A grand phalanx of younger men, with fine education, abundant talent,
and as true hearts as ever beat, are rallying to the principles, coming
to the rescue, and have set their seal that “God is true,” and that
“the word of God is not bound.” Ten of these for every one of the old
men falling are making their appearance. They are rousing up all over
the country, and new pens are coming to the rescue. God is with these
young men, dwells in them and will hold them up. They are not mercenary
men, but men of God—men of faith. We could name scores of them. They
are found in all directions. They are reading, working, preaching
the gospel and bringing sinners to the Lord. These are for the old
ground—“The Bible and the Bible alone.” Many of them are now wielding
master pens, and are master speakers. They are becoming masters of
the situation. They will walk through the progressive elements, like
Sampson carrying away the gate-posts, or pulling down the pillars of
the house. While others will become “offended because of the word,”
these will love the word, and all the hallowed principles involved,
more and more, and stand true till the Lord comes. They will hear them
ringing out the old watchwords, “It is written,” “Thus saith the Lord,”
etc., etc. They will find a formidable array of these—a wall of them
that can never be broken down.
They will find that the great masses of the followers of Christ have
never been perverted, have never departed from their principles, and
have not the least idea of ever doing so, but intend to stand by them
till the last. These are the great stamina of the cause. A few city
people, who read but little, have studied but little, and are governed
by _sound_ and _show_, do not control in these matters, nor a few _rich
men_. The great body of the numbers who are scattered abroad, hear
good gospel preaching, take the papers, read them, and read the Bible,
_decide the course_, tell the story. These are not led away by a few
glittering words, by sound, nor by clerical pretensions. You need not
read to them your dreamy philosophy, metaphysical speculations,
distinctions where there are no differences, prosing through your long
articles of twenty to thirty pages; they will not read all this, nor
will they believe without reading. They are plain and practical people,
and must known what they are doing. These know the gospel and love it.
They know the right way of the Lord and will not walk in any other way.
We work in faith, rest in hope, with the strong and blessed assurance
that this cause will live and go on triumphantly when our part of it
shall be finished. What we are concerned with, is how to do our part,
that may still remain, to the best purpose.