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In writing to Timothy the apostle said, “I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, preach THE WORD:” and in another place, he says, “Study, O Timothy, to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing THE WORD OF TRUTH”—2 Timothy 4: 1-2; 2: 15. This was a solemn charge—a charge before the two most exalted, wise, intelligent, holy, glorious and powerful, beings in the boundless universe. An apostolic charge, uttered in the presence of God’s Spirit, imparted to Paul and Timothy, by Jesus Christ, to preach and rightly divide the Word of Truth, so that God might approve him as a good workman. Here, then the thing to be preached and “rightly divided” is THE WORD OF TRUTH. But what is that Word? Will the reader accept the definition offered by one of the prophets of Jehovah? Isaiah says, it is “the law and the testimony,” and that there is no light, or knowledge, in those who speak not according to it—Isaiah 8: 20. The law of Moses is a part of “The Word,” because it is the morphosis, form, or “representation of the truth,” by which believers of the promises made to the fathers of Israel, were instructed as by a schoolmaster into the faith—Romans 2: 20-28; Galatians 3: 24. Paul preached the law when he preached the word; not, indeed, as Theologists preach the word, raining down fire and brimstone upon sinners; but as declaring the things contained in the law representative and affirmative of the sufferings of the Christ and the glory that shall follow his resurrection: thus he said before Agrippa, “I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.” Men cannot preach “the Word of the Truth of the Gospel” without preaching Moses and the prophets; for “the testimony for Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” and Moses was a great prophet. Paul declared nothing else. The exposition of the writings of Israel’s prophets as partially and limitedly fulfilled in Jesus, and hereafter wholly to be accomplished in his second advent mission, constituted the apostolic preaching of the word. They were predicants of the law and testimony of God concerning his kingdom and the name of Jesus his anointed. Therefore, saith Paul, in addition to what he said before Agrippa, “I come to you in Corinth declaring the testimony of God”—1 Corinthians 2: 1. He says, he did not come to them “with excellency of speech or of wisdom”—such wisdom and oratory as the Greeks delighted in, whose wisdom “is foolishness with God,”—he did not blend their foolish wisdom with God’s testimony, as some were beginning to do; * (See next page)“for,” says he, “I determined to take notice of nothing among you, except Jesus Christ, and this a crucified one.” He paid no regard to their wisdom or its dogmas, but introduced an entirely new system of doctrine among them, which it had not entered the heart of their “philosophy and vain deceit” to dream of—a doctrine which taught the setting up of an imperishable kingdom and empire on earth, which is to rule all nations under the administration of the King of the Jews, even Jesus, and of those Jews and Gentiles associated with Him, who shall believe what God has promised concerning it, recognise his right to the throne, believe the things concerning his name, be baptised into him, and thenceforth be faithful unto death. He taught this; and that this indestructible dominion under which all nations shall be blessed, shall not pass from one generation of rulers to another, but shall be held for ever by those promoted to its glory, honour, and power, as its establishment, thereby necessitating their resurrection from among the dead to immortality. Did it ever enter the heart of Socrates, Plato, or any other of the Greeks, to conceive of immortality of body on such principles as these? Nay, it was foolishness to them, and derided as the ignorant speculation of a wandering Jew. It was “new doctrine”—entirely new—more new to them than the gospel of the kingdom and age to come advocated by us by speech and pen, is to this generation to which it is almost unknown, though as old as the heavenly oracles of the Blessed God.

* Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and others of “the Fathers” as they are called by the apostasy, attempted to accommodate the truths and facts of revelation to “the wisdom of the world,” or philosophy of the Greeks. This is highly commended by Clemens in the first and sixth books of his Stromata, in which he represents that a knowledge of it is almost indispensable to an understanding of the gospel, and exhibits it as a revelation from God, and a law and rule of justification to the Gentiles, as the scriptures of the prophets were to the Israelites under the Mosaic law. “We cannot err,” says he, “in saying that all things that are necessary and useful to life come from God, and especially that the philosophy given to the Greeks as a peculiar covenant, is the foundation of that of Christ.”—Stromata lib. vi. P. 648. “The law to the Jews, but philosophy to the Greeks until the advent of Christ, when all were called into the Church by the teaching of faith.” P. 650. “Before the advent of Christ, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks in order to justification, and still subserves the piety of those who found their faith on demonstration; for it led the Gentiles to Christ as the law did the Hebrews, and prepared the way for that which is perfected under Him.”—Stromata lib. 1. P. 282. “Origen, the disciple of Clemens, adopted this theory, and followed it in his speculations, treating the dogmas of the Greek philosophy as a key to the history and doctrines of the scriptures, and employing them, to solve the mysteries of the divine administration. He introduced accordingly into his theology a great number of false, absurd, and impious, conjectures and dogmas, which obscured, adulterated, or set aside the truth, and formed emphatically another gospel; and he was followed by a vast crowd of disciples and imitators for several ages. See Mosheim’s de rubus Christ, anta Constant., sec. Iii. Pp. 604-629. Dupin Biblioth.Nova. tom. 1. pp. 190-224. “Thus within a little more than a century of the death of the last apostle, did the ministers of the church begin to neglect and depreciate the scriptures, and adopt that wisdom by which the world knew not God as a more efficacious instrument of leading them to salvation.” Lord’s Exposit. Apoc. P. 112. It was not a hundred years after John’s death, but contemporary with the apostle’s ministry, that these preachers of another Jesus and another gospel began their work of corrupting the simplicity that is in Christ. They gave the apostles much trouble, being the Judaisers on the one hand, and the men of false science on the other; the former, enjoining circumcision and observance of the law as well as belief of the gospel and baptism, for salvation; the latter, overthrowing the faith by commingling it with the dogmas of the Greeks about immortal souls, Elysium, Tartarus, and a host of similar absurdities, too tedious to mention. It was to correct the errors, coming in like a flood upon the churches from these two sources, that the New Testament Epistles were written. Had men continued faithful and mindful of that “certain word” which was first delivered to them, the four testimonies, Acts, and Apocalypse, with Moses and the prophets, would have been amply sufficient to make wise to salvation; but seeing the errors have taken root, and exist in great force till this day, the epistles are indispensable to our emancipation from their dominion.

“Preach the Word,” then, because it contains the testimony which God has given concerning the kingdom, and all things related to it—preach the law and the testimony, for if men believe not Moses and the prophets’ writings, how can they understandingly believe the words of Jesus; for “all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning him”—Luke 24: 44. But little comparatively has been fulfilled that is written in those records respecting the Christ. The Jews, blind as they are, see this; and, therefore, it is because the Gentiles in their ignorance claim more for Jesus than is yet accomplished in him, become a cause of the rejection of his Messiahship by Israel. Thus a counsellor who knows not the law is worse than none.

But the workman who preaches the word is to divide it rightly. No workman is approved of God who doth not do this. He is to “study,” to divide the word of truth rightly. It requires study, and much study, too, or its right division cannot be discerned. If this be neglected, the preaching or writing will be mere confusion, and the word quoted unintelligible. The hearer or reader must study as well as the speaker or writer, or the subject will be obscure to him, no matter how lucidly presented. There is a right division, and a wrong division of the word; and no division at all. The absence of division is the almost universal characteristic of popular preaching. Textualising under “three heads” is not dividing the word of truth at all, because it is not preaching the word. Neither is itemising dividing the word. By itemising, we mean the reduction of a theory to items; such as when an “evangelist” says, “the gospel consists of three items—facts to be believed; commands to be obeyed, and promises to be enjoyed.” This is true neither in theory nor division. It doth not touch the word; therefore, the workman is not approved.

To rightly divide the word of truth is, first to study it without bias, or subjection to uninspired authority, or antiquity. Attend to what is written, as a child listens to a story. Study history, and ask questions, and be thankful for all the information you can get, even if you have to pay for it. While you are engaged in this pursuit, do not imagine that you are a workman. It is not easy to become a workman in such an age as this. The great names in theology, so much applauded by the world—a world that has been “wondering after the Beast” for more than twelve centuries—were not even apprentices; they were students of the classics and systems of divinity, not students of the word. If they had been, they would never have written such foolishness as passes current with their names. No; it is the result of much time and labour to become adequately proficient for a right division of the word. Men who do not understand the prophets, have no scriptural pretensions to workmanship in the word. They can neither preach it, nor divide it. When a man comes to understand the gospel of the kingdom, believing and obeying it, he has then qualified himself to lay the foundation of faith in others. Let him go on to perfection. Let him dive into the testimony, and let it dwell richly in him, with all wisdom. If he have ability to state intelligibly what he understands, then let him work away, as unto God, and not to man. Let him search out, and apply the testimony to the Covenants of Promise; to the territory; to the subjects; to the inheritors of the kingdom; to its throne and king; to his humiliation and exaltation; to the nations; to the mystery of the Name; to the Gentile fellowship of the mystery; to the identification of his Majesty, and so forth. Here are topics to which the Word of Truth must be distributed, or “rightly divided,” and he who can do this work most efficiently, is the workman that has least reason to be ashamed before God, however much he may be slighted or reproached by men.

Now, where are we to find such preachers and dividers of the word of truth? They are like comets in our heavens for multitude! Let the reader choose a clear dark night, and go forth and count them! Under these circumstances—circumstances in which there is such a famine of scriptural intelligence—what must be done by those who are unable for themselves rightly to divide the word of truth? Let them combine for the support of a paper which appears to them best able to do it. If they know of any periodical better qualified for the work than the Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, let them subscribe for it with such a liberality as will compensate its editor for the time, labour, and material expended for their everlasting benefit. Such a teacher in a neighbourhood would not only be of service to individuals, but, seconded by their endeavours, would be a witness for the truth against the apostasy there. It would supply them with knowledge they could not elicit for themselves in a lifetime; and knowledge is to faith, what light is to the eye. “The people perish for lack of knowledge,” says Jehovah; therefore knowledge should be prized as life itself: for “this is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent”—and they only know God and Jesus, who know the testimony they have given. But more of this anon.