A Book of Gems, or, Choice selections from the writings of Benjamin Franklin

IT is true, also, that “God’s word, as the only rule of faith and practice, is as much set at naught by the religious world to-day as it was fifty years ago,” and more too; and there is nothing so unpopular with the masses of the people, and some called brethren, as precisely the apostolic way; and the Reformation is not a failure either. Our reformatory movement was right, and is still right. It needs no modification, but needs to be faithfully and honestly carried out. No reformatory movement can ever get in ahead of it. It went back to the divine fountain to find the truth, and not something like it, that could be proved by it. It went back to the Bible itself, and not to something like it, or something that can be proved by it. It went back to the religion of Christ itself, and not to something like it, or something that can be proved by it. This was no failure. The attempt was to go back to the Lord himself; to his own Book, his own religion; and those who attempted this, and did it, made no failure. They found the Lord, his Book, and his religion, and found the salvation of the Lord. There was no failure in all this. This movement has been in the world about sixty years, or about half as long as Noah’s mission lasted. Noah found the salvation of the Lord for himself and family. There was no failure in his case.