Such, beloved reader, is infidelity. It is of Satan, who ever has been, is, and will be the great question-raiser. Wherever you trace Satan, you will always find him raising questions. He fills the heart with all sorts of “ifs” and “hows,” and thus plunges the soul in thick darkness. If he can only succeed in raising a question, he has gained his point; but he is perfectly powerless with a simple soul that just believes that God is, and God has spoken. Here is faith’s noble answer to the infidel’s questions—its divine solution of all the infidel’s difficulties. Faith always brings in the very One that infidelity always shuts out. It thinks with God; infidelity thinks without Him.
Hence, then, we would say to the Christian reader, and specially to the young Christian, never admit questions when God has spoken. If you do, Satan will have you under his foot in a moment. Your only security against him is found in that one impregnable, immortal sentence, “It is written.” It will never do to argue with him on the ground of experience, of feeling, or of observation; it must be absolutely and exclusively on the ground of this, that God is, and that God has spoken. Satan can make no hand of this weighty argument at all. It is invincible. Every thing else he can shiver to pieces, but this confounds him and puts him to flight at once.
We see this very strikingly illustrated in the temptation of our Lord. The enemy, according to his usual way, approached the blessed One with _a question_,—“If Thou be the Son of God.” How did the Lord answer him? Did He say, I know I am the Son of God—I have had a testimony from the opened heavens, and from the descending and anointing Spirit—I feel and believe and realize that I am the Son of God? No; such was not His mode of answering the tempter. How then? “_It is written._” Such was the thrice-repeated answer of the obedient and dependent Man, and such must be the answer of every one who will overcome the tempter.
Thus, in reference to Aaron’s budding rod, if any inquire, How can such a thing be? It is contrary to the laws of nature; and how could God traverse the established principles of natural philosophy? Faith’s reply is sublimely simple. God can do as He pleases. The One who called worlds into existence could make a rod to bud, blossom, and bear fruit in a moment. Bring God in, and all is simple and plain as possible: leave God out, and all is plunged in hopeless confusion. The attempt to tie up (we speak with reverence) the almighty Creator of the vast universe by certain laws of nature, or certain principles of natural philosophy, is nothing short of impious blasphemy. It is almost worse than denying His existence altogether. It is hard to say which is the worse—the atheist, who says there is no God, or the rationalist, who maintains that He cannot do as He pleases. We feel the immense importance of being able to see the real roots of all the plausible theories which are afloat at the present moment. The mind of man is busy forming systems, drawing conclusions, and reasoning in such a manner as virtually to exclude the testimony of holy Scripture altogether, and to shut out God from His own creation. Our young people must be solemnly warned as to this. They must be taught the immense difference between the facts of science and the conclusions of scientific men. A fact is a fact wherever you meet it, whether in geology, astronomy, or any other department of science; but men’s reasonings, conclusions, and systems are another thing altogether. Now, Scripture will never touch the facts of science; but the reasonings of scientific men are constantly found in collision with Scripture. Alas! alas! for such men! And when such is the case, we must, with plain decision, denounce such reasonings altogether, and exclaim, with the apostle, “Let God be true, and every man a liar.”
Gladly would we dwell upon this point, though it be a digression, for we deeply feel its seriousness; but we must, for the present, be content with solemnly urging upon the reader the necessity of giving to holy Scripture the supreme place in his heart and mind. We must bow down, with absolute submission, to the authority of, not “Thus saith the Church”—“Thus say the fathers”—“Thus say the doctors,” but “_Thus saith the Lord_”—“_It is written._” This is our _only_ security against the rising tide of infidelity, which threatens to sweep away the foundations of religious thought and feeling throughout the length and breadth of christendom. None will escape save those who are taught and governed by the Word of the Lord. May God increase the number of such.
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We shall now proceed with our chapter.