Some think that reason must yield to faith. Others think that faith
must yield to reason. The opinions on both sides are wrong, because
both imply a conflict between reason and faith, when in TRUTH no such
conflict ever has existed, nor can it exist. Reason is neither more
nor less than the intelligent operations of the mind in seeking
to know the truth; and faith is but a willing acceptance and
acknowledgment of that truth when it is known. In one way of looking
at it, faith and knowledge are one; only faith is a loving acceptance,
by the WILL, of what the UNDERSTANDING is assured of being true. What
the understanding doubts can never be received by the will as a thing
of faith.
WISDOM is the union of faith and knowledge in man, and becomes more
and more his guiding light in all intelligent action. If man's wisdom
be merely that of earth, it is not genuine; but if it be heavenly,
it is true wisdom, and leads more and more to God, and eternal life
in him. Wisdom says that there must be a sort of reciprocal
correspondence between the seed and the ground on which it is sown.
This fact involves several principles based upon experience. The sower
must know what kind of seed he is sowing. "_It may be of wheat or some
other grain._" He should know what preparation the ground requires to
make the hoped-for harvest. He should know what fertilizers and
stimulants are likely to do most good. He should also know the right
_time_ for sowing his seed.
A mere knowledge of these principles, however, is not sufficient.
There must be a practical application of them, in the way of complying
with the necessary conditions, or the sowing will prove a failure. The
seed that fell by the wayside was picked up by the birds. That which
fell on the rock perished. That which fell among the thorns was soon
overcome by their superior rankness of growth, and it made nothing.
Only that which fell into good ground made a remunerative return.