The conflict of truth / [Frederick Hugh Capron].

  • Capron, F. Hugh (Frederick Hugh), 1857-1955.
Date:
1905
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The conflict of truth / [Frederick Hugh Capron]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is not far from each one of ns.” Paul is preaching to the men of Athens. He is pointing out to them how they are to find that “ Unknown God ” whom they had hitherto “ worshipped in ignorance.” He tells them that the reason of that ignorance—the reason why they had hitherto failed to find God—was that they had fallen into the most natural of errors ; an error, indeed, so natural, that, iu the absence of revelation, all nations on earth had fallen into it. Recognizing, and rightly recognizing, that God is close beside each one of us, they had, from this true premise, deduced the false conclusion that they could “ find Him hy feeling after Him ” ; they had set themselves the vain task of attempting to find God by means of a feeler {f^reiv top Qeov, el dpa ye^ ■>frfKa(^i]aeLav avrbv ical evpoiev). Why “vain attempt ” ? Why, if God be so near to us, should not a “ feeler ” be the proper sense-organ by which to find Him ? What was the element of error which, after all their well- intentioned, though misdirected, efforts, left even the “ religious ” Athenians committed to that melancholy con- fession of failure, which found its utterance in the altar “ To The Unknown God ” ? The answer to these questions is to be found in the word -y^riXa^dw. It would be diflScult to exaggerate the scientific propriety of this term. Its literal meaning is “ to grope in the dark ” ; “ to guide one’s steps by feeling, and not by sight ” ; “ to search with a feeler, instead of with the eye,” Obviously, this word exactly expresses the condition and the attitude of the blind Silurian in the physical world. It is the old story of the vibrissa, transferred, however, this time, from the physical into the spiritual sphere. Observe how exactly the illustration fits. Paul’s argument is this : Hitherto (prior to the coming of Christ, the great luminiferous Medium between God and man) mankind (like the blind Silurian) has been groping in the \ It is probably scarcely necessary to mention that these highly idiomatic words (ei «pa ye ^r]\a<prjafiav) imply that the search would not be successful.