THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 



81 



are also deep mysteries about which much controversy has been 

 waged, such as the origin of evil, and the reconciling of pre- 

 destination with freewill, though at best we can only dimly guess 

 at them, and it is not unhkely that they may be beyond the 

 powers of our finite understanding. 



Concerning all matters like these, where the Scriptures are 

 silent it will be our wisdom to maintain the reverent silence of 

 patience and expectation until the time when we shall know 

 even as we are known. The Scriptures were given to make 

 us " wise unto salvation," and we may humbly be satisfied 

 that all which is really necessary for that has been imparted, 

 though there are some things we need not know, and others 

 we are not as yet allowed to know. It is not only with regard 

 to judging other men that we need to learn the lesson " Not 

 beyond that which is written " (1 Cor. iv, 6). If it is expressly 

 forbidden (Deut. iv, 2 ; xii, 32) to add to the Law — a prohibition 

 so grievously disregarded by Scribes, Pharisees, and Rabbis, 

 and not always observed in the Christian Church — there is also 

 danger in attempting to add to what has been definitely told us. 



For this reason, attempts to fill in the history with details 

 which must largely be conjectural are to be deprecated. We 

 may lawfully, though with cautious reverence, supplement the 

 information given by Scripture with that derived from other 

 sources, such as the evidence of the monuments or what is 

 actually known of Jewish thought and manners. Even this, 

 however, should be done with reserve, stating these details as 

 what may probably have been, not as definitely ascertained facts. 

 The absurdities in the Talmud about Abraham and Moses, and 

 in the Apocr^^hal Gospels about the early life of our Lord, 

 ought to warn us against the danger of letting imagination run 

 riot, as has been done in certain romances professing to give an 

 account of the Exodus or of the Life of Christ. 



Most especially ought we to beware of endeavouring to pene- 

 trate mysteries that have been deliberately withheld from us. 

 The study of unfulfilled prophecy is both lawful and in accordance 

 with the injunction to " search the Scriptures." Yet it is 

 hardly safe to assert positively that certain prophecies, clothed 

 in figurative language, are being fulfilled in the events of to-day ; 

 and to try and fi:xthe exact date of the end of the world is surely 

 presumptuous in face of our Lord's explicit declarations. So 

 also the persistent attempts to enter into communication with the 

 spirits of the departed and to peer into the secrets of the unseen 



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