An Apt Reply | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 21, 1857

An Apt Reply.

A boy was once converted while at sea. His wicked companions began at once to tease and vex him in every possible way, but he stood firm, and nothing was able to move him. At length even some of the officers were so base and unmanly as to endeavor to overthrow his faith. One of them used to send for the lad during the only period he had to read and improve his mind, and then try him with perplexing questions.

Once he asked him where Cain got his wife? Now, mark the wisdom and propriety of the young believer’s reply:

“Sir, I am ignorant. The only answer I can give you is, my God knows where Cain got his wife, and I did not ask him this question when I felt the burden of my sins, but I cried, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

This was the perfection of right reason. No speculative question can trouble a soul convinced of sin. Whether it can answer objections or not, is of no moment. The great truths of duty, sin, punishment, and atonement, are so impressed upon the conscience, that it cheerfully remits all debatable points to the period of full and cloudless light in a future world. As in the case before us, the sailor boy did not know the easy and sufficient answer to the officer’s difficulty, but his ignorance did not hinder his peace, or his faith. He knew by the witness of the Spirit with his own spirit, that the Bible was of God, and he knew, therefore, that there was an answer to every rational inquiry, although he might not then be acquainted with it. He instinctively felt that all truth was consistent with itself, whether men can see its consistency or not.

Persons older in years and far more favored in opportunities than this poor boy, might with advantage borrow a leaf from his experience.