It is so easy for men to lose themselves in the contemplation of secondary causes, to the forgetting of Him that owns the universe and controls it according to his own will; without whom not a sparrow falls; who "maketh poor and maketh rich," who "bringeth low and lifteth up;" who woundeth and healeth; who has done what he pleased "in the heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all the deeps." Thus many scientists become infidels and materialists because behind the laws and forces they have been studying they see no God, nor any place for a God. Thus also faithless Israel understood not whence came their blessing, nor the real source of their afflictions. It was for this cause and for that, that they had conflicts and were smitten by their enemies--bad policy, perhaps, blunders in generalship and tactics, bad military discipline, insufficient forces or arms. All of which things may indeed have figured in their disasters, but they did not constitute the cause. And while thinking of these things they did not "regard the work of Jehovah, neither have they considered the works of his hands." Their thoughts did not rise so high as that. They broke down houses and repaired the walls, and gathered reservoirs of [29] water against the days of siege; but, as Isaiah pointed out to them, "Ye looked not unto him that had done this, neither had ye respect to him that purposed it long ago." (Isa. 22:9-11.) So do we get exceeding wise sometimes with that blind wisdom of the earth. We can see why this happened and why that. We can figure out the whys and wherefores of things. We have reasoned about the "how" until we have forgotten the "what," and until God is left out, his promise discredited, prayer seems valueless and useless, and we feel justified to make sport of the childlike faith that believes God will do what he said even when we do not see how he can or by what means, and to laugh at the man who humbly says, "If the Lord will." O, ye wiseacres, that blind the minds of men by your cheap reasonings!

      When it comes to pass that men leave God out of their calculations and deal only with secondary causes, then it follows that they no longer look to God for help, but address themselves to secondary helps for assistance and relief. "When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, and sent to King Jareb." Alas, Ephraim! King Jareb cannot help when God rises up against thee, nor can he cure the wound God strikes. (Hos. 5:13-15.) And when the Christian becomes steeped in the futile wisdom of the world, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind, he will seek refuge in the world's rudiments, in pagan philosophy, in poet's sentiments, in art, in music, in logic and disputatious self-conceit. He will begin to prate about "psychology" and "character building" and "self-culture" and "will power" and "formation of habits," and about politics and sociology--things which Aristotle and Socrates [30] and any other heathen might have set forth with equal force; things that never did save and never will, until a man can lift himself up by his own bootstraps. And they hope to compass the salvation of men's souls by that message of death! But where is the gospel that can lift up the publican and harlot? Where the story of God's love that melts stony hearts? Where the transforming power of "Christ in you, the hope of glory," and the teaching concerning "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"? And when the gospel is taught, it is often with such an affectation of great deepness and in such adulteration with human philosophy that the cross of Christ is made of none effect. (1 Cor. 1:17.) Blessed be the day for Israel when they shall give up the vain help of man, and say: "Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; . . . for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." (Hos. 14:3.) And happy are those to-day who lift up their eyes and say: "Our help cometh from Jehovah, who made heaven and earth." (Ps. 121:1, 2.)

[TAG 29-31]