九月五日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/09/0905.mp3″]
经文: 你曾进到海源么？（约伯记三十八：16）
对于最有学问和最富想像力的研究学者而言，自然界的某些事物仍然非常奥秘。宇宙的知识是单单属上帝的。倘若能见的、暂时的事物是如此，那么，属灵的、永恒的事物更当如此。那么，为何我要折磨自己的头脑去思想那些只能凭臆测之事物呢？例如我们的目的地、意志、已定之命运、和人类之责任？我不可能领悟这些深奥的、不易了解的真理，如同我无法找出海洋源头的深度。为何我对上帝供应之理由和祂作为之动机如此好奇，欲知其究竟？我是否能将太阳握在拳中、将宇宙持在掌中？然而，这些星球与主我们的上帝相比，只不过水桶中的一滴水而已。但愿我不再努力挣扎要明白这些无限的事，反将自己的精力化为爱。我靠聪明智慧不能获得的，可以通过爱去拥有。但那样能使我满足。我不能穿透海洋，进入它的心脏，但是我能享受那吹过它胸怀的健康海风，也能航行于它的蓝色波浪之上。即使我能进到海源，这一伟大的功绩于我或于他人并无益处，既不能拯救将沉之船，亦不能将已淹死的水手还给他哭泣的妻子和孩子。我所寻得的深处之奥秘不能证明什么。对上帝微小的爱，对祂最简单的顺服行动，比最显赫的知识更好。主啊，无限是属祢的，求祢保守我远离对智慧树的爱，免得诱惑我远离了生命树。
Evening, September 5
Scripture: “Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?”(Job 38:16)
Some things in nature must remain a mystery to the most intelligent and enterprising investigators. Human knowledge has bounds beyond which it cannot pass. Universal knowledge is for God alone. If this be so in the things which are seen and temporal, I may rest assured that it is even more so in matters spiritual and eternal. Why, then, have I been torturing my brain with speculations as to destiny and will, fixed fate, and human responsibility? These deep and dark truths I am no more able to comprehend than to find out the depth which coucheth beneath, from which old ocean draws her watery stores. Why am I so curious to know the reason of my Lord’s providences, the motive of his actions, the design of his visitations? Shall I ever be able to clasp the sun in my fist, and hold the universe in my palm? yet these are as a drop of a bucket compared with the Lord my God. Let me not strive to understand the infinite, but spend my strength in love. What I cannot gain by intellect I can possess by affection, and let that suffice me. I cannot penetrate the heart of the sea, but I can enjoy the healthful breezes which sweep over its bosom, and I can sail over its blue waves with propitious winds. If I could enter the springs of the sea, the feat would serve no useful purpose either to myself or to others, it would not save the sinking bark, or give back the drowned mariner to his weeping wife and children; neither would my solving deep mysteries avail me a single whit, for the least love to God, and the simplest act of obedience to him, are better than the profoundest knowledge. My Lord, I leave the infinite to thee, and pray thee to put far from me such a love for the tree of knowledge as might keep me from the tree of life.