p. 4 | The Basis of Our Confidence by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 10, 1910

The Basis of Our Confidence

By C. M. S.

WHEN Paul entered Athens in the interests of the Redeemer’s kingdom, he found the educated Athenians spending their time in either telling or hearing some new thing. The simple message of truth which he bore to them was to them as the babblings of a child, and they asked one another, “What will this babbler say?”

Just so is it now. The scientist and the great educators have evolved new things, into the telling and hearing of which they are throwing their whole lives, and the message of the everlasting gospel founded in the Word of God is to them like the prattlings of childhood. They have found something which to them seems better and greater. From the God of the Bible they have turned away, and in their own language have “brought the Infinite from distant skies to serve humanity.” Following their teachings, the children of this generation are “to lead the race away from cowering beliefs into the larger life of service.”

Says Inspiration, “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” But this generation is trying to do that very thing. They are laying what they consider a foundation much better “than that which is laid;” but the fires of God will prove it of what sort it is. Doubt and agnosticism have made a god of their own and fallen down before it; and because they have not liked to retain the God of the

Bible in their mind, or credit the Bible with speaking the things of truth, God has “given them over” to this “strong delusion.”

Shall these things shake the true child of faith?—Nay, verily. We can say with Job: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and at last he will stand up upon the earth.” Job 19:25. We can say with Paul: “Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.” 2 Tim. 2:19. It is worth all that a man is or can hope to be to have that undying confidence in the Word of God. Friends fail us; our fondest hopes wither like thirsty leaves in the searing winds of summer; our powers decay; the great men of earth go wrong; while all the handiwork of man is crumbling before our eyes. Nevertheless, God is; and because he is, his Word is true, his power supreme, and his purpose concerning us as sure as that he himself is.

The lives of the great men of old have gone out like a whisper in the night; but the Word of our God abideth forever. We have before us constant reminders of the weakness of men; but, if we will but see them, there are all about us just as constant reminders of the greatness and power and endurance of our Father in heaven. He who made the heavens and peopled the worlds with the creatures of his love and care tells us in his own blessed Book that “from everlasting to everlasting” he is God. He tells us that though “all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field” that perisheth, yet the word that has gone out of his lips “shall stand forever.” He declares also concerning himself, “I am the Lord, I change not.” “The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Notwithstanding the fact that every earthly building is undergoing a process of decay and disintegration, he tells us that there is “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;” that the kingdom which he has promised to the ransomed of earth is “an everlasting kingdom.”

On those assurances the soul can rest. Back of them all is the power of the eternal God. They are more stable than the pyramids, more stable than the hills. To them the soul can anchor and not be disappointed. The greatest scientist of this world, the greatest educator this enlightened generation has yet produced, can never build such a foundation as that. The best that men have to offer is but theory, a mechanical invention, having in it none of the divine purpose and infinite love; whereas all that God has done for us, and all that he has laid before us of his purpose, is woven in the loom of infinite love. Earthly love may fade and die out, but God assures us that he has loved us “with an everlasting love,” and while assuring us of that, he is seeking to bind us to himself with his everlasting cable of loving-kindness. If we are discouraged and cast down, then may we know that “underneath are the everlasting arms.” When trouble comes in like a flood, till the very earth seems to tremble beneath our feet, then it is for us to know that “the foundation of God standeth sure.” As he knoweth the stars and “calleth them all by name,” so he knows his children, calls them all by name, knows their frame, and remembers that they are but dust. At the same time “the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered.”

So there is indeed an eternal Rock to which the most storm-tossed can anchor: there is an eternal habitation for the most footsore pilgrim; in the midst of change and destruction there is One who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” The pyramid may become the plaything of the summer breeze, but “the foundation of God standeth sure.” The record of human selfishness will fade from the memory of the redeemed, but the story of Calvary and the triumphs of the cross will be sung by the redeemed as long as God shall live. The plans of men to inaugurate a religion of their own and invent a deity of their own will seem worse than childish fancies when the Lord of hosts shall descend to drop the curtain over the tragedy of sin, and to take out of a faithless world a loyal remnant for the glory of his name. Toward that time we look with the eye of faith undimmed, knowing that “he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” C. M. S.