They (the scriptures) are sufficiently plain in all things necessary to faith . . . otherwise they could not be useful, for a rule that is not plain to us in those things in which it is necessary for us to be directed by it, is of no use to us . . . and it is every man’s fault if he be ignorant of anything necessary for him to believe or do in order to his eternal happiness.
~ William Curtis Stiles, Excuse Me (1898)