Yes, dearly beloved Christian reader, "It is written" was a favorite sentence with our divine Master and Lord. He ever obeyed the Word. He yielded a hearty and unqualified submission to its holy authority in all things. He lived on it and by it from first to last. He walked according to it and never acted without it. He did not reason or question, imply or infer, He did not add or diminish or qualify in any one way--_He obeyed_. Yes; He, the eternal Son of the Father--Himself God over all blessed for ever--having become a man, lived on the Holy Scriptures and walked by their rule continually. He made them the food of His soul, the material and the basis of His marvellous ministry--the divine authority of His perfect path.
In all this He was our great Exemplar. Oh, may we follow His blessed footsteps! May we bring ourselves, our ways, our habits, our associations, our surroundings, to the test of Holy Scripture, and reject with whole-hearted decision everything, no matter what or by whom propounded, that will not bear that searching light.
We are most thoroughly persuaded that in hundreds of thousands of cases the first grand point to be gained is to recall the heart to that delightful attitude in which the word of God is _fully_ owned and submitted to as an absolute authority. It is positively labor lost to be arguing and disputing with a man who does not give Scripture the self-same place that our Lord Jesus Christ gave it. And when a man does this there is no need of argument. What is really needed is to make the word of God the basis of our individual peace and the authority of our individual path. May we all do so!
O come, Thou stricken Lamb of God! Who shed'st for us Thine own life-blood, And teach us all Thy love--then pain Were sweet and life or death were gain.
Take Thou our hearts, and let them be For ever closed to all but Thee; Thy willing servants, let us wear The seal of love for ever there.
How blest are they who still abide Close shelter'd by Thy watchful side; Who life and strength from Thee receive, And with Thee move, and in Thee live.
Ah, Lord! enlarge our scanty thought, To know the wonders Thou hast wrought; Unloose our stammering tongues to tell Thy love, immense, unsearchable.
First-born of many brethren, Thou! To whom both heaven and earth must bow; Heirs of Thy shame and of Thy throne; We bear Thy cross, and seek Thy crown.