What to Do with Doubt
71
ever learning, and yet never exhaust the treasures of His wisdom, His
goodness, and His power.
God intends that even in this life the truths of His word shall be
ever unfolding to His people. There is only one way in which this
knowledge can be obtained. We can attain to an understanding of
God’s word only through the illumination of that Spirit by which the
word was given. “The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of
God;” “for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:11, 10
. And the Saviour’s promise to His followers
was, “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into
all truth.... For He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.”
John 16:13, 14
.
God desires man to exercise his reasoning powers; and the study
of the Bible will strengthen and elevate the mind as no other study
can. Yet we are to beware of deifying reason, which is subject to
[110]
the weakness and infirmity of humanity. If we would not have the
Scriptures clouded to our understanding, so that the plainest truths
shall not be comprehended, we must have the simplicity and faith
of a little child, ready to learn, and beseeching the aid of the Holy
Spirit. A sense of the power and wisdom of God, and of our inability
to comprehend His greatness, should inspire us with humility, and we
should open His word, as we would enter His presence, with holy awe.
When we come to the Bible, reason must acknowledge an authority
superior to itself, and heart and intellect must bow to the great I AM.
There are many things apparently difficult or obscure, which God
will make plain and simple to those who thus seek an understanding
of them. But without the guidance of the Holy Spirit we shall be
continually liable to wrest the Scriptures or to misinterpret them. There
is much reading of the Bible that is without profit and in many cases a
positive injury. When the word of God is opened without reverence
and without prayer; when the thoughts and affections are not fixed
upon God, or in harmony with His will, the mind is clouded with
doubts; and in the very study of the Bible, skepticism strengthens. The
enemy takes control of the thoughts, and he suggests interpretations
that are not correct. Whenever men are not in word and deed seeking
to be in harmony with God, then, however learned they may be, they
are liable to err in their understanding of Scripture, and it is not safe to
trust to their explanations. Those who look to the Scriptures to find