Knowledge without Profit.
By John H. Waggoner
Not long since, I was conversing with a man who professed much interest in the truths of the Bible, and as I referred to the evidences of the nearness of the second advent of the Lord, he remarked, “I guess we’ll know more about these things when they come.” “Very true,” was my reply, “and so, also, the people in Noah’s day knew much more about the flood, when it came, than Noah could tell them. But all the knowledge of that calamity by which they could be benefited they must obtain from him; and, to be benefited by it, they must obtain it before the event.” It seems singular that Bible readers, when considering the subject of the coming of the Lord, so often, yes, so generally, ignore all that the Saviour has said respecting that all-important event. “As in the days that were before the flood.” These were his own words. It was an easy matter for those who heard Noah preach, to say, with an air of incredulous wisdom, “We’ll know more about the flood when it comes.” Perhaps they used this very language. And so it was. They did indeed know more about it when it came; but theirs was knowledge unavailable—knowledge without profit. When it came, Noah and his family were in the ark: “and the Lord shut them in.” The door was forever closed; no one of all that vast, affrighted multitude could gain an entrance then. “Too late! too late!” They would learn of the fact only by experience, when, in the very nature of the case, such experience must be fatal. And still the admonition stands: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” Filled with the world and its pleasures; drunk with folly and passion; they refused to know, until knowledge was of no avail. “So shall it be.” So it is now. “Surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,” take all the mind and fill all the heart, and they will not know till the Saviour ceases to plead; till he says, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still;” till the plagues of the wrath of God are poured out without mixture upon those who, wise in their own conceit with the wisdom of this world, refused to know that which only could avail for their salvation. For once the scorner and scoffer tells the truth. He will know more about these things when they come. But we shall not envy him his knowledge gained in that manner; gained in neglect or contempt of God’s warnings and offers of mercy. Give us grace and humility, O Lord, to “walk by faith,” and not to wait for knowledge till our sight shall overwhelm us with the terrors of the impending day of destruction. J. H. WAGGONER.