Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
Adam Clarke
XXXVI.—MISCELLANEOUS.
KNOWLEDGE.
IT is the will of God that Christians should be well instructed; that they
should become wise and intelligent, and have their understandings well
cultivated and improved. Sound learning is of great worth, even in
religion; the wisest and best instructed Christians are the most steady, and
may be the most useful. If a man be a child in knowledge, he is likely to
be tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine; and
often lies at the mercy of interested, designing men; the more knowledge
he has, the more safe is his state. If our circumstances be such that we
have few means of improvement, we should turn them to the best
account. Partial knowledge is better than total ignorance. He who cannot
get all he may wish must take heed to acquire all that he can. If total
ignorance be a bad and dangerous thing, every degree of knowledge
lessens both the evil and the danger. It must never be forgotten that the
Holy Scriptures themselves are capable of making men wise unto
salvation, if read and studied with faith in Christ.
Genuine wisdom is ever accompanied with meekness and gentleness.
Those proud, overbearing, and disdainful men who pass for great scholars
and eminent critics, may have learning, but they have not wisdom. That
learning implies their correct knowledge of the structure of language, and
of composition in general; but wisdom they have none, nor any selfgovernment.
They are like the blind man who carried a lantern in daylight
to keep others from justling him in the street. That learning is not only of
little worth, but despicable, that does not teach a man to govern his own
spirit, and to be humble in his conduct toward others.
We must not suppose that eminent endowments necessarily imply
gracious dispositions. A man may have much light and little love; he may