WE would affectionately entreat our readers to study diligently and give more earnest heed than ever to the word of God. There never was a time when it was more needed. Foundations are being shaken, and a whirlwind of confusion is gathering in the atmosphere; men are claiming to be heard on all hands, and how are their claims to be tested but by the word of the living God? The one who really feeds on the word, whose spiritual taste is thus educated, and his principles formed by it, will instantly detect what is contrary to it, and reject it. That is a remarkable passage in Isaiah 7. (speaking of the prophet’s child), “Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know how to refuse the evil, and choose the good.” This is a true principle. The youngest child fed on what is pure and sweet turns instinctively from what is not so, and does so not from its knowledge of unpalatable food, but from being accustomed to that which is good.
How do we most readily distinguish the voice of the enemy? Is it by listening for it? Far, far otherwise. Habitual familiarity with the voice and words of Christ is the only way of becoming quick in detecting and rejecting what is contrary: “The sheep follow Him; for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers.”
There never was a greater mistake than to suppose that by acquainting ourselves with the details of evil we are guarding against the evil of being ensnared by it. Let us earnestly seek to know from the word the Lord’s path for ourselves — the strait, though narrow, one — and take care to walk in it in simple dependence on Himself. We shall thus be kept clear of every false and crooked path on the right hand and on the left, as it is written, “Concerning the works of men, by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.” (Psa. 17:44Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. (Psalm 17:4).)
We lately met with the following striking illustration of this principle: A passenger on board a Mississippi steamer was having some conversation with the pilot, who mentioned that he had been for twenty years on that line, upon which the former remarked, “Then, of course, you are well acquainted with every point of danger along the whole passage?” “Far from it,” was the pilot’s reply, “but I know where the deep water flows.”
May we, like this man, keep in the right track, thus avoiding the unknown rocks and quicksands on which so many have been wrecked!
M. M. F.