Very important is it for the heart to be firmly established in the certainty of every “Thus saith the Lord.” These are days of research and criticism, when things are not taken for granted because taught by one’s forefathers. Everything nowadays is thrown into the crucible and tested, the most hoary and time-honoured beliefs being treated like all else. The analyst and dissector cannot keep his hands off things; not even the Word of God is too sacred for his fingers. With great pretensions of learning and superiority, the impious critics discuss the Sacred Oracles and audaciously pass their judgment on what the Holy Spirit has written for our learning—those grand old doctrines for which many of our ancestors suffered martyrdom. Ah, these modern deceivers who beguile unstable souls, will one day die, and the Scriptures they pulled to pieces in life may be read at their funeral, and will later condemn them at the judgment (John 12:48).
Satan, however, has not skimmed the cream of scholarship. Along with the irreverent study of the Bible are found pious men in the front ranks of every branch of learning, who prayerfully examine the Old Book, verse by verse, line by line, and word by word; whose conviction of the Divine authorship of the entire Volume is profound. Their difficulty is not to believe the Word, but to disbelieve it! These God-fearing scholars exhort us: “Continue thou in the things thou hast learned and hast been assured of” (2 Tim. 3:14). Let us heed the exhortation and stick with might and main to “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).
There is nothing else for it, but to fear God and trust His Word, and be simple enough to believe it from cover to cover, and confidently proclaim its doctrines. Christ’s blood and righteousness is our plea, and around His Cross we rally. Nothing can shake the Cross nor destroy the peace it gives.
Only the Christian whose faith is in the “more sure Word of prophecy” (2 Pet. 1:19) can be unaffected by all things around, and wear a smiling face and sing, “All, all is well!” Should he be called to pass the “vale of death,” for him it is no “leap in the dark,” or entering upon the “dread unknown.” The Word of God received in faith has shed a clear ray of shining light upon the future, which brightens as the end draws near. The believer’s spirit emerges from the “shadow of death “into broadest daylight, the light of the Saviour’s presence. We shall see Him and be like Him in that day. The far-off glory gleams through the portals of the Heavenly City. Christ has said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35).