1885 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

Scripture, which from their astounding stupidity, are onlycalculated to excite men to laughter or scorn.Who has not heard sermons in which the entire teaching has beenmade to turn altogether upon mere emphasis, applied in the mostarbitrary manner to a single verse of Scripture? Sermons, whichremind one only of the sentence, dear to every school boy,--"Doyou ride to town today?" Since it is one which, according as this orthat word is made emphatic, admits of five different meanings, andis capable of being considered in five distinct relations, viz.: to fact,to person, to mode, to place, and to time. Seriously, such is thetreatment the Word of God too frequently receives at the hands ofmen who, themselves wanting common sense, are quiteunconscious that others possess that divine gift.R797 : page 2====================--H. Dunn.PRIVATE JUDGMENT IN THEINTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE.Private judgment, properly understood, simply means PersonalResponsibility.In the exercise of this responsibility, a man may, if he think fit,accept, with or without question, the decisions of Rome,--theconclusions of the Fathers, --the dogmas of the Puritan,--theSpeculations of Rationalists, or the current opinions which belongto the religious circle in which he has been educated, or may, at anygiven time, happen to move. But, in each and every case, hisconduct is an act of private judgment, for the wisdom or folly ofwhich, with all its attendant consequences, he is alone andindividually answerable.Private judgment, thus viewed, implies a two-fold obligation, viz.,first, that of a patient and diligent use of all the means placed withinour reach for ascertaining truth; and secondly, the cultivation ofthose dispositions of heart which are favorable to spiritualdiscernment, and apart from which no man can rightly discriminatebetween truth and error.The former will include in the case of those who have anopportunity to investigate, a thankful appreciation of the labors ofscholars, in relation both to the text and to the translation of HolyScripture, and an examination of the commentaries of pious andlearned men, so far as they may seem to us to be truthful andunprejudiced expositions of Holy Writ: the latter, as graces of theSpirit, must be sought, where alone they can be obtained, at thefootstool of him who is the Giver of every good and perfect gift.To those we would add, a reverent listening to the voice of theChurch which expresses itself in the lives and labors of holy men in