Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Dearly Beloved in the Lord,

We desire to offer you a few earnest words on a subject which we believe to be of commanding interest and importance; it is this: The divine sufficiency and supreme authority of Holy Scripture and the urgent need of submitting ourselves absolutely to its guidance in all things.

In thus stating our thesis, we would not have you to suppose for a moment that we undervalue human writings in their proper place. Nothing is further from our thoughts. Indeed it would ill become us to speak disparagingly of a branch of Christian ministry so largely used of God in all ages of His Church’s history, and specially in this our own day.

No, beloved, we prize human writings more than we can attempt to say. We receive them as streams from the Fountain Head. Further, we would add that we have rarely met anyone who claimed to despise Christian writings, on the plea of reading nothing but the Bible, who was not crude, shallow and contracted. We might just as well say that we would not listen to a brother speaking to us in the assembly, as refuse to read what God had given him to write, provided we had time to do so. How often has a book or tract been made a rich blessing to the soul, either in bringing one to Christ or building up or helping on in Him! How often may we have read some passage of Scripture and seen nothing in it until the Lord used some paragraph in a human writing to unlock its treasures to our hearts! None of us are self-sufficient. We are dependent one on another. We grow by that which every joint supplies. We need all the “helps” which God has set in the body for our common profit and blessing.

Having said this to guard against misunderstanding and to put human writings in their right place, we return to our special object in this brief paper.

There is but one supreme and paramount authority, and that is the Word of God. All human writings are interesting as references, valuable as aids, but they are worthless, yea mischievous as authority. Scripture is all-sufficient. We want absolutely nothing in the way of guidance and authority beyond what we possess in the sacred canon of Scripture. No doubt, it is only by the Holy Spirit we can understand, appreciate or be guided by Scripture. God may use a human voice or a human pen to help us, but Scripture is divinely sufficient. It can make a child wise to salvation and it can make a man perfect to all good works. See 2 Timothy 3:15-17.

Now, having such a guide, such an authority, what becomes us as Christians — as children of God and servants of Christ? Clearly, to submit ourselves absolutely and unreservedly to its teaching in all things! We are bound by every argument and every motive which can possibly sway the heart, to test everything in which we are engaged or with which we stand associated, by the holy standard of the Word of God, and if we find anything, no matter what, which will not stand that test, to abandon it at once and forever.

It is precisely here that we feel there is such serious failure in the professing Church. As a rule, we do not find the conscience under the immediate action and government of the Word. Human opinions bear sway. Human creeds and confessions of faith govern the heart and form the religious character. Human traditions and habits of thought are allowed a formative influence over the soul. If it be merely a question of personal salvation, profit or blessing, Scripture will be listened to. People are glad and thankful to hear how they can be saved and blessed. Everything that bears upon the individual conditions and destiny will be welcomed.

But the moment it becomes a question of Christ’s authority over us in spirit, soul and body; when the Word of God is brought to bear upon our entire practical career, upon our personal habits, our domestic arrangements, our commercial pursuits, our religious associations, our ecclesiastical position, then, alas! it becomes apparent how completely the authority of Holy Scripture is virtually thrown overboard. In point of fact, the enemy seems to succeed as completely in robbing professing Christians of the real value, power and authority of the Word of God, as when, during that long and dreary period of the middle ages, it was wrapped in the shroud of a dead language and buried in the dark cloisters of Rome. It is appalling when one comes in contact with the actual condition of things among professing Christians, to observe the ignorance of Scripture and the carelessness about it. Nor can any thoughtful person doubt that the latter is the cause of the former. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.” But if the Word of God be neglected and practically ignored as an authority, need we marvel when we find people ignorant of its precious contents?

We have been much struck of late in our dealings with Christian professors, in noticing the little moral weight which Scripture seems to possess. You will rarely meet with anyone who is prepared to start with this one grand point, that the voice of the Holy Spirit in Scripture is absolutely conclusive, that it admits of no appeal, that it closes all discussion. We speak not now of man’s interpretation of Scripture — of anything in which it can be said, “That is your opinion.” We speak only of the written Word of God which we possess and to which we are individually responsible to submit ourselves in all things. God has put His Word into our hands. And He has put His Spirit into our hearts, and by that Spirit we can understand the Word; and we are solemnly bound to be guided and governed by that Word in all the details of our practical career.

It is this we feel imperatively called upon to press home upon the hearts and consciences of our readers. In looking to Him for the theme, we got this answer, “Press upon your readers the sufficiency and authority of Holy Scripture and the necessity of absolute subjection to it in all things.” This we have sought to do, and now we leave it with our readers to consider as before the Lord their personal responsibility in this weighty matter. We would entreat them, as they love the Lord Jesus Christ, to examine in the light of Scripture, their entire position and path, and by the grace of God and for His glory, to abandon at once and forever all that is not in perfect accord with that holy standard. Thus shall their path be as the shining light that shines more and more to the perfect day. Oh! may the true language of all our hearts be, “Speak, Lord; for Thy servant hears.” “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” God grant it, for Christ’s sake.