If a man receives not the love of the truth, it affects him badly in the following respect:
First. He will exercise no diligence, to find it. He will not search for it.
Second. He will not be honest when it is presented to him, but will evade, cavil, quibble and mystify it if possible; kick up a dust to blind his own eyes, and thus keep him from understanding and receiving the truth. The Lord will abandon such men to “believe a lie, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.” There are many men now who receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. They will never be enlightened or brought to the knowledge of the truth. The truth condemns them and they do not want it. They hate it and those who love it.
Truth has one grand quality about it; the more you know about it, the more clearly you see that it is the truth. It is like an honest man; the more you know about him, the more clearly you see that he is an honest man. The more you know about error, the more clearly you perceive it to be error. In the same way, the more you know about dishonest and heartless men the more clearly you see that they are dishonest.
Be careful and occupy the right ground, the true position, and no man can ever overthrow it, or prove it to be anything else but the true ground. It is a great thing in favor of an army to take a strong position.
We have taken the strongest position that can be taken, and if we fall back from that, no matter what we fall back to, we shall find it a weaker position. We have gone back to our Lord and looked up to him, and committed ourselves to him. He has given us a position and placed us on it. It is not our position but his position. We know it is right, because it came from him and is his. We have simply received him, with all he said and did—his holy and inspired apostles, with all they said and did. We have nothing of our own, but have received Christ and his gospel, the apostles of Christ, and the gospel of the grace of God, which they preached; the teaching of Christ and his apostles; all things as they came from this divine source, without anything added or taken away, anything more or less. None can find a position above this. It is the highest ground that can be taken. The gospel which the apostles preached is right. The apostles’ teaching for the churches is right. This nobody denies. We have no position of our own, or doctrine of our own, but have taken precisely the position of the first Christians, and the teachings under which they were placed, and no other. We, therefore, have nothing but our Lord, his gospel and teachings, as they emanated from himself and his inspired apostles, and no position only the one on which they have placed us to defend.
We are weak and can do but little. Let us not rely on our own position, but the one the Lord has appointed; our own views or theories, but the clear teachings of our Lord and his apostles. Here is the strength, and those who stand here will find the Lord of hosts with them. We must plead for the Lord, the gospel, the teachings of Christ and the apostles, the ground on which they stood, maintain that and nothing else. Here is the power, and it is nowhere else.
[COMMUNION.]
