Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 29, 1858
ANGELIC GUARDS.
Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them, 2 Kings, vi, 8-23.
The Syrian host at midnight hour
Came softly o'er the field,
And round the city placed their power,
Of chariot, horse and shield;
And silently the cohort waits,
Till morning dawns, before the gates.
And why has Syria's monarch sent
His chosen army down,
At midnight hour to spread the tent
Before a peaceful town?
That martial host their way have trod,
To bind in chains one man of God.
A wall of spears, in thick array,
Around the town arose;
The citizens unguarded lay,
In innocent repose,
Nor knew till morn dispelled the gloom
And shone on helm, and shield and plume.
Myriads of lances in that hour,
Gleamed in the prophet's eye;
That eye beheld a greater power,
An army in the sky;
Elisha stood the approaching shock,
Firm and unmoved as Zion's Rock.
Not so that morn the youthful saint,
That stood before the seer;
His faith was weak, his heart was faint,
His soul was filled with fear;
"O, who, my master, can withstand
The might of this surrounding band!"
"To us a stronger power is given
Than Syria's monarch boasts;
Our troop is marshaled in the heaven,
Our head the Lord of hosts.
Unseal, O God, the servant's eye,
To see our heavenly panoply."
Chariots and horses rushing came,
And filled the mountain's brow,
The youth beheld the host of flame,
And trusts and triumphs now;
"O, who may brave Jehovah's ire,
Who comes with horse and wheels of fire!"
The Syrian spears, like forest wood,
The prophet of the Lord
Inclose. Serene Elisha stood,
And conquered with a word;
"With darkness, Lord, the people smite;"
And all that host were lost in night.
He led them like a feeble flock,
Within Samaria's walls;
And there to Israel's God and Rock,
Again the prophet calls;
"Unseal their eyes;" and all that band
Beheld their power in Israel's hand.
Dismissed in peace, the Syrian king
Laid spear and helmet down,
And owned that 'neath Jehovah's wing
Was sheltered Israel's crown;
And knew that horse, and shield, and sword,
Were things of nought before the Lord.
The hosts of earth, the gates of hell,
Mount Zion's peace oppose;
Celestial armies, marshaled well,
The church of God inclose;
And earth and hell are feeble things,
In presence of the King of kings.
Outward Influence, and Inward Desire.
By J. Clarke
Outward Influence. Where are you going?
Inward Desire. I'm going home.
O. I. What home, and where?
I. D. To the holy city in the heavens.
O. I. Are you not fanciful?
I. D. Not in the least. In my Father's house are many mansions.
O. I. But look around upon the fields and forests, the hills and valleys, the towns and cities, and villages, pleasant cottages, rural scenes, orchards and gardens, and stores of produce.
I. D. I see them all. They are light as air compared with the city in the skies. Thither I tend.
O. I. But here are homes, look how neat.
I. D. No matter; I'm going home. These homes you speak of are full of sorrow, mine is free from pain, from tears. O, I'll go home.
O. I. But you will come to poverty in this way.
I. D. I cannot be poor with such an inheritance in the skies, such a Father.
O. I. Home? How do you know it is your home?
I. D. I see it by faith; I travel to it; I long for it; I cannot doubt it; God is my Father; I'm a fellow heir with Christ. O, I must go home.
O. I. You will be a stranger there.
I. D. O no, for Christ is my friend. He will befriend me there, he will wipe away my tears, he will make me feel at home there. I must go.
O. I. But you will not be of any consequence there, you will not be noticed among so many.
I. D. Yes, Christ cares for the sparrows, and will care for me. There is no depressing caste there, no pride. Christ is not proud, there at home.
O. I. But the distance is great, and the dangers many; you may fail after all, and lose your labor.
I. D. If I fail it will be in a good cause. I cannot despair, I will hope on, travel on towards my home. To him that knocketh it shall be opened.
O. I. Well, at any rate, don't say so much about it. What will the world think? I should be ashamed.
I. D. Christ will be ashamed of me if I am ashamed of him; and how can I be ashamed of Christ, and his home in the skies, all glorious like the sun? Are you ashamed of noon? Do you blush when the day dawns? Away with false shame! Be ashamed of sin! No! nothing shall stay me from going home.
O. I. But then they will be strangers to you there.
I. D. O no, no. There will be the prophets and apostles, the saints and martyrs, from Abel down to the end; and the lovely Saviour will be there to introduce me, if necessary; but we shall know as we are known. There are no formal, unmeaning rites in the city, my home. O Saviour, admit me to that glorious home. Do not disappoint me.
O. I. See now, your faith is not very strong after all; you have doubts. What is the use of going on?
I. D. He that putteth his hand to the plough and looketh back, is not fit for the kingdom of heaven. I must persevere, must endure to the end. O I must go home, must conquer or die.
O. I. See your neighbors laying up wealth for old age, while you trifle away your time and money for religious objects, for something out of sight.
I. D. Not out of sight. O, no. Faith grasps it all; reaches forward to my home in the skies. Do not trouble me. Begone, trifler. Thy company is unprofitable. Thy influence only impedes my progress. I am bound for the city, my home.
J. Clarke.
"Blessed is he that waiteth
By Joseph Clarke
And cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days." Dan. xii, 12.
"Blessed is he that waiteth." Why? Because of the light, and truth, and grace then made manifest: because of the unsealing of the books of prophecy, so long hidden to the eye of faith, and the light thus thrown around the sacred text, causing the book to shine forth in divine splendor: because then the course of events would unravel the hidden meaning, until it should shine forth so clearly, that he who runs may read. Blessed, because then in the time of the end, a people should arise to honor God's holy word, by strict conformity to the law of God, and the faith of Jesus: a people fearing God and eschewing evil, holding not only the form but the power of godliness.
Oh blessed day! Oh day of awful import! grand and fearful day! The day of the Lord at hand! Almost we hear the rolling of his chariot wheels. Get ready! get ready! get ready! ye guests invited to the marriage supper. You have waited and come to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. You have come to the time of the end. Blessed are ye, thrice blessed if ye have on the wedding garment. Oh listen to the echo from eternity: Get ready!!!
Blessed, why? Because of the blessings, the gifts then to be restored to the church, the latter rain. Then shall the church shine forth as the sun, being divorced from earth and earthly things, separate from the world, a pure and holy people.
Blessed, because at that period the call would go forth to the people of God to come out of Babylon, from their long captivity and iron bondage to despotic and blasphemous Rome. Then their bondage ends: the time appointed for their captivity wholly expires and they are free: free from the galling yoke of the oppressor. Blessed freedom.
Blessed day! No more shall the enemy triumph: no more shall the dying groan of the faithful martyr be heard wafted upon the winds: no more shall Satan wage successful war upon the saints: no more shall they groan long years in damp dungeons and gloomy cells; no more expire upon the rack or in the flames. No, no, victory will now be their cry, even though keen trials may overtake them, and fierce threats may fall from enemies' lips, and dangers may impend; and victory will crown their struggle, for the word of the Lord is sure.
"Blessed is he that waiteth:" because no enemy shall triumph over them any more. No, Satan's last effort shall not prosper. Victory, victory over the beast and over his image: this shall be their song. No fears shall move them, no trials overthrow them, for strong is the Lord who has redeemed them. They shall stand upon the sea of glass, having harps in their hands.
"Blessed is he that waiteth:" because they shall be alive and remain at the coming of the Lord: they will rise to meet the Lord, be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye: no death, no186worm shall feast upon them, for they shall be as Elijah, as Enoch, translated from the earth. Death, the monster, shall be disappointed of his accustomed prey.
Who then will stay in Babylon, the city of confusion, where God's law is ignored, his name blasphemed, where his saints have suffered persecution, and his Sabbath been trampled under foot, where the cry is "Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy law: where the precept of men is put above the word of God? Come out of her ye saints, ye people of God, for Babylon is fallen never to rise again.
In vain her painted walls: within is pollution. Come out of her, people of God, lest ye be partakers of her plagues. Flee, flee from the city of confusion.
JOSEPH CLARKE.
S E L E C T I O N S .
DUTY TO OBEY ONLY RIGHTEOUS LAWS.
Disobedience to the laws of men, becomes duty when they require anything contrary to the Laws of God.
"Since, therefore, the law is chiefly right reason, if we are bound to obey a magistrate as a minister of God, by the very same reason and the very same law, we ought to resist a tyrant, and minister of the Devil."
Blackstone says:
"If any human law shall allow or require to commit crime, we are bound to transgress that human law, or else we must offend both the natural and divine."
Coke says:
"What the Parliament doth shall be holden for naught, whenever it shall enact that which is contrary to the rights of nature."
Luther says:
"Unjust violence is, by no means the ordinance of God, and therefore can bind no one in conscience and right, to obey, whether the command comes from Pope, Emperor, king or master."
Hampden says:
"The essence of all law is justice. What is not justice is not law; and what is not law, ought not to be obeyed."
Cicero says:
"Those who have made pernicious and unjust decrees, have made anything rather than laws."
When the Waldenses were commanded to obey the church of Rome, they replied that:
"In what regarded their religious worship they could obey no commands which interfered with the Laws of God."
The Congressional Committee of 1830 Report:
"The framers of the constitution recognized the eternal principle, that man's relation to his God is above human legislation, and his right of conscience inalienable. Reasoning was not necessary to establish this truth: we are conscious of it in our own bosoms. It is this consciousness which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many martyrs in tortures and flames. They felt that their duty to God was superior to human enactments, and that man could exercise no authority over their consciences. It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate."
The Constitution of Pennsylvania is equally explicit; it says:
"No human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience."
Lorenzo Dow says:
"Human governments, have no right to interfere by assuming a power to tolerate man to pay his devotion to his God. For before any human government existed in the world, there was a compact between man and his Maker, which cannot be altered by any human laws. Therefore, all laws ought to be made in conformity to this preexisting compact; otherwise they do mischief by making encroachments upon the rights of conscience, and cause confusion in society by creating broils and animosities; consequently all denominations of religion should be protected in the peaceable enjoyment of their rights. And universal rights of conscience ought to be established in every land, agreeable to the Creator's Law, primarily established by Him. Moral duties are the result of 'moral Law,' which is the divine prerogative alone; and man hath no right to invade the moral duty of another, for this is the right of the divine government. No man, therefore nor set of men, have a right to infringe upon or bind the conscience of another.—Dow's Journal, pp. 423, 467.
Dr. Adam Clarke says:
"Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's is a maxim of Jesus Christ; but when Caesar arrogates to himself the things that are the Lord's, then, and in such cases, his authority is to be resisted."—Comment on Dan. iii, 17.
IS THE SOUL IMMORTAL?
BIBLE TESTIMONY.
"The blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who ONLY HATH IMMORTALITY." 1 Tim. iv, 16.
"To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, SEEK for glory, honor and IMMORTALITY." Rom. ii, 7.
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man BECAME a living soul." Gen. ii, 7.
"The word 'soul,' or rather the Hebrew and Greek from which it is translated, occurs in the word of God eight hundred and seventy-three times—seven hundred and sixty-eight times in the Old Testament, and one hundred and five times in the New. Also the word rendered 'spirit,' occurs in both Testaments eight hundred and twenty-seven times—four hundred and forty-two in the Old Testament, and three hundred and eighty-five in the New. Their aggregate use is seventeen hundred times. But notwithstanding the Bible speaks to us eight hundred and seventy-three times of the soul, it never once calls it an 'immortal soul;' and though it tells us eight hundred and twenty-seven times of the spirit, it never once tells us of a 'deathless spirit.'"
TESTIMONY OF THE APOCRYPHA.
"Now therefore, why disquietest thou thyself, seeing thou art but a corruptible man? and why art thou moved, whereas thou art but mortal?" 2 Esdras vii, 15.
"For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity; nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world; and they that do hold of his side do find it." Wisdom of Solomon ii, 23.
"Who shall praise the most high in the grave, instead of them that live and give thanks? Thanksgiving perisheth from the dead, as from one that is not; the living and sound in heart shall praise the Lord. For all things cannot be in men, because the son of man is not immortal." Ecclesiasticus xvii, 27-30.
TESTIMONY OF MEN.
The following extracts are made from what are supposed to be the only genuine writings of those termed "Apostolic Fathers."
CLEMENT, A. D. 96. "But what can mortal man do? Or what strength is there in him that is made out of dust?" Ep. chap. xvii.
IGNATIUS, A. D. 107. "Breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality; our antidote that we should not die, but live forever in Christ Jesus." Ep. to Ephesians, chap. iv.
POLYCARP, A. D. 108. "I bless thee that thou hast thought me worthy of the present day and hour, to have a share in the number of the martyrs, and in the cup of Christ, unto the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and body," &c. See Eusebius' History.
IRENEUS. "LIFE is not from ourselves, nor from our nature, but it is given or bestowed according to the grace of God; and therefore he who preserves this gift of life, and returns thanks to him who bestows it, he shall receive length of days forever and ever. But he who rejects it, and proves unthankful to his Maker for creating him, and will not know him who bestows it, he deprives himself of the gift of duration to all eternity."
JUSTIN MARTYR, who was born A. D. 89, and suffered death for Christ A. D. 163, says:
"Should you happen upon some who are called Christians indeed, and yet are far from holding these sentiments, but even dare to assail the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with blasphemy, and SAY THAT THERE IS NO RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD; BUT INSTANTLY WHEN THEY DIE, ARE RECEIVED UP INTO HEAVEN, DO NOT COUNT THESE AMONG CHRISTIANS."
Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, speaks of a class of people existing in the third century, in Arabia, that denied the natural immortality of the soul.
"These, writes Eusebius, 'asserted that the human soul as long as the present state of the world existed, perished at death, and died with the body, but that it would be raised again with the body at the time of the resurrection.'"
WILLIAM TYNDALE, the translator, writing to More, says:
"In putting departed souls in heaven, hell and purgatory, you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. What God doth with them, that shall we know when we come to them. The true faith putteth the resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers denying that, did put that the souls did ever live. And the Pope joineth the spiritual doctrine of Christ, and the fleshly doctrine of philosophers, together—things so contrary that they cannot agree. . . . And because the fleshly-minded Pope consenteth unto heathen doctrine, therefore he corrupteth the scriptures to establish it. . . . If the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of the resurrection?"
Sir THOMAS MORE asked:
"What shall he care, how long he live in sin that believeth Luther, that he shall after this life feel neither good nor evil in body nor soul, until the day of doom?"
To which TYNDALE replied:
"Christ and his apostles taught no other, but warned to look for Christ's coming again every hour, which coming again, because ye believe will never be, therefore have ye feigned that other merchandise."
PRIDEAUX states that Pythagoras went from Egypt to Babylon, where he remained twelve years, and learned many important things. Of his return Prideaux says:
"But the most important doctrine which he brought home from thence, was that of the immortality of the soul; for it is generally agreed among the ancients, that he was the first of all the Greeks that taught it. And this, I take it for certain, he had from Zoroastres; for, as I have before shown, it was his doctrine, and he is the ancientest of any whom we have upon record of all the heathen nations that taught it." Prideaux's Connection, Vol. i, p. 205.
Dr. CAMPBELL says:
"Before the Captivity, and the Macedonian and Roman conquests, the Jews observed the most profound silence upon the state of the dead, as to their happiness or misery. They spoke of it simply as a state of silence, darkness and inactivity. But after the Hebrews mingled with the Greeks and Romans, they insensibly slid into their use of terms, and adopted some of their ideas on such subjects as those on which their oracles were silent."
MILMAN says:
"Even the religious Pausanias speaks of the immortality187of the soul as a foreign doctrine, introduced by the Chaldeans and the Magi, and embraced by some of the Greeks, particularly by Plato," and adds that Pliny in his Natural History "devotes a separate chapter to a contemptuous exposure of the idle notion of the immortality of the soul, as a vision of human pride, &c." History of Christianity, p. 34.
NEANDER says:
"We must however, still mention that among Christians in Arabia at that time, a party had caused a controversy, by maintaining that the souls died with the body, and that they would be raised again only at the general resurrection, at the same time with the bodies. It was an old Jewish notion that immortality was not founded upon the nature of the soul, but a peculiar gift of Divine grace: a representation which had been transferred from Judaism to Christianity, traces of which we find in the theory of the Gnostics about the nature of the Psychich, in the doctrine of the Clementine, and in the opinions of Justin and Tatian. Perhaps also in this district the position of which placed it in close connection with Jews, it was no new doctrine, but the predominant one from ancient times; and perhaps the influence of Origen (in whose system the doctrine of the immortality of the soul necessarily obtained a place) first effected the change, that this latter should obtain universal acceptance among the church teachers of that district; and that the small party, which still maintained the old opinion, should appear heretical, although the predominant opinion had previously really pronounced itself against it, [the new opinion.] Hence we may understand how the convocation of a Great Synod was considered necessary in order to allay these controversies. When they were unable to agree, Origen was invited by the Synod, and his influence prevailed upon the opposers of the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul, to acknowledge their error, and renounce it." Neander's Hist., p. 444.
Bishop LAW, speaking of Cicero, says:
"Notwithstanding all the fine things which he had said about the immortality of the soul, or, which to him amounted to the same thing, a future state, in which point he seemed the most sanguine and positive, yet in his epistles, where he speaks his real thoughts, we find him giving it all up," &c.
Dr. GOOD says:
"If we turn from Persia, Egypt and Hindostan, to Arabia, to the fragrant groves and barred shades of Dedan and Teman, from which it is certain that Persia, and highly probable that Hindostan, derived its first polite literature, we shall find the entire subject" (of the immortality of the soul) "left in as black and barren a silence, as the deserts by which they are surrounded; or if touched upon, only touched upon, to betray doubt, and sometimes disbelief.
"The tradition, indeed, of a future state of retributive justice seems to have reached the schools of this part of the world, and to have been generally, though perhaps not universally, accredited; BUT THE FUTURE EXISTENCE IT ALLUDES TO, IS THAT OF A RESURRECTION OF THE BODY, AND NOT OF A SURVIVAL OF THE SOUL AFTER THE BODY'S DISSOLUTION!"
LELAND says:
"What that great man Cicero says of the philosophers of his time is remarkable. In that celebrated treatise where he sets himself to prove the immortality of the soul, he represents the contrary as the prevailing opinion; that there were crowds of opponents—not the Epicureans only, but, which he could not account for, those that were the most learned persons had that doctrine in contempt."
Patrick Henry.
It appears, that soon after Henry's noted case of "Tobacco and Preserves," as it was sometimes called, he heard of a case of oppression for conscience sake. The English church having been established by law in Virginia, became, as all such establishments are wont to do, exceedingly intolerant towards other sects. In prosecution of this system of conversion, three Baptist clergymen had been indicted at Fredericksburg, for preaching the gospel of the Son of God contrary to the statute. Henry, hearing of this, rode some fifty miles to volunteer his services in defence of the oppressed. He entered the court, being unknown to all present save the bench and the bar, while the indictment was being read by the clerk. He sat within the bar until the reading was finished, and the king's attorney concluded some remarks in the defence of the prosecution, when he arose, reached out his hand for the paper, and without more ceremony, proceeded with the following speech:
"May it please your worships: I think I heard read by the prosecutor, as I entered this house, the paper I now hold in my hand. If I have rightly understood, the king's attorney of the colony has framed an indictment for the purpose of arraigning and punishing by imprisonment, three inoffensive persons before the bar of this court, for a crime of great magnitude—as disturbers of the peace. May it please the court, what did I hear read? Did I hear distinctly, or was it a mistake of my own? Did I hear an expression, as if a crime, that these men, whom your worships are about to try for misdemeanor are charged with—what?" and, continuing in a slow, solemn, heavy tone, "preaching the gospel of God! Passing amidst the profound silence and breathless astonishment, he slowly waved the paper three times around his head, lifting his hands and eyes to heaven, with a peculiar and impressive energy, he exclaimed, "Great God!" The exclamation—the burst of feeling from the audience—were all overpowering. Mr. Henry resumed:
"May it please your worships: in a day like this—when truth is about to burst her fetters—when mankind are about to be aroused to claim their natural and inalienable rights—when the yoke of oppression, that has reached the wilderness of America, and the unnatural alliance of ecclesiastical and civil power, are about to be disserved—at such a period, when liberty—liberty of conscience—is about to awake from her slumberings, and inquire into the reason of such charges as I find exhibited here to-day in this indictment!" Another fearful pause, while the speaker alternately cast his sharp piercing eyes on the court and the prisoners, and resumed: If I am not deceived, according to the contents of the paper I now hold in my hand, these men are accused of preaching the gospel of the Son of God!" Another long pause, while he again waved the indictment around his head; while a deeper impression was made on the auditory. Resuming his speech: May it please your worships: there are periods in the history of man, when corruption and depravity have so long debased the human character, that man sinks under the weight of the oppressor's hand—becomes his servile, his abject slave; he licks the hand that smites him; he bows in passive obedience to the mandates of the despot; and, in this state of servility, he receives his fetters of perpetual bondage. But, may it please your worships, such a day has passed away! From that period when our fathers left the land of their nativity, for settlements in these American wilds—for liberty—for civil and religious liberty—for liberty of conscience to worship their Creator according to their own conceptions of heaven's revealed will—from the moment they placed their feet upon the American continent, and, in the deeply imbedded forests, sought an asylum from persecution and tyranny—from that moment despotism was crushed—the fetters of darkness were broken, and heaven decreed that man should be free—free to worship God according to the Bible. Were it not for this, in vain were all their sufferings to subjugate this New World, if we, their offspring, must still be oppressed and persecuted. But, may it please your worships, permit me to inquire once more, for what are these men to be tried? This paper says, for preaching the gospel of the Saviour to Adam's fallen race. And in tones of thunder he exclaimed: What law have they violated? While the third time, in a slow, dignified manner, he lifted his eyes to heaven, and waved the indictment around his head. The court and audience were now wrought up to the most intense pitch of excitement. The face of the prosecuting attorney was pallid and ghastly, and he appeared unconscious that his whole frame was agitated with alarm; while the judge, in a tremulous voice, put an end to the scene, now becoming excessively painful, by the authoritative declaration, 'Sheriff, discharge these men.'"
The Bible.
A NATION would, indeed, 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 affords a copy for a king, and a rule for a subject; it gives instruction and counsel to the senate, authority and direction for a magistrate; it cautions a witness, requires an impartial verdict of a jury, and furnishes the judge with his sentence.
It sets the husband as lord of the household, and the wife as mistress of the table—tells him how to rule, and how to manage. It entails honor to parents, and enjoins obedience to children. It prescribes and limits the sway of the sovereign, the rule of the ruler, and the authority of the master, commands the subjects to honor, and the servants to obey; and promises the blessing and protection of the Almighty to all that walk by its rules.
It gives directions for weddings and for burials. It promises food and raiment, and limits the use of both. It points out a faithful and 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; and promises a father to the former, and husband to the latter. It is the first book, the best book, and the oldest book in the world.
It contains the choicest matter, gives the best instruction, affords the greatest pleasure and satisfaction, that ever was enjoyed. It contains the best laws and the most profound mysteries that ever was penned; it brings the best tidings and affords the best of comfort to the inquiring and disconsolate. It exhibits life and immortality and shows the way to glory. It is a brief recital of all that is past, and a certain prediction of all that is to come. It settles all matter 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; and sets aside all other gods, and describes the vanity of them, and of all that trust in such; 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 error; and a book of life, that shows the way from everlasting death. It is the most compendious book in the world, the most authentic, and the most entertaining history that ever was published.
It contains the most venerable antiquities, strange events, wonderful occurrences, heroic deeds, unparalleled wars; it describes the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal worlds, and the origin of the angelic myriads, human tribes, and devilish legions. It will instruct the accomplished mechanic, and the most profound artist. It teaches the best rhetorician, and exercises every power of the most skillful arithmetician; puzzles the wisest anatomist, and exercises the nicest critic. It corrects the vain philosopher, and confutes the unwise astronomer. It exposes the subtle sophist, and makes diviners mad.
It is a complete code of laws, a perfect body of divinity, an unequalled 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 sealed, the best evidence that ever was produced, the best will that ever was made, and the best testament that ever was sealed. To understand it, is to be wise indeed; to be ignorant of it, is to be destitute of wisdom.
It is the king's best copy, the magistrate's best rule, the housewife'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 masterpiece. It contains a choice grammar for the novice, and a profound mystery for the sage. It is the ignorant man's dictionary, and the wise man's directory. It affords knowledge of witty inventions for the humorous, and dark sayings for the grave; and it is its own interpreter. It encourages the wise, the warrior, the swift, and the overcomer; and promises an eternal reward to the excellent, the conqueror, the winner, and the prevailor. And that which crowns all, is that the Author is without partiality, and without hypocrisy. In whom is no variableness or shadow of turning."
Keeping the Heart Humble
If the Lord lead you in a rough way, it is to keep your heart humble before him.