THE many exhortations to steadfastness in the truth addressed to us in the Scriptures are abundant evidence, if any were required, of one of the most common of human shortcomings—the tendency to depart from the truth. The whole drift of the Apostle’s pleading in the Epistle to the Hebrews is a sustained and powerfully persuasive argument to hold fast that which the Hebrews had so gladly received in the day when they were willing to make great sacrifices for Christ. “Call to remembrance,” he says, “the former days in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” But these days of warm-hearted enthusiasm had passed away, and given place to the chilling and deadening effect of indifference, and the men who marched forward with firm step showed decided signs of wavering. The practised eye of the Apostle immediately detected the defection, and, as a wise and skilful leader of men, he gives a clear trumpet call to rally the wavering ranks: “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” The keynote to the line of argument in the Epistle to the Hebrews is to be found in the fact that it is addressed to a people not only ready to halt, but ready to go back on a noble profession they had at one time wholeheartedly made. The steadfastness inculcated in the Epistle to the Hebrews meets us time and again in reading the Bible. The people of God are not to give up the truth of God if they themselves or others change. Circumstances may arise which make it very difficult to hold fast that which one time was heartily received as the very truth of heaven, but changed circumstances are no justifiable ground for forsaking the truth.
Again, in the lapse of years the early enthusiasm of the Christian’s early start on the great journey may have cooled to the dangerous stage of cold formality, which exercises a paralysing effect on the hold of divine truth. And when accompanying this there is persecution, or even unpopularity, there is the greatest danger of letting slip the things which we have heard. But in none of these cases is the believer justified in casting away his confidence.
It is important in estimating what is meant by steadfastness in the truth to notice that it implies steadfastness in God’s truth—the truth set before us in the Word of God. This implies that we have knowledge of that truth, and this knowledge can only come to us through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. At one time of the believer’s life this truth may have been nothing, or at least nothing more than that it was held and maintained by those in whom he had confidence that they were the followers of Christ, and, therefore, he rightly cast in his lot with them. But now, it is not because those in whom he has confidence believe the truth, but because he believes it himself as the very truth of God that it becomes something that is not to be lightly given up.
In all true steadfastness there is also love to God’s truth. That love, in thousands of cases, has proved stronger than death. It has encouraged the martyrs to lay down their lives rather than renounce the truth as it is in Jesus. This love of the truth is quite compatible with the manifold corruptions of the depraved heart and the subtle temptations of Satan seeking to destroy it. It is this love that beautifies Steadfastness, and enables all who stand steadfast to be willing to make sacrifices, if need be, rather than let the truth be given up. Hence all such considerations as to what the world will think, what it will mean to our reputation or our feelings if given consideration to for a time, are ultimately set aside as not worthy to stand in the way. The apparent sternness that accompanies steadfastness is apt to be misunderstood by the looker-on as indicative of an unfeeling nature, in which pugnacity and obstinacy have more place than love. But this is a superficial view, and its injustice will be apparent to those who look at these matters, not merely as they appear on the surface, but as those who have learned that Truth and the Love of Truth often appear very stern to superficial observers. Steadfastness in the truth is to be clearly distinguished from obstinacy. Here again the verdict of superficial observers is that there is practically no difference, and the sneering taunt is unfeelingly flung at many who love God’s truth, and are not shaken like reeds before every wind that blows, that it is the natural obstinacy of their nature that makes them so unyielding. We do not deny that the two words may be used interchangeably and fitly describe the disposition of some men, but the steadfastness of which we are speaking is a very different thing. The steadfast man is so, not because it is his particular view or that of many men, but because it is God’s truth. This is the determining factor in his line of conduct. In the case of the obstinate man this element does not enter into the matter at all; he is regulated in his conduct by the fact that this is his opinion, and it is not a question whether it is God’s truth or not. In other words, he is not influenced by a moral, but by a selfish motive. There is no lack of determination and force of will in obstinacy. The obstinate man may happen to be right, but it is not the rightness of his cause that makes him determined. The same determination is seen when he is wrong. Bunyan has drawn with a masterly hand the respective characters of Steadfastness and Obstinacy in his Valiant for Truth and Standfast on the one hand and Obstinate on the other. Obstinate did his best to get Christian back when the latter set out on his great journey to the Celestial City, and in Christian we see exemplified that beautiful steadfastness which in all the vicissitudes of his life kept his eye ever towards the goal. But it is particularly in Valiant for Truth and Standfast Bunyan has portrayed in his inimitable way the Christian grace of steadfastness. One of the most beautiful passages in the Pilgrim’s Progress is his description of Standfast’s passing through the bridgeless river. “When Mr. Standfast,” he wrote, “had thus set things in order, and the time being come for him to haste him away, he also went down to the river. Now there was a great calm at that time in the river; wherefore Mr. Standfast, when he was about half-way in, stood awhile, and talked to his companions that had waited upon him thither; and he said, ‘This river has been a terror to many; yea, the thought of it also have often frightened me. Now, methinks, I stand easy; my foot is fixed upon that upon which the feet of the priests that bare the ark of the covenant stood, while Israel went over Jordan (Jos. iii. 17). The waters, indeed, are to the palate bitter, and to the stomach cold; yet the thoughts of what I am going to, and of the conduct that waits for me on the other side, doth lie as a glowing coal at my heart.
‘I see myself now at the end of my journey, my toilsome days are ended. I am going now to see that head that was crowned with thorns, and that face that was spit upon for me.
‘I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith; but now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with him in whose company I delight myself.
‘I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; and wherever I have seen the print of his shoe in the earth, there have I coveted to set my foot too.
‘His name has been to me as a civet-box; yea, sweeter than all perfumes. His voice to me has been most sweet; and his countenance I have more desired than they that have most desired the light of the sun. His word I did use to gather for my food, and for antidotes against my faintings.
‘He has held me, and hath kept me from mine iniquities; yea, my steps hath he strengthened in his way.’
“Now, while he was thus in discourse, his countenance changed, his strong man bowed under him; and after he had said:—Take me, for I come unto thee, he ceased to be seen of them.
“But glorious it was to see how the open region was filled with horses and chariots, with trumpeters and pipers, with singers and players on stringed instruments, to welcome the Pilgrims as they went up and followed one another in at the beautiful gate of the city.”