U Speaking of God as being infinite in His nature and attributes, he said: "I cannot grasp this infinity: I am not able to com- prehend God ; I know but in part. If I knew Him I would cease to worship Him" 2
U If I knew that I had fathomed all the love or all the wisdom of God, how faith and reverence and trust would fall away from a being that such powers as mine could grasp.3
2. If we can know in part what the holiest Mind has thought,
how the purest Heart has loved, what the most gracious Wisdom
has provided, " let us follow on to know." If we must confess
\ ourselves, at best, agnostics, let it be progressive agnosticism —
" If we do not know to-day, we shall hope to know to-morrow."
^f Is not all positiveness of necessity partiality ? To say, " This is true, I know it," and to leave no room for the limitations and qualifications that we cannot know, for all those outside
1 R. W. Randall, Life in the Catholic CJiurch, 159.
8 D. Brown, Memoir of John Duncan, 248. 3 Phillips Brooks, Life, 80.
i CORINTHIANS xm. 12 379
influences of unseen truth which we must be working on and drawing from this fact that we have found, — is there not some folly here? Is not the true wisdom something like this? — I know so far as it goes this truth is sacredly and wholly true, but that very truth forbids me to believe that it has not developments and ramifications reaching far out into the universe of associated truth with which it is connected. Now I know, and I prize my knowledge as the gift of God and hold it sacred ; but " I know in part," I wait till that which is in part shall be done away.1
(1) Let it be recognized that the highest knowledge we may here attain will not be clear of an agnostic haze. To comprehend infinitude and eternity our mind would have to be infinite and eternal; but we may apprehend where we cannot comprehend. We may voyage on a sea which we cannot compass. Whenever we follow on to know perfect Love, eternal Righteousness, absolute Will, we are compelled to take up Wesley's strain —
God only knows the love of God.
But this is relatively true of all knowledge. Even the flower in the crannied wall has a last citadel of mystery which no effort of the human mind can capture.
\ We see " in part," but we do see Him, though it be only in part ; the more lovely the prospect, the nearer it must be to the truth. Again, we cannot fancy truth ; we may fancy about truth when we are in the carnal mind, being led by the outward word, whether it be of a teacher whom we call the Church, or of an individual whom we call a theologian. In either case, what we see is what we fancy they see. We only see Truth when we are taught immediately by the Spirit of Truth. Let us take our revelation simply, as it is given us, and let us believe that the Lord spoke truly and is come to be the Guide and Teacher of the hearts of His children. His desire is that we should look up into His face and know Him as " Our Father." 2
(2) That we only know now in part persuades us, constrains us to give all diligence towards fuller knowledge. In natural scenery, mountains appeal to us most and touch the strangest deeps of our nature, not when they stand out clear in sharp outline, but when their strength and curve are softened by a tender, almost transparent, haze. It is then that the call of the
1 Phillips Brooks, Life, 111.
3 R. W. Corbet, Letters from a Mystic of the Present Bay, 40.
3te THE PARTIAL AND THE PERFECT
mountains is most eloquent, most effective. And to the earnest soul in quest of God, the richest moments are those when some increased knowledge has been gained, some fresh experience of truth has been treasured, with a feeling that more, far more, remains yet to be won. " We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory."
If It is inscribed on the grave of T. H. Green, "He died learning." If Isaac Newton had one theory of the universe, and John Hutchinson had another, but they both accepted the fact of the universe, about the detailed constructions and processes of which they differed so vigorously. One may believe that the earth stands still, another may believe that it performs certain revolutions ; but they both believe in the earth itself, they both have confidence in its foundations, and they both draw their sustenance from the same generous bosom. So it must be to a very great extent with the first idea of God. We must receive the idea without discussion, without critical or metaphysical inquiry. We must begin with the idea that God is} and day by day grow in our knowledge concerning Him, and in our love towards Him.1
(3) Our knowledge here as elsewhere must begin as a " venture of faith." Faith is the pioneer of all knowledge. The first harvest of the field, the first voyage on the sea, was due to heroism of faith. Belief had to precede experience. Why then should any one demand faith's dismissal when we come to the choicest knowledge of all ? The great word of the Gospel — " Whosoever believeth " — is not a casual or official demand : it is rooted in the eternal order revealed to us. Columbus was not more learned than all his contemporaries: they stopped where experience stopped; he made the venture of faith. The whole story of human piety, of man's apprehension of God, is a story of faith's heroism. When we read that Enoch walked with God, it means that he ventured on a road that had to be travelled in order to be known. The moan of the agnostic in earnest was wrung from the heart of Job, when he cried —