Etchings of the Master (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 Excerpt: ...To Christ a man was a man in spite of his wealth and in spite of his poverty, and never anything but that. Nicodemus was educated, a scholar. Jesus had no quarrel with him on that score. The Bible nowhere exalts ignorance; certainly Jesus never did. There is a shallow spirit which indulges in ranting condemnation of scholarship and educated people, making a virtue of ignorance. There was nothing of this disposition in Christ. There is a pride and insolence of knowledge, and there is a pride and insolence of ignorance, and it is doubtful which is the more detestable. Jesus knew that Nicodemus was an educated and cultured man, and dealt with him as such. What he said to him he would not have said to a less informed and thoughtful man. It would have been a mistake to attempt to deal with him as he dealt with uncultivated people. On the other hand, Jesus attached no moral importance to Nicodemus's knowledge. An unregenerated scholar is just as blind to the facts of the kingdom as an unregenerated ignoramus, but no more so; but with this difference, that the man of knowledge after he is regenerated has the advantage of the regenerated ignoramus; for knowledge may be used by the Spirit, but ignorance cannot be put to any high uses. Jesus and Social Conventions CHRIST talking with the woman at Jacob's Well was a compound offense against established conventions. A Samaritan, a woman, and a sinner--by all Jewish proprieties he should not have talked with her. But we must not infer too much from his actions. He did not mean that the rules which he disregarded never had any justification. The refusal of the Jews to have any dealings with the Samaritans had its roots in history. It began with Nehemiah's refusal to permit them to join with him in rebuilding the walls of...