Daniel 12:4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro… One of the most striking features of the history of the race has been the want of continuity or conformity in the progress of mankind. Nations have apparently shot up as toadstools do, in a night, and perished like them. Now and then a single nation has made an era. The Jewish people developed a great moral power. They were not pre-eminently a moral people; yet they gave birth to great natures that understood and gave form and expression to those moralities which have become the common proper of all the people of the earth, and that is about all they did. Faulty in a thousand things, they were employed simply to develop one single element — one letter of that sentence which shall spell final Christian civilisation. Then they subsided, but their work was garnered. The Grecian civilisation developed the intellectual, but in the direction of philosophy and art — not in the direction of domesticity. They had not moral power enough to cohere and maintain a permanent government. Then came the Roman civilisation. It developed itself in engineering; in the science of government pre-eminently. Its literature was a pale reflection of the Grecian. Then came the world's great plumber; and when mankind aroused out of this, they began that career of knowledge of which our text speaks. It is my purpose to show that it is that the spread of knowledge — real knowledge — among the whole of the peoples of different nations, is bringing forth fruit. The transcendent advance of intellect seems to be confined to the Western world. Still the Orient slumbers. In all previous developments the knowledge that was developed resided in the top of society. It caught only the philosophers, the men of genius, the educated men, the commercialists, the natural rulers of mankind; for where intelligence is, there rule will be. The people were yet left in deep darkness, and were held in contempt. Modern intelligence, unlike any that has preceded it, has neither been provincial nor class intelligence. The causes that have been operating are obvious, by which knowledge that begins at the top penetrates clear to the bottom. The progress of knowledge in science has been astounding. The Beconian philosophy is bearing fruit everywhere. All the more elemental sciences have sprung into existence within one hundred years — I mean, with anything like florescence and fruit. The two great discoveries that underlie or direct almost all others are evolution and the persistence of force. All knowledge has, taken on, or has tended to take on, a practical form. Plato, and the Platonic school, are tainted with the heresy that knowledge should be possessed simply for the love of knowledge, and that a man who wants knowledge for the sake of doing something with it is vulgar. The Baconian philosophy has revolutionised that. The knowledge that is diffusing itself through the world, and infusing the under classes of mankind, is largely concerned, with scientific inductions, and with the realisation of scientific discoveries in the industries: of the world. All knowledge has taken on a practical application, and thus it has aroused and educated the working men of the world. Great Britain may be called an empire of machines. It has been a great benefit, but at the same time it is more or less an injury. Putting machines against men is a dangerous operation. One machine will do more than thirty men. To a large extent machinery is working against opportunities. There has been a steady setting in from the individual industry toward the gigantic machine industry of the land. Where machinery is largely employed, it is generally because capital has organised itself. Where you concentrate capitalists into manufacturers you increase the producing power of material, and diminish the diffusing industry of individuals throughout, the community. You improve goods and deteriorate men. Organised capital is itself a tremendous element of civilisation; but organised capital has not yet learned the gospel. It is capital that is protected — not the working man. It is not my purpose here to enter into any criticism of the rude methods of the workmen who have combined for a greater advantage. I simply consider the effect of growing intelligence upon the conditions of industry and social life in the civilised nations of the earth. It is said that a little knowledge is dangerous. I say there is nothing more dangerous than blindness; an ignorant man is. a blind man. Every step of knowledge that a man can get is so much guaranteed that he will be more virtuous and more patriotic . . . . Patience, then, Hope, Courage, Justice — these should be our watchwords. We can see partial, imperfect, fulfilments, and can wait. We shall see the fulfilment of the designs of God. Society will grade itself. But there will be a just distribution of influences and results, and there will be peace and good fellowship. (Henry Ward Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. |
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