prayer which begins, "Almighty God, who showest to them that
are in error the light of thy truth to the intent that they may return
into the way of righteousness." Truth for the sake of right living, not
truth for the truth's sake or truth for God's sake, is the divine
valuation. The wisdom and patient study of the ages have gone into the
search for the knowledge of God and His will, but to what purpose is
it, when today as ever the mysteries of the kingdom are revealed to the
hearts of the child-like?

Do not misunderstand me. Ignorance is no more a virtue than is wisdom.
We must not forget the speaker at a church conference who began a tirade
against the universities and education, expressing thankfulness that he
had never been corrupted by contact with a college. After he had
proceeded a few minutes, the chairman interrupted with the question:

"Do I understand that the speaker is thankful for his ignorance?"

"Well, yes," was the answer, "you may put it that way."

"Well, all I have to say," said the chairman, in gentle tones--"all I
have to say is that he has much to be thankful for." Both ignorance and
wisdom may be bars to the understanding of God's will. It is a question
of the heart.

Suppose we put the problem to ourselves in the form of questions which
will bring out some of the current conceptions of religion. Is religion
a form of belief? Is it a form of experience? Is it the corporate life
in an institution? Is it a relationship to God? They all lead us to
speculation and to abstractions. Or if we ask similarly does religion
depend on knowledge, on emotion, on sacramental connection with God, or
on mystical detachment from the world, again we are led to try to find
religion off by itself, where it may be weighed and measured and
nurtured as if in a vacuum. They are interesting questions, but the only
answer I have for them is that they suggest in no way the gracious words
that came from the lips of Jesus, speaking to the hearts of babes.

His words were not of theological abstractions, however true or
illuminating. He declared not the "must" of arbitrary authority nor the
"ought" of impersonal law; but rather revealed in simple story or
expression the things which were true to the world of men in which He
lived, the harmonies which unite, the relationships which grow, the
truths which were self-convincing.

John Drinkwater's Trojan soldier says it to his comrade:

"Capys, it is so little that