The second addition to our faith mentioned is "knowledge." A knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ, these people to whom St. Peter wrote indeed had. But there are such heights and depths, lengths and breadths in Christian knowledge that the greatest of saints can never get done learning it. The most knowing are like children on the seashore. Though they may gather the many precious pebbles and beautiful shells, the vast ocean of truth still lies unexplored before them, and we need all strive after a deeper and cleaner insight into the mysteries of God and of His grace. A person once told me that some people know too much, and that their very wisdom in sacred things spoils their piety. This may be where the knowledge is merely a thing of the head and not affecting the heart, but it will be a sad day for Christianity if ever it comes to accept the maxim: "Ignorance is the mother of devotion." Another once told me that it was useless for him to go to church, for he knew it all. Mistaken man! I saw him on his deathbed and found his soul so destitute of true knowledge that he had not enough wherewith to die in peace. Let us not be deceived! Never can we come to the strength and stature of men and women in Christ except we search and study the Scripture, listen attentively to the exposition of the Word. Even what is most familiar to us we need to have continually repeated in our ears, lest we forget it, or our piety will go out and die, just like a lamp that is not supplied with oil. For not only theoretical knowledge does the Apostle mean here, but, I take it, practical knowledge, that knowledge which we ordinarily call prudence, which is knowledge applied to action. And it is a quality which a Christian must seek to cultivate. A Christian ought to grow wiser as he grows older. A Christian is intent on studying his character and his ways. He seeks to make every day an improvement or correction of the former, deriving strength from his very weaknesses and firmness from his falls. A Christian distinguishes times, places, circumstances; he does not rashly offer his opinion, but discerns when to speak and when to keep silence. When he reproves, he does so with skill; when he gives, he does so with judgment. A Christian does not overrate his position and talents, nor does he underrate them; he is willing to approve things that are excellent, even if he is not the first to advance them, and is upright enough to speak against what is wrong, even if it might not be popular. But alas, what numbers there are of normal Christians whose temper, character, disposition marks no improvement; they are the same year in and year out, no better, no holier, no stronger in Christian life; their Christian experience and advancement is equal to naught. "The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way," says Solomon, and the Apostle exhorts: "Add to your faith knowledge."