But in the same sense in which God is unknowable, all the most
important realities with which we deal are also beyond our
comprehension. We do not know what electricity is, what matter is,
what life is. Ether is utterly beyond the reach of our definitions,
and an English scientist calls it "unknown, impalpable, the necessary
condition of scientific thought." As for the constituent elements of
the material world, we are told that atoms are so infinitesimally
minute as to be indivisible, and yet that an "electron ranges about in
the atom as a mouse might in a cathedral." The plain fact is that in
any realm, human knowledge soon runs off into an unknown region where
it deals with invisible realities, which it cannot define, but on
which life is based. While therefore we do not know what electricity,
ether, electrons, and life itself are, we do know them well _in
their relationship with our needs_. So we may know God. Deep beyond
deep in him will be past our fathoming, but what God means in his
relationships with our lives we may know gloriously.
_O Thou who transcendest all thought of Thee as the heavens are
higher than the earth; we acknowledge that we cannot search Thee out
to perfection, but we thank Thee that Thou, the Invisible, comest to
us in the things that are seen; that Thy exceeding glory is shadowed
in the flower that blooms for a day, in the light that fades; that
Thine infinite love has been incarnate in lowly human life; and that
Thy presence surrounds all our ignorance, Thy holiness our sin, Thy
peace our unrest._
_Give us that lowly heart which is the only temple that can contain
the infinite. Save us from the presumption that prides itself on a
knowledge which is not ours, and from the hypocrisy and carelessness
which professes an ignorance which Thy manifestation has made for
ever impossible. Save us from calling ourselves by a name that Thou
alone canst wear, and from despising the image of Thyself Thou hast
formed us to bear, and grant that knowledge of Thee revealed in Jesus
Christ which is our eternal life. Amen._--W. E. Orchard.
Fifth Week, Fourth Day
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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