In the kingdom of Christ, insubmission to the plain letter of Scripture, a wish to look into the secret purposes of God, and 'to be wise above what is written,' has, at all times in some measure, and at this time in particular, distracted the church, and tainted the simplicity of divine truth. So much of corrupted nature is there in us, men will even here be thinking for themselves, and call their views deep, enlarged. These biblical freethinkers take the word of God for their rule, but then it is in a different sense - in any sense, they do not much care what, so it be but different from that in which any simple mind would understand it…..Such critics have made intellect seem the enemy of truth, which God could never mean it should be. He foresaw, indeed, that it would become so. He knew how powerful an instrument in Satan's hand would be the reasoning, questioning pride of man, when induced to array itself against the reception of the word. When He determined to reveal to babes what was hidden from the wise and prudent, it was not that He held in abhorrence gifts He had bestowed; or that superior endowments made the creature an object of dislike to his Creator, that He should exclude him from His mercy. Impossible! But it pleased Him to clothe His Gospel in such a form, that non but the simple-minded could receive it; and while He gave His revelation in terms so plain, the way-faring man, though a fool, could not err therein, unless willfully choosing darkness rather than light…….
It pleased Him there should be but one way to divine knowledge; the ignorant, the poor, the simple, were ready to enter it, and his Spirit had only to unclose the gate- but for the wise, the learned, the disputatious, a previous process was required: 'If any man will be wise, let him become a fool.' They must go back and enter by the same gate of child-like ignorance, receiving the dictation of the Spirit without question and without dispute. This the All-wise foresaw they would not do. They would take His word as if it were the word of man, and examine it by the light of their own wisdom; and doing so, would either reject it wholly, receive only so much of it as they could fully explain; or, admitting its divine authority as a whole, would subject each separate part to whatever construction seemed most agreeable to their natural reason. Well might God foretell that not many such would be saved, although He named a way by which they might be. That which seemed impossible with men, was possible with God. Some such are saved; not by conforming His plan of salvation to their character, and unclosing His mysteries to satisfy their wisdom, but by quite a different process. Touched by His Spirit, they consent to become fools, to read, believe and obey. But, alas! How often is this the end, when it should be the beginning; even of a religious course. What years of holy contentment are lost; what seasons of doubt and despondency endured, because men will reason when they should believe, or will have other guides for their belief, than the plain letter of the Scriptures! …………A Christian who…knows no right, no wrong, but according to God's revealed word. If he is questioned, there is his reason - if he is reproached, there is his defense - if he is in doubt, this, and this only, can resolve him.
- Caroline Fry Wilson
From her book: Christ Our Example
