Author’s Preface
Before the entrance of sin, Adam enjoyed open communion with
his Maker; but since man separated himself from God by transgression,
the human race has been cut off from this high privilege. By the
plan of redemption, however, a way has been opened whereby the
inhabitants of the earth may still have connection with Heaven. God
has communicated with men by his Spirit, and divine light has been
imparted to the world by revelations to his chosen servants. “Holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
2 Peter
1:21
.
During the first twenty-five hundred years of human history, there
was no written revelation. Those who had been taught of God, com-
municated their knowledge to others, and it was handed down from
father to son, through successive generations. The preparation of the
written word began in the time of Moses. Inspired revelations were
then embodied in an inspired book. This work continued during the
long period of sixteen hundred years, from Moses, the historian of
creation and the law, to John, the recorder of the most sublime truths
of the gospel.
The Bible points to God as its author; yet it was written by human
hands; and in the varied style of its different books it presents the
characteristics of the several writers. The truths revealed are all “given
by inspiration of God” (
2 Timothy 3:16
); yet they are expressed in the
words of men. The Infinite One by his Holy Spirit has shed light into
the minds and hearts of his servants. He has given dreams and visions,
symbols and figures; and those to whom the truth was thus revealed,
have themselves embodied the thought in human language.
The ten commandments were spoken by God himself, and were
written by his own hand. They are of divine, and not human com-
position. But the Bible, with its God-given truths expressed in the
language of men, presents a union of the divine and the human. Such
a union existed in the nature of Christ, who was the Son of God and
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