Standing Firm for Bible Truth
By PHŒBE A. MINER
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: How often are we pained to hear the wicked by whom we are surrounded on every hand, and even many, very many of the professed followers of the “meek and lowly Jesus,” scoff and sneer and heap contumely upon some of the plainest doctrines of the Bible, such as the holy law of God, Bible baptism, &c., merely because those Bible truths do not suit the depraved minds of this “wicked and adulterous generation.” They claim to have grown so much “weaker and wiser” since the Bible was given to man that they assume the right to discard any portion of it they please, and substitute in its place some man-made traditions. Sometimes it does seem too hard for the true disciple of Christ to stand and hear the truths that are nearest and dearest to his heart ridiculed in such a manner. But how cheering to his heart to look within that old and widely-controverted book, and read the cheering promises left on record. It does seem sometimes as though there were passages spoken directly to us who live in this eventful era, when the great drama of time is drawing to a close, and God’s people are “repairing the breach,” and “restoring paths to dwell in.” Take for instance the following: “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings; for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation.” Yes, dear brethren and sisters, the sinner’s day is coming. Now they may chant their siren songs, and utter the peace-and-safety cry, and scoff at God’s law, and his coming to judge the world in righteousness, and dream not that their characters are passing the grand review in the court of Heaven, and their feet stand upon the brink of destruction. And if you caution them to repent and get ready to meet the Lord, they will ridicule the louder, and cry, “On with the dance, let joy be unconfined.” And so they sail along to the vortex of destruction, unmindful of their danger, until, alas, they will wake to the full sense of the dread reality of their awful condition. But then, not till then will their scoffing and laughter cease. But then, in its place, will arise, amid the tumult and confusion of that day of anger and wrath, prayers mingled with tears and cries and wailings and groanings; but all in vain; the golden hour of mercy is past, forever past, and God’s ear is no longer open to their cries, and in dread, unutterable despair, they flee to rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of him who sitteth upon the throne. I pray that when that “day of days” dawns upon us, the writer and the reader of this may be found “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” and may share in the immortal glories of Heaven, and reign with Christ forever. PHŒBE A. MINER.