Pith in Exposition [pp. 619-636]

PITH IN EXPOSITION.
To avoid detection, he has left his statements just about half
made. You read one of his generalities and are misled by it.
After long floundering you make your escape, and are peculiarly
provoked to find that you can prove nothing against the drone
who deceived you, since his statement may about as well mean
the fact as it is, as mean what you took it to mean.
No good qualities whatever will compensate for incompleteness of thought and statement. In the ordinary exigencies of
teaching one may often do well to present ideas that are not
quite done rather than lose an opportunity. But if one puts
his half-wrought facts and fancies into print, in professedly
learned works, let the malediction of all patient, disappointed
plodders rest upon him.
And let him have for an associate under this ban the coinmentator who shows such remarkable dexterity in dodging the
difficult passages. It may be no disgrace for a man not to
understand these, but if he does not understand he should say
so and not sneak. If he cannot answer the question, he ought
to acknowledge his ignorance, and not pretend that his hesitation in replying is due to a frog in his throat. If his main
object in commenting is to keep himself out of trouble by
saying only safe nothings, he might as well make sure of his
object by saying nothing at all.
If we could call up in a row a few dozen prominent English
scholars, and accuse them of a petulant disposition to controvert, even against clear evidence, the statements of the
American Dr. Robinson, we might not be able to prove the
charge, but we could certainly adduce some instances in support of it.
But what harm, after all, comes from these minor inaccuracies? They are somewhat perplexing it is true, to one who is
morbidly sensitive in such matters, but they leave the main
truths intact. Is a great Scriptural doctrine any the less Scriptural because, in some particular presentation of it, some one
based it upon a mistaken exegesis? Is the way to the cross
any the less clear because you are in doubt, by some degrees of
of the compass, as to the direction from which Abraham and
Isaac approached Moriah?
We should carefully avoid the mistake of exalting petty exactness above great cardinal truths. Yet the sacredness of the
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1874.]