The Greatest Fight in the World! 5

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Two sorts of people have wrought great mischief, and yet they are neither of them worth being considered as judges in the matter: they are both of them disqualified. It is essential than an umpire should know both sides of a question, and neither of these is thus instructed. The first is theirreligious scientist. What does he know about religion? What can he know? He is out of court when the question is—Does science agree with religion? Obviously he who would answer this query must know both of the two things in the question.

The second is a better man—but capable of still more mischief. I mean the unscientific Christian, who will trouble his head about reconciling the Bible with science. He had better leave it alone, and not begin his tinkering trade. The mistake made by such men has been that in trying to solve a difficulty—they have either twisted the Bible, or contorted science. The solution has soon been seen to be erroneous, and then we hear the cry that Scripture has been defeated. Not at all; not at all. It is only a vain gloss upon it which has been removed.

Believe everything in science which is proved. You need not fear that your faith will be over-burdened. And then believe everything which is clearly in the Word of God, whether it is proved by outside evidence or not. No proof is needed when God speaks. If he has said it, this is evidence enough.

But we are told that we ought to give up a part of our old-fashioned theology to save the rest. We are in a carriage traveling over the steppes of Russia. The horses are being driven furiously—but the wolves are close upon us! Can you not see their eyes of fire? The danger is pressing. What must we do? It is proposed that we throw out a child or two. By the time they have eaten the baby, we shall have made a little headway; but should they again overtake us, what then? Why, brave man, throw out your wife! 'All that a man has will he give for his life'; give up nearly every truth in hope of saving one. Throw out inspiration, and let the critics devour it. Throw out election, and all the old Calvinism; here will be a dainty feast for the wolves, and the gentlemen who give us the sage advice will be glad to see the doctrines of grace torn limb from limb. Throw out natural depravity, eternal punishment, and the efficacy of prayer. We have lightened the carriage wonderfully. Now for another drop. Sacrifice the great sacrifice! Have done with the atonement!

Brethren, this advice is villainous, and murderous; we will escape these wolves with everything, or we will be lost with everything! It shall be 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth', or none at all. We will never attempt to save half the truth—by casting any part of it away. Thesage advice which has been given us, involves treason to God, and disappointment to ourselves. We will stand by all—or none! We are told that if we give up something, the adversaries will also give up something; but we care not what they will do, for we are not in the least afraid of them. They are not the imperial conquerors they think themselves. We ask no quarter from their insignificance. We are of the mind of the Greek warrior who was offered presents to buy him off, and he was told that if he accepted so much gold or territory, that he could return home in triumph, and glory in his easy gain. But he said, 'The Greeks set no store by concessions. They find their glory not in presents—but in spoils.'

We shall with the sword of the Spirit, maintain the whole truth as ours, and shall not accept a part of it as a grant from the enemies of God. The truth of God we will maintain as the truth of God, and we shall not retain it because the philosophic mind consents to our doing so. If scientists agree to our believing only a part of the Bible, we thank them for nothing! Their assent is of no more consequence to our faith, than the consent of a Frenchman to the Englishman's holding London, or the consent of the mole to the eagle's sight. God being with us, we shall not cease from this glorying—but will hold the whole of revealed truth, even to the end.

But now, brethren, while keeping to this first part of my theme, perhaps at too great a length, I say to you that, believing this, we accept the obligation to preach everything which we see to be in the Word of God, as far as we see it. We would not willfully leave out any portion of the whole revelation of God—but we long to be able to say at the last, "We have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God." What mischief may come of leaving out any portion of the truth, or putting in an alien element!

All good men will not agree with me, when I say that the addition of infant baptism to the Word of God—for it certainly is not there—is fraught with mischief! Baptismal regeneration rides in upon the shoulders of infant baptism! But I speak now of what I know. I have received letters from missionaries, not Baptists—but Wesleyans and Congregationalists, who have said to me, "Since we have been here" (I will not mention the localities lest I get the good men into trouble) "we find a class of people who are the children of former converts, and who have been baptized, and are therefore called Christians; but they are not one whit better than the heathen around them! They seem to think that they are Christians because of their baptism, and at the same time, being thought Christians by the heathen, their evil lives are perpetual scandal and a dreadful stumbling-block." In many cases this must be so. I only use the fact as an illustration.

But suppose it to be either some other error invented, or some great truth neglected, evil will come of it. In the case of the terrible truths known by us as "the terrors of the Lord"; their omission is producing the saddest results. A good man, whom we do not accept as teaching exactly the truth upon this solemn matter, has, nevertheless, most faithfully written again and again to the papers, to say that the great weakness of the modern pulpit is that it ignores the justice of God and the punishment of sin. His witness is true, and the evil which he indicates is incalculably great. You cannot leave out that part of the truth which is so dark and so solemn, without weakening the force of all the others truths you preach. You rob of their brightness, and their urgent importance, the truths which concern salvation from the wrath to come.

Brethren, leave out nothing! Be bold enough to preach unpalatable and unpopular truth. The evil which we may do by adding to, or taking from the Word of the Lord, may not happen in our own days; but if it should come to ripeness in another generation, we shall be equally guilty. I have no doubt that the omission of certain truths by the earlier churches led afterwards to serious error; while certain additions of rites and ceremonies, which appeared innocent enough in themselves, led up to Ritualism, and afterwards to the great apostasy of Romanism! Be very careful. Do not go an inch beyond the line of Scripture, and do not stay an inch on this side of it. Keep to the straight line of the Word of God, as far as the Holy Spirit has taught you, and hold back nothing which he has revealed.

Be not so bold as to abolish the two ordinances which the Lord Jesus has ordained, though some have ventured upon that gross presumption; neither exaggerate those ordinances into inevitable channels of grace, as others have superstitiously done. Keep to the revelation of the Spirit. Remember, you will have to give an account, and that account will not be with joy—if you have played false with God's truth!

You remember the story of Gylippus, to whom Lysander entrusted bags of gold to take to the city authorities. Those bags were tied at the mouth, and then sealed; and Gylippus thought that if he cut the bags at the bottom he might extract a part of the coin, and then he could carefully sew the bottom up again, and so the seals would not be broken, and no one would suspect that gold had been taken. When the bags were opened, to his horror and surprise, there was a note in each bag stating how much it contains—and so he was detected! The Word of God has self-verifying clauses in it, so that you cannot run away with a part of it, without the remainder of it accusing and convicting you. How will you answer for it "in that day", if you have added to, or taken from the Word of the Lord? I am not here to decide what you ought to consider to be the truth of God; but, whatever you judge it to be, preach it all, and preach it definitely and plainly. If I differ from you, or you from me—we shall not differ very much, if we are equally honest, straightforward, and God-fearing. The way to peace is not concealment of convictions—but the honest expression of them in the power of the Holy Spirit.

One more word. We accept the obligation to preach all that is in God's Word, definitely and distinctly. Do not many preach indefinitely, handling the Word of God deceitfully? You might attend upon their ministry for years—and not know what they believe. I heard concerning a certain cautious minister, that he was asked by a hearer, "What is your view of the atonement?" He answered, "My dear sir, that is just what I have never told to anybody—and you are not going to get it out of me." This is a strange moral condition for the mind of a preacher of the gospel. I fear that he is not alone in this reticence.

Many dare not say in the pulpit—what they say at a private meeting of ministers. Is this honest? I am afraid that it is with some as it was with the schoolmaster in one of the towns of a Southern state in America. A grand old black preacher, one Jasper, had taught his people that the world is as flat as a pancake, and that the sun goes round it every day. One of his hearers, going to a schoolmaster with his boy, asked, "Do you teach the children that the world is round or flat?" The schoolmaster cautiously answered, "Yes." The enquirer was puzzled—but asked for a clearer answer. "Do you teach your children that the world is round, or that the world is flat?" Then he answered, "That depends upon the opinions of the parents." I suspect that even in Great Britain, in some few cases, a good deal depends upon the leaning of the leading deacon, or the principal subscriber, or the gilded youth in the congregation. If it be so, the crime is loathsome!

But whether for this or for any other cause we teach with double tongue, the result will be highly injurious. I venture here to quote a story which I heard from a beloved brother. A beggar called upon a minister to extract money from him. The good man did not like the beggar's appearance much, and he said to him, "I do not care for your case, and I see no special reason why you should come to me." The beggar replied, "I am sure you would help me if you knew what great benefit I have received from your blessed ministry." "What is that?" said the pastor. The beggar then replied, "Why, sir, when I first came to hear you, I cared neither for God nor devil—but now, under your blessed ministry, I have come to love them both." What marvel if, under some men's shifty talk, people grow into love of both truth and falsehood!

People will say, "We like this form of doctrine, and we like the other also." The fact is, they would like anything if only a clever deceiver would put it plausibly before them. They admire Moses and Aaron—but they would not say a word against Jannes and Jambres. We shall not join in the confederacy which seems to aim at such a comprehension. We must preach the gospel so distinctly—that our people know what we are preaching! "If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle?" Don't puzzle your people with your dubious theories. "Well", said one preacher, "I had a new idea the other day. I did not enlarge upon it; but I just threw it out." That is a very good thing to do with most of your new ideas. Throw them out, by all means; but mind where you are when you do it; for if you throw them out from the pulpit—they may strike somebody, and inflict a wound upon their faith. Throw out your fancies—but first go alone in a boat a mile out to sea. When you have once thrown out your unthinking trifles, leave them to the fishes!

We have nowadays around us a class of men who preach Christ, and even preach the gospel; but then they preach a great deal else which is not true, and thus they destroy the good of all that they deliver, and lure men to error. They would be styled "evangelical" and yet be of the school which is really anti-evangelical. Look well to these gentlemen. I have heard that a fox, when close hunted by the dogs, will pretend to be one of them, and run with the pack. That is what certain are aiming at just now—the foxes would seem to be dogs. But in the case of the fox, his strong scent betrays him, and the dogs soon find him out. And even so, the scent of false doctrine is not easily concealed, and the game does not answer for long. There are extant ministers of whom we scarce can tell whether they are dogs or foxes; but all men shall know our quality as long as we live, and they shall be in no doubt as to what we believe and teach. We shall not hesitate to speak in the strongest Saxon words we can find, and in the plainest sentences we can put together, that which we hold as fundamental truth.

Thus I have been all this while upon my first head, and the other two must, therefore, occupy less time—though I judge them to be of the first importance.

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