ADD TO KNOWLEDGE, TEMPERANCE
ADD TO KNOWLEDGE, TEMPERANCE
The end of knowledge is to furnish one with skill to act rightly in every circumstance. The great advantage of knowledge in a world of evil is that it tells a man how to find the true and holy path through it. Hence “the knowledge of the holy is understanding”. The coming in of sin by man eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil only made it necessary that he should be taught of God in order to be preserved from the evil which he had introduced by acting in his own will. This then is the path which the vulture’s eye hath not seen, the path — the “wisdom” — of which “[p. 356] the fear of the Lord is the beginning”, Proverbs 9: 10. The greatest and most eminent course for any one in this scene is to be so intelligent in the mind of God as to know how to keep separate from all that is foolish and evil. The glory of knowledge is that it shows me this wondrous path, and conducts me by divine skill away and apart from the snares and pitfalls and vexations which are on every side, in this world. “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation”. One cannot conceive anything grander than to see a man so instructed that he is never at a loss how to act; and though he has to refuse many things, he does not feel aggrieved; he sees that it is right and wise for him to do so, and that the way of wisdom is the path of pleasantness and of peace. The use of knowledge is to inform a man what he may do and what he may not do, and hence we are to add to knowledge temperance; 2 Peter 1: 6. According as you have knowledge, you know how to steer clear of things which would otherwise hinder and check you. “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things”. Divine knowledge teaches us how to be temperate.
The desire to be wise was part of the temptation which led to the eating of the forbidden fruit. The desire to know more exists in the natural mind. To exalt and to minister to oneself is man’s continued effort, and mere knowledge peculiarly contributes to it. Nothing so exalts a man above his fellows as knowledge, and hence there may be a labour and pursuit to acquire even the knowledge of the Scriptures, without having the conscience exercised by this simple principle, that for every increase of knowledge there is an increase of responsibility. It is plain, as man has turned everything here to self-aggrandisement, that as I hear the word of God and receive it, so must I break away from the things in their endless variety which this world presents to me. The world is an organisation by which [p. 357] everything is arranged to suit and to add to man’s greatness. It is order, but an order to suit and to please man, and all human knowledge has been used to this end, to form a system entirely suitable to man; and for this end christianity has been adopted by man. God is not really before the mind, but the benefit of society. Now the culmination of this world is Babylon, where there will be the best of everything, with entire and unequivocal independence of God. The calling of the saints is, “ye are not of the world”, and yet we are in it; and we are taught of God in it, and as we learn and understand the mind of God, the better and the more distinctly do we keep clear of the world. A saint of full age has his senses exercised to discern good and evil. We are to regard ourselves in this world as ships at sea. Unless properly guided the ship will surely be wrecked, and all the learning and knowledge of the mariner is to keep it safe, and to find a clear path, where it is exposed to dangers and adverse elements on all sides. The master of the ship understands very well that his knowledge is of little use unless he can apply it to the navigating of his ship. That is just the way a saint is to regard all knowledge; he has to apply knowledge to a definite point, and that is, to steer his way safely through elements that he cannot trust, and which are often set dead against him. The first thing for a saint is to accept in his conscience that he is in a world where everything is against him, and where there is only one true path, the path of life, made and walked in by our blessed Lord; and therefore that all light points out this path. It shows us what we are to avoid, and what would divert us from this path; for our calling is to walk as He walked. Divine knowledge instructs us to turn away from man’s principles and tastes, and to adopt what God approves, so that I have fulness of joy, because I am in the path of the One who knew all God’s mind, and who walked here entirely separate from everything not of God. Thus,
[p. 358] as my knowledge increases I am either more unworldly, or I get a bad conscience. It sets knowledge in a very high place when we see that the end of it is to direct our steps to the one only divine path, the path traversed by the blessed Lord from infancy to glory. Thus there are two things for us to accept; first, that the world in its very rudiments diverts us from God; secondly, that the light of Scripture is the only guide to the path of life. We are perfectly incompetent to act, even in the most ordinary duty, till we are taught of God, and therefore the more we are taught of Him the more distinctly we are kept apart from the world. The word is the guide.
Now there are two actions of the word by which this temperance or separation is produced. The first is the washing of water by the word. (I need scarcely add that we are first born of the word, the incorruptible seed, “the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever”.) Now this action, as the word “washing” implies, is to remove soil or worldliness which adheres to us here, when it is on the conscience. The conscience is enlightened according as the word of God is made known. The washing is to remove every soil on the conscience, everything which hinders communion. It is more the negative side, while the second, sanctification, is more the positive side. “Sanctify them through the truth: thy word is truth”. This imparts a new and holy intelligence; “the knowledge of the holy is understanding”; and the Lord adds, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth”, or by the power of it. That is, He has gone away entirely outside the range and action of things here, in order that through association with Him we might be separated from it all, and to another and glorious order of things. Chastening too is with this in view, that we might be so broken away from things here as to be partakers of His holiness. Now in order to preserve a good conscience we must [p. 359] have our feet washed. We must be detached from that which defiles, and as our hearts are instructed in the order of things which is of God, we are sanctified, walking separate from the world even to the measure of the Lord’s separation in heaven.
We may now consider the various practical ways in which we “add ... to knowledge, temperance”. For the sake of clearness in speaking of the world, I will divide it into four classes. First, there is dress. This is a course of the world within the reach of almost every one. The poorest may, by some very small thing, show a desire to be in the fashion; the attempt to be in proximity to it shows where the heart is, and if the conscience be not offended by approximating to the world, it is because there is not in that person divine knowledge, which would inculcate temperance, or a separation from the world. How sad it is to see the greatest sorrow, because of bereavements, made an excuse for an expensive dress and costly array, with a parade abhorrent to true sorrow. Surely this is not of the Lord, and to act in this manner is not after the “knowledge of the holy”, nor is it as the “holy women adorned themselves”, nor as those who have their lights burning and their loins girt.
The next class I may call ‘ease and style’, under which we may range fine houses, and everything in one’s surroundings which denotes how careful and concerned one is for one’s own comfort and consequence. Not that a roomy house in a healthy locality is to be refused, when the Lord is pleased to give it; but this is a different thing from seeking or retaining what is worldly because one can afford it, or has been used to it. Divine knowledge must cast a new light on everything in the world, and in its course; and certainly it is no evidence of this knowledge when one excuses oneself for either seeking or retaining a grand surrounding because it can be afforded, or because one has been accustomed to it. I believe that divine light would [p. 360] judge everything; and though at first, when there was little knowledge, there might be but a very moderate separation from these things, I cannot see how any one can increase in the mind of the Lord, and intelligence as to His path on earth, and not feel that there must be a refusal or a renunciation of that which lends consequence or distinction to one, in the world from which He has been rejected. It is often alleged that the house which would be renunciation for one would be vanity for another, because of his means. I am not contending for levelling; I am showing that as any one knows more of the mind of the Lord, he retires from the habit or course of the world; and as the rich man has the greatest opportunity for renunciation, he receives more from the Lord in this present time for so doing. And if the man of small means seeks or desires style, he evidently has not added to his knowledge temperance; that is to say, if he has any knowledge, he has it not divinely, for he knows not how to turn it to profit; and he is no witness, for if he be not able to refuse the king’s meat and the king’s wine, as Daniel and his companions did, he will not be able to face the king’s fire in faithfulness to Christ. I do not advocate an iron rule, far from it. All I endeavour to show is that the increase of divine knowledge must conduce to a great and decided change in all one’s tastes and arrangements, and this according as there is advance in it; so that what was allowed or undiscovered by one, ten or twenty years ago is now refused or put away. If it were not so, increase of knowledge would not be increase of light, which distinguishes between the evil and the good.
The next class I will call luxuries. What comes under this head almost every faithful saint would denounce and deprecate, if indulged to excess; but yet many things which must he classified under the pleasures of the flesh and of the mind — and all superfluities are such — are sanctioned and indulged in. Things are [p. 361] partaken of for gratification, which are not necessary for the health, and things are looked at or read for the gratification of the natural mind, which the knowledge of the mind of the Lord would refuse and reject. Is it not evident that seeking or retaining superfluities is an evidence that divine knowledge does not govern such an one? and that if he were led by the mind of Christ, the purpose of the heart would be, “Let me not eat of their dainties”.
The last class I term position or self-consequence. Perhaps the last thing one surrenders or loses sight of is self-importance. It is curious and unmistakable how it clings to us, even while all the others may be partially refused. The pride of life lies so deeply imbedded in the heart that, like a ruling passion, it is strong in death.
To me it is a solemn and momentous consideration how little our knowledge in the present day has conduced to our temperance. Have we learned to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race set before us? Is it not a painful fact that when there was less light among us there was more separation, and the sanctification was of a more marked character? and that while knowledge has greatly advanced, temperance has rather decreased? Men who began in the simplest way have been gradually drawn back again into worldly habits, through marriage, or increase of means, or one cause or another; but this is evident, that there is not as much separation as there used to be. There is an attempt to keep up some link with the world and what it commends and acknowledges, and this indirectly promotes worldliness in those who have the opportunity to be so. It is sad to hear that God has given us what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and yet to be as interested as a worldling in what the eye sees, and in all that nature can contribute. The one simple question for us to decide is, Can there be divine knowledge without a [p. 362] proportionate separation from the course and fashion of the world? and does not the latter determine the real extent and power of the former?