MY DEAR BROTHER,—I wish to say a few plain, commonplace, practical things, which I think I can best range under the heads, “Truth, Pyrrhonism, Dogmatism, Christianity”; and if you think them fit for your miscellany, they are at your service, and I trust may benefit your readers.
First as to the terms. By “Truth” I mean revealed truth—that record which God has, in infinite mercy and wisdom, given to us in the divine Scriptures. “Pyrrhonism” I adopt as a term expressive of doubtfulness of mind— “what is truth?” without the heart to prosecute the inquiry. By “Dogmatism” I mark the profession of truth without the practice. “They say [and say rightly perhaps] and do not.” By “Christianity” I understand the living expression of gospel—grace—the apostle’s “faith, hope, charity.”
TRUTH
“Truth” I hold to be definite, unchangeable, and perfectly revealed in the Scriptures. These are, as regards man, the only fountain and depository of truth. As to its essence and living embodiment, it is found alone in Him who said, “I Am THE TRUTH” —happily for us, “the way and the life” also. If others hold not this, it is their loss. They have not the anchor that can be trusted in the storm. Truth, I deny not, may, be matter of long and hesitating and anxious inquiry. Because truth, which is but the expression of the mind of God, though perfectly revealed, is not at once, and of necessity, perfectly understood—not even by those who are called “wisdom’s children,” and are “born of God.” “We know in part, and we prophesy in part.” But truth itself, in the Scriptures, is perfect, absolute, and unchangeable. There is much in the apprehension of this. It removes doubt from the pathway, and is the hinge of all true inquiry. It lays open the well, and how its living waters may be drawn. It points to the oracle, and the temper in which it must be consulted.
As to the study of truth or its investigation, it must be with intent to obey, and not to speculate. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” The disciple’s place, and not the Master’s, belongs to every student of the truth. Moreover, if success is to crown the study, truth must be sought for its own sake, or rather for its Author’s. If the secret bent and purpose is to feed the imagination, or to gratify the lust of knowing, then know this, that thou shalt be “ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” On the other hand, “If thou criest after knowledge, [understanding thy lack of it,] and liftest up thy voice for understanding, [in earnest to possess it,] if thou seekest her as silver, [with an estimation of its value,] and searchest for her as for hid treasure, [willing to dig the field over rather than fail in thy search,] then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.” “When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant to thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee.” It is the heart’s estimation of the truth that quickens diligence in its pursuit; and it is this also, and not the mind’s dry activity, that determines the rate and measure of advancement in it.
“Buy the truth, and sell it not”: no price is too and to open His own doors for its reception. But great for its purchase—no gain sufficient to repay its loss. This is no direction for this world’s marketing: but it tells us plainly why so few obtain what so many profess to seek. “Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart for it?” Albeit the fool of Scripture is this world’s wise man. To him, then, who would advance in the knowledge of the truth, Paul’s direction to Timothy must not stand in the letter only: “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.” And he adds, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine: continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.”
In the communication of truth, when it is drawn directly from the divine word, or, it may be, learned from others, and verified by that word (for all are not alike successful diggers in the mine, though all should alike possess a value for the ore), it is definite and determinate. When teaching ceases to be definite, it ceases to be powerful; for it ceases to be truth that is taught. Teaching that swerves from this may not cease to be exciting or attractive, but it ceases to edify. “He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.” But he who deals out truth that is unascertained and indeterminate, first imposes on himself the chaff for the wheat, and then practices the same deception upon others. To present truth in the plainest and severest garb, and to unfold it in terms level to the commonest minds, is the plain duty of every teacher who is in earnest in what he does. But to seek to popularize truth by diluting it—to drape it so that its proportions are hidden—to adorn it by the efforts of imagination, in order to make it palatable, and so to win for it a place in minds that have no love for it, nor intention to practice it, is to “sow the wind, and to reap the whirlwind.” Spiritual truth can only be apprehended by the understanding becoming spiritual; and the attempt to bring it within the grasp of the unspiritual mind is at best but to leaven and corrupt the truth, instead of using it as a lever by which to bring up the soul to God. Confidence in the truth, or faith, is content to let God work, there is a bustling activity that is ever thrusting itself forward—a running where there are no tidings prepared; which, though it may put on the guise of zeal for the truth, is in the issue no better than sowing in unploughed land. There is divine wisdom in the exhortation of the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, when he says, “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.”
I speak not here against pressing the message of the gospel upon unwilling hearers; though in this, both time and wisdom, and an open door, should be sought at the hands of the Lord; and there should be care that love be never absent as the chief handmaid in the work.
But truth can never he popular in this world. Altogether apart from the testimony of Scripture, even philosophers are puzzled “to know how it is that men should love lies, where they make neither for pleasure, as with poets; nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie’s sake.” And we know who has said, “Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” Truth shows men’s follies and by-ends too clearly, and sheds too broad a light on the masquerading of the world, ever to be welcomed by it. It is only “he that doeth the truth [that] comes to the light.” It is a sort of twilight that men like to live in; or to walk by the light of a fire that themselves have kindled, and sparks that they have compassed themselves about with. And this they are allowed to do, as long as truth is mingled with men’s thoughts and speculations, instead of shining with its own clear light. All human over-valuing, and self-conceit, and false fancies, are detected by the truth; and things that sparkle and look bright by the world’s candle-light, lose their luster when brought into the light of day. This men cannot afford, for it strips the world of its glory, and shows it as a base counterfeit. Supposing the light of truth to be let in upon men and their pursuits, and their estimation of themselves (to go no further), does any one doubt that it would make them feel themselves to be poor, shrunken things, where the heart had not Christ to fill up the place of that which the truth takes away?
But it is the very province of the truth to exhibit things as they are. It is the light which makes all things manifest. There is no object, therefore, unless I would be untrue to my own ends, as they themselves will be ere long manifested in the light, in so disguising truth as to make it pass through the world unrecognized in its claims, and without accomplishing a single purpose for which it is given. But this is done when it judges neither the conscience nor the ways of those by whom it is professedly embraced. The pleasure that may be professed by such a reception of the truth, or the profit, is as nothing; and I ought to blush, if I have only gained for it a welcome on the condition that it shall be deposed from its authority. It is like making truth a harlot to minister to the lusts of the mind. God is the communicator of truth, and He has given it that the heart may be brought into subjection to His authority, as well as into acquaintance with Himself, His works and ways. If I deal with truth at all, for my own profit or the profit of others, I am bound to do it in subjection to God. Hence the apostle’s declaration, “We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
Man, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is only the interpreter of the heavenly oracles. Hence arises a limit in the service of truth. I must cease to interpret when I cease to understand. It may be the consequence of my negligence that I do not understand. Be it so. The acknowledgment of this may prove a spur to my diligence (especially if I bear in mind the word, “to him that hath shall be given”); but it is certainly no warrant to cover ignorance by the pretense of knowledge. How many expositions of Scripture are to be met with, whose contradictions amongst themselves show that it is not truth that is presented, but the uncertain and ever-varying notions of men. What, then, in writing, or in oral teaching, profits? The definiteness of truth; truth, doubtless applied by the Holy Spirit to the conscience and the heart—still, the definiteness of truth. That there may be an effect where this is absent, I do not deny. But what is it? The effect of making people think, if they think at all, that Scripture is as vague and pointless as any exposition of its declarations. Still, I affirm that truth is definite or it is not truth. Boundless in its extent it is, and infinitely varied in its application, but always definite. Where this definiteness is not grasped, uncertainty and unpreparedness for action are the necessary result. An easy-going orthodox profession may be satisfied with vagueness and generality, nay, with vapidness and insipidity; but if the truth is to detach souls from the world, to bring into peace and liberty, and to direct to the just hope of a Christian, it must be definite.
But what of those who are impatient of whatever goes beyond their own conceptions of truth, and who imagine that the perfection of teaching lies in a perpetual ringing the changes upon known and acknowledged, but elementary, truths? I say nothing of those who look rather for excitement than for building up on their most holy faith. But in regard to the question proposed, I say, let the condition of Christians generally furnish the reply. And I add, let those beware who have professedly, through the truth, escaped from that position. Especially let those who are teachers of the truth beware, for the streams will not rise higher than the level of the spring; and there is always a (more or less marked) correspondence between the character and condition of the teacher and the taught. People that are caught by the imaginative, the sentimental, the shallow and wordy, as well as those who are captivated by the comprehensive and earnest, will infallibly bear its stamp. Moreover, it is not everything that is true which profits. I add, where popular effect may become a snare, the example of Philip, in Acts 8, may well furnish instruction to the heart. But above all should be studied the way in which He, who spake as never man spake, detaches, by the truth He presents, the multitudes that were gathered around Him, from all false expectations which they might have associated with His words and mission, through carnality or a worldly mind. The sermon on the mount (Matt. 5, etc.) and John 6, stand out as prominent examples of this. It is a sore trial to our poor hearts to be obliged, by the presentation of the distinctiveness of truth, to count upon following the experience of the Master, as it is recorded in John 6:6666From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. (John 6:66). “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” But this was only a legitimate, though sorrowful, effect of the Lord’s faithfulness to His mission, as uttered in the presence of Pilate, “To this end was I born, and for this purpose came I into the world, that I should bear witness to THE TRUTH. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”
For the truth’s sake all imitation of others, in their modes of communicating it, should be eschewed. Wherever this folly is perceived, it prejudices the mind and often closes the door to acceptance. Moreover it has the effect of making the message appear unreal in the hands of him who is delivering it. Simplicity of purpose and aim will stamp its own impress on the mode of communication; and the vessel will under this power be seen as God has fitted it, and not distorted by the attempt to emulate that which it may be most unlike, both in original character, and in training for the work.
(To be continued)