1934 Bible Studies - page 3

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EDITORIAL.

The great value of history is that it is a storehouse of human experience..  It has been said that man’s proper study is man, but linked with this should also be that the chief end of man is to glorify God.  Our studies in Ezra and Nehemiah will bring out this truth in a very special way.  It is not always easy to draw conclusions from small samples, and the variations in individuals often mask the great tenden-cies inherent in the species, but history records the doings of men in the mass ; it gives the average tendency on which individual variations are superposed.  Alas ! the study of man has very little that rejoices the heart ; that upward progress beloved of evolutionists and sociolo-gists is as elusive as " the good that is in every man," which some suppose shall yet bring him into favour with God.

Again, history reveals the results of great experiments made by the human race, for man ever seeks to discuss that which is new.  The Athenians of old expressed no new phase of the desires of men when they spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.  " The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.  That which hath been is that which shall be ; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done : and there is no new thing under the sun.  Is there a thing whereof men say, See, this is new ?

it hath been already, in the ages which were before us."  Such was the saying of a man who in his day had no small reputation for knowledge and wisdom, who had applied his heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven.  Yet his studies yielded the barren fruit that " all is vanity."  Such must be the result if one is content with the dogma that man’s proper study is man.  The Preacher was wiser when he cried at the end of his words, " This is the end of the matter ; all hath been heard : fear God and keep His commandments ; for this is the whole duty of man."

The experiments which men have made have been uniformly disastrous, and Solomon, in spite of all his wisdom, was not exempt from this.  Experiments in rule led Israel to seek a king ; experiments in religion led them to false gods ; novelty ever leads men to seek a way that is not the way of God, to idols, to high places, strange gods and strange women--all these did Solomon try, and all Israel with him.

Men are unduly interested in themselves and in their kind, and herein is the evil when only one half of a truth is laid hold of.  To make man a study, and to neglect the whole duty and chief end of man is making a bias that ought not to exist.  The things that man contrives may please him, but do not glorify God.  Disastrous experiments were made by Israel ; the gods of the Egyptians, of Damascus, of Babylon, any and all were honoured, and the spice of novelty and change was added to their lives while God’s ancient ways were despised, His house neglected, His glory esteemed not.

The experiences of Israel amply repay study, more especially if we see them with a mirror as a background, that we may behold the weakness inherent in us.  Yet we thank God that history records the experiences of men when they sought in weakness and humility to the God whose own estimate of Himself is that He is a God full of com-passion.  These are the bright spots in history, when the returning ones are received back by a loving Father.  Thus we have help and guidance--what men have done, men may do, and in these days there is a call to repentance, a seeking back, a loving of the first ways in God, that is so brightly pictured in the studies which lie before us.  The men who came out of Babylon were men of like passions with us, but they gave up themselves to the call of their God and went forth in faith,