Chapter 43—Beware of Imitations
Association with learned men is esteemed by some more highly
than communion with the God of heaven. The statements of learned
men are thought of more value than the highest wisdom revealed in the
word of God. But while infidelity is proudly lifting up its head, Heaven
looks down upon the vanity and nothingness of human reasoning; for
man in and of himself is vanity. All the merit, all the moral dignity, of
men has been theirs simply in and through the merits of Jesus Christ.
What, then, are the speculations of the greatest minds of the greatest
men that have ever lived? Yet men place their human reasonings
before the revealed will of God, and present to the world that which
they claim is higher wisdom than the wisdom of the Eternal. In their
vain imaginations, they would bring down the economy of heaven to
suit their own inclinations and desires.
The great God has a law by which to govern His kingdom, and
those who trample upon that law will one day find that they are
amenable to its statutes. The remedy for transgression is not to be
found in declaring that the law is abolished. To abolish the law would
be to dishonor it, and to cast contempt upon the Lawgiver. The only
escape for the transgressor of law is found in the Lord Jesus Christ;
for through the grace and atonement of the only-begotten Son of God,
the sinner may be saved and the law vindicated. The men who parade
before the world as wonderful specimens of greatness, and at the same
time trample down the revealed will of God, robe man with honor and
talk of the perfection of nature. They paint a very fine picture, but it is
an illusion, a flattering deception; for they walk in the sparks of their
own kindling.
Those who present a doctrine contrary to that of the Bible, are
led by the great apostate who was cast out of the courts of God. Of
him before his fall, it was written, “Thou sealest up the sum, full of
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wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of
God; every precious stone was thy covering.... Thou art the anointed
cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy
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