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"And now abideth faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of these is charity." If such be the hidden value of one of the least attractive of these writings, we may well say, with Milton, "I shall wish I may deserve to be reckoned among those who admire and dwell upon them." This literature has been very influential in the development of progressive civilization.
Bunyan fully proves that no state has anything to fear from religion: 'She moveth no sedition, she abideth in her place; let her temple-worshippers but alone, and she will be as if she were not in the world'; 'neither she nor her Jesus are for doing them any hurt. 'God's armour is no burthen to the body, nor clog to the mind, and it being only spiritual, the slaughter must needs be spiritual also. 'All her privileges are soul concerns, they make no infringement upon any man's liberties.
The history of the Church repeats in all ages, generation after generation, the same law to which the Master submitted: 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. We conquer when we are overcome; Christ conquered so, and His servants after Him.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
The homicide cannot dwell with Christ. "He who hateth his brother is a murderer," and "and he who loveth not his brother abideth in death." How much more guilty is he who hath defiled his hands with the blood of the sons of God, whom He hath recently acquired in the ends of the earth by our humble exhortations! Did I come to Ireland according to God or according to the flesh? Who compelled me?
For though thou mayst imagine in thy heart That God is this or that, yet if thou art At all besides the truth of what he is, And so dost build thy hope for life amiss, Still he the same abideth, and will be The same, the same for ever unto thee. As God is true unto his promise, so Unto his threat'ning he is faithful too.
Once more he read from the book: "What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" "One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth for ever." "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down and hasteth to his place where he arose."
And the servant abideth not in the house forever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
Some more permanent thing may help us to feel more profoundly the shadowy fleetness of man. The trifles are so much more lasting than their owners. Or, as 'the Preacher' puts it, with such wailing pathos, 'One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth for ever. This material is perishable but yet how much more enduring than we are!
When our own lives are darkened because our household light is taken from its candlestick, let us lift up our hearts and hopes to Him that abideth for ever. Do not let us fall into the folly, and commit the sin, of putting our heart's affections, our spirit's trust, upon any that can pass and that must change. We need a Person whom we can clasp, and who never will glide from our hold.
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