In visiting, a short time since, in a town in the north of England, I had occasion to call to see a person in a back street in a district with which I was not familiar. Not being sure of my way, I addressed a boy whom I saw standing with a basket of clothes, and asked him if he would kindly tell me the way to “James Street.”
“The second turn on your left,” said he. I thanked him and moved on. But when I came to the second turn on my left. I found it was not James Street at all.
“How strange!” thought I, “that one who seemed to know the locality so well, should set me astray; and yet he spoke with such decision as though he were perfectly sure of the truth of what he was saying.
I paused, and seeing an intelligent looking man coming toward me, I said to myself, “Perhaps he will be able to guide me.” “Pray, sir, can you tell me the way to James Street” “Oh!” said he, “you are in the wrong direction altogether. You must go back again, and when you have passed three or four streets on your right, you will see James Street up on the corner of the house right before you.”
This seemed satisfactory, so I at once retraced my steps, looking out eagerly for the promised notice. But alas! there was no such street to be found, and I was again brought to a pause, feeling it not a little tiresome to be thus driven up and down by the conflicting opinions of blind guides. I certainly did long for competent authority to direct my wandering footsteps into the right way; but I almost despaired of finding it.
At length, not liking to be baffled in my search after the true way, I accosted another quiet, sober, intelligent looking man, and, I suppose with a certain tone of weariness, said, “Please, sir, can you tell me the way to James Street?” “Why,” said he, “you are turning your back upon it.” “Oh, dear,” said I, “how dreadfully tiresome. You are the third person from whom I have sought guidance. The first told me to go yonder, and turn to the left. The second told me to go right back and turn to the right; and now you tell me I am all wrong and must retrace my steps. Whatever is a poor ignorant stranger to do in the face of such conflicting opinions? I cannot, for the life of me, understand how men will undertake—and with such cool confidence, too—to give guidance when it is manifest they are wholly incompetent. If I were asked the way to any place with which I was not thoroughly acquainted, I should, unhesitatingly and frankly, own my ignorance, and tell the enquirer to seek out a competent authority. But for men, who are wholly ignorant, to undertake to guide their fellows, is, in my judgment, not only most silly but positively unkind.”
“Well,” said my intelligent looking friend, “I am actually going to James Street, and I shall be happy to shew you the way.” “Ah,” thought I, “this is something like the thing. It does seem as though I had, at last, found out a competent authority. Here is a man who is actually in the way himself, and surely be must know it.” His manner, too, was assuring.
There was nothing of the flippancy of self-confidence about him; but the calm, quiet dignity of one who seemed thoroughly and practically acquainted with what he was saying.
Still, having already been set astray by two blind guides, I confess I felt considerable diffidence in committing myself to this new authority, lest he should prove not a whit more competent than those who had gone before him. Still as he said that he himself was actually in the way, I thought I might cautiously commit myself to his guidance. I thought of the words in Heb. 13, “Obey those guiding you... considering the end of their conversation;” and I followed my new guide.
I then observed, with much interest, that the boy to whom I spoke first of all, had set me astray not exactly by positive error, but by misplaced truth and defective information. “The second turn to the left” was right enough so far as it went; but he ought to have added, “and then the first to the right.”
“Just so,” mused I, “there is the way in which people are constantly misled. They get partial views of truth, in place of the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And not only are they misled themselves, but they mislead all who are foolish enough to listen to them. Here am I, tossed about and driven hither and thither by ignorant guides; and I have been thrown just as much out of the true way by partial truth as by palpable error.”
Well, at length my new guide conducted me to the very source from whence he had derived his authority. He conducted me to it, and put me in personal connection with it. He shewed me, as it were, the written word—the grand authority for all. No more error now; no more partial truth now, no more human testimony now. I was at the source, I read for myself, I got the truth; and all the blind guides and conflicting opinions in the world could not move me. I now knew for myself where James Street was and had no further need to look for human guidance.
The thoughtful reader will be at no loss to see the moral application of the foregoing simple narrative. It is of real importance, at the present moment. Never was there more urgent need of keeping close to that one grand and paramount authority—the voice of holy scripture. No human language can possibly set forth, in suited terms, the value of the full, clear, competent, because divine authority of the word of God. “It is written” is a sentence which every christian man, woman, and child should seek to have engraven on the very tablets of the heart. We can move on with a firm step and a peaceful mind, when we have that high authority for our position and our practice.
No doubt, there must be the power of the Holy Ghost to give energy to the new man in treading the path indicated by the written word. Our blessed Lord and Master, our divine Exemplar, did all His works by the power of the eternal Spirit; but He did them also by the direct authority of the written word, and never acted without it. “it is written” was the motto of His whole career from first to last. He was ever the obedient and the dependent Man.
This is our model. May we study it profoundly! May we have grace to bow down, in all things, to the supreme authority of holy scripture! We are met on all hands, with the conflicting opinions of men, the theories, the notions, the schemes, and the systems of the human mind. Some would send you to the left and some to the right. Some give you partial and misapplied truth; others positive and palpable error. Others again will furnish you with ingenious theories which they have worked out by their own mental efforts; worked out, as they doubtless believe, from scripture; but still it is not scripture but the deduction or conclusion of a human mind drawn from scripture.
Then, again, the amount of positive infidelity abroad in the professing church is truly appalling. The way in which scripture is actually set aside, and man’s thoughts, and reasonings, and conclusions, set up and adopted instead, should have the effect of rousing the Lord’s people, everywhere, to a deeper sense of the claims of the written word. We have but little idea of the way in which the enemy has succeeded in displacing the word of God in the hearts of professing Christians, and setting up a foreign authority instead. How few, comparatively, can be found who acknowledge the absolute authority of scripture in everything. And yet we read that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly finished to all good works.” 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
And, not only so; but the same scriptures can make a child wise unto salvation. The written word meets a little child, and makes him wise unto salvation. It meets a man of God, and furnishes him thoroughly to all good works. What more is needed? “Wise unto salvation—perfect—thoroughly furnished.” Can man add aught to this? Need we betake ourselves to the conflicting opinions of men, to the opposing schools of divinity, to the bewildering traditions of fathers or doctors? No; thanks be to God, His own precious word is quite sufficient. That word is plain, clear, full, powerful, and all-sufficient. It has come to us fresh from our Father’s loving heart, and contains ample guidance for all the details of our individual path, and all the exigencies of the assembly of God’s people wherever convened.
The good Lord be praised for such a provision! What rest for the heart! What stability for the path! What perfect calmness for the spirit! What holy elevation above the thoughts and opinions of men! What full deliverance from human influence, and all the disturbing forces around us! There is nothing like it. A heart that bows down to the authority of holy scripture in all things, and that trusts its eternal stability, spite of everything, is a heart happily free from the bewildering power of “conflicting opinions.” May the reader prove this for himself.