MY dear Friend informs me that she is going to search the Scriptures, and to compare the Old Testament with the New. At this she will perform wonders, for I have known the time when I was engaged in the same fight-that as fast as I shifted my ground the devil shifted his. When I had made a thing clear by the word of God, he attacked the word also, and told me that the scriptures were a device of his to puzzle, baffle, and confound mankind. When I flew to the Divine Being, he told me as the fool says in the Psalms, "There is no God." When I fled to the works of creation, and asked, Who made these things? he told me plainly that he did. When I asked, Who made me? he answered in the affirmative, that he did. When I asked why men worshipped God, he told me he received worship and I must pray to him, for there was no other to pray to – thus was my mind followed, harassed, confused and confounded; but not one of these lies could fasten on my conscience, though I was dumb and without an answer.
Nothing, my dear Friend, can keep us upon this ground and in this conflict, but the almighty power of God, and by that power are we kept through faith; "I will water it every moment, and I will keep it night and day." The following passages from the Old Testament and the New, are sufficient for faith; "Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," Psai. ix. 6. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty," Rev. i. 8. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God; all things were made by him," &c. John i. 1, 3. God, the mighty God, the Almighty, the First, the Last, and the Creator of all things is, and ever must be the object of worship, of hope, of confidence, and of all trust –but as I before said, nothing but divine power can keep a soul in the fiery trial.
Holy Adam fell, and valiant Peter fell, and wo be to every one that is alone when he falleth, Eccles. iv. 10. God's power alone must keep us if we are kept, and this power must be fetched in by constant prayer; "Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation." And again, "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
Ever your's
W. H., S. S.
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