Things new and old
God has given instructions to His servants in many different
ways; He has spoken "at sundry times and in divers manners", as the apostle puts
it, and He has chosen very different instruments to convey the messages. The
perfection of divine wisdom was revealed in a divinely perfect man who is to us
"wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Divine wisdom has
also come to us through very imperfect men who have been "wisdom" and
warning.
In many ways the most remarkable example of divine instruction
coming through a faulty man is in the writings of Solomon the son of David.
Solomon would seem to have been the most favoured of mortals; the son of a great
king and the heir to the throne, coming into power at the most favourable time
in his nation's history when all enemies were subdued and when even Egypt sought
alliance with the growing strength of Israel. Solomon had wealth in abundance,
he had bodily health and such vigorous mentality that according to Jewish
tradition he could speak all the languages known in his day. Finally, in
addition to all this God granted to him a special wisdom so that he became a
vehicle for the conveyance of divine instruction to mankind. He is the supreme
example of the ease with which natural blessing may be turned into spiritual
curse, of how a man who knows may fail to perform, and of how the treasures of
divine knowledge and wisdom may be contained in an "earthen vessel" which
perishes even while it conveys imperishable truth.
In writing of the Proverbs there is no difficulty in applying
the lessons to the circumstances of our own time. They are astonishingly "up to
date". There is vitality and freshness in the Scriptures after all the centuries
that have passed since the words were written. A sermon only a hundred years old
seems old-fashioned and dead, but the words of scripture are continually new and
living. They keep pace with a growing intelligence, yielding further messages as
we are able to receive them. "The dark sayings of the wise" often seem perfectly
clear and simple. They do not in any way obscure truth or confuse the mind of a
reader. They are simple in the first message that they yield, but that is not
all that they contain. The darkness is in hidden depths.
The Proverbs are not intended merely for one class of reader
or one grade of intelligence. Their appeal is universal. "A wise man will hear
and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will attain unto sound
counsel." Indeed in this as in so many human lessons, those who would seem to
need the instruction least get the most out of it, while those who need it most
refuse to listen. This incongruity is noted in the first chapter of the book. It
is the wise man who hears and increases his knowledge. "Fools despise wisdom and
instruction."
There is a fundamental truth regarding the human mind which
everyone ought to know and which in all probability everyone will claim to know
when once it is mentioned. We refer to the fact that the mind is so constituted
that we are bound to learn gradually. Some can take the successive steps much
quicker than others, but it is always by steps that we make any advance. The
best way of learning, in fact the only satisfactory way, is in the manner of a
child. It involves much repetition; we pass repeatedly over the same mental
track, but each time makes it a little deeper, a little clearer, and perhaps
carries it a little further. A man has so much in his mind that he may be able
to put thoughts together much more rapidly than is possible for a child, but in
this essential matter of forming really fresh impressions, our aptitude
diminishes as we grow older. There is no such thing as sudden enlightenment, for
we are not able to receive it. It is possible to concentrate a great amount of
instruction in few words, but those few words are unintelligible to a man who is
unprepared. We have heard lectures which would express a great mass of truth to
hearers who were well prepared, but the only definite impression made on a
complete stranger was a headache. Indeed, as we have often remarked, a book
entirely filled with new ideas would be as unintelligible as one written in an
unknown tongue. Take a text book regarding some technical matter that you have
never studied and you will make nothing of it. It may be an excellent book
giving all the main facts that are known concerning the subject under review. It
would be sudden enlightenment if you were able to grasp the meaning of it all at
a single reading, but that is impossible. If you want to understand it you have
to learn in the ordinary way, gradually building up from that which you already
know and with much repetition as knowledge is extended. In other words, you have
to learn in the manner of a child.
It is worth while to emphasize this truth, for so many people
in later life, and perhaps especially in this generation, become impatient of
instruction that might help them. Some teaching is rejected because it is new
and they can make nothing out of it, everything else is despised because it is
old and they know all about it. With less aptitude for receiving new impressions
than was once theirs, they decline to pass with childlike interest along a well
trodden path of thought and so they never carry it any further.
This is not an age for serious reading. Millions of people
with all the advantages of modern education pass through life without ever
reading a single good book. They read a great deal of trash and perhaps
Macaulay's dictum is true that it must be a very bad book to be worse than no
book at all, but this is only a negative recommendation. Much can be learned by
good reading if the student is willing to learn in the manner of the inquiring
and interested child, pleased to renew acquaintance with that which is well
known and anxious to understand that which seems new and obscure.
One who tries to write with the sole object of serving and
helping must have two questions before his mind. Can I give some instruction or
suggest thoughts that will be helpful? Can I write in a manner sufficiently
interesting for people to read? It is easy to do either of these things alone
but difficult to combine them, yet the combination must be effected if we are to
achieve our purpose. The Lord Jesus suggested the right way. The instructed
scribe must be like a householder bringing forth from his treasures things new
and old. They must not be all new or no one would understand, but if possible
some of the treasures must be new at least to some readers. It may be possible,
too, to show the old in a new light so that even those who have forgotten how to
learn may be stimulated into a revival of interest. It is not merely in the
matter of humility that we need to become like children. Those who seek the
Kingdom of God also need the childlike interest in things both new and old and
the child's readiness to learn, step by step, carrying the old thought a little
further.
(PrPr)
