Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/105

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THE POLICY OF NATIONS.

by a constant reference of all science to the one source
of true knowledge. The more thoroughly the paths of
error are explored, the more readily they may be re-
traced, and then they may serve as guides to the right
way."
  "You are a theologian, and to every man his own
profession stands first."
  "Theology is not the science that I mean : she in
only the guide to it. When she has once understood
herself, she makes it her duty to bring all that has
been, all that is, under the focus of Divine wisdom,
where the pure metal is separated from the dross, and in
this sense should every man be a theologian, so far as
to allow every thought, desire, and act, every labor and
every experience of his life, all his aspirations and all his
hopes, to be enlightened and purified by that true wis-
dom which comes from God and leads to him. The
theologian is not only to try the springs of his own ac-
tion, but the struggles and experiences, the opinions
and hopes of all times and all nations by the light of Di-
vine wisdom, and thereby he learns to judge with clear-
ness and accuracy of the doings of his own time, seeing
beyond the mere surface and discovering the sources of
the errors and godlessness of mankind, as well as of the
individual. Thereby he becomes fitted to be a leader
of the blind, a teacher of the unskillful, an admonisher
of the thoughtless, a strengthener of the weak in faith,
an awakener of the lukewarm and the careless, a pro-
claimer of judgment against those who despise salva-
tion themselves, and hinder such as would accept it.
And because through our weakness and sinfulness we
all belong sometimes to the one class, and sometimes to