Knowledge and Love

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 8, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 14.

Knowledge and Love

Knowledge alone of the Word of God is of no real benefit. It will never build a character. It may “set off” the individual, and bring him worldly admiration and honor, but it will not honor Christ. Divinity is hidden by the human. The individual will find his chief delight in what he knows and what his knowledge brings; but love for God, while it may delight in knowledge, will find greater delight in what it is able to do for the Master. Knowledge is profitable only when united with love. Love in itself implies knowledge, for one can not love that which he does not know. The apostle in 1 Cor. 8:1 strikingly expresses the difference between the two,—“Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth,” or, to render it in clearer Anglo-Saxon terms, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity buildeth up.” The difference is that between an inflated bag and a well-built stone edifice. “Love never faileth.”

The prison commissioners of California, who have oversight of San Quentin prison, have certainly adopted a good ruling, in response to the desire of Warden Hoyle. The prison stripes are to go, and all except the incorrigibles are to be dressed in blue uniforms. The incorrigibles will wear the striped clothes and be kept by themselves. When a man is brought into the penitentiary, he is placed in the second class and given a suit of plain blue with a blue cap. After a probationary period of six months, he will go into the first class, where it is expected the majority of persons will stay. These wear a V on their sleeve. It is good to know that out of 1,900 prisoners there are only thirty considered incorrigible.