The genuine power—the power that will enable us to stand against all
opposition and triumph at last—is not in this man or that, money or
learning, talent or popularity, but in the _true position_. Learning is
profitable, if used wisely, as a help in finding and determining the
true position; but the power is not in the learning nor talent. A man
of very ordinary learning and talent may find the true position, stand
on and defend it. No matter what a man’s learning, talent or popularity
may be, if he forsakes the truth, the right ground, if he undertakes
to advocate false theories, it will become perfect weakness, and will
be swept away like chaff. If men desire to stand, let them not think
of their own power, learning, popularity, or personal influence, and
talent, but of the _true ground_, “the right way of the Lord,” and
depend on truth and the God of truth; never deviate from the truth,
but be faithful to it, maintain their integrity to it, and the God of
all truth and righteousness will hold them up. They will realize that
the strength of the everlasting hills is underneath, and they cannot
be moved. If men who once knew the truth, begin to higgle, tamper and
trifle; if they, little by little, begin to show a want of integrity, a
lack of moral honesty; a disposition to compromise with sectarianism;
to ignore the distinctions between truth and error, the body of Christ
and sectarian bodies; the way of the Lord and other ways, and finally
begin to abandon leading principles and leading points of teaching,
they will find their power gone and will soon amount to nothing. Many
men have, in this way, literally thrown themselves away, and others are
now going the same road.
If men desire to stand, they should seek the true ground, try to
ascertain and determine what the truth is; find, with certainty, the
_true position_, and place themselves squarely in it; maintain and
defend it, not depending on _their own_ strength, learning, talent,
influence or popularity, but on the truth; the _true position_; the
_right way_. But some one is ready to inquire: “How can we find truth
in the midst of so much error; the right way in the midst of so many
ways?” This may be a little difficult to some. There is, however, one
thing indispensable to it, and that is that a man receive “_the love of
the truth_.” This lies at the foundation of the whole matter. Men will
never be successful in finding, advocating, maintaining or defending
the truth, who have never “received the love of the truth;” nor will
they succeed in abiding in the truth. This is the very ground-work
of the whole matter. All a man’s pretences of seeking the truth, are
nothing but an empty sham, if he has not in him the love of the truth.
He must have in him “a good and an _honest heart_,” to constitute him
the “good ground” in which the seed of the kingdom, the word of God,
will grow. But the man that loves the truth, desires it, longs for
it, and has in him a good and honest heart, will make most diligent,
careful and critical search for it. He sets out, not to prove this
or that; not to maintain this theory or that, but to find the _true
ground_—the _truth itself_, “as it is in Jesus”—and rarely fails to
find the desired object, the highly prized jewel, the most precious
gem. The love of the truth has an influence on a man, in different
ways, in favor of his finding it, as follows:
_First._ It leads him to make diligent search for it. A man will
certainly strive to find an object that he loves, and if he loves the
truth, he will make most diligent search for it.
_Second._ It leads him to exercise the utmost discrimination, to
distinguish between truth and error, that he may not be imposed on and
deceived, and induced to think something is the truth that is not, and
thus have a spurious article imposed on him.
_Third._ The love of the truth has wonderful power over a man to cause
him to _retain it_. If he loves it he will not give it up.
If a man receives not the love of the truth, it affects him badly in
the following respect:
_First._ He will exercise no diligence, to find it. He will not search
for it.
_Second._ He will not be honest when it is presented to him, but will
evade, cavil, quibble and mystify it if possible; kick up a dust to
blind his own eyes, and thus keep him from understanding and receiving
the truth. The Lord will abandon such men to “believe a lie, _because
they received not the love_ of the truth that they might be saved.”
There are many men now who receive not the love of the truth that
they might be saved. They will never be enlightened or brought to the
knowledge of the truth. The truth condemns them and they do not want
it. They hate it and those who love it.
Truth has one grand quality about it; the more you know about it,
the more clearly you see that it is the truth. It is like an honest
man; the more you know about him, the more clearly you see that he is
an honest man. The more you know about error, the more clearly you
perceive it to be error. In the same way, the more you know about
dishonest and heartless men the more clearly you see that they are
dishonest.
Be careful and occupy the right ground, the true position, and no man
can ever overthrow it, or prove it to be anything else but the true
ground. It is a great thing in favor of an army to take a _strong
position_.
We have taken the strongest position that can be taken, and if we fall
back from that, no matter what we fall back to, we shall find it a
weaker position. We have gone back to our Lord and looked up to him,
and committed ourselves to him. He has given us a position and placed
us on it. It is not _our_ position but _his_ position. We know it is
right, because it came from him and is his. We have simply received
him, with all he said and did—his holy and inspired apostles, with
all they said and did. We have nothing of _our own_, but have received
Christ and his gospel, the apostles of Christ, and the gospel of the
grace of God, which they preached; the teaching of Christ and his
apostles; all things as they came from this divine source, without
anything added or taken away, anything more or less. None can find a
position above this. It is the highest ground that can be taken. The
gospel which the apostles preached is right. The apostles’ teaching for
the churches is right. This nobody denies. We have no position of _our
own_, or doctrine of _our own_, but have taken precisely the position
of the first Christians, and the teachings under which they were
placed, and no other. We, therefore, have nothing but our Lord, his
gospel and teachings, as they emanated from himself and his inspired
apostles, and no position only the one on which they have placed us to
defend.
We are weak and can do but little. Let us not rely on _our own_
position, but the one the Lord has appointed; _our own_ views or
theories, but the clear teachings of our Lord and his apostles. Here is
the strength, and those who stand here will find the Lord of hosts with
them. We must plead for the Lord, the gospel, the teachings of Christ
and the apostles, the ground on which they stood, maintain that and
nothing else. Here is the power, and it is nowhere else.