Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
possession of Christian doctrine, and confining themselves to a
narrow range of Scripture truth. There may be danger attendant
on every truth, since there is none that may not be perverted by
some, or that may not give offense to others ; but, in the case of
anything which plainly appears to be truth, every danger must
be faced. We must maintain the truth as we have received it,
and trust to Him who is "The Truth," to prosper and defend it.
— Whately.
749. Supposing the apostles and their divine Master had really
regarded it as a part—and it must have been a most essential
part, if one at all—of the Christian system; had they really
designed that there should be, for the universal church, any
institution answering to the oracle of God as the Tabernacle—it
is wholly incredible that the Lord Jesus Himself should be
perpetually spoken of as the Head of His church, without any
reference to any supreme authority on earth, to any human body
as His representative and vicegerent. Now, they do not merely
omit all such reference, but they omit it in such a manner, and
under such circumstances, as plainly to amount to an exclusion.
A ship was about to sail for a certain harbour without the captain,
who had been usually the commander, but who was then
called to serve elsewhere. He came on board to take leave, and
to warn the officers and others of the dangerous rocks and
shoals, which, to his knowledge, beset the entrance ; exhorting
them to keep a good lookout, and also to enquire carefully into
the character of any pilot who might offer his services; as some,
he was certain, were in league with wreckers and would purposely
steer the ship on rocks, that these wretches might plunder
the wreck. And if we were told there was, to his knowledge, a
lighthouse erected there as a sure landmark; and a ship could
not go wrong that did but steer straight for that : should we not
at once exclaim that, since he said not a word of this, he must be
either a fool or a knave? And, on being assured that he was
an eminently wise and good man, and thoroughly well informed,
we should say : "Then this story of the lighthouse must be a
fiction." And now look at Paul's farewell (Acts 20:29-31) to
the elders at Miletus, where, in the immediate prospect of death,
warning his disciples of the dangers to which they would be
exposed, and showing them how to meet them, he said not one
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