Your ShelfYour Projects

STUDY THE WORD

13%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 24, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 39.

Read the full edition

STUDY THE WORD.

By JOHN W. MCCORD

JOHN W. MCCORD.
  • (San Francisco, Cal.)*
God desires that His children should be so familiar with the Bible and the Testimonies as instantly to detect error, though a supposed angel should declare it unto them. To do this, it is necessary to study deeply the principles of the old landmarks, and not, like the ancient Athenians, constantly be desiring some new thing. Truths we call familiar are often only so in a surface way. They contain precious gems, which diligent study, aided by the Spirit of God, will enable us to discover.
This hunger for something new is the world's hunger, and one of the principal causes of the many isms and creeds in our midst to-day.
Had these souls been willing to allow the truths familiar from childhood to mold their lives, these truths would never have become old, but like the blessed sunshine, or the song of birds, they would be ever fresh and thrice welcome.
God wishes His people to keep time with the Third Angel's Message, and only by so doing can new truths be of any real value to us. The promise is, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin.” This cleansing is in the present tense, a daily experience; and only those living upon this normal plane will be benefited when God by His chosen servant brings fresh manna from His word.
Those living in obedience to every ray of light to-day are having the needful preparation to enable them to stand when the greater conflicts just ahead of the people of God break over them; on the other hand, those giving but partial obedience will find it very difficult, if not impossible, then, to keep step with their brethren. “If thou hast run with the footman, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?”