Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

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BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
ceits, we shall make shipwreck of our faith. A young lieutenant
in the English navy discovered a small but dangerous rock in
the Mediterranean, never before known, and reported it to the
admiralty. It was telegraphed to all the stations and ordered to
be put down on all the charts. The first ship to sail over the
spot was under command of an old captain, who, noting the
warning newly placed on his chart, desired to know by whom
the rock was reported. On being informed, he replied : "There
is no such rock there. I have sailed over this sea for twenty
years, and if such a rock had been there I would have found it."
And then, in his pride and conceit, he gave orders to his sailingmaster
to steer directly over the spot indicated. The gallant
ship was driven over the danger spot under full sail. There,
was a tremendous crash, and the noble vessel went down
with all hands. Many a Christian suffers shipwreck through
unheeding conceit or neglect of his infallible chart.
Pentecost.
G. F.
481. Commentaries are good, but not good as substitutes for
independent search. When Alexander the Great stood before
Diogenes as he sat by his tub, the general asked the philosopher
what he could do for him. The rather grim reply was : "Simply
stand out of my light." And any searcher has a right to say
"Get out of my light" to every one whose shadow comes between
him and the truth. A. C. Dixon.
4%2. If the Bible were like a collection of stones, we might
select some and put aside others, as less valuable and beautiful
and although in such selection we might make great mistakes, we
should still be in possession of something more or less complete.
But the Bible is like a plant, and all its parts are not mechanically
or accidentally connected, but organically united, and
hence a law of life rules here; and he who reveres life will
neither add nor take away from the beautiful plant which the
Father hath planted in and through Christ by the Spirit. . . .
Nobody asserts that a man would be killed if you cut off
his hair and his nails. But there is a vital union of all his
members. If you cut off my little finger, I shall survive it,
but it is my little finger you cut off, and it is a loss, a disfigurement.
So with the Bible. It is . like a piece of cloth