Dear Reader, we want you to accept a little motto for the year on which you have just entered; and, if we mistake not, you will find it a precious motto for every year during which your Lord may see fit to leave you on this earth. It consists of two short but most weighty passages from the divine volume. You will find them in Psalm 119 The first is this: “Forever, Ο Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” (Ver. 89.) The second is this: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Verse 11.
These are, in good truth, golden sentences for the present moment. They set forth the true place for the word, namely, “settled in heaven” and “hidden in the heart.” Nor is this all; they also link the heart on to the very throne of God, by means of His own word, thus giving to the Christian all the stability and all the moral security which the divine word is capable of imparting.
We do not forget—God forbid we should—that in order to enter into the power and value of these words, there must be faith wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost. We would remember this. But our present subject is not faith, nor yet the precious work of the Spirit of God; but simply the word of God, in its eternal stability and its holy authority. We esteem it an unspeakable mercy and privilege—in the midst of all the strife and confusion, the discussion and controversy, the conflicting opinions and dogmas of men, the ever shifting sands of human thought and feeling—to have something “settled.” It is a sweet relief and rest to the heart that has, it may be, been tossed about for many a long year, on the troubled sea of human opinion, to find that there is, after all, and spite of all, that on which one may lean with all the calm confidence of faith, and find therein divine and eternal stability.
What a mercy, in the face of the unrest and uncertainty of the present moment, to be able to say, “I have gotten something settled—settled forever—settled forever in heaven!” What effect, we may ask, can the bold and audacious reasonings of infidelity, or the sickly vaporings of superstition have upon the soul that can say, “My heart is linked to the throne of God by means of that word which is settled forever in heaven?” None whatever. Infidelity and superstition—the two great agents of hell in this very day in which we live—can only take effect upon those who really have nothing settled, nothing fixed, no link with the throne and heart of God. The wavering and undecided—those who halt between two opinions, who are looking this way and that way, who are afloat, who have no haven, no anchorage—these are in imminent danger of falling Tinder the power of infidelity and superstition.
We invite the special attention of the young reader to all this. We would sound a warning note in the ears of such. The present is a moment of deep and awful solemnity. The arch-enemy is putting forth every effort to sap the very foundations of Christianity. In all directions the divine authority and all-sufficiency of holy scripture is being called in question. Rationalism is gaining ground, to a fearful extent, at our seats of learning, and polluting the fountains whence the streams of religious thought and feeling are emanating over the land. Truth is at a discount, even amongst those who ought to be its guardians. We may, now-a-days, behold the strange sight of professing christian teachers taking part at meetings where professed infidels preside. Alas! alas! men who are professed infidels themselves may become pastors and teachers in that which calls itself the Church of God.
In the face of all this, how precious, how weighty is our motto, “Forever, Ο Lord, thy word is settled in heaven!” Nothing can touch this. It is above and beyond the reach of all the powers of earth and hell, men and devils. “The word of our God shall stand forever.” The Lord be praised for the sweet and solid consolation of this!
But let us remember the counterpart: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Here lies the great moral safeguard for the soul in this dark and evil day. To have God’s word hidden in the heart is the divine secret of being preserved from all the snares of the enemy, and from all the evil influences which are at work around us. Satan and his agents can do absolutely nothing with a soul that reverently clings to scripture. The man who has learned, in the school of Christ, the force and meaning of that one commanding sentence, “It is written,” is proof against all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
Dear reader, let us earnestly entreat you to ponder these things. Let us remind you that the one grand point for the people of God, now and at all times, is obedience. It is not a question of power, or of gift, or of external show, or of numbers; it is simply a question of obedience. “To obey is better than sacrifice.” To obey what? The Church? Nay, the Church is a hopeless ruin, and cannot therefore be an authority. Obey what? The word of the Lord. What a rest for the heart! What authority for the path! What stability for the whole practical career! There is nothing like it. It tranquillizes the Spirit in an ineffable manner, and imparts a holy consistency to the character. It is a divine answer to those who talk of power, boast of numbers, point to external show, and profess reverence for antiquity. Moreover, it is the divine antidote for the spirit of independence, so rife, at the present day—for the haughty uprisings of the human will—the hold assertion of man’s rights. The human mind is tossed like a ball from superstition to infidelity, and can find no rest. It is like a ship without compass, rudder, or anchor, driven hither and thither. But thanks be to God for all those to whose hearts the Holy Ghost has interpreted our motto for 1872. “Forever, Ο Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”