Article July 17, 1902 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from Maclaren

It is not the wrong or sin revealed that is most to be feared, but rather that which lurks in secret—that which is the serpent in the grass in human nature. To uncover and expose sin is to cripple it, and to guard men against it. It was a disguised evil which lurked in the tree of Eden. Satan covered it with the of a blessing, so that the disobedience to God seemed advantageous instead of destructive. "Ye shall not surely die: ... ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Men are not so base as to choose evil because it is evil. They choose evil because it is depicted to them as good. As Satan clothes himself as an angel of light, so he paints the way to destruction with alluring advertisements. Music, which was borrowed from heaven and meant to be a vehicle of religion, the Prince of Darkness has stolen and made to lead in the dramas of death. Paul warned the Thessalonians against the mystery of iniquity which is already at work, after the power of Satan, with lying wonders, using to the uttermost the power of deception in unrighteousness. Unrighteousness has no law to which it submits. The broad way admits of great latitude of walking. The right way is necesarily a narrow way. The trails of the narrow way meet one squarely at once. The trails of the broad way come on one like the explosion of a volcano.—The Examiner.

Principal William Caven, D.D., LL.D., Knox College, Toronto, says in The Homiletic Review:—

"That the aid of the Holy Spirit is necessary to the right apprehension of Scripture we can readily believe when we remember that the Spirit is the author of Scripture. In a qualified sense the human penman is the author; and every part of the Bible reveals the characteristics, in thought and diction of its writer. The writer is more than the Spirit's amanuensis. But in a deeper—if not more real—sense, all Scripture is a divine product. God speaks through men, but it is He who speaks. ... Interpretation guided by the Holy Spirit, will necessarily be intelligent, for in the things of God we must not divorce the intellect from the affections; but interpretation may be thoroughly intelligent and able and learned and yet show no evidence of spiritual insight.

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