“How many thousands in the present day, sit encircled by a wall of paper; by pamphlets, poems, novels, reviews, & travels; & oh! how difficult it is for serious & sacred word of truth to break through this literary barricade! What an effort does it cost, before room can be found for the word of the Lord, in place where fresh streams of human thoughts & glowing imagery are almost hourly flowing!…
Let it not be said, that it is so difficult to believe in this word of God. It carries with it so many marks of its Divinity, that, to upright inquiry, it soon discovers its eternal character. On the other hand, its Divine origin is too unsusceptible of demonstration, according to human principle, to be unhesitatingly embraces by any, except those who are impelled by a sense of need, and a hungering after salvation and grace. It is not addressed to reason, but to the necessitous heart; and requires, in the first place, humility of mind, the consciousness of sin, and an earnest longing after reconciliation. To him, who comes in this way, it proves itself to be, not merely in a general sense, the word of God; but it gently raises him on the light wings of faith, above the difficulties which, to self-satisfied reason, forever remain a stumbling-block!…
We, who are of Zion, have also words at our command that can banish night, and allay the storm. We possess the word that can remove the consciousness of guilt, and tame the passions; the word that can dispel the cares of life, and impart to the gloom of death a festal character. If there be a word that can unravel the mysteries of this world’s history, that can remove the veil from the most distant future, that can open the gates of eternity, deprive the grave of its terrors, and teach the son of earth to walk upon the raging billows, then we possess it. Trample us underfoot if you will; the glory of possessing this word you cannot deprive us of. Cover us with ignominy and contempt; yet the splendor of that crown with which this noble possession adorns us, cannot be tarnished. The world may have many things to boast of; but it can make no pretensions to such a word!”
— F.W. Krummacher, The curse of unbelief
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