Backbone | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 19, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 44.

Backbone.

ONE thing which Christians, as well as others, need at the present day is backbone. Not a backbone like a ramrod, that cannot yield or bend, but a well-articulated spinal column, which is strong enough to hold a man upright and keep him from being crushed beneath the burdens that press upon him. These are days of easy-going piety; and men are too often ruled by compromise rather than conscience.

Says Mr. Spurgeon: "Oak has given place to willow. Everybody has grown limp. Out of the generality of limpness has come an admiration for it. A man cannot speak a plain word without being accused of bitterness, and if he denounces error he is narrow-minded; for all must join the universal-admiration society, or be placed under a ban, and be howled down."

Now in such a condition of things as this there is special call, not for stubbornness and crustiness, but for a gentle, patient, unyielding conscientiousness and firmness, which anchors the soul to the everlasting Rock, and causes the heart to rest on Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and who will never leave nor forsake us.—Christian.