The Scriptures | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 5, 1871

The Scriptures.

A NATION must be truly blessed, if it were governed by no other laws than those of this blessed Book; it is so complete a system that nothing can be added to it, or taken from it; it contains everything needful to be known or done; it gives instruction and counsel to a senate; authority and direction for a magistrate; it cautions a witness; requires an impartial verdict of a jury, and furnishes a judge with his sentence; it sets the husband as lord of the household, and the wife as mistress of the family, tells HIM how to rule, and HER how to manage; it details honor to parents, and enjoins obedience to children. It prescribes and limits the sway of the sovereign, the rule of the ruler, and authority of the master; commands the subject to honor, and the servants to obey; and promises the blessings and protection of its Author, to all that walk by its rules; it promises food and raiment, and limits the use of both. It points out a faithful and an eternal Guardian to the departing husband and father; tells him with whom to leave his fatherless children, and in whom his widow is to trust. Jer. 49 : 11. It teaches a man how to make his will; it defends the rights of all; and reveals vengeance to every defrauder, overreacher, and oppressor. It is the first book; the best book; and the oldest book in the world; it contains the choicest matter; gives the best instruction; and affords the greatest pleasure and satisfaction that ever was revealed. It contains the best of laws and profoundest mysteries that ever were penned. It brings the best tidings, and affords the best comfort, to the inquiring and disconsolate. It is a brief recital of all that is past, and a certain prediction of all that is to come. It settles all matters in debate, resolves all doubts, and eases the mind and conscience of all their scruples. It reveals the only living and true God, and shows the way to him; sets aside all other gods, and describes the vanity of them. In short, it is a book of laws, to show right and wrong; a book of wisdom, that condemns all folly, and makes the foolish wise; a book of truth, that detects all lies, and confutes all errors; and a book of life, that shows the way from everlasting death. It is the most compendious book in all the world, the most authentic, and the most entertaining history that ever was published. It contains the most ancient antiquities, strange events, wonderful occurrences, heroic deeds, unparalleled wars. It describes the celestial, terrestrial, and eternal worlds; and the origin of the angelic myriads, human tribes, and devilish legions. It will instruct the most accomplished mechanic, and the profoundest artist. It will teach the best rhetorician, and exercise every power of the most skilful arithmetician; Rev. 13 : 18; puzzle the wisest anatomist, and exercise the nicest critic. It corrects the vain philosopher, and confutes the wisest astronomer. It exposes the subtle sophist, and makes diviners mad. It is a complete code of laws, a perfect body of divinity, an unequaled narrative; a book of lives, a book of travels, and a book of voyages. It is the best covenant that ever was agreed on, the best deed that ever was produced; the best will that ever was made, and the best testament that ever was signed. To understand it, is to be wise indeed; to be ignorant of it, is to be destitute of wisdom. It is the magistrate’s best guide, the servant’s best directory, and the young man’s best companion. It is the school boy’s spelling-book, and the learned man’s master-piece. It contains a choice grammar for a novice, and a profound mystery for a sage. It is the ignorant man’s dictionary, and the wise man’s directory. It encourages the wise, and promises an eternal reward to the excellent. And that which crowns all is, that the Author is without partiality, and without hypocrisy, “IN WHOM IS NO VARIABLENESS NEITHER SHADOW OF TURNING.”—Life of Elias Smith.