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CONSTANCE L. MAYNARD ON 



If we turn to the more educated minds we must be yet more 

 careful. The generation immediately below our own is just now 

 costing us acute anxiety by its rebellion against a final authority, 

 whether in Church, or State, or Bible, or Home, and we can 

 only help it by following the more personal clue. The recorded 

 words of our Lord may have absolute authority for us who know 

 Him, but those who do not must never be faced with a quotation 

 as final. If you are merely " shocked " at their questioning, 

 you will shut them up into silence. These souls are worth the 

 winning, and I do pray you to spare them the dark tunnel through 

 which I walked for so many years. Eead the books they read, 

 face the questions they have to face, and if this is not possible 

 to you, put your weight on the type of conduct that can be pro- 

 duced by faith, for this is the one witness that from age to age 

 never wears out. Meanwhile T pray you to make as few mistakes 

 as vou can, even in dealing with the outer shell of our beloved 

 Book. 



The Bible is like the field of corn which yields us daily bread. 

 The husk and the straw must not be offered in place of the living 

 kernel, the food of the soul, and yet we must always remember 

 that straw and chaff are absolutely indispensable for the growth 

 of the grain within, and should not be spoken of slightingly, but 

 treated with respect. 



There is a good illustration in the Fourth Gospel of how we 

 are apt to pay for every mistake we make. Philip, filled with 

 enthusiasm, says to Nathaniel, " We have found Him of whom 

 Moses in the law and the prophets did write. Jesus of Nazareth, 

 the Son of Joseph." This short sermon has in it five statements, 

 and two of them are errors. Had Philip said, " Jesus of 

 Bethlehem, the son of David," all would have gone smoothly, 

 and the triumphant shout, " \Ye found Him! " would have 

 produced the desired effect; but, alas, error is more active and 

 blatant than truth, and Nathaniel, who knew his Bible well, 

 stumbles over the word " Nazareth." Philip is checked barely 

 for an instant. He knows that his conviction is not founded on 

 rational and intellectual grounds offered by the past, but that 

 sight, hearing, touch in the immediate present all have something 

 to do with the result on his own heart. Philip is very wise. He 

 feels sure that somehow or other the obstrusive Nazareth will be 

 brought into harmony with the promised Bethlehem, for, after all, 

 these are only outward conditions, and the core of the message 

 he is so eager to deliver remains intact : — " We have found Jesus, 

 long foretold, and now really here." So, without contending, or 

 denying, or arguing, he only says, " Come and see," sure that on 

 the same personal data the same conclusion would be reached 

 by his friend. And it was reached, for at a bound Nathaniel outran 



