Chapter 1—Bible Biographies
The lives recorded in the Bible are authentic histories of actual
individuals. From Adam down through successive generations to the
times of the apostles we have a plain, unvarnished account of what
actually occurred and the genuine experience of real characters. It is a
subject of wonder to many that inspired history should narrate in the
lives of good men facts that tarnish their moral characters. Infidels
seize upon these sins with great satisfaction and hold their perpetrators
up to ridicule. The inspired writers did not testify to falsehoods to
prevent the pages of sacred history being clouded by the record of
human frailties and faults. The scribes of God wrote as they were
dictated by the Holy Spirit, having no control of the work themselves.
They penned the literal truth, and stern, forbidding facts are revealed
for reasons that our finite minds cannot fully comprehend.
It is one of the best evidences of the authenticity of the Scriptures
that the truth is not glossed over nor the sins of its chief characters
suppressed. Many will urge that it is an easy matter to relate what has
occurred in an ordinary life. But it is a proved fact that it is a human
impossibility to give an impartial history of a contemporary; and it is
almost as difficult to narrate, without deviating from the exact truth,
the story of any person or people with whose career we have become
acquainted. The human mind is so subject to prejudice that it is almost
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impossible for it to treat the subject impartially. Either the faults of
the person under review stand out in glaring relief, or his virtues shine
with undimmed luster, just as the writer is prejudiced for or against
him. However impartial the historian may design to be, all critics will
agree that it is a very difficult matter to be truly so.
But divine unction, lifted above the weaknesses of humanity, tells
the simple, naked truth. How many biographies have been written
of faultless Christians, who, in their ordinary home life and church
relations, shone as examples of immaculate piety. No blemish marred
the beauty of their holiness, no fault is recorded to remind us that they
were common clay and subject to the ordinary temptations of humanity.
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