The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-11-08
For the Central Presbyterian.
The Limits of Thought

1AO 2I1114AOo VI = 11O
Protestants usually reject with con-
tempt the Catholic aphorism that "igno-
rance is the mother of devotion" but in
one sense it is a profound and important
truth. Ignorance of God is the founda-
ton Of reverence and worship. Igno-
rance of the Scriptures and of revealed
religion (the sense in which the Catholic
understands it and the one in which it is
usually UNDERSTOOD so far from being
the mother of devotion is the mother of
superstition. But ignorance of God is
essential to all proper and acceptable re-
ligious worship. Our knowledge of God
must be partial and limited because our
minds are finite, and in that limited
knowledge of God are implanted the in
stincts Of fear and reverence. If man
knew God absolutely as he knows him
self, he could not worship Him. He
might admire Him as companion and
love Him as friend, but worship Him as
superior being he could not. For then
God would not be superior being. Man
would be His equal and one equal cannot
worship or reverence another. Man
would himself be infinite, and the infinite
cannot worship the infinite. Perfect
knowledge of God would destroy rever-
ence for Him and remove the foundations
of worship. Therefore in the nature of
things, we must ever remain ignorant of
God and under obligations to worship
Him.
Belief in God is not knowing God.
Faith does not reveal Him, except to
very partial extent 1t only assures us
that He is, and that He is the rewarder
OF all them that seek Him. His infinite
resources, the extent of His power and
wisdom, and the plenitude of His being,
remain forever wrapped in impenetrable
mystery. After we have received the
fullness of His grace and had His love shed
abroad in our hearts so that we can re-
joice in hope of His glory, after we have
surveyed His works and taken in the
widest acquaintance with them that
science and discovery can possibly give
us, though we might have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge" yet would it still be
true that these are but "PortS of His
ways, but how small a portion of Him is
seen"
at is the glory of God to conceal
thing and among the things concealed is
His own nature and essence, and indeed
the nature and essence of all things else.
We know nothing essentially and abso-
lutely, but only relatively and phenomi-
nally. We have no faculties with which
to comprehend the transcendental sub
stance or tertjaln1 guid of which all pro-
perties are but the manifestations I'll
we had a thousand senses instead of FIVE,
we could only know the properties OF
things. God has concealed from US far
more than He has revealed.
The Scriptures are not an exhaustive
revelation of the science of anthology
They never were intended to uncover the
infnitude Of the universe of being. The
visible frame of nature is not the all
There are more things in heaven and
earth than were ever dreamed of in our
philosophy, and there are more things in
existence than were ever designed to be
revealed to us in the Scriptures. The
Scriptures, indeed, run along on a very
narrow track. They confDe themselves
principally to teaching us what to believe
concerning God, and what duty God re-
quires Of man. They never branch of
into the wide field Of human speculation
and secular thought There is a universe
of things lying outside Of purely religious
thought and duty that they pass over
with profound silence as beneath their
notice or beside their purpose. That
wide field is left to reason to explore as
far as she can, and what she cannot com
pass is given up to ignorance to be Gov
cred with darkness. But the extent OF
territory conquered by reason is infni
tesimal compared to the boundless do
main that lies beyond, from which she is
debarred by the limitation of her powers
and the nature Of the things that occupy