A Question as to Witnesses’" By PRESIDENT BLANCHARD, Wheaton College
H UMAN KNOWLEDGE is de rived from various sources. We become acquainted with the ex ternal, material world through the senses. We learn of the external im material world through language and by other sign sources. That is to say., I know a tree because I see it. 1 know what a man thinks or feels by what he says or by the- way he looks. We learn of distant material and im material beings and facts through tes timony ; e. g., I know that Caesar crossed the Rubicon because reliable historians tell me that he did, and I know a little about his feelings as he plunged into the stream by what he himself said. I know the mosque of St. Sophia to be in Constantinople because I have seen it, but I know the mosque of Omar to be in Jerusa lem because persons whom I trust have said that it is there. Careless thinkers imagine that the testimony of the senses is more valuable than the testimony of witnesses, but those who have thought the matter through with even a small degree of thorough ness, understand that testimony of wit nesses may be and often is more re liable than testimony of sight or hear ing. We know the world within us through consciousness; not by the senses, not by testimony, but by the direct action of the soul. I know when I am glad or sad, when I love or hate, when I pity or am indignant. I do not have this knowledge by way of the senses. I do not see or hear or touch or smell or taste any of these great intellectual or emotional facts, but I know them. I know them as well as if I could apprehend them by the senses. In fact, these knowledges ♦From The Bible Champion, organ of The Bible League of North America.
are more reliable than sense knowl edges. I know also through direct, rational activity. I do not think or guess or suppose that a part is less than the whole, or that the whole is equal to the sum of all its parts. I know these facts. I know them beyond all ques tion. I know them immediately. All rational beings know them as well as I. The very supposition of the con trary is an absurdity; but I do not know thus by the senses, or by testi mony, or by consciousness alone. To be sure consciousness underlies and is a condition of all knowledges, but it is not the cause of the rational intui tions. If some wise man, some higher critic, for example, should suggest to me that, while events occurring in this world must have causes, in Jupi ter or Saturn the case is quite differ ent; that there events are uncaused; I might be kindly disposed toward this wise man, I might try to believe him, but it would be impossible, and at the end of my effort, just as at the beginning, I should know, not guess or think or suppose, but know that events anywhere in the universe of God are caused events, that without a force in operation, no change can take place. I have not dwelt on the sources of knowledge because I suppose my read ers to be ignorant of them. I have not enumerated all the sources of knowledge; e. g., reasoning is as valid a source of knowledge as Reason, though it gives us a totally different series of facts, but I called attention to this subject because so many per sons write and speak as if they had never thought upon it. It is needful not only that we know, but that we think, recall, recognize, if we are to speak or write helpfully. So I close this section
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