Of course they can be explained away to the satisfaction of worldlings and cavilers in the churches. So can any other texts that teach doctrines, or enjoin prohibitions or precepts repugnant to the sensual, worldly spirit of the age. This is done to a fearful extent. The cross is wreathed with flowers, and instead of being the symbol of the maligned, despised, persecuted religion of the man of Nazareth, it has become the symbol of baptized worldliness and a refined sensualism and fashionable sentimentality. It may adopt its forms, use its language and claim to be its representative, but it is all a delusion and a sham.
Stress is laid upon what it is fashionable to observe.
We have no right to reject the words of the Bible or the ideas which they represent and still claim to be Christians. We must accept the word in its Scripture meaning, and neither reject it nor explain it away. It applies to a child of God in various stages of his experience. A blade of corn may be said to be perfect in a dozen different stages of its growth. But if, before it was ripe, it stopped growing, it would not be perfect.