The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-01-25

M and the giyer of
~ life to all who
M 1A walk therein.
While there are
many voices in the world and none of
them without significance, as Paul says
in his first letter to the Corinthians,
there is n voice greater than all 9TH
ers, and yet one to which few listen
the voice of God.
It takes more frmness to keen ones
balance in these days than ever be-
fore. The voices around us are so
many, SO insistent and so varied, that
one hardly knows where he stands and
what to believe. The voice of events
is such that few men are making pre-
dictions any more. The world was full
of prophets of the Immediately i'm
pending golden age five years ago, but
their occupation is gone. 1t seems un-
~belieyable that in a little more than
six months the victorious central pow
ers have been broken to pieces by the
entente allies, but it is so. Sir George
Adam Smith said to President Wilson
1ullC LC1ClllJ IOl lOuI AtdIS L l1dft
been schooling myself in the incredi-
bic, till it has become terribly familiar
to me-"
We can believe almost anything
these days, and the reason is that man
has lost trust in his own forecastings.
If man has lost this trust, is there any
being in the universe that has not done
SO? We firmly believe there is, and
that n is God, who sits 'on the cir
Gle of the heavens" and calmly looks
upon the connections of this planet
and the interests of thousands much
greater. Is it not wise, therefore, to
listen to his voice?
God speaks in creation and provi-
dence. 1.-THE heavens declare the glory
of God and the armament showeth his
handiwork." Eclipses occur to the
second and not a jar is felt in the rev.
olutions of the innumerable worlds
about us. In the study of our every
day life God speaks to US in law that
for a moment gives up its domi-
nation. His prosperity calls for our
gratitude, his infliction of adversely for
penitence, and his faithfulness for
the years gone by declares that be-
cause he is Interchangeable that faith
fulness will continue.
But God speaks to us through his
Son as in no other way, for the Son is
"the express image of the Father"
Many quickly accept the proposition
that God thus speaks, but the voice of
Christ is marred, because their Christ
is a mere caricature. They have ac-
copied what man has said about
Christ as a true picture of Christ.
Some conceptions of Christ are drawn
from the paintings that are exhibited;
some get their ideas of Christ from de-
scriptions found in popular literature,
especially fiction; some get their ideas
even from such agnostics as Renan and
Strauss; and some get theirs from
what they see in those who profess to
love him, this picture often being
false.
Where do we get the right picture?
We have no hesitation in saying in the
Holy Scriptures. There we have fore
CLEANS of him in the Old Testament
that are trustworthy; there we see it
in what he says and in what he does
in that wonderful life which ended on
the cross; there is made plain the
great plan of redemption that he came
to give to men, with the whole future
aglow with his coming glory.
There is no subject that 'most con-
Germs men on which God has not
spoken. This statement is made
t%houghtfully. 1t is not meant that
every detail of mans life and expert
ence is met by a specific word, but that
as to the principles that should guide
man, touching even the minutiae of life,
there is nothing missing. The Bible
tells man where he is going, what he
is in himself, his standing before God {:
that he Is sinful that there is no hope
except in simple faith on Jesus Christ:
that heaven is a reality-and hell as
well that his only guide In this life
is the Word of God, which is put into
his hands in the form that he can read
and study.
Has a single word that God has
said about individuals, cities and ma
lions in the past failed? Is there
anything in the great pictures
given in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah,
Daniel, the Gospels and other Scrip
lures that is untrue? AS his Word in
the past has never failed, it is reason
able to believe hat his Word as to
the future will not fail. Find out what
God says in his Word and act on 1t,
for God viii have the last word.