for himself. Truths, also, in which the Lord is not, are those which, while drawn from the Word, especially from the literal sense, are yet so explained as to favour the love of ruling and the love of gain: these in themselves, indeed, are truths, but yet they are no longer truths, because they are misinterpreted and thus perverted. Truths which are not from the Lord, only appear as truths in the external form, but within they are either empty, or false, or evil. In order to constitute a truth, there must be life in it, for truth without life is not a truth of faith with man; and life is from no other source than from good, that is, through good from the Lord."[1]
Here, then, we learn something important to be known,—that the truths we possess are not genuine, not real truths in the sight of the Lord, unless there be good within. Hence, merely to be in the science of truths, to have truths stored up in the memory, as they are learned from books or heard in preaching, does not really make them ours; they are truths to us no farther than they are joined to a good life, no farther than they are accompanied by humility of heart, and an acknowledgment that all genuine good and truth are from the Lord, and not from ourselves or our own minds.
The text proceeds, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, nor any likeness of anything which is in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth: thou shalt not bow thyself down to them, nor serve them." " By a graven
- ↑ A. C., 8868.
