The Sabbath

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18165, 1 November 1930, Page 18 (Supplement)

The Sabbath

DAILY REMEMBRANCE. f TEXT AND PRAYER. November 2. God’s Arithmetic. —And besides this giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge- and to knowledge, temperance;’and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, ‘charity,—2 Peter 1:57. p ra y ei u_our eyes Lord see dimly till they are annointed by faith. November 3. The Sorlpture —Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.—2 Peter i. 20, 21. Prayer —“ God in the gospei of His son, Makes His eternal councils known." November 4. The Longsufferlng Lord —The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but toot all should' come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9. Prayer—Great Sun of Righteousness, arise; Bless this dark world with heavenly light. November 5. Our Fellowship—lf we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one . with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.—l John 1:7. Prayer —“My shepherd is beside me, And nothing can I lack." November 0. ' yjy Sins —My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye s.n not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. —1 John 2:1, 2. p rayer —My Savour, there is none 1 other to whom I can look but to Thee only. November 7. Love Not —Love not the world, neither the things that are in the I world. If any man iove the word, ; the love of the Father is not in him. i For all that is in the world, the lust i of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, ! and the pride of life, is not of the : Father, but is of the world. And the 1 world passeth away. and. the lust i thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. —1 John 2:15 • 17. p raye r—“ Rejoice those hearts, my I Saviour.”

j November 8. I The Father’s Love—Behold, what :• manner of love the Father hath bei stowed upon us, that we should, bo : called the sons of God: therefore the | world knoweth us not, because it i knew him not.—-! John 3:1. | Prayer — 11 0 God, my stren©t!i • fortitude, Of force I must love Thee ”

RELIGIOUS TRUTH. FACT AND THEORY. A group of men may be Quite certain of a fact, either because of their own experience of it, of because of* the testimony of others, but differ entirely in their theories of its cause and its significance. In science, _in business, in social life, and in religion men would be saved many blunders and much controversy if only this was remembered. It is useless to say 'that if we can agree about a fact we need not trouble about any theory to account for or to explain it. It is \ impossible to accept a fact without forming some theory about it. The man of science studies facts in themselves and in relation to other facts, and in this study everything depends on the theories he makes about the phenomena before him. His theories may be incomplete or erroneous, and if that is so they will have to be developed or corrected, but he can never dispense with them. It is not otherwise in religion. There also as soon as we apprehend that which is a fact by our Intellectual or spiritual facilities w'e must go on to frame some explanation of its reality and its significance, and. not until then can we say that we have made it our own. God’s Revelation. Those who accept Christianity must hold these considerations to be of importance, but unfortunately they are often ignored. The controversies in the history of the Church make this sufficiently plain. All Christians hold that in the Bible we have the record of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind; that in its different parts, so varied in their contents and their conceptions of God and His Will, we are provided with a guide to the truth about Him and about ourselves. That fact is expressed in the sentence that the Bible is the Word of God. When men begin the inevitable task of framing theories about it immediately we are aware of strangely different explanations about its origin, its nature and its purpose. The fact remains whatever theory men may have about it and divergencies of theory, even when they lead to controversy, do not minimise anything of the reality of the fact Here we must place our emphasis at the right point. Theories must inevitably exist, hut they are secondary, incomplete, always liable to be superseded by other theories. They are never part of the fact._ Perhaps the history of the doctrine of the Atonement provides the most striking instance of the acceptance of a fact with quite divergent theories about it. With ail this before us we may be tempted to refuse to trouble about theories and to rest content with the facjts alone. That counsel is not only useless, it is pernicious. W’e must serve God with our minds, and therefore we must have our theories. W’e need not be afraid of them. A mistaken theory can at least he corrected; it may sometimes’in our discovery of its inadequacy he the means of leading us to a new perception of the fact or reveal a new relation to others.

Tho Ground for Religion. The one important matter' is to refuse to make theories the ground of one religion as if they were facts of faith. Directly we begin to ask How? or Why? we enter, quite naturally and inevitably, into the realm of theory. W’e need not hesitate to do so, but if we differ about our theories let us recognise it with a ready charity. Think of all the anger, the malice, the chicanery, the contempt of the purpose of its institution which has been caused by insisting that this or that theory was necessary to a devout reception of the Holy Communion.

The lesson is plain for-all men to read. Fact and theory must go to: gether; hut the one is of God, tho other is of man. The first remains, the oilier may he abandoned at any time to give place to something more correspondent with reality and of a higher utility in the attainment o, truth. W’e grasp the significance of both when once we recognise the true nature 'of their inter-relation.