p. 1 | EXPERIMENTAL RELIGION by E. Goodrich

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 25, 1876

FromThe Review and Herald, Review and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 21.

EXPERIMENTAL RELIGION.

By E. Goodrich

“Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.” Ps. 66:16. This is the language of inspiration, because it is the language of a living Christian experience. The Christian has an experience that is peculiarly his own; and it is one of the fundamental truths of the Christian religion that God can and does reveal himself to his people as he does not unto the world.

That knowing and doing are inseparable is one of the great truths of every-day life, as well as of religion. How can a man expect to know anything thoroughly and practically without an experience? He cannot. It is true that an unpleasant conviction may be forced upon the mind, and a man may be compelled to believe that which is against his wishes and interests; yet, as a rule, if one would know the truth of any matter, his whole life, his thoughts, the purposes and affections of his heart, and his actions, must be in harmony with that truth.

And thus we read: “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” John 7:17. The skeptic seems to reason thus: “I do not know; therefore you do not know. I do not see nor feel; therefore you do not see nor feel. I do not believe; you ought not to believe.” But this is ungenerous; for one man may know, see, and feel, and another not know, see, or feel.

How would it appear for one who had never felled a tree, never logged an acre, never plowed a furrow, never planted or hoed a hill of corn, nor spent a single hour of his life in these things, to say to the man that had devoted twenty of the best years of his life to farming and agricultural pursuits, “I do not know, you do not know.” And thus we might speak of every calling and kind of life.

To know, a man must have experience. And if there is anything to be known at all in the world of art, science, or religion, it is but reasonable to suppose that the man who makes any of these professions a specialty, who devotes his time and talents to them, and makes use of all the means and instrumentalities of knowing within his reach, should know more than the man who puts forth no effort to learn.

The religion of Jesus Christ is eminently an experimental religion. To be enjoyed, it must most certainly be experienced and lived. An incident illustrative of the above occurred in the life of the writer some years ago. I was then at work several hundred miles from home—working at the joiner trade and with a man who was a noted skeptic, who seemed glad of an opportunity to speak reproachfully of the Christian religion. I did not care for his reproaches; for if he was satisfied with his infidelity I had certainly no reason to complain. One day as we were at work at the bench, he on one side and I on the other, I sung a verse of that beautiful hymn,

“Jerusalem, my happy home, Beautiful land of rest, Beautiful land, beautiful land, Beautiful land of rest.”

As I finished singing the stanza and came up to the end of the bench, having finished dressing the piece of casing that I was at work upon, I noticed that my skeptical friend had stopped work and looked very much pleased about something. I had not long to wait to know the cause; for he at once looked up and said, calling me by name, “G——, do you know that the man that composed that hymn had land for sale?” meaning a fraud, a speculation. I at once saw the insinuation and replied, “Yes, certainly, there is land for sale, and that is why I am singing.” And putting the end of my plane down upon the bench so as to be in an easy standing position, I said to him, “See here, B——, you are not generous at all. You say you do not see, you do not feel, you do not know, you are in perfect darkness. I give you credit for telling the exact truth about yourself. I do not know why you should lie about your moral condition. I say I do see, I do feel, I do know; there is land for sale. Now why can not you give me credit for telling the truth? Why should I lie?”

Cannot one man know and another not know? How is it in intellectual life? Suppose we take two men, the one a very ignorant man who knows seemingly but little more than the team he is driving, the other a very learned and intelligent man. Now these men may be circumstanced as nearly alike as possible. They may both ride upon the same seat, behold the same objects and scenery, and apparently have the same sources of knowledge and enjoyment; yet while the ignorant man sees but a little beyond the surface of things and his enjoyments are of the grossest kind, and but a little above those of the brute creation, his intellectual friend revels in the delights of nature and in moral and intellectual contemplation.

And it is so in mechanical life. While one man can and does know, and can direct the labors of twenty others, planning and overseeing their work, keeping it “all in his head,” the ignorant man as he comes upon the ground and sees the great work that is being pushed forward with such vigor and wisdom under the direction of a single man exclaims, “I dont see how you can keep it all in your head at once;” yet he does.

It is the same in matters of divine revelation and religion; while one man may know, and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, another may be in darkness and know nothing about these things.

The fact that there are very many learned and wise men that have rejected and that do reject the Christian religion is no objection against it or the truth of the foregoing remarks; because a man may be wise in all that pertains to this world, its pursuits and its pleasures, and know nothing of these things. Thus we read: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” 1 Cor. 1:19–21.

Not only is it the privilege and right of the Christian to have an experience that is peculiarly his own, one that is broad, satisfactory, and elevating, and that gives a knowledge that is tangible and certain, but it is his duty to relate his experience. In the language of the text, “Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.” It is a privilege as well as a duty to speak of what the Lord has done for our souls. And any lack of interest on our part in speaking of the goodness of God and the great things he has done for us is sure to be followed by a corresponding or even greater want of interest on the part of those who make no profession of religion. How can we interest others if we are not interested ourselves? E. GOODRICH.