The Way to Knowledge by L. L. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 14, 1916

The Way to Knowledge

By L. L. C.

Do you wish to know the truth of any doctrine? Though Christ taught as none other has ever taught, he gave us the real key to all knowledge of divine truth when he said of his teaching, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”

Now this may seem to involve a difficulty, but the solution is not far to seek. As J. H. Jowett says in a sermon printed in the Christian Herald:—

“Here is an apparent paradox. ‘If any man will do his will, he shall know.’ Yes, but our ignorance may center upon the very will we have to do. The will of God itself may be the unknown quantity, and how can we walk the hidden and unknown way? ‘If any man will do his will, he shall know.’ But I must know the will before I can do it; and how if it is just here that the darkness gathers? Surely light must come before achievement, or achievement itself can never be born. And it is just in this difficulty that the Revised Version comes with its gracious aid. In the old version the difficulty is presented with very obtrusive baldness: ‘If any man will do . . . he shall know.’ The Revised Version lays the difficulty to rest. It takes us a step farther back, away to the preparatory conditions before any deed is yet accomplished. ‘If any man willeth to do . . . he shall know.’ Back from doing to willingness to do! We are led from the realm of conduct to the region of character, from finished deed to primary aspirations. ‘If any man willeth to do his will.’ I do not know his will as yet; my feet are stayed; I see no track across the moor. But am I willing to follow the light when the light appears? Are my feet ready to tread the way whenever it emerges clear from the surrounding waste? How sets my will? ‘If any man willeth to do . . .

he shall know.’ And so the primary condition is not a moral act but a moral attitude; it is not initially a finished product but a preparatory mold; not an achievement, but a ‘frame’ of mind by which all achievements are determined. It is not something done, but a readiness to do. ‘If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know.’”

So many times we hear persons say, when urged to accept some point of doctrine taught in the Bible, “I do not see that the matter is important,” or, “The reason is not entirely clear to me.” Without in any way questioning the honesty of the doubt which may be in the mind of some as to the claims of the seventh-day Sabbath, we wonder if sometimes an unwillingness to live up to the light which has shone on their path in reference to this and other matters, may not explain the dearth of divine blessing which they may be experiencing in their souls.

Every ray of light must be followed if greater light is to come. In the words of Dr. Jowett:—

“Our text makes one thing plain, and we shall do infinitely well to hear it; that sunrises are not for those who neglect candles, and that we need never expect to enter into the illumined recesses of sacred truth if the condemnatory light of despised lamps is shining in our rear. ‘If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know,’ and we are pathetically and tragically foolish if we are seeking the knowledge by any other road. The way to firm, fine perception, and therefore to the rich unfolding of truth and glory, is not through metaphysics, or by the towering aspirations of philosophic Babels, but by the humble commonplace road of reverent moral obedience. . . .”

“In our quest for God and truth we must therefore see to it that there are no smoking lamps, and we do this when we firmly set ourselves to do the will we know. There are whole continents of spiritual truth lying back in twilight and night, but there is a fringe of revelation in the foreground, glimpses of our Lord’s will which leave us in no manner of doubt. Let us begin with the will we know, and through it move on to the unknown. But when I say ‘the will we know,’ I mean all the will we know. We are not to choose a candle here and a candle there, and reject and ignore the rest.”

Shall we not resolve to neglect in the days to come no ray of light which God may have caused to shine across our pathway, and in this obedience to study God’s holy Word daily for a greater and still fuller revelation of his will for us personally? Only thus can new spiritual truth be discovered. “This willingness to do his will, whether I find the clear revelation in the sacred Word or in the private oratory of my own conscience, gives to my life the requisite atmosphere in which all sacred truth is to be discerned. To be willing to do his will, and to do it, gathers into the life a certain air of refinement which is the only congenial medium for the discovery of spiritual truth.”

L. L. C.