Daily Devotional

Jesus beheld the human race, ignorant, apostate from God, standing under the penalty of the broken law; and he came to bring deliverance, to offer a complete pardon, signed by the Majesty of heaven. If man will accept this pardon, he may be saved; if he rejects it, he will be lost. The wisdom of God alone can unfold the mysteries of the plan of salvation. The wisdom of men may or may not be valuable, as experience shall prove, but the wisdom of God is indispensable; and yet many who profess to be wise are willingly ignorant of the things that pertain to eternal life. Miss what you may in the line of human attainments, but you must have faith in the pardon brought to you at infinite cost, or all of wisdom attained in earth, will perish with you.

Were the Sun of Righteousness to withdraw his beams of light from the world, we should be left in the darkness of eternal night. Jesus spake as never man spake. He poured out to men the whole treasure of heaven in wisdom and knowledge. He is the light that lighteth every man who cometh into the world. Every phase of truth was evident to him. He did not come to utter uncertain sentiments and opinions; but only to speak truth established upon eternal principles.

Then why take the unstable words of men as exalted wisdom, when a greater and certain wisdom is at your command? Men take the writings of scientists, falsely so-called, and seek to make their deductions harmonize with the statements of the Bible. But where there is no agreement, there can be no harmony. Christ declares, "No man can serve two masters." Matt 6:24 Their interests are sure to clash. Again and again men have attempted to put the Bible and the writings of men upon a common basis; but the attempt has proved a failure; for we cannot serve God and mammon.

We are in the world, but we are not to be of the world. Jesus entreats that those for whom he died, may not lose their eternal reward by lavishing their affections on the things of this perishing earth, and so cheat themselves out of unending happiness. An enlightened judgment compels us to acknowledge that heavenly things are superior to the things of earth, and yet the depraved heart of man leads him to give precedence to the things of the world. The opinions of great men, the theories of science, falsely so-called, are blended with the truths of Holy Writ.

But the heart that is surrendered to God, loves the truth of God's word; for through the truth the soul is regenerated. The carnal mind finds no pleasure in contemplating the word of God, but he who is renewed in the spirit of his mind, sees new charms in the living oracles; for divine beauty and celestial light seem to shine in every passage. That which was to the carnal mind a desolate wilderness, to the spiritual mind becomes a land of living streams. That which to the unrenewed heart appeared a barren waste, to the converted soul becomes the garden of God, covered with fragrant buds and blooming flowers.