Caesar Malan, when traveling, on one occasion, in France, met an infidel, with whom he entered into conversation, and in the course of his remarks, he quoted various passages of holy scripture. The infidel told him it was of no use his quoting from that book to him, inasmuch as he did not believe one word of it; that he should first establish its authenticity.
Malan replied, “Suppose I were to plunge a sword into your body, there would surely be no need of any logical proof that it was a sword; it would prove itself by its effect upon your person.” He then proceeded with the conversation, still quoting from the word of God.
They parted; but the truth of God did its own work. It entered, as the sword of the Spirit, into the heart of the infidel, and cut its way through his infidel system, showing it to be a mass of folly and himself to be a guilty, hell-deserving sinner. Time rolled on, and after many years, Caesar Malan was accosted, in the streets of Paris, by a gentleman who asked him if he remembered having met him in the diligence. He then told him that the word of God had, in very deed, proved itself, in his case, to be the sword of the Spirit, and he now needed no logical proof.
Christian reader, do we not want to quote scripture more after this fashion, with a deep and earnest faith in its divine power, with a full assurance that it is nothing less than the “sword of the Spirit?” Too often alas! we use it as our sword, and instead of doing good, we do mischief.