the progress of the himian mind since the revival of learning to the devel- opment of a butterrty from a caterpillar — a comparison based upon the vulgar error that progress in knowledge necessarily means increase in the powers of the mind. It would be about as sensible to affirm, that because the last African explorer knows so much more about Africa than the iirst, he must be a much cleverer man. The development of an animal from an egg is exactly analogous to the production of a plant from seed, if you like ; but in neither case is there anything ana- logous to the " progression from the formless to the formed — from the inorganic to the organic." If these operations prove anything, they prove that that which provides the basis of animal or vegetable life must be equal to the full results of that life ; in other words, that you cannot have an effect with- out an adequate cause. \Vater will rise to its own level ; but according to Mr. Huxley's theory it ought, by means of a series of descents, to rise higher and higher; so that the ultimate result should be an elevation of a thousand or ten thousand feet, though the starting point was the sea level. " Crushing" as this difficulty must appear to an unprejudiced mind, the evolutionists make very light of it ; but even they are obliged to admit two objections, of no ordinary magni- tude, to their theory — objections which for years they have been laboring to remove, but without success. The first of these is the fact — not to go further — that the development of two species from one is at variance with our knowlege of the laws of animal life. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Huxley both wrote works which they published under the high-sounding title of 1 f i 21 ,'re men are now lie did a progress le devel- )n based cessarily be about explorer must be iial from ant from ling ana- brmed — ns prove ; basis of results of feet with- ivel ; but eans of a that the nd or ten L level, trejudiced even they ry magni- they have he first of opment of ege of the )Oth wrote ing title of " The Origin of Species." but all they account for is the origin of varieties. These are traced to " selective breeding," which means breeding exclusively from an animal whose formation is in some respects a depai'ture from other animals of its kind. Mr. Huxley gives some interesting examples of this, and he shows how a six-fmgered and six toed race of men might have been produced ; not, however, by " natural selec- tion," but by arbitrary selection, by means of which the greatest number of differences are pi'oduced amongst animals which are derived from a common stock, as in the case of the horse, the dog, and the pigeon. Return to natural selec- tion, by allowing these animals to become wild, and the ulti- mate result would be, not the increase, but the reduction of their differences. But, to return to the difficulty, different varieties, which are known to have been derived from a com- mon stock, are fertile with one another, and their offspring are so; but this is not the case with different species; so that the natural inference is that they were not so derived, but had separate origins. I will leave Mr. Huxley to state the difficulty in his own words. After expressing the opinion that selective breeding would be sufficient to account for the jr/y7/r///;osing the supernatural. Hence the evolutionists, who ignore the supernatural, have not so much as a theory to account for tlie origin of matter. They do not even profess to have seen " ihe finger-post pointing to the road that may lead to it.'' iiut allow the supernatural, and how is it possible for you to decide where its operations ceased, and at what point or stage natural laws set in? Deny the supernatural, and how can you possibly believe the Bible to be other than a mass of fiction from beginning to end ? What natural law will 26 account for the central fact of the Bible and the very founda- tion of Christianity — the incarnation of Jesus Christ — a man being born of a Virgin ? If we are but the creatures of natural laws, " let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die," and there can be no resurrection from the dead. The evolutionists are to a certain extent consistent, as they ignore the supernatural throughout, but there can be no consistency in holding to such doctrines as the incarnation and the resurrection, and yet objecting to the literal interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis because it cannot be true except by assuming the supernatural. You may say, " here are coal beds the formation of which must have occupied a hundred thousand years, if formed by processes such as are now going on ; and they are just like those which have been so formed." But would not the same argument be equally valid against the Scripture account of the incarnation ? In Jesus Christ people saw a real man whom they could not distinguish from ordinary men, and would it not have been perfectly safe and certain on scientific grounds to maintain that he must have had a human father as well as a human mother ? In short, in order to prove that the literal account of the creation cannot be true, you have first to prove that there is no God — or, if there is, that he has not power to arrest, reverse, and operate independ- ently of natural laws — or that, if He has the power, he has never exercised it. To conclude — ever since the completion of the volume ot Inspiration and the establishment of Christianity, the devices of the enemy have been much more largely employed in attempting to corrupt than to destroy the Bible on the one hand and Christianity on the other. And what the enemy is laboring at with all his might in the present day is, not so much to prove that the Bible has no divine authority, as to M ^ a; throw doubt and uncertainty upon everything that is of vital importance in connection with it ; so that people may be left to suppose they are perfectly free to ahoose a religion for themselves, or to ignore all the claims of religion and wander hither and thither at their own sweet will. In one place, Scripture itself gives us a charter to do as we please, but with one important condition attached : " Rejoice () young man in thy youth ; and let ihy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth ; and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : but know thou that for all these things God shall bring thee into judgment."