INTERPRETATION NOT SPECULATION.

            “And many there be who think I dare to express what is above and beyond man’s comprehension, intruding into those things which we have not seen, vainly puffed up of our fleshly minds. It is not so. I am a man most reverend of the Word and Spirit of God, waiting daily at the gates of Wisdom and not presuming to force my way, but asking to be taught of God. I do not speculate, but interpret. As more light is given me, I look over the subject afresh, and discover new distinctions and divisions in it. I submit my knowledge and my interpretation to the rectification of the Spirit, and am not ashamed to mould and to modify what I have written. I am in a state of growth, as every child of God is in this state; yet am not prevented from writing my mind unto the churches, any more than Paul was prevented from writing to the Philippians, when he said, “not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect.” I see but as through a glass darkly; and so must we all, till that which is perfect is come. I say to the wise, “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good;” and to the ignorant I say, “Open thine eyes to instruction, that thou mayest be wise.” But, if he say, “I am wise already,” and tell thee to “hold thy peace, and cease from thy babblings;” then I reply, with Paul, to such a self-conceited fool, “If any one be ignorant, let him be ignorant,” and behave himself as one that is ignorant; not toss the members of sacred and holy truth as the wild bull was wont to toss the beautiful women who suffered for the faith of Christ in the early church. I submit these my labours as an interpreter to those who desire to know God’s mind, and in order to become Christ’s disciples, have forsaken all. Those who are seeking honour of men, cannot come near the threshold of the matter. Those who consort with the pride and sufficiency of the natural man, must toss and ravin like a wild and furious beast. Those that are making the best of the present wretched world, and swilling from the sty of sensual pleasures, are dead while they live. Those who are dressed in the little brief authority of church or state, knowing not nor serving Jesus therein, are enemies of the truth, and deadly enemies of the interpreters of the truth. And because these classes do contain almost all men, our labours can meet with few approvers; one or two in a city. Be it so. Wisdom is justified of her children. We will labour on, to show the way of interpretation, and do the work of an interpreter. It is its own reward. Oh yes! it is its own reward, and far more than its own reward. The Lord, who is the companion of my meditations, knows how sweet they are unto my taste. I am edified, and the dear flock over which I watch receive me from my study a better and a wiser man than I was when I entered into it. And, ah me! when I think sometimes that I shall come and execute, under Christ, those great things which now by the Spirit of Christ I am interpreting; that I shall come with Him, to aid and assist in breaking the Assyrian, and ruling the enemies of God with a rod of iron; to break every yoke, and to set the captive free; to bless the nations with wisdom and government; to be unto God for one of his kings and priests, my heart will hardly abide in its place, it so longeth to burst away and be free. O my dear brethren, who think not of the Prophets, and yet are called ministers of Christ, I exhort you, I charge you, to give yourselves to these studies, and leave your farms and your merchandise, and your ambition and your cloisters, and your human learning and your mechanical studies! Ye scorners and ye scoffers, leave your mockings, lest your bands be made strong! Ye statesmen, study the Prophets, and know the polity of God! Ye kings be wise, and study the Prophets, which will teach you in what courses kingdoms stand, in what they rise, and in what they fall to rise no more! But men’s ears are closed; the ministers of religion have taken their stand against the Prophecies and the hopes of Israel; statesmen are become scornful or hypocritical, denying God, or counting it unholy for them to name his name: kings’ palaces are shut upon their people, and no voice of warning can reach them; the names of those who give heed to God’s prophetic word are cast out as evil, and the books through which they would convey instruction are marked and stigmatised as containing poison. Satan hath gotten the field; he hath marshalled his troop; they reject all parley: they fire upon those who bear the olive branch of peace from God: they reject all terms, they scorn all meditation. Be patient, O my soul! be patient unto the coming of the Lord. Be not overwhelmed, O my soul! for thou shalt stand in thy lot in the end of the days. Be it thine to sigh and to cry, to mourn and to weep, and to be vexed daily with their unrighteous deeds: the Lord knoweth to deliver the righteous out of the temptation, and to reserve the wicked unto the judgment to be punished.”—Proph. Exposition.

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