A Brief Explanation of Scripture.
By E. Goodrich.
RECENTLY while at a neighbor's, engaged in friendly conversation upon topics of general religious interest, the following question was asked and in substance the response that follows the question was made; and as the question has been a source of doubt to the writer, and perhaps a cause of stumbling to others, it may not be entirely uninteresting to the readers of the Review and Herald. What do you think of, or how do you understand, that Scripture that says, “Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead.” Luke ix, 60. The emphasis of course is mine. Appearances are not always a correct rule by which to judge of the truth of things. The surface may contradict the internal. A man30to outward circumstances may be frank and honest, and yet within full of all subtility and dishonesty. Or he may apparently be in perfect health, and yet within a moment of death. And so it is with many of the events that surround us in this life. Again, in order to understand the language or words of any writer or speaker, it is necessary to obtain the same stand-point of observation that he occupies, so that we may view the same things in the same light. And if we would understand the words and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary to consider his high and holy mission to earth—those great central truths which he came to demonstrate, and the manner in which these truths were presented to the mind. We judge according to the sight of our eyes and the hearing of our ears, and speak after the same manner; but not so with Christ; for he neither judged any man after the manner of men, neither did he declare the truth as it appeared in the outward circumstances of things; but he preached absolute truth as it existed in the mind and purpose of God, regulated by his eternal law. The stand-point of observation occupied by our Saviour, was a high, holy, and eternal one, commanding a complete view of the past, present, and future, and all the consequences of human action; and when he speaks of those things that certainly will be, he speaks of them as things that are, without specifying the time that may elapse before their accomplishment. The Saviour could say of himself that he was in Heaven although personally upon the earth; for in his thoughts, in all the affections and purposes of his heart, and in the truths that he preached, he dwelt in Heaven. These, and the fact that he that believeth not is already doomed to death, formed sufficient reasons for speaking of the living as dead. And neither is this altogether different from the manner in which we are wont to express ourselves; for we frequently speak of the man who is mortally wounded,—perhaps bitten by some deadly serpent, or attacked by some fatal disease, “He is certainly a dead man.”
E. GOODRICH.
Edinboro, Pa.