SERMON XV. THE TRUE USE OF KNOWLEDGE. BY THE REV. E. IRVING, A.M. "Add to knowledge, temperance.-2 Peter i. 6. THERE is nothing to which men require | knowledge had made them ignorant of to have their eyes opened more than to God, and deaf to the invitations of the the folly of admiring knowledge upon its gospel. own account. They look upon all sorts of book-making and book-learning as the stamp of superiority, and give to it an instinctive reverence; whereas, books are but the words of men, and may as often be termed folly as declared wisdom, and may promote vice as readily as serve vir tue. And he that hath written a book, hath but offered himself to our acquaintance, but hath made no advancement in our approbation. And bookish men, that is, those who accumulate an immensity of knowledge and learning, which neither nourisheth themselves nor edifieth others, are objects of pity, not of admiration; being in mind what those are in body who have gathered on themselves a load, burdensome to themselves, and unpleasant to beholders. And until the good sense of men doth discriminate amongst learned men as it doth amongst unlearned men, the learned will continue to assume to themselves that importance and pride which more than countervails their superior knowledge, and brings them into a state less favourable for spiritual advancement than the ignorant vulgar. So in our Saviour's time, the wise and prudent could not understand that which was plain to babes; because the learned, in the sufficiency of their knowledge, could not stoop to spiritual things. For the same reason, they scorned Paul in the Areopagus, as if he had been a prating fool whence he testified that their very : Now, being convinced knowledge in this age produceth the same effects of swaying the mind out of that humility which is essential to the learning of Christ-that this is the true reason why your men of knowledge keep so much aloof from the simple doctrines of the cross, it hath seemed good to our minds to examine this a little, and to ascertain by what means those here present may be guarded from increasing their pride with their knowledge, and how they may promote their wisdom as they increase their knowledge. In which undertaking, to divest knowledge of an honour which it doth not merit, in order that we may, with Solomon, transfer it to wisdom, we feel as if we were entering in to despoil a holy place. For knowledge, albeit much abused, is a pure and holy possession compared with every other of which we can boast. Beauty fades, strength languisheth and fame is inconstant as the veering winds; fortune changeth every moment, and riches take to themselves wings and flee away like an eagle towards heaven; the appetites all grow dull, the eye grows dim, and the ear deaf to dulcet sounds, and all things ebb and flow, and are lost and soon forgotten. But knowledge!-knowledge almost defies these changes and fluctuations to which all human possessions are doomed. It is a thing so purely one's own; it doth so defy the power of man to take it from us; it of whom nature holdeth her chiefest charms. So that all which beautifies the face of the country, with all which makes the city magnificent-all that adorns our dwellings, with all that makes our persons comely to look upon-all that fills the market-place with wares, and varies the occupation of human life, are the works of knowledge, without which men were a few scattered tribes of roving savages, fighting with brutal creatures for the mastery of the woods and caves where they dwell. Ay, and though every thing we now behold were swept with the besom of destruction, nature stript of her decorations, and art divested of her resources, there is such a life-giving power in this immortal faculty of knowledge, that she would, in a few years, bring again the beauties of nature, and re-invent the resources of art, and cover the earth with her beautiful flowers and pleasant palaces. doth so forecast in the mind, and procreate itself independent of all power and strength of man; and it can so little be bought with money, or be by a royal road approached; and it so inhabiteth the mind within, and defieth the world without; and it is so little subject to the fluctuations of fortune, and the wasting power of time; it is on all hands in so much request-so necessary to the illustration of things old, and to the propagation of things new, to the prosecution of enterprise, to the administration of government, and the practice of every art; knowledge is so eagerly sought after by every power which striveth for the mastery in human affairs, governors seeking men of knowledge to write them into favour, and their opponents seeking men of knowledge to write them out of favour; and the vender of every ware seeking men of knowledge to exalt its praise; and even every amusement, except bear garden and prizefighting barbarities, being upheld by knowledge, and every projected measure advocated by knowledge:-these, the accomplishments of knowledge, are so splendid, its advantages so manifold, that it seems ignorance not to adore, and profanation to decry it. Then, moreover, knowledge doth so beget in those who possess it, such fortitude and firmness of mind; it so arms him around with divine armour-even like the goddess of knowledge whom the ancients fabled to have sprung ready armed from the forehead of Jove so that a man of knowledge seems as great in rags, as a man of power, or a prince in his castle. Adversity cannot crush the man of knowledge; the contempt of man cannot abash him, and the threats of man cannot force him to recant; -he retires to his secret place, and sum-imply even the existence of the common mons in his spiritual counsellors; he examines, he writes, he justifies himself, he publisheth to the world, and all his enemies are at once confounded; or if they wish to make head against him, they must seek men of knowledge, for it can be overthrown by nothing but itself. Knowledge is the support of greatness, which otherwise would die with the age that gave it birth. And a good book of former ages is a treasure which the intervening time hath striven in vain to stifle ; it hath survived the things which were brought into existence along with it; and if it be a good book, it hath the probability of living to an unlimited age. In short, there is no end to the praises of knowledge. These excellent qualities and manifold powers of knowledge, God hath endowed it withal, in order that men may fall in love with it, and pursue it; and being properly applied, it constitutes wisdom. But knowledge is not wisdom of itself; nay, knowledge does not imply the practice of godliness or of morals: it doth not decencies of life. For knowledge and learning in the greatest plenty may dwell with wickedness and folly. A man may be familiar with all the truths of science he may be held a consummate master, and even discover fresh truths, and invent new methods of discovering truth, and Then again, knowledge is the mother yet he may be a mere novice in the fulof art and beauty: knowledge is the hand-filment of the duties which every one maiden, (if I may so speak,) who attireth born into the world is called by his Mathe charms of nature, if not the mother ker to enjoy. He may be learned in all VOL. I.-20 erudition, and well versed in all the records of antiquity, and yet never acquaint his principles with true knowledge. As there are many handicrafts in the world, in which a man may reach the highest excellence without improving his morals or religion, so in the world of intellect or science, there are many departments in which men may stand unrivalled, without being advanced in any one of the attributes of a worthy or noble mind. He may be the first of wits, and the worst of husbands. He may be the first of scholars, and the most dissipated of men. He may be the most entertaining of travellers, and the most heartless of friends. He may be the first of poets, and a very ruffian in civilized society. He may be the finest moralist, and the greatest profligate the writer of the finest sentiments, and not possessed of household feeling. I have met first-rate mathematicians who were, in all moral perception, like creatures of the vegetable kingdom. Naturalists have I met with, who appeared to soar above a good and glorious action, but would have died contented with the occupation of their lives, could they have discovered some plant, or some insect, not discoverable by the natural vision of man. And there are men who spend their lives in arranging cabinets, and deciphering ancient manuscripts, without seeing any thing worthy of pursuit or admiration, or doing any thing to extend their pursuits, in the present or eternal world. It is not our intention to ridicule any one of these pursuits in themselves; for there is not any one of these pursuits of science and learning from which good hath not accrued in the end. But it is our intention to show, that stores of knowledge may be acquired in them, the highest elevation may be reached in them, without any approximation to wisdom, without improving the spirit of the character, so as to make it better fitted for the office of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. These are handicrafts of the intellect, if we may so speak, and those who apply to them are handicraftsmen: and you have a good reason to infer that a man is wise and noble because he is good in working iron, or brass, or wood, in making cloth or apparel, as that a man is wise, or good, or praiseworthy, because he is good in ancient or modern literature, or because he is great in the knowledge of the three kingdoms of nature, skilled in the art of criticism, or erudite in the history of the world. But There is a blind admiration of science and learning on its own account, upon which it builds a self-importance, and which affects disdain toward the honest mechanical occupations of life. surely, if the blinds were taken off from the private life, and mutual intercourse, and public character of these learned men, they would be found as empty of greatness, far more full of envy, and deception, and hypocrisy, than those honest callings they affect to despise. Ay, if the morals of a university, or the quarrels of literature, or the pitiful vanity and self-complacency of these sciolists in knowledge, were exhibited, it would be as shameful a picture as ever knowledge hath sketched from the market town, or the inmost recesses of the city. But far, far from us be the vulgar office of satirizing any thing, especially a thing of which we think and have spoken so highly as we have of knowledge. But it is our part to show how it stands related to wisdom-how it is inferior to wisdom, and how it may be converted into wisdom, and is not worthy of the approbation of men until converted into wisdom. Wisdom without knowledge-there is and can be none: all thought without knowledge, is but guessing: all conduct without knowledge, is but a venture. Hence, in Scripture, knowledge stands in a high place. "This is life eternal, to know me the true God." Amongst the ancients, "Know thyself," was the first step to wisdom; and, in common affairs, a knowledge of the world is deservedly placed above all other knowledge. But knowledge of God is not religion, neither is a knowledge of the world upright dealing; something else is required. Knowledge doth but furnish out wisdom, being the light which guides us to the storehouse which supplies it. Wisdom is knowledge applied to right and wholesome uses. Riches do not the learned, then knowledge is degraded to make a liberal-minded or generous man, be the servant of vanity. If it be pursued although riches are necessary to contri- in order to use authority and power, then bute to a generous man. But if riches knowledge is degraded to be the servant be pursued from a mere love of accumu- of ambition. If it be pursued to come at lation, which is not very frequent-if place, pension, or reward, then it is most riches be pursued from a love of gratifi- of all degraded to be the servant of mamcation or evil tastes, which is very fre- mon. It may serve pleasure also, and quent or if riches be pursued for the doth most frequently serve pleasure in sake of influence, which is far more fre- your pursuit of books and entertaining quent-then they do not make a liberal-discourse. But to make it serviceable to minded or generous man. So the appetite the ends of wisdom is a most noble and for knowledge may lead into many direc- difficult undertaking, which it is our part, tions away from wisdom; and therefore by God's help, now to set forth. it becomes necessary, while you acquire knowledge, to weigh the ends for which you are acquiring it. As far as the soul of man can reach, it is a rule, that every evil, whether in body or in mind, hath a remedy, if that remedy can be found. To find it out is the province of knowledge. Whatever evils, therefore, pursue us, let us gain knowledge to remove them. For the evils of the body there is a class of men to pro As wisdom consisteth in the promotion of our own well-being, and the well-being of other men, the desire of knowledge, it There is a love of knowledge for its seems to me, should be prompted by the own sake which should be encouraged. feeling of our own unhappiness: that is, The mind hath a dislike of ignorance, as our want of well-being, and the sight of the eye hath of darkness, or the limbs of unhappiness around us. And of these confinement. The mind loves to look on two, I give the preference to the former the light of truth, and to roam in the free--the well-being and unhappiness of ourdom of its faculties. This is especially selves. the case in the beginning of our years, and it is appointed for the best ends. As children will not be at rest, but, by ceaseless motion, nobody knows for what ends, acquire the ready use of all their limbs; so the mind in youth, by an innate restlessness, tries itself in every way, and ought no more to be hindered than the body ought to be confined. Educa-vide the cure, to whom it is better to trust tion should be to the mind what exercise is to the body-an instrument for developing its powers; and, therefore, for many years, various food should be presented to the mind-some to the fancy, some to the memory, some to the judgment, much to affection, and much to piety. And so that a child is actively employed in putting forth its abilities, it is not then so necessary studiously to direct it to any end; but by-and-by, when a measure of strength hath been acquired, both of body and mind, as the strength of the body is directed to some labour, so the strength of the mind should be directed to some useful end. than to seek for ourselves. Law, again, looks to the evils which come to our outward estate. But every one is left to find out for himself remedies for the evils which afflict his soul, his inward man. Let each man, therefore, look into himself, and see from what quarter unhappiness invades him: let him, by knowledge, find out the remedy; and having found it out, let him apply it. Then knowledge becometh wisdom. Next, let a man look around him on the unhappiness of others, beginning with those who most nearly concern himself; and extending as far outward as his time and fellow-feeling will go. Let him direct his faculties Now it is, that knowledge begins to be how he may remedy those evils which the servant of wisdom, or the servant of va- afflict his brethren; then let him apply nity, or the servant of ambition, or the ser- the remedies which his knowledge hath vant of wealth, according as you use it. If discovered. This, also, is wisdom. it be pursued in order to get a name among When a man hath removed the evils that afflict himself, and done his endeavour to remove those which afflict the men in his neighbourhood; then let him see by what means he can increase his spiritual enjoyment, and the spiritual enjoyment of those around him. Let him acquire and apply this knowledge, and then all his knowledge will be wisdom. mind, and to the perishing of the eternal life, not of one, but of thousands? Ah! little better is the man who makes his knowledge, his divine knowledge, a stepping stone to distinction, and who cannot proceed onward, unless he hath a crowd of admirers to applaud him. Such a man is preparing for himself, sooner or later, a bed of thorns-he is making of himself a butt for others to aim their shafts at; and many a venomous shaft of satire and censure shall stick sore in his loins before he reach the much courted place. This is degradation. His life will be jarring and contentious, his peace broken, his character laid bare, his privacy invaded, his quarrels set before the world: he shall have no mercy from his competitors, and shall find no sympathy from the spectators of the fray. And if he reacheth the courted seat, it is not till his temper is soured by competition, when he is fit only to play the tyrant, and not to enjoy his place. As the knowledge you have, or may acquire, both from the word of God and other quarters, is the noblest thing you call your own, if it be turned to these accounts which I have set before you; so it is the most vain, the most proud, the most domineering, and I may add, the most unhappy of all your possessions, if not employed in rectifying the diseases of your soul and your condition, and the souls and conditions of others. There is not a character under the sun so despicable as the man who sets out with the intention of making his knowledge a stepping stone to fortune and favour-to live by his wits, as it is termed-to honour the tastes and foibles of the public mind. It Knowledge hath a state, a prerogative is a base calling, the basest of all callings; on which she needeth not to insist. Her and it hath upon the mind that is given state is to walk surrounded by contemup to it, the most degrading effects. It plation, calmness, and truth; her prerogais a most degrading traffic, inasmuch as tive is to dispel prejudice and ignorance; the humours which it studies, and the and her deference is the noblest gratitude prejudices to which it ministers, be not of those whom we have brought out of in the petty accommodations of the out- darkness into light. These are the proward man, but in the opinion of the in- per state, and prerogative, and homage of ward man, which determines not only knowledge; but for a man of knowledge our present, but our future destiny. It to claim and sue for external marks of doth set up to sale, conscience, integrity, honour is to cast the crown of glory from and counsel, and all the high moral and his head, and to humble himself into a intellectual endowments of the mind, mere man of power; it is to exchange the which, like the gift of God desired by ethereal nature of his calling, for the vulSimon the sorcerer, cannot be purchased gar attributes of place and of office. Nay, with money; and it is sacrilege to steal nothing will bear the character of a wise them. If we would avoid as a tainted man up-nothing will set the possessor man-if we would sequester from the of knowledge in a state impregnable to common charities of life the abandoned all his enemies, and honourable to himwretch, who, for a bribe, in a public court, self-nothing but that he hath an eye to hath sworn the liberty or life of a fellow his own deliverance from evil; and not man-tell me, what form or measure of his own alone, but of the whole world. detestation and abhorrence doth that man Let us take the gain and honour which merit, who, in bearing his witness before flow in upon us, and pray to God for the great tribunal of the world, doth for a economy to use the gain, and humility higher bribe suppress and falsify the to bear the honour. But never, never let knowledge and the convictions of truth the man of knowledge deal out the treawhich God hath implanted in his soul-sures of his mind at the bidding of a purdoth so to the enslaving of the common chaser, lest he sell over to his earthly |