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.