August 27

The word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. — 1 Pet 1:23

The Word abideth. The Jew hated it but it lived on, while the veil was torn away from the shrine which the Shekinah had forsaken, and while Jerusalem itself was destroyed. The Greek derided it but it has seen his philosophy effete and his Acropolis in ruins. The Romans threw it into the flames but it rose from its ashes, and swooped down upon the falling eagle. The reasoner cast it into the furnace, which his own negligence had heated “seven times hotter than its wont” but it came out without the smell of fire. The formalist fastened serpents around it to poison it but it shook them off and felt no harm. The infidel cast it overboard in a tempest of sophistry and sarcasm but it rode gallantly upon the crest of the proud waters. And it is living still yet heard in the loudest swelling of the storm it has been speaking all the while it is speaking now! — Punshon.