Earlier text: CONTAINED IN THIS ISSUEResults of Refusing to Walk in the Light
By Mrs. E. G. White
BELSHAZZAR the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. . . . Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. While they were engaged in this sacrilegious feast, a bloodless hand traced opposite the king characters of writing that could not be read or interpreted by any of the magicians or wise men of the court. "Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him." But if they could not understand the writing, why were they so troubled? The writing on the wall gave evidence that there was a witness to their evil deeds, a guest not invited or welcome to their idolatrous feast, and his presence convicted of sin and foretold doom and disaster. Before them passed, as in panoramic view, the deeds of their evil lives, and they seemed to be arraigned before the judgment of which they had been warned. Belshazzar was most terror-stricken of them all; for great had been his opportunities for knowing the God he had blasphemed and derided. He knew the history of his grandfather; how, because of his exaltation of self, his wisdom and reason had been taken away, and he had gone forth to be a companion of the beasts of the field. But Belshazzar disregarded the lesson as completely as tho these things had never occurred, and made himself guilty of the very sins for which his grandfather had been condemned. He was guilty because he had the privilege of knowing and doing the right, and of leading others in the way, and yet refused to heed the light that God had permitted to shine upon his pathway. He had every opportunity of becoming acquainted with God and with His truth, but he would not deny himself in order to know and do righteousness. Now in the midst of his most pronounced idolatry and defiance of God, the bloodless hand writes his doom. Daniel is remembered, and brought to the banqueting-hall. The servant of God sees the evidences of the degradation and idolatry of the feast, so suddenly brought to an end; but Daniel was not disconcerted in the presence of the king and his lords. "I have even heard of thee," said the king, "that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee. . . . And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts; now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation." Then Daniel reviewed the past, bringing before Belshazzar the light which he had received from the history and judgment of Nebuchadnezzar. God had given his grandfather a kingdom, majesty, glory, and honor; but instead of feeling gratitude to God, Nebuchadnezzar had taken the glory to himself, and his mind was lifted up and his heart hardened. God deposed him from his throne, and took his glory from him. Daniel faithfully repeated the story of Nebuchadnezzar's renown and degradation, and set forth the mercy of God in granting him another opportunity of acknowledging God as the supreme Ruler in heaven and earth, the One to whom kings and nations owed allegiance. "And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, tho thou knewest all this; but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified." Then the writing on the wall was read and interpreted. Belshazzar heard the irrevocable sentence: "God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it." "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." "Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." Belshazzar was without excuse, for abundant light had been given him to reform his life. He had had opportunity for knowing the truth; but he lost all the benefits of the knowledge by his course of self-indulgence; he did not meet the mind of God as a man or a king, and because of this the kingdom had been taken from him. He who has power to set up and to tear down, gave the kingdom to another. In the history of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, God speaks to nations of to-day. We are to take to heart the lessons he sought to teach these rebellious kings; for if Belshazzar had pursued a course in harmony with the instruction given to his grandfather, he would have retained not only his kingdom but his life. He disregarded the lessons, and went on in rebellion against God, committing the very sins for which his grandfather had been reproved and punished. He, too, lifted himself up in pride and exaltation, and the final judgment of God fell upon him and his house. His great sin was that, notwithstanding God had given him light, he refused to walk in the paths of righteousness. Temperance and the Loss of Eden
WITH our first parents, intemperate desire resulted in the loss of Eden. Temperance in all things has more to do with our restoration to Eden than men realize.—Education. True Temperance and Sanctification
By Ellen G. White
UNLESS they practise true temperance, they will not, they can not, be susceptible to the sanctifying influence of the truth. —Mrs. E. G. White. No Respect of Nations with God
THERE is no respect of nations with God. The Word of God.
By J. E. L.
1. Who was in the beginning with God? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God." John 1:1, 2. 2. Who is the Word? "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." Verse 14. 3. By whom were all things made? "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." Verse 3. 4. Where do we read of the council between the Father and Son relating to the creation of man? In Gen. 1:26: "And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." 5. How were the worlds brought into existence? "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." Ps. 33:6. 6. Did this work require a long period of time? "For He spake, and it was done." 7. What caused each one to "stand fast"? "He commanded, and it stood fast." 8. How are the worlds still upheld? "Upholding all things by the word of His power." Heb. 1:3. 9. What power had Christ while upon earth to control the elements by His word? "And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Mark 4:39. 10. In what other ways was the power of that same word manifest? "When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick." Matt. 8:16. 11. How was the power of the word manifest in the leper? "And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, . . . and saying unto Him, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed." Mark 1:40-42. 12. To what extent was the power in Christ's word manifest toward the dead? "He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." John 11:43, 44. 13. Who wrought thru Christ? "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." John 5:19. 14. Did Jesus speak or work by His own authority? "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." John 14:10. 15. Since, then, Christ had the power by speaking His Father's words to create the worlds and cause them to "stand fast," constantly upholding them by that powerful word, is He not most fittingly called "THE WORD OF GOD"? 16. Is not the fact that the word of God spoken by Christ even while "clothed with humanity" had power to produce immediate results sufficient evidence of its power to do the work in six literal days, recorded in Genesis 1? 17. Are we not limiting that power in our minds when we doubt the plain declarations of Scripture regarding this fact? J. E. L. Sublimity of the Scriptures.
A LL other sciences are but poor and beggarly elements if compared with this. What doth the naturalist but only busy himself in digging a little drossy knowledge out of the entrails of the earth? The astronomer who ascends highest mounts no higher than the celestial bodies—the stars and planets—which are but the outworks of heaven. But the Scripture pierceth much farther, and lets us into heaven itself; there it discovers the majesty and glory of God upon His throne; the eternal Son of God sitting at His right hand, making a prevailing and authoritative intercession for us; the glittering train of cherubim and seraphim, an innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect; so that, indeed, when you have this Book laid open before you, you have heaven itself, and all the inconceivable glories of it, laid open to your view.—Bishop Hopkins. The Power of the Scriptures.
A NATIVE African preacher said: "We know that rocks are very hard. Our cutlasses and hoes can do nothing against them, so we leave them alone. But white people have something that can break up and scatter any rock in Uwet or Umon. You will admit that something must be more powerful than rocks. So we all know what country, laws, and customs are; we can not change them, so we leave them alone. But a thing has come to Calabar, even God's word, and it has broken up and scattered customs that our fathers thought would remain forever! What must you say concerning that word but that it is more powerful than the customs of our country? You know how strong your hearts are. Hearts as strong as yours have been changed in our town, have been changed by this word; and what must you, therefore, say but that this word is more powerful than a Calabar heart? Bend your heads, then, before this word." ITS power over man has, need we say? been obstinately and long resisted—but resisted in vain. For ages, has this artless, loosely-piled little Book been exposed to the fire of the keenest investigation—a fire which meanwhile has consumed contemptuously the mythology of the Iliad, the husbandry of the Georgics, the historical truth of Livy, the fables of Shaster, the Talmud, and the Koran, the artistic merit of many a popular poem, the authority of many a work of philosophy and science. And yet, there the Bible lies, unhurt, untouched, with not one of its pages singed, with not even the smell of fire having passed upon it. Many an attempt has been made to scare away this "Fiery Pillar" of our wanderings, or to prove it a mere natural product of the wilderness; but still, night after night, rises, like one of the sure and everlasting stars, in the vanguard of the great march of man, the old column, guiding slowly, but guiding certainly to future lands of promise, both in the life that is, and in that which cometh hereafter. The Bible’s Peculiar Position
In relation to other books, the Bible occupies a peculiar and solitary position. It is independent of all others; it imitates no other book; it copies none; it hardly alludes to any other, whether in praise or blame; and this is nearly as true of its later portions, when books were common, as in its earlier, when books were scarce. . . . Other books may be forgotten in a universe where suns go down and disappear like bubbles in the stream; the memory of this Book shall shine as the brightness of that eternal firmament, and as those higher stars, which are forever and ever.—“The Bards of the Bible,” by George Gilfillan. How still and cool and dim the woodland lies,
The goldenrod's bright flame has died away,
The gleaming blue has vanished from the skies,
The sumach's red grows fainter day by day;
The gilding radiance of the sunshine's gold,
The gay hues in the leaves that danced about—
All, all are gone. October's tale is told
And all her many colored fires are out. The earth has donned a robe of sober brown,
A restful shadow hangs o'er plain and wood;
The leaves, in faded heaps, have nestled down
As if to rest from frolicking were good.
Like pillars in a temple, old and grand,
Their tall, dark columns rearing toward the sky,
In long, dim woodland aisles, the bare trees stand
And spread their leafless branches far on high.
—Selected. THE word of God is the water of life; the more ye lave it forth, the fresher it runneth: it is the fire of God's glory; the more ye blow it, the clearer it burneth: it is the corn of the Lord's field; the better ye grind it, the more it yieldeth: it is the bread of heaven; the more it is broken and given forth, the more it remaineth: it is the sword of the Spirit; the more it is scoured, the brighter it shineth. —Bishop Jewel. The Bible and Prosperity.
By Dr. Chalmers
THE exemption of Scotland from the miseries of pauperism is due to the education which their people receive at schools, and to the Bible which their scholarship gives them access to. The man who subscribes to the divine authority of this simple saying, "If any would not work neither should he eat," possesses, in the good treasure of his own heart, a far more effectual security against the hardships of indigence than the man who is trained, by the legal provisions of his country, to sit in slothful dependence upon the liberalities of those around him.—Dr. Chalmers. Reading the Scriptures.
By Charles Spurgeon
I MIGHT pause over every verse of the Scriptures, and say, "Such a verse was blessed to so many souls; then why not to me? I am at least in the Pool of Bethesda; I am walking among its porches; and who can tell but that the angel will stir the pool of the word whilst I lie helplessly by the side of it, waiting for the blessing?"
—Spurgeon. I. How Much Do They Comprise?
1. By what terms does Jesus designate the Old Testament Scriptures? "The law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms." Luke 24:44. "And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Verse 27. 2. What did He say to the Jews? "Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me." John 5:39. 3. How does Paul, when writing to Timothy, refer to them? "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation thru faith which is in Christ Jesus." 2 Tim. 3:15. NOTE.—The Holy Scriptures, or Holy Writings, of the Jews consisted of the Old Testament books which we have to-day. They divided them into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa (Holy Writings), sometimes called the Psalms, because the Psalms is the first book in the latter division. The Law includes the first five books of the Bible; the Prophets,—Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea to Malachi inclusive; the Holy Writings,—Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles. These, as the above scriptures and many others clearly show, were approved and endorsed by our Lord and His apostles. 4. What promise did Jesus give His apostles as to their teaching? "But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you." John 14:26; 16:13-15. 5. What does Paul say of the apostolic writings? "Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth." 1 Cor. 2:13. 6. How does the apostle Peter class the writings of Paul? "Even as our beloved brother Paul . . . wrote unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unsteadfast wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." 2 Peter 3:15, 16. NOTE.—In this text the apostle Peter classes the writings of the apostle Paul among the "other Scriptures," the Old Testament Scriptures. And the words of the apostle Paul place the New Testament writings with the Holy Scriptures. II. The Inspiration of the Scriptures.
1. What is said of the inspiration of the Scriptures? "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable." 2 Tim. 3:16. NOTE.—A more literal rendering would be, "All Scripture is GOD-BREATHED." Whether we take "all Scripture" as in the Common Version, or "Every Scripture inspired of God," as in the Revisions, we are at no loss, if we regard the context, as to the meaning of the term. The apostle refers to the Holy Scriptures which Timothy the Jew had known from a child, the Old Testament Scriptures. See the previous verse. Note also that it is NOT the writers which are inspired, or God-breathed, but the Scriptures, the writings. 2. What does another say as to how these Scriptures came to us? "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:21. "Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them." 1 Peter 1:10, 11. NOTE.—This last scripture shows clearly that it was the Spirit of Christ as well as the Father which inspired the word. Therefore He is called the Word, the One thru whom the Father gave all things. John 1:1-3; 1 Cor. 8:6. The whole Bible is therefore "the word of Christ" which ought to "dwell richly" in the souls of His children. 3. What other instances may be mentioned as to the claim of inspiration for the word? "The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and His word was upon my tongue." David, in 2 Sam. 23:2. "Which the Holy Spirit spake before by the mouth of David concerning Judas." Acts 1:16. "Wherefore even as the Holy Spirit saith, To-day if ye shall hear His voice." Quotation from the Psalms. Heb. 3:7. "And the Scripture [alluding to a Psalm] can not be broken." John 10:35. "Which was spoken thru Isaiah the prophet." Matt. 8:17. "Well spake the Spirit thru Isaiah the prophet unto your fathers." Acts 28:25. "And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying." Jer. 2:1. "And the word of Jehovah came unto me." Eze. 6:1. "The word of Jehovah that came to Joel." Joel 1:1. NOTE.—It is everywhere the word of Jehovah, the word of the Lord, the Holy Spirit. The man is God's willing instrument. God is the Master. While the words are the words of Moses, of David, of Jeremiah, of Ezekiel, of Hosea, of Paul, of James, of Peter, they are also the words of God. The words, the style, bear the impress of the character of the man thru whom God spoke, nevertheless they are the words of God. It is as tho a musician, wishing to affect a great mass of people, should play on various instruments, such as piano, organ, harp, guitar, cornet, drum, fife, bag-pipe, etc. Some souls would be affected by the harsher instrument who would not be9touched at all by the softer, more perfect one. The music would bear the stamp of the instrument, but it would also reveal that a master was producing the best music of which the various instruments were capable. So God has used learned and ignorant men, great men and small men. The work has different standards of excellence; but it is always the best which can be produced from the men God has used. By using men of all kinds of temperaments and all walks of life, He reaches men of all classes. III. The Sufficiency of the Scriptures.
1. What is said of the sufficiency of the Scriptures? "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. 2. What plea does Jesus make for His disciples as to that word? "Sanctify them thru Thy truth: Thy word is truth." John 17:17. 3. How did He Himself meet the fierce temptations of the enemy? By "It is written," meeting each suggestion of the enemy by words in Deuteronomy. Matt. 4:1-11. NOTE.—It is worthy of note that Jesus used in His own personal experience in meeting the onslaughts of the adversary, weapons drawn from the book of Deuteronomy, a portion of Scripture which the "higher critics" have little or no use for. It is better to follow the "Man of Nazareth." 4. What did the psalmist declare God's word to be? "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps. 119:105. 5. From what did that word hid in the heart save him? "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. 119:11. 6. How was he kept from the paths of the destroyer? "Concerning the works of men, by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." Ps. 17:4. 7. Of what is that word the basis? "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. 10:17. 8. What is said of its might? "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. 4:12. 9. To what is it likened? "Is not My word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Jer. 23:29. 10. How does it compare with the word of men? "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord." Jer. 23:28. NOTE.—How futile and foolish it is in the light of the above scriptures to form human creeds and endeavor to establish by decree or anathema, or ordain by civil law some human conception of God's word. All that a creed can express are human ideas of God's ever-living word. A creed seeks to confine, circumscribe, and bind about the truth of God. It holds men to the dead past instead of to the living present. It leads men to turn from the Spirit and power of God, promised to unify His church, and to seek that unity in human means, pledges, resolutions, federations, civil power. The creed and federation spirit is born of lack of faith in the word of God and a fear that God can not or will not care for His own. God's word is all-sufficient. 11. How long will that word endure? "The word of our God shall stand forever." Isa. 40:8. "Heaven and earth shall pass away; but My word shall not pass away." Luke 21:33. 12. How does God regard His word? "I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and praise Thy name for Thy loving-kindness and for Thy truth: for Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name." Ps. 138:2. The True Protestant Position.
The Bible and the Bible Only.
THE Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants!" Nor is it of any account in the estimation of the genuine Protestant HOW EARLY a doctrine originated, if it is not found in the Bible. He learns from the New Testament itself that there were errors in the time of the apostles, and that their pens were frequently employed in combating those errors. Hence if a doctrine be propounded for his acceptance, he asks, Is it to be found in the inspired word? Was it taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles? If they knew nothing of it, no matter to him whether it be discovered in the musty folio of some ancient visionary of the third or fourth century, or whether it spring from the fertile brain of some modern visionary of the nineteenth, if it is not found in the sacred Scriptures, it presents no valid claim to be received as an article of his religious creed. . . . The great question at issue between popery and Protestantism is this: Is the Bible only to be received as the rule of faith, or THE BIBLE AND TRADITION TOGETHER? Is no doctrine to be received as matter of faith unless it is found in the Bible, or may a doctrine be received upon the mere authority of tradition, when it is confessedly not to be found in the sacred Scriptures? The whole Christian world, both nominal and real, are divided by this question into two great divisions: The consistent and true-hearted Protestant, standing upon this rock, "THE BIBLE AND THE BIBLE ONLY," can admit no doctrine upon the authority of tradition; the papist and the Puseyite place tradition side by side with the Bible, and listen to its dictates with a reverence equal to, or even greater than, that which they pay to the sacred Scriptures themselves; and he who receives a single doctrine upon this mere authority of tradition, let him be called by what name he will, by so doing steps down from the Protestant rock, passes over the line which separates Protestantism from popery, and can give no valid reason why he should not receive all the earlier doctrines and ceremonies of Romanism upon the same authority.—Darling, "History of Romanism," Book 1, p. 67. From the Protestant Episcopal Church, Thirty-nine Articles.
"Art. VI. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation.—Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the church." From the Regular Baptists
As Expressed by the Baptist Convention of New Hampshire.
"1. Of the Scriptures.—We believe the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter; that it reveals the principles by which God will judge us, and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions, should be tried." From the Articles of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
"Art. V. The Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. By the name of the Holy Scriptures, we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the church." From the Evangelical Lutheran Church—Art. I.
From the Andover Orthodox Creed.
The Belief of Congregationalists.
"The word of God, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the only perfect rule of faith and practise." From the Presbyterian Confession of Faith.
"The Bible contains the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, or man's salvation, faith, and life." From the "Advance Almanac" for 1894 and Manual of Congregationalism.
V. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the record of God's revelation of Himself in the work of redemption; that they are written by men under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit; that they are able to make wise unto salvation; and that they constitute the authoritative standard by which religious teaching and human conduct are to be regulated and judged.—Page 56, Creed of 1883. Wesley on the Scriptures.
"From an infant thou hast known the Holy Scriptures—of the Old Testament. These only were extant when Timothy was an infant. Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation thru faith—in the Messiah that was to come. How much more are the Old and New Testaments together able, in God's hand, to make us more abundantly wise unto salvation, even such a measure of present salvation as was not known before Jesus was glorified." The Rule of the Man of God.
"ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. The Rule of the Romanist.
"If we would have the whole rule of Christian faith and practise, we must not be content with those scriptures which Timothy knew from his infancy, that is, with the Old Testament alone; nor yet with the New Testament, without taking along with it the TRADITIONS OF THE APOSTLES, and the INTERPRETATION OF THE CHURCH, to which the apostles delivered both the book and the true meaning of it."—Note of the Douay Bible in 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. BUT of these we may safely say that there is not a truth in the most orthodox creed that can not be proved by their authority, nor a heresy that has disgraced the Romish Church that may not challenge them as its abettors. In points of doctrine, their authority with me is nothing. The word of God alone contains my creed. On a number of points I can go to the Greek and Latin Fathers of the church to know what they believed and what the people of their respective communions believed, but, after all this, I must return to God's word to know what He would have me to believe.—Dr. A. Clarke. When God's word is by the fathers expounded, construed, and glossed, then, in my judgment, it is even as when one strains milk thru a coal-sack, which must needs spoil and make the milk black. God's word of itself is pure, clean, bright, and clear; but thru the doctrines, books, and writings of the fathers, it is darkened, falsified, and spoiled.—Martin Luther, "Table Talk," p. 228. Treasures of the Scriptures.
PEBBLES in great abundance may be found along the highway, or on the shores of the ocean; but diamonds and pearls are a rarity. They are only reached by skilful and determined divers, who, at the hazard of their lives, struggle to the bottom of the deep sea, and grasp for the shells in which the beautiful gems are deposited.—Caughey.