I have been a fond reader of Holy Scripture from my youth, and have from time to time studied much that has been written in support of its genuineness and authenticity; but now in the retrospect of the past I find no evidence for the general truth of that Scripture at all to compare with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ—“If any man will do His (the Father’s) will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself” (John vii. 17).
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” (Ps. xxv. 14). As it is all-important to know that the foundations are sure, and will stand in the day of trial, I have set down in these pages the train of thought which has proved most confirming to my own faith, and trust that some of those who love the Truth as it is in Jesus may find it helpful to themselves.
We live in eventful times. There is much abroad in the world to excite alarm. When Atheism and Infidelity are making strenuous efforts to extend their withering influence; when Roman Catholicism and a kindred ritualism are invading our country, there is abundant need to stick to the Law and the Testimony, lest the curtains of darkness should be again spread over it. But notwithstanding that the picture may be somewhat gloomy, it is by no means all on one side; by various instrumentalities the Gospel is being largely and successfully proclaimed, and the message of salvation _through Christ alone_ is now carried to every class, and almost from house to house, in a manner never before witnessed; and the lowest haunts of vice and misery are at least opened to the town missionary, the Bible-woman, or the evangelist, where but recently the police could not venture single-handed; and many are the brands plucked from the burning, so that among these, as well as among the social circles above them, a rich and powerful wave of Gospel blessing is rolling over the land.
If I have fairly represented the teaching of the Bible, it is all that I could aspire to. The many “divers and strange doctrines” which in one or another way oppose the Gospel of Christ, must be swept away before the grand truths which the Bible sets forth, and which, when time is past and eternity remains, will for ever be a theme of praise and thanksgiving to the glorified beings who shall be accounted worthy to stand before the throne, and swell the anthem of “Glory and dominion to Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Rev. i. 5, 6).