IT is no argument with a skeptic, yet it is so encouraging to a Christian, that in noticing what may be considered pledges of the success of Christianity one grand fact stands out most clearly—Omnipotence is on its side.
This is our security and our strength. Modern infidel philosophy may utter its blasphemies in the colleges and universities, skepticism may prosecute its subtle schemes in society, and, as the consequence, our ranks may be thinned by the desertion of pretended friends; the faith of many of the sincere may be shaken by the severity of the conflict; our adversaries may institute more powerful organizations, and employ far greater talent than we can command; humanly speaking, Christianity may seem doomed to perish; but it is nevertheless safe in the hands of One who is able to protect it, and who will cause it ultimately to prevail.
“In estimating our strength,” says one, “we must not look at that which is seen only, at the array of talent and wealth and influence ranged on either side—we must look to the invisible helpers of the faithful, the horses and chariots of fire which surround the church, as to the eye of his servants they appeared to surround the prophet of old; we must remember the omnipotent arm of which prayer lays hold; we have only to pray, and that arm will be moved, and a power will be called into exercise which will baffle the skill and the might of our adversaries, and render our cause triumphant.” The deluded skeptics and sophists may sneer at our weaknesses, and talk contemptuously of the “expiring of Christianity,” and of “Jew-stars now gone out;” but our King reigns.
“He who has fought the battles of His church during centuries past, lives to fight her battles still.” His vainglorious adversaries can not contend successfully against Him. He sits in the heavens and laughs at them; He holds their best schemes in derision. Ps. 2:4. Tho far distant, and invisible to them, His ear is open to our prayers; His eye watches the conflict; and in due time He will come forth with great power, and clad in the robes of His imperial majesty. The sound of His voice, as in days of old, will give courage to His people, but strike terror into the hearts of His foes; and “while their exultation will be followed by their overthrow, our feebleness will prove to be the prelude of our victory.”
In these days of unsettlement and uncertainty among men, a deeper study of the Word, combined with fervent prayer, will tend to increase our confidence in the triumph of Protestant Christianity.
Whatever sneering sophists may vauntingly affirm about the “expiring of Christianity” and “the passing of the Bible,” let us thankfully remember that the wonderful progress of the Gospel message during the past decade tells most nobly that an almighty Power is leading it on to certain victory. The triumph of the right will soon appear. “The morn will break, the dawn of peace is nigh.” “All other religious systems are indeed tottering, because there is no life in them; but simple, Protestant Christianity, even amid the storm and earthquake of nations, is striking deeper into thousands of humble hearts, which are preparing for conflict and for victory.” “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” God will not leave Himself without a faithful host of witnesses in these cloudy days of doubt and mysticism.
It is the short-sightedness of man which leads him to suppose, from the objections with which skeptics obscure the light of God’s Word, that that Word no longer exists as the guide of mortals; but, as William Landels truthfully said, “as surely as the winds disperse the passing clouds, and we see that the stars are not blotted out, but are shining still in their serene heights, lighting the traveler on his lonely way, and guiding the mariner in his course over the pathless deep, so surely shall the objections with which Christianity is assailed be dissipated, and that star of the world’s hope be seen shining with an ever-increasing brightness in its mystical night, guiding not the sages alone, but inhabitants of every land, to lay their offerings, and pay their homage, at the feet of the world’s Redeemer, there to find that heart’s ease after which they have been panting so long, a solace under all their sorrows, and the supply of all their wants.”
The billows of error, superstition, and infidelity have dashed against the Bible for a thousand years; but they have only shown, on the one hand, the impotency of their fury, and on the other, the impregnability of the foundation against which they have broken.
We have no fear for the Bible. It can not be damaged. It can not be shaken. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Word of God shall not pass away.
It may be assailed by objections which we can not always satisfactorily refute; clouds may surround it which our reason can not penetrate; and we may even hear some songs of triumph wafted from the skeptical camp, where they are exulting over what they call its defeat; but we will feel confident that that exultation is premature, and that it will be speedily followed by wailing. We will be able to say, with another: “I can not answer all of your objections; but I have tried this Word, and felt its power. It must be true, for it has done for me all that it promised, it has satisfied all my longings, and relieved me of my load of wo; it must come from God, for it has led me to Him; and being the Word of truth, and being the Word of God, I know it can not fail.”
“Tho the tempests of man’s wild unrest
Have raged around this Book, and all the power
Of human intellects that would not bow
Before the Man Christ Jesus—ay, and all
The stronger powers of darkness have been joined
To hurl Him from His place—He stands to-day
Unmoved, unchanged, within the reach of all,
With outstretched hands and tender voice, and calls
To us who far off in the shadows grope
For light: ‘I am the Way, the Truth, the Life.’”