August 5

We that is spiritual judgeth all things. — 1 COR. ii. 15.

Are ye also yet without understanding? — MATT. xv. 16.

THE question was asked his disciples by our Lord. Why should he have occasion to ask it? They had the sublimest and most comprehensive Teacher the world has ever seen, — he who is the Light of the world and who is made unto all his people wisdom as well as righteousness was their instructor. And yet they were without understanding, for the question implies the fact. Alas! it is equally true of all souls without divine illumination. A man may “understand all mysteries” in relation to the material universe, may weigh the gravity of the stars, tell their numbers, and measure their distances, and yet in the high sense in which the text suggests, may be without understanding. There are men whose names have reached the utmost bounds of civilization, who sit in the cabinets of princes and guide the destiny of nations, “wise men,” “learned men,” “influential men,” as they are called, and yet they are without understanding, if they are without the indwelling and abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. For “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.”

William Adams

Come. Light serene and still,

Our inmost bosoms fill!

Dwell in each breast;

We know no dawn but thine.

Send forth thy beams divine,

On our dark souls to shine,

And make us blest.

RAY PALMER (Translation).