Increase of Knowledge

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 2, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 26.

Increase of Knowledge.

WE live in times of growth. In the mediæval years, the progress of knowledge and of civilization was so slow that a man might in his youth gain a fair knowledge of the whole science of his time, and then rest upon his laurels for the remainder of his life, knowing that the march of events would not leave him very far behind. Now, knowledge rushes on at a railway speed that leaves far in the distance him who ceases to follow her progress for ever so short a time. Our fathers might be excused for learning a thing once for all, and thereafter teaching it dogmatically—they knew so little; to us it is hardly permitted to be more than learners. We may to-day build up our laborious sciences out of dusty tomes, and fondly fancy that we have placed the crowning stone in our arch of knowledge; to-morrow, a chance discovery on the banks of the Nile the turning of a stone in the valley of the Euphrates, may make the whole laborious system as antiquated as the Ptolemaic astronomy; and half a column's news in a morning newspaper may supersede a dozen bulky volumes filled with the grave surmises of past generations of scholars. It is hard, isn't it, that one cannot learn a thing once for all, and be done with it? But perhaps God gave us to live in a time of growth that we might grow; and perhaps, though rest is pleasanter, growth is better, since God willed that it should be so.—Sel.