August 1929
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come to the knowledge o f the truth.” They would, in the service of that spirit of analysis that has been called “the bad angel of our age,” resolve creation into its original elements and forget to use it in the hope of possessing all of its secrets first. They suffer from a psychosis, or disease of the mind, that weds them to psychology, psycho analysis, psycho-therapy and Freudian complexes. Convinced that the intellect can find out the Almighty to perfection, get acquainted with humanity completely, discover all the ways of inscrutable wisdom, and search out all the particulars of history, they canvass creation, en tirely absorbed in the acquisition of knowledge and the pursuit of wisdom. For every theological question they must have an answer ; for information they must endeavor to explore our subconsciousness; disregarding the suf ficient declarations of God concerning Himself and His universe ; and, despising the large and majestic utterances of the Holy Scriptures as they give the outlines of the mountain ranges of infinite truth, they must have a com plete bill of particulars, ranging from atoms to stars, con cerning the divine nature, human origin and character, history and literature, the composition of worlds and the last analysis of all natural forces. They expire at last amid a collection of volumes already dusty with neglect and doomed to the contradiction and the waste basket of the next philosopher, as defeated and as wretched as the miser who sells his soul for a mess of money. Let us not appear to discourage the thrifty and pru dent provision of that material good wherewith God has blessed the world and life, and let us not forget that the honorable and glorious works of God are sought out by all those who in the love of wisdom and progress have pleasure therein. Here are valuable and necessary vir tues for both the history of time and that of eternity. Labor and thought are the motive powers of all material, social, scientific and religious advance. But intellect alone is a poor telescope and a weak microscope. One could undêrstand all mysteries and all knowledge and yet be an ignoramus, crying out with an cient Agur, “1 have wearied myself, O God, I have wearied myself, 0 God, and am consumed : . . . for I have not learned wisdom, neither have I the knowledge of the Holy One. What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if thou knowest?” How much more defeated is the loveless thinker whose mind has shattered itself upon problems insoluble not only to his limited intelligence, but beyond the reach of all the concentrated acumen of hu manity ! For a veil is hung over the entrance to perfect knowl edge, and faith must receive what is made to pass under standing, and love that uses what it knows as fast as it gets it, is the secret of knowing more. The intellect alone strives to push aside the veil that hides the things that belong to God; it tries to do without that faith which is the secret of possibility; it forgets to be righteous; it amounts to nothing. Its theoretical inventions are glitter ing falsity and shallow assumptions. Its wisdom is fool ishness. To obedient faith are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hid in Christ, revealed. Unbelief and unrighteousness scan God’s works in vain. They beggar science, ruin the Bible, degrade Christ, uproot Christianity arid serve Satan, wherever and when ever they can get their thoughts together.
and cover transgression. Pope, with his stilted meter, rarely comes close to human nature, but on one occasion, at least, he did. It was when he said th is: Teach me to feel another’s woe And hide the fault I see, The mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me. III. C hrist C overing S in The supreme illustration of how love covers sin is the way God covers the sins of man through Christ. In the Hebrew the word “to cover” is used as an equivalent for “ forgive.” “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” We may cover the sins of other men, in the sense that we do not publish those transgres sions abroad, or rejoice in them. But the man himself, if he has sinned, must bear the burden of it, and the shame and stain of his guilt. Before that, human love can do nothing. It is helpless and silent. Even David, with his great fatherly love, could not cover the transgression of Absalom. He could only cry, “Would God I had died for thee. I would gladly have taken thy place, Absalom, and received into my own breast the cruel shafts which Joab plunged into thy breast; but it was impossible. Oh, Absa lom, my son, my son, would God I had died for thee.” Here, then, we come to the rare, the great, the sublime thing in the work of Christ. He covers our sins, not by the mere words of counsel and sympathy, but by taking them upon himself and bearing their punishment. He died for sinners, the just for the unjust, the sinless for the sinner, the guiltless for the guilty. There you have the length and the breadth, the depth and the height of the Gospel and its saving power. Other refuge have I none, Miserly Thinkers B y C hristopher G. H azard , D.D. Catskill, N . Y. A MISER is a miserable man. With supplies enough at hand for comfort and usefulness, he prefers to live in squalor and selfishness. His one thought is accumu lation. His one dread is spending. After a while he dies amid his wealth, grasping, anxious and alone with wretch edness. Could he have come within a day of possessing all the money in the world he would still have been. in the same case. Could he have become “monarch of all that he surveyed” he would still have had an avaricious and insatiable hunger; he would still have come short of hav ing enough; he would have desired to clutch the stars; he would have thirsted to pour out the clouds upon his un quenchable thirst. Miserliness has the appetite of the grave, the thirst of a drunkard. All this is analogous to the character and course of such thinkers as those who are “ever learning, hut never Hangs my helpless soul on Thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone, Still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is staid, All my help from Thee I bring, Cover my defenseless head With the shadow of Thy wing.
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