Pith in Exposition [pp. 619-636]

PITH IN EXPOSITION.
thing as a premature development of that experience by which
conversion becomes a matter of consciousness, and which so
many confound with conversion itself. If a child, or an older
person, gives evidence of possessing a genuine spiritual life, but
has never so analyzed his experiences as to call them by their
appropriate name, it may not always be wise to hurry up the
moment of self-recognition. It may be better to wait until
the religious character, by its natural development, emerges and
makes its presence known. Indiscreet forcing processes have
doubtless, from the outset, distorted and devitalized many a
growing plant of the Lord's garden.
Even one who takes an adequate view of conversion, yet
needs to bear in mind that however specific this aim may be in
itself, it includes a multitude of other specific aims. The problem is like this: Given an apple seed, to obtain from it a crop,
of luscious, perfect apples. Let attention centre, if you please
on the grafting, by which the tree is converted from its natural
wvorthlessness. Still, the skillful culturist, none the less sees
in this only the central operation among thousands of matters
to be attended to, through all the years that elapse from the
giving of the seed onward.
The Scripture expounder who has learned to make his aims
definite will find the purpose in view always modifying and guiding the treatment. If I have a tree to use, there are a hundred
ways in which I can both use it all, and make an appropriate
use of each part. The actual way chosen, among the hundred,
should depend on the question what needs are most prominent
at the time. These needs may be the ones met by the fruit, or
by the timber, or by the curves of the limbs, or by the bark or
the twigs or the root or the blossoms. Whatever they are they
determine the disposal which a wise man will make of the tree.
Or if I have a spike of soft iron to use, I naturally treat it
according to what I need to do with it. If I wish it to cut, I
may grind it to an edge; if to pierce, I may bring it to a point
or heat it red hot; if to bind something together, I may bend
and weld it; if to attract steel filings, I may magnetize it; if to
fly at an enemy, I may melt it and cast it round. So it is if one
has a passage of truth to use. He is not permitted to change
its character. He is forbidden to make it other than what it
is. But he may insist upon one or another aspect of it, may
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